"Malfoy Manor?" Ron turned to look at Kevin.
"There's information I want from Lucius. He was at the core of the Death Eater operation for years. He might know where Voldemort stashed certain things."
Kevin scratched Crookshanks behind his ears. The cat leaned into it with proprietary satisfaction.
Harry and Ron looked at each other. A trip to Draco's famous ancestral pile, with added possibility of watching Kevin interrogate Lucius. They were in before he'd finished the sentence.
He glanced at Hermione. She nodded.
He sent word to the Order. Sirius's first instinct was to come along, but Harry and Ron vouched for Draco so thoroughly that he relented. With Kevin there, they'd be fine.
Draco was waiting at the iron gates, standing between a pair of enormous quartz statues with his chin at an angle that managed to convey deep personal satisfaction in the grandeur of his surroundings.
"Welcome to Malfoy Manor," he said, in the tone of someone presenting a gift to the undeserving. "Try not to embarrass yourselves."
Kevin walked up to him, cuffed him lightly on the back of the head, and kept walking.
"That statue by the gate," he said, gesturing. "I want it. Have it sent to my place."
Draco rubbed his head. "What?"
"And that fountain." Kevin pointed down the drive, where an extraordinary silver fountain caught the winter light. "That too."
"That is a —"
"And this." Kevin swept his arm in a broad arc, taking in an ornamental bench, a topiary griffin, and most of the east wing. "Box it up."
"You might as well just take the entire manor," Draco said flatly.
Kevin paused mid-stride. Turned. "Actually — when are you planning to move out?"
"..."
"Kevin." Narcissa had appeared from the front entrance, her smile warm and unhurried. "How lovely. All of you — please, you're welcome to stay as long as you like."
"You see?" Kevin said to Draco. "Your mother has taste."
He gave Narcissa a grin that she returned easily. Harry and Ron fell over themselves greeting her. Hermione watched the lot of them with the patient suffering of someone who had learned that the boys were like this and would continue to be like this, and that fighting it only made things worse.
They were inside within minutes, Draco leading Harry and Ron on the promised tour of the grounds, hired security wizards moving at respectful distances along the perimeter.
Kevin and Lucius sat in the study.
Narcissa poured tea for both of them, exchanged a brief look with her husband, and left.
Lucius regarded Kevin over his cup with the expression of a man who had made careful peace with a complicated situation and still wasn't entirely comfortable with it.
"You didn't come just to see Draco," he said.
"No," Kevin agreed pleasantly. "But that's not your problem. I'm here to ask you something."
Lucius's jaw tightened. He breathed through it.
"Don't give me that look. I haven't even looked at your memories yet. That's me being considerate."
Kevin set his cup down and reached into his cloak. The crowbar appeared on the armrest, casual as a paperweight.
Lucius went very still.
"You remember the diary. Second year. You slipped it into Ginny Weasley's cauldron at Flourish and Blotts."
The colour left Lucius's face in a single smooth motion. His hands stilled on his cup. "I don't know what you —"
"I was standing right there." Kevin's tone hadn't changed. "I'm not here to punish you for it. If I were, this would already be over. What I want to know is what instructions came with it."
A long silence.
Kevin waited.
Lucius set his cup down, and when he spoke, his voice was measured and quiet.
"The Dark Lord said the diary could open the Chamber of Secrets. To cause panic in the school. To plant it where it would be found and used." He paused. "He said to keep it somewhere safe until the right moment."
"Did he tell you what the diary actually was?"
Lucius frowned. "It opens the Chamber. That was all he said."
So he hadn't known. He'd been carrying a Horcrux without any idea what it was.
"Did he give you anything else like it? Or pass similar items to other Death Eaters?"
Lucius thought. He turned his cup slowly in its saucer.
"Nothing else to me. But there was one other person he went to regularly. For things he valued."
He said the name.
"Bellatrix."