“Look at you!” Sirius kissed the baby’s nose in his excitement. “My godson!”

Harry giggled against the man’s chest, his chubby fingers wrinkling Padfoot’s shirt, and his other thumb crammed in his mouth, dripping with saliva. It should have been disgusting, but the black-haired man could feel noting but something warm and woozy in his chest.

His godson was a miracle, and no one, muggle or wizard alike, would be able to convince him otherwise. “My little baby,” he cooed, tickling the small boy. “Do it again! Come on buddy!”

The small boy lifted his head and smiled, and Sirius’ heart melted into the ground; Harry had just started teething, and whenever he smiled that toothless smile, it just made something die inside of him.

His GODSON has just shown his first bit of accidental magic as Sirius was babysitting him. Padfoot was the first one to see Jaime’s baby turn the cat blue. He was the only one who got to see it, and he felt so privileged, and giddy, that he had no idea where to cram his overflowing enthusiasm.

Harry made a confused coo, his body slightly turning in Sirius’ arms to look for the cat, and Padfoot himself was half tempted to start looking for that feral beast so Harry could do magic again.

A larger part of him wondered what would be the consequences if he never told Lily and James about this, kept it to himself and himself only. This little memory, it could be his and Harry’s secret, and when the boy grew up, Padfoot would tell him all about how he turned the stupid cat blue and no one ever knew about it, but him and Harry. His godson.

Harry laid his head back against his chest, and Sirius’ arms tightened around him on instinct. Feeling extremely paternal in his leather jacket and hacked jeans, the young man strode to the couch and carefully leaned back, his hand lightly smoothing down Harry’s wild nest of a hair.

“You made such a mess of your hair kiddo,” he murmured, his fingers catching on a knot. The small baby hummed, his green eyes darting around the living room, undoubtedly, in search of the cat.

“I’m going to keep you,” he said, putting his chin on the baby’s head. “I’m going to steal you from Jamie and keep you all to myself, buddy.” He closed his eyes in bliss. He couldn’t imagine loving anyone as much as he adored this little human being.

“You’re the cutest baby in the world.” He said. “My godson is the greatest baby in the world.”

The baby hummed again, happily munching on his thumb, and Sirius paused for a second, half-heartedly looking around for Harry’s missing pacifier to replace the chewed up thumb, but he was too comfortable like this, marveling over Harry, and wondering how he could love someone so tiny, as much as he did.

“Ohhh,” Harry cooed again, tilting his tiny head to glance up at Sirius, and Sirius grinned down at him, and moved Harry to settle on his knees, facing him.

“Yes, little pumpkin. You turned the cat blue!”

Harry’s eyes lit up. “AAT!”

“Yes the cat!” he kept up with the childish gusto with ease. “Do you know what that means?” Sirius bounced Harry a bit. “It means that you’re a miracle. I don’t care what Lils and Jamie say…you’re my kid.”

He normally didn’t get to do this. This was his first time babysitting his godson alone, and he had never found himself as infatuated and as clingy compared to when James and Lily were around to steal the baby for themselves. It didn’t normally phase Sirius, as he was a little wary of handling such a small, vulnerable tiny human that fully depended on him, but now, he wondered how he had lived without it for so long. In the past, he was just content with playing with the small child on the ground or with James present for a few hours, before calling it a day.

Until tonight that is, it was their first order meeting since Lily had Harry and Sirius was more than happy to spend some quality time alone with his godson. He was nervous as hell but mostly ecstatic.

He had been missing out his entire life. If he was being entirely honest with himself, Sirius didn’t think he would even love his own child as much he loved Harry.

“We can play peek-a-boo,” he said with the same giant cheesy grin on his face. Harry cooed in agreement. That was all he could do, at five months of age. Make cute sounds, and cuddle.

“But I don’t want to stop cuddling little Prongslet…let’s improvise,” he paused for an answer. Harry took his drool-covered thumb out of his mouth and patted Sirius’ hand with it.

“Fair enough,” he chuckled, and immediately scrunched up his face, sending Harry into a childish hysterical fit of laughter.

Harry stood on Sirius’ lap, his hands around Padfoot’s head in order to keep himself balanced.

“My scary troll face didn’t spook you?” he tried to sound incredulous as Harry’s fingers pulled at his hair.

“Oooh.”

“No baby,” he tried to ease the baby’s death grip from his hair before Harry ripped a whole chunk out. Babies did those sorts of things a lot, apparently, and they were definitely stronger than Sirius would have thought. “You’re going to make Padfoot go bald.”

Harry’s grip tightened and he pulled on Sirius’ curly hairs once again, pulling the man forward with the strain.

“Alright!” he exclaimed, “You don’t like playing!”

Harry laughed, his hands slapping Sirius on the skull. “Ohhh!” he insisted again and Padfoot grumbled under his breath.

“That wrenched cat,”

That cat hated Sirius, more than he thought was possible. It was as if the little beast could sense the dog in Sirius growling whenever he was near, and more than once, Sirius had been tempted to give in the chase, and transform into his forms to show who’s boss around the house.

Lily threatened him with a wooden spatula, and he pouted in response. She was way too protective of that thing, and James agreed with him in that regard.

Harry’s hold didn’t loosen on his hair, and Sirius was giving in the urge to start distracting his godson with Lily’s cat again when he caught sight of what exactly Harry was holding in his fists. It was hair, Sirius’ obviously, but there was something drastically wrong with the color.

“It’s blue,” he blurted out in surprise, interrupting Harry’s jovial babbling.

Harry slid down on his chest again, tugging some of Sirius’ hair along and forcefully tilting the man’s head down with it. “Pa-da!”

“My hair’s blue!” he exclaimed a little louder, his eyes wide and staring at Prongslet with unhidden wonder.

“You turned it blue kiddo! You did it again!” he shook his head, bouncing his bright blue locks for Harry to grab.

He hugged the boy close to his chest, not caring that a few strands of blue hair came off his scalp. His godson was simply…magical.

“You little monster,” he kissed Harry’s head and stood, adjusting the small weight on his hip.

“Just because of that little stunt mister,” he bopped the small boy on his nose. “I’m giving you applesauce!”

Unfortunately, the small baby wasn’t old enough for heavier deliciousness’ such as chocolate, or cookies, but according to Lily, applesauce was basically the next best thing for Harry.

He was rummaging through the cabinets for Harry’s plastic snitch spoon when he heard the knock. Sirius’ eyes instantly narrowed, and his back straightened. No friend or family knocked, they always fire-called ahead, for safety reasons. This was not a friendly visit.

He looked at the small baby, smacking his lips in anticipation of a meal, and his own stomach clenched.

With his wand ready in his hand, he safely put the small child in his playpen and approached the door as the knocking resumed. Fast, firm raps that seemed to be too much for a flimsy wooden door. Sirius looked through the peephole and blanched back.

With a hasty glance at a squirming Harry, Sirius looked again. It was Snape, and he looked terrified.

He couldn’t open the door, there was simply no way that he would. Not only was it Snivellus, a known death eater behind the other side of that door, but his precious godson was only a few meters away, defenseless in his playpen.

However, Severus Snape seemed determined for an answer. “You have to let me in Evans, right now!” he urged Sirius. “This is important, please.”
Sirius had a wand. He was great at dueling. He could take Snape in his sleep, but there wasn’t just him to consider. There was Harry too, and he won’t have that man in the same house with his baby.

“Lily open the door!” Sirius had never heard Snape sound this urgent. The thought of cursing the man passed through the door, but he hesitated. He couldn’t act too rashly, blasting the man through the door would frighten Harry, possibly even endanger him.

“Lily I don’t care what you think you’re doing by not answering, but every second that passes is of utmost importance! You’re in danger! You and your husband, even the child! Let me in dammit!”

Sirius’ eyes widened and he stepped away from the door. The Potters were in danger, according to his former archenemy. He needed to bundle Harry up in his warmest clothes, grab the diaper bag and floo out of the house, then call for James and Lily and then get Dumbledore in on it, he needed to-

Harry’s sudden loud cries broke the fragile silence like glass, and Padfoot silently cursed as Snape’s body seized from the other side of the door, the other man’s eyes widening in concern as well.

He raced to the baby and snatched him up, hushing him as he looked around for the cause. There was nothing in the playpen that might have frightened the baby. Sirius most likely had just left him for too long.

He pulled the boy against his chest and aimed his wand to the door. He would blast that bastard out of existence the moment his long oily nose was through the door.

“GET LOST!” he shouted at the man, the wand shaking with rage. That man, that despicable death eater scum had dared to come to their house, call his sister in law-in every way that counted- by her name and demand to be let in?

“Wait, Black? What are you doing in there? Let me in!”

Sirius didn’t dare approach the door with a whimpering Harry, so he gritted his teeth.

“I will blast you through that door, Snape! Go away,” he yelled. He didn’t particularly feel threatening but Snape didn’t know that he had a baby bundled up in one arm.

“Black you idiot!” the other man cursed and tugged at the door handle, rattling the door on its hinges. “I don’t have my wand, this is important! Let me in.”

“Like hell, I will,” the blue-haired man muttered to himself and started backing himself to the fireplace, almost stepping on the slumbering cat and causing another havoc. “Oh you blasted creature,” he spat silently to the glaring cat and pressed himself flat against the mantle. He didn’t have enough time to go for the diaper bag.

“Black?! Black listen to me! You are in danger,”

Sirius’ eyes darted on the mantle for the floo powder and Harry grunted, his eyes tired and brimming with tears. “Shh Harry. You need to be a little quieter now.” Where did Lily put that blasted jar?

“Fine then, don’t let me in.” Snape jeered. “Do not attempt to apparate, or floo away. I’m serious Black! You’re in danger.”

“Snape you bloody liar,” Padfoot grumbled but edged away from the fireplace. If it was he alone, Sirius would have apparated away without a second thought, but he wouldn’t risk Harry getting hurt on the off chance that oily hair was right.

“What do you mean by danger?” he asked instead.

“Just let me in you egotistical dog,” Snape sneered. “I cannot shout it out all in the open.”

Padfoot snorted, jostling the small boy. “Oh, so I just willingly let you in? I’m not dumb Snape.”

“I’m not armed you mutt!” Snape slammed a hand against the door. “If that child and Potter’s health matters to you, you would let me in before it gets too late. I don’t have much time.”

Sirius mulled this over for a beat and then closed his eyes. That bastard better be telling the truth, because if this was some sick twisted death eater stunt, Sirius was going to hack him off to pieces and then boil the remains.

“Put your hands behind your neck, your feet apart Snape,” he barked the order, lowering Harry back into the playpen once more.
Prongslet let out a sound in protest.

“I’ll be right back Kiddo,” he told the child and stalked to the peephole to check on Snape. The man glared right at him, his hands behind his neck and his feet apart just as told.

As he was opening the door, his wand never wavered from the other man’s neck.

“Are you alone?” he asked as he opened the door just a fraction, the door chain strained against his hold.

Severus Snape scowled. “Yes Black, I’m alone.”

“Don’t you dare pull anything on me Snivellus,” Sirius said, slammed the door close to unlock the door chain and opened it once again.

Snape frog-marched himself through the door, his body tensed and his jaw set as Sirius’ wand followed him closely. “You should tend to the crying child,” he sneered and Black jammed the wood into his flesh.

“Don’t look at him,” the man hissed him, and pushed Severus to the corner of the living room, facing the wall.

Padfoot hurried back to pick up the crying child, mildly frustrated, not by Harry, who was softly sobbing against his chest, but more by the situation itself. More than ever, he prayed that James and Lily would come back already. Harry’s cry was more initiated from fear and all the shouting, more than any particular need, and Sirius felt immense guilt for causing it.

“Don’t move,” he snapped at the brooding death eater and retreated to the kitchen with Harry to pick up the applesauce container from the countertop. He snatched a regular spoon and strode back to the living room, sat on the couch and started feeding the sniffling baby, his wand expertly between his teeth and pointed at Snape.

“Start talking Snape, and this better be good,” he said with the wand still in his mouth. Harry sniffled between each spoonful, pitifully hiding his face into Sirius’ shirt.

“You need to get that child, anything that might be of use and get out of here immediately.”

“This house is under protection.”

Snape snorted. “It was under protection. It’s not anymore Black. Where are they? Potter and…” he hesitated. “Evans.”

“At a meeting, not that it’s any of your business.”

“No, they’re not.”

Sirius tensed. “What are you talking about?”

“They’re in an anti-raid group around Denver, fighting the dark lord’s followers as we speak. If they’re not here, then that’s where they are. I will bet my life on it.”

Sirius’ blood turned into ice, the spoon wavering in his hand. They were fighting off death eaters? With their baby at home waiting for them? No, he shook his head. Lily and James wouldn’t be that stupid. They wouldn’t be. The meeting must have been taking longer than normal and Snape was just trying to wind him up.

“They’re at the headquarters.” He repeated more forcefully.

“They’re not,” Snape shot back just as forcedly. He was still facing the wall. “I just got back from a meeting with the dark lord, he’s furious at the couple who had defied him thrice. Does that ring any particular bells?”

“Defied him thrice.”

“The raid was a failure, and he knew exactly who to blame.” Snape’s hand lowered and he turned, slowly, intensely glaring into Sirius’ eyes.
“Moreover, he knows exactly where to find them.”

“This house is under protection.” It was, only trusted members knew of this location, and somehow Snape was included in that circle, something that Sirius didn’t know before this.

“I found the mole,” Severus answered tersely, his hands dropping his sides. “He was there as the raid was underway. He just got marked tonight.”

“Who is it?” he dropped the empty jar on the couch and slipped his wand back in his hand. Harry pushed his face into the crook of his neck, lightly dozing.

His heart slammed against his ribs as Snape just stared at him blankly. Padfoot repeated himself.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” the man finally said, and Padfoot’s stomach dropped. Remus, no.

Oh merlin, it was Remus. He knew he was right, he hated being right, but he knew that he was. Moony had been acting so strangely ever since Harry was born, he had been so withdrawn, so skittish. What else could it be? It had to be him.

“Tell me anyway.” He said with a dry throat.

“That despicable rat, Pettigrew.” Severus spat, his eyes narrowing as Black blinked at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Pete?” was all Sirius could say. He must have heard it wrong. “Did you just say-.”

“That the mole is Peter Pettigrew, that spineless swine? Yes Black, get your act together.”

It made him sick, he was so sure, so arrogantly sure, that it was Moony. It broke his heart whenever he thought about it, but he was so sure of it. Peter…no. that couldn’t be it. Peter would never do that to them. Peter adored Harry. He loved Lily and James.

But then again, so did Remus.

“I cannot believe it.”

Snape rolled his eyes at him, his arms crossing. “You wouldn’t need to believe it Mutt. Wait and see his mark for yourself, but not now.”

“If this is a trick-.”

“Would you be willing to take the chance Black, or get yourself and the infant to a safe place to find out for yourself later.”

Sirius frowned in confusion. “You said we were in danger, are they going to attack the house?”

Severus shook his head. “Not now, but I read Wormtail’s mind, the moron is going to give away this location, and soon. Especially with this turn of events tonight.”

He looked down at Harry with morphing horror. “Oh Merlin,” he was going to throw up any moment now.

“Lily and James-.”

“You cannot afford to worry about them now,” Snape said. “Pack a bag for the boy and take any necessary items that you might need. Get out.”
Sirius stood with Harry in his arms and quickly summoned the child’s diaper bag from his room. It zoomed to his hand, and he looked around for the freaking cat. Lily would kill him if the cat was left behind.

“You said we couldn’t floo out or apparate,” he said as he scanned the room for the cat. It was in the kitchen, lazily flopped on the ground. Oh, how Sirius hated it.

“It’s common sense Black,” Severus followed him to the kitchen, his eyebrows raising at the blue looking creature napping on the cool tiles. “You don’t want to trigger any magical traces for them to follow.”

“Then how am I supposed to go to the headquarters?” Sirius asked as he wondered how he should go about carrying the cat with Harry almost asleep in his arms. He turned to Snape. “Pick up the cat.” He said and headed upstairs, striding to his friends’ bedroom for any important leftovers.

Snape had enough decency to remain downstairs and tackle the cat. Padfoot could hear intense hissing and crashing coming from the kitchen as reassurance.

He mostly picked up their framed pictures, important ones and crammed each into Harry’s bag, feeling sick as his eyes caught Peter’s in every single one of them. Peter was family. While Sirius couldn’t fully believe Snape’s claim on Peter, he couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t bear to think of anyone hurting his family, especially Harry.

He rummaged Lily’s drawers for important documents and their marriage certificate, and picked out James’ invisibility cloak, throwing a couple of clothes in for good measure as well.

When he got back down, Snape had a red angry looking gash on his cheek, and cat grumpily piled in his arms.

“This cat is the devil.” Snape deadpanned, glaring down at Dolly the cat.

Tell me about it, Sirius internally rolled his eyes. “How are we getting out, the muggle way?”

“You have a death machine, don’t you?” Severus pointed out. “I saw it in the backyard.”

The motorbike. Of course.

Padfoot actually face-palmed himself, then waved Snape to follow him as they turned the lights off and snuck out of the house, silent in their pursuit in the dark, their eyes darting for any potential threats from the door to the bike.

“I’m driving,” he told Snape and carefully swung his leg over the bike, mindful of Harry shifting in his arms. He couldn’t drive with the baby in his arms, that much seemed to be clear. Sirius cursed under his breath.

“I can hold him,” Snape said, sitting onto the bike with the cat growling at him.

“And what of the cat?” Sirius frowned.

“We’ll put him in the diaper bag,” Severus shrugged.

Padfoot didn’t really feel comfortable enough to hand over his fragile, dozing godson to a known double agent who was a death eater, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He didn’t want to hurt or drop Harry while flying the bike.

He handed the diaper bag first. “If you hurt him, Snape, I’m throwing you off the bike and then ramming your body into the ground myself.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Severus responded, and then opened the bag to make room for the cat. The bag would later be placed between his knees and the sidecar with the baby safely in his arms.

Sirius handed over Harry and started the bike. “Cover him in something warmer,” he told Snape over the roaring bike, there must have been some clothes in the bag for Harry. “He might catch a cold.”

“How so?” the January night wasn’t cold enough to warrant extra layers.

“He’s a baby,” Sirius pointed out. “And we’re going to fly there.”

He remembered fixing up this same bike with Moony and Pete, one year before their graduation in James’ backyard. He remembered the hot summer sun beating down on their backs, his own hair tied up, sweat rolling down his neck as he stuck his hand out for tools, and Pete, always the faithful friend, always ready without even asking while Remus idly stood by.

Peter was his best friend, and Sirius loved him like a brother, almost as much as he loved James. They were the marauders; it just didn’t make sense that the other man would do something like this. Peter was THERE when Lily went into labor, he was one of the first people who got to hold the small baby, he babysat Harry with Moony all the time.

All of these aside…Peter simply didn’t have enough guts to get the dark mark. He just didn’t have it in him, and Sirius would know, he had known the man for almost a decade…or he thought he knew him.

“He’s not asleep,” Snape shouted over the wind, and Sirius turned his head to squint at him, his blue hair whipping into his face. He frowned at Snape.
“But he’s not crying either Black. Is something wrong with him?”

Black actually snorted. “No,”

Snape shifted the bundle in his arms uncomfortably. “He’s just staring at me, making this weird grabbing gestures, with his hands.” The man imitated Harry with a stoic face and Sirius laughed again in spite of himself. This was going to be hilarious.

“It’s your hair, Snape.” He shouted. “They’re too long, so he probably likes watching it in the wind.”

It was surprising that Harry was so calm in a stranger’s arms up in the sky. Sirius didn’t think flying wouldn’t have frightened the boy anyway, his godson probably didn’t even know they were flying in the first place. The only thing he could see was Snape’s face and billowy hair, and Sirius pitied him for it.

One day, when this was all over, he would take Harry flying again with this same motorbike, even let the boy himself ride for a little while without his parents knowing. He was going to spoil his godson rotten, Harry would never feel unhappy or scared or unsafe from anyone, especially Peter. He would make sure of that.

“What do I do with him?” Snape asked again after a few minutes and Padfoot rolled his eyes. They were getting closer now. The headquarters was only forty minutes away from James’ cottage, quite convenient for late-night meetings. He just hoped that they were alright, safe within the wards.
The couple who defied the dark lord thrice.

Sirius shivered. “Black?! There are tears in his eyes, what do I do?!”

“Just let him have your freaking hair, Snape!” Sirius shouted in frustration, shaken by his earlier thoughts and annoyed that he couldn’t hold onto his godson for comfort.

There was no stopping it now, the Prophesy was in motion, Harry was in danger, and that thought made Sirius’ heart leap into his throat. He could still remember the night James told him about Dumbledore’s warning, regarding Trelawney’s drunken ramblings. He recalled precisely what he said to James that night as Lily hushed and paced a week old baby in her arms, exhaustion pouring out of her eyes.

“You’re insane if you believe anything that mad cow is saying.” That’s what he had said, late at night in their living room, with the lights dimmed and James sitting next to him, their shoulders brushing. James looked about ready to drop down in exhaustion as well.

“He’s putting us under protection anyway,” his friend said, wearily rubbing his face.

“Jamie…It’s Trelawney.” He argued, his eyes locking on Lily as she stared at him. “We all know that she’s a fraud. She talks out of her ass all the time.”

“She didn’t know I was pregnant,” Lily said as she was rubbing Harry’s back. “She didn’t know Harry’s birthday, she didn’t know James and I were already on you-know-who’s watch-list.”

James released a shaky breath next to him, and Sirius looked between them. “That doesn’t mean she’s a seer.”

“Would you chance it?” James had asked him quite suddenly. His lips pursed, and his face pale. “Would you risk my week old son in the hands of a monster?” Sirius had never seen his best friend so shaken. “Could you even imagine what he would do to my baby? I cannot,” he put a hand on James’ shoulder but Prongs turned his head away, gazing at his wife and son. He looked beyond himself with worry.

“We’re accepting his offer,” he said quietly. “We’ll go into hiding.”

“Alright,” Sirius said, but mostly to appease his friend. He couldn’t understand the logic, but he could be there for Jamie no matter what.

“No one can know Sirius,” Lily told him over Harry’s subdued cries. “Just the family.” Just Peter and Moony then. He could live with that.

“We’ll get through this,” Padfoot said, even though he didn’t believe it himself. “We’ll be fine.”

They weren’t fine. James and Lily JUST had to go ahead on that mission. They just had to paint a target on themselves, and Peter just had to be the mole, and Remus, Merlin, what was he going to say to Moony?

He would be devastated, and pissed as hell when he hears that Sirius thought the mole was him. He would beat the crap out of Peter and Sirius too.

“Ahh!” Padfoot’s head whipped to the source of the sound with wide eyes. It seemed that Harry had finally gotten hold of Snape’s hair as well. The two of them had matching blue heads now. They looked ridiculous.

“He turned it blue!” Snape wrinkled his nose.

“Good job Kiddo,” Sirius leans over to smile at Harry, who grinned toothless in response, his eyes drooping a little. “He’s tired,” he said to a baffled Snape.

“You have to turn this back,” Snape said.

“Why would I?”

“I don’t have my wand Black and we both look ridiculous,” the double agent seethed and Sirius narrowed his eyes. Padfoot didn’t have enough energy to ask the man why he had lost his wand in the first place. He would have to spill the beans later for Dumbledore anyway.

“If Harry declared it blue, then it’s going to stay that way until someone back at the headquarters takes pity on you.”

“Black.” Severus sneered threateningly.

“He’s sleepy, just covers his eyes with a cloth or something, and he would do the rest himself. Don’t cover his nose or mouth, and keep an eye out in case he sick ups in his sleep.”

“How long until we get there?” the man sounded incredibly resigned.

“Fifteen minutes,” he shrugged. “Do as I said, Snape.”

Snape grumbled but complied, his free hand pulled at his hair, his nose pruning in utter disgust as he glared at it and then down at the child.

“Isn’t he only five months old? How is he showing signs of accidental magic already?”

Sirius didn’t know. Honestly, he hadn’t thought much of it before, since he couldn’t remember the first time he did accidental magic himself, and the subject never came up with his other friends either. Lily and James would have told him if this had happened before, so Sirius was certain that this was Harry’s first time, what he wasn’t sure about, was whether Snape was telling the truth.

“He’s five months old,” Padfoot confirmed, albeit a bit grudgingly. He didn’t like willingly sharing such information with Snivellus. To be fair, he wasn’t expecting one of his best friends to be a spy either.

You don’t know that, he thought. Innocent until proven guilty. Sirius wouldn’t believe this madness until Peter had bared his forearm with all order members present, and then they could kick Snape’s ass for lying. It was unlikely, but he could only hope that it would end that way.

“Why didn’t you go to Dumbledore first?” he asked.

Snape let go of his hair and shrugged. “It would have been too late…I had a feeling that I needed to warn them myself.”

“You hate James,”

Severus glared at him. “Yes, but I don’t particularly enjoy partaking in infanticide. This boy is half Lily’s, and I know we don’t exactly see eye to eye,” he paused. “But I’m sure you agree that his life matters more than ours.”

Sirius ducked his head, looking at the stars in the distance, and the clouds rolling beneath their feet, it all looked majestic and he never wanted to live it, never wanted to get back on the ground to face all these newfound issues. He was right, Harry’s life mattered more than theirs. It mattered more than anyone else’s life, because this boy was a miracle child, and supposedly the chosen one.

It stole his breath and he shivered in undulated fear, but he couldn’t deny the authenticity. It could be true. Harry could be the chosen one, with a power the dark lord had not. This child, his godson, could be a hero, and that destroyed Sirius because he knew the price of being a hero.

It made him want to turn the bike around so they could escape, go on the run and then meet up with Lily and James on the way. Go and hide in a hole until this whole damn war was over.

“Trelawney is nothing but a fraud,” he said, repeating his words from months ago, when he was in the Potter’s living room past midnight, sitting as fear racked through their tired bodies and poured out of their eyes.

Snape said nothing but looked down on the sleeping child.

“We’re almost there,” Sirius said with a lump in his throat. He could already see the outlines of the wards surrendering the house. The members would want to know why two men with blue hair were showing up with a baby on a flying bike in the middle of the night. And this was supposed to be Sirius’ off night.

“I’ll get you to Dumbledore without them recognizing you,” he promised. Not everyone knew that Snape was a double agent, and with this raid going on tonight, the larger portion of the members present would be the ones left out of this loop.

“And turn the hair back,” Snape said.

A small grin found its way on Sirius’ face. “Nope, the blue hair stays.”

With everything else going wrong with his life tonight, Sirius needed the blue hair, and so did Snape, whether he liked it or not.

They passed the wards and landed on the muddy ground, the cat hissed loudly at being jostled around in the bag, and Snape grudgingly let it out, handing over a yawning baby over as he got off himself.

Sirius looked over at the lit windows and bit his lips. How was he going to tell them about Peter?