Moody searched Julian carefully for any sign of deceit, and when he found none, he gave a short nod and moved on to another question. "How did you figure out Pettigrew was alive, and how did you learn Black never got a trial?"
Julian chuckled. "As you can probably tell, I'm a fairly cautious person by nature, so after learning about my best friend's family situation, I started digging through the laws and paperwork surrounding the whole affair and found a few interesting details. For instance, did you know that, legally speaking, a lord cannot be imprisoned in Azkaban? The family magic responds to formal judgments and strips that person of their position," he said with a wide grin.
"Care to guess who currently holds the Black lordship?" Julian asked with another small laugh.
"Could've been a magical error," Moody said, trying to undercut the implication, though it was obvious he already understood exactly where Julian was leading him.
"I thought the same thing at first. But after a bit more digging through official records, I found no mention whatsoever of the man ever receiving a trial. Strange, isn't it? Something that public, and yet that detail somehow never came up at all."
"So I kept pulling on that thread and found out Sirius Black was captured and sent straight to Azkaban without a trial or even a confession. Once I learned that, I started looking into his past, and that led me to the animagus status of most of the group, along with Pettigrew being so very close by," Julian said, his expression turning openly disgusted at the end.
That disgust was genuine. Pettigrew had spent so many years in the Weasley household as a rat that none of them had ever cared about privacy around him. If anyone tried to claim he had not been spying on the family's most intimate moments, Julian would have called them a fool. Worse still, that included Ginny before puberty, which made the entire thing even more revolting to think about.
Moody understood exactly where Julian's disgust came from and agreed with him completely.
"Why did you say most of the group instead of all of them?" Moody asked after noticing the inconsistency.
Julian shrugged. "Remus Lupin. Do I really need to say more?" he replied, and Moody shook his head, already understanding the implication.
...
"What about Dumbledore, then? Why didn't you take this to him if you knew?" Moody asked. In his eyes, that was the most suspicious part of all this.
Julian scoffed. "You should already know my opinion of the man if you actually did your research, which I'm sure you did," he said with clear irritation.
"That doesn't matter. He would've been the easiest route to getting Black freed. So why didn't you go to him?" Moody pressed, refusing to back off.
Julian locked eyes with him for a long moment, and somehow that stare made even the veteran auror feel slightly uneasy.
"The man has proven himself an unwise choice for a matter like this in my experience, so I chose to handle it without him. Don't ask again. I don't enjoy repeating myself," Julian said firmly, closing the subject.
Moody was experienced enough to know when not to push someone any further, especially when that person looked nearly as paranoid about their own safety as he was. His magical eye had already counted no fewer than nine protective items on Julian, and one of them, strapped to the boy's ankle, made his instincts scream danger. Moody knew better than to assume someone like that had neglected offensive measures as well if pressed too far. He had clearly started brushing against that line with his questioning and wisely let the matter drop.
"Fine. Explain your plan in as much detail as you can," he said gruffly.
Julian did exactly that.
It's a solid plan. He covered all the obvious angles and even accounted for unexpected complications by bringing me in to patch the holes he might miss through sheer lack of experience, Moody analyzed seriously.
He'd make a good auror with a mind like that, provided someone gave him the right guidance, he thought before speaking again.
"I'll be bringing Dumbledore into this. It's too large a matter for only a few of us to handle," he said gruffly.
Julian frowned and held his gaze steadily. "If he ruins this in any way, I expect you to take responsibility for involving him," he said.
Moody nodded. "That, I can agree to. So this is how we'll handle it..." he said before starting to add details to the plan that Julian had not considered, though they were undeniably good ones.