A lone man walked a city street, rain painted his skin with the chill of a stormy night, but it was a welcome reprieve from the stifling office he had been working in.
But even the cold couldn't fend of sleeps sweet embrace from him as he found himself drifting from side to side, more and more with every step.
The storm raged, blanketing the night in streaks of rainfall, but still the man faltered, unable to tell how far in the road he had wandered during his tilting sleepwalk.
The roadway wasn't usually busy at this time, any other day would have probably been fine, unfortunately on this day it wasn't.
A semi-truck could be seen in the distance, the grill and lights looking as if a face, hungry for another soul. (Couldn't resist it's my first fanfic/writing project)
...
All I heard was the splash of tires on the wet roads, but it briefly shook me from my brief nap.
"I gotta stop doing that" I thought a little shaken, it wasn't the first time of course, but it was the first time I woke up in the road.
Turning to get my bearings through the rain still raging around me, I found myself face to face with a pair of bright lights greeting my face.
"Well, shit" were my last thoughts before the darkness took me
....
And there it held me, leaving me to reflect on my life.
"Am I dead, dying or am I in a coma?" I think in a panic, only made worse by the fact I couldn't breathe or scream, seemingly suffocating to death.
But I didn't suffocate, I kept living in that dark loneliness, perpetually suffocating, my mind fracturing and slowly falling apart. What felt like an eternity passed, maybe even an eternity of eternities.
I didn't know anymore, I just suffered, the feeling of death everywhere around me but never taking me in its embrace.
Until all that was left was barely a shell, almost as if something had wiped clean the man who I once was.
And then I was nothing.
...
"Finally," a myriad of otherworldly voices hissed in displeasure. "Your kind are an anomaly, bothersome things, needing to be broken before they'll let go"
"Where to send you?" A smile somehow evident in the disembodied voices. "I think maybe let fate decide."
Destroyed by a void of darkness, the man could only register one thing in the void before being cast further into the nothingness, that of monstrous laughter echoing through his shattered mind.
...
5th of June 1980, Great Britain
A couple had just finished giving birth to their first born son, quite an important event for the pure blooded wizards.
Before they had the chance to get too comfortable showering their new son with affections, the wife starts screaming again.
"Narcissa, my love, what's happening, are you alright?" Lucius Malfoy asked shakily with a look of genuine concern on his face.
All that answered him was another scream as the midwife moved back into position between his wife's legs.
"Wait outside Lucius, it seems there's another child on the way, and it looks like it's going to be a difficult one" stated the midwife, the calm in her voice evidence of years of practice.
Taking his newborn son they had already decided to name Draco, Lucius left... About 5 feet away in a chair, no way could he be any farther after hearing his wife scream like that. He ordered their house elf, Remmy, to fetch a bottle for the newborn in his arms and began his wait.
2 hours later
The midwife emerged from the room, a look of exhaustion and victory painted across her face.
"Congratulations Lucius, you have another son" she said clapping him on the shoulder as he moved inside at a quickened pace, the look of fear on his face unable to be seen by the midwife.
As Lucius approached his wife his face finally filled with terror at the white hair upon his second son's head, a look that quickly turned to grief.
...
Evening October 31st, 1981 The Leaky Cauldron Private Room
Sirius Black sat at the table that had been set up for his meeting. To say it was a surprise would be an understatement.
It's not every day your cousin, who was married to a Death eater, decided to reach out and on your terms, so Sirius decided to see what was happening.
Of course not without a team of aurors in the room next door, safety first and all that.
Narcissa didn't keep him waiting long, she showed up bundled awkwardly in dark robes under a cloak with her hood cast over her face.
As she pulled her hood back Sirius caught a glimpse of white hair, and now realized why she looked so awkward, she had been hiding a child, right around his godson Harry's age, inside of her cloak.
"Narcissa, you are looking well, but quite worn cousin, days under the Dark Lord not going so well?" Sirius couldn't resist some jabs, even if she weren't on the other side, as cousins they quite often would go at each other, needless to say the two weren't on the best of terms.
"As much as I'd like to relive old times Sirius, I am in a hurry, so I've come to make a deal" Narcissa takes a deep breath to steady herself before sitting down and continuing "Sirius, I know what I am about to ask you will come as a shock, but you are the only option I have" Sirius eyed her with a confused and intrigued look as she finishes "I want you to take my son as your own, and raise him as a Black."
A shock? Sirius felt like lighting had struck him. He was absolutely dumbfounded, what was he supposed to be? His estranged cousin is asking him to adopt her son, just like that and so suddenly. With a hundred questions in his head Sirius started with the most important.
"Why?"
"He's not safe, not while in this family, and he will never be safe so close to He Who Must Not Be Named" Narcissa struggled on the last part, not quite accustomed to referring to the Dark Lord as such.
"Narcissa I don-"
"I'll help you Sirius, if you do this for me, I can help you. Things get heard and secrets slip, and I know of one that will save your friends, so please say yes Sirius, save my boy and save your friends, please Sirius I'm begging you"
She had Sirius's full attention now, he didn't see the cousin he despised in front of him, no he was seeing a distraught mother, whose heart was visibly breaking as she begged for him to take her son.
Narcissa took a deep shuddering breath "Please save my son, please Sirius I don't want him to become a weapon, I just want him to be happy... please... please." She was shaking now holding tight the young boy ,clutching him lovingly to her chest, her tone that of a pleading mother just wanting her baby to live a happy life, and not one you would expect from a Death Eater's wife.
Once again Sirius found himself dumbfound, "what friends needed saving?" He thought. "The Potters were safe, Wormtail was slippery enough he should be fine, Moonie can handle himself well enough, so who is it?"
Looking at the shaking woman in front of him, Sirius felt a stir in his chest.
"What's his name?" Sirius decided to ask.
"Perseus Lucius Black" standing she brought the little Perseus closer so he could get a better look.
Finally getting a good look he saw a boy with pure white hair sleeping soundly. The boy was just like any other, if you ignored the otherworldly looking hair atop his head.
All of a sudden that kid was now in Sirius's arms, groggy blue eyes opening, not a trace of fear but plenty of curiosity.
"Hey there Perseus, my name is Sirius Black." Perseus replied by grabbing his nose in an iron grip and giggling while Sirius couldn't help but smile ear to ear.
Looking into the eyes of the boy in front of him, Sirius found it harder and harder to say no. Adjusting Perseus in his arms so the boy was more comfortable he continued with his thoughts.
"Aside from some added responsibility how much trouble could raising such a cute kid be?" Sirius thought to himself. "And if it means saving this kid and my friends..."
"Okay, I'll do it"
"Please Sirius I know we ha-" Narcissa found herself starting but stopped herself as her brain caught up to what was said. "You will?" She all but whispered.
"Narcissa we may not be on the best terms, but what kind of man would I be if I walked away from a chance to save a child and my friends?" He took a deep breath before continuing
"I'm still skeptical, about you, about being a father, about what information you'll give me" one last deep sigh before taking the final leap.
"I swear to you Narcissa Malfoy that I, Sirius Black, will from this day forth treat your son, Perseus Black, as my own."
The next few things happened in an instant.
Narcissa, still close after handing her son to Sirius, leans down and gives him a loving kiss on the cheek. With tears in her eyes she stood straight, taking a piece of paper from her cloak she handed it to Sirius and without a second glance she was gone.
Looking down Sirius noticed the boy, now his son, had fallen asleep, otherwise it may not have been such an easy goodbye. Having lost track of all the times he has been stunned this evening, he decided the most important thing was the paper in his hands, the possibility to save his friends too precious to wait any longer.
And he was glad he made that decision, for on the paper was written a sentence he will never forget
"The Dark Lord moves to kill the Potters tonight"
"Fuck"
...