BROKEN PIECES & GOLDEN SEAMS

IV

07. cool, a shabby house that could use some renovations

· · ─────── · ❆ · ─────── · ·

The atmosphere has been affected with anticipation. Harry notices at his arrival at the Jacksons' apartment. There has been an evident flurry of activity but a silence has settled since.

Ron and Kingsley eye the magazines, frowning at the still pictures. Remus has a soft smile on his face, his elevated sense of smell assaulted with freshly baked cookies. Minerva gives nothing away, standing tall and authoritative. Hermione appears to be the only one excited about their meeting.

"You want me to touch that,"

A shabby glove garners the attention of the gathered. The very object Percy was pointing at. The grime and indistinct fluid it was covered in could be a possible reason for her dubious tone. Harry could relate.

"Yes, this is a portkey through which we can travel to your temporary place of residence," Minerva reiterates.

"Don't you have anything that is a bit more...sanitary?" Sally warily eyes the portkey, matching her daughter's look.

"Can she wear gloves?" Paul inquires. "Cleaner ones to touch that?"

"It'll be for just a moment,"

The family is hardly reassured at Remus' assurance. Yet, Percy grabs hold of the glove where the little finger would go in after the last hugs. The world spins and they are squeezed and stretched in the way only magic could. When they open their eyes, the cozy apartment is replaced with a dark alley.

Harry pants at the cobblestone. The adults assume better reactions to it and so does Ron. Hermione throws up the contents of her lunch and Percy leans her forehead against the wall, still mindful of the dirt. Her palms rest on relatively clean bricks and she plants her feet as to confirm that she was on the same planet.

"—okay, Earth, ground," Harry hears her mutter. "That was awful,"

Remus offers her a piece of chocolate. They wait for her uneven breathing to halt and for Hermione to recover.

Minerva conjures water in the rattail goblet Ron had materialised for the bushy haired witch. She doesn't seem to mind.

"Shall we?" Kingsley gestures to the identical houses in front of them.

Minerva waves her wand in a deliberate manner, pressing numbers on a screen only she could see. Right in front of their eyes, a darker shade of the same houses appear in between two other houses.

12, Grimmauld Place.

"Wow, cool."

Harry is disappointed at her reaction. He was perplexed by the hidden house when he had had almost six years to get used to the magical world.

"That's all?" His best friend voices the incredulity he feels.

Percy frowns, inspecting the house. "A renovation would do some good to it?"

The bespectacled wizard agrees with that. The adults file away her indifference to magical displays.

The street remains deserted, allowing the wizards to cross without suspicious onlookers. Harry steels himself for the inevitable shrieks as Minerva reaches for the doorknob. They could practice caution but that itself would be their downfall.