Disclaimer: And again, I own absolutely nothing of Harry Potter. (sigh)…If only…
Chapter 4: Sirius Gets a Second Chance
The morning of the trial dawned bright and clear and Harry was just one of the many unnoticed children waiting in the large open court of Diagon Alley. Dumbledore had managed to convince Fudge to make this trial public and Harry knew that that simple act would go a long way to restoring Sirius's credibility when he was proved innocent.
A group of aurors filtered in through the wide alley. They were flanking a scraggily man dressed in rich robes that hung off his thin frame. Harry figured the robes had been Sirius's before Azkaban.
Harry himself was dressed in new clothes. He'd gotten up early this morning and purchased some muggle jeans, a t-shirt, socks, boxers, a sweater, and a new pair of shoes (ones that actually fit). Then, he'd exchanged what little money he had left for wizarding money, bought a pair of standard black robes, and ate a small breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron.
Now he blended in with the crowd. No one took notice of a small boy dressed in wizarding robes walking the streets of Diagon Alley. Harry wriggled and wormed his way to the very front of the crowd surrounding the makeshift court room.
Sirius was now sitting shackled to a chair facing the Minister of Magic who was sitting behind a judge's podium. There were stands erected on both sides of the condemned man. Harry guessed they were the jury. The alley way was open behind Sirius and that was where Harry (and about two hundred other witches and wizards) were standing.
Harry's box containing Wormtail was resting on a chair next to Sirius. Remus Lupin was sitting in the stands to the right, next to Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid, and much to Harry's disgust, Snape. In the other stands, Harry thought he saw some people from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, but he couldn't be sure.
Fudge banged his gavel to get everyone's attention and jumped right into the trial, skipping all the preliminaries.
"Black has been given a heavy dose of veritaserum. Everything he says is true to the best of his knowledge. Now, let's begin."
Fudge cleared his throat and glared straight at the man in chains before him. "Were you, Sirius Orion Black, the secret keeper for James and Lily Potter?"
"No." Sirius's voice was a throaty monotone.
"Do you know who the secret keeper was?"
"Peter Pettigrew."
"That's convenient," Fudge sneered. "You blame a dead man?"
"No," Sirius said again. Fudge looked startled.
"What?"
"No. Pettigrew isn't dead."
The crowd was whispering now. Harry could hear words like "preposterous" and "ridiculous" and "impossible, he murdered him". The young boy merely grinned to himself, he knew what was coming next.
"That's absurd!" Fudge sputtered. "Do you mean to tell me that Peter Pettigrew is alive?"
"Yes."
"Lair! You blew him up. The biggest piece we found was a finger. How do you explain that?"
"Pettigrew cut it off himself. I would have killed him. I was mad enough to, but the bloody prat blew up the street before I could even draw my wand. He cut off his finger, transformed into a rat, and escaped into the sewer."
"Pettigrew can't transform into a rat!"
"Yes he can, he's an anamagius."
Fudge snapped his fingers at an aide who quickly handed him a scroll. He unfurled it, his beady little eyes darting left and right. Then he rolled it back up, returned it to the aide, and grinned maliciously at Sirius.
"Mr. Black, you are lying. There have been no new anamagi in the past fifteen years."
"No new registered ones," Sirius said grinning slightly. Fudge sputtered in disbelief.
"Do you mean to tell me that Pettigrew is an unregistered anamagius?"
"Yes."
"And how could you possibly know this?"
"Because we were the ones who helped him to become one. He never could have done it without us."
"We? Us? Mr. Black, please explain."
"James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and myself all became illegal anamagi in our fifth year."
"You did? Why?"
Another voice spoke from the stands on the right. Harry recognized it as Dumbledore's.
"Objection Minister Fudge, the reason is not relevant to this case. We are simply trying to ascertain if Mr. Black is innocent of murdering twelve people and betraying the Potters. You can fine him for one count of being an illegal anamagius later."
"Oh, all right. We'll deal with that later. Now, where was I? Oh yes, why is it you are sure that Pettigrew is the one who betrayed the Potters?"
"No one else could have possibly done that to Lily and James. Peter always was a chicken. When Voldemort (and here the crowd shuddered) started taking over, Peter thought he'd have a better chance working for the other side."
"Can you prove all this?"
The crowd held its breath. "No," came Sirius's quiet reply.
"Then why in Merlin's name are we here?" Fudge exploded.
"Because he may not be able to prove all that he has just said Cornelius, but I can," said Dumbledore rising from his seat and starting down the stairs.
"You Dumbledore?"
"Indeed Cornelius."
"How?"
"I have Peter Pettigrew."
There was a lot of murmuring from the crowd as Dumbledore approached the box sitting on the chair next to Sirius. The old wizard bent down, waved his wand over the box, opened the lid, and pulled out a rat. The crowd began to laugh.
"Have you gone barmy Dumbledore? That's a rat!"
"Indeed it is Cornelius. We're you not listening to a word Mr. Black said? Peter Pettigrew is a rat anamagius…" He let that sink in a moment before turning to the stands. "Minerva, Severus, would you please join us?"
The crowd watched in rapt attention as the two professors made their way down onto the floor. Dumbledore was still holding the unconscious rat in his hand. Sirius was glaring at the rat with everything in him.
"Minerva, would you please transform this rat back into Peter Pettigrew?" The woman nodded, pulled out her wand, aimed at Peter, and fired. There was a flash of white light and suddenly the rat was gone, replace by a short, fat man with watery beady black eyes.
The crowd gasped. Harry heard people nearly yelling, "It's Petigrew!", "Bloody hell!", and "He really is alive!". Then the mood changed, suddenly people weren't impressed. They wanted his blood. He had betrayed the Potters. Given up his best friends to the Dark Lord. He had caused the murder of James and Lily, two widely respected wizarding folk. And because of him, their only son was an orphan.
Harry felt the crowd's anger growing and felt a feeling of satisfaction. The real traitor would be behind bars soon and an innocent man would be freed.
"SILENCE!" Fudge roared. Everyone quieted immediately. Fudge motioned to Dumbledore, "Continue."
Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Severus, will you please administer the Veritaserum?" Snape glided like an over large bat to Pettigrew's hunched form, pried open his mouth, and forced the man to drink the potion.
"State your full name," Fudge commanded.
"Peter Adam Pettigrew."
"Were you the Potter's secret keeper?"
"Yes." The crowd was stunned.
"Did you betray the Potters to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"
"Yes." Harry saw jaws drop. The minister didn't need to hear any more.
"As to the crime of treason, how does the jury find?"
The reply was unanimous. "Guilty."
"As to the crime of fourteen counts of murder (Lily, James, and the twelve muggles), how does the jury find?"
Hard faces all around announced, "Guilty."
"Peter Pettigrew you have committed unforgivable crimes against the Wizarding world. The jury shall decide your fate. Those in favor of a life sentence at Azkaban, raise your hand." Not a single hand raised into the air. Fudge nodded.
"Those who wish him to receive a Dementor's Kiss, raise your hand." All twelve hands went into the air.
"Peter Adam Pettigrew, you are hereby sentenced to be Kissed. At dawn tomorrow morning, you shall meet your dementor. Your fate has been decided. Away with him."
The aurors who had flanked Sirius upon his entry now escorted Peter away from the public trial. The crowd was oddly silent as they watched the man led away. No one wanted to see anyone Kissed, but some things were just unforgivable.
Harry felt a kind of sick satisfaction. He never wanted to be the cause of anyone's death, but if Peter was alive, he was a threat. This way his body would still live, but he would have no soul.
Fudge was talking again and Harry turned to hear was he was saying.
"…hereby pardoned for all crimes he has been accused of. The Ministry will make reparations in the form of 50,000 galleons, a formal apology, and provide him with whatever he needs to begin his life anew. Mr. Black will however be fined 1,000 galleons for being an unregistered anamagius. You will have thirty days to register Mr. Black. If you have not registered in that time, you will spend three months in a minimum security wizarding prison."
"Oh, don't worry." Sirius said. "I'll register." The former prisoner was hugging Remus, tears of joy streaming down his face. "As a matter of fact, Moony old friend, would you care to escort me to the Ministry of Magic right now?"
"I'd be delighted." And the two men disappeared with a crack. Harry grinned and made his way out of the pressing crowd. He headed over to Flourish and Blotts to get some more parchment. He had one more letter to leave Remus.
An hour later, Sirius and Remus appeared in the werewolf's sparsely furnished home.
"I know it's not much, but I don't stay here that often anyways…" Remus said, a little uneasily.
"Moony, after Azkaban, this place seems like the Taj-mahal." The two men grinned and burst out laughing. When Sirius flopped down into a chair at the table, Remus noticed the letter on the floor. Somewhat wary, he picked it up.
"What is it?" Sirius asked, as he watched Remus smile, then grow furious, then smile again.
"A letter from a friend," he said and handed it to Sirius. Sirius uncurled the parchment and began to read.
Moony and Padfoot,
Doesn't it feel great to be free? Thank you Moony for trusting me. As for you Padfoot, I'm just glad you're finally out of that horrible place. Remus, you can show Sirius the other letter if you wish. It won't hurt anything. You two have a second chance now, use it wisely. Miracles only happen once in a life time. Now, there's one more thing you two have to do. Sirius is Harry Potter's Godfather, you need to get the boy away from his relatives. He won't survive much longer if left in their care. You have a chance to save him just as I saved you. Once you have custody of Harry, go see the goblin Griphook at Gringotts. He has a small house on reserve for the three of you. Speak to him, he'll give you the rest of the details. I'll be seeing you two real soon, but for now, I have other things to arrange. Enjoy life, you only get one chance.
Your friend,
Phoenix
Two months and a handful of legal battles later, Sirius Black, his godson Harry Potter, and Remus Lupin moved into the "small" house Griphook had on reserve for them (as per Harry's orders of course).
Harry thought the goblins should get a dictionary and look up the word small because this wasn't it. The house was old fashioned, but well kept. With two stories plus a basement, six bedrooms, four bathrooms, kitchen, living and family rooms, den, and a library, this house was a veritable mansion.
All three absolutely loved it. What Harry liked even more was that he lived across the street and exactly two houses down from Hermione. He couldn't wait to "meet" her.
"Well boys, best get started. If we use magic, we can be finished in about an hour. What do you say?" Sirius asked.
The older men had, of course, told Harry all about his lineage and his abilities on the second day of his official stay with them. The hardest part for Harry had been pretending to be surprised.
Harry loved living with Sirius and Remus, but sometimes he forgot to act like the four year old he was and said something worthy of his seventeen year old mind which had been tutored by Hermione for six years.
When this happened the two older men would stare at him and Harry would try to cover up by saying something stupid. He didn't think he could keep up the charade much longer. Moony and Padfoot were becoming more suspicious by the day and it was taking up a considerable portion of Harry's mental capabilities to stay three steps ahead of them at all times.
Author's note: Okay, what do you guys think? This is your last chance at the prophesy. Have you gotten it yet? Don't you love a good riddle? Alright, for those of you still frustrated, here's the final clue. Clue # 4: "flower", "dark", and "hope" are all references to specific people…. Well, that's it. Hope you're having fun trying to figure it out. If you still don't get it, don't worry, the answer is coming up in the next chapter.