31st October 1981
10pm
Peter Pettigrew's hideout
Sirius panicked when he flew into Peter's hideout on his motorbike and found it void of anyone. His initial thought was that Peter had been found and taken away by Death Eaters; but he finally admitted to himself that this was wishful thinking when he had searched the whole building and found no evidence of any kind of struggle. It even looked like Peter had ever actually even hidden there.
His heart sunk when he suddenly realised that there could be only one reason for Peter to not be in hiding after having been made the secret keeper for Lily and James; and it was not a good reason. For months Sirius had been convinced that Remus was the traitor in The Order's midst, and now he was realising that in reality there was only one person it could be – Peter's Animagus form suddenly made much more sense to Sirius.
Sirius snarled; this explained why Peter had been whispering in his ear over the past year that Remus must be the traitor due to his lycanthropy. It had made no sense to him initially; the idea that any of The Marauders would betray each other was ludicrous to him. But the more that Remus failed to be around, the more Sirius believed that it was him betraying them.
His terror rocketed through the roof. If Peter was the betrayer, then there was every chance that he had informed Voldemort of the location of Lily and James already. Sirius closed his eyes, denial rushing through him. With his eyes still closed he focused his mind and, deciding to leave his motorbike behind due to time restrictions, apparated to Godric's Hollow – which he remembered to be the general area of the Potter's house.
31st October 1981
10:45pm
Potter Cottage – Godric's Hollow
He cursed James' decision to locate his family in the small Potter cottage instead of the heavily fortified Potter Manor, all because the former would be 'less predictable'. He appeared in the middle of the Wizarding village, anxiously turning on his heel, willing his mind to supply the location of the Potter's home.
This turned out to be a fruitless exercise as halfway through his turn his eyes caught on the foul shape of the dark mark spread like spilled ink across the sky above a half-destroyed cottage. Sirius sucked in a harsh breath and shook his head in denial as he rushed in that direction.
His heart was pounding fiercely in his chest and his breath was coming in pants when he slid to a stop in front of the blown-out door of the previously intact cottage. "No. No no no. Oh Merlin, please no. James! Lily! Please!" Sirius was mumbling to himself as he pushed through the gap where the door used to be and into the destroyed hallway.
He turned his eyes away from the motionless body of his best friend, his brother, not wanting to admit to himself just yet that James was no longer alive. In the settling silence of the house he cautiously drew his wand. It didn't take long for him to search the downstairs and acknowledge that except for James' lifeless body, there was nothing, and no one, else down there.
A quiet sound from upstairs – audible only due to his Animagus hearing – captured his attention. He climbed the stairs quickly and quietly, hoping against hope that he wouldn't find both his godson and the woman that he had come to think of as a sister dead.
He rounded the corner into Harry's bedroom and very nearly lost the tenuous control he had on his emotions when he saw her lying on the floor. Her red hair spread around her head like a halo. Lily Potter, neé Evans, was dead. She lay prone on the floor, her hand flung out to the side where her wand lay snapped in two. Sirius blew out a harsh breath that hitched on a sob.
There beside her body lay a crumpled heap of black robes and a bone white wand. Sirius sucked in a shocked breath, were these You-Know-Who's and if so was he dead? How? And surely that would mean that his precious godson was dead too.
He readied himself to see the tiny body of his godson, building up the walls he kept around his emotions, despite knowing that they'd come tumbling down as soon as he saw Harry. His pitiful train of thought was broken with just one sound.
"Pa'foo!" It was a joyful shriek and Sirius spun on his heel, nearly tripping over himself in his haste to confirm that his mind wasn't tricking him. There, standing in his cot, black hair messy and sticking up, sticky little hands grasping onto the edge and dried tear tracks on his face, was Harry Potter.
"Hey pup." Sirius' voice croaked but he managed to summon up a relieved smile for his godson, "Come here." He reached into the cot and lifted Harry gently into his arms, making sure to angle him away from being able to see his mother or father as Sirius brought him out of the destroyed Potter cottage, stopping only to collect some essential items that Harry would need. A thought occurred to him as they left and he turned and waved his wand in a complicated pattern, whispering a spell beneath his breath.
"Pa'foo?"
"Yeah Mini-Prongs?" Sirius wrapped Harry – who was currently only dressed in his snitch covered pyjamas – in his thick cloak and cuddled him closer, trying to ward off the autumn chill.
"Where are mummy and daddy?" Harry patted a freed hand against Sirius' wet cheek, a look of confusion and childish worry in his bright green eyes.
"They're not here right now, Harry. They've had to go away for a long time so you're going to come with Padfoot for a while okay?" Sirius prayed to Merlin and Morgana that Harry would accept that explanation for now and not cause a fuss. Harry wasn't so obliging.
"NO! I want mummy and daddy! Want Pwongs! Don't want smelly Pa'foo. MUMMY. MUMMY DADDDY!" Sirius let out a pained breath and held the squirming Harry closer as he stood in the front garden of the blown-out cottage. He threw up a muffliato and notice-me-not charm around himself and his young godson, not wanting to disturb the village any more than they'd already been disturbed.
"Harry, please. Mummy and daddy aren't coming back."
"Why! I stop being naughty Pa'foo! Mummy and daddy not want me!?" Harry's face had a surprising amount of anguish written across it as he worried himself into a fresh set of tears.
"Harry, son, look at me." Sirius waited until his godson did so before putting a large gentle hand on Harry's cheek and taking a deep breath. "Your mummy and daddy love you more than anything, but a bad man has taken them away from us. I'm sad too, but I'm afraid that they can't come back. They're dead which means that their bodies don't work anymore and they have had to leave this world." Sirius pressed a kiss to Harry's forehead, frowning to himself over the lightning bolt shaped cut that he had just noticed marring the boy's skin. He made a mental note to check it over later.
"Oh." Harry's voice was small and quiet and his tears were still spilling out of his eyes and rolling down his plump cheeks, but he had at least calmed down from the screaming, "they never coming back?"
"I'm afraid not pup."
"Are you gonna leave Pa'foo?"
"No pup. Me and Moony are going to look after you. Okay?" Sirius certainly didn't admit to Harry that he himself wasn't sure whether Remus would even give him a chance to explain.
"Okay" Harry nodded his head, and though Sirius got the impression that he still didn't really understand that Lily and James were dead and gone, he knew that Harry at least understood some of it.
There was a sudden crack of apparition down the street and Sirius' eyes widened in horror. He was glad that he and Harry were already covered with the notice-me-not and muffliato, but he still performed the disillusionment charm on them both. Sirius was relieved that he had also thought to charm a blanket in Harry's bedroom to look like Harry's body, just in case, so that the Wizarding World would believe that Harry had died and Sirius could raise Harry in peace without Dumbledore or anyone else interfering.
Just in time too, as Hagrid suddenly came lumbering around the corner, his pink umbrella in hand. Sirius frowned in confusion, knowing that Hagrid wasn't allowed to use magic, until Professor Dumbledore followed Hagrid around the corner, a serious expression on his face, though his eyes were still twinkling.
Sirius watched in silence as Hagrid disappeared into the house, Dumbledore following behind him, the twinkle in his eyes fading as he saw the state of the cottage. Sirius waited for them to come back out so that he could leave with Harry. He flinched when he heard Hagrid's howls of anguish in reaction to seeing James and Lily and had to reign in his own sorrow for Harry's sake.
Sirius stood there impatiently, anxious to get himself and Harry away from the place where their lives had changed forever. Hagrid came out of the blown-out door first, Dumbledore following after him. Both had grave looks on their faces and tears were streaming down Hagrid's face into his beard, Dumbledore put a consoling hand on Hagrid's forearm and with a tense look around the street apparated them both away.
Sirius quickly followed Dumbledore's example, apparating himself and Harry away from the hell that You-Know-Who had left, to his hideout cottage. He knew that they couldn't stay there long; everyone thought that he was the Potter's secret-keeper, so in the absence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to blame he knew that he would be.
31st October 1981
11:45pm
Sirius Black's hideout
He placed Harry down on his bed, casting a spell to stop the young boy from being able to crawl off the bed and with some hasty waves of his wand he gathered everything that he would need to take and shoved it all into his old Hogwarts trunk. His mind was rushing as he tried to sort everything out, and he knew that as soon as he got a chance to stop and think, everything that had happened in the last few hours would catch up with him.
He managed to gather everything in a matter of a few minutes and he was soon apparating himself and Harry to the house that his uncle Alphard had left him in Brighton, knowing it was somewhere that the Ministry wouldn't think to check for a while. He didn't bother doing anything other than dropping the trunk in the hallway, healing Harry's lightning bolt cut as best as he could, considering it was caused by a curse, and carrying a sleepy Harry to bed with him. They both soon fell into a fitful sleep.
1st November 1981
4:30am
Sirius Black's house – Brighton.
Sirius woke up at the crack of dawn as the sun rose and started to shine a pale yellow through the east facing window in the bedroom he and Harry were in. He cursed the exhaustion that meant he hadn't closed the curtains last night and now resulted in the sun shining painfully into his eyes, making the stress caused headache he had even worse. He sat up slowly, forcing his fatigued stiff limbs to move as he pulled himself from the bed. The night before came rushing back to him and he sucked in a breath as he tried to control his emotions and remain calm for his godson, who was still fast asleep on the bed, safe due to the charms Sirius had cast last night.
Sirius headed downstairs after casting a spell to alert him if anything happened to Harry. He threw together a bowl of yoghurt and fruit that he knew Harry would eat and forced himself to eat a dry piece of toast – knowing that he couldn't stomach anything more. When Harry woke at 5am, Sirius had tidied the whole of the downstairs, trying to take his mind off Lily and James. He brought Harry downstairs, fed him breakfast and waited for the Daily Prophet that he had ordered - under a different name - to arrive.
A few hours later, after Sirius had done everything he could to amuse Harry, and had to explain four more times where mummy and daddy were, there was a screech and an owl alighted on the windowsill outside the library where Sirius and Harry were currently sitting whilst Sirius read Harry Babbity Rabbity.
He rose from the seat, opened the window and, after paying the owl, he settled back in his seat with the Daily Prophet in his hands. He swallowed hard, gathering his strength to look at the paper;
You-know-who defeated by Potter family!
Last night the cloud that has been hanging over the Wizarding world was defeated. This morning this reporter discovered that the Potter family bravely gave their lives to defeat You-Know-Who. The family, comprising James Potter, Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter, Lily Potter, neé Evans, his muggle-born wife and their young son Harry, all died in the horrific attack that destroyed their cottage in Godric's Hollow.
They have been hiding under a fidelius charm for the better part of a year, hidden by secret-keeper Sirius Black, says Professor Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, first class, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Though the implication here is that Mr. Black betrayed his best friends to the Dark Lord, this reporter thinks differently.
There has been no sign of Black since the deaths of the Potters and when Aurors investigated his flat in London they found the place ransacked and blood belonging to Mr. Black spattered on the walls which suggests that Black was killed – an occurrence which would break the fidelius charm on the Potter's house.
Whilst this is all still unclear, without being able to find Mr. Black and evidence pointing to his innocence in the Potter deaths, the Ministry is holding off on any investigation.
There are reports that celebrations are planned across the Wizarding community as the Ministry makes mass arrests of Death Eaters. Whilst one thing is clear, the Potters have saved our community from more terror, many questions remain; what really happened to You-Know-Who? Where is Sirius Black? Did he betray the Potters to You-Know-Who?
Sirius sat back in his seat, letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding in, grateful that, though there were questions about what had happened, there was an acknowledgement that it was Voldemort's fault that they were dead. He knew that he'd have to find Peter as soon as possible to clear his name of any remaining doubts.
For now, though, Sirius left the Daily Prophet on the chair in the library, gathered all the stuff that had ended up scattered around the house, and grabbed Harry. He strapped Harry to his chest on the muggle holder he had taken from the Potter house and did his leather jacket up over the little boy. He stepped out of the front door, already disillusioned, into the cold, grey drizzle of the first of November. With a quick glance around him he apparated himself and Harry to the front stoop of the Lupin's cottage in the middle of rural Norfolk.
1st November 1981
10:15am
Remus Lupin's cottage – Hempnall, Norfolk
He knocked anxiously on Remus' front door, his stomach twisting, knowing that Remus would assume he had betrayed Lily and James as soon as he saw Sirius standing there alive. Sirius' Animagus hearing picked up the werewolf's light footsteps heading for the front door, and he swallowed the lump in his throat uneasily.
The battered front door swung open to reveal Remus Lupin, his wand in his hand. Sirius held up his hands placatingly, "I think I've made a mistake."
A/N: Because I've had a couple of questions about this – I based Harry's eloquence at such a young age on the fact that I was talking that much at that age, I know that some kids definitely don't, but he's been stuck in a house with just Lily and James for ages as well so I think that would have heavily influenced how much he's able to speak – especially because both Lily and James are very intelligent and would have read to him a lot.