Broken

By Neurotica

Nine

An hour later, Sirius had finished telling them everything. He told them about his "perfect bluff" with switching Secret-Keepers to Wormtail—he tried not to look at Remus or Julia as he spoke about not telling anybody what was going on. He told them about tracking Wormtail to London... He told them about Wormtail cutting off his own finger, blowing up the street, killing the twelve Muggles, and transforming into the rat and running off into the sewers.

At this point, he'd noticed Remus tensing in his seat beside Julia. Had he not told Dumbledore about the Marauders becoming Animagi? Sirius thought that would have been the first thing Remus told the Headmaster and the Ministry following Sirius' escape. Dumbledore silently requested that they explain the events of their fifth year, so for another half hour, Sirius, with minimal help from Remus, told him everything. The old wizard worked hard to disguise his surprise—it was hard to hide anything from Albus Dumbledore in his own school. Sirius felt a small sense of pride in knowing they'd pulled one past the Headmaster.

By the end of it all, the sun was starting to rise over the Quidditch pitch. Sirius was staring at his bare feet, praying they'd believed him—he didn't want to go back to Azkaban after all this. He wanted to see Julia's reaction, but she'd carefully shielded herself from him behind Remus.

After a while, the silence became too much for the wizard. "So what now?" he asked, not too surprised that his voice had grown hoarse once more. He hadn't talked so much in years...

Dumbledore sighed and looked at the three of them over his half-moon spectacles, finally stopping on Sirius. "Now, Sirius, I believe it is time we find you a new set of robes and inform the house-elves of your arrival. You are terribly thin, and I am certain they will assist in filling you out a bit."

Two sets of eyebrows rose—one belonging to Remus, the other to Sirius. "What?" the latter said, praying he heard what he thought he heard.

"You believe him?" Remus asked. Sirius thought—or rather, wished—he heard slight hope in his old friend's voice.

"I do believe him," Dumbledore confirmed. "Don't you think, Remus, that Sirius' version of events makes much more sense than the theory we've believed for nearly six years?"

"Yeah," Remus said weakly. "Yeah... Makes loads more sense."

Dumbledore smiled. "Julia, are you all right?" he asked the witch gently.

Sirius looked around Remus from his position on the sofa. Julia had her head buried in her hands, as she had since Sirius started to speak, but now her shoulders were trembling. Remus made a move to comfort her, but at the last moment, retracted his arm and looked over at Sirius.

Shaking slightly himself, Sirius stood from the sofa and went to kneel before the only woman he ever loved. "Julia," he said softly, moving her hands from her face gently. Her navy blue eyes were rimmed with red, tears were streaming down her tanned face. Sirius reached out a rough finger and softly wiped her tears.

"Sirius," she whispered.

"Hi," he said, attempting another smile.

She laughed slightly. "Hi," she whispered.

The two of them sat there for the longest time, their foreheads touching, just staring into each other's eyes. For them, there was no one else in the room. Dumbledore wasn't behind them, smiling serenely, wiping his own tears. Remus wasn't beside them, trying to hold back his emotions. Phineas Nigellus and the other deceased Headmasters and Headmistresses weren't in their portraits sniggering or crying in happiness.

Only when Dumbledore politely cleared his throat did either of them remember that they were not alone in the room. Sirius started and turned to face the Headmaster, noticing immediately that his lips were twitching.

"Perhaps the three of you would like to get reacquainted in private? You are free to go to the kitchens, or if you prefer, I can ask the house-elves to setup private quarters," he said, his eyes twinkling merrily.

"Private quarters would be nice, sir," Remus said quietly.

Dumbledore inclined his head. "Consider it done."

His three former students stood, Julia with Sirius' help, and started to leave.

"Sirius," Dumbledore called before he closed the door. Sirius, holding onto Julia's hand as if he'd never let go, turned to the Headmaster. "Welcome back, my boy."

After a large breakfast provided by the Hogwarts house-elves, Sirius and Julia sat together on a dark red leather sofa facing a roaring fire. Remus sat beside them in an armchair, staring broodingly and silently into aforementioned fireplace.

Remus couldn't believe what was happening. After six years, after all the late nights Julia had spent telling him, the truth had come out. But Peter... Remus never would have believed Peter capable of doing something like this. Dumbledore was right, though, as always; it did make more sense than the scene the Ministry and the Daily Prophet had them believing for all those years. Sirius never would have betrayed the Potters. He never would have joined Lord Voldemort. And now Remus knew this was the truth. It was quite possible that Remus J. Lupin now had his brother back.

Julia seemed quite content, curled up in Sirius' arms as if no time had passed at all. She'd told Sirius after breakfast that he needed a long shower, a shave, and some deodorant before she sat next to him. Sirius was quick to point out that she'd been sitting next to him for the last hour. Julia retorted, blaming it all on momentary lack of sanity and a little shock, sending Remus a wink and a grin.

After only a few hours, the two of them had gone seemingly back to normal. Remus knew it wouldn't be nearly that easy for Sirius and himself. Their friendship had been nearly ruined before the deaths of Lily and James. And Sirius' supposed betrayal had sealed the deal, as the Muggles say, for the werewolf.

"Moony," Sirius said quietly.

Remus jumped slightly, causing Sirius to chuckle. His nickname sounded so foreign to his ears. Julia called him that once in a great while, but it was odd hearing it from the mouth of the man who'd come up with the name. "Yeah?" he said rather hoarsely.

For a moment there was silence, and Remus thought perhaps Sirius had fallen asleep. But when he turned his head to the sofa, Sirius was watching him intently, his arm around Julia's sleeping form. He didn't seem to know what to say.

"I'm sorry," he managed to croak out.

The emotion in his voice nearly caused Remus to start crying again. Instead, he nodded. "I'm sorry, too," he whispered. There was more, so much more, that needed to be said between the two, but it could wait for another day.

Remus struggled for something to say as silence fell between them again, and his eyes fell on Julia's head. He smiled.

"She never stopped believing in your innocence. No matter how often I told her otherwise... Now she's never going to let me live it down that I was wrong."

Sirius smirked and stroked her cheek with a pale finger. "I'm surprised she did believe I was innocent, to be honest. I thought she would have started hating me by now, and moved on to get married and have ten kids."

The werewolf shook his head. "You were the only one she ever wanted to be with, Sirius. And as for hating you... I don't think she could ever hate you. She did go through a short phase where she thought you were the scum of the earth for leaving her. But like I said, that passed quickly," he said rather lightly.

Sirius' face darkened. "I didn't want to leave her," he said more to Julia and himself than Remus. "I didn't want to leave any of you. But I wanted Wormtail to pay for what he'd done to Lily and James... and Harry," he added, his voice barely above a whisper.

Remus hesitated. "Sirius, if I'd known—"

Sirius waved him off. "I told you in Dumbledore's office: No one was supposed to know, not even Julia or you. I realize my mistake now, but back then..."

"It was tough to trust anyone," Remus finished quietly, staring at the floor.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah."

Remus nodded back. He spent a few pensive moments thinking about the dark days that tore the Marauders apart. "Well," he said quietly half an hour later, "I'm sure you'll want to get some sleep. If what you said is true, you haven't had a good night's rest since you were at my place."

Sirius spotted the humor in his eyes. "Yeah, well, your lumpy sofa isn't much to brag about," he muttered.

Remus laughed quietly to avoid waking Julia. "Good night, Padfoot."

"Good night, Moony."

Not six hours later, Sirius, Remus, and Julia were awake again and in the hospital wing to check on Harry. The child had improved greatly though the night, much to the relief of the adults. The big question now was what they would tell him when he regained consciousness. It had already been agreed between the three friends that Harry would not, no matter what Dumbledore said, return to the Dursleys.

"I'm his bloody godfather," Sirius had said angrily. "He's mine."

Remus and Julia didn't dare point out that Sirius was still considered a mad mass murdered by everyone but them. Instead, Julia rubbed his back in comfort, kissed his head, and said, "Yes, love, whatever you say."

After Harry's new home was sorted out, they needed to find a way to prove Sirius' innocence to the Ministry. Sirius said, and Dumbledore agreed with him, that nobody would believe him until Wormtail could be located; therefore, Sirius would remain in hiding, using his disguise as the large black dog, with Julia and Remus on Privet Drive.

"It could take weeks, months, or even years until the Ministry of Magic clears your innocence, Sirius," Dumbledore had said regretfully. "But until that time, you have my full support."

Over dinner in the kitchen that night, the three friends were laughing themselves stupid as Sirius and Remus relived stories from their days in school. Julia thought perhaps one of the house-elves, on Dumbledore's orders no doubt, had slipped Ogden's Old Firewhiskey into the wizard's drinks—they were loosening up around each other, and she couldn't have been happier with the developments.

Around midnight, their small party was interrupted when the portrait to the kitchen opened. Remus and Julia looked from the arrival to Sirius, who had stiffened in his chair, waiting for something to happen.

Severus Snape glared at the three former Gryffindors, ignored the house-elves' attempts to give him food, and stalked back out of the kitchen. Sirius returned to his plate of double chocolate chip cake as if nothing had happened.

"So," he said thickly through the cake. "Harry's birthday's coming up, isn't it?"