Even though the money in his pocket had been given to him by his mother, Aldous still felt profoundly grown up as he walked purposefully through the idling inhabitants of Diagon Alley. Independence wasn’t something he’d been afforded at home often lately—though admittedly it wasn’t really something he’d asked for. He knew his mother liked to know where her children were. Just as he liked to know where she and Simon were—after being cut off from the world for months it was reasonable. But there was also a certain degree of self-sufficiency the Cresswell parents had tried to inspire in their children, and Aldous could tell his mother still wanted it for them even if she struggled with worry. It was why she’d encouraged him to give Hogwarts another chance. And it was why, today, she’d let him buy his second year schoolbooks alone.
Simon needed all new materials for beginning his first year, but there was no need for Aldous to look at wands or robes or cauldrons when he already had them. He just had a carefully constructed list in his hand: three sections, one for books, one for potions ingredients he was running low on, and one for miscellaneous items like ink and parchment. It was hard not to get distracted someplace like Diagon Alley, so he had allowed half an hour for browsing. But he had not allowed time for a throng of people to be blocking the way to Flourish and Blotts. Aldous stopped and observed them suspiciously from a distance. The group had gathered outside the entrance of the Daily Prophet headquarters, some holding large banners. The only one he could read entirely said:
End the Spread of Ignorance. It must have been some sort of protest.
Aldous was interested. He moved closer, and read more signs, frustrations about the lack of muggleborn viewpoints in the paper and the writers’ treatment of muggle society. Aldous read the Prophet, and few of the articles seemed to display much of an understanding of muggles, but he had never really expected them to.
Should he have? A wizard was making his way to the front of the crowd and he looked as if he was preparing to speak. Hopefully it wouldn’t use up all his distraction time, Aldous thought, because clearly he was going to have to listen.
As he pushed up closer to the front he recognized a girl from school, a Hufflepuff in the year ahead. Aldous reached out to tap her shoulder. “Abby?” he asked loudly. “Do you know what’s going on?” There were schoolchildren and their parents everywhere and she was probably getting her books same as him, but there was a chance she’d been there intentionally.
@Abby Lawson
