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The Office of G & F Prewett


Albus Dumbledore walked through the floo network at the Ministry for Magic and marched across the great hall, paused to show the guard his Wizengamot identification, and boarded the lift. He smiled calmly at a witch, who stood inside already, and folded his hands before him as they rode up through the levels. Finally, they arrived to the level of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and he disembarked and made his way down the hall to the office with the gold pate that said G & F PREWETT, for the brothers shared an office, and he knocked upon the door.

Gideon opened it. “Dumbledore!” he exclaimed and he stepped back to allow Albus entry.

Sirius was sitting on the chair now, his eyes red - Dorcas Meadowes knelt on the carpet before him, her hands holding his. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered, “Very convincing, polyjuice…”

And before the desk was a pale, pacing Charlus Potter with a shaking Dora sitting in the chair. “Strong, he’s strong, Dora, he’s strong…” Charlus was muttering, “We’ll find him, we’ll find him being strong and… he’ll be okay… has to be okay…”

Gideon’s exclamation of who had arrived made each of them look up and Dora stood, knocking the Gryffindor sweater she clutched on her lap - her son’s favorite sweater! - to the side. “Dumbledore, please,” she begged.

Dumbledore looked around at the desperate faces turning toward him, “What do we know?” he asked.

“It seems there’s been a switch made at some point,” Gideon explained, “James Potter for an imposter taking polyjuice.”

“It was Snape,” Sirius declared.

Dumbledore looked at Sirius.

“Severus fucking Snape!” Sirius said, as though he was in need of clarifying his meaning.

“And how did we make the discovery?” Dumbledore questioned.

Sirius replied, “My brother. Regulus. He told me.”

Dumbledore looked surprised. “Regulus told you? Interesting.”

“Yes, he’s told me. He’s told me it’s because Voldemort thinks James knows about Mopsus, but bloody hell James doesn’t know a blasted thing about that guy!”

Dumbledore rubbed his chin.

“We have to find him, Dumbledore!” Sirius begged, “We have to save him!”

Charlus looked to Dumbledore at these words, his eyes imploring the headmaster, “Surely there’s some way to… to find him… surely he’s performed magic, we could check the trace…”

“Excellent point. Master Prewett, please go the Office for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry and shake the dust off their records,” Dumbledore said.

“Yes sir,” Gideon sped out the door.

“He can’t have done,” Sirius murmured. “Snape has his wand.”

“Actually… I do,” came a voice from the door.

Remus Lupin was being led through by Fabian Prewett.

“Look what I’ve found,” he said, “In the lobby, begging the guard to speak to an auror.”

Remus ran over and, ducking ‘round Dorcas, hugged Sirius tight. “You’re alright? I thought for sure they were going to put you in a cell or something, I’ve been worried sick.”

Sirius hugged Remus back.

“After the aurors took you away, I followed James -- well, Snape,” Remus said, “And he gave me James’s wand.” Remus drew it out of his robes pocket carefully.

Dumbledore held out his hand and Remus handed the wand over and they watched as Dumbledore inspected it carefully. Sirius asked, “He hasn’t damaged it, has he? I’ll fuck him up if he’s damaged Prongs’s wand!”

“The wand is perfectly healthy, Mr. Black,” Dumbledore murmured, “No reason to… mess him up, as you’ve said.”

“Actually, I said fuck but thats alright,” Sirius said and Remus rolled his eyes.

“So you, too, have witnessed that the imposter was Severus Snape, Master Lupin?” Dumbledore questioned.

“Yes, sir,” Remus answered.

Fabian asked, “Imposter?”

“Polyjuice,” confirmed Remus, “Severus Snape pretending to be James Potter. The Dark Lord’s got him,” he added, looking about at Dumbledore.

Charlus let out a shiver of a sound.

Dumbledore nodded and held the wand out to Charlus. “Can you identify this wand, sir?”

Charlus didn’t even have to take it to know. “Yes.”

Dora’s hands were shaking as she took hold of it. “He’s defenseless!” She had tears simply streaming down her cheeks.

The door of the office opened yet again and Gideon came in, trailed by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arthur and Bilius Weasley, and Chriselda Blythe. Dumbledore nodded to each in turn, and then gave them as complete a version of the story as he knew and they each gasped and Chriselda Blythe paled and Bilius Weasley reached over to squeeze her hand.

“Either he hasn’t performed any magic or he’s beyond the reach of the trace,” Gideon announced.

“Beyond reach of the trace!” cried Dora, looking up, “But then he would be outside of the Ministry’s jurisdiction! How could that be? He’s left the country?”

“He may not have performed any spells,” Gideon said, trying to calm her down.

“Yes, mum, he hasn’t his wand,” Sirius said, hopefully.

Gideon said, “I’ve dispatched aurors to several homes that are suspected followers - everyone we know that has ties to You Know Who.”

Dumbledore asked, “And when do we suspect the change occurred?”

Everyone in the room was silent, everyone looked to Sirius and Remus.

Sirius said, “I know it was James at the Yule Ball.” Remus looked to Sirius, a question in his eyes. “Because,” Sirius answered Remus’s face, “When I brought Lily over to the table he was at, I felt… vibes.”

“Vibes?” asked Dorcas.

“Yes. James vibes.” Sirius answered.

“Apparently they communicate with vibes,” Remus offered.

“Like Derek and I used to do,” murmured Bilius, understanding.

Dumbledore mused.

“That was the night he was in the hospital wing,” Charlus remembered. “He still had his waist coat on when we went for him.”

“The dock broke for no reason,” Remus added.

“I am sure that we can all agree in retrospect that there was a reason, Mr. Lupin,” Dumbledore said quietly.

“Snape!” agreed Sirius. “Stealing my Prongs!”

“We’ll steal him back!” intoned Bilius Weasley.

“The perfect cover, really,” murmured Fabian, “None would notice if he acted strangely, he’s just been hurt…”

“But Lily Evans was there with him when that happened,” Remus said. “If Lily was there, Snape never would’ve done anything that hurt her.”

“She didn’t get hurt,” Sirius reminded Remus, “She didn’t even fall from the dock! The only broken part had James on it. Why didn’t I see it before? Gods! I’m a terrible friend!”

“You aren’t,” Dorcas and Remus both said at exactly the same time. And they looked at one another in surprise at the sound of their chorused voices.

Sirius said, “I am.” And suddenly he remembered how oddly James had been acting since the Yule Ball, how unlike himself he’d been. He remembered James sitting in the family room of the Lupin house, saying that Sirius didn’t belong there and that Dora and Charlus weren’t his parents. James would never have said that. Ever. No matter how ill he was. “I should’ve known,” he whispered. “I should’ve been able to figure this out quicker. James would be home already if only I’d known.”




Lily couldn’t stop thinking about James. The entire Christmas party, all she could see was his eyes floating about in her mind and she felt sick because they weren’t the eyes she’d looked into this morning - they were the eyes from her dreams, the dreams of a dark, stone cell, filled with frigid cold air and bits of swirling snow…

Halfway through, she couldn’t take anymore. She threw down her napkin and said, “May I be excused?”

Mrs. Potter looked at her funnily.

“I’m feeling ill,” Lily lied.

She left the room and went out to the living room, where her cousins told her she could lie on the couch to feel better and she did until they left, then she stood up carefully and snuck to the door.




Severus Snape was halfway across the park where he and James had fought nearly exactly one year before. He was standing by the swings, where he met Lily Evans. There was a crack and he looked up and standing beside him was Lucius Malfoy.

Malfoy stared at the swings the same as Severus had been doing.

“The Dark Lord requests your presence,” Malfoy said after a long pause.

Severus looked at the arm he held out.

He nodded and took hold.

With a crack, they were gone, the only evidence they’d ever been there was the creaking of the swing as it rocked gently in the disturbed air.