Harriet Potter 2

Fixed and broken

Harriet glanced out of the front window of the shop, watching hassled looking shoppers hurrying past. Everyone seemed to be in a rush to reach their destination and no one lingered in the streets to chat. Mrs Weasley had taken them shopping for their school supplies that morning, and Harriet and Ron now waited by the front window of the apothecary for Hermione who was still browsing the shelves.

Ron elbowed Harriet sharply, before pointing to a familiar tall, pale figure emerging from Madam Malkin's.

The circles under his eyes were so dark that they looked like bruises. Harriet wondered when he last slept. His usually smug face looked drawn and pale. Strangest of all were his sharp blue eyes, that seemed to dart around the street feverishly. As Harriet watched, Draco slipped unnoticed from his mother's side and turned around a street corner.

Hermione, apparently finished her shopping, approached Ron and Harriet. Harriet reached into her bag, quickly withdrawing a silvery cloak. "We have to be quick or we'll lose him" she said, tossing the invisibility cloak over their heads.

Hermione and Ron shared a glance, but didn't object as Harriet opened the door and led them out onto the street beyond. "Hurry up!" She hissed to Hermione and Ron as she caught a glimpse of Malfoy's coat disappearing around a corner.

Just as they rounded the corner, Harriet caught sight of him disappearing into a questionable looking store with a sign bearing the name 'Borgin and Burkes'. "Harriet, I don't think we should be here" Hermione murmured, glancing nervously around the deserted street.

Harriet shushed her impatiently as she struggled to make out Malfoy moving within the darkened store through the window. Ron withdrew three sets of extendable ears from his pocket and each of them listened with bated breath.

For a moment hearing his demanding drawl seemed to steal the air from Harriet's chest. For some reason, her memories of Draco seemed inextricably linked to her occlumency lessons of the previous year, and her occlumency teacher. Somehow the sight of Draco was simultaneously painful and comforting as though being near him was being close to Severus but without the immediate burn of his rejection.

"I need you to fix this one" even his voice was a shade darker than usual.

The storekeeper looked perplexed "I don't know if it can be fixed."

His face grew pale as Malfoy drew up his left sleeve exposing his forearm "You don't know who you're dealing with" Draco threatened. "Fix it and make sure no one else buys it in the meantime. Do you understand?"

"Of course" the shopkeeper said, looking worried.

When Harriet, Ron and Hermione returned to the agreed meeting point at the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes store and threw off the cloak, they told the concerned Order members searching for them that they had been in the storeroom for the whole time.

For the rest of the day, Harriet pondered the scene they had witnessed. It was almost a relief to have something else to think about other than Severus. As she packed her trunk she considered the moment that Malfoy had drawn up his sleeve and the shopkeeper had reacted with fear. It was almost as though he was threatening the shopkeeper. But what in Merlin's name about Malfoy's left forearm was dangerous enough to alarm the owner of a dark magic store?

Harriet mentally revisited previous occasions when she had seen Draco divested of his shirt. His arms had been lean but strong, if a little pale. When he had wrapped his arms around her they had been strong enough to hold her in place, but not so remarkable as to make her rear back in alarm at the sight of them.
Something had to have changed about his arm over the summer. For a moment she was distracted as she recalled laying in Severus' arms, tracing the black whorls of his dark mark - wait, no surely not. But the more Harriet thought about it, the more certain she became about her theory. That would also explain his drastically changed appearance. The disappearance of his smug edge, and the shadows beneath his eyes.

Draco was a death eater.