The manor's main door slowly opened, revealing a wide eyed house elf, dressed in a shabby tea towel, "How can Dobby helps sirs?" the house elf asked warily.
"We need to speak with your mistress," Kingsley responded firmly, as the elf nodded back, before quickly disappearing to deliver the message to his mistress.
...
The next couple of minutes passed in an awkwardly tense silence, as he and his men waited patiently on the doorstep for the Lady Malfoy to appear or to meet their deaths when the wards entered a siege state and tried its best to kill them and likely succeed.
It occurred to him after a few minutes that the Lady Malfoy could potentially destroy valuable incriminating evidence during this time, but it was far safer to merely wait, rather than to storm the house, plus it was better manners. The grand oak door slowly opened to reveal the stunning form of Lady Malfoy. "What can I do for you gentlemen?" she asked, her voice aloof, as if she was speaking to common peasants rather than respectable law enforcement officers obviously on official business.
Puffing himself up, he spoke in as officious a tone as possible. "Lady Malfoy, I am here with an official search warrant for your home," he replied, holding out the piece of parchment for her inspection. "I have another warrant for your arrest as well madam. Please surrender your wand."
It took a good ten seconds before the visibly shocked Lady Malfoy composed herself enough to reply, as two aurors moved up to stand by his side wands ready, their tips alight with the crimson red of a stunner. "On what charges?" she demanded to know, with an undertone of fear in her voice that she couldn't quite hide.
"Conspiracy to commit murder," he offered plainly, while discreetly checking out the lady, looking for any sign of resistance or aggressive action.
"Just let me inform my husband, he will sort all of this out," she remarked, clearly trying to buy time or perhaps simply assuming that her husband would be able to wiggle himself out of trouble yet again.
"Madam, your husband has already been arrested on charges, including multiple counts of murder, as well as treason," he replied calmly and professionally, but thoroughly enjoying every moment of this particular arrest. "Now Madam, please come with us peacefully, I'd rather not use force to take you into custody, but I will if you make me."
...
( Number 12 )
Looking up from his extensive notes, he saw his godfather quickly approaching him with a purpose. "Malfoy has finally been arrested, the aurors got him a couple of hours ago," Sirius exclaimed happily.
"Excellent," Harry responded calmly, as a feeling of relief suddenly washed over him.
Whilst he would never admit it aloud, he knew that he had gotten extremely lucky this year with Pettigrew's early attempts on his life failing so miserably.
"You don't seem too happy with the good news," his godfather noted, noticing Harry's own indifference.
Giving his godfather a relieved smile, he responded. "Don't get me wrong Sirius, I'm happy that Lord Malfoy has finally been caught, but there is still the matter of the other assassin out there and the matter of Lord Malfoy's trial. Despite him being arrested by the aurors, Lord Malfoy will do everything in his considerable power during his upcoming trial to save his neck. I'll openly 'celebrate' this 'victory' when Lord Malfoy and this other unknown assassin are securely locked away in Azkaban with the dementors acting as their wardens. I would be even happier if both of them got the death penalty," he explained calmly. "Only then can you break out the most expensive firewhiskey and brandy."
"That's awfully cold," Sirius voiced.
"Maybe," he agreed, as he tried to come up with the right words to explain his reasoning. "If Lord Malfoy ever escaped or was broken out or was released from Azkaban for whatever reason, he would make it his life's mission to end me, us, to make us suffer. Far better to dispose of him now rather than risk having him terrorize us again in the distant future when our guard is lowered and the man is made a thousand times more dangerous by virtue of having nothing left to lose."
"Sometimes I wonder which of us is the adult; you're always planning ahead and thinking about worst case scenarios," Sirius muttered with a shake of his head. "How's your independent project coming along?"
"Slowly...it is far harder than I expected it to be," Harry answered, as he thought more on the hurdles left to overcome in his grenade project. "But, in hindsight, I put that down more to my own arrogance," this frank admission caused his godfather to grin in amusement at his godson's entertaining self assessment. "I really overestimated my own abilities. It's a bit of a wakeup call."
"Want an extra hand?" Sirius offered.
He considered the advantages and disadvantages of accepting his godfather's aid, before voicing his decision, "No, thank you Sirius. I kind of want to do this myself, for the challenge."
"Can this be used for a prank?" Sirius asked. He mightily resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Perhaps," he answered vaguely, before trying to change the subject. "When am I going to return to Hogwarts?"
"In a couple of days," Sirius responded thoughtfully, as Shadow appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto his lap, demanding attention, whilst giving his godfather an angry hiss.
"I don't think he likes you," he replied mirthfully, as he stroked Shadow's beautiful black fur, giving his cat some loving attention. "What did you do to upset him?"
"Sirius changed into his dog form earlier and chased him around the kitchen and front room," Remus voiced in a disapproving tone, giving his godfather a look.
"Well, I can't exactly chase Harry around the house like I had originally planned, he'll just tear my throat out," Sirius defended, before realizing what he had unintentionally just admitted to, giving Harry an embarrassed look.
Giving his godfather a disapproving look and a slight growl, he chose to ignore the remark about being chased around the house and decided to direct the discussion to more productive topics. "Sirius, could you ask Andy and Ted to come over at their earliest convenience?" he asked.
"Why do you want to talk to them? I assume this has something to do with some legal matter, or something," Sirius asked, becoming serious once again.
"Naturally. I want to discuss with them the potential benefits and consequences of taking up the Potter family lordship, and how it will be affected by my being the Black family heir as well," he explained, deciding not to mention the Peverell Lordship with Remus hanging around. The simple fact of the matter was that he didn't know if he trusted Remus with his private dealings.
He never really associated with Remus, with him being at Hogwarts all the time, and the man was seemingly intensely loyal to Dumbledore for some reason. Of course they spent a couple of weeks at Christmas and in the summer living in the same house, but they never really interacted much, with both of them largely just minding their own business.
Their personal relationship was a bit like his relationship with his housemates, polite and well mannered, but not overly personal, just politely civil really. However, he expected that would change in the next year, especially with Remus taking up the DADA position at Hogwarts, requiring the nature of their relationship to change, regardless of how he felt about the matter. It would take an extraordinary act of loyalty, however, for him to trust the man with anything truly important.
"Has Tonks been informed that I'm still alive?" he asked, wondering if his cousin had been informed.
Sirius suddenly looked thoughtful, "No, she hasn't."
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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