In the ruins of a cottage a baby cried. Sirius Black sat up from his hunched position over the body of his best friend and rapidly made his way towards the sound. The feeling of death had lain so thick and cloying over the area that he had assumed that there was no living human in the ruins. He had been wrong, as he followed the sound he could feel a life force burning fiercely in the midst of the death.

Quickly, hardly daring to hope, Sirius picked his way towards what had once been the nursery. He stepped over the body of a lovely flame haired women and there she was, his tiny but wonderfully alive goddaughter.

Sirius scooped her up in his arms. She stopped crying and stared at him out of wide emerald eyes. Sirius didn't waste any time, he picked her up and apparated to Blackmere.

Alphard Black peered through his spell enhanced glasses at the tiny green-eyed baby on the table in front of him and nodded grimly. "That is undeniably a piece of Voldemort's soul" he said.

"I had heard of witches and wizards using familiars as Horcruxes of course but never other humans, it was most certainly an unintentional move on Voldemort's part." He seemed more intrigued than horrified at this manifestation of incredibly dark magic. Sirius sighed impatiently.

"Yes, I had figured that out for myself thanks. I'm more concerned with its removal then the scholarly and historical implications."

Alphard waved a hand. "Yes, yes, I realize that my boy. Allow me a few moments of thought at least, I've never encountered such a thing in my life. The normal course of action would be to destroy the vessel of the horcrux, which is quite impossible in this situation." This was spoken in a distracted tone of voice. Sirius could see that Alphard was already miles away, utterly absorbed by the problem in front of him.

Alphard spent the next half hour running complicated diagnostic tests on Harriet. Glowing lights erupted from the girl, lights were shone into her eyes, and webs of magic were woven around her lighting up in different colours while Alphard scribbled notes on the parchment in front of him. Sirius only understood half of the tests administered. Finally Alphard waved his wand over Harriet, dispelling the magic surrounding Harry. Then he met Sirius's eyes gravely.

"The only way to remove the soul fragment would be for Harriet Potter to cease to exist" he said.

Sirius jumped up and drew Harriet into his arms protectively. When he began to speak it was in a low and deadly voice. "I refuse to kill her or allow her to be killed by anyone. I'll murder anyone who tries."

"Clean your ears out boy! Did I say kill her? I said that Harriet Lily Potter must cease to exist." Alphard retorted with some asperity.

Sirius collapsed back into his seat. "You mean change her in such a fundamental way that she is no longer Harriet Potter and then removing the fragment while its hold on her soul was destabilized" he said is shocked tones. "That's incredibly dangerous."

Alphard nodded. "The least risky method would be a blood adoption" he said. Sirius nodded thoughtfully. He could see the benefits, a safe and much less dark option then any others that came to mind. Furthermore, the change of identity would give her some measure of anonymity, protection against any Death Eaters who wished to revenge themselves on the young savior.

"We'll have to do it fast if while the bonds between the fragment and her soul are still weak" he mused.

"Yes" said Alphard. He met Sirius's eyes steadily. The two men communed silently for a moment. They were interrupted by someone pounding on the door to the house

"I'll get it. Anyone who knows anything about the Potter's protections will assume that you were their secret keeper. In fact the ministry is probably looking for you at this very moment."

Sirius gritted his teeth. "Someday I'll kill Peter" he growled.

"Don't be an idiot! Stay here" hissed his uncle. Sirius nodded his assent. Reassured, Alphard shut the door to his workroom and locked it. Then he headed to see who could be knocking at this time of night.

Remus Lupin was having the worst night of his life, which, considering his lycanthropy, was saying something. He had been just about to sit down in front of his fireplace with a cup of tea and a book when the flames had flared and there was Dumbledore informing him that Voldemort was gone but that he was needed in Godric's Hollow immediately.

The grave look in Dumbledore's normally cheerful blue had sent Remus jumping to his feet and apparating to Godric's Hollow. What he found there would haunt him for the rest of his life.

James and Lily's house was little more then a smoking ruin. It reeked of smoke and dark magics. The first body Remus saw had been James's. His had not been a quick death. Every sign pointed to James having put up a fight and as a result his remains lay scattered and bloody around what had once been his living room. Remus had only just stopped himself from throwing up.

Lily's body had been unmarked and pristine. She looked as if she had simply gone to sleep. Only the unnatural pallor of her skin suggested the truth. Somehow the sight of her, with it's verisimilitude of life, had been worse then James's considerably more gruesome remains. Remus had stepped around her toward the cradle where Harriet had slept, sick with dread, only to be confronted with nothing. The cradle was empty.

The smell that clung to the blankets gave him his answer, Sirius had been here. Dumbledore who had been standing silent at his side throughout his journey through what had been the home of his best friends now began to speak in a gentle voice.

"Sirius was their secret keeper, as you well know. Only he could have revealed the Potter's location."

Remus felt like the foundations of his world were shaking. James and Lily were dead, Harriet had disappeared. Now it wounded as if Dumbledore was implying that Sirius was a traitor but that was impossible- wasn't it? In this new and uncertain world Remus wasn't sure. After all a world where people as alive, as wonderful as James and Lily had been could be dead wasn't a world that made much sense. At least not to Remus.

"He… he couldn't have. He would have died before betraying James and… and he would never hurt Harriet, never."

Dumbledore looked sympathetic.

"I wouldn't believe it either my boy but James himself told me that Sirius was his secret keeper."

Remus nodded slowly.

"I know" he said heavily. "That's what he told me as well."

Abruptly he brought his mind back to what was important.

"I suppose you need my help finding where Sirius took Harry."

Dumbledore nodded affirmative. "His motorcycle was found parked just outside the cottage on the front lawn. All signs point to him having apparated out of here with Harry. You would know best where to start looking for him."

Remus nodded sharply and then frowned. "Wait a minute… I'm not the only one who would know where to look for Sirius. Where's Peter?"

"He isn't at his house or in any of his usual haunts" Dumbledore replied. "Nor has he responded to summons. I have not been able to locate him."

Remus found this slightly worrying but it wasn't uncommon for Peter to disappear. He had always been that way. Even at Hogwarts he had been prone to wandering off to mysterious places and refusing to divulge his whereabouts. Peter had always been a private person. Instead he turned his mind to more pressing issues.

"I'll ask Alphard if he knows anything of Sirius's whereabouts. He always understood Sirius better then most." And with those last words he apparated away.

Remus pounded furiously on the door of Blackmere, Sirius's ancestral home and the home of the only family member he was still in contact with. He fought down exhaustion, shock and rising hysteria. If he gave in to his emotions and his fatigue now he would fall apart, something he couldn't afford at that present moment. Grieving for Lily and James could wait, wondering where Peter had disappeared to and hating Sirius could wait too. Right now Harry was missing and Remus needed to find her.

The strong dark wooden door swung open, revealing Alphard, tired and harried with dark purple bags under his eyes.

"Remus! What an unexpected surprise" he said, but Remus was already moving. Swiftly he grabbed the unwary Alphard and pushed through the doorway, wand resting on his throat.

"I should have known that you would be sheltering him" he snarled. "Don't think I can't smell him, werewolf nose, remember?" Alphard swallowed hard.

"Remus, please, things aren't what you think they are. Take a minute to truly smell… Sirius isn't the only one here" he said softly. Remus took a sniff and caught another smell, the tang of a wet diaper, the soft, warm smell of a small child, the acrid smell of smoke and dark magic, Harry. He dropped Alphard and followed the smell at a run down the dim hallway to a locked and well warded door, Alphard's workroom. He took out his wand ready to blast the door apart.

A voice spoke softly behind him.

"Stop." Alphard had his wand pointed directly at Remus. Remus froze for a split second. The hesitation cost him dearly. He spun around curse at his lips, only to have his wand spin out of his hand, while ropes wrapped themselves around his wrists and ankles, snapping them together and forcing him to fall to the floor on his back- hard.

"I'm sorry to do this to you Remus" Alphard's voice continued, "but I can't let you go in until you've heard some things. In your current state you could hurt someone"

"That was the general idea" Remus snarled back. He could feel panic and rage overtaking him. Harry was locked in that room with Sirius and he couldn't get to her. The thought set a fresh bolt of panic through his body. He struggled furiously against his bonds.

"Remus!" Alphard snapped "Listen to me!"

The sharp tone cut through the haze of panic that had filled Remus's mind. He stilled and looked up at Alphard.

"Sirius wasn't their secret keeper."

The words were spoken in a calm, flat tone as if Alphard was thoroughly convinced of their truth. "What, is that what he told you? And you actually believe him?" Remus laughed bitterly. "He was their secret keeper… James told me so himself."

"I know my nephew Remus Lupin" Alphard said in level tones. "He would never betray James and Lily, think for a moment, who else could have been secret keeper?"

"James trusted Sirius more then anyone else in the world Alphard, of course he was secret keeper." Alphard shook his head or at least Remus thought he did, it wasn't easy to tell from his angle looking up from the ground. "Sirius was going to be secret keeper but he thought it would be too obvious. Instead he elected to act as a decoy. Peter was the secret keeper. He was the traitor."

The last sentence was spoke in dark, angry tones.

Remus scoffed. "Are you sure that isn't just something that Sirius made up to convince you to help him. What are the chances of-" he stopped as various things he had learned tonight, as well as things that he had known for years, his knowledge of Peter and Sirius both, came together. Peter was the secretive one, the man who clung to those who were more powerful than him, the coward. Peter was missing. He had disappeared at odd times over the course of the last year and had been curiously tight lipped about where he had been when questioned. If anyone had been acting like a spy in the past year it had been Peter not Sirius.

Remus looked up at Alphard shakily.

"Take me to Sirius and Harry. I want to be sure Harry is safe and I want to hear what you just told me from Sirius himself."

Alphard nodded and released his arms and legs. Remus climbed stiffly to his feet, tiredness and grief as well as the fall he had just taken were beginning to take their.

Alphard strode swiftly around Remus and opened the door to his workroom, gesturing to Remus to enter first. Remus stepped through, wand in hand, into Alphard's clean and warmly lit workshop.

The first thing he saw was Sirius looking haggard and devastated. Sirius had been looking nervously at the door and when their eyes met he looked down, guilt and sorrow etched into his face. The nights events seemed to have aged him ten years. He looked awful. In fact he probably resembled Remus himself a great deal. This more then anything else reassured Remus. There was simply too much grief in Sirius's eyes for him to have been the traitor. Then his eyes fell to the small child lying in Sirius's arms. Harriet looked tired and cranky, as if she had been up far too late and only wanted to go to bed. Other than that she looked healthy and safe. Her face lit up when she saw Remus and she held out a hand in his direction. "Moo'y" she cried.

Remus felt relief flood through his body. Prickling warm gathered behind his eyes and he found himself struggling to contain tears. Despite the grief and shock of the past night he found his face stretching into a wide smile. He dropped his wand on Alphard's workroom table and stumbled across the room and scooped her out of Sirius's arms, hugging her close. He breathed in the reassuring scent of a small unharmed child. Once again he caught a whiff of her diaper. He wrinkled his nose.

"What sort of godfather are you Sirius, can't you tell she need her diaper changed?" The gentle scolding made Sirius flushed a dull red.

"Between removing her from the ruins of James and Lily's cottage and getting Alphard to check her for any sort of curse I haven't had the time!" he exclaimed somewhat defensively.

However, he sounded relieved that Remus was back to scolding him as opposed to trying to murder him. Remus shook his head and placed Harry on the large wooden table that dominated Alphard's workroom and proceeded to strip and scourigify both the child and the wet cloth diaper. It wasn't a permanent solution, they would need to wash the diaper properly, but it would do as a stop gap until they could buy new diapers and wash the current one with water and soap. Then he handed Harry back to Sirius and went to wash his hands at the workroom sink.

As he washed his hands Sirius began to speak in a low, hesitant voice.

"Moony… I'm… I'm so sorry. Sorry for not trusting you with the information that Peter was secret keeper. Sorry for trusting the little rat."

His voice became almost a growl by the end and Harry stirred uneasily. Sirius soothed by rocking her gently against his chest, murmuring wordless reassurances. Harry gradually calmed down, nodding off gently in Sirius's arms.

Remus had been standing silently at the sink, his shoulders hunched in and tense and his back to Sirius. He began to speak in low tones. "It's alright it became really hard to trust there for a while. Friends turning on friends-" his voice choked off.

"Even so" Sirius said firmly "that's no excuse. I was wrong." Remus nodded. "Yes." Silence filled the room but it was a comfortable one even considering the events of the night. Sirius and Remus's friendship had always been curiously resilient, surviving even Sirius's betrayal in fifth year.

Sirius cleared his throat uneasily, breaking the silence. "Remus… there are other things you need to know… problems with Harry."

Remus spun around, making eye contact with Sirius for the first time since he had first entered the room. "What? Sirius what's wrong?" Panic once again crept into his voice.

Sirius took a deep breath "What do you know about horcruxes?"