Once the details of the plan had been finalized, Julian was brought back to the wand shop. Moody departed as well so he could handle his side of the preparations and notify Dumbledore. Julian had one week to finish getting ready, since Moody had made it clear that they needed to act as quickly as possible before any unknown factors could interfere. That meant everything on Julian's end had to be completed by next Saturday, which suited him just fine since there were only a couple of extra things he needed to take care of, and he could have those finished by early tomorrow.
While Julian was back at the wand shop wrapping up his day, Moody had already arranged a meeting with Dumbledore and was currently in the man's office. Dumbledore wore a grave expression after hearing Moody explain the situation. "So despite the high regard I had for the boy, I still underestimated him it seems," he said with a weary sigh as he slumped slightly in his chair. "That someone so young managed to gather such scattered pieces of a puzzle buried for a decade and tear it wide open is remarkable." There was shame in his voice, born from the fact that he himself had never put the pieces together because he had deliberately ignored the matter.
Dumbledore knew very well that he could have uncovered the same truths Julian had, had he not already decided in his own mind that the matter was finished and therefore not worth examining any further. It was one of the drawbacks of his age. At times he could see far into the future, yet at others he failed to notice even what the next day might bring. He was not senile, since such a condition was nearly impossible for wizards, but his mind no longer possessed the same steady, unbroken focus it had in his youth.
"I think it would be best to bring Remus into this. They were both his friends, and he will want to be part of it," Dumbledore said softly, though there was unmistakable authority in his tone. Moody nodded. "You'd better contact Arthur privately too, so he can keep an eye on Pettigrew over the next week. We don't want the rat catching wind of the trap," Moody replied gruffly, and Dumbledore agreed. "Be careful around the boy, Albus. He seems to have a rather poor opinion of you right now. He looked ready to get violent when I pushed him about why he hadn't come to you himself," Moody added seriously.
Dumbledore let out another sigh. "I know how he sees me, and I have tried to remain hands off despite the many troubling things he has done, both openly and in secret," he said in a tired voice. Moody's expression hardened. "What has the boy done that worries you?" he asked. "He did something that drew Voldemort's anger on the night Harry drove his spirit from the castle. Through his actions he has placed himself in a perfectly neutral position among the school houses, and over the summer he somehow convinced a ghost to leave Hogwarts with him, one possessing a great deal of lost or forgotten knowledge," Dumbledore explained.
"The worrying part, however, is that nobody seems to know exactly why he has done any of this, and his mind is hidden from us as well because of protective measures he put in place himself," the old man said with a heavy look on his face. Not long after that, the meeting came to an end since both of them had preparations to make for the trap and whatever would follow afterward. The next morning, Julian woke up nice and early, letting out a loud yawn as he stretched. After changing clothes, he left the shop once again and headed down the street toward the owlery so he could send Ron and Harry a message informing them that he planned to visit next Saturday.
Every owl there seemed eager to carry the letter for him, but a tiny pygmy owl won the honor by being bolder than the rest. It snatched the message right out of Julian's hand and flew off before any of the others could react. He laughed at the sight while the remaining birds stared in shock at the tiny creature's audacity. To be honest, Julian disliked sending letters by owl because it always meant disappointing all the ones he did not choose, so not having to decide at all suited him perfectly.
He spent the remainder of the day practicing how to draw runes with an engraving pen he had bought from the system for one hundred points. As his surface, he used a bar of iron he had transfigured into the shape of a plate, changing it back to normal and then into a plate again whenever he needed more room to write. He discovered that inscribing runes was a slow and demanding task for him, since their designs were quite intricate, and if he got the depth even slightly wrong, the entire rune was ruined.