A/N: Thanks for all your reviews! Hee…some of you actually thought I was going to kill off Sirius? No way! :)  I meant to update this much sooner, but the website was down for more than two days and then overloaded yesterday.  So, here's my next chapter finally…

Padfoot's First Night Of Freedom

It was a curious sight. Harry, Ron and Hermione were huddled in a cosy corner in the Gryffindor common room.  They were in the company of three adults – their current professor for Care of Magical Creatures, former professor for Defence Against Dark Arts, and a notorious escaped prisoner who had been declared innocent earlier that very day.

Many of the Gryffindors were eyeing Sirius Black with fear in their eyes, as though they half expected him to pull out his wand and hex them any moment.  Some of the braver ones, such as the Weasley twins, approached the group to exchange greetings with Remus, the favourite teacher of many.

"Let's toast to Sirius' freedom!" Ron raised his butterbeer which April had sneaked into the Gryffindor Tower.  The rest followed his lead and clicked glasses with one another.

"And a toast to Moony, my friend, who risked his neck for a dangerous man!" Sirius grinned.

After they had taken another sip of the juice, Remus said, looking pointedly at Sirius, "And a toast to April, who risked her neck for Sirius' innocence."

Both Sirius and April froze. They had not exchanged a single word since she left Dumbledore's office in a huff, and both of them had been carefully avoiding all eye contact with one another since then. The teenagers, however, remained happily oblivious to the tension between the pair.

"I'm leaving Hogwarts in two days' time," April said suddenly.

Sirius dropped his glass.  The butterbeer was seeping into the thick carpet and leaving an obvious stain, but he did not seem to notice.

"Why are you leaving so soon?" Hermione asked, disappointment showing in her voice.

"I'm only a temporary professor.  I have to leave sometime," April took a deep breath and added, looking sideways at Sirius, "My work at Hogwarts is done."

"But Hagrid is not back yet! You can't go now!" Harry protested.

"Hagrid has been back for several days now, Harry.  He'll assume his teaching duties tomorrow."

"He's back? But we didn't see him!" Ron said, bewildered.

"Hagrid has been staying at a friend's house.  He could not return earlier since I needed his absence as an excuse to be here.  And Albus needed him to bring my brother away from the hospital. It might have raised suspicions if Hagrid was back at Hogwarts for a couple of days and then had to disappear again to send Aaron back to my home."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were torn between their eagerness to see Hagrid again and their reluctance to see April go.

"Will you ever come back?" Hermione asked, close to tears.

"Not in the near future, I think."  Noticing her three students' gloomy faces, she quickly added, "But of course, if Albus needs me, I'll be back."

"Isn't there a reason for you to stay?" Harry asked.

"No," April replied stiffly. "I was here to help get hold of Pettigrew and I've done that.  My place is at the Flamel Fortress and there's where I should return to."

Hermione let out a low moan, while the rest remained silent.

"The Sorcerer's Stone is still safe with you, isn't it?" Harry asked several minutes later.

"No," April replied quietly.

Harry felt a wave of panic. "But Voldemort can't have gotten hold of it?  I mean…you got Wormtail before he could get the Stone!"

"The Stone was destroyed, Harry.  It was destroyed four years ago, just like what Albus told you after Voldemort's attack in your first year," April's voice was sounding strained.

"But it can't be! We saw the Stone!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione's eyes widened.  "Unless…the small brown package we saw at breakfast in the Great Hall…"

"That's right, Hermione.  You're really a clever witch." Hermione blushed at the compliment, while April elaborated, "It wasn't the Sorcerer's Stone.  I just wrapped an ordinary rock in the paper. It was meant to be a little act to mislead Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy!" Ron repeated with some excitement. 

"My office was broken into that morning.  Someone was obviously searching for the Stone.  They did not find anything, of course.  Albus and I staged the little show in front of the whole school, so that whoever is spying for the Dark Side will think that the Stone still exists and is in my possession."

"Malfoy! I knew it! He's the spy!" Ron said.

April shook her head slowly.  "That was what Albus and I suspected initially. But no, it's not Malfoy this time."

"Then who was it?" Harry asked.  He was as convinced as Ron that Malfoy had been spying for the Dark Side, as he could not think of anyone else in Hogwarts who would do that.

"It was Winky," April said.

"The house-elf?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"Are you finally realising that house-elves aren't worthy of your S.P.E.W. efforts?" Ron couldn't resist a jibe at Hermione, who shot him a dirty look.

"But Winky is working for Professor Dumbledore.  She can't…" Harry began to protest before April interrupted him.

"Winky has never really stopped serving the Crouch family, Harry.  It seems that Barty Crouch, before his death, had ordered Winky to obey Voldemort and help the Dark Side."

"But Winky is free from the Crouch family after Barty Crouch died!" Hermione said, distressed at the news.

"Yes, but Winky is an extremely…I would say sentimental house-elf.  She likes to think that she's still part of her old master's household."

"So Winky's nightmares were all made up?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"I believe they were simply what she was instructed to relate to Dobby, so that you and in turn the rest of us, would hear about it and believe that you were their target, Harry."

"But how did you know it was Winky?"

"I suspected it when you told me about your conversation with Dobby, Harry.  There is no way Winky could know such things if she has no dealings with the Dark Side.  And, the story is not convincing enough since the Death Eaters can't apparate and disapparate at Hogwarts, and they'll be taking a great risk if what Winky said is true.  Afterall, what do they plan to do - march in from the Forbidden Forest and declare war on the school?"

"What'll happen to Winky now?" Hermione asked.

"Albus has already taken care of the matter.  He questioned the house-elf after we returned from St Mungo's."  When she noticed the stricken look on Hermione's face, April assured her, "Winky's alright. Albus only sent her away and forbade her to come near Hogwarts again."

The conversation lapsed thereafter and the group quietly sipped their butterbeer for the next hour.  It was getting late and the Gryffindor common room had long been deserted, save for the six of them.

April stifled a yawn and stretched.  "I don't know about the rest of you, but it has been a long day and I'm really beat. I'd better get to bed now, before I doze off right here.  Sweet dreams, everyone!"  In the next instant, she had slipped out of the room.

Sirius and Remus bid the three teenagers goodnight and made their way back to the Shrieking Shack.

"Padfoot?" Remus began.

"Yes?"

"You were awfully quiet just now."

When Sirius did not reply, Remus asked, "You have always known that April doesn't have the Sorcerer's Stone?"

Sirius nodded, recalling the time both he and April broke down in the Shrieking Shack.

Remus stole a look at his friend and decided not to pursue the matter. "Well, now you're finally free," he said, smiling at his longtime friend.

Again, Sirius could only nod.  He had finally got what he had been longing for the past fourteen years – his freedom.  He had always pictured himself to be jumping for joy, being so deliriously happy that he would hug everyone in sight, shouting at the top of his voice that he's free.  But now, all he felt was an unfamiliar sense of numbness. There was a strange hollow feeling inside him and he could not bring himself to rejoice. 

Maybe the truth hasn't sunk in yet, he told himself. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow, I will punch my fist into the air, do cartwheels and start pulling pranks on Moony to celebrate my freedom.

But hours later, Sirius was still wide-awake.  He had been turning and tossing in his bed for a long time and sleep would not come.  His eyes darted from the ceiling to the rest of his bedroom.  It was pitch dark and he could barely make out the dim outlines of his white and cream-coloured furniture.  A small smile crept into Sirius' face as he pretended for a second that he was back in a room decorated in black…and all shades of pink.

***