This was getting ridiculous. Harry snickered in the back of his head that it was good the floo network had been watched during the war, because otherwise, Harry would have said Grimauld place and arrived in Malfoy Manor. Instead, he quickly pulled his hood up, thanked Merlin that he'd worn his only casual robe today, and pretended to be browsing the store in a desperate attempt not to stand out. The person at the counter was serving someone, so he just had to calmly leave, and OH SHIT.

Harry squinted through the ash on his glasses at a blond blur, and… yep. that was Malfoy. Lovely. Harry couldn't have just one, nice, normal day.

And… Malfoy was crossing the store towards him. Harry put down the book he had been pretending to consider buying and just began to half run to the door without drawing too much attention.

Malfoy got to him first, "What are you doing here Potter? You aren't interested in-"

Here Malfoy squinted across the store at where Harry was before, " 'An introduction to fertility magic: How to have more children with rituals' are you?"

After feeling vaguely annoyed at Malfoy for being able to read the title off the book, Harry said, "NO! NO! Malfoy! NO! I flooed here by mistake and I didn't want to draw too much attention, so I thought if I looked like I knew what I wanted to buy, I'd be left alone and then I could just leave."

Malfoy looked very confused, "How did you end up saying Borgin and Burkes?"

Instead of replying, Harry just said, "Wait. The floo would have thought I said Borgin and Burkes, not Knockturn Alley. My enunciation can't be that bad."

"Trust me Potter. It's pretty bad. But what were you trying to say?"

"Diagon Alley," Harry muttered.

Malfoy burst into laughter, "That is so far off. How did you manage that!?"

"Shut up. I get enough of this from Ron."

Harry opened the door and hurried out.

He could hear Malfoy calling in the background, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Weasley's right!"

Harry groaned, lovely. He had been planning on trying to help Malfoy, and he still would, but he was just so infuriating. Harry absentmindedly sifted through the magic around him, it seemed so much more alive than Diagon. That wasn't to say that Diagon was filled with magic, but all the magic seemed the same. This organised pastel, golden white, that refused to move. That had been part of the appeal of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, though he was sure Fred and George hadn't thought about it. The magic was so wild, alive, and children whose magic hadn't fully settled intermingled with it. Harry froze, as he realised that without thinking, instead of going to Diagon, he had gone the opposite direction, further into the pool of magic.

Harry looked around at the various store names, when one caught his eye, Masquerade for the day: Disguises for everyday use. It seemed to have a few customers, which gave him some hope that it wouldn't just be filled with scammer amulets like the ones Mr. Weasley reported finding, and entered the store.

It was filled with potions, jewellery, books, a little station in the corner that said it could change your appearance for a set amount of time. Completely overwhelmed, Harry walked up to the counter and rang the little bell. A teenager a few years older than Harry came out of a room behind the store, "Hello. What can I get you?"

He sounded, surprisingly, not dead inside. Which was in stark contrast to… every teenage store worker Harry had ever seen.

"Um… I'm not really sure. I need to get rid of a scar, and maybe, change my face just enough that I'm not generally recognised but this place is a bit…"

"Overwhelming," the boy finished. He grinned, eyes crinkling up, "Yeah, I don't think my grandmother understands organisation. So you're going to want maybe some form of coverage sticker for the scar and then - Actually, I'll just bring you."

He got out from behind the desk and Harry just followed him,

"Okay," he said, "We have these stickers here, and once they're applied to the scar location, they'll just shimmer, and then put a glamour over the scar. They're reusable, if you touch the spot, the sticker looks blue again. Just a quick warning, the affordable ones aren't great at replicating other skin marks."

Harry laughed, and waved at his face, "I don't really have any freckles, but thanks for the info."

He got a laugh back, "You never know. You might wake up one morning with a pimple you desperately want to show off to the world."

Harry squinted, laughter bubbling up.

"Yeah, okay, that'll never happen. Just pick out the size you need."

Harry grabbed one around an inch by an inch and then hurried behind the still unidentified boy to some necklaces.

The boy grabbed a necklace with a small crystal at the bottom, "So just tell me the specifications you want, I can apply them with the spell infuser and when you wear it, you'll look slightly different. But if you want to wear it permanently," he then reached over to the other side of the aisle, "We have a more expensive one. You set a word that'll activate the spell."

Harry quickly looked at the price, and came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't use those two extra sickles for anything else. He quickly nodded and the boy passed him the necklace.

They went to the 'spell infuser' which Harry had never heard of before, but he presumed somebody funneled magic into it, and then the device imbued the object with whatever specifications the runes on it set.

Eventually, Harry put on the necklace and looked in the mirror. The boy that looked back still had Harry's green eyes, but that was the only thing that was the same, his hair was a dark red brown, his nose curved in slightly at the top, his lips thinner, skin a shade lighter, freckles dusted his nose, barely noticeable, copied from the boy next to him.

Said boy next to him smiled, "Is that good?"

Harry nodded.

"Great," the boy said, "So that'll be a galleon and 23 sickles."

Harry pulled out the coins, and the boy across the counter said, "You're muggleborn right?"

Harry was about to deny it, when he realised that explaining his childhood would almost undoubtedly bring up strange links to Harry Potter, so he just said, "Yeah?"

The boy smiled slightly, "You should probably get some casual wizarding clothing, if you're trying to blend in more."

"Oh."

"Don't sound so distraught!"

"Sorry. Just… how did you know?"

The boy flicked Harry's collar, "Partially that. The muggles came up with those collared shirts. But you also looked way too awed by everything in here to have lived here for your whole life."

Harry spluttered, "I could be a half-blood."

The boy laughed again, he laughed a lot, Harry stared at his eyes.

The boy said, "Well I was asking wasn't I. Why haven't you gone shopping? Don't you go through the Alleys when you go to school."

Harry winced, "I go to Hogwarts."

"Don't look so regretful. You don't seem like you're one of those pureblooded dicks, and you muggle-borns who get in don't pay anyway. All of you are in on magical talent."

Harry kept his face from showing the wince of his lie.

The boy smiled, "I'm not angry, don't worry. Oh! I haven't told you my name."

He stuck out a hand, "I'm Aelfdene."

Harry took the hand, "Harry. That sounds really bland doesn't it."

Aelfdene said, "Oh it's not that bad. There aren't that many Harrys in the Wizarding World."

Harry squinted, "You say that like you know just how common Harry is."

Aelfdene put his hands up, "You caught me. I'm a half-blood."

"You don't look it though."

"Well that's why you need to get wizard clothes."

Harry picked his stuff off the counter, "Look I don't want to stop this conversation but I have friends to-"

"I'm not offended, you can go. But come back ! I work here over the summer holidays. Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays."

Harry grinned back, "Bye!"

Harry rushed down the street. The trip to get a disguise had taken way longer than he had anticipated, and Ron and Hermione were probably looking for him quite alarmed by now. Oh Merlin! Ron was going to make fun of him about this for the next three years.

He avoided people as he ran, still a foot below the average person's eye level. He was delighted to find no-one staring at him. He scanned the flooring point, to find that it was absolutely huge. But from where he was, Harry could see a dark brown bushy ponytail next to an orange red blob, so Harry ran towards his friends, screaming, "Ron! Hermione!"

They turned around in relief, only to see a boy with red hair, their eyes kept scanning the crowd and Harry groaned, it was too bad, he'd have to go back to normal for a few minutes and risk the people in the crowd noticing him. He whispered under his breath, "Abracadabra," and was delighted to see his skin fade back to normal.

He called again, "Ron! Hermione!" This time, their eyes snapped onto him immediately and they ran over.

They looked immensely relieved, though Ron tried to cover it up with a, "Where did you end up this time," and an eye roll.

Harry was about to say Borgin and Burkes, when he realised that then he'd have to explain why he went shopping in Knockturn Alley, and how it really wasn't that bad. So he just said, "This store a few blocks away, Masquerade for the day."

Ron looked at Hermione, "I've never heard of it before."

Hermione shrugged, a rare occurrence, "I don't know. You know I don't, I only come here for school supplies."

Harry pulled his bangs to the side, and eagerly pointed to the unblemished skin, carely not to touch it, "I got a glamour to hide my scar."

The words about the necklace were on the tip of his tongue, and then he was caught with the want to have something for himself, to be able to hide from the whole world, not just the press, so he stopped talking.

Hermione picked up the conversation, with chatter about the magical theory needed to cover Harry's scar.

They were walking the street aimlessly, when Harry spotted a second-hand clothing store and pulled his two friends in.

Ron spluttered, "I don't need more clothing."

Hermione grinned, half her mouth curling up as she pulled the most garish orange hat off a table and put it on Ron's head, "Really?! Because I really thought this would match your hair."

Ron pulled the hat off in alarm, "NO! I'm quite sure I don't need anything."

Hermione then turned to Harry, "I don't this friend group loves shopping for clothes, no offence Harry. I don't think you love it either. So, what are we doing here?"

Harry would have been offended, except he really didn't like clothes shopping that much, he just liked having clothes that fit. So he just said the truth, "The store worker could tell I was muggle-raised from my clothes, we need to fit in better."

"You're wearing a robe aren't you? And anyway, why do we need to fit in?"

"See that's the thing, You don't see why I don't fit it, it's the shirt by the way, it has a collar, and we're entering the wizarding world, we don't need to spend the whole time trying to make them follow our clothing choices, we can just conform a bit, to make people more comfortable."

Hermione didn't exactly look happy with that statement, "Why? Are they not comfortable being reminded that muggles exist?"

Harry knew where Hermione was coming from, conforming often meant giving up, giving up on who you are, but this wasn't to do with giving up, this was to do with blending it. Also with wearing that pretty embroidered robe in the corner, but also, you know, making people comfortable, not standing out all the time. He knew Hermione didn't fully understand not wanting to stand out, whenever she had stood out, it had been because people were cruel, and so she didn't want to just hide, but something in Harry made him want to conform. Just to fit in. Maybe that was the Slytherin him.

So he just said, "Well I'm buying wix clothes, you can do what you want."

And he went to choose some robes.

Hermione joined in.

He grinned at her, "I thought you thought this was giving up?"

She smiled, "I'm not wearing these all the time, but, I mean, I'm a witch. I'll mix and merge the clothes, but I can't only ever wear jeans and a zip up hoodie. Not just because I stand out. Because I might as well learn the place I live in, right?"

"Right."

Ron said, "This is all lovely, but I don't need clothes, so…"

"HELP then!" Hermione called, "We don't exactly know what's in fashion."

Ron muttered under his breath, "Nothing in here, that's for sure," before searching through the racks for something that didn't come from the 60s.