Sirius was worried. James should have contacted him by now. His owl had never been late before. He was sure nothing was wrong, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure, right? Of course it wouldn't.
He had been wondering for weeks whether he had made the right choice. Making Peter the secret keeper was risky. Everyone had suggested that he himself be secret keeper. Even Dumbledore had offered when he refused… But he was fairly confident. No one would ever suspect Peter. He was too…unimportant.
Even so, it was hard for Sirius to stay in a happy mood while traveling to Godric's Hollow. He landed his flying motorcycle next to the old church. There were children dressed in costumes…he had forgotten it was Halloween. Looking down the long, winding road, he saw…what was that? The cottage roof was blown apart. It looked like smoke was coming from it…
"No. No, no, no, no."
This could not be happening. He started walking down the road, and then broke into a run. He pulled out his wand as he approached the gate. He pushed through and ran toward the door. It had been forced open. As he walked in and looked around, the living room looked perfectly normal. James's wand was lying on the couch. He thought he heard a faint noise, like whimpering, coming from upstairs. He turned the corner and fell to his knees.
James, his best friend, was lying dead in the middle of the hallway. Sadness swept over him like a cold wind. How could this have happened? You-Know-Who had found out somehow. He knew they were here. He couldn't look at the body of his friend a second longer. He was suddenly disoriented, dizzy. It was hard to walk up the stairs.
The first thing he saw was Harry, his godson, alive. There was a deep cut on his forehead. Then he looked down. Lily was on her stomach, eyes still open, an intense look on her face. She had died trying to protect her son. He ran to the crib and picked Harry up. As he stared into the little face he saw all the features of James, all except the eyes...those bright green eyes. Then he looked closer at the cut on Harry's forehead. It was shaped like a lightning bolt.
All of a sudden, he heard the creak of a door. Then heavy footsteps. The sound of the voice startled him.
"Oh no. James...what happend ter ya?"
The footsteps started coming up the stairs. He saw the outline of a huge figure. Then the face came into view, bushy beard and all.
"HAGRID!" Sirius yelled.
"Sirius? Sirius Black? Is that you?"
Hagrid sounded sad, but relieved.
"What're you doin' here? What happened?"
Sirius explained how he had just arrived, and how he knew why James and Lily were dead.
"Peter. It was Peter. He must have betrayed us to Volde-"
"DON'T YEH DARE SAY HIS NAME!" Hagrid bellowed.
"He betrayed us..." Sirius continued. "We have to tell the Ministry. I'll take Harry to come live with me."
Hagrid looked like he had bad news.
"Well uhh...yeh see...the thing is...Dumbledore told me to take Harry to live with his aunt and uncle." he said.
Sirius was outraged. "But I'm his godfather! It only makes sense!"
Hagrid stammered. "Listen, I'm only actin on Dumbledore's STRICT orders. If it wasn't fer that, I'd gladly leave 'im with yeh."
By now, Sirius was close to tears. "But...no..."
"I'm sorry." said Hagrid. "Say, you still got that ol' flyin motorcycle?"
"Yeah, I brought it here." Sirius replied. "It's outside."
"Mind if I borrow it?" Hagrid asked.
"No...no of course not. I won't need it."
Sirius stood outside the cottage and watched Hagrid fly away on his motorcycle with little baby Harry in the sidecar. He walked away with mixed feelings. Grief for his friends, happiness that his godson was alive, sadness that he was being taken away, and anger toward Peter Pettigrew. Why didn't he listen to the others? It was all his fault. He trusted Peter.
Overcome by everything that happened, Sirius set out to find Peter. He knew where the lying git had been hiding out. When he arrived at the house in the small Muggle neighborhood, he burst through the door and saw the face of a traitor. He stopped, then he ran, chasing Peter out of the house. He was faster than Peter. He knew he would catch up eventually, and when he did, he was prepared to kill. Suddenly, Peter stopped.
"HELP! IT'S SIRIUS BLACK! HE BETRAYED THE POTTERS TO THE DARK LORD! HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!"
Sirius didn't know anyone could yell that loud. There was a flash of light. He was blown backwards along with the Muggles on the sidewalk. When he sat up, he saw a human finger. A huge crater was in the ground. Overjoyed at the apparent death of the person he trusted so greatly, Sirius started to laugh. He couldn't stop.
He then heard voices behind him and felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the Minister of Magic.
"Sirius Black, you're going to Azkaban."