Remus looked up when Sirius slipped back into the living room, sinking down onto the sofa. "Harry likes his room?"
"Yeah," Sirius replied, grinning. "Thanks for helping me with it, Moons."
"My pleasure."
The three of them went silent, until Sirius let out a sigh. "How could I have spent so long sitting in Azkaban while Harry was out here left to Dumbledore's manipulative little claws? I should've been there to protect him."
"You can't beat yourself up over it, Sirius, you had no idea. Believe me, I've been doing plenty of that since I found out."
"At least the truth has been discovered before it's too late," Severus added. "Potter has plenty of time for his magical core to balance out before he inherits the rest of his family magics."
"True. We'll get him ready for the future, whatever it holds." Sirius' grey eyes gleamed with determination.
Remus thought back to what Harry had said before he'd left the castle, about Trelawney's prophecy. He'd shared that with his two companions, of course, but he could hardly believe it; Peter was going to be the one to help Voldemort back to power. It would happen, no doubt sooner than any of them would like. "Will we have enough time?" he asked plaintively, knowing the two men were thinking along the same lines.
Beside him, Severus tensed. "Now that we have the boy safely, and I have been… enlightened about Dumbledore's true regard for him, I fear there's something I need to tell you both." He looked up, meeting Remus' gaze. "Remus, do you remember when I told you I had turned to the side of the Light?"
Remus could remember it all too well. They'd had a hugely explosive fight about six months after graduation, when Severus had taken the Dark Mark. Remus had begged him to reconsider, to go to Dumbledore for help, but Severus had stood firm in his decision. It was the first time Remus thought he'd truly lost the man for good. They didn't speak again for almost a year, until one day Remus came home to find Severus on his doorstep, looking heartbroken and promising that he'd changed, that he'd agreed to turn spy for Dumbledore and rejoin the light. It had taken time for them to trust each other again — indeed, they'd been just starting to properly figure it out when Lily and James had been killed, and Remus had practically dropped off the face of the earth in mourning.
"I never told you why," Severus continued, his long fingers curling around Remus' own. "What event caused me to realise the truth of the decision I had made." He glanced over at Sirius, who was listening intently. "This is going to be… difficult for you to hear. I only ask that you allow me to say my piece before you hex me into oblivion." His lips quirked in a wry smile. Remus' heart clenched.
"One evening, I was spying on Dumbledore at the Dark Lord's orders; he was interviewing a new teaching candidate. For the Divination post. She seemed as batty as every other seer I'd met, so I didn't think much of it— until she began to make a genuine prophecy."
Remus listened in dawning horror as Severus recited the words. "I was discovered before I could hear the end, but I took what I knew to the Dark Lord. It took several weeks for him to parse the meaning, but eventually he decided he knew enough." Born as the seventh month dies.
"Harry." Sirius' voice was a low growl, his hands clenched into fists on his lap. His wand was beside him, untouched.
"Potter," Severus confirmed. "Or the Longbottom boy. The Dark Lord decided there was a good chance it could be either, so he set his followers to find both families." The firelight flickered off of Severus' sharp cheekbones, making him look haggard, his eyes full of grief. "As soon as I realised the Dark Lord planned to kill a child — Lily's child — I went to Dumbledore and begged him for mercy, pleaded with him to protect Lily and her son. I offered my services as a spy for the light, to repent for what I had done. I hoped it would be enough. I was wrong." He gave a twisted sort of grimace, drawing his hands away from Remus' lap. "I am the reason Lily and James are dead. And that knowledge will haunt me for the rest of my days."
The silence that followed was painfully thick. Remus didn't know what to say, Severus' words echoing in his mind, the pieces falling together. Harry was prophesised to defeat Voldemort. Voldemort knew that, which was why he went after Lily and James. Severus was the one who had given him that information.
"I was the one who convinced Lily and James to use Peter as the Secret Keeper," Sirius said eventually. "I thought I'd be too obvious a choice. No one would suspect Peter. Not even us. Because of me, Voldemort got to them. He could've known about the prophecy for years and never been any the wiser if it had been me." He looked up at Severus with hollow eyes, eyes that spoke of twelve years of Azkaban. "You're as much to blame as I am, Snape."
"Both of you carry around far more guilt than one man should bear," Remus declared, staring into his teacup. "The past is the past, and we have all suffered from our mistakes. Some more than others. But what matters now is keeping Harry safe — from Voldemort and Dumbledore." If Harry was the one destined to destroy Voldemort, and Dumbledore knew the full prophecy, Harry would be in grave danger on both sides when Voldemort returned to power.
"We have to train him. Not just with his family magic, or Occlumency," Sirius realised. "He needs to know how to survive a war."
"We can't tell him why," Remus insisted. "He's not even fourteen yet. That's far too large a burden to place on his shoulders, on top of everything else."
"I think Potter has a good idea that he's going to have to face something," Severus pointed out. "We don't need to tell him about the prophecy for him to know he needs to be prepared."
From how eager Harry had been to learn from them throughout the summer, Remus had to agree.
"Fuck," Sirius said abruptly, tugging at his hair. "Why did it have to be him? Hasn't he been through enough?"
There was no response to that. All three of them sat silently, lost in their thoughts, their minds on the boy sleeping peacefully one floor above them. Remus reached out to grip Severus' hand once more, needing the contact, the comfort.
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