Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the associated characters. All rights and profits go to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.

Summary: See previous chapters

CHAPTER TWELVE

Remus Lupin had been considered as a tutor for the children, but had been forced to turn it down, as he had been offered a post teaching at Hogwarts, which everyone thought was probably a move intended to coax Harry back. Bribing him with an old school-friend of his parents and possible knowledge of his family history was considered a very low blow, and useless, as Lupin had told or written most of those stories already, and a few of Harry's friends at Hogwarts were the children of people who had known the Potters, and sent stories and photos of their own.

Ultimately, several of Henry's Squib or Muggle-Born friends or acquaintances were contacted as tutors in different subjects. At least one of them agreed because of how much of a poke in the eye it would be to have Squibs teaching the famed Boy-Who-Lived, but as long as they did a good job and meant no harm, the Irons' didn't really care about the motivation of the teachers.

When the news announced that a deadly criminal named Sirius Black had escaped, and Remus Lupin quietly told them that Black had been a friend of the Potters, ultimately responsible for betraying them, the household went on alert.

Henry, who has less-than-favourable memories of Black from their school days, nevertheless thought that Black would never have betrayed the Potters, who were closer to Black than his own family. Even so, they started brainstorming sensible precautions to take.

'Sensible Precautions' immediately dismissed the Ministry's idea, which was to station Dementors, literally-soul-sucking creatures that made you re-live your worst memories, around Hogwarts, in the belief that Black would go there searching for Harry. The Ministry had managed to keep Harry's withdrawal out of the papers, and Natasja dryly commented that they should think about opening their own school, as mass-murderers and Dementors were hardly a good first introduction for impressionable eleven-year-olds who would be starting their First-Year at Hogwarts.

Henry Irons was a policeman, and the force stuck by each other. Henry was married to the adopted mother of a little boy that many of the force had fond memories of, and whose parents had been Black's first victims. Officially, they couldn't do much. Unofficially, they started investigating.

The odd thing was: there was no record or transcript of Black ever receiving a trial in the Muggle or in the Magical world and that suggested that something funny was going on. Also funny was the fact that thirteen people were supposed to have been killed, but they only found twelve badly damaged bodies and an extra finger. The finger was was found largely unmarked, and the rest of the body was nowhere to be seen. In an explosion big enough to blast people down to appendages, you would certainly expect to find a few more pieces than a finger, especially with twelve other mostly-intact bodies.

As Henry's CO had pointed out, they were cops, and they had to know.

Sirius didn't quite dodge the frying pan that flew toward him, but he was quicker than anticipated, and managed to move fast enough that he only got a clip on the ear, rather than being laid out, as had been the original intention. Then again, being an escaped convict probably inspired some very quick reflexes.

Sirius slowly raised his hands, trying to simultaneously keep his eyes on Natasja's cooking pot, Henry's wand, and the several children forming a barricade around Harry. He looked ready to laugh at the sight of Colin menacing him with a rolling pin, but changed his mind when Hermione raised her skillet in a threatening manner. Wizards were a bit less dismissive of a woman's ability to injure you. Wands were a pretty effective gender-equalizer. "Is this a good time to proclaim my innocence?"

Henry didn't lower his wand. "We already know that you didn't get a trial, but talk fast, or I let my wife drop you where you stand."

Black looked faintly confused. Most people threatened severe bodily harm or death by their own hand. Arthur Weasley was the only person Sirius knew who threatened people with his wife, and Natasja was fairly unassuming in appearance, and her thrown frying pan was smooth enough to have been mistaken for an accident. Brunettes were hardly as famed for their temper as redheads were, either, and anyone who experienced a Molly Weasley Howler, even as an innocent bystander (the Prewett brothers had received several from their little sister) was wary of the woman. "Um, your wife is a Muggle."

Neville glared. Being partially raised by said Muggle, in the company of Hermione, had made him a bit more open-minded than most purebloods. "A Muggle who took down Bellatrix LeStrange with a baking sheet. Besides, there's nothing wrong with a girl who can defend herself and doesn't need magic to fight!"

Black looked faintly impressed, stared, and quickly recovered. "Anyway: I'm innocent, James and Lily were under the Fidelius Charm, but we switched Secret Keepers. I was the decoy. The real Secret Keeper faked his death, and everyone was too busy celebrating to bother with the legalities."

Natasja glared. "So why are you here? Madam Bones dropped by to warn us, and she said you had been muttering about someone being 'at Hogwarts'. This isn't Hogwarts, and Dumbledore managed to keep Harry being withdrawn out of the papers."

Black grimaced. "I failed in my duties as godfather before and I wanted to see that Harry was safe and well before I went to hunt down the Traitor." He paused. "Wait, you withdrew Harry from Hogwarts?"

Natasja frowned, not quite satisfied with the answer, and ignored the question. "Yes, and we're not putting him back. So why break out now? What stopped you from finding the traitor before?"

Black sighed. "I didn't know where Harry was, until I heard one of the guards talking about him. He had a boy at Hogwarts, apparently, and heard from him. Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know where Pettigrew was, either, or if he was even alive."

Henry's eyes narrowed. Pettigrew was the fourth member of Black's little gang, and one of the people Black was supposed to have killed. "Does that mean you know where he is now?"

Black nodded, pulling out a newspaper clipping. It showed the Weasley family, which caused Natasja to automatically growl under her breath. Hermione wrinkled her nose, disgusted at seeing a rat crawling all over Ron. Henry gave Sirius a flat look. "So the traitor is who?"

Black pointed. "The rat. You see how he is missing a toe, and I'd recognize him anywhere."

Natasja was about to take that as proof that Black's brains had been scrambled while he was in Azkaban, but Henry made a living from noticing details and using them to find answers. "You can't mean you – no, actually I'm not surprised that you'd go that far for a friend. I suppose he cut it off himself and transformed or Apparated away? That part had everyone a bit stumped."

This was news to everyone, and totally incomprehensible to everyone except Sirius and Henry, so a quick explanation was in order, after which Natasja sighed. "Alright. Kids, you have homework to finish, and don't let me catch you listening at the keyhole. Black, the shower is that way, and I think we still have a box of old clothes in the attic. Henry, grab the Sergeant and Madam Bones, we might as well get this over with."

Sirius looked more than a bit nervous. "What part of 'I Broke Out Of Prison To Catch The Traitor' did you miss? It's going to be kind of hard if the head of the DMLE takes me down on sight!"

Natasja looked smug. "The Ministry knows better than to use magic in my house by now, and the Muggle police have been quietly investigating since they discovered that a 'Dangerous Criminal' never received a trial."

The Chief might have been the reason that Harry's second string of words had been 'Drop your weapons!', which Natasja had NOT been happy about, but he was also a good man who was fair if it killed him. A few words in several of the right ears set the wheels in motion for a trial, while Henry helped Sirius 'Muggle-ize' a statement and article for every media outlet that would accept it. When half of the U.K. was shouting about injustice and writing indignant letters pressing for a trial, it wasn't too hard to get one in the Muggle World, which meant that the Muggle Government could demand answers from the Magical one if and when Sirius was pronounced innocent.

Natasja's knowledge of Latin was rusty, and her grasp of legal procedure practically corroded, but the fact that habeas corpus and over ten years of illegal imprisonment got Sirius off in a matter of days said a lot, as far as she was concerned.

After the general embarrassment on the part of the Ministry of Magic, who had to scramble to explain themselves to the Prime Minister (and, rumour had it, the Queen), who was very upset that the country had been up in arms over someone who had spent twelve years wrongly imprisoned because the Magical World had forgotten to give him a trial, Sirius started to get his life back in order.

Other than his three female cousins, and their offspring, Sirius was the last living member of his family, and had asked permission from the Irons' to make Harry his 'Heir-Presumptive', in order to avoid the estate passing into the hands of those who had supported the Dark Lord that Harry had supposedly defeated.

They had agreed, and only temporarily regretted it when Dumbledore grabbed the chance to try and get custody of Harry transferred to Sirius as Harry's Godfather, under the presumption that Sirius would be so grateful that he, like most of the Wizarding World, wouldn't question Dumbledore's plans. Unlike a certain uppity Muggle women and her Muggle-Born husband, who should have left Magical matters to Dumbledore's self-proclaimed wisdom.

Fortunately for all concerned, Sirius, like most wizards who encountered Harry or the Irons', had a healthy respect for the contents of Natasja's kitchen, and was less than inclined to help the person who, as Chief Warlock, was responsible for making sure he got a trial in the first place. He also had the sense to focus on what was best for Harry, as he currently had no habitable residence, and asked what they had to say about the situation.

If Sirius had tried to claim custody, the Irons' would have taken him down as hard as they did anyone who threatened their family. As it was, they got hold of a solicitor and worked out an agreement where Harry would visit Sirius one weekend a month, and other days by arrangement.

Dumbledore was not pleased. The other concerned parties did not care.

They had to go to the Ministry to officially take the end-of-year Exams, but that wasn't too much of a hassle, and it turned out that they actually scored better than most of the Hogwarts population, which became a widely known fact when the non-Hogwarts children wrote to their friends, who they had kept in touch with, to compare scores.

The Ministry tried to play this down by admitting that keeping the Dementors around had been a mistake, and had affected the scores, but several people put it down to having competent Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and History of Magic Professors, as well as exposure to Muggle Culture and a Potions teacher who actually taught, rather than just writing down instructions and glaring at you, calling you incompetent and a dunderhead if you dared to ask for help or further explanations.

It seemed like Natasja's prediction of the tutors gaining several more students might be more accurate than she had originally joked, as the tutors had received several letters from other parents, inquiring about costs and if they were open to more students.

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A/N: Right, chapter twelve and Third-Year are up. It's shorter than the others, mainly because without Quidditch, Hogsmeade, Trelawney and Escaped Convicts, there wasn't as much for me to put in. On another note, was I the only one who thought it was weird that NO-ONE noticed that if a finger is found, there should also be other body parts or entrails lying around, and if not, there is something suspicious going on? Unless they were Obliviated, the Muggle Forensic Specialists must have noticed. Gas explosions char, but they don't vaporize.

Another question is why Dumbledore, as head of the Wizengamot, didn't make sure Sirius got a trial, anyway. There is a legal precedent that if a person is imprisoned past a certain time without charges being officially pressed and brought before a judge, they HAVE to be set free. You'd think that they would give him a trial purely because of that. James and Sirius were described by McGonagall as "exceptionally bright, in fact", so why did no-one consider that Sirius as Secret Keeper was too bloody obvious? Investigators are supposed to look into every possibility, no matter how far-fetched it seems at first.

A celebration is not an excuse for everyone falling down on the job. Even Hitler's top people were tracked down and given fair trials after WWII, so why didn't they do the same to Voldemort's "Right-Hand Man", even just to question him as to Lord Voldemort's other followers and hideouts. A little thing called Veritaserum, people.

Also, why didn't Dumbledore hire Lupin earlier, like instead of Lockhart? In PoA, before we found out about the DADA curse, it made a certain amount of sense to have the last living person to have really known Sirius in Hogwarts as an added precaution, though since Lupin didn't say anything about the map or Sirius being an Animagus, that didn't do much. This time, since Dumbledore wasn't letting go without a fight

Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated, but not mandatory.

Thanks, Nat.