James Potter and the New Marauders ~ A Harry Potter Fan-Fic

Chapter 29: In Which Albus Fawns Over Sea Urchins ~ Albus ~

Never a good sign, he thought, when the crows showed up.

- Justin Cronin

Chapter 29:

In Which Albus Fawns Over Sea Urchins

~ Albus ~

Spinalonga, Greece. A tiny island, on the northeast of Crete, which was a much larger island. The Island of the Lepers, that was how the Muggles called it. It hadn't housed any lepers for more than fifty years. Albus wondered how his parents had gotten the idea to travel there for vacation. It had left all three Potter children baffled.

Still, they were thrilled about it. The journey to the island was quite the adventure. First they drove to King's Cross Station. They parked the car in an alley and Harry cast a protective anti-theft spell over it, so it would be left undisturbed for the next two weeks. Then they found platform 5 ⅗. It turned out there were all kinds of platforms, whose existence Muggles were oblivious to, and plenty of them hosted trains to international destinations. On Platform 5 ⅗ a blue and black locomotive was waiting. Not particularly many wizards and witches were boarding and they were the only family in the train of 8:30. The train was named the Balkan Wanderer and it traveled through more countries of the Balkan Peninsula before winding up in Greece. It took them two days to get to Piraeus, which was the biggest port in the country. There they had to figure out the Muggle transport system and find the right bus to board on their ship from there. Albus realized how disorganized it was and wondered if Muggle busses in London were the same way. He hadn't had to use one yet.

The ship was a big, old cruise ship. They got comfortable in an overcrowded space filled with sofas and Lily Luna bought a packet overpriced popcorn to share with the boys. Every employee spoke English in an overexaggerated accent and all the announcements were also made in English so that was one problem gone.

"And where is this ship taking us?" James asked his parents.

"This will take us to Heraklion. It's one of the biggest cities of Crete according to this guide," Ginny explained, her nose buried in an English guide she had bought off the souvenir shop. She was dressed in a floral summer dress and flip flops. It was a rare sight to see their mother out of her witches' cloaks.

As it turned out, the Greeks had a very different perception of what a city was. London was about ten times bigger. Perhaps even twenty. That place was more like a town. A town with stoney fortress walls and impressive statues, but a town nonetheless. There was a dreamy look on James's eyes as he looked at the walls, tall and abandoned, with modern buildings built on top of some sections of them. Albus knew that his brother was craving to run across the most dangerous parts or climb to the tallest point to enjoy the view.

There were Muggle tourists everywhere. Especially Germans and Russians. The Potters didn't stay at the city long. They had a quick lunch at a tavern by the port, right at the base of the fortress's walls, where James couldn't climb, to his great disappointment. Then they asked for instructions and found the Muggle bus station that took them to the next city, where they found a boat to Spinalonga.

Spinalonga was even smaller than Albus had imagined.

"Dad? Is that island like the one where the Dursleys had taken you? The one with the lighthouse?" Albus asked.

Something flashed on Harry's eyes as he recalled his unpleasant trip with his uncle and aunt. He chuckled. "Nothing like it on so many levels." The five of them stood at the railing of the roaring, gasoline-powered boat, watching the small island become bigger, it's walls coming closer and looking taller and taller. What possible way would there be for walls to surround such a tiny place? Was it made to keep something out? Or someone in?