Serpent in the Lion's Den

21. Thieves in Arms

"Ex-excuse me?" a small tubby boy no older than 12 approached a lady walking along Charing Cross Road and politely tapped her on the arm, "I'm trying to get to Hyde Park, could you tell me the way please?" The boy was very well-mannered and looked rather innocent standing alone in the bustling streets of London and the woman took pity on him.

"Hello, it's just that way" she pointed to her left, picturing the route in her mind, "actually here, take this and get the bus, it's a long walk. Are you by yourself?" she said whilst looking around and getting a small amount of change out of her purse. The boy's pace quickened slightly at the question and the sight of a £20 note hovering in mid-air,

"No, my brothers just overrrrr..." he elongated the last word whilst he desperately looked around. His eyes settled on a boy who looked closer to 18 than he currently did and pointed, "there."

The woman smiled and dug a few more coins from her purse and dropped them into the boys already held out hands. "That should be enough for both of you dearie, now just remember you need to get on a bus going in that direction" she pointed and looked to the left again just long enough for another note to slip from her purse undetected.

"Th-thank you, have a good day" the young boy stammered as he backed away in the direction of his 'brother' before running in the other direction as soon as the woman's back was turned.

"Impressive, who knew you could sound so sweet and well-mannered when you wanted to" a voice from nowhere came to Draco's left.

"Well don't get used to it Granger" the rosy cheeked boy snarled, his voice deeper and more sarcastic than it had been less than three minutes ago. Suddenly the world toppled and he found himself sat on the floor, the coins he had been holding rolled in front on him on the pavement before disappearing into thin-air.

"I'll take those thank you, and you can tell me you love me but can't even say my first name Malfoy?" the voice questioned in a sharp whisper, "we should get going, we've just cleared her of £50, we'll try someone outside The Leaky Cauldron and then try Diagon Alley itself."

"Jesus Gran- you didn't have to trip me up like that" the wizard/muggle huffed, "and I simply just haven't found a nickname that I think suits you as well as Granger does yet."

XXX

Robbie's somewhat natural charm hadn't worked as well outside The Leaky Cauldron and he was forced to retrace back slightly until he was stopped by a young couple standing outside a shop. He'd replayed his act and managed to get £20 off of them, added to Hermione's £60 she'd managed to pull from the man's wallet with her breath held. With over £100 of muggle money safely tucked away the young boy quickly vanished out of sight.

"Hey Robbie" Hermione teased as she pinched his cheek slightly and took off the cloak before her eyes grew wide, "Merlin Draco the potions wearing off already your eyes are grey again, you'll have to take the rest of the vial." The witch dug her hand into her bag and pulled out the leftover potion and held it out to 'Robbie' who had now gained back Draco's eyes and smirk.

"I think it's time for a switch actually Granger, bottoms up" he grinned as he pushed the vial back towards her. Hermione was a smart witch and therefore knew what battles to fight and what battles to just give into – clearly this was a battle she couldn't win. She downed the rest of the potion in one gulp and as her face started to morph into Robbie's, Draco's morphed back to his usual self. Beautiful.

"Now who's looking all cute" Draco laughed, returning the favour of pinching Hermione's now chubby cheek, "stay under here with me until we get into Diagon Alley, it'll raise too many questions if a 12-year-old muggle walks into a magical pub alone."

XXX

"Just face it Granger I'm a much better beggar than you."

Draco barely tried to hide his smugness as he whispered from under the invisibility cloak, to his left Robbie Fenwick trailed along Diagon Alley, dragging his feet. It was true, Hermione was either an awful beggar, or wizarding folk keep tighter purse strings than muggles.

"Everything okay? Lost your parents Laddie? Not to worry son 'ere, have a galleon and go buy yourself something sweet Lad" a burly Scottish wizard smiled as he passed a golden coin to Robbie and trundled on down a sideroad without stopping to finish his sentence. The young boy tossed the golden coin in the air in triumph, only for it to vanish as Draco snatched it.

"I take it back... in double the time you've manged to get half the amount of wizard money as I got muggle money... oh that still makes me better doesn't it, Granger?" Hermione could almost hear Draco smirking. His faint laughter turned to panic as he spotted death eaters coming around the corner, if that wasn't bad enough, he turned back to see Robbie's hair growing bushier and longer by the second.

"Granger, go down that side street now" Draco's voice was barely above a whisper but Hermione heard him and turned down the street to her left as quickly as she could without being seen. As soon as she was out of sight of the main street, the witch felt the cloak fall over her and a mouth clamped down on her mouth,

"Don't speak, you were starting to look like you again and there are death eaters" he muttered into her hair, holding his breath as Yaxley and another death eater peered down the street 'Robbie' had just supposedly run down.

"Let's go Draco" Hermione said as soon as the death eaters had continued on their way, "we'll go to another hotel and make our next move"

"Okay, but I get to pick the hotel, lucky I stole some extra muggle money I saw sticking out some old wizard's satchel whilst you were being the world's worst beggar" Draco grinned and winked, holding up a stack of muggle £20 notes. Hermione quickly counted them and multiplied in her head.

£300.