He's Not Dead Yet
This is the mandatory shopping-trip chapter as seen in just about every strong!smart!independent!Harry fic.
Once again, I do not own Harry Potter or any Monty Python jokes.
"Been Shopping?" "No, I've Been Shopping."
The days that followed were truly enjoyable for young Harry Potter. He was maintaining a delightful correspondence with Luna Lovegood; her letters were always filled with stories of some of her 'interesting' creatures. Harry had also encountered Neville Longbottom; and, unlike the last time, Harry decided to try and befriend him then; Harry had also taken it upon himself to inquire if Neville was using a wand that had belonged to someone else (of course, Harry already knew the answer); the result of this conversation led to Harry revealing that it is the "wand that chooses the wizard" and that it is harder to get results with a wand that hasn't chosen you. Harry had a feeling that Neville wouldn't be using his father's wand for much longer.
Another positive was that Mr. Bayly had instructed his daughter to help Harry with his shopping; this was a good thing because it meant Harry actually had a guide for both Diagon Alley and Muggle London. Red saw to it that Harry really did learn his way around and that he would have a decent wardrobe when he went back to Hogwarts. Red was a pretty fun person to hang out with, even if she was rather strange at times; she had been a Hufflepuff when she attended Hogwarts and was quite a decent potion-brewer.
"I would have continued on to NEWT level, if it didn't mean I had to deal with Snape for two more years. I ended up taking summer courses at the Salem Institute in America. Say, if you're looking for a Potions teacher, seeing as you're getting that restraining order against Snape, I know this guy who would be perfect. His name's Robert Preston; I met him at Salem and he's a genius."
Red introduced Harry to the entirety of Diagon Alley in a matter of days. It turned out that there was much more to the magical shopping area than Harry first realized.
"Over there is Magical Imports and Exchange," Red pointed out. "They opened a few years ago and trade in just about anything. The business was actually started by a group of Muggle-borns who seized upon the opportunity of the Common Market. It's a pity that the Common Market evolved into the horrible, flesh-rending monster that is the European Union; but, really, it worked out fairly well in the magical community.
"Over there, that little shop on the left, that's Brimstone Metal-Workers; they make some of the finest custom jewellery in magical Britain; though, personally, I think you can find equally nice jewellery in the Muggle world.
"That shop over there is Fetterwick's Publishing Company; they are the single-most popular place to get any work published. They even provide book-binding service; of course, that is carried out by cousins of the Bayly family. Great-great-granddad was quite vexed when Ewan MacBayly tricked him out of the ownership of the business."
As they chatted, Harry found he really liked Red; she was a real gold-mine of information and had an older sister quality to her. Eventually, they reached a point where Red asked if Harry had a back-up wand.
"Well, no, I never knew you could get a back-up wand," Harry said.
"Well, we can sort that out right now," Red responded. "I actually got my back-up before I even set foot in Ollivander's. Follow me."
When they approached the entrance to Knockturn Alley, Harry was more than a little put-off.
"Don't worry, Harry," Red reassured him, "these people know who I am and that if they try anything my father can have them shipped straight to Azkaban."
She led him down into the darkened alley. People shied away from Red a bit, obviously hoping not to get on the wrong side of the only child of a man like Hamilton Bayly. She steered Harry into a small, sketchy-looking shop. The bell rang as the door opened and a grubby man in dirty, greying clothes approached.
"Miss Bayly," he greeted in an oily tone, "what a pleasure to see you again. How may I be of service?"
"Good afternoon, Mr. Leech; a young client of my father's has expressed an interest in a 'special' wand."
"Ah, of course, a magical focus requisit-t-t-t-te." Harry noticed that the man 'tutted' his 't's. "Let's take a look at magical cores, young man. Just stick your hand over the wand core samples and you should feel the magical energy coming off it." He led Harry over to the wand core samples. "Why don't you try this one, sir? It's our latest arrival; Essence of Sea Mist."
Harry held his hand out over the bottle but felt only a faint twinge of energy.
"Hmm, sorry, no," Harry said.
"Ah, well, how 'bout something a little more musky, this one's hair of Mimmo."
The connection was even weaker that time.
"No."
"Ah, a tricky one, eh?"
They tried a few more magical cores before Harry felt a huge amount of energy come from some strange animal fur.
"Ah, I see you've picked something up with this," said Mr. Leech. "A very special material, that is. Yes, fur from a Burmese flying-tiger."
"I'm feeling a huge magical connection," Harry said.
"Very well, sir; I'll get you a strand for your wand. Now, on to woods."
It took a much shorter time with woods. Eventually, Harry picked out a block of almond wood.
"Now for a focus gem," Mr. Leech continued. He led Harry over to a selection of gemstones. Harry simply held his hand over these until one lit up.
"Ah, yes, I got this diamond from a fire-crab shell."
"Isn't that illegal?" Red asked.
"Moving along! Well, well, well, this is quite interesting."
"What's interesting?" Harry asked.
"Oh, just the combination of materials, sir. Yes. Crab, tiger, and almond; very unusual. Anyway, I'll have the wand ready by the end of the week. That will be 1000 Galleons."
"He'll pay you half now and half when the job is done," Red answered.
"I wouldn't expect anything else, Miss Bayly; I do work in Knockturn Alley, after all."
As the two headed out, Harry inquired if what they just did was legal.
"Sort of," Red answered. "His acquisition of the materials is probably borderline-legal, at best. Having a second wand is frowned-upon by society; I'll never understand why that is, though. Best not to tell people about this, Harry; only confide in someone you are absolutely certain you can trust."
"Why didn't Mr. Leech recognize who I was?"
"Oh, he did, but he doesn't really pay attention to people's names unless they can cause trouble for him in court."
"Well, it certainly makes a nice change. He's one of the only shopkeepers we've met who hasn't gotten worked up because I'm the bloody Boy-Who-Lived."
"Well, if you're so anxious to get away from your fame, I'd be more than happy to take you shopping in Muggle London."
"Really?"
"Sure. I have been recruited as your escort, Mr. Potter; and I'll be damned before I let you down. Tell me, have you ever been to Harrods?"
About an hour later found Harry walking about in the prestigious London department store. Red had quite a bit of fun picking out clothes for her young charge and Harry actually didn't mind. Red did admit that she was not the most experienced person when it came to choosing clothes for other people as she preferred to buy simple, functional clothing and never really pursued shopping as an activity for entertainment. Once they had finished the bulk of their shopping, they stopped for lunch. As they enjoyed their meal, Harry asked if he could talk to Red about something; she quickly and discreetly put up a Privacy Charm.
"So, what's on your mind, sport?" she asked.
Harry sighed; if there was anyone he could trust with what he was about to say, he knew Red was it.
"It's just…I found out that my statuses as Lord Potter, Lord Peverell, Lord Gryffindor, Lord Slytherin, Lord Hufflepuff, and Lord Ravenclaw mean that I will need a wife for each title. And then, if Sirius never has a kid, I'm the heir of House Black and will need a wife for that title, too. I just don't know how to go about this."
"Well, Harry, that is quite a conundrum. If you're worried about how any prospective candidate will react to sharing you, the only girls you might get some grief from are the Muggle-borns. The older, pure-blood girls will probably understand the importance of dividing up the titles into different bloodlines. Half-bloods…they usually lean more towards the Muggle view of monogamy, but it depends how they were raised. Many families in the magical world are exclusively monogamist; however, some of the older families still practice polygamy if there is only one heir to multiple titles. I believe the last time it happened was about eighty years ago when the only daughter of the Judrel family married the heir of the Chumley family. They had one son who was heir to both families and had to take a second wife when the first only produced one son."
"But I need six wives," Harry pointed out. "Seven if I inherit the Black Lordship from Sirius."
"Well, you could compile all the titles into one, but that would be incredibly risky. If you only have one or two children then they will have more power available to them than they could handle. Incidentally, having only one woman as the Lady for all those titles would be a social risk that could end up alienating a lot of old families who would feel slighted. I suggest that you follow through with the six wives thing. Not because I agree with it on a moral or ethical level; absolutely not, I am an avid feminist and do not believe in treating women like political tools. However, in this society, you need to take some of the customs cum grano salis."
"So, basically, I have to accept them but maintain a degree of skepticism?
"Or cynicism; that works just as well."
"I bet Hermione will throw a fit when she finds out."
"Ooh, do I detect a hint of romance already?" Red gave Harry a suggestive smirk.
"Well, I don't know. I mean, I've been friends with her since first year and always thought my feelings for her were those of a brother for his sister."
"Harry, you are an only child who grew up in a neglectful environment. How would you know what a brother's feelings are for his sister?"
"Well, I… I never really thought of it that way."
"Harry, your romantic life is not really any of my business. But, if you want my advice, girls tend to like guys who want to be their friends first and then their romantic interest. However, don't take that as a general rule for the entire female population. All girls are different and each one has her own standards about what she looks for in a man. I can easily say that you meet quite a number of standards for quite a great deal of young witches. I will warn you, though, that you should avoid going for girls who only want the Boy-Who-Lived rather than just Harry Potter. Those are what we class as fangirls. While they mean well, their interests tend to be rather self-centered and superficial. Go for girls who want to know you."
"Thanks, Red, I'll be sure to keep that in mind." After his experience with Ginny, Harry definitely intended to follow that advice.
Another good thing that happened was that Harry met one of the girls that had been recommended to him in the file from the MoD.
Harry had been looking around in Flourish and Blott's, picking up his school-books earlier than last time and also getting some books on magical culture and history. He was just reaching for a book on Arithmancy (he had written to Professor McGonagall and asked to change his schedule) when someone else had decided to reach for it at exactly the same moment. Harry heard a very feminine gasp when his hand accidentally brushed against the other person's. Harry looked up and saw a very pretty girl; she had waist-length, perfectly straight, blonde hair and deep, aqua-green eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized.
Harry, ever the chivalrous gentleman, picked up the book and handed it to her.
"Quite alright," he said and offered his hand. "I'm Harry."
The girl smiled as she shook his hand.
"I think everyone knows who you are, Mr. Potter," she said. "I'm Daphne Greengrass."
"Oh, yeah, I recognize you. You're in my year, in Slytherin."
Daphne Greengrass had commonly come to be known as the Slytherin Ice Queen; no one had yet to break through her frigid attitude. Daphne had often held herself aloof; no guy seemed to be worthy of her attention. Yet, when she looked at the emerald-green eyes of the boy before her, she was terrified of being rejected. She knew that Gryffindors believed that Slytherins were evil, a fact that wasn't helped by that bastard Malfoy.
"Um, yes," she replied shyly. Great response there, Daph, she thought; now he'll probably think you're an idiot on top of being evil.
"Well, it's nice to meet you," Harry said with a warm smile that made the Slytherin girl feel very tingly inside. "So, you're taking Arithmancy, too?"
"Yes, I-I mean I felt it will be a very interesting course."
"Much better than something stupid like Divination; bet the only thing a person could predict in that class is whether or not the teacher's mental."
The two teens chuckled slightly.
"What else are you taking?" Harry asked.
"I signed up for Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures."
"So did I; I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of each other this year."
"Yeah," Daphne said with a slight sigh.
"I look forward to it." Harry then checked his watch. "Oops, gotta run. I'll see you around, Daphne."
As he went to pay for his books, Daphne stared after him.
"See you around…Harry."
Harry had also begun doing a study of the files that Gringotts had given him about the various properties he owned. Potter Manor was the one he was most interested in and he and Sirius made plans to spend Christmas there. In addition to Potter Manor were a number of Potter family estates in various countries that would most certainly be worth a visit next summer. Then there was the Peverell estate (an ancient castle situated on a cliff over-looking the shore at Hastings), and the Evans estate (Harry's mother's magical ancestors were from Wales and were renown as Battle-Mages before the last remaining son was discovered to be a Squib), and the Florus estate which, according to the details in the folder, possessed the largest privately-owned gardens in the world. Then, of course, there were the properties owned by the Founders; Hufflepuff Manor was relatively small and situated in a sweeping valley in Wales (the Hufflepuffs were apparently allied with the Evans in the old days), Slytherin Castle was a very old and forbidding-looking place in the marshy region of the Fens, Ravenclaw's home was a large castle in a deep valley in Scotland, and Gryffindor Castle seemed to be a highly-fortified structure just outside of Godric's Hollow in the West Country.
Then, of course, there were the accompanying assets of his heritage. As Harry was descended from all four of the Hogwarts Founders, he was the legal owner of Hogwarts School, its grounds, and the village of Hogsmeade. Diagon Alley was originally built by Lord Jovian Peverell and Lord Marcellus Potter in the 1200s and most of the original shops still maintained a steady business; as the land was owned by the Peverell and Potter families, and as Harry Potter was the heir to both, this meant, naturally, that Harry was the owner of Diagon Alley and received an annual rent from every business therein with the exception of Gringotts Bank which was legally the territory of the goblins. Of course, there were also the business ventures of his family; it seems that his parents and various forbears were quite good at making investments in both the magical and Muggle worlds; let's just say that being a partner in businesses like the Nimbus Broom Company and Microsoft is nothing to sneeze at.
Harry was feeling more connected with his family than he even imagined. To fully understand the impact his forbears had had on the magical community, Harry purchased a number of books; among these were The Potters: A Family History, Peverell: The Legacy of the Legendary Inventors, Famous Battle-Mages of Wales, The Florus Compendium: A Documentation of the Florus Family's Contribution to Herbology, The Life and Times of the Hogwarts Founders, and The Potter Family and the World of Quidditch.
There was much more to his family than Harry had ever expected. It was a good thing that Harry, though not an obsessive reader like Hermione, actually did enjoy reading; he would have read more in the previous timeline were it not for the interference of a certain red-headed 'friend' of his. The books he had purchased about his family had been truly enlightening.
In The Potter Family and the World Quidditch, it revealed that several Potter sons had joined up with several other families to form the first England Quidditch Team (the Potter heir, Crispin Potter, set the first record for fastest player). Once the addition of Seeker was made to Quidditch, a witch by the name of Constanza Potter was the first official Seeker for the Holyhead Harpies.
The Potters also seemed to be a family that prided themselves on their ability to effectively pass legislature and enforce their policies through government. There were a few shady characters in the family tree, as there often are in any family; one particular Lady of the House of Potter was documented as going insane (as in, the type of insane that made Bellatrix Lestrange seem like a qualified care-giver at the Children's Ward in St. Mungo's) and nearly brought about the destruction of Britain, a younger Potter son was deeply involved in the Dark Arts and caused the deaths of all but one of his siblings, and a set of twin girls in the Potter family were legendary for the fact that they had an infamous battle (one was a Light witch and the other a Dark witch) that only ended with the intercession of the then king of England, Edward the Confessor; only for the fighting to start up again after his death until Isolde (the Light witch) triumphed over her sister Siora (the Dark witch).
Then of course there were the Peverells. The Peverells had apparently gained quite a bit of prestige from their tradition of ingenuity in magical inventions; not least of which were the Deathly Hallows (but, only Harry and people like Mr. Lovegood and Dumbledore knew who the Three Brothers of the legend were).
The Evans family, as mentioned earlier, were known Battle-Mages and highly skilled in Runic Magic. From what Harry learned, it was highly possible that his mother had used Runic Magic to protect him the night she sacrificed herself (at least, that was what he theorized when he saw that the Evans family Rune for 'Protection' was in the shape of a lightning-bolt). The Evans family had a long and grueling history of war, violence, loyalty, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to their homeland and loved-ones. Harry was actually very startled by the lengths some of these people went to in order to protect those they cared about; some things were too unsavory to even contemplate.
Sirius also turned out to be a veritable fount of information thanks to all the time he spent at
Potter Manor; and then of course there was the fact that Harry's paternal grandmother was Sirius' great-aunt. Despite the dark nature of the Black family, Harry found he didn't mind being related to them; there was something strangely enthralling about the Blacks that Harry couldn't explain; of course, Sirius insisted it was the old 'Black Family Charm.' Whatever the bloody hell that meant.