'Guys, you have got to see this!'

The voice of Nymphadora Tonks brought Remus out of his grief stricken haze. Looking up, he caught the expression of surprise on the pretty young witch's face as she looked at the tableau in front of her.

Clearing his throat, Remus fought down the flush of embarrassment as he looked at the beaten up form of Lucius Malfoy. Only a few moments back, the freshly captured Death Eater had decided to taunt Remus about Sirius' death as they waited for Dumbledore and the Ministry to arrive and take him and his cohorts into custody.

Malfoy certainly had not been expecting the vicious left hook that floored him. Nor was he expecting the hail of punches and kicks as an enraged werewolf proceeded to show his displeasure.

It was only Kingsley's intervention that prevented the blond man from being beaten to death. Not that the Death Eater had got off lightly. The only reason Malfoy was not curled up into a ball was because of Dumbledore's charms containing him.

Remus was about to have another go at the Death Eater, spells be damned, when Tonks had appeared at the top of the Death Chamber.

Now back to his senses, Remus felt a bit abashed at having lost control like that. Straightening his robes, he calmly said, 'and that is why, Malfoy, you don't mess with a werewolf. Especially when you are disarmed and at his mercy.'

Turning around, he nodded to Kingsley and slicking back his hair, approached Tonks and Moody.

'Yes, what is it?' he said pleasantly.

'Um,' Tonks said, thrown by the scene in front of her. 'Right, Moody and I were doing a sweep of the premises, you know, just in case, and we found something...' she trailed off, still staring at Lucius.

'I see,' Remus replied with forced calm. 'Well, then, lead the way!'

Remus waited till the Auror was out of hearing range before whispering into Moody's ear. 'You know, Alastor, I think old Lucy there really thinks scars are cool … what say you and Shacklebolt there give him a few? Maybe you can put one on his face…'

The old retired Auror grunted, fixing him with a beady stare as his magical eye looked at the captives. Somehow he looked even more menacing with a bandage wrapped around his head. 'I will take that under advisement. But I make no promises, Lupin.'

Smiling in a self-satisfied sort of way, Remus went to catch up with Tonks. 'He was talking about how happy he was that Sirius died.' Remus said simply to the unasked question in the woman's eyes.

Tonks just blinked. 'Well, then, I suppose it is a good thing that he fell afoul of a few spells in the fight before.'

Suddenly she stumbled. Concerned, Remus rushed to her aid. 'Are you alright?' he asked as he steadied her.

'Peachy,' she replied tersely grimacing in pain. Taking a deep breath, she resumed hobbling back towards the door. 'Body's one big bruise, but I should be fine.'

Remus followed behind, ready to catch her again. Between her clumsiness, and the various injuries she had sustained, he was surprised she had managed so far without falling over. In his opinion, she should have been taken straight to St Mungo's instead of revived. But the young Auror had been adamant in staying behind.

Tonks silently lead Remus down a maze of corridors, coming to a halt outside a door.

'This may be a bit of a shock,' she said gently as she pushed open the door.

Time seemed to come to a standstill for Remus, as he stood there looking into the room, trying to get his brain to understand what his eyes were telling him.

'Bloody hell!'

The dark-robed man crossed the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts with quick strides. Ignoring the openly curious glances sent his way with practised ease, he made his way towards the office of the headmaster.

After a moment of internal struggle, he reluctantly said 'fizzing whizbees'. He wasn't particularly fond of sweets in general.

Riding the moving stairs, he briskly tapped on the door and strode into the room without even waiting for a response whereupon he perched upon a vacant chair.

'Do come in, Saul,' the headmaster said with a cheerful smile that thoroughly annoyed his visitor. With a twitch of his beard, Dumbledore added 'Please, make yourself comfortable.'

'Albus,' Saul Croaker said in clipped tones. 'You have called and so I have arrived. Although, I suppose that allowing me access to your fireplace is too much to ask.'

'There have been some … security concerns ever since I returned to the school. In light of that, I have been forced to come to the unfortunate conclusion that Hogwarts being connected to the Floo network at this point is just not feasible. I am sure you understand. Not to worry, though, I will have that remedied soon.' The old wizard said with a sorrowful expression on his face that Saul wasn't stupid enough to fall for. 'Until then, I am afraid visitors will have to arrive at the gates and make their way to the castle from there. Thank Merlin for the carriages. At least they ensure that one doesn't have to walk all the way up to the castle.'

'I see,' Saul said in response. 'I would have hoped that your grouse with the ministry would not have extended to my department. The Department of Mysteries was not responsible for what has happened the past year.'

'Now, Saul,' Dumbledore said in a disappointed voice. 'I most certainly do not hold your department responsible for the past year, especially for actions that were perpetrated by Cornelius. No, my displeasure with your department has everything to do with what your department did much, much earlier. As you well know.'

'Yes, about that,' Saul cleared his throat. 'I must insist that you return what you took from our premises, Dumbledore. After all, that is a Department of Mysteries project.'

The air in the office seemed to grow colder at that statement.

'It is only because of our long standing friendship that I have called you here in confidence.' Dumbledore said softly. 'If you think I am going to be doing what you ask me to do, then you have been taken by the very myth that your department has been purporting these past years about being above the law and answerable to nobody. I am confident that anyone who succeeds Cornelius is going to be very interested in what I have found.'

Saul Croaker deflated. He knew that the headmaster had him over a barrel the minute he had got a summons from the old man mere hours after the break-in. Dumbledore held all the cards. All he could do was watch him play them and hope that he wouldn't be too ruined. He knew that his demand was all bluster, and he had full expectation about the headmaster knowing that as well. But the statement had to be made for appearances sake.

'In light of current circumstances, I find my willingness for pointless wordplay and political games severely lacking.' Dumbledore said flatly.

'"Current Circumstances"?' Croaker repeated derisively. 'You make it sound like a major tragedy has taken place. Yes, Voldemort's return was made public recently, but that is hardly a shock considering that he had been around for quite a while. And at the end of the day, the collateral damage was minimal. Which is quite something considering any event involving the dark wizard and his followers.'

The decidedly unfriendly expression on the headmaster's, his normally brilliant blue eyes hard and as cold as ice face spoke volumes.

Croaker inhaled. Clearly the old man was far too touchy at the moment. 'Fine,' he snapped wearily. 'What do you want?'

'We can begin with the truth,' was the curt response. 'The whole complete truth. And if I even detect even a hint of deception or withholding of facts … well, I doubt you will appreciate what I will do to you.'

Yes, another cliffhanger, I know.

I would apologise for the short length, but there are no site rules that give you a minimum chapter length. Also, I think this is the right place to end a chapter.

And I did say that it would be a short story.

Edit on 10th May: I do not know what the deal with this site is, when I uploaded the chapter last week, there were some ... problems with the alerts and the chapter itself. Hopefully they have been sorted out.

Anyway, don't worry about the timetable being changed! The next chapter will be up this Friday, the 12th of May 2017