A/N: Welcome me back! I don't know whether i should be upset or what; i update any story and i end up getting reviews and alerts for this one. I doubt anyone even reads my other stories. But thank you all the same for the reviews and alerts. Finally, the chapter!

James shifted Hermione on his hip, unlocked the door and entered Remus' house.

He blinked.

Did he enter the wrong house? Or did Remus change the interiors in his absence?

"Welcome home!"

There was a loud shout, making James stumble back in shock. Damn Sirius and his loud voice!

"Welcome home, James! Devil!" Sirius shouted coming forward from a group of five people.

Remus, Dumbledore, Sirius, Severus and Regulus.

Odd!

"Stop shouting, Sirius," James scowled at Sirius. He knew Sirius was nervous with the company; he had the tendency to be hyper when nervous. "You are scaring Devil."

Devil spoiled the moment by laughing loudly and clapping. The tension seemed to melt away for a moment as everyone laughed. Even Severus' lips twitched.

"We thought a small party would be in line with the occasion," Remus explained. James was back from the Ministry after the adoption ritual.

"But as you can see," Regulus added, scowling at Sirius, "he got carried away."

James looked around. The walls were covered with balloons and streamers of all colours and the floor was covered with toys; all magical.

James swallowed whatever he was about to say seeing the glare directed his way by Sirius.

"Anyway, let us all start with the celebrations," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "Severus has some interesting theory to share with us later on."

James mentally thanked Dumbledore for bringing Severus today; he wanted to thank him and had no idea where to find him.

Sirius took the girl from James and walked to the table with a huge cake. Remus gave a sheepish smile when James raised an eyebrow at him. Three tier cake? For six people?

Hermione, already used to parties, clapped when she saw the cake. As usual Sirius handed Hermione a wand. James could only feel relief it wasn't his, but it wasn't Sirius' either. Then who…

"Hey!" Regulus shouted as Hermione slashed the wand on the topmost tier of the cake.

Only Dumbledore, Sirius and Hermione clapped. Regulus was shooting murderous glares at his brother while Severus just looked bored.

After serving everyone with cake and pumpkin juice, Sirius led the party to the living room.

"Er, Snape?" James asked Severus while they were moving to living room.

Severus merely raised an eyebrow.

"Er," James stuttered, "I er… well I um- thanksforyourhelp."

"Excuse me?"

James took a deep breath. "Thank you for your help in Hermione's adoption."

When no reply came forth, he looked up at his school rival.

Severus was looking at him with just a hint of surprise on his face. Well, he was always good at hiding his emotions.

"Well, say something." James was getting restless with the silence.

"Idus!" Hermione had crawled towards him and was looking at both of them gravely, as gravely as a child could.

"She is an intelligent child," Severus commented and was … gone.

James sighed. Severus was as much used to receiving apologies as was James in handing them out.

"I am sure you all must be surprised with the company I brought here," Dumbledore said after everyone was properly fed and watered, earning eye rolls from Severus and James "Severus came to me with a very interesting theory last month. Since it confirmed some of my beliefs, i requested him to research it further. Severus partnered with Regulus because of his expertise in the area. Let's hear it from Severus."

Five pairs of eyes turned expectantly to Severus, who looked a tad anxious.

''The theory Professor Dumbledore is talking about is pretty simple in explanation but complicated in implementation. I am still not hundred percent sure, but Regulus is quite sure about the results.''

''Care to explain the theory, Snape?'' Sirius interrupted impatiently. ''Or what it's about? And, perhaps, the results.''

Regulus rolled his eyes, at his brother's impatience and his fellow Slytherin's evasiveness.

"Harry's absence," Severus whispered.

Three voices hitched at Harry's name, though reactions were different. Sirius' eyes were hopeful, Remus' wary and James' hard.

"Why are you bothering yourself about Harry?" Sirius asked in a hard tone. Remus put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from making a scathing comment he might regret later.

"Lily was a friend," Severus answered calmly. Severus was making an effort to be civil; normally he wouldn't justify himself.

Remus knew the extent of the said friendship. He knew Severus loved Lily, had always had. For some time he was sure they will end up as a couple. But James' insistence and Severus' drift to Dark Arts had led them apart.

"What's your theory?" Remus asked.

"That he is not dead," Severus answered.

Everyone turned to look at James. His eyes were still hard, though he was calm. "Go on," he urged.

Severus took a deep breath. ''Every wizard or witch has a magical signature. Just like that every spell has a magical residue. They are very hard to detect because, first, their detection is a very tedious and complex and, second, signatures and spells interfere with each other. So, it is nearly impossible to differentiate between spells and signatures in, let's say, Hogwarts.''

''Because of the population of students there.''Remus commented. He knew that.

Severus nodded and turned to James. ''Dumbledore sealed your house after the attack, making it impossible to perform magic there. Everything there is just like it was before the attack.

''It was, therefore, possible to detect spells and signatures in your house, assuming you were not doing much magic before.''

That was Lily, Remus thought sadly; she preferred to do things muggle way. She believed it made her closer to her roots. Glancing at James and Sirius, Remus found they had made the connection. And that Severus and Lily were very close friends.

''What, exactly, were you hoping to achieve from detecting spells and signatures?'' James asked in a detached tone, causing Sirius and Remus to share a look of worry.

''My theory is that your son is not dead. There is a reason for his absence and only Merlin knows what. He cannot be dead. I hoped spell and signature detection might clear the picture.''

How much Remus wanted this to be true. Severus was sure Harry wasn't dead. Merlin knows how, but the conviction was there.

''I discussed this with Professor Dumbledore and with Regulus later on. He used to be an expert in school on this matter and i could only assume that is what he works on in Ministry.''

Regulus was an Unspeakable and that literally forbade them from talking about their work during their tenure.

''Regulus worked in the cottage for a week and came up with results which agree with my theory. In a twisted way.''

Everyone turned to Regulus. He started in a monotonous lecture voice. ''I detected eight signatures - three very strong, four very weak and one mildly strong because it was a fresh spell. Since i had no prototype to compare them with, i could only rely on Dumbledore's identification. He believes those three strong signatures belong to Lily, Voldemort and himself. Four weak ones, according to him, belong to you, four friends. That leaves us with one unidentified signature. Did anyone other than Sirius, Lupin and Peter visit your house during your hiding?''

The question was aimed at James and he was shaking his head in negative even before Regulus completed his question.

''Remus and Sirius were the only ones present so as to make the wards identify them. Peter was the secret-keeper, Dumbledore caster and Lily, Harry and i were the ones to hide.'' James scrunched his face before shouting in exclamation, ''HARRY?''

Before anyone could even ask James what he was talking about, Dumbledore answered, ''No, James. That eighth signature cannot belong to Harry. He was yet to show any sign of magic. His name is yet to appear in Hogwarts' Book in the Ministry.''

Remus saw Regulus raise an eyebrow at that and he knew why. The book Dumbledore was talking about had the names of all witches and wizards of Britain. A child's name would appear on it when they showed magic. Rumours had it that it was protected by ancient charms and riddles and even Minister of Magic couldn't access that book. How the letters were dispatched was a mystery.

''The wizard or witch to whom the eighth signature belongs must have entered the house immediately after Voldemort's fall, probably drawn in from explosion's noise or from Harry's cries," Dumbledore continued. "Regulus tried detecting the nature of the caster's signature and the spells used. Though he is not sure of the spells' nature, he believes the energy around the caster was not negative, at least."

Regulus looked at the confused faces of James and Siris. Dunderheads, he thought and turned to face Remus, who had awe written all over his face. Perhaps the only intelligent one among the idiots.

"You mean," Remus stuttered, "You can differentiate between the energy around the signature?"

Probably not, Regulus thought, irritated. Usually he would have blushed at obvious admiration in Remus' voice, but he wanted to be out of this house as soon as possible. "Negative energy. Ring a bell? Dark energy. Now?"

"Death eater," Sirius said.

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Yes, luckily, the eighth signature doesn't belong to a death-eater as I instantly assumed when I found out the results. Which is a huge consolation in the current situation."

"The question still remains," James said, sadly, "Where is Harry? And just because he isn't in wrong hands, rather dark hands, doesn't mean he is alive."

This time Severus started. "Now that we have a signature as an identity, we can track it." Remus opened his mouth to say, but Severus beat him to it. "I am not saying it is easy, but it is a possibility."

"And the only one at the moment," Dumbledore added gravely. "Tracking charms, potions and spells are very difficult. Regulus can help us in charms and spells, but citing Potions' as his weakest subject, he cannot help with potion making. All of us present here have regular jobs to attend to, therefore, I thought we all should pool our time to help in this search."

Sirius and Remus were nodding even before Dumbledore completed his sentence.

"I don't have any project going on at the moment," Remus said, "Plus I am good in all the three mentioned subjects, I can provide all the help required."

"You were good in all the subjects, Remus," Sirius said drily. "But, yes, we will help."

"Very well, then," Dumbledore said, standing up. "We will meet once I complete my research on the matter. Any research any of you can do, in the meanwhile, will be greatly appreciated."

Severus and Regulus also got up; Regulus did, Severus found himself being tugged down. Looking down, he found the baby girl pulling his robes and looking at him with a toothy smile.

Dumbledore was saying something and had moved on towards the door, everyone following him. No one to help, Severus thought as he sat down again. Using his knees as the support, the baby girl stood up. Severus suddenly realised that the girl had been awfully quite during the conversation. As if she understood the sombre mood of the room.

"Hello, there," he said lamely.

The baby-girl smiled at him and said something which made no sense whatsoever to Severus.

"I am Severus," Severus tried again.

"Se'us," the baby-girl repeated.

Severus rolled his eyes. "No one shortened my name so much. Draco cannot say even this much." He narrowed his eyes. "You sure you are only one year old."

Hermione laughed in response.

Severus huffed. "What's your name?"

"Deyil!" Hermione shouted in response.

Severus shook his head. Devil? Trust these cartoon friends to come up with a name like that.

"Well, I think I should leave now," Severus straightened his robes to see if the girl was still clinging to them. "Nice to meet you." This was an automatic good-bye comment and Severus even thrust his hand forward, to realise a second later that he was talking to a baby-girl.

Oh whatever.

However, Hermione surprised him by thrusting her hand forward, clumsily, but nevertheless she did. Gingerly, Severus shook her hand, surprised with the girl who was giggling.

Shaking his head, Severus got up. The girl looked up at him and automatically opened her arms.

"Er?"

"Up!" The girl demanded.

"You mean pick you up?"

"Up!"

Severus looked around; still no one to help him. Why was he stuck with this girl? Oh well, she isn't going to relent.

Clumsily, Severus managed to pick the girl up and. He looked at her, closely this time, though keeping her at one hand distance. The girl was cute, 'aren't all babies cute', and seemed pretty intelligent, a good mimic, more correctly'. She had brown eyes and brown curly hair which were tied in two pig tails. Severus wondered who might have done her hair. And the girl was staring right back at Severus, observing him the way he was.

"She doesn't bite."

Severus turned around to find Remus standing at the door.

"You never know," Severus muttered, carrying the girl, same way, to Remus.

Handing over the girl to Remus, Severus straightened his robes again. "I should be going. Er—good day."

With that Severus left abruptly. Remus blinked. Wow! That was some speed.

James and Sirius came in after seeing off Dumbledore, Regulus and Severus to find a Remus standing in the living room, Devil in his arms and laughing his head off.

"You okay, Moony?" Sirius asked, taking Devil from Remus. Remus nodded as he controlled himself.

"Ni' oo mee' u," Devil said as she thrust her tiny fist at Sirius, hitting him in the jaw.

That set Remus off again, making his two friends wonder about his sanity.

A/N: I know the ending seems abrupt, but, well, it seemed right for me. Anyway, review, please.