A/N: Let me thank you all for being so patient and kind with me. This chapter was a doozy. It's almost like performing a monologue that you haven't practiced very often, but you know how the story line goes. Thanks for bearing with me.
Chapter Twenty-One: The Confessions of Ares Lestrange
"Let's play a little game, Lestrange," said Sirius, rising up from where he had passed out. "It's called 'Explain Yourself Or Die', and I'm telling you ahead of time that I am very, very good at it."
Raina rushed forward… her phase of shock had passed very quickly. "Sirius! Do you think you should…?"
He turned to face her quickly, and she saw a light and a life in his eyes that she had never seen before. It hit her then that this was Sirius as he was meant to be. This energy, this… semi-madness, was normal for him.
His eyes softened just a bit and he said, "I'll be fine. Once I deal with him."
"Sirius…" her voice trained off warningly.
"I won't kill him in front of you, I promise."
"Sirius!" Her voice had reached a level that even she hadn't known it could achieve.
Strangely enough, it was Hermione who rose to Sirius's defense. "Raina, just let him do what he has to," she said quietly, and it made the older woman pause.
Ares sneered. "You don't frighten me, old man."
"Really?" Sirius sat down again. "Why is that?"
"You can't defeat me. No one can defeat me."
"You're pretty damn sure of yourself for a Squib," Ron mocked, as he leaned against the wall. "I'd like to know what you can do against all of us."
"You've set yourself up for failure, Lestrange," Harry said quite calmly, as if he were discussing weather conditions for a Quidditch match. "It seems obvious to me that you're a bit overmatched."
Orion stood in front of Delia, who was still passed out on the floor. "You picked a bad time to attack, Lestrange."
"On the contrary!" Ares grinned, but it was a grin recognizable to many of the group as one that was not quite sane. "It's the perfect time. Look what I have here. All the Potters, all the Weasleys, the remainder of the Lupins, and even Sirius Black and his new love interest. I can't think of a better moment to unleash my plan."
"It seems to me," said Arthur slowly, "that those would all be factors against you. Harry and Ginny, of course, defeated Voldemort, and Mr. Black can be quite… formidable, when he wants to be."
Sirius now sat in a chair, with his elbows resting on the armrests, carefully tapping his fingers together in a constant rhythm. "Bloody terrible job of planning, mate," he said, and it was his turn to sneer. "It's not likely you'll walk out of this room alive."
"I think we've wasted enough time talking in circles," Ron said irritably. "You'd best tell us why you're here. I, for one, would like to know, before we're forced to kill you."
"I will not be the one to die today, Weasley."
"The Captain asked you a question, Lestrange," Raina said, donning the 'bad cop' persona with the ease of someone who had worn it several times.
"You will not order me around!"
"Well then, how about you tell us how you managed to sneak through the finest security in the world?" Fred said, and leaned forward, unconsciously fingering his wand.
"Yes, do tell us everything," Hermione demanded, with a flash of perfectly straight white teeth. It was her barrister-on-a-roll expression, and even Ron knew it was best to just get out of the way when she got into one of those moods. "I'm interested to hear of your… genius."
The mocking tone of her last word made Ares stand up straighter. "You wizards think you can always solve all your problems with… with magic. It's disgusting, really. You miss so many obvious solutions to problems."
"Really?" Harry asked, even more ill at ease since Ares was reminding him of less happy times, when had to deal with the same sort of attitudes and could not defend himself. "Why don't you expand on that particular point, Ares?"
"Who did you have to turn to when your wife turned out infertile, useless?" Ares asked, glaring at Ron. "Muggles! Who did you look to in inspiration for some of your finest products?"
Fred and George glanced at each other.
"Muggles! That's right! Muggles!"
"Fine then, Lestrange. You've made your point, though Hermione is mostly certainly not useless. What's that got to do with anything?" Ron said, a bit peeved and irritable at the mention of the condition that had almost cost him his wife.
"I was the one who hit that imbecile, Gruthersford over the head at Hogwarts. It was so easy to get in. So easy. You see, because I'm a Squib, I can easily locate it. Under the guise of a delivery man from Hogsmeade, it was simple to gain entrance. And then, and then, I could do anything.
"I had your daughter, Potter. I had her in my sights, and I could have touched her. I could have touched her, and pulled her away, and you would have never seen her again. Your … daughter.
"Though she isn't your daughter, is she? Oh no. She's Draco Malfoy's child, through and through. She has his cunning, his wit. No matter what you do, you can never stamp out the remnants of a bad birth. She's filthy with his blood, which runs in her veins."
"You will be quiet, or I swear, I will tear your insides apart with my bare hands," Harry said, in a low, very controlled voice.
"She's filthy! Filthy, I say! And not just on her father's side, oh no. Her mother was no better than a prostitute. A prostitute who won the favor of Draco Malfoy, as so many before her had done. He lavished her with gifts, brought her to the complex. Quickly, she grew to learn too much.
"I was younger then. Younger and much less intelligent than I am now, but even then I could see how she controlled him. Ruled his every thought, his every reaction.Then she was pregnant, and he gloated. Bragged and bleated and trumpeted continuously. There was no stopping it.
"You see, he could support two women. Pansy remained his wife, and soon she was pregnant too. He could see his two sons in his mind's eye. They were to take over after he had passed, and he would teach them everything he knew.
"Funny how much easier it is to read someone when magic is out of the picture.
"That's not to say that Cassandra wasn't gorgeous. Oh, no. She was perfect. Every feature was balanced on her face, and when she walked… oh, when she walked.
"Like I said. A prostitute. She could manipulate even the strongest of us. I know, because she succeeded with me.
"She wanted out. Desperately. She pleaded with me. Anything I could do to get her out, she would be grateful to me. She appealed to my anti-magic feelings, claimed she shared them as well, since she was technically a Muggle.
"She was older than I by quite a great deal, and so I couldn't see then how she twisted me around her finger, but I was there… ready and willing to do whatever she wished.
"I really am a genius, you know. I have degrees in biotechnology, biochemistry, virology… You name it, I've studied it. I think it's fascinating how one little strand of DNA can bring a man down when no other source could extinguish him. Even the mighty Sirius Black fell to my design.
"It was in the less perfect stages back then, you see. Death wasn't quite as long, or as painful. The virus was too… eager. Too hasty, especially for my tastes.
"The Death Eaters funded my research, quite generously, you see. I had told them I had specific targets in mind. The Potters. The people that had destroyed their precious Dark Lord and destroyed my mother's mind in the process."
He smiled then, and even Raina could not help but shudder in response. "Little did they know, I had little patience or interest in the dealings of my mother's mind. She believed -- believes, even to this day, that she was having a passionate affair with Voldemort, and that I'm the child of that union.
"In reality, I'm the son of a Muggle plumber whom my mother had a one night stand with. It's amazing that she has such distaste for Muggles, and yet she ended up procreating with one, when she never could with my stepfather. I'm only allowed the virtue of his name through happy circumstance. Otherwise, I would have been thrown out of the house without a single regret by my mother.
"The heir of the Lestrange name and fortune has not a drop of magical blood in him." Ares chuckled. "I think it's a rather appropriate punishment on the part of the Fates, don't you?"
A foul taste had filled Ron's mouth, and he could not speak. Sitting next to him, Hermione finally did. "Yes, I'm sure. Cassandra, Ares?"
"Ah, yes. I had got off track, hadn't I? That happens sometimes." Nervously, he wiped his forehead with the back of one hand, and he began to breathe faster. "I can't think. I can't think. Cassandra…"
"What's going on?" Orion asked aloud, to no one in particular.
"He's suffering from exposure," Delia said calmly. She was still leaning against the chair, but now her eyes were open, and her breathing was less shallow and more even. "He's been playing with his precious DNA for too long without protection. It will only take a short while for him to leap back on his train of thought. Ah, see, there he goes."
"Cassandra wanted the virus. I didn't know it, but I should have seen it. It was right in front of my face. Of course, I hadn't realized the truth then, that women are, by nature, greedy liars. I came to understand that later.
"We planned her escape. I was to help her, afterwards returning to the complex with enough time to clear me of all charges.
"But the fool woman could not be satisfied with just escape, and the child of a very powerful wizard, oh no. She had to have the virus. She stole it, from under my very nose! We made our way to our final destination, a hill on which she could meet her 'contacts' in the government who wanted her information.
"I still, to this day, don't understand how she managed to infect herself, but she did. Within minutes of leaving the compound, she was dead. The virus then left no trace, only aura similar to that of the Killing Curse, which led to your deduction, I suppose, Mr., excuse me, Captain Weasley."
"Yes, yes it did," Ron said, and leaned back against the couch, deceptively appearing more relaxed.
"I dragged Cassandra to the fields beyond this house. I thought, what a chance! What an opportunity! I relied too much on the deductive skills of you two, Potter and Weasley. Unfortunately, the only information you came to find out was that she was indeed, a Muggle woman.
"I had intended to kill your daughter… his daughter. It doesn't matter now, I suppose. I infected her with the virus. It should have worked."
" 'Should have' being the key phrase there," Delia said, and rose weakly to her feet. "She is most certainly not infected with it now. In fact, I suspect that she may be immune."
Ares raised an eyebrow. "It's not possible."
Delia shrugged. "Believe whatever it is you want to believe. Your time is limited, anyway."
Ares smiled. "I don't think so! Don't you see? I've won! I'm here, aren't I? I managed to get past the defenses of the famous Weasley twins! There's nothing you can do now! I've planted a biological time bomb, programmed to go off at any minute. What are you going to do then, little girl?"
Orion spoke up, as he held Delia's hand."I very much doubt that in your state, you could have programmed something that would actually work, as I suspect you have about two minutes to live.
"It is not very wise, Mr. Lestrange, to play with matches when one is holding a paper in the other hand.
"In any case, if there is such a thing, it's not for nothing that Captain Weasley specializes in what he does. In fact, I'm quite sure he was aware of your presence before you reached the door."
Ares whirled around to face Ron. "He wouldn't have dared to! Not with…"
"Not with the children present?" Sirius asked, and raised an eyebrow. "Now, why should that matter when you can't touch them?"
"What are you saying?" Ares's voice grew panicked.
Delia looked down at her watch. "One minute, Mr. Lestrange. Any last words?"
With a roar, Lestrange launched himself at Sirius, a murderous gleam in his eyes.
Sirius kicked out sharply, and Lestrange fell to the floor. He gave a weak cough, sputtered, and rolled over to let the blood flow out of his mouth.
Soon, it was flowing from his eyes, as well, then his ears. Every opening in his body released excess blood.
Then, as Delia predicted, he expired.
