Chapter 12: Transport

Walking towards Newquay train station, I travelled briskly. It would take some time for Melony and Nana to realize I had vanished as it wasn't uncommon for me to stay in my room for an entire day sometimes. However, considering recent events I wouldn't be surprised if my cover was blown sooner rather than later. With that in mind, I needed to get out of Newquay and towards London as soon as I possibly could.

Walking under the cloudy dark weather I felt my head panging with bursts of exhaustion. I had stayed up all day and night yesterday focusing on planning how to help Nana and then forcefully improving my magical capacity as much as possible. My desperation had left me in quite the fatigued state however I didn't want to take a break, I needed to press on. Even though the doctor stated Nana would have a years' worth of time I knew how she was, she didn't just push herself too far labour wise during the day, she would also stay up later than all of us cleaning and sorting out everything for the next day. She would barely get any sleep due to this.

Even if I pressed Nana, telling her me and Mel could help out she would just find something else to do and stay up probably even later doing whatever that is. The point being, she was a stubborn old lady through and through. I desperately wanted to sort the problem she was having as quickly as possible even if it meant I was rushing a bit.

After an hour of walking into Newquay town I arrived at the train station. Heading on in I saw the ticket kiosk desk with a man currently buying a ticket from a lady inside the kiosk. As the man bought the ticket, he thanked the lady and moved out the way leaving me a space to jump into. Walking forward I approached the kiosk and looked up at the lady within it. Noticing me she stared down at me with a warm expression.

"How can I help you today little man~?"

I, a 24 year old man mentally had just been called a 'little man' by this lady. I don't know why but in this moment I felt like I had lost already before I even started to say anything. I coldly returned her gaze, trying to smack down my pride that wanted to state I was older.

"Uh yeah I want to purchase a train ticket to London please"

The ticket lady stared at me inquisitively for a moment before starting to punch in some information into her keyboard. She took some time doing this and after a while she turned her eyes back to me. Seeing her questioning gaze I felt my body stiffen, I feared the questions I didn't want to hear were about to be asked of me…

"Are you travelling with a parent or guardian?"

"N-No…"

"Have you got any sort of confirmation to show me from a parent or guardian authorizing you are allowed to head off to London?"

"No…"

"Have you got your parent or guardians contact number? We can give them a call and ask them for confirmation? If we can't contact them we can't allow you onto the train alone…"

"Ah... fuck, never mind then"

A swear slipped out of my lips as I turned heel and started to walk out of the train station. The ticket kiosk lady stared daggers into my back seemingly upset at my crass words. Heaving a sigh I exited the train station and walked down the road a bit before sitting on the curb. This was the first hurdle I had to face. I understood way before I even arrived here that this was probably going to be an issue however I still wanted to make the gamble. If it wasn't for my rushing to get Nana fixed up I probably could have arranged or tricked Melony or Nana into giving me authorization for a train journey. Sadly now that I had gone all in, I was 'stranded' until I was either able to find another way to London or until the police search team is called by Nana or Melony to search for me. Thinking about the latter which could come to pass, I desperately searched my mind for a way forward.

Could I just pay someone to 'pretend' to be my guardian? If I sat just outside the train station and asked someone politely who seemed nice they might be inclined to help me. The issue with this though was that I'd have to wait for someone who was travelling to London and who seemed nice enough to help me. If I was lucky, it could be instantly I find such a person. If I was unlucky though, I could find myself in the back of a police car and locked away in my room.

"That seems to be my only option…"

Picking myself back up I started to walk back over to the train stations entrance. As I started to walk though, I felt a gust of wind blow up through the high street. Looking down to where the road turned off, I saw a bus coming around the corner that had a striking blue colour. Unlike the normal western greyhound buses that ran through here this one stood out like a sore thumb. Despite that, nobody seemed to bat an eye as it turned the corner and drove towards me. Taking a closer look at the bus coming closer my eyes widened seeing the name on the front.

'Knight Bus'

As soon as I saw the name of the bus, text appeared in my retina.

[Canon Shift – Due to the actions of (Oz), the 'Knight Bus' has travelled far out of its original jurisdiction]

Watching the bus pull up in front of me I gawked in surprise. I didn't expect this stroke of luck at all. How did this bus even find me? Just like the canon shift said the knight bus is usually a bus that runs around the majority of London areas may be heading further out if need be. It turning up here for me was convenient to say the least however it was miles upon miles away from its normal jurisdiction.

As I wondered about these things the buses door opened. A man walked out and started to read out from a piece of paper.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor this morning. Normally you would have to stick your wand out for us to approach you however it was clear from the second we turned that corner down there you were in need of a lift somewhere, considering your dejected expression and the fact you are sat outside of the muggle train station…"

Stan pointed at the train station just up the road as he mentioned it. He seemed to have managed to read my situation as he turned the corner. I thought this guy was supposed to be unintelligent? Well I guess this is all a part of the job…

"Any who you are certainly a young wizard looking at you now. You prolly' barely turned 11 recently"

Stan leaned in and took a long look at my face. I kept my composure and nodded at his statement, lying that I was 11. After nodding I decided to pry a bit.

"How could you tell my age?"

"Hey Ern, this kid asked how I knew his age!"

Laughing started to erupt from Stan whilst Ern had his eyes glued on the road in front of him raring to drive off. I looked at Stan with a confused expression, prompting him for an explanation.

"Sorry lad lemme' explain. This bus finds stranded Witches and Wizards. WITCHES & WIZARDS"

I had the urge to suddenly punch this guy when he started to act like I was a dumbass. Of course I knew that it finds stranded 'Witches & Wizards'. As I stared coldly at Stan, Ern in the background started to speak.

"What he's trying to say young man is that this bus operates by finding witches and wizards that have gone through 'maturity'. As magical maturity happens at 11 for basically everyone, He was able to guess your age through that!"

After giving me the information I truly needed, Ernie turned his eyes away and leant back in his chair starting to doze off. Stan looked down at me with a proud smirk, thinking he was the cleverest man alive.

"Anyway nough' of the funny stuff. Do you nee' a ride or not?"

Taking a second to deliberate I decided that this was the only course of action I could take that was a safe bet. It was either this or waiting like a hobo in front of the train station waiting for someone to pretend to be my guardian and take me on a train trip to London…

"I'd love to take a ride to London… I only have muggle money on me though"

Taking out some money from my pocket I showed Stan £10. He stared at it for a moment before snatching it from my hands. After some quick movements I was presented with £6.81 change. The bus fare considering I was travelling from Newquay to London was very cheap. Stan seemed to notice this surprise as he explained.

"11 Sickles is the universal price for this bus no matter where you go. Conversion makes 11 sickles equivalent to £3.19"

Ah right there was something like that wasn't there. I started to recall information about the knight bus more hearing this and remembered that it was indeed a service that had a fixed pay. This was extremely beneficial for me.

"Can I get a return ticket? I plan on only going for today and coming back middle of tomorrow"

"Hold your orses' sunshine you aren't even on the bus yet! Get on, quick"

Seeing Stan signaling me on, I jumped up and walked into the bus. Looking down the bus I saw rows of single beds. The bus seemed to be empty at the moment however that remained to be seen for the upstairs area.

"Alright Ern, take it away"

"Yeaah~ take it away Ernie~"

Ernie stepped on the accelerator as we darted off down the road. It was mystical looking outside and seeing that despite Ernie's dreadful driving, we were never crashing. It was as though all things tried to dodge the knight bus if it was on a collision course with it. I grasped onto the metal pillar next to me firmly grounding myself. Stan looked at me with surprise.

"Usually you young uns' fall all over the place when you come on. You seem to be handlin' it all well"

Honestly I felt like I was going to throw up however my pride refused to admit that. Looking up at Stan who started to read his newspaper I decided to ask him again about my question earlier.

"Is it possible to get a return ticket then Stan?"

"Ah righ' you did ask that didn' you… When we get to London… Where bouts' in London did you want to get to again?"

"The Leaky Cauldron"

"Righ', when we get to the Leaky Cauldron I'll arrange a time tomorrow to pick you up outside. Most of the time we don't do returns however seeing as tho it's the middle of summer and you are a recently matured Wizard, we can make exceptions"

Hearing Stan mention it, I recalled that it really was the height of summer right now. The classic UK overcast made me completely neglect that fact.

"If it wasn't summer right now, would you normally come down this far?"

"Ding Ding Ding! Bingo! If it wasn't summer we would hav' stayed around London as you ave' guessed. Since it's the summer though, we are llowed' to travel a bit more to help lads like you out"

It was a matter of luck again then. If Nana had collapsed a couple months ago I would have probably ended up either sneaking onto a train or paying someone to be my guardian. Both methods 10x more dangerous than this. Now I started to think about it though the contrast between Wizard and Muggle transportation was incredibly stark. Muggles played by strict protocols whereas Stan and his 'Knight Bus' simply accepted me on just because they confirmed id magically 'matured'. I guess to a wizard 'maturity' was the same as becoming an adult in some ways…

"Any who young lad, best get a nap in or somethin' It'll take a couple of hours even for Ern to get from ere' to London"

Leaving me with that note Stan turned back around to the Dre Head at the front of the Knight Bus and started to have a chat with it. Ernie kept his eyes glued on the road driving like a maniac. Considering how tired I felt, a nap sounded incredibly enticing. Considering the constant jolting of this damn bus though I doubted I'd even get a good sleep. Heading across the bus slowly and carefully, I climbed onto the end bed and got as secured within it as possible. A train journey would have taken 6 hours while this bus managed to condense the travel time to 2 hours. I was extremely grateful for that.

Closing my heavy eyes I started to fall into a deep sleep.