Chapter 12 - Harry and Hermione Go Shopping
'Hermione dear, are you ready!' Jane's voice hollered out.
'In a minute mum!' Hermione shouted back. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and after thinking for a moment, she left her bedroom.
'Thomas love, are you ready!' Jane shouted again.
'Yes,' Thomas grumbled loudly. He did not appreciate being disturbed from watching his recorded Manchester United football videos. For the purpose of watching two women shop. Not to mention carrying their bags.
'Be a bit more enthusiastic dear,' Jane commented as she walked into the living room where her husband was reluctantly turning off the TV.
'Oh, come on, you watched them live a month ago, their stupid club won that new league thingy and you want to watch it again?!' Jane asked, looking at him ridiculously.
'DON'T!' Thomas snarled, 'insult Manchester United in front of me.'
Jane rolled her eyes and dragged her husband out of the house. 'You were born and brought up in Norwich, you've been living in Oxford for the last fifteen years and you support a team from Manchester. How patriotic,' she remarked nastily.
'Why do you need me anyway?' Thoms whined, looking at his wife sourly.
'To carry our bags honey,' Jane smiled at him.
Thomas groaned loudly but Jane had more to say.
'Think of it this way. If you don't come, there will be no one to control what we buy and I might just let Hermione buy whatever she wants. And I have it on good authority that she's been thinking of adding a few short skirts to her wardrobe.'
Thomas' eyes widened in shock. 'I'm coming!!' he shouted and he was the first one in the car.
Jane smirked triumphantly and she turned around.
Looking carefully at her daughter's choice of attire, she gestured for her to get into the car.
After checking that the gas was off and locking the doors, Jane got into the front seat and they were off.
The day seemed to be unnaturally long for Thomas. He watched in boredom as his wife bought herself some jewellry and Hermione some earrings. He then yawned loudly as they walked into the clothing section.
Feigning an excuse, he quickly made his way out of the department and as far away from them as possible. He sighed in relief when he spotted the sports display.
Walking out of the store, Thomas Granger was pretty happy at his purchases : a set of new golf clubs and a new racquet.
However, his happiness changed to nerve-wracking tension as he met up with his wife on the second floor, where she told him what exactly she had purchased for Hermione.
Wiping his sweat-laden brow with fear, he noticed a genuinely happy expression on his daughter's face as she skipped her way towards them, her hands clutching two large shopping bags.
All in all, it was a mixed mood in the Granger camp : one worried man wondering what the hell his daughter had bought on her first shopping trip, one relaxed woman wondering what she should make for lunch and one anxious young lady wondering what a certain green-eyed dreamy young man would think of the results of her first shopping trip.
*
Two weeks passed uneventfully ; a rare occurence for Harry. He didn't know whether his Uncle and Aunt could notice the change in his behaviour. He had become much quieter than he had before, not reacting spontaneously to their goading, not wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Even Dudley seemed to have gotten bored with picking on his favourite cousin. He found out to his disbelief that it was very hard to pick up and maintain a fight with a person who wasn't even interested in fighting.
In the meanwhile, he had not completely wasted the two weeks. The day after he arrived, he decided to finish off all his required shopping.
* Two weeks ago *
'Dobby!' Harry called out softly in the confines of his room.
Dobby popped into existence right behind him.
'What can Dobby do for Harry Potter sir?'
'Can you apparate me to Diagon Alley?'
'Of course, Ma - Harry.'
'Hang on a second, let me get my Cloak.'
Dobby looked at him curiously.
'I prefer not being seen skulking around in - er - certain places,' Harry said, throwing his Cloak over himself.
Dobby took what he thought was Harry's hand and apparated them just outside Leaky Cauldron's exit, at the entrance of Diagon Alley.
Harry thought for a moment and then spoke, 'Dobby, is it possible for you to go to Gringotts and withdraw some money for me? After I buy some stuff, I'll go in there and deposit it myself.'
'How much should Dobby withdraw, Harry?' Dobby asked.
'Three thousand galleons should do it,' Harry said.
'Yes sir,' Dobby saluted and disappeared.
Shaking his head wryly, Harry continued walking slowly through the streets of Diagon Alley, happy to see that the windows of every store didn't have pictures of scowling, sneering Death Eaters and more recently, his own pretty picture under the caption : Undesirable Number One.
By the time he had made it to the entrance of Flourish and Blotts, Dobby had caught up with him and subtly passed him the gold Harry had requested.
Harry opened the doors of the store and the store manager looked up to see an elf walking in. Shrugging it off, he continued with his paperwork, keeping an eye out on the strange elf.
Harry took a shrewd look at the clerk, before making his way around the shop.
He spent half an hour there, picking up books that he was sure he needed.
Finally, he handed the books to Dobby and after Dobby took a quick look at them he took two hundred and twenty seven galleons from Harry.
The clerk's eyes widened when he saw the elf dump a load of books onto his counter and the gold to go along with it.
He tapped his wand on each book and after rounding up all the books, he muttered a soft charm. Thick, gray smoke emanated from his wand and formed a number.
'Deletrius,' he said, and then proceeded to count the gold Dobby had given him.
On finding an exact match between the figure and the gold presented to him, he looked at Dobby in shock.
'You'll be surprised to find out how intelligent, fun and loyal house elves actually are if you don't start off treating them like Doxy droppings,' Harry said coldly, throwing off his Invisibility Cloak.
The clerk's eyes widened and he pointed wildly at Harry, 'You - you - how did you - you have an Invisibility Cloak?' he finished in wonder.
'It's a Disillusionment Charm, if I had myself an Invisibility Cloak, I wouldn't be here now, would I? I would probably be off robbing Gringotts,' Harry smirked, knowing that that was exactly what he had done one time.
Choosing to say nothing, which was a wise decision in Harry's opinion, the clerk simply deposited the books in a brown sack and accepted the gold wordlessly.
Harry and Dobby left, after getting the store owner to shinken the weight and transfigure it into a bottle opener.
After exiting the shop, Harry turned to Dobby.
'Dobby, we'll be going to Knockturn Alley now and I don't feel comfortable wandering in there invisible. Someone might try hitting you or something cause you're a house elf and I don't know what else. I'm just going to lower my hood and if I have to address you in any way I might have to do it a bit â€" roughly - in front of everyone else, okay?' Harry asked.
'It is no problem, Master Harry Potter,' Dobby said, his eyes still shining with tears because of what Harry had said earlier in the shop.
'I hate doing it, but I have to blend in with that crowd in order to avoid attracting suspicion, so that means I'll have to treat anyone who is not pureblood and sadistic as scum,' Harry said regretfully.
With that, he straightened himself and fastened his cloak tightly around himself, drawing the hood down till it barely reached his nose.
'Ah, my Darth Sidious look,' Harry thought as he saw his reflection in the window of the bookstore he had just exited. 'If only I had a bit more height.'
Funnily enough, they attracted many curious stares in Diagon Alley (some people even backed away in fear), but no one in Knockturn Alley even spared them a second glance, though many did sneer at the elf.
Entering the store that Lord Voldemort had once worked at as a teenager, Harry cleared his throat loudly and was greeted with the scowling face of Mr. Borgin.
'Yes? What do you want here?' he asked coldly.
'I was expecting a slightly nicer attitude from the owner of such a reputed store,' Harry said calmly, 'it seems my source was mistaken.'
'Mistaken about what?' Borgin snapped, his oily face glinting in the dim light.
'Well, the Dark Lord and many of his favourites like old Malfoy and Bella told me certain positive things that made me curious to encroach upon the hospitality of Knockturn Alley. Never mind, I'll be going then,' and Harry turned to leave.
'The - The D- Dark, Mr. Malfo - no, no - sir, please stay,' Borgin rasped, as if he could feel their wrath at that very moment, 'I thought you were someone else, there are a lot of intruders nowadays, filthy Mudbloods lurking about, wandering the streets at will, please sir, it wasn't my intention at all to offend you - '
'So you mistook me for a Mudblood, am I right?' Harry hissed, advancing forward on a man who was half a foot taller than him.
'N - No sir, I was being delusion - please forgive me sir, I wouldn't dare -'
'Enough,' Harry snapped, 'Enough.'
Borgin's eyes widened fearfully and Harry felt a wave of disgust ; both at Borgin's sickening flattery and at himself, for masquerading around as the type of person that he had always hated.
Harry walked around majestically, hoping that he looked to Borgin exactly as someone of Lucius Malfoy's stature.
'I have not yet named the rag beside me, but I am now considering the name Borgin,' Harry gestured to Dobby and then continued, 'is that objectionable to you?'
For a second Harry thought that he had gone too far, but his acting seemed to be better than he gave himself credit for, as Borgin was by now even more scared than a turkey on Thanksgiving.
He continued walking around the store, acting as if he wasn't looking for anything in particular, till he finally stopped beside a display cubicle containing a magnificent necklace of opals.
'How much for that necklace?' he asked, though he already knew the price.
'Fifteen hundred galleons,' Borgin replied immediately.
'Remove any protective enchantments it may have on it and give it to the elf,' Harry said crisply, before proceeding further in his inspection of the shop.
'The Hand of Glory,' he muttered, picking the item up and inspecting it closely, 'insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder, a plundering machine.'
'Sir, you are absolutely correct!' Borgin exclaimed, as if announcing the winner of a lucky draw. 'Will you be buying this as well?'
Harry seemed to ponder this for a moment before he replied, 'Yes, yes, I think I will. How much?'
'Five hundred galleons, sir,' Borgin replied.
'I'll take it,' was all Harry said, before he made his way to the front of the shop, beside Borgin's desk.
'A Vanishing Cabinet,' Harry said, 'very interesting.'
'Would you like to purchase it sir?' Borgin asked eagerly, his earlier fear being replaced by greed.
'How much is it for?' Harry asked.
'A thousand,' Borgin said, rubbing his hands together in delight, for he was getting three thousand galleons from this customer.
'I will take these three items and give you a total of two and a half thousand, no more,' Harry replied.
'But sir - '
'That wasn't a request Borgin,' Harry hissed and Borgin started sweating again.
'Two and a half is acceptable with me, the honour of doing business with you easily surpasses the five hundred galleon deficit,' Borgin said in a subservient tone.
Under his cloak, Harry's eyes flashed and for a second, they lost their innocent green colour. He knew Borgin was intimidated by him and he vowed to exploit that. It felt ... good to have that kind of power over someone, especially after years of abuse and torment.
Fear is your ally.
A second later, Harry stumbled. Clutching his face in disgust, he turned away from Borgin. What was he doing? He was acting like an oppressor because he had to get the job done, but now he found he was enjoying it...
Borgin looked at him curiously but didn't say anything.
Harry recomposed himself and turned back to Borgin.
'I don't want the Vanishing Cabinet but I will pay for it,' he told him.
Borgin looked at him in confusion, 'Sir, I'm afraid I don't understand.'
'I am paying for you to destroy it,' Harry said.
Borgin's eyes widened and for a second it looked like he was about to protest.
'I want it destroyed immediately,' Harry said, his voice rising, as he remembered what those Vanishing Cabinets did to Hogwarts a long time ago.
'Y - Yes sir, I might have to remove any lingering spells to make it safe to destroy. Destroying the Cabinet will be much easier than say, repairing it. I need a weeks time and I'll have it destroyed by then sir.'
'The Cabinet is just like the world we live in,' Harry thought morosely. 'Destroying the world is much easier than repairing it.'
'I'll come back in two weeks and check in here again to make sure you've had it destroyed,' Harry said, 'if you've made the necklace and hand portable, give it to my elf.' With that, he quickly walked out of the shop.
He ran both his hands through his messy hair and sighed. He did not like what went through his mind when he was threatening Borgin.
'Harry Potter sir?' Dobby asked curiously.
Harry pulled his hood back and looked at Dobby.
'I'm sorry for how I treated you in there Dobby,' he said sincerely.
'It's okay with Dobby, Dobby knows that Master got what he wanted because of that,' Dobby said earnestly.
Harry looked at Dobby for a moment and then he nodded.
'Well, I'm finished over here. I'll just deposit these in my vault and then why don't have an ice cream after that at Fortesque's?' Harry asked Dobby.
'Dobby is sorry, but the ice cream is hurting Dobby's teeths,' Dobby said. 'But Dobby will love to mix Butterbeer and Firewhiskey!'
Harry smiled at Dobby. He was feeling much better now. What happened in the shop was just the gloominess of Knockturn Alley hitting him. When they reached Diagon Alley again, he would be fine.
'I am a good person,' he thought savagely, although he wasn't sure whether he said it just to reassure himself or as a serious reminder.
* Present Time *
He had picked up some good reference books from Flourish and Blotts and that coupled with the basic text books of the first two years of his magical education, he found himself quite busy. Although he couldn't use his wand, he decided to study the theory of various spells, the concept behind making many advanced potions, and of course, Occlumency.
For Occlumency and beginner Legilimency he had purchased a book called 'Mind Magic : The Subtleties of an Unknown Art', and he had followed it word by word. He had become accustomed to sitting in one place and meditating for hours, driving away all stray thoughts from his mind. He had a vague feeling that these meditations and mind-strengthening exercises became much easier for him now because of the absence of the Horcrux in his forehead.
But he couldn't test his defenses, he couldn't check whether his mind was really immune to external invasion. For this, he required a wand. So, he adjusted and made sure he studied the theory properly and constructed the 'house' in his mind as the book had explained.
Another question that plagued him throughout these two weeks was the revelation of his secret. Jenny had told him to tell only those he absolutely trusted and that was what he intended to do. But who could he trust?
A week ago he could have sworn it would be Ron and Hermione. But Jenny had shown him the difference in their attitude towards him ; she had finally made him understand what qualities made an ordinary friendship into something truly special and permanent.
Not to mention the fact that he wasn't sure he liked Ron's behaviour in the few days he had spent with him at Hogwarts.
He was almost guaranteed to tell Hermione. He wanted to tell the last of the true Marauders his secret too, one of whom would soon become his Defense teacher and the other, who would be escaping an inescapable prison in a couple weeks time.
Not ignoring the Muggle aspect of strengthening himself, Harry had started working out rigorously every day ; he made sure he did a healthy amount of crunches and at least an hour of jogging every morning. He had even shocked the hell out of Dudley one afternoon when he had asked him if he could have a go at his pristine, unused gym equipment.
All in all, Harry thought that he had done a good amount of work in the last two weeks, instead of wasting the time with a bucket of ice cream and a stack of porn like any normal teenager would have.
'So this is what it's like to be mature,' Harry thought to himself wondrously. 'I really hope Hermione likes it.'
A dreamy expression formed on Harry's face and he slid to the floor with happiness flowing through him, he was imagining her pretty, brown eyes, her mass of uncontrollable bushy, brown hair, her -
'BOY!!' Uncle Vernon's voice came out of nowhere and Harry opened his eyes with a start, looking at his uncle who had just walked in.
'What were you thinking about, boy?!' Vernon snarled, looking at Harry with disgust etched on his beefy face.
Harry reddened.
'I saw that look on your face, I saw that useless smile, I know what kind of things you're dreaming about! It had better not be about that freak who was talking to you at the station! I'll break your legs if you knock her up and get yourself blown up and bring another useless, unnatural freak like yourself into my roof! Are we not giving you enough chores, that you have the time to - to - maybe I should ask your Aunt to set you up with a couple of extra chores, that should - '
'What did you want with me, Uncle?' Harry gritted his teeth. He knew that he had enough control not to lash out at simpletons like the Dursleys (especially as he had experienced the wrath of much more hateful people by then) but the fact that Vernon had managed to degrade Hermione's dignity by talking about her like that angered him to no end.
Uncle Vernon's eyes flashed, before he looked away from Harry, muttering darkly to himself.
'Well?' Harry insisted.
'It's your teenage fantasy on the phone, she wants to talk,' Vernon managed to emit, unable to say Hermione's name.
Harry got a wicked smirk on his face ; he needed to make his Uncle downright furious because of what he said about Hermione.
'What, Aunt Marge is on the phone for me?' he asked innocently.
'POTTER!!!!' Vernon roared, lunging for Harry, but Harry was too quick for him.
Nimbly ducking under his uncle's oustretched arms, he muttered a vague, 'I was kidding!' and quickly vacated himself.
Running down the stairs two at a time, he ignored his Aunt's hostile look and picked up the phone.
'Hello?'
'Harry!!' Hermione squealed, and Harry felt lightheaded again.
'Hi, Hermione!' he replied with enthusiasm, keeping an eye out for any unwanted arrivals in the living room, especially that of his Uncle.
'How was your summer so far, oh, silly me, that wasn't an intelligent question!' Hermione said, 'um, is it alright with you if I come in two hours time to pick you up?'
'Yeah, that's perfect with me,' Harry replied.
'So keep an eye out for my car at around eleven, okay?' Hermione asked.
'Yeah, sure, wait, you're driving?' Harry asked in shock.
'No silly goose, I'm coming with my parents!' Hermione replied, amusement lacing her voice.
'Oh,' Harry aid sheepishly, 'okay then.'
Harry would have loved to continue hearing his best friend's sweet voice, but he was now being distracted by the loud, deliberate clearing of throats coming from the other room.
Sighing, he said, 'Hermione, I have to go now.'
'Let me guess, your Aunt and Uncle and pig have problems with you taking an incoming call and speaking for more than fifteen seconds?'
'Er - yeah,' Harry smiled, his Hermione had a great sense of humour too.
Hermione harrumphed. 'I'll see you later Harry,' she said softly.
'Yeah,' Harry replied, his voice just as soft as hers, 'I can't wait.'
'Bye,' she said and then she hung up.
'When are they coming boy?' his Uncle asked curtly, clearly not having forgotten Harry's jibe about Marge.
'In two hours,' Harry replied.
'Well, Marge will be here in an hour or so, I'm going now to the station to pick her up. When she arrives, you will greet her courteously, carry her luggage with a SMILE and then attend to her dogs, who will be very hungry by that time. Have I made myself clear boy?'
'I suppose so,' Harry replied sharply, 'after feeding her dogs, would you want me to clean her shoes and wash her knickers as well?'
Vernon's face went purple and it looked like a vein was bursting in his head as he lunged forward with a roar, desperate to have his big hands squeezing Harry's throat. Harry fell off the sofa as his Uncle attacked him, but they were interrupted by a larger cry than Vernon's.
'OWWWWW! FUCK! SON OF A BITCH!!' Dudley screamed, his voice coming for some reason from the kitchen. There was a temporary silence and then the two adults and Harry heard a series of pots and pans fall to the floor with a loud, clattering noise. Vernon immediately rushed to the kitchen.
Petunia gasped as she heard her son scream, she never knew that Dudley had those kind of words in his vocabulary.
'Ah, you told me your son was a disciplined, good-natured young man as opposed to my assertions that he's a rowdy, uncivilized young loafer.'
Petunia spat at Harry. 'I'll deal with you when I come back, Potter,' she hissed, before rushing to the kitchen to see what had happened to her beloved son.
When Harry found out that Dudley had tried sneaking a piece of cake, not realising that the oven was still hot, causing him to jerk back in pain and brush against Aunt Petunia's precarious stand of kitchen utensils (authentic Belgian, she insisted), he laughed loudly, feeling happier than he had been in a long time.
AN - The next chapter will definitely have our favourite couple meeting each other, although I don't know when that chapter will be out, because I'm feeling really, really depressed right now. Pakistan, the country (it doesn't even deserved to be called 'country', more of an autocratic state) I hate the most in the world, the biggest sponsor and enjoyer of terrorism just won the International T20 Cricket World Cup. Pakistan winning at anything sends me and millions of other people into serious depression.
So hopefully, if I get out of my funk quick enough, you'll have another chapter soon :(
Please, please review!!!! The response to the last chapter wasn't as much as I hoped for... (sorry if I'm coming off as too greedy)