The Marauder's Heir (Harry Potter FF)

Chapter 16

“That’s exactly what we’re telling you,” Sirius replied. He felt really bad for his goddaughter and her friends. They were going to have to deal with Lockhart’s books all year, and if they were extremely unlucky, they would have to deal with them for the rest of their time at Hogwarts.

“He can’t be that bad if Dumbledore approved the book list,” Hermione said hopefully.

Harri decided to she was going to save her first impression of Lockhart’s books when she read them. 

To her surprise there was a chance to meet Lockhart because he was signing books in Diagon Alley when they arrived with the Weasley’s. The twins snickered at their mother’s flustered when she saw that THE Gilderoy Lockhart was signing books. 

“Mum’s got a bit of crush on him,” Fred and George told the group with a smirk. That earned a good laugh from Sirius and Remus, much to the twins delight. A few minutes later the group split up. The twins went with off with their friend Lee Jordan, Ron met up with Seamus, Percy went to buy a quill, Sirius, Remus and Mr. Weasley all went to the Leaky Cauldron, Mrs. Weasley took Ginny to get some robes, and that left Harri, Hermione and Draco to amuse themselves till they met back up with everyone at Flourish and Bolts in an hour.

The three wandered around for quite a while before they settled on eating some ice cream that Harri bought before either of her stubborn friends could protest. They joked around and talked about what they expected to learn during the year when someone tapped on Harri’s shoulder, making her jump. 

She spun around in her chair to find out that it was Cedric. She noticed, that like the twins, he had gotten taller over the summer, making her feel much shorter than she already was.

“Hello, Cedric, how are you feeling? I know that you said you were under the weather last week,” Hermione asked concerned for him.

“I’m much better. A few potions and I was right as rain. Thank you for the concern Hermione. I bet the twins were happy I wasn’t there,” he replied.

“I’m not going to lie and say they weren’t…you’re just a little up tight for them. You need to break some rules Cedric, loosen up,” Harri told him grinning at the look of absolute horror on Hermione’s face.

“Don’t listen to her! She’s trying to corrupt you!” Hermione nearly shouted, causing Cedric to jump at her sudden outburst. Harri could see that Draco was trying not to laugh at the scene before him, but he was failing miserably. Harri smiled at the scene. She knew that a few months with Sirius would cause Draco to lose some of his aristocratic behavior.

“Corrupt me? Do you think you can save me, Hermione?” Cedric asked with a raised eyebrow, “How do you know that you yourself aren’t corrupted as well?”

Hermione blushed a bright pink at his comment and stuttered over a few words before not bothering to reply. She just put her head down on the table very flustered.

“She knows I was kidding right?”

“Yea, she’s just recovering. It’s rare for someone to leave her speechless,” Draco said with a smirk.

When Hermione raised her head she was glaring at Draco, but was also looking at something behind him and gasped. “We’re late! We were supposed to be at Flourish and Bolts five minutes ago!”

Harri and Draco exchanged looks of dread and got up slowly only to be dragged in the direction of the book store. They both waved goodbye to Cedric who was still sitting at the table watching in amusement.

They walked up to the book shop and noticed that Sirius and the others were all gathered around the crowded entrance. “Bambi, there you are. Remus and I were going to send a search party after you,” Sirius told her and wrapped her in a hug as soon as she got within arm’s reach of him.