Chapter 03: Revelations

A/N: This is fanfiction. I don't own Harry Potter. I don't make any money from this.

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Somedays it seemed Albus Dumbledore should not bother to get out of bed. His morning began with a hearty breakfast and a near-heart attack when he read the Daily Prophet's headlines. Sirius Black Exonerated by French! Peter Pettigrew Alive and the True Traitor! That was bad, not only was his reputation among the ICW in tatters but the French took particular pleasure in snubbing him and would refuse to let him influence this.

'Our French Counterpart, Actualités Magiques, had this to say: Sirius Black was condemned to Azkaban late in 1981 when he was captured by the British Aurors at the scene of carnage where Peter Pettigrew and several mundane (editor's note: Mundane is French term for Muggles) citizens had been killed by what was believed to be an overpowered blasting curse. He was never given a trial, instead this man was thrown into Azkaban prison and left there to rot, while the British Ministry considered it a case closed.'

'The article further points out accurately just how illegal this course of action was: all British magical citizens are assured a right to trial before Wizengamot, yet this right was denied to a man as powerful as the Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Black. The Chief Wizard Dumbledore illegally claimed there was no need for a trial, and Mister Bartemius Crouch Senior was more than happy to throw the man in jail.'

'It should be noted that this same Crouch gave a trial to his own son as well, convicting Crouch Junior as a deatheater to a life in Azkaban, but nobody ever gave a trial to Sirius Black. Why? It was because Dumbledore assumed control of the Potter boy when Harry's Godfather Sirius Black was unable to perform his duties, being locked in Azkaban under Dumbledore's orders.'

'The trial under Veritaserum proved that Dumbledore knew of the switch, having been present when James and Lily Potter decided on changing their secret keeper from Sirius to Peter Pettigrew. Peter was a deatheater who was spying on the Potters and Dumbledore while pretending to be their friend, and turned to his master as soon as he had the means to ensure one more of his master's enemies would fall. When Sirius Black confronted Pettigrew that dark night, Peter blasted the ground while transforming his illegal animagus form to escape, leaving behind a severed finger and a badly shaken Sirius Black, as well as an exploded gasline which nearly killed Pettigrew and Black as well when that explosion occurred.'

'Pettigrew listed several British names as confirmed deatheaters and further testified that the dark mark cannot be taken under force. It has to be accepted in full control of one's own mind and faculties or it will not stick. The French Ministry of Magic has issued this statement: Anyone caught with the Dark Mark on French soil is considered at terrorist and will be captured and executed, regardless of nationality.'

Oh damn. This was bad. Albus Dumbledore was being painted as a villain by this article, and it was heavily censored already but the French version undoubtedly had even more juicy details to it, and there would be quite a lot of people who would want to see that. Damn Sirius, and damn Peter! Most of all, damn Lily! He was sure that somehow that bloody bitch was behind this as well! How did Sirius manage to find Peter after all this time?

Albus' thoughts were interrupted by the door to his office being shoved open by a furious Minerva McGonagall. "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! Just what kind of a mess have you created this time!?" Full name, furious look in her eyes, breathing quickly and fingernails looking a lot sharper than they ought to be. She was borderline transformed into a cat, and if she had transformed she would undoubtedly rip his face open to express her displeasure of learning what Albus had done.

No, his morning had definitely not started the way he wanted it to.

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Stomping back and forth in his hotel room and blaming himself for being so caught up with catching the traitor, not being there for Harry when the boy needed him, Sirius Black was a free man in the eyes of the law but in his own eyes he was guilty of abandoning the boy and his disappearance weighed heavily on his soul. Of course Harry should have come first, but he had never expected Dumbledore to betray him and the others. The old man attempted to look like a jovial grandfather that took care of everything, even forgiving them for their prankster ways, but Lily had seen right through him.

Lily's first warning had gone unheeded, but Sirius Black learned quickly. Six years in Azkaban was a long time to wait, but he had struck when Lily had advised him, and it had worked. Granted, the French had arrested him on the spot when he arrived but they had at least heard him out, and on checking the rat he brought with him they had enough evidence to open the case again and demand the trial transcripts from the British.

Being rebuffed and told not to dig into things that they were long buried, the French had done some investigating of their own and contacted the mundane British Ministry, and gotten their answers that way. The memories Sirius Black provided also answered a lot of questions and helped build up his defense. In the end, his trial was mostly a formality to set the stage for the trial of a century.

Deatheaters were being announced persona non grata all over Europe, and the American Ministry for Magic had even warned their mundane counterparts of these dangerous cultists that were known to kill for pleasure, and advised for the use of deadly force. Arrests and conflicts sparked all over, and several previously hidden deatheaters were brought to trial, questioned under veritaserum, and promptly executed. Voldemort had lost at least a third of his forces thanks to the revelations of the rat.

Not that it helped Sirius conscience. Harry was gone. James and Lily were dead, and Remus had fled Britain. Snape was a professor at Hogwarts, and the British ministry was corrupted and more than a few deatheaters kept whispering in the right ears and pouring gold into the right pockets to keep themselves safe. Britain wasn't worth saving anymore, not until the ministry there was willing to take action and deal with the corruption in their midst.

The strongly worded demand to hand Sirius Black over and return their captive citizens so wrongfully accused because of the word of one sewer rat was rebuffed in turn by the French Ministry, who told the British Ministry in a very polite and dignified manner to fix the broken mockery of justice and governance before they came to demand anything from the other nations. It was done in an extremely colorful but polite manner at that. French was such a lovely language, managing to insult people while making it almost sound like a compliment.

Sirius' serious pondering was interrupted by a hoot of an owl on the window-still, a letter tied to its leg. Taking a deep breath and turning to face the owl Sirius cast a series of detection spells to confirm there was no nasty surprises in the letter, finding it only protected against bad weather.

Taking up the letter and opening it, Sirius' eyes widened at the contents. He read through the letter in a hurry, before turning to wave his new wand around for his belongings to pack themselves up as he began to think about where he could get an airplane ticket from the fastest. Maybe that cute French auror that had wanted to help old slanderous black to get back on his feet after his time in the dreary old prison surrounded by the haunting horrors of hateful husks.

'Focus,' he told himself. 'A dog that chases two birds at once will catch none, unless he's really smart. Maybe I should ask her along while I'm still recovering, because I need to go meet with my Godson? Yeah, maybe, the French are curious to find him too.' Sirius thought about it and then looked at the letter again.

'But this is personal.' He sighed wearily. It would be oh so good to have some female company along but at the same time he couldn't betray Harry again. He couldn't risk it. If the person that had Harry wanted him to come alone, then he had to go alone. Besides, he could find cute girls later, his godson was far more important.

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"Mister and Missus Granger, I have called you here to talk about Hermione."

"Please tell me my little girl hasn't gotten into any trouble."

"Don't worry ma'am, its actually quite the opposite. Young Hermione is a prodigy who is outpacing her fellow students and we would like her to take an aptitude test to see if she ought to skip a year ahead, or perhaps even more."

"I don't know, she has not had that many friends and skipping ahead would separate her from them."

"Missus Granger, I'll be frank. Hermione seems to prefer the company of books to that of her fellow students, and there has been some… incidents that border on bullying. Our staff has intervened and the guilty parties have been punished, but it is obvious your daughter is very talented and would do better among people who have reached the same intellectual maturity as she has."

"If you really think it is for the best. I didn't know she was being bullied."

"That would be my fault, I hoped to correct the problem before reporting it, but I still see signs of resentment from her classmates and this possibility presented itself before I could bring the other matter to your attention. With your approval, we can arrange for the test later this week."

"Do it. We'll talk to Hermione and see what she would want to do before making the final decision whether or not she should skip ahead though."

"Thank you for taking the time to come here today."

"It was no problem, thank you for looking after our daughter."

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Mizuki tapped her finger on her chin while reading through the French magazine in deep thought. She had read the local paper and then purchased the French one from the newsstand near the apparition point in the Magical section. There was a fairly large number of witches and wizards on the isle, but most of them kept magic indoors and out of sight of their neighbors, though some practiced a bit of herbology in their backyards, with sufficient charms on their fences to keep the neighbors from noticing anything unusual.

The news about Sirius Black had brought a smile to her lips, at least that part of Lily's plan had gone as planned. She had gone ahead and sent a letter to him, with instructions to come to Japan if he wanted to meet with Harry, and to be at a particular café on a particular day, alone, if he wanted to meet with his Godson. It was unlikely he was still working with Dumbledore, given the news revealed in the paper, but Mizuki would follow the plans that Lily had laid out originally. Dumbledore wasn't the only one that might be tracking Sirius Black.

Waving the cherry wood wand with a yuki-onna hair within it, Mizuki conjured a light breeze out in the backyard garden for a moment, clearing her mind as she relaxed and let her training kick in. Her mental walls were solid ice, her thoughts obscured from intruders by the light flickering off of the frigid fields and the chilly mountains of her mental landscape. She remembered when she first began to build up her defenses, and practice her occlumency. Chill wind helped her even then to take that first step along the way.

Harry would need to learn it as well, it would make the classes easier when he could recall things faster and build upon his previous lessons in a more structured fashion. He had to mature a little more first though. Luna was already helping, though in a different way. Mizuki was not a seer, nor even slightly talented in divination, but Luna seemed to have at least the potential if not necessarily the focus to become a true seer herself, and if Lily's gift was in Harry as well, then Luna would be the person to nurture and nourish his talent in that.

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Third Chapter ends.

Please read and review, feedback is appreciated.

I would appreciate a little help with different nationalities to add a touch about them to the story.

My own research on them is surface-deep, though I hope to avoid blatant errors.