Title: I Devise My Own Demise
Author: Kyra aka Demon-childe619
Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue! The song used in chapter 1 is 'I Devise My Own Demise' by Papa Roach.
Summary: Harry's tired of everyone expecting him and him alone to save the world, or die trying.
Spoilers: Through Book 5, takes place the following summer.
Warnings: Slight slash, nothing hardcore though, mostly just hints of it for now.
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Chapter 6: Shopping In Muggle London
Harry, Draco, Ginny, Tonks and Remus blinked as the stepped out of the Leaky Cauldron into Muggle London, Tonks and Ginny still on Draco and Harry's backs. The five of them quickly headed into a nearby alley to remove the glamours. Ginny and Tonks hopped off the boys' backs and a few counter-spells from Remus later and the three teens were back to normal.
"So where to first?" Remus asked as he slipped his wand up the sleeve of his jacket.
Harry shrugged as they all headed back out of the alley, "I'm not really sure. The Dursleys never let me go shopping with them so I'm not quite sure where to go. Though, I'd say that our best bet would probably be a mall, as they have tons of stores all in one place. I think there should be one about ten minutes from here if we take a cab."
Tonks nodded, "Sounds good to me." Moments later a cab had been hailed and the five of them had squeezed inside, Harry telling the driver that they wanted to go to the nearest mall.
Upon stepping out of the cab and catching sight of the mall, Draco's eyes widened considerably, "Sweet Merlin! This place is huge!" He said in awe.
Ginny nodded, "That's a lot of shopping," She agreed.
"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Tonks asked, "It's already noon and time's a-wasting!"
They entered the mall and gazed around, trying to figure out where to start.
"Umm, maybe we should just wander a bit and if anything catches our eye or a store looks interesting we'll go in." Harry suggested.
It was only a few moments before a store caught the eyes of the teens. Or rather, the shirts on display in the window caught their eyes. Draco raised an eyebrow as he read one of the shirts out loud, "'Do Not Approach A Dragon, For You Are Crunchy And Taste Good With Ketchup.' Nice."
Ginny giggled, "Too bad nobody told Harry that back in your fourth year, huh? Advice like that could have come in handy." She said causing the other four to laugh with her.
"Probably," Harry agreed with a nod, "Wanna go in and see what else they have?"
They went in and started looking at the different racks, laughing out loud at some and reading some out loud to the others.
"Hey, Harry," Ginny piped up pulling a long- sleeved shirt out from one of the racks, "I dare you to wear this around Mad Eye!" She said as she turned the shirt so Harry could read it.
"'It Is As BAD As You Think, And They ARE Out To Get You!'" He read out loud before breaking out into a fit of laughter, "Oh Gods! That's awesome! See if you can find me a large, yeah? I'll wear it next time the Order is scheduled to come to dinner."
The redheaded girl nodded and sifted through the rack until she found the shirt in a large before throwing it to Harry. Draco and Tonks snickered while Remus merely shook his head in amusement, though he couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Moody's reactions to the shirt.
Harry grinned, his emerald green eyes dancing with amusement, as he tossed a shirt at Tonks. She easily caught it and opened it up to see what it said before laughing and holding it up to herself and turning to the others, "What do you think?" She asked.
Remus, Ginny, and Draco started laughing as they took in the baby doll tee with 'I'm Not Myself Today. Maybe I'm You' written across the front.
"I think it's very you," Harry said, the huge grin still fixed on his face. The others all nodded their agreement as they tried to control their amusement.
A few minutes later Draco spoke up, "What do you think of this one?" He asked, holding up a shirt that read 'You're Depriving Some Poor Village Of It's Idiot,' "I could wear it around the Weasel! No offence, Gin."
Ginny giggled and waved a hand at the once-again blonde boy, "None taken. I think it's perfect. Ron'll flip."
Remus chuckled as he pulled a black baby tee off the rack in front of him, "Hey, Gin, here's one for you," He said as he held it up for the others to see 'Nobody's Perfect, And Since I'm Nobody…' written across it in silver cursive letters.
"Ooo, I like, I like!" Ginny said as she took the shirt from the older wizard and added it to her pile of clothes to try on.
About thirty minutes later all five of them had found a couple shirts that they liked, and in some cases more than a couple, and they headed out of the store.
Hours later they had made their way through most of the mall, as well as most of their money. They had all bought new shirts, shoes, pants and in the girls' cases, skirts, as well as various other accessories, including a stop at the optometrist in the mall to buy Harry some contact lenses.
Harry, Draco and Remus stopped short as Tonks pulled Ginny toward a store that was predominantly pink and had mannequins wearing women's underwear in the windows, 'Victoria's Secret' was written in large letters across the windows on either side of the doors.
"Ummm, we'll just wait out here," Harry said, a vaguely terrified look on his face as he looked at the store.
Draco and Remus nodded their agreement, similar looks on their faces, as all three of them slowly backed away from the store.
Tonks rolled her eyes at their expressions while Ginny got a mischievous glint to her eye and a slow smile spread across her face. "What" She asked, her expression one of feigned innocence, "You boys don't wanna help us shop for bras? Or panties? Or-"
"NO!" Draco exclaimed, his voiced pitched a bit higher than normal.
"You sure?" Ginny asked, the false innocence still covering her face.
"Positive!" was the quick and once more higher than normal answer from all three wizards as they backed up a bit faster, looking like they'd like nothing more than to turn and make a run for it.
Tonks and Ginny burst out laughing at the reactions from the men.
"Fine, fine, how about we meet you guys at the hair salon down the hall when we're finished?" Tonks suggested through her giggles.
The guys nodded and quickly turned to head toward the salon. Just before they reached the salon Harry stopped to look in a store window, a thoughtful expression on his face. It took Remus and Draco a moment to realize that the Gryffindor was no longer next to them but as soon as the did they doubled back to stand next to him in front of the store.
"Harry?" Remus asked, looking at Harry with a quizzical expression, "What is it?"
The raven-haired boy looked at his companions, "I wanna go in here," He said, gesturing to the store.
The werewolf frowned a bit as he looked between his best friend's son and the store they stood in front of, "But, Harry, that's a-" He started.
"I know. And I wanna go in." Harry stated.
"Ya know," Draco spoke up, "I think I'd actually like to go in here, too."
Remus sighed and nodded as he followed the boys inside.
About an hour later, the three wizards exited the store and made their way to the hair salon to meet the girls.
"There you are!" Tonks exclaimed as the entered the salon, "Where were you guys?"
"Just a couple of stores down," Draco answered, "Harry and I got distracted."
Ginny's eyebrows rose, "You got distracted? For an hour?" She asked a bit incredulous.
"Yeah, pretty much." Harry nodded. "So, any idea what you wanna do to your hair?" He asked, effectively changing the subject.
The three Hogwarts students ended up being the only ones who got their hair done, Tonks not needing to because of her metamorphmagus abilites and Remus not needing to because he was happy with his hair the way it was. Ginny left the salon with her waist length red hair cut up to her shoulders and golden highlights. Draco's blonde hair was no longer gelled back and hung loose around his face, the tips lightly brushing his cheekbones and now had black streaked throughout it. Harry's hair was just as messy as it had been before, only now it was a controlled messy and slightly spiked, he also had green streaked throughout his hair. His hair was just long enough for one of the green streaks to fall across his eye, covering his scar in the process. All three teens were grinning, completely satisfied with the finished product.
As they made their way back to the entrance of the mall Tonks addressed the teens, "You know, if you guys really like the streaks in your hair, there's a charm that you can use that will basically make your hair grow the way it is now, you won't ever have to touch up your roots or anything. And if you decide you don't want the color anymore, it's no problem since there's a simple counter-spell for it. And the best thing, if you do the charm, nobody but you can undo it. Meaning that even if Mrs. Weasley hates Ginny's highlights or Harry or Draco's streaks she won't be able to do anything about it."
"Really?" Ginny asked, "Could you do it for me before we get back to the house? Mum will try and change my hair the instant we walk through the door, I just know it."
The purple-haired metamorphmagus nodded, "Sure, no problem. I can do yours, too, if you boys want," She said, directing the last bit to Draco and Harry earning a nod from both of them, "Cool, we'll do it when we get to the Leaky Cauldron."
A few minutes later a cab pulled up to the curb and the five of them once again squeezed in, each of them thankful that Tonks and Remus had shrunk all of their bags so that they would fit in their pockets. Shortly after that they pulled up outside the Leaky Cauldron and unloaded.
Before entering the magical pub they once more went into a nearby alley so that Remus could reapply their glamours. Before the teens' glamours were reapplied Tonks performed the charm to make their hair grow its current color. Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out four necklaces, each with a small charm hanging from a thin leather cord. The first he handed to Draco, it had a small sun charm hanging from the cord. To Harry he handed a necklace with a small dog paw print charm hanging from the cord. Ginny received one with a small cross charm. The last one he kept for himself, this one had a small wolf charm on it.
"Put these on," He said as he handed them out. "I made these while Harry and Draco were…distracted. They're basically portable Glamour Charms. If you hold the charm and say your alter ego's name the charm will activate. For example I'd hold mine and say 'Ash.' To deactivate the charm you hold the charm and say your real name, for me I'd hold it and say 'Remus.' For Harry it would be 'Hunter' and 'Harry,' for Draco 'Apollo' and 'Draco,' and for Ginny it's set for 'Taryn' and 'Ginevra.'" Remus explained. "This way you get a bit anonymity when you go out, like today, and you don't need to have someone else perform the charm. The necklaces are charmed to be unbreakable and so that only you can take them off. They're also long enough that you can tuck them into your shirt so no one will see them."
The three teens thanked their former professor and slipped the necklaces over their heads before grasping the charm and saying the name of their alter ego while Remus did the same and Tonks quickly changed her features to those of Artemis.
"Everybody ready?" Tonks asked and upon getting nods from the others started back towards the Leaky Cauldron. "So, we just need to stop by Madam Malkin's to pick up your robes, right?"
"Actually, I need to pick something up at the Magical Menagerie." Harry said with a grin as he thought about Ginny's reaction to his present for her.
Remus nodded, "Alright then. How about you three go to Madam Malkin's for the robes and Hunter and I will meet you at the Leaky Cauldron after we pick up whatever it is he needs to get." He suggested.
After getting nods from Tonks, Ginny and Draco, Harry and Remus headed for the Magical Menagerie while the others made their way to the robe shop.
"So what is it you need to pick up, Hunter?" Remus asked, looking at the boy next to him curiously.
The Gryffindor grinned, "I bought Taryn her birthday present earlier. You remember that kitten they were looking at? I got that for her. I mean, her birthday was a few days ago, on the eleventh, and nobody did anything for it. No party, no presents, nothing. So I figured I'd get her the kitten as a late-birthday-slash-thank-you-for-taking-my-side present."
"That was very nice of you, Hunter. I'm sure she'll love it." Remus told him.
At that point they reached the store and walked in, the tiny bell above the door ringing.
The witch from before looked up and smiled at Harry, "Ah, there you are, Hun. I was beginning to wonder if you'd be back tonight." She said. "I have all the stuff you wanted right here. The directions for the formula are on the can and I think everything else is pretty self-explanatory. I also threw in a couple of toys and a thing of treats for free. Here you go." With that a small bag with all the shrunk items in it and a kennel were set on the counter. Harry leaned over a bit to look inside and smiled at the kitten who was staring back at him with bright amber-colored eyes.
"Taryn's going to love her!" He said with a grin then looked at the witch behnd the counter, "Thanks again for holding her for me."
"Not a problem, Hun! You gentlemen have a nice evening now!" She said.
Harry and Remus nodded and Harry picked up the kennel while Remus took the bag of shrunk items and the two left the store, heading back towards the Leaky Cauldron.
Remus and Harry made it back to the pub before the others and grabbed a table in a corner. Harry set the kennel in the corner and maneuvered his chair so that Ginny wouldn't be able to see it unless he moved. Moments later Ginny, Tonks and Daco walked into the pub and looked around for a second before spotting the two wizards and making their way towards them.
"Did you get what you needed, Hunter?" Ginny asked as they approached the table.
Harry grinned, "Yup," He replied as he moved out of the way so that Ginny could see the kennel, "Happy Birthday, Sis!"
Ginny's eyes widened as she caught sight of the kitten peering at her through the door of the cage. She looked back and forth between Harry and the kitten for a few moments before throwing herself at her 'brother' and hugging him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed before crouching down to look at the kitten better. She slowly opened the kennel and pulled the kitten out, cuddling her close to her chest. The kitten sniffed at Ginny's down-turned face for a moment before licking at her chin causing Ginny to giggle. "Oh, I love her, Hunter! Thank you so much!" She said, looking back up at Harry.
"What are you going to name her?" Draco asked curiously as he reached out to pet the kitten.
"Hmm, I'm not sure. What do you think about Nyx?" Ginny replied, looking at the others for their opinions.
"I like it," Remus said and the others nodded.
Ginny smiled and looked back at the kitten in her arms, "What do you think, are you a 'Nyx'" She asked. The kitten gave a small 'mew' and started purring. "I'll take that as a 'yes'" The currently blonde girl said with a giggle.
"Sorry to interrupt," Tonks said, "But we really need to be getting back. Mrs. Weasley should be serving dinner soon and you know we'll get an earful if we're not back by dinner."
The others nodded and stood up, Ginny quickly putting Nyx back in the kennel and picking it up. "Let's go then," She said.
They quickly made their way over to the fireplace in the pub. "Okay, same order as before," Remus stated, "Artemis, Apollo, Taryn, Hunter, then me."
Tonks grabbed a pinch of floo powder, threw it into the fireplace, stepped in and shouted "Number 12, Grimmauld Place."
Draco quickly followed her and Ginny paused only long enough to give Harry another hug before following Draco. Harry quickly followed Ginny, throwing the floo powder into the fireplace and yelling "Nmber 12, Grimmauld Place." He once again stumbled out of the fireplace and once again, he was caught by Draco, who had already deactivated his Glamour Charm. Draco's arms once again wrapped around the Gryffindor as he helped to steady him. Harry's hands grasped Draco's shoulders to keep himself from falling as he tried to get his feet back under him. Once he was back on his feet he reached for his necklace and with a quickly muttered 'Harry' he once more looked like himself. As he realized he was still standing in the other boy's arms Harry quickly looked up to meet Draco's silver gaze. 'Ooo, pretty eyes!' Harry thought as he breathed in deeply, 'And he still smells just as good as he did this morning. Yummy! No! Not yummy! Stop sniffing the Malfoy!' He thought, berating himself. Harry closed his eyes and let his head fall forward onto the Slytherin's shoulder with a groan, 'Dammit!'
Draco smiled slightly as he once again ended up with an armful of Harry Potter. He felt Harry get his balance back and reluctantly readied himself to let go of the other boy, but to his surprise, Harry didn't step back. Instead, he looked up and caught Draco's gaze. Draco's breath caught in his throat as he saw Harry's glasses-free emerald green eyes up-close for the first time. 'He definitely looks better without those glasses,' He thought. After a second he remembered that breathing was a good thing and took a deep breath, 'And he still smells delicious. I wonder if he tastes as good as he smells…' Draco was startled out of his thoughts as Harry let out a small groan and dropped his head onto Draco's shoulder.
Both boys jumped and looked up as they heard someone politely clearing their throat. Ginny was standing there giggling slightly and Tonks was grinning while Remus stood next to them with a small smirk on his face. Draco tightened his arms around Harry momentarily before letting them fall back to his sides. Harry stepped away from the other boy with a small sigh. "I hate Floo travel," He said as he looked down, slightly embarrassed and trying to will away the blush he could feel rising on his cheeks. This just caused Ginny to giggle louder.
Ginny opened her mouth to tease the dark haired boy but before she could say anything Mrs. Weasley entered the sitting room.
"Oh good, you're back!" Mrs Weasley said, barely looking at them, "You lot go put your stuff away, dinner's in five minutes. Most of the Order will be here since there's a meeting after, so don't take too long."
Remus and Tonks quickly emptied their pockets of the shrunken shopping bags and resized them. The teens thanked the adults and grabbed the bags before heading upstairs.
Draco took the lead and headed towards his room, "C'mon, we can sort through everything in my room. We'll have more room in there since I have the room to myself."
Once in Draco's room the closed the door and dumped everything out onto the bed and started sorting through it.
"Oh, Harry, don't forget you have to wear this tonight," Ginny said handing Harry the shirt she had dared him to wear around Mad Eye Moody.
Harry grinned as he placed it off to the side. "This is gonna be pretty funny," He said, "And not just because of the shirt but because your mum didn't get a good look at us before we headed up here. She's gonna freak in front of everyone!" The three teens all laughed at the thought.
Draco picked up the 'Village Idiot' t-shirt he had picked out earlier and held it up, "Should I wear this to dinner?" He asked with a smirk.
"Definitely!" Ginny said. "Now, which one should I wear?" She asked holding up her 'Nobody's Perfect' shirt and a purple one with blue writing.
"That one," Draco said pointing at the purple shirt.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "And sit across from Hermione. That shirt will definitely piss her off."
Ginny nodded and set the shirt off to the side with Harry and Draco's. A few minutes later they finished sorting everything, just in time to hear Mrs. Weasley yell up the stairs that it was time for dinner.
"I'm gonna go put this stuff in my room and change, I'll meet you at the top of the stairs in a few minutes." Harry said as he picked up his stuff headed out the door into the hall.
"Same here," Ginny said, "See you guys in a few."
Draco just nodded and pulled off the grey sweater he had put on that morning and reached for his new shirt.
Harry went to close the door but paused for a moment and stared as Draco took his sweater off. After a few seconds he shook his head and finished shutting the door turning to head towards his room and stopping short when he realized that Ginny was standing right in front of him, an amused smirk on her face and her eyes dancing with mischief.
"Oh, shut up!" Harry said as he stepped around the red-head.
Ginny giggled as she followed him down the hall, "I didn't say anything," She said. They stopped next to her room and Ginny stepped inside, watching Harry continue towards his room. "Though, Harry?"
"Yeah?" He replied, stopping in the middle of the hall and turning back to look at her.
Ginny just grinned, "You might wanna wipe the drool off your chin!" She said with a laugh as she ducked into her room and closed the door.
Harry's eyes widened and his hand flew up to his mouth to check for drool. Finding none, he narrowed his eyes and glared at Ginny's door for a moment before heading the rest of the way to his room. 'Oh, haha, very funny, Gin!' He thought as he entered his room, closing the door behind him. He quickly pulled off Draco's shirt that he had been wearing all day, breathing deeply the Slytherin's scent as he tugged the shirt over his head. Next he stripped off Dudley's old pants and dug through his bags of new clothes and pulled out a pair of jeans, quickly pulling them on. The jeans were black and loose, hanging low on his hips, though that was because of the style and not because they'd previously belonged to a boy who was trying to impersonate a whale. Then he pulled on his new shirt, thankful that it was long-sleeved and would cover his bandages. Lastly he sat down and pulled on a pair of his new combat boots to complete the outfit. Looking into the mirror in the room he grinned at his reflection. Gone was the scrawny boy in too big clothes and broken glasses, instead a slim young man in clothes that fit and looked good on him stared back from the glass. With one last grin at his reflection Harry turned and headed toward the door to meet back up with Draco and Ginny and head down to what was sure to be a very interesting dinner.
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Well, what did you think?
This one turned out to be nearly 9 ½ pages and 4,078 words. Yay! I think that's around 100 more words than the last chapter! If this keeps up I'll end up having 10,000 word chapters! And considering I normally write a chapter in one sitting, that's a scary thought!
Also, I just wanted to say Congrats to HaliaStar who was the only person to take me up on my challenge and read all 7 HP books straight through, she actually managed to beat me at it, so I now owe her a story but the muses were boycotting that project so I decided to update this one hoping it would help make the muses less stubborn.
In case anyone is wondering, it took me a few extra days to make it all the way through the series. Though I did read books 1-3 and half of 4 in one sitting of 21 hours, 33 minutes and 49 seconds; Go Me! Over all, for all seven books it took me 70 hours, 40 minutes and 27 seconds. Though that's only reading time, not including breaks. But still, that's a lot of reading!
If you want an idea of what Nyx looks like go here:
http :// www. Flickr. com/ photos/ emphasis/ 28225623/
or here:
http :// www. flickr. com/ photos/ mad/ 753955278/
Just take out the spaces.
Anyway, leave me a review and let me know what you think or if you spot any errors or typos that need corrected.
Laterz,
Kyra