raised by dementor

chapter 26

Harry and Lucy walked down Diagon Alley, it was that time of year when the two of them would go out and get Harry's school supplies for the new school year. Lucy was still technically on some kind of Ministry mandated training program but she was given this one day off in order to care for Harry; it was on Fudge's orders and now the whole world thought he had a Dementor bodyguard there was no need for secrecy. A few people nodded in his direction but most just scuttled away when they saw Lucy, Dementors were still considered dark creatures by a lot of people but at least a few people were changing their views.
"Are you ok Harry?" Lucy asked suddenly, Harry had been dwelling on Dobby. Neither party had acknowledged the brief conversation in his room but whatever Dobby was scared of or worried about troubled Harry. House elf magic was more in tune with the natural world and if they were scared of something then there was a good reason behind it,
"Yeah I'm fine thanks," Harry replied warmly,
"Who is Gilderoy Lockhart?" Lucy asked suddenly staring at Harry's list of books for the New Year, his name was on most of them and most of them looked like gossip or fan made material. It was about this man winning awards, fighting monsters and a load of other stuff that Lucy found ungrounded, she unlike human mothers were not immediately gushing for the man's autograph or fainting when he smiled.
"No idea, though I think Draco's mum likes him," Harry responded thoughtfully remembering Narcissa had a number of books on the man, most of them were on his school list and according to Draco who had picked up one by mistake once there was more flirting in that book than information.
"Harry!" A voice startled Harry and as he turned around he was engulfed in a crushing hug by Hermione who had appeared out of nowhere
"Hermione!" Harry greeted completely caught off guard as the bushy haired girl embraced him, Lucy nodded to Hermione who greeted her after releasing Harry.
"Harry!" he was hit by another hug as Cho appeared, obviously she and Hermione had arrived together and once again he was wrapped in an embrace.
"You must be Lucy," Cho greeted smiling at the Dementor, Lucy nodded again and Harry told the two that she said hello.
"I'm terrified Draco's going to hug me next," Harry joked,
"No I'm fine," Draco announced dryly walking up to them, Crabbe and Goyle were with him and it looked like they were all here together.
"Why don't you go and get your new books while I go to the potions shop?" Lucy suggested warmly seeing her son was preoccupied with his friends, Harry smiled and thanked her before she flew away.
"So how is everyone?" Harry wondered aloud as the six of them walked towards Flourish and Blotts,
"Fine, I've got some guy living in my house for some reason," Draco joked before he was hit by an irritated glare from five people.
"Sorry for speaking... anyone else had anything interesting happen to them?" he asked, the next few minutes was spent talking about how summer had gone for them all. Cho and Hermione lived near each other so were spending a lot of time together, Hermione impressed them with a display of sparks which she and Cho had learnt on one of their study sessions. Crabbe and Goyle as Harry knew were mostly hanging around Draco's but they had been around the ministry a few times when their dads tried to get them interested in politics. On the whole it didn't work,
"Anyone else feel like something bad is going to happen the moment we walk inside this shop?" Draco wondered pushing the door open,
"You're paranoid," Cho remarked following him into the shop...
"What's this some kind of book signing?" Hermione asked seeing a long queue at one end of the shop, Draco squinted and looked up into the shop, he could see a lot of the queue was made up of women who were clutching.
"Uh oh," Draco sighed as a loud voice filled the shop, it was booming and suddenly a man appeared. He walked with a swagger and his flamboyant blue and purple robes were almost blinding, he had long wavy blond hair and a face that seemed forever morphed into a smile.
"Harry Potter!" he spoke each syllable loudly and these two words alone took enough time, then Harry found himself pulled into a handshake, the man had an iron grip and his friends didn't know whether to stand back or draw their wands.
"Gilderoy Lockhart," Draco muttered to Harry who as far as he was concerned was being either kidnapped or attacked by some random nutter.
"Possibly the only wizard in this room as equally famous as me, tell me Harry my boy what brings you here today?" he asked the room rather than Harry who answered.
"Just getting my school books," Lockhart let out a huge booming laugh and grinned to one member of the crowd who had a camera, the blinding flash left Harry visionless for a few seconds.
"Ah the joys of being a student, well I suppose there is no better time to announce this than now but I will be personally taking up the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor in Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry," he may have spoken the words charismatically but Harry's blood went cold. He did not like the man at all and if his mind was anything to go by he was going to be the wors... second worst teacher Harry had ever had. Draco and his Cho were looking at each other with confusion and dread while Hermione looked almost hopeful as Lockhart turned his attention towards them
"Ah, the infamous six, come on you lot any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine," he announced, Hermione rushed up and everything she had read about Lockhart was obviously going to her head. Draco and Cho however would have probably stayed where they were if not for the crowd pushing them forward; Crabbe and Goyle were also presented not a few seconds later.
"Ahh so good so see such prospective intelligent looking students well I think you deserve a treat for coming on up here, so here you all go. My complete works all signed by me and will be worth quite a great deal in the future," he announced as a pile of books was forced into Harry and his friend's hands, then Lockhart announced something to the crowd and the book signing continued.
"What the hell just happened?" Cho spoke what they were all thinking and the honest answer was none of them knew.
"Can I just say my earlier concerns were justified?" Draco asked her, she fixed him with an icy glare and said nothing,
"Can I agree with Draco on this one?" Hermione announced.
"No," Cho answered for her, Lockhart was now talking to the women and making remarks that made Draco look like a world class comedian.
"Please for the love of God can anvil fall on his head?" Draco begged looking up "I just can't take an entire year of that,"
"Maybe he'll be ok," Hermione suggested meekly,
"Yeah and maybe we'll end up fighting an eighty foot spider at some point this year," Draco countered dryly; he now had two people glaring at him. Though the prize for being glared at was taken by another source as the icy voice of Ron Weasley filled their ears
"Can't even go into a bookshop without showing off," he spat, in that one moment six pairs of eyes were focused on him and Crabbe and Goyle took a step forward.
"Boys don't fight with him, please the effort it would take to wipe the floor with him is not worth your time," Draco announced causing Ron to turn on him with vibrant red ears.
"Sorry that's not normal have you been checked by a healer because glowing ears is not a common trait?" Cho asked him looking slightly repelled.
"She has a got a point," Hermione agreed looking at his brightly coloured ears with distaste.
"Look people if we're going over all of his faults then we're going to be here all day, let's just go," Draco decided.
"What could you two do anyway? You dumber than trolls!" Ron sneered at Crabbe and Goyle
"And yet they both got higher grades than you," Harry pointed out. Crabbe and Goyle took a step back
"Your right, we don't have the time for this," Crabbe decided, Goyle looked at Ron gruffly but did not make a move, for a moment there was some kind of standoff as Ron refused to move and Harry wondered if he could get away with throwing the irritating boy out of the window. His answer came to him unfortunately in the form of a plump woman with long red hair who had seen part of what was going on, or had found an excuse to have a go at Harry Potter who had made her life miserable for the whole year.
"What are you doing to my son?" she demanded in a voice that made her sound like the world's most overprotective mother. In many ways she was but Harry did not care,
"Standing here talking to him," Draco remarked. Maybe once he would have shown some respect to this woman but after facing Voldemort himself and meeting her son he really did not care
"No you're bullying him!" Molly corrected in a huff; angry that a Malfoy was showing her up in public, Harry looked at her warily knowing that they would not be getting out of this easily,
"I really don't think this constitutes as bullying," Hermione pointed out defending her friends
"DON'T YOU DARE CORRECT ME YOU FILT," she began in a rage
"Shut up!" Harry demanded coolly, whatever she was going to say was lost as she turned on Harry, in her rage she raised a hand to slap him and before Harry could move to defend she was bringing her hand down towards him and... the force of a car threw her to the floor. A scabbed hand had pushed her forward and not kindly, Lucy had just flown into the shop; she had no idea what had happened all she saw was her child in danger. The shop was silent now, some had been watching with interest before Molly had shouted but her outburst had shocked everyone, now people were watching a Dementor gliding around Molly Weasley angrily.
"Wha..." the red haired woman began in a slight daze then she screamed as a voice pierced her mind like a knife.
You tried to attack my son! Lucy hissed in her mind, anger was radiating off her and already the lights in the shop were flickering, Harry hadn't seen her this angry since they had first met and had a dark feeling this was not going to end well.
"He's a," Molly spat trying to justify herself, then she wavered as she realised what she was speaking to and the reality of the event sunk in.
Would you like to finish that sentence? Lucy demanded in her mind, Molly shook her head as her blood almost froze in fear. Lucy's chill was in full effect and it was only Harry's influence that stopped his friends being affected,
"Let's all calm down now," a calm and reasonable voice suggested as Lucius Malfoy entered the shop, he held his arms up and while not caring for the Weasley's at all did not want a fight to break out in the middle of the shop. Lucy looked at him for a few seconds as did Molly, then Lucy's chill vanished and she glided back a few metres, Molly looked up; grabbed Ron and promptly ran out of the shop. Lockhart was now hiding under the desk as the angry Dementor scanned the room,
"See how much easier it is to fight a troll with a Dementor," Draco joked.