Chapter 10 Diagon Alley

The next morning came quickly for Harry. Even though they had stayed up quite late last night visiting, Harry found himself up before the sun yet again. He sat up in bed and stretched. The bed was the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. That thought made Harry chuckle to himself, of course it was the most comfortable bed he'd ever slept it. He went from sleeping in a cot under the stair to sleeping on Dudley's old mattress, that the little porker had flattened. His bed at Hogwarts had been just fine, and he never had a problem sleeping on the extra cot in Ron's room, but this bed definitely took first place.

The room was quite beautiful as well. The walls were a cool gray with white trim along the ceiling and around the windows. A beautiful, circular light fixture clung to the ceiling in the middle of the room. The wooden bed had an intricately carved headboard and dark red duvet made from soft fabric with pillows to match. There was a small desk near the window and an old dresser against the wall, near the foot of the bed. Harry, who didn't have any pajamas, had borrowed some from James last night. He was a bit taller than his father so the pants barely reached his ankles and he had to cinch in the waist because he was much thinner than James.

Harry decided to wander downstairs and see if he could scrounge up a cup of tea.

He made his way down stairs and walked past the sitting room and the dinning room to the kitchen in the back of the house.

It was empty when Harry got there so he started opening the cabinets until he found the kettle and a mug. He had just put the kettle on the stove when he heard soft footsteps padding into the room with him.

"Master James!" A small voice began to chastise him. "You know Fletcher is not happy when you rummage through his kitchen!"

Harry turned around and the little elf squeaked and covered her mouth when she realized her mistake.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Harry said quickly "I didn't know Fletcher didn't like people in the kitchen!" He started to put things back

"Pipsy is very sorry to be yelling at the new Master Potter!" The little elf said fearfully. "Pipsy thought you was Master James!"

"Don't worry." Harry replied "I get that a lot actually. I'm Harry by the way." He smiled as he introduced himself.

Pipsy smiled, relieved that this new master was just as nice as the rest of the family.

"My names is Pipsy, master Harry." She bowed very low.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Pipsy." Harry said bowing his head.

Pipsy quickly ushered Harry onto a stool in the kitchen and seated him at the island in the middle of the room and finished making his tea for him. Muttering to herself the entire time, something about why the Potters even had elves if they just planned on doing everything theirselves. Harry smiled and decided he liked Pipsy. She was quite the bossy little thing. She reminded him of Hermione and that made him smile.

"So Pipsy, how long have you been here?"

"Pipsy came here when Master James was very small!" She happily announced "Master James, was quite the handful and Masters Charlus and Dorea needed help. Pipsy's mother belonged to the McGonagal family, they didn't need another elf, so when Pipsy was old enough, their daughter suggested I come here!" Pipsy happily recalled the story to Harry as she bustled around the kitchen.

"Their daughter?" Harry casually asked.

"Yes! She works at Hogwarts now. She is being very good friend to "

Harry was surprised that he never knew Professor McGonagal was friends with his grandma. Before he could dwell on it though, the door opened and James walked in.

"Good morning Harry." He greeted.

"Good morning, you're up early." Harry replied.

"Early riser." James explained "looks like something we have in common." James pointed out and Harry just smiled.

James sat down next to Harry, Pipsy sat a cup of tea in front of him.

"Thank you Pipsy!" He smiled "so did you sleep alright?" He turned towards Harry, taking a sip.

"I did." Harry replied honestly "I slept quite well actually." He sounded a bit surprised and James smiled, glad to hear the small bit of good news.

"Brilliant! Be sure and let mum know, would you? She spent all day yesterday fretting over every detail of that room." James chuckled.

"She did?" Harry asked.

"Well.. yeah... she wanted everything to be set nice for you. She wasn't sure how to decorate the room and that worried her." James tentatively explained

"Wow" Harry whispered, completely bemused that someone would go through all that trouble for him.

"She just wanted you to feel at home." James smiled at Harry.

"Well" Harry cleared his throat. "I see why Sirius came here after he ran away. He always told me how wonderful you all were. It's nice to see that he was right."

James's heart broke. Harry hadn't yet told them about his childhood, but he didn't have too. James could tell it wasn't good. He had met Petunia last Christmas, his first impression was that she was a right bitch. Snobbish and condescending, she pointedly ignored James the entire evening. Lily had told him about her sister's jealousy and spiteful hatred toward magic, but would she really direct those feeling into the innocent orphaned child of her dead sister? He wasn't sure if he should bring it up yet.

"Well..." James said instead. "It's true, it might be unexpected, but you have a home here."

Harry smiled "Thanks James."

The two young men sat at talked until Fletcher came in to start breakfast and kicked them out of the kitchen. Technically he had only kicked James out, Harry just followed.

"Why aren't you allowed in the kitchen?" Harry asked. "Pipsy had a fit when she saw me in there until she realized I wasn't you."

James looked down and rubbed the back of his neck as the two stood aimlessly in the hallway. "Well... long story short, I'm not a very good cook." He said sheepishly.

Harry just laughed. James loved the sound of Harry's laughter.

"Apparently I leave a mess, and I may have set a few fires." He continued. "How about you? Can you cook?"

Harry nodded. "I did most all the cooking at my aunt and uncles house growing up."

James filed that bit of information away, but decided not to comment on it.

"Mum and Fletcher tried to teach me." He replied as they started walking down the hallway "when Sirius moved in Mum decided it was a skill we needed to learn. Sirius picked it up right away but I always get distracted or I add ingredients I'm not suppose to."

Harry chuckled "well at least you tried! My best mate could eat you out of house and home but he always expected someone else to feed him!" Harry smiled at the memory then his smile faded and he stopped walking. A puzzled look grew on his face.

"What's wrong?" James asked, turning to look back where Harry had stopped.

"Nothing." Harry started walking again.

James gave him a look that said he knew better. "Harry, what happened?"

Harry took a small breath "it's not a big deal really, it's just, that was the first time since they died, that I've been able to think about them and smile." Harry didn't look at James as he admitted this.

"That's good!" James patted Harry's shoulder "they wouldn't want you to be sad forever."

They had made their way into the sitting room and sat at either end of the same couch. They both curled their legs underneath them, unknowingly, assuming the same position. They looked like mirror opposites sitting across from one another.

"They were in love." Harry said

"You're best friends?" James asked. He didn't know much about these people who Harry had spent so much time around. He didn't want to pry if Harry didn't want to talk, but since Harry was initiating the conversation, James decided it was ok.

"That must have been awkward for you." He laughed lightly and so did Harry.

"Not really, more frustrating than anything. Besides... I was in love with his little sister." James laughed out loud at that and Harry laughed with him, remembering how much he loved all of those people. "They refused to admit it to each other, we were about a year into the horcrux hunt before they finally made a move, and that was only because we were in the middle of a battle and they thought we were going to die." Harry shook his head, then quietly added "Then they died, about a year later."

"What happened to them?" James asked.

"Fenrir Greyback." Harry replied, malice lacing his voice, James paled.

"He infected Ron." Harry sighed "I told you all that the ministry had traps set up during the full moon to catch unregistered werewolves?" James nodded, acknowledging that he remembered. "Well, we had nowhere to go to keep Ron safe during his first transformation, all the safe houses had been discovered, and we were living in a tent, we couldn't get the ingredients for wolfsbane without being caught."

James wondered what wolfsbane was but he didn't want to interrupt.

"None of us were animagi yet, so we couldn't help him. We found a cave and tried to lock him in there but... It didn't work. He broke out. He..." Harry's voice became thick with emotion. "He killed Hermione."

James was shocked, he couldn't imagine what it would feel like if Remus had killed one of them. He knew Remus would never forgive himself.

"The next morning, when Ron realized what he'd done... He killed himself." Harry wiped his face.

"Right in front of me, I tried to stop him..." Harry took a shallow breath. "I can keep that from happening though. Even if I never get back to my own time, I'll make sure it doesn't happen in this time." He took a sip of his, now cold, tea. "I'll enjoy killing Greyback again though. Harry said, far too casually for such an admission.

"You'll have to beat me to it." James replied just as casually.

It wasn't long before the rest of the family made their way down for breakfast. They were all seated around the table when Sirius came grumbling in. Harry had forgotten how much of a night owl Sirius was, he was most definitely not a morning person. One look at Sirius and Harry erupted in laughter "Oh Sirius! I forgot how much I enjoyed your hair in the mornings!" Everyone except Sirius chuckled at this, and Dorea attempted to smooth out Sirius's unruly mane, and to Harry's surprise, Sirius let her.

"There you are dear, much better!" She said once she had calmed it down a bit.

"At least mine only looks this way in the mornings, you lot have bed head all day long!" Sirius retorted, gesturing towards Harry and James.

"Mine is almost long enough to tie back." Harry said while attempting to pull his hair into a low ponytail. "If Fletcher saved some of the grease from this bacon I could style it like Lucious Malfoy!"

The entire table erupted in laughter, Dorea choked on her tea.

"Merlin no! I won't allow a Potter to look like a greasy prat!" Charlus laughed.

After breakfast Harry dressed in some of James's robes. James had some that were to long for him so they decided to try them on Harry. After deciding that they would work, Harry headed down stairs to meet Dorea before flooing to Diagon Alley.

It was just as Harry remembered, witches and wizards were milling about in every direction, gathering in front of store windows. The smell of potions and owls greeted Harry as he stepped out of the floo and smiled. It would be strange to walk around without being recognized, no one whispering or pointing at his lightning bolt scar. Dorea emerged just after Harry and they started to walk down the street.

"Where would you like to go first Harry?"

"I'm not in a hurry today, should we just start here and work our way down?" He suggested.

Dorea smiled warmly. "That works for me."

They took their time in each store, Harry bought a quill, parchment, and a few books.

They were still in Flourish and Blotts when a tall, brunette woman walked up to Dorea.

" " the woman greeted "how are you?"

" ! I am well how are?" Dorea returned the greeting, kissing the woman's cheek.

"I am doing well, thank you." replied then turned toward Harry. Her eyes widened a bit as she realized he was not James.

" , this is my nephew Harold. Fleamont's son." She politely introduced Harry. Dorea looked confident, but Harry noticed she started to pat her hair.

Harry recognized the last name and assumed this was Theodore's grandmother.

"Very pleased to meet you ." Harry bowed at the waist. Dorea smiled, relieved at Harry's behavior in front of the pure blood aristocrat.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you as well ." She smiled pleasantly but Harry felt her eyes linger on the two scars visible on his face and neck. His hair was getting very long and he had combed it back, showing off his forehead. No one here knew about the scar so he didn't worry about hiding it.

"I wasn't aware Fleamont and Euphemia had any children." politely remarked.

"Not many were aware, , Mother and Father preferred to keep our lives private. "

"I see." She replied before turning back to Dorea. "I hope you received my invitation to our Summer Soirée?"

"I did receive it, thank you. I sent our acceptance response with our owl just this morning! I'm sure it will be waiting on you when you arrive home." She happily replied.

After a few more moments of small talk, Harry and Dorea paid for their items and left the store. As Harry was shrinking their bags and putting them in his pockets, Dorea leaned in and spoke quietly. " runs the rumor mill among the pure bloods, by the end of the night they will all be aware of your existence."

"Is that bad?" Harry asked, they weren't exactly keeping him a secret, this is why they created his cover story.

"No..." She replied but she didn't sound completely sure of that. "Now that you've been introduced though, it would be rude if you don't attend the party." She cautioned.

"Well I suppose I'll need some robes."

They were just finishing in Madam Malkins, Harry had been fitted for an entire wardrobe under Dorea's watchful eye. He was never very concerned with his clothes, and seeing as he wasn't aware of the styles of this time period, he allowed Dorea to dress him and he took her advice on what looked good. Once he had purchased all that he needed they paid and left the building. They were walking towards the Leaky Cauldron for lunch when Harry spotted two men coming their direction. He recognized the taller one immediately as Antonin Dolohov. Harry subtlety moved Dorea so that Harry was between her and the two Death Eaters coming their way.

Harry pretended not to notice the two as the walked by, but he saw them eyeing him curiously. Dorea noticed what Harry had done, she also saw the two men take notice of Harry, but she continued on as if nothing had happened.

They made it to the Leaky Cauldron and sat down for lunch.

"Are you alright?" She asked, after making sure no one was listening.

"Yes I'm fine, just a bit uneasy." He answered honestly.

They decided not to dwell on it and continued to enjoy their morning together.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked causally but Harry noticed her hand move to her hair again, but like last time, she stopped and patted her hair instead of running her fingers through it.

"I slept very well." He replied.

"Oh good, I'm glad you found the room comfortable."

Remembering what James had said that morning, Harry responded.

"The room is very nice, I like the touch of Gryffindor red." Harry smiled and Dorea smiled back, relieved.

They finished their lunch and decided to return home to prepare for the Order meeting that night.

A/N- I'm glad to see all the positive reviews! I feel like the story has slowed down a bit, but there were a few things I needed establish.

How about Ron and Hermione's demise? Next chapter will be about the Order meeting! And maybe some adventure.. ;)