Shopping...

Harry put a fork in the chicken and put it on the plate. He walked over and put the plate in front of Mrs. Granger. "Thanks Harry. I love barbecued chicken, don't you hon?"

Mr. Granger looked up from the paper he was reading. "Yes, I love chicken."

Hermione came in. "Oh, is it done already?"

She looked so beautiful. She was in a cute red halter top, and a pretty black skirt.

"You look nice." Harry said, and then turned back towards the chicken. He felt his cheeks warming and he knew it wasn't because of the foods steam.

"Thanks." Hermione said and came over. "Smells good."

"Thank you. I just got done. Would you like some?"

Hermione looked to her dad. "Actually I was thinking maybe we could go shopping and I could buy Harry lunch at the mall."

Her dad stared. "What, do you need money?"

"No, I need permission." Hermione said. "I thought maybe we could go clothes shopping for him and then go shopping for both of our school supplies."

"Don't you need the supply list?" Her father asked skeptically.

Hermione pulled two folded letters out of her pocket. "Just came today."

"Fine. Have fun." Her dad stared at the paper as Harry brought him some chicken. But then he looked up. "Are you sure you'll be okay? Can you walk?"

Harry looked down. "Yes. I'll be fine."

Hermione stared at one of the letters. "Ron wrote. He asked if you could be groomsman at his brothers wedding."

Harry smiled. He hadn't thought that anything could seem appealing to him, but after he found out that Hermione was going to be the bridesmaid for Fleur, it sounded great. "Wow really? I mean, I'd better write him and tell him I can."

Hermione's dad looked up. "Do you have a suit that you can wear?"

Harry looked down. "No. Okay, maybe I can't be. I'll just write him and tell him I can't even go to the wedding. I'd look like an idiot."

Mr. Granger stood up and walked over to his jacket. He pulled his billfold out of the pocket. "How much do you need?"

"Oh, no. I don't need any money. I don't really want to go anyways." Harry said.

He threw Harry the billfold. "Use however much you need. Get a nice suit and some clothes. You don't need to pay me back."

"No! I have money in Gingott's. That's the wizarding bank. I can get money out of there. I just have to have it converted to muggle money, that's all." Harry said.

"Well that may take a while. Just use my money for today and you can pay me back some other time, okay." Mr. Granger sat down to eat.

Harry knew this meant defeat and that he had to take the money or risk offending Mr. Granger. Harry put thee wallet in his pocket "Thanks."

Mr. Granger smiled. "No problem. Have fun."

Hermione said thanks and then took Harry's hand and led him to her car. Harry remembered the car from riding in it a few days ago. Harry opened the door and got in. Hermione got in the drivers side door and sat down. "Whoa. I didn't think he'd let me go."

"Yeah." Harry said agreeing. He did seem pretty tough, but he seemed nice too. "That was nice of him."

Hermione buckled herself in and motioned for Harry to do the same. Harry buckled in and she drove to a local mall. She parked and got out. "Coming?"

Harry smiled. "Of course."

Hermione rushed into the store and before he had even got into the mall she had two shirts picked out. One had a little fat kid on it. "From South Park. It's Cartman."

The other shirt was pink and said, 'tough men wear pink.'

Harry laughed at her attempts, and she knew to put them back. Harry walked over to the rack she was looking at and found three shirts almost immediately that he loved. They were black. One had a skull on it, one had a game character from one of Dudley's games, and the third was just plain black.

Hermione laughed at his selection. "Going for a theme? No your skin is so pale I think you'd look good in a lighter color like yellow, or green, to match your eyes."

So her and him walked around for a while and they both found some things for him. Harry did like the clothes, but he did decide to go back for the skull shirt. Hermione frowned. "I like it."

"Fine, then get it." She turned to look at a jewelry booth while he went and paid. The shirts came up for more than he had expected them to, but he knew why. All the clothes Hermione chose were designer label. Harry just wanted nice clothes. Harry paid the $153.89 and went over to Hermione who was trying on a beautiful ring.

The man who was showing it to her said it was 14 karat gold with diamond flakes. He said it was $200. Hermione looked at it disappointed and gave it back to the man. She then turned and almost bumped into Harry. "Oh, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah." Hermione turned and walked towards the door that led towards the exit.

"Oh shoot, I have to go to the bathroom." Harry said and pretended to hold himself. "How about you meet me in the car. I'll be right out."

Hermione sighed. "Okay. Then we'll go look for a suit for you to wear to the wedding."

"Okay." Harry watched Hermione turn and head for the car. Harry went over to the jewelry counter. He waved to the man who came over. "How much is that ring with tax?"

The man took it out. "Um, $214.87. Why would you like it?"

Harry dug into his pocket and took out the billfold. He looked inside to see how much was left. There were six twenties, nine tens, and two fives. Enough to get the ring, but not the suit. Harry stared at the money as he handed it to the man. "I would please. Can you gift wrap it?"

The man smiled. "For a charge."

Harry looked at the two fives in the wallet. "How much?"

"Normally twenty, but with such a beautiful ring for a beautiful lady I'll go five." The man said and he greedily took the money from Harry.

The man took the gift and grabbed a role of pink hearted wrapping paper. Harry could tell he did a half assed job on it, but he didn't complain. Harry put the gift in his bag and went out to the car. Hermione looked bored, but boy did she drive fast when he got out there. Harry turned to her. "How about we go to Diagon Ally first? I don't really feel like tux shopping today?"

Hermione looked at him strangely, but she didn't say anything. She drove to the store Harry knew as the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione had never been there before, her and her family had come a different way. She was excited when she went in. She even stopped to talk to a few of the witches and wizards inside.

By the time they finally got to Diagon Alley it was getting dark, but not too dark. Harry decided they'd better go to Gringotts first so he could grab his money. Hermione went with him to his vault and she was surprised with all he had.

"I didn't expect you to have so much." She said amazed.

He laughed. "I didn't when I came here at first either. I mean, blimey, my parents didn't have to leave me so much."

Harry grabbed a big bag full and brought it out. He brought it up to a goblin. "How can I get some of this converted into muggle money?"

The goblin stared at the bag. "How much do you need."

"Um, maybe about two- hundred." The goblin took about a fifth of the coins and put it under the desk. He then produced some dollar bills.

"There, two-hundred." The goblin then looked away.

Harry and Hermione walked out and Harry pretended to be counting the money. "Oy. He shorted me."

"Really!" Hermione said concerned. "Maybe we should go back in and get your money."

"I will. How about you go start your shopping, and I'll meet you in a bit." Hermione shrugged and walked away. Harry was happy she believed him. He didn't want her to know he had bought the ring, so he had to go replace her dad's money.

He walked back in and soon came out with more than enough. He had decided to give her dad five hundred instead of three and some. Hopefully her dad wouldn't notice. He just wanted to be nice. Harry put the wallet back in his pocket and headed for Flourish and Blotts.

Harry wasn't surprised to see Hermione in the back of the store looking at a book. He walked back to her, still limping, but he knew he would be fine. "So, did you find the books?"

Hermione smiled and blushed. "Woops. No. Actually I got sidetracked by this book." She held it up. It was called, 'Werewolf bites, and how to get rid of them.' Hermione smiled. "I was thinking about getting this for Bill and Fleur for their wedding. What do you think?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Harry took the book. "How about I'll buy it and it can be from both of us."

Hermione smiled. "Sure. Well, we'd better go find those books."

The books didn't take that long to find. But Harry wasn't sure why he was doing this. He hadn't planned on going back to Hogwarts, but then Hermione wouldn't either. He couldn't do that to her. He paid for the books, Hermione's included and they headed to the next shop. An hour later they were done shopping, and Harry's stomach growled.

Hermione stopped and stared at her watch. "Oh my gosh, it's almost nine and we haven't even ate."

Harry smiled as they walked through the portal they had come in through and walked out of the Leaky Cauldron. "Maybe we can go to a fast food place to eat."

Hermione smiled. "That actually sounds really good."

Harry smiled. "I'll pay."

Hermione grabbed his hand from going in his pocket. "No, I said I'd pay for the meal."

So Hermione went through the McDonalds drive through and then drove home. On the way up to bed Harry couldn't help but feel bad. They were treating him so kindly and all he could do was get away. He didn't want to hurt them, but he knew he would if he stayed.

Harry knew what he had to do. He had to get away when nobody was expecting him to. He had to get away so that Hermione could go to Hogwarts to be a teacher. But there was one thing he had to stay for, or maybe there was two. He had to stay for Bill and Fleurs wedding. And he had to stay so that Hermione wouldn't feel bad.

He liked Hermione and he feared he might lose her friendship and her trust. She trusted him to help her, to keep her safe. But Harry knew the best thing to do to keep her safe from Voldemort was to leave her, soon.