Resolutions
By Neurotica
Thirty-Four
Naomi stood before her third year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, watching them study boggarts. She was considering continuing her students' education with Remus' technique of teaching about the creatures, finding an old trunk with a boggart stuck inside and showing her students how to conquer it. She decided to talk to Dumbledore about it; she'd rather not have to deal with Filch, since the caretaker hadn't ever liked her all that much.
The Defense professor glanced at her watch and saw that there were only five more minutes of the lesson. "Okay, you can close your books now." Relived sighs sounded on the Gryffindor side, while the Ravenclaws groaned in protest. "Next week we have our boggart test. In order to prepare you, I've decided that you will face an actual boggart." The purebloods of the group went wide-eyed. "Don't worry; I'll be there if you have any trouble..." She trailed off when she briefly saw Harry duck his head in and out of the room. She raised an eyebrow just as the bell rang for the end of the class.
Chairs scraped and chatter began to fill the room as the students got up and packed their bags to go to their next lesson. Naomi waited at her desk for the room to clear out and for Harry to finally enter. He seemed to be waiting for the very last third year to leave. When he did enter, Naomi could see on his face he was upset by something.
"Hey, Harry," she said. "What brings you here? I don't have you lot till tomorrow..."
Harry sighed and looked around the room, ruffling the back of his hair. Naomi was briefly reminded of James. "Er, could we go to your office and talk?"
"Yeah, sure," Naomi said, growing slightly worried. She wondered if Harry had had another dream about Voldemort, something she hadn't really dealt with but had heard about from Sirius and Remus. She wondered if she would be able to handle hearing about one of Harry's visions, or if she'd end up calling one of the boy's guardians.
Once in the office, Naomi closed the door and watched Harry nervously pick a chair. She went to her desk and sat on the edge of it. "So what's going on?" she asked.
Harry bit his lip, carefully avoiding Naomi's eye.
"Harry, whatever has happened, I can help you... Have you had a vision?"
The boy shook his head.
"Is somebody hurt?"
"Not yet."
Naomi's eyebrows rose even further. "Harry, please tell me what's happened."
Again, Harry sighed deeply.
No seventeen-year-old should have so much on his mind that he sighs like that. "Should I firecall Sirius or Remus?"
"No," Harry said quickly, almost pleadingly. "No, they can't be here for this. Not yet."
"You keep saying 'not yet'. Talk to me, Harry. Please?"
"All right," Harry said heavily, still avoiding looking at Naomi. "I, er, I sort of heard you talking to Snape last night."
Naomi hadn't thought her eyebrows could rise any further than they had; she'd been wrong.
"I was heading back to the Tower," he added quickly. "And I heard you arguing. I thought maybe you were in trouble..."
Naomi briefly closed her eyes tightly. She'd known it hadn't been smart to argue with Snape where any student could have overheard. But she was strangely comforted that it was Harry that had overheard, and not some random student who would tell everyone one of their friends that they'd heard Professor Black and Professor Snape arguing. By the end of the week, the Hogwarts rumor mill would have Snape and Naomi having an affair. Naomi shuddered at the thought.
"How much did you hear?" she asked quietly.
"Everything from 'only the Order knows where he is,' to when you left," Harry admitted.
Naomi nodded. "So you heard everything. Wonderful." Harry gave a very small apologetic smile and looked away, towards the photo of Sirius, Naomi, and Mira on the desk. "What else is bothering you?"
Harry hesitated, trying to find how to say what he needed to say. "I heard Snape telling you to remember where your loyalties lie..." he began slowly. Naomi's jaw dropped. She had a feeling she knew where Harry was taking this... "And the idea I got from this—and I could be completely wrong—was that Snape thought you were still spying on the Order for Voldemort."
Naomi's heart dropped to her feet. She knew she'd never completely get away from what she'd done to her friends, by becoming a Death Eater, but she also never thought she'd have Harry Potter ask her if she'd been betraying her family...
"No, Harry, you don't understand what's happening," she said, then sighed, wondering what the best way to explain this was, without giving any important information away. "I have not been spying on the Order," she began at last. "I would never do that. I never wanted to do it. I love my family—you included—very much, and I would not betray them, not for anything in the world. Snape... he heard me talking with Hagrid the other day about something that happened last year, and he misheard some things I said. Naturally, thinking he was so much better than me, he confronted me and threatened me into telling him what he thought I'd done."
Harry relaxed, obviously relieved at what Naomi had said. "So you're really not a Death Eater anymore?"
Naomi snorted. "No, I am not a Death Eater anymore, and I will never be one again. I promise."
The boy sighed in relief. "Well, that makes me feel better."
"Then again, I could be lying to you, like I've lied to everyone else," Naomi said, trying to suppress a grin.
Harry glared at her. "Har har."
Naomi laughed. "Anything else you'd like to ask me? Maybe what I ate for breakfast two weeks ago?" she asked playfully.
Harry's expression changed. His face was now inquisitive. "Actually, I do have another question. Who were you and Snape talking about, the person only the Order knows where he is?"
Naomi opened her mouth to tell him she couldn't tell him about that, but couldn't form words. Should she tell Harry the truth, or tell him not to worry about it? She understood that Remus and Sirius usually dealt with Harry with the latter technique, but Harry was of age now, and whatever he heard, after he got over the shock, he'd be grownup enough to take it.
She sighed. "I shouldn't tell you this, and I'll probably get an earful from Sirius later, but I think you should find out from someone you trust, rather from someone else if the information gets leaked..."
Harry sat forward eagerly in his chair. Naomi took a deep breath and began.
"Black! BLACK!"
Sirius had been trying to ignore the owner of the voice yelling at him for months, and it seemed he couldn't ignore the wizard any longer. Rolling his eyes, Sirius stopped and turned, annoying the group of witches and wizards trying to make their way to their offices. "What do you want, Scrimgeour?" he asked warily.
The DMLE officer was obviously just as keen on talking to Sirius as Sirius was on talking to him. "Moody sent me to find you. We haven't heard from Azkaban this morning. They're supposed to send an owl every morning to check in and let us know everything was going well."
"Has Moody sent anyone out there?" Sirius asked.
"No," Scrimgeour replied briskly. "He wants Aurors out there ASAP."
Slightly suspicious, Sirius watched Scrimgeour's face closely. He wouldn't put it past the other wizard to want revenge for Sirius' demoting him from the elite Auror squads to the not-so-elite DMLE. Perhaps Scrimgeour was setting Sirius up for more trouble by sending Sirius and his squads out to the wizard prison for hours only to find out nothing had happened, that everything was perfectly fine.
But Scrimgeour didn't show any signs of lying. "All right," Sirius finally said. "Tell Moody I'm taking a team out to Azkaban and I'll contact him as soon as I find out what's happening."
"I'll let him know," Scrimgeour said coldly, glaring at Sirius, then pushed past Sirius towards the lifts without another word.
"Git," Sirius muttered under his breath before following the rest of the Ministry workers to a different lift.
He entered Auror Headquarters and found his squads either working on a case or chatting to one another over their cubicle walls. After thinking for a few moments, he made his decision on who to take to Azkaban. If something had happened out there, he didn't want to risk having the younger, inexperienced Aurors getting into trouble if a battle broke out.
Why am I worried about a battle breaking out? he wondered, looking around for Proudfoot. The prisoners can't get out. He stopped in his tracks. Can they?
Remus rubbed his eyes tiredly as he left the nursery. The twins were sleeping... finally. He loved them very much, but it seemed they were already learning how to prank their parents. Maybe there was a gene that the Marauders passed on to their children...
Alex would cry, and either Remus or Emmeline would pick him up and quiet him before John woke. But as soon as Alex was calm and asleep again, and his parent would leave the room and get comfortable somewhere else, John would start crying. Then it would start all over again. It had been going on for two days now, and Remus was ready to start crying along with his sons.
In the meantime, Mira would just sit and watch the Lupins deal with their babies. If she was bored, she'd join in with whoever was crying at the time.
These kids are going to be a handful when they start to walk and talk... Remus thought. Mira's putting everything she can get her hands on in her mouth now, and if we don't watch her closely, she's going to end up grabbing something she shouldn't, like a wand. Remus didn't want to think about what would happen if Mira got her hands on a wand, not after she'd surprised everyone two nights before when Naomi was trying to leave for Hogwarts...
Naomi had just said goodbye to Mira and handed the girl over to her father. As she made her way to the fireplace, Mira began crying. Sirius did everything he could to try to calm her, but nothing worked. Naomi turned to look at her daughter, and instead of walking back to her, she tripped and fell to the floor. She swore she hadn't slipped or tripped over her own feet—she'd said it felt like someone cast a tripping jinx on her, at which point she'd glared at Sirius. Naturally, Sirius denied doing anything of the sort; he hadn't even had his wand. That was when everyone realized Mira had stopped crying and was now grinning.
"Bloody hell," Sirius had said in shock. "She didn't... Did she?"
Remus had smiled. "I think she did, Padfoot. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Black, your daughter has just done her first bit of accidental magic."
Sirius had spent most of his free time since trying to get Mira to do more magic, but she didn't seem too inclined to play her father's games. Finally Sirius gave up when Remus and Molly convinced him Mira wasn't going to do any more magic until she was ready.
Remus entered the kitchen to find his wife and Molly having tea and sandwiches. "Afternoon, ladies," he said, sitting beside Emmeline and kissing her cheek. "You'll be happy to know all three children are quiet and sleeping."
"At least for the next ten minutes," Emmeline said. "When do you go back to work, love?"
Remus raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to get rid of me?" She gave him a look. He grinned. "Tomorrow. I've got the department covered, and unless something horrible happens, they'll be able to handle it."
"Well, you won't have to worry about your sons being taken care of," Molly said, pouring Remus a cup of tea. "While Emmeline sleeps—" Molly gave the other witch a pointed look. "—I'll be more than happy to watch the children."
"Molly, we couldn't possibly—"
"Stop right there, Remus Lupin," Molly said sternly. "There will be no arguments. You four—this includes Sirius and Naomi—have done so much for our family in the past months after Arthur passed, and now I'm going to do something for you. As I've already told Emmeline, I enjoy taking care of those babies." She paused and smiled a little. "Besides, I've always wanted grandchildren, and you and Sirius have become something like sons to me."
Remus returned the smile. "Thank you, Molly," he said sincerely.
The witch winked and handed him his tea. "And anyway, you've put up with my children for years, and you've even attempted to teach them; it's the least I can do."
"And now Naomi's teaching them..." Remus made an odd face. "Do you have any idea how strange that is? She never liked doing homework, let alone spending all day in a classroom."
"Isn't it weird how drastically things change?" Emmeline asked.
"Quite," Remus asked, smiling.
He was about to reply when the fireplace lit up with green flames and a head full of red hair clashed horribly with them.
"Charlie!" Molly said in surprise. "What in the world...?"
Charlie looked breathless, as though he'd run from the magical creatures department to the nearest fireplace. "No time to chat," he panted. "Remus, you've got to get over here... we've got a serious problem."
"When you say 'serious' problem, you don't mean Sirius Black, do you?" Remus asked, unable to help himself.
"No, not Sirius; though he wanted me to contact you... There's been a breakout at Azkaban..."
Sirius and his Auror team stepped up onto Azkaban Island and made their way forward to the prison. The Head Auror immediately noticed something wasn't right. There was supposed to be a guard standing just outside the main doors, but the post had been abandoned. Sirius' heart pounded harder than could be considered normal in this sort of situation.
Don't jump to conclusions, Padfoot, he thought. Maybe he just went in for a cup of tea.
"Wands out," Sirius told his team. "I don't know what's going on here, but we're not taking any chances. Stun first, ask questions later."
"That's your motto, isn't it?" Tonks asked, taking her wand out.
Sirius turned to glare at her. "Proudfoot, I want you up front with me. Tonks, Davies, Leven, take the rear. The rest of you, keep an eye out for any movement."
The Aurors made their way to the door, and Sirius and his second-in-command pulled it open. "Lumos," they said in unison.
"Holy..." Proudfoot said when the wands illuminated the main hall.
Sirius finished the phrase for the other wizard. "What the hell happened here?" he asked when he finally found his voice again.
Gasps and curses sounded from the other Aurors when they entered.
"Looks like a massacre," Davies said quietly, looking around wide-eyed.
Indeed it did. Blood was splattered all across the walls, and bodies lay everywhere, torn to shreds. They were just recognizable as the Aurors who were supposed to be guarding the prison. Several of them had their stomachs torn open, entrails hanging out. Sirius counted thirteenth of them.
"I thought there were fifteen," Proudfoot said, checking the offices and interrogation rooms.
"Supposed to be," Sirius replied. "Okay, there are sixteen of us. I want four teams. Spread out around the prison. Keep your eyes open, and your wands at the ready. Do not get separated. If you find anybody alive, contact me or Proudfoot."
The Aurors split up. Sirius, Proudfoot, Tonks, and Davies teamed up and headed to the maximum security ward in the basement level.
"Er, Sirius," Tonks said, trying not to sound afraid as they passed a fourteenth body. "Weren't the werewolves brought here?"
Sirius sighed. "Yeah, and from what I've seen, they killed our Aurors."
"Should you call Lupin?" Proudfoot asked. "If there are werewolves on the loose, he's going to want to know…"
Sirius nodded, but didn't reply as he reached the door to the ward. He looked through the tiny window and didn't see any prisoners outside their cells. Regardless, he wasn't taking any chances. He pushed his team behind him and opened the door. He stuck his wand through the doorway, then slowly moved around the door and entered the ward. The wand in his hand dropped to his side when he realized every cell door was open and empty.
"Splendid," he said sarcastically, turning to his Aurors. "It seems we have a breakout on our hands, mates."
An hour later, Sirius had contacted the rest of his Auror teams and half the DMLE, including Mad-Eye, and sent a message to Charlie Weasley in the magical creatures department to call Remus and get him out to Azkaban.
The prison was empty, save the dead bodies they'd found.
At least Sirius had thought it was.
He and Proudfoot did their own investigation of the prison. The pair took the stairs to the second level where the werewolves found in the Underground had been kept. Neither expected to find anything of interest, but they had to see for certain that the werewolves had also escaped.
"You know when the full moon is?" Proudfoot asked, checking cells.
"February nineteenth," Sirius replied automatically. "There's no one here, Proudfoot." He sighed and leaned against the wall. "We've got werewolves on the loose, mate."
Proudfoot nodded. "Told you," he said calmly. "So what do we do..." He trailed off after he heard a dull thud down the hall.
"Did you hear that?" he asked Sirius quietly.
The Head Auror nodded. "Yeah, I did..."
The two made their way down the corridor looking in cells, ready to curse whatever jumped out at them. There was a sound like shuffling of shoes in the cell at the end. Sirius and Proudfoot exchanged a look, silently telling one another to be careful. They approached the cell slowly and turned to face it, ready to stun whoever was inside—
"No! Please don't curse me!" the man inside said.
Sirius slowly lowered his wand, while Proudfoot cast lumos, shedding light inside. The wizard was wearing Auror robes and shielding his eyes from the light. "Simmons?" Sirius said, squinting to see clearly. "What the hell are you doing in here?"
The young brown-haired wizard got up from where he was crouched on the ground—it looked to Sirius like he was hiding—and walked forward. "I got away just in time... No one saw me and I hid."
"What happened?" Proudfoot asked, opening the cell door that Simmons seemed to have locked for his own safety.
Simmons sighed and exited the cell, shaking his head. "I honestly don't know. One minute everything was calm and quiet, next minute... complete chaos. The prisoners somehow got out of their cells at the exact same time, started attacking the guards. And the werewolves..." He looked as though he was going to be sick at any moment. "I've never seen anything like that..."
"Are you hurt?" Sirius asked.
The younger wizard shook his head. "Couple scrapes and bruises from trying to get past the prisoners while they attacked everyone, but I'm fine."
Sirius looked him over once. "All right. We've got a couple medi-wizards on the ground floor. Go see them to get that cut fixed up." Sirius gestured to Simmons' arm, which was bleeding profusely.
Simmons looked at the arm in surprise. "Oh, didn't even see that."
Sirius conjured a thick handkerchief to press against the wound to help stop the bleeding. "I suggest you get that examined immediately. If there were werewolves on the loose attacking people, I wouldn't take any chances with that."
"Good way to scare the hell out of the kid, Black," Proudfoot muttered under his breath.
"Go on, Simmons, we're right behind you," Sirius said, ignoring his second-in-command's comment.
The three Aurors headed back down the stairs to the main level. Once they reached the entrance to the castle, they found the media had gathered at the edge of the island. Tonks had used her rubber band jinx to keep them back. Sirius had to bite back a smile at the memory of the last time she'd used it at Azkaban.
The Amazing Flying Skeeter. Who wouldn't love that idea?
Remus was on the side of the building, talking quietly with Charlie and Tonks. He saw Sirius and waved him over. "Any luck?" he asked.
Sirius motioned for Proudfoot to escort Simmons to the medi-wizards. "None. There is no one in the prison anywhere. We found Simmons in the werewolf ward. He said he'd been hiding from everything that was going on. I'm a little worried about a cut on his arm. It won't stop bleeding and it looks pretty bad."
Remus sighed. "So the werewolves from the Underground, who just happen to be positively pissed off at me, are on the loose."
Sirius looked thoughtful. "They may be pissed off at you, Moony, but you're still their Alpha."
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Ron asked Harry quietly.
Harry sighed, feeling horrible to say it. "Draco Malfoy is alive. Dumbledore and Sirius sent him and his mother into hiding just after your dad was killed."
"They helped him?" Ron growled. "Why the hell did they do that?"
Harry had no response. He looked around at Ginny and Hermione. Ginny wouldn't meet his eye. "Ron, I understand you're upset—" he began.
Ron jumped up from his bed. "You have no idea how upset I am!" he yelled. "That little bastard killed my father!"
"You don't think I don't know what it's like to lose a parent?" Harry asked loudly. "I lost both of my parents before I was old enough to even remember them. And unless you've been living under a bloody rock for the past sixteen years, the bastard that killed my parents is Lord bloody Voldemort!"
"Stop saying the damned name!" Ron bellowed.
"Don't tell me what to do, Weasley," Harry warned.
"That's enough!" Ginny yelled. "Both of you need to stop arguing. What's happened has happened, and there's nothing we can do about it."
Ron turned and stared at her. "So you're just going to ignore the fact that our father's killer is loose?" he asked her.
"There has to be a reason Dumbledore decided to put him in hiding. If you're so upset by it, why don't you go ask him about it?"
Ron thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea," he said. He made his way to the dormitory door.
Hermione blocked him. "You can't just barge into Dumbledore's office and start yelling at him, Ron," she said.
"Why the hell not?" he asked her loudly.
Just then the door slammed opened behind Hermione. It was Seamus Finnigan. "Have you lot heard the news yet?" he asked, looking both excited and fearful.
The other four looked at him, clueless.
"There's been a breakout at Azkaban again," Seamus said. "There's no sign of anyone."
That stopped Ron and Harry's argument immediately. "When?" Ginny asked quietly.
"Last night, I heard. Lavender heard McGonagall and Flitwick talking about it."
Harry gulped and sat back down on his bed. There was only one person in the world who could manage a mass breakout from Azkaban after the protections the Ministry had put on the place: Voldemort. Guess now we know what he's been up to...
"You all right, Harry?" Seamus asked. "You're looking like you might be sick."
Harry nodded. "I think I might be..." He vaulted off his bed and sprinted to the bathroom where he proceeded to lose the contents of his stomach.
Once he finished, Ginny came in behind him, and rubbed his back. "Come on, let's get you up," she said calmly. "Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I'm fine," he said weakly as he made his way to the sink to rinse out his mouth and brush his teeth. After wiping his face on a towel, he followed Ginny out into the dorm and lay down on his bed.
"All right, Harry?" Ron asked after a few minutes.
Harry nodded, still feeling slightly nauseated. "Fine," he said. "You?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah. Sorry," he said quietly, almost inaudibly.
"S'alright," Harry replied. "Are you still going to Dumbledore?"
The redhead shrugged. "He's probably busy dealing with the breakout now. Maybe another time, eh?"
"Good decision," Harry said, his head starting to pound.
Hermione and Ginny sat down on Harry's bed. "Why were you sick?" Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head carefully. "Dunno. I just thought about the breakout and who probably caused it, and I had to throw up."
"You don't normally do that when you think about You-Know-Who," Ginny said. "Why now?"
Harry only shrugged.
"So I guess we're back to the war," Ron said quietly. "I preferred it when I thought You-Know-You had fallen off a cliff and was eaten by rabid sharks, bit-by-bit."
"I think we all did," Ginny replied.
Remus and Sirius were looking all over for some sort of clue to tell them where the prisoners had gone. Sirius got the vague idea he'd done this exact same thing before, except with Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Oh, I know why I think I've done this before, he thought sarcastically. Because I have. The thought did nothing to comfort him.
Sirius used his wand to uncover clues, while Remus used his sharp eyes to look elsewhere. Neither really expected to find a major clue that would tell them exactly where the escaped Death Eaters had gone; they just wanted to find a footprint, or maybe a drop of blood.
There was nothing.
Remus walked along the coastline of the island, hoping to find anything. He was looking more towards the prison, not watching where he was going, and the soft ground on the island gave way. Remus slipped, letting out a surprised yell, and nearly fell into the sea. He caught himself on the rocks.
"Remus, you okay?" Sirius called, running over to help his best friend.
"Yeah," Remus called back, pulling himself up. He stopped suddenly when something caught his eye. A piece of cloth was caught in the rocks. Remus furrowed his brow and reached over to pull it out, careful not to tear it.
A hand was shoved in Remus' face, making him jump a little. He looked up and found Sirius right at the edge of the short rocky cliff. Remus grabbed his best friend's hand and pulled himself up on land.
"Look at this," Remus said, showing the Head Auror what he'd found when he stood up.
It looked like an ordinary piece of a robe.
"Somebody tore their robes," Sirius said, examining the cloth. "Looks expensive. I think it's silk."
Remus looked around where he and Sirius were standing. "What's it doing at the back of the prison?"
Sirius sighed. "Exactly what I was thinking. Well, I guess we found the entrance point for whoever helped the prisoners escape."
By that night, the wizarding community had become aware of the breakout. By the next morning, panic had broken out. Letters bombarded the Ministry, demanding to know how it was possible for two breakouts to occur in a four year period. Many, naturally, blamed the Ministry, and claimed they had made a mistake by removing the dementors from the prison and replacing them with wizard guards. High-ranking Ministry officials rolled their eyes at the claims, knowing that had the dementors still been stationed at Azkaban, the prisoners would have escaped long before.
Sirius sat at the kitchen table in Number Twelve a few nights later, taking a few hours off from the search of the escaped prisoners. His daughter was in a highchair beside him, playing with a small stuffed black dog Remus and Emmeline had gotten for her. The Head Auror was looking for a quiet moment or two before he had to go back to work, and had ended up with his head buried in his arms, fast asleep.
"He's pushing himself too hard," Naomi said when she'd come home to see her husband and daughter. "Twenty-two hour work days are not what he needs right now."
Remus nodded. "But if he's not constantly at work, the Prophet is going to let the public know, and there will be major repercussions. It's bad enough some people all already calling for him to be sacked because of all this."
Naomi sighed. "Have you noticed he gets blamed for a lot more than the Minister of Magic?"
"Yes. I noticed that long ago. And it's a shame. All he wants to do is keep Death Eaters off the street and the wizarding world safe. It's not his fault Voldemort is finding ways around every security measure the Ministry has used."
The pair was silent, thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days. Fortunately, there'd been no attacks yet, but both knew it wouldn't be long before Voldemort sent his Death Eaters out for their definition of entertainment. Many things about the escape worried Naomi, but the one thing on her mind was that Lucius Malfoy was on the loose now. She was genuinely afraid of the wizard who'd convinced her to do things she never would have done otherwise, though she would never voice her fear aloud, not even to Sirius.
Paranoia probably fueled Naomi's next thought: Malfoy was after her family. He'd already practically kidnapped Sirius the day Mira was born, and she wouldn't be surprised to hear he was somehow behind Mira's kidnapping just after Christmas.
"Naomi? Are you all right?" Remus asked quietly.
Naomi jolted out of her thoughts and looked at the concerned wizard. She nodded. "Fine," she said weakly. She cleared her throat. "I'm fine, honestly."
Remus wasn't convinced, but he changed the subject. "How's school?" he asked with a small grin.
She chuckled. "It's good. I like this teaching thing. I can finally see why you were so drawn to it."
"It can be a lot of fun," Remus agreed. "If you have the right students and the right material to teach, which I think you do. Case and point: the boggart in the cupboard and Neville Longbottom."
Naomi bit her cheeks, trying not to wake Sirius with her bursting out laughing. Once she was calm enough to speak, she said, "I'm actually going to borrow that idea for my first years."
"If you need any help, let me know," Remus said, smiling.
The witch returned the smile. "I will."
"How's Harry?" Remus asked after a few moments.
"He's well," Naomi said. She hesitated, wondering if she should tell Remus about Harry overhearing her and Snape. "He came to visit me the other day."
Remus raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Oh?" he said slowly.
"He had a question to ask me."
Sitting back in his chair, Remus made the mask he'd always worn in school return. "And what question would that be?"
She bit her lip. "He wanted to know if I've been spying on the Order for Voldemort."
Remus was silent for a few moments. "Where would he get that idea?"
Naomi ignored the slight warning tone in Remus' voice. "He overheard a conversation between Snape and myself. Snape claims he heard a rumor that I have been leaking information about Draco Malfoy's whereabouts."
"Does Snape not know anything about the Fidelius Charm? Only the Secret-Keeper can tell anybody where the subject is. And Minerva McGonagall is the Secret-Keeper. The Malfoys' location isn't going to be leaked to anybody."
"I know," Naomi said. "I think he thought I'd told someone that Draco was alive and in hiding, and that McGonagall was the Secret-Keeper."
"And have you?"
Again, Naomi hesitated, causing Remus' eyebrows to rise even higher. "I told Harry when he confronted me about the spy thing."
Remus pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes tightly. "Why did you do that?" he asked warily. "That's one of the last things he needs to know."
"Remus, he's not a child anymore. He deserves to know what's happening."
"You sound like Sirius." Naomi was well aware that wasn't a compliment. "I understand he's not a child anymore. But that doesn't mean I'm going to tell him secrets only the Order should know about. If we do that, we may as well induct him into the Order. Not to mention that it's almost guaranteed he will tell his friends. Do you think Ron and Ginny need to hear that Draco is sitting comfortably in the English countryside after causing the death of their father?"
"They, of all people after Molly, deserve to know. And we've told Molly; she took it better than we expected."
"If 'better than expected' means squeezing an orange so hard it burst in her hand, then yes, I agree. But Ron is known for taking things too far. Don't you remember what happened after Hermione was attacked? He tried to go after Greyback."
"They're not children, Remus."
"Stop saying that."
"Why?" Naomi challenged. "It's true. How would you have felt if, after your parents were killed, the Ministry caught the Death Eaters who did it, then sent them to some cottage to keep them safe?"
"That's a little uncalled for," Remus said, hurt evident on his face only for a flash of a second.
"So is keeping Draco Malfoy's fate a secret from Ron and Ginny."
In a small cottage, unseen to those who weren't aware of its presence, Draco Malfoy sat staring out his bedroom window. He, of course, had no idea he was being talked about by two people the Dark Lord wanted dead, but he had other things on his mind.
He and his mother had received the Evening Prophet just around dinnertime a few nights ago, and unrolled it to find the large headline telling them there had been an escape from Azkaban. The front page article (and three pages following it) listed and showed pictures of the escapees and their crimes. Draco's father was listed first, and the young wizard stared at the picture for long minutes, then scanned the list of crimes Lucius had committed.
Draco had been in contact with Albus Dumbledore for a few months now. It'd taken those few months for him to understand what it was he was getting into with the Death Eaters. It'd taken even longer for him to realize he had a choice of whether he wanted to join them or not. He and his mother had never really been what could be possibly considered close until they were put in this tiny cottage with nowhere for his mother to hide. They were forced to talk once in a while to get rid of the thick silence.
It had finally gotten to the point in recent weeks where they were talking regularly, and Draco was surprisingly happy about it. He'd never realized how intelligent his mother really was. When he'd mentioned the letters from Dumbledore, she'd listened to Draco's thoughts and concerns, and voiced her comments once he'd finished. With Lucius, Draco could hardly get a dozen words of his opinion out before he was either hit or told his opinions meant nothing to the Dark Lord.
Overall, Draco thought it was a lot better without Lucius. He enjoyed talking to his mother, and he was pleased that she understood his hesitation to go back to the Death Eaters. Granted, he would never be an open member of the Order of the Phoenix, but he would help Dumbledore and his group to defeat the Dark Lord.
Draco shook himself a little. If Lucius knew what he was thinking, he'd be sure to get a beating.
But for the first time in his life, Draco discovered, he didn't care what his father thought.