The Potters Who Lived

by illjwamh

Picking up immediately where "I'll Hold Him Off" left off. An exploration of what might have happened if things had gone a little differently one Hallowe'en night in Godric's Hollow.

7. Chapter 7

Usually at this time of year, I take a break from fanfic to focus on original work for NaNoWriMo. As I've said however, this year I'm spreading my 50,000 words around to whatever I feel like working on at any given moment. I've made some good headway on my original story, I've written a couple of poems, and of course I've churned out a lot of fanfic. As it stands now, I'm on track to hit that 50k goal. Woo!

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Lily kept a tight hold of James as Galahad Fawley led them upstairs to the private dining room he'd secured from Tom the innkeeper. She could tell he was fuming at the aspersions on Peter's character, and was not looking forward to having to explain to him the truth of what had happened. Having Sirius and Dumbledore's help would certainly make it easier, but no less unpleasant.

'What's this all about, Dumbledore?' Fawley asked the moment they were all seated around a modest scrubbed wood table and the door sealed and silenced. 'Peter Pettigrew the killer? Are you suggesting he blew himself up?'

'Pete didn't do anything!' James raged, lurching to his feet before Dumbledore could even open his mouth.'Professor, how could you even say that? He's one of us! He's always been one of us!'

'James,' Lily murmered, even as Sirius reached across the table and said, 'Prongs, mate...'

'Don't tell me you two are buying into this!' he said to them angrily. 'I can't believe it out of either of you! You knew Peter better than that! Especially you, Sirius.'

'James,' interjected Dumbledore, 'I understand that you are upset, and you have a perfectly good reason to be. I would ask, however, that you attempt to calm down so that we can discuss this rationally. I merely said I suspect Mr Pettigrew of committing the heinous act we saw outside. Nothing would make me happier than to be convinced he did not, but in order to reach the truth, we must all endeavor to keep cool heads.'

James pursed his lips furiously, but he exhaled sharply through his nose several times, which Lily recognized as a sign he was forcing himself to calm down. She put her hand on his arm again and bade him to sit, which after a moment's hesitation he did.

'All right,' he said. 'Talk. But nothing you can say is going to convince me that one of my best friends is a murderer.'

'Even if it means another of your best friends is a liar?' Sirius asked. 'James, I didn't want to believe it of him either, but I was there. I saw it happen. He cursed the street, blew a hole in the ground and killed those people, and then he -' he cut himself off, looking sidelong at Galahad Fawley. Lily was curious what Peter could have done than Sirius would not want to speak of in front of the deputy head of Magical Law Enforcement.

The answer came to her only seconds later. Of course! It was so obvious. Peter must have transformed to escape unseen, but revealing that now would also mean revealing James and Sirius could also transform, as well as endanger Remus's secret. But if Sirius couldn't explain how Peter had disappeared, would the rest of his story fall apart? It was a very prickly situation.

James, meanwhile, seemed to be having trouble coming up with a response to Sirius's argument, and was left gaping like a fish while Galahad Fawley spoke up.

'I'm sorry, could someone please explain to me how the Potters fit into this? Multiple witnesses heard Pettigrew accuse Mr Black of betraying them, and you're now telling me that it was the other way around, but I fail to see how this is relevant to the matter at hand.'

'We used the Fidelius Charm,' said Lily. James, still struggling to come up with a response to Sirius, snapped his head in her direction. She took his hand in both of hers, but kept her gaze on Fawley. 'Sirius was going to be our secret keeper, but he convinced us to go with Peter instead. The idea was that everyone would assume we'd used Sirius, which would give us a double layer of protection.'

Comprehension dawned on Fawley's face. 'So you're saying that Black couldn't have betrayed you even if he'd wanted to,' he said. Lily nodded.

'It still doesn't prove Peter did anything!' James insisted, though he did at least consent to sit down again.

'Mate, why would he have yelled out for everyone to hear that I'd betrayed you?' Sirius asked. 'He knew that wasn't true. He was trying to set me up to take the fall.'

'He must have been confunded or something!' James said, though she could see in his eyes that his answers were getting more and more desperate. He was at the point where he could finally see the truth, but was resisting accepting it. She wanted so badly to hold him, but it wouldn't be proper here.

'That still would not explain how Lord Voldemort was able to find you, James,' Dumbledore reminded him kindly. Fawley jumped a little at the sound of the name. 'A secret can only be divulged by a secret keeper of their own will, you know that.'

'He must have been tortured! Coerced into it!'

'Why would they leave him alive?' Sirius asked. The look on his face was sad; he had obviously gone through the same line of reasoning on his own already, trying to come up with any explanation other than the one he desperately wished wasn't true. 'Why would they let him go? I went to his place, Prongs. There was no sign of struggle. Nothing. And when I found him this morning, he'd already been to his mother's, broken into a wizarding family's house to use their floo, and was on his way to Gringotts. He was making a run for it.'

'You can't...he can't have...' James said, tears leaking down his face. She rubbed his hand soothingly with hers, longing to be able to comfort him more.

'You should have seen his face when I caught up with him,' Sirius pressed on. 'Scared out of his wits. He knew he was cornered. You saw what he did out there, just to get away. Pete's gone, mate. The lad we knew – thought we knew – he isn't there anymore, if he ever was.'

And at last, James accepted it. He lowered his face into his hands, propped up on the table, and wept openly. Lily leaned over and rubbed his back with one hand while squeezing his arm with the other. She felt so badly for him; James valued his friends above everything. The thought that one of them was capable of such a thing would be beyond devastating for him. Her rage toward Peter Pettigrew doubled in an instant due to what her husband was now going through.

'This explains a great deal,' said Fawley, with the unmistakable air of a man who was still processing all he'd just heard. 'Mr Black, with your permission, I would like to examine the last spells cast by your wand.'

'Sure,' said Sirius dully. 'Could've saved a lot of trouble if one of your people had done that from the start. I wasn't aware you needed my permission.'

'Strictly speaking, I don't, but as you're no longer our primary suspect, I'd like to things as cleanly as possible, especially given...earlier events.'

'You mean how your boss was going to throw me in prison without a trial for the rest of my life?'

'Er, yes, that,' said Fawley awkwardly. He pulled Sirius's wand out of his robes, tapped it to the end of his and muttered, 'Priori Incantatem'. A few wisps of light and smoke came out that meant nothing to Lily, but Fawley nodded stoically and handed Sirius back his wand.

'A shield, a few warming charms, a reparo, a memory charm and a pair of rennervates?'

'A shield for the explosion, warming charms for my coffee while I was waiting for Pete. The rest for the family in the house he broke into.'

'He didn't hurt them!' Lily gasped, horrified. She could feel James tense up beneath her hands.

'Just blasted through their front door and stunned them.'

'And the memory charm?' Fawley asked, eyebrow raised.

'Peter used their floo to go to a safe house,' Sirius said. 'Their son heard him; that's how I knew where to find him. It's a place that's supposed to be secret except for a few; I didn't think it was a good idea for them to remember it.'

'I see,' said Fawley. 'You understand that there are potential legal repercussions for an unauthorized memory charm?'

'Yes.'

Fawley nodded in satisfaction. Then went on, 'That being said, under the circumstances it's likely I'll be able to recommend the minimum. Only a small fine.'

'I knew the risks,' was all Sirius said.

'James, is this how you found Sirius and Peter as well?' Dumbledore asked.

'What?' James asked, rising from his despondency at last at being addressed. 'No, by the time I got there Peter was long gone, and this lot had already surrounded Sirius and were about to take him away.'

'How did you know where to find him?'

'I didn't,' James said, still in that dull, defeated voice that crushed Lily's heart so much to hear. She'd only ever heard it once before, and it wasn't a pleasant memory. 'When I escaped from the house, I ended up at Sirius's.'

'Yes, your message said as much,' Dumbledore interjected. 'Go on.'

'He wasn't there, and I didn't know where he might've gone, but I figured something must've happened to...to Peter. That maybe they'd gotten to him somehow. I went to his place, only he wasn't there either. It was just like Sirius said. No sign of a struggle, nothing. He was just...gone.' Lily squeezed his arm encouragingly. This had to be incredibly difficult for him to get out.

'I knew Voldemort had gotten the secret, so I thought maybe something had happened to him. I checked St. Mungo's.'

'Oh, James,' Lily said, wrapping her arms around him and pulling his head to her shoulder. He kept talking.

'He wasn't there, of course. I didn't have any other ideas, so I decided to look for Sirius instead. I figured that if he'd seen Pete's place too, he might think something was up and be out looking just like me. I reasoned that if you didn't know about the attack yet, you might just have assumed he'd gone into hiding for some reason, so I started checking all the safe houses that all three of us knew about. It was the only lead I had.'

'Lucky you did,' said Sirius. 'If you hadn't shown up when you did, I'd likely be rotting away in a cell in Azkaban already right now.'

'We would've gotten you out,' Lily assured him.

'Eventually, yeah, but even a day in that place is more than I'd ever want to be forced to endure, thanks very much.'

'I am again very sorry, Mr Black,' said Fawley. 'I can assure you there will be an inquiry. In the mean time, I have one more question. Possibly more, you understand, but this one is pressing. Is it your belief that Mr Pettigrew killed himself rather than face justice for what he'd done?'

'Not for a second,' said Sirius, an ugly sneer on his face. 'The whole thing was to save his own skin, why would he go back on that? No, he scarpered out of there, no question about it.'

'Where?' James asked, slowly coming back to himself, as if there was one final puzzle piece he was trying to put into place. He always had thrived on puzzles. 'Not another safe house?'

'No,' said Sirius, shaking his head. 'He'll be running from us now, too. He won't hide some place where we could so easily find him.'

'What do you mean?' James asked. 'Who was he hiding from bef-' his eyes went wide. 'The Death Eaters!' his teeth clenched and he scowled menacingly. 'That little effing rat! He was hiding from them! They'll think he's double crossed them just like he double crossed us! They'll be out for blood!'

'They're welcome to it if you ask me,' Sirius growled.

'Excuse me,' Fawley butted in. 'How was he able to escape? Everything in the vicinity was blown to smithereens. Twelve people were killed. Several more injured. We found Pettigrew's finger near the center of the blast.' Dumbledore was merely sitting back, observing the conversation with his fingers steepled and a polite expression of interest on his face.

'Right near the hole in the sewer, I expect,' Sirius muttered.

'Yes, actually, how did you-' he stopped, noticing James and Sirius sharing a look. 'What do you know that you're not telling me?'

A brief silent exchange occurred. James raised his eyebrows questioningly, to which Sirius gave a single not. James then looked between Fawley and Dumbledore, and gave a nod of his own.

'Peter is an animagus,' Sirius said. Fawley looked visibly startled. Even Dumbledore leaned forward a bit in surprise. 'Unregistered. A rat.' There was a pause. 'Fitting,' he spat.

'That is a very extraordinary claim,' Fawley said at last. 'How is it you know this?'

'We've both seen him transform,' James said. 'We were his best friends, after all.'

'I've seen it, too,' said Lily. She knew James wouldn't want to bring her into this, but she refused to be shielded in any way when she could potentially help. 'He's a white rat with a greyish brown tail.'

'How long have you known this?' Fawley asked, his eyes narrowed.

'I'd rather not say,' Sirius said. 'I know that not reporting an unregistered animagus isn't a punishable offense, but all the same...'

'Besides, we thought he was helping us fight against Voldemort,' James put in. 'It was useful for him to have a disguise nobody else knew about.'

'I believe you are bending the rules to their breaking point, but whether or not you failed to report his status as an animagus is not my concern at the moment,' said Fawley. 'If what you say is true, then I am forced to agree with you that it is likely he did escape. I will need the three of you to provide me with a detailed description of his animal form so that we can put out an alert. It is unfortunate that he transforms into an animal so easy to overlook in a search.'

'What will you do if you find him?' James asked.

'He will be arrested and brought into ministry custody,' Fawley answered.

'But he'll get a trial, right? None of this throwing him away and losing the key rubbish, right?'

'He will be afforded a trial, yes,' said Fawley. 'All four of you will likely be called as witnesses; particularly Mr Black.'

'That's fine,' said Sirius. 'I want to hear what he has to say for himself as much as James does, though I'm sure I already know.'

'Well I'm not,' James said. 'I accept that he probably did what you say he did, but as to why, I want to hear it from his own mouth. I won't write him off until I've given him that chance.'

Lily had rarely wanted to kiss him as much as she did in that moment. She needed all of this to be over so she could rejoice in her husband's survival properly.

'I think I have all I need to be going on with,' Fawley said, standing up. 'I'm going to have to go tell Fudge his people need to reopen that sewer without damaging the muggle street; he won't be happy about that. It's unlikely we'll be able to track Pettigrew's escape route from there, but it's at least a starting off point. Someone from my office will be in touch with all of you as soon as possible to conduct more thorough interviews. Saying so is merely a formality I'm sure, but I have to ask that none of you leave the country for at least the next few days.'

'Galahad, I would like to speak with you on other matters as well at your earliest convenience,' said Dumbledore, rising as well.

'Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?' Fawley asked.

Dumbledore smiled. 'If you're thinking of what I assume you're thinking of, then yes,' he said, his eyes twinkling.

Fawley blinked owlishly a few times, then have his head a quick shake. 'Right. Yes, of course. I'll send you an owl as soon as I have a moment. The situation with Mr Crouch is going to have caused more than a bit of a stir at the office, on top of everything else.'

'Completely understandable,' said Dumbledore. 'Best of luck to you, Galahad.'

The deputy head shook the old professor's hand, then everyone else's and left the room. Dumbledore then turned to the rest of them.

'So!' he said cheerily. 'I am very impressed, I must say. How long have the three of you been animagi?'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Bellatrix was incensed. Rudolphus had seen his wife in a temper before, but nothing like this. It was almost frightening. At the same time it was someone irksome. She behaved as though the rest of them weren't upset as well. At the moment she was storming around the drawing room swearing at the top of her lungs, intermittently setting random pieces of furniture on fire. She'd threatened to curse Rabastan twice, and poor young Crouch looked about to wet himself. A fine lad, talented, and dedicated to the cause as much as anyone Rudolphus knew, he hadn't quite fully developed his nerve yet. He would someday, and then he would be one of their greatest assets. Of that, Rudolphus had no doubt.

'Calm down, Bella!' he admonished harshly after she blasted an ottoman out of her way with such force that it flew into the ceiling and got stuck.

'CALM DOWN?' she raged. 'CALM DOWN? Our master has been betrayed and possibly even captured, many of our so-called "comrades" are already denouncing him, and you want me to CALM DOWN?'

'Yes, I do. You are of no use to him or anyone else in this state. We want to help him as much as you do, but we can't do that if you're going to scream and throw curses every time one of us tries to speak.'

He was making a solid effort to keep his temper in check. Little good ever came from arguing with Bellatrix. She was an incredibly powerful witch with a will second only to the Dark Lord himself. Her only weakness was letting her temper and her zeal overtake her in times when she needed her wits the most. But that was all right. Wits were his specialty, and together the two of them made an exceptionally formidable pair. There was no affection in their marriage nor had there ever been, but there was a level of mutual respect that allowed them to function well, and he knew her devotion to the cause was if possible even stronger than his own.

She stared at him for several long seconds, mad eyes wide and chest heaving, but the tension in her shoulders was loosening and her breathing was slowing. She was finally ready to listen to reason. It was being told she was no use to the Dark Lord that had done it, he would bet his wand.

'What do you propose we do?' she asked, still in very clipped tones. 'We must do something.'

'I agree,' he said. 'But we need information. We don't yet fully understand what has happened.'

'We do!' she insisted. 'That sniveling little worm betrayed the Dark Lord! Betrayed us all! He led the Dark Lord to believe he was sending him to his triumph with the death of the Potters, but he was leading him into a trap! He was with the old fool Dumbledore all along!'

'Crouch's information doesn't support that,' Rudolphus said.

'What?' she snapped, whipping her head around to look at the youngest member of their group, who flinched, clearly worried she was going to start throwing curses around again. 'What is this? What information? What are you talking about?'

'You would know if you'd joined our discussion instead of storming about in a rage,' he said. 'It would seem Pettigrew has been spotted, and things aren't quite as they seemed. Barty? Care to share your story?'

'My father was in a towering temper yesterday morning,' the young lad said, a smile adorning his face. Clearly he relished this part of the tale. 'He'd been relieved of duty and removed from a case on grounds of overstepping his authority or something like that. He didn't like that at all.'

'He wouldn't, the power-hungry old dotard!' Rabastan laughed. Even Bella looked amused, but only for a moment.

'What does this have to do with anything?' she demanded.

'I'm getting to that,' Crouch said. 'The case was about an explosion in muggle London right around dawn. The only wizard found at the scene was Sirius Black.'

'My blood traitor cousin?' Bellatrix gasped in shock. 'What's he have to do with this?'

'Possibly everything,' said Rudolphus. 'Go on, Crouch.'

'My father was certain he was guilty. Planned to send him to Azkaban straight away, no trial or anything. That's why he was relieved of duty,' he added as an aside.

Bellatrix scoffed. 'As if my cousin would ever have the stones to pull of something like that.'

'But someone else did,' Crouch said. 'The reason my father was so quick to condemn Black was because there were multiple muggles who witnessed the confrontation that led up to the explosion. Of course, the simple creatures didn't truly understand what they were seeing, but they relayed enough details. Pettigrew was there, and he accused Black of betraying the Potters. Was all choked about about it, they say. Then there was an explosion and Pettigrew was gone, and a crater so big it broke into the sewer below.'

'Your father thinks my bleeding heart, blood traitor, Gryffindor cousin betrayed his best friend and then murdered another one to get away with it?' Bellatrix asked. When Crouch nodded, she burst into peals of rapturous laughter. 'Oh, this is absurd! I knew the old codger had gone round the bend, but this is ludicrously idiotic even for him!' She continued laughing for some time. It was only when she managed to calm down again that Rudolphus made to explain the rest of it, as she was likely too busy being amused to have spotted it herself.

'As we all know perfectly well, Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters,' he said. 'If he's trying to frame someone else for it, that means it wasn't a planned double-cross. He truly thought he was handing the Dark Lord vicotry, and now he has to hide from his old friends as much as from us.'

'He still must pay,' Bella said. 'He was supposed to have all the information. Last night was supposed to be the Dark Lord's ultimate triumph.'

'He will, but as you said yourself, he can't be our priority at the moment,' said Rudolphus. 'Finding the Dark Lord is the only thing that matters at present. If Pettigrew wasn't in on whatever happened, it means the Potters must have had some kind of contingency in place in case their first line of defense failed. I'd made them for fools for placing all their trust in another; it would seem they're slightly more clever than I gave them credit for.'

'But what was this contingency?' Rabastan asked. 'What did they do? Where has the Dark Lord gone?'

'That is why we need more information,' said Rudolphus, stating the obvious. 'And getting it is going to prove difficult. With the Dark Lord temporarily disappeared, our people will be in disarray, and the aurors will be moving in force with a newfound level of confidence. We'll need to move carefully above all.'

'But move where?' Bella demanded impatiently.

'The most obvious answer would be the Potters themselves,' said Rabastan. 'They're the ones responsible for whatever has happened. But after the Dark Lord's attempt on their life, I'll be surprised if they aren't under even heavier protection than before. At least for the time being.'

'Agreed,' said Rudolphus, nodding with approval. 'Our second best source would be Dumbledore, but that might prove equally difficult for reasons I don't feel I need to explain.' Bellatrix bristled at the suggestion that the doddering old muggle loving fool was a threat to them, but for once exercised restraint and let it pass.

'What about my fool of a cousin?' she asked instead.

'He will likely be wherever the Potters are and thus equally unattainable,' he said, shaking his head. 'We need someone who is in Dumbledore's inner circle, who's close to the Potters, but no so close as to be holed up with them.'

'What about the Longbottoms?' suggested Rabastan.

'Oh?' Rudolphus asked, intrigued. The idea had merit.

'We know they work with Dumbledore,' Rabastan said. 'And we knew they're on good terms with the Potters and their lot. We've seen them together before.'

'The Dark Lord was interested in them, too,' Crouch reminded them. 'He was planning to track them down after he'd finished off the Potters, remember?'

'That's true,' said Bella. 'They were never as high a priority, but he did mention them several times. It's possible there is a connection to the Potters there that he did not see fit to share with us yet. If only he had trusted us, we could be on our way to finding him already!'

'Don't fret about that now, Bella,' he said, 'and you came dangerously close just now to questioning the Dark Lord's methods. But you are both right; there may just be a connection there that we were not privy to. In any case, I suspect the Longbottoms are as good a source of information as we're likely to find. It's true they are aurors, but between the four of us I believe we can subdue them easily enough. Then it is only a matter of extracting the information we require from them, and we will be well on our way to finding the Dark Lord.'

'And then we shall be honored beyond all others, his greatest and most faithful servants!' Bella said, her eyes gleaming. He had to admit, the idea did have a certain ring to it.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Waking up in Hogwarts castle was strange enough in itself, but waking up in an old professor's quarters that hadn't been used for at least half a century was stranger still.

James had no idea what time it was – late morning, probably – but at the moment didn't much care. His beautiful wife lay next to him, still sleeping. The two of them had been very happy to find each other alive, and had spent most of the previous night tiring each other out, so to speak. He smiled, gently running a hand through her thick auburn hair, and a wave of adoration for this wonderful woman washed over him. How he ever got so lucky, he'd never know, but he would spend the rest of his life making sure she knew he was aware just how lucky he was.

Harry had actually slept through the night, which was unusual. He hoped the poor tyke hadn't actually woken up at some point and he and Lily were just too out cold to hear him.

As if he'd been waiting for one of his parents to wake, Harry began stirring in his cot. He rose carefully so as not to wake Lily, and went over to see his son.

'Morning, sprog,' he said gently. 'Were you as tired as we were?' He reached in and picked up the baby. 'Probably for a different reason, I expect.'

Reasoning Harry was probably hungry, he used his wand to put on some robes (not always the best option, as it could at times cause his pants to ride up, but useful in situations like this) and headed out the door of their temporary quarters.

'What say you and I head down to the kitchens and get something to eat, yeah?' he said, bouncing his son in his arms. 'We can get something for Mummy while we're down there; she might be awake by the time we get back.'

As soon as he said it, the thought occurred to him that Lily might panic if she woke up and both of them were gone, considering the events of the past couple of days, so he dashed back inside to leave her a note.

'Wouldn't want to give her another heart attack so soon,' he said to Harry when they were out in the corridor again. He knew there was a house elf that McGonagall had tasked with assisting them, but he couldn't remember what Lily had said her name was, and besides he wanted to stretch his legs a bit.

He passed a classroom and heard talking inside, and it occurred to him that classes would be in session. It definitely was late morning, then.

He took the nearest secret passage he came to – even after being out of school for three years he still remembered them all – and made his way down to the kitchens without running into any students or faculty. Not that he couldn't explain his presence if he did meet someone; he just didn't want the hassle.

Harry giggled when he tickled the pear to gain entrance to the kitchens as he had done so many times during his life as a student. He was assaulted with fond memories that instantly turned sour, as nearly all of them had Peter in them.

'How could we not have seen?' he thought, but immediately knew that wasn't the right question. Whatever he was now, Peter had once truly been their friend. 'What happened, Pete? What went wrong?'

He was pulled from these melancholy thoughts by the sounds of the Hogwarts elves greeting him cheefully.

'We is not seeing you for many years, sir!' one of them called excitedly.

'We is very happy to see you again, sir!'

'This is sir's little one?'

They were very interested in Harry, and he was very interested in them.

'Yes, this is my son, Harry,' he told the elves. 'It's great to see you all again, too.'

They grinned happily, and one of them came up to him. 'I is meeting young master Harry yesterday, sir!' she said. 'I is called Walla, sir. I is helping young master and your miss!'

'Thank you very much, Walla,' he said sincerely. 'I really appreciate it. Lily was very stressed yesterday.' The little elf beamed.

Dumbledore had suggested, and he and Sirius had agreed, that it was for the best if they registered as animagi as soon as possible. No one would be able to prove how long they'd gone unregistered, but now that the kneazle was out of the sack, there would be no getting around it. As a result, they had spent most of the previous day at the Ministry, alternately being debriefed by the Aurors and Magical Law Enforcement, and then navigating the bureaucracy to register their animal forms. If anyone suspected (reasonably, James had to admit) that the two of them had been illegally transforming for as long as Peter allegedly had, nobody said anything.

The ministry had wanted to debrief Lily as well, but she steadfastly refused to be parted from Harry, and nobody thought bringing a one year old along for potentially lengthy interviews was a good idea. Someone would be calling on them at the castle later today to speak to her.

James and Harry ate their breakfast there in the kitchens, just as he had done so many times as a student. He gathered up some things for Lily, said goodbye to the elves who waved him off enthusiastically, and headed back out into the corridors.

On his way up, before entering the secret passages, he caught a glimpse of a few students walking between classes. There was something immediately noticeable about them: they were happy. Exuberant, even. When he saw them in groups, they were always whispering excitedly, swapping stories. One girl he even saw dancing through the corridor instead of walking.

He knew what this was about, of course. News had broken yesterday – it never seemed to take very long – that Voldemort had disappeared. Everyone was stopping short of saying he was dead – either out of journalistic integrity, having no body to support the claim, or else out of fear of jinxing it, he couldn't say (though he suspected the latter – but all were in agreement that he had indeed gone, though they were unspecific as to where, why, or how. His and Lily's names did come up occasionally, along with Harry's, for some reason (no one knew about the prophecy, right), as well as some grossly simplified or embellished accounts of the events that transpired in Godric's Hollow.

When he did return to their borrowed quarters, it was to find Lily awake, and in conversation with – to his surprise – Albus Dumbledore.

'James!' the old headmaster greeted cheerfully. 'My apologies for not checking in with you yesterday. Lily tells me everything went well at the ministry?'

'Yes, sir,' he said, returning Harry to his cot and placing Lily's food on the little table near her before conjuring a chair for himself to join them. 'The aurors had a lot of questions, naturally. They wanted me to go over every second of Voldemort's attack that I could remember. Then there were the MLES people, though most of them were already there when I showed up, so there wasn't much to tell them other than what I saw at Pete's flat, which was nothing.'

'And your registration?'

'All taken care of,' he said. 'I'm going to miss it being a secret, but I think you're right that it's for the best now. Especially if we want to testify to Pete being one. Fawley seems to think the case is going to hinge on that.'

'Yes, I do think it will be crucial,' said Dumbledore. 'Otherwise we are essentially arguing that Mr Pettigrew killed himself in order to avoid being killed. Not particularly compelling. Though I must reiterate how extraordinary an accomplishment it was – not least of which keeping it a secret from me.'

He and Sirius had told their old headmaster the whole story, including their motivation being Remus Lupin's lycanthropy, the previous day at the pub. He had been most impressed.

'Of course none of it will matter if they don't catch him,' said Lily, biting into some toast. 'He has an awfully big head start, not to mention something of an advantage when it comes to hiding.'

'They'll find him,' James said, certain he was right. 'Pete doesn't like to be uncomfortable for too long. Remember he always brought a cushion out to the stands to watch quidditch? I can't see him living in the sewer as a rat longer than he thinks is absolutely necessary. He'll slip up, and well get him. Then I can ask him why.'

'A question I think we all would like an answer to,' said Dumbledore. 'Did you share these thoughts with Galahad and the aurors?'

'Of course,' said James. 'Sirius agrees with me. He'll be really careful about it, but he'll find a place where he can live comfortably. It won't be long after that before he lets his guard down.'

'Didn't Sirius say he was on his way to Gringotts yesterday morning?' Lily asked. 'How's he going to find a comfortable place to live if he has no money? He'll have trouble even leaving the country.'

'He'll think of something,' said James confidently. 'Even if it's just becoming some muggle kid's pet rat. Actually, now I think of it, who could ask for a better life? Everything you need brought right to you and no responsibilities? Sounds like Pete's ideal, don't you think?'

'I suppose, but would he be able to stand living with muggles? Being completely cut off like that?'

'You might be right, Lils,' James said, nicking a sausage off her plate. 'A wizarding family, then. He'd be able to listen for news and know if the aurors were closing in on him.'

'Is this all in jest or do you think it a viable possibility?' Dumbledore asked politely.

'Well I was half joking at first, but the more I think about it, the more it makes perfect sense.' Lily nodded her agreement.

'Fascinating,' said the headmaster. 'I shall update the aurors with your latest theory. In the mean time, we must begin discussing the safest place for the two of you.'

'Isn't it safe here, sir?' asked James.

'Certainly,' he replied. 'However, I can't imagine it is particularly comfortable for you. Not to mention the constant stream of students roaming the corridors, some of whom may still have loyalties – or at least have parents who still hold loyalties – to Lord Voldemort.'

'That's a good point,' said James. 'What did you have in mind, sir?'

'James, I am no longer your headmaster,' said Dumbledore with a smile. 'You need not address me so formally.'

He heard a sputtering sound and turned to find that Lily had choked on her pumpkin juice.

'What's so funny?' he asked.

'Professor McGonagall said the same thing to me the other day, and she mentioned she never seemed to have to remind you.'

'That's because it always got a rise out of her,' James said, grinning. He turned back to Dumbledore. 'Thanks, sir, but it would feel weird not to. Unless it bothers you.'

'Not at all, not at all,' said the old wizard. 'Now where were we? Ah, yes. A safe place. Ideally, you should be able to return to your family home, but I do not think that wise just yet.'

'You think there are still going to be Death Eaters after us?'

'Undoubtedly,' said Dumbledore. 'Whether they be out for revenge, information, attempting to finish their master's work, or operating under the misguided assumption that killing the three of you would somehow bring him back, I would say there is no question there are Death Eaters at this very moment plotting your imminent capture or demise.'

'You always were one for lovely breakfast conversation, Professor,' said Lily sweetly. The old wizard's blue eyes twinkled.

'Well I really hate to inconvenience them,' said James, 'but with Christmas coming up, I really don't think I'll have the time to be fighting for my life every other night.'

'Quite,' said Dumbledore. 'Ivy Hall, protected though it is, is at the same time very conspicuous. Though Voldemort's followers would have a much more difficult time forcing entry than he himself, I believe the reasons for hiding elsewhere are the same now as they were two weeks ago.'

'Where, then?' asked James. 'I'd say one of the Order's safe houses, but if we learned anything yesterday, that's probably not the best idea either.'

'Indeed,' agreed Dumbledore. 'Though it would be a simple matter to find one Mr Pettigrew is unaware of, and I think it extremely unlikely that Lord Voldemort managed to turn two of our own people against us without our knowledge, there are safer options.'

'Like what?' James asked again. 'We could stay with Sirius, but that would probably be too obvious.'

'Yes, I think so. But we are thinking along the same lines, James. I have spoken to Frank and Alice Longbottom, and they have agreed to keep you until we can be assured the danger is passed. As you know, they recently added extra protection to their own home for reasons similar to your own.'

'Frank and Alice?' Lily asked happily, a bright smile on her face. 'Oh, that sounds lovely! I haven't seen them in so long! And Harry and little Neville will each finally have someone to play with!'

'And they're both aurors,' James added. 'Not many people I'd rather have on our side in a fight if it comes to that.'

'They have prepared rooms for you and Harry,' explained Dumbledore. 'And have asked me to tell you that you are welcome there as early as this evening if you wish.'

'That sounds wonderful!' said Lily.

'It does,' said James. 'If that's what we're doing, I'm going to swing by the house this afternoon to see if there's anything salvageable, and then I'll go to Ivy Hall and get the rest of what we'll need. How long do you think we'll need to stay, Professor?'

'It's difficult to say, but if the aurors are able to start bringing in some of the Death Eaters at large, perhaps only a few weeks.'

'Take Sirius with you, James,' Lily said, frowning. 'I don't like the idea of you going off by yourself, especially in the first places people will look for us.'

'Will do,' he said, rising and kissing her on the cheek. Dumbledore rose with him. He paused for a moment as if he'd heard something, then smiled.

'I'd like you to take more than just Sirius with you, James,' he said, as the two of them walked into the old office adjoining their room. They never spent any time in there so efforts had yet been made to restore it. 'Though I do not think you will object.'

'Who's that, sir?'

'See for yourself,' said Dumbledore. 'He's just come off assignment for the Order and has been frantic to see the three of you. I asked Professor McGonagall to send him up here as soon as he arrived.' They reached the door to the corridor and Dumbldore swung it open. Standing there, with his arm raised to knock, was a face James knew as well as any other in the world.

'Remus!'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

You knew it was only a matter of time before he showed up.

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but last chapter was the one time I forgot to remind people to leave a review, and it's the first new chapter of something in a very long time that I haven't gotten any. Leave me a line or two with your thoughts, eh? Happy Thanksgiving (to Americans)!