Chapter 16: Sirius
"You can't do that," November laughed as Sirius attempted to take her rook.
"Of course I can. I'm Sirius Black!" he half purred at her.
"Oh save it for someone who's interested!" November laughed. Sirius had treated her very differently since the night he had stopped Lucius. He had always been critical and gruff regarding her "job" but since then he had treated her warmly and sought her out more frequently. It wasn't romance as much as change of heart. So tonight they found themselves in the dining room playing chess and he had resorted to cheating because, even though she was the worse player of the two, November was somehow winning.
The fire roared to life in the kitchen next to them and they were both on their feet in seconds. Paranoia was constant between the three of them now, but November recognized the footsteps before they entered the room.
"Snape? You should be at –"
But Snape motioned for her to be silent and drew up inches from Sirius, staring intently at him. "Is this Sirius Black?"
"Yes." November couldn't understand why he cared or what was going on. "We've been playing chess for the better part of an hour. What's wrong?"
"Your godson," Snape addressed Sirius quickly, "believes that you are being tortured in the Department of Mysteries by the Dark Lord as we speak."
"No…" Sirius sat down heavily, sounding as if the air were rushing out of him, and stared at Severus. All his worries were confirmed in that sentence. "Has he…?"
"Done anything stupid? Yes. I can only assume that they will be well on their way to the Ministry to save you as soon as they are free of Umbridge, which should not be hard."
November and Sirius gaped. "We must call the Order," November finally managed. The whole thing was so huge and so immediate it seemed hard to act. "Find my hus–" she stopped and blushed deeply. "Find Remus, Sirius. I'll go for Tonks and Alastor as soon as I've changed. Snape, you must find Dumbledore."
The tall, dark wizard simply nodded before disappearing back through the fire. November began to take the stairs a few at a time when someone grabbed her arm. Sirius Black held her elbow and was giving her an odd look.
"Your husband? That's what you were going to say?"
"I misspoke."
"He should be, though. I've been telling Moony that for weeks. With the war… you haven't got time to spare."
She was frozen by the unexpected candor; Sirius had never been as serious with her as he was with Remus.
"I can't make him want that, no matter what I want," she half whispered. The fog in her brain cleared somewhat and she dashed back up the stairs, disappearing from sight.
Remus appeared shortly after her hair had turned white blonde.
"You cannot go! I won't allow it!"
She disappeared from sight and he could hear her three floors below walking toward the kitchen fireplace. She was nearly there when he appeared, blocking her way. He caught her up in his arms and she could tell plainly he was not angry; he was afraid for her.
"I'm Order too, Remus!"
"But Lucius will almost certainly be there!"
November hugged him close to her, painfully aware that the longer this went on the more time they lost. "And I'll risk it all to fight by your side. I am going with you because I love you and because it is right."
Remus stared at her for a moment and then crushed his moth against hers; she would have melted had there not been immediate danger. "I'll go for Kingsly." He pushed her away from him as if forcing himself to let her go and he disappeared through green flame.
Tonks, November, and Alastor appeared in the circular entrance to the Department of Mysteries to the sound of shouts and screams. But it was not at all clear where they were coming from. Moody marked the door they had come from as soon as they shut it and the doors spun about them, pulling to a stop with one carrying a glowing X.
"Where do we start?" Tonks sounded as overwhelmed as November felt but Moody was quick on his feet.
"Each start with a corridor to the left of the marked door. Listen and then move on to the next door."
Within minutes they had narrowed down two doors. One door led to a glowing room and the next, down to an amphitheater.
"Harry!" Tonks immediately recognized the boy's voice and started down toward the amphitheater. But November heard another voice through the glowing room that also stood out to her.
"Ron's down there, Alastor!"
His magical eye seemed to bore through the walls and he nodded quickly, stepping into the same passage as Tonks. "Go to them and find us! Constant vigilance!"
When Remus entered the round room with doors, he was just in time to see November's blonde hair and Alastor's coat disappear through two separate corridors and with no time to call out. Kingsly dashed forward, grabbing the door Alastor had gone through before it could shut. But November's door had already closed, now indistinguishable from the others.
Kingsly could clearly see the warring sides within Remus and he indicated the door he held. "She'll be safe."
With a nod and a sick feeling, Remus followed him through the door.
November had managed to stop the brain from squeezing the life out of Ron using Duro but it was only a minor improvement as he was now bound up in it. She quickly decided that it may be for the best to leave him that way; he was not at all himself and couldn't be let free to wander around.
Praising Remus for reminding her of the Ferula spell only days ago, she was able to heal and bind up Ginny's black and swollen ankle.
"Emendo!"
The cracking sound it made when it mended gave a clue as to how painful it was but Ginny did not scream. Less gracefully than she could have hoped, November collected Luna and Hermione and set them next to Ginny.
"Can you watch them, Ginerva?" She used the girl's full name, hoping to make her sound older than fourteen.
Ginny nodded weakly, eyeing Ron who seemed to have gone into hibernation since the brain was no longer fighting him.
"You're out of danger now. Which way did Harry go when he left?"
Ginny pointed and November was gone. It felt terrible leaving children alone like this, but they weren't in danger as long as the Death Eaters still had hope of gaining the prophecy.
When November entered the fray the first thing she looked for was Harry. She watched as Neville gouged Macnair in the eye and Harry slipped on Mad-Eye's eye. Her heart caught in her throat as she saw the man lying on his back and bleeding from the head. Shielding herself she rocketed down to him, protecting him as well. Her stitching spell closed the wound and stopped the bleeding but he still looked horribly pale.
A curse grazed her hair, singeing the ends. November spun around to see Malfoy fighting Remus and her heart stopped.
When Alastor and Tonks had entered, Tonk's stunning spell had knocked Lucius across three steps, and a moment later a barrage of spells had rained down on him; it had been all he could do to shield himself. Looking up at his attacker, the half-breed werewolf had been throwing any and every spell at him with eyes that burned and promised hell.
What had surprised Lucius most was the man's fist connecting with his face as Lucius regained his feet. But Remus had been forced to move very close for a physical hit like that and with a shout of "Obscuro!", Remus was blindfolded and very close indeed.
A kick in the knee yielded a crack and a roar of pain; if he wanted a Muggle fight he would get one. Remus collapsed and sent Lucius flying with Levi Corpus. Blonde hair caught the Death Eater's attention as he stood again. He blasted a spell off at the woman and she spun, facing him. For Lucius, time froze and all his suspicions were confirmed. He knew that look.
Lucius watched her eyes settle on the werewolf and his blood boiled. Rocketing off, he connected with his adversary. Remus was fighting to stand, and as Lucius pointed his wand at the other's throat and he could not resist a smile.
"Impedimentia!" November uttered the curse as a scream and Lucius Malfoy went flying, spinning like a top into the top tiers of the room. She scrambled to Remus and healed his knee with a loud crack that was almost as bad as the first. He let out another roar of pain and then stood quickly. His knee was bruised but he could walk again.
"What would you do if I wasn't here?" November murmured with a small smile before a hex forced them apart.
November ducked out from behind a chunk of loosened stone in time to see Tonks fall from the top tier and began to battle her way to the young witch. Halfway there, November again felt Lucius's magnetic pull and when she looked back, a hex blasting out of her wand at Macnair, she saw Harry blow Lucius off of his back and into the dais. Lucius glanced at her and trained is wand on Harry.
"Remus!" she screamed and the wizard dove between the two. He shouted for Harry to leave before facing off with the Death Eater.
"Your lover is quite the healer," Malfoy growled to Remus, circling and waiting for an opening. "How unfortunate." The dark wizard watched the half-breed's eyes almost explode with hate and inwardly he grinned. With flash of green from Lucius's wand, the duel was on.
A smashing sound drew Lucius's attention and he paled; Longbottom had dropped the prophecy. A blast of purple opened up a gash across Lucius's chest, cutting even through his robes and his cold grey eyes widened. While he had overplayed his hand at first, the werewolf was an excellent duelist and was going for the kill.
"DUMBLEDORE!"
November looked up quickly from Tonks, who was reviving, and saw the tall, aged man proceeding down the steps.
Lucius stared and then deliberately locked eyes with Remus. Firing off a barrage of curses, he disappeared through a corridor. Remus began to give chase, too full of hate to let him go.
Sirius and Bellatrix were still fighting. All the others had fled or fallen and yet Sirius was mocking his deranged, and now trapped, cousin. Like throwing rocks at a cornered and rabid dog.
November's mouth opened to shout, to tell him to stop it and get out of the way.
There was a flash of red.
Sirius seemed to hang in the air before falling, terribly slowly, through the curtain. And from her vantage point November could see he did not come out the other side.
Sirius was gone.
Remus had stopped pursing Malfoy as soon as Harry's shout rang out. He watched as his last remaining childhood friend fell through the veil. His disbelieving eyes locked with November and then settled on Harry, who was making a go for the veil. He caught the boy in his arms and November could hear him tell Harry it was too late.
Too late.
The door to the Black home swung open slowly and November refused to look anywhere but ahead as she entered.
It had been two days since she and Remus had returned. Two days since Sirius had died.
As soon as Fudge had made an appearance, November had made herself scarce. Death Eaters were not the only ones who believed her to be dead.
She and Remus had tried to collect as many children as possible, though Ron had taken off as soon as he was unbound. They had hidden in Hogwarts, dragging them to Madame Pomfrey with her agreement to hide Remus and November until they could leave again.
Night had found the couple with a room in Hogsmeade and several owls asking if they were safe.
Remus had said very little since that night and November had succumbed to a mini-coma, sleeping for hours on end and waking only to eat. She did not want to wake up, for when she was awake her friend was dead and her lover was a shell.
But they had to come back. They could only hide for so long.
Remus headed straight for the library and did not speak but November began to wander the house. As she passed the dining room something stopped her in her steps.
The chessboard sat quietly and unassumingly on the table, waiting for the next move that would never come.
With a wordless scream, November blew the chess set into powder.
"We should have a wake. We should have it here, Remus."
Another day had gone by and November was restless. She could not work through the grief by just sitting. She was attempting to put Sirius's things in order, for whatever purpose the house would next serve. Buckbeak had been set free; she couldn't bear to think of him stuck here without someone regularly in the house.
Remus looked up from the Prophet. The Ministry had changed it's tune fast enough to give whiplash and so had the Prophet. The latest headline was Umbridge's removal from Hogwarts. The vultures had begun to circle over Lucius Malfoy as well; several Ministry officials swore they had seen him there. With hollow eyes, Remus picked the paper back up.
"I think he would have liked a wake. Liked people to remember him."
The paper crinkled as he balled up his fists, still not talking to her.
November was shaking without realizing it.
"YOU CANNOT AVOID THIS, REMUS!" she screamed, little lights popping in front of her vision from the volume. "SIRIUS IS DEAD!"
As soon as she said it she knew it was a mistake but it was too late. Remus was on his feet, wand out and pointing at her.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT, WITCH?" he roared back and a white light exploded in her direction. She ducked and the books behind her exploded. Another spell sent the chair in front of her across the room.
November's own wand was out now and her temper was high. She blocked another spell and fired back at him. "One would never know you cold, unfeeling, animal!"
Remus lunged at her and she tore out of the room. A spell hit her in the back and she fell down the rest of the stairs. Rolling over she sent him hard into the banister and took off toward the dining room. Remus bolted after her, throwing any non-lethal curse he could think of at her. He wanted to scream and tear and rend. When he turned the corner into the dining room, the doorframe next to his ear exploded, splintering and forcing him to duck.
The two worked their way around the room, both on opposite sides of the table. The dining room was coming to pieces around them as glass, wood, and metal flew, exploded, and shattered. November resorted to flying plates at his head while Remus blew each one up in midair. He knew there would be a stalemate at this rate and he had had enough.
Silent as a shadow, Remus disappeared. November's arms fell to her sides and breathing heavily she turned to walk out of the ruined room. Instead she walked right into Remus.
In a swift motion he held one of her shoulders against the wall and his wand pointed dangerously at her neck. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wild.
"Go on!" November shouted hoarsely, starting to cry. "Kill me!" She yanked his wand so it's tip bore into her neck.
Remus's breathing became even more labored and November was shocked to see him collapse onto the floor. His hands clenched and unclenched, working through the dirt and debris. Racking sobs began to tear from him, expressing some emotion for the first time since Sirius's death.
November was by his side in an instant, holding his head to her shoulder. Tossing his wand aside, he clung to her, sobbing out all of the pain and loss he had stuffed away.
I tried to follow the book account of the battle as closely as possible so it is different than the movie version.
And for all those hoping for some resolution with Lucius…it's on the horizon!
