Alas, I find that I've secured myself into a very tight corner. Stupid story.

Thank you for the review, Dianne. (grins) I do hope you find your kitty soon.

Falling fast and falling free,
you look to find a friend.
Falling fast and falling free,
this could just be the end.
Of all the things that could have happened next, Sirius never expected that which really did come to occur. It was as if a bomb had exploded above their heads, and for a moment he actually believed one had. The whole center of the castle rocked and quaked violently. Screams were heard from numerous flights up and down throughout the keep, and the ever present perpetual darkness only added to the fears of those who were helplessly groping about in search of things and people. If a war had broken out between the Ministry and the Dark Forces, Sirius felt compelled to believe that the only thing that separated him from the "front line" was a ceiling and a few flights of stairs.

Not enough to be comfortable with.

"What's going on?" asked Diggle, his wide eyes darting around in an obvious fit of paranoia. Beads of sweat glistened off of his face in the little bit of light they had, dripping from his temples and upper lip. Allen seemed to be in a similar state in appearance, but he did well to keep his head.

"We've been misinformed," Allen spoke after a few seconds of deceptive silence. "They were expecting us."

Sirius felt his heart leap into his throat. "Expecting us?" he croaked. "What does that mean?"

"That means...that we've been lead into a trap."

"By whom?"

"Does it really matter now?" Allen snapped.

"I would think that it does," came Diggle's high pitched squeak from somewhere in the back. Allen afforded the man a glare, but did not dignify the comment with a response. Instead, he turned to Sirius, Remus, and Tonks.

"I'm entrusting you two with continuing our party's mission," he whispered so that only they could hear. "Our team is going to need back up, and my people are the only ones who can reach them in time."

"Just Remus and I?" came Sirius, frowning slightly.

"No. Tonks and Diggle will be going with you. The Order keeps to it's own and so will the Squad."

"What happens when we find our people?" Remus asked.

"Get them out. Stick to the procedure we went over. If you meet up with anyone claiming to be from the Ministry or the Squad, ask for I.D. If they don't have it, then don't hesitate."

"Hesitate to what, exactly?"

Allen didn't answer. In a silent hand code that neither Remus nor Sirius were familiar with, he gathered the attention of the Phoenix Squadron and together as one they left for the upper floors to meet the battle head on, leaving Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Diggle to fend for themselves.

Diggle turned to face the others with a questioning expression. "So...what are we doing?"

"What the hell is going on out there?" someone from the opposite cell room cried. Harry's own face was pressed between the bars of his cell. He strained to hear, see, or sense anything that was going on above their heads.

"Who knows?" came a reply from somewhere down the column. "They're probably blowing the castle."

"With us in it?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"After all the trouble they went through to capture us, they're just going to kill us?"

"Why not?"

Sighing, Harry shook his head. Obviously spirits were easier to break then bones in these circumstances.

"Hey, kid!" whispered a voice. Harry looked up. He'd never told anyone down here who he was, and since that was the only real title he had down here, he just simply assumed that 'kid' always meant him.

"Yeah?" Harry answered the unknown voice.

"You look kind of hopeful. You think the Ministry is coming for us? Do you think they're here?"

"Could be, I guess."

There was a pause. This person seemed to be considering Harry very seriously.

"Is there someone out there looking for you?"

Harry frowned and peered in the direction of the voice. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing. It's just that...you've always been so optimistic throughout this ordeal. You have hope that someone out there is looking for you?"

A grin came across Harry's face, not that the speaker could see it. "I know someone out there's looking for me."

"Parents?"

"No." He paused, grinning slightly after another explosion had gone off. "My godfather."

Now reduced to a team of four, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Diggle were literally jumping flights of stairs. They knew where they were headed, the problem was simply getting their unnoticed.

Remus and Tonks were in the lead, Diggle was in the middle and Sirius took up the position of rear guard as they reached a long, windowless corridor. The only thing they had to guide them was the light of their own wands (they'd forsake groping about in the darkness long ago), and even that was slowing them down. Every moving shadow made them weary of the fact that they were not alone in this castle, and one wrong turn could lead them into a roomful of powerful Death Eaters, or even to Voldemort himself.

It wasn't a risk they could afford with so much hanging in the balance. Their job was to get the prisoners and get out. The war was to be fought by others tonight, not by them.

Fate, however, enjoyed making things difficult for those who already had it hard.

As Tonks and Remus careened around a corner, they narrowly avoided getting taken out by a slew of jinxes and curses that were flung at them from the opposite side of the corridor. Diggle took the full blunt of the blow and went down, giving Sirius enough time to dive for adequate cover, but not enough to save his teammate from full paralysis.

"SIRIUS!" he heard his friends calling from the hall ahead.

Brushing himself off, Sirius coughed and looked around. "I'm all right!" he reassured them, though he couldn't say the same for Diggle.

He didn't have time to worry though. Another onslaught of magical attacks flew at them from the corridor, and five Death Eaters stormed in from the shadows, robed, masked, and completely unidentifiable.

"Damn it," hissed Sirius as he tucked his form up tight into a corner to avoid being blasted away by no more than three fatal curses. He saw one fall at Remus' wand and took hope, but at the same time Tonks went flying into the wall behind them, leaving Remus alone with odds that were already not good.

Seeing the advantage, the Death Eaters were not below taking it. With raised wands, all focused on the wizard in front of them.

Sirius watched in horror as he was about to lose his best friend.

Another explosion rocked the cell, causing part of the ceiling to cave. Supports fell, and with them, half of the cell walls. Harry, one among the multitudes that now found themselves circumstantially, if not conveniently freed, took that advantage up in full. Pulling some from rubble, and busting the doors of others still trapped in confinement, the prisoners decided to make a run for it. Whatever was happening up above their heads was certainly a more desirable fate then being left for dead in the dungeons of a castle.
"REMUS!" Sirius screamed, partially hoping that it would deter the attention of some of the attacking Death Eaters toward him instead of his companion. It worked, but only for a moment. Smiles lengthened as they realized who it was that called out from the shadows, and mocking laughter echoed from the dark depths of masks that concealed the identities of their assailants.

"Remus! Remus!" came a high pitched laugh, scornfully mimicking the fear in Sirius' heart. "Poor Black. All the people he loved...blown away by that which he most hated."

"Bastards!" The man spat, foolishly standing and revealing himself to them.

"Sirius stay where you are!" Remus warned, but it was of no use. He knew his friend wasn't listening. "Sirius!"

"Oh, this is too beautiful," said a female voice. "I almost feel bad that we don't have any music playing. After all...this is...goodbye!"

A wave of green light exploded from the tip of a wand, and both men steeled themselves for an end that they were not ready to face. But at that time, a brilliant flash of orange erupted from another side of the corridor, taking out the firing wizard and somehow stopping his spell from ever reaching his target.

Remus was blown back into the wall at the sheer force of the spell, and Sirius was forced to dive out of the way to avoid being hit. In doing so, however, his head collided with the wall, and everything around him went black. At that point, Sirius knew no more.

Oh dear, what's happening here? Hey, that rhymed. Anyway, Fin ala chapter twenty. Twenty! Holy cow!
Please don't forget to review. (smiles cheesily)

Lyrics: "Harvest Breed" by Nick Drake.