I shan't lie, I had a hell of a lot of fun writing this one so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!
Despite wanting to join them, all joking aside, Draco said he did in fact have important work to do so would have to pass on the adventure this time, insisting that he visited Tuscany far too much anyway since his mother had moved there.
After he bid them farewell, Hermione switched back into her crime solving mode, walking back and forth impatiently as Lucius was getting ready.
"How long does it take to pick a robe, Lucius?" She complained as he stood calmly in front of a large mirror, trying on outfit after outfit.
"It takes however long it takes to find the right one." He said with false seriousness, flexing his muscles in between robes, no doubt knowing Hermione would appreciate it. Damn it he knew her well, her urge to leave diminishing ever so slightly.
"It is getting hotter there at this time of year so I don't want anything too heavy, be it in colour or weight. I also don't want to stand out too much due to the recent incident, but enough that people will notice us and the beautiful witch I have at my side."
Despite shooting her a dashing smile and making her blush, Hermione's patience was wearing thin as she really wanted to get going.
After three more outfits and enough irritating foot tapping from Hermione to surely turn someone insane, Lucius finally settled on a robe that Hermione had to admit was an excellent choice, not that she would give him the satisfaction of telling him so.
Conveniently enough, and much to Hermione's relief as it meant she wouldn't have to fly, Lucius had portkeys set up to many places in Italy for work, one of which would take them pretty close to where Hermione believed Astrid to be. The portkey would drop them right outside of one of the Malfoy estates, this one in particular being currently occupied by none other than Narcissa, now Black, herself.
Hermione had met with Narcissa numerous times since the war was over due to her friendship with Draco and had been pleasantly surprised to find that they got along rather well. The war had changed her. It was as if finally being free from the terrors of it had made her realise how insignificant her opinions were. Of course, this was still Narcissa after all, a woman with high standards, so she hadn't quite let go of her judgement of people, only this time it was based on their actual abilities and intelligence and not their blood status. So all in all, a massive improvement.
That said, she had a hunch that Narcissa's current high opinion of her might change somewhat if she were to find out about Hermione's and her ex-husband's relationship, deciding to postpone that discussion for another day and avoid going onto the estate on this particular trip.
As the pair of them swirled into existence in Tuscany the heat hit Hermione far harder than she had been expecting. Lucius was right, it really was starting to get hot here.
They were facing the estate and she was blown away. It was equal in beauty to Malfoy Manner although seemed to lack something Hermione couldn't quite describe, the feeling of old, deeply ingrained magic perhaps. The drive leading up to the house was covered in magnificent plants and sparkling pools of blue water that Hermione wanted nothing more than to jump into, remembering then that she was in fact a witch and could cast cooling charms which she proceeded to do so immediately. Funny how she will forgot about that sometimes.
Lucius let out a deep chuckle that seemed to rumble through his chest, noticing the look of awe on Hermione's face.
"Wait until the day I show you the place we have at Lake Como, perhaps I'll get to see your jaw fall even lower."
She swatted his arm and put on a frown that could match Draco's on his grumpiest of days. "Carry on teasing me like that and I might not be around to show anything." She joked. "Now come on, it's only a short walk to the village Astrid should be in and I'd like to go by foot instead of apparating so we better get moving."
Hermione marched off down the hill leaving a small trail of dust in her wake, Lucius easily catching up with his long strides, taking her arm in his when he did.
"Slow down, the extra minutes it will take won't make a difference. Even when everything is as hectic as it has been these last few weeks it is important to remember to take these small moments of calm. It is something I wish I had learned far sooner than I did."
Hermione sighed and slowed her pace a little, leaning into Lucius' arm.
"You're right, it's such a beautiful area and I should try to appreciate it more, if only for a minute…but it's so hard for me to do when I don't know who's out there trying to hurt you. I can't relax. I'm so tried of having to worry about the people I care about that I need this to be over. I need to be free of it so that I can focus on, well, you, and my life, and my friends, and potions, and, Merlin, you get the idea…"
Lucius pulled her a little closer. "I know. And I plan to help you solve this as soon as we can. I don't want to be someone that stops you from living your life as I know I have been in your past."
Hermione wanted to protest but didn't. It was true. He had been someone who had given her sleepless nights, who had made her feel worthless and terrified, who had watched her be tortured in his home. She knew it, he knew it, and they both accepted it. Denying it would be an insult to both of them.
They walked in silence the rest of the way to the village, arm in arm, enjoying the small moment of peace. As they entered the streets people noticed them, looked for a little longer than was polite, but it was not for the reasons Hermione or Lucius were used to. These people didn't know them as the war hero and the Death Eater, all they saw was an imposing, stunning man with long platinum hair and the young woman at his side. They looked in appreciation, in awe, and the odd one or two in jealousy which, although Hermione would never admit it, brought a slight smile to her face and filled her with a small sense of pride.
As they approached the little hotel Astrid was supposedly staying in Hermione removed her arm from Lucius' and put a some distance between them. She wanted her questioning of Astrid to be as unclouded by preconceptions as was possible and throwing their current relationship into the mix would probably do no good at all.
Hermione was relieved to find that Astrid was in fact staying there, sure she would have exploded with frustration had she not been, but was currently out at the market in the village square across the street.
They thanked the man at reception before bustling out again, Hermione a witch on a mission and Lucius the one stopping her from walking out into the road without looking and crashing into passers-by.
The market wasn't large but it was busy so the short, dark haired witch could be hard to find. Hermione would have loved to look at all the stands but was so focused on her task that she resisted. Some were full of freshly baked goods, others piled with old books, and here and there one that flittered with the tell tale sign of magic.
"Many wizards used to live around these parts." Lucius explained quietly as they walked past yet another stall that clearly held some magical items. "Some of the merchants know what they're selling, witches and wizards do still live in the area after all, but some have no idea. I once found an incredibly rare first edition book on potions in this very market that I got for an extremely reasonable price since the seller was a muggle who was clueless as to how valuable it was."
Hermione was surprised, it wasn't often that you could find so many magical items possessed by muggles, but she supposed that if magic folk lived here long in the past then it was very possible that things would get misplaced or spread down families who lost their magic.
After ten minutes of searching and Hermione getting increasingly manic as she looked around, it was Astrid who in fact found them.
"Hermione?" She called from behind them. "Oh Merlin, it really is you! What a pleasant surprise."
"Ah, and Mister Malfoy." She added after noticing the imposing figure standing behind Hermione, managing to sound polite and not too shocked. She no doubt knew that Lucius had been working with Hermione as Ezra so seeing them together was likely not too surprising.
"Ms Tarth." Lucius greeted formally with a slight bow, a show of respect.
"What in Circe's name are the pair of you doing all the way out here?"
Hermione knew this could get awkward but decided to go about it like she would any other job, as professionally and methodically as possible.
"I'm so sorry to bother you whilst you're on holiday Astrid, but there has been a bit of an incident and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions? Preferably somewhere private."
Astrid could clearly sense the importance for discretion, nodding without any question and leading them out of the market.
They walked for a few minutes until they were just outside the village, coming to sit on a bench which overlooked the valley and vineyards below. Lucius remained standing and Hermione could sense he was slightly on edge, his eyes searching the surroundings and his hand never too far from his wand.
"So tell me Hermione." Said Astrid, straight to the point, as she took Hermione's hand in her own. "What has happened and how can I help?"
Hermione had always liked Astrid. She was a fair judge, reliable and rational. She had a motherly feel about her despite having no children of her own and Hermione felt like she could trust her, deciding to tell her what she could, deciding that she deserved to know that someone had stolen her identity.
She explained that Lucius had been attacked whilst being Ezra and, while they were not currently 100% sure of the perpetrators motivations, that they believed it had something to do with the information that could be found in the Records Department and that that information had been accessed through the use of the stolen polyjuice and Astrid's identity.
"So I need to ask you, have you seen anyone here who you recognised or was acting strangely, specifically last Saturday."
A worried look entered Astrid's eyes and Hermione's heartbeat picked up in fearful anticipation.
"Well, the thing is, last Saturday I wasn't here. I had gone back to England for my nephews birthday and we went out to Diagon Alley so I saw quite a few people I knew who, regrettable as it may be, could have managed to get ahold of something required for a polyjuice potion…I should have paid more attention to what was happening around me."
Hermione took a deep breath. Don't panic. This doesn't mean you still can't find a clue here.
She couldn't drop the feeling that somehow Harry's invisibility cloak was involved so that could narrow down the people of interest Astrid could remember seeing.
"It's okay." Hermione reassured. "How were you to know that someone would try something like that? Besides, I still don't know for sure that it even occurred on Saturday, it's just a hunch I had."
"But your hunches are usually right." Said Astrid, clearly disheartened.
"Trust me, I sort of wish my hunches were wrong this time too." Sighed Hermione. "But anyway, there isn't much I can do about them until I've proved them wrong. Now, do you remember anyone in particular acting strangely? Or people I'm close with or know? Whereabouts did you go? I'm sure there will be some useful information in there even if it may seem insignificant to you."
"Well let me think." Mused Astrid. "Where I went is easy. We went in specifically for the sale at the Weasley's shop, my nephew loves their products so we went there as part of his birthday and were there for maybe 40 minutes or so before going home."
The cogs in Hermione's brain had started to turn already. The Weasley's shop was just down the road from Flourish and Blotts so it was very possible that anyone who had been there could have seen Lucius, the connections between her various ideas about what had happened coming together.
"As for people who you know there were naturally a few but I suppose, apart from George of course who was running the shop, Luna Lovegood would be the closest to you." Astrid continued. "I would say she was acting strangely, but from what I've heard about the girl, she was acting very normally for her, having what looked like a very intriguing conversation with some small fuzzy creatures."
"That does sound pretty normal for Luna, yes." Agreed Hermione. Luna. She had reason to hate the Malfoy's that was for sure. She'd been locked up under the Manor and treated badly, but Luna was not the type of person to hold a grudge like that, she was very forgiving and, despite being smart enough to pull off the technical side of the plan, Hermione seriously doubted she would have the motivation to do so and, in fact, would probably have executed it far better than it had been.
"Then there was that Pansy Parkinson. Now she was acting strangely, but not in a way that was remotely suspicious. She was with a lovely looking tall fellow with a wide smile and soft dark hair who was dragging her around the store, I think he might be training to be a judge in fact as I've seen him about at the Ministry before, halfblood I think. She looked reluctant and awkward but seemed to be holding tightly onto his hand anyway. If I had to take a guess, I'd say first date."
Hermione laughed at that. Fancy seeing Pansy on a first date, she would have paid to be there. She was sort of happy about that in a strange sort of way, it was nice to see that Pansy was moving forward with her life. That said, as much as she'd love the case to be solved as easily as pointing the finger at Pansy, Hermione had firm evidence that Pansy had been in the Records Department during the time of the attack thanks to the fact that it had been her who was writing in the record book at the time, so could rule her out for sure.
"And then there was, what's her name, youngest of them…ah yes, Ginerva Weasley. She didn't seem to be in a fantastic mood to start with, what with the shop being so busy and all, but then her brother came in, Ronald, and seemed to be going off about something, looked like whatever it was had really aggravated him. I don't know what he told Ginny but she got one hell of an angry look in her eye and stormed off, and I think I heard her mutter something like 'traitor' as she walked past. I know little brothers can be annoying but she seemed to be over-reacting a bit, but who knows, I bet that Ron could really get on your nerves."
"Yeah, he sure can…" Hermione muttered distractedly, her mind racing.
What Astrid had described must have been Ron telling Ginny about the incident he had had with Lucius and herself. Ginny's reaction seemed to be extreme but not necessarily so if Hermione's ideas were correct. Ginny had great reason to hate Lucius Malfoy. He had almost gotten her killed back in her first year at Hogwarts by putting Tom Riddle's diary in her cauldron, and his family had been causing her own pain for a very long time.
Hermione knew Ginny had been furious when she had heard about the outcome of Lucius' trial, just as many had, but now Hermione thought about it she remembered how Ginny insisted that there must have been bribes placed or some sort of manipulation during the trial, not seeming to be able to get over it as everyone else had.
Perhaps Ginny had suspected Ezra for some time, or at least suspected that someone was to blame for Lucius' short sentence, and hearing from Ron that Lucius was out after his minimum five years was enough to push her to look for answers, it would surely explain her saying 'traitor'.
Hermione didn't want to believe it, Ginny was supposed to be her friend, was Harry's girlfriend, one of the 'good guys', but that made it all the more easy for her to get hold of the invisibility cloak if she wanted to.
But for Merlin's sake, how could Ginny be so reckless! The curse she put on the door of the museum could have affected anyone! Hermione herself could have touched it had she not arrived early.
That's when she froze.
All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to re-shuffle and fit perfectly into place, bar one which Hermione was sure she would find.
All this time and she hadn't considered it once. Not once had she thought that the curse had been intended for anyone other than Ezra or Lucius.
Not once had she thought that it was for her.
A cliffhanger! How mean and unexpected of me!
Oh wait! What's that?
I've posted the next chapter already :) I feel like Lucius on his nicest of days.