June 20th, 1996

Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, Molly, Moody and I were sitting in the drawing room, relaxing while we waited for Dumbledore to arrive. We'd been forced to vacate the kitchen after a stray dungbomb had gone off; I'd told Ginny to clean up after herself before she went back to Hogwarts, but I guess she had missed one or two. Sirius was upstairs, tending to Eliana who had been extremely fussy tonight. It was nice – having other people around. It had been just Sirius and I for the last several weeks, and we were both starting to go stir crazy. I don't know how James and Lily did it for a year; although I suppose Sirius was over theirs far more than we had company.

Kingsley was going over the shift schedule with Tonks, who had noticed that Remus was scheduled on a night that coincided with the full moon – Remus had looked up and blushed when she'd brought it up. It was obvious that he hadn't even noticed the schedule was wrong, and was touched that Tonks had taken enough care to not only memorize the moon cycle, but to realize there was a mistake with the schedule.

I was just settling down on the couch, my eyes closing with the peacefulness of the moment – no baby screaming, no husband talking, and the rest of the room content to sit quietly – when something disrupted the silence. A patronous – a doe – came in to the center of the room suddenly, speaking in Snape's familiar cold drawl. "Dumbledore on way to Grimmauld place. Potter at Ministry. Black to stay behind."

There was a deafening silence in the room following the patronous disappearing. Snape had never sent us a message before. We all stared at each other, openmouthed, for a minute before snapping out of it.

"Sirius!" I screamed, rushing to the door which I wrenched open. He had already been on his way down, and I startled him so badly that he jumped and stumbled down a step.

"What in the blazes are you screaming for woman?" He asked sharply, putting a hand to his chest to calm his racing heart.

"Harry's at the Ministry," I said simply. Sirius's eyes widened, and he pushed past me gently and in to the room that I had just exited.

Tonks, Moody, Remus and Kingsley were all standing in a circle in the center of the drawing room, chattering loudly about what our next move would be. Molly was still sitting in the armchair, where she had been knitting, looking as though she didn't quite understand what was happening.

"So, what's the plan?" Sirius asked loudly, summoning shoes from downstairs. His boots came flying in to the room, but Moody waved his wand causing them to drop with a clatter before reaching Sirius.

"The plan is, we four go, and the three of you stay here," Moody said, pointing to himself, Tonks, Kingsley and Remus.

"Like hell, I am!" I said loudly, before Sirius could talk. "Sirius and Molly will stay with the baby, but I'm coming."

"I'm coming too!" Sirius protested loudly.

"Like hell you are," Moody barked, walking over to stand over Sirius. Sirius brought himself up to his full height, which was impressive, and looked Moody straight in the eye.

"And who's going to stop me? You?" Sirius said combatively, coming toe to toe with Moody.

"I will," Remus said firmly, stepping in between the two men, who were glaring at each other aggressively. "Snape said to stay, and I have to say I agree with him. Harry doesn't need the distraction of you showing up – he already thinks you're in danger. You don't need to actually put yourself in danger."

"My son is out there! You're all out of your fucking minds if you think I'm going to stay here while you lot go off to fight for him. My responsibility to keep him safe," Sirius roared, pounding his chest with his fist.

"Not just your job," I reminded him. "Our job too." I gestured to myself and Remus. "You have another job – to stay alive. You promised Hollyn you would always be here – don't break that promise to her by risking your life. You know that whoever is there is going to target you specifically. They want you dead – payback for escaping the family, payback for Regulus. Don't give them the satisfaction. You need to stay alive for Hollyn, and Eliana…and Harry. Harry would be devastated if you died, more so than if the rest of us combined died."

"That's not true!" Sirius protested, somewhat feebly.

"It is true, Padfoot," Remus said gently. "Harry needs you. You can't go."

"Listen, nobody is stopping me from going. Harry is out there and I will not sit here and do nothing. I let Lily and James die – I let them change their secret keeper to Peter. It's my fault that they're not here – it's my fault that Harry doesn't have parents. It's all been my fault. I'll be damned if I let Lily and James down by letting their son get hurt, again. You all can either let me go of my own volition, or I will hex you – even you, Addison. Nobody will stop me from protecting my children. Not this time."

I opened my mouth to protest again, but it was, to my surprise, Molly who spoke from behind me. "Let him go."

We all turned to stare at her. Her eyes were empty as she stared in to nothingness, but she lifted her eyes to meet mine, and spoke again. "Let him go. You'll never stop him from going, so go in there and take care of each other. Have each other's backs. Protect each other. And bring our children home – I know Ron is with him, I can feel it in my bones. And I have a hunch that Ginny is too – call it mother's intuition. Bring my babies home, and I'll stay here with yours. You're all much younger than me – except you, Moody, but still you're quicker, cleverer. Go, now. Don't waste any more time."

"She's right," Tonks said, nodding. "Rather than argue whether or not Sirius can come, let's just all agree to have each other's backs."

"Fine," Moody barked. "Let's go. We'll take the floo." The group turned and made their way down to the kitchen to use the fire. I hesitated, grabbing Sirius by the arm.

"Promise me," I said.

"Promise you what?" He asked.

"Promise me that you won't do anything stupid. Bellatrix is going to be after you – don't let her get you. You have to come home for Eliana, Hollyn and Harry."

"And for you," Sirius said gently, putting his finger under my chin to lift my head up.

"Yes," I agreed, tearing up. "And for me." I threw my arms around him, pulling him to myself.

Molly put her hand on my back, gently, pulling the two of us out of our bubble. "You two should go. Don't worry about a thing here. I'll fill Dumbledore in. Go."

I bounded down the stairs, my heart beating heavily in my chest. It was beating so fast, I could feel it in my ears; I felt like I had a fever, like my body was boiling from the inside out. The immense and total panic that I felt was something I had experienced far too often recently. It was a feeling I had been familiar with during the first war, and the resurgence of it was unsettling – this war was real. And my entire family was in the middle of it.

By the time Sirius and I made it in to the kitchen, only Remus was waiting for us. He had his wand out already, and was tapping his foot impatiently. "Took you long enough," He sighed. "Moody didn't want to wait. Go ahead, Addie, go first."

I walked in to the fireplace grabbing a bit of floo powder from the bowl Remus offered me. "The Ministry of Magic," I said in a shaky voice, dropping the powder and feeling myself being pulled in to the grate. Everything stopped spinning a minute later, and I walked out in to the glittering entrance hall of the Ministry of Magic. I stepped out of the fireplace, looking around at the enormous hall in awe. I hadn't been here since my last time trying to fight for Harry – it was unusually disturbing at night, without the hundreds of bustling witches and wizards flitting about. It was quiet and empty in the most disturbing way. I shuddered, suddenly feeling exceptionally exposed.

I didn't have long to ponder the way the empty atrium made me feel before Sirius and Remus were stepping out of the fireplace and flanking either side of me. Sirius didn't hesitate before he was sprinting towards the golden elevator located across the atrium. Remus was hot on his heels, moving faster than I had seen him move in a long time. We piled into the elevator and Sirius pressed the button for the bottom level.

The elevator groaned to a start, and lurched downwards. I held on to the railing, trying not to let the nauseous I was suddenly feeling show. Sirius was standing so close to the golden grate covering the door, that his nose was actually touching it.

"Come on!" He roared, slamming his fist on the golden bars. "Move faster!"

"Sirius," Remus said warningly. "Stay calm."

"Calm?" Sirius asked incredulously. "How can I stay calm?"

None of us had anything to say after that – we all stood quietly, waiting in painful silence as the elevator came to a slow stop on the bottom floor. The gates opened with a squeak, and as soon as Sirius was able to, he pushed his thin body through the opening. He was off in a flash, and we saw that we had managed to catch up to the rest of the group, who were crowded at the end of the hall.

"Figured we'd wait for you. Better chance if we all go in together," Kingsley said in his deep voice.

"Good thinking," Remus nodded. "Shall we?" He needn't have asked – Sirius had already pushed past him and thrown the door open. We followed him quickly, staying right behind him as he pushed through door after door, running through room after room. It was as if this department was never-ending, the rooms constantly changing on us, hoping to confuse and trap those who didn't belong.

I knew that we were in the right room before I saw anything; Sirius had stopped dead center in the middle of the door, just for a second. He jumped in to action after a moment's hesitation and jumped down. I hurried in after him, seeing that we had entered a room with levels of stone benches, almost like a stadium. Sirius was jumping down levels of benches, his wand out and spells firing in all directions. At the bottom of all of the benches was a stone dais and an archway. Harry stood atop that dais, surrounded by death eaters. Lucius Malfoy was standing right in front of him, his wand pointing directly at Harry. Tonks was the quickest of us all, shooting a stunning spell at him. None of us waited to see if it connected before jumping in to action.

I followed Sirius down the benches, my own wand out. Around me, I saw Tonks rush forward to fight Bellatrix, and Moody take on a death eater not far from her. Kingsley took on two at once, and Remus followed close behind me to the bottom of the tiered steps. Sirius had made it to the flat bottom of the room, and was fighting a masked death eater who had stepped in front of him, standing between him and Harry.

They were fighting so fiercely, spells flying so quickly, that I couldn't see Harry, though he stood but ten feet behind them. I rushed around the dueling pair, to see that Harry and Neville were struggling with a death eater, who had Harry's neck in a chokehold. As I readied myself to send a stunner, Neville stuck his wand in to the eye hole of the death eater's mask. The man gave a horrendous scream and fell to the ground, his mask slipping off – Macnair. I stunned him for good measure, before turning to see Moody fall to the ground, his head bleeding.

"Harry! Behind me!" I screamed when I realized who Moody had been fighting – Antonin Dolohov. The man responsible for the deaths of Molly's brothers, Fabian and Gideon. I started shooting any spell I could think of at him, but he was just as quick as I was. As I shot a stunner at him, which he dodged, he starting making a slashing movement with his wand, aiming at Harry. Harry threw up a protego just in time, the curse just barely breaking through his shield and cutting his cheek. I threw another stunner, but at the same moment, Sirius came out of nowhere, and pushed Dolohov out of the way with his shoulder, his own opponent laying stunned on the ground. My stunner missed spectacularly, but managed to hit Travers, whom Remus had been dueling behind us. He whooped in glee at Marlene's murderer being taken down, but turned his attention quickly to another masked death eater who had rushed to take his place. Remus ducked, missing a flash of green light just in time. It was coming from Bellatrix, who had just cursed Tonks so badly that I saw her limp body fall down step after step, her head pounding against the stone with each step. "No!" Remus called, but was distracted by another flash of green light, which just narrowly missed Sirius and Harry; Sirius had managed to push Harry's head down just in time.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry called suddenly, stopping Dolohov from completing his slashing spell, once again. I hadn't even noticed Dolohov was moving, too focused on Harry and Sirius being inches from death.

"Nice one!" Sirius said approvingly, "Listen, you need to get out of here, take Neville and –"

"Sirius!" I called in panic, seeing that Bellatrix was rushing down the rest of the stone steps, her eyes locked on to him.

"Go!" Sirius called to Harry before turning on his heel and rushing to meet Bellatrix.

My vision was blocked by Kingsley, who had pushed past me, fighting furiously with Augustus Rookwood, who had finally lost his mask. I let my attention shift, firing stunning spells after Rookwood, but they were dashing and dodging too quickly for me to aim properly. By the time my vision was clear, I saw Neville jerking around on the floor, and Lucius Malfoy standing with his wand pressed to Harry's ribs. Harry threw the prophecy to Neville, who managed to catch it despite his flailing legs, and threw an impedimenta over his shoulder at Malfoy in one smooth motion. Malfoy was blasted backwards, hitting hard in to a stone step. He quickly got up, and pointed his wand at Harry and Neville once again, but I jumped in front of Harry.

"Harry go! Take the others and go!" I screamed, sending a stunner towards Malfoy, which he easily blocked. Harry scrambled away towards Neville, attempting to help him stand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the prophecy, kicked by one of Neville's wayward legs, crash and break in to a million pieces.

I ignored that, and turned my full attention to Malfoy. "So," I said slowly, Malfoy and I circling each other, our wands prepped to start hexing. "This is what you've stooped to, huh? Coming here, prepared to kill children?"

"They're not children, they're monsters," Lucius spat, his eyes showing a rage so insane, I felt myself starting to pity him, just barely – that he had allowed himself to be so brainwashed.

"They're the same age as your son. They sit in classes with your son. They eat in the same hall as your son – they sleep in the same castle as your son. How would you feel if this was the other way around, and we were trying to kill Draco?" I spat, my own anger taking over the smallest prickle of pity that I felt.

"I – I," Lucius sputtered, his eyes widening and darting around wildly.

"You fucking COWARD!" I screamed, throwing hexes without abandon. "How dare you stand there and try to defend fighting children. MY CHILD!" I threw hex after hex, finally managing to hit Lucius square in the chest with a stunner spell. He fell backwards, slamming his head against a stone step.

At the moment that he fell, I heard someone yell, "Dumbledore!" I looked up, hopeful. Dumbledore had already made it down to the bottom step before anyone had realized he had arrived. Everyone came to a stop – the masked death eater Remus had been fighting tried futilely to run, rushing up steps as fast as he could. With a lazy flick of his wand, Dumbledore pulled him backwards, as though caught on an invisible hook.

Only one pair was still fighting, a couple of feet away from where I had just blasted Lucius Malfoy – Sirius and Bellatrix. They looked as though they hadn't even realized that Dumbledore had arrived. Bellatrix was firing shot after shot of alternating green and red light at Sirius, who was deflecting her spells with an expert hand.

"Come on now," Sirius laughed, taunting her, his loud voice echoing throughout the now silent room. "You can do better than that!" He deflected another stream of red light, laughter still evident on his face.

I saw what happened next as though it were in slow motion. I saw Bellatrix raise her wand, saw the proximity to which Sirius was standing to the veil of death – the thin layer of magic that separated the living world from the afterlife. My feet were moving before my brain had fully understood what was happening. It took me an hour – no, two hours – to cover the short distance between Sirius and I. As the light was halfway between Sirius and Bellatrix, I dove, my feet leaving the ground. Sirius wasn't quick enough – he was still laughing from his taunt – he would never have enough time to deflect the curse. He would fall straight backwards, through the veil; he would be gone. Forever this time, gone from this world. I would never hear his bark of a laugh, feel the warmth of his embrace, or watch him hug his children ever again.

My body collided with Sirius's side a split-second before the spell would have connected. The force of my jump, and the shock of the unexpected collision, caused Sirius to go flying out of the way, his eyes widening almost comically, not understanding what was happening. The spell hit me, the force of which causing me to change directions, flying towards the veil.

It was the end, for me, I thought as my body hurled in slow motion towards the veil. It was it for me, but at least I had saved Sirius – that was always the goal, right? For Sirius to live. Sirius, who had lost so much of his life – he would get to carry on, make up for lost time. He didn't deserve to die today, not when he had already missed out on so much; I'd had a full life, hadn't I? I'd get to see Marlene again, and my mom. Lily and James – I'd get to tell Lily and James about how brilliant their son had grown up to be. I'd get to tell them about how brave he is, how stubborn he could be, and how incredibly talented he is. If I could go out protecting Sirius, knowing that Harry was safe, and Hollyn and Eliana would get to have their dad? It was a pretty good way to go.

I'd closed my eyes, content to accept my fate. I must have been inches from the veil, when I felt something close against my wrist, pulling me in the opposite direction of the veil with such a force that I felt my arm dislocate and my wrist break. I opened my eyes in shock to see that Sirius had grabbed hold of my wrist at the last second, having recovered from the shock of my body coming flying out of nowhere.

I flew against his body, hitting his chest hard, my heart beating quickly against my ribcage. At once, everything sped up. I was no longer moving in slow motion, but seeing everything as quickly as they happened. Kingsley had rushed in to take Sirius and I's place dueling Bellatrix, while Lupin had pulled Harry off of the dais towards safety; he was speaking to him in a low, urgent voice. Dumbledore was in the center of the room, the rest of the death eater's immobilized. It seemed that no one had seen yet that Sirius had managed to save me, for when Bellatrix managed to hit Kingsley, dropping him with a scream of pain, Harry pulled out of Remus's restraining arms to follow after her, now running up the steps to escape the room. Dumbledore whirled around, taking aim at Bellatrix, but she deflected his spell easily. Bellatrix managed to escape, Harry hot on her heels.

"Harry, no!" Remus screamed.

"SHE KILLED ADDIE!" Harry bellowed, not even turning to see that I was not, in fact, dead. "SHE KILLED HER! SHE TRIED TO KILL SIRIUS – I'LL KILL HER!"

"Harry!" I tried to call, but found that my voice was nonexistent. Besides, the rest of the room was shouting after him, Sirius the loudest, but he ignored them intent on following his target. "Harry!" I tried again, but whatever spell Bellatrix had hit me with had caused a stinging in my chest that made speaking feel like burning swords being shoved down my throat.

"Addie, stop," Sirius urged, holding me tightly against him. "Dumbledore is going – Dumbledore is going after him. Just relax."

He lowered me off of the dais, lowering my body to the ground so that I leaned against the stone. I was breathing heavily, everything throbbing in my body from my arm to my chest to my head, which must have slammed against the stone when I was hit with the curse. As the adrenaline started to wear off, I felt my eyes beginning to close, everything going dark.

"Sirius," I whispered as my head rolled around on my neck, unable to support itself.

"What is it kitten?" He asked panicking, looking down at me with tears streaming down his face.

"Har– , Harry," I pushed out just as everything went black and I felt no more.


When I woke up, I was still in the death room, surrounded by Aurors standing at the top of the stairs, their wands pointed down at all of us down below. Remus was sitting beside me, letting my head rest on his shoulder.

"What?" I started with a shock. I caused Remus to start, having not realized that I'd woken up.

"Addie!" Remus said. "Don't worry, they're here for the death eaters."

"Sirius, Harry?" I asked, the effort of speaking still feeling like swallowing knives.

"I don't know," Remus said, shaking his head. "They just hauled Tonks and Moody out of here. Kingsley is up, he's fine. He's speaking with one of the Aurors now, trying to figure out the best way to move all of the death eaters to Azkaban."

I was struggling now, trying to push myself to my feet. "Addie! No! You're too injured," Remus protested, trying to pull me back down.

"Remus Lupin, either help me up or get out of my way so I can go find my family!" I said angrily. Remus sighed, but stood and helped me to my feet. As we made our way to the stairs, Remus supporting my weight almost entirely, the group of Aurors shifted their wands to point at us.

"Stop!" came a demanding voice, and Kingsley pushed his way in front of a group of Aurors. "They are with me."

The group of Aurors paused for a second, before Kingsley cleared his throat and said, "Turn your wands back to the real criminals, or I will make sure this is your last day as an employee of the Ministry of Magic." Those who had hesitated immediately turned their wands back to the group of death eaters, which I saw with satisfaction included both Lucius Malfoy and Travers.

Remus helped me up the stairs and we retraced our steps through the maze of rooms. We exited the department without running in to anyone else. "Where are the other children?" I asked.

"They're okay," Remus assured me. "Hermione and Ron are a little beat up, but they're already back at Hogwarts – I made sure of it before coming back to sit with you. Ginny's ankle is broken, but other than that she is perfectly fine. Neville was watching out for all of them while I tended to you. Luna is alright as well; she was just stunned."

"And Hollyn?" I asked, fearing the worst.

"Safe at Hogwarts – she was never here," Remus smiled kindly at me.

I sighed in relief, knowing that Hollyn was never in any danger. I sped up, needing to make sure that the last two members of my family were both safe. Increasing my speed made my entire body ache, but I pushed through the pain – there would be plenty of time to take care of my injuries once I knew Harry and Sirius were safe.

Remus helped me in to the atrium. The scene was horrifying – broken glass lay everywhere, the statue in the center of the golden fountain lay in pieces throughout the room, and there in the center of it all, lay Harry motionless on the ground.

"No!" I screamed, almost pulling Remus to the ground as my knees buckled beneath me. Dumbledore stood over him, Sirius on the ground next to Harry, cradling his head in his lap and crying furiously. I pulled away from Remus, sprinting over towards the group in the middle of the room. I landed on my knees next to Harry's head, pushing his hair back from his forehead. Harry's eyes flickered open, and I chuckled in relief, having feared the worst.

"What happened?" I demanded. Sirius, shook his head at me, looking up away from Harry to take in the rest of the room, tears still streaming down his face.

Scattered throughout the room were Ministry officials, stammering and looking completely shocked. Some had drawn their wands, pointing them at Dumbledore and Sirius – both of whom were wanted men. Fudge, however, stood steps away from Dumbledore, looking at him with a look of complete disbelief on his face, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides.

"He's back?" Fudge sputtered.

"Yes Cornelius, he is back, as I have been telling you for the last year," Dumbledore said calmly. "Your Aurors are already down in the Department of Mysteries, where they have found a group of death eaters bound and held in place by an anti-apparition jinx. I will explain the rest to you, as soon as I have sent Harry, Addison and Sirius back to Hogwarts to receive medical attention."

"Oh, so you think I'm just going to allow Sirius Black to leave? He killed one of our Aurors! One of his own coworkers," Fudge said angrily, his red face turning even redder.

"Only because you were so short-sighted and believed Harry was trying to escape the country, when we were simply moving him to a safe location. A safe location where Lord Voldemort could not attack him – and I think, given that you just saw him with your own eyes, that you will agree Harry did need the protection from Lord Voldemort."

"I – I," Fudge sputtered. "Well, all right then," he said in defeat, knowing that any argument he had against Sirius had turned to water upon the revelation that Voldemort was back. Dumbledore summoned a piece of the statues that used to guard the fountain. Fudge sputtered incredulously at his gumption, but I ignored him, looking down at Harry.

"Are you all right, Harry?" I asked, pushing his hair back off his forehead again.

"You're alive?" He asked, his brow furrowed. "I thought…I thought you were dead."

"I'm fine, Harry," I assured him. "Sirius saved me."

"Wonderful," Harry said shakily before promptly fainting.

Dumbledore handed Sirius the portkey, which he had just illegally made.

"Take Harry back to Hogwarts. I will be back soon to explain to all of you," Dumbledore assured us. The last thing I saw before the portkey pulled me in to darkness, was Dumbledore's bright blue eyes twinkling down upon us, full of regret.