The Boys Who Lived

The Boys Who Lived
by: Norische

Sirius coughed as he ducked under another fallen ceiling timber, holding a crying baby Harry close to his chest wrapped in his favorite blankie. He climbed over a shattered toy box and did his best not to step on any of the toys although something squeaked as his heal came down on it’s head. Not bothering to check and see what stuffed animal just bit the dust Sirius fought his way through the rubble to the door and down the long hallway down the stairs. He had to be careful going down the stairs, a couple of stairs were missing and there were a couple of stairs that were about ready to go at any minute.

Sirius covered little Harry’s eyes as they passed James’ body, he didn’t want Harry to remember his father like that, no kid deserves that.

They made it outside just as they heard a loud crash coming from somewhere within the house, causing Sirius to jump, Merlin that was close. Smoke was starting to billow up out of the rear of the cottage that James and Lily had so loved. Sirius could hear the fire and rescue truck coming and he could only think about one thing, getting Harry as far away from there as possible. He put Harry in his rumble seat of his 1959 Triumph Booneville T120 and strapped him down then took off.

He noticed Rubeus Hagrid, the keeper of keys and grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had just popped into the picture. Practically right in front of the local fire team too.

“Saw the smoke and wanted to make sure no one was hurt I did.” Hagrid said. Apparently the constable who had just arrived wanted to know what Hagrid was doing at the scene all by himself at that time a night on Halloween.

“Looks like we got bodies here Constable, probably arson, from the looks a things.” A young fire fighter said when he came up to the Constable that was talking to Hagrid stated.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that Mr. Hagrid now would you?” The Constable asked.

“Course I woona’ I jus got here my own self too.” Hagrid looked shocked, bodies…but how many, Dumbledore had to know about this. Poor, poor James, and Lily, and poor wee Harry.

“Speaking of which, exactly how did you get here tonight? There is no vehicle around here and it is pretty far to walk even to the next closest neighbor.” The Constable asked looking very skeptical at the overly large man.

“I…ah…I walked…yes…I walked…through them woods there.” He said pointing to a patch of woods over to the east of the cottage.

“Through those woods there?” The Constable repeated doubtfully. “So how was the swamp this time of night, hmmm?” He asked.

“Swamp?” Hagrid looked confused.

“Thought so. Call the paddy wagon, we got a suspect to take in, cuff him Lewis.”

“With what Sir, nothing I got will fit?”

“Use your imagination man! I have some leg cuffs in the boot of my car so snatch them up and put them on him, and be quick about it too.” The Constable ordered.

The young officer took another look at Hagrid and began to tremble but went ahead and did what his superior told him to do. Then placed the huge man in the back of the paddy wagon when it arrived.

Normally getting away from a bunch of muggles would be easy for the games keeper but unfortunately he didn’t own a wand and he didn’t have a portkey to get himself out of the the jail he was currently sitting in. He could always just break out using brute force but then it would be all over the news and the papers and then Dumbledore would never let him hear the end of it. No he had to wait until Dumbledore or one of the others came to find him. But with You-know-who doing all his doings and killing James, Lily and little Harry and all, Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix might be a bit before they could come get him out.

———————————————————————————

Sirius drove his Booneville through the London fog towards Longbottom Hall as fast as the motorcycle would go. Keeping an ever watchful eye on his passenger who was safely wrapped in warm comfy blankets in the sidecar.

With everything that had happened tonight the only people he would trust were Frank and Alice Longbottom. Alice was Harry’s godmother and she would make sure that he was well taken care of. Besides they had little Neville, and he and little Harry were best buddies, born only minutes apart at St. Mongos they were practically raised together, which was one of the reasons that Lily was Neville’s godmother and Alice was Harry’s godmother. Besides the fact that Frank and James worked together when James was allowed to work that is and they became good friends back then too. Lily and Alice were best friends when they went to Hogwarts, since they were eleven they were practically inseparable, hell they got married weeks apart, and then they got pregnant days apart, and gave birth minutes apart, that’s how bad they were. James and Frank were even talking about getting a place where they could all live… once this whole thing was done and over with. But right now that painted too nice a target on one spot and ensured an attack.

Sirius saw Longbottom Hall and began to head for the entrance, even though it was under a Fidelius Charm, Frank and Alice made sure that he knew the secret, just like James and Lily had made sure that they knew the Secret to their place. He got to the gates and gave the password then made his way pass the gates. Making sure no one saw him come in.

Frank came running up the pathway to meet him as he went racing down the path towards the grand old home.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Why did you use the emergency code?” Frank asked as he rushed toward Sirius on the motorcycle with him and little Harry.

Sirius stopped the Booneville and reaching over to pick up little Harry who apparently had loved the ride and was giggling in the side car beside him. He got off the motorcycle and turned towards Frank just as Frank managed to make his way to him.

“He got them.” Was all Sirius stated before he started crying. “He got them.” He said again and soon he was sobbing.

“Oh Merlin…” Since Sirius was carrying a baby, and Frank could recognize that crazy mop of hair anywhere, he knew that little one was Harry, he knew Sirius was talking about James and Lily. Oh Merlin… Voldemort must have attacked and killed James or Lily…no he got both of them, or Sirius wouldn’t have little Harry. Oh poor sweet little Harry. Got to get them both inside.

Frank threw his arm around the sobbing Sirius and still giggling Harry and led them inside the mansion. “Meeps” He called as soon as he got through the door. As soon as he called out a house elf popped in and waited for his instructions. Frank sent Meeps to go get Alice and let her know that Sirius and Harry were here.

Frank took Sirius into the parlor and helped him into a big overstuffed chair near the fireplace. Then went around and stoked up the fire some to make sure that Sirius and little Harry were warm enough, it was only twenty-eight degrees out there right now. Thank Merlin for warming charms or those two would probably be people cicles by the time they pulled up here.

Alice came rushing into the room about five minutes later, carrying a rather sleepy Neville, who for some reason woke up about an hour ago screaming and wouldn’t go back to sleep. Chances are they may just figure it out soon enough. Lily always said those boys have some kind of psychic link or something.

Alice put a grumpy Neville on the floor with Harry and soon both of then were curled up together holding on to one another for dear life. Then it was Sirius’ turn to explain what happened, “I wasn’t there when it happened, but I saw the after effects. James was downstairs dead, looked like an AK got him. There was a lot of spell damage to the room, so he definitely didn’t go quietly. Then I heard Harry upstairs crying so I headed upstairs to his room… the door to his room was blown off the hinges, the ceiling and roof were gone, like it exploded from the inside out. Everything in the room was pretty much demolished except for Harry’s crib, which was damaged on the outside but untouched on the inside…does that make any sense?” Sirius asked, a look of total confusion on his face.

“I understand, continue.” Alice said.

“I made it about half way into the room and noticed Lily’s body laying in the rubble. I went over and checked just to make sure, and yeah she was dead too. But I couldn’t tell exactly what got her. Spell, or damage from the demolition of the room, it could have been either really.”

“Then I spotted them, what was left of His robes. You know, there were You-Know-Who’s robes and wand and no body. That confused me a little, so I just grabbed his wand and then turned and grabbed Harry and got the hell out of there.” Sirius said.

“As I was leaving I spotted Hagrid showing up, wonder what he was doing there, or better yet how he got their address. It looked like he had a portkey to get there so undoubtedly Dumbledore did it. That makes me wonder why didn’t Dumbledore come himself? Why send some damn flunky out to check up on them? Weren’t they important enough to pencil into his busy schedule or what? They worked for him non-stop for three years, risking their lives day after day until he forced them to go into hiding, and he can’t be spared the time to come check and see if they are still alive? I like Hagrid and all but the man doesn’t even have a wand. Merlin, he got captured by the damn Muggles and is now in Muggle police custody, for the love of Merlin!”

Sirius got up and began to pace back and forth in front of the fireplace. “Why the hell would he send Hagrid? Good when you need muscle or when you need help with creatures. But not when you need someone in a all out firefight. And what was Dumbledore thinking about Hagrid’s safety, huh? If You-Know-Who was really there he was sending Hagrid right into his own funeral. No offense, no real defense, nothing he could do but grab a tree branch and swing it at the bloody bastard. And by the time he did that, he’d be dead…”

“And another thing… how did Dumbledore know to send someone in the first place? I know that James never mentioned any kind of tracker or monitor spell on him or Lily and he damn sure wouldn’t let him put a monitor spell on Harry. James used to call those things nothing more than bait and hook spells. It does no good, except it turns the person into a piece of bait for the person who has control over the spell. He hated the damn things. Refused to use them at work and through the Order, so if Dumbledore had one on James he did it without James’ knowledge, which would piss him off and doesn’t sit real straight with me either.”

Every since James, Sirius, Frank and Alice started working for the Ministry, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to be exact, Dumbledore wanted to be their new best friend. Always wanted to know what is going on at the Ministry, wanted to know what the Minister is doing, anytime you state you can’t give him that information, he brought out that spiel about how you were part of the Order first and so your obligation should be to it first.

Then he tried to guilt you into making you do what he wanted you to do, even if it will cost you your job. He is always happy to haul out that ‘some sacrifices must be made for the greater good you know my boy’ speech. Sirius had heard it so many times he could practically choke on it the next time he heard it. Dumbledore just doesn’t have a good touch with reality, that whole greater good idea doesn’t pay the rent and won’t buy groceries.

His damn greater good didn’t save James and Lily and sure as hell hasn’t done a damn thing for little Harry either. Bones…He needed to call Bones. “I’ve got to call Bones, let her know what happened.”

Frank looked shocked that he hadn’t thought of it before. “Absolutely. Use this floo.”

Sirius got down on his knee and threw the floo powder in and called out his destination. And waited for it to connect, soon enough there was a rather sleepy Amelia on the other end and Sirius leaned forward and spoke.

“Amelia, got some real bad news, just came from over at James and Lily’s place… there gone. You-know-who got them. He didn’t get little Harry though, I don’t know why he didn’t go after Harry but he is okay, thank Merlin. He is here with me, and I am at Frank and Alice’s. Oh and it looked like Hagrid was being arrested by the muggles when I left there, so you might need to contact Dumbledore to go get his pet out of jail. Yeah there were muggles everywhere, trying to put out the fire and all. So you will need someone to go in and work detail to get the priority switched to us instead of muggle. It looked like AK for James, although he went down with a fight, and I don’t know if it was an AK or what that got Lily. The room was blown apart and I had to climb over the rubble to get to Harry, to get him out of there. Yeah he is mostly okay, oh pretty bad gash on his head, we’ll take him down and get him looked at tomorrow, he is asleep right now. Probably down to the Goblins, their the only ones I would trust with him. Besides they’re the best there is. James preferred using them to Mongos most of the time, they always said you can’t make money off a dead client, and they mean it.

“Oh and Amelia their secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew, Dumbledore was the one that put up the wards. I was there and saw the whole thing if you need my memory that’s fine. James told Frank as well, had Peter give him the location of the cottage so they could come over and bring little Neville to visit. As far as I know that is the list that knows of where they lived and only Peter could have given the address out to You-know-who.” Sirius sat down in the over stuffed chair and took the fire whisky that Alice offered him and drank it back

Frank got into the fire and verified everything that Sirius had just said and then added “Sirius said that he had You-Know-Who’s wand. No I’m not kidding, said he found it and his robes on the floor in the nursery, before the thing collapsed when he was getting Harry out of there. Okay, I’ll open it up for you…give it five minutes and come on through.”

A few minutes later Amelia Bones came through the floo decked out in full Auror garb. “On duty Ma’am?” Sirius asked seeing the black uniform with the blue stripe going down the lapels.

“Always Mr. Black, always.” With a flick of her wand she banished the soot from her robes and turned to Frank and Alice. Alice was over to the side of the room where there were two babies curled up sleeping on a big thick rug. Amelia instantly watched her tone due to the sleeping little ones.

“So you have his wand?” Amelia held out her hand to Sirius and he started patting down pockets, “Oh yeah forgot about that, here you go. Don’t want the damn thing on me a second longer…here…take it….” He handed the wand over to her as quickly as he could, holding it by two fingers, as if were a smelly piece of trash or something.

Amelia took out an evidence bag and had Sirius drop the wand into it then sealed the bag. Next she brought out several clear vials and had Sirius give her the memory of Peter Pettigrew being made the secret keeper and Peter giving him the secret of where their address was to him. Then she had Frank do the same where Peter gave him the Potter’s their address. Finally she had Sirius give her the memory of what Harry’s room looked like when he got there and what You-Know-Who’s things looked like when he left. After that she took a complete report as best as she could with Sirius on the verge of a breakdown the whole time. The only thing that kept him from breaking down was the fact that he wanted to be professional about this whole thing. He would break down later… when there were not so many witnesses. Right now he would just sit here and cry silently for his best friend and try hard not to think about what happened.

“You know it is that damn fools own fault, we knew there was a spy in the Order but we didn’t know who, and so he thought that if he used Peter instead of me that no one would expect Peter to be the damn Secret Keeper, and I could act as a decoy. Damn him. Stupid son of a bitch. If he had just made me the Secret Keeper they would be alive right now. But no he had to try and be ‘smart’ about it; and it got him and Lily killed, and nearly got my godson killed to boot. Bloody moron.”

Amelia could tell that Sirius was going to be angry at James and incredibly sad that he and Lily were gone, his emotions were in such turmoil that they were driving him a little nuts right now but he would be able to figure it out in time, she hoped.

“You get that little rat, or I will…oh that is something else. Peter is a rat animagus, a common brown rat. An ugly brown, common rat at that. Should have known what he would be like from his animagus but we trusted him… we trusted him with our lives and he betrayed us. Either you get him or I won’t hold myself responsible for what I do.

“Animagus?” Amelia looked at Sirius skeptically, at best Pettigrew was a fair Wizard, not the type that she would expect to be able to become an animagus.

Sirius nodded. “Yeah, we all three had worked our fifth, six, and seventh years to get it right, well he did at least, James and I got it right by sixth year. James was a stag, beautiful and royal…gods was he beautiful. I’m a grim, a big black menacing grim.” Then Sirius stood up and changed into his Animagus form and poof there was Padfoot right before Amelia licking her hand. Poof and Sirius was back, “Sorry about that, Padfoot kinda takes over when I let him in.” He said with a grin as he watched Amelia wipe her hand on her robes.

“Okay, I believe you on the Animagus part, a common brown rat you say? Anything distinguishing about him?” Amelia asked, making notes on her pad.

“Nothing substantial, he has three brown pads on his feet and one white one, but you have to look at a lot of rats to find one that has one white foot. Other than that he is completely common. Annoyingly so.” Sirius stated.

“Well it gives us something at least, not many rat animagus’ around, not registered I get it?” Amelia asked.

“No, James thought it would give us an advantage in this damn war were fighting somehow so we didn’t register. The only one that could really be a benefit is also the one that betrayed us, damn him. He would have been a great spy but no, he had to go and bat for the other side. He must have been working for You-Know-Who all along and we just didn’t know it. Marlene McKinnon and Mary Macdonald, Fabian and Gideon, hell your own brother lost their lives to that bastard’s information he gave the other side. Who else did we loose but we don’t know their names…” Sirius said sadly. He had dated Marlene for two years and had even thought about getting engaged to her when she was killed, her and Mary Macdonald were killed the same night by a sneak attack on their flat. That was when they were sure they had a mole in the Order, there was no one else that knew of their location and so it had to be someone within the Order that told You-Know-Who where they were hiding out. Remus had dated Mary for months and they were getting kinda serious, it nearly broke the old wolf when he heard about the attack…oh shit, he needed to call Remus.

“Frank is it all right if I call Remus, he needs to be here, I need to tell him what happened. I can’t do it over the floo. I want him here to see Harry is alright. Without seeing Harry, I don’t know what he will do, his pac destroyed and by one of it’s own.” Sirius stated sadly.

Frank nodded, he had known that Remus was a werewolf from back in Hogwarts days. It wasn’t hard to figure out if you just looked at a calendar and kept an eye on how the boy looked each month. “Sure, he needs to know.”

Sirius got down on his knees in front of the floo and made the call. “Remus Lupin, Remus are you there buddy, answer me please this is important.” Sirius waited a few minutes and tried again and finally Remus’ face came into the flames.

“What do you want at this hour Sirius, it better be important.” A sluggish Remus stated.

“It is, and unfortunately I can’t tell you over the floo, I need you to come through. I’m over at Frank’s place. Can you come through…it’s an emergency.” Sirius stated.

At the word emergency the old wolf was immediately awake and aware, “Yeah, I can come through immediately. Step aside, and I can come through right now.”

So that is exactly what Sirius did, and Remus came through the flames. Remus was wearing his sleep pants and favorite Rolling Stones tee shirt but he was there. “What emergency, this had better be serious for real Sirius or else I…” Then he spotted Amelia, then little Harry and Neville on the thick rug and quickly looked around for James and Lily and began to panic when he didn’t see them.

“Where are James and Lily?” Remus asked half panicking.

“That is the emergency.” Sirius place a hand on his old friend’s arm. “It was Peter, he gave You-Know-Who their location, he got them. Killed them both. I got little Harry out of the house before it collapsed but…” Sirius started sobbing again and Remus reached over and hugged his old friend they held on to each other for dear life. “Why did we trust that rat bastard Remus? Why? He betrayed us…” Sirius sobbed. Remus was having a rough time holding it together and his eyes were turning a golden color as Sirius cried on his shoulder. Sirius could feel his old friend start to stiffen and tremble, trying to hold the wolf back but he was struggling hard not to let it loose. Sirius leaned away from Remus and looked into those flaming golden eyes and realized just how close the wolf was to the surface right now.

Sirius did the only thing he could think of…”We have to focus on Harry right now my friend, he needs us. We are all he has left. We can’t go wild and go after that bastard. We have to leave that up to Amelia and the others. That is why I called Amelia here and gave her all the information I have.”

This got Remus staring at little Harry who was laying on the thick furry rug, he calmed just a little, not wanting to let the wolf loose when Harry was around. “That’s right old friend, pull it together, focus on Harry. We will get Peter. But now Harry is more important that that son-of-a-bitch.

Remus sniffed the air and realized that he could smell Harry’s blood. “Harry’s hurt? What happened? How bad is he hurt? Has he seen a healer? What did they say?”

Sirius squeezed his friend’s arm and said calmly. “Whoa there big fella. Harry has a cut on his head, and I haven’t taken him to a healer yet, I just got here to Frank and Alice’s place a few minutes ago. I am going to take him to the Goblins in a minute, that was one of the reasons I called, I wanted to see if you want to go with me?”

“Absolutely, give me twenty minutes, I will be right back.” With that Remus headed back through the flames and disappeared.

“Well that’s one disaster avoided. At least he is focused on Harry and not Peter right now… He took the loss of James and Lily better than I imagined though.” Frank said slightly confused.

“He would always put Harry’s welfare first, Harry is his cub. While James and Lily are Pac…Harry is his cub so Harry has a whole different place in his heart. That is why I mentioned him. I knew nothing but Harry would be able to stop the wolf from coming out and taking after Peter.” Sirius said sadly as he wiped his eyes. “Kinda like I feel, nothing is more important than Harry, that is the only reason I haven’t taken out after the bastard. I can’t leave Harry alone.”

——————————————————————

Sirius, Remus, Frank and Alice, with Alice carrying both Harry and Neville flooed over to Gringotts bank shortly after Amelia left. Frank and Alice had to come along since Neville and Harry wouldn’t let go of each other without screaming the roof down. They decided just to bring them both. They weren’t happy about being woke up again, but at least they were quiet for now. We would see what happened when the Goblins had to examine Harry in a minute…probably another screaming fit but hopefully not.

Sirius went over to a teller and told them what he wanted, there were very few people that knew the Goblin’s had a medical facility. And even fewer that were privileged enough to be able to use it. Thankfully, being a Black and a Potter did have some pull within the Goblin world too. The teller ask them to wait for a moment and then escorted them to a huge office, there was a very official looking Goblin sitting behind a huge desk at one end of the room. Sirius didn’t recognize the Goblin so he assumed that he must be the Potter’s Goblin.

“Mr. Black, I presume?” The Goblin asked.

“Yes, and this is Remus Lupin, Frank and Alice Longbottom, and she has Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter in her arms.” Sirius pointed to each person as he introduced them and each one nodded their head as he said their name.

“Griphook stated you wished to see a healer, for what purpose may I ask?”

“Harry was injured tonight, he has a gash on his head, it looks pretty bad and we wanted to have it looked at. We can’t go to St. Mongos, and that left on Madam Pomfrey and bless her soul, she is great with a scraped knee or wizarding flu but she… well…” Sirius let his voice fade off. He loved Hogwarts medi-witch, really he did, but that is exactly what she was, a medi-witch not a doctor or anything. He wanted someone with a little more experience and knowhow under their belt looking after Harry.

“I am Ragnok the head of Gringotts of London and your request was sent to me because of how unusual it is, normally we would not allow a human see our facilities, what makes you think we should do so now?” Ragnok asked placing his elbows on the desk and folding his hands together.

“I know you have done so for James once or twice when he was injured real bad, he said he trusted no one but the Goblin Nation and their Healers. Something about them being the best there is and that no one could possibly come close to the skill and talent that the Goblins have when it comes to healing. I will pay what ever you require naturally, but I want Harry to have the best. I think this cut on his head is more than just a little cut… it feels…I don’t know…different some how… I need someone that knows what they are doing to look at it and tell me what it is that I am feeling coming off of it.”

Ragnok thought about it for a moment then nodded, James Potter was a friend of the Goblin Nation and had been since he caught that thief trying to disguise himself as his brother and make a withdrawal from his brother’s account and James apprehended him, stopping him and preventing a huge mistake on the Goblin’s part. The fact that the man was his identical twin was irrelevant as far as the courts were concerned, but James was able to tell the two apart and stopped the wrong twin from making the withdrawal.

“Very well Mr Black, if you would follow Griphook, he will take you to the medical facilities and get Harry Potter checked over.” Ragnok finally said.

“Thank you sir.” Sirius bowed to Ragnok as did Remus, Frank and Alice which was a little hard with both children in her arms, but they just held on looking around to see if they could figure out what was going on.

Griphook opened the door for them and led them down a long hall way that had many many doors and finally came to a door that looked like any one of the other doors, but he knocked once and went in.

They walked inside and the room was stark white with four examination tables, there were cabinets and shelves with instruments of all kinds lining the walls. There were four people in the room, everyone was dressed in that same stark white uniforms but one Goblin was quite a bit taller that the other three, two to the other three appeared to be female and one appeared to be male. That was the first time Sirius had ever seen a female Goblin, he hadn’t even known what one would look like. They were kinda cute, in a Goblin sort a way…

“This is Mr. Harry Potter, son of James Potter, friend of the Nation, he is to be treated as such as well. So said by Ragnok himself.” Griphook stated with his chest puffed out for some reason.

The tall Goblin looked over to us and spotted Harry who was staring right back at him and nodded. “Very well, if you could put the boy on the table I will examine him.”

Well that brought about a series of fits. Neither Harry nor Neville wanted to be too far away from each other so it ended up with both babies sitting on the exam table. Alice holding Neville and Sirius holding Harry.

The first thing they did was a general scan and that led to other scans, the head Goblin was apparently not happy with the results he was seeing. “I need you to take your hands off of the child for a moment so I can do a complete scan on just him please.”

The tall Goblin did the scan again, still frowning he turned to Neville and asked the same of Alice. “Could you please not touch the child for a moment.” Again he got results he did not like.

Sirius couldn’t stand it any longer… “What did you find?”

“Both these boys have monitoring charms on them, one for life and one for location. And all four were placed by the same individual, Albus Dumbledore.”

“What! How dare he! Remove them at once! James would never knowingly allow such things to be placed on his son. How dare that wrinkled old bastard put one on my godson…probably how he knew to send Hagrid to try and get him earlier.” Sirius fumed. He was getting a little mad and it was beginning to scare Harry so he had to tone it down some. “Hey buddy, I’m not angry with you. I’m just upset about something that a whiskered old fool has done. Don’t take me too serious, okay pup.” He smiled at Harry. This brought the smile back to Harry’s face thankfully.

“Take them off of my son as well, we never authorized them to be there and never would.” Frank said and Alice nodded.

“What else did you find?” Sirius asked, almost afraid to ask.

The talk goblin looked him in the eye and said…”Each boy has a seal on their magic, also placed on there by Dumbledore. It looks like about a seventy percent seal. So their working with only about thirty percent of their magic at this point.

“WHAT!” Both Frank and Sirius exploded causing Harry and Neville to start crying, Remus took over trying to quiet down Harry and Alice worked with Neville trying to stop the tears he was crying.

“How dare he! Take it off immediately! I don’t care how much it costs! I want it off my godson! I will have his neck for this!” Sirius stated.

“You’ll have what is left after I have finished with him! Get that thing off my son, and I want written proof that it was there to begin with and documentation that it was him that put it there.” Frank said reaching over and brushing a brown curl out of his son’s eyes.

“Same here, I want the documentation it was Dumbledore and anything you can give me about it, when it was put on or anything like that, also the same with the two trackers. Those are illegal if they aren’t authorized and I know for a fact that James would never authorize them so I want documentation on those as well.” Sirius said.

“That’s right and I know for a fact that I never authorized it.” Frank said. “I’m going to see that bastard behind bars before I’m through with him.”

“This one has something, something very dark behind that scar of his. I need to examine it further but can’t do it while anyone is touching him.” The tall Goblin stated.

Remus instantly let loose of Harry, making sure he could sit there on his own, Harry just sat there looking around at everyone trying to figure out what was goin on. Then the tall Goblin touched his scar and he started crying and reaching out for Sirius who came over immediately but didn’t touch Harry yet, not until the Goblin said he could. It was a couple of very long minutes and finally he moved away from Harry and allowed Sirius to reach over and grab his godson and hold him close once more.

“So what is it? What’s wrong Doc?” Sirius asked dreading what the Goblin might say.

“He has a soul fragment behind that scar, how it got there I have no idea. But thankfully we can remove it, fairly quickly and easily. It will just take a few moments to ready the ritual room. The biggest problem would be that the boys would have to be separated for the ritual. Perhaps a slight sedative to make them sleepy would work.” He suggested.

Alice thought about it for a second and nodded, anything would be better than listening to Neville cry his little heart out when his Harry was too far away. She guessed it was because of the near death thing that Harry had just been through and Neville is afraid of loosing him. But Harry is also afraid of loosing his Neville, as well. Those two really are closer than two brothers ever could be.

The Doctor looked down to one of the female Goblins and said something in Goblin to her and she nodded and headed off to do what ever he instructed her to do. Then he turned back to the two boys. “I am going to give each one a mild sedative and that should take care of any discomfort they may feel at the inconvenience of being separated for a short time.” Then he went over to a short cabinet and pulled out a bottle of orange liquid and poured a small amount in each little cup he had there. Then he walked over and handed a cup to both Sirius and Alice to give to the boys.

Both boys sipped at the drink quite willingly so Sirius guessed it tasted good, since it was orange it was either pumpkin flavor or maybe orange flavored. Never know with Goblins they might choose something weird like orange flavor. It only took a few minutes and they were both out like a light. “Well I guess a light Goblin sedative is a little stronger for a human that I thought. Oh well, it won’t last long and we need to hurry with this ritual to remove that soul fragment.” The Doctor took Harry and placed him on one of the small gurneys and wheeled him down the hall and into another room. Ten minutes later there was a unearthly scream from that room and a slight rumble that had Sirius and Remus racing down the hallway. Just before they got to the door the Doctor was wheeling the gurney out with little Harry on it. His scar that had once been bright red and inflamed was now barley noticeable, in fact you had to search for it to actually find it. In a few days it would probably be gone completely.

Sirius walked with the gurney back to the main exam room and watched Harry the whole way, as if he expected him to suddenly wake up and start crying or something. But thankfully they made it back to the main room and they put little Harry next to Neville again and the Doctor said that the only other thing that he could tell that was wrong with the boy was that he had a slight cold but it wasn’t too bad yet. Plenty of fluids and rest and he should be fine.

Sirius sighed in relief and took all the paperwork that the young nurse had handed him and Frank and thanked them and then bowed which surprised the Doctor and nurses, who bowed back.

Sirius then picked up a sleepy Harry and headed out, Alice picked up a still dozing Neville and they all went back out to the main lobby of Gringotts. They decided to take a little side trip and head over to grab something to eat before heading back to Longbottom Hall so they went over to this nice little muggle restaurant that Sirius had found when he had worked as a Auror, called Antonio’s. It is an Italian restaurant that sold all kinds of pastas and salads but its specialty is this thing called pizza that Sirius just loved. It turned out that Remus loved the stuff now too. And once little Harry woke up enough to realize they were now sitting down eating, he wanted some too, and he loved it. He was so cute, sitting there with pizza sauce all over his face with a pepperoni in each hand eating them both. Grinning like there was no tomorrow. Sirius wished he had had a camera, oh well there were always a pensieve.

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Elsewhere in a drafty old Castle somewhere in northern Scotland two whirling little doohickies on a shelf exploded, then a third, and fourth, then the fifth, sixth and seventh.

Albus Dumbledore nearly fell out of his throne like chair when the first two mechanisms exploded but when the rest started exploding he began racing across the room towards them with his wand in hand, trying to prevent the next one from going up in smoke. But he was too late; the last one was gone. What in the name of the seven hells had happened?

All his monitors and blocks on both Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom had just exploded. And since they were blood based that could only mean one thing… the boys must be dead. He had no way to trace either of the boys now, and had no idea where Longbottom Hall was located since it was under a Fidelius Charm. He had sent Hagrid after Harry Potter but Hagrid had never come back, so Harry must have been injured badly and just passed away now… poor, poor Harry. To die before he could meet his Destiny.

But that meant that the Longbottom boy must have battled Voldemort tonight as well, but he had lost too. Tonight was a dark night for all of the Wizarding world; the only ones who could save it, had been killed; and the worse horror of their times was only going to get more horrific with each passing breath.

Well he guessed it was up to him then. He didn’t want to do this, he had sworn never to kill after the incident with Ariana. But this was for the Greater Good and he had to save the Wizarding World after all.