In the last chapter: Harry starts class at Hogwarts with the occasional conflict with Snape or Michael and grows closer to his two friends Draco and Anthony. Harry spends his nights conversing with death, hearing stories about his parents and the Marauders-specifically, Sirius. Ron and his Gryffindor housemates get into trouble snooping around the third floor corridor. Hermione gets caught up in the troll fiasco and Anthony and Harry save her (resulting in Harry using wandless magic in front of Anthony). And Hermione is brought into the tight-knit group of Harry's friends.

The rest of the term played out quite similarly to the first half: ruddy Gryffindors stuffing their noses into other people business, Severus Snape taking every opportunity to try to humiliate Harry, Death maintaining a sometimes dark other times hilarious narrative going on over Harry's shoulder, Harry reading, and Draco, Anthony, and Harry spending every spare moment together.

Hermione had begun joining them at meals—at Harry's cold and firm insistence—and though Draco wasn't happy what-so-ever in the beginning, Harry was sure to thump him on the head a few times to get him to stop being an idiot and remind him not only that Harry despised the blood-titles, but that Harry was, in fact, a Half-blood.

After that, Hermione became an expected part of the group, though she didn't join them half of the time in favor of quiet time alone to read. Harry enjoyed her feisty personality when she was around and envied her when she was allowed to have alone-time. If Harry ever tried to get some space from the two leeches he dubbed 'friends' he'd end up with two furious blondes who'd want to know who else he could possibly be hanging out with, or why was he pushing them away. Bunch of blasted nits, if you asked him!

Before anyone knew it, winter break came rolling in with a ridiculous amount of snow and a signup sheet for those who would be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. Harry put his name on the list that was mainly a few seventh-years who wanted to spend Christmas break with their friends instead. When Anthony and Draco found out, the ribbed him with dozens of questions about why he wasn't going home and if he wanted, he could join either of their families over break.

Harry sighed and sat with his two friends at the Ravenclaw table for lunch. Draco across from him and Anthony on his right, as usual. Making a split decision—having not really thought about how his friends would react to him staying at Hogwarts—Harry decided to give them a fraction of the truth.

"Actually, I am planning on going to see family over break, but I can't see them if I go back to where I live with my relatives. I haven't told either of you much about them, but they . . . they don't exactly approve of magic and all of this." Harry made a broad sweeping gesture to Hogwarts, and the wizarding world in general. "If I went back now, chances are I'd be stuck there until break was over. My best chance is to stay here and sneak out of the castle for a while. It won't be hard, there's a secret tunnel leading from here to Hogsmead that the seventh-years use because it won't trip any wards." Harry explained as he scooped some rice and teriyaki chicken onto his plate.

"Who are you going to see?" Draco asked, brows furrowed. Liking how much easier it felt to tell the truth when he could, Harry decided to continue with that approach.

"A very close friend of my parents. I'm not sure if you know this, but Dumbledore is my current magical guardian. I think . . . I think he means well, but I don't think he is fit to be any child's guardian. I do not stay with him when not at Hogwarts and my guardians in the muggle world are not ideal. So I'm going to try to transfer my guardianship from Dumbledore to this family friend. If all goes well, I can live with him this summer instead of my relatives." Harry explained with a diminutive shrug.

"'Transfer Guardianship,' you can do that?" Draco asked, tilting his head to the side and scrunching up his face in confusion. Harry smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, considering my birth parents are not alive, my Gringotts vault key—as a sign of guardianship—would be held by my magical guardian so that they could take care of me. Problem was, Dumbledore is my magical guardian but he was not using the funds from my trust vault to provide for me, I wasn't in his care or living with him, and lastly, he had even given my key to someone else to hold on to. I don't think he realized the severity, but by giving the key to someone else it is a show of transferring guardianship, though the paperwork was never filed, that other person could have taken guardianship of me without anyone knowing better.

"Since he was not fulfilling the duties of a guardian, technically that key should have remained in my possession as a pseudo-emancipation until I could give the key to an adult who I would like to be my guardian. Since I now have my vault key back, I can give this family friend my key and hopefully work everything out so that he'll become my guardian." Harry explained.

What Harry didn't tell them, was that this 'family friend' was actually the infamous Sirius Black who was currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban. Also, that Harry planned on giving Sirius his key when he visited, forcing Gringotts to investigate whether his nominated guardian was fit or not. It would sequentially reopen Sirius' case since wizards could not stop goblin business affairs and Harry could then push the Ministry to actually give Sirius a trial, in which Harry would bring forth the necessary evidence in order to acquit his Godfather.

The timing would certainly be tricky, considering there's no telling when the goblins will decide to investigate or when the trial will actually take place. In a perfect world, everything could be sorted and closed before summer started and nobody but those directly involved would find out about it until Sirius was already cleared.

Harry knew that he could make the process go by faster by going directly to Gringotts several times after filing to make sure that certain things were seen to and processed. Goblins, considering they rather despised wizards in general, liked to take their sweet time with things such as this, but his newly acquired title had garnered certain privileges and quite a bit of respect. Also, there wasn't a way to bypass the Goblins, since guardianship was so closely tied in to inheritances and who could access what vaults that matters pertaining to these things were left solely to the goblins as an unbiased third party unaffected by wizarding politics.

The issue with trying to go there directly to help along the processes, was that Harry only had so much time and opportunity to sneak out of Hogwarts while on winter break and would not be able to once the term started back up.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to stay over at either Draco's or my place for winter break? It would be a lot easier to go see your friend if either of our parents could bring you, then you wouldn't have to break any rules." Anthony reasoned, lifting one shoulder in a half of a shrug. Harry knew where he was coming from but knew it wouldn't work.

"No, since Dumbledore is still my guardian he has a say over where I go, so he'll insist I either stay with my relatives or here. As I said before, with my relatives, it'll be much harder to get where I need to go. I've thought this through extensively, and my best option is to stay here and sneak out to Hogsmead. That will also make Dumbledore think that he has eyes on me at all times." Anthony nodded along as Harry spoke, taking in what he said and apparently not finding flaw with any of it.

Two days after winter break had begun and all of the students going home had vacated the castle, Harry got up an hour and a half before the sun rose and quickly got dressed and prepared to see his Godfather.

Harry dressed in plain black, finely tailored wizarding robes, charcoal dragon hide boots, and a thick wool cloak that was the darkest blue Harry had ever seen on fabric. Nobody in his dorm room had stayed over break—thankfully—so he didn't have to worry about sneaking around his room and could get ready fairly quickly.

Five minutes later, Harry was wrapped up in the invisibility cloak he'd been gifted from Death his eleventh birthday and his footsteps were silenced as he quickly moved through the castle to the statue of the one-eyed witch near the DADA stairs. It only took minutes to find the statue. Harry made sure the hallways were empty before taking out his wand and tapping the witch's hump.

"Dissendium." Harry whispered before the statue shifted, creating a hole behind the statue and he was able to slide down into the tunnel beneath the school through.

Harry followed the tunnel with a lumos lighting his way. The tunnel ended in the cellar of Honeydukes, which was empty save for a few crates of additional stock. Harry took off the invisibility cloak, took out the Gringotts key he had in his pocket, wrapped the key in the cloak, and stuffed both into the inner pocket of his winter cloak. From a pocket in his robes, Harry pulled out a scrap of soft leather and cast a quick tempus to check the time.

Weeks prior, Harry had owled the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry requesting a private meeting with one of its Aurors. Harry didn't specify what the meeting was about, but considering who he was, his request was promptly accepted and they sent him a portkey via owl a few days later. Harry hated using his name to get things like this, but as a minor, it was one of the few advantages he had seeing as how Dumbledore would never allow him to do what he was about to.

As per Harry's request, instead of a specifically timed portkey, this portkey was spelled to activate five minutes after leaving the anti-apparation wards. The wards wouldn't keep him from portkeying, but it would alert Dumbledore and place an automatic trace on him. Similar to the wards around Hogwarts, the wards around Harry's relative's house would keep him from portkeying period.

Casting one last tempus, Harry straightened his robes, slipped his wand back into his inner robe pocket, and held onto the 2x2" scrap of leather tightly moments before Harry felt like he was being pulled through a straw by a fishhook embedded behind his bellybutton. A half second later, Harry was violently thrown onto the black marble floors of the reception hall of the Ministry.

Slowly pushing himself back up onto his feet as his brain seemed to spin freely inside his skull, Harry felt vaguely grateful that he'd arrived so early and there were only a few dead-eyed people shuffling about. Either just leaving after an all-night shift or just arriving for work before the sun was even up, everyone was far too drowsy to pay any attention to the young boy had come crashing into the Ministry with about as much finesse as an elephant stampeding through.

Harry kept his cloak hood up and his head down as he purposefully strode through the main area of the Ministry and over to the access lifts. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was on level two of the Ministry, right around the corner of the lifts and behind a set of heavy oak doors. Inside was an even worse display of exhaustion than out in the main hall.

As Harry walked past desks and cubicles, he spotted several Aurors passed out in their chairs or nursing steaming cups of tea as their heads bobbed dangerously and their eyelids drooped. It took a little bit of wandering around since Harry didn't want to start asking around, but eventually he found the cubicle he was looking for that held the Auror who'd been assigned to meeting with him. Harry stood silently and watched as a man reclined in his chair with his long legs crossed over and kicked up onto his desk. He wore a very long black leather coat and dark, stained clothes underneath. His long chestnut brown hair was half pulled back, tied with a leather cord and his hard face was full of dark scruff that showed he hadn't shaved in at least a week.

The reason that Harry was able to study the man down to even the faint white scar curved between his eye and cheekbone? The 30-something year-old Auror was totally passed out. His mouth was hanging open slightly and deep, rumbling snores were erupting from the man. A silencing bubble had obviously been placed around the Auror, which is why Harry didn't hear him until he stepped up to the entrance of the cubicle.

Harry sighed and rapped his hand on the desk loud enough to snap the older wizard out of sleep. The man woke rather violently and Harry almost felt bad for waking him, but Harry had business to attend to and he wanted it settled as soon as possible. When the Auror, Philias Green according to the letter that had been sent to him a few weeks ago, blinked slowly several times before he finally seemed to notice Harry.

"Mr. Green? My name is Harry Potter, and I was told I could meet with you." Harry pulled back his hood and held out his hand to the stunned and still slightly sleepy Auror. After a long pause, the man seemed to snap out of it and hesitantly took Harry's smaller hand in his large calloused one and shook it like it was made of thin glass.

"Uh, yeah I was told I'd be meeting you, but I just thought a couple of my mates were taking the piss—ah! I mean, I thought they might be having a laugh." Green grimaced and looked supremely uncomfortable around the child. Though Harry, for his part, kept his expression neutral. "Oh, and you can just call me Phil! I aint be 'aving any of that 'Mr.' business." Green—Phil—exclaimed with an unsure smile. Phil had a deep, rolling Irish accent that was pleasing to listen to, even if he looked rather out of his depth around anything small and remotely delicate.

Phil cleared his throat and turned on his swivel chair to face Harry, with his hands braced on his knees, elbows facing out, and his posture tense like he was about to receive a lashing or something. "What-ah . . . what can I do ye for?"

Harry took a discreet, deep calming breath before he spoke.

"I'd like an escort to visit someone in Azkaban." Harry forced out with a determined nod of his head as if to clarify that what came out of his mouth was exactly what he meant. When Harry looked up from the middle of the Auror's chest that he'd been staring at when he spoke, he found Phil sitting stock still with his brows high up on his forehead and deep valleys creased into his tanned forehead. After what seemed like ages, Phil suddenly broke into side-aching laughter, so hearty it almost made Harry's stomach hurt from just listening to it.

When Harry didn't laugh or say anything else, Phil's laughter slowly died out and a look of confusion and apprehension slowly crawled over his features.

"Harry . . . you do realize that this isn't like any old muggle prison. There are dementors everywhere and many of the prisoners are Death Eaters. It is no place for a child. Who would you even go to see?" Phil looked worried for Harry, which was both annoying a bit nice at the same time.

"I know exactly what Azkaban is and trust that I have no disillusions about what I will see at the prison. If you must know, I am going there to see my Godfather, Sirius Black." The Auror actually jerked back a little at the name.

"Sirius Black?! The Death Eater? The one who betrayed your parents? Why on earth would you ever go to see that barking mad mutt?" Harry was glad he didn't dismantle the silencing spell as Phil's voice got louder and more incredulous the longer he spoke. When Harry spoke, his voice was cold and hard.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Green, but on what grounds are you making these claims? As far as I know, my Godfather still has yet to receive a trial, and aren't all people considered innocent until proven guilty? I would highly appreciate it if you refrained from slandering my Godfather until you have proof and a sentencing to back up what you say. Now, I'm still just a child so I don't know much, but I'm fairly certain that being incarcerated without a trial is only legal during times of war. Well, it's been over a decade, there hasn't been an actual war since before my Godfather was arrested, and yet he still hasn't received a trial.

"You seem like a good man, Mr. Green. Funny, even. I don't wish to ruin your day by going to the Head Auror and asking why my Godfather hasn't received a trial, and I certainly don't wish to bring the press into such a messy matter, I truly despise confrontation. But these are trying matters, I'm afraid. Do not doubt, I will be getting my Godfather a trial. I'll be coming back, and when I do, I'll be coming for blood. Yet, I think that there are others more deserving of the scrutiny than the Auror Department. Young, though I may be, I do not make idle threats." Harry let his piercing gaze bore into Phil and watched as the trained Auror squirmed a little in his seat.

'Careful now Harry, threatening a secret Death Eater . . . tsk, tsk, such dangerous games you like to play.' His companion put in and Harry had to school his face into a blank mask to keep from reacting. Harry certainly never thought that he'd meet his first Death Eater pretending to an ordinary Auror. As Harry studied the man before him in a new—darker light, Phil finally deflated with a resigned look on his face. Now that Harry was looking closely, he could see the hard glint in the man's expression, the way his right hand was eerily still and tense on his leg, like he was trying hard not to just grab his wand and hex Harry.

"Fine. I'll take you, but you will not leave my side until we reach your Godfather and you will do everything I say. Keep that head on your shoulders and don't try anything stupid, ight lad?" Phil snapped in a no-funny-business tone and waited until Harry nodded before standing up from his chair and walking past Harry. The man was easily six feet tall, if not more, and his broad shoulders plus severe expression made just about anyone grateful to not be on the other end of his wand at any given moment. Harry pulled his hood back up and followed the fake-Auror to a plain wooden door on the other end of the room.

Inside was a completely bare room with a single florescent light overhead. Phil closed the door behind Harry and for a split second, Harry feared that the Death Eater would carry out his master's final deed and off Harry—not that it would do the man any good, considering—but he just stood in the middle of the room and held his hand out to Harry like he was leading a small child across the street. After a bit of hesitation, Harry stepped forward and took the offered hand, which once again swallowed his smaller one.

Feeling a more violent tug behind his navel than he had experienced before, Harry was ripped through the fabric of space and thrown back into an entirely different place in a matter of seconds. Harry's knees immediately buckled and he was dangerously close from heaving up whatever was in his stomach at the moment, but the strong hand wrapped around his own quickly pulled up to keep his knees from hitting the bare cement beneath his feet.

Phil hooked his hands underneath Harry's armpits and pulled him back up into a standing position. Never before had Harry felt so much like a child, it caused a flaming blush to bloom on his cheeks and he glared once at Phil before the man quickly let go and stepped back like he'd hurt Harry or something. Huffing once and smoothing down his robes, Harry let go of the brief irritation and allowed Phil to lead him out of the cold empty room that was almost identical to the one they'd just left.

The had apparently apparated into the check-in building just outside of the prison. It was the only area on the tiny island where apparation was possible. Dementors were the primary guards inside the prison, but Aurors manned the entrance structure and did daily patrols through the prison along with doling out meals and escorting prisoners and visitors to and from the central prison.

In the check-in place, Harry got a few odd looks, but nobody said anything but what was necessary, like to direct him to hand over his wand for the duration of his stay and to subject himself to a specialized detection spell that would locate any magical items on him or weapons so that he couldn't sneak anything in to a prisoner. Thankfully, the cloak wasn't discovered due to its properties to not only hide the wearer from view, but to mask magical signatures and is impervious to all spells except for the unforgivables. Once Harry was cleared, Phil led him out of the small structure and he got his first glimpse at Azkaban.

It was a daunting gray stone structure, a frightening giant against the drab overcast sky of early morning. Black wraith-like creatures swarmed and floated around the building like crows circling a corpse. Dementors.

Inside, Harry was immediately met with the screams of the tortured and insane. With dementors feeding freely on the prisoners, Harry could understand why they'd scream, why they'd go mad. Phil paused in the darkened entryway and looked down at Harry, eyes unsure and slightly haunted.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Phil asked, offering Harry one last chance to back out. There had been a moment of fear when Harry first entered the prison, but when you've faced Death and returned, fearing things found only in life was rather hard. Besides, he was here for a reason.

"I'm sure." And with that, Harry was led up through flight after flight of stairs, until they reached the seventh floor and Phil pulled out a large ring of cruddy black keys and unlocked the door that would bring them into corridors holding the prisoners. As they walked, prisoners would run up to the large barred window on the door and either pleaded to be let out, or reached their dirty arms through the bars in hopes of snagging one of them, or shouted oaths at them and other profanity.

Not all of the cells held prisoners, in fact, they seemed to be spaced out enough that each wall of perhaps ten-fifteen cells held no more than three-five prisoners. After the third turn, they came to a rather quiet corridor and halfway down, Phil stopped and gestured to a cell door roughly ten feet away. The cell was quiet, despite having probably heard both their approaching footsteps and the other shrieking prisoners.

"I want to go inside." Harry said resolutely, but in a tone quiet enough to not be heard from inside the cell. Phil instantly shot him down.

"No, absolutely not!"

Harry narrowed his eyes at the older man. Phil looked right back at him, steely and unmoving.

"Phil, all I wish is to be able to be alone with my Godfather for a short period of time. I believe him to be unjustly imprisoned and just want to meet the man who was so close to my parents. I can very well take care of myself and it's not like he can escape, he has no wand and no way out. Give me just one hour and then I promise we can leave." Once again, Phil looked extremely uncomfortable and shifted his weight several times where he stood.

"Fine. But you call out if anything happens, and I am not liable for any harm that may come to you!" Phil shook a domineering finger at Harry like a scolding parent. Harry nodded seriously and followed Phil as he reluctantly unlocked the cell he'd indicated to before and let the door swing open for Harry. After a deep breath that perhaps wasn't the wisest on his end, Harry walked into the cell and Phil closed the door behind him, but didn't lock it and walked away to give them privacy.

The cell was frigid, drafty, damp, and dirty. The only light came from two glassless windows so high up, you wouldn't have any hopes of seeing anything but the grey sky beyond. There wasn't a bed or anything, just the windows and the door. A figure lay curled up on the floor against the wall, breathing deeply and presumably asleep. All Harry could discern from the lump on the ground was beyond dirty and tattered rags for clothes, long matted black hair, and bits and pieces of dirty skin peeking through the holes and tears in the fabric.

Harry was about to call out to his Godfather, when a shadow fell over one of the windows and Harry looked up just as a Dementor floated into the cell, it's gauzy and shadow wrapped face turned towards Harry as it approached. Harry stood stock still as the creature drifted closer, the already freezing room becoming every colder. Harry didn't even think about calling out to Phil as the dark creature came face to face with him and was only a foot away. The Dementor shifted its head closer to Harry and seemed to inhale his scent. Suddenly, like it had been burned, the creature reared back with a faint hissing noise and fled the room as quickly as it could.

Whatever it had smelt on Harry, it certainly hadn't liked it. Feeling like he could breathe again, Harry turned his attention back to the curled up man before him.

"Sirius?" Harry called out in a gentle tone. When nothing happened, Harry called out again in a louder, but no less gentle, voice. This time, Sirius stirred and shifted enough to reveal a pair of light grey eyes that immediately landed on Harry. In a flash, Sirius was up on his feet—though he didn't step closer—and staring at Harry with very wide eyes.

"I don't know if you recognize me, since it's been so long, and I've grown up a lot more, but I'm Harry, your Godson." Harry said carefully, taking in every emotion that flicker in Sirius' expression.

"Is this . . . is this real?" Sirius in a pained voice that was rough and scratchy from disuse. Harry gave him a sad smile and nodded before taking a tentative step forward and stopping to see if Sirius reacted. When he didn't, Harry took another step forward, then another and another. When Harry was close enough, he reached out took one of Sirius' cold and bony hands in both of his own, wishing for the warmth of his skin to seep into his, even if for only a short while. Sirius' eyes shined with unshed tears and they quickly roved over Harry's face, drinking in every detail like he never wanted to forget a single bit.

Something dawned on Sirius and his face morphed into one of concern.

"Harry, I-I promise, I had nothing to do—"

"I know, Sirius. I know who really betrayed my parents and I promise I will clear your name and get you out of here. I have everything planned out, you only need to be here for a little while longer, then I swear I'll get you your trial and make sure you're acquitted." Harry vowed with more conviction than he ever knew was possible for him. Sirius looked surprised and a little doubtful, so Harry quickly told him his plan, and by the end, he looked contemplative and like Harry was actually on to something.

"That . . . that might actually work. But be careful Harry, I don't care about getting out of here so much if it puts you in any kind of danger." There was a haunted glint in his Godfather's eyes that spoke volumes about how much he hated this place (how could he not?) but he also seemed to be telling the truth when he said he cared about Harry's safety more. Harry ducked his head to hide the embarrassingly touched smile on his face, and nodded in agreement.

Harry and Sirius sat on the floor of the cell and talked for quite a while. Harry could tell that all of this time spent away from actual people had taken its toll on both his mental health and his social skills, but not nearly as much as Harry had expected, and as they continued to talk it seemed to slowly become more and more natural to Sirius. Harry wasn't fooling himself, he knew that it would take much more for Sirius to be a functional adult once Harry got him out of that place. There were times during their conversation that Sirius seemed to feel too much, and times when he seemed too numb. Sirius also hadn't let go of Harry's hand since Harry had grabbed his, like if he let go Harry would vanish or turn out to just be the hallucination of a broken and deprived mind.

Mainly, they talked about Harry's first year at school and his friends. Harry could tell Sirius enjoyed listening to him talk, especially about himself. When Harry had told Sirius he'd been sorted into Ravenclaw, the man barked in laughter in what had to be the first time in nearly a decade, if not longer. Sirius made a comment about how smart Harry must be and how proud he was. It seemed Sirius was going to say something along the lines of how proud his parents would have been, but couldn't quite get it out.

Harry cleared his throat slightly awkwardly and stood up, he only had about five minutes left before Phil came by to collect him and there was still something he had left to do. Sirius stood up as Harry dug into the pocket of his robes and pulled out the bunched up invisibility cloak. Recognizing the silvery material, Sirius gasped and his eyes widened. Harry carefully located the small golden key within the cloak and pulled it out. First, Harry handed over his key to Sirius.

"I, Harry James Potter, officially nominate Sirius Orion Black to be my magical, legal, and sole guardian from this day forward. So mote it be." Harry proclaimed in a clear, confident voice as a shimmering white thread ran from Sirius to the key, and from the key to Harry. When the magic settled, Sirius' cheeks were streaked with tears and an enormous grin had overtaken his face. Without any other prompting, Harry was pulled into a crushing hug which Harry returned, his arms squeezing the too-small waist of his Godfather. After a long few moments, Harry pulled back and Sirius reluctantly let go.

"Now that that is settled, there's one more thing before I have to leave. As is, we have to sort of play the waiting game until we can get you out of here, but there are a few small things I can do before I leave. Starting with this," Harry held out the invisibility cloak to Sirius and the man hesitantly took it with dazed eyes. "More than just hiding you from sight, it will hide your magical signature and keep dementors away from you." Next Harry unfastened his winter cloak, which was actually a self-sizing cloak he'd bought with an identical black one when getting his supplies over the summer. Harry handed the cloak over as well.

"These cells are horribly cold and I will not have my guardian frozen solid before I can even get him out." Harry said with a sly smile and mirth in his eyes. Next, Harry waved a hand over Sirius in a silent scourgify, which caused Sirius to yelp in surprise.

"Harry! Did you just do wandless magic?!" Sirius exclaimed in utter disbelief. Harry smirked deviously and held his index finger up to his lips with a short shushing sound and a wink. The man before him practically beamed with pride and wonder. Lastly, Harry cleaned up the cell the best that he could, cast several heating charms on the room, his ex-winter cloak, and Sirius himself, and transfigured a mattress out of a folded up piece of paper he had shoved in his pocket. Once the mattress was finished, Harry grabbed the invisibility cloak from Sirius' hand and spread it out over the mattress like a sheet until it was completely hidden from view.

Harry also transfigured the now-useless scrap of leather in his pocket into a cloak identical to the one he'd given Sirius, minus the resizing-charm. Harry put the duplicate cloak on so Phil wouldn't notice anything out of place.

When all was said and done, Harry looked up at his Godfather with a reluctance to leave. He had only known the man for such a short time, but he already adored him. Harry hated leaving him here, but he knew that the best thing he could do for Sirius was get him out of here the right way. Otherwise, Sirius would spend his life looking over his shoulder and trying desperately not to get caught and dragged back to Azkaban. If that happened, Sirius wouldn't have a chance to become Harry's guardian and Harry would be in the same situation as now, but with a much smaller chance of clearing his name.

With one final and crushing hug, Harry walked back towards the entrance just as Phil came walking down the corridor. Turning around to look at his Godfather before he left, and offered a reassuring smile.

"I'll get you out of here Sirius, I promise." Sirius grinned brighter than any man in his situation should be able to. Phil opened the door and Harry walked through, not looking back. As they walked purposefully through the prison, Harry felt a warmth in his chest that he didn't recognize. It was fleeting, but in its absence, it felt like a tiny space behind his sternum had been hollowed out to make room for the warmth when it'd return.

Phil brought him back to the Ministry and Harry departed with the promise that they would cross paths again. Phil gave Harry another one-time-use-only portkey that would bring him back to Hogsmead, and watched the young boy go, surreal pale green eyes haunting him whenever he closed his eyes. The domineering presence of the child refusing to fade from the forefront of his mind.

Harry made it back to the castle without his invisibility cloak just fine. By the time he exited the secret passage behind the one-eyed witch, breakfast had just started. Harry transfigured his duplicate cloak back into the leather scrap and shoved it into his pocket before making his way to breakfast. Now, all Harry had to do was wait.