Chapter 29: All bets are off

For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1. Apologies for the delay - mostly due to work and travel (if I could find a way to write during meetings this fic would have been done by now!) Also, for the record, I'm not very happy with this chapter so if you feel let down, join the club!

1988-08-02 11:00 UTC, Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy came to in his bedroom, with a woozy feeling in his head - one that nevertheless did nothing to take away from the strong sense of foreboding he could also feel.

He looked around, and saw his wife next to him, pretty much in the same shape. "Weren't we in the dining room just now?", she asked groggily.

Lucius nodded, and was about to say something when both were hit by a petrifying curse. Anger at this new insult vied with the confusion both were already feeling, and somehow both knew some point of no return had been reached. Narcissa, usually the calmer of the two, was able to internally relax faster, though because of the curse one could not tell anyway.

The Phantom walked into their field of view, and with slow, deliberate (and quite unnecessary, though the Malfoys were not to know that) movements of his wand he freed them above their shoulders so they could speak.

"Yes, yes, you were in your dining room earlier, but I would not call that 'just now'. That was over two months ago", said the Phantom.

Lucius was apoplectic. Narcissa thought he would have a stroke, such was his anger and the redness of his face. What with the rest of his body being petrified, the effect was much more pronounced than one might imagine.

"How DARE you?", he shouted. "Even Bones would not allow that kind of thing to happen to someone, when she hears of it, she will order you arrested immediately".

The Phantom looked at him calmly, waiting for him to simmer down. Finally, he turned to Narcissa. "Any similarly pointless, useless, meaningless, rants from you?"

"No. But really, isn't that a bit too much to take out of our lives, and without even telling us why?"

The Phantom pretended to think it over. In reality, the answer was begging to be thrown in their face. "I have as much respect for you, your time, and whatever else you value, as your husband has for the muggle children and adults he used to kidnap before I stopped you lot. Come to think of it, about as much value for your life too, though I will probably torture you only mentally, not physically."

Narcissa caught on immediately. "Where is my son?"

"Well, he's not being raped by a muggle, if that's what you're worried about. I've actually got him in stasis, just like you two were for the last few weeks, and have not woken him up yet. I'm actually torn between leaving him that way, and waking him up and making him listen to both of you confess your many sins, but there are two problems with that".

Despite being in the state she was, Narcissa imperiously raised an eyebrow. Wow, nasty bitch, but what class!, thought Hobby.

"The first problem is that he might not think of your actions as bad, which means you have already succeeded in converting him into a death-eater wannabe", said the Phantom. "The second problem is that regardless of what happens, it would become necessary to have him watch me hand out your punishments, and I cannot have that."

"What are you going to do to him then?"

"No idea. What do you recommend, knowing that it has to be something that will absolutely ensure he will never turn out like you or your husband?"

Narcissa thought for a long moment. If she were honest with herself, she had started to sense her last days were here, one way or another. She intended to go with dignity, never realising that her husband had never allowed even a fraction of such dignity to accompany the many muggles he had murdered over the past few years.

"I would like him to be raised by my sister Andy".

"And why should your sister take in a wannabe death-eater who will no doubt call her husband a mudblood and her a blood-traitor or whatever?"

"You will need to obliviate him completely of all knowledge of us, all our friends, and all their children", said Narcissa.

"What are you saying, Cissy", shouted Lucius. "Why should he-"

"Be quiet, Lucius. This is the only way Draco will survive, don't you see", she said quietly.

There was a knock at the front door, and the Phantom moved off to answer the door, turning into Hobby once outside their field of view. Taking the opportunity, Narcissa hissed at her husband. "Someone is coming, and it can only be one of our friends. Your voice is louder than mine, so as soon as you hear the door open, start shouting for help. Hopefully at least one of them is able to get away from this Phantom and raise the alarm on our behalf."

Lucius nodded.

Meanwhile, Hobby opened the door to see Avery and Mulciber waiting at the doorstep. Couldn't have done better if I'd planned it myself, he thought gleefully.

Quietly he raised wards to prevent these two escaping. All he needed now was Nott, to complete the picture.

"Yes, what do you want?", asked Dobby - for that is what he was, to these two men. Behind him he could hear Lucius screaming something, but it was a little muffled because the master bedroom was a tad too far away, and also there were several closed doors in between.

They were taken aback, both by the unusual screaming sounds (very unseemly in a proper pureblood house to have people make such noises, except in a properly silenced dungeon of course!), but even more by the behaviour of the elf.

"Punish yourself, you little elf-bastard", sneered Avery.

Hobby shrugged, which made the two men even madder. "I don't feel like it. I say again, what do you want? The master and mistress of the house are not available to entertain visitors right now, but I can take a message".

Mulciber drew his wand in order to curse this unusually self-possessed elf - some wizards do not take unusual situations well at all.

Hobby summoned his wand, then for good measure summoned Avery's wand also, and with a wave of his hand locked the front door behind them so they could not escape. He then walked into the small receiving room, just off to the left as you enter. The two men rushed in behind him, but he was not to be seen.

A cold voice behind them made them turn around. "Look what the cat dragged in", said the Phantom jovially. Sadly, the two death eaters could not share in the joy; they had no illusions about being able to face him, even together, even if both of them had their wands.

"How did you get in here", said Avery, a lot more bravely than he felt.

The Phantom shrugged. "I have friends in low places", he said. Then he petrified both of them and propelled them into the drawing room, sitting them down in one of the end tables. He then went back to the bedroom in which Lucius and Narcissa were waiting.

"As you rightly guessed, Narcissa, today is pretty much your last day on earth. Or at least your last day of having some sort of free thought in your minds. Enjoy the rest of your life in Azkaban".

With that cryptic comment, he dosed them both with the liquid imperius.

He put a silencing spell around Narcissa, and gave Lucius his instructions. "You, Lucius, will imperius Narcissa into killing Avery, who is currently waiting in the drawing room. At the same time, you will kill Mulciber, who is waiting with him".

He then took off the spell around Narcissa, put one around Lucius, and gave Narcissa almost identical instructions, except with Avery and Mulciber switched.


Nott was sitting in his dining room, having just finished a somewhat late breakfast, and was contemplating what he should do. Life was a bit boring now, under the thumb of the bloody Phantom, but for the past couple of months it was even worse - his friends the Malfoys appeared to have disappeared without a word, and only the assurance of his house-elf that they were fine and were in contact with him regularly, gave him any comfort.

While he was thinking about Lucius, the same elf - called Dobby, if he remembered correctly - popped in and bowed low. "My master begs your company for an urgent meeting right away Sir", he said politely, then popped off before Nott could respond. He knew Nott would be curious enough to follow.


Nott flooed into the Malfoy residence a few minutes after. Dusting off the soot from his clothes, he was surprised to find no one in the receiving room - unusual for a pureblood home. But he knew his way around, so he followed the sounds of voices to the drawing room.

Just as he walked in, he heard Lucius shout out the killing curse and kill a wide-eyed, petrified, Mulciber. Simultaneously, Narcissa killed an equally shocked and scared Avery.

Then they both turned their wand on him. He knew he would never get the drop on both of them, but he'd be damned if he went out without a fight. Only the extreme shock at this completely uncharacteristic behaviour had slowed him down a little. He quickly fired off an exploding hex at Narcissa - as the perceived weaker of the two (if only he knew!), and turned his wand towards Lucius, as quickly firing off another toward him.

Lucius returned fire, though, like his two spells missed them, Lucius's spell missed him by a hair. He attempted to return fire, but was caught by a stunner from Narcissa.


1988-08-02 19:00 UTC, DMLE office

Nott had come to in a dark corner of Knockturn Alley. He had no idea how or when he had come to be there, but he believed that both Lucius and Narcissa had wanted something from him before they would have killed him, and he had somehow escaped. He had no real clear idea how, and only vague recollections of a short and quick battle between himself and the powerful couple.

His statement was unusual enough to make anyone wonder at his sanity though. According to him, the Malfoy's elf had conveyed his master's request to visit him at his manor, and when he acquiesced, he found himself walking into two clean kills, his host and hostess having just disposed of two of their oldest friends - Avery and Mulciber.

Kingsley had gone home more than an hour or two before, but the desk sergeant on duty did not feel anyone less than him could do justice to the seriousness of this matter. Thus a relaxed, mellow, Kingsley was called back to the Ministry, and found himself listening to the same surprising, or rather shocking, tale.


1988-08-03 08:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Wizengamot meeting room

It had been a good couple of years since the Wizengamot had seen this kind of excitement - many could recall the days of early 1986 when there seemed to be one court case after another. Other than the Potter kidnapping, nothing much had happened after that.

This time there were two accused on the floor. Arresting them had gone a lot better than Kingsley had hoped. He had gone in "mob-handed" as they say, and, no doubt due to the shock of seeing so many aurors (or any at all, since they had probably not realised Nott had escaped their dungeon), their resistance had been careless, not a single spell hitting him or his men.

(No one would realise that, other than the two killing curses, none of the other curses sent by any of these three - the Malfoys and Nott - had connected with their intended target. And of course by that time in the evening, the liquid imperius had not only completely vanished from their bodies, Hobby had also obliviated them of the whole business of the past two months, and the Phantom's involvement!)

The Malfoys had a lawyer, one Asmodius Lafitte. But he was a pretty ineffectual one - mainly retained to fill in the paper work, go around filing things, etc., rather than actually having a say in how any court cases they were involved in were to be conducted. Lucius Malfoy would generally conduct his own affairs, and would not countenance any interference or advice even from his own lawyer. This would prove to be their undoing here, because they were now effectively without a lawyer.

They were both put on the stand simultaneously, though questioning was sequential. Minister Bones indicated that Narcissa should go first.

Three drops of veritaserum were dropped on her tongue, and it was made sure that she swallowed.

"What is your name?" asked Kingsley.

"Narcissa Cassiopeia Malfoy".

"Why did you kill Lord Avery?"

"I was imperiused".

Here we go again, thought Amelia. "Do they still expect that excuse to wash, now that Fudge is gone?", she asked the court rhetorically. But then, Narcissa was under veritaserum, so clearly this was different from the old days, when they had claimed the same but also vigorously resisted the potion.

"Do you know who imperiused you?"

"Yes".

"Who?"

"Lucius Abraxus Malfoy".

This was a truly shocking development. No one had realised Lucius had regressed that badly. Sirius Black managed to put upon his face the same kind of shocked expression that he saw on his peers around the room, and if there was a trace of a little glee that someone later asked him about, he would say it was because he truly hated Lucius and was happy to see him implicated under the truth potion.

Kingsley waited patiently for the hubbub to die down.

"Why would your husband order you to kill one of his oldest friends?"

"I do not know".

At this point Kingsley turned to the bench. "Madam Chief Witch, I would like to start questioning Lord Malfoy also, to better get an idea of what is going on".

"Please proceed", said Augusta Longbottom.

Kingsley followed the same steps with Lucius Malfoy. After the preliminary questions, Kingsley asked one of the two important questions for him. "Why did you kill your old friend Mulciber?"

"I was under the imperius".

"Who imperiused you?", asked Kingsley. He, as well as Madam Bones and a few others in court, had a sinking feeling they knew where this was going.

"Narcissa Cassiopeia Malfoy".

That brought down the house.


It took a good ten minutes and multiple cannon-blast charms before order was restored.

"Minister Bones", said the Chief Witch, "please request the services of specialists on the imperius from both St Mungo's as well as from the Department of Mysteries. We will meet back in one hour and thirty minutes", she banged her gavel.


1988-08-03 10:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Wizengamot meeting room

When court resumed, the Chief Witch addressed the three specialists - two healers and one unspeakable.

"Healer Ustinov and Healer Dali, I understand you both specialise in the imperius curse, its effects, its treatment, and so on. Is that correct?"

"Yes Madam Chief Witch", said Henden Ustinov, while his colleague nodded.

She then turned to the unspeakable. Of course, these people never provided names. "And you, Unspeakable 'Gray', you also have made a special study of this curse?"

"Yes Madam Chief Witch", said an unexpectedly pleasant voice.

"Can we ask what prompted your research, and if any of the results can be shared, at a high level of course?"

"We started this research when so many fine, upstanding, citizens suffered under it during the last war", said the man. Very few in the court missed the obvious sarcasm in his tone. He waited for Madam Longbottom to smile briefly. "Our results, of course, showed that most of the people who claimed it were not actually under it."

"How did you determine that?"

"I am sorry I cannot say".

Minister Bones turned to the court clerk, upon a nod from Madam Longbottom. "Please re-read from the court record for the benefit of our three consultants", she said.

When the court clerk had finished, the three experts went into a huddle for a good fifteen minutes. It appeared the healers knew the unspeakable (there must be a story there, thought Madam Bones), because their discussion looked very much like that of old friends.

Eventually they came to a decision, and approached the bench.

"Have you come to a conclusion?", asked Madam Longbottom.

"Yes Madam Chief Witch", said the unspeakable. "All three of us are agreed that two people cannot cross-imperius each other. It would not work."

"What precisely does that mean? Can you give us some more details, say step-by-step?", asked Minister Bones.

"Specifically, the second one would be impossible to cast as long as the first one was active".

"And yet", said Madam Longbottom, "the truth serum says they did both cast on each other. Have we then reached the boundaries of our knowledge of how this works?"

The three experts looked at each other again. The youngest (but not by much), Myra Dali, said something, and the other two sat back, considering it. Slowly, they nodded.

Again, the unspeakable spoke. "There is one possible way, we think, though we may have to carry out some experiments to confirm. That would be if both cast simultaneously, in a planned and precisely timed manner, at each other".

"I see. That would mean pre-meditation, would it not?"

"Indeed. The two spells have to hit at precisely the same time - so close that it is impossible without practicing to get the timing right, because if there's even a few milliseconds difference, the curse that was cast first would be the only one effectively in place. They'd have to get the difference down to less than a third of a person's reaction time - say two milliseconds".

"Which definitely meant they had planned it, though what they hoped to achieve was not clear", said Minister Bones.

Myra Dali spoke up. "Maybe they were trying to use their old 'I was under the imperius' excuse, but in a way that would hold up under truth serum?"

Minister Bones had an eager look about her. "Well if that is what they were hoping, that is what we shall provide", she said. "I've been waiting years to get Lord Malfoy under veritaserum, so it's time we asked some really important questions".

The lawyer appeared to wake up. "Objection, Madam Chief Witch!", he said grandiosely. "Questions must be limited to what happened yesterday".

"Objection overruled; the law does not require any such limitations to be placed, especially when it is not at all clear what the motivations were for what happened yesterday. As well, the events of yesterday bear a distrubing similarity to what used to happen during the worst days of the war so this line of questioning is definitely relevant", said Madam Longbottom.

Subsequent questioning sealed the fate of Lucius Malfoy. No doubt it was a "fishing expedition" by Madam Bones, and it did not really answer any questions about what had happened yesterday, but a lot of information did come out. Just the number of wizarding folk he had had murdered over the years was staggering, and even without going into his muggle-baiting, there were calls to have him thrown into the veil or have him kissed. They finally ruled that he should be thrown into the veil, and that order was carried out that very evening.

However, nothing similar could be found for Narcissa. Questioning turned out to be very tricky, because her involvement appeared to have been much more circumspect, with a lot more leeway for creatively interpreting and answering questions. Veritaserum questioning had to be rather precise, and worked best when you already knew what to ask - speculative questioning would lead nowhere.

As a result, she was sentenced to a mere three years in Azkaban, because it was deemed that her husband and lord had coerced her into this crazy course of action, since she had never killed anyone before.

Draco was put in an orphanage because no one wanted him. Informally, Sirius did his duty and asked Andromeda, but she had no wish to take on the spawn of her hated brother-in-law. In any case, it would only be for three years, then his mother would be out.

The Malfoy wealth was claimed back by Sirius under some marriage contract related law. This was not helped by the fact that Lucius was an only child, and so were both his parents, so there literally were no other claimants. Sirius left Draco and Narcissa a decent but not generous allowance that would see him through Hogwarts, but not much more than that. Less if they indulged, but that would be their problem. He also had other plans for when she got out.