Chapter 12

Flourish and Frauds

Chamber of Secrets

A slightly longer greaser hairdo and braces were not the only changes Marley had to deal with in her second year at Hogwarts. Standing in front of a mirror at Madam Malkin's Robes, that point became even more clear. Perhaps Hermione was too shy to mention it during their sleepover, but the truth was now no longer avoidable – Marley got a growth spurt over the summer. She was always slightly taller than her female Gryffindor friend, so that never came up, yet now the Slytherin had more than half a head in advantage over her alone. That would probably make her the same size as Harry.

And it meant her adorable little black skirt she wore all throughout year one was now essentially just a table rag. If she wore it to school, half the student body would give her weird looks, the other half may even behave indecently. With a disgusted groan the girl switched back to her black jeans going along her oversized Beatles shirt.

"Bye-bye, Skirt Marlene...", she mumbled to herself, having decided on the spot that she would not be purchasing any new replacements for now. She did however decide on buying some new earrings instead. After all – consumerism leads to... happiness? An empty wallet is more accurate.

"Hello, Verpe.", a snarky voice sounded close to her at the jewellery section, Marley calmly raising her brow as she turned her head.

"Oh.", she relaxed only halfway, "Hello, Draco."

Her next move became a rather hesitant smile, one the blonde boy returned, at the very least, with what looked like an embarrassed half-smirk.

"You uh... do you want to look at new earrings with me?"

To her the question already felt like a massive leap, expecting no huge results. Surprisingly though, Malfoy shrugged quietly before joining her without another word.

"How was your summer?", Draco finally asked after half a minute of quietly watching the girl skimming different designs.

"Um... not very exciting. I used a lot of my time to practice defensive magic."

"Do you mean Defence against the Dark Arts?"

"Yeah-yeah, that one. What do you think of these?"

She tapped a set of burning hearts with her finger, the magic display creating an illusion replica on her ear lobes.

"It...", he stumbled for a second, before his mind finally focused on what his answer should be, "Not really your style. I like the flames, but the hearts are a bit too girly. You're more tomboy."

"Ah, thanks!"

Once the fake items were off her ears, Marley snapped, realizing just how odd his good feedback was.

"You're extremely helpful, you know that?"

Feeling embarrassed and somehow watched, a jittery Malfoy finally turned away from the girl.

"I... should head back to my father."

"Wait!", she stopped him before he could leave the store proper.

"What?", he barked rather grumpily, reminding her more of the Malfoy she met a year ago.

"Well...", she started before surrendering with a sigh, "...I just... do you want to be friends?"

"What?", came out a lot shakier and more confused.

"We didn't really get to talk about it by the end of last year. I mean... we don't have to be the kind of friends that hang out all the time. But... maybe you want a friend."

Clearly the blonde kid was split right down the middle between spitting venom and accepting the olive branch. Marley wasn't particularly on edge in this instance, she'd be fine either way, as she still had her Gryffindor clique.

She was more so hoping he'd say Yes for his own sake. Kid clearly needed a friend who actually cares about him.

"I'll think about it.", was all she got before Draco left the store.

Marley ended up buying a set of winged flame earrings, a slightly red tone making it look like shining, pink copper. Her bright smile persisted as she stopped at a pet store, checking out herself in the reflection as some first-year students ran by in overt excitement. Crazy to think that she was one of those not so long ago, although when she first went to Diagon Alley the girl was not part of any crowd.

It is where she first saw Harry in his ugly, oversized outfit. As if a lifetime ago.

And now, caught in that memory, as if fate was arranging its pieces on purpose, she spotted the Boy who lived for the second time, again tagging alongside the Keeper of Keys twice their size. Few things felt as cathartic as running towards them.

"Skulking around Knockturn Alley? Dodgy place.", the half-giant explained to a soot-covered boy with glasses, "Don't want no one to see you there. People will think you-"

"Harry!"

No need to explain who shouted that in a high-pitched screech carrying all the passion of a friendship that felt like it had existed for a lifetime.

"Marley!", the boy shouted back, ignoring any and all adventures that just transpired mere minutes before. They finally reached one another. Then, a hug, a spin, and a brief moment in which that thought of returning a peck on the girl's cheek popped up in Harry's mind.

"I'm so happy to see you!", she declared.

"You too. I love your new earrings.", he spoke in a tone much deeper than mere months before.

"And I love your new voice."

Hagrid was almost forced to fake cough in order to break the two friends up.

"Hello to you as well, Hagrid.", Marley greeted him with a playful, regal elegance.

"Don't wanna interrupt your reunion. Seems you two got some catching up to do."

"Did you bring Harry to Diagon Alley again like last year?"

"No.", the boy answered for his adult friend while adjusting his glasses, "I travelled here via floo powder. Though I... accidentally landed it Knockturn Alley instead."

"Oh dear.", was her immediate first reaction, "Wait – what was Hagrid doing in Knockturn Alley then?"

Both students turned to the massive man by their side.

"Me? I was looking for a... uh... Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent. They're ruining all the school cabbages. Nasty beasts."

"Marley! Harry! Hagrid!", an entirely different voice echoed through Diagon Alley, resetting the entire sequence back to zero. The girls exchanged hugs first, before a grinning Miss Granger jubilantly observed her friends.

"It's so good to see you.", she echoed Marley.

"It's good to see you too.", Harry let her know, the sharp eyes of the Gryffindor girl already having focused onto his broken binoculars.

"What did you do to your glasses?"

"Well...", Marley began, "...he used floo powder and-"

"Oculus Reparo!", one young witch spoke clearly and precisely, the effects of her spell immediately noticeable as Harry's round eyewear was magically made whole again.

"You just wanted to show off, didn't you?", the Slytherin accused her friend in a playful manner, Hermione fittingly giving her the sassiest of shrugs.

"I really need to remember that one.", Harry mumbled in a humble tone.

Finally feeling sufficiently superfluous, Hagrid did end up faking a cough, drawing all eyes to him as he awkwardly started pacing away.

"You'll be alright then, Harry. Should be in good hands with these two."

"You're spot-on.", Marley declared as her arm reached around Hermione's shoulder.

"I'll leave you to it then."

"Okay, bye!", Hermione was the first to send the half-giant off.

"Thank you, bye!", Harry seconded.

"Bye, Hagrid!", Marley said at last.

The bearded man shook his head with a crooked smile, glad to know that his young friends never fail to delight him.

Catching up was next. While Hermione hectically led her friends to Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley's most famous bookstore, Marley made it her personal quest to speedrun a whole summer worth of stories through a rapid-fire conversation, though with Harry unable to take his eyes off the girl, Hermione figured that he enjoyed it.

"I like your new braces.", the boy mentioned at some point, making Marley blush overtly.

"Before I forget...", the Slytherin began at yet another point, "...why didn't you respond to any of my letters?"

Hermione's brow furrowed slightly at the girl phrasing it as an issue only relating to her. Harry, similarly uncomfortable, let out a heavy sigh as his shoulders slouched.

"It's a long story. Involves a house elf."

The two girls exchanged an intrigued look, though the conversation was abruptly put on hold, the trio having entered the crowded bookstore, a displayed autobiography already giving Marley a rough idea of why the place was stuffed to the brim with curious witches, wizards, and sorcerers.

"Oh, Harry! Thank goodness you're alright.", the carrying mother spoke as she dusted off Harry's robe. Wanting to continue her rambling, her eyes went over to a quiet Marley standing next to Hermione.

"Look at you, you must be Marlene! I'm Ron's mother.", Molly Weasley spoke with excitement as she engulfed the child in a tight hug, lasting a mere second before everyone's attention was firmly grasped by the voice of an announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen – Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart!"

Applause ensued, including just about everyone except Ron, Marley, and Harry, the three of them exchanging grimaces which stemmed from confusion and/or distain.

And then the man of the hour stepped forth from a little backstage storage to the usual sales counter, golden locks embellishing his scalp like am Athenian crown, a wide smile about as authentic as a public figure doing a press junket can be, though it was admittedly a well-practiced routine.

"Oh, here he is!", Mrs. Weasley proclaimed, the sound of her joy drowned out by the vivid crowd. Marley gave Ron yet another question mark via facial features, the boy rolling his eyes as he leaned closer to her and Harry.

"Mum fancies him.", Ronald explained in a bored tone, his mother nudging him mildly in the side, too caught up in the moment to actually scold him.

"Make way there, please! Let me by, madame, thank you!", a busy photographer mumbled as he pushed himself through the crowd, almost knocking over an inattentive Marley at the end.

"Hey!", she protested.

"Excuse me, little girl. This is for the Daily Prophet."

At her friend being bothered Hermione broke from her strange trance, checking on the Slytherin girl as Harry cast a mean glare onto the photographer, who was arguably just doing his job in what is a way too small venue.

At the third snapshot being taken from an overtly photogenic Lockhart, the man's eyes finally took a pause from posing as he spotted a certain boy with a certain scar.

"It can't be... Harry Potter?"

With a large whisper spreading through the crowd and his name being repeated multiple times the boy was reminded of last year's events, being universally recognized by a world entirely alien to him. He managed to toss a smile to Marley, the two revisiting that moment from last year when the girl empathized with his newfound stage fright.

"Harry Potter!", was the sixth or seventh mention, carried out by the energetic photographer, who subsequently grabbed the boy by his arm, much to Marley's non-verbal protest.

"Excuse me, young lady."

A moment later he handed Harry over to the celebrity, who clutched him by the shoulder against his own person, a gesture that felt so convulsively rehearsed that it made Harry feel like he was being squashed by a piece of industrial equipment.

"Nice, big smile, Harry.", the adult spoke both demanding and warm, "You and I together will undoubtedly take the front page."

Some more flashes burst, some more pictures were taken, notably not a single one with Harry smiling. Marley and Ron unmistakenly pouted while the initial fangirl Hermione appeared conflicted. Never meet your heroes and such.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what an extraordinary moment this is! When young Harry stepped into Flourish and Blotts this morning to purchase my autobiography Magical Me..."

Lockhart paused with pin-point theatrics, allowing the crowd some time to erupt into applause again, Hermione only joining in a very mild fashion.

"...which is incidentally, as of right now, celebrating its twenty-seventh week atop the Daily Prophet's bestseller list..."

One more moment of crowded enthusiasm, Hermione finally joining her friends in silent protest. On top a balustrade on the second floor one Draco Malfoy was watching, his brow ridge furrowing just ever so slightly in a shared dislike of the attention-seeking wizard below.

"...he had no idea that he would, in fact, be leaving today with my entire collected works...". he continued before shoving a stack of fancy-looking books into the confused boy's arms, "...free of charge."

The final round of mindless clapping came about, Harry returning to his posse as parts of the crowd began surrounding Lockhart like ants do a piece of lunch.

"Harry, why don't you give me those? I'll go ahead and get them signed.", Mrs. Weasley hastily explained as she performed the action right away, "You kids go and wait outside. We'll be with you right away."

The otherwise concerned mother didn't even bother to check for any reactions to her statement, leading to Harry, Marley, Ron, a disappointed Hermione, and a grumpy Ginny to walk towards the exit. The Slytherin briefly looked back at the younger sister, whom she hadn't been introduced to yet.

"I'm Marley. I don't think we've met."

For some odd reason the girl, who had been frowning the whole time, averted her eyes as she refused to answer.

Lucky for them their focus shifted somewhere else, the staircase leading down from the first floor to be precise.

"Look, it's Malfoy.", Ron correctly announced, the blonde Slytherin freezing up, apparently having tried to get out of the store without being spotted by the gang.

"Hey Draco!", Marley greeted him with glee, the only one in her friend group reacting positively to the boy's sudden appearance. Malfoy took a moment to get over his skittishness, properly adjusting his cloak as Harry tossed him a weirdly sceptical look. Sceptical, but not confrontational.

"I take it none of you took a liking to that celebrity wizard.", the Slytherin boy spoke with a reserved level of venom.

"Not really.", Harry answered for everyone but Ginny, who took after her mother when it came to admiring the man, "He dragged me away for a dumb photo shoot."

Draco's face openly morphed into some kind of mix between sympathy and distain, the door to Flourish and Blotts opening behind him as he paid no attention to it.

"Why would you let him treat you like that?"

A sharp, metallic noise sounded alongside a stinging pain in Malfoy's shoulder, the fangs of a silver snake digging themselves into the defenceless boy who flinched quite abruptly.

"Now, now Draco. Play nicely."

What came attached to that voice even more potent that when they clashed with Draco last year, was a man who carried his long, blonde mane with a sense of pride only seen in lions, dark, elegant robes and the aforementioned snake staff telling the other kids right away who might just be standing there.

"Harry Potter...", the man finally spoke, almost making Marley giggle and the boy roll his eyes. Grabbing Harry's hand and shaking it, the pulled the kid just a wee bit closer.

"Lucius Malfoy. We meet at least."

Before Marley could add her two cents about the self-indulgent comment, Harry was already pulled uncomfortably close, the second, blonde thespian using his serpent staff in order to wipe away Harry's greasy fringe, revealing the bolt upon his forehead. For a brief moment the Slytherin girl gave a look of protest to Draco, a boy who averted his eyes in shame and fear.

"Forgive me. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to examine this."

He let Harry go again, the boy walking back slowly as Marley grabbed his arm, Ginny, unbeknownst to her, casting an even deeper glare as she spotted this.

"After all, your scar is as legendary as the wizard who gave it to you."

"Voldemort killed my parents.", came back from an eternally brave Harry, "He's nothing but a murderer, not a legend."

"You must be rather courageous to speak his name. Or foolish..."

"Fear of a word only increases fear for of the thing itself.", a very brash Hermione added, providing adequate pushback against the hated man.

"And you must be... Miss Granger. Yes, Draco told me all about you. You and your... parents."

Marley once again tried to seek protest from Draco, the boy now crossing his arms as he still averted his face. Hermione and the others meanwhile looked over to Lorraine and Fred Granger, engaged in lively conversation with Ron's father, Arthur Weasley.

"Muggles, if I recall."

In that moment Fred and George joined them, trying to look as stern as possible in the face of Lucius Malfoy.

"Let me see... red hair, vacant expressions...", he declared, almost sounding zesty, before taking a not-so-nice-looking schoolbook from Ginny's little cauldron in which she carried it, "...tatty, second-hand material... must be the Weasleys, then."

"And you must be way to comfortable with how close you are with strangers. Especially children.", a cheeky Marley finally added, making the rest, including Malfoy, feel some kind of relief.

"Noisy Slytherin brat always stuck to Mr. Potter. Marlene Verpe, I presume?"

"Draco told you about me as well?"

"Oh yes indeed..."

The first more abrasive reaction, Mr. Malfoy casting a glare over to his quiet son before continuing.

"I hear you caused him and Slytherin a descend amount of trouble last year."

In stark defiance, though slightly scared, Marley shrugged.

"It all turned out fine in the end. Plus, Draco and I made amends. Didn't we?"

It took the boy a few seconds, yet Draco did eventually nod ever so slightly, clearly upsetting his father.

"Well...", Malfoy the elder continued, "I supposed all is well then."

Thankfully, before any more children could be individually bullied by the overtly theatrical pest, another adult, that being one Arthur Weasley, stepped into the scene.

"Children, what a mad scene it is in here! Why don't we step outside?"

Whether or not the man noticed the presence of Draco's nightmarish father no kid could clearly tell.

"Well, well, well. Weasley senior.", he was eventually greeted by the hostile entity.

"Lucius.", is all Ron's dad managed to spit out, with about as much confidence as George McFly at the beginning of Back to the Future.

"Busy time at the Ministry, Arthur. I hear there's plenty of extra raids. I do hope you get compensated fairly for all that overtime. Though judging by this...", he showcased the two used books he snatched from Ginny just before, "...my best guess is not. Real shame. If I was a disgrace to the wizarding world, least I'd expect is to be paid for it."

Surprising all kids present, Arthur answered with a rather provocative smirk.

"You and I have very different ideas as to what constitutes being a disgrace, Malfoy."

"Clearly.", Lucius gave back like a bite, having been mildly offended, "Associating with Muggles...", before he could end his thought, he remembered to put Ginny's schoolbooks back into her cute, little cauldron, "...and there I thought it couldn't get more embarrassing for the Weasleys. Very well, see you at work."

To everyone's collective relief, the long-haired man finally left, casting a sharp glare onto Draco from outside, the blonde boy following suit.

"See you at school.", he mumbled to a group of people who were clearly beginning to see the boy from a much different light than they did last year.

"10:58! Come on, everybody!", Mr. Weasley excitedly spoke, the family plus two tag-alongs racing down platforms 9 and 10 as they finally reached the infamous, brick column. Hermione importantly came earlier, a move which has seemed to pay off.

"Train will be leaving any second!", Mrs. Weasley added, not mentioning that her obsession with one Gilderoy Lockhart led to their late arrival at least in part.

"Fred, George, Percy – you first.", Arthur spoke, the boys annoyingly not entering in that exact order.

"You're next, dear.", Molly said to her nervous daughter, one arm on her shoulder as both parents followed her behind, disappearing unbeknownst to any non-magical persons standing by.

"I think your sister hates me.", Marley finally brought up, confident enough to mention it now that Ginny was out of earshot.

"We'll talk about it later.", Ron added sounding frustrated, seemingly aware of what is causing his sister's grievances.

"Let's go.", Harry eventually declared with a confident smile directed at his friends. Thankfully he and Ron ran first with Marley taking the rear end as, upon impact, both boys just smashed into the wall and against each other respectively. Trunks came loose, owl cages fell over, Ron even did a pretty brutal stunt over Harry's cart and then Harry himself. Marley herself possessed the reflexes to avoid this all entirely.

"Oy! What's this here with you two?", a familiar train conductor asked them in a sharp tone, that convenient veil protecting them from keen Muggle eyes apparently gone.

"S-sorry...", a pained Harry on the ground began, "Lost control of the trolley..."

The man simply doing his job shook his head at the rowdy youth and disappeared to do more important things, allowing Harry and Marley to restack their luggage as Ron nervously patted the column.

"Why can't we go through?", a concerned Marley brought up.

"The gateway sealed itself for some reason.", the Weasley boy explained, Harry joining his effort in feeling out the stone bricks.

"That's impossible. It's not even-"

Just before Marley's protest could be finished a loud clock bell announced that it was now precisely...

"...Eleven o' clock.", she finished as a pit grew in her stomach.

"The train leaves exactly at 11:00! We've missed it!", Harry was next in bad news.

"If we can't get in...", Ron interjected, worry woven into his vocals, "...then mum and dad can't get out."

"What are we going to do?!", Marley panicked, clearly lacking that calm focus from having Hermione around, "Is there even another way to get to Hogwarts?! They were always pretty clear that the Hogwarts Express is the only option!"

"Maybe we should wait by the car.", Harry calmy suggested, briefly stroking Marley's arm as to calm her down. Unfortunately, his more than reasonable suggestion did fire up some very devious parts of Ron's brain.

"The car...", he spoke in a sinister tone, smirking way too much for the girl's liking.

"What is he saying? Why is he-", was her initial reaction, quickly morphing into shock as she continued while shaking her head.

"No..."