A/N: Let's hope that there aren't any enormous grammar and/or spelling mistakes in this chapter. I went on a serious writing spree and finished it up all at once and am rushing to post it without reading it through 50,000 times first. If you find any horrible, terrible mistakes that you absolutely, positively cannot deal with enough to read it then let me know and I'll go through and revise it before I post the next one.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The wards were already down when Sirius reached Malfoy Manor. It was obvious that whoever was actually doing the dirty work were death eaters. Their work could always be identified by its poor execution. They were used to inspiring fear with their infamous uniforms and then using brute force to destroy everything in their paths. When it came to a job that required actual skill and finesse they were hopeless. If it had been Sirius doing the job, he would have put the wards back up as soon as he had entered so that anyone who came to check on the breech wouldn't be able to find his entrance point. With everyone running around trying to figure out where the wards were breeched, it would have made it easy to reach his target with little or no interruption. Of course, given the circumstances he was very glad that these assassins were complete morons.

There weren't even any guards or lookouts. Sirius would have thought it funny as hell that they were so confident that they didn't think they needed lookouts. However, the fact that the lack of death eaters in sight meant that all of them were inside the manor made him quickly forget the humor and begin to worry. He warily kept his guard up as he rushed across the grounds. With the wards down there was nothing stopping the Malfoy's pets from attacking him. He didn't particularly feel like wasting his time fighting an animal while his cousin was fighting for her life and that of her son's.

The enormous double doors of the manor were blown to pieces much the same was as the ones at Hogwarts had been during the battle so many years ago. Sirius made a mental note to figure out exactly what the death eaters had found that would blow through magically reinforced doors. He stopped short in the entranceway as he realized that he had absolutely no idea where Narcissa's or Draco's rooms were. Given the time of night, he figured that they would have been in their beds fast asleep when the attack began. Sirius glanced around hopelessly for a few seconds, which was enough time for him to reaffirm his original opinion that the death eaters were careless buffoons. Every door was firmly shut and the house was completely closed up for the night. It looked like they hadn't even bothered to check the other rooms for one of their targets before moving upstairs. For all they knew, Narcissa had been unable to sleep or Draco had decided to get into some mischief while his parents weren't watching him. No, the death eaters had just thundered right up the stairs without checking first.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Sirius strode into the apparation room of the manor. It was only opened to blood relations unless you had some token on you that the master of the house had given you to get past the wards, so Sirius wasn't at all worried about any other death eaters randomly showing up. The only reason he hadn't used it in the first place was because he didn't know whether or not it was being watched. He stopped right inside the door and apparated to the other side of the room. A few seconds later a house elf peaked warily around the corner of the door. The house elves knew whenever someone apparated into the house and also knew that anyone with the ability to do so must be a relation or a special guest, so they were always very prompt in showing up to service any new arrivals when they sensed the apparation.

The house elf recognized the innate magic that was around Sirius to identify him as master of his house, and it also must have taken one look at him and recognized him as a Black – house elves all seemed to have the uncanny ability to recognize the members of the oldest pureblood families. It squeaked in delight and rushed into the room, "You is being the mistress's family! You must be helping her!"

"Where is she?" Sirius ignored the house elf not addressing him formally like it was supposed to since he could tell that it was really worried for Narcissa. That and he really didn't give a rat's ass about such things, and him not giving a rat's anything meant more than for most people.

The house elf was wringing its hands desperately, "I can't be saying!"

"Why the hell not!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Master is giving the order not to tell anyone where the family's private chambers is being!" the house elf explained pitifully, "I can't be disobeying Master!"

Sirius glared at the house elf, though he wasn't really mad at it so much as at the situation in general. However, being a master at word play, loopholes, and getting himself out of sticky situations, it only took a few seconds before he realized Malfoy's obvious mistake in giving the order. He caught the house elf's eyes, "Malfoy might have told you that you couldn't tell anyone where their rooms are, but did he say anything about showing people?"

"Oh, no!" the house elf exclaimed in obvious fright, "Master would be punishing Dobby!"

Sirius exploded, "Do you want her to die! Show me where she is!"

The house elf wrung its hands together for a few seconds in obvious indecision. Sirius was just about to throttle it and apparate again so that maybe a better one would appear next. He was stopped short when it finally started walking out of the room muttering, "Oh, Dobby must be punishing himself when this is being over. Dobby is being such a bad house elf. Master will be getting a better one when he finds out."

Sirius sighed in relief as the house elf – Dobby, apparently – rushed up the stairs. He followed right on its heels as they ascended four flights of steps and ran what must have been a mile's worth of corridors. Sirius could suddenly hear the sounds of battle, and he ran past the frightened, blubbering house elf as he followed the noise. He rounded the last corner at top speed, sliding on the slick marble and nearly colliding with a very offended portrait. He ignored the enraged shouts from the painting as a death eater flew out of an opened door a ways down the hall and hit the wall with a thud.

Without stopping to think, he rushed towards the door. He narrowly missed being knocked over by another death eater who came flying out of the room. It didn't deter him, however, and he rushed through the door without a second thought. The sight that greeted him wasn't what he had been expecting.

He had expected with all of his heart to see a little boy scared half to death cowering behind Narcissa as she threw spells left and right at the people trying to take her son. Well, the boy was certainly scared half to death, that much was obvious, but he wasn't cowering behind his mother. In fact, Narcissa was lying sprawled out on the floor with one leg and one arm both at unnatural angles and with blood pouring from a wound underneath her nightgown as well as from her head. She was unconscious as far as Sirius could tell, or at least she had better be unconscious and not worse.

Draco was standing between his mother and the death eaters. He was obviously trying to protect her even though he was facing off with a group of fully grown wizards. Sirius watched in surprise as a death eater made to grab the boy, and was sent flying across the room before his hand came anywhere close. Another death eater cast a curse at the boy and was sent across the room in much the same way, coming very close to flying out the door and joining his comrades in the hall had the door been but another six inches to the left. The baby Malfoy had a shield up! The revelation came as a surprise to Sirius. That wasn't something that was taught until seventh year! Sure you had your shielding and deflecting charms, but actual protective barriers were a completely different matter.

He shook himself out of his stupor when another death eater came flying right at him. He jumped out of the way, narrowly missing being hit. The other death eaters in the room had all turned to watch their partner's flight, and had all caught sight of him. They all stared at each other for several seconds before Sirius broke the shock-induced silence with a very painful curse sent at the death eater nearest him. The remaining death eater reacted almost at once and began firing their own curses at him. He dodged and deflected a few, and was seriously gearing up for a nice fun skirmish when he happened to catch sight of his cousin again.

Draco had abandoned his position as protector when the death eaters' attention was drawn away from him, and was kneeling down beside his mother. His face was streaked with tears as he shook her and pitifully begged her to wake up. Sirius's attention was drawn to the now rather large pool of blood that had come from the injury on Narcissa's head, and he didn't notice the flash of green light coming his way until it was too late to dodge it.

He slammed into the wall behind him with enough force to shatter his leg, which made first impact. He didn't really notice it, however, as pain far worse than any broken bone could ever bring fired throughout his entire being. He wasn't aware of anything around him, and he could really have cared less what was going on anymore. The pain was like being hit with a thousand bolts of lightening at the same time. Not that he'd ever personally experienced that, but he imagined the pain from such a thing couldn't be very much worse than the pain he was feeling from the killing curse. The thought crossed his mind that it would be much better to simply die than to go through what he was going through for the second time now.

What was actually only a few seconds seemed like a few hours to Sirius when the blinding pain finally subsided to a pronounced throbbing ache throughout his entire body. He heard a groan and realized that it was his own just as he heard the exclamations of disbelief coming from many death eaters. His purpose suddenly rushed back to him, and he opened his eyes to see another wand trained on him.

"You didn't do it right! Let me do it!" another green beam rushed right at his chest. He fought through the pain and rolled out of the way.

The pain from his long forgotten shattered leg caused him to scream even as he kept moving. He ended up sprawled out on his back, but another jet of green light quickly sent him rolling again despite his leg. He fought through the pain and called upon his supposedly brilliant mind to help him out. Mid-roll he came to a decision and didn't stop on his back again, but on his stomach instead. He caught himself and pushed his body upwards as he concentrated as hard as he could through the pain.

He finally managed to prop himself up with one hand while he used the other one to cast. His incantation was literally screamed out he was in so much pain, but he made sure to pronounce it correctly. He closed his eyes and collapsed back onto the ground as the necessary strength flowed out of him. The explosion was loud, and he had forgotten to get rid of Padfoot's senses beforehand. He did so as quickly as possible as soon as the noise began, but it wasn't fast enough to keep his hears from ringing or his head from pounding, which was just what he needed to add to his already wonderful condition.

He lifted his head up to meet the horrified gray eyes of Draco. It took him a few seconds to realize that the substance the boy was covered in was blood. Well, blood and other less liquidy substances. The boy's white-blonde hair was dripping and stuff was splattered all over his face and soaked into his pajamas. Sirius looked around the room and realized that everything was covered in it. There was nothing identifiable as human left of the death eaters. There was a piece of one here, a piece of one there...and the blood and other better-left-unidentified substances covering everything.

The boy looked on the verge of screaming in terror, so Sirius ground out through the pain, "I'm sorry, Draco. I didn't have time to put up a shield to stop you from getting splattered."

"I'm covered in guts!" the boy exclaimed in disgust.

"I'll have you cleaned up in no time," Sirius fought to keep his voice calm as he was in the process of picking himself up. He had rolled over from his position on his stomach to lie on his back before gritting his teeth and sitting up. He looked over his leg quickly, and cast the necessary healing spells. It would take a good pain-killing potion and a trip to a healer to take care of such severe damage, but his hasty repair job would have to do for the moment.

He stood up slowly and put weight on his damaged leg gingerly. It hurt like hell, but it would work for now. He cast several cleaning charms on himself first, and then turned to Draco and Narcissa and did the same.

Draco was still frowning in disgust when Sirius knelt down beside him, "What did they hit her with?"

"I don't know," the boy turned newly moistened eyes back on his mother, "I heard shouts and then she came tearing in here. Those death eaters followed her and she was on the ground before I knew what was going on."

Sirius repaired the breaks to her arm and leg before carefully examining her head. He turned to look at Draco as he stopped talking, "Then what happened?"

The boy looked around the room once more as he answered, "They just kept coming and they were hurting her. I had to stop them. I thought she was de..." his eyes ripped back around to catch Sirius's in horror, "She isn't is she?"

"She's alive, Draco. You did good," he praised the boy. Not many wizards his age could have done anything at all, much less have managed a shield. Not that Sirius figured he had any idea what he had actually done to protect his mother.

With the knowledge that his mother was alright, Draco seemed to snap out of his horror-induced daze. He turned cold, calculating eyes on Sirius, "Who are you?"

Sirius smirked at the boy's defiance. He was just what you would expect from a Malfoy and a Black together. "Sirius," he provided his name.

"Mother talks about you a lot," Draco's whole demeanor softened somewhat, "but she says I'm not supposed to mention you to Father."

"I don't get along with your father," Sirius answered the unasked question that was in the boy's grey eyes and obviously on the tip of his tongue.

Sirius almost didn't catch the murmured statement because of the wringing still in his ears, "No one gets along with Lucius."

He chose to ignore the fact that a five year old was calling his father by his first name. Instead, he turned back to their present problem, "I'm going to take your mother to a healer."

"You aren't taking her anywhere!" Draco exclaimed. He could tell that the boy was more frightened than enraged.

Sirius placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm going to take her whether you like it or not, Draco, but I meant that you would be coming along, of course. I didn't intend to leave you here for the mentally deranged house elves to look after."

Draco, for his part, kept up his haughty attitude despite the fact that relief was evident in his eyes. He never said a word of acknowledgment to Sirius. He only turned back to Narcissa and stroked her hair as the man beside him cast various spells on all of them.

Sirius stood up slowly and tried to keep as much weight off of his injured leg as possible as he bent down to pick up his cousin. He managed to dislodge Draco's hand from Narcissa's hair as he lifted her gently and cradled her in his arms. Draco was keeping an eye on things with suspiciousness and cautiousness obvious in his gaze. Sirius led the way limping out of the room with the intention of going back to the apparation room downstairs. They didn't even make it to the first staircase, however, before voices and footsteps could be heard echoing up the stairwell from one of the lower floors.

Sirius turned and rushed back around the corner they had just turned with Draco right behind him. He kept his voice calm so he wouldn't frighten the boy as he asked, "Are there any other apparation points besides the one downstairs?"

Draco nodded emphatically, "Mother had one made on this floor because she said that she didn't want to trudge up four flights of stairs after a long day of shopping."

Sirius couldn't keep himself from grinning. That was just like Narcissa. Everything could be tied to shopping in some way or another if you just gave her a few minutes to think about it. He nodded to Draco, "Where is it?" He would have just told the boy to lead the way, but with Merlin only knew who else in the manor with them it wouldn't be safe.

"It's just at the end of the corridor," he pointed around the corner.

Sirius swore loudly at the information. They would have to walk right past the staircase and then be out in the opened the whole time they were in the hall. He couldn't even run what with his leg. He couldn't take his chances with teleporting. He had only ever traveled that way with Alex, and it had taken him ages to get the landing right that way. He could only imagine how he might manage to hurt one or all of them if he tried it with an unconscious woman and a five year old in tow. That meant one thing: they would have to reach an apparation point.

He looked around trying to come up with some sort of inspiration, and his eyes alighted on a picture of a quidditch player – one of the Malfoys who had founded a professional team. He looked to Draco hopefully, "I don't suppose anyone keeps a broom in their room?"

"I'm getting one for Christmas," Draco informed him pridefully, "I'm not supposed to know about it. Mother hid all my presents in Father's rooms because she knows that I never go in there, but I made one of the house elves tell me where she hid everything and went to look for myself."

Sirius didn't want to know how exactly Draco had made one of the house elves tell him such a thing. He shook his head ruefully. This boy reminded him a lot of himself as a kid. "Well, I guess we're going to pay a visit to Lucius's rooms then," he sneered in distaste.

Draco looked to be on the verge of protesting, but then his eyes lit up. Sirius watched as the boy seemed to realize that he was going to get to use his broom earlier than expected, and he took off down the corridor without a backwards glance. Sirius would have scolded him if he thought it would have had any effect at all, but he knew that it was useless. It wasn't as if he was going to run into anyone coming out of a bedroom anyway, so this particular hallway was safe.

Lucius Malfoy's rooms were very Slytherin. There was no other word for it. Everything was either green, silver, or black. It was like walking into enemy territory for Sirius (although technically the Sorting Hat thought very seriously about putting him into Slytherin until he had adamantly refused to be placed there). Of course, since the rooms did, indeed, belong to Lucius Malfoy, he really was walking into enemy territory. He stood right inside the door anxiously as he watched Draco rummage through a trunk in the corner. After a few seconds, he emerged and walked over to Sirius with his palm opened.

"You hold it until we need it," Sirius said, and Draco's hand immediately closed around the minimized broomstick and fell to his side.

Once they reached the corner again, Sirius transferred Narcissa to the arm on the side of his body with the good leg as he told Draco to hold out the broom. Draco did as he was told, and Sirius used his free hand to enlarge it. Draco stared at him with wide eyes, "You did that without a wand."

"We'll talk about it later. Right now we have to get out of here," he turned his attention back to the broom, "Level it out for me, will you?"

Draco stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before he realized that Sirius really was going to let him do it. He quickly placed the broom on the ground and with an excited, "Up!" it rose to meet his hand. He looked to Sirius for approval, and received a smile in return.

Sirius threw his leg over the broom and situated Narcissa more comfortably cradled to his chest with one arm as he grasped the handle with his free hand. He turned his head to look at the boy beside him, "Get on behind me and hold on tight. If you fall off I might not come back for you." Sirius would never really leave the boy behind, of course, but he wanted him to hold on as tight as he could so that he really wouldn't have a chance of falling off.

Sirius took the time to actually study the broom he was sitting on as Draco got situated behind him. It was top-of-the-line. A Nimbus 1700, which had just come out a few weeks before. There had been constant advertisements and reviews for it on the radio. Finally, Draco affirmed that he was ready, and Sirius took off without warning. They flew down the corridor as fast as he could push the broom to go. Draco's already firm grip tightened impossibly around his waist.

The corridor was extremely long...longer than a quidditch pitch as far as Sirius could tell. They were halfway to the staircase when aurors appeared from it. Sirius didn't slow up at all even when spells emerged from the aurors' wands and headed straight for them. The corridor was wide enough and tall enough to dodge all of the beams of light shooting at them. Sirius was using every bit of his flying ability to maneuver them at such a speed in such an enclosed space without wrecking. It had been years since he'd ridden a broomstick, but luckily for him it was like...well...like riding a broomstick! You just never forget! There's nothing else to compare it to!

Draco started yelling as they thundered right towards the aurors. Sirius lifted them up over the aurors' heads at the last possible second, kicking out with his feet and sending three of them to the floor. Then came the hard part. He was constantly going between looking straight ahead and looking over his shoulder for oncoming spells as they shot down the corridor at breakneck speed.

They were halfway down the remaining section of corridor before he yelled, "Which door is it?"

Draco was still in a state of disbelief, but he finally managed to shout out, "It's the first door around the corner!"

Corner? Corner! Sirius hadn't expected a damned corner! He turned to look over his shoulder and saw several different spells heading right for them. There was no way he was going to be able to land without Draco getting hit in the back. Well, there was nothing for it. They would have to take the corner. He and Draco were both yelling as they turned sharp. Sirius thought that they were going to make it without incident (amazingly) when a female shriek joined their own shouts. Narcissa flailed in his arms, and his balance was thrown off. They banked further towards the wall, and Sirius just managed to come to a screeching halt so that they were all three thrown forwards over the handle instead of hitting the wall. Sirius caught himself with his hands before he crushed his cousin by landing on top of her. Draco crashed into his back with a loud grunt of protest coming from both of them.

Sirius stared down into the confused and frightened eyes of Narcissa Black Malfoy. The fright turned to anger as she recognized him, "Sirius Black! What the hell?"

"Well I couldn't very well run headfirst into a group of aurors!" he exclaimed indignantly, "What ever happened to gratitude for saving you?"

Her response was cut off by the approaching footsteps running down the hall. Sirius scrambled up despite the pain in his leg and offered Narcissa a helping hand as Draco, who was already standing, clutched onto his robes. Sirius turned to face the door that Draco had said contained the apparation room, and as one they rushed through it. Sirius had never let go of Narcissa's hand, but he scrambled to grab Draco's. The boy refused to give up his position anchored in Sirius's robes, but instead offered up his other hand. Sirius apparated them away amidst yells coming from the aurors he had now evaded more times than anyone cared to remember.

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Sirius apparated into the hallway outside of his and Alex's hotel room. He normally would have apparated in a more secure and private location, but he didn't think that either he or Narcissa would be able to make it to the hotel room if he did that. What would it matter if he had to Obliviate a couple of muggles who happened to be in the hallway? Fortunately enough, there was no one in the hallway and they weren't slowed down by such a mundane task.

The adrenaline from waking up on a broomstick doing dangerous aerial maneuvers had quickly been used up, and Narcissa was leaning against him heavily. Draco refused to release his grip on Sirius's hand. Sirius sighed in resignation of the fact that he wasn't going to be able to dig in his robes for the room key. He mentally sent out a plea for help to Alex, and moments later the door flew open.

Alex shot him a shocked and confused look as she moved out of the way and held the door open for them to pass into the room. Sirius moved to deposit Narcissa on the couch, as she looked like she was just about to pass out. He looked her over and noticed that there was still a small amount of blood flowing out of her head wound. Draco clutched his hand tighter, and Sirius glanced over at him in time to see the look of panic on his face as his mother started to drift off again.

"Draco, I need to go get a healer," he said gently as he finally forced the issue and extricated his hand from the boy's death grip.

Draco didn't move from his mother's side as Sirius ushered Alex a few steps away from him. Alex noticed his limp, and eyed him critically, "Who are they and what happened to you?"

"My cousin, Narcissa, and her son, Draco...and I battled some death eaters to save them and then flew a racing broom at top speed down a corridor of their manor," he dead panned. At her incredulous look, he swooped down to kiss her quickly before pulling back, "I'll tell you later. I need to go get Madam Pomfrey."

"Madam Pomfrey's at Hogwarts!" Alex hissed in disbelief.

Sirius motioned for her to be quiet so as not to draw attention from the already panicking Draco. "I'll be fine. I promise you that. I know more secret passages in that castle than almost anyone," he leaned forward to kiss her reassuringly before he turned his attention back to their guests, "Keep Draco calm. I have a feeling that he might lose control of his magic and draw attention from all the muggles if he thinks something is seriously wrong with his mother."

"Come back to me," Alex leaned embraced him for a few seconds before she let go reluctantly and stepped away from him. With one last look into his eyes, she turned and walked towards the scared little boy hovering over his mother. Sirius began to steel himself for a real challenge as he headed out the door. Hogwarts was waiting.

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A/N: Don't worry, Alex will reappear fully in the chapters again and everything will be just like old times starting next chapter. Ah, the usual explanations...such fun...

Of course I chose Dobby as the house elf to help Sirius. I figured not very many of them go against their master's wishes, so I might as well use one that we already know isn't above doing just that.

As for the broomstick...the Nimbus 1700 was real. At least as far as anything in the HP universe is real anyway. I don't know the exact dates for its release, but I figured that 1985 was a good a time as any going by how many brooms the Nimbus line has...the Nimbus 1000 was definitely in 1967, so I thought the Nimbus 1001 in the mid-70s, the Nimbus 1500 in the late-70s to early 80s, the Nimbus 1700 in the mid-to-late-80s, and we know that the Nimbus 2000 was out by the time of Harry's first year, and the Nimbus 2001 in his second year. That's the complete line of Nimbus brooms as far as I know.