A/N: I'm sorry it's so late and that's all I can say. Thanks for all the reviews and favourites and alerts. It makes me feel special. :)
Disclaimer: Harry potter belongs to JK Rowling despite how much I wish I owned it. But I love her too much to be bitter over it.
Chapter 12
Flooing to Diagon alley was an experience for Harry as always. The sensations that the floo caused were never fun for Harry. You would think that after years of magical travel he would get used to, or even comfortable with, the methods but harry guessed that his innate need to defy normality and be a generally awkward sort of person made him forever uncomfortable with all forms of magical travel other than flying.
It, of course, went much better than his first experience of flooing. He actually came out of the fireplace almost soot free and completely upright which was nothing less than a rare and momentous occasion. It was odd actually when he compared this moment to one so long ago when Harry was only twelve and standing in the Burrow surrounded by a loving family of redheads. He was now much older and everything had changed but Harry had that same feeling again - that he actually belonged, that he was with family.
Dorea would never replace Mrs. Weasley, the woman who had taken him into her family and loved and protected him unconditionally, but Harry could sense the same maternal love from her. Dorea was nothing like Molly but Harry knew she was just as great a mother. James and Sirius were just like the Weasley twins but more free and, sadly, less compassionate. After all the twins had come from a poor family and were more sympathetic to other people feelings and issues that the privileged James and Sirius were. Plus the twins had put their mischievous streak to use and had made a successful business out of it where as the marauders (maybe with the exception of Remus) had used their creativity for malicious pranks and sometimes nasty attacks toward those they disliked. Charlus was different though. He didn't remind Harry of one particular person; he was more like a mixture of quite a few people Harry used to know. Mr. Weasley for one, the future Sirius and for some odd yet completely logical reason Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Harry..." Sirius said becoming concerned for the older boy who had spaced out. "Harry, are you okay?"
"What?" Harry snapped out of his thoughts. "Sorry I wasn't really paying attention. What were you saying?"
"Nothing really. Just wondering if you were alright."
"Oh, I'm fine. I was thinking about something and got distracted." Harry said with a bit of a smile.
"Well Harry, I don't know if you've been here before but since you haven't been here with me I welcome you to - Sirius, drum roll please- Diagon alley." James exclaimed exuberantly as Sirius made a peculiar spluttering noise.
Dorea and Charlus looked at each other knowingly and gave discreet smirks as they stepped out of the pub and into the alley. They knew the boys would get along brilliantly and it was good to see James having a role model. They only hoped all the good and the happiness would last. Neither of them would be able to handle and harm on the boys specially after seeing what Harry had gone through in his earlier life.
For Harry the trip to the ever familiar Diagon alley was becoming stranger by the second. The leaky cauldron looked just the same but the vibe was very different to what Harry was used to. Sure, in his first and second years it had been fairly busy but even then it wasn't such a bustling and full business. During Harry's third year at Hogwarts though both the leaky cauldron and Diagon alley had changed dramatically. The wizarding population were too afraid to leave their houses and only came shopping in big and well known areas for essentials. Third year was when all the fear had started, when most of the wizarding world thought that Voldemort's most loyal servant had escaped from Azkaban, and it had escalated year by year after that. By the time Harry had actually defeated Voldemort Diagon alley was almost completely shut down. The curfew didn't help either.
Everything seemed new and everyone seemed content. He could still spot the normal old stores in the alley like Olivander's wand shop, Madame Malkins and the magical menagerie. There were newer more different stores too. Stores that sold muggle technology altered to function with magic and stores that specialised in muggle memorabilia; things that Harry never expected to see back in his own time. Harry assumed that without Voldemort there to spread hate it was easier for wizards to coexist with muggles as well as use muggle inventions to better their own society.
Harry was wrenched out of his deep thoughts by his growling stomach. They hadn't been out long and had barely been in any shops but Harry was starving already. After being denied food so often as a child Harry found that he really, really loved food. Not as much as Ron as that would be truly frightening but nowadays Harry would eat whenever he was hungry until he wasn't anymore. He especially loved food he hadn't cooked himself. He was an alright cook he guessed but he really didn't like the task too much. Anyone would lose their fondness of cooking if they were forced to do it for an ungrateful family, who didn't even feed him properly, since he was old enough to reach the stove.
"Hey can we go back to the leaky cauldron?" Harry asked rather suddenly. "I'm going to have to get some sustenance if I want to continue this shopping trip."
Looking at his watch Charlus replied "Sure. Actually it's best if we go right now because I got an owl from Mrs. Lupin asking if Remus could stay at ours for the first two weeks or so of the summer and I said yes. He should be meeting us at the leaky in a quarter of an hour or so. Sorry I forgot to tell you about it James and Sirius. What with the excitement of everything it just slipped my mind."
"Moony is coming? Great!" Said Sirius with a very bright smile then turned his head to Harry. "You're going to love Remus Harry. He's the third and last member of our group. Well we have other friends too and I'm missing out the girls group but... well never mind. He's the third and last member of the marauders."
"Yeah, he's like the brains of our group." James added with what Harry could only describe as a somewhat deranged grin. "The Marauders - together for the summer."
"Boys, if you blow any part of my house up again, I swear I'll... well you don't want to know what I'll do." Dorea warned with a strict face which cracked to show a small smile at the end of the sentence.
"They've really blown up the house before?" Harry whispered to Charlus.
"Just the kitchen area. They were trying to bake some form of cake that made whoever had a bit out of it suddenly gain a lot of weight and keep it on for a couple of hours. The charms they'd added to the cake reacted with the baking powder and heat and it caused a bit of an explosion. Thank Merlin for the anti-fire charms on the house or else it could have been much worse than a few burned eyebrows."
"So the message of that story is to never let the troublesome trio near fire?"
"Pretty much. Especially if they have their wands on them."
"Noted."
As the family walked further and entered the pub Harry walked to the counter to bring back some drinks whilst the others left to go find a table.
"What can I get you, lad?" the bar man asked. Harry was shocked to find Tom looking just as he had in his time and still working at the leaky. It was nice to have some constants.
"Can I please get a large lemonade, three large butterbeers, and a regular cup of tea?"
"Coming right up. That'll be four galleons and five sickles thank you. You can go back to your table lad, I'll bring the drinks over."
"Thanks." Harry said as he walked away. "Can you please take food orders at the table? I couldn't remember everyone's orders."
"It's fine lad." Tom replied with toothy grin.
Harry sat down at the table satisfied that his food would be there soon. "The drinks will be here in a minute and he'll take our orders then too." As he talked Harry looked down and noticed an odd stain on his shoe which just did not look right. Harry wasn't a particularly vein person but he didn't like to walk around scruffily. Like the food clothing had become an issue for him mostly due to his childhood. He was forced to wear old and massive clothes which made people at his muggle school judge and ostracize him. Now that Harry had the money and the freedom to spend it he chose harry refused to look like a person who had never seen a mirror before. He wasn't bothered about how expensive the clothes were or what brands they were. Hell, he knew nothing about fashion and did not really wish to learn but Harry liked his clothes to fit well, be fairly new and clean. Harry would not have cared if the thing on his shoe was just a stain but after noticing that it was actually owl droppings he really couldn't ignore the thing.
Excusing himself Harry left for the bathroom and asked the others to order him the special of the day when Tom arrived to take orders. He then proceeded to the bath room and took his time cleaning his shoes. Giving his reflection an onceover to make sure he looked okay, he turned to leave.
Suddenly he stumbled backwards as he felt another body collide into his. Harry looked down to see a fair haired young man on the floor looking at him with wide eyes.
A/N: How did you like it? This was mostly a filler chapter but hey I promise you exciting things are happening in the next. Which by the way I already have written completely. It just needs editing and it should be out in the next few days :).
So a bit about the pairings. The only ones I have for certain are:
Harry/Lucius,
Ron/Hermione
And Sirius/Remus.
There are other pairings I'm considering that I'm not too sure about so I would like a bit of advice for who these people should be paired with. I have some ideas but the people I haven't decided for are these listed below. Any suggestions?
Severus, Lily and James.
READ: I would also like to say that I'm so happy with the increase in the reviews and so I want to offer the 123rd reviewer (realistic but random number- I hope) a oneshot of their choice. This isn't just for this chapter even though it would be brilliant to reach that many reviews (It would mean like 33 reviews for this chapter) it isjust the general review number 123 that gets its own oneshot no matter how many chapters it would take for me to actually reach that number reviews. I've never done a oneshot before so it will be a new thing for me. I will message the 123rd reviewer and ask about the details so please don't write it in the review :). On a completely random note, if anyone has any suggestions or advice about where they think this fic should go tell me in a review. I'm not saying I'll change my plot completely but I am willing to consider good ideas.
