Destinies Collide

Sirius slammed the door hard behind him, he could barely think, his mind was numb with pain. Only one thought was racing through his head: "It's my fault, it's my fault, fault, it's all my fault.

His wife Marie, hearing the noise, rushed to his side. "Sirius, oh thank God you're alright! I was so worr-Sirius what's wrong?" Sirius had slowly as if in a trance, picked up their wedding picture that had been placed on a bookshelf near the front door. He smiled slightly as he looked down at the laughing crowd. There, in the middle, stood he and his beautiful bride. She had looked radiant, her long brown hair was lying softly on her shoulders and her blue eyes were full of laughter. His eyes rested on the figure standing next to her, grinning from ear to ear. Prongs had been his best man along with Remus. James had been overjoyed when the blind date that he and Lily had set him up on had turned so well. Sirius smiled as he remembered how James had never let him forget who was responsible for ending his trademark bachelor status.

Marie nudged him fearfully. "Sirius?" He jumped and hastily replaced the picture and walked into their bedroom. Marie trailed after him, growing steadily paler and paler. "Sirius is it. . . James and Lily? Nothing happened did-"

"Dead," He reached underneath the bed and pulled out an old truck. He tossed it on the bed and began to sift though it, throwing unwanted items to the floor. "They were betrayed."

Marie faintly sat down on the bed. "No," she whispered, "no that's not possible." She looked up at him, her eyes having lost their sparkle. "You are mistaken."

"I assure you I'm not." He stopped looking through the rubbish and turned to face her. "I saw them, saw their mangled bodies, saw the Dark Mark hovering above their heads. And little Harry-"His voice broke and tears streamed down his face.

Marie had also started to cry as she stood up and brushed away his tears. "Sirius you can't blame yourself. It's not your fault-"

He turned away and started to look through the truck again. "They would never have even considered Peter if it weren't for me. I as good as kill-"

"Voldemort would have found them with or without his help. And as I remember, you did what you did to protect them. You had no way of knowing-"

"Well I should have!" Sirius yelled. "If it weren't for me-"

"If it weren't for you, they would never have known to go into hiding in the first place. They would have been dead months ago Sirius!"

Sirius looked up and gazed silently at the pouring rain outside. "I found it." He held up a key. He turned around slowly, keeping his eyes firmly on Marie's face. "I'm taking the car."

Marie folded her arms across her chest. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to look for the rat."

Marie grew paler still. "And when you find him?"

"I'm going to finish this."