Fate

Chapter 15 - Don't You Dare

"I really don't know where to start," Sirius said nervously, running a hand through his shoulder length hair as he assessed the situation around him.

The chairs all around the hospital wing had been moved together in a circular pattern, 'Remus'' hospital bed behind included in the circle as well. Harry, Remus and Sirius all sat together, slightly separated from the rest of the group. On one side of them sat Dumbledore, Peter on his other side (who had only been allowed to stay in the room if he didn't move and didn't talk: a request from both Sirius and Harry) with Lily and 'Harry' next to 'Remus'. On the time traveler's other side sat James and 'Sirius' along with Arianna who was gripping tight to her fiancé's hand but couldn't seem to stop staring at Sirius. It was starting to unnerve him a bit but he had never had any problem with her staring at him before, and despite the rather different circumstances, on some bit it felt rather nice.

Before they had all sat down, Dumbledore had asked quickly for permission to read their minds, helping him feel more comfortable about their identities. He had instantly found that they were telling the truth and was the one who had insisted on everyone hearing the story together.

He smiled kindly over at Sirius. "The beginning is usually the best part," the wise old Headmaster helped. "You say you are from the future. Why don't you start with how in the world you were able to travel so far back in time?"

"Well, Moony can answer that better than I can," Sirius said, looking over to Remus and ignoring the slight mumble of voices that arose when he used Remus' Marauder name.

Remus hesitated for a moment before starting. "It's quite a long story, but I think I can sum it up." He cast a careful look over at 'Sirius' and at 'Remus' before continuing. "About six months ago, in our time, there was a rather costly battle fought in the Department of Mysteries." He looked to Dumbledore. "I assume you all know what that is?"

Dumbledore nodded and a few other murmurs of agreement were heard, so Remus continued.

"During the battle, Sirius was struck down, not with the killing curse, but with just a violent hex. Unfortunately, he was standing right in front of the veil that is in the death chamber. And I assume that you all don't know much about that?"

"Neither did we," Remus continued, looking over everyone's confused faces, "at least not then. We thought Sirius was dead..." he hesitated and looked over at Harry who was thankfully keeping a calm face. "It was a very hard time...for all of us."

"But he's right there," James pointed out obviously.

"Right," Remus took a deep breath. "Four months after falling in, Sirius turned up, alive and well."

Remus looked over quickly and saw Sirius had put his hand up around Harry's shoulders and Harry was trying to blink back his tears.

"It would be too hard now to go into all of the details about what he found out and what we deducted, but after a few weeks of persuasion on Sirius' part, he convinced us that time travel through the other side of the veil would be possible. Using Merlin's ancient spell for time travel, we calculated when and where we wanted to go and the three of us went back through the veil. I preformed the spell and we ended up right outside of Godric's Hollow."

"And at just the right time," Sirius added.

No one spoke for a moment before finally, 'Sirius' voiced everyone's thoughts.

"Why did you come back?"

Sirius looked hard over at his younger self before turning to Sirius and Harry.

"That is a long story," Sirius leaned back, accentuating long, but nevertheless, continued talking.

"It starts just about a week from now, in this time," he said carefully, thinking about the dates and trying to keep his composure. "Well, I guess with Emily," he heard 'Remus' sit up higher on his bed but he looked towards the older Remus with sorrowful eyes.

"I get a letter," Remus said, as calm as he could, "on Thursday from Emily's Head of Department saying that she's gone missing."

"What?" 'Remus' practically gasped out. "No, but-but she's due home in two days!"

Sirius looked mournfully up at such a younger Remus Lupin. "We don't actually figure out what happened to her for another four or five days when we....when we find her body." He looked over at Remus and saw that he was doing a good job of keeping his tears in check. "Why didn't we remember her though?" Sirius had lowered his voice a bit, but he knew everyone could hear him. "We remembered everything else..."

"When we came back," Sirius explained to the others, "we had a very strict agenda to what we were trying to accomplish and what we were supposed to change." He looked over at Remus again.

"I didn't want to remember," Remus finally said quietly, making everyone turn to him. Sirius looked at all the downcast faces and saw with some relief that Lily had reached over and laid a hand on 'Remus'' shoulder as he looked on in horror at what they were talking about.

"Everything went so wrong." Remus put his head in his hand. "It was like her death spiraled in to so much and eventually into everything that went wrong with my life after that..." He finally looked up and straight into the eyes of his younger counterpart. "I had to give her up...the pain was so much that I'm sure I would have gone insane...that or tear myself apart during the next full moon."

'Remus', with tears now trailing down his face, gulped and leaned back in his bed, seemingly unable to sit up any longer.

"It got worse?" Lily's scared voice cut in and all three time travelers turned to her.

Sirius nodded. "Next week....next week Ari was killed."

Arianna gasped and 'Sirius' reached up to put an arm around her but Sirius didn't have the heart to look at them. He opened his mouth a few more times to talk, but Remus finally took over for him. It was easier for both of them if they didn't have to talk about their own experiences.

"Sirius' father confronted him at his work one day, having heard about his engagement," Remus started. "Arianna was muggle born, of course, which was not something that pureblood families did. Well, except for Potter's I guess," he managed a smile over at Lily and at James. "But Cetus Black wasn't about to let his oldest child marry anyone other than a pureblood, even though he had unofficially disowned Sirius years before."

"He kidnapped Arianna, no doubt with some help from a few death eaters. He tortured her..." Remus turned to Sirius with some hesitation. "He even forced Sirius to come and watch."

Sirius felt a tear sneak down his cheek as he remembered those awful sights. Her cries of agony and his inability to do anything...even shut his eyes and block it out.

"He was going to let Arianna go if Sirius would promise not to marry her and join the Death Eaters with his brother."

Sirius let out a bitter laugh and cut off Remus. "Bloody fool. Always too scared himself to join Voldemort's ranks but showered Regulus with hugs and kisses when he ended up going off to get himself killed with the dark mark burned into his arm."

Sirius knew Remus didn't want to continue, but he let the silence ring for a moment before he continued. "I refused. And he killed Arianna."

A soft cry was heard and Sirius' head shot up and he saw Arianna crying softly into 'Sirius'' arms as he held her tight, a few tears escaping his eyes as he tried to whisper some kind of comforting words to her.

"Bollocks," James Potter broke in and Sirius turned to him, still a few tears sparkling in his eyes. "I hope you're lying."

"I assure you," Sirius said, taking a deep breath. "I am not."

"You're here to prevent those deaths?" Lily questioned.

"Actually, our main purpose in coming back was to save you, Lily," Remus spoke up, "you and James."

"What?" 'Sirius'' head came up in shock but he still held tight to Arianna.

"The prophesy," Harry spoke up for the first time during the conversation. He was looking right towards his mother. "The one about predicting Voldemort's downfall."

Lily's eyes went wide as she looked into her son's eyes and only tore her gaze away to look at James with shock and surprise.

"Not everyone in here knows about the prophesy, Harry," Dumbledore said gently. "In fact, I think only Lily and James do at this point."

"No," 'Sirius' said quickly. "I do."

"What does it say?" 'Remus' asked quietly.

Harry took a deep breath, reciting the prophesy word for word and Sirius watched Lily's arms grip tighter and tighter around a still drowsy Harry that she had clutched to her.

"So you don't end up defeating Voldemort?" James asked.

"No, that's the point," Harry answered, looking over towards his father. "I do defeat him, but only because....only because you and Mum have to die for me."

Lily looked over at James sharply. "It works!" She breathed out in fascination.

Probably noticing everyone's confused looks, Lily turned back to them, focusing mainly on Harry. "I've been researching for months, ever since I found out about the prophesy, for some type of spell to help protect Harry." Reflexively she leaned down and nuzzled 'Harry's' hair. "The plan was to be able to cast some sort of protection spell on you if Voldemort ever found us."

"But that's impossible!" James cut in. "We're going under the Fidelius charm soon. He wouldn't be able to find us."

"That," Sirius answered quickly before Remus or Harry could reply, "is where Peter comes in."

All eyes turned to Peter and he slid down his chair a bit under everyone's gaze.

"Lift up the sleeve of your left arm, Peter," Harry said in the same menacing tone that he had used when he had Peter cornered against the wall.

"James! Sirius! Please, you two know I'm not a Death Eater!" Peter said, panicking more than an innocent person would as he looked desperately at his friends. James was looking at him more hurt than anything else, as if he didn't want to believe it, but knew it was the truth. 'Sirius' wasn't even giving him the satisfaction of being hurt, but was openly glaring at him, still holding to Arianna who had calmed somewhat but still had tear streaks down her face.

"Remus, Remus, please! Do you believe them? The future? I mean, come on, Remus!" Peter looked frantically over at the werewolf, but Sirius was pleased to see that even 'Remus' didn't believe him and was looking at him with something akin to horror and disbelief.

"Just lift up your sleeve, Peter," Remus said, more calmly that Sirius would have. "If your so innocent, what do you have to hide?"

Peter wasted about three more seconds looking completely terrified before he bolted out of his seat. He wasn't quick enough, though, as Sirius and Remus both jerked him back by his arms, both of them wanting to take out their anger just as much as Harry had wanted too before. Through his cries, they threw him into the middle of the circle, both of them taking out their wands and pointing them down at his pathetic form. Sirius' memory went back to the night in the Shrieking Shack where this very familiar sight had happened as well. Harry stood up behind them, but did not draw his wand. It seemed he could tell that this was Sirius and Remus' right, and he just openly glared down at the fourth Marauder.

"You do, don't you?"

Nothing could have made the situation any worse for Peter, but James, one of his best friends and his idol, openly accusing him of Dark Wizarding activities made Peter burst out into childish sobs.

Unable to take it any longer, Sirius reached down, grabbing Peter's left arm and hiking it up. Remus reached over to help and together they pulled the sleeve up, revealing the black skull and snake that had been burned into the young man's skin.

"Peter!" Lily cried out, in tears herself. "How could you?"

"You were our friend!" 'Sirius' said menacingly, letting go of Arianna carefully and joining James as they both stood up next to 'Remus'' bed to stare down Peter's now limp and sobbing form on the ground before them.

"I would never have thought..." 'Remus' said softly from the bed. "Peter, you utter fool..."

Remus' rebukes had always been the most painful for any of the Marauders His voice always being the voice of reason, if he had reason to chide them it was taken seriously and often to the heart.

"What did he offer you?" James hissed out. "A family? Friends? Because you've just lost any of that you thought you had. You'd better hope that with all that power or glory or riches or whatever bull that Voldemort promised you that you can buy yourself some new acquaintances."

"But-but I'm scared!" Peter cried out. "He's everywhere, James! You know that! What could be lost by joining him?!"

"Much more than you seem to realize, Mr. Pettigrew."

Dumbledore had now joined the group standing around Peter and Sirius saw that Dumbledore's eyes had lost their customary twinkle and he was looking down at his student with more pity than anger.

"I would never, James...I would never betray you-"

Peter was cut off this time by Sirius shoving his foot down on him and leaning down with his wand pointed right at his heart, wild anger and revenge sparking in his eyes that he had not felt since he had found Peter all those years ago outside the Whomping Willow.

"Don't. You. Dare." Sirius hissed out. "You bloody rat! Do you have any idea how much I lost because of you? Do you know how much pain you caused people in this room? You were the one who told my father where Arianna was hiding! You were the one who told the Death Eaters where Emily was traveling! You were the one who sold out Lily and James to Voldemort, causing their deaths!! You were the one who framed me for their deaths! I went to Azkaban because of you! Twelve years, Peter!! Twelve years with nothing to do but plot the perfect death for you and your pathetic master!"

Sirius faintly heard James whisper "Azkaban?" but paid it no mind.

"You are going to learn exactly how stupid this choice of yours was and by the time you've spent five minutes in Azkaban you're going to be begging anyone for mercy, but even Voldemort won't give that to you..."

Finally backing off, Sirius, looking down at Peter with disgust, conjured anti-animagus ropes (a useful spell he had studied up on before traveling back) and a gag around Peter before going to sit back in his seat. Remus and Harry went back to sit down, all three of them breathing heavily and not looking at any of the other occupants in the room. When Sirius finally did look up, he saw that 'Sirius', James, 'Remus' and Dumbledore were all still staring at Peter's exposed forearm with mixed expressions of pity, anger and sadness. Lily and Arianna had moved next to each other and were holding hands, looking mournfully at the friends who were finding the traitor in their midst. Little Harry had started whimpering slightly and Lily had placed him in a bassinet in the far corner of the room, away from the excitement.

"I think I shall make a quick fire call to the ministry, if you all will excuse me."

And with that, Dumbledore quickly exited the room, his aura of power following him, but his deep disgust with Peter still seeming to linger in the air.

At least, James, 'Sirius' and 'Remus' looked up at the time travelers, bittersweet thanks in their gazes mingled with sadness and grief.

"You were right..." 'Sirius' said in awe, looking mostly at his older self and collapsing into the chair behind him. "We would have never known..."

"He betrayed all of us," 'Remus' said mournfully, also looking at his older self, who nodded back. "He betrayed Emily....he betrayed Arianna..."

"He does a lot more," Sirius stopped him. Looking up into the young eyes of one of his best friends, Sirius felt another thrill of excitement pass through him. It was working...they were doing it... "More than you would believe, even if I told you." His gaze moved back to James. "But even if all he did was betray you to Voldemort....he still deserves this, all of it, anything he's going to get and more..."

James nodded through his tears and, to Sirius' surprise, took two steps forward, enfolding him in a hug. Sirius gasped with surprise, but didn't let it bug him for too long. James. James was here, he was giving him a hug, he was alive and safe...Sirius held on fiercely to his best friend. He didn't know how awkward it was for James to be hugging him, but he had a feeling that James was doing it just for him.

"Merlin, Prongs..." Sirius finally managed to get out, "You're alive...you're okay..."

"Of all the people, Padfoot..." James pulled back and looked Sirius in the eye. "Only you would do something this crazy to try and save my life."

"Hey!" 'Sirius' shouted, making Sirius grin and step back from James, blinking back the tears.

"Thank you," Sirius said softly to James, knowing that James would understand his meaning, which, of course he did. James just smiled wider and nodded.

"Harry."

Sirius looked up quickly and watched with continuing tears in his eyes as Harry and Lily locked gazes. He saw how strong Harry was trying to be. He saw the tears that Harry was blinking back. But he also saw when he couldn't hold them back anymore. Loud, racking sobs burst from his young Godson who leaned forward, burying his face in his arms. Sirius' moved quickly to go comfort him, but Lily reached Harry before he did, wrapping her arms around him and starting to cry herself.

To his everlasting joy and surprise, James crossed in front of his vision, kneeling on the floor next to his wife and future son, joining in the tears and embrace.

Sirius couldn't remember how many times he had wished to see that scene. He had played it over and over in his head countless times but nothing that he had ever imagined was as bitter sweet as the real thing that he was seeing.

The Potters were back together, and he would make sure that they would be together for a long while yet.

A hesitant hand tapped his arm and Sirius turned quickly, seeing Arianna standing there beside him, a hesitant smile on her face. 'Sirius' stood behind her, grinning up at his older self. Sirius looked at her in confusion for a moment before she too threw her arms up around him, pulling him into a hug. It could have turned out to be a rather awkward moment but it was still right. She still fit and he still could wrap his arms perfectly around her. He held her tight, knowing that his was as close to her as he would be getting in awhile, but he was grateful for anything he could get.

She finally pulled back, blinking her own tears away. "I thought you looked familiar," she said softly. Her face dropped slightly. "I'm so sorry....sorry that you had to go through that. I can only imagine what it would be like if our places were reversed...." She let out a quiet half laugh half sob and 'Sirius' stepped forward, putting an arm around her waist. She looked back at him, smiling, but then turned to Sirius again. "Thank you. You definitely are my Sirius."

Then she turned away, 'Sirius' giving him a small wink before gathering her into a hug himself.

He looked around the room again, taking in the sights there that he had convinced himself he would never see again or ever.

"We did it..." Sirius breathed out, almost as if he couldn't believe it himself. He turned and locked eyes with Remus, the reality of the situation hitting them both as they realized what they had just accomplished.

"Now," Remus continued for him in all seriousness, "we see the consequences."