Chapter XII

The Hit Wizard was behaving strangely, Andromeda thought, while Gumboil led her to the Ministry lifts. So far, he'd failed to answer her questions about the identity of the person who had reported the theft, and whether they had checked if the "purloined property" had actually disappeared. He'd merely shaken his head.

They had their lift to themselves, except for a single paper aeroplane hovering in the air above them. Where are you taking me, sir?' she demanded to know when it slowly began to rattle down instead of up toward Level Two, where the Department of Magical Law was. 'Mr. Gumboil?' She tapped him on the shoulder.

He jumped, but she'd got his attention. 'To the holding thellth, lady.'

'What?' she cried. 'You said were going to interrogate me, not lock me up!'

'I have my orderth.'

'Who gave them to you?'

'The Auror Offithe,' he replied almost absent-mindedly.

Strange. Dora had never chased thieves unless the stolen items were Dark Artefacts. The Werewolf Lore book could hardly be classified as such.

Jangling and clattering the lift came to a halt. The female voice announcing the various Ministry levels declared that they had reached Level Nine and the Department of Mysteries. 'Since when does the Auror Office occupy itself with simple matters like theft? Aren't Aurors supposed to be Dark Wizard catchers?' Andromeda asked loudly over the noise

He turned toward her, frowning and blinking at the same time, his eyes looking odd. And suddenly it hit her. Could it be he was behaving so strangely because he was under the Imperius Curse, and trying to fight it? Was it beginning to wear off?

Meanwhile, the golden grille had slid open on a dimly lit corridor with bare walls and a plain black door at the end. There was no one in sight.

Andromeda remembered her daughter telling her about this place. It was somewhere in the Department of Mysteries that Bellatrix had attacked poor Dora for the first time, cursing her right into St. Mungo's. And then, without being able to pay her back in kind, she had died when her aunt struck once again in the battle of Hogwarts. The horrible injustice of it fuelled Andromeda's anger, and it rose in her like bile.

Gumboil stepped out of the lift, but when he turned around, he looked uncertain again. 'Come on, lady,' he said, gesturing vaguely towards the end of the corridor. 'The thtairway to Level Ten ith over there. We mutht go.'

Andromeda knew this was the level where the holding cells were, beyond the ancient Courtroom. But if he wanted to take her there he should have disarmed her first.

'I don't think so, Mr Gumboil!' She pulled her wand. 'Finite Incantatem.'

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When Remus regained consciousness, the quality of the light had hardly changed. He couldn't have been out for much more than an hour. A dull ache lingered behind his left temple, where the spell had hit him. He sat up abruptly and winced. There had been an intruder in the house, and he'd promised Andromeda... Alarmed, he picked up his wand and scrambled to his feet. Kicking aside the little table that was in his way he ran to the kitchen.

One step inside, he halted abruptly. The little baby rocking chair was empty.

Teddy was gone.

'NO!' he shouted after a few heartbeats of speechless horror. 'No no no no!'

Frantically he scanned the floor, just in case Teddy had managed to do involuntary magic and extricated himself from his chair. Nothing. He ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs, trying to reassure himself. Andromeda must have returned home and had somehow overlooked his unconscious form on the living room floor. Now she was upstairs, changing Teddy's nappy, putting him in bed.

The nursery was empty and deathly silent, lacking the almost imperceptible breathing of a peacefully sleeping child.

Andromeda's bedroom was empty as well, and in the picture on the nightstand, little Dora and Ted eyed him wordlessly and worriedly. Shaking, Remus sank down on her bed to try and get himself under control, to get rid of the tight, suffocating band around his chest. Maybe there were tears, too, somewhere deep inside him, but they were frozen.

He'd acted like a complete idiot to think the Malfoys meant no harm, disregarding Andromeda's repeated misgivings and warnings. She'd been right all the time and he a fool twice over for not taking her seriously. He'd failed her. He'd failed his son and his dead wife.

Something kept nagging at the back of his mind. He returned to the nursery, looking about for a clue. It seemed different. Where were the nappies? And a lot of Teddy's clothes seemed to be gone, he saw when he pulled out a couple of drawers. Only few of them were in the laundry basket. Downstairs, a cuddle toy was missing from the playpen and in the kitchen he discovered that Teddy's bottles and a full tin of baby milk powder had vanished as well. Apparently, Narcissa had provided her son with careful instructions before she sent him here.

Remus eyes fell on the map of Wizarding Wiltshire, spread out on the kitchen table. A good thing he had given in to Andromeda when she insisted on showing him where Malfoy Manor was, earlier in the afternoon.

&&&

Had she been right? Had her Finite Incatatem worked? For a long moment, nothing happened, and Andromeda's heart sank. Then Gumboil's head snapped up. Looking around he asked, at once surprised and irritated: 'What am I doing down here? Why are you threatening me with your wand?'

'You were under Imperius. I lifted the curse,' Andromeda replied, hoping he would at least consider the possibility she was speaking the truth. Her left hand hovered near the button with the number eight that would take her back the Atrium, while her right kept pointing her wand at him.

Gumboil frowned, raising his own wand rather shakily. 'You put me under Imperiuth?'

She shook her head emphatically. 'It certainly wasn't me. In the lift, you told me you got your orders from the Auror Office, so maybe you should look into that direction.' A very disturbing thought.

The Hit Wizard looked suitably worried. 'You're right, lady,' he said after a silence. 'I wath under the Imperiuth Curthe. I recognithe the feeling.' He didn't lower his wand, though, adding: 'But I don't recall any of the Aurorth putting it on me.'

So he'd been Obliviated as well? It would seem logical enough: if one or more Aurors had used an Unforgivable on a Ministry colleague, they wouldn't want him to remember. But why would someone do this? Why have her brought here by a Hit Wizard on the charge of having stolen a book most Ministry people wouldn't even know existed? Andromeda's head began to swim with confusion; the walls of the corridor seemed to close in on her. The desire to disarm and then Obliviate him all over again before she left the place, just to have done with the whole affair, was almost overwhelming.

If she did though, she'd probably never find out more about it. 'Check my wand. Feed me Veritaserum, if you must. I assure you it was not me, Mr. Gumboil,' she said, and with an effort she willed her wand hand to drop to her side.

The Hit Wizard rubbed his free palm against his robe as if the situation unnerved him as much as it did her. 'Can't do that without a real warrant, can I? Would you be willing to follow me up to my offithe, lady? Tho we can try to clear thingth up?'

When she nodded, he also lowered his wand and stepped inside, as far away from her as possible. Andromeda wondered why, until it occurred to her that Gumboil might have met her late and unlamented sister, somewhere in his past.

With a sigh she pushed the button. The grille closed with a bang and the lift began its slow ascent.

&&&

'What takes him so long?' Narcissa complained when Draco hadn't returned home by cocktail time. The poor boy couldn't possibly be enjoying himself in the presence of the werewolf and her renegade sister. 'What if it was a trap? What if they've done something to him?'

'They wouldn't dare!' Lucius said, paling a little, as if he suspected she was about to send him after their son. He hadn't been half the man he used to be after Azkaban, she mused. He'd turned... well, ineffective was probably the term that came closest. She watched him rise and traipse to the liquor cabinet to pour himself a large goblet of elderberry wine. He held out the earthenware flask. 'You, my dear?'

She shook her head. 'They're very well capable of acting first and thinking later. That is to say, the Gryffindor werewolf is, and Meda's obviously besotted with him.' The indecency of it made her shudder, though it could be a case of the nerves. She crossed to the fireplace. 'Let's make a call.' Lifting the jar of Floo powder from the mantelpiece, she turned back to Lucius. 'Here.'

'You do it,' he said, without looking at her. 'You're better at saving Draco than I am.' And his Floo calls were considered potentially suspicious, of course.

'All right!' Narcissa grabbed a handful of powder. 'The Mudhole!' Ludicrous name. Kneeling, she stuck her head inside the bright green flames and had a view of Andromeda's living room with its old furniture. From close by, the rug looked horribly shabby. At the edge of her vision, a little table lay on its side, its stiff legs outstretched like those of a carcass. On the coffee table was a piece of parchment, as if someone had left a message there. Neither her sister nor the werewolf was in the room.

'Draco!' she cried. 'Meda!' And then, overcoming her revulsion: 'Lupin!' Nothing. She repeated her son's name, and her sister's, but no footsteps broke the silence. After about half a minute, she withdrew her head and got up. 'Nobody. What could have happened?'

Lucius put down his goblet, looking sincerely troubled now. 'I have no idea. Couldn't you get in?'

Narcissa shook her head. 'Useless. There's no one there.'

At that point, a loud crack announced the presence of the house-elf, Wishy. It stood before Lucius's chair and said shyly. 'Master, there's a Remus Lupin standing at the front gate. Must he be let inside?'

Lucius's hand shot forwards and connected with the elf's face; it swayed on its feet but didn't fall. 'Not in a million years!' he snapped. 'Having had to tolerate one werewolf at the Manor was quite enough. I'll talk to it at the gate.' He leaped up, and the next moment, with a civilised pop, he was gone.

'Wishy is very sorry. She will have to punish herself,' the house-elf complained with a downcast face. 'But how was she to know it was a werewolf?'

I must talk to Lucius about his attitude towards the House-elves, Narcissa thought. It had led to betrayal in the past. He ought to be wiser now. 'You've got nothing to be sorry for,' she told the elf. 'No punishment. You can leave now, Wishy.'

'Thank you, Mistress!' Wishy Disapparated. So did Narcissa. Materialising at Lucius's side inside the gates, she observed the offensive caller. This time, the werewolf was properly dressed, but that was about the only improvement. It also had a wand now. She smiled. The gates of Malfoy Manor were impenetrable from the outside.

'Draco, abducting your son?' she heard Lucius say haughtily, pointing his own wand at the werewolf's chest. 'How dare you! Rather tell us what you've done to our son, Lupin! He should have been back long since. My wife is worried out of her mind!'

And you're not? Narcissa thought.

Apparently, the beast was not impressed by her husband's wand, but his words gave it pause. 'I know that my son was abducted, as he can't very well have left on his own,' it said at last, looking deeply troubled. 'You say that yours is missing as well. I saw him in our house, a couple of hours ago, so unless he decided to go by foot -'

'Draco?' Lucius interrupted Lupin. 'Don't make me laugh!'

' - he's had plenty of time to return home,' Lupin went on without missing a beat. 'That he didn't, could mean two things. One: he's looking for a place to hide Teddy.' Lucius started to protest, but the werewolf raised a hand to stall him 'Two: something's happened to both of them.'

Despite her low opinion of the beast, Narcissa couldn't help thinking that it did seem to have the capacity to make people listen. She wondered if it was using a spell. The werewolf's pale, worried face approached the gate now, and she caught a glimpse of teeth when it asked: 'Do you know that Rodolphus Lestrange has been sighted in Wiltshire, near Salisbury Plain?'

'What?' she shouted, feeling the blood in her veins freeze.

'Calm down!' Lucius said, raising his voice as well. 'He won't -'

The story of how she'd turned against the Dark Lord had been in the Prophet and the Quibbler - she'd personally approached Skeeter, while Lovegood had Owled her after a long conversation with Potter. If Rod Lestrange, who could be as vindictive as they came, had read either of those interviews...

'Calm down?' Narcissa shrieked. 'Lucius, you don't know what you're talking about!' She wheeled towards her husband. 'Let Lupin in. Now.'

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reviewing.