The War and Peace of Arundal Granville

Arundal stood with Narcissa Malfoy studying a blond child as he played with one of the albino peacocks. "He's not very…."

"I know," his mother sighed. "Dignified. Apparently, you can train that into them."

Arundal chuckled, "And how are his parents? Still recovering from the Imperius curse?"

Narcissa gave her a haughty sniff. "Oh yes, we are all very much recovered. It's cost us a lot."

"Is that why you called me here?"

The blond child let out a scream as the peacock tried to peck at him. Narcissa watched as the child screwed up his face and the peacock turned into a wooden toy. "Little Draco's got some fight in him."

"He needs to stop that, he's going to get a caution," she poked him with her toe. "Stop it child."

"I do like Malfoy Manor," Arundal sighed as she looked around the estate's lavish gardens. "Wiltshire's a lovely part of the world."

Narcissa wasn't listening. She was still poking Draco with her toe, trying to push him so he faced away from her. "I don't know what to do with him. He's too young to teach and he smiles all the time, I don't know why he's so happy. I can't have a conversation with him."

"Oh, he'll grow up soon enough, and turn sour like the rest of us."

"As long as he's not as snivelling and pathetic as his father." she bit her lip, "You know, I might have to use a memory wipe on you. Lucius is- he's not himself, I do love him though."

"Don't worry Ciss, it's only natural to be angry with the situation. Macnair is working as an executioner for the Ministry now, he disposes of dangerous creatures. Avery's gone back to his mums. Even Greyback's gone into hiding in Germany, I saw him recently, but I didn't stick around for long as you can imagine. Everybody's doing what they need to do to survive. I'm sure he's dead but if he is out there somewhere he'll have no choice but to accept it, or he won't have many followers left."

"It's so easy for you to talk about the Dark Lord like he's a puppy, isn't it?"

"That's never been true."

"We're reduced to houselves. Our name is worse than shit and those filthy mudbloods who think they won spit at us in the streets." she turned her nose up, but Arundel saw only relief in her eyes.

"I suppose this little creature is all that matters now," Arundel put her hands in her pockets and studied baby Draco.

"You think my husband will let it lie? He's furious, he has a dream of blood purity that will never be realised."

"Am I here to restore your good name?"

Narcissa motioned to one of her servants to take Draco and she turned and started to walk back to the house. "Lucius wants some items hidden before the ministry inevitably raid us. We need to seem repentant, he's in London at the moment speaking to Fudge. soon enough the Ministry will rely on so much Malfoy gold nobody will dare touch us. He'll be back in an hour or so," She laughed, but it was humourless and exhausted. "Come with me."

Nacissa took Arundel down to the vaults below the house, here the Malfoy family kept all their contraband. The things that were too valuable or too dangerous to have anywhere else in the house. She moved to a locked cabinet and took out five items, including a book and a necklace and handed them to Arundel. "He gave Lucius this as a gift, right?" she muttered as she put the items into her charmed bag. "It looks so... boring."

"I don't need to tell you how important these items are to our family. Here," she pulled a chequebook from her pocket and wrote a promise for two hundred gallons.

"They will go in my vault. I'll deliver them personally, and as a reassurance I'll give you this too," Arundel pulled a quill and a piece of parchment from her charmed bag and she wrote upon death or failure to return loan after five years, Arundel Granville hereby states that she owes the sum worth of five items from her vault or a total of three thousand Gallons. Narcissa read it and seemed satisfied. "How would you like it transfigured?"

"Perhaps a ring, silver with an emerald?" She held out her hand, and dutifully Arundel folded and wrapped the parchment around her finger and then passed her own hand across it, muttering as she did. The paper turned silver, shrunk and transformed.

"Does it fit?"

"Beautifully, thank you for doing this for us," Narcissa turned and moved to the stairs and the two women walked up together. "Your clothes?" Narcissa asked as they ascended, as if approaching a delicate subject. "They are very…" she let the distaste linger. Arundel grinned and pushed the trapdoor open.

"Very muggle?" she asked. "One has to blend in Ciss."

"Well," Narcissa looked a little nervous at that and she took a pot of flue powder from the mantle and stood looking into the open lid. "It would make me very happy if you could join us for dinner tonight, we're having pheasant and we were going to play swivenhodge."

Arundel had to laugh, the idea of Narcissa on a broomstick was too funny not to. Luckily the proud woman saw the funny side too and she tilted her chin proudly, "I'm quite good you know."

"I'll be there, and I'll dress appropriately too."

"I'm very happy you've come back," Narcissa told her. "I've grown quite lonely you know. My sisters are gone, my friends are in hiding and my family name is in tatters. You don't know how welcome a friendly face is at a time like this."

Arundel put her hand on Narcissa's arm and couldn't help feel moved by her outburst. "I'll see you for dinner," she said.

Arundel stood looking up the Doric columns, and twisted snow white stonework of the Gringotts Bank. It towered over the other shops of Diagon Alley and the sky behind it was such a dark shade of grey that it made the stonework glow. There was such an unnatural light, lemon-scented and yet so bleak, that she thought it must be cursed, the world was an unhealthy monochromatic yellow. The sign above the bank stated 'Fortius Quo Fidelius,' Strength Through Loyalty. It was a saying that had always peeved her. Loyalty to what? she thought as she ran up the stairs to the arched front door. Money, most likely. What other loyalty was there, fear?

And, if money was the object of devotion, here were the disciples. Rows of desks extended through the marble hallway, from the great doors to the entrance of the vaults. Arundel made her way to one of them and cleared her throat. The Goblin looked at her down his long nose. "Granville," he sighed, with a parchment dry voice. "I'll get the master."

After a good half hour wait, a very old Goblin made his way through the crowds of wizards. He was dressed in lavish golden robes, with red velvet trim. His beard was nearly brushing his feet. Some people turned to study him, others whispered when they saw the bank manager in person. It was very rare indeed for somebody so esteemed to deal with a customer directly.

"Good to see you Mr Gingold."

"The usual checks apply my dear," he croaked, "Do follow me."

He led Arundel into the vaults and she gave the goblin a key. He nodded and they got into a minecart. "Hold on," he told her and the thing launched down a shoot into the mines below. It picked up so much speed that sometimes it left the tracks altogether. They passed a waterfall and dragons and down and down they went until they reached vault nine hundred at the bottom of a very tiny shaft which they crawled through and entered a cavern. Here a huge stone snake coiled and with their entry, it began to move, until the head was poised to strike at them.

"Open for your master," Arundel commanded in Parseltongue, and she cut her finger and held it up. The stone snake's head came close, its tongue flicked as it smelled her blood and then it unhinged its jaw and inside its mouth were stairs.

"May I come in too?" Gringold asked, the eagerness in his voice was clear. Only two goblins were able to come and go from this vault and they both had strong curses put on them to prevent them from talking about what was inside.

"I don't see that it matters if you do," Granville said with a shrug. "But the whole things cursed. If you try and take anything you'll explode."

She showed the goblin up the stairs, unlocked the inner door, and they entered a huge vault crammed with shiny coins and artefacts that an Egyptian pharaoh would have coveted.

"My my," Gingold sighed. "And they say a goblin's greedy."

"That's wicked," Arundel told him with a sharkish smile, she began to pull items out of her charmed purse and deposit them into boxes and cases around the vault. The Malfoy's items she put in a chest, and her own in a second box.

"Is it true? They say he who must not be named used your vault as his own."

Arundel paused and studied the Goblin, "There are some rumours you would best not pay credence to." She took the money and then turned to leave. "How is business, Gingold?" she asked as they left the snakes mouth and made their way back up the shaft to the cart.

"Oh," he sighed. "It'd be better if you worked for us again. We missed your curse breaking skills, a better tomb raider there never was."

"High praise indeed," she muttered as they clambered back in and set off. "I suppose Lucius has been active recently? I have a check to cash from him."

"I can't discuss other clients comings and goings but he's making a tidy sum from his muggle investments. You have too actually. We deposited another eight hundred gallons into your vault yesterday."

They talked economics the whole way back to the surface. Gingold bid her good day at the door, and much to her displeasure the sky was a waterfall.

In the shop, she changed from her oversized jumper and leggings into dress robes in black, with silver and purple trim. She wasn't sure why she was bothering to make such an effort, perhaps it was just nice to have people want to be around her. It didn't happen much these days. She'd brought a floor-length cape with the ability to repel water from the dress shop on her way back that she was quite looking forward to wearing. And she paid extra attention to her hair and makeup. When she was satisfied, which took about half an hour of preening and re-preening, she took the flu back to the Malfoys.

Narcissa was waiting for her with a glass of prosecco which she handed over after Arundel undid her cloak. "Dobby will take your cloak and hang it up, I need to keep an eye on the cooking but Lucius is in the parlour. You look lovely by the way."

Arundel chuckled and let the house elf do his job, he was a young nervous thing with very large ears and he looked at her with wide pleading eyes. "What?" she asked.

"Esteemed one- I..."

"Get on with your job," Narcissa snarled and with a flick of her wand like a whip he squealed and made himself scarce. "I do miss the Black family elf, Kreacher never would have been so obstinate. Do you have problems with yours?"

"I have no idea how our house elf is performing. I haven't seen my parents for years Narcissa,"

"Oh," Narcissa looked genuinely sorry, "I hope I never have such a rift with Draco."

"You know my family Ciss, we're fine, just distant from one another. They send me postcards sometimes you know."

"Your mother's book Bloodworks was fascinating. She actually argues for breeding with muggles. The section on squibs being the product of inbreeding was fascinating."

"The Darklord thought so, he spoke to her at length about it before she published. Some of his work is published under her name." At the mention of Voldemort, the corner of Narcissa's mouth twitched and Arundel thought she seemed regretful. "You said Lucius is in the parlour?"

Narcissa nodded, and made herself scarce as if she had said something uncouth. Arundel crossed the hall and paused by the parlour door, she could hear two voices coming from inside but they spoke so low she couldn't make out who they belonged to. She pushed the door and leaned on the frame, but when she saw who was with Lucius her heart fell. This evening had been doctored, the speed that the Malfoys acted to put it all together was impressive.

"Arundel," The head of the Malfoy family jumped up from the table, where a copy of the newspaper the Daily Proffit had been spread out. Arundel decided to ignore Lucius' guest and she hugged her host warmly. "Thank you for joining us, It's an honour to have you in our home again."

"It's good to see you. How's your head?" she asked with a huge smile, "I hear you had an awful spell cast on you?"

"Oh," Lucius rolled his eyes and pushed long blond hair back from his face, he nearly blushed, "I said what I needed to. I think our family will survive this but it's cost me dearly. Both financially and personally. Snape's had to do a lot of grovelling too, haven't you?"

Severus had the decency to try to make himself look busy whilst Arundel spoke to Lucius but now all attention was on him. He looked up from the Prophit and made an agreeable noise, but his eyes lingered on Arundel too long and a deep uneasy shame settled in her breast.

"I've avoided grovelling all together, you'll be pleased to know. It's business as usual, better than usual actually."

"So good that your back in England speaking to Auras?" Snape asked. Lucius' smile flickered. He looked back to Arundel with the question written across his face. But Arundel wasn't going to allow herself to feel uncomfortable by Snape's scrutiny, she was peeved however that he knew. Somebody must have said something, Burke perhaps, on the day he made himself scarce.

"Of course I have. They pay well too you know, no bites this time, however, a compleat bust."

"What were you trying to sell them?" Lucius wasn't to be deterred, "Perhaps I'll purchase it."

Arundel's smile grew as she realised Lucius was trying to use Legilimency on her. "You know Malfoy," she said almost flippantly, "Even Voldemort himself couldn't read my thoughts. Your skills are improving though, no need to use a wand now, very impressive."

Malfoy jerked as if he had been stung.

"And though he is dead, he did leave some business for me to attend to."

The proud, pale man coloured with shame. "Arundel," he sighed and looked away. "I trust you, I always have. You are one of our closest friends, but there are so many of us who question the nature of your work. If you just came back for good, if you stopped supplying the blood traitors and muggle born scum with artefacts too…"

"Do you think I care what people say about me? I have my orders, Lucius."

Snape cleared his throat, both of them turned to study him. Arundel's hands hooked onto her waist. "We're all adrift," he said. "And clutching at the debris of what was. So let's turn our attention to other things rather than complaining about the past."

"Like what?" She asked, unable to keep the displeasure from her voice. Snape's eyes lingered on her but she couldn't read his thoughts, she never could, and his face was as devoid of emotion as it ever was.

"Reverse engineering this potion for one, the Daily Profit's quiz section is getting interesting. Slughorn's writing it."

Lucius barked a laugh, "I'm going to see where my wife is." He didn't leave enough time for Arundel to say she was coming too so she was left in the parlour with Snape, who made it his business to completely ignore her. The clock ticking on the wall seemed to want to fill the silence as much as possible but in the process became maddening. She was sure Snape was smiling as he drummed his fingers on the table. Arundel sighed and came to sit down, she took the paper from him and looked at the competition with a sigh. "This is a draft that turns its subjects blind to all that they do not wish to see. It holds extracts of confusion and extracts of forgetfulness and some of a mirrored world." Arundel read the text out loud and then rolled her eyes and handed it back to Snape. "Merlin's Beard Sev," she muttered.

"There are six hundred or so confusion based potions," Snape told her. "Cross-referenced with those that have the same ingredients as Forgetfulness-"

"It's called Merlin's Beard."

"What?"

"Extract of Valium root, four parts water to three parts unicorn milk, a Bezoar stone crushed not sliced and ginger, garlic and white cloud moonflower."

Snape's sallow expression set on his face, he blinked once then sat back and folded the paper away. "Welcome back," he told her, his voice was incredibly dry.

Arundel started to laugh, "I did it this morning, I've been puzzling over it all day."

The tension was broken, but it came back as Arundel's laughter faded. Snape ran his thin fingers across the edge of the paper as he studied his nails, and Arundel knew that pleasantries would just fall flat until they had properly addressed the issue between them.

"You look good. Tanned. You've been away?"

"Yes."

"Where did you go?"

Was the hurt she heard through his voice put there on purpose in an attempt to make her feel guilty? Arundel leant back on her chair and made a careful study of the wood grain of the table top. "I couldn't stay in England with everything happening the way it did. With you putting-" she stopped. "I'll talk to you Severus, but not here and not like this."

"Where then? How am I to know if you will still be here in the morning? Will it be like last time where you promise me we can talk and then I find out three months later you are in Egypt, with a man called Faro." Snape chucked the prophet across the table inraged.

Arundel didn't respond, she watched as Snape mastered his emotions, brushed his hair out of his face and took a steadying breath.

"What happened to him anyway?"

"He died."

"Oh."

"Don't worry Sev, he had it coming." Even Arundel knew that sounded overly harsh, and noise outside the door made her aware that their guests were listening in through the keyhole. "I said we can talk. I mean it."

"Well, thank you so much for allowing me the chance to speak to you. You're so gracious," His voice dripped sarcasm.

"There's no need to be passive aggressive Severus," Arundel snapped. "Your acting like a child." She'd had enough she leant over the back of her chair and with a flick of her hand the door banged open. Narcissa and Lucius startled and stood up looking very flustered.

"The, um…." Narcissa sniffed and regained her dignity, "The food is served."

Arundel stood up and swept from the room without once looking at Severus again.

Dinner was awkward, Narcissa and Lucius sat at the heads of their table and Snape and Arundel were opposite each other. Narcissa played a fantastic host and made sure to steer the conversation away from anything that could spark a personal argument between Snape and Arundel, but it meant that conversation was forced.

"There's an unusual amount of hauntings at Hogwarts at the moment," Snape told them to keep the conversation going. "We've had to close off the lower vaults to staff and students."

"The castle has it's ghosts, what's new?"

"The nature of it is...unnatural."

Arundel tilted her head as she listened, but she said nothing, hoping that somebody would pick up the conversation more.

"That school is run by a menace," Lucius complained. "He's totally addled, he can't be trusted around children. I've always said that it should be you, Severus. You're more talented than the lot of them, and at least with you at the helm, the students wouldn't be put in mortal danger so often."

"There would certainly be less rule breaking," Snape muttered. "The Slytherin dungeons have had blood pouring down the wall for the last few days. One of the students reported that something tried to hang them in the night. We've been temporarily relocated from the dungeons to a tower block in the Estwing."

"Is it term time?" Arundel asked.

"It is, I'm back to work tomorrow but I don't have any classes until the afternoon."

She nodded but didn't take the conversation any further and Lucius turned the topic to the Ministry of Magic and his attempts to bribe Cornelius Fudge.