Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters belong to their respective owners, including Ms Rowling and the relevant movie companies. Used without permission, and with no intent to assume any kinds of rights over any of the characters.
It didn't take long for Harry and Hermione to reach the shop where trunks were sold. The morning mist had thickened into a light fog, making visual identification even less possible and causing sounds to echo strangely.
Outside the door, Harry looked up at the sign over the door, which read 'Pracht Associates.' This was one of the little things that changed in, seemingly, every 'world' he went through. Ollivanders was always Ollivanders, but the trunk shop - or, more properly, 'container shop' - never had the same name twice. The store was about the same size as Ollivanders, deep with a relatively narrow front window and entrance. Most of the stores in Diagon Alley were like that, in fact. In this particular case, the front window was nearly completely filled by an oversized trunk, as long and wide as the mattresses in the Gryffindor dorm rooms.
For a moment, Harry wondered why the beds in the dorms were only singles in size, but he supposed that if students had the... need for a larger bed for a night or two, they could learn expansion charms in addition to the preferred silencing ones.
"C'mon," Harry said, squeezing Hermione's hand lightly. "Let's go in."
And in they went, bell ringing over the door as it opened. A long counter that ran the length of the front window, and a man sat behind it. He'd been caught snoozing, it seemed, because the sound of the bell ringing woke him with a start. "Welcome to Pracht Associates. May I... help you?" Apparently, the appearance of two teenagers wasn't something that he cared too much about, mostly because he knew that very few had any money to spend.
"Good morning," Harry chirped in response, completely ignoring the look on the seller's face. "I was wondering if you guys carried wand holsters?"
"We carry them, yes," the salesman said. "What options are you looking for?"
"Primarily protection against summoning - both of the wand within and the holster - and notice-me-not charms," Harry responded after a moment. "Are the left arm and right arm ones any different?"
"Only in how they're attached," the salesman said.
"I'll take three, then," Harry said, and then gestured to a series of velvet pouches with the Gringotts symbol and the symbols of various countries on them. "What are those?"
The salesman followed the glance, and said, "Monetary exchange purses, in cooperation with Gringotts. You deposit wizarding money and it returns muggle money and vice versa, all at a nominal fee. We have versions that exchange pounds, punts, lira, marks, guilders, pesetas, French and Belgian francs, American and Canadian dollars, or a version that can do all of them, as well Japanese and Chinese currency."
"Interesting," Harry said. "What's the fee?"
"Five percent," the salesman replied after a moment. "A bit more expensive than going into Gringotts to make the change yourself, but with a lot more convenience."
Harry nodded, "I'll take one of the ones that does it all."
The salesman collected three wand holsters and dug out one of the exchange purses/pouches. "That'll be 180 Galleons. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Harry plucked the pouch he'd taken from Gringotts earlier and counted out the requisite Galleons. It didn't seem like it made much of a dent, and the salesman noticed this, if the way his eyebrows went up was any indication. Once the sale was made, Harry went on. "I'd like to look at the trunk that you have in the window. I don't think I've seen wood like that before. It's one of those seven-section trunks, right?"
"Yes, it is. Fully-loaded, in fact," the salesman said, his face closing down. "And the wood is pearwood, which can only be found in certain magical wild areas in Australia. But it costs a bomb, so I don't think you can afford it. It's mostly a set-piece, something that my grandfather made over a century ago and loaded down with every enchantment he, my father and I could think of since then."
Hermione frowned slightly, but it was mostly in concentration. Where had she heard of pearwood before?
"I don't know," Harry said. "I can probably afford more than you think I can. Can I have a look at it?"
The salesman decided that it didn't hurt to humor the boy. Truthfully, nothing could come of it if the trunk didn't accept him anyway; the trunk was so old and full of magic that it had taken on a sort of life of its own. It wasn't quite sentient, but it would refuse to even open for someone it didn't accept.
"Very well," he said with a put-upon sigh. "Step around to the side door and come up here while I find the keys." Gesturing with his wand - which appeared in his hand from what was, more than likely, the same kind of holster that Harry had just bought - he unlocked the small door that led into the area between the counter and the front window. Harry scooted around to enter through the door and up into the front window, then turned to offer Hermione a hand up as well, drawing another blush from her, though only a light one. It was, after all, only the gentlemanly thing to do, but Hermione was young and unused to that kind of treatment.
"Aha!" the salesman said. "Here we go." He tossed a key towards Harry, who turned, Seeker reflexes serving him well in capturing the small metal piece in mid-air.
"Well, go ahead." Harry shrugged and turned completely to the trunk, placing a hand on top of it for balance as he moved around to the front.
Blimey! the salesman thought when absolutely nothing happened. It accepted him! It hasn't accepted anyone other than my family in over fifty years, and even then, that kid couldn't afford it!
"All right, sir?" That was Hermione asking, having noticed how still the salesman had gone.
Shaking himself, he nodded and stepped around the other side of the chest. He pointed his wand at the door, flipping the sign to say 'closed.' When he turned around, Hermione had joined Harry at the front of the trunk, her hand next to his atop it. Bloody hell! It accepted BOTH of them?! That's never happened before!
This time, both Harry and Hermione were staring when the salesman shook himself out of it again. "All right," he responded, then gestured at the still-closed trunk. "Now, if you open the lid, you'll find a ladder leading down. Please go ahead."
Which they did. Harry went first, followed by Hermione, and then by the Pracht Associates salesman, who wasn't surprised to find both of the teenagers staring around with something resembling awe on their faces.
For Hermione, it was true. She had never expected to descend a ladder in a trunk and end up in what looked like the living room of a really posh apartment. As for Harry, well, after going through most of these things so often, he'd become quite a good actor. Then again, he was always a little impressed with this kind of thing. If nothing else, for the spellwork alone. And, from what Harry could see, there was even some stuff he didn't understand in here. And that happened so rarely these days that it was something to be appreciated.
"This is the first chamber of the trunk, the owner's apartment," the salesman began. "It can, of course, be adjusted to your needs in design and color fairly easily, but we'll discuss the control console later. The apartment consists of this living room, dining room, master bedroom, and a master bath which includes a self-contained water supply and waste disposal via the use of Aguamenti and Evanesco spells. There is no kitchen here - that's in the second chamber of the trunk, where we'll go next."
"The trunk itself is spelled to be found in two different forms. The first is the one you saw in the window, while the second reduces the entire contents to approximately the size and shape of a deck of playing cards. In either form, it is feather-light regardless of what is inside it, and a notice-me-not charm can be activated on it from within or without at will. It is impervious to pretty much any condition you can think of, and has been tested by Albus Dumbledore himself under everything short of the Killing Curse itself. It is also self-repairing and the contents cannot be monitored by any outside forces we know about without the knowledge of the owner." He smirked slightly. "That means that the underage magic rules do not apply within."
"While inside the trunk - in any of the chambers - you can access a control console." Just then, an understated black box appeared in front of the salesman with no fanfare whatsoever. The only thing marring the box was a round hole, into which the salesman stuck his wand. "Theoretically, the trunk can be commanded to fly on its own through the use of the console and your wand, but we have never been able to test that fully. You can also, however, command the chest to create scrying eyes as well."
Four windows - for lack of a better word - appeared hovering at head height around the salesman. One appeared to be facing into the shop, one out onto the misty street, and the other two to either side of the trunk's exterior. "These viewers can view all sides - including top and bottom - of the outside of the trunk, but the really key feature is that they can create floating 'eyes' that can view places outside the trunk from a limited distance. These scrying sensors are automatically disillusioned, and can fly as you might expect such a sensor to do. They can effectively apparate as well, but only when they are returning to the trunk."
The salesman turned to the window on his right and grabbed opposing corners of it, separating his hands and stretching the window further and further apart. "Each viewer can be expanded or contracted to whatever size you or the controller chooses, and can be moved into whatever position you choose to put them in." He contracted the window back to its original size, then pulled the three other windows into positions around it, so it looked like nothing so much as a Muggle security station. He stood aside and let Harry and Hermione - both now wearing identical looks on their faces - look through the windows.
"We recently added the ability to hear through the sensors as well," the salesman said. He extracted his wand from the control console and then dismissed both the console and the windows themselves. "Now, let's move on."
He hadn't expected to make a sale today, and he still didn't, but he still got a proud thrill showing off his family's work. Walking over to a fairly non-descript door, the only marker being an embossed 'P' on it, he went on. "All you need to do is think about which chamber you wish to go into, first through sixth, open the door, and step through. The door will remain open to that section until closed.
"First through sixth?" Hermione asked. "Weren't there seven sections?"
"Yes," the man said. "But the seventh section is only accessible from outside of the trunk. It is a pretty much a standard trunk, though it has magics of its own: it is four times as deep as usual and will automatically have what you're looking for on top if you're thinking of it when you open it. It also cleans and folds your laundry for you."
Harry smirked, "The House Elves must hate that idea." Hermione, of course, glared at him for this.
The Pracht Associates salesman chuckled. "I suppose they probably would, yes, but then, none of them have ever seen this trunk, I don't believe. Anyway, the second chamber..." He waited as Harry and Hermione passed through. "... contains the kitchen, as mentioned. It contains all of the equipment that you would find in either a Wizarding or Muggle kitchen, all designed to work with magic. Well, everything except one of those new Micowave Ovens. My Uncle Terrence could not figure out a way to have those work inside, and he said they could be dangerous too. In any case, you can see the small table that can be used for eating or serving from as well. That, the pantries, and the coolers all have keep-fresh charms on them. The coolers also have cooling charms that can range between -18 and 18 degrees on a case-by-case basis, and the same selection charms that the seventh section has - just think what you're looking for and it'll be in front. The pantries have that one as well."
"As you can see, the kitchen only makes up half of this chamber, while the other half is our potions lab. Since potions and cooking are so similar, we thought it would be a good idea to keep both of them together."
Hermione had, in fact, been looking over at the potions lab - which was separated from the kitchen by what looked like a sheet of heavy glass - for at least half of the explanation of the kitchen (which Harry seemed more interested in). "That looks a lot like part of a chemistry lab too," she remarked.
"Ah then," the salesman said. "Muggle-born, are you?" Hermione nodded, followed by Harry after a moment - it wasn't really worth it to explain that he was a muggle-raised half-blood. "That makes things easier. Yes, that's more influence from Uncle Terrence. This was, basically, his chamber to completely revamp the last time we did so, so he installed a full Muggle Chemistry lab as well as setting up safety precautions appropriately. Fumes and such are vanished much in the same was as waste disposal is handled in the apartment and in the sixth chamber. I forgot to mention, by the way, that the sensors can also view one chamber from another, so if you are working on a particularly volatile potion, you can observe it from any other chamber, or have someone else watching you. That's one of the safety precautions I meant."
"Next chamber, we have the library," the salesman said, causing Hermione's face to light up like a beacon. "Right now, there aren't many books in there, other than a complete set of Hogwarts books from twenty years ago and a self-updating copy of Hogwarts: a History." That did nothing but make Hermione smile even more. And that made Harry smile. But they were in and through to the next door in record time. "The fourth chamber is the exercise area. It's not very impressive at the moment, but the trunk comes with a half-off coupon from our sister company, which is run by my cousin. They sell all fashion of exercise equipment, including muggle versions, or so I understand."
Harry, for his part, wasn't really paying attention. Instead, he was staring at the opposite half of the room which was, like the kitchen/laboratory - divided by what looked like thick glass. "Aha, I see something has our interest, does it? That is our regulation dueling platform. The surroundings are impervious glass, and they have been stress-tested by Albus Dumbledore as well, though once again, not against the Unforgivables. Self-repairing training dummies can be used, and more can be ordered as well, also from our sister company."
"The fifth chamber..." the salesman began, chuckling as he had to pull Harry away. "... is empty." He opened the door and gestured inside, but did not close it once Harry and Hermione passed. "We figured we should leave one chamber completely empty for whatever purposes it could be used for. As you can see, it's quite large. If you'll come back out of there..."
He closed the door and opened it again. "The sixth chamber..." He paused and looked at the two youngsters. "I think you'll need to see it." He followed Harry and Hermione in, closing the door behind him.
Harry was simply looking around, confusion on his face. The room didn't share any of the creature comforts of the other five chambers, composed of brick walls and what looked like a concrete roof. One open door on the far end of the room appeared to lead into a room of doubled bunk beds, and another led into what looked like a communal shower.
Hermione paled, and looked more than a little ill. When she spoke, there was a quaver in her whispering voice. "This is an air raid shelter." Harry's attention snapped to Hermione, and he closed the distance to her, to put an arm around her.
The Pracht salesman nodded with a sigh. "This room was first built during Grindelwald's reign of terror. It's a standard street communal shelter that can house up to one hundred people, supplying water and food for... well, we never set a limit on it, really. We thought about taking it down when Grindelwald was sent to Nurmengard, but it turned out to be a good idea we didn't. Several members of my family and some of the surrounding families only survived You-Know-Who's rise to power because they had access to this chamber. And this chamber... this one has been tested to actually be able to withstand the Killing Curse. The walls are 36cm thick brick, and the roof is 30cm concrete, along with the same self-repair charms. We actually believe that the whole trunk will survive them, but there was a limit on what was allowed to be tested."
Shaking himself away from the memories, he went on. "Normal security on the trunk allows the owner to specify who can access which chamber he or she wants them to access. This room can be set to allow general access, or it can be set to limit access based on whether someone has a Dark Mark or not. That last was added the first time we were able to capture one of his Death Eaters and analyze it."
Harry said, "Maybe we should go?" He didn't like seeing Hermione like this, after all.
The salesman nodded and went to a different door - one under a glowing 'Exit' sign. "This way back up." Soon enough, all three were back in the main body of the store, the store's sign was flipped back to 'open,' and Harry and Hermione were standing on the customer side of the counter.
"All right," Harry said after another moment or two. "I want it. How much?"
The Pracht Associates man stared at Harry for a long moment, "Like I said, I doubt you can afford it. It's our most extravagant piece, and over a hundred years old. So, let's say... seventy thousand galleons."
Harry and Hermione immediately began coughing in dismay. "You're right," Harry said, finally. "I can't afford that... all at once. It'd completely drain my trust account and a good quarter of what I'd get when it refills at the beginning of the year."
This time it was the salesman's turn to be surprised. "Just who are you, boy?"
Harry sighed. "Well..." He looked at Hermione, who shrugged, then lifted the red hair that he'd grown out to cover his scar.
"Oh my! You're Harry Potter!" The salesman responded. "That changes things. I'm sure you noticed the 'P' on the doors between the chambers, yes?" He waited while both teenagers nodded. "They're there because this trunk was originally designed for your grandfather." He paused. "Actually, it'd probably be your great-grandfather. Harold's father, Perram. So, let's say... 45,000 galleons."
Hermione just stared. But Harry did a double-take, not expecting quite that reduction. "That's still a little too rich for my blood at the moment. I'm hoping to come into my majority soon, but I was really looking for something... well, let's just say that having a place to practice duelling would be good. And having my own kitchen to work from over the summer would be absolutely ace." He exchanged a look with Hermione on that.
At that, Hermione spoke up, "What kind of discount would Harry get if he gave you permission to use his likeness to advertise? I don't mean to pry, but... it seems like you have a lot of inventory, and I can't imagine that you get as many customers as you might during the summer hols? Every little bit counts, right?"
The salesman smiled cannily. "This is a smart lass you have here, Mr. Potter. Quite right. We do all right, but we could always use some more purchases. How about I reduce the price to, say, 35,000 galleons... but both we and our sister store get those rights."
Hermione said, "Harry gets to choose the pictures used?"
Between Harry, Hermione, and the Pracht Associates salesman - who finally introduced himself as Daley Pracht - they managed to negotiate a price and conditions for using Harry's name and image. Daley called them back behind the counter to apply blood to the top of the trunk for recognition purposes, and Harry walked out of the store with a handshake and a new item the size of a deck of cards.
The next stop was, as Harry had mentioned, Flourish and Blotts. The weather was still frightful, but Harry still pulled Hermione aside before they arrived, his face contemplative. "We need to change how you look."
"What?" Hermione said. "Why?" She wasn't angry. Just curious.
Harry grinned. "Because you're the bookstore-maniac. I'd just be another customer, but you, they'll see you coming and go 'oh no, she's back!'" He ducked a slap on the head, and said, "Don't box my ears because I know you too well, Hermione Granger. Besides, it's kind of fun being in disguise. And I have just the disguise for you, too."
Harry reached up to the back of his head and pulled off the hair band that Hermione had given him earlier. He handed it back to her and then tapped her head gently with his wand. "There," he said. "Now you have my hair color. All we need is Ron, we give him your brown hair color, and we could REALLY start confusing people."
Hermione stuck her tongue out at Harry, combing her hair down and putting the clip back in. "But that's not a Weasley color, remember," she said.
"Yes, yes, I know, Miss Perfect," Harry said, though his tone was teasing. "Let's go buy some books, shall we? I've got a library to fill."
Hermione grinned cheerfully, her face lighting up again at the mention of the library. "Okay!"
"Erk, wait," Harry said. "Forgot. Try these." He held a set of glasses in his hand that weren't too dissimilar from his own. "They'll change the entire look of your face too. And they're just regular glass lenses, so they shouldn't interfere with your sight."
Hermione took one look at the glasses, giggled, and put them onto her face. "You can call me Kara, I suppose. Kara Kent."
Harry looked back at Hermione, his brow furrowing as he didn't understand what was so funny.. "Um, sure, if you'd like me to." With that, he headed into the store. Hermione looked after him, her face turning sad. How was it possible that he didn't catch a reference to a comic book character as familiar as Superman (or Supergirl, to be specific)?
The trip through the store actually didn't take too long, relatively speaking. At least, not when you considered that Hermione was one of the people shopping. Harry only picked up a few books, one of which was on on mental magics like Occlumency and Legilimency. He'd used that book himself on other worlds, and knew that Hermione handled books much better than direct training. Or, at the very least, the books gave her more confidence in her direct training.
When they stepped out of the bookstore, with the new books shrunken and in their pockets, the fog had started to lift. Things were beginning to get busier as well, so Harry and Hermione frequented the shadows. Not suspiciously, but enough so that their disguises were still fairly effective.
"So, where to next, Harry?" Hermione asked.
Harry stopped and squinted up at the sun, then smiled at his fellow Gryffindor. "It's noonish. I was thinking, maybe... would you like to go visit your parents?"
Author's Note: For Americans like me, temperature range given is roughly 0 degrees to 64 degrees Fahrenheit.