Prologue
Sirius threw a quick combination of various bone-breaking curses towards Dolohov. It had been a hectic couple of minutes since they've gotten to the ministry. After the Order received news of Harry's departure from Hogwarts' grounds everyone left the Headquarters in a mad rush, whilst forwarding the news to the other members.
Once inside the DOM one could get the impression that a massive earthquake, or some other natural calamity, has just occurred. If not for the spells flying everywhere that is. The battle was not by any means contained to the Prophecy Hall. With the kids' apparent escape attempt, no part of the department was left untouched. Most of the order had their hands full fighting off some of the Snake-face's inner circle.
Thankfully Harry was right there, within sight, or else Sirius would have been hard-pressed to focus on the battle at hand. The boy was all that kept him going and semi-sane these days. The toll of Azkaban did not diminish quite as much as he would have hoped. In fact, his mental issues seemed to only increase in intensity with time, especially since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place. The solitude and idleness had not done him any favors.
In fact, he could not shake off the feeling that he left one prison for another. It did not seem much better than the harsh life he led on the run. The memories of the place certainly did not help, and neither did some of the people there, with one red-headed harpy coming to mind in particular. He realized he desperately needed a mind-healer, and soon, but his options were limited at the moment, what with being a worldwide fugitive and all.
Despite his ever-rising proficiency in the mind arts, he could not just deal with his issues himself - it was part of the condition. It was like a mentally ill person, that was unaware of their symptoms, trying to medicate them. What he needed was an experienced mind healer that would be willing to overlook his history. Still, it was a moot point, since Dumbledore did not seem in any rush to find one. Matter of fact, he seemed quite satisfied with Sirius's current situation, if his lack of initiative in the matter was any indication.
He had long since realized that Dumbledore was far from the image of a benevolent and caring old man he had cultivated over the years. He could in fact be quite cold and ruthless when his plans were on the line, Sirius learned that the hard way.
He could not be sure if Dumbledore was aware of his innocence all this time, but the opposite seemed quite unlikely. After all, it was the old coot that engineered his encounter with Hagrid in Godric's Hollow that resulted in the half-giant taking Harry from him. At that point in time, he too had considered Dumbledore to be the 'Leader of Light', despite his ineffectiveness in leading the War. In the state of mind, he had been at that moment he had no second thoughts about the oddities and inconsistencies of the situation. Later, however, he had come to wonder how exactly did the Headmaster know of the Potters' demise soon enough to send Hagrid of all people there, considering the half-giants inability of magical travel and overall questionable competency. Moreover, if he thought Sirius a traitor, a fanatic loyal to the dark lord, why wouldn't he question his willingness to simply relinquish his hold on Harry? It all simply did not add up in Sirius' book.
The nail in the coffin for Sirius was his flamboyant attitude towards the ordeal he had been through. Whenever he brought up clearing his name or even seeking asylum internationally, which should not have been hard for Dumbledore to set up at the time, he was met with a dismissive attitude masked by a badly feigned interest and vague, empty promises. Whenever they spoke on the topic Dumbledore always came up with a plethora of reasons why it was not a priority at the moment.
It did not escape Sirius' attention that this lined up perfectly with Dumbledore's weird obsession with keeping Harry with those damned muggles. Very convenient for Dumbledore and leaving Sirius unable to really offer any protest when Harry was being sent to Horse-face and her whale of a husband every year, considering he was in no position to offer an alternative.
It was clear as day the thrice-damned muggles mistreated his godson, but, again, there was little he could do at the moment. Helplessness was becoming a theme in his life, something he definitely did not appreciate.
Ever since he was free he had his suspicions about Dumbledore's real intentions, but did not share them, or even really act upon them. Why? Because he needed Dumbledore's help, limited as it was, both for himself and for his godson, not to mention nearly all of the people he knew and was in contact with practically ate from the palm of the old man's hand. He planned to at least warn Harry, seeing his nigh absolute faith in the old man, but ultimately decided against it. It might serve to make him wary of Dumbledore, which in itself was a good thing, but the old man would notice it immediately. He would rather not risk him doing anything drastic to put his plans back on track.
No, Sirius decided it was for the best to let things lie for the moment. Since he could not be directly involved in the war effort he was left with little to do. He took stock of what remained of House Black and made sure his will contained a sealed letter for Harry's hands only. With that out of the way, Sirius dedicated his copious amount of free time to work on improving his health - training to improve both his physical and magical ability. That unfortunately was the extent of his efforts in getting back on track with his life.
He had perused a lot of the books from the Black Library these last few months, and he knew practically all the combat-oriented curses there. Before being cast out he had made it a point to learn the Family Magics, it was the one thing about the Blacks that actually made him proud of his background.
Magical ability was always something he admired and strived for. He inherited the Blacks' talent for curses in spades, coupled with the talent for charms. He had a high interest in runes, and later on in enchanting and wards and always made sure to keep his transfiguration up to par. It was thanks to that and his well-above-average power, that he breezed through the whole aurors' training and excelled at dueling. If it was just the practical side that was considered at NEWTs he was reasonably certain he would have been a serious contender for top scores in all of those he took.
The only exception to this was potions - he never had any real interest in the subject. The fact that through all 7 years of his Hogwarts' education he shared the class with Snivelly, and this being the only subject the bat consistently outshined Sirius at, only cemented his distaste for it. After barely scraping an EE in his fifth year he had some serious catching up to do since he wanted to at least be competent at a school level in all his core subjects.
The time he spent in the dueling room in the house's basement facing off against training dummies coupled with some light physical training, enforced by his potions regimen, ensured that he was getting healthier by the day. It had some minor success in counteracting his mental issues. His mood swings, general recklessness, and confrontational attitude were still there though, to a higher extent than even at the worst moments of his hormone-driven youth.
That was all Sirius did lately, with small breaks for Order meetings, since contacting Harry had become nigh impossible this year. Reading books and practicing whenever he could, trying to keep his mind off the matters he had no control or influence over.
That was until today that is.
He swerved to the right to avoid the random curse he had seen from the corner of his eye. His general dueling style depended on narrow dodges, rather than shields, parrying, and rapid casting. Quite similar to his cousin's in fact. He could hear her demented laughter from behind where she dueled Tonks. He cringed and felt a little better about his own fragile mental state.
While Sirius was undeniably quite magically powerful, he was not quite at the level of Voldemort or Dumbledore. He could hardly throw around powerful shields or conjure and animate sizeable objects for any length of time. He was reasonably certain that both went through some sort of power-enhancement rituals, though that much was fairly obvious in Voldemort's case. And that was without taking his knowledge or skill into account, which he knew for a fact was not up to par either with those two. If he were to ever face an opponent of that caliber he would be swiftly overpowered.
He spun around firing a lengthy combination of gouging and lacerating curses at Malfoy, but, as luck would have it, the one that hit him was the sole battering charm incorporated in there. Unfortunate. He heard Nymphie's scream and cursed. Bellatrix had hit her with a dangerous vein-rupturing curse. For all her talk of blood traitors she certainly did not pull any punches against her own blood relations. Then again, in her mind twisted mind being disinherited by a crazy old hag probably negated any sort of blood relations.
He quickly fired a wide, cutting curse at Bella's midsection, so she couldn't just dodge out of the way, while quickly firing a counter course at Tonks, before moving on the offensive. He started rapidly firing various spell chains, most of which he came up with himself, while occasionally dodging out of the way when his cousin managed to get a curse in. He had a clear advantage in casting speed, which was what it really came down to at this level. Despite reputedly being trained by Snake Face himself, Bella was definitely getting overwhelmed quite quickly. She did not seem to have put quite the same amount of effort to get back in shape after Azkaban it seemed. And he was reasonably sure she was not holding back if her furious expression and frantic movements were anything to go by. The taunts he had been throwing her way only added fuel to the flames it seemed.
They continued to duel, moving around the hall and keeping an eye on the surroundings. His eyes widened when he noticed Rockwood bursting through one of the doorways and raising his wand at Harry. Sirius fired a bone-exploding hex in his direction, but the distraction cost him and he had to quickly shield himself from the incoming curses.
Sirius felt dread when the first spell burst his shield. Bellatrix must have predicted he would only have time to shield and fired a high-power shield-breaker. He had no time to react as the next spell hit him and he was thrown back, losing consciousness.
END
