Resolutions
By Neurotica
Thirty-One
Half of the Order of the Phoenix volunteered to help in the search for Mira. They arrived at the crack of dawn, when most of the residents of Number Twelve were just finishing their breakfast. Remus updated everyone on what was happening and what needed to be done, before announcing he was going to get dressed and get Harry roused out of bed. The boy probably hadn't slept at all that night, and if he had, he'd probably only gotten a few hours. Remus himself had only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep in between watching the Order map for Sirius' progress to Albania. He'd lost track of his best friend after five minutes when Sirius entered the blank area of the map. Remus wondered if there was any way to make that area visible, but he doubted it.
"Harry?" Remus called, arriving at the boy's door. He didn't get a response, so he knocked twice before entering—one of the last things he wanted to see right now was Ginny and Harry in bed together, though he doubted the couple had gotten that far in their relationship. I really hope they haven't, he thought, pushing the door open.
Harry's blankets were pulled over the pillows, but Remus could see the lump that resembled his boy under them. "Harry, you need to get up. I know you haven't slept much, but..." He trailed off when he pulled the blankets back and found nothing there. It only took a minute to realize that Harry had used a charm to make it seem like he was asleep in his bed—it was one the Marauders had used often, with a good deal of success. Sirius must have taught him. Damn him, Remus thought without much conviction.
Remus cursed under his breath. There was only one place he could think of that Harry would have gone. And it was a place Remus wished Harry never would have to go back to after he rescued Ron. "Why do I have to have a family who doesn't listen to a word I say?" he asked himself.
"Because you love them and they love you." Remus jumped and turned to see his wife. "What happened?" she asked, entering the room.
"Well, the only explanation I can think of is that Harry went off after Sirius to Albania," Remus said lightly. "So now we have three people in mortal danger. Isn't it wonderful, dear?"
Emmeline sighed. "I've told you a million times, Harry and Sirius can take care of themselves. Yes, they are stubborn, so they won't listen to a word of advice from you, but they've done stupider things in their lives."
"They're going to drive me to an early grave if they keep this up, Emmeline."
She smiled a little. "Come on, Dumbledore's just arrived, and we're about to get started."
"You're not going to get started on anything, my love," he said, leaving the room with her. "The most you're going to do is watch maps."
She glared. "You're going to drive me to an early grave if you keep this nagging up."
"After the twins are born, I promise I won't nag, except on special occasions. Deal?"
"Deal."
The Lupins shook hands and made their way down the stairs to the kitchen.
After Sirius found the entrance to Voldemort's hideout, he'd gone back into the forest to rest and form a plan. Remus seemed to have some sort of influence on him, no matter how hard he'd tried to fight it. At dawn he made his way back to the castle and transformed back to human, taking out his wand as he walked. It would probably take him an hour just to get the charms around the place taken down enough so he could get in.
Just out of habit, he pointed his wand at the door. "Alohomora." There were a dozen or so rusty clicks, and the two large doors opened just enough for Sirius to enter. The Head Auror raised an eyebrow.
It's either a trap or Voldemort doesn't know basic locking charms. It can't be that easy to get in there, can it? Naomi searched the place for an entrance for months and never found anything.
She also said it can detect whether or not a person has the Dark Mark. Have you forgotten about that? asked another voice.
Naomi has said a lot of things... Like when she tried to tell James the teddy bear she'd stolen from him wasn't rabid, it only wanted a hug...
Wondering what kind of horrible things would happen to him when he walked through the doors, Sirius cautiously made his way forward. He stuck his wand through the door and performed a spell to detect any spells that had been active in the last twelve hours. The only ones that responded were basic spells (levitation, summoning, and his own unlocking charm). He knew the spell worked and that there was only a very slim chance that it had missed something—the primary function of the spell was to detect dark magic.
As he walked through the door, it struck him as odd that Voldemort's hideout showed no dark magic. Still, nothing immediately hexed, cursed, or trapped him, so he stopped worrying about it. There was a silver mist a couple yards inside the doors—Sirius suddenly wished Remus was there so his best friend could tell him what the function of the mist was. He knew gold mist was an anti-gravity spell, but silver...
Something else Naomi had said was coming back to him. She could never see any doors or windows in this castle, but Sirius could very clearly see at least one window plus the door he'd just come in by.
Okay, so let's pretend I'm Remus for a minute and think this through. Naomi couldn't see anything past this first corridor, if I'm right on where I am. So then, the silver mist must have been put here to hide all exits to the outside world. See, I'm smart.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at himself. Why am I defending my intelligence to myself? And what will happen if I walk through that mist?
He turned around, looking for a rock or stick that he could throw through the mist of mystery. What am I doing? I'm a bloody wizard; I can just conjure something.
He conjured a rubber mouse and charmed it to move. Watching closely as the mouse moved through the mist, he was quite shocked when the doors behind him slammed shut suddenly. It hadn't been so windy outside that stone doors would do that...
The mouse was already through the mist when he turned back to it and it was still moving straight down the corridor.
So Voldemort put up this mist to keep his followers in, but anyone else could just go through without having anything happen to them? Alarms in his head were going off and he could hear his friends' voices yelling at him to get out of there, that it had to be some sort of trap. For once, he heeded their advice—he turned back to the stone doors and tried to push them open with all his strength; they didn't budge. He tried using Alohomora, but that didn't work either. When he looked up, he could see the locks were still open, that they hadn't locked when the doors slammed shut.
Oh, this is just great. I'm trapped behind a silver mist that probably didn't do anything to that bloody mouse because it's not a living being. He tried Apparating out, then fell against the wall in frustration when it didn't work.
"This is why Remus tries to talk me out of my plans," he said to himself. "Because they always bloody backfire on me."
He half-expected to hear Lucius' voice from around a corner. Even though he knew Lucius was in Azkaban, he hadn't forgotten their last encounter. How can I forget it when I have to look at this scar every day? He ran a finger down the long jagged scar that was still occasionally sore.
Well, the only way to get out of here, according to Naomi and Snape, is an Apparition chamber in Voldemort's quarters. That makes me feel loads better... But if I want out of here, that is the only way to do it. And while I'm searching for Voldemort's quarters—wish I had that map Harry used—I can look for Mira.
Something told him that Mira wasn't there and this really was a suicide mission.
I can take on a few Death Eaters on my own, but if I'm in their lair with Voldemort, I think it's safe to say I'm screwed.
Taking a deep breath, hoping he'd be able to see and hold his family again very soon, Sirius stepped through the mist. He waited for it to trigger something, perhaps along the lines of the Cruciatus Curse, but nothing happened. He sighed deeply in relief and found a dark corner he could use to cast an Undetectable and Disillusionment Charm on himself, purposely ignoring the fact that if Voldemort had some sort of alarm on his hideout to tell if an outsider had entered the castle, he'd already been found out.
Every step he took, he expected a Death Eater to ambush him, even though he was taking the Mad-Eye approach and looking all around him before turning a corner or entering a room. But there wasn't a single sign that any Death Eater was even in the area. He found a series of doors that looked to be private quarters for the castle's fulltime residents. The last one on the corridor was a steel door—the others were normal wooden doors. Sirius raised an eyebrow at it, wondering if it could really be this easy to find Voldemort's quarters (if that's what this room was). The door opened easily, revealing a dark room.
"Lumos," he muttered automatically, using his wand to look around the room.
A jolt of shock ran through him when the light hit the cot at one corner of the room. Sitting on the cot against the wall with his knees pulled to his chest was someone Sirius hadn't seen in years—eleven, to be specific. Sirius remembered the day Naomi had told him, Emmeline, and Harry that she'd visited this person regularly, and that he'd recognized her once or twice.
What did she say it was? Something behind his eyes...?
Slowly, after closing the door, Sirius approached the man on the cot and kneeling in front of it. "Wormtail?" he said quietly. "Can you hear me?"
Wormtail, very slowly, lifted his head from where it'd rested on his knees and looked around the room with a dazed expression. Sirius took off his Disillusionment Charm and lifted his wand above his head so he and the other man could clearly see one another. The Head Auror nearly fell over backwards when he saw a flash behind Wormtail's dull blue, almost grey eyes. Wormtail's eyes widened in what Sirius thought might be fear. His thought was confirmed when Wormtail pushed himself firmly against the wall.
Well, he's got the right reaction to seeing me. I guess that means he recognizes me.
"It's all right," Sirius heard himself say. "I'm not going to hurt you. Can you talk?"
Wormtail continued to cower, but shook his head.
"But you recognize me? You know who I am?"
There was a familiar squeak in the back of Wormtail's throat when he nodded.
Sirius stood and sighed, raising a slight eyebrow when Wormtail attempted to push himself through the wall to get away from the Auror. "I just told you I'm not going to hurt you. When have I ever gone against my word?" He briefly debated adding something about Wormtail being the one to go against his word, but resisted. "Look, I'd offer to get you out of here, but I don't even know how to get myself out." He thought for a moment. "You don't know anything about a little girl being somewhere in here, do you? A baby?"
Wormtail seemed to relax just a bit in response to the calm tone Sirius was using with him. He looked to be thinking, then shook his head.
Sirius cursed loudly, his voice reverberating dully off the stone walls. Wormtail went back to cowering. "Sorry," Sirius said quickly, unsure why he was treating Wormtail, the traitor who sold out Lily and James, with such kindness. "That wasn't directed at you... My daughter was kidnapped and we're trying to figure out where she is... I thought maybe it was a Death Eater who'd taken her. Guess I was wrong..." He felt his heart sink at the words. "Do you know how I can get out of here? I might be able to arrange for someone to get you out of here…...
Wormtail shook his head hard.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to get out of here?" he asked slowly.
Another shake of the head.
"You've always been mental... Alright, how do I get out?"
Cautiously, Wormtail stood. Sirius could see his legs were a little shaky, so he reached out and grabbed the other man's arm. Wormtail tensed a bit at the contact, but he relaxed when he realized Sirius really wasn't going to hurt him. Sirius followed him to the door where Wormtail opened it and peeked out into the corridor briefly before gesturing for Sirius to go out. Wormtail pointed down the corridor and showed Sirius his right hand, the one with the missing finger.
"You know, you also always had a problem with saying the wrong things," the Head Auror said evenly. "Why are you showing me that hand?"
If Wormtail had been Remus, he probably would have rolled his eyes. Instead, the Dementor's Kiss victim shook his right hand at Sirius. Finally Sirius thought he understood. "Four? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" Wormtail nodded fervently. "Okay, four... Four what? Death Eaters? Four doors down? Is that where Voldemort's quarters are?"
Another nod.
"And will I find him in there?"
Wormtail shook his head.
"Why not?" Sirius rolled his eyes at himself. "Right, you can't talk. I never thought I'd say this again, but thank you, Wormtail."
Wormtail didn't reply. He gave Sirius a small shove out the door and went back to his cot. Sirius watched him pull his knees back to his chest and rest his head on his knees again before starting to rock back and forth. Feeling confused, Sirius shut the door to Wormtail's quarters quietly before counting doors. When he reached the fourth door down the corridor, he realized he hadn't needed to count.
He stood in front of the door and stared at it for a moment in wonder. It was an oak arch door that resembled something one would see at the entrance of a church. Only, at a church, one wouldn't see so many snakes with ruby eyes—they covered every inch of the door. It looked like something Sirius' mother would have put in Number Twelve if she'd thought of it. He opened the door a crack and peeked through, still wondering why the entire castle seemed to be abandoned.
Who cares right now? All I need to do is get out before someone comes back...
It only took him one look around the room to find the Apparition chamber. Luckily, it wasn't locked with a password like Sirius' own at the Ministry, but opened with a tap of his wand. He entered, feeling heady relief that he was getting away without being caught—
A loud hiss from a corner of the room startled him. He turned around to see a snake, probably ten feet long, slithering towards him as fast as it could go. Sirius snapped his wand up. "Stupefy!" The snake stopped in its place, suddenly limp.
Sirius conjured a glass jar with holes in the lid, shrank the snake to the size of a quill, and stuck it into the jar. Well, at least this wasn't a complete waste. I've got the last Horcrux.
Without wasting another minute—he'd already wasted enough time that he could have used to find his daughter—Sirius went back to the chamber and Apparated back to Number Twelve. He was hardly through the door when Remus came up the stairs to the kitchen, a look of relief crossing his face.
"Well, that's one of you back home safely," he muttered. "Now we only have two to go."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "What're you talking about?" he asked.
"Your godson decided it would be a smart idea to go after you. At least that's where I think he's gone. There's really no way to tell. He just disappeared. Did you find Mira?"
The Head Auror glared. "What do you think?"
Remus gave him an apologetic glance. "Sorry, mate," he said quietly. "Did you even get in there?"
"I got in there with hardly any problem. And there are a few things you and I need to discuss later. But right now..."
"Ah, Sirius, we thought that may have been you." Dumbledore came up the stairs followed by Mad-Eye.
"You oughta make sure that's really him, Dumbledore," the DMLE head said. "If he really was out in You-Know-Who's hideout, I wouldn't put it past any of that scum to have used Polyjuice on the boy."
Sirius sighed. "You've got a scar on your left bum cheek from where James and I accidentally hexed you in training."
Remus snorted. "Tell me you're kidding."
"No, he's not," Mad-Eye growled. "Fine, you're the real Black. And as such, I will ask you what you thought you were doing going out there on your own."
"Well, I didn't do what I thought I'd be going out there for," Sirius said. "But I did get something that might help us at some point..." He took the glass jar containing the sleeping snake out of his robes.
The other three wizards stared at the jar for a few moments before Remus took it. "How did you... No, I don't want to know. Sirius... this is..."
"A snake," Mad-Eye grunted. The other three looked at him. "What? It's a sodding snake and Lupin's treating him like a hero."
"Alastor, you and I should probably have a chat later on. In the meantime, however, it would probably be best if this snake was properly taken care of," Dumbledore said, taking the sleeping Nagini from Remus. "And I believe this was the proper time for me to choose to take my temporary leave."
Sirius and Remus looked at the door as it opened.
Mad-Eye cleared his throat. "I'll head back to the kitchen and see if we've made any progress."
"I should take this back to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "Good work, Sirius."
Sirius only grunted in response as he stared at his godson.
"Close the door," Remus said quietly. Harry sighed and did as told. "He's all yours, Sirius."
The Head Auror nodded. "Are you out of your bloody mind?"
Harry looked at him thoughtfully. "You know, that's the second time this week you've asked me that. I'm starting to think I am..."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Let's just say you're both out of your bloody minds. That's irrelevant right now. Where were you?" he asked Harry.
"Looking for Mira," the boy said. "I went back to the wedding hall to see if we've missed something—"
"Harry, we searched that place a dozen times, there was nothing that we missed," Sirius said.
Harry raised an eyebrow and took a ball of cloth from his robes, tossing them at Remus. The werewolf unballed and examined them. "Dress robes," Remus said. "Where'd you find these?"
"Just outside the backdoor," Harry replied. "There wasn't anything else around, just those, but I thought you might be able to tell something from them."
"Impressive," Sirius said, taking the robes from Remus. "You have about another week to submit your Auror application—I suggest you do... Now, why couldn't you have left a note telling Remus where you went?"
"Because when I left, I'd planned on following you to Albania, then I decided that even though I'm of age now and engaged, if I'd gone out there, I'd be locked in my room for the next year."
"He's finally learned to read our minds, Padfoot," Remus said.
"Indeed he has, Moony. Let's get these downstairs, let Mad-Eye take a shifty at them..."
The robes turned out to be nothing more than a pair of old dress robes that'd been thrown out. They belonged to one of the wizards who worked at the wedding hall, cleaning up. Just to be certain, Mad-Eye personally tracked down and questioned the wizard—he hadn't even been at the reception when Mira was taken.
Remus wasn't sure what else to do. He'd hoped the robes that Harry had found would point them in the right direction—Sirius was even more hopeful—but they were right back to square one.
"This is a bloody nightmare," Sirius said quietly to Remus while Harry, Mad-Eye, and Emmeline stood around the kitchen table examining maps. "It's one thing after another, Remus... At this rate, we're never going to find her."
Remus gave him a look. "Don't think that way. Maybe we're just not looking in the right place..."
"You think?" Sirius said sarcastically.
The werewolf sighed and tried to change the subject. "What happened at Voldemort's hideout? How'd you get the snake?"
Sirius snorted. "You're going to love this. First of all, the place was completely deserted. I didn't see one Death Eater roaming around the entire time I was there." Remus raised an eyebrow. "Then I walked in on Wormtail."
By the end of the story, Remus was speechless. "I don't know what I'm more shocked about—the fact that he responded to you in the way he did or the fact that you didn't kill him on sight."
"I had other things to worry about," Sirius said dismissively. "So what do you make of it?"
Remus shook his head. "I honestly don't know. This is an improvement from what Naomi's told us about him. Whatever has happened to him, it's definitely a unique case... As for the Death Eaters and Voldemort not being there, it can't mean anything good. Once this is over, I'm certain Dumbledore will want to investigate it further."
Sirius opened his mouth to respond when the door to the kitchen was thrown open. Dung came thundering down the stairs, his face flushed from obviously rushing to get there. He bent over and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Found... building... kid..." he panted out.
Eyebrows rose all around the room. "What're you on about, Dung?" Mad-Eye growled. "We're busy here, we don't have time for this rubbish."
Dung waved his hand at them, took a deep breath, and stood up straight. "I know where yer kid is, Sirius."
Sirius paled. "What?" he breathed. "Where?"
"It's the damnedest thing," Dung started. Remus could tell right off that the thief was going to go into one of his longwinded stories about stolen goods. Sirius obviously recognized the same signs, and in a flash of a second, Dung was pressed against the wall with Sirius' hand at his throat.
"Where is she, Dung?" Sirius growled.
"Sirius, he can't tell us anything if you've strangled him," Emmeline said as Remus and Harry pried Sirius away from Dung.
"You're a mental case!" Dung exclaimed, catching his breath again.
"He didn't mean anything by it, Dung," Remus said loudly. "He just wants to know where his daughter is."
Dung nodded, rubbing at his reddened throat. "There's this warehouse 'bout six blocks from the Leaky Cauldron. They're there."
"How long have you known this?" Remus asked, hoping for Dung's sake he answered correctly.
"Just found out, I swear," Dung said. "I was pickin' up some, er, business packages and the bloke I was meetin' had this kid, right? And I knew it was Sirius' little girl. They said they was gonna get Sirius to pay them a ton of gold to get her back."
"Did they know you were coming here?" Remus asked.
"What d'you think I am, stupid? Course they don't know I was comin' here."
"Good," Sirius said calmly. "You're taking me back there..."
Remus didn't think any good would come of letting Sirius go to this strange warehouse where his daughter might be without supervision. After the culprits were arrested, Remus didn't care what happened to them—he'd just prefer Mira be far away when her father got his revenge. Dung gave the wizards the coordinates where they would be Apparating.
Even before the area came all the way into focus, Remus saw a flash of light, and realized as he materialized that Sirius had blasted open a wooden door. A burst of wandfire flew over Sirius' head, and Sirius returned it. "Where is she?" he shouted.
Four wizards burst out of the room, frantic as they realized the Head Auror was there himself. Confident that Sirius could handle them, Remus started searching for Mira. It only took him moments—she was lying in a wooden crate lined with baby blankets, and she grinned when she saw Remus.
"Hey there, gorgeous," he said to the baby, taking her from the crate—luckily for whoever had taken her, she was completely unharmed. "Everything's going to be fine, we're going to get you home soon."
"Remus?" Sirius called.
"Over here, found her!" Remus called back. "She's fine!"
There were a few heavy footsteps, a blur of black, and Remus felt the weight of Mira disappear from his arms as her father snatched her to him. "I stunned four of them," Sirius said faintly, holding his daughter close. "They're over there..."
Remus nodded and left the pair alone for a few minutes. Dung was standing beside the four wizards. "The kid all right?" he asked, glancing over at Sirius and Mira.
"She's fine," Remus responded. "Do you know any of them?"
"Yeah, those two there," Dung said. "Done business with them a few times. Thought they seemed like nice blokes."
Remus raised an eyebrow. Dung had odd sense of a nice bloke. "I'm going to send my patronus to Tonks and have her bring a few Aurors to take them to the Ministry. You may or may not want to be around when they arrive."
"Yeah, yeah, that's good thinkin', Lupin. There's a few things some of the Aurors're lookin' to me about. See you round."
"See you, Dung. Thanks for your help."
Dung nodded and Disapparated.
Remus conjured his lion patronus and sent it along with a message to Tonks, then he went back to Sirius and Mira. "You should get her home. I'm sure Naomi will want to see her."
"Yeah," Sirius said, smiling. "She will, won't she? See you back at the house, then."
Harry and his friends sat around the kitchen table later that night, playing Gobstones and watching the Blacks get back to normal. Mira had only been gone for a few hours, and it hadn't even been Voldemort that had taken her, but everyone knew how much worse it could have been.
Tonks had come by to report that Minister Bones was asking for the maximum penalty for the wizards who kidnapped the baby, and was looking into their criminal history for anything to add to the charges. Sirius had a simple way to deal with them: lock them in a cell with the werewolves of Azkaban for a night on the full moon. Remus tried to explain that was a cruel and unjust punishment, but Harry could tell Remus wasn't actually trying to convince anyone; he was just being the voice of reason like always.
Dumbledore Flooed in after dinner and asked to speak with Sirius and Remus alone for a few moments. When they finished, Dumbledore asked for a word with Harry as well. "The final Horcrux has been destroyed," the Headmaster said. "Sirius captured Nagini the snake while he was searching for Mira. I for one am opposed to cruelty towards animals, so I will not explain what I did, but the road to Voldemort's destruction is now clear. I do not foresee any more obstacles—though there could quite possibly be some—so when the time is right, Harry, you need only—"
"Kill a dark lord?"
Dumbledore's lips twitched. "Indeed, my boy," he said. "Now, I will intrude on your family's celebration no longer. The next time we see one another may not be until the new year upon your return to Hogwarts. I will see you then."
"See you, sir," Harry said, watching the Headmaster turn and head back to the fireplace. He gulped. He hadn't expected the last of the Horcruxes to be destroyed so soon. Of course he knew it had to be done before Voldemort could be killed, but he thought there would be more time. He still didn't know for sure if Voldemort felt his Horcruxes being destroyed—he stood by the thought that a person should be able to feel a part of their soul being blown to smithereens, but Dumbledore seemed convinced that everything had been done in secret.
He will notice his faithful pet is missing, though, and he's not going to be happy about it...
"You all right, Harry?" Remus asked, looking on with a little concern.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, fine," he said. "Is Mira all right, do you think?"
Remus looked at him in slight suspicion, but answered. "She'll be fine. Naomi and Sirius were more traumatized by this than Mira was—" He was cut off by a scream from across the room. Both he and Harry turned and saw Mrs. Weasley's eyes wider than they'd ever been.
"Molly, what..." Remus began, walking over to the redheaded woman. One hand was covering her mouth, while the other was pointing at something on the floor. Harry glanced over at Hermione—her lips were twitching.
"Er, how did this happen?" Harry asked Ginny quietly.
Looking quite amused, Ginny shook her head. "Mum was telling him he needed to study harder in school, he was getting frustrated, and he just looked at her, right before he transformed."
"A fox, eh?" Sirius said thoughtfully, looking down at Ron's Animagus form. "Hmm... I'd have thought that'd be either Fred's or George's form if they'd ever attempted the transformation, but it works."
"Molly?" Remus said. "Are you all right?"
"My son is an illegal Animagus," she breathed. She kneeled down to Ron's level, and the small fox cowered automatically. "It's all right..." She reached out a hand and ran it across her son's back. "When did you do this?"
For some reason, everyone looked at Harry. "What?" he said dumbly.
Sirius grinned. "As if we all don't know you had everything to do with this."
"Actually, this was all his idea," Harry said. "I just went along with it like a good friend."
Remus burst out laughing. "Okay, now you two really do remind me of Sirius and James," he said. "That was always their defense before the detentions were given out—blaming one another."
"We took turns," Sirius said, grinning widely. "I think we only once blamed anything on you, Moony, and that was actually your fault."
"If you're referring to the time that group of Slytherins got turned into toads, I hadn't actually planned on doing that..."
"If you two are done," Naomi said, "I think we're dealing with something else right now."
Mrs. Weasley hadn't looked away from her son once and showed no signs of hearing anything Sirius and Remus had said. "Can he turn back?" she asked Harry.
Harry nodded. "Of course. I don't think she's going to kill you right now, mate," he said to the fox.
Ron gave him a look that suggested Harry didn't know the Weasley matriarch at all. With what resembled a sigh, Ron transformed again, standing up straight and towering over his mother. "I was going to tell you eventually," he said meekly.
Mrs. Weasley nodded and stood as well. "Well, now you don't have to worry about it anymore, do you?" Ron gulped. "This may shock you, but you're not in trouble." Raised eyebrows were exchanged all around the room—Fred and George looked aghast. Harry didn't blame them; they got in trouble for nearly everything they did, but they'd never done anything that would land them in prison. Now their youngest brother was about to be let off all punishment for something that was actually illegal...
"Life's not fair," Harry heard Fred mutter.
"Your father would be very proud of you, Ronald," Mrs. Weasley said quietly, actually smiling.
Ron looked like he was still waiting for the catch. "Er, thank you," he said uncertainly. "So I'm really not in trouble?"
His mother shook her head. "You're an adult," she said. "You made the decision to do this, and if the two Aurors in the room," she gestured to Sirius and Tonks, "decide to take you to jail, I won't stand in their way."
Tonks held up her hands. "Not me," she said. "Boss?"
Harry bit the sides of his cheeks to keep from laughing at the look on Ron's face as the redhead looked to Sirius. The Head Auror had no humor in his face for anyone who didn't know what to look for, but Harry could see his jaw muscles twitching. "From one illegal Animagus to another," he said solemnly, "I will give you the same punishment I gave Harry when I found out about his transformation." Harry fought not to raise an eyebrow. "Ron, you get to do dishes tonight, without magic."
"Are you serious?" Ron asked.
Remus groaned quietly.
"Yes, yes I am," Sirius replied. "All my life, actually."
"Okay, I can't resist," Naomi said, shifting Mira in her arms. With a free hand, she reached over and slapped her husband in the back of the head.
"What?" Sirius asked, rubbing the spot. "I'm not taking the kid to prison. If I did that, I'd have to take myself and Harry too. We all know that's not going to happen."
Mrs. Weasley sighed and sat back down at the table, reaching over for her goblet of wine. "I always knew you would be an influence on my family, Sirius Black, and I always knew it would be rather interesting to see how it turned out. And here are the results right here." She toasted Ron, then took a deep swig of wine.
"And everything goes back to normal," Harry said quietly to Ginny. "I don't know if it's pathetic that we're so used to horrible things happening to us that we just move right along or not."
Ginny nodded. "Definitely pathetic," she said, watching her brother continue to glance worriedly at his mother as he made his way to the full sink. "But worse has happened, and everyone knows it's not nearly over yet..."