Chapter Twenty-Five
Harry left the bank and headed straight for the small shop he had passed on his way in. He wanted to meet this Austin person right away. In his opinion Grimmauld Place couldn't get fixed up fast enough. Plus, he was thinking that it would be a much better place to live while he was doing his Auror training in central London, and he would no longer be imposing on the Weasleys. Now that he thought about it, he should really talk to Ron about moving in with him. Really, he'd be happy for any of his friends to stay there. There was tons of space and it would thrill Kreecher to have something to do.
As he walked inside the storefront he was shocked to see a young witch sitting behind a desk typing away on a muggle computer. She looked up at him "Hello, do you have an appointment?"
"Umm, no I was hoping to speak to Mr. Aupelier, if it was possible." He realized suddenly that the décor of this office was very chic and he suddenly felt a bit out of place.
"Hmm, Mr. Aupelier is pretty booked for the afternoon, let me see if we can work you in. Whats your name.?" She pulled out a quill to jot it down on a large guest book.
"Harry Potter." All of the sudden the witch's eyebrows shot high above her glasses as she tried not to give her shock away.
"Oh, umm, Mr. Potter. Hold on one moment." She abruptly got up from her chair and headed to the back.
'I suppose being the chosen one has some minor perks.' Harry sarcastically thought to himself.
Before he knew it, a tall wizard with silky blonde hair and very trendy muggle clothing popped out from behind the back wall. "Harry Potter!" he excited exclaimed as he walked over to shake Harry's hand, "what an honor! I just can't believe all the amazing things you have done! Here in my shop! Oh my god!" Harry was only slightly overwhelmed by the man's enthusiasm, but he was surprised to hear him speaking with an American accent. He had never met an American wizard before.
"Yes, umm, nice to meet you. Have you been here long?" he asked.
"No we just opened a little while ago, before then I was working in New York. We heard that there was some fabulous real estate available on Diagon Alley, so we thought 'lets make the company international!' So far its been great!" He was all smiles for Harry. "Now what are you here for? Buying a home?"
"No actually, renovating a very, very old one." Austin's face lit up.
"Even better! I have been dying to work on some truly old-fashioned homes in London. Of course nothing in America is older than a few hundred yeas, so the design challenges here are really exciting! When did you want to start?" He asked.
"Whenever you can." Harry really had no idea what this man would be capable of, but he seemed pretty confident that he knew what he was doing. "The house has several things that need to be removed and a lot of permanent sticking charms in place."
"No problem, I'm an expert sticking charm breaker. Why don't we set something up so that I can see the house and get your thoughts on exactly what we want to do. Personally, I'm all about combining wizard style with muggle practicality, so I hope you'll like my ideas!" He smiled broadly and then turned to his assistant, "Veronica, pull up the calendar." She immediately sati down at the computer and started using the mouse. "When if good for you Mr. Potter? My schedule is entirely open, just for you of course!"
"Please, call me Harry." Austin smiled broadly at this, "Umm how about this Friday?" He really didn't have a very busy schedule until he started Auror training. "Whats with the computer?" He was really curious. He had never seen wizards use muggle machines that way.
"Oh we use the 'email' to keep in touch with the New York office! Much faster than international owling. Veronica, reschedule my Friday, How's noon for you Harry?" He extended his hand.
Harry shook it and said, "Noon then. The address is number 12 Grimmauld Place, London. I'll meet you in front." This was good at least he had enough time to brief Kreecher on what would be going on. He didn't want to give the old house elf too much of a shock, and he had already decided he would let Kreecher keep anything he wanted from the Blacks. No one else would really care.
Veronica recorded what he said in the computer and then smiled at him. She finally spoke softly, "Thank you Harry, for everything you've done."
Austin patted him heartily on the back and lead him towards the door, "And thank you for choosing us, I know this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship!"
"See you Friday." Harry replied as he walked outside onto the bustling street. He checked his watch and realized that it was almost time to meet Ginny and Mrs. Weasley to head home.
As he approached the Leaky Cauldron, there designated meeting place, Ginny was already waiting for him. She smiled when he finally emerged from the crowd. "How did it go at the bank?" He walked towards her and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Actually much better than expected. Where's your Mum?" He noticed that Ginny was holding onto a few shopping bags, but they were all from the second hand store.
"She said for us to go on back to the burrow, she has some boring house stuff to buy."
Harry saw the look of longing on Ginny's face as she saw other girls walking by with new shoes and dresses from various high end shops. He loved the fact that he would be able to take care of her. In the future she could get whatever she wanted, but he better not spoil her too much for now. "Want to look at brooms? I've been wanted to replace the Firebolt…" He also had ideas for getting Ginny a new broom for her birthday. She was going to be the star player of the Gryffindor team this year and she needed a broom to match.
"OOH yes! Lets go!" and with that she grabbed his hand and headed straight for Quality Quidditch Supplies.
…
When they finally returned to the Burrow they were quite famished and Mrs. Weasley had all of her cooking supplies working hard. Harry and Ginny had several broom catalogs they were looking through. Ginny was thinking about asking for one from her parents for her 17th birthday. Harry let her go on looking at the mid-range price brooms. He'd sort everything out with the Weasley's later. He didn't care what they thought, she was getting the brand new Firebolt-300 model. It had only just come out. The 300 was specifically made for chasers and it was even better for women, as it had a more agile steering for a lighter passenger. He almost couldn't contain his excitement at the plan. He figured he'd buy himself a new Firebolt too. Even though he wouldn't be playing competitively anymore, once you had a broom that great, you can't really go back.
As Ginny was weighing the pros and cons of a Nimbus versus a Cleansweep a large owl swooped through the window. He dropped a think letter on the table and then went off without waiting. Ginny picked up the parcel. "It says 'The Weasleys."
"Well then open it dear." Mrs. Weasley said from behind a large cauldron of delicious smelling soup.
Ginny opened the letter and about a dozen muggle pictures cam spilling out onto the table. "Ooh its from Ron and Hermione!" She said as she moved the pictures aside and picked up the letter.
Dear Everyone!
We are having so much fun in Australia. Spent a few days looking for Hermione's parents, found them, fixed their memories with no problems – Hermione is so clever, I couldn't believe that she actually managed to get them to remember everything. Since then we have been checking out the Australian beaches, going on walkabout, and we even went "snorkeling." We got this muggle underwater camera and Hermione got the pictures developed, so we thought you'd enjoy seeing what we are up to!
Right now we are helping the Grangers pack up their house and ship everything back home. Its taking a while, but they were only here about nine months, so its not too much stuff. Anyway, we are looking at flights for the last week of July. Then we'll help the Grangers move back in to their house. Anyway, we should be seeing you all before too long.
Hope everything is good at home!
Love, Ron
Then there was a second letter in a much neater scrawl:
Hi Everyone!
I'm so glad that Ron came with me, its been a great help having him around to move furniture and such. My parents have been very impressed at how much faster packing is with wands!
Anyway, I hope you don't mind that we took some extra time to do some fun things in Australia. The pictures are from a trip to the beach where we took snorkeling lessons so we could go to the Great Barrier Reef, Ron's first (and only) surfing lesson, and a walkabout.
Miss you all!
Love, Hermione
Harry and Ginny then began looking through the pictures. "Oh, Merlin, MUM you HAVE to see this!" Mrs. Weasley had stopped cooking as Ginny read the letters out load and was now looking intently over their shoulders at the table. The picture that Ginny was referring to was of Ron actually standing on a surfboard, the next picture however contained only a surfboard. No Ron. They all started laughing and looking through the pictures.
There were several of the Grangers along with Ron and Hermione at various locations. Mrs. Weasley was looking at a picture of Hermione and Ron standing on the beach smiling and pointing towards something in the water. It was obviously a candid because they weren't looking towards the camera. "Oh they look so happy."
"Who looks so happy?" Arthur had just walked in from work.
"Dad come here! We've gotten post from Ron and Hermione!" Ginny said.
For a few minutes they all passed around the pictures. Mr. Weasley was particularly impressed with the underwater pictures from the reef. "That's amazing!" he commented, "How do they think of all those things? Look at them underwater without any bubblehead charms! Muggles!"
"I want to go somewhere that warm. It looks so relaxing." Ginny said.
"Oh you're better off here dear, with that red hair and fair complexion." Her mother added.
"But Ron's not sunburned!" She pointed to a picture of Ron, who to Harry's surprise, was actually not red at all.
"There must be charms for that sort of thing…"Ginny wondered out loud.
"Actually," Harry said, "Muggles have a kind of lotion that protects them. Its really quite nice. Its called sun block."
Mr. Weasley had wandered out of the house and Mrs. Weasley had gone back to her cooking. The lettuce getting chopped were quite loud, so she didn't here when Ginny said to Harry, "That settles it then, we are going somewhere warm and sunny for our honeymoon."
Harry's eyebrow shot up, and he gave Ginny a smirk. "Done." He kissed her lightly on the lips just before Mrs. Weasley began setting down their dinner plates.
"Ginny! Help me set the table!" Ginny only rolled her eyes a little at her mother before getting up and clearing off the table so she could set their places.