{Outside Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley}
I heard Emma giggle behind me. My glasses had clearly slid down my nose and fallen off. I hurriedly pulled her up, using the hand on her waist to guide her to her feet, then leaned down to search for my glasses.
I hadn't noticed it before, but my eyesight was a blurry mess. I couldn't see where the glasses had fallen. As I tried to feel around for them, I heard someone pat my back as Emma said, "Let me."
I stood up and waited. A moment later, the white blob moved in my vision before she reached out and placed the glasses on my face.
"It looks like we should include a new pair of glasses on that shopping trip, dear." She smiled as I stared at her once again, and she just smiled at my reaction. Then she turned to Hermione. "And where were you going in such a hurry, young lady?"
Hermione looked at her mother with an aggrieved expression as she explained, "We found the book..." and then she mumbled something.
"And then both of you geniuses realized that you don't have any money," she finished with a raised eyebrow, and Hermione nodded. Sighing, she shook her head as I tried to move the conversation along. "So where is Daniel?"
"At the counter," Hermione replied, her excitement returning as she rolled her eyes, and we both followed the bouncing brunette into the shop.
"I guess this is her favorite shop," I commented as Emma scoffed with an amused smile. We shared a glance as we arrived before an anxious-looking Daniel.
"How much is it?" I asked Hermione, who replied, "3 Galleons and 7 Sickles."
I reached into my jeans pocket, used my inventory to pull out 4 galleons, and placed them on the counter. The boy in charge of the counter looked away from Emma's breasts and hastily processed the order.
I sneaked a glance at Daniel, who hadn't noticed the boy's gaze stuck to his wife's chest at all, as he read through the book. I turned to Emma, who noticed everything and simply rolled her eyes, no annoyance showing on her face.
'Clearly she had gotten used to her husband's attention being focused more on books than on her.'
I collected the remaining sickles that the attendant gave us and nudged Hermione and Daniel away from the counter. "Back to the ice cream shop?" I asked and got two nods in return, but Emma had other plans.
"No, let's go to the mall that's close by, you two can read your book in the back seat." She replied to my question and got another two nods in return. With a defeated sigh, she grabbed Hermione and Daniel's hands and herded them toward the Leaky Cauldron.
'I can understand the light flirting now. She's too used to being a mother to them,' I thought as I followed them, my eyes dipping down between Hermione and Emma's ass before I looked away, as I knew the consequence of staring too much.
'I need to buy something a bit more comfortable than jeans.' I thought. A downside of my enhancements last night was that it felt even more uncomfortable in jeans with a boner.
As we arrived at an old black car, I stared at it. I remembered the brand Ford, but the design felt so unfamiliar. Hermione and Daniel quickly piled into the back seats as I walked over to the passenger side and slipped in.
Emma started the car and started driving when Daniel finally spoke, "Ah, here it is. The trace was established to make it easy to detect when a spell is cast in front of a Muggle to deal with the problems that could ensue. In conjunction with the secret Magic detection wards deployed by the Department of Mysteries to track down all magic that is being cast in the Muggle areas of Britain."
"Combined with the trace that is able to detect whenever a spell is cast around the wand of an underage wizard, this arrangement has resulted in fewer than 100 breaches of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy since 1692." He finished reading the important points, and without my input, all three of them quickly reached the same conclusion.
"Where did you cast your spells, Harry?" Emma asked as she focused on driving, though she did give me a side glance when I answered.
"In my room at the Leaky Cauldron," I replied.
"So because you cast the spells in a magical establishment, they can't exactly be sure that it was you who cast the spell or someone else. Since the trace can't exactly track whether the wand user was responsible for the magic." Hermione concluded with an excited expression. I'm sure she was already thinking about sneaking into Leaky Cauldron for some spell practice.
While Emma focused on the other issue, "Did you sleep last night at Leaky Cauldron, Harry?" she asked, and when she saw me nod, she hesitated and asked, "And what about your family?"
"Well... they kind of threw me out," I grinned, trying not to make the situation awkward. I did not succeed.
"T-That's terrible," Hermione exclaimed after a bit, her eyes going a little misty.
"Trust me, I have never felt better," I replied with a bright smile, trying to console her and tell her everything was okay. It didn't really help, but thankfully we had arrived at our destination. I looked at the big building and the bustling crowd of families going into the mall.
'Right, the timeline is a bit messed up, because of the 18 years to start, it was now 1998 and not 1991. But why was I born in 1980? Surely everyone aged before me. Lily and James should have started school at 18, and the gap between generations should have been longer, so why had the timeline shifted by just 7 years?' I thought, but I had no good answer. I just chalked it up to weird logic for now before I could go deep-dive into some history books.
"Hey, look on the bright side, you can simply come to my room and practice spells. No expulsion for you that way," I nudged Hermione, breaking her out of her sad state. She immediately looked pleadingly at Emma and Daniel.
Before Emma could say anything or put forward any conditions, Daniel agreed to Hermione's pleading look. "Sure, dear, wouldn't want you to fall behind in your studies now, do we?" He grinned awkwardly and then wilted under Emma's stare.
"We can talk about it later tonight," she said as she closed the car, then turned toward Hermione and me. "Come on, let's get you all dolled up."
I heard Hermione groan in frustration, which confused me.
'What's wrong?'
AN: Small shopping trip with Emma and Hermione trying out different outfits up next.