"Do you have a plan?" Ted asked Julian seriously.
"First, we need to get our hands on Peter Pettigrew. Second, we take the rat to Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE, and present the case to her directly. Finally, I need to personally convince Fudge not to try anything clever in order to protect the Ministry's reputation. If we move without doing that, he may arrange for Peter to mysteriously disappear while in custody, or he might even go as far as to have the dementors give Sirius the kiss and then claim they went out of control," Julian said with a dark expression.
"That's horrible!" Nymphadora burst out in horror.
Julian sighed. "There is no such thing as a pure hearted politician. If it benefits them even a little, there is very little people like that won't do. Ask your mother if you don't believe me. She comes from a family famous for exactly that sort of thing," he said plainly.
Nymphadora looked toward her mother, and Andromeda only gave a small nod with an ashamed expression.
"How are you planning to catch Pettigrew if he has managed to hide in plain sight for so long?" Andromeda asked seriously.
Julian grinned. "That's where I come in. I just so happen to be able to forge a ring that will force the rat back into human form as long as it stays on him. I can use visiting my friends as an excuse to spring the trap. But as an extra precaution, I need you to contact Alastor Moody so he can be there too and make sure nothing suspicious happens," he explained.
After thinking it over carefully, they all agreed to the plan. Julian told them he was staying with Ollivander and that they should contact him there if they needed anything, then left the house.
...
It was still fairly early in the day, so Julian decided to make the animagus trap ring immediately so it would be ready when the time came. Because of that, he returned to Ollivander's and asked to borrow the workshop for a while so he could forge it. The old man had no issue with that, though he did tell Julian to clean up any mess afterward.
Once inside the workshop, Julian locked the door and pulled out his anvil and tools from Greed along with a premade iron ring.
Lately, Julian had been keeping ready made iron rings on hand because they formed the base of his ring of protection business. Placing the ring onto the anvil, he began channeling his spiritual energy until a glow of gold and white radiated from him and concentrated around his hand. The flow of energy was firm and steady, a clear sign of how much better he was getting at channeling it, though he was still far from the point where he could forge without glowing at all.
He raised his hammer.
"LER!" (man)
The hammer fell, and a glowing word appeared beside the ring.
"ALA!" (deny)
He struck again, and another word formed in the air.
"NASTO!" (beast)
A third strike brought a third word into existence, and Julian felt instinctively that the ring needed one final word to complete it. After a moment of thought, he found the perfect one and brought the hammer down again.
"RAEDA!" (to catch in a net or entrap)
The ring let out a hum that was almost hypnotic as Julian poured his knowledge and intent into it with each word until the work was complete and the ring was finished.
[RING NAME: N/A
Grade: RARE
Abilities: Autosizing, Anti-animagi, bound, weakening
Description: A ring forged with the purpose of capturing an animagus while forcing them to remain in human form.
System appraisal: A purposeful ring that was created by an up and coming ring smith.]
He had not given the ring a name because he did not think it needed one, which was why the appraisal appeared like that. It did not bother him in the slightest, and the system clearly did not care either since he still received thirty two points for creating it.
With that finished, Julian took a moment to appreciate the fact that the forging had not left him completely exhausted this time. He knew that was because his energy pool had grown and his soul had become stronger. It seems digesting soul shards improves my forging stamina too. Noted, he thought seriously while putting his tools away again and unlocking the workshop door.
He was mildly surprised to find Ollivander standing nearby with a curious look on his face, though the old man did not ask a single question. Julian could tell that this was Ollivander's way of respecting his secrets as a fellow craftsman, so he simply gave a silent nod of acknowledgement and headed back to his room.
There, he was greeted by the sight of Helena fussing over Steve by feeding him and scratching his back. One interesting thing about nifflers was that because they used the pouch on their stomachs to store stolen treasures until they could add them to their hoards, they hated having anyone touch their bellies.