A/N: Enjoy, everyone!
Chapter One
Time For New Clothes and A Standing 'O'
I sat on the end of my bed and flopped back with a sigh-I let my legs hang off the end-in my cousin's old toy room. They had given it to me when they were afraid I might blast them to pieces when first they found out I was a wizard. It's really quite ironic, that I am the very thing they are afraid of, but when I was younger I was terrified of them, but recently that all changed.
I told them what I was going to do this summer. I said that I would stay out of their way and out of their sight, pretty much, if they got off my case. It was basically like they had made me promise back in second year, I would pretend I didn't exist. They could live their lives and I could live mine. Really, I shouldn't have because Voldemort was on the loose but I suppose I was feeling very reckless at that moment in time.
I had sent Hedwig with messages to Ron and Hermione asking how they were and thanking them for the birthday presents they had sent me.
Hermione had sent me three necklaces from Spain. They were really awesome, I had put them on the moment I had opened them. The first one was a string of wooden beads that were all sorts of dark browns and reds. They were my favourite. The second and third had wooden crosses with a few black beads on the strings on either side of where the cross was strung through.
Ron had sent me a humongous box of chocolate frogs, compliments of himself, Fred and George. I ate them until I nearly threw up. It was very fun.
Yes, I do realize that I sound a bit off for being amused at eating so much candy that I nearly make myself sick, but it was fun because I had nothing else at all to do that summer. I mostly kept to the park while I did my homework.
Though, about two weeks before summer vacation ended, I was getting to feel very self-conscious about my. ah. clothing. I didn't mind that they were baggy just that they were out of style, old and worn. I thought it was time for a change.
* * *
Harry,
Hey! How are you? No problem about the Chocolate Frogs! Fred and George send there. uh. Well they said it not me. love. Mum says hi too, as well as the rest of the family. Did you want to come here for the rest of the holidays? If not, want to get together in Diagon Alley? Well, let me know. Then I can owl Hermione. Ron.
* * *
Ron,
Thanks for the offer. I've got some things I want to take care of in London, though. I'll meet you guys in Diagon Alley okay? Is the Wednesday before school starts good for you? Let me know. Harry
* * *
Harry,
Sounds good to us! We'll meet you then! Talk to you later!
Ron.
* * *
A week and half before school started, I received my Hogwarts letter. I needed several new books in order to prepare for my OWLs.
It was then that I decided to get some new clothes. I was going to London. Muggle London.
I packed my things into my trunk and hauled it downstairs.
"Where are you going, boy?" Vernon demanded.
"London," I replied as I unlocked the door.
"What?" He demanded again.
"See you next summer!" I called cheerfully as I closed the door and walked to the end of the drive, while dragging my trunk along with me.
When I made it to the end of the street, I threw my wand arm out and was met with a loud *BANG!*
"Welcome to the Knight Bus! Taking you anywhere you wanna go-." Said Stan in his purple uniform.
"Hi Stan," I interrupted his speech.
"Blimey! 'Arry its you!" He practically leapt back in surprise.
"Yeah, Stan it is. Listen, would you mind giving me a hand with this?" I said motioning the trunk.
"Oh yeah! Sure, 'Arry!" He said as he hauled my trunk up the steps. "Hey, Ern! It's 'Arry!"
"Hi, Harry," Ernie said gruffly.
"Hi," I smiled as I found a seat close to the door.
"Where ya headed?" Stan asked.
"Leaky Cauldron," I said simply. "Same as last time."
"You're not in trouble, again, are ya 'Arry?" Stan asked.
"No," I replied. "Just have to get my school things."
"Oh, okay then," Stan looked relieved at not having to be involved in my getaway tactics again. "We've just gotta drop three people off and then we'll be in London."
"Excellent," I said as I sat back in my chair.
"That'll be four sickles, 'Arry," Stan said as he sat down in his chair, across from me.
"Oh! Right, sorry," I said a little sheepishly. I rummaged around in my trunk as I slid around the bus and found the bag that I kept my money in. "Here you go, Stan."
"Thanks," Stan said as he took the money.
I settled back again for a nice peaceful ride, well as peaceful as I could on the Knight Bus. I was amazed that I had gotten this far through my summer completely event free.
I still had nightmares though. Nightmares of Cedric's lifeless body, blood red eyes, flashes of green light and cold cruel laughter. After witnessing that, who wouldn't have nightmares?
Yes, it hurt. Very deeply, in fact, but that was the first time I could do whatever I liked without anyone breathing down my neck about it.
I had decided, after I had returned to the Dursley's, that I was going to live each day to the fullest; like each day was my last and in doing that I didn't dwell on what once was or what could have been. I was in the here and now and that's all that mattered. That way, I could live a semi-normal life for a person my age and not feel really guilty about it.
"Here you are, 'Arry," Stan said getting up as Ernie slowed and stopped the bus.
Stan brought my trunk into the Leaky Cauldron with Ernie carrying Hedwig's cage.
"Tom?" I enquired at the bar.
"Harry!" Tom called as he came out of a back room with a bottle of something orange and translucent. He handed it to a man at the end of the bar and resumed talking to me. "What can I do for you?"
"Do you have any vacant rooms?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes, I do," he smiled. "I'll have your stuff brought up. Follow me."
"See ya, 'Arry!"
"Bye Stan, Ernie!" I called as I went up the stairs with Tom.
"Here you are, Harry, Number 9," Tom said as he unlocked the door and went in. "Here's the key. I'm downstairs if you need anything." And with that he left me standing in the room.
"Hedwig!" I exclaimed. Being in that room reminded me so much of third year after I had exploded and blew up Marge.
Hedwig hopped down from the windowsill onto the table, then to the top of her cage, which happened to be on top of my trunk.
"You can do what you like for the next two weeks, girl," I said as she preened her feathers. "But you have to be here before the train leaves, okay?" She hooted before she settled down for a nap. "I'll take that as a yes."
* * *
I woke early the next morning and made my way to Diagon Alley. It was just after dawn and the street was just coming alive. Storekeepers were just opening the curtains and setting displays up on the street. I walked quickly; my destination was Gringotts. I kept my head down so as people wouldn't have an easy job at recognising me. I really didn't want anyone to recognise me and they didn't and for that I was grateful.
I took out quite a bit of galleons from my vault, but not even enough to make a dent in it, figuratively speaking. I exchanged half of it for muggle currency and I had quite the amount of cash. Close to a thousand pounds.
I went back to the Leaky Cauldron, put my galleons in my trunk, grabbed my wallet for my money, said a hasty good bye to Hedwig and left quickly.
I stepped out into Muggle London and was met with a wave of sound. Yes, I had been there many times before but I hadn't expected quite the amount of noise, it was quite early in the morning. Cars were already in a traffic jam for the morning rush. I walked down the semi-busy streets headed for some of the clothing shops that had caught my eye as I was dropped off at the Leaky Cauldron.
I walked into "Total Clothing". The name was odd I'll give you that but it had some good-looking clothes. Unfortunately, the clerk was a complete. well, I hate to say this but really there is no other word to describe her. bitch.
I was the only person in the store, probably the first of the day. I walked over to a rack of pants that looked pretty awesome. I was flipping through them when a curt, stuck up voice said: "I think that those are a bit out of your price range."
Little did she know I had a thousand pounds in my wallet. "I know my price range thank you and these are far, far below it." She looked completely taken aback and I walked out of the store with my nose stuck in the air.
Then "In & Out" caught my eye. I walked in a clerk bid me good morning as I began to look around. It was a mixed genre store, something for everyone I guess you could say. There were some people in the store, a few girls and a couple boys. It seemed to be a teen store.
I half expected to hear a snippy remark about the pants being out of my price range as I flipped through the different styles on the rack. I found a khaki pair that looked like they were low rises and flared. I put them over my arm and continued on.
After quite some time, the store had filled up and the clerk had taken things I had picked out over to fitting rooms four times. I had three pairs of flared jeans and five different shirts over my arm and made my way over to the fitting rooms.
Once there, I began trying things on. I tried on the khakis with a tight red t-shirt and absolutely loved them. The waist of the khakis was about two inches below my navel and the bottom of my shirt was about half an inch above it. They went in the 'I'm going to buy them pile'.
The radio was playing some really good music. One song I happened to really like came on and I guess I began to sing along.
"I'm finding my way back to sanity again Though I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get there I take a breath and hold on tight Spin around one more time And gracefully fall back to the arms of grace."
I put on a t-shirt of seam foam green and it made me look sick. That went in the 'Not Bloody Likely' pile.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I tried on a couple more things like the red shirt and khakis, but different colours and such, and threw them in the 'I'm going to buy them' pile.
"I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth And I'm trying to identify the voices in my head God wish won't you Let me feel one more time what if feels like to feel And break these calluses off me one more time."
Then I moved onto stuff that people would actually see me wearing. I tried on a couple white semi-formal dress shirts and some black slacks.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside of your door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah."
I tried on jeans and liked seven pairs out of the fourteen I had. Two pairs were just normal jeans, another two were boot cut and baggy, another two pairs were regular fitting guys flares and the last pair were cargos.
"Oh I don't want a thing from you Bet you're tired of me waiting for The scraps to fall off of your table to the ground La da da da... Cause I just wanna be here now."
I tried on a million different shirts, t-shirts and button ups. I ended up liking about 20 of them.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I put everything I wanted back onto their hangers and hung them on one side of the rack that was in the change room and did with the same with the things that I wasn't going to buy and put them on the other side of the rack.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I picked up as much as I could of what I was going to buy and opened the door just as the song stopped. I stopped dead in my tracks. Everyone in the store was looking at me, customers and clerks.
Then the strangest thing happened. People began to clap, cheer and whistle. I stood there (looking quite intimidated I expect) and blushed but I bowed all the same. Then I took my clothes over to the checkout.
"What's your name?" The cashier asked me.
"Harry Potter," I answered absently as I put my clothes onto the counter and went back to the fitting room for the rest of the clothes I was to purchase.
When I came back out, my arms full of clothes, the scrolling red announcement board has the words: "That was Harry Potter, folks! Making his, unofficial, singing debut here at In & Out!!!"
~*~ Disclaimer: So far. It's all Rowling's.
A/N: Well, the song is called "Breathing" it's by Lifehouse. wicked, wicked song. Go download it! Anyway. Let me know what you think. I was stuck on CotG so I wrote this instead. Thanks to SlytherinBrandBabyOil for the beta! Thanks for reading and reviewing! Luv, Gia.
Chapter One
Time For New Clothes and A Standing 'O'
I sat on the end of my bed and flopped back with a sigh-I let my legs hang off the end-in my cousin's old toy room. They had given it to me when they were afraid I might blast them to pieces when first they found out I was a wizard. It's really quite ironic, that I am the very thing they are afraid of, but when I was younger I was terrified of them, but recently that all changed.
I told them what I was going to do this summer. I said that I would stay out of their way and out of their sight, pretty much, if they got off my case. It was basically like they had made me promise back in second year, I would pretend I didn't exist. They could live their lives and I could live mine. Really, I shouldn't have because Voldemort was on the loose but I suppose I was feeling very reckless at that moment in time.
I had sent Hedwig with messages to Ron and Hermione asking how they were and thanking them for the birthday presents they had sent me.
Hermione had sent me three necklaces from Spain. They were really awesome, I had put them on the moment I had opened them. The first one was a string of wooden beads that were all sorts of dark browns and reds. They were my favourite. The second and third had wooden crosses with a few black beads on the strings on either side of where the cross was strung through.
Ron had sent me a humongous box of chocolate frogs, compliments of himself, Fred and George. I ate them until I nearly threw up. It was very fun.
Yes, I do realize that I sound a bit off for being amused at eating so much candy that I nearly make myself sick, but it was fun because I had nothing else at all to do that summer. I mostly kept to the park while I did my homework.
Though, about two weeks before summer vacation ended, I was getting to feel very self-conscious about my. ah. clothing. I didn't mind that they were baggy just that they were out of style, old and worn. I thought it was time for a change.
* * *
Harry,
Hey! How are you? No problem about the Chocolate Frogs! Fred and George send there. uh. Well they said it not me. love. Mum says hi too, as well as the rest of the family. Did you want to come here for the rest of the holidays? If not, want to get together in Diagon Alley? Well, let me know. Then I can owl Hermione. Ron.
* * *
Ron,
Thanks for the offer. I've got some things I want to take care of in London, though. I'll meet you guys in Diagon Alley okay? Is the Wednesday before school starts good for you? Let me know. Harry
* * *
Harry,
Sounds good to us! We'll meet you then! Talk to you later!
Ron.
* * *
A week and half before school started, I received my Hogwarts letter. I needed several new books in order to prepare for my OWLs.
It was then that I decided to get some new clothes. I was going to London. Muggle London.
I packed my things into my trunk and hauled it downstairs.
"Where are you going, boy?" Vernon demanded.
"London," I replied as I unlocked the door.
"What?" He demanded again.
"See you next summer!" I called cheerfully as I closed the door and walked to the end of the drive, while dragging my trunk along with me.
When I made it to the end of the street, I threw my wand arm out and was met with a loud *BANG!*
"Welcome to the Knight Bus! Taking you anywhere you wanna go-." Said Stan in his purple uniform.
"Hi Stan," I interrupted his speech.
"Blimey! 'Arry its you!" He practically leapt back in surprise.
"Yeah, Stan it is. Listen, would you mind giving me a hand with this?" I said motioning the trunk.
"Oh yeah! Sure, 'Arry!" He said as he hauled my trunk up the steps. "Hey, Ern! It's 'Arry!"
"Hi, Harry," Ernie said gruffly.
"Hi," I smiled as I found a seat close to the door.
"Where ya headed?" Stan asked.
"Leaky Cauldron," I said simply. "Same as last time."
"You're not in trouble, again, are ya 'Arry?" Stan asked.
"No," I replied. "Just have to get my school things."
"Oh, okay then," Stan looked relieved at not having to be involved in my getaway tactics again. "We've just gotta drop three people off and then we'll be in London."
"Excellent," I said as I sat back in my chair.
"That'll be four sickles, 'Arry," Stan said as he sat down in his chair, across from me.
"Oh! Right, sorry," I said a little sheepishly. I rummaged around in my trunk as I slid around the bus and found the bag that I kept my money in. "Here you go, Stan."
"Thanks," Stan said as he took the money.
I settled back again for a nice peaceful ride, well as peaceful as I could on the Knight Bus. I was amazed that I had gotten this far through my summer completely event free.
I still had nightmares though. Nightmares of Cedric's lifeless body, blood red eyes, flashes of green light and cold cruel laughter. After witnessing that, who wouldn't have nightmares?
Yes, it hurt. Very deeply, in fact, but that was the first time I could do whatever I liked without anyone breathing down my neck about it.
I had decided, after I had returned to the Dursley's, that I was going to live each day to the fullest; like each day was my last and in doing that I didn't dwell on what once was or what could have been. I was in the here and now and that's all that mattered. That way, I could live a semi-normal life for a person my age and not feel really guilty about it.
"Here you are, 'Arry," Stan said getting up as Ernie slowed and stopped the bus.
Stan brought my trunk into the Leaky Cauldron with Ernie carrying Hedwig's cage.
"Tom?" I enquired at the bar.
"Harry!" Tom called as he came out of a back room with a bottle of something orange and translucent. He handed it to a man at the end of the bar and resumed talking to me. "What can I do for you?"
"Do you have any vacant rooms?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes, I do," he smiled. "I'll have your stuff brought up. Follow me."
"See ya, 'Arry!"
"Bye Stan, Ernie!" I called as I went up the stairs with Tom.
"Here you are, Harry, Number 9," Tom said as he unlocked the door and went in. "Here's the key. I'm downstairs if you need anything." And with that he left me standing in the room.
"Hedwig!" I exclaimed. Being in that room reminded me so much of third year after I had exploded and blew up Marge.
Hedwig hopped down from the windowsill onto the table, then to the top of her cage, which happened to be on top of my trunk.
"You can do what you like for the next two weeks, girl," I said as she preened her feathers. "But you have to be here before the train leaves, okay?" She hooted before she settled down for a nap. "I'll take that as a yes."
* * *
I woke early the next morning and made my way to Diagon Alley. It was just after dawn and the street was just coming alive. Storekeepers were just opening the curtains and setting displays up on the street. I walked quickly; my destination was Gringotts. I kept my head down so as people wouldn't have an easy job at recognising me. I really didn't want anyone to recognise me and they didn't and for that I was grateful.
I took out quite a bit of galleons from my vault, but not even enough to make a dent in it, figuratively speaking. I exchanged half of it for muggle currency and I had quite the amount of cash. Close to a thousand pounds.
I went back to the Leaky Cauldron, put my galleons in my trunk, grabbed my wallet for my money, said a hasty good bye to Hedwig and left quickly.
I stepped out into Muggle London and was met with a wave of sound. Yes, I had been there many times before but I hadn't expected quite the amount of noise, it was quite early in the morning. Cars were already in a traffic jam for the morning rush. I walked down the semi-busy streets headed for some of the clothing shops that had caught my eye as I was dropped off at the Leaky Cauldron.
I walked into "Total Clothing". The name was odd I'll give you that but it had some good-looking clothes. Unfortunately, the clerk was a complete. well, I hate to say this but really there is no other word to describe her. bitch.
I was the only person in the store, probably the first of the day. I walked over to a rack of pants that looked pretty awesome. I was flipping through them when a curt, stuck up voice said: "I think that those are a bit out of your price range."
Little did she know I had a thousand pounds in my wallet. "I know my price range thank you and these are far, far below it." She looked completely taken aback and I walked out of the store with my nose stuck in the air.
Then "In & Out" caught my eye. I walked in a clerk bid me good morning as I began to look around. It was a mixed genre store, something for everyone I guess you could say. There were some people in the store, a few girls and a couple boys. It seemed to be a teen store.
I half expected to hear a snippy remark about the pants being out of my price range as I flipped through the different styles on the rack. I found a khaki pair that looked like they were low rises and flared. I put them over my arm and continued on.
After quite some time, the store had filled up and the clerk had taken things I had picked out over to fitting rooms four times. I had three pairs of flared jeans and five different shirts over my arm and made my way over to the fitting rooms.
Once there, I began trying things on. I tried on the khakis with a tight red t-shirt and absolutely loved them. The waist of the khakis was about two inches below my navel and the bottom of my shirt was about half an inch above it. They went in the 'I'm going to buy them pile'.
The radio was playing some really good music. One song I happened to really like came on and I guess I began to sing along.
"I'm finding my way back to sanity again Though I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get there I take a breath and hold on tight Spin around one more time And gracefully fall back to the arms of grace."
I put on a t-shirt of seam foam green and it made me look sick. That went in the 'Not Bloody Likely' pile.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I tried on a couple more things like the red shirt and khakis, but different colours and such, and threw them in the 'I'm going to buy them' pile.
"I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth And I'm trying to identify the voices in my head God wish won't you Let me feel one more time what if feels like to feel And break these calluses off me one more time."
Then I moved onto stuff that people would actually see me wearing. I tried on a couple white semi-formal dress shirts and some black slacks.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside of your door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah."
I tried on jeans and liked seven pairs out of the fourteen I had. Two pairs were just normal jeans, another two were boot cut and baggy, another two pairs were regular fitting guys flares and the last pair were cargos.
"Oh I don't want a thing from you Bet you're tired of me waiting for The scraps to fall off of your table to the ground La da da da... Cause I just wanna be here now."
I tried on a million different shirts, t-shirts and button ups. I ended up liking about 20 of them.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I put everything I wanted back onto their hangers and hung them on one side of the rack that was in the change room and did with the same with the things that I wasn't going to buy and put them on the other side of the rack.
"Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying Even if you don't wanna speak tonight That's all right, all right with me Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door And listen to you breathing It's where I wanna be, yeah Where I wanna be."
I picked up as much as I could of what I was going to buy and opened the door just as the song stopped. I stopped dead in my tracks. Everyone in the store was looking at me, customers and clerks.
Then the strangest thing happened. People began to clap, cheer and whistle. I stood there (looking quite intimidated I expect) and blushed but I bowed all the same. Then I took my clothes over to the checkout.
"What's your name?" The cashier asked me.
"Harry Potter," I answered absently as I put my clothes onto the counter and went back to the fitting room for the rest of the clothes I was to purchase.
When I came back out, my arms full of clothes, the scrolling red announcement board has the words: "That was Harry Potter, folks! Making his, unofficial, singing debut here at In & Out!!!"
~*~ Disclaimer: So far. It's all Rowling's.
A/N: Well, the song is called "Breathing" it's by Lifehouse. wicked, wicked song. Go download it! Anyway. Let me know what you think. I was stuck on CotG so I wrote this instead. Thanks to SlytherinBrandBabyOil for the beta! Thanks for reading and reviewing! Luv, Gia.