The Department of Mysteries Revisited: A Sirius Point of View

By Trace

Part Two

The Ministry's atrium was all but deserted, and a small red light was blinking overhead. "I don't like it," said Moody as he joined the new arrivals, "those fires should be kept stoked at all times. And where's the bloody guard? Alarms are going off all over the place." His magical eye revolved so fast it nearly made Sirius heave.

"We're wasting time," Sirius growled, "Harry could die while we stand here." He took off, and the rest followed him down the hall at a run and piled into the nearest lift. They descended to the ninth floor, where more red lights were blinking.

"Shall we split up and look for Harry?" Tonks asked.

"Hell no! We know where to look for Harry," Moody said.

"The prophecy room, then?" she asked.

Moody removed what looked like a compass from a pocket inside his robe. He tapped it with his wand and said clearly, "Harry Potter." Sirius watched in surprise as the compass arrow described several complete circles before finally halting in the NNE position. Suddenly the compass sprouted wings and shot out of Moody's hand. "Follow it!" Mad-Eye cried.

Down darkened corridors they raced, through rooms they barely noticed, the compass bouncing frantically off closed doors. They heard a shout of help close by. It sounded like Ron Weasley, and although the compass led them another way, Lupin veered off to give aid. The others followed the compass, which finally stopped dead before a locked door.

"Stand back," Sirius said, pushing up the sleeves of his robe.

"Not so fast boy, that's the Death Ch--" Moody began, but Sirius wasn't listening. All he knew was that Harry was behind that door, in danger. He pointed his wand at the door and shouted, "Reducto!" The door burst apart, and what they all saw below them, on the sunken floor of an amphitheater, was horrifying. Neville Longbottom lay curled up in pain with Bellatrix Lestrange standing over him, smiling. Harry himself stood upon a dais in the middle of the room, framed by a veiled archway. Lucius Malfoy was reaching for something in Harry's hand. There were Death Eaters all around. They all looked up in surprise.

Sirius dimly noticed that Lupin had burst through another door into the room, and that a jet of red light had sizzled from behind him and barely missed hitting Lucius Malfoy in the forehead. The scene in front of him captured all of his attention, and it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been facing the Death Eaters alone. He was finally going to see some action. He was finally going to help. All the frustrations of the past year, the enforced inactivity, being cooped up in the house of his childhood, and Snape's taunts boiled over in a rage. He'd had enough. "Stupefy!" he shouted, and aimed the stunning spell directly at the nearest Death Eater. A direct hit! He started down the steps, firing more hexes and dodging a few close ones, wearing the first smile he'd had on in weeks.

The fighting was fierce, but Sirius was glad to see Harry slip off the dais and run for the stairs with the Longbottom kid. He stepped up his efforts to give Harry more cover. He advanced on a hooded Death Eater, their spells coming fast and furious, and the jets of light clashing in mid-air. Next thing, out of the corner of his eye, Sirius saw another hooded Death Eater strangling Harry, while one he thought might have been Dolohov sprinted forward to help finish Harry off. He had to end his duel, now. Harry needs my help.

He saw his Death Eater casting a stunning spell and hesitated a half-second to change the timing of his counter spell. He ducked, rolled and came up firing. The Death Eater was blasted off his feet and came to rest, unconscious, among the seats in the fourth row. Sirius spun around to see McNair, unmasked, sprawled at Harry's feet, Neville writhing on the floor and Dolohov preparing to cast a spell. He charged into the scrum, knocking Dolohov halfway across the room. The ensuing duel was short.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he heard Harry scream, and saw Dolohov's limbs snap together before he landed hard upon his back.

"Nice one!" Sirius shouted as he scrambled towards Harry and forced his head down to avoid a few misfired stunning spells. "Now I want you to get out of –," but his words were cut short as a green jet of light streaked past his arm, and a wisp of bright green smoke rose from the sleeve of his robe. That was close.

He glanced up just in time to see Tonks bouncing lifelessly down the steps of the amphitheater and his other cousin, Bellatrix, laughing with glee and staring at Harry with a covetous expression on her face. She will NOT get Harry! Not even bothering to glance back, he yelled, "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!" and then dashed off to confront his evil cousin.

Their duel was intense, as only battles among family can be. Bellatrix was fast, but Sirius had years of pent-up energy and anger to throw at her. She couldn't pin him down, and her counter spells were coming just a fraction of a second later each time. Bellatrix retreated to one side of the dais, trying to gain an advantage, so Sirius jumped up upon the dais to close the distance, and that's when the whispering started. At first it didn't bother him, he just continued to strafe Bellatrix with stunning spells. She had nowhere to hide; it was only a matter of time. Sirius advanced until he was standing in front of the veiled archway. He ducked a stunning spell and laughed. "Come on, you can do better than that!"

Suddenly, he heard a voice he knew—a voice he'd never thought he'd hear again.

You've never failed me, Padfoot, the disembodied voice said from the other side of the veil. The voice was that of James Potter.

Sirius froze, and Bellatrix's stunning spell caught him full in the chest.

Sirius wasn't sure what had him more stupefied, hearing James voice or his cousin's spell. He felt himself teeter and looked around the room. Bellatrix was laughing triumphantly. Death Eaters were out cold everywhere—that must be Dumbledore's work, he thought, as he realized the old man had arrived. Everyone's eyes were upon him as he started to tilt backwards toward the veil behind him. He saw Harry and Remus watching him in horror. His eyes traveled upward to the top seats of the amphitheater, and that's where he saw the shadowy figure.

Unseen by anyone but Sirius, she stepped forward, her eyes blazing with anger. Sirius didn't need to see them up close to know those eyes were cat's eyes, green shot through with golden flecks. He knew he was looking into the eyes of Death.

No, not her, not like this.

But as he fell backwards and felt the veil brush against his back, he stared Death defiantly in the eyes and saw the flick of her wand. He felt an intense squeezing sensation all over his body. So this is what it feels like to be vanished off the face of the earth, he thought irreverently, and then everything went black.