“Eric Potter? How have you been enjoying Hogwarts so far?” Mr. Weasley asked as they sat in the beaten up old blue car that he was driving. Eric would have been disappointed, but his magic sense told him that the vehicle was absolutely blazing with magic. Enchanted through and through, so it likely had many secrets and abilities that the man could activate.

“Very good,” Eric replied, “I’ve had a lot of fun there.”

He imagined back to when one of the younger boys had started flipping out after Eric had slipped the LSD into his drink. Ah, that was hilarious… He had flailed around for over ten minutes babbling before one of the older students came over and cast the spell to fix him. Oh, and dance club too of course. Having people willing to dance with you was much more fun than forcing the demons to do it with his binding orders.

After that Eric clarified his statement more and discussed the various classes he had taken. Mr. Weasley worked at the wizarding government which Eric found very interesting. It was always important to know what the rules were so you could bend them the farthest without breaking them. Eric had learned that first hand with the demons. None had liked him as their king, so any order he gave was twisted beyond recognition by their interpretations. They had to follow the exact letter of all his orders, but not the spirit. The only ironclad rule was that none of them could attack him no matter what. Eric had even ordered them too a few times and they had been unable to. Orders beyond the crown apparently.

Anyway, Eric had gotten very good at finding loopholes when giving orders so he could get rid of them so the Demons would do exactly what he wanted. Mr. Weasley was part of a more insignificant part of the ministry from what he said, but Eric still drank in the stories the man told of illegal activity that he had stopped. If he knew how people had been caught then he would know what not to do if he ever got the desire to do something similar himself.

They drove and talked for a while until they were on a rural road. The road was unpaved and looked rather rough, but the car was somehow buttery smooth and didn’t bump up and down at all as Mr. Weasley drove. Probably one of the enchantments built into the car.

Suddenly at a seemingly random point on the road, Mr. Weasley turned and drove through a random field for a few minutes. He was halfway across the empty field of grass when suddenly the view of the surroundings shifted as they passed through some sort of barrier.

There, impossibly standing, was a tall, leaning house. It was patchwork as if someone had built it one room at a time, each box stacked haphazardly on top of each other, each out of a different type of wood each time. Eric eyed the place. There was no way that building supported itself without enchantments to keep it that way. Maybe these people were bigger thrill seekers than Eric had thought they were. That house looked like it might collapse in on their heads at any moment if someone just… poked the enchantments the wrong way. He should look at them when he had the chance. Not that he would do it, but… just in case.

Mr. Weasley parked and they got out of the car and went inside, the whole house was chaotic. Eric saw the pots and pans at the sink washing themselves as various red headed children ran around the house preparing for the trip to Diagon alley.

After a few minutes, the mother, a rather plump woman, herded the four boys and surprisingly, a girl. Eric eyed the girl who looked rather shy and uncomfortable at his eye contact. He smiled and waved at her. She gave a weak smile back and then quickly ran over behind one of her brothers to break Eric’s line of sight as her cheeks and neck started turning red.

Interesting. It seems his smile hadn’t been what frightened her off this time. He’d have to ask Ron later what she was up to. Was she just shy?

“That’s Ginny,” Ron whispered as he noticed Eric still trying to peer around Fred who was smirking as he looked between Ginny cowering behind him and Eric. Ginny was trying to look like she had a purpose in standing in that exact spot next to her brother, but it was obvious to everyone that she was just shy around Eric and trying to hide.

“I should go say hello,” Eric said to Ron and walked towards Fred. The boy got a glint in his eye and shifted to block Ginny’s view of Eric even more. He waited until Eric was almost standing right in front of him before stepping to the side suddenly and exposing Ginny to him in a flash. She stiffened and quickly looked around as if to flee as she saw him standing there.

“Hello,” Eric said, “I’m Eric Potter. Ginny, right? Can’t be fun being the only girl around all these boys, right? At least whatever you do, you’ll always be the first girl in the family to do it, right? Hahahaha.”

Ginny blinked, “I… I… I never th-thought about it th- that way before? N-Nice to meet you, Eric. You’re famous.”

She immediately flinched and looked vaguely panicked at the last sentence.

“Heck yeah, I am!” Eric said, “Most famous boy in the whole world! And the humblest too. Just read my books, they’ll tell you all about it. I don’t get royalties on those, by the way. Somebody just totally stole my image and had their way with it while I wasn’t around to protest.”

“Y-Your books? So none of it is true? I- Well, I’ve read a couple.”

“Dozen…Couple dozen.” Fred coughed and Ginny glared daggers at him. Heh. Glaring daggers. Eric should see if there was a spell that could do that.

“Well, I did wrestle a hydra to submission when I was two,” Eric said thoughtfully, “A hard battle, but it stole my prized stuffed animal, so it had to be done. Vicious beasts, those…”

“Alright, everybody!” Mrs. Weasley called now it seemed everybody was prepared, cutting off the conversation, “Time to take the floo! Alright, Percy first to demonstrate. Just a handful of powder, throw it down, then say your destination clearly. Want to show them, Percy?”

“Certainly, mother,” the rather pompous boy said as he took a handful of ashy gray powder and stood in the empty fireplace. He stood there with his arm held out in front of them and took a deep breath before throwing it down. “Diagon Alley!”

In a burst of green flames, the powder lit up at his feet and then he disappeared. Eric eyed the empty fireplace suspiciously. How to verify these people weren’t suicidal maniacs, how to verify…

“Has Ginny done it before?” Eric said, “Ladies first, right?”

Ginny was a cute little girl. They wouldn’t let her actually go through with it if it was some elaborate trick. He could see killing off Percy to get to him. He was awesome after all. But Ginny? Definitely not. He didn’t get the sense that these people were that far gone. Although you never knew…

“Oh!” Mrs. Weasley said, “Quite the gentleman. What do you think, Ginny? It’s her first time, but she may as well go next. Percy’s already waiting on the other side.”

Ginny gave an uncertain look at Eric and he smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She went up and grabbed the ashy powder. She looked rather nervous, but she stood straighter and got a resolute expression on her face and straightened upwards until she was completely vertical. She cleared her throat. “Diagon Alley!” She said, only slightly squeaking at the end as the powder hit the ground. She was quickly consumed by the green flames and disappeared. Eric eyed her carefully the whole time, looking for a signature flash or shimmer of an illusion. But no, it seems that she really had been sent through. He relaxed. It probably wasn’t a trap.

“How about you next, Eric?” Mrs. Weasley said, “Just speak clearly, and you’ll be there in a moment.”

Eric nodded and a few seconds later was standing there nervously with powder in hand. He raised his fist and as he threw the powder down his voice cracked.

“Diag-oniiily,”

In a burst of green flames Eric disappeared and the next second he was in a dingy old shop covered in cobwebs and encrusted dirt. He fell over from stumbling out of the fireplace and caught himself on his hands before he could land on the disgusting floor below him. Eric scrunched his nose and leveraged himself to his feet. With a quick rub of his hand on his robe, he used some wandless cleaning magic to fully cleanse his hands of any dirt or filth that might have gotten on them.

Eric looked around the shop and released his magic sense to a foot away from his body. The whole place was filled with all sorts of interesting things. Embalmed organs in jars, shrunken heads, various spiky and sinister looking objects. Eric stepped forward and inspected what looked like a rotten hand mounted on a pedestal. He felt its magic and hummed in appreciation. Wow, even its magic felt evil and sinister! Now, that was style. He wasn’t one for the big gothic vibe, but he could completely respect the effort.

He kept inspecting the various objects around him just bathing in their pure sinisterness and variety of them, before he heard a familiar nasally voice. Hey, wasn’t that Draco?

He walked through the shelves until he spotted Draco and an older man with similar platinum blonde hair and a black cane with a silver head. The older man was currently holding out something to an old man at the counter who was dubiously inspecting it with a frown on his face. It seems the voice had not been Draco, but his father’s. Presumably that’s who the older platinum blonde man was.

“Now, Mr. Malfoy. This will be hard to sell with the nature of it, I think the price you want is not worth quite that…”

“Heya, Draco!” Eric called out as he walked towards them, “Isn’t this shop so cool? What’s that thing that your dad’s selling? That’s your dad, right?”

Both of the older men and Draco jumped like scared cats and whirled around to stare at Eric, who gave a little wave in response even as he kept walking towards them. He smiled at them, his practiced one that wasn’t so wide that it scared people.

As he got closer he saw that Draco’s dad’s cane had a design on it. On the silver tip of the cane was a carved serpent design. He leaned in to inspect it, “Ooooh. Cool snake design.”

Draco’s dad snatched the cane away and sneered at Eric. “Who is your… friend here, Draco? What are you doing here, boy?”

“He’s… This is Eric Potter, father,” Draco said and vaguely waved at him, “Don’t mind him. He’s always like this.”

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“Always like this?” Eric said, acting insulted, “You wound me! I had no idea you were following me everywhere. I’m a completely different person while I’m sleeping, I’ll have you know.”

Draco sighed and looked at his father, “You see?”

“Anyways, what are you selling, Draco’s dad?” Eric asked, “Is it something interesting?”

He moved forward and while he took a step to the side to avoid Eric, leaving the object behind on the counter in his hurry to avoid crashing into Eric.

Eric reached out and picked up the object as everyone watched him. He felt it with his magic sense as he rolled over the vaguely orb-like object.

“Ooooh. Very spooky, sinister, and evil. The holy three for this place. Fits right in with the rest of this stuff,” Eric complimented before looking at the man behind the counter, “I like the whole mysterious vibe of the place, but you should at least clean the floors. I thought I would instantly get a disease just from looking at it, it’s so dirty.”

He put down the spooky ball on the counter again and looked around, “Anyway, I seem to be a bit lost. Do you know where I am? There seems to be a mix up with my floo travel. I’m trying to get to Diagon alley.”

“Ya can use my fireplace, so long as ya get out of ma shop,” the man behind the counter said, “This is knockturn alley. I don’t need ya gettin’ stabbed out there pinned on me by the Aurors.”

“Oh, this is the place where everyone buys drugs,” Eric said, “Good stuff, those…”

Everyone looked at him askance, but he shrugged as they seemed to be trying to figure out how he had bought drugs and not been stabbed or cursed. Well, if they didn’t know about Hagrid then he wouldn’t tell them.

The old man running the shop came around the counter and glanced at Draco’s dad, “Mr. Malfoy, I’ll be with you in a moment after we’ve shooed off our… guest.”

“Quite,” Draco’s dad said with disdain.

Eric went to leave, but turned around at the last second as he remembered something.

“Oh, and Draco? I just remembered. I was reading, and poisoning by servants was actually the second most likely cause of death of arrogant nobles. It seems stabbed, or well spelled for you, by family members is the most common. Lines of succession and all that. The arrogant ones don’t have enough allies to alert them about the back stabbings in time. Didn’t want you to think I was ill informed. Bye bye, until next time!”

Mr. Malfoy looked rather shocked, glancing between Eric and the stoic Draco, seemingly still processing his last statement.

“I know,” Eric said sympathetically, “You’ve been preparing for poison this whole time, but it’s actually your own family you’ve got to watch out for. So sad… Hope it works out, maybe they’ll try both? You never know with these things. Then both sets of preparations will be useful. Nice meeting you, Draco, Draco’s dad.”

Eric turned around and jogged slightly to catch up with the old shopkeeper who was standing grumbling in front of an old fireplace.

“Ya know how to do it?” the man asked suspiciously.

“Yeah. I just… sneezed last time I did it.”

“Bah. Stupid kids, barging in here, ruining my business with a big client…”

Eric shrugged and grabbed the ashy powder and stepped into the fireplace.

“Diagon Alley,” He said clearly this time as he threw the powder down. A second later he stepped out onto the busy street. After a few seconds the group of redheads nearby made their way towards them.

“Eric!” Ron said, “Where were you? We thought you got lost!”

“Oh, I was,” Eric agreed, “I was in knockturn alley for a bit. Luckily somebody was so annoyed by me he brought me to his fireplace and sent me on my way.”

Mr. Weasley let out a sigh of relief, “Well at least you’re here now. Knockturn alley. Be careful there, Eric. Dangerous place, that.”

After some hubbub, everyone calmed down and they all started shopping for their school supplies.

After some time, they ended up at a bookshop. There was a line out the door of people waiting to go in. Hermione had joined them at some point. Eric had forgotten when. Mrs. Weasley and Hermione were both excited and waiting to go in. All the books they had been assigned for defense against the dark arts were written by him, and the author himself was in the shop for a book signing.

He didn’t really care about that, so he just skipped the line and went in for normal shopping. Curious after collecting all of his books and throwing them in his expandable luggage case, he drifted over towards the signing table to observe the man at the center of the commotion. Eric spotted a rack filled with love potions on the way, and after reading their effects he glanced around surreptitiously and pocketed a couple. He would pay a few extra galleons on his way out and whisper what he was buying to the clerk, but he couldn’t be seen visibly buying the potions just in case someone connected him to any plans that he eventually acted on…

Mrs. Weasley had been nice enough to bring his luggage trunk after he had forgotten it at their home. In the excitement with the floo travel and the fireplace Eric had left it behind when he went through.

At the signing table, A man in fancy blue robes with white ruffles around his collar was the man himself Lockhart. He had flaxen golden hair that was combed back and obviously heavily styled and well maintained, and he had a thousand watt smile as he laughed and signed the books.

Eric drifted closer to maybe see what the man’s loopy signature looked like… when the man looked up and spotted Eric from across the way.

His smile lit up a fraction more, “Harry Potter, Harry Potter,” the man called out as he finished signing one last book and stood. He walked around the desk and approached Eric who was frowning at him.

“Eric,” He corrected, “My name is Eric.”

“Of course, of course,” Lockhart said, his smile only dimming a fraction. “Either way,”

He turned to the gathered crowd and threw his arm around Eric in a side hug. Eric considered attacking the man, but quickly suppressed the urge. He was in a crowded place, he might get in trouble. So instead he looked at the man and smiled. A natural smile, nothing like the suppressed little imitations he had been practicing for everyone else. Eric felt his lips stretching so far he could feel them crackling slightly and his face muscles began to tremble and strain as they worked to pull his lips back to their absolute farthest extension to show as many teeth as possible to the crowd. Lockhart didn’t notice, but several in the crowd did and flinched back when he met their eyes.

“Harry Potter knew today that he would be the day he met me, famous author, accomplished duelist, adventurer extraordinaire…” Lockhart panned the crowd with a smile, “But what he did not know is that he would receive a free copy of all of my collected works. Signed by yours truly, of course. But this is not the last he will see of me! I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be taking the Defense against the Dark arts position at Hogwarts for this year!”

There was a gasp of surprise in the crowd and some clapping. A man ran up carrying a tower of the twenty six of his own books that Lockhart had assigned for his own class. Well, that was one way to make money as a teacher, Eric supposed. If Hagrid was any indication, the teachers weren’t paid well enough to not need a second form of income somehow. Although Eric was sure that most of them weren’t dealing drugs to do so.

Eric kept smiling. The man who had run up handed the stack of books to Lockhart and then scurried off back into the crowd. Lockhart turned to Eric and then jumped as he saw his smile.

“Q-Quite the smile you’ve got there!” Lockhart said, quickly recovering from his shock as he handed the stack of books to Eric, “I’d practice that one a bit more,” Lockhart whispered after leaning in and then winking at Eric, “I’d be happy to give some advice when we get to school. Every good smile needs a bit of practice to achieve perfection.”

The man straightened and gave a sweeping gesture at Eric. “Harry Potter, everyone! Let’s all give him a hand!”

Eric shifted the stack of books in his hands and felt a flicker of annoyance. He was Eric. This was his body now, not Harry’s. The crowd clapped and after a few minutes of congratulations by random strangers, Eric was left alone and put away his books into his case. He went up to the front counter and paid for everything he took including the love potions and then made his way towards the front of the store where he heard Mr. Weasley saying something while sounding angry. Eric probably could have stolen half of the stuff he took in the chaos of the store, but no need to risk it. He had plenty of money to spend from Harry’s ancestral vaults, so may as well pay just in case he got caught.

Eric made his way through the crowd, dragging his luggage case behind him and finally made through the ring of observers to see a confrontation between Draco’s dad and Mr. Weasley.

“Hey, Draco’s dad,” Eric said and waved, interrupting whatever argument they were having, “Did you end up selling that thing? Is Draco here to buy some books?”

Everyone stared at Eric like he was from another planet as he stared between the two men who seemed shocked out of their anger by Eric’s sheer audacity.

Draco’s dad sniffed and lifted his head to look down his nose at Mr. Weasley, “Indeed. At least we can properly afford them. What’s the use of being a traitor to wizarding kind if you’re not even being paid well for it?”

“Mr. Weasley, are you a spy?” Eric asked in amazement before tampering down his enthusiasm, “You’re not a very good one if Draco’s dad can just shout your secret identity in public.”

Both men looked at Eric like he was an idiot.

“No, Eric. I am not spy,” Mr. Weasley said, “It’s just that some of us have a very different idea of what disgraces the names of wizards.”

Mr. Malfoy’s eyes flickered over to Mrs. Weasley who was balancing a tall stack of books above herself.

“Maybe if your wife laid off the sweets once in a while, your family could finally afford your school books…” Mr. Malfoy sneered and Mr. Weasley’s hands curled into fists.

Eric’s eyes widened in excitement. Was he going to do it? Bam! Yes, Mr. Weasley leapt forward and punched Mr. Malfoy in the face!

“Yeah, Good one, Mr. Weasley!” Eric cheered as Mr. Weasley shoved Mr. Malfoy as a follow up to his punch. The blonde man’s face twisted into anger and he took his cane and brought it around to hit Mr. Weasley’s shins. The red haired man grunted in pain and swore.

“Yeah, and a nice counter! With the cane to the shins, Draco’s dad takes the lead!”

Eric felt someone shove him from the side and he turned to look. Ron was standing there glaring at Eric. “Oy! What are you doing, cheering against my dad for?”

The two older men were still brawling in the background, neither able to get to their wands before the other landed a physical blow on them. The crowd around them seemed to have no interest in interfering, instead just enjoying the show.

Eric shrugged at Ron, “Hey, just looking for a good show, no hard feelings. Oh, see it’s already almost over. I bet I missed the best parts…”

Mr. Malfoy managed to take his cane and shove back Mr. Weasley a bit. Now with some distance between them, both men drew their wands and stood there pointing them at each other. At that there was a panicked shout in the crowd and people began trampling and stampeding out of the way of the potential spell battle.

There was a girlish scream and Eric looked over and saw Ginny had been knocked over, sending her cauldron filled with her books spilling all over the floor.

The two older men stood staring at each other for a long moment before they slowly lowered their wands and didn’t battle.

Neither said anything to each other. Mr. Malfoy turned around and started walking away looking rather annoyed. At the last moment he seemed to notice Ginny scrambling around on the floor trying to pick up all of her books and return them to her cauldron. He leaned over and picked up one of Lockhart's books. Eric noticed that the man brought it close to his robes and added a second smaller black book underneath the larger Lockhart one. Oooh, Mr. Malfoy knew muggle magic tricks, too!

Ginny finished putting all of her books back and noticed Mr. Malfoy holding the last one. She just stared at him, not saying anything for a second, apparently unwilling to ask him for it and standing with her cauldron hanging in front of her.

The man sneered and tilted the book forward so the black book underneath was covered and dropped it in Ginny’s cauldron, placing the black book inside all in one smooth motion. Eric raised an eyebrow and glanced around, but in the chaos that was still dying down no one seemed to have noticed what had happened. Mr. Malfoy was good, that was very sneaky…

Without another word, Mr. Malfoy strode off with Draco hurrying off after him.

Eric went out into the street and moved onwards as he saw the Aurors in their blue robes start to question everyone about what happened. That sounded like a hassle, best to go see what some of the other shops had to offer now that he had found all of his school supplies. He could reunite with the Weasleys and Hermione some time later. Hermione, he had almost forgotten she was here honestly. Ah well. He could talk to her when they got back to Hogwarts, no need to go out of his way to interact with her.