Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.
Kayley woke up once in the middle of the night and dragged herself up to her room, wondering what time it was. She fell back asleep in her bed without checking. When she woke up sunlight was pouring into her window. She dressed groggily and went downstairs.
"Lucky!" Kayley yelled, reaching the bottom of the stairs. She little house elf appeared instantaneously.
"Yes Miss?" it asked. Kayey could tell that it was glad she was home.
"What day is it?"
"Sunday, miss." Great Kayley thought tiredly I can go to work tomorrow.
Kayley yawned. It was a huge yawn and she thought it would never stop. When it finally subsided, Kayley was ready for something to eat, after sleeping for two days.
The next morning Kayley wasn't sure she was ready for work, but she got up and got dressed anyway. Kayley swept into the big building minutes later. She was still worried about being fired, but she felt more confident now for some reason. She stopped on her floor by Nichelle's desk. Nichelle stared at her wide-eyed.
"How about some coffee?" Kayley asked. Nichelle jumped up to get it without hesitating. Kayley took the cup gladly without hesitation. It was amazing how much difference the fact that Kayley could fire her had made on Nichelle.
Kayley opened the door to her office and went in. Mrs. Kipling was on her hands and knees going through one of the lower file cabinets. She looked like she was really concentrating. Kayley took a drink of her coffee and set it down on her desk. It was cluttered with papers and not how she had left it.
"Did I not organize them well enough?" Kayley asked, looking at Mrs. Kipling on the floor. The old woman straitened up like some one had just poured ice water down her back. Oh, crap, I've been fired while I was gone. Kayley thought getting a sick feeling as she watched Mrs. Kipling slowly get up and turn around.
Kayley had never seen that lady move so fast. She was by her side in an instant and Kayley was engulfed in an enormous hug. Mrs. Kipling pulled back and embraced her, like a mother or a grandmother would. "We thought you were dead." She said before she pulled away. "We couldn't find your parents and were afraid that your aunt and uncle would have to make the funeral arrangements and your parents wouldn't make it. Your uncle's been so worried and I'm sure that your aunt has been too." Kayley was stunned.
Mrs. Kipling looked at her intensely for a moment. "I have to tell the minister that you're back, he'll want to hear about it." Kayley nodded as she heard the door click shut behind Mrs. Kipling. They had thought she was dead? She had never even imagined the possibility that they would miss her. Her parents sure wouldn't, not if she had been gone ten years instead of a few days. She had imagined the possibility that her aunt and uncle would miss her and maybe even worry about her, but never think that she was dead.
Kayley tried to push what she had just learned out of her head, but it was stubbornly sticking. Kayley went over to the file cabinets, finally managing to push the guilt to the back of her mind, but not out of her head. She pointed her wand at the file cabinet. "Draco Malfoy." She said quietly. Nothing happened. She wasn't surprised. She didn't remember that name when she was sorting through the profiles. However, Kayley raised her wand again, just in case. "Draco Malfoy," again nothing happened. Then Kayley had an idea. She pointed her wand at the file cabinets once more. "Malfoy," was all she said this time and to her surprise one of the drawers flew open and a profile landed neatly in her out stretched hand. She carried it back to her desk, which was still cluttered. She effortlessly floated to mess to Mrs. Kipling's desk and set the profile on her own. Her guilt was now gone and she was over taken with curiosity. Kayley opened the cream-colored folder and glanced at the picture of the blond man staring back at her, no, he wasn't staring,—he was sneering.
"Kayley, the Minister will see you now." Mrs. Kipling's soft voice said. Kayley felt like a kid that had been very much into a game and then got called away. She nodded and reluctantly shut the folder. "Did you see any of them?" Mrs. Kipling asked. Kayley saw Draco Malfoy staring at her behind his death eater mask before he dismissed Malcolm. She shook her head. "Did you hear any of their names?" Mrs. Kipling asked. 'Who's in here Malcolm?' 'Not today, Demos,' Draco's voice echoed in her thoughts. She placed her fingertips to her forehead, trying to push it out. She felt bad enough about worrying everyone and, now lying. "Are you alright?" Mrs. Kipling asked.
"Just thinking," Kayley said.
"Did you get any names?" Mrs. Kipling repeated. Kayley put her hand down and shook her head. "Go on then. The Minister will be waiting." Kayley gratefully hurried out of her office and to the elevator.
Kayley knocked on the door. "Come in," came the Minister's voice from the other side of the door. Kayley went in and saw the fire flicker; he had just been talking to someone. "Sit down."" The minister said pleasantly as he motioned to a chair. She gracefully lowered herself into the chair and watched the minister sort the papers on his desk. "You gave us quite a scare." He said finally looking up.
"Err, yes, sir." Kayley said concentrating very hard on her knees she felt like she was in the principal's office at school. That was stupid, she was twenty years old. "Sorry." She mumbled, still not looking at him. What the hell was she going to tell him?
"So, Miss Daniels, what happened?" Oh, great, here we go. Kayley thought.
"Well," Kayley started. Perhaps she would start with the truth and go from there.
"Miss Granger was giving me the tour and going over some of their plans. We got to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and the death eaters attacked. I got hit with a stunning spell, I think, and I hit my head when I fell." So far so good. Now what? Kayley sat there for a while, pretending to collect herself, but really trying to decide what to do now.
"When I woke up I was in a basement at a house out in the country. It was Friday afternoon, the woman who lived there told me, and I had been there since I had been knocked out. Her son worked at the ministry and brought me there. I thanked her and Apparated home. Apparition takes a lot out of me. I fell asleep as soon as I got home. When I woke up the house elf told me that it was Sunday. I rested some more yesterday and came to work today."
"Who were you staying with?" Oh shit, the inevitable question.
"I didn't catch her name." Kayley said as evenly as possible.
"I see. Did you catch any of the death eater's names?"
"No, sir."
"Did you recognize any of them? I heard that you had been studying pictures trying to be able to distinguish them from their eyes."
"No, sir, they never got close enough to see their eyes. Even if they had I doubt that I would have had enough time to identify them."
"Do you remember the tour and the information you got from Miss Granger?"
"Yes, sir, they're mainly having problems with Fenrir Greyback. They're not sure what to do about him. They're not at present having problems with vampires, and giants are also giving them trouble. They don't know what to do with them either. I forgot to ask about dementors." Kayley finished
"Anything else," the minister asked.
"No, sir, we didn't get very far with the tour."
"I see. Can you think of anything important to tell me?" Kayley thought about it for a while.
"No, sir," She said. Maybe she imagined it, but she thought he looked sad, or depressed.
"Are you up to going back?" He asked.
"When?" she answered. He smiled a little, but not for very long.
"December sixteenth. Are you sure you don't mind." The minister looked worried.
"Yes, I'm positive." Kayley said. "Minister, if we're done, I have some work to do."
"Oh, yes, fine, you're excused." He said distractedly, looking under a pile of papers on his desk.
Kayley was now walking purposefully down the familiar hall on her own floor. She passed Nichelle's desk and stopped at the door with the gold number seven. She raised her hand to knock and then put it down again. Then she laughed aloud, remembering the last time she had stood outside this door. Why was she always so nervous about interrupting? Kayley put her hand back up and boldly knocked. There was no answer. She waited a while and knocked again. After a few minutes, when she was considering knocking again, or just going in, the door opened. Uncle Evan stepped aside to let her in. As soon as she was in, she was once again wrapped in a big hug. Uncle Evan embraced her like Mrs. Kipling had and sat back down behind his desk.
"Kay, you scared us so bad." He said. "Next time write." Kayley nodded. That's what she should have done in the first place. "Mrs. Kipling told me what you told her." Kayley looked at him, wondering what came next. "Would you like to tell me what really happened? You're too hard headed for a little concrete floor to give you a concussion."
How much did he know? Or, how much does he think he know? Kayley wondered before she answered. "No." was all she said. If he knew the story was made-up, there was no sense in lying to him. He only nodded.
"You should thank who ever it was that helped you." He said. How did he know some one helped her?
Kayley shrugged. "Sure," she said. Yeah right. She thought. I'm sure going to thank him after the blackmail.
"Kayley," her uncle started. He never called her Kayley. "I'm glad you're back." Kayley smiled a little and nodded. She knew that he and Aunt Kya had both wanted her to come home. Her parents would have never told her that.
"Your Aunt Kya's been dying to see you. Why don't you come to dinner tonight?" Uncle Evan asked. Kayley smiled and nodded.
"I have some work to do." She said as she stood up.
"I'll see you tonight." Uncle Evan said walking her to the door.
Kayley went back into her office. Mrs. Kipling wasn't in there. She shut the door and sat down at her desk. The Malfoy profile was lying just as she left it on her desk. Kayley sat down and placed a warming charm on her coffee before she took a drink. She carefully opened the profile and for the first time, took a good look at the blond man, who did not look unlike Draco. He was older and had longer hair. His gaze was somewhat colder than Draco's. This was Draco's father. Kayley hadn't read a word of the profile, and it probably didn't even mention the man's family, but this was Draco's father—she knew it.
Kayley scanned the profile, only reading what seemed important. He was imprisoned in Azkaban June 24, 1995. Dark objects found in his manor were confiscated and was definitely a Death Eater. Kayley didn't find the information very useful and put it up.
Kayley walked out to the hall. She went the opposite direction that usual and started walking down the hall. She saw that Nichelle was reading a book when she passed. Must not have enough to do, Kayley thought grumpily. She walked all of the way down the hall. She had passed the doors with numbers by now and was a very long way from her office. She stopped at the last door on the left. "Alohomora," she said before the door gave a satisfying click. Kayley pushed the door open. Inside the room were stacks upon stacks of old newspapers with some file cabinets in the back. Kayley wasn't sure where to point her wand, so she pointed at the floor beside her. "Draco Malfoy." The papers started flying around the room. One or two papers on top of a stack in the very back rose up and came to rest beside her. Stacks split themselves in half and papers flew out of the middle. They came from the front of the room as well as the back. They all landed with a plop in the steadily growing pile beside her. After all of the papers had settled down Kayley looked sown at it. It was pretty good sized. Kayley smiled at the searching charm she had invented herself. She pointed her wand back at the pile and charmed it to follow behind her. It was amazing how much better this new wand worked. She locked the door after making sure the papers were out of the way.
She didn't want to keep the stack around. She was still unsure about what to do. She looked around her office, wondering what to do with the papers. The stack was a good six inches high and there was no good place to hide it. People would ask questions if they saw all of the papers. Kayley took five off the top of the stack and put them in her bottom desk drawer. Kayley pulled out her wand and transfigured the stack into the marble block that would make the perfect paperweight. It had black splotches on the top, where the text of the black words had been.
Mrs. Kipling walked in. She started going through her desk. Kayley dug into her own desk and pulled out one of the papers. She decided she's have to read it cover to cover. The searching spell would pick his name out of a paragraph that just mentioned him and add it to the pile. It was a pretty old paper. Its date read May 26, 1987. Kayley started to read the first story on the front page. She was interrupted half way through it.
"Kayley?" Mrs. Kipling said to get her attention. Kayley looked up and put the paper down. "I was going through the profiles—they're arranged very nicely by the way—and it seems like some of the files aren't quite up to date. Would you mind updating them? You know about the paper room, just use the papers in there." Kayley nodded.
"I'm already working on it." Kayley lied, picking the paper back up. She would work on this first and then the profiles.
After reading, the first paper Kayley was fairly disappointed. It turned out that when Draco was about to turn seven his father had bought him a new racing broom. He had been the first to have the new model of children's racing broom. Kayley sighed and put the paper down. The only thing that she learned was that if he couldn't fly, and had started that early, he sucked as a flyer. She could have also learned that his father wasn't always in prison, but she already knew that.
The next few papers she read were not much more helpful. They were all from after '97 and were all about donations. The papers made it very clear that Mr. Draco Malfoy was rich. Unfortunately, she hadn't learned any thing there either. She had already known he was loaded from being at his Manor. Every single paper after the first was about donations. Two or three went to St. Mungo's (which was apparently a hospital). Four or five went to the Ministry, and there were also some other small donations.
Of course, this information was not what she was looking for. How could a Death Eater do all of that good? The papers made it look like he was brown-nosing. It must be working, since he had escaped Azkaban all of these years. It wasn't until about five days after Kayley started looking through the papers before she found something.
It was another normal day at work, so far anyway. Kayley had just got there. She tossed the papers she had brought home back into her drawer. Nothing. Kayley sat down and laid her head in her arms. Mrs. Kipling wouldn't be there for another hour. She was down to the last two or three papers and was afraid of more donations. She sighed and sat up. Surely there wouldn't be anything in these papers besides donations. Maybe she should just take the stack back to the newspaper room. Kayley picked up the next paper. She didn't pay any attention to the headline, 'Hogwarts Headmaster Murdered.' She scanned the paper, looking for the donation article that was always there, but this morning she couldn't find it. She turned back to the front page, slightly annoyed that she couldn't find whatever it was that she was looking for. Now she would have to read the paper from cover to cover. Kayley soon found that she didn't have to read anything but the first article.
After reading the article, Kayley felt slightly sick. Albus Dumbledore had been murdered in a tower by one of his teachers, Severus Snape, and a student, Draco Malfoy. The pair had been spotted leaving the tower together after the tragedy. No witnesses had come forward and there was a huge man-hunt under way.