II

Draco Malfoy strutted down Diagon Alley with a smug look as he surveyed all the repairs his money had went to. Since the war had ended, he'd been called upon to do some sort of penance for his part in it if he wished to avoid incarceration in Azkaban prison, so of course he had been ready to do his part—as long as it didn't involve actual labour, of course. Malfoys did not do labour.

He was shopping for a present for his mother's birthday, which was tomorrow. Recently she'd taken a liking to all thing Muggle, ornaments and gewgaws and such. He wanted to find a gift that would please her, but he refused to shop in the Muggle world.

As an alternative measure, he'd remembered the shop in Diagon Alley, next to the atrocity of a store owned by the remaining Weasley twin, which the Mudblood had recently opened. A small part of him was curious how Granger was doing these days, so he'd decided this was the perfect time to finally do more than peek in through the windows.

Unlike the Weasley store, Hermione's shop held a sense of elegance and radiating beauty—very much like its owner, he admitted ruefully. Hermione Granger was a strange mixture of old fashioned décor and progressive thinking, and her shop was equally as diverse, from what he could tell.

As he looked in the window once again, he was pleased to see the place wasn't the usual sort of curiosity shop—dusty, cramped, and completely dark. No, this place was painted a deep brown, and the wood accents were carved with such a technique as no wand had ever been able to achieve. It was a sight to see, all right.

He was surprised to find that place empty when he got there today. The usual round of curious shoppers were not milling about the place, and he wondered for a moment if she'd even opened for the day. He certainly hoped so, for there was no other Muggle shop in all of the Wizarding world, and he would hate to disappoint his mother.

Head held high, Draco stepped in the door and cast his eyes about for the perfect gift. Bookcases lined the walls on each side of the shop. On the right he found Muggle literature, from the old Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Dickinson to many of the newer authors enjoying current popularity.

To the left, Draco discovered all kinds of Wizard texts. Among the offering there were original copies of Hogwarts: A History, Wizard romance novels, and anything else one could ever hope for that was Wizard-based.

The back of the shop held a small desk, and an empty table next to a tipped over stool and an empty cauldron. He assumed Granger must have been working on something there, though he could not say what it had been.

Sitting near the shelf was a strange black box. Images moved and flickered around on its face, and it seemed to be showing a girl running through a forest as she shot arrows at another girl. What an oddity it was—and clearly very Muggle indeed.

On a shelf above the box sat a selection of thin, rectangular boxes in different colors. Draco skimmed his hand over them and read the names printed down the sides: The Secret Garden…The Little Princess…The Wizard of Oz.

Draco scoffed a little at the last one and pulled it out, chuckling over the cover. There was a woman dressed in a blue and white dress, followed by a scarecrow, a man made of metal, and an unrealistic-looking lion. In the background was a giant green city, a giant green face, and a woman dressed in black, with a long, hooked nose, who flew on a broomstick.

"Well, they kind of got the clothes and the broom right, but witches are not green," he commented wryly.

A man gasped and staggered from behind the table. He never would have recognized him if it wasn't for the shock of red hair on his head.

Ron stepped over to him nervously and said, "That's a television, and those—including the one in your hands—are DVDs. All of it can be yours for just three hundred galleons."

Draco stared hard at Ron Weasley as he fidgeted from foot to foot, waiting for a response. Something about him seemed a bit odd, Draco thought, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Weasley," he said cautiously as he continued to stare.

"Yes, hello Malfoy," he said. "What brings you here?"

"I'm looking for a birthday gift for my Mum," he said with as much dignity as he could muster. "She seems to have taken a liking to Muggle items, so I thought I'd look in here."

"Who would have ever thought Draco Malfoy would enter a shop like this," Ron said with a shake of his head. "Small world, isn't it?"

Draco stood there tensely, waiting for Ron to continue. The former Gryffindor student began to rub his chin thoughtfully for a few moments, and then his eyes widened and he grinned in a sinister manner that heightened the suspicions Draco already had. He almost looked like a Slytherin.

"I've got just the thing for you," he said in a gleeful tone. "Over here."

Warily, Draco followed Ron over to the other side of the table and crossed his arms. "What is that thing?" he inquired.

"It's a doll's house," Ron explained, still wearing that huge smile of his. He lifted it up and set it on the table, then started fiddling with the doors and windows, and showed him how it opened on a hinge so one could access the inside.

"Why isn't it on display, if you're trying to sell it?" Draco wanted to know.

"Well, you see, it was one of Hermione's favorites, but it takes up too much space in such a small shop," he explained. "I've been dying to get rid of it, but I couldn't give it away to just anybody, you understand. She would want to see it go to a good home."

"And you're offering it to me?" Draco scoffed. "I doubt Granger would think my home was very good."

"Well, maybe not you, precisely, but I don't think she'd object to your mother having it," Ron said in a wheedling tone.

"Where is Granger, anyway?" Draco asked through narrowed eyes. "This is her shop, isn't it? Why isn't she here?"

Ron gave a hesitant nod. "Uh, yeah, she's just been—detained."

Draco raised a brow at this, but he said no more. He figured this was just the sort of present his mother would like, so he didn't intend to push the issue too far. He leaned forward to study the craftsmanship of the piece, marveling at its beauty. The details were amazing.

The house had nine rooms altogether, two in the attic, two on the first, second and third floors, and a large basement. The brick pattern from the outside was also used to accent some of the rooms, while the basement was done up with brick in its entirety. There were even a few tiny cracks in the walls to make it seem more realistic.

Draco smiled. Every room had a different design, and they looked just as if a small person could actually live in them. There was even a tiny plate of half-eaten sandwiches on the little kitchen table. Draco laughed when he saw them.

"My mother would love this," he told Ron as he closed the house and turned back to Ron. "She's been looking for a doll's house for a while now. How much do you want for it?"

"Fifty galleons," Ron smirked.

Draco raised his eyebrows at this. "Just fifty? What's wrong with it?"

"Oh, nothing at all, mate," Ron reassured him with a shrug. "It's just taking up the space."

Draco was convinced that something was going on. Ron was too jittery. Though, he had mentioned before that the little house was one of Hermione's favorites. Maybe the two had had another argument, and he was selling it off without her consent.

With a smirk, he recalled that Ron and Hermione had been together for some time now, but it wasn't difficult to see that their relationship was falling apart. Without another word, he took fifty galleons from his purse and plunked it down on the table.

Then he tapped the doll's house on the roof with his wand, gave Ron a parting nod, and Disapparated with a loud pop. He appeared shortly after in Malfoy Manor with his new purchase, and quickly hid it in his bedroom to await the following day.