“…and that’s why you can’t come with us!” Lina finished, glaring at her faithful bodyguardidiot.
“But I’m your guardian,” Gourry said in his typical straightforward manner.
“Give it up, sis,” Harry groaned.
Lina Inverse, the Beautiful Sorcery Genius herself, glared at her little brother. “You want him coming along?”
“Why not?” Harry asked. “Where else is he going to go?”
That was a fair point. Amelia was head-deep in plans to sail beyond the barrier, now that Phibrizzo’s untimely demise had ended their seclusion and that pillar of light showed up on the horizon. Zel was off on his own, but anyone with a brain could figure out he was near Amelia in his endless search for a cure. It’s where Lina would be, too, if Luna hadn’t sent her a…suggestion that she come home. And she was glad for it, too! It was one thing for a chance to sail out of the barrier, but unless the mazoku got their collective act together in a way they hadn’t for ten centuries, it was going to stay down for a long while. A chance to go to another world, complete with reasonably friendly and knowledgeable guides to local ways and magic, that wasn’t going to come along too many times. It was a great opportunity…not that she’d admit such to Luna.
“We still don’t know much about the magic this Hagrid is using,” Lina argued. “Can he even take all of us?”
“He said it would take two trips to take you along, so this just means it’ll take three,” Harry said easily.
Gourry nodded and slung an arm around Lina’s shoulder. “Then it’s settled!”
Lina elbowed Gourry. “Yogurt brain,” she muttered.
“Love is beautiful,” Harry observed.
Lina opened her mouth to yell, but the brat was already running for his life and cackling madly.
Hagrid wasn’t particularly enthused by taking Gourry along. He wasn’t a wizard or “sorcerer” as the locals called magic folk, so Hogwarts wasn’t a good place for him. Even muggle parents rarely went beyond Hogsmeade. But the groundskeeper had no more success than Lina at dissuading her “guardian” from insisting not only that he go along, but that he go first to make sure it was safe.
Inevitably, this left Hagrid with one simple salient problem. “You lot can’t go to London dressed like that,” he rumbled.
Gourry blinked cluelessly and looked himself over. His armor wasn’t dirty, although it had been a long time since the blue/black metal had really gleamed with a good polish. The sword of light was likewise well cared for, as befit both a weapon and heirloom. The scabbard was a bit scuffed, though. “I suppose we could pick up a new scabbard,” he agreed.
Lina scowled at Hagrid. She was wearing her full outfit. Oversized jeweled pauldrons, elbow length gloves, red and yellow tunic and pants, loose sash with shortsword, the demon blood talismans, large earrings, and of course massive black cape. “What’s wrong with my outfit!?” she snapped.
Harry facepalmed and groaned. His outfit was simpler than Lina’s extravagancies. He wore a light blue tunic and pants with a few decorative jade stones at the collar and cuffs, over which he had a white hooded cloak and a headband mostly hidden under his hair. His sash carried a couple daggers; he wasn’t good enough with a proper sword yet. “Sis, remember the clothes I was wearing when I first arrived? That’s the kind of thing people wear in England.”
Hagrid looked over the trio with a frown. “You lot would send most muggles running for the police. The Ministry of Magic would drown us in paperwork over how many muggles they’d need to Obliviate, to say nothing of any pictures.”
“Muggles? Oh, right, the non-sorcerers,” Lina thought. “This secrecy has to be a real pain.”
Hagrid nodded. “Aye. Not as bad as being feared or hunted for any manner of magical favor, though.”
Lina rubbed her chin. “So the number of ‘wizards’ in your world must be something like the number of ‘powerful’ sorcerers here. We don’t get mobbed like that because any decent sized village has a hedge mage or wise woman who can handle the little stuff, and make a good living at it besides.”
Gourry looked to Lina. “Then why are we always running after OOF!”
Lina retracted her elbow and smiled angelically at Hagrid. “Ignore him. We never cause trouble. Much.”
Hagrid had a bad feeling about this.
After a great deal of arguing, Hagrid decided they wouldn’t get any “normal” clothes without going to England first. So he told everyone to pack what supplies they wanted to bring and were allowed at Hogwarts. This started a second argument over the appropriateness of carrying swords.
Hagrid lost that one, too.
So it was that one half-giant, one dimensionally displaced orphan, one idiot swordsman, and one smart-ass sorceress found themselves…in a forest meadow leagues from anywhere important.
“Oh I’m so glad that we took the time to blend in,” Lina declared sarcastically. “I’m sure no one here will suspect we’re sorcerers!”
“Um, Lina?” Gourry asked kindly. “I know you’re confused and all, but there’s no one here.”
This sent Lina into furious twitches.
“It ain’t here that I’m wor’ied about,” Hagrid remarked. He pointed down a ways with his umbrella. “O’er th’re’s a town with a nice li’l marina where I was gonna take Harry an me to London from. That not gonna work now, so we improvise.”
“Did you say there’s a town over there?” Lina asked.
“I shouldn’ta told you that,” Hagrid realized.
“Lina?” Harry asked quietly. “Can we just do what Hagrid says for now? After all, he’s the only one that can get us home again.”
Lina paused in the middle of her evil schemesinternal deliberations. Kid had a point. “Okay then, Hagrid,” she said, looking up at the large man. “Improvise.”
Lina regretted letting Hagrid take the lead. So did Harry. Hagrid had led them to a deserted stretch of road and held out his umbrella. Then there had been a tremendous BANG and a truly ugly bus had suddenly appeared on the road, a man with a horrible drawl reading an introduction in the most bored tone imaginable.
“Lina!” Gourry yelped. “What is that!?”
“How am I supposed to know?” she retorted.
“Ey now,” the man called. “Ain’t you been listening? This ‘ere’s the Knight Bus an’…an’…what you wearing?”
For the second time today, Harry found his face in the palm of his hand. “They’ve never seen a bus before.”
“Never seen a bus?” the man repeated. “Where you lot from?”
“Nevermind that right now,” Hagrid declared. “We need to get to Diagon Alley, without being seen by muggles.”
“Dressed like that I shouldn’t wonder why,” the man threw back. He turned back towards the driver. “Ey Ern! Bloke says we need to get into Diagon Alley!”
“Where is Diagon Alley?” Lina whispered to Harry. Harry shrugged.
“Ya don’t even know where…? Who is you lot anyway?”
“I am the beautiful sorcery genius Lina Inverse!”
The man stared at the posing sorceress for a moment. “I don’ wanna know,” he muttered. “C’mon, get in.”
Of course, that wasn’t to be the end of it. It had been years since Harry had been around technology, but the inside of the bus looked…haphazard. Hagrid settled into one of the available seats, the other three followed suit, then “Take it away, Ern!”
Gourry screamed in terror as the bus launched itself forward. Harry kept his wits about him, but only enough that he was able to watch as the bus drove…well not into things exactly but that had more to do with things getting out of the bus’s way rather than any appreciable skill of their driver.
Needless to say, by the time they reached Diagon Alley, it was a job just to keep Lina from killing everyone on the bus. “What kind of manic lunatics are you people!? This is not a dignified way for a sorceress to travel! How dare you…!”
Harry yanked Lina’s head to the side and his big sister calmed instantly. “Is that?”
“Diagon Alley,” Hagrid said uncertainly.
“A market!” Lina squealed. She squirmed out of Gourry’s grip and ran laughing from the bus.
“Have I said I have a bad feelin’ about this yet?” Hagrid wondered.
“Yes,” everyone said at once.
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(Posted Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:26)
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