บท 105: Knockturn Alley.
Draco and the others escaped from the hurdle of people blocking their way, as they got out of Diagon Alley as fast as they could and kept running through a path, not stopping to listen. After turning through different twists and passages, they finally stopped, all of them except Draco was breathing heavily due to the unexpected run.
"Phew! That was close." Draco said.
"That's why we asked whether someone was coming with us or not." Daphne said breathing heavily, "But you were too busy acting tough to listen to us."
"The situation's not the same as before." Pansy said panting, "You are very famous now, previously people only thought that it was just okay to remember your name but now people know your face as well."
"Sorry, I forgot." Draco said apologizing, "I am not used to my current fame and besides I haven't even been out of my house, ever since I arrived here, so I didn't know things were this crazy out here."
"That's fine and all but where are we?" Hermione said looking around.
Draco finally noticed he was in a weird place far from Diagon Alley.
"It's Knockturn Alley." Theodore said doing the same as well.
Knockturn Alley is a shopping area off Diagon Alley in London. It is filled with numerous shops devoted to the Dark Arts and has its good old fashioned Black market as well.
"Isn't this bad?" Hermione said nervously, she had read before about Knockturn Alley, where suspicious people often hung out selling items related to the Dark Arts.
"It's not as bad as you think." Draco said, trying to ease her nervousness, unlike her Pansy and Daphne had been here before with their parents so they weren't too freaked out by it. "It's just a place for Dark Arts that's all-- If you read my last Christmas letter carefully, you did realize certain things about Dark Arts, didn't you?"
Hermione nodded, back then she wanted to learn a bit of Dark Arts as they could be a good offense in time of need but stopped after reading Draco's letter and started taking things seriously and carefully, as she started learning it from the basics for knowledge rather than power.
"The place might seem creepy if you think of it as a market for Dark Arts as people portray it to be but in reality, it isn't." Draco continued, "If you want something for a cheap price, then this is the way to go. They sell a lot of herbs cheaply here since most of them are stolen goods, so as long as keep a keen eye and know where to look, you'll find this place to be very wonderful-- also make sure to never sell anything here at Borgin and Burkes, Mr. Borgins there is a bit cheap-- And last but not least, don't come here running alone without a guardian... a wizard guardian, even though the place isn't too dangerous, the people who wander around here are. They are very shady as they will try to trick you and you'll never know, as they won't even hesitate to use a love potion on you."
Hermione, Pansy, and Daphne, carefully listened to Draco's warning, keeping it in their mind.
"Okay, you don't have to explain everything here." Theodore said, "And you-- keep your hood up, it's annoying to have people follow you around especially in this place, when you've finally got out of being a suspect for a Dark Lord."
Draco nodded and put on his hood as they began to slowly get out of Knockturn Alley, through small passage way's here and there, avoiding the public eye. As they were just about to leave the Alley for good, they suddenly heard a familiar voice,
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"Not lost are you, my dear?" said a voice in his ear, making Harry jump.
An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away.
"I'm fine, thanks," he said. "I'm just —"
"HARRY! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"
Harry's heart leaped. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed as the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts' gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.
"Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "I was lost — Floo powder —"
Hagrid seized Harry by the scruff of the neck and pulled him away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. Her shrieks followed them all the way up the stairs out into bright sunlight. Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance — Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley.
Yer a mess!" said Hagrid gruffly, brushing soot off Harry so forcefully he nearly knocked him into a barrel of dragon dung outside an apothecary. "Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno dodgy place, Harry — don' want no one ter see yeh down there —"
"I realized that," said Harry, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again. "I told you, I was lost — what were you doing down there, anyway?"
"I was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent," growled Hagrid. "They're ruinin' the school cabbages. Yer not on yer own?"
"I'm staying with the Weasleys but we got separated," Harry explained. "I've got to go and find them…"
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"What's Potter doing here?" Pansy snorted, "Doesn't he know, that his mistakes could cause Draco's reputation to fall as well."
"I heard he was lost." Hermione defended Harry, "He was here with Ron and the others, he might have used the floo powder wrong and, what does his mistakes have anything to do with Draco."
"Okay, stop it you two." Theodore said, "Here's the thing, both Draco and Potter are mentioned in the news together a lot, so both of them tend to affect each other in one way or the other, even if they did it by mistakes, so Pansy's right on that but that doesn't mean, Potter here can't make mistakes as its always Draco who is the source of starting these rumors."
"Blame the news, not me." Draco defended himself as he sighed, Similar to how Ron would never be friends with him, Draco was sure Pansy and Daphne would never be friends with Harry and Ron and due to Hermione being their common friend among their hatred, Draco was sure that Hermione would have a hard time, defending her friends among her other friends. "If you guys are so interested, Why don't we just go and meet them, we can find out for sure what's going on?"
All of them nodded and rushed towards Harry and Hagrid. They looked around: Sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, along with Harry and Hagrid. Soon Mr. Weasley along with Hermione parent's came as well, along with the frantic Ms. Weasley.
"Harry," Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other. Gasping for breath Mrs. Weasly pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away.
"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.
"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.
"Excellent!" said Fred and George together.
"We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.
"I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid. Oh, Harry — oh, my dear — you could have been anywhere —"
"We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…" Mr. Weasly mopped his glistening bald patch. He took Harry's glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new. It was awkward for him since he didn't think that Harry would end up in Knockturn Alley and his love for muggle items kept him busy with Hermione's parents.
"Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!"). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.
"Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry said suddenly.
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