Chapter 19: Knight Bus
**Chapter 19: Knight Bus**
"Reparo—"
Harry aimed his hand at the rusted hinge between the door and the wall, rapidly chanting the spell with familiarity.
A silver light appeared on the rusty hinge, gradually expanding outward. Where the silver light passed, the rust disappeared, replaced by a bright metallic glow.
He was quite familiar with this spell. Though without a wand, his spellcasting efficiency wasn't strong, allowing him only to gradually mend these small objects. Yet, it was effective.
After repairing the opening and closing of the door, Harry shook the door, and the creaking sound was nowhere to be heard.
Finished!
So far, he had repaired most places in the castle.
After all this, Harry walked to the balcony in the room. It was a room on the third floor, unoccupied, a bit dusty but still relatively clean due to Harry's frequent cleaning.
The balcony faced the cliff, offering a better view than standing on the edge of the cliff itself. It never got tiresome.
After enjoying the breeze for a while, Harry dashed downstairs, leaving the castle to collect the laundry.
Moon, lying on the sofa, was abruptly awakened by Harry's footsteps.
"Uh... did I fall asleep again?" Moon looked a bit confused as he glanced at Lucifer.
Lucifer nodded, "Yes, you fell asleep again."
"Ah." Moon sighed heavily, then said, "Harry, make me an energy potion, half sugar, less ice."
Harry, having just brought in the cleaned clothes, nodded repeatedly, "Sure, be right there."
"I've been so drowsy lately... I don't feel very tired, but I keep dozing off from time to time." Moon looked somewhat distressed, shaking his head.
"Cats spend two-thirds of the day sleeping," Lucifer said emotionlessly.
Moon looked at him irritably, "But I'm not a cat."
"Pollock wasn't a pig either. But he turned into a pig, fat and short," Lucifer retorted without hesitation. "Have you forgotten when Pollock lifted the curse, and suddenly his height and weight changed? This curse doesn't just affect your face."
"It seems... it's true..." Moon recalled the changes in Pollock, the red pig, before suddenly noticing his own belly...
Was that... a lifebuoy?!
He stood up abruptly, "Lucifer, Lucifer, where's the scale? Quickly, show me!"
"No need for a scale, you did gain weight." Lucifer's words pierced Moon's heart like a knife.
Moon took off his shirt and carefully looked down. His previous self had a golden ratio-like figure, but now... a layer of fat had wrapped around him.
Not much, but it was there.
However, only he knew that there was no reason for his body to undergo such a change.
Thinking about it, he gathered energy, fingers drawing symbols on his chest. The next moment, strange runes and formations gradually appeared on his skin.
These runes and formations usually hid on his bones and didn't reveal themselves on the skin. They ensured the perfect vitality of his body, with functions like energy storage, magic recovery, item storage, and rapid repair of biological functions.
A perfect creation based on human alchemy. Yet today, it seemed he had gained weight.
"Your physique is fine, but you did gain weight." Lucifer hit the nail on the head. "Just like how you couldn't figure out how you turned into a cat, now you can't figure out why you gained weight.
There's only one explanation: the curse has deepened!"
Moon fell silent for a long time before reluctantly putting on his clothes.
"Moon, you need to slow down and enjoy life. The more anxious you are to get rid of it, the more likely the curse will deepen."
"Maybe." Moon put on his clothes. Recently, whether on the cliff or on Privet Drive, there had been no storms, preventing him from continuing Animagus's next step.
"If Animagus doesn't work, I'll listen to you and slow down." Moon said.
Lucifer crossed his hands, disdainful, "You'll eventually understand that I'm right. The more you rush to get rid of it, the stronger it becomes."
Moon patted his chest, all the runes completely hidden. Then he put on his clothes again. Just as he was doing so, Harry brought the energy potion over, curious, "Uncle Moon, what are you guys talking about?"
"He's got chubby cheeks," Lucifer remarked.
Chubby cheeks?
Harry had often been sent to Mrs. Figg's house, an old woman who kept many cats, so he knew what chubby cheeks meant.
It referred to a cat's face becoming plump and round.
He glanced at Uncle Moon, and now that it was mentioned, it did seem...
"Lucifer, can you shut up? I'm not a cat, why would I get chubby cheeks?" Moon snapped.
Then, he took a sip of the energy potion, swiftly changing the subject, "Is the castle all fixed?"
Harry nodded, "Many small areas are already repaired, but on the third and fourth floors, there are some broken beams I can't fix... they are too thick."
As he spoke, Harry's eyes lit up, "Oh, I also fixed this."
Saying that, Harry ran to the second floor and somehow brought down a gramophone with a large horn. Moon didn't know when these things were left behind, but he didn't expect Harry to repair them all.
"Good job," Moon nodded and said, "I'm going to Diagon Alley, are you coming?"
"Can I?" Harry asked excitedly.
"Of course," Moon nodded, finishing the energy potion, "If there's nothing else, let's go now."
After saying that, his face suddenly changed to that sharp-featured appearance, then he tidied his hair, put on his clothes, and wore a hat.
Harry, a bit impatient, tied the headscarf from before around his head.
To Harry's surprise, Uncle Moon didn't teleport them directly to London but opened the door and arrived on Privet Drive.
"Uncle Moon, where are we?"
Moon lightly shook his sleeve, a small wand appearing in his hand. He waved it gently, saying, "I heard that as long as you wave your wand on the roadside, a magical bus will come to pick you up. I don't know if it's true; let's give it a try."
Saying that, Moon waved the wand gently, and the wand tip lit up.
Harry was a bit puzzled; could a bus really appear just by waving a wand? That seemed strange.
Just as he was thinking, he suddenly heard a sound, not on the main road but in the alley between Number Thirteen and Number Twelve on Privet Drive.
The sound grew louder, and Harry looked over; it was dark inside, something blocking the view at the other end.
Moon also noticed the anomaly in the middle of the alley, turned his head, raised an eyebrow, looking surprised.
The noise grew louder, like thunder. Harry quickly stood next to Moon, eyes fixed on it.
Boom!
A huge black shadow emerged from the alley, like a rocket.
Accompanied by an extremely loud brake sound, a second later, the huge black shadow stopped on the road, right in front of the two, even rolling up Moon's coat.
Harry looked up and found that it was actually a three-story bus!
Yes, a huge three-story bus that had just emerged from the small alley between the two houses.
On the side of the bus were large golden cursive letters - Knight Bus.
"Welcome aboard the Knight Bus, an emergency transport for distressed witches or wizards. Simply extend your wand and step aboard, and we'll take you anywhere you want to go. I'm the conductor, Stan Shunpike. Is this the signal you guys gave?" Moon adjusted his hat blown off by the wind.
Moon adjusted his hat, "Yes, to the Leaky Cauldron, please."
Stan Shunpike snapped his fingers, smiling with eight teeth showing, "Of course, the Knight Bus has no fixed route; we run all over the UK based on the needs of our passengers."
Moon nodded and led the way, "Let's go, kid. I feel this trip will be exciting."
Harry swallowed his saliva. He thought of the appearance of the Knight Bus just now, it was derogatory to call it drifting; it was like flying on land.
He pulled the scarf that covered his scar and gathered courage, jumping onto the bus.
"All right, get ready, we're off. You're lucky; there are no other passengers now. We can go directly to the Leaky Cauldron in just over twenty minutes.
By the way, eleven Sickles per person, and if you pay fourteen, we also have hot cocoa."
The Knight Bus had no seats, only beds. Harry was a bit surprised; this was nothing like a regular bus.
While he was thinking, Moon had already paid.
Stan Shunpike knocked on the guardrail, making a ding-ding sound, "Off we go, Ern, to the Leaky Cauldron."
With a huge bang, Harry, who was experiencing the softness of the bed, was thrown onto the bed, then spun around and fell to the ground.
He got up in a daze, his head feeling fuzzy. He could only tightly grasp the bed rail to avoid being thrown out.
This... they even provided beds?
No matter how you thought about it, they should have safety seats like roller coasters.
Then he looked at Uncle Moon, but he found that Uncle Moon's feet seemed to have roots; even if the bus tilted, there was no sign of him falling.
"Michael Jackson?!" Harry murmured.
After the shock, he looked out the window and suddenly paled. The bus was actually heading towards the pedestrian sidewalk.
Then he realized that although the bus was on the sidewalk, it couldn't hit anything. Lamp posts, mailboxes, and trash cans all jumped out of the way as the bus approached, and when it passed, they returned to their original positions.
It was as if space had twisted; the originally narrow space between lamp posts and pedestrians was forcibly widened to accommodate the width of the bus.
After more than twenty minutes, with a massive brake sound, Harry realized that they had arrived at Charing Cross Road.
"Finally... arrived..." His face was flushed, feeling a bit nauseous.
Almost as soon as the door opened, he jumped down, breathing the calm fresh air.
Moon walked down slowly, smiling with some confusion, "Didn't expect you to be so good at riding a broom but can't handle the bus."
Leaning against a lamppost, suppressing the surge of stomach acid, Harry's eyes blurred, "I... maybe I can only fly on my own..."
At this moment, both of them heard the slightly uneven voice of a girl, "Mom, Dad, come over quickly. I'm very sure there's a very old pub there. Why don't you believe me?"
"Miss, your mother and I have been here many times, never seen any pub," a man responded helplessly, then quickly added, "Walk slower, child."
Moon and Harry turned their heads and saw a girl with messy brown hair walking on the road. At the same time, she was pulling her parents on the left and right towards them.
Behind her, the couple being pulled left and right looked at each other and showed a helpless smile...
(End of this chapter)