FicWad

Working Title - The Darkness Howls
Act 4 - Not Housebroken



High, high above the mundane goings on of families twittering about their shpping like ants, a drab uninteresting secretary nervously steered an expensive silver tray across the dark marble floors of the Malfoy Corporation boardroom.

A large imposing open plan room, the sat comfortably in a large nook made possible by the curved wall and half domed ceuiling all in glass. The wall and the ceiling seemed to curve around the table trying to further protect the occupants and their dirty secrets.

Her old heels didn't clack smartly across the floor as much as they mulched in her slow unassuming shuffle.

The various smart male figures all sat well back in the cavernous chairs, some with cigars, some with whisky, all of them having been their quite a while already. Two chairs were turned face to face at the point furthest into the curve of the wall, the rest of the men belonged to either occupant of these two chairs just enjoying their presence and certainly not adding anything to the conversation.

Cornelius Oswald Fudge would have looked good in his formal custom robes if his face didn't look so tired and worry worn. His posture slouched to the side, his elbow doing a good job of propping his hand up which in turn held in cheek as he tried valiantly to stuggle to the end of this meeting.

"Look Lucius, we certainly don't want another bill at this late stage. You're trying to change the structure of whole departments in your proposal you know." Several Fudge sycophants nodded sagely and turned, waiting for the response of one Lord Lucius Oberon Malfoy.

Lord Malfoy was as charming and urbane as wizarding Lords come. Impeccably groomed in all respects in the unchanging fashion of the Pureblood Lords but with all the political crowd-charming savvy of the modern generation. By his tone of voice you were reminded that he was filthy rich, always got his own way and owned most of the shops you frequented and businesses you used in your life.

What most people didn't know that Fudge keenly observed and reminded himself of daily, was the other more darker side of this man. The questionable motives, the high risk deals that shouldn't have come off but always did for him unexplicably, the too good to be true luck of the Devil. His head of the Auror Department called it the luxury of underworld contacts so deep to murder, rob, beat, cheat, steal, molest and perjure with impunity and the financial muscle to bribe any that he couldn't do the former to. Fudge of course ignored this unsubstantiated rumour mongering and sighed waiting for an answer from Malfoy, secretly wondiering whether he and Amelia Bones would ever see eye to eye on this matter. He waved off the silver snake front of the pewter coffe pot slithering to refill his cup, not noticing whether there was actually some person on the end of it.

"Lucius," he interrupted tiredly, not being able to wait, "you and I both know the Wizengamot won't have it. They already somehow have the impression that you and I are involved in some ridiculous cabal of evil !!" He guffawed as if to suggest that anyone should be sectioned for such preposterously insane thoughts such as these. Avery and Mulciber, Fudge's two lawyer cronies from the Ministry Legal Section made sure they were instantly laughing as well prompting the whole table to collectively shrug this thought off as fantasy.

Lucius got up and faced the window laughing along with Fudge his shoulders chugging as if he was heartily laughing all the while his face was ablaze with hidden furious anger. One word was whispered with venom on his lips, silent to the rest of the room. Potter.

A split second later he turned around with his perfect kissing-the-babies smile bestowing warmth on all here.

"Cornelius, you know I have only the best interests of the City at heart. I would shudder to think of a return to the times of old. Various creatures of the dark.." Cornelius did shudder, Mulciber faked his beautifully, ".. running amok unchallenged through the night murdering with impunity?"

Avery thought Lucius' face was a picture of righteous indignation at the very thought. God he was a slick liar. Avery would have believed it if Malfoy's tongue had been forked at birth.

One thing was for sure though, that he Thomas Avery, was certainly not fooled in the slightest that this proposed bill to divide the Department for the Control of Dark Creatures into further oversight departments with total responsibility vested in them would improve the situation. If anything it would be grossly inefficient, leading to a situation where the left hand would not know where the right hand was let alone what it was doing. The question he asked himself when he first saw the proposed bill was why? He knew Mulciber was asking himself that same question. Neither of them had any answers yet but they had been extremely well payed to politely ignore any complaints they might have had with said proposed bill. This was totally unknown or suspected by either Fudge or Malfoy, only Avery, Mulicber and there shadowy paymaster knew of the deal. Hopefully sometime soon he would get to meet this mysterious person and know the real reasons behind this ridicualous song and dance show.

"We need desperately need those oversight departments for vampires, dementors, trolls, giants and werewolves setup." Lucius finished, arriving back in his seat as his secretary made way around to fill the last unfilled cup.

"You will have to go through the usual channels I'm afraid Lucius. I need my final preferential members bill for ammunition in my re-election campaign. I can't help you further if I don't stay in office now surely?" Fudge simpered.


"I have a suggestion."


Chairs swivelled rapidly at this unsure soprano-voiced feminine intrusion into this private male debate.

They were all shocked to notice, for the first time it seemed, the old brown tweed knee skirt, horribly unfitted suit jacket with worn cuffs and ancient unfashionably ruffled magnolia blouse on the top of which a massive pair of glasses surrounded by frizzled black hair seemed to be speaking.

No one quite knew what to say, being so shocked that she actually spoke. Miss Black however started to wither under the strain of the silence now painfully forcing all her various insecurities mercilessly to the top.

"Well.. it was.. it was more.. a question." Her voice was getting softer and higher with each word until the last two registered as squeaks above the now rattling coffee pot skill on the tray in her hands as she stood across the table from Lucius.

She now wished into the crushing silence that she had never been born let alone learned to speak. 'His Lordship will fire me for this' repeated over and over in her frantic random thoughts, 'or worse all these powerful men will laugh sending me back to my therapist like a rugby ball kicked high into the stands never to return'.

Malfoy seemed to shrug and for an instant she thought it might be okay. She was even too cowardly to walk away.

"I'm afraid we haven't properly house broken Miss Black yet."

Her eyes closed slowly, her face burning as she received the verbal equivalent of a backhand across the face like the house-elf that he thought she was. A few sniggers tested the air but nothing could cut as deep as Lucius Malfoy's wit.

"The single thing to her credit is that she is a marvel with the coffee pot."

Malfoy sneered never taking his eyes off her, then in a blink he was winking and smiling like only a chauvinist can to his buddies who all roared laughing. She hadn't dared make eye contact with him since the first comment.

The others looked back to her used to heated arguments where the opponents would go hell for leather tearing verbal strips off each other. No return comment even looked likely, or ever for that matter as they were disappointed momentarily.

Inside she was screaming, yelling, baying for his blood and for her own backbone to reassert itself. However at the same time, impossibly, she also thought that perhaps she wasn't good for anything after all. Since when had her self confidence been such a mess? Did she even know who she was anymore?

"Father.." a cultured drawl issued from what could have been a mini-Lucius, twenty something years earlier, as an aristocratic silver haired man came through the doors in long strides already dressed for the outside with Lord Malfoys infamous snake-topped cane in one hand, his overcoat in the other. He didn't even look like he had interrupted anything. "Minister, Gentleman.. It's time to bring a little joy to the masses."

At that imperious announcement which drew a few sarcastic chuckles, the meeting broke and everyone headed for the doors right past Miss Black, still holding the tray with the shaking coffee pot. Most did not even deign to look at her, the one that did couldn't possibly have looked further down his nose at her if he had been born a Malfoy. It felt like another slug in the face. Another wound in her soul. She hadn't even moved a muscle as another servant banged the doors shut from the outside.

"Great!" she started in a now suddenly loud voice.

"Even the bloody servants think I'm invisible!"

"Uh.. uh.. I have a question, sir.." she viciously mocked herself to the silent room almost but not quite having the guts to bang the tray down.

"Idiot.. idiot.. bugger.. buggery buggery bugger..." she recited as she collected the abandoned coffee cups consigned to never be finished, never to serve their rightful purpose. She felt like a coffee cup. Thoroughly useless in every way.