In mere moments, they were all inside a long dining room. If Harry and his friends had tripped on some ancient custom that required a meal, then he was not aware of it, but he would take it. He was not exactly starving, but since living in the woods it was hard to get a proper meal, even though there were some people who were decent at it. The primary cooks were Neville and Hannah and they did a decent job with anything involving plants, magical or mundane, but as a roast diricawl was levitated to the center of the table, it was all he could do to keep from salivating, and to keep his focus on the head of the house. All wands were returned, though because the D.A. had a hostage of the Malfoy family, it seemed fitting to Narcissa that one of them should remain behind if they went to get him, and they were not in a position to argue. Even with the numbers advantage, he was still not positive they were in the same room as what appeared.

"You may as well tell me your objectives," the master of the house said. "Despite our past differences, I find you a more enterprising young man than anyone else your age. If for no other reason, I detect some strange obligations to hear you out."

"Sir, you can't expect us to have any sympathy with you," Hermione said. It seemed she had barely touched what she had been served, though that probably had nothing to do with the fact that house elves had prepared it. "We came here for an exchange."

"I have every confidence you did. In order for me to evaluate your terms, though, I would know what your objectives are. I have failed rather plainly in the way that I have raised my son; perhaps I took too much care for the world around him to see him grow up strong enough. There is a limit to what I would be willing to give in order to have him again."

"That's utterly shameful," Ginny said. "How can there be a limit?"

"Well, suppose you asked something of me that would mean the death of my wife. I can at least see why you would see her as equally obligated to lay down her life, but I would at least find it rather challenging to agree to lose her even then."

His tone and word choice was genteel, much more like he was talking to an equal than ever Harry had heard him before. Was it a trap? Was he not meant to suspect a trap, even when there was an obvious reason for it?

"If that will get us started, I might as well tell you, then," Harry said, going down the list. They had not had much success with their broader objectives, because they needed more intel then they could realistically source at the moment, but their small successes had kept them going. Really, he hated the thought of using human deaths as training exercises, but it was only after the encounters with the enemy that his unit had anything resembling combat experience. Looking back on it, he would not have even thought of deploying them against the same threat, knowing what he did about the threat.

"Interesting. I had thought, and I would have understood, perhaps even sympathized, if you just wanted things to go back to the way they were. Virtually every young wizard who realizes the world had otherwise unsolvable problems has that phase. You realize, though, that only a few years ago, there were countless moving pieces that led us to this point."

"Sure, but what's the point?" Hermione asked. She was not taking pains to hide her annoyance. Blaise, by contrast, exchanged compliments with Narcissa about the meal, asking if the Mandrake root had come out of her own garden. "Or can you not give away the point?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

Harry was equally fatigued with beating around the bush, even with Daphne, but they had come to talk and they were talking. Did she not realize the position in which they had found themselves, where one wrong move could spoil the deal at best? For all they knew, Voldemort was on his way.

"I don't think you intend to leave your master alive much longer," he said, having already revealed that killing him was his earnest intention. Perhaps that was too many cards to put on the table, but it was not as if he could have effectively concealed it. "I would think that you've already worked out how he's survived so far."

"There is only one way," Lucius said, his voice dropping slightly. Was he annoyed? Was it a matter of pride in his understanding of dark magic?

"I've already destroyed one of them, as you know," he said, avoiding the actual word. "I can destroy the rest. It's better if we find them all first and destroy them all at once, so he doesn't realize what we're doing."

"Do you have any idea how valuable of a piece of intelligence that is?" the master of the house asked.

"I know, and I'm telling you because you know as well. That's my price for your son. I just want something that down the road, you also want." He paused, looking up and down the table. "Don't tell me you don't think you can do it without your master."

"The Dark Lord has been useful, and it remains to be seen whether he can be useful still. I would caution you about assembling the Horcruces, if that is your aim. All together, they may well be substantially harder to destroy than if they were apart. If I recall correctly, the diary nearly destroyed Hogwarts on its own."

"The magic of the school protected the students from dying," Hermione said. "That said, being from it, we should expect each future target to be substantially harder to destroy, and more likely to kill us in the process. Dumping them all into a pile and using Fiendfyre is not something I would attempt."

"We'll keep that in mind, then," Hannah said, somewhat diplomatic. It was easy to see why she had not brought it up so far; they had not found any Horcruces, so the prospect of destroying them had not come up yet. A contrary thought came to him. What if the reason she had not brought it up was because she already had that discussion with Ron? What if it was just that they could not tell him?

What was easy to see was why he should do his level best to derail the train of thought going through the stations of his mind. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, germane to the conversation, it was especially risky to have it in front of Lucius Malfoy and his wife, both known to be skilled in Legilimency. Was the simple fact that he should trust his friends enough to be a reason of its own?

"In any event," Blaise said, regaining the conversation. "Are you interested in what we propose? Have we told you enough, or must we bear all of our secrets before you can come to a decision?"

"I expect you came here to show that someone of a similar background would have no issue what you propose, then?" Narcissa asked, her voice developing an undertone. "Perhaps you would even say you saw yourself in a position rather similar to ours only, say, a year hence, and your decision might even direct our own."

"I would not say I have ever been in a position similar to your own."

"I'm tired of this line of questioning," Ginny said. "Even if for some reason you hated us more than Voldemort, wouldn't you think you have a better chance against us? It's either we die now and he dies down the road- good luck with that, or he dies whenever we get the Horcruces and you can try to kill us after that."

Harry sympathized with her more than she probably realized in wanting to move the discussion along, but she was being decidedly too direct in the way she was framing the opportunity they presented. There was no helping that, though; that was just her nature. Hermione had become more polite and tactful in the years that he and Ron had known her, but she seemed to be at her wits' end, having to deal with the father of a schoolyard bully. Most likely, as well as he knew her, politeness was not a tool to get what she wanted- it was a demonstration of genuine respect and she was having trouble switching tracks and acting like she was taking an avowed blood purist seriously. He would have given at least a hundred galleons to tell her that if it helped, the older wizard across the table had, as she knew and as aggravated her, little respect for her, and no problem carrying on a conversation.

"What can you tell us, then?" he asked.

"While in possession of Tom Riddle's diary, did you ever think to ask your greatest enemy as much?"

It was tempting to say he barely wrote in it at all and certainly did not realize it belonged to the man who killed his parents, but Ginny developed a death grip on her wand. Did she really blame herself for not asking more questions when she was eleven? How many had occurred to her in the years since the diary had been destroyed? Was it the simple fact that the man who had inflicted all that on her was making casual conversation across from her?

"Did he tell you, then?" he asked.

"I strongly suspect it was the first Horcrux he ever made. He had, however, others planned. I had not written three words before he revealed to me that he was going to kill his mother's family. I am quite certain that the snake he keeps contains a fragment of his soul. It is bonded to him far more closely than any normal animal could ever be bonded with a human, even a Parselmouth."

"I see," Luna said. "The one death could not very well explain the other artefact, though. Snakes only live for a matter of two decades, three at most."

"Precisely," the lady of the house said. Somehow Harry had never guessed that treason against Voldemort had ever been discussed with her. "The Dark Lord could not have used that murder for the creation of that Horcrux, because the snake would not have been available at the time. My father remembered hearing about the Gaunts dying. He thought nothing of it, but he remembered."

"Could their deaths have been used for more than one, then?" Hermione asked. It was a reasonable question, but he could tell she wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.

"It is unlikely," Lucius said. "It seems his choices of artefact, of which we know, all relate to him in some meaningful way."

"It's not strictly necessary," Ginny muttered.

"That much is correct. However, the Dark Lord has been allowed his vanity for decades now and has killed countless people. It is unlikely he had more than one artefact on him that he particularly desired to use as a container for his soul, and he did not imagine for one instant that there would not be more people to kill when he found some other trinket. Almost certainly, he views his journey to immortality much like a normal witch or wizard views the journey to adulthood, a process more deeply significant to those it directly concerns."

"Does anyone know more details?" Harry asked. "I'm not saying he doesn't trust you, but there might have been something that you were not there to hear, or someone might have taken the risk to inquire directly."

"I very much doubt you could ever take a hostage that would matter to anyone who might know more," Narcissa said. "Far be it from me to speak ill of Bellatrix, but she does not care about anyone besides her master. If he told her to implant something in her heart, her only question would be as to which chamber."

"She came to mind, then, because she's the most likely suspect," Blaise presumed. "Are the other Lestranges the same?"

"Her husband and his brother are fanatics. It's a shame, really; I had nothing ill to say of my sister-in-law when we were in Hogwarts, except perhaps that she was a touch passionate, by some slight measure more likely to act on instinct than others. It was both her marital family and her new master which pushed her over the edge, though they have tried and failed to do the same with others. I say none of this to imply that you should have any measure of sympathy for her."

"I won't," Ginny muttered, still clenching her wand in her fist. She had resumed eating, and seemed to want to give everyone in the room the idea that she did have some understanding of what it was like to be under that sort of influence, and she had nothing but contempt for those who gave into it. Would it matter if he put his foot down at this point? What could he even do?

"We don't know, then, that anyone else was entrusted with any information," Harry said, resolving to handle it as soon as they were back at their temporary base. "You've given us all you can."

"I am somewhat surprised to find you would settle for so little," the lady of the house said. "I had thought that Dumbledore would have already told you about Horcruces."

There it was. They wanted to know where he had been. Had the whole thing been a trap just to see if they would reveal that critical bit of information?

"We can't tell you how much we knew going into this," Hermione said, saving it somewhat. "We also cannot realistically expect you to tell us more than you know, and we did not know how much you would know before we came here."

"As long as no one minds, then, we might as well take our leave. Expect your son back home by this weekend."

"Not so fast," Narcissa said, frowning. "As discussed, we would still prefer some form of collateral."

"Call a hostage situation what it is," Blaise said, pretend groaning.

"Whoever chooses to stay with us will be treated as any manner of guest," Lucius said. "I trust that my son has not complained about his treatment."

"It wasn't under the best of circumstances when we caught him," Harry said. "I can't guarantee that no one took their anger out on him."

"Naturally. I expect you had no other way of arranging this meeting except to ask him for the details about how to get this far." It seemed his reason for concern had lessened, but there was no immediate need to breathe a sigh of relief. According to Daphne, that was almost always a bad idea. "I assume it will not take long to return with my son?"

"That's correct. We can apparate."

That was only partially true. Hermione was doing her best to learn it, but it was a low priority with everything else she had on her plate. Ginny had not started, which she admitted. Hannah was practicing every spare minute, but could probably only get herself from place to place, and she would be starting with short distances. He had no idea about Luna.

"I shall remain here," she said, as if reading his thoughts and coming to the least sensible conclusion. At the same time, it looked like the others trusted her judgement. They rose after the details were decided, and the elf showed them out of the manor, grand as it was. According to him, the apparation point was closer when coming in or going out from the front.

"Wait a minute," he muttered, stunning their tour guide.

"Harry," Hermione said. "What's going on?"

"I don't want to take a chance of Malfoy's father trying something clever, like swapping our hostage out with someone else. It'd be too easy for him to just kidnap a muggle and Polyjuice her. He might even think that we killed his son and did the same."

"It seemed like he trusted us... for some reason," Ginny said, seeming to consider it. "He didn't poke at my brain at all. What are we doing with the elf?"

"We really only need a strong Confundus. We get her to find Luna and warp her out here. One of us is going to be waiting to pick her up. We'll still give our hostage back; this is just... insurance."

"That's fine by me," Blaise said. "I'll be the one to wait here."

"I suppose we might as well," Hermione said, still annoyed. He remembered how annoyed she had been at the treatment of Winky roughly two years earlier. Confounding the elf, she convinced it that the master had ordered his hostage to be brought out already, that the days had passed already. Most likely, no one would suspect a thing, but they risked their comrade's life on the success of the operation. Running out with Hannah and Ginny, he warped the two of them back, leaving the other two to finish getting things ready. Finding Malfoy alone, he grabbed him and warped to where Blaise was waiting, just outside the invisible bounds of the anti-apparation jinx.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked as his former associate was looking around, apparently quite confused.

"They shouldn't see anything off with the elf's behavior. It doesn't think that it's doing anything out of the ordinary."

The silence was deafening, stifling. It permeated the entire scene around him as Hermione walked over to their position, careful not to run, in case they were being watched from a window. In everything that he had read, he did not know of any spell that could enhance the caster's vision, though, so perhaps the high windows of the Malfoys would be their undoing. As soon as their friend reached them, she disillusioned them.

"When did you have time to learn that one?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know. Just take me back. I just want Luna back again."

"Very well. I suppose Harry can take care of it himself."

It was likely enough that Hermione just hated being where they were. Like everyone else, she had her limits and they were being tested. Would she be relieved that they were getting rid of their hostage? Had she hated the fact that they had held onto him so long? What about the other one?

In his laser focus on what was being discussed while maintaining his mental shielding, he had forgotten that they had actually collected two hostages from the ivory tower. He had even forgotten his or her identity; all the interrogations had been directed at Malfoy, the leader who would know everything, especially about his own house. As soon as the elf appeared next to him, he released the hostage, who still had her wand.

"Do you know how to perform a memory charm?"

"Yes, but only that. I'm afraid I could not perform a false memory charm."

"Can you at least get a time frame for when the memories are erased."

"I believe so. We can have Draco forget everything from the time we captured him."

"That's not all. Make the elf forget that we ever asked for you."

"That's rather sweet, Harry," she said, hitting Malfoy in the back with a memory charm. He stumbled a bit, but continued making his way to the manor. Had it worked? He looked down to the servant, who appeared quite nervous about everything that was going on.

"We're sorry," he said. "We just... it doesn't matter. You won't remember any of this."

It was with a strangely heavy heart that he left. He had to honor his deals to be trustworthy, and yet, he had already gone behind his host's back. Had it been necessary, though? Even if it had not been necessary, would the old man appreciate the demonstration of cleverness? He had, after all, received his son back as promised. Was that all he wanted, or were there plans for revenge, his hostage recovered?

"Let's get out of here," he said, looking back at Luna as soon as the elf disapparated again.

"I was waiting for you to say that. I heard there are Sour-sap-suckers in this neck of the woods."

"I'll take your word for it."