Harry stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the entrance hall. The doors were flung open and a diminishing line of Aurors and teachers was protecting the entrance to the school.

He turned to look at the others as they drew to a stop beside him and smiled tightly as he gripped his wand fiercely.

"Good luck." He said.

"We're going to need it." he heard Draco mutter before he walked graciously out in front of them onto the battle scene. Harry snorted at the normalcy of his arrogance in the current situation and followed him out.

The grounds were absolute chaos. Hexes and curses were flying in all directions. Screams and shouts, sounds of panic and confusion filled the air, punctuated with the occasional manic laugh from a triumphant Death Eater. Harry took a deep breath to steady himself as he scanned the field, searching for any sign of Sirius.

Unfortunately, his eyes fell upon a Death Eater he didn't recognise, whose eyes fell upon Harry at the same moment. His eyes widened with recognition and he opened his mouth, presumably to yell to one of his comrades, but before he could utter a sound Harry stunned him.

Cursing his own stupidity he pulled the hood of his jumper over his head to try and cover part of his face, his scar at least, and continued searching. He ended up taking shelter behind a clump of small bushes while he continued to observe the battle, single-mindedly searching the chaos for his formally dead god-father.

He started when someone took shelter next to him and instinctively reached for his wand, it wasn't until they had their wands levelled at each other that recognition occurred.

"Fred?" Harry questioned in shock.

"Harry." He acknowledged, his eyes sweeping over Harry, checking for injuries. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Harry said hesitantly, looking at Fred in concern. He didn't seem quite . . . there. "You?"

"I'm a alive." Fred said shortly, eyes darting back and forth, taking in the battling wizards on the Hogwarts grounds.

"What about the others? Where's George?" Harry asked urgently. Fred stiffened and when he looked back at Harry it was all Harry could do not to gasp in horror at the emptiness in his eyes.

"What are you doing out here Harry? It's not safe." Fred said, ignoring Harry's question. Harry let it go for now.

"Looking for Sirius." He said.

"The veil." Fred said in understanding. "You should go back inside Harry, you could get hurt." He said.

"What about everyone else? I'm no more important than the next person." He said firmly.

"We both know that's not true." Fred said softly, "But we also both know you're not going top go back to the castle." He said in defeat. Without much thought Harry pulled Fred into a brief one armed hug. He felt Fred sigh against his head before he pulled away. "Be careful Harry." He said before he darted back out into the foray.

Harry watched him go and out of the corner of his eyes recognised a familiar face. "Sirius." He murmured, before making his way covertly over to where Sirius stood, partially obscured by a tree. Not just any tree, but the one by the lake that Harry had seen the Marauders sitting under in their fifth year, the one he Hermione and Ron had sat under just last year.

He sprinted the last few metres until he was face to face with his god-father, who was looking so incredibly confused that Harry almost laughed. With a choked sob he pulled his god-father to him and clung to him as if his life depended on it.

"Harry?" Sirius asked tentatively. "What's going on?"

Harry pulled back slightly and looked up at him.

"The veil. You fell through the veil. They said you were gone, that you couldn't come back." Harry said quietly, letting his arms drop to his sides.

"I- How long?" he asked quietly.

"A year." Harry choked out.

"Oh Harry, I'm sorry." He said sincerely, before Harry could even argue with that comment a flash of green light flew over his shoulder. "Down!" Sirius yelled pulling Harry down to the ground.

Harry aimed his wand at their attacker quickly and stood to face him. An icy cool gaze met his.

"Lucius Malfoy."

Jas surveyed the scene to make sure no-one had heard the crack that announced her apparation back onto Hogwarts grounds. Luckily it appeared everyone was too distracted to notice.

She glanced around looking for any sign of Severus. She had focused her thoughts upon him when apparating so he should be somewhere in the vicinity.

There. Fighting off several Death Eaters, back to back with . . . Bill Weasley? Talk about blowing his cover in style, she thought with a smirk. She muttered a string of quick curses, incapacitating two of the attacking Death Eaters. With the let up in opposing fire, Weasley and Severus were able to defeat the last two.

They both looked in her direction. Weasley nodded his thanks before running off to someone else's aid. Severus closed the distant between them in quick purposeful strides.

"Are you well?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I only just got here." She assured him.

"Very well then, let the fight continue." He said, an anticipatory gleam in his eyes as they returned to the battle.

"Mister Potter, a pleasure as always." Lucius sneered as he took a step forward, his wand never wavering from its target.

"I wish I could say the same." Harry responded calmly.

"Ah yes, I'm sure you'd much rather be face to face with another Malfoy." Lucius said in disgust.

"Do I detect an element of revulsion in your voice?" Harry asked. "I'm so glad I could help provide you with that feeling." He smirked as Lucius scowled.

"Enough." Lucius snapped. "Time to die Mister Potter." He smirked and opened his mouth to utter the words of the killing curse, when a red beam of light hit him squarely in the back and he fell forward in a most undignified, but very unconscious heap.

"I think not." Draco muttered as he stepped forward. "I would say I told you so, but I think everyone already knew you'd be dead without someone covering your sorry arse." He said to Harry with a smirk.

"I'm not going to argue." Harry said, glancing over his shoulder at Sirius who was frowning in confusion. "Back to it then?" he asked.

"Back to what?" Draco asked, "There's barely any Death Eaters left standing. Most of them have already apparated away." He informed them. "Cowards." He sneered. The sneer died on his face to a look of shock. "Get down he shouted!"

Harry did as he was told and pulled Sirius down with him. A dart of violet light streaked over their heads and hit Draco squarely in the chest, his hands clutched his chest desperately as he took a ragged breath and fell to the ground.

A manic cackling of female laughter came from where the spell had originated. Harry's head whipped round, his gaze focusing squarely upon Bellatrix Lestrange. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth in barely suppressed fury.

He felt Sirius tense beside him and knew that he had levelled his wand at her. Harry hadn't the presence of mind to do so. He wanted to hurt her, she should scream in pain for everything she'd done, he'd make sure of it. And yet he still didn't raise his wand.

"Harry." Sirius hissed in warning from his side.

"Aw, is lickle Harry not even going to defend himself?" she mocked. "Have you finally realised that you're no match for me, for us?" she sneered. Harry ignored her, still focusing on the image of her writhing in pain.

Her eyes locked with his and he bored into them with his gaze. Suddenly she was screaming, screaming so loudly that he would have winced if he wasn't still concentrating on holding her gaze. Eventually the screams tapered off and she fell to the ground; unconscious.

Harry blinked for the first time in minutes and was brought back to the here and now. He took quick, shallow breaths.

"Harry, what-?" Sirius asked in shock.

"I don't know." He shook his head frantically, still trying to catch his breath. A pain filled moan from behind them caught his attention and he span round. "Draco!" he gasped and fell to his knees by Draco's side.

His breathing was erratic and shallow. He coughed and Harry saw blood tinge the corner of his mouth before it tricked out down his pale skin.

"Oh God." Harry whispered in horror. He didn't know what to do, there was nothing he could do.

"Sev'rus."

"What?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Sev'rus," Draco whispered roughly again, "Get … Sev'..rus." he coughed again and more blood oozed down his chin.

"Sirius." Harry said sharply. "You heard him, find Snape." He said, barely looking up as Sirius acknowledged him and ran off to locate the potions professor. He grabbed Draco's hand firmly. "Hang on Malfoy." He murmured.

Sirius ran as fast as he could to the steps that lead to the entrance hall where he could see most of the survivors gathered. The battle seemed to have ended while Harry and Bellatrix had been having their confrontation. The only Death Eaters left on the grounds were the dead or unconscious ones. And the ones that worked there, he mentally added as his eyes fell upon Snape.

"Snape!" he shouted as he ran towards him.

"Black?" he asked incredulously as Sirius drew to a halt in front of him.

"Yes, yes. Alive and well." He panted. "Malfoy." He breathed pointing in the direction where Draco and Harry were. "Bellatrix hit him with a curse." He said.

"Lead the way." He said, without argument. He followed Sirius with quick purposeful strides. "I assume we're talking about Malfoy junior here?" he questioned as they approached the tree by the lake.

"Yes." Sirius said, pointing at where Harry sat huddled over Draco Malfoy. Snape ran the last few metres and dropped to Draco's side.

"What happened?" he questioned, waving his wand along Draco's body.

"Bellatrix hit him with a curse, I didn't hear it." Harry told him.

"We need to get him to the castle." Snape said shortly, lifting Draco's now unconscious form into his arms and beginning quickly towards the castle. Sirius and Harry followed him silently.

Thanks to DestinyEntwinements for reviewing the last, pathetically short, chapter, this ones longer, and better. YEY for Sirius! I never originally intended for him to return, but I thought it'd make a good twist and I always quite liked his character. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, if so, or if not, please REVIEW and let me know!