Come Home + Sirius Black

two: halloween, 1981

Charlotte was never one for divination, but her gut feeling was almost never wrong about anything. And the night of Halloween in 1981, that feeling was the strongest that it had ever been.

She had been restless the entire day. She spent her morning pacing back and forth, and when she managed to get her hands on that day's issue of the Daily Prophet, she read it front page to back thoroughly. But there were no reports of note that mentioned anyone that she knew, and she was left with the sick feeling in her stomach all day.

It wasn't until well after midnight that she got the news that she had been dreading all day.

There was a commotion at the door and Charlotte, who had been struggling to fall asleep, approached her intruder with her wand drawn.

"Sirius?" she whispered.

"I am not Sirius Black," a soft voice spoke, one that was familiar to her. And she almost immediately pulled her wand back when she realized who it was at her doorstep.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"Hagrid told me where to find you," he said. And when there was an expression of confusion remaining on Charlotte's face, he explained further. "I believe Sirius told him the location of this humble cottage, and told him that you would be here."

But that explanation did little to give her any ease. Instead, it only made it worse. If Dumbledore had thought it appropriate to visit Charlotte himself, busy man that he was, then she knew for certain that he did not come with good news. "Dumbledore, what happened?"

He looked at her grimly, which did not help the building anxiety that she was feeling.

"Lily and James Potter are dead."

And just like that, Charlotte Wilson's life had shattered. Within a time span of just four months, all her friends were dead. Marlene, Dorcas, Lily, all gone before they even had a chance to live.

It was a little funny; she could never have possibly imagined that Lily would die. Yes, she knew of the threat she was under, she knew that for months, You-Know-Who had been hunting them down — hunting Harry down — because of some prophecy that declared that he, a baby barely a year old, would be the one with the power to defeat him. And she knew that Lily would lay her life down for her son. Lily would have laid her life down for Marlene, Dorcas, and Charlotte if she could. But she did not think it would ever come to that. Because Lily Potter was one of the strongest, smartest witches she had ever had the privilege of knowing.

And James. He may have gotten on Charlotte's nerves more than she could count on several different occasions, but she knew that it was all in good fun. She knew that it was his way of expressing that he was comfortable in her presence, all his joking and snarky comebacks. And she knew that he was a good man. That he held his friends to the highest regard, that he loved Lily with everything he had and more, and that he loved Harry even more.

"Oh, God... what of..." she was afraid to ask. "What of Harry?"

"Harry lives. And he is safe. Lord Voldemort has been vanquished."

She did not question how or why. As of that moment, she did not care about the Dark Lord. She had been preparing herself for bad news all day, but this... this was too much.

Charlotte took a step away from Dumbledore as she processed everything. How could this have happened? She knew that they had been so careful, and only a handful of the most trustworthy individuals knew of their whereabouts. Had they made a mistake? She knew that James was a rather restless individual — so had he snuck out? Had he been seen? But even if he had, how could he have possibly have known where to find them?