Not a day had passed in the past seven years that Remus Lupin hadn't wished for his best friend and his best friend's wife to wake up.
He spent more time at St. Mungo's than he did his own house. If he wasn't at work or sleeping at home (or it was a full moon), then he was visiting them, bringing several books with him to research how to wake his last family up. He knew every Healer by name, and they knew his. Many patients assumed that he was another patient, and sometimes he wondered if he was.
He dreamed of James and Lily waking up. He daydreamed about what he would say and do when they did. He never stopped hoping.
Yet, when he woke up to James' voice, saw his brown eyes wide open, and processed his question, all thoughts fled his mind. His mouth opened, but nothing came out, and his heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't think.
And he ran.
One of the Healers called his name, but he ignored them, instead running to the floo, grabbing some floo powder, and shouting out his address before he could even think about what he was doing and why.
He tripped out of the fireplace in his flat.
He hit the ground and just laid there, blinking several times and focusing on his breathing. His heart seemed like it was trying to escape his chest. It burned. The room spun. His fingers tangled in his shirt and gripped hard, and he let out a muffled scream into the dirty carpet.
"There's no way that was real," he mumbled, "No way. I must be dreaming. I must be dreaming again. It can't be."
But it was. He closed his eyes, and he could see James' face, eyes open wide and confused. Those wide eyes, that he hadn't seen in seven years, were open, and awake. He was awake. He was awake. He was awake.
And Remus just left.
A hysterical laugh escaped his lips. He tried pushed himself up into a sitting position, but his arms shook with the force of the laughter leaving him, and he fell back down.
"Oh, Merlin. Oh, Merlin," he gasped out, "He woke up, and I just left."
It wasn't funny, but Remus hadn't laughed in a long time.
By the time he had calmed down, he was gasping for breath, sprawled out on his carpet, and feeling rather foolish. He pushed himself up and wiped at his scarred face, brushing tears from his eyes. His chest hurt as he took several deep breaths, finding himself staring at the white, chipped paint on his plain wall. He stared blankly, fingernails digging into the palm of his hand.
"He's awake," he whispered to himself, then blinked furiously, "Oh. He's awake."
His eyes flickered over to the clock, but then he remembered that his clock had been broken for the past two years. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and waived it, blinking blearily at the numbers that appeared in front of him.
2:26.
It was two in the morning. He wasn't sure when he had left St. Mungo's. He wasn't sure when his life had turned into this.
"James is awake," he whispered to himself, forcing himself off the floor, "James is awake. He's awake."
He stood in the middle of his living room, eyebrows furrowed. He stumbled to his dusty bookshelf and gripped it, staring at his fireplace, half-expecting James to appear, but that was impossible.
He was awake, but he wouldn't be released from St. Mungo's yet.
He was awake. He was awake. He was awake.
"I just left," he whispered to himself, "I have to go back."
His hand found its way to the floo powder, and he stepped into the fireplace, flooing directly back to his second home.
Halloween was never fun for Amelia Bones.
Before the war, Halloween was already hectic for Wizarding Law Enforcement, with many witches and wizards going out in their robes under the excuse that no one would know because they would just seem to be in costume. This also meant that they were much riskier, however, and they were constantly having to bring people in because of hexes performed on muggles. There was also the occasional drunk fight between relatives that had to be settled, and quite a lot of dark objects in children's baskets that had to be settled.
Halloween just had a way of making all the crazy people come out.
After the war, though, it was much worse. Not only was it Halloween, but it was also the anniversary of the end of the war, which meant much more parties and drunk fights and Death Eaters attempting to get revenge and risky behavior all around.
So, Amelia Bones absolutely hated Halloween.
Due to her position, she had to work Halloween, and stay late, which meant she was never able to take her niece trick-or-treating. She instead had to sit in her office and fill out so much paperwork that her hand wanted to fall off by the end and listen to Auror after Auror complain and rant about some witch or wizard that they had picked up and plan out court case after court case after court case for them.
She wasn't expecting it when, at two in the morning, a knock at her door turned out to be Albus Dumbledore.
"Chief Warlock," she nodded towards the man, standing up from her desk, "What can I do for you?"
He smiled, eyes twinkling, and took a seat in front of her desk. His blue robes seemed to match his eyes and she mentally wondered about the choice of garment but didn't dare say anything out loud. She was used to the loud and eccentric choice of robes.
"James and Lily Potter woke up roughly three hours ago," he spoke in a soft voice.
It took a lot to stun Amelia Bones into silence, but those words did it. She sat down suddenly, mouth falling open in surprise and brown eyes widening. For a moment, she thought that she must have heard wrong, because there was absolutely no way that James and Lily Potter, after seven years in a coma, had woken up.
"What happened?" she asked after several long minutes.
"I do not know for sure," Dumbledore admitted, "The potion that they took seems to have had a time limit, though. That's what we originally thought, after all. However, instead of the twenty-four hours that we originally believed it to take, it was seven years. They are awake and talking. Lily is demanding to see her son, and James revealed a startling fact to me that I will need to share with you."
Amelia frowned lightly, "When will they be released from the hospital? Will you be able to retrieve Harry before they are released?"
She knew that if she were in Lily's situation, she would want to see Susan immediately.
"I am not sure about that yet. I have sent Harry's caretakers a letter alerting them of the situation and it will arrive to them in Muggle mail this morning. I will talk to them soon asking if young Harry can visit, but the situation is very precarious. Harry has lived with them all his life. I do not know if he would wish to leave."
Harry Potter's location was a mystery to all but a few. Even Amelia Bones herself was unaware of it, but she couldn't help but agree with him. Most likely, Harry had settled in with another family, raised as their child. They couldn't just rip him away from the only family that he'd ever known. He would have to make a choice.
She nodded sharply, "That is a tough situation, but I trust that you will do the best thing for the boy."
"I hope so," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye, "Now, we need to discuss something that was revealed to me by Mr. Potter. It seems that we have made a mistake."
"A mistake?"
He nodded, "It seems that the Sirius Black situation was not as clean cut as we assumed, and Mr. Black is in need of a trial."
She frowned heavily at the mention of that traitor. Her eyes narrowed, "Explain, Chief Warlock."
"Gladly," Dumbledore said with a small nod, "According to Mr. Potter, Mr. Black was not their Secret Keeper. Rather, Peter Pettigrew was their Secret Keeper. They switched because Mr. Black would be the obvious choice. While there is a possibility of Mr. Potter being confounded or bewitched by Mr. Black before the attack, I believe that his word is enough evidence needed to give Mr. Black a trial. If he was not the Secret Keeper, then that would mean his attack on Peter Pettigrew was fueled by anger and betrayal, and the murder of the Muggles was not purposeful. His charge of being a Death Eater and betraying the Potters could be dropped if this is true, reducing his life sentence."
Amelia was left speechless for the second time in a row. Sirius Black? Innocent? That was impossible.
She stood up stiffly and walked to the nearby file cabinet, waving her wand, "Accio Sirius Black's folder."
One of the drawers opened and a surprisingly thin manila folder flew out. She caught it in her hand and sat back down, opening the folder.
"Ah, you use paper instead of parchment?" Dumbledore commented in interest, but Amelia only nodded, too engrossed in the folder.
On the top of the small stack was the paperwork of his arrest. She skimmed through the details, reading his name, birthday, occupation (Auror. He was an Auror. She had mentored him), wand, family, charges, details of the crime, and sentence. She flipped through the folder and pulled out the witness statements. There was only one sheet of paper, which had three witness statements from muggles who had witnessed it, and then been obliviated. There was another sheet of testimony from Remus Lupin, and another sheet detailing evidence.
There was no evidence on Sirius Black being the Secret Keeper. There was no evidence, besides witness statements and Peter Pettigrew's finger, about Sirius Black blowing up that street: not even a Priori Incantatem on the wand.
She flipped through, searching for details on the trial, but found none. There was a piece of paper on Black's job as an Auror, and a page on his relationship to the Potter's, and another page on his dark, familial history. Yet, there was nothing on the trial.
There had been no trial.
"Who handled this case?" she asked out loud, frowning at the folder in front of her, "This occurred before I was Head. Black was not given a trial."
Dumbledore was not surprised by this. He had known, "It was a dark time. Crouch was desperate to get as many Death Eaters off the street as possible. Many Death Eaters went without a trial, unless they had a lot of money. There was a reason that he was demoted."
"I wasn't aware of this," Amelia said quietly, frowning at the folder, "This isn't right. Everyone deserves a trial."
When she had taken over office in 1982, shortly after the War, she had been given the responsibility of helping the Wizarding World rebuild after the disastrous War. The fairness of the treatment of those arrested had been the least of her concerns.
Dumbledore agreed, "You have the power of fixing this."
She looked up, eyes hard and determined. She grabbed the trial calendar and found the quickest opening.
"Sirius Black's trial will take place in ten days."
AN: Hope you guys enjoyed! This chapter took a little bit of a different turn. I didn't plan on writing the scene between Amelia Bones and Dumbledore, but it felt necessary, so it took the place of Sirius' scene, but his scene will be in the next chapter. In the next chapter, we will get Remus reuniting with James and Lily, see the aftermath of Petunia receiving the letter regarding James and Lily being awake, and Sirius will be informed of his trial.
Things are starting to pick up!
I'd love some feedback, guys. Let me know what you think, and what you would like to see!