Read Online Harry Potter 02 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by authors_sort - Free Book Online

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 Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!’
    The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.
    ‘You have these,’ Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. ‘I’ll buy my own –’
    ‘Bet you loved that, didn’t you, Potter?’ said a voice Harry had no trouble recognising. He straightened up and found himself face to face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer.
    ‘ Famous Harry Potter,’ said Malfoy. ‘Can’t even go into a bookshop without making the front page.’
    ‘Leave him alone, he didn’t want all that!’ said Ginny. It was the first time she had spoken in front of Harry. She was glaring at Malfoy.
    ‘Potter, you’ve got yourself a girlfriend !’ drawled Malfoy. Ginny went scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart’s books.
    ‘Oh, it’s you,’ said Ron, looking at Malfoy as if he were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. ‘Bet you’re surprised to see Harry here, eh?’
    ‘Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley,’ retorted Malfoy. ‘I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for that lot.’
    Ron went as red as Ginny. He dropped his books into the cauldron, too, and started towards Malfoy, but Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket.
    ‘Ron!’ said Mr Weasley, struggling over with Fred and George. ‘What are you doing? It’s mad in here, let’s go outside.’
    ‘Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley.’
    It was Mr Malfoy. He stood with his hand on Draco’s shoulder, sneering in just the same way.
    ‘Lucius,’ said Mr Weasley, nodding coldly.
    ‘Busy time at the Ministry, I hear,’ said Mr Malfoy. ‘All those raids … I hope they’re paying you overtime?’
    He reached into Ginny’s cauldron and extracted, from amidst the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration.
    ‘Obviously not,’ he said. ‘Dear me, what’s the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don’t even pay you well for it?’
    Mr Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny.
    ‘We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy,’ he said.
    ‘Clearly,’ said Mr Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr and Mrs Granger, who were watching apprehensively. ‘The company you keep, Weasley … and I thought your family could sink no lower –’
    There was a thud of metal as Ginny’s cauldron went flying; Mr Weasley had thrown himself at Mr Malfoy, knocking him backwards into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of ‘Get him, Dad!’ from Fred or George; Mrs Weasley was shrieking, ‘No, Arthur, no!’; the crowd stampeded backwards, knocking more shelves over; ‘Gentlemen, please – please!’ cried the assistant and then, louder than all, ‘Break it up, there, gents, break it up –’
    Hagrid was wading towards them through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy apart. Mr Weasley had a cut lip and Mr Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding Ginny’s old transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.
    ‘Here, girl – take your book – it’s the best your father can give you –’
    Pulling himself out of Hagrid’s grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.
    ‘Yeh should’ve ignored him, Arthur,’ said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes.