A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the fourth Chap of Sky and we have Sirius properly enter the story. Hope you like it. :)
Note Aug/17: Chapter has been modifed.
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling
After Marcus had had breakfast with Sky, he retired to his study and started making fire-calls. He decided to call his old friend Rufus Scrimgeour, who was the Head Auror. He threw the Floo powder into the fireplace and spoke his name. He saw Rufus sitting behind his desk looking thoughtful.
"Rufus, old friend, what makes you look so grim?" Marcus asked.
"Marcus?"
"In the flesh." Marcus smirked.
"I haven't seen you in years. Where have you been? Come over, I have tea coming in a few minutes." Rufus said happy to see his old friend.
"Sorry, can't. Long story short is that I got myself an apprentice and have been travelling with him pretty much all around the world, but I'll tell you more about that later with better time. In fact I wanted to ask you if you'd do me a favor."
"What kind?"
"Information. I need a detailed report from a trial six years ago."
"Hmm… You've got me intrigued. Which one?"
"The Sirius Black case."
"Black's? That was just before they made me a Head. Why do you need it?"
"Can't tell you yet. Can I have it?"
"Sure, I'll send you a copy by dinner. So when are you going to come back from your leave of absence?"
"We shall see – Maybe in a few years… Anyway, thanks for the file."
"Don't mention it, but I'm curious of what you need it for. You must tell me over dinner sometime." Rufus said.
"Well, if everything goes well I'm sure you'll be the first one to know." Marcus said mysteriously and stopped the call. He made a few more calls to Aurors that had been in the scene when they caught Sirius but none of them could tell him anything new.
Sighing Marcus left his study and headed for the training area. He saw Sky down the lake meditating. He had finished his Animagus potion the day before and was now trying to find his inner animal. Marcus himself had done it during his training, with the help of his mentor Charlus Potter. His form was a silver wolf.
Marcus turned away from Sky and activated the training dummies. Over the years he had taken up a routine, in which he every day spent time keeping up his dueling skills in both magical and muggle. For two hours he fought the dummies restlessly until he saw out of the corner of his eye a figure moving fast towards him. Out of reflexes he turned around to face it and shot a spell towards it, which it avoided easily. Marcus had barely enough time to identify the creature for a wolf cub, before he was tackled into the ground with the cub licking his face.
"What the hell…?!" Marcus started and shoved the wolf off of him, before noticing that the cub had emerald green eyes. "Sky?" He asked incredulously.
The animal shifted into Sky, who was wiping tears of joy from his eyes. "Constant… vigilance wasn't it?" He asked between the laughs.
"You… How? How did you do that?" Marcus asked astonished. "It takes years to become an Animagus."
"Apparently not. I just concentrated hard into one of my forms, after I received a vision from it and then I transformed." Sky said casually.
"You just transformed into an Animagus in less than a day and you say that 'I just concentrated hard'." Marcus said shaking his head in wonder. "Wait, did you just say forms?"
"Yes, I wondered when you would catch up. I have two! A wolf and a Phoenix!" Sky said sounding excited.
Marcus just stared him for a long time in wonder before he collected himself.
"You can turn into a magical creature?"
"Yea, I guess. I haven't tried it yet."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Give it a go." Marcus said excited. He had never met anyone who had a magical creature as an Animagus form, but had read about it before.
He watched Sky close his eyes and in a few minutes there was a white and silver colored phoenix in front of him. Marcus could do nothing but stare as Sky started stretching his wings and attempting to fly. It took him a few tries, but soon he was in the air, flying like he had born to it. 'Well, Sky has always loved flying, so it's no wonder he has an Animagus form that can fly.'
Sky's phoenix Shadow flashed to the yard and joined Sky in the sky, clearly teaching him how to properly use the wings. Soon they were both diving towards the ground and pulling quickly up again. Marcus watched them chuckling to himself before returning to his study to see if Rufus had sent him the file yet.
He had, and Marcus started to read the file. The file contained only two papers; One detailing the capture of Sirius and the other, with information about him being the Potters' Secret-Keeper. There was nothing about the trial or interrogation. 'This can't be right' Marcus thought. 'There must be something about the trial.'
Marcus looked again at the first paper that contained the names of the Aurors that worked on the case. They were all veterans that had passed away, either in the field or due to some disease, except for one. A young Auror by the name of Fred Stephenson had worked on the case, and was still an active Auror. Marcus decided to go and meet with him, but first he had to see if Sky wanted to come along. He sent a house-elf to fetch Sky and changed into his Unspeakable robes. It was always good to make an impression when trying to get information and the Unspeakables were so unknown force that they gained respect –and fear – by just being there.
Just as he had changed his robes Sky entered the room.
"Are we going somewhere?"
"Yes, I'm going to meet an Auror that worked on Sirius' case. You can come along if you want."
"Wouldn't miss it." Sky said excitedly. "Wasn't there anything in the file that Scrimgeour gave you?"
"Only details of the capture, nothing of interrogation or trial. It's like he was shipped into Azkaban without questioning."
"What if the Auror doesn't know?"
"We will cross that bridge when it comes. You should change a bit of your looks. Many of the Aurors knew your father and may recognize you, even if you don't have classes anymore – You look too much alike."
Sky just smiled faintly, like he always did when his parents were mentioned, and changed his appearance. Now he looked taller and older; He had a brown hair and blue eyes.
"Here, change into these." Marcus said handing him his apprentice robes. "We need to get you your own before we do more public appearances, but for now these will do. Meet you in the apparition point."
Sky just nodded wordlessly looking a tad bit awkward, before going to his room to change. Sighing Marcus walked down to the apparition point. Sky really ought to learn to receive gifts without feeling uncomfortable.
It took several minutes to Sky to arrive and Marcus had already started to wonder where he had stayed.
"Sorry I took so long, but Dexter insisted in coming with us. He said that he was bored lying all day doing nothing exciting." Sky explained pointing the small snake wrapped around his left wrist.
Dexter was another familiar of Sky's, whom he had met when they were travelling in Africa. Dexter was a rare form of Black Mamba – he was a pitch black with a little tinge of blue – so many snake hunters wanted to catch him. Sky had stopped Dexter from getting captured by snake hunters and in the midst of all that they had noticed that he was a Parselmouth. Dexter had been intrigued by Sky's talent to speak to snakes, so he had decided to bond with Sky – though as the snake himself put it, he was bored of living in Africa and wanted a change of view.
Marcus just shook his head in amusement and apparated them to London. They appeared right in front of the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of magic, but Marcus had no intention using it. He put a notice-me-not charm on Sky and himself and opened the entrance for Unspeakables by tapping a few bricks in the wall. They pulled their hoods up before walking inside towards the elevator that was for Unspeakables only. Marcus led them through the familiar corridors and secret passages into the Auror Office. Marcus found quickly Fred Stephenson's room and knocked the door. They heard a faint voice asking them to enter and Marcus opened the door to a small office where a thirty, or so, year-old man was sitting behind his desk.
His demeanor changed at once from relaxed to wary when he noticed that his visitors were Unspeakables. The man was too young to be able to keep his cool when dealing with Unspeakables, unlike some veterans such as Rufus could.
"W-Why are you here?" he stuttered.
"You were part of the team that investigated the Sirius Black case six years ago, correct?" Marcus asked in a voice that could be read as intimidating by some – well most – people.
"Y-Yes."
"What happened to the reports of the trial and interrogations?"
"I-I d-don't know." Stephenson stuttered but Marcus could see right through him and knew that he was lying.
"Don't lie to me, Stephenson."
"I-I'm sorry, I can't tell you. He-he will fire me if I do. I have family to make living for."
"Who will fire you? Fudge?"
"Y-Yes."
"Don't worry about him, he won't know. Just tell me what you know. Where are the reports?"
"T-There aren't any." Stephenson whispered. "He wasn't given a trial or Veritaserum. The Minister said that he didn't deserve any and shipped him off to Azkaban. The Minister told us that if we ever uttered a word he would fire us and make sure no one would ever hire us again."
Marcus was silent for a moment before he asked:
"Is there anything else?"
"No, that's all I know."
"Good." Marcus said standing up and taking out his wand muttering:
"Obliviate!"
"What did you do that for?" Sky asked when they were out of the office.
"To protect him and his family – no one will ever know it was him we got the information." Marcus knew that Fudge wouldn't leave Stephenson alone until he had ruined his life, if he found out that it was him who leaked the information.
Sky just nodded silently in agreement.
"Come on, we need to go see Rufus and try to get Sirius a trial. That is the only way we can ever find out if he really killed Pettigrew and the muggles." Marcus said while leading them to the Head Auror's office. He waited a permission to enter and after receiving it they stepped inside.
Rufus had always been one of the 'tough guys' that never wavered while dealing with Unspeakables or anyone else for that matter, but you could still see the wariness in his yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles, if you knew where to look.
Marcus let his hood down after Sky had closed the door and gestured for him to do the same. Marcus could see a faint relief in Rufus' eyes when he recognized him.
"Marcus, what brings you to the Ministry today? If this was just a simple visit between old friends you wouldn't have bothered to dress up – Unless I'm under questioning, of course?" Rufus asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah, I had to stop by among your ranks earlier for some information… nothing to bother about."
"So, is it about the file I gave you?" Rufus asked. "And who's the lad?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. This is my apprentice Sky, Sky, Rufus Scrimgeour." He introduced.
"Nice to meet you, sir." Sky said casually, but Marcus could hear the slight wariness in his voice that he had every time he met a new adult. It was still hard for Sky to trust people right away, but at least he didn't cover up anymore.
"And you too." Rufus said. Marcus saw the speculating look on Rufus face that he always had when he met someone he didn't know.
"I want the Sirius Black's case reopened." Marcus said.
"What? What do you want that for? He was declared guilty and sent Azkaban six years ago, why would you want to reopen the case now?"
"Did you happen to look at the file before you sent it to me?"
"No, why? What was in it?"
"There are no records of a trial or interrogations at all. I just tracked down the one Auror alive, who was investigating the case and he told me that they shipped him straight through to Azkaban under Fudge's orders."
"That's an outrage! Guilty or not, Black is a Head of an Ancient and Noble House. How could they not have given him a change to go to trial?" Rufus asked livid. "They have broken the very first laws of our Ministry! I shall not let this go without throughout investigation. I don't care if he is a mass murderer or not, everyone deserves justice."
"Good, I was hoping you would say that." Marcus said smiling. "Now there is a slight change that Sirius did not kill the muggles and that it was all Pettigrew's plan." He continued and let Sky to tell Scrimgeour his theory.
"You've got a point there, lad, but we need to get him a trial before we can prove anything. We'll have to get Amelia to help us so that we have even the slightest chance to succeed, and she won't be convinced by just a theory."
"What if we showed him the memory of the Potters switching the Secret-Keeper from Sirius to Pettigrew? I heard that the Bones were a close family with the Potters." Sky asked.
"It could work…" Rufus said thoughtfully. "But where would we get one?"
Sky looked at Marcus briefly, who nodded his approval with a proud look on his eyes, before morphing back to his real self, with the scar and all. 'He is starting to learn' Marcus thought proudly.
"Merlin's beard, Marcus! You have Harry Potter as an apprentice." Rufus exclaimed.
Thankful for the privacy charm he had cast as they arrived, he just nodded.
"Correction, sir – Harry Potter is dead and has been for the past six years. My name is Sky." Sky said with a daring edge in his voice. He really hated to be called Harry Potter.
Rufus looked at Marcus who just gave him a look that said 'drop it or suffer consequences'. He cleared his throat and apologized for Sky.
"Now we can show the memory to convince Madam Bones, but we need to work on the sly as long as possible, without letting Fudge or Dumbledore know." Marcus said.
"Dumbledore? Why him? Wasn't he close with Black at a time?"
"He could've gotten Sirius a trial if he had wanted to, but instead he did nothing."
"Right, I'll floo to Amelia so that we can get this process started. Just be ready with the memory." Rufus said to Sky who was back in his disguise again. They had agreed before that Sky wouldn't reveal himself to anyone but Rufus, and even to him only if they had to. Marcus had already cast a charm on him that he could tell no one Sky's real identity, even under Veritaserum.
'This is going to be a long day."
Sky dropped on to his bed completely exhausted. It was half past two in the morning and Sky and Marcus had just arrived to the previous Potter Manor, where they planned to stay during Sirius trial.
They had spent the whole day in the Ministry planning how to get Sirius a trial. They had convinced Amelia Bones to help them and planned to take up the issue in the Wizengamot meeting the next day. They had counted enough votes for the trial to get through, after all three of them had called in favors from their allies and contacts in the Ministry, but Sky had written an article to the Daily Prophet that was to be released in the morning paper during the meeting under Marcus' reporter name Leo Marshall, just in case, since one never knew in politics when someone decided to turn their back on his ally.
Sky was brought out of his musing by his Familiar Shadow. She crooned at him reprovingly telling him to sleep. Sky just smiled briefly and stroked her feathers. She started singing quietly the familiar lullaby that she always sang when Sky couldn't sleep.
In seconds he was asleep.
The next morning Sky woke up at the normal time for his and Marcus' morning training. He was tense and nervous the whole time and couldn't get himself to relax. He knew that his nervousness now was nothing compared to what he would be before the actual trial. During their training he noticed that Marcus too was a little distracted.
The Wizengamot meeting began at eight and lasted somewhere between ten and eleven, depending on how much stuff they had to discuss. Rufus had said that they would leave the matter of getting Sirius a trial to the end, so that they could get it into action as soon as possible. He had promised to let them know the outcome of the voting as soon as the meeting ended.
Sky and Marcus finished their training and went to breakfast, but Sky couldn't eat. He picked his food and just stared to the distance seeing nothing.
"You should eat something, Sky." Marcus said after a while.
"I know, but I can't… I just keep thinking that if he's innocent… all those years he has spent with those foul creatures. Can he even be sane anymore?" Sky said shivering. He had run into Dementors while travelling in Iceland. He remembered all the bad things happened in his life and there were plenty of those. He remembered his parent's murder, all his beatings in the Dursleys and the explosion in the shack. Patronus charm had been the hardest spell for him to produce, but in the end with a lot of determination and help from Marcus, he had done it.
"It is true that most people who are in Azkaban have fallen into insanity after staying there few years, but there are those who have survived there. We can only hope that Sirius belongs to that latter one." Marcus said grimly. "Now eat something and then we go to the Ministry. They should be done with the meeting in a while."
Sky just nodded and forced his toast down his throat. They used the Floo to get straight to the Head Auror's office, where they had agreed to meet Rufus. They waited for a good fifteen minutes before Rufus came through the door, his face revealing nothing.
He gestured them to sit down before he spoke:
"We needed at least 26 members to agree giving Black his trial out of fifty. We got 42." Rufus said a small smile tucking his lips. "The members were outraged that Fudge hadn't given a Head of an Ancient and Noble House a proper trial, especially after we showed them the memory. Most of them didn't really care if he killed twelve muggles, they seemed to be more upset about his giving the Potters up for Voldemort, but since it turned out that he didn't betray them, most members were all for giving him a trial. His trial is scheduled to be at eleven tonight. It won't be public one with this short notice, but I think you can attend, if you use your Unspeakable status." Rufus said.
"Yes, I planned to do that already. Who is in charge of the trial?" Marcus asked.
"Madam Bones." Rufus said smirking. "You should've seen Dumbledore's face when we presented this, and when we said that we thought it wouldn't be appropriate for him to be in charge of the trial, when he was so close with Black in the past."
"You need to show me the memory in the pensive sometime." Marcus said matching Rufus' smirk. Sky made a mental note to ask Marcus, if he had something else against Dumbledore than just what he did to Sky.
"Well, I must leave to retrieve our prisoner now. I'll see you in the trial." Rufus said and left the office.
"Now what?" Sky asked.
"Now we wait." Marcus said.
"Argh… I hate waiting." Sky complained. "Can't we do something interesting while we wait?
"Well, I could teach you how to brew Wolfsbane…"
"Really? You would?" Sky asked excited. He loved brewing potions and it always distracted him from things he didn't want to think about. It was his habit to make variations of the potions and create faster ways of brewing them. Marcus hadn't let him brew the Wolfsbane before, even though he had wanted to, because it was way beyond NEWT level and very difficult to brew.
"Yes, I think you have enough practice with potions to try it." Marcus said. "Now let's go, it takes time to brew it."
Sky and Marcus spent the whole day brewing potions and Sky had managed to brew the Wolfsbane successfully. It was half past ten that they changed into their Unspeakable and Apprentice robes and Flooed to the Ministry. They walked to the court room in the dungeons of the lower levels and stepped in. No one really paid any attention to them since it wasn't uncommon for Unspeakables to attend the trials. Also Marcus had cast a brief notice-me-not charm on them just in case, since they needed to be inconspicuous. He wanted no one but Rufus and Amelia to know that they were there so that they could take Sirius with them if he was innocent, without much a fuss.
The court room was almost full when they entered; only Amelia, Dumbledore and Fudge were missing. Marcus and Sky walked over to Rufus and sat down behind him hidden by the shadows.
"Hello Rufus." Marcus said.
"Merlin Marcus, don't sneak up on me like that." Rufus jumped. "Where's Sky? I thought you were going to bring him too."
"What are you talking about? He's sitting next to me." Marcus said and turned to watch Sky. It was very difficult to see from the shadows before he leaned forward. 'How does he do that?' Marcus thought.
"I'm here." Sky said as he leaned forward. Marcus was just about to ask him how he blended into the shadows so well, when Madam Bones who had entered the room called for attention.
"We have gathered here tonight 21th of November, 1987 to give Sirius Black the trial he should have had six years ago." She began and shot a dark glance towards Fudge. "The questioning shall happen with Veritaserum. Aurors bring in the prisoner."
The doors to the court rooms opened and two Aurors brought Sirius in. He was very pale and thin and his filthy hair hung above his elbows. His face was very gaunt and he looked almost like a corpse. There was no trace of the handsome young man Sky remembered from his childhood.
The Aurors put him into the interrogation chair and fed him the Veritaserum.
"What is your full name?" Madam Bones asked.
"Sirius Orion Black" Sirius said in a dull, very raspy voice.
"Were you James and Lily Potter's Secret-Keeper?"
"No, we switched to Peter Pettigrew few days before Halloween."
"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"
"No I didn't, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Pettigrew fooled me and framed me. He blew up the street with some unknown spell, cut off his forefinger; hit me with a cheering charm and transformed into his rat Animagus disappearing to the drain."
"Why didn't you get a trial?"
"I tried, but Fudge and Barty Crouch decided that I was guilty without any questioning and sent me to Azkaban."
"I call the Wizengamot to vote." Madam Bones said.
The result was 47 to innocent and 0 to guilty. Three members were absent.
"I declare Sirius Orion Black cleared of all charges. The Ministry offers Mr. Black their sincerest apologies and 1 million galleons compensation for his suffering." Madam Bones said and concluded the trial.
Sirius was freed from his chains and given the antidote to Veritaserum and the Aurors escorted him out of the room. Marcus changed a few words with Rufus and they agreed to bring Sirius to Rufus' office, so that Marcus and Sky could take him with them, without anyone noticing. He could already see Dumbledore moving towards the exit clearly attempting to get to Sirius.
Marcus and Sky left the courtroom passing quickly all the reporters outside the room and headed for the Head Auror's office. They had been there only for a few minutes when Rufus entered supporting Sirius with Auror Emmett Wilmond, who also was an old friend of Marcus'.
Marcus could see that Sirius was not really in his senses yet, but wasn't nearly as bad as Marcus had imagined. He and Sky had agreed in the way to Rufus' office that it was best if they took him to the House of Phoenix and asked help from the phoenixes.
"Come on Sky, let's take him to Phoenix." Marcus said and took a hold of Sirius. Sky came to Sirius' other side and took a hold of the Portkey Marcus had in his hand.
Marcus nodded to Emmett and Rufus as thanks and said: "See you, when I see you", before activating the Portkey.
They arrived in the House of Phoenix and Sky ran into the house to call for the phoenixes, while Marcus carried Sirius, who had passed out during the Portkey-ride, inside. He laid him down in one of the guestrooms and cast multiple cleaning charms on him. Sky came into the room after calling the phoenixes who flashed there at the same time. They started singing songs that they had sung to Sky too during his healing. The songs gave him strength and helped to face difficult memories, letting the wounds to heal.
The phoenixes stayed with Sirius for three days before announced that they had done all they could and that Sirius should wake up in a day. Sky had spent almost all his time with Sirius taking care of him, only coming out to their training sessions and to get some food. He often even slept there.
Marcus knew that Sky was having an inner battle with himself, how to feel about Sirius. He knew that he was worried about him and that it was now important to take care of him, but when he woke up; Sky would probably act very differently with him. He couldn't sort out his feelings and would probably end up being hostile towards Sirius, at least at first. Marcus knew that Sky could remember Sirius from his childhood and that that would help him to accept Sirius easier than he had done with Marcus, but it would still take a while. Sky would first have to deal with his hatred and anger towards him.
'They'll both just need some time.'
Sirius woke up feeling like he had been sleeping for weeks. It took him a moment to recall where he was. He felt a burst of happiness inside of him as he realized he was no long in his small cell in Azkaban and faintly remembered that he had been given a trial and declared innocent. Not sure if he was dreaming or not, he got out of his bed and started looking around the place he had been brought. The few times he had woken up the place had been full of phoenixes, but he wasn't sure if they had been real or just his imagination.
He was just entering the library when he heard a faint sound coming from the room next to it. He opened the door and saw a huge training room, where a young boy – maybe seventeen or eighteen-year-old – with light brown hair and dark brown eyes, was fighting conjured training dummies. Sirius had never seen anyone as fast and skilled as the boy was. He fought against twenty dummies in an incredible speed, using some kinds of muggle martial arts style and a katana. The dummies seemed to be programmed to fight even in a higher level than the Aurors used in their training. He showed no sign that he had seen Sirius even when he sat down meditating, his back towards the door, after his training. Sirius was just about to leave when the boy spoke:
"What were the last words you said to Harry Potter?"
The question hit him like a pile of rocks. He remembered all too well the last time he had seen his godson, and how he had regretted his decision to let Hagrid take Harry every day in Azkaban.
"I…I told him that I loved him and promised to come back for him after killing the traitor." Sirius answered tears flowing in his eyes. He felt like he had failed Harry. He had promised that he would come back and raise him like his own. He collected himself and asked:
"Do you know where Harry is? Where did Dumbledore take him? I need to make sure they're treating him fine."
"The Dursleys."
"WHAT?! He…He…That old coot took him to those magic-hating muggles?! Everyone knows how much Petunia hated Lily." Sirius said furiously, he was mad at Dumbledore for taking Harry to those muggles and mad at himself for going after that rat.
"Where is Harry? Where do they live? I need to go get him."
"It's too late for that, Sirius."
"What do you mean? Why do you say that?"
The boy got up of the floor and walked right in front of Sirius. While walking his hair, body and features started morphing and shrinking and by the time he stopped he was only half of his height and his hair had turned raven black. The boy looked straight into Sirius' eyes with his accusing emerald green eyes and said:
"Because Harry Potter is dead."
A/N: Well, here it is, a bit longer chapter than the last one. I hope you enjoyed. Please review and tell me your thoughts on the chapter and the story overall. Any suggestions?
- Dalmin