Yet another fic for September Event! The prompt for this one is shopping for school supplies. Enjoy!
"Hazel!" calls a very familiar voice. I turn around to be ambushed by a blur of brown. Hermione. "Why didn't you guys reply to my letters?"
"I couldn't. A house-elf stole them. And Vernon kept our owls locked up the whole summer!" I say.
"Hey, Ginny," Hermione says, emerging from nearly squeezing me to death.
"Have you seen Harry?" I ask her. She shakes her head.
"No, why?"
"He got lost in the Floo System," Ginny says. "We're hoping he didn't go too far."
"Oooooohhh! I've heard of that! It sounds so interesting to travel by fire, but I've not done it yet." Hermione says excitedly. "Look, it's Hagrid!"
Sure enough, through the crowd, I can see Hagrid's gigantic form coming through the crowd. And next him…
"I think he found Harry," I say. The three of us run through the crowd. And as we get closer, Harry is unmistakable standing by him.
"There you are!" I say when we finally reach them. "Where were you? Everyone's worried sick!"
"Hey, Hermione," he says.
"What did you do to your glasses?" Hermione sighs. "Oculus Reparo." His glasses, which had to be taped because Dudley always punched Harry on his nose. It was a surprise he didn't have a broken nose by now. The glasses fix themselves and the tape falls to the cobblestone street. "Better?"
"I'll have to remember that one," Harry says, marvelling.
"Good ter see yeh, Hazel, Hermione. Look forward ter seein' yeh at Hogwarts, Ginny," Hagrid says, leaving. Ginny has gone a bit pink in the face.
"Come on," I say. "They said they'd wait at Flourish and Blotts."
So the four of us trek through Diagon Alley to the bookstore.
"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley says with relief. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far!"
"-Gilderoy Lockhart," says a man in front of the bookstore. Everyone claps as a man steps into view. He has wavy blonde hair, and blue eyes. This must be the famous Gilderoy Lockhart that wrote all our term books. He looks into the crowd and spots us.
"It can't be the Potter twins?" he says in disbelief.
"Excuse me, little girl," says a reporter, pushing past Ginny. "Excuse me madam, this is for the Daily Prophet!" He says to Mrs. Weasley as he pushes us up to the front next to Lockhart.
"Smile, you two, together we rate the front page," he encourages. A moment later, the flashes almost blinded me.
"When the twins entered Flourish and Blotts today to purchase my autobiography, Magical Me, they did not know that they would be getting not only my full set of books-"
He hands each of us a huge stack of books. I read some of the titles. Gadding with Ghouls, and Year with the Yeti were just a few of the titles. "- but they will be getting the real magical me. I am going to be teaching at Hogwarts School this term!" he announced.
Oh, great.