C6 Shopping

Shortly after leaving the bank with a pouch full of gold coins, Harry and Hermione went on a shopping spree.

Most things were bought rapidly. At the robes shop - Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions - they bot sets of school robes of good quality. At the Apothecary, Harry bought ten sets of ingredients for each first-year potion, five for him and five for Hermione. He knew that potions could not be detected by the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery.

What made Harry happy was while he was buying ingredients Hagrid went to the pet shop - Eeylops Owl Emporium - and once again bought Hedwig for him. When the beautiful snowy owl perched on his shoulder, he almost cried.

It was decided that books would be left for the end, and so came the moment Harry was most dreading. Buying his wand.

For the past year, Harry had noticed that his lightning scar was fading slowly, and now you almost could not see it. He concluded that Death had done something when he came to the past, and he no longer had Voldemort's soul stuck on his forehead.

Harry was relieved about that.

Now, standing in front of the wand shop - Ollivanders - Harry could not help but question if he still was going to be chosen by his holly and phoenix feather wand. Or if he needed a new wand.

Harry did not care that he could not duel Voldemort with the holly wand. After all, he was not planning on fighting the idiot at all. If all went well Voldemort would be gone before he could get a body.

He spent nine years with the holly wand. Harry hoped that nothing changed.

He should not have worried about it. The moment the family stepped inside the store, Mr. Ollivander gave his customary speech.

Hermione went first and after a few tries, she was chosen by a wand made of vine wood with a dragon heartstring core.

However, with Harry, the wands took their sweet time. Minutes went by as one wand after another came to and out of Harry's hand, till finally, the holly wand appeared.

The connection was instantaneous. When Harry flicked his wand the entire shop got cleaned, dust disappeared and the wands that were not compatible went back to their places.

For a moment, Hermione felt that the world seemed brighter.

At that moment, Harry felt great relief in having the familiar wand in his hand. After buying wand holders and listening about how his wand was a brother to Voldemort's - the Grangers being disturbed by the news - the group left for the bookstore.

It was while walking to the bookstore that Harry saw a building called Healer's Shop. He asked Dan and Monica if he could go and see if there was something he could do about his eyes.

The shop was not big, with light-green walls and a red floor - wizards and witches really have a weird color sense - and on shelves, you could see crystal balls, tarot cards, and potions. The owner was a witch called Hellen, and after knowing what Harry needed she gave him a potion to fix his eyesight.

He only needed three drops on each eye for a week and would never again need glasses.

Leaving the shop the family and Hagrid once again headed for the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts.

As soon as we stepped inside Hermione went crazy. Harry blinked once and she was gone, the only reason he knew where she went was that Monica had gone after her.

That's not to say that Harry did not buy loads of books, because he did. Besides the books on the school list, Harry also bought Occlumency: How to Protect Your Mind and Legilimency: The Art of Mind Reading. This way he had an excuse for his protected mind.

For the complementary reading of the school subjects he bought Charms of Defense and Deterrence, Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions, Guide to Advanced Transfiguration, and Advanced Potion-Making.

Harry was wondering if he should buy a book about laws - Laws That You Should Be Aware Of - when Hermione appeared next to him as if she had apparated.

"Harry! Come see this!" Hermione exclaimed all the while dragging him by his arm.

"Look!"

In front of Harry was none other than the book series about him. He heard about them before, but never went out of his way to look for them. Now, Harry had to admit that there were a lot of them.

"Let's buy some, I'm curious about what's written in them," Harry said.

They bought five from the collection, and after paying for the book and saying goodbye to Hagrid went back home.

Harry spent the rest of the day talking about things he found in the books and laughing at the outrageous things his book series had written he had done.

Really, outflying a dragon when he was seven? Who would believe that!?

He did it when he was fourteen...

Dan and Monica were looking through the history books, trying to learn more about the wizarding world. From time to time they would make a comment about how many things magical had a hand in making it happen, for example, the Great Fire of London. The book said that wizards still speculated if the fire began in the bakery or in the basement of the house next door, where legend has it a young Welsh Green dragon was being kept.

Hermione went straight for Hogwarts: A History, looking at how she spends minutes on one page you would think she was trying to memorize the book. Harry would not bet against it.

All in all, it had been a great day. Harry and Hermione could not wait for their first day at Hogwarts.