Hello all. I am a long time reader with a number of unfinished works floating around my laptop. In an effort to help motivate me to complete at least this one, I have decided to upload what I have. If it works I hope to upload a new chapter at least once per month, hopefully more frequently. We'll see either way.

Warning this is unedited, and I am a new writer, so it won't be the greatest out there.

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter One

Sirius Black was conflicted as he watched his life burn down in front of him. On the one hand was an all-consuming rage screaming at him to hunt down the traitorous little rat that did this, and make him pay for what he has done in the most painful and drawn out way possible. Looking down at the child in his arms reminded him of the other desire strangling what was left of his thoughts, thoughts that soon wandered to the events leading to this moment.

They had thought themselves safe when they came to the decision to switch Secret Keepers. The Dark Lord Voldemort was hunting down and butchering all on his rather long list of enemies, but Headmaster Dumbledore recently revealed a prophecy that would soon see his best friends singled out, Should Voldemort ever learn of it. In an effort to delay Voldemort's wrath, his friends, James Potter, Lily Potter nee Evans and their first born son Harry James Potter, were soon hiding away at Godric's Hollow.

The small, rustic cottage had been the childhood home for Dumbledore ages ago. The grandfatherly Headmaster had seen fit to loan it to the potters to help hide them, he even taught them a rather useful charm known as the Fidelius. An ancient charm only recently rediscovered by Headmaster Dumbledore himself, the spell worked by removing all knowledge of a location from the general populous, but doing so required the knowledge to be kept safe by someone. A Secret Keeper, if you will. While any who knew the Secret could come and go as they liked once they knew the Secret, it was the Secret Keeper who would be the only being who could share the secret.

Naturally the first choice had been for Sirius Black to be the Secret Keeper. He had been James' best friend all throughout school. Brothers in all but blood there was nothing they would not do for each other, or either of their other two best friends, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. A well-known fact that caused Sirius to think it too obvious to choose him for such an important role, so they chose one of the others.

Remus lupin was, truth be told, the entire reason the four of them had become friends in the first place. During school Sirius and James had discovered that Remus had a deadly and reviled affliction that, were it known, would see him not only expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but likely ruin what little life he could cling to. Most wizards did not take kindly to having a werewolf in the same town as their children, never mind one in the same school. Rather than run screaming for the hills James and Sirius had befriended the mopey young boy, and somewhere along the way they had encountered the final member of their group, Peter Pettigrew, and spent the next seven years thick as thieves. Even now they were all together in the fight against Voldemort.

Unfortunately the very affliction that brought them all together in school meant that they couldn't trust Remus in this instance. Voldemort had managed to gain the services of one of the most feared criminals in all of Europe, Fenrir Greyback. A man who was well known to be cruel, ruthless, sadistic, and more than a little unhinged. He was also the werewolf who had slaughtered Remus' family and infected him as a child. Because no one knew how much control an Alpha like Fenrir could exert over a lone wolf like Remus, no one could be sure the secret couldn't be drug out of him.

Then there was Peter. Even after all these years he was still known as the "hanger on" of their group. The one who was always following them, clinging to their shadows. The coward among the Lions of Gryffindor. No one would ever think they would trust that rat with anything so important. In the end they chose him to be the Secret Keeper. James and Lily had not lived to regret that decision. It turns out that the little rat had been too obvious after all, for not even a week later Sirius had shown up at the cottage to find it burning.

Rushing in Sirius stopped dead in his tracks as he saw James lifeless body laying on the stairs, wand in hand as four bodies clad in the black robes and white masks of Voldemort's little army of pawns. Death Eaters as he liked to call them. Sirius swallowed back a sob as he took solace in the fact that James had been able to die fighting to protect his family. James would have loved that. Shaking off his sorrow, for now, Sirius continued up the stairs looking for the others.

Stepping into the master bedroom Sirius saw what could only be chunks of the Great and Powerful Dark Lord Voldemort himself in varying states of cremation. Were it not for the lifeless head laying there with his hair, what little he still had at that point, smoldering. Looking around he soon found Lily hunched over the crib they had been using for Harry. Rushing over he pulled her back only to find her dead. She looked so peaceful, not a hair out of place on her crimson head. If he hadn't seen the vicious slit cross her throat, he might even believe she was just sleeping.

Hearing a cry brought his eyes back to the crib only for his heart to catch in his chest. There was little Harry staring up at him with tears in his bright emerald eyes and a quiver upon his lips. He was alive, oh thank all the gods in existence, he was alive. Sirius could feel tears start to well up in his own grey eyes. Reaching down to pick the child up, he almost didn't notice the claw still wrapped around his right arm, the thumb claw resting in one of two crescent cuts obviously made by the owner of the claw.

It might have even been difficult to identify who it once belonged to, given that it was cleanly severed at the elbow, blood even still flowing down into the crib below. Even if Sirius was not intimately familiar with this hand from past battles with the Dark Lord and his prized enforcers, it still would have been easy to identify. Only one man had embraced his curse so thoroughly that he was physically more monster than man. At Least Fenrir was now missing a whole arm, if not the rest of himself as well.

Carefully taking the claw out of Harry's shoulder, Sirius quickly cast one of the few healing charms he knew, managing to at least stop the bleeding. Collecting the child he quickly left the house even as it burned down around him. Stopping only when he was far enough to only feel a little of the heat from the fire he turned around to stare as he watched his life burn down in front of him.

Sirius was startled from his memories by the faint popping noise of apparition, the tell tale sound of wizarding teleportation. Turning around he was greeted by the sight of Headmaster Dumbledore, and one of his staunchest supporters Rubeus Hagrid. Walking over to them another faint pop revealed Remus had come as well.

"Sirius! What happened here? Why is my home on fire?" Dumbledore started.

"It was You-Know-Who. I don't know what happened, but his head is currently smoldering in the master bedroom. James and Lily are gone, but I've at least got Harry safe right here." Sirius responded.

"Is he hurt? May I see him? Thank you. Hagrid, please check the house." Dumbledore continued. Waving his wand over the sleeping child that Sirius had handed to him as Hagrid lumbered over to the smoldering ruins of Dumbledore's childhood home. Hearing the Headmaster's muttering turn from spells to confusion, and fear, to open sighs of relief. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he gave a resigned huff and called to Remus, who was glancing at the cottage nervously.

"Mr. Lupin, if you would join us for a moment, I believe we may have a slight problem. Thank you."

As soon as Remus was close enough Dumbledore once more began muttering and waving his wand around Remus, apparently looking for something. After a sigh of what seemed to be relief, he turned to hand the boy to Remus before speaking.

"What happened? How could you have led Voldemort to them?" He asked while slowly bringing his wand to bear.

"That's where you'd be wrong." Sirius replied morosely "I was just the damned fool who convinced James to make peter the secret keeper. I should have known he'd be the actual traitor."

"If that is the case you won't mind if I verify that myself do you?" Dumbledore asked. Seeing a nod from Sirius, he briefly intoned "Legilimens." causing both of their eyes to unfocus as he began reading Sirius' mind.

Moments later their eyes seemed to quickly regain focus. "Sirius, my boy, how could we have been so wrong about Peter all these years? I had thought he was the voice of reason amongst your friends." Dumbledore said. "Only for this betrayal. We shall need to notify the Madam Minister, But first we must decide what to do with young Harry."

"What do you mean Headmaster? I'm his godfather so of course I'm going to raise him!" Exclaimed Sirius. "What else could we possibly need to decide?"

"While that may still be the case, Harry would appear to have recently gained a few more… requirements in regards to his upbringing. Never mind that the public will idolize him to the point of making him their new messiah. Then there are the Death Eaters and their sympathizers, who will no doubt hunt young Harry down and kill him should they ever get the chance."

"I'm listening…"