Chapter 92: Protection Fee
The air in front of Borgin and Burkes seemed to freeze.
Draco stared at the soot covered Harry, his expression shifting from surprise to disgust, then to an eagerness to show off in front of Tamara, all within a few seconds.
"Potter?"
Draco drawled, that annoying, aria like tone returning at once. He straightened his collar, which had been tugged out of shape, trying to recover his aristocratic air.
"Look at the state of you. Anyone would think you were a House elf that had just crawled out of some Muggle's fireplace."
Harry adjusted his half broken glasses. Though he looked thoroughly dishevelled, he glared back without retreating.
"Shut up, Malfoy. I just got lost!"
Harry brushed soot from his clothes, then looked at Tamara with concern.
"Tamara, why are you here? And Malfoy..."
He glanced warily at the eerie shop signs around them. The shrivelled heads and giant black spider specimens in the windows made his stomach churn.
"And this place looks... awful. Not like somewhere good people would come."
Harry shrank back slightly, his voice uneasy.
"What are you implying, Potter?" Draco shrieked. "Who are you calling not good people?"
"Enough."
Tamara coldly cut off the two idiots before they could start pecking at each other like roosters.
She looked at Harry calmly, her gaze as open as if she were standing in the Great Hall at Hogwarts rather than in the most notorious black market in Britain.
"You think this place is filthy, don't you, Harry?"
Tamara's tone was indifferent, carrying a convincing calm.
"And you are right. This place is filled with Dark Arts, curses, and dirty dealings."
She pointed toward the rows of Dark Arts objects in the window, each one exuding an eerie aura. Her voice was soft, yet full of quiet temptation.
"But power itself has no colour, Harry."
"Only the mediocre divide methods into good and evil. The truly strong only care whether that power can cut through the thorns before them."
"As for why I am with Draco, that was purely coincidence. I happened to pick up this lost peacock by the roadside."
Harry froze, his mouth slightly open, unable to make a sound.
Tamara's words carried an extremely dangerous allure.
His Gryffindor instincts were screaming in alarm.
It sounded as though she were defending the Dark Arts, even bordering on sophistry.
But when he met Tamara's open, fearless eyes, every rebuttal stuck in his throat.
When facing that terrifying two faced freak, Quirrell, she had been the one to step in at the critical moment.
At Privet Drive, in that damned hopeless cage, when everyone else seemed to have forgotten him, she had appeared like a knight descending from the heavens.
Besides, Tamara's words sounded so brave.
The concern in Harry's eyes faded, replaced by sudden understanding and admiration.
"So that's how it is. Sorry, Tamara. I was doubting you just now..."
Beside them, Draco's eyes lit up. Although he did not fully understand, he felt certain Tamara was right.
"This is Slytherin wisdom! Potter, that brain of yours would never understand!"
Tamara rolled her eyes inwardly.
Good.
Two gullible fools.
Just then, the door to Borgin and Burkes opened again.
The bell rang.
Lucius Malfoy stepped out with a steady, arrogant stride.
He seemed to be in a good mood, clearly having just concluded a satisfying deal, or disposed of some troublesome contraband.
"Draco, did I not tell you to wait by the door?"
Lucius stopped halfway through his sentence.
He saw the soot covered Potter, and his brow furrowed in disgust.
Then his gaze swept past Potter and landed on the black haired girl standing between the two boys.
Tamara Riddle.
Although they had only met once at the station, her tone, her gaze, and that seemingly ordinary surname were like a thorn lodged in Lucius's heart.
"Ah, Mr Malfoy."
Tamara turned around.
She did not bow like an ordinary junior, nor did she appear nervous like Harry.
She simply stood there quietly, her hands hanging naturally at her sides, her chin slightly raised.
Those obsidian deep eyes drifted lightly onto Lucius from several paces away.
Then she smiled.
It was not the smile of a little girl.
It was languid and dangerous, as if she could see straight through a person's soul.
"What a coincidence."
Tamara's voice was very soft. Her gaze slowly moved downward, finally settling on the exquisite snake headed cane in Lucius's hand.
"Your taste is as flamboyant as ever, Lucius."
The words struck Lucius's mind like silent thunder.
In that instant, the noise of Knockturn Alley seemed to vanish.
Lucius felt as though he had been transported back more than a decade.
That dark figure sitting at the end of the long table, the one whose name must not be mentioned, had also used such a careless tone, tinged with playfulness and cruelty, to comment on his attire, his cane, and his loyalty.
"...You."
Lucius's hand tightened around his cane, his knuckles turning white.
His pupils contracted violently, and his breath caught.
The fear carved into his marrow made his muscles stiffen at once. Cold sweat nearly soaked through the shirt beneath his robes.
Similar.
Too similar.
It was not merely her appearance, but her aura.
That suffocating sensation of being coiled by a giant python, despite the fact that she was clearly only a child.
"Father?"
Draco noticed his father's abnormal state and tugged at Lucius's sleeve in confusion.
That one word dragged Lucius out of the near fatal illusion.
He inhaled sharply and forced himself to suppress the urge to step back, or even kneel.
Reason told him Voldemort was dead.
The person before him was only a first year witch named Riddle.
But instinctive fear could not be deceived.
Lucius pressed a trembling finger against the brim of his hat, trying to hide the panic in his eyes.
"...Miss Riddle."
His voice was somewhat dry, completely lacking the arrogance he always showed toward the Weasley family.
"I did not expect... to see you here."
"I did not expect it either."
Tamara looked at Lucius's blustering yet cowardly appearance, her heart filled with pleasant contempt.
Truly a good dog, bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
Just a tiny hint of his master's aura was enough to frighten him out of his wits.
However, now was not the time to reveal her identity.
Letting fear take root and sprout in his heart like a seed, making him suspicious and unable to sleep, was far more interesting and useful than simply telling him the truth.
"Draco ran into a little trouble in the alley just now."
Tamara spoke casually, as if discussing the weather.
"A few short sighted Dark wizards seemed very interested in the young master of the Malfoy family."
"What?" Lucius's face changed drastically as he pulled Draco over. "Are you hurt?"
"No, Father."
Draco looked at Tamara with worship in his eyes.
"Tamara saved me! She used a spell to blast those people away! She even used fire to drive that witch off! She was amazing!"
Lucius checked his son, and after confirming that not a single hair was missing, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When he looked at Tamara again, his gaze became even more complex.
There was gratitude mixed with fear, but even more than that, deep wariness.
A first year student driving off adult Dark wizards in Knockturn Alley?
Such talent. Such methods.
"In that case..."
Lucius maintained his aristocratic facade and bowed slightly.
"Then I must thank you, Miss Riddle. The Malfoy family never leaves a debt unpaid."
"You are far too kind, Lucius."
The smile on Tamara's lips deepened.
This was the sentence she had been waiting for.
She pulled a prepared piece of parchment from her cloak pocket. It was the list of materials she had originally intended to buy with her own money.
It was filled with various expensive, rare, and even prohibited Dark Arts materials.
Bicorn horn powder, Boomslang skin, whole Ghoul fingernails, and a small vial of extremely expensive opal powder.
"Since Mr Malfoy is so generous..."
Tamara walked up to Lucius with light steps. Instead of handing him the list, she slipped it directly into the pocket of his expensive robes and even gave it a light pat.
The action was extremely rude, yet Lucius actually froze in place, not daring to move away.
"As it happens, I have drawn up a small shopping list for my research this term."
Tamara looked up, her large eyes shining with the light of extortion, though her tone was that of a well behaved junior asking an elder for sweets.
"But I have been a little short of cash lately. As a school opening gift, I do not think Mr Malfoy would mind doing a small favour for a junior, would he?"
Lucius felt the weight of the parchment in his pocket.
Although he had not looked at it, he knew it would certainly not be cheap.
But did he dare refuse?
He did not.
Not only because she had saved Draco.
But because of that fear.
The illusion that if he dared say no, the girl before him would instantly transform into that terrifying Dark Lord and give him the Cruciatus Curse.
"Of course..."
Lucius gritted his teeth and forced out a strained smile.
"It is... my honour."
"That's brilliant!" Draco cheered foolishly from the side. "Father, you really are generous!"
Lucius truly wanted to give his troublesome son a sharp tap with his cane.
Just as Tamara was about to enjoy the pained expression on Lucius's face as he paid, a thunderous roar broke the eerie harmony.
"Harry! What are you doing there?"
Hagrid's massive frame, like a moving hill, came rushing from the alley entrance, panting heavily.
In one hand, he carried a cage containing a dead rooster. In the other, he held a bottle of medicine labelled Flesh Eating Slug Repellent.
His appearance, so full of ordinary everyday chaos, instantly scattered the gloomy Dark Arts atmosphere of Knockturn Alley.
"Hagrid!" Harry looked as if he had seen a saviour.
"Get out of there, Harry!"
Hagrid rushed over, grabbed Harry by the back of his collar, and yanked him away from Lucius and Tamara like a little chick.
He glared warily at Lucius, then looked at Tamara, and his expression softened at once.
"Oh, you're here too, Tamara."
Hagrid looked at her with concern.
"This place isn't safe. It's full of bad sorts. Are yeh lost?"
In his eyes, Tamara was still the kind girl who had comforted him in his hut, helped him send Norbert away, and saved Harry.
"Yes, Hagrid."
Tamara lied without blinking, pinning the entire extortion elsewhere.
"We accidentally took a wrong turn. Fortunately, we ran into Mr Malfoy, who was... kindly guiding us on where to buy our books."
Lucius looked as if he had swallowed a fly.
"Hmph, well then."
"Come on. The Weasleys are looking for yeh!"
Hagrid allowed no argument. He grabbed Harry with one hand and even tried to shield Tamara with the other, leading them toward the sunlit Diagon Alley.
Tamara looked back.
She looked at Lucius standing in the shadows and mouthed elegantly:
"Remember to pay."
Then she turned and walked into the sunlight.
Lucius was left alone in the cold alley, his hand trembling on his cane.
Ten minutes later.
Tamara returned to Borgin and Burkes and collected the packaged expensive materials from the back door.
She weighed the heavy parcel in her hand, listening to the pleasant clinking of rare ores inside. Her mood was better than ever.
This batch of materials was enough to upgrade her crude Alchemy room by two levels.
And it had not cost her a single Knut.
"Ha."
Tamara looked at Lucius in the distance, whose expression was still grim from losing a large sum of Galleons, and a pleasant smile touched her lips.
"As expected."
"Only when they are afraid do pure bloods understand the meaning of generosity."
.....
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