DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to J.K Rowling and if you are reading this and think any different then St. Mungo's should be your next port of call.

The first part of this chapter happens previously to the events of last chapter.

Chapter 5: No Turning Back

2nd November 1981

Peter Pettigrew was scared out of his mind and terrified for his life. His Master had been defeated and it was sure to be sooner rather than later before Sirius told Albus that Peter was James and Lily's secret keeper and he was going to be sent to Azkaban and make friends with the Dementors.

Unbeknown to him, as he, along with the rest of the Death Eaters had spent the entire of yesterday waiting for the Dark Lord to return to his headquarters to boast about how easy the Potters were and then give out orders to his faithful. But that didn't happen and all the Death Eaters were in a wild panic about what they were going to do when it was revealed that Harry Potter, a 15 month old baby had defeated their Master. After that announcement over half of the Death eaters had thrown off their robes and masks and apparated away. "Probably trying to get their alibi's sorted out" Peter thought disgustedly at their lack of faithfulness. The rest had talked about what they were going to do and it was decided on that just the most faithful supporters who remained would carry on attacking but in an underground style and they would just bide their time waiting for their Master to return.

With his Master defeated, not killed though as the Dark Lord had told all his followers that he was close to being immortal and the killing curse wouldn't actually kill him completely. But he was gone and Peter feared that he would be a long time coming back. Peter also found out from Lucius and the informant that Sirius Black had been able to get to Harry first and now held custody of him with Remus Lupin at an unknown location.

"Sirius and Remus will kill me when they get hold of me!" Peter thought with dread filling his veins as it was not known to him yet and wouldn't be for a number of years that everyone thought Sirius and Remus to be was evil and Peter was suspected of nothing by the absolute majority save a select group of people.

Peter quickly ran to his bedroom and got his old school trunk, throwing out all of the stuff and quickly packing everything he needed to live on the run as he did not have the power of Sirius and Remus to conjure large objects. Once all his clothes were in, he went to the bathroom and got his entire potion supplies, shrinking them and then adding them to the trunk.

As he was rushing trying to think of the things he would need for his upcoming travels, he did not notice Frank Longbottom and two other Order members discreetly enter his flat and start their search for him.

Peter finally found them as when he was rushing out of his bedroom, trunk in hand he clattered into one of the Order members who he recognised as Dedalus Diggle who was sent sprawling across the floor.

"My, my Peter you should watch where you are going, you could hurt someone." Frank Longbottom told the dazed man on the floor that now knew that this was going to be a lot harder than he anticipated but he still had his surprises. "Where are you planning on going by the way, anywhere nice" Frank continued, his glare now stone cold as he saw the now open trunk that Peter was hauling and the contents of it. In Frank's mind that proved the man had something to tell that he wasn't willing to.

Peter and Diggle both made there way to theirs feet's, Peter more cautiously as he was thinking of what he was going to do. "Great, just great. I might just say to Frank, Oh by the way, I'm not going anywhere in particular just as far from Sirius, Remus and the rest of the Order as possible as I was the one that betrayed James and Lily." Peter sarcastically thought.

"I am just going to travel a little bit around England, the last couple of days has been very hard on me you know, I feel like a part of me is missing!" Peter replied in a sickly sweet voice. He saw Frank's gaze soften slightly but he was still unconvinced. "Damn" Peter thought.

"You have an awful lot of things in that trunk for just travelling for a short while Peter. No matter though, all we need you to do is come to Hogwarts and answer a few questions then you may be going on your travels." Frank told the man in an even voice although he believed the only place Peter Pettigrew was going to after Hogwarts was Azkaban.

"Why is that Frank, I just need to get away from it all for a while. I will answer your questions when I come back." Peter managed to stutter out as he was by now looking extremely nervous.

"Sorry Peter, but Sirius Black has told us something very interesting that we need to know if it is true or not so if you'll be coming, Albus is waiting." Frank said in almost a cold voice while he was absentmindedly twirling his wand through his fingers

Peter had caught the wrong impression, in which they all believed Sirius's story about him and just needed to confirm it and then he would be sent to the Dementors, but it was the other way round. Albus had only agreed to him being questioned just to prove that to the last few doubters that Sirius Black was the secret keeper and therefore betrayed James and Lily. Peter didn't know this and got ready to make one hell of a exit.

"Come on Peter we have not got all day." Frank menacingly told the quivering man as he was now growing bored with the situation. Frank then decided to hurry along the process and conjured ropes round Peter and proceeded to drag the man outside.

When he got to the door and opened it, the impossible happened, Peter Pettigrew just vanished out of thin air or that was what Frank thought, as he did not see the rat creep past him.

"How did he do it" Frank wondered in shock. "There was anti-apparating wards over the whole of his flat." Frank had personally made sure of it. Seeing the stunned faces of the other two members of the Order who had just witnesses the same event, Frank cursed loudly and profusely, that was the second person who had escaped him in two days.

Then with a swish of the wand, Frank brought the anti-apparating barriers down. A loud crack resounded as three apparated away. Frank although peeved very bad about losing Pettigrew, he was sure that at least this would prove him right, no innocent man would run away from a harmless situation.

After waiting a minute Peter Pettigrew transformed, then shrinking his trunk and placing it in his robe pocket he re-transformed into his Animagus form and proceeded out of his flat not to return for may years. He had a mission, he was setting out intent on finding and restoring his Master to his former glory and together they would kill Black and Lupin and make the rest of that pathetic Order pay.

25th December 1981

Sirius, Remus and Harry were settling into life at Hide and Seek cottage or as Sirius had nicknamed it "the last stronghold of pranks". All the occupants had taken the death of James and Lily Potter very hard but in the two months they had been in the cottage. The pair of adults, if you could call them that had gotten their grief and mourning over and done with mainly and were now focused on raising Harry to his full potential. They knew that Harry was going to be one hell of a wizard as he had already started to show accidental magic at the age of one!

It happened on the 6th of December when Sirius had once again begun tickling his Godson mercilessly but unlike all other times Sirius had suddenly gone as stiff as a board and fell flat on his face. Remus shot up worried and was stunned, shocked and delighted to see that Harry had somehow put Sirius in a full body bind and the only part of him moving were his eyes which were shocked and also pleading Remus to undo the spell. Harry not knowing what he had done was still delighted that he had stopped his Godfather tickling him decided to get some revenge on him, if the baby knew what that meant. He got up and walking over to the prone form of his Godfather proceeding to jump heavily on him shouting at the top of his little lungs.

" I GOT PAHFOT, I GOT PAHFOT!" Harry was shrieking and to add insult to injury was jumping up and down on the helpless form of his Godfather. Remus was by now on the floor tears evident in his eyes, in hysterics at the actions of Harry and at the predicament Sirius had got himself into. After a few minutes Remus had went and picked Harry up who had looked at him with a sad look which sent the man into laughter. Needless to say that after that day Sirius had stopped tickling Harry as much as he used to.

Since the day where Sirius and Remus had decorated the house they had finished furnishing the house with all the non-conjurable items after a hurried trip to Diagon Alley on the part of Remus. He had to go to Diagon alley after the pair realised that they had no muggle money. So Remus placed under the strongest glamour charms the pair could muster made his way to Diagon Alley disguised fully. He was under so many charms the pair thought that it must have been a world record for the number of glamour charms worn, apart from the girl in the year above them in Hogwarts who they were sure invented her own makeup charms. If you did a revealing spell on he it was like a rainbow, they were sure Hogwarts had fewer spells on it.

Not knowing if they would fool everyone, the pair of marauders had made a Portkey in the form of a ring that once removed from Remus's hand would take him back to his bedroom in the cottage if the charms failed.

It was a trip that caused no problems. Remus went to Diagon Alley with his trunk of gold securely fastened round his neck and once the numerous purchases needed had been bought including plenty of furniture and kitchen equipment, new robes for Remus, plenty of books for Harry and crates of Butterbeer and Firewhiskey. The last two were mainly for Sirius who loved to relax and drink but also like Remus had trouble sleeping on occasions, thought they might help.

After that was the main challenge was a trip to Gringotts which was going to be the hardest part of the trip as Goblins sensed magic differently to humans. Any suspicions they had went when Remus enlarged the trunk and proceeded to ask for it to be exchanged to Muggle money. After being sure he was being ripped off but not going to push his luck, Remus exited Gringotts with £60,000 in British currency and going down a side alley used the Portkey and got home.

That was the second from last time one of them had left the house and today, Christmas Day to be precise the trio was having the best of times. They were playing games, drinking Butterbeer, eating plentiful amounts of food and the main event being the pair giving Harry as many presents as they possibly could. Harry was delighted but seemed to like the wrapping paper the presents came in as much as the presents. After he had opened everything and was surrounded by mountains of wrapping paper he squealed.

"Uncle Moony, Uncle Padfooh, me want more!" Harry almost pouted at his "uncles" while still not being able to say his Godfathers name but Remus was sure that the child just did it to wind up his Godfather.

"Now Harry you have got loads of presents, you should be saying thank you to us." Sirius mock sternly told the pouting child.

"Tank you, can you wreed to me pwleese." Harry said with a puppy dog look on his eyes as he handed the book to his Godfather, who had instantly melted at the look he recognised as his own favourite. The bouncing child handed him one of the books that Remus had got him in Diagon Alley. It was about a child who knew nothing about magic until one day he got a letter about a school named Hogwarts. It had many adventures and was written for young magical children.

Sirius and Remus had decided that although Harry was not living in the Wizarding World, the pair would try and make him as comfortable with it as possible and therefore had been telling the child many stories about different parts and people concerning the Wizarding Word. They thought that by doing this Harry would be able to do magic easier as he would understand why he could to do it a lot more. Harry loved the stories and giggled and squealed whenever a good story was told.

As the trio settled down to watch the television that Sirius had went down in disguise to the main town and purchased. He did this as he used to love the one that James and Lily had and he spent a tremendous amount of money buying a large colour one though they could easily afford it. From this and through the help of his "Uncles Moony and Padfoot" as Harry had been instructed to call them as they rarely used their first names in the presence of each other, Harry's vocabulary had started to increase, he could now say about 60 words. This was astounding but Sirius and Remus had realised that after the "never again" incident as that was what Sirius called being put in a body bind by a one year old, Harry was nothing but a bag full of surprises.

About 7:30 once Harry had fallen asleep after about four stories from Remus whose turn it was tonight, he entered the living room once more to find Sirius reading "100 best public pranks ever" in an armchair. But once Sirius saw him they both rose and proceeded to the back garden where everyday for a month after Harry had gone to sleep and a sonorous charm place on his room, the remaining marauders duelled against each other to keep themselves fit and in shape.

It became regular that the pair would try out new charms that they had read out on each other but no curses were aloud. There were sometimes stipulations set on the duels like no shields, wandless magic only which gave Sirius a huge advantage or first person transfigured wins but tonight it was just an ordinary duel.

They faced off against each other and bowed and Remus started the duel after both men had wandlessly put shield charms round themselves.

"Constringo Constrixi Constrictum" Remus called out an advanced binding charm that was deadly fast sped towards Sirius who instead of testing his shield against such a powerful charm rolled to the left and barked

"Everro" Sirius spoke and while saying the incantation he waved his other arm in a motion similar to one stretching though Remus knew his buddy better. Remus with his werewolf enhanced agility dove to the right as the sweeping curse and whatever wandless curses Sirius sent went harmlessly flying past.

The duel continued this way for around quarter of an hour, the charms steadily getting more powerful and advanced with both men now sweating profusely at the dodging and the strain using so much magic put on a body. That was until Remus took a gamble.

"Nitidus Necto" Remus bellowed moving his wand in a complex pyramid motion while staying on the move all the time.

"Protego" Sirius yelled quickly not knowing what charm Remus had cast.

Unfortunately for him the charm Remus cast was an highly advanced unblockable binding charm that caused rings of incredibly strong flowers to bind tightly around Sirius whose wand clattered to the floor while Remus triumphantly made his way over but just before he picked up Sirius's wand he heard:

"Accio" Sirius wandlessly summoned his wand back and then before Remus could get back into the duel cried "Taceo Tacuitacitum" and then proceeded to undo the previous spell that Remus cast.

Remus though he tried couldn't get out of the way quick enough and ended up being hit with a charm that Sirius had learned in Auror training, the ultimate silence charm. When it hits a person only the person who cast the charm can take it off.

Sirius now looking like the cat that got the cream pranced over to Remus singing in an horrible off key voice a Muggle track that he had heard previously and liked. It was one that drove Remus crazy as Sirius would sing it in a high pitched voice and adapt the words to his own liking

Remus had an idea, it would work and Scooby Doo over there wouldn't know what hit him.. Remus drawing all his power waved his hand as in defeat and thought with all his might, as a wandless incantationless charm was the hardest type of magic to perform

"Subsisto Perfundo". Remus waited with baited breath as his head spun as the mild charm which was not as strong as Remus would of liked made its way to the unsuspecting Sirius who was prancing closer to Remus with every second that past.

"Padfoot is the best, Better than all the rest, Better than Remus is, Better than he could be. Oh I'm simply the…" Sirius suddenly stopped, his dreadful Tina Turner rendition finished as he was frozen solid in place but with all his senses intact and then suddenly out of nowhere hundreds of little ice cold water jets started spraying the now squealing and cursing man.

Remus chuckled to himself as he got his bearings, and started walking to the house to make a cup of tea, he would let the new water feature stay out there for a little while as a late Christmas present. "How he must like that" was the last thought Remus had before with one last chuckle he stepped in to the warm cottage and out of the cold night.

AN

A Transitional chapter more action hopefully coming in the next couple of chapters.

Thanks to all the reviewers who gave me input about how powerful Harry should be, the ones from Bill and kateydidnt made interesting reading especially.

GY: that is what I thought, not much if any romance will be involved and your suggestion was close to what I had thought about but more about that in later chapters.

AFI-Boy: what can I say, thank you, I really don't think my writing is that good but you're the boss! About all the questions you will have to find out for yourself but one thing I will tell you is that by the time the story is finished Harry should be an of age wizard!

Do you, my faithful reviewers reckon I need a beta reader, I am undecided? If you all say yes, that my story is hard to read I will try to get one but that means chapters will probably be up one or two days later than usual so let me know. The decision will probably be made in a couple of chapters.

Oh and by the way, I've gone back and dated the scenes as the story will jump somewhat in future chapters and it will be much easier if you knew the time scale.

Next chapter will be Harry's second birthday, present ideas welcomed. After that the chapters will start to get longer in their time difference.

Thanks to all my reviewers.

Cheers

Halstead