HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
chapter four
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S U N N Y C O U N T R I E S
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"Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested."
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It takes Harry and Lily several days to get used to their strange new freedom. Never before have they been able to get up whenever they want or eat whatever they fancy. They can even go wherever they please, as long as it's in Diagon Alley, and as this long cobbled street is packed with the most fascinating wizarding shops in the world, the twins feel no desire to break their word to Fudge and stray back into the Muggle world.
The two of them eat breakfast each morning in the Leaky Cauldron, where they like watching the other guests: funny little witches from the country, up for a day's shopping; venerable-looking wizards arguing over the latest article in Transfiguration Today; wild-looking warlocks, raucous dwarfs and, once, what looked suspiciously like a hag, who ordered a plate of raw liver from behind a thick woollen balaclava.
After breakfast Harry and Lily will go out into the backyard, take out either of their wands, tap the third brick from the left above the dustbin, and stand back as the archway into Diagon Alley opens in the wall.
They spend the long sunny days exploring the shops and eating under the brightly coloured umbrellas outside cafés, where their fellow diners are showing one another their purchases or else discussing the case of Sirius Black.
The two of them don't have to do their homework under the blankets by torchlight anymore; now they can sit in the bright sunshine outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, finishing all their essays with occasional help from Florean Fortescue himself, who, apart from knowing a great deal about medieval witch-burnings, gives Harry free sundaes every half an hour, which the boy shares with his sister.
Once the twins had refilled their money bags with gold Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts from their vault at Gringotts, they had to exercise a lot of self-control not to spend the whole lot at once.
They have to keep reminding themselves that they have five years to go at Hogwarts, and how it would feel to ask the Dursleys for money for spellbooks, to stop themselves from buying magical junk. Lily doesn't have anything that she's interested in (besides everything she sees), so she usually follows Harry wherever he goes.
The thing that tests Harry's resolution most appears in his favourite shop, Quality Quidditch Supplies, a week after they'd arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. Curious to know what the crowd in the shop is staring at, Harry takes Lily's hand to pull her along, edges his way inside and squeezes in amongst the excited witches and wizards until he glimpses a newly erected podium, on which is mounted -
"That's the most magnificent broom I've ever seen in my life."
"It's all right." Lily shrugs.
"Just come out - prototype," a square-jawed wizard is telling his companion.
"It's the fastest broom in the world, isn't it, Dad?" a boy younger than the twins squeaks, swinging off his father's arm.
"Irish International Side's just put in an order for seven of these beauties!" the proprietor of the shop tells the crowd.
"And they're favourites for the World Cup!"
A large witch in front of the twins moves, and they're able to read the sign next to the broom:
YOU ARE READING
Invisible (III)
FanfictionLily's going into her third year at Hogwarts with a headache because her visions have been appearing without warning all summer long. They only show one man. A man that betrayed her parents and got them killed, and is now out to get her twin brother...
