Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine

Running to Fight

Sirius had been fighting as hard as he could; everything was going by in a frantic blur as he tried to get past the Death Eaters. All Voldemort's top Death Eaters seemed to be there. Lucius Malfoy, Fenrir Greyback, Antonin Dolohov, Rookwood, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and so many more. They may have been wearing mask but he could still tell who they were. He was surprised that he didn't see Bellatrix, though her husband was fighting. He thought she would have been in the thick of this fight, keeping the professor away from the students would be the kind of thing she'd liked.

Then he got the idea that she might actually be one of the Death Eaters firing on the students and that thought nearly drove him mad. He wanted to get to Harry of course, and Harry's friends as well. But after the year of teaching these students he had come to care about each of them. Not as much of course, but he couldn't stand the idea of any of the first years he taught this year never having the chance to grow up. Or the seventh years, that had really been put through the ringer so they would be prepared for their N.E.W.T.'s, and the pride he felt knowing that each of them had learned a lot from him.

He could hear the screams and the explosions just beyond where the Death Eaters were, which made all of them fight harder. It didn't seem to matter how hard they fought though, there was always five more Death Eaters to take the place of the one that was defeated and they were making very slow progress forward.

Then he heard Voldemort's message:

Harry Potter. You have fought valiantly, but you must have realized by now that your effort has been in vain. We have surrounded you and all of the other students of Hogwarts, if you insist on fighting us, we will destroy you all. But there is a way for you to save them Harry Potter. Come forth and give yourself to me, and I will spare everyone in Hogsmeade. Come forth now, or have the blood of hundreds of innocent's lives on your hands.

The words ringed in his ears. Voldemort was goading Harry into sacrificing himself. Sirius knew that Harry would always stand up and fight … he wouldn't just give up even if the odds are against him. However, hearing that hundreds maybe even thousands of people would be killed if he didn't give up, was something that Harry wouldn't be able to deal with. He had to get to Harry now. Make sure that Harry knew that Voldemort would never keep his word, so there was no point in torturing himself with them. There was no point for Harry to give up …

"Sirius, I'm going to make a gap," McGonagall said to him, "you must get to him …" she added giving him a pointed look.

Sirius nodded his head and started running towards the group of Death Eaters in front of McGonagall. He sprinted as quickly as he could until he noticed the curse that McGonagall had used (though he had no idea what it was, he knew it was his cue). He transformed into his dog form as he knew he could move faster that way. He passed the first wave of Death Eaters that were all occupied with something else and couldn't stop him. Moments later he ran past a few more Death Eaters that didn't seem to know what to do with the dog rushing towards them. As he didn't get too close to them, they seemed to think he was just running away from the fighting. He heard the familiar voice of Peter Pettigrew shouting after him as he passed a few more Death Eaters. He had an urge to turn back and kill that stupid rat, his dog instinct longed for that, but there was something much more important than fighting a rat that awaited him. He had to get to Harry.

The Death Eaters he was running past now all tried to curse him but these were not the top notch fighters anymore. Half of them were facing the wrong direction as if they were there to fight the students that tried to get back to Hogwarts. Again Sirius would have liked to attack these Death Eaters as his anger rushed through him, but he had caught Harry's scent. He would never be able to describe what fear smelled like, but it was easy enough to pick up, and Harry was definitely afraid right now. He followed the scent as quickly as he could until he founded himself looking upon a scene that showed him something from his greatest nightmares. Harry was standing about fifty feet away facing the other direction where Voldemort was holding a wand at him and Bellatrix was laughing.

Sirius turned back into a man without thinking about it and he knew he was shouting at Harry. He knew he was, but it didn't seem to matter, because he had gotten there too late. He had failed. He had completely failed.

Harry turned around to look at him, his expression pained and forlorn as the green light engulfed him.

Sirius fell to his knees and his eyes filled with tears, Harry's last expression seared onto his brain … He knew that he couldn't just stay here, he could hear Bellatrix laughter … she was going to kill him … Or Voldemort was going to kill him …

"ARGH!" Sirius yelled as pain and anger filled him and he looked up towards the sky and shouted with everything he had.

"My Lord," Bellatrix was saying in a worried tone but Sirius didn't pay attention to it. That monster had just killed his son, as Harry was a son to him, and he wouldn't let that thing continued to live. Voldemort was mortal now, he could be killed and Sirius was going to be the one to do it.

He got up and started running again. He raised his wand aiming it at Voldemort. He didn't bother to spare a thought about the reason why Voldemort was on the floor, seemingly unconsciously. He didn't give a damn about that … he just shouted out a curse. However, before it reached Voldemort it was deflected by Bellatrix's spell.

"You would dare curse the Dark Lord," Bellatrix said with a craze look that was even more frightening than her normal one. "I will destroy you for your insolence."

Sirius didn't give a damn about conversing with his mad cousin, he didn't want to bother with a comeback, he didn't have anything left to say. He knew he would have to fight her. Any attempts he made to attack Voldemort while he was on the ground would be stopped by her.

He fired another curse, this time aiming for Bellatrix, but it was stopped just as easily as the last curse. She of course fired back at him, but he was able to dodge it without any problems. He noticed rather quickly that she was distracted; her curses were sloppy as she continuously looked at Voldemort who was still on the floor.

He did wonder why that was but he didn't allow himself to really think about it. He pressed his advantage in a passion filled attack as sent curse after curse at Bellatrix.

"Aw, is Siri all angry because his baby Potter was slaughter," Bellatrix taunted and Sirius felt his heart hammer painfully in his chest. He couldn't stop the image of Harry's faces as the green light surrounded him from coming to his thoughts. "Fool," Bellatrix continued to say, now cackling and he was brought back to the fight, his wand pointing at the ground as she was about to curse him …

O

"We need to follow him," Hermione said after Harry had walked away from them, he had turned a corner and they could no longer see where he was.

"What?" Ron asked; that was the last thing he wanted to do. It was bad enough knowing that Harry had to be killed, but to follow would mean actually watching that killing … "No way!"

"Ron, all the H …" Hermione started and then noticed everyone was looking at her so she added, "you know what's were destroyed. Once Harry …" she bit her lip, trying to keep herself from crying.

"You can't even say the words, what makes you think you can stand seeing it happen?" Ron asked.

"Because if we don't go then what Harry's doing right now might be pointless," Hermione said defiantly. "He wants to try to prevent people from dying but how is that going to work unless Voldemort is defeated. Right now. Today!"

"So what? You want to defeat an all powerful dark wizard?" Ron asked looking at her like she was mad.

"I don't know," Hermione said. "But Voldemort attacked us right here; right now. He's come out of his hiding and he's done so in a very public and scary fashion. He has to have so many other horrors plans for the future … and I can't stand the idea of letting that happen."

Ron didn't say anything as Hermione was on the verge of becoming hysterical; he just stepped forward and pulled her into his chest as she sobbed in a mixture of fear and sorrow.

"She's right, Ron," Fred said gravely as he took a step to stand next to his brother. "If we don't end this today only more bad things will happen. Besides, I just got another message from George, he said that with his and Neville's help, Remus got through the line of Death Eaters and they'll be here soon. I don't know about you, but I'm not really up for telling him that we just let Harry hand himself over. I'm still not sure why it had to be done myself and …"

"Right, got it," Ron snapped to stop Fred from finishing. The idea of telling everyone why Harry had to go made him sick, not the least because he's really was going to have to do it. "You better, Mione?"

"No," Hermione said getting her sobs under control again. "But I'm ready."

"Fine, then we'll go," Ron said, looking in front of them, "I don't see any of the Death Eaters we were fighting, but I'm sure they're still out there so we're going to have to do it carefully. They're going to let Harry get by, but if we're spotted that's it for us."

"Oh, I have the cure for that," Fred said turning into a crow again.

"Well that's all nice for you and Hermione," Ron grumbled, after sharing a look with his girlfriend who was turning into an owl. "But a bloody lion isn't going to be able to walk down the street unnoticed."

"What should we do?" Angelina asked, gaping at the owl that was Hermione. It was one thing to see Fred as a crow, she had known that he was training to be an Animagus but she had no idea about Hermione, or Ron for that matter. "Should we come too?"

"No, you're going to have to tell Remus, George and Neville that we've gone on," Ron answered. "George should be able to track us. And then stay here, who the hell knows what's going to happen next. The Death Eaters might come back. I don't know … do what you think is best."

After Angelina nodded, Ron turned around and transformed into his lion form, easily picking up the scent of his best friend. It was vibrant with life but he couldn't help but wonder what he was going to find when he got closer … what would that smell like anyway …

He shook his head to clear his mind of those thoughts, and tried to let his instincts take over, knowing that might quell the guilt and grief he was feeling now. It did work, but not as much as he would have liked. He continued running, seeing the two shadows floating on the ground showing that Fred and Hermione were flying overhead. It probably also meant that they hadn't spotted Harry yet, as he would have guess they would have flown ahead of him.

Then suddenly he heard a shout … one that seemed to be filled with pain and Ron stumbled in his footing. He couldn't tell who had shouted but he knew that it was over. The thing he had been dreading for month had finally happened … he had let it happened.

It was the explosions that got him moving again. Got him thinking about why he was running towards his nightmare and he picked himself up so he could start running again. When he made it out of the alleyway it became clear who had shouted.

He saw Sirius fighting with Bellatrix and their curses flying all over the place. He was too far away to make out what Bellatrix had said but whatever it was it had made Sirius's shoulders slouch and Ron could tell that she was going to go in for the kill.

A roar rumbled in his chest and it came out filling the air, as he realized that he couldn't get there in time to help, but he couldn't stand the idea of losing any more people he cared about.

O

Bellatrix head turned at the sound of the roar, and Sirius raised his wand, but he held back the curse he was about to use as she turned back to him the curse on her lips that might have been his death if it hadn't been for the crow that attacked her arm making the spell go wide. Sirius didn't hesitate this time.

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a look of shock as the spell hit Bellatrix and then she was gone.

"Fred!" came the voice of Hermione as an owl had turned into the girl. She kneeled down to pick up the crow that had attacked Bellatrix, but before Sirius could ask if he was okay there was another shout that filled the air with raw magic, knocking him off his feet and flying backwards.

Voldemort was standing there, looking at Sirius with his fiery red eyes and he knew that there was no way that he'd be able to fight that madman.