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Sirius apparated to Godric's Hollow, grey eyes wide on the destroyed cottage. "Oh, Merlin," he moaned softly, trembling in fear. Shaking himself out of his momentary fugue, he darted into the house, knowing he had but moments before Dumbledore or the Order arrived. He bound up the stairs to the second floor, skidding to a halt outside the nursery.

There, by the crib, lay the lifeless body of Lily Potter. Tears ran unchecked down the animagus' face as he stared at his dead friend. He'd barely glanced at James as he ran through the house, mind intent on getting to Harry. His eyes tracked across the floor, widening at the pile of ash and burnt clothing that was the only evidence that someone else had been in the room. Snarling, Sirius stormed over to the pile and kicked it, scattering the dust into the wind, before he turned back to the crib.

Stepping carefully around Lily's body, he lifted his godson into his arms, using a corner of the bed sheet to wipe at the blood running sluggishly down the baby's face. Harry calmed instantly once he was in his Uncle Padfoot's arms, leaning forward to wrap pudgy arms around the older man's neck. Black looked around the room for anything that might be worth taking, before exiting out the large hole in the side of the house.

He levitated himself gently down to the ground, then, holding tightly to his godson, he turned on the spot, apparating to the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside, he got a room key from Tom and charged upstairs, entering the room and locking the door. Remus stood from the bed, face anxious as he darted over to Padfoot. "Is he all right, Siri?" the man asked desperately, pulling the child from his godfather's arms.

"He's fine, except for that cut on his forehead," Black replied as he began to pack up the few belongings the men had with them. "We need to go now, before Albus finds us." Nodding, Remus held out the untraceable portkey, waiting for Sirius. The animagus wrapped his hand around Harry's arm and placed the baby's hand on the frisbee, making sure that his own knuckles were also touching the plastic disk. "Toujors pur," he murmured, bracing for the yank behind the navel as they were whisked away to safety.

They landed in Black Manor, on the outskirts of Paris. The stone citadel was warded to the teeth, making it invisible and unplottable. House elves quickly popped into the foyer, taking the child and guiding the adults to their suites, where they were pampered and fussed over before they fell into bed, exhausted.

In Godric's Hollow, an old wizard was throwing the temper tantrum of the millenium. He'd gotten there a scant few minutes after Sirius had apparated away, and was now infuriated that his puppet had slipped his strings before he'd been able to tighten them. Hagrid hadn't arrived yet; still trying to find a way to get there so that he could transport little Harry to the safe house that Dumbledore had arranged.

"Blast and damn!" the old man snarled as he stared at the empty cot. "Who in blazing hell had gotten here before me? And where the ruddy hell is Hagrid, for Merlin's sake?" Casting his senses out, he found the magic of apparition outside the cottage, in the front yard, and hurriedly used his magic to track the destination. Frowning when he received the information, he immediately apparated away, landing in the bar of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Did someone check in recently?" he barked to Tom, the barman. Though Sirius had extracted a promise from the barkeep to not mention anything, the cowering man couldn't refuse Albus anything, and so told him.

"Sirius Black apparated in maybe ten minutes ago. He took room key twelve, and is up there now."

"Thank you," the headmaster barked as he charged up the stairs and down the hall. He used his magic to unlock the door and barged into room twelve, blue eyes darting frantically around, looking for any sign of the animagus or the child. Finding nothing there, he extended his magical senses once again, trying to find the magic that had transported the pair away. He couldn't sense any sort of magic whatsoever, and screamed in frustration as he realized that Sirius had most likely used an untraceable portkey.

He apparated straight back to Hogwarts, storming up the stairs and into his office. He sat behind the desk and scowled, thoughts whirling as he tried to figure out a way to somehow track his patsy's whereabouts. He thought of scrying, but knew that the Blacks had a number of heavily warded manors that couldn't be plotted, so his mind turned elsewhere. I'll just have to keep my ear to the ground, and hope that they show up somewhere.

Narcissa sat in the drawing room at Black Manor, invited there by Sirius. It was information provided to her by Lucius that ensured that Sirius would be in Godric's Hollow in time to rescue his godson. "Why am I here, cousin?" she asked softly. "I know that you hold no kinship for my family or me."

"That's not true, Cissa," Sirius told the blonde softly, Harry playing on the rug before them. Every now and then, Narcissa would look at the little boy with a fond smile, before slamming her mask back into place. "It was because of you and your husband that I was able to get to Harry before Albus could. If Lucius hadn't have told me of the attack, I would have lost my godson."

"Lucius no longer wishes to be at the monster's beck and call," she told the animagus, voice quivering. "He thought to tell you of the attack, so that you may look kindly upon him, and perhaps be willing to help Severus and he escape the clutches of the Dark Lord forever."

"Does he have any idea how to do that?" In response, Narcissa pulled an old diary from the bag she had carried into the manor. The house elves had scanned it using their magic, and had seen nothing but the cursed item. They reported to their master that it was free of any harmful curses. She handed the book to Sirius silently, shuddering at the feel of the dark magic that radiated from it. The animagus took it from her hands, and started sneezing violently. He quickly tossed it into the fire, frowning when it didn't burn.

"I'm allergic to black magic," he told the woman sheepishly, still watching the diary. "It's not burning, which means it has some rather powerful protections around it."

"It is a horcrux," she said softly, smiling slightly at the dumbfounded shock that appeared on Sirius' face. "It contains a piece of the monster's soul, and ensures that he will rise again. Neither Lucius nor I wish for that to happen. We do not wish for Draco to have to face being forced into slavery by the Dark Lord." Sirius shot a controlled fiendfyre at the fireplace, ensuring that Harry was out of the way first, and watched as the diary went up in flames, the soul piece attached to it screaming in agony as it was burned away.

"Do you know how many there are?" he asked softly.

"Bella has a cup in her vault that the Dark Lord was especially concerned about," Narcissa answered slowly. "We heard about Ravenclaw's missing diadem, and had spoken to the Grey Lady about it. She told us that the Dark Lord had charmed her into revealing its location while he was still a student. We know that Slytherin had a locket, and we're sure that he would have used that, since he is, after all, Slytherin's heir.

"The Dark Lord was very concerned about something called the Deathly Hallows, which were hinted at in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. One of the stories, titled The Tale of the Three Brothers, speaks about how the brothers cheated Death using their magic, so, in 'reward' for their ingenuity, they were granted boons. One brother chose an unbeatable wand, one brother chose a ring to bring back the dead, and one chose an invisibility cloak that not even Death can see through. Supposedly ownership of the wand, the ring, and the cloak would grant the holder mastery over Death."

"So you think that He Who Must Not Be Named used one of these hallows as a horcrux?"

"Indeed," she replied with a small smile. "We were able to get a look at his family tree, and traced it back to the Peverells. We then looked at the Peverell family tree. There was Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus. We saw that Cadmus was the Dark Lord's great many times over grandfather, and we also saw that Ignotus was Harry's great many times over grandfather. Through marriage, we all are interrelated with the Peverells, but the Dark Lord and Harry have a more solid connection. Since Cadmus was given the ring of ressurection, it is logical to assume that this is what was used as a horcrux."

"Why did we not see this level of intelligence at school, Cissa?" Sirius asked, impressed. Narcissa blushed and coughed, relaxing further at the complete acceptance she was receiving from her cousin.

"So, we have the location of at least one horcrux," she said, ignoring the compliment in favor of continuing the conversation. "The Grey Lady believes that the diadem is hidden inside the castle somewhere. She told me that she'd seen the Dark Lord return to the school at least twice, and had mentioned to her that he would 'bring th diadem home where it belongs'. So it may be in a hidden alcove or a secret passage."

"You know, when James, Peter, Remus and I were exploring the castle, we stumbled upon a room that could be anything you needed it to be. Once it was a sturdy room in which Remus could hide, to protect the others from his 'furry little problem'. We were restricted to the castle, and had tracking charms placed on us for what I did to Snape in fifth year, so we couldn't get to the Shrieking Shack like we usually did.

"I also remember it turning into a huge vault-like room, full of a whole bunch of different things. I was looking to hide Snape's potions book; he had been writing cheats into it for potions, and I didn't think it was fair, so I hid it. Didn't change the scores he always got in that class, so I guess he didn't really need the book after all."

"Do you know where this room is?" Narcissa asked with a grin. "I think we should check it, to see if we can find the diadem there."

"It's up on the seventh floor, past the headmaster's office and Gryffindor tower. It's across from that ugly picture of some wizard teaching trolls to dance. All you have to do is pace in front of it three times, thinking of what you really need, and it will appear."

Lucius, himself, took care of the diadem and the cup. Narcissa used some hairs from Bella's brush and polyjuiced herself to be her sister. She then went to Gringotts and retrieved the item from Lestrange's vault. Both the cup and the diadem were burned at the same time, Lucius expressing how much lighter he felt as each horcrux was destroyed.

The locket and the ring both proved to be a bit more difficult. Before the cup was destroyed, Narcissa used a scrying spell to locate the other two cursed objects, using her magic to draw some of the darkness from the cup to power her spell. One was located in a muggle village called Little Hangleton, and the other was located in one of the Black family's ancestral homes in London.

Armed with this information, Severus and Lucius went to the little village first, using all of their magic to combat the plethora of nasty curses and protections in order to retrieve the ring. They had found it in a rundown shack on the outskirts of the village. There was a dead snake nailed to the door, but it came alive as soon as Severus reached for the door handle, lunging to bite his hand. Screaming out a curse, the snake was fried and Severus quickly swallowed the antivenin he always carried with him. He explored some rather dense forests and jungles for potions ingredients and armed himself against the local creatures, so he carried the antidote with him out of habit.

The locket was found in a curio cabinet within the house at Grimmauld Place. Narcissa was the only one to get past the wards, and she lifted the locket from the cabinet just as an old, nasty house elf popped into view. "What is you being doing with master Regulus' locket?" it snarled angrily and lunged for the woman's legs. She repelled it with a spell and quickly knelt, using her magic to keep the angry elf at bay.

"I am Narcissa Black-Malfoy, and I am here to retrieve this locket to destroy it," she told it, hoping that she was getting through to it.

"I is being Kreacher, and I is being here for a long time, trying to being destroying master Regulus' locket like master Regulus is being asking Kreacher to do."

"Do you not have anyone else to serve?" she asked gently.

"No," the elf replied sadly. "Mistress Black is being dead, and I is being here all alone."

"Why don't you come home with me," she told the elf with a smile. "We'll bond you to the Malfoy family, and we'll let you help us destroy this locket."