Hi! This is my first fic and though it begins with Sirius at the end of PoA, it will have extensive flashbacks featuring my favourite werewolf--and hopefully yours--Remus Lupin (and my original OC), but will eventually come back to my favourite puppy, Sirius Black.
Unfortunately, everything else belongs to JK Rowling.
Behind Those Eyes
Chapter 1: Freedom
He had to run. Fast. But to where?
Sirius Black circled London overhead on the back of Buckbeak the hippogriff, his fellow fugitive and new friend. He'd been in the air for what seemed like hours, flying away from Hogwarts and from a fate worth than death.
After 12 years in Azkabahn, he was finally free but the elation he'd felt on his first flight from his tower-prison was gone now, replaced with uncertainty. He looked down at the tiny cityscape below, streetlamps glowing, creating a familiar pattern. It reminded him instantly of flying over London as a young man on his motorbike. He loved that thing.
Wondering what happened to it, another memory came to him.
Sirius and James, sitting in the headmaster's office, 1976. Dumbledore, perched on the edge of his desk, a smile playing across his lips as he tried to lecture them sternly for yet another prank.
Sirius remembered it well. It was legendary. A giant fur ball for McGonagall, collected for months from Mrs. Norris and Gryffindor girls' cats, and placed loving and with great care in her private quarters by the fireplace. Dumbledore had wanted to know how they did it and, of course, they never told.
Watching the Marauder's Map one night, James and Sirius happened to see Professor McGonagall's tiny black dot move from one end of the castle to another in mere seconds. Curious and unrelenting, they figured out the shortcuts the staff used within the floo network of the castle.
Ironically, it was how he'd escaped so quickly months before, when he attacked Peter the rat (and, unfortunately, Harry's friend) that night in the castle.
But it wasn't the prank that interested him now. It was the photograph perched on Dumbledore's desk, the one with the wizard, clad in a loud pair of muggle swim trunks, waving to the camera on a beach. He looked ridiculous, and why Dumbledore had it out, he couldn't figure. In all the times he'd visited the headmaster's office, he'd never seen it before.
The headmaster, having given up on trying to learn their secrets, noticed Sirius staring at the picture. So, instead of more lectures, or another round of detentions, which the three of them knew would be useless, Dumbledore gave the boys a lesson in hiding out.
He told them about a place, a safe haven of sorts, for witches and wizards, known as Isla de los Muertos, somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Even though it was unplottable, the name was meant to keep muggles away and, for the most part, it worked. The only muggles were the locals, who, having negotiated a mutually beneficial deal with the founding wizards centuries ago, thrived as a community. They had no need for the outside world, though they were allowed to come and go as they pleased, as long as they allowed the magical world access to their island and kept their secret. The island, meant as a refuge, had safeguards to keep dark magic at bay. In fact, magical powers were useless on the island, the only drawback to an otherwise perfect hideaway.
Sirius grinned to himself, surprised that memory had survived, then whispered to Buckbeak, and with a swift turn southwest, the pair were off to paradise.
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Three days later, while Sirius arrived to safety, his friend, Remus Lupin sat in a tiny cottage, his childhood home, wondering how he would break the news.
He barely believed it himself, but it was true. Sirius Black was an innocent man.
The boy he grew up with, the man whom he missed, James' best mate, Harry's godfather – Sirius Black – was not a traitor. Not a killer. Not a monster.
The joy and sadness of the situation hit him as he pondered what it meant. Not just to him -- for it changed everything and made him remember things he'd fought to forget years ago -- but what it meant to her; the one person, besides Harry, who this would matter more than anyone.
Sirius Black's daughter.
I hope you like it, and yes, I've added an explanation, for those new readers thatmight be confused about the timeline of the story.
Please review, and be gentle, fair reader, for I bruise much too easily!