Chapter 35

~*~ Song of the Update : Linkin Park - "Session" ~*~

Remus looked up from the crowd in Dumbledore's office to greet a familiar face. "Hello Mrs Figg, how're things?"

"Remus, my boy." Arabella smile,d her walking stick creaking under her weight. "Never better, never better. it's been a long time since I've seen these walls. A long time indeed."

"Arabella!" Dumbledore reeted her with a graceful nod, "Crumpets?"

"Excellent." Arabella hobbled towards the outstretched plate.

Remus smiled and took in the view, nearly every old member of the Order of the Phoenix was gathered in Dumbledore's office to discuss gameplan. Elegant and composed in the corner was Draezyc Snape, sipping at a goblet of wine observing the crowd with a scrutinising expression. Her husband, Severus was over by the window, looking across the crowd at Draezyc with a thoughtful gaze. Sirius Black was in dog form, sitting regally in Dumbledore's chair. Moody and Bennett were having a heated debate on the latest Auror legislation, imposed after Fudge's death beside Fawkes' golden perch. The tiny professor Flitwick was eating a crumpet in the company of McGonagall and Arthur Weasley, talking loudly and animatedly about muggle technological advances through the past century.

"Chaos within a single room."

Remus laughed at the gentle voice. "Anna, I was watching for you."

"And I was behind you all along." Anna smiled, and offered Remus a chocolate biscuit in the shape of a wolf. "Animal shaped biscuits. very appropriate."

Remus turned it over in his hands "Look, he even has a little chocolate chip for an eye."

"Attention to detail."

"Foremost importance." Remus smiled. "Just wolves?"

"Oh, no!" Anna took out a small paper bag and opened the rim "Theres elephants and rhinos and cats and mice."

A wet nose sniffed round the side of the bag. "Hungry Paddy?" Remus picked out a handful of biscuits "Take your pick."

Sirius took them all and silently padded back to Dumbledore's armchair.

".And snakes." Anna bent down and picked up a small curled biscuit out of the bag. "Although I still think it looks more like a worm."

Dumbledore clapped his hands "Very well, we are all assembled and so, let us begin."

"It has become clear to us, that Edea is alive, under a death sentence from Voldemort." Moody hobbled around the gathering of people, glancing at each face as he spoke. "He has given orders to Lady Snape to eradicate all trace of Edea, and expects this to be carried out in full, as his trust is in Snape."

Draezyc gave Moody a challenging smirk when he turned to look at her directly.

"SO, we cannot risk losing our spy network, and a loss of one will have a detrimental effect on the other. Voldemort wants this to be done at Lady Snape's leisure, so it is she who will give us notice of the proposed execution date, and we can act accordingly."

Remus shifted in his seat as he remembered another time, another Voldemort escape plan.

"Voldemort's lair of sorts is well hidden, repelling charms coat the ever moving building, the only way in is by the Dark Mark, like a key of some fashion if you will. We can duplicate this "code" of the Dark Mark and so fool the charms into believing we are of the same clan, and thus, securing entry into the lair suitably undetected."

Remus held Anna's cold hand, knowing that she was thinking about the time she had been held captive inside the dungeons of Voldemort's lair, the first time they had met Draezyc, the Lestrage's child, gargoyles on the entrance, and the forest beyond.

"We follow Lady Snape at a suitable delayed timing, as I am sure Voldemort will want this "epic" witnessed by as many of his followers as possible." He itched his gnarled nose, "Thusly, we can intercept the party without it seeming that the Snapes had any knowledge of it."

"Of course," Severus interrupted, "You assume he thinks this. Realistically, he will always assume differently. If there's a plot, he believes we automatically know of it, and to let such a significant scheme go undetected, would look highly suspicious."

"Which is why we are taking such a risk with Edea's life." Moody signalled with his stick that Snape's interference was unwelcome. "There is the chance that Voldemort sees the commotion, and tries to cut off Edea himself, the Death Eater's first priority being to protect their master rather than their prey."

~*~

Remus, Anna and Sirius walked down the corridor behind the two Snapes surreptitiously eavesdropping into their conversation.

"That was the most ridiculous piece of morale boosting I have ever had the misfortune of encountering."

"Now now Draezyc. You know you and Dumbledore differ on ideas of morale boosting etiquette."

Sirius and Remus shared a long look.

"This is going to be an interesting experience. I'm facing two horribly similar options." Draezyc lifted up her skirts as she walked down the spiral staircase to the dungeons. "Voldemort is going to kill me for failing him. Or Voldemort is going to kill me for setting this godforsaken trap, failing him and breaching the trust."

"I highly doubt Dumbledore would allow such a thing." Severus took his wife's hand in his own "And I can keep you safe to a certain extent, I will be there when this plan takes place, as you know."

"Some plan."

The Potions Office door swung shut behind them and Sirius and Remus stopped in their walk, "Was that worry from Draezyc? Actual Worry?" Sirius asked concerned, "If she of all people is worried, then it's a bad sign right?"

"It's a difficult project to undertake, this plan, but Dumbledore is sure in all of this, so I suppose there is little to do except to accept it, and do our best."

"Good luck to us."

"We're going to need it."

"Why does everybody refer to Draezyc as Lady Snape?" Anna asked Remus quietly, "No-one refers to Severus as Lord."

Remus shrugged. "Honorary title, something passed down through the generations I think. Female line of family or something, inherited through bloodlines, so a marriage would do little to the title for the spouse. Hence Snape is simply Snape."

"Lord Snape." Sirius giggled "Sounds pompous, so much like Gilderoy Lockheart's self styling."

Remus sighed, sometimes Sirius could only be the child he always had been at heart.

TBC

A/N - sorry its so short, but I wanted to write the carrying out of the plan in one entire chapter, so think of this as a sort of prologue for it. I should have written it chapters ago, but I too lazy to even write about action. (