The next morning James and Lily woke and made their way downstairs, hoping that they hadn’t been inundated with owl post regarding Marcus’ magick levels. Despite James being a well-respected and high-ranking auror they had been concerned that James’ obliviate had failed. Whilst they ate breakfast and waited for the children to wake up they made their plans for the day; they were going to retrieve their youngest son from his aunt and uncles. They had planned what they were going to tell the public but their main concern was ensuring that the knowledge Marcus wasn’t much more than a squib would be leaked. The information would remain between Lily, James and Sirius, as Marcus’ godfather. After all, Sirius was the only other person who knew the true reason why the Potters had abandoned Harry.

By the time Marcus and Rose had woken up and started eating their breakfast, Sirius had arrived through the floo from Grimmauld Place, the Black family home in London.

“So, are we ready to go and collect my other godson then?” Sirius rubbed his hands excitedly as he kissed both Lily and Rose and ruffled Marcus’ hair. 

“Nearly.” Lily said, wiping Rose’s face to remove the excess breakfast. “I need to take the children to Molly’s and then get on to Hogwarts. I have my first classes later.” Standing up, Lily kissed first her husband and then Sirius on the cheek. “Don’t do anything stupid. Try and avoid magick as much as possible. Only wear your robes if you absolutely have to. You know what Petunia and Vernon are like. Please don’t antagonise them.”

James and Sirius both promised the fiery, red-haired witch that they would be on their best behaviour and bid farewell as the trio disappeared into the fireplace. With them gone, both men transfigured their robes into Muggle suits and made their way outside to the apparition point. Once there, Sirius placed a hand on James’ shoulder so that he could apparate both of them to Little Whinging seeing as Sirius had never been there.

They appeared in a street where every single house was identical, looking like cardboard cut-outs or something from the pages of a magazine. Both men exchanged glances, unable to comprehend living in a place such as this.

“So, Prongs, where is this place that we’re going to? Does your beloved sister-in-law live down here?” Sirius teased, knowing that James hated his in-laws with a passion.

James scowled. “Shut it Padfoot. No, Petunia lives about four streets over. Something to do with Petunia refusing to have magick anywhere near her house. Plus she doesn’t want ‘freaks’ as she terms us apparating or even appearing down the street where she lives.”

“Freaks?! She calls us freaks?” Sirius gave a great bark of laughter. “That’s rich coming from someone who lives in a place like this.” He slung an arm companiably around James’ shoulder. “Come on Prongs, let’s go and get your youngest son.”

“Yes. We can get him back and then we can figure out what to do about this bloody dark talent he has.”

Sirius paused. “You don’t think Harry’s talent come from Voldemort do you?”

James shook his head. “We’re not even going to go there Siri. Let’s just get Harry and get this thing over with. I want some good news to tell Lily. For once I think she deserves some good news.”

With that the two men left the small cul-de-sac that they had appeared in and headed towards number four Privet Drive. They were even more disgusted from the neatness, order and precision in each of the houses. Each one was identical, right down to the net curtains hanging in the windows. Exchanging glances and taking a deep breath, they walked down the gravel path where James rang the doorbell.

It wasn’t long before they saw a silhouette approaching them through the frosted glass. As the door opened slowly James recognised the silhouette as that of his sister-in-law Petunia, who gasped as she saw the two men stood on her doorstep.

“You!” She gasped, trying to shut the door immediately.

James smiled smarmily. “Hello Petunia, how is my favourite sister-in-law these days?”

The blonde-haired woman shuddered violently. “Don’t you dare remind me that I’m related to you through my freak of a sister. What are you doing here? I thought we agreed when you left your brat here that we wouldn’t have to see you again.”

James inclined his head. “That was our arrangement Petunia but circumstances have changed. We’ve come to collect Harry. This doesn’t have to be difficult, just hand him over.”

“What do you want him back for? You left him here. You signed all of your rights over to me and Vernon when you left him here. What’s changed?”

James’ eyes narrowed. “You’re stalling Petunia. What’s the problem? Where’s my son?”

Petunia stuttered and stammered before trying to shut the door. It didn’t work as Sirius stuck his hand out and caught the door. He shook his head several times.

“That’s bad form Petunia. You should at least ask us in.” The dark-haired auror stepped forward, pushing the door open.

Petunia squealed in alarm and started backing away down the corridor. Her squeal of distress attracted the attention of the other occupants of the house. Vernon Dursley lumbered through from the sitting room followed closely on his heels by Dudley.

“Pet? What’s the matter?” He swung around and saw James and Sirius stood just inside the front door. “What the heel are those freaks doing here? Get out of my house!”

Sirius scowled at being referred to as a freak again. “I think not Dursley. We’re here for my godson and we’re not leaving until we’ve got him.”

Vernon Dursley started to turn purple while Petunia’s face grew whiter. Slowly, a malevolent smile spread across Vernon’s face.

“You might as well leave immediately in that case. The boy isn’t here anymore. He hasn’t been here for two years. Some other freaks came and took him away. Good riddance to bad rubbish as far as I’m concerned.”

Vernon suddenly gulped audibly as two wands were suddenly jammed against his throat by two irate wizards.

“I think you have some explaining to do Dursley.”

Both James and Sirius looked absolutely furious as they stepped inside the door and pushed their way down the corridor.

“Let’s all sit down and then you can tell us exactly what has happened.” James’ smile was pleasant but his hazel eyes were hard and not at all friendly.

They moved into the living room and James and Sirius sat on the sofa but keeping their wands trained on the Dursley’s. They had been joined by the Dursley’s son who resembled a pink beach ball with a blonde pudding bowl hair cut.

Sirius smiled evilly, looking rather like his demented cousin Bellatrix. “I think you’d better start talking Dursley. Where’s Harry?”

“I told you; he’s not here anymore. He hasn’t lived here for two years. Some other freak came and took him away. At least you dressed properly, they looked like proper freaks.”

James and Sirius exchanged glances before turning their attention back to Vernon before James started speaking.

“This is important Dursley, you’d better think about your answer carefully. We signed everything over to you when we left Harry here; guardianship, legal rights. Did you sign anything?”

Vernon thought carefully for several long minutes. The two aurors fancied that they could almost see the cogs turning. Finally he nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Well?” James demanded. “Did you sign anything?”

Vernon nodded reluctantly. “Yes we signed something.”

James looked read to tear his hair out. “I wish I had the talent of occlumency. What papers did you sign Dursley.”

“Guardianship papers.” Dursley whimpered, dreading the response his answer would receive.

“Bloody Merlin!” Sirius shouted as he jumped up and started pacing whilst James simply slumped in his chair.

Vernon had regained some of his confidence and was mumbling. “Bloody freak threatened me with Child Protection Services. The bloody cheek of it.”

James seemed to pull himself together and turned his attention to his sister-in-law. “Petunia, I suggest you think long and hard before you answer my questions. We wouldn’t want things to become unpleasant now would we?” 

James’ smile was almost sickly sweet as he turned the famous Potter charm on full blast. It was the same charm that had gotten Marauders out of countless detentions at Hogwarts and the same charm that Lily had fallen in love with. It worked within minutes and the blonde woman caved, looking more relaxed as she pulled her overweight blonde son towards her.

“Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Your charming husband said that he signed papers....guardianship papers. Did both of you sign them?”

Petunia nodded. “Yes, he stood over his while he watched us. He glared at us the whole time. Creepy old bat.” She shuddered as she said these last few words but James seemed not to notice.

“Damn!” James was on his feet now, pacing angrily. “Did any of the wizards sign the papers?”

Petunia looked thoughtful but then nodded. “Yes, the one holding your brat and then two others. Ugly looking freaks the lot of them.”

“And you’re positive that it was two years ago?” James wanted to be sure that the facts were as clear as possible.

“Of course I’m sure that it was two years ago. It was the summer after you dumped it with us. Marge was ill so we left it with Mrs Figg while we visited Vernon’s poor sister. When we got back those freaks came round, threatening us and demanding that we sign the guardianship papers.”

Sirius was looking puzzled. “Figg? I swear I recognise that name from somewhere. I have no idea where from though.”

James cut him off impatiently. “Never mind that now. We haven’t got time to worry about one old woman at the moment. Now, we’re nearly done Petunia. Don’t worry, we won’t be contaminating your house for much longer.” James sneered as he said the word contaminated. “What did these wizards look like?”

Petunia screwed up her nose in disgust. “Eugh, they were all wearing those bloody dress things you all insist on wearing.”

“Robes woman!” Sirius roared. “Damnit! They’re robes not sodding dresses.”

“Siri, just sit down and shut up. Let’s just get this over with. Now Petunia, what did these wizards look like? Hair colour, eye colour, what they were wearing. Anything. Literally anything at all that you can remember.”

The blonde’s forehead furrowed in concentration as she smoothed her son’s hair out. “The one holding your brat was sort of foreign looking. He had black hair and black eyes. He was wearing a black dress....sorry robes. Very severe. Your brat was clinging to him like a life line. There was another man – now he was definitely a foreigner. He was very dark, probably from the Mediterranean or somewhere similar. The other two were definitely freaks. One was incredibly old with long white hair and a beard. He was wearing a dress thing....oh fine those robes in a hideous garish purple with yellow stars. The other man was even more of a freak.” Here Petunia shuddered in disgust. “He had a strange eye. Part of his leg and his nose was missing. He had on bright red....robes with a strange symbol on them.”

James and Sirius exchanged glances. “Bright red robes with a symbol? They’re auror robes and that’s Alastor Moody if I’m not mistaken.”

James nodded his agreement. “Yes. Plus, the only person who wears purple robes with yellow stars is Dumbledore. Siri, go to Headquarters and get a team together. Stay out of Moody’s way as much as possible.”

Sirius bounded up from the sofa with a broad grin on his face. “Not a problem. He’s on field assignments for the next three weeks. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Sirius disappeared as James settled back into the couch cushions.

“I’m terribly sorry, it appears as though we’re going to have to trespass on your wonderful hospitality for a bit longer. Now, just to keep the conversation going....you said that you were threatened by these wizards?”

Just over an hour later Sirius returned accompanied by two wizards and a witch, all in the familiar robes of the auror department. James nodded at them and gave them a brief rundown of the situation. The witch nodded at the end of James’ explanation.

“Right, I’m afraid that our only option is to recover the memories from the house and process them as well as question Mr and Mrs...Dursley is it? Then we can process the images and see where we go from there.”

“But....that’ll take a fortnight!” James spluttered in indignation.

The woman grimaced in sympathy. “I am sorry Auror Potter. Perhaps under different circumstances but seeing as Muggles are involved we have to follow proper protocol.”

“But...surely!” James was getting desperate now.

The woman shook her head regretfully. “I’m sorry Auror Potter. I can’t make any exceptions, not even for you. It’s probably best if you leave now. We’ll contact you with the results in a fortnight.”

Petunia shrieked in outrage. “You mean those freaks are staying here? Absolutely not! And how do they intend to get memories from the house? It’s bloody bricks and mortar.”

The witch started to explain the process even as her colleagues started to copy the imprinted memories. “Mrs Dursley, whilst we term them memories we actually refer to a series of images that have been imprinted into the building. When wizards have a strong magickal signature it leaves an image in the walls. It’s our only option where Muggles are involved.”

At this point, James and Sirius left the Dursley’s and Little Whinging, resigning themselves to the fact that when Lily returned from Hogwarts they didn’t have any good news for her. They could only hope that two weeks later the news would be very different. 

Two weeks later....

James and Sirius made their way into the office of Senior Auror Elizabeth Rudd, the auror whom Sirius had brought to the Dursley residence. She had written to inform them that all the memories from no.4 Privet Drive had been successfully processed and that there had been an unseen advancement. Lily had wanted to accompany the two men but it was one of her teaching days at Hogwarts. The two of them walked into the office, hoping for good news.

“Auror Rudd, please tell me that you have some good news.”

The normally stern woman smiled. “Indeed I do Auror Potter. We got four magickal signatures from the house memories, three of which we were able identify. This was further compounded by the fact that Mrs Dursley agreed to us copying her memories of the day in question. She allowed it on the grounds that she was disturbed no more. Now, shall we watch?”

The two men nodded and within minutes had entered the pensieve and viewed the memories. By the time they exited the stone basin both men were absolutely furious.

“Snivellus! Bloody Severus Snape took my son.”

“I can’t believe that slimy, greasy snake has my little Harry.”

James smiled evilly. “Padfoot, I think it’s time we paid a visit to Minister Fudge. Don’t you?”