A Sirius Summer

29th August 1995

With the summer coming to a close, Mrs Weasley had run out of rooms to purge, so for once everyone was left to their own devices. Harry had decided to work on the Runes project Sirius had assigned him, so was sat in the drawing room sketching out Rune formations for his self inking quill. Across the room, Ron was playing the twins at chess, though seemed to be fighting a loosing battle as the twins sweet talked the opposing pieces into making less than ideal moves. Ginny and Hermione were giggling in the corner over a copy of Witch Weekly, which featured a darkly scowling Krum on the front page. Harry hadn't missed the fact Hermione received several letters over the summer with the now familiar cramped handwriting on the front, nor the fact Hermione's face turned very pink whenever she read the contents. He was happy for his friend, something good deserved to come out of the tragedy of the tournament, and Hermione's secret romance with the quidditch star was definitely good. The brooding seeker seemed good for her, and it was nice to see Hermione happy over something other than books.

A pop sounded, and several boxes appeared in the room, accompanied by a disgruntled looking Kretcher.

"No good false master Heir had parcels. Filthy blood traitor master said to send them to you direct." The elf spat, before disappearing with another pop."

"What is that Harry?" Hermione asked, looking up from the magazine. Harry went over to the nearest box and opened the lid revealing a pile of books.

"It's just my school supplies, nothing too exciting." He said with a grin moving onto the next box which opened to reveal a selection of robes. "Oh and my new clothes. I think Sirius was finally fed up with me borrowing his old things."

"Ooh they are nice," Hermione exclaimed, looking at the sleek, slate grey day robe Harry held in his arms. "Is it not a waste of money though? Won't you grow out of them in a year."

"Sirius got everything with a three year growth charm." Harry explained to the witch, "These should last me until I have finished Hogwarts."

"That is so sensible!" Hermione said happily, "Ooh, do you think I should write to my parents and get them to buy some like this when I grow out of my things. That is the one downside to my clothes I seem to grow out of everything before I get a chance to go shopping again and the sizing charms never stick to the fabric."

"You are a witch Hermione. I think you should embrace your new culture." Harry said with a grin, pleased for once that she was enthusiastic about something wixen even if it was just clothes, "I can give you the catalogues I ordered from if you like, then you can just ask your parents for the money and do an owl order like me. Wixen clothes are made of natural fibres so the magick will last a lot longer then the synthetic fibres muggles clothes are made of."

"You're just being a ponce again." Ron snorted from his seat at the chest board. "What, just cause you are a fancy Heir now you think you are better than us with your fancy clothes and stupid new attitude."

"What attitude?" Harry asked, "And I needed new school robes, I grew out of my old ones. Sirius just used the opportunity to get me something that wasn't Dudley's old hand-me-downs or his things from the seventies."

"It's still stupid." Ron muttered and Harry winced. He should have known opening the package here would have caused his friends jealousy to rise again, but equally hiding the package and opening it on its own would have raised questions about what he was hiding.

Collecting the other two parcels he made the decision to open them in his room. The longer he stayed with all his obviously new things, the grumpier Ron would get, he didn't want to ruin the last days of the holiday for the others by making Ron upset.

It didn't take long for Harry to sort out his purchases. Most of his books went straight into his trunk along with the other school supplies. His clothes took a bit more time as he had to decide which he wanted to take with him, he finally settled on four sets of day robes as well as a selection of shirts and trousers. There was no sense in taking too many clothes as he would only be able to go mufti at the weekends.