“He’s gone where?”
“The Department of Mysteries.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Sirius heard voices coming out of the kitchen. He walked inside and saw Remus, Moody, Tonks, Kingsley, and Snape standing near the table. They all became silent and turned to look at him when he entered.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Nobody seemed to want to answer him. Finally, Remus said, “Harry’s gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?”
“The Department of Mysteries.”
“What for?”
“He thinks that Lord Voldemort has you there,” Snape told him.
Sirius stared at the group, processing the information. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t think of anything intelligent, so he closed it abruptly.
“We’re going for him,” Tonks said suddenly.
“I’m coming with you,” Sirius answered immediately. He was not about to sit there while all of them went after Harry. He had to protect him”the only thing he had to live for was his godson.
“No,” Snape said abruptly. Sirius gritted his teeth and stared at his old enemy.
“What do you mean ‘no’? Who are you to tell me”” he started, but Snape cut him off.
“Dumbledore is on his way and someone needs to tell him what’s happened. There is no need for you to come along”the four of them can handle it until Dumbledore gets there.”
“And where are you going?”
“I’m going back to Hogwarts,” he said simply, as if this were obvious. “Potter was last in the forest and there’s a small chance he could still be inside and not at the Department of Mysteries. I’m going to search the grounds to see if he’s left or not.”
Without another word, Snape Apparated out of Grimmauld Place, presumably to just outside the grounds of Hogwarts. Remus, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley all got ready to Apparate as well. Sirius shook his head.
“No, I’m coming with you,” he said to them all.
Remus stepped forward. “Sirius, you should stay here,” he told his old friend. “Someone does need to stay and tell Dumbledore what happened and we’re going to the Ministry, after all. If someone sees you, you could get””
“I don’t care what happens to me!” Sirius bellowed. “I’m not going to sit here patiently while all of you go off and help Harry! He’s my godson and I have to keep him safe.”
Before anyone could say anything in response, Sirius called out for Kreacher. The house-elf grudgingly came into the kitchen and snarled at Sirius.
“Kreacher,” he said coldly, “when Dumbledore arrives, you are to tell him that we’ve gone to the Department of Mysteries for Harry. That’s an order.”
The house-elf smiled wickedly and left the room. Not noticing Kreacher’s response, Sirius looked back at his fellow Order members.
“Let’s go.”
The quintet Apparated to the Ministry and immediately ran to the Department of Mysteries. Even if it was under the current circumstances, Sirius felt exhilarated to finally be out of Grimmauld Place.
Moody broke open the appropriate door and the five of them tumbled inside, wands out. Sirius searched the room for Harry. He spotted him several feet below”and Malfoy was nearly on top of him. Before Sirius had opened his mouth to recite a curse, Tonks had already sent a Stunning Spell at him and he fell to the ground, leaving Harry to get out of the way.
The Order members sent spells tumbling down at the Death Eaters, who were shocked at their arrival. They turned their attention away from the ground level and shot spells up at their other enemies. The five of them dispersed, each going in a different direction to tackle a different problem. Sirius immediately ran to Harry, to make sure he was alright, but a Death Eater jumped in front of him. The two began a fierce duel with neither winning. Sirius felt his blood boil”he had to get to Harry. Finally, Sirius hit him in the chest with a Stunning Spell and he fell over.
Sirius looked up and, through the confusion, saw Harry and a wriggling Neville being attacked by Dolohov. He ran as hard as he could and yelled as he rammed Dolohov out of the way with his shoulder. The two men battled heavily, neither hitting the other at all. As Dolohov raised his arm in a slashing motion, Sirius heard Harry yell, “Petrificus Totalus!” and Dolohov’s limbs snapped to his sides and he fell to the ground.
“Nice one!” Sirius yelled to Harry through the confusion. As two Stunning Spells came at them, Sirius forced Harry to the ground to get him out of the way. “Now, I want you to get out of”” A jet of green light barely missed him and he exhaled deeply, perturbed”this could be a fight to the death.
Sirius stood and pulled Harry up in one motion. He grabbed Harry’s shoulders and said, “Harry, grab the prophecy, take Neville, and run!”
Sirius saw Bellatrix a few feet away and immediately ran to her. When she saw her cousin, she cackled.
“Here to save the boy, are you?” she laughed. Sirius growled in response. “We knew he’d come,” Bellatrix continued. “We knew he’d come for you. Won’t it be a thrilling moment when he dies because of you? Because of his love of you?” She laughed again.
Sirius had had enough”he lunged at her angrily, but she backed away quickly, heading up the staircase. He followed and the two dueled.
The rest of the chaos seemed to stop while Sirius and Bellatrix battled. They threw spell after spell at each other, each one becoming more and more dangerous. Sirius had so much rage boiling in his veins that he even managed to send several Killing Curses at his cousin, who flickered with fear for the first time in a long time.
The two seemed to battle for hours. Neither noticed when Dumbledore burst through the open door and bundled up all of the other Death Eaters, ending the battle for the time being. Bellatrix sent another Stunning Spell at Sirius, who ducked. This time, it was he who laughed.
“Come on, you can do better than that!” he yelled. He was coaxing her, almost playing with her.
Another jet of red light flew from her wand and hit him in the chest.
Bellatrix cackled again as Sirius fell backwards, shocked that she had hit him at last. He did not know where he was falling. He did not know that the ragged black veil was behind him, leading to the unknown.
He fell through it with a simple grace.
In his head, Sirius waited for an impact with the ground, but it never came. Above him, he could see the veil now, could see where he had fallen, knew that it was the one place he could not come out of.
But, if this was death, where was the blinding white light that was supposed to have come? Where were the angels and the clouds and the Heavens opening up to allow him inside? Where was anything?
Sirius continued to fall. He did not know if he would ever stop falling. He thought about Harry as he fell, wondering what he would do now that Sirius was gone. How would he handle the death of his godfather? Sirius didn’t want to think about it, but it seemed to be the only thing that he could think about.
Finally, Sirius stopped falling. He didn’t fall to the ground; instead, his feet lightly hit a hard surface and he stood there, slightly shocked at everything that happened.
Nothing happened for several minutes, if not longer. Sirius did not know what to do”was he to stand there and wait for something or was he to walk aimlessly around this empty place?
He nearly started to walk, but stopped himself. He felt as though he was no longer alone, that he was in the presence of someone, someone whom he had not been in the presence of in a long time.
“Hello Padfoot.”
Sirius turned around.
He smiled.