At Flourish and Blotts
"D-Diagon All-ey,"
A fit of coughing reverberated in the seemingly too large of a hall inside a mansion.
Aventurine was the source of the coughing, and the reason for his coughing was some stupid plant powder. What was its name again? Flu? Poo? It sure tastes like shit to him.
" Cough─, I, ugh," Aventurine had barely said anything before the coughing enveloped him again. "Holy─ What kind of shit─"
A string of curses began pouring out of his mouth, but before he could finish them, he was suddenly sucked somewhere.
Back in the halls, there stood a young girl and a sighing woman.
"That boy," Jade gave another loud sigh as she shook her head. "His looks and wits sure come in handy while with the IPC, but he needs to have that foul tongue of his in check."
Though she was sighing and criticizing Aventurine, her face showed no sign of disappointment. Instead, it wore an amused smile, curling up her eyes like moon cresents.
'Ah,' Jade thought to herself, 'If only the boy was just a tad bit more obedient.'
She waved away the thoughts appearing in her head, and instead gestured for Jelena to use her powder.
Jelena took a pinch of the mysterious powder that was called 'Floo'. She stepped a bit closer to the fireplace, and threw the powder into the flames.
With a loud roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose unimaginably high, and Jelena would've been startled if she hadn't seen the same thing happen to Aventurine already. Still, she hesitated for a split second before closing her eyes tight and stepping into the fire, shouting out her prepared words, "Diagon Alley─ cough! ", not without a cough, of course, but she vanished right after.
Jade watched on with twinkling eyes as she also took a pinch of the soot and repeated the same steps.
"This sure will be one hell of a mission, won't it, Diamond?"
…
Right after he had let loose a few curses, Aventurine had felt as if he was being sucked down a giant drain. He seemed to be spinning extremely fast, and the whole spinny motion made him want to barf up whatever he had stuffed down his throat from his extravagant breakfast.
The thundering roar and the feeling of many cold palms striking his face was, to say the least, not pleasant. Actually, any form of touch was unpleasant to him, considering what had happened during his years he spent at that stupid gambling den. Aventurine could feel his Halovian Winged Burger tumbling around in his stomach.
“Fuck, stop, stop─,” after not being able to handle it anymore, Aventurine opened his mouth and shouted in frustration.
He reached out his hand and grabbed tightly onto something that seemed to be the outlines of a fireplace before clinging onto it with all his might until the spinning around him stopped.
Aventurine hesitantly opened one of his eyes before realizing that he had managed to stop at a fireplace in a seemingly deserted alleyway. A sign made itself known before him, and when he read it, Aventurine gave a small laugh of relief.
“Ah, Diagon Alley. This is it!” Aventurine cried out, mentally giving himself a well-deserved back pat. “Whew, what did I expect? My luck were always─”
Before he could finish his sentence, he fell, face forward, onto the dirt floor and felt his world go round again.
“...good.”
He coughed out the last word in annoyance before sitting himself up again. A few passerby frowned and stepped out of the way, whispering to each other.
Aventurine used the wall as a support to get himself up, dusting off his very expensive clothes he had bought using Jade’s credits. Jade had given him full permission to use her card freely, not knowing that he was going to suck her bank account dry. She had almost choked to death on her coffee when a report was made on her bank account balance after he had his spree.
Thinking back, it was quite funny to see Jade’s annoyed smile as she stood with her arms crossed, showing him the screen of her credits count. Back then, Aventurine had put on his best charming smile and used the excuse of forgetting to look at the price of his purchase.
Both of them knew it was bullshit, of course.
It hadn’t been even a week since that happened, but thinking back still made him feel so much nostalgia. He had hated her so much, since she only got him out of his chains in order to put him in prettier, shinier ones, but through the small week they shared, Aventurine came to accept that at least, she wasn’t exactly a jerk about it.
She did give him all time access to her credits, even after all the ruckus he caused. She also hadn’t demanded anything too extreme of him. Though, even if she did, he reckon he’ll still be able to complete the task pretty well.
His thoughts were interrupted as Jelena stumbled out from the fireplace, her hair covered in soot and coughing her lungs out like a mara-stricken man.
“Holy, crap─” she coughed out before stepping aside for a definitely more clean and graceful Jade to walk out of the fireplace as if it was some mere door.
Jade opened her eyes slowly and looked around first, checking their surroundings before turning her gaze on the both of them.
When she saw Jelena, she gave a warm smile and helped to dust some of the soot off with her handkerchief, but when she turned to Aventurine, it was a whole different reaction.
Jade’s eyes widened ever so slightly before she scanned him up and down, covering her mouth with the back of her fan that she claimed was ‘in fashion on the Xianzhou Luofu’. The lousy thing had been designed solely for her, being purple and having a green snake painted on it with her name carved at the bottom.
“...Oh my,” Jade finally said with her lips pressed tightly together, preventing a laugh from escaping. “Your face surely does make you look attractive in any situation.”
Aventurine’s eye twitched. He appreciated the compliment, but with the situation he was in right now, it really was not the time. It was clear that Jade was poking fun at his messy attire.
“Hey, if you have something to say, then say it.” Said Aventurine through his clenched teeth. His eye was slowly twitching more and more in annoyance. Though, this was a mere every day banter he had with Jade and he knew better than to actually be offended.
“No, no, what would there be to say about our new extremely brilliant Stoneheart?” Jade closed her fan with a flick of her wrist, tapping it on her palm. “Now, I think it would be best if you dusted yourself─ pfft! ”
This time, she really couldn’t hold back her laugh as she flared open her fan again, covering her mouth once more as she turned her face to the side to let loose a few rounds of laughter.
Aventurine glowered at her before straightening out his clothes and fixing his hair. The whole time, Jelena just stood there awkwardly, not saying a word. But even then, Aventurine could still see that she was biting the insides of her cheeks in order not to laugh.
Sighing, Aventurine rolled his eyes. “Go ahead, laugh all you want.”
As if his words were like a switch that had just been flipped on by someone, Jade’s laugh continued to become louder and Jelena let out a bout of giggles, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
After that, the three of them began making their way down the streets, pushing other people away as they made their way towards the Gringotts Wizarding Bank in order to retrieve their wizard money that the IPC had painstakingly prepared for them, going through many annoyances.
It was already annoying that they use a different currency other than credits, but the people in this world used multiple other nonsense as currencies too? Common people use one thing, wizards use another, then a person on the other side of the planet uses another. Damn it what kind of fucked up world is this!?
“Why’s this planet so important anyways? Plus, it’s so strange.” Aventurine hummed in question as he looked around in boredom. The strange creature that called itself a goblin had disappeared around the corner and was giving the three guests the privacy they needed to hold a conversation.
“From the flimsy reports you’ve forced me to read, they don’t even know there’s other life outside the cosmos.”
“Exactly. That’s why we need to investigate it. Think about it.” Jade gave a sigh, playing with her fan. “A closed off planet that even the Astral Express don’t know about and has never visited, following rules that no other world seems to follow, and there are people that don’t know what Aeons are.”
“There’s almost too much to be suspicious about. Plus, when we ask about gods, they mention this one Jesus guy. Why is it that the term ‘god’ only applied to him? What about the other Aeons?”
Jelena looked deep in thought as Jade rambled on, giving them a lesson and listing off the things to be wary about. Aventurine just let it flow in one ear and out the other for now, but he was secretly storing the information in the back of his mind for future investigations.
“Don’t they have powers though?” Aventurine asks, watching as the ugly goblin fiddled around with their vault. “Like the Floo powder thing. Where do they get their powers from, if not Aeons?”
“You stupid boy,” Jade smacked the back of Aventurine’s head with her closed fan, making Aventurine flinch and grumble in annoyance. “That’s why we’re doing this. To learn why they don’t know about the Aeons while borrowing their powers, and if they’re not using THEIR powers, then we’re going to have to find out where these impudent fools have been getting power.”
“Umm, I’ve noticed, but,” Jelena finally spoke up, watching in awe (alongside with Aventurine, although he would never admit it) as Jade flicked a piece of finely carved wood (a wand) and made a few handfuls of big golden coins fly into a large pouch. “It seems like this power is kept secret from a large population of this world.”
“Oh, yes, good observation,” Jade praised, shooting a look towards Aventurine as if to say that he should be learning from Jelena instead, even though he was supposed to be her senior.
“That, from what I’ve managed to dig up on the matter, seemed to be because of the common people’s fear of what a ‘wizard’, as they call themselves, are capable of. Seems like before, the two co-existed, like in every other world, but wizards soon hid themselves because of the persecution from common people.”
Jelena frowned in displeasure, but Aventurine thought for not even a moment before opening his mouth.
“That’s just fucking stupid.” He said, stretching as he walked out the door of the bank. “From what I’ve seen, this whole magic thing makes everyday life so much easier, so why’re they─”
Before he could finish, Aventurine was once again smacked on the back of his head. Hissing, he jumped away like a cat before trudging back again. Jade gave a small chuckle before hardening her face in a scolding manner again.
"Think before you speak!"
“And stop with the profanities. Your new school won’t tolerate such behaviors, and dare I say the punishments will be harsher than expected since this is a wizarding school you’re going to.”
Aventurine’s jaw dropped. School? He had never even heard the word uttered throughout his whole sixteen years of living, and now he was expected to attend the thing regularly?!
“School!? Why’d no one tell me!?” Aventurine shouted, clutching his hair (though he quieted down considerably when people passing by started giving him looks).
At his despair, Jade gave a laugh of exasperation and Jelena looked at him with a disbelieving face.
“You cumbersome thing! Did you not read the reports I sent you!?” Jade said, smacking the back of his head repeatedly now (and in the same spot at that), doubling the pain.
Feeling wronged, Aventurine closed his eyes and whined. “I did! I really did!”
“Oh really now? Tell me about it,” Jade gritted through her strained smile, her jaw tense from annoyance. How was this irresponsible boy going to give the IPC the wealth and fortune he had promised during his trial!?
Jelena stood aside, suddenly super interested in what shapes the clouds of the skies were in as she tried not to flinch at every whack of the fan, accompanied by Aventurine’s cries of pain.
…
After a while, the three of them resumed their shopping journey peacefully─
“Hit me once, shame on you, hit me twice, double shame on you. Hit me thrice, triple shame on─”
Whack!
“Ow!”
Well, it was pretty much peaceful, if one didn’t count the relentless mutterings and curses made under his breath by Aventurine or the constant sound of a fan slapping against a skull.
Wanting to drop the topic, Jelena brought out her list of required books for their school year and examined it.
But after not even a few seconds, she ended up regretting it.
“Hey, why’s it that there seems to be only one actual useful book based on the descriptions? What are all these nonsense.. ‘Holidays with Hags,’ what the hell?” Jelena frowned unconsciously, reading through all of her books.
“They’re made by the same lousy person too..” she said, checking the back of the parchment in order to see if she was missing something. Surely ‘The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4’ by Miranda Goshawk wasn’t the only rational book..?
Jade leaned over to take a look and let out a small ‘oh’.
“Gilderoy Lockheart? Yeah, he’s your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.”
Aventurine raised an eyebrow with a funny face. “Defend Against the what what now?”
Wait.
“...Hey, if it’s about defense, isn’t that basically what I excel at? I do follow the path of preservation after all.” He piped up, grinning.
“Yes, boy, but we can’t use our powers here, remember?” Jade said with a sigh, massaging her temple. Aeons, this boy was going to be the death of her. He was bright, yes, but in all the useless areas as of right now.
Deep down, Jade knew the boy was more than what he seemed, and the IPC did gain a few fortunes from him after he had joined and gave them some of his never ending luck. Plus, he has the wits. Tons of it. He had to have picked some things up from that foolish gambling den that he used to serve.
Jade dismissed her thoughts with a flick of her fan. He just needs a tad bit of investment. After all, one can’t expect anything if they didn't invest any time and material into it at all, right?
“Whatever. He seems like a fraud anyways.” Aventurine said dismissively, playing around with his brand new wand and broomstick, seemingly interested in how a floor sweeping equipment could be useful in any way that's not floor-sweeping.
“Shush, his fans might come at you for that.” Jade gave an amused chuckle before skillfully stirring the both of them inside the shop as soon as she saw the ‘Flourish and Blotts’ sign.
They were, with little surprise, not the only ones hurrying inside. There had been a banner outside, declaring that the man, Gilderoy Lockheart, would be giving out autographs alongside the students’ books today from 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. There was a huge commotion because of that one lazily crafted sign, bringing great annoyance to Aventurine’s face.
Jade gave a small huff in amusement before dragging him further into the shop, leaving Jelena to apologize restlessly to the horde of angry people that they had pushed aside.
Slowly, the famous Gilderoy Lockheart came into their view. He was seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing his dazzling whites at the crowd. The real man was wearing a forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eye color, his pointed wizard’s hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy blonde hair.
A short, much uglier compared to the already ugly Gilderoy (in Aventurine’s mind) jumped around as he snapped multiple pictures of the man, emitting puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash of the camera.
“What kind of…” this time, even Jade couldn’t hold back her annoyed comment as she waved the smoke out of her face.
The guy yelled at some bunch kids that seemed no older than twelve years of age to get out of the way before he resumed taking more pictures, nearly blinding Aventurine himself.
“Hey, what’s with─” before he could complain, one of the kids spoke up, unreasonably loud.
“Biiiiig deal,” he said with an undertone of sarcasm, rubbing his foot where he had just been stepped on by the stumpy man.
…Hey.
Aventurine kind of liked this kid.
Of course, Gilderoy Lockheart had heard him. He looked up and scanned over the kid quickly before stopping his eyes on another boy right next to him. Something in the kid must’ve been real surprising, Aventurine thought, since this lousy man decided to jump up from his seat and point to him.
“It can’t possibly be Harry Potter?”
At his words, the crowd parted, then started whispering excitedly. Suddenly, the group of kids were at the limelight now. Gilderoy dived forward, took the poor boy’s arm, then pulled him along into the front of the crowd.
“Gee,” Aventurine whistled. “Would suck to be him, huh?”
The boy had brunette hair, with brilliant emerald eyes framed by his round glasses that made him look absolutely stupid. Does this kid have no fashion sense? Aventurine suddenly felt bad for whoever his parents were, because he sure would be embarrassed if his kid walked around in that ugly jean and black zip-up.
Only thing unique about the kid is probably his lightning-shaped scar resting on his forehead, and it wasn’t even pretty.
If only he could lend the poor boy some of his luck, Aventurine thought silently as he watched in amusement at the commotion.
“Harry Potter…” Jade suddenly mumbled, squinting her eyes. “I know that name.”
“...”
“Huh?” Both Jelena and Aventurine turned their heads towards her. Were they supposed to know this supposedly-famous-no-more-than-twelve kid?
“Ah!” Jade smacked her fan against her palm. “He’s the kid that single-handedly defeated this super strong villainous man called Voldemort when he was barely reaching one year of age, even though both his parents died trying to fight the man.”
“...”
“Huh!?”