It's Over

Part Seventeen

Harry Potter**

The next two weeks were a grueling ordeal for Harry. He rarely had any time to himself and felt suffocated by all the attention people were giving him. He couldn't help noticing just how much they looked down on him as a naïve and malleable child. Severus had come three times, and each time as he sneered at Harry in disgust, he almost felt grateful to the odious slimeball for not going all gaga over him.

He'd gotten his books and school supplies, this time uncomfortably cognizant of the avarice and hatred in Ron's eyes every time he paid for his things. Harry had to get new robes as he'd outgrown the other ones, he'd grown four and a half inches with proper nutrition and the potions, and now stood at the improved height of 5, 5 1/2" tall. 

At Flourish and Blotts, he'd been unable to find a book on occlumency and had resorted to some minor trickery and pretending to have gotten lost in the crowd to go to Borgin and Burkes. Now with control of his magic, it was child's play for Harry to disguise his appearance and voice.

"I'm looking for a text on occlumency," Harry said, voice coming out a little lower and hoarser than his own.

Borgin  sneered lightly, not out of rudeness but more like it was his resting bitch face, "I have six options. Two are relatively useless if you're trying to learn, very academic and prissy. Of the other four, three focus on legillimency with occlumency incorporated, and one is just occlumency. I recommend you go with one of the three, as just learning occlumency won't do as well against someone very powerful. Going into battle covered in shields might let you escape alive, but you need a weapon to win."

"Let me see them all," Harry demanded.

Borgin went behind the register and into a back room, "Here," he said, setting six books of various sizes and bindings.

Quickly, knowing he had little time, Harry read the synopses of each, took one of the so-called prissy academic ones and the three with combined occlumency and legillimency, paying quickly and rushing back to reintegrate with the crowd inside Flourish and Blotts of students and parents irritably going about their shopping. 

He quickly transfigured the books into beads of a bracelet he put around his wrist, a charm bracelet with a wand, snitch, broomstick, wizarding hat, and owl, the last book making the chain. No one else was even suspicious of his disappearance, and Harry went on with the torturous ideal, pretending to laugh as he ate some truly delicious ice cream while listening to Ron complain and Hermione  lecture in her snotty little know-it-all voice.

By the time they got back to Grimmauld Place, Harry was just happy that he could escape to see Buckbeak. The stench of the hippogriffs preferred food was better company than the people he was forced to share air with day in and day out.

Of course, before going to see Buckbeak, he grabbed his sketchbook and a pencil. He needed to have at least some sketches done by him so that the prop could hold up under scrutiny. Admittedly, his Buckbeak drawings originally looked like an abstract of a dying duck, but he was improving and getting better at trying to do proportions and understanding how the different aspects of the subject flowed together. He was surprised to find that he actually enjoyed drawing, it was... nice.

When Mrs. Weasley came and rapped loudly on the door before shouting cheerily that dinner was ready, Harry let out a sigh and flipped to Lucius' page, scribbling a quick drawing of a dick and writing I miss yours so much, can't wait to see it again inside of a big heart that he drew messily to surround both the dick and sentimental words. 

Closing the sketchbook dolefully, Harry knew he had to leave his fortress of solitude (aka bedroom that smelled of hippogriff) and rejoin the monsters downstairs. 

A/N: Thank you @RaineTopia for the excellent recommendation in the last chapter 😁