Chapter 20: Diagon Alley
Wednesday morning, I woke up early and eagerly dressed in my school robes, excited to enter the wizarding world again after a month in the muggle world. I was also looking forward to seeing Harry and Ron. Ron never really explained what had happened with Harry in his letter, and I was very curious.
I was also excited just to be seeing my friends again. In the month I had spent with my parents and spending time on my own in town or in my room, I had become a little lonely. Before I had friends, I didn't feel lonely when I was alone, probably because I had never experienced friendship. I missed it. Letters are great but being with your friends is much better.
I was anxious all through breakfast, and then finally, around ten thirty, my parents were finally ready, and we left for Diagon Alley. They both seemed a little nervous, but I assured them that everything would be fine.
We entered the alley through the Leaky Cauldron and then headed for Gringotts, to meet Harry and Ron. When we got there, I discovered that we had arrived first, so we stood at the top of the steps, outside the bank and waited for the others.
"Are they going to be arriving anytime soon?" Dad wondered, checking his watch. "I have other things to do today."
"Dad, come on, you promised," I groaned. "One day, just for me, to buy my supplies and meet my friends. Then we can spend the entire rest of the summer at home talking about dentistry and such."
I started looking around the Alley, hoping to locate either Harry or Ron or one of Ron's family when I saw Harry and Hagrid emerging from the crowd, so I ran down to meet them.
As it turned out, Harry had somehow messed up the floo network and had ended up in Knocturn Alley instead of Diagon Alley. I shivered at the thought of having to wander through such a sketchy place. Good thing Hagrid had found him and brought him back.
I introduced my parents to Harry and Ron, as well as Ron's family, and Mr. Weasley immediately sucked my parents into a conversation. As I understood from Ron, Mr. Weasley was obsessed with muggles and muggle artefacts. I found myself hoping that he would be able to occupy my parents so that I could actually enjoy my day without having to worry about them.
We went into the bank and my parents and I headed to the exchange counter to change our Muggle money for wizard money. Harry and Ron followed the Weasleys down to their vaults. I was actually a little jealous of them, for having vaults in Gringotts. I supposed when I was older, I would open up my own vault. I was sure it would be fascinating to go underground and see them.
We exchanged our money quickly and my father gave me enough to cover my books and supplies and some extra to spend during the year. When we were finished, we went back out to the steps to wait for the others. When they emerged, Mr. Weasley insisted on taking my parents for a drink, and they seemed happy enough to go off with him. Mrs. Weasley told us to meet them at Flourish and Blotts in an hour, and then Harry, Ron and I headed down the street on our own.
Harry bought us all ice creams at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, and Ron stared at a Quidditch window display until I had to physically drag him away from it. We went into a supply shop and bought new quills and ink and parchment. Harry and Ron insisted on going into the joke shop, where we met up with Ron's brothers briefly. We also went to the Apothecary to stock up on potions ingredients.
After an hour, we headed to Flourish and Blotts. When we got there, we discovered that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing copies of his autobiography for the afternoon. I became very excited, as he had written seven of the eight books on the booklist.
The adults joined us, and I immediately sidled over to Mum and Dad.
"So how were your drinks with Mr. Weasley?" I wondered.
"He's quite the funny little man," Dad replied matter-of-factly. "Asked us such strange questions."
"Yes," Mum agreed. "I mean, who doesn't know what a microwave does?"
"Oh, well the Weasleys wouldn't have… I mean – the Weasleys are vey old-fashioned in their cooking styles," I amended my statement. "They reheat everything on the stove or in the oven."
Though I was sure there was also a spell for quick reheating of food, I didn't mention that to Mum and Dad. It was an unnecessary addition that could only set them off, and they seemed in such a good mood.
"And he seemed very interested in our jobs," Dad added. "Asked us so many detailed questions. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to pursue a career in dental hygiene."
I nodded and tried not to laugh at the idea of Ron's dad becoming a dentist.
I was glad that Mum and Dad had had a good afternoon. I'd been worried that today might go really poorly, but it seemed that spending the day with Mr. Weasley had been the right call. Instead of talking about wizardry and magic, Mr. Weasley had spent the whole day quizzing them about non-magical things, and the conversation had never drifted into dangerous territory.
At that moment, Gilderoy Lockhart came out from the back room and sat at the table that was set up, and a photographer came and began taking pictures of him. Ron muttered something when the photographer stepped on his foot, which caused Lockhart to look up and he spotted Harry.
He immediately insisted that Harry join him for the photo session.
"Why is your friend having his picture taken with that man?" Mum leaned over and whispered to me while everyone's attention was on Harry.
"I'll explain later," I sighed. I'd tried to explain about Harry's fame to Mum and Dad once, but they hadn't really understood. To them, fame was for movie stars, or musicians, or authors. Fame wasn't for people who defeated dark wizards.
As Harry posed uncomfortably for the photos with Lockhart, the man informed the room at large that he would be taking over as defence against the dark arts professor, at Hogwarts this year. Now I understood why we had to buy seven of Gilderoy Lockhart's books. I looked forward to reading them and discovering who this man even was and what he had done. It certainly seemed like he'd done a whole lot.
Harry make his way away from Lockhart and reach Ginny, where he dumped all the free books he had been given into her cauldron, presumably as he wanted to buy his own. I saw Malfoy approach him and Ginny, and Ron and I began to fight our way over to where they stood. It was difficult as we were each carrying stacks of the books we needed to purchase.
As usual, Malfoy was rude, insensitive, and just trying to make trouble. When Mr. Weasley tried to break up the altercation, Malfoy's father showed up and the two parents started in on each other. It got to the point that Mr. Weasley launched himself at Mr. Malfoy and Hagrid ended up appearing and having to pull them off each other.
Filled with trepidation, I chanced a glance over at my parents, who were visibly shaking. I sighed. After the display that had just gone on, I suspected that they weren't going to be keen on ever returning to Diagon Alley with me in the future.
"Mum, Dad, come on," I said, leading them out onto the street. "Don't worry about that."
"What was going on back there?" Dad asked. "Was that man talking about us?"
I felt my heart sink. I'd hoped that they wouldn't have picked up on Mr. Malfoy's comment about muggles.
"Oh, it's nothing," I assured them. "The Malfoys are just ignorant gits."
"Hermione, language!" Mum cried.
I grimaced. It seemed that spending so much time with Harry and Ron was starting to rub off on me.
We returned to the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry and the Weasleys travelled back to the Burrow by Floo Powder. I followed my parents out of the Leaky Cauldron and back to the car. The ride home was a quiet one, and I didn't try to break the silence. While today hadn't been a total disaster, it could have gone better. I worried that all the progress we'd made over the past month would be erased after our run-in with the Malfoys.
I decided to give my parents some space when we got home and I headed up to my room to start reading my new textbooks. I chose Gadding with Ghouls as my first read and smiled when I cracked it open for the first time and the smell of crisp, clean pages wafted up to my nose.
As I read, I discovered that Gilderoy Lockhart really was pretty amazing. He'd done so many amazing things, I couldn't believe he was so young and yet so accomplished. No wonder Professor Dumbledore had hired him. With this kind of resume, he was perfect for the post of defence against the dark arts.
When I went down to dinner later, I could see that Mum and Dad were feeling better and that they had settled down. Mum began to serve the chicken onto our plates, and we sat down at the table.
"So, Hermione," Mum said, and I could feel my stomach twisting up. I didn't want to have to explain about pureblood prejudice and all of that. "Did you have a nice day with your friends?" she asked.
I almost laughed out loud in relief. Maybe all my worrying had been for nothing. It wasn't as though Mum and Dad had witnessed a wand fight, after all. It had been a run-of-the-mill physical brawl and nothing more. Frightening when you didn't know what was going on, but not the end of the world.
"I did," I nodded. "And I got everything I need for school as well. Which is great timing, because I've just finished all my summer homework, and now I can focus on reading all my new textbooks."
"Excellent," Dad smiled. "That's our Hermione."
I smiled widely at that. Our Hermione. I got a warm feeling inside me just hearing it. Whatever had happened today hadn't changed anything. Everything was just as it should be.