Inside and Outside the Window

Ginny and the other two used the crowd and the cabinets for cover, secretly tailing them. Everyone was drawn in by Fred and George's products, so the childish behavior of these three wizards—already not exactly little children anymore, yet still playing stealth games as if they were playing house—didn't stand out much in this joke shop.

Hermione, however, noticed them when she looked up to find Ginny. Seeing the three of them gather together and move in a rather unnatural way, she put down the item in her hand and walked over to them.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked oddly.

"Look, Hermione, Lucius and Pansy. They're going out." Ginny pulled Hermione over as well and whispered, then led the still rather confused Hermione and the others quickly through the delighted customers, half crouching too as they used the counters for cover and began moving toward the shop door.

Lucius, who had already reached the vicinity of the door, warily surveyed the situation outside through the glass. Then he pushed the door open for Pansy. As Pansy passed by his side, Lucius looked back, his gaze passing through the crowd inside the shop and meeting Allen's eyes on the other side of Mister Handy in the distance. Lucius lifted his chin by an almost imperceptible amount, then dipped it, and left the joke shop with Pansy in a furtive manner.

Once Lucius and Pansy had gone out the door, Harry and the others quickly reached the entrance too. Through the display window, they saw the two figures hurrying along the street.

"I mean, what exactly are you doing? Why are we following Lucius?" Hermione, who had been dragged over, finally had the chance to ask the question she had been wanting to ask all along.

Ron looked at Hermione as