~*~Chapter 15 - The Losing Battle~*~
The group slipped in to Grimmauld Place as silently as possible, their number one larger than when they had left. Knowing it would be a bad idea to hide what they had done, the six decided to tell Molly that night, instead of waiting. Sirius told them to let him take care of it. The four students slipped up stairs and Remus and Sirius took a deep breath before entering the kitchen.
Mrs. Weasley had her back turned to them. Sirius motioned for Remus to leave the kitchen, he gladly obliged, and he took a step forward. He made sure to make just enough noise to get the woman's attention. Mrs. Weasley turned around and gasped as she saw who was standing in front of her. "Sirius. Merlin, how did...when...How?"
Sirius silently sat down at one of the kitchen chairs. He watched the speechless woman bustle around making tea. Within a few moments he had a cup of hot tea and a confused Molly Weasley sitting in front of him. "Sirius, how is this possible?" She asked again.
Sirius took a sip of the hot liquid and sat forward. "To explain how...you have to know what really happened." At her silence he proceeded. "When some one falls through the veil, they don't die, not exactly anyway. There body is held in the darkness while their soul is freed from it and sent to a random location."
"Now, the soul remembers everything from his life, except for where the veil is located. Like I remembered everything right up to being hit with my cousin's spell, but I couldn't remember where I was at when I got hit." He said.
Molly frowned slightly as she worked through the information, "Yet you found your way back?"
Sirius sighed, "Well you see, when you are stripped down to just the pureness of the soul, nothing, not even the unplottable spells can hide things. So I managed to find my way back here quite easily. I was at Hogwarts when Dumbledore was speaking to Harry about my 'death', and I was here when you were talking about the Weasley and Malfoy families."
Mrs. Weasley's eyes opened in shock, "Y-You were here?" Sirius nodded. She frowned and said, "My apologies, continue."
He nodded, "Well, earlier this afternoon I was watching Harry upstairs when the Malfoy boy came up. I listened to their conversation, and Malfoy brought up the subject of a Dark Arts book he read once back at the Malfoy Manor, he said how he had read that the Veil didn't kill. He managed to find the book he was looking for in my Dad's old library. The two brought Remus up and Hermione, Ron and Ginny fallowed."
"They were all determined to get me back. All of them. Hermione, being the clever witch she is, knew the spell to call me to where she needed, to trap my soul into a 'host' temporarily, as well as how to release the soul and to return it to the proper body. The four kids talked Remus into coming with them, for saftey. He knew as well as anyone else, if he'd said no they'd have done it anyway, so he agreed."
"Harry originally volenteered to be the host, naturally. I was, however, impressed when Ron spoke up. He told Harry how it'd be too dangerous for me to reside in him and that Harry being a 'high priority target' already, the chances of him being attacked when he carried two souls instead of one, was much higher. So Ron volunteered. Hermione spoke the proper Latin, and I was tied to Ron for the time being."
"We managed to get to the ministry and to the Department of Mysteries, without a problem and Hermione released my soul and tied it to my own body. And, well...here I am," Sirius finished with a small smile.
Molly was torn between the thought that Remus and the kids had lied about their whereabouts and the thought that Sirius was back. She settled for saying, "Harry's really missed you. He's blamed himself for it, you know."
Sirius nodded, "I know. The poor kid's been through so much. I'm glad they managed to get me back, so I can help Harry. He's going to need all the support he can get during the up coming battle."
The woman nodded solemnly in agreement, "He's a boy, almost sixteen and he's done more than most the Order members ever will. I wish I could take all his burdens onto myself."
"That makes two of us. I'd give anything to give that kid his life back." Sirius sighed. The two adults finished their tea in silence, both thinking about what was to come.
~*~
Morning came quickly, and the five students wandered nervously down to the kitchen. To their surprise, it was empty. Four of them took their seats about the table while Harry busied himself with the task of making breakfast. "Where do you think they've gone?" He asked.
"I don't know. Maybe they went to the Ministry to clear Sirius." Hermione suggested.
Harry nodded absently as he started with the eggs. "Why would Mrs. Weasley go, though?"
"Who knows, maybe to keep Sirius in check." Ginny said.
"You know...Hermione, you might be in as much danger as Harry now," Draco said, hesitantly.
Everyone looked curiously at Draco, "How so?" Hermione asked.
"Who knows how many people have went into that veil? But if the Dark Lord's supporters find out that you can bring people back through it...." He let the words drift.
"If they find out she can do that, who knows how long it will be before Voldemort finds a way to get a hold of her," Harry said.
"No, because, they won't find out," Ginny said.
"Ginny, there's a man walking around now that was said to be dead." Draco said. "And some how Hermione knew how to bring him back. The Dark Lord has his spied strategically placed, I'll be surprised if they haven't already heard."
Harry placed the plates of food on the table and took a seat, "So what do we do?"
"Well, at this point in time, You and Hermione will be the high priority targets, I will be up there as soon as Father catches wind of the fact that I've changed sides." Draco said between bites of food. "My first thought would be to make sure you two are never alone out side this house. Even Hogwarts will be dangerous this year."
Everyone fell silent for a moment. Ron was the one to break the lull in conversation, "When do you guess the next attack will be? I mean they've already came after the castle once."
"They'll probably wait until term starts," Hermione said. "That way the everyone will be caught off guard. They won't take the risk of losing again."
There was a unanimous nod of agreement, "When do you think the final battle will be?" Harry asked.
"I think the next battle, very well may be the last, Harry." Said Ron.
"No, I don't think so," Draco frowned. "The Dark Lord will wait. He's patient when he needs to be. He'll send attack after attack, and then when he's gotten everyone into the right state, he'll use the chaos to his advantage. He'll wait until the last moment to make his final attack."
"Who will be next," Harry muttered to himself, going back to the night of reflection he had had several nights ago. "Who will be next?"
~*~
By the time everyone had returned to Grimmauld Place, breakfast had been finished and the dishes had been cleaned and put away. Harry made his way back down the steps and into the kitchen where the three adults were sitting, "Where'd you guys go?"
Remus hid his smile from Mrs. Weasley, "To explain to the Ministry how Sirius is alive again."
"So you're cleared?" Harry asked anxiously.
Sirius grinned, "Yup, I'm a free man."
Harry smiled and took a seat at the table. "So, um, does Dumbledore know yet?"
The two men chuckled but silenced when Mrs. Weasley gave them a stern look, "Yes, Dumbledore was at the Ministry. I swear that man knew about that spell and let you children find it. The nerve! You all could have been seriously hurt! And you! Remus, I thought you knew better than to do something so entirely foolish. And to lie about it!" Remus had a mildly amused expression on his face as he listened to the woman's rants, "And leaving those books in the library where the children could find them! How incredibly daft could you be? Why, in the name of Merlin, would you allow them access to Dark Arts books?"
"Dumbledore requested we put those books aside," Sirius said. "He said that they might be useful in the upcoming war. And quite frankly, I'm glad that we kept them, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here listening to you ranting and raving about how foolish these incredibly brilliant young adults are."
Molly's eyes narrowed, "They are children, Sirius-"
"No, Mrs. Weasley," Harry interrupted. "We're not children. If you haven't noticed, we graduate from Hogwarts in less than two years."
The woman's eyes blazed as she glanced at the two men and Harry. She took a deep breath and glared at Remus, "I never thought that you, out of all people, could be so.... so careless and irresponsible."
"Molly, I did what I thought best," Remus growled. "Yes, it could have been dangerous. But you know as well as I do that if I hadn't gone, if I hadn't verified the book from which they read the information, they would have still gone. I think it much better that some one went with them, to protect them if need be. I would have rather gone with them then to have them sneak out one their own like they did last June."
Molly pursed her lips, "That still does not excuse your recklessness, Remus. You took those children into a place you knew could be dangerous. And further more, you lied about it! And for what?!"
Remus pushed himself to his feet, it was the angriest Harry had ever seen his former professor. "Molly, there was a chance that the last of my friends was still alive. There was the chance that we left him behind. You've seen how badly it's tore them up. You've seen how hard it's been on them. I couldn't just stand by and let them do it alone. Not if I could help," he said in a low growl. "That's what makes us different from Voldemort, Molly. We care about our people. If there is any chance that one of our people are alive, we do everything we can to get them back and that is what we did."
Molly bristled, "And you couldn't have waited? You couldn't have taken a group of the Order members? You had to drag five teenagers along with you?"
"For Merlin's sake, Molly," Remus said. "Do you think, for one moment, that we could have left them behind? That we could have said, 'stay here we're going to see if Sirius is alive,' and expected them to stay?" he shook his head. "And I'd like for you to show me one person, one person other than Hermione Granger, who knows how to perform those spells and more importantly is willing to perform them."
Harry exchanged glances with his godfather, even Sirius was surprised at his friend's anger. Glancing up at the calendar, a look of realization crossed Sirius's expression. Harry fallowed the gaze and too understood. It was the full moon tomorrow night, the wolf was close to the surface, and Remus was having a harder time controlling the anger when Molly was going after him as she was.
Harry sighed and spoke up, "Mrs. Weasley, what's done is done. It can't be changed, nor would I allow it to if it could, so there's no point in, 'beating a dead horse'. What's done is done." Molly Weasley was unimpressed, indeed. But knew when her argument fell on deaf ears. She pursed her lips and turned her back to the three. "We should probably head up to the library," Harry said to the two men. Sirius nodded and pulled his friend out of the kitchen by his arm.
Remus was still fuming but exited the kitchen. He fallowed the other two up the stairs and when they reached the library all three of them collapsed into chairs and fell silent, unsure of what to say.
Author's Note: Uh oh, what'd you think about that? I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's always fun for me to write arguments. Please review and tell me what you think, I'd like to hear it.
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