Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father- Chapter 2
See disclaimers in opening
Author:lucretziathevagabond




The Department of Mysteries was a calm and quiet place. Located deep within the Ministry of Magic, the Department was a place that no one in the Ministry really understood what they did. When one entered the Department, they would encounter a series of doors. Only people with access could open and cross through the doors and walk down the mazelike halls. If one were to have the access to get to the inner sanctum of the Department of Mysteries, they would encounter a series of small dressing rooms, opened by a series of muggle keys and magical locks. It was there that one would find the entry to the offices of the Unspeakables.

It was this door that was flung open and a dark haired man hurried out of. Pausing momentarily to remove his outer robes, he made his way down the quiet Ministry corridors, bypassing the lift for the stairs. Long legs helped propel him toward his destination; a setoff closed double doors barely noticeable to the public. The words: Ministry Library: Special Collections was engraved on a placard on the door. His fist made contact with the heavy wooden doors, which appeared to make little noise. He knocked again, harder this time and had just opened his mouth to call out when the door was opened and a brunette young woman poked her head out.

“Professor Snape? The library is closed; you’ll have to wait for your reference materials until morning.” The dark man scowled at her, but didn’t correct her. If she hadn’t stopped calling him Professor by now, she never would.

“Miss Granger, I need to speak with you privately. There is absolutely no time to waste.” The woman glared, then moved back to allow her former professor to pass into the darkened library.

The library was immaculately clean and organized; cherry desks gleaming in the empty reading room and muggle style library lamps glowed in the dark room. Haunting music echoed through the darkened library; Snape turned as Miss Granger pushed a button and the music stopped. He watched her pour coffee and hand him a cup before sitting at one of the tables.

“This is hardly a social call, Miss Granger” he snapped as he looked at the cup of fragrant brew as if it were laced with poison.

“With all due respect Professor Snape, I have been working around the clock for the past two weeks. I haven’t even gone home for the past three days; so if you intend to have any kind of civilized conversation with me, I’ll need the caffeine. Secondly, this is my library; basic manners would not go amiss, even if you do feel yourself to be superior in this situation.”

His head snapped back as though he’d been struck. She suspected that few had ever bothered to correct his innate rudeness; his well -known genius gave him a great deal of leeway with most in the magical community. Conceding the point, he sipped at the coffee.
“I must apologize, Miss Granger. As I’ve said, I am in a bit of a hurry, and I require your assistance.”

She looked at him skeptically. “All right, let’s hear it.”

He glared. “Lucius Malfoy has been missing for the past three days.” She looked unimpressed.

“I fail to see how this is a problem. Perhaps he chose to take some time off.”

Snape’s hand slammed down onto the table, sloshing coffee onto the pristine table.

“Miss Granger, this is a serious matter. He has not been at work for three days, and he has not been at home either; Draco has checked with his elves in all of the Malfoy properties.”
She waited for him to go on.

“You may be aware that Lucius’ wand has been charmed to record every spell cast. It is a condition of his punishment by the Wizengamot. The wand has not been used in three days.”

“Lucius Malfoy would be helpless without a wand. He must have an unregistered wand that no one knows about.”

“That wand is also missing. In itself, the situation is not unusual; the Malfoy dueling wand is four hundred years old, a fact that makes the registration rules not apply. However, the wand is only used now in ceremonial situations or in actual battle. When Draco was a young boy, he became obsessed with it, and Lucius took the precaution of having the cast spells register on a parchment in his office in case he cast something that went awry. Draco informs me that seventeen misfires have been cast in the past three days according to the parchment.”

“That seems a bit odd.” Hermione reached up to remove a pen that she had stuck haphazardly into her. Snape rolled his eyes.

“It is very odd. I can assure you that in the thirty years I have known Lucius Malfoy, he has never misfired a spell. If he casts, it works as intended. His magical power is rather well known.”

“Does his wife have any idea where he is?” she asked.

“No.” Short and direct. Obviously she had hit on a sore subject.

“So, you want me to do what exactly?” She looked exhausted, he realized.

“I want you to call muggle hospitals and try to find him. Draco has discreetly made enquiries of locations he is likely to be. He and I are certain he is in muggle London somewhere, but we are not certain where. Lucius has had little exposure to the muggle world; it is unlikely he would be there voluntarily.”

“Do you have any idea how many hospitals there are in London?” She looked at him in disbelief.

“We have liasons at twelve hospitals. Blaise Zabini is a healer at St Mungo’s and has checked for magical persons at all of them. Nothing.” He handed her a parchment with hospital names and red checks next to a dozen of them.

“We’ll never get information from them. Privacy regulations prevent disclosure.of medical information unless there is a need in order to treat. Also, you assume that he would be registered under his own name. If he were injured, then he may not be able to give it.”

Snape cursed.

“Can you track the wand?”

“Granger, we’ve already established he most likely doesn’t have it.”

“If the wand was forcibly removed from him, then he may have been injured there and taken to a nearby hospital.”

“I would consider that a very long stretch.”

“Of course, you may do as you like. I’m going to go home, and hopefully get some sleep.” She stood and gathered her bag.

“Miss Granger, I require your assistance. You are going nowhere.”

“Professor, we are spinning our wheels so to speak. If Mr Malfoy was injured enough to not be able to summon help for himself, then we have no reason to believe he is registered under his own name at any hospital. If he is in a muggle hospital, we would have no way of finding that out. You have no idea why he would be in muggle London, and no evidence he is not in fact in the wizarding community. What we have is a missing man, and a backfiring wand. We need to regroup and begin again in the morning with a clear mind. Incidentally, why have you not summoned the Aurors?”

Snape looked away. She shrugged and walked over to her desk, running her fingers across the edge. His response was so quiet; she almost didn’t hear it.

“If Lucius is found with an unregistered wand, he will have broken the terms of his parole. He’ll be sent back to Azkaban to serve out the rest of his sentence.”

She turned to face him.

“Perhaps that is where he belongs.”

“Miss Granger, after the war, all Lucius wants is to live quietly. He wants to keep his business healthy so he can pass it down to his son when he can no longer manage it himself. He doesn’t care much for the political game anymore; most of his former associates are either dead or in prison. You may not like him, but he is not out for world domination. I can assure you of that. Please do not inform the Aurors; if we are unable to find him we may have to risk it, but I’d rather not.” He stood and walked out of the library with her, watching as she locked and warded the door.

“Good night, Professor Snape.”

“As it is Friday, I will floo call you in the morning, Miss Granger.”

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Hermione stepped out of her fireplace and made a beeline for the shower. Cleaning spells could only do so much, and she was eager to wash her hair. Stepping under the spray, she began to ponder the situation with Lucius Malfoy.

What in the world would he be doing in the muggle world? He had no business there; of that she was certain. Yet, if he was unable to summon help initially, was he still incapacitated, to the extent he couldn’t even perform wandless magic.? He was capable of casting without a wand, she had seen that for herself during the final battle. Yet, how could she get by the red tape of the hospital?

Stepping out of the shower, she towel-dried her hair and pulled the loose t-shirt she wore to bed over her head. Brushing her hair until it was relatively under control, she crawled under the sheets. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

She had been asleep for less than an hour when the sirens began to wail as ambulances sped by her flat. Groggy, she leaned back and tried to get back to sleep. Within seconds, her eyes had snapped open and she was out of her room and into her kitchen. Hastily grabbing her A-Z, she flipped until she found the section she was looking for.

Forty five minutes later, she had the answer she was looking for. The eleventh ambulance company she called had remembered picking up an unconscious man matching Malfoy’s description three days prior. After an initial reluctance to release sensitive details, he finally admitted that he had been taken to the county hospital in an especially seedy part of London, and that his initial prognosis had not been very good. She thanked the helpful medic and hung up, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Flinging floo powder into the flames, she called out Severus Snape’s name. Minutes passed before the sleep deprived face of her former professor appeared. He looked at her wide awake expression in disbelief.

“Professor, I know where he is.”
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Lucius awoke to the persistent prodding of the nurse. Flinging out his arm , he allowed her to place the blood pressure cuff and put the thermometer under his tongue. He had no idea what day it was, or even where he was. It appeared to be dark outside so he assumed it was nighttime. There was a man sleeping in a bed next to him, and his snores made the nurse roll her eyes.
For a moment, he thought it was Narcissa next to him, passed out after taking too much sleeping potion. Then, as his mind cleared he remembered that he and Narcissa hadn’t shared a bed in years. Any intimacy that they had was when he came to her room, and he was only ever admitted once a month or so.

“You’re still running a fever, sir. I’ll let Dr. Stevenson know, he will need to adjust your antibiotics. Are you in pain?”

Yes, he wanted to say, it felt like he had been trampled by a hippogriff. However, he didn’t want any of the pain medicine; it made him sleepy and his head feel like it was full of cotton. He shook his head in the negative.

“Dr. Stevenson also wants to see you to talk with you about your delusions. You talk in your sleep, did you know? Dr. Stevenson thinks it may be the medication for your nerves that does it; but after you punched the physical therapist and tried to leave the hospital, he had no choice but to keep you medicated. At least we were able to take the restraints off.”

Thank Merlin for small mercies he thought, as Morpheus once more claimed him and he fell asleep, wondering if anyone even cared that he was gone.
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Hermione’s flat was in an uproar. Draco was pacing in her flat, alternately demanding they leave immediately without a plan and then moments later insulting her taste in decorating. Professor Snape(or more accurately, Unspeakable Snape) was arguing with the muggleborn librarian as to how to get Lucius out of the hospital in the middle of the night.

“You can’t just go in there and demand they release him” Hermione said wearily, rubbing her temple. “You have to have a responsible person with a known relationship to him and an address that he can be located at. Narcissa won’t work, nor will Draco: they have no working knowledge of the muggle world.”

“Then you do it. You can pose as his wife and get him out of there. Give them this address, and then we can take him to the manor”.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“Just do it, Granger. It’s your fault anyway.”

She turned to face him. “Draco, what are you talking about? I have no idea what or how this happened. It certainly isn’t my fault that your father can’t leave his home without being kidnapped.”

“It’s your filthy blood. You people can’t leave your squalid little homes without trying to kill someone.”

“This is not really causing me to want to help you., Malfoy. You can’t move in my world and you know it.”

Malfoy scowled and seated himself on the sofa, looking at it as if he were sitting in a pigpen, but making it clear he wasn’t leaving without her compliance.

“Fine. Let’s go get him. Then you can all get out of my home.”
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Lucius awakened to the sound of arguing. Familiar voices flooded him with relief. Opening his eyes, he looked at Severus Snape standing next to that Mudblood of Potters. Surprisingly, she was helping his saturnine friend. Must be Imperio, he thought to himself, as he listened in shock as she fought for his freedom.

“Ms. Granger, I can appreciate your position regarding your patient’s care, but he is in no condition to be moved. He has survived a horrendous attack, and needs to heal.”

“As I have already informed you, I am Mr. Malfoy’s private physician. I appreciate your care up to this point, however he needs to be cared for by someone who understands his condition. You have already pointed out his blood abnormalities, so you are aware that he needs proper medication.”

“I must say, I am fascinated by your research. I too, study abnormalities in the blood. Would you be averse to collaborating with me on the subject?” Dr Stevenson was clearly interested in talking shop, but Hermione was ready to get him out of here and back to bed.

“Dr Stevenson, I appreciate your enthusiasm. However, my first concern is Mr. Malfoy. If I must check him out Against Medical Advice, I will do so.”

“They told me I couldn’t do that.” Lucius had gotten to his feet and was being helped to ward them by Snape. Hermione glared at the doctor.

“He would have died had he left earlier.” Dr. Stevenson defended his lies, his pale face flushing.

“Nonetheless, it is a felony to deny a person the right to leave if they so choose. On that note, I will take his medical records with me.”

“You may have a copy.”

“May I have your medical license number please?” she pulled out a pen and paper. Dr. Stevenson raised his hands in surrender.

“Fine. Take them and your patient.”

“Gladly. Mr. Snape, please lead Mr. Malfoy to the car. I will be there in a few minutes.”

Nodding, the two shuffled away. Hermione turned to him, her voice cool and collected.

“Lead the way, Dr. Stevenson.”
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Twenty minutes later, the three had opened the door and entered Hermione’s flat. Draco jumped to his feet as his father was led in and hurried to him.

“Father! What have they done to you?”

Lucius allowed himself to be hugged by his son, nearly sobbing with relief. He still had no idea why the Granger girl had helped him, but he was grateful. This was the second time he had been saved by muggles with no apparent motive. He sank onto a nearby chair and nearly collapsed with exhaustion.

“All right, Draco. Are you ready to floo him back to the Manor?” Hermione asked as she handed the medical files to Snape.

The younger blonde man blushed. “Err, yes about that. Mum has asked that he stay here until he is feeling better. She says she doesn’t want Healers running wild through the manor.”

“What!?” Hermione said, shocked. How in the world could not want her missing husband home? Where in the world was she going to put him?

“Miss Granger, if we could just keep him here until I have a word with Narcissa. I will send Healer Blaise Zabini to look after him, so you may go about your business unimpeded.” Snape’s voice was tired, and she noticed the shadows under his eyes. She gave in with a sigh, unaware of how this simple act of mercy would impact her life for years to come.

“Fine. Put him in the guest room at the end of the hall.”
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Coming up next: Hermione gets to know the man behind the Death Eater mask.