Chapter Number: 07
Chapter Name: The Carpet Man
When they had cleared through customs and were appearing where families and friends meet, Harry saw someone that he almost instantaneously recognized as a wizard. It was hardly difficult since he had his wand in hand.
The man was tall like Sirius with sharp blue eyes, a small curly moustache and a very easily identifiable scar that was probably left by a dangerous magical beast on his left arm. As soon as the man saw Harry and the rest of the group he rushed over to them with an expression that was of meeting a long time friend after a long separation.
"... Ahh. You must be Harry" said the man is a voice filled with delight.
" Yes. This is my friend Hermione Granger and those two muggles at the checkpoint are her parents. Mr and Mrs. Granger ... Are you Mr. Ali Pasha?"
" Sweet Merlin! You look like the exact duplicate of your father... except for your eyes. They remind me of someone... I just can't remember who."
Mr. Pasha then seemed to stop in his track and ask in a trembling voice, " No! It couldn't be... Did they? - So he realized..." at this point his voice and thoughts became more composed, " Could you tell me the name of your mother please son? "
" My mother's name was Lily Evans- " Harry wanted to ask more about his father but Mr. Pasha interrupted. He started to laugh confusing Harry.
" Excuse me... Why are you laughing?-" He felt insulted that he was laughing at his mother. If Mr. Pasha had kept laughing a little longer, he wouldn't laugh ever again.
" Oh! I knew it. I knew it! Your father... that dope finally got it through his head."
" What did you know? What did he realize? ...." asked Harry very curious to find out more about his father.
" Ok, remember you asked. Your father and I met on a trip that we took together to the Ukrainian forests. We became friends quickly and after the trip I went to Hogwarts for about a month and a half. Back then they had an exchange program... Well anyway, your father had a friend at school, Lily was her name. She was beautiful, had wild red hair, kind of like her brown one..." said Mr. Pasha pointing at Hermione.
Harry turned quickly towards Hermione, but then turned back to Mr. Pasha. At this point the whole party was out of the airport and into a large waiting car, which was even bigger inside. The inside of the car was like a limo. It had two rows of four seats facing each other in the passenger part and the front of the car was reserved for the driver.
Harry never saw a head in the front seat, so he assumed the car either drove itself or someone very small was driving it. He did not bother to actually find out anything about the car, as he was very much more interested in what Mr. Pasha was saying about his parents. The whole group settled down on comfortable leather seats, and was relaxing in no time at all.
Hermione blushed when she was compared to Lily Evans. Everyone in the wizarding world knew that Lily was a very beautiful woman and in her days at Hogwarts, she had no shortage of admirers.
Mr. Pasha did not pause, "... Well any way... I knew he was friends with her, I think they were best friends at that time. I thought they loved each other, so I asked him about it. He vehemently denied that they were anything more than friends and that she had a boyfriend that she was very serious with."
Mr. Pasha had a small grin in his face. "...But I could tell by the way they looked out for one another, the way they talked to each other, I knew that wasn't the case. I told him that, but he didn't believe a word of it..."
He had a single tear running down his face now. He paused a few seconds, wiping his face with the back of his hand and then continuing. "... Well, Looks like I was right. One day an owl came with their wedding invitation, but it did not have any information about who he was getting married to. I think your father wanted me to come tell him 'I told you so'. Alas I couldn't go. There was a war here at that time-"
" You mean the Shozar Wars?" asked Hermione.
" -yes. Not many people know about the war. It's nothing compared to what Britain has seen over the years, but it was pretty big here. How did-" Mr. Pasha stopped looking at Harry and turned his attention to Hermione before going back to Harry.
" Top of every class, sensible, most of the time in the library and a little too caring about the house elves?" it was a question he directed to Harry.
" Yes. How did you know?" asked Harry, as he was very surprised at the accuracy of what he just said. Mr. Pasha looked at Hermione again. His intense gaze was making her a little uncomfortable.
" I was wrong girl, when I said you were kind of like Lily..." paused Mr. Pasha. Upon hearing this Hermione was a little hurt. A few minutes ago she was compared to one of the most beautiful women the wizarding world had seen and now it was taken back. "... You are her!" He paused a little to let the words sink in with Hermione.
"The same smile, same intelligence, same beauty, and the same hair...well her hair was more on the red side and a lot longer but messy in the morning if she didn't use that potion -err… I can't remember it's name. Hell you even have the same sort of little eccentricities about books and elves. It's uncanny really..." then Mr. Pasha looked at Harry and said, "Well... I think I'll talk to you more about your parents later, as I suspect we have reached our destination." Just as soon as he said this the car started to slow down before coming to a full stop soon after. Hermione had never been compared to a legendary beauty (granted that most of her fame was for bearing the boy who lived).
Though Harry and Hermione wanted to know more about Harry's parents, they didn't object to the abrupt end of their conversation. Harry stepped out of the car and looked at Hermione who was beet-red.
The place that Harry and the rest of the group were taken to was called " Toshok", which is an ancient word for carpet. Mr. Pasha explained how he got into the flying carpet business after the Shozar wars. He cracked a joke about being the number one in his field and how it was very easy since he was the only one who made the flying carpets.
His wife, Mrs. Pasha did not say anything during the car ride but once they all approached the stairs of the house, she took lead.
" Welcome to my humble abode." As she did a small bow and pointed to the closed door. Mr. Granger and Harry were going to follow go in first but Mr. Pasha held them back by their shoulders. " It's traditional that the women from the family and the guest party enter the house first, then they come out and they can give permission to the their male counter part to enter the house." He explained.
Hermione, her mother and Mrs. Pasha entered the house and closed the door behind them. " ... What if they say we can't come in? Do we stay here for rest of the holiday?" asked Mr. Granger with a little concern in his voice.
" My wife likes to leave me outside until its time for dinner. That way I don't mess up the house" as she tells me. Good thing dinner is only in half an hour."
" OH! You poor man!" said Mr. Granger, thinking it was actually true.
" No! I'm just joking. It'll take them a few minutes to finish the inspection of the house. Once they are finished they come out and basically invite us in." At this point the three women come out of the house and tell them to come inside.
The house amazed Harry. It was not terribly big, but it was decorated well and it felt almost as much like home, just as Hermione's house did. They talked through dinner and herbal tea afterwards. While Harry and Hermione were shown to their room (two on opposite side of a t-shaped corridor with another room in the middle occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Granger), by the house elf much, to the dislike of Hermione, the adults discussed wide range of topics, including the fact that Mrs. Pasha was going to the tour guide for Mr. & Mrs. Granger, since she was a muggle!
Mistakes? Ideas? Problems? Plot holes? Dare I think - Compliments?