The veil
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As soon as Sirius arrived in the atrium, for a few long seconds he felt bewildered. For about four years, the Ministry had been his second home. He used to know those halls like the palm of his hand when he was an auror. Yet he could find no familiarity between the tall, thick stone walls. Forcing his memory, he remembered one of the entrances to the stairs and ran to it, holding his wand, ready to react to any threat.
The stairs moved almost as fast as the lifts, and Sirius cried out in frustration as he missed the path a couple of times. After a time that seemed too long, the marauder finally reached the Department of Mysteries. He had only gone in there once before, to testify at the Lestrange brothers' trial after the two had helped Bellatrix torture the Longbottoms. Bella, as always, managed to get away with it.
Sirius' thoughts were as frantic as his movements, and he ran and ran and ran through those dark corridors. His ears, keen even in his human form, communicated to him that a battle was near. The marauder kept running, entering hallway after hallway, listening to the sounds of spells being cast, of objects being broken, and of gasping cries of pain.
Sirius looked down briefly, for fear his feet might fail him, and saw his own reflection in the dark polished floor. As soon as he entered one of the corridors, he lifted his face and caught sight of two figures, one lying on the floor, the other leaning protectively over the first.
When the second figure lifted its face, Sirius saw that it was a boy with a round face and eyes with something familiar about them. The boy, even though he looked terrified, got to his feet and pointed his wand at him.
"Don't take another step, or I-I swear I'll fight you!" the boy stammered, and Sirius found himself surprised to be confronted, once again, that these were just children fighting the war he and the Order had failed to win fifteen years before. The marauder dared him to look at the figure on the ground, and a sigh caught in his throat.
"Hermione?", Sirius asked and, lowering his wand, pushed the boy aside and knelt beside the unconscious girl. The man looked up, straight into the boy's eyes. "What happened? Where's Harry?"
"Si-sirius?", Hermione stammered, struggling against complete unconsciousness. The boy's eyes widened and he held his wand tighter.
"Sirius Black?" he asked.
"Yes, Sirius Black" the marauder replied, impatient. "Where is my godson? Is he all right? What happened?"
Neville, who was the boy who had stayed behind taking care of a stricken Hermione, recognised the concern in Sirius' eyes and watched the way Hermione held the man's hand tightly. His brain worked quickly and he understood that Sirius was no threat, that he was there to help them.
"It's an ambush. Hermione was attacked by one of the DeathEaters" Neville hastened to say. "Harry and the others went out that door".
Sirius looked in the direction Neville had pointed and nodded positively. Carefully, he disentangled his hand from Hermione's grip and stood.
"Take care of her", he said before running to the door and into another dark corridor.
In a reasonably short time, but one that to Sirius seemed too long, he wandered the corridors after the sounds that denoted that things were getting out of hand. When he finally caught up with Harry and the other children, he found himself in a room that, until that moment, he had only heard about. The Prophecy Room.
High black corridors, from floor to ceiling, with small and medium-sized glass globes filled the room and gave off a suffocating feeling. Harry was holding one of the globes in his hand and standing in front of him was a DeathEater with his wand pointed at the boy.
"Don't give it to him, Harry!", Gina shouted, and managed to dodge a stuporous spell.
Sirius, thinking quickly, took his animagus form and sneaked through the dark corridors, using his black fur as camouflage. He noted that the Eater in front of Harry looked wary and deduced that they wouldn't try to attack Harry while the boy held the prophecy. After all, that was what they wanted, wasn't it? Dumbledore had warned them about Trelawney's prediction years before, and Sirius held back a growl that formed in his chest as he remembered how he had insisted that they destroy it before Voldemort got his hands on it. If Dumbledore had listened to him, Harry wouldn't be there. None of them would be there.
"GET IT, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" the voice that echoed through the room caused a shiver to run down Sirius' spine. Bellatrix.
"Come on, boy. Don't be a fool and give me the prophecy", Lucius' languid voice could be heard. Sirius, trying to remain calm, could not make his heartbeat slow down. His heart was beating frantically and so loudly that he feared having his position given away. It took a few seconds before he finally took a deep breath and, standing a few steps away from a hooded Lucius, he took his human form again and nudged the man in the shoulder.
Caught off guard, Lucius turned away, and Sirius stared at him with wild eyes.
"Don't you ever dare speak to my godson again" the marauder exclaimed before hitting his fist squarely in the middle of Lucius' face. "Harry, run!" he shouted, and the boy grabbed the glass globe with both hands and took off running towards the door.
Sirius quickly followed him, but the two of them found themselves surrounded by a large group of DeatheEaters. Bellatrix, her laughter echoing throughout the room, joined the others and clicked her tongue in her teeth. The witch faced Sirius with a dismissive smile.
"Did you miss me, cousin?" she teased, and Sirius held his breath. It was frightening how much the two of them looked alike. Same eyes, same hair, same fair skin, and yet Bellatrix was pure evil. She was cruel, unscrupulous, and she translated all of Sirius' fears because, after all, he feared being just like her. He feared being just like his family, and perhaps that was the reason he felt so threatened by her. Bella pointed her wand at the marauder. "Crucio!"
Sirius fell to his knees on the floor and writhed in pain, but didn't let go of his wand. Harry's eyes widened and he raised the glass globe to eye level.
"STOP!" the boy shouted. "Stop and I give the prophecy to Voldemort!".
"HOW DARE YOU SAY HIS NAME?", Bella exclaimed, her hate-crazed eyes almost spinning in their own orbit, as if they had a life of their own. Sirius pantingly got to his feet, and through his peripheral vision he could see the silver tail of a phoenix dissipating into thin air. Help was on the way, he just needed to distract them for a little while longer. He then laughed like mad. Harry stared at him in bewilderment.
"You used to be better, Bella" Sirius teased. "I guess the years in Azkaban made you lose practice"
"CRUCIO!" Bella shouted again, pointing her wand at the man. Sirius yelped, but forced his feet against the ground to stay upright. Instinctively, he hugged his own arms. As soon as the pain eased, Sirius faced her with tears in his eyes, but a smile on his face.
"Yeah, you've lost practice" he continued, and Harry stared at him in despair, begging with his gaze for him to stop teasing the witch.
"You think you're such a big wizard, don't you, mudblood lover?", Bella replied. The other Eaters seemed to fear her and didn't dare interfere. They just watched everything as mere spectators. "If you had heard their screams when I tortured them, it was music to my ears!" she exclaimed, and Sirius knew what she meant. His shoulders stiffened. "They screamed and cried and begged me not to kill their precious little girls. The two mudbloods. How is dear Petunia? Have you checked to see if she is safe at home? I would love to see her again".
Sirius growled, and Bellatrix laughed.
"We have work to do" one of the DeathEaters finally said, but cringed when the witch directed a deadly glare at him. Sirius took advantage of his cousin's half-second of distraction and struck her with a stuporous spell.
"Harry, go!" he shouted, and the boy hurled the glass globe away before catching his wand and jinxing a Eater. The others tried to reach for the globe, but it hit the ground and shattered into thousands of little pieces.
Just then, Tonks, Moody and Remus arrived breaking down one of the doors. An insane battle began and spells were cast in all directions. A hooded figure entered the room, shrouded in an almost blinding light.
"Dumbledore" Sirius could hear Moody whisper and for a brief moment sighed in relief.
The Headmaster's face was pale and enraged, and he caught two DeathEaters with the ease with which an experienced fisherman would hook a fish. Sirius saw that Bella was rising from where she had fallen and ran to her, jinxing her. The witch, however, raised her wand and, with a slashing motion, defended herself against the spell. She got to her feet and looked at him with hatred, the purest hatred he had ever seen in his entire life.
The man was no longer worried about his godson, after all, the greatest wizard of all time was there and was fully capable of defending him. There, at that moment, Sirius could only see her. Bellatrix, his tormentor.
"It's just you and me, Bella" he said in between, and the witch cast a curse. Sirius deflected it masterfully and smiled to himself. "Come on, you can do better than that!"
Bellatrix cast another curse, but Sirius defended himself in time. He felt the adrenaline of battle coursing through his veins and, for the first time in a long time, he felt alive, he felt useful, he felt invincible.
The two continued dueling, completely oblivious to the others. It was a personal battle, at least for Sirius. She was fast, but he was even faster. It was only when Sirius dodged a red ray thrown by her that he noticed that there was, very close to him, a large bow. He could hear whispers coming from the bow, but he couldn't hold his attention long enough.
"Is that the best you've got?", Sirius debauched with a mischievous grin stamped on his face as he dodged another curse and almost fell into the bow. He didn't know what was in there, but he knew he didn't want to find out.
He was focused on dueling Bella because it felt good. It was like facing his demons. Sirius knew that all the choices were his, no one forced him to make them. But he felt better channeling all his frustration and all his anger over a lost life to his cousin. Somehow, in his head, Bella was to blame for everything.
In Sirius' head, Bellatrix was the one who had deprived him of living a life with Petunia, she was to blame for James and Lily's death as much as she was to blame for the Evans' death. He hated her with all his might, and he was determined to kill her, to put an end to everything. Kill the witch who had ruined him, who had ruined his life and the lives of the people he loved. To kill Voldemort's most loyal follower.
However, the hubris of thinking he was better than Bella had played tricks on him. Sirius let his guard down and was hit in the chest. He lost his balance, and his smile had barely broken when the marauder finally fell into the bow, leaving behind a cousin smiling triumphantly and a godson shouting his name as he fought against the immobilising embrace of the man, wizard and werewolf who had been Sirius' most loyal friend to the end.
Sirius slowly closed his eyes and the last thing he saw were Petunia's greenish blue eyes, her blonde hair spread across the pillow, the white smile between her pink lips. And she was saying "I love you, Sirius". And then he was sucked into nothingness with his chest, ironically, full of everything good. Full of the love he hadn't had, and would never have, enough time to enjoy. Sirius Black had fallen into the veil and, contrary to what Harry had thought, he didn't come out the other side. Sirius Black had fallen into the veil, and there was no bringing him back.
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Please don't kill me! There's still the last chapter!