Another random burst of inspiration means another one of these! Basically, this one has to do with added-in or altered scenes. If you're making them part of the overall cannon narrative, it's probably wise to make sure that it all checks out with the timeline of events. This time, however, we're not quite looking at fanfiction—we're looking at the movies. One specific event in particular…Enjoy!

Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock

Chapter Twenty-four:

Wrong Place at the Wrong Time (or Why Hanging Around Recent Crime Scenes is a Bad Idea)

It was tonight, he had learned far too late. Tonight Lord Voldemort had gone after the prophesized child. And too late, Severus had learned which child: Harry Potter. But it didn't matter that his Master—or one of them, rather—was after the Potters.

What mattered was Lily. If it was true, if the protections surrounding her had somehow been circumvented…he had to know.

So Severus, stopping first to squeeze the information out of Pettigrew, apparated to Godric's Hollow. Already he could see a tragedy of some kind had occurred here, what with the smoke rising from the little cottage that was practically collapsed in on itself.

He slipped through the already open front door and almost immediately encountered the prone form of James Potter, eyes wide and glassy with his actual glasses askew, a look of permanent surprise and horror etched upon his face. At once twin feelings of triumph and panic surged up within Severus, mixing together terribly. Potter was dead, but if he was then Lily…?

He could hear noises upstairs of a baby. The wretched child…but Lily would be there, he knew. He made his way up the stairs and edged through another doorway, completely ignoring the crying infant and stopped.

For what he did see was deep red hair fanned out over the floor, and Lily…

An anguished cry left him unbidden, and Severus dropped to his knees, arms reaching out to hold what had been so long denied him and now was only his to have in death. Cradling Lily in his arms he allowed his sobs and tears to flow freely, intermixing with the screaming of the brat which he tried so desperately to forget about. This was his and Lily's moment, not the Potter-spawn's. As it should have been. Oh why had nothing he'd done been able to save her?

As a result of all the wailing going on, Severus did not hear the approaching roar of a motorcycle as it descended from the skies for a landing. Sirius Black had arrived.

The young man also took in the sight of the nearly destroyed Godric's Hollow and felt the breath leave him. Racing to the door which he shoved in all the way, he found James. "No!" Sirius mouthed, for the sound could not seem to come. He dropped to his knees before James, reaching out a hand to touch his now cold face. This man he considered a brother…how could this have happened? Swallowing past a lump in his throat, Sirius fixed his best friend's glasses so they sat properly on his face. "Oh James," he practically moaned, dropping his head onto the man's chest as tears began to fall.

But a loud wail from upstairs Sirius was keenly familiar with had him snapping his head back up. "Harry." With something like hope sparking in his heart, he raced up the stairs with wand in hand. But the sight that met him drew him up short. "Snivellus!"

Severus froze, that hated nickname breaking at last through his grief-stricken reverie. He looked up to find a furious young man he knew all too well towering above him. "Black—" He started.

"Get your hands off her you filthy Death Eater!" The man barked like it were a command. Severus shifted back slightly and with great reluctance but an even greater sense of self-preservation released the love of his life. He could guess just how bad this probably looked to his former peer. But his eyes widened as Sirius Black continued, "You killed them. You killed them you sick—" He could not seem to continue. Instead pointing his wand, he cast a Bludgeoning Hex.

It struck Severus, whose wand had been dropped upon finding Lily, full-force and the Death Eater yet Death Eater spy flew back into the wall, hitting his head and falling unconscious. Unfortunately, due to the strain this particular outside wall was receiving having to suddenly hold all the weight of the roof, it gave way and he fell from the second story to the ground, killing him instantly.

Sirius did not check this, however, nor did he much care, instead scooping his still-crying godson up with one arm, tucking the child's head under his chin to support him and so he didn't have to see as he levitated his mum's body down the stairs ahead of them, unwilling to leave her upstairs in an increasingly unsteady structure. He lowered her gently next to her husband. "There you go, Lily, right where you chose to be." The Marauder had to turn his face away from his two greatest fallen friends in order to not break down, instead choosing to cradle young Harry close, whose own tears were subsiding somewhat now that he was being held by Uncle Padfoot.

But the two were interrupted somewhat at the sound of heavy footfalls and the appearance of Rubeus Hagrid in the doorway. "Hullo? Sirius!"

"Hagrid," the young man breathed in relief. Thank Merlin, the Order had arrived. Too late, though, far too late.

"Gulping Gargoyle's, what's happened here? Thought I saw someone who looked like that Severus Snape out there! And- James and Lily!" The half-giant couldn't quite get inside, but his gaze turned somber as he asked, "Are they…?"

"Yeah," Sirius choked out, and at last carried Harry out of the ruined house, in part so that he could talk more easily to Hagrid.

"That little Harry then?"

"Yeah," Sirius nodded again, this time a little smile managing to reach his face as he looked down at the child. "He's alive, but—hang on he's bleeding." Worry rose to the forefront of his mind again as he noticed the stain on his robe from where Harry had been resting his forehead. Conjuring a cloth and one Agumenti spell later allowed him to wipe the already drying blood from his godson to reveal a lightning-shaped cut. "That—" He stopped himself twice in one night from cursing in front of the infant—Lily had never allowed it and he certainly wasn't going to start now that the dear woman was dead. "Death Eater," he ground out instead.

"Snape?" Hagrid guessed, and Sirius nodded.

"I found him upstairs. James and Lily were already dead." He didn't mention the almost compromising position he'd found the man in. The Marauders, and Lily herself, had guessed that Snape's feelings for her had run a little deeper and creepier than friendship. But it would be a disgrace to the Potters should word of this get out, and he wouldn't let that happen to his best friends.

Hagrid was still growling as he said, "That ruddy—"

"Hagrid, please! I promise, as soon as I can get Harry looked at and put to bed we can have a couple of drinks and curse Snivellus Snape's name to high Heaven."

Here Hagrid spoke up, "Oh, Professor Dumbledore sent me to get Harry. He's to be taken to a safe place."

"Well of course he's being taken to a safe place, he's coming with me," Sirius replied, more than a little perplexed. "I'm not trusting my godson to someone else in the middle of a war."

"But, isn't it over? Thought You-Know-Who was after 'em."

Sirius fixed the Keeper of Keys with a flat look. Much as he liked the half-giant, he could be a little dense sometimes. "Hagrid, I found Snape upstairs, not Voldemort." It was almost funny to see the large man jump almost a foot in the air, but now wasn't the time for that. "And I didn't see any other bodies up there."

"But- but Professor Dumbledore said—"

"I don't care what he said, alright?" Sirius finally snapped, the yell startling little Harry but he had to get his point across. "He was wrong, Hagrid, we were all wrong and James and Lily died for it. Now they asked me to take care of their son if something happened to them, whether it was Voldemort or not, and that's what I'm going to do."

With that, he strode over to his motorbike and swung one leg over it. "So you can tell Dumbledore if he's not too busy making false predictions off bad information that he can go after Peter. He was the real Secret Keeper—we switched to make it harder to figure out—and he must be the traitor in the Order. He either gave the information to Snape or he gave it to Voldemort who sent his Death Eating pet. The war isn't over, but I've got someone to look after now." Pressing a kiss to the scar on Harry's head, he kicked off and rose into the sky, godfather and godson together.

OoO

With the mysterious but unexplained absence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in battle, the Aurors were able to begin turning the tide on the war. The Death Eaters and other dark forces were confused, divided, and scattered, and began getting caught en masse.

The Lestranges, Dolohov, and young Barty Crouch Jr. were apprehended trying to break into the Longbottom's home. Aurors Frank and Alice, still on full alert for an attack from the Dark Lord himself, were more than ready to deal with the intruders. After receiving treatment at St. Mungo's, three of the five were sent to Azkaban. Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix went down in the fighting.

Others like Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle, and many more were unable to even approach the idea of bribery, as both the public and government were in full crisis mode. They were questioned about their guilt and pumped for more names under Veritaserum, then shipped to Azkaban straightaway.

Though he certainly kept an ear out for news and assisted when he could, this stage of the war also saw a conspicuous absence of Sirius Black, who had retreated to Potter Manor in the countryside to raise his godson where he did not make the same mistake twice; he named himself Secret Keeper, and the first person he told the secret to was Harry's Uncle Moony. As the two friends grieved together while rebuilding their friendship, Harry was a constant presence and joy in their lives, and they did their best to help him grow with the guidance and love his parents would have wanted.

This was helped, of course, by the boost in finances, as upon the deaths of the remaining Blacks, Sirius inherited not just that money but also the vaults, assets, and possessions of the Lestranges and Malfoys that had reverted to the Ancient and Noble House of Black after the fall of his cousins. He used that money to help fund the war effort and the relief effort for victims and families, Muggle and magical alike. Any dark artefacts found in the vaults or homes of all his newly inherited wealth were ordered to be destroyed, a few more difficult than others. But nevertheless it was done.

The Aurors almost managed to catch up to Peter Pettigrew, but were ill-equipped to deal with an unknown Animagus, and he gave them the slip. Many a time especially in the early years Sirius had to fight the urge to join in the ongoing search for the traitor. But the chilling memory of his discovery of Snape in Harry's nursery, stopped from completing his task only by a disturbing obsession was all it took to remind him just where he needed to be.

As Wormtail had gone to ground, his Master had turned into a shade whose days—or rather Horcruxes—were numbered, and Severus Snape had died, no one ever learned what truly happened that Halloween night. Some, naturally, had their suspicions, such as Albus Dumbledore. But to his own surprise, having his hands tied on the matter by Sirius' actions and the loss of his newly recruited spy in Voldemort's camp had him pursuing other, quieter methods. It was through pressuring such old contacts that Horace Slughorn's memory came to his attention, and he carried out a solitary quest to retrieve and destroy the last two Horcruxes.

Yes, only two Horcruxes. In the constant presence of such remorse, grief, and even love, the piece of Voldemort's soul that had accidentally been lodged inside Harry Potter was unable to hold on, being so recent. It did the mental equivalent of curling up in a ball to die—as did the physical shade of Voldemort deep in an Albanian forest—and the scar on Harry's forehead slowly healed until it was only a thin, faint line.

He grew up loved and protected, but also with the skills necessary to fight for what his parents had believed in, and what they had died trying to protect. And he did so with the closure that came from knowing that his parents' murderer had already been punished for trying to end that. Even if he and everyone else thought it was the wrong guy.

But maybe it was better that way.

Haha, maybe it is? I'll leave that up to you guys to decide. This one got a bit away from me, yet I quite like this little idea. But yeah, loved it or hated it we want to know! Thanks so much for reading and please review!