"We should probably get rid of the snake too, Albus is right about that." Sirius added a note to the board. "Well, Godric's Hollow is on hold until Bill's out of the hospital and we'll have to wait for him and Caro to have a legitimate reason to be in Hogwarts to search for the diadem."
"Tag the Death Eater worked well for the World Cup." Remus said. "The problem was the rogue who upset the applecart and who apparently is working with Voldemort since Peter was helping him last night."
Sirius took in the pain on Remus's face and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's not your fault he got away."
"It is my fault." Remus argued. "I should have done something more! Tomas thinks he managed to catch him with a cutting hex when Peter transformed to apparate but as it was meant to disable rather than kill, Peter probably survived it. I couldn't even nail Peter with a stunner!"
"Because he transformed into his animagus form." Sirius said. "He's bloody difficult to catch or hit because of his form. I should know!"
Remus pointed his wand at the board and 'find a way to neutralise the rat' appeared. "We need to take away his advantage. There are some old wards that will force an animagus into human form. I'll research them."
Sirius patted his shoulder
"We also need to know who this Hollins guy really is since the real Auror Hollins was busy dealing with the fire." Sirius murmured unhappily.
"Agreed; we need to focus some effort on finding out who the rogue is and shutting him down." Remus said, adding the item to the blackboard.
"I'll settle for killing him." Sirius said evenly.
That Remus didn't argue showed the werewolf's own anger at the man who'd managed to get close enough to Harry to almost kill him.
"We have an unknown rogue and we have Voldemort and the rat staying somewhere unknown. We know they're working together." Remus mused out loud. "None of the known Death Eaters are hiding the bastards."
Sirius frowned. "You think they're staying together?"
"It's probable," Remus said, "since Wormtail admitted that the rogue was acting on Voldemort's order. I think this guy must be whoever is giving Voldemort house-space. Voldemort knows about him. The other Death Eaters don't, yes, which is why Lucius doesn't know about him…but his Master? No. I hate to agree with Lucius but I think he's right; this is someone like Peter; someone Voldemort kept secret in the war."
"Great." Sirius snarled. He swept a hand through his hair.
"Thinking about it, this was all probably an attempt to grab Harry for this ritual we think Voldemort is planning," Remus continued, "if they had Harry, they could keep him terrorised and challenged for the nine months without using the tournament."
"You think the tournament is their plan B?" Sirius asked as his blood ran cold as he thought about Harry being kept somewhere, being tortured and hurt.
"Yes. The more I think about it, the more I do." Remus sighed. "I think I'm pleased Harry has grounded himself until he goes to Hogwarts."
Sirius couldn't speak. He nodded.
It was Remus's turn to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It'll be OK, Padfoot. The other thing that is going well is Harry's training. He needs some more duelling practice but he's good. He survived long enough against someone who downed Bill for help to arrive; that's no mean feat."
"Right," said Sirius, trying to take comfort in Remus's words, "and he knows his animagus form now. He just needs to perfect it. If he could transform…"
"Even if he was abducted, he'd have a way out nobody would suspect." Remus agreed. He sighed and pointed at the board where they'd written 'the power he knows not.' "We have two candidates for this power: the Hallows and the family magic."
"He called the Longbottom magic." Sirius said. "Augusta told me that she'd asked Amelia to change Neville's statement to say family magic rather than detailing that it was theirs and not ours that got called. Harry only said in his statement that he had called family magic."
"Do you think Ollivander's story is right? That Harry as the most powerful wizard of his generation can call on all of the family magic?" Remus asked.
"Maybe, or it could be the oath of fealty allowed Harry to call Neville's family magic when Neville was in danger – Neville pledged his magic to Harry." Sirius sighed and shrugged. "We still know so little about how it works and Harry's relationship to it."
"Which leaves us with the Hallows." Remus sighed. "The source Ollivander quoted wasn't in your grandfather's papers. I haven't been able to track it down. I think I should ask Ollivander."
"We're not there yet." Sirius cautioned him. "We still have to confront Albus about the wand."
"Are you telling Harry as planned?" asked Remus frowning.
"Yes," Sirius nodded, "and we'll discuss what he wants to do." He sighed. "I want to protect him but he needs to know that Albus will continue to keep things from him."
"And justify it all with 'it's for his own good.'" Remus added with a touch of bitterness.
"Or the Greater Good," pointed out Sirius wryly, "whichever he feels will most suit the situation at hand." He shook himself briskly like Padfoot and did a tempus charm. "I'm going to head to St Mungo's. I promised Harry I'd look in on Bill and the rest of the Weasley clan personally since he can't leave the house."
Remus nodded crisply. "Leave the board out. I want to have a think and maybe add a couple of things."
Sirius patted his back. "Thanks, Moony."
It didn't take long to get to the floo and travel to the premier wizarding hospital. He had left orders that the Weasleys be treated with the honour bestowing an Ancient and Noble House so he wasn't surprised to find they'd been designated a private suite on the Spell Damage Ward. He bought a couple of things from the gift shop and headed up in one of the lifts with a surprisingly cheerful ghost who had died two weeks before from choking on a chicken bone in the waiting room.
He slowed in the corridor as he spotted Percy Weasley outside the suite door in the corridor, facing the wall and crying into the sleeve of his robe.
"Percy?" prompted Sirius gently. "Is…are you alright?" He huffed. "Stupid question, I know, I mean obviously you're not alright. How could you be alright with half your family in the hospital?"
"That's not…" Percy swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, and Sirius juggled the balloons and gifts to hand him a handkerchief. "Sorry, Lord Black."
"Call me Sirius." Sirius corrected softly. "Now, what's the problem?"
Percy hesitated but he heaved a sigh and gave in to the need to confide in someone. "I had to go into work this morning. The department has a huge amount of clean-up to do and Mister Crouch is still recovering from the flu – he had to leave straight after the match yesterday and sent an owl this morning rather than coming in himself!" He said defensively. "I took an early lunch break so I could come and see everyone but they're all mad at me anyway."
"Because you went to work rather than staying with your family?" Sirius clarified.
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