Disclaimer: As goes for the following chapters, the majority of the characters and events portrayed in these stories belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling who has brought the Harry Potter Universe to life. Also, some use direct quotations from the books.
Silence. Nothing but silence, all of the time. He was beginning to understand Kreacher's madness. The insanity of one left in nothing but screaming silence. Sirius spent as much time tending to Buckbeak as possible, it kept him sane. Compulsive letters to Remus. Some days he would even become a dog and race down the halls. Nothing but the ticking silence. The moments edging on. He sat at a desk, letter to Remus sitting in a gaping fashion, begging to be finished by a mind as blank as the quiet. Everything had been said, nothing was left in his mind. This was worse than Azkaban. Still, he was used to waiting. But what now? He had nothing to look forward to. He pushed himself out of his chair roughly and began to pace. He did a lot of that now too. He was quick to temper closed in such confines. Cabin fever was constant. He couldn't leave, not yet. Not for a long time.
Stay.
Like an obedient dog. Commanded to stay for safety's sake. Stay so that he didn't jump the fence into oncoming traffic. How he hated it! He felt like a trapped animal clawing to escape a box, frantic and screaming. But all was silent, save for the ticking of the clock.
Remus sat across the table from Sirius, no sound, none. The silence had opened its jaws and swallowed them. It was awkward, as it had always been since that night fifteen years ago. Suddenly his blank thoughts were interrupted by Harry's head poking through the fire.
Harry was gone, Remus had immediately thrown on his tattered coat and dashed out the door. "Don't go anywhere!" he had said.
Where could he go? He was trapped, like a rat. This thought made his blood boil. He had compared himself to a rat. A dirty rat. A rat who had sent his friends to their deaths. Harry! Oh God no! Sirius bit his lip until it bled. He couldn't leave.
He could leave, and he would. Nothing was stopping him. He had promised that he would stay, but he could leave. Getting up, he transformed himself into a dog and shot out of the house, once setting foot on grass again he let himself fly with a sense of delirious abandonment. He tore down the street, kicking up dirt clods with his clawed toes. He would find a way to reach the Ministry of Magic, it would be easy on feet like these.
He screeched to a halt.
Buckbeak.
Almost lost in his own freedom, his kindred prisoner lay nearly forgotten. Back inside the house Buckbeak was hysterical with the promise of leaving the dreadful house. The Hippogriff stretched its mighty wings and flew with a newfound strength and vitality.
The Ministry stood looming in front of him like some deadly beast and it was there that he ran into Kingsley Shacklebolt and old Mad Eye Moody. Kingsley spoke up first, "Sirius Black! You should be out of sight back at Grimmauld Place!" He sounded as if he was scolding a dog as opposed to the full grown man that stood before him.
"Well, he's here now and he may as well join us. It would be much simpler than sending him back. That would be turning down a willing and able fighter if I ever saw it." Mad Eye pointed out.
Harry was in serious trouble. Sirius himself smirked at the sorely overused pun that ran through his head. Taking stock of Harry's position, Sirius searched out another face. Bellatrix stood about ten feet from the archway in the death room. He gained his footing about two metres from her and she welcomed him with malicious grin. The fight was on.
Bellatrix was firing spells at Sirius with a ferocity. They fought with equal hatred for one another, delving deep into their pasts and into their hearts to find a larger source of hatred than the other. Sirius laughed a deep and unkind laugh that made Remus look up for a moment. This was a side of Sirius that was on the point of madness. Remus noticed what Sirius hadn't - he was slowly being forced backward.
Sirius found a sick joy in taunting Bellatrix, baiting her. She fumed, and he laughed harder. She missed, getting flustered, but recomposing herself easily and not ruffling a feather. "Come on, you can do better than that!" She could never hit the broad side of a horse's arse let alone a target ten feet away from her. Suddenly a look up bewilderment crossed his face. He was already falling, hit moments before, smile never quite dying from his face. He could guess who was a horse's arse...