mudblood_andproud | Books, Broomsticks and Butterbeer Oh My! ((Jim))

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Books, Broomsticks and Butterbeer Oh My! ((Jim))

Hermione was excited for the day ahead of her. It was finally time that she could bring Jim to Diagon Alley with her, so he could see a part of the Wizarding world. It had taken some time, since she had needed to talk to Minerva McGonagall and Arthur Weasley, and sign off a few scrolls to bring a Muggle to Diagon Alley. But Hermione had followed the letter of the Wizarding laws in these regards, so there was no worries on her end.

She had decided to open the PINpoint portal in her own home, a small cottage located in Wiltshire. After all, it was best that a portal wasn't open in Diagon Alley, where any wizard or witch could discover it, and try to gain access to the Nexus themselves.

Hermione send out a quick message to Jim, hoping that he was available.

Good morning! Feel up to exploring some of the magical world with me? Hermione

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"I traced my own family line, to see if there were any wizards that we never knew of... and I never found anything."

"So yes. I do."

"I think the magic is there for anyone who wants to embrace it. Welcome it into their lives." Hermione adds. Then smiles. "Even you, Jim."

"That's what I figured," he agrees. "It wouldn't make sense for me to be able to use the training wand otherwise. Which really, if that's the case, then this whole pureblood superiority thing even stupider than I thought."

"You know, if you wanted to take the opportunity to see if you could cast spells on your own, without the training wand... I would be happy to help you."

"Maybe it would show the rest of the wizarding world that it is possible."

Jim nods. "I've got a lot on my plate right now without trying to master magic, too, but maybe sometime we could give it a try. Though even if I don't manage it, that might just be because we're from different Earths."

The train comes to a stop back in London. Hermione picks up the empty picnic basket, placing it safely into the pouch for later. And she cleans up the mess.

She gives Jim his ice cream cone, and take our hers, so they have something to eat on the way to the entrance to Diagon Alley. The ice cream is still in good condition, no signs of it melting.

"I believe you have a lot of potential Jim."

The ice cream is a pretty neat trick, all things considered, and Jim idly wonders if it'd do well in desert climates. Something to look into at a later date, perhaps.

He chuckles a little at her statement as they get off the train, back onto the hidden platform behind the brick wall. "You'd be surprised how often I've heard that." He's been discovering the truth behind some of it already, as he learns more about his capacity for leadership as captain.

"So, how do we get to Diagon Alley?" he asks, remembering the name of the place from previous conversations.

"We walk there." Hermione winks, playfully. She can keep her car in the rental parking lot. And they can eat their ice cream, as they walk down the streets of London.

Her destination is the Leaky Cauldron, which is only a few blocks away from the train stop. However, when they get there, instead of going inside the pub, Hermione leads him around the back to the alleyway. And stops in front of a brick wall.

"No running through this one." She takes out her wand, taps on a certain sequence of bricks, and soon the bricks part to reveal Diagon Alley on the other side.

Walking is just fine with Jim. He's a pretty active guy by nature, and it's nice to see the sights without needing to rush to their destination.

He watches closely as she taps her wand against the bricks, obviously some kind of code... like a secret knock. Except magic, probably. And after everything he's seen, the parting bricks isn't that much of a surprise, though the sheer scale of what lies beyond is, somewhat. "Wow," he murmurs, as the dead end alleyway opens up into a massive collective of shops that can't possibly exist in Euclidean space. "It's like a pocket dimension."

"You can see why so many wizards and witches come to Diagon Alley to shop." Hermione notes about the street filled with shop after shop.

"Sure," he says as they move into the hidden shopping area, looking around at all the stores and the crowd of people moving from place to place. "It's a lot busier here than Hogsmeade was. Do a lot of wizards live in London?" He would've thought that if their societies are separate, then that wouldn't be the case. And if it isn't, why do they know so little about Muggle society?

"Some do. They live in wizard areas of London." Hermione heads up Diagon Alley, with at least one destination in mind. "This might not exist anymore in your timeline... but you know the stories of upscale neighborhoods, where you just feel out of place by being there? Well, in my world, those are wizarding neighborhoods. And that feeling of being out of place are usually due to wards."

Jim has no personal experience with that whatsoever, though he's aware of social inequality in Earth's history. "Wards... like a kind of Muggle deterrent?" It makes sense, and he wonders how that might change if her Earth goes the same route of cultural evolution that his did.

"We don't have anything like that anymore, back home. There's no more 'old money' or super wealthy families or anything. Good news is that means there isn't really poverty either."

"Wizards don't have poverty issues either. The main divide right now is between Pure Bloods and those who aren't."

Ahead, standing at a store called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, is an older, red-haired man who is waving at Hermione excitedly. Hermione waves back.

"But that is the thing I love about the Weasleys'. They are a Pureblood family that just don't care about that nonsense."

Jim's starting to get a sense for the unusual wizard aesthetics, and he looks over the shop curiously. The name isn't really indicative of anything, but given what kinds of stores there were in Hogsmeade, he can take a guess. "They run a joke shop?"

"Fred and George were the masters of the practical jokes." Hermione answers. "There is a memorial to Fred inside."

"Hermione!" That would be Arthur greeting them now. "You brought him! This is wonderful. Welcome dear boy! Welcome!"

"How many of your family did you bring today, Arthur?" Hermione laughs, because when her parents had come to Diagon Alley the first time, nearly the entire Weasley family had welcomed them.

"Only half!" Arthur opens the doors to the store, gesturing for them to come inside. There is enough noise inside to indicate that there are several people inside. And when they do step in the doors, they are greeted by redhead after redhead.

Oh. Memorial. A sadly familiar experience for Jim, who's going to take his cues from the family inside on how to behave about that, not wanting to ignore their losses or bring up bad memories. So he smiles in greeting when they enter the shop, a little surprised by just how many people constitute 'only half' of the Weasleys.

And all of them redheads, to boot.

"Nice to meet you," Jim greets Arthur in return, with a smile to match the enthusiasm of the Weasley clan that's present.

"Let's get the introductions out of the way!" Arthur laughs.

"I'm Arthur. The patriarch of all these brats..." The children laugh, they are very comfortable with their father teasing them. "And that beautiful, wonderful witch over there is my wife Molly."

"We must have you to the burrow for lunch some time." Molly insists.

"This is Charlie," He points to one of the older boys. "He is visiting from his studies in Romania. Where he works with dragons..." Charlie waves with a smile.

"This is George," He points to another older boy, who is standing behind the counter. "He runs the shop."

"And beside him is Ron," That redhead boy is around Hermione's age. "He went to school with Hermione. He is working as an Auror now, but also helps out at the shop." Ron gives Jim a slight calculating look (something a protective best friend would do).

"And last but not least, our Ginny." The only girl in the family waves at him. "She is engaged now, to Harry. And is preparing for her wedding."

"Our oldest Bill and third-oldest Percy are busy with other things." Arthur chuckles. "And of course, Fred is always looking over all of us..." He nods to a picture of Fred, who has an identical appearance to George, that is near the counter.

That's a lot of people, and a lot of information all at once. But Jim is used to keeping track of a few hundred crew, so he nods along with the introductions, making eye contact with each person as they're named.

His own first assessment of the Weasleys is that they're a close-knit and very friendly family, something he doesn't have a lot of personal experience with either, besides his own grandparents. "I'm Jim Kirk. Nice to meet you all. I didn't realize my visit was gonna be such a big event," he adds with a grin, not that the ice seems to need breaking.

"It is not everyday that we get a visit from a Muggle." George laughs.

"It would be better if you don't refer to Jim as a Muggle, since he is not from our world." Hermione notes. "I have told them about my Nexus journeys."

"It sounds like an amazing place to visit," Ginny notes.

"It's definitely a hell of a thing," Jim agrees. "So's this place, if I'm honest. We don't have magic, where I'm from. At least not that Terrans know about."

"You must tell us all about space travel. It sounds so exciting," said Charlie. And that is a high compliment from someone who trains dragons for a living.

"Told you they would have tons of questions..." Hermione nudges his shoulder.

"That's only fair," Jim says with a grin, nudging her right back. "I've been asking questions all day."

"I'm afraid I don't have tons of stories just yet, but I've got a few," he adds to Charlie. "I've only been captain for a year."

He asked for it. The questions come fast and quick, and it might be difficult to determine which Weasley is asking what question.

"How big is your ship?" "How fast can it go?" "What kind of alien encounters have you had?" "Did you have to study a lot to get onto a ship?" "How many worlds have you seen?" "What would you say is your most remarkable sight that you have seen?"

Jim laughs a little and holds up his hands to stem the tide. "One at a time, c'mon." He's more than happy to answer their questions and sate their curiosity, though.

"The Enterprise is over seven hundred meters from bow to stern, and her top safe cruising speed is warp eight. I did three years at Starfleet Academy before I got the captain's chair." He kind of hopes they don't ask about him attaining such a lofty assignment straight out of the Academy; the story is neither short nor happy.

"That sounds huge." Ron whistles. "And warp eight? What does that mean?"

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