Recap: Sirius, after falling through the veil, landed in his seventh year at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is aware of his identity and gave him the position of Defense professor. Young Sirius and James are suspicious of his motivations and Sirius is trying to change this timeline, not only for the sake of his best friends, but also for his younger brother. We last left off with Sirius falling asleep after getting off to a good start with Regulus, only to meet the ghost of James Potter in his dreamscape:

"So, you needed to urgently discuss something with me, Prongs? It can't get any weirder than this, can it? Being in the past, I mean. Are you at least able to tell me why I'm here, and why you were the person sent to talk to me?"

James smiled, and sat down in front of his lost friend. "All in good time. We have more important things to discuss. Namely, how in the world you're going to prevent me from kicking it this time around."

"So Prongs, I'm gonna assume you have a plan or something, right? I'm all ears." Sirius said, grinning.

James blanched.

Sirius was pretty shocked, but then another laugh came tumbling from his mouth. "Mate, are you telling me that you came to visit me from beyond the beyond, and don't even have an idea of how we're gonna save everyone? Same old James Potter, acting before thinking."

James huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You know that Lily was always the one with the plans and all that. I'm a doer, always have been. Besides, you aren't much better, Pads. Who was the one who chased Peter down in an irrational rage? Tell me, did you have a plan in mind then?"

That got Sirius' attention. "Touche." Quietly, he asked, "About that. You don't, you know-"

"-blame you for what happened?" James finished somberly. "Of course not. None of us knew that Peter was the traitor, the damn rat. None of us."

Sirius nodded, feeling some weight slightly lift off of his shoulders. "Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand…"

"Right! Of course!" Even though James could sit there talking all day with his best friend, Sirius knew there were more important things that had to be brought out into the open. Just because James didn't have a plan did not mean there didn't exist a reason for him popping up in his subconscious.

James tapped his fingers on his chin, obviously contemplating how he was going to even begin to relay his information. Sirius sighed, rolling his eyes. "Are you thinking of a plan now? I thought you said we didn't have a lot of time. I mean, I have a class to teach."

James shook his head, his disheveled hair whipping across his forehead. Sirius realized with a start that he was a very different ghost than those he had encountered before. Where ghosts like Olive were stuck with everything in the same place for eternity, James had shown that the clothes and hair on his body could move like that of a normal human being. Sirius locked that down as something to mention to Dumbledore later.

"Not coming up with a plan per se, no, that's Lily's job. You see, as the magnificent dead people we are, we're privy to a lot of… I guess you could call it 'unknown' information."

Sirius tried to comprehend what that meant. "You mean, you guys can see the future and stuff?"

James shook his head again. "No, no, it's not that simple. We only know the present, but we're able to sense things. Things that we wouldn't know if we were still alive. Things that are going to help you defeat Voldemort."

This was freaking Sirius out a bit. "And these things you sense… that's what you need to tell me about."

"Exactly."

"So, lay it on me Prongs."

James sighed. "Have you ever heard the term 'Horcrux' before?"

Sirius felt himself become lightheaded. Of course he had heard the term before. His parents were the epitome of a Dark Arts family. He knew what they were, and, more importantly, how they were made. He stood up and walked around his little dreamscape, James' eyes following him around the room. James smiled a bit. Sirius had always had a nasty habit of pacing when he was nervous or fearful of something. It was something that he had missed about his best mate.

"That's how he came back, isn't it? He had a Horcrux hidden somewhere, that son of a bitch." Sirius glared at the floor.

James shook his head for the third time, and Sirius wondered whether his friend's neck was getting tired from all of that movement. "I hate to tell you this old friend, but it wasn't just one."

Sirius could only count a handful of times where he was truly afraid. This was one of those times. "How many? How many times did that monster manage to rip his soul up?"

"In this timeline, only five Horcruxes, but-"

"FIVE?!" Sirius shouted. He couldn't believe his ears. Something like that shouldn't even be possible, and yet here it was, the information nearly overwhelming him. He could almost feel himself waking up in shock. James started becoming more and more of a blur.

"Sirius, stop! Calm down, we need to keep talking. I don't know when I'll be able to come back, so we must discuss this right now." James shouted, pulling Sirius roughly by the arm and throwing him back into his seat. The leather bound chair hit the wall with an oomph, and Sirius rubbed the back of his head as if he were in pain (it was a dream, but still- instinct). James grabbed him by both shoulders, looking him straight in the eye as he did so. "Take some deep breaths, Padfoot. Let it out."

Sirius took his advice, and the dream became clear once again. Even James himself appeared a bit more corporeal. "Prongs, how the bloody hell can you say the words 'only five Horcruxes' with a completely straight face? If you know anything about Horcruxes, you know that it shouldn't even be possible to-"

"Believe me, I know." James said, a bit too angrily. He finally stood up, and looked away from his friend. "But in the time that you and I are from, he created another two. One intentionally. One… unintentionally." James seemed a bit distraught after getting that last sentence out into the open, and Sirius briefly wondered what had his friend so riled up.

But still. "Seven Horcruxes?! How the-"

James sighed. "The last two are unimportant, considering neither exist right now." He started clenching his fist a bit but took a deep breath to steady himself. "Hopefully if we succeed here, they will never be made."

Sirius again wondered why James seemed so emotionally invested in this, but quickly put it off to the sheer number of times that Voldemort managed to split his soul.

"So… can you at least tell me what they are, Mr. 'I'm dead so I can sense all of the evil in the world.'?" Sirius asked innocently.

That got a smirk out of James and he seemed to relax a bit. "But of course! I wouldn't be here if I didn't, now would I?"

"You never know. I mean, you did appear out of nowhere without a plan in mind…"

James coughed. "The past is the past, good buddy. Now, let's talk about Horcruxes."

Sirius was filled in, for the most part. First was Slytherin's locket, which didn't seem to be a big surprise. According to James, it was currently in the possession of Voldemort himself, which Sirius thought was incredibly stupid for someone who proclaimed himself to be "the most powerful wizard in the world."

Next he was told about a ring that had belonged to Voldemort's grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt. It had apparently already been destroyed in the current timeline, though James did not share the details of who took care of it. "All that matters is that it gets destroyed in the here and now." James had said, though Sirius was perturbed that his friend was hiding something else from him. It was currently lying in the shambles of the Gaunt house, which Sirius was eager to find. James, however, had one piece of advice.

"I know that you're going to tell Dumbledore about everything I'm telling you now, but you have to promise me that you will find this Horcrux on your own and that you do not put it on under any circumstance. Understand?"

Finding this an odd request, Sirius hesitantly agreed, but relegated this as another peculiar thing that James was hiding.

Hufflepuff's cup surprised him a bit, if only for the fact that it was a relic from one of the other houses. Knowing that it was currently sitting in his deranged cousin's vault only added to his stresses.

Ravenclaw's diadem, on the other hand, would be the easiest to find and destroy. It was, after all, hidden away in Hogwarts itself, which Sirius felt was another stupid hiding place.

James was hesitant to announce the last item, and Sirius wondered briefly what it was. Maybe Voldemort was finally smart and decided that a nice pebble in the middle of nowhere would be the perfect hiding spot. If I was a deranged lunatic who wanted to stay alive forever, it's definitely what I would do, Sirius thought to himself. He felt a headache start to come on. "Well? Out with it! It can't be that bad, can it? Is it a rock or something, because all you have to do is give me the general area and I can destroy it with some fiendfyre."

James scratched the back of his head. "It won't be hard to find or destroy, actually. It might be one of the easier ones. The thing is, you already know what it is. It was destroyed in 1993." He paused. "At Hogwarts."

Sirius thought back to what was going on in 1993. That was the year he escaped Azkaban, and he hadn't heard about anything like that while on the run. But before he escaped, Harry's second year had come to a close. That was the year he…

Oh.

"The diary?"

James nodded gravely. "Yes. Tom Riddle's diary was a Horcrux. It was destroyed when Harry stabbed it with a fang filled with Basilisk venom."

Sirius was astounded. "Okay, how are you not freaking out about this? You do realize that your son destroyed a Horcrux, right? That's, that's absolutely incredible! I knew that kid was amazing, but this is seriously on another level! Come on Prongs, how does this not make you want to be giddy with excitement?" Sirius didn't think he could feel more proud of his godson. He surprised him everyday.

James just smiled sadly. "I've always been proud of Harry. It's just," he paused, trying to find the right way to express what he was feeling. "he has a lot of struggle ahead of him. A lot of pain."

Sirius looked skeptical. "I thought you couldn't see the future, Prongs?"

James looked, no pun intended, like a deer caught in the headlights. "I can't. There's just, well, there's a lot that you don't know Sirius. About Harry himself. About what must inevitably befall him."

That didn't sound good. It was a morbid foreboding alright, and Sirius wanted to know why. "You make it sound like Harry isn't going to survive this war, James. And as someone who apparently can't see the future, I want to know where that absurd train of thought is coming from."

James sighed in exasperation. "You know about the prophecy, right?"

"Well, I know of it, because you can't keep your damn mouth shut in front of your best friends, but I don't know the exact wording." Sirius said patiently. "But what does that have to do with anything? It's a prophecy that talks about some kid, in this case Harry, who might kill Voldemort, right?"

James looked tired. Really tired. Wearily, he answered. "Not exactly. Dumbledore refused to tell us the entire thing, which, in hindsight, may have been for the best. The first part deals with that, yeah, but it's the last part that's so important. So important that not even Voldemort himself knows it."

It all made sense now. "That's why Malfoy was in the Department of Mysteries! He wanted the prophecy so Voldemort could get the whole thing! Huh. Guess I didn't die for nothing after all! Well, I mean, get thrown through the veil. Same thing, really."

James nodded, hurrying the conversation along. "Exactly. And as the all knowing, awesome, sexy dead person I am, I know the end. 'Neither can live while the other survives.' Which, in lemans terms, basically means-"

"-one of them is going to have to kill the other." Sirius finished, stunned. He felt like a bludger had just hit him square in the chest, but perked up after realizing that it was a two way street. "But it's not that bad, Prongs. Harry could still come out on top!"

James looked at the ground, defeated. "Remember when I told you that the sick bastard creates two more Horcruxes?"

Sirius nodded. "Unfortunately. Are you saying Harry won't win because he won't be able to destroy all of them, because I hope you know by now that he's a resourceful wizard. He'll be able to find them all. The five you told me about are all pretty out in the open, and two are already gone. You need to have faith."

Smiling grimly, James muttered, "Oh I have faith alright. And that's the problem."

Sirius was always pretty dense, and he knew it. "What are the Horcruxes he'll create, Prongs? I can tell Dumbledore in case I fail and he creates them regardless of what I try to change."

James looked torn. But, he knew Sirius had to know. Especially if he made it back to their original timeline. It was painful, but Sirius would be better off informed. "One is that snake he always has around. He turned it in 1994, when he killed Bertha Jorkins. That was the last one."

Sirius was surprised. He didn't know a living thing could be turned into a Horcrux. Then again, he would have scoffed at the possibility of splitting the soul into eight different pieces before he had this crazy dream. But James was delaying talking about the sixth Horcrux. And by the way he was staring at him, Sirius began feeling like he knew why. If a snake could become a Horcrux, then-

The visions.

The Parseltongue.

The attack on Arthur Weasley.

The scar.

It was his godson. It was Harry.

He knew his suspicions were correct when James nodded his head solemnly. They were best friends, after all. The only question Sirius could conjure up was "Why?"

James finally sat back down, years of worry already etched onto his features. His hazel eyes looked lost. "He was the unintentional one. The Horcrux that Voldemort never meant to create. I suspect that Voldemort still doesn't know, but those are only suspicions. Lily and I knew right away, of course. We sensed it, we sensed the evil in him. In, in our poor Harry." He choked back a sob.

Sirius was freaking out on the inside, but managed to keep a calm demeanor. "James, Harry isn't evil. He's the friendliest, kindest, most noble person I think I've ever met. And I've met myself!" He tried making a joke out of it, but it fell flat in the melancholy atmosphere.

James sighed. "I know. I've watched him grow up, learn, make friends. It's a miracle he turned out how he did, being raised by that oaf Vernon and that banshee I'm forced to call my sister-in-law. But he had a rough time this past year. You saw it too, didn't you Sirius?"

He did. He saw the change in Harry. It was subtle, but there. And it didn't really help that Dumbledore had started ignoring him as well. Dumbledore…

"He knows, doesn't he? Dumbledore, I mean." Sirius asked hesitantly.

"Honestly, I'd be surprised if he didn't. I might be more omnipotent than I was in life, but even I can't read minds. The way he treated him last year, I'd say he's suspicious at least. Dumbledore is a pretty smart old man, considering."

Sirius jumped up in anger. "So that's it, then? Harry has to die in order for Voldemort to be destroyed?"

"As much as it pains me, yes. He does."

Sirius jumped out of his chair and punched the wall in front of him, wishing he could feel something. But he was still asleep, so his fist passed right through. He yelled in frustration, kicking the desk, the chair. Throwing things. Everything became blurry again as his rage consumed him. It just wasn't fair! How was it fair?

His godson was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

James decided not to interfere this time, knowing that there was nothing he could say that would snap Sirius out of it. He could only hope that he remembered what he was told, remembered the mission that he had to complete.

"Remember Sirius!" He shouted, as the dreamscape began to tremble and dissolve around him. "Find the Horcruxes! Destroy them! It won't save our Harry, but it will save this one! Make a difference! Remember! Save us all, Padfoot! Save us all!"

With that, the dream exploded in his face, and only darkness remained.

Sirius opened his eyes, noticing that there were tears trailing down his face. He tried to stop them, but he just couldn't do it. He was, in a sense, completely overwhelmed and rightly depressed. Looking at the time, he realized that he had ten minutes before his next class was due to arrive.

Enough time for him to pull himself together.

Looking down at his closed fist, he opened it after feeling something inside. He took out a crumpled piece of parchment. On it were the locations of all five existing Horcruxes, with one additional note at the bottom.

Padfoot,

It's up to you, mate. It's up to you to do right in this world and what couldn't be done in ours. Please. Give them the life we always dreamed of. They're us. They'll always be us. They deserve to be happy. To be saved.

See you on the other side, when all is said and done.

-Prongs

Massaging the wrinkles out of the parchment, he made up his mind about something important. He would tell Dumbledore. He would. But not about Harry. It wouldn't even be important to the old man. He didn't know the boy, probably wouldn't care either way. And it wasn't like it affected this world at all. If he succeeded, Voldemort wouldn't be alive, and wouldn't be able to create his sixth Horcrux. Sirius had resolve before, but knowing what that monster would do to Harry, what his Harry would have to sacrifice, made him more determined than ever. He had left Harry behind to die, and he would not make that mistake again.

He was going to kill Voldemort with his own hands, prophecy be damned. And he was going to relish in the destruction of every Horcrux he encountered.

He was going to save them, even if it was the last thing that he would ever do.

A/N I don't have any excuse for such a long hiatus. Writers block. Honestly. I have my motivation back, so expect more frequent updates. I look forward to going on this journey with all of you.

Thanks for reading!

~M