Return to Diagon Alley?

In the room, Edward is currently doing meditation as usual. But this time he will do something new.

He is currently trying to do what Snape said when explaining to Harry Potter about Occlumency.

To perform Occlumency, a person had to rid their mind of all thoughts and emotions.

And what's surprising is that he easily did it. He felt that right now if he activated his Occlumency, he could directly suppress his emotions and thoughts.

He did not know why he was so easy to do it.

He did not know whether because he was a natural Occlumens. Or is it because he often does meditation, which can help him suppress his emotions and make his mind calm so that there is no accidental magic around him.

Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter now. The most important thing now is that he can protect his mind from accomplished Legilimens like Voldemort, Dumbledore, and people like Snape who like to read other people's thoughts.

He also thought that the possibility of why Dumbledore could almost find out everything that happened at Hogwarts was other than hearing from potraits and house elf, perhaps Snape also reported the things he saw in the minds of students to Dumbledore.

That's why he must be careful and keep his Occlumency at Hogwarts later.

But even so he believed that if there was a Legilimency attack aimed at him, he could immediately turn off his mind to prevent access from entering his mind.

Waking up from his meditation, Edward immediately took a shower and prepared to go to Hermione's house.

...

Arriving at Granger's house, Edward saw Hermione waiting for him in front of the house.

"Hey, Hermione!".

"You're late today!" said Hermione dissatisfied.

"Sorry, I have a business before".

"Did you bring the books I said?" asked Hermione impatiently.

"Yup" said Edward, lifting a bag containing lots of books.

"Wow, what are you waiting for, let's go in!" Hermione said excitedly as she pulled Edward's arm.

Hearing this Edward was speechless and could only follow Hermione inside the house. And think maybe their friendship is limited to book.

Arriving in the living room, Hermione immediately opened the bag and chose the book she wanted to read.

"Where is your mom?" said Edward, when he did not see signs of Mrs. Granger who usually welcomed him.

"Mom went to help Dad today" said Hermione, "it looks like there will be many patients today".

"Are we going to discuss potions today?" nodded Edward and asked to Hermione.

"Yes, you have to study it seriously. Otherwise, Professor Snape will punish you" said Hermione seriously.

"If Professor Snape as you said yesterday, then no matter how good we are in the potion, he won't appreciate it. Except for the Slytherin house" Edward said, shaking his head.

Edward didn't think Snape would give points to anyone other than Slytherin. Even though Hermione had understood the potions compared to the others, Snape still didn't appreciate them and instead was indifferent to Hermione.

"Ed, you can't say that. Professor Snape doesn't mean ..." Before Hermione finished her words, the snow owl and brown owl suddenly landed on the table.

"Hedwig!" shouted Hermione.

"Ed, take care of Hedwig for me" said Hermione, when she took a letter from Hedwig.

"This is from Harry"

Edward fed some cakes to Hedwig and brown owl, then looked at Hermione who was reading the letter.

Hermione, who read the letter, had a change of expression on her face, from being upset, angry, worry, then happy.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" asked Edward.

"Harry said that the reason he didn't reply to my letter was because there was a creature blocking my letter from reaching him" said Hermione, "His uncle didn't feed him and locked him up, he even got a warning letter from Ministry of Magic because of the use of magic outside of school, it made him almost expelled. Luckily Ron and his brothers saved Harry, so he now lives at the Burrow"

'It seems like they saved him' Edward thought.

"They also asked me to go with them to buy textbooks in Diagon Alley next week" added Hermione.

"So this letter must be from Hogwarts" Edward said when he took a letter from the brown owl, and handed it to Hermione.

Edward also saw a letter with Hermione, which contained a list of books that Hermione would buy. And as expected, almost every book in the list contains Lockhart's books.

"Wow, Lockhart must be someone great" said Hermione.

'If only you knew ...' Edward thought.

"They are like novels rather than textbooks for me" said Edward doubtfully.

"Ed, Lockhart's books must be great, even Professor will use them in the lesson" said Hermione earnestly.

"What if the Professor is Lockhart himself?" asked Edward.

"I hope so" said Hermione.

Hearing that, Edward was speechless.

'It seems that even before meeting Lockhart, Hermione had begun to idolize him' Edward thought.

"I'll go to Diagon Alley next week, do you want to come?" said Hermione suddenly.

Hearing Hermione ask, Edward hesitated to answer. He actually wanted to go to Diagon Alley to buy a broomstick, he just didn't want to get involved too quickly with the golden trio.

Seeing Edward hesitated, Hermione thought Edward was afraid to meet her friends. She has told Edward what really happened at Hogwarts and what adventures they experienced, including Trolls, three-headed dogs, and Voldemort. So Hermione tried to convince him

"Don't worry, they are my best friends".

Seeing Hermione trying to convince him, Edward felt bewildered.

Hermione seemed to want to introduce him to her friends, Edward felt uncomfortable to reject the invitation of his first friend, so he accepted her offer.

"Hmm ... fine"

"That's great, you will definitely like them" said Hermione excitedly.

"Ah yes" Edward smiled bitterly.

'I will like them if they are not always looking for problems' Edward thought.

Edward only hoped that when he was in Diagon Alley, they didn't really care about him. So he can go and buy a broomstick and take care of his own business.