Sirius Black whistled as he went about his household chores. It had been far too long since he had left the house but he was tired of being angry about it. Maybe he was so chipper because Snape hadn't shown his greasy face in a few weeks, or maybe it was the fact that Harry would be on summer break soon. Whatever it was Sirius was in an excellent mood.
Still whistling he filled up a bucket with the rats that Kreacher had caught for him from the attic. Buckbeak was probably starving, sweeping and dusting had taken longer than he had anticipated. With his bucket full of rats he headed upstairs. Buckbeak wasn't in his room so Sirius headed down the hall to his mothers bedroom, the hippogriff liked to nap on her bed.
Sure enough he was on the bed, the great creature stood when Sirius approached.
"How did you do that Beaky?" said Sirius to his pet and friend.
He must've got his wing pinched somewhere and had to rip it out, the injury wasn't major but it was bleeding. Maintaining eye contact Sirius bowed to Buckbeak as was protocol with hippogriffs. Though they had lived together for almost two years Buckbeak still scrutinized Sirius closely before kneeling his thick scaly legs slightly, allowing Sirius to approach him.
"Easy now Beaky, I have to look at this." Buckbeak looked at him with understanding in his eyes, " How on earth did you do this to yourself?"
There was a jagged cut along the top of his wing, right where it curved over. As carefully as he could Sirius applied a bit of pressure to one side of the cut squinting his eyes for a closer look. He spotted the problem, it was a large jagged chunk of glass.
"This is going to hurt buddy..."
Taking a deep breath Sirius got a grip on the glass stuck in the creatures wing. He tried to pull gently at first but the glass stuck fast. When he tried to pull harder Buckbeak snorted angrily, sidestepping out of Sirius's reach
"Stay still please Buckbeak! Stay calm, let me try again. Shhhh, calm down." He whispered softly calming the hippogriff.
This time around Sirius pulled at the glass shard with more force. Taking care not to yank so hard that any slivers broke off. After several moments the piece came out clean. It was over three inches long, very jagged and sharp.
Leaving Buckbeak with his meal Sirius jogged to the bathroom and grabbed some salve to put on the wound. In the hallway he could Kreacher's voice up the stairs, crazy elf talking to himself about his dead mistress. Sirius thought nothing more of it. While Buckbeak was distracted by his bucket of rats Sirius pulled out his wand.
"Scorgify!" he said quietly.
Pleased with the results he examined the cut again it was deep, but the hippogriff was tough and without the glass keeping the wound open it had already began to heal. He rubbed a bit of salve onto it and left Buckbeak alone to finish his meal.
He would have to figure out what had caused Buckbeak's injury but he was expecting Dumbledore and several order members to arrive any minute. The kitchen was empty no sign Kreacher.
" I'll just make lunch for everyone then Kreacher. You have much more important things to do I'm sure, like ironing a dead woman's unmentionables!" Sirius said to the empty room.
After a moments thought Sirius set some pasta to boil on the stove and started a simple spaghetti sauce. He was immersed in chopping up smoked sausage for the sauce when a surprise guest interrupted him.
"Professor Snape sends Dobby to make sure Sirius is here safe, you is Sirius?" asked a house-elf.
"Yes... Why is that slimy git checking up on me?" Sirius retorted.
The house-elf looked momentarily shocked that anyone would speak of a Hogwarts Professor that way, but decided not to comment after noticing the hatred in the mans eyes.
"Dobby does not dare question Hogwarts Professor sir! Dobby just does what he is told." with a loud crack the house-elf left Sirius alone again.
Sirius began whistling again, who cared if Snape was checking up on him, at least he wasn't personally showing his beak around the Headquarters. He finished the sausage laced sauce just in time to hear Tonks arrive, tripping over something as usual. He laughed aloud wondering what she could've tripped over this time, he had moved everything near the doorway all there was to trip over was the ground itself. Behind her he could hear Moody clanking around.
Rushing to close the drapes around the freshly awoken portrait of his mother he stopped and greeted the two, telling them there was food in the kitchen. Before he could turn around Kingley Shacklebolt entered the Headquarters followed by Lupin.
"Hello, there's food in the kitchen. Dumbledore isn't with you guys?" said Sirius grinning warmly at the two men.
"Haven't seen him in a few days you know Albus, always busy. Even more so since he hasn't been tied down by his duties as Headmaster. I'm famished, what did you fix for lunch?" replied Kingsley.
"Come down into the kitchen. I made some spaghetti with smoked sausage in the sauce, there's a bit of bread and butter if you like." Sirius said leading the men down the Hallway.
Kingsley helped himself to a plate of spaghetti and sat with Tonks who had already eaten halfway through a large plate.
"Great grub Sirius" Tonks said to her cousin.
Sirius noticed that the happiness evaporated off Tonks features when she saw Lupin, looking at the pained expression on his old friends face only further confused him.
"Remus, can I talk to you upstairs? I want you to take a look at an injury Buckbeak sustained this afternoon." said Sirius in a level toned voice.
Remus followed Sirius up the stairs. Once they were far enough from the kitchen to not be over heard Sirius stopped in the walkway.
"Remus, what's going on between you and my cousin? I've never seen her look so mopey, not over a boy. What did you do her?" he asked angrily.
Instead of answering Remus looked ashamed and stared down at his shoes. His lack of response only further incited Sirius's anger.
"Say something Remus! What did you do, use her? One night stand? I thought you were supposed to be a good guy Remus, tell me what you did!" his accusatory tone forced Remus to look up.
" I would never! How could you even think I would... She...well she thinks she's in love with me okay? She believes I'm her soulmate and she doesn't understand why I can't be with anyone. How I feel doesn't matter, part of me is a beast no matter what. I can never get married or have children I'm dangerous. I haven't led her on in anyway, I promise." said Remus looking straight into his best friends eyes.
Sirius felt somewhat silly, he knew Remus wasn't a womanizer. He would've never guessed the truth though in retrospect he felt foolish for not reading between the lines. Tonks always seemed to act different around Remus, somehow Sirius had never realized the reason.
"I'm sorry for thinking that you could have... I know you better than that Remus. I just got a little worked up, Tonks and her mom are the only members of my family I have any respect for."
"I understand, I should've told you... I just didn't watch to involve anyone else. I wish she would realize the truth and invest her time in a more...worthy suitor." Remus said forlornly, his gaze returning to his shoes.
"I don't understand your logic Remus. Why can't you be with her? I've never heard her say she loved anyone, she's a stubborn one you know. She isn't going to change her mind. I don't see why you couldn't be together. It sounds as if you feel the same way."
"You wouldn't understand, Dumbledore doesn't either. He trusted me enough to give me job and that ended with me running wild on Hogwarts grounds. I put you and James in danger every month when were young. I do love her and that's why I can't put her in danger! I can't take the chance of having a child like me." whispered the werewolf.
"You can't go through your life without taking chances..." began Sirius.
A noise downstairs had distracted him, Dumbledore must've arrived. They left their conversation in the hallway and rushed down to the kitchen. Sirius's mostly good mood was completed ruined now. Snape was dusting soot of himself apparently he had just climbed through the fireplace.
"What do you want Snivellus?"
"It seems your brilliant godson has rushed off to the department of mysteries to save you." Snape sneered in Sirius's direction.
"I thought you were supposed to teaching him to protect his mind, Dumbledore assured me this wouldn't happen if Harry endured those extra classes with you!" shouted Sirius.
"Sirius, we've known there was a chance of this happening. We need to get down there immeadiately. Kingsley Tonks go now I'll need there in two minutes." Lupin said taking command of the situation.
"Someone needs to stay here to let Dumbledore know what's happening." Remus continued,
"I'm sure Sirius could use something useful to do while he waits for his godson to be rescued." Snape spat out stepping back into the fireplace and disappearing in a swirl of green flames.
"Insufferable prat... I'm not staying here Remus so don't even ask! Kreacher come here now!" roared Sirius.
"Padfoot you don't need to risk going back to Azkaban..."
"He's my godson Moony."
Before Remus could reply Kreacher walked into the kitchen laughing loudly,
" Professor Dumbledore will be here soon Kreacher, I order you to tell him that Harry has gone to Ministry. Tell him Tonks Kingsley, Lupin, and I are already there. Let's go Remus."
Arguing the matter any further would've wasted precious time so Remus only looked disapprovingly at Sirius. Then not wasting another second the men turned on the spot, apparating to the Ministry's entrance hall. The three they had sent ahead were waiting in the lift Remus and Sirius ran to the lift closing the door behind them.
" The whole building is practically empty, it doesn't make sense there's no sign of a fight. Once we get into the department of mysteries there's a hallway full of rotating doors, that's as far as my expertise on that department goes. There's no telling what we might encounter behind these doors" Kingsley informed the group.
"I would imagine the doors will rotate after they're opened so I'll mark the doors as we open them. We shouldn't split up unless we have to. Our main mission is to find and secure Potter." said Mad-Eye as the lift stopped.
The group sprang into action, they had only opened two doors before Sirius heard a familiar voice.
"You're in no position to bargain Potter, just hand over the prophecy and I'll spare your friends life."
Sirius ran as fast as he could, taking in the scene below them. They were in a large, circular, mostly empty room, the only thing he saw was a large dais with a veil stood up behind it. There were at least eight death-eaters that he could see, Lucius Malfoy was standing four feet from Harry. Harry was reaching his arms towards the death-eater, about to relinquish the prophecy.
"Stupefy!" thundered Sirius, just missing his target but successfully getting the spotlight off Harry.
The death-eaters responded immediately shooting curses up towards the balcony. In seconds Sirius sprinted down the stairs shooting stunners left and right trying to reach Harry. A full fledged battle had begun between the order members and death-eaters.