Chapter 5: 05 Diagon Alley

After getting the quest completed notification, Harry stood up.

“Right, ya are, Harry! Time for more shopping!” Hagrid said and stood, banged the table and knocked it over, and staggered a little.

“Why don't you stay and relax with another pint or two, Hagrid. I can get on with the boring stuff by myself.” Harry offered and took out a handful of gold coins to hand to the barman to cover for the food and whatever Hagrid drank.

“Tha's mighty nice of ya, Harry. Hate shopping anyway.” Hagrid said and easily picked up the table and took the pint the barman handed to him as he sat back down and kept drinking.

Harry quickly stored the trunk when no one was looking and then asked Tom the barman to open the entrance to Diagon Alley for him. He did the smart thing and went to the robe shop first and entered.

The matron made a disgusted sound when she saw his dirty clothes.

“I'm sorry, these were the best clothes I was given by my muggle captors. I mean relatives.” Harry said and her eyes widened. “Can you help me pick out some new things to wear and then burn these for me?”

The matron's angry face changed to a bright smile. “I would be delighted to, young man!”

“Thank you.” Harry said and over the next half an hour, he was cleaned with spells and given new and comfortable muggle-like clothing to wear. He also bought his school robes and declined the hat. It looked too much like the Dunce Hat he had worn a lot at his elementary school to maintain his idiot cover.

He pretended he had someone waiting outside to carry the packages and as soon as he left the shop, he ducked around the corner and stored everything. His potions ingredients were next and he bought the basic kit that the man would sell him.

When he refused to sell anything more dangerous than the basics, Harry had a great time pilfering part of everything the man had, even the rare ingredients hidden behind the counter. Thankfully, his Gamer Mind always told him with blue boxes what they were, even if the vials and things weren't labelled.

A telescope was next from the wizarding equipment shop and the brass thing looked like an antique. When Harry asked about a similar muggle telescope, the shop owner laughed and said there was too much magic for muggle things to work at Hogwarts.

Harry bought the cheapest telescope the man had and declined the protective case. He stored it as soon as he left the shop and went to each shop to buy the things he needed for school. He even went to Scribbulus Writing Implements, because they had everything he needed for writing, including ink and stacks of parchment.

He was surprised they used actual quills instead of inked pens for writing, not that it mattered. He could easily attach a quill back to one of his Calligraphy pens and no one would ever know, as long as he refilled the pen's ink cartridge when no one was around.

There was a Quiddich shop, whatever that was. The broom on display was a curiosity, though. Harry's eyes widened at the popup that said it was a flying broom. He would definitely have to look at that later, even if his letter said that first years were not allowed a broom. He had grown to hate it when someone told him what to do.

There was a cauldron shop where he bought the standard size 2 pewter cauldron, there was also a newspaper office nearby and a secondhand bookstore down the street that he vowed to check after he checked the main one, Flourish and Blotts.

There was an Apothecary that dealt with all manner of creatures, and Owl Emporium that only had owls and things for them where he bought a bag of owl treats, a second clothing store that looked a bit more upscale than Madam Malkin's, an ice cream shop, and the equipment shop where he bought the telescope.

Harry checked his list and had to buy scales for the potion ingredients, so he went back into the equipment shop and bought them. He was tempted by the binoculars and the compass as well; but, declined because he wanted to compare them to the muggle equivalents first before wasting the money.

There was also a sweets shop that drew Harry attention and he was sorely tempted to go in and try everything, or at least read whatever the popups told him about the sweets. If there was anything in them that he didn't want to put into his mouth, finding out before he ate them was definitely a good idea.

He ignored the beauty shop, mainly because Petunia would be all over him if she ever found out there was such a thing as magical beauty products. She bought enough of that stuff in the muggle world and they didn't really do anything to fix her horse-face.

With all of his other things purchased, Harry only had two things left to get. His wand and his books. Since he knew he would be a very long time in the bookstore, he went to Ollivander's Wandmaker and Wand Repair Shop.

“Ah, Mister Potter. I was wondering when I would be seeing you.” Ollivander said as he seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Harry didn't jump or react, thanks to his Gamer Mind keeping him calm. “Why?”

“Excuse me?” Ollivander asked back.

“Why were you wondering? Don't all children get a wand when they get their letter?” Harry asked.

Ollivander looked thoughtful and then shrugged. “Most do, I suppose.”

“I'd like a wand, please.” Harry said and walked over to the counter. “What one do you recommend?”

“Now, now. No need to be too hasty.” Ollivander said and took out a measuring tape. “Hold still while I get your measurements.”

Harry did as asked and the magic tape unfurled and flipped around him to measure a bunch of different things, like his hand, arm length, and the length of his nose.

Warning: Foreign magic scan detected. Scan blocked. Gamer Mind and Gamer Body unaffected.

“Hmm. I see you're going to be a difficult customer.” Ollivander said and Harry gave him a confused look, even though he knew exactly what was going on.

Acting Skill check passed!

“Well, we are in for a bit of a lengthy process. We best get to it.” Ollivander said and went behind the counter. “Try this one. Dragon heartstring and elm, eight inches and slightly bendy.”

Magical focusing tool detected! Attempting to form connection...
Warning: Tool is only partially compatible with Host magic. A 50% debuff will be applied to all magic cast. Form connection anyway?

NO! Harry yelled in his mind and the blue boxes disappeared.

“Nothing? Hmm.” Ollivander said and took it and replaced it with another. “Unicorn hair and oak, twelve and a half inches and very rigid.”

Harry immediately thought no, because it had a 75% debuff when casting magic. Ollivander kept passing him different wands and it was nice to know that he could use any of the wands he could get his hands on, even if some of the debuffs ranged from 15% to 90%.

Half an hour later, Ollivander nodded for some reason and went to the back of the store. He came back out with a dusty box and opened it. “I believe this will be the best match for you, Mister Potter.”

Harry picked it up and his eyes widened.

Magical focusing tool detected! Attempting to form connection...
Warning: Tool is 90% compatible with Host magic and 75% compatible with (SYSTEM ERROR). A 50% bonus will be applied to all magic cast and spells can be learned 50% faster when cast with this wand. Form connection?

YEEESSSSS! Harry yelled happily in his mind and his body glowed and a wind picked up from nowhere and flapped his hair around while golden sparks shot out of the wand's tip.

You have successfully bonded to your wand. You may spend 100 MP to make the bond permanent and it can never be stolen. If won in a duel, it will remain loyal to you and you alone.

Harry had no idea how many MPs he had; but, he couldn't let something like that bonus to ever get away from him. Spend MP to make the bond permanent! He thought furiously and felt a little drain of something from inside his head. Was that my MP? How much was 100 out of it? Was that all of it or only a small bit?

The glow faded and the look on Ollivander's face was a mix of both joy and sadness.

“What's wrong, Mr. Ollivander?” Harry asked and put the wand into the box, covered it, and handed over seven galleons for it.

The old man gave the speech about remembering every wand he had ever sold and then explained about the phoenix that had donated two feathers, one of which was in Harry's new wand and the other had given him the scar on his forehead.

It immediately clicked in Harry's mind what that meant. That explains the extra 75% compatibility! Whatever damaged my system was done with magic from the same phoenix! It had to be!

Harry left the shop in a contemplative mood and went to the bookstore. He checked the books on his list with what they had and marked the edition numbers on his list before he walked around the store. There was so much magic to be learned and also so much crap. There were more biographies and fiction books than actual books to learn from, then he saw the books covered with his own face.

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Harry didn't freak out about it and wrote out on a piece of parchment the names of each one for sale and the author. He wasn't surprised they were all written by the same person and the name was pretty generic and didn't denote a man or a woman. With his main research done, Harry left there and went to the secondhand bookstore.

The little old lady behind the counter was very helpful and Harry bought every single book for his lists, since they were only a single edition out of date, then he walked around and started to pick up every single book to look for any skill books or level books. He knew it was a faint hope, mainly because he had no magic knowledge yet and he doubted he could find level books without unlocking any skills beforehand.

“How many books do you have in here?” Harry asked.

“Only a few hundred on display. The others are in storage in the back. I rotate them through at different times and it looks like I get new things in all the time.” The old lady said with a cackling laugh.

Harry was almost eleven and he somehow knew this was a good tactic and would guarantee repeat customers. “How much for the lot?”

The old lady's laugh stopped mid-cackle and she stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I just learned about magic and I need to study a lot before going to Hogwarts in September. I don't want to be ignorant about everything, so how much for a single copy of everything you have?”

“Y-young man, I... if you buy everything I have on display, including the older and rare books... I'll let you have every book for only a galleon each.”

Harry smiled at her. “I want the ones in storage, too.”

“Wh-wh-what?” The old lady asked, clearly shocked.

“One of each, please.” Harry said and walked over to the front counter and started pulling gold coins out of his pockets. When he had just over 600 gold coins stacked up on the counter, the old lady let out a happy sound, rushed around the counter to hug him, then ran into the back room.

Soon, there were stacks and stacks of wooden crates that were opened and single copies of the books stored inside were taken out and put into empty crates. The old lady's wand movements as she levitated everything was a sight to see, because she didn't say a word as she cast spells as she worked and also counted each and every book that she packed for Harry.

When she finally finished, more than half of the crates were now packed with books for Harry to take home and she had counted 1,256 books. It wouldn't have been that many if Harry hadn't insisted on buying the older editions of the same book, as long as there were differences. He guessed that he could use them to level his skill after he gained the Casting Magic or Spell Casting skill.

Harry paid the very happy old woman and she moved his crates out of her shop and stacked them beside her front door. She asked him if he was sure that someone was coming to take them and Harry reassured her that they would be going with him when he went home.

The old woman went back into her shop and started cackling wildly and started to restock all of her displays. Even though Harry had taken almost half of her stock, she still had lots of books left to sell.

Harry gave the stacks of crates a pointed look and glanced around. Every time he could tell that no one was looking, he stored one of the crates. After about ten minutes, he made the last one disappear and he went to Flourish and Blotts. The old lady had created a list of his purchases and he wanted to check with an actual bookstore if there were any glaring holes in his education if he only used the secondhand books.

The clerk at the store was more than happy to check the long list of Harry's library against their own stock to compare the knowledge base. He complimented Harry on getting a great cross-section of many subjects and he was only missing a few of the newer books and publications, including the new editions of his school books.

Harry quickly agreed to buy the new books and helped the clerk as he gathered them up. He soon had two more crates of books and Harry paid a lot more than a single galleon for each book, which told him that the old woman's deal had been too good to pass up and he had been smart to accept it as quickly as he had.

The clerk helped him carry the crates out of the store and thanked Harry for his business. Harry stored them and his main goals for shopping had been completed. He had been shopping for a long time and he was a little worried that Hagrid would be upset with him, then he remembered Hagrid happily drinking in the pub and his worry evaporated.

Harry walked down the alley and entered the Quiddich shop. It was a colorful and bright store with various team jerseys, magical sporting equipment, souvenirs, and different types of brooms. They ranged from the most affordable ones on the market called Cleansweep and Comet, that were anywhere from 50 to 100 galleons, to the most expensive ones called Nimbus, which had just released the 2000 model that cost double that at 200 galleons.

“Are you interested in playing Quiddich?” A man's voice asked.

“No idea.” Harry said. “I didn't even know I was a wizard until I got my letter.”

“Are you a muggleborn?” The man asked in an odd tone of voice.

“What's that mean?” Harry asked, even though he had guessed what it meant and asked, because he wanted to keep up his ignorant persona.

“That you have non-magical or muggle parents.” The man said.

“Oh! Then no, my parents were magical.”

The man smiled and nodded. “It's strange that they wouldn't tell you that you could be magical, too.”

“That's because they're dead and I was raised by my nasty muggle relatives.” Harry said and the man looked surprised. “They lied to me my whole life and beat me because of my freakishness.”

The man looked horrified. “You need to report them to the authorities!”

“I tried that a few times and they didn't care.” Harry said with a shrug.

The man frowned. “Why wouldn't the Aurors care about what happens to a magical child?”

“Aurors?” Harry asked. That term he hadn't heard before.

“They are the wizarding world's magical policemen.”

Harry gave him a surprised look. “Hagrid only told me about how great the headmaster of Hogwarts was and didn't tell me about Aurors.”

“Hagrid?” The man asked.

“He's the guide that the school sent me to help with my shopping.” Harry said.

The man looked at Harry's empty hands and back at his face. “Some help.”

Harry couldn't stop his chuckle. “I already sent my things home. I also paid Tom the barman to keep feeding Hagrid ale while I did the shopping myself.”

The man laughed. “Good lad! Independence and initiative will get you far in this world.”

Harry nodded. “Can you tell me a bit about Quiddich and maybe recommend a good broom?”

“First years aren't allowed a broom at school.” The man said with a smile. “There are no rules about buying it and leaving it at home, though.”

Harry smiled back and over the next twenty minutes, had a quick and quite thorough explanation of the game and the equipment used. Another ten minutes gave him a great introduction to brooms, which included their benefits and drawbacks. There were even specific brooms to buy for each position you wanted to play in Quiddich.

“All right, you've convinced me. I'll take a Nimbus 2000, the protective gear, gloves, maintenance kit, and a set of practice balls, please.” Harry said.

The man stood there with a blank look on his face. “Young man, do you realize how much...”

Harry gave the man a huge smile and did something he had never done before. He lifted the edge of his hair and showed off the scar.

The man's blank face immediately changed to shock and then changed again to a matching huge smile. “Mister Potter, I think we can work out something that will benefit the both of us.”

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