The Untouchable

C3: The Kitten, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Travelling to London once more with his school supplies and Bastet in tow was as easy, if not easier, than Harry's trip to Diagon Alley. Harry did not bother saying goodbye to his relatives as he figured the trio would eventually notice his disappearance and telling them of his departure would surely bring up questions Harry preferred not to answer. Harry knew as well that despite his foul relationship with his Aunt and Uncle, they did depend on him heavily for the household chores as well as tutoring his atrocious cousin in classwork. Harry was under no illusion that his relatives would do whatever it took to prevent him leaving and though Harry could defend himself with his ability to do Strange Things, it seemed awfully dramatic and unnecessary to resort to such a thing.

So little Boring Harry departed No. Four Privet Drive without a second thought or wistful moment and arrived at King's Cross Station in a punctual manner. Thankfully, it was an unusually cool start to September so the travel to Harry's destination was not marred by uncomfortable smells, sweat, or other-such nonsense caused by overheated, overstressed individuals.

Harry carefully carried his trunk under his left arm and Bastet's small carrier under his right. Though both containers appeared no bigger than bread boxes, they contained within themselves an amazing plethora of space of which Harry was still most impressed with. He had decided over the summer that he would figure out the Strange Thing occurring to these boxes and would use it for everything.

Bastet had perched herself on Harry's shoulder, watching with large amber eyes as they passed various groups of departing families and solo travellers on the train station. It was certainly a mark of Harry's ability to be Unseen for no one gave him a second glance, despite the ashen white kitten sitting on his shoulder and not a parent in sight.

At last Harry arrived at the magical entrance way, otherwise known as Platform 9 ¾, and he stood a good few metres away to gauge the best method of passing through. A man in rather atrocious yellow suit stood as guard next to the portal, scanning the crowd lazily and hand tucked into his pocket. Harry warily watched the oddly dressed man as his eyes roved past the young boy; Harry felt himself relax marginally as he was not immediately noticed by the guard and felt assured that he would not be stopped by this man.

Just as Harry built up the courage to step forward and go through the rather nerve-rackingly solid brick wall, a bustling family of noisy redheaded children and a loud portly woman passed him by. The woman, who appeared to be the mother of this massively motley crew of young gingers did not bother to keep her voice down and shouted, with alarming alacrity, "Platform Nine and Three Quarters, children! Come on, now! Move along!"

Harry gaped at this woman as she bustled her children close to the brick portal, nodding briefly at the guard. The man smiled brittlely at her and rolled his eyes once the woman turned back to her children. The woman appeared to not be one bit concerned that she was announcing to all of 'Muggle London' about the secret portal to the wizarding world. Upon glancing around himself, Harry was even more surprised that while most people gave the family passively annoyed looks, no one had turned and said, 'Platform Nine and Three Quarters? Have you gone totally mad, woman?'

In fact, it appeared that by making such a scene, the family of startlingly bright headed people repelled the groups of travellers. Perhaps most thought them crazy, or perhaps most travellers had too much of their own things to think about. Coming from a neighbourhood of people who made a point of criticising one's neighbours, it alarmed Harry to realise that most people didn't care. Perhaps it would be a subject he considered later, however, as the family were quickly disappearing one by one through the platform wall as if it were made of vapours, not brick and mortar. Harry sighed a soft noise of relief as he realised that Hogwarts: A History had not lied and in fact this was the correct entrance. Though he had now witnessed an amassing amount of evidence that witches and wizards did indeed exist, Harry found himself wary in this new and odd world.