The Dream Trilogy Book One: To Dwell On Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Harry hadn't travelled by Floo all that much, and had never mastered the knack of stepping gracefully out on the other end. So his first thought was to right his feet as the fire spat him back out, and not to tumble into anything. The second was, where was he?

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but he was stood in what looked like a magical corner shop. He'd been in several Muggle ones over the years, enough to recognise the cramped layout of the little shop, packed to the hilt with everyday essentials, but instead of Mars Bars and washing up liquid, this place had potion ingredients at cheap prices with foreign writing on the packaging. Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans were lined in boxes along the floor next to Chocolate Frogs, Liquorice Wands and Cauldron Cakes. Self-scouring brushes were vibrating in cellophane wrapping and bottles of cheep elderflower wine loomed from the top most shelves. A fine haze of dust was drifting through the air, probably caused by Harry tripping into the shop and disturbing where it had been happily settling for goodness knew how long.

"Is someone there?" a wheezy voice called out, and Harry stopped brushing soot off his jeans and stood up straight.

"Hello?" he replied, looking around the shelves. There were only a couple of aisles to the little shop, and a man in his fifties or sixties soon appeared, hastily pulling on a navy wizard's hat. He was also wearing robes over his polyester blend uniform, so at least Harry was reassured his was in a magical place.

"Oh a customer," said the man happy, clapping his leathery hands together. "Oh can I help you sir?"

Harry looked around, unsure. "I was trying to get to Pembury?" he asked.

The man nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, I'm the only fireplace connected to the network in the village. We don't have any wizarding families mind you, so I just get the odd visitor from the nearby towns."

Harry felt bad, so he smiled and scooped up a couple of packs of Bertie Botts and some Sugar Quills. "Just these thanks," he said, then realised he hadn't picked up a wallet or anything from the house. He dug back into his deep coat pockets, and luckily was able to pull out a jumble of Muggle and wizard coins. "Er," he said, looking at what he had. "What do you take?"

"Either," said the man happily, taking Harry's sweets and ringing them up on his clunky till. Harry held out what he had to offer, and the man picked out the rough amount from the two currencies.

"Will you be wanting to travel back through the fire sir?" the man asked.

"Actually," said Harry, retrieving the scrap of paper. "You couldn't point me in the direction of this address could you?" He showed the man what Hedwig had managed to find from wherever she had managed to uncover it. Not for the first time had he wondered if wizarding owls had some magic in their own right.

"Oh yes," said the man. He seemed a bit dizzy at not only having a customer, but one he could help further with directions, and in a second he had out a scrap of parchment, a quill and some ink. He jotted down bullet points of the way Harry needed to go, the tip of his tongue sticking out as he concentrated. Harry's eyes wandered around, looking at the Drooble's chewing gum that came with packs of collectable Quidditch playing cards stacked up in a little display. There was a rack of wizarding magazines next to cheep romance novels that Harry knew Molly Weasley liked to read.

He leant on the counter, and his foot touched something propped up at the side. It was an old, disconnected Muggle satellite dish, that Harry pondered for a moment before the man caught his attention again

"Here you are," he said, handing over the parchment. "Shouldn't take you more than ten minutes."

"Thanks," said Harry sincerely, reading over the notes and heading to the door.

"No trouble," said the man. "Will you be coming back this way?"

"Yeah, probably," Harry told him, looking up as he reached the door and glanced over his shoulder. The man had picked up the satellite dish and was shaking out a cloth.

"See you later then," he said, smiling and dipping the cloth in a solution before beginning to buff the dish.

With a little smile on his face, Harry left the shop assistant to his polishing. He pushed against the door, making the little bell tinkle as he stepped out into the cold winds, and pulled his coat tighter around his neck. He hadn't thought to find a scarf or any gloves, so he just walked quickly to try and get his blood pumping.

The man had written very precise directions, and Harry found himself walking down a little high street of independent bakers, pharmacies, banks and an electrical store with a cartoon handyman waving from the window. It seemed for every two shops there was an old, nicely kept pub, advertising Sunday roasts and space left for Christmas bookings.

The village of Pembury was small and sleepy, and Harry hardly saw another soul as he traipsed passed house after house. A church towered over him as he rubbed his hands together and checked the man from the shop's directions again, hoping he was nearly there. After successfully ducking out on the Potters and navigating the Floo network, he was starting to feel nervous about what was coming next. He didn't doubt the integrity of Hedwig's information, it was just what he was going to do when he got to his destination.

The road curved upwards and the houses became larger and set further back, just like Harry's instructions said they would. He passed a large oak tree with a playhouse built into its branches and a pirate flag hanging from the window. It was fluttering frantically in the strong winds, and Harry worried it might fly off its pole completely.

He came to a crossroads, and he waited for the traffic lights to change before he navigated the few cars that were trundling along the road and reached the other side. He carried on walking right for a few minutes until he came finally to a house that had been turned into a business, evident from the large sign at the start of the drive, lit up with a couple of lamps hanging over its top.

Harry's heart skipped a beat. "You did it Hedwig," he said softly to himself.

"Grangers Orthodontics," it read in cheerful lettering. "Keeping a smile on your face!"

It certainly was, thought Harry, and began to crunch his way down the driveway.