Chapter Two: Perfectly Safe

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: Because some people have expressed concerns, I should probably mention that Harry won't become exactly like Lockhart but he is being raised by him, so...

Petunia Dursley woke up with a horrible feeling of wrongness. Despite her best efforts, she had been exposed to quite a bit of wrongness in her twenty-three years and she still had her finely-tuned instincts even if she had had no contact with those people since she married Vernon. On the one hand, those instincts were a curse because they meant that she still wasn't quite so normal as she would have liked to be. On the other, at least she wouldn't be taken by surprise.

Though it was still early, Petunia could hardly be expected to go back to sleep after such a horrible fear had settled over her. It wasn't even her fault, either. Those people had evidently decided not to bother concealing their presence yesterday and even Vernon had asked her about Lily so of course she was subconsciously thinking about them. Petunia didn't know who Lily was trying to fool, naming her little freak such a perfectly normal name.

Vernon was still asleep and he always worked so hard that she couldn't bear to wake him. No, she'd just go down to the kitchen and get breakfast started. Petunia made her way downstairs and collected the milk bottles to leave out for the milkman. Opening the front door, her heart was in her throat and she couldn't shake the feeling that something very bad was about to happen.

Petunia glanced down. Nothing was there. No unnaturalness or even perfectly mundane object. Her front porch was completely bare. She wasn't sure why she felt the strange urge to search the immediate area very carefully but she dismissed it as an abnormal urge and thus promptly ignored it.

There was nothing there and certainly nothing unnatural. Maybe her instincts were losing their precision, after all.

With that encouraging thought, Petunia went back to her stove.

"It's because I'm a werewolf, isn't it?" Remus demanded.

"No, not at all!" Sirius protested, aghast. Remus had been relieved to see that he was okay and that not everything had been destroyed that night for all of five minutes after he got to Sirius' room at St. Mungo's before the 'Why didn't I know about the switch?' argument had started. Healer Bloxam might have claimed that he was still there so they could be absolutely sure that he didn't have any brain damage from that memory charm but Sirius knew that they were just worried that he'd go after Wormtail again. Admittedly, they had a point but that didn't mean that he had to be happy about it.

"Really." Remus didn't look at all convinced.

"Look, we just didn't want anybody to know that didn't absolutely have to," Sirius defended himself. "Literally the only people who knew were the ones who had to. James and Lily were under the Fidelius, Pet-Wormtail was the Secret Keeper, and I was the decoy. We didn't even tell Dumbledore!"

"And in hindsight that was not the best idea," Remus said seriously.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well, of course it wasn't the best idea! Wormtail was a Death Eater!"

"I actually meant the 'not telling Dumbledore' part," Remus corrected. "You know, if it hadn't been for Lockhart, everyone would have thought that you betrayed Lily and James and then who knows where you'd be?"

"In a courtroom somewhere, probably," Sirius said dismissively. "Though they do keep prisoners in Azkaban until their trial date so I guess he saved me a few weeks of that."

"I am truly overwhelmed by your sense of gratitude," Remus deadpanned.

"If he hadn't have interfered, that rat bastard would be dead by now," Sirius muttered darkly.

Remus stared at him. "He probably saved your life!"

Sirius shrugged noncommittally, clearly losing interest in the subject.

"Why didn't you tell Dumbledore?" Remus asked instead. "Surely you don't think he would have told anyone and he if Voldemort could read his mind then the war would have been lost long ago."

Sirius shrugged again. "James and Lily didn't want to. I was just trying to respect their wishes. It was their safety, after all, and if all had gone as planned it wouldn't have mattered if Dumbledore knew or not."

"I still think that they should have used him as their Secret Keeper," Remus opined. "But I guess if they weren't even going to trust him with the real identity of said Secret Keeper then there's no way they would actually make him theirs. It's all very strange, I've got to say."

"Maybe," Sirius said vaguely. "It's not like we'll ever know."

The two surviving Marauders sat in silence for a moment as the thought of just how many things that James and Lily hadn't told them and now never would, never could hit them.

"You know, it's one thing not to tell the rest of the world but I'm supposed to be your guys' best friend and I was the only one of us not in the know," Remus remarked at length.

Sirius groaned. Was he ever going to let that go? He could easily see this being one of those things that Remus brought up from time to time for the rest of their lives. "Because it would have been too much of a risk!"

"Telling Wormtail was too much of a risk," Remus countered.

"Well, we know that now," Sirius conceded. "It's really not fair of you to use h indsight against me."

Remus crossed his arms unrepentantly. "And it wasn't fair of you to not tell me. If you really didn't not trust me, then why did you have Wormtail as the real Secret Keeper instead of me? God knows he would have been more comfortable with that."

Okay, so maybe he and James did have a little bit of paranoia about Remus. It wasn't something they were proud of, it may have contributed to James and Lily's deaths, and there was absolutely no way he was admitting to it now. Wormtail had just been far too spineless – Gryffindor or not – for them to really think he could be a spy…which probably had something to do with his success.

"Obviously everyone was supposed to think that the Secret Keeper was me," Sirius said slowly. "But in the event that someone suspected otherwise, the very last person that they would have looked to was Wormtail because he looked like he'd crack at the mere mention of torture so no one would have thought that we would have gone with him. You were a much more likely candidate."

"Even though I'm a werewolf?" Remus pressed.

Sirius started banging his head against a wall.

"Oh, that will convince them that you don't have any brain damage…"

Peter Pettigrew had always been a rather nervous man and the last few months had been him a paranoid one but the last few days were almost more than he could take.

James and Lily were dead. He had long-since resigned himself to that (the minute he failed to convince them not to make him their Secret Keeper, in fact) and so that really wasn't what was bothering him. No, the Dark Lord had apparently been destroyed and little Harry Potter was the boy who wasn't aware he was a hero. Sooner or later, the Death Eaters would remember that the Dark Lord had only acted on his information and come after him. Most of the people on Dumbledore's side had no idea that they wanted to kill him but Sirius Black did. Fortunately, anyone who knew about the Fidelius thought that Sirius was the one who must have betrayed James and Lily. Still, he hadn't heard anything about an arrest yet and until he did he couldn't shake the feeling that Sirius was going to rip his head off.

There was only one thing to do…well, actually, he had had two ideas. Pretending to be a rat and finding some wizarding family to live with was only his backup plan, though, because it sounded really demeaning and kind of boring. No, what he actually intended to do was flee the country. Maybe he could get some surgery while he was at it to make sure he didn't actually look like himself if anyone went looking. The idea of some muggle doctor cutting his face up rather terrified him but not quite so much as Sirius Black (or one of the Death Eaters, but he was really scared of Sirius) tearing said face off.

Pettigrew had worked himself into such a state of panic that it was almost a relief when the first stunner came and his frantic mind was silenced.

When Albus Dumbledore walked into Sirius' hospital room, he discovered that the medical prisoner was valiantly attempting to pretend that he cared about the game of wizarding chess he was playing with Remus. Good, the fact that both of them were here would make this much easier.

"Sirius, I've spoken with Healer Bloxam and she said that your tests results look great and that you should be ready to leave come morning," Dumbledore said by way of greeting.

"They caught Wormtail then?" Sirius asked innocently.

Dumbledore did his best to look innocent. "Why, yes, coincidentally the Aurors did catch up with Peter just a few hours ago. His trial will be sometime next week and Sirius especially will be called upon as a witness since he was the only one who knew about the switch."

"What's he being charged with?" Remus wondered. "I mean, I firmly believe that he deserves to go to Azkaban but surely it's not actually a crime for a Secret Keeper to tell someone the secret."

"He is going to be charged for treason in supporting Voldemort like all Death Eaters and accessory to murder as he knew that Voldemort intended to kill Lily, James, and Harry," Dumbledore replied.

"Why don't they just make it illegal to be a Death Eater and get it over with?" Sirius demanded.

"That would certainly simplify matters," Dumbledore admitted. "But already people are coming forward claiming they became a Death Eater under the Imperius and it has long-since been a policy to not hold people accountable for their actions while under Imperius. There have also been arguments made that people were forced to become Death Eaters which will be taken into account at their trials and that being a Death Eater ultimately just means one given the Dark Mark by Voldemort. While the presence of said Mark is certainly an indication that there may be crimes committed in the name of Voldemort, it is not absolute proof of wrongdoing."

Sirius made a face. "I think I'm getting a headache already."

"Yes, well, welcome to the legal system," Dumbledore said, sighing. "I suppose that a little inconvenience is worth it to prevent any miscarriages of justice."

"If you say so…" Sirius said dubiously.

"When can we see Harry?" Remus asked anxiously.

Dumbledore sighed again. "I'm afraid that I have some bad news for you."

"Is something wrong with Harry?" Sirius exclaimed. "Is he alright? What happened?"

"No, nothing like that," Dumbledore was quick to reassure them. "In fact, I put a charm on young Harry that would let me know if he's ever in mortal peril or with someone who means him harm."

Remus was still suspicious. "Then why did you tell us that there was bad news when I asked when we could see him?"

"Because I'm afraid that you can't see him," Dumbledore replied gravely.

Sirius' left eye began to twitch. "So Harry's godfather and another one of his parents' best friends can't see him?"

"No one can," Dumbledore said apologetically. "Part of it is for Harry's safety, of course, since there will be people out to kill him. Just because Voldemort is gone doesn't mean that his followers will disappear overnight."

"Remus and I know how to be discrete!" Sirius snapped. "We'd hardly advertise where Harry is staying!"

"I'm not saying that you would," Dumbledore said soothingly. "But we can't afford to risk it. Not to mention that, unless I'm much mistaken, you two have met Lily's sister before."

Remus nodded uncomfortably. "She…didn't like us."

"She doesn't like magic," Dumbledore agreed. "It is already asking a great deal of her to raise her estranged sister's orphaned wizard son with no notice because otherwise he may very well die but expecting her to put up with other witches or wizards would be asking too much. If we push her too far, she may end up rejecting Harry and then he'll be in danger. Is the chance to visit him really worth jeopardizing his life?"

Sirius looked like he was going to argue for a second before his shoulders abruptly slumped and it looked like all the fight had gone out of him. "I guess not. So…what? We're just never going to see Harry again?"

"I wouldn't say 'never'," Dumbledore said gently. "Just not for a few years. Once he's old enough for Hogwarts then I assure you you can see him to your heart's content."

"This really isn't what James and Lily meant when they named me Harry's godfather," Sirius complained.

"They also didn't foresee Harry becoming the single most famous infant in all of the magical world and being at the top of the hit-list of all of Voldemort's supporters, did they?" Remus asked rhetorically.

"Once Harry comes to the magical world, he will have no way to stay ignorant of his fame," Dumbledore added. "And learning of that too soon would turn the boy's head."

Sirius bristled at that. "Not James' and Lily's son, it wouldn't!"

"Who his family was is all well and good, Sirius, but you of all people should know that that is not the sole determining factor in who someone turns out to be," Dumbledore pointed out. "Harry would do well to wait until he's old enough to understand before he learns of his great fame."

Sirius said nothing but stared darkly at Dumbledore.

Getting uncomfortable, Remus eventually spoke up. "So what are you planning on doing once you get out of here?"

"I am going to create emergency Portkeys to every single member of the Order set to take them to St. Mungo's," Sirius declared, an almost feverish look in his eye. "If James and Lily had had one that night then they might not be dead."

"Are we entirely sure that this is healthy?" Remus wondered, looking a little concerned.

"It seems harmless enough and he needs a hobby," Dumbledore opined. "And who knows? It may even do some good."

Gilderoy smiled down at baby Harry. He had so many glamours on that if Gilderoy didn't know any better, he'd suspect that Harry was actually his own biological son instead of his new adopted one. He had been right (when wasn't he?) about the lack of facial scarring making Harry look far better but in a few years Harry would have to stop hiding it because how else would people recognize him on sight? He just didn't naturally look all that remarkable without it.

Gilderoy had had to spend a few hours thinking it over, but eventually came to the conclusion that it was best to keep calling the child 'Harry.' It was a common enough name that it wasn't guaranteed to make people think he rescued little Harry and he wouldn't want Harry to get used to be called, say, Mathew or anything. After all, one day he'd resume his identity as the boy-who-lived and it would hardly do for him to insist on being called by his fake name instead of his real and incredibly famous one.

They had spent a few weeks in Switzerland with Gilderoy only heading back to Britain for a few hours for his Order of Merlin. It was a wonderful photo op and might have actually been the proudest moment of his adult life. For the first time ever, he was getting any award for something that he had actually done and not just something he had the ingenuity for taking credit for. Admittedly, saving Black had been a complete and utter accident but the fact remained that without his actions, Black would probably be dead or in Azkaban or something right now.

Of course, this didn't mean that Gilderoy had any plans to abandon his remarkably lucrative book series. In fact, he had just heard of the rumored defeat of a banshee at some tiny Irish town and so he'd need to hurry up and get there before anyone knew anything concrete…such as the fact that he had nothing to do with it.

He rather liked Break with a Banshee as a title.

Note: So I'm not sure how believable no one noticing Lockhart absconded with baby Harry is but there's hardly any point in Lockhart taking the baby for all of five minutes before being forced to return him to the Dursleys, now is there? And let's face it, if Dumbledore did know that Harry was gone, I highly doubt that Lockhart of all people could fool him. Fortunately, Dumbledore has far more faith in people than he should and Lockhart doesn't intend to hurt Harry.

Like it or not, stories where Harry is raised by someone else or where he gets kicked out by the Dursleys'/runs away require Dumbledore to not obsessively keep track of him.

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