Harvest Moon

To Voracious Reader, Tazzy, Drea_1256, Reds Attic and Serenity84UK, thank you all so much for the reviews and I\'m very glad you\'re all enjoying the story.



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Hermione walked around the corpse, studying it carefully from all angles. “How long does it take before this level of decomposition is present?” she asked, glancing at Lucius.



Lucius frowned a little, thinking. “I’m not entirely certain, Mine. I would say most likely a couple of months or so. It usually depends on how long the body has been in stasis in the first place. The ancient ones would go down to this level in a day or so.”



Hermione nodded. “So, logically, about the time this body was stolen from the family mausoleum.”



“That stands to reason.”



“Who would want you to believe your brother was alive?” she asked, trying to puzzle out a list of possible suspects now that their main one was clearly not risen from his grave.



Lucius frowned again. “I’ve no idea, honestly. One thing does disturb me though.”



“You mean something aside from standing in the same room with your rapidly melting twin?” Hermione asked.



“Never let it be said that you have anything other than a dark and twisted mind, my dear Mine,” Lucius said with a laugh. “However, in all seriousness, whomever has been murdering these women would have had to know Liren well. It’s all very well to put on another person’s face and pretend when the people don’t know your speech patterns and mannerisms. It’s quite another to mimic them well enough to fool someone they shared a womb with.”



Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. “Then we try to figure out who not only would want you completely disgraced and sent to Azkaban but who knew Liren well when he was alive.”



“Bubble is going to find Dobby and the young master of the house,” Bubble announced before turning and marching out the door.



“He’s an odd sort of house elf,” Hermione remarked.



Lucius shrugged. “Seers of all species are often odd.”



“True,” Hermione said, thinking back to Professor Trelawney, fraud that she was most of the time. “Why does he call you Master of the house instead of just Master?”



“Because as a seer, he has no master. Seers aren’t bound to serve in the house where they were born as other house elves are.”



“That’s very interesting,” she said.



“Indeed. But getting back to what you were asking about who would have known him well, I can think of only one person and he’s dead,” Lucius said.



“Oh, I wouldn’t be so certain of that, brother dear,” a voice sounded from the doorway.



Hermione instantly had her wand out as she and Lucius both turned to stare at the person still wearing Liren Malfoy’s face.



“You are not my brother,” Lucius said, eyes narrowing dangerously.



The person in the doorway just smiled. “Of course not. But it was necessary that I borrow him, shall we say, in order to convince dear, demented Narcissa,” he said, every syllable practically dripping with malice. “Stop trying to figure it out, Lucius. You’ll never guess who I am. I was beneath your notice and far below your contempt when we were younger.”



“What did you do to her?” Hermione demanded. She had seen far too many women manipulated by men who claimed to love them in her time. Most of those had eventually ended up gracing Luna’s slab.



“Dear Narcissa?” the Liren doppelganger asked. “She’s safe and sound. Bodily anyway.”



“What do you mean?” Hermione asked, keeping her wand trained on him.



He smirked nastily. “Let’s just say that barmy Bella wasn’t the only one of the Black girls who had mental issues. Really, how stupid do you have to be to believe someone had risen from the dead when you saw them die?”



“That’s why you had to steal the body from the mausoleum. So she would believe that he was still alive somehow,” Hermione said. Keeping his focus on her as Lucius slowly moved around to get a better shot at him.



“Ah, you are an excellent little auror, aren’t you,” he said. “That’s far enough, Lucius.” The fake Liren almost instantly had his want out and aimed at Lucius’ heart. “Well now, isn’t this just an interesting little predicament. Do you think you can hit me before I hit him, Ms. Granger?”



“You won’t kill him like that,” Hermione said firmly.



“Oh? And what makes you say that?” he smirked.



“Because it’s a game to you. All of those women you murdered and butchered were just pawn pieces. Even Narcissa is just part of your game,” Hermione said.



He smiled wider at that. “Ah, Lucius, you’ve found a very worthy queen.” He put the wand away and turned toward Lucius fully, one eyebrow lifted in question. “Coming with me or not?”



“Why in the name of all that is unholy would I willingly follow you anywhere?” Lucius asked incredulously.



“A simple reason really. Because you’re dying to know why more than anything else. Even who I really am is secondary to the why of it all. You’re little queen is the same. Somehow she knows even if she does take me down she’ll still never know why I set up this game,” he said. Smiling as Hermione slowly lowered her wand. “Now, again, are you coming or not?”



Lucius looked at him as though he’d never seen anything quite so disgusting before in his life. Through clenched teeth he growled, “Lead on.”