"Harry... oh Haarryy. Wake up Harry-bean." There was a soft patting feeling on his cheek. He made a mumble and turned his head away from the irritating patting. That action nearly caused him to fall over and he woke up with a start.

"It's about time, Harry." Hoppity was smiling down at him from the car doorway. It all came back to him, the deaging potion and the flight across the ocean... had they finally arrived? He sure hoped so because right now he felt horrible. He just wanted to be left alone and sleep here. No wait, he didn't because the car was uncomfortable and he was so tired of sitting. He wanted to go lie down somewhere and sleep. No wait he didn't, because he felt slightly sick and didn't think that he could sleep. Maybe he wanted to eat something and run around... He didn't know what he wanted! He made a cranky groan and rubbed an eye with his fist. He wanted everything to just go away.

"Now come on Harry. You'll feel better in a little bit once you wake up." Hoppity leaned over and undid his seatbelt. "Come out now."

As he let her help him out of the car he noticed that they had stopped at a residential area. Medium sized houses with lots of space between each one lined the darkly lit road. It seemed odd that they had so much space between each one. He shivered slightly in the cool, damp air. The sun had just come up and the sky was several different morning shades of dark blue, pink and orange. As he walked around the car on wobbly legs the first thing he noticed was that they had parked in the driveway of a two storey brick house with white curtained windows. There was a large garden in the front of the house, full of green grass and a couple of trees before it reached the pavement. How odd. It was also odd that the garage was on the right side of the house while the front door was near the middle left. "Are we here?" He mumbled.

"Yes, Harry." Hoppity said kindly.

His earlier discomfort turned into curiosity. He wanted to see what was inside. A 'thump' directed his attention to the back of the car. The boot was open and Agent D had just dumped a medium largish box down on the driveway. Two other boxes were already waiting next to it. As the Agent slammed the boot closed, Harry caught sight of Snape. The greasy man had been hidden by the boot when it was opened. A nightmare. I must be dreaming, this is too surreal. I would never be a child again with Snape to look after me in America in real life. I'm either dreaming or insane. He pinched his wrist hard, not expecting to feel anything. Ow! Well that definitely hurt. I heard that you can't feel pain in your dreams and since I felt pain, I can't be dreaming. He rubbed the tender spot and looked around. The world still looked bigger than usual and Snape was still there. He felt doom encroach upon him. Hey wait! I shouldn't be scared of him! He's just a big greasy git. He noticed Hoppity standing next to him, holding the dragon she had given him. And I have a nice lady to look after me. Maybe I won't have to see Snape at all! In slightly better spirits, he toddled after the Hoppity to the Agent.

Agent D placed a large envelope on one of the boxes and set down two sets of keys. "The boxes contain items to help you fit in, one box for each of you. The envelope contains any necessary documents you may be asked to produce and a map of the area." She then pulled out some small cards and passed them out to Hoppity and Snape. "These are your credit cards and your driver licenses." Snape studied his cards intently. "Do you have any questions?"

"Erm, yes. How do you use these ones?" Hoppity asked cautiously as she held out a red card.

The Agent didn't appear as if the question was unwarranted. Harry thought that she was a witch, but couldn't be sure. "When you purchase something, just swipe the card through the machine and sign the receipt with the name on the card." Harry wondered why she stressed the last part until he remembered that they were supposed to have new last names. He couldn't remember it right now but resolved to ask Hoppity later. "You may need to show your license as identification so carry them around at all times. Are there any more questions?"

No one had any. The Agent pulled out a small card of paper and handed it to Hoppity. "Here's my cell phone, work phone, fax and e-mail if you ever need to get in touch with me. I'll leave you to get acquainted with the neighbors." The Agent then briskly got back into the car, turned on the engine and drove away without even a wave, leaving the three Wizards standing alone in the driveway.

They stood there for a moment before Snape snatched up a set of keys off of the middle box and strode towards the front door. Hoppity grabbed the other set and the envelope and hurried after him. Harry followed. He wanted to see what was inside. He expected to get his own room and was excited to see it. Snape unlocked the front door and they all followed him into the house.

They walked onto a sort of wide entrance way with a wooden floor. A few feet away from the front door began a wooden staircase to the second floor. On the left was an open door that looked like it lead to a toilet. The wood floor beneath their feet opened up on the right to a large sitting room with off-white carpeting, two blue sofas, a wicker armchair and wooden furniture. It probably was more like a parlour, but Harry couldn't bring himself to call it that because the furniture looked as if they belonged more in a living room than a parlour. All the walls that Harry could see from here were of white paneling and the back wall of the sitting room was actually a divider. The divider was only long enough to visibly separate the sitting room from the kitchen area beyond it. A single painting hung on its white paneling, the only decoration in the room. Passageways to the kitchen were created on both sides of the divider; one was next to the stairway and the other was on the far side of the room where one would expect the wall to close in a corner. Instead of a corner, the area opened up into a small corridor. On the right wall in the sitting room before the corridor opened up and after the smaller sofa were two doors, placed side by side. From what he had seen so far, the house seemed so much more spacious than 4 Privet Drive. Even the front garden was a large patch of grass and there was plenty of space between the building and its neighbors.

Snape purposefully strode around the wicker armchair and past the low table that was in front of the larger blue sofa.

"I'll be downstairs setting up my lab and later resting." He said as he walked. "I hope that you can manage to purchase some food, preferably soon." With that he opened a door that presumably lead to the basement and shut it behind himself. A second later, the door was reopened and Snape stepped out. He had a stern look on his face as he glared at them. Harry was puzzled until Snape closed the door and disappeared into the other one. He barely covered his mouth in time to cover his laugh when he realized that Snape had walked into the wrong room!

Next to him, Hoppity was stifling her giggles. "Oh Merlin!" She wheezed out and collapsed onto the nearby wicker armchair.

Still full of glee, Harry looked around the sitting room. I have to tell Ron what Snape did as soon as I get home to Hogwarts. He would probably fall right out of his seat with laughter! Harry looked around the room a second time. Besides the large blue sofa against the back and the long low table in front of it there was also a two seated sofa and a small table and lamp against the 'door wall'. There was an empty bookcase in the front corner and another one across the room along the stairway wall. A Muggle telly was placed in front of the white curtained windows.

"Oh!" Hoppity said and twitched in the chair. "It's as I feared, it's just as uncomfortable as it is ugly." All of a sudden she shot out of the chair. "Ah!"

"What!?" Harry asked, alarmed.

Hoppity felt along the brightly colored seat cushion. "There are sticks sticking up on this chair!"

This time Harry was unable to stop his laughter. "Haha ha!"

Hoppity looked a little embarrassed but laughed along. "We'll just not sit on that one."

Harry bounced on the long couch. "This one's comfortable." He jumped off of it. "Let's explore the house now!"

"Ah, you go along. I'll just bring those boxes in, shall I?"

"Alright." Harry turned to run off but paused. Shouldn't he help Hoppity bring the boxes in? "Do you want help?"

"No, that's alright dear. You run along and explore. I'll be alright."

Harry didn't need to be told twice. The first thing he did was open the door that Snape had first opened. It lead to a garage. He closed it and after giving the corridor after the doors a cursorily glance, he ran into the kitchen area. A square table with four chairs was behind the divider and a ceiling fan was above it. Counters and large appliances lined the left and back walls. The back wall also had a couple windows and a door that lead to the outside. Harry moved on and found that the right wall lead to another room, this one large and empty save a fireplace on the far wall and another ceiling fan.

Not very interesting, Harry thought. When he turned back to the kitchen, he noticed a door on the left wall in between two counters. Opening the door, he was disappointed to find that it only lead to a large pantry full of empty shelves. He quickly shut it. That's not someplace I want to spend any amount of time in. And I won't! Racing to the front of the house, he skipped the door under the stairs. Probably just another cupboard. He was a little anxious to find his bedroom, as if only seeing it would allay his fears of being placed out of the way in another cupboard or in the garage or in some other place intended for rubber boots, mouldy coats and brooms. Hoppity was nowhere in sight, but a box had already been placed in the entrance way while he had explored the back of the house. The door next to the first staircase that he had thought lead to a toilet did lead to one, but it also had a washer and dryer and a large bucket of laundry cleaner in it.

As he walked out of the toilet he was met by the sight of Hoppity placing a second box laboriously down.

"Hi Harry. Have you found anything interesting yet?"

"No, but there's a washer and dryer in there." He said, pointing at the lavatory door.

"Oh good. Muggles always use those." She said and walked back outside. As Harry mounted the stairs he supposed that Wizards always used House elves or did spells to wash their clothes.

At the top of the stairs was an empty landing with the same white carpeting as the sitting room. It wrapped behind the stairway and a white banister was placed around the stairwell to make sure that no one fell down by accident. Several windows along the walls let the bright sunlight in and the landing was engulfed in a warm glow. Harry thought that it was a very nice place.

And now to find my room! A corridor with a wood floor ran down the middle of the upper floor. Harry crossed it and opened the first door. It lead to a very small room with a single window. It was very empty. I hope that this isn't mine, Harry thought as he shut the door. He moved down and across the hall to open the next door. This one lead to a large room with a bare double bed, two bedside tables with a lamp and an alarm clock on the closest table and a single empty bookcase. A pile of blankets were folded and placed on the end of the bed. One painting of flowers hung on the wall with the door that he had come in by. There were two other doors on the left wall. The first one contained a small closet. The other connected to an ensuite bathroom. Wow, that's nice.

Harry doubled back and moved on to the next door across the corridor. His first thought was Mine. The room had dark blue walls covered with white paint specks to simulate the night sky. A small single bed was pushed into the left corner and blankets were placed on the end just like the bed in the other room. There was a white bedside table next to the bed. It was a flat top with the leg part in the shape of an "X". A small wooden dresser was placed on the right wall and empty shelves were placed above it. Next to that was a door which upon further exploration proved to lead to another bathroom. They sure have a lot of bathrooms here, Harry thought as he played with the tap at the sink. It was a strange sink as it only had one handle to turn the water on. After some experimentation, Harry learned that the tap could rotate to the sides and depending on how left or right you turned it while it was on the 'up' position the water came out different temperatures. Wizard.

He turned off the tap and dried his hands on the back of his trousers. There was a second door in the bathroom that led back out to the corridor. The next door across the hall was a linen closet full of towels and different blankets. After that was a second staircase, which Harry skipped in favour of investigating the last door.

The room was definitely the Master bedroom as it was bigger than the others. It contained another bare double bed with blankets folded at the end. The bed was a dark wood with two square bedside tables and a long dresser to match. A lamp and an alarm clock were placed on the tables just like the first room had been. There was a single painting on the wall of a fruit bowl and a ceiling fan was placed above the end of the bed. The carpeting was a dark grey and the wallpaper was an interesting grey pattern that reflected the light differently if you looked at while moving around. Harry played with it for awhile, moving his head around and watching the swirls on the wallpaper change as he did so. He soon grew tired of that game and looked around the room once more. There was another closet and another door that also lead to an ensuite bathroom, this one also bigger than the others. It had two sinks, a large bathtub and a shower. Harry tested out both of the sinks to see if they had different temperatures and was slightly disappointed to find out that they both had hot and cold. It would have been interesting if when you brushed your teeth you had to try to get a medium temperature of water by switching back and forth between the sinks. Oh well.

He exited the bathroom to find Hoppity staring at the wall and moving her head around. He gave out a small laughing sound and she turned around and blinked at him.

"These walls are really... interesting." She said sheepishly, settling on the right descriptive term after floundering for a couple seconds. "Oh Harry, let's make all the beds quickly and then go through your box. I've brought it up from downstairs for you and placed it in your room."

"Alright." He really didn't want to make any beds and would have rather seen what was in the box first but he knew that Hoppity would get mad at him if he didn't help.

Harry followed her to the bed and together they placed the sheets on and tucked them in around the sides. It was a little frustrating for Harry, who was used to being able to reach the middle of the bed, to be able to only reach what his smaller body would allow him. He was always surprised when he reached his arms out to pull a sheet and his arms straightened out only halfway of where he usually expected them to end. The second time he did this, he rubbed his face agitatedly. Hoppity mistook this action as being upset at the chore after a long day.

"Don't worry Harry, this won't take too long."

They then placed the duvet on top before placing the pillows underneath it at the head of the bed. The room looked slightly less bare when they finished.

"Oh well," Hoppity said as she surveyed the room. "We'll just have to pick up some things to brighten it up a bit." Looking at the wallpaper once again she rubbed her forehead. "Now that I've noticed how those swirling things move, they won't stop!" She glanced conspiratorially at Harry and then said with a smirk, "I think I'll be gracious and let Professor Snape have the master bedroom." He smiled tiredly back at her. Now that he knew the room was going to be Snape's, he didn't want to spend any more time in it than necessary. It was as if the cold Potion Master's demeanor was moving into the room, making its displeasure known at Harry's presence. He gave a slight shudder.

Hoppity had moved towards the door and stood there now, looking back at him. "Alright, my bedroom next, unless you'd rather I have the star one." She said lightly.

He looked uncertainly at her before understanding that she was teasing. "No, I think I should have the star one." He said, following her out of the room and yawning. They quickly made up the double bed in what would be Hoppity's room and then moved to the 'star' room and did the same to the little single bed.

Harry's bed ended up with white sheets with yellow stars outlined in a slightly faded black. The duvet was a dark blue covered with space rockets, stars and brightly colored balls of rock.. It was also slightly worn, but that was hardly noticeable unless one looked close.

"Well this looks nice." Hoppity said as she looked around. "Kind of strange that there are stars on the walls and floor, but not on the ceiling." She mused. And indeed the ceiling was white. Harry just shrugged and eagerly scooted down on the floor to the box to open it. Hoppity joined him.

They soon pulled out four sets of clothes (all too big), some small plastic building block sets, a pack of some vibrant battle game cards that looked the worse for wear, some scuffed action figures (one was missing an arm, another a head), a rocket ship and some used books. It also contained a new toothbrush, fruity toothpaste and some shampoo. They piled the objects around the box, out of the way next to the walls.

Harry felt himself faintly nodding off at the end. His earlier adrenaline rush while running around the house had already worn off before he sat down to open the box and now he was once again struggling to stay awake. He was so... just so annoyed that he couldn't manage to stay awake today. He felt as if he kept falling asleep every few hours and he was so vexed that his body kept shutting down when it was time to be awake. His face screwed up on its own accord and he rubbed an eye unhappily. He didn't want to sleep and he shouldn't have to, but his body didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. He was just so tired.

"Harry, why don't you rest here while I go out and buy some food." Hoppity suggested carefully.

Harry looked up at her with one bright green eye. The other was still covered by a hand, which he dropped as he turned to face her fully. "But I wanted to come along." He said softly.

Hoppity was quick to reassure. "I know Harry-bean but you can come next time. You look like you need a bit of a rest now, and it wouldn't do for you to fall asleep on me at the shop. There will be plenty of opportunities later and we just made up a nice bed for you to sleep in."

Harry nodded reluctantly. He was tired and hungry and he probably wouldn't be able to manage to last the trip as he was now.

"That's a lad. I'll get you something nice to make up for it, okay?" Hoppity asked as she helped him off with his shoes and pulled back the covers.

"Mhm, okay." Harry yawned and crawled in.

"With any luck I'll be back before you wake up." Hoppity tucked the blankets in around Harry. Now that he was lying still, he noticed that he felt faintly as if he were still on the airplane. He decided that he liked this feeling as well as the feeling he got when Hoppity smoothed the blankets around him. "Oh, and let's not forget your Roofy." Hoppity turned around and picked up the stuffed dragon from on top of the small dresser. "Here you go." She said and placed him in Harry's arms under the covers. "I put him in my bag during the car ride and placed him up here when I brought your box up." Harry was barely conscious but managed to smile and mumble out his thanks as his eyes closed...

---

(rewind)

Snape looked up at the ceiling of his temporary lab in the basement as a series of light footsteps ran across the floor overhead. He frowned irritably and unshrunk his set of master scales and set them up on a table that just happened to be down here. He cast a recalibration spell just in case the shrinking spell and demanding transportation afterwards had unaligned them in anyway.

By now, he was resigned to his fate. He had work to do and it was safer to do it here than at Hogwarts. During the midsummer the castle was deserted of most teachers and visited by many people delivering supplies or visiting the Headmaster. Any number of nefarious villains could have had access to him under the pretense of the most innocent business. To stay at Hogwarts over the summer would be to condemn himself strictly to his rooms and nowhere else, without company, except for house elves and the occasional visit from Albus for a bothersome tea right when he was in the middle of a critical step in his brewing. Later on in the summer, closer to when the school year started it would be safer and the old coot would be less likely to bother him on a whim as the headmaster was wont to skip gaily along the halls the week before the students arrived, casting learning enchantments everywhere.

Yes, he was stuck here with Potter but that didn't mean that he had to look after the brat. He would do what he had to, but no more. Albus had told him to try to not use magic while he was in hiding but he had no intention to completely stop using magic and live like a savage Muggle. As long as he was careful and only used his magic secretly and cautiously no one would be the wiser. If he did anything illegal and the American government actually bothered to track such magic, well, he would just have to wait and see if they sent him the equivalent of a Ministry owl before he stopped. He doubted that anyone would be able to tell where he was or that he was using magic, least of all his old crabby comrades who wanted him tortured and killed most painfully. He had a new unregistered wand, was exiled to some far off country and had already cast a block for magical tracking in the basement; He would cast a low grade one around the house later at a more opportune time just in case. He felt quite safe here, if one discounted all the mundane and dangerous Muggle things about.

The underground room Snape had commandeered as his new temporary private lab was quite large. It was unfinished with partly painted white walls and a floor that was made of that strange Muggle material that was as hard as a rock but smoother and bigger than rock or stone could be. They must have melted bits of rock and set them down here to cool and create the floor, he rationalized. It would be easy to clean up any stains he would no doubt incur by melting the floor again. Two bare light bulbs illuminated this first room, which had at first taken him some time with a Lumos spell to locate and figure out how to turn on.

A smaller, second room was sectioned off of the first. He decided to store some of his more volatile ingredients in there as well as the ones sensitive to light. There were a few articles of furniture down here, no doubt left by the last inhabitants and Snape was more than happy to find a use for them. A square folding table, a flimsy metal bookcase, empty boxes, kitchen chairs and a strong oak table all found uses. He briefly wondered why anyone had put or left an oak table down here but assumed that either the last Muggles to use this place had had a use for it or the people who were in charge of their living necessities left it here on purpose for him.

His cauldrons already set up, he moved on to the multitude of glass bottles still shrunk in his case. The case was charmed to cancel any size spells on items removed from it and so, made unpacking much more easy than it could have been. Snape placed the first of the glass jars on the shelf against the wall. It had been a tedious task yesterday shrinking all the ingredients, placing others in a portable Wizard space and still placing the most delicate ones in their original size in his case so that they fit with all his other potions equipment without breaking anything or placing any ingredients near any others that they reacted unfavourably with. It was with understandable relief that unpacking would take much less time than packing.

The quick set of footsteps was heard again as they ran overheard and he glowered darkly at the ceiling. Hardly substantial building materials, he thought sourly and resolved to cast some strengthening spells at the walls and ceilings at his earliest convenience. And maybe some silencing spells too. It wouldn't do to hear the brat and the twit whenever they walked by overhead. All the same, he decided to do the more delicate preparations and potions during the day when they were away and unable to bother, pest, annoy or aggravate him with their presences.

He turned back to the shelves and placed the jar of hellebore next to the Jinx fluff. Before the incident that resulted in his capture by the Aurors yesterday, he had created and delivered a potion to the Dark Lord that he now had to find a way to render useless. Usually he was able to create a key during the brewing process that could be used later to purposefully render it inept but this time he had been rushed and risked a chance by switching two ingredients that otherwise would have no affect and added one last rune in the equation during the critical apex. It had been his intention to build a key later based on the changes that would at least give some protection.

It now meant some difficult Arithmancy, potion equation balances and a great deal of chance that he discover the solution; it was quite a task which would prove either easy or impossible depending on how inspired his rushed choices had been when he made the potion and how favourably the fates looked on him now. He had already finished the first set of Arithmancy earlier in the week and made great headway on the second and third sets before he had gotten ill on that horrid Muggle flying machine.

There were also several other potions he needed to concoct for the Order: a magic strengthening elixir, a variation of a loyalty potion or something similar to catch the traitors within their midst, a potion to lessen the affects of Dementors, anything else that would help the Order in any small way and… they also desperately needed something to help with intelligence gathering. The number of trustworthy spies unexposed in the enemy's ranks was dwindling and they needed something, anything to help. Even the werewolf Lupin's canine nose was useful to pick up clues and just last week uncovered a traitor using Polyjuice trying to infiltrate the ranks.

And there was something else, something he had decided not to tell anyone in case any altered habits tipped off the very people they had to mislead. He would have to deal with that last item by himself, and hopefully not alert anyone of it in the process. All in all, it would be an eventful summer with just his research and brewing to keep him occupied if nothing else.

Perhaps he had better find a way to lock or protect his store of potions ingredients in case Potter had any 'bright' ideas and tried to get into them as he was wont to do. He knew that the little cheat had broken into his private stores and stolen Gillyweed two years ago no matter how many times the twerp exclaimed the contrary.

He smiled as he came up with several ways to dissuade the boy from entering his labs, the most benign being a zapping spell on the doorknob of the door leading to the basement keyed to his touch alone.

There was one final slam of the front door that he could hear muted from here and then silence. Hopefully she took the brat with her, Snape thought and resumed placing bottles of ingredients on the shelves and contemplating ways to keep Potter out of his lab.

---

Hoppity turned the steering wheel and pulled into the parking lot of what she thought was a large supermarket, or at least somewhere that sold food. She had been driving for quite awhile, trying to figure out how the map worked, and what all the very large shapes on it were. Luckily, the roads had seemed very empty so when she finally realized that she was driving on the wrong side of the road, no one had been around to notice. She had passed a huge shopping center earlier and a lot of funny colorful shops along the main roads. As for the supermarket, she had driven around for a very long time until she finally managed to find this one - Super Foods. With a name like Super Foods, this shop had to sell food.

She was quite sure that she was lost and wouldn't be able to find her way back, but she managed to push the nagging thought to the back of her mind as she carefully parked the automobile in an empty spot. She turned off the car and made sure that she had the keys before she locked the doors and stepped out. While in her Muggle studies class, she had managed to loose exactly one car and locked herself out a total of three times. Luckily during those times, the instructor had been able to help but this time she didn't have that luxury. She supposed that she could always use locator or unlocking spells, but she felt that if she really was going to be a professor of Muggle Studies, she should be able to live like a Muggle without cheating.

Hoppity briskly walked in the direction of the entrance of Super Foods. As she walked through the car lot, she noticed people coming out of the sliding supermarket doors, noisily pushing odd metal wire carts full of brown and white bags. She felt a little apprehensive as she hadn't brought any such cart along with her, and hoped that it wasn't that necessary. The outside of the large shop was covered with strings of colorful flags and large flats of plants. As she passed through the glass sliding doors, she found herself in some sort of large foyer filled with the funny metal cart things folded upon each other. More colorful flags were placed throughout the room. There was also a large pile of lime green bottles stacked up on the far wall with a sign that read $.79 a liter. Hoppity felt fairly lost and puzzled over the carts for a moment. Was she allowed to take one? How? She was used to buying things in small shops and markets in the Wizarding world and this was the first time she had encountered any such large things. She had always stuck to small food shops while in Wizarding England or ate meals in restaurants and cafes. She watched as a young woman walked from outside and immediately yanked a cart away from the pile. After extracting the single cart, the young woman turned it around and walked past her into the main shop.

Well, alright. Hoppity thought. I just need to pull out a cart like that woman did. She inched towards the carts, not sure if they were really a pack of dangerous metal creatures ready to attack and roll over her. She reached a cart and managed to place her hand slowly on the yellow rod placed at the top, she become encouraged and placed both hands firmly around the rod and pulled hard.

She soon found herself in a heap on the floor, the cart painfully smacking into her shin. "Ow!" So it was a dangerous creature! Hoppity quickly sprung up away from the cart, holding her bruised shin.

"Ma'am?" A young male voice asked her. She quickly turned to discover where the voice was coming from. A young man wearing a bright reflective orange jacket was looking at her with concern. "Are you all right?" He said as he quickly walked over and steadied the cart.

"Erm, yes." Hoppity said feeling embarrassed and quickly standing up. The young man pulled the cart over to her almost carelessly and she carefully took the cart from him. "Thank you."

"No problem."

Shrugging away the embarrassment, Hoppity pushed the cart forwards and past the sliding doors. She was first hit with a blast of very cold air and then overwhelmed by the shelves of what seemed like thousands of vibrantly colored packages. How was she supposed to find anything in here?

She stopped at the first aisle. It was bread. Loaves and loaves of bread in colorful plastic wrappings, at least 50 different kinds! Quite bewildered, she picked up the first couple of loaves of bread and studied their wrappings, trying to figure out what kind they were. Happy Farms brand? White bread... wheat bread, potato bread... Wonder bread? What kind did she want? Hoppity wanted to moan in frustration. Suddenly she picked up another shopper's conversation.

"...has to be a quick trip just for dinner and the next few days before we pick up your sister at ballet practice so don't make this difficult. No complaining." A woman dressed in Muggle business clothes swiftly pushed an empty cart past her. A little girl toddler sat in the top seat of the cart as an older boy followed them along. An irritating, loud ringing sound went off and the woman (the children's mother, Hoppity assumed) dug into her handbag with a practiced movement. She pulled out what looked like one of those odd portable tellyphones.

"Jones here…," the woman absently chatted on the phone. An idea popped into Hoppity's head. When you don't know what to do, the first rule in Muggle Studies was to mimic the Muggles. Every first year student knew this rule. The woman was distracted, shopping, chatting on her phone and pulling her son away from the donuts. This was her chance! The woman had said that she was going to buy things for dinner, which was exactly what Hoppity needed, it would be safe to trail her and buy whatever she bought.

Hoppity followed the family as they sped around the Supermarket, grabbing whatever the mother grabbed while trying to remain inconspicuous. It wasn't hard, Hoppity thought as she placed a pineapple in her quickly filling cart before quickly proceeding to the newly vacated lettuce area to search about for the same package the woman had thrown into her cart. The woman was distracted by her mile-a-minute phone conversation and her children ("No, you cannot have that! Put that back!" "Stop yelling!" and "Mommy's trying to talk.") for Hoppity to feel as if she needed to use much caution.

It was almost like a game, trying to find the same items without being too obvious about it, and Hoppity felt herself actually enjoying it. She mimicked the woman, opening egg cartons and looking at the eggs inside, without really knowing why. Maybe to make sure that the carton was full? That was the only reason why she could come up with to look in an egg carton as Wizard eggs baskets always had unbreakable and cushioning charms placed on them. When the woman placed her carton of eggs in her cart, Hoppity did the same, moving a bag of chips over to make room for the eggs on top of a case of canned fizzy drinks.

After exiting the pasta and dry food aisle, her cart now laden with several boxes of creamy orange looking pasta, she followed the noisy family into the freezer section. There, the mother perused the frost covered clear freezer doors, obviously searching for something in particular. She stopped at one door, still on the phone ("No, don't let them go with that one. It's much too bland and we need something different...") and opened it, pulling a large frozen box out. The girl toddler had somehow managed to get the shop newspaper and now proceeded to rip it to shreds, throwing strips of paper everywhere. The young boy was whining for a box of Muggle treats and the woman kept telling him "No" and returning to her phone conversation.

As soon as they moved off, Hoppity hurried in to look for the similar shaped package. The family had moved down the aisle and the children were now screaming for some odd Muggle treat- it sounded like "pop sickles" but Hoppity wasn't sure. Luckily, she was able to easily find everything in that aisle that the family picked out, including the "pop sickles" which Hoppity was pleased to realize turned out to be ice lollies!

She followed them faithfully down a last few aisles, even rounding back with them to pick up some milk before they ended up at the checkout. There, she placed her cart in line behind them and tried to ignore the now howling boy as he wailed for his mother to buy him the box of sweets he still held in his hands. After a minute, the mother finally ended her phone call and took pity on the boy, grabbing the treats from his hands and throwing it in the cart with a sharp warning that that was all he was going to get.

Hoppity looked down at the items in her cart. She had managed to get everything the mother had picked out, except for the toddler diapers, and the Muggle treat that the boy convinced his mom to buy him, she had no idea where that was and she didn't wish to go back and look for it. She was startled when the woman turned to her and addressed her.

"You've been following me all over the store." The woman didn't sound mad, just slightly interested. Oh no, she had been noticed! I guess I'm not as good as being sneaky as I thought I was. Time for the cover story.

Hoppity wrung her hands, hoping that the woman wouldn't make a big deal of it. The boy wasn't paying attention to them, instead looking at a display of sweets. "Yes well, I just moved here from Britain and I'm sorry but I wasn't exactly sure of what to buy here so err I figured it was safe to pick out what you did. I'm so sorry but I didn't know what else to do."

Luckily the woman seemed more amused than anything. "Oh don't worry about it." She said with a wave. "So you just moved here? Where did you move to? You sound British." She added as an afterthought.

"Ah yes, we just moved into Crescent Ave from England. We as in my, erm- husband and son."

Ignoring the boy, who had started to tug on her shirt, the woman leaned over and offered her hand to shake. "My name's Martha, Martha Jones. I live a block over from Crescent. I have three of my own although sometimes they seem like animals." She stopped and looked down at the boy who had started to whine once more, holding out some sweets in one grubby hand. "Stop that Bobby! I said nothing else!"

After scolding the boy, Martha turned back to her to talk while throwing food items on the stationary black conveyer belt. "I'm so glad that Little League is over, all those hours just standing around... Soccer season should be so much better." At Hoppity's lost look she continued. "The new Fitness Center chain has set up all these kid sports clubs all over. Everyone's been joining in since they're not that expensive and it gives the kids something to do, get them out of the house and out of my hair!" The woman gave off a rioting laugh. "Soccer's my favorite season since the kids burn off a lot of energy running around and the games are so long. Less time to mess up the house, right?" Another laugh. "Bobby's in the Tiger group as usual. Have you signed your kid up for anything yet? Even though the season has already started I've heard that some groups still have spots open for the next week or so."

It seemed as if all of the children here belonged to some sort of sports club. Perhaps she should sign Harry up for something. "I'll look into it." She promised to the woman who had just answered another phone call on her portable tellyphone while stacking more food items on the conveyor belt.

---

(some time later)

Hoppity pulled up the driveway and turned off the automobile. She knew that she had been gone for an awfully long time, but she had gotten lost on her way back. She had been so relieved to finally find the road that they lived on and even more relieved that she managed to find the right house. Luckily, all the houses here looked different which helped immensely when looking for a certain one.

Laden with bags, she walked up the front path and opened the front door. The house was unpleasantly cool inside. She was surprised to see Harry resting on the couch in his thick duvet, resting tiredly, one cheek resting on an armrest. The telly played quietly in the background. As she walked across the front room, his eyes opened weakly to watch her go by. She moved to the kitchen to place down her bags and was pleasantly surprised when Harry followed her in without his blanket. She placed the first two bags on the kitchen table. The poor boy must be positively famished, I'm surprised that he isn't complaining. She decided that something should be put in his stomach right away as it may take some time to make dinner and he hadn't had anything to eat since the early breakfast at the airport.

She quickly unpacked the bags, pulling out a carton of milk in the process. After finding a glass in one of the cupboards, she poured a glass for Harry and placed it in front of him. "Drink that up Dear." He did so silently and rested his head on the table.

Hoppity took two more trips to the car to unload the groceries and on the second trip back, she found that Harry had started to take the food out of the bags. What a good boy. After everything was unloaded from the car, she plopped the last bags down on the floor next to the table. As she started to unpack, Snape entered the kitchen, presumably from upstairs. His face looked pinched and drawn as if he had either just woken up, or was filling ill. He wore grumpiness like a cloak.

He pawned through the items on the table, briefly studying several with a disdainful air. "Is any of this actually edible?"

She was a little surprised at Snape's brusque comment but she rationalized it to her self that Wizards didn't know what Muggles ate... herself included, and any Wizard would be surprised and skeptical at some things. "Erhm, yes of course!" She pulled out a large frozen dinner. "We'll have this! This is umm..." she peered at the package. "...La sanga. We'll just pop it in the oven and it'll be ready to eat in 20 minutes."

Snape had a very dubious look on his face, but Hoppity ignored it and turned to preheat the oven. Still standing at the table, Snape went through the groceries, studying the packaging and reading the ingredients lists. "This isn't food... I had heard that Muggles liked to recycle things from trash... Although I had hoped, obviously this insane practice wasn't limited to food after all."

Hoppity continued to place the random food items away in the cupboards. Harry placed the milk in the fridge.

Disgruntled that he was being mostly ignored, Snape picked up a packet of cheese-filled Soy dogs and studied the packaging. "What is this? There are fifty ingredients on this list! They made a "hot dog" out of beans and... four different types of salt and random enzymes?" Snape threw down the soy dogs in a fit of disgust. "This is chemical waste disguised as a demented parody of food."

Hoppity tried not to pay attention to him as she placed eggs in the fridge and told Harry to go sit down. He really was such a sweet boy, such a contrast to the sour man mocking her purchases.

Snape picked up a carton of plastic bottles and furrowed his brows as he looked at the brightly colored text. "Flavoured water?" He asked incredulously and then set them roughly down. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Did you even manage to get the most basic food staples?" He asked acridly. "It seems not. I demand to be included in the next shopping trip tomorrow morning to purchase real food. You obviously are incapable of doing so yourself."

Hoppity was starting to get angry and a little hurt but she tried to conceal it. "Well I'm sorry, but Muggle American food is quite different than any Muggle food I've ever seen! And thank you, I did manage to get eggs, bread and milk!"

"Wonderful, we can all have soggy egg toast three times a day for as long as we are exiled here. I'm sure the Hogwarts house elves would be jealous at your cooking skills, since you seem to think that you can entertain our palates with only eggs, bread, and milk!"

"I managed to get perfectly acceptable things, it's your fault for refusing to eat new food!" She waved a box of Dung-ho's around and knocked over what she thought was a jar of jam.

"I should hope so as it seems that the "new things" you purchased are inedible and would most likely kill me! And if they didn't, then the barbaric Muggle hospital practices used to cure me of any food poisoning would!"

Snape pulled out a chair and sat down in a huff across from Harry, who was sitting with an upset but guarded expression on his face.

Hoppity made herself calm down. They were all in bad moods after such a harboring trip, and from lack of food. She was very surprised at how quiet and good Harry was being. He probably just responded that way when fatigued; the type that suffered in silence without complaint. She'd have to watch him closely while they stayed here in case he became too hungry and tired again. The oven 'dinged' and Hoppity placed the lasagna in it and set what she thought was the timer to what she hoped was 20 minutes.

She finished placing the last food products away and tried to come up with what else to have with the lasagna. She thought she knew how to heat things up on the stove but she didn't know how to cook frozen vegetables or any meat without her Muggle class cooking notes and she really didn't want to go upstairs to get them in front of Snape. She could open one of those funny complete salad packages. They could try those strange frozen treats afterwards... well she doubted Snape would want to. They would try the microwave another day; she was deathly afraid of them after a soup packet had exploded in one in her Muggle class and caught on fire.

---

After dinner, Harry excused himself to go to bed early, bringing up the duvet he had left on the couch earlier with him. He was tired and there really wasn't really anything else to do. After slowly brushing his teeth and changing into a pair of overlarge pajamas, he crawled into bed.

The blinds on his window were closed and the sun had only started to set so it wasn't as if the room were dark but just the same, the room felt overwhelming in the prospect of sleep, it was too big and bare. It was a nice room, but he felt exposed. It took him only a minute to decide what to do. He took his duvet and pillow and climbed down to the floor and crawled under the bed. There on top of the carpeting he made himself a little nest with his blanket and pillow. Now feeling safe, Harry drifted off to sleep and dreams.