12

Chapter 12: Into the Fyre...

Chapter Text

Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Harry found himself feeling entirely full and quite pleasantly satisfied. Jennifer Granger had ordered some pizza delivered as soon as Madam Bones and her accompanying auror had left, since all of them were quite hungry by now after all the talking, shouting, and interviewing. She said she didn't much feel like making lunch herself and everyone else agreed, so pizza it was, from a place quite close that Hermione told him her family had been going to her entire life.

He could see why. The pizza was amazingly good. And there was enough left over to put in the fridge for later, too, so he'd get to have it again later.

It was almost enough to make up for the experience of baring his life to someone he didn't know beyond a few cursory meetings. Although, it was like Taylor had said; opening up to someone not directly involved about your troubles was surprisingly cathartic, even though at the time it was embarrassing and upsetting. On reflection, though, he felt it had been the right thing to do. Hermione was right, yet again. And Madam Bones was probably the best person he could have told all that, as it seemed she was the one who might actually do something about it.

He reflected on some of the thoughts he'd been having recently about Albus Dumbledore and how the man had been, one way or another, involved in just about every bad thing that had happened to him. Starting, of course, with arranging to have him dropped on the Dursleys without any warning, and going through ten long years without a single indication at all that the wizarding world even existed never mind cared about him, all the way up to everything that had subsequently happened at Hogwarts. The Headmaster's hand was apparent in all of it, when he thought about it. Why, he still wasn't certain, but it obviously had something to do with that fucking prophecy one way or another.

He genuinely at this point didn't know whether Dumbledore was insane, senile, evil, or just stupid. Or some combination of the above. The possibility that he was just a meddling old man who was trying to do his best with a total lack of competence, as Luna had suggested over lunch, was admittedly possible but he was starting to think less and less likely. He wasn't sure if even Luna actually believed what she'd said. She'd given the impression she was trying, as she often did, to see the best in someone.

Harry didn't want to think of the old wizard as any of that, but the evidence he had certainly suggested that something odd was, and had been for a very long time, going on and it all ultimately revolved around him and Dumbledore. The conclusion Hermione had almost immediately arrived at that all the weirdness about how no one had been talking about all the bizarre happenings at Hogwarts until last night was down to Dumbledore too somehow he was less sure of, but he could well see her point. And if it wasn't that, what was it?

He didn't know, and he didn't know how to find out. But with any luck Madam Bones would, and in the end he'd learn what the hell was going on. Or at least have it stop going on, which would be almost as good. He was tired of having to defend himself and his friends from idiotic dark wizards and frankly could do with a bit of a break.

Oh well. At least he had a chance now to have a more or less quiet time well away from the craziness of Hogwarts as it had been this year. Umbridge was gone never to return, which was almost on its own worth all the trouble at the Ministry, Voldemort was dust, which was definitely worth it, and he'd got to see dozens of wizards nearly shit themselves thanks to Skitter which was completely hilarious. Although at the time he'd been one of them…

Still, when she turned off the super-villain thing she was actually a friendly and interesting person to talk to, and someone he found intriguing. Her own world sounded even stranger than his one was, and some of the stories she'd told were horrifying. On the face of it she had faced death at least as many times as he had, but the main difference there was that most of the people trying to kill her hadn't had long to regret it. He'd never really quite managed to be that final with the people trying to kill him. Even Voldemort had kept coming back for another go time after tie, somehow. Hopefully this time the bastard would stay dead for good.

But in a sense it didn't matter right at the moment. He most likely was free of the Dursley experience, one way or another, the Grangers seemed to be completely truthful in their offer to let him stay here as long as needed, and once Sirius got his long-delayed trial, he'd finally be able to have his godfather around without all the sneaking about and worry about some idiot causing trouble. He was sure life would drop another dog egg in his path sooner or later since that seemed to be his lot in life, but for now he had a near-term future that seemed much brighter than it had for a long time. And he was going to do everything he could to enjoy it while it lasted.

A sharp rapping on the dining room window made everyone turn to look at it. On the other side was a very, very annoyed looking snowy owl which was glaring at all of them, especially him.

"Oh shit," he muttered, seeing the look in Hedwig's eyes. He knew his owl all too well. The bird was much smarter than she should have been, he'd realized that a long time ago, and normally that was good. When he'd been trapped in the Dursleys house for extended periods of time in previous summers, Hedwig had been one of the few good things around him. She'd kept him sane, in a sense. The problem was that she held a grudge.

And was smart enough to make damn sure you knew it.

Apparently she was a touch miffed that he wasn't back at Hogwarts and had come to find him. How she'd done that was one of those mysteries he'd probably never work out. It wasn't the first time she'd turned up unexpectedly.

"Friend of yours?" Taylor asked with a slight chuckle in her voice as the owl rapped again on the window with her beak hard enough he was worried it might crack the glass. "She came directly here in a straight line as if she knew where you were, from the north."

"Hedwig is quite impressively intelligent," Luna commented, watching as Harry got up, slightly reluctantly, and walked over to the window. Everyone else did the same, the two Granger parents seeming quite interested as he unlatched the window and swung it open. Hedwig jumped onto the sill, then launched herself across the room to land on the back of his chair, where she perched, not taking her eyes off him. Swallowing, he closed the window again, then went back to the table.

"I'm sorry, girl, I got unavoidably detained," he explained, reaching out to stroke the owl's head. She snapped her beak at him, then deliberately turned her head to look away. When he tentatively ran his fingers through her feathers, she made a small noise of annoyance and shuffled along the back of the chair, still looking away.

"Don't be like that. I was going to come and find you soon, but you beat me to it," he tried.

The owl barked at him, sounding irritated. Everyone else was watching in fascinated silence. "It wasn't my fault, things sort of went strange, and…" He shrugged helplessly. "Here I am. At least I don't have to go back to the Dursleys."

She peered over her shoulder at him, seeming doubtful. "Honest. Neither of us needs to see them again. Hopefully ever for all our sakes."

Hedwig seemed to consider that, then fluffed up her feathers and bit his finger. Quite hard.

"OW!" He stuck the digit in his mouth and sucked on it, looking at her in rueful amusement. "Got it out of your system now?" he asked when he pulled the abused finger out to inspect it. She hadn't broken the skin, which he was certain was deliberate. But she'd made her point.

The snowy owl emitted a strange sound that was halfway between her normal bark and almost a laugh, which made him grin, then stroke her head again. This time she leaned into it like a cat. Moving to sit down, he picked up a piece of pepperoni that was left from the pizza and handed it to her. Hedwig examined it closely, then snatched it and swallowed.

"I'm not entirely sure pepperoni is the ideal diet for owls," Richard commented, watching with a smile. Hedwig gave him a look that suggested she felt otherwise.

"I need to give her something or I'll never hear the end of it," Harry replied, handing his owl the last piece. "I'm in enough trouble already."

Taylor shook her head while grinning. "You lot really do have some weird ideas, but owls for mail is one of the weirdest. She's very pretty though."

"She is that, yes," he agreed, tickling the owl under her beak, which made her lean forward and close her eyes in satisfaction. "All good, Hedwig?"

A slight nibble of one ear suggested so, and he relaxed a little. He was feeling quite guilty about having not given her much thought during his recent experiences, but in his defense he'd had rather a lot of other things to concentrate on. Not that it made it better, because Hedwig was one of his oldest friends and deserved his attention.

The owl looked around at the people at the table. He'd used her enough to take mail to Hermione that she, and her parents, were well known to her, and she'd also met Luna many times. After a quick look at them, she fixated on Taylor, cocking her head one way then the other as she examined the brunette, who was staring back with at least as much interest. Making a quizzical sound, Hedwig turned her gaze on him, then back to Taylor.

"That's Taylor," he explained. "She's a friend. She saved all of us last night. Taylor, this is Hedwig, my owl."

"Nice to meet you, Hedwig," Taylor replied politely, nodding to the owl as if it was perfectly normal to speak like that to a bird. It was in Hedwig's case, certainly, but not many people did, even if they were from the magical world.

"Ooh, I just thought of something," Luna suddenly said, staring at Hedwig. "We forgot to tell Ronald and Ginny and Neville where we are. They'll be worried, just like Hedwig was."

"Ah." Hermione looked annoyed with herself and nodded agreement. "You're right. I got so caught up in everything I completely forgot about that. We need to tell them we're fine. Heaven knows when Professor Dumbledore is going back and if he'll even think about that anyway. I suspect he's got a lot of other things on his mind right now." She looked somewhat grimly amused at the thought, because it had been very apparent that Madam Bones was going to be talking at length to the Headmaster whether he wanted the discussion or not.

Harry nodded as well, because it was a good point. He glanced at Hedwig, who met his eyes with her orange gaze in which he fancied he could see resignation. "Are you up for another trip?" he asked somewhat nervously.

She bit his nose, which made him yelp, and everyone else laugh. "I take it that you're not entirely happy with me still," he grumbled, massaging the damaged area. She made a triumphant sound and looked pleased with herself. "That aside will you take a letter to Ron? Please? I'll buy you an entire bag of owl treats if you do."

Having whapped him on the back of the head with a wing, Hedwig seemed to decide she'd chastised her wizard sufficiently and settled down. Hermione went to fetch some paper and a pen, and she, Harry, and Luna spent a while writing a letter to their friends briefly explaining that they were all fine, that they were at Hermione's house, and that Harry and Hermione at least would not be returning for the last few days of term. Luna still needed to talk to her own father, but Harry suspected she would probably also not be going back.

They asked their friends to pass on that they were all safe and well but not to mention exactly where they were, just in case. It seemed relatively unlikely that anything bad would happen, especially with Taylor around, but why take the chance?

He also wrote a letter of his own to Sirius and Remus explaining the same thing, so they wouldn't worry either. Once both were done, he folded them up, then carefully attached them to Hedwig's leg. "Thanks, girl. Take this one to Sirius, the other one to Ron, all right?"

The owl made an affirmative sound and rubbed her head on his cheek, lightly pecked his forehead, then flapped over to the window and looked expectantly at it. Opening it for her, he watched as she launched herself out of it and flew off roughly northwards towards London until she vanished into the distance, then closed the window again and sat once more. "I should have thought of that myself, and about Hedwig," he muttered, still feeling somewhat guilty.

"You had a lot on your mind, Harry," Jennifer pointed out, smiling gently. "You can't think of everything. And it's done now, so that's one less worry you have."

"I suppose so," he agreed, cheering up.

"We're going to need to go to Hogwarts to get all our things, at some point," Hermione said with a thoughtful look at Harry, then Luna. "And Crookshanks. He can take care of himself, but he'll be very upset if I leave him there all summer."

"Do we want to do that soon, or wait a little?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps it might be best to do it while Professor Dumbledore isn't there," Luna suggested. "He did seem to get ever so flustered about Taylor. While it's amusing it might also be awkward." She smiled deviously, making him grin. Taylor was doing much the same as she finished the tea she'd been drinking.

"I'd quite like to see this castle of yours," she commented idly.

Harry was about to answer, then he remembered the acromantulas…

Ah.

Oh.

Oh dear.

The girl was watching him with a distinctly evil smirk, and he realized she knew exactly what he was thinking. And she was thinking exactly what he was thinking.

He tried to work out whether Skitter with Fiendfyre was worse than Skitter with Fiendfyre and acromantulas and in the end decided that she'd be utterly terrifying stark naked in a room with nothing at all. Anything past that was almost redundant. And after all how much more dangerous could she get?

Then he tried to take back his own thoughts as he realized how much he was tempting fate, but had a horrible feeling it was much, much too late for that…

Hermione and Luna were both watching him and he could see that they'd had similar thoughts at almost the exact same time. Luna, if anything, looked like she found it funny, though, and Hermione had that analytical expression that meant she was curious to see if reality matched her estimates.

He really wondered about Hermione sometimes. She was probably his best friend in many ways, and he trusted her implicitly, but she could be nearly as terrifying as Taylor sometimes. Especially if you stood between her and new knowledge. Or threatened someone she cared about.

The memory of her setting Snape on fire as a distraction was still vivid in his mind. It had been epic and the first real hint he'd had that Hermione was not someone to be trifled with. Plus it was hilarious. She got so embarrassed when it was brought up, but he had little doubt she'd do it again without a second thought should the circumstances require such a thing.

Richard, who had been looking between them, seemed to reach a decision. "I'd suggest that might be something that needs to wait until tomorrow, after another good night's sleep. Harry still looks somewhat tired and we still need to talk to Luna's father."

"And go to Gringotts and get Taylor's reward and upset the goblins!" Luna chirped, looking highly amused. "We could go to Diagon Alley and floo him from there. Hedwig's already gone so that's probably the easiest method. And Taylor can see how interesting it is too."

"I do like interesting things," Taylor agreed with a grin.

"Then stealing them, by all accounts," Hermione said dryly. Harry snickered when Taylor gave the other girl a look. "Allegedly."

"Only if they deserve it."

"Or if no one is looking. Or if they're looking but can't react fast enough. Or…"

Reaching over, Taylor put her hand over Hermione's mouth, his friend's eyes sparking with humor as the taller girl shook her head. "I shouldn't have told you some of the things I did," Taylor chuckled.

"I like to hear your stories," Luna supplied happily. "You've had a very fascinating life."

"That isn't quite how I'd have put it at the time, but I suppose you're right," Taylor replied, releasing Hermione who was grinning. Her parents were watching the byplay with smiles of their own. "It's improved since though."

"We can easily drive into London," Jennifer put in. "We'll all fit into my car. Richard's is more comfortable, but we'd only get five people into that."

Harry recalled the two expensive-looking cars in the driveway, a large Mercedes that Vernon would have been ridiculously jealous of, and a people-carrier that had looked brand new. It was certainly big enough for all six of them.

"Why not?" he said, looking at Hermione, who nodded agreeably. "It's still only two. How long will it take to get there?"

"The last time we took Hermione to London it was about an hour, but it depends on the traffic." Jennifer looked at her watch. "On a Wednesday at this time of day it shouldn't be too bad."

"Everything on Diagon will be open until at least seven, and Gringott's never closes, so that all works out nicely," Hermione said. "And we could get something to eat on the way back and avoid the rush hour."

"That does sound like a viable plan," her father replied, nodding. "Shall we do that, then?"

"I'm fine with it," Taylor agreed. Luna simply nodded as well.

"Well, then, let's put the plates in the dishwasher and be off." He stood, beginning to collect the crockery, Harry and Luna jumping up to help. The blonde found the dishwasher endlessly fascinating for some reason and had stared at it for a good five minutes at breakfast as it rumbled away.

Very soon they'd cleared up, and were all piling into the dark green metallic Peugeot 806. Harry and Hermione ended up in the middle row of seats while Luna and Taylor were at the back. The latter was looking around with enormous interest. "I shall have to write a report on non magical transportation for Daddy," she said as Jennifer started the engine, cocking her head and listening to it rev up. "He'd probably publish it. He says the Wizarding world is terribly out of date regarding non magical things."

"He's right," Hermione grumbled. "The muggle studies classes are a complete joke, and it's not a funny one."

Harry prodded her as she looked ready to go off on a rant he was quite familiar with having heard it several times, and when she looked at him, just smiled and shook his head. Appearing slightly embarrassed she subsided, making sure her seat belt was fastened instead. Amused, he glanced back to see Taylor smiling as well, while Luna was fiddling with the back of the seat in front of her experimentally.

"Are you planning on being Skitter or Taylor when we get there?" he queried, curious, as they pulled out onto the main road.

She shrugged. "I think in the bank Skitter is appropriate. The paperwork is all for that identity. We'll see about other places."

"I suppose that's reasonable," he acknowledged. "Although if you walk down Diagon Alley with that costume on, people are going to be… a touch wary. Especially if what happened at the Ministry has gotten out."

"I know," she replied with a small evil smile. Luna started giggling and he couldn't help laughing too. Even Hermione was smiling.

Oh yes. This was going to be a strange trip, he suspected, but probably one for the history books, no matter what happened…

Very soon they were on the motorway at a steady seventy miles an hour as the small group talked about everything that had happened.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Listening numbly to what Professor Snape was saying, while he sat in a chair in the Headmaster… Headmistress's office, Draco Malfoy tried to understand the truth of what he'd been told. The summons for him and several other Slytherins to come to McGonagall's office hadn't been unexpected after the announcements at breakfast, as he'd instantly jumped to what turned out to be the correct conclusion, but he'd also been desperately hoping he was wrong.

But he wasn't.

His father was dead. Killed in the Ministry of Magic, having followed the Dark Lord to his death at the hands of… something Draco was unclear about, and neither of the Professors seemed to know much about either. Aurors? Possibly, but as far as he knew they weren't actually very good at killing anyone except by accident. Someone from the Department of Mysteries? No one seemed to know what those people did. Some sort of automatic defensive spell? Who the hell knew?

And did it matter, in a sense? His father was dead! How he died wasn't nearly as important as the fact that he had. Although if he found out who was responsible he'd be honor-bound to avenge the murder.

Was Potter involved? No one seemed to have seen him, his mudblood friend, or the Lovegood idiot since last night, which seemed suspiciously close to the same sort of timeline. The two youngest Weasleys and Longbottom had vanished at the same time from what rumor said, but they certainly were in the castle right now as he'd seen them at breakfast. Potter and Granger were certainly tied up with the whole Umbridge situation since he'd seen them lead her off towards Hagrid's hut, but neither had their wands with them as she'd confiscated them. On the other hand he reluctantly had to admit that Potter wasn't a complete duffer where it came to magic, and the Granger bitch was, although it pained him to even think it, quite bright. Umbridge, despite being the right sort… wasn't, really.

She was much too obvious, for a start. No subtlety to the woman at all. He and the other Slytherins had noticed that, and thought it was a downside to her, but she was so effective at arranging the much-enjoyed changes for the better at Hogwarts everyone had been willing to overlook it. Perhaps she'd made a mistake though, and somehow Potter or Granger took advantage of that? Again, who knew? He wasn't sure how to go about even finding out, or what to do with any information he did find out. He'd have taken it to his father, but…

Closing his eyes, he shuddered in horror, not knowing what to do. Professor Snape put his hand on his shoulder for a moment, and McGonagall, when he opened his eyes, looked unusually sympathetic, which took him aback. She was well known to not trust or like Slytherins, or Snape, so he wasn't expecting what as far as he could tell was a genuine expression, if slight, of pity.

He hated it.

"Your mother will be notified by the DMLE, if she hasn't already been," McGonagall said, her voice unusually quiet. "You're excused from lessons for the rest of term, obviously, and I expect you'll be returning home early. I'm afraid that there are a number of other students in a similar position, and we're still waiting to find out the full extent of the casualty list from this… problem. DMLE Director Bones is personally investigating the whole situation so it's in good hands. While your father and I didn't get on, I am sorry for your loss."

Draco nodded almost automatically, his mind still whirling with confusion, horror, and grief. Neither adult spoke for a little while as he tried to get to grips with things, until eventually Professor Snape gently touched his arm. "You should go back to your room and rest, Draco," he said, his voice somber. "I will arrange to have your mother contact you as soon as possible."

"Thank you," he said almost inaudibly, standing up and turning to leave. He didn't pay any attention to the office, or either of the others, as he reached the door and put his hand on the knob to open it. Pulling, he swung the door open, then paused as Professor McGonagall spoke again.

"Mr Malfoy?"

The blond looked back over his shoulder. "While I am sorry this happened, I must warn you that any attempt at revenge towards anyone you might believe was involved in the event that left your father dead would be ill advised. Please, for all our sakes, don't lower yourself to violence. We've seen far too much of that recently."

He nodded stiffly, suppressing a momentary rage which vanished almost as fast as it appeared. Draco still didn't understand his own emotions, all he knew was that they were overwhelming, and right now what he wanted to do was be alone so he could try to untangle his thoughts. Working out what to do after that was not something he was going to waste any time on right now.

Although if the Weasel said anything he wasn't going to be responsible for his actions, McGonagall or no McGonagall.

But he was a Malfoy, and Malfoys were always controlled, so all he did was reply, "Understood, Professor," then leave the office, walking past the other Slytherins gathered at the bottom of the stairs without a glance at them, ignoring Crabbe when he tried to ask a question, and heading for the Snake's den where he could gather his thoughts and wait for his mother to contact him.

And ponder what the longer term would bring now his father was gone. He feared, deep inside, that it was going to be difficult at best.

Passing the Great Hall, he spotted Longbottom and Weasley just entering, talking quietly while the former was looking at a letter written on muggle stationary. Reflexively sneering, he paused as Longbottom looked at him and completely unexpectedly showed a hint of sympathy. Like he'd done at breakfast, thinking about it, even before the announcement had been made.

Slowly resuming his walk as the pair went inside the huge room after one last glance at them, he wondered what the other boy knew, how he knew it, and why on earth he'd have even the slightest compassion for Draco? Because Draco certainly wouldn't for him…

It was very strange.

Probably yet another Gryffindor thing. They were odd like that. Stupid Gryffindors.

When he got to his dorm he flung himself onto his bed face down, and only then allowed the tears to come.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As they walked from where they'd parked the minivan towards the place they could access the whizzy's shopping district, Taylor looked around with interest. Both with her ordinary eyes and all her other senses. Vast numbers of insects fed her information on more things than most people would ever realize existed, from deep underground to high in the air. The number of old and new tunnels under the streets was surprising to her, as there seemed to be a completely ridiculous number of the things ranging in size from relatively sensible drains and the like to enormous cavernous tunnels you could have driven down. And that wasn't even counting the actual train tunnels, which crisscrossed the city at various levels. When she mentioned this to Hermione, the girl had said that what London was mostly built on was London and it went back well over a thousand years, many rivers and other features like that having been slowly covered over.

The Victorians had also apparently been nuts for building things underground, as had their predecessors, to a point and with an expertise that meant that a lot of modern infrastructure was still using constructions put in well over a century or more earlier. Often to a standard higher than the newer stuff.

She was fairly sure that some of what she was sensing was far older than that, and bits of it didn't seem to have been made by humans. Much like the deep caverns under the Ministry of Magic, there were places far down below the London streets which were definitely odd even in the terms of the magicals, and quite a lot of intriguing living things were lurking down there as well. She mapped out everything with considerable interest, wondering if it might be useful at some point. And also wondering if the magicals had any idea at all it was there. Or if anyone else did for that matter…

A few minutes of walking later she suddenly started detecting some of the magical creatures she'd so quickly become fond of, like doxies and pixies, at the surface level off to one side. The dividing line between the places they existed and the rest of the city was very sharp, implying some sort of barrier, and there was definitely something odd going on with space in the same area if she could believe the normal insects. So another spatial anomaly, like her belt of holding, but on a much larger scale. Presumably Diagon Alley. Which was a very stupid name, but a very whizzy one, she thought with amusement.

By the time they arrived outside a rundown looking tavern she could sense a large area somewhere in a direction that didn't strictly speaking correspond with any normal ones, but was certainly on the other side of this building. She had a pretty good idea that if you went to the next street over and started climbing over the intervening obstructions you wouldn't find it though. This was definitely some sort of pocket universe thing, even closer to what she'd read about Toybox providing.

Her ministry-acquired knowledge told her a lot about the theory of how this was done, but it was cool seeing a practical example.

"Through there, I guess?" she asked, indicating the door of the building fifty yards away. Luna looked at her with her eyebrows up.

"You can see it?"

"Yeah, sure, it's right there," Taylor replied.

Luna and Hermione exchanged glances.

"Interesting," the other brunette commented, examining Taylor. "Very interesting." She reached out and held her parent's hands, then started walking towards the door. "Non magicals aren't supposed to be able to without a magical accompanying them, you see."

"Huh." Taylor shrugged even as she reformed her costume out of her fyre, maintaining the coat she had grown very attached to because it looked great, and ignoring one man who stared at her like he'd seen a ghost then turned and walked away very quickly indeed. "Might not work on Parahumans."

"Or just you," Luna laughed. She and Harry followed with Taylor as Hermione led her parents through the door. Inside Taylor looked around, seeing it was as disreputable-appearing on the interior as it was from the outside. The clientele were a mix of strange looking individuals with absolutely no sense of fashion, color, or indeed taste, which seemed typical from what she'd seen so far of this subculture. Several of them looked curiously over at the door as they entered, more than one paling dramatically as a result. Apparently they'd been in the ministry last night…

Quite a lot of whispering started up, and she could see various patrons leaning towards each other and urgently discussing the new arrivals with varying levels of worry. And in a couple of cases raw fear.

Yep. Presentation definitely worked. Lisa would be pleased, she thought cheerfully.

The bartender stared at them as the small group moved through the room, the people getting out of the way with gratifying alacrity. One guy even yipped in shock and fell over in his eagerness to avoid Taylor, which was polite of him. A moment later they'd gone out into the courtyard behind the tavern and were facing a brick wall. Taylor examined it with curiosity. From the other side she could sense all manner of things, including an awful lot of magical creatures. On this side it was fairly boring, but by putting a number of insects on it, she could detect several places where the bricks were not quite the same as the rest. Having read about how this was supposed to function, she was interested to see if her idea on triggering it would work, and put her hand on Hermione's sleeve as the girl pulled out her wand.

"Hold on, I want to try something," she said.

Hermione looked suspiciously at her. "You're not going to just blow a hole through it like a hooligan are you?" she asked. "Because that would be irresponsible at best."

"Of course not!" Taylor protested, grinning inside her mask. "I would never damage a cultural artifact like this."

The other girl sighed, shaking her head, while Harry and Luna laughed and Hermione's parents seemed amused.

"What are you going to do, then?" Hermione asked.

"This," Taylor replied, wiggling her fingers in a suitably magical manner that had Luna leaning on Harry in a fit of giggling, then flicking them towards the wall. A number of motes of fyre, the size of gnats, zipped towards the bricks and landed on the ones she'd noted as being the triggering system, then spread out across the surface, leaking through the mortar lines surrounding them and disappearing. She concentrated slightly, sensing the magic of the wall through the fyre which was eager to consume it, but told it to simply prod it instead. Moments later the wall started folding out of the way in a rather impressive display, making her smile triumphantly.

"I wondered if that would work," she said with satisfaction. Hermione, her wand drooping a little in her fingers as she stared, shook her head in wonder.

"How on earth did you do that?" she asked curiously, putting her wand away again.

"I prodded the magical widget in each brick," Taylor replied, walking forwards with the others as they entered the alley on the other side of the wall. She looked back to watch the thing rebuild itself, the sensation of London on the other side fading slightly to her ability but not vanishing. Now they were inside the spatial anomaly the creatures she could detect were coming through far more obviously, making her smile a little. There were a lot of interesting things here she needed to get hold of. Including a hell of a lot of pixies, including some she hadn't so far seen. "I guessed it wasn't particularly specific since it needs to work for anyone who knows the trick. I was right."

"That is…" Hermione studied her, then looked back at the wall. "...fascinating," she finished softly after a second, seeming deep in thought.

"Oh, Merlin!" The screech came from just down the street making them all turn to watch a guy with a familiar pony-tail gape in horror, then turn and leg it at a fairly impressive speed. Passers-by stared at him as he vanished into the distance, then as one turned to look at Taylor and the others. She waved at them, Luna doing the same with a grin. Harry had his hand on his face, his glasses in the other one, and Richard was chuckling.

"Friend of yours?" he asked calmly.

"We've met," Taylor replied with a snort. "Apparently he remembered."

"Somehow I doubt he'll ever forget no matter how much he obliviates himself," Hermione sighed, apparently coming back from whatever she'd been thinking about and shaking her head wryly.

"Can you actually do that?" her mother asked curiously.

"Accidentally, definitely," Hermione nodded. "I'm not sure about on purpose. I think it would be very dangerous."

Harry pointed at a large white building quite a distance away down the street, ignoring as best he could all the people staring. Several of them followed his finger, then exchanged glances. "That's Gringotts," he said, which Taylor had already realized. In fact she was already examining the place, and the huge collection of tunnels and vaults underneath it, going down several hundred yards and looking like something out of the Lord of the Rings movies. It was very cool, and had all sorts of neat stuff in it.

Along with a lot of goblins, who were going about their business all through the entire building.

She was quite curious to meet a genuinely sapient non-human species, and also wondering which of the documents she'd read about them was most accurate. A lot of the wizarding paperwork was highly uncomplimentary about the goblins, but then a lot of the wizarding paperwork was highly uncomplimentary about everyone not a wizard. And even most of them didn't seem to like each other from what she'd read. But there were some older texts which seemed slightly less biased, and were marginally less insulting. It would be interesting to see what they were actually like.

"Let's see what happens," Luna stated and started gaily skipping towards the bank, everyone else looking at her, then each other. The blonde girl was definitely one of a kind with an odd outlook on life…

Taylor just smiled, shook her head, and followed. She liked Luna a lot and an odd outlook on life was refreshing.

Arriving at the bank after walking the length of the alley, wizards stopping and staring as she passed in a display of general gaping that was almost impressive, she paused to look up at the main door. Reading the friendly warning above it she chuckled.

"They mean it," Harry warned.

"I'm sure they do," she replied with a sidelong glance, which made him for some reason look somewhat worried. "I like a challenge."

"Oh, Merlin," he sighed, following her up the steps with Luna and Hermione on either side. The goblin guards at the top looked just as surprised as most of the wizards, exchanging somewhat puzzled and suspicious looks, then after a wordless conversation stepped aside. Taylor nodded pleasantly at them and went through the door.

Things got quite exciting fairly rapidly after that.