"What does Dumbledore intend to do with this letter?" Lucius asked.
"Actually, I can handle it myself. While I may be several rungs below Dumbledore in terms of social status, when it comes to magic… I can just barely manage to hold the line," Kasenhis replied.
"Then how do you plan to handle it?"
"Write him back. Tell him to come 'rescue' Peter Pettigrew on Christmas Day... and of course, if he could bring a few more Death Eaters along, that would be ideal."
Lucius nodded and took the letter back. "That's not a problem."
"I figure you probably have more questions. You're welcome to ask me here—or go straight to Dumbledore." Kasenhis smiled.
"Do you all really believe he'll return? It's not that I don't trust my own intuition… I just want to hear what others think," Lucius asked.
"In the short three years I've been in the wizarding world, I've already seen him twice," Kasenhis said plainly.
Lucius fell silent for a moment. "What is Dumbledore planning?"
"You mean, what's he planning to do to protect the Malfoy family?" Kasenhis clarified.
"Yes."
"Draco won't be in any danger at Hogwarts. As for the two of you, feel free to take a world map, use it as a dartboard, and pick any location outside of England—it'll all be perfectly safe. After all, Voldemort's so-called reign of terror is, at best, on the level of a village committee. It's not like he's Grindelwald," Kasenhis said with a scoff.
"Is that Dumbledore's opinion?" Lucius asked.
Kasenhis cleared his throat. "That's my own opinion. If it were Dumbledore, he'd probably tell you to infiltrate the Death Eaters, live under the same roof as Voldemort, and risk your life every day just to feed him intel."
"..."
He glanced at Lucius, whose expression had stiffened, and shrugged helplessly. "That's just the kind of person he is. You can't tell?"
"Mm." Lucius nodded, though it wasn't clear which plan he had in mind.
"Any other questions?" Kasenhis asked.
"What if you lose?"
"Then you'd better hurry up and get Draco out of here and never come back to England. It's that simple."
Lucius let out a breath of relief. "I thought you were going to say you couldn't lose, or that if we don't want you to lose, we'd have to take action."
"As much as I hate to say it, with your bloodline, if Voldemort is causing trouble in England and you choose to run rather than follow him into chaos, that alone is already good enough."
Draco asked in a low voice, "Professor.. is there really a chance that you would lose..?" He looked somewhat afraid.
Seeing that, Kasenhis gave a toothiest smile and said, "Nah, I'd win."
Draco looked somewhat reassured after that, butLucius continued, "And.. what happens after you win?"
"Then you lot can just come back and live your lives in peace, obviously."
"I meant the state of things," he clarified.
Kasenhis looked up at the sky, thinking for a moment. If that time really came, what approach would Dumbledore take to restore the Ministry's vitality?
Would he, Kasenhis, become the go-to ideas guy? And if he were the ideas guy, what ideas would he come up with?
More importantly—if those stubborn pure-bloods went down with Voldemort and were all thrown into Azkaban, then…
"A large portion of the pure-bloods would vanish from the magical world. After that, no one would bring up the word 'pure-blood' again. Knowing Dumbledore, he'd probably support a new Minister for Magic—maybe even someone of completely Muggle-born descent... But isn't that enough?" Kasenhis spread his hands.
Narcissa reached over and held Draco's hand, giving it a firm squeeze.
Lucius, with no one holding his hand, nodded. "It's enough."
"Mm… anything else?" Kasenhis asked. "Draco mentioned there was a damaged alchemical item here that needed repair?"
Lucius looked toward Draco—he couldn't recall ever saying that. But he wasn't angry. In fact, he looked rather touched, like a father realizing his son had finally grown up.
To trick the professor into coming over, his silly son had even learned how to lie and bluff.
Though in the long run such behavior caused more harm than good, at least for now, his foolish son had finally inherited some essence of Slytherin House—however little.
By any means necessary.
Though next time, he really ought to teach him how to think more long-term. For example, right now, in order to protect his silly son's precious future reputation, he had no choice but to get up, walk into the storage room, and randomly grab an alchemical item—clanking around as he rummaged.
"This one." Before long, he came back out holding a damaged black notebook.
"Oh… this poor thing's seen better days," Kasenhis said, taking the book. A quick glance told him only a few runes were missing; redrawing them would fix it right up.
...
Soon, as lunchtime neared, Kasenhis started squirming like he had nails in his seat—he needed to get out of there.
Any longer and he might not be able to leave at all.
Sure, when it came to hospitality, the Longbottom family far outshone the Malfoys—but when it came to being utterly shameless, the Malfoys absolutely obliterated the Longbottoms.
If he happened to have any kind of benefit that the Malfoys might want, then short of a direct confrontation, there was no way they'd let him leave.
"It's getting late, I won't overstay—no need to see me out, I'll be off. I've got a stew on the stove that's still cooking someone. Bye!" And before any of the three Malfoys could get a single word out, he vanished with a quick Ender Blink.
"I remember there was supposed to be an Anti-Apparition Charm here..."
...
Back in his office, Kasenhis stretched hard. On the couch, Sirius—lounging lazily—asked curiously, "What were you doing at the Malfoys'?"
"If one day Voldemort does return, odds are they won't side with him. They'll most likely choose to run," Kasenhis explained.
"Cowards…" Sirius scoffed, always sharp-tongued.
"Everyone has the right to cherish their own life. You can't just call them cowards for that," Kasenhis countered.
"Fine… at least this time they won't be helping the enemy," Sirius muttered.
"Well, that's already a good thing. You can't expect everyone to be like you—noble enough to betray your own class and fight for the majority," Kasenhis replied without missing a beat.
"I'm not as noble as you make me sound… Probably… What's the Malfoy family like now? How many of them are there?"
Sirius tried to sound casual.
"Three. Draco, Lucius Malfoy, and Narcissa Malfoy."
Sirius instinctively wanted to ask about his cousin Narcissa's well-being. But the complicated knot of emotions made him hesitate.
Maybe it was because he didn't want to admit that even as a disgraced Black, cast out from the family, he still cared about the people listed on that blasted family tree.
That would make him look pathetic... right?
_________
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