｡+.*𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗜𝗥*+｡ [𝘿. 𝙈𝘼𝙇𝙁𝙊𝙔]¹

II. THE WALRUS, THE GIRAFFE, THE PIG & THE WIZARD

"Have you got everything? Your bag? Food? A change of clothes? Toothbrush? This won't take long, will it?" Dakota fussed as we sat in the living room waiting for Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts' Gamekeeper, to arrive an hour before my eleventh birthday and a week after Albus Dumbledore dropped--several emotional bombs on the Morrissey household.

Rolling my eyes, I tucked a loose red curl behind my ear.

"I have enough sandwiches and brownies to feed a small army," I stated dryly for the third time, "my bag is on my lap, and I don't know what time I'll be back. We're going to that wizard street--Diagon Alley--to get our things so it probably won't be until tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Dumbledore said he trusts Hagrid and, as wacko as he seemed, he probably wouldn't leave me in the hands of a crazed nutcase."

Honestly, though, I was every bit as much of a nervous wreck as Dakota.

I've had the clothes I'd wear--a worn band shirt featuring The Clash(to show Harry I have good taste in music)tucked into my newest pair of high-waisted denim jeans and forest green ballet flats with an ankle strap--folded on my nightstand by my bed for days, I've had two showers today, and I may, slightly, have been rehearsing what I'd say all week.

Today's the day--well, night--I meet Harry.

My twin brother.

Three days after I had more bombs dropped on me than the Blitz, Dumbledore wrote me, Alistair and Dakota to give us the heads up that Hagrid would be here today at about 10:45 pm(which was, as of riiight...now, exactly fifteen minutes ago)to take me to Harry and, from there, Diagon Alley(he sent a literal owl--like a full-on, feathery, winged bird--which is, apparently, a common practice in the wizarding world and the way they all communicate; Muggles have cell towers and postmen, wizards have owl mail--of course, we had no way of knowing that so, when a bloody owl swooped through the kitchen window, it freaked the hell out of everybody involved; it didn't help matters that it attacked Alistair when he chased it with a spatula before Dakota spotted the letter tied to its leg, figured out what was going on, and intercepted). Assuming that meant we'd be staying in a hotel or something overnight(it is around a two-hour drive from here to Surrey--and, you know, 11 pm), Dakota went overboard packing food(just in case they didn't have anything I liked there, in Surrey), clothes, toothpaste, you name it. It's either that or we're staying at the Dursley's tonight--and, frankly, I'd rather eat dirt than spend any more time around those people than necessary, and I haven't even met them yet.

(the fact that I had to face the people that abandoned me as a literal one-year-old potato because I 'look like my mum' and that, for some reason, inconvenienced them made me feel sick enough--the last thing I wanted to do was spend any more time in their house, and their presence, than I have to--).