Diagon Alley

It was a cool, clear day and everyone in Surrey was making the most of the weather. All except for one boy who was lying face down on his bed in number 4, Privet Drive. The boy's name was Harry Potter. Harry was not a 'normal' boy by any standards. You see, Harry Potter was a wizard- fresh from his 5th year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even amongst other magical folk, though, Harry Potter was an unusual teenage boy. He was famous, famous for defeating the Darkest Wizard of the time at the age of one. However, the Dark Lord, who as known as Lord Voldemort (or You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as his name was too frightening to speak, apparently) had come back just over a year ago, and it was his latest murder that Harry was currently brooding over.

The bedroom was not the nicest place to in under normal circumstances, as his relatives were less than kind to Harry Potter. Now, it was ten times worse. The smallest bedroom was filthy- dirty clothing was scattered all over the floor, there was nicks in the furniture created in his frustration and bowls of old soup cluttered on the floor around the cat flap in his door, which had been put in place by his relatives to allow them to pass food in when he was locked in the room for extended periods of time. Harry's school trunk was lying open in the middle of the room, with belongings spilling out of it and his owl, Hedwig, was currently perched in her filthy cage looking disgusted. Lying on the unmade bed, face-down, was the boy in question, 15 year old Harry Potter who was currently muttering to himself.

"It's all my fault… all my ruddy fault… I should have checked… I should have learnt occlumency… I should have realised… Why didn't I stop him? All my fault… He's gone…" and he stopped there, quiet tears rolling down his cheeks.

'It's NOT your fault,' said a stubborn voice in his head. 'You checked, and Kreacher lied to you. You should have learnt occlumency, but you didn't realise its importance at the time. Snape was a terrible teacher, anyway. There was absolutely no way you could have realised you were going into a trap. You could not have stopped Sirius from coming to help you. He loved you, and could not have lived with himself if he stayed home whilst you were in danger and he was an adult. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! Bellatrix killed him, it's her fault. Voldemort sent you the vision, blame him. Snape was a horrible occlumency teacher. Dumbledore didn't give you the information you needed. Sirius didn't take the duel seriously enough. Blame any one of them. Blame all of them! But don't blame yourself. You did the honourable thing, and went to the rescue of a man you believed to be in danger. This is war. There are deaths. People will die, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you blame yourself for every fatality in a war, you are beyond stupid.' Harry wasn't buying it.

"But I killed him," he chocked.

'Oh? You held the wand? You co-ordinated the attacks? No. You didn't. I fail to see how you killed him. Blame anyone! Blame Dumbledore! It's not your fault,' said the voice.

"Dumbledore," Harry growled, thinking of all the information the old man had withheld from him, and the prophecy. "No one else is going to die for me. I am the only one that can end this. Dumbledore isn't going to help me, he's proven that much. So, I do this on my own. As of now, I'm in training to defeat the darkest wizard of our time," said Harry, with conviction. He then got up, and began to clean the pigsty he called a room.

'Good man,' growled the voice in his head. (That sounded suspiciously like Moody, now he thought about it) Two hours later, the room was unrecognisable, so Harry sat down to devise a schedule. The parchment soon read;

6.00- run

7.00- breakfast

7.15- Defence against the Dark Arts

10.00- Potions/Herbology

12.00- Transfiguration

2.00- lunch

2.30- Charms/ Occlumency

5.00- Gymnasium

7.00- dinner

7.30- Holiday work/ other subjects

Harry decided that he would begin by reading and summarising all of his textbooks and any other books that he owned while he devised a plan to get himself to Diagon Alley for some proper supplies. Once that was decided, Harry made his way to the local gymnasium. There, he enrolled in a fitness course from 5-6, and for good measure, a gymnastics class from 6-7, thinking it would held him dodge curses- he wasn't sure that his shields were strong enough against Voldemort- and he wasn't planning on testing that theory. Being able to dodge a few more killing curses was definitely an added benefit! Harry arrived home, and pulled out his first year Defence book.

At quarter to 5 in the afternoon, as Harry was jogging to his first fitness class, he thought over all he had read today. He had never bothered to read any of his books cover to cover once he started school, and hadn't realised how much he had missed! Suddenly, Hermione's 'knowledge' didn't seem so impressive.

Two days later, it was Sunday, and Harry was ready to put his Diagon Alley plan into action. His repaired alarm clock rang at 4 in the morning, and he quickly silenced it so that it didn't wake the Dursleys. He dressed quickly and grabbed his muggle wallet, (last year he had taken a large chunk of his money out secretly, and converted half of it into muggle money so he would never have a problem in either world) wand and invisibility cloak which he had set aside the night before. At 4.15, he crept out the back door, threw his invisibility cloak on and vaulted over the back fence into the neighbour's yard. Harry continued to 'yard hop,' until he felt he was far enough away from number 4. Then, he crept out onto the street and called the Knight Bus. He pulled off his cloak and handed Stan his 11 sickles and took a seat at the back of the bus, where Stan obviously decided he wasn't interesting enough to have a discussion with, and 10 minutes later, Harry was entering the Leaky Cauldron, his fake name of Dudley Evans still unused. He crept through to the back room and let himself into the alley. He knew that he would need to get more money before he did the bulk of his shopping, but a disguise was more important. When the majority of the shops were open and he Alley was full of people, it would be wishful thinking to hope he would go unrecognised. He found a section of 'all night' shops, and to his delight, spotted an oculist amongst them. The sign outside the dusty shop said; Emerald Eyes- Everything and Anything you need! So Harry went inside, knowing that his glasses and eyes were very recognisable. The sign wasn't joking- the oculist had everything! Glasses, contacts, potions, magical eyes… Harry was so busy looking at everything; he didn't notice the owner coming up to him until a voice in his ear said;

"Do you need anything, boy?" the owner sounded exhausted.

"Um… yeah… I need… to replace my glasses… but… I don't know… what do I replace them with?" mumbled Harry.

"Hmmm… They are a little too recognisable, Mr. Potter," remarked the oculist.

"You're telling me," complained Harry, "and call me Harry, please. You make it sound like I'm in trouble!"

"Alright, Harry, but call me Jim. Now, your eyes are, as I said earlier, very recognisable. If you just want to correct your vision, we have potions you can use, or clear contacts if you prefer that. If, and I suggest this, you want to make yourself a little less recognisable so you can make your way around the alley more comfortably, we can put a colour-change charm on the clear contacts. It's not vision repairing, but you will be able to change your eye colour." Said Jim the oculist.

"Sounds great, can I get the contacts with a colour change charm? How much are they?" asked Harry excitedly. These would go a long way in his plans for getting supplies.

"Not a problem, Harry. Now, unlike muggle contacts, you never need to take these out, unless you decide to fix your vision completely. To change the colour, you have to picture it in your head in a similar way to meditation. It requires a small amount of energy to hold the colour change, so when you go to sleep the charm will drop and you will need to reset the colour in the morning. They're 8 galleons, unless you want anything else?"

"Not at the moment, I'll come back later if I think of something," said Harry cheerfully, handing over the money. "On second thoughts, can you think of any place that will charm my hair another colour?"

"Ah, I can do that for you!" A few minutes later, a boy with pale blue eyes and dull blonde hair walked out of Emerald Eyes with a huge smirk on his face. Harry strode towards Gringotts, completely unrecognisable. He walked up to a goblin, the bank almost completely empty due to the fact it was still only 5am.

"Good morning," said Harry nervously. "I need to visit my vault, but I don't have a key. Could you possibly help me?"

"Name?" sneered the goblin.

"Harry Potter," said Harry promptly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, please follow me." Harry followed the goblin through the halls of Gringotts until they reached an office with small plaque reading 'Goldtooth' above the door. They walked inside and the goblin that Harry took to be Goldtooth and Harry's guide conversed furiously in Gobbledegook until finally, Goldtooth took out a small bowl and a ceremonial dagger and presented them to Harry.

"Drop some of your blood into the bowl, and it will confirm your identity. It will also provide a list of any inheritances you have and supply the name of any outstanding wills," smirked Goldtooth. Harry was suddenly nervous. There was a look in the goblin's eye telling him that he was not about to enjoy this. He drew the dagger across his palm and held it over the bowl. After a few seconds, the cut he had made healed over, leaving only a faint scar that was gone not too long afterwards. Then he looked at the bowl and saw that his blood had mixed with the liquid in it and was churning horribly. After a few minutes, a piece of parchment had formed in the bottom of the bowl and all of the liquid was absorbed into it and forming words on its surface. Goldtooth picked it up, his sharp eyes scanning it and looked shocked- until her reached the bottom, where he began to look angry. He silently passed it to Harry, who looked down at it and almost dropped it in shock. Breathing deeply, he scanned it a second time.

Harry James Potter-Black

Heir to:

Potter (by name and blood)

Black (by choice)

Evans (by blood)

Pendragon (by blood)

Emrys (by blood)

Gryffindor (by blood)

Ravenclaw (by blood)

Hufflepuff (by blood)

Slytherin (by blood)

Gaunt (by conquest)

Properties owned:

Potter Manor- POTTER (Fidelius)

Godric's Hollow 75- POTTER (destroyed)

Sandy Cottage- EVANS

Privet Drive 4- EVANS

Merlin's Castle- EMRYS

Hogwarts Castle- GRYFFINDOR, HUFFLEPUFF, RAVENCLAW, SLYTHERIN

Wills Outstanding;

James Charlus Potter- 14 years, 10 months

Lily Potter nee Evans- 14 years, 10 months

Sirius Orion Black- 1 month

Harry blinked at Sirius' name, but nevertheless took the offered parchments. A while later, Harry finished reading the last will- Sirius'- and looked up at Goldtooth.

"Sirius wanted me to become emancipated…" he trailed off.

"Ah, yes… that will give you all of the roles and responsibilities of an adult. You would claim your… 10… seats on the Wizengamot- which, by the way, might be a record number of seats, and you would be allowed to perform underage magic. If you break the law, you will be tried as an adult. You receive your Head of House rings, and one Albus Dumbledore will lose control of your vaults. Do you wish to proceed?"

"What… yes… Dumbledore has control of my vaults?" spluttered Harry. Goldtooth handed over a large stack of papers for Harry to sign while saying just loud enough for Harry to hear;

"I didn't think you authorised those rather large monthly withdrawals…" Harry frowned. Dumbledore had been stealing from him? Once the papers were signed, Harry swapped them for a pile of boxes. He took the first box and opened it- it contained a beautiful solid old ring with rubies around the edge at regular intervals and the Potter family crest imprinted in it, along with the family's motto. When he put the ring on, it heated up and shrunk to fit his finger before cooling so quickly it felt as though it had just been dumped in a bucket of ice after sitting in a fire for hours. One by one, the head of house rings made their way onto Harry's finger and he began to get used to the sensation. Soon, he was head of the houses of Potter, Black, Evans, Pendragon, Emrys, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Apparently, the Gaunt ring had gone missing along with its previous owner.

"Can I go down to my vault now, please? Just my trust vault," said Harry, deciding that he would come back when he had more time and fewer things to buy. One long cart ride later, Harry was standing in front of his vault handing over the key Goldtooth had given him. He went inside and realised that although it had a huge amount of gold in it, it was quite obviously lower than it had been the last time he had visited. He knew that Dumbledore ad lost control of his vault when he signed the emancipation papers, but to be on the safe side, he emptied the entire vault into his moneybag. It was a lot more than he had planned on taking but he didn't want to risk any more disappearances. Another cart ride later, Harry was outside and blinking in the sudden increase of light. He had been in the bank for just over 2 hours, so at just after 7am, the shops were beginning to open.

Harry didn't know where to go first, so he decided to work his way around the alley beginning with the shop right next to Gringotts- a luggage shop. Harry knew that the bottom of the range trunk he had bought with Hagrid over 5 years ago was getting a little too knocked around and was on the small side already without the things Harry was about to buy, so he entered the shop. It was exactly how he remembered it- full to the brim of trunks of every size, shape and colour. It looked like an explosion site with trunks piled haphazardly all over the place, with only a small clear area with a counter and a separate 'charms desk.' Harry finally decided on a beautiful mahogany trunk with gold clasps and edging. The thing Harry liked best about it was the fact it had four compartments, all magically enlarged. The first was a wardrobe, and was guaranteed to fit any item of clothing he tried to place in there, also keeping them 'fresh, and wrinkle-free!' The second compartment was a basic storage compartment- completely unremarkable, but quite obviously necessary. The third compartment was a library. It was guaranteed to hold over 2 000 books. Each shelf was numbered and when you entered the shelf number you wanted into the compartment, all the books stored on it would appear in it. It was brilliant! The fourth compartment was built for potions ingredients and the temperature was magically controlled to ensure maximum life for every ingredient placed init. Harry took the trunk to the counter and paid the 25 Galleons for it, before dragging it over to the charms desk. There, he paid 10 galleons for a feather-light charm, (which had to be placed on each compartment) a shrinking charm, password activation, a charm to key people into it, (so only certain people could even attempt to offer the password) notice-me-not charms and protection spells. He thanked the man, set the password to Slytherin- (well, he WAS the Gryffindor Golden Boy- so no one would guess the password!) before putting his hand on the clasp and commanding it to "shrink" and put the matchbox-sized trunk in his back pocket before walking out the door.

The next store in line was Madam Malkin's. Harry walked in nervously, knowing that he would have to tell them his identity to get clothing that suited him. He looked around the shop, utterly lost in the masses of fabric before he heard giggling behind him. He whirled around, before he saw the shop assistant looking at him. He put his wand away sheepishly.

"Do you need any help?" she asked, still giggling but also eying the place where his wand had disappeared into nervously.

"Uh… yeah… I need some robes," said Harry, causing the shop assistant to burst out laughing.

"What type?" she asked once she regained control of her breathing. Harry couldn't see what was so amusing about the situation.

"Uh… type?" asked Harry, bewildered. The assistant giggled again, causing Harry to fully agree with his 14 year old selves' thoughts; giggling should be made illegal.

"Well, we have dress robes, dinner robes, everyday robes, duelling robes, potions robes, school robes, spell-resistant robes, Wizengamot robes, casual party robes, family robes, formal robes, teaching robes… Then there are different materials, ranging from silk, to dragonhide and everything in between. There are different qualities and pre-made robes or you can go for tailored robes- those look better, but it depends on your budget…" she continued to talk, and stopped only when she saw Harry staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Uh… never mind. It's just… I didn't get any of that… but I'll try. Errr… money is really not an issue, so I'll get top quality of everything, I guess… 2 each of the dress and dinner robes, 5 each of the school, spell-resistant and potions robes, 10 each of the everyday and casual party robes, 1 each of the Wizengamot, family and formal robes, and, err… maybe… 8 duelling robes? And what are teaching robes?"

"Sure! Tailored or pre-made? What colours? And teaching robes are really cool. They look like formal robes but a little more casual, but they have the characteristics of duelling and spell-proof robes in case a student's spell goes wrong and the teacher gets hit!" she said cheerfully.

"Can I add 10 teaching robes to the list? 'Cause I teach a… student organised Defence class and I've been hit in the back way too many times," Harry began grumbling. "Anyway, umm… tailored sounds good! Errr… for colours… uh, black school robes?" the assistant began giggling again, and Harry said;

"Can you just choose, please? I'm bad at this!"

"Sure, but are you in disguise? 'Cause the robes need to suit you."

"Yeah, I am disguised. How'd you guess? No, never mind, I don't want to know. Can I have one of the casual robes suit this disguise and the rest… well… I'm Harry Potter." The assistant gasped, before quickly recovering herself.

"Hi, Harry, I'm Ashley and sure, I can do that!"

"Thanks… and if you don't mention that you saw me here, you can 'accidentally' slip some extra robes in and I will forget that I didn't ask for them and pay for them," said Harry quickly. Ashley blushed and began taking his measurements and making the robes. Harry was surprised at how quickly robes could be made with magic- it helped that all the robes could be made at once. While she was making the, Harry continued his browsing of the shop and picked up several pairs of dragonhide gloves and boots. Half an hour later, Harry left Madam Malkin's with 54 new robes in his trunk and wearing the robe he had made for his disguise. (Ashley had 'accidentally' dropped another 4 in with Harry's permission) The gloves and boots he had seen were also in his trunk.

The next store was a muggle clothing store, and Harry went through a similar process- although they didn't do tailor-made clothing which was fortunate for Harry. Harry left the store with a complete new wardrobe- 10 pairs of shorts, t shirts, long sleeved shirts, jeans, track pants and jackets, 20 pairs of socks and underwear, 5 vests, singlets and skivvies, several scarves, hats and gloves, 3 pairs of runners, thongs, slippers and boots and an interesting pair of shoes the owner called Ugg Boots. Thankfully the assistant, as a muggleborn, didn't make much of a fuss over his identity. As Harry was leaving, he mentally thanked the luggage store- he was sure a normal wardrobe would explode if he tried to put the amount of clothing he had bought so far into it.

Flourish and Blotts was next in line, and Harry walked in excitedly. For some reason, he wanted to learn everything he could, and not because he had a mentally deranged mass murderer after him, but because he could. It was later that he learned Dumbledore had long ago magically repressed his learning abilities and when he was in Gringotts, the goblins had noticed several charms on him and began to take them off. The store was split into several sections; Fiction, Non Fiction, Transfiguration, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts, Mind Magics, Herbology, History, Charms, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Household Magic, Pureblood Customs and Traditions, law, Obscure Magics, Astronomy, Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Curse Breaking, Warding and the list went on. Although the charms Dumbledore had placed on him hadn't been fully lifted, it was enough to make him almost skip in excitement when he saw all of the knowledge that was stored in the one shop. Harry skipped over the fiction section, and headed to the closest section after that: Transfiguration. There, he pored over all of the titles, before finally deciding on several advanced books, including NEWT Transfiguration, Advanced and Permanent Conjurations, Finding Your Inner Animal, Animagus for Everyone, Transforming yourself and others, Human transfigurations; the cheats, shortcuts and dangers, Mastering transfiguration, Transfiguring your way out of trouble, Transfiguration in Duelling and a few others. Potions was next, and he found several books, including; Advanced Potion-Making, Brewing for Dummies, Quick Potions That Will Save Your Life, Basic Healing Potions, Poisons and Antidotes for the Hunted Wizard, (Harry chuckled at that one- it really did describe him!) How to Prove You Really Can Brew, Advanced Potions Simplified, Understanding What You're Using and Why and Why Your Potion Does What It Says It Does. In Defence, He picked up the largest stack of books out of all of the sections. Defence for the Average Wizard, Defending Yourself, Defence Against the Dark Arts Revisited, Duelling; Etiquette, Rules and Regulations, Advanced Defence, NEWT DADA, Mastering Defence, Defensive Strategies, 101 shield spells and their counters, Surviving in the Real World, Common Spells to Save Your Life, Basic Defensive Spells You Never Learnt, Winning Outnumbered, Great Duels and the Spells Used, Defeating the Average Dark Lord and Muggle Duelling- The Only Defence Against The Unforgivables, and How They Do It were among the books he found. The Herbology and History sections were passed over, with Harry picking up one or two books in each. The Mind Magics section was the smallest, but there, he picked up; Occlumency; The Basics, Defending Your Mind Against Master Legilimens, Conversing Silently- Telepathy For Beginners!, Legilimency for Beginners, Advanced Legilimency, Advanced Occlumency, Advanced Telepathy, Mastering Mind Arts, Why Only Some People Know The Mind Arts and How To Tell If Someone's A Legilimens Without Looking Them In The Eye- The Things Every Wizard Should Know. Harry wondered why Mind Arts were so rare when there was so much information on them in Flourish and Blotts when he saw a sign above the section saying that the Mind Arts section was warded so that only people with enough power and the ability to learn the arts could access it- 1 in 10000. Harry whistled. Now that he thought of it, Hermione had never seen the section, or she would have been all over it. Muggle studies was ignored, and in Care of Magical Creatures he only took one book; Every Known Magical Creature and What to Do If You Meet Them- Self-Updating. In the Charms section, he picked up several books on advanced Charms and Charming in battle. Household magic, Pureblood customs and traditions and Law were all severely depleted once Harry had looked through them. Obscure Magics was the section that Harry had looked forward to the most, and it had a similar warding system to the Mind Magics section, it scanned your power levels and intentions. Even Dumbledore had failed to enter it, but to Harry's delight, he managed it. Here, he picked up a huge pile of books, including; Wandless Magic- Basic, Wandless Magic- Intermediate, Wandless Magic- Advanced, Elemental Magic and Why It Is Classified 'Extinct', Controlling the Elements, Broomstick Crafting, (Harry had no idea why he picked that one up, but left it in the basket anyway) Wandless Magic Explained, Silent Casting and It's Benefits, Why People Use Staffs and How To Craft One For Yourself, Wandless Magic In Battle, Using The Elements In A Duel, Highly Amusing Ways To Defeat Your Opponent, Learning Silent Casting to Surprise Your Enemies, Pranking A Dark Lord, Finding The Power You Never Knew You Had, Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, Discovering Blocks On Your Magic, Ancient Magic and How To Use It, Sentient Castles- They're Fun To Talk To! (Harry was sure Hogwarts was sentient and was going to enjoy working with the castle to prank someone… like Dumbledore) and The Complete Encyclopaedia of Obscure Magics and How To Use Them. The astronomy and divination sections were both completely ignored, but the Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Curse breaking and Warding sections were all missing quite a few books after Harry went through them. After over an hour in the admittedly large bookshop, Harry took his basket of over 500 books to the counter and paid for them. The shop owner had taken one look at the number of books in the basket and told Harry that he could just pay 200 Galleons as he didn't have the patience or the time to try and work out the correct price. Harry grinned, knowing he was getting a huge discount and handed over the money before dumping the books into the library section of his trunk, knowing that they would automatically sort themselves by subject as he had set it to do when he bought it and left the shop.

The next store was interesting for Harry- he managed to pick up several swords and daggers of different lengths and thicknesses, all magically tied to him. He found duelling dummies which could be programmed to duel at different skill levels and bought 6 of them, knowing that he would very rarely enter a fair, one-one-one fight. He found a wand holster- invisible to everyone apart from himself and charmed to keep hold of the want even if hit with an advanced summoning charm, as well as several holsters for his new weapons, with similar charms to the wand holster.

The apothecary's smell prevented him from being in there too long, but he managed to get several spare cauldrons and kits with 6th and 7th year ingredients as well as several rarer, more expensive ingredients that Harry was sure could not be found in the student's supply cupboard- such as basilisk venom, phoenix tears, boomslang skin, Gillyweed and lacewing flies. He bought a supply of bezoars, knowing he was in huge danger of being poisoned. Several top-of-the-range potions knives found their way into his trunk along with new scales and other potions equipment.

Quality Quidditch Supplies was almost passed over- until he spotted another book on broom crafting and picked it up, now knowing that he was going to try and craft his own broom. Realising that he never got his Firebolt back from Umbridge, he also picked up a new broom which had just come out the day before and he had managed to not notice in his haste to pick up the book. That's a first… I went for a book without even noticing a new, top of the line broom that had only been released the day before! Hermione would be so proud… Ron would be disgusted! It was called the Firebolt II, and promised to be lighter, quicker and have sharper steering than the model before. Harry was sceptical about the claims, but bought it anyway.

Next in line was the Diagon Alley outlet of Scrivenshafts- Hermione's second favourite store. Harry entered, knowing this was going to be a big purchase. He went first to the parchment, where he bought 1000 rolls of parchment- he had done a mental calculation- Every year at Hogwarts, he used 300 rolls of parchment, but Hermione went through 100 rolls more than him. That meant that he would probably use 350 rolls this year if they did a similar amount of writing. However, they had been promised that they would be using a LOT more parchment in 6th year, so he bumped his amount up to 450 rolls, as he wasn't sure if he would be dropping any subjects yet- it all depended on his OWL results, although he felt sure he would not make it into Advanced Potions. Then there was the fact that he was going to study many more subjects independently this year, such as Arithmancy and ancient runes, as well as the work he was doing at Privet Drive. He estimated that the extra studying would use quite a few more rolls of parchment and rounded it up to 500 rolls a year. However, there was a discount if you bought over 800 rolls, so Harry bought enough parchment to last him until the end of his schooling at Hogwarts. Once that was decided, he went over to the quills and bought lots- eagle, owl, standard, formal quills were all on offer- there was also an extremely expensive phoenix feather quill. Harry decided that the eagle quills were handsome but not overly expensive. He found self-inking, dictation, spell-checking and spill-resistant quills in the eagle feather range and bough t several of each, deciding that if he could use a dictation quill in Binn's class he wouldn't have to use Hermione's notes- he was going to give her a run for her money in the grades department this year! No more holding back like he had done his whole schooling life. He bought enough ink to last him for years- black, blue, red, green and colour-changing inks all made their way into his purchases. Finally he made his way up to the counter before he realised that they sold book bags- he had always been slightly envious of Hermione's magical one, but most students didn't own them. He looked through them, and finally found one that he liked- a handsome bottle green bag- spill, tear and curse resistant, as well as magically enlarged with several different sections for books, parchment, ink, quills, a general section for placing anything he wanted into it and even a section for his wand! It had been charmed feather light and had a system similar to his trunk- only people keyed into the bag could open it. Harry loved it, and added it to his already extensive purchase.

The next store was a furniture store, and Harry almost passed it over before he decided it would be fun to look around in it, and he could improve his room now that he could use magic. He then decided to replace all of the furniture in his room- he could always use magic to make the room bogger if his things didn't fit. Almost immediately after entering the shop, Harry's eyes were drawn to a small oak cabinet. Harry went over to it, and stared at it in shock- it was a self-refilling pantry! Once you put a certain food into it, every time you took it out the cabinet would automatically replace it. Harry knew he needed it. He could completely avoid the Dursleys for the whole holidays if he had it! He paid the 500 galleons for it and placed it in his trunk before continuing around the shop and getting other bits of furniture for his room.

To Harry's amusement, the wizarding supermarket was next in line, and he went in, intent on filling the cabinet he had bought. He found huge amounts of pre-made meals ('All it takes is one simple heating charm!') and bought one of each. He bought several different types of fruit and a container of pumpkin juice.

Harry was beginning to get tired, so he made his way to the Leaky Cauldron, intent upon getting a rest, lunch and a butterbeer- Hmmm… maybe I can place a butterbeer in the cabinet before taking it out- then I can have the stuff at the Dursleys and Hogwarts! Brilliant! He ate his meal quietly, remembering to add butterbeer to his cabinet. Just as Harry was leaving, he passed a table of mismatched people having an intense conversation. Interested, he slid into the table behind them and pulled a glass of butterbeer out of his cabinet. He was glad he decided to eavesdrop, as almost immediately, he heard;

"Kingsley, Alastor, the two of you are responsible for training Weasley and Granger. I want them auror level in Defence before school resumes, they are responsible for the protection of Potter, and they disgraced me in their OWLs." Harry seethed. He could protect himself! Apparently Moody agreed with him, as he asked the question Harry wanted answered.

"Albus, why don't we train Harry himself? He is a natural at Defence; the boy could get a mastery in the subject over the summer if he wanted to!"

"Because, Alastor, Potter is dangerous. He could go Dark if he has too much power. That's why I put all those blocks on his mind and magic. He cannot be trained!" Harry felt as though he would blow up the pub if he stayed much longer. Blocks on his magic? He knew about the blocks on his mind, but his magic was bad. They could have killed him! He was putting the butterbeer away when he heard Snape, of all people, saying;

"Albus, that's ridiculous. The boy will never go Dark; he is too much like his father. Arrogant, stupid Gryffindor fool, no thanks to your blocks, by the way, but he is light to the core."

"We will train his so called friends, Albus, and I don't like what you're making them do. Really? Spies? But we will train them to the best of our abilities and you'd best hope that leaving Potter untrained leaves your foolish mind very soon, or I will take him out of school and give the boy an apprenticeship myself… or talk to your friend Flamel," growled Moody. Harry pondered over the new information as he rushed back to Flourish and Blotts. He had ignored the auror level books in the defence section, believing that he would come back to them in a year or two when he could handle the magic. Now, however… as he picked up every book he could find on auror level spells and curses as well as the handbooks for every year of auror training, he thought over the discussion he had heard. Ron and Hermione were being trained? Dumbledore thought he would go Dark? No… that has to be a cover for something else. Wait… Ron and Hermione are spies? On me, I bet… now that I think about it, they never did anything above what was expected of 'friends' around me. Snape stood up for me… hmmm… and Moody also. BLOCKS ON MY MAGIC! How do I get rid of them? Not going to the goblins unless I have to. Their price would be very steep… time for a change of plans. Where did I put those Gringotts keys?

Once Harry had paid for his new books, (all 50 of them) he almost ran back to Gringotts, stopping only to pick up a few owl treats. He wouldn't be doing any more shopping today. Harry made his way to the nearest free goblin, who just so happened to be Griphook and was taken down to his other vaults. First was the Potter family vault. Completely ignoring the piles of gold, Harry picked up every book he did not already own and placed it in his trunk. His father had been an auror, so he also had restricted books that were not sold to the public- auror handbooks and spells that were not taught to the general public. The same thing happened in the Evans, Gaunt, Pendragon, Hufflepuff and Slytherin vaults, although he ignored the Dark books. In the Gryffindor vault, he added the expensive weaponry and Dark Detectors into his trunk along with the books. (For some reason, the Gryffindor vault had the smallest collection of books- but he didn't already own any of them) The Ravenclaw vault offered him a pendant that would help him absorb everything that he read along with helping him read at twice the pace. He picked it up and put it on before collecting all of the books. The last vault was the Emrys vault- Merlin's. He approached it nervously. There was barely anything in there! He picked up the books and the weaponry. The books were impressive; most of them unpublished and the author had been Merlin himself. When he returned to the surface, he made his way to the portkey store and bought one that would take him to St. Mungos. Ten minutes later, Harry was standing in the foyer. Deciding that blocks were 'spell damage,' he made his way up to the fourth floor as quickly as he could without running. He soon found a healer and explained to her that he had recently discovered blocks on his powers.

"Not a problem, we'll have them off you in less than an hour!" she said cheerfully and started telling him that blocks used to be popular and were placed on overly powerful children to contain their accidental magic before being removed on their 11th birthday, but people stopped doing it after they realised that blocks, although increasing power in the long run, were incredibly dangerous as the children need accidental magic to get themselves out of dangerous situations. It was also illegal to leave blocks on after a child's 11th birthday. The healer soon lost her cheerful demeanour after she realised the extent of the blocks.

"Goodness, it's a miracle you can cast at all!" she exclaimed. "Who placed them?"

"Dumbledore," Harry ground out. She looked shocked, but didn't ask any questions and began to work on removing them. Once all the blocks were gone, she handed him a sheet of parchment.

"I would tell you about all the blocks that were placed, but it would take too long," she said seriously. "When you get home, prick your finger and place it on the parchment. It will give you a list of all of your rarer powers and abilities, most of which were completely blocked." She then tried to give him a copy of Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, but Harry told her that he had bought his own copy just this morning. Harry thanked her for removing all the blocks before using his new portkey to return to Diagon Alley. Thankfully, the Order had left, and he was able to sneak back into muggle London and called the Knight Bus.

It was 6 in the evening by the time Harry got back to Privet Drive. He decided to fix his room the next day, and set to work on discovering the abilities that had been blocked. He pricked his finger and placed it on the parchment. Soon, it read;

Harry James Potter-Black

Discovery of unblocked magic

Powers and Abilities;

Metamorphmagus (unlocked; 15yrs)

Multi-animagus (unlocked; 15yrs)

Beast speaker (unlocked; 15yrs)

Elemental magic (unlocked; 15yrs)

Parseltounge (never blocked)

Parsel magic (never blocked)

Eidetic memory (unlocked; 15yrs)

Advanced speed (unlocked; 15yrs)

Advanced hearing (unlocked; 15yrs)

Shadow walking (unlocked; 15yrs)

Natural Mind Magics affinity (unlocked; 15yrs)

"WOW," breathed Harry. For a test, he took off the pendant he had found in Ravenclaw's vault and read the first 3 chapters of one of his books. He closed it and was shocked when he could recall it perfectly, word for word. Her then realised it had only taken him 5 minutes, and now that his mind was fully unlocked, he was able to understand it as well.

"It really works… the paper's not lying… I can read and remember… and UNDERSTAND! Even better than Hermione… she doesn't have eidetic memory, she just studies too much… this is brilliant! I might actually finish the books I bought! And I can use magic!" Harry continued to talk to himself in a similar fashion for over 10 minutes until a loud bang from Dudley's bedroom brought him back to his senses. He looked at the parchment once more and decided that occlumency was his priority and with natural mind magics affinity on the list, he should be able to do it quite quickly. He pulled out all of his Occlumency books and began to read.

By 8pm, Harry had finished reading about the art and was ready to put his defences in place. He slipped into a mediative trance like the book instructed him to, and found his mind. He was disgusted by the mess. Slowly, Harry organised his mind. He began by building walls around his mind and soon, he had a castle built. He furnished all of the rooms and it was quickly becoming his dream space. He even had an indoor Quidditch pitch! Then he made his way to the library, where all of his thoughts, emotions and memories would be stored. It took him a long time, but finally his memories were sorted by his age and the people involved, and his thoughts and emotions were organised into categories depending on the people involved and whether it was positive or negative. He put some basic shields around his mind and then withdrew. He knew that once he learnt some stronger wards he could place them around his library and castle, but for now he was happy with the fact that it was organised and he had basic shields in place. It was enough that he managed to sleep without any nightmares about Voldemort. Or Cedric. Or Sirius.