chapter 14

Narcissa, Arthur, and Remus had gone out to buy food and drinks for everyone. They had gotten a good spread that everyone shared, with different greens, meats, and bakeries for everyone to have their fill. When everyone had eaten their fill, the food was put away and everyone sat around the table in silence. Narcissa went around serving tea to everyone, gaining 'thank you's, before the meeting started up again.

"Now that we have eaten, we can begin again," Narcissa said happily, "Now, we have gone through the Dark Lord's life, what should be the next topic?" she asked looking at the adults in the room.

"We have to talk about Dumbledore," Harry said before anyone else could get a word in. He saw Arthur close his mouth and resolved to let Arthur talk when the topic of Dumbledore was finished. "What do we do with him? We can't just let him get away with what he has done."

"What has he done? We know he manipulated all of us, with compulsions and all that, but by the way you are speaking it's more," Percy said, looking puzzled.

Remus answered, "He may not have killed anyone, -"

"That we know of, you mean," Harry said lowly, for only Fred and George to hear. Remus, with his keen hearing from being a werewolf, heard too.

"- but he has taken the lives of several of us, and probably many others too," Remus continued, without pausing, nor acknowledging Harry's whisper.

"How…" Ron began, but his voice died out quickly, though everyone understood what he meant. How have Dumbledore taken the lives of people in this room?

Surprisingly, it was Aunt Petunia that answered first, "In my inheritance test, it said that Dumbledore put a compulsion on me to make me hate and mistreat Harry," looking down at her hands as she said it. "Among other things," she added.

Narcissa began adding "He put compulsions on all of us -" she gestured to her husband and son, "- to actually agree with the Dark Lord, and make us hate muggles and muggle-borns," she said before she took a sip of her tea. Her being the only one that remembered it.

Severus continued, "He obliviated all three of us, -" he did a sweeping motion indicating himself, Remus, and Sirius, "- making us forget any interaction we had after our seventh year at Hogwarts, and our whole relationship. Sirius was put in Azkaban; he didn't even try to help. Me, he needed, so he forced me into an unfair contract working for him. He didn't need Remus, so he just left him to fend for himself in a world that hates him. And about Harry, -" Severus ranted, but when he got to Harry, he was interrupted.

"Not only was he the one that made it easier for Voldemort to kill my parents, making them hide with a Fidelius charm instead of behind the Potter family wards, but he also basically kidnapped me after my parents died. He didn't have any right to take me, nor any right to decide where I should have gone. He put me on the doorstep of my aunt that night, in November. It was only after that he 'became' my magical guardian; illegally might I add. He also sealed my parents' Will," Harry hadn't meant to interrupt Severus, he had just began ranting as soon as his name was called.

The room was quiet, no one really knowing what to do nor say. Harry was holding hands with George and Fred, and they weren't the only ones, Lucius and Narcissa, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, and Remus, Severus, and Sirius were all holding hands too.

"What… what should we do?" Draco was the one to finally break the silence, but what he said only prompted more silence. "Is there something we can do?"

"There has to -"

"- be something we -"

"- can do, right?" he twins asked the adults in the room.

Sirius answered, "We have to do something, we can't just let Dumbledore get away with all this," he looked around at the others with convict in his eyes, "We can't."

"We will have to be careful, he can't know that we know," Remus began, "He is one of the most respected people in Magical Britain, and he has had years to plan, backup after backup, for if something goes wrong. This have to be planned with care," he frowned as he talked looking around the table.

"Ok, planning," Harry said, "What is the plan?" he asked Remus, prompting everyone to also look in that direction.

"For now, we act like nothing is wrong, that we don't know anything," Severus said. "All action we do is to be behind the scenes, but otherwise we act like nothing is wrong," he only continued talking when he saw that everyone agreed, "How many do I need to teach occlumency to?" At the questioning stare from Harry, Ron, Fred, and George he sighed, "Occlumency is one of the mind magics, the ability to close your mind off against legilimency, mind reading magic. Raise your hand if you have to learn," Harry, Fred, George, Ron, and Draco raised their hands, "Okay, I will teach you. To not make it suspicious you will have extra 'potions lessons' from the beginning of the school year. Until then, do not look Dumbledore in the eye," Severus said, looking the children in the eyes.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, is there anything else we have to discuss?" Sirius asked, looking around the table at everyone. Harry turned to look at Arthur, watching as he took a small breath before speaking up.

"My husbands are alive," he said, looking around at the shocked people in the room. Harry was one of the most shocked, husbands? First of all, HUSBAND, what happened to Molly? And husbandS, plural, meaning two or more. Harry would have to ask Fred and George. "I don't know how -"

Surprisingly, Lucius interrupted, "There were many that actually didn't died in the war but were taken prisoners by the Dark Lord. We would always tell Dumbledore when someone was taken prisoner, but he always said that we would save them when the time was right, and instead they were pronounced dead," Lucius looked at Arthur, "Your husbands were two of them," he said, the pain in his voice was almost hidden.

Arthur's, and everyone else's, eyes widen, "Where? Where did he keep them?!" he had stood up and stepped closer to Lucius, looking ready to storm out of the room as soon as he knew where to go.

Narcissa looked at him, "We don't know, the Dark Lord would never tell, no matter how much we tried to ask," her eyes were misty, and her voice was shaking just the tiniest bit, "We're sorry."

Arthur sat down heavily, looking at the table, lost. The Weasley-Prewett family as a whole looked lost. What were they going to do now? Fred and George were holding Harry's hands again, clutching them harder than entirely necessary, but Harry didn't judge. Harry was silent while the others were talking, trying to find out where Voldemort could have hidden them.

Where? Where would Voldemort have hidden them? It would be someplace only he could access… Harry suddenly clenched George and Fred's hands back, making them look at him. Harry's eyes where wide, shining with realization, "I think I know where," he whispered. It was strange that everyone heard, with how loud they were being compared to Harry's statement, but suddenly everyone was silently looking at him. Harry continued, "Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin, he had access to the Slytherin Manor! Maybe they're there," Harry said.

"But how do we find where the Slytherin manor is?" was the question that everyone asked had, some of them asked out loud in a whisper. They were quickly losing the little hope they had regained again.

Sirius' eyes widened at Harry's continued smile "You're Lord Slytherin now!" he shouted, making everyone look back at Harry. "You have access to the Manor!" he said. Everyone's eyes widen after a few seconds of processing what had just been revealed.

"Come then Harry," Arthur began, "Let's go to the Slytherin Manor!" he had stood up again and was halfway over to Harry to… Harry didn't know, drag him out the door?

"I do not think that is a good idea at the moment," a voice came from the door, and Harry was presented with the sight of Sharptooth holding the door open. Everyone in the room turned to him, beginning to protest. "The Slytherin Manor have been visited once every year since 1883," Sharptooth yelled over the protests, making the crowd stop dead.

Harry watched as Sharptooth's eyes past over everyone, "Do you know who has been there?" the eyes meet Harry's as he asked. Harry could almost see the proudness in Sharptooth's eyes and quickly broke the eye contact, rather looking at his hands that are still enclosed in Fred and George's hands. Everyone else was too focused on Sharptooth now to notice Harry's reaction.

"There has only been two people that have been to the Manor since 1983. One of them, "visiting" every year, is Albus Dumbledore," at this everyone froze, the silence that followed Sharptooth's declaration, if you can even call that a declaration, was deafening. No one could say anything for a long while, too shocked to even try.

Severus was the first one to shake himself out of the shock and asked Sharptooth, "Is the visits regular? How long does he stay every visit, and when was the last time he was there? When will he be there next? Who is the other one?"

"The other is one Elphias Doge," Sharptooth said began answering the last question, "Although, Doge only appears every other year since 1986," he said, as if adding an afterthought. They all watched as Sharptooth began shuffling the parchment in his hands, looking for the information to the other questions Severus had asked. "According to the records, the visits are regular. He is usually in there from a day to a week before leaving again. Actually, he should be there in the next three to five days," Sharptooth told the crowd.

"Then let's go there right now! Before he goes there again," Charlie said, getting up from his chair, standing beside Arthur who still hadn't moved from his position halfway up the table.

"No, we can't. We don't even know if they are there, and even if we did know, we can't risk Dumbledore finding out we are on to him," Remus said back, "He have had years to prepare for this situation, but he doesn't know yet. We have the element of surprise here; we can't lose that."

"Then what do we do? They could be in that Manor, barely alive, as we speak," Bill said back, "We can't just not do anything!" he was desperate.

Severus interrupted what was beginning to sound like a shouting match, "We wait until Dumbledore visits in three to five days, then we go there. Either we find Fabian and Gideon, among others, or we find something that can point us in the right direction," he said. He was holding hands with Remus and Sirius.

Harry was glad he wasn't in the middle of the argument; he didn't really like being the center of attention. Harry liked better where he was right now, sitting between George and Fred, Harrys shoulders bumping slightly with their upper arms with each breath. The twins had moved closer and closer to Harry throughout the meeting.

After much back and forth, a plan of action was beginning to form. They would have people, two at the time, standing surveillance around the Slytherin Manor, looking for Dumbledore. When Dumbledore comes to 'visited' they will contact everyone. The surveillance will continue, but now they watch for when Dumbledore leave the Manor again. Only after Dumbledore have left do they go into the Manor.

"Then that is the plan," Sirius concluded finally, "If we find Fabian and Gideon, and the others, we take them to Malfoy Manor, where Cissy will look after them, as she is the only one with a Healer mastery," he began summarizing the final details, "If we don't find them, we search the whole manor for clues that can help us with where to search next."

"Until then, no going off on their own, stick to the plan, and don't get found out by Dumbledore, nor Molly and Ginny," Harry added at last right before the meeting was called to an end.