Saturday 9th February 1981

Longbottom Manor, 12:30

"Mother, please."

"I'm just saying," Alice's mother (Frank still couldn't think of her as anything else) said, oblivious to her daughter's exasperation.

You'd think that someone who proved herself on being able to handle social events with the pureblood elite would be able to read her own daughter? But apparently not.

"Well, don't."

"It is something that you have to think about, you know that."

"Not now!" Alice said indignantly. "Neville isn't even one yet and there's a war going on."

Neither of them wanted to even think about adding another child to the mix. Frank was of the opinion that Neville should have their undivided attention for a few years before even thinking about adding another child to the mix. That and he didn't want them to be compared to the Weasleys - what with their popping out another child basically every other year. There was another one due in the summer, apparently.

"Exactly."

Frank and Alice exchanged puzzled looks. Weren't those perfectly good reason for not having another child?

"You need a spare."

Alice clutched Neville closer to her at that and Frank flinched. That was not something they wanted to think about, considering current events

"Nothing is going to happen to Neville!"

Neville let out a wail and the way he was being held. Celia made a disgusted face as Alice frantically tried to sooth him. Because, you know, Celia Smith didn't like it when babies actually acted like babies.

"You never know, Neville might turn out like that Black boy," she sniffed. "It is best to have two, just in case."

"In case our son turns out to be no good," Frank repeated sceptically, amazed at the blasé tone his mother-in-law was saying all this in.

"And there is nothing wrong with Sirius Black," Alice threw in.

"Honestly, you never know with children," she said to Frank ingeniously and then turned to her daughter. "And, really, Alice. Mist you associate with that boy?"

"Because Regulus Black is so much better."

"At least he understands tradition."

"Sirius understands what is right," Alice retorted.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady!"

"I'll take whatever tone I want in my own house!"

"Well," Celia spluttered. "I never!"

Godric's Hollow, 15:00

"I think we should be giving this Fidelius Charm a go," Lily said as he sat down next to her like she indicated.

Not that he needed any directions because it was the only free space that was anywhere near her. There were two haphazard piles of books and who knows how much parchment that he knew better than to move.

"Yeah?" James asked, carefully leaning back.

Hey, he didn't want to be the one that breathed too hard or moved too quickly and tip over all these notes. That would not be a good thing, trust him. Lily didn't usually get worked up about things - she was kind of easy going in general - but Merlin help you if you ruined carefully organised research. Even if the organisation didn't look too organised.

"It's very effective, completely removing any knowledge of the location of the dwelling from everyone. And if you don't know or can't say what or where it is then you can't see it. It's completely hidden."

James raised his eyebrows, impressed but not too impressed.

"Isn't that what concealment wards do?"

Sure, they were finicky wards and extremely complicated but they existed. It was normal just easier to place defensive and protective wards around your home.

Lily shook her head. "There ways to detect those wards and determine that there's something behind them. And, since it's a ward, kt can be broken. The Fidelius Charm can't. The only way that someone knows where the dwelling is if they are given the secret."

"Wow."

James felt like he should say something more than that but his brain wasn't working.

"Yeah."

"Sounds perfect," he said, finally able to contribute something.

"There's only one problem," she said, chewing her bottom lip. "I've looked at it from every possible angle and I can't see how you could tie in any other wards to it or within it or even around it."

Ah. That was a bit of a problem, wasn't it? Wards were there for their protection. Wards made you feel safe. The more wards that could be layered with each other, the safer you were. It protected you from a brute force attack - a technique preferred by Death Eaters these days. Quick, brutal and effective. Multiple wards meant that a bit of finesse was required to bring them down. Something James was pretty sure that the Death Eaters didn't have.

But now Lily was saying that they wouldn't be able to use any pf the wards with this charm? Oh, sure, James knew enough about wards to know that he'd have to drop one or two of them so a charm could be incorporated with them and some wards viewed that as an attack. Which never ended well.

Could they do it? Could they really put all of their safety and hope into one charm? Was it even possible? This was experimental. Hardly even proven. And Dumbledore was expecting them to run their lives for this? But then again, it was Dumbledore. He wouldn't just suggest it if he didn't think it would work, right?

"I still need to figure out how certain parts of it work before I'm completely happy with it, though," Lily warned him. "I'm having a bit of difficulty trying to understand this one part..."

"Maybe if you explain it to me, I could help," James offered. "You know, offer a different perspective."

One eyebrow went up and she gave him a sceptical look.

"You want to hear about the intricacies of higher-level Charms and how they form different components that both work together and against each other?" She asked.

Well, when she put it like that...

"Okay, maybe I won't be able to help."

That got him a quick flicker of a smile on her face. Which was good because she'd been doing a lot of pursed lips and frowning in recent days.

"I wish I could talk to Flitwick about it," she said longingly, leaning back and rubbing at her forehead - a sure sign of a stress headache. "I mean, I know it's not safe to have more people that we already have coming in and out of the house but surely going to Hogwarts would be safe? We do it for Order Meetings!"

"Yeah, late at night where there's no one around," James reminded her. "And during the day he's going to have classes."

Her shoulders slumped and her lips turned down into a frown.

"And I would be seen if I went during my previous Apprenticeship hours.

James nodded in agreement even if she wasn't looking for it.

"Maybe I could meet him in the muggle world?" She asked in a tone that managed to be both hopeful and reluctant.

"You know we can't do stuff like that."

"I know that," she snapped at him and almost immediately a guilty look appeared on her face. "Sorry."

James shrugged, understanding why she snapped. It wasn't nice to be snapped at but he understood. He suspected they were both going to get a little snappy at each other before this was all over.

Lily was chewing her lip again and frowning, like she was thinking about something that she wasn't exactly happy about.

Probably the whole having to stay hidden and the worries about the Fidelius Charm.

Monday 11th February 1981

Auror Office, 14:30

He kind of felt guilty for getting along so well with Kingsley. It made sense that he did, right? They were both Order members. Both Aurors. Both more than willing to fight. It just made sense. Of course, they worked well together. Except that he was a pretty good friend too. And Sirius kind of liked being his friend. It was fun. Kingsley was fun.

Except he wasn't James. And that right there made Sirius feel guilty. Because he was the one being an Auror and allowed to be around people enough to make new friends and James wasn't. He was doing this without James. Which was weird because they did so many things together. There were very few things apart these days which was the opposite of which was supposed to happen but when had either of them done things that they were supposed to do? And now he wasn't with James. No, he was with Kingsley.

"I'm telling you that it's a great idea!" Kingsley kept pressing.

Sirius had to admire how persistent he was but that didn't stop him being very, very wrong.

"Completely bonkers, you mean," Sirius retorted but he couldn't help but grin.

Who would have thought it would be him speaking sense into someone else? James would certainly never believe it if he told him, which he would be doing. James would think that he was making it all up to make his day sound more interesting.

Who knew Kingsley was so interesting? Certainly not him. Sirius barely knew him, let's be honest. The guy had always been more Frank's friend.

But now he was getting to know him and he was great fun! Which was important when it came to someone you were supposed to trust with your life, right? Right?

Then why did it feel like he was betraying James?

Potions Lab, 17:00

Severus resisted the extremely strong urge to shove everything off his desk. All that would do was give him a mess to clear up and probably give himself an injury while he was at it. He didn't particularly feel like getting glass or crystal shards embedded in him today.

It had been one of those days where nothing was going well. In fact, Severus would say that things were going badly. Very badly. He hadn't got a chance to brew anything today and it looked like he wasn't going to - it was nearly time to pack up and leave. He had a date with Chryssie to get to and he couldn't be late for that, nor did he want to be. It was a research day. Lots and lots of research into that blood type project he now found himself on. Boring, tedious, repetitive research that had to be done for each blood type. It was driving him crazy!

With a sigh, he turned around to grab that textbook he needed. It was an unpleasantly heavy one and it had no table of contents nor an index. It was not easy to flip through which, of course, meant it held the information he needed.

Everything happened in slow motion after that. When he turned back around, the corner of the book solidly hit the cauldron, making it rock alarmingly.

The cauldron then tipped over and before Severus could do anything about it, it landed on its side, its contents spilling everywhere. Thankfully it had just been a vinegar and lethe water solution, prep for tomorrow's potion. It wasn't sticky and it didn't have a staining dye component to it. It just got everywhere and made everything smell like a chippy. And not a very good one.

Of course, Master Andrews chose this moment to walk on the door, Severus still frozen in place with parchment floating around him and the vinegary smell getting string by the second

"This is a mess," Master Andrews said unnecessarily.

Severus sighed heavily. "Yes, sir."

"Is there a reason you're doing nothing about it?"

He shook his head. "No, sir."

"Well, then. Clean it up."

Severus bit his tongue, resisting the urge to say that he was going to if he hadn't interrupted him. That definitely would go over well and would probably result in him scrubbing out cauldrons and relabelling vials again. No, thank you.

Godric's Hollow, 19:00

"We're not going to be able to leave the house," James said.

It was all just starting to sink in on him now. Or maybe it was because the Fidelius Charm was all he could think about.

"We don't really do that now," Lily pointed out. "Except when we snuck away for Severus."

James grinned at that. Yes, they were supposed to somewhat be in hiding but they hadn't left the house in weeks and Severus already had everything set up in his apartment. And he probably would have been fine collecting their samples in their home but they'd both wanted to get out and see something other than the inside of their house. Just once. Before everything got more serious.

And they'd been careful! Really careful. They had ignored normal societal conventions and had apparated straight from Godric's Hollow to Severus' to do the whole blood drawing thing. James shuddered at the memory. So, they hadn't really been at risk there, in his opinion. But they probably shouldn't do it again. Yeah.

Of course, they had also since been to the Longbottoms for brief visits but somehow James felt that they didn't count as escaping home for a bit considering the Longbottoms were in the same situation as they were and they had the ancient Longbottom wards shielding them.

And it sounded like they shouldn't do that either once the Charm was in place, right? That's what he understood anyway.

Tuesday 12th February 1981

Diagon Alley, 11:30

The hairs on the back of Sirius' neck stood on end. Never a good sign. But he wasn't going to show that he was now on guard - he was too well-trained for that. He continued down the side street in Diagon Alley, just like he done twice this morning already. Kingsley was going along the main street - they were on patrol duty. Which was newly-minted Auror work usually but not when the threat of a possible attack was high. Lile today. Was that why he felt uneasy? Hyper-aware? Because he was expecting something bad to happen? Maybe he had sensed something shifty going on. A preliminary to something bad happening.

He felt like he was being watched. It was never a good thing when you were being watched. Especially when you didn't know who you were being watched by. But he was an Auror, so being watched was never a good thing. In fact, it was a bad thing. A very bad thing.

He ducked into a doorway to give himself some time to think. An acrid smell of piss filled his senses. He grimaced. Lovely. This was not the part he liked about patrols. Eurgh. Hopefully it didn't get on his boots. They were dragonhide leather.

'Crunch'

The sound of footsteps on gravel and broken glass nearly gave him a heart attack.

"Auror Black," Marlene nodded at him.

Oh, it was only Marlene.

He nodded back. "Auror McKinnon."

Had to keep formalities when out in public and all that. She gave him a confused look for some reason. She shouldn't be confused about the surname thing; they always did that.

Before he could ask, she beat him to it. "Why are you hiding from Narcissa Malfoy in a doorway?"

"I'm not hiding in a doorway!" He said indignantly and then what she said registered with him. "Wait, Ciss- Narcissa's here?"

Marlene frowned at him. "Yeah, she's at the end of the street, looking down here. Did she see you or something? Are you avoiding her?"

Sirius didn't acknowledge herself sentence and frowned. Narcissa was at the end of the alley? Had she been the one watching him? Why would she be watching him? Why would she want to be anywhere near him considering all the skulking around and nonsense that they all suspected Lucius was involved in?

Just what was she playing at? It wasn't like she liked him or anything. She agreed with the family that he was no good. The bloodtraitor. He had to go and find out.

"No, don't go and confront her!" Marlene called after him uselessly.

Thursday 14th February 1981

Tonks Home, 12:00

"This isn't fair," Dora said obstinately, crossing her arms over her chest.

"How is it not fair, Dora?"

She spluttered for a bit at his question. Could he not see what wasn't fair? Wasn't it obvious?

"I've been feeling pretty useless recently," he admitted. "This is something that could really help."

All he had been doing was research and trying to predict where Voldemort might strike next. Necessary but boring work even if they hadn't had much success with it.

"Be really dangerous, you mean."

"Every5hing that could help is dangerous these days," he said gently, like he was trying to stop her from blowing up.

They were doing so well now; he didn't want it all to go downhill just because he had to do something.

"Come on, Dora," he coaxed. "You know I have to do this."

She didn't say anything, a glare still on her face but she turned to the side. She knew what he said was true. Her being unhappy about it wasn't going to change anything. And Remus did need this. She knew that he felt useless not being able to get a useful job because of stupid prejudices. It wasn't fair! Nothing about this was fair!

She sighed heavily and let her arms fall down to her side.

"When do you have to leave?"

"Not for another week or so," Remus said softly, cupping the side of her face with his hand.

For once, she didn't lean into its comforting heat. She was mad at him. Annoyed at him. Well, not at him, just what he had to do which, unfortunately for him, included him. Tonks scrunched up her noise, she had used the word 'him' too much. It didn't even sound like a word anymore.

"Good."

That was at least one week where he was absolutely going to be here. She was going to have to soak him up as much as she could. Which wasn't going to be much because training to be an Auror was exhausting. Every hour at the Auror Academy felt like two. And at the end of the day, her muscles were always aching and she was tired and she was hungry. She wasn't exactly a pleasant person to be around.

She didn't want to be like that around Remus if he was going to be leaving for an indeterminate amount of time! She wanted their time spent together to be good, fun. Not a weepy, angry, irritable mess.

But what exactly could she do? She frowned at the thought.

"Dora?"

"Hmm?"

She looked into his wide and earnest eyes.

He grabbed each of her shoulders. "We're going to be okay."