James and Lily Potter's house was a burned out shadow of the cottage it once was. The parts of the roof that hadn't been blown off by Voldemort during his attack had nearly collapsed in the thirteen years since. One side of the brick facade of the second floor still stood in silhouette against the night sky, but the right side of the house, where Harry's nursery was and where Voldemort had fired that fated curse, had been blown almost completely away. Vines had taken over the shell of the house making it appear almost as a natural part of the landscape. A tree grew from what was once the dining room out of the hole in the second floor. The fidelius charm that had failed to protect the Potters had been broken long ago, but it held a strong confundus charm to keep the muggle villagers away. It had simply become a symbol of all that was lost during the first war. Lucy glanced at the long dead bunches of flowers that were placed along the garden gate. Apparently some people did still come round on Halloween to leave some token of their affections for the couple, and more importantly for their son who was believed to be the savior of the wizarding world. She had come a few times with her parents when she was a child, but it had upset her so badly to remember Lily and James even though she had only met them a few times, that her mother stopped bringing her.

Lucy stepped through the gate and onto the property. She wandered around a bit, poking at the wooden swing still hanging from the tree in the front garden and closed her eyes. Even after all these years the residual magic left from the attack was still quite strong. Whatever had happened to protect Harry Potter from the Avada Kedavra that night had taken a considerable amount of energy. If she had the time or even knew why she was here in the first place, she would have enjoyed investigating it a bit.

A loud pop issued behind her and Lucy spun around to find Albus Dumbledore in a swirl of purple robes walking up to her. "Miss Ollivander," he said nodding his head. A second after his appearance came Fawkes who immediately flew up to the tree branch above the swing where GrĂ¡inne was sitting smoothing her feathers. He started his strutting again. Dumbledore glanced up and took note of his familiar. "Ah, it appears some things never do seem to change."

Lucy strode forward and embraced the older man, "When it comes to those two I would tend to agree and please Professor, how many times must I ask you to call me Lucy, Miss Ollivander makes me feel like I am still at Hogwarts."

"I apologize my dear," he replied. "Sometimes old teachers never seem to realize when their students have grown up."

Lucy smiled. "So tell me sir, what is so important to have me apparating in from Poland to Wales in the middle of the night?"

"What were you doing in Poland?" Dumbledore asked.

"Graphorns." she replied.

Dumbledore smiled, he had always found Lucy's choice of careers most amusing for a girl who had been so timid at Hogwarts. "Severus will be thrilled. He is of the opinion that the ingredients you acquire are far superior to any sold those 'dunderheads calling themselves apocatheries,' I believe were his exact words."

"It is hard to imagine Severus being thrilled about anything, but I am pleased at the compliment."

"It has come to my attention most recently," Dumbledore began, all levity gone from his voice. "That a very grievous error has been made regarding the guilt of a certain escaped convict."

"Who? Sirius Black?" Dumbledore nodded. "Pardon my pun sir, but you can't be serious."

"I am most certain." He replied.

"How?" Lucy asked.

"When James and Lily Potter went into hiding, I suggested to them that they go under the protection of a Fidelius Charm. I, of course, offered to be their secret keeper myself but James was determined to use his best friend, Sirius, instead..."

"Pardon the interruption sir, but I am aware of this, it's practically folklore in the wizarding world. Black was their secret keeper, therefore only he could have revealed their information to You-Know-Who..."

"Never fear a name, my dear, it just gives it more power." Dumbledore nodded, "All this is quite true, however Black could not have done this if he was not, in fact, the Potter's secretkeeper."

"Not the secretkeeper?" Lucy asked, her Scottish accent growing thicker with the shock she felt about this most unexpected revelation. "But...but then who?"

"Peter Pettigrew."



"But Pettigrew was blown up. Even if he didn't reveal the Potter's location, Black is still a murderer at best, of one his best friends, no less." At that exact moment, Lucy heard a rustling of leaves behind her and spun around wand drawn. However, instead of a possible threat she found the source of the noise to be a large, mangy black dog. She reholstered her wand, and called the dog over. "Here boy, c'mere." The dog trotted over tongue lopping from the side of its mouth. "Aren't you a pretty boy, must be a stray, huh? I bet you're hungry, yes you are. Let's see what we have for you in my pack."

"You have a way with animals, Lucy." Dumbledore noted with a most bemused sparkle behind his bright blue eyes.

"Well sir, it's hard not to when you're raised on a farm full of magical creatures." she answered. She came across a few pieces of beef jerky her bag and held them out to the dog. He sniffed them, gave a happy bark and then proceeded to devour them in record time. Afterwards, he rolled over on to his back and let Lucy give him a good belly scratch. She looked up from her ministrations on the dog spoke, "As I was saying, unless Pettigrew blew himself up Black is still guilty."

"Actually, Lucy, I believe that is exactly what he did."

"But why? I mean I understand framing Black if he was truly the ones who betrayed the Potters but why blow himself up? There's no reward in that. Yes, Black is framed but Pettigrew would still be dead, at the point what does it matter whether he took the rap or not?"

"Unless," Dumbledore began.

"Unless," Lucy interrupted. "Pettigrew escaped himself, but how? I've seen pictures of the scene sir, there was a crater in the street where Pettigrew was...and they found his finger. How could he have gotten away without anyone noticing?"

"I believe I have the answer to that," a new voice answered from below her, Lucy looked down to see that the furry belly that had belonged to the large, mangy dog a moment ago, now belonged to a large, mangy man. He was wearing filthy robes and long, matted black hair hung around his gaunt face and down past his shoulders. She was so surprised she tried to jump back and ended up landing flat on her bottom. The man sat up from the ground where he had been enjoying his belly rub and got to his feet. Lucy could only stare up at him with shock on her face as he offered her a smile and his hand.

"Sirius Black." she gasped.

"In the flesh," he replied. "Actually these days, the lack thereof."

Still stunned, she accepted her hand and got back to her feet. "You're an unregistered animagus. Ha!" Lucy shouted beginning to pace and forth while she pieced everything together. "Makes complete sense now. THAT'S how you escaped from Azkaban, bloody Dementors only look for wizards. That's how you've been hiding from the Ministry and getting into Hogwarts...no one's been looking for a great mangy dog..." Sirius at least had the decency to look slightly offended by her comment. Suddenly she stopped in front of him and looked dead in his eyes. "But that doesn't explain how Pettigrew got away unless...unless..." A look of realization dawned on Lucy's face.

"Exactly, Miss Ollivander. Pettigrew was an animagus as well. I knew you, more than anyone, would understand." Dumbledore supplied.

"What is he?" she asked.

"A rat." Sirius answered, with a note of disgust in his voice.

"Ironic." Lucy replied.

"Yes, it is." said Sirius. "I should have known."

The trio sat in silence for a moment before Lucy finally asked, "Why now? Why not break out before this if you knew you were innocent? Why not tell your story? And where is Pettigrew now?"

Sirius sighed, "Well for starters, I never had a chance to tell my side of the story, I was sent to Azkaban without trial, although I admit at the time, I was hardly in a sane state of mind. James and Lily were dead, betrayed by someone who we believed to be our best friend, and my godson was gone to live with muggles. I am sure you know of the reputation of the Blacks, they were hardly thrilled with my decisions in life and disowned me years before. I had nothing to live for, and in that state, Azkaban was as good a place as any to be. But earlier this year, it came to my attention that Peter Pettigrew was at Hogwarts within close distance of my godson, Harry, and everything changed. I had something to do, I had to protect him." Sirius' face changed as if he had become extremely tired in a short amount of time. He sat down on the tree swing and looked up at her. "As to where Pettigrew is now, I do not know. But for one hour tonight he was revealed at Hogwarts to myself, Remus Lupin, Harry and his friends. Outside of yourself and Dumbledore here, they are the only ones who know the truth."



Lucy said nothing; she was still processing all the information the two men have given her and wondering where she fit in. "So, why me professor? Do you want me to find Pettigrew?"

Sirius jumped up from the swing with a look of wonder on his face. "Do you think you could?" he asked.

"I have no doubt that if anyone was capable of locating Mr. Pettigrew, it would be you Lucy, but I fear that may prove too difficult for even your skills. I have no doubt that we will all be seeing Peter again someday. My intentions in asking you here however were to insure Sirius' safety."

"Dumbledore, I don't need..." Sirius began.

"Sirius, you need her help. You are the most wanted wizard in Britian at the moment. I am sure that Fudge has every available auror on the lookout for you, he was most displeased when you managed to slip through his fingers at Hogwarts. Surely, you cannot keep surviving the way you have been indefinitely; you don't even have a wand."

Sirius hung his head, he had no argument with what Dumbledore said, but he wasn't fond of the idea of depending on anyone else. Lucy however, seemed to take the news with stride. "I understand professor. We will leave now if you like. I won't tell you where, that way if that git Fudge tries to get you to use veritaserum, you have nothing to cover up." Dumbledore smiled.

"Wait, the hippogriff Buckbeak, what will happen to him? Can he come with us?" Sirius asked.

"Not on this trip," Lucy answered. "But if the professor here is willing to take him, I am sure my father will give him a place on the farm until we can return."

"I would be most delighted." said Dumbledore. "It's been years since I took a ride on a Hippogriff. Does your mother still make those wonderful tea biscuits?"

"Of course, Professor. Shall I send a note ahead to let them know you are coming?"

"No, that is alright, I will take care of it."

"Good, then I guess we best be off." Lucy said. She opened her pack again and fished around a bit before pulling out a large brass key ring with many antique looking keys hanging off of it. She flipped through the keys until she came to a particularly ornate copper colored one and unclipped it from the ring, putting the ring itself back into her back. "Ready?" she asked Sirius.

"As I'll ever be." he replied. "Goodbye, Professor."

"Goodbye, Professor. I'll be seeing you soon. Say hello to my parents for me."

"Take care both of you." The old wizard replied, and then looked up. "Come along, Fawkes." The male phoenix let out what could only be a song of disappointment and hopped a few branches down from the object of his affections.

Lucy turned to Sirius again. "Hold onto the key with me." He did as she requested and she pulled her wand from his holster. "Portus."

And they vanished into the night.