"Lucius, does this box look familiar to you? Maybe something you've seen at the Lestrange's, or maybe even at your own manor?" She asked him slyly.
"This box here would be slightly different to the one you would own, though. Wouldn't it? Because you see, this box is not the first that has been confiscated by myself." She paused slightly to see Lucius' eyebrows flinch for a second before returning to the lifeless state. "There was also another box, found in Grimmauld place. You know where that is, 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.' Of course, though, it is now home to the Potter family. Which brings me to my next point." Hermione stood up, pacing behind her desk, as she began her long story.
"See, a little while ago Harry decided that he was going to clean out the old room belonging to Regulus Black. Do you remember Regulus Black?" Lucius' body twitched as she asked him that, confirming her question.
"Well, as Harry was cleaning up the closet, he stepped on a creaky floorboard. The house is old, you know, so Harry did not think much of it. Until one day, when his son was crawling around the room- as it was converted into the child's playroom- and was nicked on his knee. Not a deep cut, but enough for the child to of course begin crying, alerting Harry to his son. As he went to pick up James from the floor, he saw what had cut the boy in the first place. A floorboard was sticking out slightly on one end, in the same area as the old closet was. Of course, Harry did not wish for his child to get hurt again, so he decided to change the flooring of the whole room into carpet, to avoid it from happening again. As he was ripping up the board that had caused the accident to happen in the first place, he found something rather odd underneath it."
Hermione sucked in a breath and continued to speak. "There was a small hole in the floor, about the size of a box. Actually, about the size of this box right here." Hermione motioned her hand towards the box that had jarred Lucius a short while ago.
She looked at him and noticed he was getting quite nervous, and continued.
"The strange thing is, there was a box in there. It looked somewhat like this box, but it had the Black family crest on it, and the words "Sacrae Familiae" carved in Latin onto the front of the box, meaning 'Family of the Sacred,' as I'm sure you already know."
Of course, he was a knowledgeable man and would have been taught these things as a child growing up. The pureblood culture was so much different from muggle-born culture, and even half-blood culture as well.
Hermione went on. "When Harry had found it, he knew something about it wasn't right. The box wouldn't open for some reason, and it had a peculiar feeling around it, shall we say, 'in its aura.' Harry told me about the incident a few days later, and I came over to have a look at the box. When I saw it, I was quite floored."
She stopped pacing and began to lean on the front of her desk, little ways away from where Lucius was sat. She was biting her fingernails as she was so immersed in the story.
"The week before, I was at the Weasley's burrow. I was helping Ginny grab some old baby items out of the attic for the new baby she had just found out about. She found a box quite similar to the one found at both the Lestranges, and the Blacks. I had taken a sort of fascination with it and began researching the box. Although, the family crest was not that of the Weasley family, but of the Prewett family. As I'm sure you know, Molly's surname is Prewett, so I decided to ask her about it. She told me that she didn't know what it was, just that she had found it where her two brothers, Fabian and Gideon, had lived. As you know, they were killed during the first war by five death eaters, including Antonin Dolohov. Effectively causing the Prewett name to die out. Same as the Black family, and now the Lestrange family. Lucius," she turned to look at him. "Are you seeing the correlation between all of these families?"
Lucius looked at Hermione and seemed to size her up, debating whether she was worthy of knowing his answers to these questions she had posed to him.
"You have uncovered something quite confidential Miss Granger. This is not something known to the public, but of course, I'm sure your brilliant mind has already figured it all out," he slightly sneered.
She smiled at him. "You are right. But, I decided I should consult with you, as I know you will have no other option than to tell me what I would like to know. Word travels fast around here, Lucius."
He looked sharply at Hermione as she spoke these threatening words. "What a Slytherin thing to do, Hermione. You really are the insufferable know-it-all that you have been labeled as."
"Humor me, Lucius," Hermione replied, raising her brow. Another attribute that she seemed to pick up from Professor Snape.
Lucius leveled a glare at the witch, his teeth grinding together, and growled at her.
"With pleasure."
