A/N: Welcome back! This story is part 6 of my twisted canon series - if you haven't read parts 1-5, I highly recommend doing so before continuing here; too much has changed at this point. Part 1 is called 'Circumstances of an Unexpected Trio' & can be found on my profile. If you've read all up to this point, carry on!

Sirius was the first to react, letting loose a string of swear words that would have made a sailor blush. Once he'd exhausted his rather colorful vocabulary, he quickly approached the nearest policeman.

"Excuse me-"

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to stay back," the officer said, employing a kind but firm tone. "We need to be able to-"

"No, you don't understand," Sirius interrupted, trying not to get impatient as he knew the officer was only doing his job. "I live in that house just there" – he pointed to his own residence – "and the Grangers are longtime family friends."

"I understand, sir, but-"

"I have their daughter with me!" Sirius practically shouted. "And I have reason to believe my wife was in that house when they were attacked!" Of course, Lily was only his wife when they used their aliases in the magical world, but nobody needed to know that – even the rest of their Muggle neighbors didn't know that they weren't married, as they hadn't introduced themselves either way and no one had ever asked. In any case, Sirius knew from hearing about other Order members in similar predicaments that calling Lily his wife would get them through to the scene a lot easier.

"I…well, that changes things," the officer said, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Right this way." He pulled aside one of the barriers blocking the street and motioned the four of them through. A thousand questions bounced around Sirius' head as he walked, none of which he wanted answered. Lily wasn't his wife, not at all, but she was still one of his closest friends, and he'd come to care for her like family over the years they'd shared raising their boys. She wasn't his wife, but if what he feared was true, the pain was going to be just as unbearable.

As they approached the Grangers' house, Sirius could see a team of medics wheeling two stretchers towards the waiting ambulance. At the officer's request, they halted, and a young woman, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, approached.

"Something I can help with, sir?" she asked the officer. He nodded.

"Family members," he said, gesturing towards his companions. "They deserve to know what happened." The blonde woman's face twisted into a grimace, but she nodded resolutely and turned to Sirius.

"Jessica Masterson," she said, offering her hand for Sirius to shake. "I understand you know the Grangers?"

"We've been friends for almost a decade," Sirius replied. "Please, don't beat around the bush – I need to know what happened." Jessica sighed.

"Your neighbor across the road called in the alarm," she said. "Said she heard shouting and saw brightly colored lights, but she couldn't tell us anything more. By the time we got here, it was too late."

"Too late?" Sirius repeated. Of course, he already knew what had happened – if the Dark Mark floating over the house wasn't an obvious clue, the flashing lights reported by his neighbor cemented it – but he still didn't know who they'd gotten.

"The victims were declared dead at the scene," Jessica said quickly, her expression suggesting she'd done this before but still hated being the one to have to break the news. "I'm sorry." She paused for a moment. "I know it's a lot to ask, but we need someone to identify them." Sirius nodded almost robotically and followed Jessica towards the stretchers, the trio shuffling close behind, and he had to bite back tears when the victims' faces were revealed: Lily, and Helen Granger. They bore not a single scratch between them, and Sirius knew that they'd both been hit with the same curse that had taken his best friend's life, and those of so many others. Behind him, Hermione screamed and threw herself into Harry and Draco's arms, the boys both trying in vain to keep their own grief in check as tears flowed freely down their faces. Jessica covered the bodies back up, feeling like an intruder. And yet it was strange – they were clearly upset, but they'd reacted almost as if the victims' unveiling was a confirmation rather than a surprise, and she'd definitely heard the older man – Sirius, was it? – shout about the women being attacked. The rest of her team was just as baffled as she was as to what had happened, as aside from their lack of pulse there was absolutely nothing wrong with the two women – did these four know something she didn't, and if so, what? How?

"There's more," the officer said quietly, bringing Jessica out of her thoughts and sending the others scrambling for handkerchiefs. "I'm so sorry to badger you with questions, but we need to know everything we can – will you follow me, please?" Sirius nodded, and the group followed the officer into the Grangers' house. Scorch marks adorned the kitchen walls, and Sirius smiled in spite of himself when he saw blemishes on both sides – so Lily hadn't gone down without a fight. It was the living room, however, that made him stop short. The sight before him was one of the most gruesome he'd ever seen, and considering he'd been involved with the Order since leaving Hogwarts, that was definitely saying something. The Grangers' sofa had been reduced to ashes and the television was face down on the floor, glass littering the carpet, but it was the message on the far wall that caught everyone's attention, the foot-high letters glistening in a sickening shade of crimson:

Hello Mudblood.

Harry swore under his breath as Hermione slumped to the floor in a dead faint. Draco was staring at the message, his expression unreadable.

"Do any of you know what this means?" the officer asked.

"We do," a deep voice replied from behind, making them all jump. "And I'm afraid it's a matter of national security. The Prime Minister is being informed as we speak. I'm sure you'll understand that we can speak no further."

"Kingsley to the rescue," Sirius thought as he turned to face his fellow Order member. Kingsley had recently been assigned to guard the Muggle Prime Minister, and Sirius was glad that the dark-skinned Auror was here – he had a knack for keeping things calm and orderly, which was just what they needed. If anyone could explain this situation without arousing too much suspicion from the involved Muggles, it was Kingsley.

The next week was one of the hardest of Sirius' life. He was grateful for the dozens of mourning gifts – mostly food – that he'd received from the Order, but he was having a difficult time coming to terms with the loss. Lily and Helen were gone, and though not a trace of Bob Granger's body had been found, the bloody message on the wall had left little to the imagination – the women had been unmarked, so it was safe to guess that it was Bob's blood staining that wall. What the Death Eaters had done with him was anyone's guess, and Sirius found he really didn't want to know the details.

His main concern was the three grieving teenagers he now cared for alone. Hermione had cried for ages when they'd first gotten back, and she still spent long hours curled up on the couch, clutching a pillow as silent tears poured down her cheeks. Harry retreated to the basement dueling room, where Sirius could hear him demolishing everything he could with his bare hands. Draco, however, was the worst – he'd gone straight upstairs and locked himself in his room, and it wasn't until Sirius noticed the smashed front of the liquor cabinet several hours later that he realized what his young cousin had done. He raced upstairs and broke through Draco's door with a quick "Alohomora" to find the blond unconscious on his bed, a broken, empty bottle discarded on the floor. Firewhisky was potent stuff, and Sirius wasted no time hauling Draco to the bathroom, reviving him, and forcing him to vomit up everything he'd had and then some.

"What were you thinking?" Sirius hissed as he passed Draco a glass of water. "An entire bottle of firewhisky, you could have died-"

"Twice," Draco croaked, his throat sore from the burning alcohol and from throwing up. "Those bastards have taken away my mother twice. I can barely remember Narcissa – my birth mother, I can barely remember her! – and now Mum…" He trailed off, choking on a sob that just wouldn't come, and Sirius nearly cried himself when he saw more than a glance of the broken boy he'd taken in more than a decade ago.

"Draco, it's alright," Sirius soothed, gently rubbing the boy's back. "Well, no – it's not alright, it really isn't – but please, don't shut down on me like this. You do that, and they've won. It's so selfish of me to ask you to do this, but please – Harry needs you. Hermione needs you. I need you. We've lost so much – don't make us lose you too. Please." The last word was little more than a prayer, and Draco looked up, his grey eyes glassy with unshed tears.

"How are we not already lost?" Draco whispered, and his tone was so defeated that Sirius' heart broke.

"That is the hardest question of them all," he said quietly, and Draco's walls finally collapsed, the tears flowing thick and fast as he clung to Sirius for all he was worth. Sirius pulled him close and let him cry, his own tears dripping down his chin and off his nose to dampen the boy's hair. It was a long time before Draco's cries quieted and finally stilled, and Sirius realized he'd fallen asleep. As carefully as he could so as not to wake Draco, Sirius scooped the blond up off the floor and carried him back to bed, pulling up the covers and giving him a last lingering look before cleaning up the broken glass of the bottle and heading downstairs to check on his other charges. Hermione was also asleep, curled up on the couch with Crookshanks at her side, and Sirius draped a thick blanket over her and brushed her curls away from her tear-streaked face. Poor girl – Sirius adored her as if she were his own, and if he could, he would have done anything to make her pain go away.

Sirius found Harry in the basement, soaked in sweat and staring at the wall. There hadn't been much down here for Harry to destroy, as the room was mostly just thick padding, but he'd certainly done his best, and his knuckles were bloody and raw. Sirius gently cleaned and healed the cuts with a wave of his wand before taking a seat next to his godson.

"It hurts, Padfoot," Harry said. "It hurts so much."

"I know," Sirius replied. "Believe me, I know."

"Does it get any easier?" Harry asked.

"I wish I could say yes, but I'd be lying," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "I s'pose it does, after a time, but not much. You just have to do what" – he paused and took a deep breath – "do what your mum did after your dad died. Cry it all out, and then make sure they didn't die in vain. That was the promise your mum made to herself that night, and that was the promise every Order member made after we lost anyone – because no matter how many people you lose, no matter how much pain you're in, the one thing you can't lose is hope."

"But why me?" Harry demanded. "Why did Voldemort decide he had to make my life a living hell? My family? I could barely even walk or talk!"

"I don't know," Sirius sighed. "Something about you caught his attention – something in that prophecy, the one Trelawney made, made him think of you. Believe me, if I could go back and ensure that prophecy was never made, I would."

"How about you go back and ensure Voldemort was never born?" Harry sniffed. "That'd be better."

"That it would." There was a long pause before Harry spoke again.

"Did you love her, Padfoot – my mum?"

"Yes and no," Sirius said with a small smile. "Yes, I loved her – but not romantically, no."

"Why not?" Harry asked. "Sorry – that probably seems like an odd question. It's just…well, Mum was so kind, and she was certainly pretty enough…" He trailed off as if unsure of how to express his thoughts properly.

"Harry, I'm not denying that your mum was beautiful, both inside and out," Sirius said, turning himself to face his godson. "James wasn't the only one who fantasized about her back at Hogwarts, not by a long shot, but I never did. As pretty as she was, I wasn't a fan of girls who played hard to get – I didn't like to have to work too hard to get a good snog." Harry grimaced, and Sirius chuckled.

"I'll admit it, kid – back at Hogwarts, I got detention for getting caught in broom closets with girls almost as often as I did for pulling pranks with your dad," Sirius said. "Your mum called me a pig more than once for it, but I was too content – and the girls too willing – to care. That is, until we joined the Order."

"What happened when you joined the Order?" Harry asked.

"Not what, but who," Sirius corrected. "Marlene McKinnon – she'd been in our year at school, but none of us knew her all that well, save your mum. She was…different, Marlene. Quiet, but unquestionably loyal, and she did more than her fair share of work for the Order. She was far from what you'd call a great beauty – she was rather plain, actually – but she was the first girl to successfully get me to see past that."

"You fancied her?" Harry guessed.

"Harry, 'fancied' isn't the correct word – I was absolutely mad about her, even more so because unless we were on a mission together, she absolutely refused to give me the time of day. Being friends with Lily, she knew all about my reputation, and she wanted nothing to do with me."

"What happened?" Harry pressed. He felt like a little kid demanding to know the end of a bedtime story.

"We saved each other's lives," Sirius said, the faraway look in his eyes suggesting that he was, at least partially, in another time and place. "There was a massive raid in Devon, and we were outnumbered seven to one, easily. Gideon and Fabian Prewett – Molly Weasley's brothers – were killed that night, and several more of us were lucky to escape with our lives. I pulled Marlene out of the way of a crumbling wall that would have killed her instantly, and in turn, she brewed a potion that stopped a nasty curse from destroying my insides. She'd been training to be a Healer, and I was really lucky." Sirius paused. "For whatever reason, that was the catalyst that brought us together, and she finally agreed to go to dinner with me. We went to your parents' wedding together not long after that, and then she…"

"She what?"

"She said yes," Sirius almost whispered, and Harry didn't have to ask for clarification.

"Merlin, Sirius, I…I never knew," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry."

"We were going to get married the fall after you were born," Sirius continued, choking a little on the words. "But…" He sighed and swallowed heavily. "I'll never forget it. It was early July, just a few weeks before you were born. Mad-Eye came to an Order meeting with the news…she was gone. Her whole family was." Sirius hid his head in his hand for a moment, then looked up again and said, "She was supposed to be your godmother – your mum told me when you were born. In honor of her memory, Lily decided not to choose an alternate."

"I'm sorry," Harry repeated. He'd lived with Sirius for most of his life, and yet he'd never known that his godfather had lost his fiancée, a woman he clearly loved more than anything in the world. He thought of Draco, and the obvious pain he'd been in when Hermione had been hurt at Kings Cross – Draco had been like a caged animal then, and Harry couldn't even imagine how that feeling would have been multiplied had Hermione been killed. Harry knew he'd be extremely upset if Ginny died, and they hadn't even been together all that long. Not knowing what else to do, he scooted closer and wrapped his arms around Sirius, allowing his godfather to rest his head on his shoulder and let his own suppressed emotions out.

"It's been a long time since I've really thought about that," Sirius said with a sniff as he wiped his nose on his sleeve. "I think about Marlene all the time, but I haven't really thought about the circumstances in years." Harry nodded.

"I understand," he said, then paused. "Although when I was a kid, I always wondered if you were going to marry my mum – and even when I got older, I was still surprised that nothing happened. You two seemed so…natural around each other."

"We had a mutual understanding," Sirius said with a small smile. "An understanding of grief, and of loss. We'd become good friends by the time you were born, and we just got closer when we found ourselves taking care of you together."

"And nothing ever happened?" Harry asked again. He looked like he didn't believe Sirius, who finally sighed and laughed a little.

"You really are too damn perceptive for your own good," he muttered. "Alright, fine – we did have a pretty good snogging session once, right after Draco came to live with us. It was close to the anniversary of both James and Marlene's funerals, Draco was plagued with nightmares that woke him screaming in terror, and you were going through a phase were you were being stubborn and difficult and…I can't even describe it. The combined stress was too much, and that was how we decided to deal with it – of course, we both said afterwards that it would never happen again, and it didn't. It made things awkward for almost a month, and we're lucky we didn't have more serious issues than that, but in an odd way, it helped. Once we got over the embarrassment of the whole thing, we finally moved on, and our family unit actually strengthened as a result." They were quiet for a long time.

"Thank you, Padfoot," Harry finally said, pulling Sirius to him for another hug. "It still hurts, but…I guess it's a little better knowing there are others who understand what I'm going through."

"It does," Sirius agreed. "And like I told your brother earlier, don't forget about him or Hermione either – you three need each other, now more than ever."

"I know – like you said, we've lost a lot, but we can't lose hope."

"That's a good lad." Sirius gave Harry a fond smile, which Harry immediately returned. "Now, as much as I've enjoyed sitting here with you, I think it's time to head upstairs and try to get some sleep. Whether we like it or not, the next few weeks are going to be busy."

A/N: That was a hard chapter to write - not because the words wouldn't come, but because of the content. :( Sirius' back story is my own creation, not from canon - next chapter will be quite sad as well, but I think it should get better after that.

If you've come this far with me, thank you! Your support - follows, faves, reviews, PMs, etc. - has been nothing short of amazing.

JKR owns all things Potter, I just play. Please R&R, & enjoy! :)