Chapter 26
It had been less than twenty four hours since Lucius Malfoy received his second threatening letter. He had spent the night strategically planning what he would do and he came to the answer early that morning.
If there was one thing he was grateful for, it was the pull he still had over the wizarding community. Since going to Azkaban, he had been given a low risk cell, and was fed meals that had other prisoners complaining. He was sure that there would be many people outraged at the injustice of how Lucius was treated, but he didn't care. His connections always came through, and being involved with the Dark Lord wouldn't change any of that.
His opinion on muggleborns hadn't changed much over the last half decade, but Lucius was a clever man; he knew when to and when not to voice his opinions. Now was a time of growth in the muggleborn area, and talking about how he despised them would do no good. So he kept his head down and stayed quiet. Yes, he still had years left in his sentence, but since his incarceration his behaviour had been nothing but good. In less than a few months he would be eligible for early parole due to good behaviour. He knew that all he had to do was pretend to be good and very soon he would be set free from this prison.
But he didn't have that long left to make his move. The letter he had received had pushed things faster into motion. He knew better than to breakout; that would simply result in him having to live on the run for the rest of his life. No; he would be crafty in his actions. He didn't need to do anything more than hire a middle man. And he knew just the person for the job.
"Mr. Malfoy, you have a visitor," the prison guard said, breaking him from his thoughts. He had sent the letter late last night and he knew that they would come through for him.
He stood on his feet and made his way to the visitors' room.
"You wanted to see me Malfoy?" the person said. They were already seated in the chair opposite to his, and looked impatient. "I don't have all day, and quite frankly I have no idea why you contacted me. So if you would please get on with it, I have other things I need to do today."
"Thank you for coming," Lucius said as he sat in the seat. "I know someone like you has better things to do with your life," he added with a slight sneer. He placed an envelope on the desk and pushed it closer towards his visitor. "Now, I have in closed information for you in this letter, and I want you to take care of it for me. It is of upmost importance that you do so, or the consequences shall be quite dire. And trust me when I say that it will be unpleasant for both of us."
"Why should I do anything you want me to?" the person said as they crossed their arms. "What's in it for me?"
He gestured for him to open the letter, "Please, by all means find out."
They opened it and read it carefully. Lucius could see the blood drain out of their face at the contents of the letter.
"What do you want me to do?" they asked carefully.
"Give this to my son," Lucius said. "And make sure that you keep an eye on him at all times. I don't want anything happening to him. But I need you to also take care of some business for me. Read the rest of the letter once you leave this facility and only read it when you do so. Burn the letter after; I do not want anyone finding out as it could lead to unfortunate consequences if the wrong people get their hands on this. Report back to me when it is done."
"I'm not your servant, Malfoy," The person sneered. "But I will see to it that it is done. You have my word on that."
Lucius gave him a smile of contempt, "I knew you would see it my way. Now if you don't mind, I have other things I need to take care of. I shall await your return." Lucius Malfoy stood and made his way back to his prison cell. He knew it was dangerous to leave such personal matters up to others, but he had no other choice. He would just have to trust that they would take care of things for him.
Hermione Granger sat in the lab with the rest of her team. She was frustrated beyond measure. How was it that the killer always seemed to be one step ahead of them? How was it that the killer always seemed to be one step ahead of them? She had gone through each and every aspect of all the murders at least twenty times, yet she still came up with nothing.
"I don't get it!" Hermione said loudly. Her voice was filled with frustration, drawing the attention of Dean Thomas over to her.
He came over and sat beside her, "Hermione, when was the last time you've taken a break? You have been working on this case for so long; maybe you need to take a step back and then approach it again from a new light. Whenever I'm frustrated I take a break and then come back to it and attack the problem with a different angle. It helps, trust me. The world won't end because you need to take a break."
She buried her head in her hands, "And what happens when another body turns up dead because I wanted a break. No; I can't do that. I need to solve this case! It's not like all the other tiny cold cases I have. This one involves multiple people becoming hurt."
"I know it does, Hermione. But you won't solve anything if you overwork yourself to death. Take a break; go see Draco and his son. Relax; but don't stay here and-"
Hermione looked up in alarm and saw Dean on the ground. She stood up quickly, "Dean?" she called out in alarm. She immediately checked his pulse and saw that it was still beating. She recognized the spell that had been used on him easily; Dean had been stunned.
"Who's there?" Hermione called out. She pulled out her wand and tried to cast a spell to reveal who was in the room, but without knowing where the person was standing, it was near impossible. She cast a few hexes to try and slow down the person.
After a second she heard a male voice gasp in pain. She stood up and tried to see where the person was, but she heard a distinct pop. There was no questioning it; the person was gone. She looked around the room quickly to see the damage when she came to her second realization; whoever was here had taken all her research as well.
"How could this have happened?" Harry asked in frustration. She had immediately sent a patronus to him and when he arrived, he was furious. "No one can get into the building without special permission! Visitors must have clearance to even be back here!"
"There's been a leak," Hermione said. They were gathered in his office with the rest of her team. Dean had a horrible headache, but after a quick look over by a healer, he was deemed to be fine. "Someone knew where the research would be, and they knew just how to get in and get it."
Harry's eyes widened at the possibility of a leak. "I might know something." He walked over to the door and opened it, "Diane, can you come in here for a moment?"
When the blonde secretary came into the room, Harry shut the door again. "Remember a few months back when we were discussing the possibility of there being a leak in this department? Did you ever mange to find out anything more about it?"
Diane looked pensive. "Well I did hear some gossip a while back, but I didn't really think much of it. But if I think about it, it would definitely make sense. Remember a while back when Ron Weasley randomly popped up into the office and demanded to see you, Miss Granger?"
Hermione nodded. She was still slightly annoyed at her ex-boyfriend even if she hadn't seen him that much recently.
"Well that same day you left suddenly. I remember a whole bunch of the interns squealing over some gossip in the coffee room about a fellow intern of the name Lana Delanie. They talked about how Lana had been bragging a while ago that she had slept with the Keeper of the Chudley Cannons, and how they were so jealous of her. But when she tried to talk to him that morning, he completely blew her off."
Hermione listened intently. In the past her stomach had flipped painfully at mentions of Ron's newest flings, but there was nothing this time.
"You think that Lana was the one who passed the information to Ron about the private dinner at my home, and that was how he knew where Hermione would be that night," Harry said in realization.
"Wait, just so we're clear, you think Ron Weasley was behind the break in?" Zacharias Smith asked sceptically.
"No, but if Lana was willing to pass information to Ron casually, what's to say she didn't pass it to the person who broke in?" Harry asked them.
"We need to question Lana," Hermione said. "Diane, could you see if she's still here and bring her to an interrogation room?"
Diane nodded. "I'll do that right away."
"Mind if I sit in?" Hermione asked Harry. "I want to know just how someone got into my lab and took the research."
"Of course you can. And speaking of which, what are you going to do now that all of the research is gone?" Harry asked her concerned.
"Do you really think I would only have one copy of it?" Hermione asked her friend with a raised eyebrow. "I have a backup copy of everything at home; I look over it when I have a free moment to see if I can find any other leads. I also have individual files in my bag which I was going to go over in my office later today."
Harry looked reassured, "I'm glad for that then. I would hate if this made us lose all the progress we had."
"Patrick, could you sweep the room and see if you can find anything out? I want to know if the perpetrator left behind anything; footprints, fingerprints, a strand hair, anything. Smith, I want you to go to the main office where they would have apparated in; ask everyone if they saw anything which could help us find out who broke in. If someone saw it, get their memory on the incident. We can use it to try and identify the killer. And Dean, I want you to go home. I know that you've been cleared, but you look exhausted too, and I want you to get some rest.
He held out his hand to her and she slipped hers through it, "Let's go find out just what Lana has been doing in her free time."
Lana was sitting there waiting when Hermione opened the door. She seemed to be staring off space as if she had no cares in the world. Hermione wondered if she even knew the complete damages of what she had just done.
"Lana, do you know why you're here?" Harry asked her as he took a seat in the chair across from hers.
She shrugged, "Nope. But do I have to stay here long? I have a hair appointment in half an hour that I would like to get to."
"I think you should cancel your plans for now, Lana," Harry told her. "Now, I need to ask you a few questions. Do you know Ron Weasley?"
Lana frowned, "I did, but he refused to call me back after our date. So I moved on. He tried to contact me the other day but I told him I wasn't interested. It's for the best; I met a cuter guy that day."
"Have you ever told Ron Weasley anything personal pertaining to Miss Granger or I?" Harry pushed.
"He wanted to know if Miss Granger was seeing anyone, and I told him that the two of you were having a double date. I don't really see what the big deal is anyways," Lana said as she stared at her nails.
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Did it ever occur to you that it wouldn't be appropriate to tell my ex-boyfriend about my personal life?"
"Why would it matter? Last I heard he broke up with you. He didn't want you, and he moved on. So what's the big deal if he knows that you have too?" Lana said as she gave Hermione a petty look.
"Lana, more importantly, has anyone approached you recently wanting to gain access to this facility?" Harry pressed her.
She hesitated, and Hermione could see a flash of worry cross her face.
"Lana?" Hermione pushed.
"I met a man last night at the bar I went to. He found out I worked here as an intern and told me that he would love to get a private tour of the offices. I didn't see it being a big deal so I brought him in with me. He disillusioned himself when we arrived and then he just disappeared. I think he wanted a private look around the office. But he told me he would owl me later, so it's all okay," Lana said, as if the fact that she may have been stood up was the major point of everything that just happened.
"Lana, do you know what happened today?" Harry asked her. "Someone under a disillusion charm broke into the offices and stole very important files. We think that you let the person into the office, and then they did so. Do you understand what that means? It means the person who has been killing the purebloods now knows everything we know about them. Now, I need you to tell me everything you know about this person."
Lana paled slightly, "He approached me in the bar. He said his name was Daniel Higgs."
"What did he look like?" Hermione asked.
"He's tall, has black hair and brown eyes. He's sweet and he likes Quidditch and-"
"Daniel Higgs?" Harry asked. "Wasn't Daniel Terrence's middle name?"
Hermione's eyes widened. "Yes." She immediately went through her bags and pulled out Terence's file. She took the picture from the file and showed it to Lana. "Is this Daniel?"
"Yes," Lana said with a smile. "That's him!"
"How did they manage to look like him?" Harry questioned.
"Polyjuice potion. The killer must have grabbed a few hairs before they left the scene," Hermione said, rubbing her temples.
"I thought you can't polyjuice dead people. Isn't that why Barty Crouch Jr. kept Moody alive?" Harry asked.
Hermione shook her head, "You can mimic anyone. The hair just lets you turn into how the person looked like at the time the hair was pulled. Barty kept Moody alive to interrogate him and to keep a constant supply of hair."
"So if we're done here, do you think I can go?" Lana asked bringing attention back to her.
"Yes, but before you do, we need to sort out something," Harry said firmly. "Lana, I need to let you go. I cannot have anyone in this office who cannot be trusted. You proved yourself on several occasions that you are unable to keep information to yourself. I'll have Diane give you the formal letter. I wish you good luck in the future."
Lana looked annoyed. "Fine; I hated working here anyways." The blonde stood up and walked out of the room with purpose.
Hermione sat back in her chair with a sigh, "What do we do now, Harry? There's still a killer on the loose and we're no closer to finding out who it is today than we were before. And now they know everything we do. They have all our notes and leads and know exactly what we have put together on them. If anything, this is going to make everything so much harder than before."
Harry looked at her, "I don't know," he said softly. "But we need to find this person soon. Otherwise they could very well get away with everything."
Blaise said down with Pansy and Theo. They were enjoying a night together, and while Draco was supposed to join them, he had said that he felt as if he were excluding his son lately and wanted to spend some time alone with Scorpius.
He poured his friends some Firewhisky as he caught up with them both. He was happy for Pansy and Theo; both of them had been so alone for so long, and they truly deserved happiness with each other. But he was also glad for the fact that when he hung out with them, he didn't feel like a third wheel.
They were in his office at the moment, and when he made his way back over to where they were sitting, he noticed a pile of letters on his desk. It was all junk mail, and he didn't feel like going through it all. They all said the same thing; donate money to this charity, pay for this, pay for that. So he took the entire stack of letters and dumped them in a drawer.
Little did he know that one of the letters was different from the rest. This letter was one that had been written hastily in the moments before Terence Higgs was murdered.