A/N: To Emily! Glad you've finally been corrupted by the eeevil world of fanfiction! Muahaha!

The early afternoon found Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron in Diagon Alley. They walked as inconspicuously as possible towards the side, but they couldn't avoid the stares and whispers as people pointed them out to their friends. A witch pointed Harry out to her small little girl, and the girl's eyes flicked up to Harry's forehead. He quickly moved his hair in front of his scar and led Ginny forward.

The group walked down the alley, avoiding bright camera flashes, and Harry hurried past Eeylops Owl Emporium, not daring to glance at the snowy owl he knew would be in the window.

"Okay," said Harry, "first we'll go to Gringotts, and— "

"Gringotts." Ron interrupted with a grimace, gesturing at the suddenly menacing white building at the end of the alley. Harry's heart dropped to his stomach. He'd forgotten about Gringotts, and he was fairly sure they wouldn't exactly welcome them in after their last adventure into the bank…

"Ron!" said a voice, and they all turned (plus a few onlookers) to see Bill hurrying down the steps of Gringotts and towards the young wizards. His ginger hair in its customary ponytail and yet another fang dangling from his ear, he explained the situation.

"Mum told me you all'd be coming today," he said once he'd gotten close enough, and they followed him warily to the bank. "Anyway, the goblins obviously weren't too happy after that escapade of yours--" he said with a grin, "you know how they are. But for now we've managed to get everything sorted out— Charlie sent in a couple of good Romanian dragons, all though, mind you, he wasn't too happy to let 'em go after he figured out their conditions. Still, they'll leave you alone for now. Just expect some very icy stares!" he said as they opened the silver doors and walked into the main lobby.

Heading to the counter, they found some goblins to assist them. They started to back away before the wizards could speak to them, but a raised eyebrow from Bill and they grudgingly got to work.

"Oh, I've got to go," said Bill, looking at his pocketwatch as the rest set off for their respective vaults. "Meeting Fleur—see you all later—got to go—" he said distractedly and quickly Disapparated. Ginny smirked and rolled her eyes at Harry.

As a still-unwilling goblin lead him to his vault, Harry realized something. Ginny's birthday was in three days. What am I supposed to do, he thought to himself. I don't know about birthday presents, I'm going to get her something completely wrong and… relax, he told himself. This is not something to worry about. He thought back to 12 Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. There was something about gifts… "Think about the witch's interests. What are her hobbies and passions, and what would she use often? She may have even dropped a hint to you already. If she's talked about something specific, then she might be hinting that she wants you to get it for her." He silently thanked Ron for what was definitely one of the more useful gifts he'd ever gotten; it certainly beat Hagrid's biting monster book by quite a bit…

He traveled back up to the lobby. No one else had gotten back yet, and he quickly left the bank (not too quickly though, as he did want to remain invisible to all the curious onlookers). Invisible. Why hadn't he brought his invisibility cloak? He certainly wished he had now that people enjoyed staring at him even more than usual.

He swiftly walked past Madam Malkin's and Flourish and Blott's before ducking nto Quality Quidditch Supplies, a warm-colored shop that was luckily empty. He hadn't been in here in a while, although he had visited often when he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron before his third year. The man at the counter, a grey-haired, stout but friendly looking man quickly noticed him and bustled over. His eyes flicked ever-so-subtly to Harry's forehead before he made eye contact.

"Patrick Dunnagan," The man held out his hand, pretending he didn't already know who Harry was.

"Harry Potter," Harry shook Dunnagan's hand.

"So, Mr. Potter, what can I interest you in today?" said Dunnagan, clearly trying not to beam at the prospect of meeting Harry.

"Well, I'm just looking for a broomstick," he said, realizing a bit too late that it was rather obvious, considering he was, in fact, standing in a broomstick shop.

"Ah. Yes. Well, we have several excellent new models—" began the man, "But, pardon my asking, aren't you already in possession of a Firebolt? Not that there's anything wrong with having two broomsticks," he added quickly, not wanting to ruin a sale.

"Actually, I lost my Firebolt a while back. Almost a year ago."

"Ah! What a pity. Excellent model, although slightly outdated now, I must say," he said. "Might I ask how the Firebolt was lost?" he asked, unable to control his curiosity.

"It was last summer," he began, deciding how many Order-related details he could leave out without making the story unclear. "I was being transported, er, from my Aunt and Uncle's, and I wasn't riding on my broom because the Death Eaters would expect that. Anyway, they found out about me being moved, and they attacked. The Firebolt fell out of the sidecar I was riding in and probably crashed into the ground."

"How awful…" said Dunnagan, the sort of man passionate enough about his business to mourn a lost broomstick of particular quality. "Let me show you some of our newer models!" he quickly recovered, motioning for Harry to follow him.

He showed Harry numerous models, including a newer Firebolt model that would probably cost twice what was in his already-large bank account, some other high-end professional quality brands, a few Cleansweeps, a Comet Three Twenty, and the latest of the Nimbus series.

"And this is the Nimbus 3000," said Dunnagan, "The newest Nimbus model, and really quite excellent craftsmanship, not to mention performance, especially for a Quidditch player," he said pointedly. Harry listened to the pros and cons of the broom, held it, and eventually: "I'll take two, please."

He handed the brooms over the counter. "Excellent, Excellent!" said Dunnagan, quite proud of himself. Harry paid him, asking, "Do you think you could deliver these by owl?"

"Of course! We have overnight owl shipping, although if you need it faster, I—"

"Could you have them delivered on the eleventh?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Potter, absolutely! Straightaway on the eleventh, then! I'll just put these in the back…"

Later, Harry walked back out into the main street, crossing over to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Apparently this was an accurate guess as to where everyone was, as when he walked in he was greeted with more than a few calls of "Where were you, Harry?". Harry looked around at the new products, grabbing quite a few Skiving Snackboxes before watching moving miniature dragon with shiny, pearlescent scales.

"Candy Dragons," said Lee Jordan, who had just walked into the room. "Charlie convinced us to make them... tasty, but you never know which ones breathe fire. I've been working here, by the way," he added, "George needed a bit of help, of course…"

"I heard Potterwatch," said Harry with a grin.

"Excellent! We hoped you would. 'Course, with You-Know-Who gone and all, I'm on to a new project. Not sure what I'm going to call it, but you know Muggle televisors?"

"Televisions?" Harry corrected, wondering if Lee's muggle-objects education had anything to do with Mr. Weasley.

"Right. Well, George and I are working on bewitching one of them and making a wizard station, like the WWN is for wirelesses."

"Brilliant!"

"I know," he said smugly. "Plus, great moneymaker now that sales of those anti-hex clothes have gone down."

Harry finished stocking himself with various joke shop goods and checked out, along with Ron and Hermione. Together they went outside and Disapparated back to the Burrow.

"Great," said Ginny sardonically, before asking George for some Floo powder. "I hate being sixteen."

A/N:

Lol. Ginny. I just wish there were more opportunities for them to forget Ginny can't Apparate. Also, for those of you who don't know, August 11th is Ginny's birthday.

I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP, but I don't know when that'll be considering exams are next week. Not good… Anyway, after that is break, and I want to get a bunch done! I also apologize for not updating since like… September. My classes have kept me annoyingly busy.

Next Chapter: Ginny's 17th birthday! Also, maybe a bit of Rita Skeeter, I want to fit her in. ...muahahah...