The body was still as stone. Still as the air of the night, and kneeling in the middle of the wreckage of the cottage's debris, Sirius's heart had stopped as he took in the scene before him.
"James." He whispered. Sirius checked the pulse of the body's wrist, his breaths coming out in shaky chunks as he felt the cold hands of his best friend. "James."
No answer.
"No. No. How-" he sputtered, bringing out his wand again and pointing it at his friend's chest. "Rennervate."
The light springing from the wand died as it reached the body.
No response.
Again. "Rennervate."
"Help." Sirius stood up and cried with all the air in his lungs, "HELP! PLEASE!"
Up and down the street were darkened houses, all silent at the time of midnight. All oblivious to his second home's- what had happened here. "No, this damn Fidelius!" He screamed.
Peter. How. No one could've bypassed these wards without the secret. But then how- how is James and Lily and little Harry…
Peter. No. No, no, damn it. Damn it! He couldn't have, wouldn't have. Sirius had just met Peter the other day, at Hogsmeade, where Peter looked good and healthy, except. Except he seemed to be always nervous when speaking, and gave poor excuses to not drink, and seemed overly defensive every time they talked about his current clerk job at the Ministry, about his hobby of hiking, about questions about his mother...
The memories of the past months all came flooding back, the strange, secluded behavior of the friend who only wanted to meet up if he was dragged to their chosen place, where before he would scurry after their friend group with an eager sort of shyness.
Where is he now? Has he been kidnapped? Tortured? The secret of the Fidelius beaten out of him?
In a haze, Sirius walked through the littering of furniture on the floors and crumbling walls, feeling like he was dreaming a horrible dream.
Crack. Sirius froze. Someone was up ahead in the corridor, and his mind assumed the worst. He quieted his footsteps and listened, the Homenum Revelio earlier said that there two people in the vicinity. Now which two people he dare think about.
Another sound came from the room over, which he recognized as Harry's, having spent hours around James and Lily debating about its decorations and helping out with the cot and shelves. Harry would have been sleeping when this happened, when He arrived. And in that moment, Sirius felt nothing but pure rage.
He burst into the room with his wand out, and no thought for his own wellbeing.
"YOU... BASTARD!" he screamed, "YOU HORRIBLE, UNDESERVING PIECE OF UTTER FILTH-"
"Wait! Sirius, it's me!" a large man with a fuzzy beard and brown overalls exclaimed.
"... Hagrid?" he asked. The half-giant turned to look at him, he saw that Hagrid's eyes were full of tears.
"Lumos." Sirius muttered. "Oh. I thought- well, where are Lily and Harry?"
Hagrid showed Sirius the bundle in his arms.
"Fine." Hagrid said in a slightly hoarse voice. "I'm-" He cleared his throat, "I'm to take him to Dumbledore, he'll know what to do and he'll have healers there."
"And. And Lily?"
"Lily is here." The giant stepped aside to reveal the cot, and the woman lying lifeless beside it. "No pulse." He continued.
She must have died defending Harry. Sirius' heart dropped for her son, who will grow up will neither of his parents.
"Sirius?" Hagrid enquired after a moment.
"Take my bike. It'll be better than the Knight Bus for both of you." He answered.
Hagrid looked concerned, "Sirius, I think you should come back to headquarters with us-"
"I need to go look for Peter," he explained, "God knows if he's-" in a similar or worse situation than James and Lily "-he should be at the Glenwell safehouse."
Hagrid looked even more concerned, "At least take Prewett-" Sirius started walking to the exit of the house "-or wait a bit. You're not in a good state of mind to be-"
"I DON'T NEED TO BE!" He shouted. Frustrated that Hagrid couldn't- "James and Lily are dead! I don't have time to wait! I don't want to wait, if Peter might be in the same state as them, while I'm off at who knows where when he needs me! And all because I couldn't get there EARLY ENOUGH!"
The front lawn of the house was silent, his panting being the only sound. His anger began to fade, bringing up a cold, empty darkness, which had been threatening to take over him since he first laid eyes on his best friend.
The moonlight cast on Hagrid's face as he stood on the front porch showed his thoughts on the matter.
"Sirius." The giant intoned gently, "This is not your fault. You couldn't have stood a chance against him even if you were here, none of us could have. What you need to do right now, is to come with me to Dumbledore, explain the situation, get your head straight, and we'll both portkey to Glenwell."
Crack! The sound of an apparition echoed throughout the night and they turned to the side, seeing a portly wizard appearing in the middle of the street.
"My god," the man cried as he hurried towards them, "I'm sorry I'm the so late, but the Order is a mess and Dumbledore is getting swamped with questions from the Ministry, it's those Unspeakables. Most of us are over at the Longbottoms- the last we heard from them was that there was contact with at least twelve Death Eaters."
The newcomer slowed down as he approached them.
"Dumbledore told me there should be Aurors here soon enough for the investigation. I understand how close you were, but remember don't touch or move anything... much..." The man paused, the disbelief of seeing James Potter's body laying dead seeping into his voice.
Have we just lost this war, today? The question laid in their minds. Is this the beginning of the end?
But for now, they need to focus on what they can do.
"Elphias," Hagrid started to say, "I need to get Harry to Dumbledore, can you go to Glenwell with Sirius?"
"Sirius? Oh god, how is he? Has he found out yet?" the shorter man asked.
"What?" Hagrid suddenly stilled. He turned around in panic-
Sirius Black was nowhere to be seen. He had been gone the same moment Elphias Doge arrived, gone with the crack of Apparition.
It would be a good fifteen years until he saw either of them again.
Notes:
Hagrid doesn't have his accent or whatever you call it because my horrible attempt at trying to write it would distract readers from the story with its pure cringe.