I already mentioned that I love the Malfoys, right?
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Chapter 3.
Diagon Alley.
When Hermione first stepped into Diagon Alley she couldn't hide the surprise from her face, it was so magical, full of interesting stores and people, her eyes widened in awe and she could still remember how Sirius smiled at her assuring her that they would have enough time to visit every single store, that was on the day of her adoption and even now, six months later, she was still surprised by the whole place.
The difference was that today she was walking along with Harry and Lily Potter.
Harry had been insisting the whole week about how bad he wanted to see the new brooms and he insisted that Hermione needed to come to. Considering how she loved Diagon Alley she didn't refuse, besides she loved spending time with Harry and even if she didn't like brooms, she could tolerate a trip to the store.
"You know Aunt Lily won't buy you a broom yet, don't you?" Hermione asked him once he started to see all the brooms inside the shop "not even Uncle James could convinced her."
Harry smirked at her.
"It's okay" he said and pointed at his mother who was talking with another witch "dad gave me money for a training broom, I'll go and buy it quickly before she notices."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Harry" she insisted "all Aunt Lily will have to do is to return it, Uncle James will get into trouble."
Harry grabbed her hand.
"Don't worry about it" he told her and dragged her towards the training brooms.
Hermione sighed but smiled at the sight of Harry. It was funny to see him so excited to see all the brooms, she knew how bad he wanted to learn to ride one, although she didn't understand it, she had seen Uncle James trying to teach him and all she could think of was how glad she was that those weren't an obligatory method of transportation in the wizarding world. She was afraid of heights after all.
"That one!" Harry said and let go off her hand to grab a broom.
It was small and a little bit curvy at the tip, she read the product description. Apparently it was for kids under ten years old and it had all of the safety charms, it also said that it was immune to outside sources of magic that could want to make it malfunction. Her eyes widened, that was interesting information.
Harry grabbed the broom and his smile faded when he noticed another boy grabbing it at the same time.
"Sorry" Harry said politely "but I saw it first."
Hermione looked at the boy, he was pale with grey eyes and a pointy nose. She frowned at his rude scowl.
"No" the boy said "I've been looking for this broom for a long time, I think I'll take it."
Both Harry and the boy refused to let go off the broom.
Hermione sighed.
This was going to be a problem.
Lily let Harry and Hermione roam freely through the store as she spoke with the manager. She knew that James had convinced Harry to buy the broom even after she insisted that he didn't need it, he couldn't use it at house so it was better for him to wait a little longer but the Potters men were really stubborn, she smiled fondly at that thought.
"You seem to be thinking about something nice" the manager, an old witch with a nice smile, told her.
Lily blushed slightly.
"It's nothing" she said and then looked at the other side of the store "it seems that Harry finally found a broom."
The old lady nodded.
"It looks like it, I'm so glad to see little Harry so happy" she told Lily "we're still recovering from the war but the new generation of witches and wizards give us hope."
Lily smiled at that, it was true that the war shook the world in unimaginable ways but everyone was healing and that was what truly mattered. Sighing she remembered the conversation she had with James before leaving the house.
"You shouldn't go today" James said hugging Lilly from behind and kissing her neck.
She sighed.
"I promised the kids, Harry wants to see the new brooms and he wants to show them to Hermione, it's just Diagon Alley" Lily said.
"Still" James insisted "I have a bad feeling."
She turned around and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.
"It'll be okay Mr. Prongs" she said sweetly "unless there's something you want to tell me."
He sighed and kissed her deeply, somehow she knew something was going to happen.
She frowned, the Aurors must've been informed about something otherwise James wouldn't have acted so weird, she needed to know what had him so worried.
"You're tense" James said while taking a seat on Sirius's living room.
"Just like you" Sirius said smirking.
James sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair.
"I always thought that we would be bachelors with our own flat, but look at us, already worrying over our children…"
"…and wife, in your case" Sirius concluded and James chuckled.
"If you had told Lilly" Remus chimed in "she wouldn't have gone and you wouldn't be panicking."
"I'm not panicking" James said defensively.
"Yet" Sirius said amused.
"Fine" James said finally "but you can't blame when there are Death Eaters roaming freely on the bloody street."
Remus sighed, according to James and Sirius, the Aurors department had been informed about some unknown wizards wearing Death Eater's masks near Diagon Alley. At first, the Ministry tried to ignore the whole thing considering it nothing but a prank, but after a couple was violently mugged they decided to take precautions while waiting to break the news to the public.
"I agree with you" Sirius said "fortunately unless one of them is fucking suicidal they won't do anything, besides their psychopath leader is gone for good so let's try to calm down and Lilly and the kids will be back before you notice."
Remus's eyes widened.
"The fact that you are the voice of reason right now it's giving me chills."
Sirius pretended to be hurt.
"I thought that I always gave you chills, especially because I'm extremely handsome."
James snorted.
"Handsome? Right, I must say Hermione is quite lucky she didn't inherit your ugly nose."
Sirius threw quite forcibly the first thing he found, which happened to be a cup of tea, at James. The black haired man laughed while making it disappear with a flick of his wand.
"So" Hermione said "we've been like this for ten minutes already, one of you have to let go off the broom."
"I grabbed it first" Harry said stubbornly "he is the one who should let it go."
"I'm not going to!" the blonde one insisted and then smirked "leave it to me or I'll make you."
Hermione was about to tell him how threatening was tacky when the boy used his free hand to look for something inside his pockets, it was a wand but it looked different from the ones she had seen before, her eyes widened in realization and she gasped.
"Is that a training wand?!" She asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.
The blonde boy nodded and smirked smugly.
"Father bought it for me" he said proudly "these are not easy to get."
"Oh I know!" Hermione said unaffected by the boy's smug attitude "I've been begging dad for one but he says that paperwork is too troublesome for him, he hates it."
"Paperwork? So he knows how to get one? Does he work in the Ministry?" the blonde boy asked curiously.
Hermione nodded but didn't say anything else and Harry noticed how her expression changed, she wanted to use the wand badly.
"Lend it to me!" Hermione said suddenly grabbing the boy's hand without hesitation "I just want to try one spell, please."
"No" the boy answered and noticed how he was trapped.
Harry was still holding the broom so he couldn't let go off that, while Hermione wasn't letting go off his hand.
"Come on!" Hermione insisted excitedly "I promise to give it back immediately."
"I don't even know you" the boy said rudely.
"My name's Hermione, Hermione Black" She said smiling widely at him "nice to meet you."
Harry noticed how the boy's eyes widened.
"You're my cousin!" He said surprised "I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy."
Hermione gasped happily.
"Oh! I've read your name on the family tree! Well, it's really nice to meet you, this is Harry Potter, my best friend."
Draco looked at him questioningly.
"Do you really have the scar?" He asked quickly.
Harry nodded.
"I do, why?"
"I want to see it!"
"Sure" Harry answered smirking "just let Hermione try the wand, and let me have this broom, then I can show it to you."
Draco frowned.
"How about I let her try the wand and you show me the scar, it's only fair."
Harry shook his head and now none of the children were letting go, Hermione was thinking hard in offering Draco a better deal but it was then when a blonde, elegant witch approached them, it wasn't hard to realize that this was Draco's mother, she had heard about her too, Narcissa Malfoy.
Hermione gaped at the sight of her and blushed slightly.
She was gorgeous.
"Draco, dear" she said and Hermione thought that her voice sounded like silk "what are you doing?"
"Mother" Draco said and he sounded relieved "help me, she wants my wand and he wants my broom!"
Narcissa simply looked at the three children and when she saw Hermione her eyes widened.
"Oh" she said and smiled sweetly "I've been dying to meet you, Hermione."
She blushed.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am" Hermione said but still refused to let go off Draco's hand "do you know who I am?"
Narcissa chuckled and kneeled down so she could be at her height.
"There's no need to be so formal, dear and of course I know who you are, although Sirius is extremely rude, I thought that he would invite me to meet my niece" she said and then she patted Hermione on the head "why don't you join me and Draco? I'll treat you to ice cream."
Hermione beamed at the prospect of chatting with her aunt.
"Oh" she said "your invitation makes me extremely happy but I must refuse, I'm here with Harry and Aunt Lily."
Narcissa then looked at Harry and smiled at him.
"Why don't you join us too then?" she asked him politely "you and Draco seem to be getting quite well."
Both boys exchanged an incredulous look.
"I don't know…" Harry said unsure.
"Oh there you are" someone said and everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice "Harry, what are you doing?"
"Mum" he said desperately "he wants my broom!"
Lily sighed.
"Harry, that's not yours" she said and then looked at Narcissa "I'm sorry if they caused you trouble, Miss Malfoy."
Narcissa stood up.
"Not at all, and I already told you to call me Narcissa, Lady Potter" she said.
"Then you can call me Lily, please"
Narcissa nodded.
"This is a pleasant surprise, I've been dying to meet Hermione for a while, I even wrote to Sirius but I never got an answer."
Hermione frowned at that, his father never told her how Narcissa wanted to meet her.
"He was probably scared" Lily answered with a smile and Narcissa rolled her eyes.
"I figured that much" she said amused "my cousin will never change."
Lily had to agree with that.
"Well" Narcissa said finally "since you're here, I was saying to Hermione how I would like to treat her to dessert, if it's okay with you."
Lily looked at Hermione who was looking at Narcissa with awe.
"You can come with us too, of course" Narcissa said to Lily.
"Sure" Lily answer "we'd love to."
Draco and Harry exchanged confused glances while Hermione smiled.
A hooded man was sneaking through the alleys while trying to avoid uninvited attention, he had a goal in mind, a goal that was going to send him to Azkaban but that wouldn't stop him. It was all about revenge and that was the only thing that mattered to him.
Harry and Draco were sulking while eating ice cream.
In the end they were both forced to leave the broom, apparently Draco wasn't allowed to have one either, Hermione found that extremely funny. The owner of the ice cream shop was clearly surprised at seeing Narcissa Malfoy and Lily Potter together, he stuttered the whole time while taking their order.
"So" Narcissa commented casually "apparently Harry and Draco have a lot of things in common."
Both boys frowned.
"We do not" both answered at the same time and Hermione chuckled.
Lily smiled at that.
"That broom has been quite the hot topic in the house lately" she said "I still don't understand, we do not have the space for him to practice, yet he insists."
"You don't have space?" Draco asked curiously "is your house small?"
"Not exactly" Hermione answered before Harry could "Aunt Lily's house is really big but since it's in a muggle neighborhood the wards won't be able to hide Harry riding a broom really well."
Narcissa looked at Lilly.
"I heard the rumors that the Potters were living in a muggle neighborhood" she commented "I never thought that was true."
Lily shrugged.
"We wanted to avoid the press" she said "we're lucky that "The Prophet" workers are useless on muggle territory."
"Well, I can't blame them" Narcissa said "I don't like them either, but if you're worried about muggles seeing little Harry riding a broom he's always welcome to Malfoy Manor, we have amazing wards and the garden has all the safety charms. I'm pretty sure Draco would be glad to have someone to compete with."
Harry's eyes widened.
"Really?" he asked.
Narcissa nodded.
"Yes" she said and then looked at Hermione "there's also a nice library, I've heard that you like to read."
Hermione nodded.
"I would love to go" she said and then added quickly "but I do not wish to intrude and…"
Narcissa waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't be silly" she said "I would love the female company, God knows I'm always outnumbered by males."
"Oh, I know how that feels" Lily said and then patted Hermione on the head "Hermione here is a blessing, I don't know what I would do without her company, especially when Quidditch matches become heated."
Narcissa nodded solemnly at that.
"So" Draco said "when you go to my house we'll get to race."
Harry nodded smirking.
"And if you go" Draco added looking at Hermione "I'll lend you my training wand."
"Oh, it'll be awesome" she said smiling "I cannot wait to tell dad, you'll both have to practice some spells with me."
Harry and Draco nodded while Lily and Narcissa exchanged amused looks.
The shopping trip ended as peaceful as Lily predicted, they were saying goodbye to Narcissa and Draco at the apparition point and Lily couldn't help but smile at Hermione who was blushing as the Lady Malfoy kneeled to be at her height and say goodbye to her.
"Don't forget to write to me, dear" she said "if you ever feel like getting out of Grimmauld place just send me a letter."
Hermione nodded.
"Thank you, Ma'am" she said.
"Oh no" Narcissa said "call me Aunt Cissa, please."
Hermione nodded and Narcissa apparated along with her son.
"I liked him" Harry said while taking Hermione's hand "I thought he was a stuck up idiot but I guess that your cousin is not that bad."
Hermione nodded.
It was then when Lily noticed it, there was dark magic near them. She thought about ignoring the annoying presence but it wouldn't do any good, she needed to call the Aurors and take the kids to a safe place.
"Is everything okay, Aunt Lily?" Hermione asked her after seeing her worried expression.
She looked around and noticed how full the street was, even if there was someone there she wouldn't be able to locate the witch or wizard in the middle of the crowd.
"Mum?" Harry asked.
She frowned and grabbed Harry and Hermione by their hands and ran into the nearest store, which happened to be a potion's store and luckily she knew the owner.
"Miss Potter?" the old wizard said "what a surprise I…"
The first bombarda was heard just outside the store and the owner gasped.
Harry and Hermione exchanged a worrisome look and letting go off Lily's they ran towards the shop window to look outside. Harry's eyes widened as he saw a hooded man in the middle of the street, he was wearing a hideous mask that made Harry feel really scared.
"Death Eater" Hermione whispered and Harry gulped.
His father had explained him all about them and that was enough for him to know that he didn't want to see a single one of them ever.
"Miss Potter?" the owner of the shop asked and Lily took a quick decision.
"I'll distract him for a while" she told him "contact the Aurors and keep the kids in here."
The old man nodded and ran towards the back of the store, Lily supposed that he had something there to inform the Ministry about what was happening. She was about to go outside but both Harry and Hermione grabbed her by her robes.
"No!" Hermione said shaking from head to toe "Aunt Lily you cannot go, let's wait for the Aurors!"
Harry nodded agreeing with her.
"Mum!" he said and Lily sighed.
She kneeled next to the kids.
"I have to do this" she said and then hugged them "wait for me here."
"Well I was looking for the Potter kid but his Mudblood mother will be enough" the Death Eater said once she saw her coming out of the store.
"What does a full grown man want with a little kid?" she asked angrily.
"He killed my master" the Death Eater answered.
"No" Lily said smiling "I was the one who killed him, do you want revenge? Come and get it."
She couldn't recognize the voice, and the horrible mask hid all his features but she wouldn't let the bastard run away. She pointed her wand and threw the first hex, unfortunately he avoided it quickly, some people were watching the fight behind the windows of the shops while other ones were too busy running away, she wondered how much time would take to the Aurors to get here.
Curse, hex, curse, hex… it was like a dance between her and the prick, one of his curses reached her shoulder and cut her, nothing serious but enough to take her off guard. A gasp caught her attention and her eyes widened when she saw Harry and Hermione looking at her, they had left the store! She got distracted so she didn't have time to avoid the next curse, she closed her eyes knowing that she would not be able to move on time and then she heard a high pitched scream.
"Mum?!" Harry asked surprised and she opened her eyes only to realize that she was now standing next to her son.
"How?!" she asked and then looked at the street.
"Hermione!" Harry yelled and the Death Eater threw another curse.
Hell broke loose.
I swear this is not a tragedy so bear with me, okay?
Guys, thank you so much for all your reviews! The next chapter is basically ready but I'll wait for your reactions on this one to publish it, okay? Thank you again.
So my country is in quarantine, if you're facing the same situation I hope this fanfic can distract you for a while, stay at home and stay safe.
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Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes.