Today had been a busy day for the Malfoys, the fact they only managed four hours of sleep – and one of the peaceful – did not help the fact that they were already exhausted and fractious by the time they were, once again, forced to be dragged unceremoniously to the Ministry to be harassed by unfounded accusations. Underneath the glacial veneer of pride and disdain, the Malfoys were like the water of Niagara Falls, especially Lucius, painfully aware of where he was and what he was doing merely twelve hours ago, and of what he was hiding in his house.
"I'm thinking I should pay Adeline a visit today," Lucius said, looking thoughtfully into his cup of Earl Grey tea, "I ought to tell her in person, if she doesn't know already. I owe Evan that."
"That's a lovely idea Lucius," Narcissa replied, grimacing momentarily as she imagined poor Adeline, and her two little boys, how they were going to cope without Evan – she shuddered to imagine life if Lucius suddenly disappeared. "Would you like me to accompany you? I haven't seen Adeline for quite some time…and I hope to see how she is doing."
"Of course – I am sure Adeline would love to see you too."
Lucius stuck his head into the fireplace, and was greeted by Ammi, the Rosiers' house elf.
"Mr. Malfoy!" the elf squealed, knocking over a vase she was dusting before quickly repairing it and placing it back onto the shelf. "Mistress is not expecting sir me think! Should – should Ammi inform mistress?"
"Yes. Of course." Lucius snapped, honestly, house elves can be really quite dense sometimes, of course that stupid thing should go inform Adeline – Lucius did not go around sticking his head into other people's fireplaces as a pastime. "And hurry – this is an important matter." He hated talking to people through the fireplace, looking up at them from the floor, it was not a position he enjoyed.
The elf came scurrying back a few moments later, to resume her cleaning, followed by Mrs. Adeline Rosier, her auburn hair down, the strands near her face wet, her dark coal like eyes glassy and unfocused. As soon as she saw Lucius she blinked twice, deliberately and slowly, as if to bring herself back to the present and to form some socially acceptable response to a visitor.
"Lucius, how nice of you to call – I do hope you and Narcissa are well – I'm terribly sorry – for the state I am in – now is not the best time, if I am honest –"
"Narcissa and I will be coming over, we need to talk – I know what happened, Adeline," Lucius told her, softening his tone towards the end.
"Oh! Ah right – well, of course, you and Narcissa are always welcome," Adeline replied, forcing a small smile.
Lucius and Narcissa arrived in the foyer of the Rosier's residence a few moments later, waiting for Ammi to show them to Adeline. Lucius was almost knocked to the ground, and he looked down at a head of auburn curls. The small boy froze, slowly and apprehensively looking up at the figure which he just crashed into.
"I am terribly sorry, Mr Malfoy! I didn't see you, you see!" he explained, panting slightly, his face flushed, "I was just playing with Alfie and – promise you won't tell mother? She looked like she wasn't in a very good mood this morning," he continued, his round, golden brown eyes sheepishly looking at Lucius.
"It is quite alright, Edmund, Mr. Malfoy isn't hurt, and we promise we won't tell your mother, but only if you promise to be more careful and watch where you are going from now on. Hmm?" Narcissa comforted the young boy, kneeling down to smooth out his ruffled shirt, patting his head affectionately, but before he could reply, the sound of rapid, light footsteps was followed swiftly another boy, who nearly crashed into the first, before snatching something from the former's hand.
"Give it back to me! It's my dragon!"
"It is not your dragon! It's mine, Eddie! It's not my fault yours fell into the water!"
"It's not fair – you were the one who wanted to see if dragons swim. They don't swim, you idiot!"
"Edmund! Alfred! What is going on?" Adeline appeared on the stairs. She looked worse than she did in the fire, Lucius observed, now he could see just how red and blotchy her tear stained cheeks are, and just how much she was shaking; her hands gripping the elegantly carved mahogany horse head on the corner of the banister like talons in an effort to still herself.
"We're sorry, mother," the two boys simultaneously said, looking sheepishly at the ground.
"But Eddie started it – he took my dragon!"
"I thought you both had a dragon each."
"I only took Alfie's dragon because he made me –"
"That's quite enough, boys. I'll buy you another dragon sometime. Now, as you can see, we have guests, please keep the noise down."
As the boys ran off to play undisturbed, Adeline sighed and gestured to the Malfoys to follow her as she re-entered the room from which she had silently emerged a few moments before. As soon as the door was closed behind Narcissa, Adeline collapsed into an armchair, her small frame sinking into the moss green cushion as she folded in on herself and buried her head in her hands.
"What am I to do?" She said dully, her auburn hair cascading over her face.
"When did you find out?" Lucius gently enquired.
Adeline looked up and gestured toward the round table in the middle of the room, where a piece of paper with the black ministry seal laid.
Dear Mrs. Adeline Rosier,
It is with the deepest regret that I must inform you of the death of your husband Mr Evan Rosier last night. The exact details of your husband's death are still to be confirmed but as soon as we are certain you shall be the first to be informed. Due to the circumstances of your Mr Rosier's death we would like to ask you to come to the Auror office as soon as possible to clear up issues, and unfortunately, we cannot release Mr Rosier's body back to you yet, but we are endeavouring to do that as soon as we can.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Alastor Moody, Head Auror, Department of Magical Law Enforcement
How absolutely despicable! Holding Evan's body over Adeline to force her to talk to them – this was disgracefully desperate and Narcissa was internally seething, shocked that the aurors could sink so low. But then again, she ought not to be so surprised, after all, it one cannot expect much better from Alastor Moody. The Moody family was a respectable enough pure-blood wizarding family – Nestor Moody, Alastor's father, however, was very vocal in his advocacy for stricter laws against blood discrimination, going as far as marrying a mudblood after Alastor's mother died. Thank Merlin that Nestor was merely a member of a junior branch of the family; the Moodys who still resided in Glendon Castle, were almost as pure as the first wizards.
"I have to talk to them, don't I" Adeline said resignedly as if reading Narcissa's mind, as she started shaking.
Narcissa quietly and gently sat down next to Adeline, glancing up at her husband, who had remained motionless, glaring slightly at him. Lucius has never been good with strong outward bursts of emotion, both positive and negative, doing absolutely nothing with an expression of shock was one of his better reactions. Narcissa knew her husband to be an intelligent man and it surprised her that he did not think about the extremely high possibility of an outpouring of grief – Adeline had just found out her husband was killed, for Merlin's sake. A healthy amount of time passed before Adeline was able to calm down enough that her sentences were no longer incomprehensible from being interspersed with sobs, by which time multiple handkerchiefs were soaked with tears. Narcissa summoned Ammi the elf to fetch them some tea – a hot beverage always helps distract oneself from one's troubles, she thought, at the very least, holding something warm in her hands always brought Narcissa a small degree of comfort. Narcissa grabbed the teapot but Lucius snatched the cup from her hands, taking out his flask and proceeded to fill the cup with a good half of the contents, before handing it to Adeline.
"Firewhisky. Drink up – you definitely need something stronger than tea."
Adeline hesitantly took a small sip, before downing the entire cup moments later, shuddering as she felt the amber liquid burn her throat and insides, leaving a growing warmth. Now that Adeline was calm enough, they began discussing what to do next, after such a terrible event, and in what ways they could help. The Malfoys promised to help in whatever ways possible, the first being getting Evan's body released without Adeline talking to the aurors, of course, there were a multitude of options for her to talk to them without revealing anything incriminating, however, this was about the integrity, the pride, of preventing Moody from gaining the upper hand.
"Thank you, truly. Lucius, Narcissa, I cannot imagine what I would be doing without you. I know this must be hard for you, associating with the family of a Death Eater, what people will say. Evan would have been glad to have friends such as yourselves."
"Evan was my cousin, don't forget. You are family and I will do anything to protect my family," Narcissa replied, firmly but gently.
By the time the Malfoys returned to the Manor, Draco had just woken up from his nap.
"Master Draco is crying for you mistress Narcissa, he woke up a small while before you came back, Dobby is going to make some food for master Draco now," Dobby said, taking Lucius and Narcissa's thick woollen cloaks before disappearing to the kitchen. Draco was indeed wide awake; he was standing in his wooden crib, his round hands grabbing the top of the crib for support, as he unsuccessfully attempted to climb out, impatiently waiting for Dobby to return as promised with his food. When Narcissa opened the door instead, Draco let out an excited gurgle and started bouncing up and down in his crib.
"Mama! Mama! I'm hungry! Dobby said he is going to get me food!"
"Draco darling," Narcissa walked over to the crib and gently lifted Draco up into her arms, "indeed he is, I'm sure Dobby is coming soon."
"Dobby has some sage and pumpkin soup for master Draco."
"Just leave the tray on the table Dobby. You can leave us now."
"Mummy I don't want pumpkin soup. I don't like pumpkin. I want a chocolate cauldron instead." Narcissa smiled at her son's indignant expression, his large grey eyes, so much like his father's in colour but hers in shape, staring up imploringly at her. Narcissa affectionately pinched his chubby cheek, chuckling as she explained how he couldn't possibly dislike pumpkin when he somehow managed to finish two whole pumpkin pasties the other day. Draco gave up and resigned himself to be fed by his mother. The door opened once again, this time, by Lucius.
"I thought I would find you here."
Narcissa smiled at her husband, gesturing for him to come closer – so did Draco, grappling at the air between him and his father with outstretched hands. He walked towards mother and son, taking out a small packet from the inner pocket of his robes.
"Look what I have for my favourite son!" Lucius handed the packet to Draco, dropping it into his outstretched palms.
"A chocolate cauldron!" As soon as Draco realised what it was, he snatched it from his father's hand and held it tightly to his chest with both hands, looking up at his mother gleefully.
"Lucius!" Narcissa gently hit his arm, "you know I've been trying to wean him off sweets – soon Draco will refuse to eat anything else."
"I don't see why he can't have a chocolate cauldron. He held up his end of the bargain judging by the now empty bowl of pumpkin soup, the boy deserves a reward," Lucius smirked, taking Draco from Narcissa's arms, helping him open the wrapper.
Narcissa looked at her husband and son; she was proud of the family she had – the family she helped create. It was perfect, she wished she could spend the rest of her days like this, in Malfoy Manor, surrounded by Lucius and Draco, happy and safe – most importantly of all, together. Since Draco's birth, there has not been many opportunities where all three Malfoys were together; at the height of the Dark Lord's reign, Lucius had gone out most nights, and in the daytime, he was busy at the Ministry, trying his hardest to act like a man who did not, in fact, spend the night killing muggles. Narcissa had hoped, that the Dark Lord's demise would at least mean her, and her family's lives would return to peace and safety – even if it did mean losing the war against bloodtraitors and mudbloods.
"How dare he? Holding Evan's dead body over our heads? As a – as a reward for Adeline talking to him?" Narcissa seethed, "Does that man have no respect for a dead man's family?"
"Moody doesn't respect Death Eaters, Cissa," replied Lucius dully, flopping down onto a nearby cushion, "or their families."
"Is there truly nothing we can do? Lucius, I refuse to believe that there is nobody in the Ministry you can talk to, to persuade Moody to reconsider."
"Right. But do I know someone who has the authority to force Moody to reconsider? I can hardly ask Barty Crouch over a glass of firewhisky to let Moody release the body of a dangerous Death Eater back to his dangerous Death Eater family, can I?"
"Well, why in Merlin's name can't you? I recall us having a rather pleasant conversation with him at the celebration event."
"Possibly. We would have to play up the family rationale though – he is very principled; he will only help you if her morals allow."
"Morals. Does that make him feel better about himself?" Narcissa sniffed, the corner of her mouth twitching in a smirk – she never really had much respect nor understanding for people's morals; having them seemed rather close minded, and as a member of the Black family, she has had more than her fair share of judgement from people who fancied themselves morally superior – luckily, judgement was rarely from anyone of any importance to her.
"Don't be too harsh, darling, not everyone is rich enough to do whatever they want and get away with it."
"Come to think of it, we haven't hosted a good party in quite a while – it is about time the wizarding world is honoured by another Malfoy party, don't you agree Lucius?"
"Are you hoping that a sufficient dosing of our Superior Red will persuade him to bend his morals?"
"Of course not darling – did you even see him at the party?" Narcissa asked teasingly, rolling the ball which Draco has been playing with back towards him. "we are going to need something much stronger."
Their own dinner was interrupted by Dobby, who informed them that two wizards from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were outside the gates.
"We couldn't get through your gate this time, Mr Malfoy," Dawlish, the older, smaller wizard said, almost apologetically.
"Well you see, the gate is enchanted for the very purpose of keeping unwanted visitors away," replied Lucius, smirking into his napkin as he dabbed the corners of his mouth. After members of the DMLE had rudely barged into Malfoy Manor last time, Lucius made certain that the iron gate did not allow entry for anyone from the ministry without Lucius's prior consent.
"Why would we be unwanted visitors then?" Shacklebolt interjected, his nostrils flaring slightly at the implication.
"You arrive unannounced not once, but twice at Malfoy Manor, with no concrete reasons, demanding that we drop whatever it is we are doing and allow ourselves to be hastily dragged to the Ministry for whatever unfounded accusations you decide to throw at us!"
"We don't make the rules, Malfoy. And neither do you – so I suggest you both follow me so we can get this over and done with. Moody doesn't take too kindly to his Death Eater investigations being held up and he doesn't care how many friends you have in the Ministry either."
"Mr Dawlish, you seem like a reasonable man," Narcissa slowly took a sip from her glass, gritting her teeth slightly on the rim as she endeavoured to remain composed, "please inform your colleague that it is in very poor taste to threaten a man in his own home and that whilst Mr. Moody might not care about our friends in the Ministry, he should."
"We do not mean to threaten, Mrs Malfoy, I'm sure you'll appreciate that we are only doing our job"
Neither Malfoy replied to Dawlish, instead choosing to carry on with their dinner as though their unwanted guests were not standing over them.
"We'll, er, wait for you to finish, then," Dawlish continued, clearly uneasy at the silence, he jerked slightly, making a move to sit down before thinking better of it and deciding to remain standing. Narcissa looked down at her venison and red wine stew, smiling as she proceeded to leisurely break off a piece of bread, fully aware of how uneasy the Aurors felt, forcing herself not to chuckle as she saw from the corner of the eye, Dawlish check his pocket watch with a hint of impatience. Her satisfaction, unfortunately, was short-lived; a few moments later she felt the presence of Shacklebolt looming over her, casting a shadow on her plate and her mood.
"I was not aware you were planning on forcibly removing us from our home," Lucius drawled, raising his eyebrow at Shacklebolt who was standing annoyingly close behind his wife.
"No, Mr Malfoy, but can you hurry up? – we actually have a job to do."
"Certainly," replied Lucius with a slight sneer, whilst slowly and deliberately refilling Narcissa's glass to the brim with red wine before pouring an equally generous amount into his own glass. When the Malfoy had finally finished with their meal, they followed the now impatient aurors to the black ministry car parked outside the Manor gates.
The room which the aurors led them to was significantly better than the previous room; to be sure it was still a dimly lit interrogation room, but it did not feel so claustrophobically underground, most likely because of the absence of the damp and dusty smell which was so noticeable before. Even the chairs in this room were upholstered.
"Mr and Mrs Malfoy, we offer my sincerest apologies for the short notice, I am afraid it is Mr Crouch who decided the rules. We hope that you were not too inconvenienced. Please, take a seat, I'm afraid these are not very comfortable but let us hope we do not keep you here too long," an unfamiliar voice said, before the owner of that voice stepped forward to greet the new arrivals.
Narcissa turned to the new voice and regarded the young man to whom it belonged carefully; he was enshrouded in a deep blue robes, the turned-up collar covering the bottom half of his face, the slashes on the sleeves exposing the white silk shirt underneath.
"Look who decided to show up in the end," Shacklebolt muttered as he took off his cloak and flung it onto the back of one of the chairs.
"Apologies, Shacklebolt, for my lateness, there was an urgent matter which required my most undivided attention. Ah, but I see both Malfoys are here, so it seemed you managed perfectly despite my absence."
"What is he doing here, Kingsley?" The shorter wizard Dawlish asked his partner, "does he have clearance for the Malfoy case?"
"Mr John Dawlish I presume? Allow me to introduce myself – Bertrand Urquhart. I joined the Ministry in the Department of Mysteries last year, but I've decided to broaden my horizons. Mr Crouch was kind enough to allow me to participate in these recent investigations."
Urquhart sat down, resting his chin in one his hands and crossing his legs leisurely, as though showing off his dragon hide boots which seemed to shine even in the dim light of the interrogation room. The two aurors proceeded to follow him, and sat down opposite Lucius and Narcissa, Shacklebolt gesturing for Urquhart to hand over some files.
"Mr Evan Rosier was killed last night, if you were not already awa-"
"I am." Lucius interrupted curtly.
Shacklebolt leaned forward and raised one eyebrow slowly, regarding Lucius slowly. "You are already aware that Mr. Rosier was killed?"
Bullocks.
"I am aware that Evan is dead; my wife and I were informed by Adeline Rosier earlier today," replied Lucius smoothly.
Shacklebolt did not look entirely convinced, whilst he was perusing the contents of the file, Dawlish was already furiously scribbling notes down. Urquhart did not move at all; he barely gave any indication that he even acknowledged the interaction, except for his deep eyes which moved, observing and scrutinising each person carefully. The interview continued like this – questions about Evan Rosier and the Malfoy's relationship with him, Lucius and Narcissa answering, pretending to have absolutely no idea of his Death Eater activities, and the aurors being unconvinced of their answers. They can suspect all they want, but Narcissa was certain they do not have any concrete proof; after all, one can not be charged for being the cousin and childhood friend of someone who, to the surprise of everyone, turned out to be a dangerous dark wizard. Quite frankly, she was starting to become bored and annoyed at the questions; the aurors' feeble attempts to find a weak point in their story were failing miserably. The aurors, too, were starting to show signs of frustration; Shacklebolt shuffled the pages from the file with more and more ferocity, whilst Dawlish, for the past ten minutes had begun moving restlessly in his seat, readjusting and fiddling with his robes more and more frequently. Their discomfort must have been more than obvious, as Urquhart suddenly interrupted the interrogation, to suggest a short break. Dawlish looked quite visibly relieved as he dropped his quill down on the table and leaned back in his chair, yawning as he announced he was going to go make some tea. Everyone except Shacklebolt declined his offer, who then decided to accompany his colleague, leaving the Malfoys in the charge of Urquhart, who, after his brief but well received contribution to the conversation, seemed to return to be a statue in the shadows.
"They do not have anything, Mr Malfoy. You are aware that everything they have asked is purely speculation." Urquhart's ocean blue eyes remaining fixed on Lucius, never breaking his gaze even when casually blowing away a strand of wavy black hair which fell in front of his face. His face instantly returned to its previous expression of indifference as he broke the stare and cast his eyes down, fixating on a dent in the table, as Shacklebolt and Dawlish returned, each holding a cup of tea.
"We have reason to believe that Rosier was operating as a part of a wider plan, in reaction to the recent arrest of another Death Eater, Antonin Dolohov."
Lucius locked eyes with Urquhart, who's dark blue eyes were staring intently at Lucius's grey ones – he was almost certainly trying to convey some sort of message. Lucius, unfortunately, was at a loss as to what exactly he was attempting to communicate, understandably, seeing as half of Urquhart's face was obscured by the shadow, and his expression has not altered since sitting down. Lucius did not react.
"We suspect that Rosier's actions were a part of a plan to rescue Dolohov before he is sent to Azkaban. You see, we think the Rosier was working as a part of a larger group of unidentified Death Eaters, otherwise he wouldn't have been brave or stupid enough to challenge a group of aurors for no good reason. Shame he died though. That must have put a pretty damn big spanner in the works."
What complete fools, Urquhart was right, they knew nothing.
"Where were you last night, Mr Malfoy?"
"Why, I was at home."
"Were you, Mr Malfoy? Well that is interesting, because you see, Amelia Bones – she's an auror trainee – went to Malfoy Manor last night right after we identified Rosier's body. Do you know what she said to me Malfoy? She said, that when she got to your enchanted gate and asked to see you, your gate told her that neither Malfoy was at home. I think you need to have that charm of yours checked, your gate seems quite confused."
"It is true, Mr Shacklebolt. Lucius and I were not at home last night. We were, along with our son, with my uncle Orion, at Grimmauld Place," Narcissa explained smoothly, her face impassive as she gently placed her hand on top of Lucius's leg under the table.
"If that is the case why did you not say that, Mr Malfoy?" Dawlish asked.
"My uncle is gravely ill. As you are aware, Sirius Black, disowned but nevertheless his eldest son, had his trial yesterday morning, and the same day, an article appeared in the Daily Prophet slandering my family. I am afraid, that coupled with an already weak heart, it was rather too much of a shock for him."
"Oh, er we are sorry about your uncle."
"Of course, we did not want the news to get out – the name Black has been in the papers far more frequently than we would prefer – so my aunt instructed us to keep it between us and pretend as if nothing has happened."
"If you want proof, by all means, ask my aunt, Walburga Black, I am sure she will be thrilled to have members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement intruding on her potentially last moments with her husband. In fact, if you do not believe her either, you can always ask the healer who treated my uncle – chronic heart illnesses are very hard to fake"
"Mrs Malfoy, we, well, that won't be necessary. If that is the case, then I think we are done here, we have all we need for now."
"I'll show Mr and Mrs Malfoy out," Urquhart announced, rising swiftly from his chair, smiling as he straightened his robes, "have a pleasant evening, folks," he said to the aurors, not turning back as he flung open the door and stepped into the bright corridor. The Malfoys followed him out to the lifts, eager to leave now that the questioning was over.
"Once again, Mr and Mrs Malfoy, I regret the unfortunate circumstances in which we met, but it was a pleasure, nonetheless - my friend and colleague speaks very highly of you, Mr Malfoy, he mentioned you offered him assistance in many situations in the past." Urquhart turned towards the Malfoys, as they all waited for the arrival of their respective lifts.
"Might I enquire the name of this esteemed colleague?"
"Augustus Rookwood, Mr Malfoy." Urquhart replied, just as the lift doors opened and he entered, nodded to the Malfoys before the doors slid shut and the lift was whisked away.
'