A/N: I am aware that Rowling has finally made it known that Sirius' birthday is on November 3rd 1959, but I will not be following that now 'canon' act for two reasons.

First of all, I've been working on this series for over two years now and as I've set his birthday on April 4th 1960, it would mess up the entire storyline so I've decided to keep his birthday on that date.

Secondly; I have always seen Sirius as the youngest of the Marauders. The way he talks about James sounds like a guy who adores his big brother and the way he listened to Remus in both PoA and OotP always made me feel he was just that tiny bit younger.

I am aware I might be alone in that, but it just feels right to me that he is younger, no matter what Rowling might have decided.

My apologies if you dislike me doing so, but I've found myself disagreeing with a lot of Rowling's decisions (James' parents for example...honestly?) and it is called fanfiction for a reason.

Chapter 21

"Welcome back, Professor!" several voices called out in greeting as Sirius opened the Defence classroom late in the morning the next day.

"Good morning, class," Sirius smiled as he moved inside, not paying any mind to the gasps of the students as he was followed in before closing the door.

"Is that a Patronus, sir?" Dean asked awed as a silver wolf leaped onto the desk to curl up there beside Sirius when he pulled himself up to the desk as well.

"Yeah it is," Sirius confirmed as he ran a hand over the wolf's head.

"What is it doing here? It is yours?" Lavender asked as they all smiled at the affectionate lick the wolf gave their Professor's hand in return.

"He is Professor Lupin's, not mine and he is here because his master is an overprotective mother hen," Sirius chuckled at their surprised faces. "I'm not supposed to use much magic at the moment so Professor Lupin ordered his Patronus to keep me company and protect me if for whatever reason it should be needed."

"You aren't supposed to use magic? Why not?" Dean frowned confused.

"Because I'm still on several potions a day at the moment and it is not wise to use magic in such a situation as it can influence your ability to use and control your magic properly."

"So you are unable to use spells?" Ron asked.

"Oh I can use spells, but because my mind is clouded right now it is unwise to do so. I could accidentally hurt people because my normal control is slipping."

"But how will you teach us then?" Ron continued with a frown.

"I'm not, Harry is. Before the Christmas holidays started he told the DA members he'd start on some big stuff, most of which you've already learned by now. Except for one thing," he paused for dramatic effects as everyone leaned forward curiously, before gesturing at the Patronus wolf beside him. "The Patronus Charm."

A cheer went through the classroom.

"Now, who can tell me what a Patronus truly is?"

"A Patronus is a projection of your most positive feelings and the only defence there is against Dementors," Lavender answered.

"And Lethifolds," Sirius nodded.

"A what?" Parvati blinked.

"Lethifolds. Creatures that kind of look like a rippling black cloak that seems to float just above the ground. They are assumed to be related to the Dementors. Lethifolds attack people at night when they are asleep and devour them alive. There is no other defence against them than a Patronus," Sirius shuddered.

"Have you ever seen one?" Dean asked curiously about his reaction.

"They are very rare and only live in the tropics as far as it's known as they can't stand the cold. So of course I was unlucky enough to come across one while hiding in Puerto Rico."

"Why were you hiding in Porto Rico?" Ron asked while the others all winced.

"Because I had the crazy idea that Dementors didn't like hot weather," Sirius admitted easily, to the amusement of the students.

"And did they?" Seamus asked with morbid curiosity.

"They didn't seem bothered by it, their mere presence destroys any bit of light there is around them," Sirius shivered, looking a bit lost in thoughts for a moment before he visibly shook himself.

"Anyway, Patronuses. The Patronus Charm is extremely difficult to learn and not many are capable of forming a fully corporeal Patronus. Even being able to create a non-corporeal one is generally considered amazing."

"What's the difference between a corporeal and a non-corporeal Patronus?" Ron frowned.

"A non-corporeal Patronus usually looks like a burst of silvery smoke while a corporeal one takes the shape of an animal."

"Do all Patronuses look the same or can you choose what it looks like?" Dean asked.

"A Patronus usually takes the shape of the animal which whom you share the deepest affinity. Because you use the strongest and happiest memories you have to perform the charm it is possible that your Patronus might change when you fall in love or go through a very emotional event. But you cannot consciously choose what form your Patronus will end up being," Sirius answered. "The only indication to what your Patronus might be is if you've found your Animagus form, they are usually the same form."

"Do you have a corporeal Patronus, Sir?" Lavender' couldn't keep her eyes from the wolf at his side.

"I do, my Patronus has always been a stag."

"But your Animagus form is a dog!" Ron exclaimed.

"I did say usually, though I admit that I don't know of many Animagi, and the ones that are registered and known to also know the Patronus Charm have been recorded to match. So it could just be me," Sirius shrugged.

"So your Patronus matches Harry's?" Dean asked interested.

"Technically his father's, but basically yes," Sirius nodded.

"Wicked," Seamus grinned before looking at the wolf Patronus, who was resting his head on Sirius' thigh now. "And Professor Lupin's Patronus is a wolf because he is a werewolf?"

"We think it might be," Sirius agreed before nodding to Harry.

"All right, let's move everything aside so we can get started," Harry ordered as he rose, the other students immediately doing as he asked as Sirius made himself comfortable to keep watch and call out a few pointers to the students when needed.

After a chaotic but interesting double lesson they all fell down to the ground, too exhausted to return the tables back just yet.

Seamus huffed out a tired breath. "To think I could have missed this because I was an arrogant sod."

"Well, you realised you were and apologised," Harry shrugged from his own place on the floor, his back resting against his godfather's legs.

Seamus nodded, looking serious. "I should have believed you from the start. I knew you weren't one to lie."

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Dean turned to him.

"I don't know, the thought just crossed my mind," Seamus shrugged.

"I would have expected happier thoughts to be running through your head right now," Sirius chuckled as he leaned forward to brush a hand through Harry's hair automatically, messing it up even more.

"Can't help what I'm thinking," Seamus didn't look the least bit apologetic, making Sirius smile.

"True. Well, you're all doing very well and I suspect that in a lesson or two you'll have come further than most witches and wizards have gotten in their entire lives," he complimented them.

"That's because we have much better teachers than they had!" Parvati laughed.

"Who taught you, Sir?" Dean asked as they began to straighten from their slumped positions.

"Books and self study. Professor Lupin, Harry's father and I learned most of what we know from researching things in our spare time," Sirius answered.

Ron suddenly groaned. "Hermione's going to be pissed she missed this lesson."

"Probably. Especially when she learns that all the fifth years and up are going to be taught the charm as well," Sirius smiled wickedly.

"But how will you teach them if you aren't supposed to use magic?" Lavender asked worriedly.

"I won't start their lessons until I'm off the potions and even then I'll have my assistant help me out with those classes."

"I feel sorry for Neville though, he's missing a lot," Dean sighed.

"Don't worry, Neville already had a head start at this charm with Luna and they'll continue them when he returns next week," Sirius promised.

"That's good to hear. Will you tell us why he's not at school?" Lavender asked, bashing her lashes overly dramatically at him in an attempt to get an answer.

"Not my place to tell," Sirius only laughed, used to her playful tricks by now and sticking out his tongue as she pouted, making her laugh, too.

"But he is all right though?" Dean asked.

"He is perfectly fine, just spending some time with his family," Sirius answered patiently, having been warned by Harry in advance after his godson had been bombarded with questions at the dinner table the night before when Neville had failed to return.

Accepting that answer the students pushed themselves from the ground before restoring the classroom to its normal settings as the bell rang.

"Well, that concludes today's lesson. Shall we make our way to the Potions classroom?" Sirius suggested with a smile as he slipped from the desk, the Patronus wolf flanking him.

"Professor Lupin truly is overprotective, isn't he?" Dean laughed at the animal's behaviour.

"He's not the only one," Sirius commented as Harry picked up his bag when he reached for it.

"Shush, I get to be overprotective for now," Harry grinned as Sirius shook his head, letting him do as he wished.

"Better listen to him, Professor, Harry can be very stubborn when he wants to be," Seamus chuckled.

"Don't I know it?" Sirius mumbled.

"I do wonder who I inherited that from," Harry grinned at him mischievously, laughing when Sirius swatted at his arm half-heartedly before they left the classroom, stopping when the Patronus wolf suddenly vanished from his side.

But before he could react a different Patronus appeared in the hallway.

"Sirius, we need you at the Ministry right now!" Kingsley's deep voice silenced any sound the Gryffindors had been making as they stared at the Lynx in shock as it vanished again.

Sirius turned to Lavender "Could you tell the Slytherins that Potions has been cancelled?"

"Of course," Lavender immediately agreed.

"Dobby!" Sirius turned to Harry. "I don't know what is going on, so I want you to stay on guard and do whatever is needed to protect yourself."

"You're not going to try and stop me from coming with you?" Harry asked surprised as the little elf appeared before them immediately.

"Would you stay put if I asked?" Sirius asked turning to Dobby as Harry shook his head.

"Take us to Kingsley."

The Elf nodded and with a big bang they disappeared from the school, appearing in the middle of a courtroom.

Harry raised his wand, quickly taking in his surroundings upon arrival even as he knew their House Elf friend would never have let go of him if it wasn't safe enough.

The courtroom appeared to be in chaos as they arrived in the middle of it and Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting, but this wasn't it.

Aurors were everywhere, ushering the last of a crowd away and the stale scent of blood filled Harry's nostrils, making him gag. Quickly turning away from it he spotted Tonks as she was with several other Aurors and appeared to be trying to hold someone down and failing miserably.

"What's going on here?" Sirius' voice rang through the courtroom as he strode towards the group of Aurors. "Release him."

"Sirius," Tonks breathed out as she quickly stepped towards him to intercept him.

"He's out of control, we can't... she broke off as Sirius' brushed past her without even acknowledging she had spoken and the surrounding Aurors immediately scrambled aside as he approached, giving Harry a clear view of what they were doing.

Gasping, he realised Remus was being held down by five Aurors, but even their combined body binds were not enough to keep the clearly enraged werewolf down completely as he visibly struggled against the invisible bonds, almost succeeding in freeing himself despite their constant recasting and holding him down personally as well.

"Release him," Sirius growled.

"He is dangerous, he could have harmed us. He rip..." one of the Aurors stammered as he caught sight of him and they all scrambled back from Remus at Sirius' enraged expression.

"I will do more than rip a body part off if you do not release the spells on him this instant," Sirius spat out and the Aurors all flinched, backing up at the anger in the Marauder's voice.

Sirius swiftly disarmed all of them even as they backed up, the spells holding Remus immediately vanishing and he stumbled at the sudden lack of resistance as he tried to get up.

"I'll kill him," he growled as he struggled to his feet.

"You aren't killing anyone today, not until you've calmed down," Sirius said while still approaching.

It would have been comical to see how fast Remus' head snapped to his best friend as he realised he was there, and the Aurors tensed even more.

But Remus knocked the ones in his path aside to slam into Sirius, knocking the breath out of him and ending up having to lift him off his feet to prevent them both from being overbalanced.

"He knew," he whispered as he buried his face against Sirius´ neck once he'd steadied him and clung to him.

"Who knew what?" Sirius asked, calmly wrapping his arms around his friend in return, letting him pull him close and ignoring the Aurors gaping at them in shock at the ease with which Sirius handled the angry werewolf.

"Dumbledore. He...he knew you were innocent from the start. He testified under Veritaserum that James contacted him three days before their deaths to inform him of the switch as a back up security to protect you should things go wrong. He's known from the beginning and made sure you wouldn't receive a trial upon being arrested!" Remus choked out as he tightened his hold on Sirius.

"What?" Harry choked out, not believing what he was hearing even as Sirius asked a completely different question.

"Why? What would he gain from me being locked up?"

"He knew you would become Harry's rightful guardian on the event of their deaths and that You-Know-Who wasn't truly gone forever. He knew that Harry would be seen as a hero and that he would need to use him for the greater good of things, something you would never let happen as you were far too protective of him," McGonagall answered as Remus shook his head, unable to continue and Harry swirled around, surprised to see her and Kingsley having approached without him noticing.

"He knew that you wouldn't see things the way he did and that you would keep Harry away from him. He refused to let you interfere with his plans like that, so he gave a false testimony to incriminate you, to get you out of his way."

Harry wasn't sure what to have expected to come forward at the trial, but he would never have suspected that Dumbledore had been aware of Sirius' innocence and had ensured he'd be imprisoned. Was it true that Harry was the real reason why Sirius had been left to rot in Azkaban?

He glanced at his godfather with his heart hammering in his throat, surprised to find him looking back at him with a raised eyebrow that clearly told him to stop thinking stupid thoughts.

Moving forward he rested his hand on Sirius', knowing the man would want him close but needing to be there for Remus too. He was proven right when fingers curled around his immediately and knew it was his godfather's silent way to let him know he didn't hold him responsible for what had happened. In his eyes he could easily read that there was only one person to blame and Harry breathed out relieved, leaning against his godfather's side.

"Dumbledore knew that the three of you hadn't told Remus of the switch to keep him safe and used that to raise doubt to your possible innocence. He had everything planned, from having Hagrid pick up Harry from Godric's Hollow to your arrest. He was aware that by ensuring you wouldn't be able to look after Harry you would go after Pettigrew and hoped you would kill him as he knew he was the spy," Kingsley trailed off.

"But upon arriving at the street you were arrested in, he knew that you hadn't been responsible since you would never have let innocents be caught in the middle, not even when out of your mind with grief. But the Ministry workers didn't see that logic and he saw the perfect chance to get you out of the way without too much trouble. He planted doubt in the people that might have believed in your innocence, like Remus, Alastor and me, using your disappearances during what were secret missions to plant doubt in them and backed Crouch up when he wanted to toss you into Azkaban immediately without awaiting a trial," McGonagall sighed.

Sirius gave a small nod, his expression completely closed off as he softly rubbed Remus' back with his free hand almost unconsciously while the one tangled with Harry's squeezed slightly.

"Is that why he didn't arrange a trial once I learned of his innocence?" Harry asked softly once he realised Sirius wasn't going to ask the question.

"Yes. He realised that even though you'd been separated for twelve years, the bonds between you were impossibly strong again in mere moments after being reunited. He knew that he had to keep Sirius separated from you so that he'd be unable to take control and thwart his plans. Claiming that he couldn't give him a trial would force him to keep his distance to protect you both and to keep Remus from becoming a suspected fugitive harbourer," McGonagall nodded.

Sirius stared at her from Remus' embrace, taking a slow and deep breath as he was processing all he was hearing.

"He condemned you to that hell knowing what would happen," Remus whispered as he finally seemed to get a control on his anger and loosened his grip, though not completely.

"He knew what was happening in Azkaban and did nothing to stop it," McGonagall clarified as Sirius looked confused.

"Is that why you ripped his arm off?"

Harry blinked, not immediately registering the words as his godfather seemed too calm at the new knowledge.

"Wait...ripped...whose arm?" Harry felt stupid for asking but he didn't understand.

"He ripped Dumbledore's arm off," Tonks explained, coming out of her stupor as she nodded towards a spot where a large puddle of blood rested. "The trial was over and Dumbledore was being led away when Remus managed to break through the line of Aurors and attacked him."

"I should have ripped his throat out," Remus spat out angrily, his clenched fists shaking.

"No, you shouldn't have," Sirius said softly, brushing his hand over Remus´ cheek to try and calm him down again.

"Why not?!"

"Because he is not worth leaving us behind for," Sirius shrugged as Remus stared at him for a long moment before nodding, pulling him into another hug and taking a deep breath that Harry was sure allowed him to inhale Sirius' comforting and familiar scent to help ground him further.

Separating again after a long moment, Remus slipped a hand into Sirius' as the man turned to Amelia Bones, who Harry hadn't even realised was present but was approaching them now as well.

"What consequences will this have?"

"He will need to pay a fine for disrupting court like that," she hesitated before looking at Kingsley. "But other than that I think his reaction under the circumstances was to be expected."

"Yes, I would have tried the same thing if it had been one of my loved ones Dumbledore had done that to," Kingsley admitted. "The Wizengamot will understand and probably not take more action, considering your reasons for attacking him. And paying the fine without complaint will satisfy those that might complain a little."

Sirius nodded. "I'll pay the fine."

"Siri, I did this," Remus objected.

"You were only here because of me so I should pay the fine," Sirius waved his objection off.

Remus sighed before relenting, surprising the Aurors once more into openly staring at them as Remus rested his forehead against Sirius´ shoulder.

Harry couldn't stop a small smile from spreading over his lips at their shock as Sirius simply reached back so brush a hand over Remus' head affectionately.

"Sirius..." Tonks stepped forward and reached out to catch Sirius' attention, but before her hand could make contact with Sirius' sleeve, Remus suddenly slammed his palm into her chest, forcefully pushing her back.

With a feral growl he pulled Sirius protectively against his side as Tonks tripped over her own two feet and landed hard onto her behind a few feet away.

The other Aurors scrambled further backwards as Sirius warningly rose his wand while allowing Remus to pull him closer.

"What's your problem?" Tonks bit out angrily, wincing and out of breath as she sat up again.

Harry winced at the pain in her voice, aware Remus was still agitated and would not take kindly to anyone trying to come near Sirius right now, nor be holding back his superior strength while protecting him.

"Don't you dare touch him," Remus growled, anger clearly taking over again as he possessively tightened his arm around Sirius' waist even as the other turned in his hold.

"Honestly, Tonks. I would have thought an Auror would be wise enough to realise it is not smart to reach out to the pack mate of an already agitated werewolf," McGonagall shook her head disapproving as she, Kingsley and Madam Bones had stepped back as one when Tonks had come too close. "Especially when it is known he is overly protective of his mate on even a good day."

Tonks' eyes weren't the only ones who widened and Harry bit back a grin at the blatant assumption that the two were lovers, something Sirius didn't make any better by having pulled Remus' trembling form against him as the other held onto him tightly.

"Professor M, could you keep Harry with you? I'll be taking Remus out so he can get rid of this anger."

"I'm not leaving you," Harry protested, aware that he might be standing too close to Sirius for Remus' current state of mind, but the man made no indication of being bothered by his direct presence, even when he'd been touching Sirius.

Watching as Sirius pushed Remus' face into his shoulder, he knew his godfather was trying to calm Remus by surrounding as many of his senses with his own familiar scent as they both knew it comforted Remus.

"Yes you are. I want you to stay with McGonagall and help her evacuate Grimmauld Place," Sirius said as he looked at Harry over Remus' shoulder.

"Evacuate...why?" Harry blinked.

"Just a precaution. The best way for him to blow off steam is by destroying something. What better to take your anger out at than that place."

"We will," McGonagall promised as she reached out to pull Harry back by his sleeve, taking care not to move into Sirius' direction and although Harry wanted to protest, he knew it wasn't smart to stay with Sirius right now.

Remus would never hurt Sirius on purpose, but his godfather would still need all of his attention to ensure he'd not hurt either of them accidentally, especially when Sirius was still injured. If Harry went with them, his surrogate uncle would remain tense and on edge and they'd both risk hurting themselves in their attempt to keep him safe.

"Be careful," he allowed himself to be pulled backward, surprised when Remus tensed as he moved back, but Sirius seemed to anticipate it and placed a hand on Remus' cheek to keep him focused on him.

"Professor M is going to look after our boy so we can go blow off some of that anger. Want to go blow something we both hate up?" Sirius reassured him softly, pulling back slightly to locate the little elf that had stayed out of the way the entire time but hadn't left.

"Dobby?"

The small elf wordlessly moved forward, placing a hand on Harry's and McGonagall's arms to Apparate them both to just outside of number twelve Grimmauld Place so they could begin evacuating the street before the elf returned to Apparate Sirius and Remus to the house.

Leaving the Aurors staring at the spot they just vacated dumbstruck before Kingsley and Amelia Bones put them into action to assemble and travel to Grimmauld Place to go assist Harry and Minerva in evacuating the street.