Author's Note: Hi? Sorry for the long wait. You might be happy to know, though, that I have several more chapters almost done. I just can't post yet due to them being very raw and probably full of errors. By several, I mean two more typed and at least one more hand written.

Chapter 10

Arthur physically restrained Sirius. "You promised, Sirius," Arthur said harshly. "You cannot go after him. You cannot!"

It took a few minutes, but Sirius finally collapsed back on the couch. He leaned forward and buried his hands in his hair. Molly sat next to him and rubbed his back.

"We will take care of it, Sirius. You have our word, no matter what it takes, we will keep our word."

Molly felt Sirius take in a deep breath before he sat up. She kept a hand on his shoulder. Both she and Arthur saw the struggle it took Sirius to reign in everything he felt.

"I'll kill him."

"No, you won't," replied Arthur. "Think of Harry. Would you want him to see you become a murderer?"

"No," Sirius whispered. "No."

"Then let's focus on what we next need to accomplish."

"Gideon and Fabian, then?" he said after taking a few breaths to regain control, and recalling what they wanted to do next.

"And the horcruxes," inserted Molly. "I have two. There are four more that we need to get. We also need to make a plan to destroy You-Know-Who. And deal with Pettigrew." She added the last bit at the end. Perhaps, if there was a plan Sirius could focus on, he would know they were not planning on letting Pettigrew get away with anything.

Sirius nodded determinedly at the last part. "Wait, four? More? That makes…"

"Six horcruxes, yes," Arthur replied. "And we need to retrieve and destroy all of them before Halloween."

"Halloween? Why Halloween? That leaves us barely more than a month!"

Molly didn't remove her hand from his shoulder as she took in a deep breath. She didn't know what to say that would make everything sound less disastrous than it really was. Should she tell him that Halloween was when You-Know-Who was defeated the first time? That that's the night one of his best friends died? That was the night one of his best friends betrayed them? That was his last night as a free man? That was the night, the night that his godson would become a horcrux, an orphan, and a hero all in one night? They couldn't tell him nothing, surely.

Arthur took the decision from her.

"That's the night You-Know-Who will plan to attack the Potters."

"That's when they die," Sirius recollected their words that his friends died as he connected the dots. "We've got to stop that."

"Yes, we do."

"You plan on stopping Voldemort," the two Weasleys flinched at the name, "on Halloween, don't you?" the question accused.

"I suppose we are," Molly replied faintly, not realizing that's where her limited planning was actually headed. "Oh, we have to defeat You-Know-Who!" The hand that had been on Sirius's shoulder this whole time now covered her mouth in shock.

"Molly, dear?" Arthur asked, concerned, and Molly returned his gaze, wide eyed.

"I didn't…I didn't…I kept thinking that we were destroying him by destroying his horcruxes. I didn't think—I mean, I knew, but I didn't realize…oh…" It hit her and it hit her hard. Yes, she knew she was facing danger by tracking down the horcruxes, made easy by knowing the future and where they resided, mostly. She hadn't actively thought about the remaining piece of You-Know-Who's soul, though, the original, You-Know-Who himself. She knew it would happen, but she hadn't thought about it. There was a reason why the dark wizard was so feared, and it had nothing to do with horcruxes. The horcrux hunt and the horcruxes themselves were dangerous and had to be taken care of, but they were nothing compared to the man himself. "Oh…"

Arthur pulled Molly into his arms. "It will be alright, Mollywobbles. It will."

"Yes, it will. Do you know why?" Sirius interrupted, as if something was dawning on him. "Because we know where Voldemort will be on Halloween."

"What?" Molly asked.

"It's what makes him so difficult to defeat, one of the things. When he goes about, not only does he have his death eaters protecting him, we can't predict where he'll be so we can't prepare to face him. But if he's going after my friends on Halloween…"

"Then we can plan an attack. Just the three of us?" Arthur asked.

"I…no. We need more. James. He'll need to know. If Voldemort's going after him, Lily, and Harry, they need to know…be prepared."

"My brothers," Molly said.

"We'll save them, of course," Sirius said. "But—"

"No, you misunderstand. Gideon and Fabian can help us on Halloween. If they were able to take down five death eaters on their own, then they are surely good enough to help go against V-You-Know-Who."

"Right," Sirius replied, now understanding that she wasn't referring to a plan to save her brothers, but what would happen after that plan. "Frank Longbottom would be a good man to have on our side as well. He's a couple years older than me, but he's a good auror. His wife is too, for that matter. They're like no other auror team I've ever seen. They cover each other like they know what the other's going to do before they do it."

"The Longbottoms?" Molly breathed.

"Don't tell me they're dead, too, in the future?" Sirius asked apprehensively.

"No, no they're not." She didn't elaborate.

Sirius breathed in relief. "Do you know how many Voldemort will bring on Halloween?"

"No one, I think." Molly replied.

"No one?" Sirius asked, disbelieving.

"The Potters were under Fidelius and I believe Pettigrew only told You-Know-Who."

"They're talking about hiding under the Fidelius," Sirius said quietly. "They want me to be secret keeper. I convinced them to switch to Peter. Obviously I shouldn't let them go through with it."

"Obviously you should," Molly shot back.

"And what if you've already changed too much? They could die tomorrow!" He replied angrily.

"I—sorry. I—I don't know. Arthur." She looked to her husband for answers, but he shook his head, not knowing what to do either.

"When are they to go into hiding?"

"They're already in hiding. Just not—not under Fidelius. Dumbledore's kept them in hiding, they can't go out without risking being discovered, but Voldemort's amped up his search for them. We're supposed to hide them under Fidelius tomorrow. How can I trust Peter now?"

"You need to have him write down the location."

"How? The only person who's going to know is me!"

"Then don't be there," Arthur replied calmly. "Tell the Potters that there's something urgent, but if Peter can write it down, then James can deliver the location before he goes into permanent hiding."

"You don't think they'll buy that, do you? James and Lily won't fall for that."

"No, but Pettigrew might."

"H-he would. But I'd have to tell James. I can't put him in that danger. I can't. He has to know."

"The kids, they held an illegal defense group in their fifth year."

"Molly?" Arthur asked, confused at the change of subject.

"One of Ron and Harry's friends, dear, do you know what Ron used to say about her?"

"No," Arthur smiled, bemused. His youngest son wasn't old enough yet to construct sentences.

"Scary, but brilliant! And oh, was she." Molly smiled at remembering Hermione Granger. "She stole an idea from You-Know-Who, so no one would find out about the group. I think we should do the same. She cast the Protean Charm on some fake galleons and these galleons would alert the others in the group that there was a meeting. What if, what if we did the same and, if the Potters are in danger, they can immediately alert us?"

"The protections around their house are already strong. We wouldn't be able to get close immediately."

"But we could get there as quickly as we could. We could even be in wait."

"Let's do it." Sirius looked at the couple that was likely the wizarding world's only hope against Voldemort. "But we need to make plans to get the rest of those horcrux. It'll all be useless if we can't get them destroyed before we destroy Voldemort."

"Sirius, just one thing. I know this means you'll want to warn your friends, but don't tell them about the time travel or the horcruxes."

He understood and nodded.

()()()()

The next morning, it was with great trepidation that he entered the Potter home, his mind running rampant with everything that needed to be achieved between now and Halloween. He now needed to complete the next step, ask his best friend to knowingly put his family in the line of fire.

Harry hopped up and down with his knees as his little hands held onto his godfather's fingers. "He's getting big."

"They do that," Lily laughed as she came into the living room with a serving tray for tea.

"But I saw him only a couple of days ago and he wasn't this big!"

Harry lost interest in his game with his godfather and reached out for his mum. She swooped him up, even as Sirius pouted. Lily stuck her tongue out at him to gloat. Being the mum had its advantages.

"Ready for tonight?" James asked. "Peter's coming over at five."

"Yeah, about that…" Sirius looked at his two friends, looking like they didn't have a care in the world so long as they had each other. "I can't be there."

"The whole point of you being there is to trick everyone, in case anyone is paying close attention, into thinking you're the secret keeper, though," James said worriedly. "Why can't you be there?"

"Because…" He rubbed a hand over his face, this was hard. "Because you need to trick Peter into writing down the secret under the pretense that it's to give the secret to me. Obviously, it will go to me, but…" he trailed off.

"Sirius?" Lily asked. She knew there was something big behind his words, something he hadn't yet said. "Who else do you think should know our secret?" They intended for not even Dumbledore to know, because he'd know something was up with the switch if he were let in on the secret.

"Six others." Where was his Gryffindor courage? Couldn't he just say what was going on and get it over with? No. He knew better. James and Lily needed to be behind the Fidelius before they knew about the time travel and everything going on, but had to know about the danger before then.

"S-six!" James spluttered. "Padfoot!"

"I found out who the spy really is," Sirius said as steadily as he could, as if it were not as big a consequence as what it really was.

"Who?"

"The problem is that he can't know that we know. And we need to keep everything going as we intended."

"Who?"

"Because otherwise, we're well and truly screwed. Because it's the only way to bring an end to everything. And we need to bring an end to everything."

"Who, Padfoot?"

Sirius looked James in the eye. He knew James wouldn't take it any easier than he had.

"Peter."