Dark child

9

Lucius Malfoy was acting weird all summer after Elara's first year at Hogwarts. He was constantly in his private room and only out for the meals with a wide grin on his face and sparkles on his eyes. Elara asked Draco if he has a clue about the source of the strange behavior of his father, but Draco didn't mind noticing it at all. All Draco was concentrated on was to make his father accept his plan on buying new broomsticks for all the Slytherin's quidditch team and get the permission to become their seeker instead. These were all so boring and confusing for Elara that she decided to spend the most of her summer at their home with her dad, Severus Snape, who seemed to be enjoying her presence at home a lot. She was sank into the peace of her dad's company she didn't even noticed the fact that Dobby, the Malfoy's house elf, is punishing himself more than usual during this summer.

In one of these normal days at Snape's house, Elara sat down before her dad to have breakfast when Severus passed out a Hogwarts letter to her. It was a yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. She read all the details about catching the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books she'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
Wandering with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart
Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Elara looked up from the list to Snape's white lips and asked "Who the hell is teaching DADA this year?"
Snape took a breath from his clutched teeth and answered "Gilderoy Lockhart!"
"That explains the list." She said under her breath.

Later that day, Narcissa Malfoy wrote Severus a letter and asked Elara and Severus to join them at the dinner which they accepted to come. At the promised night, Elara wore a black dress, just like Severus's normal robes, and grabbed her dad's hand to Apparate to the Malfoy Manor. The night was fantastic and the food was great. The only one who didn't seem to enjoy was Draco who was slowly muttering in Elara's ear about the ways he has tried to make his father agree with buying him a broomstick better than Potter's. At that night, they all decided to visit the Diagon Alley for their Hogwarts shop together on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, they met at Flourish and Blotts. There were loads of people on the shop making a line to get their books signed by Gilderoy Lockhart! Snape who didn't seem to be enjoying this scene, suddenly came up with a clever idea of him going to other shops to get Elara and Draco the rest of their needs and put Lucius in charge of buying them their books. He was vanished before Lucius had the chance to answer. Lucius opened his mouth to say something when Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzling white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.
A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with every blinding flash. Elara wasn't sure what caught Lockhart's eye when he suddenly stared at a point in the crowd but figured it out so soon when he leaped to his feet and positively shouted "It can't be Harry Potter?"
The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Lockhart shook Harry's hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys. When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry tried to slide back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quite. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I have been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography —which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge—" The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea" Lockhart continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip up to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

Elara was trying hard to stop herself from laughing, but Draco's furious eyes were glued to Harry who was trying to get out of the crowd. Before Elara can ask him to calm down, he managed to reach to Harry.
"Bet you loved that, didn't you Potter? Famous Harry Potter, can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."
Elara reached to Draco's hand and squeezed it as a sign of not starting a fight.
A tiny girl, with red hair said Draco "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!"
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled Draco. The girl went scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books.
"Oh, it's you." Said Ron, looking at Elara and Draco as if they were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"
Elara wanted to interfere with the argument but she was already discussed at the way Ron Weasley was looking at her. Remembering the fact he was used to bully her last year, she stopped herself and let Draco say whatever nasty thing he wanted to say to Ron.
"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," retorted Draco. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."
Ron went as red as his sister. He dropped his books into the cauldron and stared toward Draco, Elara was ready to slap the Weasley boy into the face when Harry and Hermione grabbed him from the back of his jacket.

"Ron!" Said a red haired man who was struggling over with Fred and George, that Elara assumed he was the Weasley's father.
"What are you doing? It's too crowded here, let's go outside."
"Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley."
It was Lucius. He stood with one of his hand on Draco's shoulder and the other one on Elara's, sneering just like Draco.
"Lucius," said Mr.Weasley, nodding coldly.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Lucius. "All those raids ... I hope they're paying you overtime?"
He reached into Weasleys' little girl's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A beginner's guide to transfiguration.
"Obviously not," Lucius said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you for it?"
Mr.Weasley flushed even darker than his children.
"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy." he said.
"Clearly," said Lucius, his pale eyes straying on Mr. snd Miss. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley ... and I thought your family could sink no lower—"
There was a thud of metal as the Weasley girl's cauldron went flying; Mr.Weasley had thrown himself at Lucius, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens if heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "Get him, dad!" from Fred or George. Elara rushed to help Lucius and stop them from beating each other. Mrs.Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over—
In an instant, Elara had pulled Mr. Weasley and Lucius apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Lucius had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding the Weasley girl's old transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.
"Here, girl — take your book — it's the best your father can give you —"And by that he beckoned to Draco and Elara and swept from the shop.

Soon, the three of them found Severus who was done with buying everything. Severus asked about Lucius's eye and he told him his favorite side of the story. Elara and Severus left the Alley earlier as Lucius said he needs to buy Draco a gift. Maybe the recent fight had changed his mind about the new broomstick for Draco. Elara was happy to be back at her peaceful home again, with her absolute favorite person in the world.