From Wiltshire, With Love

Chapter 8

Author's Note:

If you'd like to take a break - it's recommended to do so after this chapter. If not, the next suggested break in the reading is after Chapter 13.

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"Out of the question." Kingsley hadn't even given her question any thought.

"But he's been invaluable, and he knows where You-Know-Who is staying," Hermione protested. "I'm sure of it."

He looked skeptical.

"If it weren't for Malfoy," Hermione pressed, "we would have killed Dolohov right away and any one of us could have been captured from using You-Know-Who's name. We'd likely compromise our safe houses in the process. It could have been the end of us."

"I know he's been helpful," Kingsley conceded.

"Helpful?" Hermione repeated in disbelief. "Because we used Veritaserum on Dolohov, we have a list of informants, coerced and willing, and people that have been outright Imperiused. And we were able to prevent You-Know-Who from getting the Time Turners. That would have been disastrous."

Malfoy's intelligence turned out to be critical, so Hermione was advocating for the annoying git as much as she could.

Not that she would tell him that.

"I'm not opposed to a pardon for him and his mother after some time, but the trust isn't there yet. We don't even know what we would do with the knowledge of You-Know-Who's location right now, so it's a moot point." Kingsley shifted his posture in the chair, gazing at her from across the Tonks' kitchen table.

That was true. She, Ron and Harry had a long way to go with the Horcruxes. Perhaps Voldemort could be contained, as Minerva suggested. But how would they do that? And what would prevent someone from taking his place? Taking out Voldemort was key, but the Order needed to gut the infrastructure of Death Eater control as well. At this point, Voldemort's army was too entrenched to be defeated by merely getting rid of their leader.

"What about his father?" Hermione asked with a sense of foreboding.

Kingsley shook his head. "I'll never be able to get a pardon for Lucius; he's done too much." Hermione sighed. She had a feeling that's what Kingsley would say. Lucius Malfoy had murdered, blackmailed, tortured, kidnapped, bribed and Imperiused. And that was only what they had on record. His crimes would only get worse as the war went on.

Kingsley twisted the Shacklebolt signet ring around his pinky back and forth in thought. "It's true Draco has been helpful, but we don't completely understand his motivations. You said so yourself, he didn't give you all the names of the Inner Circle despite clearly knowing them. Why?"

"But-"

"And he hasn't reached out to you yet, correct?" Kingsley's dark eyes held her gaze. "He's not actively collecting information to share. You're prying him for what he already knows. Prying, Hermione."

"Of course," she said, feeling a need to defend Malfoy. "He doesn't want patterns of leaked information to be traced back to him. He's scared." He was her spy after all. And using him was her idea. She wanted this effort to amount to something.

"I don't doubt he's a highly skilled Occlumens, as you've said. But if we can't trust him, then he can't know of my involvement. Or Minerva's. Or the Aurors'. Or any of the others that are aiding us right now that aren't in hiding."