"Nice one, James!"

Sirius's words resonated throughout the splendid hall of the Malfoy Manor as the chandelier smashed against the exquisite marble floors in a blur of golden and silver. He eluded a green flash of light, deflecting a red one at Avery. The Death Eater stumbled, whilst James propelled another flurry of spells at the ceiling. The polished metal framing the ceiling struck down in a pile of bricks, missing a masked Death Eater's head by an inch. To his right, Remus broke in a string of curses.

"Protego!" whispered Sirius, and as the veiled shield deflected another of Avery's spells, he paused every movement to listen. A rubble of bricks was still crashing behind him— James was certainly going to demolish the foundation of the Manor at this rate. Remus was single-handedly duelling more than two Death Eaters to his right. He could make out Bellatrix Lestrange's raucous cries. Avery had hurled another spell at him—one which was either non-verbal, or he had missed the incantation. Sirius ducked. The wall behind him fell apart.

"Where is it, Avery?" asked Sirius. He knew he wasn't going to find an answer. He didn't intend to find one— not from the wretched fool. If only he could somehow distract him long enough to find Mulciber— the contemptible jerk who thought he knew what he was doing, but, was always oh so wrong.

"Far away from the reach of you and your pesky little army," Avery spoke shrilly. His lips parted to hurl another curse, but before he could, Sirius fled to the room opposite to him; the one whose wall Avery had split open. With a swift flick of his wand, he weaved a gust of dust and ruins at Avery, lurking behind a rather clumsy piece of furniture on the left of the room.

While Avery continued to toss the bricks away from him, Sirius subtly flicked his wand again. He opened the room's entrance, and made the vase next to the door clash on the floor. When Avery finally dodged the last brick, all he saw was a black dog from the window that opened into meadows— and the door Sirius might have fled from.

"You and your feeble friends won't get what they came here for, Black!" shrieked Avery, bolting out of the room. Sirius resumed his form, climbing back in the chamber. His sharp gaze spotted a dishevelled Mulciber rushing out of a room that was perhaps five doors away from the hall— a room he knew to belong to Lucius Malfoy. In his hand, there was a satchel shrouded in emerald fabric— vintage but worn out. And that's when everything around him descended into chaos. Mulciber sank to the ground with an inhuman shriek— but the spell wasn't Sirius'.

"James," whispered Sirius, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He, however, didn't turn to confirm his notion. His eyes clung to the satchel that had rolled down Mulciber's grip. Was it going to be that easy?

"Accio!" Sirius yelled, his wand pointed at the bag. It flew towards him, and his calloused fingers grasped the straps tightly.

"Sirius, go!" He heard Remus' triumphant voice. The Death Eaters he had been duelling were lying on the floor, unconscious. A thick stream of blood trilled down his arm, but he didn't seem concerned in the slightest.

"I am not leaving you—" Sirius started. Mulciber had gathered his wits, and was already scrambling on his feet.

"You get back to the headquarters," whispered James, "We have nearly got all of them. We—"

What James intended to do, Sirius never found out. The rest of the ceiling was crashing down; but this time, it wasn't James. Sirius inhaled, a fresh whiff of citrus mingled with dust. It was a simple plan, he thought, he'd get out of the Manor into a zone where he could Apparate from to the Headquarters, hurl the satchel at Dumbledore, and return in a flash, to get—

Another flash of light blew past him. He tucked in a bit of windswept hair, and laughed softly, rushing beyond the lawn.

"Why, Avery, have you always been this bad at aiming, or have I become better at dodging daft people?"

Mulciber hurled a curse at him, and the tree he was hiding behind—blooming with red flowers, burst in flames.

"Cozy bonfire," said Sirius merrily, springing behind another tree. "In case the Malfoy fireplace stopped working someday, this one will come quite handy, eh?"

"Shut up!" exclaimed Avery.

 "If I had a voice like yours, I'd certainly shut up," Sirius moved close to the gilded entrance. "But, fortunately for me, I have a pretty charming voice, which humans and angels revel in, so I'd have to say no. Solely for their sake, I swear."

"You have hardly got the charms," sneered Mulciber, "Explains why Mrs. Black prefers Regulus."

Sirius' steps halted, and Avery aimed for the bag. The Black raised his wand, disarming him, and chuckled. "A nasty trick, Mulciber, but your words are as inefficient as your duelling skills, it seems. Explains why Mrs. Mulciber sent Howlers to you every other week. A disgrace to your family, and to Voldemort too, aren't you?"

Mulciber's cheeks went redder than the flowers they had crumpled in their haste. Smirking, Sirius sped towards the doors and flung them open.

"Stop him!" Both the Death Eaters shouted at each other.

"You can't!" Sirius grinned, closing the gates at their faces, and preparing to Disapparate; when a rough hand grabbed his arm.

Sirius' head whirled as he strove to drive it clear of every thought, holding back from his destination. If he Apparated back to the Headquarters with the Death Eater— No, they shouldn't even get a glimpse of the location. Where then? His mind spun a web of blurred images. Both he and the person who had latched onto him tried to stop the Apparition midway, both tugging at their powers as they struggled to reach different locations. Sirius was exhausted, and his intellect had given up. The world around him swirled in an indecipherable mess, roughly pulling him; until it stopped abruptly, and his feet met ground again.

Sirius collapsed, his head brimming with exertion. Next to him, Mulciber had passed out. He drew in a fresh inhale, laced with tickling wind, petrichor, and berries. Where was he? It seemed like the middle of an infinite forest. Meadows stretched on either side of them, their hues similar to the parched grasses of the Malfoy Manor. The woods that stood around them were comparatively denser. A web of bushes interspersed with similar red blooms sprawled on the ground beneath them. Marvelling at nature, Sirius didn't notice when Mulciber woke up, but his reflexes were fast enough to kick him when his fingers reached for the satchel. He kicked him again, shuffling to his feet, before taking an abrupt curve down the jungle.

He had never been to a similar place, yet it housed a strong pull of familiarity. Exhausted, he let his gaze scrutinize the area around him once again. Now that Mulciber was out of sight, he could try Apparating elsewhere, maybe back to the Headquarters.

So he hid behind a large oak, thinking of the Headquarters. His foot left the ground, the familiar sensation of Disapparation swirled around him. The world was spinning, and then suddenly, it wasn't. As if he had hit a wall, Sirius crumpled on the forest floor. Anti-Apparition Zones, he realised with a start, as he attempted to suck in a deeper breath, aiming to ease the agitated heaves his chest was rising and falling in. But how were they able to Apparate into this eerie place then? As his mind struggled to discover sense in the happenings around him, something else hit him. It was neither a wall nor Mulciber's clumsy, dark spells. It was something— he tilted his head to have a view of the thing that had attacked him.

If ending up in an unknown forest with his enemy scurrying around him was something Sirius had never expected— he didn't quite know how to word the sudden appearance of a unicorn in front of him. He had seen them before, both in his Care of Magical Creatures class and the Forbidden Forest, but that didn't make its sight any less entrancing. The creature shimmered under the fair sunlight, its fur reflecting the radiance, refracting it as if it were made of snowflakes.

Sirius gawked, and the unicorn threw him a look of deep contempt but didn't attempt to attack the young wizard again. It snorted, and took a step towards Sirius, sniffing the satchel.

Sirius pulled the bag away just in time as the creature lurched at it. "Listen to me, young unicorn—"

The unicorn drew out a low grumble and craned his neck up. A collar around his neck, worn out as the bag's fabric itself, read "Maximus" in bold, gold letters.

"Right, Maximus, that's too pretty of a name for you isn't it though? I have never seen one with a name before—" Sirius said slowly. Maximus stomped the ground with his sturdy forelimbs.

"Alright, no hard feelings, Max, you are pretty but I just happen to be slightly prettier, no? We can agree upon that one. Besides—"

Maximus attempted to acquire the bag for the second time that day. "No, bad, bad horse," Sirius shook his head, cooing so mockingly that he might as well have been talking to a kid; telling him not to steal his chocolate. "Good horses eat grass, not random bags with dark arti—"

Before he could complete his sentence, Maximus pushed him again, and bit his shoe.

"That ain't grass, boy," Sirius scoffed dramatically, clambering to his feet at once. "Listen, bad horse, you are going to turn that way," he pointed at the direction where he had misled Mulciber to go. "You are going to go there, and if you find an ugly git— with a wretched voice and a ludicrous tattoo on his arm, you can feed on his shoes and cloak. And if you don't find him, you can eat some fresh grass. I don't quite fancy the taste," he added, almost muttering to himself at this point. "But I have heard your kind adore it, so, you do you. I will head off there, hoping I find a way out."

Maximus let out his loudest growl yet, and before Sirius could pick up his pace, he charged again.

This time Sirius ran as fast as he could, not turning back to throw any snarky remarks at the unicorn.