Date: November 19 Time: Early Evening Location: Magical Menagerie Characters Involved: Blaise Zabini and open
Before being taken into custody, Blaise had given one of the house elves strict orders to guard the door that led down to the lower levels of the east wing using whatever means necessary. It was here that Michalea had stored away the various trophies she'd gathered from dead husbands over the years. And while his mother had always escaped any sort of suspicion, Blaise hadn't wanted the Ministry to come across anything they could have used to take her into custody as well.
The elf had taken Blaise's command to the extreme. Of course, all elves knew that to do otherwise would result in torment beyond what they were willing to handle. Not only the emotional beating the elf would put itself through but whatever physical punishment their master had in mind. Knowing that Blaise would likely hang the elf from it's toes and forbid it to eat or sleep for a few days the elf had come through to the point of death. Blaise had found it's lifeless form outside the door along with a horrid stench that made one want to vomit everything they'd ingested over the last week, and by the looks of it whichever official had made it this far into the manor had done such. And now that the elf had died leaving it's spell behind for Blaise to overcome seeing as the elf he'd placed to guard the room was one that would need to be replaced by Michalea meaning none of the other elves would dare to try and break the spell without her explicit instruction.
Thus, the reason Blaise found himself at the Menagerie. They claimed to know how to get past all kinds of messes left behind by various creatures. Of course, he'd never inquired about house elf spells. Still, if they couldn't help him fix the problem perhaps they would know where to direct him.