Disclaimer: Not mine, J.K.R.'s

Dear Reviewers: Thank you for taking the time to read & leave a few words 3

Notes: What is this rambling piece of work and why does it exist, and also what is the point of these chapter notes but to call attention to my glaring inadequacies as a writer? Enjoy!

-oOo-

"Luna, Luna!"

Hermione ran into the Grand Malfoy Dining Room feeling breathless and excited, because she'd accomplished something! Sort of. Luna looked up from the corner into which she was pointing her wand. She looked completely nonplussed, despite Hermione's excitement. Classic Luna.

"You asked Mr. Malfoy?" asked Luna.

Hermione paused.

"Well, no…"

Fortunately, at precisely that moment, Mr. Malfoy followed Hermione into the Grand Malfoy Dining Room (without a table), and Hermione's feelings of inadequacy were replaced with a different, more unexpected triumph.

"Mr. Malfoy is going to work with us to find out what happened," said Hermione, presenting Lucius with her hands and a smile. Lucius didn't seem impressed, but Luna looked pleased as she turned her attention to Lucius.

"Your house is very powerful, Mr. Malfoy," said Luna.

Lucius looked pretty smug about it.

"Too powerful, maybe?" asked Luna, in a way that came across as totally guileless. But it made Hermione smirk, she couldn't help it.

Lucius drew a short breath, and then ceded without total commitment: "Perhaps."

He glanced around the room.

"I would like to speak with Draco," he said to Hermione, in a commanding sort of way. Hermione inwardly panicked a little.

"Ah," said Hermione. "That will be difficult."

Lucius tilted his head and asked slowly, "Why?"

Hermione paused.

"He's in St. Mungo's psychiatric ward," said Luna, somehow saying it easily, as if that's normal.

Lucius responded by setting his jaw and looking away for a moment. He seemed to take in the dining room while processing something of great intensity, but with the practice and skill of a fire-breather swallowing in a flaming torch. After a moment, his voice was almost entirely normal as he said, "Well then, I must see him anyway."

"Right, well, maybe," said Luna.

Lucius gave her a look that meant he was perplexed by her not-immediate-agreement.

"You go out there and the gig is up, Mr. Malfoy," said Luna.

Lucius continued to stare at her for clarification, but Hermione knew what Luna was getting at.

"Mr. Malfoy," said Hermione, stepping in. "We don't know what happened to you, or your wife, or Draco. We don't know if it was all a sheer accident, or if, as I believe, it was an elaborate setup-"

"An elaborate setup?" asked Lucius, whose question reflected both surprise at the possibility and instantly charged outrage at the possibility. "And if so, we don't know who might have been the mind behind it."

"Or on which side," said Hermione.

"You Malfoys really made a lot of enemies," remarked Luna.

"I suppose," replied Lucius.

"It really could be anyone," said Luna.

"It's possible," said Lucius, slightly annoyed.

"I mean, the entire wizarding world hated you," continued Luna, oblivious.

Lucius remained quiet at this point, but was perhaps seething.

"Ah, well, Mr. Malfoy, what Luna is saying is that the list of suspects is … probably long, and we don't really know how deep this thing runs and well, maybe, with luck, it's just all a coincidence after all?" Hermione finished lamely with a weak smile, and began to feel stupid as Lucius continued to stare at both she and Luna as if he couldn't believe this is what he had been left with. She cleared her throat.

"That said, it is a good idea that you do not make your presence known just yet… not until I've had a chance to do some investigating," said Hermione.

Lucius lifted his chin slightly.

"Could the two of you be reasonably expected to visit my son for any purpose?" he asked.

Hermione considered.

"We might visit him under the guise of asking after some of the books we've come to recover," replied Hermione, wondering what Lucius might be getting at.

"Ah, very good," said Lucius, as if everything was decided. Hermione shared a confused glance with Luna. "Then you and I shall visit him, Miss Granger."

Hermione paused before replying, "Shall we?"

"Indeed," he said. "And I shall be Miss Lovegood."

"Mrs. Longbottom," said Luna.

Lucius paused, and then stared at Luna.

"Wait, do you mean-" began Hermione.

"Mrs. Longbottom," repaired Lucius. "shall be kind enough to allow me to impersonate her using the Polyjuice formula."

"You mean Polyjuice Potion, right?" asked Hermione, finding Lucius' wording a bit silly.

"Oh, whatever," replied Lucius, as if not caring to be bothered with such semantics, but which reduced Hermione's faith in his ability to safely brew said "formula".

"So… you know how to make it?" Hermione inquired.

Lucius' confidence paused - how telling was the pause!

"Yes," he said at last, as if of course he knew how to do everything ever, and Hermione almost laughed.

"I have a little experience," said Hermione. "Maybe I can help?"

"As you wish," replied Lucius, elusive as a cat.

And that was final.

"Wait, you're going to impersonate me at the asylum?" asked Luna.

Hermione and Lucius both turned to look at Luna as if she must have forgotten to pay attention to anything.

Later, in the Somewhat-Less-Than-Grand-But-Sufficiently-Foreboding Malfoy Potion Brewing Dungeon, Mr. Malfoy began to acquaint Hermione with the equipment. Though old and dusty, the equipment was sound, as wizarding equipment was usually built to last generations, especially cauldrons. The fine, aged seasoning of certain cauldrons fetched high value for special brewing properties imbued therein, and this was certainly true for the Malfoy family cauldron. It was a well seasoned piece of iron if Hermione had ever seen one. She admired it openly.

"It would be difficult to match the depth and quality of potions brewed in this particular cauldron," said Lucius as he showcased the lump of blackened iron as if it were a priceless work of art. To Hermione, though, it was a priceless work of art.

"I will love working with this cauldron, Mr. Malfoy!" said Hermione, unable to contain her enthusiasm. She wasn't an expert at potions in school, but had gained skill and appreciation over the intervening years. Lucius stepped closer to the cauldron in a protective gesture.

"Yes, but ruin the seasoning and I'll kill you," he said, but upon seeing what must have been Hermione's face pale suddenly, he added," Well, not really kill you, Miss Granger, it's a turn of phrase, obviously."

Hermione laughed nervously.

"No, I'm not going to kill you," finished Lucius, seeming a bit put out that he had to clarify so obtusely.

"Just be careful with it," he said, turning away in irritation. Hermione caught up to him.

"Oh, I will," she said, smiling for some reason. She was being too congenial for her own conscience to abide, so she dropped the smile.

Lucius glanced at her.

"You know, I know a fellow who makes Polyjuice," he said.

"Would he sell to Luna or myself?" asked Hermione.

"No," said Lucius.

"Do you want to make yourself known to this fellow?" asked Hermione.

Lucius cringed and turned away again. He paced along a long table and turned back, clearly frustrated.

"It takes a long time to make this potion… too long," he said.

"A month, usually."

"Yes, that much. Too much," he said.

"How can that be too much when you've been gone seventeen years already?"

Lucius exhaled and set himself to pacing again. He reminded her of a lion she once observed pacing in a cage. It, too, let out the occasional frustrated exhale during its pacing.

"Alright, fine," said Hermione. "Maybe I can procure some somehow."

For some reason she felt defeated and also completely clueless as to where she was going to procure Polyjuice Potion.

Lucius gave her an appraising look.

"But until then," she said, "I'm going to work on making it."

Lucius blinked.

"Do you have any decent potion books?" she asked, knowing he did, but wanting to goad him for some reason.

His brow crinkled just like she wanted, and she felt a small tinge of satisfaction. "Of course we do," said he, then adding: "In the library."

"Very good," she said, and they both stood in place for a very long moment. Too long. She felt like Lucius should be gracious enough to get the spellbooks for her, and, clearly, Lucius felt it was beneath him to fetch them. The moment tensed until Lucius looked around.

"What happened to the house elves?" he asked. Her brow creased in response, and she briefly wondered if that's what he wanted. Were they in some kind of subtle war?

"I can't say, as I have never handled, nor paid much attention to, your estate," replied Hermione.

"Well, I should say I need at least three," he said. "The place is a mess and it needs a decent cleaning. At the very least, the manor is too big for us to go fetching things ourselves all the time."

"Wouldn't it be decent exercise?" asked Hermione.

"It would be a waste of time!" replied Lucius.

"For the house elves? Or just you?"

Lucius made an exasperated noise and turned away as if Hermione was being completely unreasonable. He made for the dungeon door, but Hermione just couldn't leave him alone. She caught up to him as he reached the threshold.

"In all honesty, Mr. Malfoy, I don't think we could get away with bringing in three house elves just for the purpose of Luna and I recovering ancient books," she said, and she almost touched his arm again, but didn't. He stopped, anyway, to give her his attention.

She relented a bit and said, "We might be able to get one for you."

He raised an eyebrow, apparently sensing she was going to add stipulations.

"But you'll have to pay him," she said.

Lucius looked like he was trying very hard not to roll his eyes. Tenseness rolled off of him in waves as he replied, "Of course."

His retreat left her in the dungeon with the scent of a strange spice.

-oOo-

He did end up fetching the book for her, and maybe he seemed a little enlivened by the exercise.

"Miss Granger, what are you doing?" he asked her, probably because she was magically affixing a large corkboard to one of the dungeon walls. That was exactly the question she had hoped he would ask, because then she could say this:

"I'm making an evidence wall," she said, almost mystically, if that sentence can ever be uttered mystically.

Lucius cleared his throat in response, and then repeated it more slowly. "Miss Granger," he said, "What are you doing?"

Apparently the sentence "I'm making an evidence wall" isn't acceptable in pureblood magical families. She exhaled wearily.

"Fine," she clipped. "We are going to put what we know on this board, and what we are looking for, and when we find out stuff, we'll put it in the appropriate places until we figure out what it is we want to know."

"Couldn't you just write it down in a book?" he asked, clearly disenchanted with the proposed process. "And where on earth did you find that corkboard?"

"Mr. Malfoy," she said (as the pure voice of reason), "Surely you can see that this system has a few advantages over just writing in a book. For one, you and I can peruse and consider it at the same time. In fact, you, I, and Luna, and even whatever house elf we come up with could do it, all at once! That means we can all be thinking about solutions at the same time, speeding up the solving process. Two, we can put everything on one 'page', so to speak."

She gestured towards the length of the corkboard, and then glanced at Lucius to gauge if he was being convinced or not. Although she didn't know why she should have to convince Lucius to use her methods, she was doing him a favor, after all. A medium-large favor!

Lucius sniffed, glanced over the corkboard, and then said: "Well. It's an ugly thing, but I suppose that can't be helped."

"Yes, well, no gain can come without suffering," she said indulgently, and then turned away so he couldn't see her eyes rolling in a most plebeian manner. She flopped open one of the books he'd brought, as it sat with the others on a nearby table. Books were good. Yay books. Too bad she couldn't focus enough to read the words, yet.

She heard Lucius shift.

"The first thing we know is that I've travelled through time," his voice said. She turned to look at him and he was at another table, writing on a scrap of parchment. Immediately intrigued, she approached as he held the paper out to her, which said "Lucius Malfoy - 17 years into the future". She whipped out her wand and whisked the sheet onto the board, pinning it there with magic.

"So what we have is who and what," said Hermione as she and Lucius approached the board. "And we want to know-"

"How," replied Lucius. "How did I do it? Did I do it? Or did someone else?"

"Or something else," said Hermione, highly suspecting the manor.

"And so then the question would be why?" he said. "Wouldn't it?"

He looked at Hermione as he was fully engrossed in the inquiry, so she couldn't help but smile at him and say, "Exactly."

"But we're getting ahead of ourselves," she said. "We need to start with collecting information on who or what did it, and how."

Lucius exhaled quietly, and Hermione suspected he was feeling impatient.

"Luna's working on that right now, Mr. Malfoy," she said to him, as assurance.

"Yes, I know," murmured Lucius, looking unhappy. Why, when all she knew of this man, did it displease her so to see him unhappy like this?

Hermione supposed it had something to do with why he was unhappy. He was unhappy due to his family being torn apart, and that was admirable in any man, even Lucius Malfoy. Hermione tried to make some semblance of peace with herself with that logic. He loved his family, and that meant there had to be some good in him, didn't it? She still felt like a jumble of mismatched motives, so she decided to leave him to his silence and she went back to the potion books.

"Do you happen to have any fluxweed?" she asked after a moment, as she ran her finger down the page which held the potion recipe of requirement.

"How should I know?" he asked askance.

Hermione found herself laughing at her own stupidity.

"Well then, it looks as if I will be shopping tonight," she said.

"No, no," he said, and she looked at him curiously. "As much as I trust your ability to brew this potion, Miss Granger," (she doubted trust was actually involved by the sound of his voice) "It is, firstly, a very difficult potion to make, and, secondly, if brewed decently by an amateur it is generally not very potent, meaning: I would turn back into myself halfway through our visit. I would like to have as much time as possible, Miss Granger, with my son."

"Then I suppose I will be shopping at your shady potion dealer friend's questionable location?" she stabbed.

"I will go with you, disguised."

"You're really into disguises, Mr. Malfoy."

"Only when the situation warrants."

If Hermione were to be brutally honest with herself, the whole affair actually sounded kind of exciting. It definitely wasn't boring.

"Okay, subterfuge it is," she said, even somewhat merrily.

Lucius just looked serious.

Hermione cleared her throat and tried to look serious, too.

-oOo-

Thanks for reading!