Mistress Malkin's, apparently, wasn't the only shop with unusual wares. Every store in this shopping alley seemed to have rare and unique offerings. There was one shop that offered to embellish and personalize wands- etching the owner's name or slightly changing the shape of the grip for better comfort, or even studding jewels in. Harry was perfectly fine with his own wand- he didn't want to dress it up for show. There was another shop that did magical tattoos- and apparently wizardfolk frowned upon tattoos even more than muggles. Harry walked by the shop quickly, as Dan would have given him a harsh glare if he had even looked at the shop any longer. They walked into a shop that seemed to be selling camping equipment, which interested Dan greatly. Unfortunately, wizards' ideas of camping differed greatly from muggles. They seemed to have everything to ignore the outdoors as much as possible, including detailed maps so that wizards could apparate precisely into the campsites without hiking, and tents that were far more luxurious than the one the Weasleys had taken to the World Cup, and animal-repellents that kept all wildlife as far from the campers as possible.
"I could make use of some of these things," said Dan, "But all this stuff together? It makes me wonder why wizards even bother with the concept of camping."
Further down the street, Harry walked into what he thought was a flower shop, at first. He quickly noticed that there were no bouquets- only live plants. As he walked by one pot that had a shrivelled-up, weedy thing that appeared to be dead, it seemed to fill with colour as he got nearer, then shrunk back as he passed. Curious, he returned to it, to find it perk up again. As he reached his hands towards it, a small bud at the end began to open up, revealing some shiny, chrome-like petals. The flower suddenly became tinted with orange right before Harry felt a hand slap down on his shoulder.
"Best not be touchin' that one, it'll suck the magic right outta ya through yer finger." Harry was startled to see a man, presumably the shopkeeper, right behind him.
"Really? It can do that?" Harry quickly put his hand back in his pocket.
"Naw, I'm just foolin' witcha. It does feed off yer magic though, but you'd need a hundred of these 'fore ye'd feel even a smidgen flappy."
"Um... alright..." Harry backed away slowly.
"What can I get fer ya? Would you mind takin' me aciesan off me hands? I ain't got any more blood to feed it since I sold me serpentvine. Can't be killin' chickens for no reason now can I? Din' even mean to sprout it, but once the seed touches a drop o' blood, there's no stopping it, is there? Eh?" He smiled and stared at Harry, expecting an answer.
"Uh... no, I guess not..." Harry said. "But I don't think I'll be needing that plant... I was just here to look at flowers."
"Most people don' come into this here shop to look for flowers, laddie. I got naught but the deadliest plants in all of Britain!" He gave a poorly-contrived evil laugh.
"Didn't you just tell me that first flower I was looking at couldn't hurt me?" Harry asked.
"Aye, I guess that one ain't so deadly. It could kill itself a magical fly, maybe."
"What about normal flies?"
"What about 'em?"
"What if a... never mind. Do you have any flowers? Other than that..." Harry waved in the flower's general direction, which had gone back to its half-dead, wilted state again.
"Affiniter? I do have some pixiehats, I guess..."
"What are those?"
"They're good for attractin' pixies. They like wearin' 'em as hats." Harry shook his head, remembering the class in second year when Lockhart had released a cage of Cornish pixies. He didn't want to attract them to him.
"Have you got any flowers that are a deep blue?" Dan asked. "Hermione will need a corsage," he explained to Harry.
"That's it? Ya just want somefin' blue?" The shopkeeper goggled at him. "Nuffin' ta smite yer foes and eat their toes? Hey, I rhymed!"
"Uh, no. Just a flower... like that one!" Dan noticed a flower at the back of the store, hidden behind a few larger, bushier plants.
"Oh, the Flumpet Cupflower? Some crazy chap sold it to me ages ago. It ain't done nuffin' worth the dirt it's sittin' in. Told me it keeps nargles away. Took a year ta figure it out, if I ain't never seen a nargle before, how do I know they're stayin' away now any more than they were before, huh? I'll sell it to you fer the price of the pot and the dirt, you can have the flower fer free."
Thanking the storeowner, they left the shop with Dan holding the plant. They spent some time browsing other shops, such as one that sold magical armour, and another that had antique tools, like magical staves (which fell to disuse several hundred years ago, after wands were invented). Harry and Dan were both surprised to find one shop that dealt with "Muggle Imports," which helped wizards buy muggle goods- with hefty "locator" fees, of course. There was a shop for exotic pets, none of which Harry had seen before, but at least none of them were exotic enough to be interesting to Hagrid. All of the shops seemed to have unusual things they would have a hard time finding in Diagon Alley, but not as shady as in Knockturn Alley. They continued to check out the odd wares until they found themselves walking towards Mistress Malkin's shop again, only from the other side.
"Did we walk in a circle?" Harry asked Dan.
"No... we've been going straight down the street," Dan answered, perplexed. He looked ahead, and the street did appear to be perfectly straight, stretching into the distance. He looked behind, and it was the same.
.
.
.
🎉The novel is available in PDF, visit us in our Ko-Fi store🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/madarasama125🎉