Alastor banged the table with his staff several times.

"Order! Order! Everyone! Will you stop panicking like a bunch of Hufflepuffs?!"

"Excuse me?!" several in the room cried at once a couple adding an extra explicative in the shout. Alastor winced back and clamped his mouth shut.

"Friends!" Albus suddenly shouted. "Please. We will be of no use if we allow fear to divide and conquer us." The fervour of the room relaxed as several people took breaths.

"The Minister should be told." Tonks called out.

"Already tried that," Sirius muttered darkly. "He sent me a very thinly veiled threat that I would lose more than my job if I kept spouting lies."

"Are you serious?!" Hestia cried in horror.

"Did all of you forget about me? So rude." Sirius responded with a smirk. 

"Some maturity in light of the situation if you don't mind." Emmeline spat coldly. Sirius scowled at her and opened his mouth to say something (probably a profanity ridden insult) but Minerva cleared her throat.

"Emmeline and Albus are right." The elderly animagus said with gravely pursed lips. "We must focus on the task at hand."

"We need more information." Alastor said quietly. "We need to know what You-Know-Who's next move will be." 

Every head in the room turned to Severus. 

The man was still bloodshot and his left hand was twitching reflexively from pain. The man looked at them all and his face was taken over by a bitter scowl.

"Oh yes," he drawled, "I'll just pop right over. I'm sure he'll be sooooo happy to se-" he was cut off by a spike of pain, doubling over in his chair with a groan. Emmeline immediately jumped up to help him, but he was upright and smacking her hands away by the time she arrived. "I'm fine!" He snarled furiously.

"Apple, meet tree." Emmeline spat back. Severus's face crumpled a fraction before he sighed.

"Severus is not an option " Albus finally said, with grave seriousness. "We must find some other way to obtain information." The room looked grave before Sirius suddenly straightened up.

"Snape!" He barked

"Sirius, we already said he's not an option!" Tonks grumbled.

"No not that!" Sirius shouted. "Snape, are the robes you've got… they're the same ones you first received right?" He asked. Severus blinked.

"Yes. They're nearly impossible to get rid of. Even when I tried, they showed up in my wardrobe again." Severus let out a bitter snort "one time they even came back pressed."

"Then we can use this!" Sirius cried as flicked his wrist and a small glass sphere popped into his hand.

"The listening devices!" Emmeline cried in awe. 

"What?" Tonks questioned.

"In the first war Snape managed to plant listening devices on several members of the inner circle." Alastor said, leaning forward as Sirius placed the sphere into the middle of the table. "Been a while since we used these… will the magic even work anymore?"

"For all the ones I created." Sirius muttered "which admittedly weren't a lot… the original form of the device was a small wire with a crystal on the end of it though… maybe it was passed over." Sirius tapped the sphere with his wand then put his hand over it. Instantly the room was filled with a loud shrieking noise which made everyone cover their ears as Sirius quickly adjusted the frequency.

"Sorry! Feedback."

"Bloody hell that hurt," Hestia whined 

"I think I've got deaf!" Tonks wailed.

"Shush!" Alastor growled. The room fell deathly quiet as Sirius slowly waved his hand over the sphere.

"Come on," the animagus hissed. "Come o-"

"-ord's will is absolute."

"YEAH!" The room cried with glee, several people cheering and clapping Sirius on the back.

"QUIET!" Severus roared. The room fell silent again and began to listen.

"-annot let anything distract us Marcus."

"But father-" Severus felt his heart sink. That was Marcus Flint, meaning it must be the device he planted on Augustus Flint. The man had been an up and coming in the 80s. A worthy candidate for the inner circle. He'd likely fallen in favour now however, since he’d claimed to have been under the imperius curse as an excuse for his previous illegal activities. He'd read about Marcus being released on house arrest. Seemed that hadn't been as 'rehabilitating' as August claimed it would be.

"Enough! Cast the traitor from your mind. Our Lord has a greater purpose for us. And we must abide by his will, as I have said!" Augusted snarled

"But-" Marcus began again

The room echoed with the sound of a sharp smack. Severus felt his hand tighten around his chair arm. 

"DO NOT CONTRADICT ME BOY! YOU WILL OBEY OUR MASTER! UNDERSTOOD?"

"y-yes father." Marcus's voice said meekly, barely a whisper from a distance. There was a silence before the older voice sighed.

"I am hard on you for your own good Marcus," Augustus told him. "Our Lord will not be so merciful. You must be prepared."

"Yes father." Marcus said, firmer now. Then the conversation drifted away to other things, and Sirius severed the connection. The room was still silent. Then Emmeline rose and left the room. She looked shaken. Severus sighed and leaned into the table. He didn't have the strength to chase after her. 

Harry sat on his bed with his head in his hands. It was too quiet in this house. Every creak reminded him of that awful nightmare from weeks ago. He couldn't stop kicking himself. He was so stupid! How could he have dismissed something so obviously important! He growled and picked up an object on the bedside table and threw it. The shatter made him freeze them wince. He crossed the room and picked up the picture frame. He blinked in confusion. He recognized the boy on the left as Sirius black, young to be sure but familiar scowl in place. Next to him though was a boy Harry couldn't recognize. He had shorter hair than Sirius with steely blue eyes that stared at him, only occasional blinking showing that this photo was indeed magic. Occasionally Sirius would try to pull away from the boy before his face twisted into a scowl as he glanced at something out of frame and grudgingly slid back into place. Harry slowly slid the photo out from under the now broken glass and flipped it over.

Sirius and Regulus, 1970

Harry blinked and flipped the photo back over.

"He has a brother?" Harry whispered. Suddenly the door opened.

"Harry? Darling what are you doing up? What happened to the picture frame?"

"Erm," Harry began with a wince. "I couldn't sleep." Then she looked at the picture frame again. "it… fell." Harry decided. Emmeline raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry." Harry whispered.

"What's wrong darling?" Emmeline asked as she guided him back to his bed.

"I knew this was gonna happen." Harry admitted. Emmeline looked at him incredulously before she burst out laughing.

"Harry darling! That's impossible! How could you have known?!"

"That nightmare I had at the start of the summer," Harry muttered quietly as he started unconsciously rubbing the scar on his arm from where Crouch had attacked him at the end of the year. "It was about Voldemort and Crouch talking about the ritual. I thought it was just a nightmare. But it wasn't. It was… some kind of premonition."

"But you didn't know that then sweetheart." Emmeline consoled him, wrapping her arms around him protectively. "How could you have known."

"If I hadn't just dismissed it-" Harry began.

"Hush," Emmeline said calmingly. Then suddenly the sound of quiet murmuring drifted upstairs before someone loudly shushed everyone. Harry held his breath, waiting for the portrait of Mrs. Black to start screaming again. But nothing happened.

"The meeting is over," Emmeline muttered quietly. "Wait here. I'll bring up some hot cocoa. Would you like that?" Harry sighed before he nodded, though much more sadly then he normally would. Emmeline's brows knotted with worry before she rubbed his back. "After that, try to get more sleep darling." Harry nodded slowly and even lay down as she got up. Emmeline smiled and turned out of the room.

"There you are Vance." Sirius said with a grunt "you missed the end of the meeting. What could possibly be more important than fighting Voldemort?"

"Being a mother." Emmeline said with a scowl. Sirius snorted.

"Still can't believe you willingly play mother to the bastard son of your future husband and his adulterous former friend. Surely you see the irony." Sirius said with a smirk.

"Wipe that look off your filthy face Black, before I hex it clean off!" Emmeline snapped.

"Careful Vance," Sirius drawled. "Threatening an auror is a lofty offence. Punishable by several years in Azkaban." Emmeline lips pursed closed and she gave him his coldest look before she pushed past him. The auror snorted before we walked away giving the door that led to Harry's room only a cursory disgusted sneer.

Severus groaned as he leaned into the table. Every inch of his body ached. Every minute or so a lance of pain would shoot up his arm, though he had noticed the pain beginning to recede. He didn't know if he should be glad, or apprehensive. Glad because it was finally gone. Apprehensive because it likely meant that the Dark Lord was preoccupied with other things. And those 'other things' would not be good.

"Here," Molly said, sliding a cup of hot cocoa into his hands. "Drink up. You need your strength." Severus didn't have the energy to snap back that he had plenty of strength, thank you very much! Instead he just took a slow drink and allowed himself to sigh in relief as a bit of warmth spread back into his limbs.

"Oh good. Can I have some of that for Harry?" Emmeline called from behind.

"Oh certainly!" Molly assured her, pouring out a mug and then putting it on a plate with a few cookies for good measure. "How is the poor dear?"

"He's… doing as well as might be expected." Emmeline finished weakly. "One part terrified, one part guilty, with just a hint of his father's stubbornness thrown in for good measure of course." Severus grunted out a complaint, too tired to really put up a fight. Emmeline came up behind him and ran her hands over his shoulders before leaning down to give him a kiss of the temple. "You know I love you darling… honestly, how are you holding up?"

"The pain has started to recede." Severus admitted under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear. "It's just aftershocks now. Plus I don't think the Dark Lord will keep it up. It takes too much focus on his part." Emmeline furrowed her brow in worry and gave him another quick peck, on the cheek next time, before she retreated back upstairs. Severus remained where he was before he felt eyes on him and turned to them with a glare.

"Oh don't give me that look!" Molly harped before she gave him a little smile as she reached out and refilled his mug "Domestic bliss looks good on you dear." Severus let out another grunt and passed the rest of the night in silence as the blinding pain finally stopped, though he knew the memory would linger forever.