Severus had been right.
She was a spitting image of Ginny.
Lucius stood in the dark corner of Diagon Alley, looking at the youngest Weasley girl.
She had a huge smile on her dirt-smudged face.
She was following her blood traitor family members like a puppy.
Lucius couldn't believe it. Was this the reason Ginny left him? Because she had been pregnant with his child and was afraid of what her potentially being a Weasley would do to her child? Did she truly think of him like that?
The thought of his potential daughter being raised without him knowing about it, and by people like the Weasleys nonetheless, made his blood boil.
As Lucius stared at the young girl, the book vibrated in his hands.
Remember the promise I made you, Lucius? Remember how I told you I would find her for you. Go on, put my diary in her cauldron. I can talk to her and figure out what happened to your love. I can get the information you need to bond with your daughter.
Lucius paused only for a second before making the decision to put the diary in her cauldron. He hoped that the book would be able to give him the answers that he needed to finally find the elusive Ginny that had hunted his dreams despite him trying to let her go.
He was desperate for answers. And if this was the only he could get them, then so be it.
~~L~~
"How is she?" Lucius asked, staring out into the Malfoy gardens, which held so many memories for him.
"Stable. She is going through the evaluation right now. I'm surprised she isn't mad," Snape said.
Lucius closed his eyes to fight the feelings of guilt that threatened to consume him.
He hadn't realized how powerful and dark the book had been.
He had been so consumed with trying to get answers that he hadn't paid attention to the obvious signs of soul sucking darkness the diary had held.
"Did you get the paternity test done?"
"It was difficult, but I managed to get a string of her hair while she was recovering in the hospital wing."
Lucius finally turned to face Snape, who stood staring neutrally at him
Even though Lucius looked calm and composed, he knew Snape understood the inner turmoil he was going through.
Snape was truly the only person who understood how deep his love was for Ginny. He saw Lucius deny and finally fall down the deep spiral of love that still held him captive, even more than fifteen years later.
"And?" Lucius asked, raising an eyebrow and showing no emotion.
"She's not yours."
Lucius felt as if he had been punched. It was obvious this young Ginevra Weasley was the offspring of Virgina. So that meant that the child was someone else's. The thought of Ginny lying in someone else's arms caused him more pain than he had ever felt before in his life.
Lucius was about to dismiss Snape for privacy when Snape stopped him.
"I took the liberty of testing her DNA with Molly and Arthur Weasley after your test came up negative. She is their child."
The sudden betrayal that Lucius felt disappeared and was replaced with frustration.
After all of these years, all of these opportunities, and finally getting a break with the youngest Weasley, he felt as if he ran into a brick wall.
"And so it seems we are back to where we started," Lucius said, years ago learning to retain his composure when he was upset.
"Yes, it seems so. I will continue to keep an eye on her. Despite the setback, I think she is the key to figuring out what happened to Virginia," Snape said.
Lucius simply nodded.
Without saying goodbye, Snape left Lucius' office through the floo.
Lucius sunk down into his office chair and downed the rest of the alcohol in his glass. He had promised to let her go, but like a curse, she continued to hunt him.
~~L~~
Lucius stared at her as she snuck into the Department of Mysteries.
An eerie feeling of familiarity consumed Lucius.
This entire situation was getting stranger and stranger for Lucius. Something in his heart told him that Ginny Weasley had a connection to Virginia. But it all simply didn't add up.
Lucius heard some noises behind him and quickly disappeared into the documents room of the department to avoid being seen. At this point in the war, everyone was his enemy except for a small select few.
Lucius would do everything he could to keep himself out of harm's way while the light and dark battled it out.
This entire plot was stupid anyway. As powerful as the Dark Lord was, he was terrible at killing Harry Potter. And this elaborate plan to lure Potter away from Hogwarts for a skirmish where he wasn't even going to kill the boy made Lucius believe that Lord Voldemort was no longer looking at the war strategically, but egotistically.
Ginny had been right when she told him not to join.
Lucius murmured a soft lumos spell to light up the room.
The room was extremely spacious filled with what seemed to be hundreds of filing cabinets.
An idea quickly took root in Lucius' head. He knew that this would be his only chance to get the answers he desperately needed. And the Department of Mysteries was the only place where he could, if anything, find closure.
"Virginia Dumbledore," he called, flicking his wand to summon the file.
Nothing happened.
"Virginia Weasley!"
Again, nothing happened.
Lucius wondered if it had something to do with a complex spell the department had on the files.
"Lucius Malfoy," he called out.
The file came flying into his hand.
Lucius raised an eyebrow.
He wondered why it was so easy to acquire confidential files out of the most secretive department in the ministry.
Keeping that information locked away in the back of his mind, Lucius focused back on why he was there in the first place.
If his file came, that meant he wasn't using the right name.
So Lucius did the next best thing.
"Ginevra Weasley."
The file came flying into his hand.
Lucius stared at the surprisingly large file.
Lucius let his own rather large file drop to the floor. He knew what they had to say about him.
He opened Ginny's file and began to read.
Date of Birth: 11 August 1981
Mother: Molly Weasley
Father: Arthur Weasley
Height: 5'4
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Red
Build: Athletic
Lucius continued to skim until he got to the section he wanted.
History with Department of Mysteries
September 1992: Possessed by diary of Tom Riddle. For more information, see subnote #3
May 1994: Significant dark magical residue detected within magical signature. For more information, see subnote #4
June 1997: Time Travel 20 years into the past. See subnote #5 for more information.
Lucius felt his heart pounding in his ears. How did they already have information for two years into the future? And time travel? What did it all mean?
Lucius went to the note section of the file, his hands shaking
He fumbled with turning the pages of the paper a few times before he was finally able to get to the section he needed to get to.
June 1997:
Time Travel details, as told by Ginevra Weasley in June of 1997, two weeks after the final battle at Hogwarts:
Ginevra was fighting in the final battle when the time turner she had in her back pocket (which she obtained from the ground at her brother's wedding during an attack. She claims that it came from Hermione Granger, one of the few people in possession of a time turner) was broken during an altercation with Lucius Malfoy.
She doesn't remember time traveling specifically, but she does remember waking up in Malfoy Manor with Diane Malfoy. Once she realized that she was in a different time period, she pretended to have amnesia and got a hold of Albus Dumbledore immediately. Upon the arrival of Albus Dumbledore, both made the decision that she would not have as much of an impact on the time line if she stayed with the Malfoys.
The Malfoys, specifically Diane Malfoy according to Weasley, were more than happy to take her in. During her stay there, Ginny maintained her amnesia story in order to avoid talking about her past. She claimed that she said absolutely nothing about the future to anyone, except for Dumbledore, about the past.
According to Robert Smith who was at the time, working on time manipulation during this time period, and the man who also made sure Ginny Weasley went back to her time, further explained that Malfoy and Weasley were engaged when she went back ...
"Now you know."
Lucius dropped the file he held and quickly pointed his wand in the direction of the voice.
A man, with salt and pepper hair and plain features came from the shadows. He held up his hands but Lucius didn't drop his wand.
Lucius recognized him instantly.
"You were the one to send her away," Lucius said quietly.
"I was," he said simply.
So many emotions were going through Lucius at that point. Mostly, what he felt was shock.
Ginny Weasley was the key to all of this because Ginny Weasley had been the woman he fell hard for close to twenty years ago.
The man continued speaking after the silence stretched between them.
"I had to send her back. We had no choice. We had no idea what her disappearance would do to future if we let her stay in the past. We somehow found a way to manipulate time. It was messy but she did arrive in her time safe, unbruised, if not upset."
Waving his hand, Smith brought over two chairs, offering Lucius a seat.
"You can put your wand away. If I had wanted to kill you, I would have done it while you were reading the file."
Lucius inwardly cursed at his stupidity with being obsessed with reading the file. He didn't regret it, however. He finally had the answers he so desperately needed through the last twenty years.
Lucius put his wand away and sat down.
It seemed a little surreal, considering the explosions and screams that could be heard in the background. They were talking in the middle of a bloody battle.
Lucius sat down, staring at the man with a neutral expression on his face.
"There are many things that I know about you, Mister Malfoy. But one thing is for certain-you loved Ginny Weasley. I never anticipated that."
"What do you mean by that?" Lucius asked.
Smith leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, seemingly uncaring about the loud explosion that made the department documents room shake with force.
"We would have to be quite blind not to notice how attractive young Ginevra was. We would have to have been even more blind to not know that you wouldn't pursue a young, beautiful woman living in your home. Your many conquests of woman, regardless of blood status have been listed one by one in your file. We knew you had a healthy appetite for the opposite sex. You can imagine our shock when Miss Weasley told us, right before we sent her back, that she was engaged to you. It was even more of a shock to watch you, for eighteen years now, search for some trace of her."
Smith leaned forward once more.
"I could get fired for taking the spell off of these files so you could get a hold of them. I could get in even more trouble for letting you read the information in those files and letting you keep your memory."
Lucius clutched his wand again. He knew nothing about Robert Smith, despite how hard he worked to figure out who the man was. Nor did he know if Smith was the type of man who liked to play with his victims before erasing their memories.
Smith saw Lucius clutch his wand but didn't comment on it.
"I let you read those files, Lucius, because you deserved to know what happened to Ginevra Weasley. Your relationship plagued my mind for a long time-especially after realizing what the brightly colored ring on her finger represented. I always thought you were a cold hearted bastard. But when it came to Ginny Weasley-I never saw a man so deeply in love. I couldn't let myself miss the opportunity to let you see, once and for all, what happened, even if you did turn into a cold blooded arse.
Smith stood up and Lucius stood with him. If there was anything he hated, it was sitting while others stood.
"Now you know. Leave, before someone finds you and erases your memory for me. Or worse, before something happens to the woman you have been looking searching eighteen years for. "
Lucius' eyes suddenly grew wide at the realization of what Smith said. She was fighting with Death Eaters.
He left the room, forgetting about the files he had dropped on the floor and ran into the other room to make sure Ginny was okay.