• Sirius Black •

"There may come a day that
I won't be able to help you.
But the day will never come
that I won't try."

Sirius hadn't heard anything from the Order in weeks. Ever since Ministry wizards had been placed around Grimmauld Place, he had been completely and permanently cut off from the outside world. Fortunately, no one else had been in the house with him at the time and thus trapped, even if he couldn't deny that a little company next to Kreacher would have been nice. Even if it had only been the dodgy Mundungus Fletcher.

But after Dumbledore had gone into hiding, the Order had been scattered anyway and those who had not yet received an order from him were waiting and ready at all times.

The fire was already crackling in the fireplace, even though it hadn't even got completely dark outside yet. But Sirius had had nothing better to do anyway. All the letters lay on the table in front of him, some weeks, some months and some even years old. He had read them over and over again in the last few days to remind himself that there were people outside these walls who were counting on him. In any case, this strategy helped him to keep his hands off another bottle of alcohol or prevented the isolation from driving him mad.

It had been different in his time in Azkaban. Although he had also been cut off from all social contact there, the world seemed to have given up on him and if he hadn't been clinging to a tiny spark of hope, he would probably have lost his mind like many other men before him.

The letter he held in his hand was crumpled and the paper was almost disintegrating. Sirius couldn't recall the umpteen times he had read that letter, but he was sure it must have been at least once a day at one point. He hadn't had anything else to do in his cell. It was the letter from Katherine that he still regretted not having read before his arrest. After all, who knew if the books wouldn't have to be written differently if he had done it.

After his acquittal, he hadn't expected to find himself in a similar situation again. He didn't know what was going on out there and this uncertainty was completely fraying his nerves. In fact, all he could do was sit around twiddling his thumbs until something bad enough happened that they felt it was important to notify him.

It was almost ironic that there was a knock on his front door at that moment. At first, Sirius' heart skipped a beat. His first thought was that the Ministry had finally managed to get through to him. Even if it was almost an act of impossibility.

Alertly, he straightened up and walked slowly to the front door, which was still knocking in an agitated and steady rhythm. "Sirius, it's me. Open the door."

Remus' voice unsettled him. He briefly harboured the hope that the warrant for his arrest would be dropped, but his friend's face showed concern when he finally opened the door, bursting his hope like a soap bubble. The fact that he was standing in front of his front door with this expression could only mean that something had happened and it was probably something of the unpleasant variety. Sirius immediately began to visualise the worst case scenarios in his head before Remus could even say a word.

"What happened?" he asked in a brittle voice, looking past him into the front garden and down the street. The muffled clong sound heralded Mad-Eye even before he had stepped into his field of vision. But when he finally did, there was a tense expression on his scarred face. "The coast is clear," he grumbled, dragging himself up the stairs on his stick, "I've taken care of the ministry wizards."

"The coast is clear for what?" Sirius asked sharply. There was no doubt now that there was a problem and from the look of it, it was a big one. A few hours ago he would have been more than happy that something interesting was finally going to happen and that he would see someone other than Kreacher, but in the end he didn't like this situation at all. "Would someone please explain to me what's going on?"

"An assignment. Dumbledore's orders," Moody grunted, pushing him ahead of him back into the house. Remus, who was disturbingly silent, followed them and pulled the door shut behind him. "Harry and the others have broken into the Ministry."

Sirius thought he had misheard. "What?"

The werewolf sighed and began to start up the floo network by the fireplace after it had been switched off in recent weeks due to events. "Voldemort set a trap to lure him there. We'll meet Tonks and the others on site."

At first, he was probably too stunned to say anything and watched silently as Remus freed his fireplace from the protective barriers with all his spells and connected it to the network. "The others? You mean..."

His friend straightened up and looked at his work with satisfaction before turning to him, "If you mean Serena, don't worry, she's with Katherine."

"Why is she with Katherine?" Sirius was relieved that she wasn't part of this reckless command, but the fact that she had gone home in the middle of term made him uneasy. Obviously she wouldn't be there without a good reason, the students were only sent away in emergencies.

"Can you please discuss this on the way?" Mad-Eye asked impatiently, pointing at the fire, in which flames were now blazing green and engulfing his body, which, after a few more muttered words, began to spin on its own axis. While those left behind did the same, Remus began to summarise what had happened over the past few weeks.

Sirius thought he had been locked up for several years, he had that much to report. "The Ministry put out an article this morning that they had caught you," Remus finally finished, walking ahead to the meeting place with the other members of the Order. "I suspect they were trying to lure Serena to them."

Silently, Sirius ran after his friend through the empty corridors of the government building, his hands clenched into fists. It was one thing for them to make his life hell even though he was innocent, but they didn't need to drag his daughter into it just because she happened to be related to him and had much less to do with the whole thing than he did.

"She wrote," Remus began again, pulling a pile of letters from his cloak that had accumulated over the last few months. "Serena too. The letter arrived a few hours ago."

It had been a long time since his friend had brought him the last letter from Katherine and the last time he had heard from Serena was when she had turned up in his fireside with Harry. He wouldn't make the same mistake as fifteen years ago and so he began to open the most recent letter from his daughter's mother on the way.

Sirius,
I haven't heard from you for weeks now. Remus wrote to tell me not to worry. But I am, especially when Serena told me to pick her up from London earlier. What on earth is going on in your world again? I hope I hear from you again soon and that you're well. Don't do anything rash, Serena is fine.

With love
Katherine

It probably hadn't been her intention, but her letter made Sirius feel incredibly guilty. He never wanted to involve Serena in his affairs and the impending war would not help the situation. What was he supposed to say to her? The last time he had been in this situation, he had abandoned her and left her with a baby. It had been the biggest mistake of his life.

As he searched through the rest of the envelopes and finally stuck on one with the same paper and the same blue ink, but a different font, he barely noticed them bumping into the other Order members and discussing the situation. For him, the situation had been clear for a long time and he didn't need any further discussion, because if it was up to him, they shouldn't waste any more time. Serena's letter was short, but after a long time without contact, it was better than nothing.

Dad,
I hope you haven't lost your mind in that musty old house. I'm sorry. It was our fault that they were able to trace the chimney. I hope the situation calms down soon. I'm fine, I'm with Mum.

Serena

He would like to write her a reply straight away, telling her that it wasn't her fault and that he was the only one who should be sorry that he had inadvertently dragged her into it. He'd do it as soon as they'd sorted things out at the Ministry, because they couldn't seem to do it themselves. He was sure he would never get over how incompetent their government was.

The way Sirius ran alongside his friends with his wand drawn almost reminded him of old times. The breathtakingly destructive and hellish years of the last war. It had been both the most beautiful and the most terrible time of his still very young life.

The magic going on deep inside the Ministry was more noticeable the further they travelled, telling them that they were on the right path. Sirius could feel the adrenaline slowly coursing through his veins and fuelling his heart. It had been a long time since he had felt so alive and free.

But Sirius could hardly savour his newfound freedom. His chest tightened as he thought about what would happen once they had freed the youngsters. He would have to return to his parents' house and endure imprisonment again. The worry for his godson also increased a little with every step. What if they didn't make it?

"Sirius," Remus suddenly interrupted his gloomy thoughts and looked at him urgently, his amber-coloured eyes scanning vigilantly over the numerous doors in a circular room, which was all black and directly in front of them, "When we're going in there right now, you need to be on the case."

He nodded. "I am."

"Good," he replied, now turning to the entire group of the rescue squad. "You get Harry out of there, Tonks and I will take care of the rest of the kids and the others will distract the Death Eaters while we do it."

Affirmative murmurs followed Remus' words as they continued on their way to the place where Arthur Weasley had once been attacked by Voldemort's snake. The place where the weapon was hidden. Sirius' gaze was fixed on the red hair of the head of the Weasley family who was leading them to that place. He had to concentrate on Harry. Of course, he also had to make sure that nothing happened to the other children, but his job was to protect Harry.

At that moment, a shrill scream rang out, making his blood run cold and giving him legs. It was so bloodcurdling that he thought he could almost feel the pain it represented. He thought he knew who it belonged to, but it couldn't be, and it was hard to attribute a scream to one person anyway. Nevertheless, Sirius glanced cautiously at Remus, who looked just as worried. He took a deep breath and tightened his posture; he couldn't let himself get rattled now and had to devote himself fully to his task of protecting Harry.