"Because while I don't have the Dark Lord's ear, I do have his trust," said Remus, his voice dark with emotions Harry couldn't guess at. "I managed better than I knew last year, Severus. Sowing dissention and distrust among the Death Eaters . . . the Dark Lord could have concluded that Lucius Malfoy was among his least loyal followers. Instead, he decided that if Lucius' reputation was being targeted so extensively, it must be because the other Death Eaters knew him to be the Dark Lord's most loyal supporter. By destroying faith in Lucius, they would make it possible for someone else to become the Dark Lord's right hand. Hence, the Dark Lord decided that Lucius was to be trusted and honoured most of all, not least." Remus shrugged. "What can I say? We all know the Dark Lord isn't one for rational thought."
Harry shuddered. He understood Remus' reasons perfectly, but he was still disturbed to hear him saying the Dark Lord so many times, like that.
Good thing he came to the meeting looking like himself, Harry thought. Maybe Snape was right to keep me away from him, this summer. Maybe I'd have had a hard time spending time with him, if he was looking like Lucius all the while.
But then, Harry strongly suspected that his father had also had an ulterior motive. He hadn't wanted Harry spending time with Remus, full stop.
"And when you arrived at the Ministry?" asked Charlie, his voice a little impatient.
The trembling in Remus' fingers began to crawl up his arms, making him look a little palsied.
"Cruciatus," said Snape, sounding like he was biting off each syllable. "For Merlin's sake, Lupin. Sit down. Something obviously went wrong, since you look like you spent the whole of last night being punished."
"Nothing went wrong," croaked Remus, though he did suddenly sit as Snape had said.
An eerie moment passed, then. Harry wasn't sure if anyone else even noticed it, but he did. Snape was looking at Remus, his dark eyes intent, and Harry could practically smell the Legilimency in the air. Well, of course he could. After the times they'd practiced Occlumency together, and the times since, when Snape had been deep inside Harry's mind, Harry recognised the presence of Snape's, reaching out.
No, nobody else seemed aware that it was happening, Harry decided. Except Dumbledore. He wore a keen look as he glanced from Snape to Remus and back. He let it go on for a moment, then spoke.
"Continue, please."
Remus glanced away from Snape and cleared his throat. "The plan went exactly as the Dark Lord intended. All summer long, he had been snatching Muggleborn children, and some half-blooded children as well, and hiding them away in the amulet he wears around his neck."
"In an amulet." Bill's voice was fierce. "I've seen the like."
"Su Li," gasped Harry, clenching his fists. "Wayne Hopkins. Laura Madley! All of them, in an amulet?"
"Oh, there were so many children reported missing," moaned Mrs Weasley. "And they were held captive by You-Know-Who, trapped like that and carried about with him? The poor dears . . ."
Remus' eyes looked bloodshot when he glanced up, looking anywhere but at Molly Weasley, it seemed to Harry. "Yes, but it gets worse. There were fifteen children in all, some of them too young to have begun at Hogwarts. The amulet formed a magical realm into which the Dark Lord himself could venture at will. A realm, moreover, which rendered young minds . . . malleable." Remus fixed his gaze on the table. "He has spent the summer manipulating them, moulding them to his will, until he was certain they would perform like . . ."
"Robots," said Harry dully. All that got him was a baffled look from everyone else in the room. "Er . . . trained monkeys, something like that."
"Are the children still held prisoner there?" asked Bill, flipping his long hair behind an ear. "I'll research what kinds of curse-breaking might set them free--"
Remus glanced at him, his whole face etched with pain. "There's no point. They all died at the Ministry. They'd been moulded into weapons. The magical incendiary devices your spells uncovered? They were made of corrosive magic grown within the children's own bodies, because, after all, who would think a child so very dangerous?"
Shocked exclamations echoed around the table. Bill looked no less shocked than the others, but he was slowly nodding. "That would fit what little evidence we found. We'd been puzzled--"
"Of course we were puzzled," erupted Charlie. "Who could come up with a plan like that?"
"An evil dark lord," said Remus without humour.
"Would you stop calling him that?" Draco suddenly exclaimed. Then, when everyone turned to stare at him, he coloured.
"And the reason you didn't report to us, regarding Voldemort's involvement in the kidnappings?" snapped out Snape.
"I didn't know about it." Remus gave a long sigh. "He kept it from each and every one of his followers, Severus. He was watching and waiting all summer, and deciding whom to trust. In the meantime, he didn't need us for much, because he was occupied with this secret project of his own. But with the attack, he knew he would lose the small army he'd gathered together in the amulet. Hence his summons for me to join him at the Ministry. I learned of the plan scant moments before it all commenced."
"Why children, though?" asked Molly Weasley, her voice anguished. She was thinking of other mothers like herself, Harry knew. Other mothers who had lost a child to Voldemort's evil schemes.
"Because they are more easily moulded."
"Bit odd, though, the half-blood angle," put in Mundungus Fletcher, who up until then, hadn't said a word.
"Not from his point of view," said Remus, closing his eyes in clear exhaustion. "It's symbolic."
"Half-bloods and Muggleborns destroying our world," said Dumbledore, the words coated with sadness. "Literally, this time."
"And your assignment was?" pressed Snape.
Remus hesitated for less than a second, but he did hesitate.
Snape's eyes narrowed, and he began staring again.
"To watch and approve, as his second-in-command," answered Remus. "To demonstrate my favoured position to the other Death Eaters. To announce to them that I alone was trusted to witness the culmination of the Dark Lord's plan."
Snape stared for a moment longer, and then he actually flinched. No, more than that. His face paled.
He's seen something, Harry sensed. Something in Remus' memories. Something that . . . well, something shocking, something Remus hasn't said out loud.
What that could be, though, Harry had no idea.
"But why were you Crucio'd?" asked Draco, leaning forward, his eyes taking on that silvery shade they got when he was working out a difficult Arithmancy equation. "Severus was right about that. I recognise the signs."
"Exuberance," said Snape smoothly. "Voldemort doesn't use the spell merely to punish, Draco. It's also a form of celebration, for him."
"But I never heard of anything like--"
"Thank you, Draco," interrupted Dumbledore, his voice just as smooth as Snape's had been. "We do appreciate that you have unique inner knowledge, having grown up in a Death Eater household. Information which you have freely shared with us, I will remind everyone. But you mustn't forget the point at issue, which is that we are dealing with a man deeply caught in the grip of insanity."
Draco looked confused, then. Like he knew he was being managed, being shut up, in fact. But clearly, he didn't know why he should be.
Harry swallowed, his brain feeling like it was overheating, he was thinking so hard. Dumbledore shutting Draco up . . . no, Snape doing it first, answering with that "exuberance" explanation. He didn't believe that himself, I don't think. And Draco clearly doesn't believe it.
Snape and Dumbledore both know something, and they don't want the rest of us to figure it out. But what is it? Some part of Remus' report that isn't quite true, and they don't want it questioned too closely . . .