(A/N as I made you wait so long for the last chapter, I guess the least I could do was a quick update. You can all thank Queen Conquer who threatened to shoot me lol. I hope you all like it and don't cry too much. let me know what you think, I love all my reviews and want to thank all those who have reviewed so far. It inspires me to write faster :) hint hint)
Chapter 20: Sirius's Death
Lily looked like she was about to get up and get some food but Hermione shook her head. She just wanted to get this year over with. If she delayed much longer it was going to be that much harder to say. She hadn't exactly been close to Sirius before and it had been upsetting. Now, when she could see him in all his younger glory days, thinking of losing him again was horrifying.
"Harry told us that Snape reckoned he could carry on himself and failed to mention what he had seen. With all of this going on we only had a few weeks until exams so I was trying to make the boys study."
"Yes. Please make Harry study." Lily begged.
"Well, Harry wanted to talk to Sirius about what he had seen and so Fred and George planned a distraction so that he could use Umbridge's fireplace."
"Great plan." James grinned.
"Knew we loved those twins for a reason." Sirius beamed.
"But before then we had careers advice."
"Oh yeah. I remember that. Boring." James said.
"Maybe for you." Remus muttered.
"Umbridge was at Harry's." McGonagall scowled. "He decided that he wanted to become an Auror. Umbridge tried to say that his DADA grades weren't high enough."
"But he is awesome at that." Remus protested.
"Yes. Professor McGonagall basically said he got good grades under any competent teacher." Hermione said, biting back her laughter. Nobody else was as restrained. McGonagall's lips twitched into a smug smile and the three marauders were rolling around laughing. Hermione gave them a minute to let out the tension that had been around for a while.
"Brilliant Minnie." Sirius choked out between his chuckles.
"That's dangerous Minerva. Calling Dolores incompetent to her face." Dumbledore warned, although he was still smiling himself.
"Umbridge then said that as long as Fudge was Minister Harry had no chance of becoming an Auror so Professor McGonagall said she would coach him personally to make sure he got the grades to become one." Hermione smiled.
"Thank you Professor." Lily said fervently.
"Wow. Go Harry, you even got Minnie to like you." Sirius ruffled Harry's hair.
"May have something to do with not causing trouble every five minutes or calling her Minnie." Lily told him with raised eyebrows.
"Five minutes? Give us credit Lils. Every minute." James grinned.
"After this, Harry was still planning to go to Umbridge's office even though I tried to persuade him otherwise. Thankfully he took the cloak and got in ok. Fred and George set off a portable swamp in a corridor."
"Wicked!" James, Sirius and Remus cried.
"Those two are pure genius." Remus laughed.
"Love them." Sirius grinned.
"Both Remus and Sirius were then when Harry made his appearance. They reassured him that James was a nice guy just a bit of an idiot."
"Gee, thanks guys." James grumbled.
"Anytime." Remus chuckled.
"They were both outraged when he said Snape stopped giving him lessons. They told him to go back and ask to resume them, which of course, he didn't."
"He should, but I don't blame him. Snape wasn't exactly being overly helpful was he?" James sighed. Lily looked down. The more her old friend was in the story, the worse he seemed.
"Harry made it back out in time to see Umbridge try and put the twins in detention. However, they decided now was the time to leave. The summoned their brooms, and flew out of the school. Not before ordering Peeves to give Umbridge hell and telling everyone where their premises were."
"They are brilliant."
"But, their exams?" Lily looked horrified.
"They don't need them to run their own joke shop." Hermione informed her.
"They might just rival us. We have to help them start up." Sirius turned to James. "Once we teach Harry, he can help the twins and we can have marauders 2.0 in the school."
"No!" Lily and the teachers cried together.
"Once was more than enough." McGonagall said firmly.
"Well, once the twins were gone, we found out exactly how much stuff they had sold already. In almost every DADA class, people would suddenly develop nosebleeds, or vomit or high fevers so they all had to go to the hospital wing."
Everyone laughed.
"She couldn't get rid of the swamp and none of the other teachers were exactly offering to help." Hermione grinned with a sly glance at McGonagall, who was smiling slightly.
"Peeves was magnificent. He took the twin's words to heart and really did give her hell."
"He is a great ally to have on your side." Sirius beamed, looking glassy eyed in memory.
"At the next Quidditch match, Hagrid called Harry and I away."
"He what? Why would he take you away from Quidditch. That should go down as child cruelty." James cried.
"He decided to tell us how he kept getting all his injuries. Apparently he had managed to bring one giant back and he had hidden it in the forest."
"Oh good lord." McGonagall moaned. "A giant. In the forest. Whatever next?"
"It was his half brother. He thought he would be getting sacked soon so he wanted to introduce us to him so that if he left, we could teach it him English."
"Hagrid seriously wanted you to teach a giant English?" Sirius asked, looking both shocked and awed.
"Yes. We honestly couldn't believe him." Hermione said, shaking her head. "We got back just in time to see that Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup again."
"YES!" James and Sirius cried. "Go go Gryffindor. Go go Gryffindor." They chanted, dancing and spinning around the room while Harry clapped and gurgled with laughter.
"That's quite enough." McGonagall said sharply, raising her voice to be heard over the pair. They sat back down, grinning maniacally.
"Soon after that were our OWL Exams."
"I'm sure you did fine 'Mione. You probably got all O's." Sirius smiled warmly at her.
"Not quite. I got an E in DADA." She replied.
"Very good Miss Granger. I look forward to having you at Hogwarts." McGonagall smiled at her. Hermione beamed.
"ON the whole they all went rather well, until Astronomy. While we were up in the tower we saw some figures running across the lawn towards Hagrid. Umbridge was trying to get rid of him and avoid a scene like with Professor Trelawney."
"Well really. Sneaking up on him in the middle of the night." Flitwick said indignantly.
"How dare she." McGonagall cried. The others looked furious.
"Being half giant obviously gave Hagrid an edge and he was holding his own. That is, until Professor McGonagall came out to help him. The Aurors hit her with four stunning spells in the chest." Hermione finished, looking down. Everyone gasped.
"Those damn cowards." James cursed.
"They attacked, with no warning?" Dumbledore asked, his voice quiet, but somehow all the more deadly.
"Nothing. She just yelled at them to leave Hagrid alone and they stunned." Hermione told them all, grave faced.
"Absolutely outrageous." Lily scowled. "A Hogwarts teacher too."
"I'm sure I was just fine." McGonagall managed, finally speaking. She had gone pale but her face was calm.
"After that, Hagrid knocked out the rest of his attackers and ran off."
"Hagrid and Minnie in one night." Sirius said, shaking his head in disgust.
"That left Snape as the only Order member at Hogwarts." Hermione sighed. "Anyway, we all went to bed after discussing everything we had seen. Next day we had History of Magic. During the exam Harry had a vision of Sirius being tortured in the Department of Mysteries by Voldemort. He wanted him to fetch something"
"No. Not Padfoot." James cried, hugging Sirius tightly. Remus was looking at Hermione shrewdly and remembered her comment about how Harry should have learnt Occlumency. He guessed this was a false vision.
"But, how would he get Sirius?" Lily asked. "Sirius may be silly sometimes but he wouldn't leave the house if he wasn't supposed to. Would you?"
"No. I may hate it, but I wouldn't." Sirius said firmly. He looked at Hermione.
"Well naturally Harry wanted immediately to go and help Sirius." Hermione said.
"Of course." James cried immediately.
"No Harry." Remus groaned.
"Gee thanks Moony." Sirius said, looking surprised at his old friend.
"Think about it. There must be plenty of other people Voldemort could torture to get what he wanted. Why Sirius when he is supposed to be at home. It's obviously a trap for Harry." Remus explained. They all looked at Hermione, who nodded.
"After the exam, Harry told us what he had seen. I managed to convince him not to just go racing off, we needed to check if Sirius was at home or not. I thought Voldemort might have sent him a fake vision."
"Good idea 'Mione." Sirius smiled thinly, his worry for Harry increasing with every moment.
"Ginny, Neville and Luna helped us make a distraction so we could use the fireplace in Umbridge's office to contact Sirius. He wasn't in the kitchen, there was only Kreacher. He told Harry that Sirius had gone out."
"No. Pads, why would you go out?" James groaned in desperation.
"Out of milk?" Sirius tried for a smile. Nobody laughed and the tension was rising rapidly.
"We got caught by Umbridge, as did the other three. She called Snape to get some veritaserum. He said he was out of stock and while he was in the office, Harry tried to use a code to give him a message about his vision."
"Good thinking Harry. Alert the Order." Dumbledore said proudly.
"Snape couldn't pretend to understand in front of Umbridge, but Harry mistook that for not understanding at all. She then wanted to use the cruciatus curse on Harry to get him to tell the truth."
"NO!" James and Lily cried.
"That evil woman. How could she even think of using that on a student?" Remus growled. The teachers all looked horrorstruck.
"I managed to stop her by pretending we were looking for Professor Dumbledore to tell him a weapon was ready."
"Good girl. Playing on their fears. I knew I liked you for a reason." Sirius smiled at her. Hermione blushed.
"We led her into the forest, I was trying to get to Grawp, Hagrid's brother, but we got waylaid by the herd of Centaurs. Umbridge insulted them and they carried her off somewhere. Grawp saved us from them and they all took off, leaving me and Harry alone. We were about to head back to the castle when Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna appeared with our wands."
"How'd they get away?" Sirius asked.
"Told the Slytherins they wanted some sweets and gave them some skiving snackboxes. Ginny used a great bat bogey hex. They were her specialty. As half of us didn't have brooms it seemed impossible to get to London. Harry didn't want anyone going with him."
"Urgh. He has to learn to use his friends. I wouldn't have been anywhere without Sirius and Moony." James said.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." McGonagall said dryly. Lily laughed.
"In the end, Harry and I were covered in blood from the centaur attack on Grawp and attracted enough Thestrals for everyone to ride."
"Awesome." James breathed.
"Cool." Sirius grinned.
"Boys." Lily groaned.
"We got to the Ministry fine and made our way towards the Department of Mysteries. One room had loads of doors and as soon as we shut the door we came through, the room spun like mad so we couldn't tell where we came from. We tried one, but it only had a tank full of brains in. As we came out I put a spell on the door so we knew if we had been in it or not."
"At least they took someone with common sense." McGonagall sighed.
"My son has common sense." James protested indignantly.
"The next room had a large dais with a veil. Harry was sure he could hear voices coming from it." Dumbledore looked concerned. "Next was the right door. We made it to the hall of Prophecy and to the row Harry had seen Sirius, but nobody was there."
"It was a trap." Groaned Lily.
"Six teenagers, alone in the Ministry of Magic. Just great." Sirius moaned.
"Ron saw a prophecy with Harry's name on which Harry took. As he did, we got surrounded by Death Eaters."
"No, no, no. This can't be happening." James muttered to himself. Everyone looked worried.
"Malfoy was there, with Bellatrix."
"Damn my cousin to hell." Sirius growled. Hermione flinched slightly.
"They wanted the prophecy, which Harry refused to give them. He tried to keep them talking until we could make a plan. He told us to smash the shelves which would give us time to run. He kept them talking until I could relay the message to everyone. We sent exploding curses everywhere and ran."
"Good. Nice plan Harry." James said.
"We got separated. Neville was with me and Harry, the other three got lost. We managed to hold off the Death Eaters and keep moving. Unfortunately they caught up. We all got thrown backwards and I got hit with some curse and was unconscious."
"No." Sirius groaned, clutching Hermione's hand tightly. "You were ok though?" He asked urgently.
"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." She assured him softly.
"Yeah. That's right." He muttered, but he didn't loosen his grip on her hand.
"Neville ended up with a broken nose and couldn't cast spells properly, which only left Harry. Finally, he found the others. Ginny had a broken ankle and Ron had been hit with some curse and was acting really stupid. The brain tank got broken and Ron touched one. It tried to strangle him."
"Oh god." Lily groaned, her head in her hands. James was clutching baby Harry to him and all the teachers looked deeply worried.
"They are just kids." Remus whispered, more to himself than anyone in particular.
"Just then the Order arrived."
"Oh thank goodness. McGonagall was duelling, it was crazy. Sirius told Harry to get the others and blasted Tonks backwards."
"NO!" Sirius roared.
"She was ok Sirius. Then you took up that duel in her place. Remus jumped in front of Harry and Neville to duel Malfoy, telling Harry to go. Neville had been hit with Tarantallegra which made helping him walk difficult and the prophecy got smashed. Then Dumbledore arrived."
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
"Then Sirius was taunting Bellatrix and she...she…" Hermione started to sob. "She killed him. He fell through the veil."
There was a deafening silence. It was only broken by Hermione's sniffling.
"No. Pads, can't be. He can't be dead." James croaked. A tear trickled down Remus' cheek as he looked over at his oldest friend. Hermione was crying quietly on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius just sat in silence. Shock was written across his pale face. Suddenly James got up and pulled Sirius into a bear hug.
"It's not gonna happen. Ok? You hear me Padfoot? You are not gonna die." James told him firmly, brushing away his own tears. The anguish and determination in his voice broke Hermione's heart all over again. It also shocked Sirius out of his shocked state.
"Neither are you Prongs." Sirius replied gruffly.
"It's not fair dammit." Remus growled. "None of it. None of you deserved to die so young. Why am I the only survivor?"
"Remus I'm so sorry." Sirius finally managed. "I failed. I left you all alone again." Remus got up and joined in the hug with Sirius and James.
"You didn't fail me ok? I thought you were gone fourteen years previously. Then you came back and probably gave me the best two years I would have had in a long time. That's more than I would ever have expected." Remus tried to explain through his own quiet sobs. "You always did more than was expected of you."
"But it wasn't enough. I didn't kill her. And I left Harry alone again."
"Sirius. It wasn't your fault." Hermione said softly. Sirius looked down at her. Then he broke free of the others and pulled her into a hug.
"Were you ok? Did anyone else.." He broke off. She shook her head.
"Some scrapes and bruises, but it was only you that..." She broke off as well, unable to say it out loud, mumbling against his shoulder.
"At least there is that. The kids all got out ok. I died making sure Harry and his friends survived. I died with a wand in my hand. No better way to go. At least it was for something good." Sirius said, looking everyone in the eye defiantly.
"Oh Sirius." Lily cried, getting up and hugging him. They all sat back down. James holding Lily and Harry close to him. Remus had one arm around Sirius' shoulder and Sirius has his arm around Hermione's waist.
The teachers watched in silence. McGonagall quietly blowing her nose and dabbing at her eyes.
"Shall we get this over with? Then we can have a break." Lily suggested. Hermione nodded and took a deep breath.
"Remus grabbed Harry to stop him trying to get Sirius back from the veil." Her voice was quiet and punctuated with hiccups.
"Thanks Remus." James muttered. Remus just nodded and gazed at the floor.
"He fixed Neville's legs as Professor Dumbledore rounded up the rest of the Death Eaters. Bellatrix ran out of the room and Harry gave chase.
"No. Harry. Not you too." James cried out in desperation as if Harry could hear him there.
"Harry started trying to duel her, taunting her that the prophecy was broken so she had failed Voldemort."
"No you idiot. Don't do that." Lily whispered in horror, clutching baby Harry tighter to her as if to make sure he was ok.
"Then Voldemort himself showed up."
Everyone tensed.
"Professor Dumbledore arrived as well and began duelling Voldemort. Fawkes joined in and then Voldemort did posses Harry."
"Shit. NO!" Sirius growled. Lily didn't even tell him off for language.
"Harry pretty much gave in, but he thought was that he would see Sirius again. The love he felt then forced Voldemort from his body and just then MInistry officials arrived and saw Voldemort just before he fled."
"Never thought I would ever be saying thank god for Sirius." Lily gave a weak chuckle.
"Professor Dumbledore sent Harry back to Hogwarts and made him wait in his office. Of course Harry now felt intensely guilty because he hadn't learnt Occlumency properly which meant he could see the vision and caused Sirius to…" Hermione gave a small hiccup and pushed on. "Be killed."
"Oh Harry. It's not your fault. If Snivelly had taught you properly, or if Dumbledore had taught you, it might have gone better." Sirius sighed. Everyone turned to glare at Dumbledore.
"Yes. You have some serious explaining to do." Lily said, glaring at the headmaster.
"He did. Although Harry had a furious temper fit before he let him explain."
"I'm not surprised. If I lived through that I wouldn't even be functional." James said in a small voice.
"Oh Prongs, you've never been properly functional anyway." Sirius gave a weak smile, which James returned reluctantly.
"He told Harry that ever since Sirius had ordered Kreacher 'out' during the Christmas holidays he had also been serving the Malfoys. He had taken it to mean 'out of the house' and gone to Bellatrix who was the closest family left. So when Harry checked in the fireplace, Kreacher lied about Sirius not being home and so Harry went off to the Ministry."
"Kreacher is the reason Sirius died?" James thundered. "That...that…" Words failed him in his anger and a small vase on the table exploded.
"Kreacher and Bellatrix teaming up to kill me. That definitely sounds like my family." Sirius remarked with feigned indifference.
"Snape had obviously realised what Harry;s crude message had meant, although he pretended otherwise. As soon as Harry and I didn't return from the forest he sent a message with what Harry had seen to headquarters."
"So he does have some use then." James growled. Remus and Sirius snorted.
"Dumbledore then explained about why Harry had to go back to the Dursley's every summer. He could not be touched by Voldemort as long as he called that place home and spent some time there every year. The protection in Lily's blood was present in the house because it also ran in Petunia."
"That's awesome Lils." James smiled, kissing her cheek softly. Lily looked overwhelmed as tears threatened to spill yet again.
"Every year Dumbledore put off telling Harry about his connection with Voldemort, deeming him too young for the burden. The prophecy that Voldemort was after was about the two of them. It said that one born to those who had thrice defied Voldemort and born in July would have the power to vanquish Voldemort. It said Voldemort would mark him as his equal and he would have power the dark lord knows not."
"Power he knows not?" Sirius asked, looking confused.
"Love." Dumbledore said softly. "Love is the basis for the protection from Lily, as well as saving him from possession in the Ministry. Voldemort does not understand love and nor does he want to. By being able to love, Harry has never seemingly been tempted by the dark side because of his love for Lily and James and Sirius too."
"That's all the power he gets? Hardly going to defeat Voldemort is it. I mean what's he supposed to do? Love the guy to death?" James snorted.
"Love protects him from Voldemort. Harry's skill will defeat him." Dumbledore said. "When the prophecy was made, it was overheard partially and Voldemort only heard the first part. It was made very recently in fact and we caught the intruder part way through it."
"So that's why Voldemort wanted Harry? And why you suggested James and I go into hiding." Lily asked. Hermione and Dumbledore nodded.
"Next day, the Prophet finally admitted that Voldemort had returned."
"Only a year too late." Remus remarked bitterly.
"They were back to being very complimentary about Harry as well. Umbridge was sacked."
"Good riddance." Everyone said in unison.
"Professor Flitwick got rid of the swamp easily, but left a small bit as a monument."
Flitwick gave a smile.
"You never did that for our magic!" James protested.
"Maybe theirs was more impressive." Flitwick said while fighting a smile. James and Sirius spluttered indignantly.
"Malfoy was fuming because the Death Eaters that got caught and put in Azkaban included his father. Professor McGonagall finally came back, having made a full recovery."
Everyone looked startled for a minute, the news about Sirius having driven that from their minds. Then they all smiled and the marauders all cheered.
"Hagrid was back as well."
"Oh good. At least Hogwarts is back to normal. Now please please can you have a boring year." Lily begged.
"Yes. Please do." James added his pleas.
"So that was the end of fifth year. Hermione looked down at her notes and decided to neglect mentioning Harry's idea that Sirius may have come back as a ghost. "At King's Cross Remus and Moody spoke to the Dursley's about treating Harry well and threatened them that they would answer to them."
"Thanks Remus." James grinned. "I would love to see the whale's face at wizards threatening him." He grinned gleefully.
"The Weasley's promised to get him out soon. Remus said that if they didn't hear from Harry every three days they would send someone to make sure he was ok. That's pretty much it." Hermione finished.
"That's more than enough. Let's have some food." Lily suggested, handing Harry to James.
"Are you ok?" Hermione whispered to Sirius.
"Not really. I guess everyone dies at some point, but Harry is going to need all the people he can get in the future. It feels like I let him down, dying."
"Sirius, you gave Harry a wonderful two years he never dreamt of having. You were the closest thing to his dad that he had and he loved you deeply. You helped him so much, never think you let him down." Hermione assured him. "Even when you died, it was fighting to keep him safe."
"Yeah. I suppose so." He mumbled, looking unconvinced. "I don't know how Lily and James have done this so far. Knowing they die so soon. And poor Moony." Sirius glanced up to make sure Remus wasn't listening.
"He was ok you know. Not the same, obviously he missed you terribly, but he was ok." She gave a small smile.
"Thanks 'Mione." Sirius said, kissing her cheek. "I'm glad you're here." He squeezed her hand and looked up expectantly as Lily came in with food.