Narcissa Malfoy

Agreed. (No, haven't read back, but not necessary on this matter.)

Only question is how she managed it. Aside from incompetently.

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Well, I think you might wish to find the time, dear, particularly before you speak to your father. If you haven't already done, that is.

Speaking of conversations to be had ... Have you answered my son yet? I'm not sure what he might have said to you but - well, I'm certain your reply would be welcome as an assurance that his mother has not gone right round the twist.

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What in blazes was Draco doing, anyway?

I can't imagine that he penned up a eulogy, or wrote a funeral dirge on guitar.

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Ah. Well, he tried to tell me that he was making sure no one had stolen Barty's journal and was using it.

Somehow I suspect the tone of his actual message was not nearly so ... helpful ... as he would like his mother to believe.

We had rather a row about it, in fact. I'm quite surprised at him.

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I've answered him, yes.

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I hope he was polite. Shocked, I daresay. But polite?

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Shocked when I answered him. Certainly.

Not so polite as a mother might wish in the initial address.

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Oh, dear.

I feared as much. As I said, we quarrelled, rather.

Then again, he did think you dead - and the cause, therefore, of my 'distress' - but I'll speak to him.

When I saw that he wrote you, I confess I thought he might have reason to know something I didn't. Silly, I know, but. It was tiresome, having to constantly defend my conviction.

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Discipline is for you to decide, of course. No need to defend my honour or redress my wounded feelings. Those matters are settled.

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That sounds like a lie if I've ever heard one.

Maybe you should punish him. Or let Barty do it.

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He was distraught, poor thing. That's all.

I know I gave him and Lucius a fright. Though entirely of their own imagining. Particularly as it turns out I was one of the only sensible ones through this whole ordeal.

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Cissy, should you have reason to doubt or be sceptical of MLE's conclusions, you are always encouraged to voice those doubts to me in confidence.

However, making them known in public is quite another matter. While you may not have said anything incriminating, your behaviour did not escape notice, and it did cause a stir. Some even held it up as evidence that MLE was orchestrating events from the outset.

I would not call that sensible.

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Transfiguration has been assuredly ruled out, as there are no trace flaws whatsoever.

There is no way to determine if the body is Norah, as it's a match to Barty in every way. The coroner is re-running the toxicology spells to see if there's a positive for polyjuice, which I suspect there will be.

In which case I suppose we shall have to make scans for polyjuice a matter of course for all autopsies now, to avoid such embarrassments in the future.

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I hadn't considered polyjuice. How on earth would she get it?

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We can begin to unravel that particular mystery when and if the scans come back positive.

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More to the point, Yaxley insists on investigating all other disappearances to rule out the theory that someone else might have planned a murder, tricked their victim into drinking polyjuice keyed to me, and staged the assassination for maximum effect in front of Ouroboros to misdirect the investigation. Or to humiliate MLE.

Useless waste of resources. Another thing to charge to Mother's folly.

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Well, now, you're the ones to sniff out that sort of thing, not me, dears, but forgive me for asking: If it's hard enough for someone like your mother to lay hands on actual polyjuice potion, then how on earth could a random assassin do so?

And just exactly whom do you suspect, dear? I thought Dogstar were just so much rabble; it seems entirely too successful for them. Besides anything they claim these days is bound to be a lie.

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Don't underestimate Dogstar, Narcissa.

That said, you're quite right: polyjuice is nearly impossible to come by or brew, and quite by design. The Department of Mysteries have made an extremely efficient job of eradicating Fluxweed across the countryside, and we've been very careful to control the import of other ingredients. DoM cultivates its own fw and supplies us, of course.

Mother could have stolen it from me, but she did not. My allocation is accounted for. Beyond question. Of course, she did rifle my post. We found several of the challenges in her room, so there's no mystery how she was drawn to the spot.

As for the assassin. It was Maule.

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Maule?

Sebastian Maule? As in Eosphorous?

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The same.

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I'm sorry, dear, but - how do you know? I mean, how can you be so sure of that?

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Ah. There you are crossing into the realm of restricted information.

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Spoilsport.

Hire me as a consultant, then, and you may divulge to your heart's content.

Or is that to mine?

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Sorry to disappoint.

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Why, Barty. Are you saying I've not got what it takes to serve MLE?

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No, indeed.

Not trying to frustrate your heart's desire, either. For that.

In fact, it's not merely MLE matters that limit me.

If you take my meaning.

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Just a thought, while we're waiting for the scans - there's no possibility of your mother having been a metamorphmagus, is there?

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No.

But it's a reasonable question.

Believe there would surely be a telltale flaw in such an impersonation, though, just as with glamours or other transfigurative magics.

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Reasonable point.

Have had reason to ponder metamorphmagi a bit lately. No matter.

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Oh? Planning to visit Nymphadora? That's unlike you.

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