Chapter 5:
“They were nice,” he said after we had been silent for a few minutes. “So what else do you need?”
I pulled out my list. “My books and an owl, and that’s it.”
“Okay, Flourish and Blotts is right over there,” he said pointing towards the right. “Plus, you should probably get some ink and parchment and a trunk with your initials on it.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?” he asked as he went back to staring at his feet.
“For showing me around and helping me out and everything,” I said. “You don’t even really know me, and yet you are treating me like your best friend.”
He shrugged. “I guess for some reason, I think of you as my friend even though I don’t know you that well yet. You seem nice enough and you actually talk to me, so as far as I’m concerned you are my friend. Most people don’t even talk to me.”
“Why?” I asked. “You are so nice to talk too.”
Esca shrugged again. “I don’t know, and you are the first to think that.”
We stopped in front of Flourish and Blotts.
“I’m sure that’s not true, Esca. Fred, George, and Lee seemed to think you were pretty cool. With the frog thing and all,” I said and smile softly.
“I guess,” he sighed. “Come on let’s get your books before I start spilling my guts to you.” He put his hand on my shoulder and started pulling me towards the store.
“And why would that be bad?” I laughed.
“Because I met you a few hours ago,” he sighed as we walked through the door. “You are just so damn easy to talk to, and it’s kind of annoying.”
“Hey, now watch your language,” I said hardly.
“Yea, yea,” he said dismissing my words with a wave of his hand. “What books to you need?”
The store was full of books that were lying all over the place. There were stacks everywhere. It was hard to walk because there was such a narrow area where there was floor. After forty-five minutes of squeezing through people and books we walked out. I had eight new books with me:
1. Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
2. A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
3. Magical Theory by Adalbet Waffling
4. A Beginners’ Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
5. One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
6. Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
8. The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
“So what kinds of classes are at Hogwarts?” I asked as we headed to the store next door to get parchment, ink, and quills.
“Well,” Esca said taking a deep breath like he was about to say a lot, “there is Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and…hmmm how many was that?”
“Eight,” I said.
“Well I think that’s it for first years, but that was a mouth ago so I’m not so sure,” he said. “I’m not the best when it comes to memory. I slept in a lot of my classes.”
“And you made good grade?” I asked.
“Pretty much, yea,” he said. “I roamed the school at night, which was why I was so tired during the day.” We were now walking into the store. “By the way roaming the school at night is against the rules, and you can get yourself in big trouble because of it.”
“Did you?” I asked.
He nodded. “Sometimes I would, but I spent a few nights following Flitch around, so I memorized where he went, and was able to avoid him. Usually, though I just went to the boat house. It was peaceful there, and if a teacher came down there all I had to do was jump in the water and swim around the bend, so it was an ideal spot.”
“That sounds nice,” I said. “I love water.”
“Well then one night I’ll take you there and show it to you. The moonlight against the water as it the wind makes it ripple is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see,” he said dreamily. Esca then seemed to realize what he had said because his face suddenly got stiff. “Well, anyway, you need a lot of packs and rolls of parchment, a bunch of quills, and a ton of ink because believe me you will be writing so much and doing so many essays your hands will bleed, but you don’t really need to worry about getting everything for the year right now because you can owl order some during the year.”
“Okay,” I said getting what would probably last a few mouths. “So tell me Esca,” I said as we walked to the counter, “why do you have such a cold, hard look and yet you are so soft and kind on the inside?”
He let out a chuckle. “You are crazy aren’t you? Me soft on the inside? Kind? That’s rich.”
I rolled my eyes and paid for the ink and quills and parchment and ten notebooks. We walked out of the store in silence. “You are kind, Esca, I don’t care what you say, I think you are kind.”
He let out a sigh. “What in the world did I do to make you think that?”
“You have been walking around with a stranger all day, helping her out, and carrying her bags even though there is no reason why you should and most people would find it a waste of time.”
“You are young and naïve,” he said looking straight ahead.
“Yes I am young, I am only eleven after all, but you are young too. You are only a year older than me, and for some reason you don’t like people thinking well about you.”
“Maybe you are just stupid for thinking well of me.”
I sighed knowing this was a battle I didn’t want to go into because I probably wasn’t going to win it. Esca was too stubborn, and so was I. If we got into a fight over this it would probably turn into a big blow up, and I didn’t want to fight with him. He was a nice person and a good friend no matter what he said or thought about himself.
“Well where to next?” I asked. “If you want to come with me still that is.”
He had nodded slowly and we went and got a trunk, which he nicely carried for me as we went to get an owl. We left the stuff we were carrying in the corner of the room, and walked around the store looking at owls. The place was a mess with feathers and owl dropping and it smelled funny, but it didn’t really bother me.
“Do you have an owl?” I asked Esca.
“Yea,” he replied. “A black female named Yew.”
“Yew?” I asked. “As in that tree that has poisonous berries?”
“Pretty much yea.”
I laughed. “Nice.”
“So what color bird are you going to get?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
We walked around looking at owls. There were so many and they would squawk when we passed. Then I saw one. It was black, but had red and white feathers around the neck. It looked at me, following me as I walked, not squawking or making a sound, just watching. I ended up buying him. Esca and I left with Tidus.
“Well it’s 3:30,” Esca said. “There is still enough time for me to get you an ice-cream.”
I smiled. “No, let me get you one. You have been carrying my stuff around all day after all.”
“Yes, but you have talked to me all day, so I feel like I should buy you an ice-cream, plus I have never bought a girl ice-cream before.”
So I let Esca buy me a chocolate ice-cream cone while he got himself a mystery flavor one. We sat down at a one of the tables outside that had a colored umbrella over it.
“So, does your boyfriend always let you go around with other guys alone all the time?” Esca asked me a few seconds after we sat down.
I was in the middle of licking the ice-cream, and the question make me pause with my tongue still resting on the chocolate. Esca laughed for a second at me.
“What?” I asked snapping out of my daze and taking my tongue off the ice-cream. “Boyfriend?”
“George,” he said. “Come on it’s clear as a sunny day that you two are together. Plus, when I said I was your boyfriend…well I thought he might hit me. It was clear that you were already taken.”
“What!?!” I yelled. “George and I? That’s rich.”
He tilted his head to the side looking confused. “But, he acted…he was so worried when you were late and the way he looks at you and the way you look at him. Plus the way everyone looked at you two as well. They all acted like you two were together.”
“No, no,” I laughed. “See he is just a little protective of me for whatever reason. I’ve known for him for over two years now, and he’s always been like that. He just…he’s just…well for some reason he just thinks I can’t take care of myself sometimes. I don’t know why, but he’s just that way. At the same time though, he’s very carefree. Him and I are always doing something weird like pulling pranks on their brother Percy, but with Fred of course.”
“Mhmm,” Esca said looking at me with an odd sort of look that made me feel like I was being watched. “Maybe he likes you and you just don’t see it.”
“George? George!” I exclaimed. “On come on, you have only met the guy once, and I’ve known him for years. How could you know that about him after seeing him once?” On top of that my powers would tell me if he felt anything.
“Because I’ve spent my life sitting around watching other people,” he said. “I know that sounds odd, but I’ve never really seen the point in talking to these people and I get bored so I tend to be sitting there and hear what they are saying. So after a year of doing that at Hogwarts, I saw more get togethers, break ups, and make ups then most twelve year olds. The point is Echo; I know when I guy fancies a girl, and that boy head over head over heels for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Esca, I don’t believe that for one second. George is my best friend, or even like a brother. He couldn’t feel that way about me.”
“Okay,” Esca said with a smile and licked his ice-cream, “okay, Echo whatever you say, but when the day comes that he tells you how he feels about you I hope you know what you are going to say to his feelings.”
I shook my head. “Please, that is not going to happen.”
“Sure, sure,” he said still smiling. “Now then, what do your parents do?”
My eyes fell to the table. Was he like that blond kid who thought ill of people with muggle parents? I guess I had to take the chance. “My parents are muggles,” I said. “My dad is a doctor, and my mom is a writer.”
“That’s cool,” he said.
My heart lifted. Thank goodness. “What about your parents?” I asked.
“Dad’s a wizard, mom’s a muggle,” he said. “My dad is rich, have no clue what he does, and mom is probably just married to him because of his money. Well anyway they got married and here I am. Guess it doesn’t matter what they do because I get my school supplies and get to go to school and all, so over all it doesn’t matter to me.”
“That’s awful, I’m sorry,” I said looking at the table.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It doesn’t really bother me.”
I couldn’t tell if he was lying. No pulse of an aura. Nothing. I couldn’t feel anything from him. I got the feeling, or hoped he did actually care about his parents. If he didn’t…well where would that leave his family? Maybe it doesn’t affect him like he said, but I didn’t like the thought.
“Well, let’s change the subject,” I said.
“To what?” he asked.
“Well, do you have any siblings?”
“No, and you?”
“Nope,” I replied.
We were quiet for a few minutes. I listened to the people pass. There were so many different sounds here, it was so busy and yet so nice. I felt like I belonged in this alley. Smiling to myself I sighed. Of course I felt like I belonged. I did belong. I was a witch.
“So, I’ve been trying to figure this out all day,” Esca said suddenly. I looked back at him. “You have such pale skin, but your eye shape, hair texture, and features seem so Asian.”
“Yup, that’s because my mom is Japanese and my dad is British,” I said with a smile. “I’m more like my dad though. I’m not graceful and good with cooking and house stuff like my mum.”
“But if your mom is the one who is Asian how is your last name Azuki? That seems like an Asian name, not British.”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I believe my family on my dad’s side is from somewhere south of here. They moved up here as time passed. For all I know he could have Asian back grounds as well.”
“There you two are.” George set down on the bench next to me. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh, we’ve been around,” I said smiling at him.
He smiled back. Remembering what Esca had said my heart jumped. Surely George didn’t like me. I really shouldn’t worry about it anyway. If he did, he did, and if he didn’t, he didn’t, but if I thought about it all the time I would just get uncomfortable or maybe even create feelings for him. If I created feelings for him and it turned out he didn’t like me then our friendship might get all messed up. So, I really should just forget about Esca’s words and continue being George’s friend. Esca didn’t know George as well as I did, and his aura never said anything about him having feelings for me. George was my friend and if one day he wanted to be more…that would be really weird…probably should stop thinking about it now.
“Can I have a bite of that?” he asked.
“Sure,” I replied handing it to him. I looked over at Esca. “So what flavor is that?”
He shrugged. “I think it’s some type of nut, maybe peanut.”
“Ah, did you get mystery?” George asked.
Esca nodded.
“Fred got that last year, and ended up with grass.”
“Speaking of Fred,” I said, “where is he?”
“Probably with Lee at somewhere, I decided to come find you, and make sure Esca here wasn’t doing anything bad,” George said giving Esca a smile and handing the ice-cream back to me. “What’s with girls and chocolate anyway?”
“Don’t worry George,” Esca said, “I’ve been a gentleman.”
“He has,” I put in. “He even carried some stuff for me.”
George laughed. “That’s good. Fragile little Echo here isn’t that strong,” he said putting his hand on top of my head and ruffling my hair.”
“Shut up and stop that,” I ordered.
He stopped, but started laughing even harder. “You could be a bit nicer you know.”
“Hey, I shared my chocolate ice-cream with you, that’s about as nice as it gets.”
“Mhmm,” George said. Before I knew what was happening, he reached forward stuck his finger in my ice-cream, and then rubbed his finger on my nose, smearing ice-cream all over it.
“George!” I shrieked. “Get it off!”
George was laughing so hard he nearly fell over, and I could see Esca smiling out of the corner of my eye, but he had his hand over his mouth like he was trying to hide it. George picked up a napkin off the center of the table, still shaking with laugher. He grabbed my chin softly with one hand and started wiping the ice-cream off my nose with the other.
“There,” he said after a minute and let go of me. “You look pretty again, but then again that might be an insult to pretty girls. So you look as pretty as you were before.”
“Jerk,” I muttered.
“The pretty girls you are talking about,” Esca said in-between licking his ice-cream, “must be way be on drop dead gorgeous then because Echo here could pass for an angel.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you, I think.”
“Soooo,” George said clearly a little uncomfortable. “What have you two been talking about?”
“You mainly,” Esca said so quickly I didn’t even have time to open my mouth. I was going to say we have been talking about our families, but no, Esca had to go to that. What would George think if he thought someone thought he liked me? Ugh, I really need to stop thinking about the him liking me thing. Stupid Esca.
“Me?” George asked. “What about me?” I could see him looking down at me out of the corner of my eye, so his question was directed towards me. Great…
I shrugged. “That we are good friends.”
“Sure, are,” George said. “No other guy could put ice-cream on her nose without her killing them. Well, maybe Fred.”
“You’re lucky you aren’t dead,” I informed him.
“Sure, sure,” he said waving his hand. “Anyway, it’s almost four. We should probably get going. Don’t want to be late again. You should be on time at least once today.”
“Oh, okay,” I said. “Well I guess I will see you at school, Esca.”
He nodded. “In a month.”
I frowned. A month was a very long time. Even though I had only met Esca today I felt like he was a good friend. I looked down. Noticing my owl I smiled. “Why don’t you give me your address so I can mail you?”
“Okay,” he said. “Though, for future reference it’s called an owl.”
“Haha, okay thank you.”
Esca pulled out a small piece of parchment, a small quill, and a small thing of ink from his pocket. Why he would carry all that around in his pocket was odd to me, but I guess I would probably do the same in the future. He quickly wrote on the parchment, and when he was done carefully wiped the tip of the quill with a cloth (also from his pocket) and then put everything back except the parchment, which he handed to me.
“Thank you,” I said as I took it.
He just nodded and said; “See you at school Echo.”
I smiled at him softly, threw the rest of the ice-cream away, and picked up my things with George’s help. The two of use then headed for the Leaky Caldron.
“He seems interesting,” George said as we walked.
“He is and very nice though he doesn’t seem to know it or want others to know it,” I said.
George was quiet. After a few minutes he said; “Well, how was your day overall?”
“Great,” I said happily. “I had a blast.”
“And you got everything you need for school?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Wardrobe?”
Nod.
“Books?”
Nod.
“Supplies?”
Nod.
“A wand?”
What Mr. Ollivander had said played through my head. “Yea, I got a wand.”
“When we get back to the house you will have to show it to me,” George said as he tapped the brick wall with his wand. “I wonder if Fred is back yet.”
He wasn’t. Him and Percy were the only ones missing after George and I got back. Mrs. Weasley had us put all of our supplies in our trunks so it would be easier to go through the fireplace. George just threw his things in his. I carefully put everything in, and yet still George and I had to sit on it to close it.
“This is why I don’t even try to close mine,” he said as we got up.
I just rolled my eyes. We ended up packing Fred’s things as well because he wasn’t back yet. Right as we were closing the trunk he walked in with Lee.
“Right on time,” George said. “We just finished packing your things.”
“That’s how I planned it,” Fred smiled.
We said goodbye to Lee and then went back to the Burrow. Tidus didn’t seem to like the flu powder travel much. He squawked as we went through. Thankfully, though, I didn’t fall down this time. I landed on my feet, and quickly jumped out of the way. George didn’t come through though, so I pulled my trunk out of the fireplace…and then George appeared there.
“Well hello there,” he smiled.
I was the first one to go through so it was just the two of us. “Hi, George.”
“What shall we do as we wait?” he asked and moved his trunk out of the fireplace.
“What do you me? Someone will be here any second.”
He gave me a sneaky smile. “Not true,” he said. “You see Fred’s trunk fell open as I was going through. Everyone is trying to get it fixed now.”
I laughed. “Nice, well then I guess we should wait on them.”
“But that’s so boring,” he groaned. “Why don’t you show me your wand?”
“Because that involves a lot of digging through things,” I sighed. “How about next time I come over I bring it to show you, but right now I should probably get home. It’s getting late after all, and it’s been a pretty long day.”
“Oh,” George said seeming disappointed. “Okay, well do you need me to carry your trunk for you? It’s pretty heavy after all.”
I shrugged. “If you want to.”
George and I walked slowly to my house. I had Tidus and the bag I had brought over last night. George had my trunk. I must say the look on his face was so funny when he was carrying it. Every once in a while he would let out a small grunt. We were going up the big hill between our houses when he fell down. He fell backwards and landed on his back with the trunk on top of me. I started laughing so hard I nearly fell over.
“Well help me,” he grunted under the trunk.
I got on my knees next to him, still laughing, and helped him push it off.
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Since I have yet to put a little thing from me, I thought I would. I am Terry (short for Teresa). Yea...see this is why I usually don't put anything. I have no clue what-so-ever what to say. Hmm... ah I guess I shall talk about about the story.
First off, I would like to say that Esca is my favorite character that I made up for this story (George is my favorite HP charater). Next I will like to say that even though is not my more popular story, it is one of my favorite ones to write. Chapter Four was a part I adorded writing.
One more thing, I want to give a little hint to my readers: Keep in mind that Echo can not sense an aura off of Esca. In Chapter Six you will learn more about Echo's powers. So that's it for now, hope you enjoy!