Timeline of events: (mainly to keep things straight in my own head...)

October 31st- around 10-10:15 PM, James and Lily die.

10:25, Dumbledore tries to seal their wills and claim Harry through Gringotts.

10:30, Sirius arrives at the house and takes Harry from the ruins after 15 minute argument with Hagrid, goes straight to the bank. Harry is seen by Curse-Breaker's and Healers, letters are sent to Lord Black and Sirius is shown to a room.

November 1st- between midnight and dawn, Lord Black comes to bank, learns the situation, goes to the Ministry. Lawyers and Aurors argued, agreement made for Sirius to be questioned. The Goblins kick all Ministry officials out of the Potter home, except for the Unspeakables. Lawyers stop media from surrounding Harry. Walburga is banished.

11 AM, Aurors question Sirius, he sends off letters to the Longbottoms.

1 PM, Aurors arrest Peter Pettigrew.

November 2nd- Fight in the Wizengamot chamber

It is currently November 3


He didn't understand.

He'd told them what happened, the boy defeated the Dark Lord, he'd even given them a name to call them by. He'd seen and heard wizards celebrating and raising their glasses to the Boy-Who-Lived (thanks to his rumor-mongering), but there wasn't a single mention of it in the newspapers.

Why was nothing going right? Tom was gone for now, everything should be going his way.

Why wasn't it?

Lord Black stood silently, staring down at his great-nephew in sorrow. James Potter may not have been raised a Black (officially), but he was one by blood, just as much as he was a Potter. And he was powerful.

Yet another young life taken by a war.

He looked at James' wife, Lily. A Muggleborn, but a powerful and highly intelligent one by all counts. When he'd helped Grinder and Sharpaxe start to sort through the contents of the cottage (they'd mostly started on documents and such for now) so they could put things away in the vaults, he'd been surprised to see a notice from the Charms guild accepting her apprenticeship to the most well known Charms Master in the world, as well as her almost completed research for her Mastery. He was going to see about submitting it for a Mastery granted posthumously. Her work was very good, and he was sure that somebody would be able to complete it. They would make sure that she got the credit she was due.

He would make sure of it.

"Ah, Lord Black, I apologize, I was not expecting you back so soon." The wizard in charge of the morgue stopped in the doorway, surprised, when he saw his visitor.

"Did you gather what I told you to?" He demanded.

"Yes, my Lord." The man sketched a short bow and came forward, pulling the box out of his pocket. "Unfortunately, I helped Lord Potter prepare his parents, so I would be able to assist you if you wish." He offered his services, it may have been several years ago now, but he thought he remembered what James Potter did well enough. According to Potter family traditions, this was best done by family, but he knew Lord Black shared blood with James, so it would count well enough. It wasn't like his son was capable of doing it, being as young as he was.

Arcturus eyed the man in front of him before he silently took the box, opening it to reveal the pure white robes he'd ordered that very morning (it was a rush order, but the quality was no worse for it), stitched with runes in gold thread, soaked in herbs. Sitting on top of the robes were a crown and tiara, simply made because of the short time-span, of gold and silver respectively. He knew for a fact that Dorea's burial tiara had been encrusted with diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems. Unfortunately, wizarding customs meant the funeral rites needed to be held as soon as possible, Dorea's had been made a long time ago. Since James was so young, he hadn't even thought to have his made, he probably hadn't thought he would have need of it for many, many years to come.

Another box was laid on the table, opening it revealed James and Lily's wands. Potter funeral rites demanded that the wands be buried with their wielder. If they couldn't be recovered, then one of the other family members (usually one of the deceased's children) gave up theirs instead. Most families kept the wands, he knew for a fact that there was a large display case in the main vault with family wands. He himself had used one of them before he got his own wand upon his entrance to Hogwarts, he still used it as a back-up.

The Potter family was always... different. They didn't always seem to play by the same rules as the rest of the world. Perhaps that was why Regulus told him the Dark Pretender wanted James Potter on his side so badly, almost as badly as he wanted the Black family. Perhaps that was why Dumbledore had sunk his claws into James so deeply.

"Very well. Let's begin." He said heavily. He didn't have a lot of time before he had to go back to playing politics, but he wanted to do this right, and not rush it.


"Bombarda!" She yelled, blasting the door open with glee. The three men with her scrambled into the house and spread out, searching for their targets.

Five minutes later, they reconvened in the entryway, confused and frustrated.

"They're not here." Bellatrix said, frustrated. The Longbottom's were the Dark Lord's secondary targets, and it was well known how close they were with the primary targets.

It was her hope that the Longbottom's would know something about their Lord's disappearance.

"Let's get out of here before somebody shows up." Rabastan scowled, glaring around at the room.

"Wait, let's leave behind a little present." Rodolphus grinned, a look shared by Barty. Even if they didn't get the information they needed, they could at least finish what the Dark Lord started with the Potters.

They didn't see the House-elf standing in the shadows watching, or see the small creature pop out of the room, raising the alarm at the Auror office.


"Sirius." Alice rushed forward when Grinder opened the door to the room Sirius was still occupying.

"Alice." Sirius barely had time to greet her before he was drawn into a bone-crushing hug. "Ally, need to breathe." He gasped after a moment.

"Oh, are you alright?" She asked, concerned, scanning him from head to toe.

"I'm fine." He gave her a soft smile and turned when Harry recognized his godmother, and abandoned his toys in favor of her.

"Ali!" He squealed. He hadn't seen her in forever!

She laughed and scooped him up. "There's the little monster!" She teased, hugging and tickling him, earning a flood of giggles while Frank greeted Sirius. Her tickling had the added benefit of allowing her to scan him, too, in a way that wouldn't worry him.

"How are you holding up?" Frank asked Sirius after giving the man time to say hello to Neville before releasing his son to be dragged to the toys by Harry, who was thrilled to see another of his favorite people.

"Oh, you know." Sirius shrugged helplessly. "My grandfather has been surprisingly helpful about it, but. I just- I can't believe they're gone." He looked lost for a moment before Harry looked back at him and his expression lightened for him. "What am I going to tell Harry when he gets older?"

"Tell him the truth, that they were amazing people." Frank advised. "And you're not alone, you have us, and Remus. Where is he, anyway?" He asked, looking around, surprised. He would have expected Remus to be here for his cub.

"Still with the wolf packs. He ah- I guess he went a little feral when he was told the news, so the Welsh, I think? The Alpha of the pack he's with is keeping him there for a while until he calms down and isn't a danger anymore. I was going to join them for the Full Moon in a few days if you want to stay with Harry."

"We'd be happy to." Frank clapped him on the shoulder and went to play with the babies while Alice came to bully Sirius into eating some more.


"Grandfather." Sirius murmured, not looking up from Harry, playing with Nidget. The cat had turned up at the Potter House in Godric's Hollow earlier that day while a warding team was responding to an alert in the wards they'd had monitoring the house. Luckily for the cat, one of the team had been kind enough to catch him and bring him to the bank for Harry.

The Longbottoms had just been summoned to the Ministry, alarmed to learn that their safe-house had been broken into while they were at the bank. Sirius hoped that everything was alright, and resolved to ask somebody later on what happened.

"Sirius. It has been a while." Arcturus said, sinking down in a chair with a sigh. He was getting too old for all of this. He, too, watched Harry play with the cat for a bit. He was hoping to ensure that the first conversation with his grandson in years did not start or end in an argument. Of course, with his grandson one never knew.

"Yeah, well. It was made clear I wasn't welcome." Sirius snorted bitterly.

"By your mother. Not by me." Arcturus replied sharply.

"You didn't bother to write after. Your silence said a lot." Sirius shot back with a glare. He quickly soothed his facial features when Harry turned to him, curious about the change in his tone.

He smiled slightly and waited until Harry's attention returned to the cat, who was handling his attention surprisingly well considering the cat usually wanted nothing to do with the boy while he was awake.

"Charlus asked me not to." Arcturus said when the boy was distracted again. "He said to give you space and time. Then he and Dorea died, and you were grieving with young James. It didn't seem like the time to approach." He hadn't wanted to make the situation with his hot-tempered and bitter grandson worse. "Then the fake Dark Lord started his recruitment pitch, wanting the Black Family to commit, and I heard you were part of Dumbledore's Order." He shrugged, surprising Sirius, who finally tore his attention away from Harry.

"What did you say?" He asked curiously. Voldemort was not known for taking 'no' as an answer.

"I said I would commit if every single Black joined his cause." Arcturus said with a ghost of a smile.

"Which would have never happened." Sirius muttered with a smirk. Not only was he never going to join the Death Eaters, which his grandfather knew (and he suspected Voldemort did, too), but he could name at least three aunts or uncles that had also made their opinion of Voldemort clear.

Needless to say, their faces and names were no longer on the tapestry in Grimmauld Place.

Walburga had not approved of any less then a glowing or gushing discussion of her beloved Dark Lord. Something that she made sure Sirius knew, often painfully.

"I just got done preparing them." Arcturus said after a moment of smirking at Voldemort's reaction to being essentially told 'no'. It was only because not even Voldemort was crazy enough to get the Black Family after him, that let Arcturus walk away from that meeting intact.

Sirius didn't even need to ask to know what he was talking about now. He breathed in sharply and exhaled slowly. "Oh?" He asked carefully. "How did they-" He cut himself off, unable to bring himself to ask.

"They look good." Arcturus assured him. "The funeral is tomorrow. Are you going to bring Harry?"

Sirius sighed. "I don't know. I want him to say good-bye, but he's not going to understand. It might make it more confusing for him, maybe more difficult for him to adjust." He also didn't want to leave Harry alone the next day, or with a stranger, and he didn't know who he could trust right now with the boy that wouldn't already be at the funeral.

"What about your werewolf friend?" He asked.

"He's being worked by the Welsh Alpha so he doesn't go feral." Sirius sighed. "I'm leaving Harry with Frank and Alice for the Full Moon so I can be with him, hopefully a pack member nearby will help calm him down."

"Just be careful." Arcturus cautioned. He wasn't going to tell him to cut ties with the man, but he did know that half-feral wolves was nothing to be careless about. He was pleased that Sirius was leaving Harry behind for that night.

"I will be." Sirius assured him. "And the Welsh pack will be there, too, to help should he completely lose it." Arcturus hummed but didn't say anything else.

"Where were you planning on going?" He finally asked. "You can't live here forever." This was a small room to raise a child in, and he was fairly certain the Goblins would need it back before long.

"I'm not too sure yet. My apartment isn't big enough for a child. It's barely big enough for me." He admitted. But it was somewhere to sleep when he wasn't on duty, which was all he really needed at this point in his life and career. "Alice wants me to come stay with them for a while, and James made arrangements for a house in America should anything happen to him and Lily, to get us out of England and away from the Headmaster."

"Oh?" Arcturus asked, shocked. James was going against the Headmaster?

"You didn't see the way the Headmaster was looking at Harry and Neville, especially after he mentioned a prophecy being made about one of the two boys. That kind of calculation has absolutely no business being directed at a baby." Sirius said, looking his grandfather in the eye for the first time since he walked in the room. "And you've seen the lengths he's going to to get his hands on Harry. I just- I think I'm going to take Alice up on her offer for a little bit, just until I get myself in the right frame of mind to look after Harry properly. And while the Goblins find a suitable house for us, then I'm going to take us to America." He decided suddenly.

"There are Black family properties in America, you do not have to purchase one." Arcturus murmured. He couldn't fault that plan, now could he?

And a house on a Black family property would be much better warded then a newly purchased house, even if the Goblins put their best warders on it. Old family wards were always better then new ones. The older the better, really, especially if they were properly maintained. And he made sure that all the family properties were properly maintained, even the ones that didn't get used that often.

Sirius gave him a long, searching look, but didn't say anything against it, merely accepted the offer.

"We'll give it a few more weeks at least before we make the move, get him comfortable with his parents being gone first, I think." He just hoped that it was the right thing to do, but he didn't want to overwhelm the boy with a bunch of changes all at once. Everyone was saying that too much change, too soon, would make it harder for him to adjust to his parents being gone, and he didn't want that. He didn't know. He didn't know what the right thing to do was, not with Harry's well-being on the line.

He was told that this was normal for parents.

He never asked to be Harry's parent. The plan was always for him to be the cool uncle who babysat once in a while and visited often. Sure, he'd planned on having kids someday, but that was further down the line. And at least when James found out about Harry, he had six months to get used to the idea. He'd suddenly been in charge of this tiny human being with no warning, while at the same time losing his best friend and brother. He had no clue where to even begin being a parent. Unlike before when he babysat for a few days at a time, he couldn't give the kid back to his parents when they returned for him.

They weren't returning this time.

Ever.

"That sounds like a plan." Arcturus said quietly, watching Sirius' facial expressions. "Just remember, if you ever need help, you have the Longbottoms, me, your father, you are not alone." He reminded his grandson carefully, knowing that Orion would be very pleased to reconnect with his son, and to meet his new grandson.

"My father?" Sirius scoffed a little. "He hasn't exactly been there for me before." He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, knowing that Harry was good at picking up on things like that, but didn't quite manage it.

Arcturus sighed. "Your father has always been proud of you, and regretful of the way he handled things. Your mother didn't exactly make things easy for him, which is not an excuse, I know. I'm not exactly happy with how he handled things, either. But he did the best he could."

"The best he could would have actually meant being there for us. He was never around, we were left to deal with her on our own." Sirius corrected his grandfather.

Arcturus was quiet for a few moments. "I know." He finally said quietly. "I am not telling you to forgive him. But I will tell you to at least visit him, and talk to him. He wants to see you, to be part of your life again. He may just surprise you." He knew that Orion had been more involved with his sons when they were younger, before he started avoiding his wife (and his home) every chance he could. That was probably what hurt Sirius the most, the fact that Orion had been there. And then suddenly he wasn't.

Maybe if Orion had always been absent, the pain of his absence would not have been so bad.

Sirius pursed his lips briefly. "I'll think about it." He finally muttered before moving to rescue Nidget, who was starting to get agitated with Harry's attentions. He was honestly surprised it had taken the cat this long.

"That's all I ask." Arcturus said.