CHAPTER NINE: Diagon Alley


Harry pulled his scarf up to cover his lips as the boys walked back toward the manor. Snow had begun to lay out a fresh new blanket of white around the manor and snowflakes fell into his black hair. He shivered, walking more briskly toward the house.

"You need warmer robes," Draco noted. "We should stop by Twilfitt and Tatting's or Madam Malkins again when we go to Diagon Alley."

Harry looked over at him curiously. After living with the Dursleys so long, he was confused by the idea of him ever getting anything new, let alone needing anything. The only things he got were broken, used or unwanted by Dudley. And even then, they seemed to simply fall into his hands – they were never really given to him. Rather than being thrown in the trash things found their way into Harry's small pile of belongings.

"I'd like a thicker scarf," Harry finally said. The cool, sharp wind pushed through the thin material easily. His ears began to sting as they approached the opening to the manor.

Draco nodded, and pushed open the door, allowing Harry to dart inside to the warm house first.

"Draco," an unfamiliar, male voice said from the sitting room. Out of the archway walked a tall, pale man with long blond hair.

Draco perked up, smiling as he shut the door behind himself. "Hello Father," he said pleasantly. The young Malfoy turned to Harry, who had gone rather wide-eyed and was leaning toward the staircase, eyeing the top of the steps nervously as if he wanted to leave rather quickly. "Dad, this is Harry," Draco said.

Lucius smiled fleetingly. "Lucius Malfoy. Pleasure to meet you, Harry," he said smoothly.

Harry looked up at him and offered a nervous grin. "You too, Mr. Malfoy," he said quietly.

Draco bounced in place as something occurred to him. "Dad, Harry's a parselmouth!" Draco blurted out suddenly, eyes wide with delight.

Lucius Malfoy's eyebrows raised and he widened his eyes as he digested the information. "Is that so?" he finally said, pinning Harry with a long, curious look.

Harry nodded slowly.

"How long have you been one?" Lucius inquired, his masked, grey gaze intimidating Harry. The boy shifted nervously under the scrutiny.

"I guess a long time," he said slowly. "I spoke to one a couple of years ago, I didn't realize it was a big deal."

"He said he'd teach me if he could!" Draco cut in, grinning widely.

Lucius paused to consider this. "Could you do that?" he finally asked with curiosity. Harry looked up at him shyly.

"I don't know. But I mean, I could try," Harry replied.

Draco nodded wildly and just then Mrs. Malfoy walked into the room, smiling softly at her husband who shot her a typical look that said, to Draco, 'we need to have an adult talk that Draco isn't allowed to hear so let's make an excuse and send him to his room'.

"Draco," Narcissa spoke up predictably, "why don't you and Harry run off and wash up for dinner? I'll send one of the house elves to fetch you when it's time."

Draco nodded and began hopping up the steps, Harry close at his heels.

Harry was quiet as the two marched toward their bedroom and Draco looked over at him. "Is something wrong?" he asked the green-eyed boy, some concern tempering his excited tone.

Harry shook his head. "Just not used to the attention, that's all," Harry said awkwardly.

Draco stared at him in puzzlement. "But you're famous," he said. "You have been since you were a baby."

"Raised by muggles, remember? And they certainly didn't think I was famous," Harry pointed out.

Draco nodded thoughtfully. "They like you, you know. Dad's not as good at showing that as Mum, but they honestly do," he said, trying his hand at comfort.

Harry nodded and Draco gave up, stopping outside his bedroom. "There's a door opening to a private washroom in the back of your room. I'm not going to wash up though. I'm going to head off to the library. Do you want to come?"

Harry paused thoughtfully. "Yeah okay," he said agreeably. And the duo headed off down the hall and up a winding staircase.

As they entered a grand, wide room with a high, tower ceiling, Harry inhaled sharply. It was beautiful. Rows and rows of nearly unending black bookcases. The room was lit by candles hung on chandeliers and large windows all around which gave striking views of the rolling hills, woods and gardens surrounding the manor, letting in natural light.

Draco smiled. "It's my favorite room," he intoned quietly.

Harry nodded in thought and Draco gently prodded his shoulder, gesturing toward the far, back right of the library. "I think I read about Nicholas Flamel in some of the history books. He was someone important, very important. Come on. We've got a lot of books to go through. Let's pick as many out as we can that might be relevant and take them back to our room. Dad doesn't like me being in here too often."


Harry and Draco spent the next 30 minutes or so warming up by a fire in Draco's room and pouring over the glossaries of the books, looking for Nicholas Flamel's name.

"Can you imagine how long it'd take if we just went through the entire book looking for one name?" Draco said.

Harry laughed. "I'm quite sure we'd die of old age before we ever found anything," he said.

The boys had made two piles. The "nope" pile and the "haven't looked" pile. The "nope" pile was on the right and the "haven't looked" pile was on the left. One after another they sorted through each piece of text, putting book after book in the ever-growing "nope" pile.

Some, unfortunately, were too old to have glossaries, and the boys put these books in a lump far away from the rest silently labeled the "only if we get desperate" lump.

A house elf quietly knocked on the open door, peering into the room. "Master Draco?" the unknown elf said squeakily. "Mistress Narcissa and Master Malfoy are waiting for you and Mr. Potter at the dinner table," she said.

Draco stood up, nodding. "All right, thanks Poppy."

Poppy nodded, bobbing her head and shuffling off. The house elves had moved on from the sitting room, finished the first floor and were decorating the halls outside of Draco's room now.

Harry watched in awe as they donned the house with magical, unwinding mistletoe and the like and continued to set up a smaller Christmas tree in a nearby study.

Draco headed off down the stairs, summoning Harry to come with him. Harry bounced down the steps after him, smiling.

Draco looked over at him before returning the smile as the two rounded the corner at the bottom of the steps and made for the kitchen.


Harry squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, taking a bite of pasta as the Malfoy family engaged in a quiet conversation.

"Dad, would you take me and Harry to Diagon Alley tomorrow?" Draco suddenly said as his parents paused in their conversation.

Lucius looked up, considering the question. "I suppose I don't have any work tomorrow that can't wait," he said finally. "All right. We'll go early tomorrow Draco. Be up and be ready. I have to stop by Gringotts."

Draco nodded happily, smiling. Harry returned the smile.

"What's your favorite class this year, Draco?" Narcissa inquired after a beat of silence.

Draco paused as if deep in thought. "Potions," he finally said. "Harry's is Charms though. Astronomy is dreadful. And the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a blathering idiot," Draco said.

Harry nodded in agreement.

"Who's teaching that this year?" Lucius asked.

"Professor Quirrel," both boys replied. Draco nibbled on some garlic bread.

Lucius nodded. "We were in school together," he said. "Quiet Ravenclaw. Could imagine he'd be a frustrating sort of teacher."

"Father," Draco suddenly said, setting down his fork as something occurred to him. "Who is Nicholas Flamel?"

Lucius arched one eyebrow.

"It's for our History of Magic class," Draco added in smoothly, not even batting an eye.

"The creator and owner of the Philosopher's Stone," Narcissa said. Lucius nodded in agreement.

Draco's eyes widened and Harry paused as if deep in thought. He clearly realized that this was a significant object, but lacked an understanding of exactly what it was.

As they noticed Lucius staring at them in a slow, calculative way, he and Draco wiped their expressions down to clean, innocent interest.

"Interesting thing to be learning about so early in the year," Lucius said, suspicion but no accusation in his tone.

Draco shrugged. "Don't think Professor Binns knows what year any of his students are in anymore, the old ghost."

Harry nodded in agreement. Truthfully, he didn't know what Professor Binns had taught them so far at all. The entire classroom seemed enchanted to make everyone fall under a deep spell of lethargy, most if not all students falling asleep at least for a few moments throughout the lesson. Harry and Draco had fallen into a habit of taking turns taking naps. Draco would take notes for twenty minutes while Harry napped, and then rouse Harry would take the other twenty minutes of notes. Later that evening they shared notes, making sure they kept track of important dates.

Narcissa launched into a pleasant conversation about buying new Christmas decorations and Draco spouted off a verbal wishlist as he remembered how close Christmas was drawing.

After Draco had finished his long-winded listing, he sighed, sitting back, content with himself.

"What do you want, Harry?" Narcissa asked kindly as the green-eyed boy fiddled with the massive amount of spoons set next to his plate. Harry looked up sharply, disbelief flitting across his features.

"Oh, er," Harry said. "I don't know."

Draco stared at him before shaking his head. "He wants a new scarf and an advanced charms book and he loves Bertie Botts Flavored beans. He also needs new robes. And a broom of his own, Mom. A nice one. Did I tell you about our first Quidditch match? I mean you should have seen him. Granted he nearly ate the snitch but I mean that's all right. Oh! A snitch, yeah, get him a pack of Snitches Mum. So he can practice. You know, the one's that go up in difficulty-"

"-Honestly I don't need anything," Harry cut in, red-faced as Draco demanded thing after thing from his mother for Harry.

"Yes you do," Draco said matter-of-factly. "I also think he could use a hat, or some earmuffs. He likes pumpkin pasties. And maybe some new quills, ones that correct his handwriting, his is awful you know-"

"-Draco, be polite," Narcissa reprimanded from across the table, a small smile tugging at the masked expression on her face. Her eyes were warm though as she observed her son and his flustered friend. "Harry, if you're going to be staying with us, it simply wouldn't be right if we didn't get you something," she added kindly, offering the boy a smile.

Harry shook his head. "You really don't have to-"

"We want to," Narcissa insisted. Just then, an owl flew in through an owl-door just above the front door and dropped a letter into Mr. Malfoy's lap, not even stopping to perch before flying away, in quite a hurry.

Lucius curiously picked up the letter and stood, excusing himself from the table with a thin smile and heading off to his study.

Harry looked down at his unfinished pasta, cheeks red as he straightened up one of his spoons.

"He has the oddest aversion to having nice things, or money, or anyone being kind to him," Draco complained.

Harry shot him a glare and Narcissa frowned. "Draco," she warned, her tone disapproving. He seemed unabashed by his mother's scolding tone and shrugged, suddenly standing from his meal and pushing his plate away.

"Harry and I are going back upstairs now," Draco said, offering his Mom a dimpled smile.

She shook her head at him, still disappointed, before nodding, and allowing the two to run off as she too stood from the table.

Harry marched after Draco irritably, cheeks still red. "What was that all about?" Harry complained.

"Oh come on, you know I was only joking about your handwriting," Draco complained, heading up the staircase.

Harry followed after him, shaking his head. "That's not what I meant. I meant the whole – the whole… insisting on buying me things. I don't, I don't need your parents to-"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Harry, I know it may come as a shock, but we are not poor. You're staying with us for Christmas, it would actually be very rude if we didn't get you anything. Mother would have gotten you something anyway. I just suggested some things that you might need so you didn't wind up with a new pair of mittens."

Harry sighed. "That's not the point, I, I just-"

"-Please do get over your aversion of people acting kindly toward you Harry, it's really exhausting," Draco groaned as he pushed open the door to his bedroom. He flopped on to the floor next to their piles of books and reached under his bed to retrieve something. "Close the door please?" Draco intoned.

Harry reluctantly shut the door behind him and flopped down on to the ground. Draco triumphantly pulled out a bag of candies and tossed Harry a bar of Honeydukes chocolate, smiling.

Harry looked at it in awe. "Where'd you get this?"

"Honeydukes, duh," Draco replied, scooting into his sitting position with a grin.

"Where's that?" Harry inquired.

"Hogsmeade!" Draco chirped. "Harry, stay focused," Draco said, excitement sparkling in his grey eyes.

Harry looked up as he peeled back the gold foil off the chocolate, pulling off a chunk and popping it into his mouth. "Focused on what?" he asked after he swallowed.

"The Philosopher's Stone!" Draco said, rolling his eyes at him. "Honestly. More intent on derailing my Mother's plans to buy you things than figuring out why Quirrel's a crazy psychopath murderer. Get your priorities straight, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes in a mocking gesture, sitting back. "Well sorry," he said sarcastically. "Okay, tell me about this Philosopher's Stone," he added more eagerly, leaning forward again.

"It's a magical stone that was made a couple hundred years ago-"

"-by Nicholas Flamel, yeah-"

"-yeah. It can turn any metal into gold and it can create a potion known as the Elixir of Life… which grants the drinker, err, eternal life," Draco said.

Both boys sat in silence as a single conclusion reached into their minds.

"You don't think?" Draco breathed, eyes wide.

Harry shook his head, slowly, letting out a deep breath. "I do," he said. "It's just too coincidental, Draco."

"Harry," Draco said warningly. "We need to tell Professor Snape about this when we get back to school. It's not – he's not – we can't deal with this on our own," Draco said very seriously.

Harry nodded. "You're probably right. I just hope we're not too late. Professor Quirrel has all Christmas break, to-"

"Do you think he broke into Gringotts that day?" Draco blurted out.

Harry nodded slowly as something dawned on him. "You know… I saw him. That day. In the Leaky Cauldron. I think he did."

Draco leaned back. "Harry, if he broke into Gringotts-"

"-I know Draco. I know. It's the safest place in England. Except Hogwarts."

"No one had ever broken into Gringotts before Harry. Who's to say he won't be the first to break through Hogwarts defenses, either?"

Harry shook his head. "We just have to hope that Professor Snape is keeping an eye on him," Harry said.

Draco nodded, biting his lip. "What do you know about the last wizarding war, anyway, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "Not a lot."

Draco nodded slowly. "It was bad," he said simply.

"I've heard," Harry said morosely.

Draco took a deep breath and stood, heading out the door. Harry followed. "Where are you going?" Harry said sharply.

"Library. Need to look some things up," Draco said distractedly.

The obsessive boys traveled in consumed silence to the library and spent the rest of the night pouring over books, barely speaking. Harry read as much as he could find on the wizarding war, seeing his own name and his parents' more than once.

Draco found something wonderfully pleasant about Harry's silent focus that night. Draco had always gotten frustrated with other kids his age, who tended to easily flip from one object of interest to another. He had actually never met another wizard his age who could spend more than an hour reading without a word.

Plenty of the time when he had friends over to play he ended up leaving them to their own devices, so he could read up on things like snake hibernation and behavior, or practicing potions in Dad's potion lab without Mum knowing.

Harry drifted off at about two in the morning and Draco peered over at him sleepily, turning another page in his book.

He sighed, shutting the book. He snapped his fingers and Dobby appeared before him very suddenly, having walked into the quiet room. "Dobby, return all the books from my room and the ones laid out here to their proper place," he said shortly. The house elf nodded.

"Yes Master Draco." He disappeared with a noisy crack which startled Harry awake. The black-haired boy rubbed at his eyes sleepily, looking about.

"You fell asleep," Draco informed him.

"Diagon Alley tomorrow," Harry mumbled sleepily.

"Excited?" Draco inquired as the two stood, Harry staggering slightly.

Harry nodded sleepily. "Yeah. Never been on a shopping trip before."

Draco arched an eyebrow as they began exiting the library. "Never with the muggles?"

Harry shook his head. "They didn't take me anywhere," he mumbled sulkily, his brain still sleep-addled.

Draco frowned. "Why not?"

"They hated me," Harry said bluntly as they began walking down the long corridor. He let out a yawn.

Draco blinked in surprise, opening and closing his mouth. Harry pushed open the door to his temporary room and offered Draco a sluggish smile. "Night," he said shortly. He proceeded to tromp over to his bed, leaving his door wide open. He flopped down face first on to the mattress, sighing deeply.

Draco headed off to his own bed, his mind buzzing noisily even as he lied down and closed his eyes.


Harry woke up at around nine the next morning, peering sleepily from left to right. He was stiff, waiting for the typical impending attack from Draco every morning when he woke.

None was forthcoming however. This caused Harry to sit up, looking from left to right in confusion, only to remember that he was in Malfoy Manor.

A slow, sleepy smile turned up the sides of his lips as he observed his room.

If however temporary, it was the closest thing to a home aside from the Slytherin dorms that Harry could ever remember having.

Dudley's second bedroom had never been his. Just because Harry slept in it didn't mean it wasn't his cousin's and that it wouldn't always be his cousin's. And Dudley would make sure to remind him of that over the summer most likely, when his fear of growing a pig tail again had dissipated.

He touched a hand to the wall beside him just to convince himself that touching it would not make it fade away. He worried still that at some point he'd wake up back in his cupboard and this would all have been a wonderful dream that he wouldn't tell anyone about.

"Harry? Are you showered yet?" Draco called from the hallway, just as he poked his head in the open door.

Harry looked at him sleepily from where he sat in his bed and Draco sighed, rolling his eyes. "Of course not. Get up and shower then, we're leaving soon," he said.

Harry popped out of bed, a grin eating up his features as he nodded enthusiastically. He bolted toward the door to the washroom, running inside to get ready for the day.


Draco hopped down the steps, letting out a yawn as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Are you ready to go, Draco?" Lucius inquired from the bottom of the steps.

Draco nodded. "Harry!" he yelled, turning around to face the top of the steps. Harry rounded the corner, suddenly appearing before him, eyes wide as Draco had just practically yelled in his face.

Draco smiled. "There you are," he said cheerfully. "We're ready, Father," Draco said, turning back toward the bottom of the stairs. Lucius nodded, turning on his heel toward the fireplace in the sitting room.

Draco and Harry headed down the steps and raced into the room with the huge Christmas tree. Harry looked at it with wide eyes, the baubles sparkling and turning every which-way.

Lucius, Harry and Draco floo'ed directly to Gringotts this time. Harry stepped out of the fireplace and looked to his left just as Lucius and then Draco exited nearby fireplaces.

He headed through the marble lobby to catch up with the two. Draco raced over to meet him and the duo tagged along after Draco's father as he approached the main desk.

"Mr. Malfoy," the goblin at the counter greeted him in a way that, for a goblin, was probably respectful.

"I'll be making a withdrawal," Lucius said, holding out his wand without expression. The goblin carefully grasped the wand, turning it around in his hand a few times before handing it back and nodding.

"Will that be all for today, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked.

Lucius shook his head. "I'm here with Mr. Potter, who will also be making a withdrawal," Lucius said simply, standing out of the way. The goblin peered down at Harry curiously, nodding.

"Identification?" the goblin asked the green-eyed boy stiffly.

Harry blinked. "Um," he said thoughtfully, looking down.

"Your wand is your primary identification in the wizarding world, Harry. The key was only necessary before you accessed your vault for the first time. Gringotts now keeps track of the key and simply needs to confirm that you are who you claim to be," Lucius said in a quiet, quick tone of voice.

Harry nodded, looking up at the blond wizard thoughtfully. He reached into his robe pockets, carefully removing his wand and handing it to the goblin as Lucius had done.

The goblin turned the wand over once, nodding thoughtfully before handing it back down to Harry.

"This way," a goblin from behind the desk said, leading them down to the carts.


The boys spent the next several hours running from shop to shop. Draco was rather fond of shopping, Harry quickly realized.

He showed him his favorite shop, Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop. The boys spent a good hour in there, loading up on no-heat fireworks, gag potions, and exploding Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

Then Draco's father took them Twilfitt and Tatting's where Draco made Harry buy some new clothes because all of his old ones "had to go". It was an upper market store, one Harry hadn't been near last time he'd visited Diagon Alley with Hagrid.

The boys then headed off to Quality Quidditch supplies, Harry's favorite store of the day.

"Hello lads," a friendly man with an Irish burr greeted them as they entered the store, identical grins of excitement alighting their features. He then returned to helping an older, teenage girl with picking a new broom out from the far left of the store.

Draco shoved a kid out of the way who was hovering over the case of a new Nimbus prototype. The kid yelped.

"Hey!" the kid snapped, turning to face the taller boy. The blond sneered angrily down at him and the little boy seemed to pale as Lucius entered the shop, and darted off to the other end of the shop.

Harry glared at Draco. Lucius walked toward the front of the shop and struck up a conversation with the shop owner, who seemed to get very quiet around the tall, intimidating man.

Harry shoved Draco hard in the side, knocking him away from the display case.

Draco gasped a bit, eyes lighting up with rage. "What was that for?" he shouted angrily, setting his jaw and narrowing his grey eyes as he stood up, having stumbled from the unexpected shove.

Harry shrugged. "You were in my way. I guess a bit like that kid was in your way. Funny how it works, isn't it?" Harry said stiffly. Harry felt angry at the boy's expense, remembering all the times Dudley and his friends had pushed, kicked or shoved him just because he was smaller. It filled him with sick rage to see Draco acting like such… such a bully.

The grey-eyed boy glared at Harry, curling his hands into fists defiantly.

Harry stared back.

For a moment, they just stood in silence, Harry crossing his arms as he glared at the other boy.

Draco's grey eyes flashed with rage, and he took a step forward, opening his mouth before he suddenly snapped it closed, something like defeat flickering in the depths of his icy glare.

He blew out a long slow breath, his hands uncurling from fists, and dropped his gaze to the ground.

Harry uncrossed his arms.

"I'm not going to apologize to him," Draco said finally, his voice quiet as he admitted, even though silently, some form of defeat.

"I know," Harry said. Then he offered Draco a small smile.

Draco didn't return it, still sulking, but still acknowledged it, nodding once and turning to the promotional case.

Harry turned too, peering down through the glass.

The broom was made of black wood with silver highlights and revolving stirrups. It was sleek and shining, and just on the tip of the handle was the easily recognized Nimbus logo.

"The Nimbus 2001," Draco breathed, forgetting the brief fight in the presence of the awe-worthy broom.

"It comes out in August next year," Harry whispered. "Just after my birthday!" he exclaimed.

"It's beautiful," Draco murmured, eyes drooping with adoration.

"It looks to be a very fine broom. The revolving stirrups are certainly an improvement," Lucius mused from behind them, causing them both to startle.

"Father I need this," Draco said simply.

Lucius quirked a small smile, nodding. "I see," he said.

"Harry wants one too," Draco added. "Harry, don't get a broom now," he said suddenly, "hold off until this comes out! Then we can both have one," he said wisely.

Harry nodded in agreement.

"Draco, I have some business to attend to very briefly at Gringotts. Can I trust you to stay here while I'm gone? I will be back in twenty minutes."

Draco beamed. "Of course!" he said happily.

Lucius nodded, walking out the door, the bell jingling as it shut behind him.

Draco watched his father's figure disappear in a swarming crowd, mentally counted to ten before whirling in place, facing Harry.

"All right, let's go," Draco said, heading for the door.

Harry blinked several times, following after him. "Wait – Draco, your Dad just said-"

"And he's gone so let's go," Draco said simply, pushing open the door.

Harry looked anxiously from side to side before darting after the boy and into the busy street.

"Where exactly are we going?" Harry asked.

"Knockturn Alley!" Draco said, smiling,


"Are you sure we should be here, Draco?" Harry whispered, sticking close to the other boy's side as the eerie looking crowd around them stared.

All eyes seemed disturbingly drawn to Harry.

"Of course, I need to get a book from down here. Besides, I've been with Dad plenty of times. No one ever bothers us."

Harry felt unsure, looking back at a familiar, hooded man. Familiar in the sense that Harry felt as though he had probably been following them the past three or four minutes.

"Here it is," Draco said, pushing open the door to a shady store.

Harry followed inside timidly. Luckily, Draco didn't need long to find what he wanted, carefully pulling the selected book off of a shelf, eyes glimmering eagerly. "Exactly, this is exactly it," Draco murmured, brushing a hand down the spine of the old text.

There was no title on the front, but there was inscription in a language Harry couldn't read on the spine. It was a dark, leather-bound book.

"Can I help you boys?" a seedy, grubby-looking man asked as he walked out of one of the dark shadows of the store.

"I'd like to purchase this book," Draco said calmly, his face a blank mask Harry had never seen before on the boy.

The man looked at them both with piercing, dark brown eyes. He grunted, nodding. "All right, come with me."

Draco followed him to the desk as the back of the store.

"Fifty galleons, young Mr. Malfoy," the man said. He watched Harry as Draco carefully handed over the requested gold.

"Who would this be with you then, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked, eyeing Harry in a way that made the green-eyed boy feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

Draco gave him a cold, icy grey glare that would have made Lucius proud. "That's none of your concern."

With that Draco spun, heading out the door to the shop with Harry at his heels.

"I want to leave now, Draco," Harry murmured.

Draco nodded. "All right," he said. "That's all I had to do, anyway. Come on."

The boys began heading up the path toward Diagon Alley when suddenly it was blocked by the hooded man from earlier.

"Who might that be with you, Draco?" the cold voice drawled.

"A friend. We're going now, Carrow. My dad's waiting for us." Draco's voice held a barely concealed threat as he narrowed his eyes at the lumpy, short wizard.

The wizard gave a wheezy giggle, throwing back his head.

"Well I don't see him around to protect you and your friend," he said sneeringly. "Wouldn't happen to be Harry Potter, would it? Looks a right side like 'is dad, he does," Amycus Carrow drawled, stepping forward, mean eyes glinting toward Harry.

As soon as the name 'Harry Potter' was uttered, the entire alley lit up with interest, a few shadier folk edging forward from the sidewalks to stare.

"Amycus, what do you think you're doing?" the cold, clear voice of Lucius Malfoy cut through the air like a needle made of ice.

Carrow spun on his heel, facing the blond man, eyes wide. "Malfoy," he said stiffly, "just saying hello to Draco here and Mr. Potter," he said in a bad imitation of an innocent tone.

Lucius barely contained the rage on his face as he walked down into the alley, the shadier bunch parting out of his way as he approached Amycus and the boys. "Well that's good to hear, because it sounded like you were threatening my son, Amycus. That wouldn't end well for you. How's the sister? Dementors treating her all right?"

Amycus's eyes flashed with rage and his face curled into a snarl. "Go to hell, Malfoy," Carrow whispered hoarsely.

"Come, Draco," Lucius said impatiently, gesturing toward the beckoning entrance of Diagon Alley.

Neither boys needed to be told twice, Harry darting up the walkway and out of the shady alley and into the bright sunlight. Draco beamed proudly up at his father.

"Draco, until you are older, it's best if you only visit Knockturn Alley with me," Lucius said simply.

Harry blinked, having expected some sort of reprimand or punishment.

Draco nodded enthusiastically and like nothing had ever happened, the three of them exited into the Leaky Cauldron with all of their new things in tow, and floo'ed back to the manor.