It's funny I wasn't really going to break them out of prison this soon, but it just worked out this way so I'll see how it goes. My fics always seem to guide themselves. Hopefully this will go in a good direction.

Ok, timeline wise, we are just before summer break for the Scoobies, Harry is just ending his second year. This is now after the prom episode, I'm assuming Buffy went with Angel and she knows he is leaving. I know it kinda skipped a lot from 'Bad Girls' to Graduation but just accept it.

I've been trying to develop Sirius in this chapter, let me know what you think.

 

Chapter 4 – Life Story

Hours passed and the night turned into early morning, dawn, and still they swum. They did not talk, there was nothing to say, and their energy was spent. Just as Buffy thought she could go no further, she sighted land. A new burst of energy came upon her and she pulled away, leaving dog-Sirius behind her. As soon as she reached the beach, she collapsed onto the wet sand, her cheek pressed against the grains, eyes closed. In the back of her mind, she heard Sirius arrive on the beach after, and a loud thud that told her that he too had collapsed.

Buffy rolled over onto her back, opening her eyes and seeing the pinky dawn sky. It was truly beautiful, she realised. The tiny things, things that every day you accepted as part of this world. Buffy had only been imprisoned for a day, but it had felt like a lifetime. It had been a lifetime for Sirius, Buffy thought as she rolled onto her side, and looked at his back. He rolled over, and looked at her, flashing an exhausted grin.
 "Would've been twelve years," he croaked exhaustedly. "Twelve years inside. I owe you big time." Buffy smiled back at him.
 "I owe you too," she said. "You could've left me to the dementors but you didn't. I guess I can trust you." Sirius rolled onto his back, and gazed up at the sky.
 "Freedom," he said quietly. "You know, for twelve years this is all I have wanted, to be free, and I have no idea what to do." He gingerly got up, wincing at the feel of using his exhausted muscles.
 "I think sleeping might be good," Buffy said thoughtfully, also getting to her feet carefully. "But where are we?"

 "I have no idea," Sirius said honestly. "We could be anywhere, Azkaban is unplottable; no one knows where it is." They walked up the beach, cool air on their skin and the summer sun beginning to warm them. Stone steps led up to the road which was fronted by apartments. They walked down the road, which was deserted except for a man walking his dog. Buffy and Sirius approached him.
 "Excuse me," Buffy said politely, and the man looked at them warily, eyes taking in their soaked prison robes. "Where exactly are we?" The man looked at them, somewhat apprehensively.
 "Um, Los Angeles?" he said nervously, and then quickly walked away. Buffy could've laughed out loud, were she not trying to appear at her sanest.

"This is perfect!" she exclaimed. "I can hop a bus to Sunnydale." She noticed Sirius' expression.
 "What?" she said.

 "I'm in America," he said bluntly. "I need to get to England, to Scotland."

 "You can get a plane," Buffy said then stopped. "No wait you need a passport. Well you hop a boat, but it's kind of slow…" Sirius frowned.
 "It's not the transport means," he explained. "Magically, I can get there easily. But I don't know where the magical settlements are in America, I have no idea where to go."
 "Come with me," Buffy said on a whim. "Come to Sunnydale, maybe we can do a locator spell or something, or maybe Angel will know, or Giles. Willow's a Wiccan, she does wandless magic," Buffy said in response to the look he shot at her.
 "Okay," Sirius said finally.

The bus journey was long and it was evening when they pulled up in Sunnydale. Buffy had paid for the tickets, visiting her friend Lily, now known as Anne, and borrowing the money, promising to send the repayment when they arrived in Sunnydale. On the bus journey the two had slept for a long time, still exhausted from their swim. When they awoke, they talked. Tentatively at first, not fully trusting one another, but more openly after a while.
Escaping prison really brought you together, Sirius reflected, he now trusted Buffy even though he had only known her a short time. He believed she was innocent, despite the fact he had heard many hardened criminals proclaim their innocence over the years. She told him about the whole mess with Faith, how she had framed her for killing the mayor.
 "She said she didn't care," Buffy said, eyes opaque. "She didn't care about killing someone; she said she was doing her job. But that isn't our job." Sirius looked at her and said nothing. Buffy looked back at him.
 "What?" she said bemused.

 "It's nothing," he said, with a faint smile. "It's just I can't get over a tiny girl like you being a slayer and everything. I mean I saw you bend those bars but it's so strange."
 "Hello, weirded out by the whole magical world thing," Buffy said with a grin. "Tell me about your life before you were locked away." Her sudden question took him by surprise, and he thought for a moment before answering.
 "I didn't exactly have the happiest childhood," Sirius began. "My parents were pure bloods, prestigious in the Wizarding world, and very prejudiced against muggles. I was the oddball, had no Wizarding pride they called it. My parents hated me, I was the black sheep. My brother, Regulus, could do no wrong, and that got him far, he was the only one brave and stupid enough of my family to openly declare his muggle hatred and join the death eaters. Then he tried to back out and got killed, but that was much later after I'd moved out."

 "You left?" Buffy said, brow furrowed. "I tried that once, but it wasn't by choice."
 "I couldn't wait to get out," Sirius declared vehemently. "James was my best friend, the best friend I'd ever had and so I stayed with him, camped out at his house every summer, and his parents took me in as their own. Then when I was seventeen, I got my own place. Never saw my family again. Grew up, got a job, and joined the Order of the Phoenix to fight Voldemort. I was best man at James and Lily's wedding, and godfather to Harry. Probably the happiest days of my life, and then it all went wrong."

 "You never got married, never had kids?" Buffy asked curiously.
 "It was never me," Sirius admitted. "I was young back then, content with just being me. Sometimes I looked at Lily and James and harry and I envied them, they had each other. But they welcomed me into their family, and so I did okay. I never met anyone I felt a relationship with could be anything like Lily and James', so I never really tried. And kids, I don't know if I would've made a good father. I was too wild, too independent. James was good at it, but then he had Lily to hold him down. I was content enough being Harry's godfather."
 "How exactly were you framed for murder?" Buffy asked.
 "By my friend," Sirius said directly. "Through the Order, we got word that Lily and James were targeted, that Voldemort wanted to kill them, so they were going to go into hiding. There's a spell you can do, the Fidelius charm, which locks a secret inside one person, and only they can tell it if they choose. So we decided that Lily and James' whereabouts would be protected by this, and of course James wanted me to be the secret keeper. But times were hard, we knew that someone was spying for Voldemort in the Order, and so we changed it at the last minute. At Hogwarts, we went around in a four, the Marauders, me, James, Remus and Peter. Peter was the weak one, the one who tagged on after the rest of us, so we used him, thought no one would suspect him. Turns out he was the spy after all." Buffy gasped.
 "Your best friend?" she said, looking shocked. "He did that to you?"

 "Lying scum," Sirius said through gritted teeth. "He always liked having powerful friends who would protect him, guess Voldemort was the best he could find. So after we did the charm, I went to his house to check on him but he was gone, so I went to James' house and it was a mess, and they were dead." He stopped and looked at the floor, taking a deep breath.
 "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Buffy said gently, laying a hand on his arm.
 "No it's okay," he said, looking up at her. "I need to; it's been so long, telling people who just wouldn't listen. So I went into the house, and there's the bodies, just lying there, and then Harry, lying in his cot screaming, head cut open and bleeding. Hagrid was there, holding Harry. And I thought, if I can just take Harry, then maybe, just maybe, people will know that it wasn't me. Because I knew they'd be coming for me, everyone thought I'd been the secret keeper, thought I was the spy. But Hagrid wouldn't let me take him, and he left with Harry. So I went after Peter, tracked him down, confronted him. And when I found him, he yelled at me. Yelled for everyone to hear that I had betrayed James' and then killed all the muggles around us and transformed into a rat and ran down to the drains. And I was left, standing in a mess of dead muggles, to be carted off to Azkaban."

 "But didn't you tell people you were innocent?" Buffy murmured. "Didn't they listen?" Sirius laughed a bark-like laugh.

 "Didn't even get a trial," he said bitterly. "Locked up for twelve years without a trial." Buffy and Sirius felt the bus slowing, and looking out of the window, they saw early afternoon Sunnydale. The bus stopped and they climbed off.

 "Welcome to Sunnydale," Buffy said. "Home of the free, and the hellmouth. We need to be low key, I'm a wanted criminal."

 "You're not the only one," Sirius said impassively. He followed her from the bus garage, as she threaded through groups of people. They moved down alleyways and quiet streets, constantly on the lookout for people Buffy knew.

 "We're going to my Watchers house," Buffy said quietly to Sirius. "He'll know what to do." Sirius followed her down some stone steps and into a small courtyard. Buffy moved forward and looked through the window. Peering into the house, she saw Giles, handing out drinks to Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia.
 "Perfect," Buffy murmured, knocking on the door.
 Giles pulled open the door, and stared at Buffy. Wordlessly, Buffy pushed past him into the house, Sirius following her, and closed the door.
 "Buffy, how did you-?" Giles said breathlessly. The others looked up to see Buffy standing before them, covered in grime and dirt.

 "Okay, before we start, I didn't do it, I didn't kill anyone," she said breathlessly.
 "We know," Willow said. "Of course we know it wasn't you." Buffy blinked.
  "That was a whole lot easier than I expected," she said.
 "But Buffy, what happened, Wesley said you'd been sent to prison?" Willow said looking scared.

 "I was," Buffy said. "But I broke out, with Sirius." The Scoobies cast looks at Sirius but didn't say anything. Buffy went and sat down, putting her feet up on the coffee table. Sirius followed her and sat down too.

 "So what's going on?" Buffy asked. "What's Faith doing?"

 "She joined the mayor," Giles said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. "We confronted her about framing you, and she showed her true colours. Wesley realised he had made a mistake and has disappeared."

 "So why was I not released?" Buffy demanded. "That place….you have no idea."

 "Because you broke out before you could be released," Giles said, amused. "It's only been three days since you were taken away. We wanted to find you, we tried but we had no place to start. Even Wesley didn't know where you'd gone. So we decided proving your innocence would be a good idea."
 "Good thing too," Buffy said lightly. "Travers couldn't wait to lock me up; he's had it n for me since The Cruciamentum. Anyway, we've got work to do; we need more fire power. All of you get around school, tell people what the deal is, what we're facing. Give them weapons; they need to be able to fight. Giles take stock of what we've got, and Xander see what army weapons you can dig out, I need bombs in a big way. " Sirius cleared his throat, and Buffy looked at him.

 "Sorry," she said apologetically. "Guys, Sirius Black, Sirius guys. Sirius was in the cell next to me, also framed for murder of a whole bunch of people. He's a wizard and needs to get back to England to rescue his godson." The group just blinked.
 "Wizard? Did she say wizard?" Xander muttered. "What happened in that prison?"
 "Yes wizard," Buffy said impatiently. "Long story, when we're done with this, I'll explain it."

 "Maybe I should stick around," Sirius said to Buffy. "I could help you." Buffy looked at him thoughtfully.
 "It's up to you," Buffy answered. "I'd appreciate it, especially if you can get a wand but I understand if you want to go to Harry. There's a magic shop in Sunnydale, maybe they do some stuff there."
 "I'll stay," Sirius decided. "I can't get to Harry until he starts school again, and that's not til September. But they'll be after me, they'll know that I left with you."
 "We'll deal with that when it happens," Buffy said decisively. "We can hide you, and plus the evilness of Sunnydale might screw up the whole magic thing." She grinned at Sirius and he smiled back. Buffy looked up to see her friends staring at her expectantly.
 "Again, will explainy later," she said. "But right now all you need to know is that Sirius can do magic, will be hanging out, helping with the ascension and if anyone asks, you have no idea who Sirius Black is." They all nodded, still looking somewhat bemused.
 "You'd better go and see your mother," Giles said. "We didn't tell her what happened, I told her we went on a slayer field trip, but that Faith was bad."

 "Do they even exist?" Buffy asked distractedly. Giles shrugged.
 "Will do," Buffy said. "I'd better go find Angel too, brief him."

 "He'll be super happy to see you," Willow said. "He freaked when he heard what happened." Buffy's lips tightened but she said nothing.
 "He'll be leaving soon," she said quietly, but shook off her unhappiness. "Right I'm outta here, I'll be back this evening. We've got two days til Graduation; let's make sure we make it to college."