They said the Dark Lord was dead...
Lys, whose mind was so restless she couldn't sleep at all that night, soon learned this news as well.
She sprang from her bed, hesitated for a moment, but still chose to help Lucius hide those obviously incriminating documents, information, and contraband first.
She didn't even ask what to do—she simply waved her wand efficiently to create disguises after learning what she needed to know, then tried to leave. But it was too late. The Ministry of Magic had surrounded Malfoy Manor.
The Ministry people knew Lys had been staying at Malfoy Manor since returning to Britain to handle trade between the nobles and Germany. They knew.
Outside, they used Sonorus to read the investigation warrant for Lucius Malfoy and Stalys Black-Lamb.
"...The above constitutes a special emergency order. Should the targets resist or attempt to flee, they forfeit all rights granted by Noble Protection Laws, and Aurors are authorized to attack directly and conduct forced searches."
This final announcement let Lys and Lucius know that the Ministry was truly prepared to move against these nobles.
Lucius appeared calm on the surface, but his frequently darting eyes betrayed his true state.
Knowing she couldn't leave for now, Lys changed out of her nightclothes, put on wizarding robes, and sat in the Malfoy drawing room. After entrusting Gabon to Narcissa, a thousand thoughts raced through her mind.
She couldn't force her way out—those Aurors had already seen her. If she ran now, they might immediately contact Germany to move against her parents.
But Lys wasn't that afraid of the Ministry of Magic either. Her name had only circulated among nobles and Death Eaters, so her best approach was to act completely ignorant of everything.
The Ministry had no criminal record on Lys. In fact, for this German trade deal, Lucius had even greased some palms at the Ministry to get Lys officially registered with the Department of International Magical Cooperation.
When they left Malfoy Manor, Lys and Lucius had their wands confiscated and were taken away under separate guard in two carriages.
One Auror even viciously jabbed Lys's left arm guard with his wand as he took her wand.
Lys winced in pain, frowned at him, but said nothing.
Sitting in that carriage, bound by alchemical chains that restricted movement, Lys watched the sky gradually fill with owls carrying celebratory messages, yet her heart felt utterly desolate.
Outside, the Aurors were joyfully passing along information:
The Dark Lord had attempted to kill the Potter family, members of the Order of the Phoenix, but was ultimately killed by a small baby.
The Dark Lord was killed by a one-year-old infant...
Lys didn't believe it.
But Lys didn't care what had really happened either.
She just gripped her left forearm every minute—what was terrifying was that the Dark Mark there truly seemed to have been severed from something.
The Ministry moved aggressively, quickly arresting so many people that even the Ministry's lowest-level temporary cells weren't enough. Every interrogation room was assigned guards to watch the personnel brought in for investigation.
Lys sat in an interrogation room chair, the alchemical chains on her body locked to floor anchors, clutching her fingers.
After thinking it through, an unclear, indescribable fear hung over Lys's head. The situation had become even more complicated...
Over the past decade or so, the Dark Lord had indeed brought considerable torment and family decline and destruction to the Death Eaters internally—this was fact.
But his iron-fisted methods and power had always been an umbrella of protection over the Death Eaters' heads, the foundation for their wanton killing, seizing of status and profit. But now...
With the looming shadow gone, the bloody brutality rampaging beneath it no longer had sufficient support. The time for reckoning had come.
Those who had previously been hypocritical cowards, so afraid they didn't even dare speak the Dark Lord's name, were now all beginning to unite in denouncing the Death Eaters—denouncing even the nobles they had once fawned over.
As if those who had once been too frightened to even collect corpses when friends and relatives died weren't them at all.
Now they were the bravest warriors, shouting slogans to kill every last Death Eater!
She knew they would definitely come for her eventually, but what frightened her most now wasn't the Ministry of Magic.
It was whether the Dark Lord might return.
She had seen it.
She hadn't left Lucius's house immediately precisely to check on something in that Malfoy secret chamber—
Intact and undamaged, even still radiating that indescribable allure.
That diary, that object she was ninety percent certain was one of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes.
Lys had studied so many ancient texts and notes—she knew the sole purpose of Horcruxes was immortality. Whatever the cost, whether real or false, they were all means of achieving eternal life.
The situation was complicated precisely because of this.
Now, due to Noble Protection Laws, unless they had direct evidence, the Ministry and Aurors had no authority to demand those nobles bare their arms.
So the most direct path of checking for Dark Marks to identify Death Eaters was blocked.
Many Death Eaters, including many people Lys knew, were claiming they had been controlled by the Imperius Curse, claiming they had been coerced, that they were unknowing victims of deception.
To demonstrate their innocence, they even opened their mouths to curse the Dark Lord and show their stance—listening to them made Lys want to rush over and cover their mouths.
Lucius was the same. At first he said nothing and did nothing, until Narcissa spent a large sum of Galleons to clear the way and came in to look at Lucius.
The person who cleared the way wouldn't even let the couple say a word to each other, but Lucius just watched Narcissa nod, and knew that message was true.
Whether or not he was killed by a one-year-old baby, the Dark Lord had vanished!
He began to speak, saying he had only invested in some wizards with noble bloodlines, never expecting to be deceived and controlled.
He was held in a temporary cell, using Malfoy gold to try to silence those officials.
But Lys, knowing the Dark Lord had a chance of returning, absolutely didn't dare say such things.
But if she didn't say that... if she was accused of being a Death Eater and couldn't roll up her sleeves to prove her innocence...
What should she do?
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