A/N) I hadn't meant to leave people hanging for so long (still at least it wasn't nearly three years!) and I do apologise for the delay in this chapter. I haven't been in the creative spirit for any fan-writing or reading for the last week or so. The next chapter has only three words written so far. There is a reason for this but its more related to real-life issues and problems that I am going through at the moment. I will keep fighting through. I cannot promise when the next chapter will be up, but I am hoping it won't be long.

Please, enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Forty: Fighting for One's Own Life

Monday 9th August 1995

Sirius sank into a chair at the kitchen table, his face weary. He had been called in to the Ministry of Magic hours earlier due to another attack made by Death Eaters on a poor Muggle family. The youngest child had been magical, but his ability had not been known about by his parents. The Death Eaters had still been at the scene when the Aurors had arrived but they had quickly left, not bothering to fight, leaving the devastated parents of the little boy. They had been transferred to St Mungo's for urgent treatment, but the Cruciatus Curse had been used upon them and unfortunately the mother had been tortured into insanity, with the father on the brink of it.

Once again, Voldemort had torn a family apart in his determination to rule both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. So far there hadn't been an attack on Sirius since Dumbledore had warned him that the Lestranges had been given the order to bring him in. He was being careful, only going out into the field if necessary, staying more in the office then he usually did. It would only be a matter of time before the Ministry of Magic became Voldemort's target, but for now, as long as he was within its walls, Sirius was safe from harm. Intelligence was reaching the Order of the Phoenix that plans were afoot to crumble the Ministry, but no firm date had been set, and in response to the information handed to them, the Aurors had increased the protection the Ministry had.

As Sirius sat at the table, numbly eating a few pieces of toast that Molly had set down in front of him, Remus came bustling into the kitchen, his hands holding six Hogwarts letters, one each for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George.

"They're not going," said Sirius instantly.

Remus looked quizzically at him. "To Diagon Alley?"

Sirius nodded. "We know Voldemort is keeping a watch on the place. He will certainly attack if Harry turns up to collect his books. None of them can go."

"And that means you too, Sirius," said Molly Weasley sternly, over her cup of tea.

He scowled at her as he bit into his toast. "Really? I was under the impression that I could make up my own decisions."

She glared at him, her eyes flashing. "Professor Dumbledore –"

"I know what he said!" snapped Sirius, irritably. "Voldemort will still attack whoever is there! Even you, Molly, because you are close to Harry! In fact, we've been placing Aurors on duty who are not part of the Order so it doesn't give Voldemort a reason to attack! Whoever goes to the place will be attacked. Better for us to go in numbers, the less chance we'll be if we are outnumbered."

Molly had the foresight to know that arguing with him was not a good idea. She could not stop him from going.

So, when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny appeared for breakfast, Molly dutifully handed them their letters and explained that they would not be going to Diagon Alley themselves due to security reasons but in their place Sirius, Remus and Bill would accompany her to pick up their books. Charlie Weasley had returned to Romania following Harry's birthday to drum up support from foreign Wizards for their cause. No other Order member had been immediately available for the trip but Mrs Weasley had decided that getting the school equipment should be done as quickly as possible. There was hope that whoever the assumed traitor was would not have enough time to pass on the information to their Master.

"Oh, I'm a prefect!" said Hermione as a badge fell into her hand from the parchment she had just unfolded. She held up the small badge which had the Gryffindor Lion engraved upon it, with the letter P emblazoned golden across it. She looked immediately to Harry, expecting to see a badge in his hand too, but she was surprised to see Ron staring at a badge he now held the palm of his hand.

"I'm... I'm a prefect?" stammered Ron. His eyes were bulging and his hand shook as he held the shiny badge in his hand. "Why... why me?" He looked to Harry, as if expecting him to take it and say it really was his. Ron glanced down at his letter and saw his own name proclaiming him a Prefect.

""WHAT?"

The sheet of parchment was ripped from Ron's hand by Fred who scanned the letter, his eyes opening wide in disbelief. "No way..."

"We thought it would be you, Harry!" said George. "Especially after everything you have done."

"Harry has enough on his plate to do this year and have prefect duties added to it as well," explained Sirius.

Harry knew what he meant. His godfather had not yet told him about the Occlumency lessons he would be receiving, but he was sure that Sirius knew he had been eves dropping on the meeting when Snape had suggested it.

Molly came bustling over, saw the shiny object in Ron's hands and let out a shriek. "Oh, you're a Prefect? Oh, that's everyone in the family!"

Sirius stole a glance at Fred and George's reactions.

"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbours?" asked George indignantly, as he watched his mum flung her arms around her youngest son.

"Oh, we'll have to get you a present for this! We gave Percy an owl..." Molly trailed off.

Ron shifted uncomfortably, the eyes of everyone in the room on him. "Mum, could I have a new broom?"

His mother's face fell slightly. Everyone in the room knew that broomsticks were expensive.

"I'll have an owl if that helps..." said Ron, his ears going red as he blushed.

Before Molly could answer, Sirius pitched in. "Tell you what, in return for Ron's help in freeing me a year ago, I'll fund the broomstick for him. A Firebolt sound good to you?" he asked.

"What?" Ron was quite shocked by Sirius' offer.

"No Sirius, you can't do that," said Molly. "We can't accept charity."

Sirius shrugged. "Ron helped clear my name. I owe him." He turned abruptly to Hermione, cutting off Molly's reply: "What would you like, Hermione?"

Hermione turned a bright shade of pink. "I don't know." She looked rather uncomfortable.

"It'll be a surprise then," smiled Sirius. He glanced back at Molly. "And if you still want to buy a present yourself for Ron, then obviously you can, but you won't stop me funding him the broomstick. I have enough gold to last me a dozen lifetimes. I need to spend it on something. At the moment, it's just sitting there, wasting away... not being used. And I owe Ron and Hermione for believing me when they helped prove my innocence. Without their willingness to know the truth, I would not be here and Harry would still be stuck with those horrible Muggle relatives of his."

It was clear by his tone that there would be no argument on the matter. It was a rare thing for someone to silence Molly Weasley, but Sirius Black could assert his authority if he wanted to. He was a powerful wizard and one who had established all sorts of connections with various Wizarding families since he had been reinstated as an Auror. He was one Wizard who could win arguments, after all James had been reluctant to let Peter be his Secret Keeper. It had only been at Sirius's insistence that Peter had been chosen...

With everything else decided, Sirius got up from his chair and walked out of the kitchen, fully aware that his godson's eyes were following his every move.

Sirius, Molly, Remus and Bill left for Diagon Alley an hour later leaving Harry and the others in the care of Tonks who was off-duty from the Aurors. They were sitting quietly in Harry's bedroom (Hermione hard at work on an essay for Ancient Runes; Ron flipping through Which Broomstick magazine and Harry was looking through an old photo album that Sirius had found in an old cupboard in his father's study.) It showed the history of the Blacks and he found it quite enlightening, learning more about his godfather's family. When he reached the end of the book he found a photo of a young Sirius, evidently taken before he had gone to Hogwarts, looking very much like the pure-blood Wizard he had been brought up to be but had not filled his parents aspirations for when he had gone to school. Beside the photo was one of Regulus Black, but the following page showed an elder Regulus, presumably shortly before his death. On the left hand side of the book was a scorch mark. He reasoned that would have been where an elder Sirius would have been if he had been the son his family had wanted him to be.

"You know," said Harry, glancing up as he closed the book, "Sirius really blames himself for my mum and dad's death." He had been thinking this through ever since he had seen his godfather confront Molly.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Hermione.

"This book," he held it up, "the whole history of the Blacks. Sirius, no matter how much he denies it, he's so like them. The only difference is his views on pure-blood society and muggleborns. Blacks are loyal to what they believe in and that's what Sirius is. He believed in friendship and loyalty... but his beliefs got my parents killed... The Blacks don't consider friendship an aspect of the family... but certainly loyalty is a big part of it, which is why Sirius's different views were an insult to his parents. But if you believe in something so much, you're bound to feel guilty if that belief turns out to kill those you love." Harry swallowed. "Sirius believed that Wormtail wouldn't betray my parents... and he was wrong. And another thing, Blacks were good at winning arguments... Sirius demonstrated that earlier by winning against your mum. There are quite a few major arguments listed in this book between Blacks and other families... according to this history, Blacks always won."

"The Blacks are one of the oldest Wizarding lines left in our world," said Ron. "Mum told me. It's older then the Malfoy line. They'd take a lot of store in keeping the line as pure as possible and keeping the name running."

"Sirius is the last male Black left, isn't he?" asked Hermione, laying down her quill.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, Sirius isn't married. Wouldn't it be an affront to the pure blood society if he died without an heir, especially if they put so much time and effort into preserving the family name?" questioned Hermione.

Harry shook his head. "I'm his heir. I took his last name, remember? I may not biologically be his son, but I've been researching my family tree through the old records I found at Godric's Hollow. My dad was a pure-blood and Potter is one of the old families. Somewhere along the line the Potter and Blacks married into one another but branched off. I've got a bit of Black blood in me so I can legitimately be his heir. Besides, I doubt Voldemort would be annoyed if the Black family died. The last pure heir is fighting against him." He shrugged. "Sirius officially adopted me. Any child of mine would bear both our names."

"And I suppose You-Know-Who wants to preserve the families that are loyal to him rather than those that are blood traitors," returned Hermione, her shoulders sagging.

"Yeah," said Harry. He fell silent, feeling at a loss. He opened the album again and turned to the beginning and began to read once more, seeing if he had missed anything about Potter in the book but if the Potter's had been unlike the Blacks, it would be unlikely they would be mentioned in the book as it seemed to only deal with those who had been of pure of mind and who had not contaminated themselves with other ideas and ideals.

They had got all the books they required, and Sirius had purchased a Firebolt for Ron and a big book of Ancient Runes stories for Hermione to decipher. He knew she loved that subject more than anything. Molly had bought her son a new owl, a brown tawny. They were on their way back to the Leaky Cauldron where they would be able to safely floo back to the Ministry before using Sirius's own private floo connection in his Auror's office to get back to Grimmauld Place, when the first jet of red light shot over his head. He instinctively ducked, pushing Molly away from him and whipping out his wand as he shot a glance over his shoulder.

Five hooded Death Eaters stood in a row behind them; other shoppers now running for cover. Bellatrix Lestrange pulled her hood down and her dark eyes gleamed with satisfaction. "It's been a long time, cousin."

He didn't reply, instead he shot off a disarming spell but she smacked it away with a wave of her wand. Sirius didn't need to tell Molly to get away for Bill was already dragging her towards the exit, trying to keep her fingers entwined in the shopping she and Sirius had just bought. The Death Eaters paid no attention to her; instead they focused entirely on Sirius's face alone. Even Remus, standing at his side, with his own wand raised, did not warrant any such look.

"Give up now, Sirius!" Bellatrix shouted.

He raised his eyebrows. "So you can use me against Harry?" He laughed. "Unlikely!"

"If you want to make it difficult for yourself..." said Bellatrix, her voice low and menacing. "TAKE HIM!"

A stringent of curses flew towards him, with a killing curse thrown towards Remus who ducked aside. Sirius battled every curse away, but felt his shield crumble as a powerful spell shattered them. He fell to one knee as a Diffindo spell cut into his leg. Blood spurted from the wound, but it wasn't deep... hadn't caused too much damage.

"IMPERIO!" yelled one of the other Death Eaters.

A floating motion descended upon him and he swayed where he stood, fighting back against the command in his head that was telling him to surrender, to simply lay down his wand and walk away with him.

"SIRIUS! Fight it!"

He could dimly hear a voice he knew... and his heart blossomed as the faces of Harry and Remus surfaced in his head. The Unforgiveable curse was lifted and he felt himself being flown through the air as a Blasting curse hit him in the chest. He landed beside Remus, who hauled him into the cover of one of the shops: the Apothecary.

Remus grabbed his shoulders. "Stay here, Sirius."

"No," he wheezed, clutching his chest as he panted. The curse must have broken at least a rib. His head was swimming, and his fingers felt numb as he tried to keep a grasp on the thin piece of wood that was his wand.

"You're injured and if you go out there, they'll get you, and that is the last thing Dumbledore wants," said Remus firmly, his eyes glaring into Sirius's orbs.

"I won't lay down without a fight!" yelled Sirius.

"You've fought," his friend replied. Before Sirius could reply, Remus had turned and ran from the store, brandishing his wand in front of him, muttering curses as he ran out, flashes of light flying from his wand as he did so.

"Damn it," muttered Sirius, as he struggled to his feet once more. He moved towards the door, keeping himself hidden. They knew he was hiding from them... and he could see they were determined to kill Remus. Killing curses were flying everywhere, Remus barely managing to avoid them all in his dance around the crumbling street. He spied one of the Death Eaters concentrating so firmly on Remus that Sirius took a risk. He cast the stunning spell, and ducked back around the door frame after the Death Eater had fallen to the ground.

Grunting with pain that had flared up his ribs at his sudden movement, Sirius risked a glance back outside –

He threw himself to the floor as three jets of blue light flew over his head, impacting against the far wall. And then everything started to fall all around him as the entire building started to collapse. And he could not even get out before it all fell down upon him. The last thing he saw was the ceiling crashing down towards him, and everything went dark.

To be continued...

Please let me know what you think! Reviews do keep me working at this story, so please drop me a line or a word!

Next chapter will be soon, hopefully within the next week.

the-writer1988