A/N First, I'd like to say that none of the characters, places, etc etc in this story belong to me in any way, shape or form. EXCEPT for my original main Character and anyone else I may introduce. I won't be saying it again so commit it to memory.

If you like my story, please review. Even if you DON'T like my story, please review. Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know WHY you didn't like it. If all you say is that I have lots of grammatical errors or that my punctuation sucks, you aren't helping me, yourself, or fan fiction as a whole. IF however you say that my main character is leaning towards being a 'Mary Sue', or if you point out inconsistencies or continuity problems, you will have my eternal gratitude.

If you have a suggestion for where you would like to see this story go, please feel free to let me know. I make no promises to include your suggestions, but your idea might even spark a completely different idea.

I don't have a Beta for this story and I do try to proofread anything I write before I post it, but no one is perfect and another perspective can do wonders for polishing up a story.

On to the story

X*X*X*X*X-For those of you who may have happened upon this story when the formatting was messed up, I apologize. I did indeed have it formatted but for some reason FF wouldn't recognize it.

The Brotherhood

Chapter 1

"HAAARRY!"

The small females shrill scream nearly deafened Buckbeak as he launched himself into the sky, his muscular and feathery body lurching in rhythm with. the beats of his wings. In less than a minute the witch, wizard and Hippogriff were high enough over the castle that anyone on the grounds who might look up at them would merely think they were a distant bird. It certainly wouldn't cross their minds that what they were seeing were 2 students who were supposedly recovering in the hospital wing riding an equally supposedly already executed Hippogriff.

Once Buckbeak had achieved enough height so as to be able to see the entire school grounds, forest, lake and what looked surprisingly like the lights of a town on the Forbidden Forests far side, he, sensing his riders desires, angled towards the tower containing one Sirius Black. Considering how heavy the two half-growns on his back were, Buckbeak wanted to get them to their destination as quickly as possible so he could REALLY stretch his wings. The half-growns wouldn't like what was coming next if the females noise from before was any indication.

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'Oh no, not again!' Hermione thought to herself as her dinner tried again to make a second appearance. She tightened her grip around Harry and screamed again as Buckbeak dropped into a dive that would make any professional Seeker jealous.

'Why did I ever agree to this?!' She shouted in her head as the side of the castle grew too close and too fast for her liking. Then again, her preference would have been to get to Sirius with the use of her own two feet and maybe a bit of fancy wand work. NOT on the back of a 600 lb magical creature currently in a dive pushing 95 mph! Finally, and not a second too soon, Buckbeak leveled off and flared his wings. Any later and they would all have died a very messy death against the stone blocks and steel bars that made up Sirius' temporary cell. He scrabbled a bit on the smooth stone before tightening his talons into the gaps between the stones.

The instant Buckbeak touched down on the tower, Hermione was off his back rushing to the ledge to finally say goodbye to the contents of her stomach.

'Huh, I don't remember eating any carrots?'

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Harry's heart was going a mile a minute after the bareback Hippogriff ride. It was so different from his Nimbus and yet, so much more exhilarating. He smiled and stroked Buckbeaks neck a few times.

"Thanks for the ride Buckbeak. Can you do something else for us before you go?"

When Buckbeak snorted and tossed his head, Harry took that in the affirmative and pointed at Sirius who had apparently been sleeping before all of the commotion woke him.

"After we get him out, we need you to take him somewhere safe where both of you can hide. Can you do that Buckbeak? Please?"

Buckbeak cocked his head and Harry could have sworn that the Hippogriff looked at him the same way as Hedwig when she felt her delivery capabilities were being insulted.

"OK, Just wait here for a minute then."Harry chuckled.

With that, Harry ran over to Sirius. He still looked just as haggard as he had in the Shrieking Shack, with the addition of several emerging bruises on his face and several missing teeth. He was also favoring his right side as if his ribs were injured.

"Sirius! Are you OK? Did they hurt you? Have you had something to eat? Did they at least give you a blanket? Its freezing out here!" The whole time Harry was fussing over Sirius, he never noticed Hermione being sick over the ledge of the tower.

"Harry! I can't believe this! Is that... Is that a... Hippogriff? You actually rode a Hippogriff up here? You really are James' son. I don't think I'm the one you should be concerned about though. Witches tend to be offended if their friends don't hold back their hair at times like this" Sirius pointed over Harry's shoulder.

Harry looked where his Godfather was pointing with a start. He felt ashamed of himself for forgetting about his best friend like that. He quickly went to Hermiones side and did as Sirius had recommended by holding back her hair lest she get any vomit on it. It was surprising that she hadn't already.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. I saw Sirius and I ju-"

"Its alright Harry, I know how important this is to you." Hermione choked out as she cut him off. With one final dry heave her stomach began to settle down.

"Still, I should have-"

"Harry, stop. I appreciate you coming over here when you did. I understand what you are going through and I don't hold it against you." She smiled before coughing several times trying to clear her throat."I just wish that we had some water here."

"Hermione! I've got some water you're welcome to. It's not the best tasting but its what they gave me when they dumped me in here." Sirius held a small pewter cup half filled with water through the bars separating them. After Hermione gratefully took the water from him, she almost dropped it when she got a good look at Sirius' face.

"My God, Sirius, what happened to you?" Hermione exclaimed rather loudly.

"Shhh! We don't know if any of fudges pet Aurors are around." Hermione had the decency to look sheepish and started sipping the tepid water to hide her blush. "They're the ones who gave me these bruises by the way. Apparently, one of the dead muggles Wormtail framed me for was Dawlish's little sister. Don't worry, I've been through worse." Sirius explained.

"Don't worry Sirius, we'll have you out of there in no time!" Harry stated with a determined fire in his eyes as he pulled out his wand.

Sirius shook his head sadly. "See... That's going to be a problem. I'm happy that I got to see you two again one last time, but the Aurors spelled the bars after they threw me in here. I really appreciate you kids trying so hard though."

Harry's face fell for a moment before he heard Hermione huff behind him.

"Honestly Harry, this is exactly why Runes are useful. Move out of the way. And Sirius, you might want to take cover if you can."

Both wizards saw the gleam in Hermiones eyes and quickly moved to obey her. She pulled out her wand, cast the standard etching charm taught to all Ancient Runes students on their first day of classes and proceeded to carve seemingly useless squiggles in the stone above and beside the steel bars with her wand. She finished off the mass of squiggles by carving a straight line in the stone walkway 20 ft long to the left of the vertical steel bars.

"Alright. Get ready! Harry, come over here and cover your head."

Once everyone was in place Hermione placed her wand tip to the end of the rune-carved line.

"INCENDIO."

The small ball of fire raced across the wall following the carving. When it met the squiggles carved into the stone framework above and to either side of the steel bars nothing seemed to happen at first. Two seconds passed before a hissing sound was heard. A few seconds after that and a series of small, nearly silent explosions blew the steel bars right out of their foundations and over the ledge of the tower. Harry and Sirius looked at the 13 year old prodigy in amazement while Buckbeak pawed and stamped the stone beneath him in agitation.

"Ron had it right, brilliant but scary..." Harry muttered to himself. Sirius overheard him and couldn't help but nod his agreement. "What exactly did you do Hermione? Harry asked, still in a bit of shock.

"Oh, it was just a simple flame rune connected to a modified directional wind rune. I also added a sound suppression rune to keep it from drawing too much attention. It's really not that impressive though." Hermione said, trying to down play how impressive her knowledge of Runes was.

"Did you say you modified an elemental rune on the spot and you don't think that's impressive? Hermione, that's 5th year work at least!" Sirius said incredulously.

"Yes, well... We had better all get out of here. Harry and I can take the stairs, but I highly doubt you will just be allowed to walk on out through the front door. Sirius, you'll ride Buckbeak, he's already agreed to take you somewhere safe." Hermione said while blushing.

Sirius looked at the hippogriff and slowly walked closer to him. He stopped once he was about 10 feet away and slowly bowed as deeply as he was able. Buckbeak regarded him cautiously for several seconds before bowing in return. Sirius grinned before turning and enveloping both Harry and Hermione in a hug strong enough to risk making his ribs even worse.

"Thank you both again, so much. I couldn't have imagined any of this. I just-" Sirius broke off with a strained voice. He then turned and jumped up onto Buckbeaks back to cover what he deemed as unmanly behaviour.

"Take care you two. I'll owl you as soon as I can." He looked directly at Hermione. "You really are brilliant Hermione. Don't ever let anyone tell you different." He then turned to Harry. " Harry, I truly can't thank you enough for coming up here tonight... Just like James... Oh! I dropped my knife when Remus changed. If you can find it I want you to have it. It has some useful charms on it. With as much as you seem to get up to around here, hopefully it will help you as much as it's helped me."

The emotion finally became too much for Sirius to take so he turned Buckbeak around and in less than a minute, Sirius had disappeared into the starry sky.

For that short time, everything felt right in the world. Harry and Hermione stood there on top of that tower and simply enjoyed the moment. His Godfather was safe, Buckbeak was alive and Harry had a second link to his parents. Who knew what stories Sirius would be able to tell him!

All of a sudden though, the air felt colder, the sky looked darker and one could hardly even see the stars or moon any longer despite the clear sky. Their breath began to mist in front of them. And Harry began to hear his mothers voice begging Voldemort to spare his life.

"Please, no. Not now! NO!" Harry dropped to his knees and begged.

A swarm of over 75 Dementors flew over the two teens heads, writhing in the air. An undulating mass of what could only be described as evil incarnate. The Dementors passed them by though. They were instead flying after Sirius. Sirius had no wand. No way to defend himself.

The Dementors passed by too quickly for either teen to do anything other than watch in horror. Soon they too disappeared into the distance as well.

"No..." Harry whispered. "NOOOOOO!"

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A/N: I know, I'm a right bastard for leaving a cliffy on the first chapter. Any reviews would be more than welcome. Even flames!... Just remember, I can find you... ;) Peace!