Disclaimer: Everything in the following chapter belongs to J.K. except for the plot and The Cloak of Happenstance.
Author's Note: It gets going a little slow, but keep reading. It'll get interesting in the soon coming chapters.
Ch. 2: The Weasly Twins Gift
The next day, Harry wasted no time in getting packed and out of the house. He took his bag of floo powder out of his trunk and checked over his possessions to make sure he hadn't left anything. He tried to think of anything that he'd need now that he was a teacher but couldn't think of anything. Harry pulled his trunk and Hedwig's cage into the fireplace. Aunt Petunia looked worried. She could remember the last run-in she'd had with floo powder. Harry smiled as he raised up the powder, "The Leaky Cauldron!" He felt that familiar spinning sensation, and then he was looking at a large cozy room.
Just then, a man walked in, "Ah, I see you've gotten here just now. Well, I'll let you get settled in. I imagine you'll want to get a bit of shopping done today." Harry recognized him as Tom, the Leaky Cauldron's landlord. "I'll be able to pay you as soon-,"
"There'll be no need for that. Dumbledore has already taken care of it. Good man, that Dumbledore." Harry nodded, "Yes sir, he is." Tom left Harry alone again, and Harry quickly got settled in. He had a big day planned. First, he went to Gringotts. He approached a rather young looking goblin. "Hi, I'd like to do a couple things. First, I need to make a withdrawal from my vault. Then I'd like to open a new vault. Finally, I'd like to transfer 200 galleons from my old vault, to my new one."
"I need your name."
"Harry Potter."
"Is it now?" the goblin said looking up. His eyes looked to Harry's scar. "Well Mr. Potter, I need your key, and you do realize that there will be a 15 galleon service fee for a new vault."
"That's okay," Harry said as he turned over his key. Once he finished his business, he headed off for Weasly's Wheezing Wheezes. "Harry!" cried Fred when Harry walked in, "What are you doing here? It's like a month before term starts. Isn't it?"
"No, your right. Where's George?"
"He's out getting supplies. What're you doing here so bloody early?"
"They're making me teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and I have to go to a training."
"Are you serious? That's great Harry. I wish I were coming back next year now. Do you like the shop?" Harry looked around. It was a rather long and narrow shop with a lot of shelves. The front had two registers and an enchanted device that showed what every one of Fred and George's gags would do. "Harry!" George's voice announced his arrival. "They're making him a teacher, George!"
"Let me guess. Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Harry nodded. "It doesn't surprise me with the way you handled the D.A. They would've been out of their minds if they didn't give you the job. Oh yeah! I almost forgot we got you something Harry. It's to pay you back for all that money." He pulled out a heavy cloak from the back. "This would be a rather nice cloak even if it was normal, but this bad boy can do much more than keep you warm." George tapped the cloak with his wand and the Hogwarts coat of arms appeared on the back. "Pretty cool, huh?" Fred said, "It will go to any design you can think of in your mind. Also, it will go to any desirable thickness and will even keep you cool in hot weather." "Yeah, but these are the coolest functions," George said as he slipped it on. Fred shot a bat bogey curse at George, but the curse bounced back at Fred and hit him square in the face. George quickly preformed the counter curse. "That's really neat." Harry exclaimed. "Yeah, but it only works on minor or weak spells. But it could come in handy if Malfoy tries to harm you. The other really useful thing it does," Fred said as he drug out an Invisibility Cloak, "is that if you place one of these inside of it, the two cloaks will mold together. If you put it on now, you'll be invisible, but with one tap of the wand, it'll turn back to normal. If you want your Invisibility Cloak back, say to sneak yourself, Ron, and Hermione somewhere, just use the summoning charm." "Amazing," Harry said. "Simply amazing."
"Isn't it though? It's called the Cloak of Happenstance."
Harry spent the rest of the day with the Weasly twins, and left there that night with the cloak and an assortment of gags. He went back to the Leaky Cauldron, ordered a butterbeer, and went to bed. A few more days went by in which Harry bought his books, some more broom wax, and refilled his potions stock. When he woke up the fourth day, he found a pleasant surprise. There, sitting by his bed, were Ron and Hermione. They didn't realize that he had woken up and kept on talking. "He'll be able to take away a bunch of points from Slytherin," Ron was saying. "I don't think that Harry would, or should, abuse his rights as a teacher." "I'm with Hermione on that one Ron," Harry said as both of them jumped. Hermione ran over to give him a hug. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Dumbledore thought you could use some company your own age for the coming month," Ron said, looking very excited. "Have you guys gotten your stuff yet?"
"No, we thought we'd wait for you," Hermione answered, "Are you ready?"
"Sure, just let me fix my hair." Both Ron and Hermione laughed out loud. Harry's hair could never be fixed, and it was always messy. Harry got up, put on a shirt, and threw on his new cloak. "Blimey Harry! Why would you put that on? It's really hot out there today." Harry explained the features of his new cloak and then tapped it with his wand to turn it into a beautiful red, with the Gryffindor lion on the back in gold. Thin gold lines extended from the lion head in a sunburst pattern. "WOW!" exclaimed Ron while Hermione remained awestruck. They left the room and headed to get their robes. While Hermione was buying hr robes, Ron was muttering about a second-hand store. "What size robes do you wear," Harry asked Ron. "64 by 28. Why?" Harry quickly went to the robes that were that size and picked out three of them. "You're not getting gray robes this year, Ron." "Oh Harry! Don't do that." "No. I want you looking good for sixth year." Ron's face looked so happy for the rest of the day that Harry couldn't help but think that he had done a good thing.
They went all over Diagon Alley buying their school supplies, while talking about their O.W.L.S. scores. Hermione got O's in everything except for Arithmancy, where she got an E. She was rather disappointed. Ron got straight E's in everything but his D's in History of Magic and Divination. He was really excited, unlike Hermione, because he could train to be an Auror with Harry. Hermione didn't know if she wanted to be an Auror or something else. "You know," Ron said to her, "you don't have that much time left before term to decide." "I know. I'll decide in the month we have."
The last couple of days at the Leak Cauldron were spent buying ice cream and constantly visiting Fred and George's shop. The morning finally came when it was time for them to go to Hogwarts, and at 9:00, Harry already had his trunk and owl in the fire place. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmasters office," Harry cried as he threw down his floo powder. The world at the Leaky Cauldron spun out of focus, and a new picture appeared in front of Harry's face. It included the smiling face of Dumbledore.