Now it was the summer of 1992, and Gaia was with Lele in Diagon Alley, shopping for their 4th and 2nd Year, respectively. The pair was accompanied by their mother as they weaved through the busy streets of Diagon Alley, their father not being able to come because of work reasons.

"Are you sure you'll be fine on your own? I could come back for you after bringing Lele home," Mrs. Eruditus asked Gaia as Lele coughed repeatedly beside her.

Lele had been sick for at least a week, but the young girl insisted on coming with to Diagon Alley to get their school things. Unfortunately, her temperature skyrocketed a few minutes into their shopping trip.

"I'll be fine mum, Lele will be all alone if you come back and I've still got quite a few things to buy. I'll come back home in an hour or so," Gaia answered.

"If you're sure. How will you get back home?" Mrs. Eruditus sighed, though she knew her daughter was right.

"Leaky Cauldron's connected to the Floo Network. I'll just floo home," Gaia answered.

The Eruditus matriarch sighed once again before nodding as Lele let out another series of coughs.

"Oh, alright. Careful, alright? If you're not back in 4 hours I'm coming back. Oh, and could you get Lele's things as well? She'll only need books. Here's our Gringotts Key. Stay safe, alright? Love you," Mrs. Eruditus said as she handed her Lele's booklist and the key before kissing her cheek. Gaia nodded and in the blink of an eye, her mother had apparated away with her sister.

"Right then," Gaia whispered to herself as she looked at Lele's booklist.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

"Sheesh. What's with all the Lockhart books?" she muttered to herself as she looked to her own booklist.

FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 by Miranda Goshawk Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gaia made a sound as she re-read the list once, twice, making sure that she was seeing right.

"Are they serious?" she grumbled.

Resigning herself to her fate, she turned around and yelped as she almost tripped after bumping into a person.

"Gaia!"

In front of Gaia was Harry, accompanied by Hagrid who was carrying a bag of items. His clothes seemed wrinkled and covered in a bit of soot, and his glasses looked broken. Shame, Gaia thought, I still can't use magic outside of school to fix it.

"Harry, hey!" Gaia smiled. She found herself glancing back at the direction she suspected he came from and frowned, "Did you just come from Knockturn Alley?"

"I messed up with the floo thing. Hagrid found me," Harry grinned sheepishly.

"It was the dust, wasn't it?" Gaia asked with a grin.

"I'll leave Harry to ya'. See you both at Hogwarts." Hagrid waved before walking off.

"Getting your books? Come on. I'll come with, but I have to go back to Gringotts to get some money," Gaia explained as she took his hand to guide him through the crowd.

"I need to get some too. But I should go look for the Weasleys. Mrs. Weasley might be worried," Harry said, pulling on her hand a bit to make her stop walking.

"We'll wait for them at Gringotts.. How's your summer been? You never replied to any of my letters. I asked dad if we could visit but he insisted on not going since he didn't like Aunt Petunia," Gaia told him as they started walking again.

Gaia wasn't sure if Professor Dumbledore had told Harry what he told her, but she got her answer when Harry burst into the Great Hall the following night and tackled her in a hug with a huge smile on his face.

"You won't believe what actually happened," Harry said with an exasperated sigh as he explained everything that happened with Dobby and the Dursleys.

"You're right. Even for the wizarding world, that is quite hard to believe," Gaia laughed, "Oh, look! There's Hermione!" she said, waving at the small witch who was enthusiastically making her way to them.

"Hi Gaia! Hello Harry! What happened to your glasses? Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again! Are you two coming into Gringotts?" Hermione said in a rush.

"As soon as we find the Weasleys," Harry answered just as two adults came up behind Hermione.

"Hermione, you can't just go running off like that!" the man said, panting a bit.

"Sorry mum. I got excited when I saw them. This is Harry Potter, my classmate, and Gaia Eruditus. She's two years above us. These are my parents," Hermione introduced.

Gaia smiled at them, observing their attire subtly. From what she could remember, Hermione was a muggle-born, so her parents must be muggle.

"Lovely to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Gaia greeted.

"Oh. Uh, lovely to meet you as well. Are you like Hermione as well? A - what's it called?" Mrs. Granger asked, turning to his daughter.

"A muggle-born. I'm sad to say no, I'm not. Although, my father's mother was a muggle," Gaia explained, shaking her head.

"Look, there's the Weasleys!" Hermione pointed.

Harry and Gaia looked around and saw Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley running up to their group.

"Harry! Goodness me, we've been looking for you. Molly's been worried sick. She's on her way right now," Mr. Weasley panted as they stopped in front of them. He glanced at Gaia, doing a double-take before smiling at her, "Well hello, Gaia! How's your father? He's been off in a mission, hasn't he?"

"Dad's fine, Mr. Weasley. Yes, he's been gone for 3 days now," Gaia smiled before being pulled into a hug.

"Gaia!" George grinned as he hugged her tightly.

"We've missed you!" Fred said, joining in the hug as well.

Gaia laughed merrily and wrapped her arms around the pair as best as she can. She pulled away slightly and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked up.

"Did you two get taller again?"

"I think you just got shorter," Fred teased.

Gaia huffed and turned away from them with her arms crossed, though there was a smile tugging on her lips.

"Where'd you land, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Erm, Knockturn Alley? That's what Hagrid and Gaia called it when they found me earlier," Harry answered.

"Wicked." the twins grinned.

Gaia slapped both of their arms.

"No, not wicked. Who knows what could've happened to him!" she exclaimed.

"Mum's never let us go in there," Ron said, his voice sounding envious.

"And it's better that way, Ron," Gaia reminded, shaking her head as the twins agreed with their younger brother.

Just then, Mrs. Weasley came running up to them, Ginny holding her hand beside her.

"Oh, Harry! Oh, my dear. You could have been anywhere! Hello Gaia, dar" Mrs. Weasley fussed, glancing at Gaia as she pulled a clothes brush out of her bag and started cleaning off the remaining soot from Harry's clothes. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses and tapped his wand on it, making it good as new.

"Knockturn Alley, actually," Gaia said. Mrs. Weasley stammered, nearly dropping the brush she held in her hand.

"Knockturn Alley!?"

✧✧✧

"I am about to lose my mind," Gaia grumbled as she, Fred, and George squeezed through the crowd in Flourish and Blotts.

"That's new," Fred mused.

"You love bookshops," George continued as they reached a far corner of the shop that wasn't as crowded.

"I only love the ones that don't have Gilderoy Lockhart's face everywhere," Gaia said, swatting away a piece of paper that was flying away with Lockhart's face printed on it, and straightening out her clothes, "Honestly, I don't know what people see in him! And his stories sound absolutely ridiculous! Maybe we should've stayed at Gambol and Japes," Gaia muttered out the last part while she checked if she still had all the books for her and Lele in her bag.

"Am I hearing her correctly, George? Did she just say that we should've stayed at a joke shop instead of going to a bookshop?" Fred mock gasped.

"Can't believe it myself, Fred." George shook his head in fake disbelief.

Gaia rolled her eyes and pushed Fred a bit, which had no effect seeing how Fred towered over her.

"You know, I'm a bit convinced that you'll stay that short forever," Fred teased, laughing loudly as he dodged Gaia's hand that moved to slap his arm.

"Look, there's mum with Hermione's parents," George pointed out before pulling his brother and their best friend back into the crowd.

"We just got out. Are we seriously going back in?" Gaia groaned.

"You'll be fine, Gaia. You've got us to block you from hitting too much people." Fred grinned as he followed behind her.

"Now it's only Harry, Ron and Hermione left," Mrs. Weasley said just as the trio reached them.

"What's this line for, anyway?" Gaia asked no one in particular.

"To get Lockhart's books," Ginny spoke up quietly.

"But I've already got mine and Lele's," Gaia grumbled, the twins laughing at her expense.

"Oh, there you are! Good," Mrs. Weasley said as she fixed her hair, "We'll be able to see him in a minute..."

"Please don't tell me your mum's in love with him too," Gaia whispered to the twins, a tired expression on her face.

"Then we won't tell you." Fred grinned down at her.

Gaia glared in front of her as they got closer to Lockhart's table, multiple faces surrounding him as he signed the copies of the books of people who approached him. A short man holding a camera pushed her out of the way, making her yelp as she fell onto Fred.

"Why do you keep falling on Fred? I'm here too," George joked as Fred helped her stand back up.

"Sorry George." Gaia rolled her eyes, "Next time, I'll make sure to twist around to land on you."

"It can't be... Is that Harry Potter?" Gilderoy Lockhart's annoying voice filled Gaia's ears, making her snap her head to him at the sound of Harry's name.

The crowd made a little aisle towards Harry and Lockhart jumped at him. He grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him up to the front. The crowd burst into applause as Lockhart smiled at the camera that was being held by the man who pushed Gaia earlier.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Lockhart said loudly, making the crowd go quiet, "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography — which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge."

The crowd applauded again as Gaia rolled my eyes.

"He didn't want that. The witch teaching our DADA wanted it," Gaia mumbled under her breath, although Fred and George's laughter told her that they had heard it.

"He had no idea," Lockhart continued, shaking Harry and making his glasses slip down a bit, "-that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

"What!?" Gaia screeched, her voice being drowned out by the cheers that filled the shop. Even Hermione was cheering along and squealing as she kept repeating 'He's teaching!' to Ron.

Harry staggered back to their group with his arms full of Lockhart's books. Gaia watched amusedly as he slipped them into Ginny's cauldron, stating that he would buy his own. She then pulled Fred and George around the bookshop to look at the books in hopes of finding something that would actually make their trip to the bookshop, and enduring the crowd within it, worth it.

"Why do we have to come with you," Fred groaned with George as they leaned on the bookshelves beside her.

"Because I come with you to joke shops even though I don't have an interest in pranks. Stop leaning on the shelves, they might fall," Gaia commented, stacking another book in her arms.

"Fair enough," George said.

Suddenly, there were a few gasps as the shelf in front of Gaia started falling towards her. She yelped and turned around, bracing herself for the impact. She opened her eyes when it never came and saw that Fred and George were holding it up, screaming something along the lines of 'Get him, dad!' as they peeked their heads from the top.

Next thing she knew, Hagrid was pulling apart Mr. Weasley and a man with long blonde hair. Mr. Weasley had a cut on his lip while the other man's eye looked like it was going to bruise.

"Here, girl. Take your book. It's the best your father can give you," the man said as he pulled Draco, who Gaia just noticed was there, out of the shop with him.

Must've been Mr. Malfoy, Gaia thought.

"You should've ignored him, Arthur. Rotten to the core, the whole family. Everyone knows that. No Malfoy's worth listening to. Bad blood, that's what it is. Come on now, let's get outta here," Hagrid said.

Fred took Gaia's hand, making the girl's face heat up, and started pulling her back towards the other Weasleys. She tugged back, making Fred look at her curiously.

"Actually, you go ahead. I still need to pay for these and mum'll be worried if I'm not home soon. See you on September 1st?" she said with a smile.

"Alright. I'll see you then," Fred smiled back, George doing the same beside him, before running to catch up with the rest of their family.

✧✧✧

Edited 09/06/2020