Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who is reading.

Once again, I own nothing.

James had been planning a nice, relaxing evening with his wife. A Muggle evening, Lily liked to call it. After Harry's bath, they would sit on the floor in the living room and play Muggle board games or watch a Muggle movie. No wands, no magic. Just them. But those plans went right out the window with the arrival of Sirius and Remus.

To say that the evening had been awkward so far was a vast understatement. James had tried to act normally, but, like so many other times, his best friend's mood was influencing him. Sirius sat on the chair next to the fireplace in a serious brood. He had barely said a word all night, instead choosing to play with Harry. Lily and Remus had made casual conversation, but even they had fallen silent several moments ago.

"What are you doing here, Remus?" Sirius asked suddenly.

Remus' head snapped in his direction. "Well… I haven't seen you all in such a long time. I just felt like coming around for a visit."

"Really? Is that so?" James flinched at Sirius' accusing tone.

Remus paused. "Of course. Why else would I come?"

"I don't know. Maybe you are here because-"

"Sirius!" Lily's voice cut through the living room, stopping whatever Sirius had been about to say.

"No, Lily. Let's let Sirius continue. I'm quite interested now in what he was going to say." Remus scooted up to sit on the edge of the sofa with a suspicious look on his face.

Sirius shifted in his seat, and while he stared Remus down, he did not say anything.

"You're not going to continue then, Padfoot? But I can guess where you were going with that. You think I'm the traitor, don't you?"

With that statement, James decided that he had never been more uncomfortable in all of his life. Here he was, sitting with three of the most important people in his life, four if you counted Harry. He trusted them all completely, at least he had. He didn't want to suspect anyone of being a traitor, but the fact was that there was one. Sirius was sure that it was Remus. James was starting to question their werewolf friend as well, but never in a million years would he have confronted Remus about it without solid evidence. Sirius, on the other hand, was always so much more blunt than James had ever been.

An awkward silence filled the room as Sirius and Remus stared at each other. Then, slowly, Sirius nodded. James watched as Remus took a deep, calming breath.

"I'm not. The traitor, I mean."

"I wasn't expecting you to admit it, mate." Sirius' words held all of the venom that James knew he had been holding in for months. His tone didn't exactly take James by surprise; he had heard it before. But what did surprise James was Remus' reaction.

Instead of becoming angry or being embarrassed, Remus simply leaned back into the sofa. "I wasn't expecting you to believe me, mate," he said almost nonchalantly.

Lily looked to James, begging him with her eyes to do something. But James wasn't sure what to do. It seemed an impossible situation, with two of his best friends so against each other. He wished, not for the first time, that they could go back in time. Back to when they were at Hogwarts and didn't have to worry about wars or murders or traitors. When their greatest worries were exams or detentions or whether Lily Evans would ever go out with him. But James knew that they could never go back.

He took a deep breath, wondering how to make this horribly awkward situation better.

A distraction. That's what this called for. James had always been the master of distractions, but he wasn't quite sure he could effectively pull one off at the moment. This was no time for pranks, so he would have to settle for a verbal distraction.

"Padfoot, mate, weren't you going to check on Wormtail tonight?" James asked, hoping that his friend would take the bait. Nobody had seen Peter since the Fidelius Charm had been performed a week earlier. Sirius had planned on having dinner with the Potters before going to check on Peter. Then, Sirius himself would be going into hiding.

Sirius looked torn for a second before obviously deciding on his course of action. "I'm not leaving until he leaves." Sirius nodded towards Remus.

A hard look settled onto Remus's face. "Well then, you'll be staying here quite a while, Padfoot, because I'm not leaving until you do."

James buried his face in his hands. That didn't work.

When they were at Hogwarts, there had very rarely been a dull moment among the four Marauders. Remus, of course, had been perfectly content with reading for hours on end, and Peter had been happy to do whatever the others wanted to do. It was mainly James and Sirius who ever found themselves bored, and when one of them did, the other one was happy to come up with something to entertain them. Those who didn't know them well might have thought that the "entertainment" consisted mainly of pranks, and for the most part, they would be right. But the boys had never had any trouble conversing either.

It seemed as though their time of easy conversation had passed. James tried to think of what to talk about, but with one friend accusing the other of being a traitor, there were very few topics that those two friends were eager to discuss. In fact, they did very little talking at all. Instead, Sirius and Remus glared at each other.

"This is ridiculous, you know," Lily said softly. Harry had fallen asleep in Sirius' arms some time ago, and she seemed reluctant to talk too loudly in fear of waking him. "You two have been best friends for years. You can't just sit here staring holes at each other. Talk."

"Lily, I..." Remus started, but a strange expression came over his face, and he stiffened in his seat. He tilted his head, as though he were listening to something outside.

There were few advantages to being a werewolf, one of them being extra sensitive hearing. The first time James and Sirius had seen Remus tilt his head to listen to something far away, the boys had laughed at the werewolf's claims of Filch being on his way. They soon stopped laughing when Filch did indeed show up, and they got detention for wandering the halls in the middle of the night. James and Sirius hadn't understood why Remus could hear so well at first, but they began to trust what he was saying. And when they found out his secret a year later, it made perfect sense.

So, when Remus walked over to the window and peered out the curtains, James immediately joined him.

He could barely see anything, at first. Night had fallen, and the darkness hid most of Godric's Hollow. But then he saw something… someone move.

James heart seemed to stop as a figure glided across the street towards their house. He couldn't see the person's face, but at once, he knew who it was.

No. No. No.

"No," Sirius whispered, echoing James' thoughts. He too stood at the window, his voice full of dread.

"What is it? What's going on? James?" Lily asked. His wife's voice drew James out of his momentary stupor.

"Lily, take Harry and go upstairs." James quickly took Harry from Sirius and placed him in Lily's arms.

"But the Fidelius Charm… Nobody will be able to get through."

"I'm not going to take any chances right now."

"But James-"

"Go, Lily!" James hated shouting at his wife, but it seemed to be the only way to get through to her, because at his words, she turned and ran up the stairs.

James turned back to the window, his eyes fixed on the figure that was the subject of his nightmares. Voldemort.

"Where does the Fidelius Charm begin, Prongs?" Remus asked, his voice quiet but hard.

"At the gate." James held his breath as he watched Voldemort step closer and closer.

Please stop. Please don't come any closer. Please. But James knew it was useless, even as Voldemort stepped through the gate and towards the house that he shouldn't have even been able to see.