I don't own Harry Potter.

The Secrets of the Chamber of Secrets.

As Harry stared at the small, crying man huddled in a heap before him in the dilapidated room of the Shrieking Shack, he could not help but wonder why, why was it every single time there was a nasty situation which lasted the entirety of the year, it was near the end of the year that a problem was dealt with. Just once it would be nice to rectify a problem before it had an entire year to get out of hand.

After the enjoyable summer, he'd had following the mess of the Chamber of Secrets after he had discovered the hidden library and the treasure trove of knowledge accumulated by Salazar Slytherin during his time at the school, which gave him the hope he could improve and enhance his spell repertoire. However, he had gone out of his way to find a way out of staying at the Dursleys.

Living on a muggle street, and being cooped up in a muggle house for an entire summer while serving the Dursleys was not his idea of fun; he wanted a summer holiday where he could be himself, and he could spend as much time as he'd like working on improving his magical knowledge. While the goblin message box had helped filter through the mail which was spelled with tracking spells or compulsion charms for him to get back in touch with Dumbledore, and return to the Dursleys, the discovery Sirius Black had escaped prison in both worlds was a surprise.

But the biggest surprise was that everyone felt Black was chasing after him. Fudge refused to say why, so Harry asked the goblins and Tom at the Leaky Cauldron. He had spoken to Tom first, giving him a logical argument about what Black might find a way of slipping through the net, and since Fudge and his Aurors had done a clumsy job in finding him in the first place, and announcing his presence in Diagon Alley, it was possible. Tom had given him the account, but the goblins had given him more information because there had been some things Harry wanted clarification on, and the goblins had never let him down when he needed knowledge.

His year had been rough because of the Dementors being outside the school grounds, and when he discovered that they sucked the soul out of people, Harry wondered just what was wrong with the magical world, since they didn't seem to have any problem whatsoever with exposing their children to such a threat, unguarded.

It was just typical of Fudge to come up with some stupid scheme and not really think it through, but his impressions of the Minister had shown him a man who was so ignorant, he didn't even know how ignorant he was; his brain just sucked up what it liked like a sponge, and refused to take in any more facts.

Fudge had proven that mindset when he had Hagrid arrested the year before; he must have either been told about Riddle framing Hagrid or found some old case files and he had believed it and he hadn't bothered with a proper investigation. That mindset had reared itself this year, too; he hadn't bothered to think of the dangers of the Dementors near Hogwarts, where they could suck the souls out of their victims, or their aura which sucked the warmth out of a place and a person, but it wasn't until Harry, who had fallen off his broomstick which was destroyed by the Whomping Willow, had written a long, angry letter to the Daily Prophet and to other media publications, that the Ministry got off their backsides and did something constructive, and got the Dementors away that things became better.

He had pointed out that Black was not likely stupid enough to expose himself to the Dementors anyway, and he'd gotten past them to begin with, so how could they find him when they hadn't had much luck for months?

It was a logical argument the Ministry was struggling to answer now, but the parents had become a frenzied mob, determined to get their children away from the Dementors.

But in truth Harry had known for months and months now that Sirius Black was not guilty, he was innocent. The goblins had told him he had sworn a very powerful godfather oath, and if he broke it by betraying the family he'd pledged, he would have died. How come the wizarding world didn't even know about it? Harry knew that Black was innocent, but he was hard-pressed to find a way of proving it; he had already worked out it couldn't have been Lupin. Sure, the man was a walking pity party on legs and was a werewolf despite his dignity and talent and skills, but when he had learnt of Peter Pettigrew's cleanly cut-off finger, he had become suspicious.

But discovering that Pettigrew, Black, and his own father had become secret, illegal animagi was a surprise, but what shocked him the most was what they had done to it to help Lupin through his werewolf transformations. They had become the Marauders, a group of pranksters who made the Weasley twins look like amateurs still in the nursery by comparison. They'd had a rich friendship in their youth before the whole thing was poisoned by the disease that was Lord Voldemort.

And he was looking down at the snivelling results of Voldemort's work; Harry wasn't entirely sure if it was just fear for Voldemort or if the Dark Wizard had done something to make him become a traitor, or if it was his general beliefs that made him seek out the Death Eaters, to begin with, which led to Pettigrew becoming one anyway, he could not deny its effectiveness.

Finding out Pettigrew had faked his death and had spent the past decade as a rat was disgusting enough, finding out the Death Eater had been sleeping in Ron's bed was sick. Scabbers, according to Hermione, had gone mad and had bitten Weasley on the finger, really hard, and had rushed into the tunnel beneath the violent tree, chased by Sirius's animagus form. In the Shrieking Shack, the truth had been revealed except it had been a fight and a half for Weasley to accept the facts.

Pettigrew was whimpering on the ground. His legs had just been twisted and ground out of shape until his legs resembled the gnarled branches of a tree.

"Why would you do that, Harry?" Hermione demanded faintly aghast that someone could be so cruel, as Harry roughly levitated the pathetic Death Eater up, making him shriek in pain while Harry uncaringly bound him in tight ropes. Pettigrew cried out in agony as the ropes and nets tightened around what was left of his legs.

"Just making sure he can't get out," Harry said as he held his wand and maintained the levitation. "Come on," he added, turning to Sirius and Hermione and Weasley, but he turned to Lupin. "You'd better stay here, Professor. It's a full moon tonight, the last thing we want is you transforming on us."

Lupin's eyes widened. "You've got a good point, Harry. But won't you need help when you get to the castle? I mean with Sirius's status as a prisoner…"

Harry cursed the fact this couldn't have happened on a day when Lupin was in a fit state, he was right. While the Dementors were gone, there were likely trigger-happy idiots who'd like a pop at Sirius. "That's just a problem we'll have to deal with," he said.

"What about Professor Snape?" Hermione asked.

Harry grimaced at the thought of Snape. The Potions Master had burst into the Shrieking Shack after seeing them rush in underneath the Whomping Willow, the moment he appeared he had instantly lost all reason in favour of revenge. Harry had blasted him through the wall and he didn't know if the man was concussed or waking up.

"No, Snape wouldn't help us. Don't forget he was so eager to see Sirius get kissed," Harry levitated the still whimpering Pettigrew through the tunnel, but when he turned around he found Hermione levitating the professor through the tunnel just behind Sirius and Weasley. Sirius had his arm around Weasley, helping him through the tunnel.

"So, are you two Harry's friends?" The ex-convict asked.

"Yes."

"No," the firmness in Harry's voice up ahead was cold.

"Beg pardon?" Sirius could see the hurt on the girl's face and the anger on the boy's.

Harry sighed. "We were friends, but then last year I was accused of setting a giant basilisk on the school to purge the place of muggle-borns, and these two bought it, hook, line, and sinker."

"You can speak parseltongue! What were we supposed to think?!" Weasley shouted, the sound so unpleasantly close in the tunnel.

"You should have known I wouldn't have attacked students in the first place! If I were really guilty I would not have drawn attention to myself at all," Harry snapped, keeping his voice low but loud enough to be heard. "Why would I attack muggle-borns at all? I didn't understand the logic in the first place, but I'm glad I found a magically binding oath that proved my innocence since nobody bothered to investigate!"

"You're a parselmouth?" Sirius asked faintly.

Harry stopped. The others could not see his face, which was what he wanted, but now he was worried. He didn't speak as he resumed his stride. Getting Pettigrew out of the tunnel and to the castle was relatively straightforward. The hardest part was proving Sirius's innocence, but the presence of Pettigrew, who was recognised by the more older Aurors and professors at the school who'd taught him, gave the whole matter of Sirius's innocence greater credibility.

The Death Eater's presence was enough for Amelia Bones and Fudge to be summoned.

Amelia Bones was the head of the DMLE, and the moment she saw Pettigrew she had him further restrained with guards surrounding him with their wands drawn. Harry knew by looking at their body language, they were prepared for a fight. At the far opposite end of the spectrum was Fudge, who was so confused and in denial about everything that was happening. But Harry's sympathy for the Minister was limited since he had spent months pushing for Sirius to be kissed by Dementors, only to now discover that his gospel truth was wrong.

Sirius's innocence was further proven by Harry and Hermione's testimonies while Weasley was reticent about doing 'the famous git Harry Potter' a favour. But it was further helped by Sirius's own account of everything that happened. At the end of the whole thing, Sirius was allowed to go free.

X

Harry was idly going through the Chamber of Secrets library, mentally sorting through the collection for anything that he could take. He knew after his last escape, it would prove to be harder to get past the Dursleys and whatever guards Dumbledore would have to make sure he went to Privet Drive, but he had no intention of cooperating.

But Harry had enjoyed his last summer, and he wanted to have another one where he could enjoy himself, and take advantage of the freedom to become healthier instead of the yearly cycle of taking advantage of Hogwarts food to become better fed only to lose it again while he was being starved by the Dursleys, under Dumbledore's well-meaning but poorly thought out protection plan.

Ancient Runes, healing, warding, and many other subjects found themselves losing volumes to Harry's ruthless perusal. As he searched through the books, Harry used the opportunity to think.

Despite the Dementors and the mystery surrounding his parents' deaths and uncovering the name of the bastard one who had betrayed them, it had been a fairly good enough year; Dumbledore's manipulations were still there, and so he'd needed to be careful, but as he had proven with the summers, while he was aware he needed to be careful, he was prepared to step around them.

Sirius's innocence had been published in the Daily Prophet and now everyone knew the truth. Pettigrew was awaiting trial in the Ministry while he was under both heavy guard and the warning that he was a rat animagus. Harry was not sure what would happen to Pettigrew, but he hoped the Ministry used the Dementor's Kiss; Sirius's escape had been embarrassing but it was simple for an animagus who could turn into a rat to get out. And Pettigrew's rat form would be smaller than Sirius's dog form. And if he got out, everyone would be hard-pressed to find him again.

But Harry found it hard to believe Dumbledore or Fudge would have the sense to do what was necessary; while he understood Dumbledore's reluctance to kill, sometimes you had to. And Fudge's lack of common sense was worrying, he had so much political power it was worrying what he might or could do.

The good news was Sirius was innocent and it was proven, and he was in the hospital receiving treatment for the last thirteen years. If that wasn't a nice poke in the eye against Voldemort, Harry didn't know what was.