⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

46.

"Maeve, did you get a chance to try to memorise the list of targets that the Dark Lord has devised?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, Sir," She said, "Can I have a piece of parchment to write them down?

"Of course," He flicked his wand and a piece of parchment and a pot of ink landed in front of her.

Everyone watched over her shoulder, the room suddenly succumbing to a stifling blanket of tension. They were about to see the people that might be murdered if they couldn't stop it from happening.

"Now, before anyone says anything, I learnt all of these names yesterday evening. This is the first chance I'm really getting to tell anyone here and I'm sorry if-"

"Just write the names, it's okay," Lily said softly, nodding in encouragement.

Maeve blew out a nervous breath before beginning to write:

Carlotta Pinkstone
Gregory Sayre
Charity Burbage
Septimus Weasley
Cedrella Weasley
Cassandra Vablatsky
Sybil Trelawney
Sirius Black

Sirius stood up, accidentally knocking over a chair as he did so.

"Me?" He whispered, "Why me?"

"Um...their main reason is based around your 'betrayal' of your pureblood family, and the fact that they have suspicions of you fraternising with the Order," She said.

"How do they know about the Order?" Dumbledore asked suddenly, an unusual tone of panic showing in his voice.

"I don't know, really, I don't know," Maeve said, shaking her hand, "But quite a few Slytherins put your name forward, Sirus, I think it was more personal than anything else. I'm really sorry."

He sat down, staring forward, still in shock.

"How can we protect him?" James asked Dumbledore.

"Where are you living when you're not at Hogwarts, Mr Black?" Dumbledore asked.

"At James' house," Sirius said, "I don't want to put them in danger though."

"You won't, I can put a protection spell in place, similar to the one on this house," Dumbledore said gently, "You will be safe, Mr Black, and so will the Potters."

"Okay," He breathed out a shaky breath, "Okay, thank you, Sir."

Maeve reached forward and gave Sirius' hand a comforting squeeze before going back to the list.

"Also, Sir, the Dark Lord wants Cassandra Vablatsky and Sybil Trelawney because they're seers. He won't kill them, but he explained that if we had seers in our captivity, it would give us an advantage," She told Dumbledore, looking back down at the list, "The Weasleys are in danger because of their reputation of being 'blood traitors', Carlotta Pinkstone, Gregory Sayre and Charity Burnage are being targetted because of their activism in support of muggles."

"Okay, thank you, I'll make note of that," He began to write on his own parchment.

"But here's the interesting thing," Maeve said, making everyone look at her in confusion, "Voldemort isn't actually too obsessed with blood status and killing people because of it. He's been open with us about the fact that he's a half blood and everything."