Harry normally loved shopping. It represented some semblance of freedom for him, since he had the money to buy whatever he wanted and the audacity to do just that… and every other instance of going shopping historically had been a moment he'd broken free from some supervision, whether welcome or not. He also really liked his clothes and getting new stuff, the thrill never getting old since he'd spent a large chunk of his life penny-pinching literal coins at a time to be able to buy his once precious few belongings.
In the extremely bright light of day given the blanket of snow that had fallen on them last night made looking out the window positively blinding now that the sun was directly above them and reflecting off the world of white outside, Harry found his normal enthusiasm dying.
That feeling he'd gotten in the muggle shop had come back full force and honestly… he didn't want to go out today.
Mainly because his muggle shopping was done, all that was left was the things he still needed from the wizarding world, which meant a trip to Diagon Alley.
But he couldn't go with Remus to Diagon.
Sitting in what he considered now 'his' seat in Remus' tiny kitchen, he found the once colorful alley losing absolutely all the appeal it'd once had to him.
It was cold and snowy outside, but warm and filled with the scent of cooking onions and spices from where Remus was cooking lunch for them at the stove. With his Hogwarts work entirely finished they'd gotten through the first chapter in the Chemistry textbook this morning and made muffins with chocolate chips in them for breakfast. They'd shoveled off the deep layer of snow blocking their rough pathway back to the road, then ended up building snow-creatures of all questionable sizes and likeness until their tiny muggle cabin had a verified zoo of magical snow-creatures outside.
It'd been a busy morning, and now safe inside, hair dried and skin warmed up once more, appetizer of hot chocolate drunk and settling in for lunch, frankly Harry was kind of dragging his feet in actually going through with their planned trip this afternoon. For the first time he was thrilled that Remus insisted on only taking a small trips instead of wasting their holiday buried in shops, since there was a precedent here that he could probably speed-run this Diagon journey in one or two hours tops to get back home in no time.
Which is why he was leaving the meal cooking to Moony so he could focus up and finish this shopping list of his to know exactly what he needed to get so he could get in and get out at each shop with all haste.
He had almost everyone figured out thanks to the muggle shops they'd gone to. He was a rich child so despite tons of friends he managed to get everyone relatively nice things, although those he was only on friendly terms with, not friends exactly, were definitely more generic.
Nearly the entire football club was getting their own personal footballs he'd picked up from a muggle sporting goods store. Even Ron, mainly to keep the peace so it didn't look like he was specifically excluding him, but it was for sure the most boring one he could find. And while he wasn't a snake so he wouldn't get the whole gift-giving-language thing and no other lion would likely catch it either, it also kind of back handed as Ron hadn't actually been to the football club at all this year. Frankly Harry didn't miss him, but he was still 'one of the Gryffindors' so he had to give him something and the ball was like it was an olive branch of 'hey come back to the club' despite the fact he knew it would just piss Ron off even more. Was for sure not going to actually get him back to the club but at least the effort would make him look good in his own house for once.
For people like Hannah and Susan he'd managed to get actually decent women's cleats instead of boring black or white ones: most people were still in sneakers after all, but as everyone was getting more and more into the sport, and given the gear to play it properly is muggle, getting your hands on it at Hogwarts was relatively hard for purebloods. Dean, as one of the biggest players of the club and notable muggleborn himself, had somehow gotten pairs for himself, Seamus, and Lu already, and while he shouldn't be surprised he was still kind of impressed when Daphne had appeared with her own pair too.
That's kind of what inspired him for the girls' gifts in the first place, because he'd seen the green eyes of envy on Hannah's face at Daphne's new dark purple and slightly sparkly athletic shoes that very obviously helped running on grass a lot.
Just to be sure as well, he'd also practiced and now knew even if they didn't fit (since he was only guessing at their shoe sizes,) if he got them slightly larger he would be able to transfigure them when he got back to actually fit their feet, which he considered very brilliant on his part.
So that's the club in general, Susan, and Hannah checked off…
He mentally checked things off, double checking the list and crossing out those who already had gifts he just needed to wrap still.
On top of a new custom ball, Lu was also getting shin and knee pads because he seemed to limp everywhere these days from practicing with Susan.
Dean and Seamus, for being the saints they were in running interference with Ron, were getting brooms of their own officially. Dean was for sure more interested in football, but Seamus was still a diehard quidditch fan even if he didn't make the team, and the two of them fully shared each other's' enthusiasm for their respective passions by adopting it themselves. The times Seamus and Harry had tried to teach Dean during some pick-up games on the school brooms though, they'd ended up in very in-depth discussion on the best broom models where he learned Seamus had some very strong opinions on the topic. Since he'd known exactly what to get from those discussions (a respectable, modern Comet series since Seamus called him a lunatic when he'd tried to offer Dean his Nimbus to practice on—claiming that was like handing someone learning to drive a Ferrari), he'd actually already put the order in by owl, to be delivered Christmas day so he didn't need to stop there himself in person thankfully.
He was slightly nervous gifts that large would be a bit too far but… he owed them a lot for their efforts this year, and if McGonagall could get him the Ferrari of brooms as a teacher and somehow not get called biased (she was) then he could get away with spoiling some of his closest friends, thank you.
Besides, it was also sort of self-serving as now they'd have no excuse not to play pick-up games with him, and Seamus would no longer be able to claim his inability to aim correctly was because the ancient school brooms were drifting on him or whatever.
Neville… angel that he was, got high end goalie gloves and cleats as well obviously, dark red in color. That was literally the bare minimum though since he didn't want him to be excluded as the rest of their friends got new gear, given he was still pureblood so his Gran managing to ever get him muggle cleats was all but incredibly unlikely. Even if she'd tried, given how the things he normally got went, they'd be shoes from forty years ago and also somehow cursed to tangle their laces together or something else equally unlucky.
No, Harry had been planning Neville's actual gift since Halloween pretty much, and had already written to the Flammels in amongst their normal correspondence weeks ago. Ms. Penny had mentioned she was a gardener in her own right, not seriously but certainly continuously, so his hunch was correct that she'd been able to putter around her garden a bit and find some seeds that they were pretty sure were technically extinct. Since her garden was hundreds of years old by now but still well-maintained, she'd been pleasantly surprised (if not a bit saddened) to realize that some of her plants were so old in fact that many of their wild relatives had died out at some point.
She'd been happy to send some seeds as well as a potted seedling of what was apparently a very unique bush (in some kind of magical jar to keep it alive thank god, since Harry knew it would die before it got to Neville if he'd been in charge of more than just its delivery), and even a set of handwritten notes on how to care for it which were at least two hundred years old going by the state of the parchment.
There was no way he'd actually be able to repay Neville for everything the blond had done… every chance he got he already showered him clothes and sweets and anything he could think of, but his quiet friend didn't really care about material things in that way. Slytherins, who had enough money that 'having things' was not the reason they gave gifts at all, still enjoyed the politics and messages behind the act of giving a gift, but someone like Neville… Harry could gift him the Potter family vault key OR a pile of literal cow dung and he probably would respond with that same quiet little 'thank you' he always did.
Susan's words about not being able to play life like a game of scales dug heavily into his shoulders when thinking about giving Neville things because the guy seemed to personify that problem Harry had pretty well. There literally was no material thing he could gift his meek Gryffindor friend that would 'make up' for anything, because to Neville none of it actually mattered like that. All he wanted back was for Harry to be a friend and since he knew he was a terrible friend on many levels that was going to be a life-long struggle he'd need to work on.
For Christmas though, the plant would have to be enough for now.
For the Flammels themselves, since they had pretty much everything mortal-possession-wise and Mr. Nick being an alchemist meaning what they didn't have they could literally just make, he'd settled on a show of skill since that was what most of their relationship was built off of. Before he'd left Hogwarts he'd spent a rather long time carefully transfiguring beetles into matching broaches for them—leaving the wings on as that seemed to be becoming his signature thing and he thought the little trick would be an entertaining way to display the principle of the paper they were helping him write. It was his first real attempt at designing something to wear—clothes or accessories—but he really enjoyed the process at least and hoped they liked them.
Speaking of designing stuff though, his second attempt at making jewelry was for Luna, in which he repeated the trick except turning beetles into what he thought whackspurts looked like going off of the description she'd given him. No idea if he was anywhere close, but the contraptions would now float around her on beetle wings, maybe landing on her hair or cling to her ears as earrings if they wanted to. Really he'd let the beetles keep some autonomy so they could orbit, but as he had no idea exactly what was doing he really wasn't sure how they'd act long-term… he was pretty sure Luna would like them though, no matter how weird or crazy they were or became.
His non-Slytherin first years he'd all gotten nice sets of journals and wand-holders for up their sleeves, figuring since he was taking on a mentor-like role he needed to set them up for success, and the little Gryffindor boys in particular needed a reminder to focus on their studies and keep on top of their dueling lessons too. He did add a chunk of candy and some crazy colored inks to test writing notes out in for a flare of fun though.
And speaking of candy, he'd put in large orders with Honeydukes for all the Hogwarts professors barring Hooch and Binns, since one was a soulless waste and the other was Binns, a ghost who couldn't eat candy. He figured he was already a suck up to most of them and McGonagall was going to get a metric ton of coffee caramels from him regardless, so if he didn't play it like it was so obvious he had favorites, the better. He even sent Dumbledore exactly one box of Bertie's just to keep up appearances that he was still a good little Gryffindor who didn't hate his headmaster's guts to the pits of hell, but it was for the obligation and deflection only.
He even sent some of the licorice that Draco swore his godfather liked to Snape—that one was purely to fuck with him though as he couldn't help but grin to imagine the look of disgust on the potion master's face when he got it.
More candy and half a ton of knitting yarn for Hagrid, books and some muggle science kits he picked up in town earlier for Hermione, a nice cashmere scarf and a flower delivery for Mrs. Weasley since he knew he was about to get a sweater, a couple other things he'd picked up here and there in his shopping so far…
All of that had been rather reasonable to sort out before he even left Hogwarts, and then either pick up during their trips into the muggle village down the way or at least send Hedwig off to put orders in for magical shops he knew took those orders. He didn't need to hand-pick out every journal and magical ink color as he knew what he wanted and could easily put in an order for red ink and matching Gryffindor-styled journals for first years to Flourish and Blotts, and the clerks there would know exactly how to execute that order.
The only people he had not figured out just yet, were the Slytherins, and the twins.
He had been thinking about it though—a lot in fact—it's just that he needed to actually put the final details on some stuff before he could call it good. The twins had been very hard for him for some reason, as he wanted to match their energy and creativity if he could, he just… well, who could match the twins? They might joke and call him their triplet but he was, in fact, not half as devious or creative as they could be sometimes which was frankly impressive.
In the end, he'd decided to go for something more business-than-fun, which seemed counterintuitive when dealing with notorious goof-offs, but Harry knew the twins were far more serious than they ever let anyone see. Just because they were dedicating their wits and energy to pulling pranks, didn't mean they weren't brilliant—they were fourth years but easily doing magic not even taught at Hogwarts to be able to create the "joke" products they were experimenting with. They were doing it all for the laughs in the end but they were doing it—such as inventing, documenting, selling, and planning to start a very real, physical business one day.
Harry knew they already had a line of joke candies they wanted to start dealing out at school. They'd told him about it as a confidant since they were in on his secret business stuff and were willing to share back in order to get a Slytherin-ish take sometimes. They'd already brainstormed a few things even, and Harry knew it was likely he was about to get some of the most recent ones with the updates they talked about as a Christmas gift 'surprise'.
That being said, one thing he had noticed was their whole 'Weasley Wizard's Wheezes', as they'd recently dubbed it, had a bit of a marketing issue. Not a big one as all wizard products if you walked down Diagon Alley had the same vibe: loud, garish, wonderful, crazy, circus-like colors, normally dark jewel in tone or frighteningly pastel if to be marketed for girls or something. Everyone doing that up and down Diagon is what Harry had fallen in love with when he'd seen it for the first time, since he'd been coming into it from a world of worn-down suburban white and meaningless, hand-me-down grey.
A year and a half ago, it meant even his unnaturally blood-colored hair hadn't stood out at all in the chaos of his entrance to the wizarding world.
From a business perspective though, it meant no color you picked would ever stand out at all, even if they did manage to get a physical shop location in Diagon, and while for an individual to blend in it was nice, a business needed to be able to catch window-shopper's eyes into stopping at least a moment— in hopes of that eventually turning into people coming inside as well. It was just that it felt like every color you could imagine was already taken! You couldn't even coat your store front in pure silver or gold to stand since those materials were so common in the magical world somehow it would still be pretty normal comparatively. Gringotts was the closest to standing out as its huge, white marble presence at the end of the alley stood out sharply—but that wasn't a business and building something to look like what wizards associated with their bank was not a good decision. Also, for some reason all-white buildings had a distinctively muggle feel, and everything in the "evil" Knockturn Alley was black and dark grey, so going black or white to try and stick out amongst all the other colors would also scare off all the magical customers.
Fred and George had already been giving a few things out, including to Harry, and he'd noticed the deep purple and orange scheme they were trending towards. They weren't stupid—he knew their favorite colors were orange and pink but this deep wizardry-jewel tone choice for their packaging was probably a conscious decision on their part specifically to blend in with the already existing products commercially available, to seem more 'adult' and legitimate since they were just teenagers trying to start something serious.
In Harry's opinion though, blending in was the last thing they needed. The products would sell themselves because they were good products, but being unable to tell a Wheezes product from a Honeyduke's or Zonko's if he held all three in his hand felt like a bad business decision. Maybe short term it would work, to grab onto Honeyduke's and Zonko's already established reputations in a small way, but long term they'd be just another candy or joke shop to choose from.
Which meant they needed something unique amongst their competitors, and Harry wanted to get that for them somehow.
It had taken him a long while to brainstorm what color scheme to go with since everything had already been taken, something that toed the line between magical and muggle to appeal to both markets, and also being somewhere between full garish Gryffindor and something so refined only a snobby pureblood would buy it since they had mentioned they would like to breech the Slytherin market if they could, they just hadn't made much progress on that front yet. Harry had been thinking about it for weeks, but it wasn't until he'd spent this past week walking around muggle shops and actively taking notes on different styles out there that he finally settled on one he thought would be perfect.
He'd taken it from one muggle clothing designer but it wasn't like anyone owned the color combination—in fact a good chunk of the world's countries already used it, including their own.
How he intended to use it though was careful, the deep navy the main color with very tasteful accents of gold, white, and red here and there for something a lot more subtle than wizards normally went with. Also having a dominant color at all, not equal parts of two insanely bright colors (which he personally liked, don't get him wrong) was a little more sophisticated while not being boring like the fact Draco's 'in style' robes according to purebloods were flat black yet-again this season. The dominant color being a neutral would probably attract people who liked things a little less wild, while having the pops of brighter colors, if done right, would still be playful enough when needed.
His gift to the twins then, was a several-foot parchment role where he'd written his essay on why this was a good business decision and how best to use it, as well as his intention to get some sample packaging from a shop in Contrair he thought could do that for them. He'd already talked to the shop keep there over the summer, the 'Odd Solution' she sold actually being what equated to a muggle hobby shop with a plethora of papers and glitters and more for decorating or whatever crafty project someone wanted to take up—it was actually where he'd ordered Hagrid's yarn from already since he knew she could do whatever color he specified. Likewise he knew she could dye paper or buttons or whatever crafts she sold any color he requested at all, but he didn't know if she'd be willing to branch out some and sell stiff paper made into boxes or tissue paper to fill those boxes with to cushion Wheezes' products, and so forth. Every shop keep in Contrair had that creative flair to sell whatever they wanted if it so fit their interests and abilities, so he hoped if he could talk to her in person and pose this idea, she might be able to put something together and then maybe be willing to work with the twins directly to get them their packaging if they liked the idea. Even if they didn't like his color scheme proposal they could still then be able to work with her to get packaging for the colors they did want to move forward with.
So the plan was in place, but that was at least one in-person conversation he needed to have in the Alleys.
Not to mention, Slytherin was a whole other monster.
As always, gift-giving in the snake house was a full contact sport and he felt like maybe he'd just lucked out or they dismissed him as a stupid Gryffindor if his gifts had been off last year. However this time there would be no excusing it if he messed it up: they treated him like a snake so he had to show up like a snake and if he were to be a 'stupid Gryffindor' this time, then there would actually be love lost between them.
At the very least he had to put in some serious effort to nailing this down, but it caused some serious dilemmas. His only consolation was that at the very least he knew Draco would love whatever he got him… his parents though, who'd be there with him on Christmas morning to see the gift, would definitely be judging him harshly so it still had to be absolutely without fault since they were already very hassled by the fact Draco was friends with him at all. He could not fumble this and the pressure was really on.
Luckily after over a year of taking notes since last Christmas, he thought he had a good understanding of the politics of it all even if he knew he'd need to brush up on the specifics of the gift-giving-language they all grew up knowing before next Christmas.
Slytherins, as a rule, didn't really celebrate birthdays with gifts. Special events or milestones seemed to be fair game, but birthday gifts weren't really the norm in pureblood culture. Reciprocating a birthday gift would unlock a whole can of worms and one-up-ing that might not ever end, so they typically didn't start—they typically didn't publicly announce their birthdays at all like it was some closely guarded secret.
In fact, he was pretty sure Slytherins just flat out didn't celebrate birthdays. He'd been obviously distracted this year but other than a well wishes from Draco in their journal he hadn't gotten anything from him or any other snake, even if he'd found letters and presents from non-snakes in the pile of mail Axeclaw had hung onto for him. He'd also wished Draco a happy day on his birthday back in June and got a 'thank you' back before his friend had gone on to tell him about the flying practice he was doing that day. Draco, as a rule, was the most spoiled person Harry knew, so the sheer fact his parents hadn't even put up a special dinner or taken a trip somewhere to celebrate their precious son's birth meant that birthdays were not a thing to Slytherins. If the elder Malfoy's had any excuse at all to spoil their only child, they absolutely would've, so the idea of celebrating a birthday must've been so insanely muggle that Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy hadn't even heard of it.Which might be an exaggeration as they weren't that dumb or unobservant, so it was more likely so muggle they chose not to take part in it, Harry assumed.
Yule was a serious event though.
He'd picked up that the Malfoy Yule party was a Very SeriousTM ordeal and if they weren't having it, another pureblood family definitely was. He was sure there was some politics in the background of who got to host it and who was going to what party, and so forth, so it said a lot that the Malfoys were the hosts most years. Which, he attributed mostly to Narcissa Malfoy's terrifying hosting abilities since he'd experienced that once himself.
The thing was, gifts always came with strings to Slytherins, so they were generally rejected or frowned upon in the normal day-to-day. What constituted a gift versus a bribe or a trade, after all? The lines were too blurred when it came to Snakes and at least they were self-aware enough to know they were too much for even themselves to handle if they went about giving gifts willy-nilly.
The exception, was Yule, where there was an expectation was very clear that what you received genuinely was just a gift in honor of the holiday and nothing more. In fact, it was so obligatory that no one escaped no matter how you felt about someone.
That was actually the only reason Theo had given him a gift last year despite clearly wanting nothing to do with him back then, despite only ever saying two full sentences to him ever at that time even! Because Harry had forcefully inserted himself into his world and sat with him throughout their first school year despite how much he openly had not liked that, there was still a connection despite him not wanting one. They were connected in each others' social circle, so there was an expectation to give a gift. After all, if Harry had given him a gift but Theo hadn't… that would've been a catastrophic look on a Slytherin that the cautious bookworm would've avoided at all costs.
In fact, going by Daphne's explanations and some off-hand comments by Blaise, if someone gave you a gift and you hadn't gotten them something in return, that was about the worst situation a Slytherin could find themselves in, socially. Literal a nightmare situation for many of them—so even if you were gentle acquaintances, even if you'd only met a couple times or done public business with them once or twice, you played the gift-giving game, or else.
Hence a journal from Theo last year. In gift-giving language that was insanely generic, almost a 'reflect on yourself' or 'you should study more' type backhanded comment. Harry had actually liked the journal but without knowing if he were an academic or not, it could be seen as a very icy, impersonal, slightly grudging 'fine if you must have a gift here it is' type thing—very on point for the quiet boy at the time.
Had Hermione been a Slytherin, giving her a well-made journal would've actually been a nice compliment—but since Harry was only really good at Transfiguration by luck, it was more of an insult to him. Not that he'd known that since he was a stupid Gryffindor, but hey. He'd even copied the attitude in a much more positive way by getting his underclassmen some journals this year, since the message from him was that he wanted them to focus on school a little more, and thankfully they weren't close enough to any Slytherins to know journals were sometimes considered insults.
It was all very complicated, essentially. He couldn't just get them things they needed to wanted, if he knew them then he had to get them a gift and it also had to have the right message behind it or he'd end up insulting a lot of people and damaging his reputation in their house after all the effort he'd gone through to be taken seriously.
Which all circled back to the current dilemma… of what to get the Slytherins.
He'd already explained in detail how important gift-giving was to his snake friends to Moony, but he was ranting about it again as he struggled to finish this list. Remus just finished their meal and put it on the table above his paper, joining him at the table and mulling the issue over himself.
In some ways, despite Harry's sharp words on the topic, Remus had still been a little hesitant or uneasy whenever Harry flaunted how much wealth he had. There was an imbalance in a way, and the constant reminder he was twelve and one of the richest wizards in the wizarding world did pop up in awkward ways unfortunately. Which, James Potter had been too, so it was kind of a double standard in his opinion.
The only excuse he could think of is that his dad had been Remus' age when he was alive so it was just a thing about his friend he'd known, but now faced with someone so much younger being the same way it threw him off sometimes. Maybe because he was now an adult looking at a kid, maybe hung up on the idea that twelve-year-olds typically didn't know how to manage money…
For some reason though, talking about giving gifts to Slytherin seemed to cure him of that discomfort entirely. Maybe because Harry wasn't just going for the most expensive thing he could think of needlessly, impulsively even, he was sitting here honestly trying to figure out the right gift. If it happened to cost a lot, then he had the money to get it anyway was all.
And maybe it was because Moony now knew about Harry's Slytherin friends via their letters and had gotten an earful about all of them in person now too, but he had clearly picked up that money and status was just important to their way of life and that Harry personally respected that.
Maybe it was a combination of both and more, but whatever it was Harry was happy they'd gotten over the discomfort entirely at this point and he now had an ally to brainstorm with.
"Does Mr. Nott like tea?" He asked suddenly, and as surprised as he was Theo was the first person he had an idea for, Harry felt warm that Moony had already picked up on and was and respecting the Slytherin habit of treating people politely, going by last names until you were more familiar with them.
"I think he does… he picks at his food and Draco gives him a hard time about it, but I think he likes tea well enough."
"I know when I'm busy with work or a book, I'm always annoyed to look up and realize my tea has gotten cold while I wasn't paying attention. Time always flies like that, in a good story." He chuckled. "I know you can enchant a cup or a mug to keep tea at whatever temperature you'd like it to be near indefinitely. I'm don't know the magic but I'm sure someone in Diagon would be able to do it." He suggested, since this was a planning session to see what Harry could get in the Alleys this afternoon.
He perked up at how excellent that idea was, already planning what shop he'd stop at in Contrair. He'd eaten there a couple times himself and knew they had self-stirring mugs so maybe they would know about the temperature enchantment too—and if they didn't they'd at least be interested in looking into it to further their business.
"That's brilliant! Maybe I'll get him some fancy tea and then an enchanted mug like that. He's very secretive about what kind of books he likes and you can't do vouchers or gift cards to like Flourish and Blotts," He'd ranted a bit. Draco hadn't even known what a 'gift card' was and decided it was no use bringing that up to any other snake ever. It wasn't nearly fancy enough for the pompous purebloods and he strongly suspected it'd be taken as a heavy insult by most Slytherins. It was like giving them cash, like they couldn't afford it themselves… so yeah, huge insult.
Honestly he'd thought Theo would be one of the hardest since he'd previously been trying to aim for his bookworm tendencies before realizing he didn't know enough to gift give in that area. A gift for something hobby-adjacent was clever though, as a nice up of tea always went well with a book. And it made him vindictively happy that a werewolf's idea and an Odd Solution would be Theo's gift—if he liked it, it'd be the most hilariously ironic thing to happen this year.
Also, speaking of the Contrair Alley café, directly next door to that shop was the eyeglass store, and he needed to talk to Osmias. Last they talked he'd suggested those poison-detecting glasses and wanted to see if he had them ready to be able to give to his firstie snakes as Alden in particular definitely did not know any detecting magic just yet unlike his classmates and could used the leg up.
He added that to his list of stops next to each other with a pleased hum.
"I think I know a shop in Contrair Alley that might be able to do something cool with a teacup… but I also have to stop at another store or two over there. I know you said you'd wait at the café we met at before but… what about a café there instead?" He asked as delicately as he could, because the question was also kind of code for 'are you welcome there?' Cause he'd already confirmed outright he would not go into Diagon with him, visible or invisible. He hadn't said anything about Contrair though.
And Harry realized something when Remus just frowned with a tilt of his head.
"Contrair Alley?"
Harry tilted his head right back, surprised. "Eh? You haven't been?"
He searched his brain for a moment, wondering if he'd never mentioned it in his letters before. There was a solid chance he hadn't, as their letters were genuine correspondence, not filled with boring business stuff like where they got their potion ingredients. Over letters Remus had always purposefully steered the conversation away from shopping as the unspoken reality is that most shops didn't serve him outright, so he had less options to bother discussing such things with.
"I'm afraid I haven't. I haven't even heard of it," Moony admitted, pausing in eating his lunch for a moment to give a curious look.
It hit Harry quite suddenly how good this news actually was though and his energy shot up immediately.
"It's run mostly by muggleborns and the like! It's a shopping district like Diagon but since purebloods own Diagon you can't really open shops there if you're starting new. It's a really fun place, I don't know why more people don't go!" He blurted out eagerly. "And by 'more people' I mean purebloods in general, as no one told me about it—if I hadn't literally stumbled into it off of Diagon itself then I never would've found it but it's a great place and has a ton of muggle stuff as well as magical stuff, and even both! Like my contacts I told you about: a vendor down there learned about contacts and glasses from muggles and adapted them with magic—they call it an 'Odd Solution' since it's something muggle that's been made magical and sold for wizards instead."
Moony set his spoon down on his plate, surprised. "I had no idea…" He admitted, and Harry knew the look in his eye was the same hope he himself was feeling on his behalf.
"Are you interested in checking it out then? Draco went with me only once but I literally had to drag him and even then he still refused to go into any shops. Purebloods and wizards not super friendly with the muggle world almost never go down there and from what I've seen they're really all very nice. They mind their business, I should say—most of them aren't pureblood enough to be nosey as wizards always are." He tried to sell the place, really hoping he wasn't wrong in thinking that the folks in Contrair would care a lot less about a werewolf in their shop than those in Diagon would.
After all, he'd lived there for several weeks as an unaccompanied minor and no one had really said anything about it, nor called the Ministry or Hogwarts to report him or anything. None of Dumbledore's people or stray Death Eaters had come to both him—he just bought food from vendors and stopped in at the bookshop to read occasionally and the shop keeps had let him do it without a single word that wasn't business related said to him.
Surely the would give a shit about yet another man just wandering around their shop, like Remus was just any other customer.
He really hoped at least.
And so, it seemed, did Moony, although he was visibly unsure about it too. "I… may be interested. If you really don't think it will cause trouble." He admitted reluctantly.
Harry felt the pressure of actually being asked his opinion on something, much less something so important. If he was wrong, Remus was the one getting hexed or screamed at, not him.
For some reason that made it all the more important he was right about this, more so than if it was just his own neck he was worried about. He didn't think he'd be able to live with himself if he swore to Moony's face that he'd be okay, only for things to in fact not be okay and his pseudo-uncle being the one to suffer for it, particularly when Remus was somehow willing to trust an audacious twelve-year-old's read on the situation despite how much horror he'd probably seen and experienced being out in magical public before.
But despite everything, Contrair had been his saving grace multiple times now… and no matter if he should feel very pessimistic on the kindness of strangers, he still held out hope it wouldn't disappoint him now.
Did he know it'd be okay?
No.
But did he really want to believe the entire wizarding world wasn't as terribly racist (speciesist?) as Diagon was?
Yeah he really, really did.
And for some reason he didn't want to just let go of that hope just yet. Maybe it was the Christmas spirit possessing him or something.
Also… he was remembering something that he hadn't yet mentioned to his host for this vacation. Something he wasn't strictly planning on mentioning either but… but it would offer a solution to their concerns if they needed it to.
"I don't know for certain, no, but… I have high hopes. They mind their business and if they are chatty they've always been very nice. Muggle-nice, not the nosey-nice wizards do." He huffed. "And uh… at the very least, I have something to show you there if something is a bit weird."
A bit weird he says… like they both didn't know that they meant someone openly attacking Remus for what he was.
Luckily the werewolf just nodded, not seeming to mind the implications. His eyes only seemed hesitant a moment longer before somehow hardening and softening in the same expression. Soft in trust perhaps, though hard in determination.
"Well, if it's something I should see… let's check it out one we have your list together."