Please don't hate me for the long absence! I made an extra long chapter to make up for it! *smiles sheepishly*
Chapter Twenty-Nine
One Sirius Orion Black had been having a terrible time ever since he found out that the headmaster had known all along where his dead best friend's children were and refused to tell him where exactly they were. For these months he had taken refuge at his only remaining best friend's home in order to avoid the old wizard. He had made it a point to not attend any of the Order meetings since he found out regardless of the fact that they were being held in his house.
At that current moment, he was being led through his ancestor's home by Remus Lupin, albeit unwillingly. The only reason he had agreed to attend the oncoming Order of the Phoenix meeting was because Dumbledore had demanded every member be present because there was important information to be presented.
They had arrived very close to the time at which the meeting was scheduled to begin. They entered the packed kitchen and stayed near the edge and waited. And waited some more. Finally Dumbledore strode into the room with Severus Snape following close behind him. He made his way through the crowded kitchen and stood at the end of the table and waited for Snape to take a seat to his right.
"Sorry for my tardiness. I had some last minute things to take care of at the school." Dumbledore said as he launched into the meeting. "For the first order of business: one of my students, Draco Malfoy. As you are probably aware, he has recently gone missing. I know most of you probably do not care so much of his fate because of his heritage, but I ask that you all keep your eyes and ears open for word of his whereabouts." Dumbledore said over the eye rolls and protests from the members.
Sirius was silently fuming in the back of the kitchen and had only restrained to that point because of the calming hand of his friend on his shoulder but he could no longer stay silent. He shook off the hand and stepped forward in fury. "Oh, that's rich. You're going to have us on a mad man hunt for him and then reveal months later that he's perfectly safe and you knew all along exactly where he was, aren't you?" He sneered at the old man as Remus pulled him back.
Sirius was fuming. If Dumbledore thought for one moment that Sirius would search for that Malfoy boy, he had another thing coming. After the last time he had them searching all in vain for the Potter twins while he was probably sitting back and laughing at their efforts. Sirius had lost many, many hours of sleep worrying about Harry and Cecilia and he wasn't about to go through the same thing with another person only to have it end the same way.
Sirius had calmed every-so-slightly and decided it was safe to tune back into the meeting. He tuned back in just in time for the Headmaster to turn to Snape. Said man nodded his head slightly and reluctantly stood from his seat next to the Headmaster. "There has been talk among the Death Eaters of ambushes of the members of the Order. I have heard that the Dark Lord has acquired a list of the members, somehow. I believe that the others have become suspicious of my involvement with the Order; I'm being included less and less with the Inner Circle going-ons." He quickly sat back down as the Order members broke out into pandemonium.
There were shouts coming across the board, most asking who was the first planned target and such. Dumbledore waited patiently for the shouts to die down and when the end seemed nowhere in sight, he stood again and slowly the chatter started to die down. "Like Severus said, we have no real way of knowing who is being targeted and when. The only thing I can say is that it is not wise to be without another to help protect. Be cautious and always be alert.
"Don't take any risks; make sure you always have your wand on your person. The Death Eaters know where you live, we don't know how, but they do. I regret that it is on this sorrowful note that I must end this meeting. Good day and be careful." He nodded his head slightly, dismissing the people.
There was silence for a moment as the members took in the abrupt dismissal and the idea that they could be attacked at any moment in their own homes, homes that should be their safe havens. Eventually people started leaving, usually in pairs or two or more. Remus gently grabbed Sirius' arm and started to lead the still fuming man from the room and to the floo. They exited the floo in a nearby wizard-owned pub and walked the rest of the way to Remus' home. Sirius remained silent through the whole trip and allowed himself to be led by his remaining best friend.
They made it to the house without any problems, for which they were grateful. Remus led his friend silently through his house and forced him to sit at the kitchen table while he made some tea with a calming draught mixed in. Remus knew that his friend was mad beyond words and it worried Remus. He decided to try and ignore his worry and busied himself with making the tea. He contemplated the Order meeting, the end more so than the rest as he stared out the window to the nearby forest as he put the tea kettle on.
A slight movement caught his eye. It had been a slight swish of a black cloak, the same black cloak that Death Eaters wore. Trying to stay calm, he continued to look out the window as if he hadn't noticed. He spoke over his shoulder to Sirius, hoping his friend had cooled down enough to think rationally. "Sirius, listen carefully to me and stay calm. Death Eaters are here. I need you to go to the floo and call the Headquarters and get anyone still left here now. Quick!"
Sirius nodded and seemed to forget his anger. He hurried out of the room and Remus heard the floo flare to life
Remus gripped his wand tightly in his hand that wasn't fiddling with the tea kettle. His eyes raked across the outskirts of the forest several times. He was slightly confused; there was a large group of Death Eaters but there was another, much smaller group of people on the opposite side who did not seem to be Death Eaters.
Sirius returned to the kitchen. Remus could tell right away that things had not gone well. Sirius was pale and had started pacing. "No one answered. I yelled and waited, but it seems that the place has cleared out thoroughly and no one's coming. We're on our own."
Remus muttered an expletive and turned form the window. "Okay then, let's get outside of the wards. The last thing I was to see is my house destroyed."
Both men gripped their wands a little tighter and made their way outside just as the Death Eaters started marching towards the men. Remus glanced back to where he had seen the other people. They had disappeared. 'Good at least we don't have to worry about innocent people being attacked.' He thought as they two parties halted.
The Death Eaters and two members of the Order of the Phoenix present faced off. There was a deafening silence as a Death Eater walked in front of the group. "You might as well give up now, Black. You're obviously outnumbered by seven to one." The man said as he gestured to the thirteen–sixteen, actually–others behind him.
Sirius scoffed at him. "Yeah, right. In case you haven't noticed, you had to send a whole army to face two people. If that doesn't say anything about your dueling skills then I don't know what does." He smirked, not worried a bit about the uneven odds.
A mocking laugh rang out, the source unknown. "Yeah, you would think that Death Eaters are all sneaky and cunning and smart." It came from the back of the group of Death Eaters and was obviously mocking them. The large group parted so they could see the people openly mocking them. There were three people that didn't move. They were all wearing the standard Death Eater robes and masks.
Another voice spoke, this time female. "Seriously, you bunch are about the daftest people I've ever met, and I've met a lot of daft people in my time." At this point, the trio started removing their fake Death Eater masks and tossed them to the ground carelessly.
The third and final member of the group spoke. "We aren't Death Eaters. We aren't members of the Order of the Phoenix, either. But we are going to kick your arses." They simultaneously pulled strings tied around their necks and dropped the black outer cloaks to reveal robes of intense color. One was a fiery red, another was an icy blue and the final one was a silvery grey.
Several Death Eaters recognized the tell-tale red and blue robes of the deadly 'Fire & Ice' duo and fled the scene, not wanting to have to face the ministry. The nine that remained to fight gripped their wands even tighter, their knuckles turning white. Over half were facing the trio, the other few were facing the two Order members. There was an almost visible tension in the air as each person waited for someone to make the first move.
As if communicating silently, the trio that called themselves Fire, Ice and Wind, the Natural Disasters, moved at the same time. Each fired off a simple stunning spell with deadly precision and each hit their intended targets.
The fight continued in a full scale for a few minutes before each Death Eater slowly fell, mostly be the wands of the infamous trio. Only two remained after a quarter of an hour and they both were aware the battle was lost. One apparated away while the other surrendered his wand to his attackers and asked "Who are you?" to the unknown third member of the trio in the silvery grey robes.
Said member stepped forward proudly. "You've faced the burning Fire and the freezing cold Ice, now it's time to meet the raging Wind. I may appear calm and cool, but somewhere, there's always a storm raging." The final attacker paled further and quickly apparated away, leaving his wand.
The three now jumped again into action. They pulled from their robes several wristbands and started towards the fallen attackers. Ice made her way toward the two Order members, one of which was currently unconscious on the ground with several broken bones and gashes. She kneeled next to the fallen form of Remus Lupin. She waved her wand f his fallen form and muttered several spells. The results of her spells seemed to worry her because instantly she grabbed one of the wristbands and whispered 'Mungos' as she snapped it on his (broken) wrist. She placed him under a stasis spell before she pointed her wand at him and whispered 'activate.' With a swoosh of wind, he disappeared from the scene. She stood and turned to survey the rest of the scene now that her main concern was taken care of. The other two were taking care of the final Death Eaters and sending them to the Ministry.
Sirius was glaring hatefully at Ice. "Where did you send him?" He demanded, shakily pointing her wand at her.
"I portkeyed him to the St. Mungos emergency ward. He was badly injured." She replied, not bothering to raise her wand in self-defense. She was busy making another portkey to send him to St. Mungos to get patched up and be with his friend. She tossed it at him and he, out of habit, caught it.
"And where exactly are you sending me?" He asked harshly, untrusting of these people he had never met before.
Ice ignored him question and pointed her wand at him. "Activate." It activated but he hadn't had sufficient time to rid himself of the portkey and he was swept away with it.
Ice turned back to her companions with a heavy sigh. "Sorry 'bout that."
Fire waved her apology away. "It's okay," he said, "I know how stubborn Sirius is." He gestured for Wind to come over. "Let's get out of here before someone comes to investigate."
They were about to apparated when Wind's hand shot out to stop them. "You know, perhaps I should go first and try to calm mum. She's going to be pissed with us." The two others thought his idea over for a moment before nodding their heads only slightly frantically. They had no desire what-so-ever to face the wrath of one Narcissa Malfoy. Wind smirked knowing how the others feared his mother. He shook his head slightly and disappeared from the scene with a slight crack.
As the newest member of the trio left, another figure entered the area. This figure was cloaked in all black and had his hood pulled low over his head and was, upon landing, already in a defensive position. He seemed to glance around in confusion for a moment before he set his sights on the two remaining people and marched over, his wand still at the ready. "I got a distress call from this area and yet there seems to be no distress. Care to explain?"
Fire and Ice instantly knew who was standing before them. Severus Snape. They both lowered their wands, ever-so-slightly. "There was slight distress… for the Death Eaters," Ice said with a girlish giggle before continuing, "But that was easily handled." She lowered her wand the rest of the way as the man before her stiffened in recognition.
Severus Snape prided himself in being relatively unsurprisable person, but this? This he knew he should have expected and yet he never expected that voice to be the one that replied. That voice he just heard, he knew that voice; it was the voice of his former student and goddaughter. He studied the two people before him for a moment longer before he too, lowered his wand. He nodded his head toward the small home of Remus Lupin, signaling he wanted to talk to them in a place that wasn't so exposed.
The duo nodded their consent and followed the man through the house and to the living room with no windows and a small fireplace. Severus settled himself in a worn but comfortable chair next to the fireplace. The two others shed their glamours and sat on the squishy, red couch and waited for their former potions professor to speak.
Said man sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. "I believe it's time you two answer some questions."
hT
A/N: So terribly sorry about not updating sooner. I'm not going to try and make a long list of reasons, but just know that my computer crashed and I lost this whole chapter and had to rewrite the entire thing. I finally have access to a computer to type on. I will try and not let this happen again. I still want to finish this up this summer!
Thanks!
~WD
6/22/11
