As Harry wandered through the streets of Rome, he wondered why he had never thought to travel anywhere, he had money, he had time, hell he had connections to make it the most luxurious trip ever. Yet the thought to leave England, to leave London had never struck him. His friends were there, his family were there, his godson was there. A rueful smile crossed Harry's lips at that thought. He missed Teddy, this was the first time in years that he was away from the child, Andromeda had nearly danced while pushing him out when he had hesitatingly bought up the fact that he wanted to leave the country for a couple days, telling him it was long overdue, that Teddy would be fine and that Harry needed to live his life too. The young boy was now four years old and was as mischievous and clumsy as one could be with a marauder and a metamorphmagus as a parent. He always lit up everytime Harry came around as if he hadn't seen him in ages, when in reality Harry went to him everyday, he had been the one bright spot in his life which had helped him get over his trauma from the war.

He looked into a few shops as he passed, picking up small knick knacks that he thought his friends and family might like, an interesting artefact for Hermione, an ancient Roman game based on chess for Ron, a book on forgotten animals for Luna, a few lovely sweaters for Andromeda and Mrs. Weasley and so on. Right now he was on the hunt for something for Teddy, he had already bought a couple of soft toys and clothes but wanted to buy something special for his godson before he went to meet Lia and a friend of hers for lunch, she had been stuck in meetings since morning so he had decided to wander around a bit on his own.

As he contemplated what he could get Teddy, he bumped into someone. "Oh Sorry-" Harry's apology was cut off as the woman took one look at him before beginning to curse him out completely in Italian, her hands gesticulating wildly. Harry's eyes widened in alarm wondering what was going on. His hands came up to try to placate the woman. His eyes roamed over the streets wondering if anyone could help him, but everyone seemed to be minding their own business as if it was completely normal.

Just as he wondered if he should just turn around and leave, a smooth Italian voice inserted itself in the conversation, the same rapid fire Italian with an icy undertone spitting back at the woman. A few more minutes of the conversation continued before the woman threw a contemptuous look at Harry and the strange handsome man before turning around and stalking away. Harry breathed a sigh of relief before turning to the man. "Thank you." He breathed out in gratitude.

"No problem Potter, although I am surprised to find you so far from London." Harry's body stiffened for a second before he took a closer look at him, hazy memories of a younger face in a green tie and an amused smirk rising to the forefront of mind.

"Zabini?" He questioned in confusion. "At your service," the sardonic ex-slytherin quipped. He hadn't heard much about the Slytherins after the war. Of course, he had testified at Malfoy's trial and they had awkward stilted, polite conversations anytime they met, but he had been the only marked death eater and the only one Harry had any sort of interactions with from his childhood.

"I'm visiting my father's family." Zabini answered, his hands sliding into the pockets of his trousers. Even in the Italian heat the Slytherin was dressed to the nines in a slim expensive suit, the rich blue of it highlighting his caramel skin beautifully in the sun. "What are you doing here Potter?"

"Oh ," Embarrassed, Harry looked away from his perusal of the Slytherin. "I'm here with someone, but they had a few meetings so I'm just picking up a few souvenirs." He held up his paper bags lamely.

"Why was that woman screaming at me?" he asked curiously. "Ah," A sour look crossed Zabini's face. "Apparently she didn't like the colour of your skin."

A sick feeling swept through Harry's stomach, he hadn't had any real experiences with racism, not since before Hogwarts, even that had mostly been snide remarks and parents steering kids away from him, though that could have been from his skin or from his relative's rumours. And in Hogwarts his family name and his history had protected him, and even then wizards were more obsessed with blood than with colour of skin, but he had still heard from Dean that some half bloods and muggleborns did sneer and look down on him because of his skin.

"Ah."

"Yes, well some people's stupidity knows no bounds." Zabini sneered at his eloquent reply. A rueful smile spread across Harry's face. "No matter what we do, people will always find stupid reasons to hate others."

"Indeed, we just know the price of that because well-" He moved his hand in a circular motion, to encompass the situation with the war that they had gone through recently. Harry nodded the conversation turning awkward as they stood in silence.

"Well-"

"It was -"

They both began at the same time, awkward smiles on their faces as they realised they were both trying to escape the conversation politely. Harry huffed out a breath frustrated. "This is stupid. We are adult's for Merlin's sake." He muttered under his breath before he looked resolutely at the Italian.

"Look, do you know where I can find the magical community here? I want to get something for my godson." He had been sticking to the muggle parts because he didn't want to go to the embassy or let many wix know he was hare, that would just be disastrous.

To his credit, Blaise didn't showcase much emotion instead he just nodded slightly before indicating that Harry should follow him. He led him through a series of twisting lanes to a small family style cafe with peeling paint and chequered table cloths.

As they entered the cool interiors were a great relief from the sun. "Why is the entrance in a muggle dinner?" Harry questioned as he followed the ex-slytherin as he led them upstairs. He could feel the faint hum of wards around the establishment and he had seen the way muggles seemed to ignore the upstairs.

"This is just one of the alleyways, this caters more to families." Harry's eyebrows raised at that in surprise. "One of them?"

Blaise nodded leading them upstairs, into a balcony and down another set of stairs into a peaceful magical alleyway filled with kid friendly stores, arcades and most importantly gelato places.

"Yes, there's one for families, one for clubbing and partying, one exclusively for high end stores and restaurants and so on, it was divided this way to make it safer and easier to manage especially since we get so many tourists."

Harry nodded amazed as he took in his first look of an international magical community. The whole alleyway felt like something out of a dream, full of laughing families and warm greetings in loud Italian. Desire hit him terribly, wondering if he would ever experience that sort of happiness, the contentment of being with your people. They walked to a huge colourful store with huge two story windows in the front and a huge rabbit over the storefront which kept hopping around the roof of the building before peaking over and waving to them.

"They usually have a selection of unique toys for kids, they also do customised gifts if you don't find anything to your liking." Blaise said as he and Harry walked into the half empty store and instantly an employee came up to them and began chatting in Italian. A short exchange with his tour guide had the employee tapping his badge twice before turning to Harry.

"Good afternoon sir, how may I help you?" He took a double take upon seeing Harry before but shook his head and smiled at him. "Hello, I am looking for something for my godson, he's four." Harry explained.

"Wonderful sir, what interests does he have? Children that age do usually fixate on one or the other thing."

"Hmm?" Harry hummed from where his attention had been distracted by a snowglobe of animals running in it. "Could you tell me about these?" He drifted closer to the shelves and observed how each held various animals, but he was drawn to the one with a family of wolves, running around and playing. The cub kept trying to chase and climb on the parents, one of the adult wolves seemed to be a bit of a klutz, tripping slightly while the biggest of them kept huffing out little wolfy laughs and looking on indulgently. Heart aching he wondered if this was how the Lupin family would have been had Remus and Tonks survived.

The salesman looked at the one which had caught Harry's eyes, a slight grimace crossing his face. " Ah apologies, this one seems to be a little defective, I can get you one which has both the wolves moving normally from the back." As he reached for the globe, Harry stopped. "No! No, this is good, perfect really." A wistful smile on his face as he picked it up. The three wolves looked at him curiously for a minute before resuming their play. "I'll take this." He said as he looked around the shop, his eyes caught on a giant fluffy rabbit the same as the one on the exterior of the shop, with its silver blonde fur his mind flashed to the first Weasley grandchild and his ex-triwizard tournament peer's daughter. "And the rabbit too please, is there a way to transport it?" He asked, shaken out of his melancholy, his eyes fell around the shop, instantly picking out anything interesting or fun he saw for kids he knew and even some for the adults. The result of it being a very happy salesman who kept trying to entice Harry into more stuff, an amused Blaise Zabini and Harry with multiple bags filled with shrunken packages and a self updating catalogue for future purchases.

"Well, that was certainly an enlightening experience." Zabini stated amused, he had had a surprisingly fun time with the saviour, picking out gifts for his old school mates he had been an observant bloke and Harry took full advantage of that fact often ending up with stupid, fun, nostalgic gifts which he was sure would make his large circle of friends and family laugh.

"Yes, it was fun." Harry agreed grinning, he checked his watch and cursed slightly, time truly did fly when he was having fun. "Listen Zabini - Blaise, I had fun today but I really need to run now. Thanks for today and when you are back in London owl me, yeah? We could go for drinks or something sometime."

A pleased smile spread across Blaise's face. "Sure, you're not as insufferable as I thought you would be Potter. I'll be seeing you then." With another nod and pleasantries the two men went their separate way. Harry quickly apparated back to near his hotel to place his purchases in his room before hurrying out to meet Lia at a nearby ocean faced restaurant. He stopped at a nearby florist shop to pick up a small bouquet of sunflowers.

His peaceful day just became all the more better when he saw the brunette in a flowing white cotton gown, his mouth drying when he noticed the thin nature of the gown and the fact that it was completely backless and held together by just two thin straps tied behind her neck. That was definitely what she had been wearing in the morning, she must have changed after her meeting before waiting for him at the restaurant. Her hair piled up in a bun, showing the expanse of her smooth neck and the red lipstick on her lips just made her look all the more alluring. Clearing his throat Harry hurried to her side, slight flames of jealousy flickering in his stomach at the stares she was attracting.

"Hello beautiful," he murmured as he pressed a slight kiss to her ruby red lips and handed the bouquet to her. Lia's hand came up to caress his jaw as she smiled into the kiss. "Hello handsome, how was shopping?"

He tangled their fingers as he took the seat right beside her, his eyes focused on how the light danced in her eyes, the happiness and joy alight in them. "It was good, I ran into an old schoolmate of mine and he helped me out a bit. How was your meeting?"

"Good, it's sorted, the wines are being shipped out as we speak," A satisfied smile curled across her lips, "and I got them to offer me a 10% discount on account of the distress they caused."

Harry eyebrows rose as a smile twitched at that. "Congratulations." Before she could reply her eyes caught sight of something over his shoulders. "Oh he's here!" That must be her friend, Harry turned around just as Lia called out to her friend.

"Blaise!"

And Harry was stunned as he noticed the same man who he had spent the morning looking at them with the same surprise in his eyes.