The next morning I was at the tavern on time. Frank smiled when he saw me.
" So Sirius, you're a member now. That's great. I've heard a lot about you. Did you really face Voldemort all by yourself?"
" Yeah, so?" I shrugged. I didn't like to talk about it. I mean, who would? I had grown up in a world of silence, where you didn't tell anyone about the pain, you just bore it and hoped for the best.
" Well, that's not something just anyone can say. Dumbledore told me about it and he also said not to be surprised if anything strange happened while I was training you."
"Strange?"
" I don't know. But let's get down to business." He took me to an old building and down a long hall till we came to a big empty room. That was were they trained new aurors. You needed to be fast, smart, quick with your spells, everything. I found it came very easy to me. I trained for the whole day. I can't tell you how they train aurors, top secret and all of that. But I can tell you it's hard.
For the rest of the week I trained. The others were worked just as hard. McGonagall worked James hard on his spells. Arthur worked Lily and Remus on their athletic ability. Peter had got a job doing some filing for the ministry. He seemed to like it well enough. Finally Friday came and Frank let me off early.
I ran up the steps and rang the doorbell. Why muggles need such things is beyond me. But Marianna answered the foolish contraption anyway.
" Sirius. It's great to see you. You haven't called all week. I got to thinking you forgot."
" No. I didn't forget. I've just been really busy."
" Oh, " she didn't like it, but she let it go. Only the first of many times she would do that over the next four years.
'You ready to go?"
She smiled. We spent the evening at the fair. It's this sort of party muggles have. It has rides and games and food and strange men with multicolored faces, odd shaped feet, and weird clothes that run up to you, hug you, and give you strange shiny, squeaky animals that blow up if you poke them too hard.
" Honestly Sirius, you'd think you'd never seen a clown before."
" I don't like them. They scare me."
She shook her head and we went on. We watched the sun go down over the river and we had our first kiss there. After that we saw as much of each other as we could. It was hard to fit dating into my schedule. But Frank, being engaged himself, let me have Fridays and Saturdays evenings off.
There was one flaw in our relationship. I couldn't tell her what I was. I had seen people get rejected because of the magic in their blood and I didn't want to lose her. Some strange things happen that made her wonder. She always wondered about the owls. I sent all my letters to her by owl. She thought it was the funniest thing, though I pretended as if I'd trained Ernie to deliver letters instead of him automatically knowing how too. And the way things seemed to do what I wanted. Like I could fix her TV. (A muggle box with pictures in it) with out doing anything. I just whacked it with my wand. And the way my friends and I always seemed to be fighting about Quidditich, or some other wizard thing.
Still, we stayed together. She knew I was taking classes, though she didn't know where. I used that for an excuse if ever there was a problem and I had to run out or miss a date. Still, she was patient, and I treasured her for that. Every time I did screw up; I tried to make it up to her. I thanked God, I'd been raised a muggle so that I knew how to do simple things like work the television, or take her out to eat, or drive her around on my motorbike. She loved that bike almost as much as I did.
She didn't complain much that first year. Only a few times, did she get mad at me. But something in me, commanded me not to loose her. So I did my best to listen well.
I had been training almost a year when at the next meeting, when Dumbledore asked if anyone had anything new to say, Frank stood up. " I have been training Sirius for about a year now and I have something to say tonight. There is nothing more I can teach him. He is ready. I am pleased to introduce you to our newest auror, Sirius Black."
I sat in shock. Normally the training period took about three years, but our side was struggling in the war and we needed new recruits as fast as Hogwarts could turn them out. The training period was shortened, giving us real duties that it would have normally taken us at least three years to achieve.
James and Remus congratulated me. They would become aurors in the next week. Though, I still kept up working with Frank, I was now a certified auror. Still Frank kept throwing newer and newer things at me. A few months later, he began training me to use muggle weapons.
"You never know when that is all you may have." He told me. Oddly enough, I found myself to be an excellent shot when it came to guns and a good thrower with knives.
On my first time out, I went with Frank and a few others. We were planning a raid on a suspected death eater. James's group would be called in case of any trouble. We approached the house cautiously. No one made a sound. I heard a small crack behind me.
" Shhh." One of the older men turned and glared at me. Moody. Before we had left he and Dumbledore had had a row. He said I was too young to be trusted with something like this. But Dumbledore and Frank insisted. The hair rose on the back on my neck. I heard more cracks and I smelled something. Something evil. I could smell things others couldn't and hear things others couldn't and I had a dogs six sense.
" Frank, someone's following us."
"Shut up kid." Moody growled " You're gonna get us caught."
" But,"
" Shut up!"
Again I heard the rustling and now voices.
" Frank." I whispered desperately.
"Kid, I told you to shut up." Moody said louder now.
" Alastor, relax. Sirius, what's wrong?"
" Voices. Back there. And people. I smell people." I pointed. They listened.
" I don't hear anything." Moody growled. But Frank looked at me. He knew I could sometimes do, hear, and smell things other people couldn't.
" Get your wands up. Be ready." Frank warned. We stood in a circle. Frank whispered something to Moody and he nodded glaring at me. " Sirius, if something happens, I want you to run. Don't stay, just get away while you can." I didn't answer, but I knew I wouldn't. We managed to get up to the front door. Moody and the others broke it down and pulled the Death Eaters outside.
" Found them in the middle of a meeting. Call Dumbledore. We're gonna need more backup to bring them all in." Moody told Frank. Just then a flash of movement caught my eye. There were people moving in the bushes and they weren't ours. "He's coming. Now. We have to go." I insisted.
Frank nodded and motioned for the others to come out of hiding. James ran up to me and gave me a look. Frank and the others tied up the Death Eaters and we prepared to go. The they attacked.
The Death Eaters fired curse after curse at us. We fired back but we were outnumbered.
"Look out!" James yelled as the Death Eaters we had captured broke free. Forgetting my wand I jumped at the nearest one. I wrestled with him for a few minutes and managed to bind him. I went after the next one and the next one I raised my fist to punch one when someone grabbed my arm. They twisted it back until I heard a pop! A wave of pain ran down my arm. My shoulder burned. Some one grabbed me by the collar and held me by the neck. I felt a wand tip shoved under my chin.
" Stop!" the man holding me yelled.
"Sirius!" James yelled. He moved toward me, but Frank held him back.
" Well, aurors. It looks like you have a decision to make. Let my men go or see your little friend here die a very painful death."
"Let the boy go." Frank spoke in a low voice.
"Let me think for a moment. No." he laughed cruelly and jerked my arm, forcing me to bite down hard on my lip to stifle my outcry. I tasted blood. " My master will reward me well if I bring him this boy. And you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him He can't be more that what, seventeen, eighteen?"
" Let him go." Frank repeated.
" So young. It's so sad when they go this young." The man laughed. Then he twisted my arm. I barely stifled my cry of pain.
The man laughed again. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a wolf running toward us. I glanced up at the moon. It was full. Remus, I thought. Wasn't he back at Hogwarts? There had been some new development, hadn't there? Yes, a potion that allowed him to keep him minds during the transformation. He'd been so excited. But my mind was blurry, fuzzy with pain and frustration. I couldn't remember.
The man was knocked down. He let go of me and I ran for my friends. James grabbed me and pulled me out of the way. Remus, the wolf stood over the man growling for a second. Then he looked at the aurors expectantly as if to say well, aren't you going to arrest him? The other death eaters had scattered.
And once the man had been arrested, I was forgotten for a minute. Moony came up to James and me who were sitting in the back.
"Thanks Moony. You saved my life." I reached out to pet the wolf and to my surprise, he let me. The he ran off. Later that night we went back to Hogwarts to report. Dumbledore took one look at my arm in the sling and sent me up to Madam Pomfrey.
" Dislocated shoulder. Shouldn't be too hard. But I don't want you using this arm for at least three days. Come up at the next meeting and I'll check it. Honestly, I thought I was done mending your injuries." She scolded me as she wrapped my arm and placed it in a sling again. " You watch him. Do not let him do anything strenuous or the arm wouldn't heal. Give him this for the pain." She handed James a small bottle. " I would have thought you would have learned some sense by now, but no. " She went on muttering as she mending the other patients. James smiled and we went home.
Lily was waiting for us. " Dumbledore sent a letter." She had fixed us a hot meal and sent me to bed. Addi came home later and yelled at me for not watching out for myself.
The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed and went to stretch. Pain shot up my arm and I remembered last night. I winced and put my arm back in the sling and went out to see about breakfast.
I worked hard, bringing in Death Eaters as fast as I could. Unfortunately I got many more visits to Madam Pomfrey. Many of Voldemort's supporters did not want to come quietly.
Chapter 37: A New Job.
It was a few weeks after that episode that Dumbledore called me into his office. "Sirius, there is something I wish to discuss with you. Please sit down." He motioned to a chair in front of him. I sat.
"Frank tells me you're working with muggle weapons now."
I nodded.
"Sirius, Frank tells me you're doing well. Very well." I nodded again, unsure of where this was going.
"In fact, he says he would like to recommend you to Thomas McKinnon." I frowned. His name had been whispered a few times, usually when a Death Eater was found dead, mysteriously dead.
"I agree with him that you would do well in Thomas's department." Dumbledore seemed uneasy about something.
"It may be best if you did not mention this to any of your friends. Not even James or Remus." I was confused, but agreed. And the next day, I was shown to the office of Thomas McKinnon
McKinnon was a tall man, almost as tall as I was, with a brush of brown hair, flecked with gray. He seemed perhaps ten years older than myself, maybe more. He stood up to greet me.
"Sirius Black, correct?" I nodded. He offered me a chair, and sat down at his desk and opened a file. "Sirius Lee Black, born January first, 1961. Parents: Fiona and Orion Black, both deceased. Living relatives: sister, Adhara Black, age 18, twin. Graduated from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, June 15, 1978. Trained in the use of wands, curses, transfiguration, and the use of muggle weapons. Recommended to the Department for Magic Intelligence. Code name: Cerberus. " He glanced at me. I shivered. By the looks of the large stack of papers in that file, it was my whole life in that folder. And code name? Up until then, I'd never heard mine, though I knew we all had one. They were issued to us when we joined the OOP.
"Do you know what goes on in the Department for Magic Intelligence?" he asked me. I shook my head.
"No one says much. And it's never really crossed my mind." He sighed.
"Black, you're here because you're good. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. Frank knows you well, it seems." He nodded to the file. "He says you have a bad temper. That you tend to get angry easily. Is that true?" I shrugged.
"I guess. I always got in fights at school." I had to wonder just where this was going.
"And these fights, did you win any?" I gave him a confused look.
"Some. Most got pulled apart by teachers." He nodded.
"Do you know what we do here?" I shook my head.
"Most of us here, we're what's called Unspeakables. Our job is to take care of things."
"What kind of things?" I asked, a bit hesitant.
"Things that get in the way. Things or people."
"People?" He nodded and got up, slowly pacing around me.
"Yes. If there is someone we know we can't take alive, or is passing secrets, we eliminate the subject." I was appalled.
"Subject? That's a human life you're talking about!"
"They're not human any more, Sirius." He gave me a hard look. "Wouldn't you love to catch the rats who murdered your parents?" I stiffened and my blood turned to ice. I'd never told anyone my secret wish that I could track down and murder that filthy git like he did my mum and dad.
McKinnon laughed. "I thought so. So what do you say? Want to join us?"
"You're assassins!" I hissed.
"That's not the word we typically use, but I suppose you could say that." I frowned deeply. He leaned over, looking me right in the face. "This is for your country, Black. Your friends, your life. Do you want other children to suffer like you did, because you didn't want to get their murderers off the streets? We need you, Black. Your people need you." He waited my response.
On the one hand, it was murder. It was almost like what they were doing to us. But then, it wasn't. I knew there were Death Eaters that wouldn't be caught alive, and they were the worst. Take away the followers and the leader has no power. Steal the sheep and the Shepard is disabled. My decision was made. Slowly, I looked up at McKinnon and I nodded, sealing my fate.
He nodded in return. "Good choice, Black." Then he sat back. "You'll need to be here bright an early tomorrow to start your training, so I suggest you get an early start tonight."
"Sir, one thing. About my friends, my family. What do I say? Am I going to have to leave them? And I have a girlfriend, she's a muggle. What do I do?"
"Continue like you have been. You've simply been transferred. We don't want anyone to suspect anything." I nodded and got up to leave. Just as my hand was on the door, McKinnon spoke again.
"Black, I must stress, that it is imperative that you keep silent about anything you may, do, see, or hear." I nodded again and I pulled the door closed behind me. For a second, I leaned on it for support, and then I gathered myself and hurried home.
I must have looked worried that night, because Mari asked if there was anything wrong. I simply lied and told her no. but James frowned.
"I heard you got transferred today." I nodded.
"Where to?"
"Department of Intelligence." I answered.
Lily frowned. "That's where the Unspeakables work." James grinned.
"Finally, you can tell us what they do." I gave him a grin back, but my heart wasn't in it.
"What are Unspeakables?" Mari asked. Lily grinned at her.
"They work for the Ministry. No one's quite sure what they do, but now that Sirius is working in the same department, he can tell us." Mari smiled. I poked my food.
The next morning, I slipped out before anyone was wake.
I arrived at the office, wondering just what I was doing. McKinnon was waiting for me.
"Nice Morning, Black. Ready?" I nodded.
"As ready as I'll ever be." He smiled and led me into the worst ten weeks of my life.
I trained from sunrise to sunset. I learned everything from how to block the Cruciatus, to how to load and fire a gun in less than fifteen seconds. I learned how to hide. McKinnon was the only one I ever told about my illegal animagi transformation, and he was nothing short of impressed.
"Fifteen? You were fifteen?" I nodded. "And no one ever found out?"
"No one we never told."
"That's even better. Gives you an extra protection. If ever you can't run away, you can change and hide like that." I nodded.
Then he put me through tests. Horrible, grueling tests that left me aching and tired. But my skills improved day-by-day until, almost three months later, on my birthday, he pulled me into his office.
"Sirius, you are nineteen years old today. Happy birthday." He handed me a file. I opened it up.
There was a picture of a glowering man with glasses and a balding head.
"Name's Luther Van Slight. Worked as a clerk for Moody, but got fired about six months ago. And yet he keeps reappearing in places around the ministry. He's been passing secrets for over a year, but every time we try to catch him, he disappears. Vanishes into thin air. Well, we've got him pinned down now. We have his address. And he's your first target." I swallowed hard. This was it.
This was the man I was going to kill. I started at him, wondering half-heartedly if he had a family, friends, people that would miss him.
"Don't waste your sympathy, Black." McKinnon said, interrupting my thoughts. "He's murdered half a dozen of my agents alone, and the secrets he's passed have resulted in the deaths of ten muggles and at least three innocent wizards. A single mother and two kids, I might add."
"So why me? if he's so dangerous, why send me? It's my first time."
"Because I know you can do it." he told me.
"Well, what do I use? Wand? Gun? Curse?"
"Up to you. He lives in a muggle neighborhood in West London, so I'd go for the silent weapons. Don't want you getting caught by muggle policemen." I nodded.
"When do I go?"
"Tonight." I left the office, shivers running up and down my spine.
All that afternoon, I paced the flat, trying to figure out what to do. Did I even want to do this? It was killing a man. True, a man who'd killed others, but was that right?
"Sirius?"
"Ya!" I jumped and reached for my belt. Luckily, my wand was lying on the table, or Lily would have been some sort of fluffy white rodent by that time. She looked surprised.
"Sorry, Lil. Just a bit nervous."
"So I noticed. I came in here to ask if you wanted to stop pacing a hole in the carpet and have dinner." She asked, smiling. Dinner? My stomach refused to even think of food, and I shook my head.
It was a few minutes later, when I heard my friends sit down to dinner that I slipped out the door. I climbed onto my motorbike and sped off. When I reached the street, I climbed off and crept down the sidewalk, staying in the shadows, yet moving fast enough to as to not attract attention.
By that time, my heart was pounding. I wondered if my nerve was going to fail me. I steeled myself, reminding my frantic body, which wanted nothing more than to go tearing down the street, just what this monster had done.
Just then a door slammed and a man walked down the stairs from one of the houses. I squinted.
Yep, that was him. Slowly, as if I wasn't even in charge anymore, I slipped into the shadows behind him. What to use? I wondered as he went for his car. Why does a wizard have a car, I wondered. His car! I had to act now!
I reached down and the first thing I found was my gun. It had been modified to be silent and improved shot. I raised it, telling myself it was only a dummy, like I'd shot so many times. Then as he bent over his car to unlock it, I pulled the trigger.
He cried out, slumped over the car and was still. Blood streaked the car window and dribbled down to gather in pools by his feet. I crept up and rolled him over. I knew I wouldn't leave any fingerprints, those had been magically removed by McKinnon. It was most certainly him. I found his wand in his pockets, along with a paper, which contained a detailed description of our next attack against Voldemort. I growled.
Then I glanced at the man, laying on the ground next to me. Horror coursed through my veins. I'd killed him! I'd killed a man! I jumped back. Suddenly, I heard a voice.
"Wait! Luther! You forgot your coat!" a man hurried out, waving his coat. He froze when he saw me. Then-
"Auror!" he screamed and pulled out his wand. "I'll kill you!" he shouted. He shoved me back against the car. I heard glass shatter. I kicked out and he stumbled back. Then he went for his wand. I reached behind me and grabbed a piece of glass. It cut into my hand, but I didn't pay it any mind. Instead I threw it. It landed perfectly, right between his shoulder blades and he was down. The man behind him stared stunned for a moment, then went for his wand. I smiled at him and raised my gun. I'd pulled the trigger again, before he had time to recount a spell. Another man was hurrying out the door. I gave him a quick grin and Apperated, just as he rushed at me. I Disapperated by my bike, climbed on, and sped off into the night.
I slammed the door behind me and locked it, panting. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, unable to really understand. I'd killed two possibly three men tonight.
"Sirius?" my eyes jerked open. James, Lily, Remus, Addi, and Mari were seated in the living room, which the front door opened up into.
"Hey." I smiled a bit.
"Sirius, where have you been?" James asked.
"We've been worried." Addi added.
"Just went out for a drive." I said. Mari stood up and gave me a quick hug. Then she pulled away.
"Sirius, what's that on your shirt?" I glanced down. Oh no! I must have cut myself in that window, not to mention the cut on my hand was still bleeding.
"I had a bit of an accident." I said, "Noting big, just ran into a stop sign. My mirror shattered." I told them, in response to their panicked looks. "I'm just gonna go get cleaned up now." I strode passed them into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind me, I peeled off my jacket and tee shirt. I tapped the cut on my hand with my wand. It was clean, though not healed. I was never big on healing spells. Maybe I should work on them more, I thought. I checked my back. Indeed, it was a mess. There were hundreds of tiny little cuts. I sighed, wondering how the hell I was going to clean them up. I managed though. It was simply the first of many.
As the months passed, my skill grew. Soon I was actually known though out the ministry. Well, not me exactly. Cerberus. No one knew much about him. He was tall, dark, and deadly. The girls gossiped about who he could possibly be. The men joked. No one knew.
After a few times, I got the hang of it, managing my attacks with perfect accuracy. Only a few got away. I did have one problem. I disliked using my wand. The only way to kill a person with a wand is the Avada Kedavra curse, the same one that had killed my parents, Erin, and the Potters. I never used it. I only used muggle weapons, which added to Cerberus's reputation to being honorable. The Unforgivables were considered weapons the Death Eaters used. It seemed dishonorable to us.
The Death Eaters soon learned that an attack on muggles or a peaceful family was soon to lead to one of them being found dead, killed by a muggle weapon with a happy little note from Cerberus stuck in his pocket.
I took to that habit too. I left notes, that read Greetings Voldie, from Cerberus. Or some variation of that. It seemed to aggravate Voldemort's temper, and I know he stepped up tactics to find out how I was.
Though he never found out, I was still a very active member of OOP. I still made rounds with James and Lily and Remus. I liked that more. I didn't have to kill anyone.
If my friends wondered anything, they didn't ask. They didn't question my late hours, or the fact that I would return many times with blood on my clothes. Though when Lily did the wash, I'm sure she noticed. They respected my silence and I was so very grateful.
However, Mari did not.