Fic: "Fidelius" for mackenzie1
Title: Fidelius
Author: aidenfire
Recipient's name: mackenzie1
Rating: PG
Characters: James, Lily, Sirius, Harry
Author's notes: Thanks to my wonderful beta. She knows who she is. :)
James yawned and rubbed his eyes. He’d been watching Harry all day. Lily was at an Order meeting. She’d sent an owl saying that it was running long, but she should have been home nearly an hour ago. James wished he could be there to keep her safe, but she could take care of herself, he knew. And anyway, they never went anywhere together anymore. Not because of marital strife, but because leaving their Harry unprotected was unthinkable, and they didn’t trust anyone to watch him but themselves. James watched Harry playing with a few colored blocks on the floor, and sighed. Both he and Lily were far too close to the front lines of the war to ever fully relax, but the last month had been the worst. He didn’t think he’d really let down his guard since Dumbledore had told them about that prophecy a few days ago.
He heard the sound of the wards over the door beeping, and quickly got his wand out. It was almost certainly Lily, but a bloke could never be too careful, especially with a baby boy to protect from Voldemort.
“James, it’s me. The first time you kissed me was behind the greenhouse, and I slapped you for it,” his wife’s voice called.
James smiled, and returned the rest of the security phrase.
“And the second time was outside Gryffindor tower, and you fell in love with me. Hello, Lily-love.”
His wife walked into the room. “Hello, James.” She looked tired, too. She always looked tired, these days. They all did. James looked at his wife’s forehead and the frown lines that never went away anymore, and cursed Voldemort in his mind yet again. He went to his wife, and pulled her close to him. He held her for a long moment. He was about to let go and ask about the meeting when Lily’s shoulders started shaking.
“Lily, Lily-love, what’s wrong?”
She sniffled and let out a bitter little laugh. “What’s right?”
He held her tighter. James hated this. He hated feeling helpless, and he hated watching his family hurt, and he hated not being able to do a thing about it. He hated this whole damn war.
“James, at the meeting-” she broke off, and buried her head in his chest. James was truly worried, now. Times were tough, there was no denying that, but Lily was tough too. It wasn’t like her to burst into tears at the drop of a wand.
“We’re not safe.”
James rocked his wife back and forth a bit. “I know, I know, love.”
“No. We’re not safe here. We need-we need to go into hiding.”
James pulled back a little and looked at Lily’s face. “What?”
She nodded, closing her eyes. “At the meeting-Dumbledore said Voldemort’s decided to-God, to ‘eliminate the boy before he became a true threat.’”
They both looked down at Harry, who’d stopped playing with his blocks and was looking up at his parents. “Mama.” he said.
“Yes, darling. Mama’s here.” Lily went to Harry and picked him up. She held him close to her and pressed her lips to the top of his head. She looked at James. “We have to leave. If Harry-if anything happened-”
“I-I don’t want to run, to hide. I can’t-” James let out an angry breath. “Can’t we just strengthen the wards? Or Sirius, Remus, I know they’d help us watch over Harry-”
Lily looked away from James before he finished his sentence. “Did you have fun with Daddy today, Harry? Did you play with Daddy, hmmm?” She tickled his plump feet, and Harry giggled.
James stood very still. “Lily. What about Sirius and Remus? What do you know that I don’t?”
Lily sucked in a quick breath and turned to face James. She swallowed hard. “Someone, someone close to us, has been passing information to the Death Eaters.”
“Who? Do they know? Are they safe?”
“Sirius-Sirius says that he thinks the spy is-is Remus.”
James went cold. When he spoke, it sounded to him like his voice came from very far away.
“Remus.”
“Yes, James. Remus.”
Remus’s face came to James’s mind: Remus scolding Sirius for spilling ink on his homework at Hogwarts, Remus weak and pale the night after a full moon, Remus’s face the night they’d revealed themselves as Animagi, Remus slapping James on the back at his wedding, Remus talking Arithmancy with Lily, Remus giving Harry a bottle.
James sat down heavily on the sofa-the same yellow sofa Remus had helped him carry into the flat the day they’d moved in.
“Is-God. Is Sirius sure?”
“No. He’s not sure. Nothing is sure, these days. But-there aren’t many other people it could be. The information Voldemort has been getting-very few people even know it. You and I, and of course it’s not us, and Sirius and Remus. Oh, and Peter, but he’d never work up the courage to do anything with it. Can you even imagine him approaching a Death Eater?”
The muscles in James’s face twitched, trying and failing miserably to become a small smile. Lily continued talking, stress and nerves making her words come faster than usual.
“And it’s not Sirius. It can’t be. He loves you like a brother-more than he ever loved his own brother-and Harry like his own child, we know that.”
“Remus-Remus loves-”
“I don’t know, James.” Lily, still holding Harry, came and sat next to him. “I just know it has to be one of them.”
“I thought they were my friends,” James said, his voice breaking painfully on “friends.” “I thought they were all my friends. My best friends.”
Lily moved closer, nestling under James’s arm. “I know, love. I know.” They sat there for a few minutes, Harry’s quiet babbling and the ticking of the clock the only sounds breaking the silence. Finally, James spoke.
“What does Sirius think we should do?”
“We’ve got to go into hiding. Sirius said that Dumbledore would cast a Fidelius for us.”
James got up abruptly. “I’m not good at hiding, Lily. I’m not good at running away, and I’m not good at hiding.”
“Think of Harry. Please, James. This isn’t like a fight with Snape, or pulling a prank. All of our lives are at stake.”
James was pacing around the room, teeth clenched.
“I hate this! I hate this whole goddamned war.”
“James! Mind the baby.” Lily covered Harry’s tiny ears with her palms.
“All I ever do is mind the baby,” James said bitterly. Lily’s eyes flashed.
“You’re bloody well right you do! He is your son. He’s our son. And we absolutely have to do what is best for him and what will keep him safest.” Harry started to cry. “Now look what you’ve done,” Lily said angrily. “Go put him down for a nap, and why don’t you think about taking care of your family while you’re doing it?”
Lily scooped Harry up and deposited him in James’s arms. His hands were shaking. ‘He’s scared,’ thought Lily. ‘He’s not angry, he’s scared. And so am I.’
“I want to talk to Sirius before we do anything.” James said. Lily nodded, and James carried Harry up to his nursery.
The routine tasks of preparing Harry for a nap calmed James down slightly. He held Harry for a long time, walking slowly around his room and breathing in the clean smells of baby powder and fabric softener. He set Harry down gently in his crib after he’d drifted to sleep, and walked back into the living room.
Lily was standing by the window, staring out at the road. James stood behind her, and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’ve owled Sirius,” Lily said quietly. “He’ll be here this evening.” James didn’t say anything, just held her tighter.
______________________
Sirius had said he’d come by at seven o’clock, so the Potters were expecting him at about ten after. Once was they’d expect him at half past, but lateness made everyone anxious, these days. James was waiting for him at the door when he arrived.
“Padfoot,” he greeted Sirius.
“Prongs,” Sirius returned. Lily had heard the wards going off, and came in from the living room, still holding the book she’d been reading in one hand, and her wand in the other. She looked at James.
“Did you verify him?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah. That’s Padfoot.”
That taken care of, Lily turned to Sirius and smiled warmly. “Hello, Sirius. Let me get you some tea.”
“That would be wonderful, thank you, Lily.” Sirius set his coat down on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. “How’s Harry?”
“Fast asleep, at the moment. Come, sit down.” James and Sirius pulled out chairs and sat down at the table. It was worn, and the wood was chipped, but although James had more than enough money in inheritance to replace it with something brand new and top-of-the-line, he had liked this table. It was filled with memories-memories of the Marauders plotting and talking and laughing and getting sloshed. ‘I’m probably going to have to buy a new table, when all this is done with,’ he thought. James sighed deeply and rubbed a finger over a particularly deep pockmark. Sirius looked over at him. He didn’t bother asking what was wrong. He didn’t need to. He just pressed his lips together and nodded.
The kettle whistled, and Lily brought over three cups of tea. “Let’s not waste time,” she said. “We all know why you’re here, Sirius.” Sirius nodded again and began to speak.
“The spy-it must be Remus. It tears me up, mate, and I know you feel it too. But, who else could it be? The information has been coming from one of us. It’s not you, and it couldn’t be Peter, and, James, I swear on my life and my honor and everything I’ve ever held dear that it is not me. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you or Lily or Harry.” Sirius fixed James, then Lily, with a serious stare. “It. Is. Not. Me.”
“We believe you, Sirius.”
“Yeah, mate, we know it’s not you. But-Remus? I can’t even comprehend-I can’t believe…” James trailed off, shaking his head.
“He’s the only one left. Remember when Death Eaters showed up at the new grocery you decided to try? We were the only ones you told you were thinking about shopping there. And when you wanted a different way to the Ministry and walked into an ambush? Just the night before you’d been talking about varying your route and taking that road. It kills me to say this, Prongs, but, it’s one of us. And we’ve eliminated everyone but Remus.”
James buried his face in his hands. Many things could be said about James Potter, bad and good, but disloyal was not one of them. If James was on a person’s side, he was there for life. It simply wasn’t in his makeup to betray anyone, let alone one of his best friends. And it was so against everything he was that he could hardly imagine someone so close to him giving him up. If his eyes were a little shiny when he looked up, well, Sirius and Lily weren’t saying anything.
“So, what do we do?” Lily and Sirius traded glances. There was really only one thing to do, but James wasn’t going to like it.
“James…” said Lily.
“You’ve got to go under Fidelius, mate.” James opened his mouth angrily, but Sirius cut him off. “I know, Prongs. I know you’d rather just run out there and hex the bastard across the ocean. And if it were just you-hell, if it were just you we were thinking about I’d be right beside you, giving the old snake what-for.” He grinned at James, then sobered. “But it’s not just you. It’s Harry he’s after. Harry’s a smart lad-give him a few years and he’ll be throwing curses with the best of them (by which I mean you and I and your esteemed spouse, of course). But James. You don’t have a few years. You barely have a few days. And between you and Lily, you have to keep Harry safe so he can grow up to wreak havoc and turn your hair prematurely grey. You owe that to him. You owe him a chance to cast a spell, and kiss a girl, and beat the snot out of some twerp who insults that girl, and generally drive his parents up the wall. You’ve got to keep him safe until he’s old enough to do it for himself. That’s what parenting is, James.”
Lily looked at James. “Please, Jamie,” she whispered.
In the end, there was no real doubt in James’s mind about what he needed to do. He’d never like it, but he loved his son as a drowning man loves oxygen. “What do I do?” he asked.
“Well,” said Lily, “Dumbledore will do the charm, and Sirius will be our secret-keeper, won’t you, Sirius?”
“I’d do it in a second, of course. But-do you think I’m the best choice? Anyone trying to find you would guess immediately I’m your secret-keeper and go after me. I’d die before I’d betray you, but I’d rather not die, if it’s all the same to you. And, it’ll be that much harder to get information out of me if I don’t actually know it. What about Peter? No one would suspect you’d ask him, and you know he’d no sooner give you up than I would.”
James’s brow furrowed. “Peter? What do you think, Lils?”
“I think…” Lily bit her lip. “I don’t know, it sounds fine to me.”
Sirius stood up. “I’ll get going, then. We want to get you safe as soon as possible. Let me just find Peter, and we can do the charm tomorrow. Good night Lily, James.”
The Potters walked him to the door, and shut it behind him as he Apparated away.
Author: aidenfire
Recipient's name: mackenzie1
Rating: PG
Characters: James, Lily, Sirius, Harry
Author's notes: Thanks to my wonderful beta. She knows who she is. :)
James yawned and rubbed his eyes. He’d been watching Harry all day. Lily was at an Order meeting. She’d sent an owl saying that it was running long, but she should have been home nearly an hour ago. James wished he could be there to keep her safe, but she could take care of herself, he knew. And anyway, they never went anywhere together anymore. Not because of marital strife, but because leaving their Harry unprotected was unthinkable, and they didn’t trust anyone to watch him but themselves. James watched Harry playing with a few colored blocks on the floor, and sighed. Both he and Lily were far too close to the front lines of the war to ever fully relax, but the last month had been the worst. He didn’t think he’d really let down his guard since Dumbledore had told them about that prophecy a few days ago.
He heard the sound of the wards over the door beeping, and quickly got his wand out. It was almost certainly Lily, but a bloke could never be too careful, especially with a baby boy to protect from Voldemort.
“James, it’s me. The first time you kissed me was behind the greenhouse, and I slapped you for it,” his wife’s voice called.
James smiled, and returned the rest of the security phrase.
“And the second time was outside Gryffindor tower, and you fell in love with me. Hello, Lily-love.”
His wife walked into the room. “Hello, James.” She looked tired, too. She always looked tired, these days. They all did. James looked at his wife’s forehead and the frown lines that never went away anymore, and cursed Voldemort in his mind yet again. He went to his wife, and pulled her close to him. He held her for a long moment. He was about to let go and ask about the meeting when Lily’s shoulders started shaking.
“Lily, Lily-love, what’s wrong?”
She sniffled and let out a bitter little laugh. “What’s right?”
He held her tighter. James hated this. He hated feeling helpless, and he hated watching his family hurt, and he hated not being able to do a thing about it. He hated this whole damn war.
“James, at the meeting-” she broke off, and buried her head in his chest. James was truly worried, now. Times were tough, there was no denying that, but Lily was tough too. It wasn’t like her to burst into tears at the drop of a wand.
“We’re not safe.”
James rocked his wife back and forth a bit. “I know, I know, love.”
“No. We’re not safe here. We need-we need to go into hiding.”
James pulled back a little and looked at Lily’s face. “What?”
She nodded, closing her eyes. “At the meeting-Dumbledore said Voldemort’s decided to-God, to ‘eliminate the boy before he became a true threat.’”
They both looked down at Harry, who’d stopped playing with his blocks and was looking up at his parents. “Mama.” he said.
“Yes, darling. Mama’s here.” Lily went to Harry and picked him up. She held him close to her and pressed her lips to the top of his head. She looked at James. “We have to leave. If Harry-if anything happened-”
“I-I don’t want to run, to hide. I can’t-” James let out an angry breath. “Can’t we just strengthen the wards? Or Sirius, Remus, I know they’d help us watch over Harry-”
Lily looked away from James before he finished his sentence. “Did you have fun with Daddy today, Harry? Did you play with Daddy, hmmm?” She tickled his plump feet, and Harry giggled.
James stood very still. “Lily. What about Sirius and Remus? What do you know that I don’t?”
Lily sucked in a quick breath and turned to face James. She swallowed hard. “Someone, someone close to us, has been passing information to the Death Eaters.”
“Who? Do they know? Are they safe?”
“Sirius-Sirius says that he thinks the spy is-is Remus.”
James went cold. When he spoke, it sounded to him like his voice came from very far away.
“Remus.”
“Yes, James. Remus.”
Remus’s face came to James’s mind: Remus scolding Sirius for spilling ink on his homework at Hogwarts, Remus weak and pale the night after a full moon, Remus’s face the night they’d revealed themselves as Animagi, Remus slapping James on the back at his wedding, Remus talking Arithmancy with Lily, Remus giving Harry a bottle.
James sat down heavily on the sofa-the same yellow sofa Remus had helped him carry into the flat the day they’d moved in.
“Is-God. Is Sirius sure?”
“No. He’s not sure. Nothing is sure, these days. But-there aren’t many other people it could be. The information Voldemort has been getting-very few people even know it. You and I, and of course it’s not us, and Sirius and Remus. Oh, and Peter, but he’d never work up the courage to do anything with it. Can you even imagine him approaching a Death Eater?”
The muscles in James’s face twitched, trying and failing miserably to become a small smile. Lily continued talking, stress and nerves making her words come faster than usual.
“And it’s not Sirius. It can’t be. He loves you like a brother-more than he ever loved his own brother-and Harry like his own child, we know that.”
“Remus-Remus loves-”
“I don’t know, James.” Lily, still holding Harry, came and sat next to him. “I just know it has to be one of them.”
“I thought they were my friends,” James said, his voice breaking painfully on “friends.” “I thought they were all my friends. My best friends.”
Lily moved closer, nestling under James’s arm. “I know, love. I know.” They sat there for a few minutes, Harry’s quiet babbling and the ticking of the clock the only sounds breaking the silence. Finally, James spoke.
“What does Sirius think we should do?”
“We’ve got to go into hiding. Sirius said that Dumbledore would cast a Fidelius for us.”
James got up abruptly. “I’m not good at hiding, Lily. I’m not good at running away, and I’m not good at hiding.”
“Think of Harry. Please, James. This isn’t like a fight with Snape, or pulling a prank. All of our lives are at stake.”
James was pacing around the room, teeth clenched.
“I hate this! I hate this whole goddamned war.”
“James! Mind the baby.” Lily covered Harry’s tiny ears with her palms.
“All I ever do is mind the baby,” James said bitterly. Lily’s eyes flashed.
“You’re bloody well right you do! He is your son. He’s our son. And we absolutely have to do what is best for him and what will keep him safest.” Harry started to cry. “Now look what you’ve done,” Lily said angrily. “Go put him down for a nap, and why don’t you think about taking care of your family while you’re doing it?”
Lily scooped Harry up and deposited him in James’s arms. His hands were shaking. ‘He’s scared,’ thought Lily. ‘He’s not angry, he’s scared. And so am I.’
“I want to talk to Sirius before we do anything.” James said. Lily nodded, and James carried Harry up to his nursery.
The routine tasks of preparing Harry for a nap calmed James down slightly. He held Harry for a long time, walking slowly around his room and breathing in the clean smells of baby powder and fabric softener. He set Harry down gently in his crib after he’d drifted to sleep, and walked back into the living room.
Lily was standing by the window, staring out at the road. James stood behind her, and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’ve owled Sirius,” Lily said quietly. “He’ll be here this evening.” James didn’t say anything, just held her tighter.
______________________
Sirius had said he’d come by at seven o’clock, so the Potters were expecting him at about ten after. Once was they’d expect him at half past, but lateness made everyone anxious, these days. James was waiting for him at the door when he arrived.
“Padfoot,” he greeted Sirius.
“Prongs,” Sirius returned. Lily had heard the wards going off, and came in from the living room, still holding the book she’d been reading in one hand, and her wand in the other. She looked at James.
“Did you verify him?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah. That’s Padfoot.”
That taken care of, Lily turned to Sirius and smiled warmly. “Hello, Sirius. Let me get you some tea.”
“That would be wonderful, thank you, Lily.” Sirius set his coat down on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. “How’s Harry?”
“Fast asleep, at the moment. Come, sit down.” James and Sirius pulled out chairs and sat down at the table. It was worn, and the wood was chipped, but although James had more than enough money in inheritance to replace it with something brand new and top-of-the-line, he had liked this table. It was filled with memories-memories of the Marauders plotting and talking and laughing and getting sloshed. ‘I’m probably going to have to buy a new table, when all this is done with,’ he thought. James sighed deeply and rubbed a finger over a particularly deep pockmark. Sirius looked over at him. He didn’t bother asking what was wrong. He didn’t need to. He just pressed his lips together and nodded.
The kettle whistled, and Lily brought over three cups of tea. “Let’s not waste time,” she said. “We all know why you’re here, Sirius.” Sirius nodded again and began to speak.
“The spy-it must be Remus. It tears me up, mate, and I know you feel it too. But, who else could it be? The information has been coming from one of us. It’s not you, and it couldn’t be Peter, and, James, I swear on my life and my honor and everything I’ve ever held dear that it is not me. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you or Lily or Harry.” Sirius fixed James, then Lily, with a serious stare. “It. Is. Not. Me.”
“We believe you, Sirius.”
“Yeah, mate, we know it’s not you. But-Remus? I can’t even comprehend-I can’t believe…” James trailed off, shaking his head.
“He’s the only one left. Remember when Death Eaters showed up at the new grocery you decided to try? We were the only ones you told you were thinking about shopping there. And when you wanted a different way to the Ministry and walked into an ambush? Just the night before you’d been talking about varying your route and taking that road. It kills me to say this, Prongs, but, it’s one of us. And we’ve eliminated everyone but Remus.”
James buried his face in his hands. Many things could be said about James Potter, bad and good, but disloyal was not one of them. If James was on a person’s side, he was there for life. It simply wasn’t in his makeup to betray anyone, let alone one of his best friends. And it was so against everything he was that he could hardly imagine someone so close to him giving him up. If his eyes were a little shiny when he looked up, well, Sirius and Lily weren’t saying anything.
“So, what do we do?” Lily and Sirius traded glances. There was really only one thing to do, but James wasn’t going to like it.
“James…” said Lily.
“You’ve got to go under Fidelius, mate.” James opened his mouth angrily, but Sirius cut him off. “I know, Prongs. I know you’d rather just run out there and hex the bastard across the ocean. And if it were just you-hell, if it were just you we were thinking about I’d be right beside you, giving the old snake what-for.” He grinned at James, then sobered. “But it’s not just you. It’s Harry he’s after. Harry’s a smart lad-give him a few years and he’ll be throwing curses with the best of them (by which I mean you and I and your esteemed spouse, of course). But James. You don’t have a few years. You barely have a few days. And between you and Lily, you have to keep Harry safe so he can grow up to wreak havoc and turn your hair prematurely grey. You owe that to him. You owe him a chance to cast a spell, and kiss a girl, and beat the snot out of some twerp who insults that girl, and generally drive his parents up the wall. You’ve got to keep him safe until he’s old enough to do it for himself. That’s what parenting is, James.”
Lily looked at James. “Please, Jamie,” she whispered.
In the end, there was no real doubt in James’s mind about what he needed to do. He’d never like it, but he loved his son as a drowning man loves oxygen. “What do I do?” he asked.
“Well,” said Lily, “Dumbledore will do the charm, and Sirius will be our secret-keeper, won’t you, Sirius?”
“I’d do it in a second, of course. But-do you think I’m the best choice? Anyone trying to find you would guess immediately I’m your secret-keeper and go after me. I’d die before I’d betray you, but I’d rather not die, if it’s all the same to you. And, it’ll be that much harder to get information out of me if I don’t actually know it. What about Peter? No one would suspect you’d ask him, and you know he’d no sooner give you up than I would.”
James’s brow furrowed. “Peter? What do you think, Lils?”
“I think…” Lily bit her lip. “I don’t know, it sounds fine to me.”
Sirius stood up. “I’ll get going, then. We want to get you safe as soon as possible. Let me just find Peter, and we can do the charm tomorrow. Good night Lily, James.”
The Potters walked him to the door, and shut it behind him as he Apparated away.