Chapter 48: My Middle Name is Paparazzi

"So…Draco?!" Loki asked once they were back in their dorm.

Harry was currently unpacking his trunk and placed his clothes and other things in the appropriate places. Sam and Neville, who were also bustling around, looked up and curiously waited for Harry's answer. Luckily for them, the rest of those who sleep in the dorm with them were still in the common room.

"Yeah," Harry tentatively answered. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Why would I?" Loki asked confusedly. "As long as you don't do anything that I deem unforgivable, you could bring the apocalypse over us and I wouldn't judge you for it. Okay, bad example but I think you get what I want to say."

Harry snickered lowly while he nodded. "I doubt that it will happen but good to know. Anyway, did you know that Draco is my cousin?"

"No," Loki mused surprised. "That is new to me. I wonder when the Malfoy family married into the Potter line."

"It is actually the Black family that connects them," Neville spoke up. "Dorea Black is Harry's grandmother on the father's side, while Draco's mother is a born Black."

Everyone looked at him surprised.

"What? I learned about it during my lessons as the heir to the Longbottom Family. Every heir to an old line learns about the connections between families. Actually, I thought you already knew this," he sheepishly admitted towards Harry. "Sorry, I should have thought about it earlier."

"Don't worry Neville," Harry told him with a smile. "You could have done worse things, and I know that it wasn't on purpose."

Right at that moment, the door to their dorm opened, and the twins followed by Hermione and Luna walked in. The twins sat down on Loki's bed, while Luna joined Neville on his and Hermione went over to Sam's.

"What were you talking about?" the twins piped up.

"Draco, he is my cousin," Harry informed them.

"Wow, that is surprising," Hermione exclaimed.

"Actually, not so much with all the interbreeding in the old lines to keep the blood pure," Neville explained.

"Don't tell me…they are actually marrying their own relatives?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Have they never heard of inbreeding and what it does?"

Neville sighed deeply. "Only with animals and they think that it doesn't apply to them."

"That is stupid at best and outright dangerous at worst. They can be glad that they have magic that saves them from the worst damage like deformations and such unless it is too extensive, but it weakens their magic nonetheless, in the worst case making them squibs," Loki growled. "Keeping the blood pure…what a pile of crap. I mean there are four prime examples where adding the blood of a Muggleborn or even that of a muggle into an old line resulted in the most powerful wizard of that generation."

"Who?" the twins inquired.

"Dumbledore, Riddle – yes he already was quite powerful before he made the deal, that was more about political power –, Snape and Harry of course. I mean think about it, Harry is capable in all three ways of channelling magic, Snape I know is at least versed in mind magic. The same goes for Dumbledore, about Riddle I think I don't even have to begin with. Then there is Neville as well as the twins whose parents are not closely related, and they also can perform two different ways of channelling magic. Tell me one of those inbreeding morons that can do more than one."

With a deep sigh, he let himself fall back on the bed.

"Idiots…all of them."

"It seems that at least Draco and his mother want to change things," Harry said with a snicker.

"That is true, he even watched a movie with us," Hermione replied with a grin, she had been pretty surprised about that.

Harry nodded. "That and he and his mother want to get away from Lucius. I told him that his mother should contact Sirius if she really wants to get away from him, I don't doubt that Sirius will love to help her. That reminds me, twins, is it possible for you two to create something that would help Draco to get away from the other snakes if he wishes to?"

"Really? This is interesting, I never thought that Draco would want to get away from his father with how he flounders around the Malfoy name," Neville muttered.

"A notice-me-not charm?" one of the twins said in the meantime.

"Maybe also an illusion…some average Hufflepuff should do the trick," the second added.

"Adding a slight Confundus charm so that no one thinks more about it."

"Bound by a set of runes…what do you think?"

"Yep should be doable!"

"Perfect! How long do you think you'll need?" Harry asked with a broad grin.

"A week give or take," one of the twins said with a shrug.

"Very good. Anyway, it is getting late, and I'm tired so if you excuse me," Harry told them before grabbing his shower bag and vanishing into the bathroom.

"I'll leave too, good night," Hermione said.

"Wait for me," Luna piped up, and the two girls left to their own dorms.

The others also got ready for bed. Soon all of them were sleeping soundly.

When Loki was sure that everyone was asleep, he vanished from the dorm and reappeared right in the private study of the headmaster. Michael was sitting in front of the fire in an armchair and reading a book with a cup of tea on the table in front of him, though he looked up when Loki arrived.

"Hey brother, how are things going?" Loki greeted him while sitting down in the other armchair.

"Slowly, I want to make Muggle Studies a mandatory class from the first year onwards, but that Lucius Malfoy is blocking all of my attempts. Did you know that the Weasleys – it was Ron who flew the car – have never heard of the internet, or that the non-magicals can share videos of things like the flying car within minutes?" Michael complained. "Over one and a half million people saw the video where he flew over London. It was only thanks to Madame Bones' intervention that everyone thinks that it was shooting for a film."

"Not only that but all the inbreeding is slowly killing them. However, your problem might solve itself soon. Harry told me that Draco and his mother want to get away from Lucius. It will hit that blond idiot pretty hard when his own son and wife denounce him," Loki said with a chuckle.

"That might actually help a lot. Lucius Malfoy is the main opponent to this and thanks to his money and influence…if he loses that the rest of the board might be more amenable to the idea. The children really need to learn more about the non-magical world, I fear what might happen if magic gets revealed too sudden."

"Too true, the non-magicals tend to react violently to anything they don't know or understand…. Anyway, the reason for why I came here was that Draco told us that he knows how one of Riddle's Horcruxes looks like. It is a black book – like a diary – with Tom Marvolo Riddle written in gold on the back," Loki explained.

"Good, that makes four items we know about," Michael mused. "Severus earlier reported, that Riddle was obsessed with three items from the founders, the locket from Salazar Slytherin, the diadem from Rowena Ravenclaw and the cup from Helga Hufflepuff. Now we also know about the diary, that is at least one missing, not that we have any idea where those are, to begin with."

"From what Draco told us, the diary is probably at Hogwarts in the hand of a child. Can't we just search everyone and be over with it?" Loki nearly pleaded, he hated the thought that something so vile as a Horcrux currently was in the hand of a child…the things that could happen.

Michael took a deep breath before he solemnly replied. "Unfortunately, not without concrete proof but I'll contact Madame Bones to see whether she has an idea how to handle this. Trust me, I'm as uncomfortable with this as you are."

"When I find that damned book, I'll dissect it and see whether I can find out what that idiot did to hide those soul pieces," Loki growled lowly.

"If anyone can find out what he did it is either you or… Lucifer," he added after a short pause, Michael still didn't know what to think about everything that is currently happening but one thing was for sure, for all his immaturity, his brother was damned crafty.

"I can only hope that you're right. Well, I think I'm off and see whether Sirius is still up and inform him about everything," Loki said while standing up.

"You might want to inform Dean and Crowley too. It might be unlikely that they come across one of the Horcruxes but better inform them anyway."

Loki nodded. "Will do. I might even ask the goblins whether they can help but don't count on it, they take the security and confidentiality of their customers very seriously. So as long as the soul piece doesn't threaten their security, it is highly doubtable that they'll help."

With a wave of his hand, he vanished. Michael returned to his book when the archangel realised that before leaving, Loki had transfigured his robes into a bunny costume. He sighed deeply and with a wave of his hands reversed the transfiguration, it seemed that his brother would never grow up.

As they agreed, Loki gave everyone an update concerning Riddle's soul pieces. He even went to Gringotts but as predicted they wouldn't give up any information pertaining to the content of the vaults as long as it isn't a threat.

Time went by, and they had their first lessons of the new school year. It turned out that the blond ponce who gave autographs the day they visited Diagon Alley was now the latest DADA teacher. What was worse though was that Harry met his own personal paparazzi.

"H-Harry!" a boy a year younger than Harry and obviously in Gryffindor, called out to him when he and his friends – at least those in his year – were on their way to the great hall from Transfiguration.

"What is it?" Harry asked while waiting for the boy to catch up with him.

"Can…can I take a photo of you?" the boy asked, raising his camera in emphasis, a camera that wouldn't have looked out of place at the beginning of the 20th century. "Name's Colin Creevey by the way. It is so great to meet you, I heard everything about you…about that night when you defeated You-know-who and your first school year…."

"As long as I don't find myself on twitter tomorrow I don't have any objections," Harry replied with a shrug, effectively interrupting the rant of the boy.

"Twitter?" Collin asked surprised and a bit confused. "You do know that muggle technology doesn't work here at Hogwarts, don't you?"

Harry rose an eyebrow before pulling his smartphone out of the back pocket of his trousers and showing it with a flourish to the boy.

"So sure about that one?" he questioned while throwing Colin the phone who barely caught it.

The boy though looked at him wide-eyed before he looked at the phone and with a disbelieving stare turned it on. His eyes went impossibly wider when he realised that, yes, muggle technology does work at Hogwarts under certain circumstances.

"Sure, it needs to be enchanted so that it can work here, but nothing is saying that it couldn't," Harry explained.

"Had…had I known that. Professor McGonagall said that muggle technology won't work here. I actually wanted to buy a really good digital camera when I heard that I'd come here but when she told me that I got the one from gramps," Colin explained a bit sadly. "You see one day I want to become a professional photographer."

"Why don't we start now then and get you one nice picture of us all, what do you think?" Harry told him to lighten the mood. "A group picture of us all!"

"You would do that?" Colin looked like Christmas came early with how broad he smiled.

"Sure, why not. Anyone having objections?" he asked the others only to be met with amused silence. "Good then gather around!"

They all got together while Loki magically operated the camera.

"T-thank you all," Colin stammered once he had his camera back. "You…I mean you wouldn't mind signing it when it is developed?"

"I have an idea," Loki piped in before Harry could reply anything, tapping the camera with his finger.

Suddenly a larger than normal picture appeared in his hand. With a flourish, he conjured a pen before he signed on the image underneath himself. When he was done he handed both to Harry, who blinked in surprise but also signed with his name. Afterwards, Sam, Neville and Hermione did the same and gave the picture to Colin who seemingly didn't know what to say.

"There, one signed photo of us all."

"What? Harry Potter gives out signed photos now?" another voice, they could clearly recognise as Draco's, said.

"Problem with that or are you just jealous that you're not also on the picture?" Harry retorted, turning around to see Draco standing in the corridor together with his bookends Crab and Goyle.

Draco, on the other hand, smirked, ever since he spent some time with Harry and his friends he could read them quite easily.

"You wish! As if I want to be on the same picture as you," Draco replied with a sneer.

"Ah yes, we don't want to ruin your all dressed up like a peacock appearance not to mention what dear daddy would say if you get caught on the same picture with heaven forbid…a Gryffindor."

"You should be careful whom you antagonise, Potter, you wouldn't want to learn what my father is capable of."

That actually made Harry laugh. "Was that supposed to be a threat Malfoy? Every second sentence that comes out of your mouth is 'wait until my father learns about that'…how about a real threat," he told him with a smirk. "Never ever mess with the Los Dos Bros!"

Draco gulped audibly but other than that he didn't show any outward sign that he took that as a threat, the amused glint in his eyes, on the other hand, showed his real thoughts about that. Though before he could reply anything, they were interrupted by yet another person.

"What's going on here?" the person, who turned out to be Professor Lockhart, asked.

"Potter is giving out signed photos," Draco answered with a smug grin.

"So, we finally meet, Harry Potter! Gilderoy Lockhart," Lockhart exclaimed as if nothing pleased him more before grabbing Harry and pulling him to his side. "Come on, Mr Creevey, a double portrait and we'll both sign it."

Colin looked at Harry a bit unsure what to do while Harry rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. Another flashing of the camera later and Colin had a second picture of Harry, this time together with Lockhart. Right at that moment, the bell went, signalling the end of the break.

"Perfect, now run along, you don't want to be late, do you?" Lockhart addressed Colin before he turned around and entered the building, Harry still held by his side and the others trailing after them. "Kind of saved you there Harry. If I might give you a piece of advice, be careful with giving out autographs, people might think you're setting yourself up. Handing out signed pictures at that stage of your career isn't advisable – looks big-headed. Sometime in the future, it will come in handy to have a stack at hand but as much as it pains me to say, for you that is not now."

That was the moment they reached the DADA classroom, and luckily for Harry, he could get rid of Lockhart because he had to get to his place. Once everyone found a seat, with Harry and his friends sitting in the back as far away from Lockhart as possible, Lockhart smiled at them brightly.

"Welcome to Defence against the Dark Arts. My name is Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award – but don't talk about that, I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee with a smile," he introduced himself.

Loki observed how every girl in the room was utterly smitten with the man, with the apparent exception of Hermione. Oh yeah, it had taken him three hours of pointing out the obvious mistakes in the man's stories until she had to concede that they were just that…stories. Ever since she realised just what a pile of crap his books were, her view on him had taken a nosedive.

"Today we're starting with a little quiz to see how well you read my books, that you all bought as I see, well done," Lockhart continued in the meantime with a bright smile towards the girls who were fawning over him.

The man handed out the sheets before walking back to the front. "You have thirty minutes, start now!"

Hermione began reading the questions and looked more and more incredulous at the sheet in front of her.

"Is he serious? I mean…what is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour? What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? WHAT?" she whispered to the others who looked equally dumbfounded by the test.

That was when Harry sported a vindictive grin.

"Oh, I know just the right answer to that one!"

A/N: 'til next chapter!