In early October Draco decided to broach what he feared would be a difficult topic. "Harry, what do you want to do for Halloween? I was thinking we could hold a séance at the graveyard in Godric's Hollow where your parents are buried and take the boys. And we've been invited to a feast at my relatives the day after." Really it was Samhain, but from his six years at Hogwarts he knew the muggles, and by extension Harry, had renamed it Halloween and he was making an effort for Harry.
"Really? You'd want to hold a séance for Halloween?" Harry asked surprised.
"Yes, it is the day of the dead and the day your parents were murdered. What better way to honor them than to hold a séance?" According to the marriage contract, they were to spend Samhain with Draco's relatives, but he had no plans of mentioning the marriage contract if it could be avoided. Mother always said that a marriage ruled by contract was a marriage in trouble.
"You know, I've already talked to my parents' spirits before, right?"
"No… how in Merlin's name did you manage that?"
Harry told Draco then about seeing his parents' spirits in fourth year and during the final battle.
"I didn't know you actually used the resurrection stone! It worked just as in the story then?"
"Yes, exactly like the story," Harry confirmed.
"Wow," Draco replied and then there was a pause as Draco thought about that information. "Well what did you want to do for Halloween?"
"I was thinking we could dress the boys up in cute costumes and take them trick-or-treating."
"What's trigger treating? Some muggle thing?"
"Yeah. Muggle kids dress up and go door to door to collect candy on Halloween."
There was more discussion on the subject, but in the end they both agreed to throw a Halloween party, hold a séance and attend the feast with Draco's relatives. Draco didn't want to give the babies candy and Harry agreed that they could substitute the candy for a less sugary treat. Draco was unfamiliar with the concept of a Halloween costume, but Harry filled him in. They took their request to Madam Malkin's, who promised to have them ready in time.
In the days that followed, Harry sent out invitations to all of their closest friends, except Ron. He wanted to invite Ron, even though his friend had been a total prat last time they were together, but the babies would be at this party, so that wasn't possible. Instead he sent Ron an owl explaining that. Ron sent back an owl saying it didn't matter, because all Aurors who weren't married and didn't have kids had to be on duty on Halloween, so Ron couldn't have gone anyway. It relieved Harry to know that he didn't have to feel bad about excluding Ron.
Harry got permission from Andy to throw the party out on her lawn. Then he paid George a visit to get the wizard to help with planning the entertainment. George insisted on inviting Angelina and Lee, but agreed to take care of most of the night's entertainment.
While Harry was working on the party, Draco was working on the séance. The plan was to hold a small séance the morning after Halloween at the graveyard where Harry's parents were buried. This was still one of the most holy days of the year and Draco meant his children to celebrate it properly. That meant a séance where they worshipped the dead followed by the typical Samhain feast with family. The Rosiers always invited them every year.
Of course, Draco couldn't spend all of his time working on the séance, because he still had his NEWTs. Harry too was kept busy most of the time taking care of the three babies, but he managed to have an hour or two free almost every day.
And as always, life plowed on. Andy sold Tonks and Remus' fire damaged house in early October. Scorpius had another healer appointment, in which Healer Pritchard confirmed that the muscle strengthening potion still was not damaging the baby's liver and that there was a very slight improvement in the strength of the left leg. That meant that Harry and Draco were now to increase the leg exercises to ten reps, three times a day.
Harry too had another healer appointment in October; He and the unborn baby were doing fine and Healer Stevens approved muggle vitamins for use in pregnant people. Lucius had the vitamins ready to hit the wizarding shelves and just needed a well-placed article with product endorsements from Harry, Draco, and a healer. So while they were at the appointment, Draco asked Healer Stevens if the healer would publically proclaim the vitamins to be safe. Healer Stevens agreed. It took less than a week before the article came out on the front page of the Prophet, because Harry and Draco Malfoy were still hot topics and this was the first the news media was hearing of Harry's pregnancy. There had been rumors and speculation in the papers, but they were all about Draco being pregnant again and no one had guessed that it was Harry who was pregnant. Once the paper hit the stands, the vitamins started flying off the shelves and Lucius had a time of it trying to import enough of them; every witch and wizard under the sun wanted to try the muggle pills endorsed by the Savior.
The papers were still going strong in their speculations regarding Harry's pregnancy when he got an owl from Auror Robards during breakfast. He pushed aside his Prophet article insisting that the pregnancy had been accidental and his Quibbler article insisting that the pregnancy was the result of a wackspurt infestation in Harry's brain which physically prevented him from taking contraceptive potion, unfurled the scroll, and sent the delivering owl on its way. The message was simple enough: Auror Robards wanted to see him.
"What is it dear? It isn't another bit of fan mail the elves accidentally let through, is it?" Narcissa asked.
"No, it's from Auror Robards; he wants to see me."
"Well go ahead; Cissy and I can watch the children today," Andy said.
"What does he want?" Draco asked.
"Don't know."
"Well while you're there, do try to explain to him that you're on paternity leave. You get a full year off with pay, so I don't see why he's bothering you all the time," Draco said.
"He hasn't asked me to come in since they captured Flint and that was months ago," Harry retorted.
Draco wanted to say that that was his point exactly, but he didn't think Harry would receive that comment too well, so he kept it to himself. He would never have had to deal with Harry finding out about his aunt's funeral if it wasn't for Auror Robards calling Harry into work when Harry was supposed to be taking some much needed time off.
They finished breakfast and Draco went off to Hogwarts, Narcissa and Andy took the babies upstairs to the nursery, and Harry apparated to the Auror department at the Ministry.
Auror Robards was speaking with a pair of his subordinate Aurors at their desks when Harry came in. He looked up at the sound of the crack and said, "Ah Harry! I'm glad you could make it so quickly!" Auror Robards ushered Harry into his office and closed the door behind them.
"What did you want to see me about?" Harry asked.
"We've been given information that Lucius Malfoy is engaged in illegal potions rings and I wanted to come to you with this information first."
"I can assure you that he's not brewing anything at the Manor. I haven't seen him brew anything ever; Draco's the brewer in the family."
"The allegations aren't that he's brewing or selling it, but acting as the middle man. That's what most of his business is: acting as the middle man between the manufacturer and the shops where the goods are sold, so it wouldn't be too big of a stretch that he might also be dealing with illegal potions. We have reason to believe that certain dark potion ingredients were in his possession in the past and he might even be selling dark ingredients to the brewers."
"Sir, Draco took everything dark away from Lucius. He promised me that he took everything dangerous out of the Manor while Lucius was in Azkaban. It's all hidden away and locked up or else destroyed."
"That's good to hear. Never the less, I've a Death Eater claiming that Lucius is into illegal potions and my Aurors can't even come close to being able to explain where the huge influx of galleons to Lucius' vaults in recent months has come from. Granted he has several new business ventures and anything with your last name on it is hot right now, but there's still a ginormous disconnect between how much the businesses we know about are making and how much is being deposited in his account every month. It's certainly possible that we're not aware of all of his legal business ventures, but with this allegation, I assume you can see why we need to look into it."
"Yeah. I was really hoping Lucius had turned over a new leaf, because he's been so nice lately and I haven't seen him doing anything wrong…"
"And there is still a chance he has. The next step typically is an audit. My Aurors have already forced the information regarding his vaults out of the goblins and now we would typically call Mr. Malfoy in here to account for the funds seen in the account. But since you're one of my Aurors and he's related to you, I thought I could do your family a bit of a favor. I know you would never let corruption go on under your nose or in your house, so if Lucius will make an account to you of where all of the money is coming from and you believe it, then I'll consider the issue closed. If he can't, then I'll have a more experienced Auror take the case and start building evidence against him. You will of course be paid for your time."
Harry agreed and Robards sent Harry off to talk to an Auror named Bell, who turned out to be Katie Bell's uncle. Auror Bell showed Harry the auditing forms they filled out and the basic arithmetic charms to calculate the totals and went over the process of conducting an audit. It was all about balancing how much money came in versus how much money goes out. When the lesson was over, Harry took the audit form and apparated back to the Manor.
By the time Harry returned, Narcissa and Andy were already back in the dining room, feeding the boys mashed squash for lunch. He relayed the news of the illegal potion suspicion Lucius was under and the audit he was supposed to conduct.
"Harry, I can assure you that Lucius isn't currently involved in anything illegal, including illegal potions. I don't think he's ever been in illegal potions," Narcissa said.
"I hope you're right, but I have to check or someone else will," Harry replied.
"Well at least it's someone within the family doing it. But mark my words, you'll see that Lucius is on the up and up these days," Narcissa replied.
Draco came down from the study not long after that and Harry had to repeat his explanation for his husband. Draco echoed his mother's sentiment in insisting that Lucius was not now nor had he ever been involved in acting as a go between for illegal potions.
Harry had to repeat the news a third time that night at dinner when Lucius came home.
"Harry, by the time your audit is done, you will see that this is just another attempt by the Ministry to frame me for something I didn't do. I have no problem sitting down with you and doing this audit, but when I come away squeaky clean, I'd appreciate it if you'd remember it next time I'm accused of something. This type of thing has been occurring regularly since my involvement with the last war. Not that I'm innocent on all accounts, but besides being a Death Eater and my involvement with the Dark Lord, I have committed very few crimes and absolutely none since my son wrote me that letter last summer," Lucius said. He wasn't counting bribery of public officials, because that was a Malfoy custom, not a crime.
And so after dinner Draco took care of the boys and Harry and Lucius flooed over to Mr. Shafiq's office to begin the auditing process. Harry already had the records of Lucius' vault activity since the end of the war and Mr. Shafiq began the process of producing documentation. A lot of money came in lump sums in May and were two years' worth of profits from Lucius' various businesses that continued on in his absence.
Harry hadn't appreciated just how many businesses Lucius had going on before; so many that the Malfoys employed Mr. Shafiq full time as an attorney mostly to oversee the regular legal issues involved with said businesses. There were sales of wine and cheese from the Villa and wheat, vegetables, and various potions ingredients from the Manor. Then there were the investments that paid yearly dividends, such as the Daily Prophet, the Nimbus Broom Company, Puddlemere United Quidditch team, an invisibility cloak manufacturing company, and a dragon reserve up in Wales. There was rent collected from two Malfoy properties that weren't currently used by the family.
And then there were the muggle imports and export ventures. Muggle jeans, vitamins, and soothers were just the latest three things the Malfoy family imported from muggles and improved upon. Before that there were imports of food, paper, alcohol, and cloth. There were also exports of things made by elves or wizards to muggles; nothing magical of course, but there were certain things that were easier and cheaper to manufacture with magic. Swords, watches, synthetic diamonds, and crystal goblets were just a few of the items. None of the items were cheap or purchased by the typical muggle, but the items were valuable enough that the sale to just a few rich muggles brought in enough profit to justify Lucius' efforts.
Then there were the complex finances of the Ravensdale Family Wizarding Store, which Lucius had purchased after the war for a minuscule price now that there were no surviving members of the Ravensdale family capable of running the store. Lucius planned on fixing the place up, filling it with Malfoy merchandise, and renaming it the Malfoy Family Wizarding Store, but for now it was still the Ravensdale place and was selling off the end of the merchandise the place had come with. Harry actually had to look through the sales records of the store down to each and every purchase, making it the most difficult business to audit.
Needless to say, Harry didn't finish the audit that first night. He and Mr. Shafiq spent several hours a day for a week working on it. In the end, it all added up and every knut that was deposited into Lucius' vaults in the last year was accounted for. The information that Lucius was involved in illegal potion trading was nothing more than a Death Eater's lies designed to cause trouble for Lucius, because Lucius had turned his back on the Dark Lord, and to create more work for the Ministry, for having the nerve to arrest said Death Eater.
The experience taught Harry a lot about Lucius and not just about what sort of business Lucius was away on all day five days a week. Harry learned that his father-in-law was currently completely legit and that when Lucius said the Ministry was falsely accusing him of something, Lucius wasn't necessarily lying. Harry also learned that part of being an Auror was investigating all accusations and not rushing to judgment, especially on the word of a convicted criminal.
And well, all of that suited Draco and Lucius just fine, because it meant that Harry was less suspicious of them and therefor more likely to not believe the accusations when they actually do something illegal. No one bothered to mention to Harry that if they were to do something illegal, like potion dealing, they wouldn't do it in a manner that was traceable by the Ministry. Not that anyone in the Malfoy family was currently doing anything illegal; not since Harry joined the family. Obviously the family was in the spotlight of the public eye at the moment, which meant right now wasn't the time for illegal activities; every Malfoy knew that. And with the Savior in the family, they could afford to be legit.
Author's Note: Up next will be Halloween. Please Review!