The Life that Never Lived ? (Chamber of Secrets)

GILDEORY LOCKHART

Remus got up to hand the book to Lily, but then baby Harry burped, and Sirius piped up with, "before we start the next chapter, mind if we stop for lunch. I'm getting a bit hungry as well."

Lily rolled her eyes, but a glance at the clock showed they had been at this for a few hours now. She suspected they could have been much further along if not for the near constant interruptions, but agreed she was feeling a bit hungry as well. So she turned to Harry and said, "want to help me make some sandwiches?"

Harry beamed and quickly agreed, following his mum into the kitchen and not understanding why the boys behind him were giving Harry sympathetic looks.

While in the kitchen, Lily ended up doing all of the work, while in the process giving Harry a full account of why what he had done had been wrong. Explaining the laws in detail, and almost

pleading with him that, should anything like this happen again now, he would get a hold of at least one of them.

Harry agreed, admitting he had done wrong and verbally saying he regretted his rash actions. By the end, his Mum was beaming at him, and ended by giving him a loving kiss on the forehead,

then waving her wand and bringing the plate of food and drinks back into the living room, where they all sat around and ate.

After everyone had eaten and drank their fill, Lily whisked the dirty plates and cups back to the kitchen where they began washing themselves, and when they were done would put themselves

away, and Lily picked up the book to begin her chapter.

Then grimaced in annoyance. She had been hoping Harry would have a better year than the last one, and this wasn't starting off very well.

"Glad I just ate," Sirius laughed.

"Like you wouldn't go eating a second lunch given the chance," Remus smirked.

"You mean she hasn't finished all of them already?" James asked in disbelief.

"She likes to reread them," Harry laughed, "especially that year."

Lily smiled indulgently, wondering if Molly wasn't the only one with a celebrity crush.

"Uh-oh," all three boys said, knowing Ron getting mail from his parents, the day after this incident, wasn't anything good.

Lily didn't pause though, having the same idea as them, but wondering what Molly and Arthur had to say.

"Bloody hell," Sirius grimaced in disgust. "Ron got sent a howler."

"A what?" Harry asked, while his friends looked even sorrier for Ron.

"It's a letter that yells at you, very loudly, as if your parent were there," James explained."Sirius got one his first morning there, his Mum wasn't too happy when she found out Sirius had wound up in Gryffindor."

"How did she know so soon?" Lily asked, never having asked before.

"Slughorn told her," Sirius said in disgust, "he was all surprised, thought it made me even more valuable to him, and he knew my parents pretty well see. So he thought by telling them, they would convince me to join his stupid club. Didn't work, obviously."

Harry wondered what on earth this 'club' was. They had mentioned it once before, but Lily had decided to read on.

Remus snorted with laughter, that was clearly the least of Ron's worries just then.

"That wasn't mentioned in the last book?" Lily said in surprise.

"He got it the morning after we lost that 'hundred and fifty points," Harry said, not having taken note at the time the book never mentioned this, "his Gran sent him a howler saying how she was all ashamed, and that his parents would have been ashamed he lost all those points. I only heard about it after the fact, since Ron and I had made it down to breakfast late that day, and Seamus told us about it. Neville had tried to ignore it by stuffing it under a plate of bacon before anyone saw, but it just exploded and sent bacon everywhere and then started yelling" Harry finished, remembering how embarrassed Neville had been all day.