JAPANESE VACATION
CHAPTER 21 -
THINGS TURN UP
Nekozawa smiled down at Hermione. "You don't have to act happy for me Granger-chan."
Hermione gave a sheepish smile. "That obvious?" she asked as they began to walk.
Nekozawa nodded as he looked down one end of the street. "There looks to be a sign with a book on it that way, perhaps that's one."
Hermione made to follow him farther but paused, when she noticed that he was missing his wig. "Um, Nekozawa-san, you're wig is gone."
Nekozawa felt the top of his head and looked back seeing the trampled black wig on the ground. He sighed and pulled up his hood. "Oh well."
Hermione smiled at him and continued on to the store Nekozawa had seen. It was, in fact, a book store.
"We should be able to find something here," Hermione told him.
Nekozawa smiled down at Hermione and opened the door holding it for Hermione. "Oh and Granger-chan? Please don't let those words that Malfoy-san said get to you, you are a lady."
Hermione paused, giving a very small smile up at Nekozawa. "Thank you," she said, her voice soft, eyes showing just how much she appreciated that.
Nekozawa nodded and followed her into the shop.
Nekozawa nodded following her. "You don't think anyone will make the same mistake that Potter-kun did with my appearance do you?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. I love Harry like a brother, but he can be rather dense sometimes. I've seen Death Eaters, and their cloaks are a lot heavier than yours is, and of a different cut. The only similiarity they have is that they're both black."
Nekozawa chuckled a bit as they walked to the back of the store.
The back of the store was just as clean as the front had been, but it had more of an abandoned feel to it than the front did. It didn't bother Hermione any, as she'd been to several different, truely, abandoned places in her years at Hogwarts, and she began browsing the shelves for something that Nekozawa, or any of their new friends might be able to use. Because one this was for sure, now that the elder Malfoy had seen them, they were going to be drawn into the war whether they liked it or not.
It would definitely be best if they could defend themselves.
Nekozawa scanned the book titles in awe picking out one to scan through it only to replace it and look at another.
It did not take Hermione long to find a book that looked good (she had been doing something similar for close to five years). With a nod to herself, she tucked it under her arm and continued looking. "If you happen to see something you like, grab it," Hermione said.
"I don't suppose any of you saw an ice cream shop or something like that when we entered?" Harry asked his group of four.
Hunni nodded. "I saw one back when we first entered, it had brightly colored umbrella's out front."
"Well, then, lets head that way. If there's ever a time for sugar, it's after a meeting with Lucius Malfoy . . ." or with Voldemort, but he wasn't going to say that.
Huni cheered as Mori and the others continued to walk.
They quickly got to the store Hunni had seen, and found it to be an ice Cream store.
"Be careful of their flavors," Harry said, "A lot of them are different than what you're used to."
Huni and Mori both ordered chocolate while Tamaki ordered strawberry and Kyouya ordered plain vanilla.
Harry thought a moment before getting vanilla as well. There was only so much you could do to Vanilla ice cream after all.
After getting their ice cream everyone began to eat, moving to sit outside.
"Alright," Harry said. "So some of the ice cream is normal. It's the candy you have to watch out for."
Tamaki nodded and ate his strawberry ice cream.
It did not take the twins long to find the closest joke shop, even though it wasn't in any of the directions they had been in. It was almost as if they had a radar pointing it out.
The Hitachiin twins smirked as they looked through the items.
"Hey what do you think we could use to really frazzle that old albino bat?" Hikaru looked at Fred.
Meanwhile Kaoru was looking at some of the jokes in amazement.
Fred blinked a moment before he started laughing. He'd never heard Lucius Malfoy refered to as a bat.
"Well, he's rather vain," he said after he got himself under control. "So anything that would mess up his image."
Hikaru nodded then picked up a box. "Hm… Blasters Boils, ew…" He set the box down and picked up a second. "Cornish Pixie dust, sure to get your enemy's itching and keep them that way for hours." He looked at Fred again. "This stuff is amazingly mean. I like it." He laughed for a moment before walking farther into the shop.
Fred laughed and when to explore the shop on his own, mentally taking notes."
Draco silently browsed the brooms.
Haruhi looked around the shop and looked in awe at a small golden ball that was laying in a display case, all alone.
After a moment, Draco noticed Haruhi, and, decided that his father had liked her, at least.
"That's the snitch," Draco said.
Haruhi looked up at him. "What part does it play in the game?" She was honestly curious about the game as she looked back down at the golden ball that had un raveled it's wings and began to dart around the case, her eyes watching it as it moved.
"The seeker has to find and catch it. The one that does usually wins the game because it's worth 150 points." Draco said.
Haruhi nodded and looked back at Draco, "So that's the ball that you are usually trying to get?" She smiled and jumped as she heard a loud ruckus next to her in a trunk.
"Yes," Draco said, laughing slightly. "And those would be the bludgers. It's the Weasley's job to keep them from their team and try to get them to hit the others."
"Wow, it sounds pretty dangerous." She looked from the box back up to Draco. "I'd like to see a game some time, I'd like to see you play actually."
Draco looked down at her in surprise. "Really? Well, we don't really have enough people to get a game together here," he shrugged slightly.
Haruhi nodded. "That's too bad."
She turned and went to look at some of the uniforms recognizing a set of green and silver ones only because she saw the same serpent on the patch as the patch that was on Draco's robes.
Draco nodded, then, followed her gaze to the uniforms. "What colors do you prefer?" he asked.
Haruhi thought for a moment. "Well, blue and silver are two of my favorite colors.
Draco nodded thoughtfully, then smirked, steering her toward the counter.
Haruhi blinked up at him then looked at the person behind the counter. "Malfoy-kun?"
"Excuse me," Draco said the the man behind the counter.
"Hai?"
"Do you customise quidditch robes? I know Diagon alley does, over in England, but it would be such a hassle to have to send for them."
The man blinked. "Uh, well . . . we don't get many people asking that."
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you don't?"
"Oh! No, no, we do. What colors, sir?"
"Blue and silver."
"And, size?" he asked, taking notes.
Draco turned to Haruhi and raised an eyebrow.
Haruhi blushed. "You don't have to Malfoy-kun…"
"Think of it as a thank you for opening your home to me," he said.
Haruhi nodded.
"I'll need your size miss." the man behind the counter told her, quill to parchment.
Haruhi blinked. "Uh, Malfoy-kun I have no idea what sizes I am…" She looked very confused.
Draco nodded as the man pulled out a measuring tape. "No problem, miss." he said, straightening it out and letting it go.
But, instead of falling, it zoomed over to Haruhi and started measuring her.
Haruhi eyed the measuring tape in surprise then shrugged and held out an arm as the tape seemed to tap it.
It was over fairly quickly. "We should have them ready in an hour or two," the man said, taking back the measuring tape. "You're welcome to stay until they're ready, or come back later."
Draco turned to Haruhi. "Is there somewhere you would like to go?"
Haruhi shook her head. "I have no idea where we might go, I asked Granger-chan to pick me up some books so I don't have to worry about that. Is there anything you want to go look at?"
Draco shrugged. "We could always visit the apothecary," he said. "I am running a little low on my potions ingredients."
"Ok." She began to walk back to the door.
Draco followed her out. "I think I saw it back towards the bank."
Haruhi nodded as she slowed so that she was walked beside him looking in all the store windows as the passed.
"So, what do you think?" Draco asked, referring to their surroundings.
"It's so amazing. It actually makes me glad that Kyouya-sempai snooped." She laughed a bit but then caught herself. "I mean it was wrong but, now I get to see a whole other world."
Draco nodded slightly. "It . . . seems to have had its benefits."
Haruhi fell silent as they walked. They got to the Apothecary fairly quickly. Haruhi looked around the shop, amazed at some of the ingredients.
Haruhi looked at a few of the ingredients. "Acromantula leg hairs? Frozen ashwinder eggs?" She looked over at Draco. What in the world are these used for?"
"Well, the Ashwinder eggs are used in several love potions," Draco told her. "And the leg hairs are used for several of the higher level potions. Some poisons, a healing potions or two." He shrugged.
Haruhi nodded. "So love potions and all that stuff is real…weird."
"Well, the love potions are generally looked down on in polite society. And they don't last forever. And I bet it's as weird to you as all that muggle stuff is to me." He smiled at her.
Haruhi continued to nod as she looked at a small root with a tag on it that read. 'Asphodel Root'.
Draco turned to get the supplies he would need for his potions. Not that he knew where he'd be practicing them.
Huni tilted his head to one side. "What's wrong with some of the sweets?"
"Well, there' the chocolate frogs, that jump after you open their package. They're not too bad actually. Most of them only have one jump to them. But, then there's also Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. At first glance, they look like Jelly beans, but when they say every flavor, they mean every flavor. I was present when my headmaster got an earwax flavored one once. And he mentioned getting a vomit at one point."
Huni made a weird face. "Ew."
Tamaki only nodded as he sat at the table with the others.
Harry nodded. "My sentiments exactly. There's also pumpkin pastries, though, and those are alright. Then you've got the Blood pops for vampires."
Huni blinked. "Vampires are real?"
Tamaki shivered listening intently to Harry while Kyouya watched people as they passed by.
Harry nodded. "As are werewolves, unicorns, pegasis . . . pegasi? . . ." Harry shrugged. "merpeople, and most anything else you can think. They're all just hidden."
"Wow, it sounds scary." Huni looked thought full for a moment before going back to eating his ice cream.
Harry frowned slightly, his expression thoughtful. "The werewolf was a little scary. But most of it's pretty cool," then his voice at a mumble. "Though the spiders weren't fun."
Kyouya raised his eye brow. "Spider? What's wrong with a spider?"
Harry cringed at the memory. "The leader of them was . . . huge. I never did see all of him, but all of his children were as big, or bigger than me . . . and they tried to eat me and Ron. It was only because of an enchanted car that we managed to get out alive."
Kyouya blinked. "That would be terrifying." His voice was very blunt as he spoke.
Tamaki nodded quickly.
Harry blinked at Kyouya for a moment before snorting, once. Twice. Three times, before he erupted in full blown laughter. He wasn't sure what, exactly, was so funny about his statement, but it was, and couldn't stop.
Kyouya only blinked at Harry. "What's so funny?"
Harry looked up with mirth filled eyes. "J-just the fact that we were twelve years, running for our lives from creatures that shouldn't have been that big, terrified out of our minds, and your response is just as calm as ever." Harry burst into giggles once more.
Kyouya only shrugged. "Well I'm sorry but I don't think I can really imagine what it would be like to be chased by large spiders." Then as soon as he said it he shivered a very faint amount. "Or maybe I can…"
Tamaki shook his head, trying to get the image of a large spider chasing him out of his mind. "That's scary."
Harry blinked at them. "You really want to know what it was like?" he asked, smirking, eyes twinkling mischievously.
Kyouya shook his head. "No I think that's quite alright." He ate a bit of his ice cream as it began to melt.
Harry let out another snort, before returning to his own ice cream. "Not that I blame you," There was a moment of silence. "You know, if you guys plan on coming here again, you might want to get robes of your own. Ones that don't look like our school uniform."
Kyouya nodded in thought. "That might be better."
"We can go as soon as we're done," Harry said. "Madam Malkim never did appreciate food in her shop."
As soon as they were done, Harry stood. "Now, we just have to find the robes store."
Which wouldn't have been a problem if this was Diagon Alley.
The four again nodded as they rose and began to look for a robes shop.
The shop was fairly easy to find. It had a huge sign of a robe outside of it. They went in and were met fairly quickly.
"Good morning." the woman said. "What can I do for you?"
"They need a pair of robes each." Harry said.
She nodded. "Alright. I'll need you to hop up onto the stools.
Each stepped onto a stool looking around.
She pulled out four measuring tapes, letting them do their thing. "Anything for you dear?" she asked Harry.
He shook his head. "No, mine are good." he smiled at her.
"All right then," she turned back to the four on the stools. "Any cloth, or color you'd prefer?"
Huni thought for a moment. "Dark blue for Mori-kun and I."
Kyouya nodded. "Simple black please."
"Ano….White with a gold colored trim please." His smile was as innocent and sincere as ever as he spoke.
The woman raised both eyebrows at Hunni, mistaking him for the age he appeared. "Oh really?" she asked, looking up at Mori, to see if he agreed with this.
Mori simply nodded once while Huni pouted. Harry ducked his head to hide his smirk.
"Alright then. What kinds of materials do you all want?"
Harry settled himself down into one of the seats. Not knowning how long it was going to take
They all looked at each other before shrugging.
Kyouya looked at the woman. "It doesn't really matter, something durable and a mediocre price."
The woman nodded, snapping her fingers as she bustled away to the back, causing them to fall to the ground. A moment later, she came back with four different colors and began to fashion their robes out of them.
10 minutes later, she was telling them to hop down. "That'll be it, then," she said, placing the robes over her arms. "Will you be wanting anything else?"
The group looked at each other and all shook their heads.
"Then your total comes to 5 Galleons, 10 sickles and 6 knuts, unless you want to buy it all seperately. In which the totals are, 1 Galleon, 3 sickles, and 2 knuts each for the black, and two blue ones, and 2 Galleons, and a sickle for the white and gold one." She looked at them expectantly.
Kyouya sighed and looked at the pouch that the Weasly twins had handed him back and opened it. Then turned to Harry giving him a look that told him he had no idea what was what.
Harry snorted. "I told you," he said shoving Kyouya's pouch back at him. "That this is my treat," It was said more as a cover as to why they weren't paying than anything else. Not that he would need them to pay him back.
Then, with practiced ease, he dug into his own bag and pulled out the required amount, placing it on the counter.
The woman blinked at him. "You're paying?"
Harry nodded, giving her a small smile. "Yeah, they helped me out with a problem last week. I told them I'd be buying them another set of robes as thanks." He leaned forward. "I don't think they believed me," he laughed a little.
The woman nodded, a knowing gleam entering her eye. "Well, then," she said, handing them their bags. "I do hope you all come back."
Kyouya nodded and took his own bag while the others grabbed theirs.
Harry sent another smile at her before leading the way out of the shop. "Probably should have told you this before," Harry said, digging into his pouch again, and pulling out three very different coins. "The gold one are Galleons, the silver are Sickles, and the bronze ones are knuts," he held each of them up as he explained them, seeming to any passerby's like he was inspecting them. "There are 17 Sickles to a Galleon, and 29 Knuts to a Sickle. This is also our only currency."
Kyouya nodded taking in the information. "That would have been nice to know ahead of time."
Harry shrugged. "Never introduced someone to the Wizarding World before," Harry said, dropping the coins back into the pouch. "All I've got to go off of is my own . . . and that's not exactly a reliable starting point."
Kyouya nodded as they were outside. "Now where to?"
"Well," Harry answered, "That depends on what you want to do. There's the animal shop, though you'll probably find some strange animals there, the Apothecary, the book store, I'm sure there's a junk shop somewhere, there is in Diagon alley. Probably a cauldron shop too." He shrugged.
Kyouya looked around and the only one who seemed to have an idea was Huni. "Lets go look at some of the animals!"
Harry nodded, looking around to see if he could see it from where he was. He sighed, annoyed a moment later. "I hate being so short," he grumbled. It prevented him from seeing over a lot of the people.
Suddenly with out waurning to anyone Mori lifted Harry up with out much effort.
A startled noise escaped Harry's mouth before he could stop himself, and he instinctively tensed. "What the? . . . I hadn't meant that you had to . . . er . . ." He looked around for someone to help him.
Huni only laughed and looked at Harry. "But this is so much easier."
"No offense meant," Harry said, still rather tense. "But I do prefer to move under my own will. Less things tend to happen that way."
Mori nodded then set Harry back down.
Harry relaxed immediately after his feet were on the ground once more, and sent a smile up at Mori. "Thanks," he said.
Mori only nodded again.
"Oh, there it is," Harry said, pointing to the store a little ways down. The one he would have seen earlier had he not been suddenly taller than he could ever hope to be.
The group all began to follow Harry to the pet store.
Draco bought his things and turned to Haruhi. "They should be done by now," he said. "Shall we head back?"
Haruhi nodded. "Ok."
Draco held the door for her, then led the way back to the Quidditch shop, his demeanor more relaxed than it had been since the encounter with his father.
Haruhi smiled as they entered the quidditich shop once more.
"Ah, there you are," the man said as they did so. "I've got your robes right here. You might want to try them on first, to make sure that they fit."
Draco just leaned against the counter.
Haruhi took the robes and nodded. Quickly she stepped over to a fitting room and began to change, at first confused but soon she figured it out and she quickly stepped out to show how they fit.
Draco let out a low whistle. "You're a natural," he said.
The man nodded. "They do look rather good on you," he said.
Haruhi blushed and did a small spin looking at herself in one of the mirrors. "They're actually a lot more comfortable then I thought too." Giving Draco a smile she went back into the fitting room and changed back into the other robes before stepping back out.
"They have to be, or they can hinder your playing ability," Draco told her through the doors.
"You don't play then?" the man asked after she stepped out.
Haruhi stepped out and nodded. "I'm hoping to start though." She lied carefully giving the man a smile.
The man nodded. "Have you get everything you need then? We've got some new brooms."
"This was all she had left to get," Draco told him. "Now, how much will this be?"
"8 Galleons," he said.
Draco didn't even raise an eyebrow as he dug out the gold coins.
Haruhi watched him pay and looked back down at the robes that were in her arms.
"Would you liked that bagged?" the man asked Haruhi.
She looked up and nodded. "Please."
The man took the robes from her and quickly folded them up before placing them in a bag and handing it too her.
Draco then led her out. "So, what do you think?" he asked.
Haruhi looked up from her bag. "Oh they're beautiful, thank you."
Draco nodded. "You're welcome," he smiled. "But I'd meant about this," he raised a hand to wave it at the alley.
Haruhi looked around. "It's amazing." Her eyes held a look of amazement that she could hardly contain. "I've never seen anything so interesting." She laughed a bit. "I must sound pretty stupid."
Draco laughed slightly. "Not at all. In fact I think most of the mu-. . . . ggleborns say much the same thing when they enter."
Haruhi caught what he was about to say and smiled when he corrected himself. "I can understand that."
Draco nodded. "Anything else you want to see?"
Haruhi thought for a moment. "I don't know, what other kinds of things are there to look at. Besides books." She surprised herself with her last statement.
"Well, there's food, the wand shop, pet shop, joke shop," he shrugged.
"Well considering I can't really get a wand, and father would be a bit upset if I got an animal with out asking him…" She thought for a moment. Then her stomach rumbled a bit and she had to blush. "I guess we could always go get something to eat…" She scratched the back of her head embarrassed.
"Food is probably that way," Draco said, pointing in a direction they hadn't gone yet before leading the way.
Harry opened the door and waved them in. "Be careful of anything you don't recognize," was all he said.
The group nodded and looked around.
Harry looked around for a moment, before mumbling caught his ears.
~Sstupid humanss~ the voice said. ~Never giving enough space.~
Harry turned to see a rather large snake in decent sized tank, but was obviously not quite enough room for him.
~And more sstupid humanss coming to gawk at me. Go away sstupid human~ it said, looking directly at him.
~I'm sorry, ~ Harry told it, keeping his voice down. ~I did not mean to disturb you. ~
~You speak!~ It suddenly seemed much more interested in Harry than before.
Harry nodded.
Tamaki was looking at a large greenish black bird while the others were all looking at some others, unlike Kyouya who happened to be close to Harry and heard him.
~A sspeaker!~ the snake hissed excitedly, moving it's head closer to him. ~Never had I thought I would meet one!~
Harry shrugged lightly. ~It's mosstly a fluke that I am.~ he said.
~A sspeaker iss a sspeaker~ the snake said, sounding as if he would have shrugged it he were able to.
Harry moved closer to the tank. ~Thiss iss kind of ssmall for you, ~ he said, frowning slightly.
~Can you get me a bigger one, sspeaker? ~ the snake asked, sounding hopeful.
Harry frowned. ~Wouldn't you rather be out? ~
~No, I want to be here . . . jusst not in thiss. ~
~Oh. ~
Kyouya raised an eyebrow at the boy. "What are you doing?"
Harry jumped, and spun around, looking very much like the little boy that had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Uh . . . " he looked off to the side, not coming up with anything that the older teen would believe. "Talking?"
"You're talking to a snake?" The older boy looked slightly confused.
"Er . . . yeah. Why? Haven't you seen enough today that this would seem like nothing?" Harry seemed rather nervous.
~Want me to bite him? I think I can get out if I want to. ~
~NO! ~ Harry exclaimed, barely keeping his voice down.
Kyouya nodded then nearly jumped at Harry's exclamation. "Do I even want to know?"
"Uh . . . no," Harry shook his head, frowning at the snake in question, who did a fairly good direction of a shrug.
Kyouya shrugged and moved on to look at a rather large looking cage filled with blue pixies.
Harry turned back to the snake. ~You can't just go around threatening to bite people~ he told it.
~Why not? He made you nervous, meaning that he was a threat. I bite threats.~
Harry sighed. ~He wasn't a threat that I can take care of on my own. ~ He turned away.
~Where are you going?
~To see about getting you a bigger tank. ~
"I'm telling you, the tank is big enough for him," the shopkeeper said, leading Harry back to the snake. "We've never had any problems with him before, and these kind of snakes get very tempermentle when they're unhappy."
"Which would explain why he tried to attack my friend," Harry said.
The man turned to him. "He did what?"
"He didn't get very far, but he did try." So it was a small fib, not too far from the truth though.
"That doesn't mean that the problem was his cage. He could be hungry, or your friend could have upset him."
"It's the cage," Harry told him firmly when they finally arrived at the snake.
Kyouya and the others looked over at Harry and the shop keeper.
"He's had this tank for several month," the man said. "If it was, then something would have happened before hand."
"Unless he was being cautious so that he doesn't get thrown out."
The man frowned. "Snakes don't think like that, kid." The man said, smirking at him.
"Can you talk to him?" Harry asked, him, an eyebrow rising sharply.
"Of course I don't," the man said, sounding slightly offended.
"Then don't assume you know how they do or don't think. That tank is too small for a snake of his size."
The shopkeeper frowned. "No you see here, kid,"
"No," Harry said. "That snake needs more room."
"And just who do you think you are, telling me what to do?"
Harry looked him in the eyes. "Potter Harry."
The man blinked. "Oh. I - I see. You're . . . Well, then, I guess you would know then, huh? I'll . . . I'll go see if we have a bigger tank."
With that he hurried off, leaving Harry to close his eyes and rest against the counter the snake was sitting on.
Tamaki looked at the snake then to Harry. "You care a lot about animals huh?"
Harry shrugged a little, looking very unsettled. "Kind of yeah. It's kind of difficult to ignore the ones that can tell you what's wrong, though."
~He's looking into something bigger~ Harry told the snake.
He really didn't like being forced to use his name to get things done.
"Would you like to leave before we have another mob on our hands?" Tamaki looked down at Harry considerately.
Harry sighed. "That would probably be a good idea," he said as he flattened his bangs over his scar, the only thing that told everybody who he was. "Sorry, guys."
Tamaki and the others all nodded as they surrounded Harry and lead the way out.
Harry couldn't help but feel like he was with the Order once more, being led to 'safety.'
The twins approached the counter with various jokes, each of them they were planning to take apart and see how they worked.
Hikaru and Kaoru had decided not to buy anything this time and instead were just still looking at some stuff at the counter.
"Blood Pops?" Hikaru looked down at the candy. Then he looked at Kaoru. "What better way to get back at Kyouya-sempai, ne?"
Kaoru nodded and they grabbed one ready to buy it.
"Almost ready?" Fred asked them, after buying their pranks.
The twins grinned after purchasing they're blood pop and stuck the small bag in Hikaku's back pocket. "Yeah we're ready."
"Alright then. Let's go see what the others are up to, shall we?"
Kaoru and Hikaru nodded following the older set of twins, a few people starring at the group of four.
They didn't get far before they saw Harry's group . . . only, they couldn't see Harry.
Fred and George frowned. "Did he go off by himself?"
Hiakru and Kaoru looked at the group and saw something off and laughed. "Nope."
"They're standing around him."
Fred and George blinked, looking closer. "Oh, yeah."
"Something must have happened." They headed in their direction.
Haruhi nodded following Draco looking around at the other wizards and witches interact and haggle with a few shop keepers.
Draco carefully directed Haruhi away from the things she might not want to try on her first eating there, as some of them were quite different from muggle foods.
Haruhi smiled. "I don't think I'd like that one too much." She said as she pointed out a dish that said something about pickled ashwinder meat. She laughed a bit as they looked at the menu.
Draco winced. "I try to stay away from snake meat," he said. "It being my house mascot and all."
"I don't blame you. That would be weird…" She laughed a bit.
"This is pretty good," Draco said, pointing at a dish of Pumpkin treacle.
"Hm.. maybe I'll stick with trying that." She nodded.
Draco ordered, and paid, for their food, and soon they were eating, with Draco watching for her reaction.
Haruhi took a bite and gasped a bit. "It's good." She smiled with her eyes shut tight.
Draco laughed slightly. "Glad you like it."
Haruhi nodded and took another bite. "It's really different then what I'm used to, not in a bad way though." She hummed a small tune for a moment then looked at him. "What about you? What are you thinking about Japan so far? In the month or so you've been here."
It's different," Draco said, repeating Haruhi. "Again, not in a bad way. Which . . . surprises me. I could get used to it though."
Haruhi smiled nodding. "I'm glad."
Nekozawa looked at the growing pile of books. "Uh, Granger-chan I think we have enough for now…" He smiled at the brunette.
Hermione blinked at him before turning her gaze the pile and blushing a bit. "Oh. Yeah, this would probably be good. Sorry, I tend to go overboard in these stores."
Nekozawa laughed. "It's alright."
Hermione glanced up at Nekozawa, her blush not fading, but she did smile. He had a really nice laugh.
"We should get these to the front," she said, not quite hesitantly, not wanting him to stop laughing.
Nekozawa nodded and grabbed a stack of books, making him unable to see in front of him. "Maybe you should walk ahead of me so that you can tell me if I'm close to knocking into something…"
"Sounds like a plan," Hermione said, picking up a smaller stack, so that she could still see, and moving ahead of Nekozawa, directing him to the front of the room.
Several people stopped to watch them, obviously curious, but not saying anything.
"Is this it for you then?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Almost," Hermione said. "There's a few others back there. Be right back," she said, heading back to the back.
Nekozawa sighed as he set the books down and smiled at the man behind the counter.
It did not take Hermione long to grab the last five tomes and hurry back to the front, also placing them on the counter. "This is it," The man raised an eyebrow. "This is an awful lot of books," he said, totaling them.
Hermione smiled at him. "It's for research. There's a group of us doing this for a project. We were sent to get books."
The man nodded. "The only ones able to tell the difference between a good book and something not worth your time?"
Hermione nodded with a small laugh. "Exactly."
"Well, you've got some good books here."
"Thanks."
Nekozawa smiled watching Hermione then looked at the books. How are we supposed to carry all these?
"And your total is 25 Galleons and 15 sickles."
Hermione dug into her pouch while the shopkeeper shrunk the stacks and placed them in the bags.
"There you go," he said with a grin. "This should make it easier to carry it back."
"Thank you," Hermione said, reaching for the bag.
Nekozawa grabbed the bag and extended his arm towards the door. "Shall we?"
Hermione caught sight of the group (not that they were hard to miss) and waved. "There's everyone. Well, most everyone," she amended, seeing that Malfoy wasn't among them. "Shall we join them?"
Nekozawa nodded as he led the way to the group.
Tamaki and the others waved as the two sets of twins walked up.
Fred and George waved back, turning concerned frowns on Harry. "What happened?"
Harry shrugged. "We just decided to leave somewhere before another crowd appeared, and they decided to go all bodyguard on me."
The twins laughed.
Harry just kind of shrugged at the twins.
Hikaru and Kaoru laughed as the looked around catching site of Nekozawa and Hermione walking down the street. "Hey Nekozawa-sempai! Granger-chan! Over here!"
"Hello," Nekozawa said with a nod.
Kyouya and the others all nodded, while Tamaki tried to hide himself behind Kyouya.
Hikaru and Kaoru looked around. "Hey…where's Haruhi-chan?"
"And Malfoy-chan." Huni spoke up looking around from atop Mori's shoulders
"Didn't he say something about going to the Quidditch store?" Hermione asked.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, but not even me and Ron can stay in them that long."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully.
Just then Fred and George's stomach's growled. "Food sounds good," they said.
"Let's find them after we eat."
The others all nodded as they looked around.
"Maybe there's something down that way." Kaoru pointed down the street
"Sounds good to me," Harry said.
Hermione nodded her agreement while the twins hurried ahead.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Have fun, 'Mione?"
Hermione nodded. "Oh, yes. We found several books of interest. Did you know," Hermione said. "That you don't actually need magic to do it? It wont be as general as ours is, but it works."
Nekozawa nodded listening to Harry and Hermione talk.
Harry blinked. "I didn't know that."
Hermione nodded. "It's not a widely known fact. I only know it because it was mentioned in one of the books in the library."
"Oh."
"Stop lagging, you two," Fred said. "We're here, and you've got to order."
--
Draco looked up at the Fred's voice. "There's the rest of the group," he said.
Haruhi looked up and nodded before taking another bite of her food, not much of it left.
The Hitachiin twins looked at the different kinds of foods and were obviously confused.
The Weasley twins quickly ordered, paid, and moved to a table.
"I'd stay away from the snake, anything," Hermione told Nekozawa. "Some of it tends to have . . . side effects." She winced.
Harry, not noticing the Hitachiin's confusion looked over the food before ordering something that he'd seen at Hogwarts. Everything there was good.
Hikaru and Kaoru looked down at Harry and ordered the same, pulling out their own money and paying for the three of them.
Nekozawa nodded and decided on getting a simple soup.
Harry blinked up at the Hitachiin's confused. "I . . . could've paid."
The twins shrugged and handed Harry his plate when it came to them.
Hermione ended up getting a sandwhich, digging into her pouch to pay for both her and Nekozawa, since he hadn't exchanged anything.
Nekozawa flinched a bit as Hermione paid for their food. "I'll pay you back as soon as we get back home, you have my word." A faint blush dusted his cheeks as he looked down at her.
Hermione smiled a bit. "It's alright," she said. "There are more important things than money. Like having fun with a friend"
And she was having fun. Neither Harry nor Ron would have stayed in the bookstore as long as Nekozawa had.
Harry took the plate with a small grumble and turned, spotting Draco. "I found Malfoy," he said.
Nekozawa nodded and took his bowl when it was handed to him.
The twins followed Harry's gaze, "That was easy."
Hikaru leaned over to Harry. "It almost looks like their on a date."
Kaoru spotted the bag at Haruhi's feet. "Haruhi didn't exchange any money.."
"It is a date." Hikaru snickered a bit.
Harry snorted. "Well, then we'd best leave them alone, ne?"
The twins nodded following Harry to the table.
Hermione took her own sandwich a moment later and moved to the table Fred and George had reserved, not seeing Draco.
Nekozawa followed Hermione to the table pulling out a chair for her as they got there.
Hermione blinked in surprise and smiled again as she sat. Really, she wasn't sure why she kept being so surprised by his actions, but they did. Not even Krum had gone this far, and he'd been interested in her romantically.
"So, are you enjoying yourself?" she asked.
Harry slid into a seat in time to hear Hermione's question, and glanced back, trying to see how the others in their group were fairing.
Nekozawa sat down next to her and nodded setting his bowl down. "To think that all of the things I had wished were real, really are real… it's amazing."
"Now no learning how to curse poor Tamaki-sama, ne Nekozawa-sempai?" Hikaru laughed.
Hermione frowned slightly at Hikaru. "Why would he do that?"
Nekozawa cleared his throat. "I tend to scare them a bit…well more just Suoh-kun."
Hermione blinked. "Oh," She frowned then, not liking that. Nekozawa was sweet.
Tamaki shivered and then looked behind him seeing Haruhi and Draco. He stood and walked over. "There you two are." He looked at Haruhi. "Haruhi father was worried!"
Haruhi face planted next to her plate, all the joy she had been feeling went out the window and was replaced with a slight annoyance.
Draco couldn't help but wince slightly when Haruhi's head hit the table. That had to have hurt.
"Well, as you can see, she is well, and unharmed," Draco drawled in an attempt to make him go away.
A bit of a mumble could be heard from Haruhi that sounded very much like "Please go away, Tamaki-sempai."
Tamaki sniffed and was soon in a corner drawing small designs on the stone, mushrooms growing around him.
"Well, that took care of that," Draco said, with a raised eyebrow. He frowned then, eyeing the mushrooms. "Is he magical?"
Kaoru and Hikaru looked at Tamaki, "There has to be some reason why he's able to do that…"
"He's the king that's why." Hikaru shrugged.
Harry, Hermione, and the Twins all blinked at Tamaki.
"Is that even possible?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione shrugged. "I wouldn't have thought so before today."
"I don't think so…" Haruhi lifted her head rubbing her forehead a bit.
The twins and Nekozawa shrugged while Huni, Mori, and Kyouya all continued eating; too used to Tamaki's antics to care.
Allanasha Ke Kiri: Well, here's another chapter. I had it ready weeks ago, but our beta never returned it. So, once again this is unbeta'd. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. And the next chapter should be up soon. Also, I believe Aku has something to say. ^_^
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Normal 0!-- /* Style Definitions */ , , {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} 1 {page:Section1;} -- Aku: Guess what guys!?!?! We have another poll up! This one is to ask, what cross overs you'd like to see us put up next. Go check it out. Also to find our myspace go to the search engine and type in Ramnakua yahoo. com(with out the spaces) Ok now...ready! set! REVEIW!!!! (cheers)