The Life that Never Lived ? (Chamber of Secrets)

AT FLOURISH AND BLOTTS

Harry began reading eagerly, he loved his time at the Burrow, he knew that without remembering anything that happened, but now he was getting to hear about his time there, which would be fun
and help reinforce those memories.
"Probably fainted from the shock of watching a real family," James said bitterly.
"Boring old gits," Sirius huffed.
Lily giggled at the look of shock on Harry's face as he read that.
"Wonder what they're up to," Remus said eagerly.
"Nothing good," James assured him.
All four of them winced at that, hating that Harry seemed to find this so odd.
"Do you find that odd here?" Lily asked, wondering if she was going to burst into tears if Harry said yes.
He hesitated for a long time, but when it seemed they weren't going to let the subject go, he said, "At first, yes. After a while though, I got used to it. I'm really comfortable here now. Just took me a day I guess."
"I'll take that," James said brightly, really they were lucky Harry even liked them so quickly. All he had were twelve years' worth of memories of his family hating him.
"Bless her," Lily sighed.
"It was kind of difficult too, since I wasn't always sure, but he loved whatever answer I gave him," Harry said, smiling.
"Agreed," The other two purebloods said.
"Poor thing," James said in sympathy, knowing the feeling of having that kind of crush.
"Bet she did that a lot," Sirius laughed.
"Just when I first walked in," Harry said, blushing a bit.
"Nicer than Lily was," Remus said, grinning fondly over at her. "She'd just laugh at James whenever he did that."
James huffed and Lily had the decency to look embarrassed.
"How did Hogwarts know I was there?" Harry asked.
"The ink is magically addressed, remember? The letter always goes to the person, not the house," Remus reminded him.
"Even after first year?" Harry asked, sounding pleased.
"Every year," Sirius agreed.
"Clearly he wrote more than the one book," Lily said in shock.
"'Break with a Banshee?' That doesn't sound like a study of Banshees, more like a fable," Remus said in surprise.
"They're all like that," Harry told them, reading down the list.
"How many are there?" James asked in disbelief.
In lieu of an answer, Harry read the rest.
"How many are there?" Sirius repeated James question, sounding skeptical, when it seemed Harry was going to keep going.
"Three more," He said without looking up.
Remus couldn't help but snort at the title, along with his two friends who really had wandered with a werewolf. It wasn't exactly a stroll in the park.
"There are seven of them!" Lily exclaimed with incredulity.
"Who requires seven books for one class, 'cause they've got to all be from the same teacher?" James balked.
"I don't think I'm going to like this new DADA teacher," Remus said dubiously. Harry had said that Quirrell had been a bad teacher last year, now this one was using what were clearly fantasy books, how long until Harry actually started learning in a very important class?
"Can't be worse than the first one," Lily said, "and let's not judge. Maybe the books have some real information and uses in them, and the teacher's going to pick them out."
"There are better textbooks for that," Remus disagreed.
"Let's just get on with it," Sirius said, when the two were clearly going to start arguing over the fact.
Harry read on gratefully.
"All seven years are going to be using the same texts?" James demanded of nothing.
"This isn't very encouraging at all," Sirius agreed with disgust.
"That would be ridiculous," Lily spluttered. "Dumbledore wouldn't simply hire a fan of a fantasy writer for the job. I'm sure there must be a good reason for this."
Harry thought it was nice his mum had such faith in the teacher this year, but privately thought it was wrong. He decided to keep that to himself though.
"Yet another reason this is annoying the crap out of me," Remus said with distaste.
"Maybe some of the siblings could share," Lily offered weakly, feeling bad for this poor family. "Since they're all in the same house, I'm sure they could swap books in between days or
something."
Harry sighed, feeling suddenly guilty for the huge pile of money he knew he had stored away.
"Oh," Lily said, finally distracted from this new teacher mess. "Well she's not nearly as young as I was thinking then, if she's starting school."
"Just her fangirl side made her seem that way I suppose," James chuckled.
Sirius scoffed, "he wears that during the summer?" he asked mockingly.
"He's a bit of a show off," James agreed.
"Ron wasn't kidding about his owl being old," Lily said in sympathy.
"I love that he uses the word rescue," James said with glee.
"Well we know who she's looking out for," Lily giggled.
"You mean he doesn't do his summer homework?" Remus asked.
"I never did until the last minute," Sirius laughed.
"And here I thought The Burrow couldn't get any better!" James said with glee.
"Poor kid," Sirius said in sympathy.
"Well at least they're trying to be friendly to him," Lily approved.
"And Percy's not making an effort at all," James snorted.
"That's supposed to be a good thing," Lily pointed out.
"But if it's out of character for him, then I guess it is odd," Remus disagreed.
"How did he get twelve though," James pointed out with a frown. "There's no way you could have attended all of those classes to get that, a lot of them happen at the same time."
"I'm sure his brother was just exaggerating," Sirius rolled his eyes, "unless he payed to take the extra exams over the summer."
"Sounds exactly like the extra something Percy would do," Harry couldn't help but agree.
Sirius grimaced, realizing Harry hadn't asked about that this time, again, and really wished he could get it through his head it was okay to interrupt and ask those questions.
"I wouldn't be surprised one bit," James said with a shrug.
'At least we could leave him something' both parents thought sadly, Lily feeling worst of all. That money belonged to James side of the family mostly, as did Harry's cloak. Lily hadn't been able to leave him anything.
"You can exchange it for Muggle money though," Lily told him. "Didn't Hagrid tell you that?"
"No," Harry said, thinking back and wondering if he'd ever figured that out.
"Thank Merlin for keeping that quiet," Remus said. "I really don't need another reason to want them dead."
"Guess they didn't realize you don't know how to use Floo Powder," Sirius said sadly.
"I think he meant escalators," Lily said fondly.
"Easy enough mistake," Sirius agreed.
Harry felt rather stunned you could travel by fire of all things, but found this no more odd than anything else magical he'd heard so far.
"Oh I would fuss," Lily disagreed. "I'd hate to think you wound up somewhere you shouldn't be."
"I'm with Arthur," James disagreed, "don't stress the kid out with too much information. Tell him what he needs to do, then let him do it."
Lily huffed, still disagreeing, but more eager to hear Harry's first experience.
"They wouldn't mind," Sirius said bitterly.
"Wish they thought you weren't kidding," Remus sighed.
"Jeez, I'm agreeing with James now," Remus said, "I think they kind of overwhelmed him" he was eyeing Harry, who looked a little cross-eyed trying to keep all that in mind.
"Well that's not good," James said tensely.
"Yeah, I stuttered like that once, wound up in some old abandoned shop," Remus said. "Took me ages to figure out where I was, and how to get back to Diagon Alley."
Lily looked a little panicked, but Harry just looked relieved he wasn't the only person who had messed up his first time. Lily misinterpreted that expression, and so she thought he must not have any bad feelings about where he wound up.
"Oh dear," Sirius said, looking a bit anxious now as well. "I think Arthur should have just gone with him."
"Could two people go together?" Lily asked, never having seen that.
"It's not recommended," James said. "But a lot of parents do it with small children. Harry should have been small enough at the time he could have."
"Well no one thought of it," Harry said with a shrug, "and I don't think I wound up in too bad of a place."
"By that, you mean you didn't wind up where you were supposed to," Lily muttered.
"Great," all four of them muttered, not very happy at this confirmation.
"Harry needs to get out of there," Sirius said, going paler by the second. "Now."
"Why?" The rest of them asked anxiously. This was clearly not a shop in Diagon Alley, but Sirius' response seemed a little worse than called for.
"Because the only people who shop in a place like that, we don't want Harry meeting" He responded, eyeing his pup warily.
"Do you know which store specifically, you know where he is?" Lily asked.
"Not exactly, but I've got a few ideas," he said grimly.
Harry looked around at them all, then sighed and just kept reading, curious himself where he was.
"Guessed that," Remus muttered darkly.
"Bloody hell!" James yelped. "The only worse person it could be was...no that's about it. That was the worst person who could walk in right then."
Harry nodded in agreement, knowing he wasn't going to like the person who came in with Malfoy any better.
"Smart kid," Remus praised. "I'd rather you hide than run into them right then."
Sirius had a rather bad feeling about Harry going anywhere near an item in a shop like that, let alone in one, but he decided it was still better than Harry alone running into Malfoy, and, he
suddenly realized, who ever had accompanied him there.
"Bloody hell," James repeated, as all four adults groaned, they had feared this, but now it was confirmed. What could be worse than Harry, lost and alone, running into someone who was most
likely a Death Eater? One of the worst ones, at that, right in Voldemort's inner circle!
"Harry, I really want to know where you have gained all of this awful luck from! It seems like if it can't get any worse for you, it will still somehow get worse than that!" Sirius groaned, his face in his hands.
Harry couldn't help but agree, wondering how it could get worse, and knowing it just might.
"Like that little prat could ever make the Quidditch team," Sirius snorted.
Harry pursed his lips, unwilling to admit that he had a feeling about that as well.
"Jealous much?" James smirked.
"I'm sure every student in the school was jealous of that," Lily agreed.
"Not that good?" Sirius scoffed in disbelief. "Ignoring the horrible sides of the two games he played last year, what's more impressive? Staying on a bucking broom your very first game, or
breaking the record for the fastest Snitch catch in his next one?"
"Both," Remus decided. "Both are equally impressive, and more than merit Harry's place on the team."
"Wish I wasn't," Harry muttered under his breath, he'd give anything to not be famous.
"Jeez, I don't think Snape even whined this much," James scoffed.
"Severus never whined," Lily snapped. "He cursed you lot to high heaven, but he didn't whine."
All three boys exchanged a look, annoyed she was still defending him, but after last year, not willing to argue the point.
"Oh bollocks," Sirius groaned again, this time looking truly upset and pushing his hands against his eyes.
"What?" Lily gasped.
"I've got good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?" He asked, without looking up.
"The good news," Lily said at the same time James said, "The bad news."
Sirius snorted and said, "He's in Knockturn Alley at a store called Borgin and Burke's."
"What was the good news?" Lily demanded.
"The good news was I know where he is," Sirius said, finally looking up and forcing a cheerful smile on his face. "He's not too far from Diagon Alley, but he's in one of my Dad's favourite
shops."
"I think I heard the good news in that," Remus said slowly, eyeing both Harry and Sirius warily. "As long as Harry hides long enough, then he can get out without being seen."
"But he doesn't know how to get back to Diagon Alley," Lily disagreed, still worrying her lip. "He could still get lost, even if he is close by."
"I make it back fine," Harry reassured them, noting that both of his parents kept getting tenser the longer this went on. "I run into someone else there. I think it's a good someone though."
"Who's the good someone down there?" James asked in concern, wanting to believe Harry, but knowing very well that if Harry ran into anyone down there, it probably wouldn't be good.
"Let's just read," Harry said patiently. "I'm sure it's going to be fine."
"That's business," Lily said shortly.
"Very curious to know about this," James said, eyes gleaming. If he could put Moody on to this now, eleven years before Malfoy would have even been expecting it, he would prove to the Head
Auror for sure that he was serious about this career.
"In all the wrong ways," Sirius spat bitterly.
Harry tensed up in disgust as he read this, along with everyone else in the room.
"Arthur Weasley is worth twelve of you," James snapped, then he and Harry shared a smile at this old joke.
"I can only imagine," Lily muttered, her eyes lighting as well "and Harry, if you can, I'd like to hear more about this Muggle Protection Act. It seems like something I'd like to help him with."
Harry shrugged, "I didn't know too much about it, but I'm sure you can talk to Mr. Weasley about it now. Something like that must be in the works years before it's at this stage."
Lily nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly.
"Creepy thing," Sirius shuddered in disgust.
"Not really," Remus muttered.
James couldn't help but snort, unwilling to admit that was a good comeback.
"Here's hoping," Sirius said cheerfully. "Then Harry won't have anything to do with him."
"Don't start hating on a genius when I doubt you've ever cracked open a book," Lily said hotly.
"Why does he even know the exam results?" James asked.
"Bribed someone probably," Remus said in disgust.
"It should never have been counted at all," James said through gritted teeth.
"Children to terrify, Death Eaters to visit, busy schedule," Sirius agreed, sarcasm dripping from every word.
"Guess a cursed necklace would be pretty inconspicuous," Lily agreed sadly, thinking that Harry's odd look was for the act of the object, not realizing he was trying to understand why he may
vaguely recognize this thing later in life?
"Never thought I'd be thanking that man," Sirius sighed in relief.
"Probably," James agreed darkly, wishing Harry had gotten just a hint of where those items were being kept.
"Good," Sirius breathed. "I didn't want Borgin catching you anymore than the Malfoys."
"Now I just want you out of Knockturn Alley," Lily agreed, shivering in disgust.
"It didn't say which way you set off," Sirius said with worry, "remember which way you headed?"
Harry puzzled for a moment, before saying, "I'd gone left from the shop."
Sirius nodded, looking relieved and said, "okay, you started going the right way, got a few more turns and you'll be right back in Diagon Alley."
"Should I be worried you know that area so well?" Lily asked.
"I went there a lot as a kid," Sirius said with a shrug. "You should be grateful, I know exactly where Harry is, and could guide him out of there easily."
Lily nodded, agreeing with him, but unwilling to remind him right then that, no matter what Sirius said now, it wouldn't do Harry any good in the book.
"Something I'm both grateful for," James said sadly, "and vaguely upset about since now you've no idea where to go."
"Note to self, take Harry into the deep, dark, creepy places of the wizarding world, so that if ever he gets lost down there, he'll know where to go," Remus said, forcing a cheerful tone into his voice.
"On one condition," Lily snapped, "I want at least James or Sirius to go with you."
Remus nodded, understanding Lily's logic. She, a pretty public and well known Muggle Born, couldn't go down there with them, but James and Sirius, though blood traitors, still had a status
that was hard to ignore.
"Not good, very not good," James started muttering, getting a little jittery again.
"Ew," Lily muttered, crinkling up her nose in disdain, and hoping Harry's eyes were deceiving him.
"Why would she even have those?" Harry demanded in disgust.
"No good reason," Sirius muttered, thinking of a couple of dark and advanced magic that tended to require human body parts.
"I know that West Country accent," Lily said with glee. "That's Hagrid!"
"Thank Merlin," James breathed.
"What's Hagrid doing down there though?" Remus asked, unable to help a spike of confusion and wariness.
"Don't question it," Sirius smirked, "just thank Merlin."
"Did that," James said proudly all fear gone and joking manner back now that he was sure his son was fine.
"I imagine he would be a bit angry," James said agreeably. "Harry hasn't written to him in months, then he runs into him at a place like that."
"Well, let's hope he lets Harry explain, rather than trying to give him a pig's tail!" Remus said, lips twitching.
Though they had all been relieved once Harry had mentioned Hagrid, they couldn't help but be even more relieved that Harry was now back in familiar territory.
"That would cap off this perfect day," James said, trying not to laugh.
"I ducked," Harry chuckled.
"I can never thank Hagrid enough," Lily beamed, "he looks out for you so well."
"Rude to ask like that, but I am curious," Lily agreed.
"Oh, suppose he doesn't want them eating up his garden," Remus nodded.
Lily mentally added this to her growing list of garden things.
"He's going to love the answer to that," Sirius chuckled with hope that for once Harry would really say, and maybe something worse than a pig's tail would come of it.
"Aw," James groaned, "I wanted to hear Hagrid threaten them some more."
"I wanted to hear about Hagrid doing more than threatening again," Remus muttered darkly.
"Yeah, that would have been a scare for them," Lily agreed, not having come around to thinking about that yet. "They had no idea how far away you were."
"For good reason," Lily rolled her eyes.
"I talked Sirius into taking me down there one day," James said grimly. "Only went a few buildings in before my parents caught us, and we didn't try going back any time soon."
Lily smiled sadly at the mothering her son was finally receiving, while all of the boys rolled their eyes at the same thing.
"Eavesdropping much?" Remus asked, lips twitching.
"I think he's allowed, since they were hardly whispering," Lily pointed out, "and right in front of him."
"That's not what she meant," Lily sighed. "She was just telling him to be careful."
"But to put it in that way, and in front of all of his kids," James disagreed. "She could have been a little better at phrasing it."
Lily just snorted, thinking 'men are far too sensitive'.
"That will make Arthur's day," Sirius said brightly.
Harry grimaced, suddenly wishing he hadn't found the Weasleys until after he'd been down to his vault, to avoid the scene he knew was about to happen.
Lily noticed the look and asked, "so, does that mean Hagrid handed you your key at some point? He had it last year."
"Oh, yeah," Harry agreed, only answering with half his attention. "He gave it back to me last year, in case I need to come on my own."
"Oh dear," all four adults murmured, even Remus wasn't that badly off. Then again, he wasn't feeding a huge family plus school supplies. Though, if he couldn't find a job soon, he would be.
The other three were trying to think of ways they could help wizarding families like this, while Harry simply wished the Weasleys would accept his offer to take at least half the money in his vault.
"Can see that being a problem," Lily agreed out loud.
"She's such a killjoy," Sirius snorted, without really meaning it. Knockturn Alley could be dangerous, even to a pure blood, if they didn't know what they were doing.
"Why was he in there?" Lily asked, confused.
"And who would keep broken wands in their shop?" James snorted. "It's not like they're good for anything, or can be fixed."
"He was looking at a book, I guess he and his family went in there a lot to shop," Harry shrugged.
"Charming," James snorted.
"You know, he did assume Ron was being sarcastic," Remus said, frowning at this. "Ron really might have been trying to start a conversation with him."
"No," Harry said honestly, fighting back a smile. "Ron was being sarcastic."
"Well ambition can equal power if you do it right," Lily said sadly, "but please tell me someone told that boy that power goes to your head."
"Judging by his attitude," Sirius laughed. "I'm going with not. Since his parents praise him for it in fact, I'm going to outright say he doesn't think that one bit."
Lily shook her head sadly, knowing there was nothing she could do about it.
"Jeez, did the whole of Hogwarts decide to come on that day?" Remus laughed.
"Great, another book by him!" Sirius snorted. "Let's hope it doesn't get assigned as well."
"Seems we've found another of his fans," James said, grinning.
"Hermione would squeal at meeting anyone who wrote a book," Sirius joked.
"Why are they standing in line?" Lily asked. "Does Molly own a copy of Magical Me?"
"She might," Remus shrugged.
"No," Harry said, "all of Lockhart's other books were in the back where he was signing his autobiography. If we wanted those stupid books, we had to wait in line."
James gave Harry a puzzled look, wondering why his son's first instinct was to call them stupid, but said nothing.
"Rude," All five of them sniffed in disdain.
"Was that supposed to impress me?" Sirius asked snootily, "because it didn't."
"Oh no," Remus groaned, along with everyone else in the room.
"It's going to be like that stupid Leaky Cauldron scene all over again," Lily agreed disdainfully.
"With any luck, one of the Weasleys will step in," Remus said hopefully, then he noticed how red Harry's face was getting, with remembered embarrassment, and he lost hope in that idea.
"Let go," James grumbled, much more irritable than he might normally have been. He just hated the idea of anyone forcing his son to do something he didn't want to do.
"Again, is that supposed to be an impressive accomplishment?" Sirius scoffed.
"Bloody prat," Sirius hissed, when would he leave the poor kid be?!
"If he doesn't move his arm, I'm thinking about adding him to the list," Remus said in disgust.
"You've got my vote," James agreed.
"Big headed bloody prat," Lily agreed.
Harry paused, looking round at his family, but none of them really knew how to react to this.
"Well," Remus said slowly, "I suppose he is still better than Quirrell."
"His books may still hold some good content," Lily agreed cautiously. "So it will be good for them to get a teacher who knows a little about those magical creatures."
"I'm kind of ticked off the jerk set his own books on the list," Sirius snapped. "He's promoting his own sales."
"I don't like him just because of the way he's acting around Harry now," James snorted, "but I've got to agree, as much of an ass as he seems, he's still better than the last guy."
Harry simply shrugged, he had a bad feeling about Lockhart, but of course he couldn't really remember why.
"How I was able to hold eight books that size and not fall over was beyond me," Harry mutter in disgust.
"I bet she wouldn't even take that as charity," Lily said proudly. "Since they were free too!"
"Yep," Harry agreed, "Mrs. Weasley thanked me for it all night, but I liked doing it."
"Hmm, now what twat do we know that calls Harry by his last name?" Sirius said in false puzzlement.
"Probably not a teacher, so most likely a student," Remus agreed, mock confused.
"Who do we know that's already been seen in Diagon Alley today, and loves mocking Harry?" James said, pretending to look stumped.
Harry was laughing at the lot of them, he would never get tired of watching these three men joke around.
"No way!" They all gasped, feigning surprise, sending both Harry and Lily into a real laughing fit.
"You should see where he ends up when he goes into the Apothecary," Sirius agreed sarcastically. "I heard there's a new magazine out that writes whole articles about that!"
"Well, she'll most likely end up in Gryffindor with her brothers," Lily said fondly.
"Good projectiles for throwing at him," Remus offered.
All five of them went red in the face with anger. Malfoy insulted Ron enough last year with this bit. He clearly hadn't found any new material over the summer.
"Look on the bright side," Sirius said. "At least they're not in school. Malfoy can't go running to Snape to save him. Ron can get his well-deserved payback."
"They're still in public," Lily said, looking almost disappointed she had to point this out, "and around at least Ron's parents. There's no way he can get away with it."
"At this point I don't care about getting away with it," James huffed. "I just want to see someone hit him."
"Why?" James and Sirius whined.
"Because, like Mum said, we knew Ron couldn't get away with it," Harry said, mouth twitching to hide his own smile. "At least, that's why I did. I'm sure Hermione would have said something
more along the lines of 'fighting is wrong'."
"Oh I don't know," Lily said fairly. "Even Hermione has to lose her temper with this bug at some point."
Harry felt something flash through him for a moment at this, but it was gone as soon as it had come, and he just decided to keep reading.
"Well damn," Remus muttered, "both backup, and a parent."
"I don't think Ron needed backup," James snickered. "I still remember the bloody nose from last year."
He told all of his kids they should be getting outside, it was too crowded, but he was
interrupted by Lucius Malfoy making his entrance.
"Double damn," Sirius winced. "Now we've got to put up with his arse."
"Why that-!" Lily exclaimed, as they all burst out into their own verbal abuse, largely cursing the blond twat's existence. Harry, surprisingly, was the loudest. The Weasleys had treated him so
well, better than anyone else ever had in his life, and he couldn't stand the idea of anyone insulting them like that.
Harry now looked more livid than he had before during this entire time while reading, nothing made him angrier than insulting his friends, but he managed to read on, breathing heavily as he did so.
"Good on ya!" James grinned.
"Well we already know yours can't, so don't even start that mess," Sirius hissed.
All four of them went wide eyed, stunned into silence as they only hoped they were hearing Harry right.
"Did he curse him?" Lily yelped.
"Even better," Harry cackled, reading on gleefully.
"They were wrestling?" Sirius demanded, looking as if Christmas had come early this year.
"Well, that sort of implies an equal give and take, really Mr. Weasley was just punching Lucius Malfoy in the face, who wasn't reacting very well, so I wouldn't exactly call it wrestling," Harry said, sharing a proud look with all of the boys.
Lily pursed her lips, knowing she would have been in Molly Weasley's shoes at the time, but privately thinking she would have liked to throw a punch or two herself.
"Aw!" The boys groaned.
"Sorry, but I'm rather glad," Lily shrugged, "Malfoy would have been getting his wits back about him soon, and we all know the kind of nasty spells a Death Eater would have sent at him," she
explained to their mildly offended look.
They still huffed, but decided this whole instance was a good payback for now.
"Malfoy got a hit in?" James asked in surprise, he didn't seem the type to throw an actual punch.
"No," Harry shrugged, "a book did that."
"I'll take that," Sirius laughed.
"Very hard, by Mr. Weasley," Harry added on, noting the book hadn't said that. "It looked like it was going to be a fantastic black eye!"
"Well I applaud him for the irony," Remus said, making as if he was going to start doing just that.
Sirius smacked him lightly though, so Harry could keep going.
"Tail tucked between his legs," James cackled.
"I'm sure he would have wanted someone to at least apologize for that," Lily agreed.
"Don't blame the chap for not stopping them though," Sirius snickered.
"Why?" Remus asked in bewilderment. "You mean to tell me they've never seen a fight in their life?"
"Yeah," James agreed. "They were lucky only a few books got thrown around. Wands didn't even make an appearance."
"They are Muggle's," Lily defended. "It's fair to say that this was only their second time in a place like that. It would have been kind of scary for them to see this. They're probably wondering if brawling is commonplace amongst wizards."
All three boys just shrugged, they still didn't really get it.
"Standing up for yourself," James nodded sagely. "The best thing to teach your kids."
Lily rolled her eyes, that was not the point either of them wanted to make, but she didn't disagree with him either.
"And my opinion of him just got a little higher," Sirius laughed.
"Really? Mine just went the other way," Remus snorted. "While I don't blame Arthur one bit for his actions, what idiot would want to say that was a publicity stunt?"
"Someone who spins their career however they can," Lily agreed with Remus.
James made to laugh, caught Lily's eye, quickly stifled it, which caused an eruption of giggles from Remus and Sirius to occur.
"That's the end of the chapter," Harry said, tossing the book over to Remus.
"You didn't get lost again did you?" Lily asked concerned.
"No," Harry said with relief. "Ron told me earlier how to use it properly without panicking, and it helped that I knew where I was going to end up."