AN: As always, shoutout to my incredible beta FalconHonour, who constantly blows me away

If, twelve months ago, you'd told Sirius Black, that in a year's time, he would be in Malfoy Manor, downing whiskey with Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy and Hyperion Greengrass, while Narcissa Malfoy and Selene Greengrass sipped on their wine, he would have said that you were crazy. But here he was.

It was, of course, rocky to begin with. Tensions and emotions ran high and control ran low. Accusations were thrown about every which way, and decades-old conflicts were held up under a microscope and inspected for all to see.

Sirius was distrustful of Lucius for his Death Eater activities, and the two sniped at each other until Narcissa got them both ridiculously drunk and made them talk about everything they had each gone through during the war. Four hours, three large bottles of firewhiskey, two sobbing men, and one long story of regret later, the two had come to understand each other.

Hyperion and Sirius were a much easier matter. The two had never really interacted before, so there wasn't any shared history or bad blood between the two, making the friendship much easier to build. Their shared love for Muggle music served as another boon to their growing relationship, something Selene teased the two over mercilessly.

Severus and Sirius, however, were by far the worst. At first, the two flat-out refused to speak to each other, no matter how anyone cajoled them. In fact, it was quite likely that the only reason that neither of them had moved out of Malfoy Manor was that they didn't want to give the other the satisfaction.

Things remained that way until mid-June when Sirius was visited by Hermione. He had been lounging on the sofa with a glass of whiskey, when Hermione suddenly flopped into the large chair across from him and stared at him..

"Why don't you and Professor Snape like each other?"

Sirius groaned. "Kitten-" Hermione bristled at the pet name. "-There's a lot of bad blood between the two of us."

"Can't be that bad," said Hermione.

"Besides the fact that my friends and I were at his throat the whole of Hogwarts-as he was at ours, I hasten to add - we almost got him eaten by a werewolf, who happened to be one of us."

Hermione winced, and then paused, thinking for a moment. "Remus Lupin?"

Sirius blinked, "How'd you figure that out?"

"Well," said Hermione, "You said that you were animagi with your friends. You were a Grimm, James Potter was a Stag, and Pettigrew was a rat. You never told us what Lupin was, and I can't imagine you guys would leave him out. Plus his name is Remus Lupin, which is the most werewolf name I've ever heard. Remus, in Roman Mythology, was raised by a wolf, and Lupin comes from 'lupinus', which in Latin means 'of a wolf.' It's like he was supposed to become a werewolf, with a name like that. Maybe that's what Lady Magic intended."

"You think Lady Magic set him up to be fucked over?" Sirius's voice was hard.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Merlin, you're so overdramatic. And narrow-minded sometimes too. Being a werewolf isn't a curse, it's a blessing. It expands your lifespan, you heal much more quickly, you're stronger and faster, and you're guaranteed a soulmate. Sure, there's a bunch of prejudiced berks out there that say that a werewolf is a 'Dark Creature', and it means that they shouldn't be able to be a member of Wizarding society. Dumbledore actually wrote most of those laws, you know. In fact, the transition isn't even supposed to be painful but there was this curse placed on the entire species by Grindewald back at the turn of the century. Dark doesn't mean bad, it's just a kind of magic. It's all about intent."

Sirius had a strange look on his face, "You sound a lot like Regulus."

Hermione shrugged. "Aunt Cissa always called him her smart cousin. Why are you so weird about Magic? You were raised to believe in it, weren't you?"

Sirius snorted, "Of course I was. But when the person who taught it to you uses it to justify why she's crucio-ing you and trying to make you take the Dark Mark, you lose a bit of faith, to put it mildly. And then when Lady Magic is supposed to represent fairness and you get sent to prison for a decade for a murder you didn't commit, well..."

Hermione winced, "Your mother was Walburga Black, wasn't she?"

"Of course," Sirius nodded, "My psycho bitch of a mother. The day she died was one of the best days I had in Azkaban. Did you ever meet her?"

"I did. Once. Draco, Daphne, Astoria and I had to go over to Grimmauld Place, and that was the first time I ever heard someone call a muggle born a-well, you know."

"That's my mother, all right." Sirius raised his glass of whiskey in mock salute, before sighing, "When I went to Hogwarts, being in Slytherin represented everything she wanted me to be. Everything that I wasn't. So everyone in Slytherin reminded me of home, of everything I'd come to Hogwarts to get away from. And Sni-Snape, well he was an easy target. He was rude and short-tempered, and best friends with the girl my best mate was in love with."

"So why don't you apologise?"

"Pride, I guess," said Sirius, "And he'd never forgive me, anyway. Not sure if I'd forgive him for what he did in the war either, or for how he and Lily ended."

"Oh," said Hermione, chewing her bottom lip, "I'm probably not supposed to tell you this... but...they never stopped being friends. Professor Snape and Lily Potter, I mean."

Sirius looked at her, bewildered, "Of course they did. He called her a slur in front of everyone at the end of fifth year. The worst kind of slur, to boot."

"I know. It was kind of set up so the rest of the Gryffindors would ease off on the fact that she was friends with a Slytherin. I mean, she was friends with a good chunk of the house, really."

"What?

"She was an Honorary Slytherin," Hermione said, "So in Slytherin, we've got all these really little perks from being snakes. Secret rooms in the castle, tutoring sessions, supplementary textbooks that are dead useful, Prefects playing Cupid, you name it. There's this whole voting system where a member of a different house can join in on these kinds of things. Like Hannah, my friend who's in Hufflepuff. We got her voted in so she would be able to hang out in the common room with us. It just basically makes you a Slytherin as well to the rest of the house, with all the good and bad that comes with that."

By the end, Sirius was staring at the wall. "You can't tell me that everyone in Slytherin liked her."

"No, there were still some prejudiced berks, I'm sure, but once you're in, you're in," Hermione said. "She even wrote one of my Slytherin exclusive books."

"Was it to do with Charms?" asked Sirius, "She was always incredible at Charms."

Hermione nodded, "I've brought it home with me. You can read it this summer, if you want.."

Sirius swallowed. "I'd like that."

"One condition, though."

Sirius groaned. Hermione pointed to herself.

"Slytherin, remember? Anyways, I'll let you read the book if you sit down and make nice with Professor Snape. Deal?" She held out her hand to shake.

Sirius took her hand and shook it. "You drive a hard bargain, Kitten."

"And you can't call me Kitten, either!" Hermione scowled.

"It's too late!" Sirius sprang to his feet, "That wasn't part of the terms!"

"Sirius Black, you come back here!"

Astoria Greengrass lounged on a branch of a willow tree, basking in the sunlight. The willow tree overlooked a small pond where water lilies grew from the deep end, pickerelweed and Blue Irises grew from the shallow end and cattails swayed in the warm summer breeze. Dragonflies circled around fat bumblebees that drank lazily from flowers, and the rustling of the wind mixed with the croaking of the frogs and the hum of the crickets in the late afternoon. Astoria held a lily-flower in the palm of her hand, concentrating on making it bloom and deflate, watching the petals open one by one before making them clam up and repeating the process again.

Astoria was waiting for Daphne and Theo-it was their 'secret spot', one that Astoria had discovered when they were all home over spring break. She put the lily down as she heard their voices and footsteps approaching.

"Come on, Theo! We're almost there." Daphne said.

"I know!" Astoria could practically hear the eye-roll in Theo's voice.

They came into sight and settled at the crook of the tree, hands clasped.

"When we get married, I want to get married here."

Daphne went bright pink and threw her arms around Theo before kissing him soundly on the lips. "Really? You think about that stuff too?"

Theo laughed and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess. I think more guys do than you think. Or at least more guys in Slytherin."

Daphne giggled, "I don't think Gryffindors think more than two minutes ahead, never mind seven years."

"I think you're giving them too much credit there. Well except for maybe Neville."

"I can't believe he has to room with Potter and Weasley. Remember when Mia said that he was the only person with a clean part of the room? The only one with books?"

"You're still surprised by that?" Theo asked.

"I guess not," said Daphne, "I mean it's just that they're so different from all of us. Even in the simplest things like reading books. I mean you and Hermione are total bookworms-don't argue, you know it's true. I have my History books, and Draco's like you and Mia, at least as far as Potions is concerned. Hannah adores her Charms, and Blaise has a thing for Art and Art History. Even 'Stori's got her fantasy novels. I can't imagine not having a single book in your dormitory bookshelf."

Theo shrugged, "I don't understand them, and I don't think I ever will."

The two went silent and Astoria tried to shift positions to see what they were doing. They remained obscured from her vision, so Astoria decided to climb out towards the edge of the branch, the part that hung over the pond. When she peeked below the leaves, she saw that they were hugging each other and kissing at the same time. Which was gross. Suddenly, she got an idea. Astoria swung her legs over to the same side of the branch, and swung down, so that she was hanging upside down.

"Daphne and Theo, sitting in a tree!" she sung, as Daphne and Theo jumped, startled. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Astoria!" Daphne yelled, as Astoria continued singing.

"First comes loooooove!"

Theo smirked and whispered into Daphne's ear, "I have an idea."

"Then comes marriage!"

Theo discretely pulled out his wand.

"Then comes the-"

"Titillando!" Theo shouted, watching the hex leave his wand and hit Astoria, who started shrieking, and squirming away from the invisible hand tickling her, calling for Theo to stop.

Daphne giggled, "That's what you get for spying!"
Astoria fell off the branch and into the pond, making a great big splash, before coming up for air, absolutely drenched. "Th-eo!"
Theo and Daphne burst into laughter, before looking at each other, and holding hands, ran and jumped into the pond. Astoria burst into a fit of giggles.

"Aunt Cissa's going to be so mad!"

"She'll get over it," Daphne grinned, before grabbing her younger sister from the back and giving her a tight hug.

"Also, since when do you two kiss each other?" Astoria scrunched her nose.

"Since October," Theo said proudly.

"It's gross."

"You wouldn't have seen it if you weren't spying, 'Stori," Daphne teased.

"Astoria, you need to stop spying on all of us!" The three turned to see Hermione, standing on the edge of the pond, with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. "It's a bad habit, you know."

"It's not spying," Astoria sniffed, "It's collecting information. And when did you get here?"
Hermione shrugged, "I was trying to find you guys since Draco, Blaise and Pansy were starting a game of Quidditch. Hannah and I don't like to play, and you need at least three people per team if you want to actually kind of play the game."

"We can do that later," Daphne said, "But we're taking a swim right now-you should come in, too!"

Hermione shook her head, "No, I don't want to get wet!"

"Boooooo," called Theo, "You know you want to!"

"Please?" Astoria dragged out the word and put on her best puppy-dog eyes.

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes, "I guess." She then took a running leap into the deep end of the pond, making as big a splash as she could, before her head came bobbing up. "It's nice in here today."

"See!" said Daphne, "Aren't you glad you joined?"

Hermione smiled, "Sure, I guess." She turned her attention to Astoria. "So what information did you gather, then, in your definitely-not-spying?"
"Well," Astoria dragged out the word, "I learned that Gryffindors don't read. Oh, and that Theo and Daphne want to get married here, which is like forever and a half away, so I don't even know why they're talking about that yet."

"Because it's fun!" Daphne giggled. "Mia will be my Maid of Honour, and Draco can be Theo's Best Man, and the elves will bake the biggest cake anyone's ever seen."

"Does Theo get to make any of the decisions in this?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

Theo laughed, "You and I both know that Daphne's not going to be in charge, either. It's going to be Narcissa and Selene doing everything. I bet they probably already have it planned out."

"Oh, they'll have had our wedding planned to within an inch of its life ever since everyone found out we had a soulbond," Daphne rolled her eyes, then blushed, "You know, sometimes I'm really glad that I know that it's you, and that we don't have to go through a ton of stuff and figuring out just for the same ending."

"Especially with what Mia and Draco have to go through," said Theo, knowingly.

"Me and Draco?" Hermione furrowed her brow, "What about us?"

Theo and Daphne looked at each other and laughed, before turning back to Hermione. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Well, I don't know what you guys are talking about either," Astoria moaned. "Can you tell me, Daphne? Please?"

"When you're older," Daphne smirked, "I thought boys were icky, though?"

"Of course!" Astoria looked at Daphne like she was crazy. "And anyways, if all we're going to talk about is love and boys," she made a face, "No offence, Theo-" she added, "I'm going to go play some Quidditch."

Theo grinned, "No offence taken, 'Stori. Let's go play some Quidditch."

Hermione looked at the Second-Year book list over Daphne's shoulder and groaned, as she read it.

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Daphne let out a slightly muted scream, "Gilderoy Lockhart? We have to get books by Gilderoy Lockhart? The fraud?"

"Daphne, darling, you've got to be joking," Selene said, before plucking the list from Daphne's hands, reading it quickly, and then breathing very heavily out of her nose. Hermione and Hyperion exchanged a long-suffering look.

Selene and Daphne both hated Gilderoy Lockhart with a passion, though for different reasons. For Daphne, it started when she had picked up one of his books written about the events of the Vampire-Werewolf war of 1985. She had quickly discovered that the book was riddled with historical inaccuracies, missing dates, and incorrect details. But the worst offence had been Lockhart's claim to be part of the peace talks. Daphne, of course, had known upon reading it that that was completely false. She and Grandmere had followed the events together, thoroughly documenting and detailing every news article, and had gotten in contact with everyone involved that they could. This had not included Lockhart, as he hadn't even been remotely involved, let alone been part of the peace talks. Despite only being seven or so at the time, Daphne had then dug into every single book he had ever written, disproving each one, with a massive timeline of when he said each event had happened, and how it was quite literally impossible for him to have done any of this, given the massively conflicting dates. Her efforts had spanned a ten-foot roll of parchment. It had been the one time in their childhood that she'd written more than Hermione on a subject.

Selene, on the other hand, hated Lockhart for other reasons. Mainly because he had had a crush on one of her friends back in school, which had bordered on obsessive. He would often try and sit at the Slytherin table- uninvited, and unwanted - trying to impress them with his ludicrous tales. She had once remarked that she had no idea how he'd gotten into Ravenclaw, as, as far as she could tell, he'd been the dumbest student to walk through the halls of Hogwarts. The friend that had been the subject of the crush, which had spanned seven excruciatingly long years, even though she was betrothed, was none other than Narcissa Black Malfoy.

"Is the new Professor just a fan of his, do you think, or is it actually Gilderoy Lockhart himself?" Hermione asked.

"That's an Uncle Lucius question," Astoria piped up, blueberry muffin in hand. "If he is, that really sounds like no fun for you guys. Maybe it's good that I'm not starting Hogwarts until next year."

Hermione smiled brightly as she reached her favourite spot in the whole entire world. It was a large white gazebo on the grounds of Malfoy Manor, one that stood proudly in front of a field of sunflowers. It was bright and it was happy and it was warm.

She took out Hogwarts: A History, and opened it to page one and started reading.

Draco found her there a couple of hours later. He looked at the book she was reading and smirked. "Is this the new 1992 edition?"

Hermione smiled at him. "Of course!"

"Go on then. What are the differences this year?"

"Well," said Hermione, "They cut out a page on the kitchens, which was quite necessary in my opinion. The kitchen section already had three pages. And they added half a page to Salazar Slytherin's miniature biography within the book, as well as expanding Rowena Ravenclaw's. It also reinstated the Come-And-Go room part, which had been taken out back in the seventies edition." She smirked at him. "You know, I'm almost glad nobody else reads this. There's a whole lot of Hogwarts secrets that other people could find out just by reading it, and we get them all to ourselves."

"Like the secret back entrance to the Restricted section?"

Hermione nodded, before getting an idea. "Oh! Let's go look at the sunflower field, since they're blooming" She tugged Draco by the arm. "Come on!" She spread out her arms looking at the sunflower field. "It's so pretty."

Draco looked at her, and nodded. "It is."

"You know," Hermione said, "Daphne was telling me about the history of the Manor, and apparently this sunflower field and the gazebo have been here since the 1500s. Apparently, they were a wedding gift from Maximillian Malfoy to Trillia Greengrass, when they got married. I think it's my favourite spot in the whole world." She beamed at the sunflowers smiling back at her, and grabbed Draco's hand. "Come on, let's go find the tallest sunflower this year!"

Hermione, Daphne, and Theo strolled down Diagon Alley with the Malfoys. Hyperion and Selene were in Cyprus for a long weekend, just the two of them, and Astoria was staying with one of her friends, so Hermione and Daphne were doing their back-to-school shopping with their godparents.

It was a warm and busy August afternoon, with Wizards and Witches bustling all over the place, most of them making a point to say hello to Lucius Malfoy. After stopping at Amanuensis Quills for parchment, ink, and a new array of quills, Twilfitt and Tattings for some new clothing, as well as Madame Malkins for school robes - in the latest style, naturally - and various other stores for odds and ends, the group ended up at Flourish and Blotts, where there was a large crowd around the door, above the windows, a large banner reading "GILDEROY LOCKHART will be signing copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL ME today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m".

Of course, most of the crowd parted ways for them to walk through. With Lucius Malfoy leading the way, crowds were rarely an issue.

A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies. . . . Don't push, there . . . mind the books, now. . . Oh! Lucius, old chap, is that you? Haven't seen you since Hogwarts."

Lucius smiled widely, "Ah, Henry Falkins! Do you need any help with the crowd?" The man nodded gratefully, and Lucius took a step up to where Falkins was standing on a raised platform. "Ladies!" he called out, and the crowd quieted, "There's more than enough time, I assure you. Henry Falkins over here is an old friend of mine, and I know that he'll be able to ensure you're all able to get what you want, as long as you stay calm and quiet. Thank you." He smiled again, and the crowd calmed instantly. With a half-bow and a wave to Henry to carry on, Lucius stepped down from the platform and offered his arm to Narcissa before walking through the doors.

"You think you'll be able to do that one day?" Theo nudged Draco.

"Of course he will," Hermione said, confidently, "He's already more than halfway there. He could sell a house-elf clothes."

Draco grinned, "Thanks, Mia." They heard a yelp and all turned to the source of noise-Ronald Weasley, clutching his foot which had been stepped on by the Prophet's photographer.

Suddenly, Gilderoy Lockhart, who had been sitting in the back of the room, signing copies of his book, jumped to his feet. "It can't be Harry Potter?" Lockhart then proceeded to parade Potter around like a show-horse, around the room, shaking his hand and smiling. "And the lovely Narcissa Black!"

Narcissa's smile was pinched, and her tone could have frosted glass as she replied, "Narcissa Malfoy, Gilderoy. Surely you remember my marriage to Lucius?"

Gilderoy grinned, turning to the room and announcing loudly, "Narcissa and I go way back-all the way to Hogwarts, in fact! Speaking of Hogwarts, this is the perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography — which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge —" The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea, " Lockhart continued, giving Potter a little shake, as Draco smirked, "that he would shortly be getting much, 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 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!"

"No!" cried Daphne.

Lockhart turned to her, mistaking the nature of Daphne's cry. "Why, yes! It's true!" He then continued parading Potter around the room, throwing a wink at Narcissa as he went, and then sat himself back at his table, and continued signing his books.

"Come on," said Hermione, "Let's not waste anymore time on him. I'm going to go look at Transfiguration Theory, if any of you want to come." She walked to the back of the store, towards her favorite section of books-transfiguration theory. And of course. Of course that was where the Weasleys and Potter were.

"Potter, Weasley," she nodded at them. "May I please see the bookshelf that you're blocking?"

They sneered at her but let her through. Hermione crouched to start looking at the books on the bottom shelf when she noticed a red-haired girl flipping through a book on Charms. Their eyes connected, and Hermione felt something in the back of her head-the same thing that happened every time she did a new spell, whispering friend.

She smiled at the girl. "Hi, I'm Hermione Greengrass."

The girl smiled at her tentatively, "Ginny Weasley."

"Are you going into first year this year?" Hermione asked kindly. Ginny nodded. "What are you reading?"

Ginny blushed pink before showing her the cover. Charms-From A-Z "I've always thought Charms sounded pretty cool."

"Oh, I love Charms. Professor Flitwick is really nice. Do you know what house you want to be Sorted into?"

Ginny went red, before Weasley inserted his opinion. "She'll be in Gryffindor, of course! What kind of a question is that, Greengrass?"

Hermione looked back at the girl who looked a bit like deer in headlights. Hermione smiled sweetly at Weasley. "She'll be in whatever house she fits into the most. Whether that be Gryffindor, Slytheirn, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw."

"Are you in Slytherin?"

Surprised to hear Ginny speaking up in front of her brutish brother, Hermione nodded, "Yeah, and so are a bunch of my friends, but I'm friends with a bunch of people in the other houses too."

"Even Gryffindor?"

Hermione hesitated, torn between the temptation of scorning Gryffindor in front of Weasley and not disappointing the younger girl who was looking at her wide-eyed,"I'm friends with Neville Longbottom," she said at last, " If you end up going there, I can be friends with you too, if that's what you want."

Ginny beamed. Ron Weasley, on the other hand, was spitting mad. "Like hell you will! You can't be friends with my little sister."

Hermione leveled a glare at him, "Why not?"

"Because she'll be in Gryffindor!"

"And? I have friends in Gryffindor. I don't let Houses dictate who I'm friends with."

Potter laughed a bit harshly, "Then why aren't you friends with us?"

"Like you'd want to be friends," Hermione snorted, "And anyway, I tried that. I was perfectly nice to the both of you until you started insulting me and my friends and called us names."

"Like we said anything that wasn't true," Potter retorted.

Hermione's voice went ice cold. "You don't know me. Don't pretend to know what I'm like, Potter, because you don't. You don't know what any of us are like, because all you do is make baseless assumptions because of the color that we wear." She turned to Ginny, and softened her tone. "Ginny, if you want to, come and find me at Hogwarts. And don't let whatever your brother says colour how you think about Slytherin. It's a fantastic house, and you'd be a great addition to it." She turned to storm off, but she saw Draco walking over. She gestured to Ginny and mouthed, 'Be nice.'

Draco flashed her a grin, before sneering at the Gryffindors. "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter? Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page. You and Lockhart are going to be best mates this year, I'm sure. Weasel, are you ready to be thrown over for a thirty-five year old git?"

Potter and Weasley were saved from responding when Arthur Weasley came around the bend. "Ron! What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley." Lucius somehow managed to appear out of thin air, behind Draco, a hand on his shoulder.

"Lucius," said Arthur Weasley, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Lucius. "All those raids . . . I hope they're paying you overtime?" He glanced over the man's shabby robes. "Obviously not." He noticed Ginny. "Ginevra Weasley, isn't it?" Ginny nodded timidly. "It seems my goddaughter has taken a liking to you. When you get to Hogwarts, let me know, and I'll find you some… nicer supplies. Especially if you're in Slytherin." He paused. "I know Hermione well enough to know she has a good feeling about you, even from this short meeting, and she's got some rather keen instincts." He offered the girl a smile, and Ginny smiled back hopefully.

"Traitor," Ron hissed.

Hermione's eyes flashed. For some reason-she couldn't quite put her finger on it-she felt good about Ginny, like she was someone that was supposed to be in her life. "Just because you're jealous that your sister has caught a sponsor's attention, it doesn't make her a traitor. Does it, Uncle Lucius?" She added, turning her most innocent eyes on the older man.

Lucius smirked, catching on to her game instantly. "It does seem that we have different definitions of 'traitors,' Hermione darling," he drawled. "Arthur, your father, for ex-"

Arthur Weasely flung himself at Lucius, knocking him backwards into a bookshelf. Heavy spellbooks came tumbling down and Narcissa, who had come out of seemingly nowhere, shouted a spell, causing the books to freeze mid-air.

"Arthur Weasley!" Narcissa cried out, "How dare you attack my husband, in a bookshop, where our children are going back-to-school shopping! Have you no shame? Especially right in front of their brand-new teacher at his signing? Gilderoy," she turned with a simpering smile, "Although it is not incumbent upon me to do so, allow me to extend a general apology for the disruption of your book signing. And Henry, dear, allow us to cover any expenses incurred by Arthur Weasley's…" she searched for a word, "brawling." She flashed a butter-won't-melt smile at everyone. "Hermione, Draco, darlings, give Lucius the books you wanted to purchase and run along with Daphne and Theo to the ice-cream parlour. We'll be there momentarily."

As Draco and Hermione dashed off, Lucius started playing politician, spinning the altercation in the worst possible way for Weasleys to everyone from the Daily Prophet Reporter to the store owner and the crowds, smiling as his charm worked flawlessly. Narcissa, in the meanwhile, went up and quietly introduced herself to Ginny Weasley, making sure the girl wasn't hurt in the chaos in any way, shape, or form and also offering further assistance in "anything she needed or wanted, darling," that year.

And, in the chaos of the moment, not a single soul noticed a small leather-bound diary fall out of Lucius Malfoy's coat-a diary intended to be taken to Borgin and Burkes, a diary that was noticed by no-one, in fact, other than Percy Weasley, who picked up the diary, looked at it curiously and slipped it into his pocket.