A/N: Hey my shameless plug worked! *big grin* Yeah, I resorted to publicizing the fic on my other fic, Trapped. I got more reviews and now I'm over twenty! *dances in a big circle* Okay, I'm done. Thanks for reviewing, please do so again! :) I'm really happy with this chapter, short and transitional as it is. Read the end of the last chapter if you can't remember the ending.
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"Bugger the Ministry, what the hell's going on here?" Draco demanded, throughouly enraged and embarrassed at being caught in his boxer shorts.
"You're being arrested," Harry said simply as two burly wizards came forward and grabbed his arms, chaining them together with glowing cuffs. Draco, jaw open in shock, looked at the two.
"Don't tell me…" he groaned, not able to believe his eyes.
"Yeah," Crabbe grunted, making sure the cuffs were in place. "We needed money, you know?"
"This being good stuff's catchy," Goyle added sluggishly as they tore him from his bed, making Draco narrow his eyes in humiliation and anger. Draco sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Give me a break. Don't tell me you hired these two idiots," Draco said to Harry as they started ushering him out of his room. Harry narrowed his eyes and pointed his wand at him threateningly.
"I don't think you're in any position to mock Malfoy," he replied evenly.
"Well what is this bollocks?" Draco's outraged cry echoed down the hallway as Crabbe and Goyle walked him down it. "If this is about last night I'll laugh." Harry, engulfed with hate, Apparated furiously to Draco's side and glared at him venomously.
"Last night was not a joking matter. If you think it is, you are one twisted, sick man." Draco raised a blond eyebrow, confused but not about to show it- he was thinking of Ginny and the kiss.
"Well it's not like I shagged her!" he protested as he tried to dig his heels into the carpet. Harry was beyond livid now.
"You would have Malfoy? Raped her before the kill?" he breathed dangerously right behind Draco's ear as Crabbe and Goyle nudged him down the stairs. Draco's eyes widened in complete shock.
"She's dead?" he asked lamely.
"Yes she's dead! Her and her husband both, what did you think? They'd deflect the curse?" Harry yelled furiously, throwing a robe from Draco's coat closet at him in disgust. Draco put it on quickly, absorbing what Harry was telling him.
"Back up…she was married?" he asked, confused greatly. Harry stepped up the blond male, who was standing with his robes wrapped defiantly around him.
"I'll let you know, just for kicks, that two of my good friends died last night. And if it was because of you I will kill you myself."
"Two? Killed? What?" Draco yelled as he was shoved out his own door, Marvelle cowering under an umbrella in the coat closet.
"You'll get it soon enough," Harry said grimly, shutting the door behind him with a nod of his head to the shivering house elf.
--
"What?!?" Ginny gasped when Hermione told her.
"Yeah," she replied without a trace of amusement in her voice. Without another word she handed over the paper.
TWO FOUND DEAD IN HOUSE: DRACO MALFOY IS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY
The esteemed Draco Malfoy, 24, now playing for French Quidditch, was recently arrested on the spot. In fact, Head Auror Harry Potter, who graciously answered every question he could, says he warranted the arrest early this morning. "It wasn't easy, but we have taken Malfoy into custody. Right now he's at Ministry headquarters- I'm not at liberty to say anything more." Mr. Potter did state that they 'have reasons for the arrest' and they will not be revealed to the public unless confirmation is received.
Mr. Malfoy has been arrested for the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Seamus Finnegan- Seamus Finnegan, 23, and Padma Patil-Finnegan, 24, were found dead in their kitchen last night following the annual Ministry Social. Evidence (still glowing cigarette tip) conveyed that the murders were recent.
We have no evidence as to why Mr. Malfoy was arrested, but we will update as soon as possible.
-Kelsey Creevey, Special Correspondent
"Oh Lordy," Ginny breathed, sitting down and smoothing the newspaper out on her knees. She and Hermione had changed into their flannels- both had called in sick for work. "Why on earth would they suspect Malfoy? Besides the fact that he's an evil git," she asked Hermione, who was sitting down and blowing on a hot mug of coffee.
"Old girlfriend," she said simply. Ginny's jaw dropped.
"Padma? Are you kidding me?" Ginny said in complete disbelief.
Hermione shook her head. "Dead serious. I can't believe you didn't know, it was the hottest gossip since Pansy getting that nose job…" That's what I didn't recognize her, Ginny thought bitterly. "…anyway, right before she and Seamus got together, it got out that Malfoy and Padma had been meeting up for snogs all over the school. It ended badly- they were both in the Hospital Wing at the end, no one really knows what happened besides for them I guess. The Pomp covered it up by saying they ran into each other, but no one bought it."
"Well I did!" Ginny protested, digesting this information. "But why, after six or some odd years, would Malfoy come to exact revenge on Padma? I would've thought he'd be over it by now."
"Ex-boyfriends are the Ministry's best bet in every case," Hermione replied grimly. "They're practically always guilty. Yup, I'm guessing Malfoy's in a very tight spot right now."
"Serves him right," Ginny muttered poisonously, staring with narrowed eyes at the sullen man on the front cover of The Daily Prophet. Hermione looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"They haven't proved it's him yet Gin," she said slowly.
"No, but he's just-just infuriating," she shot back, leaning back and sighing, cupping her pale hands over a warm coffee mug she had placed on a coaster next to her.
"I know he's a prat, but is that really enough to be put into Azkaban?" Hermione said softly, sipping some coffee. "I mean…that's harsh."
Ginny shrugged, looking at the picture next to the one of Draco: a group shot with everyone, including Ginny and Hermione, at Seamus' birthday party the year before. Padma's black eyes were crinkled up in joy, and she was smiling and kissing Seamus between laughs. The Ginny in the picture was helping serve the cake, while the Hermione was engaged in a heated conversation with Harry. They all looked so…happy.
"If he killed them, nothing's harsh enough," she said firmly, turning the paper over and flipping on the television to drown out anything Hermione might say next about Draco's well-being.
--
"Padma Patil?" Draco said in great confusion. "Padma Luna Patil, and they're blaming me?" The prisoner in the cage next to him nodded; his brown hair was matted with dirt and his robes were encrusted with filth. Draco tried not to imagine himself in the same situation. "So let me get this straight," he said slowly, shifting on his cot so he could see the other man better. "Padma and her husband get blown up, and because I'm the ex and shifty looking they convict me?" Trying to keep his voice shaking with rage, he waited for the answer. A pause-
"The Ministry is crap," he managed to rasp out, before participating in a long coughing attack. Draco waited patiently for him to finish; a couple pounds to his chest and the coughs subsided.
"So what's your name?" Draco asked in a bored tone, dragging his fingers along the bars looking out at the doors longingly.
"Bones. Walter." Draco nodded knowledgably- Walter Bones was infamous throughout the Dark Arts world for his perfect Brain Wrenching curses (to be taking literally).
"Fancy seeing you here," he drawled sarcastically. Bones sat up straighter, angry.
"I'll have you know whelp, that it's not big shocker you're here either," he defended, before hacking uncontrollably. Draco rolled his eyes.
"Thank you, you've helped quite enough." Sighing in irritation, Draco leaned against the brown wall. This wasn't anything like the vacation he had planned: dump Pansy, avoid media, stay out of trouble. One out of three isn't too bad…had it been an exam, he would have failed.
And sitting in a Ministry custody cell, he certainly felt like a failure.
Draco let his mind wander to Padma, and immediately regretted it. He recalled his anger when the school had "found out" about their "snog sessions". Truth in point was, Padma was really the only girl in their year as sarcastic and intelligent as he was. Granted, Granger was intelligent beyond her years and Pansy could be sarcastic at her wedding day, but neither had both qualities. Embarrassingly enough, in Padma Patil Draco had found a friend. He learned all about her humiliation at the Yule Ball with Weasley, and how he couldn't keep his eyes off of Granger. She found out about his deep loathing for all thinks pink or spotted. Meeting maybe once a week, they studied and exchanged sarcastic banter that usually made one laugh- it was a sort of game they played, or as close to a game as Draco would ever get. First one to laugh got the Full Body Bind for one quarter of an hour. She had cracked first.
Then she hooked with up with Seamus bloody Finnegan. Draco could hardly believe his ears when she had told him. "What are you thinking?" he had roared, Padma raising an amused eyebrow at him. Honestly, she should've been a Slytherin, the Draco in the cell thought snickering slightly. Padma had replied coolly, "He's bloody good at what he does." A week later, Draco wasn't speaking to her. Truthfully, he had never forgiven her for even considering snogging one of the low-lives they had agreed acted too good to be true. A week later was graduation, and shortly after that he was in France training for the Quidditch season. And now she was dead.
Draco narrowed his eyes and rolled over on his cot, fighting not to shiver from the cold. "I knew there was a reason I hated England," he muttered sleepily as he closed his eyes.
--
The house looked exactly like it had before the attack: the table had been set, and there was a burnt turkey in the oven. Despite the miserable conditions, Ginny cracked a small smile. "Well we know that's Padma's work." Next to her, Parvati gave a small sob and rushed towards the oven. Harry widened his eyes and took three great strides, reaching her easily. He gently grabbed her arm to prevent her from disturbing anything.
"We need the evidence," he reminded her softly. Parvati's eyes flashed at him angrily, and with surprising strength and speed threw him off her.
"I don't need your prattle," she hissed, tears burning the sockets of her eyes. She looked around, clutching her purse helplessly; Dean stood behind Ginny looking equally lost. "I-I just can't believe she's gone," she said finally, running a hand through her ragged hair. Throughout her lifetime, Ginny couldn't remember a time where Parvati had been so upset that she didn't make the effort to look presentable. "Half of me was blown up," she stated flatly. Ginny, Dean and Harry (all who volunteered to come with her), stood awkwardly. Parvati ran a finger over the table surface and picked up a shard of china. "They had a fight right before it. Look, see- she smashed a plate. If I could have a Sickle for every time she broke something when upset…" she trailed off, smiling a little through the tears now dripping down her cheeks desolately. "They weren't even happy when it happened." Parvati bit her lip, then abruptly turned around to Dean and walked up to him. His deep brown eyes held their full capacity of worry. "Ready to go," she said, trying to sound upbeat, but ending in a wretched sob. Dean took her hand and squeezed it.
"Don't worry love," he whispered as they walked out. That left Harry and Ginny standing in the Finnegan's front hallway. Ginny looked around at everything, taking in everything with wide, unblinking eyes. Harry looked sideways at her, then at the china shard Parvati had discarded on the table.
"Did Padma ever get…violent?" Ginny turned to look at him in shock.
"Are you suggesting she did this?" she demanded, voice rising slightly in pitch. He held up both his hands in protest.
"I'm sorry, really, but it's my job." Silence.
"I don't know," she said quietly. "Did anyone else know her better than I did?" Harry shrugged, looking down at the floor where glittering outlines of the bodies lay.
"I don't know…she was in Ravenclaw, she was always studying off somewhere. I never really knew her that well." Ginny hugged her arms to her chest, chewing on a chunk of hair.
"She told me when we were outside-you know, at the Social?" Harry nodded for her to go on. "She told me that she and Seamus were having problems. I don't know if that helps," she added. Harry pocketed his wand, putting his hands in them as well.
"Honestly, neither do I. They're just such a random target! Seamus doesn't even work with the Ministry." Ginny didn't reply; instead, she seemed to be thinking rather hard.
"Harry, you said she was always off studying somewhere…"
"Yes…" Harry said carefully.
"…with who? Ravenclaws didn't generally study alone, and a Patil is definitely not an exclusion of the rule, Ravenclaw or not." Harry thought this over silently, then gave one brief nod to Ginny and left without another word. Ginny walked carefully around the tracings on the floor to the master bedroom- the bed was unmade and random bits of clothes were everywhere. She cautiously stepped over them all and successfully stood in front of the nightstand; the drawer was slightly open. Ginny plucked a quill from her jeans pocket and nudged it open, being careful not to touch the drawer with her bare hand. Her efforts were rewarded when a small red bound suede book was revealed, bearing the black embossed letters 'P. F.' "Padma Finnegan," Ginny whispered, picking it up gingerly out of its hiding spot.
Her eyes widened as she realized it was not a recent diary, but rather one kept in her sixth year at Hogwarts. "Why on earth would she have this in her drawer now?" she mused aloud, flipping through the pages. Padma had very neat handwriting, contrary to her twin whose handwriting rivaled the Weasley twins', and her diary was equally organized. Important dates were circled in red, making it easy for Ginny to find those that counted.
She read it quickly:
Today was quite interesting actually. I told him about Seamus and he practically had a heart attack. "What are you thinking??" he yelled. It rather hurt my ears. Anyway, I said back 'he's bloody good at what he does', implying snogging of course. He turned an unflattering shade of angry purple and stormed away. I don't know if he shall ever speak to me again. I suppose I'll miss him really, someone as interesting as him is hard to find these days. But now I have Seamus (it sounds silly, but I think I love him)- and I don't need Draco as much to talk to anymore.
An exasperated sigh escaped Ginny as she closed the book and pocketed it. "I just can't avoid him can I?" she muttered angrily, jumping nimbly over the clothes piles and then Apparating out of the house before she could find anything else that disturbed her more than the diary had.