Part One: Enemy of My Enemy
Sirius was running, sprinting through the forest laced with early snow. His breath was a jet of mist in front of him as he panted madly and swept branches out of the way, missing some so that they scratched his face badly in a few places. He wasn't even capable of thought, not realizing it would be faster if he shifted into his animal form. He dared not apparate; there were ways to detect such magic and Voldemort himself might be near.
Still he raced out of the woods surrounding Godric's Hollow and crashed down the street, past many still, silent houses. A twilight blue was beginning to lighten the sky, and orange haze formed above the houses at the end of the road.
The door hung open on its hinges. For a moment he froze.
Too late.
Dashing inside, he turned around the entry way, beginning to call out but stopping when he saw the dark figure slumped at the landing of the stairs which hugged the wall and jackknifed at a ninety-degree angle.
"James," he breathed, and instantly was at his friend's side, turning him so he faced up.
The eyes were open. Blank.
Instantly, Sirius knew that James Potter was dead.
"No, no, no."
An uncontrollable trembling raked through him, and a wordless cry shook itself lose, but the next second he ran the remaining steps up the stairs, thinking of Lily and Harry.
The door to the baby's room was open a touch as well, so that as he approached, he could see the dark robed figure huddled on the floor, cradling Lily; her red hair tousled and hanging out over one of his arms that supported her head. And Severus Snape's face was screwed up with ugly sobbing.
He perked up at the sound of a creak in the wood of the landing, then carefully but quickly set Lily on the ground. When Sirius charged in Snape had his wand snapped to attention, and was slowly sliding off his knees into a crouch, then rising to his full, towering height.
"You," Sirius hissed, wand at the ready.
"Me," Snape answered, hanging on a little too long to the 'm' as he sometimes did with his consonants. "And if you want to stop me from going to the proper authorities, well... give it your best shot... I'll enjoy defending myself against the betrayer of the Potters. And if I should get a little carried away, who could blame me or care?"
"What are you blathering on about?" he demanded, and wiped a stray tear off his cheek, trying to blink back the rest.
"Don't... play coy, Black!" Snape was almost stuttering with rage. "You were in that moronic little group in school, you were the best man at their wedding, you were surely their trusted and you sold them out to Lord Voldemort."
"You're mad! You do His bidding, you might've killed them yourself! Or did you just torture Peter and let Voldemort do the dirty work?"
"Pettigrew? Changing your story now isn't going to help you... Dumbledore knows you were their secret keeper, a sore mistake on their part, I could've told her you were no good."
"Shut up!" The calm of Snape was driving Sirius mad, making him ever more sure of the psychotic mind lurking behind Snape's black, tunnel-like eyes.
"I would've run, if I were you," he added, "Not that you have that option, now."
Sirius stole a glance at the crib, where Harry sat upright, gripping the bars with pudgy little fists, and a slight dribble of blood running down into one eye from the scratched lightning-shaped mark on his forehead. He'd cried himself out, it seemed, just sniffling with wet, red cheeks and looking at the two men without comprehension. And where was mother? Where was mother to make the pain stop and make it better?
"Run? And let you kill the boy, I don't think so-."
"-No harm," said Snape with terrible, ringing conviction, "will come to the son of Lily Potter while I am alive."
"You don't fool me. You're a death eater! You hate James!"
"Don't you mean...," came the slow reply, "hated?"
Something snapped in Sirius and the next second he flicked his wand, calling, "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Snape whirred his arm around, catching the bolt of red light and spinning to throw it back with all of his power. Sirius dove out of the way and threw another spell which caught Snape on the shoulder, knocking him back a bit so that in that brief second, Sirius had time to grab the baby and brace himself with a whisper of, "Rennervate."
On cue, Snape twisted an elegant hand out and shouted, "STUPEFY!"
He couldn't risk hitting Harry with a more damaging spell. It was countered and harmless, so that Sirius brushed it off and moved out of the room, chased by another jolt of red light.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" he threw back over his shoulder.
Snape flew back as he caught the bolt right in the center of his chest and nearly plowed through the wall of the nursery, shaking the house. He was back a few moments later as Sirius reached the lower landing, nearly tripping on his friend's body, and catching a flick of movement from the corner of his eye he jumped over the railing of the steps, landing in a crouch with baby Harry still cradled in one arm.
The silent spell struck the wall just past where he'd been the second before. The door was only steps away.
"BOMBARDA MAXIMA!" Snape's low drone sounded and the front wall of the house exploded in a shower of dust and rubble that caved in the entire front roof, blocking escape that way. Sirius stumbled back and fell, protecting the baby's head as his ears rang.
"STUPEFY!" Snape yelled.
Sirius reflected the spell with a sweep of his arm, knocking it back into the sender, which Snape was prepared for, but didn't count on the next spell, exactly similar which Sirius sent with a silent flick of his wand a second after it. Snape fell back, slumping, unconscious, on the stairs.
Sirius could hardly catch his breath for a second, and turned onto his knees, placing baby Harry on the ground. With a shaking hand, he aimed his want at the cut and murmured, "Episkey."
The skin knitted together, but it didn't heal correctly; forming instead pinkish scar-tissue. He frowned, but the baby stopped crying, at least. With the front of his sleeve, Sirius wiped the small stream of blood away, then picked up the boy again and struggled to his feet to head for the back door.
It struck him, then, that James and Lily were dead. Almost like a massive weight dropped onto his shoulders, he stumbled and collapsed to his knees. The tears flooded up again. Peter would be dead, too.
It's my fault, he thought miserably, It's my fault more than anybody's. Peter wasn't strong enough to withstand the torture, I should've guessed at that, it should've been me.
"It should've been me," he sobbed. "It should've been me."
"As you wish," a cold voice declared.
Snape, still slumped on the stairs, raised his arm as Sirius whirled around and they each shot a bolt of red light, which struck in mid-air and negated each other.
"Expelli-."
"-SECTUM SEMPRA!" Snape bellowed.
Sirius threw up a quick shield with a swipe of his wand, but while several of the blows that came from Snape's wand struck it, several more came after and sliced into his arm and chest. Blood sprayed and Sirius fell to one knee, groaning, clutching at the deep gouges in his skin.
"Expelliarmus," he said, and Sirius' wand shot out of his hand, flipping through the air to be caught by the dark-robed figure who moved down the stairs with excruciating slowness.
"Well, Black, it looks like we know who the better wizard is. Can't say that I'm surprised, really."
Sirius set Harry down behind him, though turning was agony and his shirt and sports coat were now drenched in his own blood.
"Not so strong, on your own, are you?"
Still, he said nothing in response.
"Admit... you killed them..."
"I didn't," he breathed.
Effortlessly, Snape said, "Crutio."
Sirius convulsed, falling forward onto one hand and gasping as his entire body began to spasm in pain.
"Crutio."
This time it wrenched a strangled cry from him.
Snape approached so that his boots were at the edge of Sirius' vision, and he imagined that Severus took great pleasure in viewing him as a dog, kneeling obediently at his feet.
"Admit... your crimes."
Sirius pushed himself up and sprang at Snape, tackling him so that they slammed hard into the ground a moment later. He wrenched his wand away from Severus and pointed it desperately, saying, "Incendio!"
Snape's greasy, black hair caught fire. As he flailed to extinguish the flames Sirius grabbed Harry again, minding the wounds and running for the back door. Harry was more important than revenge; he knew that much, and Snape was stronger than he had anticipated. He hit the back door and burst out into the snow, but was frozen by a low voice declaring, "Immobulus."
Barely able to breathe and still bleeding profusely, Sirius felt astonishing relief flood threw him as Dumbledore approached, light-footed and dressed in gray robes.
"BLACK!" Snape shrieked as he crashed through the door. "YOU'LL DIE TONIGHT FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO HER!"
With a flick, Dumbledore snagged Snape's wand, causing him to freeze as well, though not as the product of any spell. "Calm yourself, Severus."
Other figures began to emerge from thin air; Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid.
"We will get to the bottom of this tonight."
With that, Dumbledore unfroze Sirius. Waving his wand again, he healed the deep gashes, though his shirt and coat were left in rags that revealed a large amount of his slender, well-shaped chest.
"Sirius," Dumbledore gestured, "if you'd please?"
He hesitated, tightening his grip on Harry. "He should stay with me."
"For the moment," Dumbledore said, only, and slowly Sirius relinquished the boy to the wrinkled but steady hands. He passed Harry on to Hagrid, who waited outside as he couldn't fit through the door.
Back into the home they went, with Dumbledore remaining between the two furious men. He waved his wand and the front wall reassembled itself, becoming whole again so that not a trace of dust was left floating in the air.
"Now, then," he said. "This terrible business. Voldemort is gone."
Sirius was taken back, he hadn't yet heard any of the rumors, knowing only that communication had broken down between Lily and James, then he'd been unable to reach Peter and known the worst had to have happened.
"Is that James?" Minerva asked aloud, seeing the figure in the dark of the stairs. The windows had just begun to reflect that rising light of dawn coming over the place.
"Yes," Sirius croaked, seized again by the crippling emptiness. "And upstairs, Lily-."
"Such a terrible tragedy."
"Severus," said Minerva, "you assert that you found the bodies here?"
"Yes," came his eerie whisper, and his eyes shot death at Sirius. "He killed them. He was their trusted; he was their secret keeper."
"No, Peter Pettigrew-," Sirius said, "I thought I was too obvious a choice, James and Lily agreed it would be best. They must've tortured him, killed him. Your kind," he said to Snape.
"I do not believe," said Albus, "that Severus Snape had anything to do with these deaths. He risked his life to warn me of the danger the Potters were in, and has been loyal to me since that day."
Eyes were suddenly turning to Sirius, and he backed away.
"I'd never hurt James and Lily."
"It is a matter for the Ministry," Dumbledore said, though if he believed Sirius innocent he didn't say so. "It would be best, for the time being, if Harry went to stay with his aunt and uncle."
"The muggles?" Sirius hissed. "No. They hate magic, they won't treat him right-."
"Only until this sorted out."
"Because you think I killed them."
"-Sirius," Minerva began, but he cut her off.
"He thinks I killed my best friend! You believe the death eater!"
"Calm yourself," Dumbledore said again. "I do not believe you killed the Potters, but inquiries are to follow and it will be best for Harry to have some stability. If your name is cleared, you will have him back."
"It will be," Sirius said. "He's my family and no one will keep him from me." With that he went out into the snow and took Harry back from Hagrid, moving a few steps away and rocking him gently. The others kept their distance, they couldn't hear him whispering. "It's alright, Harry. When this is done I'll get you back. Then I won't let anyone hurt you."
He kissed the boy on the forehead, just over the scar, and then with a heavy breath and a few more tears, passed him back to Hagrid. "Take my bike," Sirius said. "Through the trees to the North, it flies."
"Much appreciate that, I'll get it back to you."
He could only nod. Sirius apparated back to his room at the Leaky Cauldron, landing unsteady and falling to the dusty, wooden floor. The room was small and simple, with a table and two chairs, a small bed in one corner, and in the back a fireplace and bundle of wood.
He'd barely started the kindling when a pounding came at the door.
"BLACK!" A female voice was calling, still thundering away at the door. "OPEN THE DOOR, NOW!"
Sirius was halfway across the room when she burst in.
"Delilah," he said, because he was too tired to think of any clever insult.
Author's note: This is going to turn into a six-shot story. Please review! Reviews make me so happy! Constructive criticism accepted but if you just want to tell me I'm awesome, that works too!