Harry and Dudley Start Hogwarts

Wizard Shopping Centre, you say?

A few days later, after a sleepover, Harry and Hermione were discussing the idea of shopping, unaware that Sirius was listening in through the door.

"And why is Diagon Alley one of the two places? I mean, two shopping places in the entire of England?"

Sirius crashed into the room, making everyone jump (and Ron tumble off of his chair.).

"It isn't! There is a proper shopping centre, how have we never taken you?"

Soon, everyone was in robes and ready to go, each carrying spending money and bags (5 knuts per carrier bag! Totally ridiculous!), and they aparated to the shopping centre.

Harry immediately spotted a floor plan, and He, Hermione and Dudley ran over to study it, exited by the idea of a wizard shopping centre. After a few minutes of looking at the map, Remus spoke to the children.

"Okay, guys, we are going to be at the cafe on the first floor, so meet us there in three hours, okay? I anything goes wrong, come find us."

Instantly, there was a huge debate as to which shop to visit first. Eventually, they decided to just visit each shop as they approached it. The first place they saw, none of them wanted to enter- Devilish Deeds- as it looked kind of creepy. The next, however, the Ravenclaws ran to- Ingenious Inks.

As they entered, even the hufflepuffs were blown away, quills were displayed everywhere, each with bottles of ink. Often, the quills were arranged to match the bird it came from, especially the eagles, which were made into a three dimensional bird, which circulated the shop and occasionally squawked. The inks were displayed everywhere, from standard-boring-school-essay ink (the official brand name), to squid ink (only 10 sickles, half price offer!) to colour changing ink sold in four brands- one of which changed colour as you wrote, another of which changed colour depending on where you were (School- black, home- your choice etc.), one of which reflected who you were writing to (pink for a lover, blood red for an enemy, blue for a friend etc.), and the last of which reflected the writers mood. Another was incription ink, where you told it the recipient of the note, and to anyone else who read it, it would look like a random message, which could detect who was trying to pry (notes on a lesson for teachers, friendly letter for parents). Harry bought several types of coloured ink, a colour changing quill, spell checking ink, incription ink and a couple of bottles of spare regulation ink. Ron decided to buy a few bottles of spell checking ink, as his spelling always lost him marks on essays. Dudley opted for squid ink. Neville was engrossed in a conversation with the store owner about using plants to make ink, similar to some brands of muggle pen.

The next few shops they only briefly looked at, including a shop selling very expensive jewellery (Harry promised that he would find something for Hermione from his vaults, as all of the necklaces were so expensive here.)

One the second story, they found a clothing department, where they spend good twenty minutes browsing both wizarding and muggle clothes. All five of them left with a few pairs of jeans in various shades, a few t-shirts, new sleepwear, day to day robes (Harry predictably buying a pair of colour changing robes) and a new pair of dress robes each. (Lily had given all of the children some spending money, and had given Ron more than the others subtly, and Sirius had given him an extra ten galleons, claiming that he forgot to give them to him at Christmas for his brilliant win in a couple of the games.) Harry decided to buy a weightless, undetectable extendable bag.

The third floor was solely dedicated to books. Harry and Hermione sped off, leaving behind a slightly bemused Dudley, Ron and Neville. Hermione discovered a collection a muggle books printed in the 1920s that she'd never heard of, all at 5 sickles each (not many people bothered buying them, so the prices were very low.) Harry bought a few books about defensive and offensive magic, and Neville bought multiple herbology books, and Potions for Dummies. Dudley and Harry both picked up books about Dragons, Dudleys a story book, Harrys an encyclopedia.

Going up one floor, they discovered a wizarding build a bear...