Part two! In which things get sad. Prepare the tissue boxes everybody!

Summary: Sirius' last moments on this world were far from simply healing an oversized bird. Rather, they were filled with laughter, memories, swing dancing and one best friend, otherwise known as Moony.

Warnings: Character Death, Sadness/Angst Abound, Swing Dancing, and Sub-text.

Rating: T for the hell of it


Beyond the Department of Mysteries

Remus took a deep breath as they arrived at the Ministry in front of a large fountain. Sirius snarled at the golden statue in the center with the wizard and witch in the center as the House-Elf, Centaur, and Goblin seemed to stare lovingly up at them.

"The day that that statue depicts the truth is the day that Voldemort admits he likes long walks on the beach, pink frilly things, and just feels lost and alone and needs some one to care for him," he muttered in Remus' ear. Remus chuckled at the thought and nudged Sirius.

"Shut up you moron," he hissed as Moody glared at them.

"C'mon you lot! To the Department of Mysteries!" the ex-Auror commanded.

"Two steps ahead of you sir," Kingsley said by the lifts. With a ding the doors opened and the group piled in.

"Floor nine Tonks," Moody commanded. The pink haired metamorphmagus nodded and pressed the button. The lift lurched and rattled as the five adult wizards waited patiently in silence. Remus grabbed Sirius' arm and stared at him intently.

"Remember to keep close and keep calm no matter what we find, please?" he asked. Sirius nodded as the lift lurched to a halt.

"Department of Mysteries," announced a cool female voice and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor and turned to the plain black door. Moody opened it and they went in quickly glancing at the doors around them.

"Which one do we take?" Kingsley asked quietly. The door closed with a crack and the walls started spinning. Remus gasped and stepped back as Sirius stepped forward.

"We're never going to find him…" the animagus growled. Moody stepped to the center.

"Show me Harry Potter!" he yelled out. The walls screeched to a halt and two doors burst open. The group split and ran to them and looked inside.

The room was stone, with steep stairs and seats going down to the center where on a dais an archway stood with a veil flowing from it. Harry was standing on the dais with something clutched in his hand. Ten Death Eaters were gathered in front of him, their wands pointed at him. Between Harry and the Death Eaters Neville Longbottom lay in a whimpering heap with Bellatrix Lestrange grinning at him. Lucius Malfoy had just bounded forward to take whatever Harry held away from him. The assorted Order of Phoenix member sprinted in and Tonks aimed her wand at Lucius and sent a curse flying. Remus and Sirius flew down steps throwing curses.

"Sirius! Wait!" Remus cried as the other man let out a small shout and passed him, a strange fire burning in his eyes. Remus felt his heart sinking as he remembered every single time Sirius nearly got himself or some one else killed when they were younger by acting reckless. He didn't have enough time to think about it though as he was quickly swept up into a duel with a Death Eater some 10 feet away from Sirius. He looked around for Harry as he fought and saw Sirius lurch past him and Neville still dueling. The sight of Mad-Eye Moody not to far off bleeding distracted him though.

"STUPEFY!" he yelled pointing his wand. It hit the Death Eater and he tried to run forward to help Harry and Neville but was intercepted by yet another Death Eater. Remus knocked him out of the way and tried to move forward to help Harry and instead watched Dolohov lift his arm to make a slashing movement.

"Oh Merlin…not that one. Why did Severus have to teach them that one!" he muttered trying to move forward but getting attacked again by the same Death Eater. He turned to duel the man properly. He let out a sigh of relief when he heard Harry yell out and Sirius' reply.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Nice one! Now I want you to get out of—"

Green light.

Remus sent off a quick curse, whirled around and started to step forward—afraid of what he might find, he saw Sirius and Harry crouched down, up the stairs Tonks crumpled and Bellatrix Lestrange ran back to the midst of the fighting. Sirius turned to Harry and said something before jumping up and chasing after Bellatrix.

"Sirius!" Remus cried. "Sirius! Don't be reckless!" he shouted as he turned back around to the persistent Death Eater and continued his fight. He managed to knock the man unconscious after a few minutes and looked around to assess the situation. Sirius was on the dais with Bellatrix. Remus watched the flowing veil anxiously.

"Merlin…watch out Sirius…" he hissed moving forward to warn the man when he heard Harry yell.

"No—get—off—me…Neville—catch it!" Remus whirled around and watched the prophecy skid across the floor and Neville pick it up. Lucius Malfoy pointed the wand at Neville but Harry yelled out,

"Impedimenta!"

Remus flew up the stairs and turned to Lucius who had smashed into the dais and aimed his wand.

"Harry, round up the others and GO!" Remus yelled before rushing forward with his wand and spouting off spells. He was fighting beside the dais with Lucius while on the dais Sirius and Bellatrix still fought. Remus tried to yell at Sirius to get off—he had heard of the archway before in a book. It was the passage way between life and death.

"Sirius!" he cried ducking to avoid one of Lucius spells. The animagus ignored him and Remus tried to yell again but he once more had to duck and this time was moving away from the dais back towards Neville and Harry.

"DUBBLEDORE!" Neville cried. Remus glanced up and saw Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. He breathed a sigh of relief as the powerful wizard sped down the steps. Lucius looked up and shouted trying to run away with some of the other Death Eaters. The fighting stopped as the Death Eaters were pulled to the center by Dumbledore's spell. Only Sirius and Bellatrix were still dueling. Remus pushed himself up off the floor where he had fallen and watched with wide eyes.

"Sirius…" he murmured quickly stepping forward as Sirius ducked a red jet of light.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Sirius yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. Remus shook his head and tried to yell for Sirius to watch out for the archway—but it was too late. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

Remus' world crashed into pieces as he watched Sirius' eyes widen in shock, the laughter still apparent on his face. It seemed to take Sirius forever to fall as the sound of footsteps racing down the stairs filled Remus head. Sirius' body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.

Remus felt his heart stop at the look of mingled fear and surprise on his best friend's once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient passage way and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place.

"No…" he whispered as Bellatrix triumphantly screamed.

"SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" Harry yelled running up behind Remus. He started to pass Remus and the werewolf realized that if he didn't stop the boy—he would foolishly follow his godfather into death. He grabbed Harry around the chest and held him back. Realization dawned on Remus—Sirius was gone.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry—" he whispered into the boy's ear.

"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!" Inside Remus' head a voice was agreeing with Harry—yelling out the same things, anything to get back his best friend. Logic reared its ugly head though.

"It's too late, Harry—"

"We can still reach him—" Harry cried struggling as Remus held onto him like a life support.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry…nothing…. He's gone."

"He hasn't gone!" Harry yelled still struggling. Lupin shook his head. Harry didn't understand, couldn't understand. No one truly understood why the archway was a passageway between the two worlds, why it existed.

"SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" Harry bellowed.

"He can't come back, Harry," Remus reasoned, his voice breaking betraying his own inner turmoil. "He can't come back, because he's d—"

"HE—IS—NOT—DEAD! SIRIUS!" roared Harry. Remus couldn't help but thank the boy silently for not letting him complete his sentence. He couldn't bear the pain himself. Around them there was movement of Death Eaters and Order of the Phoenix Members. But none of it really registered in Remus' mind as he dragged Harry away from the dais, Harry who was still staring at the archway and struggling to get free.

Suddenly though Harry stopped fighting and Remus closed his eyes tightly as they neared Neville—knowing that reality had finally registered. Sirius would've never stayed behind a curtain letting Harry suffer; he would jump out immediately. Dumbledore had most of the Death Eaters in the center and Kingsley had run forward to continue Sirius' duel with Bellatrix.

"Harry?" Neville asked quietly—having slid down the stone benches to where Harry stood. Remus kept his grip on Harry's arm and watched the two boys silently.

"Harry…I'b really sorry…" Neville muttered through his broken nose. His legs were dancing uncontrollably, making Remus wonder what Death Eater had used such a childish curse. "Was dat man—was Sirius Black—a—a friend of yours?" Remus cringed as Harry nodded. He knelt down next to them.

"Here," he whispered and pointed his wand at Neville's legs. "Finite." Neville's legs fell back onto the floor and remained still. Neville looked up at him and in his eyes, Remus could see his own pale reflection. He looked away.

"Let's—let's find the others. Where are they all Neville?" he asked slowly, every word causing him pain as he fought the urge to scream and chase after Sirius himself. He turned away from the archway and faced Neville.

"Dey're all back dere," said Neville through his broken nose. "A brain addacked Ron bud I dink he's all righd—and Herbione's unconscious, bud we could feel a bulse—"

There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. Remus turned and watched Kingsley, yelling in pain, hit the ground. Bellatrix turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it. She was half way up the stairs when Remus felt Harry tear away from his grasp.

"Harry—no!" he cried stumbling up the stairs trying to catch the teenager.

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM—I'LL KILL HER!" the boy bellowed. Remus gasped at the murderous thoughts and stumbled onto his feet shouting.

"HARRY! IT WON'T HELP! HARRY! PLEASE! PLEASE HARRY!" he cried before tripping over a broken glass sphere and watching Harry disappear. Dumbledore turned and started shouting out orders as Remus reached aimlessly to the door.

"No…Harry…please…I can't…" Remus whispered a feeling of complete loss setting in.

"Alastor! You stay in here and take care of things! Kingsley! Take Neville and find the rest of the children!" the headmaster yelled before rushing up the stairs. He passed Remus and stopped turning back to the werewolf. He knelt down and took Remus' outstretched hand in his own hand and whispered kindly.

"There's still time to say goodbye…just listen…" he whispered before letting go and running out of the room. He heard faintly Kingsley helping Neville up, and the boy telling him which way the rest of the children were. Mad-Eye was shouting insults to the Death Eaters who were replying before he cast a silencing charm on the lot of them and went to go tend to Tonks. Remus stood up and stared down at the floor, the only sound in the room was Mad-Eye's quiet musings as he checked over Tonks and Kingsley and the group of teenagers on the other side of one of the open doors. He closed his eyes and that's when he heard the faint whisperings filling the room. Remus' eyes flew open and he turned to face the dais. Carefully he walked towards it, his ears filling rapidly with the whisperings. As he climbed up on to the dais one voice stood out alone amongst the voices and Remus fell to his knees in front of the arch.

"Sirius?" Remus whispered and reached forward to touch the archway's cold stone. The voice grew soft around the one voice and Remus shook his head frantically.

"It's my fault, oh Sirius, please…don't…don't do this to me Sirius. I've already lost James and Lily, and I thought I lost you once—don't make me go through that again Sirius!" he mumbled feeling the tears building behind his eyes. He closed his eyes and could seeSirius' face laughing as they danced in Remus' room.

"Sirius…come back, please." He wiped away the few tears that managed to escape…ignoring the stares from the Death Eaters and the pained glances from Moody. "Please…" The whispers grew louder and Remus growled the desire to reach in and pull Sirius out of behind the Veil, out of Death, overwhelming him.

"You were my first best friend Sirius…don't you dare leave me…not yet!" Remus growled viciously, anger slowly consuming him as the Whispers overtook the last trace of Sirius and disappeared. Inside of him the wolf recognized the loss of its last pack mate and howled. Remus bit his bottom lip trying to keep it in as his heart seemed to swell with the cry of loss. Finally he let it out.

"SIRIUS!" he cried loudly before breaking down into sobs. An arm wrapped around his shoulders and Moody pulled him up.

"C'mon…c'mon son. There's nothing you can do. Let's get you out of here." Remus allowed himself to be pulled away from the archway and up to where Tonks lay unconscious. Neville appeared at one of the doors and called to Mad-Eye for help with getting the others into the room. Mad-Eye helped Remus sit down silently and shuffled off leaving the younger man to stare off into space with tears falling down his cheeks. A while later when all of Harry's friends had been safely moved to around Tonks and Remus, Dumbledore came back in with a small group of Aurors behind him. He pointed at the group of Death Eaters.

"There are your captives. Moody, Kingsley, how are my students?" he asked walking over.

"Hermione and Ron suffered the most damage—but apparently they're used to that whenever they go some where with Potter," Moody replied. Dumbledore nodded and pulled out a random object, he pointed his wand at it.

"Portus. Alastor, take this and the students to the hospital wing for me. Kingsley, can you take care of Tonks?" The Auror nodded.

"Of course, I'll get her to St. Mungo's immediately," Kingsley replied.

"Do you want me to take Lupin with me to the castle?" Moody asked gruffly as he instructed Neville to grab hold of Hermione and Ginny to hold onto Ron. Dumbledore sighed and turned to Remus.

"Remus?"

"Yes, I'll go, I have some injuries Madame Pomfrey should check out, and then I can help her with the students," Remus announced in a hollow voice. Moody picked up Luna and nodded.

"Let's go then. Longbottom, Weasley, keep tight hold on those two!" Ginny, Neville, Remus, and Moody grabbed the object Dumbledore held out for them and were soon spiraling along and landing in the Hospital Wing where Madame Pomfrey instantly threw herself over each of them and started to work. Remus lay down on the bed she assigned him to and stared up at the ceiling tiredly. His entire body had started to ache for no reason when they entered the Hospital Wing, and his mind was going over his last moments with Sirius. He closed his eyes allowing one last tear to briefly escape before exhaustion fell over him and he fell asleep.


Review! I might just put the last part up! HK