Chapter 10 – The Dark Lord's Servant

The next morning Harry woke up to Professor McGonagall standing in there room right over him. "Yes Professor?" Harry asked, grabbing for his glasses on his bedside table. "Oh, good your awake, I was just about to get you up. The Headmaster asked me to come get you, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, then take you four up to his office." Professor McGonagall said in a high-pitched voice. She looked very spooked. If Harry hadn't known better he would say she'd seen a ghost for the first time.

"Harry, you, Ginny, and Ron need to get up and get dressed, I will go get miss Granger and meet you down stairs in the common room." Professor McGonagall said as she left the room. Harry woke Ginny and Ron, they got dressed then headed down stairs. "Let's go!" Professor McGonagall said impatiently, the moment she saw them coming down the stairs. She walked them out through the portrait hole. "Where are we going?" Ginny asked, rubbing her eyes.

"The Headmaster has asked me to get the four of you." Professor McGonagall said as they walked down the hall that led to a stone gargoyle. When they got to the gargoyle McGonagall gave the password "lemon drop." The gargoyle came alive and jumped to the side revealing a rotating staircase. They all stepped onto the rotating stairs which moved up to a door with a phoenix door knocker.

Professor McGonagall opened the door which revealed the Headmaster siting behind his desk. Next to him was Professor Lupin. Cornelius Fudge could just be seen standing next to the fire place. "Come in and have a seat." The Head master said. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walked over to where four seats had been set up for them and sat down.

"You are probably wondering why I have asked you all here." Dumbledore said, looking at all of them. "Yes, I am." Fudge said, walking in front of the desk now so everyone could see him. "I'm very busy looking for the mad man Black." Fudge continued before Dumbledore could answer. "Of course, you are very busy, but I have found evidence that Sirius Black was not involved with the murder of those 13 people that night. It was in fact Peter Pettigrew." Dumbledore said waving Professor Lupin over. "Now how can that be? Black killed Pettigrew that night he killed the muggles." Fudge said, taking a seat in a chair next to Harry. "Professor, why are we here?" Harry asked before anyone could say another word.

"Well Harry, it will all make sense as we talk." Professor Dumbledore said as Professor Lupin placed the cage that Ron's rat was in. "That's Scabbers!" Ron yelled without realizing what he had done. "Yes, Ron, that is you rat. Except he's not a rat, he's an unregistered Animagus." Professor Lupin said stepping back behind the Head Master. "That is preposterous, we at the Ministry keep very good record of all Animagus in the country." "Well I must inform you that when I was at school there were 3 students in my class that became Animagus, but they didn't register." Lupin said. "What!? That can't be! Anyone who becomes an animagi must register." Fudge replied, getting hot under the collar.

"Well as it has happened, it's all my fault." Professor Lupin said, looking down. "Well, who were they?" Fudge asked, looking a little red. "They were my three best friends, James, Sirius, and Peter." He said looking at the Headmaster with apologetic eyes. "But why did they become Animagi?" Asked Fudge, looking at Professor Lupin now.

"It's because they wanted to spend time with you on the days you turn into a werewolf." Hermione answered without even meaning to. Everyone looked at her. "Let me guess, you figured it out because of Professor Snape's essay." Lupin said with a sigh, walking over to her. "Yes, I didn't mean to yell that out." Hermione said looking a little embarrassed. "It's ok, I was hoping that the students would figure it out." He said, kneeling down in front of Hermione and held out his arms so she could get a hug from him. Hermione gave him a hug.

"So where is Black?" Fudge asked, looking at the rat now. "He is not the rat." Professor Lupin said, standing up and walking back to where he was before Hermione said anything. "Then who is that?" Fudge replied. "That is Peter Pettigrew, the real man behind the death of those 12 muggles that night." Lupin said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Scabbers who started to run around the cage squealing. "Don't hurt him!" Ron yelled jumping up. "I'm just going to turn him human again." Professor Lupin said, as a blue light formed around Scabbers.

The cage changed shape so it could hold a full-size man, Scabbers started changing into a small balding man. It looked like he had been a rat for too long. His eyes were small and watery and he seemed to hunch over his hands running over his nose. he had some features that made it seem like he had been a rat for a long time. Fudge gasped then said, "This cannot be, he was killed by Black 12 years ago." "Harry, this is the man who told you-know-who where your family was." Lupin said, still pointing his wand at Peter. "This man? But why?" Harry asked.

"After I had suggested myself as secret keeper for your family, your father said Sirius would do it. It seems sometime after I left, Peter offered to be keeper. So, when it was done he turned them in to Voldemort." Professor Dumbledore said. Everyone but Harry flinched at the name. "What do you have to say for yourself Peter?" Professor Lupin asked. "It was not me." Peter said in a pathetic squeaky voice. All of a sudden, a big black dog walked in and Peter started to scream. The dog turned into a man. "You betrayed your friends! I'll go back to Azkaban after I do what I was sent there for." Sirius yelled, pulling out a wand.

"Sirius don't, hand that wand to Harry and have a seat. It's Harry that has the right to decide Pettigrew's fate." Dumbledore said. Sirius looked to Dumbledore then to Harry. With a low growl Sirius handed Harry the wand then sat in the floor. "Now Harry, because you're the last living descendent of your family, you have the right to decide his fate." The headmaster said. "That's right. But, as the minister, I have the right to take that right away." Fudge said. "That is your right, but I think you should at least hear what Harry thinks should be done with him." Dumbledore said.

"Alright, Harry what do you think I should do." Fudge asked begrudgingly, turning to look at Harry. Harry looked at the man in the cage, his tiny watery eyes wide with fear, shivering. Then Harry looked at Ginny. He knew what she would want, to let Pettigrew live. Harry looked at Sirius, he could tell by the look in the man's gaunt face he wanted Pettigrew dead. But what did Harry want? Could he really sentence someone to death? After a minute, he finally spoke and all eyes turned to him. "He should go to Azkaban." Sirius looked angry and hurt.

"Well, that's what I was thinking." Fudge said standing up at walking over to the cage. "I do have one request." Dumbledore said. "And what would be that Dumbledore?" Fudge asked, looking at him. "I do believe that Black has served his time for being an unregistered animagi, so I ask you let him be the godfather to Harry like James and Lilly wanted." Professor Dumbledore said siting straighter in his chair.

Fudge looked at Sirius Black siting rather like a dog and said, "Well, as long as he does what he has to, which is to register as an Animagus, I don't see any trouble with it" Fudge said imperiously. Sirius Black looked up at Fudge then looked at Harry. "You're my godfather?" Harry asked Sirius, disbelief in his voice. "I think that's something to talk about later." Professor Dumbledore said. "Your right Professor." Harry said, still looking at the man on the floor next to him, he looked like he was all skin and bone. "Please, let me go or just kill me. If I am seen in Azkaban I will be tortured." Peter begged on his knees inside the cage. Fudge walked over to the fire place and threw floo powder into the fire place, the fire turned an emerald green immediately. Fudge walked into the flames and vanished.

When Fudge came back he was not alone. He had two aurors with him. "Take that man in the cage to Azkaban." Fudge ordered the other two.

"No! No! Please No!" Pettigrew wailed. When he got no sympathy from the others he looked around panting. Then he looked right at Sirius and smiled wide. He turned back into a rat and in a split second manage do wiggle out of the cage before it could close around him. Both the aurors took out their wands and yelled "Stupefy!" Red jets of lights flew out of their wands. The first jet missed, burning the floor, but the second one hit him square in the center of his back. Pettigrew immediately seized up, his momentum carrying him a few feet further. The Auror that managed to hit him walked over and picked the rat up by its tail. "Pitiful creature." He murmured in contempt. Both of the aurors walked back the fireplace and used floo powder once again to go back to where they came from.

Fudge placed a piece of parchment on the Headmasters desk. "This must be for you Sirius." Dumbledore said, picking it up and reading it as Fudge left the office without saying anything. "So, I guess this means you will have the dementors removed from my school." Dumbledore said casually as Fudge placed a hand on the door to leave. Harry noticed for just a second Fudged tensed. "Yes, I will do that now." Fudge replied as he left the office.

"Sirius, why don't you and Harry go and talk about who you are to him." Dumbledore said, pointing his wand at his office door which opened. Sirius Black and Harry walked out the door. "So, Harry, you are probably wondering who I am. I was your fathers best man at his wedding." Black said as they walked down the spiral stairs.

"So, you were my dad's best friend?" Harry asked, as they walked down the hall, the sun has not yet started to rise. "Yes, your mother and father made me your godfather in case anything happened to them." Sirius said as they made their way down to the front doors.

"So, you're like my dad now?" Harry asked as they still walked. "Not a new dad, but I'm someone who will keep an eye on you and make sure you are safe. And maybe when I get a place to stay that's safe you could come live with me if you like." Sirius said as they sat under a tree next to the lake. "That would be nice." Harry said, thinking about how someday soon he would not have to stay with the Dursleys anymore.

"I will be talking to the Headmaster about helping me get a room down in Hogsmeade so that I can be here for you this year." he said, looking back to the school seeing the other students coming down towards them.

"Harry." Ginny yelled jumping onto him. "Sirius, this is my girlfriend Ginny and these are my friends Ron and Hermione." Harry said, sitting back up. "It's nice to meet you." Sirius replied. "The Headmaster asked us to come get you Sirius and send you up to his office, and Harry it's time for us to go to breakfast." Hermione said, helping Harry and Ginny to their feet.

They walked back to the school and when they got up the marble stair case Sirius Black headed for the Headmaster's office and the four of them went into the Great Hall for breakfast.

TBC…

I hope you all liked the chapter it was a pain in the butt. I have been working hard on this chapter but for the longest time it did not seem right but I think I have finally got it done the way I think it should be. Remember if you have any suggestions to send me a private message and if I take your idea I'll give you credit, if you want to remain anonymous just say so. (GD)