Saving His Mate

Chapter Eleven: Sirius' imagination?

There was nothing here. Nothing except seventeen Death Eaters inside waiting for them, other than that the place was deserted. There were three dining chairs in what was once the dining room. Kingsley was about to give up, they had searched the place by hand and with magic no less than five times but still nothing.

Nevermind, Kingsley was losing hope but Sirius wasn't and wouldn't. No matter what had happened in the past he trusted his brother and the information he had given him. Remus was here somewhere, it just seemed like he didn't want to be found.

***

Remus did, however, wish that someone would find him. A while ago, maybe half an hour but he couldn't tell, he had heard a lot of crashing and cursing from above him. He had tried to listen as intently as he could and at one point he swore that he heard a booming voice that could only belong to Kingsley Shacklebolt. But he just couldn't be sure of it, his brain was getting more and more fuzzy as time went on. However the part of his brain that was still working was telling him that if the Order had come to get him it would explain all the crashing earlier.

So he decided to try and do something. He was dying anyway so he had nothing to lose. At this moment in time he was sat up against the cell door trying to remember how to open it without a wand. He used to be able to do it without even having to think about it but now he just couldn't remember the word. He was just about to give up when the fog in his head cleared and he remembered. So he raised his best arm, which still had three broken fingers but it was better than the other one, and waved it in front of the keyhole. Nothing happened. He tried again saying the word out loud this time but still nothing. This time he said it a little more forcefully through gritted teeth, he waved his hand over the lock and there was a click. It was the most beautiful sound he had heard in a long while. The door opened and he found himself falling backwards. He couldn't twist round fast enough to save himself and he fell to the floor. He groaned as his bad shoulder was jostled.

Once he had gotten back into a better position, his ribs protesting every movement, he looked around. There were steps in the corner of the room that led to a door. He just had to get there. He started coughing again suddenly and he tried to catch his breath back. Once he had finished coughing up more blood he started his long shuffle along the floor towards the way out.

***

Several of the Order members who had come to rescue Remus had offered their condolences and left. Over half of them had gone home expecting to be invited to another funeral in several days time for a body they would probably never find. But not Sirius, he wasn't going to give up yet, he still had hope and he was sure that they had missed something. They had to have missed something.

He was walking past the kitchen when he heard it.

There was soft tapping noise that he hadn't heard earlier. Sirius turned around and quickly walked over to where it was coming from. It could be nothing. There was a lot of wildlife around here so it could easily be a squirrel or some other kind of animal. But something told him that there was no harm in checking. It seemed to be coming from behind the old fridge, Sirius thought it was kind of strange but he was still going to take a look.

Then it stopped.

Sirius stared at the fridge.

He thought that maybe his time in Azkaban was starting to catch up with him and he really was going mad. Oh wait! There it was again, weaker this time but it was definitely there! Sirius reached out towards the fridge and gripping it, he pulled it over. There was a huge bang as it hit the cracked linoleum floor. He heard the remaining Order members shout and start running towards where he was.
"Its alright it was just me. Go back to looking." He called as the closest ones arrived. "Go on" he urged when he saw them hesitate. When they finally turned away to go back to what they were doing, Sirius went back to look at the fallen fridge. He looked at the piece of wall that the appliance had been concealing but he encountered a blank wall. Hang on a minute though, he cocked his head to the side, frowning. Were his eyes deceiving him or was the wall... shimmering? Sirius suddenly thought, he had seen this before and if it was what he thought it was it couldn't be detected using just a normal revealing spell. It would explain why they hadn't found it earlier. He pulled out his wand and waved it in a complicated pattern muttering words as he did so. The shimmering suddenly stopped and seemed to melt away. Behind was...

A wooden door.