Healed & Broken (HP) {Book 4 of the Wild & Free Series}

4. Malfoy's Suspicious Acts

Harry spent a lot of the last week of the holidays pondering the meaning of Malfoy's behavior in Knockturn Alley. But Ron, Rowan, Lucy, Hermione and I weren't quite as curious about Malfoy's activities as he was.

Harry and the others had told Lucy and me what they had done in the time they weren't in Fred and George's joke shop. They had followed Draco Malfoy all the way to Knockturn Alley and Borgin and Burkes. They told us they had overheard a conversation between Malfoy and Borgin. Malfoy wanted to buy something and he had shown Borgin something Borgin was very afraid of. They hadn't been able to see much else.

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," said Hermione a little impatiently a few days later. She was sitting on the windowsill in Fred and George's room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and had only grudgingly looked up from her new copy of Advanced Rune Translation. "But haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

"Maybe he's broken his Hand of Glory," said Ron vaguely, as he attempted to straighten his broomstick's bent tail twigs. "Remember that shriveled-up arm Malfoy had?"

"But what about when he said, 'Don't forget to keep that one safe'?" asked Harry for the umpteenth time. "That sounded to me like Borgin's got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both."

"You reckon?" said Rowan, looking at Harry calmly.

"Yeah, I do," said Harry. When we didn't answer, he said, "Malfoy's father's in Azkaban. Don't you think Malfoy'd like revenge?"

Lucy looked up from a book called The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6.

"Malfoy, revenge? What can he do about it?"

"That's my point, I don't know!" said Harry, frustrated. "But he's up to something and I think we should take it seriously. His father's a Death Eater and —"

Harry broke off, his eyes fixed on the window behind Hermione, his mouth open.

"Harry?" said Hermione in an anxious voice. "What's wrong?"

"Your scar's not hurting again, is it?" asked Ron nervously, glancing over at me, but I looked perfectly fine.

"He's a Death Eater," said Harry slowly. "He's replaced his father as a Death Eater!"

There was a silence; then Rowan erupted in laughter.

"Malfoy? He's sixteen, Harry! You think You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join?"

"It seems very unlikely, Harry," said Hermione in a repressive sort of voice. "What makes you think — ?"

"In Madam Malkin's. She didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He's been branded with the Dark Mark."

That made sense.

Ron, Lucy, Rowan and Hermione looked at each other.

"Well..." said Lucy, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

"I think he just wanted to get out of there, Harry," said Hermione.

"He showed Borgin something we couldn't see," Harry pressed on stubbornly. "Something that seriously scared Borgin. It was the Mark, I know it — he was showing Borgin who he was dealing with, you saw how seriously Borgin took him!"

Ron, Lucy, Rowan and Hermione exchanged another look.

"I'm not sure, Harry..." Hermione said.

"Yeah, I still don't reckon You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join..." Ron told him.