章節 24: Chapter 024

"Very well," Harry sighed, he had been hoping for something a bit more secure, like a lock that could only be opened with his own blood, or something of the sort. But if he had no other option then that's what he would go with, at least until he could create his own security. "I believe that will suffice. Now all we need to discuss is the cost and how long it will take for my trunk to be made."

"You're in luck," the man replied, grabbing the wand from the desk and making a swish and flick motion. Harry watched as a trunk made of a brown material that looked like leathery scales floated over to them. It set down directly in front of Harry, and the older male set his wand back onto the desk. "I already have a trunk with the exact specifications you are looking for."

Well, that was convenient, though Harry assumed the man likely had many such trunks that were pre-made to fit exact specifications so anyone looking to buy a custom made trunk wouldn't have to wait.

"The trunk will cost one-thousand galleons," the man told him. Harry raised an eyebrow at the price, noticing just how much more expensive getting a custom made trunk was from getting a standard trunk. This made him realize that it was highly unlikely that anyone except for maybe himself, and a few of the children from an Ancient and Most Noble family would have something like this. Still, he had more than enough money, and it wasn't like he had no intention of not using his trunk to its fullest.

Reaching into his back pack, he pulled out the pouch inside of it that had been magically expanded to carry more money than he could possible carry on hand. He gave the man 1,000-galleons, a not insignificant sum but not enough to even put a dent into the amount he had, and left with his new trunk in tow.

"Have a great day," the man said, waving at Harry as he left the shop.

XoX

It would not be a surprise to anyone who knew Harry that his first stop after receiving his trunk was the book store, Flourish and Blotts. Those who knew him knew that Harry had an insatiable desire to learn. Lisa had said it best when she had once commented that he was practically married to his books after he'd spent an entire day at the library reading.

Flourish and Blotts was a lot different than any other book store or library he had ever been in. Like the trunk store this one also appeared much larger on the inside than it was on the outside, it looked to be around two or three times the size of the trunk store. All around the shop Harry could see rows upon rows of books. It looked like the books were organized categorically by subject. Charms. Transfiguration. Defense Against the Dark Arts and so on. Harry did not recognize any of those categories, but he expected that. While his parents had told them much about Hogwarts when he was a baby, most of it had to do with pranks and certain teachers. They had never really gone into great detail of the classes or subjects taught there.

This did not deter Harry, not in the least. The first thing Harry did was go through the store and search out the required books for his subject. They weren't that difficult to find, but after finding the books needed for school as required by the Hogwarts curriculum for first years, Harry discovered that he didn't know what else to buy. Granted, a part of him just wanted to buy every single book this store had, but he figured it would be better if he started out by getting books that would be relevant to learning what he would need to know about the wizarding world.

Therein lay the problem. Harry knew very little about the world of magic. In fact, aside from the bits he was told by his aunt and Professor McGonagall, he knew next to nothing.

He supposed it would be good to buy a few history books first. His knowledge of all that happened within the past century was lacking, and he needed to get caught up to speed with the current times.

He already had A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot. Chances were good he would be finished reading that one before he got to Hogwarts. He also managed to find Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, Notable Magical Names of Our Time, both of which would help him learn about the most prominent figures in the wizarding world. This would definitely be beneficial as it was always important to know who's who no matter which society you were living in.

Another book he found was Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy, which listed all of the pureblood family lines, or so Harry believed. It was only after a quick scan of the first few pages that he realized it only listed lines that had gone extinct. Still, he figured it would prove useful and took it anyway.

More books included Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, Modern Magical History, and A Study in Recent Developments in Wizardry. All of the books looked like they would prove useful in letting him learn the most recent history of the magical world. He only hoped they would be enough as their didn't seem to be much else that would provide the information he wanted.

It was as Harry was going through the isles searching for any more history books that he found something which both intrigued and bothered him. Inside of the History section of Flourish and Blotts was an entire section dedicated to him. Harry saw books with titles such as Harry Potter and the Egyptian Black Dragon, Harry Potter and the Warlock's Spell, Harry Potter and the Trip Through Time, and sixteen other books with similar titles.

Harry was not sure what disturbed him more: the fact that people were writing books about him, or the fact that there was an animated toy that looked nothing like him save for the scar on its head that came complimentary when you bought one of the books.

Picking up the one titled Harry Potter and the Banshee's Breath, the person who the book was written about opened it up to the first page and began to read.

What he saw didn't just disturb him. It angered him. This book was apparently a story book about him traveling through Ireland. He didn't even need to read more than the first page to know that the book was about him supposedly defeating this 'banshee', and it didn't take a large leap in logic to realize that all of the other books were about similar adventures he'd supposedly had. Harry did not know if the people who had written this truly thought he had accomplished these things, but one thing he did know was that this blatant use of his name without even getting his permission to use it caused a wellspring of black rage to surge up into his soul.