Sorry for the long wait. My life is currently a bit crazier than I'm used to and I have very little time to write. At the same time, this has to be the longest chapter I've ever written, and also one of the hardest. There's a still-birth situation in it, so keep that in mind if you have any issues with something like that (I do, but I managed to write it anyway and I'm quite proud of myself for that). But back to the story - please read and leave a review!
...
Lucius walked down the long corridor, white walls on either side, littered with brown doors in even intervals. It probably wasn't too long, but to Lucius, every minute spent in the muggle world felt like an hour and thus, every foot felt like a mile. He would never get used to it. The hospital was a place he made sure to avoid like the plague. If he hadn't known that they actually managed to save lives every so often, he would have thought it was a slaughter house. Nonetheless, he could honestly say he was impressed with some of the advances the muggles had made without magic – that didn't mean he had to like it though. It smelled strange too.
A female scream that could best be described as a roar reverberated through the building and brought him back to reality. He was on a mission – and it wasn't a pleasant one. Cradled in his arms was a small bundle – Evans daughter. She was sleeping soundly, not even a day old and already he was walking down these halls, to give her away. It was too cruel, but it was the only way the plan could work.
He passed a half-wilted fern, which he sneered at, before reaching a small window cut into the wall, with what looked like an office on the other side. One of those tube-things with light in the ceiling was blinking and it was annoying him to no end. He knocked on the window and a kind looking woman stood from a desk at the other end of the room and came to speak to him.
"Yes?" She smiled at him – he wasn't used to kind smiles being directed at him. Most people recognised him from the Prophet, and not for something that would encourage kindness in others. It unnerved him even more than he already was.
He cast a silent confundus charm, watching as her eyes glazed over before speaking "Someone seems to have dropped a vase further down the hall. There's glass on the floor."
"Oh dear!" She hurried out of his field of vision and came out of the door next to the window. She took off down the hall, her practical shoes, squeaking against the floor. His plan had been to sneak into the office to look at the records but decided to follow the woman instead. She might be better at helping him find what he needed. Reading someone's mind without eye contact was hard but considering the fact that this woman was a muggle, he chanced it. He directed his wand discreetly to point at the back of her head and whispered "legilimens"
The woman hissed and her right hand shot to her temple. It would feel like a slight migraine, but it should pass after a couple of hours. Soon he was flooded with images of the different patients she had seen during the day. One particular couple stood out.
Lucius almost crashed into her, when she made a sudden stop near a cupboard and started pulling out the mop and bucket, she would need to clean the floor. "Imperio" he whispered. Her back straightened immediately and she looked at him with unseeing eyes – he hated that part. "Take me to them" He didn't have to specify further. The tear that was trailing down her right cheek was enough sign that she had understood who he meant, and she turned to guide him down the hall in the direction they had come from. She led him to a room with a sign on the door that said "Do not disturb"
He listened at the door, hearing faint sobbing through it. It was the kind of sobbing coming from someone who had been crying for a long time, but just couldn't seem to stop. He knew that kind of crying, having been in a similar situation himself a few years back. He wasn't ashamed to say that he had cried just as much as his wife. He opened the door to a darkened room. On a bed near the window, the figure of a woman was lying, shaking with sobs, a man next to her, holding her hand, whispering gently to her through his own tears. They hadn't even noticed the door being opened.
He ordered the nurse further into the room, closed the door, sighed and took a deep breath before sending two gentle, silent stupefy their way, just to put them to sleep.
This was the hardest part.
He went to the cradle which stood in the corner, with another form lying all too still. He cast a hover charm on Evans daughter, not wanting to put her in the cradle when it was already occupied, and gently picked up the bundle lying there. He cast a spell on it, just to make sure that there wasn't some spark of miracle to be seen, but there was no reaction. He sighed sadly and transferred the bundle for the nurse to hold and turned his attention back to the girl. He grabbed her out of the air and cancelled the charm. Somehow, she was still asleep. His son would have screamed at the smallest disturbance – he had a feeling he would grow up to be a handful. Maybe this one would be more agreeable. Against his better judgement, Lucius decided to leave the soft blanket as it was, rather than transfiguring the fabric into the hospital standard. Instead of sleeping, even though she was exhausted, Narcissa had stayed up through the night, carefully embroidering the blanket with the name she knew Celeste had chosen, should she have a girl. How she managed to do it would forever be a mystery to Lucius – she couldn't have been seeing very well through her tears and only by firelight. It was one of Dracos blankets, embroidered in the other corner with his personal monogram. He thought it was rather fitting, considering how their destinies were entwined.
This was not the future he had wanted for his son. He hadn't wanted to take away his choice, especially since they had betrothed him to a girl who wouldn't grow up with the same customs and the same culture as they had. At least Narcissa would be able to keep an eye on her and teach her from a distance, but he feared they would have no common ground to stand on, when the time came, and his son would hate him for sure.
His wife was certain it would work though. She had performed the spell thrice, to be sure, all while he and Evan stood beside her feeling useless. She had declared them compatible enough. Enough to make it work well between them, but not so much as to make them complacent.
When he was done, he turned to the parents. He smiled sadly. The mother was lying in the bed and the father slumped over in the chair, still holding her hand. He steeled himself for what he had to do. It was wrong on so many points, he just hoped the gods would forgive him.
"Obliviate"
He removed the memory of the heartbreak they had been through, replacing it with that of giving birth to a healthy baby girl. He planted the memory of the mother, embroidering the blanket and thus cementing the girl's name.
Hermione.
He finished them off with a light cheering charm, to chase away any lingering melancholy and turned to the nurse next. He took the small bundle from her, careful to handle it gently out of respect. Through the imperio, he ordered her to go redact the medical record, showing that the couple hadn't lost their baby, but gained a daughter. He sniffed at the surname "Granger" it wasn't exactly pretty, but it had some relatively powerful connotations to the potion's society. Severus would probably be pleased.
He turned on his heel and disapparated. Once the parents woke, probably when the little girl was hungry, they would only remember having fallen asleep, exhausted from the toll the birth would have taken. Their eyes would be sensitive, but both would assume they had cried tears of happiness. They had no reason to be sad anymore after all.
...
Arriving at the gates of the Manor, he held the little one closer against the wind. He walked the rest of the long way to the main house, where he was met by a house elf as soon as he entered.
"M-master?" The creature stuttered, its big green eyes more directed at the bundle in his arms, rather than him. He gave the elf a small smile.
"Take this and put it in the room with mistress Celeste"
He realised then, that he hadn't even thought to check if it was a boy or a girl. He honestly wasn't sure he had the stomach to do it. One thing was knowing what was in the blankets – to see it would be something entirely different. He gave it to the elf and sighed heavily when he heard the crack as it disappeared. Suddenly feeling very worn, he dragged his feet to the drawing room, going directly for the drinks cart, where he poured himself an indecent amount of brandy.
He looked around the room, without really seeing it, lost in his thoughts about what he had just done and what the future might bring. He didn't even hear Evan enter the room.
"How did it go?" He asked hesitantly, sitting down on the opposite sofa, reminiscent of the night before.
"As expected. I brought the other one back with me. I have a feeling this will come back to haunt me in the future." Lucius grimaced after taking a bit too large gulp of his brandy.
Evan nodded and sighed.
"I apologise, Lucius"
"Don't worry about it. You would have done the same." He waved him off.
Evan looked at him sadly, shaking his head. "No, that's not what I mean. I apologise for this."
"What do y-"
"Obliviate"
Lucius went completely still as Evan extracted his memories of the last day. He siphoned them into a small glass vial, stoppered it and put it in his pocket. He then went on to change the memories left in his mind. Now, all Lucius knew was that he had come through the fireplace with his wife and child – both dead. It was the best he could do for his daughter's protection, even if his heart was breaking at the thought. He leaned back in the sofa and looked at Lucius. He seemed frozen in time and Evan knew that it would be approximately thirty minutes before his brain had caught up with the new memories and he would return. He had work to do in the meantime.
Tracking down Narcissa had been easy, considering the vastness of the Manor. He found her in a rocking chair in the nursery, almost dozing, with her son on her chest. She hadn't seen him, and he whispered the forgetting spell, directing the wand at the back of her head, extracting her memories in the same manner as he had done with her husband. He had left both of them with memories of parts of their conversation from the night before – namely Narcissas promise to continue their work and their promise to obliviate him, should he be caught and interrogated. He wouldn't talk under torture, he knew that from experience, but if they brought out Veritaserum, Narcissa and Lucius would be doomed for everything he knew of their involvement with the Dark Lord and their little secret organisation.
They would remember nothing of the plans to hide his daughter and nothing of the magical marriage contract, currently lying in his pocket.
Speaking of pockets, he slowly snatched the piece of parchment out of Narcissas outer robe pocket, careful not the disturb the baby, and added the name he had snatched from Lucius' head
Hermione Granger.
He frowned. The strange last name bothered him.
He was running out of time and ran to Lucius' study to grab an envelope, where he gently deposited the marriage contract and added the two glass vials after casting heavy protection charms on them. He hastily scribbled a note with instructions to the goblin in charge of his accounts and attached it to the envelope. Next, he ran like the devil was at his heels to the owlery, where he borrowed one of the Malfoy owls to send it towards Gringotts, where the secret would be safe until it was time.
He dashed back towards the drawing room, careful to catch his breath, fixing his hair not to appear too windswept. He plopped down in the chair, just in time to see Lucius blinking in confusion
"What were we talking about? I seem to have lost track of the conversation" He frowned. It wasn't like him to zone out like that, especially around company.
"Don't worry – we've had a rough night. We were talking about our next move. You are going to continue being you. Arrogant snooty –" He waved around vaguely.
"Yes, yes, like my royal self" Lucius finished, rolling his eyes.
"Narcissa is going to continue our project and I'm going after those bastards." He gritted out.
"How very Gryffindor of you" Lucius noted.
Evan snorted. "There's nothing noble in what I'm going to do. I simply know I can't run forever. None of the sides are going to let me live, so I prefer to go out fast, rather than torturous." Evan shrugged.
Lucius briefly considered drugging his friend and throwing him on a deserted island, but both of them knew that there was a high risk that the Dark Lord could track them through the mark. He hated both their fathers just a little more then – they had thrown their families into this, with no consideration for their well-being and there was no way out.
He actually hoped the Order would find a way to end this, fast. Maybe his friend could find a way to stay alive then. Unfortunately, that meant they would most likely go to Azkaban instead and he didn't want to leave his wife and baby behind. He looked up as he heard the delicate footsteps of said wife entering the room.
"Draco is asleep. Ellie is watching him." She said quietly, as if she was still scared to wake the baby, even though he was on another floor and far down another corridor. She sat down next to him and slid a hand in one of his. Lucius turned and kissed her hair.
"I need another favour" Evan interrupted their tender moment, not quite ready to see something like that, without his own wife's hand to hold.
Evan grimaced. "I have an issue with a house elf."
Narcissa looked at him, perplexed "A house elf? How can one have a problem with a house elf, other than not having one?"
He scratched the back of his head again. "This one is different - unstable. Has been ever since we bought him. He truly has a mind of his own. We were never able to bond with him properly, and I suspect that has something to do with the predicament we're in now. I think he's already been bonded with another wizard and that this bond hasn't been properly severed. I'm almost certain that he has been working as a double agent of sorts and feeding information to his previous wizard. That's how the Order knew how to find us tonight and the reason Celeste went into labour and the reason I couldn't go to get Severus to help her." He sneered. "I want you to keep the elf and try to find out who owned him before. Find out who set us up, by any means necessary, but be careful around him. I think he can communicate somehow with his old owner."
"I've never heard of anything like that" Lucius frowned.
"Me neither, but he was conspicuously absent just before the attack started and I've always had a bad feeling about him. Celeste thinks… thought that I was crazy." Evan looked at the carpet, embarrassed at his slip up. He jumped when he felt Narcissas hand on his shoulder, not having noticed her moving from the other sofa.
Her eyes were hard "We will take him and never let him forget his place." Her voice was steel, and Evan almost felt himself shiver. He nodded
"I'm happy to hear that. I drew up a contract of ownership earlier, it's in my satchel. It just needs a magical signature from either of you, and then the bond will be transferred." He leaned down to retrieve the document and Lucius realised that his friend had plans on going sooner rather than later.
"I'll sign the document. What is the name of the elf?"
Evan nodded at him, looking grim. "Dobby."
He found the papers and put them on the small coffee table and Lucius went to get a quill and inkpot from a small bureau that stood in a corner. As he signed, the letters started glowing immediately, signifying the bond that was transferred to him, but the glow was dull and uneven – not like it was supposed to be. Lucius narrowed his eyes.
"We should start looking under 'magical bonds and contracts' in the library, Cissy."
Narcissa nodded thoughtfully. "We will start first thing tomorrow."
"I want to give Celeste, and the baby a proper burial, but then I'm off." Evan smiled ruefully.
Narcissa opened her mouth to protest, but Evan interrupted. "I need to do this. I thank you for all that you have done, but I need to go and at least try to exact my revenge. I might go down, but I'll take as many of them down with me as I can." He finished determinately.
Lucius nodded – he would probably do the same in his stead.
…
The sun was shining brightly, as if mocking them, as they stood in the gardens of Malfoy Manor. It was the smallest funeral Lucius had ever seen, with only himself, his wife and child and Evan attending. They had picked a beautiful spot near the rose bushes.
"Some day we will move her to your estate" Narcissa whispered, putting a hand on Evans shoulder. He was openly crying, his hand in fists.
The tombstone was very simple – something Lucius had cut from one of the many large pieces of marble that made one of the great walkways of the gardens. Evan himself had made the inscription in beautiful swirling letters.
Celeste and baby
Thank you
As Evan walked down the pathway leading back up to the main building, intent on going to the ministry and blasting the first Order member he saw to pieces, a letter arrived at a desk at Gringotts, containing the memories of Lucius and Narcissa and a marriage contract between Draco Lucius Malfoy and Hermione Rosier.