XIII
“Normal speech”
“All-speech”
‘thoughts’
“Animal speech”
‘mind speech’
“Foreign speech”
__---oO0°0Oo---__
A tall boy walked into the leaky cauldron. He had black, tousled hair and a slightly tinted skin; it wasn’t tan-coloured. He wore everyday muggle clothes which were promptly transfigured into dark-green robes that screamed wealth and power upon entering. For some reason, Rita just knew that this was her correspondent. She, as well as some others, watched as the teen walked over to the barman and spoke some silent words. Then he turned around and looked her straight in the eyes. It was a sight she would never forget, those pools of green seemed to glow in the low light of the bar. They seemed to emit some sort of power. She was enthralled as she looked deeper into them, but was snapped out of it by a pleasant voice, “Rita dear, I hope you haven’t been waiting too long? I got caught up in some things at home.”
“No, not at all. Shall we head to a more private location?” she regained her composure
“of course, if you would follow me.” Here, her mystery man gallantly held out his arm and lead her up the staircase, heading for a room labelled ‘14’. He summoned a key from somewhere, probably one of his pockets, and opened the door. “take a seat, not literally, of course” he said in a pleasant way
Rita let a bel-like laughter escape her and sat down on the one chair available. The teen looked around for another, then shrugged and waved his hand, transfiguring one out of thin air, showing an impressive display of magic, and sat down. “Rita, is it okay if I call you Rita? Anyhow, Rita dear, I have a proposition for you!” he said in an enticing way, “but first I think we must establish some rules, don’t you agree?”
“of course,” she pretended to agree, “though, I must ask, who are you?”
“later, Rita dear, later… so, rule number 1: I get a preview of the article before anybody else. I do not care what the prophet says, I want to see it first. That gets me to rule number 2: not a single word is printed without my say so.” The young man said, “Rule number 3: no telling anybody who I am. And rule number 4: you only work for me, I will give you a salary and will even buy you an apartment, if, and only if, you agree to not write any articles that I do not agree on. If you get a proposition, it goes through me. Do you understand?”
“this is ridiculous! Just who do you think you are?” she practically screeched, “you wrote me that you had some information on the boy-who-lived and-”
She was cut off by the teen in front of her when he simply brushed some hair out of the way, revealing a certain scar, Rita felt her yaw drop, but quickly caught herself, reminding herself that she had some juicy things to collect, “well then, harry, quite-”
He interrupted her again by saying, “do you agree to my rules? Because if you do not, I might become a little bugged, if you know what I mean.”
She felt al the warmth flee her skin, her eyes where wide open, “ho… how could-… how could you possibly know that?” she asked with a stuttering voice.
“I have my ways…” he trailed off with a shark-like grin, “but, anyhow, do you agree? cause if you do, I am willing to swear an oath to not reveal that titbit, if you sign this magical binding contract, of course” here, he pulled out a roll of parchment and handed it to her.
She carefully read the whole thing, making sure that it was exactly wat he said it was, and it was. Her wage would be a handsome sum of 1000 galleons a month, with extra’s per article and she would get a furnished apartment next to that. In the end, she wrote her name at the bottom of the scroll, excited for her new job.
“marvellous,” harry said, “well, I guess it is my turn then… I, Hariwalt Godric Sirius Potter-Black-Slytherin, Lord of the houses Potter, Black, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Peverell, Vidan, Emrys and Le Fay, potion master, rune master, basilisk slayer and goblin friend, do swear upon my life and magic to, as long as this contract is upheld, never reveal the animagus form of one Rita Skeeter, or may I lose my magic, so mote it be.” His body glowed
Rita felt her yaw drop at the titles
“well then,” harry said, “let’s discuss business”
-
It was with satisfaction that harry watched the woman go. He was extremely tired, but it had been a productive meeting. The animagus bit he had deducted with his Hyphis senses, beetles where the perfect pray.
With a sigh, harry climbed in his bed and tried to sleep, having said goodbye to his aunt and Suzan earlier. He had chosen to spend the last two nights before going to Hogwarts in the leaky, wanting to spend some time with his friend. They would apparently arrive tomorrow.
Thinking about his return within two days, he finally realized that there would be no going back to his time. His old time. God, he missed his parents. He tossed and turned for a few minutes before sleep finally got the better of him.
__---oO0°0Oo---__
There was a huge ruckus going on outside Harry’s door. It was what had woken him up and he hated it. He looked at the clock, 12:23, and judging from the light streaming into his window it wasn’t midnight either.
“Get that ruddy thing away form Scabbers!” a familiar, outraged voice bellowed
“Grow up, Ronald, honestly, he’s a cat, not a bloody chicken!” Hermione’s voice answered in an annoyed tone, “cats chase rats. But if it sooths you I’ll try to keep crookshanks from chasing him.”
The bickering had apparently been going on for quite some time, so harry stepped out of bed, put some clothes on and went outside to stop them.
“harry!” the two declared in surprise, “I thought you were with Amelia Bones?” Ron took over
“I was,” he allowed, “but auntie Amelia said it was okay if I met you here for today”
“you call her auntie?” Hermione asked curiously, “who is she?”
“She was a friend of my parents, but you know her best as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” harry explained, twisting the truth a little.
Hermione’s eyes widened at that, “Is she the one who is looking for Sirius Black?”
“No, that are the aurors, and the low-level ministry workers. She would be filing al the paperwork” toward the end, Ron looked to harry, “at least, I think that’s what she is doing.”
“sounds about right,” Harry agreed, “now, where is the rest of the family?”
“just downstairs”
As they were walking down the stairs, Hermione asked, “have you bought al of your books already?”
“yep!” he gave an affirmative answer
“what subjects are you taking?”
“at first I had divination and care, but I switched divination out for runes and arithmancy,” harry explained, “I have bought the change in books already and informed McGonagall by owl.”
“why the change of subject?” Hermione asked
“I read up on divination and apparently if you do not have any talent, you will not get anything out of the lesson.” Harry said, “you can do an ability test in Gringotts, it costs 1 galleon”
“at this rate, you’ll both be resorted into Ravenclaw,” Ron quipped
“resorted?” Hermione asked sharply as they walked into the lobby of the leaky cauldron
“didn’t you know?” Ron asked, “at the beginning of third-year, you get another turn under the hat. Some bollocks about how you now understand the school better, that’s the reason why it is normally not allowed to go on the quidditch team before then” he finished, glancing at harry
“well then, let’s hope Jules sorts me back in Gryffindor” harry said, already knowing that wouldn’t be the case. He didn’t want it to be, honestly.
“Jules?” Hermione asked
Harry cursed at his slip-up, “oh, that’s the hat’s name, he told me in the chamber. Must’ve forgot to tell you” he quickly made up
The other two didn’t get a chance to react as that was the moment that Mrs. Weasley saw them, “oh, harry dear, you look healthy! But still way to thin, lets get you fattened right up.”
-
Lunch went well and, after that, Hermione and Ron again went out to Diagon alley. Harry declined going with, because he had seen something special when looking at Charlie
“Charlie, can I talk to you in private?” he asked
“sure, harry” came the response
When they where alone, harry quickly set up some wards wandlessly, leaving Charlie gaping. “just how are you doing that?” he asked
“never mind that now” harry said as he zeroed in on the scar on Charlie’s face, “did a dragon give you that the first time you saw one?” he asked
“how do you know?” the man Infront of him returned
“it’s a sign of approval,” harry explained, “dragons have many runes, this one states that any all-speaker can teach you the spoken language.”
“huh”
“do you know how powerful the dragons are?” harry questioned
“weren’t they the first magical creatures?” Charlie asked
“yep, so their language is rather powerful…” harry trailed of, “do you want to learn? To learn how to sing?”
“Sure”
“then you first have to take an oath to never teach anyone else this language, and to never tell anyone who has taught you”
Sensing that this was rather important, Charlie agreed to the oath, “I, Charlie Weasley, do swear upon my life and magic to never teach any other being the tongue of the dragons, nor will I reveal who has taught me, or may I lose my magic, so mote it be”
Seeing his hand glow, harry began to explain, “so, the first thing you should know about the language is that they sing, not talk, if you expect them to talk you will be disappointed…” and so he explained
__---oO0°0Oo---__
The Weasleys, minus the two older brothers, plus harry and Hermione, stepped out of the ministry cars and headed for platform 9¾. Unlike the last time they crossed over, this time they easily stepped trough the barrier and on to the platform, where Mr. Weasley pulled harry aside for a talk.
“harry, this is about Sirius black” he said
“about the thingy that he is after me?” he asked curiously
“you know?” Mr. Weasley asked
“I live with Amelia bones for 2 weeks” he deadpanned
The train let out a whistle, “looks like I need to go” he said, and jumped on the train
His friends already had found a compartment, there was a man inside of it, but he seemed to be fast asleep. Still, his hyphis told him to watch out for him. He was a predator.