Hand That Binds

5

'Exam went well, no pelvic exam, complex Charms to indicate consummation, etc. Padma nearly dissolved when addressed directly. Davie is somehow Cursed, mentioned the amendment. Contact Lisa. Going to Malkin's with Maizy today at 10.'

The note was on a piece of parchment among the post, and Lucius had already read the Ministry notice. Davies had been correct. He'd have to bed Granger by November 1st, or be removed from the Manor and taken to Azkaban for six months. Granger would be placed with her ex in-laws acting as 'next of kin', and also removed from the Manor. The letter from Turpin had been short, apparently also having received the notice.

'Motions in courts, moving at snail pace. Public protests planned in the Ministry Atrium the day after tomorrow. Do not attend. Recommend considering following the amendment, our hands may be tied. Happier note: sent RSVP for myself and the MP, plan to announce formally at the Ball. I'll arrange Press.'

Lucius sipped his tea, Hurd already moving about the kitchen, scullery, and cellar making estimations as to what would be needed for the Ball in thirty days. He considered Granger's note again.

She had not been out of the house since the opera.

If their Step Two was to work, they would need to go out, together. Lucius frowned at the thought. His feelings on the night and subsequent day that he had had a 'break' were still quite fresh. And neither of them seemed to budge.

The Prophet was unusually tame except for a small note on a death on page six.

'Mrs. R. Travers passes away unexpectedly. Condolences may be sent to the Travers home, Hull, funeral Friday...'

Travers had escaped the Kiss only by remaining on house arrest for ten years, his wand censured, his assets seized. He was a slippery man of some intelligence, but had not been known to be cruel. Lucius did not like him, which was not surprising, but he knew Travers had been only one of a few who lived beyond the Dark Lord only by compromising with the Ministry. Travers had been the Head of Magical Transportation, and actually been good in the role despite the corruption that put him there.

Lucius had no idea who he had been paired with, but Granger had mentioned that all the surviving Death Eaters had been paired with younger women. Surely, it was someone Granger had gone to school with, possibly knew well. There would be suspicion on Travers, but Lucius had a feeling that the notice of the unknown woman's death would be all that would be said publically. He had not known that Gregory Goyle Jr.'s wife had committed suicide, and perhaps that was what happened to Mrs. Travers.

Lucius read the rest of his post, finding a packet of documents on the information he had requested about replacing the revenue stream on the Apothecaries contraceptives as they suddenly were illegal. He smirked at the suggestion of redeveloping potions for vitamins for women to induce fertility, and borderline love potions. It was something, but nowhere near what he would ever consider the Apothecaries developing before that year.

There was a note from Andromeda, stating that she had received an invitation to the Ball, and if Lucius had any issue with her attending. Lucius did not. He had seen the guest list. Andromeda, Arthur and Molly Weasley, the Potters, the Lovegood-Scamanders, the Bulstrode-Pickerings, the Longbottoms, the Boots, and of course, her ex-husband and shy Healer wife. He knew that it would not be prudent to not invite them, but there were other names that he knew he could amuse himself with. There would be many Wizengamot members and heads of old families who might come, and Lucius knew that those who had been invited might accept an entreaty to support him when he announced his return to the Ministry.

Thinking of that as he sipped tea, he knew he would need new robes at some point, and unpleasantly, have to wear shoes. Somehow it was hard to recall the last time he had worn the black robes of a Lord Temporal. It was in the late 1980s probably, and he usually sat with ancient Cank Nott, who would pass him anise drops during some of the trials and meetings. Nott's grandson had gone on to school with Draco, Lucius recalled. Cank Nott died in the mid-1990s while Lucius was in Azkaban. Cank Nott's son, Theodore Sr., was an aloof man who had supported the Dark Lord in the beginning, but somehow managed to stay out of prison until the time Lucius was arrested in the Department of Mysteries. As far as Lucius knew, Nott was still in Azkaban.