Chasing Love

Chapter Fifteen - Lockhart and Malfoy

A week later, Eliza was sat down in the kitchen buttering a piece of toast, Ginny was eating her porridge while Mr and Mrs Weasley were eating their breakfast too. It was silent until Ron and Harry walked in. As soon as Ginny caught sight of the brunette she had knocked her porridge onto the floor and rushed to pick it up. Mrs Weasley and Eliza shared a smile as when Ginny came back from under the table Ginny had gone bright red like a tomato.

"Letters from school." Mr Weasley said as he passed them their Hogwarts letters. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry - doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too." He said as the twins stumbled in, still in their pyjamas.

They all sat in silence as they read their letters, Eliza skimmed down to look at the books she needed to get for the next year of school. What stood out the most was that the majority of the books were by Gilderoy Lockhart, she despised the man. He was extremely egotistical and felt the need to tell everyone about himself when they hadn't even asked him or cared enough to listen.

"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" Fred said as he leaned over Harry's shoulder. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan - bet it's a witch." He caught his mother's eye so went back to putting marmalade on his piece of toast.

"That lot won't come cheap." George told his parents. "Lockhart's books are really expensive."

"Well, we'll manage." Mrs Weasley said with a worried expression."I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny which caused her to go bright red.

Percy walked into the room, his Hogwarts Prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest. "Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day." He sat down in the remaining chair but immediately sprung up again as he held up a grey thing.

"Errol!" Ron shouted as he took the limp owl from Percy and took the letter from under it's 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 walked over to the back door and tried to help the owl stand but it fell back down again. "Pathetic." He whispered to himself before reading Hermione's letter out loud. "'Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,

"'I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be bet ter if you used a different owl because I think another delivery might finish your one off.

"'I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course'- How can she be?" Ron asked with a horrified look on his face. "We're on vacation! - 'and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?

"'Let me know what's happening as soon as you can. Love from Hermione."

"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too." Mrs Weasley said to them as she cleared the table, "What're you all up to today?"

The twins, Harry, Ron and Eliza were planning to go up the hill to a small paddock the Weasley's owned. As it was surrounded by trees it blocked it from the view of the village below which meant they could practice Quidditch there as long as they didn't go too high. They never used real Quidditch balls as it would be hard to explain if they escaped and flew over the village so instead they threw apples for each other to catch.

Five minutes after breakfast they were all marching up the hill, broomsticks over their shoulders, they had asked Percy if wanted to come but he said he was busy. Eliza and Harry had only seen Percy as mealtimes so far, he had stayed in his room for the rest of the time.