Outsider Chronicles: Dark Eclipse
The First Year is over and Leo is already working to right wrongs. However, darkness is beginning to stir, and not just at Hogwarts. As Leo gets more powerful, his nature as an Outsider begins to take effect and worlds are drawn together. Add in some family drama and reveals and Leos migraines are only going to get worse. Sequel to Black Zodiac
And we are back with the next chapter of this wonderful story! Enjoy!
Chapter 4
A loud banging on the door woke me up, pulling me from a delightful dream involving my idiot brother, a sack and a live weasel. Don't ask. Anyway, the banging on the door stopped and Sirius' voice filtered through the wood.
"Oi, lovebirds, get out of bed! We're going to Diagon today!"
I groaned and opened my eyes as my bedmate sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Ever since I had saved her from her relatives a week ago, Holly had been sleeping with me (Not like that you perverts, mind out of the gutter!). It had been quite the shock when I woke up the day after we'd moved into Grimmauld Place to find Holly's face inches from my own and I had ended up banging my head on my dresser, but I had quickly adapted. Sirius had been stuck somewhere between wanting to snap blackmail pictures and blowing his top when he'd found out, but had decided to be a responsible adult and put his foot down to Holly about having her own room. He'd quickly changed his mind about that though when Holly woke us all up with a horrible nightmare and wouldn't stop screaming until she latched onto me when I tried to wake her up. Now it had become a routine and I often woke up to find her wrapped tightly around me. She'd even brought some of her things in so she didn't have to go back and forth between my room and hers.
I slid out of bed and padded into the bathroom to get ready for the day, before switching out with Holly and getting dressed in black jeans held up with a belt, a white, short sleeve shirt with the Leo symbol on the front, white trainers and a black jacket with white fur around the collar.
Once dressed, I headed downstairs for breakfast where Holly joined me a few minutes later wearing a white blouse, blue skirt and her hair tied up in its usual twintails.
"Morning you two," said Sirius as we came into the kitchen.
The former convict was looking a lot healthier than he did in the hospital, having put on enough weight so he no longer looked like a walking corpse and he was much more well groomed. All in all, he could pass as a decent person. One thing I will say though, is that he, unlike some of the people I'd met (Like Dumbledore and Mcgonagall) looked a heck of a lot like Gary Oldman, who, interestingly enough, existed in this world as well. I intended to show him Dracula and some other films he was in as soon as the house was fitted for electricity, just to see his reaction.
"Morning Sirius," I said as I grabbed a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea.
Holly just grunted as she made a beeline for the coffee jug. Apparently getting her hooked on caffeine had resulted in her transforming from an early bird to a zombie until she got her coffee.
The door opened again to emit Mum.
"Good morning everyone!" She said as she gave me a hug and sat down, helping herself to breakfast.
Getting rid of the ponce seemed to really agree with her. She smiled a lot more and had replaced her normal dark robes for light and flowing dresses that suited her far better, especially now that she had stopped using a glamor to make her hair look Malfoy blond, returning it to its normal jet black.
"Morning Mum," I said as the others mumbled their greetings, "Are you coming with us today?"
"Yep," said Mum, "I hear that Gilderoy Lockhart is doing a book signing today."
I spat out my mouthful of tea.
"You actually like that idiot?" I spluttered.
"Of course not, I just like watching people go nuts over him," said Mum.
Sirius and Holly laughed at the look on my face as I let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank god, I thought you'd finally snapped," I said.
"No son, I'm still just as sane as ever," said Mum.
"Alright you two, thats enough," said Sirius, "We need to get a move on if we want to get everything before the end of the day."
We quickly finished our breakfast, before heading to the Floo, ignoring the gaping hole in the wall where Walburgas painting had hung before she made the mistake of scaring Holly while she was helping clean the place up with her Eclipse Staff active. Holly had reacted to the unexpected, and loud, insults by instinctively blasting the source with a barrage of magic missiles that had reduced both the wall and painting to splinters. Kreacher had then popped up, taken a look at the destruction and tried to attack Holly. That had not gone over very well with Dobby, who had decided that he would make up for his mistake by protecting Holly, and the little Elf had blasted his older counterpart into the wall so hard his neck broke.
Once Sirius was done laughing at the destruction of his mother and death of his hated Elf, he had reassured Dobby that he'd done nothing wrong before he could take a flying leap of the banister in penance for Kreachers death. I decided to let the little elf off the hook after that, but not before having him apologize to Holly and telling him not to do something that stupid again.
Anyway, a quick trip through the Floo and we arrived in the Leaky Cauldron, which immediately went silent at the sight of Sirius. Fortunately, the silence didn't last for long as a familiar voice came from behind me.
"Their you are! Its about time you got here."
"Hey Hermione," I said, turning to face the girl, "Sorry for the wa…"
I stopped talking and stared when I saw her.
"You've been to Comic con, havnt you?" I asked.
"Yep, what do you think?" She asked, striking a pose.
"You know, as strange as it is, the Haruhi look suits you," I said, "You should keep the hairstyle. Not to sure about the sailor fuku though."
For those who haven't guessed yet, Hermione was wearing a full cosplay of Haruhi Suzumiya. She'd cut her hair short for the part and the look suited her as the shortness of her hair removed the business.
"Really? You think so?" She asked, tugging on a bang, "OK then, I'll keep it."
She seemed to catch herself and turned away.
"B-but its not for you, got it!"
I blinked and shrugged.
"Eh, whatever you say. So, shall we go?"
"Hang on a sec," said Hermione, "Theres someone I need to wait for."
I tilted my head on one side, but before I could ask who my question was answered when a red-headed girl with a large number of freckles and wearing the same uniform as Hermione ran up. Judging from the fact her hair was the right colour, I guessed that she was cosplaying Mikuru.
"Sorry Hermione, but Mum wouldn't let me go!" She said, panting slightly, "Honestly, you'd think she's never had a day of fun in her life."
"Not a problem," said Hermione, "I just got here myself."
She turned to Holly and I.
"Holly, Leo, this is Ginny Weasley, we met at Comic Con. Ginny, these are Holly Potter and Leo Malfoy."
"Its Black actually," I said, hiding my mental reeling.
This was completely unexpected. Considering that the Weasleys were known to consider Muggles to be hopelessly quaint curiosities but not worth the time of actually learning about them, to find out that the youngest was enough of an Otaku to cosplay was quite the shock.
"Nice to meet you Leo, Holly," said Ginny with a grin, "Hermione's told me about you two. I hope we can be friends this year."
"Likewise," I said.
"Same here," said Holly, smiling back at the red-head.
As we were talking, a pair of adults came over.
"Are these your friends Hermione?" Asked the woman who was an older version of Hermione.
"Yes Mum, these are Leo and Holly," said the bookworm, indicating to us, "Guys, these are my parents, Dan and Emma Granger."
Mr Granger stepped up and shook our hands. He had a very tight grip to go with his large size. He had short, black hair and bright blue eyes.
"Oi, will you kids get a move on, this starings starting to get to me!" Called Sirius.
After introducing the adults, our group headed down the alley to Gringotts so Mum and Sirius could get some money from the Bank and the Grangers could exchange some. Ginny ran off shortly after we entered the alley, stating that she needed to meet her mother before she sent out search parties.
After getting the money, Mum disappeared off...somewhere, while the rest of us tored the Alley, picking up new Robes for Holly, who had grown a lot thanks to potions and good food, and stocking up on quills, ink, ingredients and parchment. Our final stop was Flourish and Blotts, which proved to be a bit of a mistake as the place was jam packed with middle aged Witches.
"Oh bugger, I was hoping to avoid this," grumbled Sirius, "Well, nothing for it I guess."
"Whats going on?" Asked Mrs Granger.
I pointed at the banner in the upper windows.
GILDEROY LOCKHART
will be signing copies of his autobiography
today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
MAGICAL ME
"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed, "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"
"Yes, but hes also a complete fraud," I said.
Hermione gave me a scandalized look. She'd gotten better, but she still put a lot of stock in books and, more importantly, was a teenaged girl.
"How can you say that?" She asked.
"Well, if you actually look at his work, you'll find that some of the events happen within a few hours of each other in completely different places, many of which are protected from magical forms of travel," I said, "That means that, unless he was in two places at once hes not telling the truth. Plus, some of the spells and events he describes either don't exist or are impossible."
Hermione looked thoughtful as we approached the shop and pushed our way inside, grabbing the schoolbooks we needed as we were jostled by the crowd. Unfortunately, all of the Lockhart books were on the other side of the crowd, so we had no choice but to stick around for the sickening show.
Lockhart emerged from the back of the shop, flashing a grin that made some ladies in the front rows swoon and...dear god was he actually glittering? He flicked his curly, blond hair and smiled at the crowd, once more sparkling as, and I kid you not, a background of roses magically appeared. Seriously, I thought this kind of thing only happened in Anime!
"I think I'm going to be sick," I muttered as I tried to take in the sheer unfiltered ponciness of the fraud.
"I know what you mean," said Sirius, looking slightly green.
I stumbled as a short man with a camera shoved past me and started snapping pictures, causing clouds of dark purple smoke to waft into my face.
"Oi!"
I shoved the Camera man away as I gagged on the foul smelling smoke. The commotion seemed to draw Lockharts attention and he looked towards us. His gaze fell on me, then on Holly, who was patting me on the back as I cleared my airways.
"It can't be Holly Potter?" He gasped
The crowd parted, whispering excitedly as Lockhart dived forward, seized Holly's arm, dragging her out of the crowd and clamping her to his side.
"Nice big smile, Holly," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, you and I are worth the front page."
The Camera went off at the same time as a bright green flash erupted from Holly's locket and Lockhart was blasted into the wall by a high pressure water jet. Unlike my Zodiac Lance, which had a number of combat spells built in, Hollys Eclipse Staff had the ability to manipulate water to an incredibly high level.
"Keep your hands to yourself asshole," snapped Holly as she stormed back over to join us, "Creep."
I stared at my friend, who was looking both angry and red.
"Whats with you?" I asked.
Holly shook her head.
"Nothing, I just don't like being grabbed," she said.
"Fair enough."
Lockhart pried himself from the wall and dried himself off, waving off the aid of several concerned looking fans.
"No no, I'm perfectly alright," he said, "I'm sure she didn't mean anything. Just excited over meeting me I'm sure."
Holly looked ready to murder the asshole at that, especially when he reached for her again. This time however, Sirius and I were expecting it and stepped in front of Holly, glaring at the ponce. The idiot seemed to engage his brain and decide that taking on an ex-auror was a bad idea and quickly backtracked.
"Ahem, yes, well."
He stepped back to the front of the room and flashed that sickening smile again. I was not looking forwards to putting up with this nitwit for a year. Speaking of which…
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make," he said, "I am delighted to announce that this year I shall be serving as the DADA teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
The crowd started cheering, but Holly looked somewhere between horrified and furious.
"Him!" She spluttered, "We have to put up with HIM for a year?!"
I gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as Hermione joined the crowd in their applause.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not looking forwards to this any more than you," I said.
With the announcement done, we stood back to wait for the crush of people to move so we could get our books. Unfortunately, that left us out in the open for another idiot to locate us.
"Their you are Holly!" Said Ronald Weasley as he grabbed the girl in a very tight hug.
CRACK!
The idiot fell to the floor, clutching his crotch where Holly had kneed him.
"What is with idiots and grabbing me today!" She snarled.
"Holly Potter!" Shrieked a very loud voice as Molly Weasley as she hurried over to check on her youngest son, "I have never seen such disgraceful behavior! Your parents would be ashamed of you!"
"Really? Because from the stories Sirius has told us, it seems more likely that Lily would have done much the same and James would have turned him into a weasel," I said, resting my hands on Hollys shoulders so she didn't whip out Eclipse Staff and drown the banshee.
"Shut up Snake, what would you know," snapped Ron, his voice an octave higher than normal.
"A damn sight more than you two," said Sirius as he approached, glaring at the two Weasleys, "After all, I actually knew Lily and James, unlike you Molly."
Said Banshee looked like she'd just been slapped in the face with a fresh trout, but Sirius wasn't done yet.
"You have no right to say what Lily and James would or wouldn't approve of for their Daughter. No one in this world has that right."
Mrs Weasley scoffed and looked down her nose at the Black Lord.
"Well, its not like they had much experience," she sniffed, "If they had, they would surely agree with me. Not only does she resort to Muggle fighting, but she hangs around with ...people like the Malfoys."
And with that I took a big step back as I felt Holly's magic, which had been steadily rising since Molly had opened her big mouth, finally reached the point where it could be seen as a visible nimbus of green light around her body, her hair waving in the air and her eyes shadowed by her fringe. One more push and she'd probably flood the shop. A moment later, that push came when Ron opened his big mouth and promptly inserted his foot.
"Yeah, the Girl-Who-Lived…"
That was as far as he got before Holly snapped.
"Hydrocannon!" She shouted, summoning Eclipse Staff as her magic exploded off her with enough force to generate a small gust of wind.
However, that had nothing on the huge blast of water that erupted from the tip of Hollys staff and slammed into the two morons, blasting them out the door, just as Lucius and Draco were about to enter the shop, causing all four of them to slam into the wall on the other side of the street with enough force to crack the brickwork. A moment later, the water pressure dropped, allowing the idiots to slump down to the ground and land in some rather compromising positions, with Ron landing on top of Draco, while Molly landed with her face in Lucius' crotch. It didn't help that the impact had knocked them all out, so everyone in the street was able to see them. It didn't help that the building just so happened to be the main office of the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter and her cameraman, Bozo, were taking a smoke break outside.
Everyone in the shop turned to look at Holly, who was panting as her anger dissipated. She had a guilty look on her face and quickly hid her staff behind her back.
"Ummm, my bad."
And that is the end of this chapter. Hollly cow, this bloody chapter fought me every step of the way, but I'm glad to have finished it. I hope you liked it and what I did with Ginny.
I actually quite like Ginnys character, when shes not a megafangirl, so I thought that, since Hollys a girl, I'd have her as a friend and fellow Otaku.
I almost feel sorry for the Four idiots...Not really.
Anyway, I'm done, so I'll sign off. Please leave me a review!