Chapter 20 - Diagon Alley

Minutes after Poppy's visit in the dungeons, Minerva and Severus entered the Potions lab.

Still slightly dazed from the many instructions Harry and Charlie got from Poppy about their visit in Diagon Alley, they looked a little worried to Minerva.

"Everything all right, boys?" Minerva asked, worried. "Have you changed your mind about taking Severus with you?"

"No!" Severus shouted and ran over to Charlie. "You will take me with you, Arlie, right?"

"Sure we will," Charlie said, and lifted him up in his arms. Looking at Minerva, he explained, "Poppy just left and gave me a lot of instructions about Severus and Harry."

"Yeah, as if I'm a kid," Harry said bitterly.

"Harry, please, don't be so bitter. Poppy is just worried. May I ask how your check up was?" Minerva asked while coming over to Harry, placing a calming hand on his arm.

Harry sighed. It was good to have his old Head of House around and enjoyed her concern, but not even she could make him forget what happened, and she couldn't make the pain go away. Not the physical, nor the emotional. Only the little open hearted tyke in Charlie's arms made him forget for some time what happened. "I'm sorry. It's just that everyone is pestering me and having Poppy and Hermione mollycoddle me all the time makes it hard to not become bitter. I mean I defeated Voldemort, but they think I can't take care of myself and decide what I can and what not.

"Sometimes we need friends to take care of us, Harry. Poppy doesn't want to patronize you. She knows that you are a responsible adult, but as your Mediwitch she absolutely knows when you overwork yourself. She is just worried, Harry!"

"Yes, I know, but after Hermione's mollycoddling all day, I thought I would at least be free of it here."

"Hermione is also just worried," Minerva said.

"Yes, and she tries out what ever she learns in her damn Mediwitch school on me. I feel like a guinea pig."

"I would prefer if you wouldn't curse so much in Severus' presence, Harry," Minerva scolded him and then added in a more kindly voice, "Shall I speak with Hermione?"

"No, that wouldn't help, but maybe you could speak with Madam Pomfrey. I know that Hermione is constantly in contact with her. Madam Pomfrey is the only one to who she would listen."

"I will, Harry," Minerva promised and gently squeezed Harry's shoulder.

She looked at Charlie. "Take care of Severus. I ask you to do this and not Harry because Severus knows you better. You also know how to take care of him. Here is something for him to drink and fresh underwear. Only for an emergency." Minerva handed Charlie a small backpack.

Severus groaned and hid his face in Charlie's shoulder in embarrassment when Minerva mentioned the underwear. "I'm not a baby," he mumbled.

"That has nothing to do with being a baby, Sev;" Charlie said as he placed Severus on his feet. "Sometimes accidents like this happen." He ruffled Severus' hair.

"Okay you three, I will leave you now. Take care!" With that Minerva left the Potions lab.

_______________________

"Shhh, Severus, the dizziness will go away soon!" Charlie said calmingly while stroking circled on Severus' back.

Severus was sobbing into Charlie's neck.

"Maybe you should use the floo next time. I could apparate to Hogwarts and inform the Headmaster to lower the wards for you," Harry said worriedly.

"We will discuss it when we head back, but it is a good idea. I really feel as if we have an exam, and I fear we have already failed the first task," Charlie said while still trying to calm the crying kid in his arms.

"Yeah, we have to try hard to not make more mistakes to pass our test. Otherwise they won't let us near him again," Harry laughed.

Charlie smiled at him. It was good to see Harry laugh. Concentrating on the child in his arms again, he said, "Come on, Severus. Breathe deeply and try to stand. We want to look at all the cool shops, don't we?"

When Severus was placed down, he tried to do what Charlie said and felt the dizziness vanish. He really wanted to see all the shops. Albus and Minerva had given him money so that he could buy something.

The first shop they went into was the book shop. That was why they originally wanted to visit Diagon Alley. Harry went over in the adult section to look for some Defense books. The war was over, but Harry was still interested in all kinds of Dark Magic and how to defeat it. Deep inside he also hoped to find some information about the curse which had hit him.

Charlie sat Severus on a chair in the children's section and gave him a book to look at while he made his order for the Potions class. He had Severus in view while he made the order and so went over when a man approached Severus.

Severus was looking at his book when a shadow fell over him and the book. When he looked up, he could see a grim looking man.

"If that isn't the little traitor," the man growled dangerously while leaning over Severus so that only he could hear him. "Such an easy target."

"Get away from him," Charlie said warningly.

Severus ran over to Charlie to hide behind him

"Calm down," the man said and held his hands up apologizing. "Isn't a man allowed to look what the kid is reading? I just wondered if this is the small version of the Potions master of Hogwarts."

"I don't know why this should be any of your concern, and I don't like your tone. So, stay away from him!" Charlie said dangerously. He didn't know why, but he didn't like the man.

Harry, alarmed by the noises, had come over as well. When the stranger saw him, he grinned nastily and said, "Oh and the savior of the Wizarding world as well. What a pleasure." The tone of his voice made clear that he didn't mean what he said.

The shop owner came over. "No trouble, please, gentlemen."

The stranger turned abruptly and left the shop.

Severus stayed at Charlie's side while he ordered his book list. He didn't want to sit alone on the chair again.

His mood cheered up when they entered a sweet shop, twenty minutes later. Severus spent his money buying sweets for Albus, Minerva, Poppy, Pomona, Rolanda and Alastor. Harry and Charlie helped him to choose the right sweets. Soon Severus' bag was filled with lemon drops, pumpkin pasties, nougat drops, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, toffees and rum balls.

"I think Albus and Minerva wanted you to spend your money on yourself and not on buying presents for them," Charlie said.

"But I wanted to buy them," Severus said stubbornly.

"I fear we won't pass our exam, Charlie," Harry said teasingly and helped pack the sweets into Severus' backpack without squashing them.

Charlie meanwhile bought a big bag of several sweets for Severus. "Here you go, tyke."

"For me?" Severus asked unbelievingly.

"Sure," Charlie assured him.

"Thank you," Severus smashed into Charlie's leg to hug him and almost spilled the sweets on the floor.

"Be careful or you won't have any sweets," Harry said while catching the bag when it fell out of Severus' hand.

"Still having good seeker reflexes, Harry. I'm impressed. And never tell me again you are an invalid," Charlie said, raising his eyebrow.

"Hmph," Harry grumbled and went out the door.

"Seems someone is a little annoyed by me," Charlie said to Severus and chuckled.

They went in some more shops and ate ice cream. Severus was so happy. The next shop they wanted to visit was the pet shop. "I need some treats for Hedwig. She is a little annoyed lately because she hasn't much to do," Harry explained.

Severus loved the shop. It was even better than the sweet shop. He was running beside the cages and couldn't get enough. When Harry had bought the owl treats, and Charlie some treats for Hagrid's dog, they looked for Severus, but couldn't see him.

Charlie panicked and shouted for Severus, "Severus, where are you?"

Meanwhile, Severus was crouching in front of a cage with a weasel. "You must move!" Severus tried to convince the animal because he was very worried about it. The weasel only opened tiredly his eyes and looked sadly at Severus. His nose was bleeding and his fur looked dirty and blunt. When the weasel saw the small boy, he made whining noises.

Severus was so worried and deep in thought that he didn't hear Charlie calling for him.

When he was grabbed from behind and turned to face a furious looking Charlie, he was scared and immediately started to cry.

"What do you think you were doing? I thought you got lost. And you only hid here. Do you think that is funny?" Charlie said angrily.

Severus shook his head and closed his eyes to not see the fist that soon will come down on him.

"Charlie, calm down! He is scared. I think he believes you will hit him," Harry tried to reason with Charlie.

Remembering what he had heard about Severus' childhood, Charlie took a sharp breath. Damn, how could I do this? He loosened his grip on Severus and very calmly laid a hand on Severus' cheek. Severus flinched away, but Charlie followed Severus head until he could again place his hand on his head. "I'm sorry, Severus. I would never hurt you. I was just so worried that I'd lost you. After meeting this man in the book shop, I shouldn't have left you out of my sight. Please, calm down!"

Severus opened his eyes, but still was sobbing.

"Arlie mad at me?" Severus asked, between sobs.

"No, I'm not mad any longer, but why did you hide?" Charlie asked, and pulled Severus into a hug.

"I wasn't hiding. I was speaking to the weasel." Severus had calmed down and enjoyed the embrace.

The shop keeper had come over. "Ah, this damn animal. I hoped it would die, but I won't let it upset my costumer." He grabbed the animal roughly which made painful squeaking noises, but hadn't the energy to squirm.

"No!" Severus shouted and hammered his tiny fist against the legs of the shop keeper.

Charlie grabbed Severus from behind and held him back from the man. "Severus, calm down!"

"No, he is my friend. Aunt Poppy will help him. She made all my bruises go away as well." He struggled like hell to get out of Charlie's grip, but with no success.

"There is nothing to help this thing anymore. I will put it in the garbage," the shop keeper said, and headed for the door.

Severus had the feeling that his heart would burst. He was screaming, "No, no, no!" He didn't stop screaming, and his voice already started to break.

Harry followed the shop keeper and stopped him while Charlie hugged Severus, spoke softly to him and tried to turn him away from the pet.

"What's wrong with it?" Harry asked the shop keeper.

"It's ill and the other weasels had tried to bite it dead. I should have let them. It never recovered."

"Have you let someone heal it?"

"Heal? This is a pet, Mr. Potter. It isn't cost-efficient to bring it to a pet healer."

"How much do you want for it?"

"What? You can't be serious. It will die soon."

"I asked what do you want for it," Harry said dangerously.

"You can have it for free. You could even have waited for me to throw it in the garbage and take it from there. So I can hardly take money from you for it."

"I would like to spare the creature the garbage, so sell me a transport box for it and whatever we need to take care of it. Food, brush, whatever," Harry said in an unfriendly tone.

"Mr. Potter, this animal will die. Maybe he will be dead before you reach your home. I can not-" the shop keeper tried to reason desperately with Harry.

"This is a pet shop, so I think you can sell me all these items. If the pet doesn't make it to my home, it is my problem not yours. If you do not want me to announce to a newspaper that you refused to serve me, you should hurry up."

Shaking his head the shop keeper gathered the things. Severus and Charlie had come over. While Severus took the transport box happily with the weasel, Charlie looked worriedly at Harry. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Harry?"

Harry had calmed down and said, "I think we have already failed our exam, Charlie, so one more mistake won't hurt."

"I hope you are right."

"Hey, Pookah, you are Harry's pet now, and Aunt Poppy will make you healthy again," Severus said to the almost catatonic animal in the box.

"No, it is your pet, Severus. I bought it for you," Harry said.

"My Pookah?" Severus was awed and hugged the box, smiling happily.