The next chapter is up! It took me a long time to write it and I'm sorry, but there's so much going on in my life right now. I hope you like it, please let me know what you think! And thanks to everyone who reads this story!

I don't own the characters or places!


Sirius

We all stared at Neville wide-eyed and Harry stood up slowly. "Neville – what the – how -?" He muttered and shook his head in disbelief. However, he was interrupted when Neville hugged him tightly. Then Neville looked past him and saw the three of us still sitting at the table. He cried out in surprise and nearly threw himself first at Hermione and then at Ron. In the end, he even hugged me tightly.

"I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!" Neville declared loudly and grinned. "And you're really alive Sirius! They kept saying that you're dead and the Death Eaters got you in the end. But here you are!"

He beamed at us, but I couldn't stop noticing his several injuries. What did they do to the students at Hogwarts? I saw Hermione and Harry exchanging a dark look. Apparently, they asked themselves the same question. "Neville, what's happened to you?" Harry asked slowly.

"What? This?" Neville gestured at himself and shook his head. "This is nothing. Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going, then?" He already turned back to the tunnel, but then he stopped. "Oh and Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way."

"Couple more?" Aberforth repeated darkly. "What do you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? You know that I hate it when people apparate directly into my pub!"

Neville shrugged. "We contacted a few people." He said and smiled slightly. "And you know that they must come in here, the village's being watched. Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."

Aberforth crossed his arms. "How I hate this." He muttered, but I doubted that the others heard his words.

I placed a hand on his arm. "You will get through this." I smiled slightly before I followed the others who were already climbing on to the mantelpiece to get into the secret passageway. Behind me, Aberforth muttered darkly, but I decided to ignore it.

The passageway was narrow, and we couldn't walk next to each other. I was at the end of the group, directly behind Hermione. I noticed that the passageway looked really old and asked myself why I didn't know it. No one had known Hogwarts better than the Marauders.

The others seemed to ask themselves the same question. "How long has this been here?" Ron asked and looked over his shoulder questioningly. "It isn't on your map, Sirius. I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school."

"This isn't on the map." I agreed. "I also didn't know it."

"Because it hasn't been there before." Neville explained shortly. "You'll understand it soon." He turned around while he was still walking and raised his eyebrows. "But enough of that. Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it. Terry Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"

"Yeah, it's true." Harry confirmed.

Neville laughed. "What did you do with the dragon?"

"Released it into the wild." Ron said. "Hermione was all for keeping it as a pet –"

"Don't exaggerate, Ron." Hermione muttered and somehow, I knew that she rolled her eyes now.

"Someone will have to deal with it soon." I threw in. "But we had more important things on our minds than a dragon."

Again, Neville laughed. "That's great! So what have you been doing? People say that you've just been on the run, but I don't think so. I think you've been up to something. And how are you even still alive, Sirius?"

"It's a rather long story." I muttered.

"You're right, we've been up to something." Harry threw in quickly and saved me from more questions. I wouldn't have answered them either way. After all, we didn't know how much the students at Hogwarts knew about our trip to the Ministry. "But tell us about Hogwarts, Neville. We haven't heard anything except for the fact that Snape's headmaster now."

Neville sighed deeply. "It's not like the Hogwarts we knew anymore. Do you know about the Carrows?"

"Those two Death Eaters who teach here?"

The next minutes, Neville kept explaining how the Death Eaters were controlling the school now. It was terrible to know what was going on and not being able to do anything. I would have loved to curse them all right now. However, that wasn't possible. We had to be careful, Hogwarts was dangerous territory. Especially since Snape was there.

When we finally arrived at our destination, I was starting to get nervous. I already had an idea of where we were, but not what was waiting for us there. And of course we needed a plan, we couldn't just run through the school and search for the Horcrux. Unfortunately, we didn't really have a plan and I just couldn't figure out a way how to continue now.

Suddenly, the others in front of me stopped and I nearly ran into Hermione. She raised her eyebrows questioningly but didn't say anything. Instead, she just took my hand and squeezed it. I knew that she was just as nervous as I was. I could see the storm in her eyes. She hated headless actions like this.

I looked past the others to see that we've arrived at a small door. Neville was just walking through it while the others hesitated. I could hear many voices in the room and some of them were vaguely familiar. However, I couldn't make out words since so many people were talking at a time.

"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?" Neville shouted now and the other people fell silent. Harry seemed to see this as his sign to go on because he stepped through the door and stopped next to Neville. We followed them more slowly.

"HARRY!"

"It's Potter!"

"Ron!"

"Hermione!"

"And Sirius Black!"

I looked around in the room and barely noticed that many people were running towards us now and started to hug Harry, Ron and Hermione. They kept a distance from me, but I didn't mind. The room was big, and I didn't know it, which surprised me. I glanced at Neville who was standing next to me now. "The Room of Requirement?" I guessed.

He nodded. "Yeah, how did you figure that out?"

I smiled slightly. "There are only few people who know this castle better than we did."

"This was the only place I could go to when they came after me." Neville explained while the others were talking to a few students. "The Death Eaters can't get in. And the passageway to the Hog's Head helped us to get food and stuff."

"Brilliant." I muttered and looked around again. Now Neville took a step forward.

"Ok, calm down!" He called and slowly, the conversations ended, and it was silent again. All eyes were fixed on us now. In most of them shone excitement. It was obvious that they thought that we were going to free Hogwarts from the Death Eaters now. I glanced at Neville again. "You contacted the Order, didn't you?" I whispered quietly so that only Harry, Ron and Hermione could hear us.

Neville shook his head. "The DA."

Hermione's eyes widened at this. "How did you do that?"

Neville grinned. "The coins are still working." Now he turned to me again. "I think Fred and George contacted the Order. At least I hope you. We could use much help here."

I exchanged looks with the others and in the end, Harry nodded. Even if he didn't look very happy about all this. My godson always hated it when others risked their lives for him.

"Tell us what you've been up to, there've been so many rumors, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." A young man said now, his eyes fixed on Harry. "You didn't break into Gringotts?"

"They did!" Neville declared loudly. "And the dragon's true too!"

Suddenly, there was applause and some people even whistled. Ron bowed with a grin on his lips.

"What were you after?" Someone else asked, I thought his name was Seamus.

Suddenly, Harry grimaced and stumbled. He touched his scar and would have fallen to the ground if Ron and I wouldn't have reacted to fast. We took hold of his arms and kept him upright. In Ron's eyes I could see the same concern I felt. I've been waiting for this ever since we came here. Voldemort was checking the Horcruxes now and in this moment, he must have found out that one was missing. And since their connection was instable now, Harry could see it very clearly. I wondered which Horcrux it was and how much time was left, but I didn't dare to ask. Not here in front of so many people.

Harry breathed in deeply and when his expression turned calm again, we let go of his arms carefully. I glanced at Hermione next to me and saw that she was frowning.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Neville asked, concern evident in his voice. "Want to sit down? I expect you're tired –"

"No, it's fine." Harry threw in quickly and looked at us. From the look on his face I could tell that Voldemort had really just discovered the loss of a Horcrux. "We need to get going." He said quietly and I nodded.

"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" Seamus asked. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Harry asked, obviously confused by the question. Didn't he expect that the others would want to help us? "Well, there's something we – Ron, Hermione, Sirius and I – need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

I exchanged a look with Hermione, and she grimaced. We wouldn't leave this room without the help of the DA, that was obvious. I just hoped that Harry would accept this fast. The discussion about out plan started, but I wasn't really listening. I pulled Hermione aside. "We have to accept their help." I whispered.

She nodded. "Otherwise, we'll never find the Horcrux. Maybe someone knows something."

"Possible." I agreed. "But how are we going to do it? We can't just run around here, four people are far too noticeable."

Her eyes widened. "You want us to split up?" At the sight of her anxious expression, my heart broke, but I nodded sternly.

"It's the only way. Otherwise, we'll never find the Horcrux. Or we'll get caught." I explained and placed my hands on her shoulders. "I hate this just as much as you do, love."

"Then I'm going with you." She said immediately and I could see the determination in her eyes. There was no way I could change her mind about this, I knew that.

I glanced at the others and when I realized that they were still discussing if Dumbledore's Army should help or not, I turned back to Hermione. "Alright, but we really need a plan before we leave here. We need to find the Horcrux and a way to destroy it. After all, we don't have the sword anymore."

She nodded. "I've also been thinking about this. And something came to my mind. Do you remember the diary? We've told you the story about our second year at school." I did, but I wasn't sure where this was heading to. "Harry stabbed it with a basilisk fang."

And that's when I understood. "You're brilliant." I whispered and kissed her quickly. "The Chamber of Secrets? But how should we get in?"

She glanced at Ron. "He said once that he can imitate Parseltongue. Apparently, Harry speaks in his sleep."

I frowned. "This could work. But it would be a waste of forces if three people go to the Chamber of Secrets. And Harry has to look for the Horcrux."

"I won't go there without you!" She hissed. "There's no way I'm letting you go again."

I looked at her seriously. "Hermione, I would also love to have you by my side all the time. But we have to act fast and if this is really the only way, we have to do this. If Ron's the only one who can go in there, he has to go. And I can be useful somewhere else."

"Just a few minutes ago, you said that we'd stay together." She muttered darkly.

"And now there's been a change of plan." I sighed. "We'll meet again after this and then we'll really stay together. I won't let you out of sight if there's really going to be a battle." And that would happen, I was sure of it.

Suddenly, many people were starting to talk at once. When we turned around, we saw that more people were coming through the door of the passageway. First, I only saw Luna and Dean, but more people were following them. There were Ginny, Fred and George, Lee Jordan, and others who've been part of the DA two years ago.

"Aberforth's getting a bit ratty." Fred said with a grin. "He wants a kip, and his bar's been turned into a railway station."

"I think he should get used to it. More people will follow." Another voice said and my heart seemed to stop beating in my chest. Right after the former students, Remus stepped through the door, followed by Tonks, Kingsley Arthur and many more members of the Order. Remus smiled when he saw me. "I already thought that you'd be here. The message said it was urgent."

He hugged me tightly and I smiled back at him. I just wanted to ask why they were here and where Teddy was, but another conversation interrupted me.

"So what's the plan, Harry?" George asked.

"There isn't one." Harry muttered and kept looking around. I could see that the appearance of so many people still surprised him. And most probably, his scar was still hurting.

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind." Fred said and grinned.

"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane –"

"We're fighting, aren't we?" Dean asked and held up his galleon. "The message said Harry was back, and we're going to fight!"

Ron turned to Harry. "Why can't they help? I mean, so many people and the Order is here as well."

"What?" Harry didn't look pleased by this turn of events.

"They can help." Ron pulled us closer and the four of us formed a small circle. I could feel the stares of many others on us. "We don't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."

"Ron is right." Hermione threw in quickly. "We don't even know what we're looking for, we need them." Harry still didn't look convinced. "You don't have to do everything alone, Harry." Hermione said softly and I nodded.

"Let them help. We need to split up either way. The more people we are, the bigger is our chance to find the Horcrux." I explained quietly.

"But what is the Horcrux anyway?" Ron asked and frowned at us. "I mean, we only assume that it's about Ravenclaw."

"There's a legend about some kind of diadem, but I'm not sure." I muttered. "I've been thinking about it on our way here."

"There's an easy way to find out more about this." Harry said. "We could just ask someone from Ravenclaw." And with those words, he left our small circle and began to ask people about it.

I listened to the conversation silently when someone touched my arm. "A battle is going to come. You can feel it too, can't you?" Remus asked calmly.

"Tonight, everything will be decided." I agreed. "People will die."

Remus nodded. "But we shouldn't lose hope."

I smiled slightly. "You're always so confident, Moony."

"Normally, you're not full of doubts, Padfoot."

"It was easier when I thought that I had nothing to lose." I looked at Harry and Hermione.

"You also had much to lose back then." Remus argued. "And yet you didn't worry so much."

I looked at him. "Where's your son? And why are you here? Both of you."

"He's with Dora's mother." Remus explained, his expression still calm. But I could see the concern in his eyes. "I tried to convince Tonks to stay there too."

"Of course she didn't agree." I sighed. "How could you even expect that?"

"I want her to be safe."

"She's grown up and makes her own decisions. She didn't want to let you go alone." I said thoughtfully.

"Just like you would never leave the others." Remus threw in.

"Or you." I added. "You're my best friend."

Remus smiled slightly. Our conversation ended when Harry came to us. "Luna had an idea where to look for the diadem." He told me and smiled at Remus for half a second. "I'll leave with her."

"Be careful, Harry." I warned him. "It's dangerous in here. Don't forget that."

"You too, Sirius. And look after Hermione and Ron." With those words, he vanished in the crowd, followed by Luna.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "What's this about?"

"Long story." I muttered and looked for Hermione and Ron. When they joined us, I could see the uneasiness on her face.

"We'll go to the Chamber." Hermione declared. "I've explained it to Ron, and he agrees that it's our best chance to destroy it once Harry found it."

"Please be careful." I took her hands. "I hate splitting up."

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked.

I exchanged a look with Remus and then I saw Fred and George in the distance. I grinned. "We'll prepare a few surprises for the Death Eaters."

"Finally someone who's got a good idea!" Fred declared loudly and they joined us.

Remus grinned. "Just like the good old times, isn't it?"

I watched Hermione and Ron leaving the room before I looked at the others in the crowd. "Who wants to have some fun?" I asked loudly and more people joined us.