Chapter Three: A Free Man

By: PenDiva

DISCLAIMER: None of the characters or ideas for this fanfiction belong to me obviously!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is Chapter Three! Hope you all like it but please write me a review with your own thoughts. I really do like to read them! I went back and added some things to the first and second chapter after some really good advice from a review. I'm very new at this so reviews are extremely helpful. Alright now on to the story!

…

Harry woke up from a nightmare that he'd rather forget and noticed that his head was throbbing and other areas of his body were still sore. He was barely wrapped up in his blanket because it had been a very hot start to summer and his bedroom didn't have air conditioning. Yesterday had been fairly boring for Harry. He had gotten off the train and got a firm beating from Vernon. Then for the rest of the day the Dursley's ignored him, preferring to just lock him in his room. Today however, he guessed that they would put him to work.

He reached over to his nightstand and put on his glasses, still trying to shake off sleep. He could see on his clock that it was still before 7 o'clock. Getting up silently, he went over to the reason he had been woken up; a persistent tapping on his window.

Hedwig was flying just outside his window with a letter tied to her leg. Harry messed with the window for a while and was finally able to let his bird in, who made some loud hoots.

"Sh!" Harry said quickly, trying to quiet the bird.

When she had finished flapping around happily, she settled down on his bed. Harry quickly grabbed at the letter and released it from around Hedwig's leg. She then resumed her usual perch above his dresser. Before he could read the letter though, Vernon's loud movements could be heard from the hallway.

Harry shoved the letter in the top drawer of his dresser and prayed Vernon wouldn't find it. He sent a warning glance at Hedwig trying to tell her to be quiet.

Keys could be heard in the lock however and soon the door slammed open and a red faced Vernon was standing in the doorway. "BOY! What is waking me up at such an early hour!" he then spotted the white owl perched above Harry's dresser. Scowling, he said, " I don't want to see anymore of that ruddy bird! You will keep him locked in his cage this whole summer if you have to! No more letters to your freakish friends! And if I see him out of his cage, you will pay! Now get downstairs and get breakfast started," he finished after Harry put Hedwig in her cage.

Harry hurried downstairs, glad that Vernon was too tired to do anything more then yell at him. Soon enough, the smell of cooking eggs and bacon made Harry's stomach rumble. Aunt Petunia had come downstairs and watched over his shoulder.

"Don't you burn Dudley's breakfast now!"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry replied robotically. Satisfied, his aunt went to sit down at the table.

"You can eat some of this terrible food you made to do your chores and that will be your meal for today." Harry nodded, content to finally eat something. He set the table and ate his meal as Petunia wrote up a list of chores for today.

"It better be done flawlessly, and I will be around to check. Vernon is getting ready for a very important dinner party in less than two weeks. The house better look perfect by then." Harry just nodded, already looking over his list of chores.

This would be a lot to finish in one day. He started by washing up the dishes and then moved outside to clean up the yard before it got to hot out. He desperately wanted to go upstairs to read his letter, but he didn't want Vernon to find it. He vowed to read it tonight while he used it as motivation to finish the rest of his chores.

He weeded for a while and trimmed the hedges in the front before he got out an old lawn mower and started pushing it through the front yard. He could feel the painful rays from the sun beating down on his back, and he wished he had some way to cool himself off.

His lips were dry and his throat was parched after an hour of outside work, and Harry had to take a break to sip some water from the hose. Petunia would have gotten mad if she saw him taking a break for a drink of water. She would accuse him of slacking off and a bunch of other crap that Harry hated to hear. He moved quickly back to the front yard and started up the lawn mower again.

Before he could finish with mowing the lawn though, Dudley's friends decided to sneak up on Harry and beat him up. They hadn't seen him for over nine months and wanted to take this opportunity to make his life miserable.

Harry pushed the lawnmower down the last patch of grass, heading towards the house. The loud hum of its motor blocked out the sound of footsteps of Dudley's gang creeping up behind him. Harry shut off the mower and went to wheel it away when he heard snickering behind him.

Harry's heart jumped in his throat and he turned around sharply. In a flash, two people had his arms pinned behind his back and were dragging him to the side of the house where there weren't any windows. Harry struggle and tried to shout but someone clamped a hand over his mouth and then they threw him on the ground.

"Looks like the freak failed to blow himself up at that little school of his," Dudley said.

Looking up Harry saw his six least favorite people all standing around him. They each had over 100 pounds on him and evil grins on their faces. Scrambling away, Harry stood up but Dudley's goons backed him up against the house. He was sweating from the heat, and knew he would have very little energy to run away.

"Miss us Harry?"

"I bet you didn't have any friends at your boarding school!"

"Do you want your mommy now? Oh wait, I forgot. She's dead, isn't she?"

Harry was surprised at their ruthlessness. Dudley's gang had never been this cruel, even to some of the neighborhood kids. He still couldn't do anything yet though because he was surrounded, so he stood there and waited for a chance to get away.

One of the biggest guys stepped forward and slugged Harry right in the gut before Harry could try to protect himself. Harry gasped for air and tried to shield his face for the next blow that he could feel coming. Another fist came out and hit him in the head, making Harry fall to the ground.

His world was spinning.

For some reason, as Harry laid on the ground and stared at the sun, all he could think about was how hot he was. Even while he was receiving some brutal kicks to every area of his body, Harry only wished for some way to cool himself off, and run away from this situation. He silently wished for some miracle that would let him escape Dudley's gang.

Harry felt someone tried to grab his arm to force him to stand up but then the boy screamed in pain when he touched Harry's skin. Suddenly, Harry did feel cooled off. He couldn't describe the feeling though. It was like cold electricity had shot through him and into the other boy. Confused, Harry looked at the kid next to him who was clutching his arm from an invisible burn.

"Come on get him up ya' big baby! We have to give him a few scars to remember us!" Dudley screamed. But the boys had stopped their attack. Mad at his friends for stopping, Dudley came up and punched Harry in the stomach but Harry never felt it. Dudley did though, and reared back from the burning sensation he felt on his hand.

"It's his freakishness!" The goons backed away scared, giving Harry just enough time to slip through a few legs and start running for his life.

He had a weird burst of energy that he couldn't explain and he wasn't sweating from the heat anymore. Not even stopping to think about this, Harry used his arm to swing around the side of the house and propel himself as fast as he could toward the road.

"Get him!"

"Don't let him reach the road!"

"He'll pay for that trick and burning my freakin' arm off!"

Harry did his best to ignore the angry shouts behind him and focused on rhythmically pumping his legs and arms and getting away as fast as he could. He had a lot of practice with sprints because of Dudley's gang, and they really payed off. In less than a minute, the boys were out of sight, and Harry stopped short to hide behind a trash can.

There were a few more distant shouts, but Harry knew that Dudley hated running and had given up a while ago. Sighing Harry clutched his stomach and felt the worst of the bruises he had just received. 'At least no broken bones this time,' he said, remembering other days in his childhood when he wasn't so lucky.

Harry sat there for a few minutes catching his breath and going over in his head everything that had happened. He was working in this unbearable heat when Dudley's gang jumped him and tried to beat him up. Nothing new there.

But then Harry got confused. He had simply thought about how hot he was and how he wished he had some way to cool down and then escape, and that's exactly what happened. He remembered the weird feeling he got every time somebody touched him. It was as if his magic had transferred all the heat he was feeling onto the other person's skin - which was enough to burn.

Harry was mortified at first. "What will Dudley say to Vernon?" Then he thought about how scared Dudley had been, and he hoped maybe his cousin had decided to keep his mouth shut for once.

Then Harry thought about the accidental magic he had just done. 'I burned someone! Just by thinking about how hot I was!' he thought despairingly.

This wasn't good. 'Two days into the summer and my magic is going crazy.' Harry thought. He was just glad Vernon hadn't been around. Harry then vowed to try extra hard this summer to make sure nothing happened with his accidental magic, because he knew Vernon wouldn't leave him unharmed for it.

"I have to learn to keep my emotions in check, and suppress my magic when it decides to come out," Harry repeated, mumbling slightly.

After he promised himself to have an uneventful summer after today, Harry walked back to Number 4 Privet Drive. The whole time his nerves were on high alert for a jump attack, and Harry walked in the middle of the road to be safe.

'That's another thing,' Harry thought. 'I'll have to stay away from Dudley and his gang this summer, or next time my magic might try to do something more extreme.'

When Harry saw the front yard without a few angry gang members, he closed his eyes and smiled in relief.

Sneaking back into the house, Harry heard noises of violent video games coming from the living room. He went quietly up the stairs and went through a mental checklist of all the chores he had to finish. A few of them were upstairs so Harry did those first to avoid Dudley's gang.

After Dudley's gang left though, Dudley didn't say a word to Harry for the next week, and he never told Vernon anything.

…

Sirius's knees bounced in anticipation. They had sent the letter asking the Ministry for a fair trial last night, and he thought they would respond quickly. Glancing at the clock again, Sirius sighed and went to go help Remus.

Remus had been working non stop trying to get the house ready for Harry. He wanted to make it perfect. This was his way of showing how much he cared for Harry. Sirius didn't clean nearly as much as Remus, but he still worried a lot about his Godson.

Walking into his bedroom, Sirius said casually, "Hey Remus, do you need any help?"

"Yeah I could use some help. The laundry is in a big pile outside the door," he responded smiling.

"Oh. Really? Do we not have any house elves?"

Remus shrugged. "I don't actually own any, but if there are some house elves that belonged to your family we can set them to work once you're freed."

Sirius grumbled a bit before robotically beginning to sort laundry. Amused at his friend's obvious reluctance to do some laundry, Remus continued what he was doing. He was using a bit of magic and muscle to fix a dresser in Sirius's room.

When he finished, he walked into the hall to see if he should help Sirius when he found the clothes mostly sorted and Sirius leaning against the wall staring at a few socks.

"Sirius, there is a simple spell you can use to clean clothes since we don't have house elves."

Sirius looked up and gave a tiny smile. "Yeah I know." With a lackadaisical swish of his wand, the clothes leaped in and out of the soapy water that he had conjured and performed a dance-like routine of washing and drying themselves.

"Remus," Sirius started using his friend's first name meaning he had a serious question, "what if we can't be Harry's guardians? What makes us qualified enough?"

Remus had wondered why his friend was always so worried. Maybe Azkaban had made him doubt himself or get too scared to take risks. Sirius had always been joking and fun, jumping head first into something without knowing what he was doing. It was one of the things Remus liked and hated about Sirius. He was so fun and brought out a young playful side of Remus, but he did get himself into a lot of danger sometimes. 'Azkaban must have really taken a toll on him,' Remus thought.

"Sirius, we don't have to be perfect guardians. We are already a kind of dysfunctional family, but that doesn't matter. Anything we provide him will be ten times better then any 'family' Harry had at the Dursleys. Harry admires and looks up to you Sirius, so you need to stop worrying."

"He looks up to you too Remus," Sirius commented. They both were temporarily lost in thought about how much they cared for Harry. They were interrupted though when a loud hoot was heard from the kitchen. The two men looked at each other, apprehensive about the reply the ministry gave.

Sirius went downstairs quickly and grabbed the letter from the owl who stood there staring at him. Skimming it quickly he said, "They agreed to a fair trial. Now I just have to turn myself in and hope for the best." Sirius took a shaky breath and looked at his friend.

"Just keep thinking about being Harry's guardian, and you will get through this."

"Alright, thanks Moony," he said with a crooked smile. Setting the letter down, Sirius turned on the spot and apparated to the ministry.

As soon as he arrived, loud alarms went off and there was a lot of shouting. Sirius's instincts told him to run and get out of the situation as soon as he could but he stood there and waited to be taken away. A group of Auror's surrounded him and hit him with a disarming spell, quickly followed by a stunning spell. Sirius's world went black as he heard Fudge shouting at the aurors.

When Sirius finally woke up and his head cleared up enough to open his eyes, he wasn't surprised at what he saw. He was in a cell in the Ministry with a lot of powerful wards on it and two auror's as guards at the door. Sirius sat up and tried to stop his head from swimming. Getting hit with so many stunners at one point was very discombobulating.

The auror's noticed him sitting up and cast a patronus as a message that Sirius was awake. Not ten minutes later, a Ministry official walked into the room followed by the guards that stood at his door.

He spoke to Sirius with a cold, stern look on his face. "Your trial will begin in less than an hour and they require you to provide the names of the people you wish to bring for questioning and submitting of memories."

Sirius looked surprised that the trial was so early. "They are holding the trial today?"

The man scowled. "Yes Black, we don't want a murder such as yourself locked up down here any longer than necessary. No need to get the public in a frenzy."

Sirius really hated the man's tone. Calling him a murderer didn't help the situation either. "I have four names I wish to give, if you don't mind," he said between his teeth.

The man pulled out a piece of parchment and handed the quill to Black while keeping a sharp eye on everything the man did.

Sirius quickly wrote down the names of the people who witnessed the events of the Shrieking Shack; Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Severus Snape. He excluded Harry as a witness knowing the complicated situation with his relatives.

Satisfied, the man left Sirius's cell and went to summon the people on the list and ask them for memories.

...

The Weasley's had just sat down for lunch when there was a knock at their front door. Looking up from her meal in confusion, Mrs. Weasley went to greet their unexpected visitor.

Standing on her doorstep was a slightly bored looking Ministry official, but he straightened up when the woman answered the door. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Weasley. My name is Nicholas Straus from the Justice Department at the Ministry of Magic. Madam, I'm going to need a few minutes of your time to explain why I am here and then I will be escorting your son Ronald Weasley to the ministry to submit a memory for an upcoming trial. He is not being charged for anything, we just need to use his memories as evidence and to testify for what he saw a few months ago, as it pertains to a certain crime that was committed." Mrs. Weasley looked a little surprised and stared at the man for a second before letting him in to explain what he wanted more in depth.

Smiling now, the man sat down in the woman's living room and looked at the many heads of red hair peeking in from the doorway.

"Boys, go finish your lunch and I will come get you if I need to," Mrs. Weasley told them in a no funny business tone. The children all went away whispering about why they thought he was here. "Now tell me why you think my son is wrapped up in some mess about crimes and trials," she huffed looking slightly annoyed.

The man then apologized for making her think that Ron had done something wrong, and continued to brief over why they needed the memories. When he came to the part about Sirius Black, Mrs. Weasley gasped.

"That murderer? I don't want my son anywhere near him, much less submitting a memory for his trial!"

"Madam, if it makes you any more comfortable I can have him submit his memory here and he would never have to go to where Black is being held. This is part of what we must do. Surely you wouldn't want to send a possibly innocent man to Azkaban?"

Mrs. Weasley looked shocked. "Well... no sir, of - of course I wouldn't... but surely you can't... you don't think Black, is innocent - do you?" she finished shakily, trying not to think about the horrific acts the man had done.

"Mam, I am not one to judge, I am just doing my job. The ministry agreed to letting him have a fair trial, and that is what will be done. I really must be on my way, so if I could see your son Ronald and ask him to submit his version of what happened that night?" Mrs. Weasley nodded reluctantly and went quickly to get her son.

Ron came into the room but already knew why he was here. Remus had sent him a letter telling him about what they planned on doing and what they needed from Ron, who was more than happy to help Harry's godfather be freed.

"Is this for Sirius?"

The man tried to hide his surprise, "Yes… are you on speaking terms with that man? Wait, how did you know?"

Ron panicked, not sure what to say, especially with his mother shooting him questioning glares. "Well, ever since that night… It's kind of strange to see someone who you think is a murderer bite your leg off but then fight to save your life, um… never mind. I was was also told someone might come asking for a memory…" Ron finished.

Mrs. Weasley spoke up defensively, "Yes, that's fine Ron, just submit your memory and then the Mr. Straus can leave." The man from the ministry nodded. Ron then did as he was instructed and a few minutes later, his memory of everything that happened that night in the Shrieking Shack was floating around in a small glass vile.

"Thank you so much for your time, but I really must be off." And with that, the man headed to go deal with getting a memory from his next witness; a student from a muggle family.

As the man left, Ron sat down with his mother and explained everything about that night to his mom. She still thought Sirius was a murderer and Ron thought it was time to tell her the truth, especially since he knew he was going to be Harry's guardian.

…

Hermione had been working on a Potions essay when she heard the definitive knocking at the front door. Moving quickly, she opened the door to greet the man who just entered.

"Hello, are you Hermione Granger?"

"Yes, I-," Hermione started but her dad cut her off.

"Hermione dear, who is this?" Hermione's dad asked, with his wife behind her.

"Excuse me, I don't believe I introduced myself," Straus said remembering to be polite with muggles. "My name is Nicholas Straus, and I am from the Justice Department at the Ministry of Magic-"

"What do you mean Justice Department? Did Hermione do something wrong? Surely she wouldn't! Are you here for her?" The woman asked anxiously, glancing at her daughter.

Straus was slightly surprised at the woman's quick answer, but replied cooly, "No mam. I am just here to collect a few memories from your daughter to use as evidence in the upcoming trial of Sirius Black. It is nothing too extreme, but instead of having her come all the way to the ministry to testify, I am going to collect her memories here. This is standard procedure in the wizarding world."

Hermione looked at her dad who looked frightened at the man's presence. Her mother though, ushered the man inside who sat with them in the living room to explain what he was doing in more depth. Hermione stood in the doorway, amused, and waited for them to finish talking.

When they did, she sat down next to her dad and listened to Straus's instructions for how to give him a memory.

"Wait, this won't hurt my daughter at all will it?" Mr. Granger asked warningly.

"No it won't dad, I'll be fine. Don't worry okay? I've read all about this when I was researching about pensieves!" Her dad still looked confused at the mention of a pensieve, but watched his daughter use her wand to extract a wisp of silver smoke. Realizing this was the physical memory itself, he stared in awe as Hermione dropped it into a glass vial where it floated around.

"Thank you all very much for your time, and Hermione for your cooperation. This makes my job very easy," Straus said smiling. He got up and was about to open the front door when Hermione stopped him.

"Sir, they will free Sirius won't they? You can use my memory to prove he is innocent?"

"I am not the judge and I have no way of knowing if he will be freed. Your memory will certainly be helpful, but I don't want to get your hopes up."

"I understand," she said sadly, but then had a thought. "Could I come to the trial?"

The man frowned, unsure if that would be a good idea, especially if she so strongly believed in his innocence. "I would advise against it, but I can't stop you from coming if you really wanted to. As long as it is okay with your parents," the man from the ministry trailed off looking at Hermione's parents who had been listening.

Her mother spoke up quickly. "I know you want to, but you've already given them your memory and I don't want you near someone like Sirius Black. Mrs. Weasley was telling me about him, and I think I want you home for this, ok? I'm sorry dear."

Hermione nodded and said goodbye to the man, who was glad her mother told her not to go. He didn't need someone else making a scene if Black was sentenced to Azkaban. He then stepped out of her muggle home and apparated to where he was meeting Severus.

Nicholas Strauss appeared in a room with one door leading into a narrow hallway. Upon hearing two voices coming from the other end of the hallway though, he paused.

"I know you hate him-"

"That's an understatement. He humiliated through all my schooling years."

"Yes but he is innocent and you know that."

Straus heard a sigh. "Yes, I know Lupin. As much as I can't stand the man, I would hate to be the reason an innocent man goes to Azkaban. Thank you for reminding me of that."

Sensing a lap in the conversation and feeling guilty for eavesdropping, Straus knocked at the door that was slightly ajar at the end of the hallway. Silence followed before a smiling man who had to be Remus Lupin opened the door and ushered him in.

"Are you Remus Lupin?"

"Yes, and I think you need something from me?" Remus asked politely.

"Yes, a memory to be exact, and a similar one from you, Severus," Straus said. Severus looked distastefully at the man from the ministry who decided he now didn't like.

"I can give you mine and you can do your cute little spell to check that it is real, but you may have trouble getting the memory from my acquaintance here. He has a...'furry little problem, and -"

"As I am well aware, and I don't think it will create much of an issue at all."

Remus really liked this man from the ministry and happily submitted a memory to him, although he followed the man's instructions to leave the part out with him as a werewolf. It would've put Remus's mind under a lot of stress if he tried to get a memory that he had while he was a werewolf. After a little bit more convincing because of Severus's obvious mistrust of the man, Snape gave him his memory too.

"Thank-you gentlemen, that is all I need from you today," and with that, Mr. Straus apparated to the ministry armed with four full bottles of memories.

...

Sirius sat down on his bed again and waited another hour and a half before he was once again summoned to go to his trial. The two guards leading him to the court both had an uncomfortable grip on one of his arms, and they led him quickly to a grand room that was up a few floors. They chained him to a chair, still under the assumption that he was a 'cold-blooded murderer', and then waited for the rest of the court to arrive. As soon as the judge arrived, they went through a few mere formalities and began his trial.

As they read over his original list of accusations, Sirius looked around to see Remus sitting off to his right. When he had caught the man's eye, Remus gave him a comforting smile. Sirius just looked back at the judge.

The court had now reviewed what little evidence they had of his first accusations; killing 13 innocent people. They then showed a projection of every person's memory using a pensieve. Sirius watched the memory in a daze, surprised at the crazed look in his own eye. Murmurs of disbelief could also be heard every time Peter Pettigrew transformed into a human in each of the memories. Sirius then watched his best friend turn into a werewolf while he fought to protect his godson.

After the memories had been played out, all that could be heard in the court was silence. They then gave Sirius some veritaserum, asked him a few more direct questions and collected memories of the events in the shrieking shack and October 31 all those years ago.

They quickly wrapped up and the judge went over the notes before declaring the verdict. The whole process had taken just under two hours, but it had been a total blur for Sirius. It was hard enough to watch memories from his least two favorite nights of his life, but now he had to sit here and wait for the verdict, anticipating the worst.

All of a sudden he realized what a terrible idea this was. The wizarding world hated him! How could he be so naive to think that they would actually free him? Now he just walked right into their hands and would be sent to Azkaban all over again. He had blown his chance to be Harry's guardian! Now he knew for sure that Azkaban would be his final resting place. Thinking about the time he spent there made the man shudder.

He could almost feel the Dementors feeding on him, sucking away every good thought he had. So caught up in his fear, Sirius had barely heard the judge announce that he was ready with the verdict.

Sirius snapped his head up in attention. He kept a grim look on his face the whole time though as the judge spoke, "After reviewing all the evidence of October 31, 1981 and the events that transpired at the end of April in the Shrieking Shack, I have come to a conclusion in this trial of Sirius Black. I pronounce this man free of all charges."

Sirius could barely believe what he had heard. His spirits were immediately lifted and his jaw dropped. His mind was barely able to comprehend the following words spoken by the judge. He said something about a fine for not registering his animagus form and adding Peter Pettigrew to the Wanted Wizards list.

The chains around his wrists and ankles magically unlocked and slunk back into the chair. He truly felt like he had been relieved of a huge burden, and the metaphorical chains that have been holding him back for thirteen years has disappeared. Remus's smiling face appeared in front of him as soon as the judge had left the court. Now back in his right mind, Sirius hugged his best friend, a few tears threatening to roll down his face.

"Sirius, this is great! I knew they were going to free you! And did you see the look on their face when they saw the memories?" Remus continued to babble on like a giddy school girl and Sirius had to laugh at the man's antics.

"Remus, that's enough. Let's just go home and I will send a letter to Harry to tell him I've been freed." Remus nodded in agreement.

Then Sirius stopped, making Remus pause. "Wait a minute. Did Snivellus submit a memory too? I put his name on the list but I didn't think he would actually try to help me..."

"Sirius, you need to stop using that nickname, he is a Professor now. Let go of that 13 year old grudge."

"But did he submit a memory?" Sirius repeated.

Remus stared at the man slightly annoyed at his persistent, "Yes he did, but before you say anything," Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. "I want to tell you that he did it willingly because he wanted to help you. Sirius, he wanted to help free you. He told me before he left that even though he may not like you Sirius, he would hate to see anyone go to Azkaban for something they don't deserve."

Sirius heard what Remus said and thought about what his childhood enemy had said. Remus saw his concentrated look and wrapped an arm around his shoulder to lead him forward.

"Don't worry about it Sirius. Let's just go home," Remus said. Sirius quickly forgot about what Snape had said and smiled at the thought of home.

They left together, although they got a few odd stares. Sirius couldn't care less, and he was beaming from ear to ear. He had been waiting for this moment of freedom, and now he couldn't help but smile at the thought of being Harry's guardian.

He always felt like he had failed James and Harry, and now he had a chance to redeem himself.

...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I REALLY didn't want to write some official-sounding scene in the court with Sirius's trial so I tried to just make it kind of general and not get into details… I hope you don't mind! Thanks again :-) Any reviews are greatly appreciated and thank you so much WriterShwin for the constructive criticism!