Unforgivable

DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you’ve seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: UNFORGIVABLE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12 th 1993

“Vic the stiff and the drugs are beside the point,” Moody continued.

“In addition to distributing the drugs, Victor was a part of a very quiet little operation for a very long time although if you ask me the drugs and the operation were related. You see, he was a link in a chain that led from really vile people wanting vile things done to the idiots what did those vile things. He was supposed to be a cut out.”

“A what?” Adams asked.

“Don’t know as much as you think, do you laddie? The guy at the top of an organization gives an order to whack somebody - that means kill them, laddie - and a guy at the bottom does the deed. In between there are guys who pass the order from the top to the doer. Most of these guys have no idea who any of the others are. Most might only know the ones they do know by sight, meaning they can’t give us a name, right? So if we catch one of them, he can only give up the guy above or below him in the chain, but not the whole chain. Still, you can follow that chain by getting the one’s he knows unless there’s a cutout. That’s where the link gets his orders in such a way he has no contact with the next link in the chain. Vic passed his orders via his busboy onto Wilkes. Busboys come and go, but Vic and Wilkes both been in place as it were for ages. Vic knew Wilkes. Wilkes knew Vic. Not saying they were friends, but they knew each other on at least a professional level. Vic never knew what the orders meant as they were in a code of sorts that only Wilkes could understand. Vic passed on a time and place and with that Wilkes knew who needed a Devil’s Snare necktie or some other creative way to the hereafter. The time and place corresponded to when and where a patient at St. Mungos had been injured who some higher up thinks should breathe his last. It did not have to be spot on, just enough to distinguish the target from any other patient. Vic passed this on and was also the bagman for Wilkes gold which he paid for out of his drug money and got reimbursed separately through an anonymous deposit to his Gringotts account. Since Wilkes fee was always a thousand and the death of the victims always made the Prophet, Vic never needed to report back up the chain. So then, how did Vic get his orders?

“Muggles call it a dead drop. Don’t know why really, but it stops going along the chain dead. Vic never met whoever set the message he passed to Wilkes and he couldn’t tell you what it meant, but Wilkes could. In this case, the message was written on a large card in red ink and left in the window of the shop across the street from Vic’s tavern plain to see. After all, it meant nothing to Vic or anyone other than Wilkes. In this scheme, the message read ‘9/20… 10:00… Ministry.’ Doesn’t mean much; does it? To Wilkes, it meant kill the bloke who was brought into the hospital from the Ministry around ten in the morning on September 20th. Of course even swimming in Veritiserum, Vic couldn’t tell us who put the card in the window that day or when. It’s not like he spent his days staring at the shop across the alley. He’d look out occasionally. Said since the war it was only the fourth time there was a card. Cards were far more common during the war, you know. So we were meant to be left with a real head scratcher. Who left the card?

“Well, ordinarily there’s three ways of getting past a dead drop and all of them are time consuming. One is to sit on it with surveillance and look to see someone using it. Of course, this only really works if it’s used more than once in a long while. Another way is to do the usual investigative stuff. Figure out who would want to off the vic, maybe narrow it by those devious enough to use such a convoluted method and, in this case, narrow it further by identifying who knew the vic was at St. Mungos and when he was sent off and from where. Guess what, Lucy, you win! True, you’re not the only one…”

“Ha!” Adams said.

“But that’s not all we have on you now, is it? You see, the third way is to get lucky. The delivery boy was this bloke:” and another picture was presented. “Miles Darby. He’s a low level paper pusher in the Revenue Office at the Ministry. Now, before you say he’s the end of the line and we’re wasting Lucy’s time, wait for it! Miles was being watched. Not ‘cause we had reason to believe he was up to offing someone. Money had gone missing and we were watching the people from his office to see if someone suddenly had come into some unexplained wealth. At lunch on September 20th, Miles left the Ministry and wound up in that shop in Knockturn Alley. Our tail took pictures. Before Miles entered, there was no card in the window and after he left, lo and behold there’s the card! And we know there was no one else in the shop or entered or left the shop while he was there. How? We asked the shop keeper not long after he left what he was doing there. Turns out, Miles is a card carrying member of the Imperious Club like Lucy here, although Miles was never more than a low level spell catcher and Auror target during the war. Interesting that, don’t you think?

“Miles, of course, has no idea what that message was about. He was told to put it in that shop window that day during his lunch break and then to forget about it. You told him, Lucy.”

“This is ridiculous!” Lucius snarled.

“True to form, aren’t you. Got you dead to rights as passing the card. Your mouthpiece might say you had no idea what it meant. We know different, don’t we Lucy?”

“It sounds circumstantial at best,” Adams said.

“You always try to jump in before the punch line, don’t you laddie? I could say that with the drugs, the Wizengamot would believe anything we put in front of them. I could say this was really Voldemort and they’d buy it. After all, if he could deal drugs to wizards he’s capable of anything, right? I could, but I don’t have to. Have you figured out who it was who entered St. Mungos ‘round ten in the morning on September 20th?”

Adams shook his head.

“It would’ve been easy to figure out. Must’ve taken Wilkes all of about ten minutes, most of which was spent walking to and from his office. It’s not like St. Mungos Casualty is Piccadilly Circus. The man Lucy here wanted fitted for the Devil’s Snare necktie was Sirius Black, Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black. So, that merely left us with the question of who ordered the hit. We know how the order came down.”

“It would be easy to argue that someone else did that and my client was nothing more than an innocent in the line of communication,” Adams said confidently.

“Not all the laws enacted have been repealed, laddie. You’d know that if you dealt with scum for a living. My guess is you’re mainly about contracts and such. If Lucy’s part of a conspiracy, knowledge of the object’s not important. Lucy here’s as guilty of participating in the criminal conspiracy as the person what gave the order and the mutt what carried it out. But you have a small point. Being but a brainless messenger would absolve him of any claims of attempted line theft. After all, the whole idea of line theft is the thief must be able to gain the line, right? But while Lucy here’s going to rot for the drugs, we can do him for line theft as well.”

“A hollow threat,” Adams said.

“I’m not here to make a deal, laddie. That means I don’t make threats to scum like Lucy here. I state the reality.” Moody then waved his hand and another Auror entered the room with three more files.

“First off,” Moody continued, “we’re not just taking Darby’s word that he got the message from Lucy here. We could. He offered that under Veritiserum. But while that is sufficient, I prefer stuff that the Wizengamot cannot possibly overlook as they’ve been known to be somewhat skittish about that method if the witness or accused happens to be a ‘major contributor.’ After all, one would be reluctant to get rid of a source of easy gold.

“You see, Laddie, Lucy here’s been a ‘person of interest’ for some time. There’s a standing order that he be tailed, photographed and closely watched whenever he sets foot in the Ministry. Everyone he has contact with is watched. Not as closely as I would like, mind you. We know Lucy’s bad business. But until we had more, we can’t allocate the manpower I would like. Still, for our purposes today we had more than enough coverage.”

Moody slid a set of photographs to the Solicitor. “Take a good look,” he said. “First one’s of Lucy here entering the Atrium at 9:58 the morning of 20 September. Next one’s Lucy here looking at a disturbance which was an unprovoked attack on Lord Black. Third one’s Lucy writing a note. Fourth one’s Lucy passing through security getting' his wand checked. He was followed from there to the Revenue Office where he met Miles Darby - that’s the next pic. The next is Darby writing something in red ink and showing it to Lucy here. Definitely fits our story seeing as we have both Lucy’s note and what Darby wrote and his testimony about it. But… well, Lord Black had many enemies and Lucy here was one of them and certainly friends with most of them. Still, we have enough to put him away for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder on top of the drugs. Unless, that is, he were to be able to explain all this away under Veritiserum that is.”

Moody waited for a moment for Adams to comment. The Solicitor was silent. Moody then pushed one of the large filed to Adams.

“Really, your firm doesn’t need a copy of that,” Moody said. “After all, your firm and Mr. Bartley created that pile of Hippogriff dung. It’s the case filed by your firm at the request of Lucy on behalf of his son. It was filed in December of ‘81 when the boy was still crapping his nappies. It seeks a declaration that Lucy’s spawn should be heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Black. True, the heir apparent was locked away in Azkaban at the time and there were rumours that his dad had disowned him - rumours 'cause the dad was dead and his wife was insane, but the Head of House was neither and made it clear he had an heir, thank you very much, and needed no such declaration about the Malfoy brat. Your bosses even went so far as to try and have Lord Arcturus Black declared insane. That went well. Cost Lucy here 50,000 in fines and got nowhere. Still, your bosses managed to keep the Wizengamot entertained for two and a half years before they finally gave this case the boot. Wonder how much gold Lucy lost under the table to keep that case going?

“This second pile of rubbish is your firm and Lucy’s second bite at the apple. It was filed little over a month after Lord Arcturus passed away back in ‘91 and seeks to have Lucy’s boy declared Lord Black. We have evidence that Lucy here paid a small fortune to certain individuals to see to it that the fact that Sirius Black had never been convicted of anything never saw the light of day as that little matter would’ve come to light as he was still the heir, it turns out. True, there are others it seems who did not want that inconvenient truth to get out, but challenging for Head of House would require having all other potential claimants found conclusively legally ineligible. Being in prison even if convicted does not invalidate Head of House status, which is one of the reasons why this file’s so bloody thick as Lucy was trying to get around that little problem. Wonder how much that cost seeing as the Ancient and Noble Houses were less than thrilled about being told their business by a nobody like Lucy here.

“It all became academic, didn’t it? All the ink spilled and untold amount of gold changing hands amounted to nothing, didn’t it? Not quite a month ago, as I’m sure you lot remembers, Sirius Black was exonerated and released from prison or, rather, his self parole was approved by near unanimous consent of the Wizengamot and unanimous vote of the Ancient and Noble Houses. Must’ve put Lucy’s nose all outta joint. All that time and money to make his spawn a Lord and Head of an Ancient and Noble House coming all undone ‘cause the rightful heir is free and married on top of it? Course his little case was tossed out as well as it ain’t worth the parchment it’s written on now, is it? His son’s just a Malfoy now and that’s all he’s likely to be and need I tell you, Laddie, that it’s not all that much? Lucy here knows. Is it all that hard to see how this all fits together?”

After a very long pause Adams said: “It’s all circumstantial.”

“That one of the pet phrases? ‘Cause there’s plenty of direct evidence making this only slightly circumstantial. But there are circumstances and then there are circumstances and I don’t see the Wizengamot seeing this as something other than an attempt at Line Theft. Either way, it’s more than enough to allow us to pump your client full of Veritiserum to find out if this is something other than what we think it is and while we’re doing that, we can just find out whatever else he might’ve been up to.”

“He could always say he was under the Imperius Curse,” Adams stated with what to Moody seemed a false sense of confidence.

“I take it representing criminal scum when they’re in the dock’s not your usual line of work,” Moody replied. “If it were, you’d know that one’s not going to fly any more. One of the decent things Fudge did in this whole mess was scuppering that old lie. True, Lucy here could claim it. But he now has to prove it and further prove that he would never have conceived of doing what he did or supported it or could have benefited from it and such. Even if he was under the curse, under the current law all he can hope for is a few less years as a guest in Azkaban. Moreover, he has to finger his puppet master and prove the curse was on him throughout. It’s not generally known, but you can’t just cast that curse and walk away and expect the poor sod to do what you cursed him to do. True, you could nail a bloke outside his home and get him to go in and off his family. But it won’t work if he has to wait more than a half an hour or so to get on with it. If the deed takes more time than that to set up and do, the curse needs to be reapplied by the same wizard over and over again. A scheme such as these? He did it of his own free will. Got anything better?”

“Is there a deal?”

“There is, although you might not think so.”

“What’s the deal?”

“We’ll keep his involvement out of the drug case. We’ll overlook the attempt on Lord Black. He pleads guilty to the murders of Edgar Howard and Gregory Akers and does life without parole. We waive any claims for fines or reparations”

“That’s no deal! Who are the other two?” Adams shot back.

“Two others who were not as lucky. Howard was a business rival of Lucy’s who wound up in St. Mungos with a Devil’s Snare necktie and Akers was an Auror who, it seems, nearly ended Lucy’s career as a drug dealer and also woke up in St. Mungos with a Devil’s Snare necktie. Wilkes offered evidence as to both murders as did Bole and Darby. We’ll overlook the Bulstrode boy in another matter. Wilkes was to have him off someone, but the boy got strangled by the plant before he could do it.”

“If we refuse?”

“Sky’s the limit for us then,” Moody said. “In addition to all that we have now, we’ll pump Lucy here so full of Veritiserum it’ll be coming out his ears. His deal back in ‘82 that gave him a pass for what he did during the War is off. He’d be lucky to avoid the kiss and his son loses everything once the reparations are collected. If the boy’s lucky, he might get Mulciber’s old job at St. Mungos. I’ll let the two of you talk it over.”

“I’ll take the deal,” Malfoy said before Moody could even begin to stand up.

“Pity,” Moody said. “I was hoping you’d be fool enough not to.”

Kinglsey Shacklebolt stood at a wrought iron gate looking down a long, raked gravel drive along with a fairly large team of others from Magical Law Enforcement. The gate was along a Muggle country lane in Wiltshire that was far from the more travelled roads. The team was larger than necessary for the purposes of this visit as it included several Auror Apprentices here. It was considered a good training opportunity as what they were here to do was part of an Auror’s duties although rarely could a trainee be brought along for a real such assignment as it was rare that the residents would be in a cooperative mood. It was possible the resident might be uncooperative, but it was unlikely there would be any real risk to the trainees.

They stood and waited for the resident to arrive. Shacklebolt could have brought a team of ward breakers instead of just two and simply take down the wards. It would have taken time to do that. But as the resident was not under any suspicion and there was no reason to believe there was illegal activity afoot, an all out assault like that was unnecessary. The document Shacklebolt held in his hand should be enough to gain access.

They could not see the residence from the gate. The drive went up and over a rise in the land and one would assume the residence was somewhere on the other side hidden from view from the lane. They saw a woman coming towards them. She seemed to hesitate for a moment when she saw them, but then resumed walking with a purposeful stride. Soon all that separated them from the woman was the gate itself, still closed.

“Madam Malfoy?” Shacklebolt asked.

“Yes?” she replied.

“I am Investigating Auror Shacklebolt. I have here an Authorization to search these grounds and all buildings duly signed and sealed by the Head of DMLE…”

“I am aware, Auror, that such Authorizations cannot be executed without a Warrant or without the approval of the Head of Household. My husband is away until this evening.”

“Your husband is currently on his way to Azkaban prison there to begin to serve a life term…”

“Azkaban? How? There’s been no trial! Not even an arrest that I’m aware of!”

“He was arrested this morning at the Ministry. He pled guilty to two counts of murder and accepted a life term in prison to avoid trial on grounds that would have left you and your son homeless and knutless had he been tried and convicted of all we could bring against him. You will find he signed this authorization.”

Her shoulders seemed to slump noticeably. “M-may I see your authorization?” she asked nervously. Shacklebolt handed her the document and she read it over. She seemed to stagger at the end and had to place a hand against a bar in the gate to steady herself.

“As you can see, it’s all in order,” Shacklebolt said.

“And how does this affect me? If you find anything, I mean. Should I contact a solicitor? My reputation…”

“I can’t advise you what you should do in that regard, Madam Malfoy. I can say that unless you actively took part in criminal activity, what your husband has done and what we find will have nothing to do with you. As for your reputation, I cannot comment. To the extent it is an extension of your husband’s, whether you cooperate or not will have not true bearing although I dare say not cooperating probably would not stand you in good stead unless you wish others to think you condone what your husband has done.”

She seemed to look lost. “I have not… What Lucius has done is his business. But if you have him, why are you here? What’s he done? Why do you need to be here?”

“We have reason to believe there is contraband here, Madam, the mere possession of which is a ticket to prison. Surely, you would be well advised to be rid of it.”

“Contraband? What’s that got to do with murder?” Madam Malfoy asked confused.

“He pled to murder. We did have enough to try him for that.”

“He was exonerated,” she protested. “He was under the Imperius Curse.”

“Whether you or anyone else believes that is not our affair and not relevant. The murders in question occurred after his exoneration and not before. His exoneration was conditioned, however, on not engaging in similar activities again. He pled to those to avoid being tried for those murders, everything he did during the war and worse.”

“Worse? What could be worse than murder.”

“Drugs.”

“Drugs?” she asked in horror.

Shacklebolt nodded. “His involvement in a major drug distribution ring in our world - maybe the major ring in Britannia - was significant. That piece of information is being closely held and will not appear in the papers.”

“It would ruin us,” she said softly.

“To say the least.”

She nodded. “That bastard! How long will this take?”

“I can’t say, Madam. We will try to stay out of your way as much as possible.”

She sighed resignedly. “Very well.” They heard a click and the gates opened slightly.

The woman seemed to collapse as the team entered. She could not clearly hear what was said. Someone was helping her to her feet before she began to reconnect with what was happening in the world around her. “Are you all right?” another woman’s voice asked.

“Drugs,” she whispered. “Of all things…”

“We’ll get you to the house,” the voice said.

“I can't… I can’t believe…”

“Come. I’ll help you,” the voice said. She allowed whoever owned the voice to help her back over the rise and to the manor beyond.

“I can’t believe it,” she said finally, now seated in a parlour.

“It is a bit of a shock,” the woman said. Madam Malfoy looked at her helper. It was a young woman with a somewhat familiar face. The woman was wearing robes identifying her as an Auror Trainee.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” Madam Malfoy said.

“Her name is Nymphadora,” another woman’s voice said calmly.

“Mother!” the Auror trainee moaned.

“Now that I’m here to deal with… Well, Investigating Auror Shacklebolt would like you to get off your behind and get to it, his words,” the woman said.

“Gladly,” the young trainee replied and left the room almost at a run or she would have if she had not stumbled over her own feet.

Madam Malfoy looked at the “Mother.” She looked very familiar, but Madam Malfoy could not believe it was who she thought it was.

“I am a little disappointed,” the woman said. “Then again considering what it was you were forced to marry, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Andi?” Madam Malfoy asked nervously.

The woman nodded and smiled at least on the surface. “It’s been a while, Cissy.”

“I'm… I’m sorry about…”

“I can understand why it’s been a while. Your husband was not inclined to be sociable with us.”

Narcissa Malfoy snorted. “That is an understatement.”

“And we did little to make it easier,” Andi continued. “I wanted nothing to do with him when I was sixteen and nothing has changed my mind since then. But, it would seem that the problem is relegated to the past. I’m sorry if you felt you were in anyway a part of my remaining out of contact. I have missed you, Cissy.”

Madam Malfoy nodded. “It was… I have missed you, Andi. But… well…”

“You were eleven the last time we talked. I’m not surprised that such was the case given what I did. I am sorry. It’s my fault you had to marry that man.”

“Don’t be silly,” Narcissa said. “You eloped after your OWLs the summer before I started school. Yes, it’s true that when you did, Father immediately pawned me off on House Malfoy to make amends. But I had five years to get out of being stuck with your former betrothed and I did nothing. It was my mistake, not yours. I listen to my elders thinking them wise and correct. I accepted what they told me. I let them put me into his bed the summer after Second Year and let them marry me off to him after my OWLs. I made no effort to do anything else and did not know how right you were until it was too late. I thought I was getting the good deal and that you were a fool with the choice you made. I was wrong. They were wrong. And if I had a chance to do it again, I would have not been so… compliant. I certainly would’ve kept that man out of my bed. Sorry.”

“The past is where it should be, Cissy. I lost my favorite little sister…”

“I’m your only little sister.”

“True,” Andi smiled. “But I always liked you. I didn’t know Father would stick you with him. Had I known…”

“Andi, as you said don’t dwell on what can’t be changed.”

“Let’s then hope this new change is for the better.”

Madam Malfoy seemed to relax a little.

“That was…?” she began.

“Our daughter,” Andi replied. “She hates her given name,” she sighed. “But she’s done well. Auror Trainee and while I’m not allowed to tell her this, she’s at the top of her class overall. Her lead instructor’s only complaint is that she can be a little on the clumsy side, although that does come with her condition.”

“Condition?”

“She’s a metamorph and still learning the abilities of her gift,” Andi said. “We… well, we did not learn of it until her Third Year. Madam Pomfrey thinks it may’ve been repressed in some way or tied to her maturation such that it did not manifest earlier. Apparently, having the ability to change can cause coordination difficulties especially if you do not practice that ability regularly and… well, as a teenaged girl such an ability…”

“I can well imagine,” Madam Malfoy said. “Especially in Slytherin.”

“Oh, she was not in that House. But teenagers are teenagers and it’s only a question of degree in some ways. A girl who could change her appearance in almost any way? So long as her form was human, female and the same body mass? A teenaged boy’s fantasy, as you can imagine. She hid her talent very well. But to do so… well, that’s why she’s still somewhat uncoordinated.”

“Is there a reason you’re being so…?” Madam Malfoy began.

“This must be hard on you, Cissa. I’ve been asked here because I’m a Healer and because you're… family. I’m hoping…”

“Keep my mind off of things?”

Andi nodded. Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy were sisters. Narcissa, Cissy as she was called by only a few and that few had included Andi, was the youngest of three girls. Andi was in the middle. The oldest was Bellatrix. In the opinion of both sisters, Bella craved attention and hated it when someone else got it. Bella would have been happiest as an only child or at least as an only daughter. She and Andi had never gotten along mainly because Andi had taken away some of her limelight. Bella had a better relationship with Cissy, but that was mainly because she was seven years older than Cissy rather than only two, or so the two younger ones thought. Andi and Cissy had got along famously when they were younger. Cissy had looked up to her older sister and Andi had always tried to take care of and help her little sister. That all changed when Andi was in her Fifth Year. She was then informed that she was to marry Lucius Malfoy, no matter that she already had a serious boyfriend. Lucius was in her year at school, in her House even. Andi could not stand the boy and as soon as she took her OWLs, she and her boyfriend skipped the train home and took the floo from Hogsmeade to Gretna Green and got married. Her parents disowned her for that. This did not matter to Andi, except it meant she would never see her little sister again. But she felt that it would be far worse to be the wife of Lucius Malfoy. Of course, it had never crossed her mind that Cissy would have to marry the man in her stead and when she learned that some years later it had crushed her to think she had done that to little Cissy.

“I’m sorry,” Cissy said. “I… I never really tried to keep track.”

“I never tried to be trackable, truth be known,” Andi said. “Went to ground as soon as we finished Hogwarts or France to be precise. I’m pretty sure we were on some sort of list with the Death Eaters and it was not one anyone would want to be on. France was fairly safe. I qualified as a Healer there. Ted red law with a firm that worked for British clients on the Continent and Dora was born there. We came back after the war.”

“Any other children?” Cissy asked.

“Just Dora. It was a difficult pregnancy and, well it wasn’t safe to try for another.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It happens and Dora is… well, we’re quite proud of her. You have a son, right?”

“Draco,” Cissy said. “Although he seems more his father’s son than mine. Once he was born, Lucius was done with me as it were. I suggested he should have other options, that he should not place the fate of House Malfoy in one boy’s hands. He refused to consider other children. He was unwilling to risk having a daughter - says they’re too expensive to maintain and more so to marry off properly - and did not want to risk a fight over the House between sons. I might’ve been happier with another child. I… well, at least he left me alone after.”

“I’m sorry,” Andi said.

“Drugs! Of all the things, drugs!” Cissy said. “Lucius was no prize. He was useless in many ways and terrifying in others. That he’s been put away for murder is no surprise. It was more a surprise it hadn’t happened back then. But drugs? What could’ve possessed him?”

Andi gasped. As a Healer, she probably knew far more about “drugs” than her sister. They both knew that such things were illegal and that was one item of contraband that was above corruption, meaning if someone was linked to it neither influence nor gold could prevent arrest and conviction. The Wizarding World had outlawed Opium in any manifestation even before the Statute of Secrecy and even before it became a problem in Europe. Their initial reasoning was that its medicinal uses (and it did have some) made it a threat to potion makers. Economic protections aside, when its more nefarious properties soon became known it was viewed as a Muggle weapon aimed at controlling magic as one of the signs of opium use was a marked reduction in magical ability while under its influence. Back when Opium was still legal in the Muggle world, its path into the magical one was largely through Muggle Borns which probably was a reason for the prejudice against them, one that had not truly existed (certainly not to such an extent) before the nineteenth century. Some were addicted to it and brought it into the magical world and shared it with friends, turning them into addicts as well. By the mid eighteenth century, possession and distribution of Opium (mostly in the form of Laudanum) carried with it a long prison sentence. This extended to many other Muggle drugs as time went on, at least those that were deemed either intoxicating or addictive although alcohol and tobacco were noted exceptions. Alcohol was so old that no one could conceive that it was invented to ensnare and control magicals and as tobacco was deemed magical in some ways so it avoided the ban. But other drugs were seen as a threat to society as a whole. It was more reputable to be a thief, murderer or Death Eater than a drug dealer.

“Is that why they arrested him?” Andi asked horrified.

“No,” Cissy said. “Well, I don’t know. Not really. They didn’t say and I didn’t ask. But they said he pled to murder and the drugs would not come out. My guess he was not arrested for that - the drugs I mean. They would’ve made an example of him if that’s why they arrested him. There were a lot of things about Lucius that were truly loathsome. There’re a lot of things I would believe about him. But drugs? What could he have been thinking?”

Someone cleared their throat. It was the Auror Shacklebolt.

“Madam Malfoy, I cannot say what your husband was thinking in that regard. We are still investigating that aspect of his… enterprises. Perhaps, however, you can shed some light on another? Madam Tonks, we require your assistance as well.”

They were led into the corridor. The Manor was somewhat Georgian in style and had a single corridor on the main floor that ran uninterrupted from the front of the house to the back, although it was only a corridor because it served no other real purpose other than a place for guests to wait until the Lord or Lady of the House was ready to receive them and as a way to access the various rooms on the floor, of which there were several. There was a stair about midway along the corridor leading to the upper floors and behind the stair another led down to a basement. Andi and Cissi followed the Auror down.

Cissy had seldom been down here. The basement was mainly storage and living space for the Elves. The only room of any interest to Cissy was the kitchen which was a departure from a true Georgian home of its era where the kitchen was in a separate wing to protect against fire. The Manor was a Malfoy property reluctantly left to her Husband when his father died of Dragon Pox the summer they were married. Lucius had been told that he and Cissy would be given one of the Black properties but Lord Black decided he was not about to include a Black residence as part of Cissy’s dowry. Apparently her father had not bothered to consult with the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black about the Malfoy betrothal either for her or earlier for her sister. The same had been the case with the LeStrange betrothal. Lord Black saw no benefit to House Black from either betrothal and made his displeasure known by cutting off the stipend for the parents withholding access to properties for the new couples. This was made clear very publically on Bella’s wedding day. Quietly, Lord Black also informed his cousin Cissy’s father Cygnus that the same applied to the Malfoy betrothal. Had there been more Blacks that had avoided being disowned by prior Heads of House, Cygnus and his line would have joined that list. House Malfoy did not learn of this until after it was too late. Poor Bella had to move into that family’s small home as the LeStrange’s had little property of note. Cissy knew Bella felt cheated in many ways. She grew up spoiled to an extent and expected a lavish home. She got a room with her husband in a large farm house that was residence for her husband’s parents and brother as well.

Cissy too was “confined” to a single room. Her bedroom was hers to do with as she pleased, but she had been forbidden to change anything in the rest of the house. This was her punishment for bringing nothing but her trunk of clothes and a handful of Galleons into the marriage. She was supposed to be a ticket to respectability for House Malfoy but Lucius equated money and property with respectability. A name given up in marriage was nothing to him and so she was to him nothing without land and a pile of money. Once she bore him and heir, she was even less. For the public they kept up appearances. But here in House Malfoy, they never saw each other and she knew there were forbidden places here. She did not know where they were nor was she inclined to find out which suited her husband fine as it meant she could not lead Aurors and others to them.

Except it was entirely possible that Lucius never envisioned her opening the house to a full on investigative team and neglecting to contact his solicitors about it. Nor did Lucius think it possible that without either him or his wife to instruct them the elves would stand idly by as strangers looked for his secrets. But this is what happened and now Cissy was led into a secret passage she had never seen before and down a narrow staircase.

“I’ve never been here before,” she said with trepidation. She had a bad feeling about this and wanted nothing to do with it.

“Are you sure?” a voice asked. She turned and saw a female Auror. There was nothing but hatred in the woman’s eyes.

“I didn’t even know this place existed. I swear it!”

The female nodded. The hatred seemed to vanish. “She’s telling the truth.”

Shacklebolt snorted. “Passive Legilimancy,” he said to Cissy and Andi. “Auror Marks says you’re not lying after making eye contact, then you’re not. Pity in a way, but be grateful because no sane person wants to be associated with what we found down here. Still, I think you should bear witness to his depravations.”

“What’s down here?” Cissy asked fearfully.

“You mean aside from more drugs than can be explained away as and addict’s stash? I’m not even sure… there’s not enough witches and wizards in Britain to use what we’ve found. It’s possible your husband was also trading this filth on the other side. But that’s not why I asked you down here. This way.”

He led them into a windowless room not that it was a surprise as they were beneath the basement. Cissy and Andi could see it was sparsely furnished. There was a table, some crude chairs and four beds. Beneath clearly dirty and threadbare coverings on each bed was a young woman. All four appeared to be asleep except there was absolutely no movement.

“Are they…?” Cissy began.

“They’re in stasis, it appears,” Shacklebolt said. “We were hoping to do this the easy way. But as you know nothing about this place and nothing about them, I assume it’s fair to say you know nothing about how to undo the stasis wards on their beds.”

Cissy shook her head.

“Why are they here?” Andi asked.

“We can only hazard a guess,” Shacklebolt replied. “They appear to be between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, possibly a little younger if they began maturing early and possibly a little older if they were late in that regard. There’s no way of saying how long they’ve been here, when they arrived, or in what order. The only thing we are somewhat certain of is that they’re Muggles. They’re old enough to be attending school and we have no reports of any girls their age who’ve gone missing since the war.”

“With stasis charms they could’ve been here since then,” the female Auror offered. “But they also don’t meet the descrtiptions or pictures of the remaining missing persons files from back then. If we get them out of stasis…”

“When, Auror Marks,” Shacklebolt said. “You will note runes on the bed frames. Wards can be taken down and we do have a pair of ward breakers for that. Once they’re done checking the rest of this level, they can attend to these wards.”

“Yes sir. As I was saying, out of stasis we can detect the presence or absence of a magical signature. As it is right now, I can’t detect a thing.”

“Unless there’s obvious signs of trauma, there’s not much I could do either,” Andi said. “Is there?”

“Bruising mainly,” Marks said. “That one more than the others, but all of them have bruises. The more banged up one also has signs of defense injuries and… well it’s obvious she’s been raped. I dare say all of them have, but it’s more obvious with her. With the stasis charm, we can’t say when it happened or even how long they’ve been here.”

“Through that door,” Shacklebolt said, “there’s a corridor with four rooms off of it. Each has a large bed equipped with restraints. There are injuries on these girls wrists and ankles consistent with the restraints we observed. At the end of the corridor is a spiral stair that goes up to a hidden door in what appears to be a study upstairs…”

Cissy turned around and threw up. “Sorry,” she said a couple of minutes later. “It’s just…” She had no idea what it was beyond incomprehensibly horrible. “My husband always made it a point to invite his wizard guests up to his study for… They would be gone a while every time. If I didn’t know otherwise, I might’ve suspected he was… well, not all man if you take my meaning. Okay, maybe he wasn’t. But I doubt many of his associates were that way. He… he even brought my son there over this past summer for talks of some kind. All that time they were…”

“A brothel?” Andi asked.

“Of sorts,” Shacklebolt replied. “Can’t say if this was a financial enterprise or merely a gratuity for business associates and the like. But it does appear as if these poor young ladies were kept here for that form of entertainment. Everything suggests they were not willing participants.”

“This is horrible!” Cissy said. “I can’t believe. No. I can see this with my own eyes. I just can’t understand it at all. At least they’re alive.”

“Yes,” Marks said. “But they might not be the lucky ones.”

“Oh?”

“We found a room with several sets of young women’s clothes. Judging by the styles they’re Muggle but that does not rule out Muggle Borns or young witches living in Muggle neighborhoods, just those who do not have any contact with that world. The clothes are all torn or cut. Useless as anything other than rags. What is disturbing, as if the rest of this is not, is first that there’s more sets of clothing than there are young women and second…”

“Second?” Andi asked.

“Some of the items went out of style decades ago.”

“Whatever else this place is, this has been going on for a long time it seems,” Shacklebolt said. “My warders are searching for similar rooms on this level. It’s possible there are more. I don’t think so seeing as the only ready access is from that stair I mentioned and there were no similar stairs from that study.”

“There were others?” Cissy asked.

“So it would appear,” Shacklebolt replied.

“What happened to them?”

“I don’t know. But…”

He did not finish nor did he have to. No one in the room aside from possibly those four in stasis believe the others whoever they were ever left Malfoy Manor alive.

“I can’t stay in this… this house of horrors, Andi, I can’t,” Cissy said.

“Where…?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere. Anywhere. The Leaky Cauldron, perhaps.”

“You could stay with us. We live in a nice Muggle…”

“I can’t! I might not have the same ideas about them as others, but I know nothing about that world. I…”

“And what about your son?” Shacklebolt said.

“If he’s been down here, and I think he has, he’s no son of mine!” Cissy said forcefully.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 th 1993

“Bloody hell!” Ron said. He was at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall and it was breakfast. He was sitting next to Katie Bell and with the “Married Lot” as House Potter and House Longbottom were now known in Gryffindor House. Technically, he and Katie were part of that “club” too. They had been moved into the married student dormitories Sunday night due in no small part for their need to share a bed for their bond. Their room was across the hall from the other two and next to the only other Gryffindor couple who were Seventh Years. Unlike House Potter and Longbottom, Ron and Katie actually used their quarters for more than a place to keep their trunks.

“What is it Ron?” Tracy asked who was sitting across from them.

“Page three,” he said. He was reading his copy of the Daily Prophet.

“For those of us without a paper, care to share?” Susan asked nearby.

“Malfoy,” he said softly. “The Dad, not the git. He’s been sent to Azkaban for life, it says. Says he pled guilty to a couple murders and did so ‘cause if he didn’t they could ask about the stuff he did during the war.”

“Who’d he say he killed?” Katie asked.

“Don’t know ‘em,” Ron said. “One was some Auror named Akers back in '88. The other was some guy by the last name of Howard back in '84 after he - Malfoy that is - got a pass by claiming he spent the war under the Imperius Curse. Says here that pass was conditioned on not doing a lot of things ever again, like killing people. It doesn’t say why he was offered a deal at all for the killings, only that he was. The Prophet thinks that was to keep us from learning about more mistakes from the Ministry and then reminds us about Sirius Black and that whole mess. Wonder it Malfoy - the git, not the Dad - knows.”

They heard a commotion from somewhere else in the hall. Ron and the others watched as they saw Draco run from his table and out the door.

“Guess he does,” Katie said.

“He should run,” Tracy growled.

“Oh?” a few voices asked.

“He doesn’t exactly have many friends. Enemies yes, and I don’t mean the lot here. Most of Slytherin has no use for him, but does nothing ‘cause of his father and what that man might do to their families. Without his Daddy… Let’s just say I’d rather be on your brothers’ bad side, Ron.”

“There goes Snape,” Susan said.

“Probably to tell the Snakes that killing him, however pleasurable it might seem, is not a good idea,” Tracy said. “More’s the pity.”

“I’ve just noticed something,” Ron said looking at Tracy.

“Do I have food on my face or…?” she replied in shock and quickly wiping with a napkin.

“No. You called me ‘Ron.’ Twice?”

Tracy almost smiled. “You’re not so bad, really.”

“Neither are you.”

“And don’t be flirty. You gotta girl now and I’m married.”

“I wasn’t being…”

“He’s so easy to rile up,” Tracy said to Susan.

“This means there’s one less thing to worry about,” Hannah said from further down the table.

“Oh?” several voices asked.

“We were thinking that the little snake’s Daddy was building a case of some kind about what happened with the Hippogriff in our first Creatures Class…”

“That class is so cool!” Parvati said. Those who were in the class, which was all but one of the Third Years in the group, the lower years and Katie nodded in agreement. “I can’t believe anyone would want to try and ruin it.”

“We’re not talking anyone,” Ron huffed. “We’re talking Malfoy.”

“What do you mean, Hannah?” Sally-Anne asked. “What’s this got to do with that?”

“Our laws are… very old by Muggle standards,” Hannah said. “Draco has no rights as an adult, as we all know. Those rights are held by his father to exercise as he deems appropriate for the benefit of his House. His wife also has no such rights. If something happens to a child, only the father can seek legal help. So, with the father locked away…”

“But wouldn’t the mother be able to…?” Hermione began.

“First that assumes she’d want to,” Hannah said. “Second, unless she gets the Wizengamot to declare her as head of household or unless the father filed paperwork that would do that if he got chucked into prison, he’s still Head of House. That’s why Sirius was able to become Head when his grandfather died ‘cause there was no plan to name another just 'cause the heir was in prison. But, Mr. Malfoy can’t pursue anything from prison and, more importantly, that claim gets locked up with him so to speak. Unless he named his wife as his Head before getting locked away, such that she was Head before he was hauled in at least legally, the claim remains with him and he can’t do anything about it while in prison.”

“What’s all that mean?” Ron asked. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t follow what it might mean.

“It means there’s no one left to complain about Hagrid’s class back in September,” Daphne said. “It means Draco’s weeks of acting was for nothing.”

“Okay, now that’s cool!” Ron thought aloud.

Cissy Malfoy had spent the last two nights and the previous day in a room at the Leaky Cauldron. She left Malfoy Manor with very little. Basically all she now had in the world was just a trunk filled with memorabilia most of which she had brought to the Manor following her wedding, the clothes on her back, her wand, her various potions and toiletries and her House Elf Pira who had been with her for as long as she could remember. She had access to the Malfoy vaults so money was not an issue. She had yet to decide what to do about her son. It would depend upon his answer to a question. If he had gone done into that… place and done anything with those women, he was no son of hers. But that would require a face to face encounter. She was not about to ask that question by letter.

She was torn up about the four young women. While it might explain why her husband had left her alone for which she was grateful as she had never enjoyed his attentions, his choice in mistresses was absolutely abhorrent. Cissy was not one to want to associate with Muggles. She did not understand them or their world and what little she had seen of it was mostly London which seemed to be crawling with them and their machines. She never liked crowds and yet it seemed to live as a Muggle one could never escape the crowds. But she did not despise them either. She just did not want to live like that or in a world without magic. What her husband had done during the war was bad enough, but it was a war and he had picked his side before they were even married and, more importantly, he had kept her out of it. But the recent revelations sickened her. What he did to those four and perhaps others was unforgivable worse, in her opinion, than any of the curses by that name. And the drugs? Did he use them? Not that it mattered. Even if he did not, he was soiled in a way that could never be cleared away. For all she knew, Lucius had been a few or more steps removed from the real business, but if he knew of it and profited from it, he had crossed a line more surely than when he had taken the Mark as far as their world was concerned. But she knew he was more involved than that as the Aurors had found a “huge” cache of the vile stuff in that sub-basement along with those poor girls.

Sooner or later, the drug business would come out. That sort of thing never remained quiet forever. When it did, the name Malfoy would be ruined. She would have to get out from under that name if she ever wanted to be able to hold her head up in public again. Whether her son would do so was another matter. If he had anything to do either with the drugs or those girls, as far as she was concerned he would mean nothing to her. But what if he were innocent? What if he was as shocked by his father’s activities as she was? She hoped for his sake that he was. But she could not build her future in such hope.

She knew she had two options. The first was annulment. This had the advantage of being “quiet.” It could be done without hiring solicitors or having a case before the Wizengamot and could be kept out of the papers until after it was final. Even then, the papers seldom took interest in annulments. There were many grounds for an annulment, but only one that applied to her. She could not argue the marriage was unconsummated or she had failed to prove to be fertile so as to continue his line. Draco was living proof of that. But she could show a material breach of the terms of her family’s marriage contract namely her husband engaging in activities that would disgrace the name of House Malfoy and by extension House Black. It would be easy and quiet if Lord Black granted the annulment otherwise she would have to bring it before the Wizengamot. She would become a Black again and House Black could recover her dowry with interest. What she saw of that would be at the pleasure of Lord Black, which was a potential downside. Another potential downside was that Draco would become legally a bastard born out of wedlock as an annulment meant there had never been a valid marriage. He would lose everything.

Her other option was divorce. These were considered very public and always scandalous as the gossip papers drooled over even the most pedestrian of such cases before the Wizengamot and to get the most out of such a proceeding she would have to drag Lucius and House Malfoy through the mud before the entire country. Dragging Lucius through the mud would be easy. She stood to gain far more because she would be entitled to keep all her dowry for certain and possibly a portion of the Malfoy estate as well. She had grounds, seeing as Lucius had pled guilty to a “notorious crime” and was spending life in prison. Further, she did not need the help of House Black at all. But there was a stigma attached to divorce she would never live down and she was not certain she would want that. In both cases, she was free to remarry. But divorcees were almost lepers as potential brides.

Fortunately, she did not have to decide her fate today. She was still Madam Malfoy and could still access the House accounts to pay her expenses. She planned to spend the day buying a new wardrobe, one Lucius would never see and one with no connection to that place whatsoever. Before she did anything, however, she needed to find out about those girls.

A/N: The girls are neither going to be major characters nor are they going to become wives of anyone mentioned thus far in this story…