July 5th 1994, Greengrass Manor, Nottingham

Daphne quietly laughed as her Queen caused one of Harry's chess pieces to crumble, "Did you even notice that the knight was hanging."

Harry shrugged his shoulder, "That's not my fault, normally my pieces tell me when there about to get captured."

Daphne smiled as Harry moved one of his pawns forward, his pieces had given up trying to give him advice two games ago when he somehow got checkmated in two moves. She didn't realize the king could look so annoyed in Wizards chess. Daphne picked up her queen and moved it straight in front of the king, declaring, "Checkmate, you are aware that the game can go on for more than ten moves, right?"

Harry shrugged of the playful jab as all his pieces shattered and reconstructed themselves in their starting positions, "Obviously, we made it to atleast move 12 when Astoria helped me." It was true; however, Astoria was evidently not as proud about that game as Harry was. Although Daphne was convinced that he was deliberately playing badly to amuse Daphne with Astoria being annoyed. Or maybe he just had Sirius' upcoming trial on his mind.

Daphne laughed, "Astoria is never going to play a game of chess with you again if you don't listen to her advice, Harry."

Harry moved his king's pawn forward, "I don't need her anyway, 9th time is the charm after all."

Daphne moved her Queens pawn forward, opting to play the Scandinavian, "No one has ever said that the 9th attempt is the charm, you claimed the same for the 7th time as well, atleast with that one you could argue 7 is a magical number, what made up reason do you have now?"

Harry smiled up at her, "Do you not know?", Daphne shook her head as Harry captured the pawn, "Well if third time is the charm then the ninth time is the third time of the third time, which is like double the luck right?"

Daphne rolled his eyes at his crazy logic and moved her queen out to recapture the pawn, "Since you clearly have luck on your side, why don't we make a bet on this game."

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Sure, what are we betting."

They played a few more moves as Daphne pinned Harry's knight to his queen, "If I win then you have to come to the quidditch world cup with us."

Harry smiled, she had spent all day telling him about the world cup and he was very excited at the thought of going, "Deal, but if I win you have to admit that I'm better at chess than you to Astoria."

He said that as he moved his knight leaving his queen completely hanging, "Deal, but there's not a shot that I'm losing this game now." Harry wasn't winning when they were equal, there was no way he would win without his queen now.

Harry was stalling his next move, "Are you sure about that? I've learnt a new secret technique since last time!"

Daphne quipped at him, "What is it? That you can go as far as 13 moves?"

Harry laughed, but shook his head, "No it's this," Harry moved his bishop to capture one of Daphne's pawns near the king, "Checkmate" he had a smile plastered over his face showing how proud he was of himself.

Daphne sat speechless for a few moments, how had she not seen that coming. Scratch that how had Harry seen that coming? She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms, "I refuse to say that your better at chess than me."

Harry responded, "fine, but if you're forfeiting then I must get something else for winning the bet. How about I get to come to the quidditch world cup with you?"

Daphne shook her head in disbelief, "I can't believe you, if you wanted that outcome, you could have just lost."

Harry chuckled, "Well lesson one of my life, nothing is easy around me. "

Cyrus, who had been sat in the corner of the living room during for the last few minutes, "Well, if Harry is going to be going to the world cup with us then we better go and make sure that his godfather can come with us."

Harry stood up, "Is it finally time for us to be going?"

Cyrus chuckled, "Yes the trial will start in 20 minutes, but we can go now if you wish."

Harry nodded his head and Cyrus summoned his and Harry's shoes from the front door, Daphne could of sworn that she saw one of Harry's bishops breath a sigh of relief as he left the chess board.

July 5th 1994, Ministry of Magic, Holding Cell

Sirius couldn't stop himself from laughing a little bit, you would have thought someone they considered so dangerous would be guarded by more than one auror. Although he supposed it did reflect the poor standards he had come to expect from the ministry. What made it a bit funnier was who they had put on guard duty, it was none other than Nymphadora Tonks. She was sat a bit out of sight from Sirius own cell and she had yet to speak a single word.

He had handed himself over to the Ministry of Magic just that morning, having spent the night before at the Greengrass' with his Godson. It worried him a little bit that if things did not go there way today, then that would be the last time they would spend time together. He would have wasted the past year of running from capture if things went wrong today.

His trial was due to take place in a few minutes, he hated the thought of handing his fate to such a corrupted chamber, he would bet that Lucius Malfoy had spent the last day desperately bribing the members of the Wizengamot, he may even push as far as administering him the Dementors kiss today. He knew that if Sirius were to die then his son would have a claim to the Black house, making him even more powerful then he was before.

Yet he was equally as confident in there success today, getting him the trail in the first place was the hard bit and it had gone well, it was a narrow win, but a win regardless. Every day that went by he began to trust Cyrus Greengrass a little bit more, and some of the allies he had surrounded himself with were proving to have valuable plans idea, especially the stoic Abraham Fenwick, who would be acting as Sirius' representative today.

He couldn't wait to be a free man, to have the chance to give his godson the normal life he deserved.

Tonks had walked around in front of his cell, her arms crossed, "You're looking incredibly sane for a man who has spent 12 years in Azkaban."

Sirius shook some of his overgrown hair out of his hair, giving a light chuckle, "Being out of Azkaban for a year has helped with that."

Tonks rolled her eyes, "Don't remind me, do you have any idea how chaotic it was for us lot tracking you down. We never bloody managed to come close."

Sirius shrugged his shoulders, "I know how the aurors work, you gave me and Remus a fright when we duelled. The birds were very clever, never thought of that one before."

Tonks leant against the wall opposite the cell, "Learnt that one in my last year of Hogwarts, was going to send them flying at you, but you chopped them all down so quick it would have been pointless."

Sirius nodded his head, "I got used to sending as many spells as I could at the death eaters during the war. We would have killed all of the birds as they flew at us."

Tonks was silent for a few moments, "So you never actually betrayed the Potter's"

Sirius shook his head, "I would never, I'd lived with James for so long we were basically brothers, and I was as close to Lily as I was any of the others."

Tonks smiled, "When nine-year-old me saw you and James fighting the death eaters of my Mum's house I was in awe, you and James were the people who made me want to be an auror."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Really? In which case it seams you did a damn good job of chasing your dream. How is Andromeda anyway?"

Tonks shrugged, "Alive, she's really hoping that your proven innocent today, she always refused to believe you were the one to betray the Potter's"

Sirius took a silent note of that, maybe Andi would be a good ally after the trial, "I hope to prove her right." With that Sirius leant his head back against the cell wall.

Tonks said, "You should know that Amelia Bones is getting Mad-eye moody to testify today, he's another person who never believed you betrayed the Potter's" At that comment Tonks slowly walked back over to her post, out of view of his cell.

Sirius started to smile a little bit, Amelia Bones. That was a name he hadn't heard in a long time.

July 5th 1994, Ministry of Magic, Wizengamot Chambers

Harry was sat up in his seat next to Cyrus, they were still early for the trial, but Harry had so much nervous energy in him that he couldn't just sit inside the Greengrass' house waiting, he wanted to end on a win against Daphne anyway.

Dumbledore was sat back in his chair at the head of the chamber, he had the ever-familiar shine in his eyes. It was a sparkle that had begun to scare Harry a little, it was as if he knew exactly what was to come, and how it would happen. Although he supposed being in the wizarding world for over 100 years would give you a good idea of how things would play out.

Harry turned to Cyrus next to him, looing up at the emblem above his seat, "Cyrus", He asked, "Why Is your symbol a rose?"

Cyrus turned over to him, "I was very confused when it first turned into a rose, I had taken my seat about a week after I got married, it was only when I returned home and asked my wife what she thought of it that she said a Rose was her favourite flower. That is the best reasoning I've ever come up with."

Harry queried, "So some people might not even know what their symbol means"

Cyrus nodded his head, "Lord Fenwick has never learnt what his is. There have been some symbols which only have relevance later into one's life, these very seats are something that the department of mysteries have tried to understand for years."

Harry looked up and down trying to find Lord Fenwick's seat, it was 2 to the left of Cyrus and had what appeared to be a few letters from a foreign language.

Cyrus said, "The most he's ever learned from it is that it appears to be the Chinese translation of Eagle, but he's unsure on what that would mean. Atleast yours is easy to understand."

Harry nodded his head, although he may hate his scar and the attention it had bought it him, he far preferred understanding the meaning behind his symbol, better that then have some kind of prophecy hovering over him.

A few minutes later, Lucius Malfoy had walked in whilst in a deep discussion with the Minister of Magic, with some of his clear allies following straight behind. He walked up to his chair glaring at Harry and Cyrus, Harry privately suspected trial cost him a lot of money in bribes.

It took a few minutes for everyone to arrive for the trial, but at the stroke of the hour Sirius Black was bought into the room, his hands were cuffed in front of him, with 4 aurors stood beside him at each corner. He had a large smile spreading over his face, he walked with his back straight and head held high, somehow looking professional whilst handcuffed. Lord Fenwick was walking behind the aurors, his face completely impassive. In the middle of the chamber appeared two chairs, which they sat down in, with the whole room bearing down on them.

The clerk stood up and said, "For today's trial the prosecutor will be the minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, the accused is Sirius Black, and his representative is Abraham Fenwick", he quickly flipped his piece of paper over, "He is accused of the murder 12 muggles, breaking the statute of secrecy and leading to the deaths of the Potter's."

"Very well," Dumbledore said from his seat, "Do you have any evidence, Lord Fenwick?"

Abraham nodded his head, "Of Course, I'd like to call Alastor Moody to testify, as he was the leading auror to arrest Sirius Black."

Dumbledore inclined his head towards the aurors standing guard of the chamber, who opened the door and stood aside as the man hobbled into the room, his walking stick clicking against the ground with every step. He was directed over to the right-hand side of the stand which Dumbledore and the ministry representatives sat at, he gave a slight nod to Dumbledore as he walked past and sat on the chair which had been summoned for him.

Abraham asked, "Could you please identify yourself for the Wizengamot."

He responded in a deep gruff voice, "Alastor Moody, Retired Auror."

Abraham jumped straight into asking questions of Mad-eye, "Can you give us your account of what happened on that night."

Mad-eye adjusted the strap of his eye and said, "We'd been told that Black had cornered Peter Pettigrew somewhere in London, me and a few other aurors apparated to the scene as fast as we could, but we arrive to late, only a few seconds before the explosion blasted everything. One of the other aurors searched the area whilst I arrested Black. He didn't resist, but he was laughing like a maniac, muttering to himself that he'd made a mistake and how it was all his fault. I'd never see Black act like that, I had taught him for a year or two when he trained to be a hit-wizard with James. He was always making a joke, laughing about something. I had never seen him so broken."

Abraham asked, "Would you care to remind the Wizengamot what was found at the crime scene."

Mad-eye replied, "All that was found was a finger of Peter Pettigrew, no Corpse or splinters of his wand, just a cleanly cut finger."

Abraham continued with his questions, "Do you remember what spells were found on Sirius' wand."

Mad-eye responded, "I'd normally never remember what spells were on a wand. Back then it was always just a combination of horrible dark spells. But this case was different. All that was found on his wand was a series of apparitions, no aggressive spells, and nothing that would appear to cause the explosion, which killed the muggles and Pettigrew." That statement caused a few members of the Wizengamot to pay closer attention.

Abraham followed up, "Do you know what might have caused that explosion?"

Mad-eye paused and thought for a moment, "I can't say for sure what caused it. But my best guess would be that there was another wizard nearby who through a blasting curse."

Abraham continued, "But you would conclude that it couldn't of been Black who caused the explosion."

Mad-eye nodded his head, "That's what I thought at the time, and I stand by it now. My instincts have always done me well."

Abraham turned to address the Wizengamot, "Whilst I cannot speak for the whole Wizengamot this seams like an open and shut case to me. Sirius Black didn't cast a spell to cause the explosion, thereby he is innocent, no?"

Abraham went back to his seat as Fudge stood up and walked to the centre of the room to ask his own questions. He asked, "Since we have established that Sirius Black did not use any magical method to cause an explosion, do you believe that he could have used a muggle method to cause it Mad-eye?"

Mad-eye thought for a whilst before answering again, "It's possible, but unlikely. I doubt that Sirius Black would have been familiar with the methods muggles use to cause the same explosions. But what I saw was a magical explosion. I wouldn't be able to say for definite by just seeing it, but when I was arresting Black I could feel the magic in the air, it was a wizard who had caused that, there is no doubt in my mind."

Fudge briefly looked annoyed at the comment, Mad-eye was a well-respected auror, if he said the explosion was magical then it must have been. However, he shrugged it off and took a slightly different route. "Is it possible that the wand you examined was a decoy, perhaps Sirius Black had a second wand he threw away after casting the spell."

Mad-eye shook his head, "No, my eyes were on Black the second I arrived on the scene, he didn't have another wand on him and I would of spotted him throwing one away. I wouldn't miss another wand, not with this," he said tapping his magical eye.

Fudge winced and took his seat back up on the stand. He was internally berating himself, he was so convinced that Black had been guilty, could he have genuinely been wrong. Surely not? Lucius had assured him of Black's guilt. However, he couldn't help but notice that Lucius had never said how he knew, had it perhaps been a lie to try and keep Sirius Black in Azkaban.

He quickly thought to himself about the repercussions of Black getting away innocent when he had accused him of being guilty. He didn't need to turn the Blacks and his allies against him. Lucius would be fuming If he dropped the accusations now, especially after all the money he had spent securing votes, yet Fudge knew that Lucius lost a lot of the bragging power he had within the pureblood circles without his son being the Black heir and he still needed a small amount of revenge on Lucius for how he had tried to stop the creation of the Triwizard tournament.

He made a split-second decision right there, he stood up and interrupted Lord Fenwick, who was about to call his next witness, "After Alastor Moody's testimony I'd like to propose that we drop all charges against Sirius Black, it is clear to me that we were wrong in assuming his guilt." The Wizengamot looked on in stunned silence at that declaration, he could see that Lucius was seething, glaring straight at Fudge, "I propose that we immediately put it to a vote on whether Sirius Black is guilty or not." There were murmurs up in the audience section, Abraham Fenwick had his eyes wide open as he leant back in his seat.

Dumbledore however had a smile on his face, as he addressed the Wizengamot, "Well in which case we'll put it to a vote, on the Minister's recommendation. If those who think that Sirius Black is guilty would please raise their wands." Fudge looked to his right to see that, along with him all his ministry employees had not raised their wands. He was sure that the vote would go in favour of innocent, despite all of Lucius' allies had raise their wands.

"And all of those who think Sirius Black is innocent can raise their wands." Fudge put his wand in the air as he watched them rise across the room. He was now confident that he had made the right decision.

It took the clerk a few moments to announce the result, but eventually he stood up and said, "Out of the 95 votes cast it was decided that Sirius Black is innocent of all charges, by 51 votes to 44."

Sirius Black was a free man

A/N: Who knew writing a scene of two characters playing chess could be so fun, that has genuinely been my favourite scene to write so far. This chapter was meant to release sooner, however a healthy dose of real-life issues got in the way, and never got the chance to quickly finish it up.

I hope you enjoy! Please leave a review, it helps more than you think.