Chapter 11 – Fidelis

Important note: Some of the lines in this chapter are almost direct quotes from Prisoner of Azkaban.  I did not make these up and I do not claim to, I am merely using them for effect. Thank you.

* * *

Sirius's ill-fated attempt to pinch some Veritaserum was more or less the end of school, and their friendship. A week afterwards, they graduated and it was a strange time. Sirius had learned many bizarre and difficult things during his seven years at Hogwarts, but the last and worst of them was learning that his time there was up forever. As a sort of tribute to the glorious stunts of their past, Sirius proposed that they pull one last prank, once their diplomas were well in hand of course, one final escapade to cement themselves firmly in Hogwarts lore. But James vetoed that idea.

"Please," he said. "We are so far beyond that sort of thing."

"Yes," Sirius agreed. "I know I feel so much more mature now than I did even a month ago."

So they graduated without the fireworks send-off Sirius had planned, but he did, at least, have the distinct pleasure of leaving Hogwarts, not with his parents or on the train, but on his wonderful shiny flying motorcycle.

He had purchased it five days earlier, practically the moment he had earned his two hundred five Galleons. The extra five he quietly, anonymously, returned to Remus. (Sirius refused to be beholden to him for any part of this marvelous machine.) So he bought it with his own money and James's and Peter's, and parked it in the abandoned garage where the other end of their secret tunnel let out.

The next night he took it around Hogsmeade and the surrounding countryside, which he enjoyed so much that he lost all track of time; when he returned it was technically already the next morning. By an unlucky chance, Filch happened to be in the vicinity when he emerged from the tunnel, so neither it nor the motorcycle was a secret any longer. Sirius escaped without punishment only by offering Filch a ride on the contraption, which in the caretaker's eyes was nothing short of a miracle. But for Sirius the pain of seeing his baby ridden by such a slimebag was well worth the benefit of graduating from Hogwarts with the rest of his year.

So the class of 1977 drowsed through three exceptionally long, tedious speeches, marched across the stage in alphabetical order, and sang the Hogwarts school song one last time, underneath the shining blue sky that Dumbledore had hired a Belgian weather mage to create specially for that day. (Considering the immensity of the task and the rarity of qualified weather mages, Sirius estimated that one day of fine weather probably cost as much as his seven years of tuition had. Which was quite a lot.)

They stayed until the following Saturday (the thirteenth) for the Leaving Feast and the awarding of the House Cup, which sadly went to Ravenclaw by a narrow margin.

"If only we'd won the fool Quidditch Cup," James sighed, watching the Ravenclaws celebrate.

"They only won it because they know the dates and the leaders of every goblin rebellion ever fought," Sirius said bitterly.

"Don't you think that's a bit hypocritical, Mister First-in-the-Class?" James said.

"Considering that you're tied with me for first, you ought to keep your voice down," Sirius said. "Although in my opinion they only tied us because you're Head Boy. You can't argue with the numbers."

"Can't I?" James said. "I propose we settle this the old-fashioned way – with a fistfight."

"Brilliant," Sirius said. "Brawling at the Leaving Feast."

"Well, what can they do to us?" James said. "Take away our diplomas?"

"I didn't hide mine all that well," Sirius said.

"Why, where is it?"

"I put it – er…" Sirius squinched up his face. "Now I think of it, I can't exactly remember."

"Hah," James said. "I expect that's a record. Lost your diploma in only six days, did you?"

"Be right back. Save me some cake, would you?" Sirius shoved his chair back and bolted out of the hall.

"I hope he doesn't pinch mine instead," James said to himself, cutting two pieces of cake and meditatively eating both of them.

So they left, Peter with his parents, James with his mother, Sirius on the motorcycle and Lily with her family. Even Petunia was there, looking especially offensive in a too-tight lavender dress.

"Stunning as usual, my beauteous blossom," James called. Lily winked and blew him a kiss, which Petunia only glared, looking twitchy as a rabbit, no doubt because of the flagrant evidence of abnormality all about her.

Sirius, grinning madly, clambered atop his motorcycle and took off. His slovenly hair whipping in the wind, he executed a tight curl around Gryffindor tower, to scattered applause and hooting from the graduates and their families.

"You about ready, Jimbo?" his mother said, patting her heavily hairsprayed orange curls. "Some of us do have to catch a train to get home."

So James said goodbye to Peter and shook hands with his parents, and slid off rather furtively across the wide glittering lawn.

Remus was talking intently to Rohanna, but as soon as he saw James, he turned with a great smile and said, "Hey, congratulations."

"To you too," James said, shuffling his feet. "I, er, just wanted to say goodbye."

"Well, bye then," Remus said. "And have a nice life."

He kicked himself for years about that.

And Hogwarts ended there, but Sirius was too absorbed to care. He and Peter rented a dingy flat in London and split the rent, not very evenly, because Peter's parents sent him more money in a week than Sirius earned in a month. Peter was half-heartedly attending Auror training and discovering that it wasn't quite so glamorous as he had hoped. Sirius liked to tell the girls he met in pubs that he worked at Petrovich Magichem Corp., one of the most respected firms in the business, but he frequently failed to mention that his was a grubby entry-level clerical job and not one of the prestigious research positions that he hoped to snag in six years or so. Five if he worked late.

James lived at home for most of the summer, in between Quidditch tryouts, until he finally settled on the Falmouth Falcons and, with his signing bonus, promptly rented a flat of his own, one much more respectable than Sirius and Peter's. Against the wishes of her parents, Lily moved in with James, mostly because her own meager salary as an assistant in Madame Malkin's was just about equal to the cost of renting the cheapest rooms in the city.

After about six weeks, Peter dropped out of Auror training altogether, which left him with no visible source of income except his parents' generosity. However, he always seemed to have plenty of cash, and Sirius asked no questions about it because it paid the rent just as well as his. Better, in fact. For his own part, Sirius spent the summer with a succession of girls he met in pubs, none of whom worked out. Perhaps, as James pointed out, this was because he met them in pubs. Sirius shrugged and bought a dragonhide ensemble to go with his motorcycle, which he could not show off for nearly two months because of all the overtime he was putting in to pay for it. It was a real hit with the girls, though.

That fall James was frequently traveling with the team, and when his games were too far for Lily to attend, she spent the evenings at Sirius and Peter's place. Sirius didn't mind this, but he did. It was one thing to see marvelous green eyes in the company of his best friend and another to see them in his flat. Besides, one or more of Peter's new friends was typically conked out on the couch, and Sirius didn't trust them, quite. They all had shifty eyes. But then, Auror training could do that to a person.

And Sirius got a pay raise. Peter got a girlfriend. So did Sirius. James won a few games, and when he got back, they had a celebratory soirée at James's much more respectable apartment, just the four of them. Just like old times.

So life went on as it always had, only with significantly more bills to pay.

* * *

A year had gone by since the Phenomenal Four had graduated, when James and Lily received identical letters from Albus Dumbledore requesting them to come to Hogwarts at their earliest convenience. He had some urgent news for them, it said.

"Well, darling, I imagine it's to inform us of our selection as Couple of the Year," James said to all her anxious inquiries. So he skipped a practice and she took a day off work, and since Lily didn't have her Apparition license, they made the trip north on James's old Flycatcher (he'd gotten a gleaming twig-straight Delphinium exclusively for Quidditch). It was a sultry mid-July day and James's only trouble was that the broom's Shielding Charm had weakened and collision with unwary birds was a constant danger.

But they arrived without incident and James landed right in front of the monolithic front doors, which had not much shrunk in a year's time. They went in and Nearly Headless Nick was waiting for them in the entrance hall.

"Hope you haven't been waiting too long, Nick," said James as they set off for the headmaster's office.

Nick shrugged. "Three days is a very small percentage of eternity."

He gave them the password (the gargoyle's arm was once again the same color as the rest of it) and they went up to Dumbledore's office, where the headmaster greeted them with his ageless benevolent smile and a pot of mint tea. They sat around in armchairs sipping out of their mugs and catching up on old acquaintances. Dumbledore seemed particularly interested in hearing about Sirius and Peter.

"And have you seen Remus at all?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, we did lose track of him after graduation," James said. "For quite a while in fact. It was just a few months ago that I ran into him at Flourish and Blotts entirely by accident."

"Buying something?"

"I was getting Chaser Strategies from the Best in the Business," James said. "I've no idea what he was after. Anyhow, I invited him over and he's been several times since –"

"What has he been doing with himself?" Dumbledore said.

"I couldn't really say," James admitted. "Somehow we always end up talking about me. Of course, he's always loved Quidditch. And then I don't like to ask about him. I mean, I know how things are for his kind, and I'd assumed he wasn't too well off or he would have invited us over." James sighed. "I wish I could get him to come more often but he won't. He doesn't want to run into Sirius, I think."

"Aren't they friends anymore?"

"No," James said, "I guess you wouldn't know about that. They had some kind of falling-out at the end of seventh year and Sirius just refused to have anything to do with him. As far as I know they haven't spoken since then."

"Sirius and Remus had a falling-out," Dumbledore said. "You weren't involved in it?"

"Er, well, maybe a bit," said James. "Sirius did seem to think I should be mad at Remus. He as good as said Remus was betraying Gryffindor because he spent so much time with Rohanna Lynch – you remember?"

It seemed he did. Dumbledore deposited a few more thoughts in his Pensieve before he looked up and said, "I think it is time now to tell you what I must." He set his wand down and folded his hands. "I hardly know how to tell you this, but – Voldemort is after you. Both of you."

Lily grabbed hold of James's hand.

"After us, meaning he wants to kill us?" James said.

"Well, yes," Dumbledore said, "if it helps you to think of it that way."

"Why?" said Lily. "What have we ever done to him?"

"Am I a Magid?" James said excitedly.

"No," Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid you're just a powerful and talented wizard."

"Aw, damn," James said, looking highly disappointed.

"Why then?" Lily asked.

"Unfortunately that involves a little history lesson." Dumbledore twiddled his fingers. "To borrow a phrase, Godric Gryffindor was concupiscent as a rabbit and I believe that altogether he had ten children or so. Living, that is."

"Wow," James said.

"His poor wife," Lily said.

"Oh, he never married," Dumbledore said. "His ten living children were borne him by five different women –"

"Wow," James said.

"But the ones we are concerned with are his six children by Sallina the prophetess," Dumbledore said. "Her eldest son Maglion married Shella the huntress, and her eldest daughter Eaglione married Zelgun the good-for-nothing, and the point of the story is that you, James, are a direct descendant of Maglion and you, Lily, are a direct descendant of Eaglione. The last wizarding ones, in fact."

"Wow," James said. "Now we know how much honor meant to old Godric, eh?"

"We're related?" Lily said. "Maybe we hadn't ought to order the wedding cake just yet, James."

"That was a thousand years ago," Dumbledore said. "I doubt anyone will accuse you of incest. But forgive me, that wasn't the point after all. The point is, because you two are the last direct wizarding descendants of Godric Gryffindor, Voldemort will certainly attempt to get rid of you at his earliest convenience."

"But why?" James said. "I mean, surely Voldemort doesn't care which founder we're descended from."

Dumbledore sighed. "There is a prophecy," he said, "but it's long and boring and you know what I think of Divination, but Voldemort believes in it so we have to play along."

"What's it say, then?"

"Well, Voldemort is Slytherin's heir," Dumbledore said. "I don't know if you knew that. Anyway, it says that if he doesn't destroy the heir of Gryffindor, then the heir will surely destroy him, in a history-repeating-itself sort of way."

"Heir?" James said. "There's two of us."

Dumbledore sighed again. For someone so intelligent, James could be rather obtuse at times. "If the two of you were to marry and have a child," he said, "that child would be the sole undisputed heir of Godric Gryffindor."

"Wait," James said. "You mean this prophecy is saying Lily and I are going to get married?"

"Not necessarily," Dumbledore said. "I suppose one of you might die."

James and Lily traded looks.

"You do have a rather high-risk job, dear," Lily said with a touch of glee.

"Let's get married then," James said. "Give Gryffindor his heir."

"If you do," Dumbledore said, "you and the child will be in considerable danger, you realize."

"Maybe in a few years," James said.

"I am not trying to tell you what to do," Dumbledore said, "or give you conflicting advice. In the event that you do decide to marry, come see me and we will discuss ways to help keep you safe."

"Marriage counseling for the pursued," said James. "How to keep your marriage together when the Dark Lord wants to break you up."

"There is that, yes," Dumbledore said somewhat reluctantly. "Would that I did not have to tell you this, but be careful of anyone who tries to come between you. Even your closest friends should not be exempt from your suspicion."

James thought suddenly of Sirius, and of Remus.

"I am also not trying to frighten you unreasonably," Dumbledore said. "Voldemort is otherwise occupied, and I doubt you are in very much danger at the moment. But as I said, be on your guard. And again, if you decide to marry or even if anything suspicious happens, do come to see me at any time of the day or night. I assure you, my rest is not nearly as important as your safety. And if it is important, do not trust it to an owl. They have been known to disappear mysteriously en route."

Dumbledore stood up to see James and Lily out; they shook hands with him and thanked him profusely.

"Er," James said. "I have another question, actually."

"Of course," Dumbledore said.

"How do you know all this? I mean, you're not a spy or anything, are you?"

"Oh no," Dumbledore said. "I'm far too old for that sort of thing."

"So how do you know?"

"Why, my dear boy," Dumbledore said, "I read minds, of course. But surely you knew that?"

"I always suspected as much," James said.

* * *

Just like you knew they would, Lily and James decided, to hell with Voldemort and all his minions, let's get married anyway. Once James had gotten Lily a ring, they went back to see Dumbledore, Lily twirling her diamond and both of them smiling blissfully. Dumbledore congratulated them and advised them to go into hiding. He told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm, which Lily, as the adept on charms, had to explain to James.

Dumbledore also gave them some more advice. He said that the longer the Secret-Keeper was under the Fidelius Charm, the harder it was for him to keep the secret. Eventually (though Dumbledore assured them it generally didn't happen for twenty years or so) the Secret-Keeper reached a point where he either had to tell someone or die, in a rather nasty way which gave new meaning to the term, "bursting" with a secret. So Dumbledore advised them to wait as long as they felt comfortable until performing the Fidelius Charm. He also advised that they move to a small town using different names, and that they keep their wedding as quiet as possible.

Which they did. Only about twenty people were invited, mostly relatives of the couple, and every one of them was sworn to secrecy about the wedding. Dumbledore came, of course, and brought Minerva McGonagall. Lily's mother had recently died, but her father came and so did Petunia, who was the maid of honor. Lily's friend from Hogwarts, Samantha, was a bridesmaid, Sirius was best man and Peter was a groomsman. Remus was also there, though not in the wedding party, which had been a subject of some discussion.

When James had asked Sirius if he would agree to have Remus in the wedding party, Sirius had said stiffly, "Far be it from me to tell you who you can and cannot have stand up with you." James brought the problem to Remus, who said, "I'm honored that you'd ask me, but my budget's a bit tight at the moment and anyway, Sirius would be a lot more comfortable if I didn't."

So that was one problem solved, and though there were a thousand others, it was the main one. And on October 30, 1979, James Potter and Lily Evans were married in a simple ceremony in her parents' home, with an appropriately orange sunset sky.

"Halloween Eve!" Sirius said, holding up his glass of champagne. "Remember all the fun we used to have drinking butterbeer and running around Hogsmeade? Now those were the days."

"You sound like a geezer," James said. "But here's to Hogwarts anyway." The entire table drank to it, except for Petunia, who was frowning at her glass and looking highly uncomfortable.

So they reminisced for a while, and ate quite a lot (Sirius most of all) and when it was dark, Lily's father plugged in the Christmas lights and they danced to Muggle and wizarding tunes alike. Her husband and his friends were fully occupied, either with dancing or liquor, so Lily took the opportunity to do a little snooping about Remus.

Naturally, she was quite curious as to what he had been doing with his life, but even though she asked him every nosy question she could think of, Lily found out almost nothing she couldn't have guessed. Remus wasn't in love, but he was happy. He was living in London now, but he'd done some traveling, all over Britain. When Lily asked him what he did for a living, he replied, "Whatever I can, and usually not much of that." She did, however, find out that what he wanted most in the world was to live in France.

"But that's hardly news," she said irritably to James when it was all over. "He's wanted to ever since I've known him, anyway."

"And long before that," James said. "Listen, sweetheart, Remus's life is his own damn business and if he doesn't want to tell you about it, you probably don't want to know. Now come over here and rub my shoulders, would you? They hurt like the devil."

So James and Lily spent two weeks on the Côte d'Azur for their honeymoon, and when they came back they bought a house (no more than a cottage, really) in Godric's Hollow, an upscale little development in suburban London.

"How adorable," James said to Lily. "Gryffindor's two heirs are living in a housing development named after him."

"But it's such a sweet little place," Lily said.

"Oi," Sirius yelled from the ground floor. "Where d'you want the stove?"

"In the kitchen, you galloping great prat," James yelled back. "Where did you think?"

"No, I mean do you want it by the ironing board or next to the garage door," Sirius yelled. "Because there's nowhere else to put it."

"His bloody incompetence is going to kill me," James said, stomping downstairs. But Lily followed him down and discovered that Sirius was right.

"We could always eat in the living room," she suggested, peering into the kitchen. She couldn't actually enter it because James, Sirius and the furniture took up all the available standing room.

"She has a point," Sirius said.

"Oh, all right," James said in exasperation. "Just yank my husbandly authority out from under my feet."

"We won't do it unless you say so, love," Lily reminded him.

"Fine, we eat in the living room, let's move."

"He's so authoritative," Lily said dreamily. "Isn't he?"

"Oh be quiet," James said, looking rather pleased.

But eventually, James and Lily got their house in order and nine months later, there was a baby. Harry Joseph Potter, to be exact. (Joseph was James's middle name.)

When James and Sirius came in to see Lily in her room in the St. Mungo's maternity ward, she was holding a tiny red squalling bundle and looking ecstatic about it.

"I bet you're glad he's out of there, huh," Sirius said.

"You have no idea," Lily said. "James, from now on, all our children are going to have May birthdays."

James was shaking his head in astonishment. "Will you look at that hair," he said.

"Why, it looks exactly like yours," Sirius said, faking astonishment. "Or rather, what yours is going to look like in twenty years, once it thins out a little."

James punched him in the shoulder. "I think it looks great."

"Sirius, we have a favor to ask of you," Lily said, looking significantly at James.

"Oh yeah," James said. "Two of them, actually, but I think we'd better soften him up with the one first."

"All right," Lily said. "Sirius, we've thought about this a lot, and we want to ask you if you'll be Harry's godfather."

"Oh, wow," Sirius said, grinning hugely. "Er, what does that involve, exactly?"

"Well," Lily said, "mostly you buy him presents on Christmas and his birthday."

"Free baby-sitting for life," James interrupted.

"His, or mine?" Sirius said, looking faintly alarmed.

"And you're stuck with him if we die," James said.

"No problem," Sirius said. "I mean, even if you catch a Bludger to the head, that still leaves Lily."

"And that brings us to our next request," James said.

"I suppose you want your ashes scattered on a Quidditch field somewhere," Sirius said. "I'll take you anywhere you want, but please don't make me do the eulogy."

"That's not it exactly," James said. "Lily, would you tell him?"

So Lily explained to Sirius about Voldemort, and why he might want to kill them sometime in the future (particularly Harry) and about the Fidelius Charm.

"And we wanted to know if you'd be our Secret-Keeper," Lily said, "but –"

"Yes," Sirius said.

"You're crazy," James said flatly.

"You haven't even heard about what happens when you keep the secret too long," Lily said. "Don't you want to know that before you say yes?"

"No," Sirius said. "It'll only give me nightmares."

"You can take some time," James said. "You know, to think about whether you want to die or not. We wouldn't do it for a while anyway, so you could have some time to decide –"

"No," Sirius said. "I've already thought about it, and I've already decided. The answer is yes."

"Oh, Sirius," James said. "I had no idea you thought so much of us."

"Yes you did," Sirius said. "I distinctly remember telling you that I would die for you if I had to."

"I thought you were joking," James said.

Sirius grinned. "How I enjoy proving you wrong."

"Well," James said, "I have to admit, I am absolutely lost for words."

"Oh, Sirius, thank you," Lily said and began to cry. Harry joined in, bawling ferociously.

"Moody kid you've got there," Sirius said to James. "Though I'd say those aren't your genes at work."

"Sirius," James said, "I don't know how to thank you."

"I haven't done anything to deserve it yet," Sirius said. "How about you wait and see how well I die."

For the next fourteen months or so, Sirius threw himself into the role of godfather. When he wasn't working or sleeping, he was over at James and Lily's playing with Harry. Singing to Harry until James told him to be quiet or he'd ruin the baby's sense of pitch for life. Instructing Harry on the care and maintenance of a broomstick. Feeding Harry everything from mashed pumpkin to marshmallows whenever he thought he could get away with it. For a while, Harry was in real danger of growing up to be a miniature Sirius Black. Peter might have helped, but he came only infrequently. He said he'd gotten another job, and he hardly spent any time at home, much less playing with a one-year-old carbon copy of James, who just happened to have Lily's unforgettable eyes.

So Sirius was babysitting Harry when James and Lily returned from a meeting with Dumbledore one October day to tell Sirius that Voldemort was doing some final tinkering with the details of their death.

"We've got to put the Fidelius Charm on," James said. "And soon. Are you free tomorrow?"

"Listen," Sirius said, joggling Harry on his knee nervously. "I had an idea."

"Okay," James said, frowning. "Let's hear it."

"Suppose you were Voldemort," Sirius said, joggling faster. "Suppose you knew James and Lily Potter were hiding from you, and they were under the Fidelius Charm."

"But he doesn't," James said. "No one knows about this but Dumbledore and us."

"Suppose you're Voldemort," Sirius said. "Suppose you have spies on every street corner and other nasty ways of finding out things people don't want you to know. So you find out this way that James and Lily Potter –"

"All right," James said irritably. "What next?"

"Suppose you really, really want to find them and the only way you can do that is by getting the Secret-Keeper to spill. So now you have to find the Secret-Keeper. And you know a little something about the Potters. Now, who would you go after first?"

James said, "Well –"

"Me, of course," Sirius said. "I mean, who's your best friend in the entire world? Who spends practically every day over here changing your kid's diapers?"

"So what're you suggesting?" James said tensely.

"Use Peter instead."

"Peter?" James said. "Okay, you have a point, you are rather the obvious choice, but if it comes to that, I would much rather have you guarding the lives of my family than Peter."

"Right," Sirius said. "But if you use Peter and they go after me first, that buys you time. You and Peter both, to get out of the country, or go hide in the basement or whatever."

"And in the meantime, you get interrogated," Lily said. "Probably forever, because they won't find out anything if you die."

"My comfort isn't the topic under discussion," Sirius said dismissively. "That's for me to worry about. The question is if you three are going to make it, which is much more likely if you use Peter."

"I still don't like this," James said.

"Listen," Sirius said. "It's a bluff. The perfect one, in fact. If Voldemort thought about it for half a second, he'd realize that I'm the logical choice, just like you did. That you'd use Peter would never occur to him, because no one in their right mind would want to. That's the beauty of it."

"But –" James seemed to be struggling for words. "Peter's a wimp! He'll never make it. He'll start babbling the minute they pull out their wands."

"He was in Gryffindor, if you recall," Sirius said scathingly. "And the Sorting Hat is way more perceptive than we are. I'd say that when he needs to be, Peter's just as brave as you are."

"Couldn't we use Remus then?" James said.

Sirius's face twisted. "He probably puts Voldemort's slippers on for him," he said shortly.

So that was the end of that, but James and Sirius continued to argue about it for almost a week, Lily having told them that she would do whatever James thought best. Finally James decided to ask Peter, and if he agreed, to go ahead with it. So he asked, and Peter said yes he would, and on the twenty-sixth of October, James, Lily, Harry and Peter said goodbye to Sirius. They were going north to Hogwarts so Dumbledore could perform the charm.

Afterwards Peter was going to go straight to his hiding place, a condemned farmhouse in a town twenty miles away that they'd fixed up enough so it wouldn't collapse, and filled the pantry with enough food to last him a year. James and Lily were going to write their will, just in case, and put it with all their money in their Gringotts vault. Their second anniversary was in four days and they were going to go out to eat somewhere while Sirius watched Harry. Sirius was going to get them something really splendid, he just didn't know what yet. There were four days left, after all, and he was going shopping the next day.

The secret was nothing special, really. Not surprising that a couple would sleep together before they cut the wedding cake, but they'd decided to get married right away and Lily'd been taking her potion, and they'd never told anyone about it. Not until now, anyway. So they told their secret to Peter and Dumbledore came in to finish the charm. It was deceptively easy, so much so that James asked Dumbledore if it was done and the headmaster, twinkling, said yes. He wished James and Lily a happy anniversary and Peter good luck, tickled Harry and told them to be careful. And they left.

Then something happened on Halloween. If you want to know what it was, re-read your copy of Prisoner of Azkaban for the definitive account. I have nothing to say about it that you couldn't guess. Except for this: The next day wizards and witches the world over knew exactly who Harry Potter was, and James and Lily Potter, and Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. But it would be nearly seventeen years before they knew the truth of what happened.