Chapter 5
Mars 2001
“Where is the intelligent one?” Lucius Malfoy asked her
Is this man taking the mickey out of us ?
“Would they notice if we broke his nose?” Ron Asked Harry over Hemione’s head. Lucius’s smirk didn’t waver
“What are your wife’s designs with the Veil Mr Malfoy, and what are her real intentions ?”
“Right to the point Ms Granger” Lucius eyes never leaving her. The Girl grew into her hair, she also gained the confidence to match how outspoken she is. She has always been outspoken, but you could see once the words left her mouth how her eyes would hesitate.Now she was back to being like that little girl in the bookstore teaching a grown man about the fear under words, when then that was a fearlessness of innocence naïveté, this fearlessness came from survival.
“I agree with you let’s no play around our words, I’m guessing that you are visiting this time because you arrived to the same conclusion”
“The Veil”
“It seems like it”
“She’s going to use it to substitute the dementor’s kiss. Why the secrecy, why the obsession, what is she planning to do after that?
“My wife, Mrs Granger, has always acted from the shadows like any good pureblooded wife of noble birth”.
The three of them scoffed.
“If there is reason behind the secrecy, other than that being how she has always acted and having the element of surprise I would not know. The obsession, sadly, is also a little quirk of my wife, she would get fixated on details and projects for years without relenting until completion. Our Son…” breathe in, breathe out “was the only project she revisited, everything since his conception was calculated. Everybody thought we had difficulties conceiving, the reality is that she planned our encounters for the baby to be born the same year as her friends, near the date of her own birthday, and the date that a famous healer would be visiting Britain to deliver the baby. Other men would have found this need for control and schedule of intercourse unappealing , but not me I have always found efficiency to be arousing” he said this last part not very subtlety leering at Hermione up and down
Gah Nimue, Circe and Morgana , ewwwww
I think Ronald would have actually broken his nose if he wasn’t so busy heaving
Harry was doing his best impression of deer in the headlights, he looked straight up traumatized
Not to be deterred Lucius continued “ after his birth came the peacocks and that's all she talked about for years until she fixated on the rose garden, on and on over the years. Ever since Bellatrix told her about Black going through The Veil is all she could talk about when we could breathe away from the Dark Lord”
“ And no matter how rich she is, she cannot buy herself a Veil or gain access without being an Unspeakable” Hermione concluded “ but why go so far as to become Minister of Magic ?”
“I’m guessing security got tight after we broke in, twice” sais Ron looking at Harry for confirmation who nodded
“What is her goal then? Is she thinking of extracting people out of the Veil? Sirius? your Son?”
A pause
“If those were her intentions she has changed them, either something is missing from the ritual she found or she doesn’t see herself capable of completing it”
“an actual ritual to bring people out of the Veil?”
“excuse me?”
“what the actual fuck?” exclaimed Hermione; Ron and Harry with respective degrees of eloquence
“What her new goal is , is exactly what she is promising. Punishment”
“She blames you for Draco’s death doesn’t she?”
His name
Lucius flinched, his gaze got lost for a second as if her talking about Draco threw him out. Seeing as he didn’t answer, she continued
“She’s using this as revenge to you, you’re going to be set as an example” a pause “is that why you called us here ? to save you?”
“I don’t care about being saved, if there is anything my wife and I have in common is that we no longer care for what happens to us, that’s what makes her extremely dangerous. Once she has imparted punishment to those she thinks wronged her and our son, those who work with her will get their revenge and their reward too . They will maybe get to play with the soulroom, or the time room she can do what she wants if she doesn’t care for the consequences”
“Is like a suicidal terrorist” ushed Harry
“a what?” asked Ron
“shhh. I have been investigating about the last time there were so many death sentences and death tolls in Britain, they were always followed by marriage and reproduction Laws. In both cases they were intertwined with the love and soul rooms”
“Indeed. And if the people sponsoring my wife are the wives of my neighbors I would think they’d like to clean the dating pool for their children, so to speak. Of course her first victims will be those she thinks responsible for our son's death, and the people who wronged their families, if they also happen to be mud- muggle-borns…. well …” he smirked at hermione, a knowing look in his eyes, his head inclined to his left mockingly
Silence.
Not even the waves and the wind emitted a sound.
In moments of great upheaval, Hermione’s ears always went out first, she wouldn’t be able to hear a thing, only the imaginary gears of her brain going into place.
This time, just like when she first discovered Harry was a Horcrux, she didn’t even feel that.
Numb
Tonight she’ll visit Hogwarts in the name of Fred
After a small eternity without an answer Lucius Malfoy stood “ As I said it’s not my life I cared about” he looked at her again,really looked, and said “he would talk about you, you know, every summer, he always had something to say, until we punished him thoroughly. He never again said a word about you”
“He saved you Ms Granger,he pushed you out of the way from that lethal curse, only to receive it himself, I know it, you know it and most importantly she knows it.
Scratch that, It would be another Draco night
“You owe the House of Malfoy a Life debt Ms Granger”
Later that week a parcel arrived to Grinmauld place with a note
The Grimoire of a family is available to the Pater familias of every pureblood household.
The more you have the better. Once you have reached a decision contact my solicitor Mr Pucey.
And lo and behold, the Malfoy Grimoire
It has been officially one week since Minister Malfoy came to power, they visited Mr Malfoy not two days ago and they were still in shock.
Was it possible that they were again facing the threat of extermination of muggle-borns, not three years after the war? Hermione was on the brink of despair, she felt tired down to her bones against the odds that every decade she will have to fight for her right to exist.
Harry was banking on self delusion, never has he ever been so positive against the odds, not even the summer after Sirius stayed a fugitive but he held on to hope of one day going and living with him.
Ron and Ginny were somber, not a word of courage, not a positive phrase to give.If anything, seeing the couple of pure bloods, born and raised in the magical world,being this level of quiet told Hermione that these were dark times indeed.