Chapter 1

OK, this should help clear some things up in the story.

Aliona Lupin and Maria Black (nee Delacour) are sisters and the siblings of Mr Delacour. As you can tell by the surnames, they are married to Remus and Sirius respectively. Clara is Remus' daughter, Amira is Sirius' and Isabella is James'.

All people who were in the same year as the Marauders at school have now either been born in 1956 or 1957 – apart from Maria who was a year below the Marauders at Hogwarts (it makes the ages easier to work with).

I think that's it so enjoy the story.

Sirius was having second thoughts about the party. He really shouldn't be sending his little angel to the Potter household while You Know Who was after Harry; but even so, after weeks of pleading from his daughter Amira, he had decided to let her go and now he was waiting for her to find Dolly the doll. Young children come up with such imaginative names.

Maria saw the faraway look in his eye disappear and he opened his mouth to say something when she stopped him. "If you say she can't go to that sleepover-party thing then I will hex you into next week. Or I'll lock you into Grimauld place with your mother's portrait. Or both." Now she had his attention. "After all, even James is capable of following kids around the house and looking after sleeping children, and if he sets fire to the house again Lily can put it out. She'll be fine. Seriously, what are the chances of Voldemort actually finding them, especially on the night our daughter's there?"

After visibly flinching at HIS name; Sirius had muttered, more to himself than his wife. "You're right; it's pretty much a million to one. She'll be fine."

"C'mon Daddy, I'm ready to go! Let's go!" Amira suddenly squealed, popping out from behind a doorway.

Five minutes later they were standing outside of the Potter household, waiting for someone to answer the door. The door suddenly swung open and Clara Lupin and Isabella Potter bounded out of the door to hug Amira.

"Hi Sirius." Lily said once she had opened the door.

"Hey Lils; hope you don't mind me not staying for a chat. It's just that I'm headed over to Peter's to check he's alright."

"Oh its fine, we'll see you in the morning anyway." She replied as she ushered the kids back into the house.

"Bye Daddy." Amira shouted.

"Bye love." Sirius waved back.

Peter's house was ridiculously quiet. There was no sound of Peter's loud snoring, no noise from the wireless in the dining room and no sound of pans being knocked about in the kitchen. It only took a quick sweep around the house and a few revealing spells to confirm what he already knew, Peter was gone. But he couldn't be, he was his own secret keeper, nobody would find him unless he told them where he was. One word stood out. Unless. It all clicked. Peter was the spy who'd been feeding information to You Know Who; he did, after all, attend all order meetings and he was always the least conspicuous Marauder. He knew no one would suspect him, and they didn't.

Maria. Lily and James. The kids. They didn't know.

He went to his house first; Maria would be safer if she went with him to Godric's Hollow. The house was deathly quiet and he could almost smell the stench of evil in the air- he had to admit it, he was scared about what he might find.

And there she was, lying on the bed so that at first glance she looked as if she was only sleeping. But if she was, she'd never wake up. As he walked closer, he could almost envision what she'd looked like before she died. Her hand was still wrapped firmly around her wand as she fought until the end; disbelief and sadness was etched on to every inch of her face, as she saw the man who celebrated every holiday with them, the man they called a friend mutter the killing curse; her mouth was open, as she tried to reason with Peter, offer him protection, but ultimately, it was the fact that he'd never see her again that broke him. He would never come home to her baking a cake, never see her play with Mia again, never hear her angelic laugh again. He was well and truly pissed. He was going to find the rat that had sold out his family and the Potters- the Potters. Lily and James were in trouble, and he had to help them.

For the second time in ten minutes he apperated to the outskirts of Godric's Hollow (couldn't risk any curious muggles seeing him) and he sprinted to the cottage invisible to all muggles. However, when he turned a corner, the first thing he saw was a huge hole blown into the right hand side of the roof, where baby Harry's nursery was. The door was already hanging off its hinges when he ran up the garden path and just as he went to run up the stairs something caught his eye. Lying only a few feet away was the lifeless corpse of James Potter. Head boy of Gryffindor, leader of the Marauders and Prongs to all of his friends, it was strange that someone so strong and confident could have died- all traces of life gone in a single moment. He decided he should continue to go upstairs, maybe Lily would be there (hidden in the passage in the airing cupboard in the spare bedroom) or maybe clothes would be missing- signalling that they had all escaped and that James had not died in vain; just maybe.

Upstairs was not a sight for sore eyes. Harry was sitting in his crib, crying his eyes out and he had blood oozing all over his head from a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. The four-year-old body of Isabella Potter was slumped unconscious in front of an open wardrobe, breathing slowly but surely. Worst of all, there was Lily, lying in front of Harry's crib, with a dead look in her eyes.

From downstairs there was the sound of footsteps, which were growing nearer and nearer, and two people talking (one voice of which sounded rather hoarse). A few moments later Remus and Aliona Lupin entered the dilapidated nursery.

"You." Aliona growled. "You fowl, loathsome, evil, little cockroach!" Her hand balls into a fist and it flies forward to meet Sirius' nose.

"What was that for? I've done nothing to you!" Sirius exclaimed, using his hands to try and stop the flow of blood coming from his nose.

"Nothing? NOTHING! 'Ow can you not know what you've done? Well, I'll tell you. First, you leak information from the order! Second, you murder your wife, my sister, in cold blood! Third, you sold out your best friend and his family to Voldemort. Now do you know what you 'ave done?" Aliona screeched, her French accent coming through. Sirius was about to protest his innocence when he realised somebody's wand was pressed up against his throat.

"Remus?" Sirius asked his eyes wide with disbelief.

"I've called the dementors, they should be here soon. Don't try to deny that you did all of this, no one else could've." Remus replied, his eyes failing to meet his former best friend's.

Sirius did the only thing he could think of at the time, he ran. He swerved past the heartbroken Lupins and sprinted out onto the street.

After all, he had a rat to kill.