the muggle next door | f.w. golden trio era

↳ 1.03

gilderoy freaking lockhart

August 19th, 1992

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, what an extraordinary moment this is!" Lockhart exclaimed loudly, waving for quiet, capturing their attention once again. "The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!

"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography —which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge— He had no idea," Lockhart gave Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me."

"Ooh, boy," Fred and George chorused, dreading the announcement to come.

"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Daisy raised her eyebrows in amusement and clapped along with the crowd's cheer. She saw Harry being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart and edged his way out out of the limelight before the dam of fangirls broke —she was elbowed out of the line, into horde of strangers. Vaguely she heard Fred and George calling her name repeatedly, but it was lost in the sea of people.

On the other side of the room, Harry tipped the set of books he received into Ginny's cauldron, muttering, "You have these. I'll buy my own—"

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter? Famous Harry Potter," said a spiteful voice behind them, "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

Harry straightened up and turned around to see none other than Draco Malfoy, still as obnoxious as he usually was.

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" Ginny exclaimed in fury.

"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!"

"Oh, it's you," Ron gladly returned his demeaning look, "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," Malfoy retorted, "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."

The war of jeers and sneers seemed to be over when parents from both parties arrived, but after another exchange of: "Well, well, well —Arthur Weasley. Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids . . . I hope they're paying you overtime?"

"Lucius."

"Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said, taking a very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration from Ginny's cauldron, "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?"

"We have a very different idea of what disgrace is in the name of wizard, Malfoy."

"Clearly. The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower—"

Well. Let's just say that age couldn't stop the two from brawling maniacally in public. Fred and George got distracted from their quest of finding Daisy for a second, yelling, "Get him, Dad!"

Mrs. Weasley was hysteric, shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"

The poor, poor Flourish and Blotts' assistant helplessly squeaked, "Gentlemen, please— please—"

Thankfully, the commotion made it easier for Daisy to find her way back. She emerged from the tiny space between a terribly fat wizard and a family of three, muttering 'excuse me' over and over, just as Hagrid pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart from each other.

"There you are!" Fred exclaimed in huge relief. He threw an arm around her shoulders, making sure that she wouldn't stray, "George, found her! You missed a whole show here!"

"Oh," Daisy huffed, still feeling breathless, and fixed her hair. She then casually circled her arm around Fred's waist as well. "Well, I heard all of it, though."

"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that— no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter— come on now— let's get outta here."

They hurried up the street. The Grangers were visibly shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley with fury.

"A fine example to set for your children... Brawling in public... What Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought—"

"He was pleased," said George, "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report—"

"We got the books for free, by the way. The cashier guy said it's a gift for Harry Potter's companion," Percy announced.

Mrs. Weasley cooed and rambled on about how nice his kind gesture was, how they didn't deserve the expensive sets of books, how they should return and demand to pay immediately, but it was a gift, and it would be impolite for them to turn down gifts.

"Psstt..." Percy whispered, edging closer to Daisy, "I know what you did, Dee."

"What?" Daisy looked up at him innocently.

"I know you paid for our Lockhart books. You shouldn't do that," Percy murmured.

"No, I don't."

"Stop it. You're a terrible liar."

"I'm not..."

"Are you kidding me," Percy deadpanned.

"Alright," Daisy grasped his wrist to pull him closer and whispered back, "It's still a gift, from me. Please don't tell anyone."

The older boy still frowned disapprovingly.

"The books are ridiculously expensive, Perce! Why don't you take it as an exchange for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner I had at the Burrow?"

Percy sighed, "Thank you. Just— No more gifts after this one, understood?"

Daisy nodded, "Yes, sir."

She had her fingers crossed behind her back.

They said good-bye to the Grangers, who were leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side, before heading back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron. And towards home it was.