A Forbidden Birthright

Chapter Thirty Two

Hermione couldn't stop. She had to get it all out before she lost the clarity of her thought.

"What if she is the new Dark Lord? What if, somehow, Caspian found her, and they struck up a deal. He helps her amass a following and she helps him get what he wants, which is forbidden birthright, the Elder Wand. And that's why he's gone after the grimoire. For her."

Ron fell back against the chair, a hand pressed to his forehead.

"No fucking way. This isn't just mad, this is certifiably insane. This is fucking unhinged. You can't be serious."

"It fits. Terrifyingly so," Draco said, glancing over at Hermione. As his eyes slid across her, she could hear him in her head.

You're fucking brilliant.

She allowed a faint smile to tug at the corner of her mouth. 

"If she's alive, why couldn't she have done all this for herself?" Ginny asked. 

"She's got to be ancient by now," Ron said. "How much could a crone really do on her own? Do think she's after some kind of elixir like Voldemort was back in the beginning? Back in First Year?" 

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know. I mean, it's possible, but I haven't seen anything that points to that." 

"So what do we tell the Ministry?" Harry asked, glancing over at Ginny as he leaned on his elbows on his knees. "Everything?" 

"I would recommend against that," Draco said, eyeing them all carefully. "This is bigger than the British Ministry." 

"If it's bigger than the Ministry, then it's certainly bigger than us," Ginny said pointedly. 

"Yes, but I would rather we find a way to navigate this ourselves than have the Ministry stepping on our toes and tying our hands. The only one of us who is technically a Ministry official is Harry, but I doubt they'd give him the clearance to go after an issue like this." 

Harry nodded his agreement. 

"I think we should focus more on what we need to leave out than what we're going to tell them," Draco went on. "And you three," he motioned with his wand toward Harry, Ginny, and Ron. "As far as the Ministry knows, you shouldn't know anything. Don't involve yourselves directly. The only one of you who should be questioned anyway is Ron. The rest of you may be brought in because you're friends with Caspian, but they're likely to refrain from making this Inquiry too obvious." 

Hermione picked up when he finished. "I wanted you all to know the truth so you wouldn't be blindsided if you were questioned about Caspian." 

"Fair," Harry said with a nod. 

"Tomorrow we go about our day as normal. The Ministry will question Draco and I first and that's when we'll tell them enough of the truth that it won't look like we're leaving anything out." 

"Will you mention the grimoire?" Nikolai asked, glancing down at Hermione's file and back up at her. 

She looked over at Draco and then over to Nikolai. 

"No," she decided. "They'll want to take it. It would best to leave it unmentioned." 

Draco gave her a slight nod of approval. "Which means," he said, "That we also leave out the break-in. It wasn't mentioned to McGonagall, so nobody knows." 

"This is a lot of information to take in," Ron said tiredly, rubbing his temple. "All I have to do is tell them how I know Caspian, right?" 

"Correct," Hermione told him.