An Opus Alchymicum Vol 1: The Experimental Theologian's Apprentice

The Big Blue Tent

A three-carriage tube train eased into the abandoned Brompton Road station and the doors opened. It was indistinguishable from standard Tube stock, aside from the shining gold livery on the handrails and a seat moquette featuring a dragon, a unicorn and the house colours of Hogwarts. The classic roundel on the carriage doors was the same, the same lady voiced the tannoy announcements, and these trains were just as crowded as any on the world's oldest underground transit network.

The only difference was that these trains carried magical people, rather than their harassed Muggle counterparts.

Tube trains on the Piccadilly Line may not have stopped here for some time, but the Wizarding World had it's own line on the underground network. If it was on a map, it would be coloured in gold. It was called The Merlin Line and ran not only through central London, but connected to an underground rail network that spanned the entire length and breadth of Great Britain.

Harry didn't know this, of course, but there was even a secret connection to the line that ran straight to Annwn. If he so wanted, it would be quite the easy thing to take a trip back home.

But right now, Harry and Sirius were heading in the other direction. When the train arrived they hustled and hurried to get on, squeezing into a corner of the carriage where Harry could see one of the overhead maps, so he could track their journey. Next to the map was a poster for the latest Weird Sisters album, information about an upcoming Celestina Warbeck concert at the Diagon Palladium, and moving signs warning Londoners to Mind The Gap.

Then the train began to move off. A voice came over the tannoy. "The next station is ... Knightsbridge. Change here for Harrods Department Store and Paul Daniels Magical Toy Shop. This is a Merlin Line train to Immore Alley." Harry watched out of the window as the train hurtled along, leaping past other trains and even shooting through crowded stations. Nobody seemed to notice them gunning past, but Sirius didn't seem too concerned, immersed as he was in a copy of The Evening Standard, that had been left by another commuter.

"Er ... Padfoot," Harry began, using the codename Sirius has given for him to use when out in public. "How come nobody can see us going past?"

Sirius turned his ridiculously turbaned-head on him. He looked ever sillier today as he'd covered his eyes with a ski-mask, to make him look even less approachable.

"Well, Harry, Muggles don't notice magic unless they look really hard," Sirius began. "And even then they will try anything to disprove it. If they do spot anything, they explain it away as a trick of the light, or the wind changing direction, or other such nonsense. Some wizards even leave the magical world to become entertainers for the Muggles, just to see how far they can push the limits of Muggle disbelief."

"Really?" Harry asked, fascinated.

"Oh yes," Sirius replied, turning the page of his newspaper. "There is a famous magician in Las Vegas - that's in the USA - who regularly flies during his shows. He even walked through the Great Wall of China once. The Muggles all come out of his shows asking how does he do it? - but they will accept almost anything but the truth - which is that he actually does the things they see with their own eyes. Good luck to him, I say. He's made a fortune from a basic Levitation Charm. You'll learn how to do that in your first month at Hogwarts!"

"I'll make things fly?" Harry asked, then he remembered suddenly. "Oh, is that wingardium leviosa?"

Harry couldn't see Sirius' face, on account of the mask and turban, but he could almost imagine his eyebrows shooting into his coiffured fringe.