A/N - Standard disclaimer here. I'm making major deviations from Canon as you will have noticed, including some horcrux related stuff in this chapter which is inspired by canon but in no way canon compliant. Why? Because it suits the story and I can! Also apologies for the delay - two reasons, one because I really didn't like the first draft and re-wrote it with some changes from what I originally planned and two because work has been crazy and I'm mentally exhausted at the end of each day.

Chapter 11 - Articles of Conversation

Ronald Weasley was not one usually given to introspection, but since his second arse whipping at the hands of Harry Potter he had found himself thinking about things. Ron considered himself a better than average duellist, rightly so. He knew he wasn't the most academic, he wasn't the most powerful, he wasn't the fastest caster, but he had his own skills which often saw him anticipating an opponent's move and being surprisingly fast with a dodge or counter.

Against Harry Potter however, he knew he was not only beaten, but completely outclassed. Ron had convinced himself that Potter was at best a mediocre wizard, an idea he was disabused of in short order on no fewer than two occasions. Ron's standing had taken a bit of a battering after the first encounter, the second not so much once it had become clear that Potter had some game. The real talking point however was the improvement in Granger. Ron had watched her bouts, expecting (hoping!) that she would suffer her usual beating. The petty side of Ron rejoiced in those few times Hermione had went to the duelling club. He knew that in the classroom he was not only not in Granger's league, but they were barely playing the same sport. On the duelling platform however, Ron was sure he'd beat her.

Not any more. A few short weeks of hanging about with Potter had seen a dramatic improvement in Granger's abilities. Ron had also heard about Potter's exploits on the quidditch pitch, finding it hard to believe that he'd actually beater Diggory to the snitch.

Could it be, he found himself wondering, that he was… wrong?

Ron couldn't help but think he may well have been. After all, Potter had a date for the ball, one also coveted by his quidditch hero, Victor Krum. Ron couldn't see why both were so keen for Granger to accompany them, so had started paying a little more covert attention to the muggle born. The first thing he noticed was that since she had her teeth fixed she smiled a lot more. The second thing he noticed was that when she did smile, she was actually sort of pretty. As far as Ron was concerned the body was still a let down, Ron was currently much enamoured with the much more curvaceous Lavender Brown, one of Gryffindor's early bloomers. Ron, it turned out, was very much turning into a breast man.

Ron also noticed that her smiles were much wider and much more frequent when Potter was around. Ron realised he had some thinking to do.

- oOoOoOo -

In a back room of a wizarding pub in Knockturn Alley, hundreds of miles away from where Weasley was musing there were others, much older and much darker, having thoughts of their own.

"He has… talents." one said.

The other swilled some very expensive whisky around a glass and looked deep into the amber liquid. He may have been a blood purist who thought that the muggle born had no place in magical society, but strangely, he had no real antipathy toward the muggles. To him, they were beasts. Useful beasts who, he could not deny, had elevated alcohol to an art form, but beasts nonetheless.

"I will confess myself surprised at his performance in the first task. I have also heard of his issues with Karakroff's boy. That could be useful."

"Krum is too headstrong, Karkaroff has more guile about him. Potter may have made a mistake by threatening to invoke the Old Rules. Karkaroff advises me that he should be able to use a bastardisation of them to undercut Potter for the second task, but will tell me no more until he has done some research."

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence. Broken only when the first spoke again. "Do you trust Snape?"

The second nodded. "He is devoted to our cause. The Dark Lord promised him the woman in return for his work. When the Potters somehow lucked out that night he was able to spin a narrative which Dumbledore ate up. Snape has never forgiven Potter for stealing her, he's never forgiven her for what he sees as her betrayal and he has no love for Albus Dumbledore. He knows as well as we do that the Dark Lord will return and is positioned well for when that happens."

The first nodded. "What news from the Ministry?"

The second smoothed his long blonde hair and sighed. "The return of the Potters has put the kneazle amongst the post-owls. They have clearly had someone in the Ministry feedling them information during their absence, I believe Bones of the DMLE has involved herself in the affair and has declared the bastard Black free."

The first snorted a response. "Even I can't argue with that, as much as I'd like to. Hard to be responsible for the murder of someone wandering around, what."

Glasses were refilled. "Who do we have in the Castle?" asked the first.

"Snape and Karkaroff. Severus is mentoring some of the older Slytherins, including unfortunately my son, who is proving to be something of a disappointment."

The first raised an eye. Lucius Malfoy sighed in response. "My son has twice encountered Potter and twice had his arse handed to him.

A sympathetic nod was the reply. Lucius took a breath. "But, back to the Ministry. Fudge is doing what Fudge always does. Waddling around and looking for answers from everyone else. How that arse managed to get into the Minister's chair Mordred only knows. He's a useful idiot on occasion, particularly those occasions when he listens to me, or at least listens to the gold which accompanies me. Other times he will listen to the loudest voice. Worryingly at the moment the two loudest voices are Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom."

"I see how that could be problematic. Don't worry, I have a couple of ideas…"

- oOoOoOo-

Amelia Bones herself was ensconced in her office catching up on some paperwork which had piled up. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Bidding the knocker to enter she looked up and locked her brown eyes on the grey of Sirius Black. For once, Sirius, although wearing a smile as he entered the office, was not exuding the easy style of his marauder persona.

"Ami, how's it going."

Amelia looked up with a frown. "How do you think" she grouched.

Sirius barked out a laugh. "I can imagine. I come bearing coffee and muffins. I presume Fudge is still just about soiling his pantaloons?"

It was Amelia's turn to snort out a laugh. "That's one way of putting it. He's been like a toddler in a tantrum since the Potters made their reappearance. He sees conspiracies everywhere, he absolutely raged at me using Article 47 to overturn Crouch's Section 41 decree and declare you absolved and free. Fortunately he doesn't have authority to overturn, but he's going to be a grade A arsehole from now on."

"No surprise here. He hates anyone who he thinks either is or who may be more popular than him. Which is pretty much everyone." Sirius flopped into a chair. "We are going to need to keep an eye on Fudge. What did Crouch say when he heard that the Article 47 was used?"

Amelia answered by picking up a memo and tossing it at Sirius who grabbed it out of the air and read, one eyebrow arching as he did. Amelia nodded. "I was surprised a little, but also wasn't. I'm not surprised that he's thrown Bagnold under the knight bus, but I am surprised that he was so accepting of the decision, despite the almost certain stain that will put on his legacy. That actually causes me issues."

Sirius nodded. "I'd heard about his wife, maybe her death gave him a sense of perspective that was missing during his career?"

Amelia looked doubtful and gave a distinctly Gallic shrug. "I can't wholly discount the possibility…"

"...but you doubt it strongly" finished Sirius for her. "Maybe you are right, it's something to be aware of at the moment, but we have bigger things to think about."

"Like what?"

"Like Remus is back in Europe chasing down a lead. He found a desiccated body and was able to identify it."

"Whose?"

"Quinarius Quirrell."

Amelia's eyes widened at the name. "He's been missing since 1990."

"Well, we have found him. We had been hearing stories coming out of Albania for a few years. There's a highly magical lake in the foothills of Mount Korab on the Albanian/North Macedonian border, near the wizarding village of Radomire. The lake is called Liqeni Zi, it has long been associated with what the locals call 'Magji e zeze' - dark magic as we would call it. We got lucky."

"How?"

"Well, we all knew of course that Quirrell had disappeared a few years ago, Remus has been researching areas of dark magic and some of the stories around them. A couple of years ago, around the time that Harry would have been due to come to Hogwarts during one of his trips he was off to the Balkans having heard of a new darkness which was sweeping the magical communities and even affecting the muggles. As we know from the likes of Grindelwald, dark wizards often influence muggles, directly or not, and there was a fear that a new dark lord was rising. Turns out it was the shade of Voldemort."

"Why am I only hearing about this now Sirius! We've been at this together for…"

Sirius held out a hand to forestall Amelia's rant. "Because we have only just pieced it all together. When Remus and I turned up at Hogwarts it was good timing as much as anything else, Remus had just got back from the Greek Ministry where he'd been doing some research, They have a metric ton of stuff he had to go through and cross reference. Even James and Lily don't know all of this yet."

That quietened Amelia. "Ok, go on."

Sirius took a second to gather his thoughts. "We need to get us all together, Remus is still finalising bits of it, he has a way of piecing things together, he sees connections that anyone else would miss, although if Harry is to be believed, his Miss Granger would be able to give him a run for his money, but regardless."

Sirius paused again. "You remember when you came to see us in Japan and we went muggle for a few days? You'll remember Lily getting excited when she saw a record shop and told us how the muggles record music on them?" Amelia nodded. "You also know that the Goblins have memory crystals which do something similar with memories?" Another nod. "There are areas in the world where there are naturally occurring things, usually stones, sometimes natural metals which work like a cross between the two. If they are affected by magic, they remember. If you recognise what they are you can play them back like a muggle record. Liqueni Zi has such a concentration of natural magic that the stones around the area act as these recordings. It's said to be one of the 9 fonts of magic in the world, a very source of magic."

"And how did Remus piece all this together, more importantly, what did he find?"

"He saw a pattern in stories which had been appearing across Europe since Halloween '81. It was clear that something magical and dark was moving across the continent, mapping the stories suggested it was looking for the font. After that it was research, talking to people and some good old detective work."

"How did Voldemort survive?"

"He didn't. Well, he did and he didn't. You know as much as the rest of us about the horcruxes, the body of Voldemort died when Harry managed to reflect the killing curse, which he himself has worked out he was only able to do because it was cast with such an incomplete soul. The remainder of the soul from the body was disembodied that night too, but it was less than 1%. The wraith, it's hard to describe. It's more than a ghost but less too. Because the bastard has bits of his soul stashed around the part of the soul which was ejected from the body tried to latch on to something, anything. Harry was closest but Lily, fuck only knows how, managed to stop it. We can presume that portion of the soul is gone."

"So that means there is less than 100% of Voldemort's soul in the world? How can he still live? And if the soul was destroyed how could…"

"Lily has a theory, she'll go into more detail but she used Mad-Eye as some kind of example. He's lost limbs, lost an eye, lost his bloody gobstones if you ask me, but he's still living and still functional, but he will never again be whole, he will never again have as full a life as he once did. Voldemort is the same, he will never again have a complete soul, so he will never again be 'normal', not that the snake fucker ever was." Amelia rolled her eyes at the terminology but motioned for Sirius to continue. "Lily also mentioned a muggle practice called… what was it… a lobby bottom? No, that's not right. Doesn't matter. Anyway, their muggle healers would deliberately cut away part of someone's brain for some reason, they had mental issues or something. The people lived but were usually turned into unfeeling uncaring facsimiles of what they were. Voldemort will be the same. His soul is forever broken, he will continue his descent into madness."

"He's already most of the way there. Surely then if that's the case, the body, or ot least the mind he once had, as soon as he created his first horcrux would have been damaged upon its casting?"

Sirius nodded again. "Lily's idea is that in undertaking this darkest art, he's set himself on an inexorable path to madness. Before he made the first horcrux he was quite quite sane, but also very evil. People often presume that evilness and insanity go hand in hand, sadly that's very much not the case. The more he fractured his soul the more insane each portion would be. Now that it can never be fully restored… As for the second part, there was a soul element nearby." Amelai's eyes widened at that. "We noticed when we were going through history that every sighting of Voldemort in the last couple of years before '81 had him accompanied by a big snake which seemed unusually devoted, even for a familiar. We presume it was a horcrux, the wraith, the ghost, whatever you want to call it, by some magical connection was able to cling on to the shard of the soul we presume was in the snake."

"Doesn't really change anything does it. He's disembodied and mad, but still dangerous."

"Actually what Remus found changes quite a lot. Like I said he found the remains of Quirrel, the magical tests suggest that Quirrell's very essence has been completely wiped. It also wasn't the only set of remains found."

Amelia's eyes indicated that if Sirius didn't get on with the story, a stinging hex to the pennybags would be winging its way in his direction.

"The snake."

"Does that mean?"

"We think so. Voldemort has used Quirrell's magic and essence along with, we are as I said presuming was a horcrux to resurrect himself."

"Why wouldn't he just posses Quirrell's body?"

"Two reasons according to Remus. Voldemort would have to AK the body to separate the soul. He didn't have a wand or a body to do that with. He could certainly possess Quirrell but Quirrell's own soul would battle with the invading one, no matter how much of dedicated death eater he was, secondly he is vain. He'd want to look how he wanted. Subsuming a life force, for want of a better term, to aid with his resurrection would allow him to essentially transfigure something into a body."

This was news to Amelia. "Quirrell a death eater? Are you sure?"

"The husk was completely desiccated so hadn't rotted. The dark mark was still discernible on the arm of the body."

"Fuck!"

"I know. Anyway, We are working on the assumption that the wraith of Voldemort somehow persuaded Quirrell to grant him access, once in even with only a wraith's chance, it was over. The working theory is that Voldemort got the snake to bite Quirrell and drain the life out of him. Once done, the revitalised portion of Voldemort escaped the snake. The snake couldn't survive."

"So we can kill him again and again until he has no more soul parts left?"

"In theory. The problem is, both Lily and Remus are sure that his soul fragments will be reabsorbed in the reverse order to how they were made. So if we go down that route, each time we kill him, he's going to get stronger…"

- oOoOoOo -

Back at Hogwarts one Harry James Potter found himself getting more and more excited and more and more nervous as the Yule Ball approached. Both excitement and nerves were caused by the same person. He had spent several nights with Hermione and his father going over some dances, covering as many bases as he could. James had taught the eternally blushing teens two waltz variations, a tango and a foxtrot, keeping a teacherly visage as he did so but smiling inside all the time as his son made his first halting, uncertain and shy steps with his dance partner.

By the end of the lessons they were at least passable. There was less danger of Harry stomping on Hermione's feet (although as James was always pointing out the danger, whilst reduced, was never zero!) and as the time spent in close proximity to each other grew, the amount of blushing reduced, but once again was never zero.

Whilst Harry and Hermione were focussed on the dancing, they had continued to invite Luna to the rooms. The young Ravenclaw spent most of her time with Lily, but had also, at James insistence, taken part in some of the dances. Luna was enjoying both parts of her time but had confessed to Lily that despite originally not paying any attention to the Yule Ball, she was now a little sad to not be going. Lily mentioned this in passing to Harry and was pleased to see that upon hearing this, immediately took on the look she had long come to recognise as his 'I need to fix this' look.

It was no surprise to her then that a few days later Luna bounced into the Potter's rooms alongside Hermione, this time with a bright smile, before announcing to Lily that she was now going to the ball. It turned out that Neville Longbottom, the other Gryffindor who Harry had become friends with had shyly mentioned one day that he wasn't planning to go to the ball. When Luna said that was very sad because neither was she, despite having been taking dance lessons she was shocked to receive a mumbled invitation from the slightly older boy. Making it clear that they were going as friends, of course. Lily looked over at her son who had his best stoic 'butter wouldn't melt' face on.

Hermione was pleased too. Despite a rocky start (she initially confessed to Harry that she wasn't sure if she would ever really be close to Luna, their way of looking at things was just too different) she was slowly warming to the little blonde. Like Harry, Luna was something of a contradiction. She was small and waif-like for her age, her slightly protruding silver-grey eyes gave her an other-worldly look and her mind was, as Hermione said, so different people didn't know what she was going on about sometimes. Luna though was bitingly smart, blessed with an intuition second only to Harry and after you managed to become attuned to her eccentricities, supremely likeable. That she and Harry had formed something of an immediate bond was initially problematic for the Gryffindor witch, but over the weeks it became clear that Luna, whilst holding Harry in the highest regard, did not have anything close to any romantic aspirations in his direction. Luna's father had not taken the death of his wife well and whilst he was doing his best to look after his daughter, Luna needed a familial bond and . Harry provided that. For her part, Hermione had devoted some time to considering why she felt such relief that the younger girl had made it clear that she wasn't 'interested' in her best friend. It was something she was going to continue to set aside precious thinking time to.

That was for another day however, tonight was the eve of the Yule Ball and Hermione and Luna were speaking to Lily Potter looking for some last minute tips. It was Hermione who was asking most of the questions, not having grown up in the magical world she was keen to get as much information on etiquette of formal wizarding events as she could. Whilst this was the magical equivalent of a school disco she was also aware that there would be representatives from the three schools, as well as a couple of Ministry attendees - Barty Crouch who was on the Tournament Committee, Ludo Bagman who was essentially 'running' the tournament, Probationary Auror Nymphadora Tonks (a cousin of Sirius, she had found out) who was assigned to the Castle as part of her final passing-out test and someone called Dolores Umbridge who was representing the Minister who of course was far too important to turn up at a school.

Lily answered what she could and roped in James to go over what she couldn't. It was her husband after all who had grown up in a pureblood house. She had hoped Sirius would have been there too, but he had been gone for a few days.

Once the final interrogation by Hermone had concluded, James sat the three kids down and called on Trixie to go find Neville Longbottom and ask him along. Once the fourth member of the little party arrived James spoke.

"I need to speak to you all about tomorrow, particularly you Hermuione and you Harry. The other two need to know this too if they are going to be hanging about. It's about this Umbridge woman. She's known to us, and not for any good stuff."

"What do you mean?" Harry's eyes flicked between his parents.

"She's not, as far as we know a death eater, but that's only because she's too unimportant for anyone to have asked. She might have a grand title in the Ministry but no one actually knows what she does, other than make life hell for the muggle born and for any magical creatures. She's sponsored or co-sponsored umpteen bills to restrict muggle born rights and to have magical creatures rights more or less eradicated."

"Uncle Remus isn't going to be a fan then."

James snorted angrily. "If Umbridge had her way, Moony would have been either expelled from the country, Kissed, sent to Azkaban or just outright slaughtered. She is one of the most hateful people you will meet outside of Voldemort's coterie of ars…. Erm… idiots."

"So what's someone like that doing here? Can't the Headmaster refuse her access?" Harry thought it was obvious.

"No. She's here as the Ministry representative. It's one of the many oddities of the magical society, the Ministry has much more of an interest in what happens at a school than you will ever find in the muggle world." James looked a Hermione. "How many schools are there in muggle Britain?"

Hermione thought for a second, "I'm not sure, but likely to be in the tens of thousands range."

James nodded. "Lily's estimate was the same when we had a similar conversation. Lily also said that the muggle government takes an interest in every school, but with so many schools there are, that interest is fairly heavily diluted right?" Hermione nodded again so James continued. "Turn that around. There is precisely one magical school in Britain. Almost everyone in British magical society will go through Hogwarts, certainly everyone who wants to work at the Ministry has to have graduated from here. So, the Ministry has influence here, less under Dumbledore I confess, I have many issues with the old man, but this absolutely isn't one of them, but there is a standing order that any 'official' events should have a Ministry presence."

Harry had heard enough. "Fine, we will just avoid her then. I'm certainly not going to work at the Ministry after all this is over, shouldn't be a problem. Hermione might fancy a Ministry career, but that's not going to be given any help from someone like this person."

James let out a breath. "That would be for the best, but given the story we have created it's unlikely you will get away with that. What I do want you to do is make sure that if you are introduced to her or you have to talk to her, say very little, answer clearly but concisely and do NOT volunteer anything. The word on the street is that she will twist anything she wants to into whatever she wants it to be."

"Noted. How does someone like that get a government position anyway?"

"The same way people have got government jobs throughout the ages. Know the right people at the right time. Umbridge has been tied to Fudge's hip for as long as anyone can remember. Fudge gave her her first job at the Ministry, she quickly became his hatchet woman. She has no morals, no conscience and an absolute devotion to Fudge. Remember that."

The conversation wound down after that, the younger trio thinking over what had been said, the older two considering what else could safely be said. Soon it was approaching curfew time meaning that Hermione and Luna had to return to their respective towers. James seemed to know that Lily wanted time with their son and also knew that there were some things a mother was better dealing with, so went off to do some reading.

Lily looked over at her only child and smiled. "So, I guess you won't be sleeping too much tonight?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Because tomorrow you have your first date!" Harry's eyes widened as his mother threw out the 'D' word. "You couldn't have picked a better date, by the way. She's lovely."

Harry just sat there, Lily could however see the blush starting to pink his cheeks. "You made a good choice in talking to her. Same with Luna, she's… different, but that's not a bad thing. Try and spend more time with Neville too. Had things not worked out differently you'd have grown up more or less together."

This was something Harry knew, his parents had told him about the senior Longbottoms being tortured into insanity. "Neville is a good guy. He knows his stuff, he's just shy and there's something 'off' about his magic. He has plenty of it in him he just struggles to get it out. I want to help him but I'm not sure how."

Lily thought about it for a moment. "Why haven't you brought him here?"

"It just never cropped up. I've been spending so much time with Hermione and now Luna. I'll say tomorrow that he should come up, even if he wants to come with Luna to start with."

"Are you trying to play matchmaker, Mr Potter" quirked his mother.

Another blush. "No, but from what I've seen of Nev he might be more comfortable the first time with someone else. He really is that shy."

Lily nodded, accepting her son's interpretation of both the wizard and situation. Besides, she wanted to return to her original topic.

"Back to you though. I know you will, but I wouldn't be doing my motherly job if I didn't remind you to be a perfect gentleman with your young lady tomorrow." Harry flushed again, whether at his mother's admonition or the thought of Hermione being 'his' young lady, even he couldn't say.

"Of course I will. She's my best friend." Harry left unsaid the thought that since his first admission that he found Hermione very pretty, that was a thought which was beating a constant refrain into his mind. Not that he needed to, James had relayed the conversation between himself, Harry and Hermione around the Krum issue, taking great care to include Harry's admission.

Lily knew better than to make any kind of suggestion to Harry that Hermione might be becoming more than merely a 'best friend', she would have to let her offspring get there in his own time. She knew however there was one thing which was gnawing away at him. As they were dancing, James showed them how to make the transitions needed for a good progressive dance - one where partners were swapped for a section, then swapped again until the original pairings were reunited. Harry had paled at the thought of having to let Hermione dance with Krum, something the witch in question wasn't overly keen on either.

"I've spoken to Minerva, who in turn has spoken to Dumbledore. The headmaster knows we are still mistrusting of him so is trying to show us that he's truly on our side. There will be a progressive waltz as the second dance of the formal part of the ball." Right on cue, Harry's eyes glinted with anger. "Calm down, let me finish." He took a deep breath and waited for his mother to continue. "Normally, the champions would take part in the progressive waltz together, but Minerva has convinced the Headmaster that it would be a bad idea, plus the normal waltz from what I can see is based on the fact there should be three champions. Anyway, Dumbledore has agreed that each champion will dance a progressive waltz with students representing one of the houses. Diggory will dance with Hufflepuffs of course, the French girl with Ravenclaws, Krum with Slytherins and you will dance with Gryffindors."

Harry looked relieved by agitated. "Why didn't you say this to Hermione? She's been as wrought up about this as I have."

"Minnie asked if she could be the one to let her know. Minnie thinks very highly of Hermione you know."

"So she should." This was muttered but still loud enough for Lily to make out what was said.

With a smile Lily reached out to give her son a hug. "So she absolutely should" she laughed. "And you should absolutely get yourself to bed. Big day tomorrow!"

Harry half wanted to argue, he liked these times with just his mum. He loved his dad every bit as much, but Harry and Lily always had a connection. That was not to say that he was a 'mummy's boy', but mother and son connected in a level that he never quite managed with is dad. James knew it too and for a while it was a source of minor friction in the family until the two parents managed to work it out.

Argue however, he did not, and he went off to bed knowing that despite his earlier protestations, his mother was right. Sleep tonight would be fitful. He called out a good night to his father as he went to his room causing James to pop out of the room and ruffle the lad's hair. After Harry had gone to his room he meandered over and gave his wife a kiss.

"How's he feeling?"

"More nervous than he's letting on, but excited too. It's only just hit him that he's taking a girl he is more keen on than I think even he knows on his first date."

"There's nothing quite like that first date. I remember ours."

"So do I. I remember thinking I couldn't wait for it to end!"

James snorted. "I've said sorry a thousand times. I was… I don't know, I was in the process of changing, I was trying not to be the arsehole I was for the first 4 or 5 years of Hogwarts, but I was trying too hard."

"You certainly got that right!" snarked his wife. Their relaxed banter was interrupted however by sounds coming from what looked like a trinket box on the table. The sound became louder and clearer, soon to be discerned as the muggle tune "How Much Is The Doggy In The Window." The meaning was clear. Sirius was making his way to the room.

It was an ingenious early warning device that Lily had worked on for years. It was charmed to recognise the magic of people as they approached. The tune currently being played was unique to Sirius, if Remus had been coming it would be another muggle tune, this time "Warewolves of London". Had the two of them approached together, then James and Lily would have been treated to the sound of "The Cuckoo Theme", better known as the theme to the Laurel and Hardy movies. Amela would have been indicated by the tune "No Mean City" which was used in a TV show called Taggart which had been a favourite of Lily when she was younger. Anyone unknown was indicated by the theme to 'The Twilight Zone'. It was an impressive piece of magic which James never ceased to be amazed by. Knowing who was approaching made for a much more relaxed life.

Right on cue, there was a knock at the door before it opened to allow one Sirius Orion Black entry to the room. His rakish grin firmly in place he bid himself welcome.

"James, Lils! All well I hope? How's the pup doing? Does he need some lessons in wooing from his favourite Godfather?"

"Firstly, keep your damn voice down, he's gone to bed and second, if he needs to rely on your help to 'woo' anyone, he's fucked" snorted James with a laugh.

After her traditional scowl at James' language, Lily joined in. "Are you sure you would be able to give him any tips, Padfoot? I mean your self-proclaimed 'dry spell' is turning into more of a 'dessicated era' is it not?"

With his own snort of a laugh, Sirius raised one arm and held the other hand over his heart. "Such wounding! From one so pretty as well!"

The other two laughed, as James threw s cushion at him. "Eyes of my wife, letch!"

As they settled Lily brought them back on topic. "How did you get on with Ami?"

Sirius became, well, serious for a second. "Learned a lot, not much we didn't already suspect, I filled her in on some stuff that I need to bring you up to speed on, and we also had a very useful discussion about Fudge and the ministry." Sirius then recounted the conversation he had with Amelia.

"So, what now?" asked James. "We know what we know, we know the snake fucker can come back, we are going to need all the support we can get, and by the sounds of it, we aren't going to get it from where we need it."

Sirius sat back and stretched his arms out along the back of the sofa. "Ami and I had a chat about that too."

"And?"

Sirius leaned forward, his brow furrowing to give him a severe, yet somehow mischievous look.

"How do you feel about instigating a revolution?"