A tribute, and pondering on these books...

Grief, Deceptions, and Hope for Freedom

Part 6

A little while later, Harry noticed McGonagall leaving the main table, excused himself to try to catch her. Her limp wasn't as pronounced now as it had been when she first got back, but she was still walking much slower than she usually did. "Professor? I was wondering if you would have time to talk tomorrow?"

She stopped, looked him over, "It must be important to forgo your treacle tart. My office at 8, Mr. Potter?"

"Thank you, Professor. That will be fine." Harry forced a smile. She nodded curtly and continued out of the hall.

Harry headed to his room, noticing for the first time how the statues eyes seemed to faintly glow as he approached them. He only had a week to prepare for the summer. With Dumble's speech about Privet Drive, he was fairly certain this summer was going to be like the last, even with the lack of information apparently. He would need to see what these programs Hermione was supposedly tasked with telling him about were. But why hadn't he heard about them from somebody else? Usually the gossip machine around Hogwarts was thick with discussions about anything new for their year. And if there were outside internships with wizarding companies – why hadn't he gotten any offers from someone wanting his fame? Granted, Fudge had been dragging his name through the dirt in the press…

And why were classes canceled for their year? If these were standard for every grade, shouldn't they have received at least packets telling them what would have been covered? As Harry entered his room, his mind was a blur with the million questions the day had raised. Luckily Seamus and Dean were going to be on the pitch for a while, they had set up a pick-up game of football. Neville had said he was going to work out in the greenhouses until dark. Harry inspected the room, sure enough in every corner of the ceiling there were gargoyle-like figures. Harry wasn't sure if the stonework counted as a statue, but he shivered at the thought. There were no portraits hanging on the walls, and the carvings on his headboard were of leaves. Harry stood on his bed, drawing the curtains, "Lumos". Using his wand he checked the canopy, and was relieved to find no carvings. "Nox". He plopped down, rolled off the bed, and went to his trunk. He pulled out a spiral notebook and ballpoint pen he had filched from Dudley last summer, and the last issues he had of the Quibbler and the Daily Prophet. Shoving aside the curtains, he placed these on his bed before grabbing a self-inking quill and parchment from his desk.

Supplies complete, Harry lit the study lantern at the head of the bed, silenceoed his curtains, and then placed a proximity alert on his bed. Pulling out the Quibbler he found ads for Flourish and Blotts, Dervish and Banges, and a used bookshop Merlin's Library. Noting the fees for each catalog, Harry decided to buy a book from the first (as a catalog would be sent free with any order) and order self-updating catalogs from the other two, as you had to spend 30 galleons before they included a catalog. While the interlibrary book had a card index built in, the stores would feature more popular, and probably easier to understand books, and escaping the wards to retrieve a better book might not be feasible during some parts of the summer. Pulling the letter and the catalogs out of his pocket, and restored them to full size.

The one that had caught his eye was the camping and household goods store McGoens. A tent or trunk were likely to either give the Durselys too many ideas, or get locked up in his 'old room'. There were some interesting items he could cobble together, the problem would be making the items shrink or expand with a password. Maybe there would be a way to make a tent invisible, or repel muggles. The main problems he had at Privet Drive were: lack of food, confiscation or destruction of his belongings, lack of privacy, lack of time to study, lack of information, and not knowing when he'd get to leave. Setting aside the catalog, he picked up the notebook, and began to write a list.

1) Protection/Concealment Spells for Hedwig
2) Lock-pick or window vanisher
3) Way to keep sound in room
4) Muggle repelling charms?
5) Way to get food & water
6) Potions for injuries, dreamless sleep
7) ?Way to receive owl post at a drop box or something?
8) Shrinking/Resizing Charms.
9) Retrival/Protection Charms for trunk.
10) ?Paper?

He picked the catalog back up. In the camping section, there was a wizarding ice box in the shape of a muggle cooler. Tapping it a description came up, as well as sizes and cost. The smallest could carry a days worth of food, the largest six months the outer size was the same, unless you chose a warmer to be built into what would be the white handle. The top end model was a whopping 100 galleons, but was guaranteed for 20 years, and came with dinner for five from L'Enchantment in Diagon Alley. Harry tapped his wand to add the black model to his wish list. If he was able to get his order before he left, he might be able to scrounge enough from the kitchens without drawing too much of a fuss.

There were additional goodies. Camp stoves that worked the muggle way but had charms to prevent burning the food, and a color indicator to show when the food was fully cooked. There was a sleeping mat that was charmed with extra cushioning charms to mimic a feather bed. Harry tapped that to his wish list, as the springs on his bed were nearly poking through. He also tapped the Always Temperate Bedroll, the description for which told of its cooling and heating charms, guaranteed to keep you cool in the desert sun or warm on a bed of snow. It had a built in head cushion, and the larger model was able to fully unzip and mimic a feather duvet. He chose a charcoal gray one, and just in case a green one.

Harry looked at the tents, but all were made to give the appearance of a muggle tent on the outside. Some of the expensive models' special features were very attractive to Harry, silencing charms, muggle repelling, insect and vermin repelling, as well as some that had charms to make some rooms of the tent one-way windows of sorts, and to keep magic in, and hide detection of magic done inside the tent. Giving in to temptation, he added the top of the line tent to his wish list, selected all the charms possible, and in the notation line, requested if it could look like a rickety chair to muggles, and if additional charms could be added to keep anyone from moving it without a password.Harry shrugged, it wouldn't hurt to ask, and at the amount of money his wish list was already totaling to…

He then chose 2 deluxe first aid kits, supposed to be outfitted with all basic healing potions and a flare of sorts that dispatched a call for help to the nearest wizarding hospital. These he noted, were charmed to shrink or resize with a password, exactly as he hoped was possible for the cooler. There were fire starting kits, that guaranteed a full nights fire from the three provided logs. He chuckled a bit at the bedpan, then found himself considering it, as more than once even without much food or water he'd found himself tempted to go out the window if his door stayed locked another ten minutes. Whispering Sirius's words, "Plan for the worst, hope for the best," he ordered one Amazing Self-Vanishing Portable Loo. Skipping past the recreation items, Harry was somewhat surprised to find packaged meals for travel. He ordered one of each, a crate of Butterbeer, 2 self filling thermoses one hot water, the other cold, a selection of herbal teas, sugar, and a Always Fruitful refilling fruit bowl. There was a note that the monthly subscription fee was based on quantity, and started at 5 galleons a month in addition to the cost of the bowl.

Continuing to flip through the catalog, Harry found the lawn and garden supplies section. Wizarding lawn ornaments looked much the same as muggle ones, he tapped on a glass lily and was surprised to find that it had a charm to attract beneficial insects as an option. He went back to the fencing section, and tapped on the edging fence – sure enough there were notice me not and muggle repelling charms. Harry's face split in a wide smile. If he ordered enough fencing to surround the tent, apparently it came as a long rope, you enclosed the area, tied the ends together and the fence popped up. He chose the option that made the ground inside look like the ground touching the outside edge of the fence, and to make the fence transparent to muggles. While the prize winning flowers of the season with white pickets was a nice option, it wouldn't help him hide.

Suddenly remembering the Wizarding Wireless, Harry flipped back to the entertainment section. He quickly selected a boombox size Wireless that had the capability to play muggle CDs and had what looked like headphones with it that apparently could pick up the Wireless for up to a mile from the box. There was a yearly subscription fee for the Wireless, and he could elect to have additional subscriptions to the French and Scandinavian Channels with optional translation. He decided to take the French with translation, hoping they might have more accurate news coverage.

Harry decided that was enough shopping for now, so pulled out an order form, and attached it to the spokes on the back of the catalog and tapped his wand to the top of the order form. Checking to make sure the whole order was put on the form, Harry then pulled out his quill and requested that his order be shipped in a box that could shrink or resize with a password as he was underage. He then filled out the billing info and the Gringotts withdrawal authorization, and detached the order form. He pulled off his copy, then folded the order to mail later.

Knowing he would need cover, Harry wrote a short note to Lupin, something he should do anyway.

Remus,

Hi. Hope you are healthy, and coping better than I am. I got a letter from Gringotts today from Sirius. It really helped a lot. I wonder when he wrote it. He asked me to get a lawyer before I go to Gringotts to sign papers. I think it is to keep his cousins from trying to claim his things, so I have gotten Hermione to help me search for a good attorney. I hate doing this, but I don't want them to benefit.

I'm trying to keep busy. My classmates aren't complaining, but since they canceled the NEWT prep classes I've been scrambling for something to do. What were those classes supposed to be anyway?

I've been taking walks in the morning, enjoying being outside without having to fear being locked out while I still can. I'm spending most of my day hauling books and doing other entertainment duties for Ron and Hermione. Madam Pomphrey gave Ron my bed. It's so strange to be the visitor, I feel so guilty at times – I wish I could help them heal faster.

Please take care of yourself,
Harry

Harry flexed his legs, did a quick tempus and discovered it was already 8:20. He folded up Remus's letter tucked Sirius's back into his pocket along with his order copy, and grabbed the order and the letter to take to the Owlery.