Harry Potter and the Return of the King

Diagon Alley

Harry woke up the next morning to bright sunshine streaming through the window. He lay in bed for a moment, listening to the conflicting sounds of Diagon Alley and the muggle world. Harry jumped out of bed, and began to dig around in his trunk for his casual robes. He had bought them last year in Hogsmeade because he was sick of wearing his semi-formal school robes around in Diagon Alley. Harry finally found them, buried deep in a corner of his trunk, and pulled them on. He looked down at the wrists and the ankles, and noticed that the robes were a bit short both places. "I've grown," he thought, "not only have I developed nice muscles but now I am probably almost six feet tall."

Harry went out into the common room of the inn and sat on a stool at the counter, next to some rowdy goblins. He asked Tom for some French toast, and with a word to the kitchen a plate piled high with the toast and strawberries came floating out, landing in front of Harry. He picked up the syrup bottle that had appeared next to him, not shocked at all by the sudden appearance of a fork and knife on a napkin next to him. Harry finished soaking his French toast with syrup, and picking up the fork, dug into what was very possibly the best French toast he had ever eaten, with the exception of anything Mrs. Weasley could cook, for hers was the best cooking in the country. When Harry was finished, he told Tom to put it on his tab. The toothless innkeeper tapped the little sign where the room 11 key was hung, there was a flash of light, and the hook spoke the words, "20 Knuts." Harry walked out the door, into the blinding sunlight. He blinked rapidly a few times so as to adjust his eyes, then headed down the street. He wandered around for a few minutes, stopping in Quality Quidditch Supplies to see if there were any new brooms or broom gadgets on the market. Immediately he was attracted to a small item, that clipped onto your broom and shielded you from being hit too hard. Just as he was about to pull it off the shelf, a man in bright orange Cannons robes tapped him on the shoulder.

"I wouldn't buy that, young man. Most brooms on the market have a charm that counteracts it. The nimbus 2000+, the Firebolt, the Cleansweep 7+, they all have that charm. I'm a reserve for the Cannons, and I bought one of those. In practice, I was flying off guard, cause see, I had this shield. Well, my teammate he takes advantage of this and I go flyin' right off my Nimbus 2001. I fall 25 feet to the ground, haven't been on a broom since. That device is made for kids Quidditch leagues, where they use Comets, and other brooms like that." Just then the man saw Harry's scar. "OH, are you Harry Potter? Nice to meet you sir, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about your exploits as Seeker for Gryffindor. I played Chaser for Ravenclaw myself. Hope you come play for the Cannons when you get out of school. We sure could use a decent Seeker around the place." With that the man walked off, leaving Harry to drop his little box back onto the shelf. Harry, disappointed that he didn't have any new Quidditch gadgets, left the store feeling rather cheated.

It was now that Harry decided to pull out his booklist. He glanced over the equiptment list, and his eyes settled upon an object that had never been on any Hogwarts booklist before. "All fifth years are required to bring their own Broomstick." Harry pondered this for a moment, then thinking that it must be for escape in case of attack, passed over it onto other things. First he stopped in at Madame Malkins robe shop, to pick up some new school robes, some new casual robes, and some new dress robes. Madame Malkin recognized him at once, and soon he was sitting on top of the stool being measured for his new robes. As the tape measure took his measurements, without any apparent direction from Madame Malkin, she showed his colors and materials for his dress robes. He chose a bottle green silk with a black velvet collar. After she was done measuring, and him choosing colors, she asked him whether he would like to wait for his robes, or have them delivered to him.

"Could you deliver them?" Harry replied to her query. "I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron, Room 11."

"Oh yes dear, the Leaky Cauldron, room 11? Since its that close I won't charge extra delivery fees. I'll bring them over as soon as their ready."

"Thanks." With that, Harry hopped down from the stool and walked out the door. As soon as he got out, he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

"Harry, Harry. Over here." Harry turned around and saw that it was Sirius. He looked totally different. His hair was cropped shoulder length, and he was wearing new robes, sky blue ones.

" Hey Sirius, hows it going?"

"Harry," Sirius said, "I would like you to meet my daughter Rose. "Rose, this is Harry Potter, my Godson, and Harry, this is Rose, my daughter."

Standing before him Harry saw a beautiful girl, who was about his age. She had long, blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. "Hi Rose, what's up?" Harry asked. Rose looked a little akward, at being addressed like this by someone she didn't even know.

"Hi Harry, and I'm just fine, thanks." Rose looked into Harry's eyes and he got a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. Harry knew almost immediately what it was, and looked back, seeing the same emotion in Rose's eyes. Love.

Sirius in the meantime, had ordered everyone double sundaes from Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlor. Harry got his favorite, chocolate raspberry with pecans.

"Thanks Sirius. How did you know what to order me? This is my favorite flavor."

"No problem Harry, I ordered your dad's favorite, and I was right, it was yours too. These little things always help."

They ate their sundaes in silence for a few minutes, Rose eating her Every Flavor Beans ice cream, Harry eating his choclolate raspberry, and sirius with just plain chocolate. Then Sirius brought up the subject of Hogwarts. "Rose," he said to his daughter, "I'm sure you will love Hogwarts, even if you are starting below grade level. They will probably move you up partway through the year, becuase you will be taking your OWL's and they can't stop you from taking them, so you might as well be in the same year as the rest of the people taking them."

"Thats probably right," put in Harry, "Your schedule will be that of a fourth year, but you will sleep in the fifth year dormitories. I know there is an extra bed in the Griffindor dormitory, I don't know about the other houses. You'll probably be in Griffindor though, cause your dad was a Griffindor, and well, you just seem like a Griffindor to me."

Thanks for the help, Harry, Dad, I'm sure everything will be just fine," Rose finally had something to say. "I can't wait to see Hogwarts. I've heard tons of good things about it. Is there really some kind of attack every year that you are always involved in, Harry?" Seeing harry's affirmative nod, the eager girl continued, " I hope I can make friends with your friends too, harry, not just you. I really want to play Quidditch, also. They didn't have any formal teams at Greenvale, becuase there wasn't enough kids. All we had were informal teams."

Harry looked at his watch, which he had bewitched to run again, off his magic current instead of batteries. "We should probably get going if we are going to buy anything today," Harry told the two others, "all the shops close at 6:00, its 5:30 now. Lets go to Flourish and Blotts. I could use some of my new books on my summer homework. Let's go."

By now both Sirius and Rose were finished with their sundaes, as was Harry. They walked into flourish and Blotts and were greeted cordially by the manager. "Ah, Mr. Black, how may I help you? I knew all along you were innocent. Hogwarts for these two? Yes? fourth and Fifth year? What subjects?"

"Excuse me, sir, but I believe we can find our books without help," interjected Harry, "Rose, lets go, I know where everything is." Rose followed Harry over to the corner devoted to Hogwarts course books. "Rose, let me see your booklist." She wordlessly handed over her booklist, and Harry found that she was taking Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy at grade level, but not her course subjects. He pulled copies of An Intermediate Guide to Arithmancy, by Numero S. Paterns, and Fantastic Beasts and where to find them off the shelf, handing them to Rose. "Thats all you'll need. You can have my grade four material. I don't need it anymore."

"Thanks Harry," Rose replied, "I appreciate your help."

Harry pulled books for himself off the shelf, copies of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, An Advanced Guide to Transfiguration, and his other books. By then it was closing time, so Harry had to buy his books, and leave for the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius and Rose were staying at the Leaky Cauldron as well. They all headed back together, and dumped their stuff in their rooms before heading down for dinner.