Holiday time passed in the blink of an eye, and owl hoots echoed at the doorsteps of every family with young wizards, delivering the new year's textbook lists from Hogwarts.
On this very day, Draco came with his father to Borgin and Burkes' shop in Knockturn Alley.
This was a very special shop, filled with all sorts of strange and peculiar things. Withered arms and glowing skulls, and hanging on the wall was a cage containing bird bones. The skeletal bird inside would occasionally let out a cry, adding an eerie atmosphere to this already sinister and terrifying shop.
Near the counter in the distance, his father, Lucius, was discussing the contents of a list with Mr. Borgin.
"...some of the poisons on here can make it look like..."
"I understand, sir..."
Not interested in listening to the hushed conversation over there, Draco focused his attention on a rope on the counter.
"May I look at this?"
"Ah! The Hangman's Rope!" Seeing the rope Draco was pointing at, Mr. Borgin's eyes lit up as he abandoned Lucius and walked straight over.
"This is a precious treasure! In mediaeval times, it was used by Muggles to execute wizards. The one in your hands has claimed the lives of at least six wizards!"
Hearing this description, Lucius's eyebrow twitched, and his tone became somewhat low.
"Put down that rope, Draco."
"I'm just looking." As if electrocuted, Draco threw the rope back to its original position and continued browsing other items in the shop.
The sounds of his father and Mr. Borgin haggling continued, and Draco touched the skull on the table and looked at several strange objects hanging on the walls, his face full of interest.
Bang.
A not-too-loud sound came from a nearby cabinet.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly hearing the sound, Draco looked at that cabinet with some curiosity. After hesitating for a moment, he walked over.
But just as he was about to touch the handle, the discussion on his father's side seemed to have ended.
"Come here, Draco."
"Yes, Father." Abandoning his inspection of the cabinet, Draco ran to his father's side and said:
"Father, you promised to buy me a flying broomstick and Professor Slughorn's complete set of potion guides!"
"Potions and Quidditch are the only subjects where I haven't surpassed Potter yet!"
After a moment of silence, Lucius spoke in his somewhat cold voice:
"I know, after all, your grades this year were very good."
"But I must remind you, when everyone regards Harry Potter as the hero who drove away the Dark Lord, not pretending to like him would be very unwise..."
The shop door was pushed open, and the voices of father and son gradually faded until they disappeared completely.
Watching the father and son walk away, Mr. Borgin put away his obsequious expression and muttered quietly:
"Farewell, Mr. Malfoy. I'd bet what you've sold me isn't even half of your collection..."
Then, he took the list back to the inner room and slammed the door shut with a bang.
The shop returned to silence, with only the bird-like skeleton in the distance occasionally crying out, as if it were still alive.
And in this silence, a little girl's voice could faintly be heard from deep within the shop's cabinet.
"You can't even pronounce those few words correctly, meow!"
"Didn't you also not transport to the right place?"
"Hmph, I only followed you because I was worried about you, meow!"
"Shh, let's leave here first."
The cabinet door was carefully pushed open, and a boy covered in soot and holding broken glasses crawled out. His hair was flattened in one spot, as if something was standing on his head.
Walking stealthily toward the door, once outside the shop, the little girl's voice sounded again.
"It's so hard to survive following you, meow! It feels like there's danger everywhere! There are house-elves who claim to be helping you but frame you instead, aunts and uncles who want to lock you up at home to death, and taking some Floo Network thing sends you to the wrong place, meow!"
"Oh right, there are also red-haired wizards who break through windows in flying cars to kidnap people, meow! So scary, meow!"
Examining the cracked glasses in his hands, Harry replied without courtesy:
"If you could do anything besides turn invisible, that Dobby wouldn't have been able to frame me so easily."
He never expected that after Professor Kahn had taught him that method to alert the Ministry of Magic, before he could even use it, a house-elf would waste one of his chances.
The little girl's voice seemed somewhat indignant. "Hmph, once I learn magic, I'm definitely going to beat up that house-elf first!"
Hearing the little girl's words, Harry pressed the glasses in his hands. They didn't seem completely broken, just cracked with a few fissures.
"Why did you want to follow me in the first place? If you had gone with Professor Kahn and the others, you should have learnt magic by now."
"They wanted to use me for breeding, meow! That's even scarier, meow... meow?" The little black cat's voice suddenly grew weak, sounding very frightened.
Thinking the little black cat was afraid of being used for breeding, Harry couldn't help but smile. While fiddling with his glasses, he said:
"We need to go to Mr. Ollivander's shop first to get the wand Professor Kahn prepared for you, then..."
"Rather than that, you should probably look around first, meow." The little black cat suddenly interrupted Harry with a somewhat trembling voice.
"This doesn't feel like a good place, meow!"
Hearing the voice from above his head, Harry puzzledly put on his cracked glasses and looked around.
Then, he froze in place, his eyes slowly widening.
What met his eyes was a filthy alley, with shops around that didn't look like any proper stores. Shrunken heads, hanging dead snakes, and those spider-infested cages... all of them proclaimed the identity of this alley.
This definitely wasn't Diagon Alley, and the shops around here seemed to be connected to dark magic.
"Dear, who were you just talking to?" A withered but somewhat sweet voice suddenly came from nearby, giving Harry goosebumps all over.
He trembled as he looked to the side, seeing an old witch holding a tray, looking at him with interest, her gaze locked on the top of his head.
"No, nothing. You might have misheard."
"No, dear, I wouldn't mishear."
The old witch grinned, revealing moss-covered teeth, and walked toward Harry step by step.
Her expression was very certain as she looked at the top of Harry's head, light shining in her withered eyes.
"I just heard a little girl's voice, dear, here..."
"Harry? What are you doing here?"
A rough voice interrupted the old witch's words. She seemed startled, and the fingernails in her tray scattered onto her feet. But Harry turned around with delight, looking at the tall figure who had somehow appeared beside him.
The man had a massive frame like a small giant, with thick facial hair and beetle-black eyes that sparkled above his great beard.
"Hagrid!"