分卷阅读17（2 / 2）

“An Unbreakable Vow.”

“Maybe. His death and Bertrice’s situation are connected. Maybe he knew it and thought Malfoy would solve his murder and save his daughter.”

“But why hire Malfoy? Why not go to the authorities?”

Hermione shot Harry a pointed look. Her mind screamed He is the authorities! Just trust him! But before she could form an actual reply, the room door swung open.

“And then he claimed that he was Gertrude Lockhart,” Malfoy walked past Hermione and Harry, Ron at his side listening intently. “And that the person running the Remember Me Please Charity Ball was an imposter.”

Parkinson joined them and they all stood in the hallway staring at each other awkwardly. “Right,” Hermione finally said. “You three go speak with Neville. Ron and I will work the other leads.” Her pulse raced with the involuntary thrill at thought of Harry and Malfoy forced to work together with a snappy Parkinson looking on. And then she cringed, her rational side almost disgusted to the point of sickness. She took a breath and composed herself. Hermione glanced at her watch, “Meet back here before eleven tonight.”

“What about the rest of the things on the list?” Parkinson asked. “How are we supposed to get everything they’re asking for? At this point, all we have is the kneazle.” She glanced at the door to the room with a worried expression. “And I don’t want to give her up.”

“Leave the rest to me,” Hermione assured. She watched as the three of them walked to the lift and didn“t miss the challenging look Harry sent her before the doors had closed. She didn’t take it to heart and hoped her intuition to send them off together would help the case and not end in disaster. “Okay, Ron,” she turned to her fiance. “You need to follow up on—”

He interrupted her with a kiss. It caught her by surprise, but she welcomed the warmth and familiarity of Ron’s lips, the comfort of something real and solid before her. It steadied her where before she’d been unravelling to the threads of the case and the curse.

“I haven’t seen you for days, “Mione,” he whispered after pulling away.

She swallowed her guilt. “I know, work has been—” she tried to finish the lie, but it didn’t quite take. Perhaps she’d been operating under the mistaken belief that the curse might somehow right itself, or the Ministry would find a way to easily reverse it. But the time would come, sooner rather than later, when Hermione would have to tell Ron that something was wrong. It would have to wait until after they saved Bertrice. “We need to concentrate on this. You go follow up on the names you copied down.”

Ron’s face drew into a soft smile. “You saw that, did you?”

“Even if I hadn’t, I know you, Ronald Weasley,” she pointed a finger into his chest. “You’re a sucker for a well-organized case board.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“I’ve got to head into the Ministry,” Hermione frowned. The very fact that the ransom note mentioned a Timepiece was troubling enough, but the realization that Marwan Zivantus had still been in possession of his was terrifying. The man had been booted from the Ministry, and the only thing that saved him was the fact that they could never tell anyone why he’d been fired. Hermione knew the Iniquitous Eleven were given a wide berth, allowed to get away with any number of crimes if it meant time was protected. So Zivantus had to have done something truly horrific to be removed from the Eleven.

They made their way to the lobby. “Have dinner with me before you go?”

Hermione sighed. “You know we don’t have time for that.” She stood on her toes and kissed him goodbye. “Ron, I—” She wanted to tell him everything, to explain that she might disappear for a while if the Ministry saw fit. Instead, she smiled. “I’ll see you back here at eleven. I love you.”

“Love you.”

When she Flooed to the Ministry and made her way to Level Nine, she didn’t anticipate being met by a team of ops-agents led by Cormac bloody McLaggen.