Chapter 65: Summer Days
If you're confused about the chapter numbers, I deleted the ones with the announcements and stuff to make it more readable.
If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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17 July 1992, Diagon Alley
Harry jumped down the steps and helped Stan lower his trunk and Hedwig's cage onto the pavement. He then looked at the familiar inn and took a deep breath. Yeah, he had a feeling that this was going to be his favourite summer yet.
Over the course of the previous month, Harry's theory was proven to be correct. This was, in fact, his favourite summer so far. In his previous one, there was still this nervousness at being in another world, utterly alien to what he was used to. He had put himself out there just to try to find a way to use magic. Having come very far over the course of the last year in mastering his magic, the Potter scion was confident that he could handle whatever was thrown at him.
Living by yourself was surprisingly freeing. Well, if you don't need to deal with my responsibilities that came with independence that is. Having been staying in the Leaky Cauldron, for over a month, Harry didn't need to clean, or cook meals. Instead, he did his best to simply relax and enjoy his summer. There was more to the magical world than books, after all, and he had forgotten what it was like to be amongst adults, not children.
Yeah, he was pretty much always using ageing potions to move around. He looked like an average Hogwarts graduate, and people just spoke to him normally. There were side effects to prolonged use of ageing potions, of course, but they tended to affect people trying to look younger, not the other way around. According to numerous researchers and potion masters, the only thing he risked was mild aches for a few weeks because of the large difference in size after he comes back to his normal body. Although, there were documents of actually accelerated ageing when using the potion substantially to look younger.
His older form allowed him to explore the alley properly. It turned out that Diagon Alley itself is simply the hub of magical London, but it didn't really stop there. It was an alley where any wizard or witch will probably be able to find any normal item they needed. The shops, for all how dingy and unclean they looked, were very expensive since most of the population just went there to get their stuff. Other shops had needed to settle from branches of the alley.
To be able to survive, they were either really specialized or really cheap. You won't find a secondhand store anywhere in the main alley, but in Bargain Lane, they were commonplace. The Charmers' Lane is specified for custom Charmed jobs. There were shops for just enchanting clothes. Hell, Carkitt Market was a street filled with stalls that sold magical creatures and anything related to them.
Then, there was Knockturn Alley, of course. Even in his adult form, Harry didn't dare venture there. The horror stories he heard about that place were enough. It wasn't even the danger of being hurt – not that it was insignificant – it was mostly the fact that it was a close-knit community and that he would be caught as an outsider in seconds. Magical Britain isn't that large, and people living in the seedier parts of the city all know one another. And for all its reputation with the dark arts, the alley was mostly home to the outcasts of magical society. Werewolves, vampires, Hags, and every sentient magical being that the common wizards dislike are just sent there. The rents are cheap, people don't ask questions, and you can just do your job in peace. Of course, if you want to buy anything illegal, it would be probably easier to find a place no one asks any questions.
So, yeah, the rest of the alley was just enough for him. For now. It might be cowardly, but the sorting hat did choose to put him in Slytherin for a reason.
Harry opened his eyes this morning not expecting any letters. Blaise was back in Italy for the summer, and Daphne was currently in Greece for the holidays. Tracy's parents had taken her camping in the woods for some reason. She had grumbled about it in her last letter. So, with all his friends doing their own thing, Harry decided to do his. He walked down the stairs, and saw Tom waiting for him, "Oh, hey Harry."
"Hey, Tom," the Potter scion greeted.
"Do you want the usual," the man asked.
"Yes, that would be wonderful, Tom."
Tom went to the kitchen with his order, just a standard English breakfast. And was accosted by a small barn owl with a familiar newspaper in her talons. Harry took out the paper and gave a couple of Knuts for the owl to take as payment, and it flew away immediately after.
By then, his breakfast was laid out for him. He took a sip of his coffee, relishing its taste, before opening the newspaper and almost spitting it out in shock at the headline.
NICOLAS FLAMEL FOUND DEAD IN HIS HOME!
Underneath the huge title, the famous alchemist and his wife Perenelle looked lying dead in the living room. Unlike most wizarding photos, this one was not moving at all. The two former immortals looked like they were sleeping together on the couch, not dead as they are.
Of course, the rest of the article was the typical Rita Skeeter nonsense. It started with the man's accomplishment, his contributions to the field of Alchemy. His association with Dumbledore, everything that was pretty much summarized in his chocolate frog card in just a couple of sentences. The bodies looked fresh, but the effects of the Elixir of Life were unknown to everyone, hence why no one said anything about it. Curiously, the man had left a sizable sum of gold for Beauxbattons, and people are still theorizing if there was still more that was hidden away. Yeah, the world was going on treasure hunts trying to find any caches of gold. As always, it wouldn't be a Rita Skeeter article without some sort of scandal. Apparently, she supposed that one of the alchemist's possible experiments on wizards backfired and killed him and his wife. Or that the Philosopher's Stone was a lie all along. Harry had to admit that for all the ridiculousness of it, the woman had a way with words. It was too bad she wasted them on trash like this.
Funnily enough, the location of the Philosopher's Stone wasn't really mentioned anywhere in the article. That was the terrifying part. Somehow, the Daily Prophet just ignored the man's most notable achievement. Dumbledore must have had a hand in that, or maybe it looked like the deaths were natural, hence the assumption that the stone was destroyed or stolen. Still, things didn't look good.
No matter what happened, the timing didn't match. Even if the stone was really destroyed as Dumbledore would say, they should have had the foresight to have more elixir. They left the damn thing with Dumbledore for a year, they wouldn't just only have enough Elixir for exactly a single year. This was murder, and Harry was afraid of the implication of such murder.
Flamel was a constant in the magical world for six centuries, and just like that, he was gone. And that was worrying. It was a reminder that the world wasn't safe and that no matter how experienced you are, you can never be safe. Dumbledore must be far more dangerous than he had expected. Voldemort's words came to mind slightly before the Potter scion dismissed them. These were the ravings of a mass-murdering, power-hungry madman who wanted to convince Harry to join him for some reason. He couldn't trust a word that thing said. The screaming when he had killed that unicorn still haunted his dream. The utterly wrong act of slaying something so fundamentally pure was disgusting.
Back to the Flamel situation, Harry expected the demand for alchemical products to rise immensely in Europe. Alchemists were already rare, and the number of competent ones in Europe could be counted on two hands. Dumbledore had essentially bought a ticket to fortune in the aftermath of Flamel's death. He was the only real source of alchemical products. The classes in Hogwarts were nothing more than an introduction to the field. Two years were not enough to become anything more than an amateur in Alchemy, and the products on demand were notoriously complicated.
This was a decisive win for Dumbledore, and that was a fact.
It really was a shame, Harry had wanted to meet Flamel eventually, to understand what it meant to see the world go round before their eyes, to see civilizations be born and destroyed. He wanted to pick the man's brain when it came to alchemy, perhaps even create a philosopher's stone of his own. But that wasn't possible anymore.
Choosing to not ponder too much on the issue, Harry decided to just explore the alley. He had already gone to the alley, but he didn't really buy anything, apart from a few curiosities. He did get his glasses charmed to magnify things by him touching the handle. These looked dead useful, and he wanted them. Harry also wanted to buy his school supplies, at least his standard one since his letter still hadn't come in.
After buying a few quills and rolls of parchment, Harry decided to have some ice cream at Florean Forescue's Ice Cream Parlour, before going to the bookstore to see if the new books came out. Hogwarts was notorious for giving the book list at the last minute because of the Defense Professors changing every year. Still, Dumbledore might have finally found a Defense Professor. Harry really hoped it wasn't Lockhart. The Potter scion couldn't stomach another useless year of defence to deal with. Honestly, the man's book would have been sold very well as fiction books. He was a good writer, and competent as a public persona, but it was obvious that some of these stories were outlandish. Who in their right mind wrestles a werewolf anyway?
Finally, Harry arrived at the bookstore, and as always was disappointed in the lack of a Hogwarts book list. He finally decided to just browse in the collection. Flourish and Blotts was honestly the only bookstore in the alley. There weren't any libraries or any place that sold books really. Funnily enough, Harry had seen a Most Potente Potions book in a secondhand shop he browsed. He had immediately bought it for a couple of galleons, knowing that it was worth so much more in both knowledge and value. Still, there seemed to be something fundamental about the lack of widespread knowledge, at least with any magical knowledge.
Back to Flourish and Blotts, there was a sign with a giant moving poster of Lockhart. The man in the poster was grinning and winking at everyone, and Harry suppressed the urge to curse the ponce. And yet various witches kept sighing whenever he did that. What the hell was wrong with these people?
Still, the Potter scion decided to look at the announcement. Huh, apparently, the man was coming to sign his new book release. Having decided not to continue, Harry decided to leave the bookstore. His mood was already sour because of what happened to Flamel, and well, Lockhart fanatics were not going to help things.
Harry slowly wandered around until he found himself in the Leaky Cauldron once more. He just walked up the stairs and entered his room. The Flamel situation simply would not leave his mind. The utter fear he felt at the idea of not being secure enough for something like that to happen.
He learnt one thing for certain and that was the fact that Dumbledore was fucking terrifying. He didn't want anything to do with the man, really, but that was it.
With determination in his eyes, the last Potter proclaimed, "This is not over. I will become powerful, and I will survive. This is a promise."
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.