Future Nostalgia / Harry Potter Fanfic

Visiting Mr. Weasley

That morning she sent a coded letter to Hermione that only she'd be able to decrypt, ensuring that Umbridge could not understand what was written if she did intercept it.

Their trunks arrived from Hogwarts while they were eating lunch, so that they could dress as Muggles for the trip to St. Mungo's. Everybody except Harry was riotously happy and talkative as they changed out of their robes into jeans and shirts, and they greeted Tonks and Moody, who had turned up to escort them across London, gleefully laughing at the bowler hat Mad-Eye was wearing at an angle to conceal his magical eye and assuring him, truthfully, that Tonks, whose hair was short and bright mink again, would attract far less attention on the underground.

"Are you and Harry together?" asked Tonks as she walked with Estella.

Estella grinned and nodded.

"No way!" she said excitedly. Eyes turned to the pair. "Nothing to see here," she waved off.

"We haven't told everyone yet so try not to let that slip, though..." Estella trailed off. "Wait, what about you and Professor Lupin?" she asked, teasingly.

Tonks glared playfully at the girl. "There is nothing and this is about your apparently thriving love life, not mine," said Tonks exasperated.

"Ok, sure there's nothing..." she added and moved away before Tonks could hit her.

They got out at the next stop, a station in the very heart of London, and in the bustle of leaving the train, she moved toward Harry. They followed Tonks up an escalator which Estella found to be mind-blowing.

"We should have these at Hogwarts!" she said excitedly, looking at the ground.

Harry laughed, despite the guilt he was feeling. "You're so cute," he chuckled and Estella grinned at him, grabbing his hand as they moved to get off. He wasn't confident that Estella could do it without following or getting nervous, especially since she could sometimes be clumsy. "You should ask Dumbledore to invest in them."

She grinned. "I think I will, that was so fun!" she laughed, looking back at the moving stairs with amazement. Unbeknownst to her, Ginny was staring daggers at their linked hands.

"Just wait till you find out about elevators," marveled Harry, kissing her hand. Only Estella could manage to make him forget the heavy guilt that consumed him moments earlier.

"What are elevators?" she asked, but Harry just laughed.

Moody clunked along the back of the group, his bowler tilted low and one gnarled hand stuck in between the buttons of his coat, clutching his wand.

"Not far from here," grunted Moody as they stepped out into the wintry air on a board store-lined street packed with Christmas shoppers. He nudged the pair ahead of him and stuped along just behind; Estella knew the eye was rolling in all directions under the hat. "Wasn't easy to find a good location for a hospital. Nowhere in Diagon Alley was big enough and we couldn't have it underground like the Ministry-unhealthy. In the end, they managed to get hold of a building up here. Theory was sick wizards could come and go and just blend in with the crowd..."

He seized Harry's shoulder to prevent them being separated by a gaggle of shoppers plainly intent on nothing but making it into a nearby shop full of electrical gadgets.

"Here we go," said Moody a moment later.

They had arrived outside a large, old-fashioned, red-brick department store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The place had a shabby, miserable air; the window displays consisted of a few chopped dummies with hair wigs askew, standing at random, and modeling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors red Closed for Refurbishment. Estella distinctly heard a large woman laden with plastic shopping bags say to her friend as they passed, "It's never open, that place..."