Of Breath And Bone

This story is also the last one in the main universe of the Moonshadow saga, most of which has not been written yet. However, all you need to know is that the werewolf bond between Sirius and Remus has been active since they were 15, they're 42 now, and it provides a nice bit of telepathy between them.

Now, I'll depart and let the story tell itself.

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Part I: The Final Stand

When they had started the fight against Voldemort shortly after their departure from Hogwarts, Sirius Black had told his chosen lifemate that it would all end in flames and Hogwarts crumbling at their backs. That was the final shot, he had said, the last chance for the Dark to win entirely over the Light.

He hadn't been glad to be wrong when Harry defeated Voldemort at the age of 15 months. James and Lily had died in that, and he was still mourning their deaths. It shouldn't have been like that. Yet, as he wasn't glad to be wrong then, he wasn't pleased to be right now.

Those thoughts were racing through his mind as Sirius raced up the staircase and into Gryffindor Tower, frantically looking for his godson and his godson's two closest friends. When the castle had started to burn, when the wards that had protected the castle and the people who lived there from being entered by Voldemort and his Death Eaters had shattered, they had made sure that all of the surviving faculty and students were accounted for. For the most part they were successful.

Except for the fact that three Gryffindors by the names of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley were still missing.

The instant he'd heard that, Sirius had broke away from where he'd been standing with Remus and Bella Dartmouth and headed straight for Gryffindor Tower, ignoring any calls that his lover and bondmate threw at him. That was the first place that he would think to look for the threesome. Terror flooded him; others of the Order might consider Harry Potter to be little more than a walking, talking weapon to use against the Dark, but for Sirius Black, there were three considerations that they never took into mind. Harry Potter was a bright young man, he was 17 years old with his entire life in front of him, and most importantly, he was Sirius' godson.

Never had Sirius taken that responsibility of being Harry's godfather lightly, and had come to love him, maybe not as much as James and Lily would if they had lived, but still as his own son. It was this that drove his frantic run past the screaming portraits straight into the Gryffindor common room. Where were they? Where *were* they?

'He's not there, Padfoot,' Remus' shout rang through Sirius' head, stopping him at a dead halt as he stopped himself before he made a lunge for the stairs leading to the dormitories.

'Where are they?'

'He, Ron, and Hermione were in the Forbidden Forest when the attack began.'

'What were they doing there?'

'If I'm to believe Hermione, which I do, they were following one of Harry's intuitions. He also told me that it was safer than being in the castle at that point, and he was right. Siri, you have to get out of there. Apparate out, the Tower is going to collapse any moment!'

Sirius dove out of the portrait hole, noticing that the Fat Lady had finally fled. Rising from where he had landed, he broke into a run for the stairs out of the castle and tossed back an answer, 'You know better than I do that that's impossible, Moony! The anti-Apparation wards--'

'--are gone, Siri. They were one of the first things to go when the castle was invaded. Dammit, Sirius, we need you. *I* need you. Get your arse out of there *now*!'

In the middle of forming an answer for Remus, Sirius felt the staircase buck under him, the castle itself rising in rebellion against what was trying to invade it. Sirius didn't think he was clear-headed enough to Apparate out, regardless, without splinching himself in the process. As if the current circumstances weren't wreaking enough havoc on his senses, there was a smell in the air that reminded him oddly of a Potions experiment gone wrong. Horribly wrong, at that.

He dove off the stair he was on, but the bucking motion left him tumbling down the staircase at something of a roll until he found himself laying on his back on the outside of the castle with a monster of a headache from knocking the doors open with his head. He forced his eyes open, and stared at the formerly blue sky, now turned black from the acidic smoke that was pouring from Hogwarts Castle. Part of him wanted nothing more than to rise to his knees and keen for the loss, and another part of him wanted to transform into Padfoot and howl at the lives lost already, and those that would be lost before this was over.

When Remus came to stand over him, Sirius found that it was even harder to resist the temptation, only then he just wanted to bury his face in his lover's robes and weep. However, Remus pulled him to his feet and looked him over carefully with an extremely worried expression in his face, "Siri, what happened? I couldn't hear you..."

"Couldn't take the risk of Apparating, even if the wards are gone. Would have ended up splinched if I'd tried. Then the staircase rebelled while I was trying to talk to you. I fell the rest of the way down."

"If we could spare the time--"

"I know, but we can't. Where are the others?"

Remus grasped his arm and pulled him away from the burning castle. Sirius looked back at it, and couldn't shake the feeling of sorrow that filled him at the sight. So many things that happened at that castle, good, bad, or otherwise. He'd fallen in love at that castle, he'd learned was absolute hatred was at that castle, and learned things that he'd remember for the rest of his life in the classroom and out. Now it was burning to the ground. Now it was gone. It took another tug from Remus to get him moving, and after walking for an indeterminate amount of time, he found himself in sight of where he had been.

Harry broke away from the group with a simply spoken, "Sirius!"

Remus released Sirius in time for Harry to launch himself into his embrace, after a moment, he pulled away and told him, "Sirius, I was worried. You weren't here."

"I was looking for you. How bad?"

The answer flickered across Harry's face before he spoke, "Bad."

Remus reminded them both of his presence then, "We lost a lot of people."

"Who?"

"Charlie Weasley took on Macnair, and died in the process. He took him with him when he went."

"He was one of the worst," Bella sighed. "I'm glad he's gone, although I hated seeing Charlie die. He was one of my students, one of my better students, and he was so enjoyable to be around."

There was silence for a moment, then Harry asked, "How bad *was* Macnair, really? I saw him once, four years ago, but I really don't know..."

Sirius looked down at his godson, "You really want to know this?"

"I think I need to know."

Bella sighed, "He was sadistic, Harry. He loved playing with torture, and discovering new forms of it. He saw no lines between Wizard or Muggle, but rather just more people he could test his torture on. He'd rather torture someone than kill them, and it's said that he's never placed Avada Kedavra on anyone. It was too easy, and not painful enough."

Harry shivered.

"Who else did we lose?"

"We think Dumbledore."

There was a sudden silence at that statement, and Harry looked up with dismay at Sirius. There was a very childlike expression on the very unchildlike face, as though Harry was waiting for Sirius to tell him that the information was wrong, that it was a lie, or that it was all a horrible dream that he would wake up from.

The only problem was Sirius was hoping for the same thing himself.

"I foresaw this, you know."

"This battle?"

Sirius nodded, and stared up at the castle, "I saw it burning at our backs while we struggled to win. This was the final strike, the last stand, the last chance we had to defeat the Dark, or else all was lost."

A look crossed Bella Dartmouth's face, but before it faded away, Remus caught glimpse of it. "What is it, Bella?"

"Oh, I just remembered something. Anyway, do you want to know who else we lost today?"

"Yes."

"Arthur and Molly tried to keep them from taking down the wards around the castle and invading. Snape tried to stop them from within their own ranks, from what I've heard, and Voldemort allowed Macnair to kill him. I heard that the torture went on for weeks before he was finally allowed to die," Bella continued while those around her cringed at the description of Snape's death. "We don't know about Dumbledore, but it's rumoured that he went down when the wards around the castle did."

"Is that all?"

"All that we know so far. Information is still sketchy."

There was silence among them for a moment, then Hermione looked up, "So what do we do now? Surely we're not just going to stand here and wait for them to come, find us, and kill us."

"Like we'd make it that easy if they did!" Sirius commented.

"They could just throw Avada Kedavra on us all..."

"There are ways around it!"

"Like what?"

"Well," Sirius stopped to think, then flashed a wry grin at Harry, "we could always duck the curse."

"And that would help for precisely how long before one of their curses landed?"

"Fine. Ruin my idea. See if I care."

Remus' hand touched his arm, "And you're being deliberately ridiculous to try and defuse the tension."

"How is this different than usual?"

"It's not. I'm just saying."

"So what are we going to do?" Harry's voice sounded far too old for his young age, but it occurred to Sirius then that they had all had to grow up too fast, even if Harry was the most obvious example of it. "I'm wondering the same thing Hermione is."

"Well, we could go after them," Bella commented. "We don't have all that much strength, but we could give them all that we've got. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going down without a fight."

"No," the voice of command brought everyone looking back at Harry Potter. "I have an idea."

"Not a stupid one, I hope," Bella commented.

"I just know that Voldemort really wants me. He's made no secret about that, and to get to the rest of you, he'll have to go *through* me. Just distract the other Death Eaters, and maybe I can stop him on my own."

"Oh no, you bloody stupid git!" Ron responded, his fists clenched as he glared at Harry. "You're not going after him without me!"

"Or me, either. We've always been strongest when we've stuck together, and we need our strength more than now."

Harry looked closely at his two friends, and realised that it would be impossible to fight them on this, "Okay. Okay. So we're going to do this?"

Bella nodded solemnly.

They moved to separate, but before they did entirely, Remus caught Sirius by the arm and looked at him, "Sirius..."

Sirius heard the tone of voice his lover had, put it together with the expression on his face, and knew what he was going to say, without even the telepathy between them indicating it, "Don't. Don't even say it. Don't even think it."

"But, if we--"

"We never said goodbye before, and I won't have us starting now," he said with the first sign of anger toward his bondmate that Sirius had had in many years. "Look, I know it's possible that we'll fail, but if we do, then we're going down fighting, and together."

"Agreed."

"If that happens, I have only one request to make."

"And that would be?"

Sirius gave Remus a sad smile, "If you go first, will you wait for me?"

"Only if you wait for me."

Sirius looked at Remus, and pulled him close for a light kiss. They pulled apart, and without another word, they Apparated to where Bella and the others had gathered.

"I wondered where you boys were," Bella commented with a sarcastic twist of the lips. "Saying your last farewells to one another before going bravely off into battle?"

"Not in the least. We're all coming out of this."

"I'm glad you're so certain, Remus, because I'm not. One thing you must know, since you and Sirius, for all your efforts, never got the chance to face down and kill Pettigrew since that one night in the Shack. Peter has a silver arm that Voldemort gifted that faithful servant," her sarcasm became more obvious, "so you both need to be careful when you try and kill him. Yes, Sirius, I know you've been wanting to kill him for years. Just be careful about it."

"I will."

She looked at him, and shook her head, "No, Sirius. You won't. You never are."

Then, almost before they were even aware of it, the Death Eaters had found them there, and the battle was engaged. Somewhere in the melee, Sirius found himself separated from Remus, and was throwing curses just in order to save himself. He had promised himself long ago that he would never throw an Unforgivable Curse, and until now, he had never had reason to even wish to. After all they had been through, though, he wanted to throw an Avada Kedavra, or even a Cruciatus.

It was an indeterminate amount of time later that he found himself back to back with Bella. She panted out, "We're not going to make it unless we do something drastic."

"How drastic?"

"Old magic."

"What sort?" Sirius asked warily as the action broke around them, just enough to give them all a breather.

"You remember when you, James, Remus, and Lily were Aurors, that you found that old piece of magic and tucked it away somewhere tight in case we needed it?"

"Yeah... it was something like a self-destruct spell, but it took out a lot of people with you."

"It was called the Final Strike. I dragged it out shortly after you and Remus visited me that summer when we found out Voldemort had risen again. I don't know, but I suspect that Lily cast a version of that spell on Harry, and that is what destroyed Voldemort the first time."

"What are you suggesting?"

"That we cast the full version now," she growled. "Sirius, it has to be that or nothing. We have to give those kids a chance, even if it's our last one. If somebody's going to die tonight, I'd rather it be the people we're fighting. IF I have to take myself out with them, then so be it!"

Sirius frowned, then nodded, "There's always that chance; I accepted that long ago."

"We both did," Remus' voice caught him by surprise, and his left hand reached out Remus' right, holding for a moment before letting go and returning to their guarded positions.

"It's going to have to be me," Bella said after a moment

"Bella, why?" Sirius sounded outraged.

"First of all, I'm tired, and it's time for me to join Delia. We never planned on being apart longer than a day, and it's been nearly thirty years. Besides you two are too bloody cute to die."

Just as they were about to protest, she shoved them away from her and ran into the concentration of Death Eaters. Before they could even think to stop her, they heard the ancient Latin being shrieked into the air at the top of her lungs. There was an unearthly silence as the world seemed to stand still for just a moment, a heartbeat that lasted a lifetime. Then there was a brilliant green light, far too pale to be the one from the Avada Kedavra spell, that blinded them all.

When the light faded and their sight returned, the only thing that remained where Bella Dartmouth had stood was a pale circle that contained only a pile of ash from the wand that had been her own since she was a 11 year old witch entering Hogwarts. Outside that circle of influence was a darkened patch, and a ring of bodies, all belonging to the Death Eaters that had been surrounding her.

Sirius and Remus just stood there in shock.

'There was nothing left of her. Nothing left at all,' Remus' voice echoed within Sirius' head.

'She wanted it that way. She's home now.'

'Home?'

'Haven't you noticed, love? Wherever your mate is, that's home. At least, that's how it's been for me.'

There was no answer but communion between them for a long moment. That was the only answer he needed.

A motion out of the corner of Sirius' eye brought him circling around again, feeling as though he was actually Padfoot at that moment, growling with fur bristled instead of standing there with his wand outstretched trying to shield his mate. Then he saw the one who had gotten away yet again, who managed to escape the mass death that Bella had just dealt. Peter was launching himself at both of them from the corners of the Forbidden Forest.

Before he could take action, Remus launched himself at Peter with an angry growl escaping him. At that moment, he was more wolf than man, and the last thought he heard from Remus before he and Peter collided. Peter's scream rent the air around them as Remus called out to Sirius.

'Stay back, Sirius, I have to be the one to do this!'

'Remus, you can't! The silver!'

There was a clawing motion at Remus' shoulder, and the hand tore through the worn robes. Sirius felt a burning sensation tear through him as Remus screamed. Then, as suddenly as what had happened years before, the bond went dead between them as Remus fell, and Sirius nearly fell with him. Only his rage and the need for revenge remained.

Peter howled with maniacal, insane laughter, and the rage only grew. Without another word, Sirius approached, him and did the last thing he thought he'd ever do. With icy calm, he raised his wand and shouted out the words to Avada Kedavra. Time seemed to slow into timelessness again as he watched the green beam strike his former friend, even as it threw his own body into chaos, feeding on the energy that he had struggled to maintain.

As Peter fell over dead, Sirius felt the blackness dancing before his eyes overwhelm him, and his body crumbled as his mind fled the grief overwhelming him into the solace of unconsciousness.