Chapter 20

Waiting for his Potions Professor to return, Albus had Poppy Pomfrey floo from her Hospital Wing with the required potions. After just about every meeting Severus returned shaking and hurting from carefully applied 'Crucio's.' But once in awhile the younger wizard was placed into the torturing hands of his fellow Death Eaters. "Severus." Joint sighs of relief spilled from a worried Albus and Poppy.

Severus said nothing until he swallowed every needed potion to relieve the pain and calm his stretched nerves. "Albus." His throat felt raw, scratchy.

Poppy immediately rushed back to her office, only to reappear with another potion to relieve his torn throat. "Come, the Order is waiting." But Poppy wouldn't let her patient leave until she was satisfied with his healing.

Awaiting in a separate room was the entire Order, even a huge shaggy black dog at Remus Lupin's side. "Come, tell us what you have learned, my friend."

Sipping at the warm tea Albus had conjured for him, Severus relayed what he could remember. "We all had to portkey from the same site, together. The entire Inner Circle, only. Once we arrived, the Dark Lord said it was a special night."

"Special how, Severus?" Everyone could see the spy struggling to remember. They were worried that someone had obliviated his memories or at least blocked some of them.

"I can't be sure. Someone was hanging from the ceiling, someone for us to enjoy. We had to torture him first, then the Inner Circle would partake in the rapes. But in a corner I could hear another child crying, maybe two. Lucius had gone first but before he could try to even breach the child's body, something shocked him. That something was a person, hidden. They angered the Dark Lord and then vanished. We all suffered for it."

Severus rapidly blinked. Never had he not remembered. But why was his memory so fuzzy? Onyx eyes were pinned by blue, feeling an intrusion battering the blocked wall. "Interesting. Someone left your memory but made sure you remembered nothing about this mysterious person or the captives. But why?"

No one had the answer. Not even the all-knowing Albus Dumbledore. "What do we do now?"

"We must find out what was blocked. It could be very important. Try to remember at the next summoning, Severus. And please be careful." The dark haired male nodded, still carefully sipping his cooling tea. "Other than that, we still have yet to find Sirius Black or Harry Potter."

"And the journals?"

"Nothing. They simply reveal various conversations between the four. Harry's show more in-depth dreams he had, all revealing slightly more about Voldemort's desire to find what's close to Harry's heart. As well as writings about his home, his wishes, and thoughts. I've only found the same writings about the rings as I had revealed before."

"He knew something. He knew."

"It's what I believe, Arthur. And young Harry didn't really understand. Meaning he truly believed they were dreams, never bothering to find us. He simply relied on something Lily Potter had created. And knowing Lily, she made sure those rings were powerfully warded." Everyone in the Order knew Lily Potter. They knew she would have done everything in her power to keep her family as safe as she could.

"Then we could have possibly made the worst mistake! We lost him!" Molly couldn't contain her grief, sobbing out her words as she remembered the last things she had told the broken boy she once thought of as her next son.

"Even with these journals, Minister Fudge will never give Harry a second trial. He wouldn't give Sirius Black a trial, we all believed he was guilty. And if we were wrong about one, we could be wrong about another."

Everyone hung their head. With each new reference to those journals, the Order was beginning to believe that there was a slight chance that Harry Potter was truly innocent. And that simply brought them full circle. They had all condemened Sirius Black simply because they heartedly agreed he was guilty; after all he was the Potter's Secret Keeper, wasn't he? But Albus' words rang true, Black had never gotten a trial, simply thrown into Azkaban based on what little evidence the Aurors had found, being the Secret Keeper and murdering innocent people with one spell, although that had never been proven since Sirius Black's wand was never checked, a fact never learned until a couple Order Auror members had searched.

And if what they learned about Harry Potter was true, that the boy truly didn't understand his dreams but sought to protect his siblings anyways, then it was entirely possible they just condemned the most innocent of all innocence, a young boy looking for a family and where he belonged in this world.

And if Harry Potter was innocent, why couldn't they be wrong about Sirius Black. Selective few within the public had openly scorned the faux trial of Sirius Black, believing the man to have been innocent. Both wizards had been condemned based of the words and actions of others, not once had they been allowed to defend themselves nor given Veritaserum to prove their guilt or innocence.

That was something they lingered upon as the meeting was dismissed. Each leaving with a dark cloud upon their minds. They could not believe that they had willingly destroyed the lives of two innocent people. And what frightened them more, could they have possibly done this to others or will again in the near future? Blue eyes twinkled, slightly strained, knowing what was running through his allies' minds as he watched them slowly disappear through the door. He had trouble grasping such thoughts and fears himself, but he only hoped Harry and Sirius could willingly forgive the world at large. After all it was 'to err' in human nature, especially considering the last two figures leaving his office, straggling as if they had something more they wish to tell. "I'd suggest remaining in that form, my friend. At least until I am sure."

Remus swallowed, "Sir?" He was afraid that Albus would have forced Sirius to come out of hiding. He wasn't ready to lose his best friend, not ever again. He wanted nothing more than to rebuild what little family he had left, if he could allow Harry to forgive what little he didn't do during the boy's trial.

Albus grimly smiled, trying to regain control of his facial features and emotions, trying to become the annoying, lovable Albus Dumbledore they all believed, "Lemon drop, Snuffles?" The black Grim simply snorted in a vague reaction.