Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.
A/N: I have never been to a travel agent's office, nor do I use apps like Travelocity with any sort of regularity, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. Also, as I usually do with my stories, I'm making it up as I go along.
The next day, Harry decided he would visit the muggle travel agencies with his Dale persona, as he fully intended to visit more than one, so he stood in front of the mirror in his room as he adjusted his appearance to what he wanted, and then made a wardrobe decision. It didn't really take him all that long, but having made a habit of doing such every time he left the island in something other than his base form of Harry Potter, he tended to do this every time he planned to go out.
He scrunched up his face in concentration as he changed his hair color to a mixture of darker shades of blue and green, rather than the bright neon colors he had previously taken to wearing, then he styled it into spikes using muggle hair gel. Then he focused on his eyes and considered doing the same mixture for his eye color and claim it to be from wearing colored contacts if anyone asked, but then he doubted that the muggles were able to make colored contacts to be quite so detailed, so he stuck with the ice blue eyes he typically used with this persona.
Moving onto his clothing, he decided on heavy metal music inspired; baggy trousers with the chains, muggle metal band on his T-shirt, and gauges in his ears. He was never more thankful for his metamorphmagus abilities when he decided to try out the ear-gauge look, because he didn't have to go through the process of actually stretching his ear holes, he just morphed his ear holes to the size that he wanted and, voilà, the perfect ear hole for gauges. When he didn't want to wear gauges, then he'd use his morphing abilities to shrink them. He couldn't imagine going through the ear gauges process as a muggle, that's for sure.
Once done, Harry headed downstairs to at least inform Hermione, so she could pass it along to everyone else, that he'd be out visiting different muggle travel agencies and would probably be doing much of it the muggle way, once he left the island.
Poking his head through the door of the library, Harry saw Hermione chewing on a sugar quill as she stared in space. "Hey, Hermione," he said to get her attention.
Hermione jumped at the sudden sound of her name and looked around for the source, before her eyes landed on Harry's head sticking through the library door, "Hi, Harry, you startled me," Hermione replied. Harry just grinned and pushed the door open all the way, but remained just inside the frame of the doorway. "Is there a reason you're so…" Hermione trailed off as if she didn't have the words, so she just waved her hand as to indicate his whole ensemble.
Harry just shrugged and said, "Well, it's not like this look screams Harry Potter, and you know it's actually a pretty popular look in the muggle world, which is where I'm planning to spend much of my time today."
"Do you want some company?" Hermione asked, then added as if a bit unsure of herself. "I've been looking up some disguising charms, and I think I could pull it off."
Harry shook his head and said, "Just because muggles wouldn't notice or recognize disguising charms, doesn't mean that it won't be noticed by any magicals that happened to be in the area. I honestly think you'd be better off going with muggle disguises, like wigs or hair dye and makeup," Harry added thoughtfully. Seeing Hermione's frown, he quickly added, "I didn't mean that I didn't want the company, I was only making a comment regarding disguises."
Hermione's face brightened again, but then dimmed when she realized she didn't have any muggle disguises. She silently thought about conjuring a wig or transfiguring something into a wig, but then wondered if maybe that wouldn't still leave a magical trace. Instead she asked, "Why did you never suggest muggle disguises to us before?"
Harry awkwardly started to run his hand through his hair, before he remembered that he had added gel in his hair and he wasn't likely to enjoy having the residue on his hand. Instead he scratched the back of his neck and cleared his throat before responding, "To be honest, I didn't think about anyone wanting to get away from the island, no one had ever said anything about it before your little outburst yesterday, so I never thought about it."
"Well, I suppose I did keep my cabin fever pretty quiet," Hermione conceded.
Harry sighed and said sternly, "If you really want to go with me, you're going to take extra precautions, no matter how unlikely it is that we're going to be in danger."
"What sort of extra precautions?" Hermione wondered.
"You're going to have an emergency portkey that will activate automatically, in the unlikely event we get ambushed," Harry said.
"All right. But what about the muggles? I'm sure it's going to be very unexplainable for me to just up and disappear," Hermione retorted.
"Hermione, if we're attacked magically, then the muggles noticing or not is going to be the least of our worries, but we can add a Notice-Me-Not and muggle repelling charms that will activate when the portkey does, that way in the event that we're attacked by muggles, they won't likely notice anything out of the ordinary." Harry responded.
"And what about you?" Hermione wanted to know. "You'd better not allow yourself to stay in danger, while you send me off to be protected."
"Hermione, I've been practicing battle and dueling magic, along with mixed martial arts, since almost the moment I left Britain, so you don't need to worry about me. Now, I know you're a strong and brilliant witch, but fighting is not one of your strengths." Harry held up his hand, as Hermione opened her mouth to argue, then continued, "I know you can fight when you have to, Hermione, but you are an academic, not a warrior. The day you're able to match me in a duel, that'll be the day I won't hesitate to let you stay and fight if you need to."
Hermione sat stunned at that. She knew he was right, she'd been more focused on studying and learning new spells, but had not even bothered with learning how to apply those spells in real life circumstances. She shuddered to think about how easily she could get stuck in another Malfoy situation if she did nothing to learn how to fight with all the new spells that she's learned in her studies. Not to mention that Harry was significantly more magically powerful than herself and their other friends, even before his magical majority, so matching him in a duel would probably be impossible, but she was too stubborn to not try, if only to know that she could protect herself from another Malfoy.
"When do you want to start lessons?" Hermione asked quietly.
Satisfied that Hermione wasn't going to argue with him, he said, "We'll start after our vacation. We'll even add in some of the mixed martial arts that I've been learning in the muggle world, in the event that you're ever disarmed of your wand."
Hermione nodded in agreement. "Did you have any other conditions for my going with you?"
"Well, that was pretty much it," Harry shrugged. "Now, how do you feel about hair dye versus a wig? There's downsides to both.
"Well, I don't want to damage my hair with chemicals, so I'd probably prefer to get a wig, perhaps more than one." Hermione said thoughtfully. "What are the downsides you're thinking about?" She asked curiously.
"Well, obviously the hair dye would be permanent until your hair grows back, but then again, we could just shave your head and give you a hair growth potion when we come back home," Harry replied.
Hermione nodded in thought, before waving to Harry to continue his explanation.
"The downsides I see to the wig would be the possibility of it flying off your head, either due to wind or a fight," Harry said, scratching his chin thoughtfully, "Then again, that could probably be fixed with a mild sticking charm, which should be a minor enough spell to not be picked up on by other magicals, and you could use muggle hair pins in addition, just in case you get hit by a stray finite."
"So really, there's downsides to both, but they both can be overcome with just a bit of effort," Hermione acknowledged. Then shaking her head in bemusement, "Who would have thought a year ago that I'd be having this kind of conversation with Harry Potter of all people?"
Harry chuckled and said, "Well, I suppose having to read all those fashion magazines to help me blend in as a girl had to count for something."
Hermione giggled and said, "Let me go change. Afterwards, I'll tell you what I've decided about my hair dilemma."
As Hermione headed up the stairs, Harry called after her, "Make sure that you don't go with your good-girl/librarian look, otherwise, you'll have all the muggles wondering what the hell you're doing hanging out with me!"
"Harry, language!" Hermione scolded, causing Harry to chuckle in amusement.
A few minutes later, Harry and Hermione had just informed Luna and Neville that they'd be out for a few hours and that they'd probably eat the evening meal out in the muggle worlds and not to wait for them for supper.
"Sure, Harry," Luna responded. "I think you should leave your eyes green today, though."
"Why's that, Luna?" Harry asked curiously.
"Oh, the nargles. Something about the eyes needing to be green in order to see the grass, or something like that. They weren't all that clear, "Luna replied in her airy tone. "Maybe it was, the grass is green? Green grass?" Luna shook her head and frowned. "Well, whatever they said, I just know you should leave your eyes green."
Harry and Neville shared a significant look, as Harry's eyes bled from ice blue to his natural green. "Thanks, Luna," Harry said.
"You're welcome, Harry," Luna replied dreamily.
A/N: I apologize for the shortness of the chapter, I just find my muse not quite ready to let go of the eventual meeting, I'm torn between about three different scenarios, and it might be a while before I get the feel for the right one. I hope you all enjoy this short chapter, nonetheless.