A/N: Thank you for reading this story. I hope you like this chapter. I'm sorry for the delay.
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters; they all belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I just borrowed them.
Chapter two. The night everything changed (2)
Sirius and Victoria, the latter carrying baby Lyra, arrived at Andromeda's house shortly after. "Andromeda where are you?" shouted Sirius.
Before Andromeda could answer, 8 years old Nymphadora, with her characteristic bubble-gum-pink hair, came running into the floo room "Uncle Sirius, Aunty Victoria, what are you…" she managed to say before tripping with the rug and landing on the floor.
"Careful sweety, there's no need to run" said Victoria. "We're here looking for your mommy".
"That's obvious by the shouts of my dear cousin, Victoria" said Andromeda, entering the room.
"We are sorry to barge in like this, but we need your help. Can you look after Lyra for a couple of hours?" said Victoria.
"Of course I can, buy may I ask why?"
"Something happen to James and Lily. I need to go to Godríc's Hollow and make sure that nothing is wrong" said a pale and nervous Sirius "and she wouldn't let me go by myself".
"I'm not going to ask how you know something is wrong with James, but I dare say your wife is right, you shouldn't go by yourself" said Andromeda with a sympathetic look. "Give her to me, I will look for Lyra as if she where mine".
"Thank you so much Andy" said Victoria carefully handing the baby to Andromeda. "She already ate and is asleep. We left in a hurry and I didn't bring anything with me. You can entertain her easily enough do, she…"
"Don't worry about it Vico" interrupted Andromeda "Dora might be 8 years old, but I still remember how to take care of a baby. Now go, before my cousin gets more anxious than he already is".
"Thank you"
"Yes, thank you" said Sirius awkwardly hugging Andromeda. The Blacks were not raised to display affection. James and Remus, and then Victoria, had shown Sirius that it was ok to do so, but he still felt weird about it.
They left the Tonks' residence and walked for about two blocks. They had the hope the wards were still active, so they did not try to apparate directly into the Potter's cottage. Instead, Sirius and Victoria apparated to the outskirts of Godric's Hollow and walked towards their destination.
Unfortunately they were wrong, the Fidelius Charm and all the other wards the Potters had placed on their house had fallen. You could see the devastation from a block away. The right side of the top floor, just where Harry's room was, had been blown apart (1). When Sirius saw this, he started running towards the house and so did Victoria.
Sirius arrived first and when Vitoria entered the cottage found him in the living room, hugging the lifeless body of James Potter and with tears in his eyes. She went to console him, but heard something upstairs, like a whimpering. She decided to let her husband grieve and went upstairs, wand in hand.
When Victoria arrived to the second floor, she realized that the sounds came from Harry's room. She went in, finding a terrible scene: Lily's body was lying in front of Harry's cradle and Harry, against all odds, was the one crying with a horrible lash in his forehead.
"Por la Diosa" said Victoria. She knelt and closed Lily's eyes. "I promise you, before the Gods, that I'll take care of Harry as if he's mine".
She stood up, took Harry out of his cradle and hugged him "sh sh little guy. You're save now. You're with me. I'll take care of you. Sh sh". She kept rooking Harry and saying calming words to him until the baby felt asleep. Then she went downstairs, only to find her beloved husband right where she had left him.
"Sirius honey, we have to leave". She gently said to him "Come love".
He looked at her with lost, sad eyes full of grieve "wha what?" Then he focused on her and realized that she had something in her arms "what are you carrying?"
"Not what, who. Don't ask me how or why, but Harry is alive. For his sake we have to leave now Siri. We don't know exactly what happened here or who can be lurking around".
"But, where is Lily? What are we going to do about James' body?"
"Lily's dead too, love." She said with a sad expression in her eyes. "I know we have to bury them properly. But right now our priority must be to keep Harry safe. Please love, we can come back tomorrow and deal with all this. Now is time to go".
Sirius seemed to regain some sense after that "You're right love" He said, hugging his friend's body one last time and standing up.
When they were leaving the cottage, Rubeus Hagrid was coming in. He seemed to know already what had happened and had tears running down his face.
"Hello. I see you already saw what happen" He said with a heavy voice.
Sirius could not speak, shock and grieve did not let him. It was Victoria that answered "Yes we did. I'm sorry to ask but, what are you doing here?"
"Professor Dumbledore send me. I must take Harry to him" He said, extending his arms to Victoria, as if asking for the baby.
Victoria hugged the baby closely, but kept her ground. For some reason she had never really trusted Albus Dumbledore. He had no right to Harry, she and Sirius were his godparents. "I don't understand why professor Dumbledore asked you to do that, but we are Harry's godparents and he perfectly is safe with us. So I'm not going to give him to you".
"But professor Dumbledore said…"
"I really don't care what he said" Victoria interrupted him. "As I already said: we are his godparents" she said with a steely voice and punctuating each word. "We're the ones that James and Lily choose to protect Harry in case something happen to him, and that's exactly what we intend to do. And if Dumbledore or anyone else have a problem with it, they can come and talk directly to me and see how that goes" she ended with the fierceness of a mother bear.
Hagrid put down his arms but stood there, quietly looking at Sirius and Victoria and blocking their way.
Sirius knew how protective his wife could be, and when it came to family nothing else matter to her. She protected her own no matter what and now Harry was, for all intents and purposes, her son. He knew quite well that, if Hagrid kept insisting on taking Harry, things could easily escalate to a point where Victoria would, without a doubt, hex Hagrid. So, overcoming his grieve for a moment, he said in the calmest voice he could muster: "Victoria is right Hagrid. I'm sure Dumbledore asked you to come here and collect Harry only to later give him to us. After all, he knows we're Harry's godparents. Now let us go, would you? We need to go home and make sure Harry is safe".
Hagrid seemed to ponder what Sirius was saying, and after about a minute he moved out of the way so they could pass. Victoria just looked at him and hurriedly walked out while Sirius thanked him.
Victoria took Sirius hand and they walked together in silence. Some muggles lived in Godric's Hollow, so they couldn't just apparate away in the middle of the street. They soon arrived in an alley an apparated directly into Andromeda's house.
A/N: (1) Description taken from: Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. First Edition. Great Britain. P. 271.
Before you ask, Victoria is not a Christian. As you read in this chapter, she first invoked a goddess and then "the Gods", in plural. I never really understood why in the books they celebrated Christmas; with it being a Christian tradition (It is, after all, the birth of Jesus Christ). With the Catholic and Christian persecution of witches and wizards, it has never really make sense to me. Plus, they never really invoke God, but Merlin. So, I have always believed that they must have another religion. This being my story, I have decided to explore that believe to an extent. In latter chapters I will try to include and explain some details of the religion I image they could have had.
Please tell me what you think.