Snakepit

Chapter 8

Hermione stared at Draco as he recapped his phone conversation with the interest group, but she couldn't focus on anything he was saying.

Why had Peter Goodwin been terrified of the Malfoys?

The question kept spinning around in her mind, bouncing off the sides of her skull. Did this mean Draco's parents? Him? All of them? Had it been more of a figurative fear...more like Goodwin had been intimidated by them and their overall presence in the city?

She knew that she needed to call the woman back when she was alone, and that there was no promise that Alicia would be willing to talk again...Hermione could bring her in for questioning if needed, but then she'd have to go through the necessary steps and document why exactly. That would include telling her partner. He would probably be present during the questioning too.

Hermione had to force her mouth to stop from twisting into a bitter grimace. She was a professional investigator...it was her job to be meticulous, to check every possibility, but this was something she had never come across before. Her mind was telling her to dig deeper, to find out the reason for Peter's immense fear of the Malfoys, but her stupid, stupid heart was telling her to trust Malfoy and to leave it alone, to pursue a different lead.

She didn't know what to do.

"Granger?" Draco's exasperated voice jolted her back to the present. His eyebrows were raised at her when she blinked and met his eyes.

"Sorry, yes?" She replied, schooling her features into a mildly interested look. She had definitely been listening.

"I asked you a question...?" He prompted, staring at her.

"And the question was...you were asking if...um..." She tried to jog her brain, but it was useless. Frankly, looking at him made her feel like she was suffocating.

"Lord save me," he muttered, sighing dramatically. "I was asking if you wanted to cross the interest group off of the list of suspects?"

She gaped at him, eyes wide. "What? Cross them off already? No–what–"

"Okay. Clearly you weren't listening to anything I said, so I'll start again. I was referred to the head of the interest group after speaking to one of the members. His name is Olivander Damon. He agreed to a background check, agreed to everything I asked of him. He personally had never heard of Goodwin, but he seemed to understand where the suspicion came from. Told me all about the previous head of the group, Tom Riddle, who recently went to prison for bribery. Everything he said about that lined up with what you wrote about it in the file. He admitted that it was humiliating and hurtful for the group, but he has since gutted the whole thing from the bottom up. Hired all new members, said he wanted a fresh start.

I still sent the call over to the language analyst, but from what I could tell, he was sincere. He sent over information on all of the members, moves the current group has made, where their money is coming from and where it is going. I haven't gotten a chance to look too closely at it, but from what I skimmed through, it really doesn't seem suspicious. I emailed the information to you, if you would like to look for yourself. Well, I know you'll want to look for yourself. I think this is going to be a dead end though."

Hermione turned away from him and clicked her email on her computer. Sure enough, there it was, the information from the interest group. She began to scroll through it, aware Draco was still watching her, waiting for a reply. Smart man, this conversation was not over yet.

"We're not crossing them off the list, Malfoy. This doesn't prove anything. This Olivander guy could be just as bad as Tom Riddle." She tried to find something, anything, that was suspicious as she quickly read over the documents.