Broken Trust – Chapter 4
Sirius was thoroughly sick of being frozen and would have said so had he been able to move his mouth at all.
"Yes, they should be here at any-"
"Here we are, sir." Remus said, stepping through the door.
"It appears that the information Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter have given me is correct."
"Yes, professor."
"Well, unfreeze him, let him speak for himself."
There was a slight hesitation before Sirius fell to the couch with a muffled crash. He found that he could move, and slowly sat up.
"Where's your wand?" Lupin asked sharply, his own pointed directly at Sirius's face.
"I don't have one." Sirius said truthfully, holding up his hands.
Remus snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, right. They sprung you from Azkaban only to send you to Hogwarts unarmed?"
Sirius felt his temper flare at the accusation, and he worked to remind himself that they had no reason to trust him. He took a few deep breaths, then spoke again.
"When you found me in the woods, I was in dog form. Dogs don't exactly have pockets."
Remus raised one eyebrow, then nodded. "So what was your plan then?"
"I didn't have one." Sirius realized that the statement sounded incriminating, but Remus spoke before he could add to it.
"All right then, what were your instructions?"
"What?"
"What were you told to do? What was your goal? Why were you in the woods?"
"I wasn't given instructions-Remus, there is a lot of explaining that I need to do and I'm not asking you believe any of it, but I'm not working for Voldemort, I didn't sell Lily and James out to him, and I didn't kill Peter."
His old friend's eyes had widened slightly. "Excuse me?"
"I know it sounds like a load of crap, but I can explain…"
"Then by all means, Mr. Black, we're waiting to hear your story." Albus Dumbledore spoke directly to Sirius for the first time in years.
Sirius closed his eyes briefly, trying to get his thoughts in order. The silence in the room was heavy; no one dared to even breathe loudly. The three students were squashed on a small couch. Remus remained standing, Dumbledore sat behind his desk, hands folded patiently.
"All right," he said finally, "it all started when Voldemort was very powerful. James had appointed me secret keeper, as I believe you all know. However, as the days went by, I began to think that Lord Voldemort would go for me straight away."
"So you went to him first?" Harry snapped suddenly. Lupin's head turned slightly, and Harry's friends seemed startled.
"No! I thought that it was obvious that I had been chosen to be secret keeper. I began thinking that perhaps, if we switched, Voldemort would come after me while the real secret keeper had the chance to go into hiding."
"And did you switch?" Remus asked.
"Yes."
"What?" Hermione asked.
"We switched it around so that Peter Pettigrew was secret keeper. Who would have believed it? He was a weak, clingy person who wouldn't be able to stand up to Voldemort for a moment. Unfortunately, he was also the spy. He was able to hand Lily and James directly to his master."
"Why didn't you tell me that you switched?" Lupin's forehead was furrowed with concentration.
"Because…" Sirius's nerve failed and his voice trailed off. He steeled himself and started again. "Because we – I – I thought you were the spy."
Remus said nothing, but nodded his acknowledgement.
"What?" Harry protested. "You thought Remus was the spy? How could-"
"No, no, Harry, that part of the story, if it is the truth, makes sense now. But go on, Sirius." Lupin said.
"When I heard what the little rat had done, I was furious. One of my best friends had just been murdered. I went straight to their house and found Hagrid there, collecting the baby." Sirius nodded towards Harry. "He was picking up Harry to bring him to his aunt and uncles'. I argued with him for a bit, because James and Lily had appointed me the godfather. I was supposed to take him should anything like this happen. Hagrid told me to take it up with Dumbledore, so I gave him my bike and set out to find Peter."
Sirius closed his eyes again, and licked his lips, trying to moisten them. He hadn't spoken so many words total in the last fourteen years. The room remained silent. He took another deep breath and began to speak again.
"It wasn't hard to find Peter. In fact, he sort of found me. He stepped out into the street, sobbing, and asked me how I could have done it, how I could have betrayed Lily and James. I went for my wand, intending to kill him right then and there. For the first time in his life, Peter got lucky and was faster with his wand then I was with mine – his was behind his back, after all. He blew up the street just as I raised my wand, and I guess he blew off his own finger, and that's what they found of him."
"And that's when the ministry officials arrived, and off you went to prison." Dumbledore filled in. "You remained in prison for fourteen years, until the death eaters arrived."
"Yes, Sirius, the death eaters arrived and just decided to set you free? Even though you weren't one of them?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, they saw who I was, and then one of them told the others to go on about their business and said he would take care of it all, brought me to ground level, and told me to get away."
"Who was it?" Ron asked curiously.
"I don't know, he was masked. All I know is that the person was male."
"So a death eater decided that he couldn't kill an innocent person." Lupin asked skeptically.
"Yes. No! I don't know what made them save my life!" Sirius hastily tried to explain.
"Well, there always is veritaserum to settle this…but Mr. Black, from what I remember of Mr. Pettigrew, it doesn't seem very likely that he would be a spy for Voldemort. The boy was so very nervous…all of the risk of trouble with the ministry would surely frighten him."
"Voldemort was the most powerful person right then, who better to protect him?" Sirius argued.
"How would Peter even find Voldemort?" Remus asked.
"There were plenty of people he could talk to with ease, telling them that he had information and such. Lucius Malfoy, for one."
"I can hardly see Wormtail even working up the courage to talk to Lucius Malfoy, let alone the Dark Lord himself!" Lupin's temper was rising.
"Wait!" Harry interrupted. "Did you just say Wormtail?"
"Yes, that was Peter's nickname when we were at school. You remember Harry, your father was Prongs."
"But you never told me about Peter being Wormtail!" Harry exclaimed.
"I guess I just didn't bring up the nickname…why, Harry?"
"At the end of last year, when the portkey transported me to where Voldemort and the death eaters were-"
"A portkey did what?" Sirius broke in.
"The tournament that we had. I took the trophy and it was a portkey, set up by someone working for Voldemort – it's a long story really. Anyway, I got there and I saw Voldemort regaining strength and such, and one of his main people who he said helped him rise was rewarded – he called him Wormtail!"
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A/N: Yes, I got the chapter posted fairly quickly this time…after a number of mishaps with my computer. Evil thing. It's not much of a cliffhanger, but it was the best I could manage. I hope you come back anyway…Thank you to everyone who comes back for each new chapter – I love you I love you I love you!
Lady Foxfire – *grins* you betcha!
Tarawen – well of course the triwizard tournament happened without Sirius. Sirius didn't actually play that huge of a role in it…just advice and such. Unless I'm forgetting something. I'm not sure exactly what you mean about Remus…clarification? Please? (The part about the posse…) Anyway, your reviews make my head spin, but I like that. It's good for me. Keep reading!
Wellduh – well of course it had to stop right there. I'm fond of cliffhangers. :o)
Kaylin – hi. But do you know me that well? He just might get severely injured…maybe…not saying anything as of yet…bye.
Nicky – hooray, you're still reading!! Hope this chapter didn't bore you…
AngelOnFire – I'm glad you like it! Thanks for all the reviews on my stuff, by the way… I don't do an answer thing on the rest of my stories, so I might as well tell you that I worship the computer you read my stuff on…that's how much I enjoy reviews!
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Thanks again to all of my wonderful, beautiful, talented, amazing reviewers! I LOVE YOU!