Chapter Text
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ Fifth year 1975 - 1976 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
In another universe, Sirius Black ruined Severus Snape's life with a prank and the world lurched obediently towards one sort of disaster. In this one, Sirius ruined it by realising, somewhere in a middle of his fifth year, that he wanted to get his hands under Snape's robes and find out whether Snape was vicious with his mouth when kissed as he was in a corridor between Potions and Charms when he was hexing Sirius's arse.
History, from that point onward, lost what little dignity it had left and created a series of very bad what ifs in their universe.
This catastrophic realisation came on wet Thursday in November of 1975, which Sirius would later insist was insulting in itself. Great revelations, in his opinion, ought to arrive with thunder and stained-glass light, or at the very least on a Saturday, so he would not make a compleat arse of himself in Potion class. Because this one turned in the class while Slughorn was droning on about sopophorous bean preparation and half the class had already stopped pretending to care. Remus yawned so hard one could see his tonsils while he stretched his arms above his head.
"Boring." Remus mouthed at Sirius as if Sirius was paying any attention to him.
The room smelt of damp wool and adolescent misery, if misery had any kind of smell it would be what Sirius was smelling in Slughorn's class. Or maybe it was just teenagers sweat, because it was bloody hot in the room. James, besides Sirius was doodling antlers in the margin of his notes with such a determined idiocy that even his handwriting looked smug. Peter had already got a splash of shrinking solution on his cuff and kept peering at it every thirty seconds as if afraid the blasted thing will shrink him whole. Across the room, Severus Snape stood over his cauldron with his sleeves shoved up carelessly and his black hair hanging in his eyes while he ground ingredients, frowning his eyebrows in such a mind boggling concentration that it made him more unapproachable then usual.
Sirius looked up once and simply forgot to look away. That was all. When realisation strike him in the gut, there was no choir of angles and no mysterious vibrations in the universe. Just Sirius staring at the line of Severus's throat as he leaned slightly over the table, noticing the long pale fingers stained with crushed root and ink, the narrow wrists and severe kissable mouth. Merlin, he would very much like to put that miserable bastard on his back. Sirius gasped at himself, hand going up to clutch his invisible pearls.
What a fucking thought, who the fuck am I?
Snape must have head him or he sensed the disturbance in the force of common decency and flicked his eyes sideways and caught Sirius staring at him. His lips curled into a sneer, "is there a reason you are gawping at me, Black or have you last gone simple?"
Sirius ought to have looked away, but Sirius was an ass and a masochist of his own ego, so instead he leaned one hip against the workbench, let his mouth tilt and said with all the confidence one Black family member can master, "Just admiring the view, Snivellus." He wanted to kick himself into the arse as soon as the words came out.
James's head whipped round so fast his quill snapped under his hand. Both Remus and Peter exchanged looks. Lily giggled along with Marlene whispering something conspiratorially. Snape narrowed his dark eyes at Sirius but did not say a word, juts went back to his grinding and potion work. By diner Sirius had convinced himself he was under a spell. Or he had a temporary fit of madness caused by exam stress, poor sleep or perhaps repeated exposure to Quidditch injuries. That must have been it. He was hit by a bloody Bludger into the head too many times. At breakfast when he saw Severus crossing the Entrance hall with a armful of books, Sirius realised the problem had, if anything, got worse overnight. And that was deeply unfortunate, because the problem with Sirius Black was that he rarely knew when ti retreat from his own awful ideas. He met them head on, usually at speed and then acted surprised when they hit him back. He made two earnest attempts to behave like a normal person. The first involved ignoring Severus altogether and that lasted until the first break. Then he walked into the library and saw Snape bent over an essay in the back corner and remained standing in the doorway like a complete tosser until Madam Pince told him to either come in or go away. The second involved trying to insult Severus as usual, except now every insult came out with entirely another meaning.
"What are you looking at?" Remus asked that evening at dinner, glancing up from his plate only because Sirius had not eaten a thing of his own plate.
"Nothing," Sirius said quickly and blinked, dragging his gaze to look at Remus.
"You look like you're trying to set him align with your eyes." Remus peered at where Sirius was staring, or who Sirius was staring at, and shoved a fork full of mash into his mouth.
"Pads, you've got the same expression you had when McKinnon caught you watching her practise in fourth year." James snickered from his spot across from Sirius
"Oh no," said Peter as he looked from Slytherin table to Sirius who was yet again staring at Snape.
"What do you mean, oh no?" Sirius snapped at him and sat up straighter.
"You fancy him," said Lily from next to James, rising her eyebrow.
James and Remus barked out laughs as Sirius perplexed blinked at Lily. "I do not."
"Do too." Lily said and blew across the surface of her tea.
"Oh Merlin, you really do. " said James laughing so hard tears started to gather into his eyes. "I though you were gearing up to hex him. This is so much worse."
Sirius rose form the table with as much dignity as a man could muster while being laugh at by his own friends for wanting to climb Severus Snape like a bloody tree. "You all are deeply wrong."
Then he marched out of the Great Hall. This whole thing might sill have been survivable if Sirius had kept his mouth shut and his hands to himself. He did neither. It took three more weeks of glances, snarling, corridor confrontations, and one truly embarrassing incident in which Sirius accidentally asked Severus whether he was free on Friday and then had to pretend he meant free for duel. Severus accepted that with such a lethal enthusiasm that Sirius spent all Thursday night wondering whether he should juts fake his own death. The actual detonation of things happen that Friday in the Astronomy Tower juts after curfew.
"I though you would chicken out, Black." Severs sneered at Sirius. Sirius wanted to kiss the sneer away.
"Nope," Sirius popped that p, trying to be charming and failing due to being a nervous little shit.
"That is not charming." Snape said rising his brows
"I am not trying to be charming." Sirius defended. He was, but the git did not need to know that and because Sirius had no filter he added. "I've been thinking about you."
Surprise flashed over Severus's face and then vanished too quickly as his brows frowned and he sneered at Sirius again. "In what deranged context have you been thinking of me? And why?"
"In several actually." Sirius stopped closer. He was close enough now to see the little pulse beating at the base of Severus's throat. The expression Snape gave him then would have looked, to anyone without a vested interest in self-deception, very much like a man deciding between homicide and surrender. And then Severus's gaze dropped to Sirius mouth and it was all Sirius needed. He crossed the renaming space and kissed him.
The kiss was not tender and for sure it was not elegant. It was all teeth, pressure, shock and fury. Severus shoved Sirius shoulder and made a sound that might have been a protest if it did not turn into a moan on the way out. Sirius backed him against the cold stone wall and felt the impact through both of their bodies. Afterwards, if anyone had asked, neither of them would have admitted quite how rapidly the thing descended into stripped buttons, hitched robes, bitten mouths and hikes on both of their necks.
"If you tell anybody about this, I'll poison you." Severus warned, hair wilder then usual, breathing ragged as he sat on the pile of fallen charts and glared at Sirius across the wreckage.
"I was not planning to tell anyone," said Sirius, flat on his back, still trying to remember his own name, turned his head and smiled at Snape. And Sirius did not lie, he truly did not mean to tell anybody, he juts arrived to breakfast the next morning with Severus in tow.
"Morning," Sirius said as he slid into his seat and pulled Severus with him.
"I knew it!" Lily looked at one to the other grinning widely.
James inhaled a crumb and choked so hard Lily thumped him between the shoulders. Remus stared while Peter lowered his knife very gently onto his plate.
"Why is Snape at out table?" James asked through coughs, wiping his mouth and pointed at Severus with his toasts.
"Because he's having breakfast." Sirius reached for the marmalade and started to fix Severus's tea. It is astonishing how much one can learn about the other when one stalks their…boyfriend…Sirius passed the cup of tea to Severus, with brows frowning.
"Did you just make him tea??" James blinked, his voice going a few octaves higher.
"Yeah, I did." Sirius shrugged and then turned to smile at Severus, who looked like he wanted to fling the tea into Potter's face and the cup after it.
"No, Gods no." James whined, dropping his face into his palms.
"Unfortunately for you, Potter, yes." said Severus and winked at Sirius
"Did he juts wink?" whispered Peter to Remus who was chuckling beside him as Lily made a chocking sound into her hands.
And that, more or less was that. A prank would have burned everything down quickly. This on the other hand was worse. This lasted for years.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ Summer of 1976 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
In another life, Sirius Black ran alone. In this one, he stopped on the way out.
Home had become untenable by the start of the summer, thought truthfully it had always been untenable. The air at Grimmauld Place had that stale odour of a room shut too long. Every conversation with Walburga began in accusation and a screaming match with Sirius. Orion said even less, which made him worse. His silence carried the weight of a judge already reaching for sentence. Sirius started dating and snogging Severus in the open, people in their circles talk. All of them were gossipers and the gossip of the Heir of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black caring inappropriately with a half blood boy was unacceptable. If Snape was pure-blood and a girl, that would be okay, but half blood, a son of a pure-blood witch who chose a muggle and poor at that, well that was a big no-no for Sirius parents.
They dragged Sirius into the drawing room when he got back from the Potters one evening and started to spew their bullshit about Dark Mark and pure-blood fascism.
"You have embarrassed this family for a last time." Walburga's voice rang sharp enough to crack glass.
"If this is the dramatic bit where Father tries to brand me into obedience, I am afraid you have both mistaken me for Regulus." Sirius laughed right in her face.
Orion who stood by the fireplace, twitched his wand arm and that was enough for Sirius to bolt for the door. He did not need to make some noble stand or wait to be brave. He juts twisted his body, turned on his heel and ran, heart hammering, boots pounding on the carpet runner. He got halfway down the front stairs when he remembered Regulus. It was not that he had forgotten his brother, but it was that for one ugly selfish second survival had narrowed to the point so fine there had been room for nothing else. The knowledge struck him hard enough to stop him dead in place. He pivoted and ran the other way, right into Regulus's room.
"What are you doing?" Regulus span with his wand already out when Sirius burst in.
"Leaving. What dose it look like?" Sirius snapped, breathless.
"You can not." Regulus whispered,and his face changed that Sirius saw fear in his bother's grey eyes
"I can and I am. Pack a bag, Reg." Sirius said and grinned when his brother relaxed
"Alright." Regulus said nodding and scrambled everything he could into his backpack.
They did not get out cleanly. Their mother screamed when she realised. Orion sent a curse that blew a chunk out of the banister. Sirius grabbed Regulus by the wrist and dragged him through the front hall, both of then ducking hex-light and then they were in the hot London night with nowhere sensible to go except the Potters. Sirius twisted his body and appirated them right in fort of Potter's mansion door. Fleamont, who was alerted by the wards, opened the door in his dressing gown and without asking juts ushered them in. Euphemia took one look at Regulus, pale face and shaking and pulled him into a hug. Regulus went rigid before sighting and sacking into her arms. James came downstairs half asleep and stopped on the landing, looking at Sirius who was dripping on the floorboards and Regulus sobbing into his mothers arms and whistled.
"This is going to be brilliant." James declared and wrapped a arm around Sirius. And it was. The Potters gave them both a room. Euphenia fussed over all of them. James was impossible. He wandered in without knocking, nicked biscuits off Regulus's plate and talked at him with relentless cheerful stupidity until Regulus answered or hit him with a pillow. Remus arrived one day with the stack of summer essays and Regulus took one look at him a decided he hates his guts.
By the spring break of 1977, Regulus hating Remus turned into snogging at Potters kitchen. Sirius found out by accident. He had gone in looking for tea and stopped in the doorway so abruptly that Severus and James walked into his back. Remus had Regulus pressed against the wooden table with one hand flat beside his hip. Regulus's fingers were hooked into the front of Remus's jumper. The kiss in progress was not shy, it looked like they had practice. Sirius inhaled a breath through his teeth and Regulus, hearing it opened one eye. He looked at Sirius over Remus's shoulder and with infuriating calmness raised his arm and flipped Sirius off. Sirius snorted and blackened out, shutting the door.
"Do I ask?" said Severus, who was leaning against the corridor wall with James, passing the cigarette between them. James juts rose one eyebrow as he took the cigarette and broth it to his mouth.
"Well, my brother appears to be swallowing Moony in the kitchen," Sirius said, lips pressed together so tightly they had nearly vanished, his jaw twitching with the effort not to start laughing as he fixed Severus and James with a look of deep, suffering disbelief.
Both James and Severus burst into a fit of laughter. Sirius glared at them, then found himself grinning despite every effort not to. It was impossible not to. Regulus was with him and they escaped the hell hole they use to call home. Remus looked happier than he had in months. He had Severus. Severus was friendly with James. And Sirius felt that some terrible pattern had been interrupted since he kissed Severus on that Astronomy tower.
1980
By 1980 the war had stopped felling like something happening somewhere else to other people. It had crawled under doors and sat itself down at kitchen tables. It lived in half-burned letters that were vanished with a flick of the wand. James and Lily were married by then and moved into the Potters cottage. The cottage itself became one of those place where everybody drifted through they meant to or not. It smelled faintly of tea, wood polish, Lily's herbs hanging to dry in the kitchen and of Severus's potions bubbling away in the corner of the dining room. Both him and Sirius moved themselves there, with no formal discussion. Lily was pregnant and will need help, so what better ones then a deranged Black and sneering Slytherin bat. Peter arrived and departed in off hours with messages and reports. Remus and Regulus came when the Order did not need them somewhere else. It was sort of warm domesticated chaos Sirius had once though only happened in novels written by sentimental women with too much time on their hands. It was warm and cosy if one forgot that they are in the middle of a war with two lunatics leading the way.
It was a breezy spring evening when they heard the door open. James was on the floor in front of a half-built cot, his hair full if sawdust, because Lily had insisted that he and Sirius assemble the blasted thing a muggle way. Lily sat on the sofa with one hand spread over her enormous curve of her stomach, glaring at James, daring him to say one stupid remark so she could choose bodily violence over her husband. James avoided her gaze and screwed a screw tighter in to a railing of the cot. Sirius was pretending the help with a cot, but given up entirely and itching to use his wand on the damn thing. Then the door shut with such a force that made Lily jump up and spin around to see Severus marching into the living room, looking paler then ever and with a glint in his onyx eyes that suggested somebody will get murdered tonight.
"What wrong, love?" Sirius asked as he got up form the floor
"I heard something." Severus said walking to a drinking cabinet and pouring himself a shot of whisky and drowning it one go.
James stopped pretending to understand the cot instructions and turned to looked at Snape.
"You are scaring us over here sweetheart. What did you hear?" Sirius asked joining Snape at the drinking cabinet. Severus shoved a glass into Sirius hands and drowned another shot. Sirius's eyebrows climbed to his hair line.
"A prophecy. A boy. A child. Born as the seventh month dies. One with the power to defeat the Dark Lord." said Severus purring himself a third whisky
"What the fuck?" James said getting up from the floor, adjusting his glasses, like a clean vision would make anything make sense right now.
"It was given to Dumbledore at the Hog's Head by a quack witch. I was there to meet up with Regulus, but Aberforth threw me out when he realised what his brother was hearing. " Severus dragged one hand back through his hair and took Sirius untouched drink, tilling it back. That was fourth.
"What the fuck?" James repeated looking at Snape as if he lost his mind. Lily, who in her final months of pregnancy had developed the magnificent ability to keep talking through almost anything simply started at her best friend.
"Born at the end of the seventh month?" Sirius asked looking around the room.
Severus nodded.
"No, nope, nu-huh." said Lily shaking her head, placing both of her hands in her pregnant belly.
"Only two fit. Alice and Lily." said Severus coming to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "We will not allow anything to happen to your baby Lils."
"And that mother fucker heard it!" James screeched and fisted his hair.
"Dumbledore is scheming," Sirius pointed out the obvious.
"Obviously." said Severus, glancing at Sirius over his shoulder.
"If that man so much as hints at using my child as bait I will hex him to his grave," Lily hissed and then went to hug James.
Sirius adored her for that. He was so happy that little Prongslet will have a mum like Lily Evans. That the baby will know what truly means when your parents, when your mother loves you so much she would threaten a greatest wizard in the Wizarding world so that her child could be safe. But from that point onward none of them were allowed the luxury of pretending that the war did not directly involve them.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ July 1980 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Harry arrived at the very end of July, small and furious. Red-faced that was covered with too much blood to be normal.
Lily died before dawn.
There are events so brutal that memory never arranges them properly afterwards. They stay in pieces. Sirius remembered the waiting room at St. Mungo's. He remember Severus sitting beside him, clutching his arm like it was the only life like he got left. He remembered Remus arriving first, coat half-buttoned, Regulus two paces behind with his jaw already set so hard. He remembered Peter turning up breathless with one shoe untied and his hair standing in every direction. He remembered doors opening and James coming out carrying the baby, looking all wrong, pale and hollowed out. Like some necessary structure had been taken from inside of him and everything left standing was now being held upright by sheer shock.
Harry was wrapped in a pale blue blanked and sleeping, obvious to catastrophe, obvious to the fact that he had entered a world and taken his mother out of it in the same night.
"She did not even get to hold him properly." James said with a voice that sounded scrapped hollow while looking at them and not at them at all.
Sirius went to him fist, putting a hand on James's back and looking down at Harry. James's brow. Lily's mouth. James's frown. All bits and pieces of both of his best friends in that small wrinkly face. The baby yawned, damp-haired and so very much alive. Sirius knew then and there, with impossible certainty, that if anyone tries to touch that child will die. He looked up from Harry and saw that everyone in that corridor had though the same. Raising Harry after that became a collective act of grief management and increasingly chaotic co-parenting.
James did not ask for help because James was proud and twenty and trying very hard to be a father without collapsing under widowhood. He simply kept going and help arrived in abundance. Peter moved in permanently and turned out to be inexplicable excellent at childcare. He warmed bottles. He remembered to give Harry medicine. He could settle Harry against his shoulder while reading coded reports in a soothing voice. Sirius took over cooking, while Severus complained through all of it, which in his case meant he was involved up to his neck in nappy changing. The bloody prick invented a whole spell for that task so nobody else would get to be pee target practice by giggling Harry.
"Babies are sickly," said Severus one evening while pacing the sitting room with Harry tucked against his shoulder because James had been awake for thirty-six hours, Sirius was in the kitchen swearing at the saucepan and Peter had been on a Order mission for the last three days.
"They are," Sirius agreed from the kitchen
"They leak from both ends." Severus continued his rambling.
"Uh-huh," said Sirius chuckling and abandoning the cooking
"They posses no useful skills." Severus said looking at Sirius who came out of the kitchen and leaned in the door way. Harry's small fists clutch the front of Severus's shirt.
"And yet you still hold him like he is the most precious thing in the world." Sirius said and grinned at his boyfriend.
James, half a sleep in the armchair, let out one wrecked laugh. "You look maternal, Sev."
"I will kill you in your sleep, Potter." Severus said and glared at him.
At this both Sirius and James started to laugh even harder. Grief stayed in the house with them though. It did not leave because there were nappies to change and giggling baby to raise. The absence of Lily was felt in every corner of their lives. James bore it badly and beautifully, which was to say, with mess, temper, devotion and the occasional silent stare into nothing when he though no one was looking. Sirius and Severus presences there helped, but it could not change the fact that Lily was not with them and that James had to do this alone.
Harry, on the other hand, demanded milk, warmth, arms and snuggles. And that was a small mercy. Life refused to pause for mourning.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ Autumn of 1980 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
The weight of unknowing sat heavy on all of their chests. Harry was nearly three months old and had already learned that deeply impressive skill of beginning to cry the exact moment any adult sat down to eat or sleep. The war had worsened and none of the adults living in Potter cottage had a good night sleep in months. They all were frying by the edges. Dumbledore looked older every time they saw him, which was rare.
They were all in the living room. Rain beat softly against the windows. Remus stood by the mantel, while Regulus occupied the arm chair next to the fire place. That should have been the warring by itself. They, by then, had hardly seen Remus and Regulus. Peter sat at the table, fingers steeped under his chin as he stared down Remus across the room. Sirius was lounged on the couch with Severus's head in his lap while the man snoozed softly. James was in the other armchair with Harry asleep against his chest.
"Why are you here?" it was Peter who asked the question that was like a elephant standing in small room.
"Well…." Remus started but floo roared to life and Dumbledore in to the room.
Severus opened one eye to look who walked in and then sat up rubbing his eyes. Sirius raised one brow looking at James, who gone white faced and thin lip as he stared at their old headmaster. Peter rose form the table. Regulus and Remus exchanged looks something unspeakable passing between them.
"Good evening. May I have a word in private, James?" said Dumbledore. James looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms and nodded, standing up and walked away with Dumbledore into the study.
When they were gone, both Peter and Severus's heads snapped at Remus and Regulus. Fucking hells, Sirius thought. What ever was about to go down would not end well. For any of them.
"You know." Peter sneered, pointing one accusation finger at Remus.
"Pete…." Remus started but Severus's jammed his bony finger into Remus's chest and shook his head.
"Nope. Truth, Lupin." Severus hissed. Sirius pinned Regulus with his eyes, but his little brother just stared at the floor not looking at anybody.
"Dumbledore said…." Remus started again
Severus poked him harder. "No. Try again Lupin."
"Dumbledore wanted…." Remus opened his mouth, but wrong words came out at Severus shoved his finger harder and got into Lupin's face. Severus might had been a head shorter then Remus, but squaring up and getting on his tipy toes their noses came to the same hight. Sirius got up from the couch, and his eyes moved from his brothers form to look at Remus. The little bit of yellow started to pour into Remus's irises and mix with moos green.
"We said to always come here first! What the hell have you been doing in that safe house all this time, Lupin? HUH? Instead of fucking Black Junior you could have…." Severus yelled as Remus's nostrils flared at once. The change over Remus's face came in deeply unsettling way as it often did when temper hit Moony inside of Remus's body. His eyes flashed full yellow as he looked down at Snape.
Sirius did not think. He just moved. In three strides he was circling his arm around Severus's waist and hauling him bodily back against his own chest. He proceeded to lift him half off the floor and twist him out of Remus's immediate reach.
"Darling, let us not get your nose broken again. It is already beginning to look a little crooked." Sirius said through gritted teeth while Severus writhed with fury in his grip.
"Black," Severus snarled, trying to elbow him and failing, "stop manhandling me and put me down, you insufferable, overgrown—"
Whatever was about to come next died on his lips as James entered the living room with Harry. He looked as though the world had just ended. Harry slept on, cheek pressed against his father's shoulder, one tiny fist tangled into James's jumper.
"Dumbledore said he is after Harry," James said with a broken voice and looked at Sirius. "Pads, he is after my boy."
Sirius grip loosened and he set Snape down, whose fight had left him as soon as James said Voldemort was after their boy. Peter went still and then he moved, fast and accurate and landed his fist right into Remus's nose. It cracked with so much force to snap Remus's head sideways and sent him stumbling back a step into the edge of the mantel. Harry startled awake at the noise and let out a thin, angry wail, his little face screwing up at once as the room lurched from stunned silence into fresh chaos.
"You bloody knew!" Peter spat, breath coming fast through his nose as he stood there with his fist clenched at his side. "You knew and you said nothing? All this time?"
Remus pressed the of one hand to his face. Blood welled at once between his fingers, bright and startling against his skin. Regulus had gone pale and rose form the armchair in one fluid movement and stepped between Remus and Peter, though whether he was shielding Remus or stopping him form lunging back was not entirely clear.
"Peter," Regulus said in that low dangerous voice of his. Sirius wanted to deck him also.
"Oh, don't you dare. Don't you dare stand there and act precious now. If the pair of you knew that the snake face monster was lining up for Harry and you said nothing—" Peter snapped, whirling on him with more fury that anybody had heard form Peter, well since ever.
"How did the monster found out anyway?" Sirius asked frowning, he was calculating and redacting in his mind on how the fuck did Voldemort even knew. Who the hell told him? Then his eyes went comically large as he locked them with Severus's dark one. Who looked with an exact expression mimicking Sirius. Severus had to come up with the same conclusion on how the Dark Lord gotten hold of the fucking prophesy that Severus heard last year
"Dumbledore." they said in unison
"That backstabbing mother fucker!" James spat and then patted Harry's back gently as the baby started wailing again.
Remus started to protest about the conclusion, Regulus just stood there with hands in his pockets. Sirius wanted to wring both of their necks.
"We need eyes inside," Peter said totally ignoring Remus's arguing that Dumbledore could not possibly do that to them.
"If he is after Harry, then we do need to know before he moves." Severus mouth thinned and he nodded along agreeing with Peter.
"You cannot mean—" James started with a frown while Sirius gut twisted as he looked at Severus again.
"I do." Severus cut in
"No one notices me enough. That will help." Peter said, shoving his hands into his pockets and rocking slightly on the heels of his soles, then shrugging as if what he just said was not that big of a deal.
"You are thinking about joining them." Regulus sated the fact.
"I am thinking of lying to them." Severus grinned.
Sirius had been silent up to then, arms folded so tightly across his chest the started to hurt. He looked at Peter, the at Severus again. It was insane and it was bloody reckless, but it was the probably the only thing that make any fucking sense now.
"Can you pull it off?" Sirius asked
"Yes," both men said with such a conviction that Sirius in that moment believed them.
And because this universe was apparently committed to making all the worst possible decisions for all the right reasons, that was how the plan was made. In the Potter's living room, with a sleeping baby and cold tea, and too many people who loved each other enough to volunteer for things no sane person ought to survive.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ January 1981 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
The winter was hard that year, all frozen paths, hard morning and breath turning whit in the air as though the world itself were trying to leave the body. Severus's path into Death Eaters was believable so bloody much that Sirius wanted to hit something, preferably the man himself. Severus had a reputation, he was clever and he held on to grudges like a serpent. There was darkness in Severus, yes, but Sirius knew by now that darkness was not the same thing as absence of love. Because Severus loved and was loved by a lot of them. Sirius loved him so deeply he was scared he might go mad when Severus was not around. Severus was Harry's favourite "uncle", the little tick would gurgle and babble so much at Severus until Severus cracked a smile and nosed Harry's cheeks. Severus and James, even if they would deny it until their graves, were best friends. Both mother hens to all of them. Seriously, all of them would have been dead if not for James and Severus's fussing around. Peter's path was different. Peter when in because on one really saw him until it was too late. People noticed James's charisma, Sirius's beauty and Remus's intelligence, but Peter slipped sideways past attention and observed things that nobody would notice in the first place. He was still, in his own way, the most underestimated man in the room.
On the night both Severus and Peter had their first meeting, the house was quiet except for the ticking clock and the faint snoring from both Harry and James. James asleep on the couch and Harry in the stroller next to him. Peter was by the window fastening his cuffs and looking extremely clam for the situation they all were in. Sirius leaned on the kitchen doorway, crossing his harms, the vanes on his biceps pooping out. Severus was there in the middle of the room buttoning his coat.
"You both do not get to die." Sirius said arching his brow as Severus looked up at him. "I am serious."
"I am unfortunately aware of that." Severus smirked at his boyfriend.
Sirius rolled his eyes and crossed the room. He stopped close enough to catch the front of Severus's coat in both fists. The black wool bunched under his hands. He wanted to kiss him. He wanted to drag him upstairs, have his fill of him and lock the door and keep him there until the war ended or the world did. Instead he settled for pressing his forehead.
"You come back to me, you hear?" he said
"I intend to." Severus exhaled and then kissed Sirius softly.
Peter cleared his throat. "As stringing as this is, we are late to meet a homicidal fanatics."
Sirius looked over Severus's shoulder and glared at Peter. "If either of you dies, I'm haunting you both."
"Good to know friendship survives all things." Peter said with a snort fastening his coat.
From that night Sirius slept badly and dreamed worse. The prophecy sat over everything like a guillotine.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ 31 October 1981 ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Sirius and James were preparing a now one year old Harry for his Halloween. James had Harry balanced one arm while Sirius tried to wrestle the squirming little shit into a costume. Harry kept refusing to put his arms into the suit and kept batting Sirius's hands away while screaming from the top of his little lungs No, no, no. Sirius sat down on the rug and puffed the air from his mouth chasing away the hair that had fallen from his bun and into his eyes.
"This is useless." Sirius grumbled
"Come one, love. Please. We are going to uncle Moony's and uncle Reg's and they will give you soooo many sweets if you were the costume." James tried to plead with the fussing toddler. Like the bribe of sweets might do the trick into making Harry corporate.
"no, no,no. Sev….no, no, no Pa" Harry squalled shaking his head pushing Sirius's hands as his godfather tried to dress him again.
There was a pop of apparition outside and Sirius scrambled to his feet to check who was it. Peter and Severus came under the wards and Sirius opened the door before they reached it. One look at their faces was enough.
"He is moving toning," Peter said as he walked pass Sirius, giving his shoulder a little squeeze.
"He is coming in person." said Severus as he cupped behind of Sirius head and crashed his lips on to his. "We have maybe thirty minutes."
The house erupted into purpose. Peter checked wards. James strapped Harry on tho his chest and started casting every protection spell he knew over the windows. Severus reworked protective lines under his breath, wand moving with vicious precision. Sirius, well Sirius did what any Black did in a situation like this, he cut his palm and smeared his blood all around Harry's nursery while reciting "Sanguis sanguinis mei, hanc protectionem super hanc cameram effundo. Quemvis intus est, tuemini donec ego tempus mihi vindicaverit."
Then the cottage gave one long low shudder. Harry started crying with a vicious force. Peter swore form the kitchen that the ward-line had not snapped but folded, which Sirius did not even know magic could do. James patting Harry's back ran for the stairs with the rest of the three following. James pushed the nursery door open with his shoulder. It was too bright in the room for normal events. The curtains lifted as Sirius shut the door and Severus casted a locking spell on it. Harry cried harder, fist clenching and swinging right into his fathers nose. The cot rattled.
"Something's happening," Peter shouted as the air whizzed around
"No shit," Sirius barked back
"What the hell did you do Black?" Severus yelled as he traced the blood smear on one wall.
"Blood magic!" Sirius scoffed. "Nobody is getting in here!"
Severus stalked back to Sirius cupping his face. "I love you, but you are a bloody idiot."
Then the magic broke. There was no other word for it. It did not snap or shatter. It broke, as though something old and impossible had reached into the center of the room and twisted. Sirius had one insane impression of every spell cast over Harry since birth flaring at once. But maybe he fucked up somewhere in the enchantments. Severus grabbed the front of Sirius's jumper. Peter shouted a curse. James held Harry tighter. The nursery vanished and so did four twenty-one-year olds and a one-year-old savior of the Wizarding wold.
And this is where the real story begins, because sometimes you need a bit of blood magic and broken time so that the universe can correct itself.