Harry Potter and the Book of Shadows

Catfight

Some time later, four pairs of groggy eyes opened, prodded awake by noses that had caught the enticing scent of something cooking in the kitchen. Harry was the first to wake and, forgetting he was sprawled out on a couch he shared with Ginny, stretched and immediately fell off of it.

The coffee table he fell into slid into Hermione who jolted awake, accidentally smacking Ron in the back of the head as she sat up suddenly. Thus roused, Ron, still sitting, spun around quickly to see what had hit him. Awakened by Harry's surprised yelp and the subsequent startled and confused sounds from Ron and Hermione, Ginny sat up and tried not to laugh at the flailing limbs of everyone on the floor. When they had all figured out where they were and woken fully, Ron yawned and looked at the clock.

"Oh, good. You're awake."

Glasses askew, Harry turned to see Lupin leaning in the doorway, watching them with amusement. "Dinner's almost ready."

Fighting back another yawn, Ron asked, "Who made dinner this time?"

"Your mum." Seeing Ron and Ginny's expressions, Lupin laughed. "Don't worry. I told her you were all very busy doing schoolwork. Which," he glanced at the papers and books scattered about the room, "is not really a lie."

They all mumbled their thanks as they made their way down to the kitchens. Seeing Lupin had hung back, Harry slowed, sensing there was something he wanted to say.

"Harry," Lupin began, "earlier today..." Lupin seemed to struggle a bit. "It wasn't that I didn't want you to know where we were going, or that I thought you'd refuse to go." Harry stopped in the hallway, this not at all anything he'd even considered, but said nothing and let Lupin continue. "I was afraid if I said something, I'd talk myself out of it and I didn't think that would be fair to you. That was something I- we, have all put off for far too long."

Nodding in understanding, Harry tried to think of the right thing to say. "I'm glad we went. Thank you for taking me." Judging by Lupin's expression, if wasn't the exact right thing, Harry had come pretty close. "I'd like to go again sometime."

"Of course," Lupin agreed.

With a feeling of resolution, they entered the kitchen and were immediately greeted by the warm, savory aroma of a rich stew. Both Harry and Lupin noted the two cats had set up camp under the table in the hopes of a sly and charitable hand. As they settled around the table, Ron pointed to Harry.

"Hey, you should show Mum that little bird box."

Realizing he'd left it in the drawing room, Harry shook his head. "It's upstairs. I'll get it after dinner." There was no way he was going to abandon one of Mrs. Weasley's fantastic meals, not even for the possibility she might know how to unlock the mysterious jewelry box.

Interested, Mrs. Weasley asked them what they were talking about. While the foursome were disappointed when she didn't immediately say she knew how to open it, Harry still held some hope she'd finally unlock it at last. Mr. Weasley, failing a magical solution, suggested a few ways to pry it open, but as they all involved Muggle tools of one sort or another, his ideas were quickly set down by his wife.

As soon as the dishes had been cleared, Harry dutifully went to get the box. Setting it in front of Mrs. Weasley, they all waited expectantly as she examined the little bird.

Finally, she set it down and said, "Well, I'm sure you've all tried the obvious things and I can't think of anything else that would work." Hearing their disappointed sighs, she patted Harry's hand reassuringly. "I'm sure someone knows how to open it. Perhaps Dumbledore, or even one of the girls at school would know."

"We'll have Moody take a look, too," Lupin said. "At the next meeting. Just to be sure."

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley nodded in agreement. After Harry had generously shared his tin of fudge for dessert, the Weasleys hugged everyone and left for the night. As they gathered various books, parchments, quills, and notes before heading off to bed, Harry once again slid the puzzling box into his pocket. Would they ever open it? Did it even contain anything of interest? In a bout of mild frustration, Harry snorted to himself, thinking if they ever did open it, it would probably be empty.

Though they had all spent a better part of the afternoon asleep, their mutual yawns had negated any need for excuses to have an early night. Bidding each other good night, they split up in the second floor hallway.

Although he was tired, Harry remained awake until he was sure the others had settled in for the night. Tiptoeing to the door of his room, he made sure there was no telltale candlelight shining from underneath anyone's else's door before he slipped into the hallway. Silently, he made his way to the attic.

However tempting, he had no intention of rummaging through any new boxes. Spying the dilapidated book on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf exactly as he had left it, Harry carefully picked it up and quietly made his way back to his room. Though too sleepy to contemplate another full foray into the attic, Harry at least wanted to see what the book he'd forgotten contained. Gently opening the worn and decaying cover, Harry turned to the first page.

The writing was faded and barely legible, but Harry made out a few of the words. Among those he could read were 'Pureblood Peerage' followed by what he assumed had once been a set of dates though the discolored page made it hard to be sure. Gingerly turning the pages Harry saw it looked like a lengthy list of names. Trying to decipher which names they were or what they might mean would require better light than the scant candle he had and so Harry closed the book. One minor part of the mystery solved, Harry blew out his candle, settled under the warm quilt, and quickly fell asleep.

He didn't know if it was because he had slept so much the previous day, but Harry woke and after several failed attempts, gave into the fact that whatever time it was, he was wide awake. Raising the window shade revealed it was still quite early, suggesting the rest of the house was most likely still asleep. He considered going down to the kitchen and starting breakfast, but the early morning stillness was rather nice, so instead, Harry sat on his bed, allowing the calm to settle around him.

Several moments went by until Harry's gaze fell on the book he'd retrieved the previous night. Deciding the morning light filtering into the room was strong enough, he picked up the decrepit book and cautiously opened it. The flickering candlelight hadn't been bright enough, but the strengthening natural light made reading the faded text much less difficult. Harry saw the first page did in fact declare the book's title as 'Pureblood Peerage.' The only reason the years below it were illegible was due to the fact it appeared that something had spilled across the page at some point.

Wondering if that was the reason, or at least part of it, that the book was in such bad shape, Harry turned the page to see the list of names he'd squinted at in the attic. The list appeared to be in alphabetical order, though Harry didn't recognize any of the names on the first page. Challenging the book's structural integrity, he carefully went to the next the page, his eyes immediately finding a name he knew.

Black was right at the top of the list, but it was Black, Regulus followed by Black, Narcissa. Of Sirius there was no sign. Confused, Harry wondered why they were out of order according to first name and why not only was Sirius conspicuously absent, but Bellatrix also wasn't listed. Perhaps having been vocal in his disapproval of his family's attitudes toward bloodlines, Sirius had been omitted, not unlike several of the Black family had been removed from the family tree. But why then would Bellatrix be missing?

Thinking of the few other names he knew that would most likely appear in a book of pureblood names, Harry looked first for the 'M' page. Indeed, there was Malfoy, Lucius, but no Draco. That Harry attributed to the book most likely having been written before Draco was born. Not sure if he'd find anything, Harry went back a few pages and, not too surprisingly, found Hade, Persephone. Since the book was much longer than only a list of names indicated it would be, Harry skipped ahead to a random page in the center, wondering what else the book could contain.

To his disconcertion, the center page was mostly blank, save for a single name listed at the top. A quick scan of other pages revealed that, beyond the initial list, the rest of the book comprised of single names on otherwise empty pages. So what was the book for? Taking notes on activities? Keeping track of something? Thinking of other magical items he'd run across, Harry reached for his wand and hoped there wasn't some sort of hex on the book that cursed people who had no idea what they were doing.

Since he wasn't interested in Harrington, Zerrah, he went back a few pages to Persephone's blank page. Not allowing himself to feel guilty, as this was not part of her personal things but a book he had every right to look through, Harry touched the tip of his wand to the page and whispered, "Subnoto."

He had sort of expected it, but still the inky black lines spreading across the page startled him. In less than a minute, the page was full of writing. Leaning closer, Harry read 'Fulton Academy' written directly under Persephone's name. Immediately after that was a set of odd names Harry assumed were addresses: Parkwoods, Crown Point, NY; White Cliffs, White Cliffs Island, MA; and Avalon Watch, Denver, CO. Even more surprising, below the addresses were two names: Regulus Black and Lucius Malfoy. What did that mean? Had she had some kind of connection to them? Did she still? There were other names on the page he didn't recognize and thus ignored.

Though he didn't expect it to be of any help, Harry turned to Lucius Malfoy's page and repeated the spell. There, under 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry', the list of addresses was far longer. Harry's eye caught a familiar name, Malfoy Manor, though the others were unknown to him. To his surprise, not only was Persephone's name listed on Lucius' page, but so was Narcissa's and several other women Harry didn't know. More confused than when he started, Harry wondered if he could ask Persephone about the book, since it was his, after all, and something no one would claim he'd had no right to look through.

Ignoring his ambivalence over this new discovery for the moment, Harry dressed and wandered down to the kitchens to see if he could manage to throw something together for breakfast. When the others joined him not too much later, he smirked to himself at Hermione's surprise he'd managed to cook a fairly decent breakfast by himself. Harry kept the fact the Dursleys had inadvertently taught him something useful to himself, enjoying the rare feeling of impressing Hermione. Lupin volunteered to clean up, allowing the foursome the opportunity to head back to the upstairs sitting room.

Since he had allowed Hermione to bully him into finishing his essays the day before while Lupin and Harry were gone, Ron managed to convince Ginny to play a game of chess using his finally completed Wizard chess set. Hermione, long finished with her homework, was attempting to translate the rune book Harry had found. Though there were other things he could have found to do, Harry lay sprawled out on the couch trying to make his way through The Book of Shadows, Myth or Fact.

Lunchtime came and went. Afterwards, Harry traded places with Ginny, who had resignedly gone back to her OWL studies. Seemingly having had enough of translating, Hermione once again picked up the book Harry had given her for Christmas, though neither he nor Ron saw it as taking much of a break at all. After Ron had trounced him repeatedly in chess, Harry went back to his book. Ron feigned interest in one of the volumes on binding spells.

There was a brief interruption of the idyllic quiet when, in a fury of yowling fur and claws, Crookshanks and Pest barreled into the room. Having missed the previous fight, Hermione immediately tried to separate the cats, fearing one or the other would be seriously hurt. Remembering Ginny's water idea, Ron pointed his wand at the snarling mass and soaked them with a quick spell. Thus startled, the two cats once again fled in opposite directions.

Ignoring Ginny's suggestion she let Crookshanks regain his composure first, Hermione dragged him out from behind the sofa to examine him. Obviously still miffed, he unceremoniously chomped her hand and took off as soon as she had relaxed her grip in surprise. Hermione huffed indignantly as the ginger cat tore out of the room.

"There's gratitude!" She dabbed at the tiny dots of blood that had appeared on her hand.

Handing her a handkerchief, Ron said, "Well, he was pretty upset." When Hermione grabbed it sharply, he stammered, "Not that he should have bitten you, of course. I'm sure he'll be back to his old self and properly sorry he did it by dinnertime."

Shooting him an irritated look, Hermione settled back at the coffee table, the others resuming their places scattered around the room. After a long silence punctuated only by the occasional scratch of a quill or the faint rustle of a page turning, Hermione looked up from her own book to ask Harry, "So find out anything useful?"

Harry shrugged. "Nothing we don't really already know. To be honest, I think there's so little people actually know about the Book, they go on for pages and pages saying how 'it's only a theory that' or 'it may be possible...' I'd say for every ten pages, there are maybe one or two facts that may or may not actually mean something."

"How encouraging," Ginny said dryly without looking up.

With a sigh, Harry stared at the back cover of the book, his eyes not really seeing the text. In his half-drifting state of mind, his brain caught hold of something. Shaking himself, Harry peered closer at the back of the book. There was a small picture of the author in the lower corner, and something about him nagged at Harry. Closer inspection shed no light on why he thought he ought to remember the man, but the face remained oddly familiar.

A knock at the front door brought welcome distraction and Harry remembered the Order meeting that was to take place. Standing, he reminded the others about it and headed for the door. Though they knew they wouldn't be allowed into the meeting, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny followed, hoping to at least get a chance to say hello to various Order members as they arrived. Realizing he still held the Book of Shadows reference in his hand, Harry jogged back to toss it in the sitting room.

Seeing the other three stopped at the head of the stairs, Harry asked, "What's the hold-up?"

Ginny turned and shrugged, unable to see around Ron, Hermione also stuck behind him.

"Cat!" Ron's voice shook as he refused to let the others pass.

Hermione frowned. "Oh, Pest and Crookshanks aren't at it again, are they?"

"Big cat!" Ron squeaked.

"What on earth are you-" Hermione pushed Ron aside and gasping, immediately retreated behind him. "Oh, boy."

Exchanging a look, Ginny and Harry simultaneously wedged between Ron and the wall to see what was going on. Ginny's eyes widened and she instantly backed up a step. Though somewhat familiar with unusual magical happenings, Harry just stared in complete astonishment.

Down in the foyer, tail twitching ever so slightly, sat a very large, very real Bengal tiger. Having no idea where it had come from or why it was there, Harry scrambled to think of what they should do.

Ginny suddenly gasped, "You don't- you don't think it ate Lupin, do you?"

"There's no blood," Hermione said. She put a hand over her mouth in disbelief. "I can't believe I just said that. I can't believe there's a...a tiger in the foyer! What do we do?"

The tiger turned its fixed stare from the front door to the staircase.

"You can stop drawing attention to us for one thing," Ron hissed.

Just as he was about to draw his wand and attempt a Stun spell, Harry caught the tiger's eye. Had it just winked at him? "Wait, I think that's-"

The doorbell rang and almost instantly swung open. From their vantage on the stairs, the foursome could see Snape and Persephone on the small porch.

"Perhaps it simply wasn't ready in time for a Christmas delivery," Snape said as they stepped into the entryway.

Persephone slid a look sideways at him but smiled. Just as Harry was about to call out in warning they both spotted the large cat. Everyone froze as the tiger crouched as if to attack. Suddenly Persephone was gone and a tawny cougar stood in her place, ears back, fur up, a low growl sounding from the back of its throat. Though Snape had drawn his wand, he was staring at the cougar in utter bewilderment.

The look of surprise on the tiger's face might have been funny if Harry wasn't sure it and the other large cat weren't seconds away from tearing each other apart. Snape moved slightly and the cougar broke eye contact with the tiger for a second to hiss back at him. Harry had the odd feeling that the cougar was warning him to stay behind it. Immediately returning its attention to the tiger, whose fur had also risen, the cougar snarled aggressively.

From the doorway of the kitchen stairs, presumably drawn by the angry growls, Lupin exclaimed, "What the bloody hell is going on here?"

The two large cats instantaneously transformed back into Tonks and Persephone. Tonks pointed her wand at Persephone yelling, "I should have you arrested!"

As soon as Tonks had drawn her wand, Persephone had yanked hers out of the clip that held it securely to her robes to aim back. "I would love to see you try it!"

She took a step forward, but Snape grabbed her other arm and held her back. Lupin was actively restraining Tonks by this point. Harry wasn't sure transforming back into human form had helped the situation at all.

"Did any of you know she was an Animagus?" Harry asked, his voice low, though he doubted any of the people below would take notice of them.

They all shook their heads. Hermione whispered, "She wasn't on the list I found, I wonder if that's what Tonks meant."

Whirling to face Lupin, Tonks shouted, "She's an unregistered Animagus!" It wasn't clear if revealing this was her intention all along or if she was trying to cover up for the unexpected turn of events.

Yanking her arm out of Snape's grip, Persephone spat out a loud expletive. "I AM registered! In America!"

"You're supposed to-" Tonks began defensively.

Persephone cut her off, "I did apply for registration here but as I'm sure you know Animagus registry applications aren't exactly at the top of the Ministry's priority list!"

Lupin attempted to restore calm. "Seph, please. This was obviously a misunderstanding so let's just end this-"

He grabbed Tonks and pulled her back as Persephone marched toward them. Harry saw Snape had given up trying to hold Persephone back at all.

Tonk's chin lifted when Persephone held her wand directly under it. "You're right, Remus. This ends now." She locked eyes with Tonks. "The way I see it there are two ways and I will leave the decision up to you. Either you step off or we step outside."

There was a tense moment of silence. Tonks finally dropped her eyes. Persephone stood dangerously close for another moment then backed away. Taking a deep breath she made her way down the kitchen stairs. Snape raised his eyebrow at Lupin and followed her silently.

As soon as they were gone, Lupin spun Tonks around to face him. "What were you thinking?" Before she could answer, he released her and shook his head and pointed at the doorway. "Forget it, I don't care. Go downstairs."

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child!" Tonks cried indignantly.

"Then stop acting like one!" Lupin shouted back at her.

Even from their vantage at the top of the stairs, they could see the tears well in her eyes. With a sniff, she clenched her teeth and stalked down the staircase without another word. Lupin sagged against the wall and covered his face with his hands. When the doorbell rang, they could see him slide down a bit further. With a sigh he straightened and answered it.

The foursome backed up into the hallway and all the way back to the sitting room. It seemed no one wanted to be the first to speak.

Finally, Hermione asked, "Aren't you going down?"

Wincing a bit Harry said, "Um, maybe I'll wait until someone comes up here to see if I want to join them."

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry," Ginny said. She grabbed Harry's arm and led him back into the hall. "They don't know you saw. Just go down. See who Lupin just let in."

Unable to protest, he allowed her to urge him along. When they spied several flame-haired individuals in the foyer, Harry felt a bit of relief. The Weasleys had arrived all at once and though the hall was instantly full of boisterous chatter, Lupin seemed relieved to see them. Encouraged, Harry headed down the stairs.

"Hey, Harry," one of the twins greeted him.

Harry noticed a bright red cloak draped over one arm and pointed to it. "Part of your Christmas uniforms?"

George laughed. "Nah, that's one of our invisibility cloaks."

"Doesn't making it bright red kind of defeat the purpose?" Harry asked.

Fred and George exchanged a look. "Well, until we have it just right, we thought we ought to make it obvious which ones were the invisibility cloaks."

"Something wrong with them?" a gruff voice asked.

Moody had just arrived, followed by Kingsley.

"Not wrong, as it were," Fred said. "They do work."

"Just not quite as completely as we'd like," George added. "We brought them hoping maybe someone here might have an idea or two on how to modify the charm more accurately."

Just as everyone was hanging up various cloaks and coats, Persephone emerged from the kitchen doorway and Harry saw Lupin give her a quick once-over, probably looking for hex marks. She added several more cloaks to the burdened coat tree, including her own soft green one. Fred hung one of the invisibility cloak attempts up as well, though George carried the other with him.

"Well, it can all be discussed in the meeting," Mrs. Weasley urged everyone toward the kitchen staircase. "Let's get a move on, then."

Everyone clambered down to the kitchen. Harry chose a seat as far from Snape as possible which, to his relief, was also the closest to the stairs. Seeing Tonks across from him, Harry thought he might ask her about the trinket box before everyone was settled in. She looked like she needed the distraction.

Taking it out of his pocket he said, "Hey Tonks, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this jewelry box, would you?"

Reaching across the table Tonks examined it briefly and then with a shrug, handed it back to Harry. "Looks like it's locked."

"What's that you've got?" Moody asked, settling into the seat next to Harry.

"I don't know," Harry said holding it out. "No one can get it open."

As Moody took the little bird figurine, Persephone came around from behind Kinglsey. "Oh, a Twitterbox! I didn't think they even made those anymore. Where did you get that?"

Harry held it out to her hopefully. "I found it in the attic. We can't seem to get it open."

Her brow wrinkled as she took it for a better look. "Is it broken? It looks all right."

"All it does is this," Harry said as he took it back. He pulled the latch and the little yellow bird did its bow and whistle.

Persephone smiled and held out her hand. "That's how it tells you how to open it. Watch." Gently she spread the bird's wings, tilted its head to the side and pushed the bird forward, just as it had done on it own. When she pressed down on the bird's head again, Harry heard a tiny click and the lid popped open a fraction. Opening the box fully she held it out for Harry to peer inside. A tinny song played as Harry lifted the lid and withdrew the box's only contents, a tiny, tarnished iron key.

"Where have you seen one of those before?" Lupin asked.

"My mother had one, the bluebird. If you opened more than one at the same time, the songs would play melody and harmony together." Persephone had a sort of sad smile as she looked at the little box.

Mrs. Weasley glanced at the jewelry box as it continued its metallic melody. "Do you still have it? We could play them together."

"It didn't survive the fire." Abruptly, Persephone rose and returned to her seat near the back of the table. Harry wondered at the look she shot Moody, but since no one else seemed to have noticed, let it go.

Turning the key over in his hand, he mused aloud, "I wonder what it opens."

Several glances turned to Lupin who shrugged. "No idea. And there's no guarantee that whatever it opens didn't get tossed out last year."

Placing the key back in the box, Harry shut it and the bird returned to its normal perched position.

"Since everyone's here, let's start," Lupin said.

Harry leaned toward Moody who had sat next to him. "Dumbledore's not coming?"

"Doesn't always," Moody said gruffly. "Busy man, you know."

"What's the word on trying to talk to the vampires?" Charlie asked, looking over at Persephone.

Having composed herself from her earlier fight with Tonks, Persephone remained coolly impassive. "I did speak with them. They're willing to talk," startled but excited chatter broke out at this, but Persephone did not look as happy as some of the others, "but they want to talk to Dumbledore."

Fully expecting Tonks to send a verbal barb Persephone's way about it, Harry was surprised to see her staring indifferently at a point somewhere just past Persephone's shoulder. Thinking perhaps she finally was going to lay off, Harry turned his attention back to the meeting.

Since Dumbledore was not present to address this new concern, there was nothing further to discuss. Moody leaned forward and pinned Fred with his magical eye. "So what's this you've got about invisibility cloaks?"

Both twins looked a bit taken aback. They exchanged a glance.

"Well..." Fred started. "We were just going to ask about modifying the charm we used."

"But we thought it'd wait until after the meeting," George finished.

"Nonsense," Moody said. "If you can get those things to work, that'd be a distinct advantage, don't you agree?" When the twins nodded, Moody sat back. "So what've you got, then?"

George shook out the cloak he'd brought down. "So far we've had some success in getting the charm to extend further. Our Headless Hats gave us the idea, but those only had a working charm distance of a few inches."

"First we tried casting a stronger spell, and though it did almost cover the whole cloak," Fred said, "it wasn't powerful enough to last and we ended up getting patchy bits that showed through."

"Then we tried dyeing the cloaks with an invisibility potion," Harry saw George's mouth twitch as he tried to suppress a smile, "and then casting the spell, but that'd didn't quite work either. It did cast a wider circle of invisibility, but it wasn't permanent and it didn't always make everything under the cloak invisible."

From the look that passed between them, Harry had a feeling they'd been in an inopportune place when they'd found that out.

Fred added, "We thought a modified version of the potion and charm combination might still work, which is why we haven't scrapped the idea totally yet. That's the other one we brought."

Holding up the red cloak, George said, "But this has been our most successful try. We got a hold of some Demiguise thread and used it to stitch the cloak. Of course, just the thread isn't enough to make the whole cloak invisible, but it did help extend and stabilize the modified charm."

He stood and put it on. While certain parts of George were still somewhat discernible, where the seams were stitched he was completely invisible. The centers of the fabric panels were not completely visible, but rather had a fuzzy sort of red glow. It gave George an odd fading-in-and out, spectral sort of appearance.

Taking the cloak off, George concluded, "And that's what we've got so far."

The room was quiet. Sneaking a glance around, Harry saw most everyone had a look of mingled amazement and confusion. McGonagall and Snape he understood- Fred and George were passable students at best. Obviously they had potential, so the professors' confusion as to why they hadn't done better or even finished school was understandable. Harry knew Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had known the twins were capable of higher expectations, but figured they had given up hope they'd ever live up to them long ago. Even the Aurors seemed impressed.

After a moment more of uncomfortable silence, Fred cleared his throat. "So...um, any suggestions?"

Snape leveled a gaze at him and said, "I would like to have a look at the potion you used."

Harry saw Fred shift uncomfortably and knew he had as many reservations about Snape's trustworthiness as he did. Still, Fred agreed to bring some to the next meeting.

Mr. Weasley spoke next, "I have a... an acquaintance who specializes in charming Muggle artifacts. Perhaps he would have an idea or two."

Mrs. Weasley didn't look too pleased at this suggestion and Harry wondered why. When no one else volunteered anything, Lupin asked what other news needed to be discussed.

Kingsley sat up a bit and addressed the room, "I've made a contact in the U.S. Department of Magical Affairs." The air almost crackled with the sudden excitement.

"In the Department of Magriculture?" Charlie asked hopefully.

Shaking his head, Kingsley replied, "Department of Magical Transportation, actually. She's got a line on who knows what concerning the muggle subway situation."

"Has she told you anything useful yet?" Moody asked.

"She got wind of some of the Dementor army rumors because of a sudden Floo Network project that landed in her lap. All of a sudden there were quite a few new applications for Floo fireplace registrations. She didn't think it odd at first, but then she heard that rumor about the muggle subway system. When she looked into it, the largest subway station tunnels were suspiciously grouped near the clusters of new Floo grate application sites," Kingsley said.

"So what does that mean?" Harry asked without thinking. Inwardly cringing that he'd drawn unnecessary attention to himself, he almost hoped no one had heard. He felt a slight relief that there were no quiet sighs of reproach, and tried telling himself there were others at the table who looked glad he asked.

Lupin replied, "It might mean once the Dementors reach large enough numbers Voldemort is going to use the Floo Network to start moving them. Any large numbers would be hard to conceal, weather distractions or not. Also, it might be his supporters need closer access to make sure things are going according to plan." He thought for a moment. "Or it might mean the U.S. knows the Dementors are there and are either moving to try to eliminate them, or Voldemort's got supporters there helping things along."

Harry didn't like the sound of that one bit. Apparently neither did Tonks. She spoke up, "How long does it take Dementors to-" she stopped and seemed to search for a way to phrase it, "breed? Or mature, really."

Shaking his head, Lupin replied, "No one knows that much about Dementor breeding or their life cycle at all. Obviously they're not falling in love, getting married, and having little Dementors." There were some half-smiles at this. "The reigning theory is after they absorb enough negative energy, they divide into two beings, or alternately, when two Dementors absorb enough energy, they merge and then divide into three or four. Since no one has actually seen them breed, there are quite a few theories to pick from. Those are the most commonly accepted."

He looked back to Tonks. "As for how long it takes to go from newly formed Dementor to full maturity, judging by the rate of the weather changes previously attributed to Dementor breeding, the consensus is it takes anywhere from a few months to immediate maturity after the split."

"Not long enough," Moody mumbled.

Harry had to agree. "Does anyone know how many are there now? Or how many there might be?"

Kingsley shook his head. "She didn't give numbers, and I don't think anyone outside of You-Know-Who knows how many he's trying for. But judging by the extent and strength of the weather disturbances, I'd say easily in the thousands, if not more."

Harry's stomach dropped. Thousands? How the bloody hell were they supposed to defeat a Dementor army numbering in the thousands? When he saw everyone looking at him, Harry realized he must have made the exclamation out loud.

Since everyone was staring at him anyway, Harry figured he might as well ask the next question that had sprung to mind, "How do you kill a Dementor anyway? The Patronus Charm?"

This time, Moody answered, "Patronus will hold them off or make them retreat but it won't kill them, not in any kind of timely manner, anyway. Actually, there aren't that many ways to kill a Dementor, which is probably why Voldemort thought to use them in the first place. Physical destruction works, Incendio will take them out if they burn fully, but it's hard to be sure they're completely dead." Moody's expression darkened. "And they will come back if they're not. The Ministry has a facility that uses specific binding spells that keep them isolated and they basically starve to death, but that takes a long time and it's really not effective enough against this many. We're going to have to think on this and come up with a way to eliminate or contain large numbers of Dementors."

"Angst Lords," Mr. Weasley said, almost to himself.

The whole room turned to him with expectant looks. Harry caught Mrs. Weasley's unhappy look once again.

"What was that?" Lupin asked.

Mr. Weasley leaned forward. "Angst Lords. They could handle an army of Dementors."

"No!" Mrs. Weasley said emphatically. "It's not worth getting involved with those... no."

Harry had no idea what was going on, but was surprised to see Kingsley and Moody seemed to be on Mrs. Weasley's side.

Moody spoke first, "I understand what you're thinking, Arthur, but Molly might be right. Angst Lords aren't exactly-"

"Reliable?" Kingsley filled in.

"I don't think reliability is the problem," Tonks said. "In fact, they might be too reliable."

"What exactly, is an Angst Lord?" Fred asked.

Grateful he didn't have to ask, Harry saw not only the twins, but Bill and Charlie as well didn't seem to know what the Aurors were talking about. Sneaking a glance at the other end of the table where McGonagall, Snape and Persephone sat, he guessed that they had some idea. McGonagall looked about as pleased as Mrs. Weasley. Snape and Persephone looked equally impassive.

Though he had brought it up, Mr. Weasley seemed to be waiting for Moody to explain. After a moment of thought, Moody sighed. "The Angst Lords are a group of wizards, who, along with other traits, have a sort of natural resistance against Dementors. In fact, they have a sort of Dementor effect on Dementors. Among other things, they can absorb the negative energy of a Dementor without being harmed in any way. If they do it long enough, they can kill a Dementor."

"Are they some sort of government group? Like Unspeakables?" Bill asked.

Moody laughed gruffly. "Hardly. They're not any sort of group. They don't work for anyone specifically and only have a loose association with each other. No one's quite sure where the title came from, though originally it was not a compliment. But they seemed amused by the implication and adopted it for themselves."

"So who do they work for, then?" George asked.

"Whoever can pay," Tonks said derisively. "In a nutshell, they're assassins. Highly skilled and highly effective assassins."

"Lunatics, all of them," Mrs. Weasley muttered.

Kingsley had a sort of wry smile. "That may be. Anyone who can drain Dementors like that has got to be somewhat off. But Dementor hunting isn't all they do."

Harry was afraid to ask, but apparently, Charlie wasn't. "What else do they do?"

"Whatever you can afford," Tonks said. "Murder, torture..."

"If they've done all that, why aren't they in Azkaban?" Fred asked.

Moody looked grim. "They're smoke." When this was met by confused looks, he elaborated, "Everyone knows it was them, and usually which one, but there's never any real evidence. And no one can find them. Every lead turns into a dead end. Catching them is like trying to catch smoke."

"Not to mention no one wants to cross them. No one who's seen their work, anyway," Kingsley added. "They've taken government contracts as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if part of the payments was an indemnity clause or two."

Mr. Weasley was frowning. "But it's not like assassination is all they do. They do other things, charms, imports, finding rare objects. Everyone just focuses on the more...distasteful things."

"Would they even help us?" McGonagall asked.

"If we had the money," Moody replied. "Trouble is, it'd take a hefty amount to contract all of them."

Harry saw quite a few looks thrown Persephone's way. She remained expressionless.

"If they even all agreed," Tonks said. "Have they ever all worked together on one contract before?"

Kingsley pondered a moment. "Never all of them, but the DW file had all but one listed." Harry saw Moody grimace and wondered what the DW file was. Obviously something bad. "They can work quite effectively as a team."

George spoke up, "Wouldn't they want to help us defeat You-now-Who?"

Moody shot him a look, "Don't be foolish. They don't care. Last time, the ones who were around worked both sides. Never forget that with them, the payment is the bottom line. They do not fight for a cause. I've heard they'd take each other out if the price was right."

"Why would we even want to ask them, then?" George exclaimed.

"They my not be loyal to a cause," Moody said, "but I have never seen them fail to make good on a contract yet. If they agreed, you can bet they'd finish the job."

Kingsley was frowning but said, "Maybe we should at least put out some feelers. See if any of them are interested and what they might be asking for payment."

"How many of them are there?" Harry asked.

Moody thought for a moment. "Five."

"Five?" Harry exclaimed. "As in, five wizards?"

Tonks piped up, "Four wizards and one witch."

"That's it?" Fred looked incredulous. "That can't possibly be enough to take on a Dementor army of thousands!"

Moody's expression was stern. "Never underestimate them. To be honest, I'd say their five is an unfair advantage over the Dementors."

"And don't forget, even Harry here managed to stave off quite a number of Dementors with a Patronus Charm by himself," Lupin broke in. "For those resistant to or trained to fight them, numbers matter less. Voldemort is counting us on not having anyone who can battle with Dementors without feeling the psychological effects."

Harry felt another reason to advance in Occlumency as quickly as possible.

"So how do we get in contact with them?" McGonagall asked.

"I'll mention it when I ask about the invisibility charm," Mr. Weasley replied.

Bill, Charlie, and the twins stared in openmouthed shock at their father. "You know an Angst Lord?" George managed to sputter.

Under their disbelieving looks and his wife's heated glare, Mr. Weasley shifted uncomfortably. "We've had... correspondence. And I have to say he's a delightful fellow. Never would have guessed he was...one of them. He's quite knowledgeable about Muggle artifacts. Particularly in charming them. In fact-"

Mrs. Weasley cut her husband off before he went off on a tangent, "Shouldn't we ask Dumbledore about this first?"

"I'll speak with him the next time I see him," McGonagall said. "In the meantime, we may as well see if they're interested. It may be they want nothing to do with this at all."

Harry didn't know whether to feel relived or disappointed at that idea.

"Until we know if they're interested, perhaps we should see what we can find on them. So we know what we're getting into," Lupin suggested.

"I'll look into it," Tonks volunteered. "I've got high-level clearance in the Ministry files. I'll see what I can find."

"Was there any other business?" Lupin asked, looking around. When no one spoke up, he nodded. "All right. Well, we'll start looking into the Dementor problem and go from there."

Everyone stood up and broke into smaller conversations. Harry saw Fred and George try to convince the other to go talk to Snape about the invisibility potion sample. Slowly, everyone made their way up the stairs and into the foyer.

Though he had been nearest the stair, Harry somehow ended up behind everyone as the kitchen emptied. The entryway was quite crowded by the time he managed to make his way up and out of the kitchen. Thinking it might be wise to wait until some people had left before attempting to get to the stairway to the second floor, Harry waited behind Tonks, whose head he could at least see over. He changed his mind and tried to squeeze by her and Lupin when he saw Ron peek down at them from the corner at the top of the landing.

As everyone donned cloaks and coats, Harry finally managed to struggle to the bottom of the stairs. He saw Ginny and Hermione were also waiting at the top, presumably as eager to hear the news as Ron, or alternately, trying to keep him in line. Turning to wave goodbye, Harry saw Persephone conversing intently with Kingsley. Snape had donned his outer robe and Persephone held her hand out for him to pass her hers. Concentrating on her conversation with Kingsley, she put on the one he handed her without looking.

Harry was about to call out when, evidently finished talking to Kingsley, she turned toward the center of the foyer and glanced down. Seeing the bright red cloth that now covered her, she said, "Wait, this one's not-"

In an instant her clothes vanished, and they all understood what Fred and George had meant by 'didn't always make everything under the cloak invisible'. The room went silent. Not because she was all of a sudden standing in front of them in nothing but her underwear, but because before her hands had flown to her chest in an obvious instinctive reflex, they had all seen it.

Clearly drawn, glaring bright red in the center of her chest, was the Dark Mark.