Sirius nodded. He'd intended to without Remus's word of caution. Griffin House was Harry's home first and foremost. "Well, that deals with the life debts. I'll send out a letter to all the Heads of Houses who had family in the Potter alliance tent to confirm they agree."
"How is Harry this morning?" asked Simeon, reaching for his discarded coffee cup.
"Grounded until he's thirty." Sirius replied dryly. He didn't think the fear of losing Harry that had flooded him on receiving news of the attack would ever leave him. The terror he'd felt when he'd arrived at the Potter alliance tent only for Harry not to be there; in arriving at the Weasleys' tent only to be told by Hermione that Harry had just suddenly charged into the woods…
He'd listened when Harry had given his statement to Amelia and had been alternatively proud and furious; proud at Harry's heroism, his skills and his steadfastness in his friendships; furious that so much of what Harry had done had put him at risk especially his last act…
The fact that Harry had acted in anger going after the attacker was something that Sirius understood – he'd done the same thing with Wormtail after all – but it scared Sirius. The outcome could have been so much worse than that of a bad cut and some colourful bruises. Harry had sheepishly admitted that he'd been outclassed in his duel and if Neville hadn't turned up and created a diversion…
"Seriously?" asked Simeon with amusement. "He saves everyone and you ground him?"
Sirius leaned back in his desk chair and ignored the snort from the peanut gallery also known as Moony. "Just you wait until Jason gets older."
"Actually, Harry pinpointed his own mistakes; going with Ron without asking any adult to accompany them and going after the attacker alone in the woods. He even suggested his own punishment," Remus added, amusement colouring his tone again, "since Padfoot and he have this punishment system they worked out a while ago so we're consistent across the board when he does something wrong."
Sirius harrumphed but he couldn't deny Remus's charge.
They'd waited until breakfast before a discussion and a rehash of events because they'd all been exhausted the night before. Apart from the attacks themselves, everyone had been interviewed by Aurors and then they'd all gone to St Mungo's for treatment. Bed and a good night's sleep had been the priority for everyone once they'd gotten home.
But coming down to breakfast, Sirius had been all ready to yell at Harry, point out just how much danger he had placed himself in by running in without thinking, and hand out Harry's punishment of being grounded for the rest of his life. Before he could utter a word, the blighter had apologised, acknowledged his mistakes and accepted his punishment according to the system they'd worked out. Sirius had settled for hugging the daylights out of Harry again.
Simeon nodded slowly. "I guess there have to be rules. Or so Anna keeps telling me." He grinned, drained his coffee and stood up. "Speaking of the ball and chain, Anna wants to hit Harrods today for last minute souvenirs and shopping. You need me for anything?"
Sirius shook his head. "Don't forget tonight's the Farewell Dinner; family only."
"See you then, mon frère." Simeon left the study and Sirius dropped his gaze to the Prophet again.
Remus moved from the window and dropped into a chair. He steepled his fingers together. "Harry wasn't the only one to make mistakes yesterday."
"Are you suggesting I should ground myself, Moony?" Sirius asked disgruntled at the criticism but feeling that he deserved it.
"Actually I was referring to me."
Sirius's head shot up at the chagrined shame of Remus's quiet statement. "You didn't do anything wrong. Merlin, I was the one who pushed you into taking on translation duty for Cornelius instead of protecting Harry as we agreed."
"If I had objected you would have apologised and found someone else. You were only asked in the first place because I showed off my language skills instead of keeping Mum, and drew Cornelius's attention." Remus protested. "And once the fire broke out, I should never have asked you for help and I should have made my way straight to you and Harry rather than letting Amelia side-track me with finding the anti-transportation ward." He sighed. "And let's not forget my letting the rat get away again!"
"Firstly, I will state again that it was me who made the decision on the translation duty and, honestly, if I had sent Harry home with Simeon and Anna after meeting the Quidditch teams, none of the rest of it would have mattered!" Sirius countered, rubbing his head at the slight throb of a headache.
"You wanted him to enjoy the moment!" Remus argued. "And we thought everything would happen later!"
"We knew there was a death threat, I was stupid not to have evacuated him immediately when you sent the message." Sirius said simply. "And I should never have left Harry even if I do have the training to deal with a fire," he continued, "if I had been there…"
"It may have deterred the attacker, it may not," Remus pointed out, "we don't know for certain. You might have ended up the same way as Bill. The attacker probably would have still gone after the Weasleys and if he did and we didn't have a warning of it…" he sighed heavily, "Molly could quite have easily been mourning a husband, a son and her only daughter this morning."
Sirius acknowledged the truth of that by inclining his head a touch. It was a sobering thought.
"The truth is that no single decision either you or I took in isolation was wrong, necessarily at the time. We just need to learn from yesterday and…" Remus waved a hand at him, "not make the same mistakes again."
"Yesterday shows we should dump plan B and go with plan A." Sirius muttered.
"No, Sirius, we're not wrapping Harry in cotton wool and hiding him from the world for the rest of his natural life." Remus objected before he grimaced. "No matter how much I might want to go with that plan. Besides, plan B isn't working out too badly."
Sirius harrumphed and got up. He wandered over to the far side of the study and with a stab of his wand, revealed the hidden blackboard that detailed out their original plan.
"Politically, we're solid." Remus said walking up to stand next to him. "The Potter alliance is back; the Order of Merlin recipients are already agreed to join at the September session. You'll have the neutral bloc alliances to announce along with the détente with Wilkes and Selwyn to go along with the one you have with Nott."
Sirius folded his arms. "Solid is a good word. We can start to make some real changes to the laws by Christmas."
Remus nodded. "Just as we planned. So, we're shutting down Voldemort's access to political power and decreasing the number of allies he has and the financial base he can draw upon." He sighed and pointed his wand at the board. 'Foreign policy' appeared as a task. "We need to think about this more."
"Agreed. The Treasure Hunt isn't going so well." Sirius commented.
"It's stalled," agreed Remus, "but I think getting rid of three of the six horcruxes isn't a bad showing. We only have two to go since the diary is already handled."
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