Gathering Mold in Silence- Chapter 1
Living in Silence
Harry Potter sat in the second bedroom of number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging Surrey. A photo album lay opened in his lap, and a sad smile graced his face as he gazed down at it. Slowly closing, it, he tucked the album away in his trunk before locking it. The Dursleys were begrudgingly taking him along with them to St. Louis on a well-deserved vacation. This, in Harry’s opinion, was less than well earned by the whale of a man.
“Harry” His uncle yelled up the stairs. “If you don’t get down here, boy, we’ll leave you.”
“Coming, Uncle Vernon.” He hopped up and carefully carried his trunk down; , as soon as they got back, they were going straight to the station to be rid of him. That was in three weeks and he couldn’t wait.
The car ride to the airport was tiring, with Dudley complaining about the radio station, then that he was hungry, even though he had eaten enough food for four people before leaving. Scoffing in his mind, Harry leaned against the window and watched as they made their way toward the airport.
When they arrived, Harry grabbed his own luggage and started to haul it after the retreating Dursleys. Thank god that Vernon had given him his own ticket as they shifted out of sight.
“Bloody relatives,” he murmured to himself. Locating the gate, he walked on and found his seat. It was far away from the, Dursleys, but at least it was a window seat. A strange man was sitting next to him. Sliding in, Harry took his seat.
“Hello,” he said to the blond man.
“Hello,” the man answered back with an American accent.
Their conversation went still after that, until the man decided to talk.
“My name is Ted Forrester.” He smiled, but Harry noticed it didn’t quite reach his eyes
.
“Harry Potter.” They shook hands oddly and sat back. Not another word was spoken the entire twelve or thirteen-hour flight. Harry dozed in and out, or just stared out the window.
The captain’s voice spoke over the sound system about landing in a few minutes. When the plane had landed, Ted was surprisingly the first one up and out of the door. This made it easy for Harry to catch up to his relatives before they abandoned him.
Uncle Vernon had rented a car for them to use. They all piled in. Vernon had gotten a paper in the airport and Aunt Petunia was reading out loud.
“Vernon, vampires are legal here,” she squawked.
“What?” Vernon’s eyes almost popped out of his head.
“They are legal citizens,” she peeped.
“Wow,.” Harry whispered, too quietly for anyone to hear.
“Such freakishness.” Vernon glared out the windshield.
When they arrived at the hotel Harry was given a ‘nice’ place on the floor, like usual.
“Boy, we’re going out to lunch, stay out of our sight until ten o’clock. If you're even one minute late, we are kicking you out, do you understand?” Uncle Vernon said, his hand on the door knob.
“Yes, Uncle Vernon.” Harry nodded.
When he was sure they were gone, Harry grabbed a pamphlet and decided to do some sight seeing. He'd spend some of the money he had exchanged at Gringotts.
“Well, let’s start at the Arch,” Harry said, staring at the piece of paper in his hands. A picture caught his eye. It looked like a normal circus at first, but when he looked closer, the caption under it read,. ‘The Circus of the Damned is full of creepy creatures that would give any tourist a jolt’. Seeing that it opened just after sun down, he decided to occupy himself until then.
The time passed quickly and Harry had spent only ten dollars by the time he headed towards the Circus.Sadly, it was on a shirt that read ‘Chuck Norris is where babies come from’. He was proudly wearing it.
When the Circus came into sight, he froze. Magic was pooling from it, making his skin crawl. Lightly touching the wand in his pocket, he made his way in. Illegal magic or not, if he had to protect himself he would. Making it past the door, he made his way through and looked at the many attractions.
A few of them made him snort down his laughter, really, a skinless man with no blood. But soon he found his way to a person calling out,
“See the last Lamia in existence, followed by the Werewolf extravaganza ”
Buying a ticket, he went through the curtains and found a seat in the crowded arena. The lights dimmed and a hissing sound filled the room. Most people screamed, but Harry sat still and listened to the voice.
“Come, my children,” it hissed out.
A chorus of ‘yess mother’ followed the voice. When the lights came up, sitting in the middle of the ring was a snake woman. She slithered dangerously around, coming up and hissing at unsuspecting people; scaring them. Harry, being in the front, watched as she jumped up at the little girl seated to the right of him.
“Such a scrumptious little morsel,” She hissed at the girl.
“I hope you are not thinking of snacking on her,” Harry said to the Lamia.
She whipped towards him, and gave him a look before answering.“No, but I would snack on you.” She smiled and slithered off.
“Hmm…” he answered to her retreating form.
After an hour of her and her tricks, then twenty minutes of Were-wolves, it was over.
“Oh, thank goodness.” He stood, moving out with the mob.
People were leaving and he was about to follow, when someone said something to him.
“Little speaker, join me. It’s been such a long time since I spoke in my tongue.” He turned around and found the snake woman, minus her snake parts, standing in front of him.
“All right,” he hissed, and followed her down a hall, into what seemed to be her dressing room/flat.
“You are so young. My name is Melanie. What is yours?”
“Harry Potter.” She smiled.
“The one Voldemort is after.”
He backed up and almost tripped.
“I mean you no harm,.” she hissed. “I just know him from experience.”
“What experience?” He looked at her.
“He tried to kill me for my blood.”
“But as a Lamia you cannot die.”
“Exactly, my little one; he isn’t as smart as he claims to be.”
Suddenly there was a rough knock on the door.
“Melanie, if you are harming that boy you shall be punished,” came an enraged French voice from behind the door.
“Always thinking I’m up to no good,” she frowned. “Answer the door, would you, Harry?”
“Sure, Melanie.” He stood and unlocked the door, opening it to reveal a pale skinned, dark haired man along with his exact opposite: a blond with half of his face covered. Both reeked of magic and Harry let his face harden.
“Are you unharmed?” the man asked.
“I did not intend to harm him, Jean-Claude,” she pouted.
“We shall see.”
“Actually, sir, I came back here with her willingly, to talk.” Harry said matter-of-factly.
“To talk?” That came from the blond.
“Yes, to speak.” Melanie said.
“Hmm…” Jean-Claude glared at him. “He is under-aged,” he said, leering at the lamia
“I know. I did not intend to do anything sexual.”
Harry checked his watch and almost screamed; it was almost midnight. He was surely in trouble now.
“Shit,” he whisperd, dropping his arm.
“What?” Jean-Claude looked over at him.
“Oh, nothing.” he said. “I must be going, we should talk again, Melanie.” He smiled at her then let his face drop as he looked at the men, careful not to look them in the eye. He didn’t know if they knew legilimency, and he wasn’t going to risk it.
“Shall you visit again?”
“Yes, hopefully tomorrow.” He waved over his shoulder.
“Until then, child.”
“Until then.” He walked past the dumbfounded men.
By the time he got to the hotel it was twelve twenty, so he slowly made his way up in the elevator and to the Dursleys' door, where his trunk sat in the hallway. Grabbing it and toting it downstairs he walked into the lobby and out onto the street.
“Where the hell am I going to go now?” He huffed and sat on his trunk, taking out his wand. A bus shot around the corner and stopped in front of him. It said ‘the Knight Bus’ on it, and he smiled. A stout man hopped out.
“This is the Knight Bus, transport for the stranded Witch or Wizard. My name is William and I will be your conductor for tonight.” The man smiled and grabbed Harry’s trunk as he got on.
“Where is it you want to go?” William asked.
“A good hotel as close to the Circus of the Damned as possible.”
“Oh, I got a good place.”
“Jonathan, take us to the motel on Main Street, hope you don’t mind. But it’s a little cheaper. That’d be thirteen sickles.”
Handing him the money, Harry sat on a bed and watched as they zoomed through the abandoned streets. When they reached the motel he stepped off and William placed his trunk next to him. With a wave, the bus was gone.
Getting a room wasn’t hard, and the motel wasn’t all that bad. He slipped into his pajamas, slid under the covers, and slept. Is now sequential
Morning passed without him so much as stirring, but when noon passed his eyes blinked open.
“I must have been tired,” he mumbled and stretched.
When his stomach growled, he sighed. He had only had the small meal on the plane yesterday. To say he was hungry was an understatement.
Dressing quickly, he made the bed and stepped out into the afternoon sunlight. The street was bustling and cars honked nonstop. But the best thing was that there was no Uncle Vernon yelling at him to get up and make lunch. He was sure he was going to like it here.