Chương 92: Chapter 92: Awkward Harry (Edited)
While Lockhart's book signing was in full swing, Harry and the Weasleys headed to Diagon Alley.
Harry's visit to Diagon Alley went awry when he used the Flu Dust and mispronounced Diagon Alley as Knockturn Alley, which led him to Borgin and Burkes' magic store in Knockturn Alley by mistake. There is no similarity in pronunciation between Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, and Harry would not have made the mistake had he not choked on a large mouthful of ash from the fireplace.
Borgin and Burkes' store is nominally an antique store, but because of the nature of its owners and the character of the antique trade, the store often handles some very criminal business. But as the owner, Mr. Borgin, is a great amateur, he has always been on the verge of the law, but has never fallen foul of it. Even the Ministry of Magic raided the store some time ago and he got away unscathed.
It was to one of these shady stores that Harry came.
Here he also saw the Malfoy father and son, who had come to talk business: Lucius Malfoy had sold his estate to Mr. Borgin to avoid the inconvenience of a Ministry raid some time ago, but the two men had been unable to agree on a price.
Eventually, Harry managed to slip away and rejoin the Weasleys with Hagrid's help: the Weasleys were frantic because Potter had suddenly disappeared.
The twins were each carrying an oversized backpack, immediately crowded around Harry to make sure he was okay and to ask him about Knockturn Alley... and were simply beaten by Mrs. Weasley with her purse.
Now that Harry was safe and sound, it was time to get on with the shopping. First they went to Gringotts, where they got money and then split up. Fred and George were gone in a jiffy with their school bags, and they didn't even ask Mrs. Weasley for the money. Mrs. Weasley went with Ginny to buy robes and Percy went to pick out a new pen.
As for Ron, he had to hang out with Harry; his request for a new wand had been denied. Ron's teenage years were miserable indeed. He grew up in the shadow of his brilliant older brothers, and was forced to use his old stuff. What was worse, on the other hand, was that Ginny, the younger sister, was able to use the stuff first hand.
But he was comforted by the strawberry and peanut butter ice cream Harry had bought, and the two of them ate what tasted to Tom like heretical ice cream as they admired the Quidditch Quality Stuff through the window.
They were browsing in the magical joke store when they saw Fred and George, who were talking furtively with their good friend Lee Jordan, and after a while Fred handed Lee Jordan a package that, judging by its size, must have been a set from the entire Lockhart collection.
Fred and the boys were soon selling them, and many of the Hogwarts boys were a bit annoyed with Lockhart, after all, they had to shell out thirty-five Galleons for some reason. It made sense for Fred to sell the books at low prices.
Fourteen sets of books sold out in less than ten minutes. There were also a number of little half-bloods and Muggle-born witches who were alerted to the need to borrow a friend's reprint to make copies outside. That day, the print shop near the Leaky Cauldron Bar in London was bursting at the seams.
Even the Ministry of Magic was alerted. But the employees found that the little wizards had not broken the laws of the International Statute of Magical Secrecy: the first copies they picked up were copies from a Muggle publisher, and the employee thought they were new fantasy novels by some author, the Muggle imagination is much more exaggerated than Lockhart.
According to Ministry of Magic statistics, at least 300 copies of the entire Lockhart collection were made in a single day.
What the Ministry of Magic didn't know is that a clerk had quietly kept a copy. In the near future, an English-born novelist with the pen name Gilderoy Lockhart suddenly became popular.
His seven-part series "The Adventures of Lockhart" became popular throughout the UK due to the rigorous structure of the worldview, delicate and realistic brushstrokes and unbridled imagination. But the true identity of the man was unknown.
Only later was it discovered that the author of the books was an ordinary printing press worker who wrote the seven books in a cafe after work every day. Before long, the employee became a household name in children's literature, and a movie giant even remade Lockhart's adventures for the screen.
The actors he hired were only good-looking, but his own acting was so poor, and the screenwriter was so indifferent to the making of the film, that word of mouth for the final product plummeted. Then he came up with the Lockhart-themed game, which was also poorly received, and then tried to continue with "The Adventures of Lockhart 8 - The Return of the King", but it too fell into endless interruptions due to the avalanche of bad reviews....
Since it did not violate the laws of the International Statute of Magical Secrecy, the Ministry of Magic did not care, and many employees were happy to look the other way, since no one wants to pay half a month's salary to buy textbooks for their children. As for Lockhart, he was concentrating on book signings today. Besides, he couldn't be bothered to look into such matters.
Ron and Harry walked into Flourish and Blotts bookstore, they had to buy a copy of Standard Spells, Level 2, and Harry and Ron slipped through the small gap left in the door, where they saw Mrs. Weasley in line, breathing heavily and patting her hair.
But to their surprise, they saw Tom keeping the queue in order, and Hermione on the box.
"Tom? what are you doing here? and Hermione?" asked Ron, surprised.
"Summer job, earning some extra money. Harry, Ron, how was your vacation?" Tom said.
"It was horrible at first, a house elf named Dobby..." Hatty said.
"Harry Potter!" Lockhart jumped up from his chair, he had just caught a key word so sharply that he looked up, his eyes swept over Ron and Tom before fixing firmly on Harry's face.
He immediately tore away the fence and hurried over to Harry: there was a reason Lockhart had scheduled the signing for today, he had heard from his admirer, Mrs. Weasley, that Harry Potter was staying at her house and that they would be going to Diagon Alley on Wednesday. Why wouldn't the young wizard come to Diagon Alley to buy his textbooks at Flourish and Blotts Bookshop?
So Lockhart booked a book signing on the same day, in an attempt to catch the famous Potter, the savior, to get the two of them on the front page of the newspapers.
Lockhart grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him toward the front of the stage, where Lockhart's fans applauded spontaneously, especially Mrs. Weasley, and Harry felt a combination of embarrassment and social phobia. He had felt a similar sensation when he and Mrs. Weasley had been withdrawing money together at Gringotts.
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