Secret-Keeper, Re-post Edition
Chapter Three
October 26, 1981
For the third time in less than a week, James Potter stood deep in thought in the headmaster's office, almost as if he were in a daze. He still couldn't believe how much danger he was in, how much danger they were in, how much danger they were putting Sirius in.
Why? Why would anyone want to kill a baby, for God's sake, James thought to himself. It was almost ridiculous. Little Harry Potter, barely a year old, next target of one of the most feared wizards ever to walk the earth.
Yesterday, he had gone home, ruffled through all his paperwork and, as Sirius put it, sorted out his 'legal mishmash.' All of his and Lily's finances were in Gringotts; then James had packed together a few choice items – mostly prized possessions of his and Lily's – and had given them to Professor Dumbledore for safekeeping. Although James had already left school, the old Hogwarts headmaster still kept in close contact with him, and was the person that he trusted most to safeguard his most valued belongings. Well, other than Sirius, that is, James thought to himself, but under the circumstance, that wasn't really an appropriate choice. Sirius' life was possibly in more danger than his now after the activation of the Fidelius Charm.
He sighed. No sense in brooding about it, not at Hogwart's anyways. He set the box of items on the headmaster's desk.
"Thank you for all your help, Professor Dumbledore," James said gravely to the man sitting in a desk across the room from him. "We appreciate it. A lot."
"Yes, well, I wish you three the best of luck," Dumbledore said, peering at James over his half-moon spectacles. "You'll certainly need it."
"Yeah, er, thanks," James mumbled somewhat awkwardly. "I should get going now, Lily might be worried..."
"Yes," agreed Dumbledore, "and I'll contact you by Floo if something new comes up."
James nodded as he turned his back on the Headmaster and reached for a small flowerpot sitting on the mantle over the fireplace. He scooped a small handful of Floo Powder out of it and threw it into the fire, which promptly turned bright green.
"Godric's Hollow," he called out clearly. "Bye, Professor," he added over his shoulder as he stepped into the flames. The heat engulfed him; it felt uncomfortable, but did not hurt. He squinted his eyes closed, and when he opened them again, he was back home, standing in his own fireplace at Godric's Hollow. Brushing soot from his robes, he stepped out of the fireplace, calling "Lily! Harry!"
What he saw next made his heart stop and his eyes widen in shock.
There, sprawled on his own living room couch, was a stranger, a thin man with short black hair that was gelled up in odd spikes. He was wearing dark sunglasses and baggy black pants, obviously a Muggle judging by how he was dressed. And leaning over him, apparently unbuttoning his shirt, was Lily.
"Wha – what the hell?" James could feel the rage pulsing through his veins.
"Oh, hello James," said Lily absentmindedly.
"Hello? Hello?! Would either of you mind explaining to me exactly what is going on here? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?! And who are YOU? What are you doing in my house?" he yelled furiously, staring at the Muggle.
Lily and the spiky-haired Muggle looked at each other with puzzled expressions on their faces. James was just about to start yelling again, when suddenly, much to his bewilderment, the two of them burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.
"What is so funny, may I ask?" James snapped dangerously. "And what exactly are you doing here?" He looked at the man with narrowed eyes, and then back at his wife, waiting – hoping – for a suitable explanation.
Lily was still rolling from laughter, but the man seemed to have recovered slightly. "Well," he said in a horribly bad imitation of a deep voice, "your darling wife and I-"
"Oh shut up!" interrupted Lily, still gasping from laughter. She sat up and kicked the man on the shins, and then, leaning over, quickly snatched the sunglasses off the man's head.
James' jaw dropped open. Oh my effing God. He stared at the man's face for about five seconds, almost not believing what he saw, before he too let out a snort of uncontrollable laughter.
"What-" he choked, "the – hell are you doing – here – dressed in that? And your hair! Oh my God, you spiked it."
Sirius Black's eyes twinkled as he replied, "Yes, I did good job, didn't I? Didn't even recognize me!"
Lily had recovered from her hysterical laughter by now, and was now looking at James with a somewhat injured expression on her face. "What did YOU think we were doing, James?" she asked, looking somewhat hurt. "I can't believe you thought-"
"Ah, Lily, don't blame him," Sirius chortled, "after all, he knows how irresistibly sexy I am, right Prongs? Guess that beauty sleep's been working after all."
"You shut up!" Lily hissed. "Honestly, you're just as bad, what was all that nonsense? 'Your darling wife and I' – what was that supposed to mean?"
"It means that you just ruined a perfectly good joke, Lily! He actually believed that you – me – you know?" Sirius was now laughing so hard that he was in danger of choking on his spit.
"Humph," Lily said, decking Sirius on the back of the head. "And you," she said, turning menacingly to her husband, "should have known better, too. We did the charm, remember? It couldn't have been anyone but Sirius, no one else would have even been able to find the house!"
"Sorry, sorry," James said sheepishly, putting his hands in the pockets of his robes. He fidgeted slightly.
"So, what were you guys doing anyways?"
"Lily was disguising me as a Muggle," Sirius explained. His voice was calm, but his blue-gray eyes were still dancing with laughter. "And if I were you, I wouldn't talk about these clothes so condescendingly, Prongs, you know that this," – he plucked at the half-buttoned shirt he was wearing – "is actually one of yours?"
James rolled his eyes. "Keep going, why was my wife trying to give you a Muggle makeover?"
Sirius sighed. When he spoke again, he seemed quite serious this time. "Well, I was thinking about what you said, about how Voldemort would look for me first, how if I was given Veritaserum, your secret wouldn't be safe anymore." He paused here. "So I've decided to stay in a Muggle neighborhood for a while. Stay low-profile, you know?"
James nodded, understanding and appreciating his friend's good logic and reasoning.
"The problem is, in order to live in a Muggle neighborhood, I sort of have to look like a Muggle."
"Oh, I see," James said, understanding dawning upon him. "That's why you had to talk to Lily."
Sirius nodded back. "Yeah, she was helping me put together a disguise. Being Muggle-born and all, I thought she would know. She was just showing me how to button that cute shirt of yours when you walked in," Sirius added devilishly. "Man, you should've seen yourself! You had steam coming out of your ears."
James felt slightly guilty for the accusations he had inadvertently made. "I thought you were a Muggle! How was I supposed to know?"
"That's pathetic," Lily said simply. "Can't even recognize your own best friend…"
"Yeah, well I wasn't exactly expecting to see a Muggle sitting in my sitting room sprawled on a sofa with my wife, now was I?"
"Oh!" Lily groaned dramatically, flinging her hands to her heart in a gesture of mock hurt. "How could you think such things, James Potter? How could you accuse me-"
"Yes, well, I'm sorry, alright?" James flung himself onto the sofa between Sirius and Lily. "Anyways, Padfoot, where are you planning on staying?"
"Well, one of my friends has an aunt who's a Muggle," Sirius explained. "She's got this spare house, never managed to sell it, that she said I could stay in. Number six, Chester Lane. That's the address."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" James asked his friend. He was worried. "You could always stay here with me and-"
"No, I couldn't," Sirius interrupted. "I'd just be an inconvenience. You two and Harry need to spend some quality family time together anyways. My stuff's already packed, it's in a trunk in the hall. As soon as we have lunch, I'll leave. I'll still visit you guys though." The fingers of his right hand subconsciously danced on his spiked hair, still unaccustomed to the gelled hairstyle.
"Okay," James nodded solemnly. "I assume Dumbledore knows about this?"
"Nah, I was planning on telling him right after I left your house."
"Right." James shifted on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table.
"Speaking of doing things, what were you doing before you got here? Where were you?" Sirius asked, fiddling with the collar of the still-unbuttoned shirt.
James shrugged one shoulder slightly. "Doing as you suggested, Padfoot," he said. "Everything's secure in Gringotts now, except some stuff I left with Dumbledore. I was at Hogwarts with him before I came here."
Sirius smirked. "Wow, Prongs. Three times this week – you're breaking all the old records we'd set in school and you're not even a student anymore!"
For the second time that day, Lily decked him on the back of the head.
"Headmaster."
Albus Dumbledore looked up at the thin sallow-skinned man standing in front of his desk. My, I'm seeing so many former Hogwarts pupils lately, he thought to himself. A nice re-union, I suppose. He chuckled quietly.
"Severus," he said cordially, "take a seat."
Stiffly, Severus Snape sat down in the squashy armchair that Sirius Black had occupied the day before. The pale black-haired man stared at the Hogwarts headmaster out of cold black eyes before speaking.
"The Dark Lord knows that the Potters are using the Fidelius Charm."
Sighing slightly and losing his cheerful demeanor, Dumbledore set his half-moon spectacles softly down onto his desk and looked at his former pupil.
"I see," Dumbledore said softly. "It was only to be expected..."
Snape continued with his report. "I'm not sure how he came across the information. He could have just guessed... or someone told him." The younger man scowled. "Perhaps Black..."
Dumbledore frowned, his forehead creasing with anxiety. "If our traitor is indeed Sirius Black, there is not much we can do... they've already activated the charm."
The expression on Snape's face was sour. "Stupid fools," he muttered under his breath. He laced his long, pale fingers together.
The unhappy grimace had still not erased itself from the headmaster's face. "Do you really think it is Sirius who is passing information to Voldemort?" the old man asked slowly.
It was Snape's turn to frown. "Who else would it be?" he asked curtly. "Someone has been keeping the Dark Lord very closely informed of the Potters' movements – no one but Black could have given him such thorough information. It all fits perfectly, Headmaster."
"So, you are positive that it is Sirius?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Snape admitted reluctantly, sounding as if this statement were excruciatingly painful. "The Dark Lord has not informed us on the details of his plans to reach the Potters; he only said that he was sending someone to handle the situation, or something along those lines."
"Hmm." Dumbledore looked pensive. "The fact that Voldemort has asked someone else to deal with the 'situation', as you put it, shows that he does not yet know where the Potters are... he would not dare risk sending one of his Death Eaters on what he considers to be such an important mission. If he could find James and Lily, he would undoubtedly go to kill them himself."
"Are you saying that you think I'm wrong about Black?"
"What I am saying, Severus," the headmaster continued, looking down at the black-haired man, "is that at this stage, it would not do to jump to conclusions. If Sirius had any intention of betraying Lily and James to Lord Voldemort, he would most likely have done so by now. However, he may be reluctant, due to a guilty conscience, or perhaps the hesitation is to purposely throw us off his track."
"And what does Potter think of this?" Snape asked, his upper lip curling in disdain.
Dumbledore's blue eyes were uncharacteristically grave as he surveyed Snape. "Nothing," he said simply. "James refuses to consider the possibility that it is Sirius who has turned against our cause. I have tried to subtly... hint at the possibility, you might say, but nothing will shake his faith in his friend." The old man sighed heavily. "James' judgment is usually right – we can only hope that it is so now."
Lunch at the Potters' passed quickly and quietly. None of the adults had much to say. All three were looking worried and grim. James in particular was nervous, especially about Sirius' safety. Would he really be all right, staying in a Muggle neighborhood? Knowing his best friend's fondness for mischief, James wouldn't put it past Sirius to wreak some havoc around town, which was the last thing that Sirius needed to do. It would draw unnecessary attention towards him.
Lily had cleared the last of the dishes of the table, and with a flick of her wand, the sponge automatically began scrubbing the dishes with soap on its own.
There was an awkward silence.
"Well, I supposed I'd better be going," Sirius said finally. "And there's no reason to look so depressed, I'll be back, you know?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "That's hardly a reason to be happy," she said jokingly.
"Very true, Lily, very true," Sirius agreed. He grabbed his trunk and began pulling it towards the door. He was nearly there before he turned around.
"Oh yeah," he said, sounding as if he had just remembered something. From a side table, he grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment. His hand shaking slightly, he wrote 'The Potters are at Godric's Hollow'. Finishing the last word with a flourish, he handed the parchment to James, who gave him a questioning look.
"In case someone needs to find you," Sirius explained, seeing his friend's confused expression. "Remus or Peter... or someone. You can give the paper to Dumbledore to show them... that way there won't be the risk of someone discovering where I am."
Lily nodded. "That's a good idea, actually. We'll send it over to Hogwarts later."
"Sure..." Sirius couldn't find anything else to say. He stood awkwardly in the Potter's doorway.
"Well..." he finally mumbled, his voice slightly hoarse. "I – I'll see you later then, shall I?"
Lily and James both nodded solemnly. Sirius thrust open the Potter's front door and dragged his trunk outside. Immediately, his face was hit with a gust of cold wind. He put the sunglasses on. Slowly, he began trudging outside, taking slow heavy steps and dragging the trunk along with him. He was just about to close the door behind him, when-
"Bye, Sirius."
Sirius grinned at the sad expression on Lily and James Potter's faces before shutting the door behind him. He had already gone down the front steps when he heard a shrill voice calling his name from the house he just left.
"Sirius Black! Get back here and button that shirt properly!" Lily's voice rang out.
Chuckling to himself, Sirius doubled back and re-entered the Potters' house, allowing Lily to properly button his shirt. Before leaving again, he grinned down at Harry.
"Bye Harry," he said, looking down at the baby.
Harry stared back up at Sirius. "Bye Pafoo."
Smiling to himself, Sirius walked down the Potter's front steps yet again. Harry had said his name. Pafoo. Padfoot.
"I trust you have news for me, Wormtail?"
Peter Pettigrew nervously fiddled with the sleeves of his black Death Eater robes. "Y-yes, Master," he said nervously, a bead of sweat forming along his temple.
"And?" Voldemort asked, a touch of impatience streaking through his cold voice as he stared condescendingly down at the man kneeling before him.
"Th-the Potters – they – they – they used Sirius as their Secret-Keeper, they – he..."
The red-eyed man looked amused. "So, it's definitely Black then. Interesting... continue, Wormtail."
Peter's throat felt oddly dry as he continued to speak. "They – they've already activated the Fidelius Charm, so I haven't b-been able to keep an eye on them," he stuttered awkwardly.
"I see," Voldemort said smoothly, his voice seeming devoid of emotion. "And Black?" he asked casually, staring down at Peter with those gleaming red eyes.
Another wave of tension washed over Peter as he realized that he did not know the answer to the Dark Lord's question. "He – he's probably gone into h-hiding as well, m-my Lord," he squeaked nervously, his fiddling growing more and more agitated as he quivered under Lord Voldemort's scrutiny.
"Where?"
"I don't know, M-master," Peter answered honestly.
Voldemort let the tense silence linger horribly in the air for a few seconds before speaking again.
"Find out."
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Author's Note
URGH! I hated this chapter... don't ask me why... but I didn't want to stray too far from the original version of this story because that would start a whole new project that I would probably end up abandoning. So I took the original text from the first version of this story and kind of... modified it? And added a few things... damn, that dialogue between Dumbledore and Snape was hard to write! And the one between Voldemort and Peter was even harder! Grr... I hate this chpater. =)
To Sailor Sol – yes, I have joined the Yahoo! group, and about printing PU... well, I never really meant to, but I was reading it at a time when FanFiction.Net kept going down so I printed the chapters out and read them from the comfort of my bed!
Well... er, read and review! Not sure if I can get the next chapter out soon, damned World History homework! I'm a freshman taking the equivalent of an AP class (it's a college textbook)! Ack! (Insert sad pathetic wail here.)
FYI: On November 1st, I will be changing my pen-name from 'Lovevanillacreme' to 'Sophocles' – just letting you all know =)
Also – I've posted a short vignette entitled 'Mass Breakout from Azkaban' about the reactions of various characters to the Azkaban breakout in OotP... read if you're interested, feedback always appreciated... =) - - what is it with me and the smiley faces [=)] today?
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"Then you should have died! ... Died rather than betray your friends, as we would have done for you!" – Sirius Black, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Scholastic Edition, pg. 375