Hermione woke to bright sunlight streaming through the windows of Anneken's tent and a knocking on the door to her room. She blinked a couple of times to clear the sleep from her vision, then climbed out of bed to answer, slinging a dressing gown on just in case it was a boy.

It wasn't. Anneken passed her a note in Harry's scribble.

We've been given permission to visit Sirius Black today. Hurry, Harry.

She left the door open, rushing to her trunk and pulling out her most formal set of dark blue robes along with a large butterfly clip to hold her hair in a hasty bun at the back of her head. Looking in the mirror, she decided that she passed inspection as stylishly messy and grabbed her folder of papers on her way downstairs.

Anneken was already waiting with the boys in the lounge. As usual, her posture was immaculate on the delicate, feminine chair. Harry slouched into a chaise lounge and Lord Nott leant against the plaster fireplace; the prophet open and obscuring his face. He lowered it when she emerged, folding it along the middle and flicking it straight.

'Ready?' He asked, glancing over her from head to toe. 'Make sure you wrap up. Azkaban is cold.'

'Why the late notice?' She asked, gathering her gloves and scarf as she spoke.

'I imagine it's to get it over and done with before your guardian - Gellert - has a chance to request to accompany you. Legally, he can.' Anneken sighed.

'Really?' Hermione asked, fascinated.

'Yes. I imagine they're hoping we will be in and out before he even learns that permission has been granted.' Lord Nott's tone was tight with barely concealed amusement.

'As if he didn't already know. And as if you didn't read that paper just to try and give him a hint.' Anneken hummed, smiling lightly. 'You know as well as I do that he's a seer, and you've probably guessed that he watches Hermione like a hawk.'

'Does he?' Lord Nott asked, all wide eyes innocence.

'I don't know, but I assume so.' Anneken's smile faded a little, then she glanced at the clock. 'But you better get going. Gellert isn't going to be terrifying any officials into obedience today. He's still safely ensconced in Nurmengard.'

The trio obeyed, standing up quickly. Harry was very pale and looked like he was about to be sick. Lord Nott looked grim.

Outside the tent, one of the skeletons waited with Katana already saddled. She unbuckled Mordred's sword and handed it back to them.

'This is something that I suspect the Ministry would confiscate. Please take care of it for me?'

The skeleton bowed deeply and Hermione swung up onto Katana's back in a practice move. The stirrups were very long, so she crossed them over the pommel and rode without them, soaring up into the sky with the two wizards on broomsticks beside her.

It turned into an unofficial race between her and Harry - Katana versus the Nimbus 2000, and Hermione just knew that if Katana was as fit as she'd kept him in the 1890's, shed have beaten him hands down. As it was, Katana was unhappy with how close it was and expressed his displeasure by swatting Harry over with his tail as they landed.

Lord Nott opened the portal with a flourish and they all passed through, soaring into the warmer weather of southern England. They had to fly low over the trees to keep out of sight of muggles, just in case any were out enjoying a morning walk in the frost.

They left Katana munching on the topiaries and headed into the manor. Hermione re-did her hair in the mirror next to the door whilst Lord Nott fetched all of his and Harry's paperwork.

It was, Hermione realised, very early in the morning. Whilst the sun was up, it must have barely risen and they ministry would have barely opened when they arrived.

'You look great.' Harry assured her as he came up next to her and tried to smooth his own hair flat. Hermione considered him for a moment then ruffled it back up. Harry rolled his eyes.

'I know, I know. It's an extension of my magic so don't try to tame it... Do you think he will be as mental as Madam Bones said he would be?'

Hermione bit her lip and shrugged.

'I don't know. I did some research on dementors and I imagine its more a case of depression than madness. We should bring chocolate; that's meant to help with the short term symptoms of dementor exposure.'

As she spoke, Lord Nott reappeared and led the way into the floo room. The two children trailed behind him and listened carefully as he called out the address of their destination; Ministry of Magic.

'Have you been before?' Harry asked as the emerald flames obscured the patriarch.

'No. Together?' Hermione asked, offering her hand. Gratefully, Harry took it and they stepped into the massive fireplace. They both chucked down their handfuls of floo powder and called out their destination and a moment later they both stumbled out of the floo at the other end, holding each other upright so that their exit could almost pass as dignified.

Lord Nott was already waiting, as was Madam Bones.

'Heir Potter, Lady Gorlois. There are a couple more documents to sign, then we should be ready to proceed.' She nodded and Hermione nodded in return as Harry offered a shallow bow. They turned towards a row of elevators and followed Madam Bones into the closest available one. She pushed the button for level two and after a reasonably long ride with a with a wizard with his nose buried in a coffee, they exited into a dark corridor. To the right, a large oak door with a golden plaque announced that it was the Auror Headquarters, whilst a smaller sign listed items that shouldn't be brought through into that room without authorisation - invisibility cloaks, potions, fireworks and, bizarrely, tuna sandwiches.

To the left was a much longer corridor, which had several others branching off it. Many of the doors here seemed to lead to individual offices; departments and sub-departments so small that they only had one or two employees. One larger room contained a couple of cubicles; all of which were deserted at eight forty-five only two days before Christmas.

Madam Bones lead them to one of the larger offices which bore her own name and title as the head of the department. She led them through and gestured for them to take seats on two uncomfortable looking wooden chairs opposite her much nicer one. The relevant forms were already laid out, as was a stick of sealing wax and two quills.

Signing took several minutes, during which Madam Bones scribbled a note on a slip of pale pink paper which folded itself up as soon as she was done and flew out of the room. Several minutes later an auror showed up; young and handsome with his hair slicked back and wearing far too much cologne. His eyes roved over them, but otherwise he showed no obvious surprise.

'Auror Stuart. This group will be visiting a high security prisoner. Please escort them through the checks, then accompany them to the floo.'

The Auror nodded smartly and led them out into the corridor. She expected them to turn towards the auror department but instead they turned left around a corner and went into one of the medium sized offices. The logo on the wall declared that this was the "AAD", and the large image of a chained portcullis suggested that this was the Azkaban Administration Department. Auror Stuart passed them each a small tub and a glossy pamphlet which told them what they were allowed to wear into the prison. Fortunately only Hermione's gloves were enchanted, so she dropped them into the box along with her wand. Harry had even less and Lord Nott left his entire briefcase behind, although she suspected that was more because he couldn't be bothered to carry it.

When they were done, they signed yet another piece of paper and then they were escorted through a thick steel door and into a tiny, bare room. After the glossy tiles and polished wood of the rest of the ministry, the chipped paint and bare concrete in this room were somewhat shocking. There was a fireplace against one wall, separated from them by a row of painted iron bars. The Auror unlocked it with a jangling bunch of keys. They shuffled through the narrow entrance, followed by Auror Stuart who then pulled a handful of floo powder from an envelope and tossed it into the fireplace. Instead of burning green, these flames burned purple and they all eyes them warily.

'Just step through, don't worry about calling out an address.' Auror Stuart instructed reassuringly. With only slightly more hesitation, Lord Nott stepped through and Harry followed behind. Stuart gallantly offered his arm to assist Hermione through and after deciding that it would be rude to refuse she took it.

The purple floo was different to the green in that it was a different system. They spun through blackness with no peaks into people's homes. It felt more spacious - not once did she accidentally hit Auror Stuart and when they were eventually spat out, she managed to keep her balance easily.

The first thing to hit her upon arrival was the cold. She'd been cold before; Durmstrang was cold and had no fires to keep them warm, but Azkaban was magically cold. Both Grindelwalds had always felt cold in their magic, but it was a fresh cold like a brisk breeze on a winter morning or a spray of water from the fjord. The slimy cold of the prison was like jumping into a brackish swamp.

The next thing she noticed was the guards noise. Lord Nott was talking to the guard, but she could hear the distant boom of waves impacting rock and the crack-splatter of spray hitting the walls. Quieter but more oppressing was the constant dripping of a plumbing system not designed to take the constant drenching by the sea. Hermione shivered and pulled her robe tighter around herself.

Auror Stewart beckoned them through another door where they were met by a different Auror. This one wore a much warmer looking uniform and had a silvery patronus gambolling around her feet. She received a bundle of papers from Auror Stuart, glanced over them and then eyed the visiting trio as if expecting them to suddenly morph out of polyjuice and turn into a rescuing committee.

'Sirius Black?' The auror asked in a welsh accent.

'Yes.' Lord Nott confirmed and Harry shuffled nervously. Hermione edged up beside him and clasped their hands, arranging it so that it looked like he was escorting her to any outsider.

'Very well.' The woman led them through a series of heavy doors and into a gloomy, damp corridor.

The visiting rooms were as stark as the hallway. A metal table was bolted to the floor and an array of chairs for the visitors sat on one side. The other side held a much sturdier chair with thick chains wrapped around the arms. Interestingly, Hermione noted that there was no magical warding on any of the doors or furniture. It was like they assumed that without a wand, a wixen was entirely useless. She was reasonably certain that if she were the one to be put into that chair, she could escape.

They sat in silence for a moment, Harry's fidgeting and the squeak of his chair the only noise. Then the door swung open again and a haggard figure was pushed through by another auror. Dressed in a filthy prison uniform and with uncut hair straggling around his gaunt cheeks, Sirius Black looked nothing like the pictures Harry had shown her.

He was forced into the chair and the heavy manacles were fastened to the arms by archaic looking padlocks.

'Knock when you're finished.' The auror said curtly, then marched from the room. Hermione stretched her magic out, surprised to once more find no traces of magic. It appeared that they were so confident in the prison's security that they didn't feel the need to monitor properly.

'Mr. Black?' Harry asked tentatively.

'Lord Black, Harry.' Hermione corrected quickly. Black jerked in his chair, haunted eyes flying up to fix on their faces.

'I'm not Lord Black.' He croaked. Then his eyes focused on Harry and widened almost comically. 'James?'

'No.' Lord Nott cut in. 'You are Lord Black now. There are no other living members of the Black family and you were never officially disowned.'

'And I'm Harry Potter, I just look like my Dad.' Harry huffed.

'Harry... little Harry?' Black asked, squinting and blinking as if trying to clear his vision.

'Yeah.' Harry managed, sounding impressively even. Black then glanced over to the other adult in the room and his expression hardened impressively.

'Nott. What are you doing here? Why's Harry with you?' His manacles clanked as he jerked as if he wanted to physically pull Harry away from the Slytherin

'He's here as our accompanying adult.' Hermione interrupted, inviting the madman's attention onto herself. She folded her hands in front of her, wishing she had her wand to hold between them.

'Who're you? A daughter?' Black's eyes burned, but Hermione had faced down worse opponents than a chained prisoner. She remained relaxed.

'I'm a school friend of Harry's.'

'Which family? You're a Slytherin; you all sit the same and talk the same.' Black pressed, then he looked almost horrified as he glanced over at Harry. 'Don't tell me you're a snake?'

'And what if I was?' Harry retorted, folding his arms over his chest. For a moment, Sirius seemed baffled, as if it had never occurred to him that Harry Potter might not be offended by the suggestion of being a Slytherin.

'Harry is a Gryffindor, Black.' Hermione interceded quickly. 'But we like to think ourselves above petty house prejudice.'

'Petty prejudice?' Black asked incredulously.

'Yes. I see no reason to discriminate based on history and tie colour. Heir Nott and I are close friends with Heir Longbottom, Miss Weasley and Harry.'

'And your parents approve?' Black seemed to be unable to comprehend this.

'My parents are muggles.' Hermione answered shortly and Black's mouth fell open. 'As for my magical guardian... he is in prison and if he knows what's good for him, he won't oppose any decision I make.'

Harry snickered at that and Lord Nott quirked a smile.

'Muggles... and you're a Slytherin.' Black checked.

'Certainly. Descended from the same family as Morgana, but muggles none-the-less.'

'You should see Lucius Malfoy around her. He's terrified that if he's rude to her, her brother will break out of prison to come and get him.' Harry giggled and Hermione smiled too. She wouldn't have said it was Grindelwald that Malfoy was afraid of; she suspected it was more likely that he wanted to see just how influential she became before setting himself too firmly against her. But the effect was still funny.

'Her brother? Who is her brother?' Black asked, seeming more confused by the minute.

'It doesn't matter.' Hermione interrupted quickly, casting a silencing glare at Harry. 'We're here to ask you some questions, actually.

Some of the light in Black's eyes died, and he leaned back in his chair. One hand flicked in a gesture for them to ask away.

'What happened to my family rings?' Harry demanded, leaning forwards eagerly. Of all the questions Black had expected, this was clearly not one.

'You don't have them?' He demanded, his eyes shifting down to Harry's hands. The boy-who-lived lifted both for inspection and waggled his bare fingers. 'Dumbledore came, just after I was arrested. He told me he would pass the head's ring to Moony and give the Heir ring to you.'

'That bastard.' Hermione spat, unable to contain herself. 'He steals power! He stole Harry's rings and left him with abusive muggles, he stole the Grindelwald head's ring and he would have taken the heir ring too if it hadn't been hidden.'

'Muggles?' Black echoed dangerously, sounding like a true dark wizard for the first time. 'Not Lily's sister?'

'The Dursleys, yeah.' Harry spat bitterly.

'I'm going to kill him.' Black swore, tugging at his chains.

'No, you're not.' Hermione ordered sternly, rising from her chair. 'We're going to petition legally for both yours and my rings, Harry. Then we will use our combined political power to ensure that he never acts with assumed authority again. I will expose his rotten underbelly to the entire world.'

'You have the support of Nott, and I imagine Longbottom.' Lord Nott assured her.

'And Black.' Black growled. 'Get me a trial. I am innocent, and they will have to release me. Then you'll have Black too.'

Hermione cocked her head, looking him over from head to toe.

'I don't think we will be able to get you a trial... not with Dumbledore at the head of the wizangamot. If he wanted you out, he could have done it with a word. Now... it's been a decade. Can you imagine the uproar it would cause if the public found out the Ministry had falsely imprisoned Heir Black without a trial? They'd rather let him rot here than open that flobberworm crate.' Lord Nott suggested delicately. 'I'm sorry, Hermione, but having a Grindelwald be the one to request the trial will do more harm than good, as will the Nott name and Harry is not yet a head of house.'

'Grindelwald?' Black echoed disbelievingly. 'Grindelwald had squib children?'

'No, Gellert is my ward-brother.' Hermione admitted with a sigh. 'My parents are Grangers, but I take the name of my older ancestors; the Gorlois line.'

Unsurprisingly, Black didn't recognise the names. He just huffed in acceptance.

'Insurmountable evidence.' He eventually said. 'Pettigrew isn't dead. If you found him, they wouldn't be able to keep me here. They'd have to open a trial.'

Hermione folded her arms across her chest and ordered him to explain. He did, telling them that he'd confronted Pettigrew, who was a rat animagus and that the traitorous wizard had cut off his own finger before retreating in rat form into the sewers.

'Why does nobody know that he was an animagus?' Hermione demanded. 'Didn't he get registered?'

'No.' Black answered bitterly. 'The three of us did it in school; James, Peter and I.'

'You?' Nott demanded. 'What form?'

'A grim.' Black replied smugly and Hermione gasped.

'A grim! Its perfect.'

Every eye snapped to look at her.

'My family used to keep a pack of white Grims; it's why it became our seal. Nobody would question it if I resurrected that and acquired a Grim as a familiar.'

'They wouldn't, but you'd have to break Black out of a high security cell first.' Lord Nott pointed out. Hermione shrugged casually.

'I can do that.'

'Without inviting suspicion on yourself?' Lord Nott checked.

'Definitely.'

'An Azkaban breakout.' Black mused, looking at her curiously. 'It's never been done before, but I suppose if anyone can orchestrate it, it would be a relative of Gellert Grindelwald.'

'I'll create chaos. It will be your job to be expecting it and get yourself out past the wards so that we can pick you up.' Hermione decided.

'Chaos is my speciality.' He grinned for the first time since they'd met him.

'Good. Once you're out, we can work on tracking down one rat in a million. Harry, Lord Nott; we should be going. Lord Black; it will be a couple of months. I don't want immediate suspicion to fall on us.'

'Sirius... call me Sirius.' The prisoner requested and Hermione smiled back at him before knocking twice against the door.