A/N: Here's another chapter, please remember to review! :)

The days turned into weeks, and soon the first month of the school holidays were over, and the trial was looming over the Marauders and their boy. The Order meetings had been short and fleeting due to lack of a headquarters, and despite Sirius's strong desire to avoid his ancestral home, he knew that his duties to the Light had to come first - besides, it was rather amusing for Sirius to picture his mother's face if she knew that her beloved Grimmauld Place was being turned into a home for Albus Dumbledore's anti-Voldemort army.

With that particular image in mind, Sirius agreed to let Grimmauld Place be used for Order meetings; however, to Sirius's dismay, this also required that he live in the house while it was being used over the summer. This posed a problem for Sirius - he didn't want to go back to a place that still haunted his own nightmares, and he definitely didn't want his son anywhere near there. Despite this, Dumbledore insisted that the building be constantly monitored and that, due to the situation with his old family house elf, Sirius be the one to do it.

Grudgingly, Sirius accepted Albus's terms and broke the news to Harry later that week. However, neither of them had much time to dwell on what that meant for the rest of their summer.

"I know you don't want to leave here, kiddo - trust me, I don't either. I just… we have to. I have to stay at that horrid house and I need you with me. I'll break down in there without Moony and you." Sirius said gently, wrapping an arm around his son.

Harry nodded against Sirius and hugged him back. "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for, you know."

Sirius laughed a short, bitter laugh and shook his head. "I don't deserve a son like you. You always see the best in people, even when they're arrogant, selfish berks like I am."

Harry shook his head and hugged his father tighter - ever since Dumbledore had requested that Grimmauld Place be used for Order meetings, Sirius had gotten depressed, and Harry wanted to take all the bad memories of abuse away from his dad. He knew he would probably react the same way if Dumbledore asked him to go back to the Dursley's now that he had a loving family of his own.

Sirius's breathing returned to normal, but neither of them made a move to leave the embrace; Sirius because he needed the solace from his son, and Harry because he desperately wanted his dad to be happy. However, a loud crash soon broke them from their musings.

"AURORS FROM THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC - REVEAL YOURSELVES!" A man yelled from the kitchen.

Harry looked up at Sirius, only one thought running through his head: They're going to take him, they want my dad.

Though it made no sense why they would take Sirius, it seemed like the only plausible explanation. Sirius stood up slowly and pulled Harry up with him.

Harry immediately protested. "No, dad, let's leave, I don't want them to take you-"

"Neither of us, nor Remus, have done anything wrong. Don't worry, it will only make it worse if we try and escape." Sirius said gently, pulling Harry forward toward the voices.

Harry was shaking, but he reluctantly followed his father out into the hallway.

"THERE!" A voice yelled, and Harry felt himself fall onto the harsh floor - weird, because Sirius was still kneeling beside him, yelling at the official's for hurting his son. Did they mean to stun him and not his dad?

"Harry James Potter," a deep, strict voice said. "You are under arrest for the accidental murder of Cedric Amos Diggory and knowingly using one or multiple Unforgivable Curses. You will be taken to a ministry holding cell to await your trial on August 1."

Harry felt two pairs of arms grab him roughly and lift him up, one of the hands shoving his head down to look at the floor. Sirius was screaming at this point, in a rage more powerful than Harry had ever seen. Remus had also joined and was attempting to reason with the head auror as Harry was lead away.

Once he realized that his anger was getting him nowhere, Sirius ran after Harry outside their house. "Wait! Can I visit him?"

"No visitors," the aurors said in unison.

"No visitors allowed for high security prisoners. You of all people should know that, Black." The head auror said, pushing Sirius away from his son.

Sirius looked panicked now. "At least let me say goodbye! Give me my baby!" He yelled, practically in hysterics and chasing the aurors again.

The head auror rolled his eyes and pushed Sirius away again. "Get ahold of yourself, Black. You'll see him at his trial." He said menacingly.

"Hey!" Remus said, coming up beside. "You're denying Harry some of his rights, he has the right to see us before you take him away!"

"Yes, and he'll get that right fulfilled after his trial next week… before we send him to Azkaban," the auror said with an evil grin. He grabbed Harry from the other two and turned him around to face his guardians, his eyes red and face wet with tears. "Say goodbye to your daddy," he whispered evilly. Then, Harry felt a rush of pain overwhelm his arm as the auror broke it, and he cried out. He watched as Sirius lunged forward at the auror, his eyes a dark grey that reminded Harry of storm clouds - then, everything was black and they were gone.


When Harry woke up again, his arm was throbbing from the pain of the break he endured earlier. He tried to sit up, only to find that he was chained to the bed in his cell and moving only jarred his hurt arm. After a moment, he found that he could move his head, and he allowed his eyes to scan the room.

It was a small cell, only slightly bigger than the cupboard he inhabited his entire childhood - he fleetingly wondered if the ministry made it that way on purpose, to try and torture the boy as much as possible.

He noticed immediately that the air surrounding him was warm, meaning that there weren't any dementor's near his cell… yet.

He looked out of the bars to try and get some indication of what time or day it was - he knew when he was taken that he had exactly a week before his trial, but he didn't think he would actually be taken into custody beforehand.

Harry laid there and tried to let sleep over come him again, but the dull throb in his head and the ache in his arm prevented him from drifting off. He thought of his dad and how angry he was when they had restrained him - Harry hated that the last time he saw his father he had been so upset. He tried to think of their happy memories from this past year, but thinking of his dad made his heart ache and brought tears to his eyes.

Stop. Harry thought to himself. He needed to keep a level head to get out of this situation. He continued to sit there and brood, and after what may have been seconds or hours, it was hard to tell time there, he heard voices coming from his right.

"Ah, Mr. Harry Potter," a sickeningly familiar voice drawled from the door of his cell. "You know, about two years ago I visited your guardian from a cell similar to this. Should have known that living with an ex-convict would do this to the Golden Boy."

Harry felt white, hot anger surge through his body. "Leave my father out of this, Minister," he mumbled quietly.

"Come, Harry," Fudge said, a smirk on his features. "It's time for a pretrial interview."


"Sirius, come on, we have to leave now. Albus is ready to perform the fidelius charm on Grimmauld Place." Remus said, placing a hand on Sirius's shoulder. He was lying on his stomach on top of his bed, face buried in his pillow.

Sirius hadn't left his bedroom since they had taken Harry, leaving Remus to pack up all three of their belongings for the move. Remus had done this willingly - going back to Grimmauld Place was hard enough on Sirius, and Harry being taken was going to make it a million times worse.

"Padfoot," Remus started gently, realizing that the only way he was going to get his friend to headquarters was by dragging him. "I know you miss him so much, but he wouldn't want you to be like this, you know that. He's staying strong for you, now you need to for him. Without the headquarters, we can't fight Voldemort, and it's going to make things even more dangerous for Harry. You need to get up and keep fighting… if anything do it for your son."

Sirius laid there for a second more, then slowly lifted his head to meet his friend's gaze. His eyes were bloodshot and he had two days worth of stubble on his face.

Remus sighed. "Only five days until the trial and he'll be back with us."

Sirius didn't speak - he simply nodded and stood up to follow Remus. They flooed over to Grimmauld Place where Dumbledore was waiting for them, and Sirius went through the fidelius charm with his old headmaster, speaking only when he absolutely had to. Once it was over, Sirius went upstairs, probably to find an inhabitable room or to make his old room livable while they were there.

"He's missing Harry," Dumbledore stated quietly, turning to Remus.

Remus nodded and frowned. "He needs him. You're sure Harry won't be convicted?"

The twinkle had gone from Dumbledore's eyes, but he nodded anyway. "I have a pretty solid defense made, they shouldn't be able to convict him. On the off chance that they do, I have an escape route planned for him - I hope we won't have to use that though, because that would prevent Harry from attending school, and it is of utmost importance that he continue his education."

Remus nodded sadly, then returned his gaze toward the staircase. "I should go be with Padfoot, I don't want him alone right now, especially here. When will the Weasley's arrive? And Mrs. Grainger?"

"They should be moving in tomorrow. Molly has offered to help clean the house with her kids so we can have the first official order meeting after Harry returns home. Now, I would rather Harry not be involved in these meetings and I would prefer him not know everything but… I think it would be foolish of me to keep him in the dark for the sake of preserving a childhood that was striped from him. For that reason, Sirius and you may decide what you want to tell him about the Order Meetings and Voldemort. I do suggest, however, that if you tell him about the meetings, we also set up occlumency lessons with Professor Snape." Dumbledore said.

Remus nodded. "Harry and Sirius won't like that, but I personally think Harry deserves to know what's happening, so it will probably be our only option. Thank you, Professor."

Dumbledore nodded and flooed back to Hogwarts, leaving the two Marauders alone.


"Admit it! You-Know-Who has not returned," a shrill voice spoke in Harry's ear. Harry was panting hard, and wasn't even sure he would be able to speak to the voice to insist, again, that Voldemort had indeed returned.

You can't let them get to you, Harry reminded himself. He looked around at the three faces towering above him. The Minister was there, as he had been the past four days, and so was an auror - this one was different than the ones that had arrested him, though. This one seemed kind, and he helped Harry up everyday when Harry didn't have the strength to do so himself. He was tall, had very dark skin, and Fudge had called him "Shacklebolt." Harry would need to remember to thank him if he was ever released from the Ministry's clutches.

The final person was a toad-like lady dressed all in pink - she was Harry's least favorite. She was the one that put him through the daily torture and insisted to him that Voldemort was still dead. He had heard Fudge call her Umbridge, and Harry recognized the name as the instructor who would be replacing Remus at Hogwarts - this made Harry hate her even more.

"Dolores," Shacklebolt said wearily, looking down at Harry. "We aren't getting anywhere, let's just leave him be until the trial, it's only two days away."

"No! He will not perform blasphemy against the Ministry and walk away unpunished! Crucio!" Umbridge shouted, causing a hot flash of pain to shoot up Harry's spine and burn his nerve endings.

Harry could feel his resolve breaking - of course, he would never admit the things they wanted him to, but he knew he couldn't endure this forever. Finally, the curse was lifted, and Shacklebolt carried Harry back to his small cell to await August first. When Harry laid down, he allowed Shacklebolt to chain him back to his small bed, and he tried to pretend that the cold, hard chains were his dad's arms, wrapping him in a hug. It was far-fetched, but it was the only memory he could latch onto as the dementor's closed in around the door to his cell, and the familiar cold crept up his spine.


"They use the cruciatus curse on him everyday, it's horrible to watch." Kingsley Shacklebolt relayed to the Order members currently at Grimmauld Place. The children had already been sent up to bed by Molly, leaving Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur, McGonagall, Tonks, and Moody downstairs in the basement kitchen.

"He's been very strong and adamant, hasn't told them a thing. I think I've convinced Umbridge to hold off on him until the trial, so he should have a quiet day tomorrow… they've brought in dementor's though, I'm not sure he'll be the same once he gets out of there."

Molly had tears in her eyes and Sirius had his face buried in his hands.

"Tomorrow's his birthday…" Sirius mumbled after a moment of silence. "They really won't let me go see him?"

Shacklebolt looked at Sirius for a long minute and then sighed. "I can sneak you in there, Sirius, but I don't know if it will be a good idea. If you're caught, it's going to pose major problems for us at the Order. They'll want to know how you got in and then we may not have Order members in the Ministry anymore… not to mention, you could be arrested again."

"It's worth it," McGonagall said. Sirius turned to look at her with shock. Minerva McGonagall breaking the rules? Never.

"Minerva," Dumbledore started, walking over to his colleague.

"No, Albus. Sirius needs Harry and if Harry wants to win this trial, he needs to see his father. Kingsley, take him to visit Harry tomorrow. I don't care how you do it, just make sure it gets done and Sirius gets out of there without being caught." McGonagall said, an air of finality in her voice.

Kingsley nodded and then turned to Sirius. "We'll leave early tomorrow - if they were to do rounds, it would be in the afternoon. I'll give you two hours with him, sound good?"

Sirius nodded gratefully. "Thank you so much, Kingsley."

"Don't mention it - just be ready by eight in the morning tomorrow." Kingsley said before flooing out of Grimmauld Place.


"Alright, Sirius." Kingsley said once they were on the elevator in the Ministry of Magic. "I'm taking you to the holding cells where they're keeping Harry. They've retired the dementor's for right now because I offered to guard his cell until the trial starts, so as long as I'm down there you two shouldn't be interrupted. You have until eleven to see him - I would go ahead and put on that invisibility cloak."

Sirius nodded and followed Kingsley's orders by throwing Harry's invisibility cloak over his shoulders. When they reached the holding cells, Kingsley stepped out first, followed closely behind by Sirius. The area was dark and dank, and the air still felt cold from where the dementor's had been a few hours ago. Most of the cells here were empty; it was clear the Minister hadn't taken Dumbledore's advice to put some of his employees on wait for trial. They walked to the very end of the room, where they approached the smallest cell Sirius had ever seen - it didn't even have bars, just a small door with a window barely big enough to look inside.

"Harry," Kingsley said gently, easing the cell door open. Harry immediately tensed - sure, he liked Kingsley, but his presence typically meant that Umbridge wanted to torture him. Kingsley stepped into the cell, but he didn't look apprehensive or sad like he normally did when retrieving him. "I'm going to undo your chains for a couple of hours - don't mention this to the Minister, okay?"

Harry nodded and allowed Kingsley to release him; however, he remained lying on his bed afterward. There wasn't a lot of room in the cell to move around, even if he wanted to.

"I've brought someone," Kingsley said with a whisper. "If the Minister finds out, I lose my job, and The Order and you two will be in grave danger. Keep quiet, both of you."

Harry raised his eyebrows but nodded nonetheless, and then attempted to sit up. He winced at his sore muscles and hurt arm as Kingsley shut the cell door. "Kingsley?" Harry whispered uncertainly. Where was the visitor? "Hello? Anybody?"

"Harry," a familiar voice to his right whispered. Harry practically jumped off his bed, but once he registered the voice, a small smile came over his features.

"Dad?" Harry said, reaching towards the voice. Sirius pulled off the cloak and set it on the ground, then gently leaned forward to hug his son. "Happy birthday, kiddo." Sirius whispered against Harry's black mop of hair.

Harry started whimpering against Sirius's chest and Sirius stroked his hair soothingly. "Shh, baby, it's okay. I'll get you out of here soon."

The two stayed like that for the first thirty minutes of Sirius's visit, and when they broke apart, Sirius still didn't let go of his son, keeping an arm around him securely. Sirius caught Harry up on Order happenings and told him what he knew about Voldemort.

"We'll tell you more once you're back at home with us, there's a lot we need to discuss. I'm just… so sorry, Harry. I would have flooed you straight to Grimmauld Place last week if I had thought the Ministry was there to arrest you. I was stupid, and now you've been tortured for days." Sirius mumbled, pulling Harry against him again. He knew their time was almost up and that he would have to leave soon. The knowledge that Harry would be back at home tomorrow made leaving his son now almost bearable.

"If I didn't go with them then, they would have made the trial worse," Harry said quietly, pressing his face into the crook of Sirius's neck. "Dad… what if they don't let me go?"

Sirius placed a hand on the back of Harry's head and held him there. "They will, and if they don't, Dumbledore's got a plan. If for some reason Dumbledore's plan doesn't work, then I've got another plan. You won't go to Azkaban. Now, Harry-" Sirius said, gently placing his hands on Harry's shoulders and pulling him back to look at him. "I have to leave. If I could stay with you all night, I would, but they won't allow me to do that. I want you to continue to be strong and defiant, like the good Marauder you are, okay puppy? Give 'em hell. I'm proud of you and I love you so much."

Sirius pulled Harry into one last, strong embrace and kissed his temple. He rubbed Harry's back gently for about five minutes, until he heard Kingsley cough, signaling that the visit was over. "I'll see you first thing tomorrow, pup."

"Don't leave me, dad," Harry whimpered, tightening his grip against his father.

Sirius looked to the door of the cell, where Kingsley was peering inside - now Kingsley did look sad, but he beckoned Sirius over nonetheless. "Puppy, I have to go. I'm not leaving you, though. The ones that love us never really leave us, remember? And you'll see me again early tomorrow morning. You can do it, you're so strong." Sirius kissed the top of his head one last time, and in one swift movement, he pulled away from Harry and threw the invisibility cloak over him, then walked out of the cell, in what was probably one of the hardest moments of his life.