𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬 [𝖍.𝖌]

prologue

[October 31, 1981]

Sirius draws his wand, his palms still warm from carrying Dahlia in his arms.

It hurts his entire heart to leave her, but what he can't figure out is Lily's motive for erasing his memory. And Hagrid hadn't remembered Dahlia either. What had Lily done? Why did she want her daughter gone from the Order's memory?

He swings a leg over the seat of his beloved motorcar, revving the engine so loud that the entire neighbourhood must be up by now. He takes off into the skies, only one thought on his mind: Peter Pettigrew.

Lily was the only person who could do tracking spells and that rat had betrayed them all. And now Lily and James were dead, Harry was gone to Lily's awful sister, and the one Potter—but he had changed her name to Evans—he had had safe and alive with him was now at a muggle orphanage. But just until he had done—he didn't even know what to Peter, and then he would take Dahlia back and raise along the Cornish coast with Remus.

Sirius closes his eyes in mid-air, imagining that the freezing, damp clouds spraying him with yet-to-fall rain were salty waves, crashing up and down a sandy beach. He would walk in the surf behind Remus, who was holding a laughing, red-faced Dahlia up to the warm sun with one hand. In the other, he was holding her tiny brown sandals.

He opens his eyes. This future won't happen until Peter is dead.

Once he touches ground in London, he morphs into Padfoot where no one can see him. And Padfoot has spent enough time playing tag with Wormtail to recognise his scent from a few kilometres away.

He sniffs the sewers, instantly catching his smell. He isn't far.

Padfoot finds an empty alley and morphs back into Sirius, intent on catching Wormtail. He exits, smoothing down his muggle clothes and winking suavely at a few giggling birds. His smile drops immediately.

He had only come for one thing tonight. He closes his eyes, trying to think of that future with Dahlia by the beach. But when he opens his eyes, the memory of her smile and her dark green eyes is already fading.

Quickly.