000
Storming Skies
It was just a silly high-school girls' love ritual. Nothing was supposed to happen. Nothing would have happened, had Gokudera's mother not been a Squib. Now he's caught in another country, and in the middle of a deadly tournament. Gokudera/Harry.
000
Chapter Four
Reassurances
000
Never had he been so reluctant to get up before in his life, though in all honesty, he had always had a reason to get up and leave his crummy little flat as soon as possible – Juudaime was waiting for him, there was school, his duties as his Boss's right hand, and a multitude of other things. There had never been anything in his flat to prompt his desire to remain when he could be out and with Juudaime.
But right now, after the party last night, he had gone upstairs along with Harry only to find that no extra bed had been laid out for him. Hayato had very nearly had a heart attack when it became apparent that Harry had every intention of letting him have the bed and just sleeping on the floor – he couldn't kick him out of his own damn bed! And trying to talk him out of it was an exercise in frustration not unlike trying to talk Hibari out of picking a fight. In the end, after getting a balled up pair of dirty socks thrown at them from Seamus, Hayato jut grabbed Harry by the wrist and dragged him into the bed with him.
Which lead to now.
Waking up feeling as though he should be late for school in a big way, but it still being the early hours of the morning, watching the sun rising and brightening up the room, staring up at the dull crimson hangings overhead. When he wasn't busy staring down at the boy sleeping against his chest.
Harry wasn't a restless sleeper like him, while Hayato was somewhat prone to tossing and turning and throwing his limbs out every which way, the smaller boy curled up and pressed against the closest source of warmth. In this case, Hayato himself. He hadn't dared do so while they were awake, lying stiff and awkward on the very lip of the four-poster bed, trying to take up as little room as possible. It was only after they'd both fallen asleep that he must have moved, because when Hayato woke up with the first rays of sunlight that he looked down and found the wizard curled up half on, half against him, fingers knotted in the fabric of his borrowed night-clothes.
He hadn't really gotten a chance to study the boy the previous day, too much was going on and there was too much emotional upheaval but here, now, in the quiet breathless moments between day and night when everything was still and warm and peaceful, he found himself unable to tear his eyes away. Shaggy black hair, unruly and slightly curly, he had pale skin dusted very faintly with freckles he had to be very close to see, long dark eyelashes hiding away those incredible green eyes that he had already fallen in love with, from the quiet conversations they had managed to snatch the previous evening, Hayato knew he was fourteen, but he was still tiny, smaller even than Juudaime had been at that age, barely hitting 5'0" and thin, worryingly thin. He felt fragile whenever Hayato wrapped his arms around him, like he would break if he hugged him too hard, and the sharpness of his cheekbones did not help set his mind to ease. Oh, his cheeks were hardly hallowed out – though it was a near thing, but in his professional, enlightened opinion, Harry had not been fed very well. He hadn't been taken care of, and that was unacceptable.
He had wished for someone intelligent, who was loyal and kind, who wouldn't stand aside when they saw injustice, someone who could tell him he was wrong but be reasonable about it and explain themselves. Someone who would have his back and trust him. Someone he could love and grow old with. He had wished for someone who could handle the mafia, and didn't care about his family, status, or money.
Well, he received that person. Now all he had to do was be worthy of them.
Harry's face scrunched up, his nose wrinkling as he inhaled deeply, eyes slitting open blearily. He blinked once, twice, and then they slid up to Hayato's face, staring sightlessly for a moment before he blinked a third time and his eyes practically bugged out.
"GYAAH!"
000
It was a very grumpy, sleep rumpled group of fourth year Gryffindors who arrived at Breakfast that morning, Hayato smirking as he followed after a mortified Harry Potter who was doing his best to avoid the glowers of his housemates. None of them were particularly happy about being woken up so early in the morning.
"Well, bright side," Dean mumbled, "The good stuff is still here," he pointed out. Usually the Gryffindor boys arrived so late to breakfast on the weekends that the good food was usually all eaten and gone by the time they arrived. There were sleepy mutters and grunts of agreement as the boys slumped down in their usual seats and dragged bowls and foods over to them.
Hayato watched in amusement as the sleep rumpled boys went about their usual morning routines, though Ron's table manners were about as terrible as Bucking Horse's with his men on a long vacation. But thank all the gods there was coffee, oddly enough specifically within his arms reach, nowhere else on the table, not that he was complaining. A good cup of coffee was the way to start the morning. And a cigarette, but he would have that once he'd eaten – he didn't want to ruin the flavour of the food after the cooks had gone to such an effort of making it.
"You guys are down earlier than usual," the twins' younger sister, Ginny, observed as she came over. The girl smiled hopefully at Harry as she sat down, hiking her robes up as she did so before smoothing them down as she sat. "Hey Harry, how'd you sleep?" she asked, casually flicking her long red hair over one shoulder.
Harry mumbled something sleepily around his toast barely even glancing her way as Uri climbed into his lap, little nose sniffing hopefully at his plate before climbing up onto the table properly as Hayato busied himself with his coffee and went in search of anything remotely familiar as either Italian or Japanese breakfast foods. He didn't find any, instead settled on some pastries. He didn't notice Uri manifesting herself.
Disappointed and a tad amused, but valiantly trying not to show it, Ginny instead turned her attention to the cat that had just climbed out of Harry's lap, "Oh? What a pretty kitty, is he yours?" she asked, looking at Harry even as she reached out to stroke the cream coloured feline sniffing at the bacon pan with increasing enthusiasm.
The explosion of scarlet light and yowling fury had everyone in the Great Hall jerking and looking over at the Gryffindor table as Ginny Weasley shrieked in shock and pain as a cream coloured cat latched onto her face, clawing everything in reach.
"DAMNIT URI NO!"
The girl staggered back, one hand ending up on Neville's jam smeared toast as she tried to steady herself, even as the other tried to knock the cat away.
Slytherin table burst out into uproarious hilarity as Harry pried the feline off her face letting her escape to the floor, "Ginny, are you okay? Stop touching it, let me see," he ordered, gently prying her hands away from the bloody mess the feline had made of her face. "You should know better than to touch other people's pets, Ginny, not all of them are going to be friendly," he scolded her even as he used his wand to clean up the blood and heal the majority of the scratches. "Some of these are too deep, you should see Madam Pomfrey to get them closed up," he told her anxiously, grimacing as scarlet blood dribbled from the tears to stain his fingers as he tilted her face this way and that to get a better look at them.
Fred snickered, "Looking to make a full breakfast spread of your arm, little sister? You've put butter on your elbow, now jam on your hands, what will you put on next?" he teased as he came over, Ginny turned red under the blood-smears.
"Bacon?" George questioned, appearing at her other side.
"Toast?" Fred leered with a grin.
"Or the porridge?" they chorused before breaking into cackles.
Ginny was less amused and whipped out her wand bringing it –
"Misters Weasley! That will be quite enough!" Professor McGonagall barked, striding towards the group. "Five points from Gryffindor for teasing a fellow student, no I don't care if she is your sister and it's your brotherly duty. Behave yourselves!" she commanded sternly, shooing the boys off. "Off to the Hospital Wing with you, Miss Weasley, pip pip," she continued, eyeing the young girl coolly.
"Ma'am," Ginny muttered as she retreated from the hall.
"Are you and Mister Gokudera done with breakfast, Potter?" the Deputy Headmistress asked as she turned to her Lion.
"Err, I think so," Harry admitted before turning to the table. He looked over to where Hayato was chugging the last of his coffee and nodding at him before looking up at her, "It looks like it."
Professor McGonagall nodded, "Very well, in future, Mister Gokudera, it would be advisable if you left your cat upstairs in the dormitories, if she's going to be so disruptive in the mornings," she declared primly, nodding to the cream coloured kitten currently lying on her back on the now empty bacon dish, her little belly bulging out with the evidence of her gluttonous crime. Harry didn't bother wondering about how she was so nonplussed about the presence of the clearly non-standard feline. When the headmaster had a phoenix for a pet, one learned not to question odd looking animals appearing out of nowhere.
"GYAAH! WHAT DID YOU JUST EAT!? SPIT IT OUT, DAMN CAT!" the silver haired boy roared in a language none of them understood, pointing dramatically at his pet who just yawned widely at him as she rolled over and awkwardly heaved herself onto her paws. She flicked her tail smugly as she padded over to Harry and lay down in front of him, wallowing on her back and meowing for attention. Hayato seethed as Harry (after spelling his hands clean quickly) picked her up, holding her in one arm and rubbing her swollen belly with the other.
"Is she supposed to eat human food?" he asked curiously as the tiny cat started purring at three times the volume you would have expected from something so tiny.
Hayato gripped his hair, "No. I mean, she can, it won't hurt her. But if she does that means she won't go into stand-by mode and she'll be here for hours now!" he groaned in despair. "And I can't leave her behind either, she'll destroy the place if I don't keep her in line."
Professor McGonagall smirked, "Well, she'll be sleeping for a while yet with the amount of bacon she's just eaten. Now, if you two will come with me? We have arranged for a Portkey to Diagon Alley in order to fetch you some supplies, Mister Gokudera. I can trust you to act as his guide, Mister Potter?" she asked, looking sternly down at the green eyed boy.
He nodded, "I'm sure we'll manage," he assured her as he continued to rub the kitten's tummy. He did spend several weeks alone, unsupervised in Diagon Alley with a mass murderer hunting for him at thirteen. He would be fine at fourteen without said murderer hunting for him in the same place for a few hours while shopping.
"Very well, this way gentlemen," the Deputy Headmistress commanded, marching briskly out of the Great Hall, the two following after with Harry pausing only briefly to give his housemates a quick wave goodbye as he did so.
It was probably a good thing that the two left then. Not even ten minutes after they had been whisked away by Professor McGonagall's Portkey, the Great Hall was filled with feathers and hooting as the morning post arrived, practically blotting out the enchanted sky with the sheer number of owls. Minerva sighed as she retook her seat, having already expected some manner of article regarding the events of the First Task. She heroically ignored the paper that had been delivered to her seat and took a fortifying drought of her morning tea and took a moment to steel herself for Rita Skeeter's usual brand of morning vitriol. Given the exclamations and gasps of shock and general overall low buzz throughout the Great Hall, it was one she would need to gird her loins in order to read, she must have gone to town on this particular edition.
Setting her cup down, the last thing she expected to see when she finally unfolded her paper and looked down was the blazing headlines of:
HARRY POTTER: TRUE LOVE OR JUST TROUBLE?
LAST OF THE BONACCORD DISCOVERED!
PUREBLOODS: JUST HOW TO MUGGLEBORNS SEE US? ADVICE FROM ONE MUGGLEBORN TO ANOTHER REVEALED!
JUST WHAT ARE LOVE RITUALS, AND HOW DO THEY WORK?
THE FIRST TASK: BLATANT BIAS FROM THE JUDGES?
VIKTOR KRUM: DRAGON MURDERER!
000
Hayato staggered as the horrible device, the Portkey, finally stopped spinning. The place they landed in was a large, somewhat cluttered and grotty pub, filthy windows making the whole room darker and grittier than it would have ordinarily seemed, grotty dingy corners that hadn't seen a mop – probably since the place was built, and positively crammed with grubby black tables and spindly uncomfortable looking chairs. He twitched in wary anxiety as he looked around, this place was both a hitman's worst nightmare and biggest wet-dream. So many places to kill from, so many places someone else could kill them from.
"I hate Portkeys," Harry grunted from the floor, making Hayato look down in surprise as the wizard gingerly sat himself up with a grimace, Uri clinging to his chest, her ears folded back and her fur stood on end. She was silent and clearly distressed with the Portkey transportation. The Italian hastily pulled him up, and if he pulled a little harder than he strictly should have, Harry didn't notice, and Hayato got free hugs out of it as the wizard stumbled into him before being set back onto his feet properly.
"Where are we?" the Storm Guardian asked warily as Harry dusted himself off and then proceeded to lead them to a backroom and out into an alleyway at the back of the pub. It wasn't any nicer than the interior if he was perfectly honest. Nor even remotely magical. Just an alley. With some bins. And a faint perfume of wet cardboard.
"The Leaky Cauldron, it's in London at Charing Cross. It's hidden though, from people without magic," the Gryffindor explained as he tugged his wand out from a pocket and began to tap the bricks on the back wall in a certain pattern. "It's a gateway between muggle London..."
Hayato gaped as with a final tap of his wand, the bricks began to fold back on themselves, Harry stepping back along with them as a world of colour and light was suddenly opened to the silver haired boy. Narrow and brightly lit, the cobbled alleyway was positively crammed with shops and brightly coloured and moving signs and shop-windows with moving mannequins styling equipment and clothing and shops just beginning to open for the day. Men and women in various styles of robes, each in its own eyebleeding colour combinations and moving patterns, cats and owls moving freely up and down the street as they pleased.
"...And the magical world," Harry finished, grinning at the look of awe on his friend's face as he stroked Uri's distress away. "Welcome to Diagon Alley, the British magical community's foremost shopping district," he declared with a grand arm gesture and a playful bow – all the while cradling Uri to his chest.
Harry laughed as the older boy bounced in with all of the enthusiasm of Ron to the dinner table. He didn't think the silver haired boy hesitated even for a second before he was grabbing the Gryffindor's thin wrist and pulling him to the closest shop-front, shooting off questions at a mile a minute, asking him what each shop sold, why, what they did, who bought it and – the questions were never ending! If Harry hadn't been there when the Hat shouted 'Hufflepuff' he would have assumed the Italian was a shoe-in for Ravenclaw just from the endless questions he was inundated with regarding magic, magical devices, customs, potions, ingredients, creatures, clothing, baby supplies and just about anything and everything Diagon Alley had to offer.
Though, Harry couldn't help the small sting of guilt and embarrassment when he couldn't answer the majority of his questions, and saw the brief flicker of disappointment that would pull at his features for all of a heartbeat.
"Sorry, Hermione knows a lot more about all this stuff than me. Maybe when we get back, you could ask her?" he suggested awkwardly as they stood outside a magical junk shop.
Hayato flashed him a smile and slung an arm over his shoulder, pulling him close, "But I like hearing you explain it, Tesoro," he said earnestly, Uri meowing loudly as if in agreement as she slithered up and headbutted the dark haired boy's chin. "We can figure it out together, yeah?" he went on to suggest enthusiastically, nodding to Flourish and Blotts.
Harry stared in mute silence for a minute. He had never actually tried to figure out the magical world. If he so much as attempted to pick up a book that wasn't homework orientated the night before said homework was due in, Ron would pitch a fit about his turning into Hermione. Which would upset her, she would snap at Ron in one breath and praise Harry in the next, which would upset Ron and suddenly Harry would be sat in the middle of another epic Ron-Hermione argument with both his friends screaming at one another about how they were a bad influence on him. And as much as Harry loved Hermione, it was so hard to break the habit of a lifetime, to force himself not to stand out by emulating an average male student in his class – to hide from scrutiny regarding his home life from the teachers and still manage to appease the Dursleys by not doing better than Dudley. And then to avoid the adulation and expectations of superiority from the wizarding world by emulating Ron, preventing upset and jealousy from his bestfriend by being better than him, appeasing Hermione's superiority complex by never even attempting to challenge it... flying under the radar, keeping his head down and his hands clean.
Only, he had failed to do that. Rather spectacularly at that too.
Youngest Seeker, defeated a troll, fended off a unicorn killer, smuggled a dragon out of the country, ran the Third Floor Corridor Gauntlet and succeeded, faced Voldemort and rescued the Philosopher's Stone. And that was only in his first year. What point did he have to continue on this path anymore? He wasn't friends with Ron anymore (even if he kind of wished he was), Hermione didn't have that superiority complex anymore, people would expect greatness out of him regardless of his mediocre school results and all he did by refusing to study and work hard was make it easier for Voldemort to kill him. He would ALREADY be dead if not for Hermione's intelligence. So would Ginny. So would Ron. So would a lot of other people because if not for her and her big brain figuring things out long before Harry, Voldemort would have come back by now. He had to work harder, learn more, get better. It wasn't fair to expect Hermione to do all the thinking for him. And... He didn't like being unable to tell Hayato what he wanted to know. He felt like an idiot.
A determined smile grew on his face as he made his decision, "Of course!" he agreed firmly. He would figure the magical world out along with Hayato, he would stop slacking just because it was what Ron was doing.
Hayato grinned and then paused, smile sliding off his face, "Err, just one question," he said, Harry's blurry green eyes blinking up at him in curiosity. "How am I going to afford all this? I don't have access to my savings."
The smaller of the two nodded, "I'll pay. Since it's my fault you're here, it's only fair," he said smiling as he ducked out from under the Storm Guardian's arm and pointed to the large snow white marble building at the end of the alleyway, "That's the Bank, Gringotts. We just have to make a stop there to get some money out of my vault and then we'll get going."
Hayato shook his head, stung but unable to really understand or explain why, "I can't let you pay for me, Tesoro!" he exclaimed. Every gentlemanly bone in his body rebelled against it – the same way it would have if a girl had tried to pay for him. Hence his bewilderment. Harry wasn't a girl. So why was he so bent out of shape about the Gryffindor paying for him? He didn't quite... was it because Harry was younger than him? Or because as the only one with an actual job he felt it was his responsibility to be the bread-winner in this relationship?
Harry sighed, opening his mouth to argue for a moment before shaking his head again, "We'll call it a loan then," he suggested, "I'll pay for everything you need, books, clothes, toiletries, the lot. And you pay me back when you have access to your money. Sound fair?" he asked – and then grunted as a speechless with gratitude Hayato flung his arms around the smaller boy (Uri leaping out of his arm and to the ground before Hayato crushed her in the middle) and hugged him tightly, picking the tiny wizard up in his arms and swinging him around with glee. He understood! He understood and found a solution that worked, that didn't offend his sensibilities and still allowed them to continue their day with minimal fuss and without screaming at him like that Harpy Woman would have!
"P-Put me down! I'm - " Harry stuttered before suddenly finding his feet on solid ground and groaning, dizzy as he leaned against the Italian, unable to see without his glasses and not liking the abruptness of the last few minutes. Hayato, never one to miss an opportunity, put a hand at the younger boy's waist in order to keep him steady and then guided him towards the large white building.
"I think our first stop once we have money is to get you some new glasses," he decided with a grin as Harry let him lead, hand on hip, to the bank, squinting up at the white building.
"Good idea," Harry muttered, "I hadn't actually thought about that."
000
By the time they had finished in Gringotts, the Alley was filling up with people as the two stepped out into the November sunshine (thankfully it was one of the rare sunny days that happened once in a blue moon during British November). For the most part, no one paid them much mind as Hayato lead the semi-blind boy to the opticians that was too blurry for him to make out with his poor vision. Several people did a double-take upon spotting them, especially since Hayato was holding the smaller boy's hand in order to lead him and not get lost in the crowd, but for the most part, grins and smiles and huffs were given and the two were left unmolested or accosted, much to Hayato's relief (Harry hadn't noticed).
The Opticians was tucked a little way off the main alley and had quite unimaginatively framed a few of the words in a giant pair of morphing glasses, shifting from various styles and colours in a way that was, no doubt, to try and gain attention from passing customers. Inside wasn't much better, it was cramped and cluttered and looked nothing like the opticians that Hayato was familiar with from, well, anywhere in the world. This place looked more like an illustration of some ancient cluttered library with all of its sepia and brown toning. Not to mention that some of the glasses were hideous beyond compare.
The Italian was beginning to regret bringing Harry in here as he eyed the large silver and gold framed glasses in the shape of a ball with wings. The wings flapped as well. How someone was supposed to wear a set of flapping wings on their face he would never know but he was fast coming to the conclusion that most wizards (Harry excluded obviously), were a little crazy.
"Welcome to Octavian's Opticians!" a wheezy male voice proclaimed from the dim lighting somewhere between the towers of spectacles on display around them. The man was somewhat overweight and wore one of the most ridiculous eyepieces Hayato had ever seen, it looked like a set of jeweller's spectacles, but it had also been crossed with 3-d glasses, sunglasses, anything and everything, all manner of different lenses ready to be clicked in down the frames. Some made of different metals, some coloured, some even crystal. They magnified his eyes to about three times their natural size as he peered at them, his whispy hair had been blond once, it was more grey and white now, and his face bore the signs of a life well lived and loved. "What can I do for you gentlemen today?" he asked, rubbing his papery old hands together.
Hayato gestured, "Two sets of glasses for him, and one for me."
"Two sets?" the man echoed curiously, adjusting the monstrosity perched on his nose. How it hadn't fallen off his face, or left bruises from the sheer weight of that get up was quite frankly beyond his knowledge of physics.
"A pair and a spare. Just in case," he explained. That 'just in case' he had a feeling would be needed.
The old man nodded, "A fine plan. Well then, if you please gentlemen, take a seat and I'll examine your eyes," he requested, gesturing at a plain wooden stool at the back of the room. Harry went first, sitting himself down boldly on the stool and looking around as best he could with his blurry vision. Hayato would miss seeing those eyes unshielded, they were quite lovely, but Harry needed to see more than Hayato needed to see them.
The check up was only a little different from what Hayato had experienced in a regular opticians. The man checked Harry's eyes extensively but using that odd head contraption to examine his eyes in detail, muttering under his breath about this and that. Setting a pair of frames over the Gryffindor's eyes and then examining him again and either changing the glasses or tapping them with a wand, continuing to mutter. Whatever magical result he had been looking for apparently occurred and the man whisked the frames off the smaller boy with a nod.
"There we are young man, your lenses are perfect. Choose your frames and your extras. There is a list of enchantments we offer here at Octavian's on the counter, please peruse it at your leisure while I see to the young man," the man wheezed gesturing Hayato to take his place.
His check up was even shorter after he told the man he was long-sighted and just in need of reading glasses. Small print, especially when closer than two feet to his face, tended to move like ants on a white background. Very annoying. And blurry ants at that. Eventually though, the man ushered him off to choose his frames and enchantments and even though he was burning with curiosity, the man seemed rather distracted and scatty, enough so that Hayato didn't want to disturb him and potentially damage Harry's glasses. He would need those – not that Hayato didn't like guiding him! Oh no, he loved it! But, yeah, Harry would probably want to be able to see properly.
He wasn't happy to find Harry in the cheapest section sifting through awful frame after awful frame with a look of defeated dismay across his face.
He held up a plastic set of frames in the shape of orange wings, "I guess I could live with it... If I changed the colour," he was muttering as he squinted at them.
Hayato felt his blood run cold as he quickly strode forward and gently lifted them out of Harry's hands, only now, noticing for the first time, how tiny those hands were. Hell, he could probably fit both the Gryffindor's wrists in one of his hands, that wasn't good. He was too thin. Maybe he should have a word with the kitchens about getting Harry a specialised meal plan?
"Why are you here, looking at these awful frames, Tesoro?" he demanded shortly, taking those tiny hands and pulling the dark haired boy to a more acceptable section.
"T-They were the cheapest!" he protested and Hayato had to clamp down on his sigh. Of course, his true love had to be a spend-thrift. Well, no one was perfect, and as flaws went, being careful with money was hardly the worst. Hayato would just have to be there in order to ensure that Harry didn't wrong himself in trying to protect his wallet.
"Cheap doesn't always mean the best, Harry-ino," he explained gently, waving the orange winged frames with a look of utter revulsion on his face before he lazily flicked them back into the cheap section. "You're going to be wearing them until next year, possibly even longer if your prescription doesn't change." Harry tilted his head, confused. "I'm not letting you walk around in those hideous things. It would be an utter crime. You have the money to go a little further in your spending, do it. You don't have to break the bank, but there is a reasonable spendature cap," he pointed out dryly as he picked a set of black square frames from the rack and gently slid them onto Harry's face before gesturing to the mirror for him to peer at.
He had to bite down on his lip when Harry had to get very close in order to see, squinting at his reflection, nose wrinkling cutely.
In order to stop himself from snatching him up for another hug, Hayato quickly flitted through the towers of glasses and hunted for the most acceptable of the frames. There weren't very many to be perfectly honest. Wizards apparently had crap aesthetics as well as common sense.
He sighed in disgust as he returned to Harry-ino's side with the pitifully small collection of acceptable frames, all of them under a Galleon in price, but at least over three Sickles – the price area Harry had previously been fishing through was apparently the Bronze Knut Special Sale, everything under a Sickle.
"Here, they were the nicest I could find under a Galleon." He didn't mention that the majority that were over a Galleon were enchanted to do some crazy stuff and looked like something that had escaped out of the glam-rock phase.
In the process, he'd also found his frames, a pair of thin black rectangular frames not unlike his other set at home.
Thankfully, it didn't take long for the two of them to eventually settle on a set of frames. Harry often spent too long paying attention to the price while Hayato would casually push aside any kind of frames he felt didn't suit his future husband's face well enough. He looked good with thick frames, but bad with rectangular frames, which left him with the oval, circular, winged, and half-moon spectacles. And, after much dismay over the price, ended up with the most expensive of the remaining, a pair of sleek thick framed oval glasses in black metal – faint gold coloured swirls were detailed on the ear-wings.
Hayato then asked Harry to read him the enchantment list, he couldn't make out the loopy characters well enough without a set of reading glasses to aid him. The reeled off list and brief explanations near enough made him explode with excitement at the possibilities.
"There are enchantments to do that?!" he squeaked, wriggling excitedly.
Harry scratched his head, "I... guess so?" he muttered, squinting at the list again, "I would have expected Hermione to be all over this like a rash though. Maybe it's false advertising?" he murmured sceptically.
"Only one way to find out!" Hayato declared loudly and giddily as he grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him up to the counter where the elderly Optician was making idle notes on a sheet of parchment. "Hey, Ossan, these enchantments, are they all legit?" he asked brusquely.
The old man squinted at him through green and quartz crystal lenses, "Say what? What was that? Legit? What'sat mean?" the man wheezed.
"Legit. Legitimate. Truthful, honest, accepted, legal, possible, etcetera," Hayato listed still eyeing him with interest.
"Well, of course they are. Won't do me much good advertising things I can't do, now would it?" he returned, sound a mix between honestly bewildered, a tad indignant, and amused.
Hayato nodded, "In that case, we'll both be taking enchantments two, three, five, eleven, and eight," he listed briskly.
"Ah, no Light Reaction charms for me please," Harry interrupted as the man made several notes.
"Alright. That'd be: Three Impervious Charms, one Light Reaction Charm, three Unbreakable Charms, three Wind Reading Charms, and three controlled Sticking Charms. At five Knuts each with three Sickles for the Wind Reading Charms, that brings your total, with two sets of the Jupiter grade Frames, and one set of the Mars grade Frames to... lessee, carry the one... Three Galleons, two Sickles, and two Knuts. But since it's such a large purchase, I'll knock off those two Knuts for you," the man wheezed with an absent smile.
Harry was visibly unhappy at the expense, but Hayato quickly steamrolled over any protests by thanking the man and handing over the frames they had selected.
"Shan't take longer than a few minutes," the man wheezed as he started twitching his wand at the frames, Hayato watching with open mouthed fascination as the plain glass that had been in them before wriggled itself free from the frames and trotted off to one side and the new lenses snuggled into their place, bending and flexing like a living object as it fit itself to the frame-mould. They then started glowing as the man tapped them a few times, twisting his wand in complicated patterns over head before finally absently twirling his wand through the air and a few cases flying over to him. The new glasses picked themselves up and trotted into the now open cases, only one set remaining out and quietly waiting. "There we go, young sirs," the Optician wheezed, handing them over and happily accepting the money that Harry reluctantly pushed over.
Hayato picked up the cases and pocketed them before turning to Harry with his new glasses and managing to slide them onto the bridge of his nose before the Gryffindor realised what was going on.
Big green eyes blinked up at him before widening even further, "Oh – that's... does everyone see this clearly?" he gasped in shock, looking around the shop avidly as if seeing it for the first time.
Hayato frowned, "Surely your last set of glasses weren't too far off, were they?" he asked.
Harry shrugged, "Way off." He then squinted a little at Hayato and grinned, "You have freckles. I never noticed before now!" he said, looking pleased with himself.
"When was the last time you saw an Optician?" Hayato gaped in disbelief.
"Last time? Try never! Oh wow! I can't wait to see Hogwarts with these things!" the Gryffindor continued, heedless to Hayato's brain breaking quietly in the background with disbelief. Harry had been wearing glasses of the wrong prescription?! That could really damage his eyes, not to mention give him terrible strain headaches! "C'mon! Let's get the rest of your stuff. Trunk shop next. Thank you very much, Mister Octavian," Harry called as he opened the door back onto the street.
Hayato shook himself out of his shock and quickly followed, mentally vowing to extensively study all of Harry's belongings to make sure they were of a proper quality for him. Or better yet, just get everything brand new today so that he wouldn't have any nasty surprises down the line.
000
And finished! Chapter four at any rate. Onto Chapter five. Ah, a little explanation too.
Tesoro: Darling (literally: Treasure)
Harry-ino: A general term of endearment, a little like -chan. It often comes across as 'Little Harry'.
Passerotto: Sparrow (Term of endearment)
Tesorino/Dolcezza: Sweetheart
Coccolissimo: A little more vague but basically 'Someone who I would always like to snuggle up'.