Language Disability: There will be extra typos, missing words, and possible issue with negatives.
Alternate Universe: You think you know the story of Harry Potter? Try again. Voldemort may just be another pawn. The young runner up for the position of Dark Lord is more powerful and clever than any had foreseen. And as curses would have it, James and Lily are about as dead as Harry Potter. 3rd Year AU.
So out of all my stories this will be the second fully plotted AU that isn't a time travel :D
KEYnote: Remus looks like a larger than average wolf, not the weird half-man depicted in the movies. My fic, my rules.
Nobody Stays Dead (In This Fucking Universe)
I swear to you, in this moment when all of the world is watching and filled with doubts, when the entire world is slowly dying, that I will never leave your side. I want to live my life with you, and I want to die with you. - Lily Potter
I don't know what's in store for us, but I do know that true love outlasts everything. It outlasts doubt, hate, war, misfortune, and most of all death. I vow to you to always be beside you. Not only in this life, but the next. - James Potter
Chapter 1 - The Stag and the Doe
"Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that. . . "
Harry put his foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted himself onto its back. Buckbeak stood up. Harry wasn't sure where to hold on; everything in front of him was covered with feathers.
"Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, slapping the Hippogriffs hindquarters.
Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of Harry, he just had time to seize the Hippogriff around the neck before he was soaring upward.*
It wasn't the same experience as flying on a broom, but there was something exhilarating about not being the one in control of the power and might below him.
Buckbeak took him high over the trees, and soon, Harry was comfortable enough to open his arms wide and let the wind blow over his face.
The sky and wind were his home.
But after fifteen minutes Harry began to worry they were flying too far. He had never appreciated how large the Forbidden Forest was.
When they landed in a small clearing, Harry knew he was nowhere close to the castle.
"Buckbeak?"
The hippogryph knelt and Harry obediently got off despite his confusion.
Looking up at the hippogryph he was raising his head to sent the air, Harry asked, "Aren't you going to take me back to Hagrid?"
Buckbeak squawked, then took a running leap into the sky, leaving Harry behind.
Harry cursed, looking around to find that he wasn't just deep in the forest. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere, lost with no easy way back.
Harry began walking in the direction he thought was correct but he hadn't taken more than a few steps when he spotted a furred shape in the trees.
Please let it be a unicorn, a living unicorn, preferably.
He stood perfectly still as a stag appeared before him.
It was big with an impressive crown of antlers.
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin as a wet nose touched his neck.
Harry spun, taking several steps backward.
But it was just another deer, a doe with chestnut hair that was almost orange red. She flapped her ears at him, her fluffy white tail wagging.
She was adorable. He noted that her black eyes looked sad even as curiosity brought her closer to him.
He let out an exclamation another wet nose touched his ear, he spun on the offending stag.
There was mischief in his black eyes. And as Harry glared him down, the buck picked his own nose with an extremely long tongue.
"Ew," he told it.
The doe was at his side, raising her head to press her forehead against his cheek.
Harry laughed, petting her neck, "Okay, okay, I like you too."
The stag got closer, and Harry tensed, but the stag only snuffled his hair. Harry, more cautiously, petted his neck too. Both their coats were absurdly soft.
The stag and the doe continued their investigation of him, sniffing his hair, his shoes even pulling on the sleeve of his robe.
"Do you know the way back to the castle?" Harry asked as they got bored, going back to the brush to look for food, but he noticed that both kept him in their line of sight.
"Can you take me back to the castle?" he asked again.
They didn't appear to understand them even as their ears flicked at the sound of his voice.
He sighed and began walking where he thought he needed to go.
The stag perked up his head and trotted ahead of him, the doe followed a step behind Harry. She touched his hand with her nose every few steps. Relatively assuring him that he was going in the correct direction, though these he believed to be on the dumber side of magical creatures, if they were indeed magical creatures, that he had ever met.
But there was something about them, even if they weren't human intelligent, he still felt that they were sad somehow. Sad and alone and as lost as he was.
He began speaking to them, trying to say something that might elicit a response, but though the deer stuck to him like ducklings, they didn't seem to care about his words.
After two summers with only Hedwig for company, Harry knew when he was being listened to when he was just talking to himself.
Sirius had watched Harry's Magical Creatures lesson from closer than he probably should have dared.
Hippogryphs.
Only Hagrid.
Not that Sirius disapproved. Pride filled him as Harry was the first to step forward and mounted the strange beast without fear.
He was so much like James.
Sirius was quite enjoying himself in the little sun patch he had found amongst the brush, watching the students worriedly wait around and try not to wag his tail and draw attention to himself.
All Hagrid's hippogryphs were safe so long as you were polite to them.
But after some time had passed, even Sirius was beginning to worry. When Harry's mount finally came back, came back without Harry, Sirius bolted into the woods.
Adrenaline leant him speed that his exhausted and half starved body shouldn't have had, but he didn't slow. He let Padfoot's instincts take over just as he had let him find Harry in that muggle neighborhood with its cookie-cutter houses.
After nearly an hour of running, Padfoot found Harry, nearly ran into him.
Sirius felt a small hand pet over his ears, "Hey boy, you okay?"
Sirius sighed, relaxing under the touch until something nipped his hip. Sirius rose with a yelp spinning on the offending-
A stag flicked its ears at him.
Sirius gaped, Prongs?
The stag touched its nose to his, and Padfoot sucked in a breath; it smelled like James.
"Oh, good, you're friends," Harry said. "Do you have a better sense of direction than they do? I think we've been walking in circles."
Sirius yipped at him, wanting to transform but confused at why James hadn't.
Actually, scratch that, he was confused on how James was here at all, he was dead. Sirius had seen his body, had climbed over it to get to Harry that night.
"You thirsty?" Harry asked him, probably because he was visibly panting.
Sirius watched James closely, he looked toward Harry, but didn't respond to the words. Sirius on the other hand nodded.
Harry let out a sigh of relief, "Good, you can understand me, they can't."
Sirius's hope deflated a bit at that, this could all just be a really crazy coincidence, even if a stag with those exact red markings on brown and black fur was extraordinarily rare. He turned his head to look at James's eyes and they weren't his. The hazel deer shaped eyes Prongs had had were just animal black.
"Aquimenti," Harry casted, and Sirius immediately lunged for the stream of water, drinking greedily, a reminder of how less screwed he would be if he had his wand still.
James, who possibly wasn't James, joined him at the impromptu water fountain.
Sirius started again when a third nose joined theirs. He raised his head to see a petite doe with flame coloured fur.
It was too much, had he been human he would be sobbing, it was too big a coincidence. He sniffed her neck, and she smelled like the woods, the outdoors, but undeniably Lily. James had always claimed she smelled of vanilla and flowers even without perfume or lotion.
Sirius hadn't really believed that, but that undercurrent, Padfoot recognized as Lily.
Lily and James.
Her eyes were doe black too, however.
Which meant they weren't animagi, nor were they merely transfigured into deer. No, this was more advanced than that, more insidious. Sirius wouldn't know for sure until he did a diagnosis spell, but there was a branch of Human Transfiguration that could turn a person into an animal or object.
It was incredibly illegal for a number of reasons. To turn someone into an animal like this was to truly turn them into animals. They wouldn't be able to think like humans, journals described the experience as surreal and confusing. They had their human memories, but with an animal brain couldn't make sense of them, and they would live their days as long as they were that animal, as that animal. Sometimes with odd behaviours, say follow a teenage boy through the woods that only the slimmest part of their brains could perhaps recognize as their son, and would be just as limited in thought, as Harry had already described, unable to understand human speech.
Or, at least as far as two deer couldn't understand speech.
It was a cruel fate, to remove a person's humanity, to obscure their memories, and to take away even the gift of understanding language.
The other reason this type of transfiguration was extremely illegal was because while the animals might retain a human lifespan, if they were transfigured into an inanimate object the result was instant death. And if someone was transformed into a plant they were left in a coma like state.
This type of transfiguration was strictly illegal and considered unpar with an unforgivable.
Harry stopped the spell and crouched in front of Sirius, the doe took the opportunity to snuffle his hair, her white tail flicking happily.
Sirius laid his chin on Harry's knee and yipped. Harry scratched his ears again, "And to think Trelawney told me Grims were evil."
Sirius huffed.
Harry nodded, "I'm thinking I might just join Hermione in Athermancy. Trelawney went on and on about how I was going to die. Being in mortal parallel isn't actually anything new."
Sirius tugged on Harry's robe at the reminder, it was best they get back before nightfall and they were in for a long hike.
Harry rose and followed him, and kept talking, watching Sirius closely. He was dying to turn back into a human but he didn't want to frighten him. He was certain someone had told Harry by now who had been accused of murdering his parents, of betraying them.
Of course, there was the growing possibility that Lily and James weren't dead, which was simply mind boggling.
But wouldn't it just be like Voldemort to turn them into animals? It wasn't impossible to disguise another corpse as another person, or even make constructs of the dead, all dark, very dark magic, but possible. Sirius had a few bedtime stories of his relatives faking their death to see who in the family wanted them dead by attending their own funeral.
The Joke was always on them because it was almost always the case when someone in his family did that, the answer was usually; everyone.
Voldemort sparing the Potters for the sake of tormenting them later wasn't out of the question. He had been obsessed with getting James and him to join him, even after all they had done fighting against his Death Eaters.
Though why Voldemort would spare Lily was another mystery.
Prongs seemed to remember Padfoot, occasionally tensing as if waiting to be chased or brandishing his antlers for a mock fight, only to abort the gestures when he glanced back at the doe who was hiding from Sirius at Harry's other side.
Sirius was far too tired to try and play with Prongs, who seemed disappointed by this but also concerned for the doe who stayed glued to Harry's side.
"So, how do you all know each other?" Harry asked.
Sirius looked up at Harry, drawn from his thoughts, unsure how to answer that question as a dog, he merely bumped Harry's hand.
Seeming to understand the unreasonableness of that question, Harry asked, his green eyes as bright as Lily's used to be, "You know you're kind of dirty? These two look like they've been groomed."
Sirius had noticed the same thing, it was another check on the boxes that made him think they were transfigured humans. While he was a mess, if Lily and James had been living in the Forbidden Forest for the last twelve years, that meant they would have been able to live like real deer with human longevity. For deer, that meant they were near-perpetual youths as humans they would still be in their prime.
So while Sirius had to survive on gruel in prison, James had been munching on grass, leaves, and tree bark.
Talk about a healthy diet.
"I know a cleaning charm," Harry said, "Hermione, my friend taught it to me, after Ron, my other best mate, spilled his supper on me once. Want me to try it on you?"
Sirius yipped, thinking the kid couldn't do anything worse, to him. He had done his best in rivers but without a wand or soap, there wasn't much he could do.
"Purgatio," Harry cast as Sirius stopped and waited for him.
It was as if conditioner had been poured over him and a fine tooth comb gone down all the way around him, never snagging on the fur, leaving him blessedly clean and unmatted.
He shuddered, feeling a million kilos lighter, he rubbed against Harry's side gratefully.
Merlin, help him, he had been so set on finding Peter that he hadn't really considered the ramifications of being free. Of little things, like being clean, and though he was still Padfoot, he felt more human now than he had in twelve years.
Sirius gently pushed Harry forward, Prongs trotting in front of them with endless energy, the doe delicately keeping pace with Harry with graceful foot falls.
Remus went straight to Hagrid's hut when neither Hagrid nor Harry showed at dinner, his friends talking between each worriedly.
"Hagrid!" he called, the sun was setting.
He found the half giant arguing with a hippogryph.
"Hagrid! Where's Harry?"
He turned, brow pinched, "I don't know, Buckbeak won't tell me. I dismissed class early and searched the forest myself. But not even the centaurs have seen him."
Panic went down Remus's spine, and he spoke as calmly as he was able, "So why haven't you called a search party?"
Hagrid frowned, "Because Buckbeak would never have let harm come to Harry. And he couldn't have fallen."
"Hagrid!" Remus exclaimed, he loved the old giant but sometimes his love of magical creatures was too much. He had too much faith in animals.
"What?" Hagrid retorted, but the worry in his eyes said clearly that he knew he had made a mistake.
Hagrid's dog began barking frantically at the woods.
Heart in his throat, Remus spun, fearing the worst, he could never have predicted what he saw next in a million years.
A stag came charging out of the trees and the dog tucked its tail between his legs and screeched away.
"Fang!" Hagrid called.
The stag came to an abrupt halt, glaring Hagrid down, before he spotted Remus.
He stood very still as the stag sauntered over to him. "Prongs?" he breathed, noting the markings on the stag but even in the light of twilight, he thought the eyes were different, black and not hazel.
The stag snuffed his right ear and Remus breathed in deeply.
His senses as a human were like nothing compared to his wolf's, but he'd been a werewolf from the age of four and his senses were better than a human's.
It had been twelve years.
But it smelled like James.
The stag pressed against Remus's side, careful with his antlers, that if truly prongs, had grown rather impressive since last he'd seen him.
A moment later, Harry came out of the woods with a flame coloured doe at his side.
And Padfoot.
Remus growled, calling his wand to his hand with a flick of his wrist and raising his wand at the traitor.
But Harry Potter was his father's son, and no sooner did he have the wand out then did Harry cast a disarming spell and with a streak of red his wand went flying and Prongs stood to catch it between his teeth.
Remus was shocked, not only was Prongs and Padfoot back, and together, with the addition of a strange doe that he had an insane suspicion about, but one of his third year students had just disarmed him in a matter of seconds.
Remus had fought in a war and Harry was…
Well, he was James and Lily's son.
Harry crossed his arms, "Snuffles found and rescued me, I'd appreciate you not pointing your wand at my friends, Professor Lupin."
Okay, maybe Harry had taken after Lily.
"Snuffles?" Remus asked, unable to move his feet, too much was happening.
"Yeah, Snuffles, he saved my life, I'd still be stuck in the forest if it wasn't for him. The stag just likes to be in front, he doesn't actually know where he's going."
Prongs trotted over to Harry dropping the wand in Harry's upturned hand.
Remus, finally able to move walked came closer with Hagrid. Padfoot dropped to his belly and whined piteously.
It was hard to be mad at a dog who had once been one of his best friends, who his wolf considered pack, but he managed, scowling down at the black hound and spat, "Traitor."
Sirius whined up at him, his blue-grey eyes looking the picture of remorse and pleading.
"Didn't you hear me?" Harry asked, "He saved my life."
"Do you know who 'Snuffles' is?" Remus asked, wondering what lies Sirius had managed to put in his head.
There were three reasons Remus wasn't attacking the dog, one, Harry wasn't dead and presumably, Sirius would have had the time and opportunity lost in the Forbidden forest to accomplish it, two, Harry had his wand, and three, if that was Prongs, James Potter, and if he was feeling defensive of Harry or Sirius or the doe, then antlers were fine enough weapons to gut a man.
Not to mention the hooves.
"My friend," Harry retorted, "But do you know who they are?" he indicated the stag and the doe, "Because they know me and the stag knows Snuffles."
Remus didn't know what to say, that smelled like James, and the doe was possibly Lily, but that was mad.
They were dead.
"Harry," Hagrid interjected, "I'm so sorry, Buckbeak-"
Harry waved it away, "It's okay, Buckbeak wanted me to find them, the deer were lost." He laid a hand on the doe's shoulder who pressed into him. "I think we should take them to Professor McGonagall."
Sirius yipped.
Remus glared at him, "You really want to come into the castle, Snuffles?"
"Stop talking to him like that," Harry snapped, "He saved my life."
Which was weird. Why would Sirius Black track Harry down and not hurt him?
"Perhaps Dumbledore-"
Sirius growled, ears pinned back, and Remus scowled at him even as Harry said, "I'd be more comfortable with Professor McGonagall."
"Why?" Hagrid asked.
Harry shrugged, "I just…" his voice trailed off. "Last year he said something strange and…" he sighed, "I want to see Professor McGonagall."
Hagrid looked unsure, ready to defend Dumbledore, being his staunchest supporter in the entire school, but Harry looked very uncomfortable then.
Remus stepped in, "Well then, let's go see McGonagall, she is your head of house, and I'm sure know what to do with our 'guests'."
Sirius bowed his furred head but Harry rubbed his ruff comfortingly.
It made Remus's teeth grind.
Hagrid waved to them, "Sorry again, Harry."
"No problem, Hagrid, I'll tell everyone it was my fault, that I told Buckbeak to leave me. It really was a great first lesson. Very cool."
Hagrid grinned, "Thanks, Harry."
Harry smiled and they started up to the castle.
"Can I have my wand back, please?" Remus asked.
"No," Harry said with Lily's fire.
"I'm your professor," Remus reasoned, "And I saved your life on the train."
Sirius whined.
"From dementors," Remus expounded for the traitor's benefit.
Sirius's whining went up a few piteous octaves.
"Stop upsetting him," Harry snapped, "You can have your wand back when you quit threatening him. He's a friend, I promise."
Sirius yipped, wagging his tail.
Prongs, who was trotting ahead of him, spun hopping to one side, then the other, asking to play.
Remus was pretty sure he had hit his head somewhere today, very hard.
"What did the Headmaster say to upset you, Harry?" Remus asked, changing the subject, not that he had any doubts that McGonagall could handle Sirius, even if Harry was quick on the draw.
"He said I could speak parseltongue because Voldemort put a piece of himself inside of me."
Remus tripped over his own feet and ate dirt.
Sirius froze, growling low in his throat.
Scrambling to his feet, Remus turned on Harry, "He said what!?"
Then he was taking several rapid steps back as the doe and the stag put themselves between him and Harry.
Harry patted both the deer's sides and continued up the slope, the deer followed, leaving Remus and Sirius to exchange horrified expressions.
Then they were jogging to keep up with Harry, "What do you mean by that exactly?"
Harry tapped his scar, "He said it was unintentional but that he gave me some of his powers when he gave me this. He told me I had evil inside of me."
Sirius growled harshly at that and Remus was tempted to join him.
Harry sighed, "I mean not exactly, but the Sorting Hat wanted to put me into Slytherin and the only reason I'm not is because I asked him not to be. Dumbledore said it was my choices that made me different from Voldemort. But the Hat…"
"Harry," Remus cajoled, "Dumbledore can be very biased against Slytherins, he hides it well as the Headmaster, but he is as biased as many. Slytherins are not evil, ambitious and survivalists, but evil? No. Many people who are ambitious, such as Dark Lords, are people from old families with deep prejudices may come out in our society as… Well, I'm sure you know who most of Voldemort's followers were, but that doesn't mean everyone sorted into Slytherin is evil. I know quite a few decent Slytherins, Severus Snape-"
Harry made a face and Sirius barked a harsh half laugh, but Remus went on, "And Andromeda Tonks, she was a pureblood from old family and she married a muggleborn from Hufflepuff. Then there's your grandmother, Euphemia Potter, and her cousin Dorea Black. Kingsley Shacklebolt, he's an auror working at the Ministry."
"My grandmother was a Slytherin?" Harry asked with an air of awe.
Remus nodded, "And she was one of the kindest women I've ever met. She took in one of James's friends after he ran away from home without a single hesitation or reservation."
Sirius whined.
Remus shot him a glare, Good, feel guilty.
"McGonagall isn't like Dumbledore," Harry said, "she doesn't always listen to me but she's fair."
"What didn't she listen to you about?" Remus asked.
Harry shrugged, he had stowed both the wands, so both his hand could cling to the fur of the dog and the doe at his sides. The stag was walking between Remus and the doe now.
Remus wasn't sure if Harry would have been open as he was being now but the animals seemed to give him courage. "The Philosopher's Stone. Dumbledore was keeping it in the school and he got called away. I thought it was Snape who was after it, and really, maybe I should have gone to him, but he was acting weird. Turned out to be Quirrell though, he had Voldemort stuck on the back of his head."
Remus choked, "What?"
Sirius rubbed against Harry's side, they were just entering the castle now.
Harry looked over at Remus. "You have like the lowest bar to cross to be a decent Defense professor."
Remus really, really, truly wanted to ask more about Voldemort being in the school during Harry's first year, but asked instead, "What was wrong with the last professor?"
"Lockhart was a fraud would get people's grand stories of adventure and research breakthroughs, erase their memories and then insert himself into the stories. He tried to erase mine and Ron's memories when we pushed us into helping us find Ginny, Ron's little sister."
Sirius growled and Remus joined him this time, Harry was a child, hadn't the boy been through enough, losing his parents and-
Prongs shook his head and Remus was reminded of the bizarre scenario he was in.
"Not that he would have been much good against the Basilisk anyway," Harry said casually.
Remus shut his eyes, revisiting the idea that he had hit his head unbeknownst to him, but his imagination simply wasn't that creative.
They were at McGonagall's office now, and Remus knew she had planned to leave dinner early that night to finish grading the fifth year essays.
When he knocked, her voice was brisk, "Come in."
"Remus," she greeted, "What can I do- who did that?"
She looked pointedly at the two deer then sighed when she spotted Harry, "Mr. Potter. It is the first day of classes, must you find trouble so soon? I thought you learned your lesson last year when you were almost expelled."
Remus was going to need to have a long talk with the Gryffindor Head of House, and maybe a drink, or several.
Harry held up his hands, "They found me, I swear it."
Minerva took stock of the company, a stag, a doe, a dog, Harry Potter, and an extremely pale and stressed Remus Lupin.
"Who are they?" she asked.
Remus crossed to her side of the room, ringing his hands, but pointed at the dog, "Sirius Black."
Minerva had her wand drawn but froze as Harry drew on her, standing in front of the black dog.
"Harry," she said firmly, believing Remus unquestionably. Sirius had been one of her best students, if he or James wanted to become animagi, she doubted very much that they would have needed much instruction.
She had actually always wondered why they hadn't. But then doing it illegally did sound like something they would do.
"He saved my life today," Harry said, without any hesitation, "I want to know who they are." He pointed at the deer, "They're lost."
Minerva really wanted to explain to Harry who Sirius was beyond what the newspapers had said, but just then Remus leaned in to say under his breath, "James was a stag. This one has the same markings as his animagus form."
She felt her eyes go wide, as she stared at the two deer. The doe was pressed to Harry's side and the buck was standing a head of them all as if he was protecting his herd.
Their eyes were black, true black.
That wasn't natural for most animals, nor animagi who more often not mirror, though not the shape, but a similar colour of the human.
"The dog knows English," Harry said, her attention snapping back to him, "but they don't but I just- I don't think they are regular animals."
Minerva's heart contracted, it was a forbidden magic, a cruel fate that stripped away a person's humanity, and shadowed their memories.
But when had illegal and cruel ever stopped the Dark Lord.
No, it would have only encouraged him, nay, it would be his very intention.
The only way to even distinguish a transformed animal on this level of magic was by slight oddities, not aging like a normal animal and inconsistencies in behaviour, their memories weren't gone, just nearly impossible for an animal to understand.
But if James Potter had been a stag before this curse, he very well could have recognized Sirius and Remus.
And Minerva didn't care how many years had passed, a mother would always recognize her child.
Taking in a deep breath, Minerva turned her wand first on the stag who looked ready to charge, and she spoke the incantation.
The stag's form rippled and rising up on two hind legs, he fell backward as a human. The dog rushed him, his transformation more fluid as he slid on his knees to catch James Potter.
Sirius pushed back James's hair that was no longer than the stag's. She had never seen James with a beard, but it was certainly him.
Sirius Black was crying, his voice rough from disuse, "James, oh, James, I'm so, so, sorry."
Remus came around the table, to kneel by James too. James said nothing, only the rise and fall of his chest told her he was still alive.
Minerva came around her table, Harry was standing frozen, staring down at the scene unfolding on the ground.
Next, she performed the spell on the doe, and Lily Potter fell into her son's arms.
Minerva joined Harry on the floor as they stared down at the woman. Minerva was in shock, she couldn't imagine how Harry was feeling.
Lily's emerald eyes stared up at her son, "Harry." She closed her eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks, "Harry." Her body slumped, and Minerva put a hand to her throat where her fingers met a steady pulse.
"She's fine," Minerva said, trying to wrap her mind around the implications of this, of how this was even possible.
"Traitor!" Remus spat.
Minerva turned to look at the three men, James was struggling to sit up to get towards Lily and Harry, murmuring their names as Sirius tried to help him pull him across the floor, his untidy hair and beard rather clean for a man on the run.
James caught Remus's hand, "No. -Peter." He took in a heavy breath, "Peter's dea- eat-"
Minerva moved, giving Sirius room to pull James toward Lily who remained unconscious in Harry's arms.
James let go of Remus to touch Lily's cheeks, his glasses were askew, but tears trailed down James's face as he touched Lily's cheek; in love with her as much as he's ever been.
If Minerva McGonagall had any doubts about the validity of their identities, they were washed away in that moment.
Some things cannot be faked.
James then looked up at Harry and she watched as he blinked rapidly to press back the tears obscuring his vision, "My son… Harry, oh, Harry…" And then he too slipped into unconsciousness.
"It wasn't me," Sirius said in a rush, "We changed at the last minute because James and I thought no one would ever target Peter and he would be easier to protect. He already wanted me dead, and if I died the Fidelius Charm would've broken. I thought we could trust him, Merlin helped me but I did, that's my fault. I failed them, but I never betrayed them."
Minerva sighed, wrapping an arm around Sirius's shoulder and giving him a squeeze as she laid her head to the side of his, "I could never understand you ever betraying James, Mr. Black. It always seemed to me you would sooner and gladly die for him."
Sirius hiccupped on a sob, "He's my brother, he's all I ever head, they're all I ever had." He looked up at Harry, "I'm so, so sorry, Harry, I failed you in every way imaginable. I shouldn't have given you to Hagrid, I shouldn't have gone after Peter, I should have-"
Harry Potter, who was the very best of both his parents, put his hand over where Sirius was holding James's hand and said without guile, "I forgive you."
AN: Last finals week for a few years, which means new story ideas, this is my process. Thoughts on this chapter? Things to include and requests for this story?