(A/N: A second update in one day and a super long chapter as a treat for making you guys wait so long for an update)
Chapter 26: Breaking into the Ministry
Hermione got out of Sirius' lap as Sirius took control of Harry and began making puffs of multi coloured smoke rings with his wand, which the baby kept trying to grab with his chubby fists. Lily was in the kitchen making snacks. Breakfast hadn't been that long ago but James and Sirius were always hungry. Cooking also made her feel better, giving her something to focus on instead of this dratted future. Her little baby was going on the run with most of the Ministry after him with only two seventeen year olds with him.
"Well, I must be getting to the Ministry. It is Mr Pettigrew's trial tomorrow afternoon and I must modify his memory." Dumbledore announced.
"Modify his memory?" Remus asked.
"Yes Mr Lupin. I shall make him think the Death Eaters helped him become an animagus. Although I recommend Mr Black and Mr Potter get registered soon." He told them. Sirius and James nodded. Hermione was sat on the couch next to Remus and was telling him more about Tonks. Remus also reminded her about the Wolfsbane potion and she started, glancing at him in horror.
"Of course. I can't believe I forgot Remus. I'm so sorry. I brought the recipe with me but I'm not sure I have the skill to make such a difficult potion."
"Of course you can 'Mione." Sirius assured her. "You can always try. Lily loves potions and I think she has a little potions lab around here somewhere." James nodded.
"I can show you if you like." James offered. Hermione nodded eagerly and the two rose together. James led her into the kitchen and explained to Lily what he was doing. She beamed at Hermione and James opened the secret door that led to the basement. He led her into a brightly lit room where a cauldron was simmering on a table in the middle. Three walls were covered with shelves full of potion ingredients. The last wall was partially covered with shelves that were full of potion books, one of which lay open on the table. Hermione walked over and recognised it as Moste Potente Potions.
"It's incredible." Hermione breathed. "I could easily work in here."
"If you let me know what ingredients you need that aren't in here, I can get hold of them easily enough. As a muggle-born, even an unknown one, it's dangerous for you to go anywhere unaccompanied. Sirius and I are labelled blood traitors but our pure-blood status still carries a little weight." She nodded. Then she withdrew her recipe from her huge pile of notes. James watched as Hermione walked about the shelves confirming what ingredients were there.
"Here." She said, scribbling on a spare bit or parchment and handing it to James. There are only a couple of ingredients you don't have an one or two more than need stocking up. This recipe makes an entire cauldron full of the stuff which should last a few months. Remus only needs to take a goblet full a day on the day before, day of and day after a full moon." James nodded.
"This is going to mean the world to him Hermione. There is no way Remus could afford such a potion and would probably refuse it if Sirius and I paid for it all the time. But if you can make it then he can't complain." Hermione smiled.
"You mind if I spend a little while in here, looking around. It takes a while to make so I should get acquainted with this as soon as possible so I can start."
"Of course." James replied and then he left. Hermione looked around and saw a spare cauldron in one corner and dragged it to the platform, next to whatever Lily was making. She gathered all the ingredients that were available and put them on the table next to the cauldron. Once Hermione was happy with the set-up she went back upstairs, closing the door behind her, which then melded into part of the kitchen again.
"It won't be ready in time for the upcoming full moon Remus but it should be ok for the one after, provided I do it correctly." Hermione announced.
"I will help you." Lily smiled.
"Thank you 'Mione. You have no idea what this means to me." Remus told her, his voice shaking with emotion. She simply smiled.
"James has gone to get the ingredients already." Lily informed them. They all nodded and started eating. Remus looked around, infinitely grateful to the headmaster for letting him go to school and getting the chance to meet such wonderful friends. He dreaded to think what his life would be like without them. He had grieved more deeply than the rest over hearing about the death of his old headmaster. Even more impossible, he had a wife. Someone who loved him despite the monster he was, besides his closest friends.
"Rem, Remmy, what do you think?" Sirius was waving his hand in front of Remus' face.
"What?" Remus asked, startled.
"I was giving you ideas about how best to murder Snape." Sirius said casually, still making puffs of smoke for the baby to catch.
"Oh. I'd settle for just ripping him to pieces." Remus replied conversationally. Lily frowned at them reproachfully.
"Come off it Lils. You can't seriously be defending him?" Sirius asked incredulously.
"No, of course not. But I hate the way you two can talk so casually about murder. No matter what awful things he has done to deserve it, you shouldn't be able to say things like that." She told them.
"Lily, this is war." Remus reminded her. If we don't kill them, they will kill us."
"That doesn't mean we have to take pleasure in killing them." She retorted.
"Lily is right." Flitwick said quietly. "To take pleasure in the death of others is evil." Remus and Sirius nodded, although Sirius still looked like he could make an exception for Snape.
"I know, but if I have to hear about even more of his cowardly, evil crap before this is over I may just go and find him anyway." Sirius growled. Then he broke off, crying "Ouch!" As baby Harry missed a smoke ring and grabbed a fistful of Sirius' hair. Remus and Lily chuckled as Sirius tried in vain to untangle himself.
"Go Harry." Remus cheered.
"No. Harry. Not the hair. Get off." Sirius moaned. "My poor hair." Harry gurgled and laughed.
"'adfoo' funny." He said.
"Funny am I? I'll show you funny." Sirius pretended to growl and tickled the baby, who squawked and let go of Sirius' hair, arms and feet flailing. Even Flitwick and McGonagall were smiling indulgently down at the pair. Just then James came flying out of the fireplace and landed in a heap on the floor.
"Really Prongs." Remus laughed, as James got up and brushed himself off. "How many times have you used Floo powder and you still can't land properly?" James scowled and then laughed when he caught sight of Sirius.
"What happened to your hair Padfoot?" He asked.
"Your son." Sirius scowled.
"Go Harry." James laughed giving his son a high five.
"Right, shall we continue?" Hermione asked.
"I suppose so." McGonagall sighed. "The sooner this is over, the better."
"Ok then. Well, once we heard Kingsley's message, Harry, Ron and I knew we needed to get out of there. Death eaters began apparating in and guests were running everywhere." The good mood disappeared quickly. "Harry and I found Ron and then I apparated us out of there."
"Good." Lily breathed a sigh of relief.
"I apparated us to a muggle street in London and led the boys down a side alley so we could change into muggle clothes. I had packed all the stuff we would need into my bag."
"Wow. I'm so glad Harry has you for a friend." James said in amazement.
"Me too." Everyone echoed. Hermione blushed slightly.
"Harry put the cloak on and we made our way to a cafe so we could talk. We needed a place to stay while we hunted for horcruxes."
"You didn't think of one before you left?" Lily groaned.
"We didn't exactly have a lot of planning time." Hermione reminded her.
"Oh. Right, forgot about that." She mumbled sheepishly.
"While we were talking, two Death eaters disguised at builders walked in. They sat down and ordered coffee same as us, but thankfully Harry was hidden under the cloak. He noticed them about to attack and managed to stun one of them while they attacked me and Ron. They managed to tie Ron up and make a table explode right behind Harry before I put a full body bind on the other one."
"How in Merlin's name did they find you so quickly?" Remus asked, aghast.
"I have no idea." Hermione confessed. "We put memory charms on both of them and fixed up the cafe as best we could. Harry wanted to hide in Grimmauld Place."
"Why on earth would you hide there?" Sirius asked in disgust. Harry laughed at the face he pulled.
"The Order had set up spells against Snape and it is a pretty well protected house." Hermione told him. We felt the tongue tying curse Mad-eye set up for Snape and set up camp. We checked the place and nobody was there."
"People have some sense then." Sirius grumbled, still making funny faces at Harry.
"We got a patronus from Mr Weasley saying everyone was safe but not to reply because they were being watched. Then Harry had another vision. Voldemort was using Draco Malfoy to torture the Death eaters we found at the cafe."
"That's sick. He may be a little slimeball but no kid should have to do that." James said, looking horrified. Lily was pale.
"Next morning, Harry woke before us and went exploring the house. At the very top he found Sirius' old room. In there he found a letter to Sirius from Lily, thanking him for Harry's first birthday present."
"What do I get him?" Sirius asked eagerly. It was only a couple of months until Harry's first birthday.
"I'm not telling." Then, looking down at her notes, she gasped. "Professor you need to warn the McKinnons. Voldemort himself is going to go after the entire family. It happens about a week before Harry's first birthday." She addressed this to Professor McGonagall. She nodded and made a note on a piece of parchment withdrawn from her robe pocket.
"I will let Albus know." She said grimly.
"The bottom of the letter was missing. There was also a photograph of Harry and James' legs chasing him. It had been ripped as well."
"Who would rip part of a letter and part of a photograph?" Sirius asked in confusion. "I wouldn't."
"I dunno Pads." James shrugged.
"Ron and I were frantic when we woke up and found Harry gone. We thought he might have gone off on his own to protect us. I was so relieved to find him in Sirius' room. We found that every room in the place had been searched, but we didn't know who by. As we left the room, we saw the door opposite with Sirius' brother's name on. Harry realised the initials were the same as those on the letter in the locket. He remembered that Regulus had been a Death eater. We searched the room, hoping to find the locket but no such luck."
"Damn. Do you think it's possible to save Reg now?" Sirius asked. "If he stole the locket and wants to destroy it then he must turn back to the good side. In the very end."
"I don't know Sirius. I don't know for sure when he discovered the locket." Hermione told him sadly. "Harry had the idea of summoning Kreacher to ask him if he knew anything. He told us that Mundungus had stolen the locket. He also mentioned how Regulus had become a Death eater at the age of sixteen. He had come home one day saying Voldemort needed a House Elf and Kreacher was being offered up."
"Of course." Sirius snorted. "He isn't much use for anything else."
"Voldemort made Kreacher drink the potion in the basin where he dumped the locket and then left him there to die. However Kreacher, being a House Elf, could apparate directly from the cave unlike wizards."
"Yet another example of how Voldemort's ignorance can lead to his downfall." James grinned.
"Kreacher returned to Regulus, who asked him to take him back to the cave. Regulus drank the potion and swapped the locket, telling Kreacher to leave and destroy the real locket. Regulus died." Sirius stifled a sob. He had never been on good terms with his younger brother, but he had never wished him dead. Now to find out that his brother had died trying to bring down Voldemort was like being given a spark of hope he had been wishing for since Regulus had been put in Slytherin and then having it put out straight away. He had not been able to reconcile with his brother. What if Reg was dead already? He had never bothered keeping tabs on him once he had left school.
"We will find him, ok Pads? He might be a good guy already. We can still save him. Protect him." James said, gripping Sirius' shoulder tightly. Sirius nodded glumly.
"Once Kreacher had told us the story, Harry asked him to find Mundungus and bring him to Grimmauld Place so we could find out what he had done with the locket. Harry then gave him the fake locket which made him incredibly grateful to Harry and a lot easier to live with."
"So, voluntarily give him so old heirloom and he loves you?" Sirius snorted, eyebrow raised.
"While he was gone, Death eaters showed up outside the house, watching the area. They seemed unable to get in so we were safe for now. Three days after he had gone, Remus showed up. Once we checked he was who he said he was we were delighted to see him." Hermione threw a quick smile over at Remus.
"I'm sure I was just as relieved to see you three safe and well." Remus smiled back.
"We told him about being found in the cafe and then he told us about getting everyone away from the wedding. The Prophet had printed that Harry was wanted for murdering Professor Dumbledore."
"What?" James cried in outrage.
"That's not it." Hermione told him. "A muggle-born register had been set up. When a child went to Hogwarts they had to declare their blood status. If you cannot prove you are related to a wizard then it was deemed you had stolen magic."
"That's bloody ridiculous." Sirius snorted.
"You can't steal magic." McGonagall said with a snarl.
"That's Death Eaters." Remus sighed.
"Once he finished telling us the depressing news Remus confessed that he wanted to come with us on our adventure."
"I'd feel so much better knowing Remus was with you." James sighed.
"But what about Tonks?" Lily asked.
"He claimed she was staying with her parents and was safe."
"That's no reason to leave her alone at a time like this." Sirius growled. Remus went pale.
"He then told us Tonks was expecting a baby." Hermione announced. Remus looked delighted for a split second and then went from pale to ashen. James and Sirius were grinning delightedly at each other.
"Congrats Moony." Sirius beamed, clapping him on the back.
"Awesome. Another Marauder baby." James grinned.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE PLAYING AT?!" Lily yelled.
"What's wrong Lils?" James asked in concern.
"You have a wife and are now expecting a child and you want to go off and abandon them on some adventure you might never return from?" She fumed.
"Crap, yeah! Why Remus? Why would you abandon your child like that?"James asked, eyes widening in realisation. He had been so overjoyed about finding out Remus had a child, he had almost forgotten what he was asking.
"I…" Remus began. "My kind don't breed." He hissed the word like it was poison. "What if it means my poor child is like me? I could make an innocent child suffer like I have. Even if he isn't. He will be shunned for life, the son of a werewolf." His face was full of self loathing.
"That does not give you a reason to abandon your child." James whispered in a deadly voice. "You must have seen how it has affected Harry, growing up without me and Lily. We died to protect him. I'd give anything to be with my son and you are just running away like a coward. You're better than that Moony." Remus' face was streaked with tears.
"Come on Moony. I saw the delight on your face when 'Mione said you have a son. You can't give up on him." Sirius told him quietly.
Remus buried his face in his hands. "He would still have Tonks. He doesn't need to see his disgrace of a father." He muttered.
"Listen to me." James said firmly, shaking Remus' shoulders. "You are not a disgrace. You are going to be a wonderful father. Any kid would be lucky to have you. The only reason he could ever have to be ashamed of you would be that you walked away."
"Remus." Hermione said softly. He looked over at her. "I met your child quite a few times after the war. He was a year old when I left, almost two and he showed no signs of being a werewolf." Remus blinked spastically.
"My child is ok?" He breathed, hardly daring to believe it. Hermione nodded, smiling kindly. His tear streaked face broke into a huge smile. After a few minutes, Hermione continued.
"Harry refused to allow Remus to come with us, called him a coward and provoked him. Remus stormed out."
"See? Even Harry knows you were being an idiot." James told Remus with a weak grin.
"Then Kreacher came back with Dung. We disarmed him and found out that he had given the locket away to Umbridge."
"Oh man. Not that bitch again." Sirius groaned.
"Mr Black mind your language." McGonagall scolded, although she did feel that description was perfectly accurate.
"We spent weeks keeping tabs on the Ministry, stealing newspapers and compiling everything we knew about the Ministry lay out."
"You are going to sneak into the Ministry headquarters? The three most wanted people in Britain?" Remus asked weakly.
"We had no choice. Umbridge had the locket and she worked there."
"Give me strength." Lily muttered.
"On 1st September we found that Snape had been made headmaster of Hogwarts."
"No freaking way!" James yelled, making Harry jump and then cry. He quickly pulled his son into a hug and tried to calm him down, while looking murderous.
"We have to take orders from him?" McGonagall asked in disgust. Hermione nodded.
"Two Death eaters were also appointed at DADA and Muggle Studies professors. When Harry told us the news, I ran upstairs to get the portrait of Phineas Nigellus and hid him in my bag so Snape couldn't use his portrait to spy on us."
"Good thinking." Sirius smiled.
"Then Harry suddenly decided we should do the break in the next day. He claimed that we had planned for weeks and we could learn nothing more that would help us. And the longer we waited, the longer this would go on."
"I guess he has a point. Although I wish you didn't have to do this at all." Flitwick muttered.
"Don't we all." James agreed.
"Ron and I agreed reluctantly. We finalised any plans and made sure to get some sleep. Next morning, we got up early and got into position. We knew a particular ministry witch always arrived at the same time every morning. When she arrived, I stunned her from under the cloak and we hid the body. I used her hairs for some polyjuice potion and found out her name. Next a man from Magical Maintenance arrived. As Mafalda Hopkirk, I offered him a sweet, one of Fred and George's Puking Pastilles. He had to go to St Mungo's to be fixed and Ron transformed into him."
"This is very impressive. And well thought out." McGonagall said in admiration.
"Soon after, we found a wizard for Harry to transform into, having sent him home with a nosebleed that wouldn't stop."
"I love those twins." James grinned.
"We got into the Ministry just fine. Then a Death Eater came up and requested Ron go and fix his office which was raining. So we lost him and then Umbridge herself found us and took me off to some trials of muggleborns, leaving us all separated."
"Oh no." Sirius groaned.
"I went with Umbridge to the courtrooms where they were pretending to hold trials and really just sentencing muggle-borns to Azkaban, regardless of what they said. Meanwhile, Harry went snooping."
"We will make a marauder of him yet." Sirius grinned. Lily rolled her eyes, but secretly thinking the marauders skills would be a massive help to her son in this situation.
"He managed to find Umbridge's office, used a couple of Fred and George's inventions to cause a distraction and then used the cloak to sneak in. He found a bunch of files, one of which was Mr Weasley's. It labelled him a blood traitor and being tracked. It also mentioned Harry as undesirable number 1. On the way to meet me he met up with Ron and then Mr Weasley. He managed to tell Mr Weasley that he was being tracked, but because of who Harry was impersonating he took it as a threat rather than a warning."
"Oh dear. At least it will make him more aware anyway." Lily said, wringing her hands together.
"Harry managed to make it into the courtrooms and find me. He then stunned Umbridge and Yaxley, grabbed the locket and we made a run for it. We managed to help some of the muggle-borns out and we met up with Ron in the atrium. By then the alarm had been raised. Many muggle-borns got away but Yaxley caught us as we jumped into the fireplace. We accidentally took him to just outside Grimmauld Place, I managed to shake him off and disapparate again but Ron got splinched."
Remus flinched and rubbed his shoulder unconsciously. Sirius saw him and sniggered to himself. Remus hit him over the back of the head, causing Harry to laugh.
"Think that's funny do you?" Remus asked in a baby voice and did it again. Harry laughed more.
"Oi! That's enough." Sirius ducked as Remus tried again.
"I managed to fix Ron." Hermione continued over their ruckus. "Then I put up some protective enchantments around the area. I had apparated us to the woods where we had camped for the world cup. Harry put up the tent I had borrowed from Mr Weasley and we sat down to recover."
"That is a pretty successful raid of the Ministry. Sure you lost the safe house, but you got out of there with the locket, alive and helped some muggle-borns in the process." Remus said, looking highly impressed.
"I can't believe you made it out alive." Lily breathed, finally relaxing. James rubbed his arm to try and get circulation running again from where Lily had been gripping him.
"We couldn't either." Hermione told them. "We decided to take turns wearing the locket to keep it safe."
"That is definitely not a good idea. Put it in your bag if you have to but wearing it is a stupid idea." Sirius said immediately.
"It's a piece of Voldemort's soul. Why on earth would you wear it?" James asked at the same time.
"We didn't want to risk it being stolen, or leaving it somewhere." She shrugged.
"Like you would leave your bag anywhere." Remus snorted.
"Anyway, Harry and I took turns to keep watch."
"At least you kept watch." McGonagall sighed.
"Now we just had the problem of locating the others. We had always had a vague idea about the locket, but all the others we had no clues at all as to where to find them."
"Did Albus give you no clues?" McGonagall asked in exasperation. Hermione shook her head.
"Harry had another dream about Voldemort killing Gregorovitch after finding out something had been stolen from him. I took over watch and the boys slept.
Just the Dumbledore came back in.
"All is taken care of. Pettigrew thinks that the Death Eaters helped him to become an animagus and should say so even when questioned under veritaserum. All memories of full moons with Remus have been wiped from him." He announced. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you professor." James said.
"No problem Mr Potter. Although I do suggest you and Mr Black get yourselves registered." He replied, a twinkle in his eyes. They both nodded. Everybody caught the Professor up on what he had missed and he looked impressed.
"The next few days were hard. We moved around a lot and never stayed in the same place two nights in a row. We kept sneaking around for food. We found that the locket affected us badly as mad each of our moods worse. Harry couldn't produce a patronus while wearing it. Ron became a pain in the ass, even worse when it was his turn with the locket."
"You should take it off." James advised with a sigh.
"We spent so much time discussing where the Horcruxes could be. We ruled out loads of places, although Harry was convinced there was one in Hogwarts, Ron and I shot down that idea."
"Why? Harry's instincts are usually correct?" Remus frowned.
"Well we didn't think it possible Voldemort had time to ever place one there." Hermione defended herself. "Anyway, while hiding in the Forest of Dean, we heard people for the first time in a while. It was Dean, Ted Tonks and Griphook."
"Tonks' dad?" Remus gasped.
"What is Dean doing there and travelling with a goblin?" Sirius asked.
"Well Dean's dad left his mum and he had no proof that his dad was a wizard so he would have been rounded up as a muggle-born. Ted Tonks is a muggle-born and Griphook and another goblin were on the run because Voldemort was trying to take over Gringotts and they refused to serve him."
"No surprises there." James said. "No goblin would willingly serve a wizard."
"They were discussing Griphook's revenge. Apparently Ginny, Neville and Luna had tried to break into Snape's office to steal the sword of Gryffindor. Snape then sent it to Gringotts where Griphook recognised it as a fake. Griphook saw no need to tell the Death Eaters this."
Everyone gave a small laugh. "This goblin may not be so bad." Sirius chuckled.
"Once they were gone, we tried questioning Phineas about the attempted break in but he was uncooperative. Although he did let slip that Professor DUmbledore used it to break the ring and we realised that's why he had left it to Harry in the will."
"That's good. At least it's not in Gringotts or it would be impossible to get to." James said. Hermione smirked to herself at that. Not quite as impossible as they all thought.
"Well Harry and I were discussing where it could be. Then Ron got argumentative. He and Harry had a massive argument, Ron had been wearing the locket which made his mood even worse. In the end he left us and went back to the Burrow." Hermione looked down miserably. James and Sirius looked furious.
"What kind of friend is that?" James spluttered indignantly.
"First he thinks Harry put his name in the cup during that stupid tournament, now this. Some use Weasley is." Sirius sneered.
"Ron was a good friend. He just wasn't expecting it to be this bad. None of us were. Harry had told us plenty of times he had no idea where the Horcruxes were but I think both of us thought he had a more solid idea. I'm not saying it's Harry's fault." She added quickly, seeing the glares. "But the locket didn't help."
"From that, you should have worked out not to wear it." Sirius sighed. Hermione just sighed and continued avoiding everyone's eyes.