Afterlife

He's got out

"He got out," James said, flabbergasted, as he focused on the wizarding newspaper, "He got out."

Sirius had just escaped Azkaban and it was all over the news. He was the first person to achieve getting out of the wizarding prison and he was infamous - again.

Ah, the good old days when everyone knew Sirius as just the troublesome student. Now they all thought he had betrayed his best friend, his god son, and killed another of his closest friends. What had the world come to? Prejudice had certainly caused this, people refused to believe little Peter Pettigrew would be evil, but they were willing to believe that a member of the Black family would betray his friend even after proving himself to the world so many bloody times.

The world was messed up these days, but now finally, Harry would find out Sirius existed.

Had James and Lily brought him up, Harry would have been closer to Sirius than anyone - he was another father. But no, to Harry Potter now, he was simply an escaped mass-murderer apparently on the lookout for his godson, who happened to be him.

It made sense for Sirius to go after Harry, as his godson, but Sirius wasn't looking to kill him! There had been rumours of him saying in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts." How did that imply murderous behaviour? They didn't even know it was necessarily Harry! It could be some other student, someone who had been in the news that had annoyed Sirius, perhaps it was Snape that Sirius wanted to beat the hell out of!

Or- it struck James- it could be Peter. Peter, Peter, of course it was bloody Peter. He's at Hogwarts, he was in the news, Sirius would easily recognise his animagi form - and Sirius was unfortunately prone to dreams, nightmares of the worst kind - and James knew that he would often sleep talk.

If Sirius was looking for Peter - then Sirius was looking to kill him. James' heart sank. Sirius was innocent, but if he murdered Peter, then he would have a valid reason to be put into prison, he would never meet Harry - this could go so badly. Not that there was anything he could do...REMUS! Remus was heading to Hogwarts! Remus was teaching Harry this year! Remus could explain everything! Remus could be he saviour! He could stop Sirius from killing Peter! But, James contradicted himself, Remus didn't know Sirius was innocent, did he? Remus spent the first few years wallowing in depression, probably thinking he was the only Marauder still sane. Remus thought Sirius had killed Peter, he didn't know that Peter was alive. Fred and George - they had the map, surely they could catch Peter Pettigrew on the map and report him...James started to give up hope - maybe this was it? Sirius had broken out of Azkaban as a dog and he could enter Hogwarts the same way. He would easily kill Peter and then legally be sent back to prison for the rest of his life.

And there was nothing James could do. He could just sit there and wish and pray it would all turn out okay.