March 21, 2015

Harry looked through the list of people who had threatened the Malfoys over the years. Draco and Tori had turned over the list of people they could remember coming up to them in the past while they were shopping or doing other things in places like Diagon Alley or the Leaky Cauldron. Tori had a separate list of people who had bugged her at times about being married to Draco. When Draco heard that his face had turned to stone when he heard this. Tori hadn't told him about most of them. The lists were the only thing they had ended up getting out of the search of the Malfoy home. No cursed objects had been found anywhere on the property and they still had no clue how the Viperous Valerian had gotten there. It wasn't growing in the gardens of any of the nearby houses.

Ron sat on the other side of the desk, looking for an illegal source for the Viperous Valerian. None of the usual suspects would admit to supplying it. Ron rubbed his hands over his eyes. "I'm starting to think this is hopeless, Harry. No one outside of Germany has even seen this stupid plant for years."

"What did Neville say when you asked him where Hogwarts got it?"

"Apparently, Professor Sprout had an old friend who got it for her, but it got some fungus that she wasn't able to eradicate, so they haven't had it there since before Neville took over her post."

"Who was this old friend?" Harry rubbed his temples. He felt like he and Ron were chasing their tails around and around. The list of people who wanted to see Draco and the elder Malfoys dead was daunting. Anyone who had fought on the side of the Order had reason enough to hate the Malfoys, but so far as he could tell, none had reason to hate Tori and Scorpius.

"He's dead. He died that year we were running around after Horcruxes and his wife didn't carry on his garden. So, that's literally a dead end." Ron stood up and stretched. "I'm hungry. I'm going to the canteen. If I don't get something to eat I'm just going to go mad. Besides, I think better when I'm not starving." He felt in his pockets to figure out how much money he had. "Want anything? I'll even buy."

"Yeah, just get me a sandwich and some chips. I want to go over these lists again and see if I can find anything at all."

Ron shook his head as he started for the office door. "Harry, none of the names match. No one on either list would have access to both exotic plants and Muggles to do dirty deeds for them."

Harry rubbed his temples again. Maybe it was time for him to get his eyes checked. He wasn't getting any younger and the strain from reading so many reports couldn't be good for his eyes. "Ron, grab some headache potion from the pharmacy on the way back, will you?"

"I thought you had some of Audrey's on hand."

"I used it up yesterday and forgot to owl her for more. Ginny has some at home but I forgot to bring some in." He grinned through the pain. "I think we're getting old, Ron. My eyes don't want to read tons of papers anymore."

Ron hmphed. "You may be getting old, mate, but I'm not."

"Yeah, says the man starting to get a spare tire around his middle." Ron sucked the slight paunch in and aimed a glare at Harry as he was leaving the room. "Maybe you should get a salad, Ron!" Harry chuckled as he called out the suggestion to his best friend. He picked up the paper in front of him and started reading again. The answer had to be somewhere in this pile of reports and documents.

#####

In an old, unused office in the same building, three people were meeting secretly at the same time Harry was twitting Ron about gaining weight.

"So, the mugging didn't work. How the hell do these Muggles get so lucky? The only one we've gotten rid of was that fat walrus."

"How are the Malfoys just as lucky? The wife and the boy should be dead by now."

"We'll just have to think of something guaranteed to do them all in. It's a gross injustice that they think they have the right to live after what they've done."

The three conspirators were silent for a minute as they tried to come up with new plans to do in the Dursleys and Malfoys. "We have to make sure that no matter what we do, it still can't be tracked back to us. I refuse to go to Azkaban for righting old wrongs."

"Agreed. Malfoy never should have been allowed to breed another generation. And that Dursley fellow, well, I almost wish I could take care of him and his brat myself."

"So, what is our next move, then?"

"It must look accidental." The person who had brought the other two in paused. "We've been missing prime opportunities."

The co-conspirators looked at each other, confused. "How do you mean?" asked the first person recruited.

"School is the perfect place for an accident. As is a busy construction site."

The conspirators all smiled at each other in understanding. "Children are so accident-prone," remarked the second recruit.

The leader nodded, "And it is so easy for a simple hammer to fall from a great height at just the right time."

"Perfect. Except, we might have to be nearby."

The leader chuckled. "Of course we don't. We have 'friends' that would be quite happy to do our dirty work for us, don't we?"

The second recruit chuckled in response. "I think I can convince a few of the Malfoy enemies to do what we ask them to. My only question is, do we allow them to be caught?"

"It would throw the Aurors off our track if we did," the first recruit replied. "You're sure they're looking into the matter?"

The second recruit merely nodded while the leader snarled, "Damn that Potter brat. Thinks he's so perfect." The leader took a deep breath, erasing any sign of anger, and nodded at the recruits. "We can sacrifice one, if you truly think you can erase any knowledge of yourself from whomever you choose to fulfill the mission."

"Oh, I can do that, alright. I had Obliviator training before my current post, you know."

The first recruit smiled. "I know just who you can use for the sabotage. His usefulness must come to an end, after all, and his record will definitely stand against him."

"Well, to quote the Bard, 'If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.' I want them all dead by the end of the summer."

So, there is a plot afoot...