Mind Over Matter
"Are the two of you even doing anything at all?" Draper snapped at Neville and Hermione.
They both jumped before scowling up at the wizard holding them at wand point before turning their attention back to Ron and speaking in hushed tones.
"Is he breathing okay?" Neville frowned as he put his ear to Ron's mouth to listen.
"Yes," Hermione nodded as she finished the strengthening spell on Ron's body and surreptitiously healed the nasty looking bruises all over Ron's stomach and back, "those animals," she looked at Neville and handed his the wand, "he's running everything at the barest minimum but it's not doing him any harm. It's like a deep state of sleep only with an incredible amount of brain activity."
Neville heaved a sigh and swirled his wand in tight circles over Ron's head while whispering to Hermione in between incantations.
"I can wake him up but I really don't think I should."
Hermione bit her lip and chanced a sideways glance at Draper who was watching them both very closely. She leaned forward and pressed her fingers into Ron's pulse point on his neck while looking at her watch so she could hide the fact that her lips were moving when her hair fell forward.
"Is he going to be able to snap out of it on his own though?"
Neville nodded as Hermione moved back from her faux examination of Ron.
"Sounds normal to me," Neville said loud enough for the Death Eaters to hear, he hoped it wasn't as obvious as it felt, and gave Hermione a smile and a nod.
"Good," Hermione smiled and curled her fingers around Ron's own.
"Well are you bringing him back to his senses or not?" Draper demanded as he heard a crashing sound outside the locked door to the dungeon.
"He's on his way back to us now," Neville said, unblinking and almost wanting to jump up and punch the sadist in his hooked nose.
"We've just got to monitor his vital signs to make sure he's strong enough to shake it off without any detrimental effects. He can't sign anything to you if he comes round and has a seizure can he?" Hermione said in a clipped tone as she brushed her hand against Ron's cheek.
Draper crouched down and put his wand to Ron's temple. Hermione froze and stared at the Death Eater fearfully.
"Well the two of you had better do your jobs properly otherwise I will end him right in front of you mud blood!"
Harry and Percy had been throwing everything they had at the magical barrier for five minutes now and still there was nobody from the Order or any Aurors rushing to their assistance. The twins had throw a few spells at the invisible wall before stepping a little closer to investigate it for a moment and then moving aside to whisper to each other urgently.
"You two got something up your sleeves you want to share?" Harry yelled as his own shattering spell bounced back on him and he only just managed to pull Percy to the floor in time to avoid them getting hit by it.
"We're working on it Harry, keep trying!" Fred said before shaking his head at something George was proposing excitedly, "That could bring the roof down, it's too risky."
"Absisto!" Percy roared before his spell bounced off the barrier and knocked him right off his feet, "Ouch," he groaned with annoyance.
"Something..." Fred was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet now as he seemed to have an idea on the tip of his tongue that just refused to leave his mouth, "There's something really obvious that we're not thinking of here," he brandished his wand at the barrier and snapped, "Nusquam esse!" and the spell rebounded, hit a lamp and obliterated it from existence altogether.
"Can we not throw stuff like that around quite so carelessly?" Percy said from his spot sprawled on the floor with terrified eyes,
"Blimey sorry Perce!" Fred said, going a little green as he realised just how wrong that little test could have gone for them all.
"Close it," George suddenly said as he helped Percy back up to his feet, "we keep trying to open the pathway, unblock the obstruction, but what if the point is that we have to close it? End the spell with a closure counter-spell."
Fred lifted his eyebrows as if that was a possibility they hadn't considered yet that might actually work. Percy looked at Harry who was now so frustrated at his feeling of uselessness he was resorting to repeatedly kicking the barrier and roaring obscenities through to the Death Eaters in the dungeon. Harry bent over with his hands on his knees and shrugged.
"Occludo!" George said as he threw a closing off spell at the barrier.
They heard the door to the outside world slamming shut behind them with a sickening boom.
"Oh well that's just bloody marvellous isn't it?" Fred said as he threw his arms up into the air while George gripped his head and cursed the spell's cruel backfire, "Now, even if they beat down the Death Eaters outside, our lot can't get in here to help us!"
"Can we stop arguing and get something done?" Harry snarled through gritted teeth, "Those pieces of human slime are doing Merlin knows what to my friends and I want it to stop now!"
"And we don't?" Fred answered back, Percy tugging at his arm to try and prevent an altercation, "That's our little brother! That's the only little brother we've got and we've been of absolutely no use to him since the second war began. We've never been in a position to help him before Harry and now we are and we're bloody well going to!"
"Fred clam down, he didn't mean it like that," George said as he took Fred from Percy and shoved him away from Harry and against the wall of the hallway, "We need you cocky and confident and thinking on your feet and not like this."
Percy looked to Harry and gave a nod.
"We need you to keep cool as well Harry."
Harry nodded and turned back to the barrier with a look of desperation.
"Barrier that bounces everything back," George was saying as he stared his twin directly in the eye.
"Barrier that can't be cut, sliced or cleaved open," Fred said with a nod.
"Barrier that can't be switched off," George added, seemingly glad to be getting his brother's focus back again.
"So..." Fred put his hands to his face and rubbed hard, "...so...Come on Fred what's the stupidest solution you can think of?"
George's eyes lit up and he nodded hopefully.
"What would we do if we were making a barrier like that?"
Harry turned back to them with a frown.
"You'd make so blindingly obvious that the person would have to be stupid not to have tried the counter spell. You'd think about..." Harry started to pace up and down while George's eyes lit up and he seemed to be coming up with something, "...the circumstances the barrier would be used in."
"In defence in a battle situation!" George was nodding.
Fred suddenly shook with inspiration.
"Oh you're kidding me! That guy, that Death Eater wannabe was younger than all of us wasn't he? I'm amazed he's even out of school!"
"So it's probably not complicated dark magic at all."
"It's a fucking household spell that he probably saw his mum use a thousand times!" George leapt up into the air at his utter stupidity.
"It's not supposed to be counter attacked it's supposed to be disabled by a mother who wants to keep her kids away from something," Percy said while his eyes darted from side to side as he tried to think fast.
"What would mum do if she wanted to get into our room but we had a barrier up so she couldn't catch us at anything?" Fred grinned.
"What would mum do?" George repeated.
"She'd just pass through it," Percy said blankly before looking up at the others with a startled look on his face, "she wouldn't bother taking the barrier down she'd just pass through it."
"Are you three telling me we could have just walked through it this whole time?" Harry snapped before striding towards the barrier and bouncing off it painfully, "Apparently not!"
Percy stood before the barrier while Harry moved aside, rubbing his sore nose, and the twins joined him. They shared a quick glance before counting to three and shouting a spell at the same time as walking at the barrier.
"Permeo!"
The barrier rippled and wobbled and put up a little resistance but it didn't throw them back. The three of them pushed their way through as if forcing themselves through a wall of treacle and then stumbled out on the other side. They turned to Harry with delighted grins on their faces. He was already following their example.
"Permeo!" Harry shouldered his way through and came out of the other side running, "I'm going to fucking kill 'em!"
Ron blinked.
Hermione gasped and gripped Neville's arm so hard she almost drew blood. Neville pointed his wand into Ron's face and whispered.
"Ron? Are you ready to come back now?"
Hermione swallowed and looked into his glazed eyes. Ron seemed to be just the same as he had been before.
"Did I imagine that Neville?" she said shakily.
"No you didn't he definitely blinked," Neville said as he lowered his wand and picked up Ron's hand, curling Ron's fingers around his hand and saying loudly and clearly, "Ron squeeze my hand if you can hear me."
They waited and there was no movement.
"He's coming back to himself is he?" Draper said as he snatched the wand out of Neville's hand, "Good. Get these two out of the way while I revive him."
"Wait no, he's not ready!" Neville said in a panic as he was dragged to his feet and hauled across the floor to be dumped at the feet of the deaf minister.
"I don't care if he's ready, I'm ready!" Draper said as he tossed the young Death Eater's wand back to him before the youngster yanked Hermione away from Ron and shoved her over towards Neville on the floor.
"But we can't be sure what the revival spell will do!" she called over to the ringleader of this desperate gathering.
"I'm willing to bet it'll wake him up," Draper said with a smirk.
He stood before Ron, who was still sitting upright and staring straight ahead on the floor, and flicked his wand at his face.
"Ennervate!"
At the same moment the spell hit Ron the door exploded open and Harry, Percy and the twins charged in with their wands drawn. Hermione screamed in fright and tried to get up and run to Ron but Neville grabbed her and attempted to shield her from the flashes of Death Eater hexes and curses that started to fly around the room.
"Don't hit the vessel you fools!" Draper bellowed as the twins cast a shield charm over them all while Percy covered Neville, Hermione and the minister.
Harry ran forward out of the protective shield and jabbed his wand into Draper's throat.
"The vessel has a name!" he snarled, "And you will have nothing to do with him from now on. I will see to that."
Draper's wand was still pointing at Ron and he looked into Harry's hate-filled eyes and smiled.
"He's yours when I'm done with him."
"It's done now!" Harry was shaking with fury, "Lower your wand."
Draper's top lip curled and he said, in the slightest of whispers, an unforgivable curse with delighted relish.
"Imperio!"
"Oppugno!" Harry roared in reply.
The curse hit Ron at the same moment Harry's curse slammed into Draper and hurled him into the wall before slamming his body forcefully onto the stone floor. Just as Harry dropped to his knees to see if Ron was okay a killing curse whizzed by the top of his left ear, causing a eerie breeze, and Fred bellowed a full body bind on the wizard who had sent it.
Harry cast a shield charm before himself and Ron and grabbed his friend's shoulders and shook him. Ron blinked and looked at Harry without emotion.
"Ron? Come on mate snap out of it."
Harry what did they do to him?" George yelled out as their shield faltered and fell away.
Harry sent of several defensive spells while Percy and Fred went of the attack. Hermione and Neville managed to get the minister free and the three of them ducked behind an upturned table before Hermione left Neville with the deaf wizard and crawled across the floor to join Harry. Before she could speak Harry pulled her wand from his robes and shoved it into her hand. Hermione flicked her wand at Ron to lift the curse on him but all that happened was that Ron blinked again.
There was a strangled scream and the fighting stopped as Draper's voice boomed out over every other sound echoing inside the dungeon.
"Cease this now or the seer dies!"
Harry saw Jess fighting against a stranglehold, her feet lifted clean off the floor and Draper's wand aimed at her face. The twins looked to Harry while Percy tried to edge around to Draper's blind side and get a clean shot at him but the wizard seemed to have eyes in the back of his head.
"Nobody move!" Draper yelled again and Jess let out a squeal before swinging her legs wildly and catching the man in the shins a couple of times.
Draper threw her down to the floor and kept his wand on her while his eyes covered every witch and wizard in the room. Jess was crying but still kicking and scratching in the general direction of Draper's voice. He grabbed a handful of her hair and lifted her head a little before banging it down on the floor hard. Jess stopped moving but she could still be heard crying softly.
"Vessel stand up!" he growled to Ron.
"The curse is lifted, he's not doing anything you tell him you monster!" Hermione said as she held her shaking wand and took aim at Draper.
Draper's eyebrow lifted and Harry felt the bottom fall out of his world when Ron got to his feet obediently. He threw a questioning look Hermione's way and she seemed at as much of a loss as to why Ron was still being controlled by Draper as he was.
"Turn and face me boy," Draper was almost quivering with pleasure as he watched Ron turning around and Jess' cries grew a little louder.
"Ron? Is this it? Is this what we talked about?" she was whimpering.
Harry had no idea what was going on but he knew that he had had enough.
"Ron don't listen to him," he said before walking forward and stepping front of his friend, his wand on Draper the entire time, "You and your morons have gone far enough and I don't care about getting you arrested. I don't care about getting you brought to justice. I just want you dead."
"Then she goes first," Draper nodded down to Jess at his feet, "Do you care about that Potter?"
Harry looked so angry he could've spat in Draper's face.
"You aren't doing anything to anybody," Harry said.
"Vessel," Draper said with wild eyes as Harry took another step forward.
"Don't talk to him!" Harry growled, "He's not your vessel."
Hermione gasped as she saw Ron blink again and begin to sign. He gestured around at all the occupants of the dungeon with both arms before making a gripping motion from his chest and pulling away. Draper suddenly didn't look so superior or smug. He looked like a small child who had just been promised a special treat by his mother and was desperate to know what it could possibly be.
"What did he just say?" his eyes darted around the dungeon for his hostage to translate Ron's words, "Where's...?"
As he realised that his designated translator was hidden away from him somewhere and Harry had his back to Ron at the time of his message so the only people who could have seen it were the Weasleys and Neville and Hermione. Draper flicked his wand down at Jess and yelled.
"Cruci-"
"Prepare to receive!" Neville blurted, "He said prepare to receive! Please don't, not that."
Harry turned to glare at Neville for giving Draper the information he wanted but his anger was gone as soon as he saw Neville's face. He was as pale as alabaster and his jaw trembled as he stared down at Jess' weeping form. Harry turned back to Draper and saw the man looking absolutely overjoyed.
"You heard the vessel men," Draper said, emphasising the word 'vessel' for Harry's benefit, "gather round and prepare to taste ancient power and knowledge we've only been able to imagine before."
The Death Eaters seemed to completely disregard the presence of anybody else but each other and Ron now. Percy was even shoved to one side by the youngest Death Eater as he made his way to join the circle around Ron, Draper, Jess and Harry. Ron's glazed eyes blinked again and his emotionless face sent shivers down Hermione's spine as she watched him draw a circle in the air before him and then make the gripping and pulling motion again.
"No," Harry said, his voice cracking and his eyes shining, "please don't do this to him," he pleaded with whatever it was of Rowena Ravenclaw that was inside of Ron.
"What is the instruction?" Draper demanded.
Harry's face contorted into a mask of bitter hatred and he turned back on Draper and sent out a bright green jet of energy from the tip of his wand. Hermione and Neville screamed while Fred seemed to have some kind of blood lust for this evil man to get his just desserts at long last. Percy lifted his wand and cast a protection spell over Jess' body at the same moment George did while Draper sent his own spell down at the seer's body.
"Avada Kedavra!" Draper said as fast as he could,a look of terror in his eyes as he saw that Harry's non-verbal spell was about to strike him full in the face.
Suddenly a warm yellow light shot out of the tips of Ron's fingers and disintegrated both blasts of green light before they reached their targets.
"Oh shit," George said as he turned to see that Ron's eyes were rolling back into his head and a single trickle of blood falling from his left nostril and onto the floor.
"She can stop the killing curse?" Draper said, almost as if aroused the amount of power he was going to be able to leech from his vessel's failing body.
Harry rounded on Ron; looking devastated that Ron wasn't really standing before him at all, and pointed his wand at his best friend with the tears threatening to flood his eyes.
"I won't let you do this," he said, his voice faltering.
Hermione's whole body was trembling as she watched her two best friends, her Ron and Harry, forced into this face-off that was neither of their making. She felt Neville's hand on her shoulder, squeezing firmly, and found that it was getting hard to breathe.
"What did he say?" Draper demanded, "One of you tell me what he said!"
Neville was still fearful for Jess and the threat of the Criciatus hovering over her and couldn't stop himself.
"Received by all of us."
"No!" Draper ordered Ron, "Not them, only us, only those deserving of such a gift."
Harry took a step toward Ron as a tear rolled down his cheek and his wand arm began to falter.
"Get out of him or I will kill you both."
"Harry no!" Percy called out at the same moment Jess whimpered the exact same thing.
"It's what he'd want me to do," Harry said hoarsely.
"Please don't," Jess sobbed, "you don't understand, it's all going to be okay I know it is."
There was a sudden ripple of energy that pulsed out from Ron's body in the same way a droplet of water can hit the surface of a still pool and the resulting ripple expands and grows until it hits the bank side. This power-ripple blasted Harry off his feet, along with Percy and the twins who were also standing, and lifted Jess from the floor to carry her behind the upturned table with Neville and Hermione. Then the table was forced back into the wall pinning then all safely out of harm's way with the minister and a soft indigo light seemed to form in front of them all so no spells could enter or leave.
Draper puffed out his chest and took three confident steps towards Ron before dropping to one knee and bowing.
"It is an honour to keep the old magic alive for you. We are ready."
Draper rose again and rejoined the circle that was completely surrounding Ron. Hermione pressed against the intense indigo light to see Ron taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes. She glanced over to Harry and the twins who were all trying to shoulder their way through the barrier but Percy was on his knees with his hand to his mouth, terrified to watch but unable to tear his eyes from his baby brother in this final irreversible state of possession as it seemed to be.
"They are working together," Jess's unsteady voice whispered as the blind witch felt around and found Hermione's hand to grip and pat reassuringly, "I saw him. He told me. This is the plan."
"The plan didn't work Jess," Hermione said with a sniff as Neville put his arm all the way around Hermione's shoulders to hug her while Hermione pulled Jess closer to her and hugged her in turn.
Ron's skin seemed to be glowing from within and several more droplets of blood fell from his nose before he looked upwards to the dank ceiling above him and a second burst of energy burst out of him in a brilliant blue wave of light that flowed into every single Death Eater in the circle. Hermione saw Harry dropping to his knees and punching at the floor while Fred and George set about battering against the barrier with such determination that their knuckles were bleeding.
The Death Eaters were almost levitated clean off the ground as the intense blue light flowed into them, wave after wave after wave of power, until Draper's eyes opened wide with horror before he dropped to the floor like a lead weight and slammed down hard on his face. Within the blink of an eye every other Death Eater dropped down in the same way, none of them moving.
As soon as the last wizard fell the blue light fizzled into nothing, as did the indigo barriers that held the rest of them back. Harry and Hermione ran to Ron so fast that they managed to catch him before he hit the ground himself. He was covered in an ice cold sweat and was blinking his eyes back into focus once more when the twins and Percy joined them.
"Ron?" Harry said shakily as he pushed Ron's hair, damp with icy sweat back from his forehead.
"Is it...Are you..." Hermione was saying with a hopeful smile, "...is it really you?"
Ron gave a slight smile and made a shaking fist with his thumb and little finger extended and wriggled his hand in a rocking motion in front of him. The twins let out a short cough of a laugh and Hermione threw her arms around his neck and found herself hysterically giggling with relief as Harry fell backwards and put his head in his hands.
"What did he say?" Jess was calling as the minister guided her over to the gathering and helped her settle down on her knees, "Did it work?"
Percy seemed to shake himself out of his state of shock and moved around to quiz the minister on his well being while answering Jess' query at the same time.
"He's back Jess, he's definitely Ron!"
The twins smiled a little wider and slapped each other on the back while Neville began to chuckle.
"Yeah, only Ron would answer the question 'is that you?' with 'possibly'"
Jess laughed at this and reached forward to feel for Ron herself before her face fell and she pulled back sharply.
"Oh sorry, I almost forgot," she said with a stricken expression, "I nearly touched you."
Ron broke away from his hug with Hermione and reached over to take Jess' hand in his with a smile. Harry's eyes grew huge as he realised the implications of his friend's ability to do that very thing and let out a similar choke-type laugh to the one Fred and George had let out moments earlier.
Jess seemed to be delighted when she realised that it was Ron's hand she was holding and placed her other one upon his arm, where she knew his scars were, and ran it up and down before squealing with joy.
"Nothing's happening!" Ron's body shook with silent laughter and Jess suddenly threw herself at him and winded him with her hug, "This is brilliant!"
Hermione laughed along with Neville as he attempted to pry Jess away from Ron in order to run some tests to make sure Ron was really going to be fine. While the tip of Neville's wand set about conjuring the lilac mist around his head again and Hermione pulled out her own wand to test Ron's physical well being Harry grabbed Ron around the shoulders in a one-armed hug before shaking his head apologetically.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it," he said in a low voice while averting his eyes, "Draper could see it, he knew I was never going to kill you no matter what happened."
Ron grinned and shrugged before gesturing over his shoulder and pointing at his wrist. The twins doubled up with laughter and Neville completely lost concentration on his spell and practically spat his mirth into the side of Ron's head.
"What d'you mean maybe next time?" Harry snapped while breaking into a wide smile, "There isn't going to be a next time. No more next times understand?"
Ron wiped his hand over the side of his face, as if wiping Neville's projectile amusement off of his cheek, before drawing a cross over his heart and attempting to pull and honest face. Ron's 'honest face' just made him look even more mischievous though. Hermione finished her checks and threw her arms around Ron once again with a relieved sigh.
"You're all clear as far as I can tell."
"Same here," Neville said as he put his wand away and slapped Ron on the back, "She's all gone."
Ron winced, seemingly reluctant to ruin everybody's good mood, and made the sign for 'possibly' again and this time everybody knew he wasn't joking with them.
"What do you mean?" Harry frowned, "What exactly happened to this lot, do you know?"
Ron nodded. He curled his right index finger and slapped it against his open palm, waved his hand from left to right over his other palm, and then clenched both fists before gesturing around at the fallen Death Eaters.
"She really did share her power with them all?" Harry said as he too looked around at the still, but very much alive, bodies all over the place.
Ron nodded before waving his hand left to right over his palm and clenched his fists again before making a gripping motion with his hands away from himself and then twirled his finger around over the back of his hand. Everybody gasped except Jess who squeezed Neville's leg and asked him what Ron had just said.
"She gave them a spell to take away magic," Neville said with an awe filled glance around at the bodies once again.
"So she...She made them all..." Jess stammered, unable to believe what she was hearing.
Ron linked his little fingers and then pulled them apart.
"Squibs!" Neville translated with glee.
"They wanted a powerful kind of magic..." Fred said with an impressed nod.
"And they got it delivered to them..." George added.
"...in the form of a demonstration..." Fred grinned.
"...on them!" George chuckled.
"She made them all squibs!" Fred laughed in almost a girlish giggle.
Ron clapped his hands to get their attention once more and lifted his finger in the air.
"There's more?" Percy gaped while the minister laughed.
Ron nodded and gestured at the Death Eaters before making a snatching motion away from his face and pointing his index and middle fingers on both hands downwards.
"She obliviated them completely?" Hermione said, impressed that somebody with access to such harmful spells could have been so lenient with these evil men.
Lenient but thorough.
"So they can't remember magic and they can't perform magic and..." Harry clarified before Neville interrupted him.
"They can't ever hurt anybody again," the round-faced healer smiled.
The door that led to the hallway exploded open and Charlie ran in and almost fell over one of the sprawled bodies on the floor before he'd even got three feet inside. Bill ran in behind him and had no such luck; he tripped over a limp leg and slammed down onto the ground with a thud. Charlie was scanning the dungeon and saw the amused looking gathering in the middle of the room surrounded by unconscious Death Eaters. Charlie lowered his wand in disappointment.
"Oh so you lot didn't need me at all, I might as well have stayed at home!"
"Sorry Char!" Fred grinned.
Bill groaned as he picked himself up from the floor and grumbled to himself.
"Why is it always me that falls over?"
Harry got to his feet and grabbed Ron to help him up. Charlie kicked the Death Eaters left and right to make a clear pathway across the dungeon and grab Ron and hug him so hard that Ron had to punch him in the back to get him to let him go.
"Oh sorry, are you alright?" he said as he leaned back and looked his tired looking brother up and down.
Ron nodded and gave the thumbs up, which to Charlie seemed to signify that he was aloud to bear hug him again.
"Oh Merlin we've got to get you back to mum before she knits herself a bloody noose, the woman's on guilt overload!"
Ron smiled sadly and nodded. Bill limped forward and gave Ron a hug that was a little less like a physical assault before he ruffled Ron's hair and hobbled out to let the Aurors know that they had a lot of bewildered ex-Death Eaters to collect.
The dust had settled on the whole botched transfer fiasco when Mad Eye Moody stomped into the Department of Mysteries with Tonks and Shacklebolt. He was shown to the appropriate door to the brain room by one of the unspeakables and he aimed his wand at the tank full of pearly white liquid and brains swimming mystically amongst it.
"Accio Ravenclaw's brain!"
Just as the brain rose from the tank and hovered briefly before zooming in Moody's direction Tonks and Shacklebolt took aim and yelled out as one.
"Diffindo!"
Both spells hit the brain and it exploded in a blindingly bright blaze of white flames. As the cleansing fire fizzled out the three Aurors took in the most disgusting sight any of them could've imagined possible. Grey and beige gunk oozing down the walls and the side of the tank. It was also all over them and the unspeakable.
Tonks was the most audibly revolted by this.
"Well that's our part of the deal," Moody said gruffly as he wiped the jellified lumpy brain porridge from his mouth.
"Yes," Shacklebolt said with a grimace as he wiped the gunk off his wand onto his trousers, "let's just hope she was right about the second prison."
Tonks finally stopped gagging and flailing her arms about, brushing herself down in utter revulsion, and blew her green fringe out of her eyes.
"I still think we should have let Ron know we were doing this tonight."
"Well if it didn't work no harm done and he'll never know to be disappointed," Moody said briskly, "but if it did work..."
"He'll definitely know!" Shacklebolt smiled.