The Merlin

Summer and a "Stupid" Fortune

The boys had jobs in Diagon Alley that summer. Matt helped keep the cages clean at Magical Menagerie, and Richard unpacked and shelved potion ingredients at Slug & Jiggers Apothecary: simple jobs for pocket money that took only a few hours and left plenty of time to roam Diagon Alley when the hospital chores and language classes (Mermish, Welsh and Bulgarian) were done.

One set of chores was to read to Frank and Alice Longbottom, and assist them with their wheelchairs in the hospital gardens. They didn't like Mrs. Senior, as they referred to Frank's mum, and felt bad for her grandson, Neville. He had been invited to attend school at St. Mungo's, but she had made other arrangements. He would be attending Hogwarts the next year, and the two boys hoped that Neville would become a Ravenclaw, where they could make things better for him.

Another job was to go through the hospital and its grounds and keep them litter-free and tidy, three times a day. House-elf work, but the house-elves had plenty of other stuff to do. Besides, having the young wizards doing the work made those watching more mindful of how they behaved in their surroundings.

There were, of course, the fun events, such as St. Mungo's pizza nights at Dinty's Pizza Emporium ("Our food is magical"), and swimming at Llyn-y-Fan Fach, but all too soon, summer sped by.

.........

In late July, Richard and Matt were in Muggle London at a street faire, wearing the tee-shirts, jeans and trainers that Matt's mum had bought them a month earlier from a Muggle second-hand store. She and Richard's mum were examining hand-carved wooden items at one of the booths when the boys left them to find something more interesting than Welsh Wedding Spoons and picture frames.

They bought some food and wandered around, wondering if anyone from Hogwarts were there. Almost everyone they knew, including the Malfoys, were on holiday in France. The boys saw a group of girls tittering around a crystal ball, and decided to see what was going on. Muggles trying to be witches. Always good for a laugh. One of the girls saw Richard and shrieked, said something to the other girls and shooed them away.

She wore huge glasses that magnified her eyes; her head was covered with an assortment of bandannas and gold-threaded scarves. She wore necklaces of beads, chains and twine, with feathers, charms, shells, trinkets, and other pieces of small junk attached to them. Her wrists were covered with charm bracelets, Italian charms bracelets, plastic bracelets, friendship bracelets, and bangles. Her fingers had rings on every finger and her thumbs: plastic rings, metal rings, and rhinestone rings. Richard's first thought was that she would make a lousy Potions partner; something would be sure to fall into the cauldron. She was very thin, maybe a year younger than he was, and hyperactive.

"Let me tell you your fortune, Merlin." She had a French accent.

Richard was puzzled and looked behind him for Merlin.

"No, you, silly." She grinned at him, pointing at his chest.

He looked down. "Merlin's Bicycle Shoppe" was printed on the tee-shirt. He looked over at Matt, who was busy with the girls. He sighed. "How much?"

"Four pieces of silver."

He pulled out a handful of coins and slowly started to go through them, separating them into Muggle coins and Sickles.

"Those four." She grabbed his hand and snatched the Sickles, spilling the rest of the coins.

"Hey!" he protested. Wizard money in Muggle hands!

"Now, let me have a snip of your hair." She had grabbed a handful, and yanked on it, hurting his neck. She whacked off a chunk with a small pair of silver shears before he could twist away.

"Now, here we go!" She lifted the ball and sprinkled his hair over its curved holder, then plunked the ball back down.

Richard glared around for Matt, who was still encircled by the gaggle of girls. No help there.

The girl peered into the ball. Richard leaned forward suspiciously, trying to see what was so interesting.

"Back off, Merlin, you're making a shadow."

"Shows you what you know, my name's Richard."

"Hush." She ran her fingers over the ball. "You don't know anything. You are the spawn of two dragons, no, demons, wait, one's a devil."

"Are you crazy?"

"You will meet a tall black haired woman. Ooh! Kissing."

"That's stupid! There's a bunch of black haired women right over there. I'm not kissing them. Kissing is stupid! Give me back my money."

"Loser!" she snapped back. "Someone wants your body, but not your soul. That's bad. You will ask a question and you won't get an answer for a long, long time. You sure sleep a lot. Oh, and there's a pig."

Richard gritted his teeth. "Give me back my money."

"No way, Murtlap Breath!"

"I want my money! That's a stupid fortune! And give me back my hair before you use it for voodoo or something."

She made a face at him. "It's your 'stupid' fortune, Merlin."

"My name's Richard!"

A woman's voice was calling out in sing-song fashion from the crowded street, "Del-phi, Delphi Tre-lawney."

"Oui, mama," the girl called back. To Richard she simpered, "Adieu, Dragon Spawn!" She shouted something in French and waved at the girls, who were still surrounding Matt, then ran off, still clutching the coins in her hand. The girls reluctantly left Matt and went back to the table.

"Lot of help you were, mate," Richard growled, picking up the Muggle coins off the ground. "Stupid French Muggle took my Sickles, and then gave me a stupid fortune and a bad hair cut."

"Ha! She scalped you. It looks awful. What did she say?"

"She kept calling me 'Merlin', and said I was dragon spawn, and she took my money. Four Sickles."

"She knew you were a Merlin?" Matt asked. "How could she know that?"

"Looked at my tee-shirt: 'Merlin's Bicycle Shoppe'. I guess it's a way of saying, 'hey, you'! But sick, dragon spawn? And she called me Murtlap Breath. That's stupid, I haven't eaten any, and I brushed my teeth. I want my money back."

"Wonder if they have any Murtlap for sale here," Matt remarked as he looked around. "Wonder what kind of Muggle food it is, something like a chipotle? Whatever that is. Let's go get some." He pointed to some other food tents.

"She took my money," he whined.

"Look, mate, say it one more time and I'll stick a walnut up your nose," Matt promised as he headed to the food.

"We aren't supposed to do magic out of school," Richard retorted.

Matt stopped and faced him, putting a finger in his face. "Number one, when has that ever stopped us or anyone else from doing it?" He held up two fingers. "And two, did I say I would use magic?"

The two young wizards continued to argue their noisy way through the throngs, while trying strange foods like fish tacos and poi, until their mums found them and had them carry their purchases home.

The next day the owls arrived with their Hogwarts letters to St. Mungo's Hospital, the Malfoy Mansion, and many other places, including "4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey".