True to Hermione's warning, Harry spent the morning as a Ken doll, modeling look after look until his friend's mum found one that she liked. She apparently felt that 'business casual' best suited Harry, and they then set about the task of shopping for enough outfits to serve her appetite for such things. She allowed a shop assistant to choose his color palette, after a frustrating attempt at pastels, her personal favorite. In the end, it was decided that the darker side of the spectrum suited his complexion and eye color best, though Violet insisted on a few lighter colors, especially white shirts that reminded both Hogwarts students of their school uniform. By lunch, they had close to a dozen bags, each with three shirts or pairs of trousers, which Jack carried out to the car without complaint.

After a light lunch at the pizzeria, Violet did indeed insist that her husband give Harry and Hermione 'play' money while they went to see a film. Harry gaped when they were each handed a fifty pound note with a warning not to spend it all in the arcade. He only stopped gaping when Hermione elbowed him roughly. Violet seemed to think his surprise the height of hilarity, as she was chuckling inconsolably as her husband led her away.

As soon as her parents were gone, Hermione dragged Harry into the men's area, where they'd spent most of the morning.

"I assume you plan to make use of that park near my house," She said, leading him to a rack of clothes that looked like upper scale workout gear.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do. You know how active I am, and I can't exactly play Quidditch."

"Exactly," Hermione said, shifting clothing on a rack. "You'll need clothes to work out in, then. I thought about saying something to Mum, but I could tell you were getting tired of playing dress-up."

"I am tired of playing dress-up. I'm not used to getting that much attention from anyone, and I'm famous in the Wizarding World," Harry groaned.

His friend looked at him sympathetically. "I know you hate attention, Harry, but it really is for the best. Now you have a wardrobe of clothes that don't look like the hand-me-downs of a whale. Plus, you made Mum happy."

Harry grinned as he started looking through a rack marked 'sale'. "I don't think there's much in this world that could make your mum or dad unhappy. It's amazing how much they smile and laugh. My 'perfect' relatives are never that happy."

Hermione turned to look at the other side of the rack he was browsing. "They are happy a lot, that's true. I think I've seen my mum cry only a few times, and my dad never has as far as I know. All the world is good in their eyes. They can be cross when it calls for it, and stern when I need them to be, but mostly they're happy."

"And it isn't false," Harry pointed out. "That's something I find amazing. They really are just happy. Especially your dad."

Hermione bit her lip, and Harry looked at her curiously. "You know," She began softly. "I bet your parents would have been just as amazing if they'd had the chance."

Harry frowned and returned to browsing the clothing he was standing in front of. "My mum, maybe…Even probably, but I doubt my dad would have been so 'amazing'. Especially if I'd been sorted into Slytherin like the Hat wanted."

"What makes you say that?"

Harry winced. He'd never told anyone of what he'd seen in Snape's pensieve that had caused the man to end their Occlumency lessons. Despite the anger he felt for the man, who loathed him just because of who his father was, he didn't think he could ever tell anyone what he saw. He wouldn't break the oath he'd made, even if the man never knew about said oath. He shrugged, scowling as he remembered his father bullying a young Snape unprovoked.

"Something Sirius told me once," He lied. "Apparently, my dad was a bit of a bully back in the day. I doubt that would have changed by the time they had me in their lives. My mum and dad were only a couple years out of Hogwarts when they had me. Sirius thought his mistreatment of Slytherins was a laugh riot, but they were worse than Malfoy. My dad was in on it when Sirius sent Snape after Lupin. He only backed out at the last minute when he realized how much trouble they could get in."

"That's awful," Hermione exclaimed in shock. "They could have killed another student and your dad only thought of the trouble he'd be in?"

Harry sent a sly glance to his friend. "In your own words," He continued in high falsetto. "I'm going to bed before either of you comes up with another clever idea to get us all killed. Or worse, expelled."

Hermione giggled. "Fair enough, Harry. Still, I'm sorry about your dad. It must be difficult to find that a man you hold in such high esteem isn't all he was cracked up to be."

Harry shrugged. "I've learned to deal with it. Here we go." He took two sets of clothing off the rack and held them up for his friend to see. "What do you think?"

Hermione studied the clothing. "They'll be comfortable," She agreed. "And I'll bet you look nice in them. Are they what you want?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically and his friend grinned. They moved together towards the checkout counter, but Hermione dragged him off again as they passed the shoes. After another twenty minutes looking for a nice pair of sneakers (her mum had chosen nicer shoes during her earlier dressing game), they moved to the counter. Hermione insisted on buying the shoes for him, and Harry relented only after she agreed to let him buy her a bracelet of assorted brown-black stones that was near the register. Their purchases in hand, Hermione then insisted they get ice cream, and they went back to the pizzeria. With their treats finished, they spent the rest of their time until her parents returned in the bookshop, simply browsing, though Hermione did leave with a few new titles to add to her collection at home.

To answer some question that people don't leave a freaking name for me to reply to:

Harry has to tell Hermione to wear proper shoes and clothes for the walk because it's a bonding moment. Hermione is not athletically inclined, thus she's never worn the sneakers in her closet. It's bonding, pure and simple. They aren't bimbo's and they aren't being vapid, they're talking about something they could never talk about with Ron around, making his absence viable.

Harry is taken shopping by Hermione's parents because it's a means of showing the difference in social standing. Hermione's parents are overly generous, and Harry has to figure out how to deal with accepting things from other people. It's a set up for a conversation he has later with Snape. Patience is a GD virtue, learn it!