Sacred is the Windswept Time

Fourteen: Caught a Rat in the Act

As the small wedding party entered Serrano Sorcebaine's receiving room, their mouths fell open, as the floor had been cleared and an old record player had been charmed to play. Against the wall was a table covered with various steaming dishes of food, a punch bowl filled with pumpkin juice, and at the end of the table was a simple vanilla sheet cake, with simple pink and lavender roses done in icing as decoration with "Congratulations" written in rich green icing.

Dumbledore had of course disappeared discreetly as the room filled with music and the couples, deciding that a dance was more important than food at the moment, headed out into the center of the floor. Lucius took Narcissa's hand and led her into a formal waltz, while James simply placed his hands on Lily's waist and drew her close, her arms going about his shoulders, her hands clasping at the nape of his neck, her fingers slipping into his rich dark hair.

Remus tentatively reached his hand out toward Severus', and Severus nodded before taking the boy's hand and pulling the boy close as they began to sway to the music, leaving Harry looking at his parents dancing their first dance as husband and wife, and Sirius looking longingly at Harry. Finally summoning up that famous Gryffindor courage, Sirius put his hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry looked toward the boy, and swallowed thickly, nervousness flowing through him. This was a moment of truth. Sirius wasn't asking for a quick romp in an empty corridor or a heated snog in a broom closet, he was asking for something so simple that it was complicated. He was asking for a dance.

Harry took a deep breath and guided Sirius' hands to his waist, before he put his arms around the Gryffindor's shoulders and leaned his head against the boy's broad chest. Harry let out the breath he was holding as they began to sway to the music, a soft tinkling melody, and then the words made him stiffen in Sirius' arms.

"Oh my love for the first time in my life,
My eyes are wide open,
Oh my lover for the first time in my life,
My eyes can see..."

Sirius tilted his head down so that his breath was brushing across Harry's ear as he said, "It's all right, I can see everything in front of me, and what if I want it? What if I want you? Would you be my boyfriend, anything, everything?"

Harry pulled back, vaguely realizing that they'd stopped moving, as he looked up at the young man standing before him, and Sirius was just that, a hopeful young man, not his godfather, not his father's best friend, just a boy with a hopeful expression, his heart on his sleeve.

"I see the wind,
Oh I see the trees,
Everything is clear in my heart,
I see the clouds,
Oh I see the sky,
Everything is clear in our world..."

"What do you want from me? Gods, Sirius, do you know what you're asking? How wrong it is? I don't know how long I've got here. You can't expect me to commit to anything when I could just fade away tomorrow, and then where would we be? I'd still be preparing for a war and you would be..."

"What? Dead?" Sirius asked and then closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't care about tomorrows. Let's just live in today."

"Oh my love for the first time in my life,
My mind is wide open,
oh my lover for the first time in my life,
My mind can feel,

I feel the sorrow,
Oh I feel dreams,
Everything is clear in my heart,
Everything is clear in our world,
I feel the life,
Oh I feel love."

Harry shook his head. "We aren't good for each other. It doesn't matter what I think of you, or what you want from me. It's not mine to give. I don't have the time that you have. I shouldn't even be in this time. I shouldn't be here to see my parent's wedding, or be friends with Lucius and Severus... But most of all I shouldn't be here with you like this."

"What if this is the reason you came back? What if I was the reason?" Sirius persisted.

Harry turned away from Sirius, blinking as tears rose unbidden to his eyes and slipped silently down his cheeks. "You won't be like Blaise. I won't let you in. I won't let anyone in."

Sirius smiled as he took Harry's chin into his hand and looked into those fiery green eyes hidden behind a round pair of spectacles. "Too late for that. I've already been inside you. I'm all you can think about, just like you're all I can think about..." he whispered and then swept his lips over Harry's before letting his tongue glide over Harry's lips until Harry opened his mouth, permitting him to deepen the kiss.

Lily's eyes widened as she watched Sirius Black, famed lady's man, kissing Harry Granger and shaking her head said, "You would almost think they were the newlyweds."

At her words James lifted his head and his eyes widened as his jaw slackened. He felt something inside of him break as he realized that he had no control over what was happening between his son and his best friend. This was something that his son would have to work through on his own, but if Sirius hurt Harry... James would be there...

"James?" Lily asked, worry flitting across her eyes as she looked at her new husband. When he shook his head and looked at her, she continued, "You seemed so far away just a minute ago. What's wrong?"

He smiled and taking her chin between his fingers descended to kiss her before he pulled back and said, "It's something that is out of my hands. I only hope he knows what he's doing."

"Who Sirius?" Lily asked, sparing another glance at Sirius and the Slytherin and realized that Harry had tears trailing his cheeks.

James just looked at her, and smiled a bittersweet smile. "No. Not Sirius...Harry. He's been through so much. I don't want to see him hurt anymore."

"Why do you care so much about him?"

James drew in a deep breath and then let it out slowly before coming to a decision. "I have my reasons, Lils, just trust me, and don't question it. Please."

"All right," she replied, "But you will tell me one day."

James nodded and then drew her closer against him before kissing her quite soundly and then leading her toward the table.

Lucius had been watching Harry and Sirius since the two had first started dancing, though he'd been more discrete than Potter had been in watching the two. Lucius noticed the tears with faint surprise and wondered what was really between the two. A good shag wouldn't reduce someone like Granger...no Potter...Harry, to tears. No, there was more than just a good shag between the two. It was almost like Harry had allowed himself to...but no that was ridiculous. How could Harry be so foolish as to allow himself to grow so attached to his future godfather? It must be the Potter bloodline.

Lucius seeing Potter and Lily walking over to the refreshments table decided to follow and get a good look at the food that was being served. It was from the corner of his eye that he saw Harry's head swivel toward the doorway and then Harry was brandishing his wand and in a heated voice shouted, "Stupefy!"

The shouted spell was enough to gather everyone's attention as Severus and Remus looked up from their bit of a snog in the corner of the room, and James and Lily looked at him, as did Narcissa, but Lucius wasn't looking at Harry. He was looking at what Harry had stunned. It was a rat that had fallen unconscious onto its side.

Harry stepped back from Sirius and holding his wand on the rat, words fell from his mouth and a fierce streak of yellow light sparked from his wand and hit the rat, and the rat began to change form until it was Peter Pettigrew shaking his head as he slowly regained his wits about him and then looked around him in a panic before his beady eyes met with the murderous rage in Harry's.

"How dare you show your face here," Harry hissed as he said, "Conligo!"

Ropes appeared out of thin air and wrapped around Pettigrew's wrists and ankles, securely binding the boy, and then Harry still brandishing his wand snarled, "Detineo metamorphosis!"

Pettigrew's eyes widened as he realized that he wouldn't be able to change into his animagus form, leaving him unable to escape and at the mercy of the angry Slytherin. Looking around in a panic Pettigrew's beady eyes fell on James and the boy pleaded, "You won't let him hurt me, will you James?" Seeing no sympathy in James he then turned to a second Gryffindor, "Sirius?" Again he didn't get a reaction and then he turned to Remus and swallowed thickly before he turned panicked eyes on Lily and said, "Lily, you won't let them hurt me will you?"

Lily looked at everyone in the room, all the boys were glaring at Peter, and Narcissa was simply confused. Something was obviously going on. Having enough of being out of the loop and growing steadily impatient Lily finally cut in with, "Will someone please tell me what the bloody hell is going on as this is interrupting a perfectly happy occasion and why wasn't Peter invited to the weddings in the first place? Is it something to do with Lucius?"

Ignoring Lily, James approached the bound boy trembling on the floor and taking a deep breath looked down at the boy before he spoke.

"Is it true Peter? Would you betray us? Your friends? My family? Would you turn us over to a madman, so that he could murder us? What did he offer you? What did he offer you to make you hand us over?" James asked, fighting the urge to be sick.

"L-Li-Lily," Peter stuttered, and then he spoke with a clarity quite rare for him. "He offered me Lily. But you've got her Potter. You've always gotten everything you've wanted."

In his irrational anger Harry tossed his wand aside and charged after the bound boy, ready to tackle him and beat him senseless, but two sets of hands grabbed him about the arms and he was being held between Severus and Sirius, snarling and struggling to get at the little rat.

"You would betray your friends and steal my family from me over a bloody crush?!" Harry roared. "Dammit, let me go. If he's dead he can't harm you. I'll kill you with my bare hands you traitor. I'll kill you for what you did to them, for what you did to me!"

James turned from the quivering excuse of a boy on the floor and then looked at Harry, sadness in his eyes as he approached the boy and then lifted his hand to stroke his son's cheek. Harry's wild gaze shifted from Pettigrew to his father and his legs gave way beneath him, bringing him to his knees before his father. James knelt down before the boy and put his arms around him, and Harry clung to his father, much as he always wanted to when he was a boy and the Dursleys were being particularly harsh to him. Harry was shaking with suppressed emotions as tears flooded his eyes and down his cheeks, his words coming out rough and edged with raw emotion that had never seen the light of day.

"He won't have you. He can't! Not after I know who you are, and what we could have been together! I always knew I needed you, I just never knew how much. I'll kill him before he takes you or mum from me again! I'll kill him..." Harry's voice broke as he gave into the sobs that had taken years to burst through.

Lucius, Severus, Remus, a shocked Lily, and Narcissa gathered around the boy that was clinging to James. Lucius and Severus were concerned for their friend, not understanding how they could care for him without pitying him for his emotional weakness, and as they exchanged a look they realized that his strength came from his grief and experience, and soon they knelt next to James, and put a comforting hand on Harry's shoulders.

And then Harry felt another hand on his shoulder, slight and feminine next to Severus', and when he turned and looked up he saw his mum looking down at him, concern etched on her young face as she asked, "What is this about Harry?"

Taking a deep breath the boy spared a glance at his father before he turned to the lovely young woman looking down at him, his green eyes locking with hers and spoke thickly. "I won't lose you a second time, Mum. I've come too far, whether I've wanted to or not. Pettigrew is nothing more than a traitor. Please, if you hear me now, then perhaps we could stay a family for longer than just a year."

Lily's hand rose to her mouth as her mind reeled with all of the emotions she'd felt for the boy, and how odd, sudden and overwhelming they were, and soon she found herself on her knees beside him and her new husband.

"You're my son, aren't you?" she whispered and then pushing a strand of his wayward black hair back, and with a trembling smile she asked, "But why are you here now? What has happened that would tear us apart after only one year?"

Taking a deep breath Harry answered, "You died saving my life."

Lily threw her arms around her future son and wept, sensing the pain that he'd endured in his life and wondering how he had lived through it all. "What happened to you Harry? My poor Harry, who took care of you and made you so angry and bitter?"

"Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon," Harry answered, and let out a shaky breath.

"My sister? Oh God, you lived with my sister? I'm so sorry, so very sorry. But what happened to your Godparents?" she asked.

Harry then looked up at Sirius and Lily followed his gaze. "Everyone thought he was your secret keeper, but he had suggested Peter because he thought that Peter would be less likely to be captured and tortured for the information as no one would suspect him of being the keeper as Sirius was James' best friend. Peter had been working for Voldemort for nearly four years when he told Voldemort where to find you. That was the first time Voldemort was defeated, and it wasn't because of me. It was because you sacrificed yourself for me. Sirius went after the little rat, and Pettigrew," he spat the name, "Chopped off his little finger and killed twelve people to fake his death, so Sirius was blamed for everything, captured, and thrown into Azkaban for twelve years without a trial. He escaped in my third year to kill Peter who by that time was my friend's pet rat."

"While I'm not adverse to Black going to Azkaban, the fact that he was innocent upon entering does make his impending imprisonment wrong," Severus said, and this one little comment got to Harry and he threw back his head and laughed. Laughed for everything.

Harry then slowly broke apart from his parents and stood. He looked down at the quivering Pettigrew and went over to the fireplace, magically set a fire and then used floo power to reach Dumbledore in his office.

Dumbledore's head appeared in the fire and he looked around the room, noticing that the joviality of earlier was gone and one of his students was tied up and trembling. "Harry, I suppose someone unexpected has made an appearance. Care to enlighten me?"

Harry grinned at the headmaster and then said, "I think we have the key to saving my parents. We've caught a rat in the act. I'll show you the Dark Mark as soon as we get him to your office. I know he has it."

"Very well," Dumbledore said, "I'll have a couple of members of the Order present to witness the proceedings and we shall go from there, your word the deciding factor in his punishment."

"Have Sorcebaine bring a vial of Veritaserum as well. Wouldn't want him misinforming us of anything."

Dumbledore nodded and then asked, "Is there anything else you may need?"

"Yeah, ropes to hold an animagus and perhaps even a cage. I wasn't exaggerating when I said we've caught a rat," Harry replied.

"I'll make the arrangements and expect you in an hour. If there are any legal matters involved, would you like an auror to be summoned?" the headmaster asked.

Again Harry grinned. "Moody would love to be present. He's always going on about threats, this time he'll be proven right."

Dumbledore chuckled at that and nodded. "Then an auror shall be present."

"Good, and we'll be there in an hour."

"Oh, and Harry," the headmaster said as Harry turned away.

Harry turned to face the headmaster to see what he wanted and noticed Dumbledore looking over at the table of refreshments. He realized the headmaster's unspoken question and laughed. "We'll have the house-elves bring the cake with us to the office. And tell Sorcebaine his house still has its roof on."

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "I think he will be pleased to hear as much."

The headmaster then disappeared from the fireplace and Harry turned to face his friends and their quarry. Pettigrew was finally going to get what was coming to him. Something that had been four years in the making for Harry. He couldn't suppress the glee that he felt at finally being one up on old Tom Riddle. Things were turning about rather nicely, and just maybe his parents, and his future, had a real chance this go around.