Disclaimer: sigh How many times must I say I do not own HP?
AN: Well, this is odd...jumps a long way. Flashback in the beginning, but I just didn't see how I could chart Sirius' whole journey without it being a little messy, so I only have the one part of it...
Anyway, on to Sirius we go...words like 'this' are thoughts in flashbacks.
Two
It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. This scene of carnage and ruin couldn't be where his best friend and family had been hiding. It wasn't possible.
James. Could. Not. Be. Dead.
Sirius gave a half hearted laugh. 'He is not dead! Obviously not, because the only way for Voldemort to have found him is if Wormtail told him! And there's no way that he would do THAT!'
Sirius' laughter increased to something of a cackle, 'Of course, Prongs just blew this up to shake Voldemort off his tail! Or...antlers! That's it!'
His stomach dropped out of him when Hagrid stumbled out of the ruins, carrying a screaming baby, and tears streaming down his soot-blackened face.
"Hagrid! What's going on?"
The half giant looked over at him with glistening black eyes, "They...They're dead..."
Sirius sighed, had things changed so much from back then? This time it was him hiding, and Harry out there trying to stop Voldemort. But at least I have a better secret keeper...
His mouth twisted in distaste, as if he had just tasted something bitter, at the thought. Pettigrew...I should have known...I should have!
He fought back tears as he stared blankly into the fireplace of the accursed home he had been confined to over the last year, It was my fault...I should have been the one that knew...they'd still be alive if I had been...
A voice in the back of his mind--a memory of what Dumbledore had said once--whispered that it had to be, that the only reason they had hope of defeating Voldemort was that Lily and James had sacrificed their lives.
I can't believe that...there had to be another way...there had to be another kid born then, that he could've went to instead!
His dark musings were interrupted abruptly, as Remus burst into the room, "It's...Harry...he's fallen for Voldemort's plan!"
"No!" Sirius gasped, leaping up, "When! How? What's going on now?"
Remus shook his head, "I'm not sure about the details, Snape just reported it, the Order are mobilizing and going to the Ministry now!"
Sirius nodded, and snatched up his wand from the table near him, "Let's do this!"
The weathered man gave him a sympathetic smile, "Not you. You are to wait for Dumbledore and tell him...you know what he said about--"
"Are you crazy! Harry is my godson, and there is no way you're stopping me from doing my duty as his godfather!" Sirius snapped, waving his wand for effect, "I've rotted away in here too long! I won't let you all go rescuing Harry without me!"
Remus sighed softly, "Then who would tell Dumbledore? Don't you see--"
"KREACHER!"
Remus' eyes widened in shock as the wrinkled elf appeared with a small 'pop' and a huge snarl.
"Master calls me?" Kreacher said in a thoroughly unconvincing sweet voice, bowing low, and adding in a perfectly audible undertone, "Filthy blood-traitor that he is...ordering Kreacher like he deserves to be Kreacher's master...oh, but he'll learn..."
Sirius growled, and cut short the deranged House Elf's ranting, "You are to wait here until Dumbledore comes, and tell him where we've gone and why. Do you understand?"
"If that is what master wishes." Kreacher grumbled, "Thinks he can just order Kreacher around? Well, Kreacher will show him..."
"KREACHER!" Sirius snapped, "I order you to stay here and tell Dumbledore where we've gone!"
Kreacher scowled at the floor, "As master wishes..."
Sirius did not wait to hear what derogitive comments Kreacher would add, racing out of the room past Remus to where the Order members were gathering to leave.
--
Harry was cornered by several Death Eaters, back to a strange black veil, eyes desperate. But now he wouldn't have to worry anymore, Sirius would not let James' only son, who had grown up so much like James, to die. Not ever.
"Hey! Did I miss much?" Sirius laughed, running down the steps, into the thick of Death Eaters, wand shooting off every jinx, hex, and curse he could think of.
Multiple Death Eaters went down before firing a shot, and the Order members had not yet been harmed in the slightest. If only I could see Harry through this confusion, he'd better be somewhere safe...
"I knew you'd come." The low voice of his least favorite cousin cut through his thoughts. "You've always pranced around where you shouldn't, playing the hero. It's no wonder your mother threw you out."
Sirius glared at his dark haired cousin, "I left of my own accord, Bellatrix. I have no interest in being associated with your family in the slightest!"
She gave a mocking laugh, "Good then, I don't have to feel sorry for killing you then."
"Killing me?" Sirius smirked, "You couldn't kill me in my sleep, Bella."
The woman growled in irritation, and launched at him, wand and all. Sirius laughed as he dodged curse after curse fired from her, she never could seem to aim when it counted.
"Can't you do any better, cousin dearest?" He laughed.
It didn't really matter anymore, Dumbledore had just arrived, he could see Harry in the corner of his vision, watching him--in relative safety--he was about to wave at Harry and wink, when something hit him in the chest.
Bella looked infinitely smug, "In your sleep?"
He tried to form a good reply, but the stunner she had used, had frozen his tongue. A stun? All those curses and she gets me with a Stupefy?
Somewhere in his mind he realized he was falling backwards. Toward that veil...
He glanced up numbly as the cloth parted for him. There were strange figures milling around him. Someone or something was approaching him.
It was odd, he thought he might have heard a scream before he entered this strange blackness, but there was no sound any more...just the whisper of the figures, and he soft plodding of the creature approaching.
He stumbled up and grasped for his wand--except his wand was nowhere to be seen.
"Who are you!"
The figure remained silent as it approached, gaining more recognizable features with every step. A grin suddenly bloomed across Sirius' features as the man reached him.
"Prongs!"
AN: Crappy end, huh? Well...I couldn't seem to get what I wanted with it, anyway...
>.>
If he did die through that veil, I think Prongs was there waiting. Don't you?
-Yusagi