I'm consumed by your eyes.
Keep them open and full

ONE DAY LATER, August 14th 10AM

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Draco declared and then bowed with a flourish. Severus just rolled his eyes and began walking down the street. Draco and I followed behind him at a slower pace as I gawked and stared at everything around me.

They had described the place fairly well before we left but all the explanations in the world would never prepare someone for how incredible the place truly is. Misshapen buildings towered toward the sky, all in different colors and architectural types. It was amazing that some of the buildings were standing at all and I had no doubt that a fair about of magic was sustaining them.

"Well, what do you think?" Draco asked as I clutched onto his arm like a lifeline. There was no way I was letting him out of my sight. As exciting as Diagon Alley was, I had no desire to get lost there.

"It's utterly amazing," I stammered, "I can hardly think of words to describe it." Draco just laughed and continued pulling me down the street.

There was something else about the place that shook me to the core. It was something that I would never be able to describe. If I knew more about being a witch I suppose I would say it was magic. It was almost as if the air was alive and quite powerful. The sensations I was getting from all around me made me want to stop in the middle of the street and drop down to my knees in reverence.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked, as he gave me arm a reassuring squeeze.

"Yes, of course," I answered as my mind brought me back down to reality, "Where are we headed?"

"Well," Draco began, "Severus will want to go to the apothecary of course but we don't have to follow him. Why don't we go to Flourish and Blotts instead?"

"Flourish and what?" I asked in confusion.

"Flourish and Blotts," Draco replied, "it's a bookstore, nothing to be afraid of." I could feel myself being led down the street in a daze, and I barely registered it when Severus stalked off in another direction, his robes billowing behind him.

"How does he do that?" I mumbled to myself but Draco heard me and seemed to know what I was talking about right away.

"No one really knows," Draco answered with a chuckle, "but between you and me, I think he spells them."

We finally made it to the bookstore and I couldn't believe how packed it was. It was filled to the brim with children.

"Holy cow, there's a lot of kids here," I exclaimed.

"Well of course," Draco drawled, "school starts soon and they're all here to buy their supplies. Take a look at their robes." I followed Draco's directions and glanced down at the children as we passed through the crowds. Each robe had a small crest sewn on the front, and each crest had a picture of an animal.

"They look like the pictures on the trunk," I said, "Does that mean these kids go to Hogwarts?"

"Exactly."

"Wow! That's a lot of kids, Hogwarts must be huge!" I exclaimed as it dawned on me just how many children were packed into Diagon Alley.

"It is," Draco explained. I stopped for a moment and let the gears in my head begin to turn. Draco stared at me and waited, after living with each other for only a few days we were already picking up on things like facial expressions and body language. He definitely knew this expression, it meant that I was thinking and was about to have some kind of revelation.

"If there are so many students," I began slowly, as my mind began to pickup speed like a train, "then maybe you went to school with my Dad and didn't realize it." Draco ran a hand through his hair and he had a pained expression on his face.

"There wasn't as many students at Hogwarts when I went to school," he explained, "With You-Know-Who around there were a lot of people that didn't send their kids to school and after his defeat the muggle-born population at the school jumped dramatically."

"I see," I replied, "I wish I knew more about this You-Know-Who character, especially if I might be related to him." Draco's eyes widened in surprise and he clamped a hand over my mouth.

"Don't speak about things like that here, are you mad?" he asked, his eyes blazing with fear, "Do not tell anyone your last name, do you understand?" I slowly nodded my head and took a deep breath as he removed his hand.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "I don't understand all this stuff yet." He blushed for a moment as if embarrassed and nodded his head in understanding.

We made our way through the store and Draco would stop periodically to pick out certain books for the school year or point something out to me. I wasn't really all that interested until I saw a sign that proclaimed, "Largest Harry Potter Section in the World."

"They have an entire Harry Potter section?" I stammered.

"Of course," Draco explained, "he did save the world and all. Why don't you go and take a look while I finish up my shopping? If you see anything that interests you don't be afraid to pick it up, I'll pay for everything."

"Thanks Draco, that's really nice of you," I replied as I headed into the 'Harry Potter' section of Flourish and Blotts.

As I scanned the shelves I couldn't believe the sheer number of books written about Harry Potter. There were at least five long shelves full of them. I ran a finger down the spines of each one as I scanned each row. I had no idea what I was looking for exactly but reading some of the titles was very entertaining.

The Life and Times of Harry Potter

Harry Potter, the Hogwarts Years

Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived to Defeat You-Know-Who

Harry Potter, Seeker Extraordinaire

Those were some of the less exciting titles. As I moved to the lower shelves they became more interesting. Most of them seemed to be written by people who actually knew Harry Potter and it was rather sad to see so many people attempting to make money off him.

The Boy Who Took Me to the Yule Ball, And the Man He Became by Pavrati Patil

The Boy Who Lived to Hog the Hot Water by Seamus Finnegan

Harry Potter, a Photographic Account of the Boy Who Lived by Colin Creevey

Potter, Bane of my Existence by Draco Malfoy

I stopped dead in my tracks and pulled the book from the shelf. There on the cover was a picture of a younger Draco Malfoy with short, slicked back blonde hair and a very intimidating sneer plastered on his face.

"My God, has everyone written a Harry Potter book?" I asked myself out loud.

"Just about," a voice replied from behind and I spun around quickly in surprise. In front of me stood a very tall man with kind brown eyes and short brown hair. He had a bright, cheery smile on his face and I couldn't help but smile back.

"It's kind of sad," I said as I gestured at the books behind me, "so many people making money off one young boy." He chuckled slightly and reached to a place on the shelf behind me. I looked down and was surprised when I saw a younger version of the man staring back at me, waving shyly and fidgeting once in awhile under my gaze.

"Harry Potter, Tales from Dumbledore's Army," I read out loud, "by Neville Longbottom. Is it any good?" I asked as I looked up at him, he smiled even wider and held out his hand.

"I should hope so, I wrote it," he replied to my surprise, "Neville Longbottom, I'm very pleased to meet you."

"Jenny Ri...," I paused, remembering what Draco had told me, "Rider, Jenny Rider."

"You must be from America," he said as he shook my hand.

"Yes," I replied, "and I don't know very much about this Harry Potter character. He seems pretty important over here but I still can't believe the amount that's written about him." He scratched his chin and thought for a moment.

"Well, people write about him because they cared for him," he explained, "I can see how it would look bad to someone who didn't know him but to the people who did know him he occupied a very big place in our hearts. Most of these books that you see," he waved a hand to the books behind me, "were written after Harry disappeared. We wrote the books in attempt to not only remember him but also to share our stories and thoughts on him with one another."

"Wow," I replied in awe, "all of you must have really cared for him a lot."

"We did," Neville said, his voice slightly cracking, "even the people who seemed to hate him cared enough about him to write entire books about him."

"Like Draco's book," I said excitedly as I waved the copy of Potter, Bane of my Existence in front of him.

"Yes, that's one," said Neville, "Do you know Draco?"

"O yes," I replied, "I'm staying with him here in London. I'll be going with him and Severus to visit Hogwarts when the school year begins." Neville looked surprised for a moment and then the warm smile returned.

"I will see you there then," he said with a wink, "I teach Herbology at Hogwarts. Maybe we could have lunch together sometime."

"That would be great," I said and blushed slightly. I couldn't be sure if Neville was asking me out on a date or just looking for a friend but I suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"Before I forget," he said as he reached for a few books behind me, "If you're interested in the real Harry Potter you may want to take a look at these. They were the ones who knew him best after all."

"Thank you," I said gratefully and then shook his hand once more before he walked away. I looked down at the books and read the title of each one.

Harry Potter, Beyond the Boy Who Lived to the Friend that Was by Ronald and Hermione Weasley

Harry Potter, the Last Marauder by Remus Lupin

Harry Potter, Breaking Rules and Crossing Lines by Severus Snape

I couldn't help but laugh when I looked at the cover of Severus Snape's book. It was a full-size picture of Severus and every once in awhile he would walk in and out of the picture, robes billowing ominously behind him as he went.

"They must be spelled to do that," I mumbled to myself as I dropped the book into my shopping basket.

I took my time looking around at some of the other books in the store as I waited for Draco to return. My basket was quite full and I couldn't wait to get back to Draco's apartment to begin reading.

"It looks like you've found some books you're interested in," Draco said with a wry grin as we waited in line by the counter.

"It's all for investigational purposes only," I said with a smile, "I'm sure I won't enjoy them a bit."

In the end I walked out of the store with a total of ten Harry Potter books and two books about You-Know-The Guy Who May or May Not be my Relative, also known as Tom Riddle.

My reading list contained the following, besides Neville's book and the three that he had handed me.

Potter, Bane of My Existence (Which I had to get because it's Draco's book.)

Harry Potter, a Photographic Account of the Boy Who Lived

The Boy Who Lived to Defeat You-Know-Who

The Magical Education of Harry Potter

Harry Potter, Friends and Foes

Harry Potter's Greatest Escapes and Most Daring Rescues

All You Ever Needed to Know and A Few Things You'd Be Afraid To Know about You-Know-Who

Tom Riddle, from Toddler to Most Feared Dark Lord

It's going to be a long night, I thought to myself as we left Flourish and Blotts. As we walked down the street searching for Severus I couldn't help but pull out Harry Potter, A Photographic Account of the Boy Who Lived and thumb through a few of the pages. Just before putting it back in the bag I flipped to the last page and gasped. The photo was so beautiful that it took my breath away.

There was a young man with short, messy black hair and he had his back to the camera. He was short, thin and fairly small. The only way to tell that he was a man and not a boy was his strong jaw and pronounced chin. His body was turned slightly so you could see a small bit of the side of his face as he stood in the window of some kind of tower and stared out at the lake below. The full moon in the background bathed the picture in a soft glowing light and the clouds moved slowly across the sky, periodically covering the moon and casting the man in darkness. A light wind was blowing through the window and his long cloak rippled softly around him.

Slowly the man turned further around and looked up at me with pale and somewhat pained green eyes. A tear rolled down my nose and dripped onto the photograph and I made no attempt to stop it. He stared at me for another moment before a small tear fell from his own cheek and then he turned once again to stare at the lake.

I closed the book slowly and quietly and looked up to see that Draco had stopped up ahead to talk to Severus. As I approached them I could tell that they both noticed the tears in my eyes. I held up the book in my hand and their eyes flashed in understanding.

"I'm beginning to think," I said quietly, "that Harry Potter was a very sad man."