part twenty four
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not much to say other than fight scenes arent my strong point. obviously.
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"Headmaster.. i've just received a very intriguing owl from the Improper Use of Magic Office and the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad." Professor McGonagall said with a hint of disdain. "It seems that whatever you sent some of the staff out to do has backfired rather badly. We've had a lot of muggles reporting to police that the Riddle house has been acting... strangely... in the past half hour, and theres someone on a broomstick flying overhead."

"Oh dear." Dumbledore frowned, his eyes glittering behind his half moon glasses, "It seems that the discreet operation has gone slightly past the discreet marker."

"Is this to do with... You-Know-Who?" McGonagall saw Dumbledore's face... "Oh alright... *Voldemort*... is this to do with him?"

"I'm afraid it is." Dumbledore nodded, "But you understand, i can't interfere."

"Whyever not?" McGonagall looked scolded, "Everybody knows you're the only person he's afraid of..."

Dumbledore looked at her with sad eyes, "That is exactly my point, do you not see? I won't be here forever, however impossible that may seem to you."

"Don't talk that way.."

"And when i am not here, who are the people going to turn to? They have got used to sending their problems my way when they are in need of help that nobody else can give them, they are used to taking the easy road out of danger, but it is not going to last for long, i need to build up their singular strength in preparation for that time, however far away or close it is."

"But you dont see...."

"You only see what your eyes want to see, the blind man can take in so much more and understand things better than someone with their full sight." Dumbledore glanced over at the phoenix. "I would like it for you to replace me, when the time comes."

"headmaster!" McGonagall once again looked shocked, "I... I..."

"Don't thank me now, thank me when you understand what this is going to mean to you."
****


If the Riddle family had been alive to witness the destruction of their house, it would have astounded them. Once the pride and joy of the village, was now a twisted burning shell of anger and pain. The wreckage spanned the entire garden, and spilled out into the road.

Inside, there was chaos. If possible, the amount of death eaters seemed to be indirectly proportional to the amount of Phoenixes, when one of the phoenixes or house elves died, it seemed that another death eater appeared from nowhere. No side was winning. Voldemort was standing at the back of the room surveying the damage, it was a waste of valuable time.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted from above, "Sirius get on the broom."

"Harry!" Sirius shouted, dodging a particularly vicious impedimentia curse that whizzed past his thigh, "No, i can't. I have to stay.. you go, go find help, i dont care who it is. Just go get somebody, Dumbledore, The Queen on Constantinople, i dont care.. just get someone." He suddenly handed up a bag, "Here take this with you, it needs to be safe."

Harry grabbed the bag and flew straight up, gaining speed, it was only when he looked back down that he heard that cold high voice echoing through the walls, a curse he'd never heard before, a curse less deadly than the unforgiveables, but a thousand times more destructive.

"Totalum annientamentus!"

The house blew, the entire house went up in a cloud of smoke and debris. It was all Harry could do to fly out of the danger area, he hovered in the air and a choked cry came out of his mouth "Sirius? Remus?"

"Fly Harry." A voice came from behind him. A shining figure on a broom beside him. "Dont think about them, fly to Dumbledore, they'll be alright, but they need you to get help."

"Dad... I can't leave them." Harry shouted angrily at the shadow.

"If you want your life to be worth anything, you'll find the strength inside yourself to fly out of this, trust me. I can't stay here for long, but i know what i'm saying, fly like the wind."

The shadow faded, retreated into Harry's bag, and Harry didn't give it a second glance, he sped off in a north easterly direction, and hoped to whoever above that might be listening to him right now that somebody would help him.
****



"R.. Remus?" Peter croaked, pulling on a dirty bleeding hand from under a roof beam. "R... Remus, is that you? Oh god.... don't be dead... Remus... Remus..." Peter stood alone, climbing over the weckage of the magnificent mansion. Voldemort had disappeared just as the house fell, no doubt leaving the fate of his servants to their divine luck. Peter saw something else, a leg was it? He couldn't tell, it was at such an awkward angle, but he recognised the leather, who wouldnt? He jumped over a smashed gargoyle and tried to lift some of the stone. "S..Sirius?" The leg twitched, and a faint groan could be heard. Peter glanced over at the smouldering remains of a tapestry and rushed over, picking it up and running back to Sirius. "P... please... j..just dont move..." He lifted off some rubble and pushed a few pieces of wood aside. Sirius looked up through his bloodstained hair and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU LOUSY EXCUSE FOR HUMAN FLESH" Sirius grasped his leg, "Broken... oh god that hurts."

"R....Remus.. you need to get.. he's... i have to..." Peter stuttered, gesturing wildly.

"WHat?" Sirius tried to sit up, failing miserably. "Don't you touch him, scum."

"I... I'm sorry... I..." Peter whispered, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. From the lok that Sirius gave him, it looked like he didn't believe Peter either.

"Peter... as far as i'm concerned, You. Don't. Exist." Sirius said in a menacingly low cruel voice. His eyes reduced to slits, filled with utter loathing.

"Sorry." Peter choked, close to tears, "i didn't mean..."

"SORRY? YOU'RE SORRY? YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN SORRY A LONG TIME AGO... I WENT TO AZKABAN BECAUSE OF YOU! I SPENT THIRTEEN YEARS OF TORTURE FOR SOMETHING YOU DID. YOU'VE TAKEN AWAY TWO OF THE BEST PEOPLE THAT I'VE EVER KNOWN. YOU LEFT THEIR SON TO FEND FOR HIMSELF WITH MUGGLE HALF-WITS." Sirius didn't realise he was sobbing at this point, he kept going, dragging himself up onto his elbows. "SORRY?!? YOU'RE TOO LATE TO BE SORRY. BECAUSE OF YOU SO MANY PEOPLES LIVES HAVE BEEN RUINED. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE?"

The colour drained from Peter's face as he saw a shadow towering over him.

"Petrificus Totalus."

Peter fell to the rubble, crushing Sirius's good leg under his weight.

"Black. Get up." Snape sneered, kicking Peter off Sirius's leg.

"Can't you see that i can't get up you stupid half wit." Sirius rolled his eyes. "Remus is over there, don't bother with me, just get Remus out."

Snape limped over to where the bloddy arm was protruding from under a thick wooden beam, the blood had stained the marble underneath. Severus pointed his wand at the beam. "Wingardium Leviosa."

His wand splintered in his hands, it imploded, and fell to the rubble in bits. Snape looked down at the wand fragments with a mixture of shock and disgust. "Stupid peice of worthless wood." He scowled, before tugging at the beam himself. As he moved it upwards, a shower of plaster and dust threatened to give way from above. He realised that the beam was holding up the rest of the precariously balanced ceiling fragments.

Sirius dragged himself out of the hole he had fallen into and was using his arms to pull himself off the rubble. Hs broken leg was twisted at an awful angle and was causing pain to shoot up his leg every time he moved. Then a thought hit him. "Edea?"

"Mrrver mmmmmeeeerrrr." He heard a voice reply.

"Where?" Sirius shouted.

"Mmmmrrrhhhpppelp mmee."

"I cant, love, i cant walk. Can you tell me what it looks like where you are?"

"Dark, cramped, lost my friggin wand." Edea called out clearer this time. "Can't you blast me out of this?"

"No wand." Sirius shook his head, trying to find the origin of her voice.

"Sir sir!" A small house elf came running up, wearing a dirty ripped teacosy on his head. "Sir, i is helping you get out Miss professor lady from the stone... i is having your wand safely here."

Sirius looked down in surprise at the elf, and gratefully took his wand. "Accio Edea!"

Edea came flying out of a pile of rubble and hit him in the chest, knocking them both over. Sirius hissed with pain as his leg gave him a new shot of fire.

"Dobby is healing sirs leg, sir must get his Lupin out of rubble, Professor Potions is not so well going." Dobby used his own kind of house elf magic that was more commonly used in tidying up homes to heal the gash on Sirius's leg, the bone had been crudely rejoined, it wasn't perfect but it was enough to walk on, gingerly.

"Remus!" Sirius called out loudly, pushing Snape aside. "What the hell are you doing under here."

Remus didn't answer.

"Urm.. Sirius?" Edea pulled Sirius away from the beam, and pointed at what the beam was holding up.

"Oh." Sirius looked defeated. "Listen, Remus, if you can hear me, can you move your hand, or a finger or something."

Nothing moved.

"Shit." Sirius announced finally. "This is not good, Eds, what happened to your wand?"

"When Voldemort blew up the house, it got blown out of my hands, it disappeared in the cloud of smoke."

"And what about you?" Sirius asked Snape, who pointed at the broken wood beside Sirius's feet. "Ah." Sirius looked at the broken wand and something beside it caught his eye. A twisted piece of metal that had once held up one of the tapestries.

"You're going to use a metal bar... yeah... very clever." Snape snarked,

"Watch this." Sirius rolled his eyes, hooking the bar under a corner of the beam. "Something Harry told me, muggles do this."

He pushed down on the bar, which lifted the beam up enough for Edea to wedge a mini obelisk under it, so it held the beam up, but kept the rubble from falling.

"Clever isn't it." Sirius smiled at Snape. His expession changed however when he saw what looked like the rest of Remus. "Moony? Remus Jihad Lupin get up or i'll have to call your parents."

Snape twitched, "Jihad?" he asked.

"Joking." Sirius answered, "it usually got him going before."

Snape pushed past Sirius, and crawled under the beam which creaked warningly, he reached out to Remus' other wrist. "He's still here. Unconscious. Someone arange a portkey to Hogsmeade... NOW."

Edea picked up a piece of rubble and took it to a corner where she was holding Sirius's wand over it, muttering something about "Self-satisfied idiotic ex-death eaters."

TBC