Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its copyrights.

Finally! It's the next one-shot! :D My goodness it has been a long time since I updated a story. I hope you enjoy!

This takes place in 1981 the night that James and Lily Potter were murdered, and the following day. This is how Serena came to live with Remus.

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10/31/1981 8 p.m.

Remus was startled out of a doze by a pounding on his apartment door. He located his wand and approached the door cautiously as whomever it was started banging on the door again.

"Who is it?" Remus called out as a cursory check: if they were Death Eaters, they would have broken down the door by now.

"Moony! Remus, it's me; open up!" Knowing that voice and throwing caution to the wind- because, really what did he have left to lose?- he undid the wards and opened the door.

And there was Sirius standing there with Serena in one arm and a baby bag slung over the other shoulder. He looked immensely relieved when the door opened.

"Oh thank Merlin! I have to check on something, but I can't bring Serena, and I can't leave her alone. Can you watch her for a while?" he said very quickly.

"So you trust me enough to watch your daughter, but not enough to believe that I wouldn't turn on any of my friends and betray them to the Dark side?" Remus can't help but ask sarcastically.

Sirius closed his eyes looking pained; "Remus, please. We will talk later, I promise, but I really need to go." He practically tossed Serena into Remus' arms, dropped the bag at his feet and Disapparated before Remus could get another word in.

"Well," he sighed, looking down at the little head of black hair resting on his shoulder, "let's get you to bed. I guess I'll find out what that was all about tomorrow…"

Grabbing the bag and quietly closing the door with his foot, he crossed the living space and into his sparsely furnished bedroom. He slid his bed closer to the wall and bunched at blanket at the crease. He gently laid Serena down getting only token unhappy sounds while he fished her blankie and bear out of the bag. Propping himself up on the edge of the bed, he prepared himself for a very long night.

11/1/1981 7 a.m.

Remus was awoken by a combination of things; there was a weight in his lap that was babbling softly and playing with what was probably his wand judging from the lights flashing through his eyelids, and there was a tapping on the window next to his head. He opened his eyes with a deep, relaxed breath and found that Serena had indeed gotten a hold on his wand, had changed the colors of various things around the room, and caused other things to entertain her by flying about the room around her.

"Ok, sweetheart, give Uncle Moony his wand back," he said more to fill the silence because Serena was not yet at an age where she understood everything that was said to her. She released the wand with little fuss, and snuggled happily into his arms when he stood to answer the tapping at the window. It was the owl that delivered the Daily Prophet.

He let it in and it perched itself atop his dresser as he dug around in the bedside table for its payment. He didn't even bother to look at the paper after the awkward one handed exchange for it, and he left it sitting on the dresser.

Figuring it would be best to feed Serena while she was still in her pajamas as opposed to changing her into clothes that were bound to get messy, he crossed into the kitchen and transfigured one of his two dining chairs into a highchair. Once he finished feeding her, getting her changed and setting her up in the living room with the toys Sirius had packed, Remus set about starting his own day and wondering when Sirius planned on coming back to explain things. He was just about to sit down on the floor near Serena, who was doing an exceptional job of entertaining herself, when he remembered the paper he left on the dresser. He went and grabbed it, then settled on the floor in the living room.

Remus played with Serena for a little while, and then turned his attention to the forgotten newspaper. Upon reading the headline, his mouth dropped open in shock. In big bold print it said "Dark Lord Defeated," and in slightly smaller print it added, "James and Lily Potter Dead."

"No. What? No, no, no," Remus said to himself, frantically reading the article, and then flipping to the rest of it when he was finished with the front page.

In the end, the paper told him that the Dark Lord found the Potters' hiding place, killed James and Lily and attempted to kill Harry but failed somehow and ended up destroying himself. A second article detailed how Sirius had apparently blown up a street full of Muggles, as well as long-time friend Peter Pettigrew, early this morning, and had been arrested, laughing the entire time.

Taking deep breaths, he forced himself to calm down. Ok. James and Lily were- oh, Merlin why? – dead. He didn't know where Harry was. Sirius had killed Peter and was on his way to Azkaban. With Sirius arrested, that meant that Serena was without a home. There was no doubt in his mind that he would fight tooth and nail to keep her, however, he needed help. He needed an explanation. He needed Dumbledore.

That decided, he packed Serena's bag with toys, juice, crackers, her bear and blanket, grabbed his coat and shoes, and wrestled a wriggly Serena into her own jacket. He paused to determine the best way to get to Hogwarts with a two year old, and finally settled on the short walk to the Leaky Cauldron to take the Floo. (After this, he might look into actually hooking his own fireplace to the network…)

He realized that the Leaky Cauldron was probably a bad idea the moment he stepped foot inside. Not only was he bombarded by the sound, he was bombarded also by the memories of he and his friends hanging out in this very bar, and the realization that that would never happen again. Everyone inside was loud, drunk and cheerful, but thankfully they were too much so to notice the nondescript man stop in the doorway to collect himself and then hurry to the fireplace. Tom saw him, but simply nodded in his direction and continued to serve his customers.

He paused briefly at the fireplace, and considered whether or not it would be rude for him to Floo directly into the Headmaster's office, but then dismissed the thought because, dammit, he shouldn't have had to find out through the bloody Daily Prophet about his best friends' deaths, betrayals and incarcerations. He forced himself to toss the powder in before he could talk himself out of it; stating the destination and stepping inside. He belatedly remembered to pull Serena's coat collar up over her mouth and nose to keep out soot. In the end, he needn't have worried about being rude and interrupting anything, because the headmaster's office was empty.

Remus sighed heavily in frustration, hoping that for once that creepy omniscience Dumbledore seemed to have would make him show up soon. Deciding he might as well make himself and Serena comfortable, he set her down, removed their jackets, and settled on the floor next to her.

"Oh man..." he sighed, "How'd we ever get into this mess, huh?"

Serena looked up at him, smiling a big, toothy, two-year-old grin. Remus couldn't help but to smile at her in response.

"I don't know what I'm going to do if they take you away from me. Maybe Dumbledore can pull some strings," he mused while pulling out something for Serena to play with that didn't include his wand, which she was now making a concerted effort to take.

Luckily, it wasn't even twenty minutes before Dumbledore entered his office. He didn't even seem at all surprised to see Remus sitting on the floor in front of his desk with Serena terrorizing a few of his more sentient knick-knacks.

"Ah, Remus my boy, you should have sent a message. Have you been waiting long?" Dumbledore asked as he moved to take a seat behind his desk.

"No. I didn't want to draw attention to myself if I sent you a message and you were at the Ministry," Remus replied, standing and rescuing the knick-knacks by scooping Serena up and taking a seat in the chair across from Dumbledore.

"Ah, yes. I have been at the Ministry for quite some time now. You're lucky you caught me, I was just popping in to take care of a few discreet messages and freshen up a little."

"Yeah, speaking of which, would you care to tell me why I had to find out what a disaster last night and this morning were from a newspaper? I mean, it would have been nice to know from, you know, a friendly mouth what had happened," Remus said testily.

Dumbledore for his part didn't seem to hear the tone in which he was spoken to; "Well, like you said, I didn't want to bring unwanted attention onto you. It seems that both you and Serena are being conveniently left out of the investigations. In fact, it is almost as if you were forgotten."

There was an initial surge of anger that they could have forgotten Serena, but then Dumbledore's words started to click.

"So, what are they going to do with Serena?" he asked instead.

"Well like I said, she- and you- have seemed to slip the Ministry's minds. There are no plans on where Serena is going to be sent to live, so I have taken it upon myself to make sure she goes to a good home. And, since Sirius' last will and testament names you as Serena's guardian after James and Lily- their souls rest in peace-, I took the liberty of drawing up the adoption papers.

"I need not remind you that once these are authorized it is a non-negotiable contract and there is nothing anyone can do about the placement until Serena herself is capable of speaking against it. And, luckily, I find myself with the standing to authorize such things."

"You-? Wait, really? Serena can stay with me?" Remus asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes. Yes indeed. Now all we have to do is sign it, and file it like it was meant to be, and no one will be able to take her from you," Dumbledore said, pulling out a packet of papers.

"Why?" Remus found himself asking.

"Why because, dear boy, I don't think she would have thanked any of us for sending her to the Malfoys, the Tonkses have enough on their plates what with young Nymphadora, and I wouldn't trust the fate of any child to the Lestranges. Now, I need you to initial here, and sign here. Quickly now, before someone decides to drop by and interrupt us."

Remus quickly read through the form. It looked authentic and seemed fool-proof and unbreakable- his signature had to be in blood. There was a copy of Serena's birth certificate and Sirius' will attached as well. He flipped back to the first page and took the black quill Dumbledore held out to him. He initialed and signed his name carefully, and the magical quill wrote not in ink, but in blood.

"There. All set," Dumbledore said, straightening the papers and folding them into his robes. "I'll take care of these when I return to the Ministry." The mood turned decidedly somber.

"I am truly sorry, Remus."

"They're really-?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Sirius was their Secret Keeper; he is the only one that could have told Voldemort where they were hiding." Dumbledore said sadly.

"But why go after Peter? And he seemed so… I don't know. Last night, when he dropped off Serena, I had no idea that he was going to…." Remus couldn't continue, he was so choked up.

"And, what about Harry? Couldn't you do the same for him as you did for Serena?"

"Harry has already been moved to his new home. He will safe there, with Lily's sister." Remus started at that news.

"Lily's sister? Petunia? Professor, they hated each other. Petunia absolutely despises magic, she'll despise Harry too!"

"I'm sure Petunia will be able to overcome her dislike for a child. And there really is no safer place for him right now; there are certain blood-tied wards that I have already set up around their house that will keep Harry safe right up until he comes of age. I'm sorry Remus. This is for the best."

Remus couldn't fight him on this, and he knew it. He was lucky that he had even been able to get custody of Serena- even more lucky that whoever that woman was, Umbridge or something, who was trying to lobby for the restriction of the right of those classified as 'half-breeds' to have children had been unsuccessful so far. Hopefully, if her lobby was successful in the future, it wouldn't matter since he already had custody of Serena and they would be grandfathered in. He silently started gathering his and Serena's things.

"Oh, and one more thing Remus: I have sent a couple of House Elves over to Sirius' apartment to gather Serena's things. They should be waiting for you when you get home," Dumbledore added before Remus could Floo away.

"Thank you, sir," Remus said. He Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, which was thankfully much quieter than it had been on their way to Hogwarts. When they arrived home, there were indeed boxes of Serena's things sitting in his living room. Some things had been extracted like the crib, and the highchair and the toy box, but there were still boxes and boxes of clothes and toys and other things. The apartment now looked and felt very small and cramped.

"Alright, looks like I'm going to have to make some major life before you're old enough to want your own room," Remus said to Serena as she toddled over to one of the boxes and started pulling out toys, brandishing a few of them at him, tossing the rest about, and demanding in baby-babble that he join her. "Yeah... a two room apartment is not going to cut it for long..."