What if Sirius had reached Godric's Hollow before Hagrid on that horrible Halloween night when Lily and James Potter died…



Stars in the Night

Chapter Two

1 Take care of Harry

1.1 It had been one week since Sirius rescued Harry from the ruins of Godric Hollow he made the little one room hut in the forest as cozy as possible. It was clean and comfortable. Harry enjoyed taking long walks through the woods with his Godfather though it was true that at night he sometimes cried for his parents but he was still happy. However as each day in their new house dawned Sirius became more and more filled with a restlessness that could only be cured by finding Peter.

1.2 So on a bright sunny Monday morning of their second week in the fort he set out for Diagon leaving Harry snuggled in the playpen he had transfigured from a pile of sticks. Harry was still asleep and Sirius hoped he would be back before he woke up.

1.3

1.4 "Bye Harry, see you in a few hours." He whispered as he left.

1.5

1.6 He then apparated to Diagon Alley and set out looking for the traitorous worm whom worked in a shop there. With any luck he would be working today. As Sirius began to make his way down the long twisting street he reflected upon all the times that James and he defended Peter against Snape and his gang. It was hard to believe that Peter could do such a horrible thing to the people who had befriended him when everyone else made fun of his lack of magical skills. But then he had always hung around with those more powerful then himself so in a sense it did make a bit of sense that he could go wicked. By now Sirius had reached the little shop that Peter worked in, it was closed, all the lights we were off and the door was locked.

"Damn it!" Sirius cursed under his breathe has he turned around and headed for home. Has he reached the Leaky Caldron it hit him that of course Peter wouldn't dare show up for work, not now that he had shown his true colors, so, Sirius thought, if I was a rat in hiding were would I go? I wouldn't go anywhere… I'd stay home. That's it, Sirius had reached his decision he would go to the flat where Peter was staying, see if he was there and if not he would just go home and try again another day. He could not leave Harry at home to long, not by himself.

He left the Leaky Caldron and was out in the nosy Muggle Street in the middle of London, he walked swiftly towards the bus stop. Lily had insisted he take Muggle Studies in school since he had not seemed to know anything about them at the time. "Its really important" she had said "that you know all about muggles so that in case one day if your stranded in the middle of a muggle town or something you don't make a complete lunatic of yourself." She was of course right, if Lily had not made Sirius as well as James and Peter, (Remus new enough about muggles to not need the class), take Muggle Studies then Sirius never would have known about how the buses worked and would have had to walk all the way to Peters. He couldn't Disapparate there because he and James had charmed Peter's place against it, it was to keep any deatheaters from bombarding him without warning, Sirius knew now he had wasted his time trying to protect the rat.

The bus Sirius had been waiting for arrived, he paid the driver and got on taking a set in the back. It was a bumpy slow ride, the bus was constantly stopping so people could get off and new people could get on. At this rate, Sirius thought, I will get there and Peter will have already left. He had become annoyed with the busses progress, he wanted to have been there already he couldn't stand much more of this so at the next stop which was a block away from his desired destination he got off deciding it would be faster if he walked.

Sirius began walking speedily down the sidewalk he was in such a hurry that when he bumped in to a little man he didn't even notice who it was.

"Sorry sir wasn't watching where I was going…" Sirius looked up and was shocked to see whom it was standing in front of him hurriedly picking up the suitcase Sirius had caused him to drop. "You!" He breathed in disgust. Peter looked up quickly and gulped when he saw Sirius's face reddening with rage and hatred. "I've been looking for you. There's something I've been wanting to discuss with you."

"I…. I haven't… I don't know what you could…." Peter stammered before getting a grip on himself. He reached for his wand slowly as Sirius continued to interrogate him. Then right when Sirius was about to get his wand out to stun Peter, Peter came up with a brilliant idea to save himself. "You killed Lily and James!" he screamed loud enough that everyone around them stopped and turned to look. Sirius was shocked. "Its all your fault you killed them! You handed them over to the Dark Lord and now they're gone!" Then just before Sirius could do anything Peter cut off his thumb, blew up half the street, turned quickly into a rat scurried down into the sewer.

Sirius was stunned, never had he thought Peter could get the better of him in a duel. The idea was hysterical, Peter, little sniveling whining Peter Pettigrew, had gotten the better of him, Sirius Black! He began to laugh he laughed crazily, he couldn't help it Peter had won. So he stood there laughing, even when wizards from the ministry appeared he continued to laugh. He was still laughing when they took his wand and hauled him into the truck. He laughed as they drove him to the ministry. He laughed as they hurried him into the building to wait as the questioned the wittiness as to what happened. After a while he could no longer laugh his voice was beginning to fade and the seriousness of the situation was beginning to dawn upon him. They would most likely arrest him, all the wittiness are sure to say he did it, looked that way to them. All evidence pointed against him.

"Mr. Sirius Black you are here by charged with the murder of one Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles." Said a man from the ministry.

"When's my trial?" Sirius mumbled into his hands.

"Trial? Ha! No Mr. Black there is not going to be a trial. Its strait to Azkaban for you."

Sirius looked up, he was shocked, no trail? But he was innocent! He had to have a chance to prove he was. The man shook his head and walked away leaving Sirius with only his thoughts. No trail. Strait to Azkaban. Harry, it had dawned on him, all this time he had been gone Harry had been waiting at home, it was near sunset now Harry must be scared. He had to do something, anything, had to make sure Harry was all right. He looked around frantically for someone who could help but everyone seemed to be staying away from him, they were all disgusted by what he done or what they thought he had done. Finally when someone from the ministry had to walk by him he called out.

"Excuse me?" Sirius said pathetically to the women. She turned and looked around for who had called to her. "Excuse me." He said again. She looked down and saw who the speaker was.

"You?" she said in disgust. "What do you want?"

"Could you, could you please get Remus Lupin here. I need to speak with him."

She glared at him considering, it is only fair, she thought, I might not like what he did but its only fair that he should get his one last request before going to Azkaban for the rest of his life. "All right, but that's it after I get him no more favors, you hear?"

"Yes thank you ma'am." He whispered before turning his head back to his hands.

It was long after dark before Remus got there. He looked sad and weary it was apparent that he had been crying recently. He walked over to Sirius with his head held high.

"You wanted to see me?" He said trying to stay as cold and distant as possible.

Sirius realized it would not do him any good to try and tell Remus the truth. He would never believe him now with Peter gone. "Yes. I needed to tell you something. You're the only person I could trust with this."

"Well then what is it? I haven't got all night." Remus snarled though he had a look of pity and disbelief upon his face.

"Harry." Sirius whispered quietly. "He's…"

"Harry's gone, Sirius no one knows where he is."

"He's not gone. I have him."

"What!?" Remus couldn't believe it Harry was alive after all. "Where? How?"

"I went to Godric's Hollow that night and… Harry was still alive. I took him."

"Where is he?"

"Do remember the summer you and James spent at my parents old house?"

"Yes, I remember. We spent the whole time in your fort."

"You do remember. Well Harry's there, I've been gone all day so he'll be scared and hungry you have to go get him for me. Make sure he's all right."

"All right. I better go now then. Good bye." Remus left quickly leaving Sirius alone once more.

Remus left the Ministry of Magic within seconds and Disapparated home. If he was going to get Harry he couldn't very well apparate with him and there wasn't a fire place there so he couldn't use Floo Powder, he would have to take his old worn out car hopefully it could make the journey. If he remembered correctly Sirius's fort was located in the woods near the northern coast which was quit a ways to go. In fact the more he thought about it the more he realized that there was no way he could get there in time by muggle means. By the time he would get there Harry would probably have died from starvation it was a three days drive four even. He would have to apparate there, get Harry and walk to the local town, which if he remembered correctly had quit a few magic families living there.

Harry was sleeping when he arrived, it looked as though he had been up and wide-awake earlier the fort was a mess. There were cookies and cereal every where; there was even banana goo on the sofa. It wasn't likely that Harry would have starved to death.

Not wanting to disturb the sleeping child he began to tidy up using his wand. He wasn't about to touch the dirty dipper mess in the corner. With that done he sat on the sofa and watched Harry sleep, he still could not believe that Harry was alive. It was a miracle, how could such a tiny child survive a curse that no other person in the world had and most had been powerful fully grown trained wizards and witches.

It was then that he noticed the newly formed lighting bolt scar on Harry's forehead. "That must be where…" Remus trailed off, it was too unbelievable that such a powerful curse had only left a thin scar on this child forehead. It wasn't long before he dosed off to sleep only to be awoken in a few hours.

***

"Moony!!" Harry screamed again "Moony! Moony! Moony!" Harry was jumping up and down in his crib that Remus had put him in.

Remus yawned and blinked as he opened his eyes to a very bright sunlit room. "Yes Harry Moony is here." He said groggily as he sat up and stretched. Harry giggled and continued to jump up and down in his crib until Remus picked him up. "Good mourning to you to Harry, you seem to be very happy today."

"Moony!" Harry said again. Harry only knew a few words but Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, and Mum, had been six of the words he could say perfectly and loved saying whenever he could, so it seemed all that Remus would be getting out of the child today would be Moony.

"Yes all right Harry." He chuckled it had always amused him the way James had trained Harry to call him Moony even more amusing was that James insisted that Harry call him Prongs instead of Dad. "What do you want to eat for breakfast Harry?" Remus asked him as he changed Harry's dirty dipper.

"Ummm…" Harry said considering this question. "Cookie!"

"All right bread and bananas it is." Remus finished changing Harry and returned him to his crib while he got out the bread and bananas giving Harry a little of each.

"It's going to be a long day so eat up." Remus said handing the food to Harry who immediately started to eat. "We are going to go in to town and then we are going to go to Hogwarts to see Professor Dumbledore about you."

Harry looked up at him with his big emerald eyes and smiled a smile that made Remus grin. After they were done eating they two of them set out for town which was roughly three miles from there and should take about an hour or so to get to. Harry walked along side Remus for the first twenty minutes talking and running after the butterflies. Remus spent the next twenty minutes carrying Harry on his back but after Harry fell asleep and nearly fell Remus thought it was best if he just held him. It was remarkable how much Harry looked like James. It was a shame the boy would never know his father.

They had by now reached town and the cars on the road had woken Harry up much to his dismay. Remus and Harry made their way quickly to a phone both where Remus could look up the address of some of the wizard families that lived here. "Awe ha! Here we are, Fletcher, he lives right around the corner from here perfect, come on Harry lets go." Remus said as he took Harry's hand and left the phone both heading for Fletcher's house.

They reached his house in no time and walked up to the door and rang the bell then waited for some one to answer the door. The door opened within a few seconds by a man a little taller then Remus but about the same age.

"Remus! What a pleasant surprise. What brings you to my neck of the woods?" the man who was presumably Mundungus Fletcher asked. "Who's this?" he had spotted Harry who was hiding behind Remus.

"This is Harry Potter I was just retrieving him from where Sirius had taken him and I was hoping I might be able to use your fireplace to Floo to Hogwarts." Remus said politely.

"Harry Potter! But it can't be I thought…. Everyone's saying… though they never did find the body we just presumed he was dead. Well I'll be. It's a miracle." He said gaping at Harry before turning his attention back to Remus. "Yes of course you can use my fireplace, come in, come in." Fletcher said as he ushered them through the door.

"I'm sorry I cant stay long I've got to see Dumbledore as soon as possible about the boy. You understand." Remus apologized as he hurried over to the fireplace.

"Of course. I understand I won't keep you waiting." Fletcher said handing Remus a bag of Floo Powder.

"Thank you. I owe you one." Remus said as he took a bit of Floo Powder and stepped into the fire.

"Don't mention it, it's the lest I can do." Fletcher said taking a step back as Remus shouted "Hogwarts!"

***

Harry and Remus landed in Dumbledore's office with a thump.

"Mr. Lupin I wasn't expecting to see you here today." Dumbledore said calmly from behind his desk. "What brings you here today?"

"Harry Potter." Remus said bluntly standing up and dusting himself off.

"You found him!" Dumbledore said coming out from behind his desk.

"Yes. Sirius Black requested to see me last night before going off to Azkaban he informed me that he had retrieved Harry from Godric's Hollow Halloween night. He must have gotten there right before Hagrid did. He told me he took Harry to his old childhood fort in the woods, he asked me if I would get him and see that he was all right."

"I see. Well there's only one thing to do with the boy. He must be taken to his Aunt and Uncle like I originally planned."

"Right. I'm going to miss him." He said looking over at Harry who was looking curiously at the phoenix across the room. "I must be going now unless you have anything you need me to do?"

"No, no go home get some sleep you look as though you need it." Dumbledore said smiling at the worn out man in front of him. "I'll see to Harry myself."

"Good bye then. Good bye Harry." Remus said to Harry who turned and smiled at him "Bye bye Moony!" Remus chuckled as he headed out of Dumbledore's office.



A/N Ok I going to stop there. Chapter three The Dursleys should be posted soon. As always please review. Flames will be used to roast my bunny shaped marshmallow, yummy.