A/N: Still JK's Harry Potter Universe, I own nothing but Mim & the plot. I am self beta-ing at the moment so if you see a glaring error please PM me and let me know so that I can fix it. Hugs to you all for sticking with me! ~M
Seven
The afternoon was uneventful, Sirius took the quiet time, while Miriam napped, to write to Harry. Around three pm Sirius headed up to join Remus in the hunt for the James's mirror, from their maraudering days.
"You know, Moony, I don't understand why you and Tonks won't let me come along as Snuffles, when you go to meet Harry," Sirius complained.
"You know good and well why not. Draco bragged to Harry about his father seeing you at Kings Cross. If you don't want to be found, you have to be smarter than that. The ministry is all over Harry right now and you can't possibly believe that Umbridge won't have an eye on everything he does while in Hogsmeade."
"I know, I just miss him. It's been a month and since that witch has started opening and inspecting all the mail, we have had to basically write in code, since we don't have one set that means very short correspondence. She also is monitoring all the floos. I thought for certain she was going to get a bit of my hair after that last call."
"Padfoot, that is why I suggested the mirrors. This way you two can talk whenever you want and she won't be able to detect anything. Dora and I will also find out what is happening with the kids, so that you won't worry so much," Remus said sympathetically.
"I'm worried about him. He was holding his hand funny during that call and I am concerned about why he was asking the questions he was asking about his father. I forget that he doesn't remember Prongs. We have to do better to tell him about Lily and Prongs and their daily lives, not just the great pranks we pulled," Sirius flopped on his bed.
"Don't worry, Tonks will give them a proper interrogation while we are at lunch with them. I want talk to Ron, Hermione and the Twins too, that way we can have a more rounded account of what is going on at the school," Remus explained, "Harry can be a bit, er, elusive at times."
"Hello, anyone here?"
"Up here, Mim, in Padfoot's room," Remus called down the stairs. Turning to Sirius, he said, "I guess we should spend some time getting familiar with her work so that we can do whatever it is she wants us to do tomorrow, while she is at the Ministry."
"Sorry, I missed tea, Sirius, I guess I was more tired than I thought," Miriam said to the floor as she cleared the uppermost landing.
"That's okay, more for me, love," Sirius winked at her. "Do you want to show us your reports and explain to us exactly what we are looking for? We were thinking that we could get started working for you tomorrow while you are at the Ministry."
"That would be wonderful, I promise there is reason to my mess," she said as they walked into her new work room and she set to explain everything to the men.
"Each act of inappropriate magic is filed by date and time, most recent backwards, then by name of the person associated, when we have one, otherwise by location. For example, this summer when Harry fought off the dementors, that would filed by date, time and then by Harry's name since he is underage and trackable, as well as the location.
Now if an adult were to do inappropriate magic, let's say Harry had been of age when he did the same thing, then it would be filed with the same date and time stamp but with the secondary heading Little Whining, you see, he wouldn't have been tracked so we wouldn't have known who did it until there was an investigation? Now let's say that we later found out later that it was adult Harry that did the magic around a muggle, then we would add the name to the file name in addition to location and time/date. You can Accio file by date or by location or by person, or any combination there of," she smiled at her audience.
"That is an incredible system, did you come up with that?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, it made sense to me, what they were doing before seemed counter intuitive because they had three filing systems, so you had to duplicate everything two or three times," she blushed at the mention of her accomplishment.
"Mim, what do the colors stand for?" Remus had opened one of the filing cabinets, he had returned to its original state.
"Oh yes, that was my idea too," she explained. "The red files are dark magic, black unforgivalbes, grey are neutral, usually accidental magic by children or the elderly, like when Harry made his Aunt resemble a balloon, orange are hexes and jinxes used on Muggles in defense of one's self or another, and green is light magic done at the wrong time, such as the dementor attack on Harry. The files change colors after the investigation, so may start off one color and after the investigation turn another color, most orange files started as red or grey.
"Can you track Magical creature magic, say House Elves?" Remus asked.
"I have been working on that, but no, not yet. Usually it shows up as grey or white," she answered.
Now go over to look at the map board, I could charm it to show me if there were any clusters of dark or questionable magic in any area for a given time period. Let me show you," she tapped the map with her wand, "Revealio Grimmauld Place, thirty September."
The map lit up with white lights around the street in question, "Whoa this place is supposed to be unchartable," Sirius said with a worried look on his face.
Miriam smiled, "First off people don't typically look for light magic which plots as a white light, they would normally ask for questionable magic in an area, I'll do that in a second. What I wanted to point out was that it is showing clusters of magic that are being used in a perfectly sound way. Now Revealio questionable magic in London from twenty-nine August to thirty August last year."
The map lit like a Christmas tree. There were red, grey, orange, green and even one red light with a black center. Remus walked over to the map to get a better idea of where that magic had been done. It was over what he recognized as Moody's house. There was a cluster of red and orange around it.
"So this was what alerted us, even before the call, that something had gone on at Moody's last year. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, Barty Jr did a great job of making everyone believe he was Moody and even more mad than normal," she shook her head with regret.
"So how is it, if you can see the unforgivables, we can't pinpoint who is under Imperious?" Remus asked remembering that Barty Sr had kept Barty Jr under the curse for years.
"Well, that is the flaw in the system that I haven't been able to work out. I can only get a hit when the spell is actually done. I knew that someone had cast an unforgivable at Moody's home that night but there was no one there and Barty Jr, as Moody, told us that he had cast it on a cat to try to flush the culprit out," Her head hung with regret, "He was so believable that we didn't investigate further. He didn't have the look of someone Imperiused and there were no bodies, so Arthur and I believed him."
Wanting to lift her spirits, Sirius walked over to the map and looked around Devon, it was lit with greens and grays, "What is all this going on there?"
"Oh," she giggled, "THAT is the Arthur's house. I give him a special report weekly when the kids are home. He says the greens and grays are a mixture of the twins' pranks and Ron and Ginny's retaliations. You know those twins are capable of some very complex and truly ingenious magic."
"I know and I am both proud and worried for Molly's sake at the same time," both Marauders laughed.
"So, what will you have us do tomorrow?" Remus asked.
"Well, you could start with yesterday's files and work backwards, looking for clusters by date and location but also by location in general. So you could say Revealio clusters of questionable magic in England twenty-four September and then tap the map," she demonstrated, "So looking at the map there are two clusters it found, one here and one here. Accio case files location one," Sirius jumped out of the way as a stack of files flew to the table.
"Now see how most of these are red and grey files, we have to read the files to see what exactly occurred. Sometimes these are the like the pranks the twins play, sometimes these are attacks on people that are meant to be warnings. They should be investigated and they will either stay their original color but get a 'finalized' stamp or change to orange or green."
"Oh I get it, they could be trick items or small attacks meant to be more bothersome that deadly," Remus asked, "like the exploding toilets last year."
"Exactly," Miriam beamed.
"That is incredible magic on its own, Mim" Sirius said honestly impressed.
"You should see the security system she had on her flat, Padfoot."
With a soft pop, Kreacher appeared at the door, "Madame and sirs, dinner is ready when you are." He bowed low and then with a pop he was gone.
"Well, Tonks said not to wait on her for dinner, so we might as well eat, I'm starved anyway," Sirius said as he headed out the door.
"You're always hungry," Remus chuckled following his best mate down the stairs.
Miriam locked the door back and followed after the men.
The Order meeting was brief, as there wasn't much new other than Miriam's job change. The four housemates found themselves retiring to their rooms before midnight to be fresh for the next days work.
Miriam and Tonks left, after a light breakfast of tea and toast with jam, in disguise for the Ministry and the two living Marauders headed up to work on the files Miriam left to them. Sirius for his part was thrilled to actually have something productive to do and occupy his time. He was also glad that, with his house elf, Number Twelve was clean and habitable, if not even welcoming. Remus was enjoying having an inside job that did not risk his very existence and did not involve angry werewolves. Friday flew by for the four housemates and in what seemed like no time, they found themselves sitting around the dinner table swapping stories of their day.
The next day, Remus and Tonks were going to Hogsmeade to meet up with the kids. Sirius and Remus retired early to go and finish his letter to Harry and properly wrap the mirrors, leaving Tonks and Miriam to chat over tea.
"I wish you could go with us," Tonks smiled to her newest and one of her now closest friends.
"I know me too, but it would seem odd, since I haven't met the kids yet and it may keep you from getting as much information as possible out of them. From what I hear they are very bright if not a bit paranoid. Anyway, I think you and Remus should go to dinner afterwards, you know, like an impromptu date," Miriam winked at Tonks.
"I don't think he would go for it but I'll try. What trouble will you and my dear cousin get up to tomorrow with out us here as chaperones," Tonks hedged.
"I don't know, we'll probably work on the files a bit and then,"
"Oh no you don't, you need to take the day off and just relax, this has been quite the week for you. We can all work on the files after Remus and I get back, if need be " Tonks smiled. "There is a rule in this house, all work and no play makes for a very moody Sirius. Let's do all we can to avoid that. He'll be in a state anyway since he can't go to see Harry. You should suggest that he introduce you to Snuffles."
"I may just do that," Miriam smiled as they reached their landing. "See you at breakfast, Tonks."
"G'night, Mim." Each witch went into their own room.
Miriam lay in her bed and looked at the ceiling, in her mind she pictured what Sirius might be doing in the room above her. The floor creaked as he walked across it from his private loo to where she thought the bed would be placed after seeing his room for just a moment that afternoon. She could hear the bed adjust to his weight. She drifted off to sleep comforted by the fact that he was sleeping just above her and somewhat excited by these new found feelings in the pit of her stomach brought on by the handsome wizard who had survived so much.
