The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 09 January 2010

Chapter 62: Reports in Other Sectors

Lucius knew if he didn't report what happened, he could be the next deceased Lord Malfoy. Something of this magnitude would not escape the Dark Lord's attention. The only problem was what to tell him. How did one go about telling the greatest living Dark Lord that not only was he not the heir of Slytherin, but Slytherin himself was here in this time and considered a member of the Prince family to be his heir? He didn't realize that he meant Harry Potter would be his heir and there were two of them, he also didn't realize he was talking about other time lines.

Now, how to tell that infernal narcissistic bastard, who was acting less and less human by the day, about Lord Slytherin? He really needed to speak to Snape and see what they could come up with. They had originally been assigned this project together and he needed to make an appearance before that mad man soon.

Lucius was concerned about the unexpected guests at the party. Not only was Lord Slytherin a shocker but the other male looked suspiciously like an older careworn Lupin. He didn't really care so much about the person, but why an older Remus Lupin? What would cause such a thing? There was something at the back of his mind, like something he forgot and wanted to remember. But every time he tried to find the memory, it escaped from his grasp and he couldn't get to it.

It was several days later that he was finally able to reach Snape and ask for a meeting. When the younger man put in an appearance at the manor, Lucius was shocked to find out he had been learning to drive a muggle car. Of all the nonsense he had heard, why they would need to drive a muggle anything was beyond him. He did not consider it a viable option to be able to move around in the muggle world for more than a few hours. It was ridiculously atrocious and he wanted to hear no more about it. But as Snape told him Slytherin was doing the same thing, he formed his plan.

The next day...

Lucius apperated to where the Dark Lord was reported to be staying for the time being. As he approached that sniveling little rat, Peter Pettigrew, he demanded an audience with the Dark Lord.

Lucius was finally granted entrance to the ball room of the Lestrange Manor where the half-blood had been staying. He entered the room where Voldemort was sitting in a raised chair as if on a royal throne. His glassy red eyes were piercing and he didn't look happy to have his day interrupted.

"My Lord," Lucius said as he bowed before the man. He was hoping he would not be given too much trouble as Snape was not there to report with him. "I have come with news from Snape about Prince Publishing.

"It has been several months since I have heard from you both. I hope," he said this with a snarl, "this information was worth the wait." As Lucius was still bowing, he could just make out the twitching of the wand in the man's hand as if waiting for the right moment or justification to do its worst.

"My Lord, there was a celebration of sorts at an undisclosed location. People were portkeyed in with untraceable portkeys. As everyone arrived the security was very strict, but Snape and several others were introduced as having gotten their Master's Certifications in several subjects and it was announced that Prince Publishing would now make their own text books for school age children. It seems that this was their purpose all along. To make their company name known so they could sell their text books. I know they have contacts in other foreign ministries and will likely sell them to other magical schools as well as Hogwarts.

"What makes these people think they will succeed? It would take years to write and publish new books. Snape will not be with them that long, but it was nice of them to pay for his education." Voldemort smirked.

“They had some visitors there and one of them was impersonating Lord Slytherin. I am assuming they are going to use impersonators for the other Hogwarts founders as well to publicize their books. This will create the popularity needed to sell the books above the others out there. It is what is known as a publicity stunt." Lucius said dryly.

"Impersonators of the founders? I don’t know why they think they can get away with that. Why would they choose to have a Lord Slytherin impersonator?” Voldemort queried.

"The room was full of purebloods, mostly blood traitors, but purebloods none the less. It may also be that it was the first person they found that had a vague resemblance to him. They will probably continue in this fashion, so I wanted to report this before rumors came to you about the real Lord Slytherin being around. Snape told me yesterday that he is being closely watched and unless you needed him, he would retain his cover to find out more information on the matter. He also said yesterday that the Slytherin imposter was learning how to drive a muggle car." Upon saying the last sentence, Lucius Malfoy put just the right amount of incredulousness inflected in his voice to show how utterly ridiculous the whole thing was.

Voldemort burst out laughing when he heard this. "You mean to tell me they want people to believe the real Lord Slytherin showed up from some kind of time travel, and is familiar with the muggle world. How can they even believe it? He was a staunch supporter of ousting muggles from our world." Voldemort started the hissing snake like laugh again, but when he calmed down he looked and said, "Thank you Lucius, you have eased my mind that these people are completely incompetent."

"You are most welcome, my Lord." Lucius bowed again as he started to take his leave, relieved that he was going to escape without being hexed as was the Dark Lord’s way, when he was summoned back.

"Lucius, you will tell Snape to stay and report any other information he feels pertinent. He did most excellent on his Potions Mastery testing and I will want him back in my lab soon, but for now we shall see what these people are up to. Also Lucius, you failed to let me know you were going to a celebration for these people. You will not make that mistake again. I want to know what is planned before it happens, not after. For that you must be punished."

Lucius cringed as the curse hit him in his side and he doubled over. He fell to the floor and cried out before the Dark Lord released it.

"You may go now and next time, don't take so long to bring me information." he was told as he slowly limped his way out of the door.

On his way out, Wormtail was waiting on the other side of the door with a look of glee on his face. He just loved it when the others were given the curse instead of him. As the sniveling rat closed the door of the 'throne room', Lucius stood up straight and tall and sneered at the rat animagus and walk out of there with all the grace and poise befitting a Malfoy, the ever present smirk on his face.

He had no trouble apparating back to Malfoy Manor and to his waiting wife and children. As he related the meeting to Narcissa, she smiled and asked him if he was alright. He was in the process of removing his Death Eater robes and the scaly robe underneath.

"I am fine my dear and I do believe we should let the others know what has transpired. I also don't want you to venture out anywhere without your special robes on. He seems to be more desperate and inhuman than before. Maybe we could have a meeting with the travelers soon and find out some more of how they came to be here."

"The next ladies’ social club meeting is to be here as I have problems moving around too much with the baby due not even a month away. The meeting in planned for next week. Maybe we could get some of the men to come and let us know what is going on?" Narcissa told her husband as he wrapped his arms around her.

"We shall plan on it" was his reply before going into the adjoining nursery to watch the twins sleep. He was glad to be alive and on a better side of the war. He also owed much to the people that saved his twin daughters’ magic. He hugged Narcissa again and looked at her bare arm. They had decided several months ago to have the mark removed as many of the pregnant ladies had done. His son would be strong, he could feel it and he would not have to worry about the pureblood imposter that wanted to be lord over all the magical world.

In Godric’s Hollow at the Potter household....

"Why do you insist on these silly pranks all the time?" A familiar auburn headed witch moaned at her messy haired husband after she came from the kitchen with blue hair. "You will be sleeping outside if you don't watch it. I am not in the mood for this foolishness."

"It wasn't me darling," he said honestly then pointed to the corner of the room. There sat Sirius Black, their best friend and the future godfather of their child. He was grinning from ear to ear and had his wand in his hand. The harmless prank had obviously been his, but he forgot Lily's hormones were in overdrive and she was not amused.

"Awe, come on Lils, it was just a little joke." said the handsome dark haired man. "Alright, I promise no more jokes. Not even a little one." There he goes, Lily thought, now we get to see the puppy dog eyes. Next would be the transformation to the puppy dog. She was always a sucker for a nice cute cuddly dog.

"How about you stay for dinner and we will discuss it." Lily offered before he want in for the kill with the doggy licks and tail wagging.

"Sure, I don't have anywhere to be tonight." he said secretly glad to be invited to dinner.

An hour later, with Lily's hair turned back to its golden auburn, they sat down for dinner. The topics of conversation were centered around the war effort and what they thought Dumbledore's next move would be; how James and Sirius were dealing with the aurors and the nursery for the baby.

When dinner was over, Lily brought Sirius and James upstairs to see what she had done so far with the small room that would be the nursery. The walls were already painted in a soft blue and the crib and changing table were already installed. In the corner was a small wardrobe for the baby’s clothes and shelving against one wall for books and toys. His trunk that Remus had given them was stored at the foot of the crib just waiting to be filled with what ever the child would want to play with.

"I see you still have the trunk Remus gave you for little Harry. Aren't you worried about it?" Sirius was actually sort of jealous that the werewolf was doing better than him at that new company of his. It wasn't right that they lose touch and all of a sudden Remus was wearing nice clothes and working for a company few had heard of. He didn’t trust it, it was too coincidental. One day Remus was an out-of-work werewolf the next day he was cured and an executive for an unknown company. True, said company was getting better known all the time, but it didn’t feel right. He had already spoken with Dumbledore several times about them, and the old man didn’t like it either. “I heard that were some problems with those trunks."

"A goblin came and added new features to it and it couldn't be safer. They personally went and re-warded all the trunks that had been issued. I have no problems with it." Lily said. She knew it was a sore spot with the two men in the room, that their friend appeared to be doing better than them. He grew up and these two were still pulling childish pranks all the time. But they were in with the aurors and in the Order of the Phoenix and were growing up. Especially James, now that the baby was coming. It seems upcoming fatherhood was a great life teacher.

Sirius looked at the books on the shelf and started reading, "Lullabies for the Young Witch or Wizard by Prince Publishing" he picked up the next one, "Papa Merlin's Fairytales for the Young and Old, by Prince Publishing." He looked at Lily and then back at the shelf, "Tales of Old for the Young Witch or Wizard by Prince Publishing." then he sighed and picked up the next one "Teaching of the Old Ways by Prince Publishing." Sirius got a pensive look on his face and gave Lily a scornful look. "Don't you think you need some other reading material? You are not raising a pureblood and don't want to teach the old ways. Why would you buy something like this? Aren't there other publishers out there that you can buy books from? Why these?"

"Really Sirius, you should read them. They are quite brilliant. The titles don't mean what you think and I didn't buy them, well except the one of lullabies. Remus gave them to me when he brought the trunk. I am hoping the author will visit Diagon Alley soon so I can get them autographed. I haven't been out of the house in a while and don't travel too much because I can't apparate anymore until after the baby is born. I thought I might take the Knight Bus into the Alley next week for some shopping and perhaps have lunch with Remus. Maybe he could have them signed." Lily sort of drifted off thinking about seeing her old friend again. She wondered what had happened to some of her other friends as well. She hadn't really spoken to Severus Snape since the mudblood incident and often regretted not making amends.

"You need to stay away from those people. At the last Order meeting Dumbledore said they were not willing to align themselves with the light side. Now I look at these books and can see why. They are obviously doing something underhanded with the Death Eaters. That would be the only reason they would not grant Dumbledore a visit with them. Some of these books look like they are trying to teach the old pureblood ways. The same load of crap my parents were trying to teach me from the cradle." Sirius was snarling again. Lily shook her head and tried to reason with him.

"There are plenty of Witches and Wizards that have remained neutral. That does not mean these people are dark. Sirius, really, do you even hear what you are spewing out that mouth of yours?"

"They are already involved in the war. They were involved the minute they wrote that book. I am telling you Lils, you need to be very careful." She could see that Sirius was very persistent about this, so she replied to him to lighten the mood.

"Are you being serious, Sirius?" That statement was always good for a laugh.

However he didn’t take the bait, he just look at her with a solemn expression and said, "I just know that I haven't seen my brother nor my mother and once a Death Eater always a Death Eater."

"Sirius, your Mother is not a Death Eater." Lily reminded him.

"Maybe not; but she supports that pureblood crap and she favors my brother’s activities. I recon he must be on some secret assignment for that mad man. No one I know has seen or heard from him since before Christmas. He could even be dead for all I know." Lily could tell her friend was worried about his brother, even if he was a Death Eater, he was still family.

"Have you asked Remus? He said he saw him on Christmas Day. Maybe he knows what he is doing or where he is."

"Actually Lily" the young man said gravely, "I am afraid that if Remus knows where my brother is, it means he is involved with our enemies as well."

Lily didn't have an answer for him, at least not one he would be willing to accept. She secretly thought that the people Remus worked for had an agenda of their own, but were still not on Voldemort’s side. She put her arms around her friend and walked with him back down the stairs and into the living room where they spent the remainder of the evening talking.

The next day, in a castle far away in Scotland...

An old man with a long, nearly white, beard was sitting at this desk looking at the two gentlemen in front of him. Both of them had red hair and were his best fighters out there. They were discussing some of the mysteries surrounding Prince Conglomerate and the company’s refusal to grant him a visit. It really wasn't that they refused, they just would not respond in anyway, negative or positive, to his requests for a meeting with the owners. Almost like his owls were not getting through, although the letters never came back.

“We need to find out more about these people. Do either of you know anything or have you heard anything about them?” He asked the two men in front of him.

“Our sister Molly was telling us about some renovations on their house and something called a mini-floo. She floo called us yesterday and talked for quite a long time while she was holding the new baby. I don’t know how she was kneeling on the floor for that length of time. Usually when we hear from her it’s for a few minutes at most. You know they have six children now and floo powder is somewhat expensive” Explained the redhead on the right.

“She said the mini-floo was designed so she could talk while sitting. She asked us to come over and look at it, and there were people coming there tomorrow from the Dailey Prophet to take pictures.” Said the redhead on the left.

“You obviously have not been reading the Prophet in recent months.” Dumbledore acknowledged. “It came out in the paper at the end of January or beginning of February in the advertisement section. The mini-floo is an inglenook attached to your fireplace so you can make floo calls sitting or standing. It is small so they call it mini. It is quite expensive and I would not think Molly and Arthur could afford something like that.”

“Evidently Prince Conglomerate gave them the floo system to try out and help publicize it. Perhaps Molly will have some insight to the company. As you know we have been out of the country for a few months so we are due for a visit. She’s got to know something if she has been working for them.”

“Excellent suggestion Fabian! I will look forward to hearing what you come up with. How about we meet here, say the day after tomorrow at ten-thirty in the morning? I have a meeting with one of my staff at nine and classes will be in session and the halls should be empty at the time.”


A/N Things have been busy and I haven't acknowledged my reviewers out there for a few chapters. I sincerely appreciate every single one of you that read the story and I do take some suggestions from time to time and try to fit them in. So thanks to the following people that have encouraged me in this endevour, tamikolee, nari-chan, Kim, kaasan, Birdie, dominique, Jennifer and forsaken dream. Can you guys believe this story has almost 19,000 hits?