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So far... Thanks to Fred and George locking them in the garden shed, Harry has fulfilled his vow and he and Ginny are friends, although Ginny wishes their relationship to be kept secret. But because this vow conflicted with his promise to Dobby to not return to Hogwarts for his second year, he has chosen to return anyway. Now read on...
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Chapter 8
Chary Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Part 3
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~~~ The Birthday Gift ~~~
When they all met up with Hermione and her parents outside the goblin bank the next morning, Harry made efforts to bring Ginny into their conversations. He need not have worried; she and Hermione got along very well. Harry rubbed the back of his head with a finger in puzzlement because Ginny didn't seem very shy at all with her. But, once Ron was also chatting with his sister, at least Harry was satisfied that nobody was noticing his own particular friendship with Ginny.
As the Gringotts cart hurtled noisily down the rails to the vaults below, Harry began to wonder why on earth Ginny wanted her relationship with him to be a secret. Was she ashamed of him? No, she had said her mum and dad would kill her! Were they ashamed of him? It made no sense; he was already friends with their son and they didn't seem to mind. Anyway, he thought, if the four of them were, as he hoped, to be together, wouldn't everyone assume they were all friends? Ah! It must be because he was famous! They wanted only normal friends for her daughter. That must be it. They didn't realise he was nobody special — less than ordinary actually. How could he—?
"HARRY! You're very quiet!" cried Hermione above the din of the racing rail carriage. Her voice was tense and her face pale but Harry was sure her concern was not for him; she was looking for a distraction from what was, to her, a terrifying journey.
"Oh, I'm er..."
Ginny, hair streaming behind her in the airflow, and Ron, appearing nonchalant but with white knuckles gripping the safety rail, waited for him to continue while they swerved around a particularly vicious bend.
"Birthday present," Harry blurted out once their stomachs had sprung back where they belonged. "I forgot Ginny's — well, I didn't know — and I've been trying to think what to get you, Ginny."
"Oh! I didn't expect you to— I mean, it's the thought that counts... Harry." Her voice was so hoarse with surprise and embarrassment, he could scarcely hear it for the deep roaring rumble of their shaky conveyance.
"That's what your mum said too." He looked back at the swaying cart behind them. Ginny's mother was tending to Mrs Granger who looked as if she was going to be sick. With a sympathetic smile, Mrs Weasley patted her on the back then flicked her wand a couple of times.
After visiting Gringotts, Harry felt rather uncomfortable. The Weasley vault had looked almost empty compared to his own.
"Don't know how mum's going to afford these new books," muttered Ron while they were all separating on the marble steps. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to visit a secondhand robe shop. Mrs Granger's nausea had vanished with a good-riddance into not-being and Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking her and her husband to the Leaky Cauldron for a refreshing drink. Fred and George were going off with a friend they had met.
"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your school books," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamouring to be spent.
"Ginny told me she's thrilled to be getting her first wand and starting at Hogwarts," said Hermione. "I remember I was so excited when I got mine!"
"Yeah, but yours was new at least," said Ron.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"Mine is Charlie's old wand," he said glumly. "Mum will probably pick up a second hand one for Ginny from the junk shop."
Harry stopped in his tracks and the other two halted with him looking perplexed. "But that's not right! Mr Ollivander told me last year that the wand chooses the wizard."
"Yes," said Ron, "but new wands cost Galleons to buy, Harry — Harry? Where are you going?" Harry was running off after Mrs Weasley and Ginny.
"I'll catch you up later at the bookshop!" Harry called back. He disappeared amongst the throng of people in the alley.
"Where in the name of Merlin's baggiest is he off to?" said Ron.
"I'd have thought it was self-evident," smirked Hermione. "Harry couldn't think what to get Ginny for her birthday but now he's reminded she needs a wand."
"You mean he's buying her a new wand!"
Hermione nodded. "Come on, let's go to Fortescue's for an ice cream Choco-shocker; it's only about once a year after all."
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~~~ Swish and Fall ~~~
Harry peeped through the pebble glass frontage of the secondhand robe shop. Between racks of cloaks he could just see Ginny's tiny figure trying on a standard school robe but it looked rather shabby, he thought. He squinted. Was that a patch near the hem?
He stepped back feeling even more uncomfortable than he had in the bank when he had opened his vault to reveal piles and piles of Galleons to the Weasleys who were pretending not to look. He decided Ginny would curl up with embarrassment if she saw him here so he made off towards the junk shop. He stood there waiting for a few minutes but now he was troubled. What if self-respect made Mrs Weasley refuse to let him buy Ginny's wand? If only he had a gift voucher — nobody could refuse a gift voucher and she might not realise the price then.
Harry sprinted along to the wand shop where he found Mr Ollivander was only just unlocking the door.
"Ah, come in, come in, Mr Potter. Good to see you again."
"Mr Ollivander, I wondered... Is there some way I can pay for a wand that's erm... not been bought yet? What I wanted was... Well, it's a kind of gift, really. Only..."
Mr Ollivander scratched his head. "I suppose I could write you out a promissory note, but wand prices do vary slightly depending on the work needed and the core."
"Could it be made to not show the price?"
"Well, yes... It could promise the bearer one wand but—"
"I would pay you the difference of course, if the wand cost more than the note."
Ollivander smiled. "That won't be necessary, Mr Potter. A little risk always makes a day more exciting don't you think?"
Harry almost shuddered and tried hard not to shake his head.
Mr Ollivander continued, "I'll charge you an average price. If the actual wand costs less; I profit; if it costs more; I lose. How would that be?"
Harry smiled. "I don't mind that sort of risk, at all."
He raced back to the junk shop and had barely got his breath back before he saw the top of Mrs Weasley's head working its way through the crowds towards him.
"Harry!" she cried, "What are you doing here?"
Ginny looked surprised to see him there too.
""Happy birthday, Ginny," said Harry. He stepped forward and pressed the note into her hand.
Ginny squealed when she read what was written there. "A new wand, Mum! Harry's got me a new one!"
Mrs Weasley snatched the note from her hand and read it swiftly. "Oh, Harry, we couldn't possibly accept this. New wands are so expensive."
Ginny looked crestfallen.
"But Mrs Weasley! You said 'Whatever you like, Harry!' You said 'Stay with that whatever anyone else suggests!' Anyway, Mr Ollivander warned me it couldn't be refunded." He rubbed his eyebrow to hide the wink directed at Ginny. Her face brightened up with hope.
"Oh, I didn't mean you could go and buy a palace with a coach and four outside now did I?" She stared at the note as if trying to determine its cost.
"I'm sorry, Mrs Weasley," said Harry, aghast at Mrs Weasley's expression. "I didn't want to be a nuisance. I can give that away and I'll get Ginny something else." Harry had not survived ten years without learning a lot of devious strategies to help him do so.
Mrs Weasley fumed inwardly but had to yield. She handed the note back to Ginny and they made their way to the wand shop.
"Ah! Mrs Weasley! Delighted to see you once more and who is this young lady?"
"This is Ginevra, my youngest. She—"
"Never! I never would have believed it! Already fully grown up and ready to try out her first wand!"
Harry saw Ginny's smile that was so broad he thought the note was worth any risk even if the wand was only worth a sickle.
"Very well," continued Ollivander. "If you would be so good as to hold out your wand arm, Lady Ginevra, we'll get you measured up."
While his inch-ribbon appeared to take Ginny's height and arm length, the old wandmaker busied himself searching his shelves. When the tape finally dropped to the floor and snaked back around the corner, Ollivander had taken several boxes down. Harry noticed he didn't look at the measurement.
"Now, let me see... which of these four do you think might choose you?" He laid the wands along his high counter top. Little Ginny had to stand on a stool to scrutinise them.
"That one looks very nice," she said, reaching down cautiously.
"Does it?"
There was something in his tone that made her hesitate and look at the others again. Immediately her eyes lit up as they fell upon a slender, sweetly-shaped baton that practically jumped into her hand.
"This one!" With an excited flourish, the shop crackled with magic and she toppled backwards off the stool onto Harry's quickly-outstretched arms.
"Excellent!" cried Mr Ollivander. "Hazel of course with the first hair shed by a unicorn foal born in the moonlight following an equinoctial ecliptic shadow — what a wondrous night that was! Nice and reactive, nine inches." He looked knowingly with unblinking, silvery eyes at Ginny. "I can assure you, Miss Weasley, that you now have a very close friend for life."
He glanced briefly at Harry and Harry wondered if he somehow had read their secret. Mrs Weasley seemed oblivious to it though and beamed to see her daughter's rapturous delight in her new wand. "What do you say, Ginny?"
"Thank you, Harry; it's lovely," she said softly but she was too flustered to look him in the eye more than with a few swift glances — though Harry could feel those shy peeks repeatedly as they walked back to rejoin the others at Flourish and Blotts. It used to bother him when Dudley kept looking at him but now, with Ginny's eyes upon him, he felt only a pleasantly warm radiance inside. Resting in the security of that glow was like being in his cupboard again only far more interesting than cobwebs, he thought.
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~~~ Surprise Attack ~~~
There was an unusual commotion inside the busy shop. The author of their new schoolbooks, Gilderoy Lockhart, was within, signing autographs and announcing that he was to be the new defence teacher at Hogwarts.
Harry, took little notice of what was going on around him in the bookshop until Lockhart hustled him before the press photographer to enhance his own publicity within the limelight of 'The Boy Who Lived,' as Harry was often referred to by those who didn't really know him. Harry groaned inwardly. He could see Mrs Weasley looking their way with her eyes almost popping out. Now she would never want Harry to openly befriend her daughter, he felt sure.
The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.
"You have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. "I'll buy my own— "
"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognising. He straightened up and found himself face-to-face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer.
"Famous Harry Potter," spat Malfoy. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."
"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that attention!" said Ginny. She was glaring at Malfoy.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled Malfoy. Ginny went scarlet but as Ron and Hermione fought their way over through the busy shop, Draco was already flat on the floor rubbing a nosebleed and wailing like an infant.
"You punched him!" cried Ginny, with astonishment.
"He insulted you... I just didn't think..." Harry could not understand it. His cousin scarcely flinched when he hit him — though admittedly, Dudley was twice the size of Draco.
Ron laughed to see Draco sprawled on the floor with a bloody nose but Harry was aghast. He ran out of the shop to try to avoid more trouble. A wizard with pale blond hair and cold grey eyes pushed past him angrily as he went in. "Out of my way, boy!"
Harry ran his hand through his hair and found his knuckles were really sore where he had hit Draco's bony jaw. He wanted to walk away forever but he was stranded here, reliant on the Weasleys who had all his luggage in their home. And Ginny must think him a real crybaby for running away. The sound of a new commotion broke out inside but before Harry could squint through the thick pebbly glass window, a huge figure approached along the alley. He glanced first at Harry then into the shop.
"Hagrid!"
"Yeh stay 'ere, Harry! Keep yerself out o' sight."
Harry's eyes followed Hagrid into the store where another fight had broken out between Mr Weasley and the blond wizard. Harry didn't wait to see what would happen when Hagrid reached them. He looked left and right. There was a shallow recess to one side spilling out from which were rubbish bins stacked high with discarded papers and damaged books. Harry dived on top and shrunk back as far as he could.
Two figures burst from the bookshop amidst the noise and shouts from within.
"I cannot believe that scrawny, meddlesome boy floored you, Draco. You will keep this quiet, understand? And let me deal with that filthy mudblood and all her blood-treacherous friends. It's all set."
"But—!"
"Understand?"
"Yes, Father."
Harry froze as they passed by but they did not see him. With Draco was the blond wizard that Harry had seen minutes before. Harry just managed to scramble out of his niche and straighten his clothing before Ginny rushed out of the bookshop with Ron and Hermione immediately behind. He winced as he tried to hide his sore hand behind his back.
"That was totally wicked, Harry! Did you see his face? Where did you learn to punch like that!"
"Oh erm... Dudley taught me."
"Are you alright, Harry?" said Hermione. "Let me see..."
She lifted up his arm to examine his skinned knuckles which were beginning to swell a little.
"Oh, that — that's nothing," laughed Harry with feigned nonchalance, pulling his hand away quickly and stuffing it into his pocket despite the stinging pain. Through watering eyes, he had a glimpse of the concern and admiration in Ginny's eyes before she looked away, pink-cheeked. It had all been worth it for that one moment.
He had not realised that friendship could be so satisfying — no, not even last year with Ron and eventually Hermione. If he had, he told himself, he would have tried harder to make friends at Muggle school — despite Dudley driving everyone away from him. He would definitely now try harder than ever to include Ginny into their company when they all went to Hogwarts together in September.
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—oOo—
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Author's Notes
I think wandmakers have a special magical affinity with their tape measure. I don't think they measure physical arm length at all but are evaluating the magical aura of the customer and conveying it to the wandmaker to influence his choices.
No unicorn foals were harmed in the making of Ginny's wand, I promise.
I wish to credit J K Rowling with a few of the lines which are direct or modified quotes from Chamber of Secrets (because I felt they were irreplaceable and the situation unavoidable) to preserve canon as closely as possible unless changed as a consequence of Chary's character.
Many thanks for all comments and reviews. These are most welcome and very encouraging. :)
- Hippothestrowl
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