Chapter 219

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-Leaky Cauldron-

"Hey Ethan!" Terry called out to me as I walked through the pub door.

"Hey" I said, walking over to the table he was at and sitting next to him, sharing a fist bump, "Are you the only one here or has someone else arrived?" I asked looking around and not feeling the magic of our other friends around.

"Yeah, but I got here pretty early so it's not that surprising" he shrugged.

"Fair" I said.

"Well, actually Mandy arrived too, but she needed to help her mother with something in the alley" he said after thinking.

"Oh well then we'll just have to wait I guess" I shrugged.

We then started talking about our summer vacation while we waited for our other friends to arrive, which didn't take that long.

"I've missed you guys so much!" Anthony said dramatically as soon as he arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, hugging Terry and me the moment he saw us.

"Let go of me you badger!" Terry said, trying to push Anthony off of him.

"Don't be like that Terry, I know you missed my good looks and ingenious mind" Anthony said, smiling at him.

"Pretty good looking for a troll" Terry said, grimacing, "And I'll bet you 5 Galleons you don't even know what it means to have an ingenious mind"

"Hah! Unfortunately for you I know" Anthony said with a smug face, "I got a dictionary as a gift from my brother so now I'll be able to understand all the difficult words you guys say"

"I... This... Are you sure this is something to be proud of?" Terry asked uncertainly.

"It doesn't matter, now give me another hug!" Anthony said, and not giving Terry time to try to escape he hugged him again, and luckily I managed to get out of his arms.

"Urgh, friendship" a new voice said in disgust.

Turning to this voice we saw Stephen coming with Michael to meet us, with Michael looking strangely at Stephen who was wearing a mocking smile on his face.

"Huh?" Terry looked confused at Stephen, realizing that the voice was his.

"Great Michael impersonation, Stephen," I said.

"Thanks, I've trained hard to reach that level of contempt and arrogance," he said, now smiling slightly at us.

"Oh phew... I thought Michael was corrupting you" Anthony sighed in relief.

"You…you know what, I'm not going to stress about you," Michael said, going from irritated to calm in seconds.

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""""Huh?!""""

"Why are you looking at me so shocked!?" Michael asked with a vein appearing on his forehead, seeing our wide eyes.

"Well, that's the Michael I know"

"I thought I was dreaming"

"For a second I thought the world was going to end"

Hearing all of us, Michael's eyes twitched, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Oh, all the boys got there before us" a female voice came from the pub door, and looking over there we saw Padma, Sue and Lisa looking at us.

"Actually, I've been here for a little while now," a voice said from beside me, and the boys and I jumped in fright.

"Damn it Luna, how do you always manage to do this?!" I exclaimed, hand on my chest.

"Luna? When did you get here?" Stephen asked, leaning on Terry as he caught his breath.

Luna then looked at us with an amused and serene smile on her face.

"Well, I arrived a little later than Anthony," she said.

"And how come we didn't see you come in? I was looking at the door this whole time" Terry said, but Luna just smiled at him.

'I was also watching who entered the Leaky Cauldron, but I didn't feel or see her' I thought, calming down after the shock, 'I have yet to find out how she manages to escape my senses' I thought resolutely.

"Well, does that mean only Mandy and Morag haven't arrived yet?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, Morag said she couldn't come because she hasn't arrived from her family trip yet" Sue replied.

"And Mandy is already inside Diagon Alley. She said she needed to buy some things with her mom and that we could meet her inside" Terry said.

"In that case then we don't need to wait for anyone else, right?" Padma asked.

"And our friends from the other houses?" I asked, "I invited Nev and Justin, but Nev is busy being taught by his grandma and Justin said he would be home today with his family"

"Well, I talk to some boys from the other houses, but I'm not really their friend, just a classmate" Michael shrugged.

"Are you by any chance anyone's friend?" Anthony asked with legitimate curiosity.

"Fuck you" was the response he received.

"I know that Susan and Megan are traveling too, and Lavender is busy with something" Lisa replied, "And because of that I didn't invite them"

"My sister didn't want to come" Padma said with a shrug.

"So it's just us apparently" I said, "But I think we could add to our study group lessons a class on making friends and being sociable."

"What does that mean?"

"That means out of all of us, I'm the only one who managed to make friends with a lot of people from the other houses and year, and I spend most of my time busy!" I said, looking at everyone with an exasperated and disappointed look.

"I also have friends from other houses and years" Luna said.

"You don't count. You're so cute and innocent, it's impossible for someone not to want to be your friend," I said, and Luna looked at me with a happy smile.

"I also have friends at the other houses and years," Sue said, and I crossed my arms as I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"And how many of these friends did you meet outside of the study group? And how many times did you reach out to them to talk about random things just because you wanted to?" I asked, and Sue opened her mouth to answer me, but she thought for a moment before closing her mouth.

"Sigh... I'm seriously disappointed in you... Not in Michael, I expected him to have no other friends besides us..."

"Hey!"

"But now I know what your next lesson in our study group is going to be," I said, nodding at my plan.

"Because I feel like this isn't going to be good for us?" Anthony wondered.

"And why did I decide to leave the house today?" Terry sighed in defeat.

"I'll be looking forward to this lesson" Luna said, smiling at everyone.

"Well, at least someone's excited," I said with a satisfied smile. I then turned around and walked over to the wall that guarded the passage to Diagon Alley, "So, are you coming or not?" I asked.

At my question my friends looked at each other before sighing, sharing wry smiles before following me.

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-Muggle World-

After my friends bought their supplies in Diagon Alley, we strolled around the place for a bit, with the boys drooling at the sight of the Firebolt in the Quidditch supply store, where I resisted the urge to tell them I already had one.

When we realized we'd already passed most of the shops in the alley, I took them into the Muggle world, and now we were sitting on the lawn of a playground after a short tour, watching the other families playing with their children.

"So your brother was teaching you the basics of wizard duels?" Terry asked Anthony.

"Yes, and we also had some friendly duels," he said.

"But how? Students are forbidden to do magic outside of school" Stephen asked confused, and my friends who were born in the wizarding world looked at each other uncomfortably.

"Well, actually this is…" Padma started to say, but I cut her off.

"Children of wizarding families can use magic inside their homes," I said, and Stephen and Lisa looked at me in surprise, being the only two muggleborns in the group besides me, "The trace is in our wands, and it disappears when we come of age, but until that time any and all magic we do will be detected by the ministry" I started to explain.

"But that still doesn't explain how children from wizarding families can use magic, in fact, it just makes me more confused" Stephen said.

"I was almost there" I said, "Wands are not the only means of tracking the illegal use of magic. The Ministry also monitors the whole of the UK, and the radars mainly work in the Muggle part of the country" here I looked at Stephen and Lisa, and I saw them paying attention to me, as did my other friends.

"And with all these monitoring methods you may be wondering, so how can they use their wands without being detected and punished? Well, there are two ways to circumvent monitoring" I explained, holding up a finger, "The first is not using your own wand, but using a wand that no longer has the trace" I then held up one more finger, "And the other way is if your house has wards or spells that prevent the ministry from monitoring what goes on inside it "

I then turned to Anthony, and with an eyebrow raised in curiosity, I asked, "I think your house has wards that prevent monitoring, right?"

"Yes, how did you find out?" he asked back.

"Well, the Goldstein family is an ancient and famous wizarding family, and their house is probably just as old as, so I came to the conclusion that it would be easier for you to have this ward than for you to use another wand," I shrugged.

"Makes sense," he said.

"But this is so unfair!" Stephen exclaimed indignantly.

"Yes, you can do magic at will while we are punished if we try to do the same" Lisa said, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Hey, I knew that, but I don't do magic outside of school. My dad doesn't let me use any wands to practice spells and my house doesn't have wards" Michael said.

"Same for me" Mandy said, "But it's not like I asked my parents if they'd let me use their wand to practice."

"Well, I use my uncle's old wand. But I think my house has some wards, but I don't know if it has this monitoring blocking" Terry said.

"It's kind of a tradition for parents to teach their children spells from a young age back in India" Padma said, "But now that I'm in the England my parents can't teach me anymore"

"But that doesn't change the fact that basically all purebloods have a magic advantage over muggleborns" Stephen said, and I looked away, not wanting to point out that my house actually had wards and that I could use my wand if I want, not that I needed to.

But when I looked away I felt someone looking at me, and turning around I saw Luna looking at me with a knowing smile.

"As Ethan told me once, the world is not fair" Terry said with an apologetic look, and Stephen looked at him for a moment before sighing, nodding in acceptance.

"Actually, speaking of Ethan, it was because of something he said to me once that made me ask my brother to train me, and also because of our stupid, incompetent DADA teachers, obviously not counting Headmaster Dumbledore" Anthony said, and Terry and I both looked at him curiously.

"What did I tell you that made you stop being a lazy badger?" I asked.

"First, being called lazy doesn't offend me, and second, it was because of that conversation we had in the library at the beginning of our first year, where you talked about the 'Deadly Weapons' that all witches and wizards carry with them."

"Oh" I said.

"What conversation? And what deadly weapons?" Sue asked, and I simply pointed at my wand holster on my wrist, which became visible to them, "Oh, I get it."

"Well, let's talk about Ethan's wise and philosophical words later, as I have a question for Anthony," Michael said, drawing our attention to him.

"Yea?" Anthony asked.

"You said you dueled your brother, right?" he asked and Anthony nodded, "Did you learn anything? How did these duels end?"

"I learned a few things, but only the basics" Anthony replied, "What about our duel. Well, our duel was balanced...until it started"

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"So I guess you couldn't beat your brother, right?" Mandy asked, and Anthony just looked at her blankly.

"I think that's a no" Luna said, a smile on her face as she followed a butterfly with her gaze.

End.

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(End AN: I have a friend who is very dumb and very unlucky, but a week ago we realized that I am much unluckier than he is...

The universe seems to hate me sometimes...)