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Shades of Grey	By : SpeedyTomato Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 104018 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 21
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money off this dance in the realm of strangeness and smut

Chapter List
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Chapter 24

Beta'd by the amazing Tenchi. You're the best, woman, and thank you!

Standing there, hand over his lower face, staring at the gigantic bear-like black stuffed dog that was wagging its tail, tongue lolled out the side of its mouth, Severus didn't know what to say. Lifting his eyes, he looked at the grinning Black and completely amused Lupin before shaking his head. One glance at Lucius made him want to roll his eyes. The man's shoulders where shaking, an obvious sign that he was fighting not to laugh. This was not what he expected when he asked the two to come up with a charms assignment for Harry.

“What did you call it again?” Lucius asked, tone uneven from trying not to laugh at what he was seeing, an amused expression on his face.

“We call it the Padfoot Home Security and Cobra Transportation System!” Sirius told him with a big grin. Clearing his throat, he said, taking on the tone and speech pattern of a used car salesman, he said, “Though you have good wards, in this day and age one can never be too careful about intruders slipping through all the protections you have. So, what you need is something simple to help take up any slack. For many, they get guard dogs. However, as with most living animals, there are problems with this. First, there is Kaliya and how a big dog may not take well to his presence. Then there is the inevitable mess with a large animal from bodily functions. It's not good to walk out in your yard and step in large piles of crap that comes from big animals. There are also issues with them not being able to detect certain kinds of magical beings and signatures. No, a guard dog is not the answer to these problems. Hence Padfoot here. He is stuffed, so no giant turds cluttering your yard. He's not real so there are no territorial issues with Kaliya. And he is charmed to detect magical intruders of any kind no matter what they try to do to hide themselves or use as a disguise. Even invisibility cloaks, polyjuice and animagus transformations will not fool Padfoot. He will send off an alert and hold the suspect until you can come deal with the troublesome issue.”

Hearing a gurgling, squeaking type noise from Lucius, something that was him trying to suppress his laughter, Severus shook his head. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed then made a motion for the man to continue on.

“Now, for those owners with unusual pets, there are always problems with them in the house,” Sirius continued. “Kaliya is one that has no feet, thus making traveling through such a large home difficult. Though hallways and flat surfaces are not a problem, stairs are something to be cautious with. As we have no way of growing Kaliya feet, thus cutting down on the possibility of accidental injuries, we decided a transportation system is needed to traverse staircases. Hence Padfoot here. All Kaliya need do is wrap around Padfoot and off they go. A double tap of his tail anywhere on Padfoot will start him moving or make him stop. Navigation is a snap for a creature with no hands as all Kaliya has to do is tap Padfoot once on either side to get him to turn in the direction needed. Now there are no worries of dangerous staircases and snakes that may injure themselves.”

Hearing Lucius actually give a couple snorts of laughter, Severus shook his head again, looking at the still grinning Black.

“And, as an added bonus at no extra charge, just because we like you, we have added an extra feature for the protection of wizards. Say you want Padfoot here to sleep in Harry's room. Not only will he either act as a pillow, thus protecting him, or curl up at the foot of the bed, he will add a sign for those keyed into his magic that says Big Furry Monster Sleeping Here on the door so as not to startle unsuspecting people who step into his room.” Stopping, Sirius just grinned at them.

Hearing Lucius laugh harder and chuckling coming from Harry, not to mention hissing from Kaliya, Severus actually rolled his eyes then looked down at the stuffed dog. “Black, you are deranged,” he finally said, tone exasperated.

“Thank you for the compliment,” Sirius grinned, petting the stuffed Padfoot on the head.

Eyebrow arched as he looked at the man, Severus said nothing, glancing down at the stuffed dog.

Stepping over to Severus as Harry and Lucius started to examine the dog, Remus told the man, keeping his voice down, “We know it's silly. It has a purpose though.”

“To do what? Let Black show off how insane he is and what kind of twisted ideas he can come up with?” Severus asked dryly, watching the stuffed dog.

“The charms on the dog are ones that are going to be the base for three other things we're working on. Those are far more helpful and have a true purpose. This will teach Harry to use the charms and get them down pat before pressing on to more complicated versions of them.” Looking back at the others, he said, “We've managed to decipher the map, mostly, and get the charms we used. We've come up with a better version of it that does more, is more complicated and would be more helpful. Then we took the mirrors and tweaked them to do some other things as well. Along with that, we're working on something that can be used as a communication system for all of us in case we can't risk trying with the mirrors. Most of the charms we layered on the dog are ones Harry is going to need to know to press on with. It's silly, we understand that, but those actions it can do will help later. It's also using very basic charms that are on the OWLS and NEWTS. We built on the charms list you gave us that Harry used on the duck, making them more complicated so it could push to what we needed him to do.”

Now understanding, Severus nodded. “Good. This is—just not what I expected.”

“It'll be fun for him to work with and he can modify some of the behaviors to do other things. It's also quite complicated so it will take him time and real work to manage,” Remus explained. “We thought he might learn more going about it this way.”

“He will, I admit that,” Severus agreed.

“With how we worked it, he's also going to take the first steps with spellcrafting, something you said he wants to learn. It's more simplistic than the kick off of it with formal learning, but it'll give him a base to build on and some understanding of the theory.” Remus told him, watching Sirius show them how the dog worked.

Pleased with that, Severus said, “I wouldn't have thought to go about the start with something like this, but it's a good idea. It's just not something I was prepared for.”

“I know. We had some problems coming up with something that wasn't too advanced when we started working with the map, something you mentioned as a suggestion. So, we came up with an intermediate assignment to take those steps.” Pulling some parchment out of his robes, he handed it over to Severus. “That's the list of the charms on the dog, what they do, how to modify them and all he's going to need to get it to act just the way it is now.”

Looking over the list, Severus began to nod slowly. There were many charms on it, none of them simplistic and a large number of them built or pressed on with something used on the duck. “This is good,” he admitted. “It should work well and be enjoyable while he does it.”

“That's what we thought. We were able to come up with several assignments that were fairly dry in nature, but thought something like this would work better. It's also going to show that if you don't do one of the charms right, you're not going to be able to do the others or you'll get a reaction you don't want. No, nothing dangerous, obviously, just an odd reaction that means you'll have to go back and figure out what you did. It's not going to compensate like some things do with that.” Remus explained.

That, too, was something Severus liked as it would show what would happen if you applied something wrong.

Pulling out a book, Remus handed it to Severus. “We ran across this in the library when looking up some of the charms. It's for clothing. It gives you most of the common spells to not only repair them but put the charms on them that tailors use to give you some help for someone growing so you aren't buying so many. We thought you might be able to use that, what with Harry's age and all.”

Pleased with that, Severus took the book and pocketed it. Those would come in handy when it got time to where none of them could leave, depending on Black and Lupin for some things. Glancing over as Black put the stuffed dog through his paces, he shook his head once more. “Though deranged, that is good.”

“We thought so,” Remus smiled. “We even brought another stuffed dog to work with that's the same. Also, we'll leave this one as well so he can have a template of what it's supposed to do and how it should act.”

Severus nodded, pleased.

Sitting at the table after eating, Severus looked at Black and Lupin then said, “I'm assuming there was a reason you wanted to come over aside from delivering the dog?” Knowing that they had planted some things of Harry's a couple days ago and that article hit the day before, he assumed that was the reason behind this.

Nodding, Sirius said, hand on the back of Harry's head, “We wanted to give a heads up of what we know. Albus, right now, is at the Ministry trying to get his hands on what we planted. Tonks and Kingsley let him know what was found. He expects to be there all night as he has to be cautious about doing this as he's so in disfavor. All he would tell us is that some other things of Harry’s have turned up, nothing more. However, he did tell us that he expects a full meeting tomorrow and to expect us to try for a more intensive search effort.”

“He's really worried about this,” Remus added, looking around, hands clasped in front of him on the table. “From some of what he said, he’s going to try to get some very old connections involved and even mentioned a psychic to see what he could turn up. That we didn't anticipate and aren't sure what can be done. I don't know much about that end of things to know just what they can do, honestly. Nor do I know how to protect against such attempts.”

Looking at Severus, who appeared concerned, Lucius said, “I'm not certain either. That was never something I looked into much. Do you know what kind of psychic? I know there are different varieties.”

“I don't know,” Remus said with a shake of his head. “He didn't say. I'm hoping that at the meeting he'll let us know some of what is going on. At least enough that we might be able to piece together what he's trying.” Shrugging, he sighed, “I know you're protected here, but I honestly don't know what a psychic could find. Most are fakes, I realize this, but he knows too many people and does believe in some of it, so it's something we might need to be concerned about.”

“I agree, it's something to look into.” Lucius said distractedly, rubbing a finger over his upper lip.

“This might be the time to start pushing the old man to go about this a different way,” Sirius said quietly, glancing over at Snape. “I'm not sure what can be done to stop a psychic from finding something if they are real and can do that.”

“I'm not either,” Severus said grimly, looking at the table. Sighing, he imparted, “Let's see what comes of the meeting then I'll see what I can do with the old man. If he's so desperate that he's pondering this step, the suggestion you both made is one he might listen to right now. It might point him in another direction. If it's something I can talk him into, I can look for a solution to the other problem we have on this. However, let's see what he's up to before we jump into this. I agree though, this is information we needed.”

“Let me ask this; what clothes did you toss out there, do you know? The ones they found I mean. Did you just pick them at random or was there a reason you used them,” Lucius questioned.

“We used the ones you said Harry was wearing when you took him,” Remus told Lucius. “We thought since his family had described them to the DMLE that it would look better.”

Nodding slowly, Lucius stroked his chin. “It could work and cause us problems, both. If they get just the attack at the house we'll be fine. If they get what happened afterwards, we might have issues, big ones. I don't know.”

“The DMLE isn't going to give those up, I don't think,” Sirius said with a shake of his head. “They are going to keep them under tight watch as evidence. I don't see even Albus being able to get a psychic in there to touch them or do whatever it is they do.”

Not having thought of that, Lucius gave a slight nod, feeling some relief. “Hopefully that's the case.”

Leaning forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the table, hands clasped in front of him, Severus said, “Let's take this approach; wait for the meeting, but we'll start looking here to see what we can find on psychics and what they might be able to do. Right now, I don't see Albus pressing for that yet. It would take time for him to get someone. If he mentions it, I'll see where I can direct him or come up with something. Maybe I can push the Dark Lord in some direction with something if Albus is able to come up with some kind of evidence. Hopefully, someone in the DMLE is going to be swift enough to get who the blood and hairs are from. If that's the case, we might be able to work with this and point the old man away from the psychic part by having him focus on Pettigrew. While we do that, on this end, we'll work more with that bond and see what we can do. If it pans out, we'll go for it and hope we don't get any wonky side effects from it. The one will allow Harry to use my Occlumency skills. That should block a psychic from detecting him. At least I hope it will. We are already leaning towards using that particular bond anyway and it does seem viable. Kaliya has already said he knows how to form the bond and break the others now. We just want to ensure we know exactly what we're getting into with it, nothing more.”

“I'm going to say this here; prepare for a meeting that is going to be hell. Right now, most don't know anything of Harry's turned up. Remus and I do, but he told us he hasn't mentioned it to anyone else yet and is cautioning the ones that do know to say nothing until he can get a feel for what's going on,” Sirius warned, looking around. “Remus and I acted just as he would have expected and he didn't seem to act like he was suspicious. That's good. With how some of the others are handling this, it's going to be explosive.”

Looking dour, Snape nodded, thankful for the warning. “Understood. For now, let's see what happens then we'll go from there.”

Standing in the room with Moody, Tonks and Kingsley at the DMLE, Albus rubbed his face then smoothed down his beard as he looked at the reports they were discussing. Shaking his head, he sighed, “Are they sure about the results?”

“Positive,” Kingsley told him with a firm nod. “The majority of the blood is Harry's. It's not enough to have killed him, that's for sure, but it's his. The hairs and other blood isn't. There are not only human hairs, but animal as well. They ran some other tests and it came back as hairs from an animagus. To be sure, they sent them off and had an independent place do the same. The results came back the same way; rat animagus.” Stopping, he looked around then said, “There are no rat animagus registered in the UK. You know where my thoughts went to.”

Taking a sip from his flask, Moody gruffed, “Pettigrew.”

“I wouldn't have thought Peter would have the gumption to do something like this,” Albus sighed.

“Desperate men do desperate things,” Moody told him, shaking his head. “If what Snape said is right about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and how bad he is, the rat must be trying to find a way to get himself out of the mess he's in or to curry favor, one of the two.”

“Is there any way to find some old hairs of Wormtail's?” Kingsley asked, looking around. “If we can, we can get them to someone here and have them tested. I'm betting my wand they'll match.”

“Let me get with Minerva and Remus. They may have an idea of where to look. Though Peter's mother is alive, I'm not going to go there nosing around. She won't react well,” Albus sighed, shaking his head, staring at the open report.

“What about the Weasley boy? He had the rat forever,” Moody suggested.

“That may be an option,” Albus nodded. “Even if we can get the hairs, the problem comes in on what to do with them and how to go about it. Remus could attest to the fact that Peter was an animagus. The trouble may be that this all may end up laid on Sirius if we try. After all, if Remus reveals that James and Peter had managed it, they are going to ask about Sirius as well. That's going to bring up many other incidents that we're going to have difficulties explaining. Like what happened that year at Hogwarts. This is going to be a tricky waltz for us to try to dance to.”

Putting his hands on the edge of the table and looking down at it, Kingsley thought it over. There had to be a way to pull Peter's name out of this without dragging Sirius and Remus into it. He just didn't know how.

Thinking it over, Tonks looked down, arms folded over her chest. Sighing, she shook her head then said, “Since we don't have a match in the registry, can't we ask them for a DNA test against anyone that's ever been treated at St. Mungos or that we have evidence on file for? I'm not sure how that works as I've never done it.”

Thinking it over, Moody said, “It can be done. You don't need authorization either. If you're on the case and it's at a dead end, as it appears to be, just say you used your initiative and sent it off. It should ring bells with Sirius' case as there should be blood or hair evidence that was collected. If not, it'll comb through other files for it. That should be enough to get someone's attention over it, especially since the hairs and blood tested fresh.”

“I'll do that tomorrow,” Kingsley said, nodding, looking around. “I’m working on this case along with a couple other Aurors. None of us are getting anywhere, that's for sure.”

Stroking his beard again, Albus nodded slowly. “I would say try that and see where it leads. If nothing else, if we can get some hairs, we can plant them in the file. That won't look odd and we can manage. It would then start raising some real suspicion.”

“What they would do with it is a whole other matter, Albus.” Moody pointed out sourly. “Anything that comes back as doubting Sirius was guilty might end up covered up. Fudge is already dancing that song right now with you and Harry. There's no way in Merlin's mercy he's going to want anyone questioning Sirius being tossed into prison. Though he wasn't in office when that happened, it won't look good for anyone in the government.”

“There is that,” Albus sighed. “If we can get the match or have to plant the hairs, we might be able to get a copy of the report to someone in the media. Not the Prophet, obviously, but another of the papers. That's explosive enough that they might want a shot at seeing what they could do with it. If nothing else, it would sell papers.”

“And if people comment or question, Fudge is going to have to do something. He can't touch these records or alter them, no matter what. That takes approval by the courts. He's not going to even try that one as it'll leak out.” Kingsley said, looking around.

“Can't be a closed session either. The minute that comes out, people will raise hell. Amelia Bones alone won't allow it to happen,” Moody interjected.

Taking all that in, Albus nodded slowly. “This is a good place to start. I'll let you handle what you need to, Kingsley. Then we'll see where it leads. While we do that, I'll get with Severus to see what he knows of Pettigrew and anything the man is doing. Maybe we can get our hands on him first.”

“Don't count on that,” Moody snorted. “If the rat does have the lad and has kept him even from the Dark Lord, we're going to play hell getting hold of him.”

“I know,” Albus sighed, nodding. “It's a place to start, though, something we haven't had yet.” Seeing everyone nod, he took the copy of the report then motioned Moody to follow, leaving the room, hoping no one would see them go.

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Shades of Grey