Author's notes: It's time for the second trip to Diagon Alley, and Harry isn't going to have such a brilliant time here this time around. I don't own Harry Potter, J. does. Now then, one with the story...

Chapter 14: Unpleasant Acquaintances

The end of the summer was drawing near and it was time for the Weasleys and Harry to take a trip to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies for the next year. They had decided to go via Floo powder, and since Harry hadn't ever travelled by this method before, Ron went first to show him what to do, stating his destination, Diagon Alley, clearly before throwing the powder to the floor and being consumed by green flames, leaving no trace of him.

Harry then went up and followed Ron's example, but he choked on saying Diagon Alley, so when he reached his 'destination', he found himself in a seemingly empty, eerie shop. Not wanting to stay any longer than necessary, he scanned around the shop seeing the strangest objects that looked like they had some link to dark magic before he exited the shop, walking into an oddly quiet alleyway. The people he could see just stared at him with cold, distant eyes that made him feel uncomfortable. As he tried to walk away, however, he found that what looked to be the exit was blocked by passersby, and they were heading straight for him.

"Not lost are you, my dear? Why don't you come with us and we'll help you find your way back to where you need to be," croaked a rather shady woman as she grabbed Harry's shoulder. She looked like a classic muggle depiction of a witch and she definitely didn't look like she had anyone's best interests at heart.

"I'd suggest that you let me go on my own way before you get hurt! I have no time for games!" Harry bellowed, shocking the woman and the others around him at his outburst. Obviously, they hadn't expected such a reaction as they backed away, their eyes filled with fear as they stared into his cold, hardened eyes.

Just then, the crowd at the top of the stairway leading to the exit was parted as a giant figure appeared. It was Hagrid.

"'Arry?! Wha' do you think you're doin' down 'ere?! Come on!" Hagrid yelled as the crowd created a path for Harry to walk up to reach his half-giant friend.

Harry was glad that Hagrid had come as he didn't want to lose control, which he was about to had his friend not appeared. You see, Harry and Hermione had become good friends with Hagrid last year after Hagrid had sent a letter to Harry to meet him and they talked about James, Lily, and Hagrid's life. Hermione soon joined after she befriended Harry, and the three had been friends ever since, with the two students visiting Hagrid whenever they had some free time. After Hagrid took Harry back to Diagon Alley, he spoke again.

"Wha' were you thinkin'? Stalkin' around Knockturn Alley? People will think you're up to no good!" Hagrid chastised.

"I was lost, Hagrid. Floo powder is definitely not my favourite way to travel...Hang on...What were you doing down there then?" Harry asked, wondering exactly why his friend was there in the first place. What was he doing there that might be strange?

"I was, well, I was gettin' some flesh-eatin' slug repellent. They're eatin' all the school's cabbages. Knockturn Alley is the only place to get some good repellent nowadays," Hagrid explained, sating Harry's curiosity for now.

Just then, a red missile and a brown one shot towards Harry, knocking him to the floor. It was only when he moved the red and brown masses did he see the faces of his favourite redhead and brunette girls; Ginny and Hermione.

"Don't you dare do that again, Harry Potter! You had me wracked with worry, you prat!" Ginny yelled, causing Harry to feel guilty.

"I'm sorry, Ginny. I choked at somehow landed in a shop in Knockturn Alley. Fortunately, I found Hagrid and he got me out before things got too bad," Harry explained, hoping that Ginny would forgive him.

"Alright, Harry. I forgive you. Just don't do it again. I'd be lost without you." Ginny said before turning to Hagrid, "So you're Hagrid? Thank you for helping Harry and being a good friend to him."

"And I take it tha' you're the Ginny Weasley tha' 'Arry has been talkin' about all last year? Pleased to meet you," Hagrid said, shaking Ginny's hand enthusiastically.

"Oh, it's so good to see you two again, Harry, Hagrid!" Hermione said happily.

"'Ello 'Ermione! 'Ow's your summer been?" Hagrid asked, pleased to see his other friend too.

"Well, me and my parents went on holiday to France as a treat for how well I was doing at Hogwarts. It was so beautiful, especially Paris!" Hermione said excitedly before turning to Ginny, "So this is Ginny? I see why you like her, Harry. I think that she'd be good for you." She said this teasingly.

Harry and Ginny both blushed at the implication, and while she definitely wouldn't mind being 'good for' him, he still hadn't got his mind over how he felt for her, so how could he think about that kind of stuff? The same thoughts ran through his mind again. Did he like Ginny in that way? Did he want her? Damn these stupid emotions! Sometimes he thought that he was better without them, but then he wouldn't have Ginny, Hermione, or Hagrid as friends, and something possibly more in Ginny's case.

'This isn't the time nor the place! Just stop it! It'll do you no good to dwell of these thoughts!' Harry chastised himself mentally.

"Anyway, the others are in Flourish and Blotts, so we better head off. It was nice to meet you, Hagrid," Ginny said, trying to change the subject.

"The pleasure was all mine, Ginny. Oh, and 'Arry? Keep a close eye on 'er. She's someone you shouldn' let go, bu' others might try to take 'er away, just like there always is someone tryin' to ruin everythin'. Just be careful with 'er, alright?" Hagrid said, whispering the last part to Harry, with his meaning not lost on Harry, before walking away towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"Well, before we go to meet up with your family, there's something I need to ask you. Have you bought your wand yet?" Harry asked. He had a sneaky suspicion though that Ginny's parents wouldn't be able to afford a new wand for her, so he already had a plan in mind.

"No, Mum said that they couldn't afford to get me a new wand, so they gave me an old wand used by my grandmother. It doesn't feel right though. Is that bad?" Ginny explained.

"It is. It means that you won't be able to perform magic in correlation to your potential. Come with me. I've got a surprise for you," Harry said, taking Ginny's hand and leading her in the direction of Ollivander's, closely followed by Hermione.

When Ginny saw where Harry was taking her, she stopped and remained firmly routed to the ground.

"Harry, I know what you're up to, but I can't just let you pay to get me a wand! It's not right that you should spend your money on me!" Ginny said firmly, not believing that she deserved Harry's generosity.

"Now Ginny, who else can I spend my money on if not me? I have loads of money, Ginny, and that's just in my trust fund vault! I reckon that there's more in the Potter family vault, so there's no way that I'm going to use it all on me. That's just being unwise and greedy! No, I'll spend my money on my friends, and since you're one of them, I don't see how it's a problem. Think of it as an early birthday present, if you'd like," Harry explained, knowing that the last sentence would do the trick.

Ginny sighed in defeat and accepted Harry's proposal and although she didn't show it, she was jumping for joy in her mind about getting her first present from Harry, and such a brilliant one at that.

Harry lead Ginny and Hermione into Ollivander's and rang the bell, causing the wand maker to appear out from his storeroom to greet his customers.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, and Miss Granger. My, my, fancy seeing you here, eh? I assume that you've come to get Miss Weasley here a wand?" Ollivander said fondly.

"Yes, sir, how did you know?" Ginny asked in awe of Ollivander's perceptiveness.

"I have my ways, my dear. Now then, let me have a think...Ah, I think I might know just the right wand for you. Hold on..." Ollivander said before heading back into his storeroom. He returned a few minutes later with a wand box and took the wand out before passing it to Ginny.

Ginny took the wand and a red aura, not unlike the colour of her hair, surrounded her. The wand had chosen her.

"I knew it! Even in my old age, I still know a good match when I see one. You see, Miss Weasley, your wand is made from hazel wood, 10 inches. You'll need to keep in control of your emotions for the best results, otherwise it can cause handlers other than yourself a hard time if you've recently been angry or depressed, as I told Mr. Potter when he got his hazel wand. Now, your core is very strange. Again, like Mr. Potter's wand, your wand is a dual-core wand consisting of a dark phoenix feather and a light phoenix feather. The most curious thing is that the feathers were from the same phoenixes that gave the feathers for Mr. Potter's wand. It seems to me as though you and Mr. Potter's lives are entwined with each other if the fact that you have wands that are brother and sister. I see you two doing great things together, so don't let go, whatever you do. People may try to separate you, as they do all good things, but you can't allow that to happen," Ollivander explained, causing Harry and Ginny to look at each other in awe and shock.

Once more, someone else had told Harry and Ginny to not let go of each other, and now they had brother and sister wands? Why was it them who seemed to be entwined together? What did the future have in store for them? They guessed that only time would tell.

Eventually, Harry paid for Ginny's wand, so they and Hermione went back to Flourish and Blotts where the Weasleys were...and where Gilderoy Lockhart was posing for pictures and signing books. Harry didn't know why, but he didn't like the man. He loved the fame he had, and seemed to abuse it and draw it up all of the time. Also, something seemed off about the man too. He had a look in his eye that suggested that he was fearful of being caught with something. But what could that be? He also didn't look to be the type of person who could do all of these great things. When Harry had read some of his books, after buying his supplies from Diagon Alley earlier in the summer, Harry noticed many mistakes in timing, suggesting that he was in multiple places at once, and the methods he used were so illogical that it was impossible for such methods to work at subduing the monsters that he had supposedly killed, tamed, whatever. Harry decided to keep an eye on this one, knowing that he was also going to be the next DADA professor ('Who else would want us to get every single book he's supposedly written but him or a fan?' Harry thought when he came to his conclusion earlier in the summer), and he had a bad feeling that he was a fraud, and that he went to some bad means to get these stories and make them his own. Why else would he have such a worried expression in his eyes? Just then, however, those eyes locked on Harry, more specifically his scar, and Lockhart grinned widely.

"It can't be Harry Potter!" Lockhart declared, causing the crowd to look at Harry.

"Harry Potter! Come up here!" a reporter said, trying to grab Harry's arm to bring him up to Lockhart for a photo.

"Don't touch me! I'm not here for photos! I'm here to find my friends and get out of here!" Harry exclaimed, causing the reporter and Lockhart to back away at his dismissal of their intentions.

"Come on, Harry. Don't be a spoil sport, now. Being a celebrity means that you have so many fans, like me, and you don't won't to let them down, do you?" Lockhart said, hoping to get Harry to reconsider.

"Unfortunately, Lockhart, I'll have to decline. I don't care what people who don't even know me think, neither do I wish to parade myself around like a buffoon so that reporters photograph me, or note down my words to use without my consent!" Harry explained before grabbing the notepad out of the startled reporter's hands.

"Come now, Harry. Why don't you come up here and give everyone what they want, then I can give you your books free of charge?" Lockhart then said, causing many girls, except Ginny and Hermione, to sigh in awe of his 'generosity', not knowing that it was really bribery.

"I don't need your books as I've already bought them a while ago, but I hardly see how they're supposed to teach us anything at school. All it tells us is how brilliant you are, or how handsome you are! How's knowing about you going to teach us how to defend ourselves, or prepare us for exams and the real world? I highly doubt that 'What did Gilderoy Lockhart do in his famous book, Magical Me, that authorised such public awe?' is going to be a question to appear in our OWLs or NEWTs," Harry said vehemently, glaring at the man who seemed to think that he was oh so wonderful!

"Well, I...Well, uh...Well, you never know, Harry. Plus, you could learn some good spells from my books and how to defeat several dark monsters," Lockhart eventually got out, hoping to save himself from Harry's verbal assault.

"Yeah, funny thing that. I never knew that you could be fighting a werewolf in one place while talking to vampires in another...and at the same exact time...Very odd, Lockhart. How did you manage that then? To my understanding, only a few objects exist to do such a thing, and you don't seem to possess any of them," Harry continued, seeing the outraged looks on the young girls' faces, yet approval and relief from the males in the crowd who possibly had been thinking the same thing as Harry.

"Well, uh...Well, I'm not going to tell anyone whether I have them, will I? People will try to steal them off me!" Lockhart countered.

"Do you even know what those objects are, if so, name me one. And why should you be afraid of someone trying to steal your things? You're supposed to be so good, so they shouldn't stand a chance, right?" Harry said sarcastically, emphasising the 'your' when regards to his things as he highly doubted that they should be rightfully his, if they even were to begin with.

"Come along now, Harry! You're being extremely rude! You should know better than to disrespect such a wonderful man! He doesn't need to prove himself to anyone, especially not a child!" Molly chastised Harry, letting out the side of herself that Harry always knew existed when regards to him.

"Oh but he does, Mrs. Weasley. There's too many mistakes and illogical methods in his books that warrant such an interrogation. If you're too blinded by his fame, however, then I don't see much point in continuing to argue with people like you," Harry said before turning at his feet and walking towards the exit, ignoring the outraged cries of Lockhart's fan girls, and women. Ginny followed after him, but not before giving her mother a dark, disappointed look.

"I bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?! Famous Harry Potter can't go into a bookshop without making the front page or a scene!" a voice said angrily, which was revealed to be Draco Malfoy's voice when he appeared to block Harry and Ginny from exiting.

"Leave him alone! He didn't want that, but he was right in his theories, so shove off!" Ginny shouted, glaring at Malfoy.

"Oh look, Potter! You've got yourself a girlfriend!" Malfoy exclaimed, hoping to cause Harry discomfort and embarrass the Weaslette.

"She's a lot better than the things you hang around with! You know, the amount of time you, Crabbe, and Goyle spend together warrants the thought that you three may be quite...intimate...You wouldn't happen to enjoy the 'company of men', would you, Draco?" Harry said, grinning as he saw Malfoy's face redden in embarrassment and anger. It was a well known fact that pureblood-extremist families, like the Malfoys, were homophobes and hated the very idea, saying that it was unnatural, so to accuse a member of one of these families was certain to cause them trouble, which is just what Harry wanted.

"Why you little-!" Malfoy went for his wand, but a stick hit his arm before he could, making him recoil in pain.

"Now, now, Draco. Play nicely. Well now...Harry Potter...Lucius Malfoy," Lucius said, holding a hand out for Harry to shake.

"A pleasure, I'm sure. You might want to reign your son in a little. His perception isn't very good as he needs to work on picking out the fine details," Harry said politely, shaking Lucius' hand, albeit rather hard. This man helped Voldemort after all, and he knew that Lucius was only being civil towards him due to being in a public setting. The anger in the man's eyes were obvious, and it was directed right at Harry for defeating Voldemort with his parents' help.

"I'll make a note on that, Mr. Potter. Forgive me." Lucius said, reaching out to touch Harry's scar, "Your scar is legend, as of course is the wizard who gave it to you."

The crowd now listened intently to hear what Harry had to say to this, many thinking how he was going to recoil in mention of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, like everyone else did, or would agree. They were shocked when he finally answered.

"Voldemort killed my parents. He was nothing more than a vile murderous scumbag! He was an egomaniac! A self-proclaimed 'Lord' who had no right to such a title! And the name Voldemort is just stupid! I'd like to know his true name, if only to ruin his image of fear! I only wish that I had him here now so that I could make him pay for making me an orphan one more time!" Harry said vehemently, venom dripping out in his words as he spoke about his hatred for the Dark Lord.

"You must be very brave to mention his name...or very foolish," Lucius said after he recovered from his initial shock and anger at the way Harry spoke about the Dark Lord.

"The fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," Hermione piped in, drawing Lucius' attention away from Harry for the time being.

"And you must be...Miss Granger?" Lucius said, looking for confirmation from Draco. Once he received a nod of the head from his son, he continued, "Yes, Draco's told me all about you, and your parents...Muggles, aren't they?"

"Why would that matter to you? You don't have anything against muggles, do you? After all, many muggle-borns have been found to be extremely clever and versatile at magic, my mother and Hermione being two of them," Harry enquired, trying to catch Lucius out in his obvious implication about muggles.

"Not at all, Mr. Potter. Now then, let's see." Lucius said as he looked at Ginny and took one of her books before continuing, "Red hair. Vacant expression. Tatty second-hand books. You must be a Weasley, my dear." He said this last word with a hint of disgust, yet something else that made Harry shiver in discomfort, yet made his blood boil as rage rushed through him as Lucius analysed and subtly insulted Ginny.

Soon, the rest of the Weasleys began to see the confrontation and went up to see what was going on, with Arthur coming up to confront Lucius himself. After a few exchanged words of loathing, Lucius put Ginny's book back in her cauldron before turning around and leaving, followed closely by Draco, but not before he said a 'goodbye' of sorts to Harry.

"See you at school, Potter! And make sure to look after yourself and your little Weaslette. You never know what might happen!" Draco warned, smirking.

"If you, or any of your friends, so much as touch one hair on Ginny's head, you'll rue the day you ever met me, Draco Malfoy!" Harry threatened, causing Draco to open his eyes wide with hidden fear before rushing out to catch up with his father.

The rest of the day was spent with the Weasleys getting their school supplies, except for Lockhart's books as he had given Molly free ones as a reward for her faith and defence of him, much to Harry and Ginny's annoyance. Hermione went off with her parents early on, so Harry and Ginny were on their own, in the sense of mutual understanding that was, and were avoiding talking with any of her family as they didn't want to start another argument with Molly over Lockhart, despite the fact that she would never win an argument against Harry when his beliefs and theories were so strong, and he hadn't been proven wrong yet. After the Weasleys got their supplies and returned home, Harry and Ginny went up to her room to recall the day's events and analyse what they had learnt, coming to the conclusion that Lockhart was indeed a fraud, and that they needed to watch him carefully in case he did something to them in any of their lessons, and that Lucius and Draco were not the best of fellows. The best bit of all, though, was that no-one had noticed Ginny's new wand, and they planned to keep it that way for the time being.

Harry soon left Ginny's room and went to his own, which is when Ginny found a strange diary of sorts falling out of one of her books. She didn't remember getting it, but she began to write in it all the same to see how it worked. Strangely, the book began to write back, saying that it was the memory of the previous owner, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He talked to her almost like Harry did, comforting her and almost seemingly trying to get her to open up to him. Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to write to him tonight as she was tired, so she wrote goodbye and place the diary on her desk before getting dressed for bed and letting sleep claim her.

If Ginny was able to read emotions, she would've felt Tom's evil, maniacal joyfulness at being released at last to find a vulnerable young girl who he could easily use to control and do his bidding at Hogwarts. Yes, it was almost time for Slytherin to rise once more...

Author's notes: Oh dear, Tom's diary has been revealed. Will Harry be able to notice its intentions towards Ginny in time? Stay tuned to find out. Note: Hermione won't be a Lockhart fan girl after spending so much quality time with Harry and learning from him. She too will have noticed the same mistakes as Harry, and Ginny noticed them when Harry gave her his books to read and pointed said mistakes out. The mistakes are made up, but I assume that similar ones would've existed as I'm not sure on them at the moment. Let's just say, for this reality, Lockhart went AWOL with trying to get fame and didn't bother to check for timeline mistakes etc. Harry is a little darker and quick to anger in this chapter for the reason being that he can see that Lockhart is a fraud, is trying to manipulate him, and is milking the fame that he shouldn't have, which doesn't sit right with Harry at all as it goes against his beliefs. Yes, it's a little over the top, but my 'original' Harry personality has to come out occasionally at times to show that Ginny (and Hermione to a lesser extent) still has some work to do on him. Also, I'm not sure whether to make this into a Harry/Ginny Soul-Bond fanfic. I know that it's looking as such, but what do you think? Should I do that, or make it a normal, albeit very affectionate and protective, relationship between Harry and Ginny? The deadline for this is the third year chapters, which I when I plan to get them together officially, but when in third year, I haven't decided yet (SPOILERS!). I hope you enjoyed the chapter though, and reviews are much appreciated. Bye for now.