Chapter 9: Percy — Long Time No See, Boss
Arthur Weasley didn't stop there.
"We thought you'd gone abroad again this year," he said in a rush. "Molly even prepared a birthday present for you, but in the end we never sent it!"
His words came like rapid-fire spellwork, leaving Douglas no chance to answer before Arthur pulled him into a hearty hug.
Before Douglas could respond, two very familiar voices cut in from the side.
"Oh, it's Doug~"
"Larcener~"
Arthur's face darkened at once.
"You two, be quiet. I already told you—Douglas did not swindle you out of your money."
That immediately reminded Douglas why the twins were sounding so aggrieved.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and ruffled both their heads.
"Hah. So you still remember that, do you?"
He glanced at Arthur and smiled.
"It's all right, Mr. Weasley. They clearly learned their lesson that time."
Then he added, with perfect innocence,
"By the way, although I couldn't tell whether it was George or Fred driving that night… the one behind the wheel had excellent control."
That was enough to make both twins blush, which was rare enough to be worth admiring.
Then they looked at each other sharply and spoke in unison.
"How do you know?"
"You mean the driving?"
Douglas honestly still couldn't tell them apart by appearance alone.
But he had a rather unusual talent in name magic. If he silently recited a person's name while looking at them, a faint intuitive sense would tell him which was which.
So instead of explaining that, he only smiled and said,
"One night in early August, I happened to see a car fly across the moon."
At that, Douglas turned back to Arthur.
"Mr. Weasley, your craftsmanship really is impressive."
Then he paused.
"Though I do have one or two small suggestions."
Arthur lit up immediately.
"Yes—yes, of course! I've wanted to ask your opinion for ages. After all, I only started on that project because of your suggestion in the first place."
The younger children all exchanged startled looks.
None of them had expected that someone had discovered the flying car escapade so long after the fact.
Ron leaned toward Percy and whispered,
"Percy, do you know this Mr. Holmes? What's going on between him and Fred and George?"
George and Fred instantly slipped between the two of them, grinning as they separated the pair.
"Oh—Harry!"
"Goodness, dear, where have you been? What happened to you—?"
A plump woman came hurrying over, dragging a little girl with her and breathing hard.
The moment Douglas saw her, he took an instinctive half-step back.
He remembered very well how enthusiastic Mrs. Weasley could be.
Especially after she learned that his parents had died.
Mrs. Weasley had no attention to spare for anyone else just yet.
The moment she saw the soot all over Harry, she pulled a clothes brush from her bag and started brushing him down with fierce efficiency.
Only then did Arthur notice Harry's broken glasses.
He quickly removed them and pointed his wand.
"Reparo!"
The glasses mended at once.
As Molly dusted soot from Harry's shoulders, she demanded,
"Where have you been, child?"
Hagrid answered at once, in a grave voice.
"Knockturn Alley."
"That's brilliant!" Fred and George cried together.
Ron looked openly envious.
"Mum and Dad never let us go there!"
None of them noticed that Molly had frozen completely.
Her face had gone alarmingly pale.
Douglas spoke first, his tone serious as he looked at the children.
"I sincerely hope none of you ever go there."
Then he turned to Mrs. Weasley and added with a reassuring smile,
"Please don't worry, Mrs. Weasley. Hagrid brought Harry out in time."
Molly turned blankly at first, then stared at Douglas.
Confusion became shock.
"Yes… yes, quite right…"
Her eyes widened.
"You're—Douglas?"
"When did you get back to Britain?"
"And why haven't you come to the Burrow?"
Douglas smiled and nodded.
"I've been back about half a year. I've just been busy on the Muggle side."
While the adults were talking, Ron suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Oh no—I know who he is!"
Then, with great confidence, he announced,
"Douglas Haggis!"
Douglas's smile twitched.
Nearby, Harry and Hermione edged closer and asked in hushed voices,
"You all know this gentleman?"
"And he said he saw the flying car that night. Is he going to tell the Ministry?"
Percy shook his head.
"No. Mr. Holmes isn't just a friend of Bill's—he's on good terms with the whole family."
Then he added, lowering his voice slightly,
"And besides, Dad only modified the car because of his suggestion."
At that moment Hagrid suddenly cleared his throat.
"I ought ter be off," he said. "Got loads ter do today…"
Then he turned to Douglas.
"Oh—an' when yeh get back ter Hogwarts, come find me by the edge o' the Forest. I still haven't planted some o' the seeds yeh sent me."
Douglas caught the expression on Hagrid's face immediately.
Clearly, Hagrid was worried Douglas might ask why he'd been in Knockturn Alley in the first place.
And with so many people around, Hagrid could hardly explain the real reason.
At the same time, Douglas glanced at Percy, who had stayed mostly at the back the whole time.
Well, well.
The little boy had grown up.
And now he was acting like a stranger.
Hermione, ever alert, raised her hand almost reflexively.
"Usually, doesn't Hogwarts forbid outside wizards from simply entering the school?"
Hagrid gave her an enormous wink and grinned.
"Forgot ter say—Headmaster Dumbledore told me Douglas is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year."
After saying that, Hagrid saw the peculiar smile on Douglas's face and decided not to linger.
A few years had passed, but the feeling was still oddly familiar.
So he waved to everyone, turned, and strode off without another word.
The crowd in Diagon Alley parted around him automatically.
Arthur and Molly each seized one of Douglas's hands, both looking delighted.
"Congratulations!" they said almost together.
"I always said Headmaster Dumbledore had an excellent eye for talent."
"And of course," Molly added warmly, "working at Hogwarts is far better than wandering all over the place…"
Arthur corrected her at once.
"That's traveling, Molly. Traveling, not wandering."
The children all had very different expressions.
Fred and George exchanged a look full of dangerous inspiration, as though revenge had just become a long-term project.
Harry suddenly felt deeply embarrassed that a new professor had seen him stumbling out of Knockturn Alley looking filthy and confused.
After all, Hagrid had made it very clear that Knockturn Alley was not the sort of place decent people were meant to be.
Hermione, meanwhile, noticed something else entirely.
Percy—serious, proper Percy—had also worn a distinctly complicated expression.
Soon enough, however, everyone split off again.
The Weasleys, with Hermione in tow, headed into Gringotts.
Douglas finally made his way to the junk shop he had originally intended to visit.
The shopkeeper was an old man missing half his teeth, and there was an indescribable smell clinging to him that seemed woven into the walls themselves.
He didn't bother greeting customers when they came in.
Perhaps he simply found it unnecessary.
After all, anyone who bought or sold things in his shop was short of money in one way or another—
Even if they happened to be dressed respectably.
Douglas looked around and found that the place had barely changed.
There were still piles of battered wands, crooked copper scales, and all manner of worn magical rubbish.
But the largest section of the shop remained devoted to old books.
A special area had been set aside for them: narrow aisles lined with bookshelves so tightly packed that only one person could pass through at a time.
The shelves were crammed with dense ranks of old volumes and handwritten notes.
Naturally, none of them were organized.
If someone wanted a particular book here, they had to search for it themselves, one spine at a time.
The owner certainly wasn't going to help.
Except with second-hand Hogwarts textbooks.
Those had been separated out and stacked neatly near the counter in advance.
Douglas stopped at random beside one of the shelves, took down a book, and flipped it open.
The Greatest Discoveries in Contemporary Magic.
Published in 1921.
He glanced at the date and snorted softly.
Yes, that was a touch out of date.
Then he noticed a young wizard sitting quietly in the corner of the shop.
The boy was reading one of Douglas's own novels.
Douglas turned slightly and found, on the nearby shelf, several more books written under his pen name.
Judging by the publication dates, they were all early editions, though not first printings.
When he pulled one down and opened it, he found notes written all through the margins.
Not just by one reader, either.
Several different hands had commented between the lines.
In fact, Douglas received quite a lot of reader letters from wizarding fans.
He simply never read them.
He left all of that to Slane.
Still, glancing through these handwritten reactions, he had to admit that some of the comments were genuinely interesting.
Just then, a familiar voice drifted into his ears.
🤗If you enjoyed this chapter, please add it to your collection and
keep supporting the story 💖✨