Headmaster Dumbledore disillusioned himself and his phoenix, and dropped his patronus before accepting Orion Black's arm for side-along apparition. They did not go straight to headquarters but rather to a Black family property in the Chiltern Hills where Orion had apparently arranged to rendezvous with the Averies before approaching Dolohov's stronghold directly. It was a pleasant leisure estate with woodlands (and a herd of unicorns), a small lake, a flying course, and a tiny lodge. Richard Avery was waiting for them, along with an older woman in Death Eater robes. She was unmasked, though her hood was up. Richard stepped forwards immediately and said in a low voice, "Sirius, Lord Black... we've circulated the news to everyone we could reach. They all know the Dark Lord has fallen and that House Black plans to take control, but almost everyone with a Mark was at headquarters already. They thought that last flare was a summons. The people still inside are the ones Dolohov was able to convince he has a way to resurrect the Dark Lord and that you'll lose and be punished when he's back."

"And a few who tried to leave but were threatened into staying to fight," the older woman supplied. "I was amongst the last to get out, and I don't think there will be more. They've sealed the exits off completely while Dolohov is working on some ritual. No one else can get in without a Dark Mark, but there's not that many Marked still on the outside. Also, Dolohov's got some folks trying to figure out ways to ward you Blacks out, at least temporarily, Marked or not."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. He didn't recognize her. She smiled bitterly and shook back her hood. "Yolande Mulciber. I believe you killed my husband and son."

"Felix and Edwin?" Sirius asked. She nodded. He nodded back. "Yes, I cursed Felix."

Richard made a little sound of pained disbelief. Yolande laid her hand on his arm, shushing him. "Why? Why my son?"

"I did it after he tried to tempt me to rape a muggle slave he was keeping, the first time I visited his home." Richard's shock and betrayal twisted with disgust.

Yolande swallowed and nodded warily. He could sense sadness, fear, and shame from her. "I... I had to leave, when he started doing that. I don't know where that behavior came from. That's not how we raised him. It's not what we were fighting for. And Edwin wasn't like that, not until Felix..."

"Frankly, madam, I don't care at the moment. If you are here to confront me about it, then do so. If not, then this can wait until after more pressing matters have been addressed."

She frowned and drew herself up. "I will not seek vengeance, and I will grant you my support... if you will vouch for me and my daughters when this is over."

"The allies of House Black will be rewarded," Orion said smoothly before Sirius could say anything like point out he had never met her or her daughters before.

Dumbledore chose that moment to make himself known, dropping his disillusionment charm. "Although I will say, Sirius Black is not the witness you need be concerned about, Yolande. Now, might we discuss what defenses master Dolohov has enacted on the headquarters building, and the status of its Fidelius charm in Voldemort's wake?"

Both Richard and Yolande jumped. "You brought Dumbledore here?" Yolande hissed, rather than answering.

"House Black is interested in peace, which requires a broad alliance," Orion said diplomatically. His tone could not conceal his intense irritation at Dumbledore from Sirius.

"Sirius Black is interested in an answer to the fucking question so we can get on with this," Sirius said. He absorbed Dumbledore's vague amusement at his words. Fawkes shrieked at him. Dumbledore reached one hand up to soothe the phoenix.

"Sirius, be polite. Yolande, tell us about Dolohov's defenses, so we can gather our allies - all of them - and plan our siege."

The ensuing discussion took awhile. Whether Voldemort himself or rather Rodolphus Lestrange had been the secret keeper for headquarters, none of them knew, but regardless, Yolande confirmed that the Fidelius had collapsed. All the Marked Death Eaters at least seemed to be functioning secret keepers now, so it would be perfectly possible to ferry in Dumbledore, aurors, and others to help the fight. However, the building remained Unplottable, and as mentioned Dolohov had completely locked it down. No living creature without a Dark Mark could pass through the doors until that ward was broken. An invading army would face strong defense from those inside.

Of the Sacred Families with membership in the Death Eaters, the Averies, remaining Greengrasses, Maria Bulstrode and by extension her mother the family head, and surviving Rowles had decided to side with House Black. Apparently, they resented Voldemort's disproportionate retributions more than anything Sirius might or might not have done to sabotage them. Sirius imagined it rather helped that neither the Averies nor Narcissa actually knew the details of what all he had done. The Flints and Yaxleys were split, with their heads of house in Azkaban. Lord Selwyn refused to fight but hoped the Blacks won because he still maintained Bella owed him a debt for injuring his heir, who remained in St. Mungo's. No one had heard from the Travers siblings, and Lord Rosier was enraged at the loss of Evan his heir and therefore backing Dolohov despite close blood ties to Black, Avery, and Malfoy. None of the Carrows and Parkinsons remaining outside of Azkaban bore a Mark, so they took that excuse to stay out of the fight, though both Aeneas Carrow and Gaheris Parkinson had promised obsequiously not to oppose a successful Black power play, at least. Of the the other, lower class members of the Outer Circle, Yolande reported the werewolves had already scattered and hidden themselves. Most of the purebloods had otherwise split along the same lines as their patrons amongst the Sacred Families. Richard said Audrey and most other halfbloods she knew of had gotten out and gone to ground, except for a few that had worked too closely with Dolohov or Rosier to risk leaving.

"In that case," Dumbledore said, "I suggest we gather everyone needed for the siege here. My Order. The auror department. Any of your allies, Lord Black, who wish to volunteer their services. And then we can devise our strategy to penetrate the wards and bring our people in coordinated fashion. But first, Sirius, how far away is the dementor?"

"Dementor?" Yolande echoed blankly.

As if the question were a summons, an aardvark-shaped patronus scurried into the clearing just then and landed in front of Dumbledore. It spoke with Moody's voice. "Albus, the dementor is out of Gringotts. It's passing through northern London now. Barty and Minchum have the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes clearing its way with muggle-repelling charms and managing the search-and-rescue operation in Diagon and affected muggle areas, but it would help to know where exactly it's headed. My aurors are ready to engage as soon as they have a target. Also, you might like to know Barty's arrested Augustus Rookwood and gotten word from Lord Torquil Travers that he has his grandchildren Sullivan and Megaera in family custody and ready to turn over to the Ministry."

Sirius heard the message only distantly, though not quite so indistinctly as Dumbledore's earlier message had been. Perhaps this was because it was not directed to him or merely because it had been longer since he had performed the ritual and so was more audible with his ears. He could not resist walking up to the beautiful, warm thing and holding out his hand to it. The aardvark shied away from him, but not before he sampled the feeling of jubilation as a whole family celebrated the end of an unjust war. Some of the frost riming his robes on that side melted.

Yolande stared at him as the aardvark patronus dissolved into mist beneath his fingers. Though her face betrayed no emotion, the fear that had always been in her intensified. There was a hint of wonder as well, but that was fleeting as Sirius absorbed it. "What magic is this?" she whispered. She seemed finally to be realizing that the gravity of their conversation and the chill in the air had not been wholly natural.

"It is a way of assuring my son's victory," Orion answered briskly. "Dumbledore, you can tell your allies that I will set up an apparition point for them here, if they swear not to try to arrest or otherwise pick fights with any of my allies that gather to join us."

Perhaps wisely given his present ungracious, impatient state, Orion Black and Dumbledore mutually agreed to leave Sirius out of the center of things while they organized their assault on headquarters. They sent him to sit up in a nearby gazebo overlooking the manmade lake with Dumbledore's patronus for company and instructions to "use it" if he needed to. Otherwise, he was to keep tabs on the dementor and let them know when it was getting close to headquarters. Alastor Moody did come check on him as soon as he arrived, but there was little for him to say, really.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

"You're a brave kid."

"..."

"I'm proud of you, and I'm worried for you."

"..."

"I'm sorry it's come to this. I'll see you when it's over. Don't you dare take any more of these ridiculous risks."

About twenty minutes after Moody left, Richard found him, sitting down cautiously on the other side of the gazebo. Sirius watched him fidget but didn't say anything. He considered he'd probably destroyed the friendship he'd built with the young wizard over the past year, founded on false premises as it was. There was certainly none of Richard's usual warmth in his aura at the moment. He was a bundle of raw nerves and lingering grief.

He surprised Sirius when he spoke. "I don't really understand the ritual Narcissa said you were doing to destroy the Dark Lord once and for all. I don't think she did either. Are you... going to be okay, once this is over?"

Sirius tilted his head to one side. He honestly wasn't sure anymore. Some unexpected things had already happened since enacting the ritual. He certainly didn't understand it the way Voldemort had ensured he understood the Inferi ritual. "I don't know. Maybe."

Richard sniffed and swiped violently at his eyes. "I will never forgive you if you... you... kill yourself like this, Sirius."

"Were you ever going to forgive me, after everything you now know I've done?" Sirius asked.

"I-" he gulped. "I understand why you did it. You... You were never on the Dark Lord's side. And Sirius, you're right. The Dark Lord is... was evil. Whatever he says about blood purity and preserving values, it doesn't make up for everything else he did... He's killed so many of us. He corrupted Felix, and he corrupted you. What you did to- to Felix, and to Evan... I saw how much it cost you. You weren't faking that. You did it anyway because you were trying to bring down the Death Eaters..." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "And you never actually betrayed me. You tricked me, like you tricked everyone, but you said you would protect me, and you did. You let me keep my sanity, keep my conscience. Only now, I understand what a gift that really is. You've done things I sure as hell never could have done in your position."

They watched eachother silently for a moment before Richard spoke again.

"I need to know... you don't actually like killing and hurting people after all, do you? It was all an act?"

Sirius nodded.

He shuddered. "I am so, so sorry for what you..." he trailed off, still watching Sirius' expressionless face. He laughed suddenly, bitterly. "Merlin, it's like you're not even in there." He sighed. "I can't say I'm not angry with you - really, seriously angry - but I'm grateful to you, too. I'll still be your friend when this is over."

They sat quietly awhile longer, before Sirius ventured, "You should probably find someplace more pleasant to wait, Richard. I'm only going to make you feel worse about everything right now."

Richard shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not a fighter or a strategist. They don't need me over there, but I think you do."

"Suit yourself. You should have been in Hufflepuff."

The Slytherin snorted, an amusement which Sirius couldn't help but absorb after a few heartbeats. And so they remained, until Orion Black, Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, and a handful of other witches and wizards made their way over, having finally hammered out a strategy. "How far is the dementor from its target, Sirius?" Orion asked.

Sirius closed his eyes and reached out towards his other half. He'd been mostly ignoring its progress for the past hour, as it moved unimpeded through deserted muggle lands. He smiled slightly as he sensed both his hunter and his prey. "The Dark Lord will be devoured in about thirty minutes, I'd say. It's making good time."

"Well, then there's hardly any time to attack anyway," Orion said philosophically. His tone said he was trying to sway the majority to renege on a previous decision. "Might as well let the dementor do its work and go clean up in its wake."

"On the contrary, I'd say the dementor gives us leverage to persuade more of them to surrender now, at least the ones who think they might have a case for leniency and a chance to get out of an Azkaban sentence. We might save some lives," Dumbledore said.

Moody shrugged. "Regardless, we'd sure as hell have boots on the ground there when the dementor is done before it decides to just go around extrajudicially kissing everyone in the building. So let's get moving. Sirius, we're not sending you inside, but I want you to come along so you can announce what's going on to all the holdouts and give them the option to surrender. Even if they can't get out while Dolohov's in control, you might convince some more not to fight us, at least. You stay at the back under a disillusionment charm and speak with a Sonorus."

Orion nodded reluctantly. "Try to sound at least a little inspiring. Tell them it's over. Tell them what you've done today. Tell them that House Black remains strong and will advocate for leniency for all who willingly lay down their arms and surrender to the Ministry."

Sirius shrugged. "Sure." Pretty much everyone winced at his simple response, confidence in their figurehead guttering. He didn't care though. He didn't have to be inspiring for his words to be true: as of today, the war was over. They surrounded him as they escorted him back towards the assembled aurors, Order members, and ex-Death Eaters hoping to ensure their freedom in the new era. Once final orders were issued and Death Eaters dispersed amongst the other fighters as escorts for side-along apparition, Moody gave the signal. Sirius disillusioned himself and disapparated. At the last minute, Richard reached out and grabbed his invisible arm.

. .

Richard let go immediately, wincing in pain from his frosted fingers. He disillusioned himself as well and raised a shield around them both. The spellfire commenced as soon as the trios of aurors, Order members, and Death Eaters appeared in the high-walled courtyard outside of headquarters. The door and most of the windows had disappeared, merging into the smooth stone of the walls, but there seemed to be chinks everywhere through which the defenders rained Avadas, Confringos, and other curses. The aurors conjured earthen defenses and sturdy shield charms immediately. Dumbledore got to work on taking down the protective wards, while others started erecting new anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards to prevent any escape.

Sirius pointed his wand at his own throat and muttered, "Sonorus." His next words rang out, echoing all over the courtyard. "This is Sirius Black. I am ending the war. Lay down your wands and surrender. I have already slain Lord Voldemort today. You have been told that he will be resurrected. This is incorrect. This is incorrect, because I have enacted a ritual created by the dark wizard Ekrizdis by which all earthly remnants of Lord Voldemort's soul shall be devoured. Two already have been consumed in the last two hours. The last I shall destroy in the next twenty minutes. You cannot oppose my weapon. Even Voldemort resurrected could not fight it, only flee from it. If you wish for your soul to be spared, you will lay down your wand, or even turn on the foolish zealots and bring them to heel before it is too late for you and for them. The House of Black remains strong. We will advocate leniency for all who surrender peaceably today. For those who continue to resist the new order... well, you will not have to wait for Azkaban to feel its effects."

At first, there was something of a lull in the assault. His speech did unnerve some of the defenders, it seemed. Actually, neither side exuded much hope. He could feel matching sensations of grim determination and blind fear from the allies in the courtyard and the enemies inside.

The curses picked right back up, unfortunately. More importantly, barely a minute later, Sirius felt a very familiar burst of Dark magic coming from the wing of the building that housed the infirmary. And with his dementors' soul-sense, he felt the life of one he had known passing well snuff out. He poked his throat with his wand again, cancelling the Sonorus. He glanced at Richard, even though his friend remained concealed. "Well, that's not good. I need to find Moody."

"You're supposed to stay in the back and not get involved," Richard hissed at him.

"If I do, then Dolohov is going to kill half the people in there in order to make his escape. I can see Moody over in the central earthworks. You can come along and keep covering me, if you really want to. Or stay here." He ran forwards without waiting for a response, dodged past a few stray curses, and vaulted into the the little fortification Moody's team had constructed around themselves. Six wands immediately turned towards his sinister aura. "Just me, Sirius," he said. He dropped his disillusionment charm.

"Hold!" Moody ordered. "Eyes outwards. Is there a reason you're not staying where I told you to, Black?"

"The Dark magic you're feeling isn't some big curse they're working on. Dolohov just sacrificed Lord Nott. I could feel it."

"For the resurrection?" Moody cut in sharply.

"No. He must have taken me at my word, or at least decided he can't hang around here any longer since I gave him a time limit. The sacrifice was for the Inferi ritual, presumably just so Dolohov could take Nott's magic. He's probably going to do the same to anyone inside who tries to oppose him, until he's strong enough to break out and escape."

"Agh... fuck everything. And the wards are still up."

"Here, cover me," a red-haired, stern-faced auror broke in. He ducked down, fished inside his robes, and pulled out... something. Several brick-red tubular objects, tied together with black tape, with strings coming out their ends and braided together. He lit the strings and then banished the bundle away, letting it land gently against the wall where the door should have been. A few seconds passed before it violently exploded. The walls were magically reinforced, but the explosion was sufficient to tear a hole through the wall about four feet high, with cracks extending higher. The cracks quickly sealed themselves, but the shattered stonework stayed broken. Several aurors quickly started firing spells into the hole to keep it open.

Moody swore. "What was that, Rufus?"

"Muggle explosives. Nicked them at the end of the Inferi operation. As I suspected, their wards didn't react to it, like it was just a stone."

"Do you have more? If we can widen that breach..."

"Don't have more of the sticks. I've got a couple of these though." He pulled out another mugglish-looking device. This one was metal, a good size to fit in the palm of the hand, and sort of oval in shape with a blocky surface and a kind of handle sticking out of one end. It was painted a dark, dull green. "This one's like a nasty Kinesia jinx, might clear out the room if I can get it through the hole. Then we can send in someone with a Mark to work on the wards from the inside, maybe."

"Better yet, send it straight to Dolohov," Sirius suggested.

The other auror, Rufus, rolled his eyes. "Can't. Alastor's eye can't see through the wall."

"I can tell exactly where he is." He knew Dolohov well enough to recognize his emotions, recognize his soul.

"Where is he?"

"Still in the infirmary." Sirius pointed to the left side of the building. "It's towards the back."

"And how do you propose to get a bomb all the way over there, boy?" Rufus asked.

Sirius scraped the dirt wall with his fingers. A humanoid figurine about a foot high squirmed out of it and dropped to the ground. He bent down to lay a hand on its head and incanted, "Ushabtis." The little thing trotted over to Rufus and held out its arms expectantly. "Voldemort never warded against this particular spell, since my cousin and I are the only people in the world who know it. Egyptian, so general Latinate wards won't work."

"We'll do both," Moody said decisively. "Rufus, give that one to Sirius now, and use the next one to try and clear out that room once I've gotten a volunteer from Lord Black's contingent..."

Rufus nodded. "How fast can your homunculus go? This grenade explodes in seconds once it's activated. They're supposed to be thrown."

"How do you activate it?"

"Pull the pin here."

"Just give it to the shabtis as is, and I'll have it pull the pin when it gets to Dolohov then."

"Useful spell, that." He handed the grenade to the shabtis, which took off towards the gap in the wall, dodging spells and detritus as it went. "Very useful indeed."

About thirty seconds later, they were rewarded with the sound of another explosion. Unfortunately, although Dolohov was injured, judging by his distant feelings of pain and panic, he wasn't actually dead. It was a delay, though, and that was enough.

The fighting continued.

Sirius, crouching low in the earthworks at Moody's insistence, could feel the dementor drawing nearer.

Soon enough, so could everyone else. The spells from the walls slackened. Aurors conjured up patronuses so they could keep working. Sirius' sight merged with that of the dementor again. It was approaching the building from the rear, which was to their advantage. It passed right through the wards, both the aurors' and the Death Eaters' without a hint of resistance. It passed through the outer wall into one of the training rooms. And then another, and then through to the hall. Here there were people. They had clearly been working on means of reinforcing the wards and devising escape, but their hands ceased their busy movements. One witch attempted a meagre noncorporeal patronus, which the dementor greedily sucked up as it passed. A few people that Sirius vaguely recognized gaped at the dementor's distorted version of Sirius' face.

They found Dolohov. He looked awful, half his face bloodied and burned, and more wet patches staining his torn robes. So much power rolled off of him, so much fear, disbelief, and desperation, all for naught. He held his wand in one bloody hand and a golden locket in the other. The locket was what Sirius was here for.

Dolohov's courage left him in the end. He threw the locket at the dementor, turned, and ran away. He jabbed his wand at one of the witches completely caught by the dementor's thrall, levitating her along with him while he sliced into her neck with the runes Sirius had himself practiced so many times for the Inferi ritual. He still hoped more power would save him.

The dementor caught the locket with a skeletal hand and drank in the precious bit of screaming soul-fire. Sirius could feel the delicious heat of it for the few moments it lasted. It tasted of victory.

The dementor dropped the locket and continued down the hallway in the same direction as Dolohov. They passed a group of Death Eaters attempting to incinerate the mindless revenant body of Lord Nott before it could kill them, but without setting fire to the building... Sirius snapped back to himself. There was only one bit of prey left, the soul fragment that had been Voldemort himself until a few hours earlier. It was trying to escape, flying faster than his dementor now.

Well, Sirius couldn't have that. He sprang up and ran away from the building again until he reached the edge of the anti-apparition ward. He turned on his heel. He pulled himself through the tight weft of space. And he reappeared directly in front of Voldemort's fleeing shade.

The ghostly figure pulled up short. The two of them faced eachother a moment, deceitful servant and cruel master, man and wraith. This last shred of Voldemort looked a little like he had at the battle of Foulness, when the Dark Lord had transformed himself into shadow, magic, and thought. There was the suggestion of a smoky human face in the shadow, but nothing that was recognizable as the wizard he had been.

The only thing Sirius could feel from it was rage, which probably explained why instead of going around him, it decided to fly straight into Sirius. Perhaps Voldemort thought this was an attack on the servant who had betrayed him. Perhaps the Dark Lord merely knew this was the end and chose to go out on his own terms. Probably the former.

Regardless, Sirius absorbed this flaming soul just as he had the fragment at Hogwarts. For precious seconds, he was warm and full. And then, one last time, the dementor sucked all the heat from him, consuming the final part of Voldemort's soul. Its task was done. The ritual was complete. For a split second, it was absolutely glorious... but only for a second. The unholy light of Sirius' corrupted patronus died, and the dementor reverted to its usual nature, falling upon the hapless Death Eaters with abandon. Still hungry even after its feast.

For his part, Sirius felt suddenly, overwhelmingly empty; and afraid; and so, so cold. He fell to the ground, shivering violently.

"Sirius!" He heard the call distantly. He couldn't place the voice until Richard's anxious face appeared above him. His ears filled with ringing, and he couldn't hear the words Richard was now frantically yelling at him. His vision started to dim as the faces of more young wizards popped into view. One with dark, wild hair and glasses, one brunette and scarred, one with squinty eyes and a pointed nose. He felt like he should recognize them, but he was so tired, so cold...

The world faded to black.

Author's note: Sorry for the delay in this chapter update. Unavoidable due to being sick. Anyways, Moody's patronus was way easier to figure out than Crouch's. Basically just deciding between aardvark and buffalo, based on the descriptions. But aardvark fit better: "independent, resilient, and true fighters. They are very driven and have a strong survival instinct. Those with this Patronus also work hard for what they want and achieve what they set their mind to. While they are very loyal, they can be extremely opinionated and strong-willed, but of course, they have a soft side too."

While it's possible I will be able to finish the next chapter by this weekend, don't hold your breath. I really do want to get this story done soon, not least so I have the energy to work on other projects again, but this is a busy month for me, and I'm battling fatigue that makes it really hard to write on a schedule. But if not this weekend, then next weekend. Thanks for the reviews, always appreciated.