Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or places in this story they all belong to J K Rowling

A/N: Set during and after Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince. Most people thought Sirius Black died that day in the ministry of magic, but the whole story was not told. Sirius Black lived and this is his tale. Sort of a prelude to my Harry Potter stories, picking up where J K Rowling left it and telling how Voldemort was defeated and the series ends. Written from Sirius' point of view.

08 – June – Ministry of Magic

"All who wish Sirius Black to be cleared of all charges and Peter Pettigrew charged for the murder of thirteen people raise their hands" Scrimegour said, hands raised around me, I did a quick count over half of the jury had their hand raised, I thought I even saw some people raising two hands. My heart leapt. I was free!

"Majority ruled, Peter Pettigrew you are charged for the murder of thirteen people, you are hereby sentenced to life in Azkaban… Yes Black?" he asked as I raised my hand grinning.

"Just wanted to make sure you knew it's twelve people, it was thirteen for me because you thought I killed him as well, but he's obviously still alive and so am I," I said and many people laughed at the Minister's mistake, it felt so great to be in a position to taunt the Minister for Magic publicly, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

"Hem... well ok then twelve people, Sirius Black you are free to go, although you are hereby ordered to register yourself as an animagi, we won't press charges because of the false imprisonment however it is imperative that you do so," Scrimegour said and I shrugged, it was a small price to pay for my freedom I thought.

"Can I go now then?" I asked impatient to be out, I knew that there was a crowd of people outside anxious to here what had happened.

"If you must, take the prisoner away," he said dismissing me; I almost ran to the door a grin plastered to my face, I was so happy. I pulled open the door to reveal a huge crowd of people holding extendable ears, including Molly Weasley although she didn't look to happy about using them.

"What'd you hear?" I asked trying to keep a straight face, Remus sighed tugging on his just like Fred and George.

"Not a thing, they put charms on the door which meant we couldn't hear anything," George said as he collected them in from the people around them. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"They had to clear you right? I mean Pettigrew confessed didn't he, they did clear you right?" Hermione said nervously and Ron put his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder.

"Would he be here if he wasn't cleared?" he asked her and she shrugged.

"Cleared of all charges, and a formal apology in the way of not charging for being an unregistered animagi, plus I got to publicly humiliate the Minister for Magic." I laughed and everyone started to congratulate me, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny started to sing 'He got off' just as they had when Harry was cleared for using magic in front of his muggle cousin.

"Come on party at the Burrow!" Molly said grinning, but Remus and Tonks refused saying they wanted to show off their new flat, so it was party at Remus and Tonks'. We all walked up to the main entrance where we got ready to apparate out, Ginny was going with her father, seeing as she hadn't passed her test and he needed someone to go with him now he was in a wheelchair.

"Hey guy's can we take the scenic route?" I asked and everyone laughed as we apparated out.