Disclaimer: I have no intention of making aney money off of this story,I give all credit for characters(and histories of said characters)to J.K. Rowling
Chapter 4:
What Was He Thinking
Animagus training and wand less magic lessons both progressed quickly.
Alima would take on her miniature form so that she could speak to him while he was around the house. She couldn't have been more than three inches tall, and she hid in his collar. After all, she couldn't talk to him while she was in cat form.
Alima told Harry how happy she was at his progression very often.
"Imagine." That was Alima's command to think of himself as a hyena, she would give it randomly, sometimes only once in a day, sometimes five or six times, but always at least once. And it was always while he was preoccupied by something else.
"Now, imagine what it might feel like to change...make it as comfortable or uncomfortable as you want." Now this was new. Harry's brows creased in concentration, but he thought hard. He imagined he felt fur growing thick and rough all over his body, his arms shortened a bit and grew more muscle, hands and feet both turned to paws, legs shortened and joints changed angles, his face went from flat and round to narrow and pointy, tongue elongated...everything he knew would change he thought about.
"Perfect." She said. "Now, do you imagine how good their hearing is? Their smell, their taste? Do you think of what it would feel like to move like that animal, have that gait, use four legs instead of two, have no hands, no voice, do you think of these things when you imagine yourself changing?"
Harry opened his eyes and looked at her guiltily, shaking his head.
"That's alright, most people don't remember these things when they imagine themselves as an animal. Because of this, many animagi don't get the full benefits of being in animal form, because they are only animal in shape, not in reality. Harry nodded, getting the point. "Next time, I want you to remember all that."
They had been there for three days. Harry was beginning to get annoyed by Nora, though he wouldn't admit it. She followed him everywhere, and he was forced to take lessons at night, after the whole house went to bed.
It was on the fourth day that Agatha announced at the breakfast table that she would be making a run to London.
"You're going to London?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Yes, for the day. I have just a few errands to run, and Petunia has offered to watch the hooligans for the day." She smiled her obvious gratitude at Harry's Aunt, who smiled weakly in return. Harry figured Petunia was really quite loathe to watch the bunch, but propriety demanded she offer.
"Well, I have need of a trip to London, if that's okay with you, I have errands of my own. School projects." He said hastily. Petunia looked out the window, glaring angrily at a sparrow on the fence, but did not comment. Vernon's face purpled.
"You'll not bog her down with your presence…" he started.
"Oh no, no, no…it's perfectly alright. If he's ready to go within ten minutes it's fine." She smiled at Harry, without very much warmth. "Anywhere in particular you'd like to go?"
"I doubt you'd know the place." He answered curtly. Vernon's face contorted, but he restrained himself. "But I know right where it is, and the London Underground is very good, you can leave me off at any convenient station and tell me where you want me to be to get picked up and it'll work out perfect." He promised.
"Don't understand why you need to go shopping in London, particularly..." Petunia muttered.
"There's a specialty store there." He assured her.
"Whatever you need." Agatha replied.
He sat in the front seat of the car rather uncomfortably. He was rarely in cars, let alone the front seats of cars.
It was painfully quiet.
Agatha turned on the radio and Harry almost jumped.
"Any music preferences?" She asked him, flipping through stations. He shook his head. She smiled, putting on an American music station. He smiled weakly and went back to staring fixatedly out the window.
Soon enough they were nearing the city itself. "Any station is fine, I'll find my way." He told her.
She pulled over to the next one and let him out. "Thanks Agatha, when do you want to pick me up?"
"Around seven, and if you could be at this same one that'd be perfect." She said, smiling weakly.
"Seven it is." He agreed, closing the car door.
He stepped down, bought his ticket, and moved through the station, waiting for the right shuttle. He hopped on as soon as it came, and was quickly speeding towards The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley.
Thirty minutes later he was climbing the stairs back into the light of day, and then walking down the street he remembered from when he was eleven, walking the same path with Hagrid; the first person he had ever met in the magical world. Well, the first person he knew was magical from the magical world.
He found the enormous bookshop easily, and right there next-door was The Leaky Cauldron, sign cracked and lopsided as always. He grinned widely.
He pushed the door open slowly after pulling his bangs as far down his forehead as they would go, in a futile attempt to hide his scar. Problem was, his face had been plastered all over papers and magazines for months now, and anyone who looked at him would most likely notice who he was almost immediately.
"'Arry!" Tom, the old barkeeper called. "Care for a drink?"
"When I'm done with my errands, definitely." He smiled moving through the misty tavern as quickly as he could. "I'll be back later."
"Righto, see you!" Tom winked and grinned, showinghis crooked old teeth. Harry ducked his head down, hoping that not too many people had noticed his presence.
He made it through the bar nearly unscathed.
"Harry!" Someone said from right nearby him. He glanced over to see the Weasley twins. Fred had called his name. "What're you doing here?" Fred asked, almost accusingly.
"Shopping." He stated simply.
"With no one else?" George said, glancing around. Harry realized he was getting anxious, the Twins were never jumpy or on guard; unless they were guilty of rule breaking, of course.
Harry nodded. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Fred asked. "You're his biggest blooming target!" Harry stared for a moment.
"Well…I didn't even stop to consider that…" he admitted. Fred and George both rolled their eyes. George pulled out a mirror, and Harry looked at him curiously.
"It has a communication spell on it. This one's linked up with Remus, or Tonks, whichever of them happens to have it." He said, looking actually quite stern. Harry nodded his understanding. "Hello? Hello? It's George, pick up we got a live one."
A good thirty seconds passed before there was any response.
"Yeah? What happened?" Tonks' perky voice came through the small looking glass.
"Harry decided to take a shopping trip, but we've got him, thought you lot might want to know, maybe send any backup." He responded.
"The brat did what now?" She asked, voice a bit high-pitched. "When I get my hands on his skinny little neck…" a moment passed, and George smirked; he could obviously see something Harry and Fred couldn't. "No…you two have it handled, right? Can you keep an eye on him?" She asked.
"Yes sir, Captain Sir." George replied, saluting. Harry heard a garbled but distinctly indignant reply, and then George was slipping the small object back into his pocket.
"So what exactly made you take this trip in the first place?" Fred asked conversationally, but as they stepped out into the back courtyard, Harry saw that he was looking all around, checking corners and being very careful; he even had his wand out.
"I need school things, and…one of my teachers said that I needed to pick up a few things."
"Like…?" George pressed.
"I'm not entirely sure…so I brought her along with me." He pulled Alima's tiny kitten body from inside his hoodie pocket where she'd been hidden.
Both George's and Fred's wands were trained on her immediately. She shifted into her extremely petite size, scarcely four inches tall, and Harry held her up where they could see her. "This is Alima."
"It's good to see the Weasley twins." Alima said, voice perfectly understandable, despite her dimunitive size. "We have never met, but Albus always had fond stories of you two."
"How would you know we're Weasleys and not Prewetts?" George asked her.
"Because the Prewetts died years ago. Murdered, if I recall correctly. The only one left was Molly, and she married into the Weasley Clan, and had...seven children, two of which are the notorious Weasley Twins." The twins looked at each other.
"Dumbledore's got a secret password that he tells people he trusts. What is it?" Fred asked.
"There is no such password, but if there were, I'm sure it would be something about candy. Probably candy from Honeydukes, as that is his favorite Shoppe." She answered calmly.
They took their wands off of her. "Um, not to be rude or anything, but can I ask what the bloody hell are you?" George said bluntly as Fred tapped the sequence into the brick wall.
"Dryad." She answered quickly. Now she was gazing around nervously too. "I'm from Greece." The twins looked at each other again.
"Alllllllllllright." George muttered. "Lets get to the shop as fast as we can." And they started speed walking down the narrow Alley.
Harry was flabbergasted. His beloved Diagon Alley, the place where he had made his first foray out into the magical world when he was eleven, was desolate. Magical shops and cafes were boarded up or had 'closed' signs in the barred windows, the street was virtually empty and even the sky had a gloomy, gray tint. They passed near Gringott's, and Harry could make out heavily armored goblins standing before the doors; they were all fully decked out for battle, all ten of them. Besides goblins and occasional small huddles of hooded customers, Harry saw no one. Shopkeepers sat at the very back of their stores where they might not be seenor asked to service.
"Here." Fred knocked his wand on a blank brick wall, light flashed and there was an unadorned wooden door there. "Go in." He told George. George entered, and then Harry entered, and last was Fred. "Welcome to our humble abode." He said grandly; Harry was almost startled at the sudden change in demeanor.
"We decorated ourselves." George winked. Harry would have been surprised, but then he remembered that he was dealing with the Twins and wasn't.
The carpet was a deep plum purple. The couch would have been a very handsome couch were it black or even white, and not orange. The lounge chairs opposite the couch also would have been quite beautiful had they not been green. And the coffee table was perfectly out of place also: a gorgeous mahogany beast of a table. Each leg of the fantastically large item was as thick as Harry's thigh, and the actual table itself had to be near two inches thick. It was carved with all kinds of patterns and pictures.
Fred must have noticed him eyeing the table. "Ginny made us buy it. Told us that maybe it would help us get some decorative sense, or something like that."
"Yes, she tried to design the place herself actually, came in measuring the windows and floor… but we were having none of it." George supplied. "She wanted to do the place in green and blue…." He made a face. "The most clichéd boy colors ever." Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"And purple is masculine?" He asked hiding a grin.
"Most definitely." They answered simultaneously.
"So why couldn't you wait until later this summer to get your things?" Fred asked, flopping down on the couch. Harry sat comfortably in one of the green armchairs.
"Alima said we needed to get some thing, or some things, and so I figured to do my school shopping while I was here. I didn't realize that it was so…desolate."
"Yeah. Been like this since the Ministry incident. People aren't thinking about how they were running around for a damned year with Old Ugly alive again. It's not much different now, he could've blown everyone up any time he chose." Harry nodded, George was right. "Did you want to see the store?" Harry pulled himself from his thoughts and focused back on George.
"Yeah, definitely." He followed the pair through another door that led into a kitchen/lab combo. There were workbenches, empty cauldrons, potions ingredients, half-finished experiments, dinner plates, leftovers, utensils, and food-yet-to-be ingested lying around all over the place. "You know, is it really the best idea to have your workshop in the kitchen, with the food?" He asked.
"Probably not, but this room is directly adjacent to the store, and easiest to access, so we use it." George shrugged.
"Enlarged it a bit so there would be separate spaces, but…er…somehow I don't think that quite worked." Harry chuckled at Fred's understatement.
"You poor boys need women. You wait until your mother, Ginny, and Hermione see this place." Harry told them. They both looked horrified.
"We'll clean it up by then." George reassured Fred, and himself obviously.
"Frightened of what Dear Mummy will do?" Harry poked.
"Nah…. Fred's frightened of what Ickle 'Mione will do!" Fred made to punch his twin in the arm.
"Really?" Harry closed his fist to restrain Fred.
"Yep, yep, yep! He's had the crush for ages now! Hahaha!" The look on Fred's face was furious, and hilarious.
"Take the bloody binding spell off so I can kill you." He told George calmly. George looked confused.
"I didn't put a binding spell on you." Harry realized he was still holding Fred back.
"Oh, sorry about that." He relaxed his hand and Fred started forward a pace to punch George, then stopped and looked over at Harry.
"But you're not allowed to use underage magic…" he started.
"Where's your wand?" George asked, following his Twin's logic.
"At the Dursley's in my desk drawer." Harry answered, he'd become so used to his wand less magic he'd forgotten that most people didn't use it. They stared at him.
"You can use wand less magic?" They asked in sync. "Bloody brilliant!" They crowed.
"Now let's go and inspect the store, shall we?" Fred asked, a wide grin on his face, it seemed he'd completely forgotten about George's confession regarding Hermione.
Harry was appalled and amazed. There were rude prank kits, there were undetectable potions to make your friends look like animals for a day…. or just change them different colors. There were 'Common Knowledge Capsules'; they would make you spout the most obscure and random facts. Then of course there was all of the usual: Levitating Lollipops, Skiving Snackboxes, fake wands, hats that made your head disappear, fireworks (Harry was fondly familiar with these), pop-up swamps, and on top of that they made beaches-to go- and forests-as-you-need. Each of the portable environments was good for only one go, but there was an abundance of choices. They even had some that came with animals, but these were extra of course.
He perused the rest of the shelves, noting that they had left nothing out, literally. If Harry hadn't known it was a joke shop he might have been wondering if they ran some sort of Wizarding department store.
They sold make-up for women, it wouldgo on and change to your desired color by itself, though the warning label said that if it were worn for more than ten hours… it would turn to whatever color it felt like being, and then of course you had to have the antidote to even get it off. Perfume that was heavenly, other perfumes that were disgustingly rancid, and other cosmetic products that worked wonderfully under the right circumstances.
And these were only the tip of the iceberg. There was an honest book section, of course it sold books that taught people how to set up simple pranks, or more advanced ones; Harry recognized many pranks the twins had pulled at Hogwarts, or ones that Peeves had done. Harry saw a clothing aisle then, and went over to look at the selection. 'WWW' was stamped across the front of a huge array of different colored t-shirts. On the back it read: 'Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes…. come for shits and giggles'. Harry smiled. He saw skirts, jackets, girl tees, even jeans that had their WWW printed on it.
"Has your mum seen this shirt yet?" He was inspecting one of the t-shirts.
Fred sidled over and grinned also when he saw what Harry was holding out. "Oh no, you think we'd have any in-stock if she'd seen 'em? Jeez…that woman. No fun at all." He pretended to shiver. "Want one?"
"Sure…. gotta find a proper color here first though…" he found the black section, and pulled out a medium. "Any chance of making the letters green, ya think?" He asked.
"Sure." George came right up and mumbled something. The letters swelled, filled with color and then shrunk again, glowing bright green.
"Nice."
"Got a thing for black and green, eh Harry?" Fred asked.
"Always have."
"Then you should have been a bloody Slytherin!" George crowed.
Harry's grin turned sly. "How do you now I'm not Slytherin at heart?" He asked.
"C'mon now Harry, seriously." George scoffed. "You're such a bloody Gryffindor."
"Seriously. The sorting hat told me I'd do well in either house, and I chose Gryffindor. It wanted me in Slytherin though."
Both Fred and George were silent. Finally Fred spoke. "Never told anyone except George this, but the hat wanted me in Ravenclaw, told it that it was barking mad of course..."
"It wanted me in Slytherin too though." George admitted. "Said I was ambitious…ha, it was right, I was the one to get all this. He made everything, invented most of the lot, but I did the rest of the work." George motioned to his brother.
"Creativity and brilliance meets drive and ambition. You see, that's why you two are so bloody scary, you're brilliant enough to come up with the schemes, and George has the balls to pull the bloody pranks off…. Good Lord, the world needs help with you two loose." Harry told Fred.
"Good lord?" They asked together, perplexed.
Harry peered at them. "You never heard the expression?" They shook their heads. "It's a Muggle religious thing, god almighty and whatnot…jeez comes from the name Jesus, dear god, good lord…. hell…holy shit. They all come from a particular group of religions that came from Christianity. Or Judaism, whichever way you look at. The Jews came first but of course that means nothing to the Christians…but I've now completely lost your attention." George and Fred were just staring at him with glazed eyes.
"You talk to Hermione too much." Fred commented. "You even had that Hermione face on…you know, lecture mode." He said it with almost fear. Harry laughed, although he knew that the Twins had been on more than one receiving end of a famous Hermione Lecture. They had a right to be afraid.
"Speaking of Hermione…" Harry said evilly. "So... How long has Freddie been onto my little bookworm?"
"Yours?" Fred asked warily.
"Well, she's my sister almost and someone has to claim her to protect her virtue.I happen to be present so that responsibility falls to me." He said proudly, resting an arm and leaning on the rack beside him.
"Ah, good then. Well…since you three were in fourth year." Fred scratched the back of his head nervously.
Harry caught George smirking. Harry's mouth was open but he didn't know what to say. "She was fourteen!" He gasped out.
"I know, and just proving to the world that she was female. And then she came down at the Yule Ball…oh yes, there was no doubting at that point…" Harry remembered that well, and couldn't fault Fred any longer.
"Yes that was the year she proved to everyone that she was female." He agreed. "So, do you have any plans to ask her out?"
"Her? Now? No! Are you out of your blinkin' mind? She'd eat my face! She'd tell me all about how much time she has to devote to NEWTS, and what she's gotta do for you and the Order…and the list would go on and on forever, and, she's underage anyways. I was going to wait until you're all out of school."
Harry looked at him gravely. "Fred, no one knows that we'll even be able to graduate from school. Voldemort is loose again remember?" He rolled his eyes when they both flinched at the name. "He's after me, and he's after them too. If you want her, I suggest putting it to her now, at least get her thinking about it. Never know how long anything…or sadly anyone, will last anymore." Harry said somberly. Fred looked at him with wide eyes.
"Yeah, you're probably right…" he stared off at the wall of charmed edibles.
Harry turned to George questioningly. "Is Freddie scared of what the Bookworm might say?" He asked George. George smiled evilly and nodded.
"Scared to death." They both laughed.
Author's Note: yeah...slowly but surely it's moving along...we have to set it up, remember?