Trapped in a Serpent's Coils
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" Avada Kedavra"- English
$ Avada Kedavra$- Parseltongue
A Tedious Tenth:
The road to Madam Malkin's was long and harrowing, fill with dangers and wild beasts… Translation: The trio had to walk a couple of blocks to the nearest clothing store, however, they first had to fight their way through throngs vicious witches and wizards who were all going in the opposite direction and were more than happy to elbow or hex their way through a crowd, braving even pissed off giant reptiles like Käärme and Tähdet in their hurry. This, combined with two very directionally challenged snakes resulted in the little family arriving in the clothing store battered and out of breath some fifteen minutes after they exited Gringotts.
In Madam Malkin's, Käärme was left to wallow in self pity while his mate and child squealed over fabrics and clothing. Harry really couldn't tell the difference between Payne's grey or slate grey trim, but whatever made his mother happy, right? Harry cheerfully translated his mother's demands for the plump, friendly woman who had introduced herself as Madame Malkin. Of course, in order to maintain a good front, Harry was forced to exclude some of his mother's more amusing comments, but unfortunately some people just couldn't take a few death/ torture threats. For example:
$Ssssilly ikle Foodlingssss can'tsss even tellssss the difference between Noir, Jet, and Onyx robesss. Ssssaid bringssss me the Noir ssssilkssss, but no, musssst disssobeysss. Ussselessss ikle Foodlingsss getsss tortured and killedssss. Perhapssss burned alivesss? Or flayed? I lovessss it when they sssscreamssss.$
Translates to:
"Ahem, Madame Malkin, Forgive me for being a bother but I couldn't help noticing you accidentally brought a Jet colored robe for me. Could you please exchange this robe for one in Noir instead?"
Yup, all the interesting parts of the conversation were cut off and he had to be all polite and stuff. Harry sighed, what a pain. It was two hours and a complete wardrobe later that the trio were finished and a relieved Madam Malkin ushered them out her door with a fake smile; just to burst into tears as a ferrety, pointy faced blond walked in the door. Perhaps she really liked the kid and hadn't seen him in a while?
After they'd left the shop, Harry realized that the streets had emptied some and the family happily explored. All the interesting shops overwhelmed Harry's senses and he could wait to go into them… until he remembered a problem. In his excitement, he had completely forgotten to get the shopping list from Hagrid.
$Mother,$ gasped Harry, $do you remember what we were supposed to get?$
Tähdet just held up the shopping list with her tail and smirked, $Don't worriessss ikle Hatchlingssss mumsssiesss hasss it all coverd.$
Red faced Harry snatched it from her and marched off with a reluctant , $Thank you mother.$
In the apothecary, an excited Käärme forced Harry to buy a huge stash of all the ingredients they had. It was quite amusing to see the greedy look on the storekeeper's when they had show interest in buying several sets of bicorn horns. In fact, he surreptitiously slipped a grubby piece of paper into Harry's palm with the address of another apothecary he co owned in a place called Nocturn Alley.
For more interesting ingredients the man had said with a wink. Did the man think he was a native to the Wizarding world since Harry had changed out of his rags as soon as Madam Malkin was done? Whatever it was, Harry smirked back and pretended he knew what the dickens the man was talking about. And what was a Nocturn Alley anyway?
The next place the trio visited was the Scribulus Writing Instruments, the quill shop. There Harry bought loads of both parchment and quills, because while charcoal and bark or stolen pencils and paper were good writing utensils, they didn't really prepare one in the use of quills. Harry could foresee the need of hours upon hours of practice he would have to spend to be able to use a quill. Great. Of course Harry did splurge just a bit on some eagle feather quills to look good and Dict-a-quills to avoid note taking, but he felt he deserved it.
He was positive that he would look quite impressive using eagle feather quills verses the regular ones everyone else used. It was all about power, after all. Harry was going to be the next Dark Lord, and if people feared him from the beginning, they would be easier to subdue later. Cackling silently in his head, versus out loud like his mother was doing at that very moment, Harry paid for his purchases and left.
Harry glanced down at his supply list and groaned, there was still so much to get! After a family discussion, they headed over to Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment for the more miscellaneous items. Two sets of scales, one in brass and one in silver, a telescope and many crystal vials, and several other odds and ends later, the family was ready to leave.
As his numerous bags began to become a bit cumbersome, despite the feather light charms, Harry decided to pay a visit to the a trunk shop. He wandered the entirety of the alley, but didn't see any; until he noticed a darker alley just off to the side of Diagon. Despite the protests of his parents, Harry decided to go in. It wasn't like it was some taboo Alley dedicated to the dark arts or anything, right?
Once there, Harry was delighted to find an, admittedly shifty looking, man selling trunks. Ten minutes later, a very scared salesman presented Harry with a beautiful trunk for half the original price while backing away from Harry's parents. Harry himself was unconcerned. Judging by his mother's threats to behead the man, she like him and just wanted to be friendly. All things considered, decapitation was a quick, relatively painless death. Harry inspected his new trunk again, just to be safe.
It had three compartments, the first of which was a potions room of sorts, complete with a gigantic "pantry" of sorts to keep his ingredients. The next was a library able fit up to 6,000 books. After this was a vault like compartment for miscellaneous items. Harry was very unsure of why anyone would want all of this unless they were smuggling something, but as it was the only model the man had at the moment, he forked the money over. Stupid overachieving wizards, making everything so complicated and expensive. The trunk could even be disguised as an emerald studded choker, because all the little kiddies these days wanted that.
Once that nightmare was over Harry popped on over to a dark, gloomy looking building he recognized as the sister store to the apothecary in Diagon and found some very interesting things, like runespoor eggs and cockatrice feathers. Of course, his potions crazy father made him buy out the store again. Well, at least his hobbies, although weird, were less lethal than his mother's. Fewer bodies to hide this way.
After Harry was finally able to drag his father away, they made their way back to sunny Diagon. The next stop was Potage's Cauldron Shop for cauldrons. Besides the standard pewter cauldron, Harry's father also urged him to buy the self stirring one, arguing that it save a lot of time and shoulder pain. Harry was pretty sure it was only to make it easier for his father to use it, but whatever made him happy, right? It was still less destructive than his mother. Finally, the trio went to Flourish and Blotts for books. As Harry would definitely spend most of his time at the bookstore, they had opted to visit there last.
Upon entering the store, Harry had to use all his self control to avoid squealing like a… well like something being torture to death by his mother before she got creative with it. It was with great difficulty that Käärme and Tähdet were able to force Harry into buying his school books and advanced versions of those before they had to let him loose. It was another few hours and many galleons later that Harry ended up with half the book store. He had enough information to teach himself all seven years of school and then some.
Next up was a darker book store, back in Nocturn, perhaps? Harry's parents were adamant about teaching him more on the Dark Arts, and weren't taking no for an answer. Eventually, when the family met up with Hagrid again, it was late in the afternoon. The half giant was in the pub as agreed upon, but he was taking to an unfamiliar man wearing a purple turban. Seeing as the poor man looked very uncomfortable and a bit annoyed, the serpentine family swept by to interrupt.
Hagrid looked up from his very much one sided conversation as Harry sauntered over.
"Ah, 'arry, meet yur new Defense Against Dark Arts professor, Professor Quirrel!" the man bellowed.
At that moment, the stuttering professor looked up at Harry and their eyes met. Harry had to stifle a shock gasp. The man's eyes were blood red…
A/n: Well, here's my much longer "Sorry for falling off the face of the earth" chapter. I know it's mostly that one annoying shopping scene, but I hope it wasn't too intolerable! I know the grammar is atrocious, but please bear with me. Alice's Lover has resigned and I'm a bit of an airhead when it comes to grammar (or life) so… Please review, I love you all and it means a lot to me!
Ceti H. Black- Thank you very much and how do you like this one? Much longer, right? Proud of me?