"We need to leave NOW Potter" Severus said amplified through out the house by a sonorous. This is just like the little brat, typical disregard for anyone else's time. It was 7:35. That meant it was almost 8 a.m. which was entirely to close to the lunch crowds then he wanted to be. With all the dithering Potter was likely to do, he would be lucky to get out of there without meeting Potter's screaming masses.

A quiet "What the fuck?" was startled out of him when he turned around towards the stares to berate the boy for being late. Unfortunately Potter seemed to be replaced by a repulsingly ugly boy. Hunched forward, absolutely covered in achne, and possessing a face that would have suited a bush baby; this boy was an utter failure to aesthetics.

"Hi Professor" the familiar foice greeted him "I thought it might be a good idea to camoflauge myself in some way, what with the Death Eaters"

"Not a completely terrible idea but.. what motivated you to choose this particular specimen?" recovering himself slightly "And how was the transformation initiated?"

Harry smiled a bit smugly "Me and Hermione found the specifications for a modified polyjuice potion, I have no idea what it's called but it combined the traits of several people to form a new identity. I chose this particular identity because it served its purpose. Nobody pays attention to an ugly kid, except for the occassional jeers. Everyone always wants to go more attractive when transforming, I decided to take the alternative route".

"Metamorphagis Polyjuice, very difficult potion. I am very impressed with Granger, since it was no doubt fully her efforts that went into the potion." Snape said automatically in Malicious Teacher mode, then in a slightly softer voice. Slightly. "I do approve of the reasoning behind your new, incredibly displeasing to look at, persona. I shall have to find somewhere else to rest my gaze."

"Are you saying that my looks were not incredibly displeasing before the polyjuice?"

Snape raised his eyebrow "Fishing for compliments? How unbecoming of you Potter" The red staining the boys cheeks might have been cute on Potter, but on this creature it was nauseating. Did he just think that something could have been cute on potter? Fuck, how absurd, perhaps he needed to vent the potions lab. It had been a few years and the fumes must be accumulating. "The floo for the Leaky Cauldron is always a bit iffy, and portkeys are regulated tighter then ever, so we will be apparating. Since you haven't managed to get your liscense as of yet, I will have to side along apparate you. You have of course managed to make this an even less enticing task with your… get up."

Snape roughly grabbed Harry's hand and apparated them into a backroom within the Leaky Cauldron, maintained specifically for this purpose. Harry found himself holding onto Snapes hand longer then what was necessarily needed, savoring the surprising warmth. For some reason he had always assumed that Snape would have cold clammy hands, as if being in a dungeon caused him to obtain those same characteristics. Realizing how long they had been holding hands he shook off Snapes grasp and quickly exited the room, Snape followed him without commenting.

"Sir, I think this is where we should part. You are conspicuous in your own way, people would notice a boy with you. We can set a specific time to meet back here and I'll make sure to stay within sight of large crowds."

Sneering Snape thought it over. It essentially makes sense, he is fairly easy to pick out in a crowd. "Fine, we'll separate here. Your safety measures however are not adequate, you will also allow me to place a tracking spell on you that" raising his voice slightly to forestall protests "will allow me to apparate to you directly if any aggressive magic is used within a 50ft radius of you. This will have the added benefit of keeping you out of Knocturn Alley."

"Fine Sir" Harry said submitting to the spells. He hadn't planned on venturing out of Diagon Alley anyway. He was reckless, not stupid.

The first stop on Harry's list of things to do was, as always Gringotts, afterall there was just as few things found for free in the wizarding world as that of the muggle. He went through the usual process: Grumpy Gobblin, Key, Scary cart ride, Open the Vault, Gather gold. Muggle banks were sooo much easier. Not that he had ever been allowed to go in one, but from what he'd seen on the Dursely's T.V…they looked downright simplistic

After that he travelled to the famous wizarding publishing company Rambles, Dribbles, and Fluff that despite the name was known for its high quality publishing and focus on product integrity. After spending an in-ordinate ammount of time in the bathroom removing the Polyjuice with a potion thrust at him by Snape when he told him his plans. In Snapes words "The same unnattractiveness that will save you in Diagon Alley will doom this scheme of yours, no important publishing company is going to take an impromptu meeting with a nobody. Not that I support your idea or conceed to your proposal." Harry snorted at the memory, nooo of course not. Snape couldn't make it easy. The potion had to be applied topically and repressed the polyjuice in his system for a total of one hour. No more, no less. He walked back into the lobby, making sure his scar was showing, and asked the secretary if perhaps there was an opening for the meeting. She started to say no but then her eyes registered recognition and she got him an opening. The meeting went very quickly, the publisher Mr.Crottle was hugely enthusiastic about the idea, was sure it would be a success. Perhaps because Harry Potter would be writing the forward and giving a brief introduction of each person featured in the book. sigh Hopefully this wouldn't make things even more difficult with Snape.

Next he needed to buy new clothes. The ones that he had inherited from Dudley were getting ridiculous and there was only so much a belt could do. Harry decided against Madam Malkins, the decision was equal parts reluctance to meet up with anyone from school and dislike of that style of clothing, and went to the interesting clothing store to the left of Gringotts and across from Olivanders. These clothes were much more to Harry's taste. Primarily dark colors, the store had a wide range of band tshirts, both muggle and wizarding. It was time for a change, he had defeated Voldermort and no longer felt the need to comply with the wizarding idea of The Chosen One. The throbbing music playing throughout the store, admittadly, had a lot to do with it. It sounded like something he could get lost in. He found someone who appeared to be working there, a tall boy with spiked hair that flashed all the different colors of the rainbow and piercings in every place imaginable. The only clue indicating he worked there was a small name tag that said "Hi! My name is , how may I help you?" On which he appeared to have writted 'Fuck off'. Charming.

Harry hesitantly walked over to him "I was wondering if you could tell me who this is.." at the boys only semi-hostile questioning look he clarified "The music, who is this playing?"

"Some muggle band, Raised Fist I think they're called. All the music is upstaires" he said pointing apathetically towards the staircase at the other end of the store.

"Your customer service skills are amazing"

"About as amazing as your wardrobe"

"Well that is why I'm here"

"Don't let me stop you"

"Well.. that would be severely against your job description wouldn't it?" Harry said, smirking at the mans glower. Not nearly as powerful as Snapes.

Harry then spent the next 30-45 minutes wandering throughout the store picking out any clothes that he was even vaguely interested in. He did have quite a lot of time to make up for as far as clothes buying went, and its not as if he'd get to Diagon Alley often. He grabbed copious amounts of tshirts, cargo pants, belts, buttondown shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, boxers, and a couple of what muggles affectionately called 'wife beaters'. Walking to the back of the store he searched for the dressing rooms, he hadn't ever bought clothes before so the sizes were a bit iffy. He spotted another boy that worked here, hopefully more friendly. He was a bit shirter then Harry, 5'11 or so, and was wearing one of the mesh shirts that Harry had passed up on his trip throughtout the store. Harry stared blatantly at the boys stomach, shown off by his shirt, and the muscle lines decending into the boys scruffy black slacks. Such lovely pale skin Harry thought vacantly, not looking away until the boy cleared his throat. He wasn't sure if the revulsion on the boys face was due to Harry's polyjuiced appearance or being checked out by a guy.

sigh Probably both. He quickly tried on the clothes and found that he had judged his size right, for the most part. On his way to the cashier he stopped and picked up a mesh shirt to purchase. Couldn't hurt if he ever had the oppurtunity to go to a club or a concert.

He purchased his clothes and shrunk the bags, placing them carefully in his pocket. Magical shoplifting was near impossible, the stores placed alarm spells on the clothes and the dressing rooms had monitoring spells on them to make sure no one used enough magic to take the spell off. He knew that it would be possible for him to have shielded his area with a dampening spell and lift the spells, but why bother.. he had the money stealing would have been a hassle. He smirked, and morally wrong of course, mustn't forget to play the goody-gryffindor. He was pretty sure it wasn't always a pretend game for him, at one time he really was that virtuous and pathetic. However, somewhere around fourth year he learned that friends weren't always there for you, even family that loved you couldn't fix everything, and teachers weren't always deserving of your trust. The innocence that had survived childhood died then, and he moved on with his life pretending that it hadn't.

He smiled and laughed at Ron's jokes, played quidditch, seemed to trust and accept everyone. In contrast to how it appeared, Ron wasn't funny, his quidditch team wasn't that great, and no one was even slightly worthy of trust on sight. The only people he really did trust were Hermione, and Severus Snape ironically. Hermione had never given up on him, and Severus Snape never changed to suit the situation. They were both stead fasts, there for him when everyone else was complacent with just watching. During his sixth year Severus had spent the majority of his spare time training Harry in Dark Arts, Dueling, and hand-to-hand combat. He acknowledged the necessity of working together, and while he had never softened towards Harry, the taunting stopped. Hermione had helped him practice and forced him to keep up with his classes. He never would have survived without either of them. Which is why when he had discovered that blokes got him hard way faster then girls, Hermione was the only one he told. And when Snape became the focus of his fantasies, hand-to-hand combat became severely awkward. Not to say that he liked the man, he was still an uppity bastard, but his voice was velvety. If Snape's singing voice was anything like his speaking voice then he had really chosen the wrong career. Having seen Snape shirtless for hand-to-hand combat made him very sure that he was attracted to men.

Speaking of music, the upstairs of this store was overwhelming. He honestly had no idea what he was looking at, or what he should be looking for. It was isles and isles of small spheres in clear plastic boxes all of them labeled in some way. "What the fuck!?!"

"They're music retained in the sphere by some spell, who the fuck knows which one, that are put in a player" the boy who had been browsing the isle closest to him pointed to the strange device in front of him "and activate a spell that projects the retained music and the player has different degrees of sonorous you can switch between to decide volume. The inventor was a muggle born, apparently he got the idea from one of the electramajiggers" he stopped browsing and looked Harry up and down "you should probably take a drink out of your flask" pointing at Harry's bulging pocket "your hair is turning brown at the ends and your eyes aren't quite so muddy as when you came up the stares, more of a hazel"

"Shit, fucking hell!" he removed the metal drinking flask from his pocket and took a swig, looking all the world as if he was drinking some sort of alcohol "thanks"

"No problem, my names Tyler by the way. What are you looking for?" Tyler was gorgeous. Tall, tan, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, dressed in a blue t-shirt and faded blue jeans.. he made Malfoy look pale and ugly.

"No idea, I like pulsing beats and screaming is always good, other then that I just want music that expresses something"

"Well the wizarding world isn't really big enough to have a wide selection of anything, and the majority is about struggles with You-Know-Who right now, kind of depressing to be honest. But I can hook you up with some really awesome muggle music, as long as your not uptight about it"

"No, muggle music is good."

"Alright well first you'll need one of these" Tyler said handing him a music player and starting down an isle "as far as music goes lets start you out with AFI, Arcade Fire, As I Lay Dying, not Atreyu mock shudder , Bauhaus, Bob Marley, Bush, Cradle of Filth.. I'm giving you a big selection of music types so you can find your niche… Combichrist, Chimaira, Deftones, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mindless Self Indulgence.. You can really never have too much of this band…. Mushroomhead, Nile, Nine Inch Nails…. you have to listen to the song Closer immediately…. Aaaaand last but certainly not least Static-X and Raised Fist." He said adding another group of spheres to his large collection. "Oh shit, money isn't a problem is it? I assumed not when I saw how many clothes you purchased. I definitely should have asked"

Harry laughed and reassured him that he'd be fine. As he was turning away to purchase the recommended music Tyler grabbed his arm, "I don't suppose you'd want to keep in touch and tell me how you like the music..?"

To say Harry was astonished that Tyler would want to with the face he was currently sporting would be a bit of an understatement. "Sure…I'd like that, should I just owl you?"

"Yeah, just send your owl to Tyler Brooks"

"Alright."

"Not to ruin the moment, but I saw a glimpse of what you must look like with out the ugly mask. Noyce." Tyler said laughing as he walked towards the stairs with Harry to purchase the spheres and player.

"Ahh, and here I thought you were a decent person. I'm afraid I can't talk to you after all" Harry stated in a mock serious voice. "So what are you up to next?"

"I was just going to get my ears gauged, I only come here so often and I've been wanting to get it done"

"Sweet, mind if I tag along? I've been thinking about some piercings"

"Sure. Mind if I ask you a question? If you are under juice, why did you buy clothes? They might not fit your actual body." Tyler said looking at his massively oversized pants and shirt.

Harry started laughing "These aren't my clothes, they're my cousins. My body is the same size as this one, perhaps a little bit more muscles."

"Ahh my bad."

Having purchased and shrunk the music stuff, they left that store and headed down Diagon Alley to a small building bordering the entrance to Knocturn Alley. The sign overhead christened it "More then just a snake and skull: piercing and tattoo"

"Cute" Harry said sarcastically.

"We have to laugh at something" Tyler said as he led the way into the building.

The inside of the building led Harry to re-evaluate his opinion of the place. It was awesome, there was framed drawings of possible tattoos lining the store, and pictures of tattoo's received by clients. Lounging chairs with stools next to them, some occupied by people receiving and etching the tattoo. "I have to get one"

Harry didn't get just one tattoo, or just one piercing. He went all out. As far as tattoos went, Harry now had a snake wrapped around this bicep, wolf tracks and paw prints tracking intertwining paths up his back, a wizarding tattoo on his hip of a golden snitch that flitted about that area, and phoenix rising up his calf. He also had his nipples, tongue, and eyebrow pierced. Taking another sip from the flask he turned and watch Tyler get his gauge, reveling again in outstanding looks.

As they were leaving the shop, Harry placed glamour's over his tattoos and piercings. The ones that were visible at least. "My guardian would not be pleased" he told Tyler as he sped up to get to the Leaky Cauldron in time.

"Man I hope your ass is this nice when you aren't drinking" Tyler said sending a ridiculously light stinging hex at Harry jokingly.

Severus apparated in front of them instantly, his eyes darting around to assess the situation.

"When you said your guardian was over protective you weren't joking" Tyler stated, wilting slightly as Snape glared at him.

"What happened P--" He glanced at Tyler "ercy?!? I told you to be careful, there is death eaters about" Snape stalked in front of Harry grabbed his hand, and apparated them back to the manor.