Chapter 2: Leader of the pack
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"Ms. Granger," her newly appointed secretary popped her head in the door. She was a sweet girl with a french accent, a year or two older than Hermione, who had attended Beauxbatons, "They are requesting your attendance on level 10. Mr. Goyle is ready to talk, it seems."
"Oh!" Hermione jumped up, shocked that one of the Death Eaters was willing to say anything, "Thank you Chantel, send an interoffice memo that I'm on my way." She grabbed a stack of papers on her desk and placed them neatly into her briefcase. She flicked her wand and the briefcase snapped shut and followed her as she turned and walked briskly out the door.
She walked into the room on level 10 where Marcus Goyle sat at a large table, restraints keeping his hands attached to his chair.
"Hello, Mr. Goyle," she said in a professional tone, "I hear you have something you're ready to tell us." She shut the door and sat down across the table.
"You must be the Mudblood my son told me about, Detective Granger," his voice was raspy and the look he gave her sent shivers up her spine.
Without flinching, she stood back up, "If you don't intend to show me respect, I'll call the Aurors in to march you back to Azkaban." She walked towards the door, turning the knob.
"Wait, wait," Goyle conceded, "I'll play nice. I'd like to get myself out of here if I can."
She took her hand off the door, heading back to her chair and reseated herself across from him, not speaking.
"I have information I'll trade for my freedom."
"You've been arrested for conspiracy to commit terror," she said sternly, "There is no information you can provide that would let you go free. What I'll trade you, if your information is worthy, is exemption from the Dementors Kiss. As of now, you'll be receiving your kiss within the year."
Goyle gritted his teeth, eyes narrowed at the witch in front of him.
"Shall I call the Aurors back?" she asked.
"No," he growled, recomposing himself, "I'll trade my information to avoid the Dementors Kiss."
"Go on then," Hermione said, taking out parchment and quill.
"I can give you the name of the leader; the one who's trying to bring the Death Eaters back. He won't give up just because five of us have been captured."
Hermione looked at him seriously, this could be a huge lead. If he was telling her the truth, they could take down the organizer, "That would be enough to solidify our deal, assuming your accusations prove true."
Goyle sneered at her, "We'll all be in Azkaban anyway, I'd prefer to be the one who still has a soul," he paused, possibly for dramatic effect, "Draco Malfoy organized the assembly to bring the Death Eaters back together. He wants to restore dark forces to power and he has a plan to do it."
Hermione felt mildly shocked. Not that she'd ever thought of Malfoy as a particularly good person, but she thought she had seen remorse in him, in the end. She'd caught a glimpse of him in the back at Fred's funeral. He'd attended some of the Death Eater trials. Harry had testified at his trial in defense of him and his mother. He probably wouldn't be free if it wasn't for Harry.
"You seem surprised, Detective," Goyle said, "Which leads me to believe that you don't know Draco Malfoy at all."
She straightened up in her chair, looking him in the eyes, "I can't say that I do know him," she cleared her throat, "Alright, Mr. Goyle. Thank you for your information, we will begin our investigation and if Mr. Malfoy is convicted, you'll receive your exemption from the Dementors Kiss. As of now, the Kiss will be postponed until the end of our investigation and any potential future trials."
She stood up, walking out of the room. One of the Aurors was waiting outside, "You can take him back, he's provided the information he came to tell us. Put a postponement on his Kiss Status until further notice.
The Auror nodded, "Will do, thanks Detective."
She walked down the hall, the door to the listening room opening for her boss to walk with her back to the office.
"You seem surprised to hear the Malfoy name," he noted.
"I have to admit, I was surprised. I really thought he had turned over a new leaf after the battle, but I can't say I've heard anything of him since his trial."
"Try to go in unbiased. There's an accusation that he's the ring leader to a new era of Death Eaters so this is going to be a sensitive subject to a lot of people once word gets out that he's been brought in."
"Of course I will," she nodded, "It'll be a thorough investigation."
"I have no doubt, Granger." They split ways to their respective offices, Hermione shutting her door so she could think, undisturbed.
She sat at her desk, fingers peaked and chin resting on top. She had a gut feeling that Goyle was lying. But if he wasn't… if Malfoy was behind the resurgence of the Death Eaters… she had to be completely open and unbiased.
She picked up a rubber duckie out of the bin next to her desk, squeezing it and talking into the bill, "Please send three Aurors to the Malfoy residence and bring Draco Malfoy in for questioning. No force should be needed. Thank you!"
She let the duck expand again and it squeaked dully. She tapped the tale saying clearly, "Auror Office, Level 2."
The wings on the rubber duckie sprang to life and it took flight as she opened the door for it. It was an ingenious idea from Arthur Weasley, who wanted to incorporate something like phones to the Ministry of Magic; something a little more personal than the inter office memos that had a one-time use perk. As lovely as the idea had been however, the concept of using rubber duckies as the bearer was still quite ludicrous. When the Aurors office received the rubber duckie, they would simply resqueeze it to listen to the message, which would not be able to be replayed. Squeeze and release to record, squeeze to replay.
She shut the door again, returning to her desk to get back to her paperwork. It was a long and tedious day of filling out forms for the conviction of the last two Death Eaters they'd brought it, but it was all in the name of justice. As she filed away the last form, a knock came at her door.
"Come in!" She called, pushing the drawer back in.
The door opened and one of the Aurors walked in, a grin plastered on his face and Malfoy with shackles on his wrist at his side.
Hermione furrowed her brows, "Did he put up a fight?" She asked.
"Nope," he responded, "Just thought it would be best to be cautious." He sat Malfoy in the chair across from Hermione, "I'll be right outside the door."
"Thank you," she said, uncomfortable, but ready to hear his side of the story.
The door closed and Hermione walked back around the table, taking her seat and straightening her robes, "Good afternoon, Mr. Malfoy."
"Granger," he nodded, his eyes were dark and he sat unnecessarily proper in his chair, hands in front of him.
"Seems silly to keep you in shackles when we're just here to talk," she said offhandedly, pointing her wand at his restraints and removing them, "I am sorry about that."
"I've had worse done to me," Draco shrugged, his face expressionless, "They'll take any reason to put an ex-Death Eater back in shackles."
It seemed like a self-deprecating statement, again hinting at remorse to Hermione, but they hadn't even gotten to why he was there yet.
"Look, Mr. Malfoy," she started.
"You don't have to be so formal," he cut in, "We went to school together."
She took a deep breath, "I understand, I'm just trying to be professional about this."
"You can cut the niceties," his voice was cold and she was reminded of their schoolhood rivalry. Maybe he was still that heartless person that had called her names. Maybe the remorse had been an act to avoid Azkaban.
"Alright," her tone became brash, more like his, "Malfoy, you've been brought in under the accusation that the latest bout of reignited Death Eater activity was at your leadership. I am the lead detective on the case and if you're tried and found guilty of this accusation, it will come with a conviction of conspiracy to commit terror and a lifetime in Azkaban. The Dementors Kiss would be administered within a year of conviction."
The room was silent as Draco took in what she was saying, "Well this is turning out to be a hell of a day," he sat back, letting out a long breath before he looked up, locking his eyes with hers, he couldn't say he was totally blindsided by this, "I'm not guilty and I'm likely being framed. I walked away from that life the night of the Battle of Hogwarts." His voice didn't waiver and nor did his gaze.
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A/N: Hello hello! I hope you enjoy the concept of my new story, much different than the timeline I usually write but this idea came to my head and I have to be honest, I'm excited about it :) If anyone is new to my stories, please check out Prisoner which I finished literally yesterday after months of editing and writing and am incredibly proud of! I also have another completed story called Through Her which I admittedly wrote about 10 years ago. I'm in a separate process of doing a full re-write of that, but that's on hold for now! Anyway, thanks for reading, please feel free to leave a review!