Sirius Black and the Drapery of Doom

Sirius had been one of the best fighters in the original Order of the Phoenix, and had even coached many of the others himself. Which also meant he used to get picked for the best assignments. Like tailing suspected Death Eaters to shadowy hideouts. Or rescuing hapless victims before Voldemort's thugs raided their homes... especially when said victims were pretty young witches who'd be overcome with gratitude....

Sirius bit off a piece of toast. Damn he missed it. Being out there in the field, senses heightened, adrenaline coursing through his veins....

But the creaking of footsteps upstairs interrupted these thoughts. Sirius stopped chewing, confused; he wasn't expecting anyone for hours. He held still and listened, mouth full of toast, as the intruder -- who was being anything but stealthy -- thumped down the stairs and burst into the kitchen.

"Wotcher," said Tonks brightly, swinging a backpack off her shoulder. She dropped it by the door and started towards him, but caught her foot on the strap and went flying into the table.

Sirius swallowed quickly and smirked at his niece. "All right, Nym?"

"Just fine," she grumbled, picking herself up. He held a chair out for her but she sat on the edge of the table. Her hair, which was spikey and turquoise today, cut nicely through the cold gloom of the kitchen. "Kingsley been by yet?" she asked, lifting his firewhiskey and examining the label.

"No," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Was he supposed to?"

She took a playful sip, made a face, and set the bottle down. "Merlin, forgot this stuff's too vile for daylight."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Daylight? You see any daylight in here?"

Ignoring this, Tonks grabbed his cup of now-tepid tea and took a big gulp, presumably to chase the booze. She stuck out her tongue and made another face.

Sirius offered her a piece of toast, which she took, but not before raising a judgmental eyebrow at him. "He said he wanted to stop by on his lunch and pick your brain."

"About what?"

"Probably the hunt for Sirius Black," she shrugged, nibbling on her toast.

He grinned and leaned back again. "How is that coming along these days?"

"Dunno, haven't been keeping up. I got reassigned to the hunt for Albus Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" said Sirius, pouting. "Why's he getting more Aurors? He's not nearly as fearsome as Black!"

Tonk groaned. "He is if you're Fudge. I actually tried to get on the Bellatrix Lestrange case, but no go. Seems neither you or Auntie Bella are expected to nip into Fudge's office by night, tip him from his chair, and sit in it yourselves. Which makes you lower priority at the moment."

"They don't have the faintest idea where she is, do they?"

"The Aurors don't, no. Mum suspects she's 'well-hidden' like you."

He nodded; he'd been thinking the same thing. "With Cissy playing Secret Keeper?"

"Yep," said Tonks grimly, wiping the crumbs from her mouth.

Sirius sighed and reached for his bottle, but he'd just brought it to his lips when Tonks leaned in and seized it. "I think you've had enough fun for one morning, don't you?"

He started to open his mouth, then stiffened slightly. There was something different about her scent. Something very familiar, something... wolfish.

"I think I'm not the only one who's been having some fun this morning," he said quietly, looking her straight in the eyes. It worked. She too opened her mouth then closed it again, blushing furiously. Sirius broke into a knowing smirk. "So he got back early then, did he?"

"That," she exclaimed, reaching over to hit him, "is -- none -- of -- your -- business -- you -- insufferable -- git!"

Sirius blocked her blows, laughing and trying to look innocent at the same time. "What d'you mean? I just wanted to know if he was coming to din--OW!" He'd grabbed his bottle back, allowing her to land one on the side of his head.

She straightened up, still looking exasperated as he tipped his chair back and swallowed a few more mouthfuls of firewhiskey.

"Yeah, he's coming," she said warily. He set the bottle down. "And so's Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye?" Sirius raised a mocking eyebrow, tipping his chair back again. "My, you have had an interesting morn--AARRRRGGHH!" He went toppling to the ground with a fantastic clatter that reverberated around the kitchen.

Really should've seen that one coming, he thought, blinking dazedly at the ceiling.

"You miserable hellhound," came Tonks's voice from somewhere above. She sounded not the slightest bit sorry for kicking his chair. "You're lucky I'm not tying you up to hand to Dawlish right now."

Sirius disentangled himself from the chair, righted it, and sat back down, throwing her a wounded look.

"Oh, speaking of Dawlish," she whispered suddenly, "you haven't heard about Minerva, have you?"

Sirius shook his head, noticing that Tonks looked angry for real now.

"She's in Mungo's! That ***** Umbridge went to sack Hagrid last night, you see. She wasn't about to go alone obviously, since he's a dangerous half-breed, so she rounded up a couple Aurors and some other Ministry goons and they all went around midnight."

Sirius frowned. "Why midnight?"

"That's the thing," said Tonks darkly, "I think she was trying to provoke him -- get him to react violently so they'd have an excuse to throw him in Azkaban." Sirius swore loudly. "The rest of the Auror Office didn't even know until this morning, or I would've tried to warn him," she said, shaking her head sadly.

"So what happened?" Sirius prompted.

"It worked, sort of. He did get violent when they tried to take him by force, but they hadn't counted on his giant blood repelling their Stunners. He managed to knock most of them cold." She paused. "Dawlish had his head in bandages this morning," she added, smiling grimly.

"But where does Minerva come into this?" said Sirius impatiently.

"Getting to that. So she must've heard the racket from the castle because she rushed out to Hagrid's defense. Four Stunners, straight to the chest."

Sirius stared at her. "You're joking," he said slowly, though he knew perfectly well she wasn't.

"They took her to the infirmary, but there was little Poppy could do. She was transferred to St. Mungo's early this morning."

"Will she be alright?"

"They don't know. The Healers are hoping she'll make a full recovery, but she's not exactly young, is she?"

"She's a tough old bird though," said Sirius, reassuring himself as much as Tonks. "She'll pull through, I'm sure. But what happened to Hagrid?"

"Luckily he escaped. Fled the school grounds, according to Dolores's memo."

"Hm, probably gone up to the mountains," Sirius mused, remembering where he'd stayed to be near Harry last year. "He'd be safe up there for a while. Rough terrain, take them forever to search it."

"The Auror Office is stretched too thin to mount a proper search anyway," said Tonks. "We've got Dumbledore, the escaped Death Eaters, you. And a bunch of us are stationed at Azkaban now too. But that's still very hush-hush, as Fudge isn't publicly admitting the desertions yet...."

The thought of roving bands of unemployed Dementors made Sirius slightly sick, but something more important was struggling to break through his mental fog. "Wait, so who's left up at the school?" he asked slowly. "Who's watching Harry right now?"

There was a moment of silence. "Snape," Tonks muttered, not looking him in the eye.

"WHAT?" He shot up, slamming his fist on the table and causing his dishes and niece to jump.

"You know as well as I do, Sirius," Tonks began helplessly, "he's in the Order, Dumbledore trusts him...."

"He's a Death Eater!" Sirius snarled.

"Was a Death Eater," she corrected, but without any real conviction. He ignored her and started pacing feverishly around the room.

Was Voldemort still breaking into Harry's mind? Had Harry's Occlumency improved any? Actually, had Remus even managed to knock some sense into Snape before leaving? Or was Snivellus still hanging his godson out to dry just for watching a stupid pantsing memory? A memory that made Harry feel sorry for him, at that....

"Sirius?"

But what if Snivelly never wanted Harry to learn Occlumency in the first place? How could Dumbledore be so sure he'd switched sides? What if he hadn't? What if he'd already informed his Master that all the Order were gone from the school? Voldemort would jump on the chance of course. He needed Harry, needed that Prophecy....

Sirius ground to a halt, shoved his hand in his pocket, and pulled out his two-way mirror. "Harry Potter," he said quickly. It glowed faintly blue for a moment, but Harry's face didn't appear. Only the same black nothingness he'd gotten all term. He chucked the damn thing at the far wall in frustration, where it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

"Sirius?" Tonks had come up behind him and was gently touching his arm. He looked down, somewhat surprised to see her there; he'd forgotten she was still in the room. "Sirius, he can't go anywhere. He's at school, he has exams... he can't even Apparate yet...."

"Believe me, Nym, if he thought he needed to go, he'd find a way."

"How? Dolores is watching all the Floos...."

"He used one to talk to me, didn't he?" said Sirius angrily.

He had to get up to the school, had to warn Harry.... Umbridge didn't know his Animagus form, he could go as Snuffles, sneak in through the gates again....

"Don't you dare," said Tonks sharply, reading his mind. She fixed him with warning look that reminded him forcibly of her mother.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" he yelled. "Just sit here while Voldemort tries to lure my--"

"Yes," she said firmly, steering him back to his chair. "How would Harry feel if you got tossed back in Azkaban trying to talk to him? Snape is on our side. Dumbledore trusts him, and so do I. Harry isn't going anywhere," she said emphatically, though not looking nearly as confident as she sounded.

Sirius slumped back into the chair and ran a dejected hand over his stubbly face. "You don't know that, Nym...."

"Look," she sighed, checking her watch. "How 'bout I pop up to the school and see if I can't have a word with Snape? Tell him to put Harry on his guard. I'll have to hurry though, I'm due back at the office in half an hour. Now promise me," she said, planting a hand by each of his shoulders and looking him pointedly in the eyes, "promise me you won't set foot out of this house. Or I'm not going."

Sirius stared back defiantly, but after a few moments looked away and mumbled, "fine."

"Promise?"

"Promise," he said dully.

"Marauder's Oath?"

"What?" His eyes snapped back to her. "You can't--"

"Remus said I can proxy for him when he's not around." The corners of her mouth twitched in a faint smile.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed resignedly. "Fine, Marauder's Oath."

"Good," she said, bounding over to the door and picking up her bag. "Oh, I almost forgot... Mum sent something for you...." She rummaged around in the bag and pulled out a letter and a package wrapped in brown paper. "Now you behave yourself, and I'll see you tonight, okay?" she said, handing them over and kissing him lightly on the cheek, like she used to when she was little.

She made for the door, throwing one last reassuring smile over her shoulder on the way out. Sirius listened to the sound of her hurrying up the creaky steps; then she was gone and a stifling silence descended on the kitchen once more.