When they came out of Gringotts, Draco saw that Harry and Ron were already waiting for them.
"Where are your family members?" Hermione asked.
"Mum and Dad said they are going to the bookshop to buy us books, and everyone else is busy with their own things. You cannot expect all of us to go together, can you?" Ron said. "But we agreed to meet at Flourish and Blotts later."
Draco's plans were somewhat disrupted.
He had originally planned to take advantage of this time apart from his father to visit Ollivanders and ask about the Elder Wand.
However, the situation is now somewhat tricky.
He had spent so much time with the Grangers that he now had to go to Flourish and Blotts to meet his father first—especially after he learned from Ron that Mr Weasley had also gone there.
He wanted to urge his father to finish the matter as soon as possible. That way, he might be able to avoid Lucius and Mr Weasley arguing or even coming to blows at the bookshop.
In his past life, his father had disregarded all decorum by fighting with Mr Weasley in public in a bookshop, a scandalous affair. He certainly did not want to experience that embarrassment again.
He did not want Hermione to be humiliated by Lucius again. Could there be a worse first meeting?
So he hurriedly said to Hermione, "I have an appointment with my father at the bookshop. It is almost time, I have to go now."
"All right, Draco. Thank you for helping us." Hermione said goodbye with a hint of reluctance, and the Grangers expressed their gratitude in return.
Draco suppressed his anxiety and smiled goodbye to the Grangers. He gave Harry and the others a slight nod before turning and hurrying towards Flourish and Blotts, the bookshop located on the north side of Diagon Alley.
However, by the time he arrived at Flourish and Blotts, he was too late.
Lucius and Mr Weasley stood facing each other menacingly near the bookshop stairs, like two fighting cocks. They were having an unpleasant conversation.
"I shall leave you with this: you should go find those pure-blood traitors who have close ties with Muggles. They have a better chance of getting magical items into Muggle hands than a pure-blood wizard like me who is clean and has nothing to do with Muggles." Lucius's face was full of arrogance.
"That is not what the whistleblower letter says. It claims that the Malfoys have close business ties with the Muggle world!" Mr Weasley retorted, his neck stiff with arrogance.
Lucius scoffed at him, "That is ancient history! Before the International Statute of Secrecy, which wizard could honestly say they had absolutely no dealings with Muggles? You have the nerve to bring that up!"
"Stop downplaying the issue, the whistleblower is talking about the present!" Mr Weasley said. "Can you swear to Merlin that you have not laid a finger on any Muggle, since you claim to be pure-blood?"
Lucius was furious and glared at him.
A red-haired girl nearby was swaying precariously, clutching a secondhand cauldron and a stack of old books, her face ashen with fear. That was Ron's sister.
"Father!" Before they started fighting, Draco struggled through the crowded throng, calling out to his father, "There are too many people here. Let us go see the broomsticks first. Did you not say you wanted to go?"
Lucius was brought back to his senses by his son's shouts. He nodded arrogantly, toyed with the silver snake-headed cane, glared at Mr Weasley, and stormed out of Flourish and Blotts.
"Father, did you not always teach me to at least maintain a facade of friendliness with the officials of the Ministry of Magic?" Draco followed Lucius towards the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop next door. "Why did you have to argue with Mr Weasley in public?"
"Politeness only works on polite people. You know the Weasleys have been eyeing our house. When the Malfoys' dignity is challenged and the manor is seen as a place that can be invaded at will, politeness can wait." Lucius dusted off non-existent dust from his robes and said with a grim face.
"Ron Weasley is Harry Potter's best friend at Hogwarts. Harry Potter spent half of this holiday at the Weasleys' house. Under these circumstances, I do not think it would be wise to offend the Weasleys," Draco said carefully. "That is what you taught me, Father, did you not?"
Lucius looked offended.
"Are you lecturing your father, Draco?" he asked menacingly.
"Of course not." Draco's eyes gleamed with mischief. "I just think that if Mother heard about this, she might worry about you."
Lucius snorted through his nose, reluctantly acknowledging the claim.
"It seems that Harry Potter is not as bright as you think. How can he amount to anything by hanging out with the child of a pure-blood traitor?" Lucius's words carried a hint of disdain, and a subtle malice lurked on his cold face.
"He is in Gryffindor after all, and under Professor Dumbledore's wing, it is not easy to get him to immediately get close to the pure-blood Slytherin family," Draco said, trying to persuade his father not to target Harry, the future "Dark Lord nemesis."
"If he wants our recognition, he has to prove himself with his magical abilities first. If he is all talk and no action, then he is just another blood traitor like Arthur Weasley, with no future, and not worth the Malfoys' eagerness to befriend," Lucius said coldly, still in a bad mood because of the conflict with Mr Weasley.
"This requires long-term observation; it cannot be determined in just one or two interactions," Draco said uneasily.
My father is just like he was in my past life, very anxious.
"Perhaps we shall have a chance to prove that soon." Lucius smirked as he strode into the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop.
"Father, what does that mean?" Draco asked, puzzled.
He always felt that his father exuded an aura of conspiracy.
"It is nothing. Stay away from those pure-blood traitors, Draco. In the new school year, you had better do your job and play Quidditch well." Lucius had composed himself, looking at the rows of neatly arranged broomsticks in the shop, and reverted to the arrogant, aloof, and domineering head of the Malfoy family.
Draco felt a little guilty. He had already been hanging out with Harry and the others and did not plan to distance himself from them in the future.
But how could he explain this to his father? He had never hidden his prejudice on the issue of bloodline.
Expecting him to suddenly become reasonable and kind to Draco's pure-blood traitorous friends, or even his Muggle-born friends, is harder than getting Lucius to cut off his platinum hair.
Draco was so worried that he overlooked the strange malice that had just flashed in his father's attitude.
Lucius was convinced that his son's sudden dejection was because he was thinking about how to make a name for himself in the Quidditch selection.
"Stand tall, what are you afraid of? The Malfoy name is your source of confidence!" He softened his tone, patted his son's shoulder, then turned to the shop assistant behind the counter with a slightly arrogant attitude and said, "Have those broomsticks I ordered arrived? The ones Mr Twonk specifically requested..."
"Brand new brooms, just waiting for you! Several customers have asked about them, but we told them we were out of stock!" The assistant smiled broadly at Lucius, then shouted loudly towards the workshop behind her, "Bring over Mr Malfoy's new batch of brooms..."
That concludes the conversation between the Malfoy father and son.