"Alice, have you seen Sirius?" Frank poked his head into Pandora's lab to see the two women pouring over some ancient spellbook that Xenophilius had found for Pandora a few months before Luna was born, which she had been working on translating ever since.
"Hm? No, I haven't, dear." Alice replied absently. "Not since breakfast. Ask Xenophilius maybe."
"I did, he just mumbled something about dirigible plums."
Pandora's head shot up so quickly that Frank was almost concerned she had given herself whiplash. "Oh no, it's harvest day! I completely forgot!" She turned to Alice with an apologetic expression as she got out of her chair and grabbed her bright orange cardigan off the table. "I'm sorry, Alice, I have to go help Xeno with the harvesting, we can come back to this later. After lunch maybe? It is only half past eleven."
Alice smiled. "Don't worry, we have plenty of time. Neither it nor I are going anywhere anytime soon."
Pandora grinned. "You can both stay forever if you'd like to!" At the look of shock on Frank's face, she laughed heartily before exiting the room.
Frank turned to Alice, face still shocked. "We're not staying forever, are we?"
Alice laughed too. "No, dear, of course not. We'll go home when it's safe to do so. But your mother is nervous about going back so soon after resetting the wards; I just spoke to her about it last night, it's still only been eight days."
Had it really only been eight days since they came here? Little more than a week since James and Lily were killed, and less than a week since Sirius had what Alice called a 'mental break' after Remus left, and wouldn't eat for two days until Luna forcefully shared her carrots and pudding (a 'horrid combination', Sirius had called it) with him?
"I can't believe it's been such a short amount of time." Alice's voice broke Frank out of his thoughts. "Already Neville and Harry are bonding with Luna, and I honestly had never realized how much Pandora and I have in common…"
"Xenophilius is starting to grow on me, honestly." Frank said with a small smile. "I never thought I'd say that."
Alice shook her head, laughing again. "Come on, dear, let's go see if the kids want some lunch."
"Hey, I found this on Sirius' bed." Alice walked into the kitchen, holding up a note as Frank buckled Luna into her highchair. "It says he's going to James and Lily's cottage in Godric's Hollow."
Frank frowned. "He said that place had been destroyed. I wonder what he thinks he will find there."
Alice put the note down on the counter and grabbed the small bowls of homemade soup meant for the babbling babies beside the table. "Nothing but ash and sad memories." She said in a low voice.
"What's going on?" Pandora asked, coming through the other doorway with messy hair and dirt on her clothes. "I came in to get water, but it feels like something is wrong."
"Erm…" Frank looked at Alice in confusion.
"Sirius left a note saying he was going to James and Lily's old cottage." Alice responded. She had figured out over the last few days that Pandora was particularly good at sensing moods; almost like what Lily would call 'empaths' from hero comics she grew up with in the Muggle world.
"Oh. He's not going to be happy with what he finds there." Pandora replied cryptically, mostly to herself.
"Maybe one of us should go after him?" Frank asked.
"I'll go." Pandora said. "Frank, can you please help Xeno with the rest of the harvesting while I'm gone? It would be some good manly bonding time, or whatever you call it."
Frank blinked, and looked at Alice once again, who shrugged. "I… I suppose?"
"Thank you, you're a dear." She handed him her dirty gardening gloves and used a quick "Scourgify!" on her clothes before turning around and walking back out the door to say goodbye to her husband. Frank sighed before following her outside.
Alice looked back at the babies in front of her, who were all getting grumpy about the fact that the soup was right there in front of them and they were not being fed.
Bad memories. Ash. Dust. Broken items. An aura of destruction and pain…
Good memories. The flowers Lily planted in the backyard last summer. The bushes out front that Sirius once passed out in when he tried to go home after too much Firewhiskey, and Lily had to drag him back into the house and set him on the couch since her husband wasn't any more sober than Sirius was. Hopefully some important items of James and Lily's still in their bedroom. There were things that survived the night, which he didn't expect to happen.
But what exactly did happen?
It wasn't quite as blackened as Potter Manor was after it had been burned down by Death Eaters almost three years earlier, but it was definitely damaged. It almost looked like there had been an explosion of some kind, originating from Harry's room.
Sirius took a step through the broken doorframe, and stared for a long moment at the spot where he knew James' body had been just over a week ago.
The Aurors and Ministry Officials who investigated the scene said there was no wand found near his body. Did he fight back? Did he tell Lily to run? Did he try to punch Voldemort in the face? Did someone take his wand before the bodies were examined?
The spot on the burnt carpet where James had already died when the explosion happened was far less dark than the rest of it, almost resembling an outline of a body like in those Muggle shows Lily watched.
It was closure, really, that Sirius needed here, besides his search for important items. He never got a chance to see the bodies, and he hadn't looked at the house either. He hadn't been back here since he took Harry, and he was too scared of putting the boy in harm's way to stick around.
But Harry was with good people, strong and safe people, and Sirius needed a break, and he needed to see everything for himself.
Who gives a damn if You-Know-Who himself comes out of the ashes to kill him? At least the others will know where to look.
Sirius shook his head at his own train of thought. He needed to be more respectful of his own life and more responsible. He had a duty to protect Harry, and he can't very well do that from beyond the grave.
He stepped over some familiar broken items – the broomstick he got Harry for his birthday, snapped in half, was both heartwarming and heartbreaking to see – to reach the stairway. He hesitated at the bottom; he had no idea what he was going to see, or what would be left of James and Lily's room, or Harry's. Would there be blood? Did Voldemort torture Lily first? The Aurors determined their causes of death to both be the Killing Curse, but they didn't say much more than that.
But if there was a chance Sirius could find what he needed to find, that would be worth it. For Harry's sake.
He squared his shoulders and walked up the stairs, his first destination being James and Lily's room. He gently opened the door, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't as destroyed as he feared it would be. Granted, the smaller items of furniture were almost unrecognizable, and the bed would never be usable again, but it wasn't missing half a wall like Harry's was (which he saw from the outside).
His eyes scanned the room, and he stepped over to James' side of the bed, which was closest. He was both relieved and confused at the sight of James' wand on the floor, almost concealed under the wreckage of the bed frame. He picked it up, and the coldness of the unused wand made his soul feel like it was cracking. It no longer had the same warm aura that James himself did; it was simply a neglected piece of wood that happened to have a core inside it.
Sirius wondered if it would ever cast a spell again.
He turned around, and he noticed with more relief that there was a reflection of light off of metal by their closet, on the wall close to the floor. He wondered just how competent the officials who investigated the scene were if they missed not only James' wand, but his and Lily's Muggle-style safe.
Or perhaps they did notice it, and just couldn't get in? He supposed he'd never know for sure.
He stepped over to it and took out his wand, crouching down waving it over the safe wordlessly. A short beeping sound, and the door to the safe cracked open as Lily's charms identified Sirius' wand as familiar. He swung it open and peered inside.
He was glad to see that everything was still intact. He got onto his knees, reached in and pulled out everything onto his lap.
He picked up the first item on the pile: a photograph from their wedding, with both the bride and groom along with Sirius the best man, and Marlene McKinnon the maid of honour. It tore at his heart to see a photo of Marlene so happy and carefree when she had been killed not even two months before James and Lily did.
He had loved Marlene. He really had. They hadn't been in any rush to get married, but he was planning to propose on Christmas this year anyways. They had been together since their seventh year and he loved her. He wished with every part of his being that he had been there that night, when the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself had gone after her family. Instead he had been out on a mission for the Order, with Frank, and he had never forgiven himself – or Dumbledore, who gave the mission and who hadn't had anybody protecting the McKinnons even after they had gotten direct threats – for it since.
But Merlin, he loved her. He could remember her laugh, her smile, the way she looked at him when he told her he loved her for the first time, the way she giggled when he and James would make silly faces at baby Harry…
The look on her face when he said he wanted to start a family with her.
"Sirius?"
A soft, familiar voice interrupted his thoughts, and his head whipped around to see Pandora standing in the doorway.
He hadn't realized he was crying until she crossed the room to kneel in front of him, wiping his tears with a pastel blue handkerchief. In fact, he wasn't really certain how long she had been standing there, because he didn't know how long he had been lost in his memories of Marlene.
"You shouldn't be here." Pandora murmured. "You could have been attacked by Death Eaters, or worse…"
"I'm fine." Sirius replied, a bit harsher than he intended to. "I'm sorry. I just needed to… I needed to see it, and I needed to get some things."
She looked down at the photo in his hand, and she smiled sadly. "What a beautiful memory."
He handed it to her, and she looked at it more while he spoke. "Lily looked so gorgeous in her wedding robes. They had been James' mother's, and they fit her like a glove. James wore these navy blue dress robes that had been his father's, and it was wonderful."
Pandora smiled again. "You really loved them."
Sirius blinked at the photo. "I really did."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Pandora glanced at the other things in his lap. She pointed at a large sealed envelope with the Potter family crest on it. "What's that?"
"Oh…" Sirius picked it out of the pile. "This is what I came here for. It's James and Lily's will."
Pandora frowned in confusion. "Wouldn't that be kept at Gringott's?"
He shook his head. "They didn't have time. James had just told me they finalized it a week before they died. Even I don't know what it says. It was witnessed and everything, but they didn't get the chance to go through all the paperwork to get it stored at Gringott's."
Pandora gestured for it, and Sirius handed it to her. "We should bring it there, with Frank and Alice, and get things settled. Who knows what's in it?"
"Yeah…" Sirius conjured a simple bag and put the rest of the pile into it.
"Let's head home, and we'll go there this afternoon."
Sirius nodded, and they walked out into the hallway. Pandora headed to the stairwell and was about to go down before she realized Sirius wasn't behind her. She turned, and he was standing by Harry's door, staring into the room sadly.
Pandora said nothing, only moving to stand beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
The room was very, very broken. The only thing still mostly standing was Harry's crib, and that was because it had been made of Goblin silver; it was the same crib that had been used for four generations in the Potter family, who were well-respected by the Goblins.
The spot where Lily's body lay was also lighter but empty, and there was debris everywhere. None of Harry's toys survived the wreckage, and there was nothing salvageable left.
"Let's go home, Sirius." Pandora said gently.
Sirius stayed silent, only turning away from the door and walking down the stairs.