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Chapter Text

"I don't like any of this," James grumbled as he and Lily stood before Dumbledore in his office.

"I assume you, James, if there was any other way, I would let you know. The Dark Lord is putting all of his effort into tracking your families down now that we are gaining grounds in this war and my sources were able to tell me he is researching all there is to know about prophecies."

"Meaning he is once more focusing on the one made about Harry or Neville," Lily concluded, worry for her son eating at her even though she knew he was safe with his godfather.

"The best course of action would be to go into hiding under the Fidelius for the time being. Frank and Alice are using Augusta so I could be your Secret-Keeper if you wish, it would be..."

"No," James cut him off. "If I have to use a Secret-Keeper, Sirius will be the one."

"Are you sure that is wise?" Dumbledore asked. "I know you trust him, but it are dark times."

"Are you implying Sirius isn't trustworthy?" James looked scandalised and Lily could not blame him as she knew no one was more trustworthy than their best friend.

"I would not dare to imply anything as I know how much you trust him," Dumbledore tried to reassure James. "But it are dark times and we do not know who the spy in our midst is, it could be anyone."

"Not Sirius," Lily declared as James bristled. "We both trust him with our lives; with our son's life."

"Very well," Dumbledore nodded resigned. "So you will use Sirius as your Secret-Keeper?"

"Possibly," James shortly said.

"Do you want me to perform the spell?" Dumbledore asked softly; clearly aware of James' anger at his doubt to Sirius' integrity.

"No, we'll be fine. We should go get ready," he rose to his feet; Lily followed his example and with a short greeting they left.

"I don't like this at all," James repeated as they quickly travelled out of Hogwarts and made their way to where they could Apparate.

"Me neither," Lily admitted. "The Prophecy was made over a year ago already. What would make him focus on it now?"

"I don't know, but we can't take any chances," taking her hand, James Apparated them quickly back home, where Sirius was already waiting for them.

"Harry's asleep?" Lily asked when she could not see her son anywhere.

"I put him down for his afternoon nap barely ten minutes ago, anticipating you'd return soon and would want to talk freely," Sirius poured them all a cup of tea. "What did he summon you for?"

"Apparently Voldemort is going after the Prophecy."

"Right, even if we don't believe in it, apparently he does," Sirius sighed. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing. We'll have to cast the Fidelius Charm for our safety," James sighed as he sat down across of Sirius. "The sooner the better."

"Do you want to do so here, or pick a safe house elsewhere and try to keep this place safe for after the war?" Sirius simply asked and Lily blessed his ability to accommodate to changes.

"We won't have time to find a proper safe house so this will have to do," James rubbed a hand over his head. "Dumbledore offered to be our Secret-Keeper."

Sirius only looked up to him and a silent moment passed between the two friends, a small smile crossed James' lips and he nodded as if the other had actually spoken. "Yeah, I don't like how he keeps telling people what to do either. It's too dangerous to use someone like him and I won't risk my family's safety to someone I don't fully trust."

"The safest option would be to be your own Secret-Keeper," Sirius pondered. "No one can betray or endanger your safety accidentally that way."

"Is that possible?" Lily frowned when James blinked surprised.

"Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Dumbledore said that Frank and Alice used Augusta as theirs, so I just automatically assumed it wasn't possible," Lily admitted. "Why would they risk her like that if it's not necessary?"

"I don't know," Sirius shrugged.

"I have to admit I hadn't thought about it, but it's indeed possible to become my own Secret-Keeper," James looked so relieved Sirius turned to him confused.

"Who did you originally have in mind then?"

"You. I hated the mere idea of putting you in so much danger, painting a huge target on your back, but you are the only one I trust completely. But now that I know this, I won't have to put you in any danger at all."

"While I don't mind in the slightest to become even more of a target than I already am, I would have objected to the pure obviousness of your choice. I refuse to be the reason you'd be at risk even more in the event I'd break under torture," Sirius' disregard for his own safety and well-being always alarmed Lily and suddenly she was relieved the other had mentioned the other way.

"Yeah, there is just so much wrong with that sentence that I'm not even going to try to address it," James shook his head sadly. "You'll be out there alone...if anything happened to you, I don't know what I'd do."

"I'll be careful," Sirius reached out to squeeze James' hand. "I'll team up with Fabian and Gideon while you are in hiding and yes, you are going into hiding with your family."

"Because keeping our family safe is the most important thing," even though he didn't look happy about it, James didn't argue. "But if I am going to go into hiding, I want you to take my cloak and keep it with you at all times."

"All right, how are we going to tell the others about the Secret?"

"I'll prepare a piece of enchanted paper that you can hand out to Remus and Peter. They can destroy it after reading so the secret doesn't end up in the wrong hands and not everyone knows."

"And because you'll enchant it, only they will be able to open it, good idea," Sirius glanced at his pocket watch. "When do you want to cast the Fidelius?"

"We'll cast it right away," James rose to his feet. "In between missions, I want you here, though."

"James..."

"It is not up for argument," Lily backed James up. "Even though James will be the Secret-Keeper, most will still assume you are. And although we cannot force you to remain hidden with us in here, we can ensure you will at least be safe in between missions."

"I can live with that," Sirius agreed, clearly aware arguing would be futile. "I'm already added to the wards so I can Apparate directly onto your doorstep without risking anyone following me, so that won't be a problem. But I will need to leave soon if I am to make it to the meeting in time and still drop by my own house if I'm to stay here."

"Let me retrieve his cloak so that we can do this, then," Lily rose to her feet as well and fifteen minutes later she and James waved Sirius off as the other left with the enchanted pieces of papers.

The knowledge that the other would be basically moving in with them drew a lot of comfort to both of them and Lily made sure the guest room was readied for his return.

The Fidelius made Lily feel safe and although she remained on guard as the first days slipped past, she was still surprised when James' mirror began to shrill in urgency and her husband fumbled to pull it out of his pocket.

"Sirius, what's wrong?"

"There was an attack, I cast the Muffliato but I need you to tell Fabian and Gideon the secret."

"Potter Cottage is on number 7 Godric's Hollow," James didn't waste any time asking questions at the sound of Sirius' urgent tone and moments later the sound of Apparition had them both running to the door.

"Help me with him," Sirius looked worse for wear, his clothes ripped and covered in blood. Fabian Prewett didn't look much better, though neither looked as horrible as the blood-covered man hanging limply between the two.

James hurried to help drag Gideon inside and to the second guest room so there was no chance of Harry walking in on the scene.

"What happened?" Lily asked as she looked Fabian over while James and Sirius focused on healing Gideon's wounds.

"We were ambushed," Fabian' breathing stocked as she reset the bone in his arm. "There were five Death Eaters; they burst into our home out of nowhere. If Sirius hadn't come to discuss our next assignment, I don't think we'd have made it out alive."

"I don't know about that, you were holding your own pretty well," Sirius winced as James accidentally brushed against his side to reach Gideon's bleeding side.

"We weren't the ones able to kill the Lestranges," Fabian took a deep breath as Lily finished healing him.

"What?"

"Oh, yes. Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan are dead," Sirius confirmed offhandedly. "As is Dolohov and a guy I didn't recognise."

"Barty Crouch," Fabian said. "I recognised the little bastard from seeing him with his father at the Ministry."

"I didn't know he was a Death Eater," James frowned. "But it sure explains how all of the Aurors kept arriving at abandoned scenes as he could alert the Death Eaters the moment they were dispatched."

"Makes one wonder just how many ones we don't know about are out there," Lily stripped Gideon out of his ruined clothes and covered him with the blanket while James turned to Sirius.

"Will he be all right?" Fabian asked as he sat down in the chair Lily pulled up to the bed.

"Yeah, he will be," James reassured him without looking up from his healing. "He got extremely lucky."

"We both did," Fabian confirmed, turning to Sirius. "I never even said thank you for saving our asses."

"You'd do the same for us," Sirius shrugged, wincing as the movement pulled on his shoulder. "But I'm pretty sure we pissed Voldemort off horribly by killing three of his best lieutenants."

"I still can't believe you managed to take out Bellatrix Lestrange," Fabian breathed out a disbelieving laugh. "One moment she is torturing Gid while bragging on how she'd do to him what she did to Fenwick, the next she's exploding into tiny pieces herself."

"Seemed fitting for what she's done to Benjy. But it was pure luck that I came by earlier than we'd planned. I was supposed to meet up with Peter now that he's returned from his own mission but as it was, I could barely hand over your note before he suddenly had to leave again," Sirius rotated his arm once James had healed it and nodded at him gratefully. "That reminds me, Rookwood and Mulciber are dead, too."

"How'd you manage that?" Lily blinked surprised.

"They were on the look-out when I arrived, though I had no trouble taking them out during their surprise at my unexpected arrival," Sirius answered.

"You killed them?" Fabian asked.

"I don't follow Dumbledore's policy when everyone I know keeps being killed around me," Sirius sighed. "If I can prevent it, I don't, but if it's a choice between saving my comrades and keeping terrorists alive, I am not restraining my spells to prevent it."

"Oh no, I'm with you. Definitely never agreed to Dumbledore's policy either," Fabian quickly assured him. "Your actions saved our lives."

"You're welcome," Sirius smiled.

"So that's seven Death Eaters down," James leaned back against the wall, laughing. "You are right, he will be pissed off."

"Somehow I can't really care about too much right now," Sirius' expression tightened. "What I do wonder about is the attacks on Order member homes that are suddenly happening."

"It's kind of the smart move, isn't it?" Lily asked. "Attack them when they deem themselves to be safe?"

"It is, but how do they know who are Order members and when they will be home? I mean, they have never struck wrong so far or at a time no one was home. And all the houses are in public enough areas that they couldn't have staked them out without being noticed."

"I'm not getting your point," Fabian admitted.

"It means the spy in our own ranks is leaking all that information to the Death Eaters," James rubbed a hand over his face.

"We already knew someone was leaking information, didn't we?" Lily frowned.

"But who knows that much information about everyone? I mean, none of us is informed of when another is on a mission. It's all being kept a secret, even from each other, isn't it?" Sirius looked at them all.

"Dumbledore knows," Fabian said after a moment of hesitation. "He is the only one who knows where every Order member is at any given time. But what could he possible gain by passing information to the other side and getting his own people killed?"

"I notice you are not immediately dismissing my claim," Sirius raised an eyebrow, making Fabian sigh.

"No, I'm not. Because you are right and it's not the first time I've questioned the man's methods. The Bones, the McKinnons? It's all a bit too much of a coincidence to me and Gideon both."

"Not to mention Benjy and Meadowes or Dearborn's mysterious disappearance," Sirius swallowed. "Have you noticed that the most influential witches and wizards are the only ones attacked in full force?"

"I have," Fabian admitted. "All people who have either the political power or backing to force the Ministry's hand for changes should the war ever end. Gideon and I, you guys and the Longbottoms...we're all ones who have been attacked, though we're the only ones who've made it out alive so far."

"Not for long if things continue the way they've been," James scoffed.

"Fair enough, but the point is what Dumbledore would have to gain...unless..." Fabian trailed off.

"Unless what?" James asked.

"Right now, Dumbledore is the most known person on our side of the war. With all the influential people gone, he will be the one people will keep looking at."

"So you are saying he's arranging people's deaths to ensure he remains the top dog?" Lily asked.

"Perhaps not necessarily the top dog, but the one everyone looks to for answers," James ran a hand through his hair. "Isn't that how he works now, too? He is the only one with all the information, only sharing what he deems is important. It's led us into trouble more than once, simply because we didn't have all the information necessary."

"Fair enough. But how do we prove it?" Fabian glanced at his brother. "Before more innocent people get killed."

"That's something I don't know," Sirius sighed. "Nor do I know who is the traitor amongst us."

"Didn't we just establish Dumbledore's the one?" Fabian frowned.

"You actually believe he leaks information himself?" Sirius snorted. "He wouldn't be that stupid."

"No, someone else is his lackey and leaking the information to the Death Eaters," James agreed. "The question is who."

"Well, there's not that many of us left," Lily pointed out. "We can rule all of us and the Longbottoms out, so who is left?"

"Let's gather in the living room, I'd rather not disturb his rest," Sirius nodded to the still unconscious Gideon. "I'll set an alarm so we'll be warned if he wakes."

Nodding, they all moved to the living room, sitting down while Lily magically provided them with drinks.

"So we've got Hagrid, Fletcher, Vance, Doge, Lupin, Pettigrew, Diggle, Aberforth and Moody," Fabian summed up.

"We can rule Moody, Dung and Vance out immediately," Sirius said.

"Not Pettigrew and Lupin?" Fabian asked surprised.

"I don't believe either of them would ever be a traitor; but I cannot immediately rule them out like I can those three," Sirius admitted honestly as he folded his fingers around his hot cup to warm them up.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, Sirius is right," James sighed. "Neither of our friends has ever been directly attacked the way Moody and Vance have repeatedly been. And although Dung is a petty thief and definitely loyal to Dumbledore, he is also a coward and can't lie convincingly even if his life depended on it."

"Doge, Diggle and Hagrid are also loyal to Dumbledore," Fabian pointed out.

"Not Hagrid," Sirius shook his head. "The man isn't sly enough to play double agent the way the spy has done even if I have no doubt he's accidentally revealed information before. And Diggle hasn't been to enough Order meetings to be able to provide good information."

"Doge then?"

"I can't rule him out," James said. "Same with Aberforth; though I doubt he's the one."

"He might dislike his brother and run a shady bar, but he wouldn't pass on information to a man he hates even more and certainly wouldn't work for his brother as a double spy," Sirius confirmed.

"So putting Doge on the suspect list; that only leaves Pettigrew and Lupin," Fabian cleared his throat. "Since I'm pretty sure none of you are the traitors either."

Sirius and James shared a look that made Lily's chest tighten, not wanting it to be true that they were suspecting their closest friends. But all their points so far were more than logical and true and they were left with only three possibilities.

"What about Lupin?"

"No," Sirius immediately said.

"He's a werewolf," Fabian pointed out, even though he looked guilty even mentioning it.

"That doesn't immediately make him evil," Sirius shot back.

"I am aware, but he is also uncannily loyal to Dumbledore."

"So were we," James pointed out.

"Remus is a lot of things and it is true that he is very loyal to Dumbledore, but he would not betray us for anything," Sirius' voice held such a strong confidence that Fabian automatically raised his hands in defence.

"I'm just trying to rule people out properly."

"I know, sorry," Sirius ran a hand over his face tiredly. "I trust Remus and I know that isn't a free pass as the traitor is clearly someone we trust, I can't believe even for a moment that it is Remus. I know him better than I know myself."

"I get what you are saying; but we cannot permit to let our personal feelings get into this. All that you personally know about him aside, could Lupin be a traitor in theory?"

"He hates dark wizards," James said.

"But can you rule him out?" Fabian repeated.

"No," James admitted after another long shared look with Sirius, the other looking down pained.

"So we put him on the suspect list as a maybe," Fabian decided. "What about Pettigrew?"

"I can't imagine Peter would betray us," James bit his lip. "He is our friend..."

"But I can't rule him out confidently," Sirius quietly admitted, distress clearly visible on both of their faces at having to admit that. "Can you?"

"No," James admitted after a few moments. "Same story as with Remus."

Cursing colourfully, James ran a hand through his hair again. "Peter would be a good bet, if we are truly going down that road."

"Loyal to Dumbledore, unassuming and unnoticed," Lily nodded against her own wishes to do so. "He would be dismissed by most as even a suspected traitor."

"I can't believe we are even discussing this in the first place," Sirius choked out, rising to his feet and beginning to pace. "He's our friend, they both are. What could either of them possibly have to gain by betraying us?"

"I don't know. But we've ruled almost everyone else out," Fabian said.

"We haven't ruled out Doge either," James pointed out, hesitating as he bit his lip. "But I can't see him being the traitor either. He is known as Dumbledore's man and I can't see Voldemort ever trusting him enough to keep him on as a double agent."

"So that leaves Lupin and Pettigrew; both unlikely and very much loved...but our only suspects left," Fabian quietly said and Sirius' pacing suddenly came to a stop and he turned back to them, horrified.

"I just gave..." whatever Sirius was going to say was cut off as the front door exploded and he was blasted off his feet.

Jumping to their feet; all three of them drew their wands even as Sirius was slammed headfirst into the opposite wall and remained down, blood beginning to pool around his head.

"Sirius!" James managed to magically shove his best friend aside as a green flash of light was shot his way, before pulling a lamp into the path of the killing curse directed at himself and he cursed as he couldn't afford to check on Sirius as he was immediately assaulted again.

His heart hammered in his throat as he fought against Voldemort's assault; aware this was the proof at least one of their two friends had betrayed them as they were the only ones who knew the secret of where they were.

He was only half aware of the others fighting beside him; needing all of his attention on the fight as Voldemort fought more furiously than he'd ever seen him do so before.

It was clear that he hadn't been counting on the presence of Fabian and the other fought like a lion; but he was still sluggish and James knew they didn't have much of a chance, especially with Sirius down as well.

"Siri."

James' heart stopped at the voice of his infant son and he turned mid-shielding to see the child step out of his bedroom on shaky legs; only recently having begun to walk and now trying to make his way to Sirius' unconscious form just a few steps from his bedroom.

Harry didn't seem aware of the curses flashing around him; his little green eyes fixated on the still form of his beloved godfather and even as both James and Lily moved to intercept the curse Voldemort sent at their son; he already knew neither of them would make it in time and he cried out.

"Harry!" A flash of blinding green light raced through the air in what seemed like slow motion; reaching the little boy at the same time he fell down beside Sirius and the walls behind them exploded upon impact, the force of it knocking James, Fabian and Lily off their feet.

"No!" Lily screamed even as Voldemort's cruel laughter rang out above the ringing in James' ears before it suddenly cut off, but James couldn't focus on anything but trying to get to where his son had been before the blast. A overwhelming certainty that if he could just get there, he could undo what had happened grabbed hold of him, erasing any other thought from his mind as he fought to get to his feet.

Shaking his head several times to try and clear his ears and mind; James felt his heart release the tight band that had formed around it as the sound of crying registered suddenly.

Falling back to his knees as through the dust and debris still falling something shaped as a human became visible, he scrambled to the sound of his son's crying, more on feeling than actually seeing anything properly.

"Harry..." he coughed as he felt around for his glasses, having lost them in the blast, but abandoned his search as he heard his son's quiet sobs more clearly now.

"James."

"Siri..." James blindly reached out, choking on tears when his hand was grabbed by a very familiar one and he used that grip to pull himself forward, relief at knowing his best friend was also still alive overwhelming him momentarily as it suddenly made sense how Harry could be crying.

"He's all right," the same hand still holding his pushed it against a small stomach and two small hands grabbed onto him.

"Daddy," Harry cried as he half turned in Sirius' hold, letting himself be pulled into his father's arms and James didn't care that he was crying and snot was running down his nose as he clung to his son with all his might.

"It's all right, Harry...it's going to be all right," he quietly promised the distressed child, looking up to meet Sirius' blurry face but he couldn't make much more out than a shape with all the dust still flying around. "How..."

"Damn," Fabian's voice startled James as he hadn't even thought of the others, but he sensed Lily just before she slammed into him from the side and managed to release Harry so that she could pull him into her arms, crying as hard as he was.

"Is everyone all right?" James asked after a few moments once he managed to compose himself, having clung to Sirius in relief and looked down as something was pressed into his hands, needing a moment to realise it were his glasses before putting them on. "Thanks."

"I'm bruised all over, but I'll live and Lily's fine, too," Fabian informed him, quickly repairing James' glasses so that he could actually see something through them and he immediately sought out Harry, relieved to see his son was completely unharmed despite being covered in dust and debris. "I'll get you out of there in no time."

Turning back to Sirius, James realised the other was mostly pinned by pieces of the ceiling that had come down and immediately began to help Fabian free him. "Merlin...Siri?"

"I'm not sure what happened," his best friend blinked unsteadily once he was free, blood caking the left side of his face completely and still running down freely.

Quickly casting a diagnostic scan to determine his skull was cracked, James healed it but Sirius didn't even seem to notice the change as Fabian manoeuvred him to a steady piece of wall still standing, to lean against. "Harry cried my name, I grabbed him and there was a flash and the wall exploded. What happened?"

"I don't know. Harry came out of the bedroom and Voldemort shot the killing curse at him. Voldemort!" Alarmed, James turned with his wand up but even as the sudden movement made the world spin, Lily's hand shot out to steady him.

"Voldemort?" Sirius sounded more confused than anything else. "What?"

"He's dead."

"What?"

"Sirius killed him," Lily informed him as she kept a hand on his arm until he'd found his balance again. "Fabian already confirmed it."

Following her line of sight, James was speechless to see Voldemort's corpse lying on the ground several meters from them.

"I did?"

The sheer absurdness of Sirius' confused statement had all three of them burst out into laughter, regardless of the tears running down their cheeks and in a blur they all hugged each other.

"How the hell did you both survive?" Fabian asked amazed as James healed all of their injuries before pulling Sirius into another hug.

"I don't know," Sirius admitted, automatically wrapping his arms around Harry as the boy used the opportunity to crawl back into his godfather's lap; where he must have been when the wall exploded as the wounds on Sirius' arms and back matched to having protected a small child with his body. "Harry cried my name and I knew I needed to protect him no matter what. But I can't remember using magic."

"Instinct is a very strong thing so you might have used it wandless without knowing," Fabian clasped Sirius' shoulder and ruffled Harry's hair, making the child look up from clinging to his godfather.

"Siri?" Big green eyes looked up to him and Sirius smiled down.

"Hey pup. Are you all right?"

A simple tightening of small hands was enough of an answer that Harry was truly shaken and Sirius pulled him in closer, tensing suddenly. "Someone's outside."

"Stupefy!" Lily moved faster than lightening and was on the move before James had even been able to get his bearing, let alone rise to his feet. But Fabian was already off after her so he turned back to his best friend, aware they had it under control.

"Are you all right?" He asked as he sat down beside him, because if Sirius was even remotely as dizzy and disorientated as he looked, it was probably the best thing to just remain seated for now.

"Is he truly dead?"

"It seems so," James shared Sirius' disbelief so he rose to his feet and poked the dead body with a piece of debris before checking magically. "He is."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Sending another killing curse at him just to be on the safe side, James nodded. "Absolutely."

"Good," Sirius leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, taking a shaky breath as tears formed in his eyes. "So Peter is the traitor?"

"We don't..." James paused as he remembered how Sirius had turned to them just moments before everything had gone to hell. "That's what you were going to say, wasn't it? Just before..."

"Peter left so quickly after I'd given him the paper, I should have realised something was up."

"We can't know for sure," James hesitated.

"We can. I gave Remus the secret the same day we cast the Fidelius and he burned the paper after reading it. I didn't get a chance to do so with Peter, heck, I didn't even get the chance to tell him you were your own Secret-Keeper. It's the only way Voldemort could've found us."

James cursed softly. "You couldn't have known...none of us could."

"You better believe it is true, though," Fabian sounded grimly and they both looked up to see him drag a motionless, but very familiar form, into the house. "I found him outside."

Lily looked furious, but didn't spare Peter a glance as she knelt down beside Sirius. "Are you all right?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Sirius straightened a little without dislodging Harry.

"We weren't the ones slammed into a wall and in the midst of an explosion," Fabian shrugged.

"Wall...Gideon?"

"He's fine, still sleeping like a rose," Fabian snorted. "He won't believe me when he comes to and I tell him what's happened."

"I've been present for it all and I don't even know if I believe it," Lily breathed out a laugh. "But I noticed you still haven't answered the question."

"I'm all right. Bit woozy and these is this ringing in my ears that is getting really annoying, but I'm all right."

He didn't look all right, but James couldn't really blame him for that as he reached out to brush some dirt from his brother's cheek, getting an amused glance in return and suddenly James couldn't help but pull him into another embrace just to ensure himself he was truly still alive.

"I've alerted Moody to come over," Fabian said after a moment and they'd separated again. "But you will have to allow him entrance."

"Will the Fidelius still do any good when half the house is gone?" Sirius wondered, tensing slightly as Harry sleepily curled against him more firmly to not be dislodged with his movements but he didn't comment on the child's clinginess, only tightened his own hold momentarily to assure him he wasn't going anywhere.

"Any bit of protection is useful when half of us are down," Lily levelled a look at both James and Sirius. "I'm pretty amazed you are even sitting up with how dreadful you look and James looks like a walking dust factory."

"There's such a thing as a dust factory?" The confused question was a statement of just how far out of it Sirius still was, so James shifted to sit beside him, so he could lean against him.

"We should get him out of the rubble," he noted and Fabian immediately stepped forward, though he was unable to stop from smiling as neither adult nor child made any move to separate from each other to be even remotely helpful in moving.

"I'm just going to..." abruptly turning with his wand drawn, Fabian's expression tightened as he peered out of the ruined house before whispering. "It's Dumbledore."

"How does he know where to find us?" Lily kept her voice soft as well, rising to her feet and drawing her wand.

"I don't know, but he clearly knows the secret or he wouldn't be here," James got to his feet as Sirius stumbled up to kneel and steadied him as he turned to the guest room where Gideon was.

"Harry, I need you to go to Uncle Gideon and stay with him. Don't come out for anything unless one of us gives you the password, all right? Fiddlydill."

James swallowed as his son immediately fell silent and entered the guest-room without argument, letting Sirius close the door behind him and he blessed his brother's suspicious mind to make sure the child was prepared for possible danger properly.

"Let's get this over with," Sirius whispered once Harry was safe and drew his wand as well.

"Will you be all right?" Fabian fell back to flank Sirius' other side, kneeling beside him as James clearly wasn't the only one worried by how pale the other still was.

"I'll have to be," Sirius' expression closed off and his eyes narrowed. "Lift the Fidelius."

Doing as he asked without comment, James watched from the cover of debris as Dumbledore stepped into the house; looking around and blinking surprised as his gaze fell upon Voldemort's corpse.

"James? Lily?"

"Stay down," Sirius' hand shot out to keep Fabian down. "He doesn't know the two of us are here."

Nodding their understanding to Sirius' plan, James and Lily stepped out from behind the debris that was still effectively hiding their two friends.

"Dumbledore?" Lily managed to sound confused and breathless and if James hadn't known his wife was utterly fine, he would have worried she was hurt. But as it was he immediately realised she was acting hurt so Dumbledore would underestimate her.

"Lily, thank goodness you are all right, my dear," relief spread over Dumbledore's elderly features as he turned to them. "And my dear boy, I came as soon as I could."

"How did you find us?"

"Sirius told me the Secret a few days ago," Dumbledore took a deep shaky breath that would've been convincing if James hadn't known the truth. "Are you both all right? What happened here?"

"We were attacked tonight," Lily said. "He tried to kill Harry."

"Is Harry all right?" Dumbledore's head snapped up.

"He is," James nodded, not loosening his grip on his wand and he noticed Dumbledore was holding it tightly as well. "Why are you here?"

"I placed a monitor on your house to keep an extra eye out and they went off tonight; saying two killing curses were used here...I had to come see what had happened," Dumbledore swallowed in seemingly distress. "I am so happy you are all right. Where is Harry?"

"Safe," Lily calmly said. "Forgive me that I have a bit of trouble trusting anyone right now."

"I understand," Dumbledore' expression shifted to sadness. "I cannot believe he is the traitor we have been looking for. I never thought he would follow down the path of his ancestors."

Cold sweat ran down James' back as he realised Dumbledore was blaming Sirius for this and he momentarily wondered if the man wasn't faking it after all since James had been the one to say he'd use Sirius.

But then he realised that the man had said Sirius had told him the secret. "You said Sirius told you the secret?"

"Yes, he came by four days ago," Dumbledore confirmed. "Why?"

"Just wondering how he did so, since he wasn't the Secret-Keeper," James said.

"What? But you said..." Dumbledore's eyes widened as he seemed to realise he'd misspoken.

"There is a difference between saying and doing something. Did you really think for even one moment I would put my own brother in such danger if I didn't have to?" James snapped. "I've become my own Secret-Keeper and only three people knew the secret."

Technically five, since Gideon and Fabian knew as well, but there was no reason for Dumbledore to know that.

"One of whom is my own brother and the other two are Remus and Peter. Sirius witnessed Remus burning the paper I'd written the secret on in person so that leaves Peter; who left in a hurry after being given the secret in writing," James could no longer keep his voice even remotely pleasant. "So tell me, Dumbledore, did Peter run to you immediately before he went to warn his master?"

"I ...you must have misunderstood me. Sirius gave me the secret on paper four days ago, I just assumed he didn't want to say it out loud due to safety reasons," Dumbledore tried to regroup himself.

"Funny, because Sirius hasn't left our side outside of meetings and certainly doesn't trust you. So why would he entrust you with our location?" Lily wondered out loud. "And his distrust got us thinking to just how many political strong players have been moved out of the way since the war started."

"What are you implying?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, his friendly demeanour disappearing all of a sudden.

"You tell us," Lily snapped. "Because I find it very alarming that you have come here; without any back up for what? If we were dead, then what business would you have here?"

"I came because I had to see if it was true and since only two killing curses were used, one of you three still had to be alive," Dumbledore spluttered. "I came to try and help."

"Or to finish the job?" James asked. "Because it has not skipped my attention that you are holding your wand rather aggressively right now. Or that you are indeed here alone when at any other time, we would check a hit location with a group just to be safe."

"I don't like these accusations you are throwing at me but I understand that you must both be very shaken by what has happened here tonight so I will simply ignore it," a pleasant, clearly attempt at calming them, smile appeared on Dumbledore's face. "Have you contacted anyone for help yet or to tell them what happened?"

"No, we haven't had the chance yet," Lily shook her head; a truth since Fabian and Sirius had already been present when the attack happened and the former had been the one to contact Moody.

"All right."

James didn't react in time as a jet of green light suddenly shot in his direction, but before it could reach him, a shadow appeared before James and Dumbledore was blasted off his feet as the killing curse rebounded to him and Sirius appeared from behind the rubble.

"I really don't like how people keep on trying to kill my friends today," he growled even as all of them stared down at Dumbledore in shock.

"How..."

"I can't believe..." James broke his question off at the sound of Moody's voice and turned to see him and Vance stand in the broken door opening, staring at Dumbledore's corpse with wide eyes.

"When did you two arrive?" Lily blinked.

"Just after Albus did," Moody managed to bring out without tearing his gaze off his oldest friend. "I didn't like what I was hearing so I kept hidden. I can't believe he's the one...but it makes so much sense now."

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this," Sirius sighed, nodding to Vance. "Nice to see you, Fabian warned you as well?"

"Yes. You look like crap, Black," Vance told him shakily, taking in his bloodied face and dirty clothes as she seemed unable to look down at Dumbledore. "What happened?"

"A wall blew up right behind me," Sirius brushed some debris from his clothes as he stepped forward with Fabian's help.

"I'm glad to see you are all right," Moody composed himself with some difficulties. "We discovered the ruins of your house about an hour ago, but although there were seven corpses there you were not among them. Is Gideon all right, as well?"

"Yes, Sirius saved our asses and brought us to safety," Fabian explained. "You've been on a roll today, haven't you?"

"I'm not particularly proud of that, you know," Sirius grumbled as he looked at Dumbledore. "I can't believe he would try to kill you guys like that."

"But he did. How did you rebound the curse like that? I didn't think it could be rebound?" Moody stepped away from Dumbledore's body as if it was contagious and James knew the man took the revelation of Dumbledore's true colours very hard.

"I didn't either. I just threw a mirror in its path as that was the nearest intact item I could spot," Sirius explained, gesturing to the undamaged mirror laying among the rubble that James was pretty sure had been hanging in the hallway. "I didn't know it would bounce back the way it did, I just wanted to protect them."

"Must be the reflective coating of the glass that made that possible," Lily mused, kneeling down to examine the mirror without actually touching it.

"I'm not complaining," James shrugged, trying not to let his shakiness show as it crashed down that their supposed leader had attempted to kill him and his wife and although they would now never get an explanation as to why he'd betrayed the people who had trusted him, he found that he didn't really care as the man had endangered his family. "I'm just glad he can't get anyone else killed any more."

"I'm holding on to that tightly," Moody muttered softly, not half as successful in hiding his emotions, but the man didn't even seem to notice as his gaze snapped up again. "Right, I guess I'll have to inform the others of what happened and...is that..."

"Oh, yes. Voldemort is dead," Fabian cheerfully said. "Sirius killed him."

"You...how?" Vance's eyes widened once more as she stared at Sirius.

"According to Dumbledore, I used a killing curse. But I must admit that I don't remember actually casting it as I was rather busy trying to protect Harry from an exploding wall," Sirius honestly told them.

"The kid all right?"

"Yes," stepping back over the debris to retrieve his son, James paused as the bedroom door opened and Gideon poked his head out, blinking confused at the chaos.

"What by Merlin's soggy underpants happened here?" Fabian's older twin brother was wearing James' spare bathrobe and was carrying Harry as the child waved happily upon seeing his family.

"A bit of a tussle, brother," Fabian beamed, hurrying back to pull his brother into a hug. "I'm glad you are all right."

"Yeah, same to you," Gideon's eyes scanned them all. "Seriously, though. What on earth happened here?"

"We were attacked by Voldyshorts himself and during the fight, he went after Harry so Sirius killed him."

"Okay," Gideon nodded, not looking the slightest bit surprised by that information. "So we finally managed to take him out, huh?"

"And Dumbledore while we were at it. Looks like you were right not to trust him, brother," Fabian sighed and this time Gideon did blink.

"What?"

As Fabian wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders and began to inform him and the newcomers of all that had happened tonight, James pulled his son out of Gideon's arms and carried him to Sirius as the toddler reached out for his godfather.

Once his son was safely in Sirius' arms, James wrapped his arms around them both and Harry looked up to them confused as Lily joined in on the hug, all three of them taking a long moment to just be happy their family was safe.

"Siri?"

"Yes, pup?"

"Harry bath?"

Laughing, Sirius nodded. "I think we could all use a bath right now, but it will have to wait for a bit longer."

"Okay," trusting his godfather to be right, Harry simply wrapped his small hands around his godfather's neck and cuddled into him.

"So what exactly is the plan from here?" Lily asked.

"We call the Ministry and start hunting down what's left of his followers," Moody swallowed. "And bring out the involvement of Dumbledore in all of this. People deserve to know the truth."

"Can we prove any of it without his own testimony?" Fabian asked.

"We will certainly try our hardest," Vance grimly said. "I'd like to say that with both You-Know-Who and Dumbledore out of the picture, the war is won. But I am afraid that would be too easy."

"We can pick Peter's mind to see what he knows about any followers," Sirius suggested. "And from there Moody can have the Aurors start making arrests. The knowledge that Dumbledore himself was corrupted will be evidence that Crouch needs to question everyone with Veritaserum to ensure the truth is told and hopefully make even more arrests."

"I will see to that personally," Moody growled. "But we should first get you all to safety because Sirius isn't the only one who looks like crap."

"Thanks," they chorused, a tiny smile forming on the serious face before it tightened again as his gaze fell on Dumbledore.

"Do you have a place you can go to?"

"I know a place that would work," Sirius hesitated. "What about Remus?"

"I don't know...he is still on a mission, isn't he?" James looked at Lily for confirmation.

"I think so. Can we trust him, though?"

James hated the uncertainty he suddenly felt at even his closest friends, all too aware that they hadn't been able to clear Remus as a suspect either.

"We will call him back immediately and I will confront him myself," Sirius said.

"Don't you think you are a little too involved to remain objective when questioning him?" Vance raised an eyebrow, flinching when grey eyes stared her down.

"We should be the ones to question Remus," James agreed with Sirius. "He is our friend; let him stare us into the face if he is truly wrong. We will use Legilimens if we have to, but I promise you, we will not risk our family. Not even for our dearest friends."

"I will send him a Patronus and have him meet us back at your place in an hour," Fabian said. "That will leave you time to get the rest settled in a new safe house."

"Us?" James raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not leaving you now. I am sincerely hoping you won't need the backup, but I am not willing to take the chance that you do."

"Very well, that settles that. I will make sure it is known what happened here and who is responsible for taking out those Death Eaters we found earlier," Moody nodded.

"I don't think Crouch will be too happy his son was among them," Sirius hesitated. "What makes you so sure he will not claim the kid to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and simply accuse me of killing an innocent party?"

"We found this weird tattoo on all of the Death Eaters' forearms and we think it is something shared among all of them so they can recognise each other," Moody said. "Crouch Junior had the same tattoo so even if Crouch will try to blame it on you, I will point that out. You provided a service to the Wizarding community and I will make sure you are recognised for all of it."

"I don't care about recognition, I just don't want to be imprisoned innocently because Crouch has it out for me."

"I will make sure of that," Moody promised and taking his word for it they split up; Moody and Vance alerted the Ministry while the rest of them relocated to the safe house Sirius knew about; it turning out to be a decently sized cottage.

"This is yours?" Fabian whistled impressed.

"I bought it earlier this week, thinking it would make for a good hiding place if necessary and perhaps even a nice home in time. It comes in handy now," Sirius explained.

All too soon James, Fabian and Sirius left the other three behind again with promises to be careful and as they Apparated to Sirius' apartment and settled in to wait.

Remus arrived, looking a little rumpled but all right, a little after the expected time and as his eyes immediately widened upon seeing them, James realised none of them had thought to clean up yet.

"What happened!" Their friend exclaimed as he hurried forward. "Are you all right?"

"We're fine," Fabian said shortly. "The same cannot be said for others."

"What?" Remus certainly looked confused, but as much as James hated doubting his friends, he couldn't take the risk to trust the wrong person again.

"Do you swear on your life that you are not the traitor, that you have never betrayed us or passed information to Voldemort and his followers?"

"I...what? Of course not, I would never betray you!," Remus looked scandalised at the blunt accusation.

"Look into my eyes and swear it," Sirius repeated James' words and although Remus looked more than a little hurt at the blatant mistrust aimed at him, he met Sirius' eyes without hesitation.

"I swear on my life that I have never betrayed any of you or passed information to Voldemort or his followers," his eyes tightened as Sirius used Legilimency to forcefully enter his mind, but made no move to stop him as Sirius searched his mind.

"He's telling the truth."

Releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd held, James nodded.

"Care to tell me why you're all suddenly suspecting me?" Remus' voice was pained and so full of hurt that James immediately felt guilty, but couldn't bring himself to regret it when he knew what Peter had done.

"Two hours ago we were attacked by Voldemort himself."

"What? But you are hidden under the Fidelius!" Remus looked shocked. "What about Lily and Harry? Are they all right?"

"Thanks to Sirius, yes," James nodded. "He killed Voldemort when he went after Harry."

"He's dead?" The horror made place for amazed disbelief, like it was too good to be true so James simply nodded. "How..."

"That's not important. What is important is that only two people outside us knew where we were staying; you and Peter."

"So it had to be one of us who has betrayed you," Remus swallowed thickly. "And I was the first on your list."

"Actually, Sirius was rather vocal in that it wasn't you," Fabian assured him. "If it had to be one of you two, it was more likely to be Pettigrew in his opinion. Both of theirs, actually. Something confirmed when Sirius told us you had burned the secret upon reading it, so you would have been unable to share it with anyone else. While Peter was in a supposed hurry and took the secret with him."

"Peter betrayed us?" Remus took a deep, shaky breath as they all nodded. "Couldn't he have been captured instead?"

"We found him in perfect health right outside the house mere minutes after Voldemort was killed. Lily stunned him and he's been taken into custody by Moody to be questioned. But I have no doubts about his guilt as the slip of paper was still in his pocket and he also shared the secret with Dumbledore," James informed him.

"You specifically stated only Peter and I were to know the secret to prevent the information from spreading," Remus frowned. "Why would he have told Dumbledore?"

Sirius sighed. "Fabian and Gideon were attacked earlier today, only barely making it out alive. I took them to James' for their safety..."

"And we got talking about how strange it is that only highly influential witches and wizards are targeted specifically and how Voldemort could possibly know exactly where and when to find them somewhere."

"No one knows everyone's missions and whereabouts at any given time," Remus frowned. "No one outside of...you can't seriously think..."

"Dumbledore came to our house a little bit after the attack and he tried to kill Lily and me," James said.

"What? Why?"

"I don't know precisely why and we can't ask him any more either. When he cast the killing curse at me, Sirius summoned a mirror into its path and the curse rebounced to him."

"Dumbledore is dead?" Remus stared at them in horror, though James wasn't entirely sure if he was horrified at learning Sirius had accidentally killed the man or at what he'd tried to do.

"Yes," Sirius swallowed. "I hadn't intended to kill him, but I can't regret it when he tried to kill my family."

"No, of course not. And you shouldn't," Remus blinked rapidly as he tried to let the information sink in. "I can't believe...he is supposed to be our leader and help us win this war...why would he betray us all like this?"

"We can only speculate," Sirius reached out to place a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "I'm sorry I forced my way into your mind and questioned you like that."

"Knowing what I do now, you did the right thing," Remus took a deep breath to compose himself before meeting Sirius' eyes. "You can't take any chances right now, not when they are in danger."

He folded his hand around Sirius' and squeezed. "I understand. You had to know for sure. Peter...I just can't..."

He visibly shook himself and scanned all three of them for injuries. "Are you sure you are all right? Because you all look rather horrible."

"You're not the first to say that tonight," Fabian grimaced. "Sirius took a rather harsh blow to the head and got extremely lucky when the wall he was laying against exploded when he pulled Harry out of the way of a Killing Curse, but we took care of him and the rest of us got off with only cuts and bruises...and very filthy clothing."

"And Gideon? You said you were attacked earlier? Where is he?"

"He was injured pretty badly, but they took care of him and he's with Lily right now," Fabian smiled faintly. "But I couldn't let them go out here alone in case they were wrong about you, which by the way, I am very happy they were not."

"Thanks. So, can you tell me the full story or am I going to be left with only pieces?"

As Sirius informed Remus exactly of what had happened and the plan from there, James took a deep breath and leaned back as he knew Vance had been right.

Even with Voldemort and Dumbledore out of the way, the war was not over yet. But he was positive that with Moody taking charge and ensuring Veritaserum was used; most of the Death Eaters would be rounded up in no time.

From there, they could work to try and restore the Wizarding World to how it should be, hopefully take care of the prejudice and everything else that was wrong as well. It would be a tough and difficult road, but James had faith they could...

"But what about the Prophecy? It didn't really come true, did it?" Remus' voice interrupted his thoughts. "Sirius was the one who killed him after all, not Harry."

"I don't know anything about a Prophecy, but technically Harry was the one who got him killed because Sirius was acting to protect the kid," Fabian pointed out.

"Who cares, I never have believed in Prophecy and I am not about to start now," Sirius grumbled. "Prophecy is what got us in this mess to begin with so I'd rather kick everyone who even dares mentioning them."

"Duly noted," Remus smiled faintly. "Though you can't deny that it is what took out the biggest players in the end."

A kick to the shin was Remus' only answer and as he yelped in pain, James couldn't help but laugh as he knew that as long as his family was with him, they could do anything.

Chapter Text

Making his way through the many hallways of the Ministry, James scanned the rooms in passing, but none of them revealed who he was looking for.

"James? Can I help you?"

Turning to see Frank stand behind him, James smiled. "Hello Frank, have you seen Sirius? Remus said he left first thing this morning and although he's indeed checked in, they haven't checked him out yet at the Atrium."

"Last I saw him he said that he was on his way to the Wizengamot Administration Services," Frank advised. "But that was indeed early this morning."

"What would he be doing there?" James frowned, shaking his head fondly at his brother's weirdness.

"Beats me, but he was carrying that old courier bag of his so it didn't seem like he'd be leaving quickly."

"I'll go have a look to see if he's still there, then," James eyed him curiously. "Shouldn't you be home with your family today?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Frank laughed. "It's still a normal work day and with all the work you guys gave us, we've been very busy, though I will be leaving earlier than usual."

"I'm not quite sorry about that," James grinned. "And I'm here to retrieve the missing part of my family so that we can start the celebrations."

"Me neither, but that doesn't mean I can't complain a little good-naturedly, right?" Frank' laughter turned into a fond smile. "Then you better hurry, I wouldn't want to be around Harry when his favourite person in the whole world isn't there tonight."

"Like Neville is any better," James shot back, making Frank laugh again.

"True, whenever I need a babysitter, Sirius is the one I tackle. But don't let me keep you a moment longer."

"Say hi to Alice and Nev for me," waving goodbye to him, James hurried back the way he'd come.

"Hello, he's in the archives," Amelia Bones said by way of greeting as he stepped out of the elevator, making James chuckle.

"Am I that predictable in why I am here?"

"Pretty much," Amelia answered his smile. "I doubt you would be willing to come here the day before Christmas if it wasn't for Sirius."

"Touché."

"But be a dear and do drag him out of there. I'd hate to have to spend Christmas Eve here just because he forgets the time as usual," from the smile on her lips James knew that was a very unlikely scenario, but he saluted her anyway before hurrying down the steps into the archives.

"Sirius?" he called out even as he made his way further into the badly lit room.

"Fourth row," came the softy reply and as he strolled down to where indicated, he couldn't help a smile from spreading at the sight of his brother seated at a long table, books spread out around him as he read by a conjured light.

"This certainly reminds me of late night studies," he said by way of greeting, leaning against the table beside him so that he could look at the trial transcripts he had spread out in front of him.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Sirius smiled up to him, looking far more tired than he should and James raised an eyebrow.

"Are you all right?"

"Not quite," sighing, Sirius placed the book he'd been looking through down. "Muffliato."

"Okay, now you are scaring me," sitting down on the chair, James' chest automatically tightened at Sirius' serious expression.

"Would you believe me if I told you I don't think Voldemort is truly dead?"

"Why?" James knew his brother too well to even think he would say something like that without having some very good reason and that if he believed it, then it was most likely to be true. Yet he still couldn't help himself. "You killed him, we all know that."

"I know but I just couldn't shake this feeling that we're missing something," Sirius let out a dry chuckle. "I thought I was going insane."

"I sincerely doubt that and your instincts are rarely wrong, so walk me through what you've found before I'll decide if you've gone crazy or not," James fought to remain calm and not let himself panic at the mere thought of that man not being gone. "Start at the beginning."

"Well, you know I've been freelancing for the Prophet since Halloween and while researching something I came across something else," pulling his courier bag from the chair behind him, Sirius pulled out a stack of articles and handed them over.

Raising an eyebrow at the picture of a handsome dark-haired young boy on the top, James asked. "A relative of yours?"

"I hope to Merlin not, but you're probably right," Sirius pulled a face. "But that there is Voldemort back when he was sixteen, being rewarded for some kind of service done to Hogwarts or so."

"Say what?" almost dropping the stack in shock, James could only barely grab hold of them again, snapping his eyes back down to the photo before him again, unable to recognise the creepy bastard in the young face.

Quickly skimming through the small stack, he could see the features slowly change into the snake-like ones he was familiar with over a course of several decades. "How is that possible?"

"That's what I wondered about, too," Sirius admitted.

"And you are absolutely sure this is truly Voldemort?" tossing the stack onto the table, James took care to not scatter them by doing so.

"The article lists him as Tom Riddle, but just to be absolutely sure I asked Hagrid and after his initial panic, he could confirm it."

"Why Hagrid?" James frowned. "Wouldn't McGonagall have been a better person to ask?"

"No, McGonagall didn't start Hogwarts until two years after Riddle graduated while Hagrid was there at the same time. He was the only one I could find easily from Voldemort's time there."

"Right, so what do you think happened?" James knew Sirius would have some sort of idea to what could have happened, though he wasn't quite sure how this played into his idea that Voldemort wasn't truly gone.

"I've done some research into what could cause such a huge change in appearances and remembered how his Death Eaters all claimed he'd been looking for immortality."

"How long have you been after this?" James asked confused.

"About a week now."

"And what did you find?" all too used to his brother's 'confirm before sharing' mentality, James wasn't mad that Sirius hadn't come to him much sooner.

"Something bad," Sirius leaned back. "Or actually some bad things found me."

"What happened?"

"During the search of Lucius Malfoy's house for his dark artefacts, the Aurors discovered something they couldn't destroy. So Moody contacted me early this morning to see if I'd be willing to have a look at it as he thought I might have an idea due to my ancestry...no...he was right to call me in, James," Sirius clearly sensed the wave of anger that washed over him at hearing that Moody of all people couldn't see Sirius separate from his relatives. "The magic they ran into? It's incredibly dark."

"How dark?" James fought to not simply rise to his feet and give Moody a good piece of his mind about endangering his brother like that.

"The ancient forgotten kind that not even I know much about as the only time I've read about it was during my Heir training."

"And you remembered the magic regardless of that?" James wasn't sure if he should be awed by Sirius' ability to remember things, or horrified because it clearly had been extremely dark magic to make an impression like that.

"It's not magic you'd easily forget once you've read about it," Sirius confirmed his latter thoughts. "But as I said, I don't know a whole lot about the overall subject."

"So to confirm what magic it is, you would need to visit Arcturus," James concluded.

"There are some other things that I would like to get his thoughts on, as well," Sirius admitted and James followed his gaze down to the trial transcript before Sirius.

"Such as?"

"Voldemort made Horcruxes," the words themselves didn't mean anything to James at all; though from Sirius' mere tone he already knew it was bad.

"What is a Horcrux?"

"It is basically a piece of soul ripped from the main soul and locked into an object of one's choosing, keeping the main soul from truly dying upon the death of the body."

"Is that even possible? Splitting the soul, I mean?" James' heart clenched when Sirius nodded. "Harry and Lily...they're..."

"Safe and protected by every warding spell known to both of our Houses, remember?" Sirius immediately reassured him and James deflated with pure relief. "Unless Voldemort would be able to return to a body, he isn't much of a treat."

"Could he return to a body?" James hadn't doubted Sirius' claim from the beginning, but cold sweat still ran down his spine at the mere idea of having to face him again.

"There could be rituals for that, but none I've ever heard of."

"Right," nodding, James ran a hand through his hair. "Merlin, you used the plural form...you think he's made more than one?"

"I know he made two, but I suspect there are at least four."

"The object they couldn't destroy was a Horcrux, right?" James couldn't help but have Sirius confirm it for him, just to ensure they were on the same page.

"Yes, it was a diary Malfoy received from Voldemort himself according to his trial transcript and I identified it as one myself," Sirius said.

"You said he made two of them for sure?"

"I destroyed a Horcrux at Hogwarts yesterday as well."

"You...how?" incredulous, James stared at his brother. "How did you even find it?"

"Purely by accidental circumstances," Sirius admitted. "I was looking for any information on his background to get a clue as to where he might have hidden one and spoke to the House-elves to see if any of them could tell me anything about him."

"And?"

"They knew of a very dark artefact he had hidden in the Come and Go room many, many years ago and upon my request led me to it."

"There was a Horcrux at Hogwarts and no one even knew? Why didn't the House-elves warn anyone?"

"They did warn Dumbledore about its existence, but he apparently brushed them off that there were many magical objects they knew little about and it was best to be left alone."

"That stupid old goat! Do you think he knew it was a Horcrux?" James bit out, his anger at the old traitor ten-folding.

"I don't know," Sirius admitted. "But after being brushed off by Dumbledore, they warned Hogwarts itself and she's made sure ever since that students would simply dismiss its presence should they run into it, unless they specifically set out to look for that item."

"The castle itself has more sense than most wizards combined," James shook his head, taking a calming breath. "I still can't believe there is a Horcrux there and no one ever found out."

"Not any more, there is," Sirius chuckled dryly. "There are a lot of things at Hogwarts that people have no idea about; including some very illegal creatures than ran around just a couple of years ago."

"Point taken," James had to admit. "But you managed to destroy it...how do you destroy a Horcrux in the first place if even the Aurors couldn't manage?"

"They simply didn't try hard enough. From what I remembered; a Horcrux has to be destroyed beyond any saving. So normal destructive magic wouldn't work at all."

"What did you use?"

"Fiendfyre; worked like a charm."

"Fiendfyre is difficult magic to control, I wonder if there are many Aurors who can use it," James rose to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Sirius blinked up to him.

"Going for a visit to Arcturus, I don't want to wait a moment longer now that I know about this. I understand that you didn't want to alert me until you had confirmation, but you have it now so we're doing something about it as soon as possible."

"I was going to come to you last night already, but it was already much too late to still disturb you so I was going to come by early this morning..."

"But then Moody came by and your plans changed," James finished. "I do wish you would come to me with mere hunches, already. Most of the time they are right and you can save yourself the trouble of having to research everything alone."

"Sorry," Sirius sighed. "It's not something I can easily change, but I'll try to do better."

"You do that," James smiled as Sirius began to clear the table. "If you were researching these Horcruxes, what were you doing with these, then?"

"Following another hunch and I believe I am right."

"About?"

"That he has made at least two more if Malfoy's trial transcripts are to be believed."

"Four...you mentioned that already, yeah," James realised. "Is there a way to determine the exact amount he might have made?"

"I can think of one way, but I would like to get Grandfather's opinion on that as well," Sirius glanced at his watch. "It is still early enough that it would not be considered impolite to request an audience on such short notice, even if it is the day before Christmas."

"Send him a Patronus, then," a sweep from James' wand cleared the scattered books up, returning them to their proper places as Sirius rose to his feet and did as he'd suggested.

Moments later a silver fox arrived with confirmation and cancelling the Muffliato, they made their way to the Atrium, waving to Amelia on their way to the Floo.

Stumbling out of it, they found an older House-elf already awaiting their arrival. "Master is waiting for yous in the study."

"Thank you, Dinky," following her as she led the way and opened the door for them, James watched as the older man rose from his seat by the fire at their approach.

"Sirius, Mister Potter," shaking their hands, he indicated they should join them while Dinky arranged for refreshments. "What can I do for you today?"

"We are here because we hope you can help us with something," Sirius took a seat. "But I need to know you will keep anything that is discussed here between us."

"I swear that I will not communicate with anyone about what is said here in any form or shape," to James' surprise the man didn't even hesitate before making his vow. "Don't look so surprised, boy. If Sirius is requesting a vow of silence then it must be of utmost importance that what is being said remains confidential or he would not request it. I may be old and set in my ways, but that does not mean I am blind to all that has happened in the world and the good you've done."

"Sorry," smiling sheepishly, James accepted the drink Dinky handed him while Sirius pulled the stack of articles out of his bag and handed them over.

"Can you identify the boy in that photo?"

"I certainly can, that is Tom Riddle. Though he is better known under his self proclaimed title," Arcturus raised an eyebrow as he skimmed through the stack. "Your Uncle Alphard shared a dorm with him, although he didn't get along with him at all from the stories I remember. I hadn't quite realised he had changed so drastically over the years, though."

"Any ideas as to what might have caused such a change?" Sirius asked.

"Just one," Arcturus stared at the papers for a moment longer before meeting their eyes. "But then you already knew that, or you would not have come here."

"I would like to get confirmation," Sirius shifted in his seat. "Could experimenting with dark magic not cause such a change as well?"

"Not to these extremes," Arcturus said. "Only a Horcrux would be capable of that as there is no trace of injury in his features."

"Could one Horcrux change one's appearance that much?" Sirius pressed and James watched as Arcturus blinked, his eyes narrowing in disbelief as he followed Sirius' thought pattern.

"It shouldn't, but it would be insane to...he wouldn't," rising to his feet, Arcturus walked over to the bookshelves and pulled out a dark tome called 'Secrets of the Darkest Art', paging through it on his way back. "There is no information on what might happen should you make more than one."

"So theoretically, it could be possible to do so?"

"In theory, yes," Arcturus confirmed. "But splitting the soul is dangerous when done even once and I've seen men crumble under the consequences. Splitting it more than once, it would be suicide."

"People made Horcruxes before?" James couldn't help but ask.

"On record, it's only been done once," Arcturus vaguely said.

"But there would not be a whole chapter on the subject if it had not been attempted to do more than once," Sirius interjected. "You have seen the after-effects of making a Horcrux?"

"Twice," Arcturus admitted. "I wasn't present for the ritual itself or the act needed to make one, but I have seen what it did to them. The pain they went through was excruciating and where it drove one insane, the mere process killed the other."

"But the soul couldn't be killed when a Horcrux is made, right?" James frowned.

"No and his mangled soul would have lived on had I not destroyed the Horcrux in grief. I could not bear to watch my own son mutilated like that, not even after all he's done."

"Orion made a Horcrux?" Sirius asked sharply even as James blinked.

"And it killed him?"

"Yes, the excruciating pain and result of mutilating his soul cost him his life," Arcturus sighed. "It is what drove your mother insane."

"Walburga has always been insane," Sirius snorted, composing himself from that news much faster than James did.

"I cannot in good conscience deny that truth," Arcturus said. "I do not know why he attempted to make a Horcrux, though I do know the process is extremely dangerous."

"I do not feel pity for the death of a man who murdered in cold blood," Sirius growled and Arcturus tensed at his sharp tone. "Because I do remember that to make a Horcrux, you need to deliberately kill someone without feeling any regret; the process of murder damaging one's soul. To make a Horcrux, they use that damage to rip a piece from their soul and contain it in an object outside of their body."

The expression on Arcturus' face was pained, but he didn't contradict Sirius' words and James swallowed.

"So anyone can make a Horcrux as long as they kill someone?"

"No, you would need to know the exact spell and ritual needed and as Sirius said; kill an innocent person both completely intentionally and without a shred of regret," Arcturus rubbed a hand over his face. "An act of unspeakable evil, as most would call it."

"And regardless of popular belief, not many can kill like that," Sirius took a deep breath. "But in theory, it could be possible to make more than one?"

Arcturus' eyes fell back onto the stack of papers, visibly regrouping himself as he went through them again, pausing at the last photo that James knew had been made just months before the man's death. "In theory, yes. The intentionally deforming of one's soul with dark magic of this nature would leave traces on the body itself. But to cause such mutilations such as these, he would have had to make several."

"More than two?"

"Why do you ask?" dark grey eyes narrowed as they looked back up to Sirius.

"Because I've destroyed a Horcrux this morning. During Malfoy's questioning, Moody inquired about any dark relics he might have in his house and he mentioned a diary he received from Voldemort himself. I confirmed it to be a Horcrux upon being called to examine it."

Glancing at Sirius, James wondered what else he had discovered but hadn't asked so far because he knew he would learn it now and it would keep Sirius from having to repeat himself. And it looked like his patience was paying off now.

"Did you tell them what it was?" Arcturus asked sharply even as Sirius scoffed.

"Of course not. I told Moody he had to clear the room and destroyed it with Fiendfyre. I told him it had been extremely dark and dangerous magic best not to be investigated at all."

"Fiendfyre would be one of the few things that can destroy a Horcrux," Arcturus confirmed. "But the finding of one Horcrux does not explain why you suspect there are more."

"It does not," Sirius agreed. "In Malfoy's trial transcript it is noted that he said he received the diary after being summoned alongside Bellatrix and Regulus."

"And you think they received one as well," Arcturus cleared his throat. "Bellatrix would recognise what it was upon sight and due to her loyalty to the insane bastard, keep it safely hidden."

"Only place I can think of that she would deem safe enough would be Gringotts," Sirius nodded. "But what about Regulus? Would he have recognised what it was?"

"If it were you, I would immediately confirm it as you have been trained to recognise all sorts of dark magic. But for Regulus...I dare not say and we will never know..."

"Actually, we might. Regulus told Kreacher absolutely everything, so there is a very likely possibility that he told him where he hid it," Sirius interjected.

"You might be right," Arcturus frowned. "Kreacher!"

The despicable House-elf James had had the displeasure of meeting once, immediately appeared and bowed deeply to Arcturus, ignoring the two of them completely.

"Has Regulus ever handled an item from Voldemort?"

"Kreacher cannot tell, Master," if the elf was surprised by the question, he didn't show it.

"That is a direct order," Arcturus snapped and the elf bowed even lower even as he shook his head and repeated himself.

"Kreacher cannot tell, Master."

"Tell us why you cannot tell," although the elf shot Sirius a look full of hatred, it seemed he could not refuse a direct order from Sirius.

"Master Regulus forbade Kreacher from ever telling a member of the family."

"Then tell James here," Sirius simply ordered and after a long thoughtful moment, the elf nodded, clearly taking the loophole Regulus hadn't closed for what it was to pretend Sirius and Arcturus weren't there as he turned to James.

James was fairly sure he wasn't the only one who listened in shock as the elf told him how Voldemort had required an elf from Regulus and he had offered the use of Kreacher, ordering him to do as the Dark Lord pleased before returning home.

He listened horrified to how Kreacher had been used to hide a locket, under severe protections, in a cave with an Inferi infested lake, how he had only barely made it back to his master and it had in turn later cost Regulus his life.

He couldn't blame Sirius' curse at that and felt a pang of regret for the unnecessary death as even if he didn't get along with Regulus, he had still been his brother.

"Where is the locket now?" Arcturus' voice was full of grief as he rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"At Grimmauld Place, Master. Kreacher tried and tried, but could not destroy it," big tears dripped from the despicable creature's large eyes but James couldn't feel any compassion for the elf who had caused so much pain to Sirius.

"Retrieve it immediately, but do not speak to anyone about it," Sirius ordered as Arcturus seemed unable to speak and as the elf disappeared, he retrieved a large glass of Firewhisky for him, which he gulped down in one go.

"Stupid idiotic fool of a boy," Arcturus cursed.

"Why wouldn't he have ordered Kreacher to take him home after getting his hands on the locket?" James swallowed. "He knew Kreacher could Apparate in and out of the cave...why would he order him to leave him like that?"

"Because he was an idiot," Sirius sighed. "He never once thought outside of the box and probably didn't even take it into account as a possibility. Voldemort's protections were set up so water couldn't be conjured, yet despite knowing this beforehand, he didn't bring a bottle of water or anything to counter the curses set. He probably had it in his mind that he had to die in order to steal the locket before he even got there."

"And for what? Even if he had indeed discovered the secret, it would have done no good as it died with him. It's pure damn luck that you discovered Voldemort's secret as well," Arcturus spat. "What is it with this family and their inability to think beyond what they see? If you hadn't..."

Sirius reached out to place a comforting hand on his grandfather's shoulder as a sob escaped him, and James couldn't help but feel his heart go out to the normally composed and closed off man. He had only a momentarily shock of believing his son to have died and he didn't wish that kind of pain to anyone. And although Regulus was the man's grandson, he didn't think it was much of a difference in the pain he felt.

Sirius met James' eyes. "We're going to destroy it now and with the locket, three of his Horcruxes will have been destroyed."

"Three?" Arcturus accepted the handkerchief Sirius handed him. "Where did you find the second?"

"At Hogwarts, yesterday. It was a diadem belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw, I believe," Sirius conjured an image of it and James was surprised to see it was indeed the long lost diadem so many had sought for.

"How on earth did he find that? It's been lost for hundreds of years."

"I don't know," Sirius Vanished the image when Kreacher returned with the locket and placed it on the table between them at Arcturus' order, before being dismissed.

"By Salazar's grace..." the man breathed out shocked, staring at the locket.

"Looks like Voldemort used significant items to make his Horcruxes," Sirius noted calmly while James stared at Slytherin's Locket as well, another item that had been lost for many years. "That might make it slightly easier to identify them upon sight."

Suddenly Arcturus growled and he set the locket on fire, making both James and Sirius jump back.

"Cover your ears," Sirius' warning came a little too late as ear-splitting screaming rose from the enflamed locket and black smoke poured out of it even as it disappeared in the flames and Arcturus almost lost control of the fire before regrouping himself.

"An earlier warning might have been more useful," he growled.

"You hardly gave me a chance to do so," Sirius snapped back, making Arcturus blink and swallow guiltily.

"Did that happen with the other two as well?" He softly asked, making an effort to calm himself again.

"Yes, spooked the living daylights out of me when the diadem did so," Sirius admitted. "I managed to Silence the diary and hide the black smoke behind a mirror reflection to keep the others from noticing it."

"Smart," James praised. "So that's three down and you think Bellatrix might have one, too?"

"The only probable hiding place she would deem safe enough would indeed be her vault at Gringotts," Arcturus confirmed as he Vanished the traces the Fiendfyre had left. "You should set out to destroy it as soon as possible."

"Thank you, that just leaves me with one question," Sirius took a deep breath. "Is there a way to determine just how many he made in total?"

"Not that I know."

"Then we will just have to use 'Nature's Nobility' to determine if we've got them all, can we borrow it for the time being?"

Arcturus retrieved the book for them and Sirius slipped it into his bag as they rose to their feet as well. "Keep me updated on this and I will see what I can find in here on how to detect such magic."

"Thank you," quickly saying their goodbyes, they used his Floo to travel to Gringotts, the place as crowded as usual despite it being late in the afternoon, but a Goblin immediately approached them upon arrival and brought them into an office for privacy.

"Lord Potter, Heir Black, how can we be of service?"

"Hello Bogrod, we would like to gain entrance to a vault under the possession of the Black family," Sirius explained.

"That should not be a problem, Heir Black. What is the vault in question?"

"That depends, did Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black have a vault of her own?"

"Her vault was combined into the Lestrange family vault upon her marriage," Bogrod told them.

"Then we would like to access the Lestrange family vault," Sirius said and they followed the Goblin into one of the many carts.

James had always enjoyed the cart rides in Gringotts, even as a small child, but had never quite enjoyed the sight of the dragons they used to protect the older vaults and knew he wasn't the only one as Sirius ground his teeth upon passing the poor creature, remaining silent until Bogrod opened the vault for them.

"How are we going to find anything in here?" James exclaimed as he stared at the mess of treasure before them. He had thought his own family vault was filled with all sorts of treasures and junk spread out, but the Lestrange Vault was both chaotic and messy with items apparently shoved onto the shelves.

"There," Sirius' sharp eyes had already spotted what James hadn't even attempted to search for yet as he pointed out a small golden cup with two handles on a very high shelf in the very back of the vault.

"How do you know that's it?" he asked as Sirius made his way into the vault, climbing over piles of galleons to reach it.

"Don't you recognise it?" Sirius gleefully asked as he managed to climb high enough to reach it and picked it off the shelf and James automatically moved forward to help him down, yelping as the coins at his feet suddenly multiplied rapidly as he touched them.

The moment the coins hit his foot and leg, white hot burning pain shot through them and he automatically stepped aside with a hiss, hitting one of the shelves at his side and the items he brushed with his sleeve immediately began to multiply as well.

Rubbing his burned arm, he hurriedly backed up from any of the items in the vault even as Sirius jumped down from the last pile.

"Are you all right? What happened?" They watched the items continue to multiply for another long moment, both stepping further back as a skull still wearing a ridiculous crown roll near their feet.

"I don't know, I just wanted to help you," James winced as Sirius healed the burns.

"I guess she cast the Geminio and Flagrante curses upon each item," Sirius frowned as he kicked the skull back further into the vault.

"Then why aren't you being burned?" James grumbled, rubbing the newly healed skin and fixing the burned spots on his clothes.

"They would ensure they themselves would not fall victim to these curses so it must be set it so that anyone outside of the owners would be burned. And since after their deaths the vault passed into my grandfather's possession, I am automatically considered an owner as well," Sirius looked down at the cup he was still holding with a gloved hand. "Perhaps it is better if I hold onto this for now, in case the same curses are on it."

"You do that," James glared at the cup. "I hate the entire Black family's mentality...bunch of gits."

"You know your mother is a Black by birth, too, right?" James couldn't really appreciate the amusement in Sirius' voice and shot him a glare as well. "Mum and you are Potters. But if it makes you feel better, any Black not you and Mum, then."

"That's better," Sirius smiled, automatically drawing a smile from James as well and he sighed.

"Sorry."

"Don't be, I'd be severely annoyed, too, if I got burned and you didn't," Sirius shrugged. "At least we got what we came for."

Now that the cup was right before him, James could indeed recognise it. "Helga Hufflepuffs cup? He really did use priceless heirlooms for this, didn't he?"

"Seems like it. But I wouldn't know another item he could've used, though," Sirius put the cup into his bag, folding it into several pieces of cloth before they left the vault again to where Bogrod was waiting patiently, leading the cart back to the surface again and in no time they were once again outside.

"So what now? Do we return to Arcturus' house?" James asked once they were on solid ground again.

"We could do that, or we could go somewhere else," Sirius hesitated. "There is one more location I'd like to check should this prove not to be the last."

"Then we first travel there," James simply said, knowing better than to doubt Sirius' intuition. If he wanted to check another place, James would simply follow.

Walking to where they could Apparate, Sirius did so and looking around, James saw they were currently standing half way onto a snow covered hill, a large manor clearly visible despite the falling snow.

But from the mere sight of it, James determined it was most likely deserted as ivy spread all over the building and several windows were boarded up.

"Where are we?"

"Little Hangleton."

"And what is in Little Hangleton?"James asked amused.

"Two things...well, two houses, actually," Sirius smiled up to him. "Riddle House and a little shack across the road from it."

"Riddle...you found Voldemort's childhood home?" James raised an eyebrow, impressed.

"No, his father's house," Sirius pulled himself up onto the low wall they were standing before and pulled the book out of his bag. "You see, that is why I had originally gone to Hogwarts. Because I wanted to know more about him and where he came from to determine what kind of places he might have used to hide them."

"What did you discover?" James asked patiently.

"Well, you know how Voldemort always claimed to be a Pure-Blood?"

"He couldn't be, because we discovered his true name was Tom Riddle and there is no Wizarding family with that name in existence," James folded his arms as he leaned against the wall beside Sirius.

"Exactly, but since Hogwarts holds records of a child's residence, there would be something there about his parents, right?"

"Right."

"There is no trace of any Riddle beyond Tom Riddle, also known as Voldemort, and he grew up in Wool's Orphanage in London."

"So you went to that orphanage after Hogwarts," James deduced as he knew how his brother's mind worked.

"In between actually, I returned to Hogwarts after that visit for more research," Sirius corrected him. "The orphanage let me look into their old records once I explained I was working on an article on him and I discovered his mother died in childbirth."

"What did you tell them about him?"

"That he became a mass murderer," Sirius choked out a laugh at James' no doubt incredulous face. "It's the truth, isn't it? And people usually don't dare to ask further when being told something quite so crudely."

"That's true," James had to admit. "But the orphanage was a dead end?"

"Not quite. Upon asking if there was still anyone around from that far back, I was taken to meet the very woman who had been present at his birth."

"She was still alive?" impressed by just how far Sirius had gone in his research, James smiled as Sirius grinned, pulling the wrapped cup out of his bag and placing it on the ground.

"Only in her late seventies and as fit as they come. She told me she had only recently begun to work at the orphanage around the time Tommy boy was born. Apparently his mother arrived at their doorsteps heavily pregnant, gave birth and died shortly after doing so. But...not before she named the child."

"So the name he was given wasn't random?" Knowing wizards had the tendency to give their children names after their own parents, James walked backwards with him as he set the cup on fire, a Silencing and Shield Charm protecting them from the screaming and smoke.

"No, Tom, after his father and Marvolo after her own father with the surname of Riddle," Sirius sighed, putting out the fire before he glanced down at the book. "That wasn't his last Horcrux by the way."

"You have another lead right now," James wasn't too overly concerned yet at knowing there was yet another one as he knew Sirius wouldn't have brought them here without believing it might be a possible hiding place. "Marvolo is a Wizarding name, though."

"It is. So I returned to Hogwarts to check the records there and the only Marvolo I could find in the records around the right age to be a grandfather to Voldemort, was a Marvolo Gaunt."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" James frowned as he tried to recall where he'd heard it before.

"It was an extremely dark family; though it fell from a position of power long before even our grandparents were born. They were believed to be extinct since the fifties as the last son of the family died in Azkaban."

"But you believe Voldemort's mother was of that line?" James asked.

"Yes, this confirms it, actually," Sirius turned the book around so and tapped a line so James leaned in to read it.

"Merope Riddle néé Gaunt...his mother married a Muggle? But if the Gaunts were dark..." James trailed off.

"I don't know how that happened, though I did find records at the Ministry of Marvolo and his son Morfin both being arrested at the same time. So the daughter, if she was anything like me, would have used that chance to escape her deranged relatives."

"And married a Muggle?" James asked incredulous. "I can't even imagine how pissed those two would've been once they found out."

"From what I could find, very pissed," Sirius pulled a different article out of his bag. "Morfin Gaunt was arrested back in 1943 for the murders of a Muggle family next door. Why don't you check the names as they are actually mentioned in the article?"

"The Riddles...So Morfin Gaunt murdered Voldemort's father and grandparents?" James raised an eyebrow. "How did you even find this?"

"At the Prophet archives. Moody and McGonagall both gave me free access to all their files when I requested to look for some information in their files. Didn't even ask me what I was looking for but just did," Sirius sounded incredulous. "But anyway, once I found that connection and a place of residence, I figured it would make for a pretty good hiding spot."

"Because no one would even think to look for a Horcrux here," James breathed out. "This is amazing and since the entire family was slaughtered in there, it explains why the house looks so unlived in. Who would want to live in a house where three people were murdered?"

"Not many, but that house is not my initial target," Sirius pointed over his shoulder and narrowing his eyes, James could just make out a dark roof; almost entirely hidden among the many trees on the hill.

"What is this?"

"A tramp's old house," Sirius grinned. "Or better known to wizards as Gaunt Shack."

"Next door...convenient," remembering how the article had mentioned Morfin had murdered the family next door, James marvelled at just how much Sirius had managed to discover with so little information. "But why this house? It's a dump compared to the Manor."

"First of all because there are wards on it that repel Muggles and second because Voldemort hated Muggles more than anything. Why would he hide such a precious item in a Muggle house when there is a clearly magical one right next door?"

"Fair enough, looks promising," James grimaced as he followed Sirius into the overrun garden, sidestepping the many snakes that seemed to reside there. "Do you think there will be protections on the house?"

"Most likely, we will have to be careful when we check every...whoa," reaching out just in time to stop Sirius from plummeting through the apparently rotten wooden steps leading up to the disgusting and unkempt looking shack, James pulled him back to safe ground.

"Looks like we will have to be careful of more than just curses, are you all right?" James held onto Sirius tightly for a moment as he could feel the other's rapid heartbeat against the arm he'd wrapped around him.

"Yeah, just startled. I hadn't expected even the steps to be rotten as they certainly didn't look that way," straightening fully, a sweep of Sirius' wand revealed the house was in even worse shape than James had initially thought as the charm keeping it appearing semi-habitable fell away.

"Merlin..."

"This actually makes it easier to search for hidden things," Sirius decided as they stared at the rotten floorboards and dust-layered broken furniture for a long moment. "But there are still multiple curses on the place."

"Could Padfoot and Prongs avoid them?" James asked as he tried to see if he could detect anything out of place from the front steps.

"Padfoot perhaps, but Prongs is too heavy to enter here," transforming while dropping his bag at James' side, Padfoot carefully stepped forward onto the creaking floorboards.

James tensed as a red glow travelled over Padfoot's dark fur, but didn't harm him and he himself stepped back to not be detected by the hostile magic, though he kept his wand raised to protect Sirius' back as he made his way further into the house.

Moments later a vague image of a golden box half hidden behind the rotten floorboards appeared in his mind, making him blink as he tried to seek out what Padfoot was looking at.

"I can't see it from here. Is it safe to pull out?" watching as the dog sniffed at the box for a moment before backing up, trotting back to James' side and transforming back into human form.

"I can't pick it up with my teeth as it's too deep and I don't dare to break the rotten floorboards further with my paws when I don't know what kind of curses protect it. I detected a powerful curse upon the item in the box that we really don't want to trigger and it's shielded against Summoning."

"But you know how to retrieve it?" James didn't even bother to try and stop a grin from crossing over his lips as Sirius shot him a mischievous look.

"Wizards are complete idiots, Voldemort apparently not being an exception," James watched as Sirius simply levitated the box out of its hiding place, triggering nothing with the action.

"I guess people wouldn't think to simply Levitate it when a Summoning Charm fails," James snorted as Sirius and he stepped back in unison to prevent the box from touching either of them and he followed his brother as Sirius levitated it a good distance from the shack before letting it drop.

The fall effectively broke the lock on it and a ring rolled out as the box fell to its side.

Not bothering to wait for it to stop rolling down, James immediately lit it on fire.

"Might want to spread that to the shack itself, while you are at it. We wouldn't want anyone else to accidentally run into that, would we?" Sirius suggested and James controlled the Fiendfyre to spread to the shack a little distance behind them, watching it being engulfed in flames almost immediately.

Dark smoke rose from the ring, but James quickly cast a Silencing Charm, happy to see Sirius' hunch about them being Horcruxes confirmed.

An immensely loud explosion came from the burning shack, but Sirius dragged James down and cast a protective shield even before the wave could reach them and it washed over them harmlessly.

"Looks like dark curses aren't resistant against Fiendfyre either," Sirius' comment made James burst out in laughter.

"Only you, Siri," shaking his head fondly, he allowed the fire to burn for several more minutes to ensure it truly destroyed everything and they stayed down as several more explosions burst free from the destroyed building before it fell quiet again and James switched the magical fire to a normal one to burn the last remainders without any danger. "What kind of value do you think that ring had?"

"Might've been a Gaunt family heirloom. I've never seen it before," Sirius shrugged, sitting up properly and pulling the book from his bag again. "Hey, look at this."

Crawling over to be able to read over Sirius' shoulder, James was very pleased to see the book now listed Voldemort as deceased.

"Looks like that was the last one," James laughed as Sirius closed the book again. "Next time you have a hunch, we are most definitely following it."

"I'll warn you much sooner," Sirius chuckled, leaning against him for a long moment as they stared at the burning site.

"Could he truly have returned if we hadn't destroyed his Horcruxes?" James asked after several moments had passed in silence in which they just watched the flames slowly go out.

"Someday, maybe. Who knows what kind of dark magic he knew about," Sirius' words made James shudder, aware that if Sirius hadn't followed his intuition, his son would likely still have been in danger none of them even saw coming. "But now that he is listed as deceased, I don't believe that is still a possibility."

"Good, one war is enough for me," taking the book from his brother, James put it back into the bag and slung it over his own shoulder. "Looks like we're getting company."

"Took them long enough," Sirius snorted. "But then, I wouldn't hurry to put the fire out on this piece of rubbish, either."

Rising to his feet, James helped Sirius up as well.

"You want to go home?"

"We can contact Grandfather through there and return the book later. I'd just like a cup of hot chocolate right now and a good cuddle with Harry," Sirius straightened and took his hand so that James could Apparate them home, where a worried Lily was already awaiting their arrival.

"When you said you were going to retrieve Sirius, I didn't think it would take you hours to do so. Where have you two been...and why do you smell like smoke and burned wood?" Lily hugged them both relieved before a tiny black-haired boy wobbled out of the house.

"Siri...Siri!" watching as Sirius tossed a delighted Harry up into the air before hugging him close, James smiled.

"Sorry, we've been on a mission to destroy Voldemort for good," running a hand through his hair as Lily stared at him in utter confusion, he directed her towards the kitchen so he could make them all a cup of hot chocolate.

"What?"

"It's quite a long and complicated story that we will tell you about in a moment. But I am sorry; I completely forgot to warn you that we would be delayed."

"Dinner can wait for a while," Lily eyed them both carefully. "Aside from the smell, neither of you looks harmed...so what happened?"

"Oh no, that is your territory," Sirius bounced Harry on his hip. "I'm the intuition, you are the one explaining things."

"Thanks a lot," but seating them all with a cup of hot chocolate, James told Lily what had happened under a Muffliato while Sirius kept Harry distracted.

And if she was both horrified and amazed by what had happened and been discovered, well, James couldn't really blame her as he had hardly felt less shocked himself.

"You know, you never did say, why you were looking for me this morning," Sirius eventually noted as they were all settled down after dinner and James couldn't help but burst out in laughter at the very delayed question he had indeed never answered.

"It doesn't really matter any more, you're here now anyway."

Accepting that explanation, Sirius returned his attention to building towers with Harry and Lily, smiling as the toddler happily smashed them down again once they were built.

Watching his family play together, James couldn't help but be utterly grateful to simply be surrounded by his family and took comfort in their unburdened laughter.

"Say, what do you say to inviting Fabian and Gideon over for dinner on Boxing Day?" he asked as he slid down from the couch to join them in building towers for Harry to smash.

"Sirius is already here and Remus is coming over tomorrow, so I don't see why not. After all that's happened, they are certainly welcome. We could invite Frank, Alice and Neville over as well," Lily smiled up to him.

"Fabian and Gideon have several of the Weasley children on Boxing Day to help their sister out and I've promised Pandora I'd drop by for a visit," Sirius interjected.

"Why don't we simply invite them all over?" Lily shrugged. "We're all fond of Pan and the more playmates for Harry and Neville, the better. Luna might be a little too young to play with them, but just the company of other children will be nice, right?"

"I'll ask them, if you ask the Longbottoms," Sirius readily agreed and they quickly got confirmation that promised a rather rowdy and loud Boxing Day celebration as Fabian warned them they had the four most rowdy Weasley children under their care, but James found that he couldn't care less.

Although the events of the last two months had taught him not everyone could be trusted, he found that he could say with certainty that he held faith in this friends without question and was relieved that neither of the most important people in his life seemed to feel otherwise.