Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books

Chapter 6 Red Or White?.

"Sirius! Pat!" Harry's eyes lit up as the three people stepped out of the Floo network and into Remus' living room. "Thank God! They found you! At last!"

Sirius gave Harry a quick hug, and turned towards the stairs. "Which room is she in?"

Remus caught hold of Harry's sleeve. "Go to Hogwarts and get Albus. Explain that I've found Sirius, and that we may need him." He whispered seriously. He then turned his attention to Sirius. "Sit down for a moment."

"No." Sirius said stubbornly, watching Harry's reluctant exit. "I have to see her."

Pat caught hold of Sirius and led him to one of the sofas. "What do you know so far?" She asked in her authoritative Auror's voice.

Remus sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Not much."

"Well tell us what you do know." Pat said, accepting a cup of tea from Fingers, who was scurrying around with a tray full of cups, saucers, biscuits, and sandwiches.

"Lunar was fired from the ministry of magic not long after you left…"

"WHAT!" Sirius all but yelled. "Why were we not contacted then?"

Pat hushed him, and motioned for Remus to continue.

"I had no idea that this had happened until after the attack upon her. Apparently they discovered that she had copied information about an Auror and sent it to people." Remus sighed.

"She would never do that!" Sirius said outraged. "What was their proof?"

Pat placed her fingers to Sirius' lips. "Everything in good time. We must try to cure her first, before we investigate her dismissal."

"Besides, you know full well that she did what they claim she did." Remus said sadly.

"What?" Sirius said. He stood up and pointed a finger at Remus. "I know no such thing!"

Remus stood and faced him despondently. "You mean you didn't get her to copy the previous Miss Carver's Auror file and send it to you?"

Sirius sat down, and put his head in his hands. "They fired her for that?"

Pat looked at Sirius accusingly. "You read my file?"

"Now is not the time, remember?" Remus sat down and faced the couple. "She was fired, that is all we need to know now. She frequented a few Muggle bars, where she drank an overabundance of alcohol. This is apparently where the Death Eaters found her and put her under a curse. She has been here ever since." He groaned and stood up. Pacing around he room he continued his narrative. "They are all the hard facts we know. From then on it is pure speculation on the part on the Ministry. They think these Death Eaters took her to a meeting, where they tortured her, and placed the cage curse on her."

Pat took this entire information in. "What have the Aurors done in their investigation?"

"The bartender of the muggle bar has been interviewed, but the Aurors will not tell me anything else. I am only a civilian in this matter, and nothing must be revealed."

"Who is in charge of the investigation?"

"No-one will reveal that information. Not even to me." Albus said seriously, and stepped out of Remus' fireplace. He had been in the library when Harry had found him, and he had raced to Remus' home.

"Well that is something I can take care of." Pat said stubbornly.

"What did the doctors say? Cure-wise?" Sirius asked suddenly.

Remus looked at the floor. "There is no known cure for the cage curse."

"However we are trying to rectify that." Albus smoothly intervened. "I have many of my friends outside Hogwarts looking into the curse. Plus all of the Professors are searching into their specialised fields."

Sirius took the information in. "I want to see her now."

"I will show you to her room." Remus said and paced over to the staircase. Sirius, Pat and Albus followed.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"Sirius! They found you!" Lunar cried out in relief as she saw Albus, Remus, Sirius and Pat enter her room.

"Can she hear me?" Sirius asked Remus.

"We don't know." Remus said, and approached the side of the bed, gently lifting Lunar's head and giving her a drink of water. "I like to think she does."

Sirius nodded, he sat down on the bed and grasped Lunar's hand in his. "Hear me and know this. I shall find a cure for you. And when I do I shall find the…. Bastards that did this to you, and make them pay."

Remus looked at Sirius sharply, and Pat approached him, squeezing his shoulder tightly.

"We are doing all we can." Albus said quietly.

"We should let her rest." Remus said gently, and he rang a small bell. Fingers, his house-elf, appeared immediately. "Fingers shall show you to your room."

"Our room?" Pat asked.

"Yes. She has prepared a room for you. It isn't far away." Remus said slowly. "No matter how long it takes for Lunar to recover she, and you, will always have a room here."

Sirius made to say something, but Pat silenced him. "That is most thoughtful of you. We will go and look at immediately."

"I must be getting back to Hogwarts." Albus added. "There is still a lot of research that I must do."

"As soon as I have moved my suitcases into the room I shall take Sirius and go to the ministry. We'll see if we can find any more information about her attackers. Then maybe we can find a cure from them. That is, if it is okay for us to leave Lunar in your care Remus."

Remus nodded. His eyes never leaving Lunar's face. "Of course."

They left the room silently. Leaving Remus and Lunar alone.

"What happens now?" Lunar asked to no avail.

Remus smoothed her hair around her head and gently smiled at her. "It will be alright. I promise everything will be alright."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"You don't understand the seriousness of this!" Roger said in a muted whisper. "I could lose my job!"

"We need help. Lunar needs help. And you are the only one who will consider helping us!" Pat said, pleadingly.

She looked at Sirius' shadow through the frosted glass of Roger's office. He would warn them if anyone was coming. "Please Roger!"

Roger looked around worriedly. He then got a piece of paper and scribbled furiously on it. "I'm afraid I shall have to refuse." He passed her the piece of paper, which read:

Ministry is clamping down on Aurors. They are monitoring any files which may be copied. Bugging devices are everywhere.

"Are you sure I can't convince you?" Pat asked, and wrote back.

Meet me?

"I'm sure." Roger said, nodding furiously. "On a more personal note, I would love to meet up with you at some point. I still haven't heard the whole story about yourself and Sirius."

"We are staying at Remus Lupin's home at the moment. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you came around at some point for dinner. Say tomorrow night?"

"I could do tomorrow night. You still haven't met my fiancé have you?"

"Bring her as well! We'll make it a double-date! Say around 8ish?"

"Better make it 9. I have some things to do before I come around. I'll bring a bottle. Red or White?"

Will bring everything I can. Arrange for everyone you need to know to be there.

"White! And I'll see you then."

Thank you for all of your help Roger. I owe you one.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

Albus groaned and looked up from the pile of books he had been studying for the past few hours. "Useless. Absolutely useless." He winced at the pain in his shoulders. He had been bent over the books too long.

A movement in one of the corners of the library caught his eye, but when he looked there he saw no one. "Come out Harry." He sighed.

Harry appeared red-faced from underneath the invisible cloak. "You saw me?" He asked shamefacedly.

"No I guessed." Albus answered tiredly.

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep so I thought I would help you."

Albus nodded, and gave him a book. "Firenze thought the "Corybants" could help us. But I cannot find anything about them in any of these books."

Harry's forehead crumpled into a frown. ""Corybants". I've not heard of them."

Albus sighed. "Me neither."

"Are you sure he said "Corybants"?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"Mmmm." He thought for a moment. "Maybe they're extinct?"

Albus looked at Harry for a moment. "Then they wouldn't be in any of the books." He mused. "But what would be the significance in finding them?"

"Maybe they had a cure, to the cage curse, and by looking up information about them we find the cure?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Worth a shot young Harry. It's definitely worth a shot." Albus said excitedly and disappeared into the shelves of the library.

He returned holding an open book in his hand and muttering as he read. A pile of books floated in the air behind him. "Grab a book Harry! We'll soon have the clue we need!"

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

"Can we trust him?" Sirius asked Pat later as they were climbing into bed.

"We'll have to. He's the only one who will help us." Pat said reluctantly. "I can't believe that none of the people I knew as friends would help us!"

"After the way Lunar got made redundant, I don't blame them." Sirius muttered.

"That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about. My file." Pat rounded on him accusingly.

"I just wanted…" He sighed. "There's nothing I can say that will make you understand. It seemed like the right idea at the time. Forgive me?"

She smiled grudgingly. "There's nothing I can do about it now, is there. I do wish you had talked to me, rather than go behind my back."

He grinned for the first time since their return from Paris. "I was public enemy number one to you! I hardly think "Tell me about yourself." Was going to work!"

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

It was the early hours of the morning, and the early risers had begun to stir. Hagrid had begun to feed some of his "pets", and Professor Sprout was watering her greenhouse when it happened.

Harry's face was firmly wedged against a book, and as he breathed in and out the page on the opposite side ebbed and flowed to and from his face. He had spent most of the night reading through the books, and had fallen asleep reading a particularly boring piece of text on the ancient roman cults.

They had sorted through the pile of books through the night and now only two remained untouched.

"Eureka!" Albus yelled, waking Harry from his dreams. He held up the book he had been reading.

"You've found them?" Harry slurred with the after effects of sleep.

"Yes. And I think there's something here that might help."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

It was later in the afternoon and Pat, Sirius, Albus, Minerva, Severus, Katrina, and Remus were all sat in Remus' lounge. Albus had contacted Remus in the night with the corybantic idea, and he had arranged a few odds and ends for the ritual.

"Roger will be arriving around 9ish." Pat said. "Which means we have a good few hours to try the cure Albus has found."

Remus sighed. "I cannot be here to meet the Auror."

"Why…?" Pat started to ask, but the look on Sirius' face stopped her. She would ask him in private later.

Albus outlined what the Centaurs had suggested to him. "And that's it. Remus and myself have been looking through the texts and we believe we have everything to perform the ritual."

"What are you suggesting?!?!" Severus' voice raise in disbelief as Albus stopped speaking.

"I know it's a wild chance. But it's a chance." Albus said calmly.

"No. No way." Severus protested, and ignored Katrina's warning look. "I am not dancing!"

A/N

Yes, yes he does!!! But you'll have to wait for the next chapter for it!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for reviewing!!!!

Iluvlegolas   I thought I had gone a bit overboard on that when reading back on that particular scene, but then I figure that's Sirius, completely oversexed!!!!

Moony Lover  Sorry, sometimes I forget to mention stuff that might be useful to you and other readers!!! This story is based after GoF, and kinda flashes back to when the marauders were at Hogwarts!!! Also I technically forget that people haven't read the other stories. Not that I mind!!! (Really) In my mind they run one after the other and stuff that I mention in one story is a direct quote or item from another story!!!! I'll try and cut down on that or at least mention it in an author's note!!

Annoriel  Thanks for the compliments. I ( .. and this is only my personal opinion so it has no importance at all!!) think that the other stories are better than OOTP. I like some of the new characters, especially some of the order. But It's not my favourite story in the world. Harry's character is becoming a bit whiny. Okay, I should stop complaining.

Ingenious  Cool name btw!!! I sat by my computer staring at the screen for ages trying to think of a name and still couldn't come up with anything better than something people have been calling me since Junior School!!! I at last have come to terms with Sirius' death!! Even though there is no body… I don't think he'll be returning.

Panny Savage  Thanks for the compliments *blushes*. I went and read your bio, and I totally wanted to be an elf too!! Still do in fact… Ah well, I don't think its going to happen!!!

Anyway!! Better go. See you soon.

Krusty.