Harry awoke the next morning to the sound of voices. He recognized Sirius's, but the others were unfamiliar to him. Who were they? Had the wizarding world finally found them? To satisfy his curiosity, he got out of bed, put on his glasses and got dressed in a red t-shirt and ripped blue jeans and his black Converse. He hesitated as he walked downstairs, feeling on edge just in case they really had been caught.
To his surprise and relief, Sirius's voice drifted into his ears. He didn't seem angry or scared; on the contrary, he sounded almost as excited as he had the previous day.
"Harry! Come downstairs, there are some people I want you to meet!" Harry did as Sirius did, anxious to see what people his godfather was talking about.
He entered the living room slowly, looking into the faces of four people, Sirius included. "Harry, this is Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, and Albus Dumbledore. They've agreed to join us in Diagon Alley today," Sirius explained.
His attention was immediately focused on Dumbledore. He knew this was the headmaster of the school he would be attending soon, and he wanted to see whether he was as nice as Sirius said he was.
Naturally, Dumbledore was the first person to speak to him. "Hello Harry. The last time we saw you you were a baby," he said, beaming at him.
The man Sirius had introduced as Remus Lupin continued from there. "You look so much like your father. But you have your mother's eyes. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He offered his hand and Harry took it slowly. But before he could say a word, the last man spoke up, his voice much more gruff and unfriendly sounding.
"You look a lot better than I thought you would, Harry. I'm sure a trip down to Diagon Alley will make your day." The man known as Alastor Moody gave him a smile. Harry wanted to make himself stare into both of the man's eyes, but he found himself transfixed with the one that wasn't really an eye at all, if he wanted to be completely honest with himself.
"Well, time's wasting. I don't think Harry will want to spend all day at Diagon Alley, if you know what I mean." The four men nodded, careful to avoid the black-haired boy standing in the middle of them.
"What do you mean by that?" Harry found himself asking.
"Ah don't worry about that. You just concentrate on all the supplies you need to buy. School's coming up faster than you realize," Sirius spoke up, giving Harry an enormous smile. Harry couldn't remember him ever smiling as wide as that just then.
"Sirius is right. Come Harry. Have you ever traveled by floo powder?" Dumbledore asked as he took a small tin of what looked like a really big salt can out of his robes.
"No. What's floo powder?" Harry inquired.
"It is one method of wizard travel. Many witches and wizards prefer to travel this way if they can't apparate or choose not to. It's quite simple. Watch Alastor go first, then you can try," Dumbledore briefly explained.
Harry felt the words flash over his head. If he had a clue as to what his future headmaster had said he would've considered himself the smartest kid in the world. But he chose to take Dumbledore's advice and watched as the man with the peculiar eye step forward and took a pinch of the white powder from the tin. He walked inside the fireplace and turned towards the remaining four individuals in the room.
"Diagon Alley!" No sooner had Moody said this than a burst of green light engulfed the man and he disappeared instantly.
Harry stared at the three men incredulously. They were joking. They had to be; there was no way that was going to work. But Dumbledore didn't seem to think so. He walked over to Harry and offered the tin.
"See? I told you it would be easy. Just take a little bit of the powder. Step into the fireplace and say your destination, which would be Diagon Alley, and make sure you say it very clearly. Keep everything inside the fireplace. We don't want any extra parts to stay here. There would be a lot of explaining to do those who just happened to be watching at the time. Don't be nervous, don't stutter…"
"Harry, just do what Mr. Moody did and you will do just fine," Sirius interrupted.
Harry trued to keep all this in mind as he stepped into the fireplace. Three pairs of eyes were watching him, pride and certainty clearly visible on their faces. What were they expecting him to do? Just succeed and do all pretend he hadn't just seen a man disappear from this same fireplace not moments before?
"D-Diagon Al-Alley!" Harry stammered and threw the powder down just as Moody had done before. Just as it had done previously, green light had arisen from the bottom of the fireplace and was making its way towards the top. Harry was blasted by a rush of cold air and he had an urge to keep his glasses from falling off his face. He didn't know what he'd do if they broke. He knew Sirius couldn't afford new ones at the moment.
No sooner had the sensation came than it had evaporated. He found himself on a cold stone floor, the sound of hurrying people's footsteps surrounding him. A gruff voice shouted at him from above, "Hey you boy, watch it!"
Harry shot up as if he had just sat on a porcupine and looked around desperately for a familiar face. To his relief, Moody was standing just two feet away, watching the crowd suspiciously. He casually walked up to him, hoping he didn't look as stupid as he felt.
Nothing was said between them. Harry preferred it that way. He still didn't feel too comfortable around him yet. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long to say anything, because Sirius' voice jumped out at him from the area he had just abandoned.
"Harry, you made it! I wasn't too sure since it was your first trip by Floo Powder, but I knew you could do it!" Sirius beamed up at him as if he had just won the Quidditch World Cup or something.
"I'm fine Sirius, really," he shrugged and pulled out his grasp. Lupin and Dumbledore had come into Diagon Alley seconds after each other, and they started walking down the road not long after.
Harry suddenly wished he had three more pairs of eyes so he could see everything at once. There was a Quidditch supply store, an Apothecary, a robe store, and a magical pet store, among many others. He couldn't help but be amazed.
"Sirius, how come you've never taken me here before?" Harry demanded as he tried to peel his eyes away from the broomstick in the display window.
"I don't know Harry. There really wasn't any need until now," he uttered, clearly amused by Harry's amazement.
"Well, the first thing I would suggest is getting your school robes," the man known as Dumbledore spoke up.
"Best save time. Remus and I will get his books. Sirius, why don't you go and get him some money? I daresay it's time he finds his fortune," Moody spoke up.
At this point he had Harry's complete attention. "Fortune? What fortune?"
"Hasn't Sirius ever told you? Your parents were downright rich. When they died they left it all to you," he briefly explained and, with a slight smile, walked away with Lupin.
Disappointed with Moody's response, Harry turned to his soon-to-be headmaster. "Why do I have a fortune and nobody's told me until now?" he asked, trying not to be angry.
"I'm sure Sirius was looking out for your best interests. Your parents wanted you to have the money when you were older. You couldn't exactly buy a lot when you were a baby, and growing up. And besides, Sirius still has a great deal of money himself. He wasn't about to use yours when he had plenty of his own. Ah hello, Madam Malkin!" Dumbledore changed the subject when he noticed a cheerful witch enter the room.
"Professor Dumbledore, I never expected…well what can I do for you?" Madam Malkin asked, trembling slightly.
"You cannot do anything for me, I am afraid. However," he said a little louder, for the witch had sighed lightly and had a very dissatisfied look about her, "young Harry here needs some school robes."
Her face had changed expressions as if a little switch inside of her had flipped. She suddenly became aware of the boy standing beside Dumbledore.
"Good heavens! Harry Potter!" she exclaimed, her face blushing even more than it had been a second ago. "Oh I never would've expected! Come stand here, and I'll start measuring!" Madam Malkin took Harry's arm and pulled him to a platform in the middle of the room and took out a tape measure and her wand. She muttered something and the tape measure started to take Harry's measurements by itself while Madam Malkin took wrote it all down.
"Very good, very good. I'll get some robes and then we'll get started!" She hurried off, acting like she was going to start a very long and exciting project.
Harry took the opportunity to ask Dumbledore a few questions. "Why was that woman so excited to see me?" he asked.
But to his surprise, Dumbledore was not where he had been standing a few seconds before, but was wandering through the racks of robes, looking very interested in everything. Harry had a feeling he was avoiding Harry because of the questions he had been about to ask him.
Madam Malkin was back in twenty seconds, and had started fitting him. "Try not to move too much," she told him.
Harry did his best not to move very much. He passed the time by trying to form all the questions he had into actual words, and tried to decide which one he should ask first.
"All done, my dear!" Madam Malkin said cheerfully, and handed him a bag with his new school robes. Dumbledore had returned and paid for them himself. As soon as they were out of the robe shop Harry started his interrogation of Dumbledore.
"Why was that woman so excited to see me? And why is that she knew my name?"
"Because I told her your name!" Dumbledore said happily.
"You only told her my first name. She knew my entire name. Why?"
Dumbledore sighed. "I'm not the right person to tell you. If Sirius did not tell you, then he must've had a reason for it, and he should be the one to answer your questions, not me. Ah, here they are now," he said, and pointed ahead.
Harry turned to see Moody, Lupin, and Sirius walking towards them. Sirius was smiling at him, holding up a leather pouch. Harry didn't smile back. For the first time in his life, he was not happy to see his godfather.
"We got his books, supplies, and his money. All that's left is the wand," Moody said gruffly.
"I'll go with him to get it," Lupin offered, and hurried him off before Harry could start throwing his questions as Sirius.
Harry did say anything to Lupin. He didn't to talk to him. If he asked him the same question he asked Dumbledore he would get the same response.
The process of getting Harry's wand was not at all what he thought it to be. He had spent the better part of an hour testing them and trying to find the one was the best for him. Ollivander was not pleased with any of them. Harry had started to feel as if he wasn't fit enough to receive one when Ollivander had thrust one into his grip, and warmth filtered inside him.
"Curious. Very curious," the wand maker said as he took the wand from him and started putting into it's wrapping.
"Sorry, but what's curious?" Harrry asked.
Ollivander explained to him that the phoenix whose feather resided in his wand gave just one other feather. That other feather resided in the wand that gave him his scar.
After that Lupin had rushed him out after Harry paid for his wand.
"We must be going, Sirius. Have a nice term, Harry!" Lupin said to him. Moody smiled again, and the two of them left.
"I must go too. Much to attend to before school starts." Dumbledore left as well not long after.
"Why didn't you ever tell me anything? Everybody here seems to know my name, and who I am. Why is that?" he asked, careful not show his anger at his godfather.
Sirius sighed. "I'm sorry. But there never is a good time to tell someone of their horrible past, is there?"
"Tell me now."
Sirius looked sadly down at Harry. "Okay. But remember, it's not going to be pleasant." And so he started his talking.
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Every version of this chapter came out like crap, and this is the best I could do. Sorry! Review!