Who'll Stop the Rain? - WIP snippet from Sweet Child O' Mine Prequel

hello again. i wasn't planning on posting two snippets today, but it IS halloween, and this chapter literally takes place on halloween so how could i pass up the opportunity? but this is what i've been working on and what i (hopefully) am going to begin publishing by the end of the year! there will be five chapters that are more short stories than chapters, that take place over various times in their lives before adopting faye. hopefully that's something exciting because i'm having such a fun time writing it and filling in some of the gaps from sweet child o' mine, and yeah! enjoy x2 <3

POV - Sirius (i wasn't meaning to post two sirius POVs today but hey uh happy early birthday i guess sirius)

1,303 words

TW - Marauders Halloween

Smoke, it had emitted from the Godric's Hollow house Sirius hadn't seen in months. The memory of seeing it came rushing back to him--jarringly--in the middle of picking up a very late dinner for he and Remus, so he knew instantly what had happened.

Peter had betrayed them.

Sirius’d dropped his basket of food from his arms and rushed out of that Muggle shop as quickly as he could, finding an empty alleyway and Disapparating immediately.

Now flames filled his vision, engulfing the house of which trapped his best friends and his nephew, along in his heart with the deepest sense of dread he'd ever felt. The source came from the upstairs bedroom--Harry's bedroom. A moment ago, Sirius couldn't have told you where in the region their house was. Now he remembered every nook and cranny of it.

He ran to the front door and tried to turn the knob, but--"Fuck--!" He recoiled immediately at the heat of the metal. Shaking hands pressed against the wood door--it was hot, too, which had to mean the flames reached all the way to the bottom floor. Fuck, it was one thing to murder his best friends, his family, but to destroy every trace of them, too? Sirius had never thought Voldemort so goddamn evil before this moment, when he pounded on the door frantically and sobbed.

Where was Peter? Did he go inside? Was he the cause of the flames?

He kicked the door--hard--once, twice, before hearing an echoed cough and, "Leave, before I k-kill you!" Sirius about collapsed with relief at the sound of his best friend alive--damaged, possibly burning to death, but still alive. He was still alive.

Sirius whipped out his wand tucked into his boot like Remus instructed him to do for when he went out everywhere--"just in case"--and shouted, "DEPULSO!" The door splintered, wood flying everywhere, and the first thing he saw was the bannister holding the kitchen up collapse, framed pictures and the shelf holding cookbooks and painting supplies Sirius and Remus had gotten Lily over the years clatter to the ground.

The next thing he saw were three soot-covered Potters--James all but shoving his wife, holding their son, out of the door, following behind them quickly and holding a shaking hand out with his wand pointed at Sirius' face. Behind a pair of cracked glasses, his eyes widened with recognition, then an immense relief he'd never seen on his face, before James' arm all but collapsed at his side and he croaked, "Sirius?"

"Fuck, James," Sirius whispered, feeling his tears heated up by the flames near them rush down his cheeks, "fuck, you're okay. You're all okay, holy shit--" He pulled James into a crushing hug, of which shaking arms came up around him and the heavy lean of his best friend's body folded into his. James never let anyone take his weight. But Sirius felt all ninety kilograms slump in his arms.

Another crumble of the structure behind them had them shooting away, followed by a cough from Lily, who cradled Harry close to her chest. James went over, gently guiding them away from the house--Sirius followed, a bruising grip on his wand as the momentary relief of his friends' lives faded and he remembered the cause of this.

"Where is he," he demanded, voice cold. He'd never wanted to kill someone so badly in his life.

James coughed again--they needed a doctor, St. Mungo's. But Harry couldn't be Disapparated--he was too young. "I think he exploded ...?"

"Exploded?" Sirius blurted, blinking. Wormtail?

"Yeah, he, uh ... I don't know." James put his hand on his head, blinking dazedly as they paused a good ways from the house.

"He tried to kill Harry," Lily said, her voice low and even deadlier than Sirius thought his has been, but his fists and jaw clenched at the statement.

"Peter tried to kill Harry," he repeated quietly, staring at his ragged-breathing nephew in Lily's arms. Both the Potters looked up, blinking at him.

"What? No, Voldemort." James blinked again, slower. "What do you mean Peter? Where is he?"

Peter isn't here? Sirius guessed he didn't need to be present to betray them, did he? All he had to do was slip the information to Voldemort--he supposed he just expected him to be.

But no. Because Pettigrew was a coward, and he wouldn't have been able to face James, their best friend since they were fucking eleven-years-old, and let him see that he led their greatest enemy to kill him, his wife, and his one-year-old son. He's a coward, and a bastard, and Sirius regretted every day he ever called him his best friend.

"I don't know where he is," Sirius said with a tight jaw, looking over James. He stood strangely--eyes distant like he wasn't really there. So did Lily. They needed doctors, badly. "Did you hit your head or something? What do you think happened?"

James slowly shook his head, looking back in the direction of the house. The flames reflected off the cracked glasses on his face. "I ... don't really know what happened ..."

"Who do you think led Voldemort to you?" Sirius snapped angrily--not angry at James, of course. He never could be. But fuck, it was pooling up in his chest that he couldn't stop the venom in his voice. "Who's the only one who knew where you were? Why do you think I remembered where you were?"

James swallowed, the light of the flames glistening off the sudden onset of tears in his eyes. In the most heartbreaking voice Sirius had ever heard, he choked out, "Wormtail ...?"

They stared at each other for a few moments, hundreds of thoughts flowing between them in a silent conversation like they'd always been able to do, before James' fists slowly closed at his sides, his jaw tensing, and the tears in his eyes turning angry, before he muttered, "Wormtail ... where is he."

Sirius blinked, surprised but ruefully satisfied at his anger. "I don't know."

"I'm gonna kill him."

"James," Lily breathed sadly, rocking Harry with shaky arms.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him, Sirius. How dare he--"

Harry's fussing voice cut him off, and the anger quickly dissipated as his head whipped in their direction. He immediately came to his wife's side, a trembling hand reaching up and brushing Harry's brown hair--almost black with the amount of soot and ash in it. "Is he okay? Are you okay?"

"I think so," Lily said, voice quiet and trembling, as well. Seeing them in such a state made Sirius' heart ache more more than it already was. "He--he needs to be looked over, though. He's just--he's small, James, and that was so much smoke. What if he--"

"He's gonna be fine." James wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his side and kissing the top of her head. "He's gonna be fine."

Sirius didn't know if he was trying to convince her or himself. He held Lily, and by extension Harry, to himself for a moment, stroking both of their hairs and attempting to stay the comforting, steady husband and dad he'd always fought to be, before he tilted his head slightly towards Sirius. He could only see half of his face, partially lit up by the still burning house, as he said in a deep, venomous voice, "Find him."

The emotions dimmed and his sense of smell and hearing intensified as he shifted into Padfoot, stopping only briefly to nuzzle his friends' legs before sniffing the air, finding a faint trace of the rat in his mind, and darting off.