Chapter 16

I was astounded. “And then what? Was he planning to kill her?”

“Yep,” Ron said. “If Narcissa had already inherited the money as the last heir, and then she died, then all her estate would pass to him as her husband. When he was questioned, Lucius slipped up and basically said that Draco was a disappointment; he'd gone soft, wasn't upholding proper pureblood traditions. Technically he's still virile. He could have found a new wife or mistress and gotten a new heir to pass the estate onto after he died.”

“This is insane,” I breathed, running my fingers through my hair. “This means ... this means that Lucius is the one that poisoned Teddy, that attacked Cecily and Tonks? That killed Remus? And tried to frame me?”

“Yes, Harry, he's behind it all,” Tonks said.

“But how?” I asked.

“Well, first things first,” Ron said. “The first thing that happened was that Teddy was poisoned and Cecily's memory was altered. The way I figure it, Lucius actually did show up that day, and his breaking in to Tonks's house set off her wards. But no one knew because Cecily's memory was stolen and Teddy was unconscious. So, we don't actually know how the poison was administered, but we think that maybe Cecily was put under an Imperio and gave Teddy his lunch without him realizing anything was different. Then Cecily could have gone about her day as normal, but under Lucius' control, and when she went to Floo back to the Leaky, he performed a Memory Charm on her that would erase her knowledge of her actions and of him ever having been there.”

“That makes sense,” I admitted. “That explains the wards being breached when I checked them, and it also explains how Teddy was poisoned and what happened to Cecily. But what about the letter? The wards didn't go off then.”

“I think Lucius got smart after the first go-round at my house,” Tonks explained. “He remembered the wards having been set off, but he took a gamble and figured that they were probably geared to allow blood relatives access. So he either Polyjuiced into Narcissa long enough to slip the letter under my door, or … he animated her body somehow and brought her there to do it. With a potions lab in his house, my bet's on Polyjuice, since I'm not sure my wards would know the difference.”

“Hmm,” I mused. “One smart, sick bastard, that one. So, that means that when he came to attack Tonks, he was wearing another Narcissa suit?”

“Actually, I think it was worse than that,” Tonks said, paling. “I ... I thought I was dreaming about Teddy, I thought my injuries maybe confused me about what had happened, but while I was unconscious, I kept thinking … thinking about Teddy attacking me. In my dream, I thought he was climbing up into bed to sleep with me, the way he does after a nightmare or something. But then the pain started and I couldn't quite seem to wake up. Now, I think maybe I was awake the whole time and that Lucius had Polyjuiced into my son.”

I gagged. The thought of that man looking like the innocent boy in the next room, making Tonks think her own son was trying to kill her, filled me with rage. My Butterbeer bottle exploded everywhere.

Hermione quickly Evanesco'd the mess. “Harry, we're not entirely sure that that's what happened, but it seems likely. It explains why Tonks was calling for Teddy at St. Mungo's, why she didn't fight back at first. And ... when they took Lucius in, they found Tonks's blood all over Lucius's cane. That must have been what he beat her with.”

“Fine,” I said tersely, trying to control myself. “So, he went after Teddy and, thinking that Teddy would likely die like Narcissa was going to, he tried to take out Tonks. I assume he killed Remus because if Teddy didn't die, then Remus could legally assume guardianship of Teddy's inheritance?”

“Exactly,” Ron said. “We think he took Remus to Stonehenge because it was Halloween and because it was a waning moon. Lucius still buys into a lot of superstition, and he probably thought that the combination of place and time would make Remus's werewolf side weaker. It's the same reason he used a silver knife. Silver doesn't actually affect werewolves; it's just an old wives' tale, but Lucius probably thought that it couldn't hurt. We don't know how he got Remus there, but it's possible he used a Portkey, like he did with you.”

“I wonder how he even got the Portkey into my office to begin with,” I mused.

“Well, you'd been keeping a fairly regular routine, for once,” Tonks said. “Because of me living here, I mean. So, it's possible that he just popped in while you were out at lunch, or snuck in at night.”

“But how would he have known when I'd touch it?” That was something that was sticking in the back of my mind. “I could have picked it up anytime, and it would have done him no good.”

Tonks and Ron looked stumped at that one. Hermione said slowly, “This is just an idea, mind you, but we have no way of knowing that it really was Remus who visited Teddy at the hospital that day. Clearly, Lucius wrote both of the letters with the same Quick Quotes quill; that much seems obvious when you look at them side by side. So, it's possible that he had captured Remus days, or weeks, ago and Polyjuiced into him only after the letter had been delivered to Robards. And if Lucius had a tracking spell on the Portkey, or on you, he'd know when you touched it, and he could Apparate Remus there, kill him, and leave you to take the blame.”

“That makes perfect sense, Hermione,” Tonks said. “I hate to admit it, but Remus has been ... I mean, was ... such a loner since we split up. He was probably an easy target for Lucius to capture.” Her eyes filled with tears. “We had our problems, but he didn't deserve that. He was a good man.”

“What a convoluted mess,” I said, sighing. Looking at Tonks, I gathered her into my arms and squeezed her consolingly. “You alright, love?”

She looked over at me strangely, then said, “Yeah, actually, I think I am.”

“Lucius goes to trial tomorrow, Harry,” Hermione said softly. “Do you want to attend?”

“You bet your arse I do,” I said and hugged Tonks to me again.