Jan 18, 2006 Made a few changes. Nothing big.

I appreciate the reviews. Sorry it took so long,I had to completely rewrite the second half of this chapter because the new oc was becoming to big, so I toned her down. Plus I had to work on my Dark Harry fic, check it out if you're into Dark Harry. Also go to my hompage for photos and fanart relating to my stories. Please keep the reviews coming. Thanks.

"Harry Potter Makes His Own Destiny"

Chapter 11 "New Friends And Old Friends"

Harry decided he needed to get away from the house on Privet Drive for a while. There were a number of things he wanted to pick up before school started. He wanted to enjoy the muggle world for once, now that he would be free from the hovering presence of his relatives. Also, he had some money in his pocket and wanted to enjoy that as well. He wouldn't over do his spending, just enjoy it a little. He took a bus to the nearest major shopping district, hoping Pip wouldn't allow himself to be lost or sat on. It was difficult even for Harry to keep track of where the house elf was, Pip could hide well. He asked Archimedes if he wanted to join him, the snake decided to curl up in his shirt pocket.

Harry wasn't sure if Dumbledore would be able to find him a better situation next year, many things could happen between now and next summer. He couldn't be sure how Dudley would act next time they met, maybe this was simply shock. If he returned to his old habits, Harry wanted to be ready. A weight set would be a good place to start. Since he wasn't allowed to do magick outside of school, except for homework, he would need to be able to defend himself. Pip's excellent cooking had started to fill him out, but he need to build muscle and technique.

He found a sporting goods store and went in. He was in awe of all the equipment. He had always wanted to get into sports, but thanks to Dudley, not only did he not have friends, but wasn't allowed to join any teams either. That would definitely change now. He had read about a wizard sport called quidditch. They even had house teams at school. He couldn't wait to try out. A young, obnoxious clerk walked up behind Harry as he was looking at the weights.

"Gonna try and build yourself up are you? A little young I would think, you should be older then nine or so before you start." The shop clerk was bored and seemed to have decided this little kid was the best entertainment he could find. The spiky haired kid leaned over the counter so he could look down at this shrimp.

Harry had been enjoying himself and was in no mood to tolerate being treated like a little kid. He glanced at the clerk's tag. "Well, Mr. Rickman, I'm eleven. I may be small, but my money should be as good as anyones else's. Treat me with a some manners and I'll spend it here, or I could take my money somewhere else."

The clerk didn't see his manager strolling up behind him. "A little squirt like you, what have you been doing, saving up your allowance?"

The manager cleared his throat. "Mr. Rickman, the young man is right. His money is welcome here. Why don't you watch how you are supposed to handle a customer." He smiled a little condescendingly at Harry, "I'm sorry about that young man, I'm Dick Harris. I'm the manager here. What's the problem here and how may I help you?"

Harry tried to calm down a bit, he guessed patronizing was a bit better then out right rude. "Well, as that pimply faced git noticed, I'm a bit small for my age. I would like to build myself up a bit, not muscle bound, just a bit stronger."

"Well we have this small dumbbell weight set over here, be a good start for you." He showed Harry a set of two solid dumbbells in white molded plastic.

"Well, your clerk was awfully rude to me." Harry was going to milk this for all he could get. "Maybe there is some way you could talk me into spending my money here and not down the street?"

The manager offered him a credit of 40 percent of his total purchase towards health bars, books, or other extras. He also explained the benefits of different sets. He even explained the larger sets, although he looked at the clerk at this point, obviously this situation was being used as a training exercise.

Harry nodded playing along, "The credit will do."

"Now that, Rickman, is how you treat a customer. Every sale is important, large or small."

Harry looked at the different weight sets, he wanted to build up his muscle without losing his wiry speed. There was a high quality set with a bench and range of different free weights and accessories. "I'll take this one," he said pulling a large roll of cash from his pocket. "I'll take the credit in books on strength training, speed, and definition. Oh, I would also like a football and a flying disc."

Mr. Harris had to look twice before he believed it. "That credit is coming out of your commissions, Rickman. Well, er, yes, alright then, I'll just go write up the sale and have someone bring out the boxes. Your parents be along with the car soon?"

"Er, yes, yeah, just take them out to the pavement and I'll take care of it from there." Harry said forgetting about getting them home, hopefully Pip would manage it.

Under his breath Harry muttered, "Pip, if you can manage getting this stuff back home tug on my sleeve." Harry felt his sleeve give a little jerk. "Thanks."

Once outside and he was all alone with the packages, Harry said, "Okay Pip, its clear." and the boxes just quickly faded from view. "Excellent," Harry said with a broad smile.

Harry then went to a local dojo looking for information on martial arts. He knew fighting technique was needed, but also the mental balance that was portrayed in the movies would help him focus his magick as well.

The people at the training center were very friendly and helpful. He told them he was going away to school, and would like to sign up for classes next summer, but would like to get a start now. They recommended several books that would give him a good start in self defense as well as the deeper body/mind/spiritual balance. Harry thanked them for their help and left.

He headed off to the bookstore to get the recommended books. As he passed by the section on witchcraft/new age, he just had to check some of them out to see how close muggles came to getting it right. He actually laughed out loud at some of them because muggles had absolutely no clue. A few were really close though, but those he noticed were written by witches and wizards that he had found in one of his other books. He looked around a bit then paid for his selections and left.

Next Harry wanted to get a few more clothes. He had went down the street to a discount store shortly after arriving back at the Dursley's just to get a few things, but now he was at a big department store and could really get some cool stuff. He also got a cd player and a rather large selection of CD's.

Harry, done with his shopping spree, went back to the house with his purchases. Yes, house was definitely the word, this never really seemed like home to him. After putting most of his new things in his trunk, he heard a tapping at the window. It was Kleo with a response from Moody. The note said he would be more than happy to drop by, and would Tuesday evening be alright? After sending a quick answer off to Moody, Harry still felt restless. School was coming up very fast, and he needed to relax a bit more. He grabbed his copy of 'Magickal Creatures and Where to Find Them' and headed off to the nearby playground to read under a tree.

Afternoon shade was stretching into long evening shadows along the playground. Most of the children had headed home for dinner, so Harry nearly had the place to himself. Across the playground, a tall, slender girl wearing a biker's leather jacket was walking. She glanced his way, then stopped, walked a little closer and stopped again. Then she started heading straight toward him. As she got closer Harry could see she was about 13 or 14, with medium length brown spiked hair streaked with blond. She had multiple earrings and a nose ring. Harry was getting a little nervous hoping this wasn't one of Dudley's friends. She got within about several meters, then stopped and putting a hand on one hip, she stared intently at his book. Harry looked over the edge, then started to lower it.

"Nice book." Her voice was sort of deep and a bit husky. Her spiked hair glowed a little in the sun and she brushed a spiky golden puff out of her eyes.

"Oh, this is from one of those roll playing games," Harry explained nonchalantly. "it's called Witches and Wizards."

The girl laughed and grinned widely, "More like Flourish and Blott's. Mind if I sit down?" Harry didn't protest, so she sat cross legged beside him. She took one last look at the book and then at him. "Must be your first year at Hogwart's."

Harry started to ask, "How?" But before he could she offered him her hand, "My names Natellie, Natellie Tena, but most of my friends at school call me Nat."

"Harry," he said taking her hand, "Yeah, it's my first year. You been there long?"

"Yeah, this will be my third year, I just turned 13."

"Cool," Harry said, happy to meet someone else from his parents world, a world he would soon call his own.

She just smiled slyly, with a twinkle in her sapphire blue eyes. "I didn't know there were any other wizards around here."

"Actually, I just found out myself." Harry was getting nervous and embarrassed being so new to the wizarding world.

"My parents are muggles and when we got my letter, it really changed our plans." Nat paused for a moment, then looked straight at him. "How long have you lived around here? You don't look familiar."

He looked out across the playground in thought. "I've lived here most of my life, with my uncle and aunt, the Dursley's."

Nat let out a low whistle. "Oh that's why. Those folks are weird and nasty, especially that little twerp of theirs."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Harry fidgeted with the cast on his arm.

She caught that out of the corner of her eye. "I didn't know there was another kid there. They hid you well, looks like it isn't the only thing they hid. I'm awfully sorry I missed what was happening to you. Maybe I could have done something to help."

He gave her a startled look.

"I'm not wrong, am I?" She asked already knowing the answer.

"No, but how did you know?" Harry half expected to hear she was a mind reader.

"Your body language told me, when you messed with the cast. Magick isn't the only way to know things."

"Enough about me." Harry waved his hand dismissively. The rest of the children where finally leaving the playground, he could be a bit less guarded with his questions now. "Are there any other wizards around here?"

"Not that I know of, but my four best friends found out about magick by, er, accident." Nat got another infectious grin on her face. "The best part though, is I have someone to talk to about this outside of school. Maybe you'd like to meet them before start of term, Harry. If your relatives have been keeping you cooped up, you can't have had much chance to make friends."

Harry got a funny look on his face. "You don't think they will be put off that I'm a little kid?"

"You don't know my friend's, an interesting person is interesting despite their age. Besides you're a wizard, and they don't know many of those. Actually, I think I'm the only one they do know."

She thinks I'm interesting, Harry wondered. Then he said hopefully "I've got a wizard friend coming over tomorrow night around 6 pm. He used to be an auror. Maybe you and your friends might want to drop by?"

"Could be fun if hes got some stories to tell. What's his name?"

"Mr. Moody. Do you know him?"

"Not personally, but I have heard of him. Mad Eye they call him. I bet he has some really cool stories about you-know-who. I'll see you tomorrow then," she said as they both started to get up to leave.

Just then a gust of wind blew the hair away from Harry's forehead. She finally spotted the scar and stopped dead, then looked at the snake peeking out of his pocket. Harry glanced down at Archimedes, who slowly slipped back out of sight.

"Er" she said sounding a bit lost. "You're Harry Potter." She pulled herself together. "I'm sorry, Harry. You might be getting a lot of that, people staring I mean. You might want to keep your friend out of sight though. I heard the last wizard in these parts gave a bad name to it."

Harry was suddenly a bit annoyed. "Bad name to what?"

"Having a snake as a familiar." For the first time Nat was very, very serious, "And I expect you can talk to them too, or at least that one. It's in his body language. Told you there were different ways to know things. That ones a common species, not likely to be store bought. I hate to tell you who the last wizard known to work with ordinary snakes was."

Harry was calming down, mostly because he could see it was concern in her eyes, not fear of him. "Most people get a little superstitious about talking to snakes because the last known parseltongue was the same person who gave you that scar. Some people are likely to think you got more than just a scar from him. Stupid people might avoid you like you had something catching," Nat said trying to be helpful.

This was something Pip hadn't said quite so bluntly. Harry wasn't sure how to take this.

An awkward silence followed. It was getting dark and Harry closed his book, stowing it in his bag. Not thinking, he leaned on his bad arm when he got up. As pain shot through his arm, he winced but shifted his weight quickly to hide it from his new friend.

"I'd still like to meet your friend. If you don't mind." Nat said, obviously afraid she had offended him.

Harry grinned in the fading light. "Only if you can bring some of your friends," he said, turning to go.

"Better then that, I'll try to get some wizard treats, see you tomorrow evening," she left and Harry stood there in thought a moment before going back to the house.

Pip had dinner hot and waiting for Harry when he got back. Harry didn't realise how hungry he was until he smelled the good food. Throwing his bag on the sofa, he quickly washed his hands and dug in.

Just as Harry was finishing up, Kleo came with a large envelope from Professor McGonagall. Once Harry relieved her of her burden, she flew over and helped herself to some leftovers. Harry just stood and looked at the large brown envelope that contained photos of his parents.

"Is master Harry alright?" Pip popped in sensing Harry's distress.

"I don't know. I sent a note to Professor McGonagall asking if she had any pictures of my parents that I could have. She must have found some," Harry said as the emotions started to build.

"It will be alright, Master Harry, I is here if yous needs me," Pip said in a very comforting tone with a touch of magick for good measure.

"Thanks Pip, I'm glad you're here," Harry said as he opened the envelope and pulled out its contents. On top was a note from the Professor:

Dear Harry,

I was able to find these photos of your parents
when they were still in school. The first one is
of your mother with her best friend, then second
is of your father with his three closest friends.
Please enjoy the remainder of your holiday and I
look forward to seeing you again on the 1st.

Professor McGonagall

Harry looked at the first picture. His mum was just as he remembered from his dreams. Harry wasn't surprised at the fact that she and her friend were waving at him. He had seen moving photos in Diagon Alley. He looked at the back of the picture. It said, Lily Evans and Kleopatra Jones, sixth year.

When he looked at the next picture he almost cried. There was his daddy, who looked just like himself, surrounded by his three friends. The names were listed at the bottom of the picture. His dad was second from the right, arms around each other with the boy on the right, Sirius Black. They were grinning ear to ear. This person was clearly his dad's best bud. Second from the left was a pale tired looking boy named Remus Lupin. He was grinning as he looked at the other two with a genuine respect. The one on the left made Harry uneasy though. He had a pointed rat like face, shifting eyes. It was obvious to Harry that this kid was only around for protections sake. He didn't seem to care about the other three, and would probably follow the most powerful kids in the school if they would let him. Harry didn't like this 'Peter Pettigrew' character at all. Harry turned the picture over to find the words 'The Marauders, sixth year'. Harry kind of liked the sound of that. If he was lucky enough to find these kinds of true friends, he may just have to revive the name, just like his dad, James Potter.