Chapter 4
Draco looked up from his desk as Calista stuck her head into his office.
"S wants to see us now," she said.
They headed up to the elevator and up to the 11th floor, which consisted entirely of their boss' office. His receptionist waved them through. They stepped through the glass door into S's sleek, modern office.
S, which simply stood for Sylvestre, looked up as they entered; his black-framed glasses perched on the end of his nose.
"Draco, Calista, have a seat," he said, waving at the chairs in front of his desk.
S glanced down at what Draco recognised as Blaise's case file and looked back up at them.
"About Mr Zabini's case...I'm afraid I have to reject it," S began.
"Reject it?" Draco repeated. "Why?"
"Oreste Zabini is an important figure in the wizarding world. I'm afraid it may cause trouble if he simply...died," S said.
"This fraternity have previously killed many prolific figures as well. We've just killed David Wright yesterday; isn't he someone important?" Draco countered.
"That is completely different. David Wright was a Muggle-born; he was a nobody who only gained recognition through his work and sly ways. Oreste Zabini on the other hand...well, as a Malfoy you should understand the circumstances here. Surely the Zabini family would demand an investigation."
"We can make it look natural. He's had several stroke cases before."
"David Wright and Oreste Zabini; two powerful men in the wizarding world dead with just a short perid of time in between. What would the media say? How would society react? I'm sorry, Draco, but it's just too risky."
"We don't have to kill him now, maybe I can persuade the client to give us some time; three months should be enough, no?" Draco replied. He knew S was right, but this was his best friend who was asking the favour, he had to try at least.
"This fraternity is not just about getting the job done whenever the client wants, you know that Draco. We have to analyse the effect and how large that effect is going to be on the whole society."
"If you're worried about whether the Zabini Empire will fall because of this, then you shouldn't, my client has a plan."
S looked straight into Draco's eyes and said firmly, "The answer is still no, Mr Malfoy."
Draco and Calista left S's office dejectedly. They returned back to their offices on the 10th floor. Calista conjured up a cup of tea and placed it in front of Draco, who had collapsed onto his desk chair.
"Sorry," Calista said. "You know S's word is final."
Draco sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Blaise is going to kill me."
"I'm sure he'll understand."
Draco shook his head. "He's going to give the job to another agency."
Calista raised her eyebrows. "Well, then let them take care of it."
"No, you don't understand. No one can do as clean a job as The Fraternity. We have the advantage over all assassins; we're the ones that know all the special curses and potions our Founders created. I'm afraid if Blaise has someone else do it, they won't do a clean job. Then it'll be traced back easily to him. I just don't want him to get in trouble."
"There's nothing else to do, then."
Draco groaned in frustration. There must be something he can do to help Blaise. Doing it by himself, out of the Fraternity, was out of the question. S would easily detect his betrayal and would surely punish him for obeying his order.
"Why don't we move onto our next case for now." Calista's voice broke his train of thought.
"Next case?" Draco looked up to see Calista holding his attempted assassination folder.
"We haven't had time to do more research on this case."
"You mean the case where someone tried to kill both of us?" Draco asked, taking the folder from her.
"Yeah. I thought we could start with researching Alberte Mouraient. He was last seen in France."
"Yeah-600 years ago. Where the hell would we start?" Draco asked.
"The Archive Library," Calista said, standing up. "Come on."
She led the way to the elevators and they took it down to the basements where the Archive Library was located. It housed personal records, population databases, reference books on spells and potions and folders and information for every case the Fraternity had ever completed.
Calista and Draco wove their way through the ceiling-high shelves to the Reference section. After looking through some old encyclopaedias, which didn't reveal any additional information, they decided to check The Codex of the Fraternity. It was an ancient reference book complied by the 7 Founders of the Fraternity and contained curses and potions that were created by the Founders. The Codex was kept in a magic-prohibited chamber in the Library that was only accessible to S and the most senior or highly-ranked assassins.
Calista cast the security charm and they entered the chamber, where the Codex sat on the stand in the middle of the room. Draco flipped right to the back of the book where there was some information on the Founders. They squinted at the miniscule hand-written script and read.
One sentence jumped out at Draco. He pointed to the line.
"What is the Tuer Academy?"
Blair peered closely at the line. "It says here that after Alberte Mouraient was exiled, he went to France and established another assassination agency- the Tuer Academy."
"They must be another high-class agency like ours," Draco said.
"I've never heard of them before, though."
"Exactly why they must be professionals, like us. Either that or they actually don't exist anymore."
"We'll have to do more research; find out their whereabouts."
It took them all day to go through all the books on the 7 founders, and by the end of the day, they barely found anything. They started from the more obvious ones, books and papers connected straight to the founders. They tracked down all the information up to the living descendants. It was tricky, since they were assassins and some files were coded and encrypted. After going through another book and finding nothing useful, Calista groaned in frustration.
"Argh! I don't mind hard work, but hard work and no result is really pissing me off."
"This is tiring, what time is it, anyway?" Draco asked, standing up.
"7.30 pm. I'm so hungry."
"Shit! I'm sorry, Calista, but I have to go. I have a dinner party I have to attend."
Calista looked up. "With Astoria?"
Draco frowned. "Unfortunately."
He bent down and kissed Calista on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Draco adjusted his black bow tie and peered into the mirror, smoothing down his dress robes. When he was satisfied with his appearance, he picked up the corsage sitting on his nightstand and apparated to Astoria's apartment.
He arrived in her immaculate living room, just in time to see her step out from her bedroom, dressed resplendently in navy blue silk and chiffon dress robes.
Draco held up the corsage he'd bought- a single white orchid.
"Thank you, darling," she said, taking it and greeting Draco with a kiss.
Draco nodded. "Shall we get going?"
Astoria nodded to a single crystal goblet on her coffee table. "The Portkey should be leaving soon."
When it flashed blue, Draco and Astoria placed their fingers on the Portkey and were instantly transported to the Greengrass's mansion. Draco felt grateful for not eating anything beforehand or he might just have thrown up; he hated Portkey transport.
The Greengrass's mansion was pretty much just like other old rich pureblood mansions, with just a few differences in the detail. The walls were made out of weathered bricks that showed just how old the building really was. There were three stories to the house with many pillars to support it on the outside. Surrounding the mansion was a field of green grass that expanded seemingly forever, with barely any trees or bushes.
The magnificent double doors opened instantly as they arrived and a house elf stood on the side of the door with his head bowed down.
"Miss Greengrass, welcome home, your presence has been missed," the house elf said.
Astoria did not bother greeting the house elf; instead, taking Draco's arm, they walked inside the mansion and made their way towards the main dining room in the west wing.
End chp 4.
