I do not own Harry Potter, only the OC.

Hello guys, Badger here. Before we begin, I have a small announcement to make. Well, its not really an announcement. Anyway, you may have noticed the cover image for the story has changed. Well, my creative mind decided that every story I create should have a unique illustration of some kind, drawn by yours truly. Whether it is a Harry Potter fanfic, Skyrim Fanfic, or Star Wars fanfic, they will all be different. This cover image is a lovely little piece of Harry and James standing side by side.

Another side note: I have seen a couple of people have already voted on the poll, for what kind of story they would like to see next time. I would like to mention, I do plan to do all of them at some point, as well as a few other ideas. Your vote will just let me know which one you would like to see happen first, so feel free to vote.

Anyway, enough of that. Onto the story. I am glad to see that people seemed to enjoy the previous chapter. Again, I think we can all agree, Harry using a Heart Imploding curse is pretty dark. This chapter will pick up immediatley after the previous one ended. As you can probably guess, the Ministry is going to get involved. That is all I will say for now. Read on and I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 38

Some explaining to do

Amelia Bones stepped out of the floo and into the Ministers office, feeling more than annoyed. She spent all day working on cases and files and just wanted to go to sleep. However, she had been contacted by Cornelius Fudge, who asked for her to come to his office immediatley. For his sake, he better have a good reason for it because, she didn't care if she would lose her job, she would hex him. She brushed herself off, to see Cornelius waiting for her at his desk.

"What is it Cornelius?" She asked "I have had a very long day, so your reason for contacting me must be very important"

"It is" Fudge replied, holding up a letter "This was given to me by a, rather enthusiastic, House Elf called Jinx…you may want to read it yourself"

Amelia took the letter from his hands and read it through. What she saw surprised her. She read the letter several times over, to make sure she was reading it correctly.

"Sirius Black is in Hogwarts?" She asked

"As well as Peter Pettigrew" Fudge nodded

"But that can't be right" Amelia replied "Pettigrew is dead and how did Black sneak into Hogwarts?"

"I don't know" Fudge said "That is why I contacted you…me and you are going to Hogwarts to see for ourselves what is going on, if Pettigrew is alive, that leaves many questions"

Dumbledore was ready to head into his personal quarters and go to sleep. Things had been rather tiring for him lately, trying to track down Voldemort and his Horcruxes. It unsettled him that nothing had happened yet. Dumbledore expected him to gain a body by this point, or at least try to. He had only just stepped onto the stairs, leading to his personal quarters, when the fireplace flamed up, with Cornelius Fudge and Amelia Bones stepping through a few seconds later.

"Cornelius, Amelia" Dumbledore greeted, though there wasn't much warmth in his voice "I would have appreciated a floo call before you came through"

"I do apologise Albus, but this isn't a social call" Fudge replied "We received a letter from two of your students, explaining that they have Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew"

"Even still, you could have…wait, what?" Dumbledore asked "Sirius Black and…Peter Pettigrew? But that doesn't make sense"

"Which is why we are here Albus" Amelia replied "Sirius sneaking through into Hogwarts unseen, raises its own questions, but the fact that they found Pettigrew, someone declared dead twelve years ago, brings even more questions that we need answers too, we are going to head to the location given to us, so we can take Black and Pettigrew into custody, where we will find out exactly what happened that night the Potters were murdered"

"May I accompany you two?" Dumbledore asked "As headmaster it is my job to know what is going on, especially as it involves two of my students"

"Fair enough" Fudge sighed "Just remember Albus, this is Ministry business meaning no interference, even from you"

Dumbledore nodded, before he followed the two of them out his office, where they walked down several corridors, until they entered an abandoned classroom. Inside was Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew tied to chairs, with Sirius looking dirty in his foul, ragged clothing and Peter looking more rat like in appearance, looking around nervously, who seemed to be muttering an apology over and over again. Meanwhile, Remus Lupin stood in front of Pettigrew, a wand pointed his way, with James Badger and Harry Potter stood to the side, with James looking on in curiosity, whilst Harry looked a little bit guilty.

"Remus, what is going on here?" Amelia asked

"I found Pettigrew scurrying around the corridors" He replied "I immediatley went looking for James and Harry, to see that Sirius had gotten into the castle and they had captured him…when I arrived, Harry had a wand pointed at him, if I didn't get here in time, I believe he might have killed him"

Harry looked down slightly, when Amelia, Fudge and Dumbledore looked at him, in shock.

"I was angry" He replied weakly "he supposedly betrayed my parents, but now I'm not so sure, I'm just so confused"

Amelia approached Harry, placing a gentle hand on his chin, forcing him to look up at her.

"You aren't the only one who is confused" She said "We are going to find out what happened…until then, stand up straight and keep your chin up"

Harry nodded, before she stepped away, pulling out two magical suppression cuffs and put them onto both Sirius and Pettigrew, as Fudge spoke.

"Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, you are placed under arrest" He said "We have been informed that Sirius is not who people think he is, so both of you will be placed in a Ministry Holding Cell, until a trial is called later today, you don't have to say anything, but anything you do say may be used against you during your trial"

When Amelia and Fudge went to lift the two to their feet, Sirius put up no fuss, whilst Pettigrew struggled slightly against the cuffs.

"Be careful with Pettigrew" Lupin warned "Both he and Sirius are Animagi"

"Funny, I don't remember seeing registration" Amelia replied "Something to question I suppose"

"Mr Badger, Mr Potter, as you two are witness to what has gone on, we ask that you two attend the trial, Amelia will come round before the trial starts"

James and Harry nodded, before Fudge and Amelia left, holding both Sirius and Pettigrew. Dumbledore sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, before he turned to Remus.

"Why wasn't I informed about this?" He asked

"Considering I was never told where Harry was placed, I find it difficult to trust you" Lupin replied "Besides, you signed the form to have Sirius locked away"

"I never wanted to send Sirius away Remus" Dumbledore said calmly "I didn't believe he betrayed James and Lily…I tried to get him a trial but was turned down"

"Well you didn't try hard enough!" Lupin snapped "And what about Harry, why wouldn't you tell me where he was?"

"Remus we have been over this" Dumbledore sighed "Harry needed to be placed somewhere safe…with everything going on in the wizarding world, the Muggle world was the safest place for him"

"Safe!" Harry exclaimed "SAFE! You placed me with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, who beat me, starved me, almost killed me, just because I had magic…HOW IS THAT KEEPING ME SAFE!"

Harry, in his anger, tried to lunge at Dumbledore, but James held onto him, keeping him back. Lupin however was not restrained and grabbed Dumbledore by the front of his robes, their faces mere inches away from one another.

"You placed him with the Dursleys!" He roared "What is wrong with you! Petunia despised Lily ever since she received her Hogwarts letter and you decided to place Harry there? Why didn't you just give him to me? Yes I don't know much about raising children and my condition may have raised issues, but at least he would have been properly cared for!"

"What condition?" James asked, as Harry was still taking a moment to calm down

Lupin's eyes widened, as he let go of Dumbledores robes, looking like he said something he shouldn't have done. He pinched the bridge of his nose, before he faced the two boys.

"I am a Werewolf" Lupin said, after a moment "Ever since I was a young boy…as you can imagine, due to laws that some bigots in the Ministry refuse to abolish, life is pretty difficult for us, so you cannot tell anyone about this, if word got out that I was a Werewolf, I wouldn't even be able to get a job cleaning glasses in the Leaky Cauldron"

"Are things really that bad?" Harry asked, realising just how much more he needed to learn about the Magical world

"Extremely" James sighed "Lupin is right, the just like the muggle world, there are bigots out there who believe certain people are weak and inferior, for some Purebloods, they see anyone with anything less then 'Pure' flowing through their veins, or those they call 'beasts' don't deserve equal rights and should be put down"

"That's horrible" Harry said

"It may be horrible, but it's the world we live in" Lupin said "Come on, I'll escort you to the Slytherin Common Room…oh and this isn't over either Dumbledore, you have some explaining to do"

Dumbledore remained silent, as he watched them leave. When the door closed, he resisted the urge to yell and rip his hair out. Tonight had been hectic to say the least. Whilst he was busy with Voldemort and his Horcruxes, there were things going on indoors, that were happening right under his nose. He was still surprised Sirius got through without tripping any wards, he may have to do something about that. Then Harry revealed something he didn't want Lupin knowing. Dumbledore hoped that Harry would just let go of his feelings to what he did, but it seems the boy hadn't yet. Now, even more of Lupins loyalty to him was crumbling. He needed to do something about it. When Voldemort returns, Dumbledore would need Harry to work with him, not against him. What could he do? What could he give to the boy to gain his trust? He didn't know. He needed to figure something out quickly. When the time came, he was going to need a strong group of people, loyal to the cause of the light, not a divided, shattered group of individuals who's loyalty is fractured due to Dumbledores mistakes.

And there we are. Chapter 38. It has only just occurred to me that my chapters feature a lot more story and less filler then they used to, unless this chapter counts as filler? Eh, it counts towards story plots, to I count it as essential to the plot and not filler.

When it came to writing the small beginning section, with Amelia and Fudge, I ended up taking two days off from writing, because I struggled writing this chapter to begin with, because of constantly working on my College projects. Thankfully, I am fine now, but it still drained me. Of course, we get Dumbledore getting involved. He just has to. Which of course leads to them finding Sirius and Pettigrew. I know it seems odd, having Harry in the previous chapter with a major bloodlust, to being extremely guilty, but I like to think if we tried to kill someone, believing them to be evil criminals, only to find out they might be innocent, we would all feel a little guilty.

Then we come to Lupin, finding out about Harry's upbringing. My characterisation of Lupin is always how I wished he was in canon and personally, how I see him. Instead of someone who just leaves Harry for years, he is someone who tried looking for Harry and almost goes wolf mode, when he finds out Harry was abused. I have seen similar things done before and I love seeing Lupins wolf side come out just a tiny bit, when learning about Harry's past, almost like he wants to protect his pup. I hope you don't mind my characterisation of Remus, I just don't like canon Remus that much. Which is funny, because when I was younger, I loved Lupin and Dumbledore, though now I look at them and think, they aren't as great as people try to make them out to be.

Anyway. When writing this chapter, it was going to feature the trial for Sirius and Pettigrew, but that will be saved for the next one. I know what you are wondering: If Pettigrew is locked away, what will happen regarding Voldemort and the whole Goblet of Fire fiasco. Well, I have an idea I think you'll enjoy. Until then, you just have to wait and enjoy the next chapter, which may be the final chapter for the Prisoner of Azkaban era. I hope you enjoyed and I will see you next time.

Badger out.