"Dany!" Harry called out, trying to hide his relief as he saw a familiar face in the unfamiliar and quite clearly dodgy Knockturn Alley. He still didn't quite know how he had ended up here after stepping into the Floo for the first time at the Burrow. His friend looked up in surprise - she wore a blue cloak that covered her silver hair, it was only by chance that he'd even seen her - and her eyes widened to see him making his way over.
"Harry," She frowned slightly, glancing behind her. "What are you doing here?" Behind them, a witch called out her wares of human toenails from a tray around her neck.
"Floo powder," He said, and a look of understanding crossed her face.
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't have used it before," She glanced behind her again, pulling the hood of her cloak more forward. "Do you know your way back to Diagon Alley?" He shook his head, thinking she seemed a little distracted. "It's just up there, past that stall with the shrunken heads and left, then right - "
"Can't you just show me the way?" He asked. He wasn't sure he wanted to get lost again following directions here, and besides, he was glad to see her after so long.
"I - "
"Who are you?" Dany fell abruptly silent as another figure swooped down on them, making Harry jump. It was a young man, who shared very similar features to Dany like her silver hair and alarming purple eyes, but he didn't look half as friendly. He was tall and slender, but his face was gaunt, and there was something in his eyes that Dany lacked, something unpleasant. Something mad. His mouth was currently fixed in an accusing scowl as he trained those eyes on Harry. More specifically, his scar. "You!" He hissed. "You dare speak to my sister, Potter?" Harry was taken aback by the hatred in his voice, he had never met the man before. This must be the brother that Dany rarely, if ever, spoke of.
"She's my friend," He said, caught off guard. "From Hogwarts," He glanced at Dany to back him up, but she had shrunk back, looking troubled but saying nothing. "I was just saying - "
"You don't deserve to lick the dirt from my sister's boots, halfblood," The man sneered, in a way much like Malfoy but far more unstable, more dangerous. "Leave, before you wake the dragon," From anyone else that wouldn't sounded comical. Harry was sure he didn't want to know what 'waking the dragon' meant, and though this man was more than rude, he was a full grown wizard and Harry didn't want any trouble.
"Viserys, please - " Dany started at last, only for her brother to round on her. She quickly broke off again. Harry frowned. This was not the friend he knew. Even at the beginning of last year, she had merely been quiet, never so timid and submissive, not to anyone. She had beat up Joffrey Baratheon and effectively blackmailed him without a problem, yet now she looked more like a scared rabbit.
"Don't you tell me what to do," The man spat at her, and when she lowered her eyes to the ground, Harry could tell she would not speak up for him again. "You're as bad as Mother, Dany," Her brother rather roughly grabbed her wrist and began to pull her away, placing a possessive arm around her shoulders that Dany didn't shrug off. "We're leaving, sister. My business here is done,"
"Bye Dany," Harry's attempt at a goodbye fell flat; Dany just glanced back regretfully, and with one last hate-filled look at Harry, Viserys dragged her towards a nearby alley and out of sight.
Harry was more than grateful to find Hagrid, and mentioned the strange encounter.
"And she didn't even speak up against him," He said, feeling a little let down but knowing what it was like to have difficult relatives and was unable to blame Dany for her git of a brother. "Just let him drag her off," Hagrid looked uncharacteristically solemn.
"He's a nasty piece of work, Viserys Targaryen," He said darkly. "Always has been, and it'll only get worse. The boy's too much like his father fer my likin',"
"The Mad King?" Harry asked curiously.
"Aye," Hagrid nodded. "Even looks quite like him. But it's the look in their eyes that tells if a Targaryen's gone mad or not," Harry remembered the fire dancing in the young man's irises, and shivered slightly. "Yeh shouldn't blame it on young Dany. He's dangerous, that one. Yeh wouldn't want to cross him, not even if he's yer brother. 'Specially if he's yer brother," Harry remembered the Targaryen family tradition of marrying brothers and sisters, and felt slightly sick. They soon rejoined Ron and the Weasleys back in Dragon Alley, however - the twins and Rhaenys had gone off on their own, quite probably to Knockturn Alley - and Harry was forced through Mrs Weasley's well-meant but rather suffocating fussing and horror that he had been alone in Knockturn Alley.
"Listen," He muttered to Ron when they got the chance, once they were out of earshot of Mrs Weasley. "Something weird happened in Knockturn Alley,"
"Oh yeah?"
"I - " Harry started, but was interrupted.
"Here we are," Mr Weasley announced as they reached Flourish and Blotts, a little wearily as Mrs Weasley exclaimed over the fact that Gilderoy Lockhart was there for a book-signing. "Come along boys, we don't have all day you know,"
"Tell you later," He said regretfully. Ron gave him a weird look, but said nothing. Inside, the shop was packed full, not only with the usual Hogwarts students but also with the crowd there to meet the apparently very famous author and adventurer Lockhart, who wrote all their defence books for this year. The man was supposed to be brilliant; Harry didn't think he looked up to much more than discovering the perfect way to curl his own hair, but perhaps he was judging too harshly.
"What a prat," Ron muttered to him as they struggled through the hordes of middle-aged witches hoping to get their copies of Lockhart's books autographed. Harry had to agree. "Honestly, I've got no idea why Mum loves him so much," The majority of the people there for Lockhart were witches of roughly Mrs Weasley's age. As they waited to buy their books, the twins and Rhaenys rejoined them.
"Look who just walked in," Fred muttered.
"Malfoy and Lannister," George pulled a face.
"Two families of rich, stuck up, sly - "
"Arrogant, amoral blondes," George finished, and Rhaenys laughed.
"A Lannister saved my life," She said. "But I won't deny that. Three out of four of those are Baratheons, anyway, even if they don't look it," She nodded back at the people that had just entered the shop. Harry peered over the heads of the people in the crowded shop to see that Malfoy and a tall silver-blonde man who had to have been his father had walked in, shortly followed by Joffrey Baratheon and his two younger siblings had entered the shop, accompanied by their mother. Unlike the last time Harry had seen that woman, today she was smiling, albeit rather mockingly, laughing as her daughter - who looked just like her and had to be Ginny's age, as she was collecting an armful of first year textbooks - made a joke, nodding at Lockhart.
"They could be brother and sister," Ron said, eyeing Cersei and Lockhart. Both were blonde, good looking, with curly hair, though just from seeing the woman's sharp green eyes and Lockhart's baby blue ones - as well as her sneer as she eyed him - Harry got the impression that Cersei Lannister could eat that man alive.
"You've never seen her real brother, have you?" Rhaenys said. "They're practically identical. He's taller, with shorter hair,"
"He'd better not be anything like that," Ron muttered distastefully, nodding at Lockhart. "Imagine the disappointment,"
"Jaime Lannister is not like that," Rhaenys said decidedly, then backtracked. "Well, he is a little. But he doesn't take himself that seriously, which somehow makes it... not vomit-inducing. Lockhart makes me want to be sick,"
"You don't like dear Gilderoy, Rhae?" George grinned at her. "Why ever not?"
"I thought all the girls loved him," Fred leered, and she just shrugged.
"I've known aurors my whole life," She said. Harry had heard something about her family - Targaryens, that is, not Martells - having to submit to regular Ministry checks ever since the madness of Aerys and Rhaegar. "They're the real thing. They fight dark wizards for a living, see the worst of humanity on a daily basis. He," She waved a distasteful hand at Lockhart. "Would not last ten seconds against Jaime Lannister, Ned Stark, Alastor Moody. Even Robert Baratheon, the man might be an arse, but you can't deny he's a powerful wizard," Harry was glad to find that he recognised almost all of those names. It was like he was becoming a real part of the Wizarding World.
Of course, being the famous Harry Potter, he couldn't even go into a bookshop without getting unwanted attention. Lockhart bringing him up to the front, in front of all those people, was perhaps one of the most humiliating moments of his life, including the time Dudley and Piers stuck his head in the toilet at school when he was seven. When Lockhart announced he was to be their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Harry heard Rhaenys swear rather too loudly. The situation was only made worse when Malfoy came to gloat. Harry gritted his teeth through the insults, and was as angry as Ron and the twins when Lucius Malfoy materialised behind his son and began being rude about the Weasleys, even insulting Mr Weasley to his face. They attracted the attention of the whole shop when the fight broke out between Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy. Between Mrs Weasley's angry shouts, the shopkeeper's frantic attempts to break the pair apart and the twins' cheering, Harry was able to pick out Cersei Lannister, wearing an expression of haughty distaste. Joffrey seemed to want to come over and watch, but his mother was leading him out even as he protested angrily. His sister actually seemed to agree with him, laughing as she peered over people's heads to catch a glimpse, though when her little brother seemed to be getting upset by all the shouting she quickly sobered and took his hand.
"Mr Malfoy?" At first, Harry thought it was a Gringotts goblin who had appeared beside them. When his voice stopped the fight instantly, however - Mr Malfoy hastily getting to his feet and brushing his robes off, sweating and sporting a black eye, whilst Mr Weasley was scolded in a hissed whisper by Mrs Weasley - Harry realised it was a man, just a very short one. He had a head of curly blonde hair, a rather ugly face with mismatched eyes - one green, one black - a very large head, and he wore an expression of polite amusement.
"Lannister," Malfoy said through gritted teeth, trying to make his tone smooth and hide that he was panting. "What do I owe this... pleasure," Harry decided that he liked this Lannister purely because Malfoy clearly did not.
"Oh, it's my pleasure surely," The dwarf quipped, his polite expression slipping as he smirked. He had the same accent as Cersei, his sister? Ron and Dany had mentioned she had a dwarf brother, and Joffrey could often be heard mocking or impersonating his clearly least-favoured uncle. Tyrion? Tywin? Ty-something. "It's not every day I get to see the esteemed Lucius Malfoy losing a fight," Fred or George - or both - whooped, and the Lannister glanced at them briefly.
"It was a disagreement, nothing more," Mr Weasley stepped forward apologetically, though he still gave Malfoy a dark look, which the man returned.
"It always is," Lannister said, still smirking. "Shame I stopped it, really. It would have been a marvellous tale to tell at the Ministry," Both men paled. "But no need. It made my niece laugh, at least," He glanced over to the grinning curly-haired girl stood beside her mother, who in contrast was looking disapproving and impatient to leave. There was a short, heavy silence. "Well," Lannister clapped his hands together. "I'd best be off. Best wishes, Arthur," Mr Weasley smiled weakly, dabbing at his bleeding lip, as the little man waddled away whilst Lockhart tried to proclaim how he would have stopped the fight himself if only he had been close enough.
"Tyrion Lannister," Mr Weasley said as they made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, shaking his head. "You never quite know if he's your friend or if he's going to stab you in the back,"
