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 could be a lot of explanations?’

‘Maybe he’s broken his Hand of Glory,’ said Ron vaguely, as he attempted to straighten his broomstick’s bent tail twigs. ‘Remember that shrivelled-up arm Malfoy had?’

‘But what about when he said “Don’t forget to keep that one safe”?’ asked Harry for the umpteenth time. ‘That sounded to me like Borgin’s got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both.’

‘You reckon?’ said Ron, now trying to scrape some dirt off his broom handle.

‘Yeah, I do,’ said Harry. When neither Ron nor Hermione answered, he said, ‘Malfoy’s father’s in Azkaban. Don’t you think Malfoy’d like revenge?’

Ron looked up, blinking.

‘Malfoy, revenge? What can he do about it?’

‘That’s my point, I don’t know!’ said Harry, frustrated. ‘But he’s up to something and I think we should take it seriously. His father’s a Death Eater and –’

Harry broke off, his eyes fixed on the window behind Hermione, his mouth open. A startling thought had just occurred to him.

‘Harry?’ said Hermione in an anxious voice. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Your scar’s not hurting again, is it?’ asked Ron nervously.

‘He’s a Death Eater,’ said Harry slowly. ‘He’s replaced his father as a Death Eater!’

There was a silence, then Ron erupted in laughter.

‘Malfoy? He’s sixteen, Harry! You think You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join?’

‘It seems very unlikely, Harry,’ said Hermione, in a repressive sort of voice.‘What makes you think –?’

‘In Madam Malkin’s. She didn’t touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He’s been branded with the Dark Mark.’

Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

‘Well …’ said Ron, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

‘I think he just wanted to get out of there, Harry,’ said Hermione.

‘He showed Borgin something we couldn’t see,’ Harry pressed on stubbornly. ‘Something that seriously scared Borgin. It was the Mark, I know it – he was showing Borgin who he was dealing with, you saw how seriously Borgin took him!’

Ron and Hermione exchanged another look.

‘I’m not sure, Harry …’

‘Yeah, I still don’t reckon You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join …’

Annoyed, but absolutely convinced he was right, Harry snatched up a pile of filthy Quidditch robes and left the room; Mrs Weasley had been urging them for days not to leave their washing and packing until the last moment. On the landing he bumped into Ginny, who was returning to her room carrying a pile of freshly laundered clothes.

‘I wouldn’t go in the kitchen just now,’ she warned him. ‘There’s a lot of Phlegm around.’

‘I’ll be careful not to slip in it,’ smiled Harry.

Sure enough, when he entered the kitchen it was to find Fleur sitting at the kitchen table, in full flow about plans for her wedding to Bill, while Mrs Weasley kept watch over a pile of self-peeling sprouts, looking bad-tempered.

暑假的最後一個星期，哈利許多時候都在思考馬爾福在翻倒巷的所作所為。最讓他感到不安的是馬爾福離開商店時臉上那副得意的表情。能讓馬爾福顯得那麼高興的準不是什麼好事。然而，令他感到有些惱怒的是，羅恩和赫敏對於馬爾福的行為似乎都不像他這麼好奇。至少，他們幾天後就厭倦了，不願意再談這件事。

“是啊，哈利，我已經承認這有點可疑。”赫敏有點不耐煩地說。她坐在弗雷德和喬治房間的窗臺上，兩隻腳踏著一個硬紙箱，滿不情願地從她那本新書《高級如尼文翻譯》上抬起目光。“但我們不是一致認為這件事可以有許多種解釋嗎？”

“也許他打壞了他的光榮之手。”羅恩一邊用力把他掃帚上的彎樹枝扳直，一邊含混地嘟囔說，“還記得馬爾福的那隻干枯的手嗎？”

“可是他說‘別忘了把那東西替我保管好’，這又是什麼意思呢？”這個問題哈利已經問了無數遍，“在我看來，好像那個打壞的東西博金還有一件，馬爾福兩件都想要。”

“你是這麼想的？”羅恩說著擦去掃帚把上的灰塵。

“是啊。”哈利說。看到羅恩和赫敏都沒有回答，他又說：“馬爾福的父親在阿茲卡班。你們說，馬爾福會不會想要報仇？”

羅恩抬起頭，眨巴眨巴眼睛。

“馬爾福，報仇？他能做什麼呢？”

“這就是問題，我不知道！”哈利洩氣地說，“可是他肯定有什麼打算，我認為我們應該認真對待。他父親是個食死徒，而且——”

哈利頓住話頭，眼睛盯著赫敏身後的窗戶，嘴巴張得大大的。他腦子裡靈光一現，閃出一個可怕的念頭。

“哈利？”赫敏用擔心的口氣說，“你怎麼啦？”

“不是你的傷疤又疼了吧？”羅恩也緊張地問。

“他是個食死徒。”哈利慢慢地說，“他頂替他父親，也做了食死徒！”

一陣沉默之後，羅恩哈哈大笑起來。

“馬爾福？他纔十六歲啊，哈利！你認為神秘人會讓馬爾福加入？”

“確實不太可能，哈利，”赫敏捺著性子說，“你怎麼會認為——”

“在摩金夫人長袍專賣店裡。摩金夫人去給他卷袖子時，根本就沒有踫到他，他就尖叫起來，猛地把胳膊抽了回去。那是他的左胳膊。他被烙上了黑魔標記。”

羅恩和赫敏互相看了看。

“這個……”羅恩的口氣是完全不相信。

“我認為他當時隻是想離開那兒，哈利。”赫敏說。

“他給博金看了什麼東西，我們沒有看見，”哈利固執地往下說道，“那東西把博金嚇得夠嗆。我知道那準是黑魔標記——他讓博金看清楚是在跟誰打交道，你們看見博金拿他多當回事啊！”

羅恩和赫敏又交換了一下目光。

“我說不準，哈利……”

“是啊，我仍然認為神秘人不會讓馬爾福加入……”

哈利很懊惱，但堅信自己是對的。他抓起一堆髒乎乎的魁地奇球袍，離開了房間。這些天，韋斯萊夫人一直在催他們抓緊時間洗衣服和收拾行李，免得臨時抱佛腳。在樓梯平臺上，他踫見了金妮。金妮正要返回自己的房間，懷裡抱著一堆剛洗干淨的衣服。

“換了我，現在可不去廚房，”她提醒哈利，“那裡有一大堆黏痰。”

“我會小心別踩著它滑倒的。”哈利微笑著說。

果然，他一走進廚房，就看見芙蓉坐在桌子旁，滔滔不絕地籌劃她跟比爾的婚禮。韋斯萊夫人守著一堆正在自動削皮的甘藍，臉上一副沒好氣的樣子。