Harry Potter: Fire Lord Black

Edward reached Flourish and Blotts twelve minutes early. The queue for Gilderoy Lockhart's signing already curved past the apothecary, and cardboard portraits smiled at pedestrians from every window. Each portrait held a different book, though every cover gave more space to Lockhart's face than to its subject.

Draco arrived at ten with no Crabbe, Goyle, or parent beside him. His pale hair had been combed flat against the wind, and his new school robes still held the sharp folds from Madam Malkin's shop.

"You are early," Draco said.

"So are you."

"I was avoiding Mother buying another formal cloak."

Edward smiled. Draco stopped on the pavement and looked at him with open suspicion.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing that a bookshop will improve."

"You spoke almost six words. Last year you would have nodded and made me wonder whether the House of Black had raised a portrait."

The observation was fair. Edward had prepared explanations about grief, adjustment, and the pressures of first year. Delivering one as a polished excuse would make the new friendliness feel calculated because it was.

"I kept people distant," he said. "It made school simpler and lonelier. I am trying something else."

Draco seemed more surprised by the admission than he would have been by a family secret. "You could have started by sitting with us at meals."

"I can do that this year."

"Good. Crabbe eats enough for two people, but we can make room."

The answer did not establish trust, but it opened a place at a table. Edward treated it accordingly.

They joined the press inside the shop. Lockhart's complete set occupied a display near the entrance, forcing every family to navigate around towers of identical hardbacks. A harried clerk tried to separate customers who wanted school books from those waiting for signatures.

Draco lifted Voyages with Vampires and read two paragraphs. "He describes a Romanian village and then gives directions that lead to Wales."

"Perhaps the vampire moved it."

Draco stared, then laughed loudly enough to earn a glare from the clerk.

They collected the required volumes before the signing crowd reached the shelves. Edward also found a used reference on shield construction and checked it for missing pages. Draco chose a glossy Quidditch annual, denied choosing it, and placed it beneath his school books.

"Father says biographies teach you which mistakes powerful people hide," he said.

"Does he think Lockhart hid them in seven volumes?"

"Father does not discuss Lockhart. Mother does, at length."

A cheer rose near the signing table. Lockhart stood in plum-coloured robes beneath a banner announcing Magical Me. With every flourish of his quill, a photographer's flash filled the shop. The author seemed able to locate the nearest camera without turning his head.

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Several younger students watched him with open admiration. Edward did not mock them. Lockhart offered danger made tidy, funny, and survivable, an appealing promise to children about to enter a school that rarely explained its hazards.

"He is going to teach us," Draco said with sudden horror.

Edward checked the school list again. "Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"That cannot be right."

"The crest suggests McGonagall intended us to believe it."

They compared three passages from Lockhart's books while waiting to pay. The spell names were plausible, but descriptions avoided the details a student would need to reproduce them. One chapter claimed a countercurse worked through confidence alone. Another attributed success to a smile delivered at the correct angle.

"If he asks us to smile at a vampire, I am transferring," Draco said.

"To which school?"

"One without authors."

Edward wrote down the missing technical details rather than deciding the stories were false from style alone. Vanity weakened Lockhart's credibility, but a bad personality did not disprove every event. That distinction annoyed Draco until Edward pointed out that the same rule protected them from being declared incompetent because someone disliked old families.

"Fine," Draco said. "His books remain terrible on their own evidence."

A small success in reasoning was more useful than agreement obtained through flattery.

They reached the counter as Lucius Malfoy entered from the direction of Knockturn Alley. Dust marked one edge of his cane, and he carried no parcel. He acknowledged Edward with a measured nod before straightening Draco's collar.

"You found everything?"

"Everything except a competent professor," Draco said. "Lockhart contradicts his own directions."

Lucius glanced toward the signing table. "Popularity and competence are separate currencies. A wise person learns the exchange rate."

His gaze returned to Edward. "Narcissa tells me Draco may visit Grimmauld Place. Your letter was precise."

"Kreacher will remain with us. The family rooms and personal papers stay closed. Draco will return before dinner."

"Good. Courtesy without boundaries becomes carelessness."

The approval was real, but Edward noticed Lucius had asked about access before asking what the boys intended to discuss. The Black library mattered to him as more than a setting for friendship.

Draco began explaining the geographical error in Voyages with Vampires. Lucius listened with the patient expression of a parent accustomed to reports delivered as discoveries. When Draco finished, Lucius asked whether the directions might have been altered for security or publication.

Draco hesitated. "The book does not say."

"Then you have found an unanswered question, not proved theft."

Edward recognized the same distinction he had made. Lucius applied it cleanly when no family interest was threatened. Whether he would do so under pressure remained another question.

A commotion near the door interrupted them. The Weasley family entered with Harry and Hermione among them. Molly Weasley held Harry by one shoulder while speaking about Knockturn Alley. Harry looked embarrassed, dusty, and relieved to be back among familiar people.

Lucius's posture changed before Arthur Weasley reached the book display. The mild attention he had given Draco sharpened into something colder. Draco noticed and moved instinctively to his father's side.

Edward had planned to ask Draco his four questions in the quiet of Grimmauld Place. The crowded shop now offered a different kind of test. Family hostility arrived without preparation, with an audience and enough noise to excuse almost anything.

Lockhart spotted Harry. He descended on the boy with a photographer, seized his shoulder, and announced a picture for the Daily Prophet. The resulting flash concealed half the room. Harry endured the attention while Fred and George laughed from behind a shelf.

When Lockhart released him, Draco leaned toward Edward. "Potter gets lost in Knockturn Alley and receives a photograph. Perhaps that is the secret of fame."

"It may be the secret of Lockhart's fame."

Draco smothered another laugh.

Arthur approached the counter with second-hand books stacked under one arm. Lucius looked at the worn bindings, then at the children around him. He smiled without warmth.

"Weasley."

The single word carried years Edward did not understand. Arthur stopped. Molly's grip tightened on Ginny's shoulder. Conversation near the counter faded as people recognized the beginning of a familiar dispute.

Edward stood beside Draco but kept his attention on both fathers. If the companionship he wanted could exist only when no inherited conflict entered the room, it would not survive the first week at Hogwarts.

Lucius tapped the top book in Arthur's stack with one gloved finger.

"I see the Ministry's devotion to Muggles remains as profitable as ever."

Arthur's face reddened. The argument began.

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