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CLAWS OF A RAVEN
by Tyde

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Chapter Thirty

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Hermione scribbled on a piece of parchment that was covered with words and diagrams already, Ron tried to crack a joke in the tense atmosphere, Harry was seated on one of the beds polishing his wand.

Remus was talking to Madam Pomfrey about the treatment of the now sleeping Sorora. They had dragged her out of the old house with screams still on her lips. She'd spent two hours pounding her head into a wall on their return. Hermione had muttered a cushioning charm so it would not hurt her. Madam Pomfrey had said it was best to let her get it all out and not to continue to repress it. After a while they had to issue a silencing charm too, the noise was unbearable. It appeared that she'd worn herself out and now she lay on the rumpled couch under a knitted blanket. Her mouth was open and she snored, but not loud enough to warrant another silencing spell. She murmured of horrible memories long ago. Remus say by her side trying to lure details out of her that might help them. After a time Poppy dripped some dreamless sleep potion into her mouth when it became clear that the horror of memories would not gain Remus much access to information.

Sirius sat at the table with a parchment scattered with the information he had managed to extract from Wormtail. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He had screamed blue murder when Sirius reverted him to human form and at first refused to answer anything. It had taken extreme self control for the tall man not to strangle the traitor with his bare hands. A few carefully placed spells and enchantments had opened him up a little but for now he was back to being a rat in a jar.

Arabella and Mundungus were duelling in the back room. Small explosions and cries of "Put that back on woman, or I'll fall over" could be heard occasionally.

Remus came back to the table and sat down with a sigh. "Poppy says she's still in shock, it could be hours or even days before her comprehension will come back. Malfoy knew she was a weakness. I wish she'd told us about her past, we might have been prepared for it. We need her to snap out of this and quickly. From what I've heard in her incoherent babble she has been in Lucius's compound. She will know the inner workings of it or at least more than we can ascertain at the moment"

"But how will we get inside? He's bound to have all sorts of Dark barriers up to protect it from outside"

"Then we need to set a trap. We need bait. Harry?"

Harry looked up from his wand and inner turmoil flickered in his eyes as his courage and loyalty collided. "I can't, it's too dangerous Dumbledore said that-"

"It's okay Harry, we just need some of your hair"

"My hair?"

"For the Polyjuice Potion. One of us will take it to look like you and once Lucius captures us we can tear apart the facility from within. We'll break down the magical barriers he has in place and then once it's clear we can stage a full blown attack." Arabella and Mundungus had just entered the room and pulled up chairs to join the discussion. Mundungus was looking flustered and like he was ready to stage a full blown attack on people who started important conversations when he was not in the room. Arabella was the first one to speak however.

"That's where we come in, dear. We'll make sure there are Aurors and Dark Arts Defence League members around the property in small groups and once we get the word we'll attack" said Arabella with confidence. "Fortunately for us most of the law enforcement from the Ministry have agreed to join Dumbledore's Order and they are people you can trust. It would be a lot tougher if they had refused"

Hermione frowned and started to see cracks in the plan. "Hang on a second, if Mister Malfoy sees the person pretending to be Harry out in the open won't he just kill him on sight?" Harry was nodding along with this and although not showing it, was feeling a little worried.

"I don't think so. He won't kill you because he knows Voldemort would kill him if he took the glory away"

"Right, so one of you dresses up like me and then Mister Malfoy drags you back to his dungeon"

Ron snorted with laughter and murmured something about Harry being a damsel in distress. The others seemed to ignore him although he did raise a half smile from Hermione.

"Well who is it going to be?"

Sirius sat up straighter in his seat and cleared his throat as if to answer. But he was interrupted by a voice that came from outside of the circle.

"I'll do it" said the voice from the couch. Sorora was sitting up and looking lucid. Poppy was pressing her wand to various parts of the brunette's body to check that all was running fine again. She nodded at Lupin and he nodded back. There was no denying the determination she was emitting. Mental disturbances be damned...she wanted to get her hands on Lucius Malfoy!

They all swallowed their shock of seeing her back to normal and Mundungus conjured up a chair for her to sit at the table.

Sirius spoke first, a hint of scepticism in his voice. "Can you handle it?"

"Yes" She looked him straight in the eye. "That bastard won't even see it coming"

Hermione looked up from some notes she'd been making on a scrap of parchment. "Well we better start right away Professor. There's no telling what they can do in a month"

"We won't need a month Hermione" said Sorora as she reached into her travel bag. She plucked a bottle out of it that was filled with a murky substance. The trio recognised it right away. "Polyjuice Potion - I like to keep a supply on me. You never know when you're going to need it, being an Auror's wife it has come in handy more than once!"

"Right" Harry said, "So when do we do this?"

"I'll need a day's preparation, brush up on a few hexes and what not. I'll need someone to head out now and scout the area around Malfoy Manor with possible escape routes and places to take cover in case this goes wrong and I can't Apparate"

"I can do that" spoke up Sirius. "They won't pay attention to a stray dog"

"Excellent. Okay, um, best to do it in the evening as well for all conditions"

Ron raised his hand. "Professor he could take my Omnioculars and get some instant pictures so you can plan it out step by step with visuals" He fumbled in his bag as he spoke and plonked them on the table in front of Black.

"Great thinking, Ron. That'll be really helpful" Sorora said gratefully.

Sirius pushed back his chair and picked up what Ron had offered. "I'll be back soon". He Apparated out with the Omnioculars strung around his neck.

Mundungus looked around at the rest of them as if he'd just woken up from a dream. You could almost see the little light bulb turn on above his head. He sat up very straight and commenced barking orders. "Right you lot, time to get serious. Now Arabella you take Sorora to Arthur. Dumbledore's put him in charge of putting a strong team together for this occasion. Depending on what young Sirius comes back with will depend what action to take. We don't want to run into this unprepared like a bunch of school children so make sure they cover every angle. Er, Poppy best you go with them to make sure Mrs Palgetti doesn't do her nut again" Sorora took the comment quite well and only looked slightly offended. "I've got a very important meeting to attend now – Remus you take care of this lot and make sure they don't sit on their bums all evening and teach them something worthwhile would you. Right" and with a wonky sounding pop he too disappeared muttering something about ear wax.

Remus also seemed renewed by the plans and quickly took charge. "Okay Harry, I want you and Ron to begin testing each other on your deflection charms. You won't be involved in the operation tomorrow but my little house isn't a prison, it is still vulnerable to attack. Hermione you-" but as he looked at her she was already at the pantry sorting through the smaller bottles and pouring various potion selections into them, ready for use. "um...continue that. Good. I want to prepare a few magical barriers and a few emergency measures in case you get into trouble. Our work hasn't gone unnoticed in the Death Eater circles...there is talk. If Dumbledore didn't have his spies we would probably all be dead by now"

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Author's note: Talk about pressure!! I have this urge to start churning out the rest of the chapters and stop going to work so I can do it. It's 23 days, four hours, 49 minutes and 33 seconds until the release of the Order of the Phoenix (as of this posting) and I said I'd have this finished by the release! Because there is no way I'll want to work on this when a new book is out. Plus one of my oldest friends has started reading this now (must have had a lot of time on her hands) and she said it was pretty good so pressure escalates to make it great! Hi Ann – would it kill you to review? KIDDING! :o)

Colleen – Oh it's in Oreos, enough said! When I went to see the replica of the Diagon Alley set I wore my Lord Voldemort t-shirt. The guide looked at me and said (fake English accent and all) "I don't think I care for your shirt" I just gave him a death stare and said "I don't care" in all my mustered up evil glory :o) Of course I was also carrying a Gryffindor backpack but he didn't notice that hehe. I've decided to wear my Quidditch jumper when I go to buy the book. I'm also thinking of making up a Ballycastle Bats t-shirt to wear. As if I didn't already have enough HP merchandise :o)

labrisa – Sorora's a tough (sometimes squishy and mushy) cookie (with added trans-fat)...she'll fight through it. Hehehe Hair of Gryffindor. But he has Butt of Slytherin and Arm of Ravenclaw, not to mention Leg of Hufflepuff. Sorry, I shouldn't tease – I do a lot of typos.