Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters, settings, etc.
Those Emeralds On My Gray
Sirius Black was fighting. Fighting for revenge. Fighting for all that was good in the world. And finally, fighting for his godson Harry Potter.
The Department of Mysteries was chaos when Sirius arrived on that fateful night. He had received word from the Order and rushed right over, hoping that Harry and his Hogwarts friends were still all right. Sure, when he got there it was absolute pandemonium. What could six underage wizards do against many Death Eaters with the power of the Dark Lord? Foolish, Sirius thought. Foolish, inconsiderate children.
Didn't they have families? People who cared? Anyone worth living for? Those kids were too young and rash to fight. Most people who rushed into battle had someone whom they fought for, someone whom they lived for, someone whom they wanted to stay alive for. That was one cruel lesson Sirius was taught in those torturous years in Azkaban prison. Most criminals in there were heartless, old wrenches, doomed to a life of living in hell forever when they died. Nothing to live for, no pain.
Unlike him, Sirius Black, dashing in to kill the people who destroyed Lily and James, kill that villain who scarred Harry's life in more than one way, kill the evils that were making lives miserable across the horrible world. He had loads to fight for, most of them involving raw revenge. He wanted that nasty little vermin that sold his best friends out to die, and he wanted to kill him himself. Peter Pettigrew, that old shrew who was such a coward he didn't know where to turn to, what to believe in, when he sold his soul to Voldemort.
Oh yes, Sirius Black had something to fight for.
Death Eaters were crawling around the Ministry. They looked like infinitesimal beetles to Sirius, and he simply stunned each one so they were incapable to get up. Desperately hoping Harry, his only thing worth living for, was alive, he rushed around, asking anyone he could find.
"Tonks! Tonks, where are those bloody mad kids? If, if they died, I swear, er, those stupid Death Eaters will swear they never even…"
Tonks's face was impassive, taken over by a mix of complexity and concentration. The many emerald fires roaring around them did nothing but illuminate her stolid expression as she answered, voice shaking with fear, "Follow me."
Trusting Tonks with every ounce of his soul, Sirius and her raced through the many halls and departments with some of the Order following behind like shadows. The freezing stonewalls bounced every miniscule noise off doubly, making shivers of worry and fear snake and shiver up Sirius's spine. It reminded him of hollow death, as he was so familiar to that horrible smell, taste, and sound in Azkaban. His inner self-defense built up again, preparing him for the worst, as he often did in that ghastly prison. He often braced himself for any heart breaking horror behind those bars back in those days. But who's to say he had a heart?
A heart, such a fragile thing, could easily be shattered. It was as difficult as dropping a simple glass china teacup. In a fraction of a second it would break, possibly before it hit the ground. This is exactly what Sirius believed his heart had done. Right when he found out Peter had betrayed them all, Sirius's heart had broken beyond repair. Or so he thought.
Until Sirius met his godson. So much like James and Lily, so much potential hidden inside of him. The way his emerald eyes glowed like Christmas lights or the way they blazed with boundless rage when flashed with anger. They warmed Sirius's heart in an immeasurable way, making it burst with joy to know he had been a part of the history of this beautiful child who was still living, even when there was nothing for him to live for so long. Sirius was ashamed of himself when he met Harry, ashamed of how he gave up so easily on love when Harry had not.
They eventually stumbled upon that room with a stone dias in the middle, many steps and benches, and a gloomy, midnight black veil. It appeared to be tattered and worn, aged with tons of years. The faintest wind blew through, whispering the softest lure of words. Sirius would have followed the enchanted voices, but a Death Eater was advancing on Harry and a round-faced boy who had blood pouring out of his nose onto his pale face and jiggling legs. Sirius tackled the hooded man like a vengeful criminal and make quick work of him.
Sirius shouted to Harry and the boy to run quick and get out as soon as possible. But Harry had James's bold spirit and stayed put. No matter how much Sirius urged him to leave, all Harry merely did was help the timid boy up and stand there torn between leaving safely and standing by his godfather to fight.
After a couple more hasty duels that ended in sending the Death Eaters clonking to the stone cold floor, Sirius rushed up the steps, dangerously close to the veil. That was exactly when a taunting old foe of a voice met his ear.
"Now, old cousin Sirie, why don't we play a little game of do or die? When I do the killing, and you do the dying!"
Bellatrix Lestrange shot a nasty killing curse right Sirius's way, but he evaded it and spun around. Those sunken, dark violet eyes would merely a few holes in her sticky white skin from which her mangled tangled nest of hair atop her head.
"Bella, you never know when to stop!" Sirius yelled over the entire ruckus of stone blasting apart and of course, that alluring veil. "You are a heartless old wrench who won't stop killing, even – for – family!" Sirius sent some nonverbal stunning spells her way, but her agile starved form merely dodged them with ease. Their wands viciously flicked and fired powerful curses at each other. It would have been mistaken for a shiny sword fight if no one had known better.
"Family?" Bellatrix cackled in that mocking way of hers. "You are not family, not bowing down to the great Dark Lord! You are nothing more than a filthy mudblood, blood traitor! Heed me!" she shrieked as Sirius's eyes strayed to Harry, who watched his godfather duel with the filthy black-hearted Bellatrix.
Enraged, she sent a wicked stunning spell at Sirius, but he merely dodged it. Meaning to impress Harry, Sirius shouted back, laughing at her futile attempt, "Come on, you can do better than that!"
Sirius saw the playful dueling frivolity in her eyes morph into something worse, something that made Sirius shake with fear for the first time since the relief that Harry was alive. Bellatrix muttered the Killing Curse under her rancid breath, but Sirius didn't catch it soon enough. Stunned for words, the horrible spell hit him square in the chest and took his final breath away.
Death. It was inevitable now. Sirius could see the white lights closing in, and the veil singing to him more clearly than ever. It spoke comforting words of relief and release from this suffering, and Sirius could do nothing than submit with a shocking look on his face. Wanting to glimpse the one face Sirius hoped he would never forget, he turned his short-lived gaze on Harry.
That poor boy. That stupid, stupid boy. Hadn't he seen death before? The look upon his face was devastating, almost tearing Sirius away from the whispered words from the veil. Harry's poor face broke, watching the soft silks of the veil eat Sirius up into the unknown depths of death. Sirius felt his soul complete, a piece of it floating back into the chunk of his heart. But at the same time, he knew Harry could feel a ripping in his chest as part of his soul returned to Sirius.
Didn't that boy know death? Didn't he know the pain it caused? That it was all an exchanging of pieces of heart? The look upon Harry's face told Sirius that devastating answer. It changed from hate to antagonism to the wrinkled wilting of a widowed old man. But Sirius felt that last painstaking breath zapped from him, the last one he'd ever take, the darkness closing in. And he knew, he knew that was the last time those emerald green eyes would ever lay on Sirius's gray ones.
Sirius's complete, undivided, loved gray ones.
A/N: This little one-shot has come a long way from my usual fluffy romance. I originally posted this a while ago, but then took it down when it didn't seem to be doing well and I got a bad review. But yesterday, a friend motivated me to post it again so I'm putting the risk back out there. Sorry if it wasn't canon, grammatically checked, or good at all, because it wasn't before so I don't know if it is now!
Anyway, please read and review!