Chapter 8-Halloween Night

Harry stared at his godfather, stunned. Had he really heard what he thought he heard? No, there was no way possible that Sirius could have killed two of the people he loved more than his own life.

"Sirius? What…"

Sirius smiled sadly at Harry. "It was Halloween. Antaria had been invited to a party with other children her age and Demetra begged me to let her go. I was on assignment with the Order. We'd just learned the whereabouts of a house where Death Eaters were torturing families. It was all a ruse, of course to get people away from your house. We had no idea that Voldemort had discovered your location. There was something in the air that night, but I was too distracted to understand what was going on.

"Demetra talked me into allowing Antaria to go to the party and she wanted me to go with them, but, of course I couldn't. She said we needed a night out, and she was right. We hadn't gone out since we found out that Voldemort was planning to kill you."

Harry listened to his matter-of-fact tone and he shivered when he realized that it was his family Sirius was talking about. Sirius laughed a mirthless laugh and Harry watched as his face became drawn and he looked so sad.

"I told my darling that although I couldn't go, I would send one of our friends round to make sure that she got there okay and he would also take them home after the party." Sirius's eyes welled up and he began to cry. "It was someone whom I trusted…"

"Peter Pettigrew!" Harry said in surprise.

Sirius looked at Harry and nodded. "The man who betrayed you; I had just entrusted the loves of my life to him. This was just what he was waiting for. I didn't know, Harry. I thought, he led me to believe that it was Remus who couldn't be trusted and I thought, I believed, that Peter was too loyal to betray us."

A look of anger passed across his face. He took a full deep breath. "So Remus, Arthur, Molly, and I went to the location we were told about. It was so far from Godric's Hollow that it took us quite a while to find the place and when we got there, there no signs of life at all. There was just a scroll of parchment there with James and Lily's and your name written on it in blood. Your names were scratched out. That's when we realized that we had been duped and we flew back as quickly as we could.

"By the time we got back it was too late. We went to the Order's headquarters and were told that something had happened. The first thing I did was get on my motorcycle and flew to your house and I saw for myself that it had been almost completely destroyed. Hagrid was there and I met him as he came outside; you were wrapped up in a blanket and I couldn't believe you were alive. He told me your parents were dead, but you had survived. I told him I would take you and we would raise you but he told me Albus told him to take you somewhere where you'd be safe.

"That's when it occurred to me that it had to have been Peter who had betrayed you. And I realized that it was may fault because I had made him secret keeper. I had killed your parents."

Sirius looked away from Harry, too ashamed to face him. "Then I knew what I had to do. I had to find him and I was going to kill him.

"I finally caught up with him on a street corner. He looked so smug. I yelled at him to stop because I wanted to know why he had betrayed us.

"He laughed and said he'd always worked for Voldemort, that he hated all of us, especially me. It didn't take much for him to convince me that Remus was the traitor and that he should secret keeper.

"I told him that I was going to kill him, but he was so calm, I couldn't believe it.

"'You're not going to kill me,' he said looking at me square in the eyes. 'Not in front of all these witnesses.'

"I started laughing at him; he didn't know me very well, I could kill him in front of a thousand witnesses."

Sirius closed his eyes. "'But would you kill me in front of your family,' he said. That's when he moved back and I saw Demetra holding on to Antaria behind him. She was terrified. When she saw me, she was crying and she smiled at me.

"'I'll give you anything you want,' I begged. 'Let them go. They've never done anything to hurt you. Demetra's always been so good to you, even though you didn't deserve it. Take me instead,' I pleaded.

"'I don't think so,' he said smiling cruelly. 'See what it feels like to lose everything.'

"I started running toward them when I was knocked back in the explosion that demolished the block and killed everyone around.

"They were gone. In a blink of an eye my wife and daughter killed. So when they came after me, I didn't fight back; I didn't run away. My only consolation was that son of a bitch had died, too. I knew that I didn't want to live after that. I had no hope. That night I'd lost my best friends and my beautiful wife and daughter."

Sirius hung him head and began to weep. Harry embraced him and they clung together.

"It wasn't your fault, Sirius," Harry said. "It was Peter Pettigrew's fault. You can't blame yourself. You didn't kill them, just like you weren't responsible for the death of my parents."

"That's where you're wrong, Harry. Don't you see, I trusted the wrong man. It's my fault that they are dead. And I deserved everything I got. Now I want to live to see Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort die. Maybe I will receive absolution then. Maybe then they will forgive me."

Harry watched as Sirius made it up the stairs into the attic. He stayed there with Buckbeak for several days. When the others tried to get him down, Harry told them that he was fine up there and not to bother him. He knew that Sirius would come down in his own time. Right now he needed to be alone.

A/N: This was very hard for me to write the last chapter. I'm sorry it took so long to post it. I hope you enjoyed the story; it was very sad for me to write. And maybe Demetra and Antaria some how made it out alive. After all, that rat Pettigrew escaped... --Rita