When Hermione arrived at Harry and Ron's office the following morning, she found Harry already there. He was bent low over a piece of parchment scribbling furiously with a quill in his hand.

"Good morning, Harry," Hermione said cheerily.

"Oh, morning, Hermione. Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."

"You look busy, is that something for the Astoria case?" She headed over to his desk and peered down at the parchment.

"Yeah, I'm writing to Azkaban to try and arrange a time to interview Stan but the guards are being really difficult about it. They keep saying they're not sure what to do about him as they've never had a case like this, plus it took him a long time to recover from the spell reversal the last time I was there so they don't trust me to go back. I think I'm going to have to ask Gawain to write to them and tell them we're going in whether they like it or not. Can you start putting together a list of questions to ask him please?"

"Of course." She smiled and then paused. "Um, Harry? Is Malfoy in yet?"

"Yeah, he is, I saw him pass by my office about twenty minutes ago. Thank you for going to his on Sunday by the way, have I mentioned you're a lifesaver?"

"Only about a thousand times since we met." Hermione smiled and then cleared her throat. "Did, um, did Malfoy come and speak to you at all?" she asked tentatively.

"No, why?"

"No reason. I'd better get on with these questions," she said quickly.

"Use my desk," Harry told her, "I'm going to see Gawain about this interview with Stan."

He left the room and Hermione sat down at the seat he had just vacated. She had just pulled out a blank piece of parchment, quill, and ink pot when Malfoy flung the door open and stepped into the office.

"Potter, I-" he began, and then realised that it was not Harry sitting at the desk. "Oh, Granger. Sorry, I thought Potter was in here."

"He was," Hermione explained, "but he left to speak to Gawain. Something about the Azkaban guards not wanting him to interview Stan Shunpike. Were you coming to tell him what we talked about yesterday?"

Draco nodded as he closed the office door behind him.

"I don't think you should tell him," Hermione said quickly.

"What?" Draco asked incredulously. "But yesterday you were so adamant."

"I know, but I thought about it a lot last night and I've changed my mind. I know Harry and Ron, and I know their feelings towards you. I think if you tell them they'll be convinced that you had something to do with it and they'll spend all of their time trying to prove it, rather than finding the real culprits."

"But you said-" he began.

"I know what I said," Hermione interrupted, "but yesterday I was angry that you had been keeping things to yourself that were related to the investigation. Now you're not, because I know, and I don't think any of that will lead us anywhere new. Our best hope now is that Stan tells us something about your father that will lead us to the Knights of Walpurgis."

"Are you sure?" he asked tentatively.

"Positive. Let's just keep this between the two of us."

"Thank you, Hermione," he said sincerely, startling Hermione with the use of her first name.

They looked at each other for a few moments, neither sure of what to say next and neither aware that the office door had just been opened.

"What's going on here?" Ron stood in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest and an accusatory expression on his face as he looked between Hermione and Draco, each looking equally guilty.

"Nothing, nothing," Hermione stammered. "Dr-Malfoy was just helping me to write some questions down for us to ask Stan when Harry gets permission to interview him from the Azkaban guards. He's in Gawain's office now."

Ron's eyes narrowed as he processed Hermione's story. "What's he doing with Gawain?"

"Um, the Azkaban guards are being difficult about us going in so Harry is getting Gawain to write to them."

Ron gave a non- committal grunt as though he wasn't sure whether or not to believe Hermione's story. It occurred to her that this was the most the pair had spoken since their break up and though it had been a far from pleasant encounter, she couldn't help but hope that his frosty behavior towards her was thawing.

The atmosphere in the small office was extremely awkward over the next few minutes and Hermione, Malfoy, and Ron all visibly relaxed when Harry finally entered the room. He arrived with the news that Gawain planned to visit Azkaban in person rather than write to them to get their meeting planned sooner rather than later, he had left immediately so the foursome could do nothing but wait for his return.

Thankfully, Gawain was back in just over an hour and had successfully managed to get them an interview with Stan that afternoon. They had all put together a strong list of questions to ask him and were all hoping that it gave them some new leads as this was their last line of investigation.

They decided to break for lunch and then head straight to the wizarding prison immediately after. Harry left to meet with Ginny, mumbling something about different types of parchment for the invitations, and Ron followed him without a word, leaving Hermione and Draco alone once again.

"Do you-" Malfoy began, "I mean, I'm going to get lunch downstairs if you want to come?"

Hermione wasn't sure how uncomfortable a lunch hour with Malfoy would be, but as she usually ate lunch with Harry and he wasn't there, it certainly beat an hour alone.

"Sure, why not?" she replied, hoping her face didn't give away her skepticism.

They left the office in silence and headed for the lifts. On the ground floor of the Ministry, through a door beyond the front desk, there was a large cafeteria for the Ministry workers. It was a plain room with white, undecorated walls and wooden flooring. Several long tables and benches filled the centre of the room and down the left hand side there was a counter that stretched the full length of the wall and held dishes of food and trays of tea, coffee, and pumpkin juice that magically refilled themselves.

Hermione helped herself to a plate of chicken casserole and vegetables, and a glass of pumpkin juice, Draco opted for sausages and mashed potatoes and a cup of coffee, they paid a witch at the end of the counter and then sat down, still never saying a word to each other.

"This is wierd, isn't it?" Malfoy said, finally breaking the silence about half way through their lunch.

"Thank goodness," Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought it was just me!"

He chuckled. "Not at all. Though let's face it, neither of us expected we would ever sit down and have lunch together, did we?"

"Most definitely not," Hermione agreed.

"I have to say, sitting in awkward silence with you is definitely better than eating alone in my office."

"You do that every day?" she asked.

"Not every day. Sometimes I have lunch at home with Mother, and I used to meet Astoria on Wednesday's and Friday's."

"What about the other day's though? Aren't there other Aurors you could eat with? I mean, I know you don't get along with Harry and Ron but they're not the only people you work with."

"True," he replied, swallowing a mouthful of food, "but the rest of them don't exactly trust me, that's the downside of being an ex-Death Eater I'm afraid. When Gawain hired me they all thought I had confunded him or something, most of them still do."

"I had no idea…" Hermione said quietly.

"Well, being hated isn't something I shout about," he teased.

"Of course not. I just meant, I didn't realise how many people still held grudges, that's all."

"Well, I can't exactly blame them, can I? Every witch and wizard in Britain was somehow affected by the war, either they lost their homes, a family member or friend, or they were tortured, all by Death Eaters."

"You're very understanding of them," Hermione observed.

"I don't have any right to be angry with them. I just wish they weren't," he replied simply.

Hermione said no more, but considered his words as she finished her lunch. She could understand perfectly why the people Draco worked with did not trust or like him, everything he had said about the Death Eaters was true. The logical side of her was telling her that she should be behaving the same way towards him, especially after the way he had treated her in school and then his actions in the war. The problem was, there was a very small but rather loud part of her brain that was making her feel sorry for him. He had no friends in his life, his father was on the run, he was being threatened by a group of dark and dangerous wizards, and his fiancée, the one person who loved him in spite of his past, was missing.

"We had better get back," Draco said, setting down his knife and fork on his empty plate.

Hermione looked at the clock on the wall above the door and saw that there were only ten minutes remaining of their lunch hour, where had the time gone? She nodded and stood from her seat, Draco mimicking her actions. They returned their trays and empty plates and cups to a separate counter, where they vanished, and then headed back out to the lifts.

Harry and Ron were already waiting in the office when Hermione and Draco got there. Harry smiled but Ron's expression was thunderous.

"What time do you call this?" he demanded.

Draco rolled the sleeve of his robe up and checked his watch. "Twelve fifty seven."

"It's after one," he replied, pointing, but not looking, at the clock on the wall that also read three minutes to one, "you were both supposed to be back by one so we could leave straight away," Ron scolded.

"Ron, calm down," Harry said, looking confusedly at his best friend. "Let's not argue over a couple of minutes, everyone's here so we can go."

"Finally," he mumbled grumpily.

Hermione shot him a glare and he averted his gaze to the floor.

The journey to Azkaban was awkward to say the least. Ron continued to mumble about any small annoyances he had along the way, Hermione sighed in frustration at him, Harry kicked him, and Draco smirked at him which caused him to complain further.

It was Hermione's first visit to Azkaban and she had been incredibly nervous for it, but by the time she arrived there she was relieved that there was some form of distraction for all of them.

Once past the final security check, the group was led to a basic room that contained only a table and a few chairs either side of it. It reminded Hermione of the muggle police interview rooms she had seen on television programs, the only difference being the lack of the two way mirror.

Harry thanked the guard and sat down on one side of the table, Ron sat next to him, leaving Hermione and Draco to sit next to each other opposite them.

"Right," Harry began once everyone had sat down, "let's figure out how we're going to go about this before we ask the guards to bring him in."

"I want to ask the questions," Draco said abruptly.

"You're joking?" Ron asked him.

"No. I'm deadly serious, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, for starters you're not technically working on the case. You're a witness, a victim, not an Auror on this one."

"I think Ron is right," Harry added quietly.

"This guy posed as my father for four years, surely I've got a right to interview him myself?" Draco said, looking at Harry and Ron incredulously.

"That's the exact reason you shouldn't be the one to interview him, you're too connected to him personally. Just let Ron and me do it, yeah? You can stay in the room if you want."

Draco thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders in a gesture that said he didn't want to agree with Harry but knew he was fighting a losing battle.

"Do you think he'll cooperate?" Hermione asked the group.

"Why wouldn't he?" Ron snapped.

"Well, because he didn't last time, when he was Lucius. If he didn't give anything away last time what makes you think he will today?" Hermione replied curtly.

"We don't," Harry said truthfully.

"I say we use veritaserum again," Ron announced.

Harry shook his head. "No. Definitely not, remember what Gawain said last time? We can't use it without his permission."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him," Ron said dismissively.

"Are you stupid?" Draco piped up. "Who says we'll even need it?"

"Why waste time finding out?"

Malfoy shook his head. "Look, Weasley, if you and Potter are any good at your jobs, and I hate to admit I think you are, then you won't need a truth potion to get what you need out of Stan. Aside from anything, I would rather keep my job, thank you very much."

"I agree with Draco," Hermione said.

"Of course you do," Ron muttered childishly under his breath.

"Let's not start arguing again," Harry said in a raised voice. "I'd like to keep my job too so let's forget about the veritaserum for now, if he's difficult we'll ask Gawain. I'm sure Stan will give us something to go on though, he's not exactly intelligent is he? Now, me and Ron will do the interview, you two can stay in the room but please don't interfere."

The three nodded at Harry who then told the guard that he could go and fetch Stan. The large surly man grunted and then left the room. Draco and Hermione stood from their seats and moved them to the corner of the room by the door, Hermione summoned another chair for Stan to sit in opposite Harry and Ron.

The door opened again moments later and the guard that had just left, and a new one, ushered a young man in the room who was completely unrecognisable to the boy Hermione had met on the Knight Bus several years previously. His acne was gone and his pale skin looked fragile as it stretched over his bones. His sandy coloured hair had either fallen or been pulled out, no doubt due to the stress of having his true identity revealed, and patches of his scalp could be seen. Hermione felt a great surge of sympathy for the naïve man, who had been cruelly tricked into serving a sentence he hadn't earned.

He shuffled across the room, his feet barely being lifted from the floor, and his eyes darting around nervously. He flinched each time his gaze fell on Draco, who was staring at him with an anger Hermione had never seen before. He sat down in the chair and intertwined his fingers before fixating his eyes on them.

"Stan?" Harry asked tentatively and received a whimper in response.

"Stan, we're going to need you to talk to us," Ron said slowly.

Stan looked up at the two nervously. His hands were shaking and when he spoke his voice was barely above a whisper. "What's gunna happen to me?"

"Pardon?" Harry said.

"Now you know what I done. What's gunna happen to me?" He was restless in his seat, rocking slightly, and the hands that were on the desk in front of him were shaking.

"That hasn't been decided yet," Ron told him. "We're here to talk to you about Lucius Malfoy and the Knights of Walpurgis. We want to know everything that you know."

"I don't know nofin'," he replied stubbornly.

"Stan," Harry said, looking him straight in the eye, "just bear in mind that what happens to you after today will depend greatly on what Ron and I tell our boss, the rest of the Auror department, and the Wizengamot."

Stan processed Harry's words and gave a small but defeated sigh. "What d'ya want to know?"

"Everything," Ron replied. "From the beginning. When you made your pathetic deal with Lucius Malfoy and he did the spell, was anyone else there?"

"A few others, I dunno 'oo they were though, they had cloaks coverin' their faces."

"Recognise any voices?" Harry asked.

"Nope, all blokes though."

"Where were you when they cast the spell?"

Ron had a quill poised in hand, and was writing the answers as Stan spoke. "Haven't a clue, some house."

"You're going to have to be more specific, Shunpike," Draco growled from the corner and Stan jumped a little at his interjection.

"Malfoy, you're here to observe remember?" Ron shot at him. "Stan, how did you get to the house? What did it look like?"

"Slide along apparition, Lucius did it. Told me 'e didn't want me to know where we was goin'."

"Tell us about the house, anything you noticed in it?" Harry's voice remained calm but Hermione could tell by the way he was leaning forward slighlty that he was getting desperate for a scrap of information they could use to find Astoria.

"I only saw one room, it didn't have no furniture or nofin' an' the windows were blocked up. Only light came from the wands."

"So they did the spell," Ron said, skipping over the awful details, "then what?"

"They made me stay, I slept on the floor in that room then went straight to the Ministry the next mornin', straight to trial. Lucius told me just to nod an' not say nofin', that's what I did."

Harry and Ron both looked down at their list of questions before looking back up at Stan and asking the next question in unison. "Why?"

"Why what?" Stan replied.

"Why did you do it? Was it really worth the gold Lucius offered you?" Ron asked incredulously.

Hermione had been thinking the same thing and was glad that Harry and Ron had asked him despite it not being one of the questions they had written on their list. She too leant forward in her seat and noticed out of the corner of her eye that Draco had done the same thing.

"'Course it was. I needed money an' he had it. This place in't so bad now them dementors 'ave gone. An' I didn't have anyfin' keepin' me from doin' it."

"Nothing?" Harry asked. "No friends, no family?"

"Nope, I'm just like he who must not be named innit? 'Cause he killed them all in that muggle house," he said knowledgeably, and then quickly added, "Not that I killed mine, Dad left when I was a young 'un and Mum drank 'til 'er liver packed in."

Hermione felt a pang of sympathy towards the pitiful man sitting across the room from her, but then she caught sight of Draco next to her, his head in his hands, and remembered why they were all there. The feelings of sympathy quickly disappeared. She sat up a little straighter in her chair and listened to Ron's next question.

"Has anyone visited you since you've been in here as Lucius?"

Both Draco, and the Azkaban guard tensed. Their movements went unnoticed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione whose attentions were focused entirely on Stan, who paused for a moment before answering.

"Nope. No-one."

"Tell us what you know of the Knights of Walpurgis?" Harry asked abruptly.

"I ain't never heard of 'em."

Harry and Ron studied his expression carefully, as though they were trying to work out if he was telling the truth or not. Apparently content with his answer, Ron asked their final question.

"What can you tell us about the disappearance of Astoria Greengrass?"

"'oozat?"

"Astoria Greengrass, she's Draco's fiancée," Harry explained.

"Never met her."

"That's not what we asked," Ron snapped. "Do you know anything about her going missing?"

"I didn't even know she was missin'."

Having asked all of the questions they needed, Harry gave a small nod to the guards. The man who had shown them to the room earlier took out his wand and jabbed it into Stan's back. Stan stood up and was guided to the door.

"Wait!" he shouted as Hermione opened the door to let them out. "What's goin' to happen to me? You never said."

"Let us know if you think of anything you might have forgotten to tell us today," Ron replied and gestured to the guard that he could take Stan away.

Stan's shouts of protests could be heard as he was ushered out of the room and back to his cell.

"Fat lot of help he was," Draco complained once the door was closed again.

The other three murmured in agreement.

"What now then?" Hermione asked.

"I need to speak with the head guard to let him know that Stan will be taken to trial again and a new sentence decided for him, Gawain asked me to pass the message on before we left. Wait for me here, I'll only be a few minutes," Harry said and left the room.

Ron turned to face Hermione. "Can I talk to you outside? Now?"

Hermione was apprehensive, his expression was very serious. "Um, can't it wait until we get back?"

"No," was Ron's short reply.

Hermione took a deep breath and followed him as he stepped outside into the corridor.