Chapter 2

Disclaimer; I do not own HP…

Sorry I took a little longer to update I was on holiday.

The Potters

The Potters had it all… well in their eyes they did. Lily and James Potter were happily married with an amazing son and friends that would die for them, and to them that was everything, that was the reason to keep living, the reason to carry on, and the reason they all saw a light at the end of the dark and bloodied tunnel that was war. It was a well-known fact that the wizinding world was at this point in time plunged in brutal murder and despair, anyone and everyone had been affected by the dark lord Voldemort and his deranged followers, the Death Eaters. The Potters, however had been forced into hiding when Albus Dumbledore, an old, wise and grandfatherly man had warned them of a prophecy made about a boy born at the end of July, a boy said to have the power to finally defeat the dark lord.

The Potters lived in a small, neat and cosy little cottage in the village of Godric's Hollow. Their cottage had a thatched roof, a Cherry Blossom tree out front, a lush green lawn with flowers in full bloom and a small fence surrounding and marking the property, the property itself flowed with a secret and welcoming magic yet all this was not visible, well not unless you were a Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew this was because, upon the Potter residence had been placed a powerful and ingenious charm, the Fidelius Charm is a complex piece of magic which has the ability to hide the property from all eyes besides those who have been reviled the secret. Lily and James had made Sirius Black their Secret-Keeper, James and Sirius were brothers in all but blood, and Sirius also happened to be Harry's godfather so, they had thought that there was no better choice…

"Um, guys I was thinking that maybe you should change Secret-Keepers…?" Sirius told James and Lily one late mid-summers afternoon, it had come out more of a question than it was meant and all Sirius could do was listen with new found interest to the squawking birds basking in the setting sun outside as Lily and James looked at him in disbelief.

"You're drunk, right?" stated Lily, who had experience when handling either her husband or his idiot sidekick and always jumped to the worse conclusion, this way when she did find out the truth it usually wasn't as bad… At least that is what she told herself.

"Wha- NO, no of course I'm not!" It was now Sirius's turn to sit in disbelief. 'Of all things to suspect, she thinks I'm drunk! Getting drunk in this day and age it practically suicide you need a clear head 24/7' Sirius was now mentally fuming, he was serious!

"Come on mate, who's better than you?" James for once in his life was being the voice of reason.

"James, Lily you know I would give my life for you and I would give much more for Harry, but what happens if I am captured, what happens if I'm tortured, what happens if I am given truth serum! Now don't get me wrong, it is not my safety and life I fear for but I can't trust myself not to give any information away if forced! It is all well saying I would give my life and more for you but what good are words when death eaters are all too happy to use any means necessary to get that information!" Sirius finished on his feet panting heavily with his hands pulling through his usually sleek hair; James and Lily were shocked into silence. Neither had ever seen Sirius Black lose his cool before, not like this. Sirius's speech had done just what was intended… The Potter's were swayed

XxX

Lily was unsure about changing Secret keepers at first, in fact she was pretty sure that Sirius had been hit by a Confundus when he had first proposed the idea. Now however, watching the agitated man who had since started to pace the floor, running his long fingers through his black, dishevelled shoulder length hair she had been thoroughly swayed.

"Yeah, Sirius that is a good idea, I mean you're the most obvious person for the job, so if we use the least obvious person then we can play them at their own game, we can trick them!" Lily added her own thoughts to the discussion. "But no, that is still putting you in danger."

"Lily, I am in danger no matter what, everyone is."

"Yeah but that is not what I mean, I me-"

"Lily, James I love you both but for once the majority of my love is for that beautiful godson of mine!" Sirius shocked himself with these words but no matter how much he loved James and Lily he knew that he loved Harry ten-fold.

Lily and James's minds travelled up to their sleeping 15 month old son as they give a curt nod of approval.

XxX

Peter Pettigrew was one happy man, he had just left the Potter's house and now he was their Secret-Keeper! His master would repay him most highly when he was the one to lead him to the Potters. He knew that he should probably feel bad; after all he would very shortly be the reason that the Potters were all dead, he would love to be there just to see their faces when they saw that useless, stupid and slow little Wormtail was the rat… quite literally. 'Potter, Black and Lupin! They will pay for ever underestimating Peter Pettigrew!' He spat bitterly on the ground as he Apparated eagerly to his master, Voldemort…

XxX

"Wormtail, sure as hell seemed happy at the change didn't he." Exclaimed James Potter as the front door closed behind Peter.

"James, watch your language!" Lily scolded "I expect Wormy was just happy to be doing a big job, and he was probably happy in knowing that he could keep us safe, he is sweet."

"Yeah, sweet" Sirius scoffed "Thanks for that image"

"What image! All I said was that he was sweet, Black" Lily shouted letting her famous temper get the better of her as she slipped back in to the old school names.

"Sweet, exactly! He is a marauder, and sweet and marauders Do. Not. Mix! It's sacrilege!" exclaimed Sirius finally letting himself fall back to the 15 year old he liked to pretend he was instead of the 22 year old he actually was now that the serious stuff was over with.

Lily sighed in annoyance; she refused to allow Sirius to get to her and so quickly changed the topic. "Look, Petunia and Vernon need to know about the change as Peter is now their Secret-Keeper also" Lily had patched up her relationship with her Sister when the Potters had found out that they were marked for death and Lily had also offered the Dursleys protection via the Fidelius Charm.

"Ugh, why do you even bother?" James and Sirius stated in unison

"Because, she's my sister." Lily retorted as if talking to five year olds.

"Yeah well Petunia is ok, now. But that whale she married…" James faltered under his wife's angry glare.

"Vernon can be… biased… towards the magical community" Lily stalled looking for the right words, in all honesty Vernon Dursley was an arse but she would never admit that. "But that is no reason to 'not bother'!" She added back in full swing.

With that Lily stormed off to the nursery to check on her son as Padfoot and Prongs moved into the sitting room laughing about some stupid joke Sirius had just cracked.

XxX

Later that evening when the Dursleys were alerted and Sirius had left for the evening, after deciding to tell Remus about the switch the next day, Lily and James where making their way to bed after an eventful, Halloweens day when a silver Patronus in the shape of a phoenix glided through the wall and came to a stop in front of the couple, who out of caution had both drawn their wands. The phoenix opened its mouth and the voice of Albus Dumbledore emitted; "Emergency order meeting, come quick, there is a spy within the order!"

Well that was that chapter, please review O.o