If all else fails, at least you have yourself

Remus was having a lovely morning.

He had had an uninterrupted sleep filled with only pleasant dreams. In one of them, he and Sirius had taken James' and Lily's baby out for the day. There had been no war keeping them in hiding, there had been no lycanthropy making him a dangerous beast, and there was no society keeping him and Sirius apart. They had taken young Harry to Diagon Alley where Sirius spoilt Harry with whatever he wanted and more, even though Harry was content with just spending the day with them. The shops were bright and alive with no hints of war in sight. It had been summer, his favourite season, so they could stay out longer without worrying about it getting too dark. Harry loved it, he always loved spending time with his Uncle Moony and Uncle Padfoot. After taking Harry to all the places that were safe for a one-year-old, they took Harry to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. They then went back to Remus' and Sirius' shared cottage. It was secluded from everything else as it was next to a lovely forest. Sirius loved the cottage because it was so different from the cold, horrible house that he grew up in. Remus loved the cottage because the cottage made Sirius happy and he loved Sirius.

Remus had then had a lovely breakfast of porridge with fruit. It was by far his favourite breakfast. After breakfast, he had started a new book on magical creatures which turned out to be very interesting. It had a lot of new information that he hadn't read about before. He read well into the afternoon before he stopped for a late lunch. He had a lovely ham and cheese sandwich with some fresh juice. He took a break from reading and decided to do all of the tasks that he had been procrastinating on. Remus loved being productive but it was not always a common occurrence. He worked until dinner, cleaning the house, sending replies to letters, buying groceries, and more. For dinner, he used his leftovers from the day before and ate a nutritious meal of roasted vegetables and pasta. Remus didn't often get to eat as much as he did today so when he did it was always special. With people so reluctant to hire a werewolf, he struggled for work and therefore money.

Remus was just about to go to bed after spending the rest of the night finishing his book when there was a sharp knock at the door.

Remus was reluctant to open the door but decided to check anyway. He had a feeling that it might be important.

Wand in hand, he opened the door just a crack to see...a disturbed, traumatized Sirius, a random older man, and... Harry. What was Harry doing here?

"Siri, what's going on?" Remus sighed, already feeling more tired than he was a couple of minutes ago. He didn't want to admit it to himself yet but he was scared. Where were James and Lily? They trusted Sirius but they wouldn't just let him take Harry for no reason. They were supposed to be hiding. Plus, they were in a war in the middle of the night. Merlin, what had happened? Something had to have happened. Who was this random man? Why had Sirius brought a random man to his house? Why was he holding Harry? Why was Sirius letting him hold Harry? Why were they all sad?..." Why does Harry have that mark on his forehead?".

Obviously acting on instinct, the random man lifted a hand to his own forehead. As he did that, he showed off his own matching scar, albeit a little less fresh.

"Can we come inside, Remi? He knows about everything. He knows about Harry. And me. And you. I...please, I need you," Sirius rambled out but whispered the ending. As if, if he were louder, Remus would turn his best friend away.

In response, Remus opened the door wider to allow them all in, hoping that he won't regret this. He kept an eye on the random man though, suspicious.

Remus and Sirius sat down on Remus' couch while the man sat on the floor with Harry in his arms.

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on? Who are you?" He spoke in what he hoped was a calm, collected voice, directing the last part towards the unknown person.

Sirius and the man exchanged a look but Sirius decided to speak up, "Before he starts, there is something that you should know, Remus. Earlier this evening I found out that the ra-... I mean Peter is a death eater," Remus' eyes widened. "Before you ask, yes I am sure. I saw his mark. He showed it to me...Remus...he was also the secret keeper." Sirius' voice trembled towards the end of his sentence as he looked Remus in the eye. It was almost as if he were begging Remus to understand something, but what? What was there to underst-... Oh. Oh, Merlin. A cold ominous dread filled his heart and clouded his brain as he hoped that he wasn't right. "I think you've already guessed but...the rat sold them out. Earlier this evening, You-know-who attacked them. No, he killed them. Y-." Sirius was cut off by a heartbroken sob.

Sirius enveloped Remus in a hug as he cried. They both did. Sirius was probably only now processing what had truly happened. At least they have each other.

If he cared about anything else right now, he would feel awkward that he was crying while he had unknown company and Harry. Oh, Merlin. "Harry," Remus hoarsely whispered. "Fuck, Harry." It said a lot about how bad the situation was when Remus swore in front of Harry.

He didn't know how long it had been before Sirius started back up again. "I got to their place but it was too late. I went upstairs and they were just lying there. Remus, it was awful. I went to...to see if Harry was still-...but he wasn't there. I thought the Dark Lord had taken him or something. I admit...I acted irrationally in my anger. I wanted to kill the bastard but I didn't get a chance. He," He pointed at the unknown man," tied the rat up and stopped him from being able to escape. I could have killed him but I wanted to know who he was. I was so angry that he had taken away my vengeance. He took off an invisibility cloak and was holding Harry," Sirius muttered as Remus' eyebrows raised slightly. "He started to claim the most bizarre things, Remus. He claimed that he was Harry from the future."

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose, "So you're telling me that a random stranger had Harry, said that he was future Harry and you just believed him? Really Sirius".

Sirius looked very offended. "No, of course not! I'm not stupid you know. He knew things, things he shouldn't. He knew I was Harry's Godfather. He knew about Moony and Padfoot." Remus looked at him in disbelief and then turned to look at 'Harry'.

"And how would you know about that? Hmm?"

The man, who was busy bouncing Baby Harry up and down in his lap, looked up. "I know it seems unrealistic but I really am Harry James Potter from the future. I came from after the Second Wizarding War during Voldemort's reign." Second? There was more than one? Hold on, when had he started to believe the man? "I am an auror and was on a mission to deal with this witch. In our time, all time turners have been destroyed because they are illegal to use. This particular witch had been trying to create them so we had to go and resolve the situation. I don't remember much but afterwards, I woke up in the same place alone. The time was really weird and I eventually figured out when I was. I love my family so much but I knew that there was no chance that I'd be able to return to my time. It was almost impossible. I finally had the chance to meet my parents again. I thought I might be able to save them." Remus now understood why Sirius believed older Harry. He sounded so genuine. He sounded so hurt. "I...I got there but...it was too late. I saw my parents just lying there. I went upstairs to get myself. I took him and all the things that we could use. You have to understand, Remus, Sirius, this night was supposed to go much more differently."

"Before, you mentioned something about Harry- you- not knowing me? What do you mean? I'm his Godfather so wouldn't I be the one to raise him? There would be no reason for him to not know me."

Remus suddenly had a terrible thought. "Pads doesn't die too, does he?" he whispered as if any louder and it would become more real. Sirius looked at him with wide eyes. Clearly, the thought had never crossed his mind.

"No! No...well not tonight or in the next ten years." They both released the breath they were holding. "Don't worry, it wasn't natural or anything so it can be avoided. The reason he doesn't know you is because of how differently tonight was supposed to go. Originally, you found me and gave me to Hagrid."

"What, why would I give you to Hagrid? I would have taken you back here or somewhere safe."

"It was the orders of Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore? Why would he have any say with what Sirius does with you"

"I don't know. I do know why he did what he did though. Anyway, Hagrid took me to Dumbledore to live with the Dursleys."

"Who?"

"My Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and their son, Dudley. Lily's sister and her family."

Remus and Sirius were appalled by that idea. She was an obvious magic hater from what they had heard from Lily. James and Lily had made it very clear to their close friends that Harry shouldn't go to live with her under any circumstances. If anything happened to them, he was supposed to go to Sirius. If anything happened to Sirius, he was supposed to go to Remus as he was the responsible one of the group. If anything happened to Remus, then Frank and Alice. If not them, then...Peter. The point was that there were a great many people who were to look after Harry if anything went wrong. So why them?

"While I was there, Sirius had gone after Peter, the same as today, however, Pettigrew was sly. He killed twelve muggles and then cut off his finger."

"Why would he do a thing like that?" Sirius asked, looking like he had gotten a badly-tasting every-flavour bean.

"To frame you, Sirius. He transformed into his rat form and ran to the sewers. You were grieving and in shock so when the aurors got there, they found 12 dead muggles, a finger, and you laughing. You were sent to Azkaban without trial."

...What? That couldn't have happened, could it? His best friend couldn't have been sent to Azkaban...right?

"But he was released once he was proved innocent right?"

"He had apparently betrayed the Potters to Voldemort and killed 13 people, one of which was a wizard. No one believed him to be innocent and everyone hated him. He should have still had a trial but the Ministry wanted it over with."

"That is such bullshit! I would rather die than betray my friends," Sirius growled. Harry's eyes softened and he gave him a small smile.

"I know now, Sirius. I had only heard about you in my third year at Hogwarts. You had been locked in Azkaban for 12 years before you escaped."

That was impossible. No one had ever escaped Azkaban before. It was high security for a reason. Of course, if anyone could pull off the impossible, it is Sirius. But 12 years? Poor Padfoot.

Harry continued, "Everyone thought you had come to finish the job. You had come to kill me".

"I would never!"

The thought that he had believed that Sirius had come to kill Harry knocked Remus sick. How could he believe that?

"Again, I know now, Sirius. You were actually after the rat. My best friend Ron had a rat in his family for 12 years. The reason it had lived so long is that it was an unregistered animagus. Guess who. As Padfoot, he had taken Ron by the leg and dragged him into the Shrieking Shack. Hermione and I followed him because we weren't going to just leave him. When we got there, Sirius was standing behind the door. We thought he was going to kill me. To be honest, I was going to kill you. I had recently found out you were my Godfather, my parent's friend. I thought you had killed them. I hated you. Then Remus came in".

"Me?" Remus privately hoped that he was there to help Sirius.

"He disarmed me. He was my defence against the dark arts teacher at the time and he was teaching me how to cast a Patronus."

Harry was interrupted by a burst of loud laughter. Sirius was bent over clutching his stomach as his eyes watered. "Remus the marauder, a teacher." He cut himself off as another peal of laughter slipped past his throat.

Remus glared at him as he complimented Harry, "A Patronus in only your third year. That's very impressive."

Harry blushed slightly, "Well, y'know, with a killer after me, I needed a way to fight the dementors that were staying on school grounds looking for Sirius."

Sirius and Remus both shuddered at the thought of dementors constantly around children.

"We thought Remus was on Sirus' side and had betrayed us. Well, he was, but not in the way we expected. Before this night, I had found something unusual on the Marauders' Map-"

"You had the map! Remus, he had the map. We have a new Marauder!" Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius and gestured for Harry to continue.

"Peter Pettigrew, a man thought to be dead. I had foolishly gone looking for Pettigrew because I was confused. I was then found by Professor Snape-"

"Snivellus is a teacher!" Sirius interrupted again.

"Yes, he is. Now back to the topic at hand. Professor Snape and Remus had found me. I went with Remus and he scolded me for acting recklessly and keeping the map on my person when there was a killer on the loose." Remus agreed with the actions of his other self but didn't comment. "I told him that I didn't think the map worked properly because I had seen a man on the map. One I believed to be dead. He told me it wasn't possible but that was how he realised what had really happened. You both explained to us what had happened that night and turned the rat back into a human. You wanted to kill him but I stopped you. I didn't think my dad wanted his two best friends to become killers so we were going to take him back to the castle to give to the dementors. It didn't work out that way though. That night, it was a full moon-"

Oh.

Oh fuck.

"Please say I didn't hurt anyone, Harry," Remus begged, desperate for an answer. He would be crushed if he hurt anyone, let alone children.

"Sirius transformed into Padfoot and held you off. He did get hurt but he was fine after that. We also had Snape who protected us."

"Really?" They both said in surprise. Remus didn't expect Snape to protect them but it made sense. He was a professor and they were his students.

"I know you don't like him but he was a good man. He didn't like me either but he helped me more than a few times when I was in danger. Unfortunately, when Remus turned into a werewolf, Pettigrew escaped. This meant that we didn't have any evidence to prove Sirius' innocence."

Of course, he was the reason that his best friend couldn't live an innocent life.

"Sirius went into hiding at 12 Grimmauld Place for two years until he died."

It was silent after that. No one knew what to say to that.

He knew what Sirius was thinking. He had lived such a shitty life. He had found out that his brother and sister-in-law had died. He couldn't look after his godson like he promised James and Lilly he would. He was sent to Azkaban for twelve years with the knowledge that the real traitor was living his life. When he had finally escaped, he had to spend the remaining part of his life hiding. He basically only had two options. Go back to Azkaban (and probably receive the dementor's kiss) or barely leave the place where he had the worst memories.

Did it matter anymore? Sirius wouldn't be going to Azkaban again.

They could fix their fate.

...Right?