The final battle, part 6.
Hey, I'm really sorry for the delay. It's not my fault! Honest! * glares at all things that made it impossible to write, teachers, finials, new semester classes, dumb computer that won't work, writers block…*
Well, here is the next part. And I finally have everything figured out! I know just what is going to happen to Harry, Sirius, and everyone else. I've also figured out why James and lily have come back. Thank you, Carlie prongs!
So here it is. I will try to post a bit more regularly. Thanks for your patience. And any reviews would be veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy good. Thanks
Oh yeah, and anything ya know, doesn't belong to me.
Mari put the sleeping twins in Dumbledore's office where he conjured up a cradle for them.
Then she went back down to the infirmary
She sat by Sirius's bed. James and Lily were sleeping in chairs near by.
She shook her head. James and Lily, alive. It was almost impossible to believe.
She was just dozing when she heard shouting.
"You are insane! You have no proof!"
"And you can not do this. He is deathly ill!"
"All the better to get him now! While he can't curse the place to smithereens."
"No-" Just then Cornelius Fudge burst into the room, McGonagall on his heels. James and Lily jumped up, so did Mari.
"There." He pointed to Sirius's bed.
Sirius, who was just waking up, stared confused, at the gang of ministry wizards that quickly surrounded his bed.
"What are you doing?" Mari cried. She rushed forward, but Fudge held her back.
"Don't worry miss. You'll be safe."
"Safe? What are you doing to my husband?" She yelled as a wizard yanked Sirius out of the bed. Sirius instantly fell to the floor, a look of horror and fear in his eyes.
"Mari-" he croaked before the wizards yanked him to his feet. Lily and James rushed up.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't' worry folks. We'll have him out of here and back in Azkaban in no time." Fudge waved his hand and the wizards began to drag Sirius out.
"No! You can't! he'll die!" James rushed to block their way.
"Please. Don't do this." Lily begged him. Apparently he didn't recognize her or James.
"Mum?" Harry stirred. He opened his eyes and saw the ministry wizards dragging his godfather out the door. "Sirius!" He tired to get out of bed, but Lilly held him down.
James then leaped at the nearest wizards and began to hit him. Remus came in to see what all the noise was and when he saw them, he followed James's example.
The wizards dropped Sirius when James and Remus jumped at them.
He fell to the floor. Mari ran to him and helped him sit up.
Just then Dumbledore ran in.
"What is going on here?"
"Dumbledore, this has gone too far. Black is going back to Azkaban now!"
"But you can't. Not now!"
"He's sick." James said from where he was holding a wizard in a headlock.
"Yeah." Remus said looking up from the wizard he had just placed under the full body bind.
'Please, Fudge. You can't take him." Harry said, from where Lily was still trying to hold him down.
"I can and I will. Now get off those wizards or you two will join him." James and Remus made no move.
"Fudge what on earth are you trying to do, kill him?"
" I received a message he was here and wouldn't put up a fight, and they were right."
"Who sent it?"
"It was anonymous. Just signed P.P."
"Peter." Remus growled.
"Not this again." Fudge moaned. "Pettigrew is not alive. I am taking him, and for once Dumbledore, there is nothing you can do."
Dumbledore gave him a very disapproving look. "Cornelius, think about what you are doing. An innocent man will suffer for your narrow-mindedness."
Fudge didn't answer, he just looked at Sirius, who was glaring back at him with all the strength he could muster. A long moment passed.
"Take him away." Fudge waved his hand. The wizards escaped from James and Remus's grasp and dragged Sirius from the room before anyone could say anything. Fudge moved to follow them, but then he turned around.
"I have tolerated you and your high opinions for long enough. Do not cross me again." He warned Dumbledore.
Then he turned and was gone.
Mari began to cry, and James and Remus watched the door helplessly.
"Professor, what do we do?" Lily asked Dumbledore.
He thought for a minute.
"I don't know, What can we do?"
"I know." Harry said from his bed. They all turned at look at him.
"Dad, you're going to have to use the invisibility cloak." James narrowed his eyes, then he smiled.
"Of course. Moony, come on." Then they left the room.
The jailers threw Sirius into his cold dark cell.
Sirius pulled himself into a sitting position. Every inch of him hurt.
Not only was he already sore, the jailers had amused themselves by beating him within an inch of his life.
Sirius heard talking and felt the rush of cold that signaled a dementor guarding his cell. He shivered, scenes he didn't want to remember pierced his mind.
Sirius tried to push them back, but he just wasn't strong enough. He heard laughter outside his door. He pulled himself into a corner and curled up, shutting out the world he had managed to escape from for three years.
I'm going to die here. He thought for the first time in three years. I'm going to die here, alone. I don't want to die. God help me, I don't want to die alone.
"Are you sure about this?" Remus asked as they approached the towering fortress of Azkaban.
"No. But Sirius would do it for either of us in a heartbeat." James replied. "Now come on." He held out the invisibility cloak. Remus got under it.
They walked up the beaten path to the huge steel doors.
"Now what?"
"Knock?"
"Oh yeah, they'll just open right up."
"Shut up." James reached out and knocked. The sound echoed through the forlorn prison.
A few seconds passed, then slowly the old doors creaked open.
A tall, quite fat, angry looking guard stepped out. James and Remus slipped in behind him.
They waited for his to come back in and followed him.
"Who was it?" The other guard at the door asked.
"No one."
"That's odd. Well we better send someone down to three twenty one."
"Why?"
"The dementors are having a ball. I think he's going to go soon."
"It's about time, too bad we can't give him the Kiss. Fudge thinks it will be better to let him waste away. "
"I have to say I do feel sorry for him. Out for three years then he's back in here to die."
"Yeah, oh well."
The guards turned back to their work and James and Remus followed the signs to cell number three twenty one.
"Ugh, can you imagine spending twelve years of your life here?" James asked.
"I don't want to." Remus replied. "But now I know why he came out looking like he did." For the feelings of dread and the coldness that seeped into their spines had found them. It was quite easy to find Sirius's cell what with all the dementors crowding around it.
James whipped out his wand.
"I'll distract them, you get him out." Remus nodded.
Several dementors turned as they approached.
"Expecto patronum!" James shouted. A slivery figure shot out of the end of his wand. A large stag began to scatter the dementors.
"Go now!" James yelled as he struggled to maintain his patronus.
Remus tapped the door and it sprung open. He rushed in. The small cell was dark and smelled. The musty odor mixed with the smell of blood.
Remus didn't know what he expected to find, but Sirius huddled in a ball in the corner wasn't it.
"Sirius?" This couldn't be Sirius. Not Padfoot, who never cried and never gave up.
Sirius raised his head. His faced was tearstained and pale. When he spoke, Remus could bearly hear him.
"I don't want to die, Moony."
"You're not going to die, Padfoot. Now come on."
"Yes I am. They are going to give me the Kiss. I'm going to die."
"Look Sirius, you are sick and delusional. We are going to get you home. Okay?"
Sirius only gazed at him with glassy eyes.
Remus yanked him to his feet and Sirius swayed on his feet.
Remus slid his arm under him and helped him. They got out of the cell. James threw the cloak over them all and they hurried back to the entrance.
The guards bearly glanced up when the door slid open again. James and Remus waited till they were a safe distance away then they appereated, leaving the living hell called Azkaban behind them.
They reappeared out side the Hogwarts grounds. Slowly they made their way back up to the castle. They slipped inside and back up to the infirmary.
They laid Sirius back down on the bed, and they sent Cassi, after many hugs and shouts off to find the others.
Harry was sleeping, thank god. Remus brought a chair over and sat next to Sirius's bed. James pulled a chair up between his son and his best friend.
Sirius really hadn't regained full consciousness yet. He seemed to be drifting in and out.
Then slowly, he opened his eyes.
"It's real. I thought it was all a dream." He said softly.
" No Padfoot. It's real." James told him. He picked up the goblet that held the cure. He held it so Sirius could drink. He made a face but swallowed it. Sirius shivered as the potion began to work on curing the deadly curse that ravaged his body.
" I thought I was back there."
"You were." Sirius shuddered violently.
"Don't worry. We won't let them take you back. "
"They'll have to take us too."
"Padfoot," Remus wanted to tell Sirius how sorry he was that Sirius had to spend twelve years in that hell. He wanted to say how sorry he was for not being there for him. Or for not believing him. But he couldn't.
He wouldn't have heard him anyway. Because Sirius Black was asleep.