Gwyn Swann and the Chamber of Secrets

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Return to Diagon Alley

The Burrow where the Weasley family lived at was the image of a large stone pigpen with several stories added and rooms inserted to accommodate the family's living space. The overall effect made it look like it was being held up by magic, which, now that Gwyn thought about it, it probably was. As they arrived at the Burrow, she spotted Mrs. Weasley hurrying out to greet them as they were climbing out of the car.

"It's so wonderful to see you both again," she said enthusiastically as she hugged each of them in greeting. "Harry, I'm so relieved that you're all right. Come on in, it's a pleasure to have you both here. No, don't worry about a thing, Madeline," she added to Gwyn's guardian. "It's a pleasure to have them both here. You just enjoy your business trip."

"That's the thing about business," Madeline said with a wink towards Gwyn. "You don't usually enjoy it." Gwyn laughed as she hugged her guardian goodbye. "Enjoy the rest of your summer, dearest. And mind Mrs. Weasley," she added, giving her ward a stern look.

Gwyn gave her a wounded look in reply. "Oh, come on, Madeline, would I, really?" she asked, causing Madeline to chuckle as she finished her goodbyes and waved to her as she headed towards the car.

When Madeline's car was out of sight, Gwyn followed Harry and Mrs. Weasley up into the house.

Almost the second that they arrived, Ron came barrelling down the stairs, grinning ear to ear when he saw them. "Finally!" he exclaimed. "I was wondering when you two were going to get here. What was going on with the Muggles?" he asked Harry. "How come you weren't writing back?"

When they climbed up the stairs and into Ron's room, which was painted orange and plastered with Chudley Cannons posters, Harry began to explain about Dobby and the warning that he'd given him. Ron was intrigued, but said the same thing that Madeline had told them; that somebody was playing a joke on him and he agreed that it was probably Malfoy.

"Anyway, you're going to be staying in Ginny's room, Gwyn," he said, looking at her. "Be careful, though, she probably won't even let you talk if she gets into one of her jabbering moods. She doesn't shut up half of the time."

"Oh, don't worry," Gwyn said with a shrug. "It'll be fine." Her blonde hair swept around her shoulders as they finally went downstairs to head out to the Quidditch pitch to practice flying. Gwyn voted herself out, preferring to stay on the ground and referee.

Twilight came and went and soon night fell upon them and Gwyn followed Ginny up to her room to go to bed. "Thanks for letting me stay in your room, Ginny," she told the younger girl. "It was awfully nice of you."

Ginny shrugged. "Don't worry about it; Mum was the one who insisted. Besides, it's the only room far enough away that you don't hear the explosions from Fred and George's. Consider it a blessing." Gwyn chuckled as she pulled on her nightgown, sitting down on the cot that had been set up in Ginny's room for her. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

The younger witch turned red as she fidgeted, looking down at her fingers. "Has he ever talked about me?" she asked nervously. "I don't think he really likes me at all and . . ." She glanced up at Gwyn. "Do you think that he likes me? Just a little bit?"

"We're talking about Harry?" Gwyn questioned, a bit surprised and Ginny nodded eagerly, turning as red as her hair at the mention of the dark haired wizard. "Well, sure, of course he does. There's very few people that Harry dislikes. Most of them are Slytherins." Ginny smiled at that. "Don't worry about it; I'm sure that he cares about you."

Ginny smiled as she lay down on her bed. "All right," she agreed as she turned out the light. Gwyn sighed as she leaned against her pillow, a warning trickling into her mind as she thought about Ginny, the youngest child and only daughter of a full household, starting school for the first time.

But pretty soon, sleep overcame her and she let any drifting feelings about her friend's sister slip from her mind and when she woke up the next morning, she didn't remember it at all.

About a week passed by and Gwyn found herself settling into life at the Burrow with surprising ease. Maybe it was the fact that they lived in the wizarding world, but she felt more at ease there than she had ever felt in her own house or even Madeline's. Nearing the end of the week, their school letters arrived with a reminder to be at King's Cross at eleven o'clock on September 1st and their booklists for the coming year.

"Letters from the school," Mr. Weasley announced as he passed them around. "Dumbledore already knows that the two of you are here," he added to Gwyn and Harry. "Doesn't miss a trick, that man."

Gwyn opened up her letter, scanning the first page of the letter before turning to the second and read down the booklist.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" Fred commented, reading Harry's list over his shoulder. "The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan—bet it's a witch." He caught his mother's eye at this point and quickly busied himself just as an owl fell in through the window unnoticed and collapsed onto the chair next to her.

She gently picked up the owl and helped him stand up. "Errol!" Ron said quickly, snatching the letter from the owl. "Finally! He's got Hermione's answer." He rolled his eyes as Errol collapsed onto the table and opened up the letter, reading it aloud.

Dear Ron, Gwyn, and Harry if you're there,

I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl, because I think another delivery might finish yours off.

I've been very busy with schoolwork, of course—

"How can she be?" Ron demanded, stopping in the middle of the letter to gawk at Hermione's words. "We're on vacation!"

"You mean the summer work that we were supposed to be doing?" Gwyn reminded him, raising an eyebrow. "I'm going to take a huge leap of faith here and assume that you did do it." She gave him a look and he turned red before returning to the letter.

. . . and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? Let me know as soon as you can.

Love from

Hermione

"Well, that'll fit in nicely," Mrs. Weasley said brightly, starting to clean the table as she looked around at the two guests and her assemblage of redhead children. "What are you all going to do today?"

--

Gwyn wasn't sure how they were going to get to Diagon Alley, but the way that they got there wasn't what she planned. Floo Powder most definitely wasn't her favourite way to travel. But at least she managed to get to the right place. Harry, unfortunately, had managed to find himself in Knockturn Alley, one of the most dangerous and darkest places that she'd heard about in the wizarding world.

She was with Ron, the twins, and Mr. Weasley searching for Harry when they found him with Hermione Granger at Gringotts bank. "Harry! Hermione!" Gwyn yelled when she spotted them.

"Thank goodness," Mr. Weasley sighed as they approached them. After making sure that Harry was all right, Gwyn hugged Hermione in greeting. "We hoped that you'd only gone one grate too far . . . Molly's frantic, she's coming now . . ."

"It's so good to see you," Hermione said happily to Gwyn, who grinned back at her only female friend.

"Good to see you, too."

After getting their money out of Gringotts—with Ron's dad insisted on taking Hermione's parents, who were Muggles—for a drink—they separated and went their way through Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. They wandered in and out of the shops, getting more parchment and ink for the coming year. Gwyn found an outdated Charms book in a junk shop that had some interesting spells in it, so she bought it. Charms was, by far, her best subject. Hermione even got jealous of Gwyn's natural talent on the subject and she was top in everything else.

It was quarter to twelve when they headed to the bookshop to meet the rest of the Weasleys. Unfortunately, they met a huge crowd when they arrived, so bulging that it was piling out of the bookshop.

"What's going on?" Gwyn asked the rest of them. Hermione squealed as she pointed towards the banner stretched above the shop. Gwyn's eyes collided with it.

GILDEROY LOCKHART

will be signing copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL ME

today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Gwyn released a sigh; she had gotten the impression that Lockhart wasn't all that he was made out to be and really didn't have any desire to meet him. Hermione, on the other hand, looked thrilled. "We can actually meet him! I mean, he's written almost the entire booklist!"

"You think we'll be able to get to our books?" Gwyn asked them. The boys looked about as happy as she felt as they pushed their way through the crowd. She snagged a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 before moving towards the stacks of Lockhart books, reading off to the assistant which ones she needed.

When she had her books, Gwyn moved towards the check out to pay for them when she saw Harry being pulled from the crowd up towards where Lockhart was standing. He looked like he wanted to make a run for it. Gwyn grabbed her bags as she headed back towards Ron and Hermione.

"What's going on?" she muttered to Ron, who gave her a 'what do you think?' look.

"Lockhart pulled Harry out of the crowd for more publicity," he replied as Harry finally managed to free himself from the press and headed towards the entrance. "Oh, and did you hear?"

"Hear what? I was too busy trying to get my books without becoming a squashed bug."

"Guess who the new Defence teacher is?"

Gwyn groaned inwardly, glancing towards the tall, blond, overzealous wizard that was signing away books happily. "Oh, this year is going to be fun," she said sarcastically as they rejoined Harry, who had been ambushed by Malfoy with Ginny standing nearby.

Ron scowled at Malfoy the moment that he saw him, a look of disgust crossing his face as he surveyed the Slytherin. "Oh, it's you. Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, huh?" Gwyn glanced towards Malfoy for any reaction, but Malfoy didn't even flinch.

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," Malfoy countered. "I suppose you're parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all of those." Ron went red as he moved to dump his books into his sister's cauldron and fight Malfoy.

"Ron!" Gwyn said warningly as she got between them. Malfoy's eyes darkened the moment that they rested on her. "Come on, it's crowded in here . . . let's go outside. Now, come on, let's go," she ordered, attempting to usher them all outside. "Move it, come on."

"Yeah, listen to the little Toren spawn," Malfoy said mockingly as the door closed behind them. Gwyn bristled at the term, but otherwise didn't acknowledge that he had spoken. "Should be interesting to see how she turns out. Stupid mother went and married a Muggle, all she's got to show for it is a tombstone and a motherless daughter."

Harry turned to Malfoy angrily, but Gwyn placed a gentle but firm hand on his arm, stopping him from striking Malfoy. She wasn't going to rise to his bait. Much as she wanted to snap at his words, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"What are you all doing?" Mr. Weasley had arrived, much to her relief. "It's mad in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well . . . Arthur Weasley." Gwyn looked towards the new arrival. There was only one man it could be, due to his resemblance to Malfoy. This had to be Malfoy's father, Lucius. He resembled his father as much as Gwyn resembled Aurora. They both had the same pointed chin and the same grey eyes that bore no warmth . . . like an eternal winter fledged through them, blocking out the day.

"Lucius," Mr. Weasley said, just as coldly as Mr. Malfoy had addressed him. He nodded to the blond wizard.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids . . . I do hope they're paying you overtime." He reached into the cauldron and retrieved a battered and old Transfiguration book. "Obviously not," he commented with distaste. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you for it?"

Mr. Weasley looked angrier than Ron or Harry, if that were even possible. "We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy."

"Clearly." Mr. Malfoy's eyes had trained on Hermione's parents, who had approached their daughter and was now watching the scene worriedly. "The company you keep, Weasley . . . and I thought your family could sink no lower—"

Gwyn shrieked as the bookshelves went flying when Mr. Weasley tackled Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backwards. She pulled Ginny out of the way, pushing her friends towards safety as Hagrid arrived and pulled the fight apart. Mr. Malfoy's eyes were glittering dangerously as he shoved Ginny's Transfiguration book at her and had Gwyn been less preoccupied with the fight that had just occurred, she would have noticed that her book seemed a lot thicker than it had a few minutes ago.