Chapter 84: Fame and Glory

Chapter 84: Fame and Glory

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 84: Fame and Glory

A blonde man in his mid-thirties with some flamboyant-looking robes walked to the table that had been set up for him and sat down.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen but more especially the ladies."

He winked.

"Oh, he's such a charmer, isn't he?" Molly told Lily.

"He is...something, yes." Lily frowned.

"I know you are all pleased to see me, the great Gilderoy Lockhart, here in the flesh. As you all already know, besides being a successful author, I am the recipient of an Order of Merlin, third class for my many achievements. But I will admit that my favorite one is being the winner of the most charming smile, by the Wicked Witch magazine for the third year in a row."

He gave a toothy smile, showing his pearly white teeth to the crew, who seemed delighted and started clapping.

"Can we go?" Harry requested.

"I want a word with him before," Lily told him.

"Are you going to ask him to sign those books? I could do that for you. I brought some of my personal favorites with me." Molly pulled a small stack of books from her purse.

Lockhart made a gesture to calm the crowd.

"I know, I know. I'm incredible. But before we get this event started, I have two announcements. The first one is that my latest book 'Tangling with Vampires in Romania', will be coming out next month. In this adventure, I protect an old town from the attacks of some nasty vampires who wanted to kidnap some of the local virgins."

'Romanian vampires again?, what is going on there?' he wondered if this was related to what Remus was saying. He was aware that Lockhard's modus operandi was to claim the achievements of poor unfortunate fools. But the events themselves were very much real. They were just performed by others.

"Of course, I also took care of the virgins." Lockhart chortled.

"Oh, he is so humorous!, isn't he?" Molly grinned.

"Is him!"

"He is here!"

"The boy Who Lived is here!"

People started to yell.

"The boy who lived is here? Well, bring him here. He had no doubt heard about my presence here and came to see me." Lockhart pointed towards the entrance.

The poor Neville was surrounded by people asking him questions while his grandmother tried to chase them away.

A man from the press hurried up to grab him by the arm and dragged him to the center of the shop where Lockhart was waiting.

"Ah, there it is! my number one fan." Gilderoy Lockhart moved smoothly to his side and placed his arm around Neville's shoulder.

"Go ahead, take some good pictures. The boy who lived with his new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart." He smiled.

"What?...who is this?" Neville had no idea what was going on.

"Right, give me one of those stacks." Lockhart pointed to one stack of books on top of his table. This was the whole set needed for their school year.

He was given the books and then placed them on Neville's arms.

"Here you go." Said Lockhart before looking back at the camera.

"A full set of school books for free. For my good friend, Neville Longbuton."

"Is...Longbottom..." Neville complained softly.

"Tsk, does he think this is over?!." Lily was about ran at him again when she felt a tug on her tunic.

"Mom!, lets go, please!" Holly was beyond bored already.

"Fine, let's just pay for these books and leave." She had to give up on arguing with that man...for now.

"Thank Merlin!" said the twins.

"Finally!, let's leave this place!" Ron huffed.

"Yeah..." Harry glanced at Neville and felt bad for the boy.

But he also felt extremely relieved for not being in his place anymore.

Being just 'Harry' was truly a blessing.