130 Chapter 130: Platinum

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4 June 1993, Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy sat in his office, drinking some very old whiskey, and commiserated about the events of the previous year. Sometimes, he really regretted even getting involved with the politics of magical Britain. It was very gratifying at first when he was actually free of doing what he wanted after the Dark Lord perished at the hands of Neville Longbottom.

It was amazing, the influence he could wield. And with the Black family being pretty much wiped out, he had assumed the leadership of the traditional faction of the Wizengamot. It wouldn't have been wrong to say that he was the second most powerful man in the country, after Dumbledore, of course.

Thankfully, the muggle-loving fool was too busy to pay attention to the entire game, and Lucius played to gain more power for his faction. It was a good system, got the headmaster busy, and the rest of the factions became pretty much toothless. Of course, that went well until the previous year when defeated of Grindelwald proposed a bill, the Muggle Protection Act, that sounded nice on the front, but pretty much allowed Arthur Weasley's department to get a search warrant, with Aurors being present, anywhere to look for artefact that could be used for Muggle Baiting. The sad thing is that Aurors have the authority to arrest anyone if they see them committing crimes.

Lucius saw it as the trick it was and tried to fight it. Alas, he was outvoted, and the first victim was the Yaxleys, who ended up paying thousands of galleons and had all of their ritual gear confiscated and destroyed since they were technically banned.

Most families quickly hid their artifacts, whether in Gringotts artifact vaults, or in secret rooms, but many simply did not have the funds for that and tried to sell everything that could be fined, eager to get rid of any incriminating evidence, which of course, caused the prices on banned items to plummet, which made everyone's net worth take a hit. Even Lucius wasn't spared since a big portion of the Malfoy fortune was in expensive and rare magical artefacts.

It was an obvious plan by Dumbledore to weaken the traditional faction and enforce the bans that he passed into law over the years. They even tried to search Lucius' home, but they didn't find the secret room that contained the banned items. Arthur Weasley's gritted teeth were obvious.

The entire bill was a slap in the face, and people clamoured for Lucius to retaliate. He did it by doing something that was admittedly risky. Giving away one of the Dark Lord's prized possessions that was entrusted to him, to ensure Dumbledore's downfall, was easy. The man was dead, and even then, he would probably appreciate kicking Dumbledore out of the castle.

And it worked, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and it took a few months to get the opportunity to kick Dumbledore from the castle. The idea was to slander the man and shake the blind faith his followers had in him, which would destabilize his faction. Eventually, the Weasley girl would have been caught and Arthur Weasley would have been crucified for her actions, adding more fuel to the fire. It sounded so perfect, on paper.

The students were attacked, but two of the attackers were not Mudbloods. That was a sign that things were not going according to plan. Still, it gave Lucius enough leverage to do what had to be done.

However, Dumbledore's suspension lasted less than a couple of days since the Longbottom scion of all people had found who was opening, and it wasn't the Weasley girl as he planned, but the Mudblood friend of his that Draco kept complaining about, calling her a teacher's pet. She was still unconscious because of whatever the diary did. Lucius didn't really care, she was just a Mudblood, after all.

The old man was quickly reinstated by his actions and claimed that it was a cursed diary that caused the petrification and that the chamber of secrets was never opened. Honestly, Lucius didn't know if that was true or not. The Dark Lord had a tendency to exaggerate certain truths, and that was saying it kindly.

He was just too terrifying and unstable for anyone to call him out on it.

All things considered, Dumbledore did take a few hits, but he didn't take his suspension lying down. He had personally come to an inspection with the Aurors, and he wasn't as easy to fool as the others. With a wave of his wand, the secrecy charms were gone, as were the powerful wards. That was all it took, a single wave of his wand. The Aurors confiscated artefacts worth in total more than two hundred thousand galleons, and that's not mentioning the hundred thousand galleons fine, and being dismissed from the Hogwarts school board.

Yeah, the defeater of Grindelwald could be vindictive when he wanted to. Lucius didn't know if the man was doing it because of his suspension or because he knew that it was Lucius who orchestrated the entire thing.

The result was the same, the Malfoy vaults were practically emptied overnight, and Lucius had to sell a few properties to be back in a comfortable position. His faction had smelt the blood in the water and was vying for his position, especially after Arcturus Black came out of nowhere and announced that Harry Potter of all people, was his ward. The boy was a contender as the next head of the Black family, which destroyed the implied idea that Draco would be the next Black head, and as his father, he was just acting as his placeholder.

It was a bunch of nonsense, of course, but people felt better when there was any justification for the status quo, and the Blacks had been in charge of the traditional faction for centuries.

If it wasn't even enough, he found out that his house elf, Dobby, was straining his bond to try to betray him in some misguided attempt at saving Neville Longbottom. It was something utterly inconceivable. House elves were bound by magic. They were utterly loyal, even if their masters tortured them. Dobby had been conditioned for two centuries to obey the Head of the Malfoy family. He always took his punishments too far, which was maddening because he injured himself so much that he couldn't complete his assigned tasks anymore. The elf was probably mad, and it was probably a mercy that Lucius killed him. It was quick and painless, but he had no choice. An unreliable elf was a useless elf, and one that held a lot of family secrets was bound to cause problems in the future. Still, house elves were expensive, and ones that were so familiar to a family's magic were practically indispensable.

To make a long story short, Lucius had every right to drink his sorrows. He had lost this fight, badly, but he would recover, he would recoup his losses. His father, Abraxas often said that a Malfoy could achieve anything with just their cunning.

Yes, his house will return, stronger than ever. He only needed to think of a way to do so.

He moved to take another gulp of his whiskey, but his body refused to answer. It was hard to breathe, he tried to get up, he tried to scream, but all that came out was a small groaning.

Slowly a figure walked forward to him. He couldn't even move his head to look at it, "What do we have here? If it isn't ickle Lucy Malfoy. What a pleasant surprise."

The Malfoy patriarch could do nothing more than groan. The figure released a soft chuckle, "Oh, don't try to talk too much. I slipped you a little something in your whiskey. Don't worry, it's not lethal. It's also not magical. Isn't it funny, that people have been running like headless chickens, trying to figure out how I killed all those people without leaving any magical traces? It's funny, it's because I didn't actually use any magic."

The voice was oddly soft, shrouded in an enigmatic aura, making it impossible to discern gender. It carried an eerie and mysterious quality that sent shivers down his spine. However, it took a few seconds for the Malfoy patriarch to process, before he made a conclusion.

"You're…" Lucius rasped.

"Yeah, the infamous Smiling Killer. That's what they call me at least, not that I care, really."

Ah, the smiling killer, some kind of serial killer that appeared around two years back. He had over a dozen murders on his head, mostly in pureblood mansions that were warded to the eyeballs. There were no signs of entry, no damage to the wards, no traces of magic, absolutely nothing. It was a killer that could kill anyone, anywhere.

The killer always cut up his victims' mouths, like a sick mockery of a smile, before slitting their throats. The ministry had done its best to bury the story, while the DMLE tried to apprehend the murderer. Fudge didn't want to spread fear, which was interesting, but until they figured out how the smiling killer got in and out of century-old wards, they were holding out. After all, what was the point of warning people if they could do nothing to stop them?

However, there was one thing Lucius wanted to know, if he was going to die, anyway, "Why?"

"That's a very important question, why? Criminals are so boring nowadays, they kill for gold, kill for love, for hate, for envy. It's all so… mundane. Like there's nothing special about it anymore. My dear Lucy, I do what I do because I want to send a message. No one is safe when I'm concerned."

The voice started to get heated slightly, "Isn't it funny? You're all schemers. Everyone has their little plans. Dumbledore schemes like he's some kind of chess master, forgetting about the human element entirely, the Dark Lord had plans, mad as they might have been. Even you have plans, trying to go against Dumbledore, and where did that get you? Oh, that's right, you lost most of your political power, a whole lot of gold, and any respect anyone had for you. And a visit from dear old me, of course."

"Dumbledore?"

His future killer burst into laughter, "Oh, that's right. Nah, I'm not working with Dumbledore. You see, he's on my list too. Now that's a man with hundreds of plans in motion, it's all so… pathetic. You see, the thing I noticed is that whenever he was involved with anything, everyone stopped thinking altogether. Nobody panics when things go according to his plans, even if what he was planning could easily be called monstrous. Do you know how many massacres committed by Dumbledore were celebrated because they were 'according to plan'? But the moment something unpredictable happens, the moment someone like me intervenes, everyone freaks out. You folks try to make sense of this crazy world, but none of you ever see a wild card like me coming. Oh, I was gonna save you for dessert, maybe just before our dear old Dumbledore, Lucy, but no, you just had to go and grab my attention." The monster's voice dripped with sinister amusement and started cackling, something that sent a shiver down Lucius's spine.

The serial killer slowly walked towards Lucius and, for the first time, the Malfoy Patriarch took a good look at them. He or she was wearing a white circular mask, with a face drawn into it with what looked like blood, "Who are you?"

"Nobody cared about me before I put on the mask. I am no one, just a mask, a person among many, that society failed, that suffered in this little fight between the Light and Dark," The masked person asked, "Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, you got my attention, didn't you? You see, you almost got a lot of people killed, including your own son, in Hogwarts. Getting an artefact to release a Basilisk in the place where the next generation of wizards and witches lived, had to be one of the stupidest ideas I ever heard of. Now, I wouldn't really care, if it wasn't for the fact that you almost killed someone very dear to me."

"Longbottom?"

The figure snorted, "What would I want with a spoilt celebrity brat? Nah, I'm talking about Harry Potter."

What? The Potter boy of all people. He had no influence, barely any gold, and no political power. If it wasn't for Arcturus Black adopting him, he would have faded into obscurity, magic prodigy or not.

The figure continued, "You see, you almost killed the kid. And well, he's mine. Only I get to kill him. We have a history, you see. Or at least, he and his mother had a history. Ickle Lily was very naughty. And if I can't kill the bitch, her son will have to do."

"You're mad!" Lucius exclaimed with far more effort than it should have.

"Oh, you're just getting that now? I'll admit it, I'm not all there, but you see, madness isn't all that bad, really. It can be quite liberating. It allows me to see the world without the constraints of sanity or morality. It allows me to do what others wouldn't dare, to go to unspeakable lengths just to make a point. You see, even with all the schemes and plans that people have, I'm the one in control. The rest of the world just isn't mad enough to see it. But they will."

"Draco? Cissy?"

Yes, before he wanted to know, the Malfoy Patriarch wanted to see what would happen to his family. He wanted reassurance that the mad thing wouldn't slaughter them too.

"They're gonna be just dandy, you know, all sad and teary-eyed, of course, but I have principles, unlike you schemers, my words mean something, and going after the victims is just so distasteful, especially when I have such a good toy to play with. I wonder how people will react after seeing your body. Now, I guess there's no need to delay the inevitable. You know, what your problem is Lucy. You're always so stiff and serious. Why don't we fix that first and put a smile on that frowny face of yours?"

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AN:

Before you say that I took some heavy inspiration from the Joker, you're right. I have. I just thought that it would be cool to have an antagonist to Harry that has similar attributes, mainly his madness. I already decided who it was, what the backstory was, and why they're doing what they're doing, and it's very different from the Joker. I just decided to use this aspect of his character, to have Harry face against something really unpredictable. It won't be a copy of the Joker, so don't worry about that.

This character won't be the Joker, they won't be as nonsensical. There will be bigger motives, actual reasons for the madness and why they're targeting Harry. I'm sorry but saying anything more would spoil it, so that's all you're going to get out of me...

Also, the smiling killer won't be the only antagonist in this arc, but let's just say that paths will cross.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.