Disclaimer: This world and all its characters belong to JK Rowling. I wrote this purely for entertainment purposes, and have no wish to sell, copyright or otherwise claim any of this content.

Pop!

Three figures appeared, and Remus whirled on them, wand up and ready only to realize that is was Frank Longbottom, Mad-Eye Moody, and another senior Auror named Fergus Crowley. Just as the realization hit him, he heard two almost synchronized pops behind him and turned to see that James and their attacker had both disappeared.

"Are you alright?" Frank crossed the ruined room to where Remus was standing while Crowley and Mad-Eye started casting spells, assessing the damage and preserving the points of Disapparition so that later a forensic wizard could analyze and track them.

"Just winded," Remus said, his eyes still scanning the room. Sirius had left with Harry, and James had left as soon as the Aurors appeared. They were fine, and would contact him soon, he was sure. He shook his head, and brought a hand to the back of his neck. "I'm fine," he repeated. "Lucky too, I suppose. I was asleep when the alarms went off."

Frank looked about to say something when there was another pop as Crowley Disapparated and Mad-Eye limped over to join them.

"Did you see their faces?" he growled.

Remus paused for moment, confused at the plural, but then realized that Mad-Eye – and probably Frank and Crowley as well – had assumed that James had been an attacker as well. Slowly, he shook his head. "Everything was moving so fast I couldn't get a good look at them."

"Do you think it was Black?"

Remus glanced up sharply, to find both of Mad-Eye's eyes on him, as well as Frank's more sympathetic ones. "Isn't he in Azkaban?"

For an instant Remus thought he saw Mad-Eye's expression soften, but then he turned away and glared at the place the door had been before it was blown apart. Frank's eyes were wide. "You didn't know?" he asked. "Remus – "

"Black escaped this afternoon." Mad-Eye interrupted. "He had inside help, and we're trying to find out who, but they've covered their tracks pretty damn well. Black turned on the Potters before, so I'll ask you again. Do think either of them was Black?"

Remus took a deep breath. "No. No, I don't think so. Neither of them were very good at dueling, and Sirius is one of the best duelists I know." Remus glanced around his ruined home. "One of them was pretty damn good at blasting spells, though."

Mad-Eye grunted, and Frank nodded. "I'm surprised the house is still standing," he commented, and when Remus gave him a questioning look he elaborated. "We knew you were being attacked because this showed up on the panel in the Improper Use of Magic Office. Do you know the scale of power it takes to set that thing off? In the past year it's only blipped ten times, including this one. We Aurors are always sent to investigate, because that amount of magic rarely leaves behind a pretty scene."

Remus frowned, trying to assimilate that, but was interrupted by Mad-Eye. "We need to go. They're probably going to come back with reinforcements."

Remus and Frank glanced at each other, both clearly thinking that this was unlikely, but Remus just shrugged. "I'll get my things."

Two hours later, Remus was sitting at a table in the Leaky Cauldron, nursing a cup of black tea. It was three in the morning, and Frank and Mad-Eye had left half an hour earlier, likely to catch some sleep before returning to work when the sun rose. Well, maybe not Mad-Eye. Remus wasn't actually sure if he ever slept. Sighing, Remus glanced at the battered old watch he had received from his father on his seventeenth birthday. 3:05.

The attacker had been a Death Eater, of that Remus was sure. That particular ward had been set to go off whenever anyone with a Dark Mark came within its range – Remus had set it up with James and Dumbledore a few months ago. And Peter hasn't been to my house since then…. To be fair, though, Remus hadn't been home much either. Just weeks after the ward had been activated, Remus had been sent undercover to Greyback's, so there hadn't been any reason for any of his friends to visit his house.

So had his attacker been Peter? Remus had been telling the truth when he spoke with Mad-Eye – he hadn't recognized the intruder. But Peter had always been powerful, if somewhat imprecise; Remus couldn't deny the possibility that it had been Peter who blew his house apart. But had Peter been targeting him, or had he realized that James was there, and Harry and Sirius? Had he meant to kill them all? And where were Sirius and James? Were they safe? Were they still running? They were probably together, since James had set the portkey for Sirius and Sirius couldn't have gone far without a wand.

Staring at his own wand, Remus wondered if he should try to contact them, or if he should just wait for them to contact him. Sighing, Remus lowered his wand and blew on his tea, even though it was already cool enough to drink. Although it wasn't very appealing, he supposed that waiting would be the best option. They could be out in public, or in a muggle area, and he didn't want to risk anyone seeing the patronus he would send them.

With that decision made, his thoughts turned to another. The Potters. Officially, Lily was confirmed and James presumed dead, and Harry was missing. There was probably a search that was trying to find Harry, but as of yet he hadn't been notified of it. As for James and Lily … Lily's body had been found at the house, and James was "missing," but everyone knew that no one survived when Voldemort payed a house call. Remus had talked with Dumbledore when he had gone to retrieve the cloak, and they had decided that the memorial service would be held on November 15th, two weeks after Halloween. That meant he had one week to tell James about the service, so that they could plan it together. He was not looking forward to that conversation.

Heaving another sigh, he glanced at his watch again and then groaned, slumping back in his chair and raising his hands to cover his face. 3:10. Why he had expected it to be much later he didn't know, but somehow it felt as though he were trapped in an alternate universe, one in which time moved much, much slower. Maybe his watch was broken…. Pushing himself to his feet, Remus placed his empty cup on the counter, and walked towards the door. He needed some fresh air.

Outside it was dark, even with the street lamps and the few lights shining out of apartment buildings up and down the street. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Remus walked swiftly down the muggle street, and it was only after a few minutes that he realized he didn't know where he was going.

Anywhere, he decided as he walked. Anywhere I can go where I don't have to think about any of this anymore.

James didn't think he had fallen asleep, but he couldn't think of any other reason to explain why the sun was suddenly rising and he had a crick in his neck. Rolling his head, he looked over to where Sirius and Harry were sleeping on the bed. Harry was clutching the blankets with one hand, the other stuck firmly in his mouth. Sirius had sprawled, one leg hanging off the edge of the bed, the other sticking out from under the covers James had cleaned for them.

Turning to look out the window, James was struck by the sight of the sun's light falling across the hills, reflecting and sparkling across last night's frost. Just behind the first rise, he could see the roofs of Hogsmead, smoke from the chimneys mixing with the mist from the frost as it evaporated.

It's so beautiful, Lily would have said.

Yes, I suppose it is, James replied in his head, even though he would never have noticed if she hadn't pointed it out to him. Like glitter.

Laughter. Glitter? You're such a child, James. Like stars on Earth.

Poetic, he teased. Put that in a song and you'll be up there with Celestina Warbeck.

Oh hush, you. Alice loves Celestina Warbeck.

James stared out the window, feeling the empty place behind his chair where Lily would be standing with her morning cup of tea. She always noticed the little things: the bird on the feeder, the flower in the sidewalk, the frost in the morning. It was one of the things he loved about her. He always had too many ideas about the future running through his head, too much nervous energy, too much to do. But when he felt Lily's hand slip into his, her lips whispering in his ear, her finger pointing to the cloud that looked like a wizard, a unicorn, a snitch – then everything seemed to calm down to a slower, more manageable pace and all that mattered was Lily, holding his hand, whispering in his ear.

"Expecto Patronum," he murmured, lifting his wand in front of him. A moment later he lowered it, sighing. Nothing.

Turning his wand over in his hands, he wondered idly how they were going to get ahold of Remus if he couldn't cast a patronus and Sirius didn't have a wand. Rent an owl, maybe, although they would have to be disguised.

Glancing out the window again, he decided that they had stayed here long enough. Getting to his feet, he walked to the bed and picked Harry up gently, rubbing his back. "Morning, Harry."

Harry shifted, blinking his eyes open and staring around sleepily. James then turned his attention to Sirius, who was still sound asleep, and was almost surprised to feel a decidedly mischievous grin settle on his face. He narrowed his eyes and then, his lips quirking to the side, he flicked his wand and a jet of water shot out and hit Sirius in the face.

Sirius' reaction was priceless, although this was by no means the first time James had seen it. His eyes shot open, then he coughed, spluttered and, in his attempt to get away from the water, rolled backwards and fell off the bed. After a few incoherent curses, his wet head appeared on the other side of the bed, glowering at James.

"Bloody hell, Prongs!"

James burst out laughing, and after a minute of staring between them, Harry started giggling too.

Grumbling, Sirius pulled himself to his feet. "Anyone would think you were still a first year. And that was unfair," he added, lifting his wet arms. "I don't have a wand to defend myself!"

Still laughing, James waved his wand and the water evaporated off Sirius' clothes. Harry was still laughing too, and Sirius made a face at him, which of course only made him laugh harder.

"You should have seen your face," James laughed.

"Yeah, well," Sirius rolled his eyes, "Yours would be pretty priceless too if I had a wand right now."

James snorted, then said "Well, it's time you got up anyway. The sun's been up at least an hour already." He glanced down at his wand, then said "We should contact Moony, then meet him at … " he paused, racking his brains for somewhere they could meet that would be familiar to the three of them.

"My old house," Sirius said after a moment.

James narrowed his eyes. "Padfoot – "

"It's the best place," Sirius said firmly. "No one from the Ministry will be there, my mother wouldn't allow it. They won't be looking for me there either, at least not yet, because anyone who knows me knows that I – well, that I wouldn't go anywhere near that place unless I had absolutely nowhere else to go."

"All right, fine." James said slowly. "You're right, it's a good idea." He looked at his wand again, then handed it to Sirius. "Can you contact Moony? I'm going to take Harry to change his nappy."

Sirius accepted the wand without question, much to James' relief, and started to cast a patronus as James left. Harry squirmed and started making unimpressed noises, as though he knew what was coming, and James sighed. Harry hated having his nappy changed, but at the same time refuse point blank to use the little potty Lily had got him a month ago.

Five minutes later, James and Harry returned to find Sirius scowling at the wand in his hand.

"Did it bite you?" James asked, amused.

"No, but it didn't do anything else, either." Sirius grimaced. "Okay, technically it shot out a plume of mist and a few sparks, but for some reason its not working for me like it usually does." He held it out to James. "If we can find out where Remus is, I can bring a note as Padfoot. It's not ideal, but short of stealing an owl or some polyjuice potion I think it's our best option."

James sighed, taking the wand. "All right. Let's see if any of those sweets we stashed here are still good, and then we can go find Remus."

Padfoot lay by the fire in the Leaky Cauldron, resting his head on his paws and keeping a careful watch on the door. After leaving the Shrieking Shack, Sirius had departed for the Leaky Cauldron in the hopes of hearing something about Remus or an attack (or anything, really), while James had left with Harry in order to withdraw some money from a muggle bank account he and Lily had set up for emergencies. They would meet at the park near Grimmauld Place at noon, and if Padfoot had failed to locate Remus by then, they would try something else.

The door to the Leaky Cauldron opened, and Padfoot caught sight of Frank Longbottom walking in with Remus right behind him. Although he knew that Frank didn't know his animagus form, wouldn't recognize him, he still felt the urge to hide.

Frank and Remus sat down at a table in the corner, and Padfoot took a moment to congratulate himself on having found Remus before climbing to his feet and heading for the door. Luckily, the Leaky Cauldron seemed to attract enough people of all kinds that Tom didn't seem to have a problem with a dog.

Once he was outside, he found the nearest alley and, crouching behind a rubbish bin, transformed. Quickly, he took the note telling Remus to meet him and James outside Grimmauld Place out of his pocket, then transformed back into Padfoot and sat, head cocked to one side. After a moment when no one screamed or started yelling about an escaped convict, Padfoot carefully took the note in his mouth and made his way back to the Leaky Cauldron.

Settling down by the fire again, Padfoot tucked the letter safely between his paws, and stared at Remus while he waited for Frank to leave.

"Daddy, look at the doggy! Can I pet it, please?"

Padfoot's ears pricked, and he looked to where a young girl was tugging on her father's arm, pointing excitedly. Her younger brother, who couldn't have been more than three, looked torn between wanting to accompany his sister and wanting to finish his cookie, which appeared to be in the shape of a snitch.

The father glanced at Padfoot, who wagged his tail, then looked around. "You should ask its owner, but it seems friendly enough. Just don't put your hand near its mouth."

The girl quickly scrambled down from her seat and ran over to bury her hands in Padfoot's thick fur. A few moments later, her brother joined her and, feeling like he deserved a reward for being so nice to two young children, Padfoot rolled over to have his belly rubbed while whacking his tail steadily against the floor.

"Good doggy," the girl giggled, rubbing his stomach enthusiastically if a little haphazardly. "Good doggy," her brother echoed, playing with Padfoot's ears.

James would laugh if he could see you right now, a voice whispered in his head, and his tail wagged even harder. James would laugh, Lily would pet your ears, Remus would scold, and Peter would – abruptly, he stopped thinking, and his tail lost some of its momentum.

Peter would stand right beside James, laughing his silent laugh before joining Lily in rubbing Padfoot's ears.

"What have you got, doggy? Do you have a note for me?" The girl was reaching for the note resting where Padfoot's paws had been before he rolled over. Gently, Padfoot butted the girl's hand out of the way and drew the note closer to him with his chin. Mine, he thought.

"Rebecca, Oliver! It's time to go now."

"Look Daddy, it's got a note!"

The father approached with his work bag slung over one shoulder. "That's nice, Rebecca, but we've got to go now. Mommy's probably waiting for us at Flourish and Blott's, and we don't want to be late to Anna's party. Come along, Oliver."

Disappointed, the girl gave Padfoot one last pat on the head before climbing to her feet and running after her father, who was already heading for the door. "Come on, Oliver," she called over her shoulder. "You're being left behind."

"Nice doggy," Oliver whispered, before scrambling to his feet and running after his sister and father.

"Padfoot?!"

Padfoot's head whipped around to see Remus standing over him, looking shocked and relieved at the same time. Padfoot wagged his tail once, then clambered to his feet and presented Remus with the note he'd managed to keep out of the young girl's grasp.

Remus scanned the note once before tossing it in the fire behind Padfoot. "I'm glad you're okay, but you really shouldn't be here" he said, crouching in front of Padfoot and stroking his head so that he could talk without being heard. "You should go now. I'll meet you soon." Remus stood, and Padfoot watched him make his way back to his table before turning trotting out the door.

"How'd it go?"

Sirius morphed back into his human form before joining James on the grass where he was playing with Harry.

"Fine, I found him at the Leaky Cauldron and got a good belly-rub for my troubles. You?"

James shrugged. "Good, I guess. I told the banker I was James Potter's brother, and he believed me enough to let me withdraw the money we need." He grimaced. "Isn't it weird, though, how they have humans working the banks? I don't know, but it gets me every time."

"I know!" Sirius said eagerly. Muggles were his favorite topic of discussion, now that they were out of school and could no longer plan pranks like they used to. "And they have people delivering the post, too. How strange is that?"

James shook his head. "But did you know that they've managed to build a ship that will take them out into space? I myself would never want to go, but you must admit that it's ingenious."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "You're joking. I never learned about that in Muggle Studies!"

"No, I swear," James said eagerly, leaning forward. "Muggles have actually managed to go into space. Lily's dad told me about it when I was visiting once …" he trailed off, his face clouding over and his eyes drifting down to where Harry was pulling up handfuls of grass and attempting to make some sort of structure out of them.

"Did you find anything else, while you were out?" Sirius asked hastily, trying to distract him.

James blinked, looking up at Sirius again. "Erm … actually, yes. It occurred to me that the best place to hang low for a while was in the muggle world, so I picked up this." He produced a muggle newspaper from beside him, where Sirius hadn't noticed it. Sirius took it, curious. "Here," James flipped to a page near the back. "They list all the job openings nearby, as well as a few places that we could rent."

Sirius skimmed the paper, frowning at some of the phrases he didn't understand, but nodding slightly at others. "I think that's a good idea," he said finally, handing the paper back to James. "No one will be looking in the muggle world, especially not the Death Eaters. We can lie low, wait until all this blows over. No one will be able to find us."

Remus found Sirius and James where Sirius had said – in the small park across from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. It wasn't even really a park – just a small square of grass with some shrubs, some benches and a four small trees. As soon as he spotted him, James grinned and jumped to his feet.

"You found us!"

"I'm glad you're okay," Remus said, looking warily around, "But should you really be out in public like this?"

James shrugged and sat back down, patting the slightly withered grass beside him. Although it was a surprisingly nice day, it had been frosting at night for the past few weeks, and the grass was starting to show it. "Take a seat. And we're in a muggle neighborhood, no one will recognize us."

Remus hesitated, glancing over his shoulder and up at the windows which lined the street. It was true they were in a muggle area, but that didn't mean … "Sirius," Remus sighed, folding his legs to settle beside James. "You're probably on the muggle news too, you know."

"Probably," Sirius agreed cheerfully, but Remus could tell he wasn't really listening. He was flat on his stomach in front of Harry, poking him every now and then to make him laugh.

"We've been here nearly half an hour and no one's noticed," James added, shrugging. He shot Remus a reassuring smile and, although Remus could tell James was more tense than he was letting on, he just sighed and flashed a small smile in return.

"While I was getting you, James got some muggle money, and also came up with a brilliant idea," Sirius said, poking Harry again. Harry squeaked, then pouted, then cautiously leaned forward to poke Sirius. Sirius chuckled, and Remus watched them, amused.

"So what's this brilliant idea Padfoot's talking about?" he asked, turning to James.

"I thought we could live in the muggle world, at least for a while," James explained. He waved the newspaper at Remus, who took it and glanced at the sections they had circled. "We've been looking, and there are some places which look like they could be affordable, as well as some jobs."

"I agree," Remus said slowly, and Sirius spared a moment to grin at him. "But do you have anywhere to stay tonight? Or until you find a good place to rent? And I know you just got some money out of the muggle bank, but do you have enough? How are you going to – "

"Moony," Sirius said loudly. "One question at a time!"

Remus glared at him, and next to him he heard James snort. "Aw, come on, Moony," he teased, "it's not his fault. You know Padfoot's only got so much room for thought in that thick skull of his – Oi!" James yelped as Sirius threw a handful of grass at him. Harry shrieked, laughing, then tugged up his own small fistful of grass and flung it at James. It missed him by several inches, but James still gasped dramatically and flopped on the ground next to Sirius. "You got me," he gasped.

"Padfoot!" Remus scolded. Someone had to make sure Harry learned proper manners, and as it didn't look as though James or Sirius were about to, that left him. As usual. "Stop encouraging him!"

At the sight of James falling beside Sirius, however, Harry's eyes had gone wide, and he'd started to wail. Immediately, James sat up and Sirius pulled Harry close, bouncing him. "Harry, Harry it's alright," Sirius shot a confused look at Remus over Harry's head, but Remus could only shrug. He didn't have the slightest idea what had set Harry off…. Beside him, he felt James stiffen. He turned, and saw that James' face had gone curiously blank. His eyes, though, burned with anger and, surprisingly, despair.

"James?" Remus reached out to grasp James' shoulder, and realized that he was shaking. What the…. "James, what – " James jerked away from Remus but stayed where he was, staring at the still sobbing Harry.

"Harry, it's alright," Sirius tried again. He adjusted himself so that Harry could see James. "Daddy's right there, see? Right there, and he's not going anywhere, I promise, and neither am I, or Uncle Moony." He shot a pleading look at Remus, and suddenly Remus understood. Harry had seen James fall to the ground, pretending to be injured, and he had remembered that night … and James had realized that, and was now wondering, as Remus was, what Harry had seen. "James," Remus repeated, more urgently this time. He tried again to put his hand on James' arm, but James had already shot to his feet.

"I'm going for a walk," he said curtly. "Stay here." He strode off, leaving the park and walking quickly down the street.

Remus stood to follow, then glanced at Sirius, who nodded grimly to him. "Go," he said, "I've got Harry."