21 CHAPTER 21: THE BOOKSTORE

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To Threaten, or to Not Threaten

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After a couple of minutes, he arrived at the surface. He said thanks to the goblin and went out to Flourish and Blotts, but before that, he bought a couple of cups of ice cream, Vanilla for Ed, Mint chocolate chip for Hermione, and he doesn't know what the Grangers want, so he just bought them Vanilla like him, he's giving dentists ice creams for Merlin's sake, so he searched for the least sugary one.

He walked through the alley, seeing different kinds of shops, lots of wizards and witches walking about, 'shame it will change in the future, fucking war ruin everything' Ed thought. Then he arrived at the bookstore, it was packed with people, because there's Lockhart in there.

Ed sighed tiredly and forced his way inside, holding the ice creams tightly, and finally, he saw Hermione's bushy hair and walked to her, she was beside Ron, which Ed greeted using a nod, he also saw Lockhart taking pictures with Harry.

"Hello Hermione, here, I bought you ice cream." Said Ed while giving Hermione the ice cream.

"Oh, Hello Ed, thanks, is the vault stuff finished?" asked Hermione while taking the mint chocolate chip ice cream from Ed.

"I'll tell you later, quite packed in here, I need give these to your parents." Said Ed while walking to the Grangers who are talking to a redhead man.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Granger, here, I bought you ice creams, my treat, kind of ironic isn't it, giving sweets to dentists." Said Ed nervously.

"Ah, Ed! Finished with your business yet? as for the ice creams, thank you, we don't really mind if you eat it once in a while." Said Mrs. Granger.

"Yes, it's finished, quite meddlesome to be honest." Said Ed while looking at the circle on the back of his left hand.

"Oh yes! This is Mr. Arthur Weasley, he's quite curious about muggle things." Said Mr. Granger while pointing at Mr. Weasley.

"Oh, you must be Ron's dad, nice to meet you Mr. Weasley, Edgart Aldrich, at your service." Greeted Ed.

"Darius's and Bella's son isn't it? you look like the two of them." said Mr. Weasley while shaking Ed's hands, and a sad smile can be seen on his face.

'Well, you must be well liked father, mother, everyone's giving me sad smile at the mention of your names.' Ed thought.

Before Ed could say anything, a commotion broke out because Ron was about to attack Draco.

Mr. Weasley then rushed to Ron and grabbed him, "Ron! What are you doing, it's packed here, let's get outside." But before he could drag Ron outside, another voice sounded. Ed was hiding behind Mr. Weasley, he's still thinking about whether he should interfere in the fight or not.

"Well, well, well, Arthur Weasley." Said a pale, blond, and grey eyed man.

"Lucius." Said Mr. Weasley coldly.

Ed could see Harry looked at him with confirmation, he heard that a plot to ruin Hogwarts was orchestrated by a man name Lucius, so he was wondering is this the man, but instead of confirming, Ed just smiled at him.

"Busy time at the ministry I hear," said Lucius casually, "All those raids, I hope they're paying you overtime?"

Lucius reached for a book in a redhead girl's cauldron beside Harry, probably Ginny, and looked at it, the book was battered, and Lucius mocked it.

"Obviously not," said the blond man, "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 blushed angrily, and countered, "We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard Malfoy." Said Mr. Weasley coldly.

"Clearly." Lucius said while looking at the Grangers, Mr. Weasley looks like he could punch Lucius at any second, "The company you keep Weasley, and I thought-"

"I suggest you don't continue that sentence uncle Lucius." Said Ed sternly, with a cold expression. He, on reflect, reacted, after all, Lucius was about to insult the Grangers.

Lucius looked at the source of the voice, he saw a boy, at first he tried to scowl, but he remembered he called him uncle, and the boy had glowing silver eyes, realizing something, the man became pale as he can be.

He gulped and said weakly, "Nephew…"

"Yes, hello uncle Lucius, first time meeting isn't it? Quite a bad impression from you…" said Ed, still speaking in a cold tone. "Have you got the message from aunt Narcissa?"

Lucius nodded weakly, and Ed continued, "Good then, I really hope that the Malfoys won't end up like the Averys."

At the mention of the Avery family, Lucius even more paled, Arthur and Molly beside him frowned at the statement.

Lucius tried to fight back, but it's clearly not working, because he looked like a coward right now, "H-How can a boy like y-"

Ed chuckled, cutting Lucius off, "Try us would you?" said Ed while smiling dangerously, "Don't forget about the debt Lucius… I was told he swore it in front of everyone. Do you want to know how we do it Lucius? With this method, even a kid in the family like me could do it." He lied, he can't kill the entire family in one night right now, but he can kill Lucius sneakily and burned his home once he solved a little problem.

Lucius was sweating profusely, he tried to quickly leave, "Draco, let's go." He said while putting the book and the diary to Ginny's cauldron, Draco, who already knows Ed's family history, also paled at Ed's words. They exited the store quickly.

Ed saw the diary entering the Cauldron, he frowned and thought, 'I admire your bravery Lucius, all that threats and warnings for nothing, don't blame me Aunt Narcissa.' He sighed, 'should I take it? No, I won't help him this year, he needs to grow in the first and second year.' Ed thought.

Everyone looked confused at the scene except Hermione, Arthur, Molly, and Hagrid who came to look at the commotion, the three adults looked at Ed with a frown.

"Isn't it a bit reckless Ed?" whispered Hermione. "You told everyone here about the Averys, and openly threatened the Malfoys using it."

"They won't do anything if that's what you're thinking Hermione." Said Ed, "first, they don't have physical evidence, even though all of them know It was us, technically they don't have any evidence, and they were death eaters as well. Second, even if they have the evidence, they won't bring it to court, it will only humiliate the pureblood families even more that two pureblood families, the Averys and the other one I don't quite know, were killed by a relatively unknown family, not to mention, if they asked for the investigation, it would eventually lead to the other three neutral families that got wiped out by them that night."

Ed smiled innocently and said, "And I'm just a twelve-year-old boy, how can I wiped out an entire pureblood family?"

"But it's wrong Ed! I know you can do it; you can't kill innocent people just because they were related to the perpetrator." Scolded Hermione.

Ed looked at Hermione strangely and said, "who said anything about killing innocent people?"

But before Hermione could say anything more, Mr. Weasley approached him. "Edgart is it?"

Ed nodded, "Just call me Ed Mr. Weasley." Said Ed while smiling.

"Okay, thank you for your help, I almost jumped him in public, but you can't just threatened the Malfoys like that, you will be in a lot of trouble. Especially if you bring the Avery family in public." warned Mr. Weasley.

"Don't worry Mr. Weasley, I'm fine, the Malfoys can't touch me. If he wants to kill me, he will be pressured by the other families in fear of another retaliation. But again, it's useless anyway, I'll fulfil the blood debt one way or another." Said Ed, comforting the man.

The man just smiled sadly at him and looked at Mrs. Weasley besides him. "You don't have to fulfil the debt you know? It's your father's job to do that." Said the woman.

Ed smiled sincerely, "Really, you don't have to worry about me Mrs. Weasley, it's my own choice, I will fulfil it even if I will be thrown into Azkaban."

Mrs. Weasley just sighed, Ed then excused himself to buy some things for himself, he told Hermione and her parents, who are talking about what just happened to Ron and Harry, to go to the car first and wait there if they already finished the shopping.

When Ed approached Hermione, Ron and Harry said something to Ed,

"That was bloody brilliant!" said Ron, "How'd you do that, threaten Malfoy I mean?"

Ed chuckled at Ron's behaviour and said vaguely, "You have to ask your dad for that."

Ron nodded suspiciously, but Harry asked Ed,

"That was him wasn't it? the one Dobby talked about, and you called him uncle? Are you related to him?"

Ed smiled at the first question, and answered at the second question, "Yes, he's my uncle, his wife and my mother are sisters."

"I pity you mate, to be related to someone like Malfoy…" dejected Ron.

"Well… technically, you're both related to him as well." Said Ed, earning a surprise look from the trio.

"What? How?!"

"I don't know the details, but you're both from a relatively well-known pureblood family, so you must be somehow distantly related."

"So, we're like, cousins?" asked Ron, confirming his thought.

"Like I said, don't know the details," Ed shrugged, "All right, you go to the car first Hermione, I'll see you there."

Hermione just nodded at him, then Ed took off to Madam Malkin's and asked if he could make a custom all-size black trench coat with pockets underneath the coat. The Madam said she could, but it would take quite a bit of time and the price is expensive, Ed agreed, and gave the money first, he told the Madam to send it to his address by owl if it's done.

While Ed was at Madam Malkin's the trio continued to chat.

Harry asked Hermione about Ed, "Hermione, you've been living with him for the past half a month, do you get anything from him? You know, about the future?"

Ron looked surprised and asked, "Wait, you've been living with him?"

Hermione blushed and spoke, "Y-Yes, I've been with him in the past month, I've been practicing magic in his place."

"Practicing magic? But I thought it's illegal!" said Ron.

"Yes, but Ed had a place so that the trace magic won't detect you using magic."

"Well, where is it?" asked Harry.

"I can't tell you, one of the rules of that place is you need to make an unbreakable vow to enter it,"

"An unbreakable vow?! But- if you break it you'll—"

"I'll die, yes, and the place is quite dangerous if fallen to the wrong hands, so it's quite justified. "

Ron gulped, "Is it that dangerous?"

"Yes it is Ronald, don't ask again."

"Okay, we won't ask again, now, did you learn anything about the future?" asked Harry.

"How does Ed related to knowing the future?" asked Ron.

Harry explained in annoyance because of Ron's questions, "His family is good at divination Ron, he even made a prophecy last year and it's all true, he told Hermione, but she didn't believe it at first, so she didn't tell us, and once the prophecy actually come true, she finally believed it, and he made one for this year too."

Harry explained the prophecy this year and Ron pondered thoughtfully.

Looking at this, Hermione sighed annoyedly, "No, I kept pestering him, but he won't tell me, not that I can tell you anyway, the vow remember?"

Harry looked disappointed, and said, "How can he be like this? He said I'm going to be in danger, but he won't help me whatsoever."

"Well Harry, he's got a point you know, you need to grow as a person and as a capable wizard, otherwise you'll suffer more in the years to come, especially you know, that You-Know-Who's not dead yet, he'll definitely come after you." Hermione comforted him.

Harry just sighed, Hermione looked at the time and said goodbye to the two to go to the car.

After that Ed came back to the car, he saw the Grangers were talking to themselves, eating their ice creams.

"Sorry, I took so long, I had to take measurements for the coat." Said Ed to Grangers.

"It's all right Ed, we're quite free today." Said Mr. Granger, all of them entered the car, and drove to the Grangers house, in the middle of road, the parents asked Ed.

"What was that in the store Ed? The man was scared of you." Said Mr. Granger.

"It's quite complicated Mr. Granger, and a long story as well, a dark and depressing story…" said Ed tiredly. "If you really want to know, you could ask Hermione, but I really don't want to talk about it now, it's been quite a day, the Vault, the Malfoys…"

Mr. Granger understood Ed doesn't want to talk about it, he just nodded and stayed silent, then Ed asked Hermione,

"Hermione, are you going home? Or are you still going to my home?"

Hermione looked at Ed and asked, "Um, will you go to Hogwarts first then go to France? or will Dumbledore pick you up at your house?"

"I think Dumbledore will pick me up at my house, why?"

Hermione sighed in disappointment and said, "I'll go home then, thanks for having me Ed…"

"Okay, no problem Hermione, you can stay at any time, you can go home now, I will send Ashbey to pick up your stuff later."

Hermione nodded and turned away from Ed. Before looking at him again.

"Oh, right, I forgot about your birthday present Ed, I'll send you the present later." Said Hermione while smiling.

Ed nodded at her and closed his eyes, 'Pull yourself together Ed, it's only the start…' Ed motivated himself in his head.

After Ed had drove Hermione to her home and send Ashbey to pick her things and gave it to her, Ed entered the suitcase and sat in one of the sofa.

"Gilligan…" Ed said tiredly.

"How did it go?" Gilligan suddenly appeared and said, "What did you choose? I can't see you when she talked to you."

"She told me to say hello to her cute little brother." Ed chuckled, making Gilligan grimaced, "No wonder you hate her."

"Just tell me, what did you choose?" said Gilligan with impatience.

"All right, all right, I get it." Said Ed, "I chose both."

Hearing this, Gilligan laughed, "HAHA, I worried for nothing, you truly are one of a kind Edgart."

Ed raised his eyebrow, "Not Little Edgart anymore?"

"You are an heir now; I won't call you Little anymore." Gilligan explained.

"Call me Ed okay, kind of weird to be called Edgart to be honest."

"All right then, Ed." Gilligan.

"Ah right, she said something about ordering you to teach me blood sensing."

Gilligan grimaced, "She asked that?"

"Well, not really like that, do you want to know what she actually said? She said, 'tell my cu-'"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" said Gilligan, interrupting Ed speaking. He sighed and said, "Well, if she says you're ready, then you must be, very well, I will teach you."

"You have to, otherwise your beautiful big sister will teach you some lessons. She's the one who said that by the way." Ed smirked.

Gilligan sighed annoyedly, "I suddenly regretted that I call you one of a kind."