Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

problem your full attention.’
    ‘There will be no need for –’
    ‘I’ll decide that,’ said Malfoy. ‘Well, I’d better be off. And don’t forget to keep that one safe, I’ll need it.’
    ‘Perhaps you’d like to take it now?’
    ‘No, of course I wouldn’t, you stupid little man, how would I look carrying that down the street? Just don’t sell it.’
    ‘Of course not … sir.’
    Borgin made a bow as deep as the one Harry had once seen him give Lucius Malfoy.
    ‘Not a word to anyone, Borgin, and that includes my mother, understand?’
    ‘Naturally, naturally,’ murmured Borgin, bowing again.
    Next moment, the bell over the door tinkled loudly as Malfoy stalked out of the shop looking very pleased with himself. He passed so close to Harry, Ron and Hermione that they felt the Cloak flutter around their knees again. Inside the shop, Borgin remained frozen; his unctuous smile had vanished; he looked worried.
    ‘What was that about?’ whispered Ron, reeling in the Extendable Ears.
    ‘Dunno,’ said Harry, thinking hard. ‘He wants something mended … and he wants to reserve something in there … could you see what he pointed at when he said “that one”?’
    ‘No, he was behind that cabinet –’
    ‘You two stay here,’ whispered Hermione.
    ‘What are you –?’
    But Hermione had already ducked out from under the Cloak. She checked her hair in the reflection in the glass, then marched into the shop, setting the bell tinkling again. Ron hastily fed the Extendable Ears back under the door and passed one of the strings to Harry.
    ‘Hello, horrible morning, isn’t it?’ Hermione said brightly to Borgin, who did not answer, but cast her a suspicious look. Humming cheerily, Hermione strolled through the jumble of objects on display.
    ‘Is this necklace for sale?’ she asked, pausing beside a glass-fronted case.
    ‘If you’ve got one and a half thousand Galleons,’ said Borgin coldly.
    ‘Oh – er – no, I haven’t got quite that much,’ said Hermione, walking on. ‘And … what about this lovely – um – skull?’
    ‘Sixteen Galleons.’
    ‘So it’s for sale, then? It isn’t being … kept for anyone?’
    Borgin squinted at her. Harry had the nasty feeling he knew exactly what Hermione was up to. Apparently Hermione felt she had been rumbled, too, because she suddenly threw caution to the winds.
    ‘The thing is, that – er – boy who was in here just now, Draco Malfoy, well, he’s a friend of mine, and I want to get him a birthday present, but if he’s already reserved anything I obviously don’t want to get him the same thing, so … um …’
    It was a pretty lame story in Harry’s opinion, and apparently Borgin thought so too.
    ‘Out,’ he said sharply. ‘Get out!’
    Hermione did not wait to be asked twice, but hurried to the door with Borgin at her heels. As the bell tinkled again, Borgin slammed the door behind her and put up the ‘Closed’ sign.
    ‘Ah well,’ said Ron, throwing the Cloak back over Hermione. ‘Worth a try, but you were a bit obvious –’
    ‘Well, next time you can show me how it’s done, Master of Mystery!’ she snapped.
    Ron and Hermione bickered all the way back to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, where they were forced to stop so that they could dodge undetected around a very anxious-looking Mrs Weasley and Hagrid, who had clearly noticed their absence. Once in the shop, Harry whipped off the Invisibility Cloak, hid it in his bag, and joined in with the other two when they insisted, in answer to Mrs Weasley’s accusations, that they had been in the back room all along, and that she could not have looked properly.

 
     
— CHAPTER SEVEN —
     
The Slug Club
    Harry spent a lot of the last week of the holidays pondering the meaning of Malfoy’s behaviour in Knockturn Alley. What disturbed him most was the satisfied look on Malfoy’s face as he had left the shop. Nothing that made Malfoy look that happy could be good news. To his slight annoyance, however, neither Ron nor Hermione seemed quite as curious about Malfoy’s activities as he was; or at least, they seemed to get bored of discussing it after a few days.
    ‘Yes, I’ve already agreed it was fishy, Harry,’ said Hermione a little impatiently. She was sitting on the window-sill in Fred and George’s room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and had only grudgingly looked up from her new copy of Advanced Rune Translation . ‘But haven’t we agreed there