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A/N: Here it is… a Sirius interlude!

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There are some more wights mentioned in this chapter - namely, the Direach and Cearb the Killing One. Basically, they're very, very nasty. The only real weapon against the Direach is sunlight. It has big teeth and big claws. Not nice. Cearb is reputed to travel in a black coach. He wears a three-cornered hat like the horsemen on funeral coaches generally wear. He has a host of wights at his command and wherever he goes, he brings death. Once again, if you want to read a book with wight-lore in it, read Cecilia Dart-Thornton's Bitterbynde trilogy.

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"SIRIUS!"

Sirius's head snapped up as Harry vaulted the balcony of the gallery and ran straight at him. "HARRY!"

He enfolded the boy - though, he reflected, he was hardly a boy any more - in a paternal hug. "Oh, Harry," he murmured fiercely.

Harry drew back and there were tears streaming down his face. "You came back!" he said hoarsely.

Sirius smiled. "I came back."

There was a cacophony of noise around them. The Wizengamot were in shocked conversation, the people in the galleries either cheering or screaming, Cornelius Fudge on his feet and yelling at the top of his lungs.

There was an almighty thwack! as Moira Meadowes brought down her gavel on the bench in front of her. "ORDER!"

The courtroom fell silent. Sirius suddenly felt very defenceless. He had no wand - he had left it with Regina when she had projected herself out of the Void. He felt rather than saw Harry surreptitiously draw his own wand out of his sleeve.

"I think now we can safely ascertain that Mr. Sirius Canis Black is not dead," Moira said sharply.

"How do you know it's the real Black?" a voice called out from the gallery. Mad-Eye Moody.

Remus stood in his spot. "Sirius," he said, "what form did James Potter's Patronus take?"

"It was a lion," Sirius replied promptly. "Mine was a dragon and yours was an albatross."

Remus turned to Moira. "This is the real Sirius Black, Judge Meadowes," he said.

Moira nodded. "Acknowledged," he said, and Remus sat down.

Sirius still felt very exposed. Aemilia's wand was on the desk in front of her. If he could just grab it…

"The question now seems to be," Moira announced, "what do we do with him?"

Remus stood again. "I will vouch for his innocence."

Aemilia stood as well. "So will I."

"And I." Dumbledore.

People were rising all round the courtroom - Sirius saw Tonks, Moody and Kingsley rise together in the topmost row of the gallery, and Moody tipped him a wink with his magical eye. Hermione, Ron and Ginny rose where they sat together, beaming wildly.

Moira's gavel smacked the table again. "ORDER!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius saw Cornelius Fudge's hand groping for something in his pocket.

"Professor Dumbledore," Moira said, "would you please tell us exactly why you vouch for Sirius Black's innocence?"

Dumbledore began to tell the story, but Sirius was only half-listening. "Get ready to dodge, Harry," he said out of the corner of his mouth, and saw his godson nod, ever so slightly.

Sirius kept his eyes fixed on Cornelius Fudge. He edged, clandestinely as he could, towards the desk Remus and Aemilia sat at. Fudge's hand was coming out his pocket now, and in it he held his -

"AVADA KE-"

"STUPEFY!"

Fudge had been fast, but Sirius was faster. In one seamless movement, he leapt for Aemilia's wand, Stunned Fudge and rolled, coming up in a duelling stance. The green light died around Fudge's wand. Harry, as Sirius had told him to, had dodged with his reflexes born of Quidditch and was now some three metres away, wand at the ready.

For the third time, Moira's gavel smacked the table. "ORDER!"

Sirius braced himself, waiting for the inevitable, but instead Moira pointed her wand at Fudge. "Enervate!"

Fudge scrambled to his feet. "That man!" he shrieked, pointing at Sirius. "That man is a criminal!"

"That is exactly what we are trying to ascertain, Mr. Fudge," Moira said coldly, "and you have broken the Anti-Violence Restrictions of the Courtroom by attempting to put an Unforgivable Curse on Mr. Black! Constringere!"

Thin cords shot from the end of Moira's wand and bound Fudge to his chair. He struggled, but in vain. Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius saw Remus and Aemilia share a wry smile.

"Professor Dumbledore," Moira said, "please continue."

But Dumbledore never got a chance to continue, because at that moment there was an almighty boom! and the whole room shook violently. All the candles went out, leaving the place in darkness.

Sirius heard cries of 'Dark magic!' and 'Wights!' and 'Catch Black!' but he barely registered them. He knew what that sound meant. "REGINA!" he yelled, transformed, and tore out of the courtroom.

*

There seemed to be a veritable hurricane going on in the Death Chamber when Sirius entered it in his canine form, and the epicentre was the veil.

He transformed back. "REGINA!" he yelled.

There was screaming from behind the veil, the screaming of dozens, hundreds. The veil was no longer merely fluttering - it seemed to be caught in a gale, black cloth snapping and cracking in the wind.

"REGINA!" he yelled again.

He heard footsteps behind him and looked over his shoulder as Remus, Aemilia and Severus came tearing into the room. "REMUS!" he shouted. "REMUS, HELP ME!"

"HOW?" Remus yelled back.

"GRAB MY FEET - I'm GOING TO TRY AND PULL HER OUT! THE PLACE IS COLLAPSING!"

With that, Sirius dived for the veil, Remus and, surprisingly, Severus in hot pursuit, and stuck his head through.

*

The walls were cracking and splintering as Sirius looked down from above. Outside, Remus had hold of one of his legs and Severus the other. The people were screaming, huddled together in groups, as the place began to collapse around them. "REGINA!" he yelled.

She looked up. "SIRIUS!"

"YOU HAVE MY WAND - MAGIC YOURSELF OUT!"

"NO! I WON'T LEAVE THEM!"

"REGGIE, YOU NEED TO SAVE YOURSELF!"

"I WON'T!"

There was a massive tearing sound as one of the walls ripped in two. An awful, eerie blackness rolled in like mist, and within it Sirius could see terrible creatures, marching, marching, advancing.

Wights.

They want food, he thought desperately. As he watched, a wight he recognised as the Direach caught up Janus Snape and tore him in two. "REGINA!"

A wight was advancing on her. It had no fingers, merely talons, and when it opened its mouth, Sirius saw teeth the size of Beater bats, sharp and deadly. It wore an odd three-cornered hat. Cearb the Killing One, he thought in terror. A lord of wights - and one of the most unseelie! And, as he watched, Regina bowed her head and waited for death, serene and peaceful.

He did the only thing he could think of. He raised Aemilia's wand. "Accio Regina!"

Cearb lunged at her as she soared suddenly upwards, missing her legs by inches. Sirius grabbed her hand desperately. "REMUS!" he yelled. "REMUS, PULL ME BACK!"

He felt something tugging at his legs and he was pulled backwards. He kept a tight hold on Regina's hand…

And then, suddenly, it was over. He was lying on the floor of the Death Chamber with Regina Lupin in his arms and the veil was terribly, ominously, still.

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