Headquarters was quiet in the mid-afternoon lull. Sirius was sprawled on the sitting room sofa with the Prophet and a glass of something, and he sat up when the group appeared in the hallway with Draco in tow.
"Welcome back." He looked at Draco. "You're... visiting?"
"I was kidnapped," Draco said, with great dignity, straightening his collar.
Sirius opened his mouth.
"Is Mr. Weasley here?" Kevin asked.
"Ministry today. No chance." Sirius set his paper aside. "Everything alright? How was Lucius?"
"Informative." Kevin crossed to the writing desk and found parchment. "Sirius — did you know Bellatrix is dead?"
Sirius went still in the particular way of people who'd thought they'd already processed all their feelings about someone and had suddenly discovered they hadn't.
"Since when?"
"A month ago. Day after Voldemort raided the Ministry. Quick execution, minimal publicity. Director's orders, apparently."
Sirius said nothing for a moment. Whatever he and his cousin had been to each other by the end — which was not much — she'd still been part of the world he'd grown up in. He'd expected to hear about her death with more fanfare.
"That's why I'm writing to Mr. Weasley," Kevin said, not unkindly. "I want the details."
He sealed the letter and sent it off.
Harry, settling in beside Hermione on the sofa, had been piecing it together quietly.
"Bellatrix was Voldemort's most trusted person," he said. "If he had something important he needed someone to hold —"
"She'd be first choice," Hermione finished.
"But she's dead," Ron said. "So whatever she had is just... gone?"
"That's the question." Kevin paced in front of the fireplace, two steps one way, two steps back. "Voldemort storms the Ministry — massive operation, huge risk, eleven prisoners freed. But the one person he most wanted to free? Left behind. Executed the next morning, quietly, no fuss. The Ministry doesn't even announce it properly."
Ron scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe he just couldn't get to her in time."
"Voldemort." Kevin looked at him. "Couldn't get to something."
Ron's objection died in his throat.
"Polyjuice," said a voice from the doorway.
Moody had let himself in at some point, which was unsettling in the way it always was — the man moved silently for someone who walked with a staff and a false leg. He'd caught enough of the conversation to reach the same conclusion Kevin had already been circling.
"Someone took her place," Harry said, straightening. "So Voldemort still freed Bellatrix — just quietly. A substitution, executed before anyone realised the potion had worn off."
The Ministry would have been in chaos that morning. One dead prisoner among eleven freed ones was a footnote. No one would have looked closely at the body.
"The timing fits," Hermione said. "Polyjuice wears off in under an hour. They'd have needed to move very fast."
Kevin nodded. He was already writing the second letter.