Chapter Text
“Anything good in there?” Asked Ron, as Harry closed the Magazine.
“Of course not.” Said Hermione Scathingly, before Harry could answer. “The Quibbler’s rubbish, everyone knows that.”
“Excuse me,” said Luna. Her voice had suddenly lost her dreamy quality. “My father’s the editor.”
“I…Oh…” said Hermione, looking embarrassed. “It’s got some interesting, I mean it’s quite-“
“I’ll have it back, thank you” said Luna coldly, and, leaning forward, she snatched it out of Harry’s hands. Rifling through it to page 57, she turned it upside down again and disappeared behind it.
Armin Arlert sat in his bed, eyes closed, hands crossed behind his head, listening contentedly. He had just finished reading the fifth ‘Harry Potter’ book, The Order Of The Phoenix, and, as with every other Harry Potter book he’d read, once he’d finished, he’d bought the audio book. He did this for several reasons. The first was that it let him give his full attention to a book that he might otherwise skim, or skip boring paragraphs. The second was that he actually loved listening to the books, and they helped him fall asleep at night. Oh, and the minor detail that his room was absolutely covered with everything Harry Potter. From his postered walls, to his four-poster bed, there were signs that he was a little fan girl everywhere you looked.
It was a warm summer’s day. His window was open, and a nice breeze was drifting through his room. The track finished, and Armin lazily looked over at his clock. Great, he thought to himself, already four-thirty. There’s another day lazily wasted. Well, I should probably start getting ready for work.
As with most of his college attendees, Armin had gotten a job over the summer to help raise some money, and ease the pain of student loans. He wasn’t going to any big university yet, just the local community college, but loans were still a problem he was looking to avoid. He worked at a café with some acquaintances from school, but not anyone he could really call his friends. He didn’t really have any friends, thus the Harry Potter addiction. It wasn’t that he couldn’t make them, he just felt that people wouldn’t want to be his friend once Armin opened up to them. So, he never did.
Armin stood, grabbed his neatly folded work uniform from its place on his desk, and made his way into the bathroom. He took a good look at himself in the mirror. He’d never thought of himself as attractive, in the slightest, and the big pimple appearing right between his eyes didn’t help either. Jesus, all the kids my age are nice and done with acne; I’ll probably have it until I die. Sure, it was onlyone pimple, but one pimple just meant that it was the only thing that showed on your face, and would be the first thing everyone would see.
Sighing to himself, he turned on the shower, and when it was a nice temperature, he let the water wash away his worries of everyone seeing Mount Pimple.
Once he’d finished and dried himself off, he threw on his work uniform as well as a jacket, and grabbing his keys, left the room. As he made his way downstairs, he could hear his grandfather snoring loudly. He wondered whether he should wake him up and say goodbye, but decided against it. He looks so peaceful sleeping there, in his Depends Ultra underwear, Armin sang to himself, before falling to a fit of giggles.
Doing his best to keep his noises to a minimum, Armin made his way to the door, and, once it was shut and locked behind him, looked between his minivan and the sidewalk. And, since it was such a nice day, sunny, but not too hot, he decided to walk the few blocks to the Café.
He was almost there when he noticed a sign pointing to what was once an empty parking lot. It was now bustling with people. The sign read “Swap Meet, today only!”
Looking down at his watch, he thought to himself, Well, I am about thirty minutes early to work. I love stuff, and here’s a whole bunch of it for me to look at! Screw it. And with that, he changed direction and walked into the parking lot.
He made his way down the rows of stalls, looking at everything, but never buying. Occasionally, people would shout out to him, things like, “Hey, I have something I know you want, really cheap!” or “Hey, you, Blondie, how about some nice dolls?” Which Armin would ignore. He knew he had long hair, but he still hated when people mistook him for a girl.
It was about time for his shift when he decided to leave. In the end, he hadn’t purchased anything, but Armin had still had a lot of fun. He loved seeing all the things other people owned, especially the antique and unique stuff.
He was just about to exit the parking lot, when a stall caught his eye. It was small. Small enough to only hold a few items, and a man sat behind it, staring up at the sky, a very uncaring look on his face. The man had a simple white shirt on, and was obviously built like a rock. Still, he didn’t even look like he was selling anything. Armin made his way over to him and tentatively asked, “S-sir? Do you have something for sale? I don’t see anything.”
The man, as though falling out of a trance, shot up. He looked around as though checking to see if anyone was watching, and then his eyes found Armin. The man gave him a very slow, very calculating look.
“What’s your name?” The man asked. His voice had a very rich, deep sound to it. It was as if his voice carried actual weight to it, and every word he said was heavy with the sound.
Taken aback, Armin continued to stutter. “A-Armin. Why?”
The man gave him another look, this time almost like he was seeing right through the blonde.
“I have nothing to sell. I have only to give.” The man said, almost so quiet that Armin couldn’t hear.
“W-what?” Armin asked.
“You heard me, I know you did. You are here for a reason, Armin Arlert.”
“What? What reason could that b- what did you just say?” I never told him my last name.
“I have told you what you need to know.” The man said, just as vaguely. “Now, what is it you want?”
This man was obviously crazy. He was either crazy, or a stalker, but either way, Armin was scared. Still though, the man’s question got him thinking. What do I want? I mean, friends would be nice, but I would probably just lose them. Money is something that I would like to have, but it seems pointless to me unless I earn it. This man is crazy anyway, so I’m going to come up with the most awesome, crazy thing ever, and then maybe he’ll leave me alone.
He thought about it for a few more seconds, until an idea struck him. He built on that idea until he had it formulated in his mind exactly how he wanted.
Pausing, and giving the man a very grave, and very fake, expression, Armin said, “What I want more than anything in the world, is this: “Every Harry Potter artifact that could ever exist, from wands to horcruxes. I don’t care how dangerous the things may be, but I want anything that could be harmful put away in a high security area. I want all of this stuff to be only accessible by me unless I deem otherwise. There should be enough stuff that I could recreate the entire world of Harry Potter. To finish it off, I’d like it if, in this new world, the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise didn’t actually exist. Then, everything I possessed would be real, unheard of magic.”
Throughout the whole ordeal, the man was giving him a bland, uncaring look.
Armin didn’t know why he was going along with this, as he would most likely be late for work now, but he finished by saying “Oh, and one last thing. Please make sure that in this alternate universe, J.K. Rowling has a book series that is just as famous as Harry Potter, so she still has all of her money and fame that she earned herself.”
At this, a gleam appeared in the other man’s eyes, and all he said was “Very interesting.”
Armin stood there for a little while, until he felt awkward, and turning, he broke into a steady run, and didn’t stop until he was at the café. That man was so weird! I don’t know why I even bothered talking to him!
He stopped at the doors of the café, and, hunching over to catch his breath, he looked at his watch.
Shit! I’m five minutes late! Shit shit shit!
This was a big deal. Armin Arlert never swore. Not even in his head. Once he’d caught his breath, he walked into the little coffee shop. His coworker, Levi, was manning the counter.
“Oi, brat. You’re buying me lunch for making me stay here after my shift.” Levi said.
“S-sure thing. Sorry Levi. It won’t happen again. I got…caught up with something.”
“Well, stop doing that, or you’ll go blind.” Levi said, an evil smirk plain on his face.
Armin turned the color of a tomato. “No! Not that! I decided to walk and time got away from me, that’s all.”
“Calm down, bro, it’s only five minutes.” Levi said. “Besides, I was only kidding. You got it from here?”
“Yeah, get out of here.” Armin said, smiling at Levi, who turned, clocked off, and then proceeded to leave the shop without another word.
Armin set his stuff in the back, and threw on his apron. This was going to be a long day.
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Five hours later, Armin locked the doors to the café. He was dead tired, and very much regretting his decision to walk. It was now getting dark, and the sun that had kept him warm was now gone, leaving behind the breeze that had previously kept him cool, that was now making him shiver.
Sighing for what felt like the billionth time that day, Armin walked home. Once he reached the front steps of his house, he made a mental note never to walk again.
A few minutes later, though it felt like hours, Armin finally, finally, fell into a crumpled heap on his bed. He barely had any energy left, but just enough to push the play button on his CD player. The sound of Jim Dale, the voice of all the Harry Potter audio books, filled his ears. Within moments, he was falling asleep.
The last thing he remembered before dozing off was the man at the swap meet, and his last words.
“Very Interesting."