It was by chance that the boys had managed to locate Diagon Alley. After a few hours of travelling sneakily through London, Harry had spotted a lady who had been wearing a dark blue midnight cloak, twinkling as if a replica of the night sky, and was guiding two young children through the large crowds. He saw how others seemed to look through the woman as if she weren't there, despite her… Interesting- choice of clothing. Eventually he had informed Dudley and they decided to follow her, they had nothing to lose anyway. If it leads to nothing, then they would turn around and try again.

It was when she walked into a dingy looking pub when they got even more suspicious; nobody else seemed to even see the pub, and so they followed her in shortly after. After all, it was a public place. Walking through the door, Dudley was stunted at the scent of alcohol which hit him. The acrid smell nauseated the pair and flashes of Vernon burst unannounced in their vulnerable minds, ducking from glass beer bottles and crawling on their hands and knees desperately trying to escape his boot. A deep voice snapped them out of the memories.

"Y'alright lads?" The brown haired, bearded man asked. He was sitting at a table near the entrance, and wore a similar cloak to the woman they had followed, but his was brown. "I'm Bobby Pomfrey, nice to meet ya's" Bobby offered them a smile.

"I'm Dud and this is H" Dudley said, pointing at himself and then Harry, deliberately omitting their full names, wary of any kind of mysterious adults who approached them. His desire to protect his brother took priority.

"H, 's that short for anythin'?" He asked, a curious look in his eyes. Harry couldn't detect any malice in his deep maroon eyes, but as a boy with trust issues, he wouldn't give in too easily.

"Harold," Harry said confidently. "Nice to meet you too." The shabby haired boy offered a hand for the other to shake, knowing that it was a peasantry some adults partook in. Bobby grinned and firmly took his hand in return, Harry was glad that he did the right thing. "So… Do you by any chance know where we could find Diagon Alley?"

"Oh! 'Course… did yah Ma's and Pa's let yah come alone today?" Pomfrey questioned, it was not unusual for wizarding parents to allow their children to roam around the shops of Diagon Alley for a short while after all. Dudley nodded in agreement. "Well follow me then laddies" He stood and waved to follow him as he approached a wall out of the back of the pub they were just in. Harry straightened out from a face of confusion to faux confidence, they couldn't go making people suspicious by acting like non-wizards when they asked to go to Diagon.

They watched as he tapped the bricks to reveal a busy looking street filled with robed people (The pair assumed they were all wizards and witches) carrying all sorts of strange items. Dudley swore he saw somebody walking away from a shop with an old fashioned cleaning broom with strange carvings on it. The latter gripped Harry's large shirt and pulled him away from the entrance and into the alley.

Harry's senses were going haywire as he took in the new place around them, be scents sights and sounds surrounded him as he focused on trying to calm his heart rate. This was overwhelming, to say the least… He barely noticed when Dudley had begun to drag him away, vision spinning and feet tripping over each other Harry had to take a moment.

Dudley, noticing the boy's predicament, held the shabby haired head to his chest for a moment, knowing that Harry relished in the contact and affection he was provided, and then removed it to see if they were okay to continue. Harry nodded, relieved and they began their long shopping trip.

SS~SS~SS~SS

Severus had only realised shortly before the start of term that his potion ingredients stock was getting low, since he had been brewing the stock for the Hospital Wing, which was in high demand. Looking at the measly amount of unicorn hair and bicorn horn made him sneer. A trip to Diagon would have to do it. At least he could take pleasure in sneering at the to-be first years who left their shopping to the last minute, childish and lazy activities taking priority over necessities.

The sickly looking man strolled over to the fireplace and graciously dropped a handful of floo powder in and clearly spoke his destination before stepping into the fire with style. (Or as much style as a dungeon bat can muster)

The alley was, as expected, bustling with life and activity, young Hogwarts students crowded all the small crevices of the narrow-ish street. Being taller than most, Severus could clearly see over the heads of the crowd, and spotted Lucius Malfoy guiding his heir into Mary Pott's Shop of Lots and rolled his eyes. Sometimes that man was as obvious as can be, as heartless as he presented himself Lucius could never truly hide his sympathetic and charitable nature.

That would confuse the public, he thought. The elder Malfoy had embraced his change in character ever since the fall of the dark lord, and to other death eaters this came of no surprise, having witnessed Lucius break down on many occasions during the Dark Lords reign.

Severus dismissed his thoughts and continued down the alley towards the apothecary. The shop was hard to miss, the indistinguishable scent that was emitted from the building was sickening for many but homely for himself. Potions provided him quite the comfort and offered him a stress reliever when the dunderheads became overwhelmingly irritating. Having obtained his mastery so young, Snape had the freedom of thought with potion. He didn't need to follow silly instructions from another wizard who thought they had perfected their brew, but instead altered them himself. Perfect did not exist in his world, only improvements.

The shop was not as busy as many others, in fact it was basically empty when he entered. Severus greeted the shopkeeper with a courteous nod and started grabbing the routine items he required. Finally taking notice of the other occupants of the shop, he spotted an older man, crouching over the herbal section of the store and two others. Two boys who looked to be younger than his first year students, viewing the selection of cauldrons they had to offer. Must be shopping for the Hogwarts year, he thought, scowling at their grubby fingers grabbing at any old cauldron and not taking notice of the price. They were going to break something if he allowed them to continue.

Severus grabbed two cheap, second hand looking pewter cauldrons that looked acceptable enough and paid for them at the counter, walking back over to the boys and pulled them out of the shop by the back of their shirt. Squeaks could be heard from the pair as he straightened them back up outside and shoved the cauldrons into their arms and shooed them away.

"S-sir, uhmm… Th-", The taller of the two started, but Snape held up his hands to stop him.

"These are the standard Hogwarts cauldrons, if you have any issues take them up with your parents. These will do. No complaints please!" He sternly spoke. "There will be no requirements for gold cauldrons this year, they require skill above your level." He continued mocking, since the pair had still not shuffled away.

"Thank you sir-" The shorter of the two quietly replied, and led his accomplice away with him.

Before they were too far away to hear, he heard a small, "What was that?" From one of the boys. "Ungrateful brats," He spat. (Not to know that the words were wildly misinterpreted)