Illumination
Summary: Forced into hiding, Lily and James trust a friend with their lives and the life of their son but are ultimately betrayed. Helpless and cut off from the rest of the world, their last few days together are the most trying of all.
Disclaimer: The characters and plot and everything else belong to JK Rowling.
A/N: This is the last chapter. Sorry it took so long to post. I hope you've enjoyed this story.
Thanks for reading,
Cat
Chapter Three
Like the Potters, Sirius Black had been growing restless in hiding. He had arranged to meet with Peter a week after the Fidelius Charm was put in place. It was no secret that Peter was a bit of a coward, so Sirius had decided that these weekly meetings were necessary to ensure that Wormtail did not have a nervous breakdown.
He mounted his flying motorcycle and left his hiding place in search of his friend. The motorbike was one of his most prized possessions. He had bought it from a rather shady character, but he had been sure there was nothing wrong with it. People were constantly telling him that it was a pointless thing to own in the Wizarding world where Apparation and Floo powder got you to your destination almost instantly while his motorbike took as long as a Muggle automobile, but Sirius didn't care. He could see the world on his motorbike. It was so much more pleasant than zipping here and there by Floo network and only seeing fireplaces as you go, and for that reason alone he would never dream of getting rid of the bike.
Of course, when the need arose, magic was always available to speed up the ride.
But tonight Sirius did not see the need to hurry. Peter would not be leaving his hiding place anytime soon, and they had not set a time for Sirius's arrival. So he sat back and let his motorbike take him to Peter's hideout at a leisurely pace.
Sirius had been in hiding for a week as well, but there really was no need for it other than to throw Voldemort off. Peter needed to be hiding just in case someone realised that he was the Potters' Secret-Keeper, but Sirius was in hiding to make Voldemort think that he was the Secret-Keeper. He would be the most obvious person for the job, and if he kept out of the public eye for long enough, someone who had been told to pay attention would be sure to notice and assume that he was the one. If Peter was absent from public areas, it would take months, if not longer, for someone to realise it. Sirius's only fear was that Remus would notice that they were both missing and report it to Lord Voldemort. Of course, everyone had been avoiding Remus for so long that it would be hard for him to notice if either Sirius or Peter were not around anymore.
Sirius felt stupid. He and the others had trusted Remus. They had been the Marauders at Hogwarts, and had changed their lives to protect him and keep him company in his time of need. Now, what seemed like such a simple thing at the time was coming back to punch them in the face. Because they had befriended Remus, Lily, James, and Harry were in danger, and Peter and Sirius were forced into hiding to save them. It was so ironic that Sirius felt he could have laughed if he wasn't so disgusted by it.
The trip to Peter's hideout from Sirius's was not very long, and he arrived soon enough. Peter was staying in a small cabin they had managed to find in the mountains in some remote location. It was so far away from civilization that nobody would think to look there for a house, and it was so hard to get to that you almost needed magic to reach it. It was the perfect hiding place. Peter was safe there, and as long as he was safe, so were Lily and James.
Sirius parked his motorbike in front of the house and approached the front door. He hoped he wouldn't startle Peter too badly by knocking, but before he got a chance to think too much about it, he noticed that the front door was slightly ajar.
"Peter?" he called, pushing the door open enough to see inside.
The one-room cabin was dark and empty. Sirius could see that much from the door. He stepped into the house and looked around, lighting his wand to get a better look. Everything looked normal. The bed was made, the dishes were clean, and Peter's clothes were neatly put away in his trunk. All in all, nothing would appear to be wrong to anyone other than Sirius, who knew that the house should not be like it was. Peter should have been there or there should have been some sign of a struggle, but everything was neat and clean, and Peter was nowhere in sight.
"Peter!" Sirius called out once more, desperate for some sign that nothing was wrong.
For the second time, nobody answered.
Suddenly, the seriousness of the matter hit him like a ton of bricks, and he began to search the house frantically for Peter. He overturned furniture and emptied the cabinets, but eventually he had to admit that his friend was not there.
Panicked and afraid of what would happen, Sirius ran back outside and searched around the house for Peter. Still no luck.
As much as he didn't want to believe it, there was a nagging thought in the back of his mind that perhaps Peter had betrayed Lily and James, but he quickly dismissed it. Peter had always been a good and loyal friend. He would be one of the last people to betray them.
But still…
Sirius hopped back on his motorbike and headed straight for Godric's Hollow. He needed to prove to himself that the Potters were safe. If he could find it, it would mean that the secret was no longer protected, and that Lily and James were no longer safe.
Assuring himself that everything was probably fine, he left, hoping that he wouldn't be able to find his destination.
- - - -
"James," Lily whispered as she rushed over and scooped Harry up to comfort him. "What should we do?"
James motioned for her to keep quiet and looked out the window.
The footsteps had gotten closer and closer until they had stopped.
"It's him!" James cried. "Lily, take Harry and run. I'll hold him off down here."
She opened her mouth to protest, but James cut her off before she could say anything.
"Go!" he hissed. "Take care of Harry. I'll be fine."
Lily, with Harry on her shoulder, stumbled from the room just as the front door was blown off its hinges. She clutched Harry tightly and refused to look back. She turned and locked herself in the first room she came to at the top of the stairs - the nursery.
Setting Harry down in his crib, Lily practically collapsed on the floor. She was living her worst nightmare. He was in her house, and he was threatening her family, yet there was nothing she could do about it. With a wave of nausea, she realised that if Voldemort followed her up to the nursery it meant that James was dead.
She quickly fought down the urge to vomit and steadied herself. If these were her last few minutes alive, she wanted to spend them fighting for her life and for Harry's. What she didn't want was to be remembered as the foolish woman who vomited on Lord Voldemort as he tried to kill her. Lily hoped against hope that James would succeed in driving him out of their house. After all, the two of them had managed to escape from Voldemort three times before, but they had been lucky, and Lily had a feeling that their luck had worn off.
Something clicked and the door swung open slowly. It was very different from when the front door had been blown down minutes before, and Lily momentarily thought that it was James coming to tell her everything was safe. Unfortunately, it wasn't James standing in the doorway but Voldemort himself.
Lily rose from the floor and placed herself directly in front of Harry. She wasn't afraid anymore. A courage she hadn't known she had had replaced the nausea, and she was prepared to give her life for Harry's.
- - - -
Dumbledore had ways of keeping tabs on Order members. He knew immediately when something had gone wrong. Unfortunately, the message always came after something happened, and it was always too late to do something about it. He also knew just about everything else that went on in the Wizarding world as it happened.
That Halloween night, he had just returned to his office from the school feast when he received news that there had been an attack on the Potters. Immediate investigation by way of Fawkes, his phoenix, told him that Lily and James were dead and that Harry was still alive.
He acted right away. Hurrying through the school and across the grounds, he found Hagrid, still in a festive mood from the feast.
"Hagrid," Dumbledore said gravely. "I have a job for you to do."
He proceeded to explain everything as quickly as possible, not wanting to waste time. It didn't take long for Hagrid to become as grave as Dumbledore.
"I want you to go immediately to Godric's Hollow by whatever means possible," the headmaster continued. "Retrieve Harry Potter and bring him straight to me." He handed him a piece of parchment. "This is the address of the place where you will find me."
Hagrid nodded and wasted no time in leaving.
Dumbledore stood by the hut in silence and looked at the castle. Inside, students were settling down to sleep after the feast. Lily and James had been students there once, and he remembered them well. Hogwarts would never see a pair of students like them again, but he knew Harry Potter would be special.
He could feel that something more than what he knew had happened at Godric's Hollow that night. There had to be a reason Harry was still alive. Dumbledore knew for a fact that Voldemort knew about the prophecy. It didn't make sense that he would let the child live after hearing it.
With a deep sigh, the old, bearded man headed back to the castle. There was much to do, and the first thing would be to find out exactly what happened. For that, he would need to find Sirius Black.
Even Dumbledore was human. He couldn't know everything. If he did, it would have saved many innocent lives.
- - - -
Sirius landed in front of the Potter house in Godric's Hollow and let his motorbike fall to the ground carelessly. The house was in ruins, but maybe somebody was still alive. Maybe he wasn't too late. Just the fact that he could find the house was not very assuring, but he was determined to remain as optimistic as possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy at all.
He made his way through the rubble, seeing photos and china and other objects every now and then. These things, though there were few that were still completely in tact, made Sirius worry that perhaps his worst fears had come true.
Had Peter really betrayed the Potters? Were Lily, James, and Harry still safe? Could anyone have survived the devastation?
The sound of someone else walking through the rubble brought him back to his senses.
"Who's there?" he said loudly.
Any thoughts that it was Lily or James were immediately dismissed when Sirius saw the size of the gigantic shadow that approached him. He instantly recognized the person.
"Sirius?" came Hagrid's deep voice.
"Yeah, it's me," he replied. "I'm over here."
Hagrid stepped over a chair and made his way over to Sirius who had lit his wand tip by then. Through the darkness, Sirius could see that Hagrid was holding something.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Oh." Hagrid lowered what turned out to be a bundle of blankets to Sirius's level.
Sirius gasped when he saw what was inside the blankets. Harry was sleeping peacefully and looked to be perfectly fine, save for the large gash across his forehead.
"Is he alright?" he asked. "How did he survive? Are Lily and James alright, too?"
Hagrid heaved a great sigh and sniffed loudly.
"No," he said quietly. "They're over there. Dumbledore gave me orders to retrieve Harry an' bring him to him at this address." He showed Sirius they address, but Sirius barely looked at it.
"Give Harry to me, Hagrid. I'm his godfather. That's how Lily and James would have wanted it."
"Sorry, Sirius, but Dumbledore's given me orders, an' I have to follow them. I'm to bring him straight there. Yeh'll have to take it up with him if yeh want Harry."
Sirius cast his eyes down and visibly deflated. In only a matter of minutes, he had lost two of his best friends and quite possibly every other friend he had, and he had been denied custody of his godson. For the first time in his life, he felt weak and useless. Harry didn't have any relatives that Sirius knew of. What was Dumbledore playing at, bringing him to some stranger? He was Harry's godfather, and he knew for a fact that he would make a wonderful guardian for the boy.
In a sudden and unexpected flashback to his Hogwarts days, Sirius remembered that Lily had a sister. He remembered James telling him about her and how she was mean to Lily for being a witch. Then he remembered that the dreadful woman had gone and married some Muggle. Those must have been the relatives Dumbledore was going to leave Harry with. But he couldn't.
"Hagrid, you have to give Harry to me," Sirius pleaded desperately. "I am his godfather. He should be given to me to take care of."
But Hagrid was firm on what he had been told to do. He wouldn't let Sirius have the baby.
Sirius was defeated, and he knew it. Suddenly, something Hagrid had said finally reached his ears.
"Hagrid?" he said quietly. "Where are Lily and James?"
The gamekeeper led him over to where the two bodies lay, not far apart. James was covered with more rubble than Lily was, which meant that he must have been on the ground floor at the time.
"Oh, Merlin."
Sirius fell to his knees by his best friend and felt tears well up in his eyes. It was then that everything really hit him. Lily and James were gone, and he would never see them again. He knew that they would want him to take care of Harry, but suddenly he didn't feel worthy to even look at their son. It was his fault they were dead. He should have been their Secret-Keeper, not Peter. Peter had probably been working for Voldemort for years and had handed over the Potters' hiding place just as easily as if he did it every day.
A heavy hand on Sirius's shoulder made him realize what he had to do. Lily and James weren't there to defend themselves, and Harry was much too small. Nobody else knew the entire story, not even Dumbledore, and it would take too long to explain it to anyone. Peter could escape by then and it would be too late. Something had to be done immediately, and he had to be the one to do it.
"Take my motorbike," he said softly to Hagrid. "It will get you to Dumbledore faster. I won't be needing it anymore."
Hagrid nodded.
"It came from over here!" someone called.
Sirius extinguished his wand light as a couple of Muggles approached quickly down the sidewalk.
"Go," he hissed. "Before too many of them get here."
Hagrid nodded again and turned to leave with Harry.
"I'm sorry, Sirius," he called back. "I'll miss them, too." Then he left.
"Oh my god!" a Muggle cried suddenly. "The whole house is gone. It must have collapsed or something."
"It was a nice house," another one said. "Maybe it was struck by lightning."
"Lightning on a clear night like this?"
Sirius looked up at the sky. It was a clear night. That would make it easy for Hagrid to find his way. But wait a moment. Something in the sky made him do a double take, or rather, the lack of something in the sky made him do a double take.
It was common knowledge that Voldemort always left the Dark Mark above the houses of his victims, but there was no glowing green skull above the Potter house that night. That was rather strange, and now that he thought about it, Sirius had never heard of Voldemort destroying the house after killing his victims. It didn't seem right.
"Do you think anyone could have survived?" one of the Muggles asked.
Sirius looked around and realized that they were growing in number. He took the opportunity to slip into the crowd. He didn't want to be seen and mistaken as a survivor or as the cause of the accident.
But he very well was the cause of the accident. Lily and James would not have died if he hadn't convinced them to use Peter as their Secret-Keeper. He felt like the worst person to ever walk the face of the Earth. He didn't deserve to live.
Sirius managed to make it back to the street, behind the crowd of Muggles. As the tears finally began to flow freely down his cheeks, he caught a glimpse of Lily with her wand still clutched in her hand. He had to do this - for Lily and James.
Everything would be set right again, even if he had to die like they did to be sure of it. Harry would grow up in good home with wonderful people in a safe world where there was no threat of war and dark wizards. Sirius would make sure of that. He would fight this war by himself if he had to, and he would kill every Death Eater he could find.
And he knew just the rat to start with.
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