HAVEN | dramione

chapter seven: draco

Draco had reached a level of nervousness that instead of feeling shaky, he felt startlingly calm.

It was this calmness that allowed him to talk so bluntly to none other than Hermione Granger, and this calmness that allowed him to apparate for the first time--with Granger by his side--in many months to Knockturn Alley.

It was clear they had arrived in the right place when the air around them felt cold and damp and it was so dark Draco could barely see. His senses sharpened one by one: he could hear the cackling of witches and wizards just down the alleyway, though it was quieter than it had been the last time Draco was here; he could smell a rotting odor that felt like it was permeating his clothing, permanently marking him as the type of person who spent time in Knockturn Alley; as Draco's eyes adjusted to the dark, he could see a variety of wanted posters and advertisements for dark artifacts lining the cobbled walls of the alleyway in front of him; and most important of all, Draco could feel Hermione Granger clutching his arm like no tomorrow.

"This way," Draco whispered to her, pulling Hermione along as he straightened his back and began strutting down the alleyway.

He needed to appear as the confident, sultry, rotten Pureblood heir he once was.

Knockturn Alley was different than he remembered, and if Draco had to guess, it was likely due to the ending of the war two years ago.

Not only was it quieter, lacking the number of witches and wizards who would once gather here for fun, but there was also a different feeling to it--like Draco was now an outsider. It felt like Knockturn Alley wanted to keep him out, and the shopkeepers who remained here were riddled with suspicion. Draco spotted, more than once, a witch or wizard peering at him through the blinds of a shop's window.

Though the feeling of being watched sent chills down his spine, Draco kept his spine straight and his chin up. Each step he took sent an echoing clack though Knockturn Alley, and by the time he and Granger reached the Spiny Serpent, it was clear that whispers of his arrival had already spread.

The door to the shop swung open and Otto, the shopkeeper, stood in the doorway. He was wide enough to fill up the whole gap, and his muscles bulged as he crossed his arms and gave Draco a threatening look.

"The fuck are you doing here, Malfoy?"

Draco swallowed hard.

Not quite the warm welcome he had been hoping for.

Instead of portraying the fear he felt, Draco forced himself to sneer. "Now, now, Otto. That's not a very nice way to greet a customer."

"You stopped being a customer the second you stopped paying the fee," Otto's thick Scottish accent rolled off his tongue, forcing Draco to take a second to understand what he was saying.

"It's called saving my money," Draco argued. "I'm here to renew it."

He pulled out a thick bag of galleons from his robe and felt Hermione stiffen beside him at the sight of such a large amount of money.

"This should do more than cover it," Draco locked eyes with Otto, forcing himself to not break away from the shopkeeper's challenging glare. Then he felt the heavy bag of galleons snatched out of his hands.

"Fine," Otto grumbled and stepped aside to allow Draco inside the shop. But when Hermione tried to enter behind him, Otto blocked her way.

"Oi, what the fuck, mate?" Draco snarled, his hand instinctively going to the wand in his pocket. "I paid your fee, let her in."

"You paid your fee," Otto clarified. His eyes raked Hermione's body, and it took all of Draco's willpower not to hex him to pieces right then and there. "Now the pretty lady needs to pay hers."