"Take care of him…"
Lily's final words were the only reason that Severus Snape and Sirius Black were willingly sitting together at the kitchen table of Grimmauld Place trying to figure out a way to stop Dumbledore from ruining their godson's life even more than he already had.
"It's insane, Snape! I've done a lot of things for the 'greater good', and I've put up with Dumbledore doing some pretty horrible things 'for the greater good', but this cannot go on any longer. Harry cannot continue to live at the Dursleys, nor can he go to his father's family. Lucius would give him to Voldemort straight off," Sirius fumed.
"Obviously Albus, for reasons I absolutely cannot comprehend, wants Harry to live with Lucius. I never thought I'd see the day when he would agree with the Ministry's wish to place the child with supporters of evil. Not that the Ministry would acknowledge that the man who lines their pockets with gold is completely and totally evil, but still…" Severus added with his patented scowl. "It would be easier for us to get custody of Harry if you weren't a fugitive, if the only thing keeping me from Azkaban is the man we're trying to go against, and if we knew if Gawain Malfoy is still alive. Minerva and the werewolf might be able to help us, though."
"If you want him to help, you should start calling him by name, Snape, but I agree that they may be able to help us with a few things. My cousin Tonks could help us too. She and Moody aren't fond of the way Dumbledore's handling this either, and they have much better connections in higher places than we do."
"If you can fire-call the …Lupin…and your cousin, I will notify Minerva and Moody. We can meet late tonight in that overly charmed meeting room in your basement here. You will be around, yes?"
Sirius rolled his eyes at Severus' attempt at a joke. "No, I think I have plans. The drawing room still needs to be cleaned, you know."
At midnight, six people could be seen sneaking down to the creepy basement room in the equally disturbing basement of the Black house. "Everyone knows why we're here, correct?" Sirius brushed a large spider out of his hair. He turned to the pink-haired young Auror sitting next to him. "You filled in Moody on the story?"
"Of course. We had a special lunch date today."She winked at Moody.
"If you're finished, Miss Tonks…We need to find out why Albus is so willing to let the Ministry give Harry's custody to Lucius Malfoy. That will be your job, Minerva, since you spend the most time with him. We also need to find out if Gawain Malfoy is still alive, and Lupin, since you have the most freedom of any of us, and can more easily use muggle methods if needed, that falls to you. Moody, Miss Tonks, you two will be in charge of making sure the Ministry does not act until we're ready for it… that may be a large task, but if anyone can do it, a man who can see through walls and a shape-changing woman should be able to." Severus looked each person in the eye. "The last words Lily ever spoke to Black and I were 'Take care of him.' If Black and I could break our godson out of the Dursleys residence this second and get him away from the control of Albus and the Ministry, we would. That wouldn't do any good however, so we're going about this in a much more subtle manner. We will not let Lily down."
The six talked for several hours on ways to get information and how they would communicate once they gathered the information.
As the others who were not staying in the house that night left, Severus and Sirius shared a look. They were not, under any circumstances, going to let Lily down.