"I've already put my plan into motion. At this point, I only need to wait for the Tonkses to contact me so I can meet with Alastor Moody. A man like him would never be willing to move on faith alone in a matter like this," Julian said, and Helena nodded.
"I've seen him visit Dumbledore at the school, and calling him paranoid would be putting it mildly. He checks everything he touches twice over and seems to distrust every word spoken to him until it has been verified. In all my long unlife as a ghost, I have known so few people that cautious I could count them on one hand," Helena said, agreeing with Julian's assessment of the man.
"Yes, Alastor Moody is paranoid, but there is not a single person I would trust more not to stab me in the back. My only concern is that he might report this to Dumbledore, who could interfere and prevent Sirius from being freed," Julian said seriously.
Helena frowned at that, because it was very much a realistic possibility. "Could Dumbledore not actually help your cause in this case as well?" she asked, attempting to argue the other side for a moment.
Julian considered that for several minutes, his thoughts racing through all the possible ways the old goat might turn the situation to his own advantage. Much as Julian disliked admitting it, the odds of Dumbledore helping were actually higher than the odds of him obstructing things, since a free Sirius would benefit him significantly. Not only would Sirius regain a seat on the Wizengamot, but he would almost certainly direct the Black fortune toward the light faction under Dumbledore's influence. On top of that, the whole affair would give Dumbledore another convenient way to get deeper into Harry's good graces.
Julian let out a sigh. "It's actually quite likely that he would help if he chose to involve himself at all instead of staying hands off," he admitted honestly.
"If that's the case, then why does the thought bother you so much?" Helena asked, still a little confused.
"Because we don't need his help to succeed, and if he's even half as clever as I think he is, then he'll know that. Which means any assistance he offers would be given fully aware that he'll profit from the outcome," Julian explained, sounding faintly irritated.
"For now, though, I'm going to spend the rest of the day studying the books Ollivander gave me unless something happens," Julian said as he kicked off his shoes, sat back against the pillow on the bed, and pulled the books in question out of Greed.
All of them except the one on materials, that was, since he had already memorized that one. The first book he picked up was {Wand Crafting for Beginners}, which had no author listed. But the very first excerpt made him close it again and reach instead for the second book, {A Guide to Runes and Their Use}.
{If you are reading this book without knowledge of runes and their power, you will not make much progress, as while they are not strictly necessary, the runes used in wandcraft greatly assist the process.}
Julian chuckled to himself as he thought about how early he was diving into runes compared with the rest of the students who would be entering second year alongside him. Most of them would not even have the option of learning the subject until third year or later, when it became an elective. While a single year's head start might not sound that impressive in the grand scheme of things, it was worth remembering that he had already worked through the second year curriculum during the school year as well, which meant he was effectively two full years ahead of his classmates.
Being ahead of his peers had given Julian a great deal of extra free time that otherwise would have gone toward keeping up with schoolwork. Granted, he usually spent that time studying other subjects instead, but the point remained that he had free hours his classmates could only envy.
After eating a bit of lembas bread to deal with his hunger, Julian opened the runes book and had to stop himself from laughing.
The reason was simple. He discovered that his magical ability to read and speak any language applied to runes as well. That meant that unlike everyone else, who had to struggle through learning what each rune meant and then figure out how to structure them properly in larger sequences, Julian only needed to get good at physically drawing them in order to succeed.
No wonder Helena was so jealous when she found out about this. It's practically a perfect ability for enchanting. All I need to do is learn the runic alphabet itself, and I'll be able to write out enormous, complex enchantments with ease, he thought with a grin.