DISCLAIMER: All belongs to the Double-Smarties-Award-Winning-Author, JKR. I've only won one Smarties thing . . . it was the maze on the outside of the box . . .
A/N: Just a little something I cooked up when I was bored. Please Review!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Master, sir, there is people to see you, sir," the tiny house elf called, upon entering the room.
The man at the desk set down his quill, and looked up to the door, where he spotted the servant. With a look of disdain as he stood, he glanced at the man he was escorting.
"Why, Mr. Weasley," he sneered, "whatever are you doing here? Hasn't your department caused enough trouble for my family and I with these so called 'raids' of yours?"
"Good day, Lucius," Arthur Weasley returned coldly. "It would seem that new information has come to light regarding the manor. I have here orders to search the premises for anything suspicious."
He passed the letter to the house elf by his foot, and he hobbled over to deliver the parchment to his master. Malfoy looked at the servant with scorn in his eyes before snatching the letter from his hands and snapping it open to read. He took the cane from his side as he did so, and used it to shove the house elf forward back towards Arthur Weasley, and the two other Ministry officials who had joined him.
"I believe you'll find that everything is in order, Lucius," Arthur said calmly, though it was a struggle for him to keep the amusement out of his voice. He'd long wanted to find something to put Malfoy away, and thanks to his son, Ron, he'd perhaps found the way.
With perhaps more emotion then he cared to let on, Lucius Malfoy folded up the letter and shoved it into his robe pocket.
"What have you against my family, Weasley? Why do you insist on trying to find some way to incriminate us? We have done nothing illegal!"
Arthur glanced at him half heartedly, while gesturing for his two companions to split up and begin their search.
"Somehow, Lucius, I find that quite hard to believe," was all Arthur replied, before moving straight along to where he remembered the Drawing Room to be.
"Lucius, darling, what is all this noise?" A voice flowed towards their ears, and soon a vision accompanied it. Narcissa Malfoy had just descended from one of the upper landings. She looked as smug as she always had, but her air of importance faltered slightly as she saw Arthur, and more officials entering through the grand lobby doors. There was now a total of seven investigators, plus Mr. Weasley, and the two who'd already begun searching.
"Good evening, Narcissa," Arthur said politely, as they walked along, "I trust you are well? Forgive our intrusion, but we are on Ministry business."
"Another raid, I suppose?" the woman sneered. "You won't find anything here, Mr. Weasley, Lucius and I have nothing to hide. You have free reign of this Manor, and believe me, you shan't find a thing." Her voice was high, and cold, but assertive and certain all the same.
"Narcissa, has your husband ever told you about the Drawing Room?" Arthur asked, just as they came up to the door.
Narcissa looked slightly surprised, but managed to retain her composure. "I'm afraid there is nothing to tell, sir. I'm no longer all too artistically inclined, I'm afraid, and that room is hardly ever used, except to store old artwork and other collector's pieces."
"Indeed."
"Sir! I think you ought to come look at this a moment!" The voice belonged to one of the investigators. He'd just come around the corner, and was gesturing hurriedly for Arthur to follow him. With a small sigh, he followed, leaving the Malfoys at the entrance of the Drawing Room while he went off to see what the fuss was about.
"I'm sorry for pulling you away, sir, but we found this is one of the bedrooms," the man said. He led Arthur towards the corner where a young woman was holding up a portrait.
"This was reported stolen from a wizarding museum nearly a month ago, sir," the man said, somewhat triumphantly, "we found it under the bed. It seemed to have slid of its hangings and slipped underneath."
Arthur heaved a much larger sigh this time. "Wallace, are you daft? You pulled me away for that? Look carefully at this portrait. What do you see in the bottom left?"
Wallace leaned in closer, and suddenly blushed. "Ah. It's a –"
"A reproduction. As are many of these paintings. This is the child's room, Wallace. The Malfoys have more sense than to put million-galleon artwork in a child's room."
"Yes, sir."
"Please inspect items closely before you call me, please. Remember, we have already been through this house more than once. Something like that would have been easily spotted already."
"Yes, sir."
"Remember, you're looking for things that have been intentionally hidden, not something that's been misplaced. Try to find loose floorboards, secret compartments, that kind of thing."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, if you don't mind, I must return to our 'hosts'."
Arthur rubbed his forward as he walked back towards the Malfoys' Drawing Room.
When he returned, he saw that Narcissa had left, and that Lucius Malfoy was speaking in undertones with one of the Ministry's investigators. Arthur let them converse silently for a moment or to, before popping up behind the man, and tapping him on the shoulder.
He jumped a mile into the air.
"S-sir! I didn't see you come up!"
"Of course you didn't. Now, I believe that you have a job to do, Avery? Please get to it."
"Yes sir."
Arthur suddenly felt the pangs of his headache coming back. This was not going as well as he'd planned.
"Now, Lucius, I believe you were just about to give me a tour of this Drawing Room. I don't believe we came in here the last time. Your wife was working on a painting, was she not?"
Lucius smiled, but it was a smile far from pleasant. "She was. A practice she's given up I fear."
"Do you?" They stepped inside. Arthur watched Malfoy closely, and saw his eyes flicker towards a pile of boxes in the far corner.
"Shall we look around?" he said, smiling. He quickly stepped over to the stack of boxes, the floor squeaking slightly as he crossed paths with an old easel. He began sifting through the contents of the boxes, moving them across the room as he did. But all he found were rags, and old robes.
"Why do you waste your time, Weasley? It could be spent on so many more useful things! Like your Muggle Protection act for example!" Lucius chuckled. "But I suppose that's just useless dribble anyway."
Arthur turned to look at him. "You may believe it to be useless dribble, Lucius. I, however, and many others in the Wizarding world believe that it is quite a valuable tool in Muggle relations. Not everyone holds your contempt for those that aren't of full magical lineage."
"Well, some of us have higher standards, Weasley. It seems apparent that you are not one of those people." Malfoy glanced at his fingernails as he spoke, and began buffing them on his robes. Arthur quickly swallowed the words he'd been wishing to speak, and held back the blow he was aiming to throw. He knew what Malfoy was trying to do – if he lost his temper, they could be expelled from further raids on the Manor, and the Ministry would never be able to incriminate the Malfoys. He would never be able to catch Lucius.
Arthur called in another investigator to help him, and the two of them searched the room from top to bottom, twice over. They found nothing.
"I told you, Weasley, there is nothing to find, here or in the remainder of my home."
"Oh no?" Arthur said, crossing the room, and hearing it squeak once more. He put his weight onto one spot on the floor, and pushed down. It screeched yet again. Getting down on his knees, he tapped the floor.
"Do you hear that?"
Lucius looked suddenly nervous.
"I do believe it's hollow, Lucius."
"H-Hollow?"
Arthur felt around for a hidden latch or switch on the floor, and soon his fingers soon stumbled across what he was looking for. A hidden switch, no larger than a small key, cleverly hidden in the wooden floor.
He hit the switch and stood. Beside him, a wall unit slid over, revealing a doorway.
"Why, what would this be? I thought you had nothing to hide, Lucius."
Malfoy couldn't say a word.
Arthur walked through the no-longer-hidden doorway, followed by the man who'd been aiding in his search. Inside they found a dark room, with rows of shelves. It looked something like a Potions lab.
"Well, well, what have we here?" Arthur grinned, no longer making the effort to keep the amusement from his voice He pulled a vial from the shelf. "Veritaserum, hmm? Isn't that restricted by the Ministry, Lucius? And such a wide variety of poisons, too. Well, I do believe the Ministry will be interested in this." Arthur turned to Malfoy, holding up the vial. He select a second one as well, this one filled with a thick acid green liquid.
"Moran, I want you to get the others in here, I want all of this tagged and bagged and brought back to the Ministry as soon as possible." He handed him the vials he was holding. With another glance at Malfoy, he turned and walked out the door.
*
"A fine? Sir, only a fine? But you saw all that was in those rooms, shelf upon shelf of illegal potions –"
"Restricted potions, Arthur! Not illegal." Cornelius Fudge glanced up at Mr Weasley from behind his desk.
Arthur was furious. He'd just found out from one of his friends in the Ministry that Lucius Malfoy was getting off with only a fine – a measly fine of a hundred galleons!
"Sir, in either case, if this were any other wizard than Lucius Malfoy, he would be in Azkaban by now! Many of those potions could have killed, if used in the wrong amounts!"
"Yes, Arthur, but we're not talking about just 'any other wizard'. This is Lucius Malfoy! He is a highly respected wizard –"
"Ha!"
"– and we can't simply lock him away without severe consequences for the Ministry!"
"Sir, I have been working for over a year to get Malfoy locked away. All of it for nothing? He has been using illegal practices for perhaps even longer than that. He belongs in Azkaban!"
"That is enough, Arthur!" Fudge rose from his chair. "I think you need to leave. You need to cool down, before you say anything you might regret."
"A fine, sir! He's walking away with only a fine!"
"He's lost his position as School Governor as well."
"It means nothing to him!"
Arthur was furious. Red in the face, he stormed from the office, and down to his department. No one saw him for the rest of the day. He swamped himself with work to avoid the ugly truth – all his hard work, all his son had done, all for nothing.
*
Lucius Malfoy watched as the wall unit slid along the wall, then climbed through the doorway for the second time that day. Once inside, he moved swiftly to the side of the room, a part that was lost in shadow. Glancing around quickly he pulled down a lever, waited 5 seconds, and then pushed it back again, before dodging back into the Drawing Room. The wall unit slid back into place behind him.
But now, in the centre of the room, was a hole in the floor, and a staircase leading down.
Following the stairs in their downward spiral, Lucius reached the landing and lit the room with a wave of his wand. Taking a small chest from the corner, he quickly packed away everything in the room, save one of two items that could be passed off as unobtrusive and unsuspicious.
Returning to the Drawing Room and sealing up the secret chamber, he watched the door click shut before turning and heading to the first floor landing.
With a small *pop*, he suddenly found himself in Knockturn Alley. He made his way into one of the more dismal, and dark shops, and waited by the counter.
"Ah, Mr Borgin. I have a few items I'd like you to keep for me temporarily. I will be returning for them, when these times quiet down," he said. His voice grew increasingly menacing as he went on, "If you even attempt to sell a single one of these items, you will wish you were never born. Is that perfectly understood?"
Mr Borgin nodded swiftly, and looked slightly nervous at Malfoy's threats.
"Yes? Good. Now, I'll be back to collect these in maybe a month's time."
He turned to leave the shop, but paused momentarily to look back.
"Oh, and Mr Borgin? I was never here."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Please Review!! Thank you so much!!
. : * PDT * : .