On VERY temporary Hiatus.

I will be back in March at the latest, hopefully sooner. I am currently switching careers and due to moving and settling in I will not be able to post as frequently as I would like. THIS WILL be finished, hopefully by end of March.

I am posting this to let you know I WILL be continuing the story but it will be a few weeks.

Much Love,

GT

Reviews make me happy, thanks for the Reviews!

Chapter 10

Pointing Fingers

"Poison? How very Malfoy," scoffed Ron, as he and Harry talked in his office a few days later, "Good of old Lucius to finish off a few bottles before it kicked in, not going to be easy to pinpoint it."

"Yes, and that's a problem," responded Harry with a deep sigh, it was quite.

"James, can you share the ears?" asked Dominique; she, James, Albus, Rose, Fred, Victorie, Mayella, and Teddy were currently hiding in the pantry listening in to the office.

"Excuse me, it's my birthday," scoffed James, Fred yanked the ear, "Excuse you."

"Don't you think Ginny's going to notice we're all MIA?" asked Mayella.

"Lily's buying us time," said Albus, he could almost see the fake melt down his sister was having over a non-existent dress that was missing.

"Shh," said Teddy, waving them off.

"Why is it... are you joking Harry? I'm a suspect?" said Ron with disgust in his voice, "Why the bloody hell am I a suspect?"

"Because two of the wines came from your secretary," said Harry, "I for one minute don't believe you had anything to do with it, but Rita Skeeter got a hold of the story. Gin can only muzzle her for a few days..."

"Your joking," scoffed Ron, they could hear him sit down, "First I'm blamed for Malfoy and the Imperius curse, now poisoning? Well this is shaping up to be a lovely summer. My daughter thinks I'm a monster, the media thinks I'm a lying attempted murderer. Fantastic."

"Ron, you know that's not true," sighed Harry, he cleared his throat, "But I'm going to have to crack down on this case immediately. I was already handling it, but it's getting out of hand quickly."

"I don't think that..." Rose was shushed.

"We know Rosie," said Teddy, "But we need to keep quite..."

"Teddy?" asked Victorie, "Can't you go in there, your on the case too."

"...I suppose I could," said Teddy, everyone looked at him, Victorie kissed him on the cheek, "I'm on it, gang."

"Hey, the agreement was no snogging of any kind at my birthday party," said James, sharply.

"We're going to snog in every photo," said Victorie, James glared at her as Teddy snuck out of the pantry.

"Hey, you two, what's happening in here?" asked Teddy.

"I'm figuring out how to word my resignation," sighed Ron, there was the sound of a chair moving.

"Ron, your joking," stated Harry, "You can't be serious?"

"I am Harry. I'd rather resign before my name and hard work gets dragged through the mud or my families," said Ron, Teddy butted in.

"You can't resign... do you know the field day Skeeter would have if after these allegation you resigned. She would spew it like you were covering your tracks or something," said Teddy.

"He's right," said Harry, "We need to figure out who broke into the Department of Mysteries. If we can find that, we may be able to find a trail to why Paulson went there that night, who killed him, and who tried to frame Malfoy."

"I know we're looking at it like its one case, but what if its not," said Teddy, "What if they were separate incidents completely."

"Yes, and what if Malfoy's crying wolf," said Ron, there was silence, "I am not saying that, stop giving me that look, Harry. I'm simply saying its too much of a coincidence to think that there not related incidents."

"I'll be talking to Donovan in the morning," said Harry, "I need to trace every bit of evidence they had. We'll talk more about this later. I'm sure Lily's breakdown is falling short and everyone's legs are probably cramped in the pantry."

"... go," said Fred, as they all began to book it out of the pantry.

Rose sat in silence that night, she'd yet to be able to talk to her Dad and she hadn't even seen him at the end of the party. Though there was an epic sword fight happening between James and some of his friends from school that kind of gained attention and broke two windows. She sat in her reading chair in her room, yet the book had yet to be opened passed the second page. Her mind was racing. Both in part of the concern for Scorpius' family, but mostly because of her Dad's words. He was under the assumption that she thought of him as a monster. She knew that he thought she considered him capable of murder and she didn't... did she. No. She shook her head, several wines had been drank by Lucius Malfoy. Two of which came from Ron's office, which was sent by his secretary... but knowing her Dad... that was never something he would do. If he had felt wrong in the slightest, he would have pushed it aside for a few weeks and then gone and discussed it in person. She heard her Mom in the library and decided to inquire where her Dad was.

"Mom? Hey Mom?" asked Rose, leaning in the doorway, "Mom?"

The library and office combo was dark and silent now. Rose looked back down the unlit hall, save for a small stream under Hugo's door from his reading light. She knew the house elves would be asleep now, as they only worked until eight on Friday's, if they were even home. She closed the door slightly but something didn't feel right, she stepped away from the door and watched it. She heard the sound of a click and a light appeared under the door. Her eyes shot open, someone was in their house. Rose quickly crept to her parents and bolted through the door to see Hermione sleeping, she quickly shook her Mom awake.

"Mom. There's someone in the house," said Rose, quietly, "Mom."

"Rose what..." asked a bleary eyed Hermione, "Your Dad probably just got..."

"No Mom, there is some one in the office, not Dad," said Rose, it couldn't be her Dad, why would he sit in the dark and pretend not to hear her, she knew it wasn't.

"Stay here," said Hermione, quickly getting up and grabbing her wand off the night stand, "I mean it, stay here."

"But..." Rose was silent and watched as her Mom made her way quickly to the library door, the light was off now.

With a swing of the door Hermione sent out a blast with her wand and Rose could hear a large shattering sound and the slam of a door. The sound of a light switch and a deep sigh, made her disobey her Mom and simply go look. Hermione stood in the office, scratching her head. The desk lamp had gone through a window and no one was in the room, but along with the window a shelf of books dropped to thr ground, causing Hermione to just stare. She looked at Rose and gave a tired smile.

"There's no one here Rosie... I think..."

"Mom. I heard noise in here, the light was off, I closed the door, the light came on. There was someone in here," said Rose, but as she spoke doubt began to take over.

"Well now the only thing in here in a broken window and shelf, and a..." Hermione stopped talking and looked at the desk for a second, before shaking her head in dismissal, "Maybe your Dad popped in before heading back to the office. He and your Uncle are getting all the papers together for the whole Mysteries Case... Go to bed, sweetheart."

"Mom...I..." Rose began.

"What happened?" asked Hugo with a confused look as he took off his headphones in route to the bathroom, "Did the lamp go out the window? I knew that thing was sentient."

"So how's your grandfather?" asked Albus as he walked around the kitchen making a late snack on the phone, "Sorry you couldn't come today, but James' understands."

"He's doing okay," said Scorpius, he sat in the small office on the phone, eating a cupcake that looked like it had a better past life, courtesy of his sisters, "My Grandmother seems pretty sure he's not going to be drinking wine ever again. Tell James that despite the fact my sister didn't respond to him, she appreciated the invitation."

"Did she?" asked Albus, the image of Nanartemis Malfoy appreciating anything from James was very unimaginable.

"It was somewhere in her speech," said Scorpius, "I haven't heard from Rose in days, is everything okay?"

"Well, I'm not sure if she's more upset that my Uncle Ron thinks she hates him, when she doesn't... or the fact her Dad's under investigation."

"Really? For what? My Dad said he wasn't going to make a big deal or spectacle about the Azkaban thing?" asked Scorpius, shock was evident in his voice.

"No, about the wine thing. He's adamint that he didn't send wine, but my Dad says two bottles were from his seceretary..." Albus ranted, suddenly not sure if he should continue.

"Seriously? My Dad didn't say anything about that..."

"I guess Rita Skeeter got a hold of the whole thing and I guess it's going to be in the media soon, my Mom's trying to bar it as long as she can... but I don't know why it would be headline," said Albus.

"My Dad said something about poison being ironic... Oh," said Scorpius like something had clicked, "Well clearly someone wants my Dad out of the picutre for some reason... and they know details about my Dad's past. I'll call you back."

"What does... Scorp?... right," Albus hung up the phone and looked at the cake before picking up his fork.

"Al?" Albus dropped his cake as he spun around to look at his Dad walking in the doorway, "Your up late..."

"I was hungry," said Albus, looking at the cake with a sigh, "Just got off the phone with Scorpius."

"How's he doing?" asked Harry with a raised brow at the hour, he put down a box of papers, Albus raised a brow, "Case."

"That's a lot of paperwork for something that might not or might have happened," said Albus, the cake vanished as Harry waved his wand, "Want cake, there's two pieces left."

"I'll pass. Better save that for James," shrugged Harry.

"Scorpius had an epiphany and he will call me back," said Albus, he grabbed another piece of cake.

"Yeah, well, I hope I have an epiphany before Monday papers," said Harry sitting down.

"Well, he said there was irony about the fact someone tried to use poison to kill his Dad and that they would have to know something about his Dad's past... Dad?" asked Albus as Harry's eyes widened and he got up and headed to his office, "I'm sure glad everyone's figuring this puzzle out... maybe give me a corner piece or something to work with."

Scorpius walked into his Dad's office, he was staring at the muggle computer and a bunch of papers. It was odd seeing his Dad with muggle things, especially since his Dad practically panicked with the phone when he had to use it. He looked tired, though he wasn't even sure his Dad had slept for nearly a week at this point.

"Dad?" asked Scorpius, his Dad jumped as he looked up, "Are you busy?"

"Scorpius, what are you doing up, it's late?" asked Draco, looking at the hour, and across the room near the door beside Scorpius, "I shouldn't even be up."

"I was talking to Albus," Draco raised his brow, Scorpius smirked, "On the phone... and we were talking about the media and the poison and.. Dad, remember what you told me about you and the poison in your sixth year, well, Mr. Weasley is being investigated and it dawned on me... if he did it, why would he do something so obvious. Whoever broke, killed Paulson, and tried to kill you... has to be someone who knows the connection with it."

"It would be rather stupid to be that obvious, wouldn't it," came a small chuckle from behind Scorpius, he swung around to see Ron sitting in the office chair with a bunch of papers surrounding him.

"Mr. Weasley, this is... Hello," said Scorpius, he was so confused.

"Scorpius," nodded Ron with a smirk, "Thanks for the vote of confidence in not being obvious if I tried to kill Malfoy."

"I'd hope he'd do better then that when he eventually tries," said Draco, looking back at the computer, "Unfortunately, more people know that connection then I'm happy about."

"So... what's happening?" asked Scorpius, he felt like he was in a different reality.

"Whoever is playing games is now trying to point fingers," said Ron, he didn't look to happy about the current situation, "So instead of letting everyone get played, we intend to win the game first."

"Lovely speech," said Draco, Ron smirked, "Your wife's words?"

"... yes," said Ron after a moment as he went back to the papers.

"We are starting for step one. I'm cross referencing everything I managed to put in this computer and..." Draco trailed off and used two fingers to press buttons slowly.

"Well... alright then... I'm going to... just.. Leave," said Scorpius, slowly stepping out of the room, but suddenly his Dad began waving furiously towards Mr. Weasley, who was falling asleep, "Uh Mr. Weasley..."

"Yeah... what Malfoy?" asked Ron, his voice turning annoyed as he looked towards Draco.

"It may interest you to know, I've found the stolen items... and it's not good," said Draco, the look on his face made Scorpius stop dead in his tracks, he was not leaving now.

TO BE CONTINUED