Sorry this one took a while, I was trying to figure out how to rewrite the second chapter from my earlier fic that I had of this one and ended up just deciding that I would entirely rewrite this chapter. I'll try to update this one faster, I got distracted with other things and my Bleach fic hehe.
Something was poking at his side while he was sleeping, causing him to frown and shift, trying to burrow further under the covers to escape the offending feeling. When it continued to poke at him and ignore his grunts of irritation he knew he was going to have to put a stop to this with action.
The next time he felt the poke he caught the perpetrator's wrist hard, hearing a squeak from behind him. He glowered sleepily over his shoulder at Harry's guilty expression, the boy biting his lip and looking anywhere but at him now.
Forgiveness came quick though when he released the boy's wrist and simply rolled onto his back and stretched out, a low sound of appreciation leaving him at how his muscles burned slightly.
Feeling much better with a stretch he rubbed the heel of his palms over his eyes and yawned wide, looking at Harry who had shuffled back from his bed still looking embarrassed.
"What time is it anyway…?" Danny mumbled as he sat up, kicking back the blankets from around his body so they were half on the floor.
Harry shifted from foot to foot and answered quickly, as though trying to make up for his impatient actions. "It's ten; I thought it'd be nice to let us sleep in a bit. I know I was exhausted and you didn't look like you wanted to wake up."
Danny nodded and stood up, the world shifting around him as black spots appeared in his eyes. Grunting in irritation he waited for the feeling to pass so he could get around to changing out of his bedclothes. It was always annoying to get a head rush.
Harry had already changed he noticed and the boy was once again looking anywhere than at him while he changed. He could tell it wasn't because the boy was embarrassed at his changing, more like he wanted to give him the privacy changing almost demanded.
"We're supposed to be going to London today, right?" the boy asked shyly as he fiddled with the sleeve of the shirt he was wearing.
Danny buttoned his pants and looped his belt through them, clicking the belt together and making sure that it wouldn't budge and fall down. After years of embarrassing pantsing incidents he'd learned how to avoid such a problem again.
"Yeah," he said with a sharp nod, eyeing Harry. "You're not getting out of it either if that's what you're worried about," he said teasingly.
As though the boy was alarmed that he'd read his mind he was gaping at him, a flush growing over his cheeks. "I-I was definitely not thinking about that!" Although at Danny's amused look he looked down and muttered under his breath, "Okay, maybe I was thinking it a little…"
Nodding as though that was exactly what he had expected Danny picked up his small bag from the dresser he placed it on and put one arm through it, letting it hang over his shoulder. Maybe it looked a bit like a purse to some people, but he would swear up and down it was simply manly. Besides it wasn't like he had enough that he needed a backpack, honestly.
Danny turned around to see Harry sitting on his bed, apparently already having whatever it was he needed. Not that he expected the boy to have all that much, considering what these wizards seemed to think of as storage was giant trunks. Or maybe that was school storage, he wasn't exactly sure. He'd yet to see anyone in the pub carrying backpacks or anything bigger than a small purse.
"Well then, let's get going," he said cheerfully, holding out his hand to the sitting boy. Harry stared at his hand as though he'd never seen anything like it but eventually he put his own hand in Danny's. Danny grinned wide and pulled hard, getting the boy off the bed but also nearly sending him sprawling on the floor.
Harry squeaked as he caught himself before he could fall, giving Danny a glare. "D-danny, you did that on purpose!"
The blue-eyed boy simply laughed at the look on his face and walked over to the door, opening it wide so he could go through it and holding it open for the other boy. "Of course I did it, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up," he said cheerfully.
The boy pushed past him, bumping his shoulder against Danny's as though it was some kind of payback for how he'd pranked him. Danny simply shook his head, not losing his grin at all, and shut the door behind them. He had to stay an extra moment to lock the door and put the key away but then he was following the boy who'd already gone down the stairs and was waiting by the door to the inn.
"Danny, we should probably head out quick," Harry whispered to him, head tilting towards where Tom was watching them intently. Danny remembered how no one apparently wanted Harry to be out on his own and so he nodded and led the boy out the door quick. No one followed them though, so he wasn't sure if they were really that concerned.
Harry was silent as he walked alongside Danny down the walkway, although Danny didn't mind it too much considering he had to keep track of where they were in London to begin with. He didn't know the place as well as he'd known most of the places he'd stayed in but he knew it well enough to know where the best clothing stores were.
Whenever Harry strayed too far from him, lost in whatever thoughts he was in, Danny tugged his sleeve lightly to lead him back in the right direction. Harry gave him grateful glances for that, and Danny would always look forward quickly to keep the glow of happiness out of his heart.
He wasn't going to be staying with this boy for long after all, as soon as this boy was off to the school that he was going to Danny wouldn't see him again. The only reason he was helping the boy was because of his curiosity and the fact that he didn't have the heart to leave someone who obviously could be helped alone.
Getting close to the boy would only end up with both of them hurt; although Danny was sure he'd be the one who would be more hurt. Especially since this boy could use magic, who knew what it could do to him. He'd never had to go up against magic, didn't even know if it could affect someone like him.
When they reached the store he led Harry into it, appreciating the way Harry stared open-mouthed around him as though he'd never seen a store like this before. Considering the state of Harry's dress Danny wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.
His heart almost hurt at the idea that a young boy had never been given the opportunity to actually have decent clothes.
A store employee bustled over to them, she was chewing on a bubble gum but she didn't seem like one of those rude girls Danny had to deal with before when he'd gone into clothing stores. In fact she seemed really sweet in comparison.
Light brown eyes looked between them and Danny tilted his head silently towards Harry, telling the girl without words that Harry was the one who was meant to be shopping here. The girl's eyes and face lit up in a smile, perhaps pleased that her customer wasn't someone grumpy. Or perhaps pleased that Harry looked so excited to be here, surely many boys didn't have that kind of reaction to clothing stores.
Whatever it was she quickly stepped forward, careful to stay out of Harry's personal space. "Hello sir, you look a little overwhelmed by the store. Could I ask what it was that you came here to get so I can help you with it?" she asked, and her voice sounded playful yet just the right amount of professional.
Harry stared at the girl, mouth opening and closing. Maybe he didn't even know there were choices one could have when it came to clothes. Danny took pity on him and rescued him.
"Well he's not very familiar with clothing stores as you might have guessed," Danny said smoothly, smiling at the girl apologetically. "But we'd like it if you could please help us find some shirts and pants for him, a belt or two would be nice if you have some good ones. Maybe a sweatshirt and a jacket as well, it can get cold during the winter and he might not have the opportunity to get a jacket since his school is very busy during the winter."
Danny wasn't entirely sure about that last part or if it was even cold at all in the magical world but he wanted to cover all his bases as it was. And for all he knew it might actually be very hard for Harry in a magical school to get access to regular clothing.
The woman was nodding and looking Harry over, eyes considering. "I might need to take your measurements," she said finally, nodding decisively. "Not to be rude dear but your clothing makes it hard to guess properly what your size is."
Harry looked at Danny pleadingly, begging him silently to save him from whatever measurements were, but Danny simply grinned at him.
"I-I…" Harry mumbled, eyes flicking from the girl to several of the clothes racks around them. "Well, I guess if that's the easiest way to do things, it's okay if you want to do that."
The girl, Jessica as the tag on her uniform said, smiled wide and turned around, leading the two of them to a space beside the checkout counter where several measuring tapes lay on the counter.
"You don't have to take anything off," she told Harry at his apprehensive look, smiling comfortingly at him. "I can do all of this without that, so you don't need to worry. I don't think you look bad either, in case you're embarrassed about yourself."
Harry didn't look very comforted but he did stop fidgeting now, Danny was curious how much self-confidence issues the boy had but he didn't ask him about it to give him personal space. He wouldn't have asked even if Jessica hadn't been there. They weren't that close after all.
Jessica picked up the measuring tape and unrolled it. "Could you stand right here, dear?" she asked Harry, indicating a spot on the ground where some tape was placed with an "X". Harry nodded and stepped onto the mark.
The girl smiled again and went to work measuring Harry. Danny had seen this happen enough times with someone that he didn't particularly care to watch it again, one of his old jobs had been to do this exact kind of thing after all. Instead he wandered away, trusting that Harry could handle himself against the evils of a store manager.
The aisles weren't hard to navigate and he found himself absently looking through some clothes that might look good on him. One of his favorite was a black jacket with white trimming on it; on the front of it was a green splatter that reminded him amusedly of what humans sometimes considered ghosts to look like. It was good enough that he would rather enjoy wearing this and with that thought in mind he looked through the sizes until he found the proper one for himself to wear.
When he'd looked through several more articles of clothing and had even found himself a nifty black belt with white metal as the buckle he heard Harry calling for him from near the register. Peeking around the corner of the aisle he was at he could see Harry shuffling around in front of the register, a pile of clothing in front of him on the desk.
Danny whistled low in appreciation, apparently the girl wasn't a slacker at all if she'd collected all that together for Harry so fast.
They weren't there for Danny to get a bunch of clothes anyway, so Danny was content with the few pieces that he'd gathered and he walked over to Harry and placed the clothes he'd gotten on the desk register one over from Harry's. While they weren't checking out separately it would certainly help Jessica know which of the clothing she'd already rung up.
Jessica raised her eye as she looked over the clothing Danny had put down, looking up at him and giving him the critical eye. Whatever she thought it must have been positive because she smiled and winked at him, picking at the clothes to ring them up and laying them on the clothes she'd already rung up for Harry.
The total wasn't something that high, somewhere in the range of $300 or $400, he wasn't particularly that good at the exchange rate between American and British currency. Either way it didn't bother him and he held out his credit card for the girl to take and swipe through the machine. It wouldn't put a dent on his account, just like he'd told Harry before.
Jessica smiled at him when the transaction went through and she handed back his card.
"I'm glad I was able to help you," she said warmly, popping another bit of gum into her mouth even as she moved their clothing into bags for them. The girl was sweet enough to make sure the clothes wouldn't overweigh a bag and break it, and she kept the bags neat and organized so they weren't overflowing either.
Danny nodded at her and smiled back. "Thank you very much for the help."
Harry agreed with him quickly, smile wider than Danny's. "I really wouldn't have known what to do at all if you hadn't helped me, if I need any more help I'll be sure to come back here. This place is really nice."
Perhaps the girl didn't get enough compliments or praise because she was blushing now, eyes softening further than they'd done the entire time they'd been in the store. "I love helping people," she said gently as they picked up their bags. "I hope you both have a very good day."
"You too, miss Jessica," Danny said with a slight bow as he ducked out of the store, Harry on his heels.
The younger boy waved despite the struggle it caused him with the bags in his hands and they could hear Jessica's giggle even as they were on the street.
Both of them smiled at each other, warm feelings spreading through each of them as they walked back to the Leaky Cauldron to put away their spoils.
}-{
While it had been a struggle to get the clothing into Harry's trunk they had managed it in the end. The trunk looked a little overfull at the end of it but neither of them minded too much. Harry had already gotten all the materials he'd needed for his school year as it was, so it wasn't like they'd need to stuff more into it. So long as the trunk didn't go popping open there was no issue until the boy was at Hogwarts and unpacking.
As they sat on their respective beds Harry was fiddling with a picture book that he had, looking between all the pictures that lay in it.
"Hey Danny?" Harry asked as he looked up at him, a thoughtful look on his face.
Danny paused from where he had sprawled out on his bed and was drawing in a sketchbook he kept on him. "Mmm, what is it Harry?"
"Well, you said you don't know much about magic, yeah?"
Danny nodded and put down his pencil, his concentration broken. Not that he blamed Harry at all, it was rather nice to have another person to talk to after all.
"I was thinking that since you didn't know much perhaps it would be nice to go to Diagon Alley."
"What's Diagon Alley?"
Harry gave him a look of utter disbelief. "You've been staying in the Leaky Cauldron all this time and you haven't even seen or heard of Diagon Alley?"
He felt like he needed to defend himself against whatever he'd apparently failed at, if Harry's look was anything to go by.
"Well it's not like many people were willing to talk to me, and you wouldn't believe how little people actually interacted in this place. The most I've been hearing since I've been here is about that madman Sirius Black that's on the loose."
The other boy seemed slightly appeased by that explanation, if not a little pale now at the mention of the serial killer that was running around. "I guess maybe you can't get into Diagon Alley since you don't know how. Whatever let you into the Leaky Cauldron might have only allowed you in here."
Danny nodded and closed the sketchbook, placing it back into his small bag. "So what exactly is this Diagon Ally and how important is it?"
"Oh you have no idea how important it is! It's like the major shopping area for wizards in Britain; it has nearly everything you ever want there!" Harry burst excitedly; Danny got the feeling he was also happy to be able to explain something to someone. He got the feeling Harry was on the receiving end of things like this often, so having it turned around must be nice.
"It's where Hogwarts students get their books, their potion ingredients, their robes, even their very first wands. Although there's a bad part of the Alley called Knockturn Alley where the dark wizards apparently go. I accidentally ended up there in second year, and it wasn't a very pleasant experience however short the trip was."
Danny got the feeling there was more to that particular story than what Harry was saying, after all how does one 'accidentally' end up somewhere? Although he supposed when magic was involved 'accidents' might just happen quite often.
"So it'd be a great place to see how wizards interact and what all wizards have available to them to buy and such?" he asks to make certain he understood what this place was.
Harry nodded and beamed at him, Danny was sure the boy believed he'd gotten him hooked on the idea. He also knew that Harry probably wanted to go himself, feeling cheated out of being able to since the minister had apparently already gotten all his school items for him.
Danny took a few moments to consider the idea, enjoying the nervous and impatient look that was growing on Harry's face. Finally he took pity on the boy and smiled at him.
"Sure, that sounds like a great idea to me. I mean, what else is there to do but to go see how your people live? I've always loved new things."
Harry was up off the bed before Danny had even finished his sentence, tugging impatiently at his shoulders to get him up off the bed.
That rather startled Danny so much he simply let the boy even when he was tugging him towards the door and out. He did have to stop him so he could lock the door though.
Danny followed behind Harry with raised brows. This was a new side of Harry he hadn't seen before. The boy had seemed rather meek and willing to go along with what others suggested instead of offering anything himself. As though he didn't believe he even had a choice in the matter, to see him not only offering suggestions but also being so straight-forward in getting there too made him pleased.
However staring at a brick wall was not what he had in mind when he heard about this Diagon Alley.
"This is Diagon Alley."
At Danny's blank look Harry smiled hesitantly and took out the stick that was his wand. Instead of answering him he tapped it on the bricks in front of him in a certain pattern that Danny filed away in his mind.
When the bricks in front of him started moving he raised his brows in slight surprise but otherwise was unphased even as they moved aside to show the doorway into the brightly lit Diagon Alley.
Harry pouted in disappointment at his lack of reaction, to which Danny grinned at him.
"I've seen a lot of things in my life, and while that ranked high on the list of awesome it was also not enough to make me gasp and fawn over it."
"Well, I'm sure you'll see something that's going to astound you and then you'll be making such a silly face I'm going to laugh at you," Harry proclaimed, cheeks puffing up slightly when Danny only grinned wider.
Instead of teasing him Danny simply walked through the bricks, hearing them close behind them when Harry followed after him. The Alley looked large, with tons of shops from what he could see just in this area.
He didn't particularly know any of the shops though, so he looked at Harry. "So where's the first place that we should go?" he asked the young wizard.
Harry looked around as well, taking in all the different shops around them. "Well, we should go to Gringotts first; while you may have a lot of Muggle money apparently I'm not sure if it transfers well to Wizard money. If it does the goblins will be the ones who can answer that for us, and if it doesn't then I can use some of my own money."
The boy looked at him worriedly. "What is it?"
"Well…" he said slowly, embarrasement coloring his voice. "Ron doesn't like it when I try to pay for some things for him, even though I have enough money to spoil him. I don't want to make you angry if you don't want me to pay for things for you either…"
Danny simply laughed and patted the boy on the shoulder as he started walking down the Alley. "If I get angry when you try to pay me for something I'd feel bad. After all I paid for your clothes when you didn't want me to, so I'd be a terrible hypocrite."
Harry followed after him, footsteps sounding soft despite the stone that they were walking on. Danny figured it must be some kind of spell on the ground. "Well, that makes some sense to me. Gringotts is that giant gold building up ahead."
Gold building he wasn't kidding about, the entire thing looked like one of those lost golden cities of ancient times. Or at least what he imagined they must have looked like. Danny whistled at the sight, wondering if there were a lot of buildings that looked like this in the wizarding world. While there were a lot of special places in the normal world he wondered what architecture could be created when one had magic at their disposal.
Harry was smiling at his appreciation and walked ahead of him up to the door of the building. It didn't open until Danny had stepped up by him, and then the large golden door swung inward and allowed them access inside.
Once they were in Danny felt like some cool liquid had washed through his body, causing him to shudder slightly. Harry didn't have the same reaction, he wondered if the boy had felt it or if he'd gotten used to it and that's why he hadn't reacted.
However he didn't have much time to consider it as Harry was already walking down the large room where creatures that Danny assumed to be goblins sat at desks writing with quills on papers.
He followed after him, unwilling to be left alone with these creatures that were giving him a look he wasn't sure that he liked.
Harry was already talking with the goblin at the giant desk there, frowning as he looked back at Danny when he stepped up beside him.
This goblin was also giving him that look, except it was far clearer. It was a look of clear distrust.
"Mr. Fenton," the goblin started, ignoring the look of shock that overcame Danny's face, "it is rather nice to see you finally appear here. We were worried that you would never be showing up."
Danny didn't reply at all, instead he whirled on his heels and made a bolt for the door. He hit a wall before he'd gotten two feet though, falling back onto his ass and holding his nose so that it wouldn't start bleeding.
"Fuckin'…" he hissed under his breath, recognizing the feeling as what would be a ghost shield except this one felt more magical. A magic ghost shield. How wonderful. Whatever he'd gotten himself into, there would be no way he could escape.
Harry was giving him a stunned wide-eyed look, apparently too shocked by what had just happened to speak up.
Danny ignored the look and got to his feet, glaring hard at the goblin behind his desk. The goblin that looked far too smug and pleased with himself.
"Now Mr. Fenton," the goblin said with the tone one would use when they knew they had the others attention and there would be no way they could argue with what they were proposing, "why don't you and Mr. Potter come with us before we show you to your vaults. There's something important that you both need to know."
Danny almost wanted to argue over why the goblin had said 'vaults' as if they were plural. That wasn't the most important thing here though and when Harry looked at him in slight alarm he only smiled at the boy reassuringly. If it came to it he would find a way out of here, he always ended up getting out of bad situations.
"Sure then sir, I'll see what it is you think's so important for us to see," was Danny's reply.
The goblin nodded in smug pleasure at his agreeing mood, signaling another goblin to come forward.
This new goblin looked at both of them as though he was excited. "Both of you come with me now," was all he said as he turned and walked through a door on the side of the room.
Harry and Danny looked at each other and Danny shrugged, indicating they should follow the goblin. Harry simply nodded nervously and went through the door, Danny following at a more sedate pace.
Yeah I left this one as a cliffhanger for right now. But hey, what can I say. Sometimes cliffhangers can be nice, since it leaves tension and the desire to know what's going on. I've been on the end of a great cliffhanger where I'm left for several days wondering and hypothesizing what's going to happen.
This one should be updated a lot faster than last time, since I'm actually kicking my butt over being stupid about this and taking so long.