Harry gets the unnerving feeling that Pansy will be checking up on his progress given what he had stated he would do and somehow it drives him on to get started on things the very same day. He is not sure the Slytherin prefect is the sort of witch he really wants to get involved in an argument with. She is far too feisty and cunning for that. True to his words, he studies the theory of the spells he wants to learn and puts far more effort into some of his homework than he ever would have done before. When he is in the middle of his Potions homework he flicks past a page on healing potions and makes a mental note to try to get up to scratch on that subject as best he can, whether he can take the class or not. Sadly, that is knowledge he is probably going to need at some point in the not so distant future.
Days pass and he spends most of it locked in his room pouring over new spells and taking down notes of things he might find useful. Despite having plenty of money for taxis, Harry walks everywhere, whether it is ten minutes down the road to pick up some food or over a mile to pick up some new clothes in order to improve his overall fitness. He deliberately does all he can to do things that are not going into Diagon Alley to purchase another owl because it was so unnerving the time before and because he still has time. There is also the added fact that he does not want Hedwig sharing him and sulking over it any earlier than necessary.
It strikes him, nearly a week after Pansy's first visit, that in order to defeat Voldemort he has to answer a very important question. Why had he not died in the first place? Harry resolves to try write down what he knows and purchases some A3 sized paper to make a bigger diagram, gets a Chinese takeaway and sprawls out on the floor of his room with a set of highlighter pens and writes down each line of the Prophecy, determined to make sense of it and unravel any clues it might have within it.
'Make sense of that old bat,' Harry thinks to himself sourly, ' Now that really is a challenge.'
He writes down the contents of the prophecy and then highlights parts of importance, mainly the part about Harry having a power that the Dark Lord does not know about and Harry can only presume, cannot use. 'Which I'm sure will be simple to work out' Harry thinks sarcastically to himself, 'What could I possibly be capable of that Voldemort is not? This is hopeless!'
Harry stubbornly refuses to believe that love of all things was what was going to essentially win him a war. His heart. As much as he loves his friends, he has hardly been surrounded by love his entire life. For years it was only something he understood as something he did not have and perhaps did not deserve. It sounded ludicrous and the idea of there being a room at the Ministry of Magic filled with what Dumbledore had almost described as positive energy was laughable at best.
"It is also enough to send a man round the bleedin' twist," Harry mutters to himself while savagely underlining the line and neither can live while the other survives with his orange highlighter and scowling when it smudges his ink slightly.
For Harry, he was capable of putting aside his scepticism for a moment and thinking theoretically about having a power related to his heart that Voldemort would not but if Voldemort was still around then clearly Harry had to still kill him, despite having said power already. He still had to get close to him, still had to defeat him in a duel, and Dumbledore had not disputed that. In fact, when Harry thought about it, despite caving in to requirements and telling Harry about the prophecy while offering up some excuses, Dumbledore had not given him much information at all and there had been no offer to train him to explain Harry's apparent power and how he was expected to go about using it. The same flare of irritation and betrayal he had felt at Privet Drive returns for a moment before Harry viciously suppresses it and returns to his diagrams.
The patronus charm was based on very positive magic and if anything would match what Dumbledore was on about or it would be something similar to that surely so Harry scribbles that down and draws a bubble around it before linking it to the appropriate line of the prophecy before sitting back against the bed feeling satisfied. That is until Hedwig hoots at him and he realises that really is not that much progress.
"At least I'm doing something productive," Harry sulks to the snowy owl, " Hey, c'mere girl. I'll share my crisps. I'm not sure you can eat crisps but quavers are soft. I'm sure you will be ok. And hey you eat cornflakes and soup so it isn't like your diet is normal."
Hedwig hoots softly and hops out of her cage, gliding the short distance to Harry and landing on his shoulder, making him wince slightly as she digs in her claws a little to stop herself. Harry wonders what another guest would think if they walked in to find him sat in the middle of the floor eating crisps, giving every third or fourth one to a giant owl perched on his shoulder.
"What am I going to do Hedwig? Magic that is like a patronus charm? Where do I even start," Harry states sadly, "I need Hermione," he adds a moment later.
Hermione. Harry was only on day three of his new independent lifestyle and already he felt he needed her but he just could not shift the feeling that she was too trusting in Albus Dumbledore and authority figures in general. The previous year had been an eye-opener in many ways and though Hermione had been the one to push for the DA, he could not help but feel her respect for the rules would hurt his progress. Or that she would just turn him over to the Order of the Phoenix when she was able to, in her mind doing so to keep him safe.
Yet at the same time Harry couldn't say that he particularly missed his friends in general. In fact, he had been grateful for the chance to do things his ways without Ron acting as if it was not serious or Hermione trying to take control over the situation. He needed to understand what the prophecy meant, not have Hermione snort and scowl at him for believing it, and he had to work out his connection to Voldemort without being berated over what happened to Sirius. Harry was not a book person though so he really needed help with that aspect. Just maybe not from where he thought.
'I need a bookworm that I can trust who is not Hermione. Surely I know someone like that,' Harry muses to himself while Hedwig hoots and snatches the empty crisp packet out of his hand to Harry's protest and takes it over to the other side of the room to try and rip it apart and find more crisps, leaving Harry shaking his head, 'I need to work on that. I also need someone that can help me and help Pansy gather information. I need the Weasley twins.'
HPHPHPHP
Harry had noticed the twin's new shop when he had been in Diagon Alley the first time but it had been packed and he had not wanted to risk being seen by any of the Weasley family. This time he has no choice. Slipping inside the store in his trusty oversized hoody and cap mid morning is risky but with it being so busy he cannot risk his invisibility cloak either and so carefully makes his way through the store. The one thing about the store and the Alley in general being slightly busier than he had expected is that if the twins turn out to be on the Order's side, Harry is pretty sure he can run and disappear which is obviously in his advantage.
Impressed by the store, Harry sweeps over the products with a calculating eye, trying to work out anything that might be helpful to battle Death Eaters or a help to Pansy, who he notes he has firmly engrained in his plans in the past forty eight hours.
Spotting Fred and George near the back of the store, Harry is pleased to see they are not serving anyone or showing anything off either but instead have left a young witch in charge of the till and are stacking shelves. Carefully Harry makes his way through the crowd making sure to look at the floor as much as possible, especially after he sees Susan Bones in the middle of the store with a giggling Hannah Abbot. Glancing between the twins, Harry cautiously makes his way towards the one furthest from the front of the store and slips in beside the shelf, calmly waiting until he is noticed and hoping to every deity he has ever heard of that it works and that the young Weasley will be too shocked to scream his name at the top of his lungs.
After he hears someone else call George away, the twin Harry has identified as Fred turns to slip another box of canary creams onto the shelf and then looks Harry's way, promptly freezing.
"Please, don't say anything," Harry mutters quietly as Fred's eyes widen dramatically.
"Talk about giving a boy a heart attack. Not wanting to be caught are we?" Fred asks quietly while picking up a box of biscuits that Harry has never seen before and putting them above the canary creams without skipping another beat.
"I need to speak to you and George but I'm only going anywhere with you if you give me your word that you won't turn me over to anyone for being here," Harry hisses cryptically, unaware of whether his absence from his relatives has been noticed yet.
Fred's shoulder sink and he sighs, "We would never turn over our brother. Not ever. That door behind me leads to our back room. There is a door there with a key in it. It leads up to the flat upstairs where George and I have been staying. Head up and make yourself at home. I will get George and I won't tell anyone you are there. You have my word," Fred mutters before slipping past Harry and heading for his twin. It is the most serious that Harry has ever seen him and it unnerves him slightly but he does as Fred asks and heads back into the backroom, eyes glancing over the small kitchenette set up along with a jacket and handbag that clearly belong to the shop girl before spotting the door and heading up to the apartment. Making his way in, Harry nervously moves to the sitting area and sits down, his heart beating a little faster as he hears the twins coming up the stair and despite Fred's word he tightens his grip on his wand in the front pocket of his hoody.
The twins burst into the room and promptly take off their respective jumpers and jackets before one heads into the kitchen to fetch three butterbeers while the other pulls Harry into a rather unexpected bone-crushing Weasley hug.
"You are in serious trouble," Harry hears being cheerfully reported into his jumper, "Fred and I were both proud of you for having the balls to leave and worried you had done something ah adventurous. We know how you are so fond of getting yourself into mischief," George finishes while sitting on one side of Harry while Fred takes the other and hands them both a butterbeer.
"They know I'm gone then," Harry asks darkly while popping the cap off his bottle and taking a sip.
"As far as the Order is aware you left your house last night. Moody stopped by to check on things and found there was no Harry to check on, naughty boy, but I'm thinking it wasn't yesterday after dinner that you did a bunk," Fred teases, poking Harry in the side for emphasis.
"Why are you not handing me over to the Order?" Harry asks seriously, not wanting to get into things until he knows.
Fred's face turns serious and he exchanges a look with his brother before answering, "Because we rescued you from that house four years ago mate, and the way they treat you is inhumane. If you had a reason to leave after all this time, we figured it was for the best. Especially as there was no plan within the Order to move you for several weeks, probably not until after your birthday which I recon is just about enough time for you to lose what is left of your marbles."
"Jeez, thanks for the vote of confidence guys," Harry mutters, despite feelingly an overwhelming sense of gratitude that the twins had not just automatically assumed the worst and frogmarched him back to Dumbledore, "I left a few days ago. Things went down at my relative's house and I wasn't about to stay there and be used as a punching bag any longer so I got out. I hadn't sent a letter in over a week by the time they noticed I was gone by the way. More bars on the window had Hedwig locked out."
Fred raises an eyebrow and mutters, "Well that wasn't what they agreed to little brother now was it?"
"No," Harry replies sharply, "And why do you keep calling me that?"
"Because to us Harry, you are. Have been for years. The rest feel the same. Cept Percy who apparently feels nothing, the git. But you have the rest of us," George tells him sadly, squeezing his shoulder for emphasis, "We were talking to Ron and we have been reading the papers and when we put that together with what we've heard in the Order," he begins.
"We have come to the conclusion that you are important to winning this war. Dumbledore has been decidedly shady so we wanted to hear your thoughts on things first," Fred finishes.
"It might take a while. Can you leave the shop that long?" Harry asks, feeling comfortable enough to take his jumper off, lay his wand on the table and shift around on the couch until he is more comfortable.
"Yeah, we've got staff in. They are well trained," Fred nods, "This is pretty serious then? I will put up some silencing wards and stuff."
Pulling his wand out, Fred does exactly that while George moves to take a seat in the armchair beside the sofa so he can see Harry and his brother easier.
"I'm going to work to stop Voldemort, learn to hear his name, it is just a name!" Harry snaps when the twins flinch in unison and then look sheepish, "You only give him more power than he already has if you do that! Anyway, I'm going to work to stop him and I am trying to gather information and allies. I will not be working with Albus Dumbledore. He has kept some vital information from me for a long time, thinking that I would be better off when what I really needed to do was prepare."
"You-know...ok Voldemort has been targeting you then?" Fred asks, half whispers and his eyes are wide with a fear that makes Harry pity him for a moment and at the same time want to shove him off the couch because they do not need that.
"Yes," Harry replies honestly, his face open and honest as Fred exhales loudly and George mutters a 'blimey' on his other side, "He's going to come for me so I need to be ready and I need to have help."
"Whatever you need, Harry," George states seriously, and without hesitation, Fred nodding with him.
"Well, you have not handed me over so I have had your time and trust which is a good start. After that, I think some of the things you guys can create will be helpful, and being in Diagon Alley well...you're bound to pick up on things right?" Harry asks carefully.
"Ahh, I see Mr Potter, be your ears on the ground as it were? Absolutely. Whatever you need stock wise, just take it or let us know what you need and we can send it to you, create more of it or even try and create new things. You, as our sole benefactor, can just take what you need in place of a wage which I can tell you would refuse anyway," Fred rambles happily, reading Harry's face correctly because no, he would never take a wage from the twins for doing nothing. Especially as it did not really feel like it had been his money he had invested in them in the first place.
"Right. I am thinking things like your darkness powder which I saw will be brilliant in a duel to help escape. If magic isn't an option to escape, you can still run you know? There is no shame in getting away from a Death Eater with your life even if you have to run from a fight," Harry mutters darkly, more to himself than the twins who just nod along with him.
"True words Harrikins. Hang on, maybe I should write this down, accio parchment and quill! Shite! Forgot I hadn't cleaned that table up!" Fred exclaims as said table sends several books and boxes along with a mug and plate crashing to the floor as the parchment and quiz whizz across the room.
"Nice one Gred."
"Shut it Feorge," Fred replies cheerfully, "Carry on Harry."
"Extendable ears. I am going to need a good supply of them for people I have collecting information," Harry continues without skipping a beat, more than used to this sort of chaos around the infamous Weasley twins.
"You have a spy," George breaks in sharply, "That sounds an awful lot like Dumbledore to me mate. Where are they spying exactly?"
He sounds concerned more than disappointed or disapproving Harry notes, probably worried about what Harry is getting himself involved in but the young wizard cannot afford to let things like that stop him.
"I can't tell you that," Harry says slowly, "It puts them in danger. I...do not want certain people helping me to know about each other. For their protection as well as my own and that of everyone else involved."
Fred gives him a long hard look before nodding slowly, "I don't like it Harry. But I trust you."
"That is all I am asking for. But I know that is still asking for a lot," Harry says gratefully, "Apart from that, just things that can be used in a pinch, create havoc that can give people an opening to escape and anything that can hide people or help them gain information."
Fred scribbles it all down before placing onto the coffee table in front of them, " Okay, got it. We will send you away with some stuff today if you like, shrink it down for you, and owl you any other supplies later. And yes I know you can't use magic outside of school yet," he continues with a roll of his eyes, "but a tap of your wand will de-shrink things without informing the ministry."
"That would be great," Harry says excitedly, beaming at Fred who chuckles at him, before his smile fades and he gets more serious again, "Look. How close do you think Ron and Hermione are to Professor Dumbledore and the Order. Be honest."
The twins exchange a dark glances and Harry feels his stomach lurch uncomfortably as they seem to have an entire conversation silently over his head before George sighs loudly and Harry turns to face him.
"Hermione has been staying at the Burrow. We go there a few nights a week for dinner so that we don't starve ourselves to death and ...look mate I think they are just worried but when they found out that you had left your relatives they didn't react well. They are on orders to tell Dumbledore or our parents or a member of the Order if you contact them and I think Hermione will do just that. You know what she is like with rules. She found things...irresponsible and what not and Ron. Merlin, I don't know Harry he has changed. He has gone all quiet since he got home from school and I can't be sure what it means. Until we have a better idea..."
"I should stay away from them," Harry mutters hollowly.
"Might be for the best mate," George mutters with a comforting pat to Harry's right shoulder.
Pushing aside the overwhelming sadness, Harry continues on, "What about members of the Order? Do you think there is anyone I can trust? I don't want to...make it about sides and me and Dumbledore but..."
"Would anyone side with you, you mean?" Fred asks surprised.
"Well yeah," Harry replies meekly, "I need to get training and like...read books and...stuff. I'm gutted Hermione is being this way because having her on my side would really be for the best but..."
"But she isn't so we need another bookworm?" George enquires, sounding cheerful again, "Harry, Harry, you never do things the easy way do you?"
"To be fair mate, it isn't like I go looking for the hard way," Harry snorts before taking another large sip of his butterbeer.
"Yet it always seems to find you anyway," George replies breezily, "We can see what we can do though."
"Indeed we can oh brother of mine," Fred adds, "I'm sure there are those we can sound out, some of the younger ones. There has been an influx of younger members that you went to school with."
"We can talk to them."
"See what they think."
"In the meantime, perhaps we can help you?" George enquires, tapping his forehead with his finger before adding, "We're not entirely useless."
"You remember I taught you guys the patronus charm last year?" Harry asks, continuing when he receives a wary nod and puzzled look from each twin, "Well, I need to know everything I can learn about branches of magic that work in a similar way. Feeding off positive thinking and energy and that sort of thing."
"You're not going to have us doing weird muggle breathing techniques and folding ourselves up in odd positions are you?" Fred asks dubiously, "Dad tried that yoga stuff once, thought it sounded interesting. More like mental."
Harry laughs before reaching over to give Fred a shove, "As if. No, but I do need information on that sort of thing. I will be going straight into the library at Hogwarts to look it up as it is really important. But yeah, I need more people reading books, more people getting information, and hopefully that will mean less people have to well..."
"Fight?" George offered lightly.
"Yeah. I mean, the Order has not been fighting have they? They dedicated themselves to stalking me and crystal balls talking about me," Harry drawls, hoping the twins will ignore the reference to the prophecy but he is not so lucky. He notices the shared look and takes a long drink of his butterbeer as Fred clamps his hand down on Harry's shoulder.
"Yeah, about that prophecy. Georgie and I have been talking about that since the whole incident at the ministry," he begins cheerfully, "And we wondered if old Dumbledore had told you the context of it and what it meant."
Harry considers lying to them for all of ten seconds before thinking better of it. The Weasleys are like his family and the twins have always been there for him and believed in him when needed and remain at his side now. He cannot do that to them.
"Yes, Dumbledore told me what it meant," Harry starts carefully, "For your safety as much as anything else, I can't tell you what it means because Voldemort does not know. It is basically what Dumbledore and I fell out about because I felt he kept his own council far too long. If I had been him, I would have destroyed the evidence so people would not be in danger guarding it like they were last year. If he had, maybe nothing that did happen would have," he finishes soberly, only for Fred to squeeze his shoulder gently.
"Corny as is sounds mate, everything happens for a reason. We just learn from it and move on yeah? He would have wanted that."
Harry stiffens under his touch and shakes the hand off. He does not want to talk to Sirius and certainly not with the twins as much as he trusts them. He wants the twins slowly put together what he has told them and come to their own conclusion about what Pansy was reportedly saying the Prophet was reporting before he jolts in his seat.
"Guys have you been getting the Prophet delivered?!"
"Yeah," George says slowly, "It is sort of how people find out what is going on."
Harry just rolls his eyes at him. "Can I see any you have lying around? I haven't been getting it delivered myself but I've been hearing about what they have been writing. I'd like to see it for myself."
Fred looks bewildered but starts looking through the assortment of papers and magazines on the shelf under the coffee table, handing papers out to Harry as he finds them.
"The Order is not going to stop looking for you, Harry" George says suddenly, "What are you planning to do about that?"
Harry stares at him vacantly for a few moments before answering him with a shrug, "Cross that bridge when I come to it I guess. Dumbledore had been blocking my mail before this summer. I guess if he thinks to write me a letter at some point I might decide to write back. I had permission from my relatives to leave their home. He has no jurisdiction over that so it not like I had to inform him before."
"Sly little brother," Fred declares as he places one last paper on the table, "I like it."
"I'm so proud that I might...
"Shed a tear!"
"Oh how you have grown!" George declares dramatically, slapping his hands to his chest over his heart, before frowning, "But seriously, old Dumbledore was blocking your mail? That is not right, nor legal I might add."
Fred shakes his head and looks pained, "Blimey. Dumbledore really isn't the man we thought he was. With the Order, he is different too. More...like he doesn't want people questioning him."
"Exactly!" Harry exclaims passionately, "Look I am not going to tell him where I am if he asks but he has nothing legal on me for leaving. My aunt even paid for my damn train ticket! I have my connections and I need more. I'm going to be learning and getting ready for this fight, cause it is coming guys."
"We know Harry, and we will be with you," George says heavily, "We joined the DA for a reason, though I assume it will have a new name if it reforms this year eh?"
Harry chuckles dryly, "Yeah I recon so. I don't know if I will continue with it to be honest. I will need to see what happens when I am back at Hogwarts and who the new defence teacher is. If it is someone competent well...I have other things to be getting on with. Can I just take these papers?" Harry adds, noticing the clock on the wall and how much time he has taken up already. George just nods, not looking particularly bothered.
"Anything else you need?"
Sitting up straighter, a smile crosses Harry's face, "An owl!"
"Pardon?" Fred asks bewildered, "Mate you already have one of those."
"Yeah and beautiful as she is, she is pretty damn..."
"Obvious," George finishes for him, "The undercover operation is extending to owls that blend in now? Full out camouflage Mr Potter, I like it."
"It wasn't my idea," Harry admits, "But it is a good one. I have been here a while now and I don't want to be wandering up the Alley to buy an owl if perhaps...I can rope one of my brothers into doing it for me?" Harry asks sweetly, feeling a warm feeling spread throughout his chest when George's face lights up at being referred to as Harry's brother by Harry himself.
"The things we do for you. A plain barn owl that wouldn't make someone look twice right?"
"Don't put it that way. And can you get another perch please? I won't need a cage," Harry chuckles while rising to his feet and digging through his pockets for some gold and handing it to George who dissaparates instantly.
"I will go down into the store cupboard and put some things together for you to take away with you. Not too much that you can't carry it. I'd offer to apparate you off but..."
"Then you would know where I'm staying," Harry finishes for him and Fred just gives him a wry grin before heading off downstairs and leaving Harry alone in a small flat. That had gone far better than he had expected it to. Perhaps a little too easily but he tries not to think about it as he flips through the first of the papers he had been handed, seeing Dumbledore's face staring up at him from the front page encouraging calm along with a headline assuring that Hogwarts would be perfectly safe for students in the coming year which makes Harry snort.
When had he ever had a safe year at Hogwarts?
Promising safety was promising something he could not give because Voldemort could very well attack the school and even if no one was hurt, that didn't make things safe Moving on to the next paper he reads a headline about Fudge's job being under threat, 'Thank Merlin, it is about time. Incompetent fool' he thinks to himself and then he moves onto the next paper which makes him flinch as he looks at a full page pictures of his own face with the headline 'CHOSEN ONE TO SAVE US ALL?' staring up at him.
Anger flares in his chest and he rips open the paper to see what they are saying about him. As Pansy had hinted, the media had realised where the battle at the Ministry had taken place, attached his name and ran with it, getting dangerously close to the truth for Harry's liking. He can already imagine the speculation when he returns to Hogwarts, the whispers around the school and for a brief second he considers a school transfer before shaking his head and closing the paper to read later. That would be running away and Hogwarts was where he needed to be even if he was dreading going back for the first time.
It did not feel like home anymore.
The other headlines do not jump out at him with any great importance so he folds them up and returns to the couch to wait on the twins returning. Fred returns first, with a plain brown paper bag holding Harry's goods, and hands it over before commenting, "I should probably get back downstairs then if people see you pass with George it won't look so suspicious than if we all appeared from the back eh?"
Harry nods and accepts the hug he is promptly seized into before Fred gives him a mocking bow and disappears back down the stairs to the shop. Harry giggles when the door shuts and wonders when his life got to the point where he considers such behaviour normal. George appears with a crack a few moments later and Harry hears rather than sees his new pet first as it shrieks loudly on George's arm.
"Is it entirely sensible not to mention safe to apparate a bird?!" Harry splutters as George pets the owl's head before coaxing it over to Harry's shoulder and placing a perch on the floor.
"It isn't any different from apparating a person and I haven't splinched anyone yet I will have you know, Harrikins," he replies cheerfully.
"Yet," Harry mutters darkly before petting the owl himself, "Well, what do I have here then?"
"Standard barn owl, male, just grown up into a fully blown adult owl so you can be proud of that fact," George states dramatically, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye while Harry raises an eyebrow at him, "Yeah, well, standard owl really. It will do the job and not be linked back to you."
"Wicked!" Harry declares, "You will need a name won't you?"
"They tend to come in hand my man," George chirps in cheerfully only for Harry to glare at him and tell him to shut up, "I'm wounded!"
"You will get over it I am sure," Harry sighs, "Anthony!"
"Anthony?" George repeats bewildered.
"Anthony," Harry states firmly, "One day I will explain why that fits so perfectly but I can't right now," he explains, thinking of the code names he and Pansy have and smiling to himself. He wonders if she will pick up on it or appreciate it. He hopes one day he will be able to predict these things. It is in that moment that he realises that he wants to be Pansy's friend. No one wants to fight a war with strangers.
"If you say so mate," George mutters, sounding slightly worried, "I will lead you down then. Try not to attract attention to yourself."
"I think that is more likely in the muggle world. Walking around with a paper bag, and an owl perch is a bit odd to them," Harry laughs before heading over to the window of the flat and giving one of the papers to Anthony and whispering the address in the owl's ears before opening the window and throwing him out. Harry had never understood how they understood where they were meant to be going and did not think he would ever truly get it.
George, Harry happily notices, had given him plenty of space and Harry respects that. Moving across the room with his bag and the new perch Harry gives him a nod, "Well, that is me ready. Look I'm...truly grateful for what you and Fred have done and that you listened and...well everything to be honest."
George takes a step forward and claps him on the shoulder, "We would do it all over again without thought Harry, never doubt it. If you ever need anything we are here and if you need a place to lie low, the door is always open. The Order has better things to do with its time than stalk us which is probably a good thing because I am not entirely sure Dumbledore would approve of some of the stuff we are selling to his students through the back."
"Enough to cause plenty of trouble I expect or I will be severely disappointed," Harry jokes while pulling his hood back up, doubling back across the room to shove his wand in his pocket, before following George down the stairs into the store room and back into the shop.
"Take care little brother," George mutters to him, leaving Harry with a warm feeling in his chest as he makes his way through the throngs of customers and back into Diagon Alley.
He does not feel safe until he is a street away from the Leaky Caldron and he is amused to see that despite his expectations he hardly gets a second glance for walking around London with a perch for a large bird which makes more sense as he crosses Leister Square and sees a man walking along with a dining room chair slung over one shoulder. Shaking his head, Harry waves through the crowds, keeping his eyes open and his guard up, as he makes his way back to the Bed and Breakfast.
He just had to nip out and do one more thing before he could retreat to his room until dinner time.
Overall, that had been a highly productive morning.