The Trade

Image of worker's legs and work boots suspended off ground with office filing cabinet background- prompt for flash fiction
Photo by Rosan Harmens

On the odd occasion, Harry got called out to re-wire a house that was a sitting liability or had the chance to dabble in the circuitry at the local cement works; otherwise, most jobs were no more complex than doing a tag and test in offices and sending out invoices, leaving him bored and desperate for a challenge. Worse still, the waiting made it all the more tedious- waiting for the right person to show him in, waiting for sign-off for the pre-start safety checks, waiting for security passes to go from one part of a building to the next, the endless waiting for bureaucratic loops to be closed and hierarchies of boxes ticked. He started making use of the waiting time to refine skills he’d abandoned since leaving Hogwarts to train in the more employable electrical trade, until his use of idle time cost him his job when a client walked in at the inopportune moment his tool belt got stuck on the edge of the drawer, leaving him dangling just above the floor before tumbling with a drawer full of sensitive documents strewn around him, his claims of innocence and levitation falling on deaf ears.

 

Inspired by Sonya’s Three Line Tales, Week Twenty Two. Apologies if I have offended any HP fans- I am not familiar with the story, I have just absorbed enough from the world around me to know the main character’s name, that it is something to do with wizards, and the school he attended. Oh, I also read somewhere that JK Rowling wrote a book using time she had on her work commute- something I find encouraging and inspiring as I am doing the same.

Postscript: I did a check of that JK Rowling ‘fact’ and it seems I was wrong. Her biography on the Harry Potter Bloomsbury website says ‘J.K. Rowling first had the idea for Harry Potter while delayed on a train travelling from Manchester to London King’s Cross…’ Ha! I too have been delayed on trains plenty of times, and incidentally I have done the Manchester to London King’s Cross a few times.

30 thoughts on “The Trade”

    1. Thanks Sonya. 😊 You initially had me thinking I’d give this week a miss but levitation saved the day! Also I think the humour might have been my subconcious countering the more sinister/tragic story I initially saw in the picture.

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      1. Or the stone throwing glass house dwellers. In hashtag world, it’s best to be careful. I love the story. The idea of a Harry Potter who is living life as a contract worker among muggles who don’t know who he is feels wicked and fitting. Great expanded universe. Have a good rest until we catch up. xo

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      2. I know what a muggle is too now! Haha. So glad you liked the story. Down with the hashtag censoring online dwellers! Thanks, now it’s time to wish you a good rest. Catch you soon x

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    1. Thanks Derrick- it was a fun one to write. Yes, was the virgin. I found it funny and still do that people think that journey is such a huge trek, yet I do the equivalent here in the one state of Australia 4 times a week! Main reason for the Manchester -London was for work- I was based in an office in Warrington in the NW but doing work for clients in the South (Sussex and Kent). I can’t remember why I sometimes caught the train rather than fly, but it was a nice relaxing way to travel. I had a thing for the M&S ploughmans sandwich on travels, or a Paul baguette once at the London end and a Costa coffee. Wow, a lifetime ago…

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      2. Yeah- I wasn’t paying either 😊 there was a lot of spending back then…I worked for a consultancy on the asset management programme for Southern Water.

        Were the adoptions in the UK or international too?

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  10. I was all set to comment on being amused that the character was refining skills he’d learned “since leaving Hogwarts”….but then you sideswiped me with “his tool belt got stuck….leaving him dangling”…..I gasped out loud!

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  11. Pingback: Three Line Tales, Week 22: Round-Up | Only 100 Words

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