Alisha: Thank you for taking the time to review my story! I'm glad you're enjoying Kingsley's POV.

XXXXX

After this chapter there will be one more (which I will hopefully post next week) then this story will be all done! Enjoy!

XXXXX

When Kingsley finally got home, several hours after dawn had broken, Remus' rambling words and Dumbledore's calm explanation were still tugging at the auror's conscience. The Minister was furious at Black's escape and refused to even listen to Dumbledore's insistence that an innocent man had spent twelve years in Azkaban.

Wearily, he climbed the stairs and pushed open the bedroom door. He paused at the door, staring blearily at the jacket hanging up on the back of a nearby chair. It was Sandra's, she'd left it the last time she was here and he'd intended to return it earlier this evening but had instead been called away to Hogwarts.

It was an effort of will to close the door behind him and head towards the bed instead of grabbing the jacket and using it as an excuse to go and see Sandra. He wanted to see her, to see someone and talk through the night he'd just had, but turning up on her doorstep unannounced at 8am on a school day, in the middle of the morning rush, would not get him a sympathetic ear. He wanted someone to help him make sense of it all, to help him find the truth, to… damn it! He wanted to know whether the man he was chasing was innocent! He wanted to know if a murderer had been hiding under their noses for years! He wanted…

He wanted it to be true.

That was crux of the matter; he wanted Sirius to be innocent. Not that he wanted an innocent man to have spent so long in Azkaban, but he wanted that laughing boy from his school days to have grown into a hero and not a traitor. He wanted Remus' faith in people to be restored. He wanted Harry to have a godfather who cared. He wanted to believe that even the darkest of families could produce a good person. He wanted it to be true, but he couldn't let anyone at work know that; they'd have him off the case faster than you could blink if they found out. He needed to stay where he was, needed to make sure that if Sirius was caught then he was the one to do it, so that he could do his best to ensure Sirius would have a chance of a fair trial, but first he needed to know the truth.

He sighed and started to shrug off his robes. He needed the truth, yes, but first he needed sleep. The truth could wait until tomorrow.

XXXXX

As it turned out, the truth had to wait another three days before it could be indulged. The Wizarding World was in an uproar over Black's capture and subsequent escape. Kingsley found himself in the middle of a media storm. The Daily Prophet (and Rita Skeeter in particular) were having a field day. Scathing article followed scathing article alongside a liberal helping of panic and fear-mongering. What made it all the more frustrating was that Kingsley was now reasonably sure that Sirius didn't actually pose a threat to anyone (unless it was to the apparently not-dead Peter Pettigrew) and especially not to his godson. Unfortunately, that wasn't an opinion Kingsley could risk voicing: The Minister was cracking down hard on anyone who even suggested it might… possibly… be worth… maybe… at least listening… to what Hogwart's Headmaster (one of the greatest living wizards, defeater of Grindewald and the only person You-Know-Who was afraid of) had to say…?

Instead Kingsley had played along with the concerned faces and the contrite expressions. He had increased patrols and put everyone on double shifts, and eventually, after three days, he had managed to come up with an excuse to go and visit Remus Lupin…

Kingsley's knock on the door of the tiny cottage went unanswered for a long moment, during which, the auror thought he heard a short, frantic conversation within the cottage. He sighed inwardly; he didn't want to find Sirius here. He'd have to arrest both the escapee and Remus… Well, if Sirius was here then Kingsley could only hope that the convict continued to be as capable at hiding as he had been all year.

"Rough night?" Kingsley asked when an exhausted and ill looking werewolf finally answered the door. He was slightly surprised at Remus' current condition; the full moon had been three days ago so the man in front of him should have been mostly recovered from that ordeal, which meant something else had to be the cause of Remus' apparent discomposure.

"Drowning my sorrows." Remus replied simply, waving him into the kitchen and not looking at the empty bottle of fire-whisky on the kitchen table. Kingsley determinedly didn't notice that there were not one but two glasses next to the empty bottle. He was also determinedly resisting the urge to look under the kitchen table, where he was pretty sure there was a large black dog hiding beneath the tablecloth.

There was a long moment of silence as Kingsley stared intently at the hung-over, but still surprisingly alert, werewolf. Remus stared back at him defiantly. Finally Kingsley couldn't take it anymore. "Is it true?" He demanded.

"Is what true?" Remus asked calmly and cautiously.

Kingsley gave the man a look. "What young Mr Potter and his friends are saying, what the Minister is insisting that nobody repeats to anyone, especially not to the press." Remus remained silent, which frustrated the auror as he knew the other man knew what he was talking about. "Is he innocent?" He asked, the smallest hint of exasperation tinting his famously calm voice.

"I've already told you. Would saying it again make you believe me?"

Kingsley studied the man in front of him; saw the slight lightness about him and the hint of a smile on his face. He looked like someone who had had a great burden lifted from his shoulders and the auror knew that if nothing else Remus truly believed that Sirius was innocent. He felt his shoulders slump slightly as some of the tension drained out of them; Remus wouldn't believe it without a reason; without a good reason. This man had already lost all his friends to betrayal once and though some might argue that would make him even more likely to believe any story that would return one of his friends to him, Kingsley knew that the opposite was true. This man had lost too many people close to him to risk it happening again.

"Why didn't you tell me Sirius was an animagus?"

Remus visibly winced at that question, despite the lack of accusation in Kingsley calm voice. "I almost did…" He said quietly. "But, I was scared and ashamed. Albus Dumbledore gave me so much; a place at Hogwarts, his trust… I was ashamed to have betrayed that trust and put other students in danger."

Kingsley didn't say anything for a long while but eventually gave a single nod. "Though, I hope next time you'll put Harry's life ahead of your pride."

Remus flinched but nodded. "I hope there won't be a next time." He muttered.

"So do I." Kingsley agreed with a small smile before turning deadly serious. "You'll be under increased surveillance." He warned. "And if I find Sirius here I'll have to arrest both of you and they'll almost certainly give Sirius the Dementor's kiss without anything even resembling, a trial!"

Remus smiled and nodded. "Thank you." He said simply. Kingsley nodded in reply and then proceeded to show himself out.

XXXXX

Sirius Black crawled out from under the table and collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs, looking even more hung-over than Remus felt.

"You know," Remus commented neutrally. "It would have made more sense to wait until you'd come out from under the table to transform back to human form."

The escaped convict glared at him.

Remus smiled and set about making breakfast, though slowly so as not to make his headache any worse.

"Who was that anyway?" Sirius asked after a moment, his voice muffled from resting his head on the table.

"Kingsley Shacklebot."

There was a long pause as Sirius tried to think through a hangover. "Wasn't he that fourth year with the killer stinging hex?"

"Yes."

"What's he doing here?"

"He's an auror; in charge of finding you."

"Ah." There was another long pause. "He knew I was here?" It wasn't really a question.

"Probably."

Sirius thought about this and went over the conversation again in his head. "I'd best get going. No point pushing my luck." He said standing up wearily.

Remus nodded tiredly. He knew Sirius couldn't stay here no matter how much they wanted to make up for those missing twelve years. "I doubt Kingsley's going to send aurors after you just yet. Stay for breakfast at least." Sirius grinned and sat back down, ready to enjoy his first proper meal in a long time and probably his last for quite a while too.