บท 60: Ch60. The Leaky Cauldron... yikes
Hermione's last three days in Tom's household were both pleasant and frustrating.
Both her cousin and his lover went out of their way to try and make her comfortable and Hermione appreciated it with her whole heart. She hated the circumstances under which they met but she was happy they met anyway.
The thing that was making her frustrated, however, was how open her cousin and Natasha were about their relationship.
They flirted with each other, made fun of each other, and kissed each other so often without any regard for their surroundings that Hermione felt as if she was overdosed on sugar despite barely eating any.
At times, it was outright cringe to see them whisper to each other and giggle like schoolgirls at some personal joke of theirs. If Hermione was to eat in public with these two, she would rather dig herself a hole to hide in. It was that embarrassing to witness.
But the climax of these three days was when Hermione leisurely strolled into the kitchen, earphones in her ears... and promptly froze in her tracks when she noticed Natasha bent over the table with Tom pounding her from behind.
Hermione's brown eyes met Natasha's green that were drowning in delighted pleasure, no shame in them at all... and Hermione squeaked before she instantly high-tailed it out of there with her heart wildly pounding against her ribcage.
The worst part?
They didn't stop at all! An hour later, Hermione could still hear Natasha's heated moans coming from the kitchen when she timidly peeked out of her room.
She was never more glad for sound suppression wards than when she realized just how loud her new housemates could be...
...
"This is... it?" Tom doubtfully asked as he stared at the exterior of the Leaky Cauldron, disbelief visible on his face.
Tom did expect an old pub but this was one of those situations where expectations were exceeded by reality. He was sure the place was a total shithole and he didn't even have to walk in.
Even if somebody did have magic and didn't know about the Wizarding World, he would not willingly enter that place in fear of getting some rare disease.
No wonder the Wizarding World stayed secret with an entrance like that.
Hermione flushed red when she saw Tom's expression. She never really paid much attention to the Leaky Cauldron's exterior. During her very first time here, she was far too excited about magic and then she kinda got used to it?
Now that she properly looked at the pub with a critical eye, she had to admit that... ugh, yes, it did look like something where homeless people would stay.
"Let's just... go inside. Yes, the entrance is nothing much but the Diagon Alley is magical!" Hermione exclaimed in embarrassment, sullenly stomping her way towards the door.
Natasha and Tom exchanged an amused look before they hand-in-hand followed Hermione.
During their last family dinner, she was gushing out about how incredible the wizarding world was. Well, let's just say the first impression was indeed impressive. Just in the completely opposite way Hermione wanted it to be...
The trio walked into the pub, and Tom's impression that the wizards were just lazy slobs that both lacked common sense and couldn't properly take care of themselves only intensified.
From all over the place, the eyes of the pub occupants brushed over them before they disregarded them upon noticing they are nobody famous. That fit Tom just fine but...
'Why are they all wearing clothes that came out of fashion long before their grandmothers were even born?' Tom thought in mild disgust.
Naturally, he totally ignored how hypocritical that was of him. He would fit right in since he also wore a tight-fitting old-fashioned black suit that belonged more to the previous century than the modern age. He quite liked it as it reminded him of the clothes worn by Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. It was not exactly the same but when Tom found it among his father's old clothes, he instantly permanently borrowed it.
The Magician Society was a bit old-fashioned too so they wore slightly old-fashioned stuff like this quite regularly... but at the very least, their fashion did not get stuck in the middle of the medieval ages as the wizarding one did.
Tom at the very least had the decency to put a small illusion over his suit so it would appear like a modern-day suit for anyone without magic. That satisfied both his magician vanity and the need for hiding in plain sight quite well.
Speaking of the medieval ages...
'Why is the lighting provided via magical torches?' Tom felt his disgust rise and he had to grit his teeth to prevent it from showing on his face.
The place was already quite poorly lit which could have been easily solved by a society that had magic but they used torches? Really? Ugh...
But the real kicker was how... filthy the pub looked.
Tom knew for a fact the wizards had excellent household charms and spells. Yet, the place looked as if it didn't see a woman's touch for centuries. Tom was honestly afraid of touching anything and he was supremely glad he had his thin white gloves on.
Who knew what magical diseases were in all that... filth.
He briefly glanced at Natasha and saw that she had an indifferent expression. That was as good of an indication that she didn't like what she was seeing as any.
"Terrific place." Tom muttered, causing Natasha to dryly chuckle.
"Right?" Hermione nodded with satisfaction, probably completely misunderstanding the meaning of Tom's words. "It's magical." She dreamily sighed.
And Tom had to close his eyes for a second to not outright say something that would offend every wizard in hearing distance. It was difficult. It required an immense amount of effort on his part, but he eventually managed to hold it in.
Sure, there was magic being used everywhere in the pub. Many people were using it to have their spoon stir their coffee, had their newspaper with moving pictures float in front of them while they ate, or cutlery was cutting the food on the platter by itself...
And those were only the most visible examples. Magic was teeming in this place.
But that didn't change anything about the fact it was filthy!
'Is this childish naivete or is her common sense already corroded enough that she doesn't even realize what she is seeing?' Tom thought as he gave the back of Hermione's head a conflicting look.
He decided he would have to try and be more open with explanations of how things worked in the Wizarding World in hopes of instilling common sense back into her head. She was his goddamn cousin and he refused her to be some dunderhead believing anything that can shit spells was dreamy.
While Tom didn't have in-depth information about this community since Sarael was still compiling whatever he had about wizards in his library, he did already get at the very least the basics from the man.
Some things were impressively handled, others... not so much.
The Wizarding World had both bad and good things in it, and there was a reason why it was so cut off from the rest of the world to the point of being completely ignored by other supernatural factions.
If nothing else, Tom decided he would have to open Hermione's eyes to the reality of the Wizarding World because obviously, her educators failed to do so if her current behavior was anything to go by.
He didn't want the girl to be shut in her small community her entire life either. Her intellect would have been hugely wasted that way. There was so much more than just Wizarding World out there and Tom at the very least wanted Hermione to have the choice of what she would do with her life.
Having enough of the... sights, Tom put his hand on Hermione's shoulder, "The first impression is definitely... memorable. But enough of that. Lead the way out of here." He moderately succeeded in saying that with an even tone.
Hermione, however, was too excited to be around magic again to care about Tom's tone. She just excitedly nodded and led Tom and Natasha to the back of the pub, giving Tom the bartender a smiling nod as they passed him and entered a small courtyard behind The Leaky Cauldron.
Tom the unimpressed magician was supremely glad to be out of the Leaky Cauldron.
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