A/N: Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!
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19
With a FWOOSH of green flame Mr. And Mrs. Potter stepped out of the fireplace and into the Leaky Cauldron. Although if it hadn't been for Susan, Harry probably would have tumbled out.
"2 lives and you still can't get a handle on floo travel," Susan asked with a grin.
"To be fair, I wasn't raised in this world and I had only ever travelled the floo a few times before that," Harry replied. Neville and Hannah were waiting outside the fireplace and towards the entrance of Diagon Alley. It didn't escape Harry and Susan's notice that they were holding hands. They looked at each other and smiled as if they were subconsciously communicating. With that, the four of them headed through the door and into Diagon Alley.
"Where should we go first," Hannah asked.
"Probably to Gringotts so we can get that stuff taken care of and then we can work our way back or split up if we want to," Harry responded.
"Sounds good," Neville replied as the couples walked down the street towards Gringotts.
As they approached Gringotts, the guards outside raised an eyebrow at the four of them but left them alone as they entered. They approached the window. "Lord Potter here to speak with Rockhook."
The goblin disappeared and returned a few minutes later with Rockhook. He looked the group over. "Lord Potter?"
"Yes Rockhook. Sorry. I've changed a little since the last time I was in. It's a long story. I've aged and I've gotten married. I need to add my wife to my accounts. Also Neville Longbottom needs to claim his Lordship."
"Very well. If you can all present your wands for identification purposes I will be happy to assist you in your needs today."
Harry, Susan and Neville all took out their wands and presented them for identification. "Very well. Follow me." With that the group followed Rockhook back to his office where they all took a seat. "Let's start with Mr. Longbottom. Mr. Longbottom, repeat after me. I, Neville Longbottom, do hereby take possession of my lordship and the Head of House Longbottom."
Neville looked at Hannah and then spoke, "I, Neville Longbottom, do hereby take possession of my lordship and the Head of House Longbottom." A black band with the Longbottom family signet appeared on his hand. His ring as well as Harry and Susan's briefly glowed much to their surprise
"That band signifies you as a lord and the head of house Longbottom. The glow between your rings signifies that your houses are allied. Just sign here and everything will become magically legal as well," Rockhook informed them. Rockhook looked at Hannah before asking, "Is this the future Lady Longbottom as well?" Neville turned bright red and Hannah looked between Rockhook and Neville speechless, not sure if he actually just asked that. Harry and Susan snickered at their reactions. It was funnier when it wasn't happening to them. However as Dumbledore did for him Harry stepped in.
"Lord Longbottom would like to wait a while before making that decision as he has only begun courting young Miss Abbott." Rockhook nodded and passed Neville a form to sign, which he quickly did and passed it back to the goblin.
"That completes that. Now Lord Potter this young lady is your wife correct?"
"Yes sir, this is Susan Potter," Harry formally introduced. At that Susan held out her hand to show the family ring. Rockhook looked it over, nodded and pulled out a couple forms.
"This one acknowledges your marriage for both Gringotts and the wizarding community. The second one officially acknowledges Mrs. Potter as the Lady of house Potter and allows her access to all family vaults and accounts." Harry signed both of them without a second thought and passed them to Susan with a grin. She quickly signed them before passing them back to Rockhook. "Very good. That is taken care of. Congratulations Lord and Lady Potter on your marriage, as well as you Lord Longbottom on claiming your lordship. Is there anything else Gringotts can assist you with today?"
"Actually yes I do have one more thing. We need to pick up some supplies while we're in Diagon Alley and so we'll need access to our account. I'm not sure how much we'll need though. Is there a way for us to access our account on the go without having to make multiple trips back here or overdrawing," Harry asked.
"In fact there is Lord Potter. We have these gold bags that will allow you to reach in and essentially pull out money from your account. These bags will only allow yourself and Lady Potter to access them. Anyone else trying to do so will find themselves unable to and after several failed attempts the bag will disappear and return to Gringotts. There is a small fee involved in this due to the magic required."
"That's fine. I'll take two. One for each of us."
"Very good. If you will return to the main lobby I will have those made and brought out to you. As a bonus feature that most humans find appealing is that the bag can change colors and patterns based on the user's desires. All one has to do is hold the bag and think about it."
"Excellent. Thank you Rockhook. May your gold as shine," Harry said with a bow. With that the four of them went back to the main lobby. Less than 5 minutes later a young goblin appeared before them, handed the bags to Harry and walked away. Harry handed one to Susan.
"Are you sure about this," Susan asked him quietly. "Giving me access to your family vaults and everything." Harry turned and looked her sternly in the eyes.
"Susan Potter, you are my wife and the lady of the house. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have access to OUR vaults. Besides, there is nobody I trust more." She leaned in and kissed him before taking his hand and leading them out the door with Neville and Hannah behind them.
As soon as they stepped outside there was a flash of light. Followed quickly by another one. When they lights died down and they could see again they saw a blonde woman at the bottom of the stairs. She wore jeweled spectacles studded with rhinestones and had crimson nails. "Harry Potter! The Boy who Lived! Started his first year at Hogwarts this year but looks to be much older. Care to explain?" This was not what Harry wanted to deal with this time around, any time around actually. Harry looked at Susan and sighed. He absolutely hated being famous, especially for something he couldn't remember, much less knew how it was done.
"I'm sorry miss but we don't have time for this right now. My friends and I have a lot to get done today."
"Miss? Don't you know who I am," Rita asked.
"The annoying blonde lady who is stopping us from getting stuff done?"
Rita looked appalled. "I'm Rita Skeeter! I write for the Daily Prophet. It's you the people want to hear about. You're the juicy news."
"Well go bother someone else. As Lord of House Potter I do hereby deny the interview request and do not wish to be disturbed further by requests for an interview at this time." With that both Harry and Susan's rings flashed, signifying the power of House Potter. That did not escape Rita's attention as she smiled to herself.
"Very well Lord Potter, have a pleasant day." With that she packed up her quick quill and camera and left in a hurry.
"That can't be good," Neville said.
"Nope. She left way too easily," Hannah added.
"I'm sure we'll read about it tomorrow….or some version of it," replied Harry, "for now let's just have fun and enjoy ourselves. We can worry about tomorrow, later. We should probably let Aunt Ami know though just in case."
"That's probably a good idea," Susan answered. "So where to first husband of mine?"
"Bookstore I guess. That'll be our biggest stop anyway." The four of them headed towards the bookstore, unaware of the person trailing them. He had told her not to request an interview but that didn't mean she wasn't going to trail them. The fact that they young redhead had called The Boy Who Lived Husband and that she had a wedding ring on was going to make for some outstanding news. She would have to get ahold of her contacts in the records department of the Ministry and see if she couldn't get it figured out. For now she shifted into her illegal beetle animagus form and flew after them, making sure to keep a safe distance but still hear their juicy details.
A bell chimed overhead as the 4 students walked into Florish and Botts. "Welcome to Florish and Botts, what can I help you find," the young lady at the desk asked.
"This is going to sound strange but I need 4 sets of Hogwarts books, 3rd year plus whatever we need for Runes and Care of Magical creatures," Harry replied.
"You guys do realize it's halfway through the year right," the lady asked skeptically.
"Yeah. Well. Magic happens," replied Harry with a wink and a grin.
"I suppose so. Give me just one moment to get all those. Feel free to take a look around at some of our other books." With that she disappeared to get what was requested. While she did they each took a look around the store. Susan found an interesting book on magical laws, Hannah found one on Advanced Healing, Neville found one on Advanced Herbology, and Harry…well he found an encyclopedia of magical creatures. Flipping through it there were several he didn't realize.
As they met back up front each reading their random book, Harry spoke up. "Anyone know what a Nargle is?" They all shook their heads. "Apparently it's some sort of magical creature that lives in mistletoe but no proof has been found yet of their existence or what they look like."
"Weird. Why would they even include that then," Neville asked only to receive a shrug in response.
The cashier came back with 4 small bags that had been charmed to have extra storage space. "All right 4 sets of 3rd year books plus Spellman's Syllabary and The Monster Book of Monsters. Anything else for you?"
"Yeah these four books as well please."
"Sounds good." She took the four books and placed one in each bag and handed it back to their respective owner. "There ya go." With that Harry paid for everything and they left for their next destination.
Once they were outside Harry spoke up, "Well Gringotts and books were the two big things on my list, aside from taking Neville to Olivanders. What say we hit Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour?"
"Definitely," responded Susan. "I love ice cream!"
"Me too," added Hannah.
"Well what are we waiting for," Harry asked as he led the group toward the ice cream parlor.
After they had all ordered and found a table, Susan spoke up. "After we're done here, can Hannah and I go clothes shopping while you guys go and find Neville a wand?"
"Sure. I don't see why not? Just try not to break the bank on our first day of marriage," he replied with a smirk.
That confirms it! Rita thought. Plenty of information to write a good article. Nobody noticed the beetle flying off from nearby and out the door next time it opened.
"Wow. Been married one day and you've already got him trained well. Look at you," Hannah teased Susan.
"Oh and I'm sure you won't," Susan shot back, "especially with that display earlier."
"For your information young lady, it wasn't meant to be a public display. You guys came barging in."
"To our room and we most certainly did not barge. We opened the door politely."
"Without knocking," Hannah exclaimed.
"Still our room," Susan retorted.
"Yeah well now Neville's gonna get his own regal suite and you won't be able to interrupt us so there," Hannah said as she stuck her tongue out.
"Neville! You sly dog. Was that your plan the whole time? To get poor Hannah Abbott all alone," Harry asked pretending to look shocked.
Neville blushed speechless. "What can he say," Hannah interjected, "it's hard to keep up with Hogwarts most regal couple."
"To be fair we've only been a couple for 24 hours-ish. Although thinking about it, we technically got married when we were 11 and now we're like 14 so we've been together for like 3 years in 24 hours."
"That…makes my brain hurt," Neville spoke up. Everybody else agreed. They continued to eat their ice cream and make small talk, each one sharing their ice cream with their significant other.
"This year has really been something else," Susan stated.
"You can say that again."
Susan looked over at Harry who was smiling and just nodded to her with a grin. "This year has really been something else," Susan repeated with a grin before her and Harry burst out into laughter.
"Very funny. You two are hilarious. A real riot," commented Hannah. "You two keep it up and you'll be right up there with the Weasley Twins."
"Don't tell them that," Harry joked, "They hate competition."
After their ice cream, they split up with Harry and Neville going to Ollivander's and Susan and Hannah going off shopping. They agreed to meet back up at the entrance to Diagon Alley in an hour.
The small bell overhead chimed as Harry and Neville entered Ollivander's shop. An older man with pale silvery eyes and white hair paired around one of the shelves; when his eyes landed on Harry he smiled.
"Ahhh Mr. Potter. Good to see you again. How's the phoenix feather and holly working out for you," the old man asked.
"Good sir. Thank you. We're actually here for my friend Neville, you see. His grandmother insists on him using his father's old wand but I believe it isn't working right for him. As I was told once, the wand chooses the wizard and his father's wand didn't choose him."
Garrick Ollivander's face lit up upon hearing those words. It didn't seem young people listened to him anymore …or at least he didn't think they did. "VERY GOOD Mr. Potter! Were I able to award House Points, you would have them. In the meantime let's take a look for Mr…"
"Longbottom sir. Neville Longbottom," Neville introduced.
"Neville Longbottom…," Ollivander thought "that would make your grandmother…Augusta Longbottom if I remember correctly."
"Yes sir."
"That would explain your situation then. Fiery woman that one. Now let's see….where should we start…"
30 minutes, a few fires, some exploded paperwork and a desk bell that ran away and they had finally found a wand that was perfect for Neville.
"13 inches, cherry with Unicorn hair. Just perfect. The wand has chosen the wizard Mr. Longbottom. You should no long have any trouble with your classes or your magic."
"That….that's excellent news. Thank you sir," Neville stammered.
"Anytime my boy."
With that Harry paid for Neville's new wand and a wand polishing kit and they left. "Well what now," Harry asked, "We've still got 25 minutes before we're supposed to meet the girls. So….joke shop or…candy shop?"
"Candy shop. That way we can pick the girls up something and they'll be happy with us…maybe some flowers too," Neville suggested.
"Good call Neville, you smooth romancer. That's pretty amazing for dating less than 12 hours," Harry exclaimed.
Neville shrugged. "Yeah well sometimes I have good ideas."
"I'll say! Just don't let it go to your head."
"Yeah. Yeah. A regular Weasley twin you are."
"Nope. Just a Marauder!"
The two girls were talking excitedly as they exited the shop and headed up the alley. If they weren't mistaken they should be right on time. They were almost to the end when Hannah looked where they were going and stopped.
"What is it Hannah," Susan asked with a hint of concern.
Hannah was starting to blush as she pointed in the direction of their rendezvous point. Susan stopped and looked in the direction she was pointing. There, at the end of the alley, were Harry and Neville, each holding a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. Susan started blushing as they boys started walking towards them with a grin on their faces.
"HARRY….JAMES…POTTER…," Susan stumbled out, "what did you…"
Her incoherence was interrupted by her lips meeting that of her husband. A moment later their kiss was broken and she stood in stunned silence. "I love you Susan Potter," he whispered as he handed her the flowers and chocolates.
"I love you too Harry," she whispered back as she blushed a deep red. "I'll never get used to that you know. Being called Mrs. Potter."
"Do you not want to be," Harry asked.
"Of course I do. It's just that I could live another 1,000 years and still never believe I married the wonderful and amazing Harry Potter."
It was Harry's turn to blush. "I'm not really that wonderful or amazing."
"I think you are." Harry's blush deepened. Not far from them a very similar situation was going on where Neville was expressing how much he liked Hannah and enjoyed being around her…all while nervous and stuttering. Hannah sat there grinning before she interrupted Neville with a kiss and told him that she really liked him too…and had for a long time. With that the two couples left hand-in-hand and headed back towards the exit of Diagon Alley.