Chapter - 6.2

"Brother, is it alright for you to have that wand? Listening to Mr Ollivander, it looked kind of ill-omened," Nicole asked, expressing her concerns about the wand. Alex stored the elder wand in his storage pouch first thing after exiting the Ollivander shop.

But the problem was he had three wands now. One that he got from his master and the other two he bought just now. According to what his master said, every wand has the signature of the maker on it. But every business has to have an illegal sibling. His first want fell into the latter category. With no signature, the Ministry has no way to trace the wand to him. Putting Alex in a comfortable position when he had to do things that did not fall into the moral conduct of the Ministry.

On the other hand, the two wands he got today have a legitimate source. But if he were to use them and they are traced back to him, he might end up attracting unnecessary attention to himself from the Ministry.

"I will be fine. I just have to be a bit more careful and not even use that wand," Alex tried not to think about what might happen for now.

"... Let's keep the matter about this wand to ourselves. Now let's get ourselves a pet," diverting the topic, Alex grabbed her arm, and the two of them walked towards the northern part of Diagon Alley.

Soon they arrived in front of a shop, and the board hanging by the door read:

'Magical Menagerie'

As they entered, they saw that there wasn't much room inside. Every inch of the wall was hidden by cages. Inside the shop, it was smelly and noisy because the occupants of those cages were all squeaky, jabbering or hissing.

Trying to find themselves a pet, the siblings looked around the shop.

"Brother, look at this one. It is so cute and fluffy, just like cotton candy. And look at this snail. It is so big," Nicole called out for Alex, pointing at the Puffskein and the Streeler inside the cages.

"Calm down, you don't just need to go for their looks, but also how they will be helpful to you during your school and later," Alex tried to explain to Nicole how one must choose their familiars.

"Hahh... But I want the one that's cute and cuddly," Nicole looked disappointed, "Then tell me how should I decide on which one to choose," listening with interest, she asked.

"People usually chose an owl because it helps carry letters and other things..." Alex started to explain but stopped in the middle.

"We don't have anyone to send letters to, so why don't we go for the looks. I read in a book that Professor McGonagall can transform into a tabby cat. Should I buy that? It will be fun annoying Professor McGonagall," oblivious to the fact that her brother had stopped paying attention to what she was saying, Nicole, expressed her choice of the pet.

But when she got no response from Alex, she finally looked at him, "What happened, brother?" Nicole asked when she saw Alex spacing out while looking at a cage in the corner.

"Sir, how much for that one?" Alex did not answer but asked, pointing towards the cage.

"15 galleons," the lazy man replied, uninterested.

"I will buy it," Alex immediately agreed and placed fifteen galleons on the counter.

The man walked towards the cage and brought it to Alex.

"What is it, brother?" Nicole asked, looking at the small, cat-like animal with black spots and greyish fur, out-sized ears and a tail like that of a lion's.

"It's a baby Kneazle, about two years old. They are highly intelligent creatures with an uncanny ability to detect untrustworthy individuals," before Alex could say anything, the shop owner explained it to Nicole.

"Huh... After telling me not to go for the looks," Nicole scoffed when she saw the little cat in her brother's arms.

Soon Nicole also chose a tabby cat as her pet. Paying a total of 25 Galleons for both the pets, Alex and Nicole made their way to the spot they were supposed to meet Professor McGonagall.

"You are done with your shopping, I suppose," Professor McGonagall had already arrived at the meeting spot and was waiting for them.

Alex nodded towards Professor McGonagall.

"Very well then, I will take you out of here" Professor McGonagall glanced at the cat in Nicole's arms and, without thinking much about it, turned around.

But soon, Professor McGonagall could not stop herself from feeling felt uncomfortable. From the corner of her eyes, she would steal glances at Nicole and watch her rub the cat's head or sometimes caress the neck as Nicole gave her meaningful glances from time to time. As if she knew, but how could she know about that? Or was it a coincidence? Even if it was, it did not look like it.

Soon the trio exited the same way they came in and were standing in front of the shabby, old bar.

Taking out two tickets from her robe, Professor McGonagall handed them to Alex.

"These are your tickets. The train leaves on September 1st at eleven o'clock, don't be late," Professor McGonagall explained. And without waiting for their response, disappeared into thin air.

"My... My... She was really in a hurry," Nicole scratched her cheek as she looked around, hoping to see the Professor, "Maybe she got an upset stomach."

"Or maybe she just can't take you anymore," Alex said, smacking the back of Nicole's head with his two fingers, "I saw what you were doing on our way out."

"Hehehe... I couldn't hold myself," Nicole grinned, holding the back of her head.

Hearing her excuse, Alex rolled back his eyes and waved for a taxi to stop. Soon, the siblings too came back to the orphanage. There was still more than a month before Alex and Nicole boarded the train for Hogwarts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Time flew by, and soon it was September 1st. During this time, Alex was busy making preparations. He deposited all the money he had left in the bank, talked about the supplies and donations with the head nun, and took care of other small things.

But the most important thing he did in the last month was to locate Harry Potter. He had to know more about the child prodigy he was to look after and the family he was living with. To protect that guy, Alex had to gather as much information about Potter as possible.

Alex got Potter's address from his master. For a week, Alex would go to 4 Privet Drive and keep an eye on them from dawn to dusk. He got to know that Potter was living with his aunt Petunia Dursley, her husband Vernon Dursley and their son Dudley Dursley. Alex even eavesdropped on Dursley's neighbours to understand more about the family.

This was the most efficient way to gather information. Neighbour A and Neighbour B will get together and badmouth Neighbour C behind their back. And when neighbour B is gone, Neighbour A will badmouth Neighbour B with Neighbour C. This was a never-ending cycle of badmouthing.

Alex would hide and listen to the conversation of neighbours whenever the Dursleys were not around. Most of the time, these neighbours would badmouth them, especially the Vernon guy.

Spying on the neighbours, Alex got the gist of the circumstances in the Dursley family. Vernon worked in a drill-making company and enjoyed great success in his career thanks to his flattering of his superiors. But contrary to his career, his social life was a mess. He did not garner much respect from his neighbours because of his short temper and habit of frequently picking fights with them.

Petunia, on the other hand, was an ordinary housewife. She was soft-spoken and polite to her neighbours, even to the point that her politeness was scorned by the neighbours (Seriously, neighbours! They hate Vernon because he is scornful and Petunia because she is extra polite). Petunia even avoided unnecessary entanglement with her neighbours unless they approached her first.

As for the other members of the family, there were two kids living in the house. One was a fat, pompous giant, Dudley, Vernon and Petunia's dear son. The other was a rather skinny, shy and widely known to have some of his screws loose, Harry.

Both Dudley and Harry attended Saint Gregory's Primary School in the same grade and played in the nearby playground. Alex once even followed Potter to the nearby playground. The Potter guy silently sat on the swing, minding his business, wearing old baggy clothes and broken glasses when he was made to run for his life. Dudley and his gang decided to chase around and yelled at the top of their voice, 'Harrryyyy Huntinggg.'

The life of Potter was nothing short of misery at the Dursley's. Though wanting to teach that giant of a child a lesson, Alex finally decided against it.

* * * * *

Chapter 16.3 is available on my [email protected] along with other stories. patreon.com/thelonelyguy