Chapter 3 - Hungry.
"I am not doing that again," Harry muttered to himself after stepping off the knight bus.
Today Harry had learned about a new method of magical transport, it was called the knight bus and would apparently show up when needed to help a stranded witch or wizard. Sounds great in theory, except for the fact that the ride was the most uncomfortable thing he had ever ridden on/in, and keep in mind that he liked to fly high in the air as fast as possible. Harry wasn't sure what speeds the bus was driving at, but he was sure that it had shattered the speed limit from start to finish and the most impressive thing about it beyond the shakiness of the bus was the fact that the ride hadn't ended in a massive explosion.
Still, it got Harry where he needed to go, the Leaky Cauldron. Harry looked over his shoulder and watched as the bus took off before turning invisible. He shook his head before grabbing his trunk, he had only taken a couple of steps when the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, Tom, stepped out to greet him.
"Mr Potter," Tom smiled. "it's great to see you."
"Hi Tom," Harry smiled back as he greeted him. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering...
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Tom said, cutting Harry off. "but there's somebody here to meet you, someone important. I think you should probably go and talk to him before anything else."
"Meet me?" Harry blinked. "Who is it?"
"The Minister of Magic."
It was an odd feeling, being sat in a room while the Minister of Magic stood a small distance away from you. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, didn't really look all that impressive as he stood there in his green suit. His hair was balding, he was portly and short and looked quite tired.
Yet despite his appearance, the man was one of the most powerful people in the magical government, Harry could still remember the man sending Hagrid to Azkaban just to be seen doing something about the chamber, so Harry was most definitely not comfortable in Fudge's presence, despite Fudge's attempts to smile his way through the meeting. Harry could admit to himself that he wasn't entirely sure how the magical government worked, but he was pretty sure that the head of the government shouldn't pop up to visit a thirteen-year-old boy unless the reason why was very serious.
"Now, Harry, biscuits and tea?" He offered as he gestured to the tray on the table in front of Harry.
"I'm fi..." Harry trailed off mid-way through his refusal when he heard his stomach growl. ".
..okay,
maybe one biscuit." Harry reached out and took one before taking a bite out of it, enjoying the taste leading to him taking another bite, causing the biscuit to disappear into his stomach.
"Atta boy," Fudge smiled at him as if Harry was his all-time favourite nephew. "now," Fudge's smile disappeared as he began speaking. "you should know that we at the ministry were very worried,
Harry."
"Worried?" Harry repeated questioningly. Fudge stared at him for a moment, looking confused that Harry hadn't instantly understood what he meant.
"I am referring to you running away from your family's home," Fudge spoke, Harry opened his mouth to protest that those wastes of perfectly good oxygen were not his family when Fudge continued speaking. "running away like that, might have felt good at the time. But it was very, very irresponsible, Harry. You surely realise by now that you're quite a famous lad, an important member of Magical Britain. Could you imagine how the wizarding public would react to learning that their young hero was out, gallivanting around without being cared for? Especially given the...um... 'current situation'." Fudge coughed those last two words out like they physically pained him. Harry, though quite irritated with Fudge, wasn't unable to miss what Fudge had said.
"The current situation?" Harry asked.
"Nothing to worry about," Fudge waved his hand dismissively, though his voice had been a tad quick.
"you're safe, and that's all that matters. You'll be pleased to know that your aunt was found.
"Oh." Harry wasn't sure if he had been totally able to keep the disappointment out of his voice. 'Is it bad that I sound disappointed?' He wondered. Fudge, if he noticed Harry's disappointment, didn't comment on it.
"The 'Accidental Magic Reversal Department' had dispatched to your relative's house, it only took a short while before they were able to find your aunt. Her body was punctured and returned to normal, and her memory was modified. She's perfectly fine."
'Disappointing.' A voice said. Harry's head snapped to the side upon hearing someone speak, he looked around the room, trying to see if there was anyone else here.
"Mr Potter, are you alright?" Fudge asked in a concerned voice, Harry quickly stopped and looked at Fudge who was staring at him.
"Oh...sorry," Harry awkwardly apologized. "I...um...thought I saw a fly shoot past." Harry lamely lied, though it seemed to work as Fudge gave him an understanding look before continuing.
"Anyway, there was no harm done, you're relatives have even agreed to take you back the next summer." Fudge smiled at him.
"I'd rather not if it's all the same to you." Harry hoped he hadn't sounded offensive when he said that.
"Now, now, Harry, I'm sure the situation isn't that bad," Fudge said in a worried tone. "they are your family, after all, and I'm sure you all care for each other enough to get past this little incident." Harry opened his mouth to protest that this incident wasn't little and that there was no way he would willingly go back to those stealers of perfectly good air when Fudge continued. "Now, we just need to decide where you're going to stay in the meantime. I suggest a room here, Tom serves a delightful full English breakfast and..
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Harry coughed. "but...what about my punishment?"
"Punishment?" Fudge looked genuinely confused.
"Yeah, you know...my punishment?" Harry trailed off, Fudge didn't appear to understand what he was saying so he decided to continue. "I don't know how things work in the magical world, but in the muggle world, if someone breaks a law then they get punished. I broke the law, so.. what's my punishment?"
"We won't punish you, Harry," Fudge looked like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "it was underage magic, at your age that's as natural as sneezing. It's all accidental."
"But before my second year, there was this house-elf," Harry began. "he was in my house and performed magic, I got a letter saying that if there was any more magic then I'd be expelled."
"A house...never mind, look, you don't want to be expelled, right?" Fudge asked impatiently.
"Um...no, not really." Harry shook his head.
"Then perhaps you should just be appreciative and accept the situation." Fudge suggested, he was smiling but his voice was noticeably more firm.
Harry simply nodded in response, he was indeed grateful about this, but his limited years on Earth had caused him to be wary when it comes to good news, especially from people like Fudge. Harry shifted slightly, there was a part of him that didn't like Fudge's tone and he felt an urge to get up and do something about it. Maybe throw him around a bit, push him, yell at him, rip his throat out and...
'Where did that come from?' Harry wondered. "Um, thank you, sir," Harry nodded to Fudge who looked pleased. "if you don't mind me asking, did you have any luck in capturing Sirius Black?" Harry asked.
"You.. you know about him?" Fudge's face had paled.
"I heard about him on the bus," Harry answered. "the conductor was reading a newspaper and Black's face was on it, he told me that Black was a murderer and a big supporter of Voldemort..
Harry stopped when Fudge flinched as if he was shot.
"Don't say his name!" Fudge hissed, causing Harry to stare at him for several seconds before he regained the ability to speak.
"Sorry," Harry apologized. "but...he told me that he supported...you-know-who..and how he's the first-ever person to escape Azkaban.
"Hmm, yes," Fudge looked very uncomfortable. "it's a terrible situation but I don't believe that it'll be a problem for much longer, Azkaban's guards are doing their best to find him, I've never seen them so angry." Fudge shivered. "Now, I'll go and get a room ready for you, while you are here I want you to stay in Diagon Alley, no wandering about in muggle London, is that understood?"
"Because of Black?" Harry asked.
"He's one of the reasons," Fudge admitted. "stay here, don't leave this building after dark and please behave."
A short while later Harry entered the room that he would be staying in for the majority of the summer, he looked around, it wasn't horrible by any stretch of the imagination. It was clean, had a bed and other furniture, it also had a window and that was pretty much all Harry really needed from a room. Though he would be lying if he said he didn't wish for a better colour scheme, all of the greys were making the room look really dull.
"Hedwig!" Harry cried out happily upon noticing that Hedwig was sitting on a perch that was positioned by the window. He rushed over to her and quickly began stroking her. "Clever girl, found me quickly, didn't you?" Hedwig hooted in the affirmative before leaning into his touch. "Hmm, this place isn't exactly as good as Hogwarts, but it's better than the Dursley's. No cage for you here!" Harry happily said, hating having to put Hedwig in a cage almost as much as Hedwig hated being in a cage. Hedwig let out several loud noises that Harry took to mean that she was also incredibly happy with the situation, she playfully nibbled on his fingers as he continued bombarding her with what he felt was some well-deserved praise and affection.
It was two hours later when Harry decided to go to sleep, it took him half an hour to finally fall asleep, the events of the day had finally caught up with him. As he slept, the symbiote inside of him started thinking about its current situation.
Since bonding with this new host it had learnt about magic, or at least everything this particular human knew about magic. So far, the symbiote was quite pleased with the host, this was the best match it had ever had. The human had plenty of emotions that it could feed off, and the memories that the symbiote could access let it see how much potential the host had. The host, Harry, had already fought and survived things that most humans his age would not, he had survived things that even adult wizards wouldn't. The symbiote could detect intelligence and power within the boy and planned to make full use of it.
However, Harry wasn't without his downsides, one example would be his body. Years of running from his cousin and quidditch had made sure that Harry wasn't as bad as he could have been, the Dursley's had starved and overworked him for years, making it so that he wasn't as physically strong or fit as he could have been, thankfully that wouldn't be a problem for much longer as the symbiote could easily deal with that. Harry's personality could do with some work as well, given how messed up it had been thanks to the Dursley's and the chaotic mess that was Hogwarts and its population of students and teachers. The symbiote could detect the intelligence that the boy did his best to hide, partly due to a desire to fit in, partly because he didn't want to upset his friends and also because of the damned Dursley's.
'Hmm, the Dursleys' have been causing a lot of problems for my host,' The symbiote thought to himself. 'maybe I can convince him to kill them, I'd be doing him and the world a favour by stopping them from being able to reproduce and spread.
The next day Harry woke up with a deep yawn escaping his mouth, it took him several minutes before he was able to force himself to leave the comforting warmth of his bed, but eventually, he had been able to. After completing his daily ablutions he had headed downstairs to the bar where he found Tom waiting behind the bar, with a couple of people sitting at the tables nearby.
"Morning Tom." Harry politely greeted as he sat down at the bar and picked up a menu.
"Morning to yourself, Mr Potter." Tom nodded to him while cleaning the bar. "Good sleep?" He asked.
"It was good," Harry confirmed. "how about you? Did you sleep okay?"
"Not as long as I'd like," Tom said with a small chuckle. "but well enough. Now, I suppose that you're hungry, what can I get you?"
"Hmm, well, Minister Fudge told me that you make a 'delightful' English breakfast, so I suppose I'll try that," Harry answered. "by the way, I'm sorry, but can you make it quick? I'm just really hungry today." Harry wasn't entirely sure why, but at this current point in time, he felt like he could beat Ron or maybe even Dudley in an eating contest.
"Ah, I suppose that's just natural for your age," Tom shrugged. "give me a few, Mr Potter, I'll be right back with your breakfast. And I'll see what drinks we have available at the moment.
"Drinks?" Harry blinked.
"Ones suitable for underage children, yes," Tom grinned before walking off. "I'll be back soon." He called before heading out. Meanwhile, Harry impatiently waited for Tom to come back, impatiently tapping his finger on the bar the whole time. Harry wasn't sure how long it was before Tom returned, but it felt like an eternity. As soon as Tom returned and placed Harry's breakfast down, the boy-who-lived wasted no time before digging into the delicious-looking food in front of him like it was his last meal on Earth. "Wow, you really are hungry." Tom couldn't help but stare at the boy in front of him who was doing his best impersonation of a black hole, the boy did remember his manners and tried to eat his food as politely as possible, but he was still shoving it down his mouth at a surprising rate.
"That was good," Harry commented once he had finished.
"Well, I'm glad you liked it," Tom smiled at him. "I'll be sure to let the chef know and..."
"Um...is there any chance I can have it again?" Harry asked hopefully.
"You...you want another full English breakfast?" Tom blinked.
"Um...yes, yes please." Harry nodded.
"Oh...okay," Tom said after a few seconds pause. "I'll be right back."
After eating the second load of breakfast Harry retreated upstairs to his room, though he was really disconcerted by the fact that his stomach had started growling on the way up the stairs. Hadn't he had enough? He never ate this much, before it would be a big struggle for him to just eat one English breakfast, once Harry entered his room the wave of hunger intensified and he started struggling with resisting the idea to go back down and demand more food. He was pretty sure that by the end of the day the whole of Diagon Alley would be telling each other that Harry Potter was a massive eating machine.
Harry slowly walked forwards and spotted Hedwig sitting on her perch and eyeing him with concern.
"I'm fine, Hedwig, my stomach is just messed up." Harry stopped in front of her, suddenly aware of how much he was sweating. He could feel his hair pressed against his forehead, his eyes tried to close against his will and he found it much harder to stay upright. Hedwig gave him a disbelieving hoot. "Yeah, fair enough, I'm starting to think this is probably worse than I originally..." Harry trailed off, his eyes narrowing at Hedwig, his breathing growing shallower.
"Hoot?" Hedwig looked at him questioningly.
"I I.." Harry trailed off upon hearing the sound of wings flapping, a second later a pigeon had landed on the open windowsill. Harry's vision glazed over and his mind temporarily blanked, the next thing he felt was something scratching down the inside of his neck. " ..what the..." Harry blinked his eyes repeatedly until his vision was clear enough for him to see what had happened. In his hands was the pigeon that had been on the window, except it was horrifyingly missing its head, blood squirted down from the stump where its head had originally been and slide down until it landed on his hand. He and Hedwig stared with horror at the decapitated bird, neither of them moving. "What the..
." Harry paused as he realised just what had slid down his throat a few moments ago.
Dropping the bird's body like it was bad news, he rushed to the bathroom, slamming open the door and sliding down to his knees in front of the toilet. He opened the seat and was barely able to get his mouth over it in time, he gasped just before the contents of his breakfast shot out of his stomach and into the toilet, after what felt like an eternity, Harry pulled his head back, but quickly stopped when he felt the need to vomit again. He once more positioned his mouth over the toilet, but once he did so he saw the pigeon's head floating in the mix of toilet water and vomit, seeing it staring back at him was the catalyst needed to speed up Harry's stomach evacuation.
"W...what is happening to me?" Harry gasped out once he was done, moving away from the toilet and sitting against the nearest wall, blood and vomit on his mouth plus blood on his hands caused him to close his eyes in an attempt to ignore what was happening long enough for him to think. "I can't believe I just did that, oh crap, Hedwig saw that." Harry groaned, realising that his relationship with his owl had more than likely just gotten a lot more awkward.