A/N – Good news people, I can finally give you a definite number of chapters this story will have. I now only have the epilogue to write and when I do that will put this story at 36 chapters in total, so the end is fast approaching.
Trapped in Azkaban, Sirius Black was left with a lot of time on his hands, and the opportunity to see certain matters in a new light. Thanks to the papers he was allowed daily, he knew everything that had happened in the wizarding world since his incarceration, and he had his own theories on who was to blame for the fact the Order's lives had been torn apart so brutally.
When he'd first arrived in Azkaban, Sirius had been sure that it had been a genuine mistake and he would soon be freed. After all, he'd done nothing wrong and the crime he'd been arrested for wasn't anything to do with him. However, he quickly discovered that things weren't as simple as he'd thought, and despite being innocent he'd been unable to prove it.
With a long sentence stretching ahead of him, Sirius had given serious thought to who could have ensured he'd been locked up for a crime he hadn't committed. At the time the Death Eater attacks had been ongoing for some months, and following James's untimely death, it hadn't taken a big leap to decide that the two matters were connected. Especially given the fact that an affair had been invented for James, as Sirius refused to believe his best friend would have betrayed Lily in such a way.
To kill James, make it look like he'd been having an affair, and then frame Sirius for the attempted murder of the so-called mistress took serious work and considerable influence in the wizarding world, and Sirius's first thought had been Lucius Malfoy. Of all the Death Eaters he was the one most capable of pulling off such a stunt, but Sirius didn't have a shred of proof. All he had was a suspicion, and given where he'd ended up he knew no-one would believe him. Or at least no-one at the Ministry, and to be released, it was the Ministry he'd needed to get on-side.
So with no proof, Sirius had been left to rot in Azkaban as the Death Eater attacks continued. As they did so, he'd began to wonder about what had started them up again. For years they'd been quiet, but now not only were they back, but they were asking for a supposed dead girl. Athena was clearly the key to the Death Eaters resurgence, but why after so many years did they suddenly realise she was alive?
The question had bugged Sirius right up until graduation. The second he'd read about events at graduation, and the memories that had been shown at the ceremony, he knew why the Death Eaters had returned. Someone had told them that Athena was still alive, and given the memory they had access to, it was one of the four people involved the night Voldemort and his wife were killed.
Sirius knew he hadn't told a sole about that evening, and he was just as sure that James wouldn't have done so either. It was true both he and James had liked to speak about their part in Voldemort's downfall, but they never would have given anyone access to the memory that revealed that James had been the one to kill Voldemort's wife. He also couldn't see Dumbledore revealing the truth as he was also shown to have killed in cold blood. Which left Arthur as the only person who could possibly have betrayed them.
At first Sirius had struggled to believe that Arthur would have betrayed the secrets of what had happened the night Voldemort died, but it was the only option that made sense. And it was especially telling that of the four wizards featured in the memories, he was the only one with his freedom and life. James was dead, Sirius was stuck in Azkaban, Dumbledore was dead, and even if he hadn't been, he would have been in Azkaban along with Sirius. Yet Arthur was still free, and while he had been involved in a pretty serious Death Eater attack and badly hurt, he also still had his life. There was no denying that he'd come out of things far better than any of the others, so Sirius was left with no choice to accept that Arthur had been the cause of their secrets being exposed.
However, Sirius wasn't sure if Arthur had revealed their secrets deliberately, or if he'd been tricked into doing so. Although no matter how the memories had leaked out, Sirius was confident that Arthur had nothing to do with the Death Eater attacks and other incidents. In Sirius's mind it had become even clearer that everything else that had happened was the work of Lucius Malfoy. He'd been the one to come into possession of the truth, and he'd been the one who had manipulated events and ensured that the truth was revealed in the most public of ways.
Given the fact that Hermione had publically turned to the Malfoys in light of events at gradation, and once she was with them the Death Eater attacks had mysteriously stopped, Sirius felt it was the proof the wider wizarding world had been waiting for. After all, how could they deny Lucius was behind the attacks when they stopped the moment Hermione went to live at the manor with his family? But deny it they seemed to do as even though Sirius waited with baited breath, not even a whisper of blame was apportioned to Lucius. It was as though the Death Eater attacks had stopped and no-one was interested in working out who had been behind them in the first place.
In fact from what Sirius could see, no-one was interested in anything but seeing Dumbledore arrested and punished for what had happened to Hermione as a child. James's murder had been forgotten about, along with the Death Eater attacks, and it was suddenly the Order who were the villains in Wizarding Britain. Sirius was just relieved that the Ministry never went after Lily and the rest of the Order, or even pressed extra charges against him. Although he did know that Lily and Molly had been given community service, and just recently Arthur had been given a very lenient punishment, with the worst thing to happen was for him to lose his job at the Ministry. As for the rest of the Order, they'd escaped punishment, but Sirius suspected it was only because the Ministry wanted to sweep the entire thing under the carpet and carry on as though nothing had happened.
Although from what Sirius had seen the Ministry were good at sweeping issues under the carpet, as they'd seemingly done when it was revealed that Voldemort wasn't dead. Sirius had to admit the news had totally blown him away, and made him furious at Dumbledore for deceiving them. But more importantly he'd been terrified for what the news would mean for Harry, Lily and Remus. With James gone they were the only three people in the world he truly loved, and Sirius felt impotent stuck in Azkaban unable to help and protect them.
However, after the initial reveal that Voldemort was back the Ministry had swept into action and denied everything. To be honest Sirius wasn't too surprised by the Ministry's stance as in his opinion Fudge had the backbone of a worm and was too friendly with Lucius Malfoy. However, Sirius was taken aback by the amount of articles in the press discrediting Voldemort's return, and he was totally stunned when no counter claim was made by the Order. From where Sirius was sitting they'd just gave up when their claims were denied. They didn't fight to prove they were right, and they certainly didn't fight to make sure the world was prepared for Voldemort's inevitable return.
However, Sirius didn't have long to ponder on the way the Order was handling things as one unsuspecting morning his world, and heart, had shattered when he read in the paper that his beloved godson had been killed. Although as if it wasn't bad enough that Harry had been killed alongside Ron, it soon transpired that the Ministry were blaming the pair for their own downfall. Despite his grief, Sirius could see that Harry and Ron had acted rashly in kidnapping Draco and trying to force him to confess that he and Lucius had been behind everything. But they still didn't deserve the treatment they were receiving, or the fact they were being blamed for their own deaths.
By the time the official hearing had been heard, Sirius knew what the outcome would be, so he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to read that no-one was going to be held accountable for their deaths. And yet again, they were themselves being blamed for causing their own deaths. The insistency of the Ministry that Harry and Ron were responsible for their own demises seemed cruel and unnecessary to Sirius, and he could only imagine how the claims were making it even harder for Lily and Molly to come to terms with their losses.
The second Sirius had learnt of Harry's death, he sent a letter to Remus, begging his best friend to find a way for him to say goodbye to his godson. At first it had looked as though nothing was going to happen, but at the last moment, Sirius had been given permission to attend Harry's funeral, along with an Auror guard. Sirius had hoped the guard would be one of the Aurors he knew, like Kingsley, Tonks or Frank, but on the afternoon of Harry's funeral, it was a complete stranger who turned up at Azkaban to accompany him to Harry's funeral.
"Don't try anything Black," the Auror warned as they prepared to leave Azkaban. "If you so much as look at me the wrong way, I'll have you back here so fast your head will be spinning," he warned as he clapped a couple of magical cuffs around Sirius's wrists. "And don't try any canine tricks either, as one of these cuffs will stop you from changing shape."
"I'm not going to do anything," Sirius said quietly. "All I want to do is go and say goodbye to my godson and comfort my devastated friend."
Despite Sirius's words the Auror still insisted on giving him a lecture before he finally grabbed hold of his arm and roughly apparated them away from the dark and dreary prison. Despite never being a fan of side-along apparition, Sirius wasn't at all perturbed by the motion as he was just so pleased to be free and to be able to breath fresh air again. However, he didn't have much time to enjoy his freedom as they landed in the graveyard at Godric's Hollow and Sirius was immediately hit with a sense of loss as he saw people arriving to take their place in the chapel.
"Are you going to be by my side all afternoon?" Sirius asked the Auror.
"I won't stick right at your side, but I will always be close," the Auror replied. "Just remember what I said about trying anything. You can't transform into your animagi form, nor can you do magic with those cuffs I placed on you. If you try something, I won't hesitate to bring you down, funeral or not."
With a sharp nod, Sirius turned away from the Auror and looked around for either Lily or Remus. While he didn't see any sign of Lily, he quickly located Remus at the chapel door, greeting the mourners as they arrived. When Remus spotted him, he whispered something to Tonks, who had been standing beside him and abandoned his job as he made his way towards his old friend.
"Sirius," he greeted sombrely as the two men embraced. "I'm pleased you're here."
"Thanks to you," Sirius replied. "How did you mange it?"
"I didn't, it was Tonks," Remus admitted. "She personally vouched for you to the Minister himself, Sirius, so please don't blow this. If you cause trouble, she'll be the one who suffers."
"I'm not going to cause trouble," Sirius vowed. "I wouldn't do that to Lily. Speaking of which, where is she and how's she holding up?"
"She's already in the chapel with Alice," Remus replied. "And she's in a hell of a mess, Sirius. At the moment she's only up and about because the healers are dosing her with all sorts of potions to help her cope. I dread to think what will happen when they stop giving her the potions. With both James and Harry gone, she's lost."
"I just wish I could be there for her," Sirius sighed. "Instead I'm stuck in that bloody awful place for something I didn't do."
"We've tried Sirius, we can't prove your innocence," Remus said softly. He also wished his best friend was around, but it had been hard enough just to win him his freedom for the afternoon.
"What you need to do is go after Lucius Malfoy," Sirius advised. "He's behind this, Remus. He's behind everything."
"Now you sound like Harry," Remus snorted. "He was convinced Lucius and Draco were behind everything. But instead of just letting it go, he jumped in and look at the mess he and Ron ended up in."
"I don't mean kidnap Malfoy," Sirius said. "I mean find a way to prove he was behind everything. He got those memories from Arthur, and that triggered everything."
"Arthur?" Remus frowned. "What does Arthur have to do with this?"
"Those memories at graduation had to come from somewhere," Sirius pointed out. "I didn't see them, but it sounded as though they were from Voldemort's house, and there was only the four of us in there. One of us had to have provided the memories. I know I didn't, and I know James didn't either. I also can't see Dumbledore being that careless. I'm not saying Arthur did it deliberately, but somehow Lucius got hold of the memories and everything that happened after that is a result of that. Once he knew Athena was alive he set out to find her. He was behind the Death Eater attacks, Remus."
"That can't be proven," Remus warned his friend. "The Ministry investigated, and I know for a fact they looked at Lucius. He had alibis for several of the attacks. I'm not saying he wasn't behind the attacks, but if he was, he'd made it impossible to prove."
"And what about the fact the attacks stopped the second he convicted Hermione to go with him?" Sirius demanded. "Does no-one think it's strange that for almost a year there was Death Eater attacks, all aimed at alerting the world to Athena's existence and with that warning that the dark wanted her back. Then the second she's with the Malfoys, the attacks stop."
"You could say the attacks stopped the second the truth came out," Remus argued. "Anyone could have been behind it, and once the truth was known, decided to stop as there was no need for them any more."
"You don't believe that any more than I do, Remus," Sirius scoffed.
"Maybe not, but I can't prove otherwise, and I'm not taking on the Malfoys," Remus said. "It would be a losing battle, Sirius. Sometimes you have to know when to call it a day. And I say we bury the past with Harry. Let today be the start of a fresh dawn."
"And what, leave Harry's death unavenged?" Sirius snorted. "James would be turning in his grave, Remus. His son was murdered, and you're just happy to let it go."
"Harry and Ron were killed accidentally," Remus argued. "Unless you're going to start on about how Hermione is a killer. And remember you've known her since she was eleven years old. You know she's not evil, Sirius."
"Maybe not, but the Malfoys sure are," Sirius retorted. "They could have corrupted her."
"And if they have we no-one to blame but ourselves," Remus retorted sharply. "Most of the Order agree that we never should have taken her in the first place, and we certainly all agree that we handled things badly when the attacks started."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked with a frown.
"The second the Death Eaters mentioned Athena, we should have been honest with Hermione, Harry and Ron," Remus said. "We could have explained things to them all. Instead we let Harry and Ron build Athena into a monster in their minds, and we're all paying for it now. If they'd known who Hermione was, and the situation had been explained to them, they never would have turned on her and she never would have gone to the Malfoys. She would still be with us today, and so would Harry and Ron."
"Hindsight is a beautiful thing," Sirius remarked.
"It is," Remus agreed. "So let's not act hastily and do something that in time we come to regret. Today isn't about the Malfoys, Sirius. It's about Harry, and saying goodbye to him. Let's focus on Harry and Lily."
Nodding in agreement, Sirius linked arms with Remus as they headed towards the chapel, the Auror guarding him following close behind. In the chapel, Sirius sat down next to Lily and he held onto her as the funeral began and she found herself dealing with burying her son only months after doing the same to her husband. Not that Sirius found the afternoon any easier and he was a broken man by the time the service was over and they lowered Harry into the ground next to where his father was buried.
