Resolutions

By Neurotica

Twenty-One

Down in the dungeons of Hogwarts, Severus Snape was carefully pouring into vials all the potions that sat in the various cauldrons around his potions lab. He and Dumbledore had had a very long discussion, nearly four hours long, about the events of the past months. Severus had given the Headmaster every bit of solid information he knew, and the old Headmaster had conveyed his relief that he, Severus, had made it through his time as the Dark Lord's "personal assistant." That had been the reasoning behind Severus' sudden disappearance at the end of June—the Dark Lord had far from forgotten the betrayal of Naomi Watts and the arrest of Lucius Malfoy. As a result, he wanted his "most loyal" Death Eater at his side at all times. Severus had spent his summer running his master's errands, brewing illicit potions, and devising plans.

But his most important assignment had been the one he'd taken the liberty of giving himself: he'd carefully listened to every conversation he'd heard in the Dark Lord's hideout. Most of them had been meaningless dribble, Death Eaters bragging about watching their victims beg for mercy, while few others held far greater importance that would undoubtedly be of assistance to the Order of the Phoenix.

And fortunately, the Dark Lord saw fit to send me back to Hogwarts as his spy once more, Severus thought, corking a phial of Veritaserum Slughorn had brewed before his death. I may not be fond of many in the Order, but our goal remains the same; I, too, wish to see the Dark Lord fall. And nothing could please me more than the knowledge that I've had a part in it.

Monday morning found Hermione's early release from the hospital wing. Ron, Harry, and Ginny met her with her schoolbooks and walked to the Great Hall, ignoring all the looks from other students stopping to gawk at Hermione's face.

"Did you see those scars?"

"They're horrendous!"

"And I thought she was ugly before."

This last comment, coming from Pansy Parkinson, nearly started a duel. Harry and Ron had both spun around, ignoring the girls' insistences that it wasn't worth it, and drew their wands. But before they could do anything, Sirius turned a corner.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked mildly, glancing from the furious looks on Harry and Ron's faces, to the glares sent to him by the seventh year Slytherins. "Don't you lot have anything better to do? Harassing younger students, brewing love potions to give your cousins..."

Harry, Ron, and Ginny burst out laughing; Hermione's lips twitched as she tried not to do the same.

"My father will hear of this... Black," Nott said coldly.

Sirius merely raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't threaten me with your father, boy," he said in the same cold tone. "He and I are rather well-acquainted, and I can assure you there is not one aspect about him that I find remotely frightening. Now, get moving and wipe those sneers off your faces—oh sorry, I forgot those are permanent..." After a few more seconds of glaring, the Slytherins stalked away, their heads bent together, whispering. Sirius turned to the Gryffindors. "And you four—particularly Ron and Harry—need to be careful who you start a duel with. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for hexing Slytherins who deserve it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're still looking for revenge for dear Draco."

"Did you hear what they were saying about Hermione?" Ron asked loudly.

"Shh..." Sirius said. "There's no need to shout. Yes, I did hear bits and pieces… But you ought to know they're trying to get under your skin. They'd love to see you all in detention."

"They'd love to see us dead," Harry corrected darkly as they continued on to the Great Hall.

Sirius nodded. "That's why you need to be careful who you insult. There'll be time for revenge later. But for now, you lot need to get to breakfast so you're not late for classes. What do you have first?"

"Defense," Hermione answered. "Followed by double Potions."

All three wizards groaned loudly. "And Snape's back," Ron said in disgust. "This is shaping up to be a brilliant day."

Sirius looked at them sympathetically. "Well, good luck with that," he said. "I've got to be off to the Ministry. Harry, Hermione, see you two tonight for rounds. Ron, Ginny... I'll just see you."

"See you, Sirius," the Gryffindors said as the Head Auror turned towards the entrance hall.

"Come on," Harry said. "If we have to deal with Snape for two hours, there's no way I'm doing it on an empty stomach."

Remus was very reluctant to leave the warmth of his bed and the comfort of his wife's arms to go to work. Breakfast had been served to them in bed by house-elves, and now he was trying to find the motivation to get up, dressed, and to leave the school. "You've already said you're not feeling well," he said to Emmeline. "Maybe I should stay with you."

She smiled at him. "You're being paranoid again. I'll be fine," she assured him. "Madam Pomfrey is only a firecall away, and Naomi will be here during her lesson breaks. I'm not inept, Remus."

"I never said you were," he replied. "I'm just worried is all—you're only five months along; you shouldn't have so much trouble just walking to the bathroom and back."

"Ted told us I might need more bed rest that I would in a pregnancy with only one baby—the twins are growing quickly, and they're perfectly healthy, so this is to be expected."

Remus sighed. "If you're sure, then," he said reluctantly.

"I am," she said softly, kissing him. "And if I need you, I know how to contact you."

Finally, he nodded. "I'll see you tonight, then. Are you watching Mira today?"

"Yes, Naomi should be by soon to drop her off."

Possibly against his better judgment, Remus got out of bed. As he got in the shower, he decided Emmeline was right, and he was being paranoid again. There were plenty of people at Hogwarts that would be more than willing to drop what they were doing to come to her if she needed help with something — Dumbledore had promised she would be perfectly fine; he'd even offered to send a house-elf to sit with her while Remus was at work. McGonagall, Naomi, Madam Pomfrey, and even Hagrid were only a few halls away.

She'll be fine... he told himself.

Once he finished his shower and dressed, he went back to their bedroom and kissed his wife quite thoroughly until she forced him to pull away. "Get to work before you're late. I love you."

"I love you too," he said, leaving the room.

Proudfoot was waiting for his boss when he walked into Auror Headquarters, his face carefully not betraying any of the anxiety he was feeling. In his hand he held a scroll containing information that would indeed abolish Sirius' obvious good mood. Over the weekend, a third office within the Ministry of Magic had been broken in to. This one had belonged to the Head of the Department of Mysteries. Broderick Bode refused to tell Aurors exactly what was missing, but none of the investigating wizards missed how worried he'd looked.

"He wouldn't tell you anything?" Sirius asked, reading over the scroll. Proudfoot shook his head; Sirius sighed. "Well, I guess this rules out the theory on it being personal, all these break-ins, I mean. It can't be coincidence. Emmeline's office in June, Remus' in July, and now this..."

"And we still don't know who's behind it," Proudfoot said. "There's no chance of getting a charmed video of Bode's office either; the wards 'round the DoM don't allow it."

The Head Auror nodded. "In that case, I'll talk to Mad-Eye—I want extra security here after hours. You, Tonks, and I will take the first few shifts until we get a schedule worked out. Send Savage out to Hogwarts to replace her."

"Sure thing," Proudfoot said. Before leaving Sirius' office, he turned back around and hesitated. "Er, so how's Lupin doing?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. He should've known someone would have found out about Remus... "He's fine," he said. "He's coming back to work today."

Proudfoot glanced over his shoulder briefly into Auror Headquarters. "And is it true? Did he really have a part in Greyback's death?"

Oh bloody hell... Is nothing secret around here? "Who told you that?"

"It's all over the Ministry. I'm surprised the Prophet hasn't made it front page news yet."

Sirius hesitated, watching Proudfoot's increasingly inquiring face. His second-in-command had proved time and time again that he wasn't one for gossip, nor did he go blabbing to the first reporter—or any reporter, for that matter—that he saw. Anything Sirius shared with him would be kept between them—it wouldn't leave the office.

"What is everyone saying?" he asked quietly, waving a hand lazily at the door—it snapped shut.

"They're saying Lupin was there when Greyback was killed," Proudfoot said. "No one seems to know how he was killed, only that something or someone tore him up pretty good."

"So no one has connected Remus' involvement?"

Proudfoot shook his head.

Sirius hesitated again. "Remus did it," he said slowly. "He killed Greyback on the full moon while he was transformed. You know Remus is a werewolf, of course. Well, Greyback was the one who bit Remus when he was a kid, and Remus was getting sick of seeing all the attacks caused by Greyback."

"He wasn't the only one," Proudfoot responded, seemingly unfazed to hear that Remus had killed the world's most feared werewolf. "Bones should give him Order of Merlin for that. First Class."

Sirius smiled and nodded. "Something we agree on, then. But Remus prefers to be an unsung hero of sorts—I can guarantee he won't go around bragging about what happened. And if it's all the same to you, I'd like for this conversation not to leave this office."

"Yeah, of course," Proudfoot said, sitting down in a chair. "So now that Greyback's gone, what're the chances of arresting the rest of the werewolves, d'you reckon?"

"Well, not all of them had parts in the attacks, but I'd say our chances are pretty damn good that we can get down to the Underground—Remus already told me how to find it," Sirius said, sitting on top of his desk. "Have you ever read anything on canine pack hierarchies? If the Alpha male dies, say of natural causes or an accident of some sort, his Beta comes up to lead the pack. But if the Alpha is killed by another, the one who killed him becomes the Alpha..."

Proudfoot's eyebrows shot up. "So what, you're saying Lupin is the Alpha of the werewolves now?"

"It would seem that way. Unless another werewolf kills him, that is," Sirius replied. "I don't even think he's thought about any of that yet. But if it's true, we've got a free ticket into the Underground—I'll have to run that by him and Dumbledore later..." Sirius sighed. "Well, come on, we should do something to earn our pay for a change. Time is galleons, after all."

Just past midnight that same night, Sirius, Tonks, and Proudfoot began their patrol of the Ministry. Sirius and Tonks had taken levels six through ten, while Proudfoot and Davies took the others. It was a lot more interesting, Sirius decided, to patrol Hogwarts than the Ministry of Magic—at least at Hogwarts, the portraits were interesting to talk to.

"C'mon," Sirius said to his young cousin. "Let's get through levels nine and ten, then we can break for a bite to eat—I'm starving."

Tonks yawned hugely. "Me too," she said. "Oh by the way, Mum wanted me to tell you to bring Mira over sometime or she's going to hunt you down and hex you—she's not seen her since she was first born."

Sirius chuckled. "Yeah, I've been meaning to take Mira by," he replied, hitting the nine button on the lift. "Been a little hectic lately, with one thing or another. Tell her I'll bring Mira by before Christmas—or maybe on Christmas. I've not spent Christmas with Andy in years."

"I'll tell her," Tonks said.

"Oh, did I tell you we introduced Mira to my mother?"

Tonks raised an amused eyebrow. "Bet she loved that. Your mum, I mean," she said. "What'd the old hag say?"

"Once she got over the fact that I had the audacity to reproduce, she thought Mira was the most darling thing ever. And then she found out I'd gone and married another blood-traitor—I thought her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets." The lift's golden grills opened and the Aurors stepped out. "Which is fine by me—my main reason for introducing Mira to her was to piss her off—" He stopped speaking and walking abruptly and threw out an arm to halt Tonks as well.

"What—"

"Shh," he hissed, pointing down the corridor to the entrance of the Department of Mysteries. A hooded, cloaked figure had opened the door and was stepping in. "Oi!" Sirius shouted, raising his wand. "Stay where you are!" The figure spun around, spotted the Aurors, and ducked through the door, slamming it behind them.

The two Aurors set off at a sprint, Tonks drawing her wand before reaching the door—it opened for them automatically. The circular room that Sirius had only been in once before—to retrieve Harry's prophecy—was empty. The figure had already gone through one of the many doors.

"Damn!" Sirius shouted, his voice echoing dully around them. "How're we supposed to know what door to use?"

"Have you tried asking?" Tonks said calmly.

"I—what?" Sirius asked, turning to her in confusion.

She sighed in mock-annoyance and closed they door they'd just come through. Almost instantly, the room began to spin, leaving Sirius seeing blue blurs in front of his eyes from the candles that lit it. "Where did the person who last entered the department go?" she asked the room at large.

The circular wall of doors stopped spinning, and one of the doors opened, as though inviting the two Aurors to enter. Sirius looked at his cousin oddly. "How'd you know to do that?" he demanded.

"It's magic, Sirius, not rocket science," Tonks replied. "And please don't ask me to explain what rocket science is right now. I'll tell you later."

Sirius closed his mouth, rolled his eyes, and walked slowly through the door, his wand held out in front of him. It was easy to see, after a quick scan of his eyes, that the room was empty. He looked down and saw that he and Tonks were standing on what seemed to be stone benches circling a stone pit. "Looks like a courtroom," Sirius whispered, staring at what was in the center of the pit. It was an ancient-looking stone archway sat on a raised dais, and hung with a tattered black veil that wasn't being supported by anything visible. And despite the complete lack of wind around the Aurors, the veil fluttered slightly as though a breeze had hit it or like someone had just passed through it...

Before Tonks could stop him, Sirius had already hopped down two benches, making his way to the pit. As he approached very cautiously, he began to hear the most curious thing. "What'd you say, Tonks?" he called over his shoulder without looking away from the veil—he was quite transfixed with the archway in general.

"I didn't say anything, Sirius," his cousin called back. Had he been paying attention, he would have noticed the trace of fear in her voice.

As it was, his feet were carrying him automatically closer to the archway and the veil, and before he could even comprehend what he was doing, he was standing on the dais. Now he realized that he was indeed hearing whispers, and they were coming from behind the veil.

"What?" he asked very quietly, trying to make out what the voices were saying.

He could very faintly hear Tonks' cries for him to move away, that they were supposed to be... doing something... And he vaguely wondered how she could be so fearful of something so strangely beautiful. A sudden feeling overcame him—the feeling that everything he ever wanted would come to him if he'd just walk through the veil. And the whispers were becoming slightly louder—he could now make out a woman's voice over the others, a voice he knew quite well..

"Julia?" he breathed. He reached out his right hand, not even registering that, at some point, he'd dropped his wand, with the very strong inclination of moving the veil aside to see what was beyond —

Someone had yanked him hard by his left arm, pulling him off the dais. Anger fueled him as he hit the stone floor. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled furiously at Tonks.

She bent down, picked up his wand, and handed it to him, returning the glare she was receiving. "I don't like this room," she said quietly, her voice trembling a touch. "I want to find the person who came in here and leave. Please, Sirius."

His anger dissolved instantly at the look on her face. He pushed himself off the floor, nodding. "I just... I thought I heard... Never mind." He put a hand on his head, feeling as though he was coming out of some sort of trance. "Come on," he said quietly, tearing his eyes from the veil with great effort. "We still need to find whoever came through here."

"Isn't that what I just said?" Tonks asked rhetorically.

Ignoring the fact that he'd wasted so much time, he led Tonks quickly up a set of stairs, and through a pair of double doors. They were in a dark hall and just like every other area of the Department of Mysteries, this one was also filled with doors.

"Where d'you reckon..." Sirius began, trailing off as his question was silently answered.

A short ways down the corridor, the pair could see a dim shadow across the floor just inside an open door. "We take no chances," Sirius said very quietly as they stalked up to the door. "Stun first, ask questions later."

Tonks nodded.

When they reached the door, Sirius peeked inside quickly, seeing a hunched figure bent over a desk, and took a quick, silent step to the other side of the doorway. He caught Tonks' eyes and held up a finger. 'One,' he mouthed to her. Another finger rose. 'Two...' A third finger. 'Three...'

The two Aurors jumped into the doorway, hardly taking a breath before shouting in unison, "STUPEFY!"

The cloaked figure keeled over onto the desk before falling to the floor. Sirius rushed in, glancing at the nameplate on the desk that read Broderick Bode, and knelt beside the stunned figure. Tonks stood beside him as he pulled back the hood, and she was nearly knocked to the floor as he recoiled in shock.

"Oh my god," Tonks breathed, staring into the face of Minister of Magic Amelia Bones.

Harry yawned widely as he entered his dormitory, peeling off his robes as he wandered over to his bed. He and Hermione had just finished their rounds with the professors, and he was exhausted. Between all the homework for his NEWT classes, Quidditch practice, and Head Boy duties, it was a wonder he was still standing at all.

He stood over his trunk, ruffling his hair, and looked around at his dorm mates sleeping soundly and snoring loudly, Ron, as always, the loudest of them all. Quickly and as quietly as he could manage, Harry changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed, looking quite forward to closing his eyelids for the next seven hours. Out of habit, once he'd fluffed his pillows, he relaxed his body and cleared his mind as Emmeline reminded him to do every chance she got. Yawning so widely that his eyes watered, Harry saw flashes of his friends and family just before he fell asleep.

The war was over. It had been for several days. London was deserted—the cars that normally filled the streets had gone and the streets were filled with dirt and rubble from fallen buildings surrounding them. There was no sign of a living being anywhere.

Then, out of thin air, appeared a pale man with shining scarlet eyes and a snake-like face. He smirked smugly at the sight before him, slowly setting foot down the middle of the street. What he was heading for was unclear at first, until the man turned a corner into an alleyway scattered with corpses...

The man looked down at the closet to his foot and tutted. "I warned you, Sirius Black," he said in a high-pitched, mock-apologetic voice. Very close to this first body was another, a woman with long blonde hair, her eyes wide open in intense fear. In her arms, she cradled what looked to be a child with facial features that resembled the man. "And you, Naomi, you should have known what would happen to you... You could have been spared, you know—you were my greatest, my most trusted follower..."

Another man with sandy-colored hair, speckled with strands of gray, was lying over a woman with long black hair—it seemed he'd tried to protect her. "Love is a much overrated emotion, Remus Lupin. If only you'd joined me, like so many other of your kind, you could have had power beyond your wildest dreams. Was it worth it, werewolf?"

Beyond them lay a pair of redheaded blood traitors and a bushy-haired Mudblood. The man chuckled darkly at the memory of how much trouble she'd given his followers. A little ways further down the alley lay a boy with very untidy black hair. His round-rimmed glasses sat askew over wide, dull green eyes. His forehead was covered with dried blood, the source being a lightning bolt-shaped scar he'd received at just fifteen months old.

The man kneeled beside the boy, gazing into his dead eyes. "And Harry Potter," he drawled softly. "My greatest foe. You were a most worthy adversary right up until the end, were you not?" He traced a long, bony finger down the boy's cold, dirty cheek. "So well protected you were, Harry, and yet so unprepared for our meeting. It's taken sixteen long, arduous years, but alas, I have defeated you. You have failed, as I have predicted for a great many years you would. You should have joined me, Harry; you and I together could have ruled this world. But you resisted and now you are reunited with your dear Mudblood mother and your blood-traitor father. And I am now unstoppable. How does it feel to know you've doomed this world to a dictatorship under the rule of Lord Voldemort? It is over for you and your precious family—there was never any chance in your success; I never understood why you resisted as you did." The man stood slowly, smiling coldly on the boy.

"Goodbye, Harry Potter."

"Okay, this officially ranks very high on my most-unbelievable-experiences list."

"What was she looking for?"

"Dunno, she was shuffling through a stack of parchment when we stunned her."

"I don't understand why the Minister of Magic would do something like this..."

"The Imperius Curse, you dolt!"

"Tonks," Sirius said warningly. His cousin was still quite wound up from their discovery. "Davies, did you contact Dumbledore like I asked you to?"

The young wizard nodded, keeping out of Tonks' path. "He's on his way, boss."

Sirius nodded and sighed, sitting in one of the chairs in Bones' office—he and Tonks had brought her there instead of leaving her in the Department of Mysteries for anyone to find. And now they were trying to piece together what exactly was going on. Before Sirius could get much further than the definite involvement of the Minister of Magic, whether willing or otherwise, Dumbledore entered the office followed by a thoroughly confused Remus.

"How'd you get dragged out here?" Sirius asked quietly while Dumbledore went to examine the Minister.

Remus shook his head. "I'm not really sure, actually," he said. "I was helping out with patrols around the school and just before we were about to finish, one of the portraits caught up to us and said Dumbledore was needed at the Ministry immediately, and he asked me to come along. What happened?"

"Yes, I should like to know the answer to that as well," Dumbledore said gravely, turning to Sirius.

The Head Auror exchanged a quick glance with Tonks and began to tell the Headmaster what occurred in the Department of Mysteries—he carefully left out the bit about the veil; he'd tell Remus later. "What are the chances of the Imperius Curse, Albus?" he asked.

"The chances are quite high, Sirius, though I do not understand how," Dumbledore answered. "Madam Bones has been very well protected."

"Maybe it was someone doing the protecting," Tonks suggested. "They could have been keeping her under Imperius just like Slughorn was."

"Or it could've even been a visitor," Sirius said. "A Death Eater who held up a façade of being a concerned citizen. That was always Malfoy's schemes when Bagnold was Minister. And of course she took him as just a generous giver of gold—never realized he was trying to get in good with the Ministry on the Snake Lord's orders."

Remus rolled his eyes at his best friend. "Is this connected with the other two break-ins?"

"Three," Sirius corrected. "Bode's office was broken into over the weekend as well."

"But why would she have been sent back again tonight?" Proudfoot wondered.

"Perhaps upon the first break-in, the knowledge that was sought was not retrieved," Dumbledore said. "What truly perplexes me is how often I've spoken with Madam Bones and have not realized her behavior being abnormal."

You didn't realize Slughorn was under Imperius until it was too late either, Sirius thought, knowing better than to say it aloud—he'd surely get a slap in the back of the head from Remus for that one. "Assuming the Imperius Curse is the correct theory," he said.

"An investigation will be needed to determine what we have overlooked," Dumbledore said, agreeing with Sirius. "If possible, Sirius, I recommend a few of your Aurors remain with Madam Bones, should she wake. I would like you and Remus to return to Hogwarts with me—there are things I wish to discuss with the both of you."

Sirius nodded. "Tonks, Proudfoot, you'll stay; Davies, you're relieved for the night," he said.

The younger wizard looked disappointed that he'd not been assigned to something so important, but nodded, said good night to the others and left. Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore weren't far behind. They Flooed back to Hogwarts in the Atrium—Dumbledore temporarily disabled the wards around his fireplace that prohibited Floo transportation.

"During my conversation with Severus night before last," the Headmaster said once they'd all settled into chairs, "I discovered that Horace had been under Lord Voldemort's Imperius Curse for many months. How Voldemort was able to control Horace from such a great distance, I am uncertain. I do believe, however, that our mysteries are connected in some way. Remus, has Sirius discussed with you what I have requested of Harry?"

Remus nodded, glancing sideways at Sirius. "He has, sir," he said quietly.

"I wish to complete our task in a fortnight, on Halloween."

Sirius inhaled sharply. Remus sighed deeply. Everything bad that ever happened to them seemed to happen on Halloween night. With any luck, this year would break the trend.

And very rarely are we ever lucky... Remus thought. "Halloween will be fine, sir."