The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 25

It was the day before Molly Weasley’s trial, before breakfast in fact, that Harry had all of the Riders gathered together in Sirius’ room. He had set up the living room in a big semi-circle around his pensieve, which he has set up on a pedestal at the end of the room and face all the chairs and sofa toward it.

Everyone came in and sat down in one of the chairs that were set up, Neville and Luna took two of the front spots and Pavarti took the chair beside Neville.

Neville and the Patils had had a good long talk after his statement last night, and they were now well aware of his intentions towards their daughter. He had finally admitted that he wanted to eventually marry her and make her his wife. Neville had explained that while Padma was a thing of beauty and a prize to have that was to be sure, that she wasn’t the twin that he was interested in. His interests are solely focused on Pavarti and that while the two sisters looked alike, they were definitely their own person and they had their own personalities. And he was in love with what made Pavarti who she was. Now it was like you could catch them holding hands almost all the time, and a happy little smile on his brother’s face when ever he looked at Pavarti. She would blush and smile back at him. Harry guessed she wasn’t used to all the beautiful words Neville had said about her. Why ever not Harry didn’t know, the Patil sisters were both beautiful, graceful and exotic.

But they were just no Luna. Wait were did that come from. Harry realized his own thoughts about the fairer sex were rabidly beginning to take on one specific individual as well. Luna Lovegood. As unique and quirky as she could be, she was still brilliant and an adventure amongst herself.

Just when his mind was wandering off on a tangent that it was better to leave alone right now, there was a knock on the suite door. Harry went over to the door to answer it and hopefully this would be the person he had invited to join them today.

Harry opened the door and it was Draco Malfoy, “Welcome Mr. Malfoy, your just in time. Please come in.” And Harry stepped aside and invited Draco into Sirius’ suite.

Draco was skeptical about accepting the invitation, but Harry had given him the word of a Rider that it wasn’t any funny business, that it was Rider business and he was invited. So that kicked up his curiosity that he couldn’t stand it and he just had to come see what this was all about. So he stepped into the room and found it full of the complete group of Riders waiting inside. Suddenly he got very apprehensive, and paused.

“Don’t worry Mr. Malfoy. They are here for the same reason you are. No harm will come to you within these walls.” Harry announced.

Of course all the Riders heard what Harry had stated and regarded that as a statement of fact, and immediately decided to be on their best behavior.

“If you would please take a seat we can begin.” Harry motioned for Draco to take a seat and then went over to the pensieve and tapped it in three places and poured a memory into it suddenly a four foot by six foot picture popped up above the pensive, since the only thing behind it was the wall, it appeared to be projecting itself on the wall when in truth it was floating about six inches in front of the wall. Harry walked over and sat down on a couch next to Luna to watch the ‘movie’ as it played. It was odd at first, going from feeling as if you were almost living the life of the individual to seeing it on the wall, like you are watching a movie or watching it on television or something. But soon everyone was so into the memory that you could have heard a pin drop in the room.

When Nicolas Malfoy was healed by Asia, Luna clapped and wiped a tear away. But Harry was more interested in Draco’s response which was one of shock, his eyes were large as galleons and sparkling with unshed tears. Harry couldn’t help but see how much a family resemblance there was in the seventeen year old Nicolas and the thirteen year old Draco.

By the end of the memory most of the girls were in tears and the guys were strong and silent, but sad. Suddenly realizing that this is what happened to the last of the Riders before them. This was the true history of the Riders, not all the made up romantic stories or hype of ending up in prisons somewhere. The last two Riders died alone and forgotten, after burying all their dead friends and companions for many, many years, who died of Spanish influenza. How the disease had gotten into the castle was never disclosed, maybe it was never known, but it had taken its tole.

“Oh how sad, they all died.” Luna laid her head on Harry’s shoulder, crying softly. Harry put his arm around her shoulder and rocked her softly.

“My great, great grandfather was a Rider, I can’t believe it. Oh sweet Merlin. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this. Oh my gods. All I know about Nicolas Malfoy is that he was blind and married a young woman by the name of Brittany Flint when he was thirty-eight. He then had four children, he passed away when he was fifty five of…Spanish influenza… the mu….muggle disease; that had hit the Wizarding world just as bad. My gods he was one of the ones they buried at the Rider Castle. When I went looking for information on where he was buried all I could find was that he was buried elsewhere due to the situation of his death. I assumed they had to bury anyone that had caught the influenza in a certain place together or something. I didn’t know that it was because he was a Rider and he had died with them.” Draco’s eyes were huge, you could tell the thoughts were rapidly rushing through his head. “Mr. Black, do you know where this Castle is?”

“No I don’t, but I think that Storm might, I am not sure though.” Harry said truthfully.

“Are you going to try and locate it? If so, I would like to be involved in on that expedition.” Draco stated.

“No one that isn’t a Rider, or married to a Rider has been to that place in over five hundred years Mr. Malfoy. And I am not about to authorize a civilian to trespass on that sacred ground out of mere curiosity.” Harry gave Draco a firm look.

“It isn’t mere curiosity. I want to try and become a Rider. Now that I have seen that a Malfoy can actually achieve such noble a achievement and I am not just being a fool or that it isn’t just a foolish dream.” Draco said firmly.

Harry thought for a moment then nodded. “I have an idea but I need verification first. I want you to write down and activate these runes.” And Harry handed Draco a drawing of the Rider ruins, as he was calling them. It was the very same runes that he had given all of his Riders, so they could hopefully find their counterpart in his little group here, and thankfully they all had. Well except for Hermione that is.

Draco cocked an eyebrow at Harry, but when Harry looked at him seriously he took the parchment and the spare parchment he had been given, and leaned over the coffee table. Using the ink and quill Harry provided copied the runes exactly as the original. And then at Harry’s insistence he activated the runes. He was gone quite a bit longer than the others but he came back and he looked almost in shock. “Is that suppose to do that?” Draco asked.

“If you mean drag you off to meet your counter part to another timeframe, one of the original Rider group then… yes, it is suppose to do that. So tell me what is your place in the group?” Harry asked encouragingly.

Draco still looked a little dazed but answered. “I am not sure really, Franklin said I am suppose to cover the Medic and Doc’s ass and keep the other fool out of trouble. I am a little lost on that. I don’t know who he was talking about and if he was talking about his group or this group. When I told him I didn’t have a mount yet, he asked if I was eighteen yet. I said no, and he said to give it time then. What does he mean by that?” Draco looked at Harry for clarification.

“I think what he means is that if you are not within a few feet of your Darcorn when you are younger than seventeen or eighteen they can’t feel you. By the time you turn eighteen they can feel you fully and if you haven’t come to them by then, they will come to you. That is why we are younger than that and have already found our Darcorns and others couldn’t find theirs until they were older. Christian was sixteen but he was also in great pain and danger so I think that is what activated the call early.” Harry stated and he looked over to Christian who looked like he had been deep in thought and then looked like he had suddenly had a candle light itself in his head. Christian nodded in agreement, that made perfect sense now. It all made perfect sense.

“So what is your idea brother?” Neville asked curiosity eating at him now.

“Well it appears that Draco is going to be our replacement for Hermione in Tier three, he will be our rear guard. And trained as such. Draco, we have three Tiers, Tier one is myself Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Pavarti Patil… our job is to basically go in and secure the site. We are the forward wands you might say. I am leader in Tier one. Next is Tier two which is Cedric Diggory, Fred Weasley and George Weasley. They are our backup and they main purpose is Diversion, Distraction and Decoy. They also go in and take out any wounded Riders or personnel that call for an assist. They’re back up and guard when not doing their primary purpose. Cedric Diggory is leader in Tier two. Then we have Tier three which is Susan Bones our Doc, Padma Patil our Medic, Christian Anderson our forward guard, and now you our rear guard.” Harry started.

“You apparently will be working directly with our medical team, their purpose is to triage and treat any wounded we have or encounter while on a mission. So far out of four missions we have had one minor injury, that was on our last mission to St. Mungo’s just a day ago, and Miss Patil was hit with sectumsempra to her right shoulder, thankfully the wounds were shallow due to her dodging at the right moment and her dragon hide uniform. Doc healed her up right away and she is doing fine now though. Christian took out the Death Eater that took the shot at her and he is in custody now. Which reminds me brother we are going to have to make arrangements to go up there and wake up all those hostiles we put to sleep.”

“Yeah, maybe after the trial tomorrow.” Neville stated, looking over to Fred and George who flinched at the mention of the trial. “Don’t worry guys we are all going to be there for you. You wont be facing this alone.” Neville reached over to George, the closest twin to him, and placed a hand on his arm.

“That’s right guys, we are all going to be there, and anything we can do to help we will. Ted Tonks has this trial well in hand though, so I don’t think there is a thing you need to worry about. As far as I have heard your mother still doesn’t have a barrister, so she will be representing herself, which is doomed to failure.” Harry stated.

Both twins nodded and sighed.

Harry turned his focus back to Draco. “My idea Draco, was an apprenticeship. While there has never been a non-Rider enter Rider Castle in over five hundred years, if you went there as an apprentice, you wouldn’t exactly be a non-Rider now would you. You passed the first test, the rune placement, it proves you have what it takes to be a Rider, and that you have a place here in my group. Do you know how to ride?” Harry asked.

“I have been riding since I was six years old. I have my own horse back at the stables of Malfoy Manor.” Draco clarified.

“Mare or Stallion?” Harry asked.

“Four year old Gelding name Aries.”

“Perfect. That way he won’t be competition for any of the girls attention and the stallions won’t feel jealous. Okay we can have your horse brought over tomorrow. Good thing Hogwarts has stalls for twenty-four horses.”

“I can do that, as long as McGonagall will allow it.” Draco said, his eyes lighting up.

“She won’t mind, once I tell her the circumstances and all.” Harry assured him. “Now we have to have you kitted out, we can do it today since it is early yet, people are still out trying to do their last minute Christmas shopping so it will be a little bit of a mad house, but if you want to brave the herds we can go today if not it will have to be like December twenty-seventh before we can get you set up. Let’s see here today is the twenty-second, we have court on the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth is Christmas Eve, then there is the twenty-fifth which is Christmas, then the twenty-six you have Boxing Day, so the first chance we would have would either be today or the twenty-seventh. I was right.” Harry looked at a calendar he had and counted off the days and what was planned for those days. Or better yet, what the stores had planned for those days.

“I am not sure what ‘kitted out’ means. But I would prefer to do it today rather than wait, if it has anything to do with the Riders.”

“Kitted out means that we take you down to Diagon Alley and pick you up a seven compartment trunk just like ours and a bottomless bag like ours, it is part of being a Rider. Now normally you would also get a ring but since you would be an apprentice, I am going to give you this necklace. It represents all that a Rider is. The infinity symbol represents truth, for truth is eternal. The two swords crossed in the top loop signifies justice. The two wands in the bottom loop signifies honor. Truth, Justice and Honor, our motto, something we live by…those are words that we represent and uphold, that we hold dear to us, do you think you can hold true to that and hold it dear to you Draco Malfoy?” Harry asked.

“I do, for so long I have wanted to break away from the mold that my father has wanted to put me into, you helped when you rescued me from the basilisk and Tom Riddle. But I want to break the mold itself, I want to be my own man and hold true to me those things that Nicolas Malfoy found to be his saving grace and his legacy. May his honor, be my honor.” Draco said with all the seriousness he could muster.

Harry nodded and he handed Draco over the Rider necklace. “Now you take this necklace and place three drops of blood on the back of it once you put it on and press you finger onto the back of it. Then if you ever are in need of us or are in danger somewhere, simply place one drop of blood on the back and place your finger on it and we will find you anywhere you are at. Oh and once you put those three drops of blood on your necklace no one can remove it, so you better make sure this is something you want to do.”

Draco took the necklace and put it on and asked if anyone had a knife, everyone of the Riders pulled out a knife of some form and offered it up to Draco, he took Harry’s small dagger and gave everyone else an awkward look.

Christian chuckled, “Rule four, always carry a blade.”

“Rule four? What are the other Rules?” Draco asked.

Everyone started all at once… “Rule one is a Rider’s bag is sacrosanct.

Rule two is a Rider’s trunk is sacrosanct.”

Rule three is Always trust Luna’s visions.”

Rule four is Always carry a blade.”

Rule five is listen to your boss, it may save your life sometime, or someone else’s life.

Rule six is Your Darcorn is your life, treat it like it.

Rule seven is Your body is a weapon to sharpen, strengthen, and hone, and have ready to use at all times.

Rule eight is be aware of your surroundings, never be caught unaware.

Rule nine is Rules are only important if they don’t interfere with your job.

Rule ten is Don’t fuck with an Englishman’s tea.”

They all laughed when they realized they had almost synchronized the words without even trying to.

Luna giggled and said “That last one is very important, well it is if you don’t want to see a lemon wedge stuck in your hair someday that is.” The mere though of that caused Draco to reach up and pat his hair down just to make sure there was no lemon wedges in his hair. Then Luna told him about Harry and the mad lemon flinger that he was. Draco couldn’t help but laugh with them all when the image of the waitress running to the bathroom trying to get the lemon wedge out of her uniform flashed in his head.

“Well the damn little things are disgusting, and have no business being on my plate in the first place.” Harry frowned.

“Naughty, naughty, naughty. Then you put it in a napkin and put it on my plate and ignore it. Don’t fling it at the poor helpless waitresses.” This brought a whole other round of laughter and chuckles from the Riders at their leader’s expense.

“Damn lemon wedges, they should learn how to make a cup of tea.” He grumbled and looked the other way. “But like they were saying those are our Rules as of this moment. There may be others at some point but if you follow those you will do pretty damn good.”

“Why are the trunk and bag sacrosanct?” Draco asked.

“They hold all our secrets, our property, our collections, our inventions, our mysteries, our libraries, our very lives are in there. Anyone who gets a hold of them can learn everything there is to know about Riders. Our weapons, our history, or lives, who we are, where we came from, what our plans are, who are associates are, who our enemies are. They can learn it all and can tell everyone and we become an open book to the world, our enemies find out about it and soon we are at their mercy. If they knew who we all were they could kidnap one of us and hold us for ransom demanding the Darcorn horns as payment. Our very existence depends on them, and they would be at risk. Or they could kill our Rider, demand a ransom and all we get in return is a body. Since we have been apprehending and turning in the Death Eaters, we have made some pretty powerful enemies. People I am sure that would love to see us dead and the Riders disbanded permanently. But we must remember that it isn’t only ourselves we are protecting here it is our partners, our Darcorns as well. Their very lives depend on us and we can’t let them down, any of us.” Harry stated with all the emotion he dared to.

Harry continued. “That Rune array that you just explored and received that message through proved that you have a Darcorn out there waiting on you and that they are depending on you to find them, to take care of them, and protect them. If you change your mind now, or end up getting yourself killed, or something stupid like that then that Darcorn will die Riderless, because they only choose one Rider in their lifetime. Without you that Darcorn will die alone. So in everything you do, from this day forward you have to think of that. You have to put your Darcorn first, you have to follow rule six to the letter. They are your life and you have to treat them like it. So you keep you trunk and bag sacrosanct so that you don’t endanger yourself, your Darcorn or other Riders and other Darcorns.”

“I get the picture, secrecy equals safety and security. Got it.” Draco stated as he nodded.

“Bottom line, yes exactly. I will take you on as a Darcorn Apprentice for a period of five years, which should be until you turn eighteen. At that point your Darcorn should be able to find you if we haven’t found them before hand. But by that time you will be fully trained and be able to take your mount immediately. During that time the Riders will be responsible for any training you wish to take or classes you want. Right now I have arranged for our Riders to have Karate, which is a form of Martial Arts, First Aid, and Archery. First Aid would be a little rough taking it on during the middle of the year due to the fact that it is a Hogwarts class, but if you want to take it we can get you caught up on it, it will just take a lot of hard work on your part. We get up at five every morning wake up and get ready for taekwondo and sword practice, then we grab a shower and breakfast. Saturdays then between eight and ten we have a group study, so if you have anything left to work on we try to finish it up. At ten we have Karate class then another quick shower and lunch. Next at two o’clock we have First Aid class, then if you want to you can join in on Archery at four o’clock. Dinner is as six and that is our Saturdays.” Harry stated going over the timeframes in his head to make sure he had them all down correctly.

“Our Sundays are a lot calmer though.” Started Neville. “We still get up at five o’clock and have taekwondo and sword practice, then grab a shower and have breakfast. But then we usually spend time with our family and the munchkins, by that I mean Matthew, James, Sebastian, Astraea, and Lillian. Sometimes we take them to a big empty classroom and play music for them and dance and play music for hours with the munchkins. Oh by the way that reminds me, do you play a musical instrument? We have a band, we all play something. Other than Christian, we have been playing together for years. Christian plays guitar and so does Cedric they sound like they have been playing together for ages.” Neville stated.

“Actually I do play, I can play several wind instruments, including the flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone, and horn, I thought about learning to play the trumpet but the sound is just a little too metallic for my taste.” Draco stated.

“You can play the sax! Cool! We were kind of missing that instrument and needed one in the band.” Harry smiled at Draco “I play the piano, can you read music or do you play it by ear?”

“Both, it just depends on the music really.” Draco said honestly. Some songs were harder for him to play without sheet music so he needed the guidelines at least for the first few times he played it then it was like he could play the song from memory alone. But it did take a few tries to get to that.

“Great. I play from sheet music mostly, until I learn the song by heart. Cedric can hear a song a few times and play it back note for note. He is remarkable, if he ever learned how to read music he could probably write some damn good songs. Some of us play from memory, some read music, it really depends on the song.” Harry stated.

“We play anything from classical to the old rock and roll, to soft jazz, to American country and western, to waltzes, even some swing and even some modern rock if it is good. Someone just shouts out a song and we start playing it, everyone tries to let everyone have a chance at picking a song and not hollering out the song all the time. We have even had our folks join in and put a fish bowl on the piano for all the songs everyone wanted to hear they just wrote them down on a piece of paper and we put them in the fish bowl and let one of the little ones pick out the song. We played until the munchkins fell asleep on us and then everyone called it a night.” Harry smile remembering Frank carrying a sleeping Lillian back to bed and himself giving her a kiss goodnight before he had to head back up to bed. She looked so cute in her princess nightgown wearing her little crown as she slept.

“Alright just so we are all on the same page, Draco Lucius Malfoy, are you hereby accepting a formal apprenticeship from myself Harry James Potter Black. You agree to take up the position of rear guard in Tier three and are aware of the duties expected of you therein. You will follow the orders of your Tier leader Susan Amelia Bones, Tier two Leader Cedric Anthony Diggory and Tier one Leader Harry Black to the best of your abilities without pause, hesitation or question while in active duty. You will defend your fellow Riders to the best of your ability and this order would include your own safety as well. You will keep all Rider secrets, never to divulge any secrets, without the permission of Leader one, which at this time is myself, Harry Black. We the Riders to agree to never divulge any of your secrets without permission of one Draco L. Malfoy, which is yourself. During this time of apprenticeship the Riders agree to pay for your schooling, training, housing and medical needs. We agree to aid Draco Malfoy in reaching his goals and furthering his goals in what ever way possible, when ever possible without judgement. The Riders will never judge Draco Lucius Malfoy based on ethnicity, blood, family, family history, sexual orientation, religion, financial security, medical issue, education or lack there of. The Riders will strive to work with Draco Lucius Malfoy based on his actions from this day forward and only on is actions.

Mr Draco Lucius Malfoy will strive for excellence in all things including your present school work at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your association with other individuals will be beyond reproach no matter of their ethnicity, blood, family, family history, sexual orientation, religion, financial security, medical issue, education or lack there of. You will remember you represents the Riders at all times and are a constant reminder to all people what we represent. Truth, Justice and Honor. You will never break that code or jeopardize it in any way, knowingly and willingly. You will work with your superiors to the best of your ability at all times. You will never endanger another Rider, colleague, or civilian intentionally or knowingly. You will remember the rules of the Riders, you will follow and uphold them while you are an apprentice and when you become a full fledged Rider, is that your agreement Draco Lucius Malfoy?” Harry had ran out of breath but he though he had covered it all. In all seriousness he thought he covered more than it all, but he wasn’t leaving anything to chance here, not like with Hermione.

Draco looked him strait in the eye and stated “This is my agreement Mr. Harry James Potter Black, to follow all the mandates you have above listed without question and beyond reproach, to strive in excellence in all things and to make you proud of me.” Draco’s voice was beginning to crack a little near the end of what he was saying, proof of the emotion he was putting into what he was saying and that he meant every word of it.

“Then Mr. Malfoy we have an accord. Welcome to the Riders.” They shook hands and felt the magic flow between them, as if Magic herself was agreeing to this arrangement.This was good, what ever it was…it was good.

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Everyone changed and was ready to go to into town dressed in their Rider casual outfits, which was black jeans, black silk shirts, black jumpers, and due to the season black robes for Wizards and a floor length winter coat when they switch over to Non-Magical. And of coarse they all had on their dragon hide boots, and bag in place. If asked they simply say it is part of the uniform of their private school they go to in northern Scotland and leave that. The girls all wore their hair pulled back from their face in a nice bun or ponytail or even a braid but definitely out of their eyes and out of the way.

Hermione sat there at breakfast tables watching as they all gathered together and checked to make sure they had everything they needed. Looking at them with a long forlorn look of pain and regret. As if she thought her look might somehow make Harry change his mind and allow her back into the Riders again. But he didn’t even giver her a second glance, as if she didn’t even exist in his world any more.

Then she spotted him, Draco Malfoy. He came into the Dining Hall looking exactly like the others, all black, same configuration and all, he even had a bottomless bag across his chess and all. How dare he! How dare he copy what they are wearing. How dare he wear the same things that they are and attempt to look like a Rider when it was very evident that he was not one. Hermione watched as he went over and talked to Harry as if he had the right to do so and Harry smiled, actually smiled at him. He wasn’t shouting or yelling at him to go change or anything. What was going on here? Well that was something she was going to find out right now.

Hermione stood up from Ravenclaw table and stomped her way over to the Gryffindor table and reached up and grabbed Draco Malfoy by the arm and attempted to pull him away from Harry but a hand on her own prevented her from doing so. She looked down and saw that it was Harry’s hand. She looked up into Harry’s angry eyes flashing fire at her.

“Exactly what do you think you are doing Miss Granger?” Harry Asked point blank.

“That’s what I want to know? How dare Draco Malfoy be dressed as a Rider! Why is he dressed as a Rider?” Hermione stated.

“That is none of your business Miss Granger, now release Mr. Malfoy’s arm before I have to call a Professor.” Harry stated firmly.

“It is too my business. I want to know. How dare he put on the uniform of a Rider and prance around here as if he is one of us.” Hermione demanded her voice getting louder.

Apparently she didn’t notice the Silencing Ward that Harry had put up the minute that he saw her coming over to them, so she could shout from the rooftops anything she wanted and no one would hear it, except that she would exhaust herself. “Don’t you mean one of ‘you’. You are no longer a Rider, Miss Granger. Therefore you have no right to know anything that has anything to do with Riders or our business. Now remove your hand from Mr. Malfoy’s person or I will call for a Professor.” Harry stated slowly and with full intent of following through.

A hurt look flashed over her face at his words, then she got a look of determination on her face. “I may not be in your group but I am still a Rider and I demand to know what he is doing wearing a Rider outfit!”

Harry glared at her while Draco wisely just remained silent, although flinching at the increase pressure of her hand on his arm. “You will release Mr. Malfoy this instant. That is your third and final warning.” When she didn’t Harry nodded toward Neville who got up and headed up to the headtable and spoke to Professors Flitwick and Persephone Lovegood about the situation that was going on, they immediately followed him back over to where Hermione had a death grip by now on Draco’s arm.

“You have by now bruised the arm of Mr. Malfoy and owe him an apology, and will do so immediately. Now release his arm.” Harry grasped her arm and tightened his grip on her own arm until it was painfully apparent he was not please but still she didn’t let go.

“No! I demand to know why he is dressed like a Rider, and I demand to know right now!” Hermione practically shouted. Her voice would have carried across the entire hall if Harry had not put up the silencing ward. As it was it she just looked like she was having a rather heated argument with Harry and Draco about something, who knows what but whatever it was had gotten the attention of the Professors because here they were coming.

“You do not have the right to demand anything from me or Mr. Malfoy or my Riders. You are not one of my Riders. You did not have the right to demand anything from me when you were one of my Riders. You could request information, and if I thought it was pertinent to you doing your commission properly, then you would be allowed to have that information. But you would never be allowed to demand anything from me. Your commission had ended, you are not my issue at this moment and right now you are causing harm to Mr. Malfoy. Look at the color of his hand, notice that it is gotten quite a bit redder than his other hand, that is because you are cutting off the circulation to his hand. Now release him at once, the Professors are here now and you will be disciplined for this attack on his person, if I have anything to say about it.” Harry stated.

“Which you do, Miss Granger, release Mr. Malfoy at once. And that is twenty points for attacking a fellow student without cause.” Persephone stated as she walked within the silencing bubble and heard everything that Harry had said.

“No. I demand to know why he is wearing a Rider outfit and is hanging out with the Riders!” Hermione stated and apparently tightened her grip again because Draco actually flinched this time.

“Miss Granger! Twenty points for disobeying the instructions of a Head of House. Now you will release Mr. Malfoy this instant! If you do not release him I will have to consider this an assault on his person and recommend that charges be filed against you!” Professor Flitwick stated. Still she didn’t release her grip. In fact she didn’t release her grip until Professor Flitwick hit her in the hand with a rather strong stinging hex, which caused her to jerk her hand back and shake it.

Harry immediately moved Draco out of her reached and rolled up Draco’s sleeve and looked down at Draco’s now severely bruised and undoubtedly painful arm. Harry couldn’t help but growl and glare at Hermione. “I want those charges pressed Professor. She injured Mr. Malfoy and he is in undoubtedly in a considerable amount of pain. I would like to have him healed as quickly as possible but I want to see to those charges first. Shall we.” Harry discreetly pulled the sleeve of Draco’s shirt and jumper back into place and placed a hand on his shoulder, then looked over to Neville, then glanced quickly over to Susan Bones and nodded. Both of them got up and followed the procession of Professor Flitwick leading Miss Granger, followed by Persephone Lovegood, then Harry Black and Draco Malfoy side by side and Neville and Susan bringing up the rear.

They made it to the gargoyle before the Headmistress’s office when Hermione suddenly realized she might be in real trouble and tried to run for it. Neville caught her in an orange sphere and then Harry caught her in a light yellow sphere and a feather weight charm and started to push her along anyway. When Professor Flitwick stopped them. “She is my student Mr. Black, Mr. Longbottom. I will take her from here.” And he proceeded to push the bound and weightless Hermione Granger towards the Gargoyle and up the winding staircase.

“Enter.” A voice from within called out.

They all walked inside and the Headmistress stood as she looked at Miss Granger’s bound state in question, then to Professor Flitwick.

“She objected to volunteer to walk the entire way to your office, and attempted to run, once she realized where we were heading. So Mr. Longbottom bound her so she couldn’t run, and Mr. Black provided the means of allowing me to bring her further into the room to see you as we intended.”

Still confused about the situation she sat down at her desk at least and asked. “What seems to be the situation here?”

“Miss Granger apparently took offense at the fact at Mr. Malfoy’s dress this morning and proceeded to demand why he was dressed like this from me. Since Mr. Malfoy and I were talking at the time, she rudely interrupted us and grabbed his arm attempting to spin him around and demand to know why he was dresses as he was. When she did so, I placed my hand on hers, preventing her from doing so. I informed her it was none of her business and to release Mr. Malfoy immediately. She refused. She again demanded to know why he was dressed like a Rider. I stated that is none of her business and that she had no call to demand anything from me and again asked her to release his arm, at which time she only tightened her grip. I informed her that if she didn’t release Mr. Malfoy that I was going to get a Professor, she merely tightened her grip again, causing Mr. Malfoy to flinch. At no time had he addressed her in any fashion, I was the only one she was speaking to, but she was tightening her grip so much that she was causing the discoloration of Mr. Malfoy’s hand due to lack of circulation. I drew her attention to that fact and when she still did not release him. Persephone Lovegood approached and to docked her points in an attempt to get her to release Mr Malfoy. She did not, she merely tightened her grip which caused Mr. Malfoy to flinch again, Professor Flitwick who had by this time approached, saw this and hit her in the hand with a stinging hex causing her to release Mr. Malfoy and I pulled him away from her reach. I then rolled up Mr. Malfoy’s shirt and Jumper sleeve and saw the extensive bruising on his arm and demanded formal charges be pressed against Miss Granger. We then followed Professor Flitwick and Madam Lovegood to your chambers.” Harry explained in detail the events leading to their being here.

“Is this true Miss Granger, did you indeed grab Mr. Malfoy on his arm hard enough to leave bruises and when told to stop you ignored your Head of House and a second Head of House?” The Headmistress asked.

“I demand to know why he is wearing the clothes he his wearing! Why is he dressed like a Rider!” She stated instead of answering the Headmistresses’s question.

“What place is it of yours to ask any student why they are wearing any choice of clothing, for any reason. As long as it is within our dress code it is none of your business. And since we are on vacation, even the dress code is lax to a great degree. What Mr. Malfoy is wearing is well within acceptable range for a male student of Hogwarts. That is all that needs to be said about this situation. If you have an objection to his attire you should go to your Head of House and address it. Not demand it from that student or attempt to strong arm that student into answering your demands. You have no right to that answer. And you injured a student in an attempt to gain that information is just plain bullying, and I will not tolerate it at my school any longer. Mr. Malfoy do you wish to continue to press formal charges?” The Headmistress asked, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer to that question already.

Draco looked over to Harry, who merely nodded and then looked at the Headmistress and nodded. “I do,” Leaving it at that. Although he wanted to say more, sometimes less is more in situations such as this. That is something his father ‘the Barrister’ taught him.

“Very well, Persephone if you could notify Amelia Bones for us.” McGonagall asked shaking her head. She didn’t want this Draco Malfoy situation blowing up into another Hannah Abbot situation by any means but she always hated when the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had to get involved, it meant that something was getting out of hand at her school and she wasn’t able to control it.

Amelia got to the Headmistress’ office about five minutes later and asked Harry for a report, he gave it to her in detail then he had Draco raised the sleeve of his shirt and jumper so that the area where Hermione had grabbed onto was exposed. The area had not dissipated in the least, if anything it looked worse. You could now see the angry purple/black finger prints of where Hermione’s hand had been on Draco’s arm surrounded by angry red inflamed skin that was whelped up between each finger and around the handprint itself. Amelia looked at the handprint for a moment then waived her wand over Draco’s arm saying something under her breath.

McGonagall frowned deeply when she saw the evidence of Miss Granger’s assault on Mr. Malfoy’s arm bold and inflamed as it was.

“Thank you Mr. Malfoy. I have it recorded now. I assume Miss Bones is here to heal this, once I get the evidence I need from you?”

“Yes Madame, she is our Doc.” Harry stated simply.

“Then you may go ahead and have Mr. Malfoy healed at this point, I have all the evidence I need.” She stated.

Harry then motioned for Susan to come forward, which she did and took one look at his arm, she began to wave her wand over his arm slowly and just as slowly the redness and angry purple/black bruises began to go away. Leaving nothing but the healthy looking arm as she finished. Draco sighed as the last of the bruising disappeared and the discoloration was thankfully now gone and that ugly handprint with it.

Harry nodded and smiled at Susan. “Thanks Doc.” Harry patted Draco on the back between his shoulder blades. Harry knew that had to have hurt quite a bit and he was proud of how well Draco had handled the whole thing really. So much better than he would have handled it, even two days ago if Harry had to be honest with himself.

“Good man Draco. I’m proud of you.” Was all Harry said. And you would have though he had just given Draco the moon, judging by the beaming smile that Draco was now wearing.

“Madam Bones, I would like to know if it would be possible to hire an Obliviator from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to take care of a small issue that appears needs to be addressed.” Harry asked

“And what would that be Mr. Black?” Amelia gave Harry an odd look, what was he up to now?

“It appears that the Riders can no longer trust Miss Granger in any manner. She is set to move her possessions from the trunk and bag that is in her possession at this time by tomorrow night. I no longer trust her to proceed as directed. I would like to confiscate my property at this time, have the elves remove her property to a secondary location, such as her place of residency in Ravenclaw. And remove all knowledge of the bag, the trunk, and my group, our training, capabilities, weaknesses, strengths, knowledge, where Rider Hall is located, anything about Rider Hall or its contents, who our allies are, truly anything about being a part of our group in general I would like erased from her memory. She has proven again that she can’t be trusted and I will not put my people in harms way foolishly. So I would like to have the information removed before she can either use it against us, or knowingly or unknowingly give the information to a third party, which could endanger any of my crew.”

“WHAT! You can’t do that! Those are my memories! That is all I have left of my time with you!” Hermione shrieked

“I can have one sent over in a few minutes if that is satisfactory, actually. I find the idea of her wondering around with such sensitive information to be disturbing as well.” Auror Bones stated.

“That will be greatly appreciated. I would like to get this over with and our day on with as soon as possible.” Harry sighed.

“You can’t remove my things from that trunk or that bag because I haven’t gone through them yet and you have no right to touch any of my property. And you have no right to erase my memories, those are my memories, I won’t allow it, my parents won’t allow it.” Hermione put her chin in the air and tossed her hair about, glaring at Harry and Draco.

“Thank you for reminding me Miss Granger. We will also have to make arrangements to have the same information removed from Dan and Jean Granger as well. I’ll cover what ever the extra fees will be.” Harry stated.

“Don’t you dare touch my parents Harry James Potter! I will see you in prison if you touch my parents! I will have your head! You will never live to regret it!” She was screaming by now struggling against her bindings wildly.

“Perhaps a dark green one at this time would be appropriate, Mr. Potter.” Amelia whispered to Harry.

“As you wish Ma’am.” And in the blink of an eye Hermione’s world faded to black.

Harry then used his Leader ring and removed Hermione’s bag from around her neck and called for Jeeves. “Jeeves, I need you to go through this bag and trunk and find anything that belongs solely to Miss Granger. Anything that was purchased for Miss Granger or created for Miss Granger by the Riders but she did not purchase leave in the trunk or bag and we will sort through it later. That includes her Dragon Hide Uniform. If she, or her parents didn’t purchase it, it stays in the bag or trunk. The rest I would appreciate it if you could place in her Ravenclaw area. As close as you can get it to how she has set up to in the trunk. If she is reading a specific book that does not belong to her then copy it make it look like she got it from Hogwart’s library and let her keep the copy. All the rest of the books stay in the trunk or bag if she didn’t buy them herself or her parents didn’t give them to her, or if they weren’t presents. Then clean up and lock down the kitchen area and clean up the rest of the trunk if it needs it if you wouldn’t mind please. If you need help doing all of that, by all means, you are welcome to get help. It is a lot to ask of even you.” Harry smiled down at his friend.

Jeeves just beamed and took the trunk and bag and headed off to do his work, with just a snap of his fingers.

“Well that is step one. Now for step two.” About that time the fireplace in the Headmistress’s office flared and a pair of Auror’s appeared. Apparently from a different section, since the black stripe down their pants was actually yellow instead.

“Harry, this is Aurors Switzer and Pendleton they are two of our best Obliviators, they specialize in muggles and juvenile cases for the DMLE, they have more years on the force than you have been alive. So don’t worry about their skills at doing this. They can do it and not leave any back doors open to where she might figure out what happen, no matter how clever she thinks she is.” Amelia introduced her Aurors and stepped away allowing Harry and her two to get started.

“A couple of days ago she made the statement that if I did better than her in even one of her end of term test that she was going to demand they remove the essay questions and extra credit questions from the tests. I want her to think that that is what she is doing up her in the Headmistress’s office. Trying to convince the Headmistress to change the structure of the finals test and perhaps change the way the test we just had are graded.”

“Sounds simple enough we can work with that.” Auror Switzer stated and Auror Pendleton nodded.

“Okay, I wrote down a list of what all I want you to look for and obliviate from her memory. So it should be pretty strait forward, if it has anything to do with myself or my Riders, either directly or indirectly, I want it obliviated from her memory, as gently as possible naturally. If you need some memories to patch things together to make it more fluid, I will happily provide them, if possible that is. I am doing this for her own good and trying to protect her and my people, I don’t want her to be hurt by this in any manner if it can be helped at all.” Harry stated as he handed the list he and Neville had created of the different things that thought of that should be focused on.

The whole process took almost two hours and since they were they were erasing Hermione’s memories of the event earlier they were not going to charge her with her assault on Draco. Since there were only a few people staying behind for the holidays, mainly the Riders, the Weasleys and a few miscellaneous people here and there. They just went though and doctored their memories as well. A few seconds here and there and it was taken care of. These people were excellent at what they did, they asked Harry for a few memories which he happily provided, he even let them scan his memories for the most appropriate ones and pick the ones they thought would be most useful. I mean if you couldn’t trust Obliviators who could you trust?

———————————————————————

“Miss Granger for the third and last time I will not demand that the Professors change the way they design their tests. We have been using the same basic standards for the last hundred years and we are not going to change them because one disgruntled student decides that she doesn’t like the way the tests are created. Now you can always go to each and every Professor and see if they are willing to cave into your demands or you can go to the School Board or the Board of Education if you like but I, personally will take this no further.

Hermione felt a little dazed there for a minute, it was like she had gotten distracted or something, maybe daydreaming, or thinking of something else. Whatever. “But Headmistress… you must see how prejudicial these test are against students that study rigorously and memorize everything we can in our books and notes down to the last foot note and get perfect on the filling the blanks, multiple choice, true and false, and matching. But when it comes to the personalized essay questions we score lower due to the fact that while we refuse to make up some wild suppositions or insane possibilities or blatantly question facts. It puts us at a grave disadvantage because we chose the higher moral ground. We uphold our moral standards and are punished for it. This is blatantly unfair! It is discrimination I tell you!” Hermione was practically shouting by the time she finished her rant. Her face was getting red and her magic was beginning to spark here and there.

“Calm yourself immediately Miss Granger!” McGonagall stated sharply giving the young witch no room for disobedience.

Hermione took several deep calming breaths and stated, “I apologize Headmistress, but can’t you see what I am trying to say. Can’t you understand what horrific discrimination this is?”

“How can it be discrimination when it is merely expecting everyone to complete the same tests. If you were blind and we gave you a written test then that would definitely be considered discrimination. But that is not the case here. You are completely capable of answering the essay questions as they are presented to you. And do so well from what I understand. There are just others that do so better than you. If you don’t like that fact then strive to do better, or change the way you answer your questions. If you refuse to change your answers that is no one else’s fault but your own. You are given the opportunity to answer the questions any way that you want to, if you allow stubbornness to be your downfall then so be it. It is not the fault of others or the tests, it is your own choice and your responsibility to accept that fact. Now this discussion is finished. I have spent nearly two hours trying to get this through your head, I will spend not a single minute more. Good day Miss Granger.” With that the Headmistress glared at Hermione until she rose from her seat and left the room with her shoulders drooping in defeat.

————————————————————————

Harry hated to leave McGonagall with that load of manure to deal with on her own, but he knew she could handle it. He would have to get her something special while he was out to thank her for her trouble though. He didn’t know what but something. A new catnip toy maybe, nope… she would probably flail him alive for that one.

“Okay folks, we are going to head into Diagon Alley. Same basic stores, but if anyone has a special request we have the time today to check a couple of stores out. So we have Stowe and Packers luggage shop first, then its Slug and Jiggers Apothecary, I wanted to see about Potions for All Afflictions…see if they had anything different. We will need to get you some casual Rider wear and from Madam Malkin’s Robe shop. The twins wanted to go by Gamble and Japes as well as Zonko’s. I need to go by Floo-Pow and pick up some more floo powder for Sirius, I have been running his a little low. We need to stop by Blinkhorn’s worksop and get you some boots. The Apothecary of course. I need to stop by the Scribbulus Writing Implements, I’m getting low on parchment and I need to see about getting a couple of those quills that record everything you say, it would really help on my paperwork I am having to do now. There is also a couple of secondhand bookshops I wanted to look into while we were in Diagon Alley, remember folks we have a library to furnish.” Harry read of the list of stores that he had written down on a sheet of parchment and nodded when he came to the end. “Any other ones that you guys want to hit?”

“Can we take a look at Quality Quidditch Supplies? They have been bragging about a new broom that is suppose to be coming out and I wanted to see if it is in stock yet?” Draco asked.

“Sure.

“Honeydukes!” Several people called out all at once then laughed at the fact that they all called it out together.

Harry chuckled, “Not a problem, evidentially some people are not having a good poker season. Anyone else?” When no one else called out anything he nodded.

“Ok then after that extensive casing of Diagon Alley we are going to go to the Non-Magical side of things and hit Harrods. And before you ask, you can’t exactly muck out stalls wearing your school uniform now can you? So we have to get you have to get some basic casual working clothes. We have found that Non-Magical jeans work best for mucking out stalls, exercising horses and basic work in the stalls and corral. Also you will want to get a pair of Non-Magical work boots, they are sturdy and last for ever for the same reason. Then once you get your trunk you will have to furnish it, it will come with a bedroom and a bathroom, but no pillows or sheets, towels or blankets, anything like that. Then you will have a kitchen to stock, so it is a trip to Sainsbury’s and perhaps your first experience with Non-Magical grocery food store. Stock up on kinds of food and snacks, drinks, and supplies.” Harry explained.

Harry continued. “Then we go to this interesting store that is what the Non-Magicals call New Age, it is basically a magic shop. They have everything from star charts to clothes, you name it they have it, but it is all what Non-Magicals think the Magical world would be like…if it was real of course. I think it is owned by a bunch of New Bloods that are trying to introduce the Magical world into the Non-Magical world slowly, because they have stuff in there that is just too good to be by chance. Books on numerology (arithmancy), runes, astrology, herbology, charms, potions…although those are all Non-Magical based, learning latin, there is something on almost everything in that store. Keep in mind that your trunk will have a library in it so you will want to keep an eye out for interesting books to put in it. And there is also the Rider Library to think about. You’ll get to see that this summer when you come to visit Rider Hall.”

“You also have to think of this trunk as your home away from home. There will be times that you actually live in it, like while we are at school, we all live in out individual trunks in the same room, plenty of privacy but within easy reach if we get called out, like we did for the St. Mungo’s mission. All we do is each day when we get up we close up out trunk, shrink it and put it in our bags, put the bags on and head out to classes. We have our bags organized in such a way that our school supplies are easy to get to and if for any reason we are called out we have everything we need right on our person at all times. The only thing we are missing is our mounts.” Harry said with a serious look.

“Okay folks let’s get started, we have too much to do to sit around and jabber much longer.” And with that he gathered together a handful of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace and waited until the flames turned green and stepped into the flames. Calling out “Diagon Alley, Leaky Cauldron”

Harry stepped through first, followed by the rest of Tier one, then came Cedric and Tier two, then came Christian leading Tier three, the last man through was Draco. It looked so natural for them to have this set up, this was what they were meant to have, Harry thought.

It was strange how the fact that Draco was a Slytherin hadn’t come up with any of his crew. Nor had the ancient Weasley - Malfoy feud. The only thing that had been there was that Draco was one of us and that was all that any one needed to know or cared about. After he did the rune array and had found his counter part no one questioned anything. It was all taken for granted that Draco was meant to be with them and that was that. Once they had watched the memory they knew that Malfoys were not all bad, nor were they all to be judged in the same fashion, they should be judged solely on their own actions. Not their father’s history or their family history but on their own actions and so far Draco hadn’t done anything to tarnish his history with the Riders. So far he had far more Nicholas Malfoy in him than he had Lucius Malfoy, and that is how they were going to treat him until they were shown otherwise.

“Okay everyone through? First stop Stowe and Packers luggage shop, Come on Riders.” With that they all followed Harry out of the Leaky Cauldron and down the Alley to the luggage shop, once inside the man heard the door bell chime and he looked up from his counter and leapt up when he saw it was the Riders and raced towards them.

“What can I do for the Riders today?”

“Greetings Sir. We need another Majesty Trunk if you have one available that is?” Harry smiled at the clerk who just grinned real big at him and nodded immediately. The clerk led them back too the back of the store where the majesty trunks were kept and he found they had three stacked up there. He was so tempted to get all three. What the hell, might as well have them on hand.

“Alright Draco, you get a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, library, and study standard but you get to design two rooms that are of your own choosing. Most of us have chosen to put a potions room as one of the rooms but the other one we have everything from a work out room, a music room, a living room, a wood working room, a storage room, an art room, or a green house. So you see you can have anything you want in it, and before you ask, I am not telling you what I have, this is your home…you make it the way you want it.” Harry smiled at Draco.

Draco thought for a moment and then looked at the clerk and stated “I would like a potions lab and a living room please. I need a place to relax in and I want a place to be comfortable in so I want a living room that I can just design and come into and relax and read a good book and listen to the wireless and relax. Is it possible to put something in place that I can practice my music and it won’t disturb the others as well. I don’t know, like sound proofing it?”

“Not a problem, we can do that as well.” The clerk smiled and nodded while he was writing on his pad everything that Draco said.

Harry looked at the clerk and said “I will take the other two trunks as well, and could you make one with a potions room and a living room, and one with a potions room and a work out room. In that one I would like there to be pads made available for martial arts. We will pick those up when we pick up the other order please.”

You could just see the clerks eyes watering with unshed tears he was so happy. He merely nodded though, he smiled real big and kept writing on his pad and then looked up to see if there was anything else Harry had to say. When he didn’t the clerk put the order forms on each of the three trunks and Harry nodded headed over to the bottomless bag rack and picked up a couple of those them headed over to the counter where he paid using his Rider ring. The way the man was trembling you would thing he was about to wet himself, apparently he adored the Riders.

Okay next stop was the Apothecary. Harry had explained about the different potions that Draco needed to have on hand and why so he was kind of expecting a big haul, but I mean really…

Susan went right over to the pre-made potions shelf and got herself a basket and started picking out six of each potion that was necessary and the standard nutrient potion case. While she was doing that Harry went over to the clerk and let him know that they had a new Rider and that they needed a new kit for him.

“Do you need a kit and school supplies or just a kit?” The clerk asked as he went into a back room and got a large bundle from the back of the shop and brought it up front. Apparently he had taken the list that Susan had given him that first day and made up ready made kits just in case, and had them available on request.

“Just the kit this time, he is already in school with us.” Harry smiled at the clerk.

“So does this make twelve cases I need to keep in stock of nutrient potions?” The clerk asked.

“No just the eleven, one that was working with us decided that they would work better independently.” Harry said with a sigh.

“Ludicrous! To pass up the opportunity to work with the Riders! What kind of idiot is this person?” The clerk looked at Harry seriously.

“That’s what I would like to know. But oh well; what can you do but wish them well, and hope they find what ever it is they are looking for.” Harry sighed shaking his head. He had to agree with that one, he had no clue what drove Hermione at all. But he did know she had a lot of growing up to do in her future. Perhaps there was another Rider group out there that she would fit better in. That was always a possibility. Just because he didn’t know of any didn’t mean they didn’t exist. He couldn’t wait until they found Rider Castle. Maybe they would find other Riders or even Rider groups living there, that is what he hoped for. He would love to meet another group and see how his group matched up to it.

While they were doing all that Draco headed over to the cosmetic section and looked for the Hair Growth potion. His father had always demanded he kept his hair cut short and greased back neat, but Draco now wanted to honor Nicholas and grow his hair out to match his great, great grandfather’s. So he looked through the different potions until he found the one he wanted and picked it out. Then he headed over to the books to see if there were any new periodicals he didn’t have yet. Although he did have quite a few subscriptions, he was always interested in new and different periodicals that he had never heard of before.

While Draco was perusing the periodicals, Harry was checking out the books to see if they had gotten in anything he didn’t have, unfortunately they didn’t have anything new, although he did find a couple old potion books in their used section that looked interesting. And three books in their Herbology section that looked very interesting. One even had templates like what they were working on for their Herbology extra credit. That should make things so much easier to work with, the drawings in that book were very detailed and quite beautiful, so they would be an excellent reference to use in Harry’s own work.

Neville found several books in the Herbology section that he was very excited about and grabbed them quickly before anyone else could see them. He had a stack twelve books high before he realized it and with a sigh he took his heavy stack over to the counter to the clerk, who smiled and began to add up his purchases.

Even the twins found a few potions books and each had their arms loaded down by the time they quit and headed over to the counter. Thankfully, they still had some gold left over from the last time Harry gave them a sack of gold to use to buy books for their library.

Cedric was helping Susan with the potions and was thrilled with the selections they had available today, while they didn’t have everything they needed, at least they had a decent selection. As normal they didn’t have any of the upper level potions, at least not out on the shelves they didn’t. They may have them in the back of the stores, which was always a possibility. Things like skele-grow, dreamless sleep, and anti-cruciatus potion were not on the shelves, so they would have to ask the clerk about them when they got up to the counter.

As everyone finished and checked out they put their put their purchases into their bags and stepped aside for the next person to step up to the counter.

Soon they were out of there and heading to the corner of Horizont Alley and Knockturn Alley where they would find Potions for All Afflictions, that place was suppose to sell harder to find potions and upper level potions so Harry was excited about that one. According to the information they had, the place even sold skele-grow, and for here in the Alley that was something rare to find. Susan and Harry immediately went over to the pre-made potions, grabbed a basket and began to fill their baskets. Susan grabbed all the skele-grow they had on the shelf and put it in her basket as soon as she spotted it, Harry gave Susan his best puppy dog eyes but she just rolled her eyes at him and continued filling her basket. She managed to find poison neutralizer level three and four, the one for upper level poisons and unknown poisons and took all he had of those too. Then she found dreamless sleep and took all he had of those.

Harry was getting a little jealous of Susan’s basket right about now, then he spotted concussion cure and anti-cruciatus potion and grabbed those before Susan spotted them. Then he found nerve regenerator and a potion for sprains and strains and grabbed those. By the time the two of them were finished the poor clerks shelves were practically bare. There were only a few lower level potions that they had already stocked up at the other potion shops on or they had already made enough of them themselves.

When they first got up to the counter the clerk gave them a skeptical look then Harry and Susan showed the clerk their Rider rings, and it took a few moments to click, then all of the sudden you would have thought that he had just won the Lottery or something. The clerk smiled real big and began counting up their purchase, and just ignoring the price or how much it was totally up to. Once he finished he gave them a total and then said, “Do to the fact that you folks are Riders, I am going to give you a thirty percent discount. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have a store right now. They had started burning out stores the other day and I was the next store in line when you stopped them. I wouldn’t have a lively would or a legacy if it wasn’t for the Riders. I can’t thank you enough but maybe I can thank you a little. So when ever a Rider comes into my shop, just show me your ring and they will get an instant thirty percent discount across the top.”

“You don’t have to do that Sir.” Harry stated.

“I know, but that is part of the reason why I’m doing it. You Riders didn’t ask for a reward or compensation, or acclimates or anything. You just did it because it was the right thing to do, and you save a lot of lives that day, You saved even more livelihoods. And you Riders have never asked for anything in return for doing it, and that is the reason I am giving you the discount. Because it’s the right thing to do.” The clerk smiled real big and started packaging up their purchases.

Harry could only smile and blush at the clerks words. Yeah he guessed they were true, but they didn’t do it for any reason other than to save the people and because it was the right thing to do. That is what Riders do, it made him proud to be a Rider, it made him proud to be who he was.

They left that shop and headed a few doors down to Zonko’s to let the twins look around. While the twins were looking around of course everyone else did too. Harry found something called Instant Poo Powder and thought about getting that, but couldn’t figure out how that would be beneficial giving the people they fight against a bad case of diarrhea so he let that one pass. He did see something that would temporarily blind your opponent for five minutes and got a bunch of that. And Super Itch, which was like a itching powder…only worse, it would make you opponent itch uncontrollably for a period of ten minutes or until they washed it off. That might come in handy.

Then he spotted something called Nighty Night a powder that if inhaled could instantly put your someone to sleep for a period of up to four hours. And he bought all they had of that. He wanted the twins to see if they could make him something like that so that they could all carry that around. If they could all carry that, then when ever they encountered a hostile they could just through it at them, and blam they would be asleep; even if Harry or Neville were not available to put them down. It would be a safe and convenient way to capture a hostile and still put the hostile down and out of commission. Put them down, grab their wand, secure them in restraints, then move on to the next area. Easy and no one is hurt, especially his people.

The temporary blindness and the itching powder were distraction methods until Harry or Neville could hit them with a Dark Green sphere and put the person out of commission. If he could figure out a way to make hollow balls that they could put that powder in and carry the balls around with themselves then his people would have the same basic abilities as himself and Neville. He would love for Luna, Pavarti, Cedric and Susan to have that ability if no one else. But if they could manage it he would want all of his Riders to have the ability, he would have to see if the twins could duplicate or if possible make even better this powder and if he and Neville could make hollow balls that they could fill with that powder. Maybe they could try with something like flour or something to start with. You know make the ball and put flour in it and throw it, see if it would explode on contact then try it with the sleepiness powder. It would be something he would almost be tempted to share with Amelia, almost that is. But if it works would be one thing he would defiantly keep between the Riders. It would be a Rider’s secret or something.

A hollow ball would be different that the clear ball, since the clear balls have clear energy in them. Dammit how do you make a ball of nothing. Harry’s mind was turning in a thousand different ways at once. Sigh.

Maybe tonight he would be able to think about it, not right now when they had a hundred different things to do. Okay the twins were giggling over in the corner, be afraid, be very afraid. Harry walked over to them and they apparently had found something called Clothes Be Gone. “Why would you need That?” Harry asked suspiciously?

“Distract, Diversion and Decoy, nothing is as a big distraction than suddenly finding yourself naked in the middle of a crowded town with a twenty people starring right at you. They wear those masks and capes for a reason, anonymity, if suddenly everyone could see exactly who they were; and more then they would panic. And look around for a place to hide instead of trying to do the job they were sent to do.”

Harry thought about it for a moment then realized that as crazy as it seemed that the twins were right, that is exactly what would happen, a naked and uncloaked, unmasked Death Eater is going to want to hide not try and fight and confront them. “Good thinking boys, I think you might have a winner there. Just make sure none of our people get hit with that, those basilisk hide suits are hard to come by.”

“Got it boss.” The boys grabbed all the packages of Clothes Be Gone they had on the shelf.

Suddenly Harry had an idea, the boys and their duckies. “Fred, George. I have a question for you. You know your flash/bang duckies.” They both nodded. “Do you think you can modify the process so that they can be put on an arrow. Like one that Christian or Cedric shoots? Maybe attach it to the arrow so that when it hits, the flash/bang goes off?” Harry looked at the two of them curiously.

Both Fred and George began to whisper amongst themselves and then after a few moments they looked up and nodded to Harry and said “You got it boss, we will start try outs of the arrows tomorrow.”

Harry nodded and smiled at the twins, there is nothing these two liked better than a project. And he had just given them a whopper.

The boys were still whispering even after they had left Zonko’s and were heading to Blinkhorn’s worksop to get Draco’s new boots. The twins stayed outside with Christian and Cedric while everyone else went inside, apparently they were talking about the flash/bank arrows with those two and they seemed extremely interested. Draco tried on a few pairs of boots before he found a style he liked then he just had to find the right size, he wanted to get a half size bigger because he had been growing so much this summer and he knew that if he got ones that fit just right they would be too small by the end of summer. So they got the ones he wanted and headed out. Draco was all smiles, things were starting to become real to him. Harry could tell that things were finally beginning to click and it was all beginning to seem like this was really happening.

They stopped at Scribbulus Writing Implements and everyone stocked up on writing supplies, it appeared that most people were getting a little low on everything and so they grabbed what they needed while they were there. Draco got one of the Dicta-Quills just like what Harry bought, for taking notes.

Through it all he was still helping Vince and Greg when he had time. Although Blaise had taken up most of the slack. And believe it or not Theodor Nott had volunteered to help out too. Which had been their saving grace, he had taken most the hours that Draco used to spend with the boys and was doing a pretty damn good job at it too. He was patient and calm about the whole thing, and working well with them. It kind of shocked Draco, but he was so glad that Theodor had volunteered to help once he heard that he was going to be a Rider. Draco had only told his closest friends and Theo was amongst that crowd, actually next to Blaise, Theo was his next closest friend. They just didn’t mix as much due to his father. Theo’s dad had murdered his mother when he was five years old, right in front of him. And his father was a die hard Death Eater.

While Lucius had his faults he wasn’t die hard as some of them, in fact if it wasn’t for Abraxas, Lucius’ father he probably never would have gotten mixed up with the Death Eaters at all. Draco’s grandfather Abraxas Malfoy was definitely a die hard supporter of the Dark Lord, one of his Right Hand men. And would be today if he hadn’t have died of dragon pox five years ago. Since then Lucius had distanced the family away from anything to do with that world as slowly as possible without raising suspicion. Oh he was a collector of rare and unusual cursed objects still, but he did it for the history behind the object, not to use the object on someone or to do anything with the object. And now his father’s collection had been confiscated and Lucius was serving six years for his troubles. Even with all of Lucius’s Barrister knowledge and double talk he couldn’t get himself out of serving the minimum sentence for having all those dark objects in his possession.

It could have been much worse, that diary alone he could have served five to ninety nine years for but he talked managed to get all his sentences to run concurrent and the longest they could give him was six years for one neckless that was meant to poison on contact. Although it was kept in a glass sealed glass container and had warning notices on it, it was still considered a deadly weapon and he received six years for having that one piece alone but they ran all the rest of his sentences concurrently in Azkaban. Probably due to the fact that the average life expectancy in Azkaban was seven years. Without running them concurrently they would have added up to eighty two years which was ludicrous for Azkaban.

Draco didn’t realize everyone was finished shopping while he was off in wonderland thinking, so he quickly checked out and met everyone outside. To see where they were going to next.

Honeydukes was right across the way so they headed to there next. Everyone grabbed a basket and began to wander through the land of goodies and happiness. Harry picked up three boxes of Chocolate Frogs, he wasn’t sure if the Slytherin knew how to play poker but if he did he was sure he was going to need it. Then he picked up several boxes of Every Flavored Beens and some Sugar Quills, he loved to suck on those while he was reading a good book. Harry grabbed some Ice Mice and few Licorice Wands while he was at it. He went over to the fudges and found some Rum Fudge and got a full pound of that for McGonagall. He didn’t know if she would like it but it might go a little way into saying I’m sorry for the inconvenience of Hermione. He also found Treacle Fudge and got a pound of it, he had never heard of Treacle Fudge but he would try it. He liked Treacle at least. And he found some Strawberry Fudge for Alice. Had to get her something while they were out and about. He got the little ones Fairy floss, he knew at least Astraea would love it and probably so would Lillian. Harry got Matthew and James Licorice Wands and Chocolate Wands. He got Sebastian a Licorice Sword just for him. To fight of the evil dragons or munch on when no one was looking. Finally he had everyone covered and he headed up to the counter to pay. Draco looked at him curiously about all the chocolate frogs in his basket.

“We play poker and use Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs to bid with.” Harry explained.

“Poker! I am so getting in to that.” And he reached over to grab a couple of boxes himself and a few Every Flavor Beans to add to his basket.

“You can play poker?” Harry asked.

“We play poker all the time in Slytherin. Although we use real coins, if you all use chocolates then all the better, there are several cards that I need.” He laughed.

Harry reached over and grabbed one more box and put it in his basket and sighed. Then put his basket up on the counter to check out.

After he put his purchase in his bottomless bag he was ready for the next stop, Madam Malkin’s shop. This one was purely Draco. So they let him go in while they headed over to the Magical Menagerie practically everyone needed owl treats, but Harry wanted to see if they could possibly start carrying Darcorn treats or something like that. The man directed them to some of the bacon flavored treats they had in stock. That was meant for large dogs, and Harry got a pound of it to try it out. To see if Storm liked it or not, if not he could always give it to Hagrid for Fang.

They had just finished their perusal of the different owl treats and possible Darcorn treats when Draco popped over, he was smiling. Apparently he was thrilled with getting a few new outfits. He was wearing one of Harry’s right now, since they were almost the same size, but he much rather have his own. They were going to owl him his new outfits, since it would take a day or two to make six casual Rider outfits. And a cloak to go with them. He didn’t mind waiting, he took what they had in stock in his size which was two sets, and that would be enough he could change out of Harry’s and into a set of his own. And they had a black cloak but not a ‘Rider’s’ cloak with all the extra pockets inside so he would use it until he got his own Riders cloaks in.

Draco went over to the owl treats and grabbed some of Venus’s favorite treats while he was here. She was a very finicky owl and would only take the best treats available, probably one of the reasons he named her Venus.

They all finished up in there and headed outside to the next stop. Floo-Pow, everyone waited outside while Harry ran in real quick and grabbed a big bag of floo powder for Sirius.

Then it was to the bookstores. They ended up spending more time than Harry had intended in those two shops but he couldn’t complain since he was just as guilty as any of them. He found several good books and a few periodicals that he was anxious to read.

“Ok folks any place else we want to hit before we leave the Alley?” Harry asked. People were getting hungry so they all shook their head and he agreed. “Let’s eat in the Leaky Cauldron then head over to the Harrods afterwards.” Everyone liked that idea and followed him into the Leaky Cauldron, thankfully it was not quite time for the lunch rush so they managed to grab two tables and scoot them together for all of them to sit at.

They spent most of lunch time talking about what they had purchased until Harry brought up his idea about the Nighty Night spheres for everyone. This had the twins going even more than the Flash/Bang Arrows. He said he bought all the Nighty Night that they had but he wasn’t sure if he could create a sphere they could put something in. So he and Neville were debating back and forth how to do it all through lunch. Then Luna stated it does too have something in it, it has air in it. This got them thinking again. Could they make a funnel or something that they could slip through the outer shell of the sphere without bursting it, and trade out the air inside the sphere for Nighty Nighty powder. Or perhaps something the twins came up with that was similar only better. A clear orb with stripes, white stripes at that. It would be like a Bubble Head charm if it was made large enough to fit over the entire head of an individual. This they could do, now they just had to figure out how to get the powder into the sphere without bursting it or deflating it. Everyone was tossing around ideas throughout lunch and the twins were taking notes and whispering excitedly with everything that was being said, debating each new idea.

Once outside they got three cabs and headed over to Harrods. Harry paid for the trip on all three cars using his card from Gringotts. Luna naturally sat on Harry’s lap and giggled the whole way, which had Pavarti laughing at Harry’s expense. The only problem they had is in the third car, the driver let Padma sit up front in the passenger side. The problem was that he was Indian too and kept flirting with her the entire way to Harrods. She explained that they were the equestrian club from a private school in upper Scotland and they had taken the train to London so they could go to Harrods to do their Christmas shopping. The guy must have though she was a lot older than she was because he just kept flirting with her. She then explained that she was only thirteen, the guy shut up and focused on his driving with a deep blush to his cheeks. He must have thought she was seventeen or eighteen most likely and he looked to be in his early twenties so that would have been entirely appropriate. But not a thirteen year old, that was jail bait time.

They agreed to divide up once they got into Harrods and to meet back in two hours at the main doors. So everyone headed off in different directions. Harry, and Neville took Draco over to the jeans and showed him where he could get some new jeans. Christian and Cedric decided to hang around with them instead of exploring the huge store on their own so they headed off where ever Harry was leading. Once they got over to the appropriate section Cedric and Christian found a rack of colored silk shirts, and found some black silks in their size, they grabbed them and went to go try them on. They liked them quite a bit and decided to get them then they showed Harry, Neville and Draco the rack and they all picked out their sizes and tried them on. Well there went the store’s stock of black silk shirts. Ha Ha Ha. Draco even picked out some dark green and some purple ones as well for when he is relaxing in his own space.

Then it was over to jeans and Draco tried on several pair until he found one style that fit the way he wanted them to and he picked up all seven pair they had in his size. Then they went to work shirts and he picked out the green chambray shirts from Sonoma, they were the right shade of green at least, they weren’t Slytherin green by any means but they weren’t the pastel greens that the other Chambray shirts were either. Then they headed over to underwear and socks. They convinced him to try the boxer brief so he bought three boxes of them and several bags of socks. He stated that woe to his father’s knowledge he had always preferred the way Non-Magicals made their socks so much better than Magicals. He used to get a catalogue from Blaise and order them with out his father knowing he was doing it, every since Blaise let him borrow a pair of his socks back in first year. Now if he found out they made underwear better too, he was going to have to start buying that from the catalogue as well.

Then they headed over to bedding and housewares. Draco picked out a set of Slytherin green silk comforter and sheet set. With two body pillows to boot, good grief was he going all out on this. Harry couldn’t help but chuckle. Then he picked out cream for his bathroom color, which was surprising Harry would have thought that Draco would have chosen green again but Draco crinkled up his nose at the thought and shook his head. Apparently the thought of a green bathroom was totally inappropriate. Harry had never really thought about what color was ‘appropriate’ to have as a bathroom color, he just picked what color he liked. Draco started listing off all the colors that were appropriate for a bathroom to be, what the hell color was ecru, apparently it was a real color since it was one of the colors Draco said was acceptable to have as a primary color in your bathroom, right after eggshell and before sand. But what the hell color was it? Forget it, it didn’t matter. Harry would look in his big set of five hundred and twenty colored pencils when he got home and see what color it was. How did Draco know these things. Must be an artist of some kind to know his colors so well. Hmm he wondered.

So Harry mentioned it and was surprised at Draco’s response. “I learned all about colors from my mother, she had always wanted to do interior design so she would redecorate different parts of Malfoy Mansion when ever the mood hit her. And so she would sit me down and we would look at paint splotches, wallpaper samples, fabric samples and you name it for hours it seemed, until she figured out what she wanted each room to look like. Sometimes I would go to sleep on the lounge covered in fabric samples and mother would have the house elf put me to bed.” He said with a sigh.

“Just because you’re a Rider doesn’t mean you will never see your family again. There is enough space at Rider Hall that if you would like for to invite your mother to stay with us for the summer she may. We have the space for families to stay with our riders if they want to, we aren’t here to break up families. In fact our house mother is Cedric Diggory’s mother. She already lives there and is getting the place fixed up right now for us to move into when summer comes. It will be all of us, the Longbottoms, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Xenophilius and Persephone Lovegood, and Emily Diggory. That I am aware of at this time.” Harry stated.

“Rider Hall is very different than Rider Castle, Rider Hall may be for us Riders but I believe that being part of a family is part of who we are, so I allow our families to be at Rider Hall. At Rider Castle the only individuals that are allowed are either the the Rider or the Rider and their spouse. And it took a long time to even let the spouse in there from what I understand. It took them loosing about three quarters of their upper level Riders in one season to marriage for them to alter their mandate to allow spouses to live within the castle as well. Then that changed with time, since families began to form and people began to have children, so they allow children under the age of three. But that is where they drew the line and it never changed. In five hundred years it never changed. So people either held off on having children or left the group and became a single Darcorn Rider. Which the Riders still loved and held onto but they just didn’t belong to the group any more. It made the single Rider more vulnerable and at times whole families were wiped out just to get a Darcorn horn. It was sick. And a sick time, thankfully times aren’t so barbaric anymore.” Harry had a sad look in his eyes so it was almost as if he was remembering something but Draco knew he couldn’t be. Unless he was remembering reading it in a book or journal somewhere. That’s it, he read about it someone’s journal probably and it pulled at his heartstrings then and now. Draco couldn’t blame him that would be something hard to read, especially if they poured their whole heart into what they wrote. Which they frequently did in journals, that’s what they were for after all, pouring your feelings and memories into that is.

“Okay now over to the kitchen section, do you know how to cook?” Harry asked Draco.

“You wouldn’t think so, having Lucius as a father, he would have died a thousand deaths if he knew. But I used to sneak down to the kitchens and help the elves cook all the time. I love to cook. It is so much like potions I have been cooking since I was eight. So I want the kitchen I have always dreamed of. May I?” Draco asked with stars in his eyes.

“Well the kitchen is absolutely wonderful down there, it is set up with a full hot box and a cool box as well as a freezer. It has a magical stove, blender, toaster and tea pot already set up. All you need to do is put your settings in and tap them with your wand and it works. So the main stuff you need are like pots and pans, bowls, cooking utensils, knives, it has a set of plain white dishes service for four down there. I personally chose the stainless steel ’silverware’ due to my godfather because I tend to fix dinner and take it to him. But you will want to get what suits you. Remember you can always make your own now that we have that transfiguration we learned a while back.”

Draco’s eyes were sparkling and he was rubbing his hands together in his excitement, okay where to start. Knives always start with the knives. This was going to cost a bit. So he had to think along the lines of a budget. Alright think here, remember nothing too expensive, but great knives for what you get. Draco finally picked out a Henckels Premium fifteen piece knife set with block, razor sharp, German engineered knife set it was a full tang set that came with its own set of six steak knives and a knife sharpener. He really liked the weight of the knifes in his hand.

He then got a Mueller Pro-Series ten in one, eight blade vegetable chopper. A Cambom Rotary Cheese Grater, hand crank cheese shredder for fresh cheese, vegetables, or nuts. Draco also chose the Cambom Lemon Zester Grader three piece suit - it was meant to grate everything from garlic, nutmeg, parmesan, ginger, and chocolate to fruits and vegetables, He got the Maphyton cooking utensil set, which had eleven pieces of stainless still kitchen utensils. Then he chose the KitchenClick seven-piece wooden spoons set of premium teak wood utensil set. He made his way through gadgets and gizmos and then pots and pans, and bowls. Then Harry pointed out a great set of storage container that he picked up four sets just to make sure he would have plenty in the right size.
Finally he was finished. Whew.

Harry thought they would never get out of kitchens and dining. They realized it was getting close to the time they were suppose to meet everyone back at the main doors so they headed back to there, Harry was patting Draco on the back telling him they would come back, and maybe next time Draco could bring some of his own money changed into English pounds and he could buy everything he saw that thrilled him instead of remembering that he was on a budget. Draco liked that idea and nodded. Smiling at Harry, of course he could, he was going to have his chef’s kitchen all his own. It was going to be great.

Now they were going to go to Sainsbury Supermarket. Harry, Christian, Cedric and Draco were all carrying Draco’s purchases to a little alley behind Harrods so he could shrink them and put them in his bag, then they would grab a taxi and head to Sainsbury’s.

Draco was glad he knew of a place that he could get all his herbs and spices really fresh and at an excellent price. So he didn’t have to worry about getting any spices today when he went to the grocers or else he might be there all day. He so wanted to take a trip to India and go to one of their bazaars there where they sell spices and buy the spices in bulk there. Now that he was part of he Riders maybe he would get that opportunity to do just that one of these days. He could always dream of it anyway.

Everyone squished into the taxi’s and this time Harry asked the driver if he could sit up front and the driver let him. This led to a pouty Luna, but it allowed his legs to get a break too. They managed to get over to the grocery store and Harry still had circulation in his legs, although he had a moody Luna for his troubles. Defiantly not worth being able to feel your legs once you get to where you are going. Harry sighed. And just paid the drivers then headed into the store behind everyone else. He grabbed a cart too so he could pick out a few things he had forgotten when he went shopping before Yule.

Draco was excited about grocery shopping and he and Christian, Cedric and Harry again took off. Draco started off in the fruits and vegetables and and he got everything from asparagus to zucchini and a bit of everything in between. Apparently he loves cooking with vegetables. Especially mushrooms, button, morels and portobello mushrooms. Apparently he knew all kinds of recipes that have mushrooms in it. Oops and peppers, Draco was going nuts over the selection of peppers. Wow, he must be one terrific cook, just looking at his cart was making Harry hungry. Okay they made it out of fruits and vegetables and into the meats. Draco grabbed several different types of fish, then some roasts, a few steaks and even a brisket. And a rack of ribs. Then over to cheeses and dairy. Draco’s cart was almost overflowing already, Harry didn’t know where he was going to put anything else but apparently he found the places and got several chunks of cheese and tubs of sour cream or what not.

Harry had to take a break from it all. He walked away and headed over to the granola and goodies isle, Christian, and Cedric following closely at his heels. Apparently they needed to pick up some goodies as well. Harry made sure to pick up a pound of chocolate covered coffee beans for Draco. Harry picked up several of his favorite trail mixes and granolas, some dried fruits and nuts, he even picked up some licorices, and a couple jellies, and one pound of chocolate covered sea salt caramels.

Okay the last thing to get was sandwich stuff. Harry, Cedric and Christian headed over to breads first and picked out the breads they wanted first then to the deli to pick up the pre-sliced sandwich meats and cheeses. While they were there they picked up some pre-made sandwiches and items that were pre-made. Harry decided to try the mozzarella sticks and the chicken tenders, as well as the fried mushrooms. With everything Draco was buying it had got him hungry so he got a couple of things to munch on for now and paid for it in the deli and let everyone try some. He really loved the fried mushrooms, except for the fact that the hot grease squirted out of it and burned the back of his throat when he bit down on it. But it had been worth it, the mushroom itself was delicious and he had enjoyed every delicious bite of it, hot oil and all.

Harry grabbed himself a Pepsi and it soothed his throat and helped with how parched he felt as well. Now on to finishing up this shopping extravaganza, condiments next. Harry picked up some pickles, mayo, ketchup, honey mustard, ranch dressing, tartar sauce, and bbq sauce while he was in that isle. Geez he went through that stuff quick. Must be all the sandwiches he makes for everyone else. Late night cram sessions were rather difficult but a hoagie helped. And Harry knew how to make the best hoagies around.

They were finally all ready to check out and Harry had Draco right up there right behind him so he could show him how to use his new bank card from Gringotts that was strictly for groceries. Draco’s buggy was so heaping with groceries he had no clue how he was going to get all that into another cart and get it out the door and into his bag so they ended up putting it into two carts and Harry pushed his own cart and pulled Draco’s second cart around to the side of the building to where they put up a Non-Magical notice=me=not ward and everyone took out their trunk and began putting their stuff down in their trunk. Harry suggested that since Draco had so much stuff that he put any non perishables in his trunk for now. That would leave only the perishables in Draco’s bag, and Cedric put a cooling charm and stasis charm on each bag and then Draco placed each bag in his bottomless bag one at a time. By the time he finished his kitchen was going to be stocked to overflowing. But he was going to get his chef’s kitchen he dreamed of finally.

When they all had everything transferred into their bags Cedric lowered the ward and Harry hailed the cabs and this time he let Luna sit on his lap again, once again a smiling Luna. Good grief. And they headed over to the new age store.

Draco was shocked beyond belief. This was a Non-Magical store? “Yeah, everything in here is Non-Magical. The Books, clothes, jewelry, decorations, star charts, figurines, crystals, oils, potions, herbs, everything is non-magical. It is just a few individuals that got together and picked out the closest to Magical stuff you can find and put is all in one shop for Non-Magicals or New Bloods to have access to, well actually everyone to have access to really.”

“Amazing, absolutely amazing.” First thing Draco did was hit the books. He wasn’t thrilled with the potions books most of them were so basic that he just took one look then re-shelved the book, the herbology books were quite a bit better though so he found a couple of them that he liked. The runes books were what got him though, he bough several of their books on runes one on almost every one they had. He wanted to see if there was a way to specifically go see Nicolas Malfoy. Oh how wonderful that would be, it made him wonder how many Malfoys had been Riders through the ages and he just had not known about it. He had every intention of going through and reading each and every single individual’s journal to see if they were Riders or married a Rider. It might take him years to do it but it would be a side project of his, and he would do it no matter how long it took him.

Harry found a few used books that looked interesting, and a couple herbology books, some adult coloring books that he liked, and a few in other areas as well. As Harry was looking through the books on healing Susan let out a very unladylike squeal and rushed over to him with a book in hand. On the cover was a man in all black riding a black unicorn with a long mane and the man had a hood on so you couldn’t see any facial features. Then on the back of the book read…

Deep within the night where danger lurks, so does The Shadow. No one knows who he is, or where he came from. They only know that be ye child or lady in distress, The Shadow will know and come to your aid. If ye harm a child on the King’s lands then expect to have both your arms broken for your troubles, at the very least, loose your life …at the most. Try to harm a lady, and you life you do forfeit, for no one lays hand nor fist on a lady in his Royal highness King John’s land as long as the King takes a breath, or The Shadow does. They say he resides within the dark forests, but no one has ever truly seen The Shadow. They speak of the Spirit Unicorn he rides upon, black as the ace of spades and eyes just blazing with pure red fire. Faster than any mortal horse and deadly to those that try to hurt his rider. Who is The Shadow, the world may never know.

Harry couldn’t help but want to read the book himself and asked Susan if he could take this one. “Sure, I will get myself my own copy, there are like three over there. I am going to check and see if the author has any other stories along the same lines.” Susan went back over there and found two more books in the series and brought Harry a copy of each one of those as well. They looked really good, now Harry was going to have to choose what to read at night, blast it.

Harry found a couple vests for Sirius he was sure his dad would just love, black with silver paisley print and a deep Gryffindor red with gold fleur de lis print. Both vests were beautiful and very tastefully done. Again with the Slytherin colors and Gryffindor colors. Whoever owned this store must be a New Blood they had to have insight on the Magical World some how.

And the wolf jewelry that was all stainless steel. Ready for a werewolf to wear it… too coincidental for Harry. Speaking of which, Harry found a nice watch that was all steel and the face of it was a wolf and its mate snuggling in the Moonlight. But he found one he liked even better, it was an alpha male standing proud on a rock ledge with the moonlight behind him looking as if he was ready to concur the world. Yeah, that was the one he was going to get Remus.

He also found Remus’s birthday present while he was there. He found a pair of American Indian moccasins with a series of the moon cycle done in seed beads around the ankle just below the fringe. And on the top of the foot portion was a fool moon done with a deep blue back ground. All done in those little seed beads. They were beautiful and thankfully they had a pair in Remus’ size. They would be perfect for him to were when ever he was just relaxing around the suite or if he was doing a Lunar ritual even. That is what the little card on the shoes stated they were created for anyway.

Then he saw a neat bag that he thought Alice would love it was a beaded leather bag with the same Gryffindor red and Fleur De Lis design in it. He also found a purse for Persephone, it was Slytherin green with a mortar and pestle design on it. He had already given them their Yule presents but these were too good to pass up. So he decided to give it to them anyway. They didn’t celebrate Christmas per-say but he could get someone a present anytime he wanted even on the Non-Magical Christmas holiday if he wanted to. Oh too cool, he found a coloring book with ‘mythological’ creatures in it that Xenophilius would love. Now if he could find something for Frank he would be all set. Harry looked around and finally in the used book section he found it and had to laugh out loud when he found it. “Stupid or Crazy Laws That are Still on The Books in Great Britain”. He was thumbing through and it had laws like… You can’t herd your geese through the street without ringing a cow bell at the same time. It is an offense to handle a salmon and look at all suspicious. Or It is illegal to linger after a funeral. Another one stated it was illegal to be drunk in a pub…well der to that one…. Harry couldn’t wait to see what Frank thought of the book, he would probably be laughing his ass of at over half of these stupid laws. Cool.

Alright he was ready to check out, Harry looked up and saw that most everyone had already checked out or was in line to check out and he rushed over to get in line behind Pavarti. Who smiled real big around her stack of books, Harry knew she was just having way too much fun here in this store. He was glad most folks had their own allowances or else he would be drained dry by now, he chuckled.

Everyone was hungry and ready to have some pizza by the time they finished at the New Age Store so they all headed out for a good meal. Draco had no idea what pizza was but he was thrilled about the idea of a good salad that Susan was bragging about so he was excited too.

Once they got there Harry recommended that Draco order the salad, then sampled the pizzas of the others and enjoyed a bit of everything. And that is exactly what he did, he loved the Veggie Lovers pizza almost as much as he loved the Meat Lovers or was that the other way around, who cares he loved pizza. He had ideas rolling around in his head of different pizzas he could make in his kitchen and he was analyzing the spices they used so he could get the sauce just right. Oh he loved the white sauce that Harry got, garlic-parmesan cheese it was to die for. He had to make that in his kitchen, with chicken and mushrooms oh that would be delicious.

They all headed back to Diagon Alley to pick up Draco’s trunks and the other trunks if they were ready that is. And Draco had wanted to check out Quality Quidditch Supplies while they were there as well so they would give it a quick look too.

Once everyone made it to Stowe and Packers luggage shop to see if the trunks were ready and thankfully they were. So Harry picked up all three. He put one in his bag and Neville volunteered to put one in his bag, Draco was practically beaming as he put his in his bag.

This was real, he was a real Rider, just like Nicolas. He, a Malfoy, was a Rider. He had though he was living a fools dream until he put the trunk into his bag and all the pieces fell into place. He couldn’t help it, a tear fell down his check.

Harry saw Draco’s reaction and went over to him, he leaned down to whisper low, “Its real my friend, you deserve this, you will find you Darcorn, I swear.”

Draco nodded and gave Harry a one sided smile. Still doubting that he deserved it, but he would never doubt anything Harry stated as fact. And he just swore he would find him his Darcorn, so he would. End of story.

“Can we go look at the brooms now?” Draco barely whispered, his voice a little wobbly with emotion.

“Sure, anything you want, this is your day after all.” Harry grinned.

And with that they headed down to Quality Quidditch. There in the front window sat the most beautiful broom Harry had ever scene. The Firebolt, it was amazing. But it also had a tag that said ‘for price inquire at counter.’ Which meant it was too expensive to put the price down on paper. Harry hoped that Sirius didn’t hear about this broom or he would probably end up with one. Oh he would love one mind you. But he was quite happy with his Nimbus two thousand that he had right now, that Sirius got him two years ago. Thankfully, Matthew and James were way too young for the Firebolt, or else they would probably be getting one of them as well. Sirius did so love giving brooms. He even admitted that as soon as Lillian was five he was getting her a broom of her own too. Alice had a few words to say about that, but Harry didn’t think any of them actually sunk in.

This all reminded him, he needed to find out when that Abraxan would be ready to start flying. They would have to start exercising her soon. He would have to ask Luna and see if she knew. The little mare was getting big after all. By summer she should be able to fly without a rider with no problem. Two years from now she should be able to fly with a rider and they would have an areal assault team as well, once she found her Rider that is. That would be interesting.

He also needed to buy the geldings for his Riders, so that they could get used to riding and learn how to control a mount well enough to work with one that wouldn’t speak to them. The summer wasn’t that far away and they needed lots of practice before then so he needed to look around and find those horses before it got too late. He only had a matter of months at this point to train up four Riders and four mounts and that wasn’t a long time at all.

They made it back to Hogwarts without a problem and started going through all their purchases. Harry showed Draco into the guys room, he had had Jeeves remove the bed from the room and he had decided that Tier one would take the left side of the room, Tier two would take the right side of the room and Tier three would take the back of the room. And with that they all put their trunks down and began the process of enlarging them and unloading all they had purchases and putting everything up in its place.

It took Draco a lot longer than anyone else since this was his first time and he had to figure out where he wanted everything and was unloading so much this first trip, but Harry and Christian offered to help and made the chore go a lot faster. The kitchen itself would have been a nightmare without their help. All those containers and all those packages, geez. But soon enough it was finished.

They had just managed to get the kitchen finished when Susan knocked on the trunk and announced she had Draco’s potions divided up, so Harry went and retrieved them then asked Draco how he wanted to set up his potions lab. Then they started in on the potions lab. First he had to arrange his ingredients, alphabetically of course. Then the potions, again alphabetically, talk about neurotic. Good grief. Oh well Harry decided he couldn’t complain, his potions lab was set up the same way. They spent about two hours going through all the ingredients and putting them in jars and putting the proper labels on them. Putting the potions on the shelf and organizing them alphabetically and counting how many he had of each one and taking an inventory sheet up to Susan for her records. Draco should have at least six of each one in the end, any more goes back to Susan, so there were only two that he had too many of, headache potion level one and stomach soothers level one. Both of them he had eight of so he gave Susan the extras and she smiled real big and thanked him and checked those off her list.

After they finished the Potions lab Harry and Christian left Draco to finish up in his trunk while they went and put their stuff up in their trunks. It was getting close to dinner time so they wanted to hurry and make it down to the Dining Hall in time for dinner.

At dinner everyone was dressed in their Rider casual outfits, including Draco. They were just holding their breath as to how Hermione would react when she saw them. When they walked into the room in formation with Draco in the spot that Hermione normally stood they expected fireworks. But there was only silence.

They all went over and sat down at the Gryffindor table and sat down. Harry could see Hermione out of the corner of his eye and he watched her watch them eat, looking at them with those same sad puppy dog eyes that she had had the other day. The eyes that held such longing and hopelessness. But he ignored all that in favor of talking about the geldings and going out and searching for four new mounts for his riders. This subject had excited Cedric, Susan, Fred and George. Cedric and Susan had ridden before but the twins had not so it would be a completely new experience for the two of them. Now Harry was truly glad he was thinking about this so early in the year. School year that is. If the twins were going to join them on the camping trip and travel across the country with them, then they needed to be comfortable in the saddle and knowledgeable about how to handle a mount.

That night they all went to bed early, tomorrow was the Molly Weasley’s trial and they had all promised to be there for Fred and George so they wanted to make sure that they got plenty of sleep and were well rested incase something happened or just to be a shoulder to cry on if the twins needed it. What ever was needed they intend to be it, after all they were Riders and Fred and George were one of their own.