DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters.
A/N: I cant believe i have got to chapter 20 already! thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I can't tell you how much i appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who is following this story too. you guys keep me going with the writing.
Chapter 20
10th August 1980
Remus and Sirius stood on the front porch of the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow. Not quite ready to make their presence known just yet.
Sirius was repeatedly running his hands through his wavy hair while Remus stood stock still breathing deeply to calm himself.
The door opened and James Potter looked quizzically at the startled pair.
"You're meant to knock you know, not just stand there while we guess if you've arrived or not. Thats what this is for." James said pointing to the knocker in the centre of the door and promptly shut the door in their faces.
Remus sighed and knocked on the door, expecting it to open immediately.
"Prongs! come on, open the bloody door!" Sirius whinged
"Sorry about that I was upstairs" James said feigning breathlessness and grinning wildly.
"Don't be a git James, let them in already" Lily shouted from somewhere inside.
James huffed and stood aside to let the pair in. They headed straight for the kitchen.
"I knew I liked you best" Remus said kissing Lily on the cheek while Sirius opened the fridge door to get a beer.
"It's ten in the morning Padfoot" James said
"It's Sunday!" Sirius replied taking a long drink from the bottle.
"Kettle's on" Lily added
"Great, everyone for tea then…except the alcoholic over there" Remus said moving over to the kettle.
"It's been a long week" Sirius said overly casually. Lily saw through it immediately.
"What's wrong Siri, is it work? Did something happen?" Lily said concerned drawing James's attention to Sirius
"No work's fine actually, quite really." Sirius answered
"Then what is it?" James questioned
Sirius caught Remus's eye. Lily who was clearly the most observant of the couple noted the look and picked up on its meaning immediately.
"What's happened?" Lily asked seriously. Sirius froze. Not knowing how to start.
"Where's Harry, I haven't seen him since you left St Mungo's?" Remus said attempting to divert the new mother with talk of her son.
"He's napping, I will not be put off Remus Lupin, what do you not want to tell us?" Lily said
"Let's all go and sit down, this may take a while." Remus sighed.
Making their way into the living room Sirius stopped at the fridge for another beer.
"Am I going to need one of those" James joked.
"Mate you're going to need something stronger than this" Sirius mumbled, but James heard.
"Blimey that bad" James replied
"Worse" Sirius said morosely.
In the ten days it had been since Sirius and Remus had learned the possible fate of their friends, they had acted predictably. Remus had gone in to research mode, he had watched every memory vial available to him, both Sirius's and Regulus's, he knew the timeline of future events nearly as well as Regulus did at this point. He was determinedly ignoring the Peter problem as he had taken to calling it in his head. Sirius on the other hand was not handling it quite so well. He too knew every step of the new plan and timeline of events from Hermione's notes, but he also drank alot and was argumentative at best. To the point where Moody had forced him to take a leave of absence after he beat the crap out of a death eater they had in custody.
Remus and Sirius had both moved in to the cabin, and had not been back to the flat since the day harry was born. Neither wanted to risk bumping in to Peter. It had been decided that they could not go after him yet. They would. But not yet. Instead they were going to use him. Feed him false information via letter about 'Emergency Order meetings" he had missed because he wasn't at their shared flat when the they were informed of the meeting. There had been no time to get him. Sorry Mate.
Only now that they had to tell Prongs and Lily that the rat who was all set to turn them over to their biggest enemy, the enemy who wanted their ten day old baby dead. They were going to have to tell them that the rat couldn't be caught yet cause they needed him.
They were loath to say it was for the greater good for fear of sounding like Dumbledore. Both Remus and Sirius had been furious at the decisions that had been made by Dumbledore for the greater good. And having seen a collection of memories from a fifteen year old Harry about the effect of the greater good on his life, they agreed with Regulus and Hermione - Older Hermione that they had to do this without Dumbledore or the Order's involvement.
Remus and Sirius took an armchair each on either side of the long sofa where James and Lily sat.
"Merlin fellas, I feel like were about to be interrogated, can you just get on with it" James said impatiently.
"Right, do you want to start Pads? You were the one who got the letter." Remus said
"Have you got anything stronger, I really think we'll need it" Sirius enquired seriously.
"Padfoot! No more, this is what you've been panicking about for the last week, maybe once we've got it over with you can stop drowning your self in fire whiskey." Remus said sternly.
"Whose panicking? Im not panicking, I never panic." Sirius denied somewhat hysterically.
"Even I can see your panicking Pads and I don't notice shit most of the time" James said "Just tell us, what ever it is it'll be ok, we'll deal with it like we always do. Together."
"Merlin, alight. I'm not sure how to begin. We left off telling you this long because you just had Harry, and we wanted to give you time together, before it all went to shit. Otherwise I would have told you the minute we found out." Sirius said
"I understand, now tell us what's going on. It clearly has something to do with us." James said
"Right. Just start at the beginning Pads" Remus said.
"Sorry, right, OK. On the day Harry was born, I left the hospital and came back to the flat to wait for Remus, we were going to have a quick pint at The Leaky before I went to work and he came to visit you guys. Well anyway, when I got home there was a massive owl there waiting for me, it had a parcel for me."
"Get to the point Padfoot" Remus interrupted.
"This is part of the point, do you want to tell the bloody story!" Sirius said agitated
"No, I apologise, carry on, but try to get there quicker will you" Remus grumbled.
"As I was saying" Sirius said. Remus rolled his eyes. "There was an owl with a parcel for me. Inside was a letter from woman called Hermione Granger who said she had information about the war, and I was one of the few people she trusted. The thing that caught my attention was that she said she hoped I took it seriously as it affected the lives of my friends, but also the life of my new Godson Harry." Sirius continued
James sat up straighter and Lily looked stricken.
"She said she knew that for me, Harry had only just been born. She had attached a memory vial and a shrunken pensive for me to watch them in as the information she had was too important to be shared in a letter. She was right. The security measures she had taken to make sure I was the only one who could open it were incredible. But I am glad she did." Sirius Paused
"What was in the memories? How could she have known about Harry? He would have been less than an hour old when you got home." Lily asked
"There was so much information, I don't know how to even start. Mooney do you want to take over from here, you've watched it a million times already." Sirius said.
"Yes, I can take over from here" Remus started. Sirius let out a deep breath and Lily reached over and took his hand in her own smaller one in support.
"We should probably start by saying asking Regulus to come inside, he is equally as involved."
James stood immediately from the couch and looked aghast at Sirius.
"Your brother Regulus. He's a death eater. We can't let a death eater into the house." James shouted
"He's not anymore. Without him we would have no idea about any of this. He sent the parcel to me." Sirius said calmly. He had expected this reaction from James. Sirius had spent most of his Hogwarts career loathing his brother and all he represented. James would understand once he knew.
"We really do need him here James, you have my word that he is no threat to your family. He really has changed. You don't trust him, and thats understandable, but you trust us. Me and Padfoot. We would never let him near you or Lily or Harry if he meant you harm. You've put up an ill will ward, you'll see he is fine." Remus implored James
"Fine. But he only gets one chance. Where is he?" James said.
"Open the door and call for him." Sirius said
"He's your brother you get him." James said sitting back on the sofa closer to lily this time.
Sirius got up and walked to the front door and opened it. "OK Reg, you can come in now." Sirius called loudly.
Regulus flew down from his perch on the top of a telephone pole just outside the cottage, and landed on the covered porch and transformed, smirking. He knew Sirius was a bit jealous he could fly at will.
Sirius stepped back from the door to allow Regulus entry to the quaint home. Regulus entered with no issues, and James relaxed slightly on the sofa when he was able to enter the house.
Sirius sat on the sofa next to James and indicated that Regulus should take the armchair he had previously been sat in.
"Can I get you a drink, I'm about to make a cup of tea?" Lily asked Regulus. Ever the perfect host.
"Tea would be nice. Thank you Mrs Potter." Regulus said politely. Sirius snorted James punched him in the arm, Sirius winced.
"We went to school together Regulus, you can call me Lily, honestly. Milk and Sugar?" Lily smiled kindly, moving to the kitchen.
"Just milk please?" Regulus replied. And silence fell.
They could hear Lily moving around in the kitchen opening doors and draws. Thankfully she returned swiftly. The room was painfully silent. No one wanting to make small talk when there was such a serious subject at hand. But not wanting to start the discussion without Lily present.
Regulus and taking her seat next to James.
"Right then. Regulus could you please tell us where you come into this" Lily said, taking charge after two further minutes of awkward silence and getting fed up.
"OK, I'm not sure if you know this or not, but for the last nine months or so I have been missing presumed dead. Sirius was aware, but I'm not sure if he shared that with you?" Regulus asked
"We were aware" James said
"Good. As I am sure your are also aware, I was a death eater" Regulus pulled up the sleeve of his robes and showed them the mark. Lily winced and looked away, a tear rolling down her cheek. "It is an action I regret, and I want to tell you I never followed their ideology. I did it because it was expected of me. You were always nice to me at school Lily. I want you to know I hold no prejudice against muggles or muggle borns, and I am truly sorry for what I am about to tell you." Regulus said solemnly.
Lily nodded but she was thinking about Severus at that moment. She took a deep breath and faced Regulus. "Thank you Regulus. Please continue" she said.
"Once I was marked I was brought into the 'inner circle' and soon realised Voldemort spouted pureblood supremacy, but in truth cared for no-one but himself. I became aware that he had made a magical object to anchor his soul to this world called a horcrux, meaning he cannot die."
"I've never heard of a horcrux?" Lily asked
"Not surprising, they are very dark objects, not talked about in polite conversation" Sirius interjected.
Lily nodded and looked back to Regulus to continue.
"In order to create a horcrux, one must first tear the soul, the only way to do this is to commit a murder. Then one can store the soul fragment inside a chosen object." Lily nodded indicating she understood but did not speak. "I had discovered that Voldemort had made one. How I discovered this is of little importance, I decided I had no choice but to destroy it. If Voldemort could not be killed this madness would go on forever. So I went after it. This is where our stories begin to intertwine. Voldemort had stored the horcrux, a locket, inside a cave, in the middle of the sea, surrounded by a lake full of Inferi, in a basin full of a potion which is essentially poison, that I had to drink in order to retrieve the locket and replace it with a copy." Regulus said.
"Paranoid much!" James snorted. He had unconsciously moved to the edge of his seat on the sofa, and nodded for Regulus to continue, getting caught up in the intrigue of the story.
"I would have died in that cave, the potion I had to drink was awful, made me lose my mind. Wild with thirst. I had started to move towards the lake " Lily gasped joining James on the edge of the sofa. "I was rescued by a woman from just outside the cave. Her name was Hermione Granger"
"The same woman form your letter?" Lily gasped out.
"The very same." Sirius said softly, and motioned for Regulus to continue.
"Here's where the story gets a bit unbelievable. She said she was from the future. 2005 to be precise. In the future she lived in I had died in the cave, pulled down into the late by the Inferi. In her time, she had found a spell that allowed a witch or wizard to go back in time along their own timeline, for the purpose of observing history only. however, she had found a sort of loop hole and decided to change something. It just so happened in her time I died the day after she was born, so she came back and changed it so I didn't die. In her time the war was still going on, it had stopped for a time, but too many people she loved died she said." Regulus paused and looked at Sirius unsure if he should tell James and Lily they were the main reason she came back, them and Harry. Sirius shook his head, indicating he would tell them. Regulus continued. "she said she needed my help. I owed her my life, I couldn't refuse. But more than that I could tell she was telling the truth. She had written me a letter, and given me a memory vial along with all the information I would need, including the parcel that got delivered to Sirius on the 31st July. Then she vanished. Once I had decided to help her she just disappeared into thin air. She explained why in her letter and the memory. The spell she found had safely measures to stop a person changing anything, but she had found a loop hole and effectively erased the future she lived in, herself included. Hermione Granger exists now as a 9 month old baby, who will hopefully grow up without being involved in war." Regulus finished and looked back to Sirius, who took over then.
"In her future, she was Harry's best friend. In the memories she gave me to watch I saw Harry at 11 years old and again at 15, Merlin I saw myself and Remus. It was strange to say the least."
"But not us?" Lily asked with tears in her eyes, understanding now why this had been so hard for Remus and Sirius to tell them. They did not survive the war.
"No, not you or James" Sirius said solemnly. James nodded in understanding and put his arm around Lily.
"How, how does it happen?" James asked.
"It's not going to happen!" Remus said fiercely
"How did it happen then, in that future?" James said.
"There is a Prophecy, sometime this summer, we think it has already happened, during her job interview with Dumbledore, the new professor of Divination at at Hogwarts will go into a trance a give a prophecy stating that the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born at the end of July. There is more, but it was either going to be Harry or The long bottoms boy, for some reason Voldemort choses Harry. Because of this Dumbledore advises that you go into hiding under the fidelius charm." Sirius paused, finding it difficult to get the next bit out.
"I'll do it Pads" Remus said. "Sirius was obviously your first choice of secret keeper, but he thought that was too obvious and convinced you to choose someone else, while making it known that Sirius was the secret keeper to throw the death eaters off the scent, as he would be hunted anyway, thus protecting the real secret keeper and all of you."
"That makes sense, it would be too obvious it was Padfoot." James agreed.
"Your chosen secret keeper, the real one. He was a secret death eater, and spy for Voldemort. He sold you out, and on 31st October 1981, Voldemort comes for Harry, killing James first and then Lily. You sacrificed your self for Harry, Voldemort had told you to move aside or die, but you didn't, so he killed you. But that sacrifice did something to Harry and the killing curse Voldemort fired at Harry rebounded back onto himself and he died that night too. That is why the war ended for a while." Remus stopped and looked at Lily and James, both grief stricken.
"Who was the secret keeper Remus?" James said harshly.
"Peter Pettigrew" Remus answered.
A/N: Its getting intense.. Let me know what you thought! :)