Once we arrive at the cottage I get a call from Regulus checking in. I tell him that I'm helping Remus pack his things so he can move into one of the spare rooms since his father is pushing him to go to the ministry.
Everything was packed away quickly with the two of us and we left the room completely bare. We apparate back to my house and appear on the back porch. Remus goes in first and heads up the stairs to his room. I hear the floo go off so I head to the living room and see Regulus watching tv and drinking tea as Lily stumbles in holding a paper.
"Is Remus here?"
Hearing his name he comes back down the stairs, "I'm here Lily. What's wrong?" She unfolds and shows us the front page of the daily prophet, 'Minister of Magic Nobby Leach asks all werewolves living in the UK to come to the ministry to help find a cure for lycanthropy!'
We all look at the paper wide eyed and my cell rings. I looked down seeing it was Sirius and picked up the phone, putting him on speaker. "Hello darling! We just arrived at our post safe and sound."
"That's great honey but we may have a big issue."
"What? Why? What happened?"
"I just got the prophet. The minister is asking all the werewolves living in the UK to go to the ministry to help contribute in finding a cure. They are offering them 1000 galleons to all that comply and jail time to those that don't, claiming they are going against the ministry." Lily rants.
This makes Remus start pacing the room and mutter to himself. "Don't do anything stupid Remus. You're safe at Y/N's house." We hear James say in the background.
Regulus sighs and rubs his head, "well the only way we can stop this now to start the war early before it gets worse. Let's take the Horcruxes to gringotts, have them do their inspection, and ask the goblins to destroy the ones we have with the dark artifacts they find. They have a different kind of magic so it should be no problem, but they'll charge a fee."
"That's a brilliant idea Reggie. I wish we could've been there to join you all on this."
"The problem is once they are destroyed, Tommy boy will know. Where can we take the battle?" I ask.
We all think for a moment before Regulus replies, "well, they are all held up at Malfoy Manor. That's where they all meet and that's where most of the death eaters live. Let's bring the battle to them."
"Okay that's perfect but how will we get the order in on this so they could help?"
Lily held up a hand, "leave that to me Y/N. We know where so just say when."
"We don't know how long it's going to take him to act or where. He'll definitely know when they are destroyed, so let's brew all we can and get supplies ready. When the boys come back from their mission and after they have rested we'll go to Gringotts then head to the manor."
"I'll take down the wards since I know where their weak points are." Regulus nods.
"Perfect. I'll send a letter to gringotts to set up a private meeting for all of us to attend. I was going to be found out as the mysterious muggle born sooner or later, why not control when they found out."
We talk to the boys for a while before we all say goodbye and head to the library. Lily runs home to grab her cauldrons and sent a letter to the Potters, charmed so that only they can read it as Remus sends a letter with Hoots to Alice and Frank to meet us at my house so that we could fill them in before Lily calls an order meeting to ask for help.
We fill in both Alice and Frank on our plans for the week and they both help us gather supplies or make potions. I make a good few that act like bombs, you just throw the vial and when it cracks, it explodes. I won't truly know if it works until I try it though.
Early the next morning Sirius calls to give us an update, "There's werewolves in the warehouse. I even overheard some death eaters talking about more coming due to the article posted in the Prophet."
"Any idea why they need werewolves yet?" I ask as I gently pour the explosive potion into a few vials. "No, nothing on that yet. I just hope I'll hear something about that before we head home. What have you been up to love?"
"I made bombs. I don't know if it works and I'd hate to ruin my lawn by testing it out, but the basic idea is you throw the vial and when it cracks, the potion will explode. The vial is thin so it's easy to crack if you throw it hard enough and there's a smaller vial inside the bigger one. That's important because what's in the small vial is what makes the potion in the bigger one explode."
"Please be careful love, I'd hate it if something happened to you because of a potion accident." I cork the vials and pick up my phone, "I'll be sure to be extra careful, just for you. I can't wait for you to get home." I can hear his smile through the phone, "I can't wait to be back home with you."
We talked for a bit longer before he had to go since it was his turn for lookout and James' turn for a break. Between Lily, Alice, and I, we made 100 bomb vials and 50 healing and pepper up potions before we finally called it a night.
Throughout the week Lily and I got calls from James and Sirius but they had no new updates for us besides there being over fifty werewolves locked in the warehouse that haven't been fed. Remus received mail from the ministry demanding that he surrender or he'll be killed on sight if they had to look for him, which sent him on a brief spiral until Sirius called him to calm down once he heard.
Regulus went out in disguise once he was healed to update us on public opinion and eavesdrop on death eaters that couldn't shut their mouth in public. Most of the public didn't care for the werewolves and even helped the ministry hunt them all down, but none of the death eaters had any clue as to why they were being collected. Their lord still hasn't spilt the beans.
It was the end of the week and the boys were due back home in an hour and a half when I received a call. Everyone including the older Potters were seated in the living room and I put the phone on speaker. "We finally have some news on what's going on! Someone the high ranking death eaters refer to as him is using the werewolves as an experiment to make them violent and completely lose control to the wolf inside. They start the first batch of testing next week when the potions are completed."
James then continues, "we heard them say it was a way to control the werewolf population in the entire UK. If they make werewolves violent then the ministry will have reason to put any and all werewolves down for good." Everyone goes silent and Remus starts to panic. "No no no no no. No no NO! This can't be happening. This can't be happening."
"Remus, it's going to be alright."
"NO THE BLOODY HELL IT WON'T JAMES. HOW CAN IT BE ALRIGHT IF THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME? THEY'LL PROBABLY MAKE ME KILL ALL OF YOU." He shook his hands and paced the entire room as he took in and released deep breaths. Lily and Alice went to his side and helped him calm down by distracting him from the issue. "We're heading back now. We'll stop by Dumbledore's office to give him the update then head over. We just wanted to tell you all first just in case."
"Thank you boys. I love you." The line is silent for a second before Sirius replies. "I love you too." The line disconnected and we all sat in silence waiting for them to return.
They arrived an hour later with smiles on their faces and gave us all hugs. Sirius pulls me into a kiss and holds me close. "So they are turning the human parts of werewolves off?" Sirius and James look at Regulus confused. "What are you talking about mate?" Everyone then frowns and we make the boys take a seat. "You called us about your mission an hour ago."
They both shake their heads, "no we called telling you we were on our way back home." James says and crosses his arms. "Do you mind if I take a peek inside your mind? I want to make sure nothing is out of place." Sirius nods and holds my hand. "Of course love. I trust you." I pulled out my wand and stared into his gray eyes as I cast 'legilimens'. I moved carefully through his mind until I came across a gray and red blob that blocked his memory of discovering him and his plans and most of the call they made to us after.
Carefully, I poked and prodded at the blob until it finally broke away and I gently broke the connection. Sirius takes in deep breaths as the memory hits him and he holds his head briefly in pain. I looked over at James to see Lily succeed in doing the same for him. "Dumbledore, he-he did this. He wiped our minds after saying we shouldn't have heard anything about this him person those death eaters mentioned.
We were angry about what's happening, but he didn't look surprised. He didn't mention anything about how we are going to stop it." I place a hand on Sirius's shoulder. "I'd say give him the benefit of the doubt, but you all know how I feel about him. Let's see if he'll mention it in the next meeting." Sirius sighs and I could see how tired he was. "How about I order something to eat and put on a movie for us to fall asleep to?" I looked up at the others, "you are all free to join us if you'd like to stay the night since Lily is calling an order meeting tomorrow."
Everyone turned the offer down, so I ordered food for the four of us while Sirius picked out a movie. I pulled out the sofa beds then left to pick up our order. Sirius waited for me in bed when I arrived and we all ate in silence while we watched the movie he picked out.
It took a long time but we all eventually fell into a restless sleep.
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Lily sent letters to all order members for an emergency meeting early in the morning for around two in the afternoon. Enough time for the Gringotts trip and to convince the members to hopefully join us in battle.
We all met at Gringotts before the appointment time and we met the goblin Rubic at the welcome desk. He glared down at all of us. "Yes?" Lily and I flashed him a closed lip smile. "Hello. My name is Y/N L/N and we have a meeting scheduled with Griphook for 12:30." He stares the six of us down and we all hold strong without wavering.
He smiles in approval, "follow me to the private meeting room." Rubic leads us into a room made of black and white marble. A mahogany desk sat at the end of the room near another door and bookshelves lined the walls. Elephant ears sat to the left and right of the door we entered.
"He'll be with you shortly." Rubic tells us and shuts the door behind him, making it disappear. We go deeper into the room and the door near the desk opens. Griphook enters the room and waves for us to take a seat after he does, so we do.
We all sat in silence as he stared us down. It was a tense silence that went on for far longer than it had with Rubic. Griphook lowered his hands from his face with a smile of approval. "How may Gringotts help you all today? Your letter mentioned destroying dark artifacts?" We all nod. "Yes. We have reason to believe there's a dangerous dark artifact inside the lestrange vaults called a horcrux."
He almost recoils at the name. "A horcrux? That is a very bold accusation and to target one of our biggest vaults as well." He sighs and shakes his head. "I understand it's a big accusation, but I would like to request a sweep through all of the vaults and not just the one. My friends Sirius and Regulus Black can confirm they've seen dark artifacts in their family vaults as well."
Griphook rubs his mouth and hums in thought. "A very big accusation indeed. According to our rules dark artifacts are forbidden from our vaults, every member signs a contract stating this and includes the fines that will be placed for each artifact found." He looked at each of us slowly. "Why should we conduct the search? What if we do and nothing comes up?"
Regulus speaks up, "According to page eight subjection D, 'if a member of Gringotts bank comes to said bank with concerns of dangerous or dark items in a vault, gringotts must do a sweep of all vaults New and old."
"And if nothing is found then you may take all the contents of my vault." I finished. "Ours too." James and Lily both add. Griphook gives us all a wide closed lip smile. "Bold. Very bold of you all." Sirius takes my hand in his and I place a hand on Remus to calm him down when he begins to fidget. "I also have one more request."
He raised an eyebrow in question so I pulled out my enchanted box and grew it back to normal size. "I'm this box is more of those Horcruxes I mentioned. Could you destroy them when you get rid of the other dark artifacts? You can keep them all once they are cleansed." He nods and takes the box, "you have a deal." He snaps his fingers and another goblin enters the room.
He hands them the box, "do a sweep of all the vaults and Fine them accordingly if anything is found. Come to me with the results and cleanse the items in that box before storing." The goblin nods and leaves without a word. "Would you all like refreshments while we wait? It should only take a few minutes."
We all agreed and with a snap of his fingers we were all served tea and biscuits. Once we finished our tea and biscuits the table cleared and a goblin entered the room with a thick stack of papers. Griphook nodded and took the papers without a word and flips through them before looking back up at us.
"It seems that you were correct. Over forty of our vaults had various dark artifacts of some kind inside, and the lestrange vault did have a horcrux. Because it was in a famous artifact that belongs to us the fine was extra heavy for that one. It's a disgrace what they've done to Helga's cup and the other founders' trinkets. Thank you all for bringing this to our attention. Letters will be sent out to all members who have violated their contracts so I expect there will be outrage." He smiles.
"Thank you Griphook. May your vaults be impenetrable and the works of your hands bring you acclaim." He looks shocked at my words but sends me a genuine grin. "And May your blades be sharp and your strikes true." He lifts his hand towards me and I happily shake it in return. "I look forward to working with you again L/N."
Once we were outside the bank we all released a breath of relief. "That was nerve racking. I don't think I could sit there any longer." Remus says as he hides his face. Sirius grabs his shoulder and shakes him a bit. "I agree, moony. That was intense. No wonder I never went with that hag whenever she went."
Regulus tenses next to me and it catches Sirius attention. "What's wrong Reggie?"
"We need to go. Now." We all turn and look to where he was staring and Sirius tenses as well. "Shit. It's the hag. It's like she appeared when I mentioned her. Let's get the hell out of here!"
We all managed to sneak by their mother without her spotting us and we floo to Potter manor where the order meeting will take place.
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Authors Notes:
Ngl, this chapter was pretty hard for me to write. I read some Reddit posts about how to do the goblins and decided to go with this. Everyone has their own opinion on how goblins act so hopefully this is okay.
Word count: 2849