C30 Diagon Alley

Ministry of Magic | 16th December 1985 | 10 AM

The three left the Ministry of Magic and portkeyed to their Manor. Black left to find something, and the two brothers took this time to freshen up. When Sirius came back, he had a coin in his hand. Sirius told the brothers, "Okay. Now I am going to set some ground rules. Don't talk to strangers. Don't take anything from strangers. Don't tell people your last name." He looked at Charlus with a knowing look. He then smiled, "And finally, don't forget to HAVE FUN!"

He immediately grabbed the two and portkeyed to a shop in Diagon Ally. He grabbed his and and charmed the two so that the after effects of the portkeying would vanish. He then charmed Harry to hide his scar. He then opened the door of the empty shop. He took out a bag of galleons and handed it to Charlus. He then pushed the two out into the Alley.

The two stopped still and observed everything around them. A witch was in the side, waving her wand, and a dragon made of water was entertaining all the kids that were standing around her. There was a bookshop named Halks book world. There was a clothing shop named Madam Malkins, which was right beside a sweets shop that was named Honeydukes. And the place that was busiest, and filled with children, was Zonkos Jokes Shop.

Since it was fairly cold in Scotland, Hogwarts closed a bit early, sometime in the first week of December. Harry was simply awestruck at the mass of people bustling in the alley. This was one of the few times Harry had come out to see the outside world so he found the scene new and exotic. His excitement levels were slowly peaking. Charlus held Harry's hand tightly, so that Harry wouldn't wander and get lost.

He tugged Harry's hand and went to the first place that he found very interesting. He led Harry to the witch making the water dragon dance. He saw the dragon. It was a Chinese dragon which didn't have any color because it was made of water. It did not have a great amount of detail, and it didn't look so much like a dragon now that he saw it closely. However, he didn't come to evaluate the details of the dragon. He came to see the dragon dance. Harry was simply fascinated by the dragon. The dragon was flipping and somersaulting in the air. It moved slowly, so the children could actually see the dragon without concentrating too much.

After a few minutes, Charlus and Harry got bored. So they went to Madam Malkins, since they saw the crowd there wasn't too much. They went and saw the clothes there, but found them boring, so they left the store.

The Honeydukes shop caught Charlus' eye. He had a very light breakfast since he was going to portkey later, so he was a bit hungry. The smell from the shop had spread through out the Alley, and it made Chalrus' mouth water. He grabbed Harry's hand and ran to the Honeydukes store. He entered the shop and was immediately awestruck at the amount of sweets. But then he saw the line. He became depressed immediately. He took Harry and went outside.

He looked around for food when Harry said, "Brother! Potter Sweets Shop!"

Charlus looked at the shop that Harry had pointed at curiously. As far as he knew, he didn't have any relatives. So he didn't know who had put the store with his family name. He entered the store, but made sure Harry was behind him, because he was a bit suspicious of the store.

The store was also fairly busy, but not as much as Honeydukes. The inside of the store was very pleasant. The entire store was well lighted and the shelves were neatly organized based on sweetness levels. The sweets were labeled based on sweetness in terms of candy, with one Candy being the least sweet, and 7 Candies being the sweetest. There was only one candy basket at 7 Candies. There was a female receptionist at the entrance of the store who greeted the two brothers immediately after they entered the store.

"Welcome to Potter Sweets in collaboration with Black Enterprise. How can I help you?"

Charlus immediately understood who had put the store. It was Sirius Black. It made a lot of sense. He was always in the Manor, sparing a few days in the past few years, and yet he always maintained that he hadn't taken too much money out of the Potter and Black vaults, yet he always seemed to have a lot of galleons on him.

Charlus didn't think too much and said, "Me and my brother want to try every sweet here. How much galleons?"

The reception smiled at the cute child and said, "We offer the Try it All pack for 2 at 1 galleon, which let's you try out every single one of 114 sweets here at our store. Would you like it boy?"

The receptionist was slightly dubious about whether the boy would take the pack or not. It was very uncommon for children to have their hands on that kind of money without their parents being nearby.

Charlus nodded and took out his sack of galleons. He took out one and handed it to the receptionist. She smiled and said, "Not to me. You see that uncle behind the counter? Give it to him."

The receptionist smiled and pointed to the person behind the counter.

Charlus went to the counter and gave the galleon to the person behind the counter and said, "Try it All pack for 2 please."

The man did not take the galleon and said, "All purchases above 5 Sickles and those involving candies rated 6 Candies and above require authorization of guardian."

Charlus became glum. The trip was slowly becoming depressing. Even Harry had become a bit hungry at that point.

"Wait. I am his Guardian. You can go ahead," A voice came from the back.