never until forever [s. black]

sixty

"today, we are unfortunately missing one of our own." dumbledore says sadly as he glances at the empty chair between sirius and lily, which used to be katherine's place at the table. "i wish her a good recovery. but in the mean time, it's important that we keep you all safe."

"how did the dark lord find out? i thought we were to not tell anyone." alice longbottom asks dumbledore, who glances at the marauders.

"we think peter told him." james says, making everyone look at him in shock. the thought of peter, one of the close friends of the three boys, betraying them in that way was unthinkable.

"pettigrew? but the kid follows you three like a lost puppy. how did he end up with the dark lord?" marlene mckinnon asks them in disbelief.

"we don't know. all we know is we can't trust him and we have to make sure the longbottom and potters are safe." sirius answers in determination, he lost his brother, now losing his love and he wasn't about to loose his best friends and godson.

"agreed. we must move you six to safe places, somewhere only a secret keeper can know of." dumbledore announces, making them all nod in agreement.

"i think sirius should be our secret keeper." james says, looking at his best friend, who looks up and shakes his head.

"i don't know. i feel like remus should." sirius says uncertain and remus shakes his head in disagreement.

"no. you should. you're better for this. but i think we should also make peter secret keeper." remus says, making sirius look at him as if he had lost his mind. "hear me out. we don't tell him the actual location. we give him another location and use that to ambush the dark lord. he'll have to come himself."

"that's a good idea. but what about the horcrux? he has at least six of them." hagrid reminds them and remus nods.

"i know. we create a task force to find them. and destroy them." remus says firmly and sirius leans back in his chair. "and we put an end to this madness. keeping both children and their families safe."

"it's a good idea. we'll need a few people to take him down at the location. but it will be a good idea." moody agrees and they smile happily, before looking at dumbledore for approval.

"we will have a few casualties in the fight. but for the sake of the children and the sacrifice katherine made to find out the information, it's important we go through with it." dumbledore says, making sirius lean back with a heavy heart. minerva had come up with a cover up story, saying that katherine had met up with her brother in hopes to make amends, but it back fired and she ended up gravely injured. dumbledore knew the truth of course. yet, sirius still couldn't help but feel like it was unfair that katherine had nearly died protecting them all and would have faced charges if it wasn't for the cover up story. "anyone want to add something?"

"i just want to say that, i know how much katherine meant to you kids. especially you, sirius. so i hope she recovers soon. she was a bright witch. it would break my heart if we lost her. and if there is anything i can, i'm always here." hagrid says, making the four at the end of the table smile gratefully.

"thank you, hagrid. that's very kind of you." lily hums and smiles gratefully at hagrid, who beams.

"can i be honest?" one of the members asks, making everyone look at him and dumbledore nods for him to continue. "how can we be sure what katherine said is true? after all she's an avery and a slytherin. they're all known to be ruthless manipulative liars."

"because her house and family doesn't define her. you have no idea what she went through to get here and be able to get away from that so called family. don't you dare say she's like them, because that's far from the truth." sirius snarls angrily, making lily reach out and put a comforting hand on his arm.

"that's enough. sirius is right. she is one of us and we have no reason to not trust her. that's final." dumbledore says as sirius leans back and clenches his jaw.