Disclaimer: Unless I have magically come to own Harry Potter and have somehow morphed into J K Rowling overnight, it is safe to assume the disclaimer from chapter one still applies …

Just so you know, Dumbledore is a pain in the bum to write. It's like a primary school kid trying to immitate Steven Hawkings or something ...

Thanks for all the reviews -feels special- And I know many of you have asked for slash... well, there won't be any in this story because there won't be the chance for it (I've got all 8 chaters planned and 5 written), but I am considering writing the sequal, in which I am likely to include a slash pairing or two (yup, fellow slash addict here).

Sorry it's taken so long in getting it up, alerts aren't working (very annoying, going through the 50 in my alerts list by hand) and I've had exams.

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Sirius - Sunday, 7:27am

Sirius blearily opened his eyes. Where in Merlin's name was he? All he could see was blinding white light! Squinting his eyes, he searched through his recent memories, trying to recollect where exactly he'd been before he got here… And what he was doing…

He could remember leaving Grimmauld Place… As to why he had no idea. He remembered tending to Buckbeak… What had he been planning to do after that…? Well, like everyday since Christmas he'd been planning on calling Harry on the mirror, checking whether Harry had-

HARRY!

Merlin's beard! Dumbledore had come to the Headquarters! The department of Mysteries! Duelling Bellatrix!

"Merlin, 'm I dead or somethin'?" Sirius croaked in slight alarm. Duelling Bellatrix Lestrange one moment and blinding white light the next was not the best of circumstances.

"I should bloody well hope not!"

"Moony?" Sirius squinted towards the direction of the voice, but was still blinded by the light of what he now assumed to be the hospital wing.

"Yes, it's me," sighed Remus's voice. Sirius frowned at the stressed and worried tone of his voice. Sirius felt a sense of foreboding creep into his hazy mind. Remus was always calm and collected, Sirius could count how many times he'd let a negative emotion creep into his voice on one hand. Something terrible had obviously happened. "Sirius, do you remember what happened… What happened on Friday morning?"

Sirius sat bolt upright, planning on demanding to know just what was wrong. However, before he could say a word, a head splitting pain had hit him.

Sirius let out a string of curse that would have caused Molly Weasley to strangle him (if he was lucky) before Remus had forced him back into bed and poured a vial of sky blue potion down his throat.

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius!" Remus nearly shouted as Sirius began to choke on his potion. "The pain reliever's not going to be much good to any of us if you choke to death!"

Sirius took a few minutes to stop spluttering, before he frowned and opened his mouth.

"You remember duelling with Lestrange?" Sirius nodded, closing his mouth as his question was answered. "Well, you got hit in the chest with a curse, most likely a dark banishing spell or something similar, Dumbledore probably knows but he's been too busy to tell us," Remus ignored Sirius's frown. "What on Earth were you thinking, starting a duel in front of that damned veil? Consider yourself lucky that you only got a concussion and a nasty bruise! You're lucky you didn't fall through the thing!" Remus ran his hands through his greying hair. "Of all the stupidest things to do, duelling in front of the barrier between worlds, the instrument used to kill criminals before the legislation in 1824 was drafted, with Bellatrix Lestrange, who was probably one of Voldemort's most dangerous Death Eaters, really takes the biscuit!"

Both Remus and Sirius shuddered. One of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers had spent a week of their seventh year talking about the Department of Mysteries. Looking back, Sirius could see altogether too many similarities between him and Mad-Eye Moody.

"As soon as I'm out of this damned bed," Remus gave a brief smile, wondering how exactly Sirius was going to escape Pomfrey's wraith, before the serious, worried expression returned, "I'm going to go straight to Voldemort's hidey-hole and kill that Lestrange cow!"

"No you're not."

"Moony, there's a time to be responsible, and there's a time, like now, to go on a murderous rampage!"

"No, I mean you can't kill her because she's already dead."

There was a long silence, in which Sirius was trying to digest the fact that his hated cousin was finally dead.

Just as Sirius was about to speak, Madam Pomfrey bustled in, staring at Sirius as if he was about to whip out his wand and blow up the hospital wing. Even though Dumbledore had informed her of the Order, which she had joined immediately, and Sirius's innocence, she was still getting used to the idea that the mad, dangerous escaped convict who blew up a street full of people was in fact innocent and Peter Pettigrew was the real villain.

"How?"

Remus bit his lip, choosing his words carefully. He knew Sirius was going to be angry, very angry. The question was how did he word it so that Sirius wouldn't be responsible for half the Order being in the Hospital Wing…

"Someone saw you… get knocked out. When Bellatrix turned her wand on you and started to say Avada Kedavra… They rushed forwards and stunned her."

"Stunned?" Sirius frowned. "A stunning spell couldn't have killed someone like Bellatrix Lestrange… Hell, a stunning spell couldn't kill anything!"

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius's interruption. "He was highly emotional, exaggerating the force of the spell."

"Like when Snivellius was blasted backwards by Harry, Ron and Hermione two years ago?" Remus nodded and both Marauders shared a slight grin.

"So Lestrange got blasted backwards," Remus continued, "and, like you, hit her head on the dais. It wasn't exactly pretty. In fact, it was-"

"Who?" Remus sighed. Sirius's mind was whirling with emotions. He was happy that his cousin was dead, but if his suspicions on who had killed her were right… Sirius shook his head as Remus started to answer. "It was Harry, wasn't it?" Sirius didn't even need to see Remus's nod to know he was right.

Sirius pulls his hands through his tangled hair, a habit he had caught from Remus. As if Harry hadn't got enough to be getting on with. Sirius had been repeatedly kicking himself throughout the month after Christmas, he'd been a pretty terrible role model for Harry; and that had been all too apparent when Harry didn't use the mirror he'd given him. Obviously Harry didn't trust him, and Merlin knows, he needs a competent adult to trust (Sirius ignored the fact that about ninety percent of the Order was probably more competent than him).

"Where is he then?" Sirius knew he couldn't do much from his hospital bed, even if he was feeling fine after Poppy's potions. "Is he okay, physically?"

Remus didn't answer. So Harry wasn't okay… Sirius sat up, his brow deeply furrowed.

"What happened, Remus? Where is he?" Sirius found his voice getting progressively louder, not that he cared. "What happened to him?"

"Calm down, Sirius," Remus refused to meet Sirius's eye. "After Harry killed Lestrange, we were all… well, flabbergasted! I mean, it's not everyday a fifteen year old has the power to kill someone, let alone Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Harry sank to his knees, in shock, like anyone would in that situation… Then a Death Eater grabbed him." Sirius felt the blood drain out of his face. "We… They took him…" Sirius could feel cold fury grow in his gut. All year Dumbledore had been harping on about protecting Harry, and what good had it done? Harry could be dead now! It was almost certain he was being tortured in some way… Merlin, he was only fifteen; the biggest problem in his life should have been about how to ask that girl to Hogsmeade, not wondering when the psychopath who murdered your parents is going to come after you!

Sirius also felt a cold wave of guilt sweeping over him. He should have been getting Harry out of there, not duelling Bellatrix Lestrange. He could remember those green eyes shinning with fear for him.

"Stop it, Sirius." Sirius looked up sharply, he'd almost forgotten Remus was there. "We all feel guilty. It wasn't one person's fault. I left Harry to join in the fight, meaning Neville was the only one out there to try and get Harry free. Dumbledore didn't make the antiapparation wards around he place strong enough to stop Voldemort from breaking them down." Sirius tuned out Remus's voice as he tried to free Sirius from guilt and explain the events of early Friday morning to him.

Sirius buried his head in his hands; according to the calendar by his bedside it was Sunday.

Harry had been with the Death Eaters for at least two days. He could be dead, or tortured to insanity or worse.

Sirius looked up from his hands to see Remus staring at the wall blankly, worry etched across his face.

Sirius got up from his bed, unnoticed by Remus, wincing at the pounding in his head. He was half way across the infirmary before Remus noticed him.

"Where are you going?"

"To find some answers," was Sirius's reply before he continued out of the Hospital Wing, thankful that everyone in the room, and most likely the majority of the castle except from himself and Remus was still asleep.

"What, but I already told you…"

Sirius didn't reply, he just walked in stony silence through the empty corridors, the sunny day not reflecting Sirius's stormy mood.

"Canary creams." Sirius scowled as Remus said the inappropriate password.

Ignoring Remus's looks Sirius waited for the door to open. If looks could kill the door would have been nothing more than a pile of charcoal at this point.

Sirius didn't recall the door opening, all he knew was that one moment he was tapping his foot impatiently, the next he had grabbed Dumbledore by his shoulders and was shouting like the madman half the world assumed him to be.

"Where the hell is my Godson?" Instead of calming him, the composed blue eyes infuriated him. "How could you let this happen?" He could feel Remus pulling him away from the Headmaster. "Why haven't you rescued him yet? It's been two days! What-"

"Calm yourself, Sirius." Sirius blinked, surprised at the stressed tone of Dumbledore's voice. "We are doing all we can." Sirius looked at his feet (which were still in white Hospital Wing slippers), ashamed. A wizened hand clasped his shoulder. "Do not be ashamed Sirius, I can assure you Remus had a similar, yet not quite as loud, reaction." Now it was Remus's turn to blush under Sirius's surprised glance.

"We have an Order meeting at eight O'clock to discuss what is being done and our current options. Feel free to floo to Grimmauld Place from my fireplace."

Sirius nodded and moved towards the fireplace. In the next second he was gone, not seeing the look shared between Remus and Dumbledore.

"Kreacher has been a good house elf. He is serving his Mistress very well! Running away to nice Masters is very good of Kreacher! Mistress will be most pleased when she finds out!" Kreacher's incessant mutterings were what greeted Sirius to Grimmauld Place. "Oh yes, he is a good house elf! Nasty half blood brat is in big troubles! Oh yes! And soon the bratty half blood will be dead, and Mistress-"

Kreacher looked up at that point, his eyes narrowing with hatred and pain as he saw who was strangling him.

"Sirius!" Sirius reluctantly let go of Kreacher's neck and hissed at him not to move from that spot before turning to see Remus and Dumbledore emerging from the fireplace.

Sirius glared at the two. He wanted nothing more than to kill his house elf at that point.

"The meeting is in ten minutes, Sirius. We will find a suitable punishment for Kreacher, but now is not the time. We have much more pressing matters to deal with at the moment."

Sirius sighed and tried to push his anger away. It was more difficult this time. Kreacher's words had triggered images of Harry's dead lifeless body to flash through his mind, like Mrs. Weasley's boggart but getting steadily more dramatic and gruesome.

Sirius didn't realise he was shuddering until someone pushed him into a hard mahogany chair and placed his hands around a steaming cup of tea. Without opening his eyes he took a sip (ignoring the obvious taste of calming draught), mumbling his thanks into the mug.

Sirius looked up at the sound of multiple pops and nodded at the various members of the Weasley family (minus Ron and Ginny for obvious reasons) before returning to burying his face in the mug, ignoring all subsequent arrivals.

"Sirius," Sirius's head shot up. Looking around, Sirius noticed one or two absences, such as Tonks (Sirius seemed to remember something from Remus's earlier rambling about fault and him mentioning the fact that several Order members had ended up in St. Mungos). "If you don't mind." Dumbledore was looking pointedly at Kreacher, who was still in the same position he'd been in ten minutes ago.

"Kreacher," Sirius's voice quivered with anger, "go to your cupboard and stay there until I say you can come out." As Kreacher began to sulk away, Sirius added an afterthought. "Oh, and I forbid you from communicating with anyone who I do not directly give permission to talk with you." Sirius drained his mug and slammed it on the table as Kreacher stormed off to his cupboard muttering about the death of all Mudbloods and blood traitors whilst Dumbledore took his place at the head of the table.

"Now, I see no point in beating around the bush. Lord Voldemort," Sirius rolled his eyes at the shudders coming from around the table, "has come to have possession of

Harry. How it happened places guilt upon us all, but we shall have time to dwell on that later. What we must worry about at the moment is how to get Harry out of there-"

"How do you know he's still alive, Albus?" Sirius (amongst others) glared at Mad-Eye, not wanting to think about the other highly likely possibility.

"It is enough that I know," Dumbledore responded cryptically. "And he is still alive, that is certain. His current condition, however, is still a mystery to me."

There was a pregnant pause, the kind that swallows up all thought of conversation.

"So," Hagrid's voice was unusually soft and quiet, "wha' do we do? Now tha' Harry's…" He shook his bushy head and clumsily swept tears away, "I mean, wha' information do we 'ave? To rescue 'im?"

"My sources have confirmed that he's currently being kept in Voldemort's new headquarters. He realised Little Hangleton was no longer safe for him after he told Harry that his house lay next to the graveyard where Harry was taken last year." Sirius closed his eyes. Voldemort seemed to be slowly taking over Harry's life.

"How do you know this?" Kingsley spoke up. "I doubt he goes around advertising where he's keeping Harry Potter hostage."

Realisation dawned upon Sirius, "Snape. He's feeding you information, right?"

"Indeed, Sirius." Seeing several mutinous looks around the table, Dumbledore continued, "I know that many of you do not trust him, which is perfectly reasonable. But I do have reason to trust him," Sirius was still sceptical. Until Snape proved he was on their side there was no way Sirius was going to trust him. Sirius had trusted Snape to teach Harry Occlumency and look where that had ended up.

"I do have worries about how Harry will be used." Seeing several confused looks around the table; Dumbledore elaborated. "Voldemort could easily use Harry for blackmail or bribery. Free all prisoners in Azkaban for Harry's release, which obviously wouldn't happen, but we can't depend on Fudge not to release the prisoners, or comply to any of Voldemort's other demands just to show the public that he's fighting to get Harry freed.

"Luckily, I have managed to keep the Ministry in the dark about Harry's situation, but that is not likely to last for long. Voldemort thrives upon creating public disharmony and panic, which is exactly what would happen if news of Harry's capture leaked out, which it will."

Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his temples, looking uncharacteristically weak. "I must confess I am extremely anxious for Harry's safety at this point."

"But Harry's been in tight spots before, hasn't he?" One of the Weasley twins, Merlin knew which one, spoke up, after finally being admitted to the Order despite Mrs. Weasley's protests. "Every year at Hogwarts something like this has happened to him." The other twin nodded.

Dumbledore delved into his pocket before placing a sherbet lemon in his mouth and sucking it, choosing his words carefully.

"It may be true that Harry is used to tense situations, but he has always depended on quick thinking and a little luck to get out of them, using the first opportunity that is presented to him.

"However, in these particular circumstances, Harry has been under threat for an extensive period of time; meaning that the chances of escape due to Voldemort or his Death Eaters making a mistake in the heat of the moment has dramatically decreased. That and the fact that the shock of the situation will have worn off by now, and Harry is likely to dwell on the position he is in. It is not unusual for Harry to dwell on a particular event for a period of time afterwards, I believe most of you noticed Harry's foul mood just after a year ago," there were several nods around the table to those who spent more time than most in Grimmauld Place or Hogwarts.

Sirius's mood had darkened even more. "So, you think Harry's going to dwell on the fact that he's… you know… and become disheartened?"

Dumbledore nodded. "It is a possibility."

"If I know Harry he'd not give up too easily; when I was working on the Patronus charm he refused to stop until I made him, despite the fact he was obviously exhausted."

"You have a fair point, Remus."

"It all depends on the situation," Bill spoke for the first time that evening, "which we know nothing about, so it's all speculation at the moment."

"Whatever Harry's condition, we won't know until Severus corresponds with us."

There was another tense silence, each of them digesting the information. Sirius lost track of time as the number of situations Harry might be in flashed through his mind once again. He wished he could have some more of that tea laced with calming potion.

"What are we going to tell the children?"

"The truth, Molly." Sirius couldn't help but answer her, he knew it wasn't the best idea, given that they didn't see eye to eye when it came to Harry.

"But-"

"They are not children, Molly. They are young adults with the right to know what has happened to their friend."

Mrs. Weasley was just about to interrupt again when a coal black owl made a dramatic entrance through the ajar window.

Without saying a word, Dumbledore swept towards the owl and started to read the letter. Sirius could see a gleam in his eye, which disappeared as he continued reading to be replaced by a deep frown, and thunderous eyes.

Sitting down at the table Dumbledore ignored all the curious looks and stared off into space, occasionally biting his lip in thought.

After ten minutes Mad-Eye broke the silence.

"Well?" he prompted.

Dumbledore started and looked up, appearing to be shocked that he was in a room full of people.

"Oh, I'm terrible sorry. Once you're my age you do tend-"

"Never mind, Albus." McGonagall's voice lacked the crisp tone that it usually held, as if she's been crying recently, which she probably had.

"Well, the good news is that Severus was chosen as the secret keeper for Voldemort." Sirius's face hardened. It was time the Dark Lord learnt that it wasn't beyond Death Eaters to betray him.

"Wouldn't that reveal his position as a spy, though?" Sirius frowned, something felt wrong here. Maybe he was just wary of the secret keeper charm.

Dumbledore nodded. "Severus did know that his time being a spy in Voldemort's ranks was coming to a close. It is simply getting too dangerous. There are times that Severus has ended up narrowly escaping death by improvising some excuse for why we turned up to defend where he and his inner circle had planned to attack.

"So, Voldemort doesn't trust Snape, so he gives Snape the job of secret keeper. How does this make sense?"

"Sirius has a point Albus… It does seem a bit odd."

"Actually Charlie, it makes perfect sense."

"Remus?"

"Think about it, Voldemort most likely suspects all of his Death Eaters. What better test of his new top Death Eater than to assign him the job of secret keeper."

"So when we burst in there, Voldemort's going to be expecting us! Fantastic!" Sirius spat; at the moment he couldn't care less about one git's loyalty. They had a way in, why weren't they trying to find Harry? Sirius tried to ignore the fact Snape handing them the location was testament to his loyalty to the Order.

"Now we've got that matter cleared up," Dumbledore boomed, leaving no room for the discussion to continue, "we have another matter than must be dealt with, along with developing a plan of attack on Voldemort in order to rescue Harry. Unfortunately, it seems that someone has passed on information to Voldemort."

"Who?" Sirius asked before the mutterings and accusations began.

"Unfortunately Severus does not know how Voldemort acquired this information. We do know that it was most likely a staff member who had access either my or Professor Snape's office or someone who has known Harry for a long period of time and who Harry trusts."

"What information?" Sirius probed, did Dumbledore have a genuine lack of information or was he being deliberately evasive?

"Voldemort now knows the full details about what happened or rather, what Harry and I discussed after the incidents with the Philosopher's Stone," Dumbledore offered a sympathetic glance with the Weasleys in the room, "the Chamber of Secrets and the Triwizard Tournament."

Sirius rose to his feet, his anger returned and multiplied by massive amounts.

"HOW IN MERLIN'S NAME DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" He bellowed.

"Let what happen?" Kingsley asked calmly, ignoring Sirius's rage. "Isn't Voldemort already in possession of all the facts from those encounters? He was there in person. What's the problem?"

"THE PROBLEM? THE PROBLEM IS NOW SODDING VOLDEMORT KNOWS THAT HE AND HARRY HAVE BROTHER WANDS, HE KNOWS THAT HARRY'S A PARSELTONGUE, HE KNOWS HARRY WOULD GO TO EXTREME LENGTHS TO SAVE HIS BEST FRIEND'S LITTLE SISTER, HE KNOWS HARRY!" Sirius's voice broke. "He knows… He knows Harry's strengths so he can counter them, he knows Harry's weaknesses so he can exploit them." Sirius swore loudly, but Mrs. Weasley was crying too hard to admonish him.

"How?" Sirius's livid eyes flashed towards Dumbledore. "How could you let this happen?"

When Dumbledore spoke his voice was low and remorseful. "I placed my memories of Harry in the Pensieve. I thought they would be useful in figuring out Voldemort's next move. It was; looking into Voldemort's encounters with Harry gave me a more realistic picture of Voldemort's eventual goal.

"This I didn't expect. If anything I was expecting Voldemort to target me first, or Sirius." Sirius knew from the furtive glance Dumbledore had shot them that the Weasleys were also added to the list of targets, but Sirius could see why they didn't say this out loud. The twins looked more serious than Sirius could remember seeing before, even when Arthur was in St. Mungos. Bill and Charlie were chalk white, making their freckles stand out and Mrs. Weasley was still crying on Mr. Weasley's shoulder. "Or some adult figure whom Harry trusted.

"But I digress. I always kept the Pensieve in my office, in a cupboard I always kept locked since Harry had shown me in his fourth year that the more inquisitive students wouldn't think twice about taking a look if no one happened to be in the room at the time. Unless I leant it to Severus, who assured me he kept it in his office at all times.

"Severus, ever paranoid about his potions ingredients going missing, had a charm on his door that prevented everyone but staff from entering his office when he wasn't residing there. Leading to the conclusion that only staff could have had access to the Pensieve and those memories."

Sirius and Remus shared a glance, knowing otherwise, but they weren't going to betray Harry's confidence in that matter.

"So one of the Hogwarts Professors in most likely working for Voldemort or has been passing information on to someone who does."

Sirius swore again. Dumbledore politely ignored him, much to Sirius's irritation.

"Unfortunately, Remus, I fear you are right. There are always other possibilities of course, but the likelihood of them being responsible for the situation is slim. I would also like to say that I trust all of my staff unconditionally," Dumbledore gave a faint smile, which did not reach his eyes, which had not regained their sparkle. "Except for the large majority of Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers."

"So, what are we going to do about this?"

"Kingsley, if it's okay by you, I'd like to give you the task of testing all of my staff under veritaserum, not that I suspect them of any connection to Voldemort, but we must follow procedure in this-"

"No, I meant what are we going to do about the information Voldemort has about Harry and not to forget the fact that Harry is trapped with a murderous Dark Lord with a grudge against him!" Sirius fought to keep his voice under control but couldn't help but let the sarcasm in.

"Well, that will have to take a large amount of planning to ensure Harry's safety."

Pushing the images of a beaten Harry lying in some dark corner to the back of his mind, Sirius and the rest of the Order began to plan Harry's rescue, unbeknownst to the fact that around three hundred miles north Voldemort was laughing madly at the information one of his servants had given him.

"Take me to him."

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Mwahahahahahaahahaha! You weren't expecting a POV change were you? I wanted it to be a bit different from my other (given up) fic and have a bit mroe substance and look at it from the side of those who love our tortured hero.

Next update:

Before Harry had a chance to react, the Death Eater he recognised as the one who had captured him in the Ministry swept up to him and conjured another manacle around his other wrist to restrain him.

Harry kicked him anyway, cold fury taking over his actions. The Death Eater removed his mask to reveal what was obviously a broken nose. Although Harry knew exactly who this git was, the sight of his face still shocked Harry.