A/N: Well, after much work I give you Part 2 of this fic. Sorry it took so long but I've been working on other things (Final Confrontation and In His Memory) so I didn't get back to it until now. Thanks for you patience. Please review and enjoy the story.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine but then you already knew that. They belong to J.K. Rowling.
Fidelius Betrayed
Part Two: The Trials of Sirius Black
By: WeasleyTwin2
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
From Les Miserables
The things we love completely we are fated to destroy
My Heart Dances from The Road to El Dorado
The woods were dark and silent. Voldemort must have frightened the animals away. Most of them couldn't abide the smell or feel of anything evil. I tried not to think about the fact that Lily and James were horribly dead nor about little Harry who must now live with his Muggle relatives. I had but one thought in my head and that was to find Peter. If I could find him and get him to surrender to the authorities then I could take Harry and raise him. Just before the charm had been performed James and Lily had made me Harry's guardian. I didn't know much about raising a child but I was willing, when this was all over, to try. I couldn't be any worse for the child then those Muggle relatives of Lily's who I knew hated anything to do with the Potter's or magic.
"Poor Harry…" I mumbled, wondering how long his stay with the Dursley's would be.
I stopped at the edge of the forest and paused to rest against a tree. Moonlight bathed the street before me and I looked up to see an almost full moon. I wondered where Moony was tonight and I hoped he would forgive me for thinking he was the traitor. I hoped he was still safely in hiding somewhere where no one would find him and where he would harm no one by accident. I knew that wherever he was, he probably grieved as I did for the loss of his friends. It was the very worst time of the month for him. I knew he would already be depressed because it was time for his monthly transformation into a werewolf. The news of the Potter's deaths would make him more depressed still.
Hoping that Remus would not be informed until after his transformation I stood scanning the street before me. I waited patiently, sitting with my back against a tree and then I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew it was morning. I yawned, stretched and scanned the street again. For a brief moment I transformed into a great black dog and sniffed the air, looking about me with the dogs better vision. There were several people out and about watching the Muggle police in the distance. I tried not to watch but my eyes were drawn toward the Potter's house. There was a curl of smoke above the house and the light of the fire that was still burning. This image burned itself into my mind, never to be forgotten. I took a deep breath taking in the scents that traveled on the pathways of the air. I smelled the smoke, the Muggles, flowers, damp earth, wood smoke and finally the scent I was waiting for: Pettigrew. I growled low in my throat and then I saw him. He was walking quickly toward me, hiding his face with a cap pulled low over his eyes. He walked quickly without appearing to be in a great hurry and even stopped to talk to one or two of the Muggles who were watching the fire and rescue workers before moving on.
"Prey… Kill…" said the more animal part of me with a low, deep growl as I watched Peter move on.
I transformed back into a man and remained where the trees and undergrowth hid me. I told that animal part of me to take a long walk. I watched as Peter continued to move toward me and waited. Finally he passed my hiding place and I let him get a half a block ahead of me before I moved from the sheltering cover of the trees. I followed behind for a block more then I ran toward him intent on catching up with him. He heard my running feet and he turned, looking surprised to see me.
"S…S… Sirius? What are you doing here?" he said, looking frantically around with his beady little eyes as if seeking escape.
I stopped in the middle of the road and pulled out my wand, pointing it at him. He paled as he realized that I knew the truth. For a brief moment I saw fear and something else reflected in his eyes
"You know why I'm here. Traitor…" tears streamed down my face and in a voice choked with emotion I continued. "Why… Peter? How could you…? What did he…?"
I couldn't continue and Peter moved out into the street and walked toward me until he was but a few feet from me. He stared at me insolently at me with a small smirk on his face.
"My Master bid it," he said still smirking.
Rage poured through me then and, I'm not sure why I did what I did next, but I advanced on him with my wand pointed steadily at his heart. I was barely able prevent myself from speaking the spell that would end his life. I wanted to kill him and yet…
"How could you betray the Potters!" I shouted as a crowd of Muggles came running from nearby to watch this new excitement. I ignored them as best I could.
"You sold them to Voldemort!" I said rage coloring my voice, my wand beginning to glow a fierce, angry scarlet.
"No…" said Peter quietly, still wearing that insolent smirk. "You. Sold. Them. To. Voldemort."
Then he shouted the words that still echo in my mind: " How could you, Sirius! Lily and James! You… You… vile… traitor!" He pulled out his wand and made a motion with it.
My eyes grew round with shock and surprise and I would have killed him then and there but the decision was taken forever out of my hands as an explosion rocked the area around me. The street began to sink around me and I leapt back as the concrete under my feet buckled. I fell to my knees and the Muggles around me began to scream loudly, running in different directions. I rolled out of the way as a large sinkhole appeared in the street where Peter and I had been standing just a moment before.
When I was able to stand again I noticed several people standing nearby in a huddled mass, their eyes wide, staring at the destruction around them and at me. There were others lying as if they slept and still others moaning or shouting in pain. I looked down at the crater where a few moments before Peter had been standing. There was nothing there now except several large sewer rats that were writhing around and squealing in terror and a heap of bloodstained robes. For some reason I found the rats amusing and I began to laugh out loud. The Muggles stepped back from me then and it was then that I noticed the fear in their eyes. This shocked me into silence for a moment as it's meaning became clear. They thought I caused all this destruction. I looked at the rats and laughed again at their naïveté.
I was still laughing when the authorities picked me up. I could seem to stop and I truly think that I lost my mind for a brief time. I don't remember anything from the time I was arrested until just after they had questioned me. I can't even remember the questions they asked or my answers. I was sitting in my holding cell when someone entered and that somebody made me snap back to reality as if I had never left it.
"Headmaster…" I choked out, hardly daring to believe my eyes. If anyone could fix this mess I had created it would be Albus Dumbledore
He shook his head sadly and wouldn't look directly at me. Briefly I saw the pain and sorrow reflected in his eyes.
"Sirius… Why…" he said, sorrow etching his voice.
My eyes streamed tears again and I threw myself on the cot unable to say the hundreds of things I wanted to. He believed that I had done these terrible things. I could tell this by his voice. My heart began to beat wildly in my chest, like a trapped animal. Did the others believe that I had? My spirit shuddered at the thought. I knew now it would be useless to say anything. Without Peter as proof of the switch I was as good as imprisoned or dead. My heart was in anguish and I began to fell the stirrings of fear in my soul. What would become of my now? I lay there silently shaking with sobs unable to stop. I had, in one 24-hour period, lost everything I once held dear. My life was now a ruin. All of my choices had led me astray. All my hopes and dreams lay shattered like broken glass. If Dumbledore was surprised by this display he said nothing.
"They… are to be… buried… today," he said quietly, his grief evident in his voice.
My head jerked up and I looked at him with my eyes mutely pleading.
"Please let me go… I need to say goodbye…" my eyes said. Dumbledore shook his head slightly and looked at me as if I wasn't really there, a look of sadness in his eyes.
"It would not be a good idea. You have been accused of murdering 13 people and betraying your best… James and Lily."
I was stunned and I shook my head trying to deny what he was saying. I wanted to shout that I was innocent, that I had been set up, that I wasn't capable of such hideous crimes. The shock of such accusations had struck me speechless. I sat mutely, with tears running down my face. I needed to say goodbye… to apologize to James and Lily. I HAD to.
"So you can see why you'll not be allowed to attend the funeral. Not after all you've done," there was anger and pain in his voice. "Your trial is set for two weeks from today. I hope you will think about what you have done and the pain you have caused. Goodbye, Mr. Black."
The coldness in his voice washed over me and I looked up into his eyes. They glared down icily at me and I shrank back suddenly afraid. I had never, even as a student who was fond of pranks of every description, seen him look quite as angry as he did at that moment and I suddenly realized that he must be feeling as betrayed as I did, the only difference was that he though I was the traitor and I knew who the real traitor was. This was what hurt me the most. I cried out incoherently but he just turned his back on me and left without a backward glance.
I threw myself at the closed door after him, screaming "No!" at the top of my voice. I banged on the door with my fists and kicked it, yelling that I'd been framed, that I was innocent but no one heeded me. Why should they? I was nothing more then a mad criminal who had killed 13 innocent people, a traitor who had betrayed his best friends. Finally, after several futile moments, I limped back to my cot. I stared dully out the window not really seeing anything, the seriousness of the situation made clear at last. How long I sat there I'm not sure but all to soon it was sunset and the room began to grow dark. I began to cry, the tears creating a small pool at my feet. My friends, two of the best friends I had ever had were laid to rest without me to send them off and their son would have to live among the Muggles until his eleventh year when Hogwarts would release him if he survived that long. I had been denied the chance to say goodbye to James and Lily and my heart grieved so deeply that I ignored all else for the next several days. I couldn't eat or sleep or even think. All I could do was cry for my loss, cry for the hopes and dreams that were now scattered like so many fallen leaves.
The trail went by in a blur. I remember snatches of it even now but I don't like to think about it. I felt helpless and grief was still haunting me to such a degree that I couldn't think nor speak. It was as if Peter's betrayal had cast a spell of silence on me. Everyone had long ago made up their minds regarding my guilt and there was nothing I could say that would prove my innocence. My only proof was dead and so was everyone who knew that Peter had been the Potter's Secret Keeper. It was hopeless and the hopelessness of the situation depressed me. The worst of it all was that everyone, even Dumbledore, believed I was capable of the crimes I'd been accused of. I knew I was innocent but there was no way to prove it. I was sentenced to Azkaban for life if one could be said to have a life in that dread place. A life surrounded by dementors night and day, losing a little of myself each hour, slowly going mad. When they pronounced the sentence, my mind reeled and my body trembled.
"No…" I mumbled unable to believe it, my mind going numb, almost fainting.
I burst into tears then and shouted out that they had the wrong man. I had to be lead away because I couldn't see and because I had run straight for the judge's bench with what must have been a crazed look on my face. I stared back over my shoulder at the roomful of people who had just condemned me. They had become an indistinct blur of color and light. I couldn't believe it. Everything had changed so quickly and my fate seemed sealed. The real world receded before me and a new darker world took its place. No one had ever escaped from Azkaban. The path I took now was a shadowed one and one that I felt sure I would never be free of again. My journey had started in darkness and now it appeared to have ended in that same darkness. My heart and body trembling, I followed the guards out and left the world I had known behind me forever.