The trip to Diagon
Chapter 4: The trip to Diagon
“I think we should go to Madam Malkin's first, since it will take a couple of hours for our robes to be tailored.” Hermione says as she walks slightly ahead of them as the leader of their small group. “Once that's out of the way, we can do the rest of our shopping and then circle back at the end.”
Harry nods at her with a big smile on his face (a smile that hasn’t left since all his friends arrived) “Sounds good to me.”
Luna hums her agreement as she wanders down the mostly empty cobblestone street next to Harry looking entirely content, with her arms swinging softly at her sides. She has stolen both of Harry’s familiars too, with Solace on her head and Selena on her neck.
Blaise who is walking near Hermione with Freya bouncing around like a maniac at his heels, shrugs in a ridiculously elegant way (seriously no human being should be able to shrug with that much grace). “Fine with me also.”
The twins- much to Harry’s confusion -suddenly look very awkward. Almost guilty? No, something else... oh, ashamed.
“Kay.” Fred mutters, scowling lightly.
“Sure.” George adds quietly, a resigned look on his face.
It’s five minutes into Harry’s grand reunion with the only humans alive that truly matter to him, and two out of five are already sad? Harry won’t stand it. He has had enough of sad emotions lately, so he slows his pace slightly to get closer to the twins who have abruptly started having some sort of whispered argument. Blaise and Hermione have started chatting about something or other, and Luna seems to be deep in thought so they don’t notice the twin's strange behavior. So, Harry decides to take the matter into his own hands.
“What's up?” He asks, half curious half cautious as he falls into step with the duo of red heads.
The twins turn their heads to look at him at the exact same time, both of them still looking ashamed. Fred looks down at his shoes, avoiding looking at Harry directly. “Nothing.” He says grumpily.
Harry narrows his eyes at them both. “Right... So, you're walking in the back of the group looking like kicked puppies, for fun, are you?” He says pointedly.
George sighs and shares a look with Fred. They seem to communicate with nothing but their eyes for a few long moments before George finally speak up. “We can’t buy tailored robes.” He admits quietly.
Harry blinks at them bemused for a moment. “I don’t understand.”
Freds ears turn red and he scowls at Harry. “He means we’re dirt poor and we can’t afford to buy fancy tailored robes like you lot.”
Oh. Well, this is a problem easily solved. In fact, Harry exhales in relief, because he had worried that something was seriously up with Fred and George. But this? This problem Harry can literally fix in a second flat. “I’ll buy them for you then.”
George blushes and sighs once more. “No, harry. We'll just buy them second hand-”
“We don’t need charity. We’re not some pitiful poor kids for you to throw your endless money at.” Fred hisses angrily, his face drawn in a sneer.
Harry reels back in shock. Angry. Fred is angry at him . In all the time Harry has been friends with him, Fred has never gotten angry at him before.
Harry stops in place abruptly, putting some space between himself and the angry red head. Harry doesn’t think Fred would hit him, but it’s best to be safe. Angry people always seem to have no control over their actions, they are wild and unpredictable and Harry suddenly feels very unsure. As if he’s a ship blown of course and now dangerously floating in an endless sea with no sign of land or safety. He carefully keeps his face blank and his fists clenched at his side, ready to take whatever comes next, just in case.
Harry is confused as to what he did wrong. He didn’t mean to make Fred mad. He only wanted to make the twins happy again. He doesn’t want his friends to be sad. He doesn’t want to be a problem. Not like he is for Vernon and Petunia. He doesn’t want to turn kind people cruel.
“Sorry.” Harry says blandly, just like he does with Petunia when Harry makes a mistake and she sneers at him in disgust and speaks at him with sharp words. “Didn’t mean to make you mad.”
He stares at the twins who have stopped next to him. Not really seeing them properly despite the fact that he’s staring right at them. Harry blinks sharply a few times, and forces himself to take steady breaths. Calm down Harry, your being stupid. Stop being pathetic and calm down. You can fix this. It's fine.
Is the world closing around him? It feels like it is. His vison is dipping in and out his head spinning. But he keeps his feet rooted to the ground. Face still blank.
“No Harry, I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” Fred says, and that... that takes Harry by surprise. It’s enough of a shock for some of the panic and blurry fuzzy feeling to dissipate slightly, he doesn’t think people have ever apologized for being angry with him before. “I’m not mad at you, promise.” Fred adds sounding a bit desperate.
“Yes, you are.” Harry replies dumbly. He manages to get his eyes to focus, and he looks at the guilty and shameface expression Fred is currently wearing.
“He’s not.” George adds firmly. “It’s just difficult sometimes, and Fred took his anger out on the wrong person.” George levels a sharp look at his twin as he speaks the last words, which cause Fred to look even more ashamed.
“It’s just stupid, okay? Blaise is rich he has loads of money. Luna’s dad makes more than enough for her. Hermione’s parents are quite well off. You have literal piles of gold. We don’t have any of that. Which is fine-”
“-most of the time.” George cuts in.
“But sometimes not having money pisses me off.” Fred finishes glaring at the ground for a moment, before looking at Harry with a calmer expression. “I’m sorry Harry, really. I didn’t mean to snap.”
Harry looks at them for a long moment, the stupid feelings/episode or whatever the hell that was falls away from him. His mind clearing as realization clicks into place. Then Harry feels stupid, because he should have known. He remembers exactly what it’s like to walk around in shabby clothes and have not even a penny, the children in primary school had looked down at him because of it, they laughed and made him feel stupid and more pathetic than usual... and that-often made him angry. Fred must have felt like Harry was making fun of him and George. Looking down at them. Seeing them as less. Just like the kids did to Harry at school.
Oh. He needs to fix that.
But how? He has to do it in a way that doesn’t make them feel pathetic. Harry needs them to have nice things. He would have fixed this way back last year if he hadn’t been so stupidly unaware. His friends all deserve to have nice things, they shouldn’t have to worry about money. Harry doesn’t have any potter family left to share his wealth with but he does have his friends. His friends which are the closest thing to family he’s ever experienced.
So, he has to be smart about this. Tread carefully and maybe... guilt trip them a bit, to get them to take his money willingly.
“I used to be poor. I wore old clothes that never fit right. I had no money at all.” He tells the twins, with a solemn nod. “But then I found out my parents left me loads of money and suddenly I was rich.”
Then he casts his gaze down to the ground and tries to look sad and pitiful, which is actually quite hard since he currently feels quite happy now that he figured out why they’re upset and Fred stopped being angry.
“I’m the last potter, my parents are dead, so are every other relative I might have known. I've always wanted to have a family, to share things with, and now I have you two, Blaise, Hermione, Luna... and-and I want to spend money on my new family.” He looks up at them trying to replicate the ‘doe eyes’ he’s seen Luna use on occasion. He’s probably laying it on a bit thick at this point, but if it works and gets him to his end goal? Thats fine. “Now... you're telling me no? I thought family was supposed to look after each other? Why won’t you let me?”
Fred and George stare at him with their jaws dropped.
“Did you just...” George trails off gaping at Harry.
“You’re guilt tripping us.” Fred says slowly. “You’re... manipulating us, into letting you pay for stuff.”
Harry stares back at them and shrugs lightly. Not seeing much point in denying it.
There is silence for a moment as they stand in the middle of the cobbled street with early morning shoppers passing by and the sun shining down on them brightly.
Then the twins burst out into laughter. Harry finds himself laughing with them. Any previous tension broken. Harry’s mind feels clear once more and no one is angry or upset. It’s fine. Harry’s fine. It's all fine.
“So... can I?” He asks hesitantly, once they’ve stopped laughing.
George smiles slightly with a disbelieving shake of his head, “why do I feel like you’re going to find a way to pay for our stuff whether we like it or not.”
“Probably because I will. I might have laid it on a bit thick before-but I wasn't lying.” He pauses for a moment suddenly feeling a bit pathetic, he has only really referred to his friends as family- out loud -one time, and Fred wasn’t even there for that (because he was dying with Quirrell and Voldemort). Harry probably shouldn’t have thrown the term family around so lightly, but he’s said it now so he pushes on bravely, “You two are a part of my family. I want to share what I have.”
The twins stare at him for a long moment. George suddenly looks very fond and Fred looks thoughtful. Then the twins glance at each other and have a silent conversation, before turning back to look at Harry again.
“We’ll let you.” George says slowly. “But-”
“-we’ll pay you back.” Fred says with a firm nod. “When we have a job or a business or whatever... we’ll pay you back.”
Harry sighs internally, but decides this is the best he can get for now. If the twins try and pay him back when they're older Harry will just figure out a way to decline it; but that's a future problem. So, he sighs and nods his head in a show of agreement.
The twins look satisfied enough with his response. So, Harry decides to move on from the conversation before anything can go wrong or he accidently makes Fred angry again. “I’m going to find the others now. You guys coming?”
With a nod from both of them Harry takes off down the street with the red heads in tow, towards their temporarily abandoned trio of friends who are standing a little way down the street waiting for them.
~~~
The door to Madam Malkin’s chimes loudly as Hermione pushes it open, and steps inside. They all file in behind her and Fred immediately goes to ring the bell set up on the counter. The shop is empty (thankfully) since most of the shops at Diagon open between 9 and 9.30am, and most people tend to start shopping later in the morning around 10am; which leaves about an hour for Harry and his friends to get some of their shopping out of the way before the crowds arrive to ogle at his forehead.
“Do you think I could get more hoodies here?” Harry asks aloud, to no one in particular. “Blaise didn’t you say you got me that blue from here.”
“You have an addiction,” Blaise smirks, and shakes his head. “Just ask one of tailors, that’s what I did.”
“You know you could just go into muggle London, Harry.” Hermione sighs in an exasperated manner. “Rather than spending all your galleons on custom made hoodies that you could buy for a tenner in literally any normal muggle clothes shop.”
Harry shrugs. “I guess, but we don’t have time to go out into muggle London today, and I barely have any muggle money left.”
“But I want to go into the muggle world.” Fred says eagerly. “Dad says it's really cool, that everything runs eclectricity, and they have automobiles that go faster than the top-of-the-line brooms.”
“Its electricity, Fred. Not eclectricity.” Hermione says with a fond roll of her eyes.
“Sounds like the same word to me.” George quips.
“We could go next year.” Luna muses. “Perhaps you could come and stay at my house for a week in the summer, and we can spend one day in Diagon and one day in the muggle world.”
Harry perks up at that. If he could figure out a way to get Dumbles to let him leave the Dursley’s for more than a day... that would be brilliant! A whole week at Luna’s house. “That’s a great idea Luna!”
“No, it is not.” Blaise says incredulously, and Harry notices that he’s staring around at them as if they’ve suggested to take a summer trip into an active volcano. “What if the muggles find out we’re magic? I don’t fancy being chased out of towns with pitch forks and torches, and what will we do when they put us on pyres? I do not want to be burnt alive, I'm too handsome to be burnt to a crisp.”
“Muggles were vicious in Salazar time.” He hears Selena hiss, from where she’s still wrapped around Luna’s neck.
The twins look alarmed at Blaise's words.
Luna looks as if she’s pondering that particular reality. “I don’t think I want to be burnt alive I would much prefer to drown.”
Harry and Hermione, however, share a look of utter bewilderment, before bursting into laughter.
“What?” Blaise snaps clearly offended at their laughter.
“Blaise that’s-that’s not gonna happen.” Harry manages to get out between burst of laughter.
“God what do Wixen teach their children? No wonder all the purebloods have it out for muggle-borns.” Hermion says biting back her laughter, but her eyes still shine with amusement. “Muggles don’t do that anymore, they haven’t for like... three hundred years.”
“Honestly I don’t think most muggles even own pitchforks anymore.” Harry wipes a few tears from his eyes, as he grins at the now very confused Blaise Zabini. “And they definitely don’t own torches.”
“So, we won’t get burnt alive, if they find out we can perform magic.” Blaise says slowly, looking between Hermione and Harry with a frown.
“Definitely not.” Hermione tells him firmly, shaking her head. “And I've decided you-” she points from Blaise to, Fred, George and Luna “-will be having lessons on the muggle world and culture this year. Taught by me.”
“Uggh not more studying Hermione! I swear you lot are going to kill me.” Fred groans, looking like his worst nightmare has arrived to haunt him.
“I don’t mind. It could be interesting.” George says with a shrug.
“Muggles are strange, but I do quite like strange things, and strange people,” Luna muses, looking around at them all in a way that suggest they are the strange people she likes. “So... that would be lovely. Can we learn about muggle animals? I heard they have cows that can fly.”
Blaise just sighs and rubs at his temples. “I do not like being oblivious. I’ll attend your ‘lessons.” He says skeptically.
“I feel like I'm gonna have the time of my life watching you guys learn about muggles.” Harry chuckles.
Hermione however, looks satisfied, to have a plan in place to educate their friends on the ways of the muggles.
Before they can continue the topic, a curvy middle-aged witch comes bustling out from the back room, a large white rabbit with a checker bow tie hoping along behind her. “Hello dears, I am so sorry for the wait. We had an incident with a sentient roll of fabric in the store room.” She smiles at them, looking a bit frazzled. “If you would just follow me, I can get your Measurment's sorted. Hogwarts robes I presume?”
They make varying sounds and gestures of ascent, at the witch.
“Alright then!” She says cheerfully. “Familiars over there please.” She gestures to a corner of the shop that’s set up with a perch and cushions. “I’d hate for them to get tangled in fabric, or poked with a pin.”
After that it’s a bit chaotic, as all six of them get measured, and put their orders in. Harry charges the cost of his and the twin's robes to the potter vault (and all of them got a heavy discount anyway once the witch realized he was the fabled boy who lived).
All in all, he was very relieved when they finally left the shop and stepped back out onto the now quite busy street. It turns out they were trapped in the robe shop for over an hour.
~~~
“No.” Blaise deadpans. “Absolutely not. Over my dead cold body.”
“Oh, come on Blaise it's not that bad.” George says with a grin.
“Yeah, Blaise. It's not like they’re asking you to fight pitchfork wielding muggles.” Fred snickers.
“I would prefer to face the muggles.” He grumbles. “Anything would be more bearable than this.”
Hermione nudges the disgruntled boy with her shoulder smiling, “What? You mean you don’t want to get matching shoes with your friends?”
“No. I do not.”
“I will be incredibly upset if you refuse.” Luna tells him, with an entirely serious nod. “I fear I would drown in my own tears, actually.”
Harry attempts doe eyes for the second time today, “Pleeeease Blaise. Please, please, pleeeease-”
“Ah! Fine.” He snaps, glaring at Harry. “But I will leave them in the back of my cupboard never to be seen or worn.”
“Good enough.” Harry grins, happily, despite the vengeful glare of his slightly stuck-up friend (and Harry and Luna will get him to wear the damn shoes if it's the last thing they do).
They leave the muggle clothes shop he and Luna visited last year, with four pairs of converses.
Midnight blue for Hermione. Purple for George. Orange for Fred. And Black and silver for Blaise (he decided they were the least ‘obnoxious’).
~~~
“Oh my Merlin, Harry look!” Fred yells, pointing at the window of quality quidditch supplies.
“Nimbus 2000.” George breathes out in awe.
“It’s beautiful.” Harry says reverently, moving closer to the glass to see it better.
“It’s a broomstick.” Hermione deadpans. “A bunch of twigs tied to a stick.”
“It is quite a nice bunch of sticks though.” Luna hums, staring at the broom with her head tilted to one side.
“It’s a drop dead, bloody gorgeous, bunch of perfectly cut sticks, actually .” Fred says scowling at Hermione.
“Oh, my mistake.” Hermione rolls her eyes lightly. “But look, it's so expensive that they haven’t even listed the price,” She points at a tag that says ask for price at the desk. “Who would spend piles of money on a broom.”
Blaise huffs a laugh and points at Harry, “Harrison Potter would. Look he’s got huge hearts flashing in his eyes.”
“I have not.” Harry tears his eyes away from the broom to frown at Blaise. “I’m just-”
“Five seconds away from marching in there and buying yourself a nimbus 2000?” Blaise smirks.
Harry frowns harder but doesn’t actually deny the accusation. He will be buying a broom for himself as he wanted to try out for the Slytherin quidditch team this year - and what better broom than the brand new top of the line Nimbus 2000? And by the looks on the twins faces... Harry knows exactly what he’s buying them for Christmas.
~~~
“This is the place where you may purchase many ingredients, to make your own deadly venom?” Selena asks hopefully.
He looks around to ensure that no one other than his friends can overhear him, then ducks his head to hiss back to her quietly. “Yes, but I don’t plan to make deadly venom, Selena.”
“Why ever not, Star?” She asks incredulously. “You could be undefeatable, and deadly. It is sad you do not have fangs like me, but you could still create venom.”
He chuckles. “As fun as it would be if I could drop all my foes dead, with a bit of poison... I would prefer to stay out of Azkaban.”
Selena descends into a rant about cages and venom and foes, while Hermione jabs Harry in the shoulder. “Stop hissing. The shopkeeper is looking at us weird.” She mutters.
He promptly shuts his mouth, and opts for petting Selena in a consoling manner rather than speaking to her.
Harry looks around the apothecary, its jam packed with rickety shelves stacked with a gazillion different ingredients, and there's a long counter at the back with the more volatile ingredients kept in jars on shelves.
“Look, there’s the 2nd year potions kits.” Fred grins, pointing at a large designated shelf labeled ‘Back to school potions materials’.
Harry looks over at the potions kits and suddenly remembers something. “Fred I'm gonna get the ingredients to make more of that calming draught, will you show me how to brew it when we get back to Hogwarts?”
Harry’s been thinking about that potion since Fred gave him it to him back when he had a meltdown about all the Quirrell/Voldemort/Dumbledore, stuff. It had stopped his panic attack in only a few seconds, so Harry has decided it could potentially be the solution to his very annoying emotional weakness.
“Yeah of course!” Fred nods enthusiastically as he bounces on the balls of his feet, looking ridiculously happy to be in the apothecary.
“Is that for you panic attacks?” Hermione asks curiously.
Harry blanches for a moment, and sputters. “I don’t have panic attacks!”
He is met with disbelieving looks from Hermione and the twins, while Luna looks sympathetic.
“We’ve been friends with you for almost a year now.” Hermione says slowly. “Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”
“B-what? How.” He looks at Blaise who is the only one Harry thought actually new about his stupid inability to control his emotions, as he has had to bring Harry out of the harsher ones a couple of times. “Did you tell them.” He glares at Blaise accusingly.
Blaise scoffs. “Use your brain, Harry. Do you actually truly think I would do that?”
Harry looks down at the ground ashamed. “No.” He mumbles. “Have I been obvious, does everyone know? I thought-I thought I hid them okay.”
“Nah mate, you hide them well enough.” Fred says. “We just know you.” He shrugs.
“You just go quite sometimes, and your eyes go all blank, and you breath heavily.” George adds. “It’s not a big deal though, loads of people get anxious. I mean, I would if I was being stared at all the time by everyone.” He says, glaring pointedly at a few people standing at the end of one of the isles who are ogling Harry shamelessly.
“I think we should change the subject.” Luna says decisively, as she takes Harry’s hand and squeezes it comfortingly. “Harry doesn’t like people talking about his emotions.”
“They know you.” Selena hisses sounding pleased and fond. “It is good to be known in this way. Living things are not meant to stand alone.” She pokes his face with her nose. “Do not fear it, Star.”
“How?” He breathes out in an almost silent hiss.
Selena can’t seem to find a response to that.
“I know.” Hermione shakes her head fondly, and then (thankfully) decides to take Luna’s advice. “Let's go look around, and you and Fred can geek out over potions ingredients.”
“I will never understand the obsession with the craft.” Blaise huffs. “It's just mixing things together, it's hardly entertaining.”
“Hey! Potions is an art, not just anyone can be brilliant at it.” Fred scowls and pokes Blaise’s shoulder in an accusatory manner.
“Sure.” Blaise deadpans, with a roll of his eyes.
Harry takes a deep breath and steadies himself, and decides he blames his friends for his lack of emotional control in the past year.
~~~
Hermione lets out a fairly out of character squeal of excitement, as they approach flourish and blots. “I’ve been saving all summer for this!”
They shove through their way through the busy street to enter the bookshop, Hermione practically sprinting through the door. She grabs Harry’s hand as she goes and drags him off into the shelves, leaving the others to either follow at a slower pace or go and do their own shopping.
“Slow down, Mione!” He laughs as he almost stumbles over a wayward book laying in the middle of the isle. “The books aren’t gonna run away from us.”
“I know, I know, but look, Harry!” She picks up a book from the shelf and waves it infront of his face, the title reads: How to combine and create spells from scratch. “Think of the possibilities, and it all starts here!” She gestures around the shop wildly. “With these books.”
“Yeah, I know. Trust me I know.” He looks at her fondly. “You should have seen me here the first time I visited Diagon. I’d only just found out that I was a wizard, and I bought so many books Hermione, that I couldn’t even see where I was walking because I had them stacked so high in my arms.”
She laughs. “That sounds like something I would do.”
He grins. “Go for it if you want.” He shrugs. “I’ll pay, and we can get the twins to carry the bags, I reckon there the strongest out of all of us.”
“You spend your money far too easily.” She shakes her head. “I can buy my own... but thanks for the offer.”
Harry decides in that moment to make it a top priority to figure out how to get his friends to take his damn money without a fight.
“One day you people will let me buy stuff for you.” He says with a dramatic sigh.
She flicks his forehead smiling, before turning her focus to the endless books.
So, Harry does the same walking along the isle a little way, and running his finger along the spines of the books until one catches his eye, the title reads: The full guide to becoming an Animagus.
Oh... now that is interesting. Harry remembers how cool it was last year when professor McGonagall turned from a cat into a human. He remembers thinking how useful such a skill could be for him, and... he had planned to find some sort of project he could work on over the summer. Becoming an Animagi might be the most interesting project on the planet! So, he holds the book tighter in his hand and begins to look over the shelves for more books to do with Animagi.
~~~
Twenty minutes later Harry is trying to keep himself calm and panic free as he pushes through the tons of people while carrying a hefty stack of books in the direction of the till. The majority are on transfiguration and Animagi, but he’s got his school books in there too.
Finally, he reaches his destination and carefully sets his finds down on the counter. He pays for everything and gets the books packed and shrunk down so they can fit in his pocket.
The only thing he has left now is Gringotts, but he can do that when his friends have gone home, he hardly wants to drag them into the vaults. Speaking of friends, he really needs to find them, after Hermione whisked him away, he lost sight of the others.
“Selena, do you know where our seer is?” He asks, thinking his familiar probably can find Luna’s magic even in with the crowds of people packed in the bookshop. “I need to find my friends and get out of this place, to many people, I feel trapped.”
“Over there, Star.” She jabs her head in the direction of the magical creature's section. “I do not like so many humans either. I prefer when it is just my speaker and his friends.”
“Yeah, me too.” He sighs, and begins to make his way to where Luna supposedly is. Keeping his fists clenched and counting his breathing to take his mind of all the people who keep brushing against him.
He could cry with relief when he finally spots familiar faces, thankfully gathered in a quieter corner of the shop.
“Harry!” Fred exclaims. “We were wondering where you got to.”
“I was just-just, paying for stuff.” He says his voice sounding a bit scrambled.
Hermione frowns at him. “What’s the matter Harry? You don’t look well.”
“A-a lot of people. Everywhere. I had enough.” He says stiltedly.
Luna wanders over to him and loops their arms together. “Just pretend nothing is real, and you're the only person in the universe.” She suggests as she uses her free hand to scoop Solace of her own head onto Harry’s shoulder. His raven familiar chirps contentedly and hops around in his curls.
“We’re done shopping now, so we can leave.” George says evenly, looking at Harry in concern.
“Do you have one of those calming draughts, Fred.” Blaise asks, moving closer to Harry and Luna.
“No, I don’t have any brewed, sorry, Harry.” Fred says apologetically.
“No, I-I'll be fine, once I get out of here.” Harry says waving away their concern, he does not want pity, he does not want them to perceive him as weak. He doesn’t even feel that bad, he’s just a little dizzy and trapped from all the people, he hasn’t descended into hysterics... yet.
“Are-”
Whatever Hermione was about to say is cut off by a drawling obnoxious voice, belonging to a tall slender man, with a diamond encrusted cane, very fancy robes, a sneer, and an air of self-importance. “Ah, Harry potter and his entourage of blood traitors and-” He looks at Hermione in cold distain “-muggleborns.”
Harry feels every single muscle in his body tense, his posture stiffens and he detaches himself from Luna and moves infront of his friends. The familiar prickling fear and sharp anger grounding him out of his steadily building panic. “Who are you.” Harry forces a smirk onto his face, and matches the man's tone. “And why do you feel the need to take the time out of your day to harass school children.”
He hears Blaise let out a quiet, sharp, huff of laughter.
“Yeah Malfoy, what do you want from us.” Fred spits out and steps up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Harry.
The man who Harry now knows must be Draco’s father, smiles coldly. “I was merely greeting the students who have caused so many problems for my son during the school term.”
“Pffft, Draco causes his own problems. If he would just think before he speaks, then he wouldn’t be an outcast.” Fred scoffs.
“Maybe he gets it from his father.” George mutter scowling.
“Slytherin is a house for those who use there cunning and ambition well, rather than blunder about like a fool using only Gryffindor stupidity.” Blaise adds in a bland but factual tone.
“It is no fault of ours that we are forced to respond to your sons' actions.” Hermione says in a polite and cordial voice, despite the fact that Malfoy is looking at her as if she’s dirt. Harry can only admire her composure.
Malfoy’s eyes sharpen with hatred, but he stays sneering and cold. “You should not speak of my son in such a way.” He smiles once more. “It would be a shame if something were to happen to any of you.”
Malfoy is threatening them. Absolute brilliant! Because that is exactly what Harry needs, more enemies.
Before Harry can thinks of a good enough response, or anyone can say anything else, a woman sweeps around the corner in elegant dress robes made of what seems to be pure silver, her skin pale as snow and hair to match, but the thing that stands out most to Harry is her magic; powerful undoubtably, but carefully hidden away from sight.
“Come now darling, do not pick fights with children, it is beneath you.” She tuts lightly, and takes Malfoy’s (her husbands?) arm, before gazing down at Harry and his friends, with eyes more silver than grey.
Malfoy scoffs in derision and levels Harry with an icy look. “We will speak again, I'm sure.” He drawls, before guiding the woman away, brushing past Luna as he goes.
“What a stuck-up prick.” Fred glares at the man's retreating back.
“He’s worse than Draco.” Blaise mutters.
“Being a moron is clearly something you can inherit.” George says decisively.
“I’ll add him to my list of potential Harry related threats.” Hermione sighs. “I hope we never see him again.”
“You have a list of threats?” Luna asks curiously.
“Of course, I do. We need to know exactly what we’re working with if we’re going to build our allies this year.”
“Smart.” Blaise nods, approvingly.
“What did you think of the woman?” Harry asks abruptly, turning to Luna. He wonders if they could get her to be one of their allies.
Luna tilts her head thoughtfully. “Narcissa... I think.” She muses. “Many faces. More than she seems. Interesting.”
“What Draco’s mum?” Fred stares at them in surprise. “She a fancy housewife, why would she be interesting.”
Hermione glares at Fred hotly. “Just because she shows the world the face of a house wife, that does not mean it’s all she is.”
“Why do you ask, Potter?” Blaise asks skeptically.
“I just thought she could be a good ally. She has quite powerful magic.” He shrugs. “But I doubt we could convince her to ditch her husband and son, for nothing.”
“Maybe something for the future?” George suggests. “When we have more to offer.”
“Yeah.” Harry nods his agreement.
~~~
A few minutes later they’ve left flourish and blots and are gathered in a people free space outside one of the less popular shops. When Luna pulls him aside. Holding a small, black, leather-bound diary.
Something about the diary is strange and Harry swears his scar prickles when he looks at it... which is never a good sign. The magic around it is strange too, dark, twisted.
“I don’t like the thing the seer holds, star. It is evil.” Selena hisses, coiling around his neck tighter and flickering her tongue urgently.
“Luna, what...” He says glancing from her calm face to the diary.
“Lucius Malfoy, dropped it into my bag when he brushed past me.” She hands Harry the book gingerly. “He thought I wouldn’t notice, but I did.”
Harry feels anger boil up inside him. “He gave this to you? Was he trying to curse you?” Malfoy senior better count his days, if that’s the case.
“I... don’t know, but I think he had other reasons.” She muses thoughtfully and without much concern. “But it doesn’t matter now, Harry. You have to lock this in your vault.”
“What, why? Shouldn’t we just get rid of it? The magic on it is weird Luna, and it's making my scar hurt.”
She shakes her head rapidly from side to side. “No. I don’t know why, but I do know that it has to be kept safe for the future. You have to lock it in your vault, my feelings say it's the right thing to do.”
And well... Harry’s hardly going to argue with that. Luna’s feelings are never wrong.
“Okay, well I needed to go to Gringotts anyway. We can go and lock it up before we leave. Yeah?” He suggests.
“Perfect.” She smiles, before taking his hand and guiding him back to the others. Luna seems to have temporarily decided that this conversation never happened.