I know I've pushed Joyce's illness forward a season or two but it's necessary for this fic. All will become clear I promise! Just so you're aware, there will be no appearance of Dawn in this or the sequel at all because frankly I don't like her. The Buffy universe won't follow canon, I'll probably use it as a rough guide and adjust it where I need to.

This chapter I will be paraphrasing JK Rowling quite a lot as her words are better than what I can write. Just repeating the disclaimer, all the characters and setting belong to other people, not me.

Thanks to:

Miz – I am kind of going along the same route, but I'll be making some changes as I said above

ScruffyWes

Harmoni9

Alexandra the half-wolf

Elrohir lover

Charmedfanatic3000

Christiana

Becks89 – nice update. Here you go; you can read on and find out about Joyce. Reading your bio you said you're an ER fan. What are you thinking of the series so far? (Not really HP or BtVS related but I'm curious!)

Chapter 32 – Confrontation

***TWO MONTHS LATER***

Buffy walked down the thick stone stairs into the underground station. It had taken her a while to find them, but when she really started looking for them, she found they just appeared before her. The station was the same as before, white washed walls and a large fireplace. There were a few wizards around, a small queue waiting to pass through the fireplace. A wizard wearing ragged robes huddled by the wall and Buffy handed him one of the galleons Sirius had given her which he accepted gratefully.
Buffy got into the queue to Floo, gripping her bag tightly. A long two months had passed which had tested Buffy's character a lot. She had returned a week before her mothers operation and she stayed with her the whole time. During the operation, Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies sat in the waiting room, tension thick in the air. Luckily the doctor appeared when he had promised, assuring them that the operation had been a complete success. Buffy had felt an enormous feeling of relief at that point, an indescribable feeling of elation.
She had seen her mother through her convalescence, sitting with her in hospital, talking to her and playing games with her when she felt down. The others had helped out too, Faith who Joyce has come to regard as a surrogate daughter, Giles, Willow, Oz, Xander, and even Anya did her part.

When Buffy felt she was back to her normal self and strength, she had said her goodbyes again and come back to LA. She had missed Sirius more than she'd even expected. It was like a part of her was missing and the part that remained was a shell of what she could be. But all that was about to change, as sad as she was to be leaving her mom, she had faith in her strength and that of her friends, and she was heading back to England. Back to Sirius where she would find out exactly how things had gone in her absence.
Maybe he's been pardoned already, thought Buffy happily as she moved along in the queue. Her turn came and she opened a little sachet and threw in the powder it contained.
 "The shrieking Shack," she declared and stepped into the warm flames, experiencing the familiar motion of being whirled off of her feet.

Buffy tumbled out of the fireplace at the Shrieking Shack a moment later. She coughed the soot out of her throat and dumped her bags on the kitchen table. The house was in disrepair, hardly differing from how it had been when they had first arrived.
 "Geez Sirius," Buffy muttered, looking at the thick layer of dust that covered all the surfaces. She was a little surprised, she had written as to when she was returning and had hoped that he would have been waiting.

Buffy walked through to the hallway, leaving her bags on the table. The house was eerily silent and Buffy felt the familiar pickling on the back of her neck that told her that something was amiss. Glancing around she saw the same thick dust layers covering everything, except for the stairs where a clean stripe ran all the way up, as if something had been dragged up the stairs. Buffy's spider sense was tingling madly and she moved up the stairs silently, avoiding the ones she knew to be creaky. She could hear voices coming from upstairs now, angry voices and she moved faster but still silently. At the top of the stairs she picked up a piece of wood that looked like a chair leg and brandished it.
Only the door to her and Sirius' room was open and a dim light shone from the door. As Buffy neared she heard the words the voices were forming.

"….All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black….pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay…' A voice said maliciously.

 "You- you've got to hear me out," Buffy heard Sirius croak. She tightened her grip on the wood and approached the doorway, still unnoticed. She jumped a moment later as a boy began yelling.

"YOU'RE PATHETIC! JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN-" he yelled angrily. Buffy moved forward, making a decision.

Buffy crossed the threshold of the room silently and only Sirius spotted her. His eyes locked on hers but he showed no emotion in his face, not giving her existence away.
 "….now get out of the way, or I will make you, GET OUT OFF THE WAY POTTER!"

Buffy lifted the wood like a baseball bat and brought it crashing down on the man's head. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

The other people in the room other than Sirius stared at her with more shock than Buffy would've believed possible.
 "Was this guy bothering you?" she quipped lightly to Sirius, bending down to check the man. He had a pulse and was breathing, but was clearly out for the count.

Sirius threw her a grateful grin and she moved across the room to his side, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Did everything go okay?" he asked and Buffy nodded.
 "I owe you for that," he said with a chuckle, gesturing to the man on the floor. The others were still gaping at Buffy.
 "I owe you too," Sirius said, suddenly addressing Harry. "You didn't have to stand in his way for me. Thank you."
"That doesn't mean I believe you," Harry retorted and Buffy looked between the two.
She gazed at Harry curiously; this boy was important, very important she knew. And not just to the Wizarding world, but to Sirius. She could see that his icy stares and harsh words hurt Sirius, who just wanted to know his godson after having lost his best friend. Being redeemed by the Ministry of Magic wasn't half as important to Sirius as being forgiven by Harry.

"I recognise you," Hermione said suddenly to Buffy. "You're the girl with the dog from Hogsmeade. It was Black, wasn't it?" Buffy nodded and Ron, lying on the floor, his left leg twisted awkwardly underneath him, squinted up at her. 

 "I recognise you too," Harry said staring at her hard. "You were in the stands the day we played Hufflepuff." Buffy nodded.
 "I wanted to see you play and Buffy had never seen Quidditch before," Sirius explained.

Harry frowned but didn't pursue it and they continued the conversation that had passed before the intrusion of this man who lay on the floor.

Buffy watched as the scene unravelled before her, months of travelling, planning and work coming together in moments.
She recognised the grey haired tired looking man as Remus Lupin, the man that had so long ago been Sirius' friend at school, and now appeared to be backing up Sirius, sticking up for him against the untrusting words of Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Quickly Sirius convinced Ron to hand over the rat which Buffy presumed to be Pettigrew.
 "Ready, Sirius?" Lupin asked.
Sirius picked up Snape's wand and moved to Lupin's side. He watched the rat hungrily, and what it meant to him, his freedom, and his redemption.

 "Together?" Sirius said quietly and Lupin agreed. He clutched the rat in his hand and counted them in. On three a flash of white-blue light erupted from both wands and for a moment the rat was frozen in mid air, then he fell and hit the floor. From the tiny black form sprouted a man, growing as if he were a plant. He shot up and finally it was finished and a small weedy man with thin colourless hair and small watery eyes. He glanced around the room anxiously, eyes darting to the door occasionally. Buffy noticed this and moved towards it, standing in front of it. He would regret it if he attempted to escape.

Peter Pettigrew looked at the faces that surrounded him, not one of them giving him the escape he wanted so badly.

"S-Sirius….R-Remus," he stammered, looking at Buffy and the door again. "My friends…my old friends." Sirius' wand arm raised but Remus pushed it down. Peter glanced towards the door as he spoke again but Buffy simply folded her arms.
 "He's come to try and kill me again!" Peter shrieked, pointing at Sirius. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too….you've got to help me, Remus."

Sirius stared Peter down and Buffy watched as the whole tale of what had happened that night came out for the whole group to know.
Sirius croaked out his story of how he had escaped to Harry, his eyes never straying from his face.
 "Believe me," Sirius croaked. "Believe me. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I would have betrayed them."

Harry stared at Sirius for a moment longer and then he nodded.