CHAPTER 20
MUGGLES IN MANHATTEN
PART 2- GUYS POINT OF VIEW
After a delicious late breakfast to Ron delight at IHOP, the girls and guys went their separate ways.
"New York wouldn't have a place like Diagon Alley would it. You know, with no muggles?" Harry asked.
"Actually New York is actually twice as big then the muggles believe it to be." Lupin informed them. "Every so often you will find a Wizarding shop and the muggles just walk on by, just like the Leaky Cauldron if you will." And indeed, as they walked through the city, along the way they would find a bookstore that sold books for wizards, or a Quidditch shop, which displayed the new Sonic Boom, which Aeryn already owned. The muggles just walked by the stores seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
"There are some places you ought to avoid." Malfoy said, reminding Ron and Harry of his pleasance. "Like that pub over there," he pointed to a dark looking bar, The Dragon's Breath, "A good meeting place for rouge Wizards."
"And you know that, how?" Ron asked.
"Have you forgotten who my father is?" he simply answered.
"How can we, we have a constant reminder with you around." Harry said.
"That's enough; we'll have none of that. Can we at least be civil with each other? I have no qualms about giving detention or taking house points away, even if we aren't at school." Lupin said stopping the argument before it got out of hand. "So how about we do some early Christmas shopping?"
***
A couple of hours later the guys decided to get something to drink, before meeting up with the girls. Malfoy suggested smoothies, and that he knew of a place where he knew the owners.
"Let me guess," Harry said as the strolled up to `The Smoothie Shack' "the owners are Wizards."
"Would I know of this place otherwise?" They entered the door to see the three girls standing by a table, and at the table was a woman sitting and standing up was a man, who Harry immediately recognized, as did Ron and Lupin. Malfoy however was left in the dark.
"What do you think they would rather do?" was all they heard of the conversation.
"Well Malfoy, are you ready to witness the muggle version of your father?" Harry said quietly. Malfoy didn't know what to make out of it.
Harry saw the familiar purple faced look on his Uncle whenever he was peeved about something. In fact he looked a little scared.
"Aeryn, what's going on?" Professor Lupin asked. Vernon finally noticed the others that entered the shop.
"Oh, nothing Professor, just meeting the rest of the family." She said not taking her eyes off of Vernon. "Anyway, I'll leave it at that," she said to Harry's uncle, "Enjoy your day." And she walked back over to the table where the girls were sitting and sat down, followed by Hermione, Ginny and the guys, who had ordered a smoothie themselves.
But the Dursley weren't to keen on staying so the just left, without saying a word. As soon as they left, the girls started laughing.
"Well, I'd never thought I would meet the rest of our so-called family this way." Aeryn said as she finished her smoothie. For the next half hour the group chit chatted about almost everything.
"Well, I guess we should get back to the mansion." Aeryn suggested. And everyone agreed. They used the fireplace in the storeroom at the back of `The Smoothie Shack.'
They spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the massive mansion, finding the occasional secret passageway. The mansion even has its own library, which Hermione said she could probably live in. It had two levels, with wall to wall and floor to ceiling bookcases. While the rest explored, Ron mainly looking for a snack, Harry, Hermione, Aeryn and Draco remained in the Library.
"Looks like we're all on the same page," Draco said glancing at all the books, "No pun intended."
"Heavy duty research mode. I for one would like to know what is going on with the both of you." Hermione said, "You wouldn't happen to have any ancient books would you?"
"Ah, we have a variety of really old books that would put the restricted section to shame. I'm not supposed to know about this room," she said as walked up the stairs to the second floor. And started to pull random books off the shelves, but not removing them entirely, they seemed to hang off the shelf as if it were hinged. Then a bookcase on the first shelve slid open to reveal a dusty chamber filled with ancient books that must of dated back thousands of years. "But I have been told I am too smart for my own good."
For the next Half hour the books were skimmed thought looking for anything that might help. Harry came across a book clearly titled The Big Book of Ancient Power
"Do you think this might help?" Harry said, holding the book up with a silly grin. Hermione shrieked with excitement and nearly snatched the book out of Harry's hands.
After reading for a while longer, "Oh here is something," Hermione said, "It's about the founders of Hogwarts. It says that in order to create such a magical place such as Hogwarts, the founders had to put an enormous amount of magical energy. The four founders themselves where very powerful. From what it says here, more powerful the Dumbledore even. But in creating Hogwarts a lot of their magical energy diminished, and they became normal wizards. It is rumored that the founders great power would have been passed on though out the generations, but would remain dormant until two great powers intertwine with each other."
"I still don't get it, what does that have to do with Harry and me?" Aeryn asked.
"You and Harry are both from Godric Gryffindor's bloods line, descendants. Voldermort is from Salazar Slytherin."
"Dumbledore told me that Voldermort transferred some of his powers to me when he tried to kill me all those years ago. That's the two great powers that have intertwined." Harry added.
"And because you and Potter have this freaky weird twin bond thing going on, you have the power to." Malfoy added.
"I wish I had more to read on the founders of Hogwarts, but I don't know of any books." Hermione said.
"I think I have a book." Aeryn said getting up from the table they were sitting at and went up the stair, and then up a ladder. Coming back she handed Hermione the book she retrieved.
"Hogwarts, a History? But I've already read it." Hermione said in confusion.
"Not this one. This one, apparently, is from a different dimension. I think it focuses more on the founders, then the school. You can have it if you want. In fact, help yourself to any book you want. But if you do happen to find any illegal books just turn them over to the proper authorities." Aeryn said as Ron stuck his head in the library door.
"Hey guys, Ginny is uh, doing her impression of our mother. She's trying to cook us dinner, except she can't even boil water!"