All four Harry Potters had been taken to Diagon Alley immediately after their Sorting Breakfast to sort out the little problem with their supplies. Namely the fact that, aside from their wand which had also been duplicated since the original Harry'd had it on his person at the time, there were only enough school supplies for one Harry. All four of the boys had agreed to share Hedwig and had worked out a rough visitation schedule, but sharing other things such as textbooks would be problematic considering the fact that they were all in separate houses. Things like this had happened to a lesser extent over the years to a few sets of twins who had been sent to separate houses and therefore couldn't share like their parents had planned. On one memorable occasion two centuries back, the dreaded in-year shopping trip had happened to a set of identical triplets whose parents had rather uncreatively named Samantha before giving them different middle names. With four Harry James Potters, the confusion the three Samanthas had caused would soon fade into distant memory rather than the school legend it had once been.
Aside from it being a slightly colder day, this trip to Diagon Alley started much the same as the last one had, if one excluded the whole rescue from a rock in the middle of the ocean that had preceded the previous shopping trip. It had again started with Hagrid herding Harry Potter through the Leaky Cauldron where all four of him were swamped by admirers and whatnot before they entered the alley and headed to Gringotts. When they reached Gringotts, Hagrid brought them to a counter which was manned by an exceedingly ancient looking Goblin. Two of the Harrys got a close-up look of the creature's wizened face as he peered over the counter.
"Dear God Below! Not again!" the Goblin wailed before he started slamming his head down on his ledger repeatedly.
"Griphook! Griphook! Take Misters Potter down to his vault!" another teller yelled as two other bank employees grabbed the poor old teller who had ceased slamming his head into his ledger and was now trying to slit his wrists with his quill.
"Is he okay?" Harry asked after the teller who was being dragged away.
"Just a nervous breakdown." the new teller said as a pair of very familiar and virtually identical goblins arrived. "It often happens to those who have been tasked to sort out the William Williams inheritance case over the last sixty years. He should be right as rain and back to work in a week or so."
"Either that or dead." the goblin muttered under his breath as the Griphooks started to lead the Harrys away. One might be interested to note that the Griphooks were an actual pair of identical twins rather than a pair of unfortunate copies who were waiting for the other to vanish. Apparently, there was a story behind their identical names which had involved them being pranksters in their youth and constantly changing places. This little habit of theirs had of course led to them both being given the same name upon reaching adulthood in order to nip their pranking in the bud. The Harrys learned this along with the story of the infamous William Williams case when one of the Harrys had asked as they got into the carts.
After the Harrys had left to go down to their vault, the teller the Harrys had just left behind sighed as he returned to his post and finished analyzing the emerald that a wizard had just given to the bank as a payment on his loan."Poor sod. William Williams just had to get both of himself killed by dueling himself. Of course it didn't help that his firstborn sons were born on the same day, at the exact same time." he muttered as he adjusted his loupe.
After gathering some gold from their vault, wondering if the four of them would be around long enough to deplete the funds in the vault four times as fast as they would have individually, and leaving the bank where the goblins were more subtle than wizards at goggling at their passing, the boys went on a shopping trip that went pretty much the same way the last one had since they pretty much bought the same stuff that they had the last time. The only major differences were the fact that there was no Draco Malfoy at Madam Malkins, and all of the children they spotted in the alley were at least a couple months younger than them, with most of them being several years younger than them. Everyone had stopped and stared at them as they passed, but that had happened last time as well after he had brushed his bangs away from his eyes without thinking half-way through the trip.
All too soon, the day during which Hagrid had bought them ice cream at Florean Fortiscue's where they wondered over the fact that the one that he had purchased for the Slytherin Harry was a good deal smaller than the rest and looked like it lived up to its appellation of Grasshopper Surprise if the insect legs sticking out of it were anything to judge by came to an end. After a quick meal at a local Fish and Chips takeaway, they and their purchases were herded back to Hogwarts. That evening, as Gryffindor Harry read his Transfiguration textbook, Ravenclaw Harry listened to one of the Muggleborn Third-Years dissect the sport of Quiddich, and Hufflepuff Harry learned how to play Gobstones, Slytherin Harry sat on his bed hungrily scooping Grasshopper Surprise out of its Ever-Cool tub.
It wouldn't be too surprising to one that he liked it grasshoppers and all if one knew Harry's history. One of the few sweets Harry had gotten in his life before Hagrid had come and upended everything had been the chocolate covered cricket that Dudley had dared him to eat. The cricket wasn't the only bug he'd ever eaten on a "dare", but the chocolate had actually made it tasty, which had made him want to try another or something similar if he ever got the opportunity to do so. He drew the line at the Cockroach Clusters he'd seen when Hagrid had let them run through a sweet shop in the alley though. Cockroaches were filthy, nasty, bugs that lived in dirty homes. Not like grasshoppers and crickets which hopped free in the wild amongst the meadows and streams rather than under unclean fridges.
As Harry finished the last of the Grasshopper Surprise, he decided that he would have to thank Hagrid for his recommendation of such an unorthodox ice cream flavor. He wouldn't have had the nerve to try it otherwise, due to the fact that he didn't want to be seen doing things that were too far outside the norm. He didn't want to be called a freak here as well as at home. He was enough of a freak already.