Chapter 127: Description, Knights Bus, Godrics Hollow (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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Quinn stood in front of a full-sized mirror inside his room, watching his reflection in the mirror. He wore a well-fitting white shirt and black denim pants layered with a hunter-green blouson jacket. His pants were fastened around his waist with a tan belt, and down in his feet were a pair of brown leather loafers over checkered grey socks.
Quinn's appearance had evolved and transformed as he grew up. He was going to turn fifteen years old in a week and had changed a lot from his pre-teen eleven-years-old self at the start of Hogwarts to today, where he was a budding teen in his growing years.
Over the years, the innocent look of a child had transformed into a boyish youth of a teen. The smart appearance that Quinn was known for had gained a tinge of roguishness that people would miss if they weren't looking closely.
His hairstyle, which was tapered on sides and back while the top kept short, giving him an easy to maintain Ivy league haircut, had slightly changed with his age. Now Quinn's matte-black hair was kept short on the sides and back while the top part was of a medium length and styled into choppy, textured combed back layers with a side part.
Quinn's wiry frame that came with his young age and daily workouts was finally experiencing change, with puberty kicking into full effect. In the last few months, his chest had widened, and not only his arms and legs grew faster, but he also gained some height, finally pushing past the hundred seventy centimeter mark and stopping at hundred seventy-six.
And the final change that came with puberty was Quinn's voice. His vocal pitch deepened by nearly an octave. And the process of voice change to his adult voice finally started and would continue to deepen until his eighteenth or nineteenth birthday, as magical humans reached physical maturity by that age. After that, aging slowed down because of their increased lifespan than their non-magical counterpart.
The air and vibe around Quinn had also changed, not because of his age but because of his magic. Magic was an essential aspect of his life, maybe even the most vital part of his life. Quinn's attitude and personality were deeply tied to his magic.
When Quinn had lost his magic, he rarely spoke to anyone and would like to remain alone rather than spend time with anyone. He became so obsessed with regaining his magic that Quinn pretty much ignored every person in his life and acted that he and his magic were the only two existences in the world.
Quinn lost his magic, regained it while suffering from pain. He came very close to dying from injuries and Dementors and had to time travel to save his life. Learned a magic that was much higher than his capabilities, beyond what he was currently capable of. And finally met with Dumbledore and got out without getting his mind read.
After all those ups and downs in a single year, Quinn had come out with a new level of maturity, confidence about his magical capabilities, and faith that he could come out of situations no matter what. He was much more comfortable with himself and felt secure with his magic beside him. And the trip to Denmark with the apparition lessons had given him the magic that increased his ability to move around, providing Quinn with a sense of freedom.
If previously, Quinn had a hidden and reserved attitude to his public persona, now he was coming out of his shell. For the first time since coming to this world, Quinn truly felt safe. He knew that with his family around, he would be safe from most dangers.
But Quinn always had that sense of urgency in the back of his head to get stronger so that he could be safe on his own. To be able to protect himself from dangers on his own without depending on others.
That was Quinn West's thing: On His Own.
In many of Quinn's retrospective sessions, he thought about why he had such a terrible reaction to a wand that clearly suited him and had chosen him to be its wielder. The answer that Quinn came up with was his view of magic: he wanted to be self-sufficient, free from any form of support and dependence, and that carried over to his magic.
Quinn wanted his magic to be always present with him so that if one day he was dropped buck naked into an unknown place, he would be able not only be able to survive but also return home safely with ease. But a wand stopped Quinn from achieving that. Take the magical focus from a magic-user, and except for a handful of people, everyone else would essentially lose their magic and be the same as non-magicals.
Even those handful of people couldn't access their full capabilities if one took away their preferred choice of focus from them. But Quinn could confidently say that he was the same no matter what the situation.
And now here he was, standing in front of a full-sized mirror inside his room, straightening out his semi-casual clothes while checking them out to see if they were proper and if he looked presentable or not. Soon he had to leave for the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollows for dinner with the Potter family.
”This will do,” nodded Quinn after confirming that his outfit was appropriate for the occasion. He turned away from the full-sized mirror beside which hung beside his closet and walked to his bed.
From the bed top, he picked up three white pockets shaped objects and one by one applied them to the inner lining of his hunter-green jacket. When white of the pocket-shaped fabric would touch the dark green fabric of the inner lining, threads would appear and stitch the white secure to the green, and then the white color would change to match the green.
These were Quinn's trusty detachable pockets, spelled to have an expanded inside them. The idea had come to Quinn in his second: the year in which he had just begun working with fabrics and leather. Quinn had taken inspiration from a certain blue robotic cat, who had a half-moon-shaped pocket that held numerous fascinating gadgets.
The three pockets didn't hold gadgets from the future. But the pockets did store the things Quinn wanted to carry with him: vials of numerous potions, safety equipment, a couple of tools, a lot of chocolate, two decks of cards, coins, and other miscellaneous things that Quinn always wanted on hand.
”Alright, I am ready. Let's go,” said Quinn before exiting his room and walking to the general study of the mansion.
He entered the study to find the person he was searching for and found Ms. Rosey sitting in the sport that was usually reserved for her, and from the looks of it, she was working on the monthly budget and inventory of the West mansion.
”Ms. Rosey, I'm leaving for the dinner at Potters,” informed Quinn to the only adult in the house. Lia was in France with her friends while George and Elliot were out for business.
Ms. Rosey looked up from the account books at Quinn and gave him a look over, examining his outfit and judging if it was proper for the function he was going to attend.
”I still don't understand why you enjoy muggle clothing so much,” sighed Ms. Rosey. The old caretaker was a conservative lady and didn't understand the appeal of clothing from the non-magical society. ”When will you return from the Potters?”
Seeing that Ms. Rosey didn't critique his clothing meant that it passed her check and got her approval, meaning that he was good to go.
”It will end quickly, from what I am guessing. I will go there, converse a little before dinner time, enjoy a meal and wrap up things with a short after-meal talk,” shrugged Quinn. ”I'm not particularly close to the Potter children, so I think it will be back just a little after grandfather and uncle come back home.”
”Do they have the floo prepared for your arrival?”
”I'm not traveling via the floo-network,” answered Quinn with a shake of his head. ”I will be taking the Knight bus to Godric's Hollows, and then I will walk to the Potter cottage.”
”Again, with the Knights bus, you have been using that service a lot, haven't you?”
Ever since returning from Denmark, Quinn had stopped using floo-travel as a mode of transportation altogether. Instead, he had shifted to Knights bus to get around. Taking the bus was time-consuming, but it was all for the sake of magic.
”Ms. Rosey, I finally know apparition,” grinned Quinn. ”I've to know the places so that I can pop by anytime I want. The Knight bus simply allows me to travel places I can't travel by a floo-fireplace, especially the muggle ones. My current long-time goal is to map the entire country, so I can get anywhere via apparition.”
Apparition required the user to have memory or a clear image of the destination they wanted to visit. And that clear image could only be obtained by visiting the place and couldn't be replicated by the destination's image.
So Quinn, while he was outside of Hogwarts, was trying to use his time to go to important places so that he could increase the destinations he could travel to.
”But you can use the floo-fireplace to travel to the Potters,” pointed out Ms. Rosey.
”Yes,” nodded Quinn and then grinned in reply. ”but the Knight bus is so much more fun.”
Ms. Rosey sighed at the teen in front of her and lightly waved her hand. ”Alright, off you go. Remember to maintain decorum, go straight to the Potter cottage and return directly. Don't take things from strangers, don't follow anyone you don't know, and if in trouble, immediately apparate. If you can't apparate or get out of trouble, you know how to send an emergency signal.”
The emergency signal was a blaring alert system that Quinn had set up inside the West mansion. Everybody in the West family wore a piece of jewelry connected to the alert system in the manor. If, in any case, they were in trouble, the family member could use the jewelry to fire off the alert inside the mansion. Effectively send an SOS signal to get help.
”Ms. Rosey, I'm not a child anymore. You don't have to repeat that every time I go outside,” pouted Quinn while touching the thin silver chain necklace with a hexagon piece hanging from it around his neck. This was the jewelry Quinn had chosen for himself and was connected to the emergency/SOS system inside the manor.
Ms. Rosey didn't grace him with a reply and went back to work while ignoring Quinn. To her, Quinn would always be a child.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn walked out of the West mansion gate, which he had been using a lot these days. As he exited, the enormous gate, which was slightly open, closed back up, and the chains that locked it went back around the two panels of the gate, binding the two together before the lock snapped into place.
”Maybe, I should talk to grandfather about changing this gate,” thought Quinn.