Freelancer: *cowers in fear of people who would put her in Azkaban if she made this story have a tragic ending*  Okay, okay, it'll have a happy ending, unless of course you're a big fan of Icarus Knight.  ^_^  The ending is still a ways off, though; I would say that this story is about sixty-five to seventy percent done.  (103 pages on my computer and counting!  Yeah!)  Anyhoo, on with the show.

~~ Chapter Twenty-Five: Think Fast ~~

            "WHAT?!?"

            Nathaniel Kilner couldn't help flinching a little when Eko Chang let out his loud cry of shock and surprise.  The head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had just given the Minister of Magic the latest news concerning Lucius Malfoy's arrest earlier that afternoon, and Chang did not take the report very well.  He stood up, knocking over his chair, and walked from behind his desk over to the middle of his office, where Kilner was standing.  Kilner was a full head taller than Chang and weighed about seventy pounds more, but even so, the tall, robust  man felt tiny compared to his enraged superior.

            "I gave you an order to bring Malfoy to me," Chang said, struggling to keep his voice at a reasonable level.  "What part of 'I want him arrested and then brought to me' didn't you understand?"

            "I told the Aurors to bring him here!" Kilner insisted.  "I don't know why they didn't listen!"

            "Then tell your Aurors that the order was to bring Lucius Malfoy to me, Eko Chang, the Minister of Magic, NOT TO TAKE HIM TO AZKABAN!!!"

            Kilner flinched again.  Chang spun around on his heels and walked back over to his desk.  He placed his hands on it and stared at the polished mahogany surface.  "Is Professor Dumbledore still here?"

            "Which one?" Kilner asked meekly.

            "I don't care which one!" Chang snapped.  "Are they here or not?"

            "No, sir, I don't believe so."

            "Fine.  I'll send an owl to Hogwarts."  He lifted his head and looked at his subordinate.  "See what you can do about getting him out of there.  I want to know the minute you know anything.  Dismissed."

            Kilner nodded.  "Yes, sir."

            Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore received an owl from Eko Chang with the final details concerning Lucius Malfoy's arrest the next evening, just after dinner.  Hogwarts had reopened that day, and the last of the students arrived that afternoon.  Now he and Minerva were in the staff room reading the letter and trying to figure out how they were going to break the bad news to Lucius's son and two closest friends.

            Finally, Minerva said she would do it, and left to find Severus Snape and Alina Terringer.  She returned about ten minutes later with the two faculty members.  "What's going on?" Alina asked as soon as the three of them entered the staff room.  "Is he out yet?"

            "No," Dumbledore answered, "and I'm afraid it may be a long time before we can get him released, if ever."

            "He didn't murder those people," Snape said.  "Lucius is a relatively powerful wizard, but he cannot control a Nundu."

            "I can't control a Nundu, Severus," Dumbledore replied.  "I wouldn't expect Lucius to be able to.  But like I said, getting him out any time soon is highly unlikely."

            "Why?" Alina asked.  "He's innocent."

            "Innocent" in the loosest sense of the word, Dumbledore thought.  Lucius was hardly "innocent", but in his heart, the old wizard knew he wasn't responsible for the murders, and he believed Lucius really had changed his ways and was deserving of their forgiveness.  "We know that," Dumbledore said, "but the Azkaban officials have made it clear that unless we can prove it wasn't Lucius, he is theirs."

            "Which means we would have to find out who did do it," Minerva added.

            "But how?" Snape asked.  "We have no leads."

            "Was it Voldemort?" Alina said.

            Dumbledore shook his head.  "No, it wasn't Voldemort.  He may have a hand in it somewhere along the line, but he is not our main concern at the moment."

            Suddenly, Eko Chang appeared out of thin air.  "My apologies, Professors, but I have bad news that cannot wait."

            "Minister Chang!" Dumbledore exclaimed in a tone of voice that was both surprised and reprimanding.  "You know Apparating is not permitted on school grounds!"

            "I'm sorry, Albus, but this really could not wait," Chang said.  "There's been another murder."

            "There!" Alina almost shouted.  "That's your proof right there!  How could Lucius have killed anyone if he's been in Azkaban for the last twenty-four hours?"

            "That's true, Professor Terringer, but that's not what is so significant about this," Chang replied.  "The victim's name was Diego Nameth, and he was found about forty minutes ago in an alley in London.  He was killed by the Nundu.  Diego Nameth was one of the three Aurors that captured Lucius at the train station yesterday afternoon."

            It was disturbing to know that there was another killing, but the four Hogwarts faculty members didn't see how it all tied in with proving that Lucius was innocent.  Dumbledore asked the question that was on all their minds.  "Eko, where are you going with this?"

            Chang took a deep breath, and then answered, "An autopsy determined that Diego Nameth was killed yesterday morning."

            "He couldn't have captured Lucius if he was dead," Snape said.

            "Exactly," Chang said with a nod.  "And there's more.  An empty flask was found next to his body, and a few drops of liquid still remained in it.  We tested the liquid as well, and guess what it was?  Polyjuice Potion."

            "So someone impersonated your Auror and captured Lucius," Minerva concluded.

            "Which explains why he went to Azkaban and not to me," Chang said.  He sighed, and raised his eyes toward the ceiling for a moment.  In a soft voice, he said to himself, "Mental note: apologize to Nathaniel Kilner."

            "What?" asked Dumbledore.

            "Long story," Chang said, and that was all that needed to be said.

            "Well, that's good to know," said Alina, "but it still doesn't tell us who's behind all this.  How do we find out who's setting up Lucius?"

            Minerva and Dumbledore looked at each other.  "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

            "It's a long shot, you know," she pointed out.

            He nodded.  "I know."

            Snape and Alina immediately realized what the headmaster and deputy headmistress were proposing, and they looked at each other.  "What are the chances of this working?" Alina asked.

            "Slim to none," the Potions Master replied.

            Alina nodded.  "Okay."  She looked at Dumbledore.  "Go for it."  Snape voiced his agreement as well.

            Chang blinked and scratched his head.  "Come again?"

            Sibyll Trelawney was in the middle of organizing a stack of papers when a knock on the door of her classroom brought her back to the moment.  "Come in," she called.

            The door opened, and five people came in: Albus Dumbledore, Minerva Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Alina Terringer, and Eko Chang.  "Is there a problem?" the confused Divination instructor asked.

            "Professor Trelawney," Dumbledore began, "we need to ask a favor of you."

            Trelawney nodded.  "Go ahead.  I'm listening."

            Dumbledore explained the situation and what they had figured out in light of Chang's new information.  "So someone is trying to set up Lucius for the attacks, and you want to know who is behind all of this," she concluded.

            "Yes, that's right," Alina said.  "Do you think you can do it, Professor Trelawney?"

            Trelawney took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  "I can try, Professor Terringer."

            Lucius Malfoy had been in Azkaban for a little under twenty-four hours, but that was more than enough time for him to realize that this was the last place he wanted to be.  He remembered an incident early on in his time as a Death Eater, the one time he questioned Voldemort's authority to the Dark Lord's face, and was forced to endure the Cruciatus Curse for about thirty seconds.  As soon as the word "Crucio" left Voldemort's mouth, Lucius decided he would never again do something that would bring that upon himself again.  That, of course, happened long before he discovered just how dispensable he was to Voldemort.  It took him even faster to decide that he hated Azkaban.

            The cell he was in was dark, damp, and freezing cold.  It stank like a sewer, and the air was thick and clammy.  The worst part, though, were the dementors, the prison's guards.  They seemed to be made of pure malevolence and hatred and abhorrence for life.  Being around them was almost like enduring the effects of the lament Alina accidentally cast on him.  He wanted to die, but he knew he couldn't give in.  If he gave up hope, everything was lost, and those behind all this had already won.

            To keep his mind off his longing for death, Lucius began making a mental list of things he was going to do as soon as he got out of there.  I am, after all, getting out of here, he thought to himself as the idea entered his head.  The first item on the list was to tell his son that he loved him, an emotion he had never truly known until recently.  The second was to ask Alina to marry him.  The third would be to get some grudges worked out with certain people in his life, people like Remus Lupin, Albus and Minerva Dumbledore, Harry Potter, and, yes, even Arthur Weasley.  The fourth –

            "Lucius Malfoy."

            The sound of a malicious voice interrupted Lucius's thoughts.  Immediately, he knew it was a dementor.  Their voices were soft hisses that sounded like sliding gravel and were barely audible.  "Lucius Malfoy," the dementor said again.

            "I know who I am," Lucius snapped.

            "Lucius Malfoy, by the order of the Ministry of Magic, through way of the Auror called Diego Nameth, you are to be…"

            To be what? Lucius thought impatiently, even though he knew what the dementor was going to say.

            He almost swore he heard the dementor chuckle as it finished the sentence.  "Executed."

            Nearly five minutes passed before Trelawney opened her eyes again.  "Well?" Dumbledore asked.  "Did it work?  Do you know?"

            She nodded.  "Yes, I know."

            "Who is it?" the other five said in unison.

            Trelawney then spoke one of the last names anyone ever expected to hear: "Icarus Knight."

            Minerva gasped.  Snape and Chang were unable to hide their surprise as well, and both had looks of shock and confusion on their faces.  Alina had a similar look, but hers was more confused than shocked.  Dumbledore didn't believe it, but just hearing that name again was disturbing enough to make him reassure the others that it couldn't possibly be Icarus Knight.  "I'm sorry, Professor Trelawney, but I'm afraid you've missed another one," he said.  "Icarus Knight is dead."

            Trelawney shook her head.  "No, Professor Dumbledore, Icarus Knight is alive, and he is the guilty party.  Trust me."

            "Who is Icarus Knight?" the puzzled Alina finally asked.

            "Icarus Knight was the most brilliant Hogwarts student since Tom Riddle," Minerva answered.  "He was a prefect and very well-liked.  Everyone thought he would be Head Boy, but then, about three months into his sixth year, he just vanished, and no one ever saw him again."

            "I never saw him," Snape said when he saw Dumbledore looking at him.  He knew the headmaster was going to ask if he'd ever spotted Knight in the ranks of the Death Eaters.  "He wasn't one of us."

            "I remember him possessing an unusual ability to control magical creatures," Minerva said.  "There was the incident in 1974, when Professor Danner brought in a Graphorn, and it broke out of its cage – do you remember that?"  Her question was directed mostly at Dumbledore, Snape, and Chang, who were all at Hogwarts at the time of the incident.  That was the Minister of Magic's last year at the school, when he was Head Boy.

            "Yes," Snape said.  "I do remember.  Knight stood up, walked over to the creature, and held out his hand.  In less than thirty seconds, he had complete control over it."

            "So if he had the ability to control a Graphorn as a fourth-year student-" Alina began.

            "Third-year," Minerva corrected.  "The incident happened in April of 1974."

            "Third-year," Alina said, "do you think, with the proper training over a seventeen year period, he could have learned how to control, say…"

            "A Nundu?" Chang finished when he realized where she was going.

            Alina nodded.  "Right.  A Nundu?"

            "It's possible, but highly unlikely," Dumbledore said.  "He would have to have been trained by someone even more powerful than…"  He stopped speaking as all the pieces in this puzzle fell into place, and finished the thought with the word, "Oh."

            "What about Lucius?" Alina said.  "Can we get him out now?"

            "We can certainly try," Chang replied.  "We'll have a better chance now that we know who it is."

            "You'd better hurry," Trelawney said.  "He's about to be executed."

            Four pairs of eyes flew to Chang.  "I never gave an order for him to be executed!" Chang said defensively.  "I told the Aurors to bring him to me, not take him to Azkaban!"

            "We know," Dumbledore said.  "I was going to ask-"

            "Not even I can Apparate into Azkaban," Chang said upon realizing what the question was.  "There's a barrier set up around it to prevent anyone from escaping."

            "Then Apparate to just outside the barrier," the Hogwarts headmaster said.  "You're the only one that can stop the execution, Eko."

            Chang sighed and nodded.  "All right.  I'm on my way."

            Executed?  No one ever said anything about executions.  "What do you mean?" Lucius asked.

            "You are to be executed," the dementor hissed.

            Suddenly, two more dementors appeared.  They began talking in their language, which sounded like a combination of hissing and clicking.  Lucius couldn't be certain, but it looked like they were arguing.  Finally, the first dementor looked at him and said, "Lucius Malfoy, you are not to be executed.  You are to be released."

            Lucius didn't like the sound of that.  Too many crazy things had happened recently for that to be good news.  "By whose order?" he asked.

            "Mine," came the assertive voice of Eko Chang.  The dementors stepped aside, allowing the Minister of Magic to be seen.  "There's been a huge mistake, Malfoy," Chang said.  "You were never supposed to be brought here.  Icarus Knight posed as one of the Aurors that arrested you and convinced the others that my order was to send you here."

            "Icarus Knight?" Lucius shouted in disbelief.  "Icarus Knight is behind this?"

            "We believe so."

            The dementors opened the cell door, and Lucius, glad to be free of the small godforsaken room, stepped out into the corridor.  "Where is he?" he asked in a voice significantly lower in volume than before.

            "We don't know," Chang replied, "but we're going to find him.  Come, let's get out of here."

            Deep in the mountains of Ethiopia, an outraged cry could be heard from one end of Ras Dashen to the other.  "No!" came the infuriated voice of Icarus Knight.  "Nooooooo!!!!!"

A/N: Ha, Icky gets foiled again!  *diabolical laughter*  Coming soon: Chapter Twenty-Six, in which Lucius has every intention of going through with items one through three on his list, and now that he knows it was Icarus Knight who did it, he can eventually go through with item four as well.  ^_^  And yes, in case you were wondering, Eko Chang does have mad skill when it comes to Apparating.  Don't ask why, it just happened.  And I didn't know if dementors could talk or not, but they obviously needed to be able to speak for this chapter, so if they can't talk, please don't kill me.  Well I guess I'll hurry up and post this.  Thanks for reading and have a good day.