Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter Three – Getting Started

Author's Note: Hey, check the chapter "AN" for shout out and reactions. I am still torn on how to have Harry act around Ron. As you'll notice, the chapter starts out in a dream. These are scenes from the future. I'm thinking that most if not all will start this way. So if you pay close attention, you'll see where the story is leading. Also, I didn't feel like looking up Harry's vault number so I just made up vault 253. And…I think that's about it. Enjoy! And don't forget to review and tell your online friends.

-gotta B writin

imjustryintokeepitreal@yahoo.com

P.S. I'm just using Abercrombie because in America (where I'm from) it's one of the most popular clothes brands, so that's where that came from. I'm picturing Harry as a preppy looking guy. I'll try and find a picture of a guy so you can see what type of Harry I'm picturing. Happy reading.

            Harry stood in the doorway to the Great Hall. The giant room was filled with eating students. The students at the four tables were talking and laughing amongst themselves about trivial and childlike matters. Harry heard steps coming from the staircase to his left. He turned and the stairs leading to the dungeons came into his view.

            The steps drew closer, and a minute later a figure stood at the top. Harry smiled at the boy.

            "Ready to learn how to kill Death Eaters?" Harry asked.

            "Excuse me if I don't wet my pants in delight Potter."

***

            Harry sat up in his bed at Private Drive. 'Weird dream' he thought to himself. Right after he said that, the memory of his dream vanished. 'What was it about?' Harry thought to himself. He turned to his left to shut off his alarm. "Oh shit!" Harry cursed to himself. He had forgot to set his alarm for an earlier time. He checked the time and saw that it was six-thirty. He now only had an hour and a half to go for his morning jog, shower and get dressed, change his appearance, and get to the fireplace.

            Harry hurriedly put on a pair of extremely baggy shorts that he had to tie a string around the waist just to keep them up, and an equally baggy shirt. He reached for his old worn out shoes that were now to small for him. He looked at himself in the mirror and frowned at his appearance. He now realized that his aunt and uncle had been right all those years, he was a visual embarrassment. "Just one more day" he thought to himself.

            He quietly sneaked out of his room careful not to wake his uncle. Harry smiled to himself and shook his head as he quietly opened and closed the house's front door. "Some habits are gonna be hard to lose."

            Harry returned from his jog forty-five minutes later. The morning had been exceptionally hot that day, so he was sweating through his clothes. He walked up the stairs to the bathroom. He turned the water on and shut the curtain. He began peeling off his clothes and through them into a pile on the floor. Harry was left standing only in a pair of boxers in front of the mirror. He smiled at himself and began doing ridiculous and downright idiot poses on front of the mirror. "For the love of Merlin I hope that no one walks in here right now." He laughed at the sight of himself and proceeded to remove his boxers and through them onto the pile of clothes that omitted a terrible scent. Harry quickly showered, and then dried himself off. He cursed to himself for not bringing clothes with him. He wrapped his towel around his waist and picked up his clothes from the floor.

            "Ahh" Harry yelled in fright as the smell of his clothes reached his nose. He dropped the pile on the floor and tried to fan the fumes away. "Jeese, didn't think I smelled that bad" he said as he took a deep breath. He picked of his clothes and carried them down the hall to his room, all the while holding his breath. He passed by his uncle on his way. His uncle stared first at the pile then Harry's semi-naked form.

            "Hey pervert, what do you think this is? A peep show?" Harry asked in a mocking tone as he passed by. He slammed his door behind him after he entered his room.

            He heard his uncle yell, "What do you think this is, a locker room? PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Vernon walked away muttering to himself about the indecency of teenagers.

            Harry ignored his uncle and threw his clothes into the middle of his room. He reached for his wand from inside the pocket of the shorts he had just been wearing. "Why didn't I think of this before?" Harry wondered to himself. "Abeo!" The clothes that had once been on the floor vanished. Harry smiled at his work. He wouldn't be needing those anymore.

            Harry then picked up the clothes his had picked out the previous night. They were the nicest ones he had. They were a simple pair of jeans and a blue short-sleeved shirt. Harry put them on and had to hold up his jeans so they did not fall from his hips. They were the nicest pair he had, but they were far from the best fitting. Harry once again picked up his wand and muttered a spell while pointing at his pants. They instantly shrunk and Harry no longer had to hold them up. They fit on him just right. He had stolen an Abercrombie catalogue from Dudley the previous night and looked through and memorized the images. He had seen an advertisement saying that it was the style that most of the kids in England were wearing. Harry never was a fashion expert, so he just decided to take the ad's word for it and hope that he didn't look like an idiot. He shrunk his shirt so that he looked like the guys in the catalogue. Harry then went to his desk and pulled out his spell book from Dumbledore. He quickly reapplied the eye spells and the hair lengthening charm. He looked at his reflection and Sirius came to mind.

            "I can't possibly walk into Diagon Alley looking like Sirius' younger twin," Harry said. He picked the book and flipped to the hair coloring section he had been looking at the other day. "Hmm…so many colors. Let's see, there's brown, blonde, red, purple, yellow, red, blue, green and…to many other weird ones. I don't want too much attention soo…this will do." Harry studied the charm, it was fairly simple, second year level. He touched his wand to his hair and pronounced the charm. A golden blonde color spread from the tip of the wand to all of hair's hair. Even his eyebrows turned a couple shades lighter. Harry stood back from the desk and moved to stand in front of the mirror. He inspected his new clothes and features.

            He smiled as he studied ever detail of the charms. "Tell me why I chose to look like Malfoy's long lost cousin." Harry looked over at his clock and saw that he only had five minutes until his windowed time would be open. He opened his trunk and retrieved his Gringotts bank key and then ran down from his room to the fireplace. He checked the clock over the mantel and it showed that Harry only had to wait two minutes to floo his way back into the wizarding world.

            "Oh no…floo powder…" Harry muttered as he covered his face. How could he be so stupid? He didn't have any floo powder to use. "Maybe I have some in my trunk" Harry thought as he ran back up to his room. He tore open the door and immediately emptied his trunk's contents. No floo powder. "What am I gonna do? Why didn't Dumbledore give me and floo powder? Dumbledore…" Harry's thoughts trailed away as he ran down the stairs to the kitchen. He had thrown away his present's wrapping paper in the wastebasket there. He searched through the garbage until he found the familiar brown paper. He pulled it out of the basket and a plastic bag fell from the paper. A little note was tied to the bag. It read:

Harry,

            Here is some floo powder just in case you do not have any of your own. Happy shopping!

            "Stupid Dumbledore! Could have told me he gave me some floo powder. Harry looked up at the clock and swore. It was ten seconds past eight. He ran back to the fireplace and pulled out his wand and lit the logs on fire.

            "And just where do you…" his uncle's rant was cut off when the man caught sight of Harry's appearance. "Well, however you look, you are not leaving this house you little nudist freak!" Vernon yelled at Harry. "And how dare you light that fireplace! It's bloody a hundred degrees outside and you get the bright idea to…" but before he could get out another word, Harry turned around and fired a well aim curse at his uncle. The man was lifted from the floor and was slammed into the wall behind him creating a dent in the plaster of the wall. The paintings and pictures on the wall fell from their place and their glass shattered as they hit the floor.

            "Would you please shut up!?" Harry yelled right before he fired the curse at his uncle. He then turned around and looked at the clock. "Only ten seconds left." Harry threw the green powder into the fire and stepped into the green flames. He turned to face his unconscious uncle before he yelled "The Leaky Cauldron!" and was whisked away in the flames.

***

            Harry was thrown from the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron out into the room. And for the first time in his life, Harry did not fall flat on his face. He stepped smoothly out from the fireplace into the room, as smoothly as possible while being thrown from the fire. He looked around the room, some things never changed. It looked exactly the same as it had when he had stayed there during his third year.

            Harry studied the people sitting at the tables. He saw a couple of kids his age that he recognized from Hogwarts. He noticed a few of the girls smiling at him. Harry blushed slightly and made his way into the back lot of the building.

            When he stepped out, he walked to the wall and tapped the correct stone. The wall began to rearrange itself and created a doorway for Harry to step through. He smiled at the sight before him. He watched as wizards dressed in the strangest robes walked with their children, friends, or by themselves down the streets. Harry stepped out into the street and started heading towards Gringotts, the wizarding bank.

            Once he reached the magnificent building, a goblin dressed in a deep burgundy suit opened the door for him and bowed as Harry entered. He walked into the extremely large room and saw countless wizards and witches standing in line waiting to see a teller. He stepped into one line that was labeled 'withdraws.' He stood in line for about twenty minutes until finally it was his turn. He stepped up to the goblin behind the counter.

            "Hello, I'm here to withdraw some money from my account, here is my key." Harry placed the key on the counter for the goblin. The goblin picked the key up and then inspected it closely.

            "And this is your key?" the goblin asked.

            "What? Do you think I stole it?" Harry snapped at the goblin. He had waited twenty minutes in line, he was not in the mood to be questioned.

            "Of course not sir," the goblin said, visibly restraining itself, "it is just that this particular key opens the vault of a young Harry Potter."

            Harry mentally kicked himself. How could have thought that the goblins wouldn't notice. He composed himself and placed another sneer on his face. "Of course it is, I'm his friend. He asked me to get some money for him." The goblin studied Harry's face and then looked back down at the key, obviously trying to decide whether or not he should allow Harry to use the key.

            "Very well the sir, what type of withdrawal would you like today?"

            "I need to get some money in both wizarding money and pounds. I need to do some shopping in some muggle stores." The goblin looked at him and then asked his he was planning on spending a lot of money in the muggle stores. Harry tried to think. He had never bought clothes before and he didn't know how much a whole new wardrobe would cost him. "Yes, I suppose so."

            "Well then, may I interest you in Gringotts muggle offer?" the goblin asked. Harry made a gesture for the goblin to continue, so it did. "About two decades back, muggles invented a key like object called a credit card. It was used like a key at stores. Instead of having to pay with actual money, they would use the credit and with muggle technology, money from the person's bank account was taken out and put into the store's for the amount that the purchase cost. What we have done was copy their technology for wizards that held accounts here and often shopped at muggle stores. We can transfigure your key into a credit card for you to use in muggle stores if you would like. But it does cost a fee of five galleons to use."

            Harry looked at the goblin and nodded affirmably for the goblin to continue. He watched as the creature moved his fingers over the metal key and mutter words in a strange language. Slowly, the key flattened and stretched until it was in a rectangular sort of shape. A minute later, a credit card lay on the counter with his name and the Gringotts symbol in a corner. "There you are sir. Now would you like to be taken down to your vault sir?" the goblin asked. Harry nodded his head. "Very well," the goblin whistled and snapped his fingers at a goblin standing behind the counter. "Take…I'm sorry sir, I do not remember your name?" the goblin asked.

            "I didn't give it" Harry replied simply.

            "Yes, of course. Take this young man to vault 253 and then to the money exchanger after that. You may take as much money as you wish sir and then exchange whatever you want into pounds if you so choose at the money exchanger. The goblin picked up the card and held it out for Harry. Harry grabbed it and pocketed it for safety. He turned and followed the other goblin through some doors to a group of cars. The goblin climbed into one and motioned for Harry to follow suit. Harry entered the car and sat down on one of the seats on his side as they took off down the tunnels. The sped down miles and miles below Diagon Alley twisting and turning every couple of seconds.

            Finally, they stopped at vault number 253. Harry and the goblin stepped out of the cart and walked over to the giant door. The goblin carefully put his hand in front of the door and slowly brought it down. While he did this, clicks were heard as the many locks unlocked themselves magically and finally the door opened. Harry stepped into the dimly lit room and looked around the vault. He immediately noticed that the room was now dangerously overflowing with gold coins. "Do you know why I have a lot more money in here?" Harry asked the goblin.

            The goblin looked confused at the question. "No, I would not know sir. Have you made any deposits?" Harry shook his head no. "We can inquire when we return to the upper level sir." Harry nodded. He walked over to a pile of coins and stuffed a number of them into his pockets. He decided that he'd need a lot of money this year so he filled his pockets until they were bulging and then carried some more in his hands.

            "Alright, I'm done" Harry said as he turned and walked out of the room trying to command as much of his dignity as he could while having unusually large lumps in his pants and a handful of gold coins. The goblin silently laughed at the boy. The two climbed back into the cart and it started its ascent back to the upper level.

            When Harry walked through the doorway back into the large room, many people's eye grew big at the sight of him. "What? Haven't you people ever seen a teenager with money literally bulging out of his pocket's before?" Harry thought. He sneered at a gaping woman on his way to the exchange counter. He stepped into the line and did his best to ignore the strange looks he was receiving from the people in the bank. Thankfully, he was well experienced in getting strange looks from people. Finally after fifteen minutes of standing in line, Harry walked up to the goblin with a handful of galleons. He dumped the contents in his hands on the counter. "I need to convert these into pounds" Harry told the goblin.

            The goblin looked at him questioningly. "All of it?" it asked.

            "Yeah, all of it." The goblin sighed as he magically lifted all the coins into the air and placed them on a weight. After five minutes of the goblin balancing it, he handed Harry a large wad of paper pounds. Harry smiled as he picked up the wads and nodded a thank you to the goblin. He turned around and walked out of the building.

            He stopped in front of the giant bank and looked around. He needed to go to one store before he left for London. He had planned to go clothes shopping first, and then go shopping for his school supplies. He saw the shop a little ways down the road and started walking slowly, so his pockets wouldn't explode. He finally found the shop he was looking for. He opened the door and walked into 'Badgeon's Bag Bandwagon.'

            Harry walked into the store and looked around. He was obviously in the women's section because the bags all had flowers and pink on them. He walked further into the store until he was sure he was in the man's section. He came because he needed a bag to put all his purchases for the day and a wallet to keep his money in. He looked around the store for about ten minutes until he decided on a black over the shoulder messenger bag that looked like it wouldn't stand out in the muggle world or the wizarding world. He then walked to the wallet section and selected a simple black leather wallet. Happy that he made the right choices, he walked to the counter where the owner stood. Harry smiled at the old woman as he placed his purchases on the counter. The old woman smiled at him and then at his bags. "You have very expensive taste young man. Are you sure you want these?" the witch asked.

            Harry hadn't paid attention to how much the had cost, but he had pockets bulging with coins, it wouldn't make a difference how much they cost. "Oh, I wasn't sure or not, but are they charmed to expand on the inside? I'm going to be doing a lot of shopping today and I need this bag to put all of my stuff in there that I buy" Harry said to the old witch.

            "Why of course young man. This bag could fit this entire building inside of it and it wouldn't weight any more than it does right now. That's why it's so expensive. The charms on it are very thorough. Harry smiled; it was exactly what he needed. He asked how much it cost and the lady said that the two would cost him thirty-five galleons.

            "That's all?" Harry asked. He had expected something in the hundreds. He handed the lady thirty-five galleons from his pocket and then took the two objects from the counter. He smiled and waved at the lady as he left the store. Once outside, he took all of the coins from his pocket and dumped them in a pocket in the bag and then put all of his pounds in the wallet. He put the wallet in his back pocket and the messenger bag over his shoulder. Harry smiled as he looked at his surroundings. He was rich, he looked completely different, and he could go wherever he wanted. Then his smile faded.

            "Stupid Dumbledore," Harry thought. He had completely forgotten that he was being watched. Then his smile returned to his face as he saw a large group of people approach him. "Okay, hope you have your running shoes on buddy" Harry smiled as he took off running into the crowds.

            "If he's gonna have some loser follow me around all day, I might as well make it interesting for him" Harry thought as he ducked into another group of people.