DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to J.K Rowling and if you are reading this and think any different then St. Mungo's should be your next port of call.
Chapter 19: Return to Persecution
October 3rd 1991
"Go to hell Voldemort!" Sirius roared, wand appearing in his hand.
Voldemort raised his wand and all hell broke loose.
"Desia Furtendo"
The curse that Voldemort unleashed was one that neither Sirius nor Remus had heard before so both men didn't want to risk a shield and as such they dived to the ground to avoid the oncoming beam. Rolling up into his duelling crouch Sirius quickly surveyed the situation and found that Pettigrew was starting to rise.
"Moony, get the rat!" Sirius snarled attention taken from Voldemort for a moment.
That was one of the stupidest things that Sirius Black had ever done and it nearly cost him his life. While he was watching Pettigrew, Voldemort unleashed a beam of pure Dark Magic at Sirius who only saw it at the very last moment.
"Seculum Maximus" Sirius bellowed, creating the most powerful shield that he could muster and prayed that it would hold.
Unfortunately the Gods must have been on a tea break, as they didn't answer. Sirius's most powerful shield only absorbed half of the beam. The other half struck him full on, sending Sirius flying thirty foot in the air.
As soon as Sirius landed he knew something was broken, a few ribs perhaps or maybe a collapsed lung. It didn't really matter as all that matter was that Sirius was facing one of the most powerful Dark Lords of all time feeling like he had been hit by a train.
Voldemort was never one for mercy and as soon as Sirius had hit the ground he sent another wave of magic at the animagus who barely rolled out of the way in time. Sirius was resolved though; he would do everything in his power to stop Voldemort and enable Remus to get back to Harry. For once in his life the situation was out of his control and he would just have to put his faith into the heavens above.
In the seconds that Sirius had made his resolve in, Voldemort was on the attack again sending another beam of Dark Magic at Sirius who rolled up to a standing position countering with a strong burst of his own Core Magic.
Voldemort looked a little shocked at the beam of light flying towards him but easily deflected it away with a powerful shield. Both men stood their ground for a split second, each looking at each other with different expressions: Voldemort was looking at Sirius with a look of superiority whilst Sirius's face was set in grim determination, pain etching his features. Sirius did have the benefit though of being able to cast a hurried wandless healing time that eased his ailments slightly. Then the duelling re-assumed:
"Asofdie" Voldemort chanted while sweeping his hand in an arc sending a bolt of Dark Magic at Sirius whom side stepped it easily while blocking the curse.
"Groedos" Sirius shouted whipping his wand sending mini tornadoes at Voldemort who was unimpressed and with a wave of his hand the winds were stopped in there tracks shocking Sirius as it was a very powerful curse.
Sirius didn't even get an incantation as warning the next time. Voldemort had obviously got bored with Sirius and had finished playing with silly words. A sweeping arc of Black Fire came sweeping it way towards Sirius whom barely hit the deck in time, his body protesting stringently against the sudden impact.
Still lying on the floor Sirius fired off bolts of lightning at Voldemort who for the first time since the duelling started had to move from his position to dodge the spell while a solid black shield took care of any stray bolts.
Using the time it took Voldemort to block the bolts, Sirius rose to his feet once more and faced the now angry Dark Lord who did not look happy with Sirius still being alive.
"I'm impressed Black, you could be a worthy asset, I'll give you one last chance, join me now and you, your werewolf and the Potter brat will be spared." Voldemort told Sirius who thought fast on his feet, he needed an edge, something to catch Voldemort unaware. Then it struck him; he just had to do it stealthily.
"Promise you'll not hurt Harry or Remus!" Sirius shouted trying to sound pleading while sheathing his wand in what could have been an act of faith but Sirius and Voldemort both knew that he didn't really need his wand to do magic, he could do both Wandless and Core Magic.
"They will be spared." Came Voldemort's reply though it sounded like he was half-dubious about the sincerity of Sirius's words and the Dark Lord silently put up a very strong invisible shield against any surprise attacks Sirius might try.
Sirius barely felt the twinge of magic in the air but he knew that Voldemort had erected some kind of shield or ward against magic. This didn't matter to Sirius as he got on his knees, the cold evil red eyes of Voldemort watching his movements intently for any signs of treachery.
As Sirius raised his hands behind his head he knew that he had to do it now while Voldemort felt the most in control and confident. The Dark Lord's shield would block even the most powerful Core Magic that Sirius was capable of in his injured state and the Unforgivables were some of the slower curses and Voldemort would easily be able to get out of the way in time.
But one thing he didn't expect was that Sirius was carrying Muggle weapons. Sirius using his naturally superb reflexes, whipped a throwing knife out of his wrist holster and sent it at Voldemort, who though loath to admit it, ten years out of a body does slow a person's reflexes. Despite his best efforts to move in time, the knife caught him in his left shoulder drawing a hiss of pain from the Dark Lord.
This gave Sirius the edge he needed to stay in the game for the time being. He tried to capitalise by sending a powerful bolt of energy at the Dark Lord whose shield being weakened shattered, sending the most powerful Dark Wizard stumbling back looking absolutely fuming, the magic was rolling off him in waves as he tried to recover from the onslaught.
Sirius was desperately trying to maintain his advantage on the Dark Lord sending wave after wave of Core magic at the Dark Lord who was blocking everything Sirius threw at him. Sirius was attempting to think of a new plan but the Dark Lord had other ideas.
Waving his hands quickly and muttering some words that Sirius couldn't make out as any recognisable language, the ground started to crack by Sirius's feet as black beams of energy attacked him from the sky.
Raising his best shield Sirius self levitated himself quickly out of the danger area but not quick enough. A beam of dark energy hit him as he was landing and his shield shattered as a wave of unimaginable pain rivalled only by that of the Cruciatus ripped through his body.
Sirius fought against the pain with his Core Magic rushing to overwhelm the pain. Staggering to his feet Sirius succeeded in ending the pain but he felt like he had hardly anything left and he still needed to take the Dark Lord out of the picture long enough for him to shatter the anti-apparition. He knew that he needn't worry about Remus, he could take care of himself.
Rolling left to dodge a curse then right to dodge another, Sirius was fast losing hope of leaving alive with his body movements got more and more sluggish as his injuries were overwhelming the magic and adrenaline running through his body. Vaguely hearing screaming in the background, Sirius didn't have time to even check whom it was that was in what sounded like an excruciating amount of pain. Drawing his wand Sirius bellowed:
"Seco" The throat slashing curse sped towards Voldemort who responded by sending the curse back at Sirius along with two Killing Curses that Sirius barely ducked.
"Dedgroah"
"Exterbo"
Both curses hit in mid air and both followed up with a blast of magic, Sirius's tainted white whilst Voldemort's was deepest black.
These bolts of energy connected in mid-air and to Sirius's horror he found that Voldemort's beam was eating his so to speak. What made him more frightened was that he couldn't move, he was locked in some sort of magical battle with Voldemort and that could never be justified as good.
Pushing more and more of his Core Magic into the connection between the two magic's, Sirius reversed the direction of energy as his white beam started to make its way closer to Voldemort.
Voldemort looked nonplussed by the happenings and not being able to move but nonetheless pushed hard with his magic knocking Sirius down to one knee. Sirius was not going to give up easily and without using every last ounce of strength that he had. Shoving hard with all his strength and essence, Sirius was holding his own with the connection and was vainly trying to regain his footing.
Suddenly Voldemort pushed with all his magic and Sirius felt his world go dizzy as his magic all but collapsed under the onslaught of pure Dark Magic that was coming from the beast that could no longer hold the title man.
With the Black Beam getting ever closer to his face, Sirius vainly tried to fight back but for the first time in his life he found that he magic was failing him, in reality there was no more magic left to push with, he had simply used it all up.
Resigned to his fate Sirius thought about all the failure in his life: James, Lily, Remus, Harry, he had failed them all, he was worthless, his best wasn't even close to being enough. Looking up one last time Sirius used every last ounce of strength he had to rise to his feet and face the oncoming beam, if he was going to die he was going to do it on his terms, he would not die on his knees.
The beam was inches from his face, Sirius's life flashed before his eyes, his horrible childhood, his abusive parents, his screaming mother but more importantly he saw James, Lily, Remus, Harry, his Godson, his Angel, his reason for being. He had failed Harry and Sirius felt he deserved to be in hell for the rest of eternity just for that fact.
Then something happened. Through his blurred and double vision Sirius saw a blur crash threw the beams, then the biggest explosion he had ever heard crashed threw his ears making him wonder if he was dead and the beam had already hit him.
The magical backlash struck Sirius like a knife through butter, he thought once more of Harry and as the body of Sirius Orion Black flew through the air, and the blackness overtook him.
(Simultaneously)
"Moony, get the rat!" Sirius snarled attention taken from Voldemort for a moment.
As Remus rolled away from Voldemort's curse he heard his friends shout and followed his eyes to where Sirius was looking. Upon seeing his one time friend rising, Remus let out a primal growl and with one last look at his friend face to face with Voldemort, he charged at the traitor who looked like he was struggling to his feet unarmed.
This however was not the case and when Remus got within ten feet of the supposedly struggling Pettigrew he found that he had a wand pointed right between his eyes and a curse was already on its way to him.
Thankfully, Remus's curse, his life's bane, the one of a werewolf, just happened to save his life. Using every last one of his super enhanced reflexes Remus barely managed to dodge the sickly apple green curse that had been heading away. A curse that Remus knew damn well that he would never had recovered from.
Pettigrew soon recovered from the shock he felt from Remus dodging the curse at point blank range. This was due to the fact that he knew Remus was a werewolf and that Adava Kedavra was one of the slower curses. Pettigrew soon tried to take the offensive but Remus had recovered and the pair launched simultaneous attacks on each other.
"Expelliarmus", Peter cried going for a simple but effective way to end the duel.
"Iuguolo", Remus bellowed, not bothered about using such a curse as the throat slashing curse, he had to finish this soon and work out a way to get him and Sirius out.
Remus easily side stepped Pettigrew's curse while Pettigrew himself barely blocked Remus's curse, his shield wavered and bent before finally holding firm. Sensing weakness Remus began firing off curse after curse at Pettigrew who began acting more and more desperate as the curses that came flying at him from Remus's wand got ever closing to striking him. After barely dodging a stunner, Pettigrew thought he had enough time to retaliate, but he had miscalculated.
"Subsis…."
"Blasot", Remus cried first, beating Pettigrew to the all-important curse.
As Pettigrew had just cast a curse of his own and due to the proximity between the pair, the rat had no chance to produce a shield. The blasting curse struck him full on, sending him flying ten foot in the air where he hit the ground with a sickening thud, lying flat on his back, seemingly oblivious to the world.
Remus stalked over to where Pettigrew now rested, quickly summoning the traitors wand from where it lay just feet away from his arm. When he was within five feet he sent a binding spell at Pettigrew but to his utter shock and dismay, Pettigrew had just vanished into thin air.
"Impossible" Remus thought to himself as he began scouring the area for Pettigrew, "Not even Sirius could apparate past these wards and he had no wand, let alone the power to make himself invisible."
Then it came to him suddenly and he cursed himself for not figuring it out earlier. Whipping his wand in a wide motion over the ground in front of him, Remus bellowed:
"Accio"
Nothing happened for a moment but then a small grey rat came flying towards Remus who raised his wand to stun the rat but before he could complete the motion, a balding man was flying towards him in place of the small rat.
Remus had no chance to move in time, super reflexes or not and Pettigrew collided with him heavily sending both of them crashing to the ground in one big heap, both wands flying from Remus's grasp.
Using his enhanced strength Remus rolled on top of Pettigrew and proceeded to deliver several punches to his jaw though it was Pettigrew who knocked Remus two-foot in the air when he delivered a sickening uppercut with his new gold hand to the werewolves jaw.
Remus was about to attempt a wandless stunner on Pettigrew when to his shock and absolute horror Pettigrew raised his gold hand and chanted in an almost reverent voice:
"Crucio"
Werewolf transformations were said to be one of the most painful experiences that a person can go through, but compare to that of the Cruciatus, even a relatively weak one such as Pettigrew's, a werewolf transformation was like scratched knee. Wave after wave of white-hot pain was coursing through Remus; his bones felt like they were melting while he simultaneously being stabbed by hot pokers. Then as suddenly as it started it ended.
Even though Remus had been held under the curse for twenty seconds he felt like he had run a marathon. Every muscle in his body was cramping and wave after wave of nausea hit him as he frantically tried to re-focus on his surroundings. Soon the reason for the curse stopping became apparent. Pettigrew couldn't resist having a dig at his old friend.
"How the mighty have fallen hey Moony old friend. I was always the weak one, the pathetic little hanger on. I was always so jealous of Sirius and James. They got whatever they wanted without even trying. But look at the two of you now, you are nothing. Once my Lord has destroyed Black and I have disposed of you then we can proceed ahead in getting that little Potter brat. My Lord will reward me above all others and I shall stand at his side as the world becomes ours." With this proclamation Pettigrew steadied his hand raising it at Remus once more.
Remus though during the time that Pettigrew had been giving his speech was desperately trying to wandlessly summon his wand. The thin stick of wood was slowly inching its way towards Remus who was thankful for Pettigrew's lack of focus as the warm wood found its way into his palm. Looking up Remus found Pettigrew's hand pointing at him and was afraid that he would not be able to curse him in time but Pettigrew hadn't finished his speech yet.
"You were a worthy opponent Remus but My Lord has given me powers that are far beyond yours. I really should kill you now but who can resist a little fun!" Pettigrew said, a twisted grin crossing his features making him look similar to that of which a deranged clown might look. "Say goodbye to your mind for me Rem…" Pettigrew
"Expello Maximi"
The curse struck Pettigrew in mid-speak and he flew through the air as Remus took note of his surroundings for the first time since his duel had started.
There was rubble everywhere; small craters had formed where Sirius and Voldemort had clashed. What's more, the two aforementioned people were currently involved in a magic battle that a battered, brutalised Sirius appeared to be on the edge of losing while a relatively untouched Voldemort had a maniacal grin spread across his features.
It was then that Remus watched with morbid fascination as when the black beam was only inches away from Sirius's face, Pettigrew who was soaring towards the ground, intercepted the beams of pure magic causing one of the biggest magical explosions that Remus had ever seen.
Putting up the strongest shield he could muster, Remus felt the magic take out the anti-apparation wards as raw magical force exploded across the clearing. The magic ripped through Remus's shield like it was not there yet it was only due to Remus's shield that the werewolf didn't receive any serious injury. Hitting the deck hard Remus looked up to see Pettigrew and Voldemort tangled in a mass of limbs on the floor and pulling himself to his feet, Remus saw this as their one chance to escape.
Moving as fast as his body would let him, Remus made his way over to Sirius. Upon seeing his friend laying there on the floor Remus though "Oh Padfoot, what have you done?" Sirius was a bloody battered mess and even though he had cast three Enervate charms on him, he was barely twitching and Remus had already wasted enough time as he saw Voldemort rising to his feet.
Knowing that only one place in the world could help Sirius now, Remus grabbed his friend and joint apparated them. Moments after they had disappeared, the green of the Killing Curse flashed through the spot where they had once been standing.
Arriving on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, Remus knew that this was the only place that could help Sirius at this time, he just hoped that they weren't killed or arrested first. Remus shuddered at the amount of magic he had used apparating them such a distance and he felt decidedly light on his feet as well as suffering from exposure to the Cruciatus curse.
He had come back to the only place in the world he could think of, the place that he swore never to enter again, a place that to him was only marginally better than the forests of Albania.
He had come back to Hogwarts, he had returned to save his best friend, hell his brother. He had returned to persecution.
But at what cost?
AN
I am so sorry my faithful readers; I am having problems with my frame of mind and as such have already scrapped two full attempts at this chapter, as they were the worst that I have ever produced by far. Truth be told I am only pushing ahead with this story at the moment due to you reviewers. Its just this story brings up too many negative emotions that I can't handle at the moment, too many things are going wrong in life at the moment. I am truly sorry about this but I will plough on with the story.
I am now also based at a Yahoo Group for all you Sirius fans. The address is and it will be where I post first from now on probably. It is also home to the wonderful Loss! A Story by that I recommend to all Sirius fans!
I am on holiday from July 5th for two weeks but I will try my ABSOLUTE best to give you another chapter before then, a chapter from Hogwarts no less. Hopefully when I get back I will feel like writing more, that I pray!
REVIEWERS RESPONCES
athenakitty: The person who they took the blood from was no one important. He was just a Department of Mysteries Worker who was send out by the Ministry to check rumours of Dark Gatherings in Albania and by extension to the Ministry it meant he was an enemy. And therefore his blood could be used as part of the person
Maria: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting in Chapter 2 as it was only the inner circle that was summoned and Peter wasn't in it whilst Sirius, James and Remus were. Thanks for bringing that up, I'll put that in when I do the revision to the chapter!
Maria again: Wormtail's hand was made gold and not silver because it would give him a definite advantage against Remus when duelling as they did in this chapter. Snape a spy, you'll have to wait and see? Wormtail vanished before they could administer Veritaserum to him. Dumbledore will eventually see his mistakes, don't worry about that!
Hexes605: Not A-Levels, just GCSE's but they were enough of a pain! A fellow Essex-ian, what part of the wood did you come from? California sounds great; I want to emigrate to the U.S.A when I'm older if I get the chance. Harry and Hermione friendship, I might work it in just 4 u my fellow countyman.
Geminidragon: If you want Harry to speak Parslemouth then I will put it in just for you, actually a great idea is forming right now…
EnterTheLion: I prefer Neville to Ron, don't like much shipping in my stories and like the Harry and Katie ships too! In this story it would be impossible to make Harry's Dumbledores apprentice but I do like fics where he drops out of the general curriculum but gets apprenticed by someone else, I don't particularly like Dumbledore myself!
Tanydwr: Finally over hey, how great. I had history to on the 23rd but mine finished with Stats on the 25th, then in the afternoon I jumped to Hyde Park to see The Chilis Play, man they were great. Poetry lets just not mention it!
Midknight: Hope your doing well my friend and I want to see some chapters soon unless your losing your mind too otherwise no excuses, you here me!
Shea Loner: H/T is Harry/Tonks and to me is one of the only two ships I can see ever happening in HP World except maybe Harry/Katie!
Nadia Greenleaf: Warrior Mage is fantastic, I've been with it since the start, just wish it would be updated!
walker-of-the-shadow-path: Good Idea bout the Gryffindor connection with Sirius, might just point that out to Ron next chapter, cheers!
Thank you to all my readers and reviewers, you help me more than you could ever know, the story wouldn't be the same without your input!
Cheers
Halstead