From the second Sirius saw it, he knew. Triumph burst inside his chest as he realized what was in front of him.

Sirius found himself facing a large split in the trunks of the twisted oaks. And in the space inside, where the ground should have sat undisturbed, was a black chasm where a tunnel had been roughly dug out. It was large enough for a grown man to comfortably enter without having to crawl, and seemed unnervingly similar to the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.

An evil chill emanated from the darkness within. He stepped forward gingerly, sniffing, and finally locating the smells of fur and blood and musk combined. The faint rumbling was clearer now, coming from deep within the earthy corridor… he could hear other noises too… scratching noises… whimpering… for one heart splitting second, he thought he caught the high pitched sound of cruel laughter.

Terror left him. For one thrilling moment of madness, Sirius could just see himself running headfirst down the tunnel, leaping at Greyback and tearing him limb from limb. But he couldn't… and while he and James had absolutely no intention of keeping their promise to leave the battle, he had sworn to at least try and keep a cool head. And so with much reluctance, he took one more glance at the entrance and turned back to rejoin the others.

Until—

Sirius' ears swivled around before he'd taken so much as two steps away.

What was that sound?

It was getting louder and louder… a soft thudding sound, and the low grumbling of asthmatic breathing… approaching faster and faster, getting louder and louder—

Sirius just had time to register the presence of the bulging amber eyes and salivating jaws snapping at him until the creature had tackled and pinned him into the snow. He yelped in pain as the monster latched it's fangs onto his throat and began to bite down—

"STUPEFY!"

The half-man, half-werewolf, was wrenched off him as it was lifted and tossed across the clearing unconscious.

Pain... so much pain...

He knew it hadn't been a full werewolf— the sun wasn't even down yet and the full moon was two weeks away— but those teeth had been as sharp as fangs when they'd pierced his neck.

Sirius had barely enough energy to transform back into his human form when he felt himself being dragged. Two arms had hooked underneath his biceps and pulled him backwards along the ground away from the giant oak tree.

"Sirius! Oh god, hold on, mate," James moaned.

Sirius took a rattled breath. Warm blood was spilling down his throat and into his lungs.

Kate stepped forward, cupped the back of his head, and held it steady as she poured tiny droplets of Dittany Essence over his shredded skin. It hissed and stung as it sealed back together.

Spluttering and coughing up clotted blood, he sat up leaning heavily on James for support.

"Are you alright?" James breathed. He was whiter than usual and the disguises Kate had used to transfigure him had now completely worn off.

"Yeah… I think I'm good. Thanks for getting him off me, Kate."

Sirius didn't like the tense silence that followed his sentence. He looked up and caught James' eye.

"Sorry, mate," James said.

Sirius looked at Peter.

"Not you too?"

Peter looked down at his lap in shame. His wand was still in his hand.

"Great," Sirius spat. "Now the whole bloody Ministry of Magic knows we're out here in the middle of fucking nowhere doing underage combat magic!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a large brown barn owl swooped low over them, dropped two envelopes with Ministry seals, and then flew off.

"Oh, fuck you!" Sirius yelled after it.

Kate was busy scrambling in her bag for something, while glancing up nervously at the base of the tree.

"Forget being expelled, you three, and keep your wands on that trunk," she whispered, trembling slightly. She pulled out a pre-sealed letter and waved her own wand once through the air. The barn owl, that had flown high above them and seemed ready to disappear again, flipped over into a mid air u-turn and came to rest next to them on the ground, glaring reproachfully at Sirius.

"This goes to the Auror department," Kate whispered to it. "It's urgent, make sure they understand it's a life or death situation."

The owl puffed up importantly and took flight, vanishing with a little pop! about ten yards away.

"What do we do now?" Peter whispered.

Kate snatched up James' Invisibility cloak, moved closer to the other three and tossed it over their heads. It didn't cover all of them, but it allowed them to look freely over the boulder without anyone who might come up the tunnel from seeing them.

"Now… we wait."

They all turned back to watch for any presence of movement around the tunnel. Kate took a long look at the roots before bursting out furiously.

"Is there anything else besides Sirius being an illegal Animagus that you three need to tell me?"

Sirius grinned. She was positively fuming.

"Er," James said in a small voice. "Peter and I are Animagus too…"

Stunned silence followed, in which Kate seemed to radiate anger.

"Kate, we might as well be upfront with you," Sirius admitted. "The three of us have no intention of sitting in your brothers' Inn while the Aurors take care of our dirty work—,"

"You wouldn't dare—!"

"There's a Floo network up the road, away from the dock, that goes into a wizard home. We know the name of the family and the house and there is nothing you can do to stop us from going through it the second we're near a fireplace."

Kate let out a loud growl of annoyance and clutched her face in frustration. James and Sirius both reach up to clap her shoulders.

"Knew you'd take it well," James said matter-of-factly.

"Shh!" Peter hissed. "Do you hear that?"

There was a grunting noise coming from somewhere near them. With a jolt they realized the werewolf man they'd stunned was coming-to. He whimpered in a very canine-like way, tested putting pressure on his leg, and when it gave out, lifted his head to the sky and let out a loud howl.

"Shit!"

Kate threw the cloak off and took aim.

"Silencio!"

She flicked her wand again and ropes sprang out of thin air, bound the werewolf around the limbs and mouth, and left him wriggling on the ground.

But the damage was done.

"They'll have heard that," Kate said, looking again at the twisted trunk. "Be ready, in case those Ministry officials decide to take their sweet time—."

James folded the cloak up and they all stood in silence, listening hard. Sirius realized after a long while that the rumbling sound of voices he'd heard with his ultra-sensitive dog ears were now audible for his human ears.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

All four of them jumped violently in shock. Above them, several birds took flight all at once as the continuous air-splitting claps reverberated into the distance.

If they hadn't been standing in the middle of a forest, Sirius would have expected to look around and see fireworks lighting off. The sounds of a hundred Aurors all Apparating into a single clearing in the time space of ten seconds was nothing short of deafening.

Kate immediately threw her wand on the ground in front of her and held her hands up. The other three copied and watched as several Aurors immediately began magically combing the area for hidden spells and traps. Another group of them held out strange silver ornaments that whirred and lit up. The rest just stared curiously at the four of them, muttering to themselves.

One Auror broke away from the rest of the crowd and approached them, followed by a taller Ministry official in crimson robes.

"Are you Katherine O'Falin?" the Auror asked.

"Yes, that's me," she breathed.

He nodded and lifted a golden metal rod from his pocket, passing it up and down each of them as the other man surveyed them with intense scrutiny.

"They're clear," the Auror croaked when he'd finished. Six Aurors had moved forward to interrogate the werewolf bound nearby.

"You may pick up your wands," the Ministry official said.

"We've got positive readings!" one of the Aurors called over to him, holding one of the spinning instruments.

"How many?"

"More than we thought… looks like over a hundred."

When Kate had stood back up and placed her wand in her pocket, the man extended his hand.

"Bartemius Crouch. I'm the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department and will be directing the Aurors' operations today."

Kate shook his hand. Crouch all but ignored the other three.

"You are a werewolf, are you not?" he asked bluntly. He watched her closely for her reaction.

"Y-yes, sir… but I've grown up in civilized society."

"So have Death Eaters," Crouch said coldly.

"I'm not a Death Eater."

"So how did you just happen to find this place without an inside connection?"

Kate's face turned red.

"I'm not a spy!"

"That will be for us to determine," Crouch said dismissively.

His eyes flicked over to James and Sirius and Peter, as if noticing them for the first time.

"And who are you?"

"We're Kate's assistants," James said quickly. "Our friend was attacked and killed by a werewolf in August. We contacted Kate about searching for Greyback first— it was our idea."

"So if anyone's in trouble it should be us," Sirius finished.

Crouch glared at Sirius for a moment.

"How old are you three?"

"Seventeen," they lied in unison.

"How did you get access to Ministry werewolf records? That is the only way to locate and contact a dangerous magical half-breed."

Kate turned even redder as his brazen comments hit her.

"Through Dr. Jerome Leibrock."

Crouch's eyes widened.

"The Canadian potioneer?"

"Yes."

Crouch frowned at him again, his eyes boring hard into Sirius' grey ones.

"We will need to have a discussion once this is over. For now, either prepare to fight or clear out."

And without so much as a thank-you for discovering the compound, he turned on his heel and prepared to address the force of Aurors.

Sirius scowled at his back.

"What an arse," Peter mumbled.

"Your attention, please!" Crouch called out.

Kate was now engrossed in conversation with one of the Aurors, so the three of them crept around to stand at the edge of the gathering crowd. As silence fell in the group they could hear a dozen more loud cracks as more Aurors Apparated in.

"Everyone listen up! As all of you have been informed, we have strong suspicion that Fenrir Greyback, the most wanted werewolf in Britian, is operating out of these woods in an underground compound that could very well be directly beneath our feet."

Several Aurors shifted, murmuring loudly again to each other. Sirius could feel a rumbling vibration now coming from the ground and glanced nervously over to the entrance of the tunnel.

"Greyback is a known murderer," Crouch went on, "which means capturing him is of the utmost importance. He has managed to escape capture from the Ministry twice already. That will not be happening today."

He put particular emphasis and power into his last sentence, and several of the Aurors cried out in agreement.

"If he wants to, he has the power and means to summon You-Know-Who. Whether he would come to Greyback's aid is debatable, but we will need around twenty to stand guard outside just in case. I will be in charge of the guard, and Alastor here will be in charge of the surge. Before I hand command over to him though, take note— if you need to, aim to kill. I'd rather have a dead werewolf on my hands than a monster at large. If you feel that any spell, technically defined within the realms of Dark Magic or the Unforgivable curses, would help you in taking down these half-breeds, do not hesitate in using it. On behalf of the Minister of Magic and the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement, you are hereby granted permission to use any spell you deem necessary for the purposes of this raid. Does everyone understand?"

There was a rumbling chorus of confirmation, but the three of them could tell not all the Aurors agreed with Crouch's stance on Dark Magic. Sirius didn't blame them. As far as he was concerned, Dark Magic was Dark Magic, whether it was used by Voldemort or the chief Auror himself.

One of the Aurors in front lifted his wand and cast what seemed to be five bright silver Patronus' that scampered off through the trees.

"Alastor," Crouch said wearily. "I don't think calling the Order of the Phoenix is entirely necessary…"

"I won't get them involved down there," a gravelly voice answered, "but they can fight off Death Eaters a damn shot better than you can, Barty."

A vein bulged on Crouch's temple from irritation as the Auror limped forward and took the stage from him.

"I need fifty lead fighters for my first team to gather over here," he yelled out, his heavily scarred face nodding to a clearing on his left. "Thirty back-up fighters, gather around that boulder over there with Dawlish. Anyone who knows how to perform some damn good shield charms, wait where you are, you'll be responsible for getting our wounded out to St. Mungos and reviving anyone who's been stunned. Anyone who's left will wait with Barty and keep an eye out for the Death Eaters. If they show up, they become our first priority!"

He barked the last two words loudly and then ordered everyone to move to their posts before limping off.

"Where do you want to go?" Sirius murmured.

"Nowhere," James said, and pulled out his cloak. "We're going in under this."

Sirius grinned wickedly.

"Let's get to Greyback first, you think?"

"Exactly."

Looking around to make sure no one was watching them, they snuck away from the others and gathered close on the other side of a tree.

"Should we go in first? Get ahead of them?"

Peter gulped fearfully as they laid the cloak on top of their heads.

Their feet showed a little bit so James pointed his wand at each in turn and cast a Disillusionment charm. And not five seconds later, a second brown Ministry owl swoop out of nowhere and plopped an envelope on the ground next to them.

"I've got one more warning until I'm officially expelled," James laughed.

"They'll let us back in though, won't they?" Peter whimpered.

Sirius and James roared with laughter at the worry in his voice.

They looked over and saw Kate finish up her conversation with an Auror who had been scribbling away on a clipboard. Sirius watched her with narrowed eyes as she glance around at Crouch, crept sideways towards the oak tree and then stared into the darkness of the tunnel. It looked like she was in deep contemplation. The wind rustled her wispy hair as her gaunt eyes stared glazed over into the chasm.

"Kate," Sirius murmured, wondering what she was up to.

Kate looked round one more time, squared her shoulders and—

"KATE!"

She had run straight into the tunnel alone, and they were running, running as fast as their feet could take them, to stop her, to pull her back. The cloak was tugged around in their haste, and before no time, they had all three ducked down and breached the entrance to the most real example of Hell they had ever known.

The stench of damp fur and body odor assaulted their senses.

"Lumos!"

All three of them pointed forward. The temperature had dropped almost twenty degrees inside. Icy water dripped from the ceiling ahead of them.

Now illuminated, they could see the tunnel continue on for almost fifty yards ahead as it sloped steeply downwards. It then split into two forks that veered sharply in the opposite directions. Kate must have disappeared in the split second before their charm. They had no way of knowing which fork she took.

"Anyone got a coin we could flip?" Sirius spat sarcastically as they reached the end of the tunnel.

"Is she right or left handed?" James asked. "Usually you're more inclined to chose based on your wand hand."

But then, right as they stood in the center of the fork, something happened— a rumbling of war cries and cheers, of snarls and howls, of thundering footsteps and the scramble of a hundred feet.

Was Kate being attacked?

They listened hard… all of the noise, which was growing louder, came from the left fork of the tunnel.

The thrill of action swooped inside Sirius. He looked to his right and looked at James and Peter like it was the last time he ever would, giving them both the ghost of a smile before starting into the left tunnel.

As soon as they'd rounded the corner, they hastily extinguished the light on their wands. For just down a second short corridor, they found themselves at the back of an enormous underground room filled with people. Gnarled roots leaked in like giant worms on the walls and ceiling. The orange flickering glow of torches dimly illuminated the crowd.

Sirius had never seen people like them before. They were dressed in the furs of other animals and rags. All of them were smeared with mud. They weren't acting like people at all— instead of sitting or standing normally, they leaned forward on their arms or crouched down like members of an actual wolf pack.

The three of them stared, from under the cloak, as one werewolf crawled onto a raised mound of rocks and mud, and let out another howl of rage. The walls shook and trembled as dozens joined in, lifting their faces skyward.

Sirius pulled the other two by the elbow to inch along the back wall. Sensing the pack was soon going to retreat and march outside, they needed to get out of the way of the entry tunnel. But as they edged sideways towards the corner, they noticed a second passageway that led off the main room. It was an entire system of tunnels that wound together, twisting and turning into other rooms, other corridors. It could have gone on forever, for all they knew… under the entire forest.

As they stood there, peering into the distance of torch-lit hallways, Sirius looked around for Kate. It was obvious she wasn't here— she would have stuck out like a sore thumb in a sea of such uncivilized people. But as he scanned the crowd, something caught his eye.

"Oy," he whispered. "Look at that man over there, the one standing next to the werewolf with the fox tail around his neck."

James and Peter squinted to where he was pointing. As soon as they found him, both of them lit up with realization.

"He has a wand."

Sirius grinned.

The man standing next to the wizard, who was wearing a fox tail like a fiery red mane, leaned over and growled something in his ear. As they conversed, the werewolf on his other side made a sudden movement and lifted— a wand— into the air, casting a spell of red sparks. The crowd jeered in a battle cry, their enthusiasm swelling up once more.

"Two wizards flanking him and taking his orders?" James mused. "You know what I'm thinking?"

"Way ahead of you, mate," Sirius muttered.

The three of them looked back over, studying Fenrir Greyback for the first time. He had dark matted hair and light colored whiskers all over his pock-marked face. As he spoke, they caught glimpses of sharp yellowing teeth. A smug expression adorned his wolfish face as he looked proudly at his army and bared his teeth in a horrifying imitation of a smile.

Sirius hated him.

He hated the mane of fur he wore almost like a uniform. He hated his long yellowing nails, the same nails that had splattered blood over Lily's letter when he'd shredded it. He hated those eyes, those eyes that had seen the life leave Remus' beautiful face…

Sirius lifted his wand and before James or Peter could stop him, cried out "Incendio!"

Flames— hot burning, hellfire flames— devoured Greyback whole. Sirius could hear him howling in pain as Peter and James grabbed his arms in a viselike grip and dragged him hurriedly out of the room and down the winding tunnels.

Once Sirius had come to his senses, he began to run full-out, the cloak now just barely covering them as they ran as deep as they could into the underground maze. They turned sharply and randomly, trying to lose anyone on their tails, not once looking back to see if anyone was following them. Finally, they rounded a corner and ran headfirst into a dead end, toppling over each other and pressing into the wall.

Panting, James crawled forward on his hands and knees to look around the corner.

"No one… I don't think… I don't think they're following us."

Sirius got to his feet. There was nothing but silence around them. He walked around the edge, tip-toed cautiously to the end of the longer corridor and peered around that corner as well. Peter followed him and together they lifted their wands to cast spells from floor to ceiling.

"Cave Inimicum!"

"Muffliato!"

"Protego Totalus!"

"Salvio Hexia!"

"Protego Horribilis!"

"That's enough," James panted. He was stretched out with his back against the wall, clutching a stitch in his side. Sirius dropped down across from him, trying to catch his own breath.

"You just… burned someone alive," James breathed.

Sirius' mind was reeling.

"He deserved it."

"I know, but still... I just… can't believe you did it."

"Do you think he's dead?" Peter asked.

Sirius shrugged.

"I dunno. I hope so."

They sat for a moment in stunned silence. The air was thinner and damper now. An uncomfortable feeling of claustrophobia sank into them as they realized just how far underground they must be.

"Auguamenti," Peter murmured, and drank from a stream of water that flowed from his wand before offering some to James and Sirius.

It felt like ages that they sat there, straining their ears for sounds of movement around the corner. Lost in thought, they panted themselves calm, wondering where Kate was and what was going on above them… wondering if they'd ever see the light of day again…

They all knew they couldn't stay there forever. Slowly, they began to mentally prepare themselves once more for battle. But as they began to gather up their bravery again, they finally heard something.

"James? Sirius? Peter? Anyone!"

Sirius jumped. He reached into his pocket and couldn't stop the smile from bursting across his face when he saw Kate's face staring out at him from the small rectangular mirror he'd completely forgotten about.

"Kate! Thank god you're alive!"

James and Peter moved over to sit next to him.

"You're all safe!" she said, half crying at them through the mirror. "I was so worried, I didn't realize anyone had seen me enter and by the time I knew you were following me I couldn't turn back!"

"We were under James' cloak."

Kate sobbed and they saw her eyes dart around the room she was in, staring fixatedly on something in front of her.

"Kate, where are you?"

"Are you in danger?"

"No, no, it's not that," she choked. Her voice was thick and she reached up to wipe her nose messily on the back of her sleeve. "I took the right tunnel once I'd gotten to the end of the main one. It was completely deserted and when I backtracked five minutes later to look out into the main hallway I saw all the werewolves emptying out of the left tunnel. They were all rushing into the woods and leaving to fight. So I stayed behind and started looking for any werewolves that were hiding. And I found… I found these sealed off rooms…"

She continued talking but her words became incoherent as she dissolved into fresh sobs, tears now falling freely from her eyes.

"Kate, we can't understand you," James sighed. "Just calm down, alright? Everything's going to be fine."

"I'm sorry… but you don't understand… it's just that I found… I found someone…," she said thickly, and they stared— utterly bewildered— as she choked again on her tears and then… smiled.

"Kate?" Sirius said weakly.

Her smiled trembled a little and she sniffed noisily again before stammering—

"I found Remus."

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