Harry's eyes narrowed as he took in the darkening sky. Reaching into one of his pockets, he gave a pat to the scaly head he found there, before fishing out his watch.

A quarter to four. I've made pretty good time considering all I've done today. Making to return the watch to his pocket, he smiled when he felt a fanged mouth take it from his fingers.

'Thanks.' Instantly, a flame colored head peeked out from the folds of his coat and nodded before retreating.

"Now, then, time for a wand I think." Taking long strides, Harry quickly found himself outside a rather run down shop that instead of some form of elaborate name, said simply; Foci For All Occasions.

'Master, this place is familiar. It feels familiar I mean, as if a part of me is inside.'Harry looked down at the head of his newly acquired soul viper, and nodded.

'We'll keep an eye out Astarte.'Without another word, the young man strode into the shop. Almost instantly, he felt a rush of cold wind assault his face and billow his coat.

"Well, that's interesting. Be on your guard chosen." The faint whisper in the back of his mind gave Harry a moment of pause. Shaking said moment off, he flicked his eyes around, taking stock of the place he had entered.

"Seems that the more cluttered a shop is, the more... impressive? I'll need to ask about that peculiar way of thinking." In reality, the room was indeed, a total wreck. Countless shelves around the shop leaned haphazardly against each other. Topping said shelves were various bits of materials; varying from some form of feather, to bone shards, to stones, to even flesh.

"Ya gonna keep muttering to yourself, or are you gonna actually give me an excuse to stop cleaning?" Harry's acid green eyes quickly cut to the left, locking in on a tall man built like a gladiator from ancient Rome. The man's skin was a rich tone of black that contrasted harshly with his snow white hair and deep blue eyes. Rather than standard wizard robes, the man wore a pair of leather pants and a cotton shirt.

"What services do you offer?" The question elicited a sneering grin upon the face of the shop proprietor, something that did not go unnoticed by the raven haired youth.

"That would depend upon the client. I don't offer my services to anyone lucky enough to stumble over the threshold of my shop." The man lifted an eyebrow curiously as Harry approached him.

Rather than speak, Harry stepped close, raising his hand to show off the ring bearing the crest of Slytherin.

"Ahh, in your case, Milord, I can make virtually any form of magical focus you could possibly desire. In addition, I am more than capable of crafting weapons and armor. The quality of my work, has been spoken of as second only to goblins." Puffing his chest out with pride, the man seemed either mad, or brimming with supreme confidence. Or both.

"If that is the case, I'll require a full set of skin tight battle armor, three sets of battle robes, two custom wands, and a custom staff as well." Crossing his arms, Harry stood staring at the man, the only sound aside from breathing, the occasional hiss from his coat.

"Depending upon what exactly you wish for each of those things, the total will most likely come to around 175,000 Galleons. That's a rough estimate, you understand." The man's eyes spoke volumes, twinkling as he noted the youth before him didn't so much as bat an eyelash at the quoted estimate.

"That will be fine. Regardless of the cost, add ten thousand to it. As a thank you." Their was no streak of subtlety in the words Harry spoke. It was a bribe of silence, and he was being blunt about it.

"Of course Milord. I, of all people, understand the value of discretion and silence. Now, where shall we begin?" The craftsman laced his fingers over his naval as he waited for his answer.

"I suppose we shall start with the battle armor." The ice dripping from the young lord's voice was unmistakable, and the rather disconnected look in his eyes, served only to further convey the irritation he felt at spending more time than required on trivial tasks.

"Very good, my lord. Now, as to materials, have you any preferences?" Even as he spoke, the craftsmen took out a measuring tape and began to make notes of his current customer's size. Recording everything from leg length to finger width, the measuring seemed overly in depth.

"Hmm. Something spell resistant would be ideal. Preferably highly flexible, but, without the dexterity costing resilience." Reaching up, Harry fiddled with a lock of his hair.

"I think I have just the thing." Moving to the back of the shop, the craftsman opened up a large trunk and reached inside. After a moment of rumbling, he lifted out a large violet cloth package. Carrying the recently extracted bundle to a small table, the man unwrapped the rope and folded the cloth back.

Harry couldn't help but lift an eyebrow as the contents were revealed. A type of leather colored a silvery-black. Seeming to absorb the light that sruck it, the material emenated a sense of fear and dread, and, as it sat exposed to the air for a few moments, a thick fog began to form above it.

"Dementor leather. One of the rarest materials I possess. Extremely difficult to harvest, and nearly indestructible. It will absorb nearly any spell, it's resistant to almost any sort of projectile or blade, and, it will empower any dark magic user who wears it." Watching the youth out of the corner of his eye, the man seemed to smirk when he noted the hungry gleam in Harry's eyes.

"How much?" Folding his arms over his chest, the raven haired youth waited with baited breath.

"The difficultly in procuring the material, is offset by the eagerness I have for a chance to work with it.. So, your suit of armor, fifty thousand Galleons. And if you're amenable to the price, I will sing enchantments into the suit as I craft it so that it will grow with you." Laying the dementor leather out on the workbench and unfolding it, the man watched for any reaction, and quirked his lips into a smirk when none came.

"A fair enough deal. Now, can we move on to foci please?" Lacing his hands behind his back, the young man popped his right knee a few times, bouncing his weight to keep the circulation flowing.

"Of course Milord. First, I'll need to know what you're wanting. A wand, a staff, a weapon foci?" As the man spoke, Harry paused and made a mental note to take time when he left the shop to organize his thoughts. Organization was after all, paramount to success.

A head popped out of Harry's coat and Astarte hissed out with a bemused tone. 'Master, you should know, we can all be used as weapons in our own right. I'd advise searching for that which echoes out, calling to me and having it added to your weapon.'

Nodding to himself, the youth gave a gentle pat to the serpent's head before speaking to the shopkeeper. "I think, two wands, a trident shaped staff, and twin daggers." The request wasn't a simple one, in fact, it was going to be a large order, but, it was one that the young lord was confidant could be filled.

"Marvelous, though, to circle back, before we get knee deep in something as complex as weapon crafting, I assume you want your battle robes to be standard issue? Or would you prefer a higher end?"

"As high end as is fitting for such garments." Lacing his hands behind his back, Harry fiddled with the fingers of his left glove as he spoke.

"Black dragon leather then. Now, if you'd please, we need to select the materials for your order." Ushering the young customer to a large workbench filled with assorted items, the man motions for him to let his hand drift over the various materials. "You'll know when you feel it."

Moving towards the workbench, the raven haired youth extended his hand outwards. As his fingers move slowly above the various items on display. Almost immediately, he felt a strong pull towards a large block of black wood.

Setting the first item aside, Harry then found himself drawn to not one, but two separate items at once. First, a large clump of white metal, and almost at the same time, a clump of black metal, both metals gleaming and glinting in the pale light of the shop.

"Hmm. Very interesting. See if there's anything else which draws you, young lord." Gathering the already chosen items, the craftsmen laid out a sheet of parchment beside them and began scratching out notes in a unique shorthand.

Moving once more to the table, the youth ran his hands over the items on display. This time, he came up with six items in one pass. A jar of volatile looking blue liquid, a roll of white leather, an overly large black femur bone, a clump of raw copper, a long stark white horn, and lastly, a fist sized emerald.

The shopkeeper made a few more notes and finally looked up, his eyes flicking back and forth as he seemed to make mental notes in addition to his physical ones.

"Well Milord, it seems you're fated to wield a weapon of immense power. Shall we go over the significance of everything which you've selected?" Even as he spoke, the man made a few more notes on the length of parchment.

"If you please." The dryness in the response showed Harry's obvious annoyance with the stupidity of the question.

"Of course. Well, for starters, you've chosen a heart of ebony. Ebony is a rarely used wood, given its rather special nature. For one, it is attuned not to a single element as most are, but instead, ebony is in tune with all five elements; earth, fire, air, water, and spirit." Making two more notes, the man turns and gives a smirk.

"But that in itself, isn't why ebony is so rarely chosen. It draws its power from the darkest depths of the mind. So only one with a natural gift for the mind magicks can wield it. And such people are rare." Pausing for a breath, the craftsmen then tapped first the lump of white metal, and then the lump of black. "Angelic Steel, and Demonic Iron. Two of the rarest metals on earth. Angelic Steel is produced when a patch of ground upon which a meteorite had once fallen, is consecrated. When the non terran metals are blessed by nature of being in the ground, they transform."

"And what, exactly, are the properties of this Angelic Steel?"

"For one, it signals a person highly in tune with the force of lightning. It excels in healing magics, and amplifies any already existing talents. So, if someone had a natural gift in an area of study, Angelic Steel would make them into a natural prodigy. Unfortunately, it only amplifies neutral and light affiliated skills grow." Moving towards the clump of black metal, the smith rolled it a few times on the table.

"Demonic Iron on the other hand, is much different. It forms when raw metal is exposed to energies of terrible happening. Such as when clumps of raw iron lie beneath the ground, at a location where innocent blood is spilled without purpose. It excels in both protective and destructive magics, but its true purest function is to amplify vengeance magic. As it mirrors Angelic Steel in most ways, so too does it in that it amplifies dark affiliated skills, and serves to nurture them." Moving towards the assortment which yet remained, the smith reached out an took hold of the jar of blue liquid.

"And here, we have something especially rare and valuable. Something difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to work. Seraphim blood, to be exact." Raising the jar to the light, the dark skinned man spun it slowly, letting the thick viscus liquid cling to the sides, a strange twinkling effect visible as the light bounced off the blood.

"Seraphim blood, possesses only one unique attribute. It anchors love and passion together with whoever wields a weapon tempered by it. As such, it grants boons to any magic linked with positive emotions." Setting the jar aside, the craftmaster took the white leather and rolled it back and forth between his fingers.

"Succubus flesh, anchored to lust and hunger, and capable of augmenting any magic linked to such primal emotions." Moving to the femur bone, the craftsman gave a soft sigh as he stroked long black fingers along the midnight colored skeleton fragment. "The femur of a dementor. Attuned to the magics of misery, fear, and despair, capable of bolstering dark magic and negative emotional projection."

"Lastly, we have raw copper, which helps conduct any magic channeled through it, and has natural healing properties, the horn of a matriarch unicorn, symbolizing pure intentions and the capacity for great love, lastly, the massive emerald. Emeralds are rarely used in magical foci, they are only useful for mind mages, as they augment illusions and mind magics." Setting everything aside, the man made a few notes on a piece of parchment before looking up.

"Anything else?"

The remainder of the visit proceeded in much the same way, choosing materials from which to craft the desired objects, and being lectured on their virtues. As Harry slipped out of the shop right as the sun was beginning to set, he moved smoothly down the allyway, his coat billowing behind him. Returning to his room, he settled into bed and as he drifted into sleep, his last thought echoed through his mind once more.

'Silence shall die.'