A small bout of insomnia and a dash of inspiration, enjoy!

Lily was still silent, but thankfully for Sirius she was no longer catatonic, though she held onto little Harry like a security blanket and stared at the surrounding crowds of muggles with distrustful eyes.

Sirius could not blame her on being overly cautious, and as much as it pained him to guide his brother's widow towards the ferry without giving her any time to truly grieve and recover from what happened the night before, he had no choice.

They could not trust anyone, something the still silent Lily agreed to with a sharp nod as she pressed a kiss to Harry's forehead, and once again Sirius had to wonder exactly what the hell happened in his brother's home to bring about this turn of events.

Thoughts for another time.

"Three to cross the channel, also is there a car rental center close to the docks on the French side?"

The teller took a single look at the small harried looking family and raised a brow, Sirius sighed and leaned forward so only the teller could hear him, "You know the troubles that have been going on lately?"

"Aye," the teller said in response.

"Their little games killed my brother last night, I'm getting his wife and son the hell out of here before anything else happens to my family."

The teller took one look at Lily holding onto her sleeping son with a look of despair on her face, hovering mere inches from Sirius' leaned over form, then sighed.

"Sorry for your loss mate, lost a cousin to an 'unexplainable bridge collapse' a few months ago, bollocks that bridge was brand new..." Pausing only a moment the man quickly wrote an address down on a blank receipt slip then slid it towards Sirius, "Tell 'em Eddie sent you, they won't give you the run around."

Sirius gave the man a thankful smile and slipped him an extra twenty for his trouble, "Thanks mate, appreciated."

"Safe travels," Eddie said as he watched the retreating forms of the small broken family with a sad smile.

The journey across the channel was thankfully uneventful, and when they got to the other side Sirius found the car rental center Eddie suggested and name dropped him earning them discount. Not that they really needed it but it was best to cut corners where they could.

After they had secured Harry in the backseat Sirius guided Lily to the front passenger seat and soon found himself sitting behind the wheel, after a few minutes of silence he spoke up.

"James and I established a few safe houses, Calais, Orleans, Paris, and Lyon. Where should we go?"

Lily stared out the windshield for a time and Sirius was about to just start driving aimlessly when she eventually croaked out, "So many?"

At that Sirius chuckled, "James and I speak...we spoke fluent French, and don't get me wrong we acted like tourists trying to find our way around but we managed to at least not look like idiots. Always considered France a good fallback point if He won; the French suffered too much under one dark lord, they would drop the heavy end of the hammer on some half rate upstart with delusions of grandeur in an instant if he came calling."

Lily was silent for a time before muttering, "Not Calais, too close, Lyon and Orleans are too far away, is the Paris safe house secure?"

Sirius nodded at that, "My Uncle Alphard's townhouse, he left it to me in his will, which had my psychotic mother banish him from the family tree...as if that mattered to the dead."

Lily's brows furrowed as she glanced to Sirius, "Banished from the family tree?"

Sirius rolled his eyes as he started the car and pulled it out of its parking space heading towards the exit, "My mother is under the impression that if she burns family members off the family tree on the enchanted wallpaper in father's study she banishes them from the Black family for all eternity."

Dead silence.

"Yes I know, there is a reason I moved in with the Potters when I was fifteen..."

They drove at a sedate rate after that, remaining silent for the most part, stopping only to take care of Harry, eat, and using the loo. Entering Paris proper they abandoned the car and used public transportation to get to their destination.

Smirking Sirus gestured towards the building before his small family as he drawled out, "May I present Château Noir!"

Lily stared forward a moment before turning back to Sirius, "That's a rather modest townhouse, not a castle."

"I inherited my sense of humor from Uncle Alphard and this was his place, sooo..."

Lily sighed and shook her head as she pulled the fussing Harry closer, "Say no more."

Settling in wasn't much of a chore, the house elves had kept the rather tastefully decorated home clean and it only took a few minutes of wand work to make up Harry's nursery. After bathing and changing the toddler Lily put Harry in his crib and reluctantly left him alone as she met with Sirius in his new office.

"I know most of my family is, was, and will forever be mad but really my uncle's filing system baffles me beyond words," he muttered at the rooms new occupant.

Lily scoffed and sat heavily in the visitors chair and remained silent for a time before finally speaking up, "Ask. I know it's been killing you the past week."

Sirius paused, dropped the papers he was riffling through, and turned to face Lily before stating, "How are you and Harry alive?"

Lily sighed, glanced to the side, then met his gaze evenly, "James figured it out, our first battle against the dark wanker we both hit him with dark curses, blood boiler, and an organ expeller. It was like his body exploded for a moment, then he was whole again, we were not idiots, we apparated the hell away from there and got very very drunk afterwards."

Sirius stared at her in shock then nodded slowly, "No doubt it was needed..."

"Our second battle we were actually members of Dumbledore's order, we figured it was safer having numbers on our side since the fucker was actually gunning for us now for hurting him publicly. James hit him with a dark cutter severing his wand arm, and I hit the son of a bitch with fiendfyre..."

She was quiet for a moment before turning back towards the silent Sirius, "He walked out of the flames looking annoyed, body intact, wand in hand..."

"Bloody hell..."

"You were there, although unconscious when James finally put it all together, Edger had gone down, burning rocks from hell were falling from the sky, and James was dealing with the fact his parents had just died. He lost it, he shot Voldemort with a killing curse and it hit him, and he died."

Lily stared forward for a few moments before she shuddered and rested her face in the palms of her hands before sighing, raising her head again she shot a glance at Sirius before grinning mirthlessly, "Then the evil bastard just stood up like nothing happened, looking incredibly annoyed, so then we ran. That's when...that's when James figured it out, the bastard had made a horcrux."

Sirius blanched and nearly threw up, to...to create something so unholy...

"We had basically decided to run off to the other side of the world at that point when Dumbledore appeared on our doorstop informing us that my as of yet unborn son was going to be targeted by said immortal dark lord, because of a prophecy made by a drunk."

"Fuck," Sirius muttered out quietly.

"Quite, so James and I tried to run, we'd bought plane tickets, were about to board our flight, then Dumbledore appeared out of nowhere and suddenly...we were living in Godric's Hallow instead of Potter Manor..."

Sirus just stared at her in horror and all Lily could do was nod, "James and I...we weren't idiots. We realized we'd had our minds fucked with, so we hit the books, researched rituals neither of us would have ever touched if it hadn't been for his meddling to find a way to protect our now newborn son."

Lily let out sigh as she shook her head slowly, "We found one, it required the willing sacrifice of a blood relation to protect the target, and I... I thought it would be me, since James held the bastard off but... I think...I think James protected both of us with his sacrifice... We were connected by blood through our son and...and Jimmy loved me so much that..."

Then she broke out sobbing and Sirius didn't hesitate a moment as he rushed to her side and pulled her into his arms. Sirius sat on the ground as Lily wrapped her arms around his neck crying into his shoulder, and as distressed as he was at the moment, he couldn't help but think a single melancholy thought.

'You did it Prongs, you protected our family.'