The Honeymoon's Over, Mr. Potter

Chapter Five: Shopping, Day One

Sunday, 20 May 1996

Harry was excited in a way he had not been since he was introduced into the Wizarding World at eleven. It was almost worse knowing about the Wizarding World, but being unable to really participate than it was having no hope before his Hogwarts letter.

Moody took Harry to a small restaurant for a late lunch of fish and chips, though he himself refused to eat, which drew a glare from the waiter. Soon after the food arrived, Moody spoke:

"Alright, laddie, first things first. I want us finished in Diagon Alley by the end of the day. What do you need, and what's likely to take the longest?"

Harry paused a moment, then said, "I need clothes, books, and a new trunk, obviously. I was also hoping to buy weapons and armor, as I have the feeling everything's going to come down to an attack on Hogwarts, and I'd rather learn to fight before then so we have a chance. I want to turn the DA into a true defensive force for Hogwarts this year. Voldemort has managed to sneak in far too often; we need to learn to recognize threats. I'd have to revamp it a bit, change the membership and introduce a new agreement, but it should be doable over the course of next year. I'd, of course, pay for the equipment. I'd also hoped to buy some potions and learn how to brew others. But I'm afraid I'm not very good at brewing potions."

Moody cut in, "First off, never drink a potion brewed by a stranger. In fact, generally don't drink a potion you didn't brew yourself. You never know what someone could put in a potion. You'll also need another wand...and clothes. They say the clothes make the man and you will need all the protection you can get. This includes stuff Madam Malkin doesn't offer."

"Fair enough, but that would mean I'd need to learn how to brew potions, or at least have someone trustworthy to do it for me. This means I'll probably want a Potions Master on retainer, as well as a barrister to handle legal matters that are bound to come up at some point. Because Dumbledore clearly felt my family vault should be hidden, and Sirius felt strongly enough about it to tell the goblins to inform me anyway, I'm guessing there's a good amount of money in there."

"Hm...well, I have a few ideas about that. Let me get in touch with some old friends. How do you want to do this?"

"Well, once I have a base of operations set up, I want the DA to come and train for the summer. I know we won't be able to crack troops immediately, but I'm hoping maybe we can learn to fight as a cohesive unit."

"Wow, kid. You don't do anything by halves, do you? First off, you have to train yourself because at the end of the day, it will be you and Voldemort. If you want to bring your friends with you, they will complicate things, both because they will need to be trained as well and because of the issues of consent. If you bring any minors with you, then his or her parents could charge you with kidnapping. In addition, you will have to train with them for their group activities or they will find a leader amongst themselves and leave you behind as a team."

"Well, I was hoping to find someone to teach them as individuals or in small groups, so I won't have to be with them all the time."

"That could work; I'll owl some friends about it later. In the meantime, time's wasting."

Moody got up, paid, and led Harry into Knockturn Alley.

"What are we doing here?"

"Quiet boy, it's time for your first test."

After what felt like forever walking in the dirty, narrow street, Moody grabbed Harry's arm and led him to a barely noticeable shop; in fact, a moment before, Harry would have sworn there was nothing there...

Once they were inside, Moody let go of Harry's hand and said, "Don't touch anything; we're here because I know the shopkeeper and if he doesn't have something, he can get it."

Harry could believe that. There were potions and objects of all shapes and sizes, poisonous looking daggers, and enchanted jewelry. In a back room, there seemed to be shelves of books. He felt one of the rings call to him but his experience inside Borgin and Burkes before his second year taught him to be vigilant.

"Yes, sir."

"May I help you, gentlemen?" Harry noticed the shopkeeper, who must have come into the room at some point during the conversation. He looked nonchalant but Harry could see his wand resting easily in his hand.

"Put that stick away, Lionel. I didn't come from Timbuktu just to have you poke my eye out." Harry supposed that either this was a code phrase of some sort or Moody had a death wish, as Lionel stared impassively for a moment.

To Harry's surprise, Lionel nodded at Moody and said, "It's been a while, Mad-Eye, how've you been?"

"As well as could be expected, yourself?"

"The same. How can I help you?"

"My nephew here ran afoul of some Death Eaters a few months ago. Anything you can do to help him?"

"Yeah, I have eye-correcting potions and some disguising potions. Other than that, I have a few Foe-Glasses with extra capabilities, some trunks, and specs for a trunk should I not have what you're looking for. There's Sneakoscopes designed to either pick up or ignore specific lies. Just got in a shipment of Demiguises too, so I can custom make invisibility cloaks."

Harry thought, Either Foe-Glasses have been updated lately, or Crouch was lying when he described his Foe-Glasses, and then said, "You wouldn't happen to have a Pensieve, would you?"

"Yes, actually, I have three sizes, just one moment please." The shopkeeper disappeared into a back room. He came back carrying three boxes of different sizes and placed them on the counter. Taking a very small Pensieve out of its box (the Pensieve was small enough that the hollow in the middle was about the size of Harry's cupped hands), he said, "This is the smallest I have and it has enough space for ten hours of memories. It costs a hundred Galleons." He put it down and picked up another, larger one. "This holds a hundred hours of memories. It comes with a spill-proof lid and travel case, for the person on the go. This is the most expensive I have, at five hundred Galleons." The shopkeeper put that down and picked up another, almost identical to Dumbledore's Pensieve. "This is the biggest size I carry. It holds up to one thousand hours and comes with standard Notice-Me-Not and weight reduction charms, as well as an optional lid to make it travel-ready."

Realizing the implications, Harry was very unhappy. That meant that in order to prevent Harry's snooping, Snape only had to put his memories into the Pensieve before Harry got there and not draw attention to it. Harry would not even have noticed the Pensieve had Snape not chosen to pull memories out of his head in front of him. This did not mitigate Harry's own responsibility for snooping, but it was frustrating that Snape seemed to try to sabotage him at every point.

"Look around for a bit, boy, I have to speak to Lionel for a moment."

Harry began to look around the room for things that could help him. He saw bottles and flasks of potions, obscure books, and magical items he'd never seen before. He mentally noted some potions and books that looked interesting, because he felt that touching anything in this store, aside from being contrary to Moody's instructions, would not be beneficial to his life expectancy.

He saw quite a few things that caught his interest: A few aisles over, there was what appeared to be a clothing section. He first saw a row of cloaks and boots with odd abilities, like the ability to levitate, move silently, or move quickly. One claimed to allow a person to teleport. Harry returned his attention to the shelves in front of him.

Bottomless Bag

Though this appears to be a common cloth sack about two feet by four feet in size, its inside is larger than its outside dimensions. Regardless of what is put into the bag, it weighs a fixed amount.

Bag............Weight Content.........Weight Limit.........Cost

Type 1............Weightless...............50 kg............. 25 Galleons

Type 2............Weightless...............250 kg............125 Galleons

Type 3............5 kg. .....................500 kg. ............250 Galleons

Type 4............10 kg. ..................1,000 kg. .........375 Galleons

Type 5............15 kg. ..................1,500 kg. ......... 500 Galleons

Further down the wall, there was a wooden box, with the sign:

Folding Boat

This box can be used to store items like any other box. If a command word is given, however, the box unfolds itself to form a boat ten feet long, four feet wide, and two feet in depth. A second command word causes it to unfold to a ship twenty-four feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet deep. Any objects formerly stored in the box now rest inside the boat or ship.

In its smaller form, the boat has one pair of oars, an anchor, a mast, and a lateen sail. In its larger form, the boat has a deck, single rowing seats, five sets of oars, a steering oar, an anchor, a deck cabin, and a mast with a square sail. The boat can hold four people comfortably, while the ship carries fifteen with ease.

A third word of command causes the boat or ship to fold itself into a box once again.

720 Galleons.

Walking around the shop, Harry found more than he could imagine, including Exploding Beads, Rods of Security (Can't be too careful, nowadays), and bottles of air that, according to the adverts, would never run out and would enable a person to survive underwater or other airless environments. Harry made notes of things that would help him with his plans.

Once Moody and Lionel were finished, Harry asked about Foe-Glasses.

Lionel said, "Well, there are a bunch of options on Foe-Glasses. The first is range. I have fifteen different ranges, from thirty feet to five hundred miles. The second is number of possible enemies. I have in stock five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred and five hundred. The next is size. The greater the number of enemies your Foe-Glass shows, the larger the Foe-Glass needs to be. Also, you can set the Foe-Glass either to recognize people as threats or as allies. For example, if you have ten people with you, you can program the Foe-Glass to show anyone other than those ten people, or you could key the mirror to each enemy you wish to guard against. You could also key the Foe-Glass to show people with certain emotions, but the Foe-Glass would only show people feeling those emotions, regardless of whether they felt that way toward you. The last is more expensive, because it is more specific. It's available in the same ranges as the others, for an extra hundred and fifty Galleons. It will pick up a negative emotion toward the owner and the person's face will be surrounded by a color indicating the emotion. You also get a guide to the colors that explains the way the Foe-Glass works in a bit more detail.

"I have amulets that will activate anti-Apparition and anti-Portkey wards. In stock, I have amulets that extend the wards in a radius of fifty feet, one hundred feet, one mile, ten miles, fifty miles, and one hundred miles. The price ranges from two hundred Galleons to two thousand. I'm keyed into the amulets, so I can key one or both of you in, and then you're exempt and can key other people in, so you might want to be careful who you trust. I even have one that simulates the Fidelius Charm, same ranges. You still need a Secret-Keeper, but now the Secret-Keeper can be hidden inside the charm, since he or she does not carry the secret to the target, but the amulet, which spreads its charm over whatever is to be hidden. It's indirect, but works much better for the untrusting person, as it eliminates the need for an outside person to be Secret-Keeper. Those range from five hundred Galleons to five thousand."

Upon hearing this, Harry started to get angry at Dumbledore again, but then realized that, given that Dumbledore had offered to be the Secret-Keeper himself, it wasn't Dumbledore's fault his parents trusted Wormtail. Besides, there was enough to be angry with Dumbledore about that there was no need to blame him for things that weren't his fault.

"I also have Muggle-repelling and wizard-repelling amulets, same ranges. If a Muggle or wizard, respectively, comes within the range of the amulet, they will remember an urgent appointment. The Muggle-repelling amulet also blocks satellites. You can set the amulet to ignore certain people and I can put a proximity ward on, for an extra twenty Galleons, so if the amulet goes off, you'll be notified. The base price ranges from twenty to five hundred Galleons. These are fairly common, as a lot of wizards put these on their homes."

Lionel held up another amulet, "This is more expensive than the others, because it's less standard and the Ministry doesn't like it. When activated, it can block outside magic detection out to two hundred miles. It's also different in that it can be set to different ranges. It can block detection of you, within twenty feet, one hundred feet, one mile, fifty miles, one hundred miles, or two hundred miles. Know that all of the amulets can be deactivated by someone who is keyed in," Lionel warned. He then walked over to another section and said, "I also have wizarding tents. I can ward them to be anti-Muggle or anti-wizard and charm them to be self-sufficient and temperature controlled. They have anywhere from one to twenty bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen, dining area, and a common area."

"What kind of trunks do you have?"

"Well, there's your basic school trunk, of course, but I don't deal so much in those; one compartment, two to one space ratio. That one's ten Galleons. Then there's your basic traveler's trunk, three compartments. The first two are three to one ratio, the third is five to one. It also has an automatic Shrinking Charm. That one's fifty. The next is for the paranoid person; seven compartments, three at a three to one ratio, three at a five to one ratio, and one that is a square room, ten feet cubed."

Moody cut in with, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Harry completely agreed.

"Can you make a custom trunk? Is so, how much would it be, what are the limitations, and what security features are possible?" Harry asked.

"Smart boy; I can make an unlimited number of compartments, but the larger I make each compartment, the fewer I can fit. Let me know what you need, and I'll see if I can do it. Custom trunks are expensive, though; I wouldn't be able to give you an estimate until I knew what you wanted."

"Okay, I'd like fifteen compartments. Five of them should be at a three to one ratio. Five of them should be ten feet tall, fifteen feet long, and twenty feet wide. One more should be made into complete living quarters, with a self-sustaining kitchen, two bedrooms and closets, a bathroom, and a common area. The last should be a training area, just one big room, one hundred feet by fifty feet by twenty feet, with a fifty by five foot swimming pool at the opposite end. If possible, I would also like the sizes of the rooms to be adjustable, so if I need to add more space to one compartment, I can."

"Most of that shouldn't be a problem. Making the rooms adjustable will be, though. I can try and see what I can do, but I don't know...I might be able to link two compartments, so that if one is made bigger, another is made smaller."

"That would work. If you could add five feet to each dimension, then that should give me room to change things. Also, what kind of security features do you have?"

"Well, I can put a Notice-Me-Not charm on it, and an anti-theft system that recognizes your magical signature. This is a very recent development; it's supposed to prevent Polyjuice Potion from fooling the trunk. If you do this, you must have the Anti-Detection Amulet either off you entirely or covering both you and the trunk. Remember, the trunk could be seen as an outside detector otherwise, and you'd set off the trunk's security system. I have three settings for the security: jolt, burn or kill."

"I'm sorry?"

"How do you want your enemies: zapped (but alive), barbequed, or extra crispy?"

"Oh. I'd say zapped but scarred," Harry responded, not wanting his friends to get hurt by accident, but wanting to be able to identify intruders.

"No problem. I've also set the trunk to stop if it senses your magical signature, so if you set it off, hopefully you won't be scarred too badly."

"Alright, I'd like the trunk we discussed, a two bedroom tent, one thousand-hour Pensieve, six doses of Polyjuice Potion, the Tome of Clear Thought(1), the Tome of Understanding(2), the Tome of Leadership and Influence(3), and Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts."

Lionel laughed and said, "Gee, kid, I didn't know you were in to that sort of thing."

Confused, Harry responded, "Well, I'm trying to get a well-rounded education."

"Aye kid, that you will get," Lionel replied.

Still confused, Harry tried to change the subject. "I would also like three Foe-Glasses, one that shows anyone magical within fifteen hundred feet and two that pick up hostility toward me, one within five miles, the other within half a mile; one anti-Apparition and anti-Portkey, one wizard-repelling amulet, and one Muggle-repelling amulet, all ranged at fifty feet. I would also like an anti-detection amulet, three bottomless bags, five type V, two type II and one type I, and a biting, theft-proof wallet."

Harry added, "I will be back in about two weeks, as I have to make some arrangements, and I'm not sure what I'll need. However, I think I'll be placing a rather big order."

"Well, I'll tell you what, kid. Because I like you, I'll make you a deal. For every five of something you buy, I'll give you the sixth free. So, buy five and you get one, ten and you get two, and so on."

"Are you sure? I'll need quite a lot."

"Yeah, kid, go ahead. Call it a 'loyal customer bonus.'"

"Thank you very much, sir. Er...I was also wondering," Harry continued nervously. Lionel suddenly seemed very tall.

"Well kid? Spit it out, I don't bite, unless you try to steal from me, of course," Lionel tried to put him at ease.

"If I may be blunt, sir, we all know war is coming." Lionel nodded, curious now. "Well, I have some genius prankster friends who love making things explode, and I haven't discussed this with them yet, but I don't think they'd have a problem, and I think they would be really good at it..."

"Kid, you're rambling."

"Sorry," Harry took a breath and continued, "I was wondering, if they could find a way to improve some of your products, like the Exploding Beads, would you be willing to work with them? They'd improve the products, you'd sell them, and you could work out a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Lionel appeared to give it some thought, and said, "Alright, but I'd have to meet them first, on neutral territory. Obviously, the Ministry would not approve of many of my products, so I'll have to be careful, and if they turn out to be sneaks, you and I will have some problems, but I don't see why I shouldn't at least meet with them."

"Very good, sir. I was going to drop by their store later today, and I can check with them then."

"Oh, you mean the Weasley twins?" Harry nodded. "Oh, that's another story entirely. Of course you can bring it up. In fact I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself; they're brilliant. I can close up for a bit and come with you. It's been a while since I've seen them."

After Harry paid for his purchases and Lionel shrunk them, Lionel closed the store and the three men walked out of Knockturn Alley and into Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

Harry instinctively ducked under whatever flew at them and, looking around, he noticed that there were a few people lurking about.

"Gunky Gooey Greeters, one Sickle a Greeter. Hey George, mate, we got ourselves a challenge. Three customers and none of them got slimed..."

"Hey Fred, how's it going?"

"Sorry, do I know you?" Fred asked warily.

"You'd think you'd recognize your main investor," Harry responded with a smirk.

"Ah," Fred said. "Lee, take over for me, please. I need to find my dear brother. Oi, George, get out here."

"Gee brother dearest, I didn't know you cared," George replied from the basement. A minute later, George appeared, looked at the visitors suspiciously, and then he followed them into the back room.

Fred put up some anti-snooping and anti-eavesdropping wards, and then said suspiciously, "How do we know it's you?"

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"When you arrived at Headquarters last year, why were you angry?"

"I hadn't heard anything but 'be good' and 'behave' all summer. I was frustrated because I had no idea what was going on. I'm sorry about that, by the way. I was very angry all last year and took it out on everyone around me."

"That's okay, mate, but why aren't you at Hogwarts?"

"Don't ask, I doubt I'll be able to sneak out with any regularity," Harry responded.

Fred (or maybe George) said, "Hi Lionel, it's been a while. Don't worry, Harry, you can trust him."

Lionel said, "Yes, I know he's Harry Potter."

Harry turned very quickly and said, "How did you know?"

Lionel said, "If I can identify magical signatures in a trunk's security system, why wouldn't I be able to identify people coming into my store? Don't worry, though. That doesn't change anything. Now that we're all introduced, perhaps we could get down to business?" Harry relaxed.

"Fred, George, I need a rather big favor. We all know war is coming." Fred and George nodded their heads, looking more serious than Harry had ever seen them. "Here's what I want you to do: I spoke with Lionel about brainstorming with you and designing improved weapons. Lionel has experience with stuff like that." Lionel nodded and Harry continued, "I was thinking you could improve his products and he could sell them, and you'd work out an arrangement.

"I'd leave the specifics to you, but what I really want is to make Hogwarts defensible by the time Voldemort and his lackeys show up. I can't go into specifics, because I want to keep you two out of the line of fire when things get ugly, but know that should you want to be involved, you will be."

George cut in with, "You know we'll be there, just tell us what we have to do."

"Excellent, that's what I wanted to hear. Now, Lionel sells Exploding Beads, and from the description, the bead bursts into flame once it hits the ground. The trouble is that the flames only extend five feet and last four seconds. If there was any way to increase the damage and duration, that would be great. If you're looking for inspiration, Muggles are experts at finding efficient ways of killing each other, so you might want to look into Muggle grenades, rockets, and automatic weapons for ideas.

"Most Muggle weapons of any use at all to us are either frowned upon or illegal, so you may not be able to get them easily here without registering and all that. You want to leave no names, anywhere. Leave as little information as possible, because you don't want the Muggles tracking you down. If you can't get hold of the weapons, I'll see what I can do. Lionel, is there any sort of amulet that blocks magic itself?"

"Sure, there are a few here and there, but they're unpopular because there is no magic inside the radius, which means that while other people can't hit you with spells, you can't cast spells inside it, either."

"I'd like you to acquire as many of those as you can. I'm thinking Hogwarts' defenses should incorporate magical and Muggle weapons alike, and hopefully the Death Eaters will be confused.

"We also need a way to trap Voldemort when he attacks because if he sees the battle going against him, he'll just leave, and we'll be back where we started, only without the element of surprise. In short, we only have one chance to completely eradicate them. I think we can't afford to be unprepared when he strikes.

"Anything else your brilliant minds can come up with would be much appreciated."

Harry pulled Fred and George aside, as Lionel and Moody carried on their own conversation.

"How much do you need to tell my esteemed Headmaster about me or anything we discuss?"

"Well technically, we're conditional members, not full members, Mum insisted on that at least, as she didn't want us involved at all, and Dumbledore caved."

"As if we're not already involved," Fred said derisively.

"That means that we sit in on the meetings, but only do what no one else wants to do. We're pretty much the errand boys, and considered a joke by many of the adults," George added.

"The bad news is that they don't trust us at all. In order to get what we have now, we have so many secrecy spells on us, it's ridiculous. The good news is that they can't think of everything, and George and I are experts at finding loopholes," Fred finished.

"Okay, here's what I need from you: I need you to work with a few people as a team so that, ideally, we could completely booby-trap Hogwarts within fifteen minutes if possible, though it can take no more than an hour, at most. I would also like you to work on some sort of communications system for the DA, which will be renamed, reformed, and re-commissioned this year. We - that is, everyone of age that agrees - will be leaving town for a while. Care to join us?"

"Of course! You should know better than to ask."

"I just wanted to make sure." Harry reached into his backpack and pulled out the Marauders' Map, drawing curious glances from Moody, who did not know what it was. "If possible, I'd also like you to try to duplicate this, either on a larger or on a three-dimensional scale. Just try not to destroy it, as it's rather important to me."

Fred gasped. "Destroy such a noble artifact? Blasphemy!"

George added, "What do you take us for?"

Harry chuckled and said, "Alright, it also needs to be portable, even if it's not easy to move, because we'll need to move it into Hogwarts before the battle. If you could make it so I can update it, and put anything you discovered on it as well, it would be much appreciated. Also, any advice you could give on finding a base of operations within the school would be very valuable."

"Yeah, we'll brainstorm a bit. If it weren't so close to Slytherin territory, I'd recommend one of the dungeons, but You-Know-Who probably knows the dungeons pretty well, especially if he was a Slytherin Half-Blood during the fight with Grindelwald."

"How does Grindelwald make a difference?"

Moody replied, "Well, Tom Riddle was in his fifth year in nineteen forty-two, which means he was sorted in nineteen thirty-eight. Grindelwald, though he wasn't especially active over here until the early forties, had a rather large support base among the Slytherins throughout most of the thirties, so by the time Tom got to school, they were in power in Slytherin House, so take a Muggle-raised first year Half-Blood and mix him with your stereotypical Slytherins that have had years to consolidate power..."

"And Tom Riddle probably knows the dungeons better than anyone," Harry finished for him. "I see. If you could think on it, that would be wonderful. Also, like I said before, if you could come up with some kind of communications system, similar to communicating mirrors or Muggle walkie-talkies but less obtrusive, that would be great.

"Well, we'll have to see what we can do. If there was any way you could make special goodies for any Muggle weapons you do find, that would be great. Apparently, I need to hire an arms master as well, to teach us how to use the weapons."

Moody said, "Make a mental list, and we'll go over it later."

Harry nodded and the five men continued to plan for the defense of Hogwarts.

By the time they had finished, darkness had fallen and despite grumbling from Moody, they agreed that it would be better to rest for the night and come back later. Crossing back into Muggle London, they headed for the Savoy, where Harry paid for two weeks in a two-bedroom suite. Too tired to do more than avoid walls, he was escorted to his suite.

As he dropped into the very comfortable king-sized bed, his last thought was, Yes, life is good. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.