Freak

Chapter 8

Hagrid was shocked and outraged.

"Is this what they normally do?!" He turned to Freak and growled.

Freak shrugged.

"Well that should change very soon."

With that, they retreated through the empty streets until they reached the public playground.

They stopped at a corner and waited, for what, Freak had no idea...

Until...

'SCREEEEEECH'

A huge blue double decker bus awaited them at the corner.

Hagrid rushed forwards to talk to the man that had emerged from the vehicle.

"The leaky cauldron? Of course, there are three stops before it."

Hagrid stepped onto the bus and Freak followed. They sat down near the back and the bus lurched forwards.

And the scene outside the window blurred.

The bus whipped around corners.

Chairs flew.

Lost lunches flew.

Lost cats flew.

And then it all screeched to a halt. Everything falling back onto the floor as four, rather sick looking, wizards stepped off the bus.

"Ministry entrance!"

The bus waited only a few more seconds until it was racing through England once more.

-0-

It had taken about 10 minutes to get to the pub, and Freak might had said it was fun.

If he knew what fun was.

.

When they stepped inside, the old barkeeper looked at them in inquiry.

"Can you house Harry here for the next few weeks before school" Freak nudged Hagrid and pointed at the rag old Tom was using. "Err... he can clean to pay for it."

Freak nodded.

"I guess so... he can sleep in the back. Meals are eight am, one pm, and six pm. Try to sleep from nine pm to six am."

Freak bowed and headed to the back room. Hagrid nodded to Tom before stepping out onto the busy street once more.

Inside his new cupboard

(Freak/Harry has never had a 'room' for himself. So naturally, he calls all new rooms "cupboards")

there was a rickety bed, a small closet, and some spiders. When he reached the bed, Bulan slithered off his shoulders onto the sheets.

'Sssssso, jussssssst how old are you, sssssspeaker?'

'Eleven'

'You are sssssstarting ssschool?'

'Yesss'

Freak sat on the bed next to the pale snake.

Bulan was mostly white, with a pinkish stomach, his eyes were green. He was about eight feet long, and at the thickest, five inches wide. He had an arrow shaped head and long fangs.

'If you want, you can go out exploring'

'Thank you, masssster'

'I am Freak'

'Freak?'

'Yesssss, call me Freak'

The snake slithered away.