Although bringing Remus and James with us to visit Potter Manor may have seemed counterintuitive, in reality, it was a strategic manoeuvre. James's presence would allow us to roam freely and Remus could help us find books that mentioned the Fletchers, he had an uncanny knack for doing that, so well that we teased he should be a Librarian.

Both of them seemed surprisingly up for it when Sirius and I worked together to bring it up in conversation. Remus had fond memories of the house and James was curious to see how the house looked now that the Order had repurposed it, so the trip was a success and we hadn't even gone on it yet.

As we walked in, I gave James's hand a small squeeze, expecting him to look sad at being in his old house but for the first time, he actually smiled.

"You alright?" I whispered and he nodded.

"Yeah, it's nice to see it so busy," He replied, as a couple of people bustled past the doorway, proving his point, "Mum and Dad would like it."

"Do you want to look around?" I asked, "See all the rooms?"

"Maybe," He replied, "I'm kind of in the mood to wander around it, so yeah, I guess I am in the mood to look around."

I glanced over my shoulder, to Remus and Sirius who were standing several feet apart, "You two up for wandering around?"

Remus pursed his lips, "They're very busy here, I wouldn't want to get in the way, you know?"

At this, Sirius grinned, nudging Remus as he dared to bridge the gap between them, "Come on, Moony, live a little."

James coughed awkwardly, pretending not to notice the flirting between them as the four of us walked up the stairs. His family home was so big that I'd forgotten where the library was but luckily, Sirius seemed to know, subtly guiding the group with such incredible excuses that I was almost sure he'd pre-planned this. Eventually, we walked past two large double doors, inside of which I could see the large oak shelves of the library. Me and Sirius exchanged a look and I detached from James's arm, taking a few steps towards the door as if in a dream.

"I forgot how big this place was," I said, trying to figure out a way to keep us here so that Sirius and I could look for any mention of the Fletchers, "What is this place even filled with? Like, how did you get that many books?"

James shrugged, leaning against the door frame as somebody bustled past, giving him a curt nod.

"Generations of collecting, my Grandpa, Harry was quite a hoarder," James replied, "All Potters are bad at letting things go?"

"Does that count for Potters by marriage?" I asked, squinting to try and read the names of some of them.

"Perhaps," James replied, swinging around violently on the frame so that I was forced to step back a bit, "Why Lily? What are you not letting go?"

Right on cue, Sirius walked past, fondly ruffling James's hair, "Her dopey husband."

"Hey!" James replied, "Padfoot, don't be an arse!"

"I'm always an arse," Sirius replied, casually flipping open a book, "Says so right here."

Although it was obviously a lie, James still walked over to his best friend, before sniggering, "Liar, it's a book on potions."

With James distracted, I began to walk over to a bookshelf but forgot that Remus was still there, unsure of what to do which led to him awkwardly following me.

"What are you looking for?" He asked suddenly and I regarded him with suspicion.

"Who said I was looking for anything?" I asked, glancing over at James and Sirius who had found a book on anatomy and were giggling like the teenage boys they were.

Remus raised an eyebrow, "You walked with an insane amount of purpose, Lily, you only do that when you're looking for something. So, what are you looking for?"

For a moment, I considered lying but there was nothing suspicious about looking for a book on pureblood families so I decided to confess, "I'm actually curious to see if there's one of those big books on pureblood families, I've been wondering for a while now if Evans ever appears amongst them."

Remus shook his head, "I knew there was a reason that you wanted to come here, you and Sirius suggested it so out of the blue. It is interesting though, I love looking at those neat records and facts about the families sometimes. I once found out there was Casper Lupin who invented magical socks that instantly warmed your feet back in 1500."

As it turned out, there were lots of books on genealogy and me and Remus began to leisurely flick through them. I hated to admit it but I was slightly trying to push him towards his boyfriend and James, purely because I would work a lot faster alone.

"I hope James and Sirius don't dog ear the pages..." I murmured but Remus was far too intrigued in an old table written up in 1954 of the number of members per family.

"Wow, did you know there were only 14 people with the surname, Malfoy that year?" He gave a laugh, "But that was not the case for Bulstrodes, oh boy, 58 members!"

"58?" I laughed, flicking through my own book which so far hadn't mentioned the Fletchers, "Family reunions must be so crowded, we only have about 6 members of ours that are still alive."

Remus didn't seem to hear me, flicking to the next page, "Did you know that the reason that the Malfoys have such a white blonde hair is apparently due to inbreeding amongst themselves? I don't understand it entirely but apparently, there was some recessive blood curse embedded in their genes ... sorry," He looked up, "You're busy, I'll stop talking."

"No, keep talking," I replied, not looking up from my book, "Blood curses go on."

"And apparently their ancestral home was originally a place called Anglesey Abbey, up until 1560 when they got into a fight with one of the new Scottish families that jumped over the border, the Fletchers - "

"The Fletchers?" My head snapped up and he nodded.

"Yep, it's colloquially known amongst the Pureblood families as 'The Battle of the Usurpers'," He replied, "The Fletchers used to be very wealthy but Mallory Fletcher lost it all gambling in the 1700s."

"Where does it say this?" I asked, putting my book down and joining him.

"Just a little annotation here, it looks old, somebody clearly knew their stuff and felt the history books were lacking," He replied, "I don't think they're as big anymore."

"What happened to Anglesey Abbey?" I asked, quickly adding, "And where did the Malfoys move into after? Must suck having your house stolen by new blood."

"They built Malfoy manor," Remus laughed, "And hear this! Apparently, the Fletchers were very vocal about blue rooves for some reason, apparently, it was a favourite of the Malfoys but the Fletchers claimed it turned fine establishments into tacky houses. So what the Malfoys did was hire the finest architects and build the classiest house the world had ever seen they could with blue rooves which made it incredibly trendy and pissed the Fletchers off even more."

I leant over his shoulder, reading the annotations on the book. They looked faded but whoever did this, seemed to be adding their own personal details, including a rather amusing, 'Tarquin Malfoy is a Flapdoodle!". I had no idea what it meant by judging by the angry scrawl and underlining, it was something rude.

Annoyingly, there was no mention of whether the Fletchers still lived in Anglesey Abbey, but I quickly realised, the writer had given us information by omission. As Remus turned the page, there were several annotations, detailing when noble families had changed house and why and the Fletchers had none of that. Wizards tended to keep property amongst themselves, James's decision to convert the house being highly unusual so with any luck, the Fletchers still resided at Anglesey Abbey.

  ••• 

That night, Sirius and I wrote a letter to Regulus on our findings, writing under bizarre aliases that Sirius had created. It was a long shot that Glenn would be there, but we had at least a vague lead. Even if he wasn't, it had been owned by his family at some point so there was bound to be something else there.

Regulus's reply came quickly, meaning he probably wasn't too far away which brought a slight smile to Sirius's face. The letter was short but got to the point; Regulus had been even more useful than us,

Dear Elvendork and Iphigenia,

I heard him mention an old ancestral home when he was attempting to impress several other purebloods, claiming it had been in the family for years so it is safe to assume that they still reside there. He also mentioned it is strictly guarded for fear that the Malfoys should try and reclaim it so we would need to be either members of the family or close friends.

Luckily, I have a solution for that too.

I have done some digging and discovered that he has a much older half-brother, who goes by the name of Mundungus. I believe he was either born out of wedlock or from an affair. He went off the grid several months ago, around the same time as his brother but I have spoken to somebody who believes he knows where he is, and has offered to find him for me, for a price. The price is a favour and I shall pay it.

My suggestion is that we try and acquire something of Mundungus's, and use Polyjuice potion to get into the Abbey. I will be in touch, my lead suggested it should take three days to track down Mundungus and I have to be careful so it might take longer. In the meantime, I suggested you acquire a Polyjuice potion as we might need it if we are to find Glenn.

These are just rough plans but I would strongly recommend them.

Yours, R.A.B

I gave a small smile as I reread the letter, "He came through for us. And your brother is just as self-assured as you, in a haughty kind of way."

Sirius nodded, "What can I say? He's smart, smarter than I ever was I think. He's surprisingly cunning too, I didn't even realise it."

"Well, he came through for us and thanks to him, I might actually get some ... closure."

    •••   

Little double update for you guys as it's literally been ten days since I updated so I might as well do this whilst I'm the mood to write this. 

I got very into the Magical history, the history nerd in me took over, like I could literally write so much on the magical families. I love hearing stories about political figures being petty as fuck and thought they should be like that too. Also did you know that Flapdoodle was slang for a sexually incompetent man in Victorian times? Let's bring it back - E x