Adrian Pucey: Gringotts Curse-Breaker

26 Jul 1996

It feels strange to know I'm going to Middle America in about five weeks' time, whereas for the past seven years September's meant going back to Hogwarts. I'm not sure it's such a bad thing. I walked around Diagon Alley with Millicent at lunchtime, and the place was so changed it was scary. Shops you thought would be there forever have gone - Ollivander,'s, for one. Dad got his wand there, and I'd always wondered what he'd say to my own children one day.

I wish I could take Millicent with me to Mexico, but she isn't of age. I don't think she's the eloping sort, anyhow. Now she's decided what sort of career she wants, she's determined to stay on at school and get her NEWTs. Dumbledore will keep everyone at Hogwarts safe. I shouldn't worry about her.

As they walked up Diagon Alley on the dreary Saturday morning Millicent squeezed Adrian's hand. He'd been in a blue mood for most of the morning, and she wished she could cheer him up somehow. "Don't look so downhearted. We knew you'd have to go away with work sooner or later."

"I didn't expect it to be this soon," Adrian admitted. "I thought this first year would be taken up with learning languages and researching an area. In fact, I asked Bill Weasley about it, and that's what he said he'd do if he took on an apprentice. He spent eight hours a day, every working day for six months, simply learning hieroglyphics. He thinks it's crazy that I'm already being asked to identify cursed objects. Harun just wants to beat that Hiroshi fellow."

Millicent looked longingly at the boarded-up ice cream parlour as they walked past it. The weather was poor thanks to the activities of Dementors, but she'd still have enjoyed a sundae. It was hard to imagine she'd been sitting at a table outside it and laughing with her father only a few months previously. "Poor old Florian Fortescue. I wonder where he is?"

"Maybe you should ask Draco," Adrian said snidely.

"Draco won't know," Millicent snapped. "Please don't start that again, Adrian."

"He'll ask you to do things," Adrian said.

"I'm not the girl I used to be," Millicent said. "Draco only wants me to look after Pansy for him."

Adrian gave up. On some points, Millicent was immovable, and Pansy was one of them. Diagon Alley was depressing enough nowadays; he didn't need to make things worse by arguing with his girlfriend in the middle of it. Spotting a building plastered with garish purple signs, he changed the subject. "Hey, look, there's that new joke shop. It's run by the Weasley twins." They both stood and stared at the sparkling, energetic window displays.

"Ron's brothers? Are they responsible enough?"

Adrian suppressed a smile as he recalled the twins' dramatic departure from Hogwarts. He'd been angry with them at the time for encouraging the other pupils to cause so much disruption, especially when he was trying to revise for his NEWTs, but now he remembered it as one of the more colourful events in a dull year. "I guess so. The place is booming. Then again, with so many places closing up or on restricted hours, it's one of the few bright spots on Diagon Alley."

Millicent looked at the posters. "I guess we're all going to have to make a stand."

Adrian pulled her towards the shop. "Why don't we have a look around? It might be fun."

Millicent followed him reluctantly; aware that as she'd been on the Inquisitorial Squad while the twins were at Hogwarts she might not be their favourite customer. Luckily the shop was incredibly busy. It was as though every person visiting Diagon Alley felt the need to browse there, to take his or her minds off the real world for a little while.

Inside the shop, Millicent turned over one of the Patented Daydream Charms in her hands. She wasn't a great reader of fiction, but she liked listening to programmes on the wireless. Maybe the daydreams were like wireless shows, but with pictures. Tracey Davies, the other half-blood Slytherin in her year, had tried to explain television to her, and the daydream sounded a lot like that. Jungle Heat, one box read. The picture showed a good-looking couple kissing passionately while being watched by a tiger, a large snake and several bemused parrots. While you didn't get tigers in Mexico, and Millicent could only dream of looking like the witch depicted on the box, it would be as close to being with Adrian as she could get once August ended. Shyly, Millicent handed over a rather large sum of money for the complete set of daydreams to the witch behind the counter and put the whole lot in her bag before her boyfriend saw them.

Adrian, meanwhile, was fascinated by the various cloaking and concealment items the Weasley twins had gathered in a room at the back of the shop. Did the Instant Darkness Powder really come from Peru? Harun would know. Adrian put some in his basket regardless, along with a few extendable ears. Adrian was fast learning that curse-breaking depended as much on quick wit and what a curse-breaker had to hand as it did on skill, and was building up a rather odd toolkit of his own.

He returned to the main room and patted Millicent's shoulder. She was now looking through the Wonder Witch products.

"You don't need any of that nonsense," he told her.

"It wouldn't do any good anyway," she said, sounding slightly sorrowful, putting down a box of hair ointment. Even now, after she'd gained so much self-confidence, Millicent had a longing to be pretty.

"Oh, hush!" Adrian said, smiling. "You have great hair. That stuff couldn't make it any better. Cheer up. Even if Fortescue's is shut, some of the cafés are still open. Why don't we go and grab a sandwich? I want to check out Knockturn Alley today. I never get the chance to look around properly during my lunch break."

Millicent brightened. She didn't need love spells to catch her man! "Food first," she insisted.

Neither of them realised how useful the Weasleys' seemingly frivolous products were going to be.

2 Aug 1996

I am such a fool. I am the biggest idiot in the history of idiots. I can't believe how stupid I am. I am an idiot.

Every morning when he got into work, Adrian went into the little Gringotts staffroom and made the tea. He made strong English Breakfast with lots of milk for himself and mint tea for Harun, who'd acquired a taste for it in Morocco. (Adrian kept meaning to ask Harun what he'd been up to there.) Adrian had a mug with 'I dig tombs' on it, which Millicent had given him as a joke when he started work. He'd already put a charm on it so it would survive the journey to Mexico.

As he hummed to himself, putting leaves in the pots, he went over the expansion of the Aztec empire in his head. While he found the Inca more interesting, as his first mission would be to Mexico Adrian knew he'd be better off concentrating on more northerly cultures. He suspected it would help him work out which of the two remaining statuettes he had to identify was cursed, too. A light footfall behind him made him realise he was not alone.

There she was, Fleur Delacour. Adrian swallowed. The room was lit conventionally, but it seemed as though she carried her own glow in her skin. "'Ave you got ze milk?" she asked, and held out her hand for the jug.

Adrian took it, marvelling at how slender and pretty even her fingers were, and kissed it.

Fleur laughed. Sometimes she forgot she had this effect on men. The younger ones were particularly susceptible. She pulled back her hand. "Enough of zat, silly. I want you to and me ze milk."

Adrian blushed and passed her the jug. She'd smelled of rose-scented lotion and something more animal, like warm fur. Not unpleasant at all. He found himself staring at her hand. She wasn't angry. Could he kiss it again?

Fleur tutted. "Be'ave, Adrian - eet ees Adrian, n'est ce pas? I am going to be married." She smiled at him, being naturally friendly and flirty, and he felt as though an angel was stamping on his heart.

Sorry, he muttered, picking up both mugs and leaving the little room.

**

Harun sipped his tea. Adrian had stirred too much sugar into it, and was now staring at the statuettes he was supposed to be identifying as though he, not one of them, was cursed. Adrian was a very subtle young man, but Harun was slowly learning to judge his moods.

"Adrian, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing," Adrian said, trying to focus on his work. The near-identical statuettes seemed to have no distinguishing features. They seemed to have been made by the same culture, depicting the same god.

Harun persisted. "Family trouble? Or is it the work?"

"No, nothing like that," Adrian protested. "I just made a prat of myself this morning, that's all."

"Fleur," Harun said.

Adrian was horrified. How could Harun possibly know what he'd done? Had she complained to his master? "I don't know what came over me, honestly, and I didn't mean to offend her..."

"I guessed," Harun reassured him. "What did you do? Make declarations of undying love? Offer her whatever treasure you were holding? You're not the first to have done it, and you won't be the last. She had to be taken off the cashier's desk after one rich old customer tried to give her the jewellery he was supposed to be putting into his vault for his wife."

"Do you think I should apologise?" Adrian asked. He hoped Harun would say no. He didn't feel like facing Fleur again.

Harun looked thoughtful. "She's not like other women, and doesn't seem to take such behaviour too seriously but yes, you should. If I were her fiancé, I'd be very angry with you. You should treat ladies with respect."

Feeling utterly humiliated, at lunchtime Adrian went to the canteen to find Fleur. She sat, picking carefully at a prawn sandwich. He stood before her and cleared his throat. "Fleur," he said, trying to sound more grown-up than he felt. She looked up, and an expression of delight crossed her face. She seemed inexpressibly lovely, and so pleased to see him. Adrian couldn't help what he said next. "Why don't you put down that crummy sandwich and we'll go somewhere nice for lunch?"

"Because then she'd be leaving me on my own," Bill Weasley said from behind him. Fleur leapt to her feet and kissed Bill. Her delight had been at seeing Bill! Adrian was mortified.

"Don't worry," Bill told Adrian, "I know people can't help it. I couldn't, not at first."

"Bill ees my fiancé," Fleur explained. "'Ee was ze only one 'oo always said to me what 'ee intended to say." She dimpled winningly. "We are friends, eh, Adrian? You are not angry wiz me?"

"Yeah, we're friends," Adrian said, with reluctance. She was engaged to Bill Weasley. Of course it had to be Bill. Harun looked up to him for his daring, and Adrian had himself tried to copy an element of his clothing. Every curse-breaker in the building thought Bill Weasley was the person to emulate. How could Adrian hate Fleur for picking the most outstanding man at Gringotts? Adrian felt pathetic. He couldn't compete with Bill. Bill got the best treasure, the most exciting missions - it was natural that he got the best girl too.

"Stay and have lunch with us," Bill called as Adrian walked from the dining room. Adrian pretended not to hear. He hated feeling inferior to anyone, and while Bill didn't mean to do it, he made Adrian feel plainer, duller and less mature. Still, Adrian maintained a normal demeanour while he thought other people were about. He wanted some time by himself.

Adrian hoped Harun would be out of the office. No such luck. Harun was frustrating him at all turns today.

"Back so soon? You can't have eaten much. Did you apologise?" Harun asked as his apprentice sat back down at his desk.

"Yes," said Adrian, as he grabbed one of the remaining statuettes. Nothing happened. "That's safe," he said, "so the other's cursed." Harun saw what was coming and started to rise to his feet, but he reached Adrian too late to prevent him grabbing hold of the remaining image and keeling over, Petrified.

**

"Can't they give him a potion or something?" Millicent Bulstrode asked. She'd rushed to St Mungo's after Harun had sent a fast owl to her house. Harun could have sorted Adrian out by himself, but as the young mad was a new apprentice and still technically in training, he'd thought it best to get him treated by professional Healers.

"No, because he's Petrified himself holding the statue," Harun explained. "His fingers are locked tight around it, so he'd be Petrified again as soon as he returned to consciousness." They were sitting on uncomfortable wooden chairs looking at Adrian, eyes wide open, still positioned as though he was sitting at his desk, with the cursed object still in his hands.

Millicent fiddled with her hair. She wanted to touch her boyfriend, but she was wary of coming into accidental contact with the statue. She was glad screens had been pulled around the bed; she was sure Adrian wouldn't want lots of people seeing him in that state. She could hear another patient in the ward warbling, though, with the voice of a blackbird.

Across the other side of the hospital bed, Mr and Mrs Pucey looked angrily at Harun. Adrian was one of only two remaining Pucey boys, both their sons. They didn't want to see anything happen to him, or their family line. "You should have told him not to touch it!" Adrian's mother hissed. The flowers on her pointy hat wobbled furiously.

"I thought I was getting an apprentice with some sense," Harun snapped back.

As the Puceys and Harun started to bicker, a Healer came and made them leave the room. They continued their argument at a louder volume in the corridor. The Healer scowled. St Mungo's had been much busier since You-Know-Who's return had been made public and the Death Eaters no longer had anything to hide. He didn't need feuding loved ones to deal with as well. "You might want to leave for this bit," he said softly to Millicent. "It looks quite brutal."

"I'll stay," she said. "St Mungo's treated my mother. I trust you."

The Healer steadily snapped all of Adrian's fingers back, then removed the statuette in a cloth so he wouldn't be Petrified himself. Millicent winced slightly at the cracking of the bones, but made herself watch the procedure. As Adrian began to rouse, the Healer stunned him, put his fingers back in the right places, and then woke him again. Adrian returned to consciousness yelling.

"Ssh," Millicent said softly as the Healer left them together. "Drink your Skele-Gro and you'll be out of here in the morning. She smiled at him. He'd fed her Skele-Gro once upon a time. Now it would heal his broken hands. She poured a teaspoon of Skele-Gro from the bottle and held it to his lips.

"Oh, it hurts," Adrian moaned after taking his medicine. "Where's Harun? He's going to kill me for grabbing that statuette."

"Not if your mother mashes him to a pulp first," Millicent laughed. Sounds of the argument forced their way through the closed door.

Adrian smiled. Millicent patted his arm. "I'm glad it's just you here," Adrian told her, and he meant it.

"Harun sent me an owl," Millicent told him. "I think he needed some support against your mother. Hey, I brought you a box of Fudge Waffles - I got it from the Weasleys' joke shop. If you eat one, other people hear complete nonsense when you say anything. They taste nice, though."

Adrian looked at the box with its bright picture of the former Minister for Magic, then up at his girlfriend. Her ugly, loving face was the best sight in the world right now. When she wasn't with him, other girls seemed so attractive, but when she was there, he was so happy to be with her he didn't even notice other women. He suspected even Fleur wouldn't affect him as much if Millicent stood beside him when he met her. "I wish you could come to Mexico with me," he told her sincerely.

She grinned. He did keep teasing her like this. He knew she wanted a career, and for that she needed NEWTs. "I love you," she told him. "You'll be taking my heart with you."

"Oh, Millicent," he thought. "How can I tell you why I'm here?"

Adrian resolved to stay away from other girls.