Later, thinking back to his reaction to Izzy's alarmed statement, Sirius would wonder how so many feelings and thoughts had managed to compress their way through such a short period of time… the one that preceded his response. Had it been one second? Two? It couldn't have been more than two, he was sure. At first he thought he might have heard it wrong but the look on the reflection of his daughter's face on the mirror told him that wasn't true. The next thought was that he might have imagined that, in a nightmare, maybe: soon enough he would wake up with Mia's soft form by his side and shake his head at how silly the idea of Death Eaters infiltrating Hogwarts – Hogwarts of all places! – was. That school's protection was known as nearly unbeatable, after all.

Nearly, he thought. It wouldn't be the first time a threat – himself having allegedly been one of those not many years before – slipped through Hogwarts' wards and threatened its students, namely Harry. Deep down he knew Izzy might very well be right. "Izzy," he started, feeling his throat as dry as if it had been covered with parchment, "are you s…?"

"Yes, Daddy!" she replied before we could finish. "They came through the room of requirement somehow. We couldn't actually see them – they used Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder to make everything dark – but…"

"Those bloody bastards used our Instant Darkness Powder?" Sirius heard one of the twins ask in outrage behind him, just as Izzy continued. Had to feel like a punch right in the gut.

"… we heard them talking," his daughter said. "Bellatrix was congratulating Malfoy for managing to get them in!"

A chill ran down his spine as he thought of his cousin – that bloody bitch who'd very nearly killed his wife and his baby last time he'd come face to face with her – standing in the very same building as his daughter. And Harry, he added. As paralyzing as it felt for the first few seconds, that thought helped him snap back to reality – there was just no time to be fearful and he needed to do something about it! "Alright," he told his daughter, trying to even his voice, "is Harry there with you?"

She shook her head. "He's not here in the school. He and Dumbledore… they had some business to solve outside."

They'd gone after a Horcrux. "Crap," he cursed under his breath. Could it get any worse? The school was under attack and the headmaster was out with Harry doing a task that to this day Sirius still had no idea how dangerous might be… If there was anything positive out of it, it was that at least Harry wasn't at the mercy of the Death Eaters now. He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to the two-way mirror. "Find a teacher, then, tell him what you heard… no, tell him you saw – it will be easier to believe – and have the message passed to McGonagall. Then go to the Common Room and stay there. I don't want you in the middle of that mess."

On the mirror, Izzy frowned. "I already am in the middle of it," she retorted in a slightly edgy tone.

"Izzy…"

"Just send the order, Daddy. Don't worry about me. I've got a feeling luck's on my side today," she said just as her face vanished from the polished piece of glass.

"Damn it!" he immediately cursed out loud. It didn't take a genius to know his daughter was most definitely not going to stay in the common room as he'd commanded. The damn kid was too much like him – she'd go running straight into the fight, where she thought she could help. She'd better be right about luck being on her side.

They couldn't rely on luck, though. They needed to act fast. "Tonks…" he started, motioning to turn to the Auror in the room and noting she was already on her feet and ready for action – it was clear he hadn't been the only one hearing his daughter's words as all others were alarmed too.

"I'm on it," she replied before he could finish – if there was something she could never be accused of, was of not being quick on her feet even if from time to time that would cause her to trip on stuff. "I'll go and alert the Auror team stationed in Hogsmeade and call for reinforcements." Then, she turned to her husband and gave him a look that clearly warned him to be careful, to which he responded with another look bearing the same meaning right before the pink-haired metamorphagus grabbed her wand and apparated out of the room.

"I can contact a few members of the Order and have them spread the word," Remus offered as the echo of the cracking sound caused by his wife's disapparition still sounded in the room.

"Make that silent calling thing too if you know how," Sirius mumbled.

"I will," Remus told him in a sure tone. "You should go find Mia and Elizabeth now. They have healing training, so they might be needed. Also, I'm sure they'll want to know about this."

Sirius nodded. "That's what I was just going to do."

"Hey! Hey! Wait up!" Fred stopped them as Sirius started heading to the door. "What about us?" he asked, pointing at himself and his twin.

"Yeah, you can't expect us to stay back here and do nothing," George added. "Those bastards used one of our products to cover after themselves!"

Remus sighed. "Fred, George, you're not aurors, you're not part of the Order… you're too young."

"The hell we are," Fred replied, narrowing his eyes. "We're of age. We can join whenever we want to!"

"Your mother…"

George rolled his eyes. "Mom would still walk us around in our prams if she could," he said, turning to Sirius too, who'd been silent ever since they'd started protesting. "Ron and Ginny are at Hogwarts and so are a handful of our friends," he turned to Sirius, hoping to increase the effect of his words, "Izzy included. Plus, we know that school better than most people – every secret passage, every quick escape…"

"We're just as useful there as you Marauders are," Fred finished. "You can't actually believe we'll stay behind even if you order us to."

It seemed like the discussion was over right there – they'd indeed be fooling themselves if they honestly believed Fred and George would listen to them telling them to stay behind… Besides, they had a point about knowing Hogwarts and being old enough: it was a fact that both Sirius and Remus had joined the Order when they exactly the same age as the twins, nineteen.

"Alright, then," Sirius told them, resigned with the argument. "Honestly, the Order needs to use all the help it can get. You two can start by helping me find Mia."

"What do you think of a cat?" Elizabeth asked as she observed a litter of small grey kittens snoozing inside a large willow basket by the shop's counter.

When, about ten minutes earlier, Elizabeth had declared that she just 'needed to drop by a shop' and insisted she came along, Mia had cringed and felt her blood turning into ice. She imagined the plush inside of Twilfitt and Tatting's Dress Shop and recalled one horribly long afternoon that had taken place many years before, during which a recently employed Elizabeth had dragged her best friends, Mia and Lily, into that very same shop in order to burn out half her first pay-check in an outrageously expensive. A dress, she recalled, intended for a date Elizabeth had been planning with her then boyfriend, later husband and current ex-husband, Ludo Bagman, father of the two blonde children standing a few feet away, entertaining themselves observing a cage full of hyperactive mice.

To Mia's relief, though, the shop Elizabeth had mentioned wasn't Twilfitt and Tatting's at all but instead the much more pleasant pet shop on Diagon Alley, where she wanted Mia's help to decide which pet to give Evie in her birthday, only a couple of weeks away.

"I suppose Evie might like a cat," Mia mumbled, looking at the kittens as well. "They're not as messy as dogs can be, I think. Not to mention that dogs cannot be taken to Hogwarts while cats can. It will save you from having to look after it for ten-months a year."

Elizabeth looked at her and smiled. "Says the experienced dog-owner in you, hum?"

Mia raised her eyebrows at first and it took her a couple of seconds to realize what her friend was saying. "Oh, I'll make sure to mention to Sirius that you called him a dog, though I doubt he'll feel insulted. Personally, I like to be referred as the wife of a guy who can turn into a dog at will – sounds more politically correct."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Of course it does. How is he doing, anyway? I barely had time to ask earlier. He seemed pretty eager to escape any chance of me dragging him into a shopping spree."

"Naturally. But he's alright," Mia said, sighing. "A bit edgy about the war, though, but who isn't, these days? The Dementors are what bother him the most. This is practically the first time he's here at London outside of the house since the attacks became more often."

The blonde sighed and nodded. "I heard about them. The auror department is having trouble keeping up with them all – they've already pulled the best trainees from the academy early because they're short-handed. I mean, you've seen the ones stationed here in Diagon Alley for crowd control today: half of them look like they belong in a classroom at Hogwarts."

"I noticed – I assumed they were still in training," Mia told her.

Elizabeth shook her head. "No. All legitimate aurors fresh out of the academy. It was like this last time too, wasn't it? James was pulled from training sooner as well, wasn't he? Lily wrote to me about it."

Mia nodded. "I remember – he was. Lily only wasn't pulled too because she got pregnant with Harry and they couldn't risk putting her in the front lines." She let out a low sigh at the memories before suddenly looking up at her friend with an eyebrow rose as a thought occurred to her. "Wait, how do you even know all of that? Did it come out in the newspapers?" She didn't recall hearing about that at all.

Elizabeth bit her lower lip. "No, it wasn't published. The reason why I know that is actually related to one of the reasons why I asked you to come here and meet me today, now that you mention it," she confessed.

"I thought you wanted to catch up."

"I did too. But I also needed to tell you something… and I guess there's no time like the present. Please don't be upset I didn't tell you earlier – it's more complicated that you think."

"What is it, then?"

The blonde took a deep breath, gathering her courage. "I'm…" she started.

Elizabeth wasn't able to finish, though, as suddenly their attention was turned somewhere else: one of the Weasley twins had just abruptly burst into the pet shop, apparently searching intently through the many present costumers until his eyes landed on Mia and he breathed in relief. Mia raised an inquisitive eyebrow at that.

He made a signal for her to approach before he took a step back through the still-open door, standing outside the shop for a moment, and shouted something that Mia could swear to be 'She's here!' to someone outside. Then, after the redhead stepped back in, Mia did approach him, with an equally confused Elizabeth on her heel.

"Hum… Fred?" She asked, unsure of which of the twins she was speaking to.

"George," he corrected, his voice rather humourless – strange, considering who it was…. "You'd got to come with me. Something happened."

Mia felt herself tense. His facial expression mixed with his words were enough to unsettle her. "What's wrong? Is it Sirius? Is he…"

He shook his head. "It's not Sirius. He's fine. Death Eaters. They're at Hogwarts," he told her shortly.

"Holy Merlin, how's that possible?" Mia heard Elizabeth saying by her side as she felt the tension become a dagger-like pain in her heart.

She swallowed hard. "Harry and Izzy…?" she dared herself to ask.

"Harry's not in the school: went somewhere with Dumbledore – no idea what or where, though. Izzy's fine as far as we know – she was the one who warned Sirius," George explained. "He's looking for you so we can all go to…"

"Take me to him," Mia requested before he was finished talking. She'd been expecting Harry to have to have to chase a Horcrux at some point, which was likely what he was doing at the moment; she also hadn't been naïve enough to believe the Death Eater attacks would be gone for good just because they'd been quiet lately and that the illusion of peace would last long either. She hadn't been expecting, though, for those two things to overlap…

George nodded and, before following him, Mia turned her face to Elizabeth for a moment – she could barely recall what they'd even been talking about before the news had came. "Are you coming?"

"Just as soon as I drop the kids at Ludo's mother's place," she said, nodding at the two children standing by the shop-keeper's side, petting a fluffy white rabbit in her arms.

Mia nodded, then, and without another word followed the redheaded boy outside. Thankfully, she didn't have to bother about needing to search for Sirius through the crowds of people celebrating the Harpy's first goal: her husband was already approaching with Fred when they left the shop and immediately reached for her hand.

As soon as he reached her, he spoke. "Hogwarts…"

"George told me," she assured him.

"You sure you want to go?" he asked her tentatively. Part of him hoped she'd stay home, safe, waiting for him to come back with good news.

"Don't even try to convince me otherwise," she warned him in a firm, no-nonsense tone. "Our daughter's in there. Harry may be arriving too any minute…"

Sirius shook his head – how could he bring himself to tell her to ignore those things when he felt just the same? "I won't. I won't try to change your mind." And with that, his arm snaked its way around her back and held her against him in a mutual-comforting fashion as they walked together.

They ended up apparating straight into Grimmauld Place with the twins and Remus, who later joined them, and, from there, they used the floo connection to Hogwarts that very few people were aware of in order to reach the school. Mia's office, where the connection ended, was dark now that dusk reigned outside and seemingly untouched by any sort of attack. They didn't let themselves hope it was a false alarm, though. They knew better.

"I need to go and find Dora," Remus announced as he reached for the door, turning to them for a moment. "Before she manages to get hurt again…" Merlin knew she did nearly every time she took part in a battle – he hoped one of these days it wouldn't be more than sprains, cuts and broken bones…

Sirius nodded understandingly – he'd do just the same if he was in his shoes. "Go, mate."

The twins ended up taking a different way from theirs too, opting to use the thick net of secret passages that served Hogwarts, hoping to locate the Death Eaters faster through there. "We'll send a message through a Patronus when we find them," one promised before they sped away, leaving Mia and Sirius behind to search on their own.

"Where do we start?" Mia asked her husband. There was no sign of any fight, battle or duel around but then again the school was enormous and they were only in the first floor…

"The main staircase," Sirius told her. "We can go anywhere from there."

He grabbed her hand and they ran towards it together. It felt foreign to cross those corridors and not run into a single student as it was usual – they hoped that meant they were hiding safely in their common rooms. They hoped Izzy was among those students, though Sirius still had a feeling that wasn't the case.

When they reached the main staircase, it became obvious a battle was really occurring, though it seemed to be taking place mainly in the upper floors for some reason. The sound of explosions, threats and mad fits of laughter echoed all over and, if they looked up, they could see the colourful lights of spells being cast at a distance – some were followed by screaming, others by sounds of objects shattering or exploding. They could only imagine the mess going on up there.

They resumed climbing up the stairs and, on their way there, ran into some members of the Order: Hestia Jones, Sturgis Podmore, Dedallus Diggle… Turned out, Dumbledore hadn't left the school without warning the Order and, just in case, he'd made sure a few Order members were monitoring the school grounds – what they hadn't been expecting was the Death Eaters infiltrating the school from within, which they hadn't realized until receiving the Silent Calling Remus had made.

By the time they reached the fourth floor, Mia noticed something odd through the archway that lead to that floor's main corridor, which seemed to be completely empty. A large statue of a hog was moving, revealing a small door underneath it – a secret passage that she didn't even know to exist. Then again, she didn't know many… Alarmed, Mia grabbed the sleeve of her husband's shirt and stopped his motion, giving him a quick glace and nodding at the statue. He saw it too. "It leads upstairs," Sirius mouthed since he apparently was aware of that passage.

They quickly, yet as silently as they could, approached it pointing their wands at the door as they half-expected some Death Eater to emerge from the other side of it – instead, seconds later they saw themselves pointing their wands and ready to attack their own daughter.

"Mom, Daddy," Izzy called as soon as her eyes landed on them and they lowered their wands.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Mia said as she reached forward and enveloped her daughter in a bone-shattering hug. Izzy was okay.

"Merlin, Izzy, you scared the living out of us," Sirius told his daughter. "Didn't I tell you to go to your common room and stay there?"

Izzy sighed as she pulled away from her mother. "Daddy, I…"

"Er… can we leave that discussion for later? We sort of need to come through here," a voice came from behind Izzy's form, revealing there was someone else with her.

She moved out of the way, revealing Neville standing behind her with Hannah Abbot, supporting a second-year Ravenclaw boy whose leg seemed to be badly broken. The two moved away from the little door and sat the boy on a nearby stone bench as a group of about a dozen other students ranging from first to fourth year and from every house exited the secret passage too. All of them were presenting small injuries consisting of several cuts, bruises, not half as serious as the boy's leg – mostly, they looked frightened and pale.

"Holy Merlin, what happened to them?" Mia asked

"Shrapnel," Izzy explained. "They were in a Gobstones club meeting up on the seventh floor, pretty close to where the battle's taking place. We ran into them and figured we should get them out of there before some Death Eater found them and did Merlin-knows-what with them."

"Yaxley saw us on our way here, though," Neville added, sighing. Both he, Izzy and Hannah had had a feeling that they should have waited a few more minutes before making their escape but they hadn't wanted to waste time when a battle was happening barely yards away – maybe they should have listened to the feeling since it came from the Felix Felicis, after all. "He tried to hit us with a few blasting hexes but missed. They hit the windows and a few lamps, though, and made them explode…" He nodded at the other students. "They were hit with some of the shrapnel."

"And none of you weren't?" Sirius asked in disbelief, looking at Izzy, Neville and Hannah who didn't have a scratch on them.

"We were lucky," Izzy told him without humour in her voice.

"What about the others?" Mia asked suddenly. "Ron? Hermione? Ginny?"

Izzy shook her head. "I don't know. Last we saw of Ginny, she'd gone to warn Ron and Hermione of the Death Eaters." She tried not to worry about them because they'd all taken the Felix and Ginny had the Marauders map with her… she couldn't help wondering where they were, though. "They were patrolling Snape's office…"

Sirius frowned – did that son of a bitch have anything to do with that attack? "Why?"

"Because Harry told us to – he doesn't trust Snape," Izzy said simply, not feeling like going further into that matter.

Mia looked down at the injured boy's leg. "He needs to go to the Hospital Wing," she said – the boy didn't say anything – he simply sat, very pale.

Neville shook his head, then. "We tried to get there. It's a mess near there. Curses flying everywhere, explosions… Running into the middle of that would be suicide."

"Where are you going then?" Sirius asked. "The great hall?"

"No, to my house's common room," Hannah Abbot announced. "We're trying to get everyone outside of their own dorms there. I ran into Professor Sprout and she said they were setting up a shelter down there. It should be safe – it's far from away from the battle, one needs a password to get in… Susan Bones and Ernie Macmillan went to get a few House Elves to help out with the injured."

"We could probably use someone who used to be a healer with us to fix them better, Mom," Izzy said, nodding at the group of students behind her.

"I…" she turned to Sirius and pulled him aside for a moment, standing a few steps away from their daughter. They had made a promise to each other: they'd walk into any fight together and they would look after each other while in it. Deep down, she knew the right thing to do was going with Izzy and help those kids – there was no question in her mind about that as there was no doubt that she'd end up doing just that. It just terrified her, thinking of Sirius being out there, fighting on his own. Last time they'd been in such a battle, she'd nearly lost him just as he'd nearly lost her.

"Go with Izzy," he encouraged her.

"You just want me out of the way during the fight," she replied flatly.

It was true. He couldn't deny it. "Sure I do," he confirmed it. "But that doesn't change the fact that they need you more. Also doesn't change the fact that this way you can keep an eye on Izzy."

Merlin, she knew that. "Promise me you'll be okay, then," she demanded.

"You know I can't. I promise I'll do all I can to try, though," he offered instead.

She sighed and nodded, reaching to place a kiss on his cheek. "You'd better not."

He forced himself to give her a little smile and prepared to leave, shooting Izzy a warning look before he did so. "Stay with your mother. Don't do anything stupid," he warned her.

"Wait," she asked, approaching him as she reached for something inside her robes and removed a glass vial which seemed to be leaking through a crack. "Damn it!" she mumbled, only then noticing the dampness of her shirt wasn't sweat as she'd imagined. Between the leaked amount and what she'd shared with most of the DA and the Order, there was just enough for little more than one person… "Drink this," she said, handing it to her father – hopefully, since her mother was coming with her, she wouldn't need as much… "Just one gulp."

"What is it?" he asked her sceptically.

She shook her head. "Just trust me. I'll tell you afterwards," Izzy declared. "Please, Daddy!"

He seemed hesitant. "Tell me something first," he said cautiously. "What did you do when you saw me for the first time?"

It wasn't a random question. Being handed an unknown potion to drink during a battle was odd enough – he needed to make sure who was offering it to him was really someone he trusted and not an imposter that had taken polijuice potion, thus asking his daughter something only them and their most trusted friends knew – Izzy understood that herself. "I helped you escape from the Gryffindor tower. You were still on the run and Percy had gone to call the teachers because you had snuck into Harry's dorm room with a knife – when I helped you, you had no idea who I was."

He nodded and, satisfied with the answer, took a full gulp of the potion. Then, he waited a couple of seconds to see if anything happened and when nothing did, he handed the bottle to Mia, who drank the rest after Izzy gave her a nod. "Well? What was it?"

"Felix Felicis."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Then why didn't you say it right away?"

"Because you'd have told me to give it all to Mom and she's not to one who's about to walk into a battle," Izzy explained.

"She has a point," Mia agreed.

He narrowed his eyes. "Did you drink this too?" he asked Izzy.

"Yes," Mia told him. "Most of the old DA did. Some members of the Order too."

Sirius nodded, relieved – at least that comforted him a little about their safety. "Alright, then. All of you, be…"

"…careful," Mia finished for him. "You too." She reached for his hand and gripped it one last time before letting go of it.

As she watched her husband speed away, Mia gave herself a moment to take a deep breath and pray he would be alright. And then, gathering her strength, she turned to Izzy the group of students behind her. "Alright, let's get you all safe and fixed."

He'd never take Felix Felicis before that day, though he couldn't tell he and James hadn't been tempted to snuck some of it from Slughorn's potions stash back in the day – that was, right before the Marauders Map had been confiscates in their seventh year… It was amazing, yet so very risky. Some said if one didn't follow the whispered advice the potion gave them, if one became too confident… all could go wrong. Luck could become doom. Risk too much and handle the consequences. He wasn't sure if it was that strict but he wouldn't test it right now.

That was why he religiously followed every whisper, every 'feeling' he got. He wasn't sure why the potion told him to turn left when the staircase that led up to the battle's floor was on his right or why it made him go down one floor just so he could take some secret passage that landed him on the sixth floor little less than ten yards away from where the stairs would but took twice the time to do so. He didn't quite understand why his instinct was to disarm the first Death Eater that showed up running in his direction, some bloke name Gibbon, instead of stunning him until the guy was struck by a killing curse that another Death Eater, Rowle, had cast towards someone else – someone else who happened to be Remus Lupin and who would certainly be dead if it wasn't for the Felix.

After that, he didn't hesitate in aiming his wand towards Rowle, casting a stunner exactly at the same time as Remus did too and sending the Death Eater flying for several feet until he hit a wall.

"That was close, mate," Sirius told his friend, who was still staring at Gibbon's body on the floor.

He nodded. "I know. I… I've got to…" he pointed at Tonks, who was busy duelling with two Death Eaters at the same time a few feet away, meaning he needed to go help her.

Sirius nodded, intending to make his way to the seventh floor, as he recalled someone telling him that was where most of the Death Eaters were. He turned around, planning to make his way to the stairs and then, at the very end of the corridor, he saw him.

The rat, the traitor, the man who, for so long, he'd allowed himself to hate even more than Voldemort himself. Because unlike Voldemort, Sirius had once trusted this man, even loved him as a part of his family and one of his best friends. And what had he gotten in return? Betrayal. Death. Nothing would ever taste as bitter.

For a second or two, Sirius stood there unmoving, as dangerous as it might be right in the middle of a battle, just watching, trying to register that the great opportunity to get back at that bastard (as he'd been wishing to for so long) might have finally arrived. Why the other Death Eaters had brought him along was something he couldn't phantom... odds were that, like Rodolphus had, they didn't give a rat's arse if he lived or died. Most likely, they were hoping for the latter.

And they didn't seem to be the only ones: there, at the end of the corridor, Wormtail was fighting McGonagall… or rather trying to hide from her continuous curses and hexes behind some statue of a highly praised twelfth century headmaster of Hogwarts.

It all happened very fast from then on. Praised or not, seconds later the stone headmaster was blown to pieces and Wormtail had nowhere else to cower behind. He went almost as blank as thick December snow and his next movement, brought recognition to Sirius's eyes: he was trying to turn into his animagus form. Unsucessfully. Dumb or not, Wormtail should have realized he was duelling with an expert on transfiguration: if there was anyone who knew exactly how to stop an animagus from morphing, it was Minerva McGonagall. And that was exactly what she did. One might have thought it was a stunner since it was just as red but the traitor didn't fall down inanimate, he just looked at McGonagall in horror, unable to morph and then at Sirius, finally taking in his presence. Not a second passed before he motioned to run.

Sirius hadn't realized he'd been running towards Pettigrew and McGonagall, urged by the whisper of the Felix Felicis in his mind, until he saw himself passing in front of the latter and shouting that 'Wormtail was his'. There was no reply of protest from the deputy headmistress and Sirius simply kept running after him.

Wormtail wasn't very far ahead of him – ten, eleven yards' way, that quickly reduced to not more than five as Sirius was faster than Pettigrew at any rate. If he didn't get any closer was because Wormtail knew he was being followed and kept using his wand to throw all sorts of objects into Sirius's way, which he kept having to dodge. They went up the stairs, ran along corridors after corridors, passed by a number of duels whose intervenients Sirius didn't really have a mind to recognize… his eyes were set on the goal and that goal was Wormtail.

Courtesy of his little dose of liquid luck, any curses aimed at him missed him – some by several feet, others by a mere inch. It was only later that he would realize how many of them were emerald green. Wormtail wasn't so lucky to escape them all… At some point his silver hand, replacing the one he had sliced to bring his master back to the world of the living, was hit by some sort of orange spell which caused it to melt and sent his wand flying for several yards until it hit a wall and broke in a half. He was unarmed now.

Desperation seemed to cloud the traitor's mind even further as he took a turn to a seventh floor corridor that was known by everyone to be a dead end: no exits, not even secret passageways…. He wasn't just unarmed – he was trapped.

By the time Wormtail realized that too, he was already in some classroom with Sirius standing between him and any chance of a successful escape. In a last attempt to run, he tried once more to morph into his rat form, which didn't work. McGonagall's spell was still active.

"What, Wormtail? Can't turn?" Sirius asked him in a spiteful mocking tone. It was really happening: he couldn't escape now. Between McGonagall's curse and his lack of a wand Peter Pettigrew was finally at his mercy. This time, Sirius thought, he would get what he deserved.

But what did he deserve? It would have been so easy to kill him. Yet this time he was sane enough to know doing that wouldn't be right… Not because of any mercy for Wormtail but because of Sirius's own family. If they hauled him to Azkaban because of it, this time they would have a real reason to condemn him – he'd never see his wife and his kids. What would Mia think of him doing it? Killing Wormtail. He'd hurt her enough last time he'd tried to do so… One thing was killing someone out of need or self defence. Another one was doing it out of revenge. It tainted the soul. Harry had once told him his father wouldn't have wanted his best friends to become murderers for him – he was right. And why kill him, Sirius thought, when spending years in the hands of the Dementors would be so much worse to bear…

"How does it feel, Wormtail?" he finally asked his former friend, watching every little movement his face made, forming expressions of fear, hate… but never regret. That simple fact disgusted him. "How does it feel to know that, so soon, you'll finally end up where you should have been all this time? In Azkaban."

Wormtail trembled at the very name and his tiny beady eyes opened wide. Sirius could tell he was fighting not to look terrified. "The… half the Dementors… are on our side…" he stuttered.

In return, Sirius shrugged. "There's always the other half," he told him casually. "I promise it will be almost as painful as if they were all there."

"Why… why don't just… kill me?" the traitor asked, trembling. He knew pleading wouldn't do him any good that time – he'd already used that card back when Sirius had blown his cover as the Weasley boy's pet rat. He'd rather die than spend the rest of his life in that horror within Azkaban. "Kill me… be done with it…"

"I might just," he told him. "But I don't think I want to make it that easy for you. Tell me something first. Is it true what Lestrange told me? Did you put a hit on Mia? Did you want her dead just to make me suffer?"

Wormtail was very quiet, then – there was surprise in his eyes, not denial. Sirius imagined he had no idea Lestrange had spilled his guts and given him away before being kissed soulless. He also knew an admission of truth when he saw it. He wondered if it was the Felix what was making him so sure of that.

"Did you know she was pregnant back then?" Sirius spat. "I didn't but it wouldn't have mattered. If those bloody Death Eaters had managed to get her, you'd have been guilty for ending two innocent lives, you son of a bitch." He took a threatening step further and Wormtail took one back. "I lost thirteen years of my life because of you. I missed my daughter growing up."

The other man gulped. "Kill me, then, if you hate me so much."

He might just. He really might. But he was rational enough to know that wasn't what he really wanted. "Like I'd let you have it that easy… Why? Why did you hate us so much? We always had your back, we taught you pretty much all you know about magic because you were too thick to learn it in classes. What the hell was your problem?"

Pettigrew pursed his lips together. "You had it all and I had nothing. Especially you and James. You were smart, you were popular, people loved you. And what was I? Nobody. Your charity case, many said."

"And how is that our fault? We offered you friendship – you didn't have to take it if it made you feel bad!"

"The Dark Lord offered me power."

Sirius chuckled disdainfully. "Well, I hope you enjoyed it, then. 'Cause after all you did I'm handing you to the Dementors on a silver platter."

This time, Wormtail didn't hide the fear in his eyes. He looked around the room, searching for a miracle, a weapon… some leverage that might let him escape. There was nothing.

"Cheer up, mate," Sirius told him. "If you're lucky they'll kiss you before locking you up and then you'll be too empty to care where you are."

Wormtail shook his head over and over. And his eyes became fixed on the window. It was the only way out but they were on the seventh floor. He'd never live through a fall… but he'd never go to Azkaban either. So, the choice was made. He turned to Sirius one last time. "I'm not going to Azkaban." And he made a run for the window, jumping and breaking his way through the glass.

Disbelieving, Sirius ran towards the window after him, looking down through the hole on the glass. He was there at the bottom dozens of feet under the window illuminated only by the light of the first quarter moon – quiet, unmoving… dead. The bastard was dead. "Son of a bitch!" he shouted. Pettigrew had gotten his easy way out in the end, after all: he was dead and he wouldn't be going to Azkaban. It didn't really feel like justice to Sirius – even seemed pale, compared to the thirteen years Sirius had spent in what he could only compare to hell. "I hope you rot for all eternity, wherever you go now," he snarled, looking down at the body. And then, he motioned to get away from the window.

Something caught his eye before he could, though. A green light up on the Astronomy Tower followed by something falling down, moving downwards through the darkness of the night. No, not something. Someone. An endless moment passed before he realized who it was, through the glint of the long silvery beard reflecting the moonlight. That night, not only Wormtail was meeting his death, Sirius concluded, watching in disbelief as the limp form fell its way through the air like a rock.

So was Albus Dumbledore.

A/N: Finally the internship is over and I'll be enjoying the rest of my Summer (not really Summer) break, which only ends this October. I hope you liked the chapter - I deleted half of it and rewrote it a few times. Hard one to come... Feedback is welcome! Review!