Shopping Trip

James's POV

I get to her falling body and grab her arm. "Ariana! I'm going to need you to WAKE UP!" I shout.

Apparently my yelling at her woke her up. She and I make eye contact, I tug her arm up and she swings her leg over the broom, clinging tightly to my torso once she's on. As she does that, a stream of black, wispy smoke flies by us. Dad has told me a lot of stories about these guys and none of them were good.

I look down to my dad in a panic and yell, "DAD!"

He pulls out his wand and yells for me to get back to the house, so I lean down onto the broom further, trying to accelerate, and zoom toward the house as another stream of black smoke hits us. I feel Ari start to fall off but she recovers quickly and wraps her arms around my waist tighter. We finally get back to the house and jump off my broom and, the moment we hit the ground, three streams of smoke hit the ground in front of us and materialize into people. They are in black hoods with outrageous silver masks on. The leader of the three hooded men reaches his wand up to his face and waves it, making his mask disappear and revealing a pir of extremely green eyes, a pointy nose, and a devilish grin. I feel Ari move behind me, tense and afraid. She whispers to me "I know him… He's from my nightmare…"

I narrow my eyes and tighten my grip on my wand as I point it at the familiar man. I know him too...

He lets out a slow chuckle and looks at Ari. "I see you remember me, which means you remember what I can do…" Then he looks at my dad. "You know what we want. Just give her to us!"

Dad looks at me and nods inconspicuously, the gesture being to make sure I keep Ari protected. I reflect my father's actions and grab Ari's hand behind my back. I can hear the rest of my family joining us out here and I hear someone walk up behind me and Ari then I feel Ari straighten up behind me. I also hear my mum whispering to Al; telling him to go pack up all of our belonging from inside the house into the moving trunk.

My father laughs at the leader and says "If you thought you were going to get her without a fight, then you were wrong. And if you thought you were going to get her at ALL then you are bloody mental!"

Ari squeezes my hand and lightly whispers "Stupefy left on three." I nod, focusing my attention on the man on the left.

Then I hear, very softly from behind me, "One…"

I realize we are still holding hands behind my back. "Two…"

Her hand tenses with each count she makes, closing tighter around mine each time. "Three…"

I let go of Ari's hand, wave my wand and yell "Stupefy!"

Red sparks fly out of the end of my wand, hitting the hooded figure on the left. At the same time, Teddy and Ari do the same thing. Teddy's spell hits the hooded figure on the right, but the man in the front blocks Ari's spell, though dad has caught on to our plan because, as the front man blocks Ari's spell, dad waves his wand at the front man and hits him right in the chest, locking his entire body stiff like a board. Then my dad walks over to the man and tersely says, "You lose."

Al runs out of our house, moving trunk in hand, and walks right over to my dad. My dad looks at all of us and says, "Teddy, you take Lily. Ginny, you take Al and the suitcase. I will take James and Ariana."

Ari looks at me, confusion on her face, so I smile and say, "Just grab my dad's arm and don't vomit."

She does as I say and grabs my dad's arm.

Now, I've apparated multiple times before, but it's not an experience you can really ever get used to. Your body feels as if it's being pulled in all different directions but also being compressed into itself at the same time. It can be a sickening experience, especially during someone's first apparition. We land outside of the safe house and Ari hits the pavement rather hard and falls back onto her butt. I stifle my laughter, though Teddy doesn't.

My dad helps Ari up off the ground with a chuckle before looking at Teddy, Ari and me and saying, "By the way, good job back there. All three of you. That took courage." Ari nods then looks at the house, her face in complete shock.

Teddy sees her face and lets out another laugh then says, "Welcome to number 12 Grimmauld Place."

Mum and dad tell us to wait outside while they check to see if the house is clear of anything dangerous, something about old traps that might still be in place, so we all sit on the grass outside the house and wait for my parents to get back.

The sun is still rising in the sky so I look over at Ari and ask her what time it is. She shrugs her shoulders, her closed eyes looking toward the orange sky above. I ask Teddy the same thing and groan when he tells me it's about six thirty in the morning. I lie back in the grass with my hands placed behind my head as a makeshift pillow, and let out a yawn before closing my eyes. I'd only gotten about two hours of sleep last night and I'm pretty exhausted.

My parents come back out and smile as they tell us we're allowed to go into the house. Ari is first to the door, but she lets everyone else in first. After she walks in, dad shuts the front door and mum claps to get our attention before saying, "You all can pick your own rooms. Go on now! Go pick!" With that Teddy, Al and I run up the stairs, while Ari hangs back to talk to my mum.

I get upstairs first and run straight for the biggest room and sit on the bed in the room, Al picks the room next to mine, and Teddy and Lily run up to the fourth floor and grab rooms up there. Finally Ari comes walking up the stairs, looking sullen. I hear her continue up to the fourth floor stairs, then the fifth floor stairs. She chose a room on the top floor?

Mum walks up the stairs with the trunk and stops outside my room then she waves her wand from the case to my room. All of my things from my old room fly into my new room and place themselves accordingly. She then does the same thing for Al, Teddy, and Lily's rooms. She comes back down and pokes her head into my room and says, "Ariana and I are going to go to Diagon Alley today to do some school shopping. Would you like to come with?"

I remember that I owe Teddy a new broom, since his was hit with a fireball, and nod. She smiles and says "Okay. We are leaving in 10 minutes so make sure you are ready to go by then." Once again, I nod and she turns to leave. I wait until I hear that she is all the way downstairs and make my way up to the fifth floor.

I knock on Ari's door and wait for her to let me in. She doesn't say anything so I walk in and look around. She has changed the color of her walls to a ruby red, but other than that her room is pretty bare. It just has a bed in the middle of the room. She is sitting on her bed, knees pulled up into her chest, shoulders shaking. Is she crying?

I never know what to do when people are crying, especially girls, so I awkwardly ask, "Are you alright?"

She looks up at me with wide eyes full of surprise. "I'm fine. What do you want?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing after everything that happened today. Why are you crying?"

She shakes her head, angrily wiping at her face as she says, "I wasn't crying!"

I raise an eyebrow at her curiously and ask, "Well then what's wrong?"

She lets out a sigh, her resolution clearly gone, and says, "Those hooded men will be back. As long as I'm alive, and not with them, they'll be back."

Ari's POV

I feel my mouth drop open and my eyes widen. I hear Teddy laugh and say "Welcome to number 12 Grimmauld Place."

The building had come out of nowhere! Harry and Ginny tell us to wait outside while they check to see if the house is safe, so we all decide to sit down in the grass. After sitting for what seems like forever, I lie back in the grass and close my eyes. The moment I do, James asks me what time it is, but I don't know or, to be honest, care.

I hear him ask Teddy what time it is, though I don't catch his answer, and then hear him yawn loudly. I shake my head, though I can't help but think: After everything that's happened today, I'd be surprised if he weren't tired...

His parents come back outside and give us the okay to go into the house. I am first to the door, but I let everyone else in first; I want to make sure that the hooded men didn't follow us. After I feel like I've sufficiently surveyed the area, I walk into the house. Harry goes behind me and shuts the door while Ginny claps at all of us and says "You all can pick your own rooms. Go on now! Go pick!" Al, Lily, James and Teddy all run up the stairs to go pick rooms, but I stay behind. I have to talk to Ginny.

"Mrs. Potter, what am I going to do about clothes and school books? All of my stuff was destroyed in the… explosion."

She smiles gently and says, "Well that just won't do. It's still pretty early. How about we go shopping for that today?"

"I don't have any money though…" I say quietly. My father wasn't exactly a generous man, and he wasn't my biggest fan, which means I definitely won't be getting any inheritance from him.

She laughs, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, and says, "I wouldn't expect you to pay for your books and clothes! You live with us now, which means I will pay for all of your stuff."

I shake my head and try to cut her off and say that, while I appreciate the generous offer, I cannot accept it but she won't hear it. "You need to receive an education, and Hogwarts is the best place to do that. If that means I have to buy you all of your supplies so ensure you receive that education, then I will do so."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." I say with a weak smile before I turn and walk upstairs.

Harry and Ginny's room is on the second floor and it looks as though James and Al have occupied two of the three rooms on the third floor, so I keep walking. Lily and Teddy chose the two rooms on the fourth floor so I follow the stairs up to the fifth floor. This is probably best. This way you can have nightmares without waking anybody up or freaking anybody out. I'm such a freak… I sit down on the bed in the room and sigh. The walls here are just as boring as the ones at their old house, so I mutter a spell and change their color to a bright ruby red.

I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my forehead on top of my knees, closing my eyes and going over the events of the past few days. I find that going over everything again, reanalyzing everything, helps me to understand what's happened better and see things I hadn't seen before.

Those men had been in my nightmare just last night. They had also been at my house when it exploded; I'm even pretty sure they are the ones who caused the explosion. I also think they had been there when my mother died. When I saw them at my old house, they had seemed familiar somehow. Even in my nightmare, I hadn't known who they were, but they had a certain air of familiarity about them. Plus, the green eyed man knew who I was and even seemed to know that I had dreamed about him, but I've never met him before in my life. How did he know who I am? How did he know where to find me? If he knew where to find me before, how do I know he won't find me here? As long as I'm alive and here, the Potters are in danger...

Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted when someone shifts uncomfortably and asks, "Are you alright?"

I look up in shock and say, "I'm fine. What do you want?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing after everything that happened today. Why are you crying? Is everything okay?"

I shake my head and angrily wipe my hands on my face, surprised to find that it is in fact wet with tears. I clench my teeth and say, "I wasn't crying!"

He raises an eyebrow at me and asks, "Then what's wrong?"

I let out a sigh, my resolve gone, and say, "Those hooded men will be back. As long as I'm alive, and not with them, they'll be back."

He looks at me, clearly confused. I am about to explain, but we are interrupted by Ginny calling for us. It's time for us to go shopping. "I will explain it to you later." I say, hoping he will forget about it after shopping.

We both walk down the five flights of stairs in silence to meet his mom. She smiles at both of us and says, "You two are going to need to grab my arms."

Ugh… Apparition again… I think as I grab her arm. My world goes black again and my body gets pulled in every direction. Then we land. While apparition isn't a pleasant experience, it IS a short one. By the time you are able to register what is happening to your body, you've already landed.

Where we've landed, I'm not sure, but it's lovely. It is lined with what looks like wizard shops on both sides of the street. There are shops for robes, shops for books, shops for wands, shops for pranks, shops for food, and many other types of shops that I don't recognize and, the best part is that it was only for wizards. Back home, when we shopped for my Salem Academy school supplies, we had to go into muggle stores and talk to the wizard shop keepers in code. It was very annoying. It doesn't look like things are that way here though. Ginny leads us towards a very large stone building with the word GRINGOTTS written in gold letters on the top of it and tells us she has to go in and get some money and to wait for her outside.

Rather than wait for her, James walks into a store named Broomstix while I walk over to the store that sells owls and look in the window. I see small tawny owls, large snowy owls, owls of all sizes and colors, along with all the items needed to take care of an owl. I turn away from the window and put my hands in my pockets. I wrap my fingers around my wand while I walk around. I don't want to be completely taken by surprise if anything happens while I'm here.

I walk into Broomstix to find James, but I can't find him anywhere. I walk around all the brooms and look, but he's nowhere in sight. I walk up to a girl in the store and ask "Have you seen a somewhat tall boy, with messy black hair and hazel eyes? He walked in her a little bit ago, but I can't seem to be able to find him now."

She giggles and points back outside. "It sounds like you are looking for James Potter. Just look for a crowd of giggling girls and he should be at the center."

"Um okay, thanks?" I say. That's was absolutely no help at all…

I walk out of the store and look around. I see an orange and blue store with the large face of a man on top of it and arms protruding from the sides. One of the arms is moving up and down, raising and lowering a large, black top hat. The sign under the man's face reads Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. I walk over to the store window and look inside, noticing that the store is packed full of both kids and teens standing at every shelf in the store. I think I see James in there too so I enter the store and head towards the area where I thought I saw him. That's definitely James. I would recognize that messy hair anywhere! I think to myself as I near the person.

He is talking with a tall, red-haired man with one ear in the back of the store. I tip-toe to the back and crouch down behind some boxes. I hear James say "Well we aren't sure yet, but it's going to be brilliant! We're going to need supplies though. What do you say? Will you give the world's best prankster some supplies?"

The one eared man laughs. "No, I will not give the 'world's best prankster' supplies. I will give the world's craziest nephew supplies though!"

I hear footstep heading in my direction so I look down and pretend I am tying my shoe. "Ari? When did you get here?" James asks.

I look up guiltily, knowing I probably heard something I shouldn't have, and smile. However, before I can answer, I hear Ginny calling for me.

"I uh… I have to go." I say nervously, quickly getting up and running out of the store. Ginny is standing outside the store with a stack of books in her hands. "I went ahead and bought your books already. Now we just need to go shopping for robes. Do you have an owl dear?"

I shake my head, raising a curious eyebrow at her. "No. Why would I?"

She gives me a funny look and shakes her head. "To send people letters! Cell phones and laptops aren't allowed at Hogwarts, so letters are the only means of communication. Didn't they use owl at your old school? Never mind, I will get you one today. Let's go to Madam Malkin's."

She leads me down the street a bit to a store full of robes. A woman with a craft tape measure around her neck walks out from behind the front desk and greets us. "Hello Mrs. Potter! What brings you in today?"

Ginny smiles at the woman and gestures to me. "Ariana here needs some robes!" Then she turns to me and says, "I will be right back, Madam Malkin will take your measurements and fit you for your robes. I won't be gone long." With that said, she flashes one more smile at me and walks out of the store.

Madam Malkin pulls the measuring tape from around her neck and grabs my hand. "On the platform please; arms up."

I do as she says, stepping onto the large, round platform and raising my arms. She measures my arm and around my waist then walks away, probably to get a robe for me to try on.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you new? I'm Carter Cass. What's your name?"