A/N: Chapter 7 is up. This chapter seems pretty irrelevant and I know it's not very exciting, but it's needed for the rest of the story so just bear with me. Of course I wouldn't let poor Sirius die, how could you think I would?! Please read and review, because without reviews I have no idea whether I should carry on or not! Now, for the people who reviewed last time, thank you so much!

Sunni07: Thanks for your review. No, Harry doesn't have a girlfriend; Bellatrix was just referring to Jasmine. Don't worry, I wouldn't ever kill off Sirius, that would just be too cruel to him.

Cassiopeia Stargazer: He's alive, don't worry!

Tabytha: Thanks for your review, hope you like this chapter.

Katriana soulless: It's okay, you'd better review this one as well!

Disclaimer: Sadly all HP characters belong to JK Rowling, but any you don't recognize are mine.


Jasmine, standing apprehensively in the kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place, felt weary and exhausted. She had never experienced the Cruciatus Curse, or anything like it, before, and her body still ached with the aftershocks. She felt drained, but more than anything she was afraid. The emotion was reflected in the faces of the people around her; Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Tonks...

She was startled out of her thoughts by a loud crashing sound from the hallway.

"I think that's Bill and Remus!" Mrs Weasley cried, rushing to the living room, followed anxiously by the others. Upon entering the living room, Jasmine felt something catch in the back of her throat.

Bill Weasley and Lupin had just Apparated in the middle of the room (knocking over the coffee table) their shoulders hunched, sharing the weight of Sirius between them. He was clearly unconscious, and they laid him down on the sofa.

"Oh my..." Mrs Weasley gasped.

Harry rushed forward to his godfather. It was not a pretty sight.

Sirius' face was battered and bruised; several cuts and scratches ran across his forehead and cheeks, and he had a black eye. His robes were ripped and torn in several places, bloodstained and ragged. There were deep cuts along his stomach and arms, and his left arm was hanging limply at his side; it was broken.

"What happened?" Lupin asked, turning to Jasmine and the others.

"Bellatrix Lestrange!" Harry said angrily, his fists clenched.

"She cornered us in an alley," Ginny said shakily.

"Why were you in an alley?" Mrs Weasley asked sharply, momentarily distracted.

"She tricked us!" Ron said. "She said – "

"She put the Cruciatus Curse on Harry and Jasmine!" Hermione said shrilly. There was a stunned silence at these words.

"She...she what?!" Mrs Weasley gasped, horrified, turning to Jasmine and Harry. Jasmine wished Hermione hadn't said anything; she didn't want anyone fussing over her while Sirius was lying bloody and bruised on the sofa.

"No, it's fine!" Jasmine insisted impatiently as Mrs Weasley held her and Harry by the shoulders, seemingly inspecting them for any marks or bruises.

"What about Sirius?!" Harry asked hotly

"A broken bone, several cuts and bruises," Kingsley said from the sofa, examining Sirius closely. "Nothing a few spells won't fix."

Harry didn't seem convinced. He was still staring angrily at the sofa where Sirius lay, but Jasmine knew his anger was directed at someone far away from 12 Grimmauld Place. She felt a rush of hatred for the woman too, remembering the way she had laughed as she tortured them, her black eyes glittering, full of malice and cruelty.

"What happened after Bellatrix put the curse on you?" Lupin asked Jasmine. She paused, trying to remember. It had all happened so fast...

"Um...Sirius came, and he fought her...then he told us to go, so we did."

Lupin stared down at the ground.

"So she knows he's alive," he said gravely.

There was silence; the other Order members didn't seem to have realized this. Tonks bit her lip, looking worriedly out of the window, as if expecting Voldemort to suddenly jump through it. It was getting dark outside; the sun was setting and the trees were beginning to darken, black silhouettes against the glowing sky.

"Right," Mrs Weasley said briskly, trying to break the grave silence that hung over the room. "I'll finish dinner. Kingsley, do we need to take him to St. Mungo's?"

Kingsley shook his head.

"No, I can fix this," he said. "Probably best not to wake him, he'll come round by himself."

"Okay," Mrs Weasley said. She turned to Harry and Jasmine. "Now, dears, is there anything I can get you? Are you sure you're all right?"

They nodded firmly, and the Order members began to depart.

"We'll have to call an emergency meeting tomorrow," Mr Weasley was saying seriously to the others. "Dumbledore should be informed."

"He's not going to like it," Moody said grimly. "He told Sirius not to go out..."

"I expect so," Mr Weasley agreed. "But we need to be prepared for what You-Know-Who may do now that he is aware of Sirius' return."

"Why did Bellatrix just Disapparate before Bill and Remus got there?" Tonks asked.

"I suppose she thought Sirius was dead," Mr Weasley said despondently.

"We should alert the rest of the Order," Moody growled, hobbling into the kitchen.

"Right you are, Alastor," Tonks said.


"He'll be alright, won't he?" Hermione asked shakily, looking close to tears as she stared blanky down at Sirius. Kingsley had mended his arm and cleaned his wounds, but he was still bruised and scratched.

"He'd better be," said Harry dangerously. "Next time I see that foul, evil – "

"How did she get there?" Jasmine asked. "The entire Wizarding World is searching for her!"

"Probably Apparated there and put a spell on that old woman so she wouldn't recognize her," Ron said dully. "It's my fault. I'm the idiot who believed her."

Hermione shook her head.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron. Any of us would have done the same."

"Well, at least now I'm prepared for the Cruciatus Curse," Jasmine said, smiling humourlessly.

"You'll never be prepared for it," Harry said darkly, sitting down wearily in an armchair.

"Is it really bad?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.

"Think of the most painful thing you can imagine," Jasmine said. "And multiply it by about a hundred."

"What did she do to him?" Ginny asked, staring sorrowfully down at Sirius. "After we left?"

There was silence; clearly no one wanted to think about it.

"And now she knows he's alive..." Hermione said.

"She was going to find out sooner or later," Jasmine pointed out. "And besides, Vol – I mean, You-Know-Who isn't going to be too pleased with her for failing him again."

"He isn't," Harry said dryly.

Ron frowned, and then comprehension dawned on him.

"Oh...is your, I mean, does it – " he mumbled, gesturing towards Harry's scar. Harry smiled grimly, and nodded.

"I hate her," he murmured angrily. "I swear, I'll get back at her if it's the last thing I do."

Ginny placed a hand on his shoulder sympathetically.

"I know," she said. "But there's nothing we can do now. Let's go for dinner."


Dinner passed uneventfully. Everyone sat quietly, worried about Sirius and what was going to come for the Order. Even Fred and George weren't chatting excitedly and cracking jokes; they sat and ate their dinner in silence. Mrs Weasley passed round dessert lacking her usual cheerfulness, and when the ice cream was finished, there was an awkward hush around the table.

"Delicious, Molly," said Lupin, in an attempt to introduce conversation back to the kitchen.

"Let's go upstairs," Ron muttered in Jasmine's ear. "Mum, can we go?"

Mrs Weasley nodded. They took their plates to the sink and then hurried up to the attic.

"Well, that was awkward," Ron said, lying back on Fred's bed.

"Mmm," George agreed.

"Do you think Dumbledore will be really angry with Sirius?" Hermione asked anxiously.

The others paused to consider.

"Probably. I mean, he completely ignored him and went wandering around Diagon Alley. And look where it got him – all bruised and stuff," Ron said.

"But if Sirius hadn't shown up, we'd probably all be dead," Ginny pointed out. Ron shuddered.

"True," he said.

"I still don't understand," Jasmine said, "why it's such a big deal that Voldemort knows Sirius is alive. I mean, I know he could use him as bait for you," – she nodded at Harry – "and stuff, but he could use anyone for that."

"Yeah, but if he knew he was alive he'd probably try and kill him again to spite me," Harry said bitterly, staring down at the ground.

Fred opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off as Harry suddenly let out a cry of pain, clutching at his forehead.

"What is it?" Jasmine asked anxiously, putting a hand on his arm.

"Voldemort," Harry said through clenched teeth, his face screwed up in pain, bent double with his hands grasping his forehead.

"Is it Bellatrix? Is he punishing her?" Hermione asked worriedly.

Harry nodded, crying out in pain again and tightening his grip on his scar, his knuckles white.

"Is there anything we can do?!" Ginny asked frantically. Harry shook his head. After another few seconds, his face relaxed and he lifted his hands off his scar.

"It's stopped," he said. "He can't have been too angry...unless he's knocked her out or something."

"Hopefully," Ron said viciously.

"Do you want some water or something?" Hermione asked Harry. He shook his head.

"It's okay," he said. "He's done for now."

Jasmine didn't know how Harry knew this, but thought better than to question him right now.

"I doubt he holds her in such high esteem at the moment," Hermione mused. "After that prophecy thing and all."

"It must have been pretty important for him to actually go into the Ministry of Magic himself," Fred said.

"Any ideas?" George inquired.

"We've talked about this," Harry said irritably. He tried to change the subject. "What are we going to do tomorrow?"

"I don't know," Jasmine sighed, leaning wearily against the wall.

"I'm tired," Fred yawned. "Oi, you – off my bed." He attempted to shove Ron off the bed, much to his chagrin.

"Fine, fine, I'm getting up!" Ron said irritably. "I'm going to go to bed."

"Me too," Jasmine said. She, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny left the attic and traipsed downstairs to their bedrooms.

The curtains in the girls' room had already been drawn, and Jasmine wearily changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed. Hermione was sitting up in hers, reading a large book on Arithmancy. Jasmine rolled her eyes

"Night," she grunted sleepily. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.


Jasmine awoke in the middle of the night. The room around her was pitch black and eerily silent. Groaning inwardly, she rolled over and closed her eyes in an attempt to get back to sleep. She didn't feel tired, but forced herself to try and fall asleep again. After about half an hour of listening to her own breathing (and Ginny's snoring) she gave up and climbed out of bed, intending to go down to the kitchen and get a drink.

Cursing the creaky floorboards of 12 Grimmauld Place, she tiptoed as quietly as she could out of the room. The stairs squeaked loudly under her feet and she flinched, hoping she hadn't woken anyone - especially Mrs Black. She felt relieved as she finally stepped into the hall. The unnatural silence and darkness of the house was disquieting, and she hurried to the kitchen, hating the blackness all around her. Lighting as many candles as she could in the kitchen with her wand, she poured herself a drink and hurried back to the foot of the stairs. She was about to rush back up to her room when a noise from the living room startled her. Sirius...

After hesitating for a moment, she slowly pushed open the door.

The living room was dimly lit by several candles that were floating in mid air near the sofa. The curtains were drawn, and Sirius was sitting up on the sofa, rubbing his forehead wearily. Before Jasmine could leave, Sirius glanced up at her. She felt slightly embarrassed, and didn't know whether to stay or go. She had forgotten during the fight with Bellatrix that her and Sirius had not been speaking to each other, and now remembered uncomfortably.

"Hi..." she said tentatively.

"Hi," Sirius croaked. He started coughing, and Jasmine took the glass of water to him. "Thanks," he said hoarsely.

His face was bruised and scratched, but looked better than when Bill and Lupin had carried him into the living room. His arm was no longer broken, and the cuts on his stomach had mostly healed.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jasmine asked.

Sirius smiled grimly.

"Never better," he said wryly, putting the empty glass down on the coffee table. "Why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep," she said simply.

"I thought you'd be exhausted," Sirius said. Jasmine shook her head.

"It's not that, it's just if I wake up in the middle of the night and it's really dark and quiet and no one else is up, I can never get back to sleep."

Sirius frowned.

"Are you scared of the dark?" he asked.

She nodded shyly.

"Yes. Don't laugh at me."

He smiled.

There was an awkward silence. Jasmine didn't know if he wanted her to leave so he could get back to sleep or not, and sat uncomfortably on the end of the sofa. She didn't know if she should apologise for shouting at him the other night or not. Then she noticed the large rip in his robes across his shoulder, as if something had slashed right across his torso, and realized how much he must have suffered to save her and the others.

"Um..." she mumbled. "I'm sorry. You know, about..."

Sirius frowned for a second, as if unsure of what she was talking about.

"Oh," he said, comprehension dawning on him. "No, that's okay. I shouldn't have shouted at you."

She nodded, and there was another silence. Feeling as if this was her cue to leave, Jasmine stood up.

"Well...I'm going to go back to bed," she said. Sirius frowned.

"I thought you said you couldn't get back to sleep?"

"Yes, but you need to sleep," she said. Sirius shrugged.

"Not really. I'm not tired. And I have a nasty feeling that Regulus is planning on waking me up even if I did get to sleep." He gestured to the portrait over the fireplace, where a grumpy looking wizard with thick black hair and eyebrows sat glaring at him.

"That's your brother?" Jasmine asked, peering at it.

"The one and only," Sirius said grimly.

"Did you not get on?"

Sirius snorted.

"I didn't get on with any of them," he said. "But him especially."

"How come?"

Sirius smiled.

"Well, I used to hex him all the time in front of the girls at school. Him and Snape."

Jasmine frowned, bemused.

"Why would any girls be near Snape anyway?!" she asked. Sirius laughed, running a hand through his hair.

"Well they were the Slytherin girls," he said. "So not the best-looking creatures you'll ever see."

"They're not, are they?" Jasmine said. "I noticed that."

"You get the occasional good-looking one, and then the rest..." Sirius tailed off, shaking his head sadly.

"So, did Regulus have any female admirers?" Jasmine smiled. Sirius gave a derisive laugh.

"With those eyebrows? Nah," he said.

Jasmine laughed and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa, crossing her legs.

"What about you?" she asked curiously. "And what about Lupin?"

Sirius looked slightly taken aback by the question. He paused thoughtfully.

"Lupin had all the clever ones fawning over him," he said. "But he never seemed to notice. He was always too busy for a girlfriend. But there were a couple, I think."

"And James?" Jasmine asked.

"Well, he only had eyes for Lily." Sirius smiled reminiscently. "Though he did go out with the most irritating girl I think I've ever met, in an attempt to make her jealous. The only problem was, the girl was so jealous of him staring at Lily all the time that she dumped him in front of her." He laughed.

"And Peter?" Jasmine asked. A flicker of anger passed across Sirius' face.

"No one to speak of," he said gruffly.

"And you?" Jasmine inquired, smiling. Sirius shrugged.

"A few," he said. "No one special."

"I'm guessing you had more female attention than Snape, though?" she asked, grinning. Sirius snorted.

"Even Peter got more attention than Snape," he said disgustedly. Jasmine laughed.

"What about Lucius Malfoy?" she asked. "What was he like?"

An expression of disgust crossed Sirius' face.

"Snape worshipped him," he said. "He was always trying to get us back for hexing Snape. Never worked, though. He'd go around trying to get people on his side."

"Sounds like dear Draco," Jasmine said. "Him and Harry."

"What's Harry like at school?" Sirius asked.

"From what I've heard, a lot like James," Jasmine said. "He even had the passionate crush for a while."

Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Really? Who?"

"Cho Chang," Jasmine said. Sirius shook his head.

"Don't know her. What happened?"

"Well, he's not so...knowledgeable...about how girls' minds work," Jasmine said, fighting the urge to smile. "And she kept crying over Cedric, and they kept fighting, and eventually it just ended. But they were never seeing each other or anything, really."

"What about Hermione? Did he ever go out with her?"

Jasmine shook her head.

"No, her and Ron are made for each other."

Sirius smiled. "I can see that, actually."

"They just don't know it yet," Jasmine said, shaking her head sadly.

Sirius lay back on the sofa, his arms behind his head.

"So," he smirked. "What about you?"

Jasmine shrugged.

"There's no one at school," she said.

"What about outside school?" he asked.

"Some people..." Jasmine mumbled. "But disappearing off for most of the year doesn't exactly say long-term relationship does it?"

"Maybe not," Sirius said. Jasmine lay back on the sofa, resting her head on one of the cushions. The only sound in the room was the grandfather clock ticking slowly.

"So..." she said, trying to change the subject. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

Sirius shrugged. "Order meeting, getting yelled at by Dumbledore." He tried to shrug it off, but Jasmine could tell her was worried.

"You'll be fine," she said. "And besides, if you hadn't been there, we probably would have died." She shivered.

Sirius was silent, staring thoughtfully at the wall.

"I know what he'll do, though," he said. "He'll give me that really disappointed look..."

"Yeah," Jasmine said, "that always makes you feel really guilty."

"And like he's actually really upset," Sirius sighed. "He did that all the time when I was at Hogwarts."

"Well from the things I've heard about what you got up to, I'm not surprised!" Jasmine said. Sirius grinned.

"You haven't heard half of it," he said.

"Tell me, then," Jasmine said, intrigued. She sat up and folded her arms round her knees.

"Well," Sirius said, grinning mischievously. "In first year..."


It was four o'clock in the morning when Jasmine left the living room to go up to bed. She hadn't been able to stop laughing at Sirius' tales of mischief, and felt slightly less apprehensive of the dark, still house than she had when she had first come down; she had completely forgotten what the reason for coming down was in the first place.

Tiptoeing, she climbed the creaking staircase, shuddering at the elf heads on the wall, which looked creepier and more contorted than ever in the shadows. Her room was pitch black, and she stumbled blindly to her bed and pulled the duvet over herself. She sat listening to the faint sound of trees rustling outside and watching a beam of moonlight creep slowly across the room through the curtains. After a while, she felt sleep wash over her and lay her head on the pillow, closing her eyes and still smiling as she had been ever since she had left the living room.


Well that's it, PLEASE review or I'll cry!