Diagon Alley, again
-8-
Harry sat on the Tube train, cursing the situation he was in right now. He had had to say a sad goodbye to the Perks family, as he prepared to head off; he wished they had accepted his offer for them to come with him on his trip, but - bless them - they had known how this was important for him, his recovery after getting out of Azkaban, so they'd decided to let him go on his way peacefully; it was bittersweet for Harry, really.
He had wanted to spend more time with the family and see what it was like to be a part of a real family.
He had never really seen one before; the Dursleys' idea of family was to shove him out of sight, out of mind and make him quiet so that he would pretend he wouldn't exist, and they made him do everything while they ate his efforts without a word of thanks, and the Weasleys were so chaotic and noisy it was amazing the Burrow hadn't collapsed on itself.
In contrast, the Perks were none of that. They didn't have the Dursleys' bigoted attitudes or the way Petunia snidely gossiped about people, while Dudley bragged, while Vernon took delight in tearing down people and lecturing them about what people should do rather than realise everyone was different. At the Weasleys, the Burrow was run so chaotically while Molly Weasley just yelled until everyone did as they were told. But the Perks were different, everyone had their own chores and while Sally-Anne did have the occasional argument, they did love each other without that 'tough love' thing at the Weasleys.
But right now he was frustrated. The bank had called earlier, and he had to go around there and found there was a problem with his family's bank. The money for his holiday hadn't really come through, and so he had to go all the way to Gringotts. And he had to be quick because his flight was tomorrow, so understandably he was tense on the whole journey to Diagon Alley.
The trip to the Alley was spent with him mentally getting ready for what he was about to face. Harry considered just casting a spell like the disillusionment charm over himself to stop any of the shoppers in Diagon from seeing him, but he quickly decided against it; the alley was bound to be packed with shoppers by now as it was a Saturday and it was going to be packed with shoppers and there would likely be new muggle-borns being escorted by their parents and Hogwarts teachers there, and he didn't really have the patience to cope with elbowing his way past them.
As he walked down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron, absently feeling the wards as he crossed them, Harry took a deep breath and pushed his way through.
As usual, the moment everyone realised Harry Potter was in their presence, a hush fell over the crowd. Harry slammed his occlumency barriers into place at once, and walked through the pub, sweeping a cold gaze around the pub without nodding at anyone, or saying hello, making sure his wands were ready; if any of them so much as thought of touching him, they would regret it.
And it wasn't just magic, he might be a novice when it came to kickboxing, but he knew his skills meant he could easily overpower a wizard, who didn't know anything about martial arts.
He was in the back and was tapping out the brick sequence into the wall, and soon he was in Diagon Alley. Keeping his head held high, Harry marched through the Alley, ignoring the predictable reactions as he walked towards the bank, cursing whatever stupid problem he was faced with right now.
Striding through the street, the crowd parted for him. Harry walked slowly towards Gringotts, keeping a rigid posture, occasionally sending a few frosty glances around to stop anyone from even thinking of approaching him.
As he passed Fortescue's ice cream parlour, he noticed Lavender Brown and the Patil sisters watching him. He saw their looks of regret, but he blanked them out. He just kept walking, ignoring the people chattering as he walked past them. Harry saw Professor McGonagall, in her usual witch regalia, standing with several people, adults and children wearing muggle clothes, and he guessed they were the next generation of muggle-borns. To his surprise, she wasn't alone, Andromeda Tonks and her bitch of an auror daughter were there, along with a brown-haired man, whom Harry didn't know and frankly didn't care about.
It was a large group, and Harry was relieved to pass them by without anything but a cold glance, but he noticed the way the Tonks girl looked down sadly while McGonagall looked close to crying herself. He garnered a few looks from the muggles, and he knew they would ask their escorts for details. Unlike the rest of the majority of shoppers, Harry hadn't bothered dressing for the occasion. He was dressed in a pair of dark jeans, black and white trainers, and a black hoodie but he was wearing it without the hood up, wanting them to see his long white hair.
-8-
"Who was that?" One of the muggles, a woman, asked quietly as a boy, clearly in his late teens walked through Diagon Alley.
Professor McGonagall looked down at the question. "His name is Harry Potter," she replied. "He… well, a long time ago," she went on, "a Dark wizard murdered his parents, but they had protected their son with a magical protection that saved him and tore the Dark wizard's soul from his body, rendering him a wraith."
"A wraith?"
"A dark wizard, you mean like Sauron or Darth Vader?"
Ted Tonks, fortunately, kept up with the muggle world and so wasn't as flustered by the questions as his fellow magicals. "More or less. You have to bear in mind, that wizards and witches vary like everyone else; some are good, some are bad. The Dark wizard Minerva is talking about was a monster. He committed terrible acts of terrorism, he destroyed whole families and ravaged our worlds. When he was torn from his body, everyone rallied around, calling Harry a hero, something his parents would never have wanted."
"You mean you knew them?" A father asked sceptically. He was one of those muggles who were reluctant to accept the wizarding world, and in truth, he believed them freakish.
"We did," Ted gestured between himself, his wife, his daughter, and McGonagall. "They were friends of others, but regrettably we haven't seen Harry for years. His guardianship was out of our hands."
Andromeda so wanted to forget her pureblood training and start a scene, but she knew that wasn't a good idea. She knew several of the muggles with her were not happy with magic, and she had no intention of letting any of them abuse their children if she could help it.
"What happened to him, why is everyone parting for him like Moses?"
Andromeda sighed, "Harry's spent the last year in Azkaban prison. It's one of the worst places in our world. He was framed for mass murder, and he was traumatised by the wraiths that live there to prevent escape, and it turned his hair white. As prisons go, driving the inmates virtually insane is the best way of keeping them from escaping, but it's a nightmare for everyone innocent."
-8-
Harry walked into Gringotts in a bad mood, but fortunately, he managed to get everything cleared the way he had wanted. He would have to double-check with the airport to make sure nothing was going to go wrong with his trip. He contacted the bank and cleared it up, and then he made final preparations. He was heading for Germany first, and then he was going to be darting to and fro from there, between France, Spain, Portugal and then to Italy before he went on a flight, all the way to Australia.
On the day of the flight, he was relieved that he got through the airport without any niggling problems. He left Britain without a backwards glance.