Chapter Text
Colors lit up the night sky: Red and green. It reminded Sirius of his final stunt at Hogwarts. He and James had drunkenly sent off hundreds of Dr. Filibuster’s wet-start no-heat fireworks from the astronomy tower. The entire castle had gleefully abandoned their beds to watch the display from the grounds. He could still remember hearing Hagrid’s booming cheers and Filch’s aggrieved despair. He could still remember how he and James had laughed so hard that they nearly passed out.
But this was no fireworks show.
Sirius’ senses returned to him only after the white noise from smashing his head on the crater of rocks faded. He heard the screaming first and then smelled the smoke. Forcing his head up off the ground, he took in his blurry surroundings: Their camp was burning, along with half the surrounding moor. The Death Eaters had found them and breached their concealment charms.
Get up. Get the fuck up.
He heard his own voice in his head, it sounded like a stranger’s—but he obeyed nonetheless. Sirius grabbed for his wand in the dark grass and pushed his black, blood-soaked hair out of his eyes. As he dragged himself to his feet, he grunted in pain. Several ribs were broken, no doubt about it.
Black cloaked figures were swarming everywhere in sight amongst the darkness and scattered flames. Sirius assessed that they must be outnumbered at least five to one. The source of the screaming was coming from the pair of duelers closest to him. A Death Eater was visible about ten yards away from him, having just used the Diffindo spell on Marlene McKinnon. The spell had sliced Marly in the side, thick blood leaked through her jumper. It didn’t look as though Marlene could hold out much longer.
Sirius' grey eyes narrowed in rage.
Thanks to his adept use of nonverbal magic, Marlene’s attacker didn’t even know what hit him. He was violently thrown backwards by the surprise Confrigo spell and hit the ground with the wind knocked out of him. Taking advantage of this moment of vulnerability, Sirius darted around sprays of red spells towards the fallen Death Eater. And when he was close enough, he pounced.
He constricted the attacker’s throat with his forearm and kept his wand pointed at the Death Eater's head in the other. The weight of his body kept the stunned man pinned to the ground.
“How did you find us? Who told you?” Sirius snarled through gritted teeth, shaking with rage. He watched as this stranger was struggling to breathe--He gladly would have killed him for what he did to Marlene, but what good would that do just now? Without any information on this ambush his death was useless. Releasing his grip, Sirius pulled back the man’s hood and ripped off his mask, then looked down at the face of Evan Rosier, a former Slytherin who had been in his year at Hogwarts.
Rosier looked up at Sirius and through fits of coughing, began to laugh mirthlessly.
“Well, if it isn’t Black the Blood Traitor. Enjoying your surprise party? You’re the guest of honor, after all.”
Sirius responded by shattering Rosier’s cheekbone with a solid crack of his fist.
“WHO TOLD YOU?” he demanded a second time, snapping Rosier’s wand in two then gripping him by the robes. Rosier opened his mouth to speak just as Sirius was suddenly hit by a passing spell.
With Sirius being momentarily bemused from the Confundus charm, Rosier seized the opportunity and freed himself. Marlene jumped in to take him on while Sirius scrambled up from the grass and stood beside her. Rosier had found a spare wand and was now joined by two larger cloaked figures, undoubtedly Mulciber and Avery.
Sirius skillfully deflected their attacks and dodged the spells that slipped past his wand-work. Marlene kept pace with him and corralled the three to keep them in one place. Eventually, Sirius managed to get a spell through their defenses. There was a brief pause as the men realized what happened; followed immediately by a shock wave blast that sent all three electrified men skyrocketing out of the battlefield. Blue lightning strips marked their trajectory across the sky.
Marlene turned to look at Sirius with astonishment, “What the hell was that?”
Sirius’ countenance mirrored her own, “Fuck if I know.”
He assessed her face, searching for signs of injury. Her soft cheekbones were coated in dirt and her long, thick blonde hair had ripped free from it's messy ponytail during the blast. She appeared alarmed but mostly unhurt other than the gash to her side. He looked at her bleeding side and frowned, his brow furrowing as anger coiled his muscles tensely.
"You're bleeding. I should have killed that wank stain."
Marlene rolled her eyes. "It's fine. Let's move."
Sirius grabbed hold of her arm as she began to turn away. "Don't be thick," he grumbled and pointed his wand at her side. The Episkey spell caused the tip of his wand to glow softly and then Marlene's sliced skin was pulled together. "That should hold it for now."
Marlene's shadowy eyes held his stare for a moment and Sirius felt his heart rate spike.
Just then, five new Death Eaters surrounded them. Marlene and Sirius exchanged a disconcerting glance. Sirius then looked from one cloak to the next--his wand-arm at the ready while his free hand stealthily slipped behind his back and gripped a switchblade that he kept in the back pocket of his black trousers.
“Take him alive!” A masked voice commanded.
One of the cloaks foolishly dove to grab Sirius from behind. Without hesitation, he spun around and plunged the blade into their neck. Just as Sirius and Marlene were about to be overtaken by the remaining cloaks, an eruption of screaming sounded in the distance. And then there was a brilliant flash of green light.
All fighting stopped as every dueler turned to see what was happening. The cease allowed Sirius to realize that they were in close proximity to square-jawed and bronze-haired Edgar Bones. Edgar had been defending himself against four Death Eaters of his own. They acknowledged each other briefly through labored breathing before turning to witness the life leave Fabian Prewett as the green flash faded. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Tall and slender Antonin Dolohov stood over the body with a dark, indifferent look in his sunken eyes.
Without thinking, Sirius began to lunge towards Dolohov.
“Sirius! Don’t!” Marlene tried to call after him, but Sirius was already yards away from her. Sirius quickly realized he wasn’t the only one running. Gideon, Fabian’s brother, was also barreling towards Dolohov, screaming as loudly as his lungs could allow.
Sirius ran with enraged determination while sending whizzing spells at Dolohov, but he was out of range. And Gideon was much closer.
“GIDEON, STOP,” Sirius called breathlessly, realizing what was about to happen.
But Gideon continued to storm towards Dolohov, blasting spells at any Death Eater in his path. He left at least five of them stunned or dead in his wake. All the while, Dolohov just watched Gideon, waiting.
And then he smirked. “Avada Kedavra.”
The sky was still lit with green light when Sirius was abruptly restrained—he and his restrainer tumbled hard into the muck.
Sirius was about to head-butt his restrainer in the face when he heard a familiar voice:
“Don’t be a fool!” The gruff voice of Mad-Eye Moody hissed into his ear. “If you’re dead or captured then Lily and James are lost!”
“And what about Gideon and Fabian?” Sirius snarled as he panted, turning his head to glare at Mad-Eye. His stringy hair was caught on his sweaty, scarred face.
In the distance, howls distinct to werewolves could be heard, announcing their arrival.
“They’re dead. And soon we will all be dead if we don’t get out of here now.” Mad-Eye’s magical eye was rolling wildly. He swiftly stunned a nearby Death Eater he had seen through the eye behind them.
Sirius looked away in fury and agony, but nodded curtly with understanding.
"We can't disapparate out of here. We need another plan of escape.
“My bike is at the camp. But not without Marly and Edgar.”
Mad-Eye pulled Sirius up by his sweat-soaked and bloodied black shirt and the pair fled into the darkness--parrying attacks from the cheering and hollering Death Eaters as Sirius scanned the darkness for Marlene. Luckily, many of the Death Eaters were distracted in celebrating the deaths of two formidable opponents.
The camp wasn’t far off. Sirius' heart lunged when he spotted Marlene's figure in the blackness. He pulled Moody by his dirtied leather coat, following Marlene and Edgar who fleeing towards the thick flames that was once their camp. Marly must have had a similar plan--Sirius smiled to himself at the thought.
Sirius and Moody approached the pair quietly. Marlene spun around, pointing her wand between Sirius' eyes. Sirius' face cracked into a toothy grin when their gaze collided and he watched as Marlene's hardened, determined countenance softened with relief. She dropped her wand and took several steps towards Sirius, her boots crunching on the frosty grass.
“Were you about to blast me in the face?” Sirius asked Marlene, cocking his brow at her with a smirk pulling at his lip.
"If I had you would have deserved it," Marly glared at him with narrowed eyes, "I can't believe you ran after a murderous psychopath like that. I thought you were dead.” She crossed her arms.
“We'll, I'm clearly not dead yet now am i?” he said with a tired grin. Marlene shook her head and gave him a small smile in return.
"Let's move!" Mad-Eye barked, snapping Sirius' attention back to their escape.
Together, they all lay low and approached their still-burning camp in concentrated silence. There was no use in wasting time to retrieve Dumbledore's intel on upcoming planned Death Eater attacks. The tent that secured their evidence and all of their belongings had been swallowed by flames. Sirius stopped to watch the burning in dismayed disbelief for just a moment until he was pushed forward by Mad-Eye.
Sirius pulled his felled, damaged motorbike from the grass and swung his leg over it. After determining that the damage was superficial, he leaned forward on the bike and gripped the handlebars. Then he kicked the sidecar out from the magical compartment he had built into the bike. Marlene hurriedly climbed on behind Sirius and wrapped her arms around his abdomen while Mad-Eye and Edgar squeezed into the sidecar. He could feel Marlene’s heartbeat hammering against his back. The feel of her body against his was calming.
They could see the shadowy figures of the werewolf pack advancing closer into the moor now. They were most assuredly being led by Fenrir Greyback. Which meant nothing good for the Order members.
"Hang on," Sirius warned Marlene with a small smirk before he kick-started the engine, sending the white Triumph motorbike roaring into life. Immediately, he cranked the throttle, blasting them off into jarring acceleration. Sirius watched with satisfaction at how quickly the speedometer blew towards the 160mph maximum as the engine sputtered and whirled beneath them. But even when the max was reached, it continued to pick up speed.
He dodged several streaks of spells as they burned through the moor, nearly knocking Marlene off of his back several times as they rocked precariously through the uneven terrain. Mad-Eye and Edgar sent bolts of light whizzing behind them in retaliation. When a mass of silhouettes appeared in front of them, Sirius pulled back on the handlebars, jerking the bike off the ground. As they took to the sky, he beheld the smoking moor below. The thirty or so Death Eaters were still celebrating the deaths of Gideon and Fabian.
They had been on a highly classified mission. Sirius surmised that the only way Voldemort could have discovered their location was from the inside.
The dark mark exploded in the sky as the survivors escaped into the clouds.
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