Time Astral | Sirius Black

37||The Knockturn Alley

August 24th, 1996

While Sirius, Hagrid, Harry, Hermione and Ron went to Madam Malkin's and Molly, Arthur and Ginny to Flourish and Bott's, Alasia excused herself for a moment.

She'd seen Narcissa Malfoy come out from Madam Malkin's, looking as patient as ever while Draco Malfoy was kicking the dirt behind her, muttering colourful profanities, half of which consisted of the word 'Potter'.

She didn't want to follow them, but when they made the same turn as she, which was towards Borgin and Burkes, she was rather surprised.

She'd wanted to go to Knockturn for it had been her place in the past years, she'd know the alley from the back of her hand. Her initial location was to go to Aldridge, a man she'd bugged for information in the past, knowing he could very well have more when she saw the duo of mother and son make their way towards dear ol' Borgin's shop.

So as her first instinct, she spied.

Her boots weren't as silent as she wanted, having tiny heels in them, but they were silent enough as she jumped up on her roof, a dagger at the ready as she bent down, eyes searching for anything near the window.

It was heavily tainted, yellow from dust and filth, making it harder to see through but just enough for her to make out the faces.

There wasn't just Narcissa Malfoy, there were more Death Eaters there.

She bit her lip, trying not to make a sound as she edged closer. She knew she couldn't possibly hear their conversation from here but she didn't need to.

She already knew what they were here for.

She'd found out the day she'd gone to spy at the Malfoy Manor, the day she was late to the Order meeting. Draco Malfoy was commanded to kill Albus Dumbledore.

Now, it ruined her plans. She'd vowed to take revenge from the old hag and it couldn't very well do if young Malfoy did her dirty work, could it?

She wasn't going to warn Dumbledore, at least not yet.

If there were any other lives in jeopardy, she very well would. But she couldn't see anyone else getting harmed. She knew what the plan was though, had heard it clearly enough. Rhen would've been proud.

They were going to reconstruct the vanishing cabinet, the one in Hogwarts. And from there, the Death Eaters would show up and make a dramatic entrance to Dumbledore's cabin.

But she knew she should warn Dumbledore. Knew that if they were in the school, there were going to be lives that would be in harm's way.

But she wouldn't do it yet. She had a lot of time for that and would definitely make a hundred plots before finally giving the valuable piece of information to Dumbledore.

And she knew he was going to die anyway. His hand had touched a cursed object. Voldemort's own curses he'd put on the Horcrux. She knew, because she'd come close to it herself. When she'd destroyed the relics, she'd nearly touched them without removing the enchantments.

One time, she had actually touched them. Her fingernails had been purple before she'd found out how to remove the effect. Whatever had touched Dumbledore's hand must have much more jinxes than the other relics.

She'd worry about that later. Alasia winced as a sharp rock bit into her leg but managed to edge even closer, in clear view of the window now.

There in the midst of the cases full of skulls and old bottles stood Draco Malfoy with his back to them, just visible beyond the very large black cabinet.