Bill's Bill

Chapter 15: Unrequited Love

I should have been clearer in the previous chapter. Getting permits and assembling a team to search someone's flat does not take minutes but hours. I wrote it was dark outside when they searched Snaphorn's flat, but for the continued storyline I thought it would be clearer if I just specified that by the time Ian called for back up it was already about 7 or 8PM. This chapter goes a little bit backward, so Ian has not figured out that Snaphorn was taken by Death Eaters.

-Chefke All rights and stuffies belong to her royal highness madam Joanne Katherine Rowling from the county of Rowlington where she rolls and then rocks. -Chefke

Tonks Cottage Tuesday 1 PM

Narcissa sat with Teddy Lupin on her lap. She was reading the smiling tot a book as he snuggled into her chest. It hurt that she missed this with little Nymphadora. She had only been able to glimpse the girl as she got older. While her niece's death had hurt Narcissa deeply, knowing her deranged sister had been the person to kill her made it all much more worse.

Bella was a blight on her family. When she arrived from Azkaban she held Lucius under a crucio for over an hour. She only stopped because the Dark Lord ordered her to. The Dark Lord had been sure to hold that bit of information over their heads, using his own special brand of daunting and torture when they looked like they didn't want to comply.

Her Draco was forced to watch his teacher be tortured and then eaten on their dining room table by the Dark Lord's pet snake. Afterward, the snake was done her meal, the Dark Lord pointedly asked Draco about how he was enjoying his own dinner. Draco had been forced to swallow his food and finish the entire meal that she knew, much like her own, felt like ash in his mouth.

That night she held her only son while he sobbed into her shoulder, begging them to flee. The last time she held him so close was the night before he left for Hogwarts. He had woken in the middle of his slumber with nightmares of his parents forgetting him and of him being replaced by an unseen child. Narcissa had been temporarily worried about him having the sight. While she had been pregnant at the time, she had lost that child like all of the others after Draco. It took almost a decade of her only son being the most ordinary wizard there was, for her fears to be assuaged.

The Muggle book about a little train that made it to the top of a mountain despite being too small to have actually carried such a large cargo resonated deeply with Narcissa. Teddy was snoring gently. His small frame was cuddled into her chest. He was much too young to understand the many layers underneath The Little Engine That Could, but it didn't really matter. Andy had left the book out as a subtle reminder that if she persevered she could make it through this troubling time.

Andy never forgot, but definitely underestimated what it was like having the darkest Wizard of the century living in one's home. Narcissa was not a gracious host and one of his avid supporters. She was a prisoner. Lucius wasn't a loyal follower. He was a guinea pig. An example to all the other Death Eaters what would happen if they tried to defy the Dark Lord.

They would be tossed into Azkaban and their families tortured. Narcissa lost count the amount of times Greyback or one of his cretins stood outside her door scratching and gnawing at the oak. Trying to get in while Narcissa held her son closed, eyes set and wand trained all night on the door. Sometimes Draco slept in her arms but mostly his wand joined hers.

Often their wands would be trained on the doors for a minimum of four hours at a time. Werewolves didn't need to relieve themselves as much as Witches or Wizards. It had been in the loo where Draco first heard their foul leering of his mother. He had confided in her and slept in her room every night whether or not the werewolves were present in the manor.

It was a small comfort having her son by her side. They were both able to protect each other while Lucius was in Azkaban. So much so, it hadn't been a shock when she had been dragged from her room one night in August by Greepa. He was one of Greyback's omegas and a sickly piece of vermin. He nipped at her neck and pressed her against his hardness while whispering the vile things he would do to her.

Her wand was taken by one of his compatriots and then she was dragged down the hallways by her hair. She didn't struggle even though every single fiber in her body screamed for her to do so. She was a Black and Black's fought until they end, but she was also a mother. A mother who knew that if she fought they would torture and kill what was most precious to her. Her son. She would follow swiftly afterward if she was lucky. Narcissa Black had never been a particularly lucky girl in life, so she didn't hold out much hope.

"Is that really how you feel Narcissa?" her husband's voice startled her out of her thoughts. She squeezed her great-nephew close to her chest but released him when she saw the defeated look on her husband's face.

He was wearing clean new violet robes that most certainly didn't belong to him. He had definitely washed this morning and his hair was pulled back in his signature silk ponytail. The ponytail was a reminder to himself he was a rogue. In his youth it had been a leather band and once he was older, he upgraded to a silk band to remind himself of his station in life and all that he had given up for it. At least that was what Narcissa always thought.

"You're mumbling to yourself sweetheart." Lucius murmured. Narcissa stood and placed a sleeping Teddy gently on his wolf patterned cot.

Their argument earlier that morning had been so terrible, Narcissa had resigned herself to becoming the first Malfoy to ever be divorced. Lucius had stormed out of Andromeda's home once their argument had reached its peak. She couldn't be sure what was said in their mutual anger, but the hollow feeling remained even after the words themselves faded.

Lucius was upset and he had every right to be. He was deprived of his son for almost three decades. For all his faults, her husband was an honorable man, and he wanted to see his son. Looking at the defeated look her husband was wearing, she knew that he must not have been allowed to see Bill. As his wife of over twenty years, she knew how hard this was on him.

"Bill?" she asked softly while she tucked Teddy into his blanket. Her husband of thirty years, face hardened. She had kept a colossal secret from him. A secret she hoped would not tear her already fractured family apart, but it was too late.

"The Minister does not want me to meet him in case the courts decide to use legilimency on me. If I have no prior knowledge of my son than this Travers," he spat. "Won't be able to convince the Wizengamot that my son was a Death Eater."

Her husband settled himself into the deep plush chair that she had previously occupied to read Teddy his 'choo choo' book. Even sitting in an old beaten up orange chair with little hufflepuff badgers on it, he was the epitome of grace and aristocracy. She settled herself into a Muggle wooden rocking chair opposite of her brooding husband.

After several minutes of silence she spoke, "Are we going to talk about it Lucius?"

Lucius made a strangled noise and dropped his head into his hands. Narcissa fingers physically burned with the desire to reach out to him but she held herself back. She knew that right now he needed space. Space so he could understand why she did what she had and how he was going to respond to it.

Narcissa made her peace with her decision long before little Bill could walk. She and Molly spent hours talking about Lucius's reaction if he ever found out and while she would never actually be prepared for this moment, she wasn't wholly unprepared.

"I don't… I don't know what to say Narcissa." He was using her full name which was never a good sign when they were not with a mixed company.

Folding her hands in her lap, she leaned back into the chair. "Will you ever forgive me Lucius?"

Startled at her response her husband raised his head, dropping his hands from his forehead and into his lap. His eyes were wide and he was displaying as much emotion that one would expect from a Hufflepuff. Fear, awe, and an emotion best described as love were there on his face. Plain as day for all to see. Narcissa stomach lurched as she resisted quirking an eyebrow in confusion.

"Cissa," he sighed. "There isn't anything to forgive from you. If anything I should be begging for your forgiveness once again. I forgot to use a contraceptive charm. I even bloody remember the time I forgot it. You have been cleaning up my messes since before we were married and I don't think I am worthy of you."

Narcissa stared at Lucius blankly. Her heart understood what he was saying, even though her brain had not yet caught up.

Lucius unclasped his hands and placed them on the side of the hideous yellow plush chairs for support. "Cissa, I have put our family through trial after trial and you have never once complained or even threatened to leave me. You are the strength that is our family."

Narcissa Malfoy née Black felt tears stinging mercilessly at her eyes.

Blacks do not cry. Blacks do not cry.

She repeated one of her childhood mantras in her head to keep the traitorous leakage from escaping her body.

"Cissa, you have been the very wood of the wand that has held this family together. We would not have survived the war without you. Every time I think I know just how indebted I am to you, I find out I'm wrong and you're so much greater than I deserve. You protected my son. My blood. Even though you knew he was borne of the woman who I would have left you for." Lucius voiced cracked, sending tiny little fissures into Narcissa resolve.

Blacks do NOT cry. Blacks do NOT cry.

Squeezing her eyes closed, she shouted her mantra through her head letting it echo and bounce through the walls of her mind. A feather touch on her knees had Narcissa's eyes open in an instant. Lucius was on his knees in front of her, his hand hovering just over her knees. It was almost as if he wanted to offer her comfort for all of her hardships.

Narcissa has been born into hardships. She had a physically abusive father and verbally abusive mother, often she was unsure which had been worse on her. While the eldest of the Black daughters ran, Bella had broken under her parents ways, and with no one to protect her, little Narcissa did the only thing she could, she receded in on herself. Narcissa childhood had turned her into a brilliant occlumens, as well as a incredible liar.

Andy had been the wisest of the three children and had run as soon as she was given the opportunity. At Hogwarts, Narcissa often dreamed about what would have happened if Andy had taken her small defenseless sister with her. It had been one of the first things she asked her sister when they reconnected over Bill.

Why? Why did she leave her behind knowing what was going on at home. Andy gave her no answer, only cried and held her sister tightly.

Narcissa had no one to stand up for her or protect her from the people that were supposed to protect her the most. The first person to stand up for her had been Lucius and she loved him for it. While she had always known that Lucius was hopelessly in love with Molly Prewett, she never dreamed she would hear about it from Lucius, himself.

Blacks do not cry. Blacks do not cry. "Would you have left me if she asked?" Narcissa heard herself ask hoarsely.

"When we were betrothed, yes. I even tried to run away with her but she turned me down. When she turned me down, she saved my life. The Dark Lord was tracking me and testing me. He wanted me to fail. She… she was my first love."

Narcissa didn't ask if he was ever in love with her. It was a question she feared most of all and Black's did NOT cry.

"You were my third love, Cissa. Our son Draco, being my second."

Narcissa Malfoy was a witch who knew better than most what the Dark Lord was capable of and still lied directly to his abomination of a face.

She was a wife who stood tall beside her son while her husband was carted off to Azkaban, knowing they would be punished for his failures.

She was a mother who protected her son from the twisted minds of Death Eaters who spent their lives imprisoned in a cell with every positive thing about them sucked away.

She never flinched and she never shirked away from her duties. No tears were shed while her son was tortured and marked by a madman in her living room. She was as composed, as she was at her parent's funerals.

And yet, her husband of three decades declaration of love brought tears cascading down her smooth cheeks. She was pulled onto the floor and into his firm arms as she hiccuped and three decades worth of hardships poured from her tortured soul and onto the man she loved most in the world's chest.

Wizengamot Courtroom Tuesday 5 PM

Kingsley followed Hermione and the Weasleys brothers out of the courtroom at a leisurely pace. Despite Molly Weasley's relapse, he was calm. A short talk with the Weasley brothers on the way out of Courtroom 13, had calmed their Prewett tempers, as well. Molly was okay, but she needed rest.

Rest was not something she was going to get when all of her boisterous children and their loved ones were barging in and out of her room. Shockingly, George had been the one to suggest and set up singular shifts so that everyone could visit their mother. He had also been the one to insist that everyone take calming draughts and dreamless sleep before they went to bed later that night.

Arthur needed double the dosage of whatever everyone else was taking. Kingsley buried his wince. Imagine having to explain to someone why you hid their child from them all these years and argue over the care of a witch they were both clearly in love with. Yes, Lucius Malfoy loved Narcissa, but one never gets over their first love.

His feet padded on the soft carpeting in the hallway, a warmer contrast to the hardwood floors in the Wizengamot chambers. The brothers were talking animatedly amongst themselves as they tried to wheedle information about their Dragon Taming brother's romantic interest. It was an easy change of topic, so they wouldn't obsess over their mother. That and Kingsley had advised them not to talk about the case or their mother in the hallways, where anyone could overhear them.

Kingsley continued his walk, he had the next hour free as he had already thanked the Wizengamot for their hard work after they came back from lunch. The day before he had to find them all after hours and thank them for their continued services because he had forgotten to do so while they were all in session. Contrary to popular belief, there wasn't one Wizengamot.

There were at least five Wizengamot members for each family and they traded off each day of the week, unless there was a case like this one that took more than one day. With the exception of Aurors and Healers, there was no employer that would ever cite or fire someone for serving on the Wizengamot. Aside for being illegal, it was one of the greatest honors one could have.

Kingsley thought back to his speech earlier that day about the need for inter-Ministry cooperation, clarity on laws pertaining to arrests, and the need to weed out what remained of corruption within the Ministry. This gave Hermione the time she needed to finish whatever argument she was in middle of having with Travers.

It was also his time allotted to inform the Wizengamot of their spy's apprehension. His speech was, predictably greeted by a round of applause and while it looked like the Minister was thanking each individual, he was actually looking for anyone with any level of discomfort. Sadly, in a room full of politicians there was none and Kingsley was too tired to start doing one-on-one interviews with every member of the Wizengamot.

Kingsley and Hermione had set up the alarms for the trap before returning to the Wizengamot session and both were equally as exhausted by the sheer amount of magic involved. They had to put up several sticking charms all over the room that would only go off only if someone triggered the original alarm that they placed on the grey elephant. It was tricky because they had to ensure that no one, like Pam, who was dropping off things or cleaning the room would get stuck. Hermione had insisted on a magical net that would descend on whomever was in the room and hold them there until Kingsley arrived to lift it. It was an extra precaution, since they already had the sticking charms and several other defensive as well as offensive measure in place.

The defensive and offensive magic were mostly comprised of complex runes, charms, and a bit of transfiguration. Neither of them was happy when they were done, as they were both magically exhausted and on edge. Sitting in the courtroom and watching the arguments had given Kingsley a chance to recuperate. He couldn't imagine how Hermione was standing at this point. He assumed she was just running on caffeine fumes at this point.

Hermione set vibrating notifications on both of their wands to ensure that they would be notified as soon as the alarm was tripped. With much guilt, he gave Pam a long and odd series of random tasks for the day to ensure she would be out of the way and safe. She didn't even complain about his outlandish request to go out and purchase lavender smelling self-inking quills.

At her lack of reaction, he panicked that she actually knew where to purchase such a ridiculous and frivolous item. Remembering that her flatmate ran a odds and ends store, he tacked on a series of ridiculous colors and shades to accompany the lavender smelling quills. She dutifully recorded his outrageous request for a shiny lavender one with small hearts, one orange with fuschia polka dots, and one with melon yellow, aqua, and magenta stripes. Kingsley wasn't even sure what color magenta was or if there was even a color called melon yellow.

Convinced he would get her to complain, he turned to her with an expectant smile. Pam returned his smile and asked if he wanted a matching cup to hold the quills. He thought the young witch was joking until she began to list different types of cups thats opulence would clash with his quills. Seeing how conflicted her own opinion was, he gave her the task of picking the cup. Convinced that her indecision alone would add extra time to the trip.

Still concerned Pam would be caught alone with a dangerous spy, he asked her if she minded picking up dinner for the Aurors, Weasleys, and Healers currently in his home. She took the dinner request, asking if he wanted anything specific for himself. He declined and contemplated asking her to get dinner for everyone at Grimmauld place, as well when he realized that Fleur or Andromeda would probably be cooking.

He was wondering what Pam ate for dinner and if he should have told her to get herself something when he almost walked into the door frame. He coughed and tried to ignore the amused glanced from the Aurors guarding the doorway. Cursing to himself he stumbled out of the Wizengamot floor and towards this lifts. He was known to get lost in his thoughts at his desk, but never while walking in the hallway.

Try as he might, he couldn't help but notice her. What she ate, when she hummed to herself, and even what she wore. He even kept up with her robe patterns. Every day of the week was assigned a different color and each week a theme. This week was abstract, last week was floral, and the week before that Victorian.

Since she was an assistant she didn't have to wear Ministry issued robes. Thank Merlin. She was a bright spot in his otherwise dull administrative day. Her bright colors and spunky attitude definitely helped. Monday robes were pink, Tuesday a blue, Wednesday was green, Thursday was purple, and Friday was sunny yellow. Her clothes underneath her robes were her weekly pattern theme paired with nude colored pencil skirts and soft heels or ballet flats. While he knew she wore a dress once, Kingsley found himself struggling to remember if she ever wore trousers.

His mind was so intensely lost in thoughts of Pam, Kingsley tripped on the entrance into the lift. The Weasley boys had gone into a different lift, leaving just the Minister of Magic and Hermione. Upon seeing him stumble, Hermione paused her talking a mile a minute to ask if he was okay. You know, seeing as it was the second time he tripped in under a minute.

"Yes, thank you, Hermione. Just distracted. I was thinking about Arthur and Lucius."

Hermione winced. "Yeah, I heard it was explosive. Andromeda said Lucius came to her house after and he and Narcissa got into a humongous row. She thinks the two will be alright, though. He's rightfully furious with Narcissa. I mean, I get it. She kept his son from him for his entire life. I'd be mad too."

"You think he'll want anything to do with Bill?" Hermione shrugged.

"Who knows? This entire experience has taught me that I may not actually know the real Lucius Malfoy. Head Auror Proudfoot was just telling me how he holds Mister Malfoy in very high regard, and I know for a fact that Ian hated Lucius before this weekend. I think Ron's mum might be the only person who actually knows him."

"We all know a certain part of a person, Hermione. We each show bits and pieces of ourselves to different people that we meet. Very few get to see the whole picture." An image of Pam came unbidden to Kingsley. How many times had the two stayed late to finish work and laugh over bad takeaway and butterbeer? How many times had he held himself back in fear that he would get more attached than he already was and that she wouldn't return his sentiments? Worse, what if she did? He was her boss!

"I'm not sure if you sound like my therapist or a fortune cookie, Kings." Hermione rolled her eyes. He chuckled lightly glad to be distracted from the witch who occupied most of his brain space.

"Where's Bill?"

"He went home. Fleur is having a hard time with Victoire. She is blaming it on being unsettled but I've seen how many sweets Draco Malfoy has been giving her. Honestly, at this rate, all her teeth are going to be rotten before she hits Hogwarts." Kingsley chuckled again remembering that Hermione's parents were Muggle teeth Healers. She looked okay, and that made Kingsley marginally happier. Losing your parents was difficult enough, without being the reason that you lost them.

Kingsley lost his parents during the height of the first wizarding war. Much like Kingsley, his father was a loud boisterous man. In direct contrast, his tiny soft spoken mum was generally shy and timid around company. His father always joked she was two straws short of being Agoraphobic. While his father spent his day in the Wizengamot, his mother spent her time behind cauldrons working in the Potions and Research department at Saint Mungos.

They were both extremely proud of their chosen vocations and supported Kingsley in his life dream of becoming an Auror. His dream, however, meant he couldn't take his familial seat on the Wizengamot and that was a serious responsibility, as they were the last of the Shacklebolt line. His parents assuaged his worries reassuring him that he could pass his seat on the Wizengamot to his younger sister.

Audrey had been at home for Christmas hols training with his dad at the Wizengamot when it happened. Kingsley had stayed behind for tutoring with Professor Slughorn. He was worried about his testing scores and his Professor offered his services. Kingsley's parents were supportive because they knew Potions was the one subject he truly struggled with.

His parents had become extremely vocal proponents against Voldemort and his supporters in the last year. People were disappearing that were against Voldemort and therefore, Witches and Wizards became so frightened they didn't dare speak his name. It had been around the holidays time that he became referred to as You Know Who.

The Aurors said that his parents had been eating dinner when the Death Eaters attacked. No one was sure exactly what happened but their bodies were found inside the charred remains of his family home in central London later that night. Aurors had descended on the neighborhood as soon as the dark mark was cast over the blue bricked London townhouse with little beds of colorful flowers on each window. But, the Muggle fire brigade as well the Ministry Aurors were too late.

His sister had been on her way down to supper when someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth so she couldn't scream. To this day, she couldn't remember what he whispered to her but she thought it was something reassuring. She woke up a short while later, in her fluffy pink bathrobe in a Muggle restaurant called Wimpy's. She had been stunned by her attacker and woke up surrounded by concerned Muggles in a bathroom. It was utterly terrifying for a girl who had never spoken to a Muggle in her life and thought she was being kidnapped by them.

The teenage muggle that found her called the disoriented girl a Muggle Healer and stayed with her while they went to check on her parents. When she was taken into the muggle Auror office, the boy stayed with her. They were only separated when the actual Aurors showed up and took Audrey to the Ministry. Kingsley knew there was an open case for his parent's murder when the Muggle fire brigade attempted to put out the flames that his parent's remains were found in.

Kingsley remembered when revising with Professor Slughorn and several other students when Professor Dumbledore came in, his face grave. Kingsley remembered thinking that he was there to sack Professor Slughorn. When his name was called and he was ushered into the Headmaster's office along with Professor McGonagall he became scared.

He remembered the tears and the shock. He remembered when Professor McGonagall took him to the Ministry to get his broken and confused sister. The funerals were quick and quiet, there were a lot of adults they didn't recognize. Now, he knew them to be Order members, but then he was a scared teenager who just lost his parents. Since they had no home, the two spent the rest of the term at Hogwarts before moving in with their maternal uncle.

After Hogwarts Kingsley moved in with a friend and saved up his money, so he could buy a flat for Audrey to live in when she graduated. Turns out, he didn't need to save his gold because she moved in with her boyfriend the moment her feet touched down from the Hogwarts Express after her graduation. His identity was a secret and Kingsley knew better than to pry when she was ready she would come to him.

And she did, three years later. She was pregnant and unmarried and she wanted Kingsley's blessing to marry the father of her unborn child. Without hesitation, he gave it. When she told him who the father was he insisted on meeting him. In retrospect, he probably should have told his little sister that he wasn't planning on hurting her fiance. She cried the whole way to her little flat, what he thought were tears of joy, and only when she threw herself into her alarmed fiance's arms did Kingsley realize she was frightened of what her older Auror brother would do to her fiance who knocked her up.

After hugging him and welcoming him to the family, the two sat for a beer while Audrey yelled at him. After the third time she hit him with a wooden spoon, her fiance stepped in to calm her down. Kingsley had been mostly been offended that his sister thought so low of him to care that her fiance was a muggle. He was the boy that took care of her on the darkest day of both of their lives. Kingsley would give anything to this boy. The fact that he loved his little sister only made him infinitely more amazing in Kingsley's book.

Their first son was born eight happy months later. Things were quiet for the first time in several months until they weren't. The three shacklebolt's were scared and with Audrey pregnant again with a muggle's child, they decided it would be best to apply to a dentistry school in the United States of America, rather than the UK. Since Kingsley was an Auror, he was able to help Audrey relocate her entire family shortly after his second nephew was born.

They spoke often and Kingsley slept a bit better at night knowing she was far away from Voldemort and his blood supremacists. Kingsley went to visit his baby sister three times a year and although he would deny it to his grave his newest niece, named after his mum, was his favorite. The two had decided to stop after their fourth child and while Kingsley would love more little tykes to visit, he understood their need for a calmer household.

During high school, their home was anything but calm. Their uncle was in the Order and was killed protecting the Longbottoms a month before Kingsley's graduation. Kingsley joined the Order before he joined the Aurors. It was the only calling that actually appealed to him, as he felt he personally needed to stop the bloodshed.

Entire families lines were gone, after surviving centuries of war, famine, and bloody dragon pox. During the christmas of his eleventh year, an entire neighborhood was eviscerated in one evening. He heard that every Aurors that came to the village the following morning had lost their breakfasts.

It was so bad that no one knew who to trust. Kingsley knew of a couple where the wife was an unmarked Death Eater and the husband was an Order member. After realizing he had accidentally killed his wife during a Death Eater raid on Hogsmeade, he Bombarda'ed thirty Death Eaters and himself. Neither side ever fully recovered from the Hogsmeade Battle of September 1981.

After the fall of Voldemort several short weeks later, Albus Dumbledore testified to Severus Snape's rescue of his younger sister. His memories of the incident had been one of the main reasons Snape escaped Azkaban. Severus had numbed both of his parents before their tortures began, a small comfort Kingsley had cried over, and let them know both of their children were okay and unharmed. His parents, the people he loved more than anything in the world, died hands clasped together strapped to their dinner table, their large turkey and stuffing untouched, knowing that their two children were safe.

The few years in between finding out the finer details of their deaths, had been filled with confusion and unanswered questions. It was one of the many reasons he joined the Order of the Phoenix the first time. Though, because of his age he was never sent on official missions and mostly kept an eye on other students at school. It was a job that felt useless sometimes, as he knew that Professor Dumbledore was doing the same thing and probably a better job. Once he was out of Hogwarts he was given jobs that made him wish for his school mission days.

It was nearly twenty years later and his parents deaths hadn't gotten any easier. Forcing a smile on his face he addressed Hermione's comment about Draco Malfoy and his obsession with being an uncle.

"Well, he went from being an only child and grandchild to being an uncle. I'm sure he's pleased. I was over the moon when I became an uncle."

"I know you have more pictures of them in your flat than of anything else." Kingsley chuckled as Hermione rolled her eyes. She was going to make an amazing mother one day, he couldn't wait. "Though I've yet to see Draco and Victoire without one another, it's sweet. No one's complained yet but he's kinda hogging Victoire. He's not the only one who needs their babytime snuggles."

Kingsley chuckled as they were let out at the main auditorium. A loud rush of noise came from the assembled press. There were several dozen reporters waiting for the promised statements from the Minister and the solicitor of the accused.

Travers had given his statement during lunch, but he did say he was going to present for the afternoon press conference. Kingsley waited several minutes for Travers, before starting without him. Travers was nowhere to be seen but he did have a missing witness that was crucial to his case so Kingsley gave him a pass.

A/N: I absolutely loved writing this chapter. I feel like Narcissa is one of the most underrated HP characters.