- Chapter Four -
Dear Ms. Parkinson,
I am impressed. That was pretty clever and I like how you did not let me intimidate you much.
As you can imagine, I have got little time on my hands at the moment. Still, I think I will be able to spare an hour tomorrow before noon. It is all settled already. Severus Snape agreed to excuse you from your morning classes and you will be able to use the Floo Network in his office. He expects you at nine o'clock sharp.
Lucius Malfoy
- . -
The door to Professor Snape's office was open wide, so Pansy entered without knocking.
"Good morning, sir."
"Miss Parkinson, just take a seat. You will have to wait a little." He replied without looking up from what he was writing.
The girl silently sat down onto the worn-out leather sofa, so she faced the wall full of dubious ingredients. For most of the bottles and boxes she did not have the faintest idea about the purpose of their content. Some substances were eerie-looking jellies, others unspectacular powders and some seemed to be empty; maybe their content was just invisible. It did not even have to be invisible for magical reasons. Pansy was wondering whether the use of gases for potions was possible at all, when suddenly Lucius Malfoy's head appeared in the flames of the office's fireplace.
"If you'd come over now, please."
Pansy got up to to toss a handful of Floo Powder into the flames and took a step forward. "Lucius Malfoy's office!" she said and in an instant landed at the desired location. She did not dare dust down the ashes on her cloak onto the expensive-looking Persian rug.
"Good morning!" The man got up to shake hands from behind his antique desk. As the girl stretched out her arm, for a second he caught a glimpse of something silver around her ankle glistening in the sunlight that was coming from the large, ornate window behind him. Was that what he thought it was? Could it be? He needed to know.
"Please, have a seat," he said hesitantly, indicating one of two cushion chairs. Pansy needed to reach out for one of them in order to draw it closer, so the sleeve glided up her arm far enough for him to make sure.
"Is that your mother's bracelet you are wearing?"
Quickly, Pansy clasped her ankle. "Yes, sir," she stumbled. "That's the only thing she left me."
Lucius needed a moment to think. What would he do? The poor girl knew nothing about the value of her adornment, of which he could have profited immensely. However, Pansy was Iris' daughter after all, and it did not take him very long to decide that, for her safety, he would have to tell her. Everything.
He talked about Iris and how they had met at Hogwarts. That she would help them, Avery and Lucius that was, brush up their Arithmancy skills and in turn they would get her books from the library's Restricted Section. That life had been uncertain and by the time they graduated from school, the First Wizarding War was at its peak. He told her how Iris, without a family-backup, had struggled to find her way. How, at some point, blind loyalty to her friends, who had supported her for many years, had lead her to take on a huge burden - the silver bracelet. The man revealed that it was a collection of precious magical items. The charms acted as keys to Gringott's vaults holding dubious money or evidence for some people's illegal activities, temporarily deactivated portkeys, amulets and the like.
Lucius paused for couple of minutes. His voice had long lost the usual self-confident, almost narcissistic, sound to it. He appeared troubled by those repressed memories and took a deep breath before he continued.
It turned out that, with time, the Ministry got wind of Iris' crucial role as a key-keeper for a number of wizards associated with Voldemort's Death Eaters and had hunted her down. Although they had searched everything she owned, they could not find a hint to where or what the keys were and thus assumed that they were hidden somewhere nobody would ever find them.
"Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?"
What she had just heard was hard for Pansy to grasp. Instead of making things clearer, the story had raised even more questions. Her head was aching.
"Some of the wizards that had entrusted you mother with a key - and contrary to the Ministry officials those people know that we are talking about a charm bracelet here - spent years of their lives searching for it in order to regain access to whatever they had locked away. It was very wise of your mother not to let you take her last name."
Slowly, Pansy realised what this meant for her. There were wizards seeking after the keys, after her.
"So, my mother was-" She choked. "-a Death Eater?" The last words were mere whispering.
Lucius cracked a little smile. "No, dear."