Chapter Six

The sensation is something that could never be easily forgotten that was for sure. The only thing I could really compare it to was being sucked down through a tube and very fast spinning like the spinning cup rides at the fair. The thought made my stomach churn. I hated spinning rides, they made me nauseous and sick, and just as I was praying for it to stop, I felt the world pulled out from under my feel and I fell. I then landed on something soft, it still emitted a pained grunt that indicated it was a person. Opening my eyes I realized it was Fred.

"Omygosh I'm so sorry!"

I rolled off to the side. I heard snickering and saw George laughing as he offered a hand to help me stand. Once I was standing he helped Fred up. Feeling bad, I hugged Fred gently around his middle.

"I'm sorry."

He gave me an confident smile that he was ok and hugged me back.

"No worries!"

About a minute later Arthur appeared, soon followed by the remaining members of the Weasley family. However we waited almost ten minutes and Harry was nowhere to be seen. We decided to wait out in the street, maybe he missed a grate. Molly was frantic with worry. We waited in the alley watching the passerby for a few minutes before Fred tugged me along. I realized we were going towards Hagrid who could easily be seen over the mass of people. With him was Hermione and…Harry. He looked a little shaken, and he was quite filthy.

"Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…Molly's frantic – she's coming now."

"Where'd you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," Hagrid said grimly.

"Excellent!" Fred and George complimented.

"We've never been allowed in," Ron said enviously.

"I should ruddy well think not," Hagrid growled.

I peeked around Harry towards the alley, and the very sight sent chills up my spine.

"Oh Harry – oh my dear – you could have been anywhere…"

Mrs. Weasley had caught up to us, Ginny clinging to her hand. Her purse was swinging wildly from her arm. Gasping for breath she pulled out a large clothes brush from her bag and began sweeping the soot from Harry that Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses, gave a tap of his wand and returned them, good as new. From our space here Hagrid departed from our group and we all returned to the problem at hand. Harry and the Weasley's needed to go to Gringotts, there Mr. Weasley got distracted by Hermione's parents, whom were Muggles and looked very nervous and out of place. Of course, Arthur was fascinated by them. I declined going inside and waited outside with Nox around my neck. It was interesting to see the comings and goings of the people going in and out of Gringotts.

"Didn't peg you as a loiterer, Evans."

Internally I sighed, and turned slightly to see none other than the platinum blonde hair of Draco Malfoy. He was wearing all black from his sweater to his shoes. His hair was slicked back reminding me of a helmet, it certainly wasn't his best look.

"Morning Malfoy," I said pleasantly, not really wanting to deal with him

His attitude left much to be desired, if it was improved he'd be almost attractive. But of course the arrogant, snooty, holier-than-thou attitude sucked that all away.

"How's your lip?"

I narrowed my eyes at him as a knowing smirk graced his lips.

"All healed, how's your nose?" I asked innocently.

His knowing smirk turned into a scowl. He came to stand next to me. Nox eyes him cautiously but allowed his presence.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" I asked tiredly.

"Waiting on my parents, I hate the Gringott carts."

I nodded, they were ok in small doses, but my own vault was so further down the ride was longer to the vault and back up. The Malfoy's were an old family and wealthy, so their own vault must have been a long ways down too.

"Shopping for school supplies?" I asked non-committedly.

"Father said he'd buy me a racing broom," he said excitedly.

I smiled, he gave me a side long glance.

"It must be nice to have a father whom is doting." I said quietly.

Malfoy snorted, when I looked him in surprise, I was rather surprised to see a slightly bitter look upon his face.

"He isn't always so kind. Father is busy much of the time. What is your father like? You never talk about your parents."

I flinched a little at the question, I was so used to people knowing, and the question caught me off guard.

"My mom was killed when I was a year old…and my father…he didn't want me. He's not a kind man." I said quietly.

Something inside Malfoy softened towards me, I saw it in his face, reflected in his eyes. He pretended to be hard, but his eyes…they couldn't lie. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

"Draco,"

Looking at the foot of the stairs leading to Gringotts was a tall blonde haired man, he wore and expensive looking suit, as did the two-toned hair colored woman beside him. Drago seemed to be more relaxed as he turned to leave.

"See you at school, you're not so bad Evans."

With that he went down the steps to join his parents. To be honest that was likely the closest thing I would get to a compliment from Draco Malfoy. I waited a few more minutes on my own until they were out of sight. A few moments later Harry and the Weasley's came out. Percy had wandered off somewhere, and the twins had spotted Lee Jordan in the crowd. Mrs. Weasley on the other hand needed to still go shopping for some of Ginny's things.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks. And not one down Knockturn Alley," she added at the backs of Fred and George.

I stayed with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and we strolled down the winding, cobbled stone streets. We first stopped at an ice cream shop where Harry had bought us all ice cream cones. We window shopped as we ate them, Ron was gazing longingly at a full set of Chudley Canon robes in the window of the Quality Quidditch supplies, until Hermione dragged him off with us to buy ink and parchment next door.

I managed to get a piggy-back ride from Fred as we approached Flourish and Blotts an hour later. We weren't the only ones headed there either. As we got closer, we saw a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for the crowd was signified by a large banner, stretched across the upper windows:

GILDEROY LOCKHART

Will be signing copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL Me

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

"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written practically the entire booklist."

I wanted to groan as we got closer to the crowd. I could practically feel the oncoming headache as Fred, George, Harry, Hermione and I approached the crowd. I noticed with slight amusement that the crowd seemed to be made up of mostly witched Mrs. Weasley's age. We squeezed inside and I clamored off of Fred, I noticed a long line that wound to the back of the shop where signing was occurring. I crapped a copy of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, and the twin's books despite their protests and Fred went to the line where the rest of the Weasley clan stood with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Hermione's parents.

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzling white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that matched his eyes exactly; his pointed wizard's hat was set a jaunty angle on his wavy hair. All and all he looked every bit as creepy and skin crawling as the photos on his books. A short irritable man was dancing around taking photographs with a camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with a blinding flash.

"Out of the way there," He growled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet-"

I had bumped into Fred and George to avoid being stepped on by Ron.

"Big deal," Ron muttered, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on him.

Unfortunately Gilderoy Lockhart had heard him. He seemed to notice Ron, then saw Harry. He leapt to his feet, and practically shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly. Lockhart dived forwards, seized Harry by the arm and yanked him forward. I felt bad, but I avoided the excitement and made it to the register to pay for the books. I managed to juggle the bag of books to the empty space near Ginny. Lockhart had Harry pinned and the guy with the camera was flashing pictures left and right. As Harry tried to slide away, Gilderoy slung an arm around Harry's shoulders, preventing him from leaving.

"He had no idea that shortly he would be getting much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

The crowd roared in approval, and Harry soon found himself weighted down by the entire set of works from the creepy wizard. I had to wrinkle my nose at the thought of being taught by such an egotistical teacher. Harry managed to escape and made his way over to us, before dumping the set into Ginny's cauldron. I missed what was said but Malfoy appeared out of nowhere, and judging from Ron's face, Malfoy had said something rude. Harry and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's jacket.

"Ron!" Said Mr. Weasley, he was flanked by Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley."

Mr. Malfoy had joined our little group. He too had the signature platinum blonde hair, grey eyes, and pointed face. He carried a walking stick with the cap in the shape of a silver serpent with emerald eyes. He made the hair raise on the back of my neck. He was sneering in a cruel manner, seemed to be a more evolved version than the one Draco was capable of producing.

"Lucius," Mr. Weasley said, nodding coldly.

I don't think I'd ever seen such a cold look on his face.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," Mr. Malfoy stated softly. "All those raids…I do hope they're paying you overtime."

He reached for Ginny's cauldron, but I knocked his hand away with my books 'accidently', my scowl evident on my face.

"Mustn't touch what isn't ours," I said lightly.

A cold look from him chilled my bones and sent my skin crawling, but I held my ground and his gaze till he looked away.

"Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it,"

I saw the twin's faces drop into a dark scowl. Mr. Weasley's face flushed darker than Ron and Ginny's.

"We have very different ideas of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy."

"Clearly," Mr. Malfoy sneered.

His pale eyes strayed to Mr. and Mrs. Granger whom were watching apprehensively, and then strayed to me, and he gave a mocking look to Arthur.

"The company you keep, Weasley…and I thought your family could sink no lower – "

There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Lucius, knocking him back into a bookshelf. Books were flying and falling upon their heads. Fred and George were cheering Mr. Weasley on, while Mrs. Weasley looked on in horror. Hagrid for being such a large guy, appeared out of nowhere and in an instant, pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. Mr. Weasley had a split lip and a black eye was beginning to form on Mr. Malfoy, having been hit with Encyclopedia of Toadstools. His pale eyes were glittering with malice as he pulled himself from Hagrid's grip, beckoned Draco and swept from the shop.

"Yeh, should've ignored him Arthur," Said Hagrid, lifting Mr. Weasley as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that – no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter – bad blood, that's what it is – come on now – let's get outta here."

That was completely true. There was still good in Draco Malfoy. He wasn't a complete bad egg yet. The assistant seemed to want to stop us as we were leaving, but seemed to think better of it when he saw Hagrid. As we hurried up the street, the Grangers seemed pretty shaken up with fright and meanwhile Molly was furious.

"A fine example to set for your children…brawling in public…what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought…"

I rolled my eyes, I didn't fancy what the flamboyant wizard thought, and I wasn't too thrilled at the thought of him teaching at Hogwarts. All the excitement seemed to be subdued when we headed into the Leaky Cauldron. We said our goodbyes to the Grangers, who left the pub going to the muggle side.

Sighing I handed the books to George and with a shout and roar from the file, he and books were gone in flames. Taking hold of Fred's hand, and clamoring in the fireplace, I tightened my grip and shut my eyes as I heard him shout and flames engulfed us.