Disclaimer: I do not nor have/will I ever own Harry Potter. He, all his friends and their world belong to JK Rowling, I'm just playing around with them like borrowed Barbie Dolls.
Authors Note: The timeline has been changed so that Harry and his age mates were born in '91 (with Hermione being the exception as she was born a year earlier than the others). If the adapted timeline and such like didn't give it away this is an AU so if you don't like that then please don't read.
Chapter One
Godrics Hollow
November 30th 1994
Remus Lupin: 22, unemployed, werewolf; stared blinked and continued staring, unable to process the information that his eyes were giving his brain. The cottage was gone, the home of two of his best friends had been reduced to rubble. The lingering sense of dark magic combined with the scent of decay told him all he needed to know. Peter had betrayed them all and told Voldemort where to find the Potters. He turned away from the now derelict home of his family in all but blood, determined to find out exactly what had happened in the almost two years he had been at the Werewolf Enclave, and where exactly the rest of his family was.
Longbottom Manor
November 30th 1994
Augusta Longbottom mentally strangled the pompous little man in front of her, all the while maintaining a composed and expressionless exterior. After all it would not do to strangle her irritating third cousin on her mothers side, no matter how aggravating or obtuse the man was. She once more wished that her beloved son and his dear wife were still with them and not confined to the secure ward at St Mungo's. Of course thinking of the two reminded her why exactly she was talking to this particular cousin. During her time at Hogwarts Alice had had two particular best friends: the ever delightful and spirited Lily Potter née Evans, now sadly gone; and the calm and amiable Bellatrix Lestrange née Black, who was now imprisoned in Azkaban for the excessive torture of Alice and Frank.
If it had been anyone else Augusta would merely have stated that bad blood had shown itself true once more; however, two nights after little Neville had been born and Lily named his Godmother Alice had explained to Augusta that Bella would be Neville's Aunt even in blood, as the two girls had completed a blood sisters ritual which bound them to each other and prevented one from causing harm, willing or unwilling, to the other. It was this fact combined with having witnessed much of Bella's adolescence and the dramatic change that had occurred after her (arranged) marriage that convinced the stubborn Longbottom matriarch that something was not right and that an innocent girl had been sent to Azkaban for a crime that she could not possibly have committed, not without destroying her own magical core.
Thus it was that for the past nine months Augusta had been attempting to get the charges levelled against Bella cleared and get her out of Azkaban before the prison did irreparable damage to her. Sadly, to do this she needed to interact with certain relatives that she'd hoped to forget were related to her.
Azkaban Prison
November 30th 1994
Sirius Black, despite popular opinion in modern Wizarding society was not insane, nor was he a homicidal maniac determined to see the rise of Pureblood supremacy and a new reign of terror. In truth all Sirius wanted was a hot meal, a warm bath, his beloved godson safe and sound and of course that pathetic traitor's head on a pike. Nope not homicidal at all, well not unless your name was Peter Pettigrew, in which case, yes Sirius could be considered a tad on the homicidal side. It was understandable of course as Peter had not only betrayed and thus killed two members of the only proper family Sirius had ever known, he'd also made sure that Sirius was separated from the rest of said family and was blamed for the very act of betrayal that Sirius loathed him for.
In the cell across from him Sirius heard a faint whimper and sighed, "Shh shh it's okay, sweetheart, it's okay. They're not here it's alright." The whimpering stopped and Sirius fought the urge to punch the wall, across from him curled in a ball huddled under the pathetic scraps that the human wardens dared to call blankets was his dear cousin Bella. Sweet little Bella, whose only crime was being born into a family of blood insane purists who thought nothing of selling their daughters into loveless, abusive marriages. If Sirius could've he'd have beaten his uncle to within an inch of his life, sadly that was impossible, not only because he was imprisoned but also because dear Uncle Cygnus had been dead since just after his youngest daughters wedding and Sirius, sadly, could not bring back the dead even if it was just to kill them again.
Bella was not handling Azkaban well, in honesty neither of them were, but unfortunately for Bella she was also recovering from several mind-controlling potions and the Imperius curse. He'd helped her as much as he could, sharing with her the honest fact that they were innocent, something that not even the Dementors could take, that belief and the constant positive reinforcement that they gave each other kept them going. At times Sirius would think of the outside world wondering what Moony and Harry were doing, how they were doing, and occasionally when things were bad he wondered if they had forgotten about him or if they were searching for the rat.
It had been nearly two years since he'd first arrived here, two years since he'd last heard Harry's laugh or listened to Lily ribbing James about something, two years since Remus had been sent to the Werewolf Enclave to gather allies for the Order. Outside this may not have seemed that long, but to Sirius it felt like an eternity.
21/09/13
Re-edited 10/10/13