Chapter SIX

Finding Freedom

...

Over the next few weeks, Harrison kept in touch with his Godfather through letters every few days and weekly visits every Saturday, as was promised.

He relished in talking to someone who wanted to know him. He made sure to tell him as much he could about his life living at the Dursley's and wasn't surprised to see anger on Sirius' face when he heard how they had treated him.

Even though Sirius knew how much Petunia had hated her sister, and would no doubt take some of it out on her nephew, he could never imagine just how bad it would be for Harrison. So, unknown to the 10-year-old, Sirius was planning on making Harrison get a full physical done as soon as he was able to gain custody of him, he, needed to see exactly how bad they had harmed his boy. He would make sure Harrison was as healthy as he should be before he attended his first year at Hogwarts, and he would make sure the Dursley's paid for what they had put him through.

No one was going to get away with harming his pup if Sirius had any say it in.

HPSBHP

As the weeks went by and the date of Sirius trial was drawing nearer both man and child couldn't hide their excitement. They made plans for their future. Sirius talked about the trips he wanted them to go on. Places they would visit and explore, memories they were going to make. He would make sure to do everything in his power to make sure Harrison got to experience as much as he possibly could.

Sirius loved the excitement he could see in the boy as they made their plans. See the wonder, as he explained in detail some of the places that he had seen when he himself was a boy. Mostly he loved the contentment he could see on the boy's face as the weeks passed, and he accepted that this was happening. Through all their talks, Sirius was making sure that Harrison knew how much he was wanted and how much the man was looking forward to taking care of him and raising him the way his parents had wanted. The way he had wanted to be doing all along.

He loved this boy he was getting to know as if he had fathered him himself. Sirius knew that Harrison would be his only child, having found out from his healer that due to the strain his body and magic had been put through over the years, he was unlikely to ever have children in the future. So, he was planning on asking Harrison after the trial if he would like for Sirius to blood adopt him. Making him his son in blood and magic. No one would ever be able to separate them after that or contest it if they should choose to try.

A part of Sirius questioned why he never received a trial in the beginning, or why no one seemed to question his guilt. Even with the sealing of the Will, he still should have been given a trial, just as others suspected of being a Death Eater had at the time. He knew Dumbledore could have gotten him released if he wanted too, but for some reason he had plans for Harrison, and Sirius was going to do everything in his power to stand between his boy and anyone who wished to use or abuse him in anyway. No more would he have to face the world alone.

HPSBHP

The day of the trial, Sirius was stood in his holding cell dressed in expensive looking robes -that he had Harrison go and pick up for him using gold from the Black accounts-, his hair cut to his shoulders where he pulled it back into a low ponytail just above the base of his neck, and his facial hair trimmed to a neat goatee. Thanks to his potions and eating three square meals a day for more than 6 weeks, he had put on a bit of the weight he had lost while imprisoned. He may not be back to the weight, and muscle mass he had had before being locked away, but he was happy with the progress he has made so far and knows with more time and exercise he will one day reach his goal.

While he was inspecting himself one last time to make sure nothing was out of place -his upbringing as the Black Heir not allowing him to face the firing squad as anything but his best- the door opened and in walked two of the Aurors who had stood guard outside his cell the past few weeks. It was time, he was now being escorted to courtroom 8 for his long-awaited trial.

"Mr. Selwyn will meet you inside the courtroom Lord Black, he has just gone to fetch your godson. While this will be a closed trial to the public, Family can attend." The Auror on the right stated as the approached the double doors leading into the courtroom.

"Thank you," Sirius murmured quietly keeping his head held high and facing forward as he was led to the center of the room where a desk stood in front of two chairs. One of which had chains attached to the arms and legs meant to contain him. Once they got close, he sat down without a fuss and watched as he was strapped in, and the two Aurors moved to stand along the wall to his left, never taking their eyes off him.

The site of him strapped to the chair like a hardened criminal was meant to demean him. Unsettle him, make him nervous and thus more likely to stutter and potentially make a mistake, admitting some kind of quilt. But Sirius sat straight backed, held high in the face of those around him. He knew soon enough; everyone will know how big of a mistake was made all those years ago.

Sirius looked towards the doors as they opened and grinned as his godson was led into the room by Cadmus and directed to sit in the lower section meant for family.

As everyone recognized who it was that had just entered the room, their eyes opening wide in shock, people began to exclaim, in both excitement and anger. Some were yelling about him not being there. They didn't think the child should allowed to witness the proceedings ahead.

"SILENCE." Madam Bones yelled, having placed sonorous onto her vocal cords to bring order back into the room.

Removing the charm, she looked at Mr. Selwyn with critical eyes. "Mr. Selwyn, you know as well as I, that the child cannot be here without permission of his legal guardians."

"Ah but Madam Bones, I have it written here, a form granting permission of his Aunt and Uncle to bring him here today to attend his Godfathers trial. Once it was explained to them the importance of today, they were more than happy to sign and send us on our way." Cadmus smiled as he walked over and handed said form to the woman.

What he wasn't saying aloud, Harrison knew was that when they realized they were almost shot of him for good, his relatives had jumped at the chance to sign away not only their permission for him to attend today, but documents – that Cadmus kept in his pocket if needed- stating that they were relinquishing their custody of him thus removing his right to live with them, allowing for Sirius to take him home as soon as the trial was over in a matter of hours.

Amelia read it over and nodded once. "He is right, Harrison Potter has been granted permission to attend. Now with that settled why don't we begin shall we?"

"This is the Trail of one Sirius Orion Black, on this date of 28th of September 1990, to rectify an offence on which said man was denied his right to a trial nine years ago. Lord Black is being accused, of the betrayal of the Potters to the Dark Lord Voldemort, Killing Peter Pettigrew as well as twelve Muggles.'

Interrogators: Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic; Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Court scribe: Janus Featherby.

Witness to the Defense: Cadmus Selwyn. Is that everyone pres-…"

"Witness to the Defense: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore." Was yelled cutting Madam Bones off abruptly as the doors swung open and in walked a tall man with half-moon spectacles and long white beard.

"Sorry I'm late, getting away from the school while it is in session, can be rather difficult. I'm sure you understand." The man known as Dumbledore stated with a grandfatherly smile and the usual twinkle present in his eyes.

"Think nothing of it, Mr. Dumbledore," Cadmus stated with a forced yet charming smile. "But unfortunately, you made the trip for nothing as Lord Black is not in need of your assistance as we have everything covered. In fact, once you sit and we can continue with the trial, our first step is to demand all questioning be done under the influence of Veritaserum."

This statement caused all in the room with the exception of a select few, to gasp lightly. If they were asking for Veriteserium then they must have solid proof of the man's innocent, and it was not looking good for the ministry at the moment.

Dumbledore, Cadmus and his two clients were pleased note, was not happy with their casual dismissal. He strode over to his once empty seat high above that was reserved for the Chief Warlock and glared down at them, knowing he was beat in this one instance. He hadn't known about the Last of the Line Clause until he had received the first letter from the goblins, both informing him of his removal as Harry's Magical Guardian, as well as their investigation into the items he had removed from the boy's trust vault over the years. Had he known all along, he would have changed his plans, brought forth Sirius' trial and freeing him – as he suspected he might not have been as guilty as he appeared-, made himself available to the grieving man and child, reworked things to fit his agenda. As it were, he was out of the loop on a lot of things it appeared, and how he hated to not have all the facts.

"Order, Order." Amelia demanded as she banged her gavel forcing everyone to settle quietly once more. "Shakebolt, bring in and administer the truth serum, so we can begin questioning the accused."

HPSBHP

Sirius sat up when the Auror re-entered the room and approached him, opening his mouth immediately to receive the required three drops of potion before he felt himself becomes dazed and had the urged to reveal all his secrets.

Seeing Lord Blacks eyes glaze over Amelia began her interrogation:

"Please sate your full name and Birthday for the court."

"Sirius 'Orion Black born on March 3rd, 1960."

Were you Lord Black a member of Voldemort's army known as the Death Eaters"?

"No…Never."

"Have you ever worked with or for the Dark Lord and his followers."

Once more Sirius' answer was, "No."

"Did you betray the Potters to the Dark Lord?"

"No, I was not the secret keeper, so therefor could never have given away their location."

"Do you know Who it was that was their Secret Keeper?"

"Peter Pettigrew. James wanted me, but I was too obvious. So, I made the mistake of suggesting Peter."

Nodding her head Amelia asked one last question; Did you kill Pettigrew and those 12 muggles on the night of November 2nd, 1981?"

"No…" was the only reply she got.

Murmurs broke out amongst the wizenegmont members at those revelations.

Getting desperate Fudge yelled out his own questions; "were you a mole passing information to you-know-who?

"No, I have never passed on secrets or information to Voldemort" Sirius spoke, his answer causing most of the room to shudder at his use of the Dark Lords name, just as it had when Amelia had uttered it herself.

"Then where is Pettigrew now if you didn't kill him?"

"He changed into his rat Animagus and escaped into the sewers after he cut of his finger and blew up the street knocking me back and killing those muggles."

"That will be all, Mr. Shakebolt administer the antidote," Amelia demanded at once. All these years, an innocent man had rotted in Azkaban while the real murderer had been free living who knows where and now everyone knew it.

"Those in favor of the Guilt of Lord Black raise your wands." Minister Fudge asked the room at large… Not a single wand was lit.

"Those in favor of freeing Lord Black of all charges?" He was not surprised as every wand lit across the room.

"So, it was stated, so it shall be. Lord Sirius Orion Black you are hereby freed of all charges held against you. On behalf of the Ministry, I wish to apologize for the injustices done to you by the former Government. While I know nothing can ever compare to what you have endured over the last 9 years, we wish to compensate you a total of 50, 000 galleons as an apology. We will make sure to get it into this evening paper of your innocence, and you should be free to walk amongst the public without fear by tomorrow."

Minister Fudge stated as calmly as he could. Because on the inside he was mildly freaking out. He just knew that when this got out, there was going to be an uproar. Black was the Lord to a very old and powerful house, a member of the Sacred 28 and he had been thrown into prison without a trial. He was really hoping he could salvage his reputation somehow- Hoping that maybe since he was the Minister that freed the man, the public would see him as correcting a wrong done by his predecessor and not as part of the group that could condemn an innocent man to the dementors. "yes, that will do nicely' he thought to himself before turning to address Lord Black once more. "If there is anything else, we at the Ministry could do for you, please just ask."

"There is something you can do for me actually," Sirius replied immediately, standing from the chair as soon as he had been released. "I want full custody of my Godson Harrison. His parents were adamant that they wanted him to be raised by me if anything happened, and I'd like to begin abiding by their wishes."

Before Fudge or Emelia could begin to respond, Dumbledore was out of his seat drawing all eyes to him. "I don't think that is such a great idea. The boy hardly knows you, and would we really want to remove him from the only home he knows?"

"Harrison, has spent the last 6 weeks writing and visiting me Dumbledore, and I have no doubts that he would wish to be with the guardian he should have been with all along." Sirius snapped back angry that Dumbledore was trying to interfere once again.

"What of his Aunt and Uncle? I'm sure they wouldn't want to part with the boy they raised as a son?"

"If I may cut in gentlemen?" Cadmus asked politely as he made his way to where Fudge and Amelia were sitting and handed them a set of forms. "I have here with me signed documents from Mr. and Mrs. Dursley giving up guardianship of Heir Potter to Lord Black. All he needs to do is sign them and he will be recognized in the muggle world as Harrison's sole guardian. If you the Esteemed Minister were to sign off on Lord Black rights as his Magical Guardian, reuniting a wronged man with his beloved godson we can be done with today and all get back to what's most important hmm?"

Reading the documents and knowing that allowing Lord Black to take full custody of the boy-who-lived-thus putting the child with the family he wanted- would look good in the eyes of the public Cornelius made his decision. "Lord Black is to be granted full custody of the minor Harrison James Potter effective immediately. Case adjourned!"

With that he banged the gavel once and stood effectively dismissing everyone present.

HPSBHP

Harrison leapt from his seat as soon as the words were out of the Minister's mouth and was running across the hall towards his godfather as fast as he could.

When he reached the man, Sirius was just being released from his restraints and turned to greet him, pulling him into a tight hug as both cried quietly, relieved it was finally over. They were going to be a family at last.

As the two hugged in joy, Cadmus informed them that next week he would begin his investigation into those involved in locking Sirius up without a trial all those years ago. He would make sure that everyone involved got dealt the justice they deserved, and Sirius was rightly compensated.

Pulling away and thanking Cadmus for all his help, Sirius quickly signed the papers transferring custody from the Dursley's to himself before he placed his arm across his pup's shoulders and turned to leave.

"Let's go home pup."

They had barely made it out of the double doors when they were stopped by Dumbledore stepping in front of them. "Sirius my boy, I must implore you to either return Harry to his aunt and uncle or come with me so we can figure out the best way to keep him safe."

Glaring at the man in front of him Sirius tightened his hold onto Harrison's shoulders, "That's Lord Black to you Dumbledore, and you will refer to my godson as Heir Potter, and not that god forsaken nickname. You know Lily hated that name," he stated angrily, before raising his eyebrow in mild confusion.

"What exactly are you keeping him safe from Dumbledore? Voldemort's dead, and his followers caught or killed…unless you aren't telling everyone something."

Sirius watched as the mans eyes narrowed in anger and smirked in satisfaction at getting to him.

Having not expected answers to his questions, Sirius spoke once more, "Whatever Harrison needs protecting from, I will deal with. Now I will be taking my godson home, and you will do well to keep out of our business. You will be his Headmaster while he attends school, and nothing more. If you choose to harass either of us, I will send him to one of the other schools around Europe, or have him homeschooled, do I make myself clear?" he demanded, before he walked them past the man who was beginning to shake with the anger, he felt at being dismissed once more.

Once they had rounded the corner, Sirius directed Harrison to the closest fireplace, and floo'd to their new home at Potter Estates in Oxfordshire, as they had discussed on one of their many visits.