It's OK Not To Be OK (But I Promise, I'm Trying)

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: not mine

As Harry soon discovered, not even the stern Professor McGonagall was exempt from that craze that seemed to envelop the female of their species, whenever shopping came into the equation. He watched, bemused, as she led him and Sirius to the junior's clothing section, and began pulling clothes off the racks. Sirius immediately joined in, putting down some of her selections, as she rejected some of his.

Harry was surprised that they seemed to actually have a good idea of what to choose, considering one was a relatively older female, and the other had been in prison for twelve years.

It was only a few minutes later when they were approached by an employee, who asked them if they needed any help.

Minerva looked up from the clothes, and nodded. "Yes, thank you. My son and grandson here have need of a whole new wardrobe. Their house was recently destroyed in a fire. I am afraid I am a little uncertain of the current fashion trends. Perhaps you could do better?"

The employee nodded, smiling. "I am very sorry for what happened. Hopefully nobody was hurt?" They all shook their heads, trying not to smile, and the woman continued, "My name is Shelly. And from the looks of it, you seem to have had a good start. Are there any particular styles you're interested in?"

Harry looked a little out of his depth. Truthfully, he had never been clothing shopping before. Actually, he had never been any kind of shopping before, unless it was for school. He shrugged a little helplessly, glancing at his godfather before answering. "Comfortable, I guess. I go to a boarding school with uniforms, so I don't need a whole lot -"

He was cut off by Minerva. "He needs a full wardrobe," she was adamant. "Jeans and t-shirts for day to day wear, some nicer slacks and trousers, a few button down shirts, pyjamas, underwear and undershirts, socks, belts, shoes, perhaps a suit jacket or two, should an occasion arise where he needs it."

Shelly nodded, her eyes lighting up at getting to play dress up with the young man. Fashion was truly her passion. The commission she would make on this sale was also pleasing to think about, but she was more eager to help what seemed like a nice family bounce back after a horrible tragedy.

Wasting no time, she waded into the racks of clothes, pulling out a pair of jeans and holding it up, before deciding it wouldn't work and putting it back, choosing something else. Nodding decisively, she added it to the cart they had. She chose a few more pairs of trousers, before moving on to shirts. Studying the younger man, she focused on his eyes. "Greens and dark blues are your color, I think," she decided. "You're definitely an autumn." She paused by a maroon button up shirt, and added it to the pile. "Earthy tones," she muttered, before doubling the size of their clothing pile within two minutes.

When there was no more room in the cart, she led them to the fitting room. "Now, I want you to try all those on, and come out here to show us," she informed Harry in a no nonsense voice that reminded him scarily of Minerva, strange since she couldn't be more than ten years older than him, and therefore at least forty years younger than the Transfiguration professor. He nodded mutely, and accepted the pile of clothing, locking the door behind him.

XXX

The pile diminished quite rapidly, and they were left with about half of the clothes in the 'keep' stack. Shelly was quite busy putting back the discarded clothes, and bringing more to try on.

She would run a critical eye over what he was trying on, and then making her choices known quite firmly. Minerva and Sirius, recognizing her experience, were quite happy to let her decide.

They quickly had a stockpile of jeans and casual shirts, and moved on to dressier clothing next. Harry preferred the semi-casual button up shirts to anything fancier, and Shelly seemed to agree with his choices, asking him what he thought of colors or styles. Harry thought he was doing quite well, considering it was his first time doing this.