Chapter 023

Harry Potter entered the shop known as Truckle's Trunks, and took a look around the basic looking shop. Well, he assumed it was a basic looking shop for a magical store selling trunks. It was quite a bit larger on the inside than the outside, at least a dozen square meters, something that Harry picked up on immediately. There were several isles, and each one contained rows upon rows of various trunks of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some of them were floating, a few were opening and closing. Harry even saw one that looked like it was undulating.

Shaking his head at the unusual sight, and bothered that he couldn't for the life of him figure out how something such as a trunk could undulate, he made his way to the desk where a middle aged man was sitting behind a cash register.

"Excuse me," Harry called out in a confident voice. The man with slightly graying hair looked down at him, blinking. Harry ignored the inquisitive and slightly incredulous stare and continued. "I'm looking for a trunk."

"Well you've come to the right place," the man said with a smile. "You are a Hogwarts student, yes? A first year?"

"That's right," Harry admitted with a nod.

"All of our standard trunks cost fifty galleons, if you want them to be made with something other than leather you will need to specify what you want it made from."

Harry frowned as he noticed the wording the man used, and decided to question the clerk on it. "What do you mean standard? What other kinds of trunks are there?"

"We have trunks of all kinds and with all sorts of enchantments," the man exclaimed, his smile, if possible, getting larger. "Anything you could think of, we likely have it. Perhaps I can interest you in one of our seven compartment trunks made from dragon-hide and with enough expansion charms on them to make each compartment the size of a small apartment?"

Harry tilted his head quizzically at some of the unfamiliar terms the man had just bandied about. Dragon-hide was easy enough to figure out, though the thought that dragons were actually real caused his mind to whirl. However, both the term 'expansion charms' and 'seven compartments' gave him pause. After a bit of thought, he determined that an expansion charm likely did exactly as it sounded, which would also explain why this store looked larger on the inside than it did the outside. He did have a bit of trouble figuring out what seven compartments meant, but figured there must be some kind of spell that allowed one trunk to contain more than one space for his materials. He didn't know how such a thing was possible, but vowed to find out.

"I was actually thinking of getting a custom made trunk," Harry told the man, interrupting the older male's sales pitch.

"A custom, eh?" the man's eyes lit up a bit, and Harry could detect the greed in them. Custom trunks must be expensive, he mused. It almost made him wonder why this man assumed Harry could actually afford the trunk when he was so young, but chalked it off to the man probably just assuming he was an heir of a well to do family or some such. "Well, what exactly are you looking for?"

Harry was silent for a moment as he tried to decide what he wanted. Truthfully, he had at first only been planning on getting a normal trunk. But with the knowledge that he could get a trunk capable of storing vast amounts of items, decided that he might as well get the best. He had more than enough money, after all.

"I would like a four compartment trunk. What sizes do your compartments come in?"

"We have three sizes, standard, that is to say, the average size one would expect from a trunk with no magical enchantments. Our next size is what we call closet sized, which is about the size of a walk in closet. And finally, we have our largest size, which is about the size of an average bedroom."

Biting his lower lip for a moment, Harry pondered which size he should get. He didn't want the standard, as he would not be able to carry very much in them, and considering where he was going and what he would be doing, one never knew what sorts of interesting items he might pick up. That left closet size and apartment size. A part of him wanted to go for the largest size, but having four compartments the size of a bedroom seemed a little excessive, not to mention it was probably pricy, and while he didn't have any shortage of money, he had never been what one would call wasteful.

"I'll go with the closet size for all four compartments," Harry decided. He doubted he would need to something bigger, and on the off chance that he ever needed a trunk with a larger compartment, he could just come back and buy another trunk, he reasoned.

"Very well, and what would you like your trunk to be made of?"

A pause. Harry tilted his head, considering.

"What are my options?"

"Well," the man started, rubbing his hands together in undisguised glee. "We have all the normal materials, leather, wood and such, but we also have several types of dragon-hide available as well, including Hungarian Horntail, Norwegian Ridgeback, Hebridean Black, and Ukrainian Ironbelly."

"And what are the benefits to using dragon-hide over normal materials?"

"All dragon-hides are magic resistant. You can cast just about any spell at them short of a dark curse and they won't even receive a scratch. Dragon-hide is also much tougher than normal materials, strong as steel in some cases, such as with the Ukrainian Ironbelly. Course, the hide of a Ukrainian Ironbelly is much heavier than anything else, so it's a trade off."

"Then why don't we go with a happy medium? I want something durable, but not something that's too heavy for me to lift."

"In that case, why don't we go with the dragon-hide of a Norwegian Ridgeback?" the man suggested. "They're hides are more durable than the Hebridean Black's and the Horntails, but not nearly as heavy as either of them. Definitely one of the better choices, I believe."

Harry thought for a moment, before nodding. "Very well, we'll go with that. Now what about security?"

"Security?" the shop keeper blinked, confused.

"Yes," Harry replied. "I don't want people trying to get into my trunk without permission."

"Ah, well, all our trunks come standard with a magical lock," the man answered. "It requires you to speak a password in order to open."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Are there no other options available?"

"None, I'm afraid," the man shifted uncomfortably.