Harry Potter: Master of Talismans

Arthur was speaking to Harry near the Leaky Cauldron’s stairs when we returned. He asked us to find somewhere quieter, and Luna stayed beside me as we sat at a table away from the door. Harry had left his bags upstairs while he waited for the answer we needed.

The Ministry believed Black was looking for him. Arthur explained that this accounted for Fudge’s concern, the restrictions on Harry’s movements and the effort to keep him somewhere they could find him.

‘That is what they’re working on,’ he said, keeping his voice low. ‘I can’t promise every report is correct, but there is enough concern that I want you to take it seriously.’ Harry looked down at the tabletop before asking why Fudge had not told him.

Arthur thought the Minister had wanted to reassure him. Harry would have preferred knowing, and I agreed without finding much comfort in having guessed the explanation correctly. Arthur did not argue; he asked Harry to avoid going anywhere alone while we settled the arrangements.

I explained the invitation to our house and that Emma needed the details before we decided anything. Arthur told me to speak to her while he contacted Fudge. They needed to know where Harry would be and how he would travel, and he would send word to Dumbledore as well.

It took the rest of the afternoon. I telephoned Emma from outside, told her what Harry had done and what Arthur had said, and let her ask questions without pretending I could answer them all. She still wanted him to come, provided the people arranging his safety knew the plan.

Arthur confirmed the address and journey with her. When he returned from speaking to Fudge, Harry had permission to stay until term, with instructions to remain at the house and report any unexpected caller or message. The Ministry would know where to reach him, and we would go to the station together.

It was more complicated than putting a trunk in a car. It also meant Emma would hear the reason for the precautions before something happened, which seemed worth the afternoon. Luna left with her father while we finished, squeezing my hand before joining him at the fireplace.

Harry brought down his luggage. We checked the repaired book and secured the one with teeth, then went home with Emma. The last days of the holiday passed quietly enough for Harry to stop looking up every time somebody moved beyond a window.

He read, we played games and both of us packed. Emma put extra food on the table without making an occasion of it. No stranger called asking for him, and no curious parcel arrived with instructions we wanted to follow. Once I found him asleep in a chair with the diary on his knee, so I took his empty glass away and left him there until lunch.

On the first of September, we checked the house twice and still discovered one of my books on the hall table as we left. Emma held it up and said a successful education would eventually include remembering where I put things.

‘I’m saving that for fourth year,’ I told her, taking the book. She kissed my cheek and made sure it went into the bag before letting me follow Harry to the car.

At King’s Cross, the ordinary station gave way to the crowd beyond the barrier. Steam hung above trunks and cages, Ron waved beside his family, and Hermione arrived with Crookshanks and an expression suggesting that he had already contributed to her morning. Luna waited near a carriage door with her father.

I went to help with her luggage while Harry greeted the others. Within a few minutes everyone seemed to be speaking across somebody else: Ron wanted the cat further from Scabbers, Hermione wanted him to stop putting the rat’s box where Crookshanks could watch it, and Luna asked me whether Harry had slept better.

I was answering when Harry raised his voice. ‘I am here, you know, if anyone wants to ask me. Or say something which isn’t about the cat.’ Ron opened his mouth, but Harry repeated the final condition firmly enough to stop him.

I apologised and asked how he slept. He reminded me that I had seen him at breakfast, and I explained that I was trying to repair the conversation. He smiled despite himself while Hermione set the carrier on a clear patch beside her trunk.

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Ron moved his box to the other side of his body. Once the animals were no longer being positioned to make a point, it became easier to discuss the journey. I was checking Leo’s cover when a girl in Ravenclaw colours came to greet Luna.

I recognised her from the previous autumn, when the arrival of the new brooms had prompted a brief conversation outside the hall. Harry recognised her faster and said her name before I had finished placing the face.

Cho smiled at him and asked about his holiday. He said it had been good, mostly, then asked about hers with rather more care than he generally put into the question. When she answered, he nodded and seemed to lose the next thing he had meant to say.

Luna introduced us properly: Cho Chang, fourth year and Ravenclaw’s Seeker. I gave my name, receiving a smile which suggested it was unnecessary. Cho remembered the fifteen brooms and told me I had made her first season difficult.

‘I think Harry did some of that,’ I said. He looked up when I mentioned him, and Cho said she hoped for a different result this year. Harry replied that she would have to catch the Snitch first, finding conversation much easier now it involved Quidditch.

She laughed and said she intended to. I left them room to discuss it without offering advice, while Luna shifted closer and took my hand. Cho noticed when she turned back to ask about our books.

Her question was only half finished before Luna said yes. Cho congratulated us, and Luna thanked her with a broad smile while I found something less eloquent which served the same purpose. Then Cho’s friends called from further along the platform, and she went to join them.

Harry watched her leave before remembering the trunk beside his feet. I suggested quietly that he could talk to her again, and he reminded me that he had just done so. I agreed that it seemed to have gone well, leaving him to adjust a strap which did not appear to need it.

Luna looked after Cho and said she was kind. She had helped when people were unkind about Luna’s belongings, something Harry said he had not known. I suggested he might ask her about more than the Snitch next time, receiving a proposal that I mind my own business.

I accepted that as a fair alternative. The warning whistle prevented further discussion, and we collected parcels, settled cages and began our final goodbyes. At the carriage steps I turned to wave to Emma, who raised a hand and called something lost beneath the noise.

Her expression suggested it concerned looking after ourselves rather than winning anything. I nodded as though I had heard and followed the others aboard, carrying the book she had rescued on top of everything I had managed to remember myself.

Most compartments were full by the time we began looking. Ron went ahead with one end of his trunk, Hermione followed with the carrier and I kept my book parcels clear of people passing the other way. Luna carried Leo for a few minutes while I helped Harry move a trunk abandoned across the corridor.

Ginny found us outside a compartment near the middle. There was one seat inside, she said, but Harry glanced back at the rest of us and explained that we hoped to sit together. She told him to come back if we could not find anywhere.

I took Leo’s cage from Luna, and Ginny noticed when we joined hands again. ‘Ron told me,’ she said, smiling at us. ‘I’m glad.’ Luna thanked her before we continued, leaving Ginny with her friends without making a ceremony of the empty seat.

Eventually Hermione stopped beside a compartment with one occupant. He slept against the window with his coat pulled close, looking tired even before he moved. A patched case stood on the rack, and a covered flask sat beside a cup on the small table.

I opened the door a short distance and asked whether we might sit there. He stirred, looked at the empty seats and nodded. By the time I had thanked him and begun helping with the luggage, his head rested against the glass again.

‘Professor R. J. Lupin,’ Luna read softly from the case. Ron looked at the label and asked whether he was one of ours, which Hermione considered likely. Nobody needed to wake him to discover more immediately, so we finished settling in.

I put my parcels where the strapped Monster Book could reach nothing else and sat beside Luna. Harry and Ron took out the chess set, while Crookshanks stayed in his carrier and Scabbers’s box occupied a place Ron could watch without presenting it to the cat. Leo settled after one final complaint about the luggage being moved.

The train gathered speed, carrying London past the window. Conversation gave way to what we had brought for the journey, until Harry lost a knight and blamed Ron for speaking at the wrong moment. Ron pointed out that he had been answering Harry’s question.

Hermione opened a book. Luna showed me a paragraph in the Quibbler and asked whether the drawing supported the writer’s conclusion. I thought it supported the existence of somebody who could draw, which she accepted as a beginning before asking about the rest of the argument.

We discussed it for a while. Disagreeing became much easier when she wanted to know which part I doubted instead of hearing only that I doubted it. At intervals I glanced towards the sleeping professor, moving his cup away from Ron’s elbow when a chess move became enthusiastic.

The cup smelled faintly of tea. Lupin had a thin face, untidy hair and a scar visible when he shifted, none of which explained what he would teach. I decided to ask when he woke and returned to the paragraph Luna wanted me to read.