Lyra's Story

The guard came back a few minutes leading a tall, blonde woman. Hermione couldn't help but notice that the guard's eyes kept traveling up and down the prisoner. She seemed aware and mildly annoyed by him, but her demeanor was unaffected. Lyra Malfoy was positively stunning. She possessed every bit of Narcissa's beauty and Lucius' presence. She was dressed in a business suit that exuded elegance and class yet still highlighted a remarkable figure. Tall and lithe, she had long legs, curved hips, an impossibly tiny waist, a well-proportioned chest, and a graceful neck. Her skin was glowing porcelain with classic bone structure, exotic grey eyes, a pert nose, full lips, and straight white teeth. Her hair was the same platinum blonde as her father's. It hung long and silky down her back with just the slightest hint of a wave to it. She was the woman of every man's dream and every woman's nightmare.

Hermione was again perplexed as to why she felt threatened by this woman, but she dismissed it by telling herself that the beauty before her would threaten any woman. Lyra's voice pulled Hermione from her thoughts.

"You must be Advocate Granger. I'm Lyra Malfoy. I was told you are a friend of Draco's." Hermione snorted inelegantly. Lyra looked affronted.

"I'm sorry, Miss Malfoy. That was rude of me. I was a classmate of Draco's and a student of Professor Snape's. Astoria and I are good friends."

"Ah, so you knew my brother back when he thought he was Merlin's gift to the world?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to be shocked. She smiled. In addition to the other woman's physical perfection, Hermione realized that Lyra Malfoy was sharp and direct.

"Well, to be honest, Miss Malfoy, that is correct. There was no love lost between your brother and me when we were children."

Lyra seemed to be trying to remember something. "Granger .... Wait, you are the Muggle-born, the one that is Harry Potter's friend?" Hermione nodded again, this time hesitantly. "You really don't understand, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Draco's animosity to you growing up wasn't motivated by hate," Lyra said with a smile.

"Oh, Miss Malfoy, I beg to differ. You weren't at Hogwarts with us."

Lyra stiffened. "No, no, Advocate Granger, I was not. Mother wept for days when the letter didn't arrive. Father didn't look at me for weeks."

Hermione stammered, "I, oh my, I am so sorry. That wasn't a slight on you. I just mean you didn't witness Draco's treatment of me back then. We've made our peace now, but trust me when I say he hated me back then."

Lyra's pride was still smarting from the reminder of her childhood pain. She snapped at Hermione again, "You really are dense when it comes to males. My brother was jealous of you. Truth be told, he probably had a bit of a crush on you. That's how boys act when they don't have any sense. Also, Father was continually telling him that he shouldn't be beaten by you." She seemed to calm as she spoke. "Draco handled it very badly." She paused for a moment. "Trust me, he got an earful from me regarding his behavior. But it wasn't hate that caused him to mistreat you, at least, not entirely. It was also was motivated by confusion and adolescent angst."

Hermione stared at Lyra open-mouthed for a minute. Lyra laughed at Hermione's ridiculous expression.

Hermione collected herself and changed the subject quickly. "That's all very interesting, but that's obviously not why I am here. You need an advocate. I will be representing Draco and Professor Snape. If you would like to ask me any questions, feel free. Otherwise, if you would like me to represent you also, I'd like to hear your take of the events leading up to your arrest."

"If Draco and Severus trust you to represent them, then I trust you as well."

"Well, then, please tell me what happened in your own words."

"As you know, Severus is a Potions master. My field of study is pharmaceutical research. There is quite a bit of overlap. When I first returned, he never left the Manor. Mother and Father were worried about him. Looking back, I think he was in some sort of shock. His life was finally his own after twenty years of being under the thumb of Voldemort and Dumbledore. Truthfully, I'm not sure which of them did more damage to him. Voldemort was obviously a monster, but Dumbledore treated him like a chess pawn. However, don't speak ill of Albus Dumbledore around Severus. Even now, Severus talks like the man should be sainted." Lyra's voice contained a fair amount of venom towards Albus Dumbledore.

"That loyalty to Dumbledore probably saved Severus' life, Lyra, if I understand what happened in the shack properly." Lyra looked confused. "Draco said that Fawkes saved Severus. Fawkes only helped people that were extremely loyal to Dumbledore. But, please continue. Tell me about your research."

"Severus was bored after the war. He didn't want to go back to teaching, so he decided to continue his research projects. We discussed them often; we also discussed the projects that I was working on in my studies. I was intrigued with the similarities between the two disciplines.

"Then Eileen fell ill, and the theoretical study became personal. St. Mungo's was unable to help her. I convinced him to take her to a Muggle physician, which he did. They recommended a Muggle drug to help her. It helped, but not much. Severus and I dissected and analyzed the medication; he started experimenting with magical ingredients to improve the potency. The improved medication that he developed was very effective against her symptoms.

"I was curious what would happen if we made the same modifications without magic. Interestingly, the altered drug was considerably more effective than the original. It wasn't as good as the potion, but it was better. I approached Draco about marketing the modified drug. We set up the Muggle subsidiary of Malfoy Industries, and I started the process of getting the drug through clinical trials."

"After the first round of test results came back, I continued to be discouraged at how much difference there was between the magical and the non-magical samples. Severus mentioned the possibility of a Concealment Charm so that Muggles wouldn't find out about magic. He thought that he and Lucius should go to Kingsley and explain what we wanted to do, but Draco and I thought that was a bad idea. Draco and I decided that we would follow the spirit of the law, and we wouldn't worry about the letter of the law. Severus may or may not have known what we were doing, but Draco and I were definitely the driving force behind pushing ahead."

Hermione was puzzled. She'd gotten three stories that were similar in many ways, but there were obviously some key differences. Draco had made it sound like everyone went in with his or her eyes wide open. Snape had tried to downplay Lyra's involvement; Lyra had tried to make it appear that Snape's hands were clean.

"Miss Malfoy, I must tell you, I'm getting slightly different versions of the story from all three of you. Without full cooperation from each of you, it will be difficult to defend you to the best of my abilities. It seems that you are all very close. There seems to be some protection going on. I'm having a bit of trouble discerning who was aware of what and whose idea some of these actions were."

"That's the way I remember things, Advocate Granger."

"Very well then, Miss Malfoy, tell me who applied the Concealment Charm to the products." Lyra froze.

Hermione continued, "Obviously, whoever applied the Concealment Charm understood the nature of the product. You aren't trying to tell me that Draco applied these charms to hundreds of thousands of doses of the product? I'm actually hard pressed to understand how you are mass producing the potion at all."

"House-elves, Advocate Granger. We have a small staff of elves that do much of the labor. They also apply the Concealment Charms."

"Miss Malfoy, wizard magic and elf magic do not leave the same magical signatures. That is an easy thing to check."

"Good, then that will be obvious." Lyra gave Hermione a self-satisfied look.

"Who taught them the charm?"

"Draco."

"Who taught Draco?"

"Severus." She looked Hermione dead in the eye.

"Why? If he didn't think you were going to use it without permission of the Ministry, why would he teach it to Draco?" Hermione's voice was still perfectly even.

"Draco enjoys learning new skills."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Draco didn't even get an O.W.L. in Charms. A Concealment Charm that sophisticated would take more skill than Draco possesses in that particular discipline."

"Whose side are you on anyway?" Lyra stood up so that she had the height advantage on Hermione.

Hermione didn't flinch. She looked up at Lyra calmly. "Miss Malfoy, please sit down. I am on your side. But I cannot function effectively with stories that don't make sense. The prosecutor would destroy me, and by extension, you. Tell me what happened, really."

"Fine. " Lyra was obviously not used to being beaten. She flopped back down in the chair. Hermione tried not to giggle at the action. It seemed that Lyra could be just as spoiled and temperamental as her brother.

"Severus developed the charm, but he didn't want to use it without approval. He thought that Kingsley would support us; Draco and I resisted this idea. We argued that as long as we were careful about exposure that the Statute of Secrecy was just useless bureaucracy. We even used some emotional manipulation tactics, using Eileen's progress as proof that Muggles shouldn't be denied the breakthrough. I believed in what I was telling him. Draco honestly just saw it as a huge untapped market. Draco wouldn't hurt anyone though, and he was determined that we follow all safety procedures of both worlds. He assigned me the task of researching the Muggle process for obtaining a license. We were determined to do things the right way, even though not technically legal. Severus and I would have done all those things regardless, but Draco helped us brainstorm as many precautions as possible."

"What is your relationship with Severus?" Lyra gave Hermione an incredulous glare, so Hermione explained further, "The prosecutor will probably try and argue that you are not telling the truth and that you are trying to protect one another."

"We are close. We've been friends since I came back from university."

"Are you romantically involved?" Lyra sighed. How much should she tell Advocate Granger?

"We are not currently romantically involved."

Hermione noted the use of the word 'currently'. She knew she had pushed Lyra quite a bit already today, so she decided to let it drop for the time being.

"One thing I don't understand, Miss Malfoy, is how you were caught. If there have been no ill effects and no breaches in the Muggle world, what happened to bring the attention of this to the Ministry?"

"One of Draco's employees was auditing the books. Malfoy Industries was purchasing a great deal of potions ingredients, far more than the wizarding potions operations needed. Black Pharmaceuticals was purchasing these materials from the parent company at a fair price, so there was nothing harming either business. Draco had not thought it prudent for Black Pharmaceuticals to be seen purchasing potions ingredients, so he thought that an internal transfer would be safer. It worked for a long time, but Edgecombe discovered the transfers. She continued snooping, and discovered the sale of our products to Muggle pharmacies. That's when she ran to the Ministry. I don't know if you've seen the formal list of charges, but every single product of Black Pharmaceuticals is listed as a violation; in truth, most of the products are non-magical. There are the few that are in violation, but the charges are overly aggressive and mostly false. The fact that they figured out part of the story is probably mostly luck."

Hermione bristled at the name Edgecombe. She collected herself and moved forward. "This is what I intend to argue. It seems that all three of you had knowledge that what was being done was illegal. However, in your collective zeal to help others, a decision was made to disregard the International Statute of Secrecy. I intend to argue that there was no knowledge of a formal exception procedure to the Statute. It sounds like Severus thought there might be a chance at informal assistance, but I'm not hearing that he really believed there was a formal method for gaining approval. Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law, but it is a mitigating factor. Given that there was no harm done, I intend to appeal for a retroactive exception to the Statute and for the Wizengamot to drop the criminal charges. If you are not granted the exception, you will need to revert to only distributing the non-magical formulas."

"Very well, Advocate Granger." Hermione handed her the form to sign.

"I am going to go speak to the prosecutor. Hopefully we can put this to rest without a trial." The women shook hands politely.

Hermione called the guard. Thankfully, he managed to conduct himself a bit more professionally this time. After Lyra had left the room, Hermione collected her belongings and left the interview room. She started walking to her office. She needed to pick up some forms before heading to the Prosecutor's office. She knew him well, and she knew exactly how to handle him. Hermione knew that he cared more about success than actually doing what was best. No doubt the high profile nature of the defendants had played a part in his decision to go after this case. He probably thought this would further his career. Perhaps if she could show him how this case could actually harm his career, she would be able to get this issue resolved quite easily.