Chapter 88 — Before the Evening Ended

The telephone rang while Harry was returning the diary’s wrapping to its box. I told him it should be Hermione, and he went to answer with a piece of ribbon still caught round one finger.

Luna and I heard little of Hermione’s side, but his replies were easy to follow. Yes, he had received the kit, and the compass was excellent. No, he had not polished the broom’s handle merely to discover how shiny it would become. He covered the receiver to explain that she thought he might make it impossible to hold.

I called that a reasonable concern. Harry turned away and told her about lunch, unwinding the ribbon while he listened. After a while he held out the telephone so we could settle when to meet before term.

Hermione would return near the end of August. Ron had already given us his date, and we agreed on breakfast at my restaurant in Diagon Alley, followed by the school shopping. She expected a substantial list by then, although she assured me that some of it would be compulsory.

I promised to be there, then gave the receiver back to Harry so they could finish saying goodbye. He stayed beside the telephone for a moment after hanging up, until Luna offered him the ribbon he had left on the little table.

Ron’s call came later. Harry held the receiver away from his ear and waited for a gap before explaining that he could speak normally. Another burst of sound reached us, followed by Harry’s assurance that this applied even from Egypt.

The volume fell enough for him to sit down. He listened to an account of somewhere the Weasleys had visited and thanked Ron for the Sneakoscope. When I took my turn, Ron wanted to know whether Harry had enjoyed himself and whether I had kept him away from homework.

I reported no complaints so far. He also advised against letting Harry spend the whole afternoon reading, which made me look towards the box on the sideboard. I said that part might be difficult and promised to explain when we met.

After the call, Harry told us why he had corrected Ron so quickly. An earlier attempt to reach him at Privet Drive had ended with Ron shouting and Vernon answering in much the same spirit. Ron kept announcing that he was Harry’s school friend until Vernon worked out which school he meant.

‘He objected to the calls before,’ Harry said, putting the receiver properly in its cradle. ‘Now he just hangs up. Hermione got through a couple of times, and you did, but since Ron rang…’ He shrugged and told us to try an owl if nobody answered. It did not always mean he was refusing to come to the telephone.

I made a note beside his number. Ron still needed practice, but Harry did not need to lose every other call while he acquired it. Then I took him into the sitting room to find something neither of us had to explain to Vernon.

I had collected a few games during the holidays. Harry recognised one from watching Dudley play, and being allowed to hold the controller himself produced the concentration I usually saw when he was looking for the Snitch. He lost the first attempt, demanded another and beat my score on the third.

I called it beginner’s luck. Harry reminded me that I had used the same explanation last time, so I told him it was a broad category and took the controller back. Luna tried a turn when we offered, then decided she preferred a book from the shelf.

She stayed in the room, occasionally looking up to ask why we had both shouted at the same small figure. Explaining the injustice made it sound less impressive, especially when the explanation ended with my walking directly into something I had just warned Harry about. She returned to her book while he asked for another attempt.

By late afternoon he had begun reading the Seekers’ collection during the pauses. James’s diary stayed in its box nearby, and I neither asked what he had found nor expected him to read any aloud. When I went to prepare the barbecue, he followed with a stack of plates.

‘I want to read it properly when I get back,’ he said, setting them on the garden table. I told him he did not have to show us, and he said he knew before straightening the stack.

He looked towards the house. ‘It’s strange, having something he wrote when he didn’t know I’d ever see it.’ I agreed, leaving the plates alone instead of finding something else to do with my hands. I could have told him a great deal about Ken’s notebooks, but he did not seem to need another account just then.

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Harry helped bring out the food. Luna carried the bread, and Emma appeared with a dish large enough to suggest she expected visitors we had not been told about. She set it beside the plates while I checked the coals.

The first batch needed longer than I expected. I moved the next further from the hottest part and stopped trying to hurry it, leaving enough time for the seasoning and heat to do their work. Before I called anyone back, Harry had followed the smell to the table.

He tasted a piece, looked at it and suggested I ought to sell it. Emma asked him not to encourage me, while I pointed out that we had only just opened Frozen. I wanted to finish one project before becoming responsible for another kitchen.

Luna examined the serving plate. ‘You can practise on us,’ she said, choosing another piece. That sounded manageable, and I promised to remember the offer when the next batch needed testing.

We ate until the conversation slowed. Harry leaned back in his chair, no longer watching the time quite so often, and I was glad the day had included more than presents. He had argued over a game, fetched his own second helping and been told to move his chair because Emma could not reach the table.

When we had to leave, he packed each gift himself. The driver returned at the arranged time, ready to take Harry home before continuing to London for Luna’s journey through the Leaky Cauldron. Emma checked our bags and added a wrapped piece of cake to Harry’s for tomorrow.

He thanked her for everything, beginning to sound formal again. She hugged him before he could make a speech, then sent us out with instructions to tell her when everyone was safely home. I waited while Harry checked the box beneath his arm and climbed into the car.

Near Privet Drive, he asked to stop short of the house. He would rather his uncle did not inspect the car, so the driver found somewhere to wait while Luna and I walked the last stretch with him. It was still light enough to see the gardens, although lamps had appeared behind some curtains.

Harry stopped at a public noticeboard and read a name aloud. ‘Sirius Black.’ I moved beside him to examine the photograph beneath the warning.

The man had tangled hair and a drawn face. The notice said he had escaped custody, was considered dangerous and should not be approached by members of the public. It offered much less about what had happened than about what we were supposed to do if we saw him.

Harry asked whether I had heard of him. I said I did not know enough to tell him anything useful, and Luna moved closer to read the notice herself. Before she spoke, something stirred in the bushes beside the pavement.

Harry turned sharply, and so did I. Leaves moved low to the ground, hiding whatever was beyond them. My hand went towards my pouch before I looked at the houses along the street and stopped it there.

‘Cat?’ Harry suggested. I said it could be, and we waited long enough for the movement to stop. Nothing came out, and I could see no reason to enter somebody’s hedge to discover whether an ordinary animal objected to us.

We continued to his gate. Harry glanced back once, adjusted his grip on the box and thanked me for the day. I told him he was allowed to stop thanking me, receiving a promise that he would try.

Luna wished him a happy birthday again. We stayed until he reached the door, then returned to the waiting car. I looked back along the pavement before getting in, but could see only the hedge and the noticeboard above it.

The journey into London gave Luna time to lean against me and close her eyes. I held her hand without trying to keep a conversation going, then told her when we reached the pub. Her father waited near the hearth, and she woke properly at the sight of him, beginning an account of the Seekers’ book before he finished asking about her day.

They left together through the fireplace. At home, Emma wanted to know how both journeys had ended, and I told her before going upstairs. The calendar still held Harry’s name inside its circle, and I left it there when I turned out the light.

August arrived with more letters, work on the essay and afternoons I was glad to spend outside. During one outing, Luna and I chose two small mechanical watches. They matched without being identical; she preferred another strap, and the shopkeeper altered mine after my first choice began pinching.

She accepted hers readily. It did not mean she wanted every purchase made for her, a distinction I was beginning to understand before she had to repeat it. I checked my new watch against hers once more before we left the shop, enjoying the agreement of the two faces more than their price.

Harry wrote about the diary when he wanted to. I learnt that he had begun reading it, but the contents remained his to share. Ron sent more accounts from Egypt, and Hermione’s letters grew shorter as family visits took up her time, although she continued asking whether I had finished the essay.

By the arrival of the school lists, I finally had. Hermione’s last letter also answered my question about her bag: the bottle remained sealed in its padding, the horn wrapped separately, and neither had been used. She would bring them back with her, leaving no doubt about who had kept them during the holidays.

I filed the letter with our workshop notes and began checking my own supplies. Bent protective sheets needed replacing, and the prepared pieces had to remain separate from blank treated stock. I noted what I was taking, looking twice at the reserve I would leave at home. Neater packing would not make another term’s experiments cost nothing.

The completed essay went into my trunk with the other work. I checked the date of our breakfast appointment, set out the school list and began deciding which things I needed to take back to Hogwarts first.