Harry Potter

Shopping

.:~*~:.
CHAPTER THREE
Diagon Alley
.:~*~:.

For all that Harry had been distanced from all living people for an entire day, she had actually had very little time to regroup. By the time Mr. Snape snatched her, she was still very much a confused little girl struggling to cope. But never let it be said that Harry Potter could not go with the flow.

After Mr. Snape had handed Harry her acceptance letter to Hogwarts—regardless of her inability to read it without glasses, he had insisted on making her take it—he had brought her back to Po's circus using a terrible technique he called apparition. Po had been so relieved to see her he had scooped her up in a giant bear hug and refused to release her—which, admittedly, had been one of the best feelings in the world for all that the foreign sensation had left her awkwardly unsure of how to respond. Mr. Snape had been less than pleased, instructing Po to immediately put an end to his coddling, but Po paid the dark wizard little heed and had continued carrying her around for another ten minutes, much to her silent delight. They had then proceeded to reassure the rest of the circus people that Harry was back and no longer monumentally upset with them (a worry that set her cheeks aflame to hear about), and finished by meeting in Po's tent to discuss things. The discussion had gone over her head for the most part, with mentions of something called the Night Bus or some such thing and an alley in London, some other place called Gringotts and a few other strange names that might have been places. The gist of it was that Mr. Snape would be taking her somewhere the next day (as Harry had made Po tell her again repeatedly to reassure herself of her knowledge). After that lovely confusing conversation, Harry had been shown to a place in one of the tents where she could sleep—and surprisingly, despite having slept through the day, she managed to get in a few hours.

The night passed quickly enough, daydreams filling the empty space the lack of sleep left. Harry stayed warm through the night with a colourful quilt courtesy of Tony and started the new morning by changing into an equally colourful outfit Po had shrunken from his own closet. She was unable to see the details, but the colours delighted her compared to her own rather drab hand-me-downs. After changing into Po's marginally better fitting clothes (compared to Dudley's humongous cast-offs), Harry followed Tony around and blindly attempted at helping him with his chores until people started showing up for the first scheduled performance of the day, at which point Mr. Snape appeared to pick her up for the day. He seemed disapproving about just how many colors decorated her borrowed clothing but somehow refrained from commenting and simply offered an arm for her to take. A pop later accompanied by the queasy feeling of being squeezed through a tube much too small for one's body size and Harry opened her eyes to a completely different scene. Well, it probably was. Everything was still a bit blurry. But there was definitely a lack of the greenery and colour that had been prevalent around Po's circus grounds.

Wherever they were, it was a place she was unfamiliar with so Harry held fast when Mr. Snape attempted to pull away from her grip, certain that she would smack into everything if she did not have him right there to steady her. He grudgingly led her into a shop, a pub by the smell and sound of it, and began a brisk walk across the place. They were almost to the other side of the pub, as far as Harry could tell with her less than perfect vision, when Mr. Snape was stopped by someone's loud cry: "Why, Professor Snape! I'll be. I have not seen you in this establishment for quite a time, Sir, quite a time. Would you care for a drink?" And then the most peculiar thing happened. Harry heard a sound that could not have been anything other than a growl rumble forth from Mr. Snape's chest. Apparently the fellow that had called out to Mr. Snape did not hear it, or else he probably would not have continued to say, "Come on, old chap. One drink couldn' hurt, could it? I'll even provide a discount." Harry wished she could have seen exactly what occurred between the two men, especially when Mr. Snape smoothly turned on his heel to face the direction of the voice, likely revealing her presence at the very same time his robes swished around her. The professor did not even have to say a word before the other man was stumbling over himself in apology. "My mistake, good sir, I was unaware you were here on school business. But . . . I say, is that Harry Potter?"