I Spy
*****
Sirius was a bit disheartened by the newest discovery in the Auror Department…. Johnson had been one of his trainees and he’d never suspected the man of being a blood supremist. That he condoned ignoring abuse claims because the child in question was a pureblood was somehow worse, though. With how few were born to magicals at this point, it shouldn’t matter their blood status. They should be protected, not told they deserved whatever their parents decided to dish out, since, as purebloods, they obviously knew best. But the man was a supporter through and through, even after a cleanse by the goblins, and Amelia was perhaps taking too much pleasure in charging the man. Only during an interrogation with veritaserum did they find out he actually supported Dumbledore and not Voldemort. How allowing the purebloods to abuse their children played into the Headmaster’s plans, Sirius still didn’t know, but he was happy to get one more mole out of their Aurors. The almost forgotten cells at the bottom of the Ministry below even the Department of Mysteries, were getting full and soon they wouldn’t be able to hide the arrests they were making. Or the retrials that would be scheduled once they had a unbias group of jurors. The prisoners they’d transferred from Azkaban were undergoing treatment in the same block of cells and it would be an interesting day when news finally broke about it. That they’d managed to hide so far was surprising.
When the Prewetts suggested using the excuse that the missing Aurors were working as guards for newly found prisoners from Voldemort, Sirius had been skeptical, but it seemed to work. Dumbledore even suggested a few men to help and Sirius knew the men were later proven to be loyal followers of the man. Yet Dumbledore excused disappearances as working to the greater good.
It would be hilarious when said men failed to ever report.
But for now, he’d celebrate the successes. The lingering effects of the dementors wanted him to wallow in anger and depression at the number of people involved, but he pushed them down. Now he had Remus’ voice in his head telling him to knock it off.
He blushed when he remembered completing the bond with the wolf, but he would not argue the subsequent effects. The two got a power boost from the other, they could speak in their minds, and Remus now had House protections from the paranoid Blacks. Going into a war the future was shaping up to be, it couldn’t hurt. That the bonding had taken a few days didn’t either.
“I didn’t know the notorious Sirius Black could blush,” Tonks teased as she entered his office without knocking. The escort for Johnson must be back. “What’s got you embarrassed, Cousin?”
“Like I’d tell you,” he snarked back, just as Shaklebolt entered behind her.
“You both finally get your heads out of your arses?” Kings asked, plopping in a chair and lounging back.
“Last week, after the festivities for Samhain. You two need to be more aware of your surroundings when you sneak off to do that sort of thing,” Moody announced, stomping in and glaring at the only free chair before glaring at Tonks. Tonks blushed herself and shuffled over to the chair meekly. “As much as I appreciate the thought, kiddo, your little loyalty thing don’t matter when I don’t want to sit,” the grizzled man muttered to the pink haired young woman. “’sides, I ain’t a walking hazard from changing too quick with my metamorphmagus skills.”
Tonks blushed harder and Sirius smirked at his cousin. So that was why she was such a klutz.
“I don’t mean to, sir,” Tonks muttered. “Just get excited.”
“And you know you need a least a week’s transition time if you want to change your height or center of gravity so you can get used to it. Just because your body can change quicker doesn’t mean you should,” Moody chastised. “You’re gonna get hexed or dead when you trip because you added two inches to your height. Only reason you haven’t playing spy is the rat’s smaller than you.”
Sirius laughed when Tonks just started grumbling, her hair flashing through a number of colors before settling on what he assumed was her natural black. Official Daughter of the House of Black or no, she definitely had the Black hair. He wondered if she had the typical Black eyes too, but he couldn’t honestly remember what she looked like before her meta talents took effect.
“We can always start your training again,” Moody pointed out. Tonks’ eyes widened before her mouth snapped shut, causing Sirius to chuckle again. Tonks just glared at him.
“I think he was the last one,” Theseus muttered when he entered finally. “We’re not noticing any more issues with the Aurors. Which is a good thing, because we’ll need them to take on the other departments.”
“Percy’s got International Relations pretty well in hand,” Sirius pointed out. “The boy may be young, but stupid he is not. And he’s listening when his counterparts point out when someone offers a bribe or threat. He’s been subtly checking his whole department since Fudge appointed him head. Though why the man did that for a nineteen year old, I’ll never understand…”
“Percy’s good,” Moody agreed. “But like you said, he’s only nineteen. He won’t look for what we will. And he can’t just fire everyone. That department is too important to have understaffed.”
“And the Aurors aren’t?” Shaklebolt asked. “With the ones we’ve pulled, when we started this whole thing wildly understaffed as it was, we are in a dangerous position for Voldemort to rise again. He’ll overwhelm us in sheer numbers before we can even get the protections around this place active.”
“Perhaps we can be of assistance,” a voice said, standing in the corner and wearing a hood that Sirius instantly recognized.
“And what would an Unspeakable offer?” Theseus asked, not even glancing up from his pages. Sirius wondered at his past if the man wasn’t phased by someone suddenly appearing in a locked office inside the most secure department at the Ministry.
“Mr. Scamander,” the unknown wizard greeted, nodding to the former Head Auror. “The Unspeakables have been keeping track of quite a lot at the Ministry since well before Voldemort rose as a Dark Lord. We would offer assistance ousting those wishing the Wizarding World harm.”
“And you did nothing before why?” Theseus demanded, finally looking up and glaring at the man.
“We couldn’t alone. Until someone else noticed the corruption, we couldn’t act.”
“I noticed,” Moody protested.
“No, you thought you noticed,” the man said. “With the spells and compulsions involved, no one believed you and you began to doubt yourself, despite your motto. We needed concrete proof that you all weren’t just going to fall back under the spell of one of the two sides of this conflict.”
“And getting the last traitor out of the department was your proof,” Sirius said with a flash of realization.
The man simply nodded.
“So, what exactly are you offering or suggesting?” Tonks asked after a minute to digest that they were really and truly successful with the Aurors, all of whom had been cleansed by the goblins and many of whom had received protective holsters from an anonymous donation. After extensive testing that there were no spells or potions on the things beyond the list provided of protective measures, the remaining Aurors had leapt on the things rather gleefully.
“Lists of those we believe to be true believers, access to knowledge previously deemed too damaging, cleanses, and whatever else we can offer,” the Unspeakable said quickly.
Sirius narrowed his eyes at the man. He obviously knew nothing of the goblins’ involvement if he was offering cleanses and it had Sirius’ instincts up. But it seemed he wasn’t the only one. Shacklebolt lived up to his reputation and stunned the man before he could go on. It was a mark of the person not actually being an Unspeakable that it hit and worked. The standard robes deflected most spells, including the usual stunner, so the idiot hadn’t even activated the protections right.
“Let’s see just who tried to offer us a fake truce with the Department of Mysteries,” Kings said, stalking over to the slumped man and pulling the hood roughly down.
“Well, that’s interesting,” Tonks muttered. “Anyone want to explain how Yaxley got an Unspeakable robe?”
“By being friends with the asshat who tortured its owner to insanity,” a voice snarled. August Rookwood stood in the doorway, glaring daggers the stunned man. “We’d been looking for it since Voldemort fell, but had no luck. And that should tell you something.”
“August?” Sirius questioned. He’d know the man was an Unspeakable, but only so that he could have a liaison with the department when he was an Auror and they could speak outside of the incredibly stupid rules at the Ministry. Rumors at one point had claimed the man a Death Eater, but Sirius knew otherwise. Spies were hard to spot, but August had been upfront with Sirius from the start, especially once his brother was finally declared dead.
“Sirius,” Rookwood greeted, stalking over to the corner and instantly spelling ropes around Yaxley. “We’ll have to burn the stupid robes. I’ll not be returning those to their owner now that this filth has worn them. How he found out I’d been given permission to reach out to you I’ll have to look into…”
“Wait, he was serious? The Unspeakables were waiting for us to clear the Aurors?” Tonks demanded.
“Yes, but we know Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle and we were aware of the contract with the goblins for cleanses,” Rookwood advised. “How you managed to get them to agree to one is a mystery, but I accept that I’ll probably never know, even as an Unspeakable. Those negotiators of theirs are terrifying.”
“And how do we know you’re serious?” Sirius asked, glaring at Kings before he could make a joke about him using that word.
“I, August Rookwood, do swear upon my magic that the majority of the Department of Mysteries is devoted to protecting Magical Britain to the best of our abilities, be it from Voldemort, Dumbledore, or any other devoted to the destruction of any of those under our protection.”
The glowing Lumos was almost convincing enough.
“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m still a bit skeptical,” Sirius said, glaring at the man. “I noticed the ambiguity there.”
“I would expect nothing less from the Lord of a house as known for paranoia as Black, but we are serious in our offer of help. I just can’t speak for the entire DoM. We’re not immune to the manipulations of both sides and we have a few known spies, myself included as you well know,” Rookwood said. “I’ll even offer a bit of information as a token. Voldemort has horcruxes.”
“We know,” Sirius said, ignoring the startled looks from those around him. Even Rookwood looked a bit startled. “The goblins noted one in Harry when we got him cleansed.”
Moody started snarling curses about Dumbledore and Theseus looked a bit green. Apparently, the two were capable of missing information when given such massive amounts of bad news at once. It was listed on Harry’s test, after all. And Arianna’s constantly ridiculous ‘to do’ list…
“And they were able to take care of it?” Rookwood demanded.
“It was handled,” Sirius agreed, carefully avoiding saying how.
He really didn’t want to get into the fact that his goddaughter in the form of a dragon had breathed on his godson and when the goblins had checked again, the soul piece was gone. Not only could he not say anything due to the Fidelius, but he wouldn’t expose Arianna. His Occlumency shields were well in place anyway.
That no one could actually tell how was a moot point…
But Theseus seemed to pick up on his evasion and stared at him. Sirius acknowledged their need to talk with a subtle nod, well aware of their audience still.
“Well, we suspected there was more than one, but we never considered the man had made one of his last victim…”
“As far as we can tell, even he didn’t know,” Sirius said. “He should have noticed when he was torturing Harry in that graveyard, as he was basically torturing himself, but if he didn’t notice, then he wasn’t connected to the thing to feel the pain. Only way to do that is to be unaware.”
“You know a lot about such dark forms of magic,” Moody commented.
“Black magic, Alastor,” Sirius denied. “This is black magic we’re talking about. Truly evil magic. Dark is inaccurate and we better start getting used to differentiating them. Voldemort, no, Riddle is pushing the practice of black magic and Dumbledore is pushing the practice of White magic only. We’re looking for balance. With no black magic. Also, remember my family.”
Moody looked contemplative and Sirius let him stew for a bit before moving on to a very basic explanation of the research they’d done into Horcruxes after the goblins had discovered the one in Harry’s scar. Unlike a majority of what he knew, the Horcruxes weren’t included in the Fidelius. There’d been some debate about it, but it was decided that however they could track down any possible others would be worth the false leads they might get. He really wanted to explain the diary from a few years previously, but it was obvious Dumbledore had kept it secret. Amelia had been horrified when she’d heard the short synopsis of each of Harry’s years at Hogwarts and almost violent upon hearing that he’d been actually forced to compete in the Triwizard just last year. She’d assumed the papers were blowing smoke.
He was just happy they’d told her before their stunt in Diagon. It had been close, but Remus’d caught her a few hours beforehand, while she was looking into Sirius’ own situation. And after she’d marched into Gringotts requesting a test for potions and compulsions before she got started looking into things more.
“So, we didn’t know about the one in Harry,” Rookwood finally said. “But we do believe there is one that was entrusted to Bellatrix Lestrange. Do you have an idea of where she’d stash it?”
“Gringotts,” Sirius answered promptly, a manic glee entering his eyes. “With the way the goblins have been focusing on the Aiaia vault, I’m sure the audit I requested when my name was cleared for the Black vaults has been pushed aside. I’ll talk to my accounts manager to see about looking at her vaults.”
“Wouldn’t you need permission from her husband?” Tonks asked.
“No,” Sirius denied. “Bella always believed in keeping a vault separate from anyone she married, since she was a Black first and she figured she’d have no choice in husband. My cousin is insane, but she’s not stupid. As Lord Black, though, I have rights to all vaults opened by a member of the family. And when I disowned her, all her assets automatically transferred into my name.”
Kingsley grinned at him and he grinned right back. “Next?”
“We believe your brother stumbled upon another, though what happened to it is not yet know,” Rookwood said.
Sirius startled at that, then wracked his brain. He remembered a conversation with Kreacher, something about a locket…
“Kreacher!” he called, smiling gratefully when the elf popped into his office. The past few months working with the goblins and caring for Regulus had transformed the little elf and he looked so much better than Sirius could ever remember. His pillowcase was pressed and the Black crest proudly shown on the chest, each thread gleaming from where Kreacher obviously took meticulous care of the threads. He was not so thin and bent and he practically bubbled when he greeted Sirius warmly.
“Master Sirius be calling for Kreacher?” It was such a stark contrast to how he’d been that Kingsley was stunned silent.
“Kreacher, whatever happened to that locket Reggie took from Voldemort?” Sirius asked.
“Kreacher be trying to follow Master Reggie’s order, but Kreacher can’t seem to,” Kreacher said forlornly. “Kreacher be trying everything, Master Sirius.”
“So you still have it?” he asked excitedly.
“Kreacher can’t be wearing nasty locket. Locket makes Kreacher feel bad things. But he be having it stashed away from nasty loudmouth blood traitor who tried to throw it out,” Kreacher promised.
Sirius bit his lip to keep from laughing at his continued insults to Molly. He really didn’t like the woman and Kreacher shared the feeling.
“Do you have a way to get rid of a Horcrux?” Moody asked.
Sirius thought for a moment, to the two Horcruxes he knew had been destroyed, and smiled. He didn’t notice the feral edge to the smile or the others backing away.
“You know, I do believe I do,” he said.
“Kreacher be fetching Master Sirius the locket?” Kreacher asked hesitantly.
“Yes, please,” Sirius agreed. He was going to give his brother the chance to get some payback to the bastard that had taken him away for ten years and risked his child. After all, he was intimately aware of the fangs from the basilisk that had already destroyed one Horcrux. But maybe they could use it to find the others.
*****
Albus groaned as he settled into his chair again. He was starting to get angry. None of his plans lately had gone smoothly and he couldn’t understand why. Harry was proving far more independent than he wanted. Even with his home life just as planned, Harry was still stubborn and strong willed. Traits he had previously shown, but not to the degree prevalent this year. The boy had always been partially malleable, with the right words or actions. Now, he was constantly, blatantly defiant. Albus was even starting to worry that Minerva would need to be admitted to St. Mungos if he had to obliviate her again. Years he’d worked with the woman and he’d had to remove more memories in the last few months than in the last decade…
All thanks to Harry’s new attitude and constant reiteration of information he could not afford to get out.
And nothing he did was helping reign in the boy.
Sirius had flatly refused to listen to him, ensuring Remus would follow.
Harry wouldn’t meet with him alone anymore, whether from anger, the trauma of Voldemort’s return, or something else, he wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, Albus couldn’t check the compulsions and reapply any potions he needed to feed the brat himself.
The elves reported he was receiving his other potions regularly, but Albus had a feeling the new wand holster the boy sported was coated in protective measures. He’d not seen Harry without it since he’d returned to school, and it did not bode well for his plans. It was even starting a fashion trend as he’d been spotting similar holsters on more than just Harry’s closest friends.
And whatever had happened over the summer had prompted the boy to receive a new guardian. One Albus couldn’t legally protest since he’d arranged to be the boy’s guardian without any official documentation. Only his reputation had allowed him to avoid any inquiry into his actions the night Voldemort fell. And Sirius being locked away.
He was waiting for the day Sirius realized Albus would have known he was innocent. He only hoped the Dementors warped the boy’s mind enough to avoid that all together.
But if what Sirius had said after the Wizengamot was true, and what the Howler had implied was accurate, then that obnoxious woman from America was now in charge of the Boy-Who-Lived. And he couldn’t stand for that.
A wave of his wand had his patronus Phoenix flying off to summon Severus. He needed more information so he could plan accordingly, but it was very evident that he would not be able to obtain it himself. He was unsure what he had done to get the woman to hate him so much after only a day, but he wouldn’t aggravate her when he needed access to the boy she held sway over now. He could not afford for any more plans to deviate from their carefully calculated paths.