The New Trio and the Madness Within

Chapter 7: Hogsmeade

Notes: Okay, so this chapter is just a bit of a filler, but stuff still happens. It's really just a group of third-years let loose in Hogsmeade and what they buy. Who doesn't love a nice shopping chapter?

(Me, sometimes, to be honest)

Enjoy anyways!

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One good thing occurred because of Harry's near death: The Dementors were withdrawn. Apparently, Sirius had told Amelia Bones, who had chewed Fudge out so badly that it took him an hour to regain the ability to function like a normal human being again, and then he'd had to go home to change his trousers. Only after that, did he recall the Dementors to Azkaban. Sirius told Harry all this when he visited him the next day; he'd been standing outside the door to Fudge's office, and the next time he'd seen him, he'd been wearing different trousers.

This was a source of great amusement to Harry, who told it to Draco and Neville when they visited soon after Sirius had left, who told it to Hermione and the twins. The twins then let their brothers know, and Ron ended up telling the rest of Gryffindor. Within a day, Fudge's mishap, as they were calling it, was known about by all the students and teachers alike. It was the first time Harry had ever been responsible for a rumour, accidental or not, and found it hilarious.

The first Hogsmeade visit had originally been scheduled for Hallowe'en, the weekend before the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match, but a sudden and violent storm which took over the entire weekend postponed it to November 13th and 14th, the weekend after the match. The seventh-years had both Saturday and Sunday, the fifth- and sixth-years had Saturday, and the fourth- and third-years had Sunday. This was the normal way Hogsmeade weekends were spread out, as neither the teachers nor the villagers were sure whether they could survive the combined forces of all the third-year and up students rushing through the otherwise peaceful wizarding village on Honeydukes-induced sugar rushes.

So, two weeks after they should have been able to, Harry and his friends made their way into Hogsmeade. They'd heard so much about it from their families, or in Hermione's case, from her friends and Hogwarts, A History, and they couldn't wait to see what would be available to them.

The first place they visited was Honeydukes, which was packed with their fellow third-years to such an extent that they were unable to even get in the door, so instead they made their way to Scrivenshaft's and Scribbulus to stock up on quills and stacks of parchment, respectively. Harry found a set of self-inking drawing quills that would change ink colours to what the artist needed, and since he'd never drawn with quills before, decided to get the set to try out. He also found an empty journal which increased the number of pages when all of them had been used, which he decided to buy for Remus as a Christmas present. He knew one of Remus' secret ambitions was to write a book.

They then went to the small pet shop next to the post office so Hermione could buy more cat treats for Pants, and Harry could buy some owl and snake treats. Hermione was just glad that the House Elves took care of feeding Pants every day, since she was sure there was no way she could carry enough pet food to last what was normally about six weeks between Hogsmeade trips. Harry was lucky, Hedwig always hunted for herself, and Enya normally hunted for herself, but really only needed food once each week, so even if she didn't hunt, it wasn't a big deal for Harry to buy and carry six weeks' worth of food.

Harry decided their next stop would be Zonko's, so they made their way there slowly, before realising the air was actually quite cold compared to inside the toasty shops, which made them run the rest of the way. Draco had decided it had been far too long since they'd done an all-school prank, so they each bought a large amount of Frog Spawn Soap, which looked just like regular soap, but would slowly transform into ten frogs on contact with water. They had organised to have Dobby switch out all bars of soap with the prank ones, hoping that by breakfast, there would be a plague of frogs in each house, as well as in the teachers' quarters. However, knowing that if they pranked Severus while he was in his Professor Snape persona, they'd be dead, they magnanimously decided not to prank him.

After they'd purchased a few more small-scale pranks, they set out to see if enough students had left Honeydukes to make it available to them. Luckily, they found it to be almost empty now, and when they asked Mr and Mrs Flume where everyone had gone, they found out it was almost always like this on the younger years' Hogsmeade days. Apparently, the students often unanimously decided to stay in Honeydukes until around 9, then there was a mass exodus to The Three Broomsticks. Only after lunchtime did the third-years decide to explore the rest of the shops on offer.

After leaving the sweet shop with their pockets and bags stuffed full of various sweets, some of which they'd never tried before, they acquiesced to Hermione's fervent request to visit Tomes and Scrolls. They ended up spending a good half an hour there, as Hermione ran around in the shop, oohing and aahing at the fascinating books she hadn't read before. Sadly (well, for her, anyway), she had only brought enough money for her to be able to buy two books, and she'd been heartbroken to not be able to buy the new Charms anthology which had come out last month. What she didn't know was that the boys had seen how much she wanted it and had secretly bought it for her as a joint Christmas gift.

As they made their way to their next stop, Dogweed and Deathcap, for Neville's next private Herbology project, Harry noticed something in the window of Gladrags which he thought would be a perfect gift for Sirius, so he told them to go ahead and he'd meet them there. He was in and out in five minutes, with a package in his arms, which he quickly put in his bag. Then, just before he went inside Dogweed and Deathcap, he saw the small jewellery store opposite. Looking back furtively, he entered the shop and walked up to the counter, stopping shortly to admire some of the more beautiful pieces of jewellery in the display cases. "Can I help you, young man?" asked the old man behind the counter.

"Yeah, er, I'd like to commission some jewellery. I'd like a man's platinum bracelet, a simple band with an auto-fit charm. On the outside, I'd like the words, 'Embrace what makes you different', and on the inside the words, 'So you'll always remember to stay true yourself, Love Harry'. Can you do it?"

The man, writing down what Harry wanted, looked up and said, "Yes, I can do that. That will be ten galleons, young man."

Harry paid after the man showed him what he'd written, so he knew he'd get it right, and slipped back out the door and managed to get across the street to his friends before they exited the Herbology shop. "What took you so long?" asked Draco. "I was getting worried you'd been kidnapped by the Harry Potter-Black fan club."

"There's a Harry Potter-Black fan club?" asked Harry incredulously.

"Yep," said Hermione. "It's got half of the girls in our year in it, and more than half the ones in Ginny and Luna's. On top of that, several boys from those two years are in it."

Harry groaned. "Why me?"

"Do you really want us to answer that question, mate?" asked Neville, joining the conversation after finishing his chat with the owner of the shop.

Harry just groaned again. The others laughed, including Draco, the traitor, and Draco and Neville slung their arms over his shoulders and lead him to The Three Broomsticks for some lunch and a butterbeer. Hermione skipped along next to them. It was funny, Harry mused, ever since she'd begun dating Fred, she'd let go of a few of her tomboyish attitudes, like refusing to wear skirts or ballet flats on principle. She'd decided that even though she didn't need them to feel good about herself, she liked wearing them on occasion when she knew she wouldn't be doing any hard work that day. It also served another purpose, this one she hadn't foreseen: some people had apparently decided that these made her a weak pushover. She'd disproved that foolish theory when Terry Boot had tried to cajole her into going out with him. When she'd turned him down, he'd approached her in the Great Hall after breakfast the next day and tried to blackmail her. That had lead to her kneeing him in a very sensitive place and leaving the Hall with Fred, whom she'd told about the date request the day before, and he'd seen the whole thing from his seat, then cheered when she'd shown Terry what happened when someone tried to mess with her. Well... he'd winced and covered himself, then cheered for her, vowing silently never to get on her bad side.

The Three Broomsticks was a loud, but homey pub. Madam Rosmerta, the owner and barmaid, was friendly and known to have the best gossip in town. The four of them had some lunch and butterbeer, although Draco decided after one sip that he'd rather just have some cherry syrup and soda, since it was not to his taste. Once they'd finished, they wandered around a bit more, visiting the Shrieking Shack and Dervish and Banges before making their way back up to the castle.