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SIYE Time:13:32 on 29th March 2024
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Framed
By MichiganMuggle

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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Romance
Warnings: Dark Fiction, Death, Extreme Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use, Rape
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 193
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter is training to be an Auror, and he is finally back together with Ginny Weasley. But when a young woman dies of poisoning at the Ministry’s Midsummer Ball, Harry is the first suspect, and he can only uncover the true murderer by working with his childhood rival, Draco Malfoy.
Hitcount: Story Total: 56145; Chapter Total: 1154
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
In terms of the timeline, chapter 27 with Astoria occurs in the middle of this chapter.




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Chapter 28: Givers of Life

July 1, 1998, 11:00 a.m.
Ministry of Magic, Gawain Robards’ office

If Harry had learned anything in his almost eighteen years, it was that mothers have the ability to change the course of destiny.

“No, not Harry! Not Harry!” his mother had said.

“Is Draco alive?” Narcissa Malfoy had asked, bending over Harry in the forest.

“Not my daughter, you bitch!” Molly Weasley had screamed before destroying the most evil witch of their time and bringing new hope to the battle.

They were givers of life, and they would do anything for the children they had brought into the world. But what if a child had done something truly terrible that was about to be exposed? Would the mother use her powers for evil instead of good?

If he was right, this one definitely would and could.

“Ms. Gillespie, do you have a sister who resembles you?”

Next to him, Kelly gasped and Evelyn’s eyes widened. She looked like she had just done the math and did not like the answer.

“Delilah and I do look alike, but we’re far from identical. She’s also ten years older than me.”

Harry had no idea what Delilah Gillespie Edgar Zabini Macmillan Parkinson Abercrombie MacNair Hannigan looked like these days. He had only seen her as a twenty-year-old winking from a Witch Weekly cover in Sharon Vane’s entryway. But he knew her son. Blaise, Delilah, and Evelyn shared the same almond shaped eyes, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, and full lips.

This was not the first time he had been struck by the strong resemblance yet struggled to place it. He’d stared at Delilah Hannigan’s magazine cover in the Vane home until Susan had told him that she was Blaise’s mum. At the ball, he had been disturbed by “Evelyn” in the crowd, but had not realized that it was her resemblance to Blaise that made her stick out to him.

“De-Aging Potion,” Kelly said. “So simple. It wouldn’t trigger any security charms and half the women at the ball had likely used some to look younger that evening.”

“And some minor Transfiguration on the nose,” Dawlish pondered, studying Evelyn thoughtfully.

“And some flats so the height difference would not be visible under the floor length dress robes,” Kelly added.

Evelyn looked horrified. “She’s my sister. I know what she is, but she’s my sister . . .”

“Romilda Vane was a mere girl of sixteen,” Gawain reminded her. “We need to pursue this. We can make sure your name stays out of it when we question her.”

“But Sharon Vane is her best friend.”

“All the more reason we need your testimony, Evelyn. Romilda was a child and her best friend’s daughter. Not to mention she transfigured her appearance to resemble yours to commit the crime. You owe her no loyalty.”

Evelyn sighed. “What do I need to sign?”

“John can take care of that. Dawlish?”

John led Evelyn out of the room, steering her towards the Wizengamot offices.

“Evelyn is a good sort,” Gawain said to Harry. “It’s amazing that the two women were raised in the same home.”

“We should have known,” Daniel said quietly. “It’s been seven years since our last case with celeri morte, Delilah’s signature poison. We even had her son in for questioning.”

“But everyone vouched for Zabini,” Kelly said. “Four girls testified that Blaise Zabini helped them escape the Hogwarts rapists.”

“It shows he’s clever. He knew he might need character witnesses,” Gawain said. “In all likelihood, Zabini made up the incidents where the girls were in danger to get them to trust him.”

The killer wants Ginny, Astoria had said.

Harry stood.

“Potter! Where do you think you are going?” Gawain asked.

“My girlfriend! She’s friends with Zabini. He has a thing for her. She could be next.”

“Potter, you are absolutely not allowed to share information on a criminal investigation. Especially not now that we appear to be getting close.”

“But she . . .”

“Your girlfriend is Arthur Weasley’s daughter?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll send a message to Arthur. Let him know to keep his daughter at home the next few days. Now have a seat.”

“Ginny . . . she’s not the most obedient daughter.”

“Your girlfriend?” The corners of Gawain’s mouth twitched slightly. “Imagine that. The Ministry can keep her safe. You have my word.”

Harry sat, but the issue was far from over in his mind. After the meeting, he would ask Gawain if he could Apparate briefly to the Burrow. Ten minutes tops.

Gawain spoke to the group, “Now, we will need the entire department in the conference room at noon. Ask Gladys to order the usual from Hidden Pumpkin catering. We will need all of the reports created in the course of this investigation. We are going to review everything and see if it confirms or disproves the Delilah Hannigan theory.”

“Sorry about your Animagus theory, Harry. It was clever,” Kelly said.

“It hasn’t been disproven,” Harry said stiffly.

“Harry, it is a clever theory, but we’ve been on Delilah’s case for nearly twenty years as a department. This is her handiwork,” Daniel said.

“I’m not saying it’s not,” Harry said.

“What you are saying, Potter?” Gawain asked.

Harry had been piecing a potential timeline together before Gawain had reminded him that Blaise had fooled many girls, Ginny included. While part of him wished to return to the topic of Ginny’s safety, the urge to share his thoughts on the case were equally strong.

“I’m saying it’s possible there were two murderers working together. No, hear me out,” he said as Kelly began to protest. “When I thought it was Sharon Vane, I tried to work out how she could have done it from the ballroom, and later I tried to determine how an Animagus could have done it from the kitchens, and neither timeline made sense on their own. There were too many holes. There had to have been two killers, working from two parts of the Ministry.”

“Elaborate,” Gawain said.

“Well, if we go back to Eddie Sommers’ testimony, he was first placed under the Imperius in the ballroom when the photographers were causing a commotion. That was likely Delilah Hannigan disguised as her sister. But he later went back to the kitchens where he found a tray of champagne in a place wine wasn’t actively being poured. Delilah could not have gotten back into the kitchens, not with those elaborate robes. She could have Imperiused a second person to do the poisoning, but why wouldn’t she pick someone who was already in the ballroom?”

“I see where you are going, but Eddie said his memory of the night was fuzzy,” Kelly said.

“He did,” Harry conceded. “Yet that tray of wine glasses in the kitchen was the only concrete detail he gave us. It indicates it was important.”

Now Daniel was beginning to look as intrigued as Gawain.

“So if I am correct and Blaise Zabini is an owl Animagus, he flew into the Ministry. He could bypass security altogether because wizards don’t look closely at owls. Now the tricky part would have been for Blaise to blend in with the catering staff. If they are a close group, he might have had to do some Transfiguration.”

Kelly shook her head. “Magical Feasts Catering was short staffed. Half the servers working were laid off from two rival catering companies during the war. No one there knew everyone.”

“Then he could have poured out the champagne glasses, directed Eddie towards them, and flew away before anyone had a chance to notice him there.”

“Well, the Animagus angle is a hunch,” Gawain said. “But I think you are correct in that it would take two people to pull off this murder, and a mother/son duo would certainly be able to work together. Let’s gather the team.”

* * * *


There was a combination of glee and dismay that Delilah Hannigan was now a top suspect. Glee because they had a new opportunity to catch her at her game for once. Dismay because they had not recognized her signature moves and because she had evaded them seven times before.

They ate the burgers, fish and chips, and sandwiches the Hidden Pumpkin provided and reviewed reports and threw out theories. Eventually the chalkboards on the walls were full of notes.

The week of Easter, Sharon Vane had a dinner party reportedly full of her friends from her modeling days. Source: Valerie Hawkins.

Was D.H. Present? B.Z.?

Raven King spent the night at the Vane house over Easter. Source: Valerie Hawkins.

Did R.K. Have any connection to B.Z.?

Two weeks before Romilda’s murder, Sharon Vane asked an unidentified female friend with a husky voice for a potion. Source: Jasmine Weston.

The potion, in question, was a legal abortive potion. Source: Sharon Vane

Was D.H. The potion maker?


Harry still wanted to send a message to Ginny. He’d tried to catch Gawain’s eye several times during the afternoon, only to have the older man give him a stern look. It was ridiculous, really. During the half hour that the Aurors spent discussing whether or not Delilah’s voice could be considered “husky,” Harry very obviously had nothing to contribute, having never met the woman, and could have easily gone to the Burrow and back without missing anything important.

As discussions continued, Harry tried to convince himself that the statistical probability of Ginny seeing Blaise that very day was small. Soon the Aurors had written on every blackboard on the walls, covering everything from when the diary could have been edited and returned to its spot under the floorboards to the possibility that Delilah, a trader of both potions and potion ingredients, could have engineered the crisis that had sent her younger sister to Antwerp.

They still had one significant problem.

When Kingsley Shacklebolt had first become Minister, he had drafted criminal justice reform laws, working with Gawain and the heads of the Wizengamot and Magical Law Enforcement. These laws had passed easily, and protected the Stan Shunpikes of the world. Unfortunately, search warrants were now far more difficult to obtain than they had been under Fudge or Scrimgeour.

In the evening, curries were delivered for their dinner. While eating their butter chicken, the Aurors moved on to reviewing the files of Delilah’s earlier murders. The Team Green Aurors were assigned to the files of Husband Number One, Matthew Edgar, a case Kelly named Murder in the Age of Disco. This, Harry learned, was a fair name as the photographs in the files all contained men in bell bottoms and women in sparkly halter tops.

In 1979, Delilah had not yet perfected her poisoning skills. Her husband had supposedly fallen off a boat and drowned in the middle of a party. It was like the Romilda case in that there was plenty of alcohol, confused testimonies, and impressive backstabbing, but Harry could not spot anything concrete that could tie this case to Romilda’s.

It was nearly ten before the Green team was willing to call it quits. None of the Auror teams had wanted to be the first to give up, so they had all stayed much longer than felt useful or wise. Kelly only permitted them to leave once Team Red packed up, presumably so they could be fresh for their morning gym sessions.

Harry was packing up his bag when the owl arrived for him.

Visited our favorite artist today. We got to talking about BZ. It’s him. He’s played us all. DG is willing to testify against him in the morning. Love, G.

He flagged down Kelly who was on her way out of the door and handed her the note.

“Your girlfriend knows it’s Blaise?” She said, quickly scanning the note. “Who is the artist? And DG?”

“Daphne Greengrass,” he said, even though he had no idea what she meant to testify, given that she’d attended Beauxbatons last year.

“I hate to get my hopes up given that Delilah has slipped out of our hands seven times, but if this Daphne can give us enough for a search warrant, she’ll be my new favorite person.”

* * * *


To Harry’s surprise, Astoria, Ginny, Hermione, and Luna all showed up with Daphne the next morning. They weren’t allowed in the interrogation room with her, with the exception of Astoria, but they were all emphatic that they were there for moral support and were unwilling to leave until Daphne did. Harry had no idea what was in the wine they drank the previous evening to inspire this type of sisterly devotion.

He also had not been able to get the story out of either Ginny or Hermione the previous night. Both girls had been adamant that it was Daphne’s story to tell.

Theoretically, Ginny should never have been able to leave the Burrow last night. After Gawain’s warning the previous day, Arthur and Molly asked Ginny to have her Quibbler meeting with Luna and Hermione at the Burrow instead of at Luna’s as originally planned. She had complied, only to Floo over to the Greengrass home on a whim.

Harry supposed he should be grateful that she did, as she may have given them the evidence they needed to put the mother/son duo away, but he was definitely less impressed with the promise of the full protection of the Ministry that Gawain had invoked.

Harry was back in the observation room with the other trainees. Today, it was Kelly and Ingrid who were in the interview room with Daphne. Gawain had taken one look at Daphne’s face, and he’d declared it would be female Aurors only. He’d permitted Astoria to be in the room as moral support, which even Harry knew to be a rare occurrence.

As Daphne shared her story of being assaulted by Blaise the evening of the Yule Ball, Harry felt sickened. He had walked on the grounds that evening with Ron, and they’d seen many snogging couples, but it had never occurred to Harry that darker things were happening in the shrubbery.

And an ugly part of Harry was elated because he had felt certain that Blaise Zabini was no good. Feeling ashamed, he did his best to push Judgmental Harry away. No young girl deserved to go through what Daphne had experienced.

After the interview was over, and the girls took Daphne away, Gawain announced that the search warrant for the Hannigan townhouse had been granted.

* * * *


There was no sign of life in the townhouse. The Aurors knocked, but no family members or servants answered the door. Finally, Kelly just tried turning the doorknob to find the front door was unlocked.

Stepping into the grand entryway, Harry knew he was entering another wealthy wizarding home. The ceilings seemed higher than possible, given the exterior of the townhouse. The decor was so ridiculous that Harry did not know what to focus on. The artwork that seemed far too erotic for a family home? The twisting serpent handrail on the circular staircase? Gold leaf on every fucking detail?

He thought of Eddie Sommers raising a younger sister in a cramped flat and his anger grew at the Zabini-Hannigans. Clearly, Delilah had thought that Eddie would go to Azkaban for her crimes and had not cared what happened to the young girl in his care.

The Aurors called out as they walked through the house. As the rooms seemed endless, they broke into twos and threes.

After some time Harry found himself paired with Nevile, exploring a seemingly endless corridor. Ahead of him, Harry thought he heard running footsteps and the slam of a door. He exchanged a glance with Neville, who had clearly heard it too, and they charged through double doors, wands in hand.

For one wild moment, Harry thought he had entered a portal to the Amazon rainforest. It was hot and humid, and his robes immediately wilted. Around him were lush plants that seemed a bit too large to be natural. He looked down and saw a stone floor beneath his feet. Looking back up at his surroundings, he could now make out brick walls barely visible beyond the dense plant life. Overhead there was a glass ceiling.

A courtyard.

But where had the noise come from? Someone had run into this courtyard, he was sure of it. Were they hiding in the plants?

“Expelliamus!” A male voice called behind him.

Harry turned to see Blaise holding his and Neville’s wands, blocking the doors. Oddly, he had done a Bubble Head Charm and wore dragon hide gloves.

“I can see why you favor that spell, Potter,” Zabini remarked. “Now tell me, how do you like my mother’s poison garden?”
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