Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
The street was filled with witches and wizards and Harry felt almost invisible. He was used to some stares, but today it seemed like no one noticed him. He felt weird in a way.
The first stop was Gringotts.
"Petunia Evans and Harry Potter need to access their vaults." Petunia said gruffly.
The goblin stared down at the trio. "Keys and Identification."
"Identification?" Petunia asked, genuinely confused.
"Yes. Identification. New protocols."
"Oh, well, very well."
Petunia reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet. Harry watched her grab her muggle identification and place it on the counter. She flicked her wand across it and Harry watched as the ID changed colors and how her image began moving. He had never noticed it before, so he was curious as how often witches and wizards had to provide identification.
"Everything appears to be in order. This way."
The trip to Aunt Petunia's vault was fairly quick. It opened and revealed a vault not much bigger than his own, but no less filled with gold.
"I thought we struggled?" Harry felt himself ask as his aunt returned to the cart.
"We never struggled. Vernon was just stingy."
Harry felt he should've pressed more, but found himself just leaning back. When they arrived to his vault he stepped out and looked back at his aunt.
"Do you know about how much I need to pull out for school?"
"Nothing. Your school funds come directly from my account. You should only be pulling out your play money for the school year."
"I've always paid for my schooling through my account."
"What?"
"I've… I've always withdrawn money for school."
At this Harry saw Aunt Petunia purse her lips, obvious in displeasure.
"Is that so? Well going forward, it shall come from my account."
"Oh… I'm sorry."
"You are not the one that needs to be sorry, Harry."
Harry, as usual, grabbed his handfuls of coin; unsure of how much he really needed. It was always difficult re-immersing himself into the wizarding world after each summer. He was still always unsure what exactly everything costs, and what exactly was considered a "bargain". Sometimes he felt he was being cheated simply by being the boy who lived.
Back in the cart Harry nudged Douglas. "I got a little extra so we can both get something from the trolley on the train."
"You didn't have too. Mum gives me some of an allowance."
"I wanted too."
Harry genuinely felt that way too. He didn't care that Aunt Petunia had her own money, he wanted to treat his cousin to a fun first experience.
They made their way around Diagon Alley pretty easily; Aunt Petunia had the items they were buying in her bag. Harry was confused by how it seemed to be just eating item after item, but Aunt Petunia explained that her bag was simply a teleportation device. All the items were, more or less, aparating directly in their car that was parked outside the bar.
They ended mid-afternoon with Douglas getting measured for his robes.
"Have you given any thought about what house you may be in?" Harry asked as Douglas stood with his arms out, the woman bringing the magical measuring tape up and out.
"No, not really. I'm trying not to think about it. Mum said all the houses had great wizards and to try and not go in with preconceived notions."
"Right. I guess that makes sense."
"At Smeltings they had us presorted into the dormitories. No mess, no fuss. And we weren't limited to those in our dormitories. It was a bit like primary. I rarely had the same class with the same people in my dormitories. We were all spread out."
"I remember you saying something like that, I think when you were talking about the quidditch team."
"Oh yeah." Douglas smiled, "Tried out for beater, ended up getting the chaser position."
"So, it was like primary, where the whole school tried out at once?"
"Oh, definitely. We played against other schools so we could only have one team. We did have a boys and girls club though, so you could say that we had two."
"Oi. You're the chaser from Smeltings?"
Douglas and Harry turned then. Stepping up to the podium to be measured was a short, stocky boy. His hair glared a dark red, and his eyebrows were large and unkempt. Acne had begun sprouting on his face, and he sported a short, pencil thin mustache.
"Who's asking?"
"Jeffries. Willard Jeffries. I'm from West Chester. Go Dragons!"
And with that he let out a short hoot.
"Ha. You guys didn't fair too well in the tournament last year."
Jeffries let out a short laugh. "Well, if Portsmouth hadn't knocked out our seeker we would've fared better. I don't care how you play it, but that's plain cheating."
"You can't call penalty for that mate."
"That's blatching (*No player may fly with the intent to collide*) and you know it!"
"The beater was unconscious. You can't control your body when you're falling mate. No penalty."
Jeffries snorted in disgust. "Whatever. Regardless, we'll be taking the tourney this year. You better bring your A-game."
Douglas stepped down from the podium with a sigh, "My apologies mate. I've been transferred to Hogwarts. Good luck at the tourney though."
Harry felt sad at that moment. A quidditch tournament sounded amazing, and his cousin was being transferred to a school where he would have to just play against the same three other houses.
Petunia had met them at the register; she appeared to have bought more clothes for what appeared to be herself and the boys.
"Harry, what's wrong."
She reached out for the slip of paper Douglas was handing and motioned it to the cashier. "I'll need a set of five of these in black, and then three sets of working robes. These are for Hogwarts."
"Nothing. Well, I mean… Did Douglas really have to transfer?"
"It'll be 82 Galleons, 16 Sickles and 10 Knuts." The cashier interjected.
Petunia reached into her purse and pulled out what appeared to be a checkbook. "He did Harry. Things are not safe right now."
"Is that Harry Potter?" The cashier piped up and moved the clothes out of her way so she could reach across the counter and grab onto his hand.
"Ah! Yes. Hello." Harry said, politely shaking her hand.
"I never believed I'd meet the boy who defeated…. You-Know-Who."
"I didn't really do anything. I was a baby. Voldemort-"
"So brave!"
She continued to shake his hand vigorously and he had difficulty removing it from her grasp. Once it was he nodded and was suddenly pulled by Douglas.
"We'll meet you outside, Mum." Douglas said, dragging Harry out.
"You have some nerve, Harry." Douglas said, scolding his cousin. "Just because you're okay saying his name doesn't mean others are okay with it."
"It's just a name."
"Mum almost fainted. She turned white as a ghost!"
Harry quickly turned back to look at Aunt Petunia. Her back was turned to them and he couldn't make out her features.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything."
Petunia walked out then, causing both boys to be quiet.
"Are you hungry?" She asked, motioning further down the alley.
They both nodded furiously.
"Very well."