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

forwards, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur’s feet. Furious, red-faced and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying goodbye.
    There was no cheerful Hagrid waiting for them at King’s Cross Station. Instead, two grim-faced, bearded Aurors in dark Muggle suits moved forwards the moment the cars stopped and, flanking the party, marched them into the station without speaking.
    ‘Quick, quick, through the barrier,’ said Mrs Weasley, who seemed a little flustered by this austere efficiency. ‘Harry had better go first, with –’
    She looked enquiringly at one of the Aurors, who nodded briefly, seized Harry’s upper arm and attempted to steer him towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.
    ‘I can walk, thanks,’ said Harry irritably, jerking his arm out of the Auror’s grip. He pushed his trolley directly at the solid barrier, ignoring his silent companion, and found himself, a second later, standing on platform nine and three-quarters, where the scarlet Hogwarts Express stood belching steam over the crowd.
    Hermione and the Weasleys joined him within seconds. Without waiting to consult his grim-faced Auror, Harry motioned to Ron and Hermione to follow him up the platform, looking for an empty compartment.
    ‘We can’t, Harry,’ said Hermione, looking apologetic. ‘Ron and I’ve got to go to the prefect carriage first and then patrol the corridors for a bit.’
    ‘Oh yeah, I forgot,’ said Harry.
    ‘You’d better get straight on the train, all of you, you’ve only got a few minutes to go,’ said Mrs Weasley, consulting her watch. ‘Well, have a lovely term, Ron …’
    ‘Mr Weasley, can I have a quick word?’ said Harry, making up his mind on the spur of the moment.
    ‘Of course,’ said Mr Weasley, who looked slightly surprised, but followed Harry out of earshot of the others nevertheless.
    Harry had thought it through carefully and come to the conclusion that, if he were to tell anyone, Mr Weasley would be the right person; firstly, because he worked at the Ministry and was therefore in the best position to make further investigations, and secondly, because he thought that there was not too much risk of Mr Weasley exploding with anger.
    He could see Mrs Weasley and the grim-faced Auror casting the pair of them suspicious looks as they moved away.
    ‘When we were in Diagon Alley –’ Harry began, but Mr Weasley forestalled him with a grimace.
    ‘Am I about to discover where you, Ron and Hermione disappeared to while you were supposed to be in the back room of Fred and George’s shop?’
    ‘How did you –?’
    ‘Harry, please. You’re talking to the man who raised Fred and George.’
    ‘Er … yeah, all right, we weren’t in the back room.’
    ‘Very well, then, let’s hear the worst.’
    ‘Well, we followed Draco Malfoy. We used my Invisibility Cloak.’
    ‘Did you have any particular reason for doing so, or was it a mere whim?’
    ‘Because I thought Malfoy was up to something,’ said Harry, disregarding Mr Weasley’s look of mingled exasperation and amusement. ‘He’d given his mother the slip and I wanted to know why.’
    ‘Of course you did,’ said Mr Weasley, sounding resigned. ‘Well? Did you find out why?’
    ‘He went into Borgin and Burkes,’ said Harry, ‘and started bullying the bloke in there, Borgin, to help him fix something. And he said he wanted Borgin to keep something else for him. He made it sound like it was the same kind of thing that needed fixing. Like they were a pair. And …’
    Harry took a deep breath.
    ‘There’s something else. We saw Malfoy jump about a mile when Madam Malkin tried to touch his left arm. I think he’s been branded with the Dark Mark. I think he’s replaced his father as a Death Eater.’
    Mr Weasley looked taken aback. After a moment he said, ‘Harry, I doubt whether You-Know-Who would allow a sixteen-year-old –’
    ‘Does anyone really know what You-Know-Who would or wouldn’t do?’ asked Harry angrily. ‘Mr Weasley, I’m sorry, but isn’t it worth investigating? If Malfoy wants something fixing, and he needs to threaten Borgin to get it done, it’s probably something Dark or dangerous, isn’t it?’
    ‘I doubt it, to be honest, Harry,’ said Mr Weasley slowly. ‘You see, when Lucius Malfoy was arrested, we raided his house. We took away everything that might have been dangerous.’
    ‘I think you missed something,’ said