Alas, so comes the hardest chapter for me to write – and, interestingly, the least entertaining one for you all to read. I guess this is because it was in the book already, and you know what happens. Still, it'll be from Sirius' perspective instead of Harry's, which should be something.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, why on earth would I kill off my favorite character?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

June 20th, 1996

The Noble And Most Ancient House Of Black

The late Mrs. Cassiopeia Black, had she not been long since dead, would have been mortified to have seen the current occupants of her dreary house in London.

Lucky for her (and most unfortunate for everyone else in the house), Mrs. Black's death didn't stop her from making a racket. Her hatred of anyone not pure enough lived on through her ill-tempered portrait, hung steadfastly on the wall in the parlor of the Noble And Most Ancient House of Black.

Sirius Black, Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Remus Lupin had done everything they could have possible done to shut up the screaming painting, and not until their female member had thrown her shoe at the old woman, shocking her out of her tantrum long enough for the men to heave the curtains closed, had they made any progress.

Exhausted and weary, the party of five had collapsed onto the Blacks' living room sofa and hadn't moved for nearly a half hour. Sirius had summoned Butterbeers for everyone from the cellar kitchen, so they were quite content where they were, drinking and talking about old times.

"…and so, then, Moony, he finds this brilliant spell to make old Snivellus' hair turn orange – bloody genius, by the way –"

Remus bowed his head and pretended to blush.

"And we got out of the Slytherin common room just in time; the git never even knew we'd been there until the next morning at breakfast!" Sirius finished to a round of laughter.

"That's…hilarious…!" Tonks choked out in between snorts.

"Excellent strategic planning, I have to say," Moody smiled slightly, which looked a bit sinister, and sent his magical eye dancing in its socket.

"Yes, we were good," Remus admitted sheepishly.

"We were the best!" Sirius grinned proudly.

"And so modest, too," Kingsley said sarcastically in a booming voice, raising an eyebrow at Sirius. Sirius put his hands up in front of him, the universal sign for 'touché'.

Suddenly, the fireplace in front of them, which had been abandoned for the summer, started up in flames. But these weren't ordinary flames – emerald green fire appeared in the hearth, followed by a head. What is Snivellus doing in my fire? And such good timing, too.

"What do you want, Snape?" Sirius narrowed his eyes at his enemy.

"There's been a…disturbance here," Snape informed them in silky hushed tones.

"What has happened, Severus?" Remus looked alarmed.

Snape looked at him carefully before answering. "Potter had another vision this afternoon, during his O.W.L. tests. He seems to think that Black has been kidnapped by the Dark Lord and taken to the Department of Mysteries."

A silence passed.

"Well, I haven't." Sirius told him bluntly.

"Obviously, Black," Snape hissed. "Excuse me for being so dim as to think that you would understand the problem at hand."

Tonks interrupted before Sirius had a chance to reply. "If you don't mind telling us, Snape, what exactly is the 'problem at hand'?"

Snape paused. "I was alerted of this vision two hours ago. No one has seen Potter and his friends since."

A horrible, long silence filled the room, only broken by Sirius swearing.

"SHIT!"

He grabbed his wand off the table and bolted up. "We have to go find them! They must be in the Department of Mysteries, it's just like Harry to want to rush into action when he thinks someone's in trouble…"

Kingsley rolled his eyes. "That's a bit hypocritical of you, don't you think?" but he got up too. The rest of the group followed as well.

"Just a moment, Black." Snape called from the fireplace, as the group was getting ready to leave.

"What?" Sirius asked roughly, turning towards his head.

"Perhaps it would be better if you stayed here. Dumbledore will need someone at headquarters to tell him what has happened." Snape sneered.

Sirius scowled. "Not a chance! My godson is in trouble and I'm going to get him out of it!"

Snape glared back at him. "Well, I suggest you find someone to do it." With that, he vanished.

Sirius looked around wildly. "Kreacher!" He bellowed, and the bedraggled house-elf appeared a moment later.

"Master calls, Master wants Kreacher, but Master will not be able to call Kreacher much longer, oh no, Kreacher knows, yes, Kreacher knows about Master and the Dark Lord's plans…" He muttered, taking a flimsy bow.

Sirius ignored his ramblings. There were more important things on mind at that moment. "Kreacher, tell Dumbledore when he gets here that Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, Mad-Eye, and I went to the Ministry of Magic to help Harry. Got that? Good. Now wait here for him." With that, Sirius Apparated away to the Atrium.

Four popping noises around him told him that his companions had joined him in the extravagant marble hall. "Kingsley, Tonks, you probably know the place a lot better than I remember. Lead the way."

The tall black wizard and the pink-haired witch led the group into a lift and down to the ninth floor, across a foreboding stone corridor, and through an open wooden door. After that, Sirius wasn't sure where he was going. He was aware of nothing except the blood rushing through his body and Harry's face swimming in front of him. James would have killed him for allowing something like this to happen.

Kinglsey banged open two double doors. Sirius was stunned for a second at the room that they had entered – it looked like some sort of ancient Roman tournament bleacher, with stone steps running all the way around. Sirius' gaze was drawn to the center of the room, where almost a dozen hooded Death Eaters had surrounded Harry and Neville Longbottom. The scene abruptly brought Sirius back to reality.

"Stupefy!" Tonks cried from next to him. It missed its target – Lucius Malfoy – but it distracted the Death Eaters from the boys, at any rate.

A battle initiated. Curses and hexes flew from both parties, most of them dark or Unforgivable. They were outnumbered, Sirius saw this right away, as two Death Eaters ganged on him and started firing off Stunners. Sirius dodged them all, and managed to return a few. Most missed, but one was right on target.

One down, Sirius thought. Too many to go.

The other Death Eater scampered to the other side of the room, and started dueling with Kingsley. Another one joined them soon after, and the Auror was fighting off two at once. Sirius searched the room for more. There – in the center of the room, a very short Death Eater jumped off of the dais and barreled towards him.

"Collaportus!" Sirius yelled, and the Death Eater was lifted off his feet and slammed back into the dias. His head hit the stone with a sickening crack and he fell down, unconscious.

Another Death Eater charged at him, this time not pausing to come within his range to fire a spell. "Appendus Wavio!" The Death Eater hissed. Sirius dropped to the floor and covered his head with his arms, ducking the unfamiliar dark spell. But his attacker wasn't ready to give up.

"Appen-"

"PROTEGO!" Sirius screamed before the Death Eater had finished his curse. It rebounded back towards him, and the wizard shrieked in agony before collapsing to the floor. Sirius shuddered. He would not have liked to have been hit by that.

Sirius heard a yell, and looked over to his left. Neville had just jabbed a Death Eater in the eye with his wand. The Death Eater howled, and Harry Stunned him.

Movement to his right caught Sirius' eye. Mad-Eye had lost his duel, it seemed, and the Death Eater he had been fighting started towards Harry with his wand outstretched, looking like he could kill.

Not on my watch.

Sirius ran towards him and slammed the Death Eater with his shoulder. His hood fell, revealing his twisted, pale face – Dolohov.

Dolohov stumbled, but rose and faced Sirius. "Crucio" He cried, and Sirius blocked it. The spell bounced off his shield and upwards toward the ceiling.

"Stupefy!" Sirius tried, but Dolohov hurried out of the way.

He made some sort of slashing movement with his wand. Sirius couldn't figure out what it was in time to block it, and stood there limply.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry yelled from behind him, and Dolohov's limbs snapped together, causing him to topple over onto his back.

"Nice one!" Sirius told Harry approvingly. He shoved his godson's head down to avoid a pair of red Stunners. "Now I want you to get out of –"

A jet of green light that zoomed towards him interrupted him. Sirius ducked, and the spell hit the wall behind him. He looked up again in time to see Tonks fall down the stone steps and his cousin Bellatrix run back towards the muck of the fight.

"Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!" Sirius yelled. He ran over to Bellatrix, to finish Tonks' fight.

He met her halfway across the room, on top of the stone dais. "Stupefy!" Sirius bellowed over the sounds of others dueling around them.

Bellatrix moved smoothly out of the way and smiled cruelly at him. "Dear cousin, it's been too long," she drawled scathingly.

"Oh, yes. I'm sure we both miss those glorious Azkaban days terribly." Sirius shot back bitterly, ducking her Cruciatus. "Tell me, how has the prison been fairing without me?"

"I wouldn't know, would I, Sirius? My master freed me from that hideous place months ago. Impedimenta!"

"Protego! Yes, that's right, I remember reading about it in the newspaper. Only – funny thing – most people seemed to be under the impression that I was the one who freed you from Azkaban. Can you believe that?" Sirius conjured darts from his wand that flew towards Bellatrix.

She waved her wand and the darts changed their course and soared in a different direction. "Such an insult to my master, not to mention his loyal followers," Bellatrix hissed, furious.

"Oh, poor Voldemort, I imagine he's crying in his room over it right now." Sirius moved out of the way of her Killing Curse. "I seem to have angered you, Bella. Was it something I said?" Sirius dully noted a change of atmosphere in the room – much of the fighting seemed to have ceased for some reason, but he didn't take his eyes off of Bellatrix.

"You dare play games with me, Black?" Bellatrix sneered, and shot a stunner at him.

Sirius ducked, and laughed mockingly. "Come on, you can do better than that!" He heard his voice and laughter echo through the silent hall.

o-o

His friends had always told him that he had the loudest laugh they had ever heard. That's funny. Why am I thinking about the Marauders at a time like this?

o-o

"Stupefy!" Bellatrix shrieked, red light flooded Sirius' vision. He felt the spell course through his body, and a soft cloth touch his skin a moment later, and then – nothing.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I'm sorry, I really couldn't bring myself to go all out with this death. But I'll make up for it with Peter's, I promise. And you can all cheer… I know Dumbledore said that the Order used better a communication method than Floo, but I didn't have enough time to think of a better one. Sorry… Also, 'Appendus Wavio' is a spell I made it up. It basically means 'twisting organs' very loosely in Latin, which is probably extremely painful and sounded pretty Dark to me.

Please review!

LaRohaZeta