Diagon Alley was as crowded as ever by the time Father, Draco, and I made it out of Gringrotts. My coin purse bounced heavily against my leg as I trailed after Father, trying to stick close. Students mulled around, crowding around shop windows and chatting with friends they hadn't seen all summer. Parents were trailing after their children, trying to make sure that everything was crossed off of their list.

Mother had been feeling under the weather, so she stayed home while Father accompanied us. It was a little strange, but none of us protested.

"We can meet at Flourish and Blotts at One. I've got some business to attend to at Borgin and Burkes." Father said, giving Draco and I a critical eye as we stood off to the side from the crowds.

I checked my watch and nodded, not really wanting to join him. The antique shop gave me the creeps.

"Can I come?" Draco asked, and Father mulled over the question for a second before nodding.

Draco shot me a mischievous smile as he followed Father through the crowd, the two disappearing before I could protest. I looked down at the parchment in my hands with a sigh. Surely I'd be able to get through it all on my own.

"Lyra! There you are!"

A blur of brown hair slammed into me and caught me off balance as I exited the apothecary over an hour later, bag of potions supplies clutched in my hands. The two of us tumbled back a step, but I caught myself, hugging the girl back in surprise.

"Harry said he saw Draco and your father in Knockturn Alley, so we'd figure you'd be close by!" Hermione grinned widely at me, and I took a step back, observing the girl. Her bushy brown hair was as uncontrollable as ever.

"Harry?" I asked, and she nodded and gestured behind her.

Both boys were jogging up to us, large smiles on their faces.

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" Ron panted. "Let the girl breathe!"

I gave the red head a quick hug. Ron had grown even more over the summer, now inches taller than the rest of us. Harry looked healthier and happier than I had expected.

"Are the muggles treating you okay?" I asked, giving Harry a side hug. All three of them had exchanged looks that caused me to frown.

"The Weasley's have been treating me alright." Harry clarified, a large grin on his face. "The Dursley's on the other hand…"

He trailed off at that, and my eyebrows shot up.

"Fred, George, and I decided to break him out. They were starving, Harry! They put bars on his window!" Ron exclaimed, and my mouth fell open in surprise.

"Bars… on your window?" I asked, stunned, and Harry's smile faded at that. I was about to ask more questions when the bell to the Apocothary rang. Students started to exit the building, causing our group to move.

"Let's get some ice cream." Harry said, pulled me out of the way. "We'll fill you in on everything."

Merlin, did they have a lot to fill me in on. The Dursley's had locked up Hedwig for the majority of the summer, making it so that Harry could not send any letters out. Not only that, but a house elf had been stopping any letters from going in either, so he had been in the dark as much as I had.

The house elf warned Harry that going back to Hogwarts was too dangerous. He tried to get Harry expelled by performing magic in front of muggles. His summer was a hell of a lot more exciting than my own was.

"The whole thing was a bit dodgy. Fred and George think that the house elf was sent as a joke." Ron said as he slurped on his ice cream that Harry had bought. The four of us were sitting in front of the crowded ice cream parlor. I frowned at that.

"But who would send a house elf to stop Harry from coming back to Hogwarts? That's seems like a lot of work…" I asked skeptically, and the boys glanced at each other.

"Draco hates me." Harry said blandly, and I shook my head at that.

"I mean we've got two houselves, but Draco would get in so much trouble if he sent one of them to stop you from going back to Hogwarts. It's too petty. And I'm sure Mother or Father would have noticed if one went missing for a night." I argued, and Hermione nodded at my words.

"It's too extreme, even for Malfoy." Hermione agreed, but the boys didn't look convinced.

Harry continued to fill us in on what had happened, with Ron jumping in to fill in some of the blanks. The Weasley's heard about the official warning Harry had been sent about performing magic (though it had been the house elf) and decided that they were going to check up on Harry. Fred, George, and Ron took Mr. Weasley's enchanted car and flew it to Harry's in the middle of the night. It turned out to be a good thing too. The Dursley's had put bars on the boy's window and locked his stuff away, fully intending on not letting Harry return to Hogwarts.

The four of them flew back to the Weasley's home and Harry had been staying with them since.

"Wow." I breathed, taking it all in. "How do you always manage to find trouble?"

"It's not like I go looking for it!" Harry exclaimed, and I shook my head teasingly at the boy.

"How's your summer been?" Hermione interjected, using her napkin to wipe up ice cream that was slowly starting to drip onto her hand. "We were getting really worried about you too until Harry got his letter from you…" Then Ron got his-"

"Thanks for being as vague as possible, by the way." Ron added through a mouthful of food.

"I'm sorry. It was something I had to write quickly. Has anything… happened?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"I warned Dad, but he wasn't surprised. He's been working overtime with the Ministry raids." Ron didn't look as concerned as I did. I stuck my spoon in my mouth, savoring the french vanilla that coated my tongue. If they weren't worried, I shouldn't be either.

The four of us finished our ice creams quickly as I filled them in on my summer. We wandered the streets of Diagon Alley lazily, in no rush to gather our supplies. Slowly, we checked off our lists until Flourish and Blotts was our last stop.

The building was crowded to the brim with people, everyone chatting excitedly as they tried to get in. A large banner above the windows quickly explained why.

Gildreoy Lockhart was signing copies of his autobiography.

Lockhart was a household name with how many books he had published. I recognized his pretty smiling blonde face from the copy of Magical Me that Mother had at home.

"Oh, there you are, good." Mrs Weasley said as the four of us joined the rest of the Weasley's in line. She glanced at me, and her mouth tightened as she patted her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

I shifted nervously, unsure how to greet Ron's parents. Luckily, before I could stumble through an introduction, Lockhart came into view, causing the crowd around us to go wild. Mrs Weasley was among the cheering women.

"Out of the way there!" A short man with a camera snapped, trying to shove Ron out of the way. "This is for the Daily Prophet -"

"Big deal." Ron rolled his eyes, rubbing his leg.

Somehow, that caught Lockhart's attention. The blond haired man looked over at our group, his mouth falling open as his eyes landed on Harry.

"It can't be Harry Potter?"

Harry's face went pale as the crowd parted around us, whispering exciedly. Lockhart lunged forward, grabbed Harry's arm, and yanked him onto stage. Harry glanced back at us helplessly as Lockhart started to faun over the boy, the cameras flashing widely around us.

The crowd around us pushed forward once again, and I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. I looked around, trying to spot Draco or my Father. They should have been here by now…

"I'm going to try and find my family." I whispered to Ron and Hermione, who just nodded, looking stunned by the turn of events.

I pushed my way out of the crowd, immediately feeling like I could breathe again once I was out of the crowd. I looked around, trying to spot a familiar head of blonde hair.

"Lyra!"

I looked up to see Draco standing on the upper level of the bookshop, a scowl on his face. Weaving through the crowd, I joined my brother right as Lockhart announced that he was going to be our Defense teacher for the year. The crowd started to cheer wildly, and Lockhart dumped a collection of books into Harry's arms, causing the raven haired boy to stumble under the weight.

"What is he doing?" Draco asked, disgust laced in his voice as we watched Harry stumble out of the limelight, back towards the Weasleys.

"It's not his fault Lockhart dragged him up there." I argued, but my twin ignored me and made his way down the stairs. "Have you finished gathering your supplies-"

"Bet you loved that, didn't you Potter?" Draco cut me off and cut into the conversation Harry was having with Ron's sister, Ginny. He sneered at Harry, and I rolled my eyes.

"Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page." I grabbed Draco's sleeve trying to get him to stop, but he just shrugged me off, his attention solely on Harry.

"Leave him alone!" Ginny pipped up, surprising all of us. From what I heard, she didn't speak much when Harry was around. "He didn't want all that!"

"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend." Draco drawled, and Ginny went bright red. Harry's frown deepened. Ron and Hermione both appeared, clutching an enormous pile of books in their hands.

"Oh it's you." Ron frowned at Draco. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

Draco was about to retort when I stepped on his foot, causing him to scowl back at me. The others stared suspiciously as Draco seemed to have an internal battle with himself, instead just scoffing loudly.

"It's not worth it." He grumbled under his breath and was about to turn away when another voice cut through our conversation.

"Ron! What are you doing? It's too crowded in here. Let's go outside."

"Well, well, well- Arthur Weasley."

My stomach dropped as a hand dropped on my shoulder. Father stood behind Draco and I, sneering at the newcomers. Mr Weasley's expression went cold as he saw us.

"Lucius." Mr. Weasley nodded with a frown. He looked at the three of us, his eyebrows furrowing when his eyes landed on me.

"Busy at the Ministry, I here. All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?"

Father reached past me and into Ginny's cauldron. Amusement painted his features as he pulled out a very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

"Obviously not." Father smirked. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard kind if they don't even pay you well for it."

Mr. Weasley's face went even redder than Ron and Ginny's. Draco's hand squeezed my arm in warning.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy."

"Clearly." Father tutted his tongue. He looked over to where Hermione's parents were watching, standing further back. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower-"

Crash!

I stumbled back in surprise as Mr. Weasley threw himself at us. Draco tried to yank me out of the way, but I was knocked back by a flailing hand. Clutching my throbbing cheek, I watched in shock as the two men stumbled back into a bookshelf. Dozens of books fell down around us, but Draco shielded most of them from me with his body.

"Let me see." Draco pulled my hand from my cheek and made a face.

Wincing at the sharp sting in my cheek, I let Draco dab at it carefully with his sleeve. Red seeped into the white of his jacket, but he didn't seem to care.

"Break it up, there, break it up!"

Hagrid pushed his way over to us and pulled Mr. Weasley and Father apart. Both men looked ruffled yet relatively uninjured. Scowling, Father thrust Ginny's book back to her.

"Here girl - take your book - it's the best your father can give you." Father yanked himself out of Hagrid's grip and straightened his robes angrily.

He beckoned Draco and I to follow him and swept out of the building in a huff. Green met grey, and I mouthed 'sorry' to Harry, who just gave me a sympathetic look as Draco ushered me out of the building.


"Really now, Lucius? A muggle brawl with Arthur Weasley." Mother tutted her tongue as she held my face delicatley in her hand.

With a cotton swab, she carefully dabbed a thick healing potion on my cheek. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of it as it stung in the shallow cut on my face. It wasn't anything serious, but she insisted on treating it. 'It would be a shame if your pretty face got scarred' she had said.

"The absolute gall of that man." Mother muttered under her breath.

Father was oddly quiet as Mother seethed under her breath. All the fury and anger he had towards the Weasley's early was gone. Instead, there was a tightness to his mouth and a strange glint to his eyes. Somehow, that was more off-putting than his temper.

Draco and I watched as he pulled a large ornate glass bottle out of one of his desk drawers and filled a glass with the deep amber liquid. Mother's nimble fingers danced across my cheek as she double-checked that the wound had been properly treated.

"They're absolute animals. You need to go to Cornelius or someone at the Ministry to take care of this. They can not get away with this!" Mother hissed corking the potion bottle while Father took a long drink from his glass.

I glanced at Draco nervously.

"Stop wasting your breath on those blood traitors." He said, and Mother's expression soured.

"They deserve to pay for this!" She snapped aggitatedly. Father slammed his glass on the dark mahogany of his desk. Liquid sloshed over the sides, but he paid no mind.

"The Weasley's will get what they deserve." His voice was low, and he was so sure of himself a shiver ran up my spine. "All of you out. Now."

Mother's expression became guarded as she ushered Draco and out of the room. The large heavy door to his office shut behind us with a snap. Anxiety bubbled up inside me as his words echoed through my head.

"What does he mean by that?" I asked Mother, my voice low.

Her well manicured eyebrows pulled together as she frowned.

"I think it'd be best if you stuck with your brother this year." I opened my mouth to protest, but she held a hand up, successfully cutting me off. "I'm serious, Lyra. You had your fun rebelling last year, but your place is with us. Stick to it, darling."

I wanted to argue, but something in my mom's expression stopped me. Uncertainty bloomed as I watched her turn on her heel, leaving Draco and I standing in the hall.

I looked over at Draco to see that his expression was twisted with confusion. Draco grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze.

"She's probably just worried you'll get hurt again." He tried to be reassuring. Chewing on the inside of my lip, I nodded unconvinced.