Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything, not making money off of it, etc

Chapter 8 : Double Trouble

Remus sat in the chair and waited until Harry closed the door before he looked at the two documents in his hands. With a slight tremble, he opened the one from Sirius first and read it. With a smile, he took his wand out and faithfully recited the creed of the Marauders', "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," and watched as the handwriting changed.

He read through the note, a small smile creeping up on his face. The letter was very Sirius, even if it wasn't pranked. He hadn't known that Sirius had keyed Harry into the tower. In fact, now that he thought about it, this was the first time he thought about the tower in years.

As he thought about the old times, he didn't notice the letter add some writing at the bottom. A few moments later, however, he did notice it.

Moony,

I charmed the parchment on the off chance that Harry ever let you read it. I'm sure you've realized by now you haven't thought, or more correctly, couldn't remember the Tower until now. I'm sorry old friend, but when we suspected you as the traitor, we took you out of the wards. When I added Harry, I put you back, but you had to be told again, and the charms prevented me from doing so. Don't worry about that traitor, he can't remember the Tower.

'Hmm, well that explains that...'

I do have something to ask of you though, look after Harry. I don't have much space left to write, but you were always the smart one and you knew me and James better than we knew ourselves sometimes, you know what I'd say to you...

"The purpose of being alive is to live...yes, yes," Remus grinned while trying not to cry, "Oh Padfoot, you always said that, but you don't know how hard it is..."

... And after you ignore what you know I'd say, I just have to say it again - the purpose of being alive is to live. Besides, I'm the Sirius one of the group, didn't you know?

Padfoot

At the last part, Remus couldn't help but grin. 'He may say that I knew him and James better than themselves sometimes, but he always was the one who would know just what to say. Even if half the time it was lewd.'

With a smile, he whispered, "Mischief Managed" and watched as the text disappeared before folding the letter back up and placing it in the provided envelope. Harry had been right, the letter did make him feel better about his passing. Remus would have been quite content to end his foray into the past then and there, if Harry hadn't been so confusing before he left. With a tired sigh, he looked to the second parchment Harry handed him earlier. His eyes focusing in on the Potter Crest before reading through the contents.

To say that he was shocked would have been an understatement. Remus might not know much about Wills and how Executing them worked, but it was apparent to him that something went wrong in the execution. What angered him the most wasn't that he never got the house, or that he never got the money. It was that Harry was sent to the Dursleys, when he would have been more than happy to take Harry. Not that the law would have let him, but surely Albus could have gotten him at least partial custody.

Reeling with the implications of the mis-executed will, Remus never noticed the amount of time passing until the door was hesitantly opened, "Remus..."

"Harry, welcome back. I see what you mean about the will... I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed myself with all the questions..."

Harry slowly released his breath, he had been expecting the full Order to be behind the door waiting to take him back to the Dursleys. He entered the room, locking the door behind him, and sat back down next to Remus. The tea set had gotten cold, but both of them ignored it.

"Yeah, I ended up sending a letter to Gringotts. It seems the headmaster was the one who executed it, but since he still has his magic, he must have gotten around the will on technicalities. I also asked Glinhog," noticing that Remus looked a bit confused, he added, "the goblin who sent me Sirius' Will, if you were ever informed of the house, since you never mentioned it and even with my limited knowledge, I know a lot of the things listed in the will didn't happen. Well, they happened, the headmaster still has his magic, but they didn't happen like intended. They informed me that you have the deed in a vault in your name..."

"The only vault I have at Gringotts in strictly money only, I could never afford to open up and maintain a security vault. Then again, Gringotts never lies... "

"You could always check with Gringotts after we're done talking," Harry suggested before becoming a bit nervous. He loved Remus, but he still wasn't sure if trusting him was the best of plans. The Order hadn't burst through the door yet, but that didn't mean anything. Finally, his curiosity got the best of him.

"I'm sorry for this change in subject, but did you inform the Order I was here?"

Remus looked over at Harry, suddenly remembering that Harry wasn't suppose to be here, and not only that, went out in Diagon Alley without any guard, unless you counted a very odd house elf.

"The Order, Merlin! No, I forgot. Just a second..."

Harry panicked and tackled Remus, "No! Please don't!"

Shocked by Harry's aggression, he could only ask, "Why shouldn't I? Even if you say Voldemort is laying low, you could be in danger..."

Harry glared at his former professor, picking himself up, "Remus, don't make the same mistake Voldemort and the Order does! I'm not a child anymore, I'm merely weeks away from being emancipated! You of all -" However, whatever Harry was going to say was cut off as Harry stopped, collected his thoughts and counted to ten in his head. Then he calmly continued, "What I said before is the truth, but there was more that I left out. You have to swear you'll never tell the headmaster this information..."

Remus, for his part, stood a bit ashamed of himself, he didn't mean to make Harry feel like a child. It just seemed like he got into trouble a lot and he couldn't help but be a bit overprotective of him. Remus nodded for Harry to continue.

"Well, you know about the vision, and Dumbledore's letter. Well... actually, I don't think I can explain it well. In short, I think Dumbledore is using me just to defeat Voldemort."

"Now Harry, Albus made a mistake last year... you don't Honestly think he think that he's just using you like that? Maybe Snape just fed him false information to torture you," the last part being said with more than a bit of hope in the tone.

Harry shook his head, "Remus, he stuck me and Voldemort in a room and let us fight it out when I was 11 for Merlin's sake!" Seeing Remus's raised eyebrow, he continued, "The Philosopher's Stone, if there were proximity alarms, they were never checked, the door could be opened by Alohomora! The headmaster never did get the owl Hermione and Ron sent him, he just 'knew' to come back and just 'happened' to come in right after I defeat Quirrel."

"That could still be circumstances, though, that is rather fishy about the door, I know for certain he knows about the ill-intentions prevention ward. Though, the ward can be broken if the user is skilled enough. However, with the right combination, by the time they break the ward, you can have a team of Aurors there. It's a pretty standard anti-theft ward used around residences."

"Wait a minute, I didn't think I would need it this weekend." Harry then turned back to where Dobby was, "Dobby, could you get the blue notebook under the floorboards in my room at the Dursleys?"

Dobby exclaimed that he would love to before popping off. A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Dobby popped back in with the notebook. Harry took the notebook from Dobby with a word of thanks before turning back to Remus.

"This is my progress with what I believe the headmaster is doing. It would be easier then us spending the rest of the afternoon arguing over the fine points. If you still disagree with me after reading all that, then you can take me back to Privet Drive. Actually, I would prefer you would, I wouldn't want to listen to Snape and I'd rather not speak with the headmaster right now."

Remus nodded and looked at the blue notebook in his hands. Harry brushed aside any trepidation he felt and took out his new trunk's manual and started to read- He'd rather do something useful then spend the whole time worrying about Remus' conclusions.

...The trunk comes prepared with several charms and wards you can activate and deactivate with the simple instructions. All new trunks come with the charms and wards deactivated as the first time the owner sets up the trunks' spell work, it copies the magical signature of the user so that the trunk is tied to the owner. Instructions for adding people to the trunk are on page 69.

The most notable of the available features are the muggle-repelling spell, useful if you're staying in a muggle hotel as the cleaning staff will ignore your trunk; notice-me-not charm, useful if you're staying in a magical forest to allow low-powered magical creatures to not notice your trunk, and as such, your food; QuickMagic (tm) Shrinking and Expansion Charms, for the wizard on the move - no wand required!; ...

The page went on to explain several other available spell works. He flipped to a random page in the spell work activation chapter and what he landed on amused Harry to no end- a ward he could activate that would warn him if there were rutabagas within 10 feet of the trunk. On the other hand, he pondered on as he flipped through the pages, he was surprised at the diversity of pre-installed wards and spell work they had available. It did give him an idea though.

Now he wouldn't have to worry about spell work on a cauldron conflicting with a potion, he could just use the room-compartment of his trunk as a small potions laboratory. That way he also wouldn't have to worry about Moody or the Dursleys finding his supplies. Though, he would have to stock up on potion supplies now to keep him occupied until his birthday, when he could work on the 'wand-waving' portion of magical studies.

Over on the other side of the room, Remus sat there reading the scribbles of thoughts and reasoning that Harry wrote in his attempts to figure everything out. The information, while a bit random, did make a lot of sense, if you wanted to look at certain things from that point of view. A large part of him wanted to believe in Dumbledore, the great Headmaster of Hogwarts, the one who allowed him to attend school, even at the risk of the other students, the defeater of Grindlewald, and the great symbol of good. Another large part of him wanted to believe Harry - The proof was tangible, after all, an unintentional misinterpretation of the will can only be taken so far before it could not be coincidence.

After a few more pages, he knew what he had to do, and so breaking Harry's thoughts, he stood up and walked over to Harry. Neither of them noticed the two strings retracting under the door.

It had been a pretty boring day. Now, normally, a boring day could be brightened with their patented "Day Brightener Kit", but even they did not want to risk running into false advertising, so they left the kit in their storeroom and decided that they would leave for the day - There had to be better entertainment opportunities outdoors and it wasn't like their clerk couldn't handle anything.

So, the two went to their rooms, donned their cloaks, ready to fight the dullness of the day with their upcoming product, "EyeSpy". After all, they did need to test their products before they went on the market, which only further cemented the idea that they shouldn't be stuck in their shop for the day.

Once on the streets, they delighted in using their new product. They were a pair of binoculars designed to see through glamour charms, which most wizards and witches used for superficial issues, such as unseemly warts and embarrassing birthmarks. The two had made them with a certain muggle game in mind - I Spy. Only, to their estimation, their version was much better. One twin would spy something with the glasses while the other had to guess who they were spying.

"I Spy with my EyeSpy someone who has a birthmark in the shape of a tooth on their right cheek"

"The witch in the red and orange robes?"

"Nope"

"The wizard staring in lust at the witch in the red and orange robes?"

"Nope"

So the two played. Eventually the guesser, who happened to be named George, got the correct answer (The witch with the singed eyebrows) and was given control of the EyeSpy binoculars. He searched around, looking for the perfect query. 'Wart on the tip of nose... too easy, pimples ... nah, Lightning Bolt on forehead...' George froze for a second, before lowering the binoculars, wiping his eyes, before looking through them again.

"Blimey, it is," muttered George before handing the binoculars to his twin, "Do you see what I see, brother mine?"

Curiously, Fred looked through the binoculars at the man walking away from the Travel Shop, "I do see. I wonder what Harrikins is up to."

"As do I, Shall we," asked George, extending his arm for Fred, who took it in his own, "We shall," and off the two crept behind Harry, following him all the way to the Leaky Cauldron. It was safe to say that their previously boring day was turning to be much more exciting.

Once they reached the door they saw Harry enter, they slowly crept up to the door and withdrew their extendable ears and slowly eased them under the door and past the privacy wards.

"...he must have gotten around the will on technicalities. I also asked Glinhog..." The two listened to the conversation, some things they didn't understand, but what really sparked their attention was when Harry spoke, "...I think Dumbledore is using me just to defeat Voldemort..." By the time they started to retract the ears, they had a lot to think about as they crept away from the door and made their way to their shop. For their part, they weren't going to tell anybody that they saw Harry, but some of the seemingly innocent things going around Hogwarts seemed to take a much darker turn. At the very least, their earlier boredom was replace by a rather somber and serious mood.

Harry watched Remus as he walked towards him, the resolve apparent in each step he took. He grinned in delight when Remus spoke, "Well, cub, there isn't much else to say then I support you in this. Now, before you get cocky, I do want to say that I will report you missing if you're not back at Privet Dr. by my shift on Monday, which incidently doesn't start until 8 PM."

Before Remus could continue, Harry cut in, "Why?"

"For starters, I do trust you, that's why I'm not going to say anything about today or tomorrow. You should be able to finish your business by then. But it wouldn't be good for me to be missing from Headquarters everyday, and they'd certainly ask questions after they tailed me and saw you, and you know Moody would be able to see through that glamour..."

"Oh yeah," Harry smacked his forehead. He had forgotten about the glamour again, "Do..Agent Socks, can you take the glamour off?"

"Yes, Master Agent Seeker, sir! Agent Socks is on the job," replied Dobby and with a snap the glamour was gone.

"Do I want to know," asked a bemused Remus. Harry stifled a laugh before replying, "Probably not."

"I see, I was only planning to be back by Monday afternoon anyways, and Dobby will be here, so you don't have to worry, he'll take me back to Privet Dr. if I'm attacked."

Remus glanced at his watch and grimaced, "I should probably make it back to my apartment, I know Albus had intentions of checking in on me today. I have to admit I've been a bit reclusive since Padfoot died. We can talk again on Monday, I'll also make some subtle inquiries, while what you have is somewhat convincing, I have a personal stake in all this. If you want to get others to believe you, you'll need more concrete evidence."

The two hugged, and gave their farewells until Monday and then Remus left. Once again, Harry was in his room, alone with Dobby and with a to-do list that seemed to be a mile long. He was happy in the knowledge that somebody else supported him with this, even if all he was doing was sneaking away from Privet Dr. for a few days and then laying low until he was emancipated, but it still felt good. Going back to his bag, he took out his clothes from earlier and changed back into them, putting on his sunglasses and hat, after all, even magical eyes couldn't see through that. He carefully folded his robes and placed them on his bed and was halfway out the door when his stomach grumbled.

After a hearty meal, Harry headed back out on Diagon Alley with his companion following him invisibly at his side, or at least Harry hoped he was there. His first stop for the afternoon would be The Apothecary. With his new plans about the last compartment, he decided they would be his first priority.

They entered the dark smelly shop and Harry was suddenly overwhelmed by the amount of ingredients available. In his past trips, he would have always gone up to the counter and asked for a supply pack for the year, he had never really looked beyond the counter except that first year when he was rather curious. Then there was the fact that he wasn't sure how much of everything he would need. He was in need of help and wished dearly that Hermione was there, or, if it were possible, a personality changed Snape.

Luckily for him, the clerk for the shop was working towards his mastery in potions and was knowledgeable in what sort of supplies Harry would need. He was first dragged over to the kit section, where he was advised to take one of each, if he were truly looking to review everything he knew, as well as learn more. Putting Kits for Hogwarts Years 1 through 7 in his shopping cauldron, as well as "The First Aid Potions Kit", "Commonly Needed Potion Ingredients Kit", and "Potions Apprentice" kits for the first three levels (After level three you were expected to be able to pick out and stock your own ingredients).

The next section he was dragged through was the storage and accessories area as the clerk said, "For their schooling, the students are only given ingredients to work with that don't have many storage requirements and anything dangerous or reactive to light is usually provided by the school. Since you're going to be self-studying, I'd recommend buying one of our Ingredient Storage Devices and with the amount of ingredients you'll be needing, our selection of Ingredient Cabinets would be your best bet. I personally own the top of the line X230 myself. It's a dream, There's a big shelving area that will hold all your common ingredients that don't have storage requirements as well as inner Cabinets with all the specifications required for any ingredient. While the price is a bit steep, it is worth it in the end. But if you're not up to that..." and the clerk went on to show their other cabinet options. In the end, much to the clerks delight, who he found out was named Adam, he bought an X230 in a light cedar finish. Before Adam started on describing the various Potions Storage Devices, he just asked for Adam's recommended cabinet and bought one in a matching light cedar finish.

The next thing Adam had him stock up on was vials, lots and lots of vials in every size, shape, and material possible. Then they finally got to the fresh ingredients. An hour later, and what seemed to be hundreds, if not thousands, of ingredients later, Harry walked out with his purchases shrunken in a large box. He asked Dobby to quickly deposit it in his room at the Leaky Cauldron while he finished talking to Adam. Adam, for his part, was a nice man and offered his assistance if Harry needed any help with his Potions Work. Harry gladly accepted it and made a mental note to owl Adam if he had any questions. Once Dobby returned, they left the shop and went onto their next store of the day - Flourish & Blotts.

His shopping trip through the store wasn't as long as he thought it would be after a kind sales assistant noticed him taking book after book off the shelf, and as the booklists hadn't come out yet, it was rather unusual.

"Sir, I noticed you're in the market for a large selection of books," the assistant, who, according to the name tag, was named Katie. At Harry's nod, she continued, "Well, we have a very good bulk order service catalogue, all you would have to do is send an owl, or house elf, with your order and we can have it shipped and sent to you within 24 hours. Best of all, the catalogue is self updating, so you don't have to keep coming and going. Are you interested?"

Harry thought for a moment, he could look through the catalogue once it got too dark outside and the shops closed and it would save him time. "That sounds brilliant, how about we tally up these books and then I'll work on my order tonight. Thank you, you've saved me loads of time."

Katie just blushed before Harry left for the counter to purchase his books, he had only gotten about 10 books, before Katie had intercepted him, all of them were about the Magical Community. The title that particularly interested him was "A Complete and Concise Directory of Magical Charities", which had profiles on all the Magical Charities available. With a thank you to Katie, he put his shrunken purchases, plus catalogue, into his bag when the idea struck him - If Flourish & Blotts had a catalogue, other stores could have them too.

With that thought in mind, he ran back to the Apothecary, where Adam gladly gave him on of their Catalogue. A slight grin crossed his face as he entered store after store asking if they had catalogues. By the time it started to get dark, Harry was laden down with catalogues and was worn out from running from shop to shop, but in the end, he had gotten catalogues from every shop on Diagon Alley that had them, even Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He had thought it was some great luck of his that the twins weren't in that day, he wasn't sure he could handle anybody else's questions for the day and the twins, he was sure, would be masters at spotting disguises, even if it was non-magical.

A quick dinner later, Harry was in his room with his Flourish & Blotts catalogue open in front of him. The time passed quickly to Harry, as he marked what he wanted in various catalogues and it wasn't until it was close to midnight that Dobby forced him to stop looking at the Quality Quidditch Supply catalogue and go to sleep.

Story Notes:

QuickMagic (tm) - In this universe, any item that has wandless spell capabilities (such as 'touch the rock and say 'expand' and the rock will grow' type things) is the work of the QuickMagic people, who are making millions of galleons off their spell patent. How it works is that first, the user has to perform the charm themselves and the subsequent use of the QuickMagic will only be of the quality you put into it. So you can't mass produce rocks that shoot off the patronus or something, they can only work with you/your magic. Then, after the initial programming, spell, it'll act sort of like a wand and just perform it on itself given the correct activation key. It also only works for simple spells, as it isn't really a wand and so it can't tap into your magic as well as a wand can. The only good thing about QuickMagic is that since it doesn't use a wand, it doesn't set off the underage alarms unless the magic is seen by a Muggle (who isn't approved to know about the Wizarding World).

Thanks Fuzzball2000, I caught myself before when I switched their names, but I must have missed that.

Next Chapter: Catch Me If You Can

- Saturday & Sunday rolled into one Chapter (as well as the beginning of Monday), after 3 Chapters for Friday, the change in pace should be nice.

- Armed with Catalogues, Harry finds himself with a bit too much time on his hand, It's a good thing he bought that book on Magical Communities...