Murder at Malfoy Manor

The flashlight went out just as Draco stepped into the room. He shook it a bit, nothing happened, so he unceremoniously tossed it onto the floor.

Harry was expecting a loud thunk, but didn't hear it. Looking down, he saw they were standing on carpet. Every other room they had been in had had hard wood floors- except this one. It was a deep purple and looked almost black in the candle light.

"Do you smell that?" Hermione asked, sniffing the air. "I've smelled that perfume before, here in the house, and I know I've smelled it somewhere else." The floral scent was very strong, almost over powering and Hermione found herself getting a slight headache.

"I smell it," Harry said. "Sort of like..." He tried to think of how to describe it, but just shruged his shoulders in defeat.

"This is the most beautiful room I've ever seen!" Ginny said, turning this way and that. It was decorated in various shades of purple- including the walls, which were a very pale shade of what Ginny would call mulberry. The drapes were a rich deep violet, the lace doilies were lavender and on the desk was a huge crystal vase that contained a giant spray of purple and white flowers. There were ornate mirrors and paintings of ballerinas in purple tutus on the walls. "I could die here! It's the lovliest thing I've ever laid eyes on."

"It looks like a fucking purple nightmare!" Draco said. "How can you even think this looks attractive?" Draco rolled his eyes. "I forgot, you're a Weasley. They have no taste."

"Draco, keep a civil tongue, please," Hermione warned. She was standing behind him and impulsively stepped closer, snaking her arms around him and embarrassing him. She rested her cheek on the cool skin of his back and whispered, "You might need that tongue to pleasure me in the future, and it would be a shame for me to have to rip it from your mouth."

Draco chuckled softly. "Who am I to deny my beautiful sexy lover the pleasures of my very talented tongue?" He turned, her arms going around his neck and his around her waist. Their lips met, both sighing as if they were in heaven.

Harry tore his eyes away from the picture he was examining, and saw Draco and Hermione in the throws of passion. He elbowed Ginny, who was standing next to him looking at a pretty ceramic unicorn.

"What?" she said, annoyed. He flicked his head in their direction and Ginny's temper exploded. She stalked over to the kissing couple and ripped them apart. "How could you Hermione?" she asked, shaking with anger. "My brother- your husband- is missing and probably dead and here you are, kissing Malfoy!" She poked Hermione in the chest with her pointer finger very hard. "You are the only sister I've ever had, and it hurts me to see you throw away what remains of your marriage, just so you can fuck around with this asshole!"

Hermione initial feelings to this accusation was guilt and a little shame, but it quickly dissolved into fury. "Don't you dare insult him! He's ten times the man Ron is and you know it!" Hermione, who had never had an argument with Ginny in all the years she had known her, was a little shocked that it was happening now. "Ron has been a horrible husband; you know what he's done! He cares more about himself than he does about me and the children."

Draco tried to pull her away from Ginny, but Hermione shook him off. "No, Draco. She needs to hear this!"

"I'm sorry, Ginny, but you have to understand that the only reason I ever married your brother was because I couldn't have Draco. That's right," she said to Ginny's red face. "I have always been in love with Draco and... this might shock you, but Ron has always loved some one else as well! Our marriage was a shame from the beginning and I'm tired of it all. I want to be happy! Don't I deserve to be happy?"

Harry spoke before Ginny could snap back. "Did you just say that Ron has been in love with someone else?" This came as no surprise to him, he had know all along. What surprised him was that Hermione had known about it. Ron had taken great pains to keep his affair a secret and had recruited Harry unwillingly into his web of deceit. Time and again Harry had lied for Ron, always having to give him an alibis, and even going with Ron to buy her gifts- usually her favorite perfume: 'Summer Lilac'. Harry hated doing this and numerous times tried to get Ron to give the woman up, but it was no use.

Harry never knew the identity of this 'other woman', but he had his idea of who it was. The affair went on for some time and then it just stopped. Ron was frantic with worry when his lover seemed to drop off the face of the earth. He never heard from her again, and spent everyday telling Harry how he wished he would have left Hermione for her when he had the chance.

"I'm not stupid, Harry," Hermione said, on the verge of crying. "I knew something was going on!" She wiped her face as the tears fell. "He was never home and when he did show up, he smelled like..." Her face went slack and her jaw dropped. "Lilacs!"

"Huh?" Harry asked, glancing over at Draco for an answer, but he looked just as confused.

Hermione, without speaking, started walking around the room, opening dresser drawers, rifling though papers and clothing. "I KNEW I recognized that perfume!" She tossed a pair of silk stockings over her head. "Could it be her? I need more proof!" She stopped and turned to them. "Don't just stand there looking daft! Help me find some clues!"

They all jumped as if electrocuted and went to work digging through closets and desk drawers. "What exactly are we looking for?" Harry asked Ginny.

"I'm not sure, but I guess we'll know when we find it." She went over to the vanity, where there some trinkets, a jewelry box and something else; something that made her heart skip a beat. She picked up the black leather-bound book that said 'My Diary'. There was no name on the book cover or on any of the pages. She turned towards the back and gasped. "Malfoy?"

Draco stopped, papers in hand and turned to Ginny. "What?"

"You've been in this room before, haven't you?"

Hermione and Harry quickly dropped what they were doing and spun around.

Ginny peered over the book at him. His silence and the reluctant look on his face was answer enough. "Dear diary," she read aloud. "I'm free from my prison, finally! Yes, I might be locked in another, but at least I'm in a hospital, and not chained to my bed, filthy and starving. And to think I have Draco Malfoy to thank for it! I do believe we have all misjudged him these past years. He is my savior, and I will be forever grateful to him for his kindness and compassion. Blaise has not been to see me, and I hope he never shows up! I hate him with every fiber of my being and someday, somehow, I will get my revenge for what he's done!"

Hermione and Harry both looked over at Draco. Harry was visually shocked that Malfoy could ever do anything nice for another human being. Hermione's eyes lit up with love and she smiled at him.

Ginny turned a few more pages and read: "Draco just left. He came to see how I was getting along. He brought me a beautiful purple dress- he remembered that it was my favorite color. Wasn't that nice of him?" Ginny smirked at Draco, who was looking rather uncomfortable. "He sat and talked with me for a long time. He tries to act very happy and if nothing in the world can bother him, but I could sense some underlying sadness about him."

Draco didn't know how much more he could take. He itched to snatch the damn diary from her hands and set it a blaze with one of the candles. He never wanted anyone to know that he really wasn't the bastard he had always pretended to be. It had taken years to cultivate his image of a bad-ass unfeeling prick, and now in a few short minutes, it was crumbling.

He watched Hermione cross the room, over to where Ginny was, and start going through the jewelry box. She was still looking for something.

"I asked him if everything was fine with his wife and tried to lie, but I saw right through it. After a bit of prodding, he finally told me that he had never loved her and it was getting harder and harder to even be in the same room with her."

Ginny flipped the page, hurriedly. "I asked him if there was someone else he loved and he told me yes. Then he shocked me by telling me it was Hermione Granger! I mean, I would have never in a million years thought it possible! He was always so mean and nasty to her to her!"

"You can say that again!" Harry said, rolling his eyes.

Ginny ignored him and pressed on. "I laughed out loud before I could help myself and he was so embarrassed and angry, that he got up to leave. I quickly apologized and righted the situation by telling him a secret of my own. I told him that the reason I laughed when he told me he was in love with Hermione, was because I was in love with her husband, Ron..."

Ginny's voice trailed off as Hermione lifted something from among the pearl necklaces and gold bracelets. It was a Prefect Badge- a Ravenclaw Prefect badge. "Draco, what happened to Blaise's wife? Where is she now?"

"She's dead," Draco said simply. "She killed herself."

"What do you mean 'she killed herself'?" Harry asked, his voice on edge.

"Damn Potter, don't you understand fucking English? why are you always asking me to explain myself? Has hanging around Weasley all these years made you brain dead?"

Harry lunged forward and Ginny stepped in front of him. "You can beat the shit out of him later, but right now we need him." She gave Harry a stern look, and after making sure he wasn't going to go for Draco again, she turned around. "How and when did she die, Malfoy? What happened to her?"

He ran his hands through his hair, sighed- really not wanting to tell them. He felt immense guilt for what had happened to her and had never really gotten over it. "After I talked Blaise into putting her into the hospital. Wait- I should start at the beginning." He looked at the floor as he talked, not wanting to see everyone's reactions. "When Blaise brought me here to this room and I saw..." He shivered, remembering it like it was yesterday. "I saw what he had been doing to her."

Hermione walked over and put her arms around him for support. He smiled at her gratefully and then the smile faded as he continued. "She was naked, bruised, bleeding and filthy with human waste and..." He gulped, closed his eyes, took a calming deep breathe and then opened them again. "She was chained to the bed by her arms and legs, and was laughing like a mad woman. Clearly he had hurt her and starved her until she had lost her mind."

"What a sick bastard!" Ginny said, her face as white as a sheet. "How did you talk him into letting her go?"

"Talk?" Draco said, laughing. "There was no talking involved. I took one look at her, listened to him offer me access to violate her, and then I beat the living shit out of him!"

Harry looked impressed despite himself. He really hated Malfoy, but for the first time, he found himself looking at him in a different light. "You just took her and put her in the hospital yourself?"

"Yes," Draco said, holding his head high. "There was no way I could leave her in that state! I had to help her, so I rummaged through his pockets, found the key and freed her. I used magic to clean her up a bit, dressed her and then Apparated to St. Mungos."

"What did Blaise do when he realized what you did?" Hermione asked.

"What could he do? He raged and stormed for a few weeks, and then- went through the legal system to get her back." Draco held out his hands as if pleading. "I tried so hard- used my own money to try to keep him from her, but in the end, they let him take her." The lump in his throat was growing and he knew unless he got a hold on his emotions, he was going to lapse into t a crying jag.

Hermione embraced him more tightly, she was feeling so many things at once; disgust at Blaise, pity for his wife, and overwhelming pride and love for Draco.

"He treated her fine for a while, but then he started to torment her again. He took great joy in sending me pictures of himself raping her and then... something happened, something that made her snap; drove her over the edge." He squeezed Hermione, and kissed the top of her head. He could never imagine treating anyone the Blaise treated his wife. "I never found out what it was, though. All I know is that she went crazy, killed his mother with a butcher knife and then came back here- to this room and took her own life."

"How... how did she do it?" Ginny asked, looking down at the last entry in the diary. All it said was 'It's over'.

"She crawled into that bed over there, took the knife and slit her own throat."

They all looked over to the bed. No one had even thought about going near it, but now, Harry decided he wanted a closer look. The bed was over in the corner away from the candle light, where it was dark. As Harry approached it, he noticed something odd. It was perfectly made, but there was a lump in the shape of a body lying in the middle, under the purple satin comforter.

With an apprehensive look over his shoulder at the others, who were now close behind him, he grabbed the blanket with a trembling hand and pulled it back.

Hermione screamed, Ginny fainted and Draco rushed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Oh my fucking hell," Harry said slowly. He was looking into the pale, dead face of Ron. His hand was shaking even more as he reached over and felt Ron's neck for a pulse. He was praying that he would find one, but there was none. What he did find was the piano wire tied around his neck so hard that it had cut into the flesh.

"Is he dead?" Draco asked, straining to hold up an unconscious Ginny. Hermione was turned around, her hand pressed over her mouth, her body quaking with sobs. He wanted to go and comfort her but he didn't want to just dump Ginny on the floor.

"Yes," Harry said. "It looks like he was strangled to death."

"But that makes no sense," Draco said. "The room he disappeared from was covered in blood. If it wasn't from his, then whose was it?"

Harry licked his lips, knowing he was going to have to take the comforter down further so that he could see if Ron had been stabbed or something. "I... I can't do this!" he said, taking a step back.

"Here," Draco said, handing Ginny to Harry. "I'll do it."

Hermione turned around, her face was splotchy and her hand was still over her mouth.

Draco ripped the blanket off and to his horror, saw that from the waist down, his body was missing. Someone had cut him in half. He quickly covered him back up, turned and puked on the carpet at Harry's feet.

"Oh, my God!" Hermione wailed. "What is it! What did she do to him?"

"She?" Harry asked. And then it clicked. The Ravenclaw Prefect badge, the affair with Ron, that lilac perfume... "Malfoy, who was Blaise's wife?"

Draco retched again, he couldn't shake the image of Ron's intestines hanging out of his mutilated body.

"Malfoy! Damn it, who was Blaise's wife?" Harry screamed. "Tell me! I think I know who the killer is, now tell me who he was married to!"

"He was married to..." Draco started to say.

"He was married to my sister," the killer said, stepping into the room from the secret passage, her wand held out and aimed at them.