2
Chapter 2 – The Lestranges are defied
Monday 9th November 1981
Longbottom Hall
Despite the Daily Prophet's reputation for wild speculation and hyperbole, there was still nothing in the newspaper even a week later about the disappearance of Voldemort.
The Potters' deaths had been front page news for a couple of days, following on from the official report released by the Ministry of Magic into the findings at Godric's Hollow, but that report had been carefully written to limit the amount of rumour and gossip that it might create. There was no mention, for example, of the Killing Curse that had been cast at Harry, only that he had been lucky to escape without harm and was being cared for by relatives.
Frank and Alice Longbottom had gladly welcomed Sirius and Harry into their home once they heard about the Potters' deaths, and Alice was adamant that Longbottom Hall would be Harry's main home until he was old enough to go to Hogwarts.
Sirius had little complaint. He was glad to have others to share Harry's care with, having realised after a couple of days at home in his flat with Harry that handling a toddler on ones own wasn't the most straightforward of tasks. The Longbottoms' House-elf, Misty, was a real help in that regard, too, having absolutely no qualms about changing and cleaning Harry no matter how messy he had made himself.
Sirius had also found that he got on quite well with Frank, though he wasn't quite so sure about Frank's mother, Augusta, who occupied the dower apartment on the first floor, and who definitely had Opinions about how a child should be raised.
Frank was an active Auror in the rapid response team, whilst Alice had recently returned to the Auror force part-time as a medi-witch (she had previously led a full team of Aurors, but had asked to take a back step once she became pregnant) and they were often called out at strange hours, which had left young Neville in the care of his Grandmother from time to time. Seeing how the redoubtable lady treated her Grandson left Sirius quite glad he was there as well to smooth off some of the rough edges and help both Neville and Harry cope with the stern witch.
He was even more grateful for the house room when he briefly returned to his flat in Diagon Alley to pick up some clothes. He found that the whole place had been ransacked, and many of his furnishings utterly ruined. In his absence, someone had done the place over.
The Aurors who were dispatched from the Ministry to assess the case indicated that a group of three or four people had been responsible for the mess, and that the wand signatures included those registered to Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange.
He resigned himself to selling the place once he got it cleared up, and had retrieved what possessions he could from amidst the debris.
Frank had immediately insisted that he was welcome to stay at Longbottom Hall for as long as he wanted, and that should be at least until the Lestranges had been apprehended, but preferably much longer so that Harry and Neville would get a chance to grow up together.
The two of them were quietly chatting in Frank's study over a post-prandial glass of port whilst Alice put the two boys to bed, when they were interrupted by the House-elf.
"What is it, Misty?" Frank asked.
"There be a Mister Lupin in the Floo asking if Mister Black be here, Master Frank."
"Remus Lupin?" Frank asked. "Wasn't he a buddy of yours back at Hogwarts – the one who was sick quite often?"
"Yeah," Sirius replied. "I guess it's okay to tell you now, but he's a werewolf."
"Well, shit!" Frank said in surprise. "What was Dumbledore thinking of, letting him into Hogwarts?"
Sirius's hackles rose a bit at Frank's attitude.
"I imagine that he thought that since he was only actually a threat one day in twenty-eight and he'd secured a separate location for him on those occasions, that it wasn't a big deal," he answered. "Let's face it, we faced more dangerous creatures in Kettleburn's class."
"Hmm, you're probably right," Frank acknowledged. "I bet there'd've been a huge fuss if we'd all known at the time, though."
"More fuss from the parents than from us, I expect," Sirius said. "We all thought it was cool at that age. The pure-bloods in Slytherin would have told their parents, though, and that would've been enough to see him kicked out, if not executed, just for being a werewolf."
"True, true. Do are you going to invite him over?"
"It might be a bit awkward – we didn't part on the greatest of terms the last time we spoke. I might have accused him of being the leak within the Order."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah."
"But now we know it was Pettigrew, though, right?"
"That's true," Sirius admitted.
"So, invite your werewolf friend over and apologise to him," Frank suggested.
Sirius nodded.
"Okay. Is he at the Floo in the Hallway, Misty?" he asked the House-elf.
"Yes, Mister Sirius."
"Okay. Let him know I'm coming, please."
The elf popped away and Sirius hauled himself out of the comfortable leather chair, making his way down the corridor to the main entrance hall.
"Remus!" he greeted. "How are you?"
"Ah Sirius!" Remus replied. "I've been trying to track you down. Is it true? Are James and Lily dead?"
"I'm afraid so, my friend. Come on through – Frank has said I can invite you in."
Sirius stood back from the fireplace and waited for a moment, as Remus stepped through, brushing the ashes from his clothes as he arrived.
"Welcome to Longbottom Hall, Remus," he said. "And... well.. I guess I need to apologise."
"What for?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure I accused you of things you clearly weren't, the last time we spoke."
Remus paused.
"I'd forgotten," he said. "Was that why you suggested Peter as the secret keeper instead of me?"
"Yes," Sirius admitted bitterly. "And look how that turned out."
"He betrayed them?"
"It's the only way Voldemort could have found them."
"Voldemort was there himself, then?"
"Yes."
"Damn."
There was a moment of silence as they both brooded on the loss of their friends.
"And Harry? The Prophet said he was okay, but that was about it."
"Alice is putting him to bed right at the moment. Him and Neville. The Prophet wasn't supposed to mention Harry at all!"
"And he's really okay?"
"Yeah. Sorta."
"What do you mean 'sorta'?"
"It's pretty complicated. Come on through to Franks office and I'll explain."
Frank had another glass of port poured and waiting for Remus when they returned to him, and had topped off Sirius's glass and his own.
Sirius explained what had happened to Harry at Godric's Hollow and what the expert that Dumbledore had brought in had said about the wound on Harry's forehead. Remus hadn't heard of Horcruxes, so an explanation of what that entailed followed, too, leaving the werewolf pretty shaken by the end.
"So to summarise," he said slowly, "Voldemort cast the Killing Curse at Harry. It rebounded and killed Voldemort, but he'd split his soul, and he didn't die either, but another piece of his soul has attached itself to Harry."
"Pretty much, yeah," Sirius confirmed.
"And Harry seems to be okay, but might not be if he ever finds himself in the same place as a Death Eater?"
"Yeah. Though that's probably a given anyway, since I assume they'd want to kill him."
"But hardly anyone knows about this."
"No. Only we three, Alice, Dumbledore, Poppy Pomfrey, a Healer from St Mungo's and maybe Old Sluggy."
"Sluggy? What on earth does he have to do with it?"
"Apparently, he's a bit of an expert on the Horcruxes. He was the one who acknowledged to Voldemort that he might be able to create more than one."
"Well, shit!"
"Indeed!"
"What on earth was he doing, talking to Voldemort?"
"This was way back in his schooldays, when Horace was his Head of House, not recently."
"Oh. So what happens now?"
"Well, Dumbledore is starting to work through his contacts to see if he can find someone who knows how to get rid of a Horcrux without damaging the vessel. We do know of ways destroy a Horcrux, but I'm not letting anyone near Harry with either Fiendfyre or the Killing Curse on their minds."
Remus blanched.
"No. Not just no-"
"-but Hell no!" the three of them finished in unison.
"Quite!" Sirius noted. "And he's also looking for places where Voldemort might have stored Horcruxes. We think maybe six of them."
"Six? That's not a very auspicious number."
"Six Horcruxes, but seven pieces of soul," Sirius explained. "That's a magically powerful and significant number, traditionally and arithmantically."
"That would do it," Remus agreed. "Though is that now compromised because of the one in Harry?"
"We don't know. It depends on what happened to the rest of his soul – whether it's still floating around there somewhere, or can possess someone, or can re-amalgamate itself in one of his Horcruxes."
"The latter's not likely," Frank suggested, "otherwise it would have been drawn to the closest piece."
"Which would have been Harry," Sirius said with a deep sigh.
"And Dumbledore confirmed that he was sure Harry wasn't possessed." Frank said. It was one of the first things he'd asked before he had offered to let Sirius and Harry stay with them – if there had been the slightest hint that Harry was possessed by Voldemort, he wasn't letting him anywhere near his own son.
"Meanwhile, I need to talk to my Grandfather about having access to the Black family library at Grimmauld Place," Sirius added. "I certainly wouldn't put it past my family to have knowledge of Horcruxes lying around there. Just the sort of nasty magic they'd've been most interested in."
"I thought you'd sworn never to go back there?" Remus asked.
"Needs must, unfortunately," Sirius said with a grimace. "Dumbledore tried to get access himself, but Grandfather refused. He was very much adamant that nobody not of Black blood could have access to the library. Probably just as well – I was always told as a child that there were books in there that would cause you to drop dead if you so much as touched them without being a Black.
"He had to agree that I could have access, though. Apparently, even though dear old Mum blasted my name off the Black Family Tapestry she hasn't been able to convince Grandfather to formally expel me from the House of Black. Probably because I'm the last male of the line, after Reggie got himself killed."
"Doesn't Narcissa's boy count?" Frank asked.
"No, because he'll be a Malfoy, not a Black. Even if she and Lucius have more children, I can't see them sparing an heir for another family. And Andromeda has a daughter, but again she won't be a Black, either."
"Bloody patriarchy!" Alice commented as she pushed open the door with her hip. She held a silver tray in her hands which she proffered to Remus.
"Here, take this," she said. "Misty's been baking whilst I was putting the terrible twosome to bath and bed. Your turn tomorrow, Sirius."
Sirius nodded, and there was silence for a few minutes as the four of them chewed on the warm flapjacks that the House-elf had rustled up for them.
"When are you planning to go to Grimmauld Place, Sirius?" Alice asked.
"Whenever Grandfather tells me that Mum's out for the day. Maybe tomorrow."
"Well if you're going tomorrow, you'll need to take Harry with you. Frank and I are on call, and whilst Augusta's happy to look after Neville for a few hours, she's not prepared to take Harry as well."
Sirius frowned slightly, but nodded in agreement.
"I understand. It's not fair to make her look after Harry, too."
"If you need help researching, do you want me to come along as well?" Remus asked. "Or even just to keep Harry amused whilst you're reading?"
"Sure. Why not?" Sirius shrugged.
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea, Remus," Alice agreed. "In fact, if you're going with them, I'll get Misty to make up a bed for you and you can stay here for a couple of nights."
Remus started to demur, indicating that he didn't want to put them out.
"It's no trouble," Alice said kindly.
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Tuesday 10th November 1981
Gringotts, Diagon Alley
During his tenure as Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore had found that the portraits of former Headmasters and Headmistresses that lined his office provided advice that mirrored their living personalities.
Over many years of dealing with them he had learned just who to turn to to get the best advice on managing his staff, on dealing with the Ministry, on how to discipline the students that were led before him, or on where in the castle something or someone he needed might be.
When it came to medical needs he could turn to Dilys Derwent, and if she didn't know the answer herself she could find it out from a member of staff at St Mungo's.
If he needed advice on the Dark Arts, he invariable turned to Phineas Nigellus.
In this instance, both had been extremely helpful to him.
Dilys had advised him that if he wanted to find a healer who might be able to do something about the Horcrux that was lodged in Harry Potter's head then he might be best speaking to the Goblins at Gringotts. Not because they had healers who specialised in dealing with such things, but because they invariably would have come across someone who did, and might be able to direct him to that person – for a price, of course.
Phineas had been particularly helpful in confirming that it was very likely that the Black family library did, in fact, hold information on Horcruxes, and had suggested a couple of likely tomes that he (or rather, Sirius in his stead) might look in first.
This had led the Headmaster to a long argument with Arcturus Black.
The man had initially been good humoured and inclined to help as far as he could – just because he was a pure-blood bigot didn't mean that he couldn't work with those who had more liberal views – but as Dumbledore was reluctant to let him know exactly what information he was seeking, the discussion became less and less even-tempered.
Dumbledore's demands to be allowed to access the Black library crossed a line in the sand that Arcturus had drawn and was not prepared to allow him - or indeed anyone not of Black blood – to cross.
In the end, he fell back on asking for Sirius to have access, which although the Head of the Black family wasn't especially keen on, he was at least prepared to accept.
The Headmaster was sure he'd lost something in the argument, as Arcturus had a smug look on his face when he finally closed the Floo connection. Phineas Nigellus was remarkably restrained in his 'told you so' response when he learned that Dumbledore wouldn't get access to the Black library directly.
Meanwhile, he was here at Gringotts.
"It's unusual to see the renowned Albus Dumbledore seeking information," the senior manager with whom he had been granted an appointment commented. "Usually we hear of you dispensing your knowledge to others."
Dumbledore dipped his head in acknowledgement.
"This is a subject that I'm afraid I am not an expert in, Manager Greenclaw," he replied, "so I seek those who can aid me. Gringotts has a well-deserved reputation for being able to find such people, if not necessarily holding the knowledge itself."
"True enough, Headmaster. However, your request for an appointment was rather vague. If you really desire our assistance you'll need to lay your cards on the table."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Very well. I seek someone who can tell me how I might separate a Horcrux from, or destroy one within, a living vessel, without damaging the vessel itself."
"You are still coy with the details, Headmaster. Given the timing of your request and the recent drop off in activity by the Dark Lord, can we assume that this has some relevance to the recent attack by said entity on the Potter family?" the Goblin asked him.
"You are better informed on the subject than I might have wished," he replied. "Yes. To be blunt, I believe that Voldemort had at least one, but likely several pre-existing Horcruxes, and he may have inadvertently created another when he cast the Killing Curse at Harry Potter."
The Goblin drew in a sharp breath.
"I am to assume from this that young Master Potter survived the Killing Curse?"
"Yes, Greenclaw. Though it is not common knowledge that it was ever cast at him."
The Goblin nodded.
"Then it would be rather a waste for the child who survived the Killing Curse to die from the removal of a Horcrux, I quite agree.
"Traditionally, the methods for dealing with a Horcrux would include Fiendfyre or basilisk venom. However, I imagine that both methods might be fatal, which is not what we are looking for here."
The Goblin paused for a moment.
"Are you still on good terms with Nicolas Flamel?" he asked.
"Yes, I believe so."
"Then I think it is he you need to talk to," Greenclaw advised. "I don't think he can effect the cure you are looking for, but I believe he has information that would lead you towards it."
"Thank you. Your fee?"
He paused again.
"The Sword of Gryffindor is known to reside in your office. This is a Goblin-made artefact, and we therefore, by Goblin law, retain title of ownership to the item.
"However, we are also aware that the magic of the Sword allows for a genuine Gryffindor to call upon it in their hour of need, and therefore asking for it to be returned to the Goblin Nation would be a pointless exercise. We could insist on its return to Gringotts, along with its case, but then we would lose an opportunity to have such an excellent example of goblin craftsmanship available for people to see.
"Instead, we ask that it is removed from your office and displayed instead, in its case, in Hogwarts Great Hall, with a written acknowledgement of Goblin ownership alongside the history of the artefact."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement.
"Yes. An acceptable compromise," he said. "I agree to your price."
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Tuesday 10th November 1981
Grimmauld Place, London
"So, the Prodigal Son finally returns home," Arcturus Black said sardonically as he ushered his Grandson and companions into the hall at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
At eighty years of age, Arcturus was slightly stooped, but still almost matched his Grandson's height. His grey hair was swept back into a ponytail in traditional pure-blood fashion, and his dark eyes peered at his visitors with slight near-sightedness. He was immaculately dressed in dark grey robes over a waistcoat and grey trousers, and his formal shirt was white with frills down the front.
"I rather thought that Regulus was the Prodigal Son," Sirius suggested, a tight grin on his face, and emotions heavily conflicted about being back here in his childhood home.
"Yes, well that didn't turn out very well, now, did it?"
"No, I would say rather not, Grandfather."
They looked at each other for a moment.
"Hmph," grunted Arcturus. "Who's this you've brought with you?"
"This is Remus Lupin," he replied, and Remus nodded gently, careful not to disturb the sleeping child he carried. "And his minor burden is my Godson, Harry Potter."
Arcturus nodded, ignoring the lame effort at a joke.
"You're the werewolf, aren't you?" he asked Remus.
"Yes, I am," Remus said defensively, unsure of how this would be taken here in a pure-blood household.
Arcturus grunted again.
"Don't touch anything unless my Grandson tells you it's safe," he warned. "There's much that would kill you, and not just in the library.
"And that's James's son, is it?" he continued.
Sirius nodded.
"Has a little bit of Black blood in him then. Cousin Dorea's Great-grandson."
"He's my heir, as well," Sirius said.
Arcturus gave him a funny look.
"Not for too long, I hope," he said. "You need to continue the Black line directly."
"Not yet."
"Don't be too long about it," Arcturus warned. "I don't really want to leave everything to Narcissa's child. I want Blacks in this house, not Malfoys. Even if they don't follow the family traditions."
"I'm not disinherited, then?" Sirius asked, a little shocked.
"Of course not," he replied. "Your mother might stridently defend pure-blood principles, but she doesn't get to tell me how to run my family.
"That's not to say that she wouldn't raise a right ruckus if she were here right now. Merlin! It's like you chose your companions to rile her up. Her hated offspring turning up with a werewolf and a half-blood heir. She might even do us all a favour and die of apoplexy, but I doubt she be so considerate."
Sirius was shocked. He'd never heard his Grandfather talk this way about Walburga Black before.
"Anyway, the library's yours until three. I expect Walburga back soon after that and you don't want to be here then," he noted. "Keep one eye on the boy, but with Black blood in him he should be safe enough."
With that, Arcturus led them through the house to the library.
"Have at it. When all's said and done I'd like to know what you're really looking for – Albus was far too secretive for my liking – but if there's anything you can use... well it'll all be yours in due course anyway, I expect."
He left them to it, and Sirius started looking around for a place to start.
Two hours later, all three of them were feeling a little grumpy.
The two leads that Phineas Nigellus had given Dumbledore had proven to be helpful, but they found that there was information missing and they needed other referenced works to be able to make sense of what had been written.
Remus noted down the references, and after a brief search they concluded that the Black library didn't contain them, and they would seek those particular manuscripts out elsewhere.
Sirius had spent a lot of time just ensuring that the books he gave to Remus to skim through were safe for him to do so – a couple of books would only open for those of Black heritage, and one nearly snapped Remus's hand off as soon as he touched the cover.
Now, Remus was deep in concentration in a text relating to Egyptian soul jars, trying to see if there was any correlation with the information they'd already found on Horcruxes. Meanwhile, Sirius had Harry in his arms as he meandered through the library looking for book titles that might have the right sort of knowledge.
As they passed a small cabinet, Harry let out a loud wail.
"Whoa! Easy there, Harry!" Sirius whispered at him.
They stood in front of a pair of glass-fronted cabinets that had a whole range of weird-looking artefacts inside: a selection of rusty daggers, a coiled snakeskin, and an ornate crystal bottle with an opal stopper in it that looked like it contained blood sat in one cabinet, whilst the other held a small music box, a heavy golden locket with an ornate "S" on the front in green gemstones, a number of ancient seals and a box that looked like it held an Order of Merlin.
Harry seemed unmollified by Sirius's attempts to calm him down, but as he moved away from the cabinets Sirius found that his Godson settled down again.
"Remus!" he called quietly.
"Mm hmm?" came the response.
"Come over here for a minute."
The werewolf was by his side a few moments later.
"Can you cast some detection spells on the stuff in that cabinet?" Sirius asked, pointing at the glass-fronted display in front of him.
Remus looked at him strangely, but did as requested.
"Merlin, Sirius!" he exclaimed quietly. "There's so much dark magic in there!"
"Mmm. Something in there's upsetting Harry, though. Can we find out what?"
"Uh, okay. Probably."
Remus opened the cabinet and cast a number of detection charms before carefully lifting and removing each of a small selection of objects. Two items came up as immediate threats as he checked them and he used his wand to levitate those off to one side without touching them. Eventually, casting many spells as he went, he separate the items into two separate piles.
"Okay, so these are the ones that are showing significant dark magic residue, if not being actually dark themselves."
So close to the Dark objects, Harry was starting to play up again, so Sirius stepped away a few paces and he began to calm once more.
"Dumbledore said that Harry might have a reaction to other Horcruxes," Sirius said, "and he only seems to be getting upset when I get close to those cabinets. So what I want you to do it to levitate each of those items over in this direction individually, and we'll see if we can find out which one of them is causing it."
Five minutes later, they had narrowed the search down to the golden locket. Remus took Harry back to the chair where he had been reading and comforted him again, whilst Sirius tried to open the locket.
Nothing he tried seemed to work, however.
"I'll ask Grandfather about it," he said, checking the time. "Let's come back another day. Take Harry back to Longbottom Hall and I'll tidy up here and talk to Arcturus."
But the discussion with his Grandfather was fruitless too. He had never been able to open the locket either (though had not been particularly desperate to do so, given the lethality of the dark magic that seemed to be present on it) so was unable to help, but he did agree that Sirius could take it away with him and let Dumbledore try his best against it.
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Tuesday 10th November 1981
Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts
"Hmm," said Dumbledore for about the fourth time in as many minutes, as he pored over the locket trying yet another spell that appeared to have as little effect as the several he'd cast already.
Sirius was starting to get a little bit frustrated with the man, who had seemed to disappeared off into his own mental world as he contemplated the ongoing challenge in front of him. Aside from the odd noises and the fact that he had no idea what the spells were that the Headmaster was casting, Sirius was growing impatient with the lack of response.
"Well?" he asked, finally, seemed to rouse the Headmaster from his reverie.
"Oh! I am so sorry, Sirius," he replied. "I had completely forgotten you were even here. What were you asking?"
"Is it a Horcrux or not?"
"Oh, yes, yes," Dumbledore said. "Most definitely it is. But a most intriguing object, wouldn't you say?"
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"In what way?"
"Well, the fact that it cannot be opened by normal magic. Not even the magic belonging to the House of Black, which I would have expected to have been exactly the right type of magic to be involved. It seems to be password-protected in some way, but the spells that I have cast on it that should, theoretically, have given an idea of what the password might be, have all come up with something that I'm completely unable to understand."
"I thought you spoke about a hundred languages?"
"Hmm. Yes. Indeed. But not parseltongue unfortunately, which is what we appear to need here."
"Where on earth would we find a parselmouth, Headmaster?"
"A very good question indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "It is, after all the special talent of Salazar Slytherin and those directly of his line."
"Voldemort really is the heir of Slytherin?"
"Oh yes. Certainly an heir, if not the heir. But probably the only remnant of Salazar's direct line, if I understand things correctly, despite his half-blood status.
"And I'm sure I saw this very locket among the few possessions of his Mother before she left home to give birth to him, so almost certainly an artefact handed down through generations of her family as one of the pieces that was genuinely once owned, if not created, by Slytherin himself. So very appropriate that it would be protected with a password in parseltongue."
"Do we actually need the password ?" Sirius asked impatiently.
"Well..."
"Or would fiendfyre destroy the Horcrux without even opening it?"
"I suspect it would. I had thought that we might learn even more about Voldemort if we were able to open the locket, but on reflection I think it wiser that we simply attempt to destroy it. Do you agree?"
"Yes. Definitely."
"And of course if you were to come across any other artefacts that Harry appeared to have a bad reaction to..."
"Then I'll bring them to you to check out, Headmaster," Sirius agreed. "Though I'm sure you'll excuse me if I don't bring you the bowls of mushy peas that he seems to have an objection to."
"Whilst I'm quite in agreement with young Harry that mushy peas are certainly the equivalent evil of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes," Dumbledore said with a smile, "I'm fairly certain that's not the evil we're looking for at the moment."
Sirius smiled back.
"Very well, let us away to a place where we can safely cast that most potent of magics that we'll need to destroy this thing," the Headmaster suggested.
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Wednesday 11th November 1981
Godric's Hollow
The weather for the Potters' funeral seemed to be completely in tune with the attendees, that is to say, extremely uncertain.
Whilst Sirius had managed to restrict the number of people attending to as few as possible, it was still more than he would have liked, and many of them were still unaware of the fact that the Potters' sacrifice had essentially saved the Wizarding World they were a part of. He dreaded to think how many people would have been here in jubilation rather than mourning had the defeat of the Dark Lord been trumpeted as fact in the Daily Prophet in the last couple of weeks.
As it was, he had been compelled to tender an invitation to Petunia Dursley, as Lily's sister could hardly be excluded from the occasion, and also to Severus Snape, who despite finding a rift opening up between them in recent years, had once been one of Lily's best friends.
Understandably, there were also other members of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix present – Arthur and Molly Weasley, Alastor Moody, and Dedalus Diggle among them – who Sirius would rather have excluded, but had been convinced by the Headmaster that it would have been stranger not to invite them, and that not inviting them might invite unwanted scrutiny.
In all there were less that thirty people present, but Sirius would have been more comfortable with it being half as many.
The rite itself was brief, and at least the sun came out as they lowered the two coffins into the carefully dug plot and manually spaded the earth back on top.
"It just wouldn't feel the same, doing this with magic," Sirius confessed to Remus as they put their shoulders to the task, "even if it did take a tenth of the time."
Remus just nodded sadly.
"What do you intend to do with the Cottage?" he asked as they worked.
"I hadn't even thought about it," Sirius replied. "Everything was left to Harry, as you would expect, but I wouldn't know where to start."
"Obviously it'll need repairing." Remus noted. "And their personal effects put aside for Harry to go through when he's older."
Sirius nodded.
"Are you going to move in? Or let it out to someone? I can't see much value in it standing unoccupied until Harry's old enough to make a decision."
"Frank and Alice are adamant on us staying with them until Harry's quite a bit older," Sirius said with a shrug. "I guess I'll need to go to Gringotts to sort out a slush fund for maintenance," he acknowledged.
"And to hire ward-breakers to check through anything that James or Lily might had set up, too." Remus said.
Sirius had an odd thought come to him.
"What are you doing for work at the moment?" he asked.
"Just some part-time bookkeeping at the moment. I couldn't hold down a full time job whilst Dumbledore was using me to liaise with the werewolf packs, could I?"
"No. Fair point. I was just thinking."
"Dangerous."
"Har-de-har, Remus. I was thinking that you seem to know all this stuff about what to do with James and Lily. They should have made you executor of their will instead of me."
"Except that the Ministry would have thrown three kinds of fit if they had found out, and might have used it as a way to throw the will out."
"True. But there's nothing to stop you acting as my agent for this, is there?"
"Probably not. The pure-bloods couldn't imagine a werewolf being entrusted with such a position, so it's unlikely even to have occurred to them. That doesn't mean that there won't be people who refuse to deal with me on principle, though."
"Well screw them!" Sirius said forcefully. "Anyway, what I had in mind was that I could employ you to deal with the James and Lily's estate – you seem to know what you're doing, and it'll mean I don't have to deal with the lawyers."
"That's not exactly a full-time, job, Sirius," Remus noted.
"It's not right at the moment," he agreed, "but it might become more onerous as time goes on. And you heard Grandfather – he's not cutting me out of inheriting from him, which means that there'll be even more to do if he were to snuff it... probably by Mother poisoning him."
"And I suppose that means you want me to deal with Petunia, as well," Remus grumbled as they shovelled the last few clods of earth back into place and patted it down.
"That hadn't even crossed my mind," Sirius said innocently, leaning back on his shovel with a sigh.
"Hmph! Okay, I suppose," he agreed. "When do you want me to start?"
"About five minutes ago."
"Huh!"
"Thanks, Remus."
"Yeah, well we'll need to make it official – when we get back to Longbottom Hall you'll need to draw up a contract for me, plus letters of introduction, power of attorney and all that. Do you even know a decent attorney?"
"Actually that's probably the easiest one – Ted Tonks, Andromeda's husband works in a cross-over firm, dealing with magical and Muggle legal matters."
"So, I'll need you to vouch for me to him, too," Remus noted. "If you can get him to come to Longbottom Hall we can cover a bunch of stuff there."
"Okay."
"In the meantime, you need to circulate."
Sirius grimaced.
"Fine."
Sirius mingled with the other mourners, expressing mutual condolences before he eventually ran into Alastor Moody.
"You seem to be more battered every time, I see you, Moody," Sirius said by means of prefatory comment. "What happened to your nose?"
"That bastard Rosier got a piece of me," the grizzled Auror said, with a snort. "Not that it helped him."
"Didn't you bag him?"
"Yep. Good fight that. Bastard knew a lot of dark curses. At least he fought, though. Too many Death Eaters have gone to ground rather'n fight, which gets my goat, you know."
"Yeah, some of 'em don't want to pull a wand unless they have the advantage."
"Well Rosier won't be doin' that no longer," Moody averred. "Some of 'em seem to be gettin' desperate, though. Not sure why."
"Is that so?"
"Yep. Last week or so, we're getting about half the number of call-outs, but they all seem to be one's that'll fight. Picked up Travers last week as well. He surrendered, though. Fight seemed to go outa him once we had the numbers."
"Are they going to get trials?"
"Supposedly," Moody said with a grimace. "No doubt some of the bastards'll talk their way out of Azkaban."
"Or buy their way out," Sirius suggested.
"Or buy their way out," Moody agreed. "And what about this one?" he asked, motioning to Severus Snape, who was approaching them.
"Dunno. Dumbledore seems to think he can be saved."
"Either he's a Death Eater or he ain't."
"True, but you know what Dumbledore's like."
"Hmph," Moody grumbled. "I'll leave you to him. My wand arm's gettin' twitchy."
Moody wandered off just as Snape arrived.
"What can I do for you, Snape?" Sirius asked.
"I just wanted to ask if Lily left anything-"
"No."
"But, I thought-"
"No, Snape. I don't care how long you might've been friends. She didn't leave anything for you. Everything went to Harry. As it should. I'm amazed you had the gall to show up here, given your known allegiance."
"I had to. For Lily," Snape muttered.
"Yes. That's the only reason you were invited. Do not presume anything more. If there's anything amongst Lily's stuff that we think you should be given, we'll let you know. But don't hold your breath."
Snape nodded, eyes down.
"Very well. I shall take my leave."
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Sirius agreed, reining in his temper.
"Don't you think you were a bit harsh on him?" Dumbledore asked from behind Sirius. "He loved her, you know."
"No, I don't. He was here asking for mementoes. That's just sick."
"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that."
"Headmaster, I realise that you've taken Snape on as a pet project. You think you can redeem him. I understand that. But please remember when you force him on others that not everyone has your willingness to forget old slights; to forgive treachery."
"Severus could be a valuable ally."
"Only to those who can trust him, Headmaster. And he still has to earn that trust. It can't just be given away. He's still a Death Eater."
"Not any longer," Dumbledore said. "He agreed to switch sides, remember? Warned us of the threat to Lily and James."
"How convenient." Sirius noted. "Just as Voldemort seems to have disappeared. Tell me, will you stand up at his trial and vouch for him, if he gets grassed up by others of his cadre looking to name names and escape Azkaban? He's committed the same crimes as the likes of the Lestranges, Rosier and Travers, even if not to the same degree. Should he not suffer the same punishment? Or is justice supposed to mean different things from one set of murderers to another?"
Dumbledore stood silently for a moment.
"Perhaps you are right, Sirius. Certainly I see your point. I shall have to think carefully upon this. I had thought that offering young Severus a post teaching Potions at Hogwarts might be an idea way for him to earn some time for thought, perhaps to undergo some penance, but also where I could keep an eye on him-"
"Merlin, no, Dumbledore!" Sirius interjected. "Snape? Teaching? I can't think of anything worse! He'd put off Potion-makers for generations! It's your right to employ who you want, I suppose, but please don't inflict him on children!"
"Well, as I said, Sirius, I shall have to give this some thought."
"Just remember, you're there to manage a school and look after the interests of the children, not to conduct social experiments."
-AMCR-AMCR-AMCR-AMCR-
Thursday 13th November 1981
Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts
Albus Dumbledore exited from his Pensieve deep in thought, and slumped back in his chair.
'Yes,' he thought to himself. 'A lot of different things to consider.'
He'd taken Sirius's words at the Potters' funeral to heart, and re-examined what he knew of the Death Eaters' activities, and how Severus Snape fit into those deeds.
It was clear that poor Severus sincerely regretted joining Voldemort and taking the Dark Mark. His report of the Prophecy had been well-received by the Dark Lord. Yet by the time that Severus had been made aware that it could be Lily Potter who was in the firing line, he was already having second thoughts, and had come to realise that service to Voldemort meant doing exactly what he was told.
Most of his work over the past couple of years had been to utilise his skills as a potions creator and maker – Voldemort had lured him in with the promise of research into and experimentation with potions new and old that served his purpose, after all – but when he had been pushed into engaging in attacks on 'blood traitors', he'd not held back in assault and murder.
Granted he hadn't degenerated into the rapine and torture that others had revelled in, but he was still a murderer, and Sirius's comments about it merely being a question of degree of evil rang true with the Headmaster.
Even if he had genuinely turned his coat, as he believed – and Snape's reporting of the threat to the Potters had been out of genuine concern and love for Lily, as far as he could tell – that would only be accepted as mitigation, and not as an excuse for his previous crimes.
If it ever came to court, he resolved that he would defend the boy as far as he was able to minimise his sentence, but he couldn't – and could not be seen to – push for his complete exoneration on the basis of his late regrets.
He sighed. Regardless of his need to find a Potions Professor to replace Horace Slughorn, in full consideration of the man, it was clear that Sirius was right and that Severus Snape wasn't the person for the job. There was no way that Dumbledore could even justify to himself rewarding the actions of a Death Eater who had murdered, and bringing him into a school of children would have been a very poor decision.
He would have to find someone else.
He put that aside for the moment, and replaced one set of memories in his Pensieve with another set..
These were older. Very much older. He hoped to glean insight into the Horcruxes that the man once known as Tom Marvolo Riddle had made.
Sirius's discovery of the locket at Grimmauld Place had stirred an old recollection, one that had chimed with the discussion he had forced Slughorn into.
He dipped his head into the bowl once more.
The key aspect of Bob Ogden's memory of visiting the Gaunt shack was Marvolo's rage at being called to account by the Ministry. The self-entitlement that he had developed at being a pure-blood And then, most importantly of all, the blatant display of two items that Dumbledore knew had been turned into Horcruxes – the Peverell ring that Marvolo wore, it's ugly, blackened stone brandished in Ogden's face, and the golden locket worn around the neck of his daughter Merope.
Another moment later and he was in the memory of one Caractacus Burke, discussing the exceptional bargain he had made in purchasing the locket from a heavily pregnant Merope for the meagre sum of ten galleons.
A third memory, and a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle returned to his mother's origins, where he was confronted by her brother Morfin, now bearing the black-stoned ring. And a fourth – Morfin visited by the Aurors, and arrested for the murder of Tom Riddle Senior and his family that he had been framed for as part of his nephew's revenge on both branches of his family tree. No longer did Morfin have the ring, presumably stolen by Riddle as part of the ruse, and these two memories had been the best that Dumbledore had been able to get from Morfin when he had visited him in Azkaban.
One more, not many months later, of the Slug Club at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been most pleased that Horace had finally entrusted him with a true memory of what had happened that evening, but this time it was not the number of Horcruxes that the Headmaster sought reminder of, but of the image of Tom Riddle wearing the Peverell ring.
Was it likely, he wondered, that he had already turned it into a Horcrux, although to have done it directly on the murder of his father's family might have given it even greater symbolism.
Surely if it was already a Horcrux he wouldn't have been wearing it, would he?
On to the House-elf's memory – the gleam of greediness in Riddle's eyes as the flattered Hepzibah Smith showed him Hufflepuff's golden chalice made Dumbledore shudder. Then the re-emergence of Slytherin's golden locket. There was no way that he could disguise the possessiveness in his eyes as he was shown what was his mother's heirloom.
That the poor lady had been poisoned barely two days later was no coincidence, the Headmaster considered, nor that the House-elf had been found guilty of causing her death. It was very much the modus operandi of the young Riddle to find an unwitting dupe to take the fall for his actions.
Three obvious relics of the Hogwarts founders, Dumbledore thought, laid a trail of evidence towards the types of object that the Dark Lord had used in order to seek his form of immortality.
He would have had to have collected a full set, he assumed, which meant something that had belonged to Ravenclaw and to Gryffindor would have been required to complete it. And yet... if the arithmancy was valid, and if the Tom Riddle in Horace's memory had been serious about seven being a key number, there was still another item out there somewhere.
Two items of Gryffindor's, to balance the two that had been owned by Slytherin?
That was certainly a possibility, but there was something missing in the feel of that as far as the arithmancy was concerned, which the Headmaster readily admitted was not his area of expertise.
-AMCR-AMCR-AMCR-AMCR-
Monday 16th November 1981
Longbottom Hall, then Little Hangleton
"We've got a lead on the Lestranges!" Frank called with glee as he bounded through the Floo and into the Lounge where Sirius and Alice were playing with various stuffed animals and making Harry and Neville laugh as they pretended to talk through them.
"Where at?" Alice asked, pushing herself off the floor and upright, knowing that she'd likely be needed too.
"A place called Little Hangleton," Frank replied. "Apparently has some connection with Voldemort."
Sirius looked up.
"Yeah, it where both his parents originally came from," he supplied. "His father was the son of a local landowner and lived in the big Manor House there."
"Shit! That sounds like the place – Mackintosh said it's all burned out now though."
"Language around the children," Alice scolded.
"Sorry, dear."
"Voldemort set fire to it when he killed his father, I think," Sirius noted. "Dumbledore was keen on me genning up on the history around that for some reason."
"Why the he.. heck would they be there?" Frank asked.
"Why not? Good place to use as a hideout, or even as a base of operations. Are they still trying to find their master?"
"Maybe."
Alice left the room briefly to change into protective clothing and collect her medical gear.
"Are we going straight there?" she asked when she returned.
"No. You and I have to meet up with Mackintosh at the Ministry first," Frank replied.
He looked at Sirius. "Can you do us a favour?"
"I expect so," Sirius said.
"There's some talk in the Auror squad about some of the Death Eater attacks being an inside job, and that someone is passing information to the bast- beggars. I'm being slightly paranoid here, but if you don't hear from me within half-an-hour, whether in person or by Patronus, can you raise the alarm?"
"Will do," Sirius agreed. "I'd come with you, but the Ministry doesn't like it."
"Nope, no civilians on sanctioned raids."
"Understandable, but a shame."
"And you've got these two terrors to look after, anyway," Frank pointed out.
"If I have to, I'll leave them with your Mother, Frank."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that – I don't want you following me on your own, Sirius, you're not trained for single-man combat missions. Get some help from the DMLE."
"Got it," Sirius confirmed.
Frank and Alice checked their gear over one last time, then headed through the Floo to the Ministry, leaving Sirius on the Floo with the two boys.
"I know, boys, it's all go, isn't it?" he asked them rhetorically. "How am I going to keep from worrying about them for the next half hour? I know – doggie rides!"
Sirius changed into his animagus form, and it took little effort to encourage the two toddlers to climb up onto his back. He was careful with them, and made sure to stop and lie down when it felt like they might be about to fall off, but that didn't stop them urging him on.
"Sirius Black! What on earth do you think you are doing!"
Augusta Longbottom's strident tones burst through the air as she came upon the scene.
"Get them down from there, right now!" she ordered.
The big black grim whimpered and settled back down into a lying position, but the children weren't keen to get off him, still entreating him for another ride.
He changed back into human form to face the irate Grandmother.
"That's hardly appropriate!" she chided him.
"Aww, they were enjoying themselves," Sirius complained. "And they were perfectly safe. I mean, the carpet's thick enough to absorb any blow from such a small height."
"And that's another thing!" Augusta continued to upbraid him. "You're shedding! What a mess you're making all over my lovely carpet!"
Sirius forbore from pointing out that it wasn't her carpet, deciding that it probably wasn't worth riling her up even further.
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!"
Augusta looked him over with scepticism, but apparently concluded that he was sincere in his abasement.
"Now, I was hoping to have a chat with Alice about preparations for Christmas," she continued. "I don't suppose you know where she and my son have gone?"
"They've been called in by the DMLE," Sirius said. "Apparently there's been a sighting of the Lestranges and they're part of the team who've being asked to investigate."
Augusta's face turned rather more worried.
"I rather hope they don't find them, if you don't mind me saying," she admitted. "That's a dangerous job."
"Too true. Frank asked me to alert the DMLE if I didn't hear from him."
"And how long ago was that," she asked.
"Just over half-an-hour...Merlin! I've got to do something!"
He headed directly for the Floo and got into contact with the DMLE duty Auror.
"It's urgent!" he insisted. "The Longbottoms and their team were sent to apprehend the Lestranges and haven't checked back in."
The duty Auror looked grim.
"Understood. I'll pass the message on right away," she promised. "Unspeakable Rookwood was co-ordinating today's raids, so I'll go straight to him."
"Thanks," Sirius acknowledged, and pulled his head out of the fire.
"Can you keep an eye on these two for a while?" he asked Augusta.
"If I have to,"she sniffed unhappily. "Don't be all day about it."
"No. I'll meet Remus there, if I send him a Patronus," he said, heading for the front door and the Apparation point closest to the house. See if you can get hold of Dumbledore whilst I'm gone, will you? We might still need the cavalry!"
Barely five minutes later he was bounding down the road in Little Hangleton towards the old Manor House. As he got closer he could recognise Remus's scent, and the werewolf had clearly Apparated in bare minutes before him.
"Here, Padfoot," came a hoarse whisper from behind what looked like it had once been a coach barn, the remnants of an old carriage still poking out of the front of the building.
He pulled up quickly and transformed back.
"There's a way in through the back that's probably safer," Remus suggested.
"Heard anything."
"No, not much. Just a few yells. Nothing coherent."
"Well there's somebody here there, then."
"Better that we scout the place out, though."
"Hey, just because I favour the full-frontal approach doesn't mean I'm going to suggest it every time!" Sirius protested quietly.
They picked their way among the debris of the backyard until they came to the door that Remus had pointed out. It barely remained on its hinges, and swung freely, and the interior was charred and blackened from fire and smoke damage.
"Looks like the fire brigade just about got to this before it was completely gutted," Remus suggested, "though it was a pretty close thing I'd say."
They looked around curiously - this looked like it had once been a washhouse or laundry room, or a maid's scullery, but there was nothing useful here now, and they carefully crossed the room to the door in the opposite wall.
Remus poked his head cautiously through the door.
"Kitchen," he said. "Or it was at one time, anyway."
Again they made their way across another flame-streaked floor and largely ignored the detritus of the fire damage to what remained of the amenities.
"Gas stove," Remus noted, pointing at one wall. "Probably what the firemen blamed for it all going up."
Just as he was about to crack open the door to the next room, a ghostly shape came bounding into the room.
"Dumbledore's patronus?" Remus asked.
"Yes."
"Don't attempt to initiate contact with the Lestranges by yourselves," Dumbledore's voice warned Sirius. "I'll be with you very shortly and with help."
"Well that's a surprise," Sirius said with raised eyebrows.
"Mmm. Let's keep moving," Remus suggested.
He pulled the next door open.
"Somebody's cleaned up a bit in here," he said.
Although the walls of the room were still soot-blackened, and where wallpaper remained it was in burned strips peeling from the walls, the floor had been swept of debris and a table and four chairs had been set up as though for dinner, with four plates and cutlery for four people set out.
"Four chairs," Sirius noted. "Four people?"
"Mmm," Remus agreed non-committally. "Probably. Maybe more, and just four at once. I suspect they just scourgify the dishes when they're done, 'cos there was no sign that the kitchen had been used. If this were a Muggle squat I'd expect to see takeaway boxes."
"What's this?" Sirius asked, pointing at an area in one corner.
Remus glanced over.
"Hmm. Smells like snake. A snake's nest in here, where they've been eating?"
"That doesn't sound right."
"I know some of these guys aren't particularly fastidious, but I'd'v'e thought they'd've chased off any creatures trying to share their dining room."
"Unless it was a big snake."
"In which case, why would you be eating in here where it nests? There's no sign of blasting curses, and the only dead animals are those rat bones."
"Ugh. Rats. Don't remind me of Wormtail."
"Would he be here, too?"
"Not in his rat form anywhere near a snake."
"True."
The puzzle unsolved, they crossed the room to the table, but couldn't see any obvious additional clues to help them.
Remus cracked open the next door.
"Hallway," he said.
A wide hall led towards the front of the house on their left, before taking a right turn. There were two doors in that direction, one on either side of the passageway. Opposite the doorway they were standing in was another door. To their right, the hallway continued and ended in a flight of stairs. There was another door in that direction on the opposite wall, as well, though it appeared to have caught much of the fire damage they had seen earlier.
"Looks like this is the area for the servants' quarters," Sirius suggested. "Laundry, small kitchen and dining room."
He crossed the corridor quickly and opened the door opposite them with rather less caution than Remus would have liked, and the damaged door almost came away from its hinges in his hand. "Storage cupboard," he said briefly, vainly attempting to push the remnants of the door back into its frame.
"Which way, then?" Remus asked.
"That way," Sirius said, pointing to the door down the corridor to their right. "Left will just bring us to the front of the house, and if anyone's keeping watch that's where they'll be. Up the stairs here will just be to the servants' sleeping quarters."
They soon knew they were heading in the right direction, as screams began ringing out from not too far away as they headed through the door that Sirius had indicated.
"Don't rush in!" Remus warned Sirius. "We don't know how many of them there are."
"A very good point, Remus," came a voice from behind them.
"Dumbledore!" Sirius exclaimed. "And Moody, too! Glad you could help!"
"Indeed," said the Headmaster. "Shall we proceed? It sounds like our intervention might be important right now."
They moved on through two more rooms. The first was what appeared to be a family dining room - though it too was badly fire-damaged and little besides the thick oak table had survived at all – and the next may have been the ladies' parlour, though it was difficult to tell with the amount of damage that had been done. No furniture remained intact at all.
Peeking through the next doorway, Remus pulled back immediately.
"They're here," he said, an explanation that rapidly became redundant as another shriek split the air.
"What can you see, Remus," Dumbledore asked. "How many of them are there?"
Remus took another cautious look through the door.
"All three Lestranges," he said. "And another man, a bit younger. Maybe my age or younger. Frank and Alice and a guy I don't know are tied to the chairs in the middle of the room. Looks like there's another body or two as well, but I can't see them well enough to tell whether they were ours or theirs."
"Probably ours if the Ministry sent a squad of six," Moody noted gruffly. "That's standard practice."
The discussion was interrupted by another burst of screaming, clearly from Alice this time, and Bellatrix Lestrange's unmistakable voice taunting the poor woman.
"Awww. Is the itty bitty healer hurting? Maybe your brave old Auror husband might tell us what we want to know now, rather than seeing little wifey get another dose of the Cruciatus?"
"We don't know anything!" Frank shouted out in desperation. "We've told you. All we know is that the Potters were killed. If your damned Dark Lord disappeared off the face of the earth, how would we know anything about it!"
That earned him another blast with the Cruciatus, and Alice as well, by the sounds of things.
"Just a shame that your friend here wasn't brave enough to stand up to a real man cursing him," Rodolphus said with a sneer, "But maybe we should wake him up again and see if he knows anything?"
"Looking for information about whatever happened to Voldemort," Remus whispered to Sirius as the voices ahead of them grew slightly less loud and only he could hear them. "Plans?"
"Get in there quietly and take them down from behind," Moody suggested.
"One each?" Sirius asked.
"Yep. Your strongest stunners," the grizzled Auror added. "Who gets who?"
"I should take their strongest," Dumbledore offered.
"Bellatrix, then," Moody nodded. "I'll take our unknown guy, as he's the wildcard here. Sirius, Rabastan. Remus, Rudolphus."
They all nodded.
"Quietly, then," he advised, and they crept into the room.
Even as they slipped into the room, something must have alerted the Death Eaters to the fact that they had company.
Bellatrix turned sharply as though she had heard something – perhaps she had a ward set to trip if anyone else entered – but she was alert and aware to their presence almost immediately, and although Dumbledore engaged her immediately with his best stunner, she was easily able to deflect it and there was a fight on in earnest.
It was a fight that lasted barely thirty seconds, though.
The two Lestrange brothers were not as quick to identify the threat and fell to the stunners that Sirius and Remus cast, whilst although the fourth man was quick enough to block Moody's shot, instead of following up with a riposte he chose to make the attackers pay with sorrow instead, and immediately cast the Killing Curse towards the captives. It hit the man who was already unconscious, but now his state was of permanent rather than temporary rest.
Moody took advantage of his opponent's choice of target and fired off a series of curses quickly – a tongue-binding hex, a petrification jinx, a stunner and an incarcerous to wrap things up.
Seeing that she was outnumbered four to one, and one of those being Dumbledore, who was already pressing her heavily, Bellatrix chose to cut her losses.
A final burst of nasty curses to put the Headmaster on the defensive gave her just enough time to activate a Portkey, and she was gone.
"Shit!" swore Sirius. "She got away."
"The only one who did, though," said Moody, as he released Frank and Alice from their bonds. "Get these two to St Mungo's, Albus. They need urgent treatment. We can de-brief them later."
"Agreed," Dumbledore said. "Alice? Frank? If you could take an arm each, I'll help you there."
Both stood rather shakily, and grasped on to the Headmaster, who held tightly and Disapparated with only the slightest of noises, leaving the others to clear up the scene.
"Check what we've got here," Moody told them. "I need to go to the DMLE and get another squad to
come out and tidy this lot up properly."
Moody also Apparated away, leaving Sirius and Remus.
"Are the others all dead?" Remus asked.
Sirius had a quick check. Four Aurors, though he didn't know any of them. One tied to the chair and two others on the floor nearby, plus another body near the doorway on the far side of the room.
"Afraid so," he confirmed. "Who's the Death Eater?"
"He looks familiar," Remus said with a frown looking at the young man with freckles and straw-coloured hair. "He's younger than I thought, as well. Younger than us."
"Must have been at Hogwarts with us. Maybe two, three years lower?"
"Not in Gryffindor, then."
"Err...no. I would hope not. He's a Death Eater."
Remus looked at his friend with a strange expression on his face.
"Haven't we just come to the conclusion that Wormtail was a Death Eater, too?"
"Um..."
"Never mind. Dumbledore will be able to place him. I'm sure he never forgets anyone who went to Hogwarts."