Disclaimer: That which you do not recognize is mine, the rest is J.K. Rowling's

A/N: Oh!! You like that I'm bringing him back!! Yes!! Well, here he comes, then! Be warned, this is therefore going to be a long one, but it's packed with good stuff, including action, suspense, romance, drama, humour, you name it this chapter has it all! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, both old and first time reviewers, I'm really glad you like the story! For all those Remus lovers (I just realized I left him completely out of the last chapter!! gasp ) you'll get plenty of him in this chap!

On with the Story!!

Chapter 12: Decisions

"No."

The finality in Albus Dumbledore's voice was unmistakeable. No one had ever dared to question that tone, to disobey when the authority of his command still reverberated about the room.

No one, that is, except his goddaughter.

"Yes." Sarah said, every bit as imperious, her own presence rising up and clashing with the sheer volume of magic that her godfather commanded.

The two of them locked gazes, standing opposite from each other in the entrance hallway of Grimmauld Place. After their trip to the Ministry, they'd returned to Headquarters. Upon their arrival, Dumbledore had instantly begun to cast some very complex spells whilst Sarah paced the downstairs, unable to sleep in light of her discovery. She didn't need any spells to confirm what she could almost reach out and touch, it felt so real. Her mind was abuzz with the possibilities. Sure, he wouldn't exactly be coming back to a free life, but she knew how happy his being alive would make a lot of people. Especially Remus and Harry, whom Sirius Black obviously meant the world to.

At this point, incredibly excited by what she'd found, she locked onto the feel of his echo and reached out. Dumbledore was too absorbed by his intricate spell work to notice Sarah's eyelids slowly closing. He didn't see them snap back open, now luminous liquid silver rimmed with bright icy blue.

Eventually, his spells finished, Dumbledore turned to his goddaughter, who appeared to be deep in thought.

"Sarah," he sighed. The ramifications of Sarah's discovery were enormous. "Sirius is indeed alive."

"I know!" Sarah smiled at Dumbledore. "And I know where he is."

Contrary to Sarah's expectations, everything had gone downhill from that point. Dumbledore was none too please that she searched for him when she badly needed to rest. Sarah attempted to placate him by informing him of her ability to bring him back.

"Bring him back?" Dumbledore questioned. "You can? Only you?"

"Well…" Sarah saw that the situation was quickly going from bad to much, much worse. "Yes, since he's still behind the veil, right? 'Cept, he wasn't dead when he fell, so he's drifting away, but he's still there. It's not too far for me to reach. But, no one else could, though, because your magic doesn't work behind the veil, and you obviously can't send someone beyond it."

Dumbledore's face got very serious and he opened his mouth to debate, but Sarah, hoping to convince him, spoke first.

"And wait till we tell Remus and Harry!! They'll be thrilled!"

And then it had begun. Dumbledore quickly pointed out that they could not, under any circumstances, tell Remus and Harry. Since Sirius was, as shown by his own spells and confirmed by Sarah's telepathy, drifting further and further away, there was a distinct chance that they might not be able to bring him back in time. Sarah, however, had disagreed.

"I can do it!" she insisted. "I can do this, I know I can!"

"You may be sure, but I, however, am not. We don't know if he's close enough for you to reach, and there may be yet other ways. But those are even less likely to work, so we shouldn't tell them and get their hopes up only to be let down again."

"All the more reason for me to do it as soon as possible!" Sarah hissed. "We're running out of time as we speak!"

Dumbledore looked taken aback by her determination but was unmovable. Dawn had come and gone by that point, and despite their fatigue, they continued, neither budging from their point of view.

"No." Dumbledore told her. "We are not going to take that chance."

"Don't argue with him, Sarah," Remus's voice came from upstairs as he made his way down towards them. He had only heard the last few seconds of their debate, and although he did not know what it was about, he had come to the decision that someone had better relieve the tension, and fast. "Not when he's talking like that, anyways!"

Sarah turned to smile at Remus, whose heart promptly leaped. Has she forgiven me? he thought. Could she have changed her mind overnight?

"Good morning, Remus." She said, turning back to Dumbledore with a rather artificially sweet expression.

"Who said anything about 'we'?" she smiled grimly. "I know the risks, and I am going to take them. And for that matter…" she turned towards Remus again.

"No, you're not." Dumbledore pulled out his wand.

Remus looked between the two of them, thoroughly alarmed. He had never, ever seen anyone talk to Albus Dumbledore in such a manner, as if they were absolutely convinced that his opinion was of no matter whatsoever.

Sarah held up a hand to Dumbledore and turned back towards Remus. He took a step back as he looked at her – her normally brown eyes were rimmed with blue and the centre was rapidly changing colour. In the background he saw Dumbledore open his mouth to say a spell, but no words came out.

"Remus," Sarah said, her eyes now silver. "Remus, Uncle Al and I made an interesting discovery last night, didn't we?"

Dumbledore looked furious, but nodded after a moment.

"Oh?" Remus managed. Sarah's eyes were unnerving him to no end and despite the fact that she was a good two feet away from him, it felt as if he could sense her very heartbeat pulsing in the air around him.

"Remus," Sarah said. "Sirius is alive."

Remus sat stock still on his bed, staring at the wall in shock. Sirius was alive!! Alive! It seemed as if nothing else could ever capture his attention again as that one piece of information kept running through his mind, over and over again. In the back of his awareness he could vaguely hear raised voices, but he was incapable of paying them any attention.

"Hell itself is raging downstairs." Bill commented, standing at his open doorway. Judging by his dishevelled hair and rumpled attire, he'd only just got out of bed. Remus's head snapped up.

"What?" he asked, perplexed.

"Are you deaf?" Bill joked. "I usually sleep like a log but they woke me up. Don't tell me that you can't hear them fighting."

Suddenly Remus became aware of thunderous voices coming from downstairs. Evidently both Dumbledore and Sarah had some very strong opinions that neither seemed willing to concede to the other.

"Merlin!" Remus exclaimed. "He sounds angrier than he did when the dementors attacked Harry!"

They listened for a few more minutes, but the voices stopped abruptly after a time and only a low murmur could be heard.

"Well," Bill grinned. "Now that the entertainment is over, I think I'll get cleaned up. I have to go down to Gringotts today."

Remus, still slightly dazed from the morning's events, simply remained where he was, the chant filling his head once more. Sirius is alive. Sirius is alive.

Once again, though, his thoughts were interrupted, but this time by a warm, breathing somebody collapsing on the bed next to him. Sarah rolled onto her back and looked up at Remus's startled face.

"I don't understand that man!" she fumed.

Remus chuckled. "No one really does, Sarah." He smiled tentatively at her.

Sarah stared at him for a few seconds; her eyes widening as she remembered the current state of their 'relationship', but then relaxed and smiled shyly back.

"One second he wants me to come back and help out, the next he's convinced I'm incapable of anything important." She sighed, clearly frustrated. "Maybe he was right, maybe I shouldn't have told you."

"No!" Remus was quick to reassure her otherwise. "If I had found out years from now that you'd known Sirius was alive and you didn't do anything or tell me…well I think that I would have a rather hard time with you after that." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, but Remus continued. "What do you mean, he thinks you incapable of anything important? And what was all that about downstairs?"

"I…uh… may have stopped him for a bit…" Sarah looked embarrassed. "I was being childish, I really shouldn't have done it. And – well – Sirius fell behind the veil, right? Well, you can't go back there, and neither will any magic work. But I'm not magical, so, I could get him."

Remus was not entirely satisfied with her first explanation, but he let it go and instead focussed on the second. "I'm not sure I see a problem, though. Sarah, this is wonderful! Truthfully, it's not important that you're not magical. You're still one of the most amazing people I know, and it just goes to show – different people have different things to offer!" he smiled exuberantly at her, thanking every possible deity on the face of the earth that Sarah existed.

Sarah, however, was silent. Instead she sat up and moved stiffly away from Remus. "Now if only they could come to that conclusion at the Ministry." She said wistfully, looking down at her hands.

Remus began to agree, but caught himself as he realized what he'd just said to her. Oh no, he thought. I'm just making this worse, aren't I? He let his head sink into his hands.

Sarah smiled sadly at him. He's not trying to hurt you. She told herself. Gathering up her courage, she placed a hand comfortingly on his back.

"Hey, it's alright. I mean, I'm eventually going to be called away on another mission for MI5 and then where would we be? Friendship we can keep going, but anything more…" Remus held his breath. "Anything more would be ridiculous to think that we could actually work out anything real or lasting."

Remus had spent the last week telling himself that he didn't have any more feelings for Sarah Brenton. It was all for nothing, he realized, as she said that it wouldn't be possible for them to be anything more than friends. His heart broke, even though he knew that she was right. He looked up at her and saw that she was biting her lower lip, as if to hold in some outburst that neither of them were ready to deal with.

They stared at each other for a moment, both coming to the painful realization that the other meant more to them than they cared to admit. In that second, they knew exactly how the other felt about them, and suddenly everything was going to work out between the two of them. Remus slowly inched forward and gently slid his arms around her, Sarah doing the same, each holding the other tightly.

Suddenly, though, the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs jolted them back to reality.

"I'm sorry, Sarah." Remus said quietly, reluctantly letting her go.

Sarah nodded, smiling weakly up at him.

"Ah, Remus, Sarah." Dumbledore appeared in the doorway. "I think that the three of us need to have a talk."

"Wait a minute." Remus held up a hand as Sarah began to protest. "Professor – are you saying that there's a chance that you might not be able to bring him back?"

Dumbledore nodded gravely at the younger man. "Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you, Remus, and why I was against you knowing in the first place."

Sarah snorted. "Yes, that is what he's saying. But I'm saying that despite the fact that there are risks, I can reach him! That is, if we don't wait too long."

"We have to be sure that you can, Sarah." Dumbledore said patiently, but this only served to further annoy Sarah.

"Uncle Al, I am already sure, and I'm the one who can do it!" By the time you wait and see – it would be too late! And - UGH! Oh, forget it. We've already had this fight."

"Yes, we have." Dumbledore firmly said. "And we-"

"You." Sarah interjected.

"we decided to wait." He resolutely finished.

Sarah turned her head away, clearly attempting to calm down before speaking.

"Sarah," Remus said softly. "Sarah, Sirius was – is – my best friend, and it means a lot to me that you're willing to take the chance and try and bring him back."

Sarah harrumphed, but he could see that her breathing was slowing down. Encouraged, he continued.

"We need to be sure, Sarah – I need to be sure – and you say you are, but you're exhausted. You've been going non-stop lately; at least rest a little."

Dumbledore smiled gratefully at Remus as Sarah sighed and turned back towards the two men.

"Alright." She said. "I'll rest – I know I need it. But I just can't shake the feeling that it will be too late if we wait."

"If it makes you feel better, my dear, I have already started setting up the spells that could be used to bring him back." Dumbledore said gently. Inwardly, he smiled. This was the Sarah he knew, the one who didn't let a problem go until she'd solved it, the girl who would go out of her way to help someone that she'd never met.

"Yeah," Sarah yawned. "Wow, I really do need to sleep." She started to get up from the table, then stopped. "Was there anything else, Uncle Al?"

Dumbledore shook his head in the negative. "No, I think I'll just have a quick word with Remus."

Sarah smiled at them and left the room, wasting no time in collapsing into bed. Downstairs, Dumbledore surveyed Remus gravely, who was leaning heavily on his hands. After a time, Remus raised his head to look at the older man.

"You know," he spoke slowly. "Sarah's feelings are usually right."

Dumbledore looked sharply at him. "That may be so," he said. "But in a situation such as this, we absolutely need to be sure. Which is why, Remus, I need you to keep an eye on Sarah, especially today."

Remus was mildly puzzled. "Sarah may have her opinions, Albus, but I'm sure she respects your decisions."

Dumbledore shook his head, smiling lightly. "Sarah respects my decisions because she usually feels that I know what I'm doing. Unfortunately I'm also human, and so I also fall prey to bad decisions." He closed his eyes for a moment as he thought of Harry's outburst at the close of the last school year. "And when she feels that she is right – well, it's very hard to stop her, Remus."

Remus's eyebrow had shot up during Dumbledore's mini-speech, but he merely nodded. "In that case then… Merlin! Sirius is alive!!" A smile lit up his usually tired face.

"I know, my boy" Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling as he saw the excitement creep across Remus's face. "Oh, I know."

Remus slipped quietly into Sarah's bedroom, stepping as lightly as possible so as not to wake her, but she still turned around to face him.

"Hi," she said sleepily. "What time is it?"

"Four." Remus replied, sitting down on the side of her bed. "You've been asleep for a good eight hours now. Did you want to get up and eat something?"

"Mmm." Sarah shifted, snuggling further under the covers. "Thanks, but … I think… I'll…" she yawned widely and Remus grinned at her.

"You'll sleep some more?" Sarah smiled drowsily up at him.

"What did Uncle Al want to say to you?" she murmured, already falling back asleep.

"Oh, nothing much…" he smiled when he saw that Sarah was fast asleep. He smoothed her hair back, and before he could catch himself, bent down and kissed her cheek. His own cheeks flushed red, he quickly got up and left the room, hoping that he hadn't woken her.

He did not, in fact, wake her up, but he might as well have done so. While he was downstairs in the library, Sarah was tossing and turning, dreaming fitfully. In her restless sleep she suddenly cried out "No!" and flung her arm out as if to hit her imaginary attacker. The sound it made as it made contact with the wall beside her bed was a resounding bong that reverberated ominously around the house. Downstairs Remus, who had just been deliberating over whether or not he should have sided with Dumbledore, jumped a foot in the air in shock. Heart racing, he made his way upstairs, listening carefully with his wand out in front of him. Opening the door to Sarah's room, he sighed with relief as he saw her, spread-eagled on her bed, one arm against the wall that she'd obviously hit in her sleep.

Lowering his wand, he slowly backed out of the room, making his way back downstairs. Sarah, however, suddenly sat straight up in bed, her silver eyes shining bright, wide-awake. "Oh, no." she whispered.

Remus sat back down in the library, but now he found himself unable to shake a nagging feeling that something was not right with the Sirius situation. He considered flooing Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, but after a few minutes, it seemed to fade. He didn't have to relax, though. The first feeling may have been gone but it was now replaced by an even more insistent notion that he hadn't done something important that he was supposed to have done. It grew and grew, eventually taking hold of him to the point that he was wearing a path down on the library floor from pacing it. Suddenly realization washed over him and his stomach plummeted.

"Oh Merlin." His heart momentarily stopped. "Sarah."

Not caring whether or not he was disturbing her rest, a horrible suspicion growing bigger and bigger in his mind, he leapt up the stairs three at a time, pounding down the hall to her bedroom and barging through the door.

It was empty. Her bedcovers had been flung aside, a drawer left open with clothes strewn everywhere as if she'd had to leave in a hurry and had thrown on the first thing she'd found.

"Sarah!" he called, growing more desperate by the second. He ran wildly all over the house, hoping against hope that she would come out of a room and smile at him and say, "What's all the racket for? Weren't you the one to tell me to get some rest?" and then they'd laugh about it afterwards.

"SARAH!!!" he yelled, but to no avail. He thought frantically for a second, trying to remember where she and Dumbledore had said Sirius was. "Oh, no, Sarah, no." Sirius was still behind the veil – Sarah would without a doubt be at the department of mysteries that very moment. Not bothering to get a cloak, he apparated to the Ministry, calling up every ounce of strength he had to run flat out down to Sarah.

Sarah, you should at least have waited for someone to come with you, Sarah, what if something goes wrong? What if you can't do it? What if you can, but you get trapped? What if you're too late??!! Sarah!!

He finally reached the room and tore open the door, racing inside. Sarah had turned towards him, looking tired but smiling slightly, and behind her was – Sirius??

"Geez, Moony, took you long enough to get here."

A/N: Aaannnd he's back!!!! Oh this chapter was soo much fun – and there's even more good stuff coming in the next one!!! Review and let me know what you think!!! Oh, and I know I asked before, but I'll ask again – does anyone want to do any art for this? I'd love it if someone did!

-Laren