CH 10

Turning back to the rack, Harry reached out, grabbed onto the rack, and gave it a pull. The whole rack, plus the board behind it, pulled open like a cupboard door. Behind it, Harry found what he was looking for; a whole pile of new racks with spectacles.

"Sweet!" exclaimed Harry.

Behind the front rack he found plenty of brand names from many popular to expensive brands. Pulling open other racks he finally found a whole section covering sunglasses. His eyes were drawn to a pair that had a single, wrap-around lens; and were frameless except for the top edge, and had black arms. To him they looked like what he'd been told were Raybands, or something. He loved them at first sight.

Taking them down off the rack he turned back to the shopkeeper with a wide grin and said, "I love them."

Smiling back, the shopkeeper said, "Excellent! And, I hope, if someone asks where you acquired them - except if they're a pureblood - you let them know they can come to me to acquire a pair of their own?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Harry said enthusiastically.

"Excellent," said the shopkeeper. "Now, I take it you want all three pairs?"

"Yes, please," replied Harry. "While I adjust these to match the needed corrections to your natural eyesight..." he said handing Harry a folder with brochures made of parchment, "... I want you to skim through this and take note of what charms within it you'd like me to apply to your new spectacles."

The old man walked out through a door marked 'No Admittance' while Harry went back to the semi-reclined chair to rapidly skim through the folder.

After ten minutes the man came back with the three pairs of glasses and asked, "Picked out what charms you want me to apply to these for you?"

"Yes, thank you," replied Harry as he handed him the folder back. "Can you put on all five of the Impervious, Anti-fog, Self-Cleaning, Anti-Legilimency and Anti-Memory Charm charms on them?" "I can," replied the old man, "But, if you have the Self-Cleaning Charm on them, you don't need the Anti-Fog charm. The Self-Cleaning charm will do the work of the Anti-Fog charm so it becomes superfluous."

Nodding, Harry said, "I can see that, yeah. Okay, then I'd like those four placed on them."

"Very well, Mister Potter," replied the shopkeeper. "Come back after lunch and I'll have your new spectacles ready for you."

Getting back up, Harry said, "That's great, thank you. How much do I owe you?"

"I don't have the full tally yet," he replied. "However, I suspect it will be in the range of - say - eighty galleons?"

Harry drew ninety galleons from his coin pouch and handed them to the old shopkeeper. "Keep it and just give me the change when I return this afternoon," he said when the man expressed his concern it was too much.

Back out of the shop, Harry continued building his mental map of Diagon Alley.

He was just about to enter a dimmer and somewhat grmier side alley when an elderly witch tapped him on his shoulder. When Harry turned to see who had accosted him, the elderly witch kindly but sternly said, "Do not go in there, young man. That's Knockturn Alley. I'm sure your parents would be most wroth with you if they learned you had entered that place."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean?" replied Harry. "What's so bad about it?"

"Knockturn Alley is full of dark creatures, wizards and witches; and they generally only sell dark artefacts and the like," she said. "It is not a place for a young one, such as yourself."

Harry gave a nod, thanked her for her concern, and skipped it. He'd wait until he had better control of his magic before venturing down that particular Alley.

Instead he moved across the mouth of the Alley and continued his mapping. Mapping Knockturn Alley would be left until he actually had a legitimate reason for entering.

His next delay occurred at Flourish and Blotts. After reading the short blurb on Legilimency and Memory Charms, such as the Obliviate Curse, he wanted to learn more about that side of the mind arts. He prided himself on his eidetic memory; and the thought of someone messing with it outside of his own control somewhat frightened him. After a bit of advice from the bookstore shopkeeper's assistant he purchased a general tome on the Mind Arts, 'An Introduction to the Mind Arts', and one that focussed specifically on Occlumency and Legilimency, 'Protecting Your Mind and Invading Others'. While there he also acquired a book on formal writing within the British magical community, 'A Formal Guide to Letter Writing' that he hoped would cover how to write to the Heads of the allied Houses regarding the alliances. He knew he had only a few weeks, at the most, before he wrote to them as his father requested. All three books were packaged and shrunk for him once he paid for them.

'Damn!' thought Harry. 'Even more studying to do, and we're not even at school yet.'

His last stop before stopping for an early lunch was at Eeylop's Owl Emporium. Walking into the store he felt as if he was being pulled or called to the rear of the shop. And there, just over head height, was the most beautiful bird he'd ever seen; a Snowy Owl. The owl just stared right back.

Taking down the gilded cage in which the bird was housed, Harry took the cage to the front counter.

"You needs be careful with that owl, young sir," said the older sales clerk from behind the counter. 'She's a right nasty one, that one is."

"Thank you for your concern, sir," replied Harry quietly. "However, I just have this strong feeling this bird is for me."

Giving a shrug, the old shopkeeper said, "They're your fingers she's likely to bite off. She's got a real nasty bite on her." Giving a shrug right back Harry said, "Nevertheless, I'll take her."

The shopkeeper then suggested Harry purchase some owl treats and a perch for her to 'hopefully convince her not to bite yer fingers off', and gave him a pamphlet on the care of a personal owl.

After paying for his purchase, Harry dropped the treats, shrunken perch and pamphlet into one of his pockets while he carried the cage outside.

With his latest purchases, Harry crossed the Alley and took table outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. He lreft the caged owl sitting on the small table.

In there, he ordered a three scoop ice cream sundae and a coffee.

Returning to his room in The Leaky Cauldron Harry set his new pet owl - who he named Hedwig - up on her new perch near the window, so she could enjoy the sunlight. Then he set to work reading the various texts he'd acquired, before he returned to the Alley a couple hours later to pick up his new glasses.

After the first two fun-filled days wandering about Diagon Alley and getting both his supplies and bearings, Harry then spent the next few weeks mainly hunkered down in his room studying. He had to assimilate quite a significant amount of information in a short space of time before he felt confident enough to start contacting people based on the request of his father.

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