Do you think that a shopping trip in Indy!Harry is a necessity for most of the fics? It doesn't seem to be avoidable as he probably can't learn anything if he doesn't have the books and time turner crap. Well, there is tutors but they're rarely done. What do you think?

 

I think it has to be done most of the time, just not in the detail that it is usually done with.

Without the trip Harry would not have access to learning materials, but again, I personally think that you can just learn from books, you need someone to actually teach you.

 

A shopping trip isn't a necessity. But it's not the shopping that irks me, it's the level of detail put in which is fucking boring. I, and many other guys, hate shopping. Why would we like to read about it?

"Harry went to Diagon Alley earlier that day in order to stock up his supplies"

That's enough detail thanks unless it's REALLY part of the plot - which it usually isn't. Just an ecxcuse to fill two chapters every year with crap. And now it's happening in Easter and other made up holidays as well.

 

In fics with shopping trips Harry usually also has a lot of money, a big house (or several big houses) and a big library. Why wold he buy books then? And I don't like time turners. If they were so easy to find, then wouldn't everybody have them and become super powerful in a short amount of time?
I don't think that shopping trips are a necessity, it's most likely just the easiest way to start a fic with Indy!Harry.

 

Shopping trip in Diagon alley seems like a necessity most of the time, although it can be circumbented by Harry finding a cashe of things in his newly found manor or family vault.

As to what needs to be acquired, I'd say at least casual robes and a few books. Few magical items are cool too, as long as they are described with tasteful amount of details - not to many and not just mentioning them as a filler too.

Shopping trip in muggle world, however, is nothing more than a mental jerkoff in 99% of the cases. I really don't give a shit about what some fangirl would buy if her daddy gave her his gold visa card and let her off the chain...

 

Lmao, so true. You know how he always gets served by a hot young woman 'whose chocolate brown eyes light up in excitement' when he lets her know he needs to buy a whole wardrobe? That's just the fangirl!author putting herself in the story. Not so subtle.

 

The worst thing is when they make Harry start buying all the music CD's they like, which for some unexplainable reason usually features a band called 'Simple Plan'. Of course, small things such as time paradoxes featuring iPods and DVD's with 21st century groups appearing in the early 90's usually don't concern them much.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2926255/5/ shopping
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2926255/6/ shopping again
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2926255/9/ still shopping

3 entire chapters of a 9 chapter story that are entirely shopping mostly for clothes
IT IS SAD

Shopping should be kept to multiple trips with a few items per trip and his main point should not always be to just shop

 

heh. Shopping should never be the main point of the chapter. If Harry needs to shop, he should think of it while hes at said place for something much more important, like a meeting with a spy.

 

Yeah, like ip82 said, you can circumvent the shopping with a manor or special vault at Gringotts. Especially considering almost all those usual indy!Harry fics with shopping also include the generic inheritances and such.

One of my favorite never finished/abandoned but cliched starts about Indy!Harry used primarily a Ministry vault, where people thankful for his defeat of the Dark Lord as a freshly orphaned baby had sent him gifts. It's also where all the mail he would have received growing up went. I wish it hadn't been abandoned no matter how cliched it seems nowadays. This one had portrait of Ravenclaw helping tutor him, with a well done battle scene as well as Harry crashing an Order meeting. Only got 10 chapters and 50,000 words, but I've re-read it a few times. Harry Potter and the Rising of the Bennu

 

Oh thank you, I had that story bookmarked, but when my computer crashed I lost it. Still, you say it is abandoned now... too bad I thought that was a good start

 

I happen to be a firm believer that you will not find any super important hidden treasures in a marketplace as busy as Diagon Alley. Not even Knockturn Alley. It will of course be important for Harry to buy some evil and illegal stuff, but he can't walk into the Evil/Illegal Shop and ask for the usual. He has to get some Evil/Illegal friends and buy/steal it from them. That stuff is the only reason to go into anymore detail than "he restocked his school supplies," and it shouldn't happen.

 

The ONE shopping cliche that pisses me off the most is this one:

Harry walked into the Muggle side of Madam Malkin's Clothes Shop, and began browsing. He selected 5 black shirts, 5 white shirts, 5 pairs of jeans and 5 pairs of khakis. He bought 10 pairs of boxers, and 10 pairs of socks.

That just irritates me. Who the hell goes shopping and buys identical clothing? 5 pairs of jeans? WTF? Who the hell wants 5 identical pairs of jeans? And when he can cast a simple Scourgify, why the hell does he need so many?

Jesus...then theres this lovely one:

Harry walked into the shop. All the clothes there looked really expensive, and he nearly changed his mind. A sales clerk came up to him and said "Are you sure you can afford to be in this shop? You look liek a vagrant!"

Harry whipped out a wad of cash/the MOST ULTIMATE CREDIT CARD EVA!!!11!!1 and spat "My plastic friend here says i can, bish! But i don't like your attitude, so i'm going elsewhere."

As he headed towards the door, he was stopped by a pretty girl who said "My father is a big ol' meanie, forget him. I'll show you everything you want."

Harry sneered at the man, took the girl's hand, and said "I need a whole new wardrobe...go wild!" and handed her his credit card.

OMFGBBQWTF???!1!/!/11!

This ALWAYS happens. I can't fucking express in words how irritated i get when i read this. In any case...wtf?

Just because he pulls out a credit card doens't mean he has access to cash! He coulda swiped it, or spent his last dollar getting soda! What the fuck?

And who the hell goes into a store and says "I need a whole new wardrobe"? I dunno about you guys, but when i buy clothes, i go in and look for myself. If soemone offers help, unless the right size isn't there or the girl is a hawttie, i say "No thanks, i'll manage."

Just goes to show what a hella independant guy Harry is. Fucking twat.

 

I really hate it when he goes anywere and some clerk asks if he can afford the item (which idiot sales person ask such questions?) and then he answers "Money is no problem" and usually shows off some device-to-pay-with.
If I go into a shop and want something really expensive, I am quite sure no sales clerk would ask if I could afford it. They would just take the money and be happy!

 

I also hate how he buys 50 different articles of clothing. I don't know about you guys, but have like 4 pairs of shorts, 3 jeans, 10 T-shirts and a lot of socks and boxers. Harry's a guy, not some teenage girl that goes wild when she gets a credit card!

*realizes that his post belongs in the cliche rant*

*shrugs and offers a sacrifice to the Admins*

 

as a guyi understand the fics where he goes in saying i want 5 of x and 10 of x and 7 of x... When i go shopping i know exactly what the hell i want and then i get the fuck out asap.

My biggest gripe with shopping trips. Why is it Borgins is always the target and always bribable. Ih he was so easily bribed or scared into showing his collection of dark books hed of been arested long ago by an auror ith a big fake pocketbook.

 

For most indy!Harry fics, the shopping trip is a necessity, since that's where he picks up the various deus ex machina magical artifacts that are all unique or personally customized and that allow him to kick ass, take names, track down their families, and kick more ass. None of which he could do without his watch/shield/magical-radar/dark-mark-detector, his trunk/portable-library/lavish-manor, his basilisk-hide-battle-robe/chamelion-cloak/voice-and-face-mask, and miscellaneous portkey rings, time turners, signet rings, customized brooms, etc.

How is Harry supposed to be a Hero without his tool belt?

 

I personally find the cliches funny; it shows the author's inability to think up new ideas.

Though i do think some cliches are unavoidable. Shopping for instance is one. Though it could be done with slightly more tack, let's face it, owl orders just don't cut it. You'd need an all powerful catalogue(s) for it to even be worth your while. Although after a nice shopping trip, I'm sure a catalogue could be nice

But the over-cliched barbie-doll bitches apoligizing for their "big, mean daddies" and picking out Harry new wardrobe.... gotta go.