Hey everyone! Sorry for the delayed update. I've been busy. I'm also kind of depressed, so if this chapter isn't quite as up to beat as everything else I've written, that might be why. I'm sorry about that.

Mysterious Deliveries

A warm drink was all that soothed Sirius these days. Hot tea to defrost the chill that seemed to distill within his very blood. He was not the wrecked man he had been before. In fact, now he was hardly a man at all. Whatever was left of Sirius was far beyond a shell, or even the uttermost core of his being. It was a wraith. A spirit; the very entity of the vile darkness that made him up as a human being.

Now, that darkness was all that was left of the once much adored Sirius Black.

As of now, he sat at his desk within the grand study of Grimmauld Place, pouring over countless files and bunches of paperwork. All of them containing reports of the same thing.

Mission failed statements. Over and over, that was all Sirius' eyes saw magically inscribed upon every leaflet and every scrap of parchment.

It was no longer unnerving to Sirius, the fact that they were losing this war. He himself was counted among the many who acted as though he had nothing to lose in this on-going battle against the malevolent forces that were engaging themselves around the world.

'Let the world go to hell,' Sirius thought as he passed over another folder without even bothering to read it. 'I could use the company.'

It was the truth. People were so afraid of the man Black was now becoming that they only made contact with him when it was urgent. Even Remus, his closest friend, made less visits these days.

His excuse was that he did not want to disrupt Sirius' privacy, and he often enforced the fact that Sirius needed as much rest as he could get.

Sirius believed otherwise, of course, about his friend's intentions.

Taking another drink of tea, Sirius left his study, deciding that he had had enough of work for one day. Things weren't getting any better, and it wasn't like the Ministry was very eager to receive another negative report anytime soon.

"Maybe a hot shower will do me some good," the man grumbled as he rinsed out his tea cup and set it in the sink.

Hedwig, newly awakened on her perch, hooted.

"What do you want?" he snarled.

The owl stared at him indignantly, far from intimidated by his display of raw anger.

Sirius sighed and walked over to the perch, raising a hand to scratch the birds head.

"You're doing better than I am, old girl," he said in a low, scratchy voice. Hedwig hooted once more. Sirius could only guess she was agreeing with him.

He sighed again and started to leave, when there was a sudden knock on the door.

Frowning, Sirius debated answering it. He wasn't really in the mood for company, but if it was a visitor with an urgent message then the person knocking was most assuredly worth answering the door for.

He started toward the entryway with nothing on his mind, but just as Sirius moved to turn the doorknob he thought better of it. Pulling his wand from an inner pocket of his robes, Sirius peered out of the window to see who exactly was calling on him this late at night.

Oddly enough, there was no one in sight.

'Did they give up already?' Sirius asked himself with a raised eyebrow. Usually a Ministry worker, or a special deliverance messenger, would wait ten minutes while repeatedly knocking before finally giving up and heading back to the message source.

Sirius had hardly ninety seconds to get to the door. Why so impatient?

Carefully, he opened the door and peered out to the left and the right. There was most definitely no one there, and if he were in danger Sirius believed his instincts would have warned him by now.

Stiffly stepping out onto the stone step that lead to the door, Sirius peered around to find a small envelope resting beneath the mat before the step.

"Strange," he muttered.

There was a very strong rain falling outside, he realized all of a sudden. Surely any messenger would have wanted payment under the difficult circumstances. There was no reason that they would just leave like this.

'Unless it's not from the ministry,' said warning voice in his head.

He took the letter into the kitchen and set it on the table. He in turn then proceeded to sit and inspect the envelope thoroughly.

This consisted of him glaring at it for some time while he sat back with his arms crossed over his chest, debating on whether or not this letter was worth opening tonight.

There was no writing on the envelope, he noticed upon flipping it over. No return address, and no original address.

How had the person, or even the owl, delivering the message known where to go to?

'It's probably not even for me,' Sirius decided after a period of time. He stood and started to leave the room, but something about the envelope dragged him back. He considered the thing angrily this time, as though the fault were truly that of the item he was now presented with.

"What the hell are you?" he asked at length. He poked it with his wand and hissed in disappointment when nothing happened. It's contents apparently were not dangerous, whatever they were. "Reveal your secrets!" he demanded.

Nothing.

Sirius frowned.

Whatever this was, it was certainly concealed well. He paced a few moments, stopping only to consider the envelope from time to time until he came up with another option.

Standing over the envelope, wand in hand, he uttered nine words that he had not spoken since his school days.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

At first nothing happened, and Sirius was prepared to give up, but when he turned his gaze back to the envelope he noticed, to his surprise, that something was indeed happening.

Black lines grew like a rapidly sprouting tree, up and over the back of the envelope to reveal an amazing assortment of patterns and designs. He frowned, lifting it to see the front cover. It too was covered in designs, but not as intricately as the back.

Turning it over again, he stared hard at it. No one just decorated an envelope because they were bored! What was this all about?

Sirius lifted it up and inspected it over candle light to find nothing at all that would help him. In fact, he found that there was nothing in the envelope at all.

It was some trick, and Sirius was sitting here now pining over it like some sort of hungry dog.

Angry that he had been made a fool of, he stormed into his sitting room and tossed the envelope in the fireplace in his sitting room. He watched as it was devoured by the orange flames that danced wildly over the logs, and then left it there to go to bed, still angry.

What Sirius did not notice, was the glow of a new piece of paper that had been hidden within the envelope's folds. It slipped away between the logs, lost to the eyes of those who might be needing it again.

Okay, this is a filler, I know. But I didn't write this just to waste your time. The letter is an important part of the story. Just wait and see.

PS, thank you Stinky Stan for adding my stories to your C2 community. I have no idea what those things are, but you're welcome to leave them there!