Disclaimer: Read the last chapter.

Cataclysm

-tadsfa-

Chapter 2: All These Little Things

August 18th, 1995

Daniel is alive…Daniel is alive…Daniel is alive…

In the silence that fell, the words seemed to echo around the kitchen and take on a life of their own. Mrs. Weasley had stopped her chopping and was ferociously rubbing the counters clean, her movements almost frantic. Remus staggered over to the table and collapsed into a chair, staring at Bill as though he had recently come back from the dead himself. Sirius took the seat across from him, his appearance just shy of crazed. Mad-Eye leaned against the cutlery shelf, his magical eye fixed in the direction of the front door. Hermione and the Weasley siblings took a hint and also selected seats. Harry, for his part, remained frozen by the entryway, his heart tripping like a jackhammer.

"They must have made some mistake," Remus said finally in a flat voice. All heads twisted to face him. "Daniel is dead. He's been dead for fourteen years. We know this for a fact."

"Remus, Gringotts doesn't make mistakes like this," Bill said wearily. "Goblins are very meticulous, orderly record keepers. It's one of the only reasons that wizards trust them with their gold and matters of family succession. A goblin would consider it a high breach of honor to fail in maintaining their customer's family records. If the vault keeper of the Potter family says that Daniel Potter is alive, then Daniel Potter is alive."

A forbidding tenseness settled over the group. All were desperately trying to assimilate this new information into what they already knew. None of the facts were adding up into a picture any of them could find comfort or understanding in. Harry was abruptly and horribly reminded of the conversation from his first night here: "He just said that he'd received information that Daniel had been killed by Voldemort. He never said how." ..."…he still made disapproving noises whenever Dumbledore or the Order were mentioned."..."Daniel neither liked, nor trusted Dumbledore and made no secret of it."..."Besides, it was Dumbledore; he pretty much knows something about everything."

Harry was aware of an icy drop of sweat beading its way down his spine. The silence was crushing and rank with panic. Someone needed to say something, anything, before he went to pieces. And, as if bidden, Ginny answered his mute wish.

"Wait. Wait, wait. Hold on. This is wrong. It should have already been known right? You know, with James Potter." She looked around at all the mystified faces. Even Hermione, who could follow most any train of thought, had no idea where Ginny was headed. Seeing this, the red-head huffed and turned to Padfoot. "You an' Bill, Sirius. You said that family Heads went to the oldest right? Which after Mr. Potter died, would have been Daniel, right? And then when Daniel supposedly died," she gestured to Bill, "shouldn't the Head title and family ring have gone to James Potter?"

Sirius was mouthing something, his face a sickly shade of grey. Lupin leapt up, then stood, frozen, his amber eyes wild. There was a sort of strangeness to this, Harry thought. Everyone should have been thrilled to have a man who had once been thought dead, be found to be alive. Yet it seemed as if everyone was suffering from the same fear fever that Harry was experiencing. It was almost funny in a way, but Harry wasn't about to laugh. If he opened his mouth, he'd throw up.

"James Potter did get the Head ring, right? After Daniel died?" Hermione's voice was tight with anxiety. "I mean you'd have known if he didn't. You said succession happens almost immediately and there were two months at least between Daniel's death and James's. You'd have known…" She trailed off, as if waiting for one of the Marauders to reassure her that of course they'd seen James succeed his brother as family Head. Only…they didn't. Both were stuck in the same positions as before, staring, horrified, at each other.

The panicked impression was reaching its peak. It felt as if everyone in the kitchen was making the same leap of logic Harry had made his first night here. They were all jumping to the same conclusions.

A noise in the hallway shattered the thick stillness. Harry jumped and spun around, finding himself face to face with Kingsley Shacklebolt. Mr. Weasley was helping Tonks off the floor; she had tripped over the troll's leg again. Harry was surprised. He hadn't known it was that late in the day. He must have spent more time cleaning than he'd thought. The three from the Ministry were gazing curiously into the somber kitchen.

"What's all this," Tonks asked in amused alarm. "Who died?"

It was the wrong thing to say. Mrs. Weasley and Remus sucked in a breath of shocked air and Sirius made a choking noise. Harry however, couldn't contain himself and began laughing. He knew they must have all thought him insane but it was a relief to let loose, no matter how off the wall it made him seem.

"Er…" Tonks was grinning uncertainly, seeing the expressions on everyone's faces, yet watching the boy-who-lived succumb to laughter. "What's the joke?"

"No joke," said Remus hoarsely, "unless it's on us. Harry, straighten up. We have to figure this out."

"Maybe you should explain to the rest of us what exactly needs figuring out." Mr. Weasley's voice was cool, reasonable and did much more to calm down Harry than Lupin's order had. Everyone more or less settled into a seat, Mrs. Weasley taking one next to her husband. Once everyone had found a spot there was a slight pause as they wondered who should begin, and how. Mad-Eye took charge.

"Better explain, quick like," Moody said gruffly. "Black, you know most of the story, the important bits anyway. You'd best start."

August 18th 1995

The steady ache flaring out from his shoulder was a warning; he wouldn't be able to keep up the pace, even with his companions help. Even as he thought this, his body was wracked by a spasm of pain and he stuttered to a halt. In response, the arm across his back tightened and the tugging increased.

"Come on," she said anxiously, giving his immobile body a heave and gazing out into the blackness apprehensively. "We have to hurry. It'll be daylight soon. The boat won't wait forever. And the Aurors are coming."

"Yes, I know," he assured her, unruffled, as if he hadn't just broken out of prison hours before. "However, if I pass out from blood loss you'll have to haul my carcass to the port yourself and I doubt you'd make it on time."

"If the Aurors catch us it won't matter if we're on time." She impatiently pushed a stand of brown hair out of her eyes with a bloody hand. "You'd think they'd just give up and go home already."

"Inconsiderate gits," the man said cheerily. "They never do what you want them to. Asses, the whole lot of them." He took another long breath and resumed the quickish trot they'd been at before. She kept pace with him, steadying him whenever he stumbled.

"I hope you haven't forgotten that I'm an Auror," she said a few moments later. He cocked his head at her, a curious look on his face.

"Are you?" he asked quietly. And he reached out with his uninjured arm to tap the ragged hole above her left breast, where an Aurors' patch was traditionally sewn.

August 18th 1995

A surreal sort of mood had taken hold of Grimmauld Place. After everything had been explained to Tonks, Kingsley, and Mr. Weasley to everyone's satisfaction, someone (probably Mrs. Weasley) had decided it best that the youngsters were sent off to bed while the adults 'handled' the matter. Sirius, normally the first to stand up for the rights of the children, was too spent to do more than nod absently. It had kicked up a storm of protests from the Weasley brood but deprived of their strongest advocate, they were ultimately removed from the kitchen and an Imperturbable Charm placed on the door. Harry however, had only made a half hearted protest against this affront. Truthfully he was feeling overwhelmed and wanted nothing more than some solitude to work this out on his own.

With this goal in mind, he gave his friends some excuse and fled up the stairs, ignoring their calls and their confused mutters. He slipped into the library and sequestered himself away in his favorite corner, enjoying the silence, ready to mull over everything he knew. So of course that was where she found him, although he was a little surprised at who 'she' was.

"What're you doing here Ginny," he asked resignedly, a little miffed she'd sought him out. She took the seat across from him and gazed about with mild interest.

"I was worried about you. Ron's too busy being annoyed at you for walking off without him and Hermione's talking him down. Fred and George are still trying to get through the Charm on the kitchen door and I figured you needed someone to talk to, whether you knew it or not, so I reckoned it had to be me." He glowered at her, letting the expression on his face speak for him. She sighed in exasperation. "Harry, you just found out that you have an uncle, somewhere, who is supposed to be dead but is really alive and the man who told everyone he was dead is the same man who is pretty much running your life." She shivered, just as he did, at the reference to their Headmaster. He felt slightly reassured. "And you're really going to sit here and tell me that everything is perfectly fine? That you don't feel the slightest need to vent to somebody? It doesn't have to be me, you know. I could go get Ron and Hermione. Or Ron or Hermione, if that sounds better to you. I'm sure either of them would be happy to help, grateful even." As she rambled, he felt tension bleed out of his muscles and his stomach unknotted. It was…relaxing to listen to her talk. It meant he didn't have to think, which, despite his intentions in coming to the library, wasn't all that much of an appealing prospect. He really didn't want to have to take stock of how messed up his life was.

"It's alright," he interrupted her. "I guess I'm just…" he rolled his shoulders. "I'm confused, I guess. I mean, how am I supposed to feel? I'm pissed sure, but under that? I don't know. This never happens right? So what're we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know either. I think that's what the mini-Order downstairs is trying to figure out. But does it really matter? Harry, this is a good thing. You have an uncle; hopefully, one who isn't a total whale." Her excitement was sort of contagious and Harry felt an embarrassed, yet pleased smile tugging at his lips.

"Yeah." Family. It was a hard concept for him to comprehend. There was a huge gap between observing a family and actually being a part of one. The Dursleys were no standard that Harry could use. He tried to imagine himself as part of a family but couldn't get past the image of his parent's in the Mirror of Erised. A lump formed in his throat and he gave up. Ginny seemed not to notice and appeared content to sit with him in silence.

"What do I do now?" he asked finally.

"Wait," she said immediately. "I know it's probably the last thing you feel like doing but there's nothing for it. They know how to handle stuff like this better than you, me, or even Hermione. As much as it pains me to say this, there's not much else we can do."

August 20th 1995

Waiting was both harder and easier than Harry thought it would be. Harder because there was nothing other than cleaning to keep his mind off things, and easier because at least there was a sort of plan in motion that he was supposed to be a part of.

"We've decided to head back to Gringotts, this time with you," Mad-Eye had informed Harry early on the 19th. "Bill Weasley seemed to think the goblins would be more informative with an actual Potter doing the questioning."

"Why do we need to go to Gringotts at all? I thought they'd already told Bill everything." Harry was eager to be involved and thrilled at the opportunity to leave Number 12, but was curious at the reasoning behind this plan.

"Goblins are very crafty and very clever," Remus said joining the conversation. "It's almost assured that they know more than they're telling. It's also a pretty high possibility that they know where Daniel is, or at the very least know how to contact him. If Daniel left instructions that he was not to be found than they wouldn't break that confidence for a mere curse breaker. You however, are the heir apparent of the Potter family. You have the power to ask questions and expect answers. They might just tell you what we need to know." He ran a hair over his ragged hair. "It can't hurt at any rate."

"Alright," said Harry slowly, "let's go now."

Moody grunted. "Can't go yet. We need Kingsley and Tonks to flesh out a guard for a trip to Diagon and they can't take any time off without alerting," he hesitated, "…other parties. Best we can do is wait for them both to have a day off and go then."

"So, when then?"

"Couple of days," Mad-Eye said and trundled off, his duty done. Remus clapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Chin-up. We're going to get this worked out. You'll see." One last smile and he followed after the retired Auror.

That was a day ago and there had been no other mention of the trip, which led Harry to where he was now: sprawled out across his bed, Ron on the floor next to him, polishing the broom his mother had bought for him. Ginny and Hermione were on Ron's bed, Crookshanks between them. The four were trying to reason out this impact in their lives alone.

"You know, I bet he really is dead," was Ron's contribution.

"We've been over this already Ronald," was Hermione's frustrated rejoinder. "If Daniel Potter was really dead than James Potter would have inherited the family Head ring and Harry would have inherited it from him. Neither Sirius nor Professor Lupin saw James with the ring, or heard him mention inheriting the Head title. We know Harry didn't get it and the goblins confirmed that Daniel is alive."

"Yeah but Mr. and Mrs. Potter were under the Fidelius right? Stands to reason that they might not have been getting any mail. They were hidden so the goblins didn't know where they were."

"Fidelius doesn't work like that though Ron," Ginny reminded him. "You don't have to know where someone is to send mail to them. Harry didn't know where you two were this summer and yet he still managed to send you both letters."

"Oh yeah."

Any more conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley calling them down the stairs for lunch. When they reached the kitchen they were surprised to see Tonks seated along with Lupin, Sirius, and the twins.

"Tonks! What're you doing here? I thought you'd already left for work?" Ginny quickly took the available seat next to the young Auror. Harry took the seat across from her, next to his godfather, leaving the Ron and Hermione the seats near the end of the table.

"I did but it was my lunch break and your mum's cooking is better than anything we can pick up in the canteen at the Ministry. Have you tasted their food? No? Good thing, trust me. I ate there once. Never again. I brought my lunch from that moment on." Anything else she might have said was forgone when an owl zipped in through the window in a state of urgency. It alighted in front of Tonks and held aloft its lettered leg, hooting importantly. Tonks sighed, and with a put upon air, lazily untied the letter. The owl immediately flew off.

"Probably Proudfoot," she explained as she unrolled the parchment, "pissed because I'm not around for him to dump his paperwork on." She gave the letter a cursory glance before frowning and reading more carefully. Almost directly, she pushed back her chair and gathered up her things. "It's from Shacklebolt," she explained. "Says something important has happened and I'm needed right away. Can't explain any more than that. Gotta run." And she was gone. The remaining occupants of the kitchen blinked at each other.

"Well," said George, "that cleared that up. I feel so informed."

"Nice to know our Ministry tries so hard to keep us in the loop," agreed Fred.

"Hush, you two," said Mrs. Weasley, waving a carrot at the duo threateningly. "Neither of you have any business with Auror affairs."

"Besides, Shacklebolt would know better than to send sensitive information via owl post. Nymphadora most likely didn't know any more than what she said; it was urgent and they needed her," said Lupin practically.

"Wonder what's so important that Kingsley couldn't have waited 'til tonight to tell her," Sirius wondered aloud. No one had any answer for him.

August 21st 1995

The Auror wasn't seen again until the next morning. When the Gryffindor students stumbled their way into the kitchen they were treated to the sight of Tonks slumped over a plate of eggs and bacon, a half-drunk cup of tea in her hand. Mr. Weasley, just down the table from her, looked almost as tired.

"…sometime on the eighteenth," Tonks was explaining as they walked in. "Funnily enough, there was no record of him in their system and the German Aurors weren't very forthcoming. Seemed to think we'd let them operate in our country without wondering who they were looking for and what his crime was. They wouldn't even tell us why they thought he'd be in England." She yawned widely and in the lull in conversation the teenagers tumbled into open seats. Right away, Ron and the twins began to load their plates, but Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were more interested in the conversation they had walked in on.

"You're working with German Aurors?" was Ginny's question. "Why?"

"Does this have anything to do with that letter you got yesterday?" Harry jumped in. The adults exchanged glances.

"Well, 'working with' might be a bit of an exaggeration. It's more like 'working for', or 'working in spite of'. Minister Fudge, in his infinite wisdom, has granted a detachment of German Aurors authorization to act on English soil and they're basing their operations out of our Auror department." She stretched and her hair flickered orange for a second. "Which is fine for the Senior Aurors, they're almost never around. Us Junior Aurors get slammed with all the paperwork and having these Germans around is turning everything into a big hassle. Not only are we obligated to drop all our own work and attend to their needs if they ask it, but they're taking up too much damn room. Can't even turn around without tripping over one of them."

"Why are they here though," Hermione wanted to know.

"And you still haven't answered my question," Harry said.

Tonks turned to the other adults for acquiescence. Sirius shrugged and nodded, but Molly Weasley looked like she wanted to object. She was stopped by Arthur's hand on hers.

"They'll find out soon enough, dear. Besides, what they don't know can still hurt them." Mrs. Weasley looked highly doubtful about the intelligence of this course of action, but didn't protest when her husband gave Tonks his permission.

With parents and guardians on board, Tonks turned back to the Gryffindors. "A prisoner has escaped from Nurmengard," she said bluntly. Teenage jaws dropped across the room. "Sometime on August eighteenth. One of the regular guards disappeared around the same time. The Germans think she was kidnapped and they don't expect to find her alive. They also seem to believe, for reasons unknown to me, that he is either in England now or will soon make his way here." There was a stunned silence across the kitchen.

"Well, we didn't expect that," was Fred's response.

"What's Nurmengard?" was Harry's.

"Nurmengard," said Remus, "is the German's version of Azkaban. It was originally a prison for Grindiwalds wartime enemies, but after his defeat, it was converted for use by the German Ministry. It's not as large as Azkaban and it doesn't have anything like dementors patrolling its corridors, but the rules in Germany are different and I've heard that the Ministry will, by and large, turn a blind eye to rumors of guards torturing inmates."

"And one of their wacked, homicidal prisoners is escaped and running loose in England?" Ron's voice was noticeably higher by the end of the sentence.

"No idea," said Tonks ruefully. "But they seem to think he is, which is reason enough for Fudge to give them permission to patrol English soil. Besides, what are you frightened of? We already have one sadistic bastard running 'round England with all his murderous minions, what's one more? It's not like he's going to come gunning for you personally."

"On the plus side of this," said Sirius abruptly, "there's been some reshuffling in the Auror department, which gave Kingsley and Tonks tomorrow off. We'll head to Gringotts bright and early, Harry, so be prepared."

Mr. Weasley frowned. "Sirius, you can't honestly be thinking about going. It isn't safe."

"Safe? Safe according to who? Dumbledore?" Mr. Weasley paled at that and Mrs. Weasley clapped a hand to her mouth. Sirius laughed harshly. "That's what I thought."

"Well, I suppose as long as you stay in disguise it wouldn't be that dangerous," Remus interjected, trying to diffuse the charged silence. "We could use a Color-changing Charm on your hair, make it blonde or something, and Tonks can change her looks easily. As long as you're with Kingsley no one should look twice. With this break-out from Nurmengard no one would think it strange that there are more Aurors patrolling than there used to be." He nodded decisively. "It should work. No Death Eater would launch an attack on Gringotts. Harry'll be safe in there. Do you think you can track down Mad-Eye and get him to agree to go tomorrow Tonks?"

"I'm heading to the Ministry now. He might very well be there. If not I can find him."

"Now that's settled, we still have some cleaning to do," announced Mrs. Weasley to general groans. "Eat up dears."

"And that," said Tonks, jumping to her feet and stuffing a last bit of toast into her mouth, "is my cue to leave. Molly breakfast was delicious. And I'll see you tomorrow Harry," she added nodding to the boy.

"What?" His voice was frosted steel. The Death Eater on the floor shivered. "You have nothing further to share, then?"

"My Lord, the information was secondhand, heard from a Mudblood in the Ministry. I questioned him but he could tell me no more. I pursued the matter into the Auror department, but they-"

"You're a disappointment to me Nott," he cut the man off before he rambled. "And I do not suffer disappointments. However…you have served me most faithfully in the past. I will grant you leniency this once. Fail me again and will not find me so merciful."

"No, my Lord. Never again." The man, Nott, fervently kissed the hem of his lords robe and backed away trembling. One of his compatriots stepped into his place and knelt.

"Ah…Severus. I hope you have more to offer than these fools." The 'fool's shifted resentfully but quailed under the deceptively serene gaze of their master. "Tell me, my spy, just what does Dumbledore know about the escaped prisoner of Nurmengard?"

August 22nd 1995

"Now remember, be polite," Remus lectured as he and Harry waited behind Mad-Eye for their turn to enter the Floo. "It's your family and you have the right to ask questions and expect answers, but you can't be insolent about it. There may be some things that they just can't tell you." Mad-Eye stepped through, making it Harry's turn. He took a deep breath, grabbed a pinch of powder for the bowl in Mrs. Weasley's hand, gave his friend's a little wave, and stepped into the grate.

"Diagon Alley," he carefully enunciated and pitched the powder to his feet. With a whoosh of whirling emerald flames and the accompanying nausea, Harry was hurled out of the fire at the Leaky Cauldron and onto the floor at the feet of Kingsley and a tough looking older woman, who Harry took to be Tonks. The big man laughed and reached down, hefting him up as first Remus, then a disguised Sirius made their enviably graceful exits from the Floo. The party headed into the courtyard and out the brick archway, Mad-Eye trailing behind as Kingsley took the lead and Tonks fell into step on Harry's far right. Remus quickly paced up to Harry's unoccupied side to continue where he left off.

"Try to focus your questions. Almost more than they hate anything else, goblins hate inefficiency. Waffling around a subject will only irritate them."

"Won't you be there?" Harry was red-eyed and tired from another nightmarish trip into a Dark Lord's mind. His head felt ten pounds heavier than usual, and his brain felt like oatmeal. The thought of matching wits with goblins in this condition was not an appealing one. He was sort of counting on adult guidance.

"I'll be in the room with you, as will Sirius, but this is your family. The goblins expect you to do most of the talking and to show an informed interest in their answers. Once again, it all goes back to bein-"

"Polite. Yes, Remus. He knows. Relax, would you? Everything is going to be fine. Harry's a smart lad and Merlin knows the goblins think all humans are morons anyway. I don't think Harry is going to be responsible for single-handedly lowering their opinion of the human race any further than it already is." The trip to Diagon was obviously doing Sirius some real good. His expression was brighter and more peaceful than Harry had ever seen it. His blue eyes glittered with joy as he gazed around the crowded market; he was content to be in a place so connected to his childhood.

As they approached the huge, white, wizard's bank, Harry could see Bill Weasley waiting just outside the double doors. He waved when he caught sight of the party.

"I've confirmed they got your letter. They're expecting you," said Bill, referring to the letter Lupin had written the other day to the vault manager of the Potter family. It was a short missive that respectfully requested a meeting on this day. Harry had been required to sign it. A quick message from the bank agreed to the conference.

They were bowed through the double doors and into the spacious front hall.

"We'll wait for you here," Kingsley said. He, Tonks, and Moody spread out through the hall until they were lost to sight. Catching a glimpse of a group of goblins in polished armor and carrying axes almost as tall as they were, Harry agreed with the statement Remus had made the night before; Voldemort would have to be made to stage an attack against Gringotts.

Bill led the three through a maze of stone corridors until they came to a highly polished wooden door. A large unadorned nameplate read simply 'Goldblood', in golden letters. Bill knocked three times and paused.

"Enter," barked a raspy voice. Bill immediately opened the door and hustled the group in. The room they entered was spacious and dark, with golden brown walls and mahogany furniture. Behind a wide desk sat a goblin. It was hard for Harry to determine goblin ages, having never spent much time in their company, and the most he could conclude was that this particular goblin was neither old, nor young, but a somewhat middle-aged male. He gazed at them with a passively. "Please, sit." He motioned to the chairs surrounding the front of his desk. They sat: Harry in the middle, Remus to his left and Sirius to his right. Bill hovered by the door until Goldblood waved him away. He inclined his head in subservience and left, closing the door behind him.

Goldblood placed his hands flat on top of his desk. "Let us get to business," he suggested. "Mr. Potter, I received your letter and have set up this meeting as you asked. You indicated a concern about the situation with your family Head. I recall Curse breaker Weasley asking questions about this very subject on your behalf not a week ago. Enlighten me, what do believe I could tell you now that he has not already conveyed to you?"

"Master Goldblood," Harry began, having already been briefed about goblin etiquette by William Weasley the day before, "I would like to begin by thanking you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice; I know it must have been an inconvenience and I meant no disrespect by it. My reasons for opting to come question you myself are personal. Until very recently I was unaware that I had a Potter uncle, let alone one that was alive." Here he paused to contain himself. He didn't need to fake the emotion in his voice as he continued. "I'm sure you could understand how overwhelming that might be. I'm not questioning the validity of the information you told Mr. Weasley, but due to the nature of the subject I thought it best that any further particulars were communicated face-to-face. So I've come to hear for myself all that you can tell me about Daniel Potter. Barring that, I have just one question for you: can you tell me where he is?" This small address was one Harry had practiced with Remus since it was decided that he'd go to Gringotts in person. The werewolf, ever the eternal instructor, had extended the lecture to include a lesson on goblins in general and Harry had shanghaied the other Hogwarts students into attending these brief sermons. Hermione was the only one who had actually taken notes.

Goldblood's eyes had not left Harry's for the entirety of the speech. His expression was patient. Harry and the two Marauders waited restlessly for the vault manager to speak. At some point during the monologue, Sirius had placed his hand on his godson's knee. It was now clenched tight, betraying the Animagus's nervousness.

The goblin finally settled back into his chair. "Well Mr. Potter, I must apologize. I had taken your request for a meeting to mean that you had disregarded that which I had told the curse breaker. To hear that your appeal was merely a desire to discover the whereabouts of you remaining family for yourself is heartening. Unfortunately, it is my greatest distress to inform you that that is something I cannot help you with." Sirius's hand was painful now, but Harry barely felt it. He had an inkling what was coming next. Goldblood did not disappoint. "Simply put, I do not know where Daniel Potter is."

"But that's impossible," Sirius raged. Remus reached over Harry to hold Sirius into his seat but Padfoot shook him off and leapt up. "He's your client and he's alive. At some point he has to have withdrawn money from the bank. When and where was the last withdrawal?"

Goldblood looked to Harry for permission and seeing it, opened a drawer in his desk. He ruffled around in it for a moment before pulling out a roll of parchment. He studied it for a moment. "The last withdrawal was in Germany, just over fourteen years ago. August 5th 1981 to be exact." He replaced the parchment and for a moment there was silence.

"That's all you can tell us then?" Remus's tone held nothing but defeat and Sirius didn't look much better. This had been their last idea. And it hadn't worked. Harry felt a sting of tears, but blinked hurriedly to erase any trace.

"Yes. I'm sorry," he added unexpectedly. He hesitated but eventually said, "If I may ask, have you tried sending him a letter?"

"Yeah. We tried it a couple times. It didn't work. The owls would just fly in a circle before returning." Sirius ran a hand over his face. Harry suspected he was hiding tears too.

"Interesting," said the goblin politely. "It sounds like a mail-owl charm in use. Without knowing the exact specifications put in place when the charm was applied, it would be almost impossible to work around it. Rough, but effective."

"Yes, it is at that," Remus chuckled wanly. He stood up and pulled Harry to his feet. Sirius was already by the door. "Well, thank you for your time, Master Goldblood. You've been very helpful."

Goldblood nodded. "I am sorry I could not be of more use. An absentee family Head is as bad for Gringotts as it is for the family in question. This is a situation we would all be better off being resolved."

"In time hopefully it will be." And with those final words they left the office. Bill was waiting in the hallway.

"Well?"

"Nothing. He couldn't help us. The only thing we know now that we didn't know before is that he was still around on August 5th in Germany. After that is anybody's guess." Sirius was frustrated and it showed.

Bill grimaced. "I'm sorry. I wish there was something that we could do."

"There's nothing for it. We'll just have to bear with it and see." Sirius's smile was thin, but real. "He's alive. And in the end, that's always a positive." He gave himself a shake. "Now, we're here in the Alley. Let's get some ice cream!"

Mad-Eye, Tonks, and Kingsley were subsequently rounded-up, and, after the disappointing news was relayed, were convinced to make a stop at the ice-cream parlor. Remus and Sirius went inside to place everyone's orders, leaving Harry to sit outside with Kingsley and Tonks. Mad-Eye had chosen to sit in a bench across the way. He claimed the vantage point was better.

Harry was slumped over in his seat, restless and irritable. Tonks and Kingsley, opposite him, were conversing quietly about the Germans in their department. He was just about to join the Marauders inside, when a soft chirping by his dangling hand caused him to look down. There, just under his chair, was a raccoon. It was large, just under 3 feet on its hind legs, but thin. Its fur was charcoal grey and ragged. It looked like a mangy wild animal and Harry would have kicked at it, but for its eyes. They were a dusky blue and shimmered with intelligence. Harry experienced a sudden sense a familiarity when he saw those eyes. It didn't make sense.

And yet he reached down with a trembling hand and, feeling unaccountably vulnerable, rubbed the soft grey head.

A/N: Well here you are. Hope it was worth the wait.