I do not own Harry Potter, but I am enjoying writing about it anyway.
Ten minutes later they were bursting through the Department of Mysteries door into a circular room full of doors. Kingsley had barely shut the door behind them when the entire room began to spin.
"Department of Mysteries," Tonks whispered.
"Where are they?" James shouted. How were they supposed to find them in this mess?
Lily chose a door at random, and everyone peered into it. It looked like it was stepping straight into space.
"This room doesn't seem to be disturbed," growled Moody.
"That doesn't mean anything," James hissed.
Tonks took a step into the room. "Woah!" she cried, as she floated around as if actually in space. Remus grabbed her and yanked her back into the circular room.
"That'll take us nowhere fast," said Lily, "Let's try somewhere else."
"And we need to split up," said Moody. "I'll take Lily. Tonks and Kingsley can be another group. That leaves you three." Pointing at the Marauders. Everyone nodded. They shut the door, and Kingsley placed a glowing sign on it before the room started to spin again. Then each group opened a door and entered.
"They've been here!" James crowed, as the door shut behind them. It was a room full of glowing, dancing light. But what really struck James was the case of time turners stuck in a time loop where the case jumped off the wall, shattered, and jumped back on fully mended. There was no way that it was supposed to be like that.
Unfortunately, there were plenty of doors in this room too. "Which one?" Sirius asked, irritated.
"Listen," Remus said, sharply. Faint screaming could be heard, easily recognizable to anyone who had fought in the first wizarding war. Someone was being tortured.
Like a well-ordered machine, the Marauders each crossed to one door to listen. Remus motioned the others. It was loudest from his door. Heart hammering, James raced with the others through the door and, ignoring the vacant room they passed through, crossed to the door. The screaming had stopped, but thankfully there was only one door.
James flung it open and ran through it, followed by his best friends. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lily and Moody entering from another door. His focus, however, was on the dais below them. In the center was a stone arch way with a veil waving slightly in it. Not very far from it stood Harry, holding the prophesy tight in his hand, holding it out to Malfoy. He and nine other Death Eaters were surrounding the dais, and Bellatrix Lestrange stood over Neville Longbottom.
Sirius shot a spell at her, which she dodged. Tonks and Kingsley were running down the opposite side, and Tonks fired a stunner at Malfoy. Harry dived off the dais out of the way. James, raining down spells while running from step to step, was glad to see him out of the way.
James jumped the last six feet to the level floor and was immediately confronted by a masked Death Eater. He blocked the attack and sent a jinx of his own. Two minutes of blocking and attacking, and James hit the Death Eater with a spell that knocked him ten feet backwards.
James immediately spun around, looking for his son and Neville. His blood turned to ice as he saw Harry. A Death Eater was holding him up by his throat. James shot a stunning spell at the cloaked figures back, and he collapsed, dropping Harry. James sprinted over. "Harry, Neville, get out of here!" He shouted at them. Then he noticed Moody, lying on the floor, his magical eye missing, blood pouring from his head.
He looked around for the old auror's attacker, just in time to see Dolohov make a slashing movement that James recognized from the first war; a gruesome spell of his own invention. "Protego!" he cried.
Dolohov glared at him and sent another spell in his direction, which James deflected. The Death Eater raised his wand, preparing to send another spell. "Petrificus totalus," Harry cried, and Dolohov's limbs snapped together, and he keeled over.
"Nice one!" shouted Sirius from next to them as he stunned the Death Eater he was dealing with. "Now I want you to get out of..."
James yanked Sirius out of the way of a flash of green light. Across the room, Tonks fell limply from halfway up the stone steps, while Bellatrix, triumphant, ran back into the fray.
"Harry, take the prophesy, grab Neville, and run!" Sirius yelled, rushing to meet his cousin.
James did not have time to escort his son. Tonks and Moody were both down. "We're going," said Harry, already grabbing at Neville. James nodded and raced back into the fight.
He dodged an attack and sent a spell at another Death Eater as he ran past. He caught sight of Lily's flaming red hair as she dueled two opponents. Blood dripped from a cut on her cheek, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. James rushed forward to help her. Side by side, they fought the Death Eaters.
Just as Lily got a spell beneath her opponent's defenses, sending him flipping through the air, there was a crash right behind them. James placed a quick shield charm and glanced over his shoulder. Lucius Malfoy had crashed into the dais they were dueling around. He raised his wand, and James saw Remus jump between Malfoy and Harry.
Next thing James knew, he was sailing backwards. The Death Eater had taken advantage of his distraction and gotten through his shield charm. His glasses slipped off his face, and James groped for them with the hand still holding his wand, while the other rubbed his sore chest. He found them and put them on, just in time to notice a pale, white figure rising into the air. His heart sank. The prophesy had smashed.
He looked wildly around. It appeared that everyone was too busy fighting to notice the prophesy, and it was too noisy to hear. Thank heavens.
James was distracted by a Death Eater suddenly coming into his field of vision. His mask was off, and James recognized him as Thorfinn Rowle. He was grinning. He raised his wand. James rolled out of the way, the spell creating a crater where James had been seconds before.
He was still in a vulnerable condition, down on one knee before the advancing Death Eater. James sent a hex at him, which he deflected, giving James time to stagger to his feet. Rowle raised his wand again.
There was a scream. Somebody yelled, "Dumbledore!" Rowle whirled around, and James ran around him to see.
Albus Dumbledore was already at the foot of the stone steps, yanking back a Death Eater who had tried to run for it. James' heart leapt. They were saved! The first battle of the Second Wizarding War would end in a rousing victory for the right side.
"Come on!" A shout from the dais called his attention. Sirius was still dueling Bellatrix. "You can do better than that!" He taunted her, laughing. As James watched, a jet of red light struck his friend square in the chest. Sirius was flung backwards, laughter not yet gone from his face.
James ran forward. He knew instinctively that it would be bad if Sirius hit the veil. He had to catch him; he had to get to him before... before.
He was too late.
Sirius made eye-contact with James before he fell through the veil. James saw the look of mingled shock and fear on his face. And then he was gone. The veil fluttered, then lay still again. And Sirius did not reappear.
He had made it to the steps when something crashed into him, stopping him from his mad dash towards the veil. It was Lily. She wrapped her arms around his middle in a fierce embrace, forcing him to a halt. "He's g-gone," she whispered.
"No. No, he isn't," said James, shaking his head so his hair trembled. Lily shook her head, hiding her face in his shoulder, but keeping a tight hold of him. She didn't let him go.
"He isn't," he repeated, numbly. James didn't know what to think or feel. In the seconds since Sirius was hit, his only thought was to get to him before the veil. He was too late, and Sirius was... Sirius was...
It couldn't be. It just couldn't.
Vaguely he realized that he could hear shouting. Someone was calling Sirius' name over and over again at the top of their lungs. The voice echoed the throbbing pain James felt spread through his being so intense it was almost physical.
It did not seem possible that Sirius was... that Sirius, of all people, would be the first Marauder to...
The knowledge came after the pain. It seeped through him slowly in the wake of the agony, spreading through him with each beat of his heart, from his chest throughout his whole body. As if his heart had realized the truth before his head caught up.
Sirius was gone. Forever. Dead.
James crumpled. He fell into Lily's embrace, wrapping his arms around her and clutching her to him. He would have fallen straight to the floor if she was not there to support him. Nothing else existed. Nothing but Lily tightly hugging him, and the horrible emptiness where Sirius used to be.