On Monday morning, Claire stood in the hallway with her arms crossed.
“Do not let him place the house on a computer company,” she told Peter firmly.
Peter adjusted his coat.
“Emergency savings only.
We agreed.” Adrian and his father took the train into London.
The brokerage firm they visited was entirely ordinary, smelling of stale coffee and old paper.
Peter sat across from a tired-looking broker and opened a small investment account.
The initial deposit came from a limited portion of their savings, exactly as he and Claire had agreed.
When the paperwork was finished, Peter looked at Adrian.
“One successful prediction will earn more trust,” Peter said quietly.
“Certainty without proof earns nothing.” Adrian nodded and slid his short list across the desk.
The broker read through the names, asked several questions, and entered the purchases while Peter signed the final documents.
“Remember,” Peter said as they left the office.
“The family still needs money for food, even if the future contains computers.” Before heading back to Surrey, they detoured to Charing Cross Road and entered the Leaky Cauldron.
Peter stopped beside the bar.
“How are we supposed to write to him once he is at Hogwarts?
We do not own an owl.” Tom pointed toward a small outgoing-post counter at the end of the room.
“Leave your letters there,” he said.
“Hogwarts students can send replies directly home.” Peter studied the counter.
“And the owl knows where we live?” “Better than most delivery drivers.” Peter looked unconvinced but wrote the instructions in his notebook.
As they walked toward the courtyard to finish their shopping, a supplier entered the pub carrying a stack of brightly coloured boxes.
Adrian noticed the labels featured pictures of chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties, destined for the Hogwarts Express carts.
In Diagon Alley, Adrian picked up a protective leather wand case, replacement ink, and a few sweets for the upcoming train journey.
When he approached the till to pay for the ink, a pink screen appeared in his vision.
[SOCIAL MISSION: Convince the confident shop assistant to straighten your tie.] [Reward: Social Nerve Fragment ×2 and 20 PP.] [Failure Penalty: You stammer during your next conversation with an attractive witch.] Adrian looked at the witch behind the counter.
She was older, sharp-eyed, and clearly used to dealing with nervous university students.
He set his items down and deliberately loosened the knot of his tie.
“Excuse me,” Adrian said, leaning slightly against the counter.
“I start at Hogwarts next month, and I have been told my uniform looks like a disaster.
Could I get a professional opinion?” The witch looked at him, amused.
“Your uniform is fine.
Your tie is a mess.” “I was hoping you could fix it,” Adrian said easily.
She rolled her eyes but crooked one finger at him.
“Come closer.” Adrian leaned across the counter.
The witch caught both ends of his tie and used them to pull him the final few inches toward her.
Her knuckles brushed the front of his shirt as she tightened the knot and smoothed the fabric down his chest.
“The tie was not the problem,” she said.
“What was?” “You knew perfectly well how to fix it.” Adrian smiled.
“I wanted a professional opinion.” She gave the knot one final tug, leaving their faces close.
“Try that excuse on every shop witch in Diagon Alley and someone will eventually use the tie to strangle you.” “So I should be selective.” “You should be less obvious.” She released him and returned to the till, still smiling.
[MISSION COMPLETE] [Social Nerve Fragment ×2] [20 PP] [PP Balance: 265] The remaining weeks filled themselves with packing, practice, and Claire discovering new things Adrian had forgotten to prepare.
One afternoon, Claire stood in the kitchen with an iron, meticulously pressing magical name tags into the collars of his new robes.
Adrian didn’t complain.
If his clothes decided to sprout legs or walk away in the Hogwarts laundry, he wanted proof of ownership.
A week later, a brown owl arrived carrying a short Hogwarts form that required Peter’s signature.
Peter tied the completed form back onto its leg and carried the bird into the garden.
“How do you know where to go?” he asked.
“Do you read the address, or do you simply recognise magical handwriting?” The owl stared at him for several seconds, spread its wings, and flew away with the form.
Peter watched it disappear over the houses.
“That answered nothing.” After several weeks of rolling quills, lifting parchment, and dropping increasingly heavy objects, Adrian’s practice finally produced another breakthrough.
Lumos was now bright enough to read by without flickering, and the Levitation Charm successfully lifted a heavy book off his desk for two entire seconds before dropping it with a thud.
[Practice Milestone: First Sustained Levitation] [Levitation Charm Fragment ×1] [Levitation Charm: 2/10] Adrian checked the investment account near the end of August.
The numbers had barely moved.
He closed the notebook and returned to packing his trunk.
During their final weekend together, the family took a trip to the coast.
They ate beside the water, walked along the crowded promenade, and spent an entire afternoon without discussing Hogwarts.
At dinner that Sunday evening, Claire looked across the table at the empty space where Adrian’s school trunk currently sat in the hallway.
“It’s going to feel very empty around here,” Claire said quietly.
Peter smiled into his tea.
“We could always start over.
Make another one.” Claire gave him a look that Adrian strictly refused to interpret.
August 31st.
Adrian’s packed trunk sat waiting beside his bedroom door.
His neutral Hogwarts robes hung neatly from the front of the wardrobe, waiting to receive their house colours tomorrow.
Downstairs, he said goodnight to Claire and Peter with far more feeling than he wanted to admit.
It was the first time he was leaving home for an entire term.
He returned to his room, turned out the lights, and lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
A pink screen hovered in the darkness.
[MAIN MISSION: GO TO HOGWARTS] [Reach Hogwarts on September 1st] [Time Remaining: 12 Hours] Adrian stared at the glowing numbers.
He couldn’t sleep.
Tomorrow, Hogwarts would stop being a place he remembered from films and become his real life.