Chapter Eight – Beguilement & Broomsticks
What the rulebook says
will change; in time, all ink is
disappearing ink.
- verse 91; 101 Corporate Haiku; William Warriner
***
Remus Lupin quietly made his way down a darkened Muggle alley, impressed that the Ministry had managed to put it back to rights so quickly. Indeed not a single owl feather remained to be seen, and the tiny dirty door with the small sign reading 'Deliveries – Please Knock' was back against a solid brick wall he now knew to be connected to Eeylops'. The pavement in the alleyway ended several metres in from the sidewalk, transitioning into the wild cobbling favoured on wizard roads. Remus assumed at this point he had reached an area guarded heavily by charms to dissuade the Muggles. No doubt to their eyes this passage ended at this point, but Remus could easily see it went on for a while. There were some things, though, that the wizards could not cover or simply didn't think to bother with. The smell of goblins was strong, but not so strong that Remus couldn't also pick out the faint traces of his daughter as well.
Trying to keep his mind calm as he searched the alley, he absently mulled over the fact that even as his children had aged, their scents remained essentially the same from the day they were born. He had expected them to smell like Katie or himself, but they each were unique and each one of them had quickly figured that out. The games of cat and mouse one generally played with one's parents took on interesting twists at the Lupin home as a result since the children knew they had to contend with their father's heightened senses. Scented candles seemed to become a popular item for a while and Remus was just daft enough that it took him a few months before he figured out what the little darlings were up to. And his colds were greeted with cheers on more than one occasion. Remus gave up trying to act dignified and offended by such goings on, as he knew better, though he would put on a great display of 'head of the house' once things reached a certain fever pitch.
Remus stopped a bit back from the line where the tarmac ended and leaned against the wall trying to look like a casual, if rather shady, Muggle. Katie had not asked him, thank goodness, why he had come home to change into rather worse-for-wear Muggle clothes before he set off to do whatever he was up to. To add to his look of 'civilian layabout', he had also snagged something from his study on his way back to London. Remus reached into his pocket and slowly took out an old pack of cigarettes; they had been confiscated from a highly indignant Roarke a few years back. She had stormed out of his study after his lecture on her health only to reappear a while later with an old box. This was dropped on Remus' desk, opened, and then his daughter whipped out a highly incriminating picture of himself, James Potter and Houghton Adams lying about on the grass behind the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts drinking butterbeers and smoking. Remus hadn't blinked, and simply told his daughter that that picture was taken when he was 17, so she could come back for the cigarettes in two years. Roarke never did reclaim the property, but when she was seventeen she had sent him a howler on the anniversary of their 'chat' calling him a total hypocrite but saying she loved him anyway.
Remus smiled softly at the memory as he lit one of the pieces of contraband and gazed about slowly trying to make out any personal wards concealing an Auror set to watch the site. Certainly there had to be Aurors about keeping an eye things, and Remus couldn't afford to get caught. He had only limited time where he could pull off this particular ruse before someone came for a closer look and discovered what he really was. At the very least, his actions would probably keep the goblins away from him if they came about, as they most likely didn't want to risk running into any human right now, wizard or Muggle. Remus coughed lightly at the smoke, but knew he didn't have to really inhale. It no longer seemed as fanciful as it had at 17, but it wasn't that bad, though there was no mistaking that these were particularly stale from age.
Still keeping carefully on the Muggle side of the alley Remus paced a bit, always watching the other side out of the corner of his eye. There were no obvious Aurors lurking about, and Remus couldn't see an evidence of alarm spells. It was possible, though doubtful, that they simply left the site once they repaired it and would only be back during the day to inspect everything. Or, lastly, they had no intelligence concerning the door and were working under the assumption the goblins that had fled with Roarke, Griffin and Billy were far from this place. Or they could have been deliberately told this was the case by the Dahn-Senge council. None of them had any clear idea as to what was really going on with the goblins and Gringotts.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, there was absolutely no hint of any goblin-gate. Remus had hoped that since he technically wasn't a human he would at least be able to see a trace of something; but even to him there was nothing out of the ordinary. He carefully made note of the size of the alley, of the windows on the Muggle buildings in front of the barrier, and the brickwork walls of the buildings. That was a stroke of luck at least; passing through concrete to get into the alley was a lot trickier than pealing back brickwork. Once he was done with the cigarette Remus turned and went back to the main street. Still no sign of wizards anywhere, but Remus had been involved with too much over his life to simply accept the Aurors left no alarms about.
"Signum Lupin"
Remus whispered the spell to cast his own marker on the place, in case the Ministry came back soon to cloak the area or worse, to make it unplottable. That always had disastrous effects on the Muggle traffic, but the Ministry had taken the precaution a few times when the situation was dire enough. He then apparated home to think of their next moves.
The light was on in the kitchen, and Remus could hear Katie and Liz talking with Malcolm.
Remus couldn't bring himself to involve Malcolm in what he was about to do. Were there to be any repercussions, he did not want his son's career to be jeopardized, and Malcolm was already on shaky ground with the Department of Mysteries simply because he was Remus' son. It had taken a lot of lobbying from Minerva, Draco and Dexter Tanner himself to assure Malcolm was offered a position as an Auror-in-training; a position anyone else with his marks and test scores wouldn't have even had to ask for. Malcolm had, essentially, begged to be offered the job and most likely would be 'on approval' his entire career. Remus was damned if he was going to do a single thing to hurt Malcolm.
Eager to hear if there was any new news about what had happened, Remus practically ran into the kitchen. Malcolm caught his eye immediately and Remus actually stopped in his tracks at the expression on his son's face. Malcolm looked uncharacteristically livid, and he pursed his lips so tightly for a moment white lines appeared around his mouth. Then he stood up to face Remus and spoke in an overly controlled tone.
"Where have you been?"
"Malcolm?"
Malcolm seemed to literally explode as he started waving an angry hand at his father, punching the air sharply for emphasis as he continued.
"Where have you been? What on EARTH could have been more important than being here, with your family, as we are trying to deal with this situation? You just left Mum? No! Don't even try to say anything right now, as I have a damn good idea what you may have been about and I am telling you right now that you are to leave this alone, and let us deal with it!"
Remus kept silent, and gave Katie a glance. His wife was looking at Malcolm with a semi-shocked expression, obviously as taken aback by her son's outburst as Remus was. Well, they both well knew that Malcolm had a terrible temper when he finally got angry over something, but it still startled them when he let go like this.
"Malcolm, sweetie, your father…."
Katie stopped as Malcolm turned to her and just held up a finger to silence her. She did, however, give him a rather startled and somewhat appalled look. Even Liz gave Malcolm a rather hard stare as he silenced his mother.
"Mum, don't. I know how the various brains running about here work. So, may I say, does Mr. Tanner," added Malcolm, in a quieter but still cross voice. He looked back at Remus.
"The Ministry is dealing with this; most of the Department of Mysteries and a significant portion of the Department of Magical law Enforcement. And, what you can't know yet, since you were out…is that the Dahn-Senge is also working with us collaboratively. We are not sure what is happening just yet, but the Goblin Council is not happy, and the fact that whoever is causing this mess has done something that so deeply drags the Wizards into it all has basically got us a guarantee from them that Roarke, Griffin and that Stockwell Muggle will be returned post-haste."
"I'm sure they want to do that so we will 'back off' them as soon as possible," commented Remus. Malcolm nodded and his shoulders softened a bit as he sighed.
"Yes, for the most part. I think that this is very good news for us, of course, but I need to know….I need to know that you and Sirius will let us do our jobs and not interfere. I can imagine that this is driving you as mad as it is making me. Probably more," he added, now giving a very shaky smile to his parents. Katie nodded, but managed to smile back at him.
"Malcolm…."
Again Malcolm signalled for silence and Remus immediately shut up, waiting to hear what Malcolm had to say.
"Look, Dexter Tanner and I had a bit of a talk about this. He's going to let me stay on this project, despite the fact that as a rule family are not permitted to participate in investigations involving relatives. I want you, and Sirius, to recognise that as the peace offering Mr. Tanner intends it to be – he seems rather convinced that you two will take this whole thing into your own hands. I protested a bit, but he seems to be of the opinion that he knows you better than I do when it comes to this sort of thing, and considering your histories together through two wars, I will give him that point. So, promise me this; stay out of this for the next few days! Besides," and now Malcolm gave another ghost of a smile, "it's the full moon tomorrow. You can't go roaming about then anyway, can you? So this really shouldn't be a difficult thing to promise me…."
Remus looked at his son's expectant face, and remembered that he promised himself he would never do anything he could avoid to endanger Malcolm's future. And Remus, breaking the very laws he had helped to create regarding the rights of werewolves, would not be helping. But, if Malcolm knew nothing, and could swear that he knew nothing, even if Remus were caught, he would be in the clear.
"Malcolm, I promise I won't cause trouble after the full moon."
Malcolm looked up at him and finally smiled. Then he gave Remus' clothes a rather pointed glance.
"Dad, what on Earth are you doing dressed like some tramp?"
Remus looked down and frowned. "These are my gardening clothes!"
"You're gardening at this hour? And I thought Annie told you you could never wear that shirt in her presence again."
"Malcolm, is there anything else the Ministry knows?" asked Remus, anxious to know more of what was happening and anxious to get Malcolm off of his current line of questioning.
"No, Remus-love," said Katie sadly, but she did manage a smile. "But I did have a short conversation with Dexter in addition to Malcolm's news. The Dahn-Senge is actually being co-operative over this matter; seems there really is more than a little fury over the kidnapping."
"Goblins don't like to involve wizards in their arguments, if they can avoid it," sighed Liz. "But they've done just that. Seems the official feeling on that is total outrage. And, Dexter was reasonably emphatic that whoever has done this, well, the kidnapping, did it on a whim for the purpose of getting out of that Alley. Seems convinced the children may simply 'turn back up' on their own."
Malcolm gave a chuckle even as he stood and then drained a mug he picked up from the table.
"Thanks for the tea, Mum, but I need to get back now." Here Malcolm looked at Remus and said, pointedly, "you look like you could use a mug yourself."
Remus smiled grimly as he crossed his arms and looked at the slate floor. "Malcolm, I'm …I'll be…fine. As soon as I get my child back, and those goblins learn a damn good lesson!" Remus saw Liz cringe a bit at this, but she settled down with a set look quickly enough.
Malcolm turned to look back over his shoulder even as he raised his wand to Apparate.
"Dad; don't worry too much about it. Very, very talented people are working on bringing them all back safely. Honestly, you do sound rather like you're going to have some sort of middle-age crisis and bound off yourself to put it all right promise or not!"
Katie and Liz both gave Remus amused looks, but thankfully kept silent as Remus returned their gaze with a 'my-son-still-thinks-I'm-sensible-so-just-hush-up' expression.
"I really never saw myself as one prone to panicking over my grey hair," was all he said in a very casual voice.
Malcolm did laugh, and then said "Look, I need to go and speak with Draco. He helped me with something a while back that just might be a clue as to what is going on. Tell Sirius to settle down as well when he gets back from setting fire to the Dahn-Senge offices and explain to him that he is also not to go running off into the night with his wand raised high. Honestly; you two let us do our jobs; we can do this without the Wonder Wizard Twins."
Malcolm gave his dad one final smile. "I'll send word as soon as I hear anything. Bye mum, bye Liz!" And Malcolm was gone with a whispered spell and a flick of his wand.
After his son had vanished, Remus went over and kissed Katie then squeezed Liz's hand as he sat down between them. "Is Dexter really that optimistic?"
"He is, love."
Liz seemed to want to say something, but just then Katie sat straight up with a worried expression.
"Liz, where is Annie? You said she was at your house, but I didn't see her come back here with you!"
Remus was on his feet immediately, moving towards the kitchen door, where he promptly ran directly into Gary Weasley who was just coming in. Annie was right behind him.
"Gary! Sorry!"
"No problem, Remus. I'm afraid we dozed off in the living room; just woke up and saw the time…."
"And worried that there may be a bit of a fuss 'cause the Weasleys don't know he's here," finished Annie. She gazed quietly at her dad and then noticed his shirt.
"Ugh, haven't you burned that thing, Daddy?"
Remus ignored her and shooed the children into the kitchen in front of him. "We've just been talking with Malcolm. The Ministry is going full out to find Roarke and Griffin…."
"And Billy!" added Gary.
"Yes, and Mr. Stockwell. He may be most relieved of all to be rescued, not so much from being harassed by creatures that don't exist in his mind but from being cooped up with Roarke and Griffin. They do tend to argue in a rather spectacular fashion."
Annie glowered and sat on the chair with her mother.
"Roarke claims he's the irascible one, but she seems to be the instigator of their quarrels."
Remus and Liz shared an amused glance, but then Remus turned back to Gary.
"Thanks very much for looking after Annie, but we had better get you home immediately; your parents are probably going mad wondering where you are."
"Actually, Remus, Katie; if it's all the same, I'd rather stay here, if I might," Gary said, giving Annie a small look. Annie smiled back at him.
"Well of course, if that's alright with your family."
"I'm sure they won't mind." Remus nodded at Gary, and laughed to himself at the sight of the decidedly Weasley face gazing at him with the Granger expression of calm determination. Gary was a rock, and having him about the house would most likely be a boon to the situation. At the very least, it would distract Annie so she would have no idea as to what he and Sirius and Draco were up to.
How Remus was going to distract his wife was going to be another matter entirely. But as he watched Annie and Gary, he suddenly had an idea; a good idea, a Marauder-worthy idea. An idea he would hear about for the rest of his life, but it was worth it.
***
Sirius groaned as he and Draco Apparated into the Three Broomsticks and Sirius looked out the window. It was a positive blizzard outside, and the wind was so bad it rattled the frames of the windows.
"Why, Professor!"
Sirius turned to see that Seamus Finnegan was looking at Draco from behind the bar and waving him over.
"What'cha doing back up here, Malfoy? Thought you were away for the holidays."
Draco nodded and asked for two butterbeers, "I am. But something has demanded I come back here for a bit." At that he leaned forward and spoke to his former classmate very quietly for a few moments. Sirius saw Seamus look up at him and then burst out laughing.
"Oi, Black! You are a mad old fellow aren't you? Ah well, drink up! At least you'll be a little warmer!"
Sirius came up to the bar and gave Draco a suspicious look, but Malfoy simply raised his glass in a toast and started to drink. It seemed from Finnegan's reaction that the news of what had happened in London earlier had, somehow, not already been spread among the community. That did make Sirius feel somewhat better, for if he and Draco were seen together, and the situation known, suspicions would immediately arise. But if the owner of the Three Broomsticks hadn't an idea of the incident, then it was pretty safe to say the Ministry had successfully locked down for a while. Whatever Draco had said to Finnegan to explain their being here, it obviously amused the man rather than worried him.
Sirius looked back at Seamus and smiled.
"How are you then, Finnegan?"
"Beamin' and happy," smiled Seamus. "And keeping a close eye on that little chap you sent up here...oh!" Seamus noticed the broom Sirius held now, and actually started to chuckle, and traded a knowing look with Draco.
"An Icarus! Barrington's close to banning those from the school; keep throwing the younger ones who have managed t'convince their Da they can handle them. He swears he's going to write t'the company and tell them they mustn't allow anyone not a professional Quidditch player to have one. Too powerful, ya know." Again Seamus gave Draco a smirking look and Sirius saw Draco grin into his drink. Sirius was increasingly curious as to what Malfoy had said to Finnegan, but he just shrugged.
"It's Griffin's. But he refuses to use it, so I guess he is safe from the Flying Instructor."
Seamus laughed harder. "Sirius Black, yer boy hates the air and you give him that? Typical! But … you were a champion for Gryffindor, were you not?"
Seamus now had a rather shrewd look Sirius didn't particularly like, but he just smiled and nodded. "Well, I was a beater my last 4 years. And we did win the Quidditch Cup the last two years I played. But that was mostly James Potter's doing."
Seamus nodded and smiled, and winked at Draco. "Listen ta that! A humble beater! Forgive me, Black, but I spent a long time with the Weasley twins as the house beaters, and to hear them tell it every victory was thanks t'them!"
Both Draco and Seamus now roared with laughter.
"Drink up, Black," said Draco when he had stopped laughing. "You'll need that for what we're going to do."
Sirius drank the butterbeer in silence, still suspicious and watching closely as Draco and Seamus chatted about school gossip while he finished. Once he put down the glass, he went for his pocket, but Seamus shook his head.
"That one's on the house, Black, for the honour of Gryffindor House. Try not t'make us look too bad, promise?" Sirius was now seriously annoyed as Seamus and Draco snickered again, but only said 'thanks' and followed Draco out the door.
"What was THAT about then?"
Draco looked non-plused at Sirius's tone and merely gave a small smile.
"Well, I had to give an excuse for our being here, didn't I? I told him you and I had a bet as to who could finish the training course at the Quidditch pitch first; that we had argued over who was a better flyer, the seeker or the beater."
"So my ongoing image as a juvenile delinquent is intact?" grumbled Sirius, as they set off down the street.
"Oh, I assured Finnegan we were both rather drunk and just having a laugh. But he seems to be of the opinion you will be flattened."
Sirius simply pulled his hood up over his head and kept his thoughts to himself now as he and Draco walked to the edge of Hogsmead and took off up the road towards Hogwarts, and the Dark Forest. After they were well clear of the lights of the town, despite the fact that they seemed to be the only two daft enough to be out in the snow, they stopped and prepared to mount their brooms.
"Right. I have a general idea of where Charles and Elvira are, and I think we can safely assume they will be in cover in this maelstrom. They will, however, take notice of us if we fly about long enough and certainly one or both will come to greet me. Let me take the lead, Black. I do need you here to help me obscure them as we fly back to London, but I would not recommend that you try to do anything I don't first ask you to, once I have their permission. Right?"
Draco casually leaned forward slightly and rose to hover a few feet above the ground before he glanced back at Sirius and waved his hand for Sirius to get a move on. Sirius gave him a bit of a glare, but held his tongue. Considering the last time he had infuriated the griffins they had bit the hell out of his ankles, and at that time they were each only the size of a small cat, Draco was right to caution him against upsetting anything that was now most likely the size of Griffin's first pony and could bite far worse areas of his anatomy with ease. Sirius jumped onto the Icarus and immediately wished he hadn't seemed quite as eager as the broom incorrectly assumed that this meant he was ready to shoot up into the stratosphere. Sirius managed to wrench the broom to a stop about 50 feet from the ground, but he swore to himself as he lurched a bit, holding the broom in place. The broom seemed to want to make up for the two years it had spent in the corner, unloved and unwanted.
Draco flew past Sirius a few seconds later, pointing in the direction of the western part of the forest. With the slightest encouragement from Sirius, the Icarus shot off in the general direction Draco pointed. It took Sirius a few minutes to get the feel for the broom, but once he determined how incredibly sensitive it was to his slightest suggestion, he had it flying well, and was lapping Malfoy. He glanced over his shoulder at his companion, barely seen as a dark shadow in the heavy snowfall, and now grinned as that mark fell further back. Sirius spotted where Malfoy was and then directed the Icarus to execute a near perfect loop-de-loop that landed Sirius back at Malfoy's side, in perfect tandem with Malfoy.
Draco seemed to pay Sirius no attention, and pushed his own broom on at a faster pace now, and dove down to sail along the roadway that led to the edge of the forest. Not wanting to be shown up by Draco, Sirius followed, and again quickly outpaced the other flyer. This time Sirius turned sharply to the right and executed a zigzag pattern that once more brought him to Draco, this time face to face with the man who now sat on his immobile broom, hovering about 100 feet over the ground at the very edge of the forest.
Draco managed, even in the near blizzard conditions, to look faintly bored and terribly well mannered. He gave Sirius his customary sliver of a smile that warned those in the know that he was about to say something rather pithy, even though he had to shout in this instance to be heard rather than simply purr his observation as was his custom.
"Well, not bad for an old Beater, Black. Still, it's interesting to note that Beaters seem to have had a universal style for generations; choppy, heavy and showy."
Sirius couldn't stop himself from bellowing back, "of course we fly heavier than you Seeker prats! We're trying to stop YOU from being FLATTENED!" Black removed a hand for a moment to try and get his soaking hair out of his eyes, but re-grabbed the handle of the impossibly powerful broom as it immediately listed to the left dangerously and started to pick up speed. He did manage to pull it around in an elegant turn quickly enough, but Malfoy had started off again, now diving like a rocket right at the roof of the forest, and – Blast him! - laughing. And he also made an exaggerated show of pulling one hand away to signal Black to follow him.
"Right, Malfoy; that's it. Bloody Seekers always think the rest of us are just sort of there…!"
It occurred to Sirius all of a sudden that he had no idea how they were going to locate the griffins, particularly in the current weather. Draco, however, did seem to know where he was going as he set a very deliberate course. They had now come to fly only a few feet from the tops of the trees, and Sirius noticed Draco peering down from time to time, seeming to try and see something in the darkness sailing past beneath them.
They made two passes at the western edge of the forest, Draco actually flying lower each time. By the time Sirius had been smacked about the head by the seventh rather heavy branch that Draco seemed to be charming out of his path and snapping back to whack Sirius, he'd absolutely had enough of this particular wacky race.
Sirius aimed his broom and shot away ahead of Draco, and then plunged into an open clearing ahead of them in the forest. He did a quick circle of the clearing, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, and decided to take a quick rest. Pulling up sharply at the edge of the forest he looked up to spot Malfoy. Malfoy shot across the clearing above him, but at the last moment pulled his broom to circle in an upside-down loop and come back to the centre of the open space. Sirius watched as Malfoy seemed to be yelling at him, and opened his mouth to tell him to shut up.
The only sound that came from Sirius Black, however, was a loud 'ooph!' as something surged from the ground below him and knocked him clear off his broom to fall several metres to the forest floor. The wind was knocked from him, but Sirius was spared serious injury by having landed in a large pricker bush. He lay there for a moment, catching his breath, and then registered where he was and struggled to free himself from the thorns of the shrub. Sirius managed to wrench himself from the bush, and as he fell to the proper forest floor, considered for a moment that he could have spared himself this decidedly uncomfortable and undignified broom dismount by drawing his wand. As he fell down into a shallow snow drift, however, he became resolved to the fact that this was a moot point.
Sirius shook himself off and jumped to his feet, shaking his head and flinging snow and twigs from himself as he now tried to get his wand out. His hand hadn't quite closed on the handle though when he was once more face down on the forest floor, and this time with two heavy, clawed feet on his back and a growling sound of an incredibly displeasing timbre in his ear. Instinctively Sirius froze even as he began to catalogue all of the beasties loose in this place that may possess the attributes that were presenting themselves. The growl, however, switched to a chirrupy gurgle and the feet came off his back. Sirius pushed himself onto his knees slowly and glanced over his shoulder.
Draco stood a bit away, orbs of blue flame hovering over his slowly shaking head and flanked by two very large griffins. He said nothing, only gave Sirius an expectant look. Sirius cleared his throat, wiped his hands off on his robe front, noted this only made them filthier, and then stood up.
"Well, they have grown a bit, haven't they?"
"Indeed. Still don't like you very much, though. Long memories, these fellows."
"Whatever. Can…how do you communicate to them?"
Draco looked rather surprised and glanced at Charles and Elvira in turn. They each gave a bleat and simultaneously leaned up against each side. Sirius looked openly surprised.
"They're telepathic?"
Draco did laugh at that and rapped his arms around their necks to give them a hardy pat then stepped away.
"Nonsense. They do understand speech to a certain extent. Rather like…well, rather like very well trained dogs, you know." Sirius didn't miss how the magic illumination made Draco's smirk all that more well defined.
"Lovely," he growled. "Then tell them to 'heel' and let's get back to London immediately. Best we finish moving them before first light, don't you think?"
Draco nodded, and he bent over and straightened with his and Sirius' brooms in each hand.
"Actually, I have a question that perhaps you and I should have discussed before we reached this point."
"What now, Malfoy?"
"Where the bloody blazes are we going to keep the little dears until tomorrow night? We can't have them where the Ministry may get wind of them, and they are not exactly easily shut up in a small space."
Sirius did think about this for a long moment.
***
Sirius and Draco peered from the bushes of the small walled garden at the centre of the posh housing block near Pall Mall in St. James. They saw nobody about, and the faint sounds of traffic suggested that they would have a few clear minutes at least to get across the road with the griffins and then get into the house. Provided, of course, that cousin Harold could be persuaded.
Sirius flicked his wand and opened the garden gate, waving Draco after him. As the griffins sauntered from the lawn to the path, however, Sirius and Draco froze at the loud 'clack-clack-clack' of their claws on the pavement. Draco quickly cast a silencing spell on their feet, which Charles and Elvira did not seem to care for. The griffins pranced a bit, shaking their feet out gingerly. They disliked the vocal silencing spell Draco quickly cast as they started to open their beaks to voice a protest even more. Their eyes flared even as all of the feathers on their necks ruffled and stood straight out in a typical display of griffin fury.
"Smart move," whispered Sirius; "wait right here. I'm going to go wake up Harold."
"Hurry up. Dawn's coming and if you think silencing spells upset them imagine what cloaking will do to them."
Sirius Apparated into the front hall of his cousin's large, Muggle-style 1920's home, and lit his wand dimly to help himself navigate the stairs to reach the third floor where the bedrooms were. He double-checked all the guestrooms to make sure Harold wasn't hosting any of the odd assorted guests he tended to have about. Luckily it seemed even the misfit wizard crowd all had homes to go to over the holidays, probably pointed out to them in loud no-nonsense terms such as Liz had used to express her unhappiness over Harold's original intent to spend the holiday in Spain for the purpose of observing some sort of beetle migration. Harold had instead shown up at his cousin's home in perfectly pressed new robes and sporting a haircut on Christmas morning, and settled for talking to Griffin about the beetles, rather than observing them.
Sirius went into the master bedroom and brought the fire up. Harold was buried in this bed under heaps of blankets and crups. Sirius deliberately stayed in the doorway and gave out a very loud whistle.
The bed erupted into a seething mass of yipping fur and sputtering wizard. "OI NOW! Settle out!" cried Harold Black, even as he swatted blankets at his pets to try and quiet them down. "What the….?" Harold now noticed the fire was up, and then his head turned to see Sirius, who waved at him.
"Get on, Sirius! What'd you want to make an entrance like this for? What…what time is it for Merlin's sake?!"
"Rather early. Listen, Harold, you'll see this in the Prophet this morning, but you need to know that something's happened to Griffin…."
"What, what!?!" Harold was up now, crups pouring off the bed after him. "Is he alright?"
"I don't know…look, I need your help. Lock that pack of hellhounds in this room and come with me, please."
Harold grabbed his wand and his dressing gown, said something to the five animals leaping about at his feet that got them all to sit immediately and led Sirius into the hall, charming the door shut behind him.
"Well? What's going on and what can I possibly do?"
"Harold, you know how people always tease that Hufflepuffs aren't brave? You're going to get the chance of a lifetime to shut all that nonsense up once and for all…."
***
Kilometres below the apprehensive figure of Harold Black following his younger and more adventurous cousin down the fashionable white marble steps of the art-deco stairs of his Muggle-designed home, Harold's second cousin was plotting something he would later deem far more sinister than what was in store for him in the next 30 seconds.
Griffin Black, youngest current member of a long and distinguished yet notably eccentric house of Wizards, was about to consent to something fantastically inappropriate for normal circumstances. Given that he was currently inundated with extraordinary circumstances, he hoped that history would be kind to him and not brand him yet another 'odd duck' in the family line. Not that he had anything against the odd ducks; they were lovely, and none more so than his own father, but contemplating moments such as this reminded him just how much of his mother's sensibility infused his DNA.
Billy Stockwell was a trooper. A real trouper and possibly one who deserved more than where his own fate had led him to. Of course, any Muggle less than this chap would ruin the whole plan, so there one was.
"Griffin?"
Griffin shifted his sympathetic gaze from the young man idly trying to look calm as he studied the wall of the vault he was locked in, as the woman he currently had a bit of a fancy on had asked him. Griffin turned instead to give Roarke Lupin a rather pointed look.
"So we understand each other….Are you suggesting we transfigure Billy in some way?"
"Yes." Roarke didn't even seem remotely abashed at this idea. Griffin have her a tense look.
"He's no hedgehog, Firecracker."
"Well, bloody good thing. We need him to talk; well, we might."
"You are going to transfigure him into…?"
"A goblin. What else? The door will recognize nobody save a goblin. You and I can't handle trying to break it…."
"Then why did you have me searching for the pennwij in the first place?!"
Roarke gave Griffin a rather huffy glance. "I needed to make certain that the thing was in the door, didn't I? Look, I know a fair amount of Tuath, but not enough to break their spells on locks."
Griffin raised an eyebrow at her.
"Isn't that the most important thing for these mugs? Why were they so interested in you if you can't break…."
"I can counter their curses. Look, the more I think about it, the more I think that those who … invited me back as it were… wanted me because I could 'help', against my own knowledge, with this little insurrection. No matter with that now though. The next issue is how do we get him on the other side of the door?"
"Can't you Apparate him there?"
Roarke pursed her lips and shook her head. "No. I've only just got the hang of Apparating myself. I'll spilch the poor chap for sure."
Griffin's hands clenched in his pockets as he took a deep breath to try and calm himself, as he could feel a rather sharp stress headache coming on. As he did this, however, he snagged something tucked into the farthest rather crumbly corner of his trousers. He looked up at Roarke so quickly she blinked and took a step back.
"What?"
Griffin pulled his hand out and showed her what he'd found.
"A rock?"
"Not just a rock, my safety rock!"
"Come again?"
"When I was about 8, my mum taught me how to make a portkey. Made her and dad feel better…well, probably made dad feel better, knowing that if worse came to worse, I could get myself out of trouble, or at least get some distance between me and whatever it was."
"You learned to make a portkey at eight?" Roarke actually sounded impressed.
"Not a really powerful one, but enough to get a goblin to the other side of that door!"
Roarke looked for a second as if she just might break down and hug Griffin. Then she looked concerned again.
"Now hang on; we have no idea what's on the other side of the door. How will you set the marker?"
Griffin looked at the door and gave a small shrug. "I'll just have to take my chances, won't I?"
Roarke nodded, then took a deep breath and turned to face Billy Stockwell.
"Billy? Could you come here a moment?"