Easy Way Out

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Last Chapter:

And so for the next two days Salazar was bombarded with a crash course lesson on how to be Harry Potter. Even Ron helped. It seemed as if Ginny's outburst had gotten through to him. And now they were off to Diagon Alley, where they were to experience a nice, safe visit.

Yeah right.

Chapter 14

Diagon Alley

"Now remember, Harry usually stays pretty quiet when we are in Diagon Alley because he doesn't like attention, and if people know he is there…we are sure to get swarmed with people. So don't go announcing to the world that you are Harry Potter. Just stick with us and if someone approaches us, just remember everything that we told you and follow our lead. Now I think we are all ready, so let's go," Ginny said quickly before shoving Salazar gently into the fireplace. Saying "Diagon Alley," Salazar was then whisked away on a dizzying journey through the Floo network.

Finally he stumbled, thankfully not falling, out of the fireplace located at the Leaky Cauldron. He straitened himself up and brushed himself off, and proceeded to make sure that the bandana covering up the lightening bolt scar was still in place. Hopefully, that, and the new robes that Severus (yes he was allowed to call him that now) had bought him, would be enough of a disguise to dissuade people from recognizing Harry Potter. As Harry usually wore old hand-me-downs, it seemed unlikely that someone would recognize him. Also the fact that he got rid of those dumb glasses with an eye correction spell made him look entirely different.

Soon everyone else had come through and he, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Remus, and Severus, were off. They first headed for Gringrotts bank to get their money, and for Hermione to exchange hers for wizarding money. Then they headed to the bookstore where Salazar and Hermione purchased about half the shop, much to Ron's chagrin, and Ginny's and Remus's amusement. Severus had already headed to the potions shop to pick up what they needed.

At the registers Remus asked Salazar what possessed him to buy all those books when Hogwarts library probably has them all. "Well, if you recall Remus, I am not from this time. I have a lot to catch up on. And if I wait until Hogwarts to read them, I may be sorely lacking in updated charms and spells and fall back in my classes. Remember, I have to be able to do everything at school that Harry can do, and well…let's just say that back in my time spells were a lot different. I don't even know if half of the ones I know are still legal. So…yeah," Salazar finished lamely.

"Ah…I see. Though I do think you are going a little overboard with the amount of books. I'm not sure Hogwarts can handle another brain like Ms. Grangers," Remus replied in a bemused fashion.

Then they headed down to Fred and George's new joke shop. It was amazing. Salazar was astounded by the amount of pranks there were. In his day a shop like this would never been allowed. Parents these days must be really different to let their children go to a store that sells only pranks.

As he was looking at a hat that supposedly made one's head invisible when put on, he was suddenly startled when two sets of hands grabbed him from behind and dragged him into the back room before anyone saw anything. Thinking that they were his father's goons he prepared himself for a fight, but was once again surprised as he loosed himself from their grips and spun around. There in front of him were two identical redheads who had similar happy grins on their faces as they stared at him. Relaxing slightly when he felt no malice from them he suddenly wondered who they were.

"Hey Harry…"

"Good to see you mate…"

"It's been too long it has…"

"We just saw you looking at…"

"some of our newest pranks…

"and we wondered what you thought of them…"

"Seeing as you are our secret financial benefactor."

Blinking stupidly, Salazar tried to understand what it was that they had said. Whenever two people completed each other's sentences like that he always got a little lost. Apparently he (Harry) had helped the twins set up the joke shop, and now they wanted his opinion on the jokes that they had produced. Well that he could handle!

"They're bloody brilliant! How did you manage to come up with all that stuff?" He said without having to fake any enthusiasm.

"Well it is true that mum…"

"destroyed all the jokes she found at home…"

"but we had hidden stashes over at Lee's house…"

"and we did of course keep all our notes on our past products…"

"so it wasn't hard to re-create some of them."

"And business is really booming…"

"So with all the money we've been getting…"

"we now have endless supplies to work with…"

"making the inventing process much simpler now that…"

"mum isn't breathing down our necks…"

"And we have you to thank for it."

"Well…your welcome," Salazar said unsuredly. Maybe he could ask Ron what his brother's were talking about when he got out of here. Then as if reading his mind Fred and George said…

"You'll also be pleased to know that we did in fact buy little Ronnie-kins his new dress robes like you asked us to."

"He was so surprised and most definitely suspicious."

"He couldn't believe that we had actually given him something that didn't have any hexes on it."

"We thought about doing that actually…"

"But knew that you would be mad at us if we did."

"Well that's really great. I'm glad. He definitely needed new ones," Salazar said after he analyzed the best response.

"Yeah he did. Those last ones were hideous."

"Well we best be off Harry."

"Feel free to take a few things off the shelf for free."

"See you Harry."

Salazar watched as the two twins left to go help their customers. That was by far the weirdest conversation that I've ever had, he thought to himself. Then add on to the fact that they said he could take a few of their jokes off the shelves without paying was just amazing. They must really like me and trust me, I mean Harry. I wonder how Harry met them.

Then he smirked as he thought about using the pranks on Severus and Remus. Looking around, he picked up some joke products that looked interesting and put them into a bag to leave. After all, he didn't want Severus or Remus to see the pranks before he could use them on the two of them. After that he then met up with the others.

Looking at the time Remus saw that it was almost time to meet Severus at the ice cream shop, so they hurriedly left. When they got to the ice cream shop they saw Professor Snape standing there with an annoyed expression. They hurried to meet him. He explained that he had finished earlier than he thought and had been waiting the last fifteen minutes for them.

Just before they were about to leave to go to the Quidditch supply store, Salazar asked quietly if it was alright if got a familiar while they went.

"But you already have Hedwig," Ron said confused.

Once again Ginny hit him over the head. "Hedwig is Harry's owl Ron. Not Salazar's," she explained to her mentally challenged brother.

"Yeah," Salazar said, "Hedwig's great and all, but her bond is with Harry…not me."

Agreeing, Severus took Salazar to go get a familiar while the others went to the Quidditch store. Looking around, Salazar was at first overwhelmed by all of the different choices. There were owls and cats, and dogs, and kneazles, and well…everything, but the ones that most interested him he saw were in the back. Separating from Severus he headed over to the snake section.

He spoke with some of them in parseltounge, but so far none were quite what he wanted. He walked forward without really looking where he was going and accidentally collided with another boy. Apologizing quickly, he reached out a hand to help the other boy up. Looking at his face he was suddenly overwhelmed with the other's beauty. Spiked blond hair, sky blue eyes, soft kissable lips…Shaking his head Salazar tried to snap himself out of the trance that the other had put him in. "Sorry about that," he said, "I wasn't really looking where I was going. Are you all right?"

"Yes I'm fine. You're lucky you didn't scare Gem here too bad though. She's got a nasty bite," the other boy said while nodding his head down at his hands. Looking down, Salazar was surprised to see that the blond was carrying a small black snake with a golden line running down it back.

"Oh! She's so beautiful," Salazar exclaimed.

"Yeah she is. My name is Draco by the way, Draco Malfoy. I work here."

The name however suddenly made Salazar remember what the others had said about this boy.

Flashback

"But the most important thing to remember is that Harry has a lot of enemies at school, mainly the ones in Slytherin. There is one boy that Harry hates above all. He does nothing but insult us, try to hex us, and get us expelled. His name is Draco Malfoy.

End flashback

Oh but how he wish he didn't have to tell the boy that his name was Harry. Wait…he didn't. Salazar mentally slapped himself in the face as he remembered that he had gone in disguise, and that if the other recognized him he would have insulted him by now. Smiling, Salazar replied, "My name is Alec. Well actually it's Alexander Mathews, but I prefer Alec."

"Well it's nice to meet you Alec. Let me know if you need any help looking for a familiar. I mostly only work with the snakes but…"

"Actually I was in fact looking for a snake before I so rudely bumped into you," Salazar replied.

"Really. Well then…since you've already been introduced to Gemini here…What about taking her? Not many people want such a dangerous snake, but you seem to like her so…What do you say?"

"Well she is by far the most interesting snake I've seen yet. Why not. May I hold her?" Salazar asked.

Draco nodded and handed Gemini over to "Alec." "Be careful not to jostle her. She doesn't like that." Salazar nodded and gently cradled the snake in his hands. He wished that he could speak to her but he knew he couldn't do so in front of Draco. Doing the next best thing, he sent his emotions to the snake, showing her that he was a nice, kind person. She wrapped herself lightly around his arm in response.

"Wow! I don't think I've ever seen her take to anybody besides myself before. I'm glad she likes you. Do you want her?" Draco asked.

"Oh yes. Definitely. She is wonderful." Salazar replied, and with that Draco suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him up to the cash registers, where Snape was waiting. Seeing Severus, Salazar was opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the blond next to him, "Uncle Sev! What are you doing here?"

Confused, Salazar waited for Severus's response.

"Ah Draco, I was wondering if you were working today. How are you and your mother?" Severus asked Draco with kind eyes that Salazar doubted he showed often.

"I'm fine, great even, but mother…she isn't doing so well."

"I'm sorry to hear that my boy. Perhaps I should go visit her soon," Severus replied.

"I'm sure she'd like that very much Uncle. She's been so lonely without father, and I can't always be there for her I'm afraid."

"Well I'll see what I can do to help."

"Thanks Uncle Sev."

TBC

AN: Well what do you think? That was the longest I've ever written before, so it took quite some time. Please REVIEW!