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The trial...

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Dumbledore clutched the file in his hand as he stood outside the door with his lips pressed tightly together. He hadn't thought this day would come, especially with the danger looming at the horizon because of Voldemort's return. Maybe that is why the old wizard didn't have a containment plan set for this. So the best he could do was hope that Sirius was voted to be guilty by the Wizengamot. However, he was not feeling confidant at all.

The door opened and he looked at the guard who stepped aside to let the old wizard through. Dumbledore walked in to the Wizengamot hall which was empty. Being the chief warlock his role was to officiate trials, which also included coming to the hall before the members to make sure all the filing was properly done and a summary of the case was on every member's seat.

So he busied himself for the next hour nearing the end of which the members started to arrive. Needless to say Dumbledore got a lot of looks from them. Those who were from the light side saw him with pity and worry. He knew that rumour was going around about him finally going senile after his announcement of Voldemort's return, and maybe it was because of that that he was receiving those looks. As for the families which belonged to the dark side they just sneered, glared and scoffed at Dumbledore like all times and like all times he just ignored them.

As the hour for the trial came nearer, the hall filled up with the Wizengamot members. Dumbledore's eyes, however, were fixed on the one seat which was still empty. That seat belonged to the Potter family and it had remained empty for the last fourteen years. Just like Dumbledore, a good number of members were also curious to see whether Harry would show up considering his family name was on the list of those who had pushed for this trial.

It was then that Cornelius Fudge entered the hall followed by his handful of very close associates who all worked directly under him. Among them, a woman with toad-like face glared daggers at Dumbledore. She was wearing a hideously pink sweater which made her clearly stand out in the hall where unlike her everyone else was either wearing something black or grey.

This woman's name was Dolores Jane Umbridge. She was the senior undersecretary to Fudge and his right-hand woman. She was also the one who Fudge wanted to put inside Hogwarts to get ministerial control over the school following Dumbledore's announcement of Voldemort's return which had people and the education board divided on whether the old wizard was fit to be headmaster anymore.

With only one minute left for the trail to begin the last remaining members of the Wizengamot walked in and Dumbledore saw Remus sit at the Potter seat. The lycanthrope got some looks from the other members but he ignored them. Dumbledore had realized that Harry was not coming. He was hoping to meet the boy but it seemed like it would have to wait. He then glanced at Matthias Greengrass before lightly hammering the gavel on the mallet to get everyone's attention. The hall quieted down.

"Good morning, respected members of the Wizengamot," he said formally greeting everyone. "We have gathered here today to conduct trial for Sirius Black, eldest son of Orion Black and Walburga Black of house Black – a fellow member of this court. This trial was challenged primarily by houses Longbottom, Bones, Greengrass and Potter and is backed by their ally houses – all members of this body."

At the mention of Greengrass name a lot of the heads turned to look at Matt who could definitely feel the pressure on him, especially from the angry glares he got from the dark families. He clutched his palms into fists to help calm his nerves when his eyes met Nott. The man was sitting on the lower row and was looking up at him with a smirk on his face. Matt knew that it would mean trouble for him and his family. Back when he had annulled Daphne's betrothal with Theo Voldemort wasn't in the picture. However, with the dark wizard's return Matt was sure that Nott was now confidant enough to do something horrible.

"Sirius Black was accused of betraying James and Lily Potter for Lord Voldemort which led to the murder of the Potter couples and made their son Harry James Potter an orphan," Dumbledore continued reading from the paper in his hand. "As such, Sirius Black was sentenced for life in Azkaban. However, the challenging parties claim that he never received a trial and was sentenced without one. The challenging party also claims that Sirius Black is innocent of the crime, hence for the need of this trial." He paused for a moment letting everyone soak in the information before he continued. "So, without further ado, I commence this trial. Please bring in Sirius Black," Dumbledore said as he banged the gavel.

The doors on the right side of the hall opened and Sirius was brought in with chains around his hands and legs. Only yesterday he had 'surrendered' to Amelia Bones who had then took him in custody to be brought in for the trial. Needless to say, her being the DMLE head came in handy as her subordinates didn't question her when she had brought Sirius to the ministry holding. They were also ordered to not report any of this to Fudge.

Cornelius was shocked to see the man. The minister had been wondering how Sirius would be brought in if the man was on the run. And yet here he was in chains as he was made to sit in the chair in front of the courtroom before the two aurors, who had accompanied him, tied his chains to the anchors on the floor. Fudge glared at Amelia who wasn't even looking at him. He would talk to her after this trial was over. Hopefully this will all end up with Sirius being found guilty because if he was not then Fudge was done for. The man had accused Sirius of horrible crimes other than betraying the Potters and had gained a lot of supporters because of it. If Sirius walks out of this hall as an innocent man then Fudge was sure to lose a lot of those supporters and that wouldn't be good for him in the next election.

Once Sirius had been confined the aurors gave a confirming nod to Dumbledore who then continued to address the members.

"Representing Sirius Black will be Madame Amelia Bones who is here today as only a member of the Wizengamot body and not as a high ranking ministerial officer."

Being addressed Amelia got up in her seat before coming down over to where Sirius was and stood beside him. The two looked at each other and she gave him a reassuring smile. She then looked at Dumbledore which was the signal for him to continue.

"I would now like to ask, is there anyone who wishes to challenge the motive of this trial?" said the old wizard as he looked around the hall. He desperately hoped for someone to raise their hand and was surprised when no one did, especially from the dark side families, all of who clearly didn't like Sirius. Dumbledore cursed under his breath as he clutched the paper in his hands a bit tighter before clearing his throat. "Alright then, marked for challenge, I now announce that this trial is a go!" And with that he banged his gavel on the mallet to signal the trial's start.

Amelia was quick on her feet as she took to the centre of the hall. "We all remember the Halloween night from fourteen years ago," she began her case. "How can we not? As it was that night that the world saw the fall of one of the most dangerous dark wizards of all time – Lord Voldemort – by the hands of Harry Potter who was nothing but a toddler back then. However, we are not here to discuss Mr Potter's feat from that night. If considered anything, it is the worst night of his life, as he has told me that in person. Why wouldn't it be? It was the night when he lost his both his parents when someone brought Lord Voldemort right at their doorstep. Why is this crucial? Well, because the Potters had their place under the fidilius charm. However, somehow, Voldemort was able to know of their location and that could have only been possible if he had gotten his hands on their secret keeper."

She then paused and looked at Sirius before continuing. "Everyone thought that that secret keeper was Sirius Black. It was an easy guess considering how close he was to the Potters. A life-long friend of James and godfather to Harry, one would assume that they would choose Sirius to be their secret keeper. It was for that very reason that the Potters decided not to do it. Instead they chose Peter Pettigrew – another close friend of the Potters to be their secret keeper. They didn't reveal this to anyone so people would assume that Sirius was their secret keeper when in reality he wasn't. However, what the Potters didn't know was that Pettigrew was secretly a death eater."

Amelia paused for a moment. She looked at Sirius who was looking at the floor with an expressionless face. The entire hall was eerily quiet. Pressing her lips together Amelia continued. "We don't know the reasons for as to why Pettigrew chose to betray his friends that night. It could have been because he was probably threatened by Voldemort or maybe he always had ill intentions towards them, but the reality is that Peter led Voldemort to the Potters' doorstep on the Halloween night of 1981." She paused again as she looked around the hall at the Wizengamot members. Everyone looked intrigued by her story so far and that gave her hope. However, it could all be deceiving, especially the dark side families who she knew, would never support Sirius because of his allegiance to the light side. But she had to state all the facts and Amelia had come prepared. She looked at Augusta and Matthias who both gave her a nod. She nodded back before looking at the Wizengamot members.

"None of us know what happened after he had murdered James and Lily Potter. All we know is that Voldemort was somehow defeated by young Harry," she said slowly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "When Sirius arrived at the place all he saw was the ruins of Potter Cottage with a huge hole on the east-side wall of the first floor – the room which was also a nursery for young Harry Potter. He also saw Pettigrew outside the cottage and confronted him about what had happened. Instead of answering him Peter attacked Sirius and as a result a duel ensued between them. When Sirius began to overpower him Pettigrew burst the gas pipeline which engulfed the entire neighbourhood in a huge explosion, killing twelve people. Taking advantage of the distraction Pettigrew severed his right index finger before transforming into a rat – his animagus form – and ran away, just before the aurors arrived at the scene. They found Sirius there alone and assumed that he had caused everything to happen and so they arrested him. They thought that he was the one who betrayed the Potters and had killed twelve more people by causing an explosion. However, the accusations on him would've been proved false had Sirius gotten his trial. However, he didn't. He wasn't the only one though. Following the defeat of Lord Voldemort the ministry, like all of Magical Britain, was in turmoil. A very dangerous dark wizard was gone so the ministry was rounding up every death eater they could lay their hands on, which, in this case were almost hundreds every day. It was almost impossible to set up a trial for each one of them so those who were accused of heinous crimes were sentenced right away without one. Amongst those sentenced was Sirius Black and just like most people I believed that he was guilty of the crimes he was accused of. However, I believed that because I was under the pretext that he had been proven so by this court under a fair trial, something which I later found out that he never received. I was made aware of it only a few weeks ago so I cross-checked from the trial-records and found it to be true. That gave me hope that he was actually innocent which is why I, along with my allies, pushed for this trial to prove his innocence.

"That is all I have to say about him," Amelia said. "I would also like to state that Sirius Black has agreed to be questioned under veritaserum and he also has submitted his memories from that night which can be viewed by this court to corroborate everything. With that said I rest my case."

Amelia glanced at Sirius one last time before walking back to her spot as the hall filled with sounds of its members murmuring amongst themselves. A minute later Dumbledore banged his gavel to have everyone's attention.

"I hope you all have discussed what you need to do next," he said. "If anyone is willing to question Sirius Black under Veritaserum then it will be arranged. If anyone wants to see his memories then that will be arranged as well. If none of the two are required then we will proceed with the voting." He then looked at the members, especially the dark families. Surprisingly none of them asked to question Sirius or see his memories. As for the light side families, they all seemed pretty convinced with Amelia's story.

Dumbledore cursed his luck as he banged his gavel again. "If no member has anything to ask to say to Sirius Black I would now ask you all to commence voting. Those in favour of Sirius Black being guilty on charges of murder, conspiracy and breakout please raise their hands." Surprisingly enough, only four hands were raised. "Those in favour of Sirius Black being innocent of all accused crimes please raise their hands." Almost everyone raised their hands including Lucius and Nott which was a shock for Sirius. Dumbledore banged his gavel. "It seems there is no need to count the votes as it is quite clear that the majority has voted in favour of Sirius Black being innocent and so the Wizengamot declares it to be."

The binds on Sirius were removed automatically as Amelia came and hugged him followed by Remus. Augusta and Matt came over to them just as other members began to leave. Sirius was trembling as he was overflowing with emotions. His eyes became wet as he looked at the four people in front of him. "Thank you," he managed to whisper.

"This should have never happened to you in the first place," Amelia said. She sounded like she would cry any moment as she kept holding Sirius' hand.

"If you want, we can file for the ministry to pay you a penalty for all those years you spent in Azkaban," Matt suggested. Everyone looked at Sirius who simply shook his head.

"No," he said slowly. "I'm happy that my innocence was proven. That is all I ever wanted. I am surprised though, about how many dark families voted in favour of me, especially Lucius."

"We can worry about it later," Remus said. "Let's go home for now. Harry must be really worried."

Sirius smiled as he nodded. He couldn't wait to tell Harry that he was a free man now so the two of them could finally live together. At last, after all these years he could look after his godson like he had promised James and Lily when they had made him Harry's godfather.

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Harry, Daphne and Astoria were in the living hall when the fireplace flared green. The three of them stood up immediately as they looked at the people coming out of the fireplace. It seemed everyone was back but Harry wanted to know if Sirius was. A huge smile came on his face as he saw his godfather exit the fireplace at the very end before Sirius extended his arms for a hug while grinning wide. Harry ran and tackled his godfather, tightly hugging him as everyone watched with a smile on their faces.

"Oh, those exercises seem to be working," Sirius grunted while laughing. "You've gotten stronger, pup."

Harry looked at him with teary eyes and a huge smile on his face. "So, does this mean that you are..." he deliberately left his question unfinished for Sirius, who answered it with just a nod. Harry's smile turned into a grin as he hugged his godfather again. Once he was content with the embrace he let go before looking at the rest of the adults around him. "I cannot thank you all enough," he said in a croaked voice. He was so very close to crying.

"You don't have to," Amelia said and the others nodded in agreement.

"I think this calls for a celebration," Matt said.

"I'm sorry but I will have to decline," Augusta said. "I am not much of a party person. Besides, I have to be home." Matt nodded in understanding.

"Thank you again, Augusta," Sirius said.

"Don't mention it," Augusta replied. "In times like this it is better to surround ourselves with people who we can trust." Everyone knew that she was referring to Voldemort's return and the impending threat that he posed over the magical world. "Well, I will be taking my leave now. You enjoy your freedom, Sirius."

Sirius nodded as Augusta threw a pinch of floo powder in the fireplace before disappearing behind the green flames.

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