You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Twenty

Chapter 20 - Never Look a Gift Horse...

Sirius picked the four of them up from Crawley and escorted the group to Diagon Alley. It had been hard for the young couple to leave Privet Drive last weekend, though they would be meeting Petunia and Dudley again tomorrow for another trip to the Alley. That visit would see them acquire formal robes so all three Dursleys could attend the engagement party on Saturday. If things went as they hoped today, Harry and Hermione would be ready to celebrate on Saturday night.

They met Neville, Parvati and Padma in the Leaky Cauldron and decided Madam Malkin's would be their first stop. All the students needed school robes, as well as formal robes for the upcoming party. Dan and Emma, currently dressed in normal robes, found themselves receiving new formal wear for the party too.

Harry and Hermione went thought the day in a bit of a dream state, they knew what was waiting on them when they entered Flourish and Blott's. This proved rather unfortunate for the photographer who tried to grab them both as they walked into the aforementioned bookshop.

"Bless my soul, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Three Orders of Merlin holders in the same shop - I've got to get a photograph of that."

What he actually got, as he grabbed Harry and Hermione to drag them over toward Lockhart, was a sharp elbow to the gut from Hermione, and his legs kicked out from under him by Harry. Lying winded, with two wands now covering him, the photographer then also had an irate father to deal with.

"Who the hell do you think you are, grabbing my daughter and Harry like that."

He managed to wheeze 'Press' between gasping for breath, which didn't improve Dan's mood in the slightest. "That doesn't give you the right to go about manhandling children…"

"There seems to be a misunderstanding here, Perhaps I can help. After all it doesn't do to upset our friends in the press." While wearing his widest smile, Gilderoy had made the very serious mistake of possessively draping his arms around Harry and Hermione's shoulders. With his fingers now dangling tantalisingly close to Hermione's developing chest, there was no way Lockhart was going to escape being reprimanded for his inappropriate actions. Before any of the duo could react though, an already raging Dan beat them to it.

He grabbed Gilderoy by the outlandish and loud cravat the fop was wearing, pushing him back off and away from the young couple. "If there's a misunderstanding here, then you just made it. Who are you to think I'll stand for some creep putting his arm around my twelve year old daughter like that? You were practically groping her."

Still grinning like a fool, with no idea of the trouble he was in, Gilderoy began performing his well rehearsed spiel for when he was asked his identity. When he got to the part about 'five times winner of the Witch Weekly's most charming smile award, Dan's temper finally snapped at this ponce who had, in his opinion, grabbed Hermione in a wholly inappropriate manner.

"Well, that's something we can change right now." His fist impacted on Lockhart's jaw, knocking him to the ground amid a lot of high pitched shrieks - not all of them coming from Lockhart's legion of female fans that were packed into the bookshop.

Gilderoy's only response was fighting back the tears, as much from the shock that someone would actually hit him as the pain he was currently suffering. "There was no need for violence. I'm going to be their new defence professor at Hogwarts. I was just trying to introduce myself…"

"I'll be teaching at Hogwarts too, that doesn't mean I'll be going around the castle groping young girls. What it does mean is that I'll be keeping a close eye on you…"

He then found Hermione at his side. "It's okay, Dad. I won't be taking any classes of his, or buying his stupid books. Harry and I will be covering the subject by self-study. We've already received Professor McGonagall's permission, as well as permission for those of our friends who want to join us."