Ripped Away

Year Two: Lockhart, Malfoys and Threatening Lawsuits

Heracles stood in front of the Burrow's fireplace with the rest of the Weasleys. It was her last full day at the Burrow before school started back, and they were all going to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. Molly had said they were going to floo, and Heracles already knew what that was, so it wasn't very surprising when Ronald grabbed a handful of floo powder from a flowerpot, screamed 'the Leaky Cauldron', and vanished in a puff of green fire. Heracles followed after him, doing exactly as he had done. One uncomfortable experience later, Heracles was in a blackened fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, staring down a sneering Ronald. Heracle straightened out her clothes and brushed the soot off her pants as she left the fireplace.

"What are you staring at?", she asked irritably. Ronald continued to glare at her.

"You may have my parents wrapped around your finger, but I see you for what you really are, Potter; a slimy snake.", the ginger hissed, and Heracles rolled her eyes at his supposed 'threatening words'.

"And here I was thinking you'd take this opportunity to speak to me freely to come up with more original insults.", Heracles bemoaned. Ronald sputtered at her angrily, but stopped when Percy appeared in the fireplace next.

After that trivial incident, the rest of the Weasleys showed up and they commenced their day of shopping. They stopped at Gringotts, where Heracles withdrawled the money they would need for their supplies. Ragnok escorted everyone to her vault, giving no indication that he knew Heracles aside from a sly wink he shot her when no one was looking. When Heracles got her money, the Weasley's had gaped at her trust fund in awe. Arthur was the one who was most surprised.

"You're parents sure did leave you a lot of money, Hera!", Arthur said, and his wife smacked him on the head seconds later for being insensitive. Heracles shrugged and started gathering coins to put in her moleskine bag.

"Actually, this isn't my entire inheritance. This is just my trust vault.", she responded, and Arthur and the rest of the Weasleys choked on air.

After paying a visit to the bank, they all went to Flourish and Blotts to get the school books required for the year. Heracles intended to spend this time looking for books to read in her free time, but was unable to do so because the shop was so crowded. Heracles glared at the crowd of older witches waiting in a line that took up most of the shop's floor space, excitedly squealing over something. It confused and irritated Heracles, who stood by a bookshelf, glaring at the crowd.

"What the hell is all this?", Heracles asked the twins as she glared at the crowd. Fred pointed at a poster on one of the walls.

"Gilderoy Lockhart. He's here doing a book signing.", Fred started to explain, George nodded.

"Yeah. He's some big shot writer who went on a ton of adventures. Thinks he's a new age Newt Scamander.", George remarked. Heracles scoffed.

"Even if he is, he's a terrible writer. I flipped through one of his so-called novels the last time I was in here. The one about vampires or whatever. It was terribly written. The whole thing was just narcissistic ramblings about how 'awesome' he is. I couldn't read past page five.", Heracles said, sneering in disgust as she remembered one of the worst books she had ever read. Fred and George started to snicker, and Heracles looked at them suspiciously.

"What are you two laughing at? What's so funny?", she asked. Fred and George started laughing harder.

"Well, let's put it this way Herakins- ", Fred started, using that nickname he knew Heracles hated. George finished his sentence for him.

"-You'll be stuck reading a lot more 'narcissistic ramblings' as you put it, because all his books are on our DADA reading list.", George finished, and Heracles looked at them in confusion.