A/N: I feel really pathetic... I had part of this chapter all done and typed up, then the bell rang (I was writing during a period at school), and I aciddently hit the close button... WITHOUT SAVING. Curses! Technology really must hate me, or does it hate everyone? Personally, I think technology is evil and that we really are screwed over for relying on it so much. Anyways...

Oh! I almost forgot. I suck at writing accents, like Hagrid's, and I make no excuse for that. What really sucks about my inability to write accents like that is it gives me problems for writing my Final Fantasy VII fanfic... I haven't played the original game in several years, and only found out recently that my step-dad sold it, so now I'm hunting for a new copy. Also, I CAN'T REMEMBER IF BARRET HAD AN ACCENT OR NOT! CID TOO! Gah! Anyone able to help? I could really use it... Eh, I'm probably looking in the wrong section aren't I?

"Japanese"

"English"

Disclaimer: Alright, I do NOT own any Naruto or Harry Potter characters. I did NOT make any profit off of this story, other then reivews, which are nice. And if I did own them, then I wouldn't be writing this here, now would I? I do own Maerin, oh, and the first two volumes of the Naruto dub, which I think is really terrible...

Chapter 3: The Alley

Once the group had assembled in the staff room, to use the fireplace to get to this 'Diagon Alley' that Hagrid had rambled on about for the entire duration of their journey through the castle to get there, Hagrid finally explained why they were using the fireplace, he was just finishing up his explanation.

"... an' then ya' just say yer destination loud an' clear."

Naruto raised his hand, but blurted out his request anyway, "Could you repeat that please?"

Everyone, except Hagrid, sighed heavily. Typical Naruto behaviour.

"Alrigh' who wants to go first? An example should show ya."

When no volunteered, Hagrid 'volunteered' someone in his manner, "Alrigh' you." His guinea pig of choice? Gaara.

Stepping forward, Gaara took a pinch of the green powder, stepped into the fireplace, threw it down, saying levelly, "Diagon Alley." There was a flash of emerald green flames, and he was gone.

For a moment, everyone stared, then Naruto said rather loudly, "I wanna go next!"

Harry was dreading going to Diagon Alley. It meant shopping, and he hated shopping. Groaning he felt himself following the others down into the living room to reach Diagon Alley via Floo Powder. He'd been depressed since he'd reached The Burrow, and it seemed everyone else assumed it was over Sirius' death.

He'd been acting like this entire summer, and his friends noted that he really hadn't been very enthusiastic when it came to responding to their letters. Ron had pointed out to Hermione, in whispered conversation when they thought he couldn't hear, that he had thought the Dursley's had been abusing him or something because Harry's letters had been short and hurried. In truth, Harry just really didn't feel like talking to anyone about how he was feeling, he felt that it was something he had to do and deal with on his own. It was his fault that Sirius was dead, and nothing anyone told him would change his mind.

Arriving in the dingy main room of the Leaky Cauldron, for once, Harry was grateful for the subdued and depressing atmosphere of the place, it meant that he didn't have to be angry at one more thing.

The rather amusing, for some, trip through the caverns under Gringott's had made the shinobi decide to split up so that they could cover more ground and learn the layout of the area known as Diagon Alley better.

At first, Hagrid had protested that they shouldn't be wandering around alone during these dangerous times, but the shinobi considered this a mission, and ignored him, agreeing to meet in front of the wand shop when they were finished all of their shopping.

The groups were, Naruto and Hinata, Shikamaru and Temari, Gaara and Neji, and Sakura with Sasuke.

Eight shinobi watched with amusement as Sakura practically dragged Sasuke down the street towards Flourish and Blotts. The atmosphere of the place seemed to lighten, if only a little, at the comedic sight of a serious and cold Sasuke being dragged down the street by an over-excited Sakura.

Hinata and Naruto headed for the Apothecary.

"Hey Hinata."

"Yes Naruto?"

"Why does everyone seem so fearful? It's just like the time immediatly after Orochimaru tried to invade and destroy Konoha."

"I don't know Naruto, but I'm sure that we'll find out in due time."

The pair entered the shop, with Naruto immediatly covering his nose, while saying, "Dammit! Why does it stink in here? Doesn't anybody clean this dump up?"

Hinata giggled at his outburst, but quickly agreed that the store had a very disgusting odour, perhaps owing to the various ingriediants spread about throughout the shop. They hurriedly made their purchases before bursting out into the streets, with Naruto thanking kami-sama that he hadn't died from the terrible stench of the Apothecary.

In Flourish and Blotts, Sasuke had discovered probably the most interesting section yet. He was busy browsing the shelves of a section titled, 'Defense Against the Dark Arts', and had found a number of interesting titles, several of which he pulled from the shelves and balanced under his arm to look at closely when he had finished.

He was examining the title of a very interesting looking book, when a large group entered the store. He didn't really look up, the tomes were much more interesting then a bunch of wizards, especially the ones he'd seen so far. Just as he reached to pull down the tome he'd been examining, a group of people rounded the corner, and swarmed into the section.

Promptly ignoring them, Sasuke wondered whether or not he had enough to actually purchase all of the books he'd pulled from the shelves, but quickly shoved that thought to the back of his head.

"Excuse me," a young female voice asked from his side.

He turned his head slightly, the girl was younger then him, or perhaps his own age, he couldn't tell, and she had a shock of long, glossy, brilliant red hair.

Seeing that she had his attention, she smiled, "Do you work here?"

"No," his tone remained even, although a little irritation showed.

Another three teens approached, one with the same shock of red hair as the girl, only male, a bushy haired girl, and a boy with messy black hair, and bright emerald green eyes that had a similiar look to them that Sasuke himself sometimes had.

"Ginny? What are you doing?" the male red-head asked.

The one named Ginny turned to him, obviously they were brother and sister, and answered, "I was just seeing if he worked here Ron. He doesn't."

"Of course not! He's not old enough to work! He's probably around our own age," Ron told his sister off.

Sasuke returned to the shelf, and was just resuming his browsing, when the bushy haired girl interupted him, "Do you attend Hogwarts?"

"Hn."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Yes." The tone this time was a very much so irritated. Turning on his heel, he brushed past them, hissing a warning only the messy haired boy could hear, "You'd best get rid of that look in your eyes."

Harry stared at the back of the retreating boy. His indifference to them had made him seem arrogant, and had reminded Harry strongly of Draco Malfoy, but the hissed warning told him something else. Harry thought about it, and suddenly felt a flash of anger at the teen. Who was he to say something like that to him? He didn't have any idea what had happened to him, or what he was going through.

Ginny was oggling the stranger's back, out of the blue she spoke, "He's really good looking."

"Oi, I thought you liked Harry!" Ron snapped.

Ginny hurumphed, Hermione added to the conversation, "I've never seen him at Hogwarts before, and I'm positive that he should be in our year. What do you guys think?"

"I don't know..." Ron pondered. "I think he's really good Slytherin material; did you notice how cold he was? And his tone was so irritated when he answered your question Hermione."

"Just because of that doesn't make him Slytherin material!" Hermione snapped back.

There was a chime at the doors, signifying someone had either entered or exited, judging by the lack of the spiky-haired boy that they had encountered, they guessed he had left, the pink-haired teen they had seen upon their enterance to the shop had also disappeared, meaning she had also left.

"Something's going on here, and I'm not sure that I'm going to like it," Harry muttered under his breath, no one else heard him.

Shikamaru wasn't quite sure how he'd been talked into going with Temari. But somehow he had, but he wasn't going to complain all that much about it, it was either going with her or Gaara or Neji, and personally, he felt much better going with her.

They'd just exited the quill and parchment store, and were now headed for Flourish and Blotts. He could see Sasuke and Sakura just leaving.

"Honestly Sasuke, did you have to buy all those books? You might not have enough to buy the rest of your supplies!"

The younger Uchiha sighed, "I figured that we might need a bit of an edge over Akatsuki. It doesn't hurt to know; we might need it."

It was a little unnerving to know that Sasuke didn't really hold proper conversations outside of Team Seven, although he normally argued with Naruto, which could be considered 'conversations' to some extent. Other then Sakura, Shikamaru had never really seen him really talk with anyone else. One thing he knew for sure, hurt Sasuke's Sakura, and you were just signing your own death warrent.

"Hello Shikamaru, Temari."

"Hi Sakura."

"Sakura, Sasuke.

"Temari, Shikamaru."

The groups passed each other after the greeting, with Sasuke and Sakura going into the Apothocary, while himself and Temari continued into Flourish and Blotts. There was a large group of people in there, but they managed to get all their books for the subject, paid and left.

Why was he the one stuck with Gaara?

It hadn't made sense to Hyuuga genius why he was the one who was stuck with the Kazekage. Although Gaara was no longer the homicidal maniac he had once been, Neji found him to be a little creepy at times. Naruto's influence had definitely saved them both, and both owed him a large debt.

Already they had gotten everything except their books, which was where they were heading now. Neji had just seen Sasuke enter the Apothecary after Sakura, so he assumed they had already completed getting their books. Entering the store, he just saw Temari and Shikamaru pay and leave, leaving him and Gaara in the shop with a large group of people.

Neji would have considered them to be all one family, which they probably were, but two weren't. One was a bushy haired girl and a black messy haired boy, both were around his age.

He couldn't help but wonder in accepting attending Hogwarts, what they had gotten themselves into.

Harry felt eyes on him, so he turned and spotted the person who was looking at him. The teen's eyes were a lavender shade, so pale it might have counted as white, and no pupils whatsoever. His dark brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, and there was a strange headband with a metal plate on it with a strange symbol that. The moment Harry looked at him however, the teen looked away and immediatly was in a different section, his companion however, came over to where they were standing, and pulled down the required curriculem for sixth years in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry immediatly noticed that he had no eyebrows.

When he noticed that they were all staring at him, he gave them a small smile before heading over to where his companion stood, they conversed for a while, before they headed to pay, with a stack of books each, paid and left.

"There goes another two," Ron commented as they also left. "I've never seen them around, and sense they had the sixth year curriculem as well, they're in our year."

"It's strange," Hermione commented. "I mean, not knowing who they are, and they're probably in our year."

"Let's hope they don't turn out to be as disasterous as Umbridge."

"I highly doubt they're there to teach Ron."

It had taken the better part of the day for the shinobi to get all of their supplies and meet up at the wand shop. Hagrid was there, and the eight of them crammed into the small, cramped room. An elderly man, who they assumed to be Ollivander came out, and greeted them.

"Now, which of you would like to go first?"

Everyone exchanged glances, then, "Oh! Oh! Pick me!"

One guess at who that was.

Naruto stepped forward, and Ollivander sent a tape measure to measure him, while he pulled boxes down from the various shelves. He took the tape measure and placed it on the table, he held out a wand to Naruto, who took it.

"There, now wave it."

Naruto brought it down in a slashing motion, nothing happened, "Hey! Nothing happened!" Ollivander took the wand and gave him another. Naruto waved it, this time sending a burst of chakra into it, unfortuantly, he'd sent too much, and the wand exploded.

Ollivander stared in obvious sorrow as the fragments of one of his precious wands fell to the ground. He handed the shinobi another, and this time, it didn't explode, red sparks flew out of the tip, "That's your wand, who's next?"

About an hour later, with various results, the shinobi, except Sasuke, had their wands. The results had varied from an earthquake, to shattering all the windows, to setting Ollivander's robes on fire, and causing it to rain sand.

Ollivander handed Sasuke a wand, and he immediatly channeled his chakra into it, and it also exploded, much like Naruto's had. Ollivander handed him another, this one had black sparks fly out of the tip.

"How much?" Sakura asked.

"Seventeen galleons and ten sickles."

The shinobi coughed up the cash and departed, meeting Hagrid outside.

"Got everythin'?"

They nodded.

"Good, bes' get back then."

The shinobi and the half-giant left the alley, and headed back for the Leaky Cauldron.

I feel so proud of myself! This chapter was over two thousand words! My longest yet! Whoohoo! Happy dance! Anyways, I'm sorry I haven't updated this story for a while, and I'll get around to updating the others too. I just found out this story's been included in a C2! Yay! My first, and only so far, fanfic is in a C2! Thank you whoever put it there! You get a cookie! (sends Yuan with cookies to whoever did that's house)

Now, all you people who reviewed... I would like to thank and send cookies to:

random reader
Miss Anonymous HP
Draonheart0000
CuriousDreamWeaver
DeadRatSam
shuji
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If you want a special mention and cookies, then review the story! I worked hard, and it's 3 AM in the morning! SO DAMMIT I DESERVE A REVIEW FOR TYPING, FINISH, AND PUBLISHING THIS! SO REVIEW ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO READ THIS STORY! IT MAKES ME UPDATE FASTER! EVEN IF IT'S A SHORT ONE! FLAMES WILL BE GIVEN TO THE EVIL GREMLIN WHO LIVES IN MY CLOSET!

Thanks you dedicated readers! Now review!

Katalyn