AN/ Hey everyone, sorry for the wait on this. If you are reading my FFM fic you know, I'm having internet troubles at the moment. I managed to upload the update on that one but the server went down again before I could load this one. Oh well. Here it is finally, chapter 4 and an extra long one too, to make up for the wait. Hopefully this will be more along the size of the chapters from here on out. It took awhile for this story to come into focus but I think I have it now. Well, hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.

NB: As before, conversations between the two Harry's, if it italics it is the younger bold it is the older. If it is both then it is an instance where they are merged.

Disclaimer: ….. Yeah, not mine.

Chapter 4:

Diagon Alley

The trip to London went unnoticed by Harry as he mostly kept his attention inward, his two souls discussing what they planned to do.

"I really think that this trip we should act naive. Hagrid isn't all that observant really, but if he thinks we are acting odd, he will mention it to the Headmaster. We can always come back, once we purchase our wand."

He continued to watch out the window of the train as they travelled, seemingly lost in thought, leaving Hagrid to alternate between watching him carefully and staring at some of the odd muggle contraptions that caught his eye.

"What other things do you think we are going to need?"

"I believe that we should set in a stock of some of the rarer potion ingredients as well as take a look around for some books that might be of use. Last time around, I had to fumble through things as best I could; this time I have a chance to be prepared. We may as well use the opportunity to learn as much as we can that might be of use."

"I guess I can see the sense in that." Looking over at his travel companion, Harry could feel a deep sense of pain from the older half of his soul, "What is it?"

There was a faint sigh and the feeling of pain deepened, "This is going to be a lot harder then I thought, seeing them all again."

He bit back on a shiver as images flashed in his head, old memories that hit the younger responses. Seeing his old friends wasn't the only thing that was going to be difficult. It was possible for either soul to take control at any one time but normally they sort of existed as a kind of combined spirit. It was possible to access all of his memories but his emotions were a combination of both, the innocent naïve eleven year old and the world weary, war battered forty year old. Somehow he had the feeling that the compromise between his two halves was going to be interesting to say the least.

Some of his inner conflict must have shown on his face as Hagrid turned to him, a look of concern on his huge features just as the train pulled into the station "Everthin' a'right there Harry?"

At his question, Harry snapped back into focus and smiled up at him, suppressing the deep pain he felt seeing that familiar face ruthlessly, "Yeah, fine. I was just thinking." Lifting up his book list, he scanned through it quickly and let a faint frown come to his face, "Can we really get all this stuff in London?"

"If yeh know where to go. Common, yeh'll see. Some times it's easier to hide things in plain sight, if yeh know wha' I mean."

Harry followed as Hagrid led the way off the train and up into the streets of London. From his older memories he knew they were a few blocks from the Leaky Cauldron. "Hagrid, what can you tell me about my parents?" he asked after a moment. They hadn't spoken most of the trip and he wanted to the half giant to remain his friend this time round as well.

Hagrid glanced back at him and shortened his stride when he noticed Harry skipping to keep up, 'Damn short legs, can't wait until I grow a bit.'

"No' sure how much I can tell yeh, Harry. Good people they were, tha's fer sure. Some of the best aroun'. Was a real shame when they died."

Harry didn't even have to fake the sigh he gave. Both sides of his soul felt the ache of their death, even though one of them had know for years and the other had only found out a few days before, "Headmaster Dumbledore told me what happened." He said softly and Hagrid threw a startled look down at him.

"I did nah think yeh had met the Professor yet." He exclaimed in confusion.

Harry chuckled and waved a hand, "I haven't, he left a letter with my Aunt explaining a few things."

Hagrid nodded in understanding, looking away again and watching the muggles around them, ignoring the shocked looks cast his way, "Good man, Dumbledore. Should have known he would do summut like tha'. Here we are Harry, the Leaky Cauldron." Hagrid gestured at the run down old pub and Harry marvelled again at how they were able to hide the place in plain sight.

Thinking over his plans for this trip, the older soul slipped back a little to give the younger one more control. This was a harmless trip and there was no way he was going to ruin the wonder for his younger self, after all, as he had thought earlier, magic was a hell of a lot more fun when it was all new.

So it was an excited Harry that followed his tall escort into the rundown looking pub known as the Leaky Cauldron.

The place was a dim and shabby looking as ever and the low buzz of conversation ended as they entered, some the customers calling greetings to Hagrid as old Tom called from his place behind the bar, "The usual Hagrid?"

"Can't Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business." He clapped Harry on the shoulder, almost bringing him to his knees.

"Good Lord," said the barman, peering at Harry, "Can this be…"

The whole pub had gone completely still and silent and Harry mentally rolled his eyes;

"Here it comes."

"Yeah, I mean, all I have is your memories to go by and already it is annoying."

"Bless my soul," the old barman whispered, "It's Harry Potter."

Sighing to himself Harry smiled rather nervously as the customers all came up to him to shake his hand and greet him. There was one face missing from what his older memories showed him however;

"So where is that Professor Quirrell? I though you met him here."

"I did, but this time round we came here a few weeks before I did. We weren't dragged halfway around the country by Uncle Vernon." The voice was silent for a moment and Harry continued to greet the wizards and witches, keeping his mind divided between his conversation and what was going on around him,"I wonder how this is going to change things." He finally continued, "Quirrell went after the Philosophers Stone after Hagrid and I retrieved it that day. I'm just hoping the Headmaster thinks to move it still, even though he doesn't have the excuse of Hagrid taking me to Mum and Dad's vault to cover the trip."

Hagrid finally managed to call over the top of all the noise that they had to go and the crowd finally let them through.

Harry sighed in relief as he followed Hagrid out the back door into the blank courtyard and he found himself almost grinning in excitement. In the back of his mind, he heard his older self chuckling indulgently but he just sent a mental raspberry at him, which had him laughing harder. Even though he could access the others memories as if they were his own, it was still something different to actually experience what those memories showed.

He watched Hagrid tap out the sequence on the bricks, wondering to himself how no one seemed to have noticed the man had the broken pieces of his wand in that umbrella, after all, he did use the thing to get him through the barrier every time.

A few seconds later the barrier rearranged itself into an archway and Hagrid swept his arm grandly, "Welcome, Harry, to Diagon Alley."

Harry gazed around in delight at everything as they walked down the twisted street and Hagrid laughed at his reaction, "You'll be needin' one of those." He told him, pointing to the Cauldron shop, "But we gotta get yer money first."

Harry responded without thinking, "What money?" he blinked as the spirit in the back of his mind laughed at him then grinned sheepishly to himself as Hagrid chuckled.

"D'yeh think yeh parents left yeh with nothing? Tha's where we are headed firs'. Gringotts, Wizarding Bank."

Looking down the street, Harry caught sight of the huge white building;

"We'll have to visit the bank again when we come back," the spirit mused, "There are a few things we will have to organise pretty quickly, but the trick is managing it all under the Headmaster's nose without him finding out until we want him to."

He left it at that but Harry had a fair idea of what his older self was planning.

Gazing around at all of the shops he laughed as he caught snatches of conversations and read some of the signs of what was for sale. Passing one particular shop, he eyed the crowd gathered outside and couldn't help the grin that spread across his face;

"Hey, do you think McGonagall will get a broom for us again?"

"Don't know. Tell you what though, if she doesn't we are heading back here as fast as possible. Oh, to be able to fly again."

Harry laughed aloud at the longing he felt from his older self, this juggling of two sets of emotions was actually kind of fun at times

"I can't wait to try it."

Something else came to mind at the thought of brooms and he frowned slightly as the memory of the Firebolt his older self had been given came to mind;

"Speaking of brooms,"He said carefully, "What are we going to do about Sirius?" Harry was rather glad it was the younger soul that was in control at that point as the older one tripped and fell on his mental face at the question. As it was he still stumbled slightly, smiling and shaking his head at Hagrid's concerned glance;

"Are you all right?" he asked finally. A sense of almost desperate wonder radiated off his older self and the spirit almost whispered in reply.

"That's right. Sirius is alive again and this time round, perhaps we can save him."

The pain from one soul touched the joy from the other and Harry had to suppress a giddy laugh. He had been so happy when the memories of Sirius had come to him; it was just funny that in all of his plans, his older self still avoided thinking of their Godfather, still feeling the guilt of his death.

"So what do you think we should do?" he asked eagerly.

The other still seemed to be in a daze as he answered, "I'm not sure. This is going to take some serious planning."

He fell silent again and Harry could feel him thinking hard as he turned his attention back to what was happening around him. They had arrived at Gringotts and Hagrid was leading him up the wide marble stairs.

"Yeh'd be a fool to try an' rob this place." Hagrid told him conversationally, "Take a look there." He pointed to the sign off to one side and Harry ran through what it said, seeing the echo of it in his memory;

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek, beneath our floors,

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

The two goblins on guard at the door bowed to them as they entered and Harry was hard pressed not to stare at them. His memory showed him everything that was beyond the sliver doors but he was still in awe as Hagrid led him past the hundreds of goblins perched along the long counter that ran the length of the vast marble hall.

He listened absently as Hagrid explained to the goblin why they were there and searched his pocket for Harry's key. Instead he watched some of the other goblins at work. He noted from his memories that his older self had worked extensively with the goblins after Voldemort had raided the Wizarding bank. They had managed to repel the attack but were forced to lock down the vaults and anyone wanting to access them had to work directly through a goblin associate. The creatures were fiercely protective of the valuables that had been placed in their care and Harry had worked with them to come up with a solution to the security issues.

He brought his attention back to the counter as the Goblin serving them called out for their guide. He also noted that Hagrid had made no mention of vault seven hundred and thirteen.

'Hmmm, I hope professor Dumbledore does think to move that stone.' He thought to himself as he followed the bank representative down to the carts that would take them to the lower levels; the older spirit was still silent in the back of his mind, 'Somehow I think that if Voldemort got hold of it, everything could work out even worse then before.'

The goblin silently piled them into one of the carts and whistled to get the thing moving and Harry turned his attention inwards once more, knowing Hagrid would rather concentrate on keeping his insides from turning the wrong way out;

"If you keep thinking so hard, you are going to give me a headache as well." He directed mildly at the silent presence that shared his headspace. There was a sense of surprise and he chuckled, "So, have you come up with anything yet?"

"Not really. Nothing concrete anyway." The other answered his mental voice still thoughtful, "I do think that we should contact Lupin though. I have a feeling he would be of great help in this particular situation."

Harry felt a little wistful, but he couldn't really tell which of them it was coming from, perhaps both, "Do you think we could tell him what is going on?" he asked softly, "From what I have seen in your memories, I think that he would trustworthy and I think that the more help we get the better. He might have some idea of how to proceed." The other was silent for a moment and Harry almost held his breath.

"Come to think of it," he finally answered, "I don't see why not. As you said, he could be of a great help to us, not only with getting Sirius out but with information. He could tell us what the Order was up to at the moment, allowing us to work our plans without messing up theirs." There was a faint chuckle and Harry couldn't help but smile as he felt the hope rising from both his souls, "Tell you the truth though." The other told him softly, a half sad half rueful tone in his mind voice, "I rather miss the old wolf."

His attention snapped back into focus as the cart jolted to a stop and Hagrid heaved himself out, followed by the goblin. The small creature unlocked the vault and Harry stepped forward to stare in shock at the mountains of coins on the other side of that door.

"All yours Harry." Hagrid told him, smiling.

"And that is only a fraction of it, my friend." His other self told him as he stared dumbly at the fortune before him.

"Just think of it." he continued wickedly, knowing exactly what was running through his younger self's mind, "Now you can by yourself something decent to wear instead of that ragbag collection of sacks you call clothes now."

Finally shaking off his daze, Harry scooped coins into a bag with Hagrid's help, talking to the spirit the whole time;

"Like you can talk. I mean, look at what you are wearing." He sent him a mental picture of how the other had looked to him the night he had shown up on the foot of his bed, complete with tattered, blood stained robes.

"Alright, alright. I concede the point, sheesh."

Harry just snickered to himself.

On the cart ride back to the surface, Hagrid was silent again and Harry could see a faint green tinge coming to his huge face;

"You know, we might be able to get some of the other stuff today as well." The spirit mused, "Some of the more harmless things anyway. Hagrid will probably want to go back to the Leaky Cauldron for an hour or so to recover, at least he did last time."

Harry nodded and when they strode out of the bank, blinking at the glare, he turned to the queasy looking half giant, "You don't look so good." The concern in his voice was genuine and Hagrid gave him a small smile, "Are you all right?"

"Yeh're right, I hate them Gringotts carts. Would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron?"

Expecting the question, Harry just shrugged and gave him a smile, so it came about again that Harry entered Madam Malkin's robe shop alone, although this time he wasn't nearly so nervous.

At the tinkle from the small bell on the door, the squat, smiling form of Madam Malkin bustled into the room, "Hogwarts, Dear?" she asked and Harry smiled, both in answer to her question and to the commentary coming from the back of his head;

"This place never changes. At least this time that Pratt, Malfoy isn't here."

"That is another situation that we are going to have to consider carefully."

"Hmm, I agree. Much as I hate the git, he didn't deserve to die like he did."

Harry climbed up onto the stool as the witch directed and stood still as her tape measure took his measurements;

"Do you think that we should get some other robes while we are here? Besides our school robes I mean."

"Might not be too bad an idea."

As Madam Malkin shuffled out the back to collect school robes in his size Harry browsed the other robes she had on display;

"How about this? It's not overly colourful and it's a respectable looking set."

The older spirit chuckled as Harry ran his hand over the soft fabric of a set of deep green robes with gold trim, "Gryffindor and Slytherin colours, how ironic. Why not? As you said, it is a nice set and they don't stand out that much either."

In the end they purchased not only their school robes but the green and gold set and another set of deep red with silver trim. Their choices rather amused them both and as they left the robes shop the spirit chuckled to himself;

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing really. I was just wondering how the hat is going to sort us. I mean when it sorted me, it was a toss up between Slytherin and Gryffindor, I wonder how it will react to both of our minds. I mean, think about it, I have changed a lot since my first year, and you certainly are different to how I was first time simply because you have all the information that was kept from me."

"Well I suppose we will have to wait and find out." Suddenly he laughed, "Hey, how do think old Snape would react if we were put in Slytherin."

"Heh, somehow I don't think I want to find out. So, where to now? What to take a look over at Flourish and Blotts? Hagrid will catch up to us eventually but we may find some interesting books in there in the mean time."

By the time Hagrid came looking for him, Harry was deep in the shelves of the bookstore. The clerk had already gathered the books on his school list and just watched indulgently as the small boy browsed the shelves, exclaiming in excitement over some of his finds and muttering to himself.

"You got a real scholar in the making here, Hagrid." He heard the man comment and he glanced up to catch the amused expressions on both their faces and felt himself blush;

"Damn, if we're not careful, we are going to have a worse reputation then Hermione for being a book worm." The spirit commented with exasperated amusement.

Harry just laughed and carried an armload of extra books up to the counter. Most of them were companion books to the ones recommended by the school, so the clerk didn't find it in any way odd for a studious looking boy to be collecting material that corresponded with his school supplies. Little did he know, some of the information contained in some of those books went well beyond what was even taught to seventh years, let alone first. Once he paid for the books, the clerk put a shrinking charm on them, as Madam Malkin had on their parcel of robes, one that all store owners seemed to know, which came in handy for students that were forbidden to practice magic outside school as all that was required to reverse it was a tap of a wand.

They spent the rest of the morning collecting potions ingredients and some of the other small items he would need when it finally came time to collect his wand. Both of Harry's souls almost quivered with suppressed emotion as he pushed open the door to Ollivander's Wands. The younger was excited to be getting the one piece of equipment that marked him irrefutably as a wizard, the older was looking forward to having some protection at hand again.

As soon as he entered the room, Harry felt the very air tingling with magical residue;

"How odd, I didn't sense this last time. Then again, I suppose I wouldn't have recognised it if I did." The spirit mused and Harry rubbed at his arms;

"What is it?"

"Nothing to be alarmed about, you are just sensing the magic off all the wands stacked in here. There are hundreds of them. My guess is that our magic reserves kicked up a little when we merged. If that is what happened, then I think that we are going to have some fun once we start practicing. We are going to need to work out how much our magic has changed as a consequence."

While they were talking Mr Ollivander suddenly appeared from behind a shelf but looked a little surprised at the slightly blank look on his customers face, "My Potter, I was wondering when you would be in." he commented mildly and Harry nodded absently, instead of waiting for the man to go through his usual trial and error method of wand placement, Harry cast his eyes around the shelves, searching for a particular aura that called to his magical core, "Is there something the matter lad?" the old man asked finally and Harry shook his head slightly and focussed on the man's face.

"Over there." He said mildly, pointing to the shelf where he could sense his wand. Both of his souls had joined as they searched, both feeling the resonances deep within.

Ollivander frowned slightly and looked between the boy at his counter and the shelf he indicated. It wasn't often that he had a customer that pointed out his own wand, after all the wand choses the wizard, not the other way around. Feeling slightly curious, the old man waved the boy around the counter and gestured for him to proceed, after all, if he chose the wrong wand, there wouldn't be any harm done.

Harry ignored the man, and just followed the silent call in his mind;

"There, on the second shelf. That black box, do you see it?"

Harry nodded absently and reached up to lift down the box, not really taking note of the gasp from the old man behind him. Opening the wand case, he lifted out the polished length of wood and smiled as warmth spread through his arm and into his mind. Turning to the store owner, who was staring at him like a stranded fish, Harry gazed at him levelly, his expression completely blank.

The old man must have read something in his eyes, for his face went grave and he gave a short bow of acknowledgement, "Somehow I am not altogether surprised, Mr Potter." Was all the comment he gave.

"Brother to thine enemy." Harry whispered, drawing another startled look from the store owner as he paid for his wand. Nodding in thanks, Harry left the shop, not even noticing the slight awe in the old man's eyes as he watched him leave.

The last place that Hagrid took him was the owl emporium, for which Harry was extremely pleased. The man offered to buy him a pet as an early Birthday present and Harry knew just the one he was looking for.

Entering the slightly dim shop, he looked around at the rows of perches and searched through the feathered occupants looking for one bird in particular. A flash of white caught his eye and he grinned in delight as he saw the familiar snowy owl sitting off to one side, surveying the rest of the owls regally.

Walking up to her, Harry held out his hand, "Come on girl, would you like to come with me?"

A voice came from behind him and Harry turned his head to see the woman who ran the shop coming up to him, "She is a pretty thing, lad, but I think you should choose another for your pet. She doesn't really take well to people…" the woman cut off in amazement as the owl stretched her wings and lofted gracefully over to perch on Harry's wrist, "But then again," she continued, a rueful look on her face, "It looks as though she has taken a liking to you."

Hagrid heartily approved of his choice and it wasn't long until they were back on the train heading back to Little Whinging with Harry's shrunken parcels placed carefully in his pocket and Hedwig, in her cage sitting firmly beside him.

"So, did yeh have fun today Harry?" Hagrid asked him and Harry grinned up at him.

"Definitely. Say, Hagrid, will I get to see you at school as well?"
The huge man chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder, "Course yeh will lad, by the way, ere's yeh ticket fer the school train." He handed over the slip of paper and Harry tucked it carefully into his pocket.

The rest of the trip, Harry bombarded Hagrid with questions, much to the amusement of his older soul, he found he liked the huge man just as his other self had and he asked everything and anything he could think of just for the chance to continue speaking to the man whom was, essentially, the first true friend he'd had, in either life time (Not counting each other of course.)

By the time they reached his aunt and uncle's house, Hagrid and Harry had become fast friends, again, and as Hagrid bid him farewell he promised to call him down to tea once school started up again.

Grinning happily to himself, Harry pushed open the door and went inside, full intent on going through his new possessions and working through what he still had to get.

He got as far as the living room where he was ambushed by an irate Uncle Vernon and an indignant Aunt Petunia.

"And just where have you been all day, Boy." His Uncle demanded and Harry stared at him blankly, his mind not really catching up with what was going on.

"Huh?" was all he was able to utter before he was shoved onto the couch, his Uncle towering over him. He could see Dudley off to one side watching, a look of glee on his fat face.

"Well boy, start explaining. Where the hell have you been?"

Harry blinked at him then actually grinned, much to his uncle's shock, "Really Uncle Vernon," he said mildly, "I don't think you want to know the answer to that question. After all, any mention of magic causes you some distress." He watched in fascination as his uncle's face went purple and he found it extremely hard to be intimidated with the spirit snickering in the back of his head.

Vernon Dursley glared down at him furiously then opened his mouth to deliver a rather scathing lecture, "Now see here boy, we will not tolerate your freakish ways in our house. One more mention of unnatural powers out of your mouth and you will be lucky to see daylight this side of the end of summer. As to you attending this crackpot magic school, if you think you are actually going, you have another thing coming. You will attend the school I have chosen for you and be grateful for it, while you remain under my room, you will obey my laws. If it weren't for your ungrateful parents and their freakish ways, we wouldn't have been saddled with you to begin with…"

Unfortunately, as he continued to rave, Harry was less and less impressed. As soon as he made mention of his parents, his green eyes flashed a warning that only Aunt Petunia saw. Harry saw her trying to calm Vernon down without actually turning his ire on her but he really didn't care. This ignorant muggle would end up getting his family killed later on, just for his stubborn refusal to see anything past his own nose.

Completely ignoring whatever his uncle was still shouting about, Harry took firm control of his magic, both his souls merging in an effort to remain in control. After all, it wouldn't do to have a warning from the ministry before he even started school.

Once he felt he wasn't going to explode anything, he drew himself carefully to his feet and met his Uncles shocked gaze with flashing green eyes.

"I'll say one thing, Uncle Vernon, and that is to back down. All my life you have tried to stamp out the heritage within me that is all I have left of my family, well I have to tell you now, you failed. From what I have learned today and from the letter Professor Dumbledore left for me, I would say that you have little or no say over my life from this point onwards. It is not your roof I am bound to stay under, but Aunt Petunia's. The wards on this place are keyed to our bloodline link. I would think about that if I were you. If things were to go badly with the creature that killed my family, and he comes after me again, those wards will not protect you outside of these walls." He turned his cold gaze to his aunt who almost cowered away from him at the expression in his eyes, "Everything has changed." He told her softly, "You can no longer keep your head in the sand if you want to survive what is coming."

Her face went pale and Harry nodded sharply to her as he walked past and up the stairs. He didn't care if they had given him the other room yet or not, he was taking it. There wasn't enough space in the cupboard under the stairs and he needed room to prepare things.

He heard his uncle regain his breath after he left the room and turn on his wife, demanding to know what the boy was talking about. Harry simply ignored it all. Going to the door of the room that usually contained Dudley's collection of broken toys and other gifts he had abandoned over the years he pushed it open and was pleased to find the room empty. It looked as though Aunt Petunia had planned on shifting him up here anyway, even if Uncle Vernon hadn't agreed.

Shutting the door firmly behind him, he placed Hedwig's cage on the empty desk then reached into his pocket to retrieve the collection of shrunken parcels he had bought that morning. Setting them on the desk, he took out his wand and the first thing he enlarged was the large floor perch he had bought for his owl. Setting it up in the corner by the window, Harry unlatched the cage and lifted his friend out and set her on the polished branch. She had been his constant companion since he was eleven and there was no way he was going to allow her to be kept in a cage unless it was absolutely necessary. "There you are, girl." He whispered to her, scratching at her breast feathers, "You can come and go as you please, just don't bring in any mice or Aunt Petunia will fetch a fit."

Turning back to the rest of the parcels, he felt a slight twist in his mind and suddenly the older version of himself was sitting on the edge of the bed. He was still transparent and still dressed in tattered robes, but he looked less tired then the last time round, "I didn't know you could separate from me like that." Harry commented mildly, the spirit shrugged;

"I haven't, really. This is just a projection of me. Doesn't feel so much like I am talking to myself this way."

Harry laughed and tapped the other parcels, bringing them back to their original size. "So, what other things do you think we need to take care of before start of school? We have a whole month before start of term with no one keeping a close watch on us. From what you have shown me, once we get to Hogwarts, it is going to be harder to accomplish anything without being noticed."

"You're right there. Mainly we need to organise things with Gringotts. Getting the house back into a liveable condition should be one of our priorities. That will give us a backup home if things go wrong. Anyway, I would like to get out of here as soon as possible, to protect them. If we are not here, then there will be no reason for the Deatheaters to even find this place. After all once we sever contact, they will have no reason to suspect we have anything to do with the Dursleys."

Harry nodded, sliding his newly enlarged trunk to the foot of his bed, and then reaching for the parcel that contained his robes, "I agree with you there." He commented absently, tapping the paper wrapped parcel and watching in fascination as it grew in his hands, "After all, it isn't like I'm on my own in this. It would be a different matter if I didn't have you here, but what I don't know, you more then make up for." He glanced over a the spirit and saw him lean back on his hands on the bed;

"The only problems we are going to have are going to be from the ministry and Dumbledore. After all, having The Boy Who Lived, living on his own at the age of eleven isn't exactly good publicity."

Harry snorted as he shook out his new robes and hung them in the wardrobe, "Then I think springing Sirius is another high priority."

A fierce look crossed the older Harry's face, mirrored by his younger counterpart, "I think we are both agreed on that point."

Looking over all the things that Harry was unshrinking, the spirit grinned ruefully, shaking off the jumble of emotions at the thought of Sirius still in Azkaban.

"You certainly went all out this trip didn't you." He laughed as Harry hung up a couple of posters on the wall, all properly moving, as befitting the room of a young wizard.

Harry shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face, "May as well make the place interesting. I mean, now I know what is going on, I don't have to listen to the muggles at all and with you to talk to there isn't much point in trying to make then at least tolerate me. So I may as well make this place into somewhere I can actually stand to spend any time."

The spirit chuckled and Harry smiled slightly as the thoughts of the other floated through his mind as well, images of this same room, of being locked in without proper food, of Hedwig being locked in her cage, bars closing off the small window. All the old images being blunted by the moving posters of Quidditch teams on the walls, the happy white owl in the corner perched on an open branch, her cage stored in the wardrobe. Even the school trunk on the floor at the foot of the bed emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest;

"You know youngster, I think I like it better this was as well." His counterpart finally commented, a huge grin on his haggard face.

……………….

AN/ So there we have it. the next chapter will cover their, shall we say unsanctioned return trip to collect a few more items, not on the school lists. And the start of their plans of getting free of the Dursleys and of getting Sirius out of prison. Hope you enjoyed, and let me know if the conversations between the souls are confusing at all and I'll try to come up with a better way of portraying them.

Thank you to all those who reviewed, especially Hahukum Konn, I think it is for your E mails. It looks as though you think much along the same way I do as a lot of your guesses hit close to the mark at times, heh.

There are one or two who were concerned about me redeeming the creeps, (Malfoy and Snape) don't worry, they may be saved but they will still be gits, not changing their personalities that much. And I hope the interaction between the souls isn't too confusing, it is fun to write though.

Anyway, thank you all again, hope you continue to enjoy.

See Ya.