Harry fingered the cloth as the merchant rambled on. It was magical cloth. Like silk, but stronger. Very strong. It could block a knife, and low level spells. Almost like basilisk hide, but lighter, more elegant. It was good every day cloth. Harry tallied up in his head and turned to the merchant.
"I'll buy twelve meters."
The man's face lit up. It was expensive.
"Also, would you know anyone interested in buying basilisk skin?"
The man's eyes grew wide.
"Hmmm…" He seemed thoughtful. "Various individuals. If I see any I'll direct them to you."
Harry didn't ask how. He paid the man, folded the cloth, and set it in his bag. The bag was one he had also bought here. It looked like a plain black book bag with an embroidered snake coiling around the cloth. But it had various spells on it. Anti-summoning charms, charms to make the space inside larger, and personalized tracking charms so he always knew where it was. He ran his fingers over the cloth one last time before closing the bag. He already had plans for it.
.--.
Harry watched the woman closely as she babbled on. He tapped the arm of the chair impatiently as she played with his hair. He found it was dead useful being able to see magic and spells. He had already blocked a bunch of spells thrown discreetly at himself. The woman wasn't doing any though. She was just a fashion designer/hair stylist. She had dragged him here saying she had fallen in love with his looks, saying she could do so much with them. He was playing the dress up doll in return for some clothes and a hair cut. It was a good trade he grudgingly admitted.
"Done!" She chirped.
He sighed… almost. Her siren voice was nice but it grated on his nerve to hear her talk so much and sound so happy. He looked at himself in the mirror and raised a brow. Wow. She had really upgraded his looks. His hair was pulled back in a low, lazy pony tail with two long locks framing his face, each with a slight curl to them. Also hanging from the locks and a few others were beads, strung on to his hair. The clasp holding his hair was a small metal tube like one that was a deep green and carved with designs. The beads in his hair were a mixture of silver, gold, and glass. The beads were all medium sized and elegant giving him an exotic look.
She had framed his eyes with a tinge of black eye shadow that really made his eyes stand out. His outfit now consisted of baggy black pants that came in at his ankles and were tucked in soft leather boots. His shirt was a forest green long sleeve shirt that had billowing sleeves and reached his knees, two slits up the sides for better movement. A silver and green sash was wrapped around his waist and two black and silver sashes were draped around his shoulders and torso. Along with the fang earring he also wore a few small rings in the upper part with small glass beads on them. His necklace was hanging on his shirt for all to see. Ne (who had returned from his trip with Tom a while back by portkey) was wrapped around his torso and shoulders, half under his sashes making him look very exotic and very imposing.
He stood and spun around slightly. The woman squealed and started to snap pictures. He rolled his eyes slightly, but allowed her to. When she was finished he thanked her and she chatted at him and walked him for the place. As he was back on the streets he found a large amount of people were giving him second glances. Many people wore cloaks, or masks, or some sort of spell to hide their face of make sure they weren't very distinguishable. Actually it was mostly just the humans. Drawing attention here could be a bad thing if you weren't powerful. Harry just calmly walked down the street ignoring the glances as he stood straight and proud.
.--.
Harry found himself admiring the instruments. They were all beautifully handcrafted. He dragged his elegant fingers over the strings of one harp and silently listened to the music.
"Can I help you?" The goblin owner sneered.
Harry just pointed to the harp. The store he was in sold hand crafted goblin items. The Black Market was split into various 'divisions'. One held only high quality stores and no corner stands and such took up the roads. One held only open markets. One only sold food. Another only ingredients and so on. Many were just a jumble of everything. Most places though held inns and flats above stores as many people actually lived on the Black Market Island. Harry was in a division which sold a lot of non-human made items. The goblin gave a toothy grin/sneer.
"Would you like it wrapped up?"
Harry shook his head idly and handed the goblin the money. The goblin watched him closely as he picked up the instrument. He could already sense various spells around the items. Some stopped them from being melted down and destroyed. Others, such as the one on the harp, seemed to stop anyone incompetent with the item pick it up. Harry easily lifted it and tucked it in his bag. The goblin gave another grin/sneer as Harry left the store.
.--.
Harry gave the man a disgusted look.
"Come one, I can make it worth your while." He leered holding up a wad of money.
A few people had stopped to watch. A few were some goblins who could tell how strong Harry was. The funny thing with goblins is they could easily sense how powerful people were. There was also a centaur, which was very rare here as they liked their forests. The stargazer was watching in interest. Another was a vampire and a werewolf who had been arguing when they had spotted Harry's earring and necklace. Well more like smelled then spotted. They looked unsure as to whether they should interfere or stay back. Protect their Prince and Leader's unknown charge, or stay back and watch what he would do. The man didn't notice. Said man was leaning uncomfortably close as he leered at Harry. Harry was pressed to a wall with hands on either side of his head. Harry glared.
"Step away." He said calmly.
The man gave a foolish pout.
"I could show you real pleasure." He purred as he ran a hand down Harry's face.
Did he think Ne was fake? Fool. Ne lashed out, biting the man's wrist and injecting his poison. The man screamed and fell back. Harry slashed at him as he fell, a blade of fire appearing in his hand. More people had stopped to stare at the elementist now. The man he had killed fell to the ground, his head cut off, the wound cauterized but oozing the purple venom Ne had injected. It moved very quickly. There was a faint round of applause for the show before people were moving along again. Harry summoned all the valuable and money on the man before stepping on his body as he passed. It ignited into flames behind him, turning to ash in seconds.
"That was worth my time." Harry smirked as he walked off.
.--.
Harry grabbed the offending hand, which had reached for him. He had learned enough of pick-pocketing to protect himself from such attempts. He looked down into the face of the person attempting said thing. It was a small girl. She was very beautiful with a veela appearance. He sensed she was half veela. She pouted up at him with large blue eyes.
"Gabrielle!" Came a cry.
He turned to see an older version of the girl hurrying over. Most likely her mother.
"I told you to stay close!"
The girl pouted. Then the older one noticed his hand around hers.
"What have you done?!" She spun to her daughter.
The girl rolled her eyes.
"Joseph taught me how to pickpocket and I wanted to try."
"Gabrielle!" her mother glared.
Then she spun to Harry bowing.
"I'm so sorry!"
Harry could hear the tinge of fear in her. The veela in the woman could smell the vampire and werewolf scent around him. She could also probably smell his fire. Noir had commented once he smelled like fire, meaning he could control it well. Harry just released the small girl.
"Try with some idiot next time." He said simply.
The girl gave a grin. He held the fancy bead keychain out to her. Her eyes lit up as she took it. He could easily see it was what she had been going for. It had been tied to his bag.
"Thank you!"
Her mother bowed her head and Harry slipped back into the crowd.
.--.
Harry stepped into 'The Greenhouse' and immediately was stepping around plants. Plants everywhere. Many moving. Harry smirked as he glanced around at the vine covered wall. He moved towards the till counter where a man leaned lazily reading a book.
"Yes?" The man asked.
"Do you have any moon blossom?"
The man blinked then raised a brow. Moon Blossom was a flower that only opened in the light of the moon. It was very hard to grow though as it was fed with magic and watered with roman poison. To feed it magic would take a large amount of control and awareness of said magic. The Roman Poison was slightly difficult to make. The man though, just slipped off into a back room. He returned a moment later with a package.
"Seeds. Soil. Pot." He said simply.
Harry dumped some galleons on his counter and grabbed the package. Then he walked off, ignoring the vines trying to creep around his legs.
.--.
Harry swallowed the drink in one swallow and looked at it appreciably. It was a mix of alcohol, spices, and some other things. It was a drink from some African country. He looked up at the grinning bar keeper who slid another drink to him. He really liked the bars in the Black Market. No legal drinking age here, not that there really was any bar he visited. He smirked and drank the next drink, not that age or restrictions had ever stopped him before.
.--.
As night descended on the market it stayed alive as ever, though more business was done indoors now. Harry himself was sitting in a large indoor market building. It was packed full. Harry stood at one of the small food vendors eating some Japanese food called dango. It was quite good. He watched around looking at the various vendors. Food, pottery, plants, ingredients, jewels, and so on. So many things from countries all over the world. Harry really liked the place. Suddenly he sensed someone behind him. He looked back to see a tall Japanese man in a traditional yukata with a sword at his waist. He looked like a samurai and around forty.
"I hear you killed someone with a flame sword." He said shortly.
"Hai." Harry said idly rolling the dango stick between his fingers.
The man studied him seemingly impassive. Harry could see intrigue in his eyes though at both his attitude and the use of Japanese in response.
"You can use a blade?"
"Hai."
"Fight me."
Harry shrugged and pulled his sword from his bag. The jewel in the hilt glittered in the light as the man drew his elegant katana.
"We make a bet?" He asked.
Harry raised a brow
"I'll give you a weapon if you win. If I win you give me a weapon."
Harry gave a smirk and nodded sliding into position. Ne hissed unhappily. He hated jumping around. The snake tightened its hold, effectively pressing Harry's bag tight to him so it didn't fall in the way. The few people around them stepped away from the pair. Most just walked on by, used to street fights, but a few saw this was more then just a brawl. There was a moment where the two just circled each other gauging strength. Then the man leapt at Harry, sword raised. In a clash of metal the swords met. Harry slid his blade down the man's and spun actually pushing the man back slightly. Then he crouched and came up in a spin, sword flashing. The man dodged, only gaining a small cut across his arm. They engaged again and for a good five minutes exchanged blows. People were stopping to watch or quickly stepping out of the way. Finally Harry saw an opening. He shot in, in a burst of speed, and held his sword at the man's throat. The man paused then gave a deep laugh and sheathed his sword.
"You are good young one. How old are you?"
"I turn fourteen in two weeks." Harry said.
He'd never felt his age though. He felt like he was much older; much to old for things such as age restrictions and limits. The man blinked in surprise
"Only fourteen. Very good."
Then he tossed Harry a pouch. Harry reached and pulled out what looked like a throwing star.
"It is filled with ninja weapons." The man grinned. "Few use them anymore but my clans still learns them as basic weapons."
"Arigato." Harry said hiding the pouch away.
"The real reason I sought you out though was I heard you had some basilisk skin available."
Harry nodded.
"I need some for a friend, about three meters."
Harry reached into his bag and pulled out a small roll. He handed the man the amount he wanted, receiving some gold jewellery in exchange. Everyone didn't just use galleons here.
"Enjoy your journey of life." The man bowed before walking off.
Harry watched the odd man leave before returning to the vendor to get some more dango. It was very good.
.--.
Harry was lounging at another bar when he spotted a familiar patch of blonde and black hair. He slid from his stool and crept up behind them. As he got close enough he could see they were whispering over a few drinks. They didn't notice him till he sat down right beside them. They looked up and he could see they were stunned. The two stared a moment. Harry just waved a Asian bar maid over.
"Some fire whiskey please." Then he paused. "Do you have blood?"
She gave a nod.
"Have some mixed in please."
"Of course Vampire-san." She bowed.
So blood equalled Vampire? Hmm. A moment later he had a drink in hand.
"Potter?" Snape asked in surprise. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
Harry motioned to his drink, before sipping at it.
"I meant in the Black Market." The man snarled.
Harry swirled his drink.
"It's an interesting place."
Snape seemed ready to pull his hair out at the lack of answer.
"I must say Potter, you look very exotic." Lucius said, stepping into the conversation.
Harry gave a lazy, half lidded smirk and allowed Ne to take a sip from his glass. They both looked him over taking note of his clothes and such no doubt. Snape's eyes lingered on Noir's necklace. He would no doubt be able to see it was not a crystal. Suddenly two arms wrapped around Harry's neck as lips pressed against his neck.
"Harry." Noir purred behind him.
Snape and Lucius had stiffened as they saw Noir's fangs.
"I knew I would find you!" Noir laughed cheerfully. "And my, you look beautiful!"
Maen stepped up on his other side giving him a leering grin.
"Looking good Flame." He grinned.
"Anyways, we're heading home. Want to come?" Noir asked.
"I guess." Harry said standing.
"Who are you?" Snape asked cautiously before they could leave.
"I'm Noir, and this is Maen." Noir grinned.
"What do you want with Potter?" Snape asked again.
"Nothing much." Noir purred kissing Harry's cheek again.
Harry could see these were mistaking the kiss and the compliments on his looks, along with the invitation home.
"Let's go." Harry said, intervening. "I have to head back to D's soon."
"You could stay with us." Noir pouted.
"Not all summer." Harry remarked.
The vampire just pouted and all three swept out before they were stopped by the two wizards.
.--.
End of Chapter 24.