Harry and I walked down the wet, dimly lit street. I zipped up my jacket with my free hand, seeing as my wand was in my jean pockets and my right hand was dragging the case.
I couldn't tell whether Harry was frustrated, angry, sad, confused, or all of them. I kept silent, cause I didn't want to make it worse.
We ended up coming to a stop when the street parted into two streets. I sighed, and watched Harry go over to the side of the street. I followed him. I watched him sit down.
"You're going to get wet," I cautioned him.
He chuckled. His little laugh made me laugh. I liked seeing him happy. I liked seeing all my friends happy. That made me happy.
I leaned up against my trunk. I looked around at our surroundings. The wind seemed to get stronger for some reason. The light over head of Harry and I seemed to be flickering. The eerie children's playground behind us seemed like we were in a horror movie. In front of us, nothing seemed to be wrong.
That was until a twig snapped. Wow. I don't remember getting into a horror movie. I got up off my trunk to get ready for anything.
A black canine type animal came out from the bushes. I gazed into its eyes. I focused on the energy coming from them. Confusion and slight longing came from them. Harry? Is that Harry? It's voice spoke. Weird thing, it sounded like a man. Like a male human. The energy seemed much stronger than an animal.
Maybe he's an animagus...How does he know Harry? My mind thought.
I felt a hand pull me backwards, and it snapped me out of my trance. I fell backwards. Luckily, for me, I landed on Harry.
Within a few seconds, this weird bus came flying up out of nowhere. I groaned as the lights within hit my eyes. I squinted, and my vision was coming back to me. This man was standing in the bus' door-way.
He pulled out a card, "Hello, and welcome to the Knight Bus. Local transportation for abandoned witches and wizards. I am Stan, and I will be your conductor for this evening." He folded up the card, and placed it back in his front pouch of his jacket.
I looked to Harry with a confused glance, and he shrugged. I looked back to the conductor.
Stan looked around then down to us, "Uh, am I interrupting something?"
"What?! No!" I quickly got off Harry.
"We are not a couple," Harry argued getting up.
"Then how come you were on the ground...one on top of the other?" He interrogated.
"I got knocked over by something and lost balance. I fell into him, and he lost his balance. So, it was all gravity's fault," I nodded .
"Whatever ya say," the man crossed his arms. "Are you two going to get on or what?"
I looked around the corner of the bus. The animal was gone. I turned and saw the man named Stan looked over my shoulder, "Whatcha looking at?"
"I thought I saw something earlier. Must've been my imagination," I lied to him. I was not trusting him with information I don't even know.
"You are strange," he shook his head, heading back to the opening in the blue bus. I rolled my eyes as I got my luggage. I hauled Iris and my stuff onto the bus, and set it in the designated area.
I took a look at the bus. It was filled with some beds, and more luggage. I walked straight and looked up. In the center, was a huge chandelier. There were stories going up as far as the eye could see. I gazed at everything in awe. I sat on one of the red beds, and looked to Harry, who was sitting on the one in front of me, "This is so weird...I like it."
He giggled, and continued to look like I was. The man walked over, and zinged his machine which was tied around his neck. He pulled out two, little pieces of paper. He handed one to each of us.
I looked at the paper. A ticket? I didn't even be asked to get picked up. Why should I pay for this?
I looked up, and saw Stan tap a window; t had a hanging head and a nearly bald man, "Take it away, Earn."
Then the little head started to talk, "Yah, take it away. Going to be a bumpy ride." Despite his cute Jamaican accent, I was a little creeped out.
I looked to Harry and widened my eyes. I could tell he was feeling the same way. Within seconds, I was jerk forewords. I grabbed onto the bedsheets so I wouldn't fall into Harry. I regained my balance and sat on the bed, which was rolling backwards and forewords.
I looked outside. It was as if we were moving at the speed of light. As the bus was bumping and shaking, the man was nearly completely still. He looked down at us, "What were your names again?"
"We didn't say," I looked at him confused.
"Well where are ya headed?" He leaned up against the back.
"Leaky Cauldron in London," Harry spoke up.
The conductor started to talk to the talking head, "Ya hear that Earn? The Leaky Cauldron in London," He almost started to laugh.
The head said something and the conductor started to laugh. The only words I heard were "before they eat you" which doesn't make any sense.
"Can't the muggles see us?" Harry asked.
"Ah, muggles can't see nothing," He waves at Harry's question.
The little said something again, and he laughed. I still don't understand what he said. But he stopped laughing and said something else, which was very clear, "Earn, look out! Old lady at twelve o'clock!"
My eyes widened. Oh no...he's going to slam on the brakes, isn't he?
Sure enough, I was right. He slammed on the brakes, and I tumbled out of my bed. I hit the ground. I groaned as I sat my self up. Luckily, I didn't hit my face. But little to say, my chest hurt...
I sat back up on the bed. I noticed that Harry was by a window, watching. My guess was he flew into the window. I heard the little head start to count down from three.
I held onto my bed when he got down to one and a quarter. He yelled, "Yeah!" And the bus jerked again. Harry flew back into his seat. Once again the conductor was unfazed. He's probably been on here for so long it's like nothing happens anymore.
He pulled out a newspaper, and started to read. I looked at the cover. A moving picture of a man holding a sign with numbers and symbols. Harry had noticed also, "Who's that?"
The man seemed astounded that we would ask such a thing, "Who's that?! That is Sirius Black."
I looked at him with confusion. He glanced at Harry then me, "You've never heard of Sirius Black?"
I swear I know that name...where have I heard that name? Then it hit me, "Yeah. I've heard of him. Don't you remember, Harry? First year at Christmas, we were going through my family tree. Ron told us that I was related to Sirius Black."
"Oh yeah," Harry nodded, reminiscing.
"I feel bad for ya, kid," the conductor shook his head.
"Why?" I asked.
"He's a murderer," he told us.
My gut dropped. That doesn't sound very good, I thought to myself.
"Got himself locked up in Azkaban," he continued.
"How'd he get out?" Harry asked.
"That's the thing! He's the first one that has!" Stan was so interested in this individual. Then he got real quiet, "He was a supporter of...you know who."
Maybe that's what Dumbledore was talking about in first year. Why he didn't want my mom to come; she would've been like him...I started to think.
"You both know who that is, right?" Stan asked.
"Yeah, we've heard of him," I said. We've done more than heard of him.
Nobody spoke for a minute, then the little head said that something was coming at twelve o'clock. I tried to look past the man, but I failed. The little head turned towards us, "Watch your head."
The bus started to enclose itself; like get thin. Really thin. The breath got taken out of me for a moment, and I watched as everything got squeezed and tight.
I regained my breath as I started to fill out. I got slightly lightheaded, but I was good. Everything was back to normal size, and I heard the little man say a pun, "Why the long face?" Then he started to laugh.
I face palmed, okay, I'll give him that pun.
It started up again, nearly knocking me backwards. I grabbed onto the silver poles of the bed frame, and balanced myself out. We took a couple turns, and the head spoke again, "Almost there. We're almost there..."
Within seconds, they slammed on the brakes. Thankfully, I had kept my hands on the poles so I didn't role out.
"Leaky Cauldron, Knockturn Ally," the Jamaican head called.
A man walked onto the bus. He looked odd and slightly frightening. He smiled, "Mrs. Meadows. Mr. Potter. Welcome at last."
I got up and looked to Harry. He nodded to me, and I followed him off the bus with my trunk. The man had gotten Harry's and offered to take mine.
"Oh it's okay. You don't have to," I shook my head.
"But I insist," he held out his hand.
I sighed and handed him the handle. I looked around as the bus left. It was a dark, damp place, the Leaky Cauldron. It was very sketchy.
I followed Harry into the building. It seemed pretty cozy unlike the outside. Only a few people were left. The employees seemed to be closing things up. Well, Bridget, it is like nine o'clock. Expect it to close.
We all walked up the stairs and into an office. Harry went straight for a white bird, "Hedwig."
I smiled and watched him go after his feathery friend. I walked around the office taking a look at everything. It was nice. I sat down in one of the chairs by the fireplace. I heard a man clear his throat.
"Being the Minister of Magic, it is my duty to inform you Mister Potter that..." Then I stopped listening. Cornelius Fudge was explaining to Harry somethings that I didn't necessarily care about, so I kinda tuned it out.
The humpbacked man, who had gotten us off the bus, offered us some tea and biscuits. Both Harry and I said no.
I watched as Fudge came towards us, "She will have no remembrance of the accident. All is well. No harm done."
I heard some cracking, so I whipped my head over to see the man cracking walnuts in his hands. I blinked and looked back over to Fudge.
"Pea soup?" He offered.
"No thanks," I told him.
"Sir, I don't understand though. Didn't I break the law? Young wizards aren't allowed to use magic outside of school," Harry asked.
"Oh, Harry," he laughed, "we wouldn't send you to Azkaban for making your aunt a balloon."
The man started to-what I hope was-laugh. It was a weird, gasping like laugh. I saw the minister give him a glare then return talking to us, "But leaving your house and running away was very dangerous and irresponsible. Especially in a time like this."
"Time like this?" I asked.
"With the murderer on the loose," he replied.
"You mean Sirius Black? What would he want to do with me?" Harry asked.
Cornelius started to nervously laugh, but tried to hide it by fake laughing, "Oh, nothing." I eyed him carefully as he walked around Harry's chair, "You're safe through. That's all the matters. You two will be leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow. I have already gotten both of your books for this year. Now show Mr. Potter to his room while I speak with Ms. Meadows."
Harry gave him a questioning look, "But, sir, why do you need to talk-"
Harry was pulled to his feet by the man, and rushed out the door. I stood up, and tried to tell the man off. Cornelius shut that down fast, "Do not worry, Ms. Meadows. Harry will be fine. I wanted to talk to you though."
I sighed and turned to him, "Is this about the mason jar? Listen I didn't mean to-"
"No," he laugh, "not about the mason jar. Your case was a lot like Harry's, only it didn't involve people. No, I wanted to talk to you about something else."
I sat back down in a chair, "Which is...?"
"First, your family."
"Oh."
"I knew your grandparents. I knew how much taking your mother to Hogwarts meant to them. But we couldn't. Taking Sirius to Hogwarts was already a big jump-"
"How am I even related to Sirius Black?" I asked.
"It's kind of complicated," he started. "He's basically your cousin, but has been removed multiple times."
"So, am I related to anybody else?" I asked.
"Not that I know of," he answered. "Speaking of Sirius Black. He is out for Harry. I need your promise to Dumbledore more to your heart than normal."
"Why?" I asked.
"There's been rumor that he lead you-know-who to Harry's parents and killed a man named Peter Pettigrew. He's was a very loyal man to you-know-who."
I watched the fire in the fireplace and thought. This can't be true... "So you don't know for sure if he did."
"Well we can only assume-"
"Why would you assume? Just because you have a few clues about something doesn't mean you have the right story. I bet with how I look, you'd assume that I had two loving parents; when I don't even have one," I got up. "Thank you for the books. Thank you for letting us stay for tonight. I will keep an eye on Harry. But unless you have facts and evidence for your assumption, I would like to know where I room is."
He nodded slowly, "Room 217. The one right next to Mr. Potter's."
"Thank you," I nodded. I walked to the door, pulled it open, and left. I walked down the halls and ran into the man. He smiled at me, and I kinda smiled back. I kept walking.
I came to the room, and opened the door. Lights came from the outside. All the buildings had their lights on, which illuminated my room. I walked over to the bed. I noticed my trunk was in here, and Iris was in her crate on my bed.
I took her out, "How'd you get here?"
I focused my attention on her eyes, The humpback of Notre Dam came and put me here.
"I figured," I shrugged. "That was sweet of him, wasn't it?"
If your version of sweet is whispering to himself and laughing, then sure; it was the sweetest thing, her voice echoed through my head.
I rolled my eyes, and set her down, "Why are you like this?"
She meowed, and stretched. Without changing, I climbed into bed. It was rather comfortable. Iris snuggled up to me, and set her head under mine. I fell asleep to her purring.
I swear we have a love-hate relationship.