"I will never intentionally hurt Hermione and if something were to happen to her and it was my fault..." Harry left the remainder of the sentence unsaid but Richard understood from the look in his eyes what he meant. "I would like to point out though," Harry started after a few seconds of silence, "that Hermione doesn't need that much protection. She can take care of herself. She's brilliant and..." He was about to say had saved his life several times, but stopped. He realized he didn't know what Hermione had told him and emphasizing additional dangers might not be a good thing, "I bet she'll be protecting me as much as I am her."
"Well Mr. Potter, I guess I should make an effort to get to know you," Richard said. "Can I offer you a drink?"
"A coke sir, but not if it's trouble."
It was five minutes later when Hermione interrupted her husband. "Everything okay down there? I felt you get angry earlier but was afraid to peek in."
"I think we're going to be fine. We had a bit of a discussion and I think we came to an understanding. I'm explaining Quidditch at the moment. A safe thing to discuss."
And three minutes later Hermione entered with her mother. Both of whom had dressed nicely for the dinner, but with comfortable shoes for the shopping.
"So a keeper is like a goalie?"
"Yes, but he has three different goals to protect, all at slightly differing heights. What makes it difficult according to my old captain is keeping position on your broom. The wind has a tendency to push you off your center. A keeper's broom needs excellent acceleration and deceleration but doesn't need to be very fast."
"And there are actually flying balls that..." He stopped when the ladies appeared in the room. "Well it looks like the womenfolk are ready to capture you and lead you away to your doom."
"I don't think it will be that bad sir," Harry replied as he looked appreciatively at the dress Hermione was wearing.
"We'll see what you say in a few hours," Richard replied trying not to notice the admiring look the young man was giving his daughter and failing miserably at it.
"Make sure you tape the matches on the telly tonight dear," Jean instructed her husband. "We'll probably be late."
Harry and Hermione realized she meant the Wimbledon matches and both started wondering what Sirius was keeping from them.
Dobby and Winky were disappointed that they weren't cooking dinner for the whole family that night, but promised that Mr. Granger would be properly fed.
When they were in the car, Jean turned to her daughter who was in the backseat with Harry. "Well don't I feel like a proper chauffeur, well m'lady and sir, where do you wish to go?"
"I think Harvey Nicks would be best wouldn't it?"
"We'll only have a couple of hours once we get there," Mrs. Granger said as she looked at her watch. "Fortunately traffic will be coming out of the city so it shouldn't be that bad this time of the evening. If we can wait and eat after we shop, we can give it a go. We can even eat there. They have a lovely restaurant on the top floor. "
It was still before six pm when the Mercedes pulled into the underground garage at Cadogan Place and they started their walk toward the iconic department store. They first went to the fifth floor where they made reservations at the restaurant for eight-forty. Then they descended to the lower levels where men's clothing was sold.
They spent the next two hours until the eight closing time purchasing clothes. They got the underwear and socks first and then moved to casual wear. An hour later Harry had several pairs of trousers and jeans along with t-shirts of various designs including one that had what looked like a Hungarian Horntail on it, button down shirts, two pairs of trainers and all the rest to round out his casual wardrobe. The also selected several sets of pajamas and a very luxurious robe in Gryffindor colors. In direct contrast to his previous clothes, his shirts now were form fitting, tight enough to show his lean body.
When they'd finished the casual section they moved to the formal and semi-formal wear. There Harry ended up with two suits, one black and one a dark blue, two sports coats, an assortment of shirts, several ties and shoes.
"Well don't you look dapper, young man," Jean said as she eyed Harry over when he emerged again from the dressing room. He was currently dressed in a tan sports coat over an emerald green shirt that matched his eyes. "I do believe you clean up fairly well," She leaned over to Hermione who was eying her husband appreciatively, "Think you found yourself a handsome one there."
"I did, didn't I mum," Hermione replied. "Of course that's not what makes Harry special."
"No, but it never hurts now does it?" Jean replied as they watched Harry disappear into the changing room again. "I didn't believe it when you said he wouldn't mind shopping, but he really doesn't does he? By now Richard would be complaining non-stop, well actually he'd have started about two minutes after entering the store."
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