Sirius Black's Daughter

PROLOGUE II

It was pouring heavily, but Sirius barely took notice.

He stood frozen as he stared at the ruined house. The house that he shouldn't be able to see.

He had rushed here as soon as he had put two and two together. But it was too late.

He was too late.

He now stood outside what used to be the Potters' home.

He walked up to the door. It was wide open. He entered the house.

The living room that had once held a sense of warmth and feeling of home, was now a total mess. How many times had they all gathered to have tea and Sunday lunch, laughing and talking in this same room? His throat squeezed and he moved towards the stairs. He had only taken a few steps when his foot hit something laying on the floor.

As Sirius looked down, he felt his heart drop to the floor. There on the floor in front of him, with his body facing the ceiling, lay James Potter, dead and unseeing.

James. His best mate. His brother.

He dropped to the floor as tears dripped from his eyes.

"Prongs-" he whispered his voice breaking.

Sirius hardly ever cried, but he let his tears flow as he held his friend's body.

He was still in that position when a cry rang out through the house.

Harry.

Closing James' eyes, he stood up and turned towards the stairs. He wasn't sure he wanted to see what was up there.

Harry cried again.

Sirius climbed the stairs, stopping in front of Harry's room. The door was no longer there. He spotted Harry inside the crib bawling at the top of his voice, with a fresh strangely shaped cut on his small forehead. And  strewn across the floor in front of him was...

"Lily."

There, a few feet away from Harry lay the redhead, who his best friend had pined after for so long.

He fell to his knees as he sobbed silently while holding her body.

He remained in that position until the sound of heavy footsteps approaching brought him out of his thoughts.

He looked up to see Hagrid entering the room, his face tear stained.

Hagrid moved over to him and bent down, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Oy, it's alright. Nothing 'yer can do now." he said sniffing as Sirius cried into him." Yer couldn't have done nothing. I don't reckon they woulda liked ter see yer crying like this. Ye gotta be strong and pull yerself together. I'm sure they're in a better place now. Good, brave souls they were-"

He was still talking, but Sirius had stopped listening. Hagrid was wrong. This was all his fault. There was something he could have done to prevent all this. If he hadn't convinced Prongs and Lily to switch secret keepers, none of this would have happened.

After some time, Hagrid moved away from him, straightening up and wiping his own tears that had fallen. He walked over to Harry's crib and picked him up.

Gently laying Lily aside, Sirius stood up. "Where are you taking him?"

"Dumbledore's asked me to bring him."

Wiping his tears, he reached out for Harry, moving over to where Hagrid stood.

"Give him to me. I'm his godfather, I'll take care of him."