Chapter 40 – Less Than Ordinary

Cooking proved to be a distraction for Harry, though not the kind of distraction Remus had hoped it would be. It was painfully obvious that the teenager could not entirely tear his thoughts away from his earlier encounter with Sirius, and worst of all was that there was no way Remus could think of to help Harry. Until Sirius came around – if he'd ever come around again – this would keep on hurting Harry. So Remus was not overly surprised when Harry excused himself directly after dinner and retreated to his room. Ron stayed behind in the kitchen to play chess with his brother Bill, and as Remus knew for a fact that Harry had already finished his summer assignments, he was pretty sure that the teenager was brooding about Sirius again.

When Harry didn't turn up again after more than two hours, Remus prepared tow cups of tea and carried them up the stairs. He knocked on Harry's room, and, upon Harry's muffled voice biding him to come in, opened the door and entered the room. Harry was sitting on his bed holding a book, but Remus doubted that Harry had been reading in it for long. He also saw the framed picture he had given Harry for his birthday lying on the bed and not standing on the nightstand as it had always done. Remus kicked the door shut with his foot and balanced the cups over towards the bedside table. Wordlessly, he pulled up a chair and sat down beside the bed. Harry looked up from his book at Remus, pretending to have been focussed on his reading, but as Remus had experienced a number of times before, Harry was not a good liar. Remus smiled at Harry and handed him one of the cups.

"I so much want to tell you not to work yourself up about Sirius' condition, but I know it's far more difficult than it sounds."

Harry sighed and nodded. "Tell me about it."

"Why don't you come down and at least try to distract yourself. Bill is playing chess with Ron, and it's pretty gruesome. No holds barred. Should get even more interesting now."

Harry smiled slightly, but shook his head at the same time. "I'm not particularly up for company", he said.

"Shall I leave you alone?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I just can't help brooding about it all. Why does this have to happen, can you tell me that? Nothing in my bloody life ever keeps working out. Why can't I just have it easy for once?"

Remus left his chair and instead sat down on the mattress beside Harry, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Harry sighed, but after a brief moment of hesitation Remus felt him lean against his side. He tightened his arm around Harry and squeezed his shoulder.

"Don't give up on him already. Somehow, we'll find a way to bring him fully back."

Harry smiled sadly and shook his head. "I don't know if there's anything you or anybody else can do about that."

He leaned forward and began massaging his temples. Remus squeezed his shoulder again.

"Tired?"

"Headache. I didn't sleep overly well last night. Actually, I didn't sleep overly well in the hospital, either."

Remus frowned. "Any specific reason?"

"Don't know. Nightmares, but not really."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like the nightmares I had about Sirius. It weren't even nightmares, it was more…well, like un-restful sleep, as if there was something keeping me from sleeping. There was no real dream, just the feeling that there were hundreds of…things keeping me from resting." Looking up and seeing Remus' worried expression, Harry quickly shook his head. "I'm sure it's nothing. Just nightmares. A lot has happened, after all."

"Don't play this down, Harry. After what you did, I'd think it wise to pay a close attention to everything that has changed. Did you talk to your healers about this?"

Harry shook his head. Remus squeezed his shoulder.

"You have those nightmares every night?"

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "It's hard to tell. As I said, it's not really nightmares. It's more like not sleeping well. Waking up in the night, feeling cold, heart beating fast, not really knowing what it was that made me wake up."

"Every night?", Remus gently prodded.

Hesitantly, Harry nodded. "Yes, I think so." He looked up at Remus. "But I really don't think it's of any significance."

"Considering what you have done, I wouldn't just shrug it off as nothing."

"Because of what I did in the Department of Mysteries."

Remus nodded. "Yes. You opened a portal to the world of the dead, that is not an everyday occurrence. Worse, you tried to pass through that portal. It's possible that it left marks, and that that's what you're experiencing now."

"Is there any way to find out? To make it go away?"

Remus sighed and squeezed Harry's shoulder again. "I don't know. But that's something that can be found out. How about I'll ask Madam Pomfrey to come over tomorrow, maybe she has an explanation. If not, we'll have to see if we find another healer who might have an explanation."

Harry nodded numbly. "All right."

"You're sure you don't want to come down again? I don't know how good it'll do you if you keep brooding."

Harry shrugged. "To be honest, I don't really know what I want. I want Sirius back, that's all."

Remus wordlessly drew Harry close and held him against his side. "We'll get there, I promise you. We'll get there."

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Promises were not always easy to keep, Remus knew that. And while he knew that his promise to do whatever he could to bring the old Sirius back would not be one of the easy ones, he had not imagined it to become so difficult. During the next twenty four hours, nothing about Sirius' condition changed. Harry went to visit his godfather the following afternoon, a visit Kingsley had arranged for him upon Harry's request during dinner. Arthur and Tonks agreed to take him there, so Remus used the entire morning and afternoon to research what could have happened to Sirius in the Hogwarts library.

Not that he found overly much. Recounts of attempts to bring back a dead person with means of Necromancy were not hard to find. What was hard to find were successful attempts to resurrect somebody as well as ways to remedy problems that could appear due to such an attempt. Now, Remus was what most people called a bookworm. He felt at home in libraries, in the world where all the knowledge one could want was to be found between the pages of dusty old volumes, small leaflets and tomes that were so new that they still smelled of ink. He was no stranger to library systems, cross-references, title-scanning or fabricating bibliographies. But in Sirius' case, he seemed to be reaching the end of his wisdom. No matter where he looked, no matter what reference works he used or what kind of book he looked into, he didn't seem to get closer to any answer. He had no idea what kind of answer he was searching for, anyway. He wouldn't mind finding a book titled 50 Easy Way to Bring Back the Soul of Your Best Friend, but he knew that it was very unlikely he'd find it. Probably about as likely as Severus finally picking up that career as a comedian Remus had once joked about. But still, a man could hope. Not for Snape entering the stage, for an easy way to help Sirius.

In the evening, he left the library hungry, thirsty, with a headache and not in the best of moods. He was too late for dinner, but Molly immediately offered him upon his arrival in the basement kitchen of Grimmauld Place to warm up some leftovers. Remus normally wasn't someone to let the others jump at his will when he came too late to eat with the others, but today he just nodded gratefully and sank down in the nearest chair. Tonks, who had been sitting a bit farther down the table slid closer and smiled at Remus.

"Had a hard day?"

Remus sighed. "Frustrating is the better word. I've spent all day searching for a possible explanation for what is going on with Sirius."

"No luck?"

Remus shook his head. "None at all. I've tried every possible angle I could think of, but nothing has brought me any further so far. Absolutely nothing."

Tonks summoned her cup of tea from where she had been sitting earlier, nearly spilled all of it across the tabletop as she missed the sliding cup and saucer on the first attempt at catching it. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment and she grinned lopsidedly, then she took a deep sip.

"Maybe there is no academic way of treating this."

Remus smiled thankfully at Molly as she put a plate filled with dinner in front of him. He picked up his fork, but didn't start eating. Instead, he gave Tonks' remark some thought.

"I must say I thought about that as well. After all, how many precedents can there be for a case like Sirius'? Necromancy has been illegal for quite many years now, and even before it was banned by law, it was shunned and nothing people talked about openly. Much less wrote about. And even if there were, Sirius' case is so unique that even thinking there could be a similar case that could help in healing him is madness. But still I can't just let go off the thought that there is an explanation somewhere, not after just one day of searching."

Tonks nodded. "I know. Don't get me wrong, I most certainly have no intention of talking you out of researches. If anybody can find out what's going on with Sirius, I trust it's you. But there might be the possibility that if anything, we'll have to think up an own way of bringing him back. If that's possible."

Remus nodded slowly, eating a bite off his fork without really tasting what it was. Somehow, his appetite was gone all of a sudden.

"I take it nothing has changed about Sirius' condition?"

Tonks shook her head. "No, nothing. Well, we didn't get to talk to any of his healers, but he was exactly the way you described he was. Just staring ahead, reacting to nothing."

Tonks' eyes misted over as she was recalling the visit to Sirius. Remus knew that she was not taking what had happened to him lightly. She might not have been close to Sirius before the last year, but during those past twelve months she and Sirius had grown close enough for her to feel the loss, painfully so. After Remus had recovered from the transformation directly after Sirius' death, Tonks had asked him to help her sort through Sirius' belongings. One reason had been the search for Sirius' will – which they had not found – but foremost it had been both, her attempt at remembering him while at the same time coming to terms with his abrupt death. An attempt which she had not dared to undertake alone, and though Remus had not felt quite ready to do this, he had agreed to do this together with her. It had been very hard two hours on both of them, but Remus had had the feeling that his presence had helped Tonks during those hours. Though it hadn't kept her from sobbing into Remus' shoulder for some long minutes after they had sealed the last box up again. She had been extremely happy to hear that Sirius had been brought back, and Remus knew that this situation of uncertainty was nagging at her.

Tonks bit her lip and pressed the heel of her hand against first one eye, then the other, as if to stave back tears. Remus reached across the table and squeezed her other hand tightly. A faint pink blush rose to Tonks' cheeks, and Remus quickly withdrew his hand again.
"How's Harry?"

Tonks sighed and drained the last of her tea. "Not good. He was putting up a brave front, but to everybody who is not made of stone it was obvious how much this was bothering him. During our entire visit, he kept on talking to Sirius, as if he was hoping that he'd wake up any moment now. When we were told that our time was up, it was hard to tear him away from Sirius' bedside."

"I'll look after him before the meeting starts. He's in his room?"

"I guess. He left upstairs quickly before we arrived, so I assume he went into his room."

Remus nodded and quickly finished eating as much as he could get down without feeling sick. Molly had loaded far more than he could eat onto his plate, as usual. She cast him a slightly disapproving glare as he put the half-empty plate into the sink, but he ignored her. Why everyone saw the need to fatten him up was beyond him. All right, so he had been through some rough times, but that didn't leave him entirely fragile. Without saying another word, he went out of the kitchen, climbed up the stairs and went to seek out Harry.

The teenager was indeed in his room. He answered upon Remus' first knock, and when Remus entered the room he found the teenager sitting on his bed, again with a book in his hand which Remus didn't believe he had been reading. Though this time the framed photograph of Sirius and Harry was still standing in its usual spot on the bedside table. Remus closed the door and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

"Hey."
Harry closed the book and put it down on the bed. "Hey."

"Are you all right?"

Harry shrugged. "As much as I can be."

"How was the visit to Sirius?"

Another shrug. "Same as yesterday." He shook his head as if to force the dark thoughts away. "What about you? Found anything you were searching for?"
Remus shook his head. "Not really. It appears difficult to impossible to find any cases that are comparable to what happened to Sirius. At least not in the Hogwarts library. There are some other libraries and archives I think are worth looking into, I'll know whether that was worth a shot by tomorrow evening."

"I asked Mr. Weasley to arrange that I can visit Sirius again tomorrow. Bill said he'd take me there, because Mr. Weasley has to go to work and can't take me. Do you want to come along?"

Remus wanted nothing more than to visit Sirius. The problem was, he wanted to visit Sirius, not the empty shell he had seen in St. Mungo's twice. The next time he visited Sirius, he wanted to have at least an idea of how he wanted to bring him fully back.

"No, I'd rather see what I can find in the libraries tomorrow. I'll come along the next time." He paused for a moment, thought, then decided to ask the question. "How are you feeling about those visits?"

Harry shrugged again. "Of course I'd rather visit him while he was awake. Or have him back, at home, wherever that is. But at least I can make sure that it's real, that he's back when I go visit him. And I keep hoping that he wakes up."

Remus smiled and squeezed Harry's shoulder once, tightly. "Hold on to that thought, Harry. It's a good one."

Harry nodded shakily, and Remus got up from his chair.

"I can only repeat myself. If there is anything you want to talk about, I'll be there to listen. Anytime."

"I know, thank you."

Remus smiled again, then he turned around and left the room.

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By the time Remus came back down into the kitchen, the room had already filled with people. Not everybody was there yet, as far as he could see, but a couple of faces which were not seen daily at Grimmauld Place were already there. Remus entered the room and went over to the kitchen table where he sat down in a chair next to Minerva McGonagall.

"Minerva, good to see you again. How are you?"

"From all I've heard, that is a question I should pose you."

Remus grimaced slightly as he imagined how the Order grapevine had worked to inform the other members of what had happened to him from the start of his seizures to Sirius' return. But he should have known that this was nothing that could be kept a secret, and the other Order members had a right to know what had brought Sirius back. Though, Remus had to admit with a slightly grudging feeling, none of them seemed to have cared overly much about his death in the first place, so that put their right to know about everything into a different light for him.

"I am quite all right, Minerva."

"And Sirius?"

Remus really didn't want to go there right now. Not at all. "That remains to be seen. It's too early to tell yet."

McGonagall nodded pensively and sipped some of her tea. Remus thought this was as good an opportunity as any to change the topic.

"What about you? Ready for another year at Hogwarts?"

"As much as I can be, yes. Though I definitely needed a holiday after the last year. Albus promised to inform me immediately if I was needed here, but obviously, he, too, thought I could do with a holiday."

Remus smiled. "You can allow yourself a week or two off, Minerva. I'm sure that Albus would have called you had there been the need for your presence."

McGonagall chuckled. "Exactly what my daughter said when I was pacing like a caged animal during the first day of my visit to her. But sitting around just makes me feel old, Remus."

Remus chuckled. "Ah, that's still quite some time off, Minerva. And from what I heard, everybody was in need of recreation after a year with Dolores Umbridge."

"You don't even know half of it, Remus."

The both of them continued talking about her visit to her daughter and other small pleasantries for another few minutes, until the door to the basement kitchen opened and Hagrid's enormous bulge filled the doorway. He entered the room and with a smile on his face came over towards Remus and McGonagall.

"Remus, Professor, Good evenin' to you."

He sat down on the other side of the table.

"How have things been going, Hagrid?"

The giant man shrugged. "All right. I 'ave been to Irelan' for a week. Bringin' Buckbeak to the 'ippogriff herd I foun' there."

"All went well?"

"Took a few days, but in the end they took ol' Bucky in. Sweet sight, seein' the little one fightin' his first fights for rank amon' th'other males. He's 'appy, I'd say."

Remus smiled. At least one who found a bit of happiness. After a year of being locked up in the confined space of Mrs. Black's bedroom, the hippogriff had definitely earned a taste of freedom. At least one of those who had been locked up in this accursed house should have.

Before those dark thoughts could take a firmer hold on Remus, the door to the kitchen opened again, and Kingsley and Dumbledore entered the room. As Remus didn't know who was supposed to come to the meeting tonight, he could not tell whether everybody was there, but Dumbledore took a short look around the room, then went over to the counter and poured himself a cup of tea, seemingly in no hurry to open the meeting. Meaning that somebody was still missing. Moody was nowhere to be seen, and considering that Dumbledore had been to a meeting with the Minister this afternoon, it could very well be that it was him they were waiting for. The conversation which had mostly stopped upon Dumbledore's entry picked up again as the Order members began to realise that the meeting was not yet opened. Bill chatting with Tonks, Charlie in conversation with his parents, Elphias Dodge and Emmeline Vance, Kingsley talking to Snape and Dumbledore, others sitting by themselves and waiting, like Dung, who appeared to be fast asleep. The big crowd tonight, whatever that was supposed to mean.

They waited for another five minutes, until there were sounds outside the door. The distinctive clunk-pause-clunk-pause of Moody descending the stairs. A moment later, the door opened and the old Auror stepped into the room. Conversation in the room quickly came to a halt again. Not because of Moody, he was a well known sight at headquarters. No, it was because of the man who came in after Moody and closed the door. Remus was sure that he paled, and had he been holding his teacup at that moment, he'd probably have spilled its contents.

Janus Lupin didn't seem to notice his brother's presence, and if he did, he didn't acknowledge him in any way. Instead, he followed Moody into the room, and while the old Auror sat down in a chair close to Dumbledore, Janus leaned against the wall next to the pantry door, arms crossed in front of his chest, eyes scanning the room, taking everything in. Remus didn't quite know what to make of his brother's presence, but as Moody had brought him along, Remus guessed that there was some sense in it. Though he didn't like the development, not at all. He focussed his gaze on Dumbledore, trying to ignore the questioning looks some of the Order members threw into his direction because of Janus' presence.

Dumbledore waited for another few moments, then he got up from his chair.

"Now that we're complete, we can begin. I thank you all for coming, there is quite a bit we have to discuss tonight."

Remus could not help it, no matter if he wanted to or not he had to throw occasional glances at his brother. At Dumbledore's words, Janus had silently raised an eyebrow, and the smallest traces of a smile were playing around the corners of his mouth. Remus knew what his brother was thinking. Janus had always preferred acting over talking – or worse, talking about what could probably be done. Janus was a man of action, maybe that was part of the reason why he and Remus had hardly ever found any common ground. Though a thinker and a man made for action should be able to work out as a team, Remus and Sirius had always been a good team. Though Sirius was far different from Janus. But with Janus and him, millions of other things stood in the way. Probably it were those differences between himself and Janus, their bumpy history as brothers, but just this one raised eyebrow, this little hint of a sardonic smile made Remus defensive. Of course the Order was not working perfectly, of course they were not as effective as they would like to be, but at least they were doing something. They were trying to prevent that Voldemort took over the wizarding world, they didn't just sit by and watch like so many others did. Limited resources and manpower, limited access to information were playing against them, hindering to achieve more than they did, but they were doing something. If Janus thought so little of it, then why had he even bothered to appear?

"I have just come from a long meeting with Minister Fudge", Dumbledore continued. "I won't bore you with all the details, but there are a few points that are of interest for the Order. For one, though that concerns most of you personally rather than the Order as such, given the new situation I have talked to Minister Fudge about Sirius. And while the Minister still doesn't seem entirely satisfied with the explanations provided for the events in the Department of Mysteries, there is also nothing he can use to persecute anybody for the destruction of the archway or Sirius' sudden return. He might have suspicions, but there is nothing he can prove, nothing he can connect exactly to what happened that night. I'm convinced the story about Sirius' wrongful imprisonment will soon be cleared up."

If that would help Sirius any, Remus thought. In his momentary condition, probably not.

"For now, the Minister agreed to issue a search warrant for Peter Pettigrew. He doesn't seem entirely convinced about the sense behind it, but at least the Auror units will be told to keep an eye out for him."

A mirthless chuckle from the direction of the pantry door made most Order members turn their heads. Janus was still leaning there like he had done before, now both eyebrows raised and a more than just sceptical look on his face. Moody had not turned, on the contrary he seemed as if he had not heard the younger Auror at all.

"Mr. Lupin?", Dumbledore said. "Do you have anything to say to that?"

Janus remained standing in the same position, his eyes fixing on Dumbledore. "Only that you shouldn't get your hopes too high about that. Searching for an average, inconspicuous man who can turn into a rat at will and has year-long experience of hiding out isn't easy. And I wouldn't assume that just because the Minister has officially issued a search warrant, it'll become the top priority of the entire Auror forces from now on. In all probability, memos with his picture will be pinned up nicely everywhere in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and that will be it. If he gets caught, it will be coincidence."

There was silence in the room after Janus had stopped speaking. Everybody was looking either at him or at Dumbledore, but nobody dared to say anything. Finally, Dumbledore nodded.

"You have a point, of course. Yet I still think it is a step forward that he is finally put on the list of the people who are actively persecuted. It cannot always be the big steps, Mr. Lupin."

Janus shifted slightly and crossed his ankles. "No, but the small steps won't get you very far. Especially if you're about to make a detour. Catching Pettigrew might be a success, but not a breakthrough. He's one Death Eater amongst many, and surely not one of Voldemort's top men." He was interrupted by a sharp intake of breath from a number of the Order members, but continued as if he hadn't noticed. "From what I gather about his story, catching him will back up the story about Black's innocence. Nothing more. And assuming that Black truly was never given a trial, his innocence can be proven by giving him Veritaserum. By giving those who have seen Pettigrew alive Veritaserum. You don't need Pettigrew in person for that. And given that mentally, Black is nothing more than a fruitcake at the moment, freeing him shouldn't be on top of your priority list, anyway."

Remus wanted to punch his brother. He seldom allowed those feelings to take over, but right now he wanted nothing more than to ball his hand into a fist and smash it into Janus' nose and his big, stupid mouth with all his might. He knew that Janus was being provocative on purpose, for a large part probably to provoke him, and while he was angry that he was falling for this, Janus' words just made him incredibly, ferally angry. He had been here for hardly more than ten minutes, and already this.

But another thing about Janus' words struck Remus. His brother was very well informed about what was going on in the Order, and that puzzled Remus quite a bit. The only Order member Janus was in regular contact with was Moody, but those two were working together rather often. Yet Remus didn't know Moody as the kind of person to share classified information. Or any kind of information. Moody was extremely paranoid, he hardly trusted anybody. To a certain degree he trusted Janus, Remus knew that, what he had not known was that this trust went rather far, obviously. But then again, those two had been working together for quite some time now.

Dumbledore looked at Janus for a moment, then he turned away again.

"The Minister, Kingsley and I also talked about the Branson and Vandenberg murders. However, while the Minister has access to the case files, he claimed neither to know any more details than we do. However, I cannot imagine that those events were just random and meaningless, I do believe that they tie in, at least in some way, with what the Dark Lord is planning, and I intend to find out. But for that, we need more information about the two cases, and this is the point where you come into this, Mr. Lupin."

Again, Dumbledore turned towards Janus, only to encounter the Auror to be looking back at him with a mirthless smile on his face.

"So you're expecting me to have Alastor drag me here just so that I can reveal classified information? Talk to a DMLE-operation with Ministry outsiders? I'm sorry Professor, but it is hard to believe that you'd just expect me to comply with those wishes. Besides, I'm sure that Alastor has already told you whatever he thought to be important."

"If Alastor knew as much as you did, yes. But while he was involved in one of the investigations, you were the one who was in charge of both of them. You have a different standing in the Department than Alastor has."

Janus laughed. "Meaning that people don't consider me crazy, right. I get to know things Alastor doesn't. And I have no problem sharing information with him if it's necessary or helpful for an investigation."

"But not to anybody else."

Janus shook his head. "Listen, I know that you are trying to achieve something. And that's better than sitting around and waiting for the war to start. But the fact is that you neither have the number of people nor the structures to really do something. I'm employed by the Ministry, not by your resistance organisation. I can't just go and divulge information to you."

Before Dumbledore could answer, there was the sound of a chair scratching over tiles. Moody had turned his chair and was now looking up at Janus.

"Stop playing the asshole, kid. You know how the Ministry works, you know how the DMLE works. They have more manpower, they might have the better structure, but they also have the bureaucracy, the laws and regulations. I know that you are aware of how much this can be a hindrance at times. Do you honestly think that anything you tell the people here in this room about those investigations and their consequences could compromise the Ministry, or the DMLE? I know that you're clever, you must have figured out that I didn't bring you here tonight so that we could all admire your stylish robes."

A gleeful smile tugged at the corners of Remus' mouth. Moody had called Janus kid. And he had said he was behaving like an asshole. Now, Remus knew that it was childish, but he could not stop being gleeful about this. Just a little bit. Besides, Moody was right. It was one thing to be loyal to the Ministry, another entirely to play the secret keeper where he could provide useful information. And, much to Remus' surprise, Janus let Moody talk to him like that. Had Remus been the one to say those things…oh-oh.

Janus sighed a martyr's sigh. "Listen, how about you just ask what you want to know, and then I see what I can tell you."

Dumbledore didn't seem to be entirely content with that answer, but Moody loudly moved his chair back into its previous position.

"Which conclusions did you draw from the investigations?"

Janus shrugged. "That's not hard to guess, is it? We have three murders which were all committed in the same fashion. Forced entry into the houses, torture, killing. None of the victims had given any indication that they were threatened or stalked before the deed, and it was easy enough for the perpetrators to get into the private homes because none were protected stronger than your average home. A simple Alohomora did the job. Two of the victims were high ranking Ministry members. Branson coordinated the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Vandenberg was one of the top-Aurors, the longest on duty in the Department. Now, torture is normally an indication that the perpetrators were trying to make the victims talk, but if that was the case, then there is no way for us to find out. There is no indication that they were handling any special kind of highly sensible information other than what they encountered in their daily work, we didn't find any suspicious "Top Secret" stamps on files in their offices, nothing at all that would make it easy." He shrugged. "There is little doubt as to who the perpetrators are. The Dark Mark at the scene of the Branson murders gives a pretty good indication."

"As far as I know, there was no Dark Mark at the scene of the Vandenberg murder", Dumbledore said.

Janus nodded. "Right. But they didn't necessarily need one. They made their announcement that they were back with the first murders."

"Then what do you make of it?"

Janus shrugged, uncrossed his ankles and shifted his weight so that he was leaning against the wall with one shoulder. Aside from Dumbledore, he was the only one who was not sitting down.

"More than one way to interpret what happened. Either Voldemort is planning something, and it has a specific reason why Branson and Vandenberg were killed and nobody else so far. But if that's the case, then we're missing a connection, because so far we haven't found any reason that singled those two out from everybody else in the department."

"You said there was more than one way to interpret what happened."

Janus rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure you've been through all this already."

"Please, Mr. Lupin. Indulge us", Dumbledore said, earning another eye-roll as an answer.

"The other logical explanation is that they were targeted because they were high ranking personnel in the Ministry, respectively in law enforcement. And that means other high-ranking Ministry personnel could become targets as well. The big question is who could be next, and why they stopped after Vandenberg. Or rather, why they paused."

"So you think this wasn't the end?"

Janus shrugged, as if nothing could concern him less. "At this point, I definitely can't exclude it as a possibility. After all, what better way than to wrack havoc upon a society than to take out the ones who hold the society together. Theoretically, Voldemort would be rather clever if he managed to take out the experienced people in government, law enforcement and administration. They will be replaced by people who are not as experienced, and if you continue this for long enough you'll weaken the structures remarkably without too much effort."

"Then the question indeed would be why there were only three murders, and not more as of yet."

"Maybe something else came in between. Maybe they'll continue tomorrow, maybe something else is behind it. Maybe there really were after some kind of information, I cannot say."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully, but it was Bill who spoke up.

"What about those Ministry people who went missing at the time of the second murder?"

Janus turned towards the oldest Weasley son, for a second or two completely astonished before his expression shifted back into a guarded mask. "So you knew about that. Well, that turned out to be nothing connected to the murders. Just three people who didn't show up for work and who couldn't immediately be reached at home. It became talk because it happened so closely to the last murder, but proved to be nothing. Moody, Shaklebolt or Tonks could have told you that, as well."

Kingsley nodded. "The issue was cleared up pretty quickly, that's true. I guess you weren't there when I notified the others."

Silence settled over the kitchen. Janus let his eyes roam across the room as if daring anybody else to ask him a question. Remus thought that this was as good a time as any.

"What about the connection to France?"

Janus' head swivelled around so that he was facing his younger brother. His gaze rested on Remus for a few moments, a disapproving glare in his eyes. Then slowly one corner of his mouth curled upward.

"Rien. Absolutely no sign of a connection to what happened here in England. Sometimes, it seems, people still die without Death Eaters being involved."
Remus would have loved to respond something to that, but he swallowed the remarks that came to his mind down. Instead he only raised an eyebrow and remained silent until Janus turned away again. Elphias Dodge used the ensuing silence to speak up.

"What is the Ministry doing about what happened?"

Janus shrugged and finally pulled up a chair and sat down in the spot where he had stood before. He crossed his legs and shrugged again.

"As far as the investigation is concerned, the cases are still open. They won't be closed until we find the ones who did it. But considering that a lot of murders from the last war are still open cases because they're known Death Eater attacks but can't have been tied to specific perpetrators, an open case file doesn't mean that the case will be solved in the end. As far as security measures are concerned, everybody is taking greater care. The security around the Minister and his substitute as well as the heads of the Departments has been tightened remarkably, but as of yet not to the extreme. No twenty-four hour body-guarding, no safe-houses or anything."

Dodge nodded, thoughtfully sipping his tea. Dumbledore waited for another beat, then he looked around the room, his eyes finally settling first on Emmeline Vance and then Daedalus Diggle. "What about the property issues we discussed the last time we met?"

Vance and Diggle shared a glance, then Vance gestured for Diggle to start.

"Well, as you asked me to, I spent a couple of nights and days travelling and observing the buildings and properties you listed. The bad news is that while those might have been hideouts or safe houses during the last war, they're no longer in use. Or not right now. Some of the buildings have been modified during the past years, the properties sold and turned into something that is anything but a Death Eater hideout. The bigger part of those properties are still vacant, unused, some to the degree that they're no longer inhabitable. I accessed whatever was accessible and found nowhere any trace of recent usage. Nevertheless, I placed some monitoring charms which should alert me to any activity there for the next four weeks. I gave the details to Emmeline so that she could combine it with what she found out."

Vance pulled a scroll of parchment out of her pocket and handed it over to Dumbledore.

"I've listed it all there. While Daedalus went investigating the properties, I had a look in the Public Records Office. Fifteen of the twenty-two properties have been resold during the past fifteen years, and none of the new owners' names rung any bells. I copied them down for you. The other seven properties remained with the same owners, again no names that were in any way suspicious. And I checked the listings of those people who signed in to have a look at the property listings in the Public Records Office. It was a long-winded search to see who had a look at listings of unused and empty properties and buildings. I had to do it for every single district, and came up nearly empty-handed. No names of known Death Eaters having an interest in empty properties, unfortunately. As if it was ever that easy. But there were a number of names that struck me as a bit odd, one was the name of a long-deceased muggle movie star, so I told Daedalus to have a look at the respective properties. So far, nothing came up, but we'll keep an eye on them. I've listed them below the others."

"They have to have meeting places", Moody fell in. "The problem is, they won't make it easy to find them. Not easy at all. And considering that some Death Eaters are wealthy enough to provide the adequate meeting places, they'll be nearly impossible to find."

"At least not with the tails we have on some of them", Diggle said and shook his head as if he could not believe it himself.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. But still I think we should keep those tails up for as long as we can. It is a wide shot to assume that Lucius Malfoy would do anything to give himself or any plans away, but for as long as we can afford it, we can hope that maybe he makes such a mistake."

Janus, who had been about to take a sip of his coffee, chocked and coughed. "You have a tail on Lucius Malfoy?"

Dumbledore turned towards him. "Yes. As often as possible, but of course there is no telling what he does or where he goes he is in his mansion, or apparates or portkeys somewhere from there. The rest of the time, we trace those movements as thoroughly as possible."

A very big grin started to spread across Janus' face. An unnerving grin.

"What is so amusing about that, Mr. Lupin?"

"Well, apparently whoever it is who's tailing Malfoy for you is good. Because none of my people who have been tailing him were aware that they weren't the only ones."

Moody turned towards the younger Auror with a speed one wouldn't have supposed from a man of his age.

"You're tailing Malfoy as well?"

"I'm having him tailed, yes."

"Then why in Merlin's name weren't Moody or I informed about it?", Kingsley interrupted. "We could have very well done without the double effort."

Janus raised an eyebrow, very slowly, very pointedly, as he turned to face Kingsley.

"I wasn't aware that I had to announce a secret trail on a Death Eater to the whole Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Let me re-check when I come into my office tomorrow, but I think you are not on my list of people I need to notify of what I do."

"Oh no? Then who is on that list, if I may ask."

"The Aurors who are trailing him. Period. The Minister of Magic, should he request to be told about all current activities. Nobody else. The more people who know about it, the bigger the chance that the one who's tailed gets to know something he shouldn't. Voldemort's people are everywhere, Mr. Shacklebolt."

Kingsley was so angry, he was positively spluttering. "You…you can't just go ahead and take Aurors off their assigned task and reassign them to tailing Death Eaters."

"Yes, Mr. Shacklebolt, I can do that. It's fully within my competences to do so, and I most certainly won't justify myself for doing so. On the contrary, I will most certainly keep on doing things without informing the head of the DMLE, Alastor or you about it."

"So basically you don't give a damn whether we're wasting the little manpower we have on a task which you already assigned to somebody else, just because you love being secretive about what you do."

Janus smirked. "Basically, yes. My superiors have given me a lot of leeway to work with, do you honestly think I will restrict myself to keep a group of non-official Ministry outsiders informed about my every move? The Order obviously has its people in the Department, you amongst them Mr. Shacklebolt, I think it's enough if those give away confidential information."

Kingsley angrily shook his head. "Is that easy, isn't it? The Ministry gratefully accepts every bit of information from the Order which your own people could not dig up, but when it's about reciprocating you turn a blind eye?"

Janus smiled calmly. "Isn't it public duty to inform the authorities if you have information about illegal activities? That doesn't mean that the authorities have to call you back and tell you whenever they find out about something illegal. Listen, I do not deny that you're trying to do something good here. And were you given greater capacities, you might be a really successful group. And nobody wants to stop you from doing what you're doing, Merlin knows that far too few people do more than worry about when the war will break out. But still there is no, absolutely no reason for me to keep you updated about every single step I take, or about what information I gather in the Department. In case you're interested, I've got eight open cases on my hands right now, a ton of paperwork on my desk waiting to be done by somebody who enjoys paperwork – which isn't me – and by tomorrow morning, there will be even more calls and owls waiting to be answered and investigations to be started. I came here tonight because Alastor asked me to, and I answered whatever question you had, but the simple fact is that I don't have the time to do this regularly. Period."

Kingsley got up so suddenly that his chair scraped against the tiles and threatened to topple over. He drew breath to reply something, but at that moment, Dumbledore raised a hand.

"Gentlemen."

"Albus, you can't just…"

"Kingsley, please. We will most certainly not achieve anything by breaking into a fight now."

Kingsley reluctantly sat down again, silently glowering at Janus while Dumbledore brought the meeting back to Order. Remus could barely remember what they were talking about afterwards. Nothing really important, he hoped, because he wasn't paying attention. Instead, he watched his brother from his position at the far end of the table. Janus' face seemed expressionless, but Remus knew his brother well enough to tell that he was looking smug. No surprise there. It only fed Janus' already unnaturally high degree of arrogance to win a verbal sparring match. Janus had probably not been lying, Remus could imagine that work was piling all around him at the moment. Janus was constantly overloaded with work, and spent twelve to fifteen hours at it on a normal day, during times of peace. However, Remus didn't think that his amount of work was what Janus' point was. On the contrary, he thought that Janus' point had been to draw a clear line between what he had done tonight and what he was willing to do in the future. Janus didn't want to become one of the Order's resources at the Ministry. Period. No matter whether the Order was doing something useful, trying to achieve something, it wasn't something Janus wanted to have on his scope of things to pay attention to. Janus was an egoist, and egocentric. What he wanted was to do his thing, with as little complications as possible. The more people involved, the more complications. It was that simple. But then again, maybe not.

While Remus was busy with those thoughts, he noticed that he was not the only one paying close attention to his brother. Bill Weasley was, as well. Remus forcefully suppressed a smile. He remembered Bill's open spoken admiration for Janus during one of the earlier Order meetings. Far be it from him to understand, but for many people, Janus was well on his way to becoming a legend in law enforcement. Janus was good, Remus didn't doubt that. He had never concerned himself with the details of Janus' work, but the bits he knew were enough to say that. Back in France, Janus had received an excellent training and education, theoretically and practically. He had worked his way up through the French law enforcement system far more quickly than most others, then, as if France could offer him nothing of new interest, had followed his father and brother to England and started the same there. He had been teamed up with Moody during his initial years, and the old and quirky Auror had recognised Janus' talent and done his best to support his career in the Department. By now, they were not working together anymore, at least not on a regular basis, but Remus was sure that Moody was still keeping an eye on Janus' development. It hadn't been any different during the first war, when Sirius had still been… Remus chased that thought away. Not now, now he wasn't ready for it. Though Janus would have had an interesting times if fate had played a different game and Sirius had not gone to Azkaban. Those two had never liked each other, and at work they would have collided more often than not, probably. In a way, they had been too similar to get along, but somehow Sirius had managed to turn all those attributes that made Janus such an unbearable bastard into positive characteristics. But those were mind-games. Janus and Sirius had never worked together, and probably never would. Instead, Janus had risen to become one of the higher-ranking Aurors in the Department, one of the few who had a say. And he mostly worked alone.

Remus could understand Bill's fascination with a personality like his brother's. Bill was not working for the Ministry, but he had surely heard his fair share of stories about Janus. There were certain qualities about him that favoured his being thought of as some legend-to-be one day. Most of all, his complete disregard for his own safety, a trait that led to Janus always taking one step farther, daring just one bit more than anybody else with a sense of self-preservation would do. Not only did that add the element of constant danger, but also led to Janus having one of the highest rate of solved crimes in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was that edge which so many young Aurors admired in him, maybe especially because they knew that they themselves were lacking this edge, this disregard for their own life in the face of danger.

Remus understood those feelings, only he could not share them. Because contrary to Bill, he knew different sides of Janus. His bad sides. His recklessness, complete disregard for rules which applied to everybody else, his anger that could be horrible once it was unleashed.

Bill didn't know the Janus who had worked for some special forces department in the French Ministry for more than four years, a time during which he had not initiated any contact to his family, much less told them afterwards what it was that he had done. He had simply left without a word or notification to Remus or their father, and nothing had been heard of him for a long time. Short letters, one roughly each year, stating that he was well, nothing else. He had returned to normal law enforcement just as abruptly four years later, with nothing but an angry tattoo between his shoulder blades and quite a number of scars on his torso to tell of what he had done during that time. Though he never gave an explanation for either. Bill didn't know the Janus who had once – at the age of sixteen – ruined the entire interior of their father's living room in a fit of uncontrolled rage. Bill didn't know the Janus who lived in an apartment that was furnished so impersonally that it could be the showroom in a furniture store. No pictures, no plants, no family photographs, nothing at all that hinted at the character of its inhabitant. And neither did he know the Janus who had spent three months in hospital and rehabilitation two years ago because he had gone and tried to make a suspect apprehension that would have been a job for two or three on his own, without calling for backup. He had made the apprehension, but had nearly paid too high a prize for it. But Bill didn't know about that, of course, and that explained his admiration for Janus.

Remus shook his head and forced himself to listen to whatever it was Dumbledore was talking about. Trust Janus to cause such a degree of confusion in Remus just by making an appearance. Little did he know that this was not yet all the day had to offer for him.