Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Thirteen

It was the week before the end of the term when Sirius announced the first of his projects. Needless to say, it left James speechless.

"Y-Y-You're moving out!" he cried, causing heads in the Common Room to look up. "But, I thought...you liked it at my house!"

"I do, Prongs, and nobody cooks like your mum," he paused for a moment. "Except the house elves. But I'm 17 now and ready to move on with my life. You know? And when Uncle Algie died and left me all that gold, I figured, it was time to start looking at new places-James, stop pouting."

"Can I move in with you?" James whined. Sirius sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

"D'ya reckon your mum would want you to move out prematurely?" he said, putting his feet up on the ottoman. "'Sides, it's not like I'm buying a place or anything yet. I'm going to rent it for a few weeks and then, when school starts, I'll move out again."

"But why now? Why not wait until we leave school?"

Sirius sighed. "Because....look, I've got my reasons. And it's not as if you can't come over all the time or anything. I've even got a spare bedroom."

"I have a question," Remus interrupted, looking at the two of them. "How did you choose the flat to rent? When did you go out and look at it?"

Sirius grinned. "I just happened to leave a little earlier for Auror classes than anyone else, and spend my time looking at flats."

Remus nodded and went back to his studying. James was still a bit put-out.

"Look on the bright side, Prongs, you can snog Lily anytime you want and I won't be around to bug you about it."

James rolled his eyes and sat back. "I suppose that is one good thing. Hey, by the way, one more Moody filing session and then we're done."

Sirius nodded. "Thank Merlin. If I have to write one more thing for that guy, I'm going to pluck my eyes out with my quill."

"That was vivid," James stared at him.

"Thanks."

"Boys!" Moody barked. Even though they'd been getting the same greeting for the past 6 weeks, they were still not used to it. Moody came into the office, not dressed in his usual robes, but in something that was more adept for traveling. He also had a slightly more demented than usual grin on his face.

"More filing?" Sirius groaned.

"No, no, no, boys, I've got a treat for you today."

James gave him a sideways glance. 'Last time you said that, you made us go get you coffee."

"Ah, well this is an extra-special treat."

"And when you said that, you made us gopher a Danish," Remus reminded him.

"QUIET!" Moody barked, causing them to jump again. "I've got a treat for you and if you give me lip, I won't give it to you! Now, can all three of you fit into this?" He threw a silvery cloak at James. The three of them looked at it and started chuckling.

"Not since fourth year, Moody," James chuckled.

"But Pete's not with us, and he usually takes up the most space," Sirius thought.

"True, I'll bet if we scrunch together-"

"QUIET!" Moody barked again. "I'm not going to ask what that is all about because I probably don't want to know."

"No, you don't-"

"QUIET!" he yelled, walking through the door. "Follow me, we're going to a stakeout."

They were still for a moment and then scrambled out after him, wide-eyed.

"Y-You mean, a real stake-out?" James said, nearly stumbling over himself. Moody grunted.

"As in, Death Eaters and such?"

"Probably not," Moody said, opening the doors. "We've gotten a tip that there's going to be an attack at the Head of the Ministry's International Cooperation's house. So we're going to wait for a while."

"And what are we going to do?" Sirius asked. Moody stopped and glared at them.

"You're going to shut up and pretend you're not there under that cloak. This isn't kid stuff anymore, Black, you could get yourself killed without the proper training."

Sirius looked at him and then cracked a wry smile. "So I can't say hey to some of my family?"

Moody snorted. "More than likely, there'll be some of your family, if they even come."

"What do you mean?" Remus asks.

"There's no guarantee that they'll even show up," Moody said, as they came into the elevator. "If you want my personal opinion, they're a bunch of chickens that hide in masks."

"What a coincidence, that's my opinion of them, too," Sirius snorted.

"I'm bloody bored," Sirius sighed quietly.

"You've mentioned that," Remus replied, irritably. They were sitting inside of the house of the man's house, up in the attic, looking out the window, under the Invisibility Cloak. When they had arrived, it was mid-afternoon, but now it was past nine and they were stuck. They were sure that Moody had told Dumbledore where they were going to be, because they couldn't leave for fear of alerting anyone to anything suspicious. Their Auror instructor was sitting outside, the only visible Auror, watching the dark street carefully. The others were either under Disillusionment charms or hidden in rooms upstairs. Three Aurors were sitting in the living room, under a Polyjuice potion as the Head of International Cooporation, his wife, and their 9-year-old daughter.

James spied Marlene McKinnon peeking down the stairs and wondered if Lily was around. He'd feel better if she was next to him, but there was nothing he could do at the moment. He sat back as much as he could, because of the Invisibility Cloak and the limited space underneath.

"Look, there's something moving out there," Remus whispered, moving closer to the window.

"I can't see it," Sirius whispered back. Remus' eyes squinted and he pointed at a dark spot.

"There," he , pointing again. Sirius still can't see it and neither can James. Remus sighs. "Try changing."

Sirius changed into his dog form and slipped out of the cloak. He gave a little shake and popped his paws up on the windowsill. He growled in agreement and nudged the bottom of the windowsill, asking them to open it a bit so he could get a whiff.

James lifted the window open a hair and Sirius got a whiff of the air outside. He got back under the cloak and transformed back, a scowl on his face.

"I smell pureblooded trash, is what I smell," he frowned. "They're here."

"D'ya think Moody knows?" Remus asked.

"Probably," James said, looking out. "He's the best Auror. He probably knew before you did, Moony."

Moody still looked nonchalant and was actually taking a drink from his hipflask. James tapped his foot and bit his lip, thinking. "Maybe we should tell him."

"Maybe we shouldn't," Remus said. "What if we get caught in the crossfire?"

Suddenly, a blue spell came from the middle of the forest and knocked Moody's flask right out of his hand. In the blink of an eye, there were about five or six Death Eaters; James couldn't get an exact count. The Aurors inside looked so gangly and uncoordinated with their multicolored robes, compared to the sleekness of the Death Eaters with their black uniformed robes. They rushed out, at different times and looking completely unprepared, and chose a Death Eater at random to duel with.

It was at this point that James realized just how much he had to learn. He knew about one-third of all these spells and would probably have been able to perform them in twice the time that these people were firing them off. It was so natural to them, a gruesome dance that was done with precision.

It was also at this battle that the Auror candidates learned just how dirty Death Eaters played. For there were six Death Eaters to begin with, but the sixth ran to get more help. And more help they did get. Nearly 30 Death Eaters swarmed the area, completely outnumbering the Aurors outside. Even with the addition of the Aurors that were hidden inside, it still was not enough.

"Should we go get some help?" Remus asked, breathless.

"I'm sure that they went to go get some," James said, searching the crowd of people wildly for some reason. They waited and waited for what seemed like forever, and still no one came. And then the first flash of green light came and hit one of the outer Aurors. The three standing by the window watched in horror as the man fell to the ground, lifeless.

It was a signal to all of the other Death Eaters. They stepped back from their dueling partners and lifted their wands. The Aurors seemed to know what was going on, and they all bunched together in a circle, as if awaiting their death.

"Come on," James said, throwing off the Invisibility Cloak. Sirius reached out and grabbed his arm.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?!"

"Look, I won't be able to look at myself if I just let fifteen good Aurors die like that," James said. "Not if I can't help."

"James, you saw the way they were fighting," Remus said, motioning to the window. "You can't even dream about fighting that way yet!"

"Look, we've got the element of surprise, if we can-"

"James, this isn't some Quidditch game!" Sirius said. "This is real life! You could get killed!"

James looked out into the yard as the Death Eaters prepared to kill. He turned and gave Sirius a defiant stare. "I'll see you on the other side then." With that, he Disapparated.

Sirius and Remus ran to the window and stared out it as three Death Eaters fell down. Now that the attention was off of the Aurors, they were able to regain their footing and fight back. Still, it was outnumbered and Sirius and Remus still couldn't see James.

"Bloody hell, I can't stay here," Sirius said, looking to Remus. "Let's go."

After a moment's hesitation, Remus nodded and followed Sirius down to the bottom floor. They ran outside and, for a moment, didn't see James, and their blood ran cold. Then they saw him, keeping three Death Eaters at bay, hiding behind a rock to escape their attacks. Whipping out their wands, Sirius and Remus crossed the yard and attacked the three that were holding James behind the rock. While the three were temporarily blinded by the light spell, Sirius and Remus jumped behind a rock and joined James.

"Took you two long enough," James frowned, jumping when a flash of purple light jutted off of the rock.

"Forgive us if we aren't in a hurry to get ourselves killed," Sirius said, reaching over the rock and shooting at whoever shot at them.

"Have you seen Lily anywhere?" James asked, doing the same. Sirius snorted.

"You're about to die and all you can think of is your girl?"

"Can we focus here!?" Remus scolded them as a spell split the top of the rock. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I've got a few spells to shut them up for a while," he said, reaching over. He fired one after the other, spells that neither James nor Remus had ever heard before, and each Death Eater, in turn, looked over to him, as they had obviously heard them before.

"Where the bloody hell did you learn those?" James asked.

"You don't live in a Dark Wizard family for 16 and a half years and not learn some Dark Magic," Sirius said, looking over. He heard some chuckling behind the rock as some Death Eaters gathered around the front of the rock.

"Blood traitor," they hissed. Sirius gritted his teeth and his wand and moved to stand up. James put his hand on his shoulder.

"They're just trying to bait you so that you'll stand up and then they'll kill you!" James hissed. "Don't fall for it."

"Half-bloods and blood traitors," they taunted. James forgot about Sirius and gripped his wand angrily. It was Remus' turn to calm them both down.

"Don't do anything stupid, please," he whispered. "That's what they're after."

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors," it was a chant now.

"So how are we going to get out of this?" Sirius asked Remus. "You're the smart one."

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors. Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors."

"I-I don't think we are going to get out of this one," Remus stuttered quietly. "I don't think they expected it to get this bad."

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors. Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors."

"So are just going to lay down and die?" Sirius cried, getting a bit hysterical.

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors. Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors."

"I don't know about you, but I'm not going to sit here and let them kill me. I'm going to fight!" James nodded.

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors. Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors."

"Ready?" Sirius said, holding his wand ready.

"Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors. Cowards, half-bloods, and blood traitors."

"Ready," James said, nodding. All three of them stood up and shot their best shot at the closest Death Eater. Unfortunately, the Death Eaters seemed to have multiplied in number and they found themselves outnumbered, as it was with the rest of the Aurors.

The three of them stood back to back and found themselves in the same position that the other Aurors were earlier in the fight.

"You chose the wrong profession, boys," A very rich and snobby voice came from one of the hoods. He raised his wand.

"No, you did," came a uniquely feminine voice behind him. The circle was broken again, and the three boys came face to face with their savior. Face as red as her hair with exertion and nervousness, wand steady, James, Sirius, and Remus were never so glad to see Lily Evans and Emmeline Vance.

Not only was it Lily and Emmeline, but more Aurors had arrived and, with a sweeping beard and robes, Albus Dumbledore.

"You five, Disapparate to the safehouse now," he ordered.

"But-" James said.

"Now," he ordered, all twinkling gone in his eyes. And for the very first time, James was scared of him. He nodded and Dumbledore continued to duel with seven Death Eaters. Without another word, they Disapparated to the place Moody told them that every Auror went to when they were too injured to carry on.

There they waited, sweaty, exhausted, nervous, excited, terrified, thankful to have lived through it. It didn't take long for the rest of the Aurors to arrive, in the same basic condition. James figured that once Dumbledore showed up, it was all over with.

Then, as Dumbledore finally appeared in the safe house, a new mood settled over the group. They were worried about what punishment that Dumbledore was going to inflict on them for leaving the safety of the house and cloak. James had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and sat quietly, holding Lily's hand for comfort.

After the final toll had been counted, three Aurors still missing and presumed dead, five Aurors dead on sight, Dumbledore, Moody, and a woman James knew was Marlene McKinnon approached the five students.

"I thought I told you-" Moody started, but Dumbledore held up his hand to silence him.

"I cannot tell you how much danger you put your lives into this evening," Dumbledore started and each student felt their head drop lower. "Do you realize the gravity of the situation?"

Every one of them nodded glumly.

"Therefore, I must tell you on behalf of Alastor and Marlene, how proud we are of your abilities to survive on a battle field." James looked up and his eyes were twinkling again. "Mr. Potter, had you not appeared when you did, countless lives would have been lost before help could arrive. Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin, your skills were greatly appreciated. Miss Evans and Miss Vance, had you not come and sounded the alarm at the Ministry of Magic, more lives could have been lost. And both Mr. Prewitts came to alert me as soon as more Death Eaters arrived, they are at the school, Mr. Potter, safe and sound."

James closed his mouth and nodded. Moody cleared his throat.

"Doesn't mean I think you're any less stupid for comin' out into a battlefield."

"Why don't we head on back to the school. I'll have Poppy make sure that nothing's terribly broken and I'll have a House Elf bring you some hot cocoa."

He walked over to the fireplace and picked up a bag of Floo powder. One by one, they Flooed back to Dumbledore's office.