Gone, but not forgotten

By: Lady Carmilla

I had been about to sit down to eat when I'd heard the strangled cry of one, Buckbeak the hippogriff. I turned curiously towards the kitchen door. I quickly got up, as I heard him let out another wail.

I hardly noticed that horrible house-elf, Kreacher slinking down the stairs, as I ran up to my mother's old bedroom. I opened the door to see Buckbeak kneeling on the ground, bleeding from the leg.

I hurried to get some supplies to tend to him, and heard a slight commotion below, as I reentered the bedroom. I ignored it though, thinking only of the poor creature in the room in front of me.

It wasn't hard to mend up old Buckbeak's leg. As soon as I was sure he was ok, I started back down the stairs to return to my meal. As I walked down though, I thought I heard a voice. I paused to listen.

I continued, more quickly, now, down the stairs. As I neared the kitchen, the voice had stopped, and Kreacher came through the door with a hideous smirk on his face.

"Kreacher, who were you talking to?" I asked, looking down at the pitiful elf.

"Why, Kreacher conversed with no one, Master," he said, sweetly. And under his breath added, "Though Kreacher enjoys ironing his fingers more than he will every enjoy serving the likes of Sirius Black."

"Don't lie, Kreacher, I heard you," I glared at him.

"Why, did master hear me? Well, Kreacher had hoped to keep it to himself, of course, but it was the brat Harry Potter that he spoke with."

"Harry? Why? Why did you talk to Harry? Kreacher what's going on?" I asked thinking the worst. I was about to send out word, when there was a knock at my door.

My mother began her normal rant about blood traitors and such besmirching her name and house. It was something I heard all too often.

I quickly answered the door to find a few members of the Order on my doorstep. I looked at them questioningly as they entered Grimmauld Place.

"Moony?" I asked, recognizing my old friend. "What's going on?"

"Has Harry tried to contact you?"

"Kreacher said he was in the fire," I said, throwing a venomous look to said House-elf.

Remus Lupin turned to converse with ex-auror, Mad-Eye Moody.

"Right, we have to go," Moony said, turning back to me.

"Moony, what's going on?" I was confused, and worried beyond reason.

"Sirius, Snape," I wrinkled my nose at the name, "has contacted us. He believes that Harry thinks certain Death Eaters are holding you captive in the Department of Mysteries. Dolores Umbridge took Harry and Hermione into the forest, and none of them exited. He thinks Harry and a band of his friends are trying to get to the Ministry to save you."

I gaped openly at him.

"You believe something Snivelly told you concerning Harry?" I scoffed at what I thought was ignorance.

"Black, this is serious. We need to get down there now. Are you in or out?" Moody asked me gruffly.

I stared at the completely serious faces they were all sporting.

"I'm in! Of course I'm in," I said.

We, and by we, I mean Moi, Moony, Tonks, Moody, and Kingsley, quickly Disapperated from my dingy home, to the entrance hall of the Ministry of Magic. We hurried passed the grand fountain to the lifts that would take us to the Department of Mysteries.

How did this happen? Was all I could think as we rushed through the lift doors and towards the stairs. How did I let myself fall for Kreacher's tricks?

We entered a round room, with doors on every inch of the wall. My reflex was to close the door behind me, but Moody quickly stopped me with a growl.

I looked at him curiously before we plowed on through another door. It led to a room where I saw some of Harry's friends lying lifelessly on the ground.

Moony quickly moved forward and after checking their pulses said with relief, "They're alive!"

We quickly moved towards double doors at the end of the room. We could hear voices from within. We burst through the doors and sprinted down into the cold stony room.

In the room, I saw Harry and Neville surrounded by about ten Death Eaters. I knew what I had to do.

I quickly engaged in a duel with a portly Death Eater. I tried to watch Harry out of the corner of my eye I saw as he and his friend, Longbottom, fought off Macnair. I didn't give much energy to watching Harry, as it was all needed to keep up with the dueling Death Eater opposite me.

We moved quickly all around the room. I dodged his spells, and ran down the tiered seats. As soon as the Death Eater was defeated, I turned my attention back to Harry. He had to get out of here.

I spotted him just as the Death Eater Dolohov drew back his wand and made a slashing movement with it. As I neared them, I saw Harry stumble backwards over Neville, whose legs were jerking every which way.

The Death Eater was beginning to summon the glass sphere in Harry's fingers as I ran forward and rammed into him with my shoulder.

He didn't like this, though, and we began a fierce duel. Sparks flew from the tips of our wands as we spat curses at each other.

Dolohov was drawing back his wand, when I heard Harry yell, "Petrificus Totalus!" from beside me.

The Death Eater's legs and arms quickly snapped together, and he fell over backwards onto the ground. I looked at Harry proudly.

"Nice one!" I praised, pushing his head out of the way of some Stunning Spells. "Now, I want you to get out of-"

I was cut off, as we both ducked to avoid a jet of green light. I saw Tonks toppling lifelessly down some stone seats as my cousin, Bellatrix ran triumphantly back towards the battle. I knew it was my turn to take on my wretch of a cousin.

Before I left to take her on, I yelled, "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!"

My cousin and I were both eager to finish each other off. I put a lot into the spells I was throwing at her. She jumped up onto the dais in the center of the room, and I quickly followed, looking to smite her.

I hardly noticed when Dumbledore entered the room. Most other duels stopped. Ours didn't. I wasn't going to stop until I rid the world of this horrible soul.

I taunted my cousin shamelessly. And she sneered back at me; all I wanted to do was wipe that look off her face. I wanted to wipe every look off her face. I didn't want her to ever make a face again.

In that moment, I wanted her dead.

Bellatrix sent a bolt of red light at me, I ducked, and it missed me by a mile. I laughed at her.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" I yelled, my voice echoing around the cold room.

She sent a second jet of light my way, but I was too slow to evade it; it hit me squarely in the chest.

I felt my eyes widen in shock. She had hit me. I hadn't been expecting it at all. I had been too carefree, too caught up in my taunts.

My fall seemed to take forever. I looked to the right, to see my Godson running down the stone steps towards me. He looked so afraid. So worried. I wanted to tell him not to worry, it was just stunning spell. I'd be fine; someone just needed to worry about Bella, now.

As I finally neared the ground, I looked up to see an ancient archway. Hanging from the arch was a tattered veil. I sank backward through the veil, confused. What is this?

At the last moment before I was shrouded in darkness, I heard my horrible cousin's horrible laughter. I fell back into the darkness and everything was silent. It was cold and quiet as I just seemed to float in the darkness.

I floated there, unmoving, for what seemed like hours before I saw a flash of light. In front of me, I saw the burst of light open like a portal. I looked at it curiously when I saw something stir from within it.

As the light grew bigger and brighter, the thing I saw grew clearer, as well, until I saw something that had me completely dumbfounded.

A familiar dark-haired man and beautiful auburn-haired woman smiled warmly at me from the light. They grew closer, hands extended to me, until they were close enough to touch.

I looked at them sorrowfully, and the woman smiled.

"You did well, Sirius," she informed me, with a smile. She seemed to glow. I looked to the man, and he nodded as well.

"James…?" I wondered, numbly.

"Yes."

"Lily…?" I asked turning back to the woman.

"Yes."

Lily put out her hand for me to take. "Come, Sirius, it's time."

I looked at them and realized, painfully that I was dead. There was no other explanation for it. This was the end of the line for good old Sirius Black.

I had no idea what would happen when I took her hand, but I risked it.

I saw my life flash before my eyes, as my skin touched Lily's soft, tender fingers. I looked to James' smiling face and he nodded reassuringly.

"We've missed you, Mate," James said, in that voice I'd so missed. I took their hands fully, and they guided me into the light.

This was the end. The light engulfed them and all was black again. Sirius Black was gone.

Gone, but not forgotten.

AN: Yes. Random…? I think so. I just had a sudden burst of creativeness. This struck me as a good idea in planning, but now as I read it, I'm not so sure. Just let me know what you think, please. I will be forever grateful.

Please note: This is a One-Shot. I would hope that would be terribly obvious, but sometimes I get people bugging me about updating. 'Tis a One-Shot. This is the end. Forever. Thank you. Good bye.

Love, Lady Carmilla.