Malfoy Child

Shopping

"Where in the world are we going, Blaise?" Harry asked irritably. "Is there a reason you're dragging us into Muggle London right now? We just barely got out of Gringott's."

Blaise flashed a grin over his shoulder as he hurried through the crowds. "Just hurry up or we'll be late," he called.

"Late for what?" Harry hollered, but didn't get an answer.

Harry looked to Snape for an answer, but Snape just sneered at him and Harry didn't even bother asking. So, he looked down at Draco, who was doing his best to keep up. Harry swung him up into his arms, sitting Draco on his hip.

"Do you know where we're going, angel?" Harry whinged, not really expecting an answer from him, either. Draco giggled, though, even as he shook his head, making it worth asking the question.

Harry resigned himself to following blindly and began pointing things out to Draco as they hurried through Diagon Alley, into the Leaky Cauldron and out the other side into Muggle London.

Harry didn't know where Blaise was rushing them, but he was enjoying Draco's reactions to everything.

"Wow!" Draco breathed. "What are those things?" he asked. "I bet they could go as fast as brooms."

Harry grinned. "They're called cars, Draco. It's how Muggles tend to get around faster. And you're right, they can go even faster than brooms sometimes," he whispered conspiratorially.

He got the reaction he wanted when Draco's eyes grew even rounder, watching in fascination the cars travelling the streets.

"We're here!" Blaise exclaimed triumphantly several blocks later.

Harry looked up at the sign, before staring at Blaise incredulously. "You hurried us along to go to an optometrist's office?"

"Yep," Blaise said in satisfaction. "You are going to finally get rid of those glasses and get those context thingies."

"Contacts," Harry corrected automatically. "But I don't have an appointment," he said, bewildered by this turn of events. "And I'm supposed to be taking Draco shopping, not doing something for myself."

"You do have an appointment in about . . . two minutes from now," Blaise said smugly.

"How? How did you know where to go or that I'd need an appointment?" Harry asked, brow furrowed.

"Granger," Blaise admitted with a sheepish grin. "She seemed to know what to do and got the appointment set up for you."

Harry had been staring at him in amazement until now, and suddenly he burst out laughing. "You're just too much, Blaise!"

"This is long overdue," he declared haughtily, until he grinned, spoiling the false attitude. "Now come on!" he exclaimed, dragging Harry into the building.

It was an interesting couple of hours and Harry knew very well that the optometrist and his fellow workers thought they were an extremely strange group.

Harry soon found out at least partly why Snape hadn't argued with this appointment, even though it was for Harry. Harry was positive his eye exam took twice as long as it normally did with all the questions Snape posed to the man. If he wasn't questioning the man's skills, knowledge, or equipment, then he was watching each step of the exam with an eagle eye.

Harry thought it was mostly curiosity on Snape's part regarding the Muggle technology, but there were a few questions that caused Harry to wonder if Snape was actually concerned about him.

Blaise and Draco had also gone into the exam room with Harry because, of course, Snape wasn't going to let them stay out in the waiting room by themselves, and Draco wasn't particularly fond of the idea of letting Harry out of his sight anyway. So, both boys sat off to the side watching the proceedings with fascination.