"Dammit Potter, there is nothing I can do!" A few startled pairs of eyes flicked upwards at the shout coming out of the Minister for Magics private office before a silencing charm was hastily erected from inside. The whispers started almost immediately but in only a few minutes the entire waiting area was cleared. No one wanted to be the next appointment in that office now.
Harry was pacing back and forth in front of Kingsley's desk, his hair out at all angles, magic seeming to crackle from the ends in his temper.
"He committed murder! How can you let that go for political expediency?"
"It's not expediency, Harry, what he did was within the law. I'd love to find some way to arrest the bastard, I really would, but these charges wouldn't stick for five minutes. He invoked old blood charter law that is still perfectly valid and on the books. Granted it's a rarely used law, but it is still law. And frankly, even if it weren't what would you have me do? Lucius Malfoy was supposed to have been Kissed ten years ago. We held the execution publicly, there is no going back from that. It would ruin all of us if it got out that we faked the death of one of Voldemort's staunchest supporters in exchange for him continuing to serve the Ministry. It would ruin you, too, Potter, so don't give me that look. You're on the edge as it is. You've killed so damn many people that citizens are afraid to walk near you in Diagon Alley. Do you have any idea how hard it was to cover for you when you used the cruciatus on a child to make her parents talk? I had to make certain they both died in Azkaban before they could go to trial under Veritaserum. And for what? Smuggling some foolish illegal aphrodisiac potions? It was not even a violent crime. Two people dead, and a child who's memory we had to modify so heavily that we basically turned her into a Squib. Now you want me to authorize you arresting Draco Malfoy for the murder of his father, a murder that was legal? And if I did find some reason to arrest him I wouldn't dare send you to do it anyway, you would kill him before you even read him his rights. You were supposed to take a month off, decompress a bit, get your mind and your magic back under control but I have seen precious little of that going on. It took you six hours to report that you found the body! Six hours you were in that house with a corpse and you didn't see fit to report it? What is going on with you, Potter?"
"This is not about me! This is about Draco fucking Malfoy getting away with murder! I don't care what old obsolete law he used, he's a murder, a criminal, and I want him dead! We should have had him executed with all the others." He paced faster, red sparks crackling where his feet met the rug, leaving tiny scorch marks. "Should have killed him years ago, the whole family, they're all dark, all mad. They're a danger to society, yes, that's what they are, a danger to order, to peace. How can we have peace in a world where murder is legal? It doesn't make sense, Kings, does it? How can murder be legal?" Kingsley sighed.
"Sit down, Harry, please, you're ruining the rug. You know blood law is different, almost medieval in some ways, but that's how the purebloods like it. In the blood laws it states that if the head of a family brings shame on the family name, or behaves in a way that is considered dishonorable or malicious, the prospective heir, once he has reached the age of seventeen, can invoke the statute of Custos Morem, it roughly means "keeper of morality". The heir is required to file, or have a designated second file a statement of intent at the Ministry declaring that the current head is considered unfit to continue to lead the family, and the heir intends to inherit by force. The Ministry must endorse the statement with the official seal, and only then can the heir act. It fell into disuse because inheriting by force is a tricky business, especially when someone knows you're coming. Malfoy was smart. He had a second file the paperwork for him, and less than ten minutes after the seal was applied and the document filed and declared legal he committed the deed. He used a Muggle weapon, a gun; I'm guessing Lucius never even realized what it was."
"That's outrageous. Draco Malfoy claiming that Lucius Malfoy brought shame on the house and needed to be removed? He's as bad as his father ever was." Kingsley frowned at this.
"Is he, though? Look at the evidence, Potter. He lived amongst Muggles for ten years in peace. He donates heavily to reconstruction charities and orphanages, his businesses employ hundreds that would have no place to work otherwise. He has publicly condemned blood purity supporters, and is engaged to a muggleborn, even if it is Hermione Granger. If this went public, he would have the publics support. Lucius was a madman through and through, a psychotic killer and a blood purist. Merlin, Harry, he killed children in cold blood simply because they were muggles. He planted Tom Riddle's diary on your ex wife when she was a child hoping she would reopen the Chamber of Secrets and that Voldemort would kill her to effect his resurrection. How can you really claim Draco is worse than that? Do I trust him, no. I suspect he has political aspirations that we cannot allow to bear fruit. I suspect he intends a great many changes we cannot allow, but he is not his father. We need to find a way to discredit him, have the people turn on him so he and Granger flee back to the Muggle world and let us keep the peace here."
"He's a Slytherin; his mothers milk was media manipulation. Look at them, parading the Dark Mark and the Dark Phoenix as if they were a point of pride. Making everyone believe they were always on the light side, when I know for a fact that they both did unspeakable things in Voldemorts name. They claimed they were on the light side to avoid prosecution at the end, that's what they did. Spies? What information did they give that we could not have got on our own? Both of them, and Snape, too? I never trusted either Snape or Draco and they got to Hermione, poisoned her mind, turned her into one of them. "
"She was supposed to be Ron's girl, not Snapes! We were best friends; her going off like that betrayed everything! Even if she and Ron didn't work out, she and I…" he snapped his mouth shut, even as Kingsley's eyebrows climbed high on his forehead. He had often wondered why the two boys had turned on her so viciously at the end of the war. Yes, what she'd done was repellent, but her loyalty had never really been in doubt. He and the rest of the Order had gone along with Potter because, after all, that was where the public went, and political success depended on Harry Potters endorsement. But to find out that the breakdown of the Golden Trio was all to do with the affections of a girl? It had never occurred. Potter was with the Weasley girl; it was a foregone conclusion he would marry her, and admittedly it had been expected that Granger and the Weasley boy would make a couple as well, but no one had paid it much attention when the two broke it off. They had fought constantly; it was no surprise to anyone. But to find out that Potter wanted Granger? What did he think, that he could just throw over the Weasley girl and take Granger instead? Or marry one and have one on the side as a mistress? Not that such a thing was uncommon but neither woman was the type to accept being a mistress instead of a wife. Then he thought again. It had been war, yes, but when all was said and done, they had still been children, with childish assumptions, and childish desires. Well, Potter and Weasley had been, at least. He wasn't sure Granger had ever really been a child, she'd been freakishly mature even when they were first years, and that hadn't changed.
Dear Merlin, all this mess because of teenage crushes. And it was more than evident that Potter had held hard onto those imagined slights, his fracturing psyche assigning blame and hate that only compounded the more powerful and mad he became. He knew Weasley had bounced back quite well, married and had children. There had been a rough patch when Weasley's love of the bottle had eclipsed that of family and his wife and the children had moved to a seaside retreat close to Shell Cottage, but that had been mending of late with Weasleys new career as second string keeper for one of the semi-pro Quidditch teams. He was old for a professional Quidditch player, but he was good, and getting better, and rumor had it that in another couple seasons, if his play proved out he would end up on a national team as one of the oldest keepers in recent history.
He was also Draco Malfoy's second on the notice of intent for the Custos Morem, and Kingsley knew deep down if Potter found that out that what little was left of his sanity would likely crack. Thankfully the Auror was too new to blood law, and too focused on his hate to think about who the second was, an oversight that he had no intention of pointing out. He had to redirect Potter somehow, give him something else to obsess about, to despise.
"Look, why don't you take the cursed artifact case from Tompkins? He managed to get Dragon Pox from his own children, missed it as a kid himself, so he's out of commission for the next couple weeks at least. So far we've avoided casualties but one Muggle got hold of a cursed teapot and nearly scalded a table full of elderly ladies. We think it's more a vicious prank than a wish to really hurt or kill but it needs taking care of. No unforgivables, and no killing, Potter, do I make myself clear?"
Harry simply muttered something under his breath and grabbed the file off Kingsleys desk, refusing to meet his eyes and stomping out of the office, the door slamming so hard it nearly cracked the frame.