Time: October 31, 1981
--
Adrienne woke with a start. A glance at the window told her it was still the dead of night, but Sirius, whose arms she had been snugly wrapped in a few moments ago, was sitting straight up in bed. Her fiancé of only a few hours was staring blankly at the wall, his mouth working as though he was trying to say something but couldn't quite bring himself to utter it. Frightened, Adrienne crawled over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, saying as gently as she could while fighting the fear out of her voice, "What's wrong, hunny?"
Sirius finally managed to say a single work: "James." With that syllable his eyes overflowed and two rivers began to stream down his face. Adrienne understood instantly. A few years ago, when the wizarding world became so dangerous that one never knew who would disappear next, Sirius, Adrienne, Lily, and James had performed a spell. It was very old magic, and they weren't entirely sure it would work, but there was no way to test it without someone dying. For the spell was reputed to provide a link between the two couples, so that Sirius and James would immediately know the other had died, and the same for Adrienne and Lily. The goal behind this was to not be fooled by Inferi or posthumous Polyjuice Potions.
Adrienne managed to think of a hidden benefit though, fighting to keep her grief away until she had time for it. The Potters were in hiding together. If James was dead, that meant Lily was still in danger. Adrienne got out of bed, saying to Sirius, "Come on, we have to find--" but before she could get out her life-long best friend's name, she felt the intense emotion Sirius mush have felt only moments before. On top of the despair she would have experienced in any case, she felt Lily's death, literally as if a piece of her had been ripped out. She fell back onto the bed into Sirius's arms, who did not even have to ask, buried her head in his chest, and began to cry. At the moment, she doubted she would ever stop. Sirius seemed to have recovered somewhat; the flow of tears had stemmed at least.
Still staring blankly at the wall, Sirius said, "Harry." Adrienne cried even harder: the boy was almost certainly dead as well, and only a year old! It was Sirius's turn to get up and start to dress.
"Where are you going?" she asked looking up at him through her tears.
"I have to go check on Harry."
"No!" Sirius looked at her in shock a the ire in her tone. "I've already lost the two of them tonight, I'm not losing you too."
He acted as if he hadn't heard that part. "I have to go to Godric's Hollow. If there's even a chance he's alive...I owe that to James."
"There's no way he could have survived! And what if he's still there?"
Sirius looked her straight in the eye, robes now fully on and wand out, ready to go. "I'm not afraid of him." And with that he Disapparated.
Adrienne sat there, shocked. Not afraid of Voldemort? After all the people he had murdered, and now Lily and James to top it all off—no, she refused to think about them. Sirius was being naive. The only reason the Potters had gone into hiding was because news had leaked to the good side that Voldemort was after Harry for some reason. Adrienne didn't know why, and though it seemed odd Voldemort would be so concerned with a baby, it didn't matter anymore. She could only hope that Voldemort had left the area by the time Sirius got there.
While thinking all this, Adrienne had finished getting dressed. She had decided from the moment she had felt Lily's death who she needed to see. She Disapparated, and when she reappeared she was in Hogsmeade. She began to run as soon as she got her bearings. She would find Dumbledore. For as she ran, the question she had been avoiding popped into her mind: who had betrayed them? Everyone had known there was a traitor, but they had been wholly incapable of figuring out who it was. That was the reason Adrienne had offered to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper. James wouldn't let her though. He said it was too dangerous, fearful she'd be taken by the enemy and tortured. Sirius had, of course, shared that sentiment.
Adrienne now feared that her most recent guess must have been correct. Obviously it was neither of the Potters, nor her, nor Sirius. The only other person Adrienne could imagine James agreeing to use was Remus. She fought back the tears as she neared the castle. She couldn't believe Remus would do that, but she had run out of people who it could have been.
Reaching the castle doors, she paused to catch her breath, but when she reached to open the door it obligingly did that for her.
Or rather Hagrid did. "Adrienne! What're you doing here? It's the middle of the--"
"Sorry Hagrid, but I need to see Dumbledore immediately," she said, moving to duck around him.
"But he's not 'ere, he just went off."
She spun around. "Where is he?"
"I don' know. Listen, Adrienne, I heard about Lily an' James, an' I'm so sorry, I know how close you were. An' now poor lil 'Arry is an orphan--"
Adrienne's head jerked to look in Hagrid's eyes. "He's alive?" And after what she had said to Sirius...She had failed as a godmother.
"Not for lack of trying on You-Know-Who's part I hear," Hagrid explained darkly.
Adrienne didn't have time for any crazy rumors. "I still need to see Dumbledore. Do you know when he'll be back?"
"I really don't. I do know he'll be in Surrey tonight, Little Whinging to be specific. At 4 Privet Drive in fact."
Adrienne didn't bother asking why, assuming Hagrid either wouldn't know or would refuse to tell her. Glancing at her watch, she saw it was still only 2 in the morning. She needed sleep, but she couldn't sleep without Sirius these days; she just never felt safe anymore. Now that the panic she had first experienced was over and she was conscious nothing would be resolved until that night, her adrenaline was gone and the full weight of her exhaustion hit her. She didn't trust herself to Apparate.
"Hagrid, do you think I could spend the night in the castle? I just need some sleep, even a few hours."
" 'Course you can," Hagrid said, smiling down at her. "Dumbledore would never turn you away, an' I'm not about to either. Password to Gryffindor Tower's 'jamais'."
"Thanks, Hagrid." Hagrid continued on to wherever he was going and Adrienne walked the very familiar path to the Pink Lady, who gave her a very strange look once woken from her slumber.
"What are you doing here? You got out of school ages ago, and the castle is deserted anyway."
Adrienne wasn't in the mood for her. "Jamais." As she entered the common room, she began to rethink the wisdom of coming up here. No matter where she looked, some once happy memory, now all so bittersweet, assaulted her. Starting a fire in the fireplace, she rejected the notion of going up to one of the dormitories and curled up on the couch nearest the fire.
She did feel safe here. But she was also unbearably lonely and scared. Two of her best friends were dead; she had failed as a godmother to their now orphaned child; one best friend had been on the other side for quite a while; she feared another had now joined him; she had no idea where her beloved was.
When the house-elves came by a few minutes later after she finally fell asleep, they found her pillow soaked with tears.
