AN: This chapter has received several updates. I just keep fiddling with it and it's probably the least important chapter with the most spoilers. I'm tempted to remove it entirely, or scrap it entirely and write a single summary chapter. Heaven is one long prologue chapter, but I like to take my time in building a story. So anyway not much has changed in the chapter so far except some clerical errors, spelling errors and the like.

Reviews might be helpful.

Harry Potter does not belong to me. Sadness.

Make me feel better by pressing that neat heart button. A little love fuel's the keep writing button. :)

Chapter 3 - Plans Made in Paradise

We are part of you. Invisible to anyone else.

-Sirius Black-

He dreamed that night. He dreamed he was at the Lost Souls Inn, sitting at the bar, flirting with the beautiful Rosmerta. Only he knew Rosmerta wasn't supposed to be there and was about to ask her when a raven flew in and landed on the bar top. It spoke to Sirius in his grandfather's voice. "You are my heir. You must embrace your birthright son." Sirius turned away only to be confronted with a wild and carefree young man with hair almost as long as Sirius's and eyes a stormy gray. Regulus smiled at him and said. "Wake up Sirius!"

Sirius jerked awake to the sound of James hollering at him from the bottom of the stairs. "Wake up Sirius. It's almost noon and I'm starving!" Sirius stretched and felt every muscle protest. His head felt like it was about to explode. He stumbled out of bed and to the adjacent bathroom and when he looked in the mirror it screamed. "What have you done to your hair?!"

He shook his head and said, "Don't ask." And took a long shower. Finding fresh robes hanging in the closet was a blessing he laid at Lily's feet. It was a full forty minutes later when he finally made it down the stairs to an impatient James fuming on the couch watching a mirror on the wall. Sirius paused on the stairs, his gaze captured by the image of his godson talking to a ghost, Sir Nicholas, about if Sirius could possibly come back as a ghost. He frowned as Sir Nicholas told Harry that he wouldn't and growled, "How does he know if I will or won't come back as a ghost? It's not like I've talked to him lately." Sirius groused, hating that Harry looked so disappointed. He hated that he was the cause of Harry's pain.

James looked relieved to see Sirius up and turned off the mirror as Lily's voice echoed from the kitchen. "Come in and eat Sirius. I have had breakfast in stasis for hours and James is in a snappish mood about it."

Sirius grinned at his glaring best friend and said, "You could have eaten without me."

James nodded, "That's what I told her, but she insisted that it would be bad manners." He rolled his eyes and stalked to the dining room where Lily was unveiling the feast. Pancakes and syrup and scrambled eggs and toast and hash browns and piles of bacon. Sirius almost didn't know where to start and instead went around the table and lifted Lily off her feet and said "Oh how I've missed you, dear Lily. You're too good for that Potter bloke. Runaway with me."

Lily laughed and said, "Put me down you rascal. You didn't miss me, just my cooking."

Sirius kissed her on the cheek and said, "You wound me." but he placed her back on her feet and took the seat between the couple. For a while, they fell into companionable silence as they enjoyed the meal Lily had made for them. Finally, Sirius sat back satisfied and refilled his coffee cup. Lily had been the one to introduce him to the devilish brew and he gladly fed his addiction. He was thrilled that such normalcies such as food, coffee, alcohol, sleep, showers, and judging by the companionable mushy glances shared by James and Lily, sex; all still existed in the here-after. After taking a sip of coffee he decided he needed to say something.

He looked at Lily and said softly. "I'm really sorry Lil's that I made such a mess of things. I... I don't know if I can fix all of it, but I'm going to try. I'll help Harry in any way I can." Sirius said softly to the woman beside him.

Tears had gathered in her eyes and she said softly, "I know you will Sirius. Thank you." Her hand went to his and they smiled at each other for a moment. It felt like an unbreakable vow. Some things didn't need magic as a witness.

"So, do we have a plan?" Sirius decided to confront the elephant in the room.

James looked troubled and pushed the remains of his plate aside. "I don't think I can do it!"

Sirius frowned... "Do what?" He asked.

Lily spoke up when James just shook his head, "He doesn't want to kill you, Sirius."

Sirius blinked. "Oh. Well, that's okay. I can just... I don't know. Avada myself or something." Shrugging nonchalantly. James glared at him. "Or not..." He held his hands up in surrender and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous. I can brew a potion. Quick and painless." She looked a little too happy about it and Sirius suddenly looked down at the remains of his breakfast and his eyes went suspiciously to his coffee cup. Lily laughed getting up from her seat and started gathering dishes with a flick of her wand.

Her giggling could be heard in the kitchen for a while and Sirius said to James, "Prongs your woman is scary." A question suddenly occurred to him, "Why do you and Lily need wands and Arcturus doesn't?"

James chuckled a bit, "We don't need wands...but they feel familiar and well there's an excellent wand maker with a shop in Diagon Alley. You're the only person who brought their wand with them. Most of us can do magic without it, but we are creatures of habit."

James changed the subject then leaned on the table with his elbows and said, "Well first thing we have to do is plan. I mean this is a bit more complicated than your average everyday prank." He stood and said, "I think it's time for you to go back to school." Sirius was reminded strongly of their Hogwarts years when an idea for a new prank came to James and he'd get that same mischievous grin that boded ill for his victims. Sirius nodded and stood following the dark-haired man into the living room and watched as James turned and pointed at the wall opposite the mirror wall, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Not unlike the Marauders map, lines and words began to appear and a few moments later he stared at the transformed wall and it began to make sense. "A timeline?" He asked. Walking from one end to the next. "Several timelines. "Yours and Lily's, Dumbledores, Mine, Harry's, Riddles." He glanced at James. "When did you find the time to do this?"

James grinned and said... "Remember where you are, Sirius. When you require more time..."

Lily called from the kitchen, "Time moves differently here Sirius."

Sirius was intrigued but was more interested in looking over what they had created. He read through the timeline he was most familiar with...his own and was once again disgusted with how little he actually had accomplished in his time in the waking world. "Pathetic." He shook his head and when you compared it to Harry's timeline he was even more disgusted with himself. "I did nothing. All that time and I wasted so much." He shook his head... "Harry killed a basilisk and destroyed a Horcrux his second year at Hogwarts... More than I did in my entire life." He looked at James. "You should just kill me now. Put me out of my misery quickly."

"I think that is the point." James grinned.

"The timeline begins at my birth and ends at my death." He nods, "Makes sense. We might as well start the timeline when I start Hogwarts. Cause there's not much I can do to change anything until then." Sirius read the brief timeline between his birth and Hogwarts first year. "I probably could improve my familial relations and my status in the house and maybe find a way to protect my brother..." His eyes fell on Regulus' name in the timeline. The year of his death? He remembered his dream. "I'd like to see him." He glanced at James. "Do you know how I can contact him?"

James nodded. Lily's voice came behind him. "You can't change the timeline too much Sirius or you'll lose your greatest advantage... Your knowledge of the future." Lily moved to stand beside him with her hands behind her back. "Small changes can create major ripples... You change one small insignificant thing and you end up with chaos."

"So I can't change anything? Then what the hell is the point?" He asked angrily. "Why am I doing this? We want to change the future, right?" He looked at the timeline and his eyes moved to Regulus and he knew if given the opportunity he would save him. He knew as his eyes moved to Halloween 1981 on the timeline that he could change it. He could save them both. Save Harry from becoming a Horcrux in the first place.

Lily sighed, "I am not discouraging you, Sirius. I am asking you to be strategic. Pick your battles very carefully because you get to choose the battleground. You know the terrain." She motioned to the wall. "You can't fix all of this. You can't save everyone. You can save some. You have to choose which ones you can change and which ones you can't. You are being asked to judge risk and reward. You think you can save Neville's parents, but if you die yourself in the effort... what good does that do Harry?" Sirius sighed. "My hope for you Sirius is that you aren't given too much time. The more time you are given the more opportunity you have to really mess it up." She rolled her eyes. "Like... James and I never falling in love? Never having Harry?" She gave him a stern look. "So you have to be careful Sirius."

Sirius was suddenly terrified. "Wait. I could screw this up... so badly." As her words hit home.

"Stop scaring him, Lils." James walked up to Sirius and draped his arm around Sirius's shoulders. "First of all, you prepare Padfoot. You plan. You identify all the things you can change and then pick the ones you have to change. So you pick and choose, you stay alert, you wear a mask. James nodded. "I'll make some inquiries about Regulus." Knowing that his younger brother would be high up on Sirius's list of regrets.

Which timeline matters more? He wondered to himself... His eyes traced Harry's. Harry was a Horcrux. "What if Harry never becomes a Horcrux?" He glanced at James, "If this doesn't happen. Then how does it change this..." He tapped Voldemort's timeline with his wand. "He wanders, bodiless, weak, and alone for 13 years. If he doesn't kill you and Lily or try for Harry... What does he do?" He worries about being sick... "Once I change this... Save you and Lily and Harry on Halloween night... We fly completely blind from that moment on."

"We thought being superheroes would be cool. Remember?" I think that when you go up against Voldemort, it should be as a masked magical vigilante. Be the Grim. Protect your identity, protect your family." He grinned at Sirius. "I can only imagine the way the Daily Prophet would eat up stories about a masked vigilante who has proclaimed war on Voldypants."

Sirius thought about it for a while and imagined himself working outside the ministry and Dumbledore's control. Taking matters into his own hands by thwarting Voldemort's plans. "If I go back far enough in time, we can form a vigilante team like the X-Men."

Lily laughed, "The Marauders of course." She grinned. "Which really should include girls." She sniffed and James's eyes widened and he shook his head emphatically no behind her back.

Sirius sighed. "That would be awesome but then my luck I'd end up getting you all killed before you can say "I Do."

That sobered them up and Lily nodded, "You have to be careful. But everything is risky. You have to live Sirius. You have to have more fun, more life, more love." You have to think of this... " Her hand moved to the timelines, "like one big prank." Her eyes gleamed, "You have to prank the shit out of Voldemort. You have to do it without ever being suspected as the prankster." She got a feral look in her eyes, "And you have to save my son!"

Ideas and germs of ideas swirled through his thoughts and for the first time he started feeling optimistic about the adventure.

Together they started identifying events on the timeline that needed to happen. Events like Lily and James' relationship, their marriage, and the birth of Harry. They also decided the formation of the Order needed to proceed as well as their induction. Halloween 1981 remained a big question mark. It was recognized as a major turning point. Sirius didn't know what to think about it. If he failed to save Lily and James he didn't think he could live with himself. But Lily and James both felt that Voldemort as a wraith was better for everyone, including Harry. They decided to leave their own fate alone for a while as they worked through the timeline.

They didn't X out Harry's first-year encounter with Voldemort, nor did they X out his encounter with the Basilisk, although they were all in agreement that Lockhart was a useless teacher and Harry needed a better one. Lily thought Moony should come to Hogwarts sooner rather than later. Finally, they worked through the timeline identifying events that should proceed without interference. There was a lot. Some things had been easy. If Harry benefitted from the event, or Voldemort suffered, it was left alone. Harry was the matrix they used to make the decisions.

Once those events were removed from the wall they surveyed what was left. "Okay..." Sirius gulped as he realized how much evil Voldemort was responsible for. "Let's identify those events that we have to change." He nodded, "Most important first." That list they were left with was rather short when they got it. Harry's living arrangements were top of the list. All three agreed that Harry deserved better than the Dursleys. He deserved a real family. A real home with people who loved him.

They identified the major events over Sirius's lifespan that needed to change and then looked at what was left. "The dreaded gray area..." Sirius said as he surveyed the wall. "Pruitt's die in a death eater attack." Then look at another item, "Longbottoms tortured." He nods, "I would like to change some of these." He nods, "A well-placed warning. An ambush." He shrugs, "I hope that it will be enough. Indirect intervention perhaps will work just as well as direct confrontation."

They worked on their trip through memory lane throughout the day and Sirius was taking notes in a journal Lily provided. He couldn't take it with him but the act of writing things down helped cement it in his memory. The first few days of his return he would try to recreate these notes. He intended to read them through daily committing as much as he could to his memory. It was Lily who solved the problem of risking some important detail to memory. "You'll need a Pensieve." She grinned at him. "Just find one as soon as you land. We can organize your memories like an index." She nodded. "We will make a memory for each year on the timeline." She tapped the wall with her wand and reordered the timeline into years. Year one, year two, year three... and so on. Thankfully she had condensed years 1-11.

He grinned and said... "Brilliant Lily." She nodded and tapped Sirius's diary copying the timelines and the notes into the tome.

Years One through 11 appeared on the wall and he winced at what was written there.

1. Be a better brother
2. Be a better son
3. Get mother help for her mental illness
4. Take Arcturus's lessons seriously
5. Intervene in Belatrix's life.
6. Accept the heir ring.
7. Make alliances.
8. Make friends with enemies.
9. Strengthen body, soul, mind. Study timelines.
10. Listen at doors, and learn from books. Be a spy.
11. Plan for Hogwarts.
12. Secure Regulus's safety before leaving

Sirius read the list and shook his head. "I don't know how you do it Lily, but you identified every failure of my childhood." He nodded, and it's helpful...but so..."

"Embarrassing? Demeaning? Critical?" James supplied as he read the list.

"I was going to say unchronological." He said as he saw Lily's expression go into combat mode. He was a better barometer of Lily's emotions than James seemed to be. His friend was often dense. "Thank you, Lily. This will help. I'm going to study this list and make a few tweaks to it. If I end up in pre-Hogwarts, then this list could save me a lot of pain. "He studied it and said, "Add make friends with Kreacher to the list."

Immediately number 13. Befriend Kreacher, appeared.

He grinned, "Meet Moony should be there as well. His father owned a bookstore not far from my house. We never met because I'm not a bookworm. I think I can arrange to make friends with him before Hogwarts."

James chewed his lip, seeming to struggle with something... "Do you think that might affect our friendship?"

Sirius looked at James and smiled. "Hell no. Because I know you and love you. And if you were a prat first year, so was I. But Moony being part of our group sooner will save us a lot of headaches later. Don't you think so?" 14. Meet Moony? was added to the list. Immediately James added 15. Meet James first.

"Better safe than sorry." He shrugged. "And as you say I was an egotistical prat," James added the date and approximate time he had been to Diagon Alley for his school supplies. Sirius couldn't help but be amused and Lily exasperated.

"I didn't call you egotistical." Sirius defended himself.

"I was an eleven-year-old spoiled rotten pure-blooded egotistic number one prat when we met. It would matter to me how and when we met." He shrugged. So save yourself a lot of grief and meet me before you meet any of the others." Sirius nodded at the advice and jumped when Lily's voice sounded behind them.

"Well if James was a prat, Sirius was a nightmare." She laughed. "I can't tell you how many of our classmates shed tears on my shoulder over his stupidity." She declared.

Sirius gasped, "But if I wasn't making girls cry I was making them swoon." He winked.

They made similar lists for each Hogwarts year, and Post Hogwarts Years as well. There were lists for everything actually. Lily loved lists. She insisted it just required him to glance at them. Later he could retrieve the memories from his Pensieve.