Sirius turned around and looked at her. 'Hermione, what are you doing?'
'Shush,' said Harry, and put his finger to his lips. 'Let her.'
Hermione began flipping quickly through the pages. 'I just thought….maybe…if we could make it work…. It would be…'
Sirius looked confused. Even Narcissa looked confused. But Harry just stood and watched her reading and tried to be quiet. Finally she put the book down and turned to Sirius. 'I have an idea,' she said.
Sirius looked doubtful.
'This is a good thing,' Harry reassured him. ' Hermione has great ideas.'
'But I'll need your help, Narcissa,' Hermione added.
Now even Harry looked doubtful. But Narcissa straightened up in her chair. 'What can I do?' she said.
Voldemort ordered Lucius to watch his son, then crossed the room and stood by the window, looking out. This effectively left Draco and his father alone together.
If Draco had expected Lucius to be apologetic about the horror that was being inflicted on his son, he was disappointed. He merely looked Draco up and down coldly, and said, 'You have saddened me, boy.'
Despite himself, Draco was almost impressed with his father's total lack of remorse. It was breathtaking. 'Maybe you should ground me,' he suggested.
Lucius frowned. 'And your flip sense of humor is not helping your case,' he said.
'If you behave in a properly remorseful manner, the Dark Lord may forgive you.
He had high hopes for you at one point, Draco. He can be merciful. And if you were truly acting under the influence of this Polyjuice spell…'
Draco shook his head. 'I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you again, Father,' he said. 'No desire to join up with the Dark Lord here. I'm afraid I can't see what you see in him. Not the most stable guy. Not the handsomest bloke, either,' he added, as an afterthought.
'I don't know what you hope to accomplish by defying me, Draco,' said Lucius, sounding as aggrieved as an ordinary parent discovering that his teenage son has borrowed the car and plowed it into a snow bank.
'If you don't know that, Father,' said Draco coldly, 'than I'm not going to explain.'
'And if you don't stop defying me,' said Lucius even more coldly, 'I won't be your father any more.'
After that they sat in silence.
Harry, Hermione and Sirius sat nervously in the study, not looking at each other.
Narcissa had been gone five minutes. When the door finally opened and Narcissa came back into the room, carrying a large bundled object, Sirius was so pleased that he turned back into a dog, then back into a man, then into a dog again in quick succession.
'Hang on there, Sirius,' said Harry, although he was obviously relieved as well.
'Too much excitement, not good for you.'
Narcissa put the bundle down on the desk and stepped back as Harry, Hermione and Sirius (back to human form again) crowded around. 'I told them I was taking it to Lucius,' she said, sounding almost pleased. 'The more I resist, the easier it gets,' she went on. 'I feel like I could almost say his name now.'
Harry, Hermione and Sirius stepped back quickly.
'But I won't,' she added.
Hermione scooted back to the desk and unwrapped the bundle, then sucked in her breath. A huge metal arm lay outstretched in front of her, grim and ugly and horrible. Each of its seven metal fingers ended in vicious blades and there were grotesque Dark-magic carvings all up and down its hollow metal body. Despite being hollow all through the inside, it looked extremely solid and heavy.
Harry was staring at it, revolted. 'Is that the Lacertus arm?'
'It's horrible, isn't it?' said Hermione, nodding.
'Its a good thing he's not going to wind up using that thing it on Draco after all,' said Harry. 'There's no way you could get Draco to wear something that looked like that. Well,' he added, with the ghost of a grin, 'maybe if you told him it was Armani.'
'Oh, shut up Harry,' said Hermione absently. 'We only have a couple minutes with this thing before Narcissa has to take it to You-Know-Who. Let me work on it.'
While Hermione worked, Sirius drew Narcissa into the corner of the room. 'You've done very well, very well,' he told her. 'We know it's hard for you-' 'I'm doing this for Draco,' she said, a little sharply.
'I know,' said Sirius.
'And when this is all over,' said Narcissa, 'you know I'll have to stay here, don't you? I don't dare leave. Not while Draco's father has that pendant.'
'But won't Lucius already think-' Narcissa shook her head. 'He'll never think I've acted against him, not by my own will, not after seventeen years. But if I left with you-' Sirius looked unhappy. 'I understand.'
Narcissa smiled. It was the first time he had seen her smile in eighteen years. It reminded him of his childhood. 'It'll be all right, Sirius,' she said.
'Yeah,' he said. 'Maybe.'
If he hadn't hurt so much all over his body, Draco might well have fallen asleep where he lay, on the ground in the fencing room. He was exhausted. He hardly even heard the door open as Narcissa came into the room.
She went up to Lucius. 'They wanted me to bring you this,' she said, and unceremoniously handed him the Lacertus arm.
