Choices and Consequences

Harry woke early the next morning, eagerly anticipating his trip to Diagon Alley. As he had done the previous day, he was up and about and going through some of his exercises well before Tonks was around, but it did mean that he could get them done and still be able to go.

His muscles were a little stiff from the more extensive workout he'd had with Tonks, and from the duelling he'd been doing with John the previous day, but as he worked his way through the exercises and began to loosen up, Harry felt considerably better.

Tonks finally showed up at about eight o'clock, and joined him in half an hour's worth of exercises, before suggesting that he shower and breakfast before they left for London's wizarding stronghold. Rejoining her in the garden another half-hour later, Harry asked Tonks how they were travelling.

"Muggle transport, all the way, Harry," grinned the Auror, who was sporting a short blonde bob for the day, and wearing jeans and a white T-shirt that had a slogan on it that appeared to be a quote from someone.

"We have to get the train into Victoria, and then take the tube to Charing Cross. Unless you want to walk across London wearing your cousin's cast offs?" she teased him.

"Actually, I thought that, if it's okay, we could replace these with something that actually fits while we're in London?" he asked.

"Sure," Tonks agreed, "but you have to let me help you choose."

Harry was fine with that. He'd never had any say in what his clothes looked like anyway, since they were all ones that no longer fitted the behemoth that was Dudley, and agreed without any question. For some reason his agreement to that condition made Tonks really happy, but Harry couldn't figure out why and he had no intention of spoiling her good mood by asking about it.

The walk to Little Whinging railway station took the pair about ten minutes, and Tonks made idle talk most of the way, filling Harry in about the latest gossip that the Daily Prophet was putting about, and talking about the wizarding bands that she liked, which was all news to Harry, who didn't get much opportunity to pick up on wizarding culture, between school at Hogwarts and living in Privet Drive during the summer. For that matter he wasn't all that conversant with Muggle culture either outside of what he had learned at Primary School and from sneaking time watching the television: the trip to the zoo when he was ten was about as much as the Dursleys had been prepared to allow him, and even that had been under protest.

The train they took into London wasn't particularly busy, but bearing in mind that it was a Sunday, Harry wasn't too surprised. He'd been more surprised that the shops in Diagon Alley would be open on a Sunday, but Tonks told him that wizarding businesses didn't generally shut down at all during the Hogwarts holidays as that was their busiest trading period.

They managed to find a quiet spot in an almost empty carriage, which enabled them to talk about the wizarding world without being overheard by Muggles, and Tonks took the opportunity to change subject, and started questioning Harry about girlfriends and potential girlfriends.

Before their conversation the previous day, Harry would have been so embarrassed by the topic that he would have flatly denied having the slightest interest in girls, or any knowledge that they were different at all from boys, but since part of the purpose of his training with Tonks was to develop his self-confidence, Tonks had made it extremely plain that this meant that he had to get used to dealing with women 'as women', as she put it.

With some reluctance, Harry told her about his date with Cho Chang, and how awful it had been, ending with her running from Madam Puddifoot's to get away from him.

Tonks started giggling manicly as Harry came to the conclusion of his tale.

"Oh boy!" she announced through her giggles. "You sure made a mess of that."

"Yeah, well I know now, don't I? Even if Hermione was the one who had to explain it to me."

"So, go on then, Harry," Tonks said, wiping the tears of laughter from her face with a pink handkerchief that she pulled from the pocket of her jeans. "Since you know now that she was jealous of you meeting Hermione, tell me why she should have been," she teased.

"Oh come on, Tonks," Harry protested, "Hermione's my friend. She's not my girlfriend."

"Ah, but would you want her to be-," Tonks stopped short of finishing the question and asked it a different way.

"What do you like about her, as a woman?" she asked instead.

Just as Harry hadn't really thought about Tonks like that, he certainly hadn't thought about Hermione as a potential girlfriend. He suspected that he would struggle to maintain his patience with her if they ever dated and he wasn't sure that he could cope with her for long periods at a time, despite their existing friendship. Aside from that though, he had to admit that he didn't really fancy her. Even though she was quite pretty, he didn't feel any spark of that nature, or the nervousness in his stomach that he'd felt around Cho.

"She's just not my type, Tonks," he insisted. "It's not as though she's unattractive, I just don't get that feeling that I want to spend time with her, other than as a friend, obviously. I don't think our personalities are exactly an ideal match, either."

"So what do you like in a woman, Harry? Remember what I told you yesterday?" Tonks prompted. "I know the Chang family, so I can see why you'd be attracted to young Cho, after all she's pretty and athletic and good at Quidditch, and she comes from a background where she knows about discrimination, so she's not going to be one of You-know-Who's lackeys when it comes down to it. But what are you looking for, Harry?"

Harry considered it, realising that Tonks wasn't going to let him get away without giving her a proper answer.

"Physically? I'm not too bothered. I just know that I'm not exactly partial to extremes, so if anything, Cho was probably a little on the thin side for me, if I was being picky about her physical characteristics."

Tonks nodded, and let Harry work his way through what was, after all, quite a difficult subject for a teenage boy who'd had only one girlfriend, and that a fleeting relationship, too.

"I suppose I'd like a girlfriend who was self-sufficient and could look after themselves in a fight if necessary, but who would be prepared to let me protect her. Someone who knows me, Harry, not 'The Boy-who-Lived', and who can put up with all the crap that I get put through."

"Sounds like quite a demanding role, Harry," Tonks joked.

To her surprise Harry grinned up at her.

"Well, so far it's not exactly been a sought-after one," he quipped. "Especially given the hatchet job that the Daily Prophet did on me last summer."

"Well I'll have to see who I can find then," Tonks replied, though Harry wasn't sure if that was a threat or a promise, from the tone of her voice. "Meanwhile, since I'm the one who's got you for the day, you can pretend I'm your girlfriend," she grinned, then at the expression on Harry's face added "Oh, don't worry - no snogging or anything!"

Harry was relieved at that, since despite the notions he'd briefly entertained about Tonks as a girlfriend while he'd been thinking the previous day, he certainly wasn't sure whether he was up to snogging a woman eight or nine years older than him - not without a little more warning, anyway. It wasn't that she was older that put him off in itself, more that he knew that he liked her and really didn't want to make things awkward or spoil the friendship they had by making that kind of assumption, especially if they were going to be working together over the summer.

Tentatively he put his arm around her waist.

"That's it, Harry," she encouraged him, and leant her head on his shoulder and promptly fell asleep there.

Uncertain of what to do, Harry left his arm around her waist and relaxed a little, releasing tension that he hadn't even realised he'd been feeling. He wondered to himself about what sort of girlfriend he really wanted, but found his thoughts drifting from that to the young woman asleep on his shoulder, and then to the things he knew he needed to buy from Diagon Alley that morning.

About ten minutes later, Harry was woken up by Tonks gently shaking him, to find that the train had arrived in London.

"Enjoy your nap?" she asked.

Harry blushed and muttered an apology for falling asleep on her.

"Hey, that's okay, that's what friends do, right? Besides, I knew I'd wake as soon as the train stopped, I could feel the movement, and it was only ten minutes so you didn't have time to drool on me or anything disgusting like that," she assured him. "Anyway, it's part of the job of being an Auror - you need to be able to fall asleep at a moments notice, and to wake up at the slightest change in conditions, otherwise when you're out in the field it would be simple for an enemy to sneak up to you and kill you as you slept."

Tonks stepped out into the aisle of the carriage and pulled Harry out of his seat.

"Come on, lazybones, time to go shopping," she chivvied him. "Let's get you out of those rags of Dudley's and into some proper clothes.

Harry reminded her that they had to be back by two for him to meet John for his afternoon lesson, and Tonks pulled him along, hurrying him up. They made their way out of the station and onto the Underground to Charing Cross Road, where Tonks herded Harry toward the nearest decent clothing store, which happened to be a branch of Marks and Spencer.

Realising that they only had limited time in which to get Harry's shopping sorted out, Tonks tore through the menswear department like a tornado, collecting various items as she went, and pulled Harry along with her. She shepherded him into a changing room and ordered him to try on each of about five pairs of trousers, including a pair of jeans, and to take all of them that fit.

She was obviously a good judge of size, since four of the pairs fit Harry pretty well. Apparently while he'd been trying them on, she had done another whizz around and selected a stack of shirts and t-shirts for him to try as well as some rather exotic-looking boxer shorts and socks which Tonks insisted would make him much more attractive a proposition.

He hadn't even thought about the implications of girls knowing what his underwear was like, and blushed at the thought, but Tonks just giggled at him and told him he was being a little daft. Even though she moved away from the changing area while he tried the items on for size, he had no intention of trying on the underwear, and simply added it to the pile of items to buy once he'd finished trying on the other items that Tonks had selected.

Harry piled the clothes he'd tried outside the changing room, and confronted Tonks before she went dashing off again.

"Hang on," he halted her, "how am I going to pay for this lot? We haven't been to Gringotts yet."

She said that she would use her credit card, and that Harry could pay her back after they'd been to Gringotts, which Harry agreed to readily. Having paid, Tonks also insisted that Harry change into the jeans and one of the more colourful t-shirts, so they could get rid of Dudley's old clothes, and they found a skip in a side alley to dump the old clothes in.

'Phew,' Harry thought, 'that was a bit of an experience', and was surprised when Tonks told him that she wanted to take him somewhere where he could get some Muggle formalwear as well, but that it would have to wait until they had a bit more time.

"Well then," Tonks said as they stepped around the corner into a small alley and out of sight of the street. She backed up a little to give Harry an appraising look. "At least now I don't have to be embarrassed in your company for the way you're dressed."

Harry blushed, but his overriding emotion was pleasure that he actually had some clothes he could call his own, rather than Dudley's cast-offs. He wasn't used to the way that the clothes fit him so well yet, since Dudley's had hung off him rather baggily. Of course, he still had the sweaters that Mrs Weasley had knitted for him each Christmas, which fit him well, but it was nice to have a variety of things that he could wear in normal Muggle company without being looked at like a juvenile delinquent.

"We'll have to get you some decent footwear as well, but at least we can do that in Diagon Alley," she continued, looking bleakly at the tattered trainers he wore, which were now only partially obscured by the bottom of his trouser legs, rather than almost fully disguised by the sloppy, baggy, cast-offs that Aunt Petunia had provided for him.

Harry laughed and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her along the street at a quick pace, until she caught up with him and ruffled his hair for his insolence, and they made their way to the Muggle entrance to The Leaky Cauldron.

He couldn't believe how free he felt away from Privet Drive, and out from under the influence of so many authority figures, whether at Grimmauld Place as he had been the previous year, The Burrow, or at school. Finally he had the opportunity to enjoy the day as though he were normal, and not the 'weapon' that was to be protected to be used against Voldemort. He was glad too that it was Tonks that had accompanied him. She didn't make him feel like he had to be extra-responsible, or to take excessive precautions every time he turned around; she made it fun to be out and about, even if it was just a shopping trip. Harry was determined to make it an enjoyable day for her as well since she had given up her free time to chaperone him: if she wanted him to pretend she was his girlfriend, then he would oblige.

Once in Diagon Alley, their first stop was Gringotts so that Harry could draw some money out of his account. As usual, the piles of golden, silver, and bronze coins hardly seemed to diminish, even though he took a fair few handfuls out, and he had to ask the goblin that was transporting them how he could find out his total balance.

He got a strange look for the question, and once back up to the main level of the bank was escorted to a side room, and told to make himself comfortable. The room simply contained a few chairs and a long table, and appeared to be used for private meetings between Gringotts staff and their customers, but wasn't notable in any particular way.

Whilst he waited, he asked Tonks how much he owed her for the clothes, and rather than stand there and wait for him she suggested that she take a portion of his galleons and get them changed into sterling, and she would take what he owed from that.

As Tonks went off, another goblin, with long grey hair and a short beard entered the room.

"Mr Potter, I believe?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Harry replied courteously.

"My name is Ragwort," the goblin told him. "I understand you want to know the sum of the assets the bank holds for you?"

"That's right sir."

"Please hand me your key." Harry handed over his Gringotts key to the goblin, who placed what looked like a blank piece of parchment onto the table in front of Harry and then pressed the key into what appeared to be a large wax seal at the bottom of the page.

Suddenly all sorts of figures started appearing on the parchment, wriggling around until finally they formed words and numbers that Harry could read:

Harry James Potter, Gringotts Vault account

Total monetary assets: 37,239 Galleons, 12 Sickles, 3 Knuts.

Other investments: Security Protected.

Harry was astonished at the vast number of Galleons he had in his vault. It was no wonder that every time he came to make a withdrawal from his account there seemed to be little dent in the piles in his vault. He was also starting to get some ideas about spending some of those Galleons, but something else caught his attention first.

"What does it mean by 'Security Protected', Mr Ragwort?" he asked the old goblin

"Just Ragwort, Mr Potter. Anyway, since you're still a minor, you're not entitled to hold property, nor items bequeathed to you that have an estimated value of over 500 Galleons. The inheritance that you were left by your parents remains in trust, to become available to you on your seventeenth birthday."

This was a long speech for one of Gringotts goblins, who tended to the blunt, given the opportunity.

"I thought the coins were my inheritance?" Harry half-asked.

"No, that is merely a part of what you were bequeathed, and was set up for your use until you became of age."

Harry was stunned by this news and was sat open-mouthed when Tonks came back into the room for him a few moments later.

"What's up Harry? Good goldfish impression," she said, mimicking his gaping mouth.

Harry coughed, and quickly closed his mouth again.

"I'm rich!" he said. "Look at this!" he added beckoning Tonks over to look at the parchment.

The elderly goblin looked shocked at what was apparently a serious breach of protocol, allowing someone else to see details of your Gringotts account.

"Well, that's cool," Tonks commented, with a grin starting to creep onto her face. "It means I can take you shopping some other time and not have to worry about how much you spend on me."

Harry pushed her shoulder away as if to take offence, but couldn't stop himself grinning back at the metamorphmagus, whom he knew was just winding him up.

"Anyway, sir," Harry said, turning back to the goblin, "are you allowed to tell me what my other investments consist of?"

Ragwort shook his head. "The inheritance remains in trust, held by Gringotts I should add, until you are seventeen. All I can tell you is that what you have in your Gringotts vault, which you have access to at any time, is the mere tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure that once you are of age you will want to think about making some substantial investments."

Now Harry's mind was reeling at the prospect of the things that he could buy with the sort of inheritance that his parents had left him, and was torn between wanting to know what his bequest consisted of, and tears at the thought that his parents had died to leave him such riches. In the end, the practical, here-and-now Harry won out.

He'd once worried that he'd be tempted to waste his money by splurging on a Firebolt when they were first released, but suddenly felt abashed as he realised that he could probably have bought out the whole stock of Quality Quidditch Supplies without worrying about it.

Knowing that he only had a year until he would be free to use whatever his parents had left him, not to mention the fact that, with any luck, he would be in a position to earn his own living in less than two years time, Harry reckoned that he might at least make use of what funds he had available to him for the moment - 37,000 Galleons was an awful lot of spending power. The only problem was that he had to keep coming to Gringotts to access any of it. He decided to broach the subject with Ragwort, who had been fairly helpful so far.

"Is there a way that I can access my account without having to come into Gringotts each time I need more gold?" he asked, somewhat to Tonks's astonishment.

"Planning to go on a spending spree, are we, Harry?" she taunted him.

Harry merely winked at her, since the goblin once again looked scandalised at the level of trust that Harry was showing, allowing his personal finances to be discussed with someone else in the room.

"Well, Mr Potter, most businesses, both in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, accept what we call our Gringotts account quills," he advised.

"What's that then?" Harry asked. "How do they work?"

"Our account quills are a special quill, attuned to your blood. You simply take the quill with you when you go shopping and sign your name on the chit that the shop teller provides you. At the end of each trading week, any used chits magically appear here at Gringotts, and we transfer the gold to the appropriate account."

"It's a bit like using a Muggle chequebook or credit card, Harry," Tonks pointed out, "although here in Gringotts they actually physically transfer the gold from one account to another, rather than it being a paper transaction."

"That's correct, Miss," the goblin confirmed. "Since wizarding society runs on literal transfer of gold, and Gringotts controls the supply of the metal in Britain, we prefer to keep things on an 'actual transaction' basis. Is this something that you would want? Given the size of your account, we would be comfortable providing that for you, even though you are a minor. After all, if you were to overspend we would simply take the quill away from you and hold the debt against your family vault when you came of age and you could support the transaction."

"For a fee, no doubt," Tonks chipped in sarcastically.

"But of course," Ragwort acknowledged. "Plus interest on the debt, too. How else do you think we make this business viable?"

Harry eagerly nodded his acceptance of the conditions, and the goblin went out again to collect a quill that they could use. While he was gone, Tonks explained further about the 'actual transaction' of gold, noting that the wizarding world only trusted the goblins so far and they had insisted on maintaining this procedure so that the goblins couldn't overwhelm the economy by providing cheap credit.

A lot of it went over his head, but Harry thought that maybe this was one of the reasons why wizarding society had stagnated.

He vaguely remembered reading about money supply in the brief financial section of Uncle Vernon's Daily Mail, and figured that if the wizarding economy wasn't able to expand on credit it was very limited in terms of allowing innovative businesses to set up. If he hadn't given Fred and George his Tri-wizard tournament winnings, it was unlikely that they would have been able to set up shop in Diagon Alley so soon, given the resources they would have needed.

Ragwort returned carrying a quill that was pretty inconspicuous, black and fairly small: about the size of a ballpoint pen. Harry was uncomfortably reminded of the blood quill that Dolores Umbridge had forced him to use in detention the previous year and when he asked if it was related the goblin was extremely surprised that Harry had come across such an object.

"The principle of the magic is similar, Mr Potter, but don't be worried about this one. Although you will effectively be signing your name in your own blood, it's not going to take any from you or cause you any pain beyond what we do right now."

Harry still felt apprehensive about this, but caught the glimmer of humour in Tonks's eyes as he hesitated about accepting it. He nodded at the goblin to continue.

"Please place your hand, palm upwards, on the table in front of you, Mr Potter," the goblin instructed.

Harry did so, and the goblin reached across with the quill and jabbed it into the pad of Harry's little finger. The blood welled up out of the puncture and the goblin simply held the quill there for a moment, then silently cast a spell. The tip of the quill turned red and the goblin handed it over to Harry.

"There you go, Mister Potter. Don't spend all your money at once," he warned.

Harry looked up at the unexpected note of humour in the creature's voice, and was startled when he smiled back, baring his somewhat discoloured teeth, before leaving Harry alone with Tonks.

"What about security?" he asked her.

"Don't worry about that," she replied. "No one except you can use the quill. If they try, it refuses to write, and you get a sort of numbing shock through the nib. Here, let me show you."

Tonks took the quill from Harry and tried to write on the back of the parchment the goblin had left behind. Harry could see that nothing appeared, and that the quill vibrated somewhat when Tonks tried to use it.

"As he said, it's attuned to your blood. Besides which, they'll send you a statement every four weeks, so you can double-check that everything that's gone out of the account is legitimate. Of course," she added, "it's also so that wizards are aware of how much they've spent and don't try and overdraw their account. Believe me, their Howlers are among the worst I've seen, and they follow their threats up, too."

Harry recalled the trouble that Ludo Bagman had with the goblins after he had made substantial losses on his book at the Quidditch World Cup. As far as he knew, Bagman hadn't been heard of since the end of the Tri-wizard Tournament, where he'd made even worse losses, having wagered heavily on Harry to win the tournament outright.

With their business in Gringotts finished, they made their way back out onto Diagon Alley, Tonks capturing Harry's hand once more as they got back out into public.

"I'm your date for the morning, don't forget," she grinned at him as they walked down the street. "Oh, I nearly forgot, here's your money," she added, passing a few notes and a few coins to him.

"There's nearly sixty quid here!" Harry said in surprise at the amount she handed him. "I thought I was paying you back for the clothes we bought in Marks and Spencer?"

"You have Harry," Tonks replied. "You gave me thirty galleons to change, that's over a hundred and fifty pounds. We only spent about a hundred pounds on your clothes." She thought about it a little, as Harry was still processing the information, adding "If I'd known you had that much money in your vault I'd have picked a lot more expensive stuff for you."

Harry choked a little at that, thinking that it would be easy for him to end up broke, the way that Tonks went about shopping. A little idea popped into his head at this thought though, lighting up a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"You've got my book list as well, haven't you?" he asked by way of distraction.

Tonks fretted for a moment as she patted down her clothes, then drew a short piece of parchment out of her back pocket.

"Here we are. I knew I'd put it somewhere," she told him, passing him the parchment, which he could see held a list of books, written in Dumbledore's neat script.

"Dumbledore asked me to tell you that, officially, the sixth year texts haven't been decided upon, but that for Charms, Transfiguration and Potions, it's only a formality, since those Professors have used the same text for their NEWT classes for many years."

Harry looked at the list and noted the names of those texts, which were fairly unimaginatively titled: NEWT-level Charms, by Thaddeus Kobold, Mastering Transfiguration by Emeric Switch, and An Advanced Potions Compendium by Severus Snape.

Harry was a bit surprised that Snape used his own textbook for NEWT-level Potions, given the way he always accused Harry of seeking fame, but he figured that at least if Snape had complied this particular text, he'd better make sure he'd read it thoroughly prior to the start of term, since if anyone was likely to be picked out for nasty questions from it in the first lesson of the year, it would be Harry.

Tonks was still talking though, so Harry turned his attention back to where it should be.

"... of course the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor hasn't advised on his text either since, according to Dumbledore, he hasn't yet accepted the position. If he holds out too much longer he's going to struggle to get anyone to fill the post, yet again," Tonks rattled on.

"Anyway, Dumbledore provided a few suggestions that you might want to have a look at, and that even if the chosen text isn't one of them he figured you would get a good start with what is in those."

Again Harry looked down at his list, and checked out the names of the books that the Headmaster had recommended he purchase for studying Defence. It wasn't hard to see why he'd selected them, with titles like Curses and Counter-curses for Staying Alive, Fighting the Dark Arts: A Preliminary Guide for Aurors, Defying Death Eaters, and Facing Fear and Fighting Fair. Harry doubted that Dumbledore had selected these books for their titles though, and was intrigued at the inherent possibilities.

They came to a halt outside Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, and since Harry had definitely outgrown the robes he'd purchased in previous years, it was an obvious stopping point. Still holding hands with Tonks, and with Tonks grinning inanely like a child every time Harry felt discomforted by it, they entered the shop.

The shop assistants soon measured Harry up for size and sorted him out some new school robes, then Harry started to look at new dress robes as well. Even though he'd only bought his current set two years ago, he felt he should get new ones that fit well, and they would last him at least an additional two years. It was also time to put his little plan into action.

As the assistant came over to Harry to look at the fabrics he was admiring, Harry stopped him and looked at Tonks, the gleam in his eye returning again.

"Oh, and I'll need new dress robes for the young lady as well," he mentioned casually.

Tonks tugged hard at Harry's hand. "What are you doing? I don't need new dress robes."

"Sure you do," Harry responded. "I'm sure you'd look stunning in satin robes in a deep blue colour like this," he added, pulling out the rack of fabric he'd selected pretty much at random, and rubbing the cloth between his fingers, then holding it up to Tonks's chin.

Tonks was torn between the thought of having new robes in the wonderful colour that Harry had, rather luckily, selected for her, and concern at what Harry was doing.

"You don't have to buy me dress robes, Harry," she tried to insist, but Harry was having none of her protestations.

"Oh, but Tonks, I wanted to treat my date to something a little special. Surely you aren't going to refuse me?" Harry was struggling manfully to keep the smirk off his face as he pulled Tonks in the direction of another assistant so that she could be measured up herself. "Besides, I thought you were keen for me to spend the contents of my vault on you?" he reminded her.

"Haa-rry," Tonks pleaded, finally realising she'd been set up, though she was no longer resisting the efforts of the shop assistant taking her measurements. "You know I was only kidding."

Harry grinned at her. "Yeah, I know. But hey, how often am I going to get the opportunity to take a good-looking young woman like yourself out on a date in London?" he teased her.

Adopting a serious mien, he turned and looked her in the eyes. "Tonks, I want to buy you these robes. If you're concerned about why I want to buy them for you, then that's fine - I'm not crushing on you or anything like that. Much as I find you attractive," he said with a blush, "and I enjoy your company, I'm not going to get all het up about you. I'm sure that if you really wanted to you could drive me to distraction, but in the end I'm just a schoolboy and you're eight years older than me. I told you truthfully in the garden yesterday how I feel about you. I'm really glad that you're helping me, and I like you a lot, but I can't see you wanting me as a boyfriend, even if I wanted to press the issue."

He looked down at his feet, overcome with embarrassment at the sort of speech he never thought he'd ever actually have to use, but Tonks placed a finger under his chin and lifted his face to look him in the eyes.

"That's really sweet of you," she said with just a hint of relief in her voice, "and I'm flattered that you could like me that way, but you're totally right."

She stopped for a moment to consider her words.

"I'm not trying to lead you on, Harry, and I'm certainly not looking at you as a potential boyfriend, so you don't need to worry about that. Although," she added with a grin, "you are kinda cute, and you're good company - at least when you're in a good mood.

"I just want you to enjoy the afternoon, enjoy the company of a female friend you find attractive, maybe flirt a little too, but without having to worry about the consequences."

He breathed out a large sigh of relief, and cocked a little grin at the young metamorphmagus.

"Okay," he agreed. "Sounds good to me."

"So where were we?"

"You were about to accept that I'm buying you some new dress robes, since you're my 'pretend girlfriend' for the day," he replied with a chuckle.

"Well ... okay," she conceded, thoughts of the way the new robes would look and feel on her adding to her enthusiasm. "But, if you don't mind, I need to go somewhere a little more private to be fully measured," she added with a wink.

Harry let the assistant lead Tonks off into a private room where she could be measured in a little more detail, and went back to the racks of materials, finally selecting a heavy-ish material in a very dark green colour, nearly black, for his formal robes to be made up into. He also picked out some black Doc Marten style boots and some formal shoes to go with his robes, as well as a new pair of trainers to replace the battered pair of Dudley's he still wore.

Once he'd finalised the design of the robes with his own assistant, and Tonks had done the same with hers, Harry used his new Gringotts quill for the first time to sign for them, a total of around 300 galleons, which Harry considered to be rather expensive for robes, but given the materials he'd chosen he wasn't particularly surprised.

The dress robes wouldn't be ready for a couple of days at least, as they had to be made up by hand (though with magic involved as well), so he arranged for the whole order apart from the trainers to be delivered to Privet Drive when they were ready. With his relatives out of the way for the summer he didn't have to worry about the delivery arriving by magical means.

He exchanged his battered footwear for the new trainers and they left the shop.

Tonks turned to Harry and pulled him into a close hug. "Like I said, that was really sweet of you," she said, as Harry blushed at the description. "I know I teased you about being my date for the day, but that's just the sort of thing that a young witch likes, you know - to be treated as though she were special and have her boyfriend buy her presents, even if she's perfectly capably of buying them herself."

"Well I just thought I'd do things properly," Harry muttered. "Besides, I'm here buying all these things for me, and you've agreed to accompany me - it's only fair that I buy you something too."

Tonks giggled again. "I wasn't quite expecting that though, Harry, even if I did suggest in Gringotts that you should spend your money on me. I was thinking more along the lines of you paying for lunch or something. I know you spent a fair amount on me."

Harry shrugged, but took hold of Tonks's hand once again.

"We've got to make a quick detour before we head to Flourish and Blotts though," Harry grinned at her. "There're a couple of people who need to know you're my date," he added.

"It had better be quick, Harry," Tonks warned, wondering with a frown what Harry was up to. "It's after twelve o'clock and we need to leave in less than an hour."

They walked swiftly along Diagon Alley, Harry counting the shop numbers, until he came to the one he was looking for, number ninety-three. The door wasn't actually a direct entrance to a shop at street level, but the lurid banner across the top of it reassured Harry that he'd come to the right place, despite the lack of any frontage for product display. The bright green lettering was extremely clear against the pale yellow background of the banner, reading "Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes".

Tonks groaned and turned to Harry.

"Do we have to?" she asked. "You do realise that it'll be absolute mayhem in there, don't you?"

Harry nodded, keen to see Fred and George, however briefly, not just to see how they were getting on with the shop, but also to see their expressions when he walked in hand-in-hand with Tonks.

"Fine," Tonks said resignedly. "Five minutes maximum though - we need to get a move on."

Harry agreed, and they pushed the door open to find a flight of stairs in front of them, and the sound of voices above and ahead. They hurried up the stairs and opened what was the actual front door to the shop, again displaying the yellow and green banner, to see Fred and George stood behind a counter, poring over some sort of document.

The shop was fairly large and consisted of two rows of merchandise, all very clearly labelled, and featuring some of the Weasley twins' most famous concoctions: Canary Creams, Fainting Fancies, Puking Pastilles, and so on, all in beautifully, if somewhat gaudily designed packaging.

There appeared to be a large number of what Harry assumed must be new products on display as well, with the usual odd names. Harry picked up a fairly large package from a shelf close to him that read "Banana-pyjamas". Reading the description, Harry found that the yellow pyjamas were jinxed to seal the victim's legs together when they were donned, and then zip all the way up to the chin, immobilising them. Harry chuckled at the thought of using them on Malfoy in retaliation for the blond-haired Slytherin's unprovoked leg-locker curse on Neville back in first-year, but he couldn't imagine that the little ferret would fall for something like that.

The strange thing was that the shop was unnaturally empty. Harry had expected it to be full of riotous action as Fred demonstrated the newest product to a group of customers, or George kept up a marketing spiel to entranced watchers. Instead, there were no customers at all, and it just didn't feel right. He worried that perhaps Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes wasn't going to be such a roaring success after all, and felt a little guilty that he had encouraged the them so strongly.

Remembering that their time was limited, and seeing that the twins were oblivious to his presence, engrossed as they were in whatever document it was they were reading, Harry cleared his throat to attract their attention.

"Not now," Fred muttered without looking up, "we're busy."

Harry was about to make a comment about poor business practices, treating the customers like that, but George had looked up anyway, and elbowed Fred in the ribs. Their mouths dropped open simultaneously as they noticed Harry and Tonks's hands linked, but neither said anything immediately.

"Hi there, Fred, George," Harry said in greeting. "How are you? How's business?"

"Wow! What a surprise seeing you here!" exclaimed Fred. "We're great! Business has been fantastic!"

Tonks looked around the room. "Aren't you missing something?" she asked. "You know - customers?"

The twins looked at each other. "It's Sunday, Tonks," George noted. "We don't open on a Sunday, even though the rest of the shops here do."

Tonks looked confused and wanted a fuller explanation, so Fred elaborated a little further.

"We're open 7am until 7pm from Monday to Saturday, and we spend another four or five hours a day working on new products and manufacturing our current ones. If we opened Sunday as well, we'd never get any sleep and the business wouldn't progress because we'd never have any new lines for customers to try."

"We set Sundays aside for dealing with paperwork, but we're normally only here for a few hours," George added. "The rest of the day we catch up on our sleep!"

"When Mum lets us, that is," Fred supplied.

"Yeah. She's constantly on at us about the amount of time we spend here," George said, rolling his eyes.

"Not as though we're never at home."

"Just not at any reasonable hour of the day."

"She doesn't see us coming in at one or two in the morning."

"Only at breakfast at half-six when we're on our way out again."

"And then we're not exactly the best company in the world-"

"Speak for yourself!"

"Hey! You were the one who fell asleep in his cereal this morning!"

"Business is that good?" Harry enquired, interrupting the amusing by-play between the twins that was so typical of them. He hadn't realised how much he'd missed their irrepressible sense of humour, but knowing their time was limited and that they could go on like that all day, he felt he had to get them back on track.

"Better!" the twins chorused. "We're already running an operating profit," George noted, "and if we didn't have to pay the rent on the shop we'd have already repaid your investment."

Harry was uncomfortable at the thought of having anything returned to him from Fred and George, and made it clear that the Tri-wizard Tournament winnings were a gift, not a loan.

"We'll have to find another way of repaying you then, Harry," Fred insisted. "We're not accepting it as charity. You already know how Ron feels about that sort of thing."

The twins looked at each other once more, as though silently conversing with each other. Fred nodded to George, who made an alternative suggestion.

"If you're not prepared to take the money back, then we'll have to make you a partner in the business," he reasoned. "Equal shares - a third each."

Harry's eyes widened at the thought of owning an interest in the business. He wasn't sure that was what he wanted, either, but it didn't look as though the twins were going to back down on the issue.

"No way! It's your business, not mine. How can you make me an equal partner?"

"We couldn't have started without you," Fred insisted.

"We'd still be using our bedroom at The Burrow as a laboratory for our experiments," George agreed, "and only able to sell by Mail Order. Think how much time we'd waste dodging Mum's attempts to persuade us into a 'proper' career, and how badly her temper would be fraying."

"Like it or not, Harry. You're a partner."

"I'll take five percent," Harry countered, hoping to minimise the amount he would take out of their business.

Tonks slapped him on the arm. "You're supposed to bid them up, you idiot, not down," she hissed, but relaxed at the chuckle that the twins and Harry all let out at that comment.

"A quarter," Fred suggested, before Tonks could interfere any further. "If Mum ever found out we'd neglected you, she'd take it out of our hides. You wouldn't wish that on us, would you?"

"Ten percent," Harry countered again, feeling he was in a losing battle, but determined not to take anything more from the Weasleys than absolutely necessary.

"A fifth," George countered again, "and that's our final offer."

"Fine, then," Harry agreed reluctantly. "A fifth it is. But you're not to keep that to one side for me. I want you to reinvest it in the business, so you don't have any cash-flow problems."

Fred gave him a wry smile. "You know what you're doing, don't you?" he commented rhetorically.

"I think so," Harry agreed. "Oh, and one more thing - if you're struggling for cash or need further investment for any projects, you've got to let me know," he added.

"You're not teaching him business skills, are you?" George asked Tonks.

"Nope," the Auror replied, "but I recommend you take him at his word. He's got certain ...investment opportunities ... and you might just be best placed to benefit from them."

"Well then," Fred asked with a leer, "is that why you're going out with him?"

Harry's face turned a bright red, and tried to release Tonks's hand, but she held onto him tightly, preventing him from doing so.

"Um, no," Harry stuttered awkwardly. "We're just friends."

Just when Harry thought he wouldn't get any more embarrassed, Tonks turned to him and kissed him full on the lips, before immediately pulling away and spinning Harry around towards the door.

"Sorry guys, we've gotta go," she said hurriedly. "Time's a pressing on. See ya!" and whisked Harry out the door, to the sound of one of the twins' commenting "Yeah, just friends, my ass" with a laugh, as they clattered down the stairs.

Harry stepped out onto the street in Tonks's wake in something of a daze.

"What was that about?" he asked her.

"Well you were the one who wanted to 'show off your girlfriend' to the twins, weren't you?" she replied rhetorically.

"Yeah, but I was only winding them up, you know that. I was going to tell them we were just pretending really."

Tonks laughed. "I know, but I thought I'd make the most of the situation. It was a great opportunity to wind the twins up and embarrass you at the same time," she said with a smirk. "That's payback for your little trick in Madam Malkin's, as well," she added.

Harry chuckled himself, realising that he'd set himself up for that one, really. He wasn't mad at Tonks, just a little bit confused.

"I'm sure the twins will cope for a few days thinking that you're dating an 'older woman'," Tonks suggested. "They'll be wondering why, at least, and it's always good to keep their curiosity engaged. That way they spend less time thinking up pranks to get you with.

"Anyhow, your five minutes was up and I had to find a way to distract you and get you out of there. Let's get a move on, otherwise you'll be late back."

"You want to be careful," Harry said with a roguish wink, "I might take advantage of you."

Tonks laughed and just said: "Somehow I don't think you would. Not really your style. Besides which," she flicked her wrist out and had her wand pointed at Harry's heart in an instant, "I'm a lot more difficult to take advantage of than you might think."

"Umm... okay," Harry conceded nervously, and Tonks replaced her wand in its holster.

"Now, let's move," she said with a smile.

Next stop was Flourish and Blotts, where Harry picked up all the books that Dumbledore had recommended, but also picked up a number of other texts that he thought might be helpful. Even if he wasn't able to use magic whilst staying at Privet Drive, some of the books would be useful for developing his duelling skills with John, at the house in Hogsmeade where he could use the spells. It would also give him some useful stuff to read in between training and other things, which might give him an advantage, either in his NEWT classes, or after he left Hogwarts.

The first book he selected was on Household Charms and included some of the more complex charms that he had seen Mrs Weasley using in the kitchen of The Burrow. For some reason a lot of these went untaught at Hogwarts, and Harry wondered whether the syllabus had been designed that way. Although those that grew up in wizarding families would probably have exposure to these types of charms at home, the fact that they couldn't officially use them presumably made life difficult once they left school and set up house on their own. Muggle-born witches and wizards would probably fare even worse.

He also wondered if this was why many witches and wizards didn't marry young, compared to Muggles. Once they left school they weren't exactly in a position to set up housekeeping together, since they still had to learn all the normal household charms that kept a magical home in good working order, and many of them appeared to live with their parents until they were well into their twenties rather than becoming independent straight out of school.

For a similar reason he picked up a basic Potions primer. He was astonished that Snape taught so little of the basic background for potion making, presumably he thought that it was up to the individual to work it out for themselves. The book Harry had picked up gave easy-to-read details about basic potions ingredients, and followed up with information about the properties of the ingredients and the effects that using such an item in a potion would create.

He chose two history titles as well, not because he was going to study History in itself, but because again, there seemed to be an awful lot he didn't know about wizarding society that the books would probably cover. The first of these was a wide-ranging History of wizarding Britain, but the other, a History of Dark Magic would probably be more useful in terms of his more immediate future, Harry thought,

He picked up extra books on Occlumency, and also on transfiguration, particularly interested in one that covered animating objects in great detail and discussed the basics of conjuration. He found a book on chess strategies, which he felt might help him improve his game a little, so he didn't always lose so badly to Ron and added it to his pile.

Having paid for his books, Harry needed to make just one final stop, at the apothecary to stock up on his potions supplies. John Christopher was going to be working with him on potions, so he thought it best to have the ingredients available now, rather than John having to make an extra trip. He knew that there were a number of potions that could be brewed with the basic potion ingredients that students were expected to carry, and supposed that if John wanted him to concoct anything more complex he would already have the necessary ingredients.

As the shop assistant put Harry's order together, which took around four or five minutes, ensuring that all the packages were carefully sealed, Harry noticed that the shop also stocked a wider range of paraphernalia. Wandering between the shelves he didn't spot anything of particular interest until he came across a Pensieve.

He picked it up off the shelf and brought it to the counter.

"Can you add this to my bill as well, please?" Harry asked the assistant, who had finished collecting Harry's potion ingredients together.

The assistant gave him a strange look. "That's not the sort of thing we normally sell to kids," he advised. "You won't be able to afford it."

"Why? How much is it?" Harry enquired. "I've got a reasonable amount of money," he hedged.

"It's going to set you back a hundred and fifty galleons," the assistant warned.

"That's okay, mate," Tonks noted, appearing at Harry's shoulder, having finished her own mooch around the shop, "he can afford it."

Harry flashed a grin at Tonks and, to the amazement of the assistant, pulled out his Gringotts quill to sign for the total.

"There we go," he said as he signed with a flourish, and collected his packages together while the assistant muttered something about schoolkids with account quills.

"Come on Harry," Tonks persuaded, "we'll have to dash to catch the train now."