Chapter 10
“Don’t know, lad, I’m letting the boss deal with that, he’ll want to know your sides of it before he does anything with Blaine.” He gestured to the man on the ground. “It’s not the first time he’s hit them, but it’s the first time it’s been in front of others, so I don’t know what’s going to happen to him.”
The guard that had approached the women joined them. “He’s going to lockup, we’ll have to notify the governor’s men.”
~~~
April 10th 2920
“Sir?” The first guard asked.
“Lora’s dead, young Benemir’s out cold and given the blow to his head, may not wake up. If he does, it’ll be a miracle. We’ve no healer in town and while I’ve sent Toff to Blue Grass, it may be too late.”
“Can I help?” Harry asked. “I’m not a healer, but I’ve had a little training. It might be enough to keep the boy alive, until someone better gets here.”
“Do it, anything you can, will be welcome.” The guard boss replied. “Tamm, Link, grab Blaine and take him to the lock-ups.”
“Got it, boss.” Two men bent down and grasped the now-panicking and apologetic Blaine, pulled him to his feet and dragged him away.
Harry went to the boy and the woman that was cradling him. “Lay him back down, gently. If he’s hurt his back or neck, holding him like that will make it worse.” He cast a subtle HIPS and followed it with a diagnosis charm, as he ran his fingers over the boy, making it look like he was looking for injuries. “He’s got a fat lip, a nasty knock to the head and a broken arm. I can set the arm.. But his head is… When he wakes don’t let him sleep. Not for the first few hours. The longer he’s awake the better. At least eight hours. After that? When he does sleep, keep waking him every two hours, just for tonight. He’ll have a vile headache today and tomorrow, but if you can keep him awake for the first eight hours, he should recover.” Harry told the woman and let the HIPS fall.
“Oh, thank you, thank you.” The woman whispered.
“Aye, lad thank you.” The guard boss agreed as he joined them. “Can we move him?”
“If someone carries him, yes.” Harry answered. “But he’ll need support to walk for a few days, once he wakes.”
“We’ve called for Lora’s father to come.” The guard boss said. “It’ll be Beneford’s decision as to what happens to the lad and the farm. With Blaine going before the magistrate for killing his wife, everything that was his, is now his son’s. And that’s Benemir. But he’s too young to make any decisions for himself.”
“Young dwarf?” Harry turned to a man that had approached from the road.
“Sir?” Harry asked.
“Your babe’s none too happy and there’s an owl that won’t let us near him.” The man seemed confused by what he was saying.
“Oh, Merlin… Teddy!” Harry squawked, then turned to the guard boss. “Can I see to Teddy? Is there somewhere that we can stop, until you don’t need us anymore?”
“Camp at the farmstead.” An old man who was being escorted by a young guardsman, told Harry.
“Beneford.” The guard boss greeted the man and while Harry threw him a quick ‘thanks’, he didn’t wait for introductions, now that things were quieter, he could hear Teddy’s screams.
He ran back across the field and clambered over the fence, pushed his way through the little crowd hanging around his wagon and climbed up onto the drive-seat.
“Thanks, Hedwig, I’ll take it from here.” He told the puffed-up owl and scooped Teddy from the cradle, into his arms. “Hey, cub, it’s alright… Harry’s here… hush now… Harry’s got you… it’s alright…” He keep up the soothing nonsense for a few minutes until Teddy had settled from screams to hiccupping whimpers. He grabbed the carrier and carefully slid the boy into it and it over his own head, knowing that Teddy needed his scent and the sound of his heartbeat to calm down.
“That’s an interesting bird, there.”
Harry looked up to see the man Beneford standing beside his wagon.
“That’s Hedwig, she was given to me a few years back and honestly? She’s the best gift I ever got.” Harry ran a finger down her wing and smiled, as she nibbled on his finger. “She’s very protective of Teddy and I.”
“Ah.” Beneford nodded.
“Yeah, she’s great at keeping an eye on Teddy when I’m busy, if people hadn’t been trying to get to him, she’d have just come and let me know he was upset.”
“She can do that?”
“If she’d just turned up, it would have been obvious.” Harry replied.
“Huh… I suppose it would have.” Beneford nodded. “I’m Beneford, Benemir’s grandfather.”
“Harry, son of James.” He went with the more casual intro.
“Benemir has been taken to the farmstead, to wait for the healer, he woke up but is complaining of not being able to see straight and has a bad headache. Anything you can do for him?”
“Possibly.” Harry nodded cautiously. “I have some potions that might help, but it’s your call as to whether he can have them.”
“What will they do to him?” Beneford asked.
“One is just for headaches. The other is a general pain-reliever. It’s not wise for him to have both.”
“Perhaps you would talk to him?” Beneford suggested. “He saw you coming across the field, said that your yell startled Blaine and he missed his first swing at Benemir. I think he’s more worried about the foal than he is about himself.”
“Foal?” Harry asked.
“The horse? It’s only a foal, less than a year old. Lori talked Blaine into getting it and Benemir’s spent more time with the foal than he did on his chores.”
“Ah.” Harry grunted.
“Yeah.” The old man agreed. “Now, I have to work out what’s going to happen to the boy. And the horse. And the farm. And see to burying my daughter.” His shoulders slumped.
“I’d offer my help, sir, but I don’t think there’s a lot I can do. Not in the circumstances.” Harry said.
“No, lad, you’ve done more than enough, but if you’d check on Benemir again, I’d be most grateful. Camp in the farm’s fields, talk to the guard, see what they need and when they say you’re free to go, we’ll wave you off with a smile and a full larder.”
“Thanks are all I’d ask for.” Harry said. “How do I get to the farmstead?”
“It’s up the way.” Beneford waved up the road in front of them.
“I’ll give you a lift if you like?” Harry gestured to the empty space on the drive-seat.
“That would be much appreciated, young Harry.” The man went around the front of the ponies and ran a hand down Ebony’s back. Once he reached the wagon’s front wheel, he stepped up onto the wheel hub and then to the rim before joining Harry on the drive-seat.
“It’s about a hundred yards up and take the left turn.” Beneford said. “Then it’s on the left, of course.”
“Of course.” Harry snorted and picked up the reins. “Ladies? Move out.” He called out and with barely a pause, the ponies took up the pull and the wagons began to move.
That evening, Beneford dropped back by Harry’s camp, to give him an update on what the healer said about Benemir’s condition. The broken arm was reset and the healer was in agreement with Harry, the boy had a concussion would have a doozy of a headache for a couple of days, but little in the way of long-term side-effects, particularly as he was awake and mobile.
The foal was in the care of the local herd-master and was expected to recover, which was good. But Beneford had talked with Benemir and told him that his chores came first, if he didn’t do them when he should, then he wasn’t responsible enough to have a horse and it would be sold. The lad agreed to his grandfather’s condition and said that he’d do them, he really wanted to keep the horse.
Harry gave Beneford and Benemir the modified recipe for the pony booster/treats and showed them how to make it. Beneford said that it might be a nice way for the boy to make some extra pocket-money.
The guardsmen came back through and got Harry’s statement, writing it down as he spoke. Once complete, Harry read it and added few things that they’d missed, much to their surprise, and agreed that was what happened, before signing it with his first name and sigil. After doing this, the guards said that he would be free to leave whenever he felt like it.
~~~
April 11th – 12th 2920
He reached Linhir late the afternoon on the 11th, having left Oak Gap not long after sunrise and stopping at Way Station Mill, where a few local tracks met. He topped up on feed and opened the shop-cart to the locals, doing okay but nothing spectacular. Then he was back on the move, heading on towards Linhir.
The gatekeeper/watch/guardsmen, told him that the city Livery-yards were open to whomever wanted to stay in the, for free, but that there was a two-night limit, unless he was doing business in the city, in which case he would need to register with the governor’s office.
Harry replied that he was really only there to resupply before moving on, he was heading north of Minas Tirith.
He checked into the yards and because of the size of his rig, he was given a larger portion of the yards, about a half-acre in size. Large enough for the mares to roll in the dust and not be jammed in on top of each other, but not large enough to restrict any other new arrivals' space. His wagons went in one corner, creating a ‘U’ shape with the three vehicles, to give him some privacy from gawkers.
The Summoning went well and because of the privacy, he was able to do a little sorting that evening, just enough to pull out the smaller coins and the man-size clothing. This was taken into the city and either exchanged or sold, depending on what it was. Also, some of the man-size weapons were sold, the armourer listening to Harry’s true-but-not-all-the-truth story, of how he acquired them. Then it was simply a case of bargaining for a good price. He walked away from the armourer’s with an extra filled sceptre and six crowns, so he was happy with that.
More dried fruit for the ponies and a stop at the herbalist’s for some more agrimony, calendula and white clover flowers dried in sunlight, for the ponies' booster/treats. While he was there, he spotted a trio of dittany plants and when the herbalist said they were the only ones he’d ever had, Harry didn’t hesitate to buy them.
So many healing potions used dittany.
After that, it was to the main market to top up on pretty much everything, especially tea. He managed to get three barrels, and not the tiny little firkin barrels, like the tea merchant in Dol Amroth had sold him, this time he managed to get three Hogshead barrels. The Hogshead barrels could hold one-hundred-seventy pounds of leaf tea. Each. He shrunk them, of course, and added them to his stasis stash, but only after taking out enough to fill the little firkin barrel that he kept in the main wagon, for day-to-day use.
Then it was feed for the ponies. He’d checked his pony-stasis-stash and found that he had twelve bags of mixed grain and four of oaten chaff and six bales of hay. He decided that he could double that, if he was smart about it, along with topping up his main-use barrels.
More stationery, he’d been Hermione’s friend for so long, that every time he passed a stationer’s, he bought ink and parchment.
While he got a fair amount of odd looks from the locals for having Teddy strapped to his chest, he really couldn’t care what they thought, Teddy was his godson and he was going to do everything he could, to have the boy grow up happy, healthy and safe.
He joined a few other campers for an impromptu dinner on his second night in the yards, telling tales and sharing travel tips. He gave one woman a copy of his pony treat/booster and got a soft toy in the shape of a pony in return. He was sure that Teddy would like that when he was a little older.
~~~
April 13th – 14th 2920
The remaining distance between Linhir and Pelargir might have been only sixty-odd miles, but Harry was in no real hurry. He stopped at most settlements, buying and selling to locals wherever he stopped. He finished the sorting of the Summoned stuff from Linhir and added things to his stock, as well as made up a chest of things to sell in Pelargir.
In Pelargir, he sought out the horse traders that were loosely allied with the Black Rock Fair and inquired about putting a couple of his mares in foal and how he’d go about it.
The Fair manager told him that they had a potion that would bring a mare into season overnight, without doing any long-term harm as long as it wasn’t used, every time she was sent to stud. Harry wasn’t sure about it, but after talking to the herd-master or horse healer as most people would call him, he decided that it was something to think about. And as it was something that was noted on their records, they'd know when it was last used on his mares.
He walked the yards of the pony pens, but didn’t see anything as nice as his ladies. Two stallions were as nice, but no mares.
After setting up camp on the common and roping off space for the mares, he headed for the town’s market on foot, he wanted to see what was there, not necessarily to buy, just to look. As he passed a tavern, he watched as a drunk was tossed out and shook his head. As he kept walking, the drunk struggled to his feed and stumbled across the road, roughly shoving Harry as he went.
“Oi, steady on, Fred.” Harry snapped and then froze, as he realised what he’d said.
The drunk had muttered something derogatory and started to collapse. Harry leapt forward and grabbed at him and yep, that was Fred. Ooh, Harry didn’t envy him the headache that he’d have the next morning.
Or the talking to, that Harry was going give him, on behalf of his mother and Hermione.
“Come on, Fred, let’s get you back to the wagon.” He led the very-drunk-but-no-longer-aggressive, Fred, back out of town and down to the common. He let Fred lean against the wagon, while he slipped Teddy into his cradle. Then it was grab the water bucket and enlarge it to bathtub size, fill it with a heated version of an augamenti, strip Fred down and dump him in the tub-sized-bucket. Harry grinned as he attacked Fred with a brush and soap, cleaning him as best he could. When the water was dirty, he vanished it and refilled the bucket/tub. Three times. After pulling the redhead from the bucket/tub, he grunted when it became clear, that even though Fred was still taller than Harry, he was also dwarf-height. He dug into the stash of dwarven stuff, that he'd acquired from various trunks, lockboxes and the like, and dressed Fred in clothes that fit… sort of…
From there, it was a simple matter to drop a bowl of magically warmed stew into Fred’s hands and watch as the still drunken Weasley ate it without a word. He pushed and prodded and eventually, just levitated the other man... no, the other dwarf... up into the wagon and onto Harry’s bedroll.
Then Harry turned his attention to Fred’s very dirty, very smelly and quite possibly very dangerous clothing. Who knew what a Weasley twin would keep in his pockets? Harry knew that the jacket was off-limits, that was just asking for trouble, no doubt it was full of pranks, but the pants, trousers and shirt? Those he could clean and even better? They were magically made clothes, so would take cleaning charms with ease. The jacket was levitated to a hook beside Fred’s feet and his clothes, now clean and smelling of magic, were laid beside his head. Needless to say, Harry and Teddy were going to sleep outside that night.
“…oh my God…” Harry whispered as he lay in his bedroll. “Fred’s alive… I’m not alone…”
~~~
April 15th 2920
Harry woke to Hedwig pecking at him.
“Hey, Hedwig, what’s up?” He whispered and pet her wing. She hooted quietly, leapt into the air and flew to her perch beside the wagon’s entrance and looked into the wagon. “Right, got it.” Harry grinned and leapt to his feet and scooped up a wide awake but content to wait for Harry, Teddy-cub. “Shall we wake Uncle Fred, cub?” Teddy gurgled and waved his arms around, one of them smacking Harry in the chest. “Good idea.” Harry walked the few steps needed to reach the wagon and smacked his hand down on the frame, watching as the whole wagon shook slightly and Fred squawked and tried to leap to his feet, only to get tangled in the bedroll, fall to the floor and roll into the fenced off barrels.
“Who in God’s name did that? Who do I kill!?” An angry Weasley was not a pleasant Weasley, but Harry was feeling very Gryffindor-ish this morning.
“Good… morning, Fred!”He called, not quite yelling, but very close to it.
There was silence from the wagon. After nearly a minute, Harry heard a rustle of fabric and assumed that Fred was trying to sneak to the wagon’s entrance to see if he was imagining things. Harry had ignored the silence, stoked up the camp stove and put a pot of water on for Teddy’s morning bottle. Then he lay Teddy down on a sheet of canvas and changed the usual overnight smelly nappy.
Silence stretched and eventually, Harry grew tired of it. “Want some breakfast, Teddy-cub? Yes, I thought you did. I know, Uncle Harry’s dragging his feet again, isn’t he? Dreadful. Well, I’m sorry, but it takes time for the water to heat your bottle… but we’ll get there… And… there we go, one bottle for one little wolf cub.” He raised his head and glanced at the wagon, Fred’s head was peaking around the edge of the frame. “Hey, Fred, you hungry?”
“….” Fred made a noise that more resembled something Ron made, when Hermione woke him, and fell backwards onto his ass.
“Fred?” Harry asked again. “Are… you… hungry…?” This time he spoke slowly, knowing it would irritate the redhead.
“Harry…?” Fred whispered, crawling forward on hands and knees.
“Yeah, what?” Harry was heating a pan with thick slices of bacon in it and laying a loaf of bread on the table.
“Harry…” Fred said again.
“Yeah, what?” Harry repeated and dug out a basket of eggs, before wiping Teddy’s chin with a cloth. “Messy cub.”
“Harry!” Fred seemed to realise that he wasn’t seeing things and tumbled from the wagon, barely noticing that he’d hit the ground before he leapt up and was hugging Harry.
“Oi, easy there, don’t make Teddy sick.” Harry slid Teddy into his cradle and still managed to hold the baby’s bottle, all without Fred letting go of him.
“Harry…” Fred collapsed to his knees and began to sob, Harry just pulled the now-dwarf close and let him cry.
When Teddy spat out his bottle’s nipple, Harry let the bottle fall beside the boy and dropped to his knees alongside Fred, letting both his arms close around the redhead. He cried with him and rocked them backwards and forwards, until they were both cried out.
Harry’s eyes hurt and he could hear Teddy’s almost whimpers, so dragged himself to his feet and scooped up the baby.
“Sorry, Teddy, I got carried away.” Harry said as he patted Teddy’s back, the baby stretched and let out a loud gasping burb and slumped back against Harry’s shoulder. “There. That’s much better, isn’t it, cub? You ready for a bath and some clothes?” He tickled a cheek and Teddy giggled at him.
“Harry?” Fred was still sitting on his knees on the ground.
“Yes, Fred?”
“Why have you got a baby?” Fred frowned.
“That’s what you’re going with?” Harry asked. “Not, where are we? Not, how did we get here? Not, why is Hedwig here? Just, why the baby?”
Fred’s frown grew. “Yeah, okay, mate. You know all the questions. Got any answers?”
“Some.” Harry took the very crispy, almost burnt bacon from the pan and began to crack eggs into it. “Where? We’re in middle-earth, which is… um… it’s from a book. A muggle book… at least I think it’s muggle…”
“What?” Fred tilted his head.
“Right, this man, Tolkien, he might have been a muggle, or possibly a squib. He wrote a series of stories that happened in a place called middle-earth. This is it, we’re in middle-earth. I have the books with me, you can read them if you like, but that’s the where.”
“Right.” Fred nodded. “How?”
“How?” Harry grimaced. “You… you died, at Hogwarts, in the battle.”
“Yeah, I remember that… Laughing with Percy, loud explosion, hurt to breathe, everything went black and when I opened my eyes, I was in a water-filled ditch, outside a pub. I spend a lot of time in that pub.”
“Not anymore, you don’t.” Harry frowned and ran a knife around the edge of the pan.
“Hmm… Go on.” Fred half glared at Harry.
“You died.” Harry repeated. “The battle resumed. We fought. We won.”
“Who else died? And will they turn up here?”
“Most of the DeathEaters died. Your mum took out Bellatrix Lestrange. The Lestrange brothers got Remus and Tonks. Flitwick and Trelawney got them. Neville got the snake. Dolohov got Colin. Ron got Dolohov. Greyback got Lavender. Hermione got Greyback. I got Voldy. I don't know who else died, Kingsley took Hermione and I to the Ministry, before names were taken and I think Hermione was making sure I didn't find out the death toll.” Harry sighed and flipped a couple of eggs. “And I have no idea how you're here. I wasn’t expecting Hedwig, when she landed on my shoulder or you, when you bumped into me.”
“Hmm…” Fred narrowed his eyes. “How do we find out?”
Harry paused in flipping the eggs to think about that. “Uh… maybe... a Patronus...?” He didn't sound confident about it, though.
“Will they be able to answer?”
“They can all cast patroni, Fred, you know that.” Harry handed Fred a plate. “Dig in. And Remus bloody well better answer if he’s here, I’ve got his kid.”
“And that bring me back to... why have you got a baby? For that matter… why are you here?”
Between bites of breakfast, Harry explained to Fred about Kingsley finding them, about the trial at the Ministry, about Hermione handing him Teddy and pushing him into the Veil. He showed him Hermione’s letter and caught him up on everything that had happened since.
“Well, shite, mate…” Fred sighed.
“Yeah…” Harry sighed along with him.
“So, what’s the plan? If you’re not going to let me drink, you gotta give me a reason.”
“Fred... What I’m going to do is finish my breakfast... put Teddy down for a nap... cast a silencing charm on us... then give you the lecture that your mother and Hermione would, if they were here.” Harry was completely calm as he spoke.
“Oh shit…” Fred winced. “I have a headache, a hangover even…”
“It’s going to get worse.” Harry said brightly.
“Oh, shite, bugger, bollocks…” Fred whined.
“Yes.” Harry agreed. “And after that, we are going to sit down and work out a history for you. We will see about getting you some clothing. And weapons. And see if you can use them. Also, do you have a wand with you?”
“Nope and my wandless is pretty small, I can filch a coin or two from a pocket, but not much more.” Fred answered.
“No more filching.” Harry warned. “Hermione sent along a box of wands, we’ll see if yours is in there, or if any of the others like you.”
“Ta.” Fred grinned.
“Then, we’ll work a message to send and how to determine who gets it.”
“Well, I’d say anyone from the DA or the Order, but that could get us Snape and we know who’s side he was on.”
“Oh, right, you don’t know about that, do you?” Harry grimaced.
“Mate?”
“Turns out Snape wasn’t on Voldy’s side, at all.” Harry answered. “Not after Voldy killed mum, anyway. Snape was in love with her and he made a vow to her and to Dumbledore, to do what he could to protect me. He helped us during the hunt, we just didn’t know that he was the one doing the helping.”
“And you know this… how?”
“When Voldy set the snake on him and he was dying, he gave me his memories and told me to take to the Headmaster’s pensieve.” Harry whispered. “He died basically in my arms.”
“Mate…” Fred didn’t know what to say.
Harry took a deep breath. “If he was here, that would be brilliant.”
“You want him here? After how he treated you at school? After he let the DeathEaters into the school?”
“Do you have any idea what the Carrows wanted to do to the students?” Harry demanded. “He stopped a lot of it, not all, true, but a lot. And… he protected the girls from far worse than a few curses.”
“Shit…” Fred realised what Harry meant and his stomach dropped.
“He stopped it before it happened, told the Carrows that if it happened, they’d lose any chance of public acceptance.”
“Thank, Merlin.” Fred whispered.
“Yeah.” Harry nodded. “I don’t particularly like him, but if it was him or no-one?”
“We’ll take Snape.” Fred nodded.
“Exactly.” Harry looked down at his lap. “Now… Teddy’s asleep, so I’m going to put him in his cradle. You... don’t... move...” The last three words were hard and cold.
“Oh, shite…” Fred whispered and hunched his shoulders.
Half an hour later, Harry changed Teddy’s nappy and picked up his empty bottle, put it on the table and slumped in a conjured seat.
“We need to make some plans, Fred. Not the least of which is sorting out stuff for you.” He said.
“Let’s get that Patronus sent, first, then we’ll have an idea of who we need to look for.” Fred said.
“Actually, I was thinking about that.” Harry said. “Sending a Patronus isn’t really that good an idea.”
“Why not?”
“It could expose whoever, to the muggles, draw too much attention. The wrong sort of attention.”
“Hmm… so…what do we do?”
“Point me’s.” Harry said and laid his wand on his hand. “Ad illud nearest Hogwarts trained magical, outside this camp.” The wand spun around on his hand and pointed north.
“Wicked, mate.” Fred grinned.
“Not done yet.” Harry grinned back. “Ad illud nearest Hogwarts trained magical, outside this camp, within one hundred miles.” The wand spun a circle and went back to pointing in the same direction.
“Whoa, I didn’t know you could put conditions on a point-me.” Fred leant forward and studied the wand on Harry’s hand.
“Hermione came up with the idea.” For the next few minutes, Harry changed the conditions until they knew that there were no Hogwarts magicals south of the mountains, other than to the north, and that the nearest, was a female and they were approximately where Harry’s maps said that the town of Erui Crossing was. Between seventy and eighty miles away.
“And we can’t apparate there, because of the muggles…” Fred huffed.
“Not just the muggles, Fred. All we have is a rough drawn map, no true co-ordinates, and I can’t apparate without having been somewhere or having co-ordinates. Can you?”
Fred made a moaning-whining sound. “No…” He slumped down and laid his head on the table.
“So, we have travel by road.”
“But I don’t like walking…” Fred whined.
“I never said walk, Fred.” Harry grinned. “I said road.”
“Uh?” Fred sat up and looked at Harry.
“Fred, Fred, Fred. Look around us. Where did you sleep last night?” Harry grinned.
“Oh!” Fred looked at the wagon. “That’s yours?”
“As are the other two and ten ponies.”
“Ponies?” Fred laughed.
“Ponies.” Harry nodded. “We’re not humans, we’re dwarves. At least Teddy and I are and you’re not six foot two anymore, you’re only a few inches taller than me, now. So there’s a good chance you are, too.”
“What?!” Fred squawked.
“I’d say you’re about five foot now, give or take an inch.”
“Oh, no.” Fred muttered. “That sucks.”
“Tell me about it.” Harry huffed. “Right, clothes for you, come on.” He climbed up into the wagon, Teddy in his arms. “Lift that board up, in the corner.” He nodded to the corner where his and Teddy’s bunks met. “Great. Pull that box out.” He added, once the board was moved. “Put it down there. Ta.” Harry dug into it with one and pulled out a small box and placed it on the bunk. He flicked his wand into his hand and unshrunk the box, watching as it became a large trunk-like box. “Just let me…” He opened it and pulled out one of the four bags in it.
“Have a dig through that. You want six pairs of undershorts, they’re a bit like boxers but they have a drawstring waist instead of elastic. Six pairs of trousers, don’t worry about the length, most tend to be too long and just bunch up on top of your boots. Six under shirts, they’re a cross between a singlet and a shirt, woven fabric like a shirt but they’re cut like a singlet. Six shirts, try to avoid the button-downs, the buttonholes aren’t always the same size and the buttons aren’t always the right size for the buttonholes. A jerkin, yes, they’re leather, try to find one that fits reasonably firmly, it will protect you better. A leather jacket, if you see one you like. A cloak, try to get one with leather fittings and make sure that it goes to at least your knees. Socks, six pair, I don’t care about colour as long as they fit. A pair of boots, our boots from home are great, but they’ll quickly mark you as foreign. And try for inconspicuous, we don’t want to draw attention, if we can avoid it. Bad enough, you having long ginger hair.” He muttered the last sentence as ducked past Fred and climbed down the ladder.
“Once you have clothes sorted, give me a yell and I’ll see to wands for you.” He called as he slid Teddy into his cradle, then started cutting vegetables for a stew.
~~~