Thinks to self 'nearly been a week since I posted the last chapter...maybe I should write the next one? But nah, I'm not in the right mood for it'
Proceeds to write entire chapter
Why can't it always be that easy?
Hope you enjoy it!
Hermione walked through the doors into the Department of Records with confidence, it being of the utmost importance to her plan that she appeared to be on a mission and not in a mood to be questioned or insulted.
Pansy looked up from her work at the sound of Hermione's shoes making sharp, even strides across the foyer towards her desk, the poorly disguised sneer that would usually appear at this moment not quite making it onto her face.
Hermione stopped neatly and abruptly in front of Pansy's desk, not giving her a chance to get in any snide remarks, not that it looked like she was about to try any today anyway, Hermione thanking her ability to be somewhat intimidating when she wanted to be. "Miss Parkinson, I have come here today in order to investigate a potential breach of security in this department." She stated formally.
"What in Merlin's name are you on about Granger?" Balked Pansy, any restraint she may have had quickly dissipating.
"Someone has brought it to my attention that an unauthorised person is in possession of some knowledge they should not be." She paused for a second, putting on her best impression of Lucius' intimidating with an edge of smugness face. "Knowledge they could only have gained through access to the records which are supposed to be strictly protected by this department."
Pansy blinked a few times in apparent confusion and incomprehension before her brows furrowed and the proud girl she'd been since her school days bubbled to the surface. "Are you insinuating that I haven't been doing my job properly?!" She questioned angrily. "And who the hell has employed you to look into this anyway, on whose authority is this being conducted under?"
Hermione stalled for a millisecond, her mind racing to answer Pansy's question. If she didn't say a name, which technically she shouldn't professionally, if the case were real that is, Pansy may be suspicious that something wasn't quite right and the plan might fail. That said, Hermione didn't want to drag anyone's name into this, especially not someone Pansy might question about it afterwards.
That's when a truly genius plan sprung to Hermione's mind. She just so happened to have in her hands the case file she had quickly put together for Blaise's case before coming here, his name written in large letters on the front.
Now Pansy had had a crush on Blaise for quite some time, especially when it had become clear that Draco wanted nothing to do with her, and would probably do almost anything to stay in his good books. It would most likely worry her greatly if she thought Blaise was questioning her ability to do her job, especially since she took such great pride in doing it.
It was cruel perhaps, but necessary, and Hermione could not deny that Pansy probably deserved it just a little bit. She would worry about bringing Blaise into this but he did say he owed her a favour, perhaps this could be it.
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to tell you that." Hermione informed her, casually turning away from the desk so that the file and the name written on it would be clearly visible to Pansy, a sharp intake of breath from the lady in question confirming that Hermione's plan had worked.
"Well what do you want?" Pansy questioned bluntly, starting to comply. "What do you need to do to prove that the leak had nothing to do with this department nor myself?"
"Firstly, I'd like to look at your sign in book, I need to see who has been given entry into the department and specifically what rooms they entered." Hermione explained calmly and as professionally as she could considering she was trying to keep a triumphant and satisfied smile off of her face.
Pansy sighed in defeat, pulling the large tome from her desk. "Here, you can't take it out of the department but you can look through it to your hearts content in here, but I assure you that you will find nothing out of order."
"I expect you are right, you do keep these records very organised." Hermione said with a slight smile, trying to convey to Pansy that she knew that she did her job well, a secret small apology for tricking her, in the most subtle way possible of course, she couldn't be seen giving an actual compliment to Pansy Parkinson could she.
Hermione sat in the foyer of the Department of Records meticulously pouring over every entry in the book from the last few weeks, ignoring the furtive glances she could feel coming from the direction of Pansy's desk.
She had been hopeful her plan would work but was slightly surprised that it had gone so smoothly. Hermione knew that Pansy would not let her look through the sign in book easily, even if it was for a case, so she had decided to play tactically. Pansy was inherently proud and dedicated to her work, Hermione being sure that questioning it and her effectiveness would make her angry and insulted, most likely wanting nothing more than to prove Hermione wrong, probably all too happy to let her look through the book. Oh how predictably Pansy had been, it was too easy, Hermione having to chastise herself for feeling a little too proud about it, knowing than vanity never did anyone any good…apart from perhaps Lucius Malfoy.
The sign in book recorded all of the witches and wizards who came into the department and what they wanted to access, this made it easy to eliminate most of the entries since she was only interested in those going to the Death Eater and War Trial room.
The book was charmed for security purposes which was very helpful for Hermione in this instance. When writing a name in the book it was impossible to lie, you simply couldn't write on the paper, and it was linked to the door that accessed all of the records in such a way that it knew how many people hand been signed in and would only allow that many people through the door. It was pretty infallible, only a few people were even able to write in it, preventing someone from incapacitating whoever was on the desk and writing their name in themselves, but it had one fatal flaw.
You could not write a lie in the book, this was true, but what if what the writer thought was true was in fact a lie? The book could not distinguish between these. In other words, if someone were under the effect of polyjuice it would be completely possible to fool whoever was writing in the book, and therefore the book itself, as the writer would not think that they were lying.
Now as much as Hermione would like to believe otherwise, she knew that Pansy would never sign in anyone without the proper clearance level, and the security guards dotted about would stop anyone from threatening her into signing someone unauthorised in, so what she was looking for was someone who could perhaps not seem suspicious at all.
What she needed to look for were people who could either hold a grudge against Ezra or Lucius, or anyone that appeared to have no reason for going into the room in the first place, these were her most likely candidates.
She listed down the name of everyone who had entered the specific room she was interested in, no one sticking out to her as out of the ordinary until one name popped up on the very afternoon of the day that Lucius was first allowed out of his estate again.
The judge who had presided over all of the major war trials.
Hermione doubted that to anyone else this would stick out. Why it would seem completely normal for a judge involved in war trials to need to access that room, and she most definitely had the security clearance to do so, except it was all wrong.
Hermione knew for a fact that the judge, Astrid Tarth, was on a well-deserved break from the Ministry after nearly five years of intensive work on the trials, Hermione having recommended to her some places to visit herself. Astrid should not even be in the country, let alone looking through files in the Department of Records.
This could be it, this could be what was out of the ordinary, Hermione may have actually found the next piece in the puzzle that she was looking for.
She couldn't blame anyone else for knowing Astrid shouldn't be here nor to think her visit to the department was suspicious, and even if they did, who were they to question it?
Hermione quickly wrote down all of the remaining names of people who had visited the room, just in case, and then made her way back to Pansy's desk to return the book, eager to set her mind to work on this next clue.
"All clear." Hermione informed Pansy. "Looks like someone with access must have blabbed, I will inform my employer that your Department does not appear to have played a part in this leak."
Pansy was clearly relieved but she didn't let it show for long. "See, what did I tell you?" She asked smugly. "We run a tight shift here."
"It's always good to be kept on your toes." Hermione said, her words laced with a slight threat. "It's not only the people who you sign in who can access those rooms, staff can too."
She paused, letting it linger, wouldn't want Pansy to think she'd got one up on her now would she?
Hermione suddenly realised that this was something Lucius would probably do and was not ashamed to say she was mildly pleased by the fact.
"Well, thank you for your help today Miss Parkinson." Said Hermione before Pansy could come up with a response. "Good afternoon."
And with that she strode out of the department that she would hopefully not have to visit again for quite some time.
Hermione sat back in her office tapping a pen repeatedly and perhaps a little too violently against her desk, frustrated that after hours of pondering she seemed to be stuck. The clue she had found in the Department of Records seemingly led her nowhere as she had no leads on who had disguised themselves as Astrid, and in fact still needed to confirm that Astrid hadn't come back for some reason to work on something.
This new evidence tied with what Blaise had told her about the missing polyjuice which was good for her, it meant that the same witch or wizard was likely the culprit of both cases and that the chances of finding more clues was potentially doubled.
She focused on Blaise's case first, deciding there might be something, anything, to work with. It was hard to get past all of those guards undetected, you'd need a lot of skill at casting charms and even then it wouldn't be full proof. It made her wonder why someone would go to all that effort to get hold of the polyjuice when they could simply make their own or by one on the black market. That's when she remembered the sign in book, Astrid, well whoever had been impersonating her, was in the record room for quite some time, much longer than your typical polyjuice lasted so it was very possible that they required Hermione's special version.
Now there was a clue of sorts, very few people knew about Hermione's polyjuice, only Blaise and a few others in the Security department, the few people who had used it for long term witness protection like Lucius, and of course Snape and some of her friends. Surely that narrowed down the list of people that could be suspects.
That's when a somewhat unsettling thought crossed Hermione's mind, her skin prickling and her heartbeat starting to pick up a little. You could probably very easily get past those guards if you had a very particular item, one of a kind.
The perfect cloak of invisibility, one of the three Deathly Hallows.
Sorry if Hermione seems a little OOC in this, I wasn't sure about how I'd written her but figured it'd be alright - clearly Lucius has been having a bad influence on her.