Another Prisoner, Another Professor

With the Ministry no closer to finding Lupin and the Gringotts strike averted, the investigation of the Malfoys was front-page news. Seeing as only a few people in Gryffindor subscribed to the Daily Prophet, Parvati quickly became the most popular person in the tower when she offered to read all of the articles out loud to the entire common room every evening. The only one who objected was Hermione, who claimed it was impossible for her to concentrate on her homework when Parvati was reading out loud. She took to studying in her room, shutting the door and wearing Wood's earmuffs.

"Ginny, move that cat, will you?" said George. "Why isn't he upstairs with Hermione?"

"I don't know, I don't think he likes it up there," Ginny said, picking up Crookshanks and setting him down on her lap. "He's figured out how to open her door - it's got a handle and not a knob, so he just presses down on the handle and nudges the door open."

"That's how he got out that one day," Ron muttered to Harry. "We've got a doorknob, though - an animal couldn't have gotten in on its own, so somebody left our door open."

"Well, it wasn't me," said Seamus, overhearing. "Could you move down? I think we can fit one more person on this couch." Anyone who couldn't get a seat on a couch, armchair, or regular chair ended up having to sit on the floor or one of the tables, which no one wanted to do. "Hey, Colin, you can sit over here, you're skinny enough."

"Oh, thanks," said Colin, and wedged himself between Ron and the armrest. "Harry, when's the hippogriff hearing? I found loads of stuff over the weekend - "

"It's on Friday," said Harry. "Thanks, Colin - you really did a lot of work."

"I went to go see Hagrid," said Colin. Though the cramped state of the couch made it impossible for him to bounce, he was still wiggling his feet. "I gave him all the things I found. It's really interesting, maybe I'll go into Magical Law Enforcement. Do you think the hearing might get put off? Because the Malfoys are being investigated?"

"I'm not sure," said Harry. It was much easier to talk to Colin when he wasn't repeating Harry's name over and over again. "It'd be great if it was."

Parvati was standing by the fireplace, the Daily Prophet in her hand. "All right, is everyone ready?"

No one was. "Can we wait for Sarah?" asked one of the sixth-years.

"Hector got detention, he should be here any second - "

"Delia's just getting her knitting from upstairs - "

"Percy's not here yet," said Wood.

"All right, everyone gets two more minutes and then I'm starting," said Parvati, exasperated.

Ron looked up towards the staircase. "I know he was old and boring and everything, but..."

"Here's what happened, Ron," said Fred, who was sitting on the couch behind them. "Scabbers got really hungry, so he decided to eat himself - "

"Shut up!" said Ron, loudly enough that a few people turned to look at him. His ears were turning bright red.

"Okay, I was out of order," Fred said quickly. "But he had to die sometime, right? I mean, Percy was five or six when he found him, and he already looked a bit rough. How many rats live to be eleven or twelve?"

"Yeah, but where's his body?" said Ron. "Owls - " He swallowed. "Owls wouldn't have eaten his tail and everything, would they? And there wasn't any fur, there was just blood, so maybe something grabbed him and took off and ate him somewhere else, but - I want to know how in the bloody hell that door got open!"

"We're starting!" said Parvati; Percy had just come in and sat down next to Wood, and a blonde girl carrying pink yarn was coming down the stairs. "I don't care who's not here, we're starting right now.

"All right, there are two articles today, the first one's called 'Malfoys Forced to Open Secret Rooms' and it's by someone called Eugenia Darmon. 'Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa were served with legal documents yesterday which required them to open any and all hidden chambers or cupboards in their manor. Members of the Auror Office, who are investigating Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy in the 1981 disappearance of Mrs. Malfoy's cousin, Regulus Black, discovered seven different secret compartments throughout the house, including one behind a fifteenth-century portrait of Mr. Malfoy's ancestor, Germanicus Malfoy, and one hidden by a false wall panel in the family's parlor. Since the commencement of the investigation, the Malfoys have been fined two thousand and ten Galleons for possession of illegal objects - '"

"That's probably like three Knuts for them," Ron whispered to Harry.

"' - found in their manor by Aurors.

"'According to a press release issued four hours before this edition went to print, written by Rufus Scrimgeour, Head of the Auror Office, "The first three days of our investigation of the Malfoy manor and grounds have alerted us to the vast time and energy a complete search will require. We are treating their property as the potential scene of a crime, and, accordingly, the Malfoys are not and will not reside in their house until this matter is ended." The family are currently staying in Suffolk with friends.

"'This investigation is far from the first time the Malfoy family has been suspected of criminal activity. In 1981, Lucius Malfoy confessed to having acted in the service of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, claiming to have been under the Imperius Curse.'"

"The what?" Harry whispered to Ron.

"It makes you do things you don't want to do," Ron whispered back.

"'The Ministry concluded that he was innocent of any purposeful wrongdoing - "'

Several people booed; someone in the back yelled, "Oh, please!"

"' - and he was never prosecuted. Though Narcissa Malfoy has never been directly accused of any Dark activities, her sister Bellatrix Lestrange has been in Azkaban since January 1982 for torturing two Aurors to the point of insanity.

"'Representatives for the Auror Office have refused an extended interview with the press, but they took a minute to confirm rumors that the skeletons of several house-elves were found buried near a gate.'"

There were gagging sounds.

"'The elves appeared to have died of natural causes and are not evidence pertaining to criminal charges.' Okay, that's the first one. The second one's called 'Regulus Black: The Man and the Mysteries' and Agamemnon Harrow wrote it. It looks like it's more of an opinion article. 'In the disappearance of Regulus Black, there is perhaps no mystery bigger than the man himself. Unlike his cousin-in-law Lucius Malfoy, who is well-known in political and charitable circles, and his brother Sirius Black, who became infamous in 1979 for founding a school for werewolves that at one time employed Remus Lupin - ' Wait, Professor Black did what?"

"Well, he didn't know Lupin was a Death Eater," said Harry at once. The entire common room turned to look at him; a few people were gaping openly. "And I mean, you can't help it if you're a werewolf, right? It's not like you picked to be one or anything. You're still yourself whenever the moon isn't full."

Several voices began to reply, but Parvati was having none of it. "You all wanted me to read this article, and I'm reading this article, so everyone be quiet! 'Unlike his cousin-in-law Lucius Malfoy, who is well-known in political and charitable circles, and his brother Sirius Black, who became infamous in 1979 for founding a school for werewolves that at one time employed Remus Lupin, Regulus Black is not a figure familiar to the wizarding public. The second son and youngest child of the late Orion and Walburga Black, he was employed as a research assistant by Horace Slughorn as Slughorn worked on an as-yet-unpublished potions guide. Based on the testimonies of several convicted Death Eaters, the Ministry considers Black to have been a follower of You-Know-Who, but even this much is technically uncertain. Regulus Black was never questioned by the Ministry or charged with any crime. At no point were those testifying as to his loyalties able to give the Ministry a solid charge to bring against him.

"'If the Malfoys are found to have killed Regulus Black, the Ministry will find itself in the situation of having to determine which of two scenarios is more probable. Presuming the Malfoys are guilty, did they kill Black because he was a Death Eater and they were somehow able to emerge from You-Know-Who's control and fight against him? Or did they kill Black because they were truly loyal to You-Know-Who and he opposed them? Alternately, it is possible that all involved were Death Eaters and Black was killed as punishment for some sort of error. Judging by the evidence so far, it seems unlikely that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy would have killed him for reasons unconnected to You-Know-Who; both Black and Mrs. Malfoy were members in good standing of the Black family, and it has never been claimed there was any personal animosity between them.

"'Though it is unknown what the Ministry's search of Malfoy Manor may yield, the evidence against the Malfoys is currently flimsy. Regulus Black's found button indicates only that it was likely he was within the vicinity of their estate, a probable scenario which could prove entirely innocuous. Many more facts are needed before any kind of conclusion can begin to form - and, with Regulus Black silent, those facts may never come to light.' That's the end."

"That's stupid," said someone several seats away on Harry's left. "All the last one says is that they don't know anything."

"Except that Professor Black likes werewolves," said a wiry-haired boy sitting on one of the tables. "Forget his brother, how do we know he's not a Death Eater?"

"He didn't know Lupin was a Death Eater!" said Harry. Once again, several people turned to look at him. "Dumbledore hired Quirrell to teach here, didn't he? He didn't know he was a Death Eater either - you don't always know."

"All right, maybe he didn't know he was a Death Eater," said Lee Jordan. "He still started a school for werewolves. Why would you want to teach a bunch of dark creatures?"

"It's not like they want to be dark creatures," Harry replied. He could feel his palms getting sweaty; he wasn't used to talking in front of this many people. "And it's not like they're vampires or dementors or something - most of the time they're just like regular people."

"Oh, right," the wiry-haired boy scoffed. "Regular people who grow fangs and want to eat people."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but the rest of the common room had grown bored with listening and people had started talking to their friends. "I'd love to see the Ministry get Lucius Malfoy on this one," said George.

"Watch," said Fred. "Three days from now they'll find out Regulus Black just took off for Jamaica after the war, and he's been sitting on a beach with no Daily Prophet for the last twelve years."