Guessing Game
Charles Gaunt POV
"You sure you don't want me to wait with you, I wouldn't mind."
"No, we'll be fine from here. Thank you for lift," Charles told Allister, as he got out of the car. Mrs McGonagall had asked them to meet her at her at Charing Cross Road the day before and since Sam couldn't drive, her 'friend', Allister, had driven them there. He was a tall man with a squarish face and judging from how he had been looking at Sam when he picked them up, Charles figured they were more than friends or at the very least, Allister wanted to be.
He looked unsure, he was asked to watch over them after all, but an agreeing look from Emily left him unable to say anything.
Emily had dressed up for the day and with Sam's help, had her hair tied into two braided pigtails. She wore a white sundress with floral patterns that Charles had never seen before. He had moved here at the end of winter after all and it would've been too cold to wear it then. He himself stood with his hair messy in a pair of cheap blue jeans and a black polo shirt. A little shabby, perhaps, but he had never made a habit of bothering about his appearance.
"Ok," Allister relented. "But stick together and don't wonder off." Allister then crossed the road and got into his car, but didn't drive off, likely having decided to watch from affar. Before Charles could give it any real thought, a hand slipped into his.
Charles frowned.
"What. He said to stick together, didn't he?" Emily said happily, although in truth she was worried he would remove his hand. It wasn't an unwarranted worry. Rather, this time yesterday Charles would have have done just that and shaken her off. It was easier to keep people at a distance that way.
Yet today, he mused that he no longer needed to. Mrs McGonagall had told them that they would be spending seven years at Hogwarts, a boarding school, which seemed daunting but came with its own set of upsides. Many of which Charles was looking forward for.
For the next seven years, Hogwarts would be a constant in his life, something he could actually build a foundation on and that would be a first for him. According to Mrs McGonagall, they would be spending each of those years in group dorms, which meant for Charles that he no longer needed to go out of his way to avoid other students anymore. In the past he would always abstain from speaking with his classmates as he knew he would soon have to say goodbye and leave, never to talk to them again. But at Hogwarts, they would only say goodbye at the end of the year, and then after summer passed they would see each other again.
This meant he could start making friends in earnest for the first time in a long time, though that made him a little nervous. Last night he had decided that Emily could be his first. So, when she took hold of his hand, he allowed her in good faith, much to Emily's glee, and started to look for his future professor.
"Where do you think the entrance to Diagon Alley is?" Emily asked curiously, she had been holding herself back from talking the whole car journey in fear of mentioning anything magical that muggles shouldn't know of to Allister.
'Muggle.' The word still felt foreign on his tongue and in his mind. Really it all still felt strange to him — Magic and its secrecy. He recalled Sam asking Emily where she got her flowers yesterday and Emily had just ran away laughing to herself. As far Sam and the other kids knew, the two of them were just going to a regular boarding school and they would never know any different. They would never be allowed to. What threw Charles off the most was the lack of questions she had asked them. From Sam's perspective they were suddenly being wisked off to who knows where, as far as she knew. Even if she was a heartless woman who cared nothing for the children in her care (which she wasn't), you would stil expect her to investigate a little about it as, at the very least, it is her job to look after them.
Charles assumed magic was involved in some way or another and he wasn't sure how he felt about that yet.
"I don't know," Charles said honestly. When McGonagall had said Charing Cross Road was the entrance to the magical world, he had expected it to be a bit more secluded and hidden. But they found themselves in what felt like the middle of London, with people scurrying about everywhere.
"Its magic. It could be anywhere."
Emily looked at Charles hopefully, "Wanna play a guessing game?" she asked, "We take turns guessing where the entrance is and whoever gets it right, owes the other a favour."
Charles could see how excited she was by her game and decided to humour her, "Okay. Then I guess it's the bakery across the road. I bet wizards like the smell of fresh bread."
"The shoe shop behind us." She suggested quickly, ignoring his attempt at a joke.
"Down that drain hole." Emily grimaced at the idea, making Charles smirk.
"That restaurant behind the bus stop. Witches can eat better things than bread."
---
Their game went on for a few minutes, until they ran out of buildings to point at. Emily had started humming, having enjoyed herself and Charles felt a bit silly for having as much fun as he did. He was used to his own company and wondered whether he would become more immature if he kept hanging around with Emily, who put having fun above nearly everything else. He liked that about her, but his priorities were elsewhere. He wanted to excel at Hogwarts and to do that he would have to study harder than anyone else and he wouldn't be able to do that if he stuck around Emily all the time.
"Look! She's here!" Emily jumped excitedly. 'Where does she get all her energy from. Has Sam been feeding her something different from him at dinner?' Charles wondered. He followed her pointing finger to Mrs McGonagall who was walking towards them from down the road, wearing the same robes she wore the day before.
"Hello Miss Clark, Mr Gaunt," she gave them a small wave and Charles wondered if he'd ever get used to that name, he definitely wasn't yet. The two of them greeted her back politely and she smiled, "Well, come along then. Best get this done quickly, follow me."
McGonagall led them back down the way she came as Charles and Emily looked at each other competitively. When the older woman stopped outside a pub and walked in, Charles smiled triumphantly at Emily, who was pouting, the favour was his. He gave her his hand again as a consolidation prize and she lessened her pout a little.
They stepped through the quiet pub. The walls were stone and it had a medieval look to it. It was early in the morning, so the only people inside was a man behind the bar and a couple of men and woman eating breakfast and reading newspapers. Charles thought he saw a picture in one of the articles move but the lady turned the page before he could make sure.
They quickly arrived at a brick wall behind the building and got excited when Mrs McGonagall pulled out her wand, only to be disappointed when she just used it to tap the wall. She put her wad away and stepped back which they copied. A moment passed and nothing happened. The wait was quickly over however, and Emily squeezed his hand harder as they watched the bricks of the wall magically slide away and disappear.