Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Seventeen

Repercussions

"I've got to get back to work," Sirius sighed as he walked out of the kitchen. He wished he could stay and talk with everyone, but he had only asked for the afternoon off and he was sure his boss was going to be on his case if he showed up late. He quickly bid goodbye to everyone that was still in the kitchen chatting and in no time he was Apparating to work.

"Black, in my office now!" Scrimgeour bellowed as soon as he got off the lift and Sirius immediately felt a sinking feeling in his gut about what was going to happen.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Sirius asked when he got into the office.

"Sit," Scrimgeour commanded with a stern expression that always meant trouble for Sirius.

"Sir …?" Sirius started to ask slowly as he took his seat.

"Don't give me that sir, crap!" Scrimgeour said. "We both know you only use that tone when you try to charm your way out of trouble."

"I've never been able to charm you …" Sirius started to point out.

"Shut your trap Sirius, you're in enough trouble as it is," Scrimgeour snapped.

Sirius made to ask what trouble he was in now, but instead closed his mouth as Scrimgeour scowled at him.

"I was just informed that instead of being at work this morning, you decided to go to St. Mungo's Hospital and cause quite a stir," he informed Sirius angrily.

"I called in a half day and what was I supposed to do when I …" Sirius snapped back heatedly.

"I don't care what happened, it's a hospital Sirius, you're not supposed to fire curses there nor are you to take patients with you!" Scrimgeour said.

"So I'm not supposed to stun and tie up people that Polyjuice themselves to look like my mate," Sirius scoffed.

"The only people that we found stunned at the hospital were employees," Scrimgeour shut back. "Employees who are now changing you with assault for attacking them without giving warning!"

"Attacking them … they were trying to ambush me … it's not my fault I was a better fighter than them," Sirius gritted his teeth. "You can't seriously believe …"

"They are also filing charges against you saying that you kidnapped one of their patients," Scrimgeour added.

"Well then they don't know their paper work because I can't kidnap James," Sirius snorted. "I was given full guardianship of James five years ago with the ability to take him out of St. Mungo's whenever I saw fit. I didn't even have to sign any farther paper work."

Scrimgeour sat back in his chair at that and brought his hands up to cover his month as he thought. "I'm glad to hear that, and hopefully the assault charges against you will be dropped as well."

"Charges dropped! They are the ones that should have charges against them!" Sirius snarled.

"They are hospital employees who …" Scrimgeour started.

"They're not in custody anymore, are they?" Sirius asked in a cold voice, though he already knew the answered. "You let them go."

"They had no prior record and the arresting Auror was not at the scene of the crime," Scrimgeour said. "I had little choice but to let them go. I understand that you probably felt you needed to leave because your friend might have been in danger, but you should have called your partner …"

"I don't have a partner anymore … you split me and Frank up," Sirius reminded him.

"Then call for backup in general! Sirius you can't go off half cocked like this and then expect me to be able to pick up your mess," Scrimgeour growled.

Sirius glared at Scrimgeour as he tried to control his temper. It didn't help that Scrimgeour was right, he should have called in for backup, but he had acted as an Order Member first, and not as an Auror.

"This was sloppy work Black, and not what I have come to expect from you," Scrimgeour went on to say.

"I thought you always thought I go off half cocked," Sirius pointed out.

"You know I'm no fan of your style, you're too reckless for my taste, but you are good at what you do," Scrimgeour said.

"And that's why you've had me stuck doing paper work for the last two months," Sirius complained.

"You need more discipline, Black," Scrimgeour said.

Sirius scowled again, he hated that word, but Scrimgeour might have had a point there, too.

"Off duty or on, you know the proper procedures that have to be followed," Scrimgeour went on to say. "The fact that you had not in this case, and that it was at such a place as St. Mungo's and add to it the fact that it involves James Potter! You have made our department look bad. Whether you are in the right or wrong, I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't in the Prophet tomorrow!"

Sirius couldn't help rolling his eyes at that, Scrimgeour always seem to care too much about public opinion.

"Get out of my office Black, before I give you a worse job than paper work," Scrimgeour snarled.

Sirius quickly stood up but before he could leave the door opened to reveal the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, along with someone else.

"Ah well doesn't this make things easy," Cornelius said with a smug expression that Sirius didn't like at all. "Just the man I was looking for, Black."

"You wanted to see me?" Sirius said slowly, it wasn't every day that the Minister of Magic is looking for you. It was then that Sirius got a good look at who was with the Minister and his back stiffened and he clamped his month closed so that he wouldn't say anything. The short woman, who features reminded Sirius of a toad, was someone that Sirius had come to loath, despite the fact that he had hardly ever come in contact with her. The few times he had seen her would have been enough for Sirius to hate her on their own, but it was the fact that she had written so many laws against Werewolf's rights that made Sirius really hated her.

"Oh yes," the witch said in a girlie voice that didn't suit her. "We have a few interesting questions for you."

"Do you mind if we use your office, Rufus?" Fudge asked the Head Auror who stared back at the Minister clearly no liking the request. "You can stay if you like, of course."

"Very well," Scrimgeour allowed Fudge's appeasement, not missing the slightly annoyed look on Umbridge's face.

"Dolores, would you like to start the investigation?" Fudge asked which immediately caused both the Aurors to stiffen.

"Investigation?" Scrimgeour questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"It has just now come to our attention that Harry Potter is not currently at Privet Dr. Surrey, nor has he ever lived there with his aunt and uncle as has been previously believed." Fudge said, he was looking at Scrimgeour, who appeared to be more shocked by this news than Sirius recalled seeing him before. Sirius, too made himself gasp, his eyes widening to portray the proper amount of shock as he felt the toad, as he like to think of Umbridge, watching him.

"What do you mean he doesn't live there?!" Sirius exclaimed. It took all the will he had to keep himself from showing the fury that was running through him at this moment. The only way the Ministry would find out that Harry had never lived at Privet Dr. was if they were the ones that sent the Dementors after Harry, just like Dumbledore had suggestion could have been the case. Still, that didn't fully explain how they knew that Harry had never lived there, only that he wasn't at the house as of yesterday.

"Surely someone that had visited the house today wouldn't be surprised to hear that Mr. Potter does not live there," Umbridge said in her sickening girlie voice, and then she giggled, which sent chills down Sirius's spine and tested his control over his anger. He remembered what Scrimgeour had just said about learning discipline and he hoped that he had enough of it to get out of this room without cursing anyone … or maybe he didn't hope for that at all…

"You went to Privet Dr. today!" Scrimgeour asked, again shocked and not looking too pleased.

"I wanted to check on Harry to see if he was doing all right. With all the negative attention he has been having the last few months," Sirius started to explain a cover story he'd been working on for as long as he had been raising Harry, changing it as the situation demanded. He now glared at Fudge and Umbridge, indicating he blamed them (which was true) for Harry's bad reputation in the newspapers as of late. "That was why I took the morning off work, to see if I could talk to Harry today. How did you know I was there?"

"There is a charm to indicate when any wizard is in close proximity to Privet Dr." Umbridge answered and giggled again. Again Sirius had to grit his teeth not to do something stupid … how could she giggle at something like that? It wasn't funny. Besides, it was all a bunch of crap, if there was a spell like that the Auror department would know about it, and so would Sirius.

"I've never hear about a Proximity Charm being place on Privet Dr." Scrimgeour frowned.

"Oh," the toad said giggling again, "the charm was done within the Transportation department many years ago …"

"Which I would have a report explaining that," Scrimgeour said sternly. "All matters concerning Harry Potter's safety and protection provided for him have been sent to my office."

"I'm sure you'll find the report in your files," Umbridge said, her mouth becoming wide, making her look even more like a toad.

"Very well, sorry for interrupting," Scrimgeour said, not looking pleased by her explanation, but also not having anything else he could say. "Carry on."

"Mr. Black, can you tell me what you noticed when you visited Privet Dr.?" Umbridge asked next.

"Well, I noticed almost immediately that something wasn't right with the whole block as soon as I got to the street," Sirius explained. "It was uncommonly cold there … especially since it was such a hot summer and there were no animals in the area …"

"I don't see what that has to do with Potter!" Fudge announced suddenly, clearly impatient.

"I didn't say it did have anything to do with Harry, I was merely telling you this part to explain why I transfigured myself into a dog," Sirius said looking at Fudge, though he was really watching Umbridge's reaction from the corner of his eye. As he expect, she didn't seem to be surprised by this news.

"And why would you do that?" Fudge asked.

"It's how I often survey questionable scenes," Sirius explained.

"He often uses that form to search crime scenes and has used his heightened senses to find us leads that would have been difficult for us to find otherwise," Scrimgeour added.

"Excuse me, but are you trying to say you thought Privet Dr. was a crime scene," Umbridge clarified and giggled again.

"I'm saying that I didn't like what I felt coming to the house and I decided to check the place out as a dog so that I would go unnoticed by the Muggles," Sirius said, trying to control his voice. "What I sensed as soon as I turned into a dog was a chill in the air and fear from those that lived in the area."

"You couldn't possibly sense that!" Fudge snorted in disbelief.

"If you don't trust my word, feel free to ask any other Animagi if they could sense fear," Sirius shrugged indifferently. "All I'm saying is that there was something foul in the air that was disrupting the entire neighborhood. The disruption seemed to be strongest near Harry's house, so I went to number four, still as a dog and looked in through the window. I didn't see anything wrong, though I was unable to find Harry there. I had no idea that Harry had not lived there this whole time. Are you sure he doesn't?" he then asked, making himself look worried. "Do you know where he does live?"

"Do you really expect me to believe that you don't have the boy or at least know where he is?" Fudge scoffed. "I remember how insisted you were that I allow you to go to Hogwarts to watch the boy two years ago. You clearly cared a great deal about him …"

"Of course I care about him, he's my best mate's son," Sirius hissed back. "That doesn't mean I've stashed him away for years …"

"Oh really … then who does have him, if not you?!" Fudge asked.

"I don't know! Dumbledore told me that he was living with his aunt and uncle because he was safest there!" Sirius explained.

"Dumbledore huh?" Fudge spat out the name.

"Yeah, Dumbledore," Sirius said crossly, venting some of his own anger knowing it was safe to do so right now. "He told me it would be best for Harry that I not visit him … give him as much of a normal life as possible before coming back to our society when he was eleven."

"You've been seen several places in the last few years with Harry Potter," Umbridge pointed out.

"You mean like at the Quidditch World Cup where I meet him there or at the Hospital where we were both visiting his dad?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"How did you get Harry, if not at his house?" Umbridge asked next.

"I got him at Hogwarts, or Remus had," Sirius answered and Umbridge made a face at the mention of Remus that tested Sirius's temper farther than ever. He was this close to strangling the evil toad. "Or I picked him up at the Weasleys."

"He should be the next person we questioned," Fudge mumbled lowly, but Sirius was able to pick it up. He hated that Arthur was likely going to have to go through an investigation like this one too, but he knew that was probably inevitable. Harry had been known to spend a lot of time with the Weasleys and they would be questioned no matter what.

"You don't fool me, Mr. Black, I know you have Harry Potter, and it's only a matter of time before we find him," Umbridge said, her voice almost sounding like a normal person … at least it wasn't as fake as it had been before.

"You don't fool me either," Sirius answered glaring at her and she smiled widely at him, as if he had just told some kind of joke. "And why are you trying to find Harry all of a sudden? I thought you didn't like the boy very much at the moment. Besides, I don't see how finding him will do you any good now."

"Oh I don't expect for you to understand my reasons," Umbridge said in a false kind voice that seemed to imply that he was too slow to add two and two.

"You are suspended Black, effective immediately," Fudge said and Sirius turned to gap at him, having not seen that coming.

"Pardon me sir, but why are you suspending me, I haven't done anything wrong!" Sirius said in a cold voice filled with malice.

"Nothing wrong! But you attacked several healer at St. Mungo's hospital," Umbridge said in a simpering voice. "Though, if you are willing to tell us more about Pot …"

"Just shut your trap! I didn't attack anyone, but I know telling you lot won't help me," Sirius snapped at Umbridge. "I'm never going to make any kind of bargain with you even if I had what you wanted so you can go screw yourself and leave me out of it!"

"You can not speak to me like that!" Umbridge said, her voice too growing calmer with her anger.

"You can't take my speech away from me, you hag," Sirius yelled at Umbridge and then turned to Fudge, "and you can take my job, I'd rather leave than work for a idiot who would rather bury his head in the sand at the first sign of danger."

"Black!" Scrimgeour called after Sirius as he made his way to the door. He was so very tempted to curse the toad and the idiot, but he knew if he did, he would be arrested and imprisoned before he could say unfair.

"There were Dementors at Privet Dr.," Sirius said still facing the door.

"That's preposterous!" Fudge said and Sirius turned back glaring at the Minister with all the rage he was feeling and the other man filched away from him.

"Yes, everything is preposterous to you, you have no backbone so you can't fathom things that frighten you can actually be true," Sirius said coldly and watched the Minister turn red. He turned back to Scrimgeour, "I know the scent they leave behind … and the effect they have on an environment. Dementors were there."

"You better leave now, Black, I'll send you your discharge papers by owl," was all Scrimgeour said to that and Sirius couldn't tell if he thought Sirius was mad or if he believed Sirius about the Dementors. He turned his back on the people in the office and stormed out of the room, quickly walking through the halls on his way to exit the Ministry for what might be the last time in his life. As much as he hated the way things were right now, it hurt a lot knowing he wouldn't be coming back there.