Dragonmage182
Rating: T to M for language, violence, and possibly a lime or lemon thrown in here.
Summary: A work on the old Harry goes to Azkaban while innocent. While in Azkaban Harry discovers secrets about himself that nobody knew, not even his parents. With this new power to aid him will Harry save the light side or tear it down in flames?
Chapter One- Guilty Until Proven Innocent.
Murder At Hogwarts!
In a shocking turn of events over at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, was arrested by Aurors for the apparent murder of a group of Slytherin fifth years as well as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and newly appointed High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge.
The murder happened the night of the Halloween feast. Many people noticed Potter walking in the Great Hall later than usual after telling his friends that he would meet up with them later. After asking Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger about it, they both commented on how Potter was acting distracted and looking around nervously when he walked off.
Not thinking anything about it they decided to enjoy the feast and leave their one time friend alone for the moment. However that on moment was all Potter needed. Thirty minutes into the feast Potter arrived and acted like nothing happened. In fact it was noted that he appeared cheerful and carefree with his friends.
Two hours later Argus Filch the caretaker at Hogwarts came across the bodies of four fifth year Slytherin students as well as the body if Dolores Umbridge. Upon investigation of the scene Aurors found Potter's wand signature as well as several of his hairs around the site. Quickly coming up with a solution to the murderer allowed the Aurors to arrest the unresisting fifteen year old.
Potters trial is said to begin in three days and will be an open court for any who wish to watch as justice takes place.
Harry sat in the lone chair and watched as the manacles that were chained on move themselves around his body, securing him in place. Only able to move his head, he watched as people began to walk in a sit down at various levels in the stadium like courtroom. Once all the seats were full Fudge, the most eager as Harry had ever seen him, stood up to begin the trial.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this courtroom is now in session. The case being the murder of Dolores Umbridge, a well respected member of the Ministry, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson, four intelligent, and kind students of Hogwarts. The defendant Harry Potter charged with manslaughter, third degree murder, and rape."
From there the trial, if it could be called that, went down hill. Harry watched in silent dismay as everyone that he cared about testified against him. Hermione and Ron told about how Harry's anger became unbelievably short and how he would blow up at the smallest things. McGonagall, Snape, and Sprout talked about Harry's legendary rival with Draco and the other Slytherin's.
Remus told how Harry had held off a hundred Dementors, quickly explaining that no Patronus is that powerful, and that the only other thing to be able to do that is the Dark Arts. Molly and Arthur, much to the shock of Harry, told about how Harry would often become distracted and seem angry afterwards.
However, it was Dumbledore who shocked Harry the most by saying the he, Harry, killed Quirrell in his first year, and managed to subdue and kill the Basilisk with Dark Arts. He then explained about the connection to Voldemort's mind and that that must be how Harry was learning about the Dark Arts as quickly as he was. Next he said that they had found proof that Harry had killed Cedric in his fourth year.
When Fudge asked Harry for a defense, Harry was unable to talk due to the Silencing Charm the one of Fudges lackeys placed on him halfway through the trial. After minutes of watching Harry try and talk Fudge turned to the amassed witches and Wizards and spoke.
"As Mr. Potter is not going to explain his actions we will now take a vote. All those in favor of a life sentence in Azkaban?"
Harry's heart plummeted at seeing almost all of the people in the stands raise their hands. There was a small glimmer of hope when he saw that Ginny, the Twins, Charlie, and Bill didn't raise their hands and were looking at him with sadness in their eyes as if asking of forgiveness. Silently nodding towards them Harry was yanked off of the chair and escorted out of the room amidst a round of applause.
As soon as the two Aurors yanked Harry out of the room it felt as if they had been thrown into the artic. Harry tried to throw up what little Occlumency he had but the sudden effect that the Dementors had over powered him. It was a short walk down the hallways before Harry was passed off to the three Dementors at the end.
Harry was already trying to fight off the screaming in his head and didn't notice that he was dragged through a dark portal. Unable to stand around the dark creatures any more Harry was granted relief in the form of unconsciousness.
-o0O( Solitary Confinement Cell #7 )O0o-
It had been three weeks since Harry was thrown in Azkaban and each day was worse than the last. Over the past week Harry had already gotten used to the fact that the Dementors seemed to enjoy staying near his cell either when they weren't watching over the other inmates or whenever they would pass by they would pause for a minute or two before continuing onwards.
The only true blessing in this was that the effects that the Dementors gave off didn't seem to have as big an impact as before. Not knowing if this were normal, nor caring, Harry just laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling yet not really seeing it.
Not really having anything to do Harry began to work out as means to pass the time quickly. Once he got tired of working out he tried to focus enough to work on Occlumency but in the presence of so many of the dark creatures he wasn't able to make any headway. Shivering in the unnatural coldness Harry slipped of to his nightmares once more.
-o0O( Three Broomsticks Private Meeting Room )O0o-
Bill, Charlie, Fred and George were all waiting silently in the rented room at the Three Broomsticks. No one had talked yet aside from the quiet greetings given to each other when they had first arrived. They all looked up sharply when the door opened but only relaxed when Rosemerta came in with the drinks they had ordered. After tipping her Charlie opened up the lone bottle of fire whiskey out of the group of butter beer and quickly filling four glasses before handing them off the his brothers and keeping one for himself.
The waited five more minutes before the door opened again and Tonks walked in closely followed by Sirius in dog form and Ginny. After grabbing some whiskey and butter beer for Ginny Bill stood up and began the impromptu meeting.
"Alright we're all here because of the farce of a trial the Harry was given. We all know for a fact that Harry wouldn't murder someone in cold blood, no matter how much he hated them."
Sirius finished off his glass in one gulp before standing up to get everybody's attention. "First thing we have to do is see if we can close Harry's Gringotts account because if I know Dumbledore then he wouldn't mind taking from it to finance the Order."
"I can call in my goblin favor for that." Bill said earning shocked looks.
"How did you manage to get a goblin favor?" Tonks asked incredulously.
"A few years back I managed to save the goblins that I work with in the tombs when one of them knocked an unstable pillar down. Anyways, Ginny any luck at school?"
Ginny shook her head before answering. "Not really, I can't exactly ask everyone about Harry or else the professor's will become suspicious. So far only Neville, Susan Bones, the Patil Twins and surprisingly Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davies all agreed that he was innocent."
"What's so surprising about the last two?" Fred asked.
"Their both Slytherin's and hung out with Malfoy's groupies."
"How are the Slytherin's dealing with the loss of their almighty Death Nibbler leader being gone?" George asked while slapping Ginny's hand away from the fire whiskey.
"Couldn't care less when they think that they're alone but in front of everybody they play it off as a great tragedy." Ginny grumbled rubbing her hand while glaring at George who just smiled back at her.
"Fred, George how's the public opinion in Diagon Alley?" Sirius asked.
"Not good. You know how the wizarding world is everyone is sheep. Out of every twenty people there may be at least one person who doesn't believe what happened but even then they're to scared about being verbally attacked to say anything about it." George sighed heavily, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead.
"Although there was an interesting reaction last week. There was a covered couple sitting next to us at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Both were wearing hood that shadowed their faces but they were definitely male and female. The lady was talking about how it was so long that they had been in Diagon Ally," Fred began.
"Sixteen years to be exact." George broke in.
"Anyways, She was going on about how much she missed this placed and how she wished that she could bring him with them. Whomever him was she nor the male elaborated but the man was agreeing to everything she was saying while reading the Prophet."
"Guy's does this have anything to do with Harry?" Tonks asked tired of listening to the already.
"All in good time my dear Tonks." Fred said before beginning his tale again. "After a little more random talk between the two the man asked if she wanted a section to read while they were there. She answered yes and asked for the law section while claiming that she would like to see if the Ministry has improved these past two decades."
Sirius was drinking his fire whiskey silently in the corner of the room with a confused grimace on his face, listening intently to the Twin's story.
"Now you all know that Harry's article was moved to the law section a week and half ago. Apparently the Minister wanted it kept there permanently so everyone will remember about him." George picked the story up. "Now upon reaching the proper page the woman gasped and talked about the murders that happened at Hogwarts. Reading the article out loud she read as far as Harry's name before both lapsed into silence. The next second both shouted out his name and began to run off."
"We tried to chase after them but they reached the apperation point before we could get to them and with a pop both disappeared."
"So…whoever these people were they weren't in contact with the wizarding world of at least fifteen years." Ginny said.
"Both of them obviously knew Harry when he was a baby or else they wouldn't have been shocked about the article." Bill continued.
"And both cared about him enough that they didn't even bother to finish reading the article and quickly left Diagon Alley for god knows where." Tonks finished.
Everyone became quiet while absorbing this information and after ten minutes they all jumped when Sirius jumped up saying something about meeting with Dumbledore. Taking this as a cue to break apart everyone left in one's and two's with Tonks taking Sirius, who turned back into his dog form up towards the castle while chatting to Ginny about clothing and other girly things.
-o0O( Hogwarts Headmaster's Office )O0o-
Albus Dumbledore was having a good month thus far. Voldemort was being quiet for now, he was going to access the Potter family vaults for funding for the Order and other things, and Harry Potter was being play along perfectly. In fact he was considering sending a thank you basket to Voldemort. For a while now he was wondering how to place a shorter leash on Harry and what better way than to rescue him from Azkaban himself? Surely Harry would be eternally grateful.
Happily sucking on another lemon drop Dumbledore began prepping a withdraw letter to Gringotts stating that he had permission to withdraw money from Harry's vault to help him out in Azkaban when the door to his office was thrown open rather violently by a rather angry Sirius Black.
His eye's only showed a small amount of surprise before he managed to get his emotions under control.
"Ah, Sirius to what do I owe this pleasurable visit to?" he said in his grandfather voice while strengthening the trust spell that was placed over him.
Sirius didn't even acknowledge the fact that he was facing down one of the most powerful wizards in the world. "I heard an interesting story today." He snarled out before pacing in front of the wizened old man in front of him. "I heard about two people who haven't been in contact with the wizarding world for about sixteen years and upon reading the article about Harry both of them shouted in surprise before running away."
Dumbledore sighed heavily before thinking about what he wanted to do to the two people for entering the world again. Before he could answer his office door was thrown open once more and a hurricane five feet four inches tall with fiery red hair came storming through the door. At a more sedate pace a taller man around six feet tall slipped through the door yet you could tell that he was as angry as the woman.
"Dumbledore!" the red head screeched out. "You said that Harry was killed on Halloween that night so long ago. Now why was I reading about him in the paper about being sent to Azkaban?"
Before Dumbledore could respond Sirius spoke up, his eye widened in shock at what he was seeing. "J-James, Lily?"
Both people look over at him and a small staring contest began until James recognized his beast friend. "Sirius, You're alive!" James yelled before tackling the animagus to the ground in a bear hug. Lily had turned around to watch this with a small smile on her face and as such missed seeing Dumbledore's face darken before he managed to get his wayward emotions under control once more.
After a few minutes of reuniting between the two men Lily became annoyed and cast the silencing charm over the both of them and turned back around to face Dumbledore.
"Albus, I'm waiting to know why you said that our child, and Sirius for that matter, was killed that night in 1981."
After entertaining the thought about answering the angry woman in his office for a few minutes, Albus decided that it was too dangerous for James, Lily and Sirius to know the truth about anything and he promptly decided to wipe their memories. Snapping his wand up quickly he fired off three memory charms. Unfortunately he didn't take into account the fact that the three standing before were the best duelists of their time and he watched dismayed as all three dove to one side, Lily and James grab hold of Sirius and all three disappeared out of his office. Dumbledore quickly flooed McGonagall saying that he had business to take care of and would be back later before quickly walking out of his office and making his way towards Hogsmeade so he could apperate away.
-o0O( )O0o-
James, Lily and Sirius all appeared in a room a little bigger than Dumbledore's office, still in the same position as when they were portkeyed out of there. All three of them were a little shocked that Dumbledore, one of the light's greatest fighter's had just tried to erase their memories of everything that had happened. Lily shook her head to clear those thoughts and looked over at Sirius.
"H-how are you still alive? Albus told us that you were killed the night that Voldemort attacked us?"
Sirius and James looked over at her before the question caught up with their minds.
"I never died that night as you can tell." He began shaking his head. "I heard that Peter had betrayed both of you and I went to your house as quickly as I could. I was low on magic that night because Voldemort decided that I was a little annoying so he sent a welcome party when I returned to my flat so I had to take my motorbike over there. When I arrived I saw Hagrid shifting some rubble out of the way then bend down. When he came back up I saw him holding Harry."
All three of them moved into some chairs that were sitting in the room, and James summoned some fire whiskey for the three of them, before Sirius continued with the story.
"I asked Hagrid to let me take him since I'm his godfather but he was insistent that Harry would be taken to Dumbledore. After realizing that I would be getting Harry I asked about the two of you. Hagrid told me that the explosion of magic that was caused when Voldemort was torn out of his body vaporized your bodies. Thinking that the two of you were truly gone I allowed Hagrid to use my bike to get to wherever it was he was going before I apparated out of there."
"Over the following days I tried to track Peter down so I could turn him into the Ministry when I bumped into him in muggle London. I pulled out my wand and began to ask him why he did what he did to you when the little rat destroyed twelve muggles behind, cut off his finger, turned into his rat form and ran away. When the Auror's showed up they found me laughing my head off about the fact that Peter actually outsmarted me for once."
"Over the next few days I was given a trial that I wasn't allowed to attend and was sentenced to life in Azkaban for killing those muggles that Peter killed and for being a Death Eater, in fact Voldemort's right hand man. Following the next thirteen-year's it was Hell on Earth. The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that somewhere out there Harry needed me and my animagus form."
By the end of the explanation Lily had cried many tears, and both men had finished two bottles of whiskey and began a third. Sirius shook himself out of the memories of Azkaban and the Dementor's before asking the one question that was bugging him since he saw his best friend.
"What about you? Where have you been all these years?" he asked a little harshly, having thoughts about them abandoning Harry at the house.
"James gained a far off look in his eye before beginning to talk, his voice filled with pain. "As you know, Dumbledore had approached us sixteen months before the attack, talking about how since we were on the top of Voldemorts hit list and Lily was expecting, that we should go into hiding. Lily was three months pregnant with Harry and I had promised her that I wouldn't go into any attacks so Harry would have a father."
Seeing Sirius nod, James took a large gulp of his drink before continuing. "Well the day of the attack I had a feeling that something was going to go wrong. Disregarding the feeling since I was positive that Peter wouldn't betray us, I watched as Harry played around with Lily. That night I heard the door open and thinking that one of you had come for a surprise visit, I went to see who it was. Imagine my surprise when I saw Voldemort calmly walk through the door and close it behind him as if nothing was wrong with this situation." James' hands began to shake with repressed anger and Lily began to rub his back trying to calm him down. "I yelled to Lily, who was in the kitchen feeding Harry, to take him and run before I began to duel Voldemort."
"I'm a pretty good duelist, and was one of the top out of the Order, but the entire time I was fighting Voldemort I could tell he was playing with me. I was growing more and more anxious when I heard him speak to me. 'James,' he began. ' I'm not going to kill you even though I should. Instead when you wake up you will find that you and your wife had failed your son. Both of you had failed to protect little Harry like you had promised to him the day he was born.' With that the next thing I saw was red light and I had blacked out."
Lily, who began to cry once more, tried to calm herself before she picked up where James had left off. "W-when I heard James tell me to run, I picked Harry up from his high chair and ran into the nursery we had set up. I there where the emergency portkey's in the form of Harry's stuffed animals. I grabbed the diaper bag before grabbing Harry and his stuffed dog before saying the activation word."
"I almost broke down crying when I didn't feel the pull from the portkey but I set Harry down with the dog and diaper bag and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me. Before I could try and go help James, Voldemort turned the corner of the house and stared straight at me. I begged for him to take me instead of Harry, thinking that James was already dead. He ignored me and spoke the same words he had told James before over powering the shield I placed up with a stunner."
Lily broke down once more thinking of that night and how both of them felt when they saw the house destroyed and Harry missing. James stood up and hugged his wife to him, trying to offer what little comfort he could. Sirius stayed silent, watching the two, with a small smile on his facing while thanking god that they're all right. James began speaking when Lily had calmed down enough, but neither moved out of the embrace.
"After we both were woken up by Dumbledore, we saw that the house was destroyed and that Harry was missing. He told us that Voldemort had succeeded in his task of killing Harry but since Harry was already powerful, the resulting explosion had killed Voldemort as well. We had asked about you, Remus and Peter, but al we got was that you and Remus were killed in Death Eater raids and that both of you managed to kill Peter beforehand."
"Since the only people we truly cared about were "dead" Dumbledore suggested that we leave the wizarding world since there were too many bad memories. At first I didn't want to but after seeing how lost Lily looked I agreed and that night we were sent to a random house in Dublin. It was nice but after a week of living there Lily and I decided to move into Potter Manor. After we did we fell out of touch with the wizarding world until today when we decided that we were readying to be wizard's once more."
Explaining about reading about Harry in the paper, Sirius told both of them what had happened to Harry in the past sixteen years, and how someone framed Harry for the death in Hogwarts. By the time he was finished Lily had fallen asleep in James' arms so the two men decided to go to bed as well. James' showed Sirius to the room he had always used when staying with the Potter's during Hogwarts before place Lily in bed and climbing in next to her. Both men fell asleep thanking god for the fact that everything didn't happen the way they had been told.
-o0O( TBC… )O0o-
A/N: Wow. The one thing I hate about writing is the first chapter because I never seem to get it right. This little plot bunny came to me one night after reading a Azkaban!Harry, and a story where Lily and James are still alive. Anyways for those who are reading my other story Elemental Genesis. Don't worry, the next chapter is taking a little longer than I thought it would but it's still coming along rather nicely. Now, this chapter hasn't been Beta'd so if you want to do that for me then please drop me a line. Also if you guys (and girls!) can tell me any mistakes you find then I'll be sure to fix the chapter and re-post it.
Later!
Dragonmage182