Reunion Part 9
Life had been somewhat difficult after Hogwarts. He had married Matilda Wildwire, a witch two years his junior, but they had no children to carry on the Goyle name and he didn't have much of a life outside his job as bodyguard in Diagon Alley. That was Diagon Alley in general, his bad grades and volatile nature had prevented him getting the position at Gringott's bank he had applied for. The goblins didn't trust Slytherins much less those who were twice the size of regular humans, beings who already towered over the goblin bankers as it was.
The work was mundane, rarely was there much but the occasional disagreement over price on the streets of Diagon Alley, and the pay was only enough to keep he and Matilda a small house on the edge of the Alley. Matilda was a very disagreeable witch, whose magic exceeded his but whose skill was so haphazard that she really failed to do anything with it. She made a small living tailoring student Hogwarts robes in the Alley, but her supervisor thought it best to keep her in the back as she usually took a bitter attitude towards all the jovial and excited new students who came to buy their supplies.
Goyle's only friends were the ones he had known from school. He kept up with Crabbe and Malfoy, both self proclaimed bachelors, and often went out with them to the dark taverns located in Greysgate, the shady area of the wizarding community. All three of them liked their women and their beer, and had pretty much made little constructive use of their time since Hogwarts. Crabbe worked in a bar in Greysgate, yet another one had pretty much ignored his Hogwarts training. Malfoy was inconceivabley rich, and lived in a mansion in London, but whenever he had dark business to attend to, he knew Greysgate was the place to be. Malfoy didn't HAVE to work, but he was growing bored of not using the skills he knew he had to do something, so through some channels he managed to find out that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position was now open at Hogwarts and he wasn't about to let anyone else have it. He knew he could have a good deal of influence on the next generation of witches and wizards at Hogwarts and it was a chance he couldn't let pass him by. He was sick of all the goody goodies he saw running the Ministry and other important venues of wizarding society, there was more to life than the nauseating Potteresque world this had become. Damn that Potter! He gave wizards in general a bad name.
It was during one night at the Greysgate bar that it came to Goyle. Malfoy and Crabbe were there right on time, getting a table and already down on their 3rd beer. Goyle sauntered up, in a bit of a foul mood. "Reunion coming up," he frowned, ordering a beer that got thicker the longer you took to drink it.
"Of course, I expect it to be quite an interesting time too. I'll like mushing the egos of those goody Gryffindors again," Malfoy said, smirking.
"Yep, bunch of worthless Muggle loving filth," Crabbe agreed, chugging a 4th mug.
Goyle just sat there, looking more thoughtful than he was probably capable of.
"So what's running through that puny brain of yours?" Malfoy grinned. "Wife been nagging again?"
"Same," Goyle nodded. "What about you and Pansy?"
"The woman never stops eating. She'll make a good wife though, keep up the house, responsible for the servants, you know. Won't ask where I've gone. You know I'm really a bachelor at heart...a man can't just settle down with ONE woman."
"So what are the plans for Hogwarts?" Crabbe asked dazedly, as the effects of the alcohol started seeping into his brain.
"We'll see what presents itself once we get there," Malfoy grinned. "If we see some of our old "friends", such as Potter and his unsightly gang, I think we can come up with something...creative. And joining Hogwarts as a staff member should have it's rewards too...," he added.
"Sure. Place needs a dark wizard, someone who REMEMBERS Voldemort and his vision instead of the pathetic place it's turned into," Goyle sighed.
"Something's really working on you tonigh eh, Goyle," Malfoy laughed. "Usually you can't even say a full sentence."
Goyle just stared at him, looking like he was thinking. For Goyle, thinking and speaking at the same time was practically an impossible task.
Malfoy chuckled when he saw Goyle was going to remain silent. "Anyway, as much as that's true, I've got too much of a reputation to let myself fall into that category. I want to stir things up a bit but still be fairly harmless. We'll wait till the students come to do the real damage. I need to secure my job, let McGonagall see I am perfectly capable of teaching first, and THEN throw the important lessons their way." Malfoy finished his 4th beer and sat back, looking relaxed. "I have to get home, let's meet the day of the reunion, before the first meal. We can devise our plan after we assess the situation."
Crabbe burped loudly, swaying off his chair after the 7th beer. "Righ, I shwould get bacto swork," he slurred, getting up and groggily walking behind the bar, leaving Goyle at the table alone. After a few minutes he too got up and headed back to his little house with his annoying wife and no kids. And somehow, this didn't bother him.
* * *
"Hermione, we've been through all of these books a hundred times," Ron sighed exasperatedly. He looked over at the table next to him, where Hermione was busy looking through a stack of books that she had already looked through twice before. Then he looked across from him where Eloise stared at him blurry eyed and the twins had their heads down on the table, asleep.
"There HAS to be something..I refuse to give up!" Hermione insisted.
"I agree, there does have to be something but...don't kill me Hermione...it MAY not be in books. It may be somewhere else."
"Nonsense...everything has to come from written material originally, especially something of this nature." Hermione was refusing to give up on this.
"But...," Harry suggested, "Remember, if this person is out to get YOU, then they'd know how much you love books and would probably look for an alternative way to get you, something you couldn't discover through reading."
Hermione looked up and blinked at Harry. "Oh my God," she said, slamming her book shut, "you could actually be right Harry...amazingly."
"Uh..Thanks...I think," Harry said.
Ron sniggered under his breath despite himself.
"Well what do you suggest we do then?" Hermione demanded. "If not books then what?"
"How about Colin," Ginny suggested. "He was going to look into potions, maybe he found something..."
At that moment, McGonagall walked in, her face looking somewhat pale. "I thought I might find you all here. The preliminary tests have been completed on Pansy's body. They found something most disturbing."
Everyone stared at her, then at each other and back at McGonagall. "Come with me."
The group was very silent as they followed McGonagall back to an empty classroom. Malfoy was already there, waiting for them and looking fairly quiet. They all crowded in, sitting at the desks just like old times. McGonagall's face was very sour. "As you know, Miss Parkinson was fond of food."
No one said anything although the sarcasm was just tickling at the back of Ron's throat.
McGonagall continued. "The autopsy revealed that just prior to her death, Miss Parkinson had eaten a piece of Bulgarian cocoa cake. Upon inspection of the as yet undigested portion of the cake, it was found to be artificially fabricated, the substance on a microscopic level showed signs of Picalotty plant spores."
Neville gasped. "She must have been in my greenhouse!"
"Be that as it may, Mr. Longbottom, it is now our first lead. Someone could have tampered with the Picalotty plants to poison them..."
"Just what Mr. Nerd here would do too," Malfoy sneered.
"No, Mr. Malfoy, we are not making accusations of any sort until we find more answers. If indeed the plant was poisoned, it in no way means that Mr. Longbottom is responsible."
"Of course it doesn't," Hermione said, trying to hold her voice steady. "Neville is trying to protect me, and why would he..anyway...he TOOK me to the ball, he could have..er..attacked me in a more direct way if that's what he wanted."
Neville had just turned pale white and even though he tried to open his mouth to say something, nothing would come out.
"Well I'm going with it," Malfoy said, getting up angrily. "It's a lead and I wouldn't put it past that Longbottom to do something to Pansy, he's so bitter he can't get a REAL date."
With that Malfoy got up and stomped out of the room. McGonagall was left sighing. "Don't worry, this is only preliminary. We still have a lot of tests to run." The headmistress tried to sound a lot more confident than she felt. "At any rate, although we do trust you Neville, I'm afraid with these new developments it might be best that you remain in your chambers until the rest of this investigation is completed. I'm sure Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley would be more than happy to watch out for Miss Granger."
Neville just shook a bit, not believing what he was hearing...to think anyone would even CONSIDER him a suspect, it was disheartening.
McGonagall sighed. "The rest of you, perhaps you had better return to the Gryffindor common room, it is not safe. Once again the safest place for wizards has become an unsafe place." She gently nudged Neville in the direction of his room, and accompanied him there.
"Oh Neville couldn't possibly..." Ginny said worriedly.
"Of course not," Hermione agreed, although she now felt even more vulnerable than before.
"Well..we better get going...back upstairs," Harry suggested. He didn't tell anyone that the scar had begun to seer worse than ever.
Life had been somewhat difficult after Hogwarts. He had married Matilda Wildwire, a witch two years his junior, but they had no children to carry on the Goyle name and he didn't have much of a life outside his job as bodyguard in Diagon Alley. That was Diagon Alley in general, his bad grades and volatile nature had prevented him getting the position at Gringott's bank he had applied for. The goblins didn't trust Slytherins much less those who were twice the size of regular humans, beings who already towered over the goblin bankers as it was.
The work was mundane, rarely was there much but the occasional disagreement over price on the streets of Diagon Alley, and the pay was only enough to keep he and Matilda a small house on the edge of the Alley. Matilda was a very disagreeable witch, whose magic exceeded his but whose skill was so haphazard that she really failed to do anything with it. She made a small living tailoring student Hogwarts robes in the Alley, but her supervisor thought it best to keep her in the back as she usually took a bitter attitude towards all the jovial and excited new students who came to buy their supplies.
Goyle's only friends were the ones he had known from school. He kept up with Crabbe and Malfoy, both self proclaimed bachelors, and often went out with them to the dark taverns located in Greysgate, the shady area of the wizarding community. All three of them liked their women and their beer, and had pretty much made little constructive use of their time since Hogwarts. Crabbe worked in a bar in Greysgate, yet another one had pretty much ignored his Hogwarts training. Malfoy was inconceivabley rich, and lived in a mansion in London, but whenever he had dark business to attend to, he knew Greysgate was the place to be. Malfoy didn't HAVE to work, but he was growing bored of not using the skills he knew he had to do something, so through some channels he managed to find out that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position was now open at Hogwarts and he wasn't about to let anyone else have it. He knew he could have a good deal of influence on the next generation of witches and wizards at Hogwarts and it was a chance he couldn't let pass him by. He was sick of all the goody goodies he saw running the Ministry and other important venues of wizarding society, there was more to life than the nauseating Potteresque world this had become. Damn that Potter! He gave wizards in general a bad name.
It was during one night at the Greysgate bar that it came to Goyle. Malfoy and Crabbe were there right on time, getting a table and already down on their 3rd beer. Goyle sauntered up, in a bit of a foul mood. "Reunion coming up," he frowned, ordering a beer that got thicker the longer you took to drink it.
"Of course, I expect it to be quite an interesting time too. I'll like mushing the egos of those goody Gryffindors again," Malfoy said, smirking.
"Yep, bunch of worthless Muggle loving filth," Crabbe agreed, chugging a 4th mug.
Goyle just sat there, looking more thoughtful than he was probably capable of.
"So what's running through that puny brain of yours?" Malfoy grinned. "Wife been nagging again?"
"Same," Goyle nodded. "What about you and Pansy?"
"The woman never stops eating. She'll make a good wife though, keep up the house, responsible for the servants, you know. Won't ask where I've gone. You know I'm really a bachelor at heart...a man can't just settle down with ONE woman."
"So what are the plans for Hogwarts?" Crabbe asked dazedly, as the effects of the alcohol started seeping into his brain.
"We'll see what presents itself once we get there," Malfoy grinned. "If we see some of our old "friends", such as Potter and his unsightly gang, I think we can come up with something...creative. And joining Hogwarts as a staff member should have it's rewards too...," he added.
"Sure. Place needs a dark wizard, someone who REMEMBERS Voldemort and his vision instead of the pathetic place it's turned into," Goyle sighed.
"Something's really working on you tonigh eh, Goyle," Malfoy laughed. "Usually you can't even say a full sentence."
Goyle just stared at him, looking like he was thinking. For Goyle, thinking and speaking at the same time was practically an impossible task.
Malfoy chuckled when he saw Goyle was going to remain silent. "Anyway, as much as that's true, I've got too much of a reputation to let myself fall into that category. I want to stir things up a bit but still be fairly harmless. We'll wait till the students come to do the real damage. I need to secure my job, let McGonagall see I am perfectly capable of teaching first, and THEN throw the important lessons their way." Malfoy finished his 4th beer and sat back, looking relaxed. "I have to get home, let's meet the day of the reunion, before the first meal. We can devise our plan after we assess the situation."
Crabbe burped loudly, swaying off his chair after the 7th beer. "Righ, I shwould get bacto swork," he slurred, getting up and groggily walking behind the bar, leaving Goyle at the table alone. After a few minutes he too got up and headed back to his little house with his annoying wife and no kids. And somehow, this didn't bother him.
* * *
"Hermione, we've been through all of these books a hundred times," Ron sighed exasperatedly. He looked over at the table next to him, where Hermione was busy looking through a stack of books that she had already looked through twice before. Then he looked across from him where Eloise stared at him blurry eyed and the twins had their heads down on the table, asleep.
"There HAS to be something..I refuse to give up!" Hermione insisted.
"I agree, there does have to be something but...don't kill me Hermione...it MAY not be in books. It may be somewhere else."
"Nonsense...everything has to come from written material originally, especially something of this nature." Hermione was refusing to give up on this.
"But...," Harry suggested, "Remember, if this person is out to get YOU, then they'd know how much you love books and would probably look for an alternative way to get you, something you couldn't discover through reading."
Hermione looked up and blinked at Harry. "Oh my God," she said, slamming her book shut, "you could actually be right Harry...amazingly."
"Uh..Thanks...I think," Harry said.
Ron sniggered under his breath despite himself.
"Well what do you suggest we do then?" Hermione demanded. "If not books then what?"
"How about Colin," Ginny suggested. "He was going to look into potions, maybe he found something..."
At that moment, McGonagall walked in, her face looking somewhat pale. "I thought I might find you all here. The preliminary tests have been completed on Pansy's body. They found something most disturbing."
Everyone stared at her, then at each other and back at McGonagall. "Come with me."
The group was very silent as they followed McGonagall back to an empty classroom. Malfoy was already there, waiting for them and looking fairly quiet. They all crowded in, sitting at the desks just like old times. McGonagall's face was very sour. "As you know, Miss Parkinson was fond of food."
No one said anything although the sarcasm was just tickling at the back of Ron's throat.
McGonagall continued. "The autopsy revealed that just prior to her death, Miss Parkinson had eaten a piece of Bulgarian cocoa cake. Upon inspection of the as yet undigested portion of the cake, it was found to be artificially fabricated, the substance on a microscopic level showed signs of Picalotty plant spores."
Neville gasped. "She must have been in my greenhouse!"
"Be that as it may, Mr. Longbottom, it is now our first lead. Someone could have tampered with the Picalotty plants to poison them..."
"Just what Mr. Nerd here would do too," Malfoy sneered.
"No, Mr. Malfoy, we are not making accusations of any sort until we find more answers. If indeed the plant was poisoned, it in no way means that Mr. Longbottom is responsible."
"Of course it doesn't," Hermione said, trying to hold her voice steady. "Neville is trying to protect me, and why would he..anyway...he TOOK me to the ball, he could have..er..attacked me in a more direct way if that's what he wanted."
Neville had just turned pale white and even though he tried to open his mouth to say something, nothing would come out.
"Well I'm going with it," Malfoy said, getting up angrily. "It's a lead and I wouldn't put it past that Longbottom to do something to Pansy, he's so bitter he can't get a REAL date."
With that Malfoy got up and stomped out of the room. McGonagall was left sighing. "Don't worry, this is only preliminary. We still have a lot of tests to run." The headmistress tried to sound a lot more confident than she felt. "At any rate, although we do trust you Neville, I'm afraid with these new developments it might be best that you remain in your chambers until the rest of this investigation is completed. I'm sure Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley would be more than happy to watch out for Miss Granger."
Neville just shook a bit, not believing what he was hearing...to think anyone would even CONSIDER him a suspect, it was disheartening.
McGonagall sighed. "The rest of you, perhaps you had better return to the Gryffindor common room, it is not safe. Once again the safest place for wizards has become an unsafe place." She gently nudged Neville in the direction of his room, and accompanied him there.
"Oh Neville couldn't possibly..." Ginny said worriedly.
"Of course not," Hermione agreed, although she now felt even more vulnerable than before.
"Well..we better get going...back upstairs," Harry suggested. He didn't tell anyone that the scar had begun to seer worse than ever.
