Author's note: I do not own anything Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Also, please note that pronoun usage will follow the character's current usage.
May 1996
The day Sirius Black was having was, to him, the most enjoyable and most frustrating day he'd had in a while. There he was, minding his own business, having a nice glass of firewhiskey as the day turned to night, when he received a floo call from Albus Dumbledore saying that Harry and a few of his friends have broken into the Ministry of all places! While normally, the prank-loving side of him would find it hilarious that a group of fifteen-year-olds managed to break into the Ministry, which was one of the more secure locations in all of Magical Britain, the now older oath-sworn godfather was furious that his godson broke into the Ministry.
Downing the rest of his firewhiskey, and enjoying the burn as it went down his throat, Sirius got his jacket and wand, strapping the latter into his hitwizard-licensed holster he'd 'reappropriated' after coming back to Grimmauld Place, then apparated straight to the visitor's entrance of the Ministry of Magic.
"Damn Ministry, having the bloody entrance be in a loo. These pipes are worse than apparition", muttered the disgruntled wizard. Standing with both feet in the toilet, Sirius reached up and pulled the string that would send him swirling through pipes straight towards the entrance to the Ministry.
Upon arriving, Sirius quickly cast a drying spell on his feet, and then went about casting a disillusionment spell he'd picked up from his time in the Auror Program, and a sound muffling charm on his feet.
"Most wanted man in all of Britain and here I am breaking into the Ministry. Harry's gonna spend so much time cleaning Grimmauld Place this summer for this." 'After I buy him some of Florean Fortescue's ice cream that is', added his Marauder side.
Navigating around all of the security, what little there was this late that is, wasn't terribly difficult. All that time Sirius spent avoiding the prefects and professors during his time at Hogwart's really seemed to pay off. The problem, even with a point-me spell, was in finding his godson. Harry seemed to be on the move, and rather quickly. Which probably wasn't good.
Hurrying his pace, Sirius decided to heed the pull his instinct seemed to be giving him. Running for the Department of Mysteries, he took the elevator down to level nine, rushing out of it as soon as the metal doors were wide enough for him to leave through. As he approached the hallway leading to the Department, Sirius quickened his pace when the point-me spell remained fixed, indicating that Harry wasn't moving around that much, if at all.
It took about five minutes of running through twisting and winding hallways in the Department of Mysteries to find the room where the point-me spell seemed to be guiding him, the dull pulsing in his wand indicating his target was very close.
The point-me spell ended when, after five minutes, he found himself staring at the third door on the right of a hallway with several boring looking doors. Opening the door, Sirius found himself a witness to a full out battle. Spell fire was being exchanged between two groups: one clad in all black, with skull-like masks and the other a group of obvious teenagers, still dressed in Hogwart's robes. Immediately, Sirius' Auror training kicked in and he began firing Stupefy and Incarcerous spells at the Death Eaters, doing his best to try to flank them and maybe even secure a route for the students to fall back to.
He managed to take down three Death Eaters before he was finally noticed.
"Oooh, seems we have an icky little intruder. Come out, come out, wherever you are! Hominem Revelio!" cackled the one voice Sirius wished he could never hear again. He'd prefer the traitorous rat's voice over this sing-songy cackle. The rat he could deal with, his own cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, not so much. She was a powerhouse duelist before she became the protégé of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Hedging his bets, Sirius cast a high powered Bombarda at the source of Bellatrix's voice and shifted into his Animagus form quickly and started weaving his way around the outer edge of the room. He mentally grimaced when he heard Bellatrix let out a pained scream as she unleashed several Black family curses at the spot he'd just been a few moments ago.
Spotting his godson, along with Hermione and a few other students he didn't recognize, Padfoot started on his way over the group of very-outclassed students, shifting back into Sirius as he got there and dropping his stealth spells, ignoring the gobsmacked looks on their faces as he did so. Harry turned to him and started to say something, but stopped when Sirius held a single finger up to his lips.
"Hey Pup, hey Hermione, err, and others. We're gonna get out of this, okay? Can anyone cast the shield charm?"
The students, now that Sirius had a good look at them, consisted of Harry, Hermione, a red headed boy in Gryffindor robes, must be a Weasley with that hair; a boy with short brown hair and Gryffindor robes; a blonde girl with the robes of Ravenclaw; a girl with red hair to the other boy, also in Gryffindor robes; and a… a girl with black hair in Slytherin robes? He'd make sure to ask Harry about this later. He wasn't aware that Harry had any friends in Slytherin.
The entire group nodded in the affirmative, and Sirius elaborated "Okay, you're all going to cast Protego as we make our way back to the door I came from. Meanwhile, I'll keep them on their toes. After all, Bellatrix isn't the only one who knows the family curses." The last bit he muttered to himself, but made sure to wink at Harry.
Poking his head up from the cover the student's had been hiding behind, he finally got a better glimpse of the surroundings. In the center of the room was a small mound of earth and rock, atop which rested a stone the edge of the mound, there were boulders strewn about, several of which had the impact marks of spells. Around the edge of the room, which Sirius noted was roughly circular and about one hundred feet or so in diameter, was support pillars, with a lit torch every few columns, giving the room some very eerie shadows. Huh, weird room.
Ahead and to the left, the Death Eaters seemed to be making their way around the edge of the room, looking to catch their prey in the center with little to no cover. Occasionally, they'd fire a spell here or there. 'A common intimidation tactic. This won't be easy', thought Sirius. 'Okay, best bet is a dash across the center and into the door on the opposite side.'
"Okay kids, here's the plan…". Relaying his plan to the kids, he noticed the fear in their eyes, and they all seemed to be exhausted. Honestly, fighting against several Death Eaters at once, without a single one sustaining any serious injuries, was impressive on its own. But now, physical and magical exhaustion seemed to be taking a toll on these kids. 'This is not gonna be easy'.
"Okay, I know you're all tired, but if we can get through that door, we can control the battlefield a lot better, and hopefully make our way back to the entrance. Remember, just focus on your Protego spells and we'll get out of this. On three."
He began counting, and as he reached three, he lobbed another Bombardo over the stone at the Death Eaters on the left and the small group began their dash across the room.
'Oh shit this is really working!' Sirius noticed, as several spells managed to bounce off the Protegos the kids were casting. He even got a glimpse of Bellatrix visibly frustrated as each spell she cast he either blocked or re-directed himself. Luckily for him, she mostly cast the less lethal curses from the Black Family repertoire at him, which meant Sirius knew which to block and which to re-direct.
The other Death Eaters, seemingly annoyed that their prey now had a predator themselves, started casting Killing Curses at the group. Fortunately, Sirius was able to keep an eye on the green orbs and he conjured slabs of marble to block the hits, which had the added benefit of pissing dear old Bellatrix off even more.
Their luck wasn't to last.
Right near the stone archway, the short-haired boy tripped, and since he carried the 'rear' of the group, it meant that there was now a gaping hole in the group right in the firing lane of the Death Eaters.
Sirius was the first to notice, and quickly lunged back to grab the boy and to try to help him up. Bellatrix however was never one to pass up an opportunity, the Slytherin that she was. She quickly cast an Accio on her cousin and watched with sheer glee on her face as Sirius was dragged forcefully towards her, the stone archway the only thing being between them.
Sirius thought that everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. He was reaching the boy, but he turned and saw his cousin use the Summoning charm and before he could even react, he noticed the archway he was heading for and gulped. He knew of this archway from his time in the Aurors. 'I can't believe I didn't notice it was that archway,' he closed his eyes as he saw the space in between the stone of the arch light up with a brilliant white light.
And then all went dark for one Sirius Orion Black.
The last thing he heard was his godson yelling his name.