Chapter 3

In the center of London, a dark haired young man with grey eyes stood looking at his mother in what could relate to shock. It was if his mind couldn't process what his mother, the one that never seemed to be happy with his actions the older he grew, had just said. 'She just agreed to follow me, was that actually approval?' Before he could think anything else, he was interrupted by said person clearing their throat.

"Now I do believe that I have taught you better than to stand there with your mouth hanging open, LORD Black." Walburga stated, putting an extra emphasis on the title.

The young lord quickly corrected himself, deciding to bring the conversation to the topic at hand. "Mother, what all do you know about them? I know what we were taught as children and trust me, those warnings against them are something that each of us took to heart, but that's the thing. How exactly do we destroy them? Is the killing curse the only way to destroy them? Is there actually a limit to exactly how many can or cannot be made?"

Deep in thought at his questions, she stood from the bed and walked over to the dresser, where he recently deceased son had left out some books that briefly discussed the wretched items. Fingering the edge of one of them, she slowly replied, "I used to be more familiar with the answers needed for your questions. However, after my initial desire to have those answers, the disgust of the topic steered me away. So I hate to tell you that it has been many years since I have looked at those tomes. That being said I can start looking again, if that is what you desire?"

With a nod of confirmation, Sirius then asked, "Mother, I have some friends that I want to bring over here. Both can easily help with your research. You know of James, but I expect you to be respectful of the fact that she is not a pureblood. "

Instantly the older Black tensed up, "Is she at least a half blood?"

"No, she is a muggleborn. That being said, I do not want to hear you degrading her or using hideous slang term that a lot of your 'friends' have had a tendency to use." Sirius all but demanded.

The younger Black could tell that his mother was struggling with his order before she finally calmed down enough to acquiesce with his demand, "Very well my Lord."

Restraining himself just enough to stop the sigh of relief that threatened to make itself known, Sirius told his mother, "I am going to get them right now, I will be right back."

Saying this, he quickly stepped out of the room before heading down the steps and over to the fireplace before activating the floo and stepping through the emerald flames.

Upon his entrance, he quickly realized something was very, very wrong. Stepping forward, he took in the overturned furniture before he was distracted by a cough. Hurrying around the misplaced couch, his eyes widened as he saw his best friend, on the ground with a slowly growing puddle of blood surrounding his pale form. He rushed to James' side, grabbing his hand before giving him a shake, "JAMES! James, no, no, this shouldn't be happening, you were supposed to be safe here!" he began almost falling into incoherent ramblings, so lost he was in his compounded despair.

He almost missed the cough from the downed man, small droplets of blood spewing up almost like a miniature geyser. A raspy voice emerged, "Pa-Padfoot, p-please… Ha-Harry."

Hearing his friend's voice, Sirius focused on what the other man was trying to say, "Prongs, what? What are you trying to say?"

"H-Harry, t-ta-take care o-of hi-him… R-rais.. him.. o-own son." The dying man stammered out.

"James, no, JAMES! We can heal you, you can raise him yourself with me being his godfather. That's what we planned! Please, No, don't give up on me now. Please James, I already lost one brother, please don't let me lose my other one." Plead the Black.

"T-to late for me… t-take c-care of h-him p-please." James finished, the life leaving him with his last plea.

Sirius noticing that his 'brother' had met his own end, could only clutch the body to his chest, wrecking sobs shaking his frame. Suddenly, the shout of the killing curse, followed shortly by an explosion shaking the house and causing the Black Lord to scramble to his feet, whipping his wand back out before edging his way towards the stairs searching every pane of wood on the floors and walls for the signs of anything out of place. He finally came to the open door of his godson's room.

He almost stumbled back when he took in the back wall of the room being completely blown out, open to the elements. The disbelief of little Harry's crib still being intact almost caused him to unnecessarily pause, but he quickly hurried around picking up his charge, doing his best to comfort him. He then looked around trying to take in everything else.

The first thing he picked up on was the lightning shaped scar that blemished his godson's forehead, deciding that he would need to have that looked at soon as it was obviously not a normal scar, he continued his examination. The next thing he came across was the black robes and wand of what he assumed to be the dark lord resting next to the crib. Turning around, his breath caught in his throat as he caught sight of Lily laying on the ground next to the wall, a small trickle of blood slowly making its way down the side of her face.

Moving by her side he began to feel her face trying to check for signs of life without disturbing Harry who had finally fallen asleep. He almost let out a sob of relief as he picked up on her shallow breathing but knew that she needed medical attention as soon as possible. As he brainstormed his options, he decided that he would get Lily and Harry to Grimmauld Place and call his cousin Andromeda in the hopes that she could look over the both of them. With that in mind, he quickly made a portkey out of a piece of summoned rope before trying one end to Lily's hand while he held on to the other end before declaring "Activate."

In a swirl of colors the trio disappeared from the ruined house, before appearing some miles away in the foyer of the Black townhouse.

At the sound of the commotion, Walburga quickly made her way down before taking in the three with surprise. Noting the poor condition of the woman, she called for the house elf, "Kreacher, hurry and get her to a bed."

After seeing her command followed, she turned to her son, "Sirius what is going on, why is she-"

She was interrupted as Sirius quickly thrust the baby into her arms before he hurried over to the fireplace. After a moment a dark haired beauty with aristocratic features carried by the Blacks stepped out. Brushing the soot off her clothes and resituating the satchel that she was carrying, she noticed Walburga standing nearby with a baby with an odd shaped scar on his forehead. Shaking her head from her unspoken thoughts, she turned to Sirius asking a quick question before hurrying up the stairs to attend to the red haired woman.

Before she could repeat her question as to what was going on, Sirius hurried back to the fireplace before disappearing again, leaving the woman standing with a baby in her arms unsure of what exactly to do. Suddenly the young child began crying, and she turned her attentions to trying to soothe the young child back to sleep. As he calmed back down, her thoughts began to run errantly yet again. 'What is going on? What could have happened to them? Where did Sirius run off to again? What could have caused this scar on this poor baby?' Suddenly her eyes went wide as she came to a realization.

Back at the Potter Cottage, Sirius stepped back out of the fireplace before rushing back over to his friend's body, not even taking the time to brush the soot off of his clothing. He was just thinking about what to do when he heard movement heading towards the house. His hearing being better than most, due to him retaining a few gifts from his animagus form, allowed him to tell that the footsteps were much heavier than most leading him to believe that it was probably Hagrid. Knowing that, he still decided to err on the side of caution, keeping his wand in a ready position before calling out, "Who is there?!"

A familiar voice of the half giant replied, "It's Hagrid!" right before he came into sight. Looking around, the large man was amazed at the destruction around him before his eyes narrowed in on Sirius standing next to the still form of James Potter. Taking a step towards the two men he cleared his throat before asking, "Where is Harry? Dumbledore told me that I am supposed to take him to his aunt's place."

Sirius was taken aback by the question, thoughts running through his mind before he replied, "Harry is in a safe place. Why does he want Harry taken there? He knows that I am his godfather and that I should be taking him in not anyone else, unless I physically can't."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Hagrid said, "I don't know. I just have my orders. So where is he so I can go get him? I don't want to wait too long or Dumbledore might have to wait for me."

A flash of anger rushed through the Black Lord as he bit out, "He. Is. Safe. That is all that Dumbledore needs to know. Now I am sorry Hagrid, but he is MY concern, not yours. So you are relieved of your mission. Now if you don't mind, I need to take care of James-"

They were interrupted by the sound of apparition. Sirius brought his wand up in the direction of the sound before the garishly dressed form of Dumbledore showed up. He showed momentary surprise before allowing the twinkle of his eyes to go on full effect.

"Hello Sirius, Hagrid? What are you still doing here? I thought I asked you to collect young Harry? The old man began.

Sirius, anger flaring yet again replied, "No, Harry is in a safe place and will not be going to that wretched woman's house. I will be taking care of him."

Dumbledore looked at the young man, "Sirius, I thought you would have been trying to find Peter?"

"No, you do not change the subject, Peter will get what he deserves, but that is not the point. Why are you trying to take Harry to THAT place?"

"Well my boy, he will need blood protection to save him from Voldemort's followers of course. His aunt's will obviously be the safest place for him. Anyways you can't take him if he still has family you know. That is the only place for him." He said, eyes twinkling madly.

It took everything that he had in order to calm his raging temper. Finally Sirius stated, "Well I am sorry, but I will be raising him as my own son. He will NEVER go to her house as long as I have anything to say about it."

Without giving the renowned wizard an opportunity to reply, he quickly grabbed ahold of James before apparating back to the Black home.

At the pop of the apparition, Walburga made her way yet again into the foyer to see her son on his knees, crying over his dead friend's body. Deciding that she would talk to him in the morning she called for Kreacher and asked him to look after Sirius as she took the boy up to her room where she conjured a crib for him and after placing him in it, went to bed herself.

The next morning she woke to the cry of the baby before collecting him and heading towards the other occupants. First she went into the room where the boy's mother lay, seeing her laying on the bed with much more normal breaths and a better color to her skin than the previous evening. In the corner sat Andromeda, who had obviously fallen asleep after watching over her patient.

As she made her way down the steps into the sitting room, she noticed her son staring blankly out of the window, a glass of firewiskey swirling slowly in his hand. He didn't even move as she entered the room, taking a seat across from him.

Giving him a few more moments to his thoughts, she finally broke the silence, "I take it James' body was placed in stasis until the funeral?"

Only receiving a slow nod in response, Walburga decided to ask the question that had been plaguing her all night. "Sirius, why did you tell me that Lily Potter was a muggle born, when the wards told me that she was obviously a pureblood like ourselves?"

A/N: So when I read the fifth book of the series, I wondered just how Walburga's portrait knew that there were many people of "Un-pure blood" in her house. Then the idea came to me that maybe the Black's would've actually developed a ward that would allow them to know the blood status of anyone in their home. To keep in line with that train of thought, we will also just have to assume that Voldemort never actually entered that home, he only met with them elsewhere. Oh and one last thing. Charles and Dorea are actually James' parents in this fic. Hope you all are enjoying the story so far. Will probably be alternating stories for chapter releases.