"He's WHAT?" roared Mad-Eye, standing up and upturning his chair behind him with the force of his movement.
"Snape said, he's left Hogwarts, Umbridge caught him, he thinks I'm there, I'm not, I'm here, shit shit shit, he's gone to the Ministry to save me but I don't need saving, I'm here, Remus help me!"
Sirius had Remus by the shoulders and was shaking him lightly by end of his sentence. Kingsley gently prised him off, and sat him down into the nearest dining chair. Remus dropped to the seat next to his friend.
"Start again from the beginning," said Remus. He tried to keep his voice as even as possible, and his face clear of panic, but he could hear the words shaking as he said them. "Tell us what Severus said."
Mad-Eye rounded the table to stand behind Sirius. "Yes, tell us lad. We're going to need all the facts to make our plan."
"Harry will be okay," Kingsley reassured the room.
Tonks passed Sirius a glass of Firewhisky. He took a deep breath and a long drink before beginning to talk.
"Snape contacted me via Patronus, asking me to respond immediately if I was in Grimmauld Place. I nearly didn't, I hate the man, I thought he was just being obnoxious Snivellus as usual. But I did. He was called to Umbridge's office at Hogwarts a short while ago to provide her with Veritaserum to interrogate Harry. He'd, Harry had, been caught sneaking into that bitches office. He told her he was trying to contact Dumbledore, but when he saw Snape he shouted a coded message that he had bene trying to contact me as he believed I'm in the Hall of Prophecy at the Ministry.
"Harry disappeared off into the forest with Umbridge and Hermione. Snape was lurking around, before he could intervene Harry and his friends had got Thestrals to the Ministry. They're on their way there now. Maybe they're already there. How fast can Thestrals fly? What if we're too late? I'll kill Snape if he didn't get us the message in time, fucking kill him!"
Remus leant forwards and placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder. The man was vibrating slightly with the force of his anger and fear. He'd never seen Sirius this afraid before. Not in the first war, not even when they were under attack by sixteen Death Eaters just him and Sirius and Marlene McKinnon. He now had some idea of the man that had chased down Peter the night James and Lily died.
"Sirius, we will be in time."
Remus didn't believe his own statement, not fully. However, if they didn't calm Sirius down he would be useless, and he would insist on coming. Remus had already decided not to try and persuade Sirius otherwise. It would waste too much valuable time.
"Snape has spoken to Dumbledore. He believes Voldemort has sent Harry a vision of… of me trapped in the Department of Mysteries by Voldemort. He needs Harry there, and he's used me to lure him there.
Sirius' explanation over, Mad-Eye began to take charge.
"We'll Apparate to the main entrance. Kingsley and Tonks can get us in through there. We'll send one in, Kingsley or Tonks, to check out the status and for Death Eaters in the Atrium. They'll be least likely to be suspected as out of place by anyMinistry staff we run into, although any Death Eater worth their salt will know them of course. The rest will follow when we get the all clear, and we can proceed down to the Department of Mysteries. We want the element of surprise when we get in there. Minimal engagement with Death Eaters. We get in, get Potter and his friends, get out. Questions?"
Remus had one. "Sirius, who is with Harry from the school?"
Sirius still looked pained, clutching his glass as if it was his grip on sanity. "Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville Longbottom and Xeno Lovegood's girl."
"Luna," said Remus. "I didn't know they were close with her."
"Now's not the time for speculation on adolescent friendships," said Mad-Eye. "Let's go."
Remus caught both Kingsley and Tonks giving Sirius a sideways look as they went to leave Grimmauld Place, filing out one by one in silence through the hallway. He was glad neither of them challenged Sirius on his presence within the small team. It would have wasted time, and would ultimately have been fruitless. Besides, Remus thought Sirius deserved to come. It was his godson. Wizarding notions of godfathers and godmothers were strong, and he was expected to protect Harry if it was within his power.
They Apparted with a neatly coordinated collection of cracking sounds to their destination. Nobody seemed to feel the need to talk as the two Aurors shared out entrance tokens. Kingsley was to enter first, and after a few moments his lynx patronus arrived back with them to inform them there were no Death Eaters in the Atrium.
Remus flushed himself into the toilet, to reappear in the Atrium. Despite Kingsley's message, he held his wand raised. He'd been through enough battles, and enough of Mad-Eyes simulated exercised, to know the importance of being ready. To his left, Tonks shot through the fireplace in a heap. Sirius swirled in to his right. Mad-Eye brought up the rear.
Kingsley was on the other side of the Atrium already, waiting by the lifts. He too had his wand raised. He'd positioned himself flush against the wall by the lifts, concealed from view of anyone in a lift.
"If I was them, I'd have someone waiting in the corridor downstairs. Possibly under a cloak or otherwise hidden," he said. "We should Disillusion, and go quietly. Check for human presence before continuing."
All four others nodded. Mad-Eye threw his Invisibility Cloak over himself, and Tonks raised her wand to Disillusion herself. Remus cast his own charm, and by the time he was done found himself staring at nobody at all. Well, a slight outline of Sirius, but if you didn't know where he was you wouldn't have seen him. Everyone else was completely invisible.
Down they went in the lift, into the bowels of the Ministry. Stepping out, Remus raised his wand once more. A slight movement of the air on either side of him revealed his companions doing the same. The five stood in formation, watching and listening.
Someone, Kingsley he thought, went to step forwards but Remus threw out an arm to stop them. There was someone up ahead.
He cast a non-verbal Stunning Spell, and heard a satisfying thud of it hitting the mark. Kingsley, he was sure it was Kingsley, started forwards again and this time Remus didn't attempt to stop him. On his other side, he heard Tonks mutter 'homenium revelio' and then 'all clear'.
As one the group ran forwards. Kingsley shot ropes at the stunned Death Eater as they ran past, and Moody threw his Invisibility Cloak over him. There was no time to do much more; they would just have to hope he didn't somehow free himself and come after them. Through the doors they went at a run, into a room with so many doors that Remus couldn't even begin to work out which was the one they'd find Harry behind.
Tonks was last through the door. "Don't shut it! It spins!" Mad-Eye shouted from his position at the head of the group, but she was too quick and the door fell closed on the last word of his shout.
"Which way?" asked Sirius when the spinning stopped. His eyes were wide with fear, but he also looked alive. Far more alive than he had looked in the last year stuck in Grimmauld Place. After this, when they'd rescued Harry, Remus was going to make Dumbledore let Sirius out of his confinement.
Remus looked around. One was marked with a great fiery 'x'. He was sure it wasn't that one, but that didn't rule out many options. He grabbed at a door at random, noticing as he did so that Sirius and Tonks had both done the same thing.
Inside Remus' choice of room was a desk, chair, and a lot of smashed glass. A man with the head of a baby stumbled around, groaning and wailing, his ripped sleeve showing off a snake and skull tattoo. Remus quickly slammed the door. They could deal with him later. He didn't look much of a threat right now.
Tonks' room was an empty office filled with potion bottles and a cauldron, Sirius' dark and disturbing and completely silent. Sirius and Mad-Eye pulled open more doors. Screams came from Kingsley's choice, and a hooded and masked Death Eater from Mad-Eye's.
The Death Eater began to fire curses at them, but the five of them were no match for him and soon he was down on the floor at Tonk's feet. She prodded him with her boot until his mask fell off.
"Don't know this one," she said.
"No time for him, let's go!" shouted Sirius, and pushed past Kingsley to run through the door he had opened. Remus followed, and Tonks leapt the Death Eater to join them. Kingsley and Mad-Eye brought up the rear.
They ran into a battle. Harry and Neville were fighting still, the others Snape had told them were there were nowhere to be seen. Neville looked injured. Harry seemed okay. The Order members fanned out across the room, wordlessly choosing a Death Eater each and making sure every opponent was covered by at least one of them. It was a well practiced manoeuvre. They had all been in far more fights than they wanted to have been.
Remus took on two Death Eaters, both masked. By their fighting skills they were newer recruits. They certainly didn't have the hardened battle skills of some of the old guard, but they did have a desire to prove themselves. Both of them threw curses and hexes at him with wild abandon. Such an onslaught of spells was designed to get him by chance more than by any particular skill, and Remus knew that all he needed to do was defend until one of them left themselves exposed. Wizards like this always did, sooner or later.
He took his chance when one of them tried to overdo it with a complicated curse, and dropped the Shield Charm he'd been holding for a few seconds to get in a well-timed Body Bind Curse. His Shield Charm went back up seconds later, not a moment before a nasty-looking lime green spell Remus didn't recognise slammed into it from the second Death Eater he was fighting. The man's hood had fallen down, revealing neat golden blond hair.
Remus almost lost his own concentration when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tonks fall. She flipped down the steps of the room and landed with a crunch at the bottom. His Shield Charm flickered and died, and he made to run to her when a badly-aimed curse from the remaining Death Eater he was fighting grazed his shoulder. He forced himself to concentrate on the duel. He'd be able to get to her when he'd finished this man off.
Throwing the panic for Tonks into his wand, he screamed "Stupefy!" and the wizard was thrown halfway across the room with the force of his spell. He rushed down the steps, shooting hex at Dolohov to help Kingsley out, past Sirius battling away. He was nearly to Tonks, just reaching Harry and Neville, when there was a crash and Albus Dumbledore entered the room.
Fighting slowed almost immediately. Harry and his friends had disabled some of the Death Eaters, the Order members had Sirius and Bellatrix were still fighting away on the dais, but Tonks would be safe now.
Sirius. Sirius was falling through the veil, and Remus was restraining Harry from running after him, but all he really wanted to do at that moment was to run with Harry towards his best friend. To dive in there and drag Sirius out. He knew it was a pointless exercise, he knew what that veil was, but he still wanted to do it. Harry couldn't though. And that was what held him back as Harry screamed and raged at him.
Harry stopped struggling, but it felt barely moments after Remus had released him that he was off again, chasing after Bellatrix . Remus had no way of catching him this time. Dumbledore was following Harry, though, and so Remus stayed put. He found Harry's friends and busied himself with making them comfortable until help could arrive to take them up to Hogwarts' hospital wing.
"Remus, are you okay?" asked Ginny Weasley as he strapped her broken ankle to make it stable. He'd repaired broken bones before, but his hands were shaking and he hadn't wanted to trust himself. She looked genuinely concerned as she asked the question, as if she really did care about his wellbeing.
"I'm going to be fine," he said, his eyes firmly focused on the bandage his wand was winding around her leg and foot. "Let's focus on you. Do any of you know what kind of curse hit Hermione? The colour of the light, any incantations? Madam Pomfrey and the Healers will need all the information they can get."
He remained in the Department of Mysteries after everyone else had left. He helped Madam Pomfrey get the other students ready for their transport back to Hogwarts once she arrived, listening to her muttered rantings about keeping students out of trouble and on the grounds of Hogwarts. The matron was not a fan of Dolores Umbridge, it turned out. He gave an eyewitness account to Cornelius Fudge. A weak man, and not one who had ever done anything for people like Remus. He'd actively signed legislation against his kind, in fact.
He avoided Nymphadora Tonks, even when the Healers arrived and lifted her onto a floating stretcher.
At last he was alone in the great dark room where Sirius died. Remus walked slowly and cautiously towards the Veil. He stopped just short of it and stood in silence, listening out to see if he could hear his old friends voice one last time. He'd never had a chance to say goodbye. The second time Sirius had gone without a goodbye, and this time it would definitely be the last. No more Padfoot. No more friends.
He took another step forward on the dais. It would be so easy now to take two, maybe three more steps with his feet and to go through the archway himself. He'd be free of these feelings there. Whatever came after held no fear for Remus. It was almost certainly not going to be any worse than his experience of living. His slightly-religious mother had believed in a notion of Heaven and Hell, his dad believed in the common wizarding notion that there was nothing after. Remus preferred his dad's belief. As much as anything else, his dad's beliefs had never led to a visit to a freezing cold Muggle chapel.
One more step. Just another and he could lean forward and taste the nothingness. Harry was safe now. Tonks was being looked after. He would not really be missed.
"Remus?" The voice of Albus Dumbledore came from behind him. Remus turned, slowly, reluctantly. It would have been one thing to have taken the easy route out alone in the Department of Mysteries, and a whole other to have essentially committed suicide in front of his old Headmaster. "The St Mungo's Healers are waiting to see you. I've asked them to check everyone over who was here tonight. You'll be pleased to know that Miss Tonks is likely to make a full recovery."
Remus walked down from the dais. He didn't have anything much to say to Dumbledore.
"I am terribly sorry about Sirius Black," said the old wizard, placing a hand on Remus' arm as they walked out the door together. "His life was much more tragedy than any one wizard should have to bear. As has yours been, and Harry's. I've always wished I could have saved even one of you the pain."
But you can't, thought Remus. The main positive angle to his life at this point was that it was unlikely to get too much worse.
