Chapter two: Diagon Alley.
"Up Potter."
Harry groaned and covered his head with the thin blanket before removing it and glaring up at Blaise who was smirking down at him. Glancing at the clock beside the bed he noticed it was only 7.15am.
"What?"
"We're going to Diagon Alley." Blaise smirked pulling him up off the bed turning to see Petunia in the doorway with a disgusted look. "I told her…she can't tell your uncle though since my mother was here to cast a secrecy charm."
"Because I'm so sure he won't notice that I'm gone and anything new." Harry grumbled – he had been lucky last night because Vernon had been too tired to beat him after they had left. "Why are you even here Zabini? We're not exactly friends – I don't even recall speaking outside of class."
"It's you or my cousin." Blaise said raising an eyebrow, Harry sighed and sat up rubbing his eyes tiredly…he'd been up reading rather late thinking he'd get a sleep in. "As nice as she is, Bethany is older than me and has her own friends. As for your uncle, he can no longer get in this room…my mother will be checking the wards too,"
"So go call Malfoy or something."
"No." he growled pulling Harry up and pushing some clothing into his arms, new by the looks of it, "My ma shrank some of my things; we'll be going shopping in the muggle world afterwards."
"Whhhyy?"
"You need karate gi – the shop that provides them is in London." Blaise explained flipping through one of Harry's defence books that Remus Lupin had gave to him before they left. "You also need tournament things; since I have a feeling you will be great at karate, training cloths and some casual clothing too…a few suits wouldn't go amiss."
"I can't afford this!"
"Don't be absurd." Blaise snorted slamming the book closed and looking back at him, he was now dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a black and white striped top along with a warm leather jacket. "The Potter family is rich, not as much as Malfoy or the Black's or even my family, but they were still high-class. I do believe they have a manor…?"
"All I know about is the trust vault." Harry shrugged wondering if it had been kept from him on purpose or because of his age, from the other boy's outraged look it was the former. "I don't even know how much is in there. I was going to go and find out as soon as I could…"
"We'll find out another day." Blaise sighed shaking his head before looking around the room, at the bed in particular. "I will have sensei speak to your relatives about your diet…don't think I didn't notice how much you ate, or lack. You'll need energy for training."
"Zabini…"
"My name is Blaise," he cut in before nicking a piece of parchment from the draw top and the ink and quill, Harry walked over to see what he was writing. Wincing just glad that his uncle couldn't enter the room without his permission.
New Bed
Casual clothing (muggle/wizarding)
Trainers/shoes
Formal wear – suits (muggle/wizarding)
Stationary (muggle)
Desk for bedroom
Drawer
Shelves
Wardrobe
Wall-paper/paint
Karate gi, tournament wear,
Training clothes, tracksuits.
Mirror
General heath/hygiene products
Semi-small fridge
"Blaise…I don't need all this." Harry protested trying to take the list from him to no avail. Really he already had half of those things! "Even if Uncle Vernon can't get in here – he will notice new clothing and such."
"Your Aunt will say it was her idea and that she gave you the money." Blaise intoned sounding totally amused, showing the smaller boy a bundle of money to him, "£100. She'll tell him that the neighbours are asking too many questions, like how they can afford to send you both to a private boarding school and spoil their own son yet you look like some homeless person."
"It's not…"
"That bad? It really is Harry." Blaise snorted placing the list in his pocket along with the money and pulled out what looked like an old crisp packet. "It's a portkey – a wizarding travel method – just touch it."
Portkey's were the worst.
Harry shuddered in remembrance as he followed Blaise through Diagon alley after they had got him a card (like a muggle bankcard) for his trust vault. 1Galleon = £6.73 and he had near ½ million in that vault alone, that was in muggle money…more than enough for this shopping expedition and to get him through the rest of Hogwarts since they money built in interest – the money he'd spent for the previous years of school supplies had already been replaced.
After a stop and Gladrags and Madame Markins clothing for all occasions and had them sent via house-elf (Blaise' personal) to be dropped off in Harry's room they moved onto the bookshop – Flourish and Blots – where Harry stocked up on defence books at fourth and fifth year level as well as some ancient runes and arithmacy, Blaise adding 'wizarding traditions' and 'A wizards guide to health and exercise and its effect on magic' explaining that things such as martial arts used to be popular in the wizarding world because it calmed the magic and sometimes even strengthened it because you had more control – it had long been replaced by occumancy.
Next was to the muggle world – things such as the bed (a ¾ size) desk, wardrobe, draws and desk along with the fridge were all took out to the back of the shops where they claimed their parents were picking them up – Minx the house-elf would take them and put them in the bedroom.
After picking out the wallpaper and paint – that Blaise refused to show Harry – Minx too took them and redecorated the room.
Finding the clothing was a hassle though since they didn't know his exact size in the muggle world and then finding styles to fit him as well. Trainers and shoes were just as problematic – though with the clothing they bought two sizes too big since Blaise was determined to get him to gain some weight, height and muscle.
Their final stop was the karate shop.
Blaise explained that their studio (The Winged-Wolves) only wore black with white around the edge, like the collar and end of the sleeves, to tournaments with a winged-wolf on the back and on the front was a white circle with white wings and a 'W' in the centre. For training however they could wear whatever colour they wanted so long as it had the crest and wolf on.
Blaise had him buy two sets of each colour in the normal karate gi (White, Black, red and blue) with the long-sleeves. Two of each colour in the sleeve-less and finally after deciding that Harry suiting black or white the best – he had two of the tournament ones made in white with the black on the outside and the wolf and crest in black instead of white…both in long and short sleeves.
Harry asked about the last one since the sensei was apparently insistent on the black with white outline but Blaise merely smirked and informed him that he looked better in the white and it was good for training anyway – what Harry didn't know was that Blaise was planning on getting the sensei to let him wear that one to tournaments if he was as good as Blaise was assuming that he would and could be, the difference between the training gi and the tournament ones was that the quality of the latter was much better and they were tailored to fit not just pre-made ones with the crest added.
Whilst there they also purchased a Blitz sports holdall/bag for him and a key-ring that had the Chinese sign for 'Hope' on one side and 'strength' on the other.
Harry didn't even both looking around the room when Blaise dropped him off instead falling asleep leaving Minx to unpack everything for him – not that the house-elf would have let him help – his last thought was cussing Blaise for having him out shopping all day