managed with the Dementors gone. A second prison was in the planning stages but funds were at an all time low. In addition, the Muggle Prime Minister was becoming increasingly interested in the activities of the wizarding community, what with the rising number of Muggleborn wizards seeking to re-enter the Muggle community due to fear of Voldemort.
And even though there was no shortage of youths wanting to sign up for service in the newly formed Minister's Guard (or Auror Lite, as Ron grinningly called them), most units in the various Ministry departments were still suffering from staff shortages. Every spare cent in the dwindling Ministry coffers had been relegated to security, surveillance and Auror intelligence. Precaution was considered a more worthy investment than punishment.
And so Lucius was imprisoned in his gilded cage. Hermione suspected that Harry might have had a lot to say about the decision, but by the end of the trials, he had been simply happy to be able to attend school without worrying that death was stalking him at every turn.
With her husband's bank accounts frozen, Narcissa Black-Malfoy had packed up and left for a cousin's home in Switzerland within two weeks of Lucius' sentence being passed. Little had been known about Narcissa's private life prior to this. The papers had her as a defeated woman, perhaps a little vague, but who had an undeniable talent for keeping up pretences. She was a consummate hostess and when last photographed, at the age of forty, was still incredible beautiful.
She had taken whatever she could Reduce and carry with her when she left, but had chosen to leave her only child in the care of a man many openly called a monster.
Hermione had almost felt sorry for Malfoy. Although he might have garnered more sympathy if he hadn't taken to strutting around school with his chin in the air and an ever-present smirk, silently daring any one to bring up his family situation. Apart from the one tense exchange with Harry at the end of their fifth year, he hadn't directly mentioned Lucius to any of the Trio again.
Draco's suggestion to see his father had at first been met with incredulity from Hermione. After all, it was slightly hard to forget that this was the wizard who had plotted the demise of Muggleborn children at Hogwarts, and the near lethal possession of Ginny.
This was the same man who had stood behind Voldemort and watched as the Dark Lord attempted to murder a fourteen-year old Harry, after already doing away with Cedric Diggory.
Here was the same wizard who had indirectly plotted her own demise in the Brain Room at the Ministry.
The only thing Hermione wanted from Lucius Malfoy was an engraved invitation to his funeral, where she would quite happily spark rumours of her alleged mental imbalance by linking arms with Ginny Weasley and dancing a jig over the bastard's cold, desolate grave.
She had scoffed at Draco, she had sputtered and then she had gone silent, as common sense grudgingly caught up.
He had a point.
If they wanted a quick and clean solution to their predicament, it was likely that Draco's slimy, but well-connected father would be able to assist. Not that Hermione was without her reservations or precautions. She hadn't survived seven years with Ron and Harry out of sheer, dumb luck. The elder Malfoy might have been as good as neutered, but he was still a risk.
Unbeknownst to Draco - although the git would have easily noticed if he had cared to wait in the post office with her - she had written a third missive, with the instructions for the Postmaster to deliver it to Dumbledore if she was not in Diagon Alley within three days to collect it in person.
Granted, a lot could happen in three days, and Hermione supposed that the measure of trust she had given to Draco when she had left school with him during the party now extended to following him home. He could have done away with her many times over by now, but Hermione trusted that although he was a tosser, Draco was not a senseless maniac.
Neither was his father, for that matter. Lucius was a plotter and opportunist, with little regard for morals. It was difficult to second-guess people like that. Trustworthiness and Malfoys were not comfortable bedfellows, and therein lay Hermione's unease.
With boys like Crabbe and Goyle, for example, a crude insult delivered by Ron would usually result in a predictable open attack. When the