"I can't believe you lost Harry."
Freya scowled at Will, crossing her arms as she looked around anxiously. She and her family had met the Grangers at Gringotts as promised and after very quick introductions most of her family had run off leaving Freya to explain the drastic situation. "I didn't lose him, the stupid idiot decided to choke on dust in his most crucial moment of traveling."
"Freya!" Mrs. Weasley who had stayed with them while the boys looked scolded as his parents looked slightly amused and slightly bewildered at what was going on. "Don't call Harry names!"
Freya frowned thoughtfully, "What if it makes me feel better about losing my best friend?"
"No!"
"Can I call Williamnames to make myself feel better?"
"No!" Both he and Mrs. Weasley snapped in unison.
She paused, momentarily stumped, before her eyes brightened and she grinned. "What if I ask Mrs. and Mr. Grangers permission?"
"Still no, you horrible-" Will paused as he saw something and grinned, waving over at them, "Harry! Harry! Over here!"
"Ya found him?!" they glanced behind themselves and saw that while Harry and Hagrid were coming from one way the rest of the Weasleys were jogging their way over now as well.
"Harry! Oh, goodness, Harry!" Her dad said sounding immensely relieved as Harry and Hagrid jogged over at them, grinning. "We hoped you hadn't gotten too far!"
"Where'd you end up?" Freya questioned as Harry stopped in front of her, reaching out to ruffle his hair that was powdered gray. "And why are you all dusty?"
"Ah, I ended up in this place called Knockturn Alley," Harry replied, doing his best to fix his hair, looking grim.
"Excellent!" The twins grinned.
"Yeah, we've never been allowed in," said Freya enviously.
"I would think not!" Hagrid grumbled.
After a few group discussions about Harry's trip to Knockturn Alley and him bumping into Draco Malfoy, a quick introduction of his parents ("I hated your son at first but he has some mostly good qualities!" Freya beamed as Will hastily added, "Harry's my best friend, you know, she's just an add-on so don't mind her." Harry finishing it off with, "Pleased to meet you. They're always like this so don't worry."), and then a short time of waiting for the Weasleys and Harry to leave from Gringotts they all separated with the promise to meet up at Flourish and Blotts in an hour.
"And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" her mother finished, her last order directed at Fred and Georges's retreating backs.
"Did you guys hear that?" Freya asked excitedly as they began to stroll down the road away from their families to different stores, "She said not one step!"
"Yes?" Will questioned, glancing over at her from Harry's right side, "And that's exciting, why?"
"Because that means we can take several steps down Knockturn Alley!"
"You have fun with that," Harry and Will replied in unison, grinning at each other in amusement before they both gazed in interest at a toy shop window where the stuffed toys were moving around, the puppies running around and the birds flapping their wings uselessly.
Freya sighed, a rueful smile crossing her lips as she followed after them, "You guys are nofun. Speaking of no fun, what ruddy schoolwork have you been doing this summer, William?"
For the next hour, the three of them had fun, so much fun that Will and Freya barely argued at all, as they window-shopped and bought the small things they needed. Harry ended up buying all three of them large chocolate brownie road ice creams ("Just let me buy it for you so I don't feel weird eating one by myself," Harry said hastily when at first both she and Will had protested.), she and Harry gazed admirably at new broomsticks in the quidditch store before Will dragged them off to buy ink and parchment paper, and then they'd run into the twins and Lee Jordan at the joke shop, of course. In a tiny junkshop filled with things like broken wands and battered copies of books, they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring book called Prefects who Gained Power.
"I admire your ability to read that, Percy," Freya said sincerely as he looked up from the book and beamed at her.
"Why, thank you, Freya! One day if you follow in my footsteps then we can be just like them!" Percy said superiorly before going back to the book, happily.
They left that shop and Harry glanced over at her with a raise of his eyebrows, "You okay?"
"Yeah, it's just sometimes I wonder about my brother's ambitions." She shrugged, "You know, he's just so determined but…"
"But what?" Will asked.
"Nothing," she shook her head, shaking off a bit of unease. "He's just very ambitious you know, has everything planned out. He's gonna be the minister of magic he says…"
By the time the hour had passed, they had already arrived back at Flourish and Blotts and they were not the only ones deciding to do so. The trio stared wide-eyed at the crowd as they approached the store, the reason for the bustle of people explained by a large banner stretched across the window.
GILDEROY LOCKHART
Will be signing copies of his autobiography:MAGICAL ME
Today 12:30 P.M to 4:30 P.M
"We can meet him!" Freya said with a small gasp, "Wow. That's sort of brilliant, he has written practically a whole booklist of stuff, I've read the books my mom has at least and now that we're getting books for school, I'll have the whole set!"
Both Will and Harry blinked at her.
"You read the books before they were an assignment?" Harry asked, surprised.
"And the way you sound almost eager to get the books for our assignments makes it seem almost like…" Will blinked twice, "You'll do the assignment?"
"Oh, haha, both of you." Freya said as she stood tiptoe as if she could see over the crowd, "From what he's written he just seems interesting, is all. Plus, he's super famous."
"Wow." Harry nodded, "Meeting a famous person. It'll be your first time doing that sort of thing, right? What a new experience this is going to be, I'm sure."
Will began to laugh as Freya smiled sheepishly at him, "Whatever, oh Incredibly Famous One. Come on, let's go find my mum, speaking she hasn't fainted from being in such close proximity to Lockhart in the flesh."
Harry, Freya, and Will squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Lockhart was signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.
"Oh, there you three are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"
Indeed, they did. Gildroy Lockhart came slowly to view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his face, all winking and flashing dazzling white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that matched his eyes exactly; his pointed wizard's hat set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.
A short, irritable man was dancing around taking photos with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with each blinding flash.
"Ow!" Freya said suddenly, backing away as she glared at the photographer.
"Out of the way," the photographer snarled at her, backing up to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet-"
"Doesn't mean you should be so rude," Will snapped at him, grabbing Freya's shoulder to move her to his right side, away from the man.
"Yeah, honestly." Harry said with a frown as the photographer frowned back, "It's not that much of a big deal."
Lockhart looked up, having heard him. He saw Will still holding Freya away from the photographer, glaring. That is before Will realized he was still holding on and let go, shoving her away a bit, and then his eyes moved to Freya and then to Harry-
He stared and Harry stared back, wide-eyed at his suddenly rapt focus, startling when Lockhart moved suddenly, leaping to his feet.
"Do my eyes deceive me?!" Lockhart positively shouted as he began going toward Harry, "Itcan't be Harry Potter?!"
Before Harry could react, Lockhart grabbed his arm and pulled him to the front with him, the crowd bursting into sudden and loud applause. Harry's face burned as Lockhart shook his hand joyfully for the cameras, a thick purple smoke wafting over the Weasleys and Grangers as the photographer took a flurry of pictures.
"Nice big smile, Harry!" Lockhart told him through his own large and gleaming smile, "Together, you and I are worth the front page!"
Even when the handshaking was done, Lockhart still didn't let Harry go. Instead, he was forced to stay by his side as Lockhart announced that he was going to be Harry's new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at school, most likely explaining their new booklist for the year. After more talking on Lockhart's part and being given the whole collection of Lockhart books for free, Harry was finally set free.
Staggering slightly at their weight, Harry forced his way through the crowd to where Freya and Will were staring at him with raised brows as he flushed a bit more, before dumping the collection into Freya's cauldron.
"Harry, this isn't your-"
"You keep it," Harry said waving her away, "I'll buy my own."
Freya flushed scarlet, "Wait, Harry, I can buy-"
"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a familiar voice that Harry had no problem recognizing as Harry immediately bristled, Freya instantly scowled, and Will let out a small audible sigh as they turned to see themselves face-to-face with a sneering Draco Malfoy. "Famous, Harry Potter. Can't even go into a book shop without making the front page."
Harry clenched his fist, but Freya put a hand on his shoulder, her signal to wait, as she leaned against him slightly, putting a hand on her hip.
"Look, we get it Malfoy, you're jealous.But I'm sure you could make the front page too, Malfoy! You're just at the wrong shop!" Freya exclaimed as she gave a sardonic smile, "I mean, head over to Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, and I'm sure someone will take a picture of you, I mean," Freya smirked, "It's just so very impressive how you can be the biggest joke around yet nothing you say is the slightest bit funny."
Malfoy turned from a sneer to a scowl as he looked at Freya, "And if you want to make the front page, well, I guess that's why you got yourself a famous boyfriend, right? And why you have brothers who have done it all? Since there's nothing all that special about you."
"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry and Will snapped darkly as Freya turned scarlet from both anger and embarrassment.
"Well, I guess they're right, there is one special thing about you Weasley-you're always a surprise. I mean out of all the places I could've come across you I would've never guessed ashop!" Malfoy's eyes glinted with amusement, "Guessing your family will go hungry for a month to accommodate for it?"
Freya's eyes flashed and she let go of Harry's shoulder, starting towards Malfoy with surprising speed, and was only stopped as Will and Harry both grabbed onto her jacket.
"Freya!" said Mr. Weasley as he was suddenly near them, struggling over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."
"Well well, well-Arthur Weasley."
It was Mr. Malfoy, appearing just as suddenly, as his hand rested on Draco's shoulder, sneering in the same way.
"Lucius," said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.
"Busy time at the ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids...I hope they're paying you overtime?"
He reached into Freya's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of a textbook and tsked.
"Obviously not." He shook his head almost somberly, "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"
Mr. Weasley flushed darker than any of his children.
"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he snapped.
"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley...and I thought your family could sink no lower-"
There was a thud of metal as Freya's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was the yell of, "Get him, Dad!' yelled in unison from the twins and Freya; Mrs. Weasley was shrieking, "No Arthur, NO!"; it was mayhem and than loudest of all-
"Break it up, there, gents, break it up"
Hagrid came wading through the sea of books. In an instant, he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart, Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy a black eye. Shaking his head, he thrust Freya's transfiguration book at her, his eyes glittering with malice.
"Here, girl-take your book-it's the best your father can give you-" and pulling away from Hagrid's gasp he beckoned Draco away and swept him from the shop.
They all departed from the shop in a wary set of moods after that, Hagrid's size a blessing as the shopowner decided it was best not to pursue them about damages and such, and soon they had all made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron where they would all soon depart; Harry and the Weasley's with floo powder and the Grangers who would leave the pub to the muggle street on the other side.
"Honestly, a trip to Diagon Alley has never been quite like this!" Freya said shaking their head as the grownups conversed for a bit as he, Freya, and Will sat at one table sipping on Butterbeers. "I mean, one of us ending up at Knockturn Alley, meeting both the Malfoys-"
"Starting a brawl," Will added, taking a sip of his drink.
"Nothing's ever a dull moment when the three of us happen to be together," Harry added, slightly embarrassed most of the eccentric things that had happened on their trip were his fault. "Me and my bad luck."
"Harry, if this is the sort of stuff your luck gets into…" Freya grinned a happy grin as her eyes gleamed with amusement, "Then it's not all that bad, I don't think."
"Because you're crazy. Harry and I on the other hand think his luck is startlingly horrible." Will sniffed, setting down his drink.
"And you're saying today wasn't even the slightest bit fun?" Freya challenged.
"You know I can't say that," Will said indignantly.
"Because you admit watching my dad throwdown Malfoy's father was brilliant?"
"No," Will said dryly before he shrugged, "I can't say I didn't have fun because, well, this is our first time seeing one another all summer."
There was a pause as Will took a long sip from his mostly empty cup.
"You missed us?" Harry questioned happily.
"Goodness, he actually did!" Freya said happily as Will turned a slight shade of pink, "I bet you wished we could have stolen you from your house in a flying car too, right?"
"No. Never. Not in a million years."
"Goodness gracious, William, that's love! You love us!"
"Mother! Father!" Will said standing up hastily, "I'd like to go now!"
Harry and Freya smirked at one another, getting up as their families began to check the times and started conversing about how it was getting late…
"WILLIAM! Wait!" Freya wrapped her arms around Will's neck as he gave a strangled exclamation of surprise as he made her let go.
Turning around, he glared at them. "What?"
"Ah, nothing, we just wanted to say don't miss us too hard," said Harry as he and Freya glanced at each other before grinning at him. "Cuz we'll see you soon."
Will left the pub with his family onto the muggle street, finally allowing himself to smile at his two best friends' words as he did so.
"Those aren't the kind of people I expected you to be friends with, son." his father said suddenly as they walked.
"Because they're very weird?" Will asked wincing.
"Because they're very interesting and the last of your friends you had in elementary school were a bunch of stuck-up brats." his father replied seriously as Will cracked a grin and his mother hit his father scolding him for being rude. "But really Will. That man, Mr. Weasley, I noticed he didn't start brawling that bleached blonde git-"
"Mr. Malfoy."
"-Until he insulted your mother and me." Will blinked as his father nodded, "And your famous friend didn't seem all that into being the center of attention, I don't think. So, if that Harry is your friend and he's nothing like that Lockhart fellow-"
"He isn't."
"-And that Freya girl is your friend and she's something like her mother and father-"
"She is."
"-Then you didn't just finally make friends, Will. You finally made really good friends."
Will licked his lips, considering his father's words for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, dad. Guess I finally did."