Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapter Six: Draco’s Detour Summary & Analysis

For the next several weeks, Harry relaxes at the Burrow and plays Quidditch with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. However, the peaceful summer is often interrupted by grim stories of disappearances and death in the Daily Prophet. On Harry’s sixteenth birthday, Remus Lupin, his father’s old friend, arrives with news of new dementor attacks, as well as the murder of a Death Eater, Igor Karkaroff, who tried to desert. Bill Weasley brings up the recent disappearances of Florian Fortescue and Mr. Ollivander, both storeowners in Diagon Alley and fixtures of the Wizarding community.

Soon afterward, the students’ booklists arrive from Hogwarts. With pleasant surprise, Harry finds out that he’s been made Quidditch Captain. The letters mean that the family has to buy supplies at Diagon Alley, a trip Mrs. Weasley has been dreading, as it might expose them to danger. On the appointed day, a special Ministry of Magic car arrives to transport them – an extra measure taken for Harry’s security.

This year the Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley’s most popular pub, is grim and empty. Harry and the Weasleys pass through to find that Hagrid is waiting to accompany them on their shopping and provide extra security. Everything about the alley is changed: all the window displays have been replaced by Ministry of Magic posters displaying the faces of wanted prisoners. Seedy-looking wizards are selling protective amulets, which Mr. Weasley eyes with anger and distrust. Shoppers stay in groups and don’t stop to talk to each other.

With Mrs. Weasley’s reluctant permission, the group splits up: Ginny and her parents go to the bookstore, while Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid set off to buy new robes. When the trio enters Madam Malkin’s shop, they find Draco and his mother inside, bickering. As soon as Draco notices them, he calls Hermione a Mudblood and sneers at her black eye. When Harry and Ron draw their wands, Narcissa threatens to destroy them if they ever harm Draco. Tauntingly, Harry asks if she’s going to “get a few Death Eater pals to do us in.” Hermione tells them to put away their wands.

Unfazed, Narcissa says that Harry derives his false sense of security from Dumbledore, who won’t always be there to protect him. Harry says she should try to attack him now; then she can join her “loser of a husband” in Azkaban. Draco snarls at him not to insult his mother. Madam Malkin timidly tries to defuse the situation, but Draco and Narcissa simply storm out of the shop.

After buying their robes and stopping at the Apothecary, the group makes a quick detour to see Fred and George’s new shop. Alone among the storefronts, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes is bedecked with bright posters and flashing displays. It’s full of customers inspecting the twins’ joke products. Even Hermione is impressed with the caliber of their magic.

Showing him around the shop, Fred and George show Harry their more “serious” products, like hats that protect their wearers against jinxes and Instant Darkness Powder. Even the Ministry is now buying them. In gratitude for the loan Harry gave them to start the shop (his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament), the twins tell him to take anything he wants. They head off to show a skeptical Ginny and Hermione their range of love potions, teasing their sister that, as she already has “about five boys on the go,” she doesn’t need any.

As Ginny scolds the twins to mind their own business, the trio glimpses Draco outside, hurrying down the street alone. Harry knows there must be some special and nefarious reason for Draco to escape his mother, so he pulls out his Invisibility Cloak and wraps it around his friends. Quickly, they exit the store and follow Malfoy as he turns into Knockturn alley and enters Borgin and Burkes, a secondhand shop specializing in “sinister objects.” As they look in the window, Ron produces an Extendable Ear he’s grabbed from the twins’ shop and unravels it so they can hear the conversation.

Inside, Draco is surveying a large black cabinet and asking Borgin if he can fix a certain object without seeing it. When Borgin is hesitant, Draco moves close to him and shows him something. He warns Borgin not to sell the cabinet; a “family friend,” Fenrir Greyback, will be dropping by to ensure Borgin’s loyalty. Looking pleased, Draco breezes out of the shop.

The trio are puzzled by the entire conversation. Before the others can stop her, Hermione slips out from the cloak and strolls into the shop. Lying to Borgin that Draco is her friend, she claims she wants to buy him a birthday present and asks if there’s anything he particularly liked. Borgin sees through this story and orders her out. She and Ron bicker about her failed ruse all the way back to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, where they have to convince Mrs. Weasley that they’d been browsing in the back room the entire time.