Draco shivered slightly as he sat down next to Harry at the table in the interview room at Azkaban. They were waiting for Bellatrix to be brought in so they could talk to her again, but Draco wasn't holding his breath that they were going to get any answers from his aunt. Personally he thought the entire visit was going to be a waste of time, but he understood why Harry had thought they should make a second visit.
"Back again so soon, I am popular," Bellatrix purred as the door to the room opened and she was ushered inside by two guards and secured to the chair opposite Draco and Harry.
"We know the truth, Bellatrix," Harry said once the guards had backed out of the room and left them alone with the prisoner. "We know what happened to your son."
"Do you now?" Bellatrix questioned with a disbelieving smirk. "Somehow, I doubt it."
"We know you were being treated at a clinic in France, and we know you were using mother's name," Draco said.
"You have been busy bees," Bellatrix said, sounding slightly impressed with what the pair had managed to find out. "I'll admit, you're right so far. I did use a clinic in France during my pregnancy and I used Narcissa's name to keep any focus away from me. Not that it worked as they still got to my son."
"No-one got to your son, Bellatrix," Harry said gently. "We spoke to the medi-witch present at the birth. She told us that your son died, but you couldn't accept it."
"My son did not die," Bellatrix hissed, baring her teeth at Harry. If it wasn't for the fact she was restrained she would have leapt across the table and throttled him for daring to say her son was dead.
"He did," Draco whispered. "I'm sorry for what you went through Aunt Bella. I wouldn't wish losing a child on anyone. But you're not helping yourself by denying the truth."
"It's all lies," Bellatrix spat. "My son didn't die. I would know if he'd died. It was all a plan. They took my son and pretended that he'd died."
"If that was true, why not raise the alarm?" Harry asked, trying a different tactic on the deranged witch. "You didn't even tell your sister what had happened. Why keep quiet if you thought someone had taken your child?"
"Getting him back was all in hand," Bellatrix replied with a shrug. "The Dark Lord promised me that he would get my son back to me."
"Was that at the same time he was giving you a calming draught to keep you in line?" Draco asked.
"What calming draught?" Bellatrix frowned and both Aurors could see her confusion was genuine.
"Traces of the draught were found in your system after you were arrested the first time," Draco explained. "The effects wore off around the time Voldemort went after the Potters."
"You're lying," Bellatrix said with a stubborn shake of her head. "The Dark Lord would never have done that to me. He was the one helping me. He was going to reunite me with my son."
"By killing my parents?" Harry asked. "Is that why he came after them, to kill them so he could take me back to you?"
"You. You think you're my son?" Bellatrix cackled, throwing her head back as she laughed in amusement.
"Am I?" Harry questioned.
"As if I would have a loser like you as a son," Bellatrix sneered. "Relax Potter, you're not mine. You're the sole product of your blood traitor father and mudblood mother. You're nothing to do with me, thank Merlin."
"So if Harry isn't your son, who is?" Draco asked.
"Not telling you," Bellatrix replied in a sing-song voice.
"We can help you if you told us who he is," Harry urged. "Tell us who he is and we can do a test to determine his parentage. We can prove you're telling the truth, and we can prosecute everyone involved in taking your son."
"I don't need proof, I know my son is alive and I know who he is," Bellatrix replied, unmoved by Harry's offer of help. "I don't care who thinks I'm lying. I know the truth and that's all that matters."
"And what about getting justice for your son?" Draco asked. "Don't you want to see the people involved in his kidnapping pay for what they did to you?"
"They've already paid," Bellatrix replied with an evil grin. "Justice has already been done. Now if you don't mind, I want to go back to my cell. I have nothing more to say to you, and if you come and see me again, I won't utter a word to either of you."
"Is there someone else you would talk to?" Draco asked. "Mother, perhaps? She wants to see you."
"Your mother can go rot in hell for all I care," Bellatrix spat, glaring hatefully at Draco. "She's abandoned me for years, and now she only wants to come and see me because she feels sorry for me. Well, I don't need her pity, and I certainly don't need her. Narcissa made her choice to abandon me, so she can damn well live with it."
"She would have been there for you if you'd told her what happened," Draco said. He'd told his parents what they'd found out at the clinic the previous day, and Narcissa had been distraught that her sister had gone through such a traumatic experience and she hadn't been there for her.
"Narcissa stopped being there for me the second your father got his claws into her," Bellatrix sneered. "Once Lucius was on the scene, I was surplus to requirements. Then she had you, and I ceased to exist in her eyes. The only people who have every truly mattered to my sister is you and your father. I won't see Narcissa, so you might as well give up now."
"And is that what you're doing, Bellatrix, giving up?" Harry asked as Draco sat back and dropped the subject of his mother. "I suppose it's easier for you to hide away in here and pretend as though none of this matters. It would be much harder to face the past and tell your son the truth. What's wrong, are you afraid he's going to reject you?"
"I'm not afraid of anything," Bellatrix snarled. "If that bloody Cho Chang hadn't turned up, none of this would be happening. She stirred up old wounds, and you know what, I'm glad someone killed the nosey cow. I just hope she suffered before she died."
"Come on Harry, let's go," Draco said, placing a calming hand on his partners arm as he saw that Bellatrix's words had affected him deeply. "We're not going to get anything of any use here."
"Finally, he gets the message," Bellatrix laughed. "Maybe you're not as stupid as you look, Draco."
"Maybe I'm not," Draco replied. "It's just a shame you're as evil as you look."
Turning his back on his aunt, Draco walked out of the interview room with Harry and left the guards to deal with taking his aunt back to her cell. As expected it had been a pretty unproductive meeting, but at least they'd managed to confirm that Bellatrix wasn't under the illusion that Harry was her son. Although Draco did feel sorry for the poor sod she had decided was her son, as who wanted to be thought of as the son of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort?
While Draco and Harry were at the imposing fortress of Azkaban, interviewing a mad woman, Hermione and Ron were having a much nicer afternoon chatting to Professor Sprout. They'd found the former Herbology Professor at home, and she'd invited them both into her gorgeous garden for home-made lemonade and cherry scones.
"Thank you for the refreshments," Hermione said with a smile as beside her Ron polished off a second scone.
"Delicious," Ron said, smacking his lips appreciatively.
"Thank you," Sprout said with a slight chuckle. "Although I doubt the pair of you looked me up to have afternoon tea with me."
"We do have something official we wish to talk to you about," Hermione said. They'd already mentioned having some official business to discuss with the former Professor, but Sprout had insisted on having refreshments before they spoke. "It's about Cho Chang."
"Terrible business," Sprout said with a sad shake of her head. "She was always such a delightful young witch. She didn't have a great natural aptitude for Herbology, but she was a pleasure to teach. Do you know what happened to her yet?"
"We're still trying to find out who killed her and why, but we do know she was poisoned," Hermione answered. "Someone slipped some Bugs-Bee-Gone into her tea."
"No," Sprout gasped, her hand moving to her mouth in shock. "I created Bugs-Bee-Gone, and to think it's been used to kill a former student. It's so terrible."
"It is," Ron agreed sympathetically. "But tests have shown that the Bugs-Bee-Gone found in Cho's system doesn't quite match with the mass produced version of the product. We think it was a home-made version."
"You think I killed Cho?" Sprout questioned with a distressed sob.
"Of course not, Professor," Hermione said gently as she reached over the table and took hold of Professor Sprout's trembling hands. "We don't for one minute think you're a killer. We just need to know about your home made version of Bugs-Bee-Gone. For example, do you make it for friends or does anyone else know the exact recipe?"
"I do make it for friends," Sprout confirmed with a nod. "And when I taught at Hogwarts, I used to make it for the school gardens and for other Professors. Minerva used it on her roses, and Filius was a bit of an orchid collector. And of course, Rubeus used it around the grounds. I'm assuming he still uses it."
"Do you still make it for the other Professors?" Ron asked.
"Only Filius," Sprout replied. "He's retired like me and we meet up every month to have afternoon tea. I gave him a fresh container last time I saw him, which would be about three weeks ago."
"Could you give us a list of friends you make the potion for?" Ron asked.
"Of course," Sprout answered with a nod.
"And does anyone else but the potions company you sold it to know the recipe?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, I passed it along to Neville Longbottom when I retired," Sprout answered. "I know he makes it for Hogwarts, and I know he supplies Minerva with it for her roses. But Neville would never kill anyone, he's the sweetest boy I've ever met. He wouldn't harm a fly, let alone a person."
"We're not saying Neville is the killer either," Ron assured the former Professor. "Maybe the killer got hold of the potion by stealing it. Where do you keep your potion?"
"In my greenhouse," Sprout answered, gesturing to a large glass greenhouse that stood at the bottom of her garden. "But the greenhouse is warded against intruders, and I keep a very careful record of the potions use. I would know if something was missing, and since I nurtured Neville, I would bet he does the same with his supply. We both understand how dangerous any sort of potion can be in the wrong hands, and I suppose this is proof of it."
"Can we have a sample of your Bugs-Bee-Gone?" Ron asked. "We need to compare it against the sample we found in Cho's system."
"Of course you can," Sprout said as she jumped to her feet.
Hermione remained at the table while Ron headed down to the greenhouse with Professor Sprout to gather a sample of her home-made version of Bugs-Bee-Gone. With the sample gathered, the pair had another cup of tea with the former Professor before they said their goodbyes and headed back to the Ministry. Hermione immediately dropped the sample off at her lab and ordered that the tests be started immediately, before she joined the others in the conference room to debrief their afternoon findings.
"As expected is was a waste of bloody time," Draco said when Ron asked how the visit to Azkaban went. "She told us nothing."
"Not quite nothing, she did say I wasn't her son," Harry piped up.
"Do you believe her?" Ron questioned. Personally he didn't think Bellatrix would admit she did think Harry was her son, even if she did really think that.
"Yes, she was pretty brutal in dismissing me," Harry replied.
"Maybe we should have asked her about Longbottom," Draco remarked. "He was our other thought of who she could have latched onto as her son."
"Speaking of Neville, we need to visit him and get a sample of his Bugs-Bee-Gone," Ron said, quickly bringing Harry and Draco up to date with the result of their meeting with Professor Sprout.
"You can't seriously be saying you think Neville is a viable suspect in this?" Harry snorted, looking at the other three people in the room.
"Of course not," Hermione replied. "But we need the sample of his potion, and I suppose why you were doing that it wouldn't hurt to talk to him about Bellatrix. We did want to talk to some former members of the Order anyway, so maybe you could talk to his gran as well. Maybe they can point us in a different direction because at the minute we keep hitting a brick wall every way we turn."
Hoping that Hermione was right, Harry decided that he and Draco would visit Neville the following day. At the moment it felt as though the case was going nowhere, and they needed something to get it moving forward again.