18th October

Waking naked with a man wrapped around you was, in reality, nowhere near as romantic as it sounded, thought Hermione when she opened her eyes on Sunday morning. The sheets were bunched uncomfortably between them, there was a dull ache in her shoulder where Sirius's elbow was digging in and her hair was caught beneath his head on the pillow behind her. Why couldn't it be like in romance novels? She grumbled inwardly as she tried to work her hair free without straining her neck. The heroines in tales of romance always felt blissfully safe and content when waking in their lover's arms after a night of passion; Hermione, however, felt unpleasantly sticky and rather hungry, and needed to pee – but at least he wasn't snoring in her ear. 'Stupid Mills and Boon,' Hermione muttered under her breath as she succeeded in untrapping her hair, 'give a girl false expectations.'

Sirius's arm suddenly tightened around her and he mumbled, 'Are you trying to escape?' He pressed his lips to her shoulder and said, 'Because that would be very rude.'

'I'm going to the loo,' Hermione said as she struggled against his restraining arm and fought down the giggle that threatened, 'surely I'm allowed to get up for that.'

'I suppose,' Sirius said, releasing her, 'but come back … unless you're planning on making breakfast that is.'

Hermione extracted herself from the tangle of limbs and bedclothes and began to search for her pyjamas. She found the bottom half on the floor and stood to pull them on. Then turning to look at him as she hunted for the top, she said distractedly, 'Breakfast does sound like an excellent idea – Ah ha!' she added, pulling the flannelette shirt from under the pillow. Sirius was smirking as she tried to put the top on; one sleeve was inside out and she caught his smug expression as she paused to turn it right way in, and said, 'Having fun?'

'Yup,' he said with a little nod, 'boobs and breakfast, pretty much the best morning ever if you ask me.'

Hermione rolled her eyes as she left the room, but she was smiling quite foolishly by the time she reached the bathroom. As she went about her morning routine Hermione was quite relieved that things still seemed the same between them. There had been a little nagging worry in the back of her mind that she hadn't really even been aware of. A worry that suggested that once people stopped interrupting them, and Sirius stopped falling asleep on the damn sofa, and they were finally able to complete the act, that it would change their relationship, and Hermione was perfectly content as they were. But she needn't have worried apparently, it had not felt awkward so far, and Sirius was still happy to suggest food delivery and tease her, so she supposed that all was normal. Then she frowned slightly as she realised that she had just stood topless in front of him without batting an eye; things were not exactly the same then, because there was no way she would have done that this time yesterday morning.

Hermione returned to the bedroom with clean teeth and feeling much more human; she climbed back into the bed, and Sirius gave her a funny look. 'I thought you were getting breakfast?'

'You said come back or breakfast, so I'm back.' She shrugged and settled herself against the pillows.

Sirius didn't say anything for a moment, but then he smiled, 'So, Mills and Boon is it? Even I know what they are, thought you'd be above such trashy nonsense.'

Hermione made a mental note that no snoring meant awake and listening when it came to Sirius, 'Even my brain needs a holiday sometimes,' she said with dignity. He chuckled at her obvious embarrassment and she added, 'It's one thing for a woman to read them, but a man? You should be ashamed.'

'I never said I read them,' he laughed, 'but it is good to know your competition – they set an awfully high standard.'

'That's interesting,' Hermione said, 'so you're not opposed to research on principle, just not for anything useful.' Sirius just raised an eyebrow at her, and she couldn't help but laugh, 'Fine, a little useful.'

He grinned at her and was quiet for a moment, then he asked somewhat reluctantly, 'So … we're alright … er, right?'

'Right,' Hermione agreed, pleased that he seemed have had the same pointless worry that she'd had.

'Good,' he said, then changed his tone as he continued, 'you know… it's Sunday, I don't have to go to work.'

'Really?' Hermione said innocently, 'well I'm sure there's lots that could occupy your time; I think I remember you suggesting reading as suitable–', but her advice on leisure time was cut off when Sirius pounced on her with his own ideas of how they should spend his day off.

Hermione was in a rather compromising position half an hour later when she heard a muffled voice saying, 'Padfoot?'

'You really shouldn't call me that right now,' Sirius growled in her ear, 'it's very off putting – you sound like Prongs.'

'I – I didn't,' Hermione stammered, quite incapable of understanding where the voice had come from or why it was it was important, nothing was important – except that they should have been doing this for the last five months.

It wasn't until they were both lying side by side some time later, and Hermione was focused solely on regaining her breath as the dreamy haze seeped away that Sirius said abruptly, 'You didn't?'

'I didn't what?' Hermione asked thinking that she most definitely had and she was certain he'd been well aware of it at the time.

'Call me Padfoot?' Sirius elaborated.

'Oh … right,' she said as it came back to her, 'no, I didn't.'

'Huh,' Sirius said blankly, then he leaned off the bed and snatched his jacket from the floor. Hermione watched confused as he felt about in the pockets, but then when he extracted the little square mirror she understood.

Sirius held it up to his face and said, 'James Potter.'

'Padfoot!,' James's voice replied almost instantly. Hermione couldn't see the refection from her position but hastily pulled the sheets up anyway; it just seemed so wrong for Harry's dad to be talking next to her while she was nude.

This didn't seem to bother Sirius in the slightest however, because he asked, 'Sorry mate, did you want something?' as though it was perfectly acceptable to talk to your friend – through a visual device – completely starkers.

'I want my bloody ears cleaned out,' James complained.

Sirius laughed, 'Dirty bastard, not like you had to listen.'

'I didn't once I realised what you were up to! Congratulations by the way – but I couldn't tell at first.'

Hermione could feel her cheeks burning as Sirius looked over at her, a stupid smug grin on his face. 'Want to say hi?' he asked teasingly, twitching the mirror in her direction.

'No!' she squeaked, hauling the sheet over her head to hide her embarrassment.

She heard James laughing. 'Merlin Padfoot, be a gentleman for once in your life!'

'I was, it's polite to say hello,' he said angelically, and then grunted as Hermione kicked him in the shin. She could hear James sniggering at Sirius's muttered 'ow!', but Sirius patted her soundly on the rump and said, 'Alright then, point taken.' Hermione peeked out from the protection of the sheet to see him smiling much less irritatingly. 'Sorry,' he said, and he seemed to mean it so she decided she wouldn't kick him again. Then he turned his attention back to the mirror, 'So what did you want before your ears were violated?'

'It's a bit serious actually mate, do you think you could come round home soon?' James said, 'We want to ask you something.'

Hermione watched as all the humour drained from Sirius's expression, slightly pink post-shag cheeks fading to pale, and then to a sick looking grey. He swallowed nervously. 'Sure Prongs, should I be worried?'

'No, it's pretty good really, but best let Lily explain it, she understands the ins and outs better than I do.'

'Alright, I'll be over soon.' Sirius said with a stiff nod.

'Cheers Padfoot!' The image went blank as James deactivated the connection, and the mirror slipped from Sirius's fingers as he let his head fall back on the pillow.

'Sirius?' Hermione asked, shuffling over to him, 'This is it, isn't it? It's sooner than I thought it would be.'

He nodded. 'Me too, but I've been thinking about my explanation; I think I'll be believable…'

'You were very good just then,' Hermione said, resting her head against his shoulder as his arm wound around her waist.

'I know,' he said, 'but I wasn't talking about shagging, you see James just–'

'You know what I mean,' she snorted, cutting him off.

'Yeah, sorry, just a bit nervous,' Sirius said, tilting his head down to see her face. 'Will you come with me?'

'I don't think that would be a good idea,' Hermione said quietly.

He exhaled heavily. 'I knew you'd say that. Well I guess I should just get it over with then right?'

'Yes, you'll be just fine - remember, you are about to send Riddle to his death,' she stretched up to kiss his cheek, 'thereby saving the world.'

He raised an eyebrow at her. 'I don't know if that was Mills and Boon or something much worse but I feel like I've heard it a million times before - you should be more original with your encouragement.'

'Be more original,' Hermione scoffed, 'I've never heard of anyone convincing their friend to trust a traitor so that an old guy hiding in a garden hedge can kill the baddie with a pointy stick.'

Sirius chucked. 'Fair point. Now, since I'm off to save the world – your cliché words not mine – do I get breakfast?'


Sirius was quite sure he was about to puke all over Lily's quaint little window boxes as he tried to prepare himself for what was waiting on the other side of the Potters' front door. This was worse than the moment he had realised he was about to enter the Lestrange vault; this was it, the beginning of the final step - if Peter wasn't secret keeper everything would change.

There were hurried footsteps from inside the house and James's low voice asked, 'Who is it?'

'It's Padfoot,' Sirius replied quickly, not wanting to have his mouth open for any longer than necessary in case his breakfast made reappearance.

'Excepting this morning,' James said, 'when was the last time I was forced to overhear your amorous activities?'

'Poor taste, Prongs,' Sirius said grouchily, very relieved that Hermione hadn't come along with him like he'd asked, 'and don't say it like it's a regular thing, makes us both sound dodgy.' Realising that he still had to answer the stupid question anyway, Sirius thought for a moment. 'The only time I can remember is the summer after we left school, just after I got my flat; we went to see that muggle band at the pub, and you stayed at mine after. To be honest I think I regretted it more than you and your bleeding ears did - she was terrifying,' Sirius finished with a shudder as blurry images of the frightening night flashed though his mind, replacing the much more pleasant ones from that morning - bloody Prongs! 'Right,' Sirius said ominously, determined to make is friend as uncomfortable as he was himself, 'why did I arrive at your place in the winter before last to find you sitting on the doorstep in nothing but your pants?'

James groaned and then mumbled quietly, 'Because Lily wouldn't give me my wand before she kicked me out.'

'I meant why did she kick you out?' Sirius said, thoroughly enjoying James's dislike of the question.

'Because I paid her a compliment.'

'So you thought – answer the question properly,' Sirius demanded, glad that making James uneasy seemed to have settled his stomach.

'Pads, she can hear me,' James hissed through the door, 'she's still not over it you know.' Suddenly the door sprang open, and James was scowling at him, 'You got enough, you wanker.'

'Yeah well,' Sirius said with a shrug, 'now my head is filled with angry punk-pierced tits when I should be thinking about Hermione – so you deserve it.' Then he caught sight of Lily and her famous death glare at the other end of the hall and swallowed, 'Maybe you're right – sorry mate.'

James grinned nervously at his wife, 'So shall we get started then?'

The hard look in her eyes vanished at James's words, and Sirius felt the nausea return as he followed James into the sitting room. Lily joined them a moment later with a tea tray and a huge macaroon on a plate that she handed to Sirius.

'I'm worried now,' he said, eyeing the macaroon in trepidation. 'Prongs, you said this talk was about a good thing – a macaroon of this magnitude suggests the opposite.'

'It's more of a bribe,' Lily said.

'You don't need to bribe me…' He looked at James with his best wary expression and asked, 'what is it?' James looked at Lily and she didn't speak. Sirius was a little insulted that they were so nervous to ask him; he wracked his brains for a normal reaction to their secretiveness. 'Prongs,' he said, 'you're not going to ask me to cut my hair are you? I mean I'll do anything thing else but … please, not that.'

'Merlin, that would require a year's supply of those foul things!' James laughed, flapping his hand at the macaroon. 'No, it's not as bad as that.'

Lily found her voice as last and said, 'The thing is Sirius, it's Voldemort, he's decided the prophecy is about Harry.'

'Fuck,' Sirius muttered, finding he didn't need to act at all as Lily said those awful words.

'Well, yes,' Lily agreed. 'But it's all right, because Dumbledore has found a way for us to be safe.'

'Really?' Sirius asked surprised, 'That's brilliant … so why do you need me?'

James and Lily looked at each other again and Sirius felt the same little stab of resentment that they seemed so uncertain about telling him. 'It's a charm that requires hiding our whereabouts inside a living human soul,' Lily said slowly, 'so that the only way someone can find us, is if the owner of that soul tells them where we are.'

Sirius grinned, 'I'm guessing you'd like to rent my soul?'

They both nodded and James said, 'I know it's a lot to ask. Once it gets back to Voldemort – as everything always seems to these days – that we're hiding with this charm, he'll start trying to find out who our secret keeper is, but you're the only one we trust enough to do it.'

These words fell oddly on Sirius's ears, the only one they trust enough, he knew that last time round neither he nor James had trusted Remus, but now … he was probably a better choice than Sirius, at least on paper: well hidden house, low profile, clever and brave, not to mention being a proficient fighter, why hadn't they asked him? 'What about Moony?' Sirius asked, before he remembered the whole point of him being here was to get them to use Peter, and added, 'Or Wormtail? They're both better hidden than me.'

James looked a little stung as Lily said, 'We can't use Remus because it has to be a human soul.' Sirius grimaced, wondering if he would still have been the first choice if Remus didn't have his furry little problem, 'And you know Peter, he'd probably have a stroke,' Lily finished with a little half smile.

'Please Pads, for Harry?' James asked beseechingly.

His tone sent a trickle of guilt down into Sirius's stomach and he shook himself, 'Of course,' Sirius said hastily, 'sorry, I didn't mean I wouldn't do it – I just wondered… never mind – yeah, of course I will,' then he added shrewdly, 'Did you really think I'd say no?'

'Well, not really,' James said grinning, 'So you see? It is a good thing.'

Sirius nodded, 'Yeah, so does this mean you'll be properly safe? Like, no way to for Voldemort to find you at all?'

'Yes,' said Lily, 'isn't it wonderful? Thank you so much for doing this - it means a lot, especially since you'll be in danger if Voldemort discovers you're the key to finding us.'

Sirius shrugged. 'Snakey's after Hermione anyway and he's had me captured once already this month so it's not like this will make it any worse. I guess I'll have to leave work… actually, on second thought,' he grinned at James, 'I don't know if your lives are worth the cane bashing I'm going to get when I tell Moody I'm going on leave.'

James sniggered, 'that's a good point, I wouldn't take it for you.'

'You bloody well should,' Sirius grumbled. 'It would be the least you could do - you've been away since he got the evil thing, so I've been getting your share for the last six months!'

Lily was smiling at the pair of them a little disbelievingly. 'You two do realise this is quite serious don't you? Because you're right Sirius, you will have to leave work. And it will be dangerous for you - but I'm guessing your place is pretty well protected if Hermione is staying there?'

'Yeah, it is,' Sirius said, as a wonderful thought struck him: whether real secret keeper or decoy, he was going to have to hide until Hallowe'en once the charm was performed – which Hermione thought would be within the week, Saturday at the latest – and having a reason to stay in his flat was a very appealing notion considering its other prisoner. 'You know, being stuck in the house suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea,' he said, grinning.

'Yes James mentioned he got rather more than he asked for this morning.' Lily giggled. 'Well I'm glad you won't be bored while hiding. I still need to practice the charm a bit more before I can cast it, but if you two are happy to eat sandwiches for dinner and give Harry his bath so I can study, then we can probably do it later tonight - I really don't want to wait.'

What!? Sirius began to panic, how was he meant to convince them to use Peter in the next few hours? He took a deep breath; he and Hermione couldn't possibly have affected Lily's ability to learn the charm with their time meddling. Sirius wondered for a moment where Hermione had got the information on the timing of this event – it must have been sketchy at best, seeing as how everyone involved in it was dead, so it was quite possible that this was exactly how it played out last time, and he had been able to come up with and convince them of the plan within an afternoon. But he didn't want to mention Peter right now; he'd only just been asked, and he needed to appear to think it over before coming up with his grand bluffing scheme. With a moment of thought he asked the next most relevant question, 'Do you have sausages, Lily?'

Lily was obviously quite taken aback at this absurdly irrelevant question. 'I think so, why?'

'Because then we don't have to have sandwiches for dinner,' Sirius said proudly. 'I can cook sausages.'

Lily's surprised expression intensified and James laughed. 'Like how you told me you could make stove-top hot chocolate the way muggles do, and ended up melting half your hand off?'

Sirius looked ruefully at the faded burn mark on his hand and said, 'No, Hermione showed me how to make sausages. I cooked them for Longbottom when we were on our mission in Suffolk – he was very impressed.'

'As long as you promise not to burn the kitchen down, sausages sound fine,' Lily said, still looking a little shocked that Sirius could possibly understand a difficult task like sausage frying. 'I'll leave you two to it then. Harry's upstairs; he's yours when he wakes up.'


'I take it back,' James said as he polished off his second sausage that evening, 'these are brilliant.'

'They are,' Sirius agreed. 'Shame about the potatoes though.'

James began to assemble his third sausage in bread, and paused in his careful ketchuping to say, 'I did say you were overextending yourself.'

'How am I to know that you mash them after they're cooked?' Sirius said peevishly, stealing the ketchup for his own plate, 'You didn't.'

'True,' James said, chewing pensively; swallowing, he added, 'there must be a better spell than Reducto though.'

'You think?' Sirius looked over his shoulder to where the kitchen cupboards were still splattered in raw potato chunks, 'Harry seemed to like it though.'

'Bloody kid likes anything to do with flying food.' James chuckled.

'No point in bathing him if there's nothing to wash off, that's my theory,' Sirius said with a grin.

Concentrating on their dinner both men fell silent. Sirius was focusing on his strategy to be as convincing as possible when he brought up Pettigrew. He had decided that the best way would be to mentally convince himself that the rat was trustworthy. James could always tell when Sirius was lying, and if he detected doubt then this would all turn into something resembling the destroyed carbohydrate portion of their meal.

Sirius allowed himself a brief moment of enjoyment thinking about his plan to deal with Pettigrew after Halloween. Hermione said he hid as a rat with the Weasley family after Sirius's arrest; as a Ministry employee, Arthur Weasley's address would be on file, files which Aurors were allowed to look at. So whether Hermione was still here or not, Sirius would be going to visit the town of Ottery St Catchpole sometime in November, where he would have a pleasant time merrily beating the shit out of the traitor. Perhaps he should ask Moony and Prongs along; they could make an outing of it, maybe have dinner at the local pub, and some drinks for afters - a meal and drinks would go very well with some face smashing. How lovely. Sirius would of course then arrest Pettigrew - or it might be better to call Frank out to do it, so it wasn't too obvious that an Auror had gone to town on a detainee. Not the best image for what will surely be a very jumbled and unorganised Ministry of Magic in the wake of Voldemort's fall. It was best to be responsible, Sirius thought.

His anger at the rat placated with these happy imaginings, Sirius set those thoughts aside and strategically turned his attention to the friendship he had shared with Peter over the last decade. He remembered all the little moments of surprised pride he had felt when Peter came up with the best escape route, or the funniest joke, or – Sirius's favourite – the four times in ten years that Peter had told Sirius to pull his head in or to shut up. He was really surprised that Peter hadn't done it more often, because each time it had happened Sirius had been so shocked at the stern expression – learnt from Remus – on the normally docile face, that he had indeed pulled his head in or shut up.

'So how's the family?' James asked as he got up from the table to refill his plate with sausages from the frying pan, 'You must be nearly done with the information gathering by now, right? Seems like you've been at it forever.'

It really did, Sirius thought, his head still filled with Peter's admonishing face. 'Yeah, pretty close,' he said. 'Hermione didn't go to tea this month; I didn't want to risk it with Voldemort wanting her to help him in Europe. I mean, Cissy and Aunt Lucretia are both married to Death Eaters. So was old lady Burke – her son and grandson followed in their father's footsteps so she's just as much of a risk.'

James joined him at the table again, tipping four more sausages on to Sirius's plate he asked, 'Aunt Lucretia why do I know that name?'

'She's your second cousin,' Sirius said. James really was a useless pureblood, he thought, then felt a little sick at the implication that Sirius was a good one, but he continued anyway because he knew it would annoy his friend. 'Grandfather and your Mum's dad's eldest brother Sirius is her grandfather, she's my dad's sister, and she's married to the Prewett twins' uncle,' Sirius said as confusingly as he could, enjoying the dazed look on James's face.

James blinked a few times, before muttering 'Merlin, I hate Mum's family tree.'

'Yeah, at least you don't have it on both sides. I'm just glad Grandfather Arcturus has an aversion to the English weather; he's the biggest arsehole of the lot, but he'd rather live at Château Noir and have Bellatrix as a house guest so all the better for us. Unfortunately his crone of a wife couldn't do us the courtesy of a continental lifestyle because she dislikes French food as much as he hates rain; so she's still here, and normally attends tea, she's a right nasty hag it's no wonder she and Arcturus haven't seen each other for years, they're too much alike.

'Your family is so screwed up,' James said with a chuckle.

'They're yours too cousin,' Sirius drawled, making James laugh even more; then he grinned, feeling ready to give it a shot. 'So this secret keeper thing, do you really think Voldy will find out you've done it?'

'Yeah, Dumbledore thinks there's a spy in the Order,' James said, sobering quickly. 'I'm a bit worried actually - I mean, if Voldemort figures it out, well, it will be kind of obvious that I'd choose you.' He looked thoughtful for a moment, and mused, 'Maybe you should do it too, you're good at charms, and I'm sure Lily would teach you. Then I could be your keeper and we'd both be safe.'

'Don't you reckon he'd figure that out too though?' Sirius said, feeling the nervy unease return in full measure. He'd practiced this in his head over and over, but that didn't mean it would go according to plan; he frowned and drummed his fingers on the table as he pretended to think it through, and said at length, 'You're right, it is obvious that it would be me.' Sirius paused, 'What if … yeah, what if you use someone else - you know, someone he'd never think of - then he could try and come after me but it wouldn't matter because I wouldn't be able to tell him anyway, that would make you even more safe.' Sirius waited, trying to seem relaxed.

'A bluff, you reckon?' James said doubtfully.

'Yeah,' Sirius said nodding, 'and I'll still hide so it looks like it's me, we'll lead old Snakey on a wild goose chase. I'm pretty sure he's been looking for Hermione anyway, ever since the Lestranges got me, and he hasn't found her so we'll be okay at the flat; her spells are so strong even Moody couldn't figure them out.'

James was quiet, index finger tapping unconsciously on the table top as he thought it out; finally he said, 'That's not a bad idea Pads. But once he realised it wasn't you – if he caught you I mean – he'd kill you in a second.'

'Yeah but…' Sirius hesitated, 'I mean, you'd still be safe, and that's the whole point, and he'd probably just make me be a Death Eater, not kill me - family connections and all that - and then I'd spy for Dumbledore.' In his planning, Sirius had worried how he would get them to use Peter rather than Remus; last time around they had all thought Remus untrustworthy - James had even mentioned something months ago - but that was one thing Hermione's presence had definitely changed. Thankfully, the werewolf factor counted him out anyway, so Wormtail really was the only other option. 'He'd probably go after Moony next, another dead end. I still don't think he's knows he's a wolf,' Sirius said, 'or maybe he does, but I doubt Snakey's the type to do research on spells of trust - well not enough to find out that it has to be a human soul - and I still get lost trying to find Moony's place, so that will keep Voldemort busy for ages.'

'That's true,' James agreed, warming to the idea, and then he smiled; it was a smile Sirius hadn't seen on his friends face for some time, a mischievous smirk that indicated scheming and invariably led to fun, normally followed by detention, or in more recent years a severe and terrifying dressing down in Moody's office. 'Ha!' James laughed, 'you know who he'd never think of?' James met his eyes and Sirius knew instantly that his friend was about to make this a whole lot easier for him.

'Wormtail,' they said in unison.

'Wormtail what?' Lily asked, entering the kitchen with a purple-ribboned scroll in her hand. James jumped and hastily waved his wand in the direction of the potato speckled cupboards, but Lily had already seen. 'What were you two doing?'

'Cooking,' James said blithely, 'sorry Lil, all fixed now, here – have a sausage.' He held his plate out to her, grinning innocently.

'So why were you talking about Peter?' Lily asked. She took one of the proffered bangers, eyed it warily and bit into one end; after a thoughtful chew she inclined her head in Sirius's direction in approval as James began to explain.

'Pads has come up with a brilliant plan - you know how you said this morning that it will be obvious that we would use him?' Lily nodded, 'well what if we make it look like we have, but actually use Pete instead?'

Lily smiled as she dipped her sausage in the ketchup and breadcrumb graveyard on James's plate and said, 'Because Peter will have a heart attack at the very idea. I thought we agreed.'

'Yeah but, if he knows Voldemort would never come after him because he will think its Padfoot then he'll be able to handle it,' James said, and then gave his wife a slightly stern look. 'He's not as much of a chicken as you think Lily, he just likes to avoid trouble when he can – but when it comes down to it he's always found the courage.'

'That's right,' Sirius said, glad he was prepared for this; if Lily didn't agree too James would never do it, and as she was the one to cast the spell it would be up to her in the end anyway. Sirius looked at James and said, 'Remember that time he swore at McGonagall, to distract her from the three of us hiding in the Christmas trees? That was awesome.' It was one of two memories Sirius thought would never be overpowered by what he knew of Peter now. The other was Peter's terrified eleven-year-old face as he held out his blackened hands to the Astronomy Professor.

The Christmas tree episode was a similarly self-sacrificing moment, and therefore an excellent reminder that Peter was willing to do crazy things for his friends. The week before Christmas in fifth year the four boys had decided that the huge decorated trees in the great hall could be improved if they reached out their branches and snared passing students on their way to meals, holding them hostage surrounded by the festive baubles – all in the name of spreading Christmas cheer, obviously.

The Marauders' Map was nothing more than a floor plan at that stage, so as was routine they had been taking turns on lookout duty; during Peter's watch Professor McGonagall had sprung out of nowhere. To try and way-lay her, Peter had spun a tale of having lost his friends, but she had entered the hall anyway, and in his desperation to keep her attention from the mysteriously twitchy trees Peter had said loudly, his voice echoing around the empty hall, 'Fuck it! Where the bloody hell have they gone? The sodding arseholes!' and stormed out the doors. This had quite successfully infuriated McGonagall, who turned on her heel and stalked off after him. Unfortunately even after the Christmas break Peter had insisted his left ear poked out more the right because he had been dragged by it up two flights of stairs by the irate professor.

James laughed. 'That's right, we'd've been done for without him and his foul mouth.' He shook his head and said reminiscently, 'Those trees were quite pervy – which wasn't our intent,' he added quickly, catching Lily's expression of accusation.

'Might not have been your intent,' Sirius snickered, 'but it was mine - seeing Snivelly getting felt up by a tree full of gagging fairy lights? Bloody brilliant.'

'Not helping Pads,' James muttered.

'Sorry Lily, I forgot they liked you more than the other students,' Sirius said as he tilted his head at James and Lily looked amused, 'But don't you see?' he continued, 'Peter's good for it, but it's easy to forget; you did, and you know Peter. His reputation to everyone else for being a bit yellow will keep him off the suspects list.'

'But what about you?' Lily asked quietly, 'You'll be in danger for no reason.'

'Um, Lily, I'll be in danger for the same reason,' Sirius said with a little grin, 'to keep you lot alive. That's why you're doing this isn't it?'

'Yes, but.…'

Sirius looked into her worried face and quite forgot that he was deceiving them; all his prepared words flew from his mind and instead he just said honestly, 'I'm not scared to die Lily, I'm scared to lose, and the little family Potter dying is pretty much the biggest loss I can imagine.' James was looking at him in a way that made Sirius feel a little self-conscious for saying such heartfelt things, so he cleared his throat and continued, 'So if Voldemort finds me - which he won't, but if he did – then I will tell him you're in China or something and he can spend a few weeks sorting through the millions of people there, and you'll get a chance to make sure Pete is safe.'

'But what about Hermione?' Lily asked, 'She'll be furious that you're going to sacrifice yourself - er … if you had to.'

What did Hermione have to do with his decision? Sirius thought, 'No she won't.' he said, 'If it was the other way round and I had the marked kid, and I asked James to do this, what would you say?'

Lily looked thoughtful, 'Do we have Harry?'

'No, you're Hermione.'

She sighed. 'Okay I get your point - I'd say do it.'

'See,' Sirius said triumphantly, 'and besides, Hermione's been itching to have a crack at Snakey since the bother at Forte de Sang, so she'll probably want me to do it.' He shrugged. 'The other thing is, Hermione and I have really only been seeing each other for a month, so what makes you think she would even be that worried about it? It's not like you two - I mean, we're just seeing how it goes,' he finished lamely, feeling the annoying uncertainty of her future here tug at him again - they were really getting nowhere.

Lily gave a little snort, 'I think it will go just fine, Sirius. In your world, a month basically is marriage.'

'And anyway,' Sirius said a little abruptly, 'I'm a bit put out that you'd think I'd take the opinion of my girlfriend over the life of my godson.' To his surprise Lily looked mildly ashamed. 'If she really did have a problem with it, then … well, she's not girl for me. Isn't that why you asked me in the first place, because my bravery borders on the edge of insanity?'

Lily smiled, 'Yes, that is why.' Her eyes were a little misty as she added, 'Lord, I hope Harry has idiot friends like you lot when he grows up. I never have – it's quite frightening how much you all …' she swallowed noisily and shook her head; James reached out and took her hand but didn't say anything, and Lily just gave him a watery smile in thanks.

Sirius wanted to tell Lily that yes, Harry has friends like them - better friends even, ones who would change the past to keep him safe and happy - but of course he couldn't, well, not yet anyway. 'Lily, I would die for you too, you know,' Sirius said, in an effort to make her smile properly again, 'because if you were dead and Prongs was not… Merlin, I know I certainly couldn't look after the broken-hearted bastard - didn't you see the potatoes?' She did smile a little.

Then James added, 'Yeah and Moony would too, because he'd be afraid of going to Azkaban for murdering me and Padfoot, without you around to keep him sane.'

'That's true,' Lily said, having obviously regained her sense of humour, 'sometimes I think he's come close. So where does this leave us?'

James looked into Sirius's eyes for a moment, and then he nodded, 'I think Padfoot is right. Voldemort would never think of Pete. Sirius will make a show at the Ministry of leaving his job –'

'I won't have to put much effort in mate,' Sirius interjected, 'the whole place will hear Moody shouting at me.'

'Exactly,' James nodded, 'and so Voldy will look for him, and Pete will be safe and sound pouring tea and fluffing pillows for his mum, and no one will be any the wiser.'

'It seems like such a risk,' Lily said, looking between the two men, 'but then you two are the Aurors, so I guess I should probably trust your judgement on something like this.'

'Can I get that in writing?' James asked, and then flinched when Lily pinched his arm.

'No,' she said with a chuckle, 'verbal acknowledgement only.'

'So, you ready then Pads?' James asked as he stood up from the table, 'How does a wee trip to Kesteven sound? They have the best grass.'

'What - now?' Sirius asked. He wasn't ready to see Peter; he could barely look at the guy. 'You want to go tonight?'

'Yeah.' James said with a shrug, 'We need to get this charm done as soon as possible. Come on, we can run in.'

Sirius shook himself mentally, then filled his head with the redeeming memories of Peter and smiled. 'Of course, yeah, let's go then.'


James and Sirius apparated five miles south of Peter's house in North Kesteven, and in the few moments before James became the majestic stag he was grinning like a school boy in the open night air. Sirius laughed despite his nerves as the stag paused only to munch on the grass – for some reason it was his favourite in all of England – before he bounded away. Sirius drew the feeling of transformation in and pushed it back out, and suddenly the dim evening was clearer to his much keener eyes. It did smell good here, he thought. With a sniff at the grass, however, he decided it wasn't for him. Looking around the quiet farmland Padfoot caught sight of a large animal already some distance away - his friend the stag! He barked and dashed after him.

The run through the countryside and the simplicity of Padfoot's brain did wonders for Sirius's stressed-out state. He felt the tension leave him with every pounding step. Black–and-white recollections zoomed through his mind: a rat weaving beneath the branches of a very violent tree, the same rat sinking it's sharp little teeth into a werewolf's ear when the black dog lost its footing on the stairs inside the shack and found himself in a heap at the bottom with a raging wolf at his throat, the rat chasing its tail to keep an injured Remus entertained while they waited for sunrise to arrive after moonset. It seemed so simple, what had he even been worried about? Peter was their friend; of course Lily and James would trust him with their lives. Now he and James would talk to Peter and all would be set, and in two weeks' time Voldemort would be dead.

It didn't take long for the stag and dog to reach the farm house. Sirius took great pleasure in snapping playfully at the skittish chickens that were loose on the lawn, while James had a staring contest with the old and beleaguered goat that spent his life acting as lawn mower to the Pettigrew household. A lowering of the stag's impressive antlers soon had the goat hastily nipping at the grass and pretending he had never challenged the much larger creature in the first place. Once they were human again – and the goat was looking quite miffed as he watched them from across the yard – they moved to the front door and James knocked.

Sirius's anxiousness returned as they waited for someone to come to the door. How good would Peter's acting be? What if Sirius did something wrong and he said no? Or worse, what if James decided it was a bad idea after all?

'Who is it?' came Peter's voice from the other side of the door.

'It's Prongs and Padfoot, Wormtail, we've got a favour to ask,' James replied.

'Really?' Peter asked, sounding cheerful.

He should be cheerful, Sirius thought, he's about get offered the opportunity of a lifetime, then internally reprimanded himself for deviating from his good thoughts of Peter, Sirius forced himself to concentrate on Peter's question.

'Um, okay, in fourth year we were running from Filch after that thing with the fighting pineapples - what made it worth it even though Filch put us in detention the next day anyway?'

James grinned at Sirius, and then leaned closer to the door, 'That was a momentous evening, we found the hidden passage behind the mirror on the fourth floor while looking for a place to hide from Filch and his puffed up pineapple-allergy face. Alright Pete, what's wrong with your right ear?'

Peter gave a little titter, 'Trying to trick me Prongs? There's nothing wrong with the right one, it's the left that pokes out. I really thought McGonagall was going to rip it off - I mean, hauling my tubby arse up all those stairs by nothing more than my poor little ear, she's a cruel woman.' The door opened and Peter stood there rubbing at his left ear. 'You know, sometimes I swear it still hurts.'

'Phantom fingers you reckon, Wormtail?' Sirius said, with a tight smile and a brief clap to the smaller man's shoulder.

'Something like that,' Peter replied, as James followed suit. 'We'll have to be quiet, Mum's asleep,' Peter said as he led them into the sitting room, 'She had a long day – but she went out to the shops, hasn't done that in weeks so I guess that's good.' He turned to look at them. 'It's late for a visit, has something happened?'

Sirius couldn't help but be impressed with Peter's calm tone; he obviously didn't think Sirius and James were suspicious of him – something Sirius certainly would have thought if he were a spy and two of the other side had turned up unannounced late in the evening.

'Something good Pete,' James said enthusiastically, taking a seat on the crochet covered sofa. 'You know how Voldemort has been after Harry or Frank and Alice's boy? Well, he's decided it's Harry he wants.'

Peter's small eyes were shocked and completely confused; he stumbled into the armchair behind him, forcing him to sit down much more heavily than usual. 'And that's a good thing …?'

'No, that's a shit thing,' James said, 'but Dumbledore has taught Lily a spell that will keep us hidden from Voldemort, and that's better than good. That's why Pads and I are here, we need your help.'

The confusion on Peter's face increased. 'But you lot are much better at complicated spells than me; I know I'm not the dunce I was, but that sounds pretty important. Why would you want my help?'

'Mate,' Sirius said, 'the spell is too complicated even for Prongs – Lily's the one to do it. The thing is, to keep them safe they need to hide their location in someone's soul; then that person would be the only one who can tell anybody where Prongs and Lily are.'

Peter's eyebrows flew up his forehead. 'And… and you said you wanted to ask me a favour?'

James nodded, 'That's right Pete, the thing is, if Voldemort finds out that we've done this he will start looking for the person that knows the secret, and who do you think he would guess I would choose?'

'Padfoot,' Peter said at once.

'That's right, and I did, but then we were talking and Pads said the same – he's the obvious choice. Voldemort will come looking for him in a second. So we thought we should use that to our advantage, and talk to you. You've been outside all the war shit and are sort of hiding anyway, so now you hide for real; it's not like Voldemort would notice the difference if we put you under the charm too, so you'd be completely safe – I'll be your secret keeper. Padfoot, on the other hand, will be the decoy.'

'You'd… you'd trust me to do that for you?' Peter asked in a very small and awed voice.

'Of course,' James said. 'You'd trust me wouldn't you?'

'Yes but… you know… you're an Auror, you're a much better fighter than me,' Peter said hesitantly, 'I'm just a sodding nurse maid at the moment.'

'Yeah, and at the moment I'm a nanny, not an Auror,' James said, amused.

Sirius cut in. 'It's not about fighting anyway Pete,' he said reassuringly. 'The whole point is that no one would even know it's you.'

Peter smiled at Sirius, and said, 'You seem happy tonight Padfoot, like you're back to your old self.'

Sirius grinned to hide the fact that he was annoyed at Peter for reminding him why he'd been different towards Peter these last few months; he hadn't realised that Peter had even noticed.

James chucked, and Peter looked between them perplexed, 'What?'

'That's because he is back to his old self,' James said. 'Pads and Hermione were a little busy when I tried to talk to him with the mirror this morning.'

Peter sniggered, getting James's meaning at once, but then looked at Sirius curiously. 'I wouldn't have thought a girl from that family would let you shag her before you got married.'

'Let met shag her?' Sirius said indignantly. 'Merlin, that makes it sound like some kind of chore for her!' He smirked in Peter's direction and said smugly, 'Let me tell you, that is not the case.'

'Anyway,' James piped up, '"a girl from that family?" You know she's not really a Fehr right Wormy? She and Pads have been collecting information on the Blacks for Dumbledore.' He looked at Sirius, 'You didn't tell him? That's not on, Padfoot.'

Sirius blanched, his careful facade cracking as James spoke. What the hell was with James and Lily spilling the beans? Lily had told Alice too. But then Sirius realised that to an outsider his and Hermione's deception was nothing more than reconnaissance, not something that needed to be kept secret from trusted people; Frank and Alice were in the order, as was Wormtail, and James obviously just thought Sirius was keeping secrets from their friends again. Sirius hastily arranged his face in to an apologetic expression and said, 'Er … sorry Pete, I didn't want you to have to keep the story straight if you got asked, got caught or something. I know how you like to keep out of it as much as possible.'

Peter smiled a little regretfully, 'That's alright, sometimes I'd rather not know too much. Isn't that what Moony says - information is power? Well, I've never much wanted power.'

James had clearly moved on from his annoyance with Sirius's deception, and was giving Peter a funny look. 'You all right Pete? You don't have to do this secret keeper thing if you don't want to, I just thought –'

Peter held a plump hand up to silence James. 'No,' he said. He looked and Sirius and then at James for a long moment, and nodded. 'I'll do it.' There was steel in the small blue eyes that Sirius had never seen before and it bothered him; he didn't think Peter was that good of an actor, but he looked like he really wanted to keep James safe, proud to have the honour of the job and ready to do it right. 'And you can do this charm thing for me too? So V-Voldemort won't be able to find me?'

James's smile was wide and grateful, 'Yeah Pete, Lily will do it no sweat; oh, I think that means she'll have to be your keeper, that's okay right?'

'Of course!' Peter laughed. 'She's so brave, she'd probably send Voldemort crying to his mum with one of her telling offs.'

'You've got that right,' James chuckled. 'You'll be safe as houses, your mum, too.'

Peter smiled, 'Thanks for asking me, it... um… means a lot.'

Sirius felt empty as he listened to James tease Peter for saying girly things. Peter was going under the Fidelius charm? Was it all an act to make James think he was trustworthy? Sirius didn't think so. Stutter or no, he'd never heard Peter say Voldemort's name before, and he hadn't seen that look of determination on his face since school. There was a bit of Sirius's brain that wanted to stand up and cheer, but this wasn't right, it couldn't be. Had Sirius done something wrong? Had he somehow made Peter want to stand up to Voldemort? Did this mean Voldemort wouldn't find out the Potters' location? What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

'Will your mum be alright alone for a while?' James asked Peter. 'Lily wants to do the charm tonight so you'll have to come to ours.'

'Yeah,' Peter said, a broad smile on his face. 'Yeah, she'll be fine. This is exciting Prongs, we'll be safe!'

'I know,' James said grinning, 'Dumbledore is a genius.'

Sirius couldn't bring himself to speak as he watched Peter find his coat. What was going on? The whole plan was fucked. He'd screwed up everything, months of work for nothing, because Peter had more balls than Sirius had ever given him credit for.

'Coming with, Pads, or are you just headed straight home?' James asked, 'You don't have to come along, we just need Lily and Pete… and I'm sure there's other ways you'd rather spend your evening.'

Even if he thought there was still some way he could put things right by sticking with them, Sirius didn't think he could watch Lily do the charm – especially if they expected him to act normal. 'Yeah, home...' He forced a grin onto his face, 'yeah for sure, Hermione's expecting me back. Okay, well, good luck.'

James leered at him. 'Good luck to you too – not that you need it tonight, apparently, but you have to tell Moody you're leaving work tomorrow.'

But Sirius barely heard him; all he could think was, this wasn't right.


A/N: I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but I still mean it as much as the first time: Thank you magnificent readers for taking an interest, and the time to review and favorite, I'm so flattered that you continue to make the effort xx

And Emily, thank you for putting up with my rambling emails! Oh and for the fixery too - obviously. Brilliant work, you out did yourself on this one, I love it :)