109 Lockhart.

"Draco, why do I always freeze in a situation like this?" She asked softly, "Why do I always have to rely on you, to help me."

"Is relying on me so bad of a thing?" Draco said, "And it was an unexpected attack, even I would be confused and dazed by it."

Hermione kept looking at Draco who gave up and sighed, "What do you want from me?"

"Teach me." Hermione said seriously.

"Okay..." Draco said lazily, since teaching her wasn't that bad of a thing.

"No, you know what would be better." Hermione suddenly said as her eyes lit up, "We can open a club in school and you can teach them magic."

"And why would I do that?" Draco asked confused, teaching his trusted fellow members was a good thing but teaching the whole school seemed bothersome.

"Why not?" Hermione said, "You said it yourself, a war is coming... then shouldn't we all be prepared."

"But why would I trust them enough to teach them." Draco said lazily, "What if they all turn against me instead?"

"You said that you'll be in my side right? So no matter what happens as long as you are on the good side, people will follow you." Hermione said, "And with your current fame doing so isn't hard and again, isn't having more people besides you a good thing in the war."

"Why do you think you are in the good side..." Draco mumbled as Hermione didn't say anything as she kept looking at him seriously, "Sigh! You just want me to teach them, don't you?" Draco said rolling his eyes, with Hermione's character there was no way in hell she would ever support a war but having him teach them to defend themselves, that Draco could believe.

"I will help you." Hermione said as she kept insisting on it.

Thinking things through, this could really help Draco gain some reputation and followers as well. "Fine, but I need to find a suitable plan to do so."

Hermione nodded smiling a little, "What kind of plan?"

'The fact that I wouldn't be here anymore, for god knows how long.' Draco thought to himself, "I will tell you things later as for a club to form we need the permission of Dumbledore, don't we?"

"True, but that wouldn't be hard to get." Hermione said, "I have read before that, there have similar clubs like these in the past. As long as you don't have any bad motive, I am sure no one will stop you."

Draco rolled his eyes as he began walking out pulling Hermione with him to avoid any incidents.

Soon they were out with Harry and Ron and were walking towards Pansy and Daphne.

"Where's Theodore?" Draco asked confused.

"You wouldn't believe it." Pansy said, "Crabbe's father suddenly started a fight outside with another wizard, Theodore's gone over to stop them."

"Who is fighting?" Draco said walking out.

"That I don't know." Pansy said, "We only heard yells as both of them kept arguing loudly walking away further."

Draco and the rest reached the outside only to see, Theodore returning back lazily.

"What happened?" Draco asked pushing him forward, not letting the girls and Potter hear their conversation.

"Mr. Crabbe and one of the reporters were arguing." Theodore said, "Apparently, the reporter was returning back after an interview with Lockhart when he saw Mr. Crabbe coming out of Knockturn Alley, hoping for a good scoop the reporter followed him only to be later found out and be chased around the Diagon Alley."

"Was the problem solved?"

"The reporter got obliviated, Mr. Crabbe wanted to kill him but luckily I and Vincent were able to pull him away," Theodore said. "He left muttering weird things in hurry grabbing Vincent with him."

"Did you notice anything suspicious?" Draco asked, "Causing a scene like this in Diagon Alley isn't like him."

"Everything other than his rage seemed normal to me." Theodore said thinking, "I didn't know why but he was very angry for some reason. Do you think it's the same person, who was behind Pius?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, Don't act dumb with me, I am not that stupid, even though I wasn't completely myself, I still remember quite a few things about that day." Theodore rolled his eyes, "So do you think someone's controlling him as well?"

"It's not that far fetched." Draco shrugged his shoulders, "As far as I know, Mr. Crabbe was always with father and the rest, so he shouldn't have been attacked separately."

"Then I think, he was just having a bad day." Theodore said, "With Vincent moving to Durmstrang, things must be a little hard on him, don't you think?"

"That I don't know." Draco said, "But we have to be careful, I'll have father have his men look over Mr. Crabbe. I don't want to have another unexpected enemy near me."

"Why are you guys being so secretive?" Daphne asked pulling Draco's robe, "What's going on?"

"Nothing, Let's head over to Flourish and Blotts."

"Yeah, let's go." Daphne said, "I've heard Gilderoy Lockhart is doing a book signing over there, maybe we can get an autograph as well."

"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"

Looking at the girl's excited face, Draco couldn't help but frown a little. He had forgotten about the weird charm that idiot of teacher hold.

Seeing Draco's face, the girls awkwardly coughed. "Is something wrong, Draco?"

"Nothing." Draco said snorting as he began walking forward, the girls noticing his weird behavior looked at each other and followed silently as Ron and Harry chatted with each other keeping a distance between them.

Draco bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams for the girls, which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows. Theodore didn't like sweets and Draco wasn't in a mood for one. Due to the awkwardness of their relation, Ron and Harry walked quite a few steps back and were busy shopping some stuff of their own, as they stopped now and then to check for Quidditch related stuff. Similarly, the girls would enter a few shops to buy clothes, whereas Hermione bought some ink and parchment.

After roaming around here and there, they finally reached outside of the Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:

GILDEROY LOCKHART

will be signing copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL ME

today 12:30P.M.to 4:30P.M.

The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies…Don't push, there…mind the books, now…"

All of them squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy 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 are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Draco annoyed by all this stood back along with Theodore not wanting to be any part of this fiasco. Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.

A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way, there," he snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet —"

"Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Ron — and then he saw Harry. He stared. Then he leaped to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as Lockhart shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys.

"Nice big smile, Harry," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, you and I are worth the front page."

When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry could hardly feel his fingers. He tried to sidle back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! 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 —" The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving 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. 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!"

The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room.