Chapter Two

Remus was just having a mug of hot chocolate before bed, when he was disturbed by a frantic hammering on the door. The unexpected noise made him jump and he slopped his drink down his front - hissing in pain and trying to pull his robes away from his skin to stop the hot liquid from scalding him.

'Stupid…'

The hammering continued, and he forgot his irritation and became wary. These were dark days - and one could never be too careful; danger lurked around every corner.

Grabbing his wand, he made his way cautiously to the door, and then called out: 'who is it?'

'Moony it's me - lemme in!'

'Padfoot?'

The hammering didn't cease - not even for a second. 'Quick.'

But Remus was still wary - and he kept his wand pointed at the door. 'Where does the secret passageway behind the statue of the one eyed witch come out?' he asked sharply. That was something only four people in the world knew.

'Honeydukes' cellar - it's me - lemme in.'

Satisfied, Remus drew back the bolt and opened the door a crack to let Sirius sidle inside. But his mouth fell open in surprise when he saw the bundle cradled in Sirius' arms. 'What -?'

'Lock the door,' Sirius hissed, 'quick.'

'Why do you have Harry?' Spurred on by the urgency in his friend's voice, he slid the bolt back into place and put on the chain. Then he turned to look at Sirius - and that was when he saw the look in his old friend's eye - and he knew. 'No...' he shook his head, refusing to believe. It felt like all the air had left his body, and he was struggling to breathe. 'No.'

If he just kept on denying it, if he didn't let Sirius say the words - then it wouldn't be true.

'Remus - ' he heard Sirius say, over the hysterical ringing in his ears. But he put up a hand to stop him.

'Don't.'

'They're dead, Remus. Lily and James.'

'No.' Both his and Sirius' voices seemed strange and echoey, like they were coming from a long way away. He stumbled away, back to his living room - back to his spilled hot chocolate and his irritation over it, which belonged to an entirely different world now - the world before the knowing. The world that still had his friends in it.

But Sirius was relentless and followed on behind him. 'You have to listen to me, Remus - there isn't much time.'

'It's not true - it can't be. Not James. Not Lily.'

'It's true. You think I wouldn't give anything for it to not be true? To not have to be here - telling you this? Look at Harry.' He thrust the baby under Remus' nose. 'Look at his forehead, that cut. That's the mark of a powerful curse.'

'No…'

'Voldemort killed James.' He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply - seeing Prongs lying dead in the doorway, his eyes glassy and unseeing. He fought down the pain. 'He killed James in the doorway to their house - and then he stepped over his body and went upstairs and killed Lily, in the nursery. And then he tried to kill Harry and … I don't know what happened next, but the house was half destroyed, Harry's cut and Voldemort's vanished.'

'This isn't happening.' Remus was shaking his head, still not wanting to believe. 'This can't be happening. They were hidden, they were protected - how could this…?'

'It's my fault,' Sirius told him, he felt the tears well up in his eyes and he hugged Harry closer. 'You know they performed the fidelius charm - you know I was to be their secret keeper?'

Remus nodded.

'I got them to switch. Right at the last minute. We didn't tell anybody - I thought... I thought if everyone knew it was me, then Voldemort would come after me and I couldn't give them up because of the double bluff. It was supposed to work - it was so simple - so foolproof. But I got it wrong. I thought no one would expect it to be little Peter, I thought he'd be safe - and so James would be too. I didn't realise Peter was the one James needed protecting from all along.'

Remus had gone white. 'I … don't understand what you're saying.'

His voice was heavy, when he replied. 'I'm saying Wormtail sold Lily and James to Voldemort. He was the spy.'

'Maybe he didn't mean to - maybe Voldemort forced him.'

But Sirius shook his head. 'I thought that at first. But there was no sign of a struggle. He went willingly, he chose to do that - and now Lily and James are dead, just as he meant them to be.'

'We need to tell Dumbledore - we need to -'

'We can't,' Sirius interrupted, his voice came out as a bark. 'Don't you see? It's my word against Peter's. Dumbledore believes I was the secret keeper - right now he believes I'm the one that sold them out. Why would he believe me? What proof do I have to give?'

'Well - we have to try.'

'No - Even if Dumbledore listens, it'll be too late. I'm a wanted man now - or I will be by the morning. If they catch me - they'll take Harry. I don't know who they'll give him to - but they won't let me keep him while they hold me in jail awaiting trial. I'm his godfather. It's my job to care for him - I'm not giving him up. I need to run.'

Remus looked like he wanted to argue some more - but instead he just nodded his head. 'Alright - what can I do?'

'Come with me.'

Remus didn't answer at once. He looked stricken - whatever it was he had been expecting Sirius to say, it clearly hadn't been this. A tense silence loomed large between them - as they stared at each other, this sudden offer to run away together taking up all the space in the room. Sirius held his breath, fearing rejection.

Remus' own breathing was shallow and ragged. He discovered his hands were trembling, and he folded his arms to hide the fact. He wasn't quite sure what Sirius meant, what he was offering, what he was hoping for. 'I - I can't come, I'm too dangerous to be around Harry - you know that.'

'I can keep you both safe. Haven't I always kept you safe?'

'If I come with you - they'll be hunting for me too. They'll think I was in on it, that we acted together. I'll be a wanted man as well. I'll lose everything.'

'What do you have to lose? What can you possibly keep by staying?' His voice was heated - and his cheeks were flushed and warm. 'Remus, if I go, then you are alone, you hear me? Lily and James are dead. Peter is dead to us - even if he's still alive. With Voldemort gone, The Order is finished, disbanded - there's no need for it any more. This world hates you for what you are, Moony. You will have no future and no friends. And think about it...'

He let out a bark of disbelieving laughter. 'The werewolf best friend of Sirius Black - the man who killed the Potters - do you think you have to run away with me to come under suspicion? Stay and they'll take you in for questioning, undoubtedly. Oh, Dumbledore will vouch for you, they'll let you go eventually. But you'll always be under a cloud, people will always talk. We're both finished - neither of us have a future here. But come away with me and we can have a future together - with Harry. We can be a family. We can give him what Lily and James would want him to have. Even if you can turn your back on me, please don't turn your back on Harry, old friend. Think what Prongs would have wanted you to do - he would never say your furry little problem made you too dangerous to raise his son.'

But Remus was shaking his head. 'This is too much - this is too sudden.'

'The world has changed - forever. It is too sudden - but we have no choice. And we need to act now to make sure this new world doesn't swallow the three of us whole,' Sirius told him. His voice shook with emotion as he remembered all they had lost - and fought to suppress it.

'We'll have time to grieve what we lost, we'll have time to think about what we left behind, but right now we need to get away from this place - or regret it for the rest of our lives. We don't have long. Dumbledore will mobilise against me - he'll send people out looking - of course the first place they look will be here with you. Please Remus, Harry and I are about to vanish forever - please vanish with us. Please don't let fear hold you back from acting, and live a life time with the regret and loneliness gnawing away at you. We're Gryffindors - let's be brave together.'

He held a hand out, his grey eyes entreating his friend to take it. And then, slowly, Remus nodded - and reached out his own hand, clasping Sirius'. And a second later, the three of them vanished from the house and from England, leaving no way for those that would hunt them to trace them.


High up in his office at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore touched the tip of his wand to his left temple and held it there for a moment. When he drew it away, a silvery wisp clung to it - for a moment looking like a strand of his own silvery hair. With a flick of his wand, the memory was cast into the pensieve.

Hagrid's face swirled around on the surface - tears trickling down his ruddy cheeks and dripping into his bushy beard. 'I'm sorry Professor Dumbledore, sir. But li'l Harry was gone - you know I hate to let you down, sir.'

'But who took Harry?' Dumbledore asked gravely. Hagrid's face sank down into the pensieve to be replaced by the laughing, handsome face of a young man with grey eyes, and Dumbledore nodded. 'If it is as I fear…'

He turned to the three people standing in his office. 'It seems the rumours are true, Voldemort has truly vanished - his powers truly broken. But with the loss of little Harry Potter…' he shook his head, wearily, 'we may be in the gravest danger yet.' He turned again and stumped towards his desk, his shoulders slumped, feeling every one of his hundred years. He sat down, steepled his fingers and sighed, deeply.

'But, Albus,' Professor McGonagall's voice wobbled as she spoke, she was as distressed by the sight of the old headmaster's seeming dejection as she was by the terrible news about Lily and James, 'whatever can you mean?'

'You're afraid for the boy,' Moody said, he walked towards the desk - his wooden leg clunking. 'I don't see why, Albus. If what Hagrid says is true then young Black has him. What harm can he come to?'

Dumbledore did not reply for a long while. He stared blankly, over his steepled fingers and - to those looking at him - it seemed that the twinkling light that always shone in his eyes had dimmed behind his half moon spectacles. Eventually, he sighed a deep and weary sigh and looked up at the few members of The Order he had gathered around him. 'You are all familiar with the fidelius curse - and how it works?'

McGonagall, Moody and young Shacklebolt all nodded.

'James and Lily had gone into hiding - using this very charm.'

'But then how did You Know Who find -?'

'The only way to break the fidelius charm is to have the secret divulged by the secret keeper, as well you know, Minerva,' Dumbledore interrupted her. 'I suggested myself for the role, naturally, but James - James decided upon Sirius Black.'

McGonagall gasped, and brought her hands up to her face, 'but you can't mean…'

'James and Lily were betrayed. And it can only have been Black who betrayed them … and now, if what Hagrid reports is true, Black has the baby.'

'And what does he mean to do with him?'

But Dumbledore only shook his head, 'that - I do not know.' He looked at Moody and Shacklebolt. 'That is why I have asked you two here,' he said, gravely. 'I already knew there was a spy somewhere in our ranks - someone close to Lily and James. And now Black has revealed himself, in the most brutal and final of ways. And what he intends for James' child…' He cut himself off and shook his head again, as if unwilling to finish the thought.

'I need you two to start the search for him,' he said to the two Aurors, 'immediately. I can't tell you where he might go - but we need to know if he acted alone.'

'Dumbledore, what do you mean?' Shacklebolt asked.

'Voldemort is gone, his power broken, his reign of terror over - and Black will be a desperate man. Having just revealed himself as a spy, just as the Dark Lord loses everything, his position is precarious - he is at his most dangerous, with nothing to lose. His mind … we do not know that he is still in his right mind. We do not know why he took Harry - if he wished the child harm, if he thinks he can somehow use Harry to bring his master back … if he thinks the wizard that defeated the Dark Lord must be an even more powerful Dark Wizard yet - and wants to raise the boy in his own image, regain all he has lost through Harry. We can only guess at his motives. And we can only guess at his movements.'

He leaned back in his chair and stroked his beard. He looked down - as if something the others could not understand was causing a pain in his heart. 'If Sirius turned to the dark side, then we cannot assume he was the only one,' he said heavily. 'If Sirius turned, then maybe others in his little group -'

'Albus, no,' McGonagall shook her head, her eyes were wide and horrified. 'I can barely believe it of Black, but you mean young Remus - or little Peter? No.'

'It is not what I want to believe,' Dumbledore told her, 'but sadly I do not have the luxury to not consider the possibility. Alastor, Kingsley - I need you to go to the both of them, tonight: Remus and Peter. They may be as yet unaware of what has happened, you may find them home - oblivious to all this. That is …' He stopped, sighed and changed the direction of his sentence: 'you cannot know how much I wish that that is what you will find. If they are home, speak with them - gently, for they have lost far more than we this night, see if they can't think of anywhere Black might flee to.'

'And if they're not?' Moody asked.

Dumbledore nodded, as he considered the possibility. His face was drawn and the light was truly dead in his eyes. 'Then - we will know,' he said heavily. 'Black did not work alone - and the Aurors office will have two more dark wizards to be hunting.'

'Well - we'll be off then. We'll let you know as soon as we know anything - come on, Shacklebolt.' And the two Aurors left the office - leaving the two professors behind.

...

Dumbledore continued to sit completely still - staring off into nothing. He had worked so long and so hard for this night, to bring about the downfall of Tom Riddle, or "Lord Voldemort" as the silly, foolish, arrogant boy called himself these days. He had always known the price would be a heavy one, the cost of success too steep … he had not expected it to be too steep to bear.

He had not expected it to end like this.

The betrayal of James by his oldest and dearest friend - and the fear that betrayal went wider; having to send Aurors out to Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, of all people. Loyal members of The Order of the Phoenix- both of them. But then so had Black been. And Dumbledore could not be sure in his heart, not without checking, that the others were truly loyal to The Order, to James - could not be sure that, when it came down to it, they were not loyal to Sirius instead.

He would know soon enough. It would not take long for Moody and Shacklebolt to make their checks.

He stared - the flames of the fire leapt and crackled in front of him, but his eyes were unseeing - lost in his reverie.

...

Peter would be home, that much Dumbledore was sure of. Peter had loved James, adored him and looked up to him - would have gladly died for him. He had loved Sirius, too - but Dumbledore thought it unlikely that Sirius would include him in his plans of betrayal. If he had to choose - Peter would choose James - and so if Sirius invited him into his little rebellion, Peter would betray him.

Yes, Peter would be home and, when he heard what the Aurors had to tell him, his grief would be inconsolable.

But Remus … Remus was the reason Dumbledore was staring into nothingness, awaiting news he was afraid to hear. Because Remus loved Sirius in a way that went far beyond friendship - was a form of magic of its own, far greater and far more terrible than anything they taught here in Hogwarts.

Though Dumbledore did not know how far the two of them had gone, whether it was acknowledged between them or not - he did know the love that existed between them. He recognised it, from his own misspent youth - from his own great love bestowed on exactly the wrong person. And that recognition was the cause of the pain in his heart.

If Sirius asked him to, Remus would follow him … and all Dumbledore could do was wait, and pray that Sirius had not asked. That this really was a one man betrayal - that the rot did not go any deeper than Black.

...

'Albus…' McGonagall's wavering voice cut through his thoughts and brought him out of himself, 'what shall we do?'

He shook his head, forcing his eyes to focus on her at last. 'We must do as we always do, Minerva. Look to our charges, protect the school - make sure the children are safe and well and educated. There is nothing else we can do. You must go to Gryffindor Tower, tell your students that the war is over, the Dark Lord is gone. Slughorn, Flitwick and Professor Sprout must do the same for their own houses.'

'And what will you do, Albus?'

He sighed again. 'Other people have suffered terrible losses this night, Minerva. I must go to Severus - speak with him. He should not be alone tonight.'