Harry Potter and the New Start: What's Lost is Found Then Lost Again

Hello all, thanks so much for all of the reviews! I think I'm as sad as you guys are about this story rolling to a close! This was my first Harry Potter story ever! Well…we'd best get on with it.

This is pretty much meanwhile to the last chapter

------------------------------Black Manor

"Dumbledore, what do you think could have caused this?" Remus asked from the older wizard's side.

The two – and countless aurors and ministry employees – surveyed the damage done to the Black family home. The place was mostly still intact and fine. In fact, the house's back rooms were completely unharmed. The front hall and some surrounding rooms were quite burnt though. Since the house was technically Sirius's Black's still, the best the ministry could do was clean it up a bit – make sure no flames were still in it – and leave.

On top of that, there were enough rumors about the place that made the ministry just want to leave it alone.

The ministry had been alerted to the fire after it had gotten out of hand. They had immediately come to the scene and put it out. A search for the culprit had started, but nobody expected anything. The only real reason they would have even stuck around as long as they had was to see if Black had anything to do with it.

They found nothing to support the claim that Sirius Black had been there, not his magical signature – which was impossible for his wand was still locked away in a ministry store bin somewhere – or any fragment of evidence that would support the idea that Black had been near or involved in the fire.

Remus wasn't sure if he was relieved or not.

What they did find, shockingly enough was a person. Not a corpse, as many would have guessed, but a real live – burnt – person. No one was sure if he had been the one to set the fire, so the search continued. The person, he hadn't woken up to tell anyone who he was, had been moved to St Mungo's. Quietly, Dumbledore relayed that fact to Remus, who had come the second he'd found out that it had been a fire at Sirius's childhood home.

"He hasn't woken up once?" Remus questioned, feeling bad for whoever it was. The ministry was fairly certain it wasn't Sirius, and it was too big a person by far to be Harry.

Dumbledore shook his head, "No, he has not. The St Mungo's employees want me to come down there to his room and see if he looks like a student I might remember." Dumbledore explained. He started walking away from the house, Remus trailing next to him. A question was coming, and Dumbledore knew it.

"Might I join you?" Remus asked, sparing a look at Dumbledore instead of navigating through the throngs of ministry employees. "I might be able to help."

Nodding in place of voicing approval, Dumbledore quietly added, "And you might be curious about any of Sirius's involvement."

Remus, however, chose to say nothing.

------------------------------St Mungo's

Peter Pettigrew was ever so slowly waking up. His whole body ached, especially his head. What was worse, however, was the burning of his skin.

No memories came to tell him what had happened. He didn't remember a thing of how something like this could have happened to him; he was still supposed to be in that sewer that he'd fallen asleep in.

Wherever he was, it smelled too clean to be a sewer, and the bed beneath him was too comfortable.

The moment he realized he wasn't in a sewer, he darted up in bed. His beady eyes opened, and he reached the horror filled realization that he was sitting in St. Mungo's in plain view of everyone. Frantically, he looked down at his own hands to see them burnt and pink with new skin.

That was it. They didn't recognize him because he'd been burned. Now, however, they had fixed him up and skin was coming back new. It would only be a matter of time.

Why was he at St. Mungo's? Why didn't he remember what had happened? Panic gripped at him, all because he couldn't remember how he'd come to be this way.

Either way, though, all that mattered was getting out of the hospital without anyone seeing him.

The problem was that no self-respecting nurse would let a burn victim just walk out of a hospital in the middle of treatment. How would he slip past the doctors? His mind was a jumble, he was coming up with stupid plan after stupid plan.

His door opened, what would he do? Peter felt his breath coming out in short gasps, and he threw himself back down on the bed, hoping his face was still marred enough to hide his identity.

He heard the footsteps of two people, then voices.

The breath rushed out of him.

Nurses.

They were only nurses. The two talked above him, and Peter wanted them to hurry up so he could think again. Quietly, he listened. "The ministry has no idea who the poor bloke is!"

"I know, but we should sort that out soon enough." The second nurse said, feeling Peter's forehead for a fever, he fought the urge to flinch away.

"What do you mean?" Peter found himself internally thanking the first nurse for asking his question for him.

The hand was pulled from his forehead as its owner sighed, "Professor Dumbledore is on his way. If that man went to Hogwarts in the last fifty, sixty years or so, he might remember him."

Dumbledore! If Dumbledore came then everything would be over. They would know that it had been him to betray Lily and James to Voldemort, not Sirius. They would know that he'd blown up all those muggles on the street, framing Sirius when he sped away as a rat…

His thoughts trailed off with that single sentence. The nurses faded to the background, talking a medical speak that he wouldn't have understood anyway. A rat. How could he have been so absentminded as to forget his animagus form? He would wait until they were gone, and then transform. He'd have no problem running away as a rat.

"Dumbledore should be here soon." The nurse said as the two filed out of the room. Peter knew he had to act fast. He stood up and got out of bed quickly. Opening the door slightly, he didn't give a second thought before he transformed.

He sped away, past he nurses and the mediwizards. He didn't pay any mind to the patients. He had to get away.

If Dumbledore saw him, he wouldn't need more than a second to connect the dots.

Peter Pettigrew raced out of St. Mungo's, taking with him the only chance that Sirius Black had of being cleared for quite some time.

I bet you were all starting this chapter with such hope! It's not my greatest, but I wasn't feeling too charitable towards little Peter, and I think it showed. One chapter to go guys! You'll see how things end soon. This chapter was more to show what everyone else thought of the fire, and what happened to Peter. Sirius and Harry will return next chapter!

Let me know what you think!

Stars Enchantress