Summer past relatively uneventfully, the only thing that was worrying me was that Harry hadn't replied to any of my letters. I was concerned that his aunt and uncle has locked him up and weren't allowing him to contact anyone. But Fred and George wrote me a letter telling me not to worry, that they had a plan to get Harry. I hated to think what they had planned, but I trusted them to get Harry out safely. Well, relatively safely.
Like clockwork, two owls dropped Cassy and my Hogwarts letters off in the tower. I don't know how but the owls were always drawn to Tony and always dropped the letters either in his morning coffee or on the top of his head. This year they dropped them right on top of his toast and like always he was unimpressed.
"Rock of Ages! Get down here right now!"
Cassy and I tried not laugh at Tony's reaction knowing that it would only aggravate him further. But when Loki appeared out of thin air behind him, causing Tony to fall off the stool he was sitting on neither Cassy or I could control ourselves.
"What is it now, Stark? I'm a busy man. I'm planning all my lessons for the year," Loki drawled, completely uninterested in what ever Tony had to say.
"Can you please tell Gandalf to deliver mail like a normal person. I am sick of finding owl droppings all over the lab."
"I am terribly sorry to disappoint you, Stark. But I cant do that, it's just part of the daily life of Hogwarts I'm afraid," Loki told him, the smirk prominent on his face.
"Well, change it Reindeer Games," Tony threatened him, but Loki was already gone and the only thing you could hear was the echo of his laugh ringing out through the tower.
"One of these days, I'm going to get him," Tony muttered, throwing his toast into the bin.
"Stop pouting Dad, your just angry that Loki is funnier than you will ever be," Cassy said as we opened up our letters.
"Cassandra Stark! You take that back right now!"
"Nope, not gonna happen!"
"Tony, stop yelling. I can hear you all the way down in the gym!" Dad laughed, walking into the kitchen.
I was vaguely aware of Tony telling my dad an over exaggerated version of the owls dropping the letters on this breakfast, but I was more focused on the book list for the year and wondering who the hell the guy was who had seemed to have written most of the books. I reread the list wondering if they were some kind of fictional books or something, I mean the names of them were just pathetic;
*Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Wandering with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart
*Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart
"Hey Danny. I'm guessing you just got your letter."
"Yeah, who the hell is Gilderoy Lockhart?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. But whoever the new defense against the dark arts professor seems to like him."
"I just hope their good books because we're going to be reading a lot of them."
"I doubt that, have you read the titles of them. They sound like a little kid wrote them!"
"True. So Diagon Alley next week?"
"You bet!"
"I am not going out there!" Danny protested from the locked bathroom, as we were about to leave our motel to go to Diagon Alley.
"Don't be ridiculous, Daniel. Just put a hat on," Aunt Tammy told him, ignoring the hysterical state her son was in.
"No one will notice, Danny. Just hurry up," I told him, trying not to laugh.
"REALLY! How will no one notice this!" he yelled walking out of the bathroom.
I couldn't help but break into a fit of giggles when I looked at Danny, even Dad had a problem trying not to laugh. Instead of his normal blonde hair, bright red coloured hair making him look like a long lost Weasley.
"I warned you not to make jokes about Loki and Nat dating. I told you that if they were dating, they would tell us when they were ready. But no, you just had to make a joke in front of Loki and now you are suffering the consequences," I laughed looking at Danny's outraged face.
"Fine! I'll leave the stupid motel! Guess who's no longer the favourite Asgardian uncle," he huffed, pulling a cap out of his bag to put on so he could hide the red hair that did not suit him at all.
"It's okay, Danny. It doesn't look that bad, I'm sure no one will notice at all," Dad told him, trying to cheer him up.
"Honestly Danny, you don't have to worry. Tony looked a lot worse with the bright green hair that Loki gave him," Mum said, walking in to the room to get her handbag.
"I guess," Danny said, not looking overly convinced.
When we walked down to the lobby to meet up with everyone and I had to hand it to Cassy, she didn't say a single word about Danny's bright red hair. Unfortunately, there was someone else in her sights that she was intending on teasing.
"Hey, Spangles Jr. I totally forgot to ask, are we going to be meeting up with your boyfriend."
"Cedric is not my boyfriend, Cassy," I snapped at her.
"Well, he may not be now. But he did kiss you back on platform 9 and 3/4," she said in a sing song voice.
"On the cheek, Cassy. On the cheek!" I called out after her as she ran ahead.
"You're only going to encourage her, Snowflake. You're better off just to ignore her," Dad said, wrapping an arm around me.
"But honesty, Princess. You don't have to pretend you don't like Cedric in front of us," Mum added.
"I do not like my best friend!"
As I walked off, muttering to myself in Norwegian under my breath, I could hear Mum laughing softly and Dad telling her not to encourage me and that I was way too young to even think about having a boyfriend.
If this was the start of my school year, I hated to think what else the year would hold.
There was a large crowd outside Flourish and Blotts making it almost impossible to get into the store. All the women waiting to get into the store were excited and hyperventilating about some author that was doing a signing. Cassy huffed as we got pushed out of the store but an over excited woman who looked to be in her 60's.
"I really don't care about their stupid book signing, I just wanna get my school books," she said, jumping trying to see inside the store.
"That's not going to happen Stark," a familiar voice called out.
Turning around, I saw Fred and George walking over to us. You couldn't miss them as they made their way through the crowds, with how much they had grown over the past few months and their bright red hair, they stood out a mile away.
"You see the one and only Gilderoy Lockhart is in there," George finished saying when they reached us.
"I don't care, I just want to get my books!"
"Wow, you won't want to say that too loudly otherwise you will have an angry horde of witches coming after you," Fred laughed.
"Who is this Gilderoy Lockhart anyway?" Danny asked, looking at the moving poster advertising the man's autobiography Magical Me.
"According to our mother, he the best thing that had ever blessed the ground that we walk on. He can do no wrong. And he's won Witch Weekly's Most charming smile award seven times," George said, rolling his eyes.
"How utterly fascinating," Cassy said in a deadpan voice. "My Dad's been on the top of Forbes richest people list over 10 times and Elsa's dad has topped People magazine most beautiful people just as many times."
"Seriously Cassy! Not the time. I have something way more important to ask Fred and George, which is how is Harry? I've been so worried about him."
"You're not going to believe how we found him!" George started to tell me excitedly.
"It was unbelievable! His aunt and uncle had him locked in his bedroom with bars on his window! But you're not going to believe what we did!" Fred picked up from his brother.
"We took dads flying Ford Angela and broke him out!" George finished.
"Wow, that's crazy! I want to see your dad's flying car! It sounds so cool," Danny said, excited about the idea of a flying car.
"Where is Harry? Is he, okay?"
"Well, um..."
"Well, um what Fred?"
"We used floo powder to get here and Harry may have taken a wrong turn," Fred said, hesitantly.
"He took a wrong turn! How did he take a wrong turn!" I said, slightly hysterically.
"I stuttered over my words," Harry called out from behind me.
I turned around to see Harry looking worse for wear with Hagrid trailing behind him. As Harry got closer, I could see that he was covered in dirt and his glasses were broken. I wrapped arms around the dark-haired boy in front of me as people looked at us and whispered about him. But to me he wasn't the boy who lived or the great Harry Potter, he was just Harry. A kid who just needed someone to look out for him and to be there for him.
"Harry, you have no idea how worried I have been about you! When you didn't reply to any of my letters, I was starting to think the worst."
"You were really that worried about me," Harry asked, shocked that someone was actually worried about him.
"We all were, Harry," Dad said making his way through the crowds to get to us. "Kimberly and me were just about to come over and see if you were okay."
If Harry looked shocked before, he was absolutely stunned now. Captain America was actually about to fly to another country to check on his safety. Before Harry could answer, Hermione Granger came running over, calling out Harry's name and threw her arms around him. Looking up at Dad, he was smiling watching the two Gryffindor students. Judging by the look on his face, he was remembering all the times that Bucky has looked out for him when they were younger.
"Hello Hagrid. Elsa, Danny, Cassy! You're here as well! It's wonderful to see you all again!" she smiled looking at all of us before her gaze settled on my dad and her eyes became wide. "Hello, sir. You must be Captain Rogers, Elsa's dad. It's nice to meet you. I'm Hermione Granger."
Danny, Cassy, Dad and I were shocked that she actually called Dad Captain Rogers and not Captain America. She had to be one of the first people to actually do that. Looking impressed with the young bushy haired girl, Dad shook her outstretched and thanked her.
"It's nice to meet you, Hermione. Elsa has told me all about you, how you're the smartest student in your year. But please, call me Steve. Everyone dose."
"Wow, really! Thank you, sir. I mean Steve," Hermione blushed, falling prey to my dad's smile like almost everyone one did. Looking over at the poster of Gilderoy Lockhart, it was clear to see that his fake smile would never hold a candle to my dad's friendly and genuine one.
"Oh, Harry. You have broken your glasses again," Hermione commented looking over at Harry before pulling out her wand. "Oculus Reparo."
In an instant, Harry's glasses fixed them self-up making Dad gasp. Even though I went to Hogwarts and he knew about magic, Dad wasn't actually used to seeing magic being done in everyday life and was still amazed by it.
"I need to remember that one," Harry said, taking his glasses off and trying to look at them.
"And both of you need to remember no magic outside of school. You're lucky that we're in Diagon Alley and surrounded by magic otherwise you would get a warning about it," I told the pair of Gryffindor students, Hermione looking embarrassed that she had forgotten such an important rule.
"Hey, Capsicle! Look who I ran into at the bank!" Tony called out through the crowd with Mrs. Weasley following him. As soon as she saw Harry, she rushed through the crowd of people to get to him with Ron not too far behind her.
"Oh, Harry. Thank goodness. We hoped you only went one grate to far," she fussed, brushing the dirt off his clothes. "Hello Steve! It's wonderful to see you again! How have you been, dear?"
"It's good to see you too, Molly. I've never been better. How have you and Arthur been?" Dad said, kissing Mrs. Weasley on the check like the 1940's gentleman that he was.
"Arthur has been working a lot of overtime, but that's nothing new. But other than that, we have been wonderful. I was just speaking to Kimberly, she asked me to tell you that she, Tammy and David would meet you at the book store. Now, we must hurry if we don't want to miss Gilderoy Lockhart."
"Isn't it thrilling! Gilderoy Lockhart's going to be there! We can actually meet him! I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!" Hermione squealed.
"So, this Lockhart guy. Is he a fiction writer or what," Cassy asked as we pushed our way into the bookstore after Mrs. Weasley.
Hermione looked at Cassy like she had just insulted her entire family and began to lecture Cassy on how wonderful Gilderoy Lockhart was. The twins, Danny and me had to hold back out laughter as we watched Hermione telling Cassy all about the man in a very animated manner, almost hitting Ron and Harry with her hands as she waved them about.
"There he is!" Mrs. Weasley called out when a man in his late thirties to early forties came into view. His golden, wavy hair was perfectly styled and he was smiling widely at the crowd of people in front of him. I honestly couldn't see what the appeal about the man was, he looked so fake it was unbelievable.
"Mum fancies him," Ron told us, earning him a hit on his shoulder from his mother as photographer made his way into the overcrowded bookstore.
"Out of the way! This is for The Daily Prophet!" the man snapped as he pushed Ron out of the way, instantly making Lockhart look up and widen his fake smile.
"It can't be Harry Potter?" Lockhart exclaimed when he saw Harry desperately trying to blend into the background. The crowd started to whisper as Lockhart dove forward into the crowd to grab Harry by the wrist and pulled him up in front of the photographer. I could see the man whisper something to Harry but I couldn't make out the words over the murmuring of the crowd. But whatever he said, Harry wasn't happy about it.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Lockhart called out to the crowd as the photographer started snapping photos. "What an extraordinary moment this it! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts to purchase my autobiography, Magical Me. Which incidentally is celebrating its twenty-seventh week atop The Daily Prophet's best seller list, he had no idea that he would, in fact, he leaving with my entire collected works! Free of charge!"
The crowd clapped loudly as Lockhart shoved the books in to Harry's arm. Stumbling under the weight of the books, Harry made his escape from the smiling idiot before he could use him for any more publicity.
Wow, that guys a piece of work. I hope he's not our new defense against the dark arts teacher, Danny said to me as we watched the man pose for more photos.
I hope not. I may just have to ask Loki to show him his 'Famous' snake prank. You know the one that he used to pull on Thor when they were kids.
"Come on. Let's get out of this mad house," Cassy said, grabbing hold of both Fred and me and pulling us out of the book shops as Mum, aunt Tammy and uncle Tony walked into the store, leaving them in line to get our books.
Reaching the front of the store, we found Draco Malfoy taunting Harry and Ginny, Ron's younger sister before an older man with hair as equally as blonde as Draco's interrupted him. Looking at the tall man who had a sneer on his face, there was no doubting that he was Draco's father.
"Silence, Draco! Ah, Mr. Potter. I don't believe we've met," the man says, reaching out to touch Harry's scar who immediately backed away from his touch. "Forgive me, Mr. Potter. But your scar is legend. As, of course is the wizard who gave it to you."
"He was a murder," Harry snapped at the man.
"Yes, a pity about your parents. Curious that you, yourself should only escape with a mere flesh wound. Curious too, that you speak of him in the past. Surely you don't think he who must not be named is gone forever."
"His name is Voldemort," Harry said coldly.
"You must be very brave to dare speak his name. Or foolish," the man said, sounding like he worshiped the ground that Voldemort walked on. Not being able to stand listing to the man speak down to Harry any more, I pushed my way through the rest of the crowd and walked over to Harry to put a protective hand on his shoulder.
"It's honestly kinda stupid you know, fearing a name. If everyone did that, history books would be full of stupid nicknames such as 'he who must not be named'," I told the man.
"You must be the daughter of the superhero Draco told me about. It truly is a pity you chose to attended Hogwarts rather than a school in your own country," the man said, confirming that he was Draco's father.
"Actually, Mr. Malfoy. I was accepted in to Hogwarts first. You see, there's apparently a strong line of magic in the Norwegian blood line in my family. Very old magic, I guess you would say. Unfortunately, it skipped quite a few generations, rendering it unknown until Danny and me came along," I told him, reciting the rehearsed speech that Dumbledore told us to say when people questioned how we ended up at Hogwarts.
"Elsa, Harry, are you okay. Is anyone bothering you?" Dad asked walking over to use and glaring at Mr. Malfoy.
"No, everything's fine Dad. We were just leaving," I said, pulling Danny and Cassy out of the store as soon as I saw Ron pull Harry out of the way.
"Why don't you and your friends go outside for a bit, I'll wait here with Arthur to the others are done," Dad told me, never talking his eyes off Mr. Malfoy as Mr. Weasley walked over and started talking to Draco's father.
Looking back over my shoulder as we walked out of the store, I saw Dad holding Mr. Weasley back from hitting Draco's father. Clearly being a rude, stuck-up snob ran in the family.
"Now that the excitement of Gilderoy Lockhart is over, I have to ask. What's with the cap, Danny?" Fred asked, pulling the hat off Danny's head.
"Hey, look Fred! Danny's decided to join the cool club and dye his hair red," George said as Danny tried to get the hat out of Fred's grip.
We all laughed as we watched Danny chase Fred down Diagon Alley, desperately trying to get his hat back. Little did I know there was someone watching all of us and was already plotting how to use what they had witnessed to turn my fourth year my worst year at Hogwarts so far.