"The Dark Lord is terrible. He will find you and torture you for the information you don't even have."
Vernon rose to his feet.
"Get out!' he hissed. "Don't bring your war into my home."
Lily Potter shook her head and held James' hand tighter.
"You don't understand. It's already here."
Tears dripped down her face.
She turned to her sister. "Please Tuney. This is the only way we can save you. Think of your son."
Dudley chose that moment to squall loudly from his crib.
"We're not going off to live in hiding with a pack of...of… wizards!" Vernon gasped out, his face turning purple with the strain of saying the word.
"Then you'll die! You and your wife and your son. Not quick deaths, either. Slow and painful ones. They will torture your son before your eyes and murder your wife even as you beg them to stop!" James shouted.
Tears stood in his hazel eyes but his voice was thick with anger. He glanced down at the boy, his nephew, who was fussing loudly. Vernon had taken several steps backwards when James yelled.
Petunia flinched away from him, and met her sister's eyes. One hand reached down to settle her son.
"This is the only way to protect Dudley?" she asked tremulously.
"Yes," Lily nodded at her elder sister. "You must come now."
Petunia Dursley straightened up and gave a short nod.
She placed a placating hand over Vernon's and then reached down to pick up her rather hefty year old son.
"Then we'll come with you."
.
.
.
So when Sirius Black stepped out of the wreckage of Godric's Hollow, he was cradling two children, with some difficulty. And though Hagrid had made a place for Harry, snugged in his arms, he confessed himself uncertain as to how he would carry two children to safety, to Hogwarts.
Sirius struggled with himself.
His mind was a mess of grief and anger. Peter had been their secret Keeper- he must have betrayed them! Every muscle of his body cried out to him to run, to fly, to seek the rat out and kill him for what he had done. But Harry was awake, peering at him the shelter of Hagrid's greatcoat with his serious green eyes. And Dudley slept peacefully in the crook of his left arm. Almost crying with frustration, Sirius forced himself to get back on his motorbike, and with Dudley sleeping behind him in a basket, roar into the night, headed north. To Scotland, and Hogwarts.
Peter Pettigrew would have to wait.
.
.
.
Sirius cursed to himself as he sat in the kitchen of the Burrow, the house silent for once.
The Weasley children were asleep, Molly and Arthur had both disappeared with Dumbledore and here he sat, idle and useless, babysitting children!
Harry had gone back to sleep, and now both boys slumbered in cots in a warm corner of the kitchen.
Rage still dominated Sirius' mind. Arthur had tried to placate him, but was mostly concerned with comforting his wife, who had always looked upon Lily as a younger sister.
So here he was, alone, left to babysit his godson and a Muggle toddler whilst fireworks exploded in the sky as the wizarding world celebrated the deaths of two of his dearest friends.
James who was like a brother to him, close as a twin. And Lily, who had become a sister to him long before she and James every married.
They were dead.
They were dead and he would never see them again.
James would never be best man at his wedding.
Sirius shuddered.
The rat was going to be Remus' best man. The four of them, united forever.
.
.
.
Sirius remembered seeing two other bodies, presumably those of Petunia and Vernon, huddled beneath the stairs together. That was where he'd found Dudley, cradled between their cooling bodies, crying loudly.
He'd picked the toddler up, grunting at his extra weight and dashed for the stairs…...
Impatiently, Sirius brushed away traitorous tears.
Now was not the time for that. Not for tears and mourning. It was time for revenge.
Sirius leapt to his feet, grabbing for his wand. Harry and Dudley would be safe here; the Weasley's wouldn't leave their children unguarded…right?
Sirius transformed in an instant, a great black dog appearing where he had been standing. He sniffed the air. Time to hunt.
He leapt for the open doorway leading out to the back and was seconds from apparating (it was easier as a dog, strangely enough) when a little voice called out.
"Nuffels?"
Sirius growled.
"Nusfles?" the voice was uncertain now.
Sirius stood, hesitating. Anger and guilt warred in his heart.
Harry coughed, and began to sob.
Sirius groaned in agony. He could just imagine Lily's face if he ran off and left Harry to cry in his crib.
Padfoot walked forward, sticking his long black muzzle into Harry's crib. The boy laughed softly, pulling at his long whiskers. Inside the mind of the dog, Sirius was crying, but nothing showed on his doggy face.
.
.
.
Remus organized the funeral. He berated himself bitterly for being out of the country at the time, in talks with a pack of French werewolves who were allegedly being courted by Lord Voldemort.
Dumbledore spoke the service. It was simple, but moving, and held in the town hall at Godric's Hollow.
Remus, standing in the front row with Sirius beside him, couldn't stop his tears.
His left hand was numb from the crushing grip of Sirius' hand.
Afterwards, when the guests mingled, or came to say how sorry they were, was almost worse than the service. Dumbledore had decreed that Harry should not attend the funeral.
"He's 18 months old, he won't remember it anyway," he'd said gently easing the child out of Sirius' arms.
Remus remembered how Sirius had whined, doglike, at the loss of the little boy and tried again to stop his own tears.
Today was for grief. But tomorrow, tomorrow life would call once again.
From the look in Dumbledore's eyes, he had his own plans for Harry.
.
.
.
"What are you talking about? James and Lily named me godfather. They wanted me to have him, should..should, anything h-happen." Sirius exclaimed.
"The child's safety must be considered. It would be better, perhaps, for him to be raised in the Muggle world, away from the danger of Death Eaters."
Sirius growled. "I can protect my godson. We can." He said firmly, slipping his hand into Remus's.
Other voices chimed in. Harry's custody it seems, was a matter the whole Order had an opinion on.
Alice Longbottom, Harry's godmother and Lily's best friend, fiercely supported Sirius. "Frank and I will take him. The Weasley's would take him. So many of us would take in the poor child. You don't need to send him to the Muggle world!"
Her son Neville played on the floor with Harry and Dudley.
The argument raged on through the night. At last, wearily, Dumbledore relented.
"My boy, you know I trust you. It's not that. It's that Harry, well...You've heard what they're calling him already? The Boy Who Lived?
Remus shifted uneasily. No doubt the papers would make hay with the knowledge that the baby who 'defeated Voldemort' was to live with a werewolf, and Sirius Black, scion of a proud Death Eater family.
"Never mind that it was Lily's sacrifice that saved him!" Alice commented tartly.
Silence reigned for a moment.
"What about Dudley?"
Remus looked over at Sirius, who stood protectively near the toddler as he played, as if he was afraid Professor Dumbledore would simply pick him up and run off with him.
Sirius looked startled, clearly he had given little to the fate of the small blonde boy he'd rescued from Godric's Hollow. Dudley was occupied, fighting with Neville over possession of a stuffed rabbit.
Remus raised his eyebrows and smiled. Sirius smiled back, shaking his head in wonder. Without a word spoken, they'd decided.
"We will take him too."
A/N: What do you think? One-shot, or would you like to see more?