Chapter 263: Diagon Alley Outing (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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It was a fine Sunday morning.
Quinn sat on the breakfast table with a Quibbler issue in one hand that detailed the 'research trip' that the Lovegood family had taken to the lovely country of Sweden and a glass of apple juice in the other.
”Oh, this is a fun one,” said Quinn, reading a column by Luna. ”Did you know that more than half of Sweden is covered in forest, which equates to around the same size area-wise to the entirety of Britain? That's a lot of forest.”
There was a light popping sound inches over the table, and a stack of letters fell onto an empty spot (courtesy of Polly.) Elliot, who sat closest to the pile, reached over and picked it up. He looked at the name on every envelope and passed them onto their intended recipients seated around the table.
”Oh, it's a letter from Hogwarts,” said Elliot, looking at the last letter from Elliot.
Quinn, Ms. Rosey, and George all looked away from their reading material up at Elliot, who held a large square envelope. ”It must be your results,” said George for a sharp interest to appear in Ms. Rosey's eyes.
Elliot passed the letter above to the table to Quinn.
”Hmm? There's something hard inside here,” said Quinn, as he pressed the letter with his fingers. He made a swiping line with a finger, and the top crease of the letter tore away as if cut open with a letter-opener. Quinn titled the envelope for a badge to fall into his other palm.
”Oh, it's a Headboy badge,” said Quinn, holding the circular badge by the edges.
”Congratulations, young master,” Elliot said with a proud smile. Ms. Rosey and George's congratulations followed.
”Thank you. You know what this means, right?” Quinn showed them the badge. ”Any guesses? No? Okay, I'll tell you. This means I'm going to get my own suite with my own bedroom.. . ah, I'm going to get my own bedroom.. .”
”What happened?” asked George as Quinn trailed off.
”I will have to move out of the dorm,” said Quinn, ”which means I won't be living with Eddie and Marcus.. . ugh, now I'm not sure if I want to move out.” He slept in the same room with his best friend for the majority of the year — in the six years Eddie, Marcus, and he had been roommates, Quinn had come to his room at home to be less 'his room' than their dorm room in Hogwarts.
”You can tell them that you won't be needing the Headboy suite,” said George, a former resident of said suite.
”Hmm? No, no, I still want the Headboy suite, but I also want to have a spot in the dorm — I fear that if I exit the dorm, they'll assign another roommate to Eddie and Marcus.” Quinn held his chin in thought before shrugging, ”I'll write a letter and see what happens.
”Now, let's see how I did this year.” He pulled out the parchment inside and unfolded it.
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Hogwarts End-Of-Term Results Sixth Year
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- Pass Grades -
OUTSTANDING (O)
EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E)
ACCEPTABLE (A)
- Fail Grades -
POOR (P)
DREADFUL (D)
TROLL (T)
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Quinn West has achieved:
Arithmancy — O*
Astronomy — O*
Ancient Runes — O*
Care of Magical Creatures — O*
Charms — O*
Defense Against the Dark Arts — O*
Herbology — O*
History of Magic — O*
Potions — O*
Transfiguration — O*
* - Highest Score In The Year.
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Quinn read the last line on the parchment before once again over his grades. He nodded in satisfaction. ”Another year with all big-Os with stars on top,” he said, announcing his grades to his family.
Ms. Rosey all but snatched the result parchment when Quinn handed it over and looked squinted her eyes to look if he had left smudges on the parchments — dirty spots would need to be fixed before she added it to Quinn's academic folder of report cards.
”Are you going to change any of your classes this year?” asked George. ”You said that you have been wondering about dropping Care.. . and that for a couple years now.”
”True. I have been on the fence for that a couple years now, but there's only one year left, so I'll just take the class, and with Rebeus Hagrid teaching Care, something interesting is sure to pop here and there.” Quinn stood up from his chair. ”Now, if you'd excuse me, I have an appointment that I have to attend. Ms. Rosey, I won't return until evening, so no need to prepare lunch for me.”
”Where are you going?” asked Ms. Rosey.
”I was invited to see how my very first investment turned out,” said Quinn smiling.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn stepped out of a dark corner of Diagon Alley that he had just apparated into and stepped into the main street. He looked up and sighed at how the sunny morning had turned overcast in the span of mere minutes. If there was one thing he didn't enjoy about his home was how much it rained.
He looked away from the murky clouds and took in the market area.
Diagon Alley had changed. The colorful, glittering window displays of spellbooks, potion ingredients, and cauldrons were lost to view, hidden behind the large Ministry of Magic posters that had been pasted over them. Most of these somber purple posters carried blown-up versions of the security advice on the Ministry pamphlets that had been sent out over the summer, but others bore moving black-and-white photographs of Death Eaters known to be on the loose. Bellatrix Lestrange was sneering from the front of the nearest apothecary. A few windows were boarded up, including those of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, which Quinn had heard had been dragged off by Death Eaters, making him wonder what Death Eaters wanted from the ice cream vendor.
On the other hand, several shabby-looking stalls had sprung up along the street. The nearest one, which had been erected outside Flourish and Blotts, under a striped, stained awning, had a cardboard sign pinned to its front:
AMULETS: Effective Against Werewolves, Dementors, and Inferi.
A seedy-looking little wizard was rattling armfuls of silver symbols on chains at passersby.
”One for you, lad?” he called at Quinn as he passed by, leering at him up and down.
Quinn raised his hand and revealed a sneakily transfigured copy of the seedy amulet vendors' product sitting in his palm. He pointed further down the street. ”There's a lady there selling the same stuff, but much cheaper than here. You might want to fix your prices, slash them in half, mister, and maybe then someone will buy something.”
Of course, everything he said was complete hippogriff shit — Quinn either wanted the man to look at the supposed competition and leave his stall alone, which Quinn was sure (from a little wide-area Legelimency) would be upturned by the similarly seedy neighborhood stalls. Even if the man didn't leave his cart, there was a chance he would take his word and slash his price by half and make a lesser profit from his fraudulent deals.
Quinn didn't wait to see what the seedy man did. He was satisfied that he had been able to plant a seed of doubt in the man's mind.
He passed by another shop and stopped to gaze at the closed Ollivander's. There were no signs of struggle, which was a positive sign. 'I hope he took my advice,' he thought, thinking about the wandmaker, who loved his job a bit too much.
”Well, I'll find about it when the school starts,” he sighed. A fleeting can on a couple of first years would reveal the status of the wandmaker.