A/N: So, this is where shit hits the fan. I have taken poetic license with the timeline of the story from this point. At points, time will seem rather elastic (without the aid of magic, just slightly crappy story-telling), so please forgive me for that. I have not, however, changed the essentials of plot or characters.

Chapter Fifty

Helena shot awake, bolt upright and with a scream on her lips. Sirius was right beside her, of course, and had his wand in his hand before he'd even come fully awake. "What? What's wrong?"

Helena couldn't answer him, at least not coherently. "H-Harry," she managed. "God, he's come and no no no no no, Lily- James- fire- green- no-"

She grabbed robes and threw them on roughly. Sirius did the same while she crossed to the fireplace, throwing a handful floo powder in. "Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow."

Nothing. The powder glittered briefly, but then fell to the bottom of the grate. The fireplace remained still and cold.

"Helena, they're disconnected from the Floo Network, remember?"

"Then we get there another way-"

"We're not going anywhere until you explain what just happened! We can't just-" he cut off mid-sentence, and was staring at her arm. At her inner left forearm. Helena did the same. The Dark Mark was gone. No, not gone, she found, tilting her arm towards the candlelight. But so faded as to be barely visible. She could still feel it though, stinging almost as freshly as the moment Voldemort had put it there. "What the hell does that mean?" Sirius asked, his voice dropped to a hushed whisper.

"I have no idea. But we have to get to Lily and James, right now."

"Bike." Sirius grabbed her hand and they almost flew down the stairs, and then out into the garden. Sirius gunned the engine almost before she was on the bike—he'd not seen it as she had, but her urgency was apparently contagious. They soared through the skies at top speed, landing in Godric's Hollow just before dawn. They hadn't needed to land to see the devastation though. Helena had leaped from the bike while they were still ten feet off the ground, and was now running inside.

She heard Sirius follow her. "No, no, no … This can't be right, it can't be …"

She had more than half-expected it—but racing into the living room to find James, stretched out on his back, hazel eyes widened and glassy, clearly and remorselessly dead, Helena screamed anyway. So did Sirius, moving by her and dropping to his knees beside his best friend, picking James up by the shoulders and shaking him as though he were just asleep. Helena looked around the room, unable to believe the destruction that lay around them. The fireplace was utterly gone, just crumbling bricks and mortar now. The furniture had either been blasted apart or reduced to ashes. All the windows were shattered. Obviously James had put up one hell of a fight. But he had been defeated all the same.

The belated realisation slammed into her. If James was dead, then Voldemort would have moved on, gone to find his prey- "Lily! Lily!"

The wooden staircase shook as she pounded up it, but not half as much as she did. Lily's red hair was a faded glint of copper, splashed out across the floor of Harry's room. Her eyes didn't look green anymore. And after that, Helena's tears splintered everything into fragments, and she couldn't see any more of Lily's corpse. The first sob burned her lungs and she refused to let it out. Once she let it out, they were really mourning them, they would really be-

In the end, she didn't have to let the sob out. Because someone else was already crying. The high-pitched wail penetrated her senses, but not her mind at first. He couldn't be alive. Lily was dead and James was dead so Harry must be dead too. She had seen Voldemort- No she hadn't. She'd seen a green flash of light. And that was all.

She whipped around, and found that Lily's eyes were still green after all. It was just that Harry had them now. The toddler was holding the bars of his cot tightly, tears running down one side of his face and blood running down the other. "Harry," she breathed. "Oh sweet, darling Harry …"

He held his arms up the moment he recognised her; she swept him to her in a crushing hug, unable to believe how warm, how solid, how heavy and alive he was. This miracle child was alive. This boy who lived while his parents died. The tears began finally to roll. Sirius found his wife and godson crying together, next to Lily's body. Tear tracks were visible on his own cheeks as well, and his jaw dropped when he saw Harry, alive and unharmed. There were only two questions that mattered, and Helena could answer neither of them.

"How …?"

"I don't know."

"But what happened to …?"

"I don't know." She kissed Harry's head. "Dumbledore. We have to …"

Sirius reverently laid a sheet over Lily, and by the time the two of them went downstairs, Hagrid was surging towards them like an oil tanker through the seas. The huge man's face was also, instantly, wet with tears.

"L-Lily? An' James?"

Helena shook her head and pulled Harry a little closer.

Hagrid gave a loud sob. "But they were s'posed ter be protected!"

Without warning, Sirius pulled away from her. His jaw was rigid, his eyes so wide she could see the whites all around them. He looked back at the house. "It can't be. He can't be …"

"Padfoot?"

He snapped his eyes back to her face. "You- You can leave Harry to us, Hagrid, we'll look after him."

Hagrid sniffed hard. "Can't. Dumbledore said I've gotter-"

"We're his godparents!"

"S-Sorry, Sirius, but-"

"It's alright, Hagrid, we just need to- Dumbledore, why didn't he come himself?" Helena asked.

"I dunno. But-"

"I have to go," Sirius suddenly announced.

"What?" Helena gasped. "Padfoot, you can't just-"

"Take the bike, Hagrid, I won't need it," he said quickly.

"Sirius-"

He strode to her, said, "I love you," kissed her so fiercely it scared her, touched Harry's hair briefly, and then disapparated.

Helena felt too shocked to move or speak. What-?

Hagrid obviously didn't know anymore than she did. The big man shook himself. "Helena- I- I have ter take Harry. Helena. Helena!"

"W-what?"

Hagrid seemed as distressed as she was, but he didn't put his arms down. "I- I have ter take Harry."

Instinct made her clutch her godson tighter. "Take him where?"

"He- He's gotta go ter- ter Lily's sister…"

"What? No!"

"That's what Dum-"

"I don't give a flying fuck what he said – you want to give him to strangers after what's just happened? To muggles?"

"I don't- Course I don't, but Dum-"

"Take me to him."

"What?"

"I am not letting go of Harry until this gets sorted out, and I am not letting him be taken away and given to people who have virtually no idea he even exists! Now take me to HQ and I'll have this out with Dumbledore right now. He has no right to make this decision!"

Hagrid looked stricken, torn between wanting to agree with her and following the instructions of the man he respected more than any other. "We can't apparate with the little lad," he said finally.

"We'll take Sirius' bike. You drive."

She conjured an extra blanket for Harry, knowing how cold it could get at altitude. The ride was not a silent one, though neither adult spoke to the other. Harry cried for almost the whole journey, disturbed by the unfamiliar motion and the cold, she thought. She eventually managed to rock him to sleep, but then found she was crying too. How could this have happened? Lily and James … Flashes of their cold dead faces kept appearing before her eyes, blocking out any ability to think of them as living, breathing loved ones less than twelve hours ago. And Sirius, where, where, where had he gone? Just disapparated, literally into thin air? Did he know something they didn't? Did he know who was responsible for this? What on earth did he think he was doing, except getting himself killed too?

"We're comin' in ter land."

She raised a hand to brush her tears away while Hagrid focused on setting them down on the path outside Westmoreland Castle. It was easy to spot the bright golden glow from inside – the need for secrecy was now over, but she doubted the mood would be one of celebration. When they went inside, Harry stirred in her arms but didn't wake up. In the great hall, Dumbledore and Moody appeared to be the only ones present. When he saw who Helena carried, Dumbledore frowned, but before he could speak, Hagrid blundered forwards.

"She insisted on speakin' with you, Professor, wouldn' take no fer an answer-"

"It's alright, Hagrid." He looked behind them. "Where is Sirius?"

"He's- I don't know where he is, alright, he had to do something."

Dumbledore fixed his gaze on her. "What?" he asked simply.

"I don't know!" she burst out, successfully waking Harry and making him cry again. "We just got there and Lily and J-James are- they're-" she choked on a sob and then was lost to her grief again, unable to breathe or speak or do anything except hold on to Harry. She was guided into a chair by someone, and she was blind as to who.

Dimly, she made out Dumbledore was talking to her. "Helena, there will be time for grief, later, I promise. Currently, I need practical details. It will help me to understand what has happened. It will help me to understand where Harry needs to be. Will you help me with that? For his sake?"

She drew in a shuddering breath, which did help steady her a little. She nodded.

"How did you and Sirius know what had happened?"

"I-I was dreaming, seeing what Voldemort was doing. I saw J-James and then- then Lily b-but when I- When he turned to kill Harry, there was just this green flash, like a killing curse-"

"But you did not see Voldemort die?"

"No, when- when I woke up the Dark- Dark Mark was- I don't know, on fire it felt like-"

"Show me."

She held out her left arm; Dumbledore rolled the sleeve back. The Dark Mark was almost (but not completely) gone. From the stark black lines it had been, it was now a thin shape, barely a shade darker than her skin. It also felt passive for the first time, not particularly malevolent at all.

"Is he dead?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Dumbledore replied. She wondered how many times in his life he'd ever said those words. "Go back, Helena, I know this is diffificult, but he- He killed James, and then Lily?"

She nodded, flinching at the corresponding images in her memory.

"Can you- Can you remember where Lily was standing? Anything she might have said?"

"She was defending Harry. She refused to let him be killed."

Dumblefore straightened with an inexplicable sigh of satisfaction.

"What is there to look so bloody happy about?" she demanded.

"Harry is safe," Dumbledore said simply. "Lily has ensured his protection until he is seventeen."

"What? How?"

"She sacrificed herself for him. An ancient magic was created, magic that apparently Voldemort forgot about."

"Forgot? He knew more magic than anyone else alive!"

"Of the magic that served him, yes. Anything else, he disregarded. It cost him dearly tonight."

"Is he dead?" she asked again.

"I simply do not know. I suspect that, if it were the case, the Dark Mark on your arm would have disappeared altogether."

"Then he could come after Harry again?"

"No … I don't think so."

"What? Make sense, Dumbledore, for Heaven's sake!"

"The curse rebounded upon him. This cut, on Harry's forehead? Have you looked at the shape of it?"

It was difficult to make out; there was still a substantial amoount of dried blood on Harry's face, which she gently cleaned off with a wet corner of the blanket. The cut, she eventually saw, was lightning-shaped. She looked up at Dumbledore. "That's impossible. It can't have hit him. No one can survive a killing curse."

"No one until now."

"You- You said Lily protected him with her sacrifice?"

"Yes. And it is why he must live with Lily's blood relative for now. He must go to her sister. It is the only place he will be safe, until he comes to Hogwarts."

"In ten years? No! He can't live with muggles for the next decade! He'll have no idea about anything!"

"He will be the same as any other muggleborn then."

"Except totally different! How many other 'muggleborns' will grow up in danger from fantatics every day? Or the most powerful dark wizard who's ever lived, if my father does come back? He'll be hunted, you can't deny that!"

"I do not deny it, but as long as Harry lives under his aunt's roof, he will be safe. It is an unbreakable magic."

"It's also not what Lily and James would have wanted! Lily made me swear that I'd look after Harry. That I'd be there for him if she couldn't be; the same for Sirius. And we could protect him from anyone who comes after him."

"Are you infalliable? Are you invincible? Could you never be made vulnerable by each other?" Dumbledore said. His tone had sharped, the line between his eyebrows deepening. She didn't think it was merely impatience – it felt like a rebuke, as though he was reminding her that she and Sirius had already been made vulnerable by each other, that they had already proven themselves inadequate guardians. She felt nettled.

"So you are certain that there is no way this magic could ever be broken?"

"Exactly so."

She swallowed, looking down at Harry again. He opened his green eyes sleepily, recognised her, and shiftled a bit closer in his slumber. "He won't be happy," she whispered.

"At the moment, his safety must be our priority, do you not agree?"

No, she didn't agree. She didn't at all agree that Harry be raised cut off from the world he'd been born into, brought up among people who wouldn't love him as their own, who couldn't tell him every day how wonderful his parents were, how much of a miracle it was that he was alive. She didn't agree to any of it. But neither could she think of any argument that would sway Dumbledore, and without Sirius and his clever tongue to help her, she had no choice.

"I- Yes. Of course. He has to be kept safe."

"Then give him to Hagrid, and be certain you are doing the right thing."

It didn't feel like the right thing though, not when, as soon as he was out of her arms, Harry was bawling again. Not when, as Hagrid walked away, his little hands tried to reach for her over the big man's shoulder. She folded in on herself, one hand cupped over her mouth to try and stifle the sobs. A vain effort. When she heard the roar of Padfoot's bike being kicked back into life, she gave up all pretence of effort and cried heartily.

"How? How, how, how, how, how, how-" she choked again and glared at Dumbledore with reddend eyes. "How did this happen?"

"That is what I intend to find out."

"Let me help you."

"No. Helena, I need you to stay here."

"What?"

"I promise, I will keep you informed but it is important that you remain. Promise me."

"I-"

"Please. You are in no fit state to do anything useful right now."

"Fine. I'll stay," she snapped.

"Thank you."

He disapparated before he could hear her incredibly rude reply to his thanks.

A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing! I decided to stick with this story and just have it be a ridiculous length. Hope you can stick with me/it!