I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I ONLY OWN DEVYN AND HER PARENTS.

Chapter 2

As Devyn looked around the amazing and breathtaking Diagon Alley, she almost couldn't believe that it had been an entire year since she had been there last. Back then, she hadn't even known Moony, or Harry, or Ron, or Hermione, or Neville. Just the thought of not knowing any of them, or having them in her life was horrible and unthinkable to her now.

Just over a single year ago, she had no family, no friends, and she never thought she would. But then Professor McGonagall changed all that by granting her the simple knowledge that she was a witch. After everything that had happened in the past year, the thought of not being a part of this amazing (and confusing) world scared her more than anything.

This was her life, her world, and no matter how dangerous it could be sometimes, she loved it.

"Devyn, come on, we have to go to Flourish and Blotts," Moony said. Devyn nodded and the two of them walked off towards the book shop and Devyn smiled when she saw Hermione, and two people who must have been her parents.

"Hermione!" she called. Hermione turned around and smiled when she saw Devyn.

"Devyn! It's so good to see you! Hello, Mr. Lupin." Hermione said, walking over to her. Hermione's parents walked up behind their daughter and said, "Did I hear right? You're Devyn Murphy?"

Devyn nodded and Mrs. Granger beamed. "I want to thank you for being such a good friend to our Hermione. She talks about you all the time, of course!"

Moony and Devyn smiled and Hermione blushed. "Mum, don't…"

Mr. Granger smiled and Mrs. Granger said, "Oh, I've embarrassed her."

Moony chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Mrs. Granger; it's a parent's job to embarrass their children."

"Oh, you must be Devyn's father!" Mrs. Granger said. Devyn wondered how Moony was going to reply to this. But to his credit, he simply said, "Well, I'm her godfather. I adopted Devyn last year. I'm Remus Lupin; it's nice to meet you." He put out his hand and Mrs. Granger shook it.

"Allison Granger. This is my husband, David," Mrs. Granger said. Moony shook Mr. Granger's hand. Just then Devyn spotted the Weasleys, who had just walked in. She also noticed that they looked rather worried.

Devyn looked at Hermione and jerked her head towards the Weasleys. Hermione nodded and said, "Mum, Dad, Devyn and I are going to say hello to the Weasleys. Our friend Ron's family."

"Of course, honey, just don't wander off," Mr. Granger said. Moony had them engaged in conversation about the Wizarding World.

"They don't understand much about it, you see," Hermione said. "They are Muggles after all."

Devyn nodded and then thought about how weird it must be for Mr. and Mrs. Granger to be surrounded by the magical people and objects in Diagon Alley. But then she pushed the thoughts aside when Ron saw her.

Ron, who had grown at least three inches over the summer, grinned at her and Hermione when he noticed them.

"Hey Ron, how are you?" Devyn asked. She nodded to Fred and George, who grinned identically back at her. Percy smiled slightly when he saw her and Devyn sort of smiled back. She didn't really like Percy all that much, but she grinned when she saw Ginny.

"All right, you?" Ron replied. Devyn nodded and said, "I'm pretty good. Excited about Hogwarts, Ginny?" Ginny nodded quickly and smiled.

"What about you, Hermione?" Ron said. Hermione smiled and said, "I've been good."

Mrs. Weasley clicked her tongue impatiently and Ron said, "Oh, Mum, well, you know Devyn already, but this is Hermione Granger. Dad, this is Devyn Murphy and well, Hermione Granger."

"Pleasure to meet you, dear," Mrs. Weasley said. Hermione smiled and Mrs. Weasley said, "It's lovely to see you again, Devyn. Have you had a good summer?"

"Yes, thank you, Mrs. Weasley. And it's nice to meet you Mr. Weasley," Devyn said. Mr. Weasley smiled and said, "Yes, I've heard a lot about you two from Ron. It's nice to be able to meet you both."

"Ron, where's Harry? Didn't you…?" Devyn asked. Mrs. Weasley suddenly grew stern. "Oh yes he did. But now, we don't know where he is! I'm so very worried about him. And he's going to miss seeing Gilderoy Lockhart," Mrs. Weasley added, flushing a little. All of her sons rolled their eyes and Ginny sort of giggled.

"What do you mean; you don't know where Harry is? And who is Gilderoy Lockhart?" Devyn asked. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny looked astonished.

"You don't know who he is?" Ginny asked her. Devyn shook her head and Mrs. Weasley said, "He's fantastic. He's an author and he's ever so brave. He's faced all sorts of things."

"Yeah, like ghouls, and banshees, and vampires, and werewolves! He's done so much and he's doing a book signing today for his new book, 'Magical Me'." Ginny pointed to a sign with his picture on it. He was waving and smiling and winking. He had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. All in all, he wasn't a bad looking bloke, but he was a bit pretty for her tastes. Hermione's face lit up, but Devyn's reaction was the opposite.

"I dunno," she said. "He seems a bit full of himself to me. I mean, who names a book 'Magical Me'?"

The Weasley males looked joyous and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny looked shocked.

"You have no idea," Fred started.

"How long we have waited to meet a girl," George continued.

"Who didn't swoon at the mere mention of Lockhart," Fred finished. Even Mr. Weasley was grinning at her although he kept sneaking looks at his wife to make sure she wasn't looking. Devyn had a feeling it would be an awkward conversation for Mr. Weasley if he had to explain that he didn't like Gilderoy Lockhart.

Devyn shrugged and turned back to Ron. "So what about Harry?"

"Well, see, Harry never used the Floo before," Ron began and Devyn rolled her eyes. She had just used the Floo for the first time today with Moony, to come into Diagon Alley (they entered through the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace). She really didn't like it. "So he didn't really know what to do. I think maybe he got nervous or something, but he ended up saying 'diagonally' instead of 'Diagon Alley' and now we don't know where he ended up."

"Oh, boy. Only Harry," Devyn said. Ron nodded and said, "I know."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley, Devyn and I will go outside and keep an eye out for him. We'll bring him straight in when he turns up," Hermione said. Mrs. Weasley beamed at them both and the two girls walked out.

Hermione lit up again when she saw Lockhart's picture and Devyn rolled her eyes. "Hermione, please don't tell me you have a crush on this bloke."

"Well, alright, I won't tell you."

Devyn groaned and said, "Oh, Hermione, no."

"What?"

"First off, the guy is a complete fraud!"

"How do you know that? I've read his books. They're quite good. Besides, they're on our book list this year. I don't think the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher would assign books that were written by a fraud."

Devyn checked her book list and saw that it was true; Lockhart's books were, in fact, on their book list. Devyn shook her head and said, "Hermione, look at him!"

"Oh, I am," Hermione replied. Devyn rolled her eyes and said, "No, I mean, really look at him. If he took on all those creatures, by himself, there's no way that he'd come out looking that pretty. No way."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.

Devyn was getting frustrated. "Okay, well, one of his books is titled 'Wandering with Werewolves', right? Right. Werewolves, as in plural. More than one. Do you really think that this pretty boy could go up against multiple werewolves – an entire village of them – and walk away with no wounds? No scars, nothing?"

"Well, maybe he's a just really talented wizard! Or maybe his scars were healed, if he had any at all!"

"Hermione, trust me on this, wounds that were inflicted by a werewolf cannot be healed. At least not fully, and I am telling you, if that man went up against more than one werewolf all by himself, he would have walked away mangled, if he walked away at all."

Hermione sniffed and said, "Well, I just don't think you like the fact that he could beat a werewolf, especially considering your Animagus is a wolf!"

"Hermione, will you keep it down?! No one is supposed to know about Snow, not yet. Not even Moony knows yet. I don't know how he would react…"

Hermione's expression softened and she said, "I imagine he would be proud that you could accomplish something like that at such a young age, without even trying to. But, really, Devyn, you can't go around accusing people of being frauds when all you have for proof is your own speculation."

"Whatever, Hermione. Believe what you want. But something is off about this guy, I can feel it."

Hermione chose not to answer but a second later she shouted, "Harry! Hagrid!"

Sure enough, walking up the street was Harry and the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid. Devyn beamed when she saw them. Hagrid meant a great deal to her and Harry, of course, was one of her best friends.

"Hello Hermione, Devyn!" Devyn ran up to Harry and hugged him tightly. "Hey, Hagrid!" she said as she passed him. Hagrid chuckled when Devyn got her arms around Harry. He stumbled a little but managed to keep them on their feet.

"Oof – it's nice to see you, too, Devyn," Harry said. Devyn smiled and released Harry. "Harry, are you okay? How are you? Why didn't you answer any of our letters?!"

Hagrid chuckled again and Harry said, "It's a long story, I'll tell you later."

Devyn grumped but said, "Fine, okay."

Hermione finally reached the three of them and said, "Oh, it's so good to see you."

Harry smiled and said, "It's great to see you, too!"

Hermione smiled and said, "What have you done to your glasses? Oculus Reparo."

Devyn rolled her eyes when Harry grinned and said, "I definitely need to remember that one." Devyn laughed and Hagrid said, "You'll be all right now then, Harry?"

Harry, Hermione, and Devyn all nodded and Hagrid said, "Right. I'll leave you to it, then."

"Okay, bye!" Hermione said.

"Thanks, Hagrid!" Devyn called after him as he walked away. "Thank you, bye!" Harry said. Hermione turned to Harry and said, "Come on, everyone's been so worried!"

Hermione and Devyn dragged Harry into Flourish and Blotts and over to the Weasleys and Moony. Mrs. Weasley turned around and said, "Oh, Harry! Thank goodness, we'd hoped you'd only gone one grate too far."

Moony smiled at him but Harry didn't have time to answer because a worker for Flourish and Blotts announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart!"

Mrs. Weasley gasped and said, "Oh, here he is!"

Devyn rolled her eyes as the blonde man from the pictures stepped out and started posing for pictures with what was clearly his most "charming" smile. She looked up at Moony, who was also rolling his eyes. They smiled at each other in amusement and then turned their attention back to the egotistical man in front of them.

"Mum fancies him," Ron told Harry. Mrs. Weasley smacked Ron on the arm and then a photographer came pushing past all of them. He knocked Devyn aside into someone, and that someone caught her. "Oh, sorry," Devyn said, looking up at the person who caught her. She broke into a wide smile when she saw who it was. "Neville!"

"Hello, Devyn," he said, hugging her in greeting.

"Thanks for catching me," Devyn said. Neville shrugged and said, "No problem."

"Make way there! Please! Let me by, Madam, thank you. Excuse me, little girl, this is for the Daily Prophet!"

Mrs. Weasley pulled Ginny out of the way as the pushy photographer snapped pictures of Lockhart. Lockhart was grinning and beaming to his heart's content, but stopped when he saw (and Devyn's heart dropped here) Harry.

"It can't be -! Harry Potter!" Lockhart said loudly. The entire shop burst out into whispers and the photographer nearly shrieked, "Harry Potter?! Excuse me, madam!" He excused himself when he reached into the crowd and roughly dragged Harry out in front of everyone. Lockhart quickly reached out an arm and clamped Harry to his side.

Oh, Harry. Poor, poor Harry, Devyn thought.

"Nice big smile, Harry," Lockhart said. "Together you and I rate the front page!" Lockhart, Devyn supposed, was trying to be quiet but luckily, her lupine hearing kicked in and she heard every word. Lockhart was a fame hog, that's all. Anyone who went up against multiple werewolves wouldn't come out all high and mighty like Lockhart; no, they'd be jumpy, paranoid, and probably rather humble.

Not to mention, scarred,Devyn thought, disgruntled. There was no way this man went up against werewolves. And if he's lying about that, what else is he lying about?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, what an extraordinary moment this is," Lockhart announced to the crowd. Mrs. Weasley was practically spurting rainbows she looked so happy. Devyn didn't know whether to laugh or throw up at this guy's fakeness.

"When young Harry stepped into Flourish and Blotts this morning to purchase my autobiography, Magical Me, which incidentally is celebrating its 27th week atop the Daily Prophet's bestseller list, he had no idea that he would, in fact, be leaving…with my entire collected works, free of charge!"

Every single woman and some of the men burst into applause and then the book signing commenced. Mrs. Weasley was wheezing a little when she said, "Harry, now you give me those and I'll get them signed. All of you wait outside. That's it, Ron."

Devyn, Harry, Hermione, Neville and the Weasleys walked towards the open door of Flourish and Blotts when, somewhere inside of her, Snow, Devyn's Animagus, raised her head and sniffed the air. She started growling, which to Devyn, meant either danger or anger.

When she saw what Snow had been growling at, everything became crystal clear.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a sneering voice.

It was the voice of the most annoying creature to ever walk the earth – Draco Malfoy.