The first thought that had occurred to them was 'that was strange'. I mean, the boys had lived and existed in this world for a whole eleven years, and yet the act of 'gifting' an item (for Harry and Dudley, may I specify) out of pure annoyance for their curious eyes, well it was simply unheard of. Who in their right mind would waste their money on the scraggly pair? Harry hadn't known what to say, and ended up sputtering an incoherent sentence the man had taken as rude and swiftly escaped. Only after Harry had dragged Dudley away from the store had this been processed in his small brain, however.

"Who was that?" Dudley asked innocently. Harry merely shrugged, still staring onwards at the crammed street. "I don't know, but these looked pretty expensive, I'm glad we didn't have to pay." He snickered cheekily, allowing his childish nature to shine through since he feels less on edge than on the daily.

Only through mere guesswork and deduction had the pair been able to locate somewhere they could convert their money. After stepping in a few shops they had realised the currency was different around here. Dudley assumed their money would easily fund their needs, forty two whole pounds was more money than he could even imagine seeing. (Even if Vernon's telly was two hundred) Harry had no clue.

The bookstore was the easiest, a small run down second hand store suited the brothers better than the new-book smell emitting from the shop across the path, through the queue. An old lady with a funky smell had helped them find some of the books on their list, Harry and Dud had decided they had only really needed one of each copy though, once they realised the books were not as cheap as they expected. They could just sit beside each other in class, they discussed.

"Why are there so many things to get? My arms hurt." Harry whined, his thin arms were not designed to carry a dense cauldron filled with huge books stacked almost to his nose. Dudley was having an easier time of it, though, having the longer-arm advantage. For once he thanked his family for his superior height genes. "It's because it's a magic school Harry, there must be so much more to learn." He responded easily, hiding his snicker behind the books. "If it was really THAT magic, they would just abra-cadabra some books on the spot when we get there." The shorter rolled his eyes as if his point was obvious. Dudley decided he wasn't going to win this argument, and backed down with a mere shake of his head.

DD~HP~DD~HP

They had concluded their trip having picked up over half of their items, the books which were listed, the cauldron which they were given (forcibly), some second hand robes from a dodgy shop nobody seemed to want to approach, and some of the cheaper and smaller items. One shock they had faced was the price of the wands they were supposed to get. Harry thought Ollivander may have been a bit selfish with his prices as he eyed up the shrapnel he carried in his pocket. They had made the decision to acquire wands from a different place or later, since it was just not an option at this point. Maybe the school would even give them spare wands, like Harry and Dudley's old school lent their students PE kit sometimes.

Harry, however, kept reminiscing on the first shop they had entered. The shop where they had been approached by a tall, emo looking man who grunted, groaned, and purchased them a cauldron each. He couldn't think of anything more juxtaposing. It brought a smile to his face, and thought it must have been a lesson not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, don't judge a cauldron at first glance.