The Potter Twins and the Half-Blood Prince {6}

5. Harry's Conspiracy

"Please speak softly for they will hear us, and they'll find out why we don't trust them" ~ Conspiracy, Paramore

It turns out that Harry, Hermione, and Ron followed Draco into Knockturn Alley, of course leaving Harry with a number of conspiracy theories regarding his supposedly strange behaviour. To his slight annoyance, however, none of us is as interested as he is. 

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," Hermione says impatiently. She is sitting on the windowsill in Fred and George's room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and has only just now grudgingly looked up from her new copy of Advanced Rune Translation. "But haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

"Maybe he's broken his Hand of Glory," Ron says vaguely, attempting to straighten his broomsticks bent tail twigs. "Remember that shrivelled-up arm Malfoy had?"

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

"You reckon?" I yawn, not at all invested in this conversation. 

"Yeah, I do," he says. When none of us answer, he says, "Malfoy's father's in Azkaban. Don't you think Malfoy'd like revenge?"

Ron looks up, blinking. 

"Malfoy, revenge? What can he do about it?"

"That's my point, I don't know!" Harry says, frustrated. "But he's up to something and I think we should take it seriously. His father's a Death Eater and --"

Harry breaks off, his eyes fixed on the window behind Hermione, his mouth open. 

"Harry?" Hermione asks anxiously. "What's wrong?"

"Your scars aren't hurting again, are they?" Ron adds nervously, looking at me. 

I sit up. "No --"

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

There is a silence, later broken by Ron's laughter and my exasperated groan. "Malfoy? He's sixteen, Harry!" Ron exclaims. "You think You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join?"

"It seems very unlikely, Harry," says Hermione in a repressive sort of voice. "What makes you think --?"

"In Madam Malkin's. She didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He'd been branded with the Dark Mark."

"Harry, you're being ridiculous," I say finally, as Hermione and Ron make thoroughly unconvinced faces. "I think he just wanted to get out of there. He can be a bit jumpy, sometimes."

"You didn't see it, Haylee!" he presses on stubbornly. "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!"

Ron and Hermione exchange another look. 

"I'm not sure, Harry..."

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

"I don't think his mother would let him join, let alone Voldemort," I retort. "Listen to me, Harry, you're reading into this too much."

He groans in frustration. "Of course you would say that you're dating him!"

"Which is exactly why you should listen to me," I shoot back, trying to remain calm. "You don't know him like I do. He's not a Death Eater."