Hi, so here is another chapter and this is the first one where we see some action, we are over halfway of this story and so we are heading towards the end. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

I will try and do my best to bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.

Some Triggers for language, cursing to kill and Bellatrix being Bellatrix (woman is a Trigger Warning all in herself)

The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 12-Things You Can't Outrun

Sirius and Marlene attempt to have a moment when the night goes to hell in a hand basket (Parallel chapter to this one)

"Marlene! What a coincidence!" Remus said as bright and as cheerful as a first year that had just stepped off the train. "What do you think Sirius? Marlene is here"

He turned to look at his friend and Mary stifled a giggle.

"We are in the same year Remus" Marlene deadpanned. "Of course, I would be here"

"And look at the time" Remus said in that strange, loud, carrying and quite frankly irritatingly loud sing song voice that made Marlene want to smack him. "I think I might pop down to the Post Office and send my mother an Owl. Mary could you order drinks while Sirius and Marlene get their shit together?"

Sirius choked on his own spit. Marlene gasped. It was half what Remus was saying and half that Remus was swearing because there were times when Remus seemed to…gentile enough to know words such as those (this was an abject lie but Marlene didn't know it yet).

"Okay then" Remus said before Marlene could point out that the Post Office was not open at night. Mary the utter traitor waved at them both and all but skipped into the Three Broomsticks and that just left Sirius and Marlene standing in the middle of the snowy road like a couple of lovesick teenagers.

Which by the way, they were.

(Just in case it wasn't glaringly obvious)

"So" Sirius said his hands shoved in his pockets.

"So" Marlene said looking down at her boots for a second.

"I was hoping we could talk, what with what was going on with James over the holidays I didn't want to ruin it by adding to his pain. Or my own"

"I understand" Marlene said because she did. It would be a woman with a heart of stone that did not remember those days with Sirius and James and Lily in that little house. Marlene had gone with her family to give their condolences but her mother had allowed her to spend the night there with her friends (once she had ascertained that Lily was there because as her mother said—that nice friend of yours wouldn't dare stay in a den of iniquity and you do well to remember that her being a good friend also puts her reputation on the line) and so she had.

It had been oddly domestic and in her deepest darkest dreams (that she would not admit to anyone or even think of putting in a Dream diary for that tepid woman who taught Divination and who was thankfully retiring at the end of the year) she had wondered if this was to be her life once they had left school. Once you were over Christmas the rest of the year just seemed to hit you and this was the one year where Marlene knew that they were not coming back. Decisions had to be made but what decisions could be made when the world was burning?

And what was this that her brothers were telling her, about Dumbledore and some secret society to get rid of the Death Eaters? To do what the Ministry either couldn't do or were too incompetent/scared/corrupt to do.

All these decisions that had to be made and had to be made soon and for Marlene it was a struggle sometimes to decide did she want eggs for breakfast or bacon.

She was seventeen years old (in April). Decisions about what to do after school still to here seemed way too early to have discussions about.

But there was no more time. That was the problem, wasn't it? There was no more time.

And those odd days in Godric's Hollow reminded her of that.

Sirius gently snapped his fingers and she pulled herself out of her thoughts. His smile was rather kind, far kinder than she deserved if she was being honest with herself.

"Sorry" she said finally. "And again I am so sorry about James's mum. I know she meant a lot to you. I know she was like your mother—"

"She wasn't like my mother she was my mother" Sirius said but it wasn't in a hurtful tone. It was as if he had learnt that little line off by heart, as if he had taught himself it over and over again. Told himself it over and over again and had it told to him over and over again to the point where he had not only believed it but believed it with glee.

"I know" Marlene said because she did. Everyone knew.

"I thought it was a lovely funeral" she said and then immediately she could have kicked herself because who said that funerals were lovely?

"Yeah it was" Sirius said not grasping her nearly there mental panic attack that came with that statement.

"Look" Sirius said suddenly. "I know that I was a bit of a dick when it came to our last conversation. I didn't know…I don't know…look I'm just gonna say what I'm gonna say. I like you. I really like you Marlene and I think we can have something good. And one day when Dumbledore sees the light and gets rid of potions and provides us with a class that actually teaches us how to talk to the opposite sex this will be a lot easier. Until then…I've liked you since I was sixteen. I trust you. And I'd like to buy you a butterbeer. No pressure"

Well…that was slightly less embarrassing than what he had originally expected to come out of his mouth.

From this moment on Sirius Black vowed never to poke fun at James Potter ever again—at least not as far as girls were concerned because they were one of the most confusing creatures in the world. And feelings that developed for them out of nowhere was even worse. Confusion and loss mixing together over this Christmas period.

No wonder James was always the way he was.

It had been nice however to spend time together over Christmas. Lily had been their saviour. She had made sure that they were eating certainly and between her and him there had been an unspoken agreement that they would get James up in the morning and back to bed at night. Sirius managed to get him dressed the morning of the funeral. Lily had made tea and forced him to eat something. Marlene had come over that night with some kind of casserole that was the first thing they'd ate that they could actually taste. She had spent the night too and Sirius had been treated to the sight of her and Lily in their pyjama's in the morning.

(And if he had never understood James and his borderline obsessive crush on Lily until that moment, he did then)

Marlene smiled at him gently and it was if the ice that had made up his insides were gently thawing and as soon as that thought crossed his mind Sirius wanted to go and throw himself off the Astronomy Tower because these kinds of feelings were not something that he was going to admit to. If you'd have told him that he was going to have feelings like this, deep, mad, insane feelings for the girl in front of him he would have laughed. He was Sirius Black; he was the son of two of the coldest…things that had ever been put on the Earth and feelings? Feelings? Feelings was not something that he had ever expected to have. At least not in the all consuming way that he had feelings for Marlene. Thoughts too. Thank Merlin all her brothers had graduated because she had started cropping up in his dreams and he knew Malcom McKinnon was very good at Occlumency.

"Sirius?"

Shit he had asked her a question and he had gone in the mess that was his mind and now she was looking at him as if he was insane.

"Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah I just…lost in thought"

She smiled at him.

"Come on"

"Where?"

"Butterbeer" she said smiling. "I thought you said it was no pressure right?"

Girls, Sirius Black thought, were a very strange group of people.

"Sure" he said grinning and just as they were about to cross the threshold into the Three Broomsticks and enjoy the night like so many other people around them, hell erupted.

The skies erupted into a crackle of thunder and lightening and Sirius looked up to see people on broomsticks sweeping out of the clouds wands raised. People looked up too perhaps thinking it was a joke but then there was a clash of wand and a scream of curses and someone fell and suddenly the masked faces came into view.

Death Eaters.

"Death Eaters" Marlene shouted as the wind whipped around them.

"Come on" Sirius said.

There was nothing else to do but throw themselves into the safety of the Three Broomsticks but before they could the door was blasted open by a curse and Sirius threw Marlene into the snow as glass from the windows flew around them. He turned gripping the one thin stick of wood that was his only defensive weapon and he turned to see a masked figure stalking forwards.

"Shit"

"Sirius—"

"Protego!"

The spell gave them enough time to scramble to their feet but whoever it was behind the mask cackled and fired another curse and with a swooping feeling Sirius realised that this was not some random cursing that the Death Eaters were doing to prove a point. This was not terrorising the students of Hogwarts after a few pints in Knockturn Alley. This was a duel to kill. This was a message plain and simple, co-ordinated, planned out, ruthless.

There was another blast coming from the right and Marlene at his side barely had time to block it. She turned to take the one that was coming towards her and Sirius turned to take the one coming towards him and it was duel upon duel. Shout upon shout and scream upon scream.

He ducked two curses that he knew were intent on killing him and he threw one at the Death Eater he was duelling that was meant to stun. He had never killed a human being before, he had never used an Unforgivable Curse before and he had never fought like this before. The entire world before him narrowed to him and the Death Eater and it all came down to trying to avoid being killed.

He threw a curse that sent whoever it was sprawling backwards and the mask slipped off. Sirius ducked another jet of light and the green light that he just ducked illuminated her face.

Bellatrix.

His cousin.

Naturally.

To some people it might have been strange—fighting your cousin to the death but to the Black family it was as natural as Sunday dinner. For Sirius and Bellatrix who had each hated the other with a passion since they were children it was as natural as breathing.

Actually it helped.

"Come on" he said seeing her scrabble to her feet. "Come on you can do better than that?"

She snarled at him and this time her duelling was more intense but less focused, and Sirius understood why. She had sought him out on the intention of killing him. Of saving the families honour no doubt by killing someone who might have been halfway decent and he hadn't given her the satisfaction of dying. This was good, this was a good thing. If staying alive pissed of Bellatrix then Sirius was going to stay alive, live proud and fuck the consequences.

"Come on" he shouted at her. "Come on you can do better than that! You know you can, or have you dried up? Your sex life and your magic?"

Okay so maybe it was a bit childish to throw the age old tropes at her but Sirius was in a high pressed environment. So sue him.

She snarled getting to her feet her face contorted in rage. They had the same dark glamourous looks that all the Black family did but there was something about Bellatrix that when her face contorted like that she reminded him of his mother.

That was a good thing too. He hated his mother. He hated his mother with a passion and that fuelled the blood in his veins too. Because he was Sirius Black and he could do this.

He ducked another curse.

"YOU WILL DIE YOU FLITHY LITTLE BLOOD TRAITOR. YOU AND THE BLOOD TRAITOR WHORE BESIDE YOU—"

"FUCK OFF YOU INBREAD BITCH!"

If he hadn't know he was in love with Marlene McKinnon before he knew that he loved her now.

But Bellatrix oddly didn't respond. She flashed a contorted smile at him and then she and the other Death Eaters were retreating as if being called back by some invisible string. It took Sirius a second to realise that they were not retreating however but regrouping.

But why? They'd had the element of surprise. They were fighting a load of teenagers and some locals. They had everything they ever needed to wipe them all out. Even if Dumbledore had known what was going on they wouldn't have been able to get down here in time before serious damage was done.

He watched as people began to groan and moan. Marlene gripped his hand and—

"SIRIUS"

"James"

He was there with Lily, his best friend and the girl he had been in love with.

"You seen Remus? Or Peter?"

"Mary?" Lily asked looking around.

"No" Sirius said his eyes on the Death Eaters huddled at the tree waiting for someone.

"God" Lily groaned running a hand through her hair. She was shaking and bleeding from a cut down her head the blood and her red hair mingling together. James looked windswept but alright. Marlene had a split lip. Somehow, they were alive. Miraculously alive.

He shuddered a little wincing.

"Where's Remus?"

"Went to the Post Office. Or so he said he was. Mary was in there" he said pointing at the smouldering wreckage that was the Three Broomsticks.

"Peter I don't know about. I don't know where he ended up"

Lily groaned again.

"There are people still in there" James said. "We should—"

"James don't move"

"Sirius if people are in there—"

"James look at them. They are waiting for someone"

James did look and then…

"Who?"

But they didn't have to wait long to find out.

He came with a terrible pageantry. In a wave of black and white and skin that gleamed in the moonlight. There was a sense of humanity about him but the blurriness of his features gave them all a sense that they were looking at him through a dirty mirror.

People were moaning and groaning on the ground, pinned in place by either wreckage or their own horror. Students were sobbing, standing, sitting, screaming. But one by one they all died down to watch. For the first time whatever house they were in pushed aside, the students of Hogwarts fell completely silent, weather it be horror, admiration, fear or a combination of any of the above.

Because for the first time since the deaths, and the disappearances, and the destruction, the panic, the terror and the horror that had come when the Death Eaters had moved out into public domain, they were finally seeing the man behind them. The one who had inspired so much fear and so much terror that some people dared not speak his name.

He came out of the shadows and stood looking down at the wreckage that he had caused and Sirius reached backwards and he found Marlene's hand. Her hand was shaking and his fingers wrapped around her even as he wanted to look away. They gripped hands tightly and it seemed almost laughable that half an hour ago they had been talking about dates, and feelings and butterbeers and the world had been golden and light and their future was stretched out before them.

He couldn't though, he couldn't look away, none of them could look away. The horror of what he was looking at was too much. The visceral reaction was pinning him in place.

Lord Voldemort was here. In the open. Finally letting the world see him for what he was and who he was.

And Sirius Black knew with absolute certainty that even if he lived through whatever was going to happen next, that nothing…nothing was ever going to be the same ever again.

And there you go, another parallel chapter to this one and then we have two more of action before we hit the aftermath.

Next Chapter-Again another parallel. Remus, Mary and Peter. Remus goes to the post office as all hell breaks loose, Peter takes his first steps towards being a coward and Mary pays the price for her father's views on Muggle Borns. Some Triggers for next chapter (also not Peter friendly).