Next chapter! It's short, I know, but I thought it was better to make it a little more interesting. I hope you like it and I'd be happy to know your opinion. And I think the next chapter will be longer again, slowly it's getting stranger and soon, the exciting part of this story will begin (;

I don't own the characters or places in this story!

Chapter 7

James POV

"Dark Magic…" James muttered and shook his head slowly. "Do you think this is true, Pads?" He looked at Sirius, who was sitting next to him in an armchair. They were in the Gryffindor common room and it was late in the evening. Everyone else had already gone to bed.

Sirius nodded darkly. "Why should he lie about this? And it is obvious that the Ministry has some problems, the papers are reporting about it all the time. So, it would fit together, wouldn't it?"

James shrugged his shoulders. Sirius was right, but it still seemed a bit off the ground to him that there were many incidents with Dark Magic involved… No one would be mad enough to use it, or were there people that evil? Probably there were. "But do all those cases belong together?" He spoke his next thought loudly and shot Sirius a questioning look.

"I think so. Or do you believe it's possible that suddenly a dozen people are interested in the Dark Arts and torture and kill people?"

James shook his head. "No. I would love to know who's behind all this…" He muttered and Sirius nodded with a yawn.

The next morning, they were sitting on their table in the Great Hall. They hadn't told Remus and Peter about their conversation the previous evening yet since they hadn't found the time to talk in private. Nevertheless, Remus seemed to think about the conversation they had heard at dinner as well because he was looking even more thoughtful than usual.

"Where's Professor Dumbledore?" Sirius asked suddenly and James looked up from his breakfast.

"What do you mean?"

"He's not on the table of the teachers. And normally, he's there every morning."

James shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he doesn't feel good?" He saw that his suggestion didn't convince Sirius.

"Dumbledore and not feeling good?" Sirius asked suspiciously and raised an eyebrow.

Next to them, Remus cleared his throat. "I don't know if you have noticed it, but I haven't seen Dumbledore for a few days now." He said slowly and now James and Sirius looked at him curiously.

"Why didn't you say that before?" James asked immediately and looked at the teachers table again. Everyone was there except for the headmaster; even Professor Slughorn and normally he was the one who came too late.

"Why should it be important?" Remus shrugged. "Maybe he's got something else on his mind now, who knows?"

"I want to know it." James couldn't stop himself from sounding a little harsh. "Maybe it's got something to do with the things we heard yesterday evening." And why shouldn't it be like that? After all, they were talking about Dumbledore, who was always involved in everything important that was happening.

"Don't you think that it's unlikely, Prongs?" Sirius asked and James could hear the doubt in his voice. But why shouldn't it be like that? Somehow, James knew that he was right…

"Why? Come on, why? We're talking about Dumbledore and you all know him as well as I do. If it's really about-" He stopped for a moment to look around. When he was sure that no one else listened to their conversation, he continued a little quieter. "If it's about Dark Magic and that stuff, Dumbledore couldn't look away, could he?"

"Well, we all know that he hates it, that's right… And he also went to stop Grindelwald when he became too dangerous… But this is different, isn't it?" Remus said hesitantly and James knew that it was impossible to convince him without a proof.

"Why should this be different? Just because the Ministry doesn't let us know about it- "

"We don't even know if it's true what the boy said." Remus cut in and James rolled his eyes. It was obvious that Remus didn't believe his own words.

"Don't talk that way, Moony." Sirius said and James shot him a grateful look. "You know that it's true as good as we do."

With a sigh, Remus gave in. "But that doesn't mean that Dumbledore is involved in any of this."

"We'll have to find it out, then." James explained and now even Sirius raised his eyebrows at him.

"And how are we supposed to do that? If you might have forgotten it, we already want to find our something about the death of Anna Broadwell. Don't you think that it's getting too much, James?" he asked and James shook his head.

"If I'm right, it's all connected. So we still are after one thing and not more. Where's the problem?"

"The problem? Oh, it's nothing. Just that this time, we may have something in mind which is far too big for us- " Whatever else Sirius wanted to say was drowned by the sound of fluttering wings. A big grey owl landed right in front of him and when he saw the bewildered expression on his best friend's face, James realized that this had to be an owl of the Blacks.

"What the hell is this?" Remus asked and looked confused from the owl to Sirius. "Do you know to whom it belongs?"

Sirius just stared at the owl in silence. James thought that he kind of looked sick. Beginning to get worried, he placed his hand on Sirius' arm. "What is it, Sirius?" he asked quietly and slowly, Sirius turned to look at him.

"I know whose owl this is." He swallowed. "And I don't think if I like it."

"Why?" he asked, still not daring to speak louder.

"It belongs to my brother Regulus."