Sour Grapes

Chapter 38 - From Murder to Memories

Lucius Malfoy stood in the middle of his clean, white suite at Azkaban, surveying the room.

Corbyn's body lay a few feet away from him, surrounded by a pool of blood.

Sectumsempra had been Snape's creation, but Lucius had always favored the spell in place of a clean Avada. More satisfying when he was this angry.

The bodies of six other guards were strewn about the room. He'd used poison to avoid exhausting his magic, saving the one spell for the man who had failed him most deeply. Before the Aurors had had a chance to interrogate them all, Lucius had used his own methods to extract their memories.

He couldn't have his secrets getting out, though he assumed that his wife knew more than he could afford by now, and was likely spreading her knowledge far and wide. Then again, it was a bit foreboding that the prison was not already swarming with Aurors. Surely, she must be up to something, and whatever it was, it could not be good.

It was time to act.

Stepping over the many bodies, he crossed to his floo and grabbed a handful of powder.

"Malfoy Manor!" he shouted, and he disappeared into the hearth.

* * *

Draco had never been so uncomfortable in his life. He thought the high heels would be the difficult part, but why did women constrain their waists in such a torturous way? No wonder Astoria always tended to be in such a haughty attitude, she had every right to resent the world she was always dressing up for.

Affecting her general demeanor was simple, though as he glanced over at Blaise he had to scoff.

"You aren't quite capturing my essence, you know."

Blaise scowled back at him. "I've been donning your appearance for over a week, I think I know what I'm doing. By the way, Astoria does not sneer that way."

Draco fixed his face as the lift came to a halt, forcing down his next retort as they reached the offices of the DMLE. He linked arms with Blaise, thinking how bizarre it was to be taking his own arm. He never would have agreed to this ridiculous farce, but thought he owed it to Astoria to give her some time alone with Ron, as much as he still couldn't believe she would want it. Besides, better to have them both out of the way.

They approached the witch at the front desk and Draco nearly spoke first, before realizing that that would have to be Blaise's job.

"Hello! Can you tell us who to speak to about Narcissa Malfoy's disappearance?"

The young witch looked up, her eyes widening in shock when she took in Blaise's appearance.

"You're Draco Malfoy!" she exclaimed stupidly.

Blaise grinned. "In the flesh!"

Draco looked away and muttered, "you fucking tosser" under his breath, causing the witch before them to grimace and cock her head at his polyjuiced form.

"Wow, uh, well... that will be Mr. Brooks, I'll let him know that you're here," she said, rising from her seat. She walked off in the direction of the offices off the hall on the left and as soon as she was out of sight, Draco rounded on Blaise.

"Is this always how you portray me or are you just trying to get a rise out of me?"

His raised voice cause a couple of people at nearby desks to look up. Through gritted teeth, Blaise said, "please keep it down darling, you're drawing undue attention to us."

Draco rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in a very Astoria-like manner, before realizing that it would reflect poorly on him to have his fiancé looking annoyed with him in public. Upon realizing how it must look, he dropped his arms and softened his expression, throwing a simpering smile toward Blaise. "Sorry my love, I'm just worried about my dear future mother-in-law and it has me a bit on edge," he said, reaching out to take Blaise's (his own) hands, "as I'm sure you are."