In the Phoenix's Eyes

We Came

"He what?"

"Where?"

Snape stood calmly in the middle of the kitchen of the House of Black. In his mind ran many thoughts, among them was the conclusion that anyone with enough exposure to Harry Potter immediately turned into an idiot as proven by Sirius and Xander.

The two stood at the door with shock written on their faces. Xander's expression had a bit of confusion mixed into it, as well.

The Potions Master sneered at the two and was about to speak when Dumbledore's calm voice interrupted the silence, "Enough, Severus. Harry is on their way to The Ministry of Magic as we speak to save Sirius."

"As always, he has dragged Miss Granger and some more of his little friends into this," Snape added.

Sirius shot a glare at him, "Exactly whose fault is it that he saw this, then? Had you not thrown him out–"

Dumbledore shot a disapproving look at both Sirius and Snape, "We are no longer little kids and we have an important matter on our hands. Severus, are you sure that was what Harry said he saw?"

"Of course."

Tonks, who had been mixing her tea finally looked up questioningly, "I don't want to sound...but should we go to the Ministry, as well?"

Xander nodded, "It's obviously a set-up."

"Obviously," Snape muttered, using a great deal of effort to not roll his eyes.

At that moment, Arthur and Molly Weasley ran into the kitchen followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Dumbledore raised a hand to silence any oncoming questions. A green fire chose to erupt in the fire place at that moment and Moody stumbled out. Without so much as brushing the soot off of his clothes, he dropped into a chair and set his attention on Dumbledore only after quickly surveying the other occupants of the room.

Anya stepped out from behind Xander slowly and looked at Dumbledore with furrowed eyebrows, "How exactly are they supposed to get to the Ministry, though? I mean...I know you can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds, so they went into the Forbidden Forest and all, but...and I could be wrong about this, too, but I don't think Harry or any of the others know how to apparate. Like, regardless of their location."

Snape raised an eyebrow, "They could have flown there. I doubt they'd have trouble with getting brooms."

Moody growled slightly making Xander jump slightly and send the ex-Auror a weary look. Moody ignored him, "Oh, they flew. I just don't think they'd go by broomstick."

The others looked at him and waited for the man to continue.

He didn't.

Dumbledore smiled slightly, "They took the Thesrals."

"Sorry?" Xander began, but he only got one word out and Anya had elbowed him sharply. While he didn't have the slightest notion what they were all talking about, Anya obviously did. Upon hearing the creature the kids had supposedly taken, she turned into her usual perky self.

"I miss my thesral," she said with a smile.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

"Where's Fletcher?" Moody suddenly demanded gruffly.

"He will not be attending, Alastor," Dumbledore replied shortly. "Now, you all are aware of what is going on.. What Harry saw is a lie and he should not have seen it. However, we cannot turn back time and so this will just have to be dealt with accordingly. The situation is threatening, to say the least. Death Eaters are to be expected in the Department of Mysteries waiting for Harry and his friends there."

Molly eyes widened slightly as if the realization that Ron was, in fact, Harry's friend had just solidified in her mind, but remained silent.

As if sensing this, Dumbledore nodded slightly in her direction before continuing, "We cannot risk sending too many people, but I believe it is necessary for a few of you to go and help with this situation."

Kingsley nodded, "I'll go."

"Me too!" Tonks added quickly, now mixing the tea with a finger idly.

Moody cleared his throat and looked around the room, "Lupin and I are coming, too."

"Well I'm certainly not staying," Sirius muttered.

"Perhaps it isn't the best of ideas for you to come, Black. If you're caught in the Ministry of Magic you will not only be killed on the spot, but you'll lose Kingsley his job, as well," Snape commented cooly.

Sirius sent a nasty smile at his childhood enemy, "Well then I suppose I'll have to remain unseen and not get caught."

"I can't not help, either," Xander added after a second. "I mean, I realize I'm not a wizard or anything."

Dumbledore looked at both Xander and Sirius for a moment then at Anya, who had been standing next to Xander surprisingly quiet the whole time.

Dumbledore nodded finally, "This is how this is going to be done..."

"This was a really great idea," Anya muttered, sarcasm dripping off her words as she sent Kingsley a dark look.

The big black man smiled slightly, "This is the only way we can get in without first being detected by the Death Eaters."

"Uh-huh. The longest way to get there. First we run around a few hallways and then we burst in on the evil guys through the ceiling. Brilliant plan. Right," she grumbled back at him.

Xander grabbed his fiancee's hand and squeezed it slightly. She smiled a little at him and reluctantly stopped talking. Sirius appeared next to them and grinned, "You know, the Ministry has some horrible security."

"You're lucky that's the case, Padfoot. You shouldn't even be hear."

"Moony, it's too late. I'm here and there is nothing that could have kept me from coming."

"Quiet!" Moody growled at them and pointed to the two doors at the end of the hall.

"Is it those two?" Tonks whispered.

Moody nodded silently and the seven of them quickly crossed the space between them and the doors.

Kingsley eyed each of them and nodded, "We all know what to do."

"Be safe," Lupin added quietly as they all burst through the two doors and immediately sprung into action.

The Death Eaters seemed caught off-gaurd by the appearance of the Order members, but the shock quickly wore off and both sides started battling.

Different colored light was flying everywhere and almost hit Xander before he dove behind a fallen chunk of concrete he quickly realized had fallen from the ceiling. He peeked through the room and saw Anya ducking behind fallen structures every now and then but then jumping back into action, which mostly consisted of some sort of red light spewing curse.

Where exactly Anya had picked up the wand, Xander couldn't guess, but he stood up quickly and headed to where Harry and his friend were standing.

With a wince he saw Harry's friend fall to the ground screaming and them go limp. Sirius quickly engaged in a battle with the lady that had thrown the curse at Neville and Xander continued to move through the people dodging stray spells that headed his way. Right ahead of him he saw a black robed figure grab Anya around the waist and point their wand at her heart. They never got a chance, though, because the ex-vengeance demon had already shoved an elbow into the person's stomach and he doubled over. She quickly kicked him in a very uncomfortable place and from the sound the thing's mouth let out, Xander recognized it was a man.

That was also when Xander realized that he didn't really need a wand to fight. He had known it ever since he had gotten into a fight in elementary school, but watching Anya elbow a guy made him sure of that fact. He ducked as Rookwood shot a green light at him. As he was about to shout another curse, Xander quickly punched him directly in the nose.

The Death Eater dropped his wand, which Xander quickly picked up and pocketed. Rookwood put a hand over his nose and looked murderously at him. Just as the cloaked man was about to tackle Xander, he easily sent a roundhouse kick and the Death Eater dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Being best friends with the slayer had taught him a lot more than just knowing the difference between the good and the bad guys.

Moving to the next guy who had started shooting jets of light at him, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

Xander chanced a look at the arch that had caught his attention and realized he had seen it before. Dodging curses left and right, he made his way to the archway that was covered by a soft-looking, sheer black veil blowing softly in a non-existent breeze.

He reached out to touch the entranceway, enthralled. An instant before he had been about to put a finger on the stone, something large and heavy had flown into him, knocking Xander off balance. He only had time to think words like, "ow!" and "oh shit!" before he felt himself fall past the veil.

Instead of the expected hard wall, though, he found that air was rushing past him and he was falling.

Very fast.

The ground rushed up to meet him. To Xander, it came a bit too quickly. Only having the chance to curl up into a ball, he crashed painfully into a very dirty stone floor.

The Gods didn't seem to be on Xander's side today. His whole left side of his body was already probably starting to bruise in pretty little patterns when that same something that had crashed into him earlier fell directly onto him. Whether it was the excruciating pain of broken bones combined with pressure on them or simply a strong surge of anger at the Gods– a moment later Xander knew no more.

Author's Note: I know, I apologize for taking...oh, almost half a yearto update. Things have calmed down quite a bit now and so I've been able to just sit back, relax and I realized that I owed you guys a new chapter. I really am sorry, but there was a family emergency and I really wasn't able to update. Please do forgive me. Here's this chapter. With a -gasp- cliffhanger! I'm a bitch, I know. But you guys are awesome, so thank you!