"Do you want to start checking these immediately?" Hermione asked grimly, after placing the employment records back inside their folder.
"Yeah, unfortunately. There are rather a lot of them, I'm afraid, so we need to get going with them as soon as possible," Harry sighed, placing the smaller folder on the table next to them and putting the large of the two in front of them.
"Do you want to do half and half again?" Hermione offered, scrunching up her face at the sight of the four hundred entries.
"I don't know; we need to look for any suspicious visitors or if any visitors have been to see multiple prisoners. Then we can see who is on the list of the prospective escapees and carry on from there."
"Good plan. You look through the first sheet, and then I'll double check and make notes," Hermione replied, nodding as she went over the plan in her head. "I'll write down the visitors' names, the dates they visit and which prisoner they see, if I, or you, think they could be the outside contact."
"Perfect. Let's get started."
The pair worked diligently, reading through every visitor record carefully, trying to find a pattern amongst the seemingly random visits.
"Found anything yet?" Harry asked after the twelfth page.
"Nothing. But then again, this was a year ago. I doubt they would have been planning anything for that long," Hermione sighed.
"Shall we skip a few months?" Harry suggested. "We can always look though the pages we've missed after we've finished."
"Yeah, good idea. Shall we do… the last six months?"
"That's fine with me," Harry said, flicking through the parchment to find the right page.
Three-and-a-half months' worth of entries later, Hermione stopped and jotted something down on her notepad.
"What are you writing?" Harry asked, scanning the page in his hands briefly.
Hermione put down her pen and showed Harry her notes. "Look. Four months ago, Mrs. Goyle went to visit her husband."
"Mary visits every four months. Why is that noteworthy?" Harry frowned.
"Exactly, she organises visits every four months. But look, here, she came two months later, and then again six weeks after that," Hermione told him gleefully.
"Well… she probably just missed him. How would you like to be separated from Ron for that long?"
I'd probably enjoy it. "I suppose. But it's worth writing down anyway."
"What else have you got down?" Harry gestured to the neatly written notes underneath.
"Well, do you remember Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked, knowing the answer already.
"Of course, how could I not?" Harry replied, staring at an interesting part of the table.
Hermione grimaced. "Sorry. Anyway, he has been visiting Azkaban once every couple of weeks, but not with Narcissa, who visits every six months. He does go with her on her scheduled visits, but he's been going to see a selection of people as well."
"Wow, okay," Harry said, clenching his jaw. "Do you think he's behind it, then? You saw him at the end of the war, Hermione; I don't think he could do this."
"He's evil enough," Hermione muttered, recollecting her encounter with him. "The Malfoys are good actors, Harry. He could have seen the end of the war coming and pretended to –"
"No one's that clever, Hermione. You saw it yourself, he was being forced into it," Harry interrupted.
"Well, what has he been up to, then?" Hermione huffed.
"I don't know. Carry on with the rest, and we'll go through it all afterwards," Harry told her, grimacing as he shifted to a more comfortable position.
Long minutes dragged by as they read through the remaining entries. At the end of their task, they were exhausted, having read through over four hundred names, dates and reasons for visiting in the past couple of hours. As Harry sorted the parchment back into the folder, Hermione frowned at her notes.
"There isn't anything in here!" Hermione groaned. "Apart from Goyle's wife and Malfoy... nothing. I agree that Mary's situation isn't suspicious, but Malfoy's is. I definitely think we should take a closer look."
"Are you just saying that because of your meeting with him at the Ministry the other day?" Harry asked, smirking slightly. "You shouldn't let your judgment be affected by your emotions, Hermione."
"Harry, look at his records! He's visited a lot of well-known ex-Death Eaters in the past few months. Isn't that what we were looking out for?" Hermione exclaimed.
"Okay, fine, we'll look at the predicted escapee list and compare, okay?" Harry sighed.
"I wouldn't put it past him, organising a Death Eater rebellion," Hermione muttered darkly.
Harry stopped sorting the parchment and his eyes widened. "Oh."
"Oh? Oh, what? What's wrong?" Hermione asked quickly.
"I bumped into Malfoy the other day at the Ministry," he told her slowly.
"What was he doing here?" Hermione replied sharply.
"He said –"
"What?" Hermione interrupted. She stopped looking at her notes and twisted her head to meet Harry's gaze.
"I thought he was joking, but he said he was reviving the Death Eaters," Harry said with a groan. "You don't think…?"
"And you just let him walk around the Ministry?" Hermione yelped.
"Well, he said he wasn't being serious and that I was stupid for thinking so," Harry admitted.
"Harry!" Hermione moaned.
"We can't prove anything until we bring him in for questioning, Hermione. Let's sort that out, first."
"Fine, I'll get Kingsley –"
"Get Kingsley what?" a deep voice interrupted.
"Sir!" Hermione exclaimed. "We might actually have something here."
"Nothing definite, though," Harry added, frowning.
"Tell me everything you've found," Kingsley's calm voice echoed around the room.
Hermione and Harry spent the next few minutes telling the Minister for Magic about their findings and about Draco Malfoy's supposed involvement with the escape. After they had discussed all they had found, Kingsley frowned and spoke to Harry.
"Potter, you saw Malfoy at the end of the war. Do you think he'd be capable of this?"
"Honestly, no, unless he's a terrific actor," Harry answered truthfully.
"But he could be!" Hermione piped up.
"Yes, Miss Granger. But we cannot jump to conclusions. It may very well be that he never left the Dark. Or it could be that he is being framed or is completely innocent in this," Kingsley said.
"He could be doing the work of his father, I suppose," Harry offered, glancing between Hermione and Kingsley nervously.
"This is all just speculation. Potter, you and Miss Granger will find Mr. Malfoy and bring him in for questioning. I'll get the Veritaserum. Make sure you don't let anyone know, understood? This is between the team members for this mission, no one else. We will meet at the interrogation section in one hour. Bring Malfoy to the holding room, and wait for me there."
Hermione nodded once and gestured to Harry to follow her out of the room. As soon as the door was closed, she cleared her throat and looked at the floor.
"Harry, I don't think I should go and see Malfoy, I mean –"
"I understand, Hermione, I truly do, but according to Ginny, you went to his offices the other day. If we're going to Apparate there, I need you to take me."
"Can't you Floo in?" Hermione pleaded.
"Think about it, Hermione," Harry replied exasperatedly. "Is he really going to let me into his fireplace?"
"Fine," Hermione huffed, "I'll take you in, but I'm standing behind you. And I refuse to talk to him."
"Deal. Are we going now?"
"Well, we only have an hour, and I doubt that Malfoy will come quickly. He'll want answers first," Hermione sighed, not looking forward to the next few hours at all. She knew she'd have to witness the interrogation if not question him herself. She couldn't think of anything worse.
Harry took her arm, nodding at her and grimacing slightly. After counting down from three, she Apparated to a spot a few metres from Muggle to Magic. She stood, frozen, staring at the building that loomed before them. Harry didn't let go of her arm.
"Is it in here?" Harry asked, pointing at the large black door with his free hand.
"Yes. When I came for the interview, I just walked in, but I doubt that will be the case now," Hermione said breathlessly, her head spinning from the Apparition and the oncoming panic attack she could feel starting from her chest.
Harry squeezed her arm. "I'll sort it out. You stay behind me, just in case."
Hermione nodded curtly, watching Harry as he left her behind and studied the door.
"There's a doorbell here," he said. "That's probably for the Muggles. He's had meetings with them in here before."
Hermione didn't say anything, secretly surprised.
"I'll tap it with my wand, see if anything happens. If not, I'll try Alohomora."
Hermione nodded again, trying to regulate her breathing and steady her pounding heart. Why was she so afraid? She was with Harry. Malfoy couldn't harm her if she was with Harry.
Oh, but he could. He could harm her; harm her with words. She recalled their previous conversation. Mudblood. That's what he made her feel like. Dirty. Not worthy of being Magic.
"Hermione?" Harry called worriedly. She looked up and realised Harry had the door open and was halfway into the building.
"Sorry, I was… daydreaming," Hermione said, shaking her head in attempt to rid the panic-inducing thoughts from her head. It didn't work. "How did you open it?"
"Well, I tapped my wand on the doorbell, but I just got a 'buzz off,' so I Alohomora'ed it."
"Brilliant. I'll be right behind you, just follow the corridor until you reach the receptionist," Hermione informed him, gesturing into the offices.
"Right, well, let's go, wands out."
Hermione complied and followed Harry into the building, nervously clenching and unclenching her fists. They stealthily walked into the open space that Hermione had waited in before her interview, wands raised. Harry stopped, relaxing his stance and letting his wand drop to his side.
"There's no one here," he said disappointedly.
"Draco's probably in his office with the assistant," Hermione told him anxiously. "Do you remember Emma Dobbs from Hogwarts?"
"Yeah, yeah," Harry replied distractedly. "Is this his office here?"
Hermione gulped and nodded.
"I'll knock, okay?"
"Okay."
Harry gripped his wand tighter and slowly walked to the office door, Hermione following closely behind. He raised his hand, breathed deeply and rapped on the door twice.
A few moments later, the door swung open, and an agitated Draco Malfoy appeared. "What do you want Kev – oh." He stopped, glancing anxiously from Harry to Hermione, frowning slightly at the sight of the latter.
"Hello, Malfoy. We're going to have to ask you to come with us to the Ministry."