Ch 4-Settling In—Part 2

'I would need to go out and get some groceries today,' I thought while looking around the empty pantry.

While Kreacher could sneak a couple of things and leave the money on the counter without anyone getting suspicious. But if suddenly a huge amount of stuff started to disappear without reason then it would attract attention and I definitely didn't want that.

After finishing breakfast I went back into the potion lab and started brewing the hair-growing potion. There were very few ingredients in this one so the steps were fairly simple. I would just have to leave it to simmer for 30 minutes for it to complete. After completing the required procedure, I set an alarm with my wand and went out of the potion room.

I climbed the stairs with a skip in my steps and went into my room. After stripping myself bare, I stepped inside the bathroom and performed the hair-removing spell. The spell was a continuous chant along with pointing my wand toward the area where I want the hair removed. I removed every bit of hair from my head, my beard as well as everywhere I could see. After checking if I missed anywhere, I went ahead and took a warm shower.

I immediately felt better after coming out of the bathroom, I wore the most muggle-looking clothes before going down. I had just placed my foot on the bottom-most step when my wand suddenly vibrated so I ran toward the potion room. After entering, I took down the cauldron and placed it on the potion table.

It cooled down and turned a very pale lilac color, which was a bit different from the one mentioned in the recipe but it was not different enough that I would have to make another one. I scooped the potion out of the cauldron and poured enough potion for about five months worth of hair.

I took my wand out and waved it over the flask while saying an incantation as well as specifying the place where the hair needs to grow. The potion glowed a little and then settled down. I took the flask into my hands and after taking a deep breath drank from it in one go.

I could immediately feel my hair start growing, I placed my hand on my head and felt smooth and silky hairs sprouting out. The hair stopped growing after 2 minutes, I used the previously conjured mirror to look at myself. While my hair was a bit long it was very shiny, strong, and straight without any clumps. The difference between my present hair and the one from before was enormous, it felt really good running my hand through my hair.

I took a deep breath of satisfaction, finally feeling like a human being. I looked at the ingredients for the last potion and hesitated, this potion was a very complicated one. It would require three hours of continuous effort and I would still have to leave it in the dark for a whole day for it to settle.

After a few moments, I decided that I would go out and buy groceries first and brew this potion after I get back. I cleaned the potion table and placed all the remaining ingredients in the cupboard. After cleaning all the equipment, I placed them in their proper places before going out of the potion lab.

I went into my room and took some muggle money as well as a bag of galleons that I had Kreacher withdraw from Gringotts. After putting both of them inside my pocket, I went in front of the mirror and checked if anything looked out of place, I looked normal except for my face being a bit gaunt and my clothes being way too big for me. I used a bit of glamour to turn my hair blond and my eyes blue and also filled my face out a little using transfiguration to not stand out too much.

After being satisfied with my look, I walked out of my new home. I was walking toward the shed that was just beside the front gates when I suddenly heard a screech. When I looked up I saw Buckbeak flying in circles above me before he dived and gently landed in front of me.

I bowed while maintaining eye contact with him and when he returned it, I went toward him with a huge smile. I immediately started brushing the feathers around his neck gently and he crooned in delight.

"Were you lonely, Buckbeak? I am sorry I wasn't able to meet you these last two days," I said, and he lowered his head a little and nudged me gently, "Do you wanna go for a ride?"

He nodded and screeched a little before lowering himself. I went around his middle and mounted him in one smooth motion before getting comfortable.

"Let's go!" I shouted while squeezing my legs. The winds rushed through my air as he flapped his wings and suddenly we were flying above the trees.

I flew on buckbeak for quite a while, just enjoying the warm sunny day and cool wind combination. The muggle-repelling ward around the manor was quite extensive, in fact, an area of around 15 miles around the manor was mostly just largely untouched forest and came under the protection of the ward. So buckbeak had quite the area available to him for him to hunt without worrying over any muggles sighting him.

"Thank you, Buckbeak," I said to buckbeak after we had landed in front of the manor. He screeched happily and flew back into the forest.

I walked toward the shed with a little smile on my face. Opening the shed, I found three broomsticks left by the precious occupants. Two of which were in proper working condition. The only town on this island was about 40 miles away and I couldn't apparate because I hadn't been there before and I didn't trust Kreacher enough to side apparate with him.

I took the best broom from the shed, before walking out of the manor. Before mounting the broom I applied a small disillusionment charm on myself, which took me three tries as it was a complicated spell and Sirius didn't have much practice with it.

I slowly took off and started to move toward town, after a while when I was a bit more comfortable Sirius's instinct took and increased the speed to the maximum, and the broom flew very stably and smoothly. It took me about half an hour to reach the outskirts of the town. I flew over the town while looking down for a few minutes before I found a market. After looking around for a while I found a deserted alley and landed inside gently.

I shrunk the broom and put it in my pocket, and after removing the disillusionment charm on me I walked out of the alley without gathering any kind of attention.

The first shop I went into was a small vendor who was selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. I bought all kinds of green vegetables as well as all healthy fruits.

While I could not cook anything more than a packet of noodles, I had found a couple of household charms in Sirius's memory, that only required you to place the ingredients as well as utensils on the kitchen island and the dish will be ready without your input in a few minutes. While they would not taste the best, they would definitely be edible and that's all I cared about. I shrunk the groceries and put them inside my pockets when no one was looking.

After searching around for a while, I found a small mall that had all the remaining items I needed. I bought all the ingredients that a normal kitchen required like flour, bread, butter, spices, and of course chicken and eggs too.

I was a bit relieved after accomplishing the most important of my chores so I just browsed around the market after that. I was buying ice cream when I saw a barbershop across the street, and feeling a bit of hair in my eyes, it was exactly what I needed.

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