𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐒 ↳ 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗫 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

SECOND YEAR: Flourish and Blotts

Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys" house burst with the strange and unexpected. Harry got a shock the first time he looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!"

The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George"s bedroom were considered perfectly normal. What they found most unusual about life at Ron"s, however, wasn"t the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: It was the fact that everybody there seemed to like Harry and Y/N. Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of their socks and tried to force them to eat fourth helpings at every meal.

Mr. Weasley liked either Y/N or Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard them with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.

"Fascinating!" he would say as Y/N talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."

They heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after Harry and Y/N had arrived at the Burrow. Harry and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Y/N and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. Y/N fought to hide her tiny smirk.

Pretending he hadn"t noticed this; Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Y/N, Harry and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you"re here— doesn"t miss a trick, that man. You two"ve got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.
For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Y/N"s told her to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King"s Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books they"d need for the coming year.

Second-year students will require:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

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

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Y/N"s.

"You"ve been told to get all Lockhart"s books, too!" he said. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan — bet it"s a witch."
At this point, Fred caught his mother"s eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.

"That lot won"t come cheap," said George, with a quick look at his parents. "Lockhart"s books are really expensive. . . ."

"Well, we"ll manage," said Mrs. Weasley, but she looked worried. "I expect we"ll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny"s things second-hand."

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny. She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Fortunately, no one saw this except Harry (and Y/N who tried not to laugh), because just then Ron"s elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

"Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day." He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a moulting, gray feather duster — at least, that was what Y/N thought it was, until she saw that it was breathing.

"Errol!" said Ron, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing. "Finally — he"s got Hermione"s answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys."
He carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron laid him on the draining board instead, muttering, "Pathetic."

Then he ripped open Hermione"s letter and read it out loud: