chapter 6

(a/n- i know, i know. finally. just takin a bit of a break. trying to organize my thoughts. i think i'm ready to get back to work. theres this freakin buzzing noise outside and its driving me insane! i got this awesome notebook the other day that says "Sirius Lives" and then below that it says "no body, no funeral, no death." its got a picture of a black doggy too. awwwwwww.... yay i have black hair and green eyes now! anyway, heres the next chapter.)

(disclaimer-all characters except Mary belong to JKR)

Sirius regained consciousness the next morning and wondered where he was. He looked not too far away and saw the small village of Hogsmeade. He finally remembered: They had escaped! But then every good feeling that he had dropped, as he looked at the other black dog crumpled on the ground, barely breathing.

"Mary!" he thought.

He grabbed her with his teeth again and dragged her into the Shrieking Shack. He laid her down softly on the floor, transformed, and shook her awake. She opened her eyes very wearily.

"Mary," he said very clearly, "can you please transform?"

She didn't move or say anything, but there was now an unconscious thirteen-year-old girl lying in front of Sirius.

He knew it was bad the moment he saw her. She was pale and cold as ice. Her breath was coming in short gasps, and if it were not for that he would have thought her dead. She was also shaking and looked like she had a fever. She did cough every so often too.

Sirius began to cry. He didn't know why but he blamed this all on himself. He couldn't lose her, he just couldn't. He was determined to find her help no matter what the cost. But how? How? He couldn't just go barging into St. Mungo's or somewhere. He couldn't do anything for her himself. Or could he? An idea struck him like a bolt of lightning. It was the only option. It would be extremely risky, but he had to do it. He had to break into Hogwarts and use the Potions dungeon. He knew he only needed a powerful healing draught. Everyone would be asleep. It was the only way.

He left Mary in the old house with his extra cloak on top of her and made his way up to the school.

He carefully padded down into the Potions dungeon and found all the supplies he needed quickly. He was never very much good at Potions, but he really did study ones he knew would be helpful. Within the hour he had concocted a very effective healing draught. He decided that he would take the whole cauldron just in case.

He transformed back into a dog with the cauldron in his teeth and started toward the exit of the school. Suddenly, he stopped and turned around. He put the cauldron down and made his way toward Gryffindor tower. He knew Peter was there. Sirius had a knife on him. He wanted his revenge.

He walked around a corner and met up with a cat called Crookshanks. Crookshanks gave the week's passwords on slips of paper to him and they made their way to Gryffindor tower.

Harry Potter lay peacefully in bed sleeping. Gryffindor had just beat Ravenclaw in a Quidditch match and they had been up late celebrating.

All of the sudden, a loud scream awoke him. He sat bolt upright. He saw his best friend Ron Weasley sitting up on his own bed with a terrified look on his face. Ron looked over at Harry and whimpered,

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!

"What?"

"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!"

That was the last Sirius heard of anything. He had transformed back into a dog and was hiding in the shadows. While everyone's attention was turned toward Ron, Sirius quietly scampered out of Gryffindor tower. Something had scared him back there. The look on that boy's face. His eyes had been filled with horror as he had looked up at Sirius. He didn't blame the boy, but that had hurt. He couldn't stand a world in which everyone hated him, contrary to the world he knew. He ran back to the place where he had left the potion, grabbed it, and ran out of the school and down to the Whomping Willow, which lead to the Shrieking Shack.

Sirius found Mary exactly how he had left her. He knew that she would need a lot of rest along with this potion and that there was no guarantee she would still make it. He soon realized he had quite underestimated her strength. He opened up her mouth and poured the potion in.

Mary's eyes popped open and she sat up quickly. Sirius nearly had a fit of laughter from joy. Tears were streaming down his face. He hugged and kissed her as if she were his own daughter.

"Thank you, Sirius," she said, not knowing why he was so happy. "But if I may ask, where the ruddy hell are we? And why are you so happy?"

"Oh Mary!" he cried. He spoke very rapidly, "You were dying and we escaped from Azkaban and then you were almost dead but then I snuck into Hogwarts and now you're okay and you're not going to die and I'm just so happy!"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, surprised at what she had just heard.

Once Sirius had calmed down, he said urgently, "Alright Mary. What we need to do now is convince your brother and perhaps some others that I'm innocent, which Dumbledore will most likely believe then, too. We need a plan."

Harry stormed out of The Three Broomsticks in his invisibility cloak, his face mingled with disgust and rage. Black had been his parents' friend! Their friend! And he betrayed them! Harry would kill him the moment he could. He would get his revenge....

In a few months, Mary and Sirius had come up with a good, solid plan that would convince people of the truth.

(a/n- as the author of this story sits in the chair at the computer running her fingers through her hair listening to the Return of the King soundtrack at 2:04 in the morning, she ponders what to write next. Now it is 2:05. Thank you.)

That evening, Remus Lupin sat at his desk pondering over the Marauder's Map. Suddenly, something struck him like a slap in the face. He saw Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger come out of Rubeus Hagrid's house. But he noticed now they were accompanied by someone else-Peter Pettigrew. Now Remus knew the truth. Sirius was innocent. He grabbed his cloak and made his way out of his office.

"He's the dog...he's an Animagus," said Ron to Harry and Hermione.

Mary was hiding in the shadows, listening to every word of her brother and his friends' accusation to Sirius. Her brother looked almost exactly like her. She had been told not to interfere with the conversation no matter what. This was starting to become very difficult, especially when Harry attacked Sirius and then had his wand pointed at him, ready to kill. Sirius was bleeding on the floor, and Mary could barely stand it. She was finally relieved when a man came in to interfere. Apparently he was a professor at Hogwarts. She also heard he was a werewolf. She drifted off to sleep, but was soon awakened by a crashing sound.

A man with black, greasy hair was unconscious and had been smashed into the wall. Mary then saw a flash of light, and there was another man: Peter Pettigrew. She barely was able to stop herself from lunging out at him and tearing him apart limb-by-limb. Pettigrew confessed and finally Harry and his friends were convinced, and everyone made their way up to the castle.

Mary followed close behind, but not too close. When she got to the bottom, though, she could tell something was wrong. The man who had been sticking up for Sirius was transforming. It was a full moon, and he was a werewolf.

Mary stared in horror as Sirius in dog form and this man in werewolf form fought brutally. She saw the werewolf run off and Sirius stagger down a hill. There was then a flash of light, and Pettigrew escaped.

Once the area was clear, she ran after Sirius, but she was stopped by about one hundred dementors. She fainted immediately and rolled behind a bush.

Mary woke up about an hour later and saw Sirius, Harry, and Hermione being put onto stretchers by the greasy-haired man and taken up to the castle. She ran over to them and stopped to sneak after them.

Harry and Hermione were taken into the Hospital Wing but she managed to follow Sirius up to a classroom in which he was locked in. She jumped in the door at the last second, ran over to him, and shook him awake.

He stared at her for a moment and said softly, "I'm sorry Mary. It's over. The dementors are going to perform the kiss, and that will be it."

"No!" she screamed and threw herself on top of him. Tears were pouring down her cheeks. "They won't do it! I won't let them! I'll kill them if they do!" she was hugging him as hard as she could and was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder. "You're all I have left Sirius."

Sirius looked at her and realized that he was crying too.

All of the sudden, the door creaked open.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS YOU BAS-"

Mary stopped yelling when she saw that it was none other than Albus Dumbledore that had come through the door. He seemed quite surprised to see her.

"Excuse me," said Dumbledore calmly, "but who might you be?" he asked Mary.

"Mary Potter, sir," she answered hastily.

"Yes, Albus," said Sirius, "She's alive. And I would prefer if she stayed that way after, well, you know....it happens."

Mary began sobbing uncontrollably into Sirius's shoulder again.

"There are two things I would like you to do, please, Mr. Black," he said looking sadly at Mary. "First, I would like you to please calm Miss Potter down, and then if you could tell me your side of the story."

Sirius managed to calm Mary down quite a bit and then told Dumbledore his side of the story.

"Well, that seems to match Mr. Potter and Miss Granger's stories exactly," Dumbledore said. As he made his way out the door, he said to them, "Never give up hope."

Not much later, there was a soft tapping on the glass and Sirius saw Harry, Hermione, and Buckbeak. His jaw dropped. Hermione opened the window with a spell and told Sirius to climb on. Mary, overcome with joy, was hidden under Sirius's cloak.

They both escaped on Buckbeak. Mary had heard Sirius say good-bye to Harry, and had wished that she could have said good-bye too.