"Hold still, Buck," Sirius murmured, inspecting the hippogriff's injury as he cawed and snarled. "How did you even do this to yourself, you dumb horse-bird?"

Buckbeak chittered at him in response. When Sirius had gone up to feed him his dinner that night, he'd found a thick length of rope tied tightly around one of the hippogriff's hind legs, biting far enough into the flesh to leave it raw and hairless. Sirius was no Healer, but Mad-Eye had been able to dig up a tin of dittany ointment he thought would work well enough to mend the wound.

For once, 12 Grimmauld Place was filled with visiting Order members, all checking in before leaving on whatever mission awaited them next. Sirius was happy to have the company, of course, although he was starting to get a bit annoyed with Remus and Tonks, who'd been acting strange ever since they'd returned from their stakeout of Malfoy Manor a week before. Tonks's normally-colorful hair had faded to a dull mousy-brown, and she and Remus hardly seemed to be able to look at each other, which made every mealtime with the two of them tense and awkward. Sirius had no idea what was going on between them—Remus wouldn't tell him anything—but he very much hoped they were able to work it out soon.

"All right," he muttered, scooping out some of the ointment, "this might sting a little—oof!"

As soon as Sirius had touched Buckbeak's injured skin, the hippogriff had sent him flying backwards with a kick to the chest; he slammed against the wall of his mother's bedroom, hard enough to rattle the grumbling portraits hanging there. "Shit, Buck," he gasped, rubbing his temples. "I'm trying to help you, you…."

He trailed off as a silvery figure materialized in front of him, stepping closer on soundless hooves. It was a deer, a beautiful doe Patronus.

Sirius shook his head, wondering if he'd hit it harder than he'd imagined, but the doe remained as visible as ever. "Lily?" he whispered.

"Sirius," said the doe. It was not Lily's voice; it was Snape's. "Let me know as soon as possible if you are still at headquarters."

"What…?" Sirius shook his head again as the Patronus faded away. It had looked just like Lily's…. Oh, Merlin.

Under normal circumstances, he would have to tried to think of a snide response to Snape's message, but the appearance of the doe had very much thrown him off, so he sent back his own Patronus with a simple "Yes, I'm here." Then he did his best to scrub the incident from his mind and returned to his painstaking application of the dittany to Buckbeak's leg.

It was about half an hour later, when Sirius had finished with the dittany and was attempting to coax the typically-ravenous hippogriff into eating a skinned ferret, that the front door flew open and Snape's voice hollered over the screeching of Sirius's mother for everyone in the house to come downstairs. Having absolutely no idea what was going on, Sirius dropped the ferret and ran down to gather with the others—Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Moody—in the entrance hall with Snape.

"What's going on?" Moody growled.

"Well," Snape replied levelly, "I have reason to believe that Potter and his friends have been lured by the Dark Lord into the Department of Mysteries."

For a moment, everyone was silent. Sirius tried to open his mouth, but he felt as though it were glued shut. Harry…Voldemort…the Department of Mysteries….

It was Kingsley who found himself able to speak first. "Explain, Severus," he said softly.

Snape's eyes flicked over to meet Sirius's. "Potter is under the mistaken belief that you have been captured by the Dark Lord," he explained. "He was sent a vision of it, no doubt. He attempted to contact you through the Floo Network, I believe, but Umbridge caught him sneaking into her office and sent for me to interrogate him. It was then that he told me you were being held in the Department of Mysteries, a statement I quickly disproved through use of my Patronus." The others' eyes had all moved to Sirius now, too; his face had gone whiter than a ghost's. "Potter and Miss Granger then went with Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest, on some foolhardy errand to shake her off, I assume; I intended to inform Potter of your safety upon his return, but he nor Granger nor Umbridge ever came back to the castle. Their friends have disappeared as well—the Weasley boy and his little sister, Longbottom, Lovegood—and I believe they may be traveling to the Ministry on an unnecessary rescue mission, playing right into the Dark Lord's hands."

Sirius felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe. Voldemort had used him to lure Harry out of safety…. "Why didn't you stop them?" he demanded shrilly.

"How was I supposed to stop them?" Snape retorted. "I was dealing with Umbridge—I am not responsible for every idiotic decision Potter makes!"

"Enough of this," Mad-Eye cut in, stepping in front of Snape so Sirius could no longer see his glare. "Voldemort is using Harry to retrieve the prophecy—we have to deal with this, now. We can discuss the rest later."

"You go on without me," Snape said. "I'm going to search the forest, just in case they're still in there."

"Coward," Sirius spat.

Snape skirted around Moody so he could glare at him again. "You, Sirius, can bravely wait here and inform Dumbledore when he stops by while I risk my neck among the centaurs and Acromantulas."

"Like hell I will. Harry's my godson—you can't keep me from coming to rescue him."

"Don't, Sirius," Remus said, a note of pleading in his voice. "If you come to the Ministry, they'll catch you for sure."

"Let them." Sirius clenched his jaw. "I'd rather go to Azkaban than stay here and do nothing. You aren't going to convince me otherwise, Remus." The look on Sirius's face must have said enough, because Remus nodded and argued no more.

"If you insist, Sirius, I won't complain," Moody said. "It sounds like we'll need all the help we can get." Kingsley dipped his head in agreement beside him.

"Right, that's settled." Sirius angled his head upwards as Snape swept quietly out of the house to return to Hogwarts. "Kreacher!" he hollered. "Kreacher, get down here now!"

The house-elf emerged on the second-floor landing a moment later, holding his hands up over his face in an attempt to hide his grin. He'd been listening to their exchange—he was delighted that Voldemort had fooled Harry. The thought of it made Sirius want to vomit.

"Yes, Master?" Kreacher asked innocently.

"Dumbledore will be here soon—you're to tell him that we've gone to find Harry in the Department of Mysteries. That's an order, Kreacher, understand?"

"Kreacher understands," said the elf, bowing deeply. His grin was growing even wider. "Kreacher will tell him where you've gone."

"Good." Sirius returned his attention to the Order members before him. "Let's get going; we don't know how long we have. Those bastards aren't going to lay a finger on Harry."

"We'll do our best to ensure they don't," said Mad-Eye gravely. "For the sake of the entire wizarding world."

Grunting, Mad-Eye led the way outside; just behind him, Sirius stepped from the confines of 12 Grimmauld Place for the first time in nearly a year, following the others as they Apparated their way deep into the bowels of the Ministry.