Emerald Eyes and Silver Fangs (xoliemckyer & Greeneyed23)

[Greeneyed23]

Lucius Malfoy. The man who had been Imperiused into serving the Dark lord Voldemort. He had proven truthful even under the use of Veritaserum. Now he was serving the Ministry as a Special Consultant on the Dark Arts and on the actions of You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters.

Lucius had actually been horrified at his master's fall at the hands of a simple half blood boy. Harry Potter!! How did he do it?!! But of course there was no answer. No one knew for sure. Not even that old fool Albus Dumbledore. So Lucius had done the only thing he could to ensure his survival and that of his family and bloodline. He lied. He had removed the memories that incriminated him from his mind then duplicated them then carefully and quite skillfully altered the duplicates then placed them in his mind hiding the originals carefully. Then he removed the memory of doing it all then allowed Narcissa to modify his memory to hide the entire act even more. Then he had submitted to careful questioning and the use of the truth potion and was proved innocent by reason of the Imperius Curse. Once freed he was offered the job and had of course accepted.

Afterwards he had gathered the remaining Death Eaters together. Fa too many were not there but fortunately the weakling Igor Karkarov was not having been unable to attend. The last arrivals were Lucius' mad sister Bellatrix Lestrange in law her husband Rodulphus and his brother Rastaban. Once all seated Lucius, his silver snake's head cane in hand, rose. "My friends. The Dark lord has been defeated. I know not if permanent or not though I believe the latter. He shall rise again. But until that time we must go into hiding. We must prepare for his return. Build the Dark Arts and it's users, increase our position and influence, develop relations with our fellow dark brothers and sisters and of course save our wealth. The Dark Lord will need an army when he returns, as well as our influence, and of course gold. Gold can buy anything. Even victory. If we can have the entire Wizarding world under our silent control when he returns then he will not have to waste any time with retaking his power and he can begin his work of remaking the world of Magic in his own image. We-" "YOU TRAITOROUS DOG!!!" Bellatrix screeched as she leapt to her feet. "We will not stand by and wait!! We must go to find our master!! Who will join us!!" Her husband and brother in law had stood with her and now they glared across the table at Lucius who gripped his cane's head carefully. A few rose and went to Bellatrix's side and giggling she pointed at the rest. "you will all beg his forgiveness once we find him!!!" She cackled as they disapperated.

Lucius' fury at their failure and capture was monstrous but a reserved and careful man he vented his rage by throwing the copies of the Daily Prophet reporting their capture and sentencing as well as the capture of several other death Eaters, including Sirius Black. He laughed. Black? A death eater? He had the skill but he was too weak. Following that Potter fool like a puppy. But where is his framer? What has come of Pettigrew? While he watched the flames lick over the faces of his sister in law and her cousin a Ministry owl flew in. He took the parchment and read the request to come in and speak with the Aurors. They were quite upset after all the madness, especially about the Longbottoms. He sighed but replied in the affirmative. "Dobby!!" The house elf appeared. "Master called?" Lucius glared at the little elf who cowered before him and Lucius sneered. "Prepare my traveling cloak." "Yes Master." "And polish this." He held out the cane after removing is wand from it. Dobby went off to obey while Lucius gathered his himself and prepared.

An hour later Lucius strode through the main lobby of the Ministry moving past the idiotic fountain and going toward the lifts. he waited but a moment then boarded the first one that was available pressing the button with the tip of his cane then place it before him crossing his hands over the head exuding power, wealth, and the arrogance that was his signature. His long silver hair fell between his shoulder blades and of course was exquisitely maintained as was his clothing which was of the finest quality in everything. He gazed out the grating grateful that the Ministry no longer used owls, though the floating memo's rather annoyed him. He was unmoved by the bumps and shifts of the lift seeming to stand a mountain before all to be feared and respected.

 

[xoliemckyer]

Nothing of her years at Hogwarts could have prepared her for this moment. After spending what seemed an eternity finding odd and end jobs, Xolie was finally able to work in the profession she had worked so hard to receive further education upon. Potions was one of the two things she was thoroughly good at and seeing as one couldn't get a job working within the dark arts, unless how to counteract them, she would keep that skill a secret. Standing in front of the mirror in the women's restroom, she examined herself tentatively. Her dirty blonde curls were pulled back into a messy bun and her bangs slid to the side of her face framing it perfect. The golden eyes that were eerily snake like popped with the simple black eyeliner that rounded them. This morning she had attempted to look professional but her choices were limited, so a nice black trouser and a white blouse with silver and black cami's underneath seemed like a safe choice. Luckily she didn't have to wear robes like she had 6 years ago when in Hogwarts. That had gotten rather old to say the least. So heavy and overbearing.

Filling her lungs with air, she quickly let it out and closed her eyes trying to calm the nerves that were making her skin crawl. What if she messed up in identifying certain potions? What if she slipped in an incorrect ingredient and put a plan into complete detriment? That could be the end of her career as a potions master. Well maybe not a master, but an alchemist of sorts. Opening her eyes she starred at herself and silently mouthed, "You can do this." First days were always nerve wrecking, she should know this with how many jobs she had held over the years. This was so much different though. This was an actually career... Shaking her head, she bent over to pick up her purse along with various papers filled with notes upon notes about the different tricks of potion making. Why she had not put them in a bag had been beyond her. One thing was for certain about Xolie... she tended to do things the most difficult way. Call it a curse, call it a blessing, whichever it was Xolie was it.

She backed up against the door and without managing to trip, followed the flow of people going every which way. Looking at her top paper she examined the instructions on where she would need to go to get settled into the new job. Some sort of orientation? Possibly not here in the Ministry of Magic. Stumbling into someone she gave them an apologetic smile and shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry." Was all she could manage as they pursed their face unsatisfactorily and continued on their way. Watching particularly close to where she was stepping, she managed not to run into anyone else. Instead floating memos hit her in the face a couple of times which caused her to go beat red. Everyone had to know that she was new by now. What other person in their right mind would make such a fool of themselves after years of being here? Maybe with this fact alone they would give her some slack and spare some compassion. This she doubted though as they seemed to not even notice her existence. That could be good or it could be very bad.

Stopping at a spot where no one would run into her, she gazed around to find the lift that instructed to her to take. Left, then right, then left again, then... ah. That was it. Taking a step forward with a pleasant smile she swiftly strode to the lift, attempting to catch it before it closed. A foot caught upon the edge and some of her papers went flying, whereas the majority she held close enough to her body that they didn't disperse. Blushing bright red, she didn't notice the man standing dangerously just beside her as she bent down to quickly pick up her papers. "Could I be any more clumsy?" She asked herself out loud. Before standing up with all her papers gathered, she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and then looked up to see the silver haired man making a silent presence. Everything about him screamed intimidating and though she normally wasn't scared of people, she didn't want to make a completely fool of herself in front of anyone on her first day. This though seemed to might have done the trick. "I'm sorry Sir. Excuse my gracefulness. Must be nerves." She said quickly glancing at him as she did, but never holding the gaze for very long. The lift closed and started to move upwards and she turned to face the grate with her head down and not opening her mouth to say another word.​

 

[Greeneyed23]

Lucius looked down at the young woman and though he said nothing to her comment as her papers had not touched him he he find her rather interesting sight. A woman wearing trousers? Most impressive. He had no issue with it but simply found it oddly impressive that a clearly new arrival at the Ministry's alchemy department would be so nervous but also daring as many of the supervisors and managers of the various Ministry's offices were rather old fashioned and strict. "It's quite alright girl. Just be careful." He murmured this command while his mind contemplated other matters. He shook himself and stopped worrying about letting her pas from his mind as he exited on his floor striding purposefully out of the lift.

His steps were curiously just now despite the magnetic draw he seemed to have. Anyone looking at him would see wealth, power, and danger, and that is precisely ow Lucius wanted it. He wanted respect but he could not allow himself to fail his master and so would demean himself as needed and build his influence and power after both had taken such a fall after his master's fall. So as he entered the Auror's office and finding a comfortable began to answer their questions.

"Who were the Death eaters?" "The wizard and witch servants to the Dark Lord Voldemort."" "What was their goal? "To attain the dominance of Wizardkind over all other life through any means necessary." "Could this have been possible?" "Oh yes. The Dark Lord was one of the most powerful and gifted magicians i have ever seen or heard of. " "Did you fear him?" "Very much. There was nothing like looking into his eyes." He gave an involuntary shudder not dramatic or overdone but sincere and real. Voldemort did scare him, immensely so. But though it had not been contrived it had done something very important. it humanized him to their eyes. Before he had been the violent monster they called Lucius Malfoy. Now he was just a man, a scared man trying to protect his family. "Mr. Malfoy," that caught hi attention. They were talking to him now at him. "Can we offer you some tea or something else?" "Why yes tea would be lovely thank you."

While his tea was served as well as some biscuits he continued to answer questions. For the next two weeks he was answering questions and always with a cup of tea and some food until it became more a social circle than an interrogation. He began to give advice on tracking down dark wizards as many of the ones currently being chased were imposters and unworthy of the mantle of Dark Lord. He removed these creatures because they weakened the dark arts themselves as well as to Lord Voldemort and even Malfoy himself. Slowly he began to prove himself a great aid to the Ministry and also made great strides with careful but impressive donations to great causes.

After all of this he was becoming a member of a number of committees and councils on magic and such things and was often seen in the Ministry. One day he was speaking with a fellow committee of Investigation into the activities of a supposed dark wizard. He needed to use a truth potion but he was not allowed to use his own. So he went up to the Alchemy offices and asked. "Who is your best alchemist and where would i find them?"