For the Apprentice Competition (word: glory; character: Nymphadora Tonks; quote: "I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them" - Sherlock BBC; dialogue: "What do you think?"; song: 'Carry On,' Fun, specifically the lines "We are not, / We are not shining stars"); the If You Dare Challenge (249. Intense Flurry); the Song Fic Bootcamp (song: 'Carry On,' Fun; 15. Accelerando) and the Joys of Wolfstar Challenge.

For Sammeh. Happy belated birthday love :)

"Padfoot look out!"

Distracted by Remus' scream, Sirius broke eye-contact with his insane cousin, his body turning just a fraction of an inch towards his best friend.

In the end, that was what saved his life.

That fraction meant that Bella's stunner flew past him harmlessly, dissipating once it hit the Veil of Death.

Bella snarled. "I'm going to kill that half-breed myself once I've taken care of you, cousin," she said, a sneer in her voice as she ground out the last word.

But Sirius had grown up with Bellatrix Black, and had become used to her threats before he turned 10. He simply shot her one of his signature, easy-going grins, and dove back into the newest battle of the lifelong war he was waging against his family.

At the end of the day, no one from the Order of the Phoenix died. That, combined with the fact that the knowledge of Voldemort's return was out to the public and that the Ministry were finally going to give him a fair trial, was enough of a cause for celebration as far as Sirius was concerned.

Finding out that most of the members of the Order below the age of 30 had survived the battle uninjured and were now bored while they waited for Dumbledore to tell them what to do now that the truth was public simply gave him an excuse to throw the biggest party he'd been a part of since his graduation.

"Sirius, I am not going," Remus groused, dodging his best friend's probing hands, "So stop trying to get me to dress up!"

"Aw, come on Moony," Sirius whined. "You just saved my life! So in a way, this party is only happening because of you, which makes you the host. And the host can't be absent!"

Remus stared at the dark-haired man in front of, unable to say anything to his best friend's convoluted logic. After a few moments, he just shook his head and turned away. Ignoring Sirius' rambling was always the best course of action.

Of course, Sirius wasn't one who liked to be ignored. Before Remus could comprehend what was happening, Sirius had somehow chased him into the en-suite bathroom his room had and managed to get his shirt unbuttoned. Trying to get away from Sirius only resulted in the two of them being pushed even closer, Sirius' body crowding Remus against the door of the wardrobe Sirius had decided to install in the bathroom.

"Sirius," Remus whispered softly, looking into the other man's eyes, resolutely making sure that his gaze did not drift towards his lips.

"Did you know I've been attracted to you since sixth year?" Sirius asked, sounding completely at ease despite the fact that he was confessing his feelings to Remus. "I never quite had the courage to tell you – some Gryffindor I am – but I could have died without telling you today," he whispered. "And I don't want to die regretting the fact that I never told you."

While Sirius was confessing, Remus had slowly lost his battle against the lure of Sirius' lips. Before the brunet could continue with his confession, Remus all but leaped towards him, capturing his lips in a fierce kiss.

It was when they surfaced for air, minutes later, that Remus pulled him into his arms, and rested his cheek against Sirius'. "I love you too," he murmured, "I've always loved you, ever since you promised to find a way to stay with me during my transformations, back in second year."

They never did make it to the party.

The world was slowly going to hell, which was something that was easy enough for even the most optimistic person alive to see. And Sirius, who had never exactly been what could be called hopeful, should have been the first person to start thinking of all the ways everything could go wrong.

Instead, Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts had somehow become one of the best years of his life. Not only was he free, having been given a full pardon by the Ministry, but he had also somehow managed to secure the affection of the man he had been pining after most of his life. Even being forced to look at Snivelleus' face every fortnight during Order meetings only dampened his mood slightly.

And then Dumbledore fell, dead at hands of the Death Eater Sirius had always said Severus Snape was, and every happy thought he had disappeared like mist in the air.

Until then, the world had only been going to hell. Now, Sirius knew that it would be hell.

"I always thought I'd be thrilled at being able to leave this place once again," Sirius mused, running a critical eye over the walls of the prison he had grown up in, "I mean, there's no same person alive who'd want to live here. But not in these circumstances, and definitely not now that the house has somehow started to grow on me."

"And when did this earth-shattering realisation take place?" Remus called, his head burrowed inside a bag as he searched for something.

Sirius sighed. "This is the first place where I was able to look after Harry like James and Lily would have wanted. This is where I finally told you how I felt. The last year somehow managed to start to erase all the bad memories I have of this place, and-"

Before Sirius could finish, Remus crossed the room and pulled him into his arms. "We'll be back, Siri," he whispered into his partner's hair. "I promise. And once we do return, we'll finish getting rid of all those memories you have."

Even though there were a million things that the two of them still had to do, Sirius allowed himself to take comfort in the feel of Remus' arms around him and the promises he whispered. In a moment, the two of them would have to return to reality, a reality where there was guarantee that the two of them would survive the war, but until that happened, Sirius let himself believe in Remus' words.

"Remus?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think Harry's okay?" Sirius asked, turning on his side to face Remus. The two of them were in bed, and even though it was past two in the night, Sirius could not find sleep.

"I don't know," Remus answered honestly. "But he's got Ron and Hermione with him, and after all they've been through, I'm certain that the three of them together can survive anything at all."

Sirius was quiet, thinking over Remus' words.

"I hate this," he said finally. "I hate waiting around for You-Know-Who to make the first move. I hate feeling useless, and I hate not being able to help Harry at all. The Death Eaters have taken over the wizarding world, Harry's on the run and most of the fools in our world believe the propaganda that the Ministry is publishing, that he had something to do with Dumbledore's death. And I'm here, safe in hiding, doing nothing to help him."

While Sirius ranted, Remus simply tightened his arms around Sirius, holding him while he let out all of his bottled up feelings. Once he was done, Remus ran gently a hand through the other man's hair, soothing him as much as he could.

"We could help, you know," he said softly.

"How?" Sirius asked immediately, latching onto the possibility with an eagerness that reminded Remus eerily of his Animgus form.

"You said it yourself; Harry's losing support because of the Ministry's propaganda. Well, we could always counteract. Set up a radio station or something like that, something that the Order and its supporters can listen to for updates. We could charm the frequency so that only people with a password would be able to hear it, and we could use it to get Dumbledore's message out, to get people to believe in Harry once more."

Sirius tilted Remus' head towards him, pulling the older man into a gentle, emotion-filled kiss. "I love you," he whispered against Remus' lips when they broke apart. "I love you so much."

Remus just clutched onto him. "I love you too," he murmured.

"They shouldn't be here," Sirius muttered, looking at the students assembling all around the Order members. "It's bad enough that Harry's being forced to be a part of this, but they don't have a prophecy that's compelling them to fight. They're just children Moony – I don't like this."

"We wouldn't have missed this for the world when we were their age, Padfoot," Remus reminded him. "We were convinced that there was glory in being a part of the fight, and nothing would have changed our minds. As much I don't like it either, the fact is that they're going through the same thing at the moment, and there's nothing we can say that will stop them from being here. It's better we know who's fighting so we can protect them than having a child sneak in in the middle of the battle, without one of us around to make sure they're safe."

"I guess," Sirius replied, sounding unconvinced. As much as he would have liked to argue the point further, he had other things on his mind. He may have hated it, but the fact remained that he was a Black, born and bred. And being in the middle of such a war meant that he would have to use tactics he had been taught by his parents, spells he had once sworn that he would never use, no matter what happened.

But now he had Remus. And if using them meant that he would be safe, that he would get out this war alive, then Sirius didn't care what he had to use. After all, he had never held any impression that he was as good as Remus was. He was stained by virtue of being born into the House of Black, and the only thing he could do was make sure he used the horrors he had been taught to benefit the light.

"Come on, Siri," Remus said, tugging the other man out of his thoughts, "We have to go help Arthur and Kingsley get everyone ready."

"What do you think? Together?" Remus asked, turning to face Sirius.

Sirius flashed him a weak smile. "Of course," he murmured in reply, "Just like old times." Taking a deep breath, he drew his wand and plunged into the growing chaos.

From the corner of his eye, he caught glimpses of others engaged in battle with Death Eaters. Minnie was facing down someone who looked to be his insane cousin's brother-in-law, Percy Weasley was fighting Thicknesse and one of the Gryffindor boys from Harry's year was fighting Yaxley with Hestia.

But it was Dora who caught his attention. She was duelling Bella, and it was obvious that the crazed witch was no match for her. Andy had already lost her husband. Sirius knew that she wouldn't survive losing her only child to the hands of her sister. Besides, he wasn't about to say goodbye to his baby cousin either.

He let a wicked smile spread across his face and barrelled his way next to Dora. Bella was his.

He didn't remember much of what happened during the battle. He'd been too busy fighting Bella to take note of what was happening around him.

It was only when Voldemort declared an hour of peace that he could pull himself away from the fray and go to check up on the rest of the Order members.

Thankfully, he caught sight of Remus before he could truly start to panic over the other man. And then he noticed the worried look on Remus' face, and he started to panic all over again.

"Sirius, come quick," Remus said before he could ask what had happened.

He allowed himself to be dragged off. Within moments, he could see what had happened.

There was a pack of red-headed figures gathered around what Sirius had no doubt was a body. And if he had noticed correctly, the figures seemed to missing the Weasley patriarch.

"Arthur?" he asked disbelievingly, turning to look at Remus.

The other man's grim nod chased away any hope he had held that he was wrong.

"What about Harry?" he demanded. "Hermione's here – where's Harry?" he repeated, noticing the lone brunette in the crowd of red.

"He was right here when I went to look for you," Remus replied. "I'm sure he's fine, Sirius."

Sirius sighed, crowding close to Remus. If the last war had taught him anything, it was that the middle of a battle wasn't the right time to grieve for those lost, or to celebrate the fact that the person you loved was still alive. But being close to Remus gave him a comfort nothing else could, and realising that, of all people, Arthur Weasley had been lost in the battle made him need the security of knowing that nothing had happened to him.

And then the hour they had been given to grieve was over, and the battle had started again. It was like that hour hadn't even existed at all, like they had seamlessly moved from one scene of battle to other.

But this time, Sirius wasn't about to let Remus out of his sight. Nothing else, not even his war against his family, mattered more than the man by his side.

All Sirius can see is red and green and flashing lights, but then Remus' hand is holding his, and he promises himself that no one else will die tonight.

I hope you liked it! Please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)