Chapter Text
Paige Lily Potter really did not know how she got herself into these situations. Well, she did know actually: she was Paige and that seemed to be enough to make the universe hate her.
It was a little over a year after Voldemort’s fall and the Ministry was still recovering from his reign, trying to hunt down remaining Death Eaters and put them in Azkaban.
Which was how she, after catching sight of one such Death Eater while out for lunch with her friend Hermione Granger, ended up crouched behind a stack of boxes while said Death Eater firing curse after curse at them.
“How,” Hermione panted as she quickly fired a shield spell to deflect a curse before ducking out of sight. “Is it that we can’t just enjoy a nice day? We go out for lunch and you end up deciding to chase down a Death Eater.”
“Are you really blaming this on me?” Paige questioned, ducking to avoid a curse that destroyed a box behind her.
“Yes, because you’re Paige Potter and you attract trouble wherever you go.” Was Hermione’s dry reply and—well, Paige really couldn’t argue with that statement.
Paige began scanning her surroundings and spotted a wall that gave them a more strategic advantage. “Hermione, do you see that?”
The brunette muggleborn followed her friend’s gaze, narrowing her eyes. “How do you want to do this?”
“On three?” Paige asked quietly, watching Hermione tilt her head in thought before nodding briskly. “One…two…three!”
The two women quickly came out of their hiding place, keeping low to the ground as they hurried towards the other wall.
Unfortunately, they didn’t know the Death Eater had managed to call one of his friends for backup and thus were completely unaware of the other person lurking in the shadows.
Without hesitating the second Death Eater raised his wand, silently casting a curse that he no doubt hoped would end the Chosen One and her muggleborn best friend.
However, it seemed Fate had a different idea.
Paige heard her best friend’s terrified cry and quickly turned her head to see the curse flying towards them.
Hermione quickly grabbed her friend’s arm, trying to pull her out of the path of the curse but she wasn’t able to in time.
The curse hit both girls and caused a bright light to surround them, forcing the Death Eaters to cover their eyes.
When the light vanished, Paige Potter and Hermione Granger were nowhere to be seen.
“Ow…when I get my hands on those Death Eaters…”
Paige muttered under her breath as she slowly sat up, feeling as if she had been hit with a thousand bludgers.
She quickly noticed that she was no longer in the alley, but instead in a forest. That really didn’t bode well for her or Hermione…
“Hermione!”
Paige exclaimed as she quickly got up, immediately scanning the area for her best friend. Her heart stopped when she spotted familiar curls coming out behind a rock.
“Hermione, oh god, please be alright.”
The Girl Who Lived begged as she hurried over, narrowly avoiding tripping over a branch. She pointed her wand at the brunette, casting a quick Rennervate and almost cried with relief when she saw Hermione begin to cough.
“What happened? Why are we in a forest?”
The muggleborn quickly demanded as she took note of their location while Paige helped to her feet. “Are we being set up for an ambush?”
“I think if we were, it would have already happened,” Paige pointed out, though she didn’t put away her wand.
The girls exchanged silent looks before Hermione also drew her wand, the duo slowly walking towards a faint light they could see in the distance.
“Wait, is that…?”
“Yeah,” Paige replied in a breathless voice. “That’s Godric’s Hollow.”
The tiny little village was the same as Paige remembered it, although she couldn’t help but think that there was a different feel about it.
As if she was moving on auto-pilot Paige found herself walking towards the direction of her childhood home. Hermione followed close behind, nervously glancing over her shoulder every few seconds.
The instant the cottage came into view, however, the Girl Who Lived knew something was wrong.
It was still destroyed, her nursery a blown-out hole, but the foliage that seemed to overtake it was absent and there were fresh scorch marks on the gates: the door had practically been blown off its hinges as well.
“This doesn’t make sense,” she heard Hermione mutter as she came to stand beside her. “Why does the damage look so…fresh?”
“Maybe it’s a trick?” Paige suggested. “By the Death Eaters, to confuse us so they can get the drop on us?” Hermione pursed her lips, deep in thought.
It was an odd trick, sure sending them to where Voldemort had first fallen made sense—the arrogant bastards probably wanted it to be poetic or something—but why make the damage fresh?
Hermione was brought out of her musings when Paige quietly walked through the gate. “Wait a minute, Paige where are you going?”
Paige glanced over her shoulder, a wry smile on her face. “We aren’t going to learn anything just standing around out here.”
“Yes but,” Hermione broke off, letting out a groan as her friend determinedly walked towards her childhood home. “It’s a bloody miracle I’m still friends with her.”
She muttered under her breath before quickly following her friend, who had already entered the cottage.
The interior of the cottage was as badly damaged as the outside, furniture had been thrown against the wall and pictures lay smashed on the ground.
Hermione and Paige both froze when they heard a sound they didn’t expect: a baby crying. Paige shared a look with her friend before making her way over to the stairs.
She stopped suddenly, causing Hermione to nearly run into her. “Paige what’s…?”
Hermione questioned, following her friend’s gaze and freezing in shock and disbelief at what she was seeing.
There, lying partially on the stairs with his glasses askew, was James Potter’s lifeless body.
“No…” Hermione whispered. “No, this can’t—how can this…?”
For once in her life, she was utterly speechless, desperately trying to process how she was seeing the body of her best friend’s father in front of her instead of buried in the grave beside his wife.
Paige was white in shock, the hand that held her wand shaking as she stared at her father with wide eyes.
Father…Daddy…
Another cry broke her out of her trance, gripping her wand tightly she continued up the stairs.
When she looked behind to see if Hermione was still following her she saw her best friend crouched down beside her father, carefully fixing his glasses before she closed his eyes.
Hermione stood up after she shut his eyes, meeting her friend’s watery gaze with a soft smile before following her.
The witches walked down the narrow hallway towards the nursery, wands out in front of them and a nervous feeling gripping their chests.
Paige entered first and nearly collapsed when she saw her mother lying in front of the crib, red hair spanned out beneath her as if it was a pillow she was resting her head on.
On shaky knees she slowly walked over to her, falling on her knees beside her mother and carefully brushing some hair out of her face.
“Mum,” she whispered, tears falling down her face as she stared at Lily Potter’s green eyes—now devoid of any light—before closing them like Hermione had done with her father.
Hermione moved to go to her friend, to offer some kind of comfort even though she knew Paige would never accept it when her attention was drawn to the crib where a baby with familiar black hair and bright green eyes was crying for their parents.
Moving on pure instinct Hermione moved to gather the baby in her arms, letting out a breath when she saw a familiar lighting-shaped scar on their head.
“May I take him?”
A soft voice questioned from behind, making Hermione turn and see her best friend—face still wet from crying—holding out her arms for the baby.
Hermione handed the baby to her and watched as Paige seemed to instantly calm the baby down by whispering soothing words before kissing his forehead.
“That’s you, I mean,” Hermione questioned, breaking the silence. “At least, it’s supposed to be you right?”
“It is,” Paige agreed as she stared down at—well, her she supposed. “But a different version of me.”
“A different version of you?” Hermione parroted, wrinkling her nose in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Paige opened her mouth to explain but was cut off by a rough voice asking in a low tone, “Who the hell are you and what are you doing with my godson?”
The two women whirled around, Hermione raising her wand and stepping in front of Paige, to see a younger and very angry Sirius Black glaring at them from the doorway, wand pointed at them.
Despite the confusing situation Paige couldn’t help but let out a silent gasp at seeing her godfather—well, technically he’s the godfather of the boy in her arms, but you know what she meant—alive.
His black hair reached his shoulders and he was dressed in a leather jacket over a t-shirt with a muggle band combined with matching trousers and motorcycle boots. Dark, almost black, eyes pierced her and, despite the fact she knew he wanted to murder her, she couldn’t help but be caught in their gaze.
Out of all the ways to meet my godfather, it has to be him pointing his wand at me?
Why couldn’t anything in Paige’s life ever be simple?
With a fierce glare, Sirius took a step forward, his wand hand twitching with the urge to hex these two women. But he held back, knowing that if he did, he would likely hurt Harry in the process.
“I’ll ask you again,” he took another step forward, causing Hermione to gently push Paige further behind her as she kept her wand on him. “Why the hell are you holding Harry?”
“We’re not Death Eaters,” Hermione insisted, not lowering her wand. “We just accidentally ended up here—”
Sirius let out a laugh of disbelief, keeping his cold gaze on them. “Really, that’s a fine little story, why the hell should I believe you?”
“Because we know you’re innocent,” Paige cut in, causing Hermione to shoot her a look and Sirius to whip his head towards her in shock. “We know you’re not the Secret Keeper, you switched with Peter and he betrayed my p—James and Lily to Voldemort.”
Sirius briefly flinches when she says His name before his mind caught up with what she was saying. “Wait, how do you know I’m not the Secret Keeper?”
Crap, Paige thought when she saw him narrowing his eyes at her while Hermione facepalmed at her friend’s idiocy.
“Look that’s not important right now,” Paige continued, adjusting Harry—at least she knew his name now—so it was more comfortable. “The point is, we need to go to the Ministry.”
“What? No!” Sirius hissed. “What I need to do is go after that traitorous rat and make him pay for what he did.”
With that he turned on his heel, clearly getting ready to leave and chase after his once-best friend. Paige panicked and quickly grabbed his arm, vanishing with a pop before reappearing outside the Potter cottage.
“What the hell was that for, you crazy woman?” Sirius sputtered, glaring at Paige as Hermione apparated behind them.
“That was me trying to stop you from doing something stupid!” She snapped back. “You have a godson to think about, so stop being such a bloody Gryffindor!”
“I am thinking about him, I’m thinking about going after the piece of vermin that killed his parents!”
“He’s one for god’s sake, he doesn’t care about revenge; he needs someone to look after him and so far you’re doing a piss-poor job!”
“Who the hell are you to tell me I’m doing a horrible job?”
“I—"
“Enough!”
Hermione cut in fiercely, causing the two to turn towards her. “This isn’t getting us anywhere and you’re scaring the baby!”
Now that she was no longer yelling at her godfather Paige realized that Harry had started crying, likely frightened by their loud argument.
“Shh, shh,” she attempted to soothe the toddler, bouncing him up and down gently. “Come on, it’s alright, we didn’t mean to yell.”
“Here, give him to me,” Sirius stated gruffly, stepping forward and holding out his arms.
Paige eyed him suspiciously as she gently tightened her grip on Harry, before relenting and handing him over when she realized that the toddler would likely be more comfortable with someone familiar.
“Hey there Prongslet,” Sirius said in a soft voice, cradling him against his shoulder. “We scared you, didn’t we? Uncle Padfoot is sorry, the mean lady just made him really angry.”
Paige flushed angrily, opening her mouth to tell him off when she saw Harry let out a giggle and clap his hands together and, against her better judgement, found her anger dissipating.
“Isn’t this a touching scene?”
A harsh voice remarked dryly, causing the trio to whirl around and see Barty Crouch with a team of Aurors and Hit Wizards in front of them.
One of the Hit Wizards stepped forward. “Sirius Black, you are under arrest for the betrayal of the Potters.”
“I didn’t betray James and Lily!”
Sirius exclaimed, tightening his grip on his godson. Harry began to whine in protest of being held so tight, forcing Sirius to loosen his grip.
“We know you’re the Secret Keeper,” Crouch snarled. “You were the only person who knew of their whereabouts!”
“N-No…” Sirius whispered, starting to shake slightly. “James was my best friend, my brother, I could never betray him and Lily…”
Hermione and Paige shared nervous looks, knowing that Sirius’s reaction could easily be perceived as a guilty conscience and they needed to act fast.
“He’s telling the truth,” Paige stated firmly, taking a step forward and making Crouch turn his glare onto her. “And who the bloody hell are you?”
“Paige,” she replied, taking a deep breath. “Paige Potter.”
A collective silence fell over the gathered crowd, whispers beginning to rise as Crouch stared in shock at her. Paige could feel Sirius’s burning gaze on her back.
“Potter?” Crouch repeated. “Are you related to James?”
Yes, I’m his only child and the one who defeated Voldemort
Was the thought running through Paige’s mind, but she knew if she said that she may very well get chucked into Azkaban beside Sirius.
“I’m his cousin, distant cousin,” she corrected when she saw Crouch’s disbelieving look. “James and I were close when we were little, though we drifted apart when we both began attending school.”
“We reconnected after we graduated, however, to the point where he informed me of the Secret Keeper switch because he knew I was unknown to the Death Eaters and therefore would unlikely be targeted.”
“I’m sorry,” a dark-skinned Auror, whom Paige realized with shock was a young Kingsley Shacklebolt, questioned. “But did you just say there was a switch with the Secret Keepers?”
“Yes,” Paige replied, feeling her hands sweating as she continued her lie. “Originally they were going to use Sirius, but the man himself,” she nodded to Sirius who was still giving her an unreadable look. “Pointed out that it was far too obvious and suggested they switch to Peter Pettigrew, because who would suspect him?”
She heard murmurings of agreement from the Aurors and Hit Wizards, many of whom probably knew Peter personally, and she saw Crouch grit his teeth in frustration.
“I must admit, Miss Potter,” and boy did that not sound polite in the slightest. “That’s a very good tale you came up with, but it’s clearly nothing but nonsense.”
“It’s the truth!” Hermione exclaimed, startling everyone who hadn’t noticed she was there.
“Ah,” a familiar cheery voice stated. “I believe, Barty, that all good tales have some element of nonsense, don’t they?”
Crouch whirled around, his face growing pale when he saw a smiling Albus Dumbledore slowly making his way over.
Dumbledore ignored Crouch’s white face and turned to face a stunned Paige. “Paige, was it?”
“Y-Yes Professor Dumbledore,” Paige stammered, causing him to chuckle as his eyes twinkled at her. “Please my dear, call me Albus.”
Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Paige was suddenly nervous, knowing that if anyone could figure out she was lying it would be Dumbledore. She knew Hermione was aware of this as well if her hyperventilating behind her was any indication.
He stared intently at her and Paige fidgeted, getting a distinct impression that he was reading her mind and wondered what it was he saw.
Finally, after a long pause, he turned to look at Crouch. “I believe that there is truth to Miss Potter’s words, Barty, perhaps we should bring Sirius to the ministry and see if we can’t track down Mr. Pettigrew?”
It was phrased as a suggestion but Dumbledore’s serious expression heavily implied that it was more of an order, one that Crouch could not really refuse.
“Very well,” Crouch grumbled. “Shacklebolt, Bones,” the two Aurors stepped forward. “Escort Black to the ministry.”
“Right away Mr. Crouch,” Kingsley stepped forward, giving Sirius what seemed to be an apologetic look. “Sorry about this Black.”
Sirius nodded stiffly, turning reluctantly to Paige and holding Harry out to her. “Here, take Harry, will you?” Paige nodded, cradling Harry against her chest as she watched Amelia Bones stand on the other side of Sirius.
The three vanished with a pop and Crouch turned to give orders to the other Aurors and Hit Wizards to track down Pettigrew, reluctantly Paige observed.
They eventually left as well after being given their order, leaving Paige and Hermione with Crouch and Dumbledore. Crouch nodded to Dumbledore before he apparated away.
Dumbledore turned to the two women, a warm smile on his face. “Do not worry, my dears, I believe you and will do everything in my power to ensure Sirius is given a fair trial.”
Paige nodded, smiling weakly. “Thank you, Prof—Albus.”
Dumbledore tilted his head in acknowledgement, his gaze wandering over to Hermione who had been quiet since her outburst. “And who might you be, my dear?”
Hermione turned bright red. “H-Hermione Granger, sir.”
“She’s my best friend,” Paige hurried to explain. “Been by my side since I was little.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Granger,” Dumbledore said in a warm tone. “I’m assuming by the fact I don’t recognize your name that you are, in fact, muggleborn.”
“Yes.”
Hermione muttered, straightening her shoulders and tilting her head up with a prideful look. Dumbledore chuckled at this, his eyes twinkling in amusement.
“Well, I believe we should probably move young Harry somewhere safer.”
This statement caused Paige to narrow her eyes, tightening her grip on Harry as she proclaimed in a low voice, “He’s not going to the Dursleys.”
Belatedly she realized her mistake, especially when Hermione let out a loud groan behind her when Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
“You must have been close to James,” he mused, “If he spoke of Lily’s sister and her family to you.”
“We were,” Paige informed him. “He told me of how horrid they were to Lily and if they were that horrible to her, surely they would treat her son equally bad?”
“Yes, well, unfortunately, it is important that Harry is housed with blood relatives,” Dumbledore seemed to lament, which made Paige shut her eyes. “However, given that you are James’s cousin and it’s clear you have already bonded with Harry somewhat, I believe that he will be safe and, most importantly, happy with you.”
Paige released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and she heard Hermione do the same behind her. “Thank you, Albus.”
Dumbledore chuckled. “It is no problem, however when I said we should move Harry somewhere safe I was thinking of Hogwarts, especially since Madam Pomfrey could check him over.”
He eyed the two women. “I believe she will also want to check you two over.”
Paige and Hermione looked at each other before glancing down at themselves, blushing when they realized they were covered in dirt and had (minor) injuries they had sustained from their brief duel with the Death Eaters.
Dumbledore held out his hands, Paige took one while holding Harry in her other arm and Hermione took the other before they vanished with a pop.