Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 12: Meet Gilderoy Lockhart

As soon as the children had fought their way into Flourish & Blotts, they quickly split up to explore the bookstore. Harry, Theo and Blaise climbed up to a second floor landing, content to observe the gathering crowd, while Hermione, Neville and the rest went off to hunt down and collect their required text books or simply to explore. Like most of his peers, Harry had already sent in an owl order for the required books along with a Gringotts draft to pay for them, and he would simply pick up a wrapped package marked with his name at the counter when he was ready to leave. He'd have rather had the books sent by owl post directly to Longbottom Manor, but Flourish & Blotts refused to send text books via owl post during "book rush," the period between August 12th and September 1st when the need for text books drove the bulk of their annual sales. After all, if a student actually has to come to the store to pick up his books, he's more likely to make an impulse purchase or two (or ten in Hermione's case) to go along with them than if he just ordered a delivery. Most Slytherins, Ravenclaws and even Hufflepuffs handled school book purchases the way Harry did. The only students actually running around the store desperately looking for their texts were First Years and Gryffindors, the latter of whom apparently considered procrastination to be a House virtue. Even Hermione declined to pre-order her text books under the theory that searching for the required texts in the stacks gave her an excuse to explore for other books that that she might never discover if she owl-ordered.

Today, however, Harry was rather surprised to see that the Hogwarts students were outnumbered by a huge coven of middle-aged witches who were filling the store while waiting for Lockhart's book-signing to start. In the middle of the store (obstructing foot traffic, Harry noted irritably) was a large table with stacks of new books ready to be autographed. Surrounding it were several large moving pictures of the man himself – Gilderoy Lockhart - smiling and winking at the crowd. Harry's immediate thought was that he was a ridiculous fop, with elaborately over-styled hair, a blue velvet and satin suit and matching cloak ("Baby Blue," he would eventually learn), and teeth that gleamed a preternatural white. Harry wondered how anyone could take such a man seriously as a "wizarding hero." Then he recalled how many people considered Jim a hero for something he did as a baby and wondered how many others were credulous enough to believe that the stories from the "Boy-Who-Lived Adventures" were actually true.

The answer to that last question came soon enough. Harry noticed the Git-Who-Lived ascending the stairs towards him, accompanied by Ron, Lavender, Ginny and Dean Thomas (with whom Ginny had struck up a conversation). Along the way, Jim stopped to give a few comments to passing reporters and to pose for a few pictures. An excited little man in a mauve top hat who introduced himself as Daedalus Diggle stopped Jim and asked him to autograph a copy of Jim Potter and The Night of the Werewolf. To Harry's amusement, it seemed clear that the silly man actually thought the children's book was nonfiction. Curiously, Harry also noticed that Jim seemed annoyed for just an instant before hiding his emotions behind a mask of faux humility and noblesse oblige along with just a dash of youthful bravado as he cheerfully signed the book. It was a fairly convincing mask that would fool most non-Slytherins. Harry also noticed that Ginny stood a few feet behind him with her arms crossed while watching the exchange with mild disapproval. Harry smiled. The Weasley Twins had mentioned that she'd read all of Jim's books, but at the time, he'd assumed they meant history books. Now that he knew about the fiction series loosely based on Jim's life, he understood her hero worship a bit better and was pleased to see her reaction to the real Jim Potter.

"Harry," Jim said coolly as he drew near.

"Hello, Little Brother!" Harry replied amiably. "How was Knockturn Alley? I'm curious to hear all about it since the papers all think I'm a future dark wizard. How ironic that you actually got to visit it before me."