The Deceit of Man

Birthdays And Blunders

After the revelations at the Bank, Sirius and Remus were even more determined to take Dumbledore down. Sirius had not taken the fact that Dumbledore had blocked his Godfather bond to Harry well. Nor had he appreciated the compulsions that had been placed on him to not only hate his family and anything to do with Dark Magic but also to force his hostility towards Snape. That had caused him to grit his teeth in anger. He hadn't liked having his head messed with in the slightest. From what the goblins had gathered it had taken place sometime shortly before his first year at Hogwarts. Sirius figured it had to have been at the Minister's Summer Ball as that had been the only time that he had ever been around Dumbledore for any length of time. He had taken the hatred towards his family and Slytherins so hard, he confided in Harry later, because that hatred had cost him his brother. His brother Regulus, Sirius told Harry, had been so proud to not only be Slytherin but of their family's history as Dark wizards as well. He had never gotten to ask his brother for forgiveness because the man had been killed by Voldemort in the first war or at least that was the story. There had never been a body to bury but when Reg had disappeared, it had just been assumed that he'd been killed by Voldemort.

Remus had been compelled to hate his lycanthropy and moreso his Sire. He had been compelled to be complacent in Sirius' and James' bullying and even participate at times. The most shocking thing that had been uncovered was a letter written in the hand of Fenrir Greyback using a Gringotts truth Quill that detailed the events that had occurred that night when he had bitten Remus. The letter had been written around the time when Remus would have been starting his first year and had spoken of how he'd been trapped by Remus' father and Dumbledore and forced to bite then the four year old Remus. Fenrir had been out of his mind with grief having watched his mate get killed in front of him and his wolf was pissed at his mate's killers, the men who had trapped him in the circle. When Fenrir had come to his senses when the sun rose again, he'd freaked out seeing the body of the young boy laying in front of him with a huge bite on his throat. He had ran after watching Dumbledore pass Lyall Lupin a significantly heavy pouch of money. Remus had punched a hole in the wall of his bedroom when they'd gotten home. The fact that his own father had set him up to be bitten by a werewolf had shaken everything he had ever known, or thought he'd known, about his life. That night he'd sent out a short, one-sentence letter to Fenrir:

Greyback,

We need to talk face-to-face.

Lupin

They hadn't heard back yet but it had been only a couple of days. They had no doubts that the owl, not Hedwig whose snowy plumage was too noticeable, was still looking for the werewolf Alpha. The only good thing was that so far, Amelia had been true to her word in working on clearing Sirius' name. There had been an article in the Prophet already about the DMLE 'reviewing old cases to find acquaintances of the notorious lack' when in reality, she was pulling all the information she had from that time. She was making sure that not even a shred of evidence got overlooked that could tangle up the Wizengamot in clearing Sirius. She had sent a subtle letter to them stating that she didn't want to leave anything to chance and the best way for her to ensure that this didn't get swept under the rug was to make sure she did all the footwork herself.

Now, it was a day for them to relax and enjoy the company of the Weasleys that they could stand though. As it was Harry's birthday, the had all decided to take the take away from plotting and planning. Bill, Charlie, and the twins had closed ranks around the quartet to keep the traitors away to stop any potential love potions getting slipped into Harry's food. The twins had mentioned that Ginny and Molly had spent the entire last week plotting way to mix it into Harry's food or drink. Harry hated that he had to take such extreme measures to ensure he could choose his own spouse and not be tied to people who wanted his money for the rest of what he was sure would be a short life.