Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to PenguinLord0029 and Gazaran, who beta this story.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Flourish and Blotts
"I'm really going to miss you next week," Hermione sighed, they were at Harry's house waiting for Arthur to come to take Harry to the Burrow.
"Come off it Hermione, you know as soon as you get next year's books you're not going want to do anything but read them all," Harry rolled his eyes.
"Humph," Hermione huffed. "Remind me again why we're friends."
"Because I'm awesome and as the smartest witch you've realized that I'm the best friend you could have," Harry smirked at her. "Besides, you'll see me tomorrow."
"I know, but after that you'll be gone for a week," Hermione sighed, and then smiled. "But you're right; I'll be able to read all our books. I'm really looking forward to reading all of our Defense books, there's so many of them, they must be interesting … and they're all from the same wizard … Lockhart must really be a great wizard if he did all those things …"
"Oh … I'm sure he is," Harry said looking amused, according to Remus, that wasn't likely but he wasn't about to burst Hermione's bubble, not when she was this excited. It's not like it matter anyway, they weren't going to be actually meeting Lockhart.
It wasn't long after that that there were noises announcing the arrival of Sirius and Arthur as they walked through the cabinets.
"Hello Harry," Arthur said smiling kindly as Harry approached the newcomers with excitement and a little trepidation. "It's nice to finally get to meet you, Ron and the twins have been talking about you a lot."
"It's nice to meet you too, sir," Harry smiled back at him; there was just something about Arthur that seemed to put Harry at ease.
Arthur eyes than traveled to Hermione who had come into the room after Harry, she smiled at him and said, "Hello Mr. Weasley, I'm Hermione Granger."
"Oh …" Arthur said looking a little shocked that the girl that Ron had been talking about even more than Harry was at this house too. "Well, it's certainly nice to meet you, Hermione," he said, recovering from his shock.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, too," Hermione said.
"Hm … It seems like I forget to mention this fact the other day." Sirius sighed, "The Grangers have been our neighbors for the last few years."
"I see," Arthur said. "So I take it that means you're a Muggle-born," he added as his eyes lit up.
"Not now Arthur, I think it's best if you get Harry out of here as quickly as you can," Sirius said. "Besides, you can talk to the Grangers tomorrow when you meet them at Diagon Alley."
"That's true," Arthur sighed. "Well, I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about tomorrow. Are you ready to go Harry?"
"Yes, sir," Harry smiled as he pulled his trunk behind him. "See you tomorrow, Hermione."
"Bye, Harry … say hi to Ron for me," Hermione said.
O
Harry was staring up at the ceiling of Ron's room; he had just gotten there a few hours before and spent a wonderful time talking to all of the Weasleys as they ate dinner. Harry was sure that he'd never eaten that much before, and it seemed that Mrs. Weasley wanted to stuff him full, all the while telling him that he was much too skinny. It's not like he put up much of a fight though, her cooking was so good that he gladly ate everything she gave him, especially loving the dessert, his favorite treacle tart.
It was odd how nice it felt being here. It probably had something to do with the warm welcoming he got from everyone. Ron had met him in the front yard, clapping his back and beaming like an idiot. Harry felt his checks stretch from his grin; it really was good to finally see his best friend again. As Ron was taking Harry up to his room he was stopped by the twins that dragged him into their room and showed him a few of their plans for what they were going to be doing this coming year.
While in there, Harry quickly explained to them what had happened with Dobby. They all seemed to be curious about that, not really knowing why or how the elf could have gotten to Harry. Eventually they left the twins' room, and Harry got to Ron's room. It wasn't very big and it was full of Chudley Cannons posters, which caused Harry to grin. Sirius would have loved this room.
It wasn't too long after that that they were called down to dinner, where Harry was introduced to Ginny, Ron's little sister that was going to be starting at Hogwarts this year. She was really shy it seemed, or at least she was shy around him because she wouldn't look up at him and she seemed to be blushing a lot. Her brothers, mostly the twins but Ron joined in sometimes, seemed happy to take the mickey out of her, but Harry tried his best not to pay attention to them, even glaring at the twins after awhile. Suffice to say, Ginny ate rather quickly and left the room blushing red.
Harry smiled as he thought about this evening, almost wishing he could have a big family like that … one that would tease you relentlessly and had a Mum cooking delicious meals for you and obviously care about you even when she scolds you. A Dad that asked questioned of you and obviously had a mischievous side … he sighed as his musing slipped into a dream where his own family members surrounded him.
"Wake up, Harry!" Ron was shouting at him and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Huh?"
"Come on, Mum said it's time for breakfast and we've better get down there before the foods all gone," Ron seemed to be really afraid that he wouldn't get any food because he was out the door before Harry could even fully wake up. He chuckled as he got out of the camp bed where he was sleeping, changed his clothes, and then joined the Weasleys downstairs where he had an excellent breakfast.
"So, how are we getting to Diagon Alley?" Harry asked after the meal and everyone was ready to go.
"By Floo powder," Ron said.
"Oh … I've never used that before," Harry frowned.
"Really … then how did you get to Diagon Alley last year?" Arthur asked.
"Hagrid took me there the Muggle way," Harry explained and Arthur's face lit up.
"Did he really?"
"Not now Arthur," Molly rolled her eyes at her husband and she tried to explain what Harry needed to do to use the Floo. After watching the twins and Ron go, Harry took some of the powder and did as he was told, finding it difficult to say the name properly, but he must have managed to choke it out close enough for he arrived next to the others in no time.
"I don't think I like the Floo that much," Harry said standing up and brushing the soot off of him.
"It looks like you broke your glasses," Ron sniggered.
"I told you that you should have taken them off," Percy said pompously.
"Yeah … you were right," Harry sighed, taking his broken glasses off and looking at them, everything around him becoming instantly blurry.
"Oh, Harry dear let me fix those for you," and he handed his glasses over to the blob that must have been Mrs. Weasley. She muttered something and instead of handing them back to him, put them on his face, her caring smile was the first thing he noticed as his vision came back into focus.
"Thank Mrs. Weasley."
They made their way to Gringotts where they were supposed to meet Hermione and her parents. Harry waited with the Grangers as the Weasley went to their vault, Sirius had given him plenty of money to buy his books. It wasn't long after that that the Weasleys came back, and they all went off their separate ways (Mr. Weasley going with the Grangers, obviously excited about talking to Muggles).
Harry was happy that it felt natural being with his friends again, that it didn't matter if they weren't together in a few months. He laughed and joked and even ignored the other two's bickering like no time had passed at all.
"Oh my God!" Hermione squealed when they got to the bookstore, which seemed to have a huge line coming out of it. "I can't believe it!"
"What?" Ron and Harry said, looking at her oddly as she looked like she had just found the secret to a particularly hard spell.
"He's here!" Hermione said, and Harry followed her gaze to see she was looking at a sign that was outside of the bookstore saying that Gilderoy Lockhart was there to sign his book, Magical Me.
"Hermione," Harry groaned. "You don't have to be so excited that some author is here …"
"Argh! Lockhart is going to be here!" Ron groaned. "Mum is going to go nuts!"
"What?" Harry said.
"She's always telling us how to do our chores like Lockhart said … it's not like we haven't been doing them for years already, but she reckons he's discovered the most brilliant way of doing things or something," Ron rolled his eyes. "Look there she is …" he added pointing at his mum, who was looking just as excited as Hermione was.
The three of them made their way to rejoin the others, most of which seemed to be annoyed by Lockhart's presence (especially Arthur who was glaring at the other wizard). Gilderoy Lockhart was pretty much as Harry had expected after hearing Remus talk about him. He was smiling at the many people (most of which were witches) that were here. It was obviously that he liked attention and he liked to keep his appearances up, for Harry was sure there wasn't a single hair out of place and his white teeth seemed to gleam.
Harry was already getting a sickening feeling as he looked at the other man, but that was nothing to what he felt when Lockhart noticed him and exclaimed, "It can't be … Harry Potter!"
Before Harry knew what was happening he was being lead up to the front of the line, and shaking Lockhart's hand all the while pictures were being taken of him. He felt himself blush when Lockhart handed him books and say that he could have them for free. All he wanted to do was get off what seemed to be a stage … he could feel everyone's eyes on him. Curious eyes … awed eyes … smiling eyes … annoyed eyes … admiring eyes …
"… be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in 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!"
His words caught Harry's attention and he looked at Lockhart in horror. This can't be happening! He did not want this smiling, pretty boy being his Defense teacher! Not if Remus was right and he was just a big fake … Not if he had to put up with more crap like this!
Before he could say anything to this though, he was being moved away and he was force to leave by the entire store full of women that seemed to want to get Lockhart's autograph. He saw some red in the crowd, made his way towards it, and quickly realized it was Ginny. He wasn't really sure what to do about her since she wouldn't look at him when he approached, but he continued to go in that direction anyways.
"Here, you can have this," he mumbled dumping the book set that he had just gotten from Lockhart, knowing he would rather burn them than actually used the book he was just given. "I can get my own."
Ginny opened her mouth, looking like she was going to try to talk but sighed and closed it again, all the while growing steadily redder.
"Famous Harry Potter, you can't even go into a book store without being noticed," a drawling voice came from behind him and Harry groaned.
Harry turned to insult Malfoy, but before he could even open his mouth Ginny snapped, "Leave him alone, he doesn't want any of that."
Harry looked at Ginny a little shock, he really hadn't expected that she would defend him, but obviously, she was just as courageous as her brothers.
"Aw look, Potter's got himself a girlfriend," Malfoy sneered, and Ginny seemed to be unable to form a word as she turned a deeper shade of red.
"What's going on here?" Ron said coming along with Hermione.
"How does …" Malfoy started to say something, his face in a smirk and Harry new he didn't want to hear want he had to say.
"Why don't you just stuff it!" Harry said. "We don't really care what you have to say."
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at Harry and that's when a man with pale blonde hair and cold grey eyes came over, and it was clear who it was. It was Draco's dad, Lucius Malfoy. Harry looked back at the cold eyes that were boring into his with as much defiance as he could. He knew this man was a Death Eater, and knew that he was probably someone that wanted him dead.
"Now, now, what do we have here," Lucius said in a similar drawing voice as his son. "If it isn't Harry Potter …"
"Harry," Mr. Weasley said, he was looking at Mr. Malfoy coldly too, and he stepped in between Harry and Lucius. "We really should get outside, it's crowded in here," as he said this he never took his eyes off of Malfoy.
"If it isn't Arthur Weasley," Lucius said. "I certainly hoped that they're paying you for all the extra raids that you've been carrying out," he paused there, and looked at the second hand things that were Ginny's schools supplies, even picking up a very battered looking Transfigurations book. "Obviously … they have not. Pity, what's the point of being a disgrace to the name of wizards if you're not going to get paid well for doing it."
Arthur narrowed his eyes in anger, but he tried to control his voice as he said. "We obviously have a very different opinion about what it means to be a disgrace to the name of wizards!"
"Clearly," Lucius said, looking over at the Grangers with revulsion. "And I thought you could get no lower."
Harry supposed that he shouldn't have expected anything less from Ron's dad, but he still couldn't have imagined that Mr. Weasley would have actually lunged at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him to the floor and showing Mr. Malfoy just how much he liked the Muggle fighting style. The shock slowly wore off and turned into pleasure as he watched the fight, he would not have minded throwing a few punches himself after what Mr. Malfoy had implied about the Grangers, as if associating with them was a bad thing.
Unfortunately, Hagrid came and broke the fight just when Mr. Weasley had gain the advantage (couldn't he have gotten just a few more punches in before Hagrid pulled them apart) and they all left the bookstore.
Mr. Malfoy didn't look so good with his bloody lip and what look like a black eye, but he seemed to be determined to have the last word as he threw the transfiguration book back at Ginny, "Here take this little girl, it's the best your daddy can buy you!"
Several of the Weasley glared at him for this, their ears red with anger and embarrassment, but Mr. Malfoy stocked off after saying that.
"Arthur, I can't believe you did that," Mrs. Weasley reprimanded her husband. "That's no way to set an example for your children. What Lockhart must have thought about all this!"
"You shouldn't let what he says get to you," Hagrid said, seeming to stop Mr. Weasley from snapping (unwisely) back at Mrs. Weasley. "Nothing he said is worth it. Bad blood … the whole lot of them."
"Thank you Hagrid," Mrs. Weasley said. "We should be going now!"
"Fine," Mr. Weasley said, still clearly upset. They all walked to the Leaky Cauldron in silence after that and soon they were saying goodbye to Hermione and her parents (as they left the pub onto the Muggle streets), who seemed to be shaken up by what had just happened, but Harry knew Hermione would explain the details … tell them why Mr. Weasley had fought. After they were gone, the Weasley and Harry walked to the Floo so they could all go back to the Burrow.
A/N: Well I know that there isn't a lot of original work in this chapter and I really have to say that I'm not so pleased about this chapter, but it's not something that I could just skip … it's too important to the story. However, I am hoping that the next chapter will be more original.
