Azkaban Revisited

Chapter 4

"My old friend," Snape said calmly as he opened the door to Lucius's cell.

Lucius looked up from where he was reading a book. "My old friend," he repeated.

Snape looked at the book that Lucius was holding and was surprised. "A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens? A Muggle text? I'm surprised at you, Lucius."

Lucius shrugged. "Granger wouldn't give me anything else and I'm tired of counting the stone bricks." He gave a dry cough.

Snape was mildly amused at the vitriol with which Lucius managed to say Hermione's surname. "What did she have to threaten to get you to call her that?" he asked.

"Oh, the usual," Lucius said. "Death, serious injuries. That kind of thing."

"I would have never thought she had that in her." Snape was surprised.

"She is a surprising witch." Lucius gave Snape a calculating look. "So, Severus, why are you here? I suppose it's too much to ask that this is a friendly visit between two old friends."

"Indeed," Snape agreed. Privately, he wondered why he was here too, but despite his dislike of his old friend's political views, he did trust Lucius's intelligence. "We stopped being friends the day I realised what the Dark Lord really stood for. I suppose I can partly thank your sister-in-law for that realisation."

Lucius gave a sly smile. "I'm sure Bella had her fun with you that time. You can't blame her." He paused. "I've just noticed, Severus. You still call our Lord by his title."

"And that particular habit saved my life many a time," Snape said mildly. He was interested that Lucius picked that up but not particularly surprised. Lucius was always good at the details. Snape produced a copy of the Daily Prophet. "Take a look at this."

He watched as Lucius's eyes skimmed down the front page quickly and watched as the expression of disquiet grew. "You see it, too."

"See what?" Lucius replied, too quickly.

"Don't lie to me," Snape said. "It's in the gaps between the words, the spaces between the lines. You can see it as clearly as I can."

"Who is the new Minister?" Lucius asked. "Who is this Jack Corley?"

Snape shrugged. "I'm not sure. He's certainly very charismatic, according to Hermione. Newly married. No idea who the wife is." He pointed towards the newspaper. "What else do you notice?"

Lucius's brow furrowed and he read the page again. Then he flipped to the other pages. "The names," he said quietly.

"Exactly!" Snape was triumphant. "They're almost all new. How often does the Wizengamot change its members? Usually once every ten years as they die out. I don't recognise any of the Wizengamot members mentioned in this article." He stabbed one yellowed finger at the article on the second page.

"You think that a new Dark Lord is rising," Lucius said bluntly.

Snape nodded. He could always trust his old friend to come to the crux of the issue. "Or he has already risen," he said flatly. "Can you recognise any of the names of the Ministry members? There is no mention of anybody from before. There is no bad news between those pages. It's not normal. And frankly, it scares me more than another spell behind bars without proper food or water."

"Well," Lucius said, putting the newspaper aside and staring up at Snape. "It isn't as though we can do anything about it, even if I had any inclination to do anything."

"Already planning to join?"

Lucius gave a slow smile. "Never again, my friend. Never again." He frowned. "Jack Corley. The name is familiar. I just can't place it."

"That's never good news," Snape said dryly. "When Lucius can recognise a name, it usually doesn't bode well for the general populace."

Giving a dry laugh, Lucius said, "I don't know all the Dark Arts players in the world."

"Just most of them."

"Probably."

"Speak to Hermione about this," Snape said abruptly. "I've tried. She doesn't - refuses - to listen. She simply can't believe that Corley is - hell, has already, by the looks of it - going to take over the wizarding world."

"That isn't necessarily true," Lucius pointed out.

"But you don't believe that."

"No," Lucius admitted.

"He's just doing it relatively slowly, that's all. First by suppressing our media. I heard Will talking about how the Quibbler was dismantled by the Minister almost three weeks ago. Just because he isn't running around firing Avada Kedavra at people doesn't mean that he isn't planning on taking over our world."

"And providing that I want to tell her this theory of yours, why would she even listen to me?"

"Hermione knows you're intelligent. Why else would she play chess with you in her spare time?" Snape gave Lucius a pointed look. "Perhaps she'll listen to you. If you at least try, I'll see what I can do about keeping you here instead of getting you sent back to Maximum Security wing. That cough of yours really needs some work."

With another sharp cough, Lucius glared at Snape. "You are very observant."

"Necessary to survival," Snape said dismissively, and walked towards the door of the cell. "If I'm right," he said, almost casually, "then it is unlikely that Corley would let us live. It's too much of a risk to his own power."

Lucius was silent behind him.

-

"You told Malfoy to talk to me, didn't you."

Snape turned around and was confronted by an angry Hermione Granger. "So what if I did?" he said carefully.

She glared at him. "I already told you, Severus, that Corley would never do anything like this. Even if he did, wouldn't other people notice? Other people on the mainland? Wouldn't it be obvious? After all, he's only been in power for about two-and-a-half." A brief flicker of uncertainty flashed in her eyes. "You're being ridiculous. Like Mad-Eye Moody. You're seeing things. Maybe we really do have peace."

"Are you saying that because you really believe it or simply because Corley gave you this job?" Snape asked bluntly.

Hermione's lips tightened. "Perhaps, Severus," she snapped angrily, "you are delusional after too many Dementor-induced visions. Malfoy, too."

A wave of red-hot anger swamped him and unconsciously he reached down for a wand that was no longer there.

"I'm sorry," Hermione whispered, looking mortified.

Snape waved a hand and brushed past her roughly. A part of him taunted himself. Perhaps you are insane, Severus. Perhaps you are.

-

"You can't honestly believe the tripe in there," Malfoy remarked as he pointed towards the copy of The Daily Prophet lying on his cell floor.

Hermione glared at him. "How about," she said frostily, "we drop that subject." With vehemence, she told one of her pawns to move forward two spaces.

Malfoy shrugged and easily captured the stray pawn. "Tell Severus I tried again," he told her.

She glared at him, angry with herself that she had let him get such an easy point. "You and Severus are simply delusional," she snapped.

"Perhaps we are," Malfoy didn't sound particularly worried about it. "Well, then, if we cannot talk about current affairs, then perhaps we can talk about past affairs. It is tiresome sitting here alone all day and I do not find your ... company as wearisome as I had thought."

Hermione gave a snort that she immediately tried to suppress. "Why thank you, Mr. Malfoy," she said sarcastically.

"It wouldn't kill you to call me by my given name," he commented, coughing sharply. "Tickle in my throat."

"You can stand to have a Mudblood say your name?" Hermione was genuinely curious. Malfoy - Lucius - was treating her more like a... if not a friend, then a companion.

Lucius shrugged. "It doesn't bother me," he said.

To Hermione, it sounded overly casual. "Well, Lucius," she said, trying the name out, "if I am to call you by that, then perhaps you would like to use my given name as well. Common courtesy, of course." There, she thought, with a hidden smirk of satisfaction, see how he takes that!

He wasn't ruffled at all. "Well, then, Hermione, would you like to discuss past affairs?"

Hermione moved one of her knights before responding. "Depends on what you wish to talk about."

"If I'm not mistaken, I mentioned to you a few days back about the move to recruit you as a Death Eater in your seventh year. You seemed rather interested."

"Morbid curiosity," she said blandly. "Do continue with specifics."

Lucius gave her a crooked smile. "You were living proof of fallacies in our beliefs. We either needed to kill you, or make you join us. There was no other way. It was eventually decided to kill you. Obviously, we didn't succeed too well with that."

"Fortunately," she muttered. Then she looked at him sharply. "So you could see the fallacies in what you preached."

"Well, we didn't preach, per se. Not to your generation anyway. But I suggest you stop making allusions to my intelligence. I could see the fallacies, as you call them, but I chose to ignore them. The others?" Lucius shrugged. "Well, I can't speak for them. I doubt Avery or Goyle could. I was never entirely sure of Crabbe. Bella, well, she was a force unto herself. She both saw and did not see them."

"Doublethink," Hermione murmured.

Lucius raised an eyebrow.

"Muggle term coined by one of their authors," she elaborated. "Essentially the art of holding two opposing beliefs in one's mind and believing equally in both of them, able to switch between the two effortlessly."

"Sounds like Bella," he said. Lucius then gave a rather strange smile. "I don't suppose you noticed then that you used "their" in reference to Muggles. You just put yourself on our side."

"Not on your side," Hermione said stiffly. She had noticed thatbut by the time she had, the words had already come out. "I'm no Death Eater."

"Pity," he commented, and sounded almost sad. "We might have won if you were on our side."

Hermione chose to ignore that comment. "How could you fight for a cause that you didn't believe in?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "You're supposing that just because I could see fallacies in our arguments, that I didn't believe in the core cause? That's where you are wrong."

"So you do believe in killing off all Muggle-borns and Muggles." Hermione couldn't keep the note of incredulity from her voice.

He shook his head. "Not killing. You have to admit that Muggles are below us. Look at how they destroy this planet without a single thought. Animals, all of them. Mu-Muggle-borns, on the other hand, most of you can't compete on the same level as the ordinary wizard. I admit, every now and again, there are brilliant Muggle-borns. The Dark Lord was one. You're another. But they are far and few between."

Hermione wasn't sure whether she liked having herself compared to the Dark Lord. Her lips thinned. "You are saying that my parents are animals."

He shrugged. "Do you have a pet?"

Hermione frowned. "Yes, a cat."

"And you love that cat, correct? But it is still an animal. Muggles are the same."

"My parents are not the same as my pet cat," Hermione said furiously. "It's completely different."

"How?" Lucius asked.

"They're human, for one."

"That's simply the outside," Lucius told her. "Muggles are to us as cats are to humans."

"Ha!" she said triumphantly. "You just admitted that wizards and Muggles are all humans."

"But different levels of humans."

Hermione let out a long breath and counted up to ten. They were obviously going around in circles. She changed the topic. "If you had recruited me, how would you have explained it away to the rest of the Death Eaters?"

"We wouldn't," Lucius said simply. "Very few Death Eaters knew of the Dark Lord's true heritage before that fact was made public knowledge. You would have simply undergone a magical transformation and gone to Durmstrang to complete your education. Hermione Granger would've disappeared from Hogwarts, an unfortunate casualty."

She shivered. "I remember some Ravenclaws coming up to me during my seventh year who said that I could save my family."

"That was without permission from the Dark Lord," Lucius sounded irritated. "They had no right to do that, but yes, they were probably trying to recruit you in an all-too-obvious fashion. No subtlety."

"Well, I never would have..." Hermione began when she heard footsteps. Pushing back her stool, she stood up and walked over to the bars of the cell. "Harry!" she exclaimed as she saw him round the corner.

"Hedwig just gave me a letter for you," he told her. Hermione saw him eye Lucius balefully. "Why do you spend your time here?" he demanded.

"Lucius is interesting company," she said quietly and heard a faint snort from behind her.

"Interesting company!" Harry said loudly and angrily. "He's a Death Eater."

"And," she replied, a little coldness in her own tone, "I seem to see you talking to Severus a lot lately too."

"That's completely different," Harry snapped. He gave one more glare behind her before turning on his heel. "I'll see you later," he said, and Hermione watched as he rounded the corner once more.

She glanced downwards at the letter held in her hands. The scrawl at the front of the letter told her that it was from Ron. She slit it open with a finger and pulled out a very short note.

Hermione,

I'm coming to Azkaban for a visit very soon. Ministry's becoming unhealthy.

Ron

"From a boyfriend back in the Ministry?" Lucius commented as she absentmindedly sat down again.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said sharply. She stared at the letter and bit her lower lip.

"Is there something the matter?" Lucius sounded both curious and worried.

"Not that you would care," she snapped. Then her brow furrowed as she remembered what Severus and Lucius had been trying to tell her. "It seems Ron believes the same as you and Severus."

"Weasley? He's working in the Ministry?"

"Yes," she said, glaring at him. "The Weasleys are quite influential nowadays."

"Not influential enough if he's anywhere near as worried as you seem to be," he pointed out.

"I'm not worried." Hermione forced her tone to be even but somehow she knew that Lucius wouldn't believe her. He had probably been trained by the Dark Lord to read the inflection in people's voices. She turned her attention back to the chess game. "Let's continue."

They played in silence for another few minutes before Lucius commented, "I see my friend Severus has taken an interest in Potter."

Hermione, despite her inability to read tones in speech, could tell that there was something significant in what he just said. Now she simply needed to figure out what it was.

-

Harry came out of his room, bleary-eyed and dressed only in his dressing gown. He made his way out to what was appointed the dining room of the small cottage. There was already somebody at the table.

"Good morning," Snape said evenly, as Harry sat himself down and poured a glass of orange juice.

"'morning," he mumbled as he drank the juice. It was freshly squeezed and Harry spent a brief moment wondering where the house-elves had managed to get oranges. There certainly weren't any orange trees on Azkaban Island. He gave Snape a brief smile. They had managed to get a certain verbal rapport going in the past few days and he was glad. Hermione was busying herself with Lucius Malfoy most of the time. Will was a reasonably nice bloke, but there really wasn't anything Harry had to talk to him about. They somehow didn't click. Harry had the suspicion that he liked Hermione but had never asked. Hermione's other friend Jean was pretty and bubbly, but Harry found her rather empty-headed and far too ready to believe anything that was thrown at her. He supposed he could have talked to the prisoners, but somehow that didn't feel right. All in all, he was grateful that he could talk to Snape.

"You look tired," Snape commented.

Harry nodded. "Who would have thought that running a Medium Security wing in a prison would be so much work," he said sarcastically. "Hermione wants the prisoners to have daily exercise so I have to supervise them."

"How fortunate for the prisoners," Snape said flatly.

"Sorry," Harry apologised as he buttered himself a slice of thick toast. "I'd forgotten."

A corner of Snape's mouth quirked up in a brief smile. "I'll take it that Azkaban hasn't affected me much."

Harry paused before he responded, not sure how well his response would be taken. "Well, it seems to have mellowed your personality some." He regretted it as soon as he had said it because of the dark look Snape fixed him with.

"I wasn't aware that my personality needed mellowing," Snape said.

Harry stared.

"I'm joking, Harry," Snape finally said after Harry had been staring for almost a whole minute. "Now stop staring at me."

Blinking, Harry gave a wry smile. "Sorry, I didn't realise I was." What he didn't say was that he found the other man rather intriguing to stare at. If you stared at Severus Snape for long enough, layers, long hidden from the general public, began to emerge. He suspected that Snape himself didn't know this. Then what Snape had said before began to sink in. "You were joking?"

Snape sighed. "Well, I needn't bother from now on since you obviously don't have a sense of humour."

"Sorry," Harry muttered and then frowned. "Was that another joke?"

"Don't worry about it," Snape said, sounding very irritated. There was a knock on the door. Snape rose from his chair and waved a hand at Harry. "I'll get it," he said.

Harry heard footsteps to the door, the door unlatching and then a very familiar sounding exclamation of surprise. He jumped up and walked quickly to the door. "Ron!"

Ron grinned at him. "Surprised to see me so soon, Harry?" he said.

"Sort of," Harry admitted. "I haven't seen you for such a long time."

"Things have been rather... busy at the Ministry," Ron said vaguely.

Harry saw his friend's eyes slide to where Snape was still standing by the door, an black eyebrow quirked. "Ron, you remember Severus - Professor Snape - right?" he said when he saw his friend staring.

"Severus?" Ron repeated. He then frowned. "Weren't you put into Azkaban?"

Harry could have hit his friend over the top of his head for that comment. Snape had immediately frozen at those words. "That, Mr. Weasley," he said icily, "would be the precise reason I am here."

Ron's frown lines deepened. "Then why aren't you in a cell?"

Quickly, before Snape could explode, Harry grabbed Ron's arm and steered him into the cottage. "I'll show you your room. And then you can tell me why you're here. Your note was rather... confusing."

As they walked off, Harry looked back over his shoulder and saw Snape still standing by the door, almost frozen. The only indication that he wasn't was the rapid breathing seen by the flaring of the nostrils.

"Ron," Harry whispered to his friend once he was sure that they were out of earshot. "Don't say things like that. Severus was on our side during the war." Inwardly, he winced slightly. He remembered Hermione telling him something like that almost two months ago. Obviously staying here at Azkaban had changed him.

Ron stared at him as they walked into Harry's room. "Why are you calling him by his given name?"

"And what else should I call him?" Harry was irritated. "Professor Snape? Snape? It's only polite that I call him Severus. We're all adults here."

"I remember you singing a different tune the last time we spoke."

"I've changed," Harry snapped. And, he thought, that's true. He had changed. Being at Azkaban, strangely enough, had given him a life that simply wasn't there before, even while he was playing Quidditch. He then took a calming breath. "Anyway, Ron, Hermione and I were rather worried when we got your note. The Ministry's unhealthy?"

At these words, the rather casual tone with which Ron was criticising Harry with disappeared immediately. As Harry watched, his old friend seemed to freeze up, and then glance around suspiciously.

"There's nobody here," he pointed out.

Ron held up a finger in a motion for silence. He then took out his wand and drew a rune for silence in the air. It shimmered for a second and then disappeared. "There, we're now warded against eavesdroppers," he said quietly.

"But the only people on the island who have free motion are me, Hermione, Will, Jean and Severus," Harry said, frowning slightly. Ron was beginning to scare him. The security seemed superfluous, but the fact that Ron seemed to find it necessary was rather frightening. "And, of course, the house-elves, who are loyal."

"To whom?" Ron said, a sharp edge in his voice. "Remember Kreacher? These house-elves are most likely loyal to our Ministry."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Our Ministry, as I said in my note, is rather unhealthy."

Harry blinked. "And that's a rather cryptic statement, Ron," he said.

"Corley," Ron began, when suddenly the door to the room was pushed open and Hermione walked in.

"Ron!" she exclaimed and ran over to give him a hug. "Severus said that you were here. Why all the silence?"

Harry watched as Ron waved his wand in the air and abruptly thought of something. "Ron, how come your wand works?" he asked.

Ron didn't answer, but extricated himself from Hermione's hug and went to shut the door again. As his old friends watched, he drew a rune under the door that looked vaguely familiar to Harry and then drew another in the air. "Runes for no interrupting and silence," Ron explained as he sat down once more. "They should last for half an hour, with luck."

"I know what they are," Hermione said, an edge of irritation in her voice. "I studied Ancient Runes, remember? But why do we need them?"

"You never know who's listening."

"Ron thinks that the house-elves are reporting to the Ministry," Harry told her.

Hermione stared. "That's ridiculous," she finally said. "They aren't Kreacher. We're their masters on this island. They wouldn't do that."

Ron shrugged. "I didn't say that, Harry," he said. "I said that they might be. Your Jean and Will might be as well. So might Snape. Hell, you two might be reporting to Corley and I may be signing my death certificate by talking to both of you." His bright blue eyes looked each of them over before going back to fix on a point on the wall. "But I'll trust that our friendship still stands."

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "What's gotten into you? You're so... different."

He gave a rather bitter sounding laugh. "Thinking about your own survival can do that to a person."

"But Voldemort is gone," Harry pointed out.

"Harry, you didn't think that he was the only threat to the survival and freedom of our world, did you?" Ron shook his head slowly. "I'm beginning to think that Corley's worse. He's certainly smarter."

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione snapped. "Corley's no Dark Lord. He's a perfectly nice man who wants peace and prosperity for the wizarding world." Her voice faltered slightly. "I'm sure he has good intentions," she said.

"Ah, so you've read his campaign statements, too. You do realise that we can have peace and prosperity while under an authoritarian regime, don't you?" Ron gave a bitter laugh. "I'm beginning to think that I should have never joined the Department of Security. Perhaps if I hadn't learned about security issues, then I wouldn't have noticed this."

Harry looked at Hermione and saw that she had a rather mutinous expression on her face. He suspected that she wouldn't be too accepting of what he was about to say, but he felt that he owed it to Ron to say it. "Snape and Malfoy have been saying the same thing."

"Lucius Malfoy," Ron said, mild contempt in his voice. "Well then, what interesting company you guys have been keeping. Former Death Eaters."

"I'm transforming Azkaban to modern hygiene standards," Hermione said tightly. "Lucius is ill, and since I have mediwitch training, I need to take care of him, as distasteful as that may be."

"You don't need to call him by his first name though," Ron pointed out. "It seems to me that you guys have changed more than I have."

"I think," she said quietly, "that we've all changed more than we want to admit. When was the last time we were all together like this? A year or so ago, I think. We're not in school anymore. We grew up. And if I want to call people by their given names, Ron, I will."

He shrugged. "It's up to you." He then turned to Harry.

Harry began to feel uncomfortable. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Did you ever wonder why your letters to the old crowd never got responses?"

"You know something about that?" Harry asked. "I was wondering why, but I just thought... I don't know what I was thinking, actually."

"The old crowd's gone," Ron said bluntly. "They've either all died 'normal' deaths within the last six months, or they've been arrested for various treason charges. Their trials have been closed to the general public." His eyes were over-bright. "My family - what's left of them - disappeared too."

Harry laid a sympathetic hand on his arm but inside was wondering why Ron hadn't told him about this sooner. They had grown apart after the war but he still thought his old friend would tell him things.

Hermione's mouth fell open. "But where are they?" she exclaimed. "Shouldn't they have been sent here to Azkaban?"

"Apparently not," Ron said. "And that's what's gotten me worried. All signs point to the fact that Corley's established his own prison somewhere in London."

"That's preposterous!"

"Why, Hermione, why?" Harry said suddenly. "You said yourself that you've only met Corley once and wondered where the Dementors were taken to. Isn't it obvious? They've been sent to the new prison."

"But, but --" Hermione seemed determined to prove them wrong. "Why are we here then?"

Ron shrugged. "That's irrelevant."

"It's very relevant," Hermione snapped. "Why haven't other people seen this? If all this has been happening, then shouldn't other people have noticed?"

"People are too thankful that the Voldemort Wars are over. They're not looking for another war, so they simply don't see it. Besides, the Quibbler is gone. The Daily Prophet is completely and utterly under the Minister's control. Where else do people get their news? The old crowd was never good at mingling with the general wizarding populace anyway."

"Other people would have noticed," Hermione said adamantly.

"Why don't you ask the Minister yourself then," Ron said. "Ask him why he's appointed you here in Azkaban. Ask him whether there is another prison in London."

"I will!" Hermione said furiously. "I will." She stormed out of the room, which sealed behind her.

"Good luck." Ron's voice was quiet. He looked at Harry. "It's risky me even being here. If Corley knew that I suspected, then he'd throw me away with the rest of my family."

"Let's just hope he doesn't," Harry said tightly.

-

Hermione left for the Ministry the next day and was rather thankful for the excuse to leave Azkaban Island. The small island was getting a little too claustrophobic.

Arriving at the Ministry Headquarters in London in good time, she dialled in and deposited both her wands at the gate. "Hermione Granger, Caretaker of Azkaban," she told the wizard at the gate.

He waved her through.

Standing in front of the Minister's office suite, Hermione was rather apprehensive. He did say that I could come back and visit anytime, she pointed out to herself. Of course, she thought, he probably didn't mean with no notice. She walked into the suite and was immediately stopped by a tall, grey-haired woman who had her hair coiled tightly around her head and was wearing dark brown robes.

"How may I help you?" she asked.

Hermione read the nametag off the woman's chest. "Secretary Sampson, I would like to see the Minister. My name is Hermione Granger."

Sampson's face changed imperceptibly, so slightly that Hermione wasn't even sure it had. She certainly couldn't have said what it changed to or from. "You're the Caretaker of Azkaban, aren't you?" she said crisply. "Well then, the Minister isn't too busy at the moment so you can go right through but in the future, Miss Granger, please make an appointment."

Hermione nodded politely and walked past the woman towards the inner door. She knocked on the door.

"Who is it, Margaret?"

She opened the door and stepped inside, closing it with a click behind her. "Minister Corley," Hermione said politely, "I hope I'm not interrupting you, but I hoped to have a few words with you. Secretary Sampson said that I could come right through."

The Minister set down his reading glasses and gave her a warm smile. "Certainly, Miss Granger, what brings you over from Azkaban? The progress reports you send my office seem very promising." He waved her towards a chair in front of his desk.

No equal treatment today, Hermione thought with faint amusement as she sat down on the plush chair. She gave a small sigh as it seemed to mould itself to her body.

"A lovely chair, is it not?" Corley said, with another easy smile. "It was imported from Egypt. I find Egyptian wizards make some of the best furniture."

"It is very nice," Hermione admitted.

"So, Miss Granger, what did you want to talk to me today about? I'm afraid I only have a few minutes. I need to get these papers signed."

"I just," Hermione faltered slightly. Suddenly what she was about to ask sounded terribly stupid. But still, she told herself, what's the worst he could do? Laugh, probably. "I actually have two questions. I could have submitted them in writing, but since I was in London and everything, I thought to come here in person." She gave what she hoped was an easy laugh but probably came out sounding like a strangled kitten.

"Go ahead," Corley said congenially.

"I want to thank you again for giving me Azkaban to take care of," Hermione said. "It's a very rewarding job."

Corley looked amused. "Surely you didn't come all this way simply to say that?"

"No," she admitted. "I just was wondering why you appointed me to Azkaban Prison. Surely there were people with more experience with running prisoners. Some of the Aurors, perhaps?"

"But Miss Granger," Corley told her, leaning forward and looking at her in the eye, "their experience would have worked against their favour. It was your precise inexperience that was needed. We needed somebody to look at Azkaban with a fresh eye. Somebody who was willing to change it and take drastic action. And even if I say so myself, you have done a splendid job."

Hermione could feel herself turning red. "Thank you, Minister."

He smiled again. "And what was the other question, Miss Granger?"

She bit her lip. "I have a friend at the Ministry," she said, deciding at the last minute not to mention Ron's name. Somehow she suspected that Corley knew exactly who she was talking about anyway. "He wrote to me recently and said that he thought that there may be another prison in London. I was just wondering, why not for the sake of efficiency, why not integrate that prison - if there is one - with Azkaban?" She knew she sounded incredibly flustered.

He laughed. "Is that all? Miss Granger, you have nothing to worry about. Your job as caretaker is safe." He looked at his watch. "Now I'm sorry, but I must get back to work."

She stood up. "But..." she said, knowing fully well that he hadn't even answered her question, which, she admitted to herself, was sort of unasked.

"I'm sorry," he said firmly as he steered her towards the door. "I hope you continue to find your job fulfilling," he told her as he shut the door in her face.

Hermione stared at the closed door for a full minute before leaving. That was abrupt. It suddenly occurred to her that Corley wasn't that good at alleviating people's worries.

She suddenly remembered that there was a photo on the Minister's desk that wasn't there the last time she was there. The woman, she thought as she walked out of the Ministry, collecting her wands in the process, - the Minister's wife - looked very familiar.

The realisation hit Hermione with the strength of an icy shower.

-

"You don't think that Hermione is in any danger talking to Corley, do you?" Harry asked.

The four of them - Harry, Severus, Lucius and Ron - were sitting in Harry's room discussing the situation. Ron protested at including the two former Death Eaters in the current situation, but as Harry pointed out, they were the people who first alerted him and Hermione to the problem. They could have had the conversation in Lucius's cell, but security-wise, it was a nightmare for Ron. Hence, Ron had simply cast a non-violence spell on Lucius. It was a simple spell, easily renewed every week.

Harry had asked why it wasn't used more often and Ron had explained that it was a blood-based spell and was considered borderline Dark Arts. Lucius had seemed amused at the using of the spell, but Harry had seemed slightly shocked. Ron was rather sick of the expression of half-amazement, half-almost-terror on his old friend's face. He hadn't changed that much. At least, he didn't think he had.

"I doubt it she'll be in danger," Ron said, hoping that he was right. "He put her here in Azkaban for a reason. He probably won't want to jeopardise it by killing her."

Harry paled. "You think he might do that?"

"I hope not," Ron said grimly.

"If I were him," Lucius said, casually, "I wouldn't. It would create too many questions. From what I saw in The Daily Prophet, it was a big issue that Azkaban was going to be transformed by the Muggle-born hero Hermione Granger. It would be bad publicity."

Ron glared at him and wished that he would shut up. "What would you know?" he said, knowing that his tone was rather childish and spiteful. "You were on the losing side."

Lucius simply looked at him. "That I might have been, but only because the Dark Lord made some unfortunate choices that disagreed with popular public opinion. This Corley fellow seems quite intelligent."

Ron thought that he seemed to regret the fact he couldn't leave Azkaban and publicly declare his allegiance to Corley and said so.

"Oh, shut up, Ron," Harry said in an irritated tone but Lucius seemed amused. "What else do we know about Corley, anyway?" Harry said after a small silence.

Ron shrugged. "He is intelligent. He's taking over the wizarding world slowly and quietly so that nobody knows anything until it's too late. He's newly married." He shot a glance at Lucius and wondered whether the other man knew.

Harry obviously noticed the look and frowned. "Do you know who the wife is?"

Biting his bottom lip, Ron nodded.

"Well, don't just sit there," Snape snapped. "Tell us, Weasley."

Ron sat there and looked at Lucius. He watched as understanding slowly dawned on the older man's face.

"It's Narcissa, isn't it?" Lucius said quietly.

"Narcissa Malfoy?" Harry exclaimed.

"Not Malfoy now," Ron said, in a slightly malicious tone. "Narcissa Corley. It was a quiet wedding, but there was an article about it in the Daily Prophet afterwards. Apparently she reverted back to Narcissa Black before the wedding."

"I suppose there's no question of joining Corley now, is there?" Snape said mildly.

Ron wasn't even sure whether he was joking or not. "Why?" he asked.

"Narcissa was rather... angry when I was incarcerated for the second time," Lucius informed them. "She broke our vows then and there. I can't imagine she's calmed down in regards to me."

"You don't seem angry that she's married somebody else," Harry said.

"It was bound to happen," Lucius said, seemingly impassive. "It doesn't affect me."