Harry smiled and took the boy's hand. Yep. Definitely better than last time.
Harry was frog-marched into a trunk shop, and walked out a few minutes later with a trunk so cheap it probably wouldn't survive a kick to the side.
A visit to an apothecary yielded a half-broken set of scales and potion ingredients from the half-price, soon-to-expire shelf. A second-hand bookshop produced textbooks with their covers spell'o'taped together, and their pages torn out.
All the time, Hagrid glowered at him, and continually made comments about how thankful he should be his parents were spending their money on him. It was scary just how much the huge man sounded like Uncle Vernon.
And last time around, he had been scared. This time around, he was just getting pissed off. He also vowed to sneak Ginny out of The Burrow next year, and take her shopping before Hogwarts started. No way she was entering Slytherin like he had last time.
Hagrid left him and the tinkle of a shop bell snapped him out of his thoughts. He was suddenly face to face with an uncomfortably familiar face. "Hello, Mister Potter," said the wizened face of Mister Ollivander from only a few feet away. "But. Also not Mister Potter…"
Harry suppressed a shiver. "I'm Harry Potter."
"Really?" Ollivander raised his eyebrows. "I've never heard that the Boy-Who-Lived had a brother… and yet… and yet… you somehow feel familiar."
Harry's thoughts flew back to a dusk-light chase away from an ancient yew tree. He met the old man's gaze with his firm one. "I've been exiled from the wizarding world for the last ten years."
"Most extraordinary. And your parents are not here on the most important occasion of a young wizard's life?" Harry's back straightened. His eyes narrowed, and his voice lowered. "Quite. But I'm not here to discuss them."
"Indeed, indeed. Let's find your match then, shall we. Mmmmm, how about this one?"
Close to one hundred wands later, Hagrid was tapping on the window, clearly unhappy at being made to wait.
Finally, the holly and phoenix feather wand was trundled out and gave its debut performance of sparks.
Ollivander looked puzzled. "Most curious."
Harry mentally rolled his eyes and decided he'd let the old man go for it. "What's curious?"
"Oh, that this wand should be meant for you. I was expecting your brother to get it, if anyone. That it should go to you is most, most curious."
"Yes," he drawled, sarcasm dripping like a leaky tap, "most curious."
Ollivander frowned, and he beat a hasty exit. He really shouldn't give people that attitude, but he was damn sure Ollivander had realised what his wand match meant last time around, and also hadn't told him then.
His thoughts strayed back to Privet Drive. He grinned. Then, he felt a series of vibrations on his right pinky. The grin vanished. Oh, Damn.
"C'mon you," Hagrid said, pulling him along as though he were a dog on a leash.
Harry looked around. There was no one, thank Merlin. Voldemort may have been able to control animals before the age of eleven without a wand, but Hagrid wasn't an animal. Hell, giant blood even gave him magic resistance. He whipped his true wand from its holster and forcefully whispered, "Confundo." He whipped the wand away again.
The half-giant looked back at him. The look was cautious, calculating. "Actually, yeh can make your own way home, can't yeh?"
He nodded.
"Good. I'm gettin' a pint." He continued to stroll to the leaky cauldron.
Harry's eyes hardened. His muscles tensed. Something had happened to Ginny. He ducked into a side alley, ran behind a discarded crate, and apparated. Harry cracked his way to Devon, nightmare scenarios playing out in his mind. He arrived in Ottery St. Catchpole, took out his trunk, un-shrunk it, and descended into its depths. He grabbed the invisibility cloak, and a poly-juice. He swiped a strand of Ginny's hair, dropped it in the vial, and shook. The potion turned green.
He faced the trunk's full-length mirror and hesitated. He'd never actually used poly-juice to turn into a girl before. Oh, well. Harry drank. His hair lengthened, turned red. He shrunk. His slight musculature vanished. His lower internals re-arranged themselves. He squirmed. It felt weird.
His clothes shrunk with him, but didn't change style. He flashed a look in the mirror. His clothes now looked wrong; they gave too many clues. Making a split decision, and cursing his lack of foresight every second, Harry stripped off his clothes and slipped on one of Daphne's dresses, re-sizing it with a wave of his wand. He inspected himself again. Yes. Better.
Harry then whipped the invisibility cloak around him, ascended the trunk, re-shrunk it, and scowled, only then realising that his dress had no pockets, and he didn't have the time to do anything about it.
With no time to use the tunnel, he apparated to the Burrow's perimeter wards, and then cloaked straight through them, wand in one hand, trunk in the other.
He crouched under the kitchen window and listened.
"—Dragons can wait. Family comes first." "If Ginny's not being magically influenced is it our business?"
"Of course it is! Just because it's not magic doesn't mean it can't harm her."
"But using magic to force her… it's wrong. It's a massive violation of trust. We should limit ourselves to keeping her away from him."
Harry had heard enough. He flew up to the upper windows and peeked into them. Eventually he found the one holding Ginny, stretched out on a small bed. The whole room was pink.
He rapped at the window.
Ginny's head shot up. She leapt off the bed, ran to the window, and looked around, but obviously couldn't see him. She opened the window, allowing him to fly past her, brushing against her as he did.
.
.
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