"We'll wear them always, Harry," said Monica.
After a quick nod he said, "Secondly, if you're not somehow wearing the pins and the wards start to go, I've instructed the Potter elves to get you out of here if you're still here. If you're at, say, the hospital if it happens, they'll alert you to it without letting anyone else see them. They're pretty good with things like that."
After that quite emotional moment, the two adult Grangers immediately donned them.
"Well!" said Monica with a sigh. "What time, did you say, you had to be ready to floo to Hogwarts tomorrow?"
Harry smiled at her, grateful for the obvious intent to change the subject.
"7.30am sharp," he replied. "Dobby... and, probably, Betsy... will bring our trunks once we're gone. It's safer than taking them with us through the floo unless we were to shrink them and put them in our pockets. I'm, for one, just as likely to trip over mine and break my fool neck stepping out of the floo at the other end if they don't, even if it is in my pocket."
That had the other three grin back.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
For his last morning Harry was determined that today, of all days, he was going to beat that half pint, sawn off, little joy-killer of an elf of his to the kitchen. He'd set the alarm to go off an hour earlier than normal.
When going to bed he chuckled and thought, 'Got ya now, pipsqueak!'
When the alarm went off, on as quiet a setting as he thought he could get away with, he was quick to deactivate it, pull his invisibility cloak over himself, put on as many masking charms on himself as he thought he could get away with - scent, noise, body heat, etcetera - and hurried down to the kitchen.
Almost giggling to himself he hurried into the kitchen... and stopped dead in shock.
Dobby was already there and preparing breakfast. "Good morning, Master Harry!" he chirped, working with a skillet and the fry pan for the hash browns. The eggs were being poached, the bacon was on the grill, he even had tomatoes being grilled, as well.
Yanking the cloak off and cancelling the charms with a powerful finite he firmly said, "Damn it!"
Glaring at the back of the elf with suspicion he checked the clock on the wall... and found it was set to a time half an hour later than the one in his room.
He again glared at the elf before he hurried back up to his room... and found the clock was set the same as one in the kitchen. That meant he either didn't set the time of the alarm right, or someone had changed the time for it to go off.
Hurrying back down to the kitchen he found Dobby now checking the poaching eggs and demanded, "Did you change the time on by clock to go off half an hour later?"
Too innocently to be believable, Dobby turned to face him and asked, "Is Master Harry feeling alright?"
"Damn it!"
Still with his cloak in his hand, Harry stomped off back to the stairs to go back to his bedroom to get showered and dressed for the day.
It was while he was showering, and trying to figure out where his plan had gone wrong, that he had an epiphany. "That... little... shit!" he quietly but vehemently muttered to himself. "He's charmed my clock! That's how he knows when I get up and can beat me to the kitchen! Cheeky... little... bastard!"
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
When he got out of the shower and dried, as soon as he stepped through the ensuite door and back into the bedroom he noticed everything was packed in a 'new' trunk and one full set of his Hogwarts Uniform, together with fresh underwear, was laid on his bed. One pair of his shoes were tucked under the side of the bed, ready for him to don.
"Now he's just rubbing my nose in it!" he huffed.
He dressed then went over to inspect his 'new' trunk. Flipping it open he saw the thing had wizarding expansion charms and compartments in it.
All his new clothes, both wizarding and muggle, were now neatly packed inside. So were his school books, parchment, ink, quills, cauldron, scales, potion ingredients' case, telescope, received Christmas gifts, other paraphernalia... and even his Firebolt. He was stunned.
It took him at least a full minute before he slowly closed the lid and latched it again.
Finally able to shake off his apparent shock he gave a huge sigh and, more calmly, began to make his way down to the dinette for breakfast.
However, he'd only dropped two steps down the stairs from the first floor landing when he heard Hermione suddenly cry, "Bet-seeee!"
That had him immediately spin about and race up the stairs to the second floor without making too much noise about it. If there were intruders, he didn't want to alert them to his quick approach.
The door to Hermione's bedroom was open, so he jumped within with his wand drawn, crouched and ready to battle. He didn't even realise he'd drawn it.
Hermione was in the room wearing a fluffy pink dressing gown that came down to mid thigh, with her hair trussed up in a white towel. She was looking back at him in shock.
After his quick check found the room to be clear of Death Eaters or similar, he looked back at her. That's when he noticed what she was wearing; but, even more, that what he could see of her body was showing signs of having only just come out of the shower - her skin was flushed a healthy pink and was lightly steaming. Then realised she was probably naked under that dressing gown as he could also spot her own Hogwarts uniform was laid out on her bed with her pink underwear on top.
He immediately blushed and stuttered, "Errm―"
Getting her own shock under control before he could get his under such, she firmly said, "Best go downstairs and wait for me to get dressed, Harry. I need to talk to Betsy."
"Errr... yup!" he said, before he spun away and hurried down the stairs as quietly as he could. He was just in time to pass Monica on her way up from the first floor. She was wearing her own, but bigger and longer, fluffy dressing gown with a look of confusion on her face. But, Harry could see she was at least somewhat dressed under her robe.
.
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