Chapter 3 or The Pied Piper?
By the time Ginny had been revived by Ron using the smelling salts, the boys had gotten themselves untangled and off the floor. Everyone sat down at the table to eat a very quiet dinner. Though it was hard for most of the people at the table to actually get food into their mouths as they were still staring at Harry in disbelief! Fred and George would get some potato on their forks, bring it towards their mouths and it would promptly fall off and end up back on their plates, and Mrs. Weasley sat staring at Harry with flushed cheeks and a large smile plastered on her face. Ron seemed the only person to act normally at all. He would look around at everyone at the table, get a big grin on his face, look at Harry, and take another bite of his food.
Harry, nervously, picked at his dinner and snuck little peeks at the people staring at him. It was at this time that he decided that something must be very, very wrong with Ginny. She was sitting very still, almost in a catatonic state and had not touched a bite of the feast that was laid out before them. This worried him greatly, and he wished that he could have gotten closer to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley while they were talking in the kitchen. At least then, he would know what was wrong with her. He took a closer look at Ginny's pale and shell-shocked face and hoped that whatever was wrong with her wasn't life threatening. He would hate to lose a member of his new family so soon after finding them all!
Gathering his courage and taking a deep breath, Harry turned to Fred and George. "Hey guys, how has your summer been? Make anything interesting?"
Identical "Urrgghh's" came out of Fred and George's mouths. Seeing as he was not going to get any conversation out of the twins, he turned to Mrs. Weasley who straightened up in her chair and flushed even more red than she had already been. Harry smiled, weakly, at her and turned to Ginny who let out another small "EEEP" before scrambling from her chair to run upstairs to her room. Sighing, Harry briefly closed his eyes and rubbed his hand over his face. What on earth has gotten into all of these people? He thought dejectedly.
"I'm awfully tired. Would anyone mind if I called it a night?" Taking the family's vacant stares as a yes, Harry got up from the table and made his way up to the violently orange room he shared with Ron when he came to stay. As he got his boxers out of his trunk (The red silk ones were his favorite and he guarded them jealously.), he could hear the Weasleys talking in hushed voices while finishing up their dinner. Harry sighed once more. Figures, he thought. Even here I feel like an outsider. Giving a big yawn, he crawled into bed still thinking about the strange behavior of the Weasleys at dinner. His last thought before sleep overcame his mind was "I hope that this is not how the whole summer is going to go"
After the Weasleys had gotten over their shock and had talked amongst themselves about the change in Harry's appearance, the summer seemed to settle down quite nicely. Bill and Charlie had decided to treat the whole thing like a joke and the twins seemed prepared to go along with this notion too. During games of Quidditch in which the entire family would participate you could hear Fred and George and sometimes Bill and Charlie shouting out a warning not to hit Harry's beautiful face with a bludger! It was at these times that Harry would blush and squirm uncomfortably while hearing Mrs. Weasley and Ginny giggling below as they watched the game. All in all, Harry was pretty happy that life at the Weasley's had gone back to the way it used to be.
About a week into his stay at the Burrow, Harry, Ron, and Ginny received their Hogwart's supplies list. Harry woke that morning, pulled his clothes on and stumbled into the kitchen. While eating his breakfast, Harry noticed the thick, yellow envelope lying by his plate. "You've all got your letters this morning." Trilled Mrs.Weasley while setting down a third helping of toast for Harry to eat. "Eat up Harry. You need to keep your strength up now dear." She sighed and smiled happily and watched him eat his sixth piece of toast. Harry munched away on his toast while scanning his supply list. Pretty standard list, thought Harry, but couldn't suppress his shudder of revulsion at the book he needed for Divination. Divination. Truly his most hated class and he could tell that Figuring the Future by I. C. Far was going to be his least liked book.
"Looks like we are going to have to take a trip to Diagon Alley this morning." Molly Weasley said. "Finish up your breakfast and we will get ready to go." Harry saw her go over to the mantle and look in the jar of Flu Powder. Oh No! He groaned internally. Not the Flu Powder again. He clearly remembered each and every time that he had used that powder and sighed in resignation at the thought of turning up in yet another grate that he did not belong in. No matter how many times he traveled this way, he could never seem to get his destination right, and the way that his summer had started, he did not have any hopes of getting it right this time either. Groaning, yet again except this time out loud, Harry got up from the table and followed Ron up to their room to prepare for the trip to Diagon Alley.
All in all, the trip by Flu Powder went pretty well for Harry. If you consider going one grate too far and ending up, ONLY, in the newest, most popular woman's boutique to come to the Wizarding World as doing pretty well. He had heard about this newest store from Fred and George who were always talking about making an invisibility potion so that they could go and spy on the girls while they tried on the lingerie the boutique sold. Harry was pretty sure that Fred and George would be pumping him for information once they got wind of where he had ended up. He groaned and looked for an inconspicuous exit, but all he could make out was a sea of skimpy garments that he just knew he wasn't supposed to be seeing! He had just eased himself out of the grate and had decided to act as nonchalant as possible while walking out of the boutique, when he heard a gasp come from beside him.
"Harry!? Harry, what are you doing in here?" Harry turned to see none other than one of his best friends, Hermione Granger. He was about to answer her, when Hermione gasped again, her eyes got almost as wide as saucers and starting blushing a fiery red. "Oh my, Ron wasn't kidding was he?" Hermione mumbled.
"What was that, Hermione? I didn't quite catch that." Harry asked politely, while still looking around, casual like, to see if he could find the front door of this establishment.
Gathering her wits together, Hermione took his arm and starting escorting him to the front of the boutique. "I said, Harry, that I had better get you out of here and go and find Ron and Ginny." Smiling brightly, but still rather flushed, She strolled out of the store arm and arm with Harry. Arm and arm past all of the smiling, flushed and giggling females who had just spotted him. He flushed as he saw one youngish witch wriggle her fingers and blow him a kiss. Another, older witch was more courageous and actually came up behind him, pinched his bottom and even dared to slip a hastily written note in his pocket! Hermione giggled and pushed him out the door in front of her.
Once out in the bright summer sunshine, Harry felt a little better. He turned to Hermione with a wide smile on his face. "Thanks, I thought I would never get out of there." He took and breath and just had to ask "Just what were you doing in there Hermione?" He never would have thought that she was into that kind of thing at all! Hermione giggle again.
"Oh Harry! I ran into the Weasleys while they were looking for you, and just happened to see you through the window! You were not that hard to spot at all. Not after the description that Ron, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley gave me." She looked at Harry in awe and said in a hushed tone. "Really Harry. You have grown up so quickly" Just as he was about to answer Hermione, Mrs. Weasley came rushing up with Ginny and Ron.
"Harry! Oh thank God Hermione found you! She looked winded after running around frantically searching through shop grate after shop grate for her errant charge. "Where Have you been?"
Harry flushed and looked at Hermione with a plea for help. Of course, Hermione just melted at that look. She flushed and turned to Mrs. Weasley. "I found him trying to get out of Sinful Pleasures." Molly Weasley gasped in surprise, giggled and then flushed when she looked at Harry again.
Seeing Harry watching her with a perplexed look on his face, Molly quickly recovered herself and announced, "Well, at least we are all together again." Turning to get her bearing she started walking towards the tall white building in the center of the alley. "First stop, Gringotts." She commanded and led the small procession to the steps of the odd shaped bank.
After he had filled his money sack with some Knuts and Sickles from his vault, Harry met Ron and Hermione in front of the ancient building to decide where they were going to go first. Harry and Ron wanted to go to Quality Quidditch first, but Hermione groaned that she did not want to stand around for hours while the boys oooohed and ahhhhed over the newest broom to hit the shops. Harry and Ron looked at each other and asked where she would like to go. And of course, Hermione wanted to go to the Flourish and Blotts first, but Ron and Harry quickly dissuaded her by saying that she would have no room in her book bag for her other supplies if she went there first. Hermione glared at both boys for a moment and then conceded the point. "Fine then, you decide where we go first." She huffed. Harry, ever the peace keeper between his two friends, suggested going to get an ice-cream before they got down to the heavy duty supply purchasing. Everyone agreed that this sounded pretty good, so off to Florean Fortesque's they went laughing and joking as they zigzagged their way through the alley.
What the trio did not realize that throughout their whole trip, groups of girls and women had started to follow them around. It had started when Hermione had let Harry out of "Sinful Pleasures" and the line had steadily grown from there. When Harry had gone into Gringotts, 4 girls had gone in behind him, but when he came out, 8 girls had followed. While they were waiting for the ice-creams to come, Harry looked around and noticed that the little shop was enjoying a boon in business on this day. That's odd, he thought, glancing around and seeing that most of the little shops patrons seemed to be girls and women of all shapes and sizes. He quickly forgot about the women, though when Florean, himself, brought out their ice-creams. Hermione and Harry had gotten sherbet cones, but Ron had become daring and had ordered a cone that turned your tongue different colors as you ate it. Harry laughed while watching Ron's tongue turn everything from a bright purple to a blinding yellow!
Finishing up their cones, they decided to replenish their potions ingredients first and then go on to get their robes from there. Of course, the line of women following the trio grew as they entered and left each shop and by the time they got to Quality Quidditch Supplies there had to have been a hundred girls trailing after him. The strange procession was starting to attract quite a bit of attention while they were walking through the alley and getting the rest of their supplies. Groups of men were watching and smiling and some were even outright laughing at the spectacle of Harry, Hermione and Ron walking through Diagon Alley with a long straggling line of giggling girls, and even some older witches, following behind them. Harry would flush every time someone would call out to the group with some crude comment. Some of the girls would even go into the shops that Harry went into while the others stayed outside and watched through the windows. Whenever he was inside a shop and would happen to glance over to the windows, he would see the girls blowing kisses at him and wriggling their fingers at him.
He could not even browse through his favorite shop of all, Quality Quidditch Supplies without bumping into a woman. Eventually the shop was so overcrowded that the attendant kicked them out saying that he wanted his paying customers to be able to get in. Standing outside of the shop, Harry thought of all the strange things that had been happening since the beginning of summer and sighed. He didn't think his life was ever going to be the same again. This is getting ridiculous, he thought. I know I am the boy that lived, but really people, get a life! He didn't have much time for this thought though, as Hermione reminded him that they still had to get their books. He just had to grin at the excited look Hermione had gotten on her face at the mention of Flourish and Blotts; he just couldn't understand how somebody could be that obsessed over books. Now, Quidditch! He thought, that was more like it, and smiled happily as he followed an excited Hermione to the book shop.
Harry had just gotten done handing over his Sickles to the clerk in Flourish and Blotts when he heard a hated voice sneering from behind him. "I bet you're enjoying this, aren't you Potter?" Harry turned around and came face to face with his biggest adversary. Well, the biggest one next to Voldemort himself and of course Lucius Malfoy too, he thought ironically.
Draco had been standing in the upper story of the bookstore when he spied Harry, The Mudblood and Weasel come into the shop. He had just decided to have a little fun with the famous trio when he had spied the long line of girls outside the shop. He just could not believe it! Honestly, thought Malfoy, I thought witches had better taste than this.
Harry was about to mutter his famous "Sod off Malfoy" line when he saw the shocked and frantic look on Malfoy's face and the growls of the girls that had surrounded him and Malfoy while the "had words." Fortunately for Draco, his father had seen the ominous looks the women were giving his son and decided to intervene. "This isn't over Potter!" He managed to get out before his father yanked him out of the circle of women surrounding them and quickly getting them out of the store.
Oh well, he decided, might as well enjoy this while he still could. Harry looked back at the long line of women waiting for him to make his next move and smiled. Ron and Hermione laughed when a few of the girls actually swooned when he had done this. Smiling still, Harry thought about what had just happened and about how nice it was to have some actually come to his aid for once instead of the other way around. Deciding that, for once, his fame had come in rather handy, Harry conceded to the fact that he really did not mind having all of these girls around, especially if it helped get rid of Malfoy! He turned abruptly to speak to a startled Ron and with a big grin on his face and stated.
"Ron, have you ever had one of those days when you feel, just, like The Pied Piper?"
By the time Ginny had been revived by Ron using the smelling salts, the boys had gotten themselves untangled and off the floor. Everyone sat down at the table to eat a very quiet dinner. Though it was hard for most of the people at the table to actually get food into their mouths as they were still staring at Harry in disbelief! Fred and George would get some potato on their forks, bring it towards their mouths and it would promptly fall off and end up back on their plates, and Mrs. Weasley sat staring at Harry with flushed cheeks and a large smile plastered on her face. Ron seemed the only person to act normally at all. He would look around at everyone at the table, get a big grin on his face, look at Harry, and take another bite of his food.
Harry, nervously, picked at his dinner and snuck little peeks at the people staring at him. It was at this time that he decided that something must be very, very wrong with Ginny. She was sitting very still, almost in a catatonic state and had not touched a bite of the feast that was laid out before them. This worried him greatly, and he wished that he could have gotten closer to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley while they were talking in the kitchen. At least then, he would know what was wrong with her. He took a closer look at Ginny's pale and shell-shocked face and hoped that whatever was wrong with her wasn't life threatening. He would hate to lose a member of his new family so soon after finding them all!
Gathering his courage and taking a deep breath, Harry turned to Fred and George. "Hey guys, how has your summer been? Make anything interesting?"
Identical "Urrgghh's" came out of Fred and George's mouths. Seeing as he was not going to get any conversation out of the twins, he turned to Mrs. Weasley who straightened up in her chair and flushed even more red than she had already been. Harry smiled, weakly, at her and turned to Ginny who let out another small "EEEP" before scrambling from her chair to run upstairs to her room. Sighing, Harry briefly closed his eyes and rubbed his hand over his face. What on earth has gotten into all of these people? He thought dejectedly.
"I'm awfully tired. Would anyone mind if I called it a night?" Taking the family's vacant stares as a yes, Harry got up from the table and made his way up to the violently orange room he shared with Ron when he came to stay. As he got his boxers out of his trunk (The red silk ones were his favorite and he guarded them jealously.), he could hear the Weasleys talking in hushed voices while finishing up their dinner. Harry sighed once more. Figures, he thought. Even here I feel like an outsider. Giving a big yawn, he crawled into bed still thinking about the strange behavior of the Weasleys at dinner. His last thought before sleep overcame his mind was "I hope that this is not how the whole summer is going to go"
After the Weasleys had gotten over their shock and had talked amongst themselves about the change in Harry's appearance, the summer seemed to settle down quite nicely. Bill and Charlie had decided to treat the whole thing like a joke and the twins seemed prepared to go along with this notion too. During games of Quidditch in which the entire family would participate you could hear Fred and George and sometimes Bill and Charlie shouting out a warning not to hit Harry's beautiful face with a bludger! It was at these times that Harry would blush and squirm uncomfortably while hearing Mrs. Weasley and Ginny giggling below as they watched the game. All in all, Harry was pretty happy that life at the Weasley's had gone back to the way it used to be.
About a week into his stay at the Burrow, Harry, Ron, and Ginny received their Hogwart's supplies list. Harry woke that morning, pulled his clothes on and stumbled into the kitchen. While eating his breakfast, Harry noticed the thick, yellow envelope lying by his plate. "You've all got your letters this morning." Trilled Mrs.Weasley while setting down a third helping of toast for Harry to eat. "Eat up Harry. You need to keep your strength up now dear." She sighed and smiled happily and watched him eat his sixth piece of toast. Harry munched away on his toast while scanning his supply list. Pretty standard list, thought Harry, but couldn't suppress his shudder of revulsion at the book he needed for Divination. Divination. Truly his most hated class and he could tell that Figuring the Future by I. C. Far was going to be his least liked book.
"Looks like we are going to have to take a trip to Diagon Alley this morning." Molly Weasley said. "Finish up your breakfast and we will get ready to go." Harry saw her go over to the mantle and look in the jar of Flu Powder. Oh No! He groaned internally. Not the Flu Powder again. He clearly remembered each and every time that he had used that powder and sighed in resignation at the thought of turning up in yet another grate that he did not belong in. No matter how many times he traveled this way, he could never seem to get his destination right, and the way that his summer had started, he did not have any hopes of getting it right this time either. Groaning, yet again except this time out loud, Harry got up from the table and followed Ron up to their room to prepare for the trip to Diagon Alley.
All in all, the trip by Flu Powder went pretty well for Harry. If you consider going one grate too far and ending up, ONLY, in the newest, most popular woman's boutique to come to the Wizarding World as doing pretty well. He had heard about this newest store from Fred and George who were always talking about making an invisibility potion so that they could go and spy on the girls while they tried on the lingerie the boutique sold. Harry was pretty sure that Fred and George would be pumping him for information once they got wind of where he had ended up. He groaned and looked for an inconspicuous exit, but all he could make out was a sea of skimpy garments that he just knew he wasn't supposed to be seeing! He had just eased himself out of the grate and had decided to act as nonchalant as possible while walking out of the boutique, when he heard a gasp come from beside him.
"Harry!? Harry, what are you doing in here?" Harry turned to see none other than one of his best friends, Hermione Granger. He was about to answer her, when Hermione gasped again, her eyes got almost as wide as saucers and starting blushing a fiery red. "Oh my, Ron wasn't kidding was he?" Hermione mumbled.
"What was that, Hermione? I didn't quite catch that." Harry asked politely, while still looking around, casual like, to see if he could find the front door of this establishment.
Gathering her wits together, Hermione took his arm and starting escorting him to the front of the boutique. "I said, Harry, that I had better get you out of here and go and find Ron and Ginny." Smiling brightly, but still rather flushed, She strolled out of the store arm and arm with Harry. Arm and arm past all of the smiling, flushed and giggling females who had just spotted him. He flushed as he saw one youngish witch wriggle her fingers and blow him a kiss. Another, older witch was more courageous and actually came up behind him, pinched his bottom and even dared to slip a hastily written note in his pocket! Hermione giggled and pushed him out the door in front of her.
Once out in the bright summer sunshine, Harry felt a little better. He turned to Hermione with a wide smile on his face. "Thanks, I thought I would never get out of there." He took and breath and just had to ask "Just what were you doing in there Hermione?" He never would have thought that she was into that kind of thing at all! Hermione giggle again.
"Oh Harry! I ran into the Weasleys while they were looking for you, and just happened to see you through the window! You were not that hard to spot at all. Not after the description that Ron, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley gave me." She looked at Harry in awe and said in a hushed tone. "Really Harry. You have grown up so quickly" Just as he was about to answer Hermione, Mrs. Weasley came rushing up with Ginny and Ron.
"Harry! Oh thank God Hermione found you! She looked winded after running around frantically searching through shop grate after shop grate for her errant charge. "Where Have you been?"
Harry flushed and looked at Hermione with a plea for help. Of course, Hermione just melted at that look. She flushed and turned to Mrs. Weasley. "I found him trying to get out of Sinful Pleasures." Molly Weasley gasped in surprise, giggled and then flushed when she looked at Harry again.
Seeing Harry watching her with a perplexed look on his face, Molly quickly recovered herself and announced, "Well, at least we are all together again." Turning to get her bearing she started walking towards the tall white building in the center of the alley. "First stop, Gringotts." She commanded and led the small procession to the steps of the odd shaped bank.
After he had filled his money sack with some Knuts and Sickles from his vault, Harry met Ron and Hermione in front of the ancient building to decide where they were going to go first. Harry and Ron wanted to go to Quality Quidditch first, but Hermione groaned that she did not want to stand around for hours while the boys oooohed and ahhhhed over the newest broom to hit the shops. Harry and Ron looked at each other and asked where she would like to go. And of course, Hermione wanted to go to the Flourish and Blotts first, but Ron and Harry quickly dissuaded her by saying that she would have no room in her book bag for her other supplies if she went there first. Hermione glared at both boys for a moment and then conceded the point. "Fine then, you decide where we go first." She huffed. Harry, ever the peace keeper between his two friends, suggested going to get an ice-cream before they got down to the heavy duty supply purchasing. Everyone agreed that this sounded pretty good, so off to Florean Fortesque's they went laughing and joking as they zigzagged their way through the alley.
What the trio did not realize that throughout their whole trip, groups of girls and women had started to follow them around. It had started when Hermione had let Harry out of "Sinful Pleasures" and the line had steadily grown from there. When Harry had gone into Gringotts, 4 girls had gone in behind him, but when he came out, 8 girls had followed. While they were waiting for the ice-creams to come, Harry looked around and noticed that the little shop was enjoying a boon in business on this day. That's odd, he thought, glancing around and seeing that most of the little shops patrons seemed to be girls and women of all shapes and sizes. He quickly forgot about the women, though when Florean, himself, brought out their ice-creams. Hermione and Harry had gotten sherbet cones, but Ron had become daring and had ordered a cone that turned your tongue different colors as you ate it. Harry laughed while watching Ron's tongue turn everything from a bright purple to a blinding yellow!
Finishing up their cones, they decided to replenish their potions ingredients first and then go on to get their robes from there. Of course, the line of women following the trio grew as they entered and left each shop and by the time they got to Quality Quidditch Supplies there had to have been a hundred girls trailing after him. The strange procession was starting to attract quite a bit of attention while they were walking through the alley and getting the rest of their supplies. Groups of men were watching and smiling and some were even outright laughing at the spectacle of Harry, Hermione and Ron walking through Diagon Alley with a long straggling line of giggling girls, and even some older witches, following behind them. Harry would flush every time someone would call out to the group with some crude comment. Some of the girls would even go into the shops that Harry went into while the others stayed outside and watched through the windows. Whenever he was inside a shop and would happen to glance over to the windows, he would see the girls blowing kisses at him and wriggling their fingers at him.
He could not even browse through his favorite shop of all, Quality Quidditch Supplies without bumping into a woman. Eventually the shop was so overcrowded that the attendant kicked them out saying that he wanted his paying customers to be able to get in. Standing outside of the shop, Harry thought of all the strange things that had been happening since the beginning of summer and sighed. He didn't think his life was ever going to be the same again. This is getting ridiculous, he thought. I know I am the boy that lived, but really people, get a life! He didn't have much time for this thought though, as Hermione reminded him that they still had to get their books. He just had to grin at the excited look Hermione had gotten on her face at the mention of Flourish and Blotts; he just couldn't understand how somebody could be that obsessed over books. Now, Quidditch! He thought, that was more like it, and smiled happily as he followed an excited Hermione to the book shop.
Harry had just gotten done handing over his Sickles to the clerk in Flourish and Blotts when he heard a hated voice sneering from behind him. "I bet you're enjoying this, aren't you Potter?" Harry turned around and came face to face with his biggest adversary. Well, the biggest one next to Voldemort himself and of course Lucius Malfoy too, he thought ironically.
Draco had been standing in the upper story of the bookstore when he spied Harry, The Mudblood and Weasel come into the shop. He had just decided to have a little fun with the famous trio when he had spied the long line of girls outside the shop. He just could not believe it! Honestly, thought Malfoy, I thought witches had better taste than this.
Harry was about to mutter his famous "Sod off Malfoy" line when he saw the shocked and frantic look on Malfoy's face and the growls of the girls that had surrounded him and Malfoy while the "had words." Fortunately for Draco, his father had seen the ominous looks the women were giving his son and decided to intervene. "This isn't over Potter!" He managed to get out before his father yanked him out of the circle of women surrounding them and quickly getting them out of the store.
Oh well, he decided, might as well enjoy this while he still could. Harry looked back at the long line of women waiting for him to make his next move and smiled. Ron and Hermione laughed when a few of the girls actually swooned when he had done this. Smiling still, Harry thought about what had just happened and about how nice it was to have some actually come to his aid for once instead of the other way around. Deciding that, for once, his fame had come in rather handy, Harry conceded to the fact that he really did not mind having all of these girls around, especially if it helped get rid of Malfoy! He turned abruptly to speak to a startled Ron and with a big grin on his face and stated.
"Ron, have you ever had one of those days when you feel, just, like The Pied Piper?"