Protecting friends

Lucius looked at the Dark alley with some disgust but continued on his way to the dingy looking pub that he would have never stepped into if not for the current circumstances.

And now that he was here, he realized how out of placed he looked in his silky robes and dashing blond hair. Perhaps he should have used Polyjuice and worn battered and dirty looking clothes but his pride would not allow such a thing.

But now that he was here, he was having second thoughts about entering the place.

The fact that Lord Malfoy had gone to such a dirty looking place and meeting a shady character just before the assassination of Sirius Black.

But regardless of current thoughts, he was now here and there was no going back.

He pushed the wooden door open with his cane, not wanting to touch anything with his hand. He would probably have to take a few baths and dispose of these robes once he returned home from this meeting.

The door creaked open and showed a dark room filled with chair and tables along with a few customers, most of whom were simply dodging in their table, no doubt still hungover from last night's drinking binge.

Lucius sneered at them but didn't said anything before he searched around the room for the person he was about to meet.

There.

His eyes caught a hooded figure sitting at the right end table just like he had said in the letter and Lucius moved forward, cringing as he stepped over some kind of viscous liquid splashed on the floor.

He would have to burn his shoes when he returns home.

"Lord Malfoy." The figure greeted him with a handshake as the reached the table "I see you've made yourself inconspicuous."

"And I see that you've forgotten your manners and how to respect to your betters." Malfoy replied with a sneer and the figure, whose face was still hidden under the hood, went silent.

"My apologies Lord Malfoy." the hooded figure replied after a long moment "You spent as much time as me in Azkaban and you start to… forget things. I'm sure you can understand."

Lucius sneered at the reminder of his short imprisonment in that hellhole of a place after the last war before he had bribed his way out of it. But the man was right. That place… had an effect on people so simple disrespect can be forgiven once or twice. He was a magnanimous lord after all.

"Will you be able to do it?" Lucius asked after a long silence.

"Yes. It shouldn't be too hard. No one checks their food in that place before eating. Not that they would have any way of knowing if their food is poisoned or not either way."

"Good." Lucius said with a nod before he reached down in his pockets and took out a vial of Widow's Kiss.

One of the few most expensive poison in the world on the account that it leaves no residue after killing the victim.

He have had to pull a few favors from some of his shady connections and pay a good amount of galleons for this.

But it would all be worth it if Draco is able to become Lord Black when he reached his age.

Yes, it would all be worth it.

He then passed the vial to the man who looked at it's content for a moment, as if a simpleton like him would even know what it was before he kept it inside his pocket with a nod.

"It will be done my Lord. What about the…"

Lucius understood his meaning and took out a bottomless purse and passed it on to the man who checked it's contents for a long moment before eyeing him once again.

"Half before the job is done and the other half after. As per our… agreement."

The man nodded and Lucius barely held a sneer at that "And in case you fail…"

"This meeting never happened. I understand Lord Malfoy."

"Good. Because I know where your family lives and I know a few good werewolves who've been… inactive since the last war who would not mind a bit of good sport."

"I've never met you Lord Malfoy." The man replied stoically once again and Lucius nodded his head.

"If that's all." The man said, asking for permission and Lucius nodded, eager to get out of his dirty and disgusting place.

"That's all." He said and left the alley in the dark.

—————

"Hello. I'm Bill Weasley. And this is Carlile and this is Mike." The red haired man said as he shook his hand enthusiastically and Harry gave them a stoic nod in return.

"I'm Harry Potter." He said, as if the cursebreakers didn't knew his identity already. Just because they worked for the goblins didn't mean that they spent all of their time underground. "This is Hermione and these are her parents Dan and Emma Granger."

"Pleasure." Bill said with a smile and they exchanged some more pleasantries before Bill, who was leading this ground went ahead and started explaining the usefulness of wards to Dan and Emma.

Which had been the main purpose behind his visit.

He knew that no one attacked Original Harry's friends in the movie until Voldemort was resurrected so there should no reason for him to worry. But his capture of Peter Pettegrew and various other death eater for his research should have had quite a large impact in the fabric of time and so he couldn't just rely on the information from the movies any longer and hope that everything will be alright.

Moreover, it takes very little to be cautious.

The cost of the wards that Bill and his colleagues would erect around the Granger's house would not exceed more than 1000 galleons and that much wealth was chump change to him. Especially when more and more galleons were coming back to him everyday in the form of royalties and fines as Ted Tonks sued the people who used his name for their own benefits.

He also weighed Hermione's life and her friendship very highly and if he could pay some galleons and keep her parents safe then he found no reason not to do it.

That plan, however, came crashing down when Dan told him that he would pay for the wards himself and thus an argument between him Hermione's father started in which he tried to convince the middle aged man that his friendship with Hermione was the very reason why they were in danger in the first place so it's only right that he should pay for the wards but the old man remained steadfast and refused to take his money.

In the end. Both Emma and Hermione stepped and took them apart and solved this with a compromise.

Now both of them would pay half-half.

And considering how the Grangers were not poor by any means, he didn't have worry about them spending so much money either.

But he put it in his mind to have a better argument when he put the wards around Penelope's family home as they were not as rich as the Grangers and would not be able to afford the wards.

It took Bill and his friends six hours to create all the wards and put all the wardstones around the house.

He had selected one of the moderately expensive package from the goblins so it was only right that they work hard for it as well.

The wards wouldn't hold a second under an assault from someone like Voldemort but they should easily hold for a few minutes under the assault from normal death eaters.

That would give Dan and Emma enough time to escape with the help of the Vanishing Cabinet that he would gift them as soon as he finished studying it's design and understood all the charms and runes that went to work on it.

With a hearty dinner and a last surprise goodbye kiss on the cheek from Hermione, he finally left the Granger's resident and returned to one of his underground bases in order to rest.