Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were all stunned. Clearly, none of them had expected Sirius to send them a message at a time like this—let alone invite them over for "dinner."
Of course, dinner was merely an excuse. Sirius clearly had something he wanted to discuss with them—or rather, with Albert.
They could think of no other possibility.
After a brief silence in the dining room, George was the first to break it. "He should have said so earlier. We're practically full already."
"I think Sirius probably wants to discuss cooperation while he's at it."
"Why don't you go over later?" Lee Jordan continued. "And ask Professor Lupin whether he can work overtime lately?"
"Fine, but don't get your hopes up."
George and Fred quickly finished their portions of dinner and hurried away.
"Are you this busy every day?"
"Yeah. It's a good thing you came to help, or we'd be even busier." Lee Jordan watched the two leave and sighed. "Still, we've made quite a few Galleons. We just need to keep at it for the next few years, and then we won't have to worry about Galleons anymore. So don't feel bad about Albert paying you such a high salary. You deserve it."
When Fred and George hurried to Grimmauld Place No. 12, they discovered that the invitation to dinner had indeed been nothing more than an excuse.
Sirius, Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley, and Professor McGonagall all wore particularly grave expressions, as though something bad had happened.
"What's wrong?" George asked.
"Can you contact Albert?" Professor McGonagall immediately asked.
"I'm afraid that'll be difficult. Albert just got married, and he definitely won't want anyone disturbing his honeymoon trip." George was not particularly surprised by this. "What do you need Albert for?"
The dining room fell silent for a