Suspicions

Chapter 23

Saturday, August 24

Harry was pondering the meaning of Malfoy's behavior in Knockturn Alley while he followed the rest of their group to the Leaky Cauldron. What disturbed him most was the satisfied look on Malfoy's face as he had left the shop. Nothing that made Malfoy look that happy could be good news. To his slight annoyance however, neither Ron nor Hermione seemed quite as curious about Malfoy's activities as he was.

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," said Hermione as she sipped her butterbeer. Hermione's mother was chatting with Mr. Weasley and Ginny was talking with her mother. Sirius was with Tonks, which left him, Hermione, and Ron on a separate table. "But there could be a lot of explanations, couldn't there?"

"Maybe he's broken his Hand of Glory" said Ron vaguely, as he looked through the things he had bought from the twins' joke shop. "Remember that shrivelled-up arm Malfoy had?"

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

"You reckon?" said Ron, still rifling through the small bag.

"Yeah, I do," said Harry. When neither Ron nor Hermione answered, he said, "Malfoy's father's in Azkaban. Don't you think Malfoy'd like revenge?"

Ron looked up, blinking. "Malfoy, revenge? What can he do about it?"

"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. A startling thought had just occurred to him.

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

"Your scar's not hurting again, is it?" asked Ron nervously.

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

There was a silence; then Ron 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 —?"

"Earlier, when I saw him with his mother, she touched his left arm by accident and he yelled out in pain and jerked his arm away from her. He's been branded with the Dark Mark."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"Well…" said Ron, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

"You said that his mother mentioned it as some injury," said Hermione, reasonably. "He probably fell off his broom at his house."

Ron laughed at the idea, but Harry couldn't see the humour. "He showed Borgin something we couldn't see, 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 and Hermione exchanged another significant look.

"I'm not sure, Harry…"

"Yeah, I still don't reckon You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join…"

Harry was annoyed at the pair of them for not seeing reason, and it must have shown on his face because Hermione quickly said, "Let's talk about something else. How is it at your new house?"

"Yeah, mate. Mum has been speculating all summer where you and Sirius might be," said Ron, looking relieved at the change of subject. "Thinks Sirius locked you up in a big, old house like Grimmauld Place."

"I can't tell, because I'm not the Secret Keeper. You should both come by next summer though," said Harry, a little buoyed by the idea.

"That would be wicked," said Ron, grinning.

"Sirius took me to France for my birthday," said Harry, rather casually. He hadn't told that in his letters to them.

Hermione nearly squealed, "Oh, that's amazing! Where did you visit? I've only ever been to Paris before…"

"Provence. It was amazing," said Harry, smiling. He was getting into the finer points of where they had visited in Provence when Sirius called him over.

"I'll see you then on September first, I reckon," said Harry and Ron clapped him on the shoulder. "Course, mate."

Hermione hugged him. "I'm so happy for you, Harry!"

Harry grinned as he hugged her back. "Thanks."

oOo

After shopping in Diagon Alley, they had stopped at the Leaky Cauldron for a quick round of butterbeer. Harry was talking to his friends when Sirius joined Tonks who was sitting alone.

"Look," said Sirius, bluntly. "Why don't you come with me and Harry to our house? You look like you could use a friend. Or even a drink."

"No, I'm fine," said Tonks, shaking our head.

"Come on, Tonks!" said Sirius, rolling his eyes exasperatedly. "We both know you're lying. Besides, Harry could use the company."

"Fine," huffed Tonks. "I feel sorry for the poor lad anyway, locked up in that big house all alone." Her tone was mocking and Sirius couldn't help but assume she was quoting Molly.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sirius, mildly annoyed. "He's not locked up and he's not alone! And how is it that you know it's a big house?"

Tonks blushed. "I came by—didn't Remus tell—?" She cut herself off abruptly.

"I know," said Sirius knowingly and gestured for Harry to come over. Harry waved goodbye to his friends. "Is it alright if Tonks comes over to our house? I need to have a little chat with her."

"Sirius, you don't have to ask," said Harry, rolling his eyes.

Sirius grinned. "Come on, then."

oOo

The three of them had Apparated straight to the gates of Potter Manor and Harry was taking in Tonks' expression, who did not at all seem to be surprised or showing any sort of emotion.

Harry's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Have you already been here, Tonks?"

Tonks nodded. "Remus brought me over."

"Remu—Oh." Understanding dawned on Harry. "Oh! You're his girlfriend!"

Tonks flushed and her expression darkened. Sirius rolled his eyes. "How very tactful of you, Harry!"

"Sorry," said Harry sheepishly, ducking his head.

"It's alright, Harry," said Tonks with a tremulous smile. "I'm not his girlfriend anymore."

"What?! Why not?"

"He broke up with me," stated Tonks flatly.

"What?!" Harry couldn't believe Remus would have broken up with Tonks so soon. That explained Tonks' glum attitude though.

Sirius was muttering, "When he comes home, I'm kicking that git's arse."

Tonks looked up at him hopefully. "Do you know when he'll come back?"

"Not for certain," said Sirius, shaking his head.

"He said he'll be back before Christmas," said Harry, somewhat hoping she would cheer up with a definite answer. She nodded gratefully and they entered their home.

"I'm taking all my things to my room," said Harry and Sirius re-sized all of their parcels and handed it to him, who took it all upstairs to his room with Twitchet's help.

Tonks went over to the couch and sank into it dejectedly. "Why is he doing this to me? He could have left with a simple 'goodbye' and 'see you soon'. Why did he have to break up with me?"

Sirius opened the bottle of Sauvignon lying on the mantelpiece and poured it into two goblets. "Look. For Remus… this is all new to him. He never really imagined himself liking someone enough to date them over months. He didn't even think you would like him that much."

"How could he think that?" retorted Tonks. "I don't care what he is! I've been very clear with what I want from the start."

Sirius handed her the goblet as he sat on his favourite armchair across from her. "Trust me, I know! I can see how much he likes you. He's just worried that he'll be ruining your life."

Tonks looked livid. "He can't decide for me! It's my life and I will do whatever I bloody well please!"

"He just needs some time to wrap his head around the idea," said Sirius. "Probably this little holiday gives him that."

Tonks nodded and took a sip of her wine, humming appreciatively. "This is good stuff."

Sirius smiled. "A souvenir from our trip to France."

The familiar spark in Tonks' eyes was back though not as bright as usual. "How was France? I never got to ask…"

And they spent the next half hour chatting amicably when Harry had decided to come downstairs.

"I'm bored. Can we go flying?"

"Oh, it's been ages since I flew," said Tonks wistfully.

"You can have a go in my Firebolt if you want to," offered Harry and was rewarded with a smile from her. "You would? Oh, thanks a ton, Harry! Come on, then!"

oOo

After Tonks had left looking marginally more cheerful, Harry decided to tell Sirius what had been nagging him for the past two hours, ever since he saw Malfoy in Borgin & Burke's. He couldn't shake off the feeling that Malfoy was seriously up to something.

"Sirius, you know when I followed Malfoy into Knockturn Alley…" Harry trailed off uncertainly, wondering if Sirius was still upset about it.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you earlier…" said Sirius, narrowing his eyes. "What did that little git do in Borgin & Burke's? I would have listened in, but I was busy searching around for who was near me."

Harry looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," said Sirius quickly. "If you do something you feel is wrong, just come clean with me and own up to your actions. You don't have to apologize to me."

Harry blinked bemusedly. "Er… right. Well, Ron had Extendable Ears on him so we could listen in to what they were talking."

"Really?" said Sirius interestedly and sat up straighter. "You heard what he said?"

"Yes," said Harry, nodding. "Malfoy was asking Borgin how to fix something… And he also said something about 'keeping the other one safe'. He even threatened Borgin that Greyback would check in on him to make sure Borgin was doing so."

Sirius seemed deep in thought. "Did you see what he was talking about? Did Malfoy have it with him?"

"No, he wasn't. It must be something big, because he thinks he'll look silly carrying it in public."

Sirius made a face. "Something big, or something small that's too noisy or flashy in the open."

"Yeah, maybe," said Harry, trudging on. Sirius was probably going to think he was crazy for suggesting it, but Harry had to share his suspicions with someone. "I think Malfoy has replaced his father as a Death Eater."

Sirius didn't seem surprised at all and he nodded slowly. "That is what I thought of too."

"Really?" asked Harry, very taken aback that Sirius had thought the same.

"When I was in school," said Sirius, "Lucius Malfoy, and a whole host of the Death Eaters of today, had already joined Voldemort. They were probably sixteen or seventeen then. It's not impossible at all that Malfoy's son has become one too. Voldemort needs all the followers he can get now that some of his men are in Azkaban."

Relieved that Sirius was seeing sense, Harry added quickly, "That's why he probably yelled when his mother touched his arm. It was his left hand too, mind. It could be that he had got his Dark Mark quite recently."

"You're right," said Sirius, eyes widening. "If Malfoy's son is planning something, it's best we be on our guard. I think I can talk to Arthur about this. He's been promoted, so he can probably conduct a raid in Malfoy's house and search it for any dark objects. Merlin knows, they must have a whole lot of it there."

Harry blew out a breath in relief – that Sirius was accepting his suspicions and was also taking a step to look into it. He wasn't a nutter for being paranoid and it was rather nice to have someone who he could share this with without fear of them shutting his ideas down.