Managed to finish another chapter today.
Hope Yall are doing well.
I appreciate it sincerely.
I wish I could make this my job.
But I’m not sure I’m good enough for that.
I’m just doing something I enjoy, so I really appreciate the support.
Diagon Alley was just as magical as Leon remembered it.
Though… the memory of the Nagalok Bazaar overlapping the single little street made him feel like he was going to a tiny little shopping outlet in comparison.
But even with that comparison, the experience simply transformed to just feeling quaint instead of inferior.
And the company was significantly better.
Leon couldn’t really connect with his Dremora as ‘people’ because of their very nature.
Having just Mother accompanying him around a place was more like having a hyper realistic robot butler than an actual person.
Sure, Leon’s Dremora retained their own personalities and distinct egos.
But at a fundamental level.
They were purpose driven to obey Leon.
Mother was still along for this trip.
But she was talking with Molly and Arthur.
Leon was accompanying Ron, Harry, and Ginny for the most part.
The twins were too independent to stay with the group.
And Percy had apparently done all his shopping alone already.
Percy had become a little more somber over the course of last year when Barty Crouch Snr got caught up in all that fallout from the Pettigrew reveal.
But had seemingly become more determined than ever to become the Minister of Magic someday.
“Do you think we should stop and get another Owl for Aunt Petunia?
Romeo’s been doing a good job.
But he’s getting run ragged by her.
Maybe get her a Juliete to complete the pair?” Harry asked as the group made their way through Diagon Alley.
“Up to you mate!” Ron barely got out around a pumpkin pasty he was devouring like a savage.
Leon shrugged, “Looks like Aunt Molly is excited to get us to the bookstore.
Some famous author is doing a book signing.”
Leon looked at the list of Second Year supplies once more to remind himself that Lockhart’s books were not on the list this year.
Leon had no idea who would end up being this year’s DADA instructor.
But he did know that Professor Quirrell was stepping down from the position and returning to being the Muggle Studies professor.
There were two books that were required for the Second Years in DADA: The Dark Arts: A Practical Guide to Recognition and Defense, by Aurora Fairclough.
And: Dangerous Creatures of Britian, by the Ministry of Magic.
“Do either of you know who’s going to be Professor Quirrell’s replacement?” Leon asked absent mindedly as he looked over everything else on the list.
“”No Idea Mate.”” Ron and Harry said at the exact same time before looking at each other and laughing in surprise.
The crowd of mainly middle-aged witches that surrounded the bookstore was annoying.
But at least inside the store there was an orderly line to the desk that the fraud was currently signing his books at.
Leon would need to send in a tip to Rita Skeeter about Lockhart’s shady business of stealing stories.
That’s the kind of reporting she loved.
Getting to tear down a famous author would have her salivating at the mere thought of it.
Fortunately, the Weasleys, Harry and Leon all made their purchases and were able to leave the store without incident… Completely without incident.
Malfoy never showed up.
No confrontation between Arthur and Lucius.
No Diary slipped into Ginny’s books.
After the peaceful bookstore Leon started running through scenarios in his mind.
How… Why?
What exactly had changed?
Malfoy in the books had planted the Diary as a sort of petty attack on Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley, not knowing exactly what it was that he had planted on the little girl.
But now it wasn’t planted on Ginny.
But the fact that Dobby was trying to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts meant that Malfoy was unleashing the Diary into Hogwarts.
So, his target had to have changed.
But to who?
Leon’s mind was churning through possibilities left and right.
All of the potential political opponents, their children, and who would make sense.
“Hey Leon!” Harry snapped his fingers in front of Leon’s face, “You still in there mate?
What’s got you all worried?”
Leon blinked, coming out of analysis mode, “It’s nothing.
I’ve got a Riddle stuck in my head and I’m trying to solve it.”
“I’ll never understand how you ended up in Hufflepuff.” Ron said with a grin, “You are way too much like them.”
Leon gave a dismissal wave, “Just how the sorting works I suppose… Ah, I just remembered something!”
Leon pulled out a vial of Phoenix Tears and turned to Harry, “Sorry.
While I was traveling, I completely forgot about birthdays.
This is my belated gift to you.
A vial of Phoenix Tears.” He handed Harry the vial under Ron’s astonished gaze.
That single vial was probably worth more Galleons than Ron had ever seen in one place.
“Thanks mate!” Harry said taking the vial and stuffing it into his bag, “I figured you just forgot.
Did you like my gift?”
Leon pulled out the Quill that Harry had gifted him, “Never leave home without it.” he said with a smirk.
“Glad you like it.”
“The real surprise was that Hermione Granger sent me a present.” Leon said, “Now I feel like I have to send her one… But I don’t know her birthday, and also… What do I get a girl as a present?”
“Askin the wrong question mate.” Ron said with a shrug, “The right one is, What Book do I get for her that she hasn’t already read?”
Leon looked at Ron in astonishment, “Sometimes you say things that actually make real sense you know that?”
“I always make sense mate.” Ron waggled his eyebrows, “Not my fault you don’t always understand.”
“Did Ron just call me stupid?” Leon asked.
Harry laughed, “You said it!
“Aunt Molly!
they are bullying me!” Leon used his ultimate trump card.
Like that the rest of the shopping day proceeded.
Harry did end up getting his Aunt Petunia a second Owl and named it Juliete to complete the pair.
Fred and George were acting suspicious halfway through the day when they returned to the group.
But… when were they not acting suspicious?
Leon ended up selling a few vials of Phoenix Tears at the apothecary to purchase a bunch of magical plants that he didn’t have in the hunting grounds already.
He would hand them off to the Nukelavee at some point.
In general, it was a very good day.
Marred only by the fact that the Diary had escaped Leon’s clutches.
Otherwise, it was fun.
Some shopping, eating ice-cream, and exploring Diagon Alley.
By the end of the day though, Leon was ready for an actual sleep.
He hardly ever slept for real.
But he felt like today was a good day for it.
“Gasket, would you please make sure that I wake up in time to head to the train station?” Leon asked the elves that were bustling about.
“Gasket will do!” they said in their perfect unison way that sounded like one voice.
With that Leon laid down and allowed himself the sweet embrace of genuine sleep.
∞∞∞
“You are an awfully mean little Diary Tom.
I’m going to put you in time out.” the words were written across the diary’s pages and sank in before new text emerged.
“What did I say?
I assure you I meant no offence!
I am simply trying to Help you.”
“You laughed at what I told you… and you meant it in a mean way!
So, you are going to be in time out for a little while.
I’ll try not to forget about you.”
“No wai-”
The Diary was snapped closed and shoved into the bottom of a trunk.
A young girl shaking her head as she pondered whether or not the Diary would learn its lesson.
Then… she promptly forgot about it.
∞∞∞
Arriving at Kings Cross station, Leon waited until the Weasley’s showed up with Harry in tow.
Everyone moving quickly so as to not be late.
The moment that Leon, Ron, and Harry tried to enter platform 9 3/4s the brick wall became solid and the three of them ended up crashing.
“What’s going on?
Why cant we get in?” Harry asked after standing up and brushing himself off.
“If we don’t get to school with everyone else, we’ll be expelled!” Ron cried.
Leon shook his head, “Don’t be so dramatic.
They wouldn’t expel us.
Anyway, I’ve got the solution.
Gasket!”
Gasket appeared with a ‘crack’ of displaced air.
“Young Master called?” Gasket asked.
“Yes, a bad elf made the entrance to the platform not let us in.
Can you fix it?” Leon asked
Gasket’s heads examined the brick wall for a moment before they snapped their fingers.
Nothing visible happened but Gasket beamed, “Gasket fixed!
Was just a barrier over the wall!
Bad elf is also weak elf!
No imagination!”
“Thanks Gasket, you’re the best!” Leon said as they all moved through the brick wall unobstructed.
“Where were you three?!!
Quick get on the train or you’ll miss it!” Molly’s voice sounded out the moment the three of them crossed the threshold.
“The wall didn’t let us through!” Ron explained as they rushed to one of the open train cars, “Love you mum!”
“See you Aunt Molly!” Leon called out as they boarded.
Ron, and Harry were both dragging their big trunks through the corridor looking for an empty cabin when Leon realized that Gasket had tagged along, “Mind helping them with the trunks?”
“Master knows!
Gasket lives to serve.” They snapped their fingers and the trunks floated into the air behind them, “Or is it that we serve to live?”
“That depends, would you die if you didn’t serve?” Leon asked.
“Gasket would definitely die if they didn’t get to serve!
Life without service is like trying to breath water.” Gasket sounded aghast at the thought of not serving.
“There’s always gillyweed.” Leon remarked.
“Then it be poison water Master.” Gasket shuddered, “Life without meaning.”
Leon patted the elves’ shoulder, “Don’t worry, you’ll always have meaning to me.”
Gasket teared up but put on a brave face as they moved down the corridor and found an empty cabin.
The trunks floated up into the racks.
Then Gasket vanished with ‘crack’, leaving the three boys to the cabin.
“Your elf slash elves are weird.” Ron said with a shake of his head, Harry nodded along with that sentiment.
“I like Gasket.” Harry said, “But Ron’s right, they’re pretty weird.”
Leon just rolled his eyes.
Of course they were weird, not only were they house elves, they were conjoined twins that acted as a single unified, whole being.
“How are you enjoying the Chess Set I gave you?” Leon asked to change the subject.
Ron lit up, “The set can actually beat me now!
Usually only one time out of three or five.
Only strange thing is that they keep trying to get me to convert to their religion.
Did you add that in there?”
Leon raised a brow at that, “No… What is this religion?”
“Well, they call their ‘God’ The Father of Coldharbour.
Apparently, he’s the one who made Vampires, and has dominion over souls and all undead.
Spooky evil overlord vibes.
They say that He’s the best ‘God’ and that He put them into the Chess Pieces and gave them everlasting purpose.
They are fanatics I tell you!” Ron gesticulated wildly as he explained, “When I asked why they would want to be Chess Pieces they said it doesn’t matter, that purpose and duty is the greatest honor they can imagine.”
“Do you believe that its actually people in those pieces?” Leon asked.
Ron shook his head, “Not a chance.
Dad inspected them, even had Dumbledore check them out.
No dark magic or anything.
Just whoever made the set must have been really weird and gave them a strange personality.”
“Huh.” Leon pulled out one of his notebooks and made a note to ask his Dremora about the Chess pieces comments.
If the Dremora really did enjoy being Bound, then maybe he could use it as a reward?
In TES lore it was usually considered a punishment or an ill fate.
But maybe it wasn’t like that with his Dremora.
Neither Harry nor Ron found Leon’s note taking to be odd.
It was something that he did all the time, so they simply transitioned to talking between themselves.
The train ride proceeded as usual.
Arrival at the Hogsmead station, then departure to the castle grounds on Thestral Drawn Carriages was yet again a sight to behold… And the castle had visibly changed.
There were a dozen towers that hadn’t been there last year.
Red and Gold banners flew on the wind, somehow perfectly distinguishable even in the dark.
“I forgot that the House-cup actually changes the castle.” Leon said as they flew towards the grounds, “I didn’t even pay attention to who won the Cup last year.”
Harry and Ron looked at each other then at Leon, “How?
At the Leaving Feast it got announced, the castle changed around us!”
“And it was mostly my contributions that got us the win over Slytherin!” Ron said while puffing up his chest, “Professor McGonagall gave me 50 points for winning at that Cheese Eating Chess Tournament you did.
Then throughout the year she challenged me like a dozen times!
Gave me 10 points every time I beat her.”
Harry nodded along, “Hermione came in second in contribution, just doing really good at classes got her a lot of points.
Me on the other hand… I was the one who lost us the most points.”
Ron shook his head, “That’s not your fault Harry.
Professor Snape was just being an arse!”
Pretty soon they found themselves going their separate ways at the Great Hall.
Leon went to the Hufflepuff table while his friends went to the Gryffindor table.
Looking up at the staff table, Leon spotted a new figure among them.
Draped in a long dark cloak with hood completely concealing his features, he sat at the DADA instructor’s place at the table.
He was genuinely curious as to who this mysterious figure was.
As the sorting began Leon mostly tuned out the proceedings while he planned out what he was going to do the next day.
His goals were simple.
He hadn’t found the Diary, which meant that it was loose in the castle.
He needed to have the Mortys open the Chamber of Secretes for him and get the Basilisk to enter the Vivarium.
If he took away the actual danger that the Diary could unleash, it would mostly just be a game of cat and mouse trying to figure out who had it.
Leon was a lot more comfortable dealing with a defanged Tom Riddle than letting the Basilisk run free and potentially kill someone.
“Luna Lovegood!” The familiar name being called out snapped Leon out of his planning mode.
Leon hadn’t forgotten about Luna.
She was practically his favorite character in the books.
He had already decided that he was going to do his best to prevent people from bullying her while here.
First step would be to become her friend.
Second step would be telling Birdperson, who was currently in the rafters, to guard her and discourage bullies.
Leon watched the Sorting and was deeply surprised when Luna got sorted into Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw.
“Gotta remember… this is an AU Leon.
Barely anything will happen as you recall it.” he muttered to himself as he watched Luna make her way to the Slytherin Table with a fairy like grace that seemed whimsical.
Shaking his head, Leon paid attention to the resto of the sorting and was horrified to discover that out of 107 new students, there wasn’t even a single male.
Not a single one.
With the graduation of last semesters batch, the schools population had officially reach 98% female to 2% male students.
It was just a hair short of 99% female.
Hogwarts had practically become an all-female school.
“Well… our generation is screwed.” Leon muttered, Britian was in for some really tough times in the next ten to twenty years.
The Purebloods would be frantic to preserve their Pure status.
But the only options were going to end up marrying their daughters to muggles or reinstating old Coven/Polygamy laws.
The Weasley boys were probably going to become hot commodities.
Leon wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up with a dozen wives each.
After that thought occurred to him Leon suddenly froze.
He was included in that demographic, “Damnit”
After the Sorting Ceremony was over Dumbledore stood and began his address, “Before we quench our thirst and sate our hunger, I have a few announcements to make.
Firstly: The situation of the Third Floor Corridor has been resolved, and it is no longer out of bounds.
Secondly: Professor Quirrell has declined another year as Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor and is returning to his previous post of Muggle Studies Professor.
And Lastly: Please welcome out newest Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.
Sirius Black.”
The hooded figure stood with a flick of his wand, vanishing his cloak and hood to reveal himself to the students.
Standing there in a stylish suit with red and gold highlights.
He bowed a few times to all of the tables, waved and sat back down.
Leon glanced over to the Gryffindor table where Harry looked stunned.
Leon wondered how this year was going to turn out.
Hopefully everything would go smoothly.