A/N: Harry Potter and all contents belong to the master of the quill, miss J.K. Rowling. I’m only 16, I don’t have a lawyer, I’m not making any money off of this, and I don’t have any money for you to sue me for.
Finally they came to Harrods and stopped dead in their tracks. It was huge five stories and there seemed to be hundreds of people buzzing in and out of its doors every second. Not even Lupin had seen anything like this. The largest store in Diagon Alley was Gringotts, and even that was small compared to this.
“Harry, this place is huge. I’ve never seen a store like this!” Ginny said completely awestruck.
“You took the words right out of my mouth. I haven’t really even been in
“It looks like you picked the right place for us to get some new clothes, it looks like we could even buy a home if we wanted too,” Lupin said humorously, then pushing Ginny and Harry forward towards the doors he said, “Come on then, last one in is a rotten flobberworm!” And with that the three wizards stepped into, what was to them, a completely unknown land.
They were immediately submerged in a deluge of perfumes and noises, then stumbled into the grocery store which was almost the entire floor, filled with fresh breads and pie and cakes, and candies that they hadn’t even seen in Honeyduke’s. Lupin managed to locate a store map and discovered that clothes were on the third level, and through a complex maze of escalators, of which Ginny had never seen and was very entertained by, and people, of which there seemed to be thousands everywhere; they finally reached the men’s clothing section of Harrods.
“Wow, I never knew that shopping could be considered to be exercise. I’m exhausted, there are so many people here and they’re all pushing and shoving like they have to get what they want or else they’ll hex you.” Ginny said exasperatedly.
“There’s a desk over there with a lady, maybe she can help us find what we need.” Lupin said pointing out a lady a store uniform who was folding clothes at the counter.
Harry led the way up to the woman, “Hello, I was hoping you might be able to help me and my friends. We’re from a small town and are a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience. If you could just point us in the right direction it would be very helpful.” He said as politely as he could, trying to make it seem as if they were unsettled by the huge city, which wasn’t too difficult seeing as they were.
The woman smiled falsely turning her, what used to be pleasant appearance, into something a little more garish. “If you just go right down that aisle there you’ll be in the suit section, if you need help picking out a suit I’d be more than happy to help,” she said as she pointed one of her jewelry laden hands at the suit section.
They walked over to the wall of suits, there were hundreds in every shade of color and cut. Harry walked up to a dark blue pinstripe one which had immediately caught his attention and made to take it off the rack but the saleslady cut him off by stepping in front of him. “Uh sir, maybe you’d like to look over here, this suit costs more than two-thousand dollars. It’s an Armani silk original.” She said with the same false smile ushering him over to the suits on the sales rack.
Harry’s temper frayed slightly over the fact that she was judging them by their appearances. His eyes seemed to radiate a little when he looked up at the lady, startling her. “I think I’ll look at this suit over here actually, I can afford it I think. Also I think I’ll get this one too.” He said coolly walking back over to the jackets and pulling out the blue one along with another black suit.
The woman was obviously confused over what to do so she just smiled politely once again then asked to be excused for a moment while she went and got her manager. As she hurried off Ginny came up to Harry as he was comparing suits, “You didn’t have to do that, we could have gotten it ourselves. It looked like you really frightened that girl.”
“She should be, I was just fed up with being treated poorly based on what we looked like. I know you’ve dealt with it your whole life, so have I, I just thought that now that I can change that I should. I wanted to make you feel better.” He said quietly, now looking at her with a face of compassion.
Ginny smiled then grabbed him tight and hugged him, “You really are amazing Potter, did you know that? Do you ever worry about yourself?”
“Not any more, because I know I have you to watch my back,” he said kissing her forehead quickly, almost embarrassedly, “here comes the saleswoman looks like she has her manager too.” He said nodding towards the still slightly shaken woman.
“Hello sir, I am the manager of this section, how may I help you?” The older woman said, her smile more genuine than the other’s.
“Well we were just…” Lupin started but Harry cut him off, “I have this Moony.” He said then turned back towards the manager, “Your saleslady here thought it would be a good idea for us to shop at the sales rack, not get one of these suits, just because we aren’t exactly dressed like kings. I don’t want to be rude but I would just like to get some things for me and my family.”
The manager looked the boy up and down appraisingly then nodded, “Of course, I am sorry that you were treated rudely that is not what we train our representatives to do. I would be more than happy to ensure you get what you need today. We actually have a private room we keep open for when people are completely redoing their wardrobe so they have some more privacy, if you’d just follow me I’ll take you to it then we can get to work on getting you three some clothes.” The manager led the way leaving the befuddled sales lady behind in the sales rack section of the suit aisle.
On the way to the private room Lupin caught up with Harry to talk with him, “Harry, why did you call us your family? I don’t believe that made much of a difference with her choosing to help us.”
“Moony, I didn’t say it to get help, I said it because it’s true, you are my family even though it might not be through blood. You’re the last Marauder and you’re by far the closest thing I have to a father. As for Ginny, I couldn’t be happier that we’re fated for each other.” Harry said matter-of-factly smiling at his surrogate family.
Lupin was left momentarily speechless at the revelation of Harry calling him his father figure, he always believed he would never be able to fill the shoes of Sirius. Hearing that from Harry lifted his heart. “Thank you Harry, you have no idea how much that means to me. It lets me know I haven’t let your mother and father down on the promise Sirius and I made them, to take care of you if something happened,” grabbing him into a one handed hug. “Harry, I’ve actually been thinking this over for a while. I know I can’t replace Sirius, or be him, but I’d really like it if you would let me be your godfather. I’ve worked out my little ‘problem’ with Dumbledore and he’s arranged to have me live in Grimmauld place, there’s a basement with a very big lock for when the full moon comes round, and it does need someone to take care of…” but Lupin’s nervous rambling was cut off by Harry hugging him tightly.
“Moony, you can stop blubbering like you got confunded, I was planning on asking you to be my new godfather. Looks like you beat me to the punch though. I would love to have you as my godfather, and I’d like to move into Grimmauld place with you when I get old enough to leave the Dursleys. And don’t worry about the ‘problem’ I’m sure you’ll be fine. Thanks.” Harry said happily as they walked through the door into the private room.
The room was a large room with mirrors on one side and several large armchairs along with a T.V. There were already racks of clothes along the sides and there was a man who seemed to be the tailor. Harry, Ginny, and Lupin were stunned by the elegance of the room and the fact that she had decided to use it on them.
The manager turned to face the three and smiled brightly, “Now who wants to go first?”
