*I don't own Harry Potter, InuYasha, or any of their characters
"Hello! Anybody home?" called out Sirius as he stepped out of the Floo. Cocking his head slightly, he was soon able to hear the tell-tale sounds of children laughing on the second floor.
Recognizing the particular pitch (along with a sudden splashing sound), he grinned as he realized that it must've been bath-time for Prongslet and Ari-baby. Never one to miss out on a pranking opportunity, even it was just startling someone, he stealthily creeped his way towards the stairwell.
Pausing for a moment, he suddenly heard Prongs call out, "Ari! Get back here, you're not dried OR dressed yet!"
As the fifteen month-old squealed with laughter while her wet feet slapped against the wooden floor, Sirius struggled to contain his laughter as he rushed quietly up the stairs. Ever since the Potter daughter had begun to walk (at a younger age than any of the Weasley children), one of her favorite activities was running around laughing in various states of dress while her poor father tried to keep up. It had become a full-time job for everyone visiting to help make sure that the little girl didn't hurt herself by getting where she wasn't supposed to go (like the stairs).
Truly, even if she didn't have Potter blood in her veins Ariana was her father's daughter.
Speaking of… "Pa'foo!" the tot squealed upon catching sight of him. While surprisingly Remus was Ari's favorite Marauder outside of her father, Sirius was nonetheless well received by the little girl. Admittedly, Sirius had been a bit jealous at first when Ari's preferences first began to show, but when Harry came into their lives and showed an obvious preference towards his godfather that small part of him was soothed into nonexistence.
"Ari-girl, Padfoot's not here," came Prongs' voice, going up in volume the closer he came to the stairs.
Recognizing the perfect moment, Sirius swung the naked toddler up into his arms as he mock-sobbed, "Poor little Ari, already having authority figures not believing what you say… I'm so proud!" Blowing a raspberry on her belly to produce a delighted laugh, Sirius began to laugh himself at the look on Prongs' face.
"Pads! I didn't think you'd be here for another half hour!"
"You keep on like that, Prongs, and you'll be as oblivious as Filch, I swear!"
As a faint glower filled his best friend's face at the insult, Lily walked out of the bathroom with a dried and diapered Harry in her arms. "James, Ari's clothes are in the room, but Harry decided to pee on his… again," she informed him. Turning to Sirius, she smiled as she added, "Hey, Sirius, get off work early?"
Nodding, the Auror explained, "Savage needed someone to cover part of his shift last week due to his nephew managing to stick his tutor to the wall while nobody was around to help, so when I filled it he agreed to return the favor whenever I needed it. Your message sounded pretty important, so I had him take over my last half hour."
"Brilliant!" James delightedly responded. Holding his hands out in an obvious request, he added, "Let me just get Ari dried and dressed, and then meet us in the kitchen, alright?"
Blowing one last raspberry, Sirius finally surrendered Ariana as he responded, "Sure thing, Prongs." As he made his way back downstairs, his mind started to deviously plot…
"And no pranks, Sirius, or else!" called out Lily's voice.
Hearing this, Sirius couldn't help but pout a little.
Once the two babies were dried, dressed, and set to play in their playpen under the watchful eyes of their parents, the three adults sat down around the kitchen table drinking tea.
"So, why'd you two want me here, anyway?" Sirius inquired.
The two parents looked at each other, then back at their friend. Lily began, "James and I were talking and… we think it might be safer for you to go into hiding as well."
His jaw dropping, the dog Animagus sat in shock. Finally, he blurted out, "Why would you two even suggest this?! After everything the Death Eaters have done, including the loss of the ever-so-loyal Regulus…" Struggling to hold back the emotions that threatened to explode out, he eventually finished, "Just… why?"
"The thing is, Lils brought up a good point- if one was to guess who our Secret Keeper was, the two most obvious options are you and Marlene, and since Marlene passed away not too long ago…" James trailed off. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "The last thing I want is for my best friend to be tortured and eventually killed by You-Know-Who just because he was protecting me and my family."
"But if I go into hiding, then it'll make it obvious to the Dark that I am the Secret Keeper!" Sirius retorted passionately.
Countless emotions filled her eyes as Lily pointed out, "That may be, but I'm sure that you of all people can outsmart the Dark, Sirius. Not only that, but you can use your pranking skills to lay out traps—"
"You're forgetting one thing, Lily- my cousin," Sirius interrupted. "You know that Bellatrix will gladly hunt me down if her precious Master orders her to, and I'm sure there's something in the Black Library that will enable her to find any Black she needs to. And I'm sure my mother would have no problems with helping her over protecting her traitorous son."
Silence reigned in the kitchen for several moments, save for the sounds of the children. Sirius' mind for once veered away from pranks as he tried to think of a way to be able to fight against the Dark while ensuring that his most precious people were protected.
Hearing Harry whimper, the three adults glanced over to see him sitting and staring at the stuffed doll that Ariana had gotten on her first birthday with his hands outstretched in an obvious plea. They laughed softly as Ariana's face scrunched up in obvious distaste at the thought of parting with her favorite dolly. However, it was her next actions that gave Sirius the epiphany he needed.
Glancing around, Ariana soon spotted the stuffed hippogriff that was more often than not clutched in her brother's hands. Reaching over, she soon grabbed it and shoved it into Harry's hands in an obvious attempt to distract him from the toy clutched tightly to her chest. Thankfully for her, Harry was distracted enough and proceeded to start repeatedly slamming the toy on the bottom of the play pen.
"Say, Lily… do you think you can perform the Fidelius?" Sirius asked, glancing at her.
Startled, Lily glanced back as she slowly replied, "Probably… why?"
Grinning, he answered, "Because we're going to pull a bait and switch on those Dark bastards! We'll let it leak that I'm the Secret Keeper, when in reality I'm distracting them from the real Secret Keeper!"
"And how do you think that'll protect you, Padfoot?" James inquired skeptically.
"Think, Prongs!" Sirius wheedled in the tone he always used to convince James to go along with a prank, "We're dealing with Slytherins, the people who are suspicious even of each other! If we pull this off right, they'll be too busy arguing amongst themselves as to whether I'm telling the truth or not to report it to You-Know-Who! After all, how many times did we pull the same stunt on them in Hogwarts? Half the time, we didn't get in trouble because they kept arguing over who had done it!"
Frowning in remembrance, Lily could help but muse, "That is true… I remember Severus telling me about some of those pranks- there were days when the entire Slytherin House erupted in prank duels thanks to those imagined slights…"
"Lils, you can't be serious!" James argued. "What about Sniv-Snape," he hastily amended at the sight of his wife's soft glare. Clearing his throat, he repeated, "What about Snape? You know he'll have to report whatever Professor Dumbledore tells him to report to You-Know-Who, so what if he reports about you being the Secret Keeper thanks to this plan? Merlin, he could even tell him anyway, you know how he hates us! Then you'll be back in danger all over again!"
"We'll have to keep Dumbledore out of it, then," Lily softly declared.
At this, both men glanced sharply towards her.
"Why would you say that, Lily?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.
Nodding his head in agreement, James added, "Yeah, Lils, why would we leave Professor Dumbledore out of it? Out of everyone, he'd be able to help us the most with this plan!"
"Will he, though?" Lily argued. "After all, his number one priority is to end this war, and according to that damned prophecy there is a good chance that our son may be the only one able to do that!"
"What are you saying, Lily?" James demanded.
Sighing as she ran a hand through her hair, she finally answered, "James… I'm putting our children over the Greater Good. I'll do anything to keep him away from our babies, even if it means I have to defy Dumbledore to do so."
The men stared at her, stunned by her admission. "Lils…" James breathed.
"I'm not saying that Dumbledore will intentionally lead him to Harry or Neville," she rushed to explain. "However, if there's one thing I've learned growing up in the Muggle world, it's that desperation can lead a man to do something terrible to a minority to help the save majority. I… I'm afraid that if the war drags on long enough, Dumbledore may get that desperate. He'll make a mistake… and that mistake could cost us our son."
As tears began to fill her eyes, it was suddenly apparent that although Lily was the most mature person in the entire house, she was still a frightened young mother trying to raise her children in one of the worst possible scenarios to do so.
Quickly standing up, James reached down and pulled his wife up into an embrace. As she hid her face in his chest, he reassured her, "I'll be there by your side, Lils, as we protect Ari and Harry from everything that might try to hurt them." When she looked up at him, James added, "If we have to keep even Professor Dumbledore in the dark, then you can be sure I'll keep mum about this whole plan."
"So we're doing this, then?" Sirius asked.
The two parents glanced at each other, then back towards their friend. "As much as I still feel you'll be in danger, Padfoot… I'm in," James finally agreed.
"However, there's still something we need to decide- who'll be our Secret Keeper?" Lily inquired. "After all, Sirius, this is your plan, you must've had someone in mind."
Smirking, Sirius stood up and walked over towards the fireplace, ruffling both of the toddlers' hair as he passed them. Quickly reaching for the Floo Powder, he tossed it in and poked his head through. "Wormtail! You busy?"
A/N: Ehehe, it's been a while, huh? Anyway, the short answer as to why it took me almost TWO YEARS to update this is because when life didn't kick me (especially when it came to the death of my cat, who'd been with me for over 20 years- may she rest in peace) writer's block got me.
For a long time, I was stuck at Sirius' initial protest at going into hiding. Then, as I was listening to 'We Will Stand For Everfree' (yes, I've dived into the MLP fandom. I probably won't write for it, though, except in my intentional Mary Sue story) and thinking about how in a different story it could actually be the hero's song instead of a villain song when BOOM- writer's block was kicked to the curb, and I was finally able to finish this chapter.
The whole point of this chapter is to cover one of the biggest plot holes of the series- why Dumbledore would believe that Sirius would have betrayed the Potters even though Pettigrew was the actual Secret Keeper. My answer? He didn't know they had switched, so as far as he knew Sirius was guilty.
I want to make it very clear now that Dumbledore will NOT be a bad guy in this saga, even if certain characters may not trust him for reasons revealed coming soon. I'll be trying to keep this Dumbledore as accurate as I can to canon Dumbledore, and in the process help explain why I still like him even though he did some admittedly shady things in regards to Harry's life. Thus, I'll be constantly trying to cover each plot hole in the Harry Potter series as I can.
On a side note, later this week (the 17th) I'll be heading to Universal Studios, Orlando to go on a Fantastic Beasts weekend! I'll be live-tweeting the five-day weekend on my Twitter (my username there is cm_sully1). When I'm not in full on Potterhead mode, I'll be diving into Alola as well so it's gonna get exciting! Sadly I'm going alone, but STILL- shopping at Madam Malkins to pick up what I'll be wearing to watch Fantastic Beasts should make up for it! I'll also be going to a friggin' STEAMPUNK RESTAURANT as well!
So anyway, hope you enjoy this next installment of 'The Western Daughter'! Next up is the return of the InuYasha characters as we deal with... Halloween... aw, crap. *prepares the tissues*