Disclaimer: I don't own this.
Chapter 6. On the town
"You need to get some sleep wizardling." The Prince murmured from the doorway "It's way past midnight and you're still healing. You need rest, we do this every night."
"I'm fine!" Harry protested weakly, dreading sleep. "The book is nearly finished"
"You started that one after dinner, you're not even half-way through."
"But I can't sleep until it's finished." Harry looked up through his eyelashes clinging to the book nervously.
"Here, I'll read it to you. How's that?" he crossed the room in swift steps and settled into the chair by the bed, once again reminding Harry of a large feline. He tugged the book until the teen released it. "Another romance?"
"Well you haven't gotten me any other books yet," he muttered, blushing. "I'm too old for bedtime stories; I can read it to myself."
"Shush. You are supposed to be trying to sleep. Now where are you…?
"Insert dirty romance scene
"Seriously?" the Prince choked as he skimmed the next page. "You're too young for this stuff." He felt oddly posses-protective of the little wizarding. "I'm gonna hafta censor your reading materials."
"What! I'm fifteen! I hear worse at school. Gimme that back." He was blushing bright red. "Besides, I'm not there yet, I'm on the other page."
"Shush. – No; stop trying to grab your book and lay down." He picked up at the top of the previous page reading aloud. He had Harry settled until he reached the next page, "And then that hussy started day dreaming about someone she barely knows."
"Malfoy!"
XXXxxx
4 days after haircut, week 3 of the summer
"Are you sure about this? I can stay home. It's okay." Harry chewed on his bottom lip staring at the door.
"You would be safer with me either way. We need to get out of this apartment; yesterday was insane. The boys have cabin fever and you are looking too pale. This will be perfectly fine. You look completely different." The Prince reassured him. I'm always making speeches for the wizardling. This can't be good for my health.
Harry toyed with his glasses. "I didn't get contacts."
"Still, those frames are completely different. Trust me, this is what I do."
Indeed, he was thrilled at how the green-eyed teen turned out. He wore thin silver frames with a rectangle shape that brought out his eyes. Much better than that bulky plastic monstrosity. His hair had been dyed 'calico' with patches of dirty blond and auburn mixed with his natural raven. He looks good. I did not just think that. He looks good in an artistic sense. For this outing he'd dressed the wizardling in a pair of loose black jeans and a green t-shirt with a dragon motif. He had to guess at the sizes, and hadn't done too badly; the black sneakers were a little loose, but Harry had assured him that Dudley's cast-offs were larger.
"Well if you're sure. You promised right?" the tiny voice broke his train of thought.
"Yes," he murmured recalling his oath, "I certainly did. You will be fine. I won't let anyone harm you wizardling." He ran his fingers gently through the younger boy's hair. "Besides, you want a new book don't you?"
"Yes!" Harry perked up immediately.
"Let's GO guys!" Dudley shouted through the bedroom door. "How long are you going to take?"
The Prince snapped open the door. "If you can't behave, maybe I should leave you here."
"No! No, I'll be good. I was just…" Dudley sputtered, going red at Benny's laughter.
"Good. Let's go." He tossed on a leather jacket, and passed a black coat to Harry. "You stay within my line of sight. No wandering off. No attracting attention. If I say we go you do not complain. If I tell you to do something you do it fast. If you disobey we go home, and you don't get a second chance. Understood?"
"Yes sir." They chorused together.
XXXxxx
Getting Harry to relax was worse than trying to get his cousin to calm down. The heavy weight teen wandered from shop to shop with greedy eyes and an eager expression while the smaller boy clung to the Prince's hand and jumped at shadows.
"Christopher!" Prince snapped Dudley's codename. "If you keep wandering off we are going to leave!"
"Don't be like that. I was just-"
"Do we need to leave?" He expertly ignored Harry's nodding head as he glared.
"I'll behave."
"Good. Ree and I need to visit the bookstore next so you have five more minutes."
Harry clung to him silently, chewing on his lip. The Prince sighed and pulled him closer running fingers through the multi-colored hair. The wizardling held very still at the touch, and the Prince wondered if he was afraid of being hit or of losing the comforting touch if he moved. I wonder if he knows for that matter.
"Come on Ree, they're off again." The other boys had wandered out of the store to a display of animals in a shop window.
"Look Benny! A monkey!"
The Prince nearly snapped at them again but he saw the wizardling perk up. He silently nodded permission and followed the boys into the shop.
"Hello, can I help you?" a nervous-looking shop owner intercepted Dudley.
"I wanted to see the monkey."
"Yes, well. You are more than welcome to look but this shop reserves the right to refuse to sell. Most of my animals are exotics or trained for specific tasks."
"You mean they do tricks! Cool!" Dudley knocked past the man to view the cage.
"Please forgive my brothers. They can be quite – obnoxious at times." Prince murmured to the shop owner as Harry released his hand to stroke the cat that appeared between his legs. "What kind of animals do you keep?"
"As I said: exotics. I also have several service animals: two Seeing Eye dogs, a companion animal that makes noise at seizures, one trained cat that will fetch things off high shelves. Others that are just well house trained." His eyes also followed the younger boy. "Of course, I have several protection animals as well."
"We don't need an attack dog." Prince interrupted.
"You misunderstand me. Yes I have attack dogs, but protection animals are different. They are trained to alert someone if something is amiss with their charge. They are usually given to young children with health problems. Kiki was trained for panic attacks. I was training her for a friend, but their son grew out of the attacks."
"Kiki?"
"Your little brother's new friend. What happened, if I may ask?"
"He was hurt badly- for a long time. He's only my half-brother."
The man nodded. "He's so young. … Kiki would take care of him; cats are good for emotional trauma in any case."
"How much?"
XXXxxx
Prince sat Dudley and Benny in the little cafe connected to the bookstore with the cloth cat bag and their other purchases of the day. The two boys were easily appeased with large caffeinated beverages and baked sweets, and they swore they would not leave the table.
Harry was delightedly looking around at the shelves, seeming to not know where to start. Prince led him to the fiction section and glanced at him. "I like the fantasy and sci-fi books myself, it's fun to see what muggles come up with and it gives me ideas to try. Do you have a preference?"
"Not really. I haven't done much reading for fun. Aunt Petunia sais-" he cut off that comment looking down uncomfortably. "Sci-Fi is fine."
He squeezed the younger boy's hand and silently led him to the shelves. He browsed the shelves, careful not to linger too long in one place, as Harry once again refused to release him. The wizardling seemed reluctant to touch the books at first, but soon he was sifting through titles and reading the backs of anything that caught his eye. It was half an hour later when Harry stumbled on a series he liked- or seemed to like, he hovered over them for a long while.
"The Dresden Files are great. You like those?" the Prince quickly looked over the titles.
"Mmm, yeah. This sounds good. Can I get this one?" Harry peered through his fringe nervously.
He snorted, "You can get that one and the other six they have here. You read through books like candy. These won't last you more than a week and a half, maybe two. "
"I don't mean to be a bother," Harry murmured, but his eyes were shining excitedly "you already bought me Kiki."
"Don't be silly wizardling. Let's get these and go before Christopher does something stupid." He piled the books into Harry's hands and led him to the front. They were standing in line when he caught the teen staring at a display. "See something else?"
"No." Harry quickly turned away blushing.
"Don't lie." He reprimanded gently. "What's there? You can have another if you'd like."
Harry looked at him for a long time, biting his lip. He nodded once and scooted over to the tower of books, glancing back every few steps. He pulled one book to his chest and hurried back. He didn't show Prince the book, instead holding it to him until the cashier called for them.
The Prince sat the stack of books he held on the counter and let Harry place his there as well. He choked on air then fought back a laugh as he realized what it was: a romance novel. He kept his expression neutral knowing the wizardling was watching and paid for the books.
XXxx
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Okay, I am sorry for the delay. If I ever give y'all choices like that again slap me. I got myself in a block because I promised I'd write a certain topic. I'll try to be a better updater. I know I hate it when the stories I like make me wait.