Chapter One: Realization
All he could do is laugh.
What else could he do? His best friend and his best friend's wife had been taken abruptly away from him. He had to watch as his godson, Harry, was pulled out of the rubble and sent to Dumbledore. Even She was lost to him. To top it all off he was betrayed by someone he trusted. All he had left in his hollow life was the will to laugh. It would probably make him look even more guilty, but he didn't care.
The smouldering rubble and strewn bodies surrounded him. The rat had gotten away. But nobody was looking for the rat, they were looking at him. A man, descended from a family of prejudice pure bloods, was sitting on his knees in the middle of the chaos laughing. How much more convincing could the moment be? It didn't matter that he would have died to save his best friend. It didn't matter how much of a brother he was to him. It didn't matter that he had chosen a path far from his mother's ideals. Just the fact of him looking guilty condemned him.
He knew what would happen next. They would come to take him to the prison, but even that place wouldn't take away the truth from his mind. He was innocent. The walls, bars, and demons of that prison would never stand a chance against his real terror. His own personal hell awaited him in his own mind. The "what if" thoughts would torture him for the rest of his life. What if James and Lily had survived? What if he had been able to get Harry? What if She had never been in his life? Would things have been different?