After all this time

The Trip To Diagon Alley

Ron's point of view

I rapped a pattern into the brick wall behind The Leaky Cauldron, causing each brick, one by one, to fold back, leaving in its place, an archway big enough for a few people to walk through at a time. I stepped over the threshold, followed by Harry.

This is our second time to Diagon Alley this week. So far, Jacob has only come once for all we knew. It was the other day when Richards, Harris, and Landen were here. This time, we have a lead.

Last night during the meeting, Porter suggested Apparation as a way of getting to Diagon Alley. I mentally scolded myself for not thinking that Jacob could possibly get into Knockturn Alley through Apparation. So today, Harry and I brought the invisibility cloak with us. No one else knew that we had it. We could use this as an advantage, if Harry could still fit under it.

We walked along the cobbled stone pathway, leading down the street of buildings. Making our way down to the end where George's shop was. It was still early in the morning, so the crowd wasn't so heavy. It was just enough for Harry to get in the back to slip on the cloak without any suspicions.

I walked around looking for George in hopes of seeing him before dinner on Sunday.

"Hey George!" I somewhat yelled over the tops of people's heads.

"Hey! Ron, what are you doing here?"

"Harry and I had to come to Diagon Alley today, so we thought we would just stop in and say hullo."

"I'm glad you did. Where's Harry?"

Just then, I felt something brush past my arm.

"Stall, I'll be back soon." I recognized Harry's voice then felt a slight breeze as he past and headed out the door as a family of three came in.

"I think he went to the loo, but I'm sure he'll stop in before we leave." I lied. Ever since I became and Auror, I've been better and better at lying when I needed to. I didn't want to lie to him, but it was necessary if we wanted to keep our cover.

"Well, I need to get back to work but I'll see you both later?"

I smiled at my brother and nodded as he turned on his heel, and walked off to help a little girl, that looked to be around eleven years old, reach a box of what I recognized to be Puking Pastilles.

I walked around and looked at the work that my brother had done. I was so proud at what he'd accomplished. Back in fifth year, mum would never have believed anyone that told her, her son was going to run a successful joke shop. She was of course supportive of him and Fred none-the-less, but I can tell, even now, that she is sometimes surprised at how well the shop is doing.

It was a while before I left the shop and decided to walk around. While I walked, I heard people whispering around me. I was used to this of course, but it still caught me off guard when someone came up to me and asked if I was the Ron Weasley that went off hunting Voldemort with Harry Potter and our other friend Hermione Granger.

This is precisely what happened today.

A little girl that looked no more than eight, let go of her mother's hands and walked up to me as I was walking.

"Hi." She said. Her voice was small and she looked up at me with big brown eyes that for a moment, made me think of Hermione. It also didn't help that she had bushy brown hair, just like Hermione's was, back when we first met. 

"Hey." I smiled down at the girl. I didn't always enjoy random people coming up to me, but the little kids were so cute. With big eyes, and timid smiles, I couldn't help but stop and talk to them for at least a minute or so.