Chapter 3: More Bills?

Thanks for reading and reviewing. It sparks my muse.

It's a short one.

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"I'm glad you think so, dear," Maggie said, though she looked at the place with a wary eye. She knew it was well lived in. She felt a bit bad for charging so much, but it was the going price for a flat in this part of town and there were no leaks, and the utilities worked.

Harry looked around the little flat and saw it through the eyes of someone not afraid of hard labor. He knew he and Dobby could get the place cleaned up. If Dobby would let him do anything that was. "A little bit of elbow grease and I'm sure I can get this place looking quite bright," he said, putting on a happy face.

Maggie cheered up at that. "Don't put yourself out too much, dear. I don't expect you to put too many repairs in the place, but if you do, I'll take some off your rent," she said, not expecting much. This was just a teenager after all.

The young man brightened, and said, "Will you really? That's brilliant. I can call in, uh, construction crew. I have a bit of money saved aside that was left for me by my parents." He was making some calculations in his head on how much he could save with just a bit of magic.

"As long as you don't interfere with the bookstore, I will take some off your rent if you can put some repairs into the place," the landlady stated, giving him a brilliant smile. She knew her daughter had run the place into the ground, and it needed some love.

"How about we hook up some utilities?" said Sally, glancing at her watch. She had spent a lot of time on this. She was going to have to charge Harry more if she spent too much more on it.

"I think that's a lovely idea. Come to my office and we'll see about getting those hooked up. Are we going to put them in your name or Harry's?" Maggie asked as she went down the rickety stairs. They were rather steep and wobbly. Harry would have to see about repairing them as well.

"I think it's best if we put them in Harry's name so we can establish his credit," said Sally, knowing all about credit from her muggleborn clients. It was how she knew about phones, and muggle bank accounts. She was a half-blood raised in the magical world, but she knew about muggle things thanks to her clientele.

Maggie couldn't agree more, so she said, "Yes, I think that's a good thing too. If he's emancipated, he needs to start building his credit. Renting from me is a good start." They were down the stairs now and heading into the bookstore.

"What is credit?" asked Harry, having heard of it, but not knowing what it was.

"It's just something you need as an adult to establish your financial stability." said Maggie, not quite sure how to explain it. "It's where you buy something now and pay later. There's interest on it, unless you pay it all off at the end of the pay period, but you must be diligent," she added. "While utilities don't actually count as credit, they will give you a start. Especially if you set up one of those newfangled cell phones."

"This is something that's going to give me a headache, isn't it?" Harry groaned, wondering if he could get by in life without credit.

"Very much so," said Maggie, nodding her head solemnly. She knew it gave her one.

"Damn it."

"Please don't be vulgar, dear," said the motherly woman, though she gave him a wry smile.

"Sorry, ma'am."

"Come along, let's go get those utilities set up," she said, opening her office door.

With that, the three of them went into Maggie's office to get gas, electricity and a phone set up. They found out they were unable to do that until Harry got a muggle bank account. He only had his Gringotts account, and while they were affiliated with muggle banks, they didn't have checking or savings, so Harry would need to get those.

"We'll be back in an hour," said Sally, getting up and heading for the door. She really was going to have to charge Harry more money for the day. He might need to make payments. His credit would be established in the magical world.

"Sorry about that, ma'am," said Harry.

"Don't worry about it, dear. Just come back when you're ready," Maggie said, waving the inconvenience away.

"Thank you for showing us that, Maggie. We'll be back in an hour," Sally repeated. As she gathered up her things and left the bookstore, Harry hot on her heels.

So, Sally took Harry to her local bank and set him up an account with the £100 he had pulled from Gringotts. Then they returned to Gringotts and got more money and went back to the bank and put it into the account so that he could have more funds. Then they went back to the bookstore where Maggie was waiting for them.

"Did you get it all settled, dears?" asked Maggie after she rang up her customer. It was a busy time in the bookstore. There were three people in line.

"Yes, ma'am," said Harry, waiting until she was done with her next customer.

"Very well, let's get you established then. Wait until I finish with these fine people," she said, giving her customers a lovely smile.

So once the store was cleared, they went to the office and tried to get the utility set up, and this time it went through. Harry's electricity was all set, gas would take a day, and phone three days. There was some trouble with the lines.

"I need to get going, Harry," said Sally as she gathered up her things. As it was, she had missed two appointments this day, and she was going to need to set up one for Harry tomorrow. "Come see me around 1p.m. tomorrow," she said, hoping that her receptionist hadn't scheduled anything for that time.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for your help today, Ms. Withers," Harry said, politely, holding out his hand and shaking hers.

"It was my pleasure. Come by the office tomorrow and you can pay me back for the first and last month's rent. We'll talk about your bill then too," she stated, shaking his hand and going to the door.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said, cringing inside. He knew her bill was going to be a doozy. She'd been with him most of the day.

"All right, Harry dear, you go ahead up to the apartment and see what you need for getting yourself settled," said Maggie as she too headed out the door. She had heard her bell ring indicating there were customers on the floor. She needed to watch for shoplifters.

"Yes, ma'am," the young teen said as he walked up the stairs.

"Such a polite young man," said Maggie going to stand behind her till. She was happy she had rented it to a non-troublemaker.

So, Harry went up to the apartment and looked around the dingy place and the first thing he did was call Dobby. Dobby popped into the apartment and looked around with an O expression on his face.

"Harry Potter is living in a very bad place," said Dobby as he took in the dinginess of the flat. Even his room in Malfoy manor looked better than this. Well, this place had a window, dirty that it was.

"I think with a little bit of elbow grease we can get this fixed up," said Harry once again. He could see much potential in the flat. A bit of cleaning and it would be nice.

"Dobby will be working very hard to get this looking really well," said the little elf, ready to get going and make it a palace for his hero.

Harry could see the glint in his little friend's eyes and didn't want him to over work himself, so he said, "I don't want you to overtax yourself, Dobby." He didn't know much about house elves, but he had a feeling they would work until they dropped.

"Oh, this is being nothing," said Dobby, waving the thought away. "Dobby is being working much harder than this. Bad master would make I work until I's be bleeding," he added, looking at Harry with wide eyes.

"Well, I'm not going to do that," Harry stated, giving him a firm look. Then he looked at the corners and just glared at them. "I think the first thing we need to do is get rid of the mold," he said, knowing what a health hazard that was.

"Yes, that is being very bad for yous," the tiny elf stated, ready to fight the fight of mold.

"Yeah, it can be pretty bad for humans," said Harry. His lungs were constricting just looking at it. He pulled out his wand, ready to Scourgify it.

However, with the snap of his fingers, Dobby had a bucket of water appearing with bleach and a sponge in it and it started scrubbing at all the molds in the flat and within a couple of minutes the whole place was sparkling clean. "There now there is being no more mold," the elf said proudly.

Harry looked around the room with awe. Even the crusty old stove was clean as a whistle. He had feared it would never get clean, and he'd have to buy a new one. "Wow, that was wicked, Dobby. I'm glad you're here. That would have taken me ages. Even with magic. Can you do anything about that broken timber? I can do a Reparo, but I don't really know the spell that well," he said, looking at the timbers like they would fall on them at any moment.

"Dobby can." With the snap of his fingers, the beams were repaired.

Now that the room was clean and repaired, it looked warm, but empty. "We need to see about getting me someplace to sleep tonight and about furniture in the morning," the tired teenager said. "Also, can you pop over to the Leaky Cauldron and get my trunk for me?" he asked, figuring they could use the stuff in his trunk to transfigure into furniture for the night.

"I is be doing that right now," Dobby said and popping away. He returned a few minutes later with Harry Potter's trunk. "Tom, the barman said, yous owe him a sickle."

"All right, I'll pay him tomorrow."

"Very good Harry Potter, sir. If you is wanting I can be changing some of your books into furniture," the elf offered as if reading Harry's mind.

Harry tilted his head wondering if elves could read their masters' minds, then shook the thought off and said, "Just to bed for now, Dobby. We can put it over there in that corner. We could change some of those old clothes of Dudley's into blankets." That should do for the night, unless they could make them permanent.

"I's can be doing that."

So, with that, the two small companions went about changing a few of Harry's old schoolbooks into a bed and some blankets. It was only a twin sized bed since it was a one-roomed flat, but there were plenty of clothes for sheets and blankets.

"What is yous being wanting for dinner tonight?" the little elf asked, ready to tackle the kitchen and cook for his master.

"I don't know, maybe we should go down to the Leaky, then I can pay Tom, and I can get something to eat there. Do you need to eat?" the dark-haired teen asked, not sure how to feed and house a house elf.

"Oh no, Dobby bes eating his own food. Harry Potter bes eating human food," Dobby explained, waving his hands in a negative gesture. Trying to reassure Harry that he could take care of himself.

"All right then, see what you can do about getting that kitchen over there repaired. I'll go to the Leaky Cauldron and pay Tom and get something to eat. I'll be back in about a half an hour," Harry said, yawning and stretching. It had been a long day of maths and finances.

Dobby looked at the kitchen area and grinned. It consisted of a stove, a counter with a sink and a refrigerator. All decades out of date by muggle standards, but modern if not futuristic to wizards. There was very little space there to cook, but Dobby would take care of that. "Very good, Harry Potter, sir. Dobby will do what he can about that old kitchen stuff. Dobby is a very good repairer," he said, rubbing his hands together.

"Just don't tax yourself," Harry warned, not quite sure if he liked the look on his elf's face.

"Dobby knows how to follow orders," the elf said, giving Harry a look.

"Alright, I'll be back soon," the teen said, trusting his elf to contain himself.

With that, Harry went down the street, making sure to lock the door behind him, and went down to the Leaky Cauldron and got himself something to eat. He paid Tom his sickle and had a shepherd's pie for dinner. He had some butter beer and a treacle tart for dessert.

It was dark out by the time he got back to the flat. He trudged his way up the stairs and opened the door with the keys. By the time he got a good look around the flat, he noticed that it was even cleaner than when he had left, and a bit bigger.

"Dobby, what did you do?" Harry asked, looking around the room in shock. He knew you could expand things with magic, but this was ridiculous.

"I is not doing anything, Harry Potter," the elf said, looking guilty. He put one foot behind the other, looking like he got caught stealing biscuits.

Harry looked around the flat again, and then narrowed his eyes. "This flat is bigger than when I left it," he said, staring down his little friend.

Dobby rubbed his hands together and said, "Only a little bit." He put his index finger and thumb almost together in indication.

Harry threw his hands in the air and said, "We can't make the flat bigger, Dobby. It's a muggle flat. What if Miss Maggie comes up here? She knows what the place looks like. She built it." He was going to be in so much trouble.

"No one will be noticing Harry Potter," Dobby assured him, trying to get him to see reason.

"Change it back, Dobby. Please. It's bad enough we did so much on our first day. I don't know how I can explain it if she comes up tomorrow," Harry said, fretting over it.

"Yes, sir," said Dobby, drooping his ears. He had only wanted to help, but he could see the reason.

So, with a snap of his fingers Dobby changed the flat back to the configuration, it was when Harry left. This made all the furniture get closer together, which Harry just now noticed he had furniture. There was a couch, a chair, three end tables, a small dining room table with four chairs and the bed that they had transfigured earlier. The kitchen area looked like it was a bit larger, and it had a cleaner stove. The refrigerator was also polished up. The sink was shining. There was a lot more counter space. All the wood was gleaming.

"Dobby, you did a very good job of cleaning the flat. So where did you get all this stuff to get this furniture from?" Harry asked, wanting to make the little guy feel better over something.

"Dobby is being using things from your trunk, Harry Potter," Dobby said, getting excited about it now that Harry wasn't mad anymore.

"What stuff?" Harry asked, trying to keep the wariness out of his tone.

"Just your old schoolbooks and your homework papers," the jumping elf stated, knowing that Harry didn't need those things.

"I suppose I don't need those," Harry said with a sigh. He would have liked to have kept them, to study them later. But he supposed they would transfigure back when they got real furniture.

"Dobby is doing goodly then?" Dobby asked, looking at Harry with big eyes.

"Yes, you did very well, Dobby," Harry stated, patting the little guy on the head.

"Did Harry Potter enjoy his dinner?"

Harry went to sit on the couch and stretch his legs out. "Yes, but now that you've got the kitchen all cleaned up, you can start cooking for me. We'll do grocery shopping in the morning. First, I must sit down and figure out how much I have left of my budget. You do know how to make a budget, don't you?" he asked, looking at Dobby, who was shaking his had negatively.

"Oh, no sir, bad master never does a budget, he says that is for the poor," the tiny elf said, wrinkling his nose like budget was a nasty word.

"Well, be that as it may, we're going to do a budget, so you're going to have to learn how to be frugal," Harry stated with a wicked smile. He had a feeling that Dobby was going to be learning some harsh lessons right along with him.

"What is frugal?"