a/n: This begins at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban.

You can see a video I made for this story at my youtube page. My name is madelinemoody over there. The vid has the same title as the story.

Sirus Black's Sanctuary

by

The Geeky Quill

Prelude

Sirius Black sat nodding on the back of Buckbeak as the large hippogriff soared through the sky. Images skulked past Sirius's mind as he allowed the beast to carry him to safety. Harry- his godson, Dementors- uh! No more dementors!, Remus, werewolf, Dumbledore's patronus- the milky white phoenix had caught up to them as they fled Hogwarts and it spoke in Dumbledore's voice, "Fly south. Go to Seastar Island. Buckbeak knows the way." The hippogriff gave a loud call like a mighty eagle and wheeled around and headed south.

The memory felt all swimmy and dreamlike to Sirius now as they glided through the new morning sky.

Chapter One

Once upon a time, on a beach of white sands a young wizard spied a maiden emerging out of the sea.

"Madeline!"

Her slender form and long dark tresses-

"Madeline! He's here!"

The small dark haired young woman tossed aside the parchment she was writing on and her quill and went running off on dirty bare feet, deftly skipping over a pile animal droppings to a clearing in the jungle. Soaring down from above came a travel worn hippogriff carrying a scruffy wizard in the filthy torn garb of a convict. The beast flew under the canopy of trees and landed gently on the damp jungle floor.

The wizard climbed down from his mount and barely surveyed his surroundings before he was nearly bowled over by the young women who collided with him with an oof wrapping her arms around his tall, thin frame.

"You're here!" she squealed up at him.

"Er, I guess I'm expected?" he responded tentatively.

"Ha ha, I should have you sign something," said Madeline. He raised a brow in response thinking that the last time he checked, he wasn't a rockstar.

A tall witch with short grey hair and an athletic build walked up, chuckling. "You'll have to pardon Madeline's exuberance. She's been waiting a long time to meet you."

Before he had a chance to question this surprising remark, a balding wizard with a grey beard strode up with an outstretched hand. "Howdy there, Sirius" he said in a distinctive American accent. "I'm Willie Fischer, my wife Leela," he said, indicating the older woman, "and this here crazy critter's Miss Madeline Moody."

Sirius Black looked at each of them in turn, feeling a little bit off balance like he just stepped into an alternate universe. The older two people had on shorts and T-shirts. The wizard's shirt had on it a picture of a perfectly round, golden bird with a long, thin beak and red eyes and it said, "Protect The Snidgets." The younger woman was in a light blue dress. She was petite, pretty, and as enthusiastic as a niffler in a chest of galleons.

"Welcome to the island," said Leela warmly in her Irish lilt.

Madeline just stared at him with wide eyes and a giddy grin.

"Er...Thank You. Pleased to meet you all. I didn't know I'd be getting such a warm reception, or indeed any reception," he added with a small smile.

The hippogriff screeched and scratched the ground with one mighty front claw.

Leela's blue eyes flashed as she smiled at the animal and bowed. "Buckbeak, I'm not ignoring you, me lovely. It's been a while." He returned the bow and she walked up to stroke his withers and beak.

"Great," thought Sirius incredulously, "even Buckbeak knows more than I."

"It's a hippogriff!" Madeline made a move toward Buckbeak, but was stopped short by Willie's hand as he batted her on the head in a friendly manner.

"Now hold on there missy," he drawled.

"Tut! I know how to greet them." Madeline did a funny awkward little bow/curtsy thing and Sirius stifled a laugh. "Good day, I trust your journey was pleasant," she said in an affected genteel voice. Buckbeak bowed low. She approached and gave him a kiss between the eyes. Everyone tensed, fearing she would offend the powerful beast, but he gently rubbed his head under her chin. There was a collective sigh of relief. Willie broke the silence.

"Well, I expect you're tuckered out, Sirius. Some on. We'll show you the tree house," he said.

The raised hut, or "tree house," as it had been whimsically dubbed, stood rather unassumingly in an empty patch in a jungle on an un-chartable island. It was quite large, round, and slightly askew. It defied the rules of engineering and looked to be held up more by magic than the one stout wooden pole going up the center. All over the island there were a wide variety of plant and animal life, both magical and non-magical. The whole island was enchanted to be invisible to muggles and was protected with various charms against wizard poachers, for it was an animal sanctuary with a diverse population of wild and not so wild life, such as dricawls, fwoopers, snidgets, and winged goats, to name a few. Willie and Leela Fischer were the guardians of the sanctuary.

Later, Sirius sat on the bare wooden floor of the tree-house toying with a small hand mirror. Madeline knelt behind him trying to deal with his grungy, tangled mass of black hair hanging to his waist.

"I always knew you were innocent." She picked up her scissors. "I'm going to cut it. It's so matted."

"Go ahead. Chop off all my hair, Delilah," Sirius joked. "Err...have we met before?"

Madeline laughed loudly. "No Samson," she said, playing along with his joke. "We haven't, but my brother was in The Order, so I knew about you. He's Alastor Moody, you know. Ha ha," she said as she watched loads of his black hair fall onto the floor. "Done!" she finally declared after running a comb through the remainder of his hair.

"Many thanks." He stood up and ran his fingers over his newly shorn head. Willie began to play a little bluegrass tune on a banjo and it felt like the hut could be somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, instead of a tropical island.

"I was eleven when they put you in Azkaban, but I knew you didn't do what they said you did," she bragged. "I told everyone so, but most people think I'm just a daft Squib. Maybe I am, but here you are, so maybe I'm not so daft!" she laughed. Smiling brightly, she watched from the floor as he stood up to shake out any loose hairs.

"This feels much better," he said as he scratched his scalp and flashed her a smile. Sirius Black had never suspected that a small girl somewhere in England had taken it upon herself to exonerate him to anyone who would listen, or at least tolerate her fervent blather with a pitying patience, and had done so for fourteen years. "You were in The Order, so you wouldn't have betrayed them, and I knew you wouldn't have killed Peter Pettigrew. He was your friend."

"I thought he was," he said bitterly. She tilted her head and looked at him quizzically. He continued, "He was the one who betrayed the Potters, staged his own death and framed me."

Her eyes widened. This came as a complete shock to her. "I...I didn't know," she stammered. It was humbling to realize she didn't foresee these facts in all her theorizing. He scratched his scruffy beard and eased himself back onto the floor. She looked into his eyes, "I'm so sorry." She brushed a few loose hairs off of his cheek and smiled gently at him.

It had been a long time since a girl looked at him the way she did now. She didn't seem to notice how drawn and thin he was. A mere shadow of what he once was. "Why didn't I know Moody had a sister?" he asked.

"Few people knew about me back then. My brother thought it was too dangerous with all those dark wizards hating him. He worried they would hurt me out of revenge." She stood up with a leap and swiped up her little blue towel and a wand.

"So you grew up here?"

Madeline plopped down in front of Sirius, handing him the wand. She held up a mirror for him. "No, no," she corrected him as he examined himself in the mirror. He notices how sunken his eyes looked and the dried blood still embedded in his whiskers. "I grew up in England."

"As did I," he said unnecessarily. He performed a spell to remove his grimy facial hair as she went on to explain that her brother sent her to the island to study the care of magical creatures and to "try and stay out of mischief."

He wiped at his face with the towel and stood up. Leela walked over holding a fiddle and bow. "Grand! Now we can see your face," she observed. "'Taint half bad," she said with a wink before walking away.

"I want to show you something," said Madeline. She crawled on her knees in a rather undignified fashion to a trunk. She came back in the same manner with a thick pink photo album with a unicorn on the cover. She plunked it down in front of him.

"What's this?" He opened the cover. His stomach lurched. Inside, he saw, as he flipped through, dozens and dozens of pictures and articles about him, the Potters, the war against He Who Must Not Be Named, the other members of The Order of The Phoenix. But most of it was about himself. There was even a magazine clipping with a baby photo of him. The caption read, "From Infancy to Insanity: The Making of a Killer." He shut the book in disgust and looked at her as if she were mad, but she just smiled happily.

"I've been collecting all of this since you were put into Azkaban," she said proudly. He felt a bit nauseated.

"Look. I just put this in." She flipped to the back to reveal a piece of parchment with handwriting on it. It simply said,

Madeline,

You were right all along.

We're sending him to you.

R.J.L.

A crease appeared in his brow. "I don't understand."

She laughed. "It's from Mr. Lupin, silly. That's how we knew you were coming."