Ron-Weasly book 2

"Ladies and gentlemen, What unforgettable moments! Let me make one small statement to you. Young Harry came to Flourish and Blotts today to buy my autographed book, but he won't have to spend any money. I give him all my books."

The audience applauded again.

"That's not all." Lockhart shook Harry slightly, causing the boy's glasses to slide down the tip of his nose. "You know, Harry, you're going to get a lot more than just my book, I'm a Wizard. From now on, you and your friends will have a living wizard at your disposal. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It is with great pleasure and pride that I inform you that since the first of September I have been invited to take up the post of Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! The audience gave Lockhart a standing ovation, and Lockhart himself presented Harry with all his seven books, and Harry finally found his freedom. He looked around the room and, noticing Jeanie, walked towards her, staggering under the weight of Lockhart's writings.

"This is for you, Ginny," he said, putting all the books into the cauldron on the floor next to her. "I'll buy one for myself. Study well!"

"I see you're happy!" Malfoy's voice came from behind him.

Harry straightened up. Draco Malfoy was standing next to him, smiling his cheeky smile.

"The famous Harry Potter! You didn't have time to enter the bookstore and immediately found youself on the first page of The Prophet!"

Ginny stared at Draco in surprise.

"Don't bother him! Harry didn't want that at all," Suddenly she said. It was the first time Ginny had opened her mouth in front of Harry.

"The bride and groom! Ha ha ha!" Draco began to tease them.

Ginny blushed. Hermione and I, seeing something was wrong, rushed to the rescue. We both had stacks of Lockhart textbooks in our hands.

"Oh, it's you!" I looked at Draco as if he were a dead cockroach. Cockroaches often come to our house, as well as vole rats, then mom brings them out with some kind of potion. "I bet you're surprised you met Harry here."

"I'm even more surprised to see you in this store. Wow, so many purchases! Your parents will probably go hungry for a month now."

I blushed harder than Ginny. I threw the books into her cauldron and rushed at Malfoy, but Harry and Hermione managed to grab me by the skirts of my robes.

"Ron! Stop it now!" The father shouted, pushing through the crowd with the twins. "Go outside. This is not a store, but a madhouse."

"Bah! Who do I see! Arthur Weasley!"

It was Mr. Malfoy. When he reached his son, he put his hand on his shoulder and grinned, just like Draco.

"Hello, Lucius," his father greeted him coldly.

"I heard that the Ministry has added jobs. All these raids, you know! Do they even pay you overtime?"

With that, he reached into Ginny's cauldron and dug out an old, battered textbook, The Beginner's Guide to Reincarnation, among Lockhart's glossy books.

"Apparently not," he sighed. "Is it worth shaming the name of a wizard if you don't even get paid for it?"

The father blushed even more deeply than the children. Yeah, with his habit of spending half his earnings on his Muggle quirks, like kicking in the balls with a sickle.

"We have different ideas about what dishonors the name of a wizard, Mr. Malfoy," he snapped.

"It's obvious." Malfoy turned his gray eyes to Hermione's parents, who were looking at the escalating quarrel with fear. "Who are you hanging out with! There's nowhere to fall lower."

By the way, how did they get into the Leaky Cauldron? There are also distraction charms for Muggles. Are they squibs?

Then Dad couldn't stand it either. Kicking the pathetically clanking cauldron, he rushed at Mr. Malfoy, grabbed him by the chest and threw him onto a bookshelf.

"I'll show you how to hurt my friends," He shouted, catching the heavy books falling on him with his back.

"That's him, Father! Hit him hard!" The twins were screaming.

"Arthur! Please don't," my mother begged.

The crowd rushed to the exit, sweeping away bookshelves in its path.

"Lady! Please stop!" the salesman was struggling, trying to restore order.

"It's a pure madhouse! Get the fuck out of here!" A voice boomed out.

Of course, it was Hagrid rushing to help. He easily overcame the rubble of books and in the blink of an eye pulled the brawlers apart. My father had a split lip, and Mr. Malfoy had a huge black eye, the mark of a blow from a thick Encyclopedia of Toadstools. The elder Malfoy still had Ginny's textbook in his hands. He put it back into the cauldron, and his eyes twinkled maliciously.

"Here's your book, girl. Your father can't buy a better one."

With these words, he freed himself from Hagrid's arms, looked expressively at his son, and both hurried away.

"And why, Arthur, are you paying attention to the damned" Hagrid muttered and began tugging at his father's robes, almost knocking him to the floor. This family, vestimo, is rotten to the core! Don't worry so much about them. Bad blood! Let's go outside quickly."

The whole company left the store. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were trembling with fear, and Mom was seething with rage.

"You're setting a good example for the kids.... Fight in public... God! What Gilderoy Lockhart will think."

"Gilderoy Lockhart was on top of bliss!" Fred reassured his mother. "I didn't hear how he asked that guy from the newspaper to insert a battle scene into the report. I've heard of it. Totally obsessed with popularity!"

We went to pay for the textbooks, to the lamentation of the seller that he would no longer get involved with the crowd of fans of this hero.

Our whole company entered the Leaky Cauldron with their heads down. The Grangers left the inn through the opposite exit leading to London Street. The father started to ask them how the bus stops work, but when he caught his wife's eye, he obediently fell silent. It was time to get back to the Burrow, and Harry and my family hurried to the fireplace.

I hope Harry gets there okay this time.

Chapter 3 flying to school and its consequences.

Summer vacation ended too quickly. Of course, I missed Hogwarts, but the month I spent with Harry was the best of my life. We walked around the neighborhood of the burrow without going far into the magical world. My friend was interested in everything. The twins were in their room, cooking something. Jeanie kept a diary for herself and constantly wrote in it.

On the last night, my mother had a huge dinner: She cooked, fried, and baked all of Harry's favorite dishes. There was molasses pudding for the sweetmeat — you can lick your fingers! The evening ended with fireworks, George and Fred lit sparklers, and for almost half an hour red and blue stars danced on the walls and ceiling. Then everyone had a cup of hot chocolate and went to bed.

We gathered for a long time in the morning. And even though we woke up with the roosters, it seemed like we wouldn't have time to do anything. Mom was in a bad mood, rushing around the house in search of feathers and clean socks, the other inhabitants of the "Hole", half-dressed, with toasts in their hands, bumped into each other on the stairs, munching on the move, and my father almost broke his neck, tripping over a chicken as he hurried across the yard to the car, dragging Ginny's heavy suitcase.

Bulky suitcases easily fit into the trunk. Finally, everyone was seated, and Ginny and Mom sat in the front seat, which was as long as a garden bench. Turning back to where Harry, Fred, George, Percy, and I were comfortably ensconced, she was surprised:

Muggles aren't as stupid as we think they are. Such a roomy car! But you'd never tell by the look of it.

My father turned on the ignition, and the overloaded Ford rolled heavily out of the yard. Harry turned back, apparently wanting to take a last look at the house. Before I could say goodbye to the house, the car backed up: George had forgotten the box of firecrackers.

Five minutes later, there was another stop, and Fred took off after the broom. Finally, they reached the highway safely, and then Ginny threw up her hands: she had left her diary at home. I had to go back for the diary. We looked at the clock, and it turned out that we were late for the train. The situation in the car was tense.

My father looked at my mother pleadingly.

"Molly, dear..."

"No way, Arthur!"

"But no one will see us. This is the little button from the invisibility device, I inserted it myself. Let's turn it on just for the duration of takeoff, then we'll bury ourselves in the clouds. And we'll be there in ten minutes. No one will know anything..." my father swore to my mother.

"I said no, Arthur. Especially in broad daylight!"

At a quarter past ten we stopped at King's Cross Station. My father rushed across the road to get the luggage carts, and soon our whole company was almost running to the platform.

"Percy goes first," Mom ordered, nervously glancing at her watch.

There were five minutes left before the train left, and there were eight of us, plus this barrier.

Percy took a sharp step forward and disappeared. Dad followed, followed by Fred and George.

"I'll take Ginny," Mom said, "and you're right behind us."

Grabbing Ginny's hand, she rushed forward. And in the blink of an eye, she and her daughter disappeared. Harry and I followed them.

"Let's go together," I suggested, "there's only one minute left."

Harry made sure that Hedwig's cage was firmly seated on the suitcase, and steered the cart straight at the barrier. We walked bent over the cart, aiming at the barrier and increasing our pace by the second. A few steps before the barrier, they started running, and...

boom!

The carts hit the barrier and bounced back. My suitcase fell with a crash, Harry was knocked off his feet, the cage bounced on the floor of the platform, and Hedwig flew out with indignant screams. The surrounding people stared in amazement at the incomprehensible incident.

"What are you doing!" One of the station attendants attacked us.

"I couldn't handle the cart," Harry thought up an explanation, getting to his feet and rubbing his bruised side. I rushed to catch Hedwig, which caused the indignation of onlookers who were outraged by the cruel treatment of the bird. Harry's cage is really too small for such an owl.

"Why didn't we manage to break through the barrier like everyone else?" Harry asked me in a whisper.

"I can't imagine..." I looked around in disbelief. Half a dozen onlookers were still staring at us.

"We're going to miss the train," he said in a sinking voice. "I don't understand why the entrance didn't open...."

I tried to break through again. He aimed accurately, rolled the cart to the barrier and pushed it forward with all his might. The metal barrier did not budge.

"That's it," I said, stunned. "The train left. What happens if Mom and Dad come out on the wrong side and we part ways? Do you have any Muggle money?"

"About five pounds." Harry said gloomily. "Do you remember when we went to the bank? But I wanted to buy lenses in the summer, as that healer advised."

"Is that a lot?"

"It's definitely enough to live for a couple of days."

I pressed my ear to the cold metal of the barrier.

"I can't hear anything," I muttered, confused. "What should we do now? How long will the parents be looking for us?"

We looked around — we're still attracting attention, mainly because Hedwig keeps screaming loudly.

"It's probably best to get back to the car," Harry suggested it. "Everyone's looking at us here"...

"Harry!" I exclaimed, and the joyful lights flashed in my eyes again. "The car!"

"What is a car?"

Exactly. Most of the road will be in the magical world, so the main thing is to fly through London, and then we'll dive for the train.

"We can fly to Hogwarts in our car!"

"But I thought..."

"We're in a desperate situation, aren't we? We have to go to school! In an emergency, even underage wizards are allowed to use magic. Paragraph nine of the Code, I think...."

"Can you drive a flying car?" Harry asked.

"Easily." I turned the cart towards the exit of the station. "Let's go quickly! Let's hurry up and catch up with the London-Hogwarts express. And we'll get on his tail."

We pushed the carts through the crowd, went out onto the forecourt and turned right into an alley where an old Ford Anglia was parked.

After tapping my wand a few times, I opened the roomy trunk, and we loaded our suitcases into it, put Hedwig's cage in the back seat, and settled ourselves in the front. Grimacing, I took out a package of sandwiches. Damn, beef again. What about Harry? About the pork leg. We exchanged packages of sandwiches made by Mom and got into the car.

"Make sure that no one notices anything." I said, and with another stroke of my wand, I turned on the ignition.

"It's all right," he said.

And I pressed the tiny silver button on the dashboard. The Ford disappeared into thin air, and so did we. I could feel the seat vibrating beneath us, hear the sound of the engine, feel the steering wheel in my palms. Apparently, I turned into a pair of pupils hovering two meters above the ground in an unattractive alley filled with cars.

"Let's go," I said.

And the alley, along with the reddish-brown buildings on both sides, fell through somewhere. In a few more seconds, the whole of London lay in plain sight below us, partly sparkling with lights, partly shrouded in smoke. No one seems to have noticed our takeoff.

Suddenly, something fired softly, and the car gained visibility along with us. I pressed the button with all my might. Damn it, what the fuck? Everything worked last time.

"It's stuck somewhere," I said, confused.

They hit the button one at a time. The car disappeared again. And then she reappeared, as if nothing had happened.

"Hold on!" I shouted and pressed the accelerator pedal sharply: the car soared up, got inside a dense layer of clouds and flew blindly, as if in a thick fog.

"Where to now?" Harry asked, peering into the milky whiteness that enveloped the car from all sides.

"Now we need to find the train."

"Come on then hurry down..."

The car broke out of the cloud zone, and we twisted in our seats, each in his own direction, hung down.

"There he is, ahead! I can see him!" Harry was delighted.

I looked in the direction where my friend was pointing. The London-Hogwarts express was writhing below like a long crimson snake.

"It goes due north," I determined it by the compass on the control panel. Which is logical. The school is located in the north of Scotland. In one of the corners of the magical world of Earth. "We will check it every half hour. Now hold on tight..."