"If we put three Aurors at each of the schools," Harry muttered, looking at the sheet of parchment in front of him. "I'd have to reduce the number patrolling Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. There aren't going to be any Quidditch matches for two weeks, though, so I can compensate there…"

"I never thought we'd actually be short Aurors," Ron said. "It always seems like there are so many."

"We've never had to spread everyone out so much," Harry replied. "Would you rather patrol Hogwarts tomorrow with Fletcher and Mallory, or do Diagon Alley?"

"Put me in Diagon Alley," Ron replied. "Fletcher always gives me the creeps. You know…if you're short Aurors you could always-"

"No," Harry said shortly. "I'm not putting Teddy out there yet."

"I'm not saying put him at a high traffic area like Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley," Ron said quickly. "Put him at one of the schools. They already have loads of extra protection and spells that would alert the Ministry if something were to happen so you could send back up right away."

"He's still not ready," Harry said firmly. "He'll work on conducting the interviews for the next few months and we'll see how it goes from there."

Ron didn't reply and dropped the subject.

"Well, I just talked to McCaper from Regulation of Magical Creatures," Hermione said, walking into the office. "There's no record of any abnormal Thestral behavior recently. He said that a Thestral attacking a human is completely unheard of."

"Claridina must've bred them to be evil," Ron commented.

"It's possible," Hermione nodded. "Anyway, the department is looking into the known habitats and are looking for unusual activity. Thestrals are intuitive animals; they sense if something is wrong with a member of its kind sometimes."

"Good," Harry nodded. He took out another sheet of parchment and scribbled this information down. "I went down to Gringotts this morning and tried to see if anyone suspicious had been in within the last month or two, but all I got was a lot of cold looks. They all hate humans; how someone could infiltrate them is a mystery to me. I still managed to get two guards at the entrance at all times, though."

"Remember, Claridina did kill a lot of goblins when she was first at large," Hermione reminded him. "She most likely has her ways to get close to them."

"And that's what I tried telling the goblins at Gringotts," Harry said. "But they're still convinced they can take care of themselves."

"What good would it do for her to infiltrate Gringotts anyway?" Ron asked. "She can't just be after gold; she could easily steal it."

"It's the center of our whole economy," Hermione said. "If it falls then we have no currency. We can't do anything."

"I just wish I could connect everything," Harry said, frowning. "The schools, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade…and the Thestrals. Plus the fire. She could take any of these places separately, but doing them all at once will be a challenge, even for her. She has to be planning on taking everywhere at once, but how? She knows we've got Aurors everywhere."

"The fire and the Thestrals would have to help her with that," Ron said.

"Are you sure Draco doesn't know the date she has this all planned for?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. "No. Only Claridina knows that."

…

Draco wiped the sweat from his brow as he stared at the last name on the second list Claridina had given him.

Just one more, he told himself. And then I can get away from these monsters.

At least twice the size of a regular Thestral, these creatures were downright frightening. While the normal ones weren't exactly lookers either, there was something peaceful about them. These brutes, on the other hand, reeked of flesh and death.

Draco picked up the picture and held it in front of the last Thestral he had to work with. The creature stared down at the face with those menacing eyes. Draco slowly picked up the whip and, bracing himself, brought it down on the animal.

Praying that the restrains would hold, he watched as it thrashed about in pure fury. Draco whipped the animal eight more times, making sure it stared at the face of the picture the whole time. When he was certain that Claridina would confirm that an association had indeed been met, Draco backed away from the Thestral. He left the whip behind and started up towards the house. He pulled out the list again and looked through the names. He recognized most of them; Ministry officials, more Aurors…there was only that last name that he did not know. He rolled the list back up and placed it in his robe pocket. Whoever that Dudley Dursely was, he was not a lucky fellow.