Chapter three

Harry spoke with his parents until late, and even though he knew he would get to spend a lot of time with them he found it difficult to leave, he even ate his dinner in the office so he could stay with them. But his mother made him go shower then get a good night's sleep since he was going to be very busy over the next few months.

The first thing Harry did after waking was to see some brand new clothes that Mipsy and her younglings made for him. He dressed then decided to eat breakfast in the office so he could keep talking to his parents. When he finished, he had Dobin show him how to contact the attorney. He only said Charles' name and within ten minutes Mr. Charles Harrison he was coming through the fireplace

Harry stepped back then watched a tall, distinguished man in his sixties or seventies step out.

'Lord Potter, I have tried to contact you many times over the years, but it seems the wards placed around you made it impossible. I am pleased to see you, finally.'

Harry shook the man's hand then gestured for them to take a seat, 'It's nice to meet you, but I only just found out about the house, you, so many things. But I mainly needed to talk to you about Sirius Black who is innocent,' Harry opened the diary to allow the man to read, 'Something must have gone wrong with his trial.'

'He was not given a trial, I only found that out when he escaped. I figured he might speak with the goblins about his vault, any person who has been convicted of a crime will have their vaults and properties seized until they have served their sentence. The goblins informed me that none were seized as he was never convicted. I will need to find a way to contact him but I'm sure he will be wary of being sent back to Azkaban.'

'Charles,' James smiled, 'Peter is an animagus he changes into a normal brown rat, Sirius is an animagus, he turns into a big black dog that resembles a grim.'

'I saw him, the dog, the night I ran from the Dursley's, he scared me actually, he was so big. I think I saw him in Diagon alley as well, but I only got a small glimpse as he ran up the lane between some of the shops.'

'He's sticking around, probably using his animagus to listen in and keep an eye on you at the same time. Now I did some checking, he would have some problems because of the dementors, most prisoners do, but if he did use his animagus then maybe he is not as bad as we might believe. Another thing I found out was that Cornelius Fudge visited Azkaban just before Sirius escaped. He thought Sirius seemed more than fine, but some of the human guards said he would look fine one day then for weeks he didn't seem to know where he was or who he was, that would happen every couple of months. The day he spoke with Fudge he asked the minister if he could have his copy of the Daily Prophet, that he missed doing the crosswords. That night and for the next couple of weeks the guards said he kept muttering the same thing, he's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts. I checked the Daily Prophet to see if there was something in there that made him say that. There was one small article that mentioned your name Lord Potter but it wasn't about you. The Weasley family won some money and went to Egypt, it said that some of the children would be returning to Hogwarts and it is known that the youngest son, Ronald was your friend.'

'Yeah, we've been friends since our first train ride, but I'm friends with most of the Weasley family. I haven't met the two oldest boys, Bill and Charlie, but I know all the others. I know the article, Ron sent me a copy of the picture taken in Egypt. But…um, call me Harry sir.'

'Harry, you can call me Charles. Now, your friend has a pet,' Charles said

'Yeah, Scabbers.'

Charles opened his briefcase and pulled out the article, 'So this is Scabbers?'

'Yes,' Harry furrowed his brow wondering what was going on and why the lawyer seemed interested in a rat, then it hit him, 'No, you're kidding me, Scabbers?'

'I believe so,' Charles held the picture up to James and Lily.

'That's Peter, I would recognise him anywhere,' James shouted.

'He must have found out that Ronald was going to start Hogwarts the same time as you, Harry.'

'But he was Percy's rat before Ron got him. Ron told me that because Percy became a prefect his parents bought him a new owl, so Ron got the rat. They…um, they're a poor family so they often pass things around.'

'Then Peter stayed with a magical family to listen in but I still believe he worked out to stay with a family that had a child your age. I believe it was just luck that you ended up friends.'

'Charles, because of what was going on when Harry was a baby James and I worked on a lot of charms, I invented quite a few. Right now you are going to need time to find Sirius, find out what happened then find Peter. I charmed an object for Harry to keep redoing days and weeks at a time as I knew my sister would not raise him right, but he was safer there.'

'We know this is illegal Charles, but it seems the ministry are doing a lot of illegal things now a days, throwing someone in Azkaban when they are innocent.'

'I will keep this confidential, but yes, I will need a lot of time so I will get you to show me how to make my own time piece so I can investigate. If Peter gets wind of an investigation then he may disappear. Trying to find a common garden rat will be next to impossible.'

'Mum, is there a charm I could use to capture him? I ask mainly because Ron and I share a dorm room at Hogwarts, Scabbers is usually asleep on Ron's bed.'

'Perfect, I know a few that will help. But as we said, you will be doing weeks over. So while you're learning Charles can get all the information he needs, especially on why Sirius was sent to Azkaban without a trial. Dobin can convert one of the wine cellars into a jail that will stop Peter changing,' Lily said.

'And we need to find a way to show Sirius he would be safe here until Charles can work on his trial.'

'A charm that can be attached to Harry, only Sirius will see it and only in his animagus form. It would mean Harry would need to make some trips to Diagon alley.' James said.

'I have an office there, but I would prefer no one see Lord Potter going in. Peter could get wind, or someone corrupt within the ministry. Someone made sure I could not get in contact with Harry, so we need to keep our working relationship secret.'

'I have dad's invisibility cloak, I use it all the time at Hogwarts.'

'Perfect, I will arrange times to meet up in London and no one will see you pass through the Leaky Cauldron.'

'So we can't floo into your office?'

'No, it's too dangerous, so many of my colleagues were cursed before they could pull their wands. They would step out of the fireplace and just start yelling curses. We all decided to block our floo, now they have to walk in the door which is charmed to reveal dark objects or dark potions.'

'Does that charm work on the dark mark?' James asked.

'It does.'

'What's the dark mark?' Harry asked.

'It's a magical tattoo that Voldemort gave all his supporters, it's on the inside of their forearms. He uses it to call his supporters, but he can use it to curse them as well,' James said.

Charles, Lily and James watched Harry who seemed to be deep in thought, 'Sweetheart, is something wrong?'

'Well, a suspicion, Snape, he often rubs his arm at the same time I get pain in my scar. Now if Voldemort gave me the scar and gave them dark marks, maybe he was feeling something when I was.'

'Snape did get involved with a lot of the first death eaters but I never did confirm if he was a death eater,' James said.

'He was, Albus Dumbledore was the one that got him out of Azkaban and gave him the job of potions master at Hogwarts. That happened two years after Harry received his scar. A few of us believed that Albus was going to use Snape to spy on the remaining death eaters. Some believe Snape used Albus so he could spy on the headmaster and the school.'

'He's a bastard,' Harry flushed, 'Um, sorry,' he blushed, then shrugged as he looked up at his parents.

'That is another thing I want you to help Harry with Charles, it seems Snape can't let go of his hate for me so he's taking it out on my son during their classes.'

'And after, he's tried to have me expelled and gives me detentions for breathing to loudly.'

'Then I will work on seeing your memories so I can make a complaint on your behalf. I know he was hurt that Lily had feelings for James but to use his authority over you is almost illegal, but bullying a student is not allowed by teachers.'

'You mean to tell me that ugly old Snape liked my mother?' Harry grimaced as James laughed, even Lily chuckled. But it made more sense now, Snape could see how much Harry looked like his father who took the woman he liked or loved. Now he did hope that Charles could help him with the Snape situation.