I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter 14- They did
"Nice big smile, Harry. Together we'll make the front page."
The camera flashed sending a puff of purple smoke into the air as Harry struggled to get out of Gilderoy Lockhart's grip. All Harry had wanted to do was get his schoolbooks. Unfortunately almost all of them were written by Lockhart and he happened to be at Flourish and Blotts signing copies of his autobiography. With the large crowd that had gathered Harry and Remus had been pushed apart and Harry found himself grabbed by Lockhart.
"Let go of me."
"The boy seems to be a bit camera shy," Lockhart said while still keeping a grip on Harry. "Must be overwhelmed to meet his idol at last."
"I never even heard of you until I got my Hogwarts booklist!"
Lockhart was too busy flashing a grin at the cameras to listen to either Harry or to Remus shouting "Let go of my son!"
"What an extraordinary moment this is!" Lockhart started saying. "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 -that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me." Harry could see his dad working towards them through the crowd.
"He and his school fellows 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!"
Harry groaned. He remembered his dad telling him how Lockhart was a couple years ahead of the Marauders and Lily in school and how he'd barely been able to pass his exams without cheating, and knew his dad wouldn't be happy with the idea either. Finally Remus got to them.
"Get your hands off my son. You have no right using him like that."
Lockhart's face went from beaming to confused.
"Using him? I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Oh I think you do. And if you have any ideas about even speaking to Harry outside of class, you'd better forget them. Harry isn't interested in helping you further your own career. And I don't want to see any pictures of him in the Daily Prophet. Harry's underage and you can't use any of those pictures without my permission, and that's something I'm not going to give you."
They hurried out of the bookstore, and found Ginny where she had decided to wait.
"Here, Ginny. You can have these."
"Thank you," Ginny said shyly. For some reason Harry couldn't figure out she'd been acting differently around him lately. They'd been like brother and sister since they were babies, and now she was suddenly shy around him. This was the first time he'd heard her talk in a long time. Percy had kept mostly t his room too, but Harry had never been all that fond of Percy anyway. Just then they heard a voice that was a lot less welcome.
"Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page, can you?"
Remus started to tell Malfoy to shut his mouth, but Ginny beat him to it.
"Leave Harry alone. He didn't ask to be famous and he certainly didn't want all that."
Malfoy saw that as an opportunity.
"Got yourself a girlfriend?" he asked, continuing to glare at Harry.
Ginny blushed, putting the books in her cauldron as the others came out of the bookshop.
"At least I have friends," Harry said. "All you have is a couple of goons who follow you around."
Draco looked ready to try to hex Harry when Lucius walked up behind him and the Weasleys and Hermione joined Remus behind Harry.
"Arthur," drawled Lucius. "Surprised to see you here. I would have thought with all the raids lately you'd be too busy." He reached into Ginny's cauldron and ignored the new Lockhart books, picking up Ginny's dog-eared second hand transfiguration book. "And they don't even pay you well. What's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if it doesn't even pay you decently? Still, one could excuse that I suppose, but not the company you keep." He looked directly at first Remus, then Hermione.
Being a werewolf, Remus had to be extremely careful about showing any signs of temper, although every line in his face showed his contempt for the older Malfoy. But the Ministry would love an excuse to claim he was dangerous and either take Harry from him or send him to Azkaban or both. And Lucius had most of the Ministry in his pocket. He couldn't react and take the chance of loosing Harry. But that didn't mean Arthur couldn't do something. There was a clank as Ginny dropped her cauldron followed by a whack as Arthur Weasley's fist connected with Lucius' nose. They started brawling right there in front of the store. Remus worked his way between the two fighting men to get them apart, "accidentally" stepping hard on Lucius' foot.
"Is that your idea of help?" he snapped at Remus.
"Funny thing, Lucius. When two people are fighting I have a habit of only helping the one I think is right, especially if the other one just insulted me and my friends."
Lucius shot Remus a look and moved his hand toward his wand, but with so many witnesses coming out of the bookshop there was nothing he could do. As much as the Ministry made life hard for werewolves, they were also searching the homes of everyone connected with Voldemort for dark artifact, and Lucius knew it. With everything hidden at his house, he couldn't afford to attract Ministry attention any more than Remus could.
"Here," he said, handing Ginny back her book. "It's the best your father will ever be able to afford." With that he called Draco and the two Malfoys left. Remus turned to Arthur.
"As much as I agree he had it coming and would love to have given it to him myself, you shouldn't have done that Arthur. Could've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble."
"If he were able to he would have gotten me in trouble already. I don't think there's anything he'll be able to do."
Mrs. Weasley walked up looking furious with her husband. "That was no example to set for the children. Do you want them to think they can solve all their problems that way? And what must Lockhart have thought of us?"
"Don't worry about that, Mom. He probably loved the free publicity."
Harry had temporarily forgotten about Lockhart, and wished he wouldn't have to think about him again. With a different teacher Harry knew Defense would be his favorite class, but with Lockhart he knew he wouldn't be learning much this year.
Harry had hoped that by September first there would be an owl from the Ministry saying he was cleared of the underage magic warning, but the Ministry didn't even bother to answer. At least Harry wouldn't have to worry about underage magic at Hogwarts, and this year he'd even get to bring his own broom to play Quidditch on.
Once the Weasleys arrived in the Ford Anglia and Hermione came everyone took turns going through the barrier. They had to watch to be sure no muggles were watching every time someone went through, so it took awhile. Finally everyone was through except for Harry and Ron. A quick look at the clock told them the train would be leaving in a few moments so they made a run for the barrier and crashed right into it.
"What happened? The barrier isn't supposed to close until after the train is gone."
"I don't know," Harry answered as they colleted the things that had fallen off their trolleys when they crashed.
"We're going to miss the train."
Harry and Ron both watched as the last moments before the train left ticked away.
"Now what do we do?"
"I'm sure my dad and your parents will be back through in a minute."
"But what if they can't get back?"
Harry looked nervous, knowing that could be possible, but said "I'm sure it will be OK. We should probably just wait by your car."
Ron's face lit in an idea. "The car! Dad altered it so it can fly."
"Oh no Ron. No. I already got in trouble once over the summer for using underage magic. And I wasn't even the one who used magic. I'm not risking it again."
"But even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in an emergency. And we have to get to Hogwarts. Our families must not be able to get back or they'd be here by now."
Well, what Ron said made sense, and Harry had to admit the idea of riding through the clouds in a flying car did sound like fun.
"The car has an invisibility device right?"
"Yeah."
"All right then."
When the parents were finally able to get to Hogsmeade and Apparate back, they found the train station empty. All the other parents left since their children were safely at Hogwarts, but Remus and the Weasleys headed to where the car should have been.
"It's gone!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "Harry and Ron should have been by it."
A terrible thought occurred to them.
"They couldn't."
"They wouldn't."
Remus sighed. "They did."