Previously in the Darklyverse: Snape told Dumbledore about Trelawney's prophecy and about Voldemort targeting the Potters, who went into hiding. Lily and James moved into James's parents' manor but planned to move out as protection. Sirius reluctantly moved in with Lockhart. Sirius and Remus broke up (for real this time).

xx

February 25th, 1980: Sirius Black

It's a good thing that they moved Lily, James, and the whole rest of the Order out of Helene's Manor right away, because Dumbledore got word about the prophecy late on Saturday night, and by Monday evening when Sirius gets off work, the whole place has been blown to smithereens. He knows that James and Lily are only going to be staying with Sirius for a few weeks tops as he tries to find them a suitable house to move into, but he's glad that he gets to have this time with them, though he wishes it were under better circumstances.

James and Lily have both quit their jobs. James says he's not especially going to miss doing interior design at Fluke-Nettles, but Lily seems pretty broken up about giving up the place in the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry that it took her so long to apply for and finally start. "I know it's better to be safe and out of work than working my dream job and chancing death, but it's hitting me hard, to be honest," she's telling Sirius a few minutes after he gets home. They're all sitting in Sirius's bedroom—since Lockhart now occupies the room that used to be the spare, the three of them are jammed into Sirius's room, and James and Lily are uncomfortably sharing a twin bed.

"I'll just be glad when we get you into a place of your own and do a proper Fidelius Charm. It's making me antsy having you two here and knowing that you're not protected." Unfortunately for them, Fidelius Charms aren't exactly a one-and-done—it takes days until they fully take effect, and they're hoping to have the Potters out of here and into their own house before that time.

"But you said the house hunt is going okay, right, Padfoot?" asks James.

"Well, two of the places I looked at were complete trash, but I liked the third. It's this little cottage in Godric's Hollow. Three bedrooms—one for you both, one that you can use as a nursery for little Harry, and a spare."

"What's Godric's Hollow?" Lily asks.

Sirius says, "Oh, it's this little village in Devon. It's mostly residential, but there's a church and a few shops and stuff. It's not an all-wizarding dwelling like Hogsmeade is, but it's got a community of wizarding families living in it. Dumbledore grew up there, although of course he doesn't live there anymore."

"Sounds quaint."

"It is quaint," James confirms. "I went there sometimes as a kid for playdates—Mum and Dad had a couple friends who lived there. Very charming place."

Lily turns to James and says, "Is it worth us venturing out to see it in person before we make the sale? I don't want to do anything that's going to jeopardize our safety."

"Nah. I trust you, Padfoot."

"All right, then. I'll put in an offer on it tomorrow, and hopefully we can get you moved in by the end of the week." James is giving Sirius the gold for it so that Sirius can buy the place under his own name, making it a little less obvious where the Potters are moving to before the Fidelius Charm they intend to cast kicks in.

There's a crack, and they all hear Lockhart's voice ring out, "Darling roommate! I'm home!"

"Hullo," says Sirius gruffly. He hopes that his tone of voice conveys that Lockhart should leave them all well alone, but his footsteps thud closer until he finally pushes Sirius's bedroom door open and stands in the doorway beaming at them.

"Potters! Can I say what a pleasure it has been to share our humble abode with the both of you?"

"Thanks, Lockhart," says Lily, sounding like she's holding in a laugh.

"And will you be staying for much longer? You didn't say they'd be here for more than one night, Black."

"Just a few more days. We're hoping for a week more at most," Sirius answers. "But—can you do me a favor and not tell anyone that they're staying with us? It won't be for much longer, I promise."

Lockhart appears to consider it for a moment. "Generally speaking, that's quite all right, but on Friday night, I am having a few friends over—you may want to find another place to stay that night if you don't wish for anyone to know that you're here."

"We can figure something else out," says James.

"Excellent. It's too bad you're here this week and not next month! You could have had my bedroom all to yourselves."

"Wait, you're leaving? You never told—"

"Relax, relax, Black. I won't be gone terribly long! You'll have your favorite roommate back soon enough. I'm taking a leave of absence from the Ministry and traveling!"

"Traveling where?" Lily asks politely.

"Wherever the road takes me, my friend! You know, I must say, your leaving your career at St. Mungo's to campaign for Minister of Magic truly inspired me to follow my passion for seeing the world. We adventurers ought to be out there following our dreams!"

Lily covers her mouth with her hand. "Thanks, Lockhart," she repeats, though this time, she's controlling her laughter better.

Since he's able to make an all-cash offer, he wins his bid for the cottage in Godric's Hollow within the following day and closes on Wednesday after frantically converting piles of James's gold to Muggle money at Gringotts. James's vault looks just as massive even after Sirius has pulled the equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds, and Sirius once again marvels at just how much wealth James was born into. The Blacks are wealthy, after all, but they're not anywhere near that wealthy, and it's not like Sirius is inheriting anything besides what Uncle Alphard left him.

He helps Lily and James get moved in—with almost all their belongings burned up by the Death Eaters earlier that week, there's not a lot of stuff to transport over there—and then begins to perform the Fidelius Charm to protect their location. "Remember to drink some of this potion every morning for the next five days," he reminds them, "and you should be fully immune. I'll keep checking in with you, all right? Every day."

"You better," says James. "You picked a good house, but I think I'm going to feel like I'm going crazy cooped up in here. I mean, how long does this go on? Until Harry is born? Longer?"

"Let's just take it one day at a time, James," says Lily softly, tapping his forearm. "Pads, won't you stay for dinner? Although—we might have to ask you to help us stock our new kitchen."

So Sirius makes a quick run to the nearest grocer's—luckily, there's one right in Godric's Hollow—and helps James make ribs with pineapple juice. They eat their dinner quietly for the first few minutes, and then Lily bursts out, "I just can't believe him. I can't believe he would do this to us, and the worst part is—I think I always did know he would be capable of something like this. Of joining up with Voldemort, of feeding him information to kill innocent people, like…"

James grabs her hand and squeezes it, but Lily doesn't appear to register it. "And you know what the worst part is?" she goes on. "The worst part is that he only got cold feet because it was me. If that prophecy had been talking about anyone else in the world, he would have been fine with Voldemort killing its subjects. If Voldemort had assumed it was about Alice and Frank instead of us, Sev would have been fine with them dying. He's only ever cared about doing the right thing if it happened to coincide with getting into my good graces, and I hate myself for not recognizing that about him years before I did."

"He was your friend, Lily," says James quietly. "We all have blind spots, and it's not your fault that he was yours."

"I mean, you saw it. You both saw through him as early as our first ride on the Hogwarts Express."

Sirius shakes his head. "The kid Prongs and I saw on that train was an easy target, that's all. We didn't know he was capable of something like this until much, much later."

James adds, "And it doesn't mean he didn't have his good points. The real picture of Snape was probably somewhere in between ours and yours."

"And now he wants to join the full ranks of the Order as if he can be trusted with that amount of information? He's been working for Voldemort for years, probably, and he thinks he can just turn around and be accepted here because he regrets one thing Voldemort wants to do?"

Sirius says, "Who says Snape—?"

"Dumbledore told us," mutters James. "He wants to join the Order, and he wants to see Lily."

"Well, he's not getting into the Order, and he's not getting me," says Lily viciously. "I don't care if he saves the whole bloody wizarding world. I'm never trusting him like that again. Not ever again."

"No one's asking you to," says Sirius. "And if you don't want him to know where you are, I'll never tell him, so that he'll never have the ability to come and bother you here."

"He'd better not. I just… I can't believe our whole lives got upended in one night by this. By him. It's his fault my life is over."

James says, "Lily, hon, our lives aren't over. I know it sucks that we're trapped in here—"

"Our lives are absolutely over! We had to give up our home, our jobs, our ability to have any kind of a normal social life—and for what? What happens if this drags out for years and Voldemort keeps getting stronger? What do we do about sending Harry to school when he's eleven if we're all still in hiding? How are we supposed to raise him when he can't leave the house? What about—"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," says Sirius quickly. "We have no way of knowing how long this war is going to last or how long Voldemort will be a threat to you and to all of us."

"But that's where this is going, isn't it? It's not like there's an end in sight. It's not like Dumbledore has a damn clue what Voldemort is up to."

"We don't know that," says James. "We know Dumbledore doesn't always tell us the full story. We learned that back at Hogwarts."

"I'm just saying," Lily says, "he'd better have a plan. He'd better have some kind of idea what he's doing and how he's going to stop this because I can't… I don't want to do this anymore. I don't. Not like this."

Sirius can't help but think that, if Lily goes into hiding with that attitude, she's not going to last long before she drives herself mad. He wishes there were something more he could do to help his best friends besides be their Secret-Keeper and bring them their dinner every night, but if that's the extent of his ability to help, then he'll do it for as long as they need it.

He wishes Remus were here. Remus would know what to say.

They're at least back on speaking terms, sort of. They've had orb duty together a couple of times in the last month, and they managed to sit together without getting into an argument every time they were awake watching it together. Sirius doesn't know where he stands with Remus, but he knows where Remus stands with him: he'd do bloody anything for him, and he misses him so much, even the physical parts he'd have thought he wouldn't miss.

Maybe next time they see each other, Sirius will ask how he's doing, he tells himself once again. Maybe they'll have a conversation, and they'll find their way back to one another, and they'll be happy.

Or maybe it's just not in the cards for them.