It was dark in Nocturn Alley. It was always dark. The alley was too narrow and the buildings too high for much sunlight to get in. Of course most of the denizens of the alley preferred it that way. Their business and their hangovers made light undesirable.
Reuben Pennyworth was not hung over. A hangover would make him dull witted and he could not afford that. So his eyes were bright where most of his peers' were dull. While they shambled in the darkest recesses, muttering to each other and sometimes to themselves about their transactions, Reuben shouted.
"Gilliweed for sale! Tonics for your aches and pains!" Reuben called cheerfully. A tray laden with colorful bottles and boxes hung in midair next to him. Dust covered the gilliweed and most of the other reagents on the tray. There were a few exceptions. Weasley's Elixir of Magical Potency ("Puts the patronus back into the weakest of wands.") and a few others did manage to attract buyers.
A witch in a pointed blue hat walked down the lane, her green cloak billowing behind her. Though she made no effort to conceal herself, her boots made not a sound on the cobbles as she walked. She stopped abruptly at Reuben's table and leaned forward, pretending to admire some wilted aconite leaves. "Have you any tentacula?" she whispered.
"Have you any galleons?" Reuben muttered back.
The witch glanced about. From under her cloak she produced a small, brown bag. It jingled.
"Fifteen galleons a piece, love," Reuben said softly.
The witch glared. "Used to be ten."
"Yeah," Reuben agreed. "Used to be. But I don't sell things for what they used to cost, now do I?"
The witch grumbled something under her breath but she counted out the galleons on Reuben's table. He pocketed the galleons quickly and picked up a vial of blue liquid from the table. "Now you remember," he said loudly. "Take this every night. Don't forget or that rash won't ever go away."
When the witch took the vial she saw that the liquid had gone and two leaves had replaced it. She grinned and nodded. "This'll cure my rash then." The witch leaned in a little closer. "That no good rash who's been going about with his secretary from . . ."
"Been a pleasure, ma'am," Reuben said loudly.
The witch walked off the way she had come. A dirty man in a black cloak walked out from a doorway and started after the witch. She stopped and looked over her shoulder but the man slipped into the deeper shadows. The witch shrugged and started walking again. The dirty man slipped out from the shadows again and now he had his wand in hand.
Reuben cringed. Every businessman knows that trouble with the neighbors is bad. But if he let his customers get robbed, well that would be worse. He drew his wand and flourished it. "Obliviate," Reuben whispered.
The dirty man stopped and looked around, having forgotten about the woman he was following. He wondered how he had gotten to this particular spot and why he was there.
"Time to ease up on the sherry, Tom," Reuben shouted jovially. "You looked like someone confunded you."
Tom the dirty wizard looked around some more and grunted before wandering off toward the pub.
At around midmorning a cloaked and hooded figure came walking down the alley. He had the look of someone trying not to be noticed and by Tom's reckoning he was doing a terrible job of it. There was nothing like a black cloak and hood to attract attention. People who were really good at not being noticed wore plain clothes and blended into the scenery. That was what the pickpocket creeping up on the hooded person did.
"Oi, Maggie!" Reuben yelled. "Push off!"
Maggie scowled and shook her fist in Reuben's direction. The hooded person turned and watched her go, then he proceeded to Reuben's table. "Thank you for that," a voice deep inside the hood said.
"No trouble at all, Mister Malfoy," Reuben replied cheerfully.
The hood rose enough for Reuben to get a glimpse of grey eyes and white blonde hair. "How did you know it was me?"
"You're famous, you are," Reuben answered. While he spoke, his wand flourished and a fine white dust appeared on the ground around them. "Now what can do for you, guv?"
Malfoy leaned forward. "I need a wand." As he spoke, two footprints appeared in the dust behind him.
"Right," Reuben said, pointedly not looking in the direction of the footprints. "Well, I'm afraid I can't help you. Part of what makes Draco Malfoy, the whole Malfory family, so famous is the Ministry ruling about your wands. That is, the rule that you can't have them. Besides, I don't have any."
Malfoy muttered something and walked off. Reuben watched him go with a heavy heart. During the war, when snatchers and death eater had chased him halfway across Britain, he had taken wands from quite a few of them. With the ministry confiscating the wands of muggle born wizards Reuben had known there would be a market. He also liked to imagine those death eaters having to tell their Dark Lord that a muggle born had defeated them and taken their wands. The war's end and the return of the muggle borns' wands had ruined that particular plan, but Reuben had kept the wands anyway, for occasions just like this.
"And what can I do for you, guv'nor," he said jovially to the footprints in the dust.
A wizard with dark, unruly hair, a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, and glasses appeared. "How did you know I was here?"
"This is Nocturn Alley," Reuben said cheerfully. "We're so happy to see an auror in these . . ."
"What did Malfoy want?" Potter asked, irritation thick in voice.
"Poor fellow had lost his way. Needed directions back to . . ."
"Don't lie to me," Potter said through clenched teeth.
"I've nothing to hide, sir. I'm just a businessman making an honest living." Reuben hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his vest and puffed out his chest a little. "A picture of honesty in this den of corruption. Got me license and everything."
Potter nodded. "And those tentacula leaves you sold to that witch a while ago? Would you like to discuss that at the ministry."
Reuben's shoulders slumped. "Bugger."
Malfoy Manor looked like nothing so much as a great mausoleum even at the best of times. The rainy night did nothing to improve the appearance of the place. Reuben disapparated near the main gate and pulled his cloak closer about him against both the rain and the glum, chill feeling the manor gave him. Something growled nearby.
"Stupefy," Reuben said as he flourished his wand. The hound that had threatened him fell over.
Reuben pulled a pair of glasses with colored lenses from one of the pockets of his cloak and put them. Malfoy Manor fairly glowed with protective enchantments. A wizard who tried to enter uninvited would likely wake up in Saint Mungo's some days later. A muggle who attempted it . . . Reuben pushed the thought aside and walked around the manor.
The enchantments around the manor were old and most were potent, but some had faded with time. The loss of the family's house elf and of the Malfoys' wands after the war meant that only Astoria, Draco's wife, could cast. No doubt she had shored up the defenses where she could, but one witch working alone was bound to miss a spot now and then.
An unexceptional spot in the wall glowed with enchantments that would repel muggles and a few more that prevented any form of magic from being used to cross over, under, or through the wall. But there was nothing to stop a wizard climbing over if he did not use magic to do it. Reuben pulled himself up to the top of the wall and looked around. The grounds were free of enchantment and the only wards on the manor were on the doors. No problem there. The Malfoys had plenty of windows.
Draco and Astoria Malfoy sat in large, comfortable chairs in front of their fireplace. Lucius, Narcissa, and little Scorpius had all gone to bed. Reuben determined all of this before he went to speak to Draco directly.
A small table sat between Draco and Astoria. On it rested a wine bottle, two half empty glasses, and a wand. Reuben stood behind the chairs of the great room, contemplating his next move. He would undoubtedly startle the couple when he announced himself. That did not concern him as much as the curse he would undoubtedly find himself on the receiving end of when he did. He point his own wand at the one on the table and whispered, "Accio, wand." The wand flew to him and he caught it in his left hand.
Draco and Astoria both leapt to their feet. "You!" Draco said. "What are you doing here?"
"Relax," Reuben said. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just didn't know what you'd do when I announced meself. Here you go, ma'am." He tossed Astoria's wand to her.
She snatched the wand out of the air and pointed it at Reuben. "You still haven't told us why you're in our house."
Reuben put his wand away and hook his thumbs in his vest pockets. "Your husband said he wants a wand. Couldn't do that in public, not even in good old Nocturn Alley. So here I am."
"You went to Nocturn Alley?" Astoria said in a tone that was as much accusation as question. "And what's this business about you wanting a wand?"
Draco took a breath that sounded almost like a sob. "I might as well be a muggle, Astoria. It's not that I would ever use it. I just want to feel like a wizard again." He looked away and bit his lower lip.
Astoria lowered her wand and put her free hand on Draco's shoulder. Reuben sensed the perfect moment for a sale. He pulled out another wand, which he presented to Draco. "Remember this, guv?"
Draco looked back at Reuben and took the wand. His eyes widened until it seemed like he would sprain something. "My old wand."
Astoria looked at the wand and then at her husband. "It can't be."
"It is," Draco replied. "Ten inches precisely. Hawthorne and unicorn hair." He looked up at Reuben. "How did you get it."
Reuben grinned. "Can't be giving away trade secrets, Mr. Malfoy."
"What do you want for it?" Astoria asked sharply.
"Seven hundred galleons," Reuben said, a price a hundred times the going rate at Olivander's.
"It's not the Elder Wand!" Astoria snapped.
"I'll pay it," Draco replied. "I'd pay seven thousand."
Reuben cursed silently. He had expected Draco to haggle. The price was, after all, ridiculous. Had Reuben known that Draco would pay so much he would have asked for more. Draco set the wand down and went into another room to get the money, leaving Astoria and Reuben in awkward silence. Reuben paced the room, admiring furniture and paintings from a respectable distance.
"How did you get in?" Astoria finally asked.
"The spells on the wall need some tending," Reuben replied amiably.
Astoria shook her head. "My cousin Patroklus is supposed to mind that. Lazy blighter. I don't suppose you have relatives who work for you, mister . . . what was your name, sir?"
"Reuben Pennyworth," Reuben answered. "My relatives are all muggles. Not much use in the wizarding world."
Draco returned and counted out the money. Reuben pocketed the galleons in more than one pocket, there were so many. Then, for the first time in many years, Reuben was caught off guard as Draco grabbed his hand and shook it firmly. "Thank you, Mr. Pennyworth. If there's ever anything you need . . ."
"No thanks are necessary," Reuben said, recovering from the shock of it. "Been a pleasure. I'll leave you two to your evening. Better I let meself out than go by the front door."
Reuben climbed out the window he had used to come in and back over the garden wall. No sooner had he jumped down than Potter appeared in front of him. "Blimey!" Reuben said. "You 'bout gave me a heart attack."
"Did you sell him the wand?" Potter asked.
"Yes and he's glad to have it."
"Thank you," Potter said.
"Tell me something, guv. Why would you do it? He gave you and your mates a hard time in school and his family's been nothing but trouble for you. Why get his wand back to him?"
Harry looked past Reuben, his eyes unfocused in thought. "Draco and his mother both protected me at times when they could have killed me. I owed them." Potter looked at Reuben and raised his wand. "Not a word."
Reuben raised his empty hands as if in surrender. "Never snitched on anyone yet, not going to start now."
"And you won't give the Malfoys any trouble?"
Reuben shook his head. "Draco paid a fair price for his wand. He's free of me as long as he wants be."
Potter nodded. "Right. On your way."
Reuben drew his wand and disapparated. The tall buildings and narrow spaces in Nocturn Alley kept out the sun but they did nothing to slow the rain. It was cold and those who were out were there because they had to be. Reuben pulled the hood of his cloak a little closer and headed for home. He had earned a night off.