Cyrus was already dozing off as the cafe was about to close. Employees still kept smiling and serving him more and more cheesecakes - he really liked the dessert, so he kept ordering for more as well as leaving very generous tips, so generous in fact, that the employees never asked him to leave, even if the cafe was supposed to be closed for now judging by the sign of working hours hanging on the wall.

Suddenly his sleepy eyes widened, as the ward he had set up lit up and started listing names… Until the parchment broke - someone broke his ward!

He cursed and waved his wand, repairing the paper. Quickly looking at the names that were written just before the ward was destroyed his brows furrowed as he recognized some names - those were well known aurors and hit-wizards! What are they doing there?

He rose to his feet and rushed to investigate the place - after all, his daughter was supposed to be there as well!

Of course, he did not forget to leave a large pile of cash on the table when leaving. He really did enjoy eating in this place.

Alastor Moody has seen the ward from miles away, alas, the speed was more important, he just shrugged his head to the side, motioning one of his fellow aurors, more competent in disabling such things to take care of it - leaving a way for your enemies to monitor what's happening was not a good idea.

Then he rushed on. He was wondering whether there would be any more defenses besides the Fidelius charm… Perhaps Blacks thought it was enough? But being primarily a Slytherian family they had to expect some betrayals or something… Unless… Perhaps due to Black family being in decline for quite some time now, the wards were long expired and no longer functioning… He rushed in slowly, fully expecting at least a few nasty charms to come his way for intrusion. One had to always maintain their vigilance!

Limping through the door with his wooden leg, he surveyed the place. Unfortunately for him - the mansion was too saturated in magic, that magic being the fidelius charm, which prevented his eye from seeing through the whole building - he could at most a few walls deep at a time.

Still, it was fine, he was not alone - the ministry itself joined this as an opportunity to finally capture Sirius Black… So they should find the targets… eventually…

And if not - his magical eye turned around in his head as he glanced at Albus once again - he was still working on that blood ward tracking charm. Alastor cursed under his broken nose - Dumbledore would be in so much trouble after this! He did not doubt for one moment that at least one of the other aurors would recognize the blood ward… And would report it to the ministry or whichever pureblood snob would pay the most for such spicy intel - after all, it was illegal and dark magic. The irony was that it was made illegal… By none other than Albus himself.

Still standing at the entrance, he cast a spell for communications between the squad leaders. It was still under testing, an invention of a spell coming from the department of mysteries.

"It's me. Report. Found anything of note yet?"

The auror squad captains on the other end certainly recognized the grumpy voice - "Yes, Mad-eye. There's a bunch of cooking spells used in the kitchen, as well as some insane packing and shrinking charms in the library… I am not sure how many books were here before, but now its… empty"

"On our end, we found a portrait we could interrogate, but it was just insulting us. We silenced it for now, I would prefer some other team would interrogate the damn thing was crazy"

"Our squad is facing off against a hostile house-elf. So far he took down three of us, but we will hopefully capture it soon. Look out you Moron! Damn I forgot this thing is still on"

"Ward expert here. Using a life detection ward for the whole area we set up earlier - we noticed that now there's 6 wizards less in this place… Our aurors are still all accounted for - albeit 4 heavily injured, so I suspect targets might have escaped! But all standard anti-teleportation wards are still active!"

Moody frowned as he listened to the chatter. Of course, there was always a possibility that the communication was compromised and one or heck even all communications were made by the enemy - always assume the worst! Constant vigilance!

But still, even he could hardly believe that this team made not only from his trusted aurors but nearly half the aurors on ministry - due to the grand goal of capturing Sirius - would fail at this place. Heck, they even had a few dementors surrounding the place - so they must have escaped under wards again… with some unknown transportation method.

His magical eye twirled around again to check on Albus. Then he blinked a few times in confusion - it looked like… Albus was nearly done… And Cyrus Greengrass was laying stupefied to the side - likely taken out by Severus while Dumbledore focused on his spells… What was he doing here?

He rushed back towards Dumbledore as he suspected the boy and Sirius were already far away - they should follow the plan and rush to his new location.

"So they flamed away again, eh Albus? Where to now?"

"Yes Alastor… Though they surprised me once again. My spell is still tracking the boy… They are in Hogwarts of all places! I started shutting off the school wards so we can all follow through… Severus rushed first - likely planning to apparate to his home and then floo to the school, after all, as a professor he is keyed into the floo network…"

The old auror nodded his head towards Fawkes - "So why not just flame after them?"

Dumbledore closed his eyes for a moment before replying - "As luck would have it, my charm showed location as the boy moved. He appeared on the seventh floor… Then the location disappeared… I am afraid he is in a very special room in the school - I do not think there's a way in for us if he knows how to use it properly - which I assume he does… We will need to wait until they run out of food and come out. I doubt they had any time to prepare for long…"

The headmaster trailed off as an auror popped near them, a letter in his hands.

"Dumbledore, they left a letter inside, we tried opening it for some clues… but it looks like it's heavily charmed - the one who tried to open it… turned pink… I mean his skin, hair, clothes - everything!... And it does not look like it would get off easily… But as this happened, a voice announced it was a letter meant only for Albus Dumbledore… Just a moment" - he put his hand to his ear, having just received a notice - "This just came straight from the ministry… It looks like…" - his eyes widened - "Sirius Black is no longer 'kill on sight', rather they are considering… a trial for him. "

A minute of silence passed as both wizards processed this new information. Before Dumbledore took the letter and tried scanning it with various charms. His expression relaxed a bit as he recognized the familiar layering of spells, often used by marauders when they were legends at school.

He shielded himself with multiple layers - just in case, one could never underestimate the pranking abilities of Sirius Black - then transfigured a pebble nearby into hands made of stone and used those to open the letter.

Due to the magic signature matching that of the expected person - nothing happened. The envelope simply fell to the floor as the actual letter was in the stone constructs hands.

So the headmaster relaxed even more, then summoned a quill to copy the contents on another parchment and took it to read, while Moody grumped about all that showing off for nothing, then turned his magical eye towards the letter still being held by Dumbledore's transfiguration. Simply adjusting his eye he could make it so that he would not see through the letter - and would be able to read it from afar.

Dear Albus Many-Titles Dumbledore,

My godson, whom I haven't seen for a long long time, has informed me that you have been one naughty professor. Entering minds of students on a whim, feeding them lemon drops with truth serum even! Never mind the blood ward and tracking charms you have on him!

If you think 'the worst' has happened to the boy - think again! Due to reasons I cannot explain myself he simply cannot let you into his mind - but he's open to the idea of a discussion under truth serum provided the questions are first passed through his friends and they are… acceptable to answer.

Harry has assured me we would have a view over the quidditch court from where we stayed - if you agree to all this, just score a goal with a broom yourself. You see, we added a tricky condition to the place we are in… Harry assured me, until you did that and until you had good intentions - you would not be able to enter inside.

If not - face the consequences! Thanks to Mr. Tonks we know the law is on our side. Harry under truth serum testified you were reading his mind multiple times. As well as cast spells which showed the complex layer of tracking charms you have on him. We got the memory and sent it to needed places. It would get delivered where needed if you take further action against us. I heard the ministry would be all too happy to make you step down, and prevent you from ever entering Hogwarts again.

Your old student and greatest marauder of all time - Padfoot

P.S. I would appreciate you keeping those ministry snobs away from our mutual acquaintance when the trial you probably already heard about comes.

They stood in silence for a minute, processing what they had read. But Alastors curse brought them out of their stupor. Looking towards him, Albus's eyes widened - his old friend was… pink. Glancing at his hands… he was pink too!

But how? He did not trigger any spells! He even used a construct to open the envelope! His eyes glinted - 'Of course! The envelope!' - looking around the envelope was slowly dissolving into a type of pink mist… which dissolved into the air - invisible to the eye… But even the grass around was slowly changing color…

As if expecting such, Albus flipped the letter - and yes, there was one more line on the other side, in tiny font - 'P.P.S. Pink beard suits you well!' - He read it and burst out laughing - he got pranked again… Just like the good old days.

"And you had to suffer his company for seven years?" - Moody arched an eyebrow as he tried various counter-curses until he finally managed to change his colors back to normal…

Headmaster chuckled some more as he undid the charms on himself as well - it was a lesson for him too - most of the shields he cast were not full domes - just curved walls against him and the potential prank… He should not slacker off in the future and always cast dome shields with any pranking individuals nearby…

"Suffer? No, it's precisely people like him that make the school more lively… Though they did get overboard from time to time - to Slytherians they were like bullies."

"I suppose… By the way" - he tucked his chin towards the stupefied pink figure on the grass - "What the hell is the head of the Greengrass family doing in a place like this? I forgot to ask due to that letter's commotion."

Dumbledore's glasses twinkled as he remembered Cyrus lying there - he quickly released Snape's spell to allow him to move again - being stupefied did not mean he could not hear… Doubtless he heard everything.

Mr. Greengrass groaned as he got up and stretched, then scratched his nose - it was bugging him all the time when he laid here! Then he quickly glanced at a piece of parchment from his pocket as if confirming something and only then he turned towards the other men.

"Gentlemen… I would not press charges as I roughly understood from your conversation what has happened here… Thought mind enlightening me what my daughter has to do with this? Apparently she is in… Hogwarts right now. Her previous location was in this place… Under Fidelius if I heard that right"

Alastor and Albus exchanged surprised glances - then they both slowly shook their heads - as far as they knew, neither Harry nor Sirius had any relation whatsoever with a Greengrass girl - so what could they possibly say in response? Still, the parchment the other wizard was waving at them was a sort of tracking ward people used for family members, they could not deny the facts - that girl was somehow together with Harry Potter and Sirius Black… Of course, there were reports of six life signatures disappearing… that covered Harry, Sirius, Andromeda and Nymphadora… And apparently Ms Greengrass was with them too? And who else? Perhaps Ted?

Dumbledore sighed as he finally finished lowering the school wards, having no more things to distract him. Then turned towards his one eyed friend - "The wards are down. I will see you at school" - Alastor just grumbled in response, sent a notice to his fellow aurors and apparated away.

Then Albus turned towards Mr. Greengrass - "As for you, Cyrus… You can join in the fun at Hogwarts if you so desire. All the aurors here came to capture Sirius Black and 'rescue' Harry Potter… I don't know how your daughter got into this, but she might be with them. The wards are down, so you know the place"

Cyrus slowly nodded in response. Then apparated away as well, still wondering what the hell his daughter was doing in the company of the boy who lived and the most wanted man in Britain… Well, most wanted for now - he overheard the discussion that his trial was likely underway.

Dumbledore still stood on the grass as he petted Fawkes and looked as aurors apparated away - he himself did not hurry. His worries were a bit calmed by that letter - sure, it could be a trap, but he would at least meet the boy face to face, would he not? He could check then.

He was also not in a hurry as the whole search in school was now… kind of pointless - the aurors did not know of the room of requirements, heck he only told Moody about the place. Unless they exit the room, they will be safe in there.

Then he recalled how exactly he needed to inform them of his agreement and groaned - he was not a fan of brooms.

Back in the Room of Requirements, Sirius was laughing his ass off when he looked out of the window to see Dumbledore, all flushed, trying to score a goal… The old man was not that great of a flyer - usually travelling with Fawkes if any urgent need arose or simply apparition.

Meanwhile the trio was somewhat down…

All those loops and they never tried simply writing a letter to the headmaster and selectively answering questions…

Well Harry did try this in one of his starting loops, but Dumbledore peeked at his mind anyways after all this questioning.

But now with room protecting them from that - it was a novel idea by Andromeda when they explained to her how the room had worked. And surprisingly, the room could enforce weird rules like this….

Hiding in the room was a last moment idea - but they did not have enough time to get enough food for long, with so many people here, it would last them a few days at most. Even Hogwarts kitchen had nearly no supplies as all the students were out of the castle, with most teachers too…

But hopefully, if the chat with Dumbledore goes well they won't have to spend any more loops in hiding.

Albus Dumbledore surveyed the school quidditch supplies cupboard as he grabbed one of the brooms and the quaffle as he headed towards the stadium.

The letter was unexpected, but welcome nonetheless - he read the boy's mind just a week ago. No matter how talented the dark lord was, it would still be possible to save him in case of a takeover, but based on the letter… it was still Harry it seemed - Tom was too much of a coward to risk meeting with him face to face.

When he was in the stadium he looked around… unsurprisingly aurors were staring - most of them came to catch Sirius Black… and now they knew he was in Hogwarts somewhere. Due to the notice of possible trial of Sirius Black from the ministry - they were not trying very hard at this as they knew their orders would soon change… He also had no idea how that had happened… No, that letter from Sirius did mention Mr Tonks…. Being a lawyer, perhaps he also saw a way for him to clean his name…. Yes, perhaps…

Still seeing so many puzzled looks on the aurors searching the school grounds, he chuckled as his face took a redder shade - "Ah! Nothing beats a quick exercise after a stressful day" - and with those words he rose to the skies.

The broom was shaky and hard to control. Albus frowned as he tried to remember the last time he actually flew with a broom…. Must be decades… Yes, a floating thestral carriage was way more comfortable… Or floo…. Porkey… Apparition… And of course - flaming - but that sometimes failed if Fawkes was irritated or had recently had a rebirth… He made a mental note to replace all the school brooms and damn the expenses - students could die like this!

The quaffle almost slipped from his arm so he had to take one hand away from the broom to catch it - when he swayed to the side, did an upside down twirl and felt his last meal rushing out from his stomach, but held it in. Finally after a few minutes he managed to steady the broom and head towards the goals.

It certainly wasn't as easy as students made it out to be… Even dropping the ball through the hoop was a challenge… Especially with a broom as bad as this…

The headmaster carefully aimed and threw… But perhaps his arm strength was not what it used to be… trajectory was slightly off as well. He sighed and flew down to catch the ball - only Sirius and his friends could come up with stupid condition like that… He could bet he was watching from the room somewhere.

A quick glance towards the school confirmed his suspicions. The castle had… an extra window… On the 7th floor. Being a headmaster for so long he could recognize every room from outside the castle - it did not take long finding the odd one out.

A sudden thought interrupted his musings - 'Come to think of it… The letter never mentioned magic was not allowed' - then the headmaster started leisurely flying down - as leisurely as the poor broom allowed… While his mind concentrated, and with some simple wandless magic, the falling quaffle… stopped… then made a u-turn and flew towards him - he just bumped at it with his broom - just for a show - then continued controlling the ball as it passed through the goal - not even touching the ring, dead center, then he landed, somewhat embarrassed as a few nearby aurors were clapping for him. Still it was quite the experience…

After his 'exercise' Dumbledore waited for some time for the influx of aurors to diminish - after all, not finding anything for hours did take a toll on one's body and mind - surely they might have claimed Dumbledore's incompetence for this possible lead. Then another notice was sent from the ministry - apparently it was finally decided that Sirius Black would have a trial after all… And his arrest order was suspended for now - which caused the few aurors left to diminish further.

Albus watched those proceeding with fascination, now he was even more curious just what exactly Sirius did to make ministry itself back off… Still, he would have his answers, hopefully soon.

The headmaster climbed up towards the seventh floor and calmly walked across the corridor, towards a particular door he was fond of. Of a room where he in fact kept his valuables… Alas he could not access it now.

He walked back and forth, three times, thinking of a room Harry Potter is in… And, as expected, the door appeared.

The headmaster tried the handle - but the door did not budge, he smiled as he recognized that the room was not just summoned but likely protected similarly like his own 'vault'. As he came on friendly terms, he did not waste time trying to poly juice as Harry or similar methods, and just knocked on the door.

Not even a minute has passed as he saw the door change - a round glass thing appeared on the top, Dumbledore's mind recognized it as a sort of… doorhole muggles tended to use - somehow it was not that popular in the wizarding world, but a good invention nonetheless. Then a short parchment was passed under the door for him to read.

Albus waved his wand to summon it closer and found a lengthy 'entrance requirement' - A room where anyone casting magic or using items like potions or any other things that directly or indirectly affect another inside the room without their explicit prior consent gets expelled from the room and where changing this entrance rule is forbidden and entering in any other way is forbidden, but summoning of the door is allowed.

It was quite well put together, still quite a mouthful. Albus waited for the door to despawn then tried the provided way of summoning the door. Silently cursing Sirius in his mind as that scoring the goal was likely a prank on his end… if he came without doing that they likely would have left him in too, with those rules protecting them…

This time he was able to pull the handle and head inside.

"Welcome, Albus" - Andromeda Tonks nodded towards her former teacher as she met him inside.

Dumbledore gave his greetings as he entered… the long hallway? He never knew the room could get so large…

Ms Tonks chuckled at his expense - "You can gawk later, the dinner is going to get cold! Come here, the others are waiting!"

The headmaster just blinked, then nodded and started walking. Along the way he saw a large room, which looked oddly familiar to the Black mansion library… Except not the empty library - this one was overflowing with books. There were also a few piles near the armchairs, various notes and… muggle pens? - as if someone was doing some sort of research. He managed to glimpse one pile's book titles in passing. It was about… bloodline curses?

Albus did not have time to think about that particular topic as he finally arrived at what seemed like a dining room. There was a long table, on one end, sat Sirius Black, the other was empty - seemingly for him, then all the others sat closer to Sirius's end of the table…Tonks, Harry, Greengrass girl… so she really was here… And Granger? What is she doing here? Andromeda went towards the end of the table and took a seat near Sirius as well.

Sirius broke his stupor with some words - "Welcome Albus, sit, we have much to discuss, but let's enjoy our meal now "

All the others were nodding, waving or saying their own greetings. So the headmaster greeted them back and sat on his seat, then noticed that they were already eating. It was… he couldn't say what it was, as he never ate something like this… It looked large… pancakes? With ham, fungi and tomatoes on top? And some kind of yellow thing below them… was that cheese perhaps?

Out of wartime habit, he cast a few other spells wand-lessly to inspect his food. Sure, the room did not allow the use of items like pranks to be used on him… But something could have been added or cast on the food before he entered?

A moment later his spells gave him a green light - there was no poison, in fact one of his spells even gave him a list of ingredients - and yes, he guessed most of the ingredients, but it was no pancake… it was flour, water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar mixed together - almost like a bread dough. Ah and there were some tomatoes on top below the cheese it seemed. And some… plants? Oregano… It was a spice albeit not that often used, at least in his usual palate…

Of course, he came here to discuss, but he was now curious about how this thing tasted. Being so old it was rare to encounter a dish he never tried… Though he did rarely venture into the muggle world these days - and they were the ones usually inventing new dishes.

He sliced a slice and felt the dish base crack in places as it was a bit airy inside - likely due to yeast. He took the piece with a fork and brought it to his mouth, and then, as he started chewing, his eyes lit up - 'Delicious!'

The dinner continued with not much chattering happening - well, there was some chattering between all of those on Sirius' end of the table… Which frankly was far away - it was a damn long table. So Albus just focused on enjoying his meal, observing all the others from afar… From what he could observe… Harry and that slytherin girl were head over heels for each other… How did that happen? How come he never noticed? Relationships so deep took time to mature.

After quite a satisfying meal it was finally time for a chat. Though Albus had to admit, their method was… weird. It was like it was written in the letter - they allowed him to dose Harry with verita serum, but actual questions had to go through… Hermione and Daphne of all people - only after they 'greenlit' the question, they removed the muffling charm from Harry to let him answer it, before putting him back on silence again - as if afraid he would let something slip.

Harry shared a lot with him - the others joined the conversation as well. Apparently he had knowledge of a year or so in the future? Hmm. He did use a time turner the day he disappeared, did he mess up during saving Sirius?

Dumbledore was beyond curious as various questions like how exactly he came to possess such knowledge were ones not allowed…

At least it seemed whatever happened - it was still Harry Potter and not Tom RIddle - and the boy was still on the correct side… well at least against the dark lord, he was no longer the naive boy he once was - whatever happened, changed him…

After a lengthy back and forth, the serum was nearing its usage duration and would no longer work as well.

Deciding he could trust them for now - especially with all the critical matters at hand - like Alastor getting kidnapped and a death eater teaching in his place? He just thought he would ask him to teach, and did not even tell the man himself yet! As well as other matters like attacks during the Quidditch cup… And most importantly, Voldemort's revival and information on horcruxes…

He had a ton to ponder upon - so much, he will likely have insomnia tonight! Still, he was trying to satisfy his personal curiosity of how the boy came to such knowledge and why he was unwilling to share it, yet willing for all the other information?

With the final minutes left of serum's duration, he was trying to get to the bottom of this. Even resorting to tricks like questions about questions or as they are more known, meta-questions.

"If I asked you one of the questions the girls here forbid me to ask and you answered under the truth serum… what would happen?"

Daphne and Hermione exchanged a glance… before vetoing this one as well, albeit partially.

"Sorry to say headmaster, this one is not good as well… unless… if you change it to something like… would sharing such knowledge hinder our progress with defeating Voldemort?"

Dumbledore sighed - they always spun around the 'forbidden' questions like this… Still it was fine for him. As long as they were on the good side. He asked the modified question and got a positive response… To think sharing knowledge made them lose progress - why was that the case?

Harry gave a sign that the potion was no longer working on him so it meant his 'interrogation' ended… for now.

Then Albus had time to chat with another star of Magical Britain - Sirius Black - who shared how he made all that trial fiasco. Apparently all he had to do was put his memories as well as questioning under verita serum by Andromeda and mail it to Gringotts with a letter to goblins offering a decent monetary reward for them in case they managed to bring his innocence to light - after all, Black's family vault was overflowing with gold, with no one to use it… Sure Malfoys were pushing themselves as inheritors - but if that were to happen would any gold remain for goblins? Meanwhile Sirius offered such a sum, they couldn't refuse…

And then the goblins took care of the rest. Being greedy like they always were, it was in their best interests to make him become a free man and get their share of the gold once that happened.

Intervening in ministry affairs made it so that Sirius claims could not be swept under the rug. And doubtlessly, they would want to inspect his wand and his memories and do their own questioning during the trial, but at least there will be a trial rather than just dementors kissing him on sight…

And soon it was time to leave. They had said their farewells and Dumbledore was about to step out of the door… But he suddenly had a suspicion he forgot something important, so he stopped mid-door.

Others were slightly tense as he turned around - he was half-in half-not in the room of requirements - who knows if the rule still applied to him? But the headmaster did not reach for his wand.

His expression brightened as if he just remembered something - or just quickly reviewed his day's events in his mind to notice what he had missed.

"Ah I got it! Ms Greengrass… Your father knows you're here and is now in Hogwarts looking for you - could you please let him know you're alright and have a chat with him? Farewell again!"

As the door closed behind him, he let out a slightly smug smile, keeping their expressions - especially Harry's and Daphne's in his mind. Ah, to be young!