Diagon Alley
It had taken Dazai a while to explain to Mori the benefits of him being allowed to go to Hogsmeade. Most likely, the doctor knew that it would be illogical to not allow him to go, but still wanted to make his life difficult. Now Dazai was mentally preparing himself for school. He only had about 2 weeks left until he had to get on the Hogwarts express.
He was already dreading the amount of magic surrounding Hogwarts getting constantly nullified again. If there was one good thing that happened to him during his breaks, it was that he no longer had that constant thrumming in the back of his mind, even though it had diminished significantly since the beginning of his first year. No Longer Human was like a muscle, becoming able to do more without the insane amount of effort as it once took.
Not to mention how obnoxious his gang and the teachers would be when they saw the white cast enveloping his right arm. He had it broken in an, ah, endurance training session with Mori, and now his arm would be immobile for at least a month. That’s not even to mention the other bruises and lacerations he had, but those would be easily covered by his bandages.
He stood up from his bed, and looked around in his desk’s drawer for the list of items that he would need from Diagon Alley. As he pulled it out, he skimmed through the contents, not noticing anything of too much interest. Wow. This is a lot better than last year’s list, He thought. There were so many Lockhart books. Thank god he was scared off after I killed the basilisk last year.
He left his room, walking past the guard outside his door. For once, it was unlocked. Mori must have ordered the guard to let him out, yet Dazai didn’t even tell him when he was going out. How obnoxious. Mori always was good at predicting things.
He entered the elevator and pressed the button entering to the lobby. Only he had a room at the top level, not counting Mori’s office there. Each executive had their own floor, yet Dazai was stuck in his old room from when Father was alive. How annoying.
He placed his finger on the pad that identified him as highly enough ranked to go to any level he pleased and set it to go two floors down. Kouyou’s floor. He exited the room, noting the two guards stationed by the elevator were absent. Strange, thought Dazai, perhaps Mori had them sent elsewhere, or they died in combat. Nothing too important though.
He continued on, knocking on the door that led to Kouyou’s office.
“Come in,” she said, her tone cold. Dazai entered the room and immediately saw her expression soften once she realized that it was him. “Ah, it’s just you, Dazai-kun. I thought it was Ogai-dono trying to enter.”
“A pleasure to see you, Kouyou-san.” Dazai attempted to keep his tone cordial, not wanting to anger her right now. He had to leave soon and didn’t want to end up in another long lecture on proper etiquette.
“What is it that you need from me, lad?” she asked.
“Featherbrain has been delivering me issues of the Daily Prophet over the summer, “he began. “Usually, they were reporting on the death of Dumbledore for a good month and a half, though most of it was nothing more than gossip. Mori was fine with there being no coverage on me after such an important event for the wizards. But now, the front pages are all taken by some man who escaped Azkaban, the wizarding prison. I need a way to be relevant to the wizards, without causing me to get expelled or arrested.”
“That’s quite the predicament you’re in, lad. I would say to pick a petty fight with a student, but nothing that causes you to physically hurt them. Perhaps a threat would do the trick.” Kouyou didn’t understand why the boss wanted Dazai to be so relevant in wizarding papers. Then again, she wasn’t going to spend too much energy in trying to understand Mori’s motivations. His mind was far to convoluted for her to even begin to make sense of his plans.
“All right, thank you for your advice, Kouyou-san. I’ll be going now to buy some school supplies and cause some trouble.” His voice changed towards the end of his sentence, going from formal and polite to the voice of a mischievous child. He left the room, and began to go down the building, heading to a car that would be waiting for him.
Snape had not felt this stressed in a decade. The wizarding society was in shambles after Dumbledore’s mysterious disappearance. At first, people thought that he had gone away for some secret research project, or familial matters. But after a long time of no one hearing from him, the Ministry began to get worried. They sent a search party for him, but no one could find where Albus had gone.
Then, an unlucky Auror stumbled upon a blackened corpse, charred from a fire. Nothing was left intact except for a wand. Albus’s wand. The ministry performed an autopsy on the body and found that it was the shriveled cadaver of Albus Dumbledore.
Then all hell broke loose. The Daily prophet milked the situation for all that they could, people who barely knew him wrote biographies, and almost all wizards were in a panic. Dumbledore was one of the strongest and wisest wizards since Merlin, and now he was dead.
An interesting detail was that Albus’s body was recovered in Yokohama. And he didn’t seem to be killed by any known magic. He died by bullet wounds, caused by a muggle weapon. It appeared that he was searching for his mysterious “third party”, and that group is what happened to kill him. The elusive Port Mafia. Snape was sure that they were the ones that orchestrated Albus’s death, there was no other possible explanation that he could think of.
He doubted they would stay complacent with all of the investigations that Hogwarts were doing on them. Snape wished he had enough proof to condemn them, to even have the ministry declare war. Then he could avenge Albus, even though the two had never been very close. Then he could try and save Mr. Dazai.
Despite what he said in school, Severus knew that he had become far too attached to the boy. He knew that his favorite food was crab, noticed his domesticity with Mr. Zabini. He payed attention to the bandages covering his thin build, saw how underweight and small he was for a boy of his age. Dazai Osamu was truly a dangerous child, but Snape couldn’t help but want to protect him.
Because Mr. Dazai is a child. And no child should have to suffer, no matter how horrible they are. He had been quite alarmed when Poppy came back from Yokohama, telling him and Minerva that the boy was involved with the Port Mafia. He had been happy that she was willing to adopt him, to give him a safe home where he could be loved and taken care of.
And then Poppy was petrified, stuck in place because of that horrible Basilisk. He had disliked the new healers from the beginning. They were nosy and unprofessional, as well as far to invested in Poppy’s mystery patient with the strange magic sensitivity.
When he heard the news, heard that she had died to the negligence of the new healers, he had felt true rage. He was happy that they were sentenced to life in Azkaban for causing the death of Poppy and those other innocent children. But now that very same rage has faded, leaving nothing but sadness for Poppy. She was his friend, and one of the most genuine, kind people he had ever met. She didn’t deserve to die.
So now, Snape was researching adoption, trying to find out how to be eligible to take a child in, especially one who already had a legal guardian. Before she died, all Poppy wanted to do was to help Mr. Dazai. So now, he would take on her task. He would find a way to adopt Dazai Osamu, and save him from the Port Mafia, and all of the suffering he has endured.
After a good amount of traveling by plane, then a long taxi ride and a walk, Dazai arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. He took a deep breath, No Longer Human already activated at the magic inside the shop, and stepped in.
As soon as he opened the door, he noticed all of the people there stare at him. Whatever, he thought. I’ll just ignore them and talk to Tom to help me get into Diagon Alley. Despite being the center of negative attention in the wizarding world for a long time, Dazai still hated the feeling of so many eyes on him. All looking, all scrutinizing every word he said, all-
“Long time no see, Dazai,” someone said behind him.
Dazai was snapped out of his thoughts by the familiar voice. He turned around and saw Hermione standing behind him, with her family standing awkwardly in a corner of the pub. She wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.
“I’ve really missed you! Why didn’t you respond to any of the letters I wrote you?” she asked, letting go of him and taking a step back. She then seemed to look at him again and noticed his right arm wrapped up in a sling.
“What letters?” Dazai didn’t receive any letters except for the one Blaise sent him, and the ones that Hogwarts sent about school supplies and Hogsmeade. Then it dawned upon him. That slimy bastard Mori must have noticed. But then why hadn’t he mentioned anything to Dazai? Why hadn’t he punished him?
“I send you two of them, but you didn’t respond to either. I figured you were busy, or maybe your father didn’t let you write back,” she replied. “Also, what happened to your arm? Are you feeling alright?”
“Mori was being annoying and managed to hide the letters from me,” he whined loudly. “
If I knew you had sent them, I of course would have responded to you. And about my arm, I just tripped and fell while going down the stairs and broke my arm, nothing too serious.”
She looked at him with concern, skeptical at his explanation, but let it go. “Well, I’m glad it’s nothing too serious and I hope that it heals soon. So, are you going to get all your school supplies right now?”
“Yes, I am. But since I can’t use magic very well, do you think that you could help me get in?”
Hermione chuckled, “Of course, Dazai. But first, let me introduce you to my parents since they’ll be shopping with me too.” She then called both her parents over, and Dazai introduced himself.
“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Granger, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Dazai, and I know Hermione from school.” Dazai made sure to keep his tone polite, not wanting to cause any drama at the moment.
“Hello Dazai, it’s nice to meet you,” said Mrs. Granger.
“It really is,” her father agreed. “Hermione has told us a lot about you. You’re the one that also has no parents that are wizards, right?”
“That’s right. I’m glad Hermione has mentioned me! “He gave her a teasing wink and saw Hermione’s face turn red with embarrassment.
“All right that enough of that, let’s go already,” she grumbled.
So, the group entered Diagon Alley, and decided to stop at Gringotts first to exchange their money. The goblins still seemed to be scared of him, but they did what he asked with no complaints, so he didn’t really mind. I guess Mori was right about something, he thought. Fear can be a great motivator.
Eventually, he and Hermione split up to do their respective shopping. First, he went to Madame Malkin’s robe shop. He appreciated her efficiency and not asking questions about all of the bandages and the broken arm. He then went and purchased all of the books that he would be needing.
Now all he needed was a cauldron and some quills and papers. He went to find one that had extra resistance after all of his explosions in potions class. It was always a hassle to get a new one in the middle of the school year. When he went to pay, he saw the shop keeps face contort in disgust.
“I will not be selling something to the likes of you, Demon,” he spat, his voice shaking with rage. “How dare you make the school environment dangerous for all of our kids. This is why we shouldn’t let mudbloods in.”
Before Dazai could say anything, an unexpected person came to his aid. “You shouldn’t be saying that about a child,” said Minerva McGonigal. Her eyes narrowed in contempt. “Just sell the cauldron to the boy. He was the one who killed the basilisk that was terrorizing our school. If anything, you should be grateful to him for protecting all of the children in attendance.”
Dazai was surprised. The professors knew about his involvement with the Port Mafia yet decided to defend him. Just what did she want? He wasn’t going to think about that too much for now, and decided to just accept her help and sneak away while they were both distracted.
He didn’t want another person to keep on questioning him about his arm.
“And where do you think you’re going, Mr. Dazai?” McGonagall turned to him. “You shouldn’t leave in the mi8ddle of a conversation that pertains to you.”
The man, who was red in the face with anger, then looked back to notice that Dazai was almost to the door. “You really are a demon! Get out of my store.”
Dazai didn’t need to be told twice. Hye could get a cauldron from another shop. He quickly opened the door and ran out, ignoring McGonagall’s orders to come back. He would not be dealing with her outside of school.
Dazai walked to a different stop, bought the rest of his supplies and left Diagon alley quickly. He exited the Leaky Cauldron before anyone could turn and gawk at him, entering the black car waiting to take him to a hotel. While he could have stayed at the Leaky Cauldron, he decided to stay in a muggle hotel to get away from the buzz of magic for at least another week.
Most likely, the Daily Prophet would spew more lies about him over ridiculous things. He could already imagine the headlines, Demon student terrorizes innocent shopkeeper, or some other idiotic statement. At least Mori would be happy he made the headlines again, though it didn’t take much as they were running out of things to report. At least he could now rest.
As soon as he entered his room, Dazai collapsed on his bed, sick of interacting with people, yet glad to have seen Hermione. He had a million things to think about, stories to make his injuries seem plausible and ways to avoid the professor’s suspicions now that some of them knew he was in the port mafia. But now, all he wanted was to sleep, his favorite escape from reality.
He closed his eyes and stared at the roof, until he could no longer keep his eyelids open, and he fell into sleep, leaving all his burdens behind.