Wizards are quite impulsive—or perhaps “reckless” is the better word.
The common rules of the Muggle world, such as not shouting in a bookstore, are completely ignored by wizards.
In the second year of the original plot, Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley actually got into a physical brawl right inside a bookshop.
To Tris, this seemed absurd, but to wizards, it was perfectly normal.
The same thing was happening now.
Ron rushed in, shouting and making a scene, but the shop clerk merely glanced at him.
Seeing that he was just a child, the clerk didn’t react further.
Percy, however, frowned as he walked over.
“What are you doing? What’s with all the shouting?”
Ron didn’t particularly like Tris, his twin brother, but compared to Percy, Tris was much more likable.
At the very least, Tris wouldn’t put on a stern face to lecture people.
But Ron couldn’t worry about that right now because he was shaking with excitement.
Seeing Ron’s face nearly as red as his hair, Tris felt a bit puzzled.
Ron had a flighty personality, but he didn’t usually get this worked up.
Had he run into a member of the Chudley Cannons?
Ron was a die-hard fan of the Chudley Cannons.
Although he had rarely seen a game in person, he followed everything about the team.
Tris couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.
In fact, he didn’t understand fan behavior of any kind.
Especially since the Chudley Cannons were currently one of the worst-performing teams in the league.
Though they had won twenty-one championships in the past, including a three-peat, that had happened nearly a hundred years ago.
Ron took a deep breath, pulled Percy and Tris close, and whispered, “You guys won’t believe who I ran into at the robe shop.”
“Who?” Percy looked indifferent.
Ron looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, then lowered his voice even further.
“Harry Potter!”
“Ha—” Percy froze for a moment, then started to exclaim.
Fortunately, Ron reacted quickly and clamped a hand over his mouth.
“Quiet! Do you want everyone to hear? Mum and Dad are talking to him. Do you want to go over?”
“Of course I do!” Percy said excitedly, immediately heading for the door.
He had quietly slipped the book he was holding back onto the shelf the moment Ron arrived.
He’d met Harry?
Tris was somewhat surprised.
He clearly remembered that in the movies, the first meeting between the Weasleys and Harry took place at King’s Cross Station.
Why were they meeting early now?
Hmm…
Tris thought about it and realized the reason.
It was because of Charlie.
The original Charlie had left for Romania immediately after his N.E.W.T.
results came in, without staying home for so long.
This time, because Tris had suggested he write to Dumbledore, and because of the time it took for Dumbledore to write to the dragon sanctuary, for the sanctuary to reply, and for the offer to arrive, several days had been lost.
Because they were preoccupied with Charlie’s situation, the family hadn’t gone to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies.
It wasn’t until Charlie received his offer yesterday that everyone went shopping today, celebrating in the process.
Consequently, they collided in time with Harry, who had arrived at Diagon Alley a few days late due to his aunt and uncle’s interference, only getting there after Hagrid showed up.
It seemed his own small ripples had caused a chain reaction.
As Tris pondered this, he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
However, the prospect of meeting the Boy Who Lived ahead of schedule brought a certain level of excitement to his heart.
Following Ron and Percy, Tris left the bookstore.
When they reached the front of Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, all three of them paused.
The shop, which was not small, looked exceptionally crowded.
It wasn’t because there were too many people—though there were quite a few—but primarily because there was a giant inside.
A true giant!
He was twice as tall and three times as wide as an adult.
Despite it being mid-summer, he wore a fur coat of unknown origin; he had a physique that could easily wrestle a full-grown brown bear.
“Merlin’s beard, that man is huge,” Ron exclaimed, staring at the giant.
Tris recognized him immediately as Hagrid.
Although he knew from the movies that Hagrid was towering, seeing him in reality provided a visual impact that far exceeded his expectations.
Good grief, no wonder those ferocious magical creatures were “cuties” in his eyes.
Anyone seeing a behemoth like this would probably try their best to look cute.
“Hagrid?” Percy naturally knew Hagrid.
Though surprised, his reaction wasn’t as extreme as Ron’s or Tris’s.
“That’s the Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts. Oh…”
His gaze then fell upon another person in the shop.
Tris looked toward that person as well.
He was a tall, elegantly dressed middle-aged man with platinum blond hair.
Beside him stood a pale youth with the same platinum hair.
Could this…
be the Malfoys?
In Tris’s memory, Harry and Draco Malfoy met for the first time inside Hogwarts Castle.
Back then, the little dragon prince had run over to Harry, seeking a “connection.” Harry had found him repulsive and didn’t want anything to do with him.
The rejected prince had then turned that “love” into hate, and so…
Wait, no, that was some slash fanfiction he’d read in his previous life.
Tris quickly tossed those messy thoughts out of his head.
But the first meeting between Draco and Harry should have been at the castle; why were they meeting here?
His family had arrived late because of Charlie, and Harry had arrived today as planned, but what about the Malfoys?
Strange.
Since he couldn’t figure it out, he stopped thinking about it.
Never one for internal conflict, Tris pushed open the door and entered the shop.
“Oh, three more Weasleys? Arthur, you can’t even maintain the basic dignity of a wizarding family, yet you insist on having so many children to suffer in poverty just like you?” The platinum-haired man swept a glance over the three newcomers, identifying them by their hair alone.
As expected, Lucius Malfoy.
Tris nodded inwardly.
Anyone who could be so irritating the moment they opened their mouth, while dressing up like a flamboyant peacock, could only be Lucius.
There were two peacocks in the HP world: the colorful peacock Lockhart and the white peacock Lucius.
Between the two, Lockhart was slightly better—at least he spoke pleasantly.
Arthur’s face turned beet-red at Lucius’s words, but being poor with words, he didn’t know how to respond.
“Excuse me, Uncle,” Tris spoke up, unable to stand seeing his father being pushed around.
“And who might you be? Dressed up so flamboyantly, are you performing in a play here?”
Plays existed in the wizarding world, and Lucius’s old-school aristocratic attire did indeed look like something a stage actor would wear.
*Pfft!*
Almost everyone present burst out laughing, including Harry, who had been somewhat bewildered by the sudden turn of events.
Harry had come to Diagon Alley with Hagrid and had been incredibly curious.
The shopkeepers he’d encountered while buying things had been friendly, giving him a very positive impression of the wizarding world.
However, while being measured for robes in the shop, he had encountered the platinum-haired boy beside him.
The boy’s condescending attitude had rubbed Harry the wrong way, and his subsequent belittling of Hagrid had made Harry loathe him.
Harry hadn’t intended to argue with him, but then this large red-haired family suddenly arrived.
They seemed very close with Hagrid, greeting him and joking around.
Then, as if Hagrid had mentioned him, several of them rushed in to shower him with warmth and concern.
Harry had felt the wizarding world’s enthusiasm at The Leaky Cauldron, but the Weasleys’ warmth was almost overwhelming.
But it felt good!
Harry was intelligent and sensitive.
He could clearly read the undisguised kindness, pity, and care in Molly and Arthur’s eyes.
The older brothers were also very friendly.
The only thing that made Harry slightly uncomfortable was the young girl; her gaze was so intense that it was almost too much to handle.
Just as Harry was immersing himself in the warmth of being cared for, that flamboyantly dressed, white-haired middle-aged man spoke up.
The man’s immediate mockery of the friendly Weasley family made Harry very angry.
He just didn’t know the man’s identity or the dynamics of the situation, so he didn’t know how to speak up.
Tris’s words, however, felt wonderful.
Handsome and sharp-tongued—Harry’s opinion of him skyrocketed in an instant.
“And who are you?” Lucius narrowed his eyes, looking at Tris.
He was highly displeased that a Weasley brat dared to mock him.
“I thought since you dressed the part, you’d be someone who understood manners and etiquette. It seems I was mistaken. I suppose you really can’t judge a person by their appearance,” Tris said with a look of regret, shaking his head and sighing.
“What do you mean by that?” Lucius’s refined face twisted into an even uglier expression.
Tris was essentially calling him uncultured.
“Introducing oneself before asking another’s name is the most basic courtesy. I thought anyone with a shred of humanity would understand that. I was wrong; some people are gold on the outside but rotten within,” Tris’s mockery flowed effortlessly.
Lucius felt his breathing grow heavy.
Tris’s words left him indignant, yet he found it difficult to rebut them immediately.
He couldn’t exactly say: *I am the head of the noble Malfoy family and a leading figure among Britain’s pure-blood clans; if you don’t recognize me, that is your problem, alright?*
Saying that to a brat who looked like he hadn’t even started school—someone eleven or even younger—was simply too embarrassing.
Even Lucius found it beneath him.
He couldn’t say it, but his son could.
“Hmph, a low-class family is just that—low-class. You don’t even recognize my father,” Draco stepped forward, chin tilted up in arrogant pride.
To be fair, as fellow practitioners of posturing, Draco’s level was quite different from his father’s.
His arrogance was a bit too overt.
Lucius: 85 points, an excellent posturer.
Draco: 35 points, a clumsy imitator.
Tris graded the father and son’s performance in his head, then assumed an expression of deep heartbreak and disappointment, shaking his head.
“Yes, seeing you confirms once again that your home life is a failure. It’s hard to imagine that a child from a family with proper upbringing could be so lacking in manners. Do you even know what the word ‘upbringing’ means?”
“You…” Draco was momentarily stunned by Tris’s string of sophisticated vocabulary, and it took him a moment to process the meaning.
Then came the rage.
He wanted to rush forward and hit Tris.
Lucius quickly grabbed his son.
If this idiot son didn’t look exactly like him, he’d wonder if the boy was actually his.
*Are you insane?*
*There are ten people plus a human-bear over there.
There are only two of us.
You want to go engage in hand-to-hand combat?*
*Would you even win?*
“I am a Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy,” Lucius gritted his teeth, struggling to maintain his haughty air.
However, as he said his name, he naturally regained a sense of pride.
“Oh, so you’re Lucius Malfoy,” a smile appeared on Tris’s face.
Seeing this smile, the Weasley family’s expressions became strange.
Based on their knowledge of their son (brother), whenever Tris made that face, he was about to do something wicked.
Lucius had no such inkling.
Thinking that Tris was intimidated upon learning his identity, he said smugly, “You should address me as Lord Malfoy.”
“Right, right, Lord Malfoy,” Tris said with a beaming smile.
“I know you…”
Lucius looked pleased that even a brat knew his name.
However, Tris’s next sentence was: “You’re the Malfoy who used to be so close with the Dark Lord, right?”
Lucius’s expression changed instantly.