Harry Potter: Marauder at Howgarts

Sirius felt his lips twitch and smiled a thank you at her for lightening the moment. "They are that."

"They are Evil most foul." Bertie concurred. "We will need independent witnesses to testify that the objects are destroyed by us. I will not have claims that we kept one for study – there is no need and I will not risk the safety of the wizarding population."

"I suggest Sirius in his capacity of Lord Black acts as one witness," Cornelius said, nodding his agreement, "and perhaps we can do the rest of the honours?"

"I don't disagree but we're getting ahead of ourselves," Sirius pointed out, "we do need to find these objects first."

Bertie nodded. "I'll put a team together. Again, I will make a vow of loyalty and confidentiality to be mandatory."

"Well, the last prong belongs to Sirius and I," Cornelius said firmly, "and that is Operation Power Play."

Sirius refrained from rolling his eyes at the name Cornelius had come up with. "Cornelius and I will work on pushing through some new laws to make it harder for Voldemort to gain control."

"So effectively shutting down his finances and getting us better relationships with those he would ally with?" Amelia deduced.

Bertie raised his eyebrows. "That won't be easy with the current Wizengamot."

Sirius smirked. "The current Wizengamot is about to find itself with a new Lord Black who is also the Potter Regent."

"Lucius will be muzzled, one way or another." Cornelius said briskly. "The old Pureblood alliance will find itself adrift from current opinion. I think many of those families will not want to ally with Voldemort when they realise the truth about his origins. Some of them may find themselves eager to remain neutral at least and…"

"And we can see that clearly you and Sirius will have the political machinations under control." Amelia cut in. "Well, I think we've covered everything so…"

"Not everything." Bertie said firmly. He turned to Sirius. "There is another prong that we have not discussed: your ward, Harry Potter."

Sirius found himself pinned by Bertie's perceptive gaze. "My godson is not up for discussion."

"I can understand why you wouldn't want him to be but I'm afraid he must be." Bertie countered. "There is no doubt after seeing these memories that Voldemort has an unhealthy interest in him; that there is a connection. If I was running Amelia's tag team, I'd be watching young Harry because Voldemort will make a move on the boy. There are two rituals he could use to create a body that involve the use of an enemy and I would think Harry would be his target. Even if he doesn't use him in a ritual, I cannot see Voldemort allowing the existence of a boy who almost killed him, who has so defied him, to continue. I think you know this too."

Sirius resisted the urge to order everyone out of the house; to run to Griffin House, snatch up Harry and run far away. Instead he forced himself to reply to Bertie. "I'm not denying that I know Harry will be a target but I don't want Harry involved. He's not even officially fourteen yet. He's had to face Voldemort too many times as it is. We're the adults here; this should be our job."

"Hear, hear." Amelia said softly. "Sirius is right, Bertie. Harry may be the Boy Who Lived but the key word is boy. This isn't his fight."

Bertie sighed. "There is a prophecy which sits on a shelf in the DOM labelled with both the Dark Lord's name and Harry Potter's."

The second confirmation of the prophecy had Sirius flinching and turning away, pacing restlessly to the fireplace and back again.

"We know." Sirius admitted. "My steward and I compared notes on why James and Lily went into hiding and we realised it was probably a prophecy. Madame Longbottom confirmed it when we renewed the Potter-Longbottom alliance yesterday."

"Albus never told you?" Bertie asked surprised. "The prophecy was told to him by Sybill Trelawney the year Harry was born. Neville Longbottom was the other candidate but ultimately it was Harry who fitted the bill."

"You know the exact prophecy?" Cornelius asked, speaking up for the first time since Bertie had raised the topic of Harry.

"No," Bertie said, glancing back at Sirius, "but we can guess the contents since it was hearing the beginning of this prophecy that compelled Riddle into attacking the Potters. I believe he hoped to eliminate a prophesised threat."

"Harry." Cornelius surmised. He looked over at Sirius. "We should know the exact contents of the prophecy."

"I had intended to track it down," Sirius admitted, "but let me make one thing clear right now: even if this prophecy says Harry is a threat to Voldemort, it will still make no difference. I will protect Harry as much as possible and I will proceed with or without your help with the plan."

Cornelius's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Oh no, I wasn't suggesting we abandon our plan. No, no. I always believed prophecies are a waste of paper – I never did get the point of Divination." He made a dismissive gesture with one hand. "Whole load of hooey if you ask me…but we should know what the prophecy says to understand what You-Know-Who knows."

"I believe Sirius here needs to know," Bertie corrected, "and his ward if that's his decision but the rest of us don't need to know." He spread his hands out wide in a conciliatory gesture. "We don't actually know how much of the prophecy Voldemort knows. My spy believed Voldemort's intelligence about the prophecy was sketchy at best and learned from a Death Eater eavesdropping on Dumbledore and Trelawney's meeting."

"I agree with Bertie." Amelia said firmly. "As much as I abhor that Dumbledore hasn't shared vital information, the reality is that we should keep certain things on a need-to-know basis even among the four of us who I guess form a War Council of sorts. The exact nature of unspeakable objects at the heart of the Treasure Hunt prong is obviously one need-to-know piece of information; the prophecy is another. There may be political manoeuvrings that are best left between yourself and Lord Black, Cornelius."

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