Father and Son

~Chapter 4~

Knockturn Alley

'No! I won't go to Knockturn Alley now, and I certainly won't take you with me!' Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest.

'Why? It's not like we've never been there before,' David said, annoyed.

'I've got, Emma, Sam, and Rachel to look after. I can't take them to Knockturn Alley; Hermione would kill me! I can't even account for you two to go to such a dangerous place,' Harry said, trying to talk some sense into the stubborn twins. He would have gone to Knockturn Alley and fetched some Veritaserum, but the thought of taking a five year old and two four year olds to Knockturn Alley was pure suicide. He wouldn't even take the fidgety three to Diagon Alley, having only two hands to keep them from running in all directions.

'One of us could stay here and have an eye on them,' David suggested.

'All right, you do that, then!' Diana smirked at her brother. She already had the 'pleasure' of looking after these brats and was not keen on doing it again. Ever.

'Me? Forget it!'

'You suggested it, my dear brother, then be a man and do it yourself,' Diana drawled with amusement.

'Malfoys do not...'

'Dad always looked after us, didn't he?' Diana cut him off.

'But... I don't want to!' he said stubbornly.

'Okay, let's have a game,' Diana suggested, grinning evily. 'Do you have a Knut or a Sickle?' she asked, addressing Harry.

After Harry had fetched them a coin Diana took it into one of her palms behind her back.

'Left or right?' she asked her brother, holding both fists out to him.

'Left.'

Diana opened her fist and showed him the empty palm.

'You cheated! You always do!' David snapped at her.

Diana opened her right hand and showed him the Knut.

'Good luck... have fun with the kids,' Diana sneered at him.

Harry sighed.

'All right, but if anyone asks you, we were searching for your mum,' Harry said, looking at both of them.

They nodded.

'Bloody hell, what have I gotten myself into?' Harry shook his head and went to the big fireplace. He took the blue vase from the mantel and poured some of the floo-powder into his hand.

'David, the kids are playing in the pool, you just have to make sure they don't run away or hurt themselves... or each other.'

Then he threw the powder into the flames, which turned green, and vanished through it, saying 'Knockturn Alley.' Diana followed him, waving her brother goodbye.

David looked angrily at the fireplace. He was sure Diana had cheated somehow with the coin. He sighed and looked around in the living-room. Behind him were the tall, white French windows which illuminated the whole room with sunlight. David discovered a door between the windows that led outside. He went through it feeling the warm summer sun on his face. He was standing on a terrace, the shining blue swimming pool in front of him.

Three children, a boy and two girls were playing there, swimming and splashing each other.

For a moment he wondered why they could swim in such a big pool, but then remembered his mum enchanting his swimming trunks when he was younger.

He sat down on a deck chair, which was standing near the pool, and watched the children. He was tired after being awake for the whole last night.

At first Diana had been crying all the time at his side, and later when she had finally been sleeping, he hadn't been able to sleep, either. He had to think of his parents all the time. And additional to that, he hated it when his sister slept in his bed. He felt uncomfortable having someone next to him, moving in sleep.

There was only one person he had been able to sleep next to, and that was Meredith, his secret-crush. David's thoughts were suddenly drawn to her, and he closed his eyes. They had been to Hogsmead a few times over the last year and sometimes they sat together and did their homework. Everything developed like a friendship between them. Only that Meredith came to his bed sometimes at night. There hadn't been much between them. She just lay in his arms and they caressed each other gently, sometimes a bit of snogging, but mostly she just lay down next to him and slept there. And he enjoyed that as much as he hated not knowing what it was that went on between them. He hadn't said anything to her about his feelings and neither had she. And nobody but them knew of their little affair, which was the reason, why David called her his secret-crush.

SPLASH!

The impact of the water that was poured onto David made him jump up from his lying position. The girls were laughing like mad, and the little red haired boy was grinning at him, still holding a bucket over the deck chair on which David had been lying.

David tried to control his rising anger.

'You. Little. Devils!' he said through gritted teeth.

'Who are you?' the little brown haired girl asked curiously while climbing from the pool.

'I'm David Malfoy and who are you?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.

'I'm Emma Molly Weasley,' she stated seriously. 'Are you a cousin of mine?' she asked, eyeing him curiously.

'Yes, I'm your cousin. And I'm a very angry cousin now,' he said, but couldn't hide a smile when the little girl's eyes widened in fear. She bit her lip and then looked angrily at her brother.

'See? Now he's angry with us!' she shouted at him and then looked anxiously back at David.

The boy just stuck out his tongue and studied David as well.

'I'm thirsty,' another little redhead, the tiniest of them all, said in a high-pitched voice, and she climbed out of the pool and positioned herself in front of David.

'So what should we do about that?' David asked, kneeling down to her, so he could look her in the eyes.

'I don't know. Uncle Harry always fetches us something.'

David smiled at her.

'Okay, let's go to the kitchen and see, what's in Uncle Harry's fridge... Uhm, what was your name?'
'I'm Rachel.' The little redhead smiled.

David stood up and reached for the tiny hand of his cousin.

Immediately Emma was at his other side and took his other hand.

'You know, what?' little Rachel squeaked.

'What?' David was starting to enjoy himself. The girls were so cute and the boy he would deal with later.

'I don't think, it's uncle Harry's fridge,' Rachel said, as if she was telling a big secret.

'No?' David played along and faked indignance.

'No, it's Aunt Luna's!' Emma smiled from his other side.

'Well, then let's see what Aunt Luna has in her fridge...'

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'You cheated, didn't you?' Harry asked Diana as they walked through the dark, narrow street, heading for Borgin and Burkes.

Harry was quite nervous walking through this street packed with gloomy figures, run-down stores with dark-magical objects, and ugly creatures.

The air smelt of rotten meat, sulphur, and other disgusting things Harry couldn't quite identify.

Diana on the other hand seemed rather calm. Many people stared at the blonde beauty, who seemed to be completely unique in this street, but she didn't care.

She looked up at Harry and smirked.

'Not really. I let him choose the hand and he chose the wrong one,' she said, but the mischievous glint in her grey eyes told him that there was more to it. 'But if you think that knowing he would choose my left hand, because he always instinctively chooses left, and therefore putting the coin in the right hand is cheating you're right,' she added.

Harry shook his head.

'Slytherins!' he said, grinning at her. 'Your father must be awfully proud that all his children went to his house.'

'Yeah, but Mum was rather upset. She always says she's proud of us and everything, but I know she's worried because we're in Slytherin. She was a Gryffindor wasn't she?' Diana asked.

'Yes, she was. Did you know she was Head Girl back then?' Harry felt a wave of homesickness. He missed Hogwarts terribly.

'She told us, when Amaris was made Head Girl a few weeks ago,' Diana said. 'Dad was, too. With Aunt Hermione. He told me they used to argue all the time about the little common room they had to share,' Diana laughed.

'They weren't all the time. They always said they couldn't stand each other, but Hermione soon started to call him Draco like Ginny did. You can imagine how that annoyed the hell out of Ron and me. We hated that she got along so well with him at times.'

'Dad and Aunt Hermione?' Diana asked, stunned.

'More than they want to admit.' Harry grinned, stopping in front of the old store of Borgin and Burkes, which looked even shabbier than Harry had remembered it.

'You think Aunt Hermione could talk some sense into my dad?' Diana asked, suddenly serious again.

Harry thought about that for a moment, looking at some evil-looking, blood-splattered masks in the window.

'I don't think so. They haven't seen each other for ages,' Harry said. 'I'm afraid your mum is the only one who can handle Malfoy.'

He opened the door and they entered the badly lightened store.

Harry immediately recognized Mister Borgin, though he had grown old through the years. His greasy thin hair was grey now and his crooked, thin fingers were trembling while he was counting a few Galleons into his pocket. He looked up at his clients, carefully studying them. His pale blue eyes flickered over Harry's scar and recognition rose on his face.

'Mister Potter!' His greasy voice sounded surprised as his eyes widened in shock.

Harry wanted to kick himself mentally. Of course someone would recognize him here and now there would be rumours starting. If the daily prophet got hold of this, they'd make Harry's life a living hell again. He could already imagine the headlines. Potter's dubious deals in Knockturn Alley.

'And young Miss Malfoy. What an unusual couple,' he remarked.

Harry's mouth fell open. This interpretation was even worse than the one he had thought of.

'It's not the way you think it is... it's... it's...' Harry didn't know how to explain this.

'Oh no, Mister Borgin, my uncle's just taking me with him to work. You know, we've got to write an essay about a profession we're interested in and he's showing me what it's like to be an auror.'

Mister Borgin's eyes widened in sudden fear, but Diana went on talking joyfully.

'Can you believe it? Snape makes us write fifteen inches about it. Fifteen!'

Harry couldn't help, but think that it perhaps wasn't that bad to have a Slytherin around. Diana was lying like there was no tomorrow.

'And now he caught a criminal who just refuses to talk. I swear this man is a brick wall,' Diana rolled her eyes in fake annoyance.

Harry suddenly realized what she was getting at.

'Yes, Mister Borgin. We ran out of Veritaserum,' he said in his best superior-voice. Then he realized, how silly this sounded, because there were people at the ministry, brewing all sorts of potions all the time, so the ministry wouldn't run out of it.

'There was an attack on the potions department, perhaps you've read about it in the daily prophet...' he went on. Now it was at Diana to be surprised how well Harry played along with her lie.

Mister Borgin nodded. Of course he couldn't have read anything about it, but Diana knew, that this was the way the people here behaved. If someone's lying at you, you lie along, just for politeness or the chance that it could be true eventually.

'...and now, the ministry needs your help. If you would discreetly sell us a flask or two, we'd refrain from searching this store,' Harry said, leaning nonchalantly on the counter, smiling politely at Mister Borgin.

'Certainly, Mister Potter, certainly. If you'd excuse me for a minute...' He bustled through the door behind the counter that was covered by a ragged old curtain.

'Do you think he'll give us away?' Harry whispered.

'Not if you go on intimidating him like that.' Diana grinned. 'Mention the bottles he has in the trapdoor under the counter.'

'What bottles?' Harry asked.

'Do you think everything is legal in this shop?'

'No, but there's a law that says you are allowed to own such things. It's only illegal to use them. That's why we can't do anything against people like Borgin,' Harry explained.

'Believe me, those bottles would mean lots of trouble with the aurors, if they were found.'

'Diana! I am an auror! If anyone finds out I knew about illegal bottles in here, I've got much more trouble than he'll have!'

'You didn't know where they were! You just... heard a rumour.' She shrugged her shoulders.

'A rumour?' Harry couldn't believe his ears. He didn't know Malfoy was still so deeply involved in dark magic. 'You just told me...'

'You didn't hear me and I never said that.' Diana rolled her eyes.

'Diana, I can't ignore...'

'I know, the laws in this country!' Diana said, annoyed. 'You sound like mum,' she added.

'I hope so,' he said and sighed.

'Come on, I don't even know anything about those bottles. You wouldn't search this store, just because a silly teeny said something about a few hidden bottles... I'll be in trouble, too,' Diana said, looking desperately at him.

'Are you in this, too?' Harry asked her seriously. He was furious with her, but he had to calm down until they were at home again.

'No! I'm... I heard some things in the common room, that's all, really! You've got to...'

In this moment, Mister Borgin returned with a little flask filled with a clear fluid.

'You're lucky, sir. That's the last one I had,' he said, looking fearfully at Harry, who still looked cross from being furious with Diana.

As Harry didn't answer, he quickly said: 'Fifty galleons, Mister Potter.'

'Fifty?' Harry asked and looked incredulously at the man with the hunchback.

'Oh, come on, Mister Borgin, you know, you can't fool a Malfoy. I know what this little flask costs,' she said, smiling innocently.

Mister Borgin looked livid for a moment until he remembered that an auror of the ministry was standing right in front of him in his store.

'I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken. Twenty!' he said and glared at Diana.

'Fifteen!' Diana demanded.

'Miss Malfoy, you want to rob me!' Mister Borgin said trying to sound as if he was playfully scolding her, but his voice had become cold as ice.

'You know what, I just remember something about...'

'Okay, fifteen!' Mister Borgin angrily cut her off.

Harry put the galleons down on the counter.

Mister Borgin counted them, nodded, and slipped two of them into his own pocket.

'All right,' Harry said. 'But remember we are watching you, Mister Borgin. And this little deal... that's our secret, right?'

He let five galleons fall onto the table and left the store, followed by Diana.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'Are you still mad at me?' Diana asked. Harry hadn't said a word to her since they left Borgin and Burkes.

Now he scowled at her.

'Look, I shouldn't have said that. For a second I forgot that you were a Gryffindor,' she said apologetically and smirked.

He looked at her and had to fight a grin. She was impossible.

'And for a second, you fooled me into believing you were a nice girl!' he retorted.

'Yeah, look I'm really sorry, but it worked, didn't it?'

'I hope so. By the way, do you think it would pay off if the aurors had an impostor in the Slytherin common room?' he asked innocently.

'It probably would. But you won't find an impostor. One crow doesn't hack the other one's eye off. None of us would betray a fellow Slytherin,' Diana said proudly.

'I see.' Harry laughed. 'What about...'

'Potter!' a drawling voice shouted. Harry recognized it immediately. He turned to see Draco Malfoy standing behind him, his wand drawn, glaring at him with such hatred, that Harry unconsciously made a step backwards.

'I see you've changed, Malfoy. There were times when you would have hexed me while I had my back to you.' Harry looked coldly at the man he had hated for so many years.

'What the hell are you doing with my daughter in Knockturn Alley?' Draco's voice was like venom. Harry knew that if he would provoke him furthermore, he would probably hex him, even in front of his daughter and in the middle of the street. His hand slowly moved to his own wand.

'Dad, I...'

'Keep out of this, Diana,' Draco snapped without even looking at her.

'Well, your daughter seems quite familiar to this place, Malfoy, so she offered to help me find what I was looking for,' Harry said, trying to keep his voice even. The way Draco had cut off Diana was probably exactly what Ginny was always complaining about. And suddenly Harry felt that perhaps Ginny and the children were better off without Draco.

Draco was fuming by now. The hand that held his wand was trembling with rage.

'Why would she offer anything to the man that destroyed our family?'

'Forget what I said. You haven't changed at all. You're still talking shit!'

'Impedimenta!'

Harry drew his wand and blocked Draco's curse. Several people had stopped to see, what was going on. Quiet muttering could be heard among them, but Harry had no time to notice, because Draco had already sent another curse his way.

'Protego!' Harry shouted again and then: 'Malfoy, stop it!'

'You didn't stop doing my wife, did you?' Draco's grey eyes had gone to small slices. All the hatred he felt for the man standing besides his daughter welled up inside of him. He had found his scapegoat, and he was going to make Potter pay for what he had done to him from the minute they laid eyes on each other to now.

'Difindo!'

'Expelliarmus!' The two curses hit each other and went off into different directions.

'I didn't do anything with your wife, and if you would start listening to what she's telling you...'

'STUPEFY!' Draco yelled at him.

'Impedimenta!' Harry had come to the point where his own anger had boiled up, and if Malfoy wanted a fight, then he'd get it.

The two men went on shooting curses at each other.

'Dad, no! Stop it, you two. Now!' Diana screamed, but neither Harry nor Draco heard her.

'You'll pay for it, Potter! Ginny belongs to me and I'm not just going to give her to you without fighting!'

'Ginny belongs to no one, Malfoy! She's not a thing you can possess!' Harry said emphatic, panting from the fight.

'You think I don't know that? I love her, and you took her away from me, you bloody bastard!'

'I didn't take her away from you, she ran away from you!' Harry shouted at him furiously. He then realized that he was bleeding from his forehead. Draco used this short moment of inattentiveness and shot another curse at him.

Harry was hurled backwards and fell to the ground his right hand making a cracking sound. Ignoring the sharp pain that went through his hand, he took his wand into his left hand and pointed it at Draco again. Harry was awful at doing magic with his left hand. He knew he had no choice but to end this fight this instant, or Malfoy would hex the crap out of him. He made a sudden slashing movement with his wand and a purple-flame-like streak passed across Draco's chest throwing him to the ground. Draco gasped in pain. He fought against the rising unconsciousness. With his last strength, he pulled himself into a sitting position and raised his wand at Harry.

'Crucio!'

Harry hadn't even realized what Draco had said, when the jet of red light shot towards him.

'NO!' Diana threw herself between them.

'Diana!' Harry leaped forward and tore her to the ground with him.

'Protego!' A shield of light came from Harry's wand, and the forbidden curse bounced back at Draco who was still in shock because of Diana's sudden interference.

Hit by his own curse, Draco fell back to the ground screaming and arching his back in pain.

'Finite...'

'No!' Harry took Diana's wand from her and cast his own spell at Draco: 'Finite Incantatem!'

Draco's body stopped twitching and his screaming stopped as he slipped into oblivion.

'You're not supposed to do magic outside school,' Harry explained as he got to his feet again.

'Dad!' Diana rushed over to her father, shaking him.

'We've got to take him home. Luna can patch him up.'