Narcissa glared at Lucius as he floated beside her. She was making her way into the sitting room where she would shortly be joined by Maria and Blaise, but Lucius' presence would ruin the entire plan.

"Why don't you go play in your dungeons?" she snapped, stopping to glare at him.

"Because you removed all the toys," he drawled.

She sighed and continued down the hall. "Then go bother Draco. This is very important and I won't have you ruining it."

Lucius peered at Narcissa out of the corner of his eye. He knew that look on her face. It was cold, and she was being particularly ruthless. "You know, if you wanted to know the truth about that harpy's death, just ask your own son. He knows exactly what happened."

Narcissa stopped and glared at Lucius. "If you are insinuating that Draco killed Calanthe..."

Lucius just chuckled in reply. "Of course not. Draco isn't strong enough to take a life. He was the one who told you about her death, was he not? It wasn't because the Zabini boy told him, it was because Calanthe told him herself. He saw her ghost."

Her heart nearly beat out of her chest. Calanthe's ghost? She was a spirit? "Where is she?" Narcissa demanded, taking a step forward towards Lucius. "Where is her spirit?"

"Destroyed. She was intent on coming here, but thanks to Draco's warning of her intentions, I was able to block her. Her spirit happened to be obliterated." Lucius pulled out the wand that had been hidden in the ghostly cane he still carried and peered at it with a small smirk. "Did you know ghosts can hex each other?"

Narcissa's blood was boiling, and her own hand itched to grab her wand and do something to Lucius, but knew it was pointless to try. She would look into ghost torturing, if there was such a thing. "You destroyed possibly the only chance I'll have at finding out who killed her. Why?"

"She took advantage of this family, and could have ruined our good name. I wasn't about to let her continue."

"If I were you, I'd visit our son, because one more word out of you, and I'll be recruiting every exorcist and necromancer on this side of the Atlantic ocean to send you to your proper hell," Narcissa hissed through clenched teeth.

With a smirk, Lucius floated back through the wall, leaving Narcissa only a few moments to gather herself before one of the house-elves told her Maria had arrived.

Maria smiled as Narcissa greeted her in the parlor. Only a close friend would be able to tell that the other woman was frazzled. Maria was one of the few who held that distinction.

"You look stressed, my dear," she said after air kissing each of her friend's cheeks. "Surely you are not worried about how this little interview will go?"

Narcissa gave Maria a tight grin. "That and things other. I had a few family matters that needed tending to. Blaise should be arriving soon. His tea is already correctly dosed. He won't be aware of the fact until we start asking questions. Hopefully he'll cooperate, but this is Calanthe's son we're talking about."

When one of the house elves popped in announcing Blaise's presence, Narcissa sat and took her tea in one hand, her eyes glued to the door.

Maria settled comfortably into her chair and waited for the show to begin. Blaise strode in, looking like his usual, confident self. Like he didn't have a care in the world. It made her want to smack his mouth.

Blaise stopped short when he walked in and saw not only Narcissa, but the Minister. This was not good. This was not a casual tea with his best mate's mum. This was a tea with his late mother's two closest friends who could destroy his life in seconds.

"Narcissa, Madame Minister. What a pleasant surprise; I didn't know you'd be joining us."

"I just popped in to visit my old friend," Maria demurred. "And she was kind enough to invite me for tea. I rarely get any free time outside the Ministry these days, what with that horrible rag newspaper sending people into a panic over evil librarians. It's nice to get away every once in awhile."

Blaise nodded and sat when Narcissa gestured to the seat across from hers. "I hope you don't mind, but we indulged in the tea before you arrived," she said, raising her cup to him. "I wasn't sure if you'd arrive on time."

He slowly picked up the cup she motioned to and brought it up to his lips. No smell or strange color, which meant no poison. He was still wary, even though neither Narcissa nor the Minister were staring in a way that eluded to the fact that they wanted him to drink the tea. He took a small sip.

"If I can help it, I'll always arrive on time."

Narcissa took a drink of her own tea to cover her small smirk. "Indeed. I felt that I should invite you over, however, since the last time I saw you was at your mother's funeral, which was a bit different than how she wanted it, if I remember correctly."

Blaise snorted as he took another drink of tea. "Why do you think I did it like that?" He paused immediately afterwards. There was no way he would willingly say something so degrading about his mother in front of the two women he was seated in front of you.

Then the puzzle pieces in his mind clicked. Odorless, tasteless veritaserum.

"You bitch."

Narcissa sat back with a smirk.

"Now, Blaise," Maria tsked. "Is that any way to speak to one of your mother's oldest friends? A woman who has known you since you were in nappies? It makes me glad that I never found the time to have children. Such troublesome things you turn out to be."

Blaise was fuming, but he was also starting to panic on the inside. He could talk his way out of anything, even veritaserum. It all depended on the questions asked, and the loopholes in the questions. Narcissa would know that.

"I would have gladly come in to answer any questions under veritaserum at the Ministry. Any reason why I'm getting an illegal questioning?"

"Because I'm not stupid, Blaise," Narcissa snapped. "You would have charmed your way out of it, probably dosing yourself with the antidote beforehand. I wanted this done correctly. Surely you have nothing to hide. And if you double-cross me with this, know that I have been around you your entire life. I know things you probably don't think I do."

Blaise gripped his tea cup hard and slammed it down on the table.

"Fine. How about we get right to it then? I didn't kill my mother."

"Did you contract someone to kill her for you," Maria asked. Just because he had not held the proverbial blade himself did not mean he was not responsible for it.

Shit, Blaise thought. There were ways to get around it, but he had to be careful. Part of him wanted to yell yes. Looking the Minister dead in the eyes, he took a deep breath.

"I didn't order anyone to kill her. I didn't tell anyone to kill her. I didn't ask anyone to kill her."

Blaise sat back, thankful that he was able to work around that. What he said was the truth--all that had happened in the alley with Edmund was Blaise had given him a piece of paper with his mother's name. Edmund knew what to do with it.

"That's very helpful, my boy. Thank you." She looked at Narcissa to judge her response. Her friend's face was emotionless. "Do you know who killed her?"

Damn, she was good at interrogations. "All I know is that her heart stopped and that there was a change in the wards. The Italian ministry didn't know what caused either. I don't know who caused the change in the wards."

Narcissa sat back, still observing Blaise. "Did you want to kill your mother?"

Blaise wasn't going to give her the benefit of seeing him squirm. He scoffed. "Of course I did. She made my life a living hell."

"Why would you want to kill her?"

There was no way to get out of this one. There were many reasons why he'd want to kill his mother, and the veritaserum wouldn't let him worm his way around this one.

"Because to her, me coming into existence ruined her life. Because when I was child she told me that if I could act like an adult, then I could be with the adults, but if I was going to act like a little shit, then I could go clean out the horses' stalls without magic. Because she told me if I didn't break all ties with Hannah, she'd kill her and force me to marry a pureblood. I think the more appropriate question was why I wouldn't want to kill her, but that doesn't mean I ran off to Italy to make her die of natural causes."

"Your mother was rather infamous for her poisons," Maria said. "Was one of her own concoctions given to her?"

This was still tricky territory. Technically, the poison wasn't given to her, but spread onto her bed linens.

"No," Blaise said shortly. "You obviously think foul play if you're not taking the Ministry's official answer. Why bother me when I have an alibi and I've already told you I haven't killed her?"

"Because you're still my most likely suspect, Blaise," Maria answered. The Ministry might dismiss it as natural causes, but they had not. And once they discovered the truth, they would take care of it themselves. No point cloudying up the issue by involving the autorities. "You're canny enough to have pulled it off without anyone but your accomplice knowing. And I cannot let her murder go unpunished. Do you know anyone who could help in our investigation?"

"No," Blaise said. That had been one of the easiest questions he'd gotten. Everyone who knew about her death would be the last people who would help. "Now are you satisfied that I didn't kill my own mother, or do I get to be tortured a bit. I have a family to take care of, you know."

Narcissa's eyebrows rose. "I had heard about you taking in that family. Such a change for you."

"People change, Narcissa. Your son is the epitome of that fact."

"Hmmm," Maria said, noncommittally.

Narcissa sat back, staring at Blaise. "A family. Do you and Hannah plan to marry and start your own family?"

Blaise snorted, cracking a humorless smile. "Do you think about all the shit my mother went through during her weddings that I would even consider the possibility of getting married? Now, shall you ask me questions about how I like my tea or are we done?" he finished, nearly snarling at the two women.

"I think we're done here."

Narcissa and Maria stayed seated when Blaise stood and stormed out. Narcissa sighed. She was conflicted. In a way, she was happy that Blaise hadn't killed Calanthe, or could at least get around admitting to it. She was worried though, because this meant one of two things. The first was that Calanthe's murderer was still on the loose. The second was that she had just stared down the killer and he had unflinchingly stared back. Draco was already so attached to Blaise that it worried her how he would react if he found out his best friend was a killer.

This could go wrong in so many ways.

[Summary]: Blaise comes over for tea but gets a surprise when Narcissa's dose him with veritaserum and Maria's asking all sorts of pesky questions about his mother.