With you in my Arms

94. Liquidum Mortem!

Here, dearest Readers, is the next part of the story. Sorry, but for the name you'll have to wait a wee bit longer.

Stay tuned...

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"Arthur, why did they have to take our boy? What if he's killed?"

Molly Weasley was beside herself having just learned that the "easy mission" her youngest son was setting out on with his fellow aurors would consist of a trip to Malfoy Manor and the possible prospect of having to apprehend Lucius Malfoy, an escaped-convict-on-the-run Lucius Malfoy.

"It'll be okay, Molly. Nobody has taken Ron. It's part of the job when you become an auror." her husband gently stroked over her hair, "He's not a little boy anymore. I know he'll always be your little boy, but he's of age now. It was inevitable that one day even he would fly the nest."

"But he'll get himself killed, Arthur! Can't he just work in an office..."

The head of the Weasley family wrapped his arms around his distraught wife. Ever since the death of Fred she had been... She couldn't cope. It had been nearly been two years since they lost their son, but it could have been yesterday. Sometimes Arthur felt at a loss as what to do or say to her. There wasn't any rationality in her fear, but then fear never was rational.

Humming into her hair, stroking over her back he hoped she would one day be able to let go and move forward again.

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"Wait!" Narcissa yelled.

The aurors froze.

Henri Shaw looked at the witch as she slowly raised her wand, pointing it at one of the unconscious guards.

"What are you doing, Cissy?" James asked.

"Watch!" she whispered.

So he did. Muttering a spell under her breath the yellow light emitting from her wand engulfed a figure huddled next to the guard. There were gasps.

"Nobody can escape Azkaban, not without help. My husband has done it before because his Lord sprung him free. This time it has..." she cast another spell, "... it has been one of his cronies helping him."

To the utter surprise of every male in the room the figure before them on the floor slowly transformed. In the end the face staring back it them wasn't that of Lucius Malfoy at all.

"Hello, Isaac."

"Isaac?" it was Harry's voice that could be heard.

"This is..." Narcissa started.

"...Isaac Nott." James finished.

The question as to how he came to be impersonating Lucius Malfoy was tangible in the small cell.

Fearless and her wand still pointing straight at the prisoner's face Lady Malfoy approached him. Without hesitation she pulled a thin gold chain from his wrist.

"This is one of the objects every Death Eater would be given in order to infiltrate whatever group of people he was told to spy on. It allows the wearer to assume the appearance of somebody else. Though it's only once possible to decide who the intended target is going to be."

"If Isaac Nott has been here... Hold on," the head of the Auror office frowned, "You were supposed to have been released from Azkaban after... Oh, I see!"

"What?" Harry asked. He had got hold of the main plot line, but what his boss had just been saying didn't make much sense to him.

"While Nott and Malfoy were waiting for their trial, they were in a cell together. That was when they switched identities. Right, Nott?"

Nott nodded.

"What did that evil bastard promise you? Don't tell me, once he had himself re-established he would free you."

Another nod.

"Not even you can be stupid enough to believe that."

"He said that once he had been able to get into his ancestor's library there wouldn't be anything or anybody able to stop him any longer..."

There was a moment of silence. The aurors looked at each other.

"But when did Malfoy... Nott get out off Azkaban?" it was again Harry who voiced his thoughts first.

Henri Shaw was the one answering.

"He has never been privy to the goings-on in the inner circle. He was a Death Eater, but one of the lowest rank and his crimes where nothing in comparison to some of the lot and so late October last year the supposed Nott was released. Which meant the real Malfoy was out there and the false one stayed still locked up. I bet it took Snuggens all he had in order to prevent the guards from realising that he was switching the right and wrong Malfoy right before their eyes in order to make sure Lucius got out again after we caught him in Edinburgh. Two Malfoys suddenly in Azkaban would have been a tad suspicious."

"When he tried to kill Hermione and Draco! That was the real Lucius Malfoy..." Harry muttered.

"Yes." his boss confirmed.

"You tried to tell us that something was going on when Draco and Hermione came with their child, didn't you?" James asked suddenly.

Isaac Nott looked like he had spend the best part of twenty years in Azkaban not just twenty months. He didn't answer but just nodded.

"Why didn't you just say what was going on?"

Narcissa sniggered.

"He couldn't. That bracelet not only lets somebody assume the physical appearance of the intended victim. The wearer is convinced to be that person to the point where he would swear to it even under the influence of Veritas Serum. It wouldn't have been in his, Lucius, interest to let you know what he had planned."

Harry was wondering for a moment why he had managed to defeat Voldemort. If spells like that had been used by his followers... His thoughts were cut short as his superior was rather loudly expressing his own thoughts.

"Lucius is trying to get into the library, but as we would be busy with you, Nott, and the attempt to enable Draco to inherit he probably hoped us to be too busy to realise what was going on right under our noses." Henri growled, "And it nearly worked! That bastard!"

"He's going to pay."

It was Narcissa that could suddenly be heard. Her fiancé looked at her with worry all over his face. That tone of voice didn't bode well.

"We'll get him..."

"NO!"

He hadn't expected a response with such forth.

"I will make him pay for everything he's done!"

Without another word she vanished out off the room.