cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 40

"Well Dumbledore is certainly taking his time. And guarding the prophecy that you already removed weeks ago by the time he found out old snake face was back," said Sirius.

"Bah. I'm three steps ahead of his little game and he hasn't even cottoned on to the fact yet," said Skull dismissively. "At least you're not trapped in that house 24-7 with only Kreacher to keep you company."

Sirius shuddered. When he finally figured out Skull's mind had somehow been shunted off to his younger self, he had asked what happened the last time.

And was heartily thankful things were different. Being trapped in Grimmauld place was not his idea of fun.

Finding out Bellatrix had been the one to kill him was a further shock, though one that wouldn't happen this time due to several factors.

One, Voldemort's shade had been booted out of his godson's head this time around, so no visions.

Two, Skull was aware of the prophecy and had already removed it before Dumbledore caught wind of Riddle's resurrection.

Three, Skull had killed Bellatrix already.

All in all, Sirius was relieved that his godson wouldn't fall for the same trap twice and that his continued survival was almost guaranteed.<

That being said, he was not particularly interested in the idea of bringing his godson to Order headquarters.

Fortunately, there were ways around that.

"So what is this again?"

"Decoy Puppet. Thanks to Skull, I've been able to include magical signatures. With a minor scrying spell, he'll be able to fool the idiots into thinking he's there when we're really dealing with the problem directly. There's only about fifty to seventy-five remaining Death Eaters, and twelve of them are actually spies we've sent in to infiltrate the group," said Verde absently. "Honestly, relying purely on the word of a man with no clear loyalty is just asking for trouble. Especially since he so gleefully accepted the offer to leave the first chance he got."

Snape, the second< he learned Voldemort was back, did the sensible thing.

He sent in a resignation and booked the first flight to Italy, where he became the personal potion master of Daniela. She was rather gleeful about this, and it wasn't like the Italians would give a damn about where he was so long as he didn't make waves. After all, the Vongola were practically a power unto themselves and they held a lot of clout both in the magical and mundane side.

So Skull and the others knew exactly where Voldemort was almost all the time...they were just biding their time until he pissed them off enough to make one big strike.

Besides, the second that fool was out of the picture, Dumbledore might very well try to turn the people against "Harry Black", just to get his only remaining rival out of the way.

Better to keep the two locked in combat until Skull's position trumped both of theirs, so he could strike them down at the same time.

And if Dumbledore died again, well then Voldemort's time among the living would dwindle down to nothing very quickly.

Skull might have hidden as a lion the first time, but this time he was going to be positively Slytherin about the whole 'blood purge' bullshit. Like hell was he martyring himself again!

Sirius wanted to stare when he realized that these...Decoy Puppets...were more effective than he could have guessed. No one realized that "Harry" was in fact a fake.

He kept his silence though...it was a very good prank!

Skull wanted to throw Molly Weasley and a few others out on the street. It was only through sheer strength of will that he did not.