"No. I worry about him." James frowned, his voice tense. "Losing Mia just...
broke him."
"It broke us all a little," Lily admitted. "Have you heard from Remus lately?"
James shook his head. "His last letter was pretty vague. Something about a pack up
north. Said he'd be home for Christmas, though. Wanted to know if Pads would be around
for the holidays. I'd like to think it's because he knows they need to fix whatever happened,
but a part of me thinks he asked so he could try and avoid him."
"We should do something nice for Christmas. Just the family. Something needs to
happen to get those two fixed. Even if we have to lie to get them both in the same room.
I love and respect Dumbledore and appreciate all he's done for us, but I very much dislike
him for sending Sirius and Remus out on separate missions. I know the Order needs it,
and the Order comes first, but you and I have each other, and without Mia... Those two
depended on one another, and now they're both so alone."
"Christmas it is, then," James decided. "Hopefully this war will be over, we'll all be
safe, and we can bring Remus and Sirius home to patch up whatever the hell went wrong
with the two of them."
Lily smiled and leant up to kiss his cheek. "Well, before we even think about
Christmas, what do you want to do for Halloween?"
October 31st, 1981Sirius sobbed against Hagrid's chest, large arms wrapping around him. How had he
gotten here? How had everything gone so terribly wrong? He looked around the broken
cottage that had, until recently, been his home. Been the home of his friends.
And his friends were...
Sirius had gone to check on Peter, who had been switched out as the Potters' Secret-
Keeper only days ago. Despite trusting Peter's judgement, Sirius still worried about him,
and with Lily and James now safe, he felt it was his job to look after Peter—at least until
Dumbledore had them both moved to separate safe houses.