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 5:

Shopping

They spent a few more minutes in the shop perusing and laughing over some of the objects, until Alima finally coughed in Harry's ear to regain his attention.

"We need to get an Invisibility Cloak." She told him.

"But I have one already." He said out loud. Fred and George turned around to look at him. "Alima." He said, and pointed at his ear, where she was just visible, standing on his shoulder.

"Another one wouldn't hurt." She said. "We'll also need to get you some battle gear; we'll head off to Malkin's I suppose…" she began muttering to herself.

"Battle gear, I hear?" Fred asked, leaning forward. "You know, we have some of the most sought after battle gear in Diagon Alley, as it so happens." He headed over to the back of the store with Harry following. "Whole defensive section, in fact." He un-spelled a door and entered the adjoining room. "We order things from all over, if you can't find what you're looking for in here, then you must not know what you're looking for." he stepped aside to allow George and Harry to both enter.

"Yes, our relation to Charlie is proving to be of benefit after all. We get first-pick of all dragon hide that comes off the reservation. Quite nice." He moved over to wave at a mannequin nearby. "There's every kind of dragon hide in here you can think of…"

Harry had studied some kinds of dragons during his fourth year, and the varieties he was seeing here in Fred and George's back closet were astounding him. There were iridescent jackets, and bright green pants, black boots, red shirts and breastplates…and it was all dragons.

"We've got the biggest selection of dragon-products in Great Britain next to the Drake itself." Fred said.

"Drake?" Harry asked distractedly.

"Big company that specializes all in dragon stuff. But our stuff is better because we make it to be practical and not pretty. There's nothing here that you can't use." George supplied.

"These boots are gorgeous…" he said. He was holding up a pair of black-scaled moccasins that laced up to the knee. "How much?" He asked.

"Nothin'." George said immediately.

"Well how much are they for normal people?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"I'm not tellin'." George said stubbornly and turned away before Harry could say something scathing. Harry flipped the shoe over to look for a price tag. One hundred and fifty galleons. He whistled.

He moved about the space slowly, looking at every article of clothing carefully. He found black trousers that fit him perfectly, and laced up in the front, and were tight in the leg so as to fit into his moccasins easily. After that he found a supple coppery shirt that fit him easily.

"Why don't you go with this one, instead of that raggedy thing." Fred handed him a beautiful shimmering white garment. "The savior of the Wizarding world has to look the part after all."

"Made from the biggest, meanest Antipodean Opaleye to ever grace Charlie's reservation. So he says. And it covers more of you than that other one." George pointed out.

Harry slid the copper one from his shoulders and put on the bright one. It laced up his sides, clinging tightly to his stomach and ribcage, or hanging loosely, depending on how tight you'd rather wear it. It was snug across his chest, though not uncomfortable, and along the back of the right shoulder, there was a flap all the way to his elbow, though Harry couldn't tell how it attached.

"Here…" and Fred stepped forward and wrapped the extra hide around Harry's arm, trimmed it with his wand, and then laced it around Harry's bicep.

"That protects your shoulder from getting hit with anything while you're in the middle of something. Cuz Merlin knows if you get hit on your wand shoulder…you're as good as done." George said seriously. "You look…odd." George said after inspecting him a moment, and cocked his head to the side.

"It's cuz I'm so darn skinny." Harry said ruefully. "Alima said we're going to be getting into physical training in a few weeks though, so i'm not too worried. I'll be built soon enough."

"Few days, actually." She transformed into her usual size and stood back to inspect him herself. "Looks good…and it's practical. Perfect, exactly what I was looking for."

"Yeah, that must be it. But now you need a jacket…something to match those Horntail pants though…" Fred disappeared into the array of Dragon products. A few minutes later: "Ah ha!" Sounded from behind one of the rows over. "Perfect…" Fred was saying with a wide grin.

"Here put this on." He said, handing Harry a beautiful black jacket. It zipped up, and Harry was strongly reminded of a muggle biker jacket when he looked at it. There were buckles and zippers everywhere, interior pockets, hidden pockets, all kinds of functions that Harry was sure he would most likely never use. And when he slid it on, he noticed that it was lined with satin.

"What's in it?" He asked, feeling some kind of insulation between the satin and leather.

"Is that the Hebridean?" George asked. Fred nodded with a big smile. "Nice." George seemed excited. "It's got Hippogriff down inside it, warmest feathers you can find besides Pegasus down. But Pegasus down is too rare."

"Toughest skin there is, this jacket should stop most everything there is for anyone to throw at you." Fred told him. "It's made from a Hebridean Black. They've got some of the toughest hide there is, even if it isn't very soft." Harry understood what Fred meant when he ran his hand along his own arm. The scales were rough and ridged, sharp and painful if pressure was applied.

"Okay." Harry said, stepping in front of the mirror. He gaped at himself. He looked amazing. "This is bloody amazing…I actually look good in this…not weird…" he thought out loud. He started looking at price tags.

Pants: 100 galleons

Vest: 125 galleons

Moccasins: 150 galleons

Jacket: 230 galleons

That meant that he owed them 605 galleons. "Alright. Time to go to Gringott's then." He said.

"No, the lot is free, remember?" George said sternly.

"I need money for all the other things, Mr. Brilliance." Harry retorted. "And you're going to take at least half-payment."

"No-" Fred began.

"No arguments. Half or I'll just drop the full amount in your savings account where you can't touch it, so shut up." Fred's mouth snapped up.

"A quarter?" He pleaded.

"A third." Harry bargained. "Final deal."

"Third it is." George said resignedly. "Though you should just take the bloody clothes for free."

"He's going to get six outfits, so you should take half payment, at least." Alima told them.

"See!" Harry told them.

"You're a right walking advertisement, so that makes it even." George told him.

"Fine." Harry replied with a small smile. "To Gringott's!" And they left in a whirlwind of chaos and locking doors. Harry almost forgot to put Alima on her favorite perch: his shoulder, before they left. She purred her appreciation for the new jacket and sunk her claws into it for stability as they walked briskly back down the alley towards Gringott's.

They were escorted into the bank by two Goblins, swords drawn and pointed.

"Lagnok will take you to your vault." The old goblin at the counter told Harry, Fred, and George after he had tested the key for eight different enchantments. A short goblin appeared on Harry's left; Harry noticed that he too wore chain mail and even a small sword and dagger, though he didn't draw it on them as the others had done.

"Follow me." He instructed in a gruff voice.

"Ooooooh, here comes my favorite part!" Fred told George excitedly.

"Yes, dear brother, I know." George said in all manner of calm. "It's mine too!" He squealed a second later and they danced around each other while they waited for the door to open and admit them to a cart.

"They're not mine, I swear." Harry told the goblinLagnok when he caught the side-glance in his direction.

"Would you like me to leave them to find their own way out?" He asked evilly, grinning hopefully.

"I wish…problem is, if their mum ever found out, it'd be me getting left somewhere where they'd never find me." He chuckled andLagnok looked disappointed.

"Stay in the cart if you don't want to stay in the tunnels." Was allLagnok said before pulling the lever.

"Whhoooooooooo-hoooooooooo!" Fred and George screamed together throwing their arms up in the air. "No hands!" They crowed, their voices ripped away as they were traveling so fast.

"Vault Six-hundred and eighty seven." A disgruntled and crampedLagnok announced upon arriving at Harry's vault.

"So I should get out…. like…. four-or five hundred galleons…" Harry unlocked his door and stepped inside to see the mountains of silver, gold, and copper. "Five is better…" and he moved forward.

When he had counted out the full five hundred, he pulled some sickles and knuts into his pockets and moved to leave. Fred and George were sitting with the goblin Lagnok.

"So then I grabbed him around the waist and threw him into the broom closet. Fred did the rest."

"I made his face all gold, and his hair was red…. oh it was classic. And then we put him in a lion costume and knocked him out. And to make it better, we'd stripped him down and cut out the bottom of the costume." Fred slapped his thigh in mirth. "Oh man..."

"Then of course we had to apply a shrinking charm…" George sniggered. "Stupid prat was so disoriented from our confounding spell he wandered the castle for an hour trying to figure out where he was, and why his bare arse was so cold."

"Who was that?" Harry asked, climbing into the cart.

"Flint."

"When did you do that? I never heard about it."

"End of third year, you were only a first year, and you were in the infirmary anyways. It was hilarious." Fred told him.

"Yeah, we've been regalingLagnok here with some of our school tales. He doesn't believe us." George said, looking wounded.

"How could you not believe that two teenage schoolboys would sneak out of school to go to town and buy fire whiskey, candy, and dung bombs, or that they would put a swamp in the middle of the hallway, or befriend the local poltergeist, or set off fireworks that wouldn't go away in the corridors, or fly away near the end of seventh year without ever getting their diplomas and starting up the world's most flourishing Joke Shop? How on earth could anyone not believe any of that?" He asked sarcastically. "It's all true." Harry promised Lagnok sagely.

"And you're Harry bloody Potter." The goblin said snidely. Harry glanced up.

"Yes, actually, I am." He pulled his hair up and the goblin's eyes squinted.

"Damned wizards…" Harry heard him mutter.

Harry gladly climbed out of the cart and stepped out into the misty weather a few minutes later.

"Back to the store." George said briskly.

"I need to get an Invisibility Cloak and a wand brace though." Harry told him.

"Oh, we have those back at the shop. You can get them to match your shirt too." Fred told him as they were confronted with another set of goblin guards.

"And we'll order and Invisibility Cloak when we get back, you can't exactly walk into a store and buy one, you know. particularly not these days." George said gravely.

Author's Note: They'll be moving on shortly...just had to give Harry some new clothes. New and interesting clothes. What do you think?