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Falling Stars

Prologue

James was holding the baby Harry in his arms and singing softly to him as he rocked him gently. Harry had fallen asleep by the end of the verse and James placed him carefully in his crib. As he turned around to leave the room, he saw Sirius standing in the doorway, smiling strangely at him. Blushing slightly, he walked out of the room and closed the door quietly behind him.

'What are you doing here?' he asked softly.

'Can't a godfather check in on his godson?'

James snorted. 'You just spent the entire day with Harry. I thought you'd gone home already.'

'Ok, so I wanted to check on you,' Sirius admitted.

'How touching,' James said dryly. 'You know I'm fine, Sirius. So are Lily and Harry. You're being paranoid.'

'Maybe I am. So what?' Sirius retorted.

James sighed and stated down the stairs. Sirius followed.

'You can't keep on ignoring this, James,' Sirius continued their earlier argument, making his friend stop halfway down the stairs. 'It's going to happen. You have to go into hiding.'

James sighed again and continued down the stairs. They went to sit on the couch in the sitting room.

'Have you been listening to me, James?' Sirius demanded. 'You have to go into hiding!'

'I know.'

'Then why don't you?'

James was silent for a minute, then he looked over at Sirius and ran a hand distractedly through his hair. 'I'm not too keen on this idea. If we do this, everyone is going to know that you're our secret-keeper. Every death-eater in the country will be after your head. I could never forgive myself if anything were to happen to you on my account.'

'And I could never forgive myself if I allowed anything to happen to you, or Lily, or Harry,' Sirius shot back. 'Every day you stay out in the open like this, you're putting yourselves at greater risk. You're putting Harry at greater risk! If the prophecy is real, we can't let anything happen to Harry. He could be our only hope. Frank and Alice have already used the charm. Besides that, Harry is your son. You son, James. It's your duty to protect him, and it's my duty as his godfather to help you.'

James leaned back in his chair, breaking eye contact with Sirius.

'Please, James. Please, use the charm,' Sirius begged.

'I know what I have to do, Sirius,' James said flatly, 'and I will do my duty. That doesn't mean that I have to place anyone else in unnecessary danger. I don't want you to get hurt, Padfoot.'

'Just as I won't let you get hurt, Prongs. I made a promise, back in sixth year. Do you remember? I promised that I'd never let them hurt any of my friends. I promised James. Don't make me break my promise,' Sirius pleaded.

They sat in silence for a while, then James spoke very softly, defeated.

'We'll go and see Dumbledore tomorrow.'

Albus Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, his faint sigh the only sign of his weariness. His eyes showed no sign of twinkling as they looked between James, Sirius and Lily, who was holding Harry.

'You are sure?' he asked quietly.

'James, you can't do this,' Lily said, equally quiet but with much force. 'I couldn't stand it if something were to happen to you.'

'Listen to her, James. She's always right, and that's especially so in this case. Don't be a fool!' Sirius exploded.

'Why are you so eager to be our secret keeper anyway, Sirius?' James questioned.

Sirius stared at his best friend for a moment, speechless. 'If you think that I -'

'I don't know what to think,' James interrupted. 'The thing is, only you, Remus, Peter and Skye are in a position to give out the information that the death eaters have got. I don't want to think that it's you. I trust you, Sirius. But I also trust the others. I'm clearly wrong about one of you,' he broke off and cleared his throat before continuing. 'I have to protect my family. I can't afford to be wrong, and I'm not willing to gamble with the lives of my wife and child.'

Lily looked tearful. 'You'll be killed,' she whispered.

James pulled his chair closer to Lily's and took one of her hands in his own. 'I love you, Lils. And I love our Harry too. I can't let you get hurt.'

'Don't you think we love you too, James?'

James ran a hand through his hair. 'Of course I do.'

'Then let me do this, James,' said Sirius. 'I don't have any family or anything else that I'm tied to. If I go, the only thing people will lose is a friend and an auror. If you go, Harry will lose a father, Lily will lose a husband, your parents will lose a son, the ministry will lose a damn fine auror, and we'll all lose a great friend. You need to live.'

'That's like saying that your life is worthless next to mine Sirius,' James snapped. 'It isn't.'

'You have more to live for.'

'Who's to say that you won't have a family in the future?'

'We're talking about the present, not the future,' Sirius growled.

'So what?'

'So stop being such a stubborn twat!'

'There may be another way,' Dumbledore said, calling a halt to the conversation as it dissolved into bickering.

'Another way?' Lily repeated.

'There is a variant on the Fidelius Charm,' he continued slowly, 'which hides the secret keeper as well as the secret.'

'How does it work?' Lily asked immediately.

'It is much the same as the original charm, with a secret being concealed within a person. With this new charm, the secret keeper may also be hidden by the same means without having any ill effect on the original secret.'

They thought this over for a moment before Sirius spoke up. 'So the secret could be doubly protected this way?'

Dumbledore nodded.

'What if I was the secret keeper for Lily and Harry, and Lily for me?' James pondered. 'Would that work?'

Dumbledore nodded again, hesitantly this time. 'It will be dangerous. The two charms will have to be cast at precisely the same moment to avoid the magic of each of the charms opposing the other. Technically, it is possible.'

Sirius grinned. 'That would be like hiding a secret within a secret, which is hidden within the first secret, which is hidden within the -'

'Yes,' Dumbledore cut in before Sirius could get carried away.

'I think that's the best idea anyone's had all day,' Sirius said immediately.

'It sounds good, professor,' James said carefully, 'but what are the drawbacks? Would we be able to keep in contact with anyone, or would we be completely isolated until the threat has passed?'

'Initially, I think it would be wiser to keep entirely to yourselves. We know that there is someone close to you who is passing on information. Once we have found out who the spy is, it ought to be safe to arrange meetings with a small number of people. Only those whom you specifically tell about the charm will be able to find your hiding place. If, for example, once the immediate threat of the spy has passed, you were to arrange to meet Sirius here, you would each, as secret keepers, have to cast the fidelius occulus charm to allow him, and only him, to be privy to your secret,' Dumbledore explained.

'But if we cut ourselves off, how will we know when the spy has been caught?' Lily asked logically.

Dumbledore thought for a moment, then summoned two paperweights. He cast a quick charm over both of them, then handed one to James. 'When I activate my paperweight, yours will glow green. I will do this when I am sure that we have caught the spy. It will then be safe for you to contact me and we can discuss where to go from there.'

James stared briefly at the paperweight before pocketing it. 'Sounds like a plan. What do you think Lily? Sirius?'

Lily nodded, biting her lip.

'Sirius?'

'I think it's the best idea anyone's come up with so far,' Sirius said hesitantly.

'But?' James prompted.

'Nothing. Just me being a worry-wart. I'm sure it will work.'

With a nod, James turned back to Dumbledore. 'How do we do this?'

Dumbledore opened his desk drawer and pulled out a few pieces of parchment, covered in his flowing script. 'This is everything that you will need to know in order to use this charm. I'm sure that between the two of you, you will be able to manage it.'

James accepted the notes, folding them and tucking them into his pocket, and they left the office in silence.