Madam Pomfrey was in a bad mood so Harry and Hermione ate their chocolate quietly. Harry kept looking at the door, expectantly, and soon angry voices could be heard coming towards the wing.

"What is that?" said Madam Pomfrey, "really, they'll wake everyone up! What do they think they're doing?"

The voices got closer and Harry could recognize the Prime Minister's voice.

"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left someone in the room with him. When this gets out—"

"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE" Snape roared. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH POTTER!"

"Severus be reasonable. He's been locked up—"

BAM!

The door of the hospital wind burst open.

Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore was calm, if not amused. Fudge looked angry, but Snape was furious.

"OUT WITH IT POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!"

"See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw—"

"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione.

"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense."

"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT I KNOW HE DID IT."

"That will do Sev—"

"No," Harry interrupted Dumbledore, "let him keep going. I believe he was accusing me of helping a criminal even though there's no proof."

Everyone stared at him in shock. Snape, however, recovered quickly.

"POTTER I KNOW—"

"NO! SNAPE! You don't know!" Harry shouted over Snape. "There's no proof! Why is it that proof seems to be optional in the wizarding world?"

"Now, Harry, I do not believe you had anything to do with Black escaping," Fudge said, trying to show Harry he was on his side.

"Oh ok, but if I wasn't the boy-who-lived would you still believe me? What if it was Ron, Snape was accusing?" said Harry, then quickly continued to Fudge couldn't answer. "What about Black? Where was his trial?"

"His trial?" Fudge asked confused. "He didn't need one he was caught on the scene, wand in hand, laughing, 12 muggles dead and only a finger left of the wizard he killed."

"Wrong!" Harry said. "Did you even cast Priori Incantatem on his wand?"

"Of course! But, er, that's official, confidential," he explained but looked apprehensive.

"Right, I bet there was no explosive spell on his wand," Harry said, but Fudge did not respond.

"What are you blathering about, Potter? What does it matter if he got a trail?" Snape asked.

"It matters, Snape because Sirius is innocent."

"What—?" Snape did not know how to respond to Harry's claim.

"Don't be ridiculous boy—" Fudge started.

"Don't call me boy!" Harry said, then took a breath and pulled out the rat from his pocket. "Gentlemen, er, and ladies, this is Peter Pettigrew."

Both Snape and Fudge looked at Harry like he was the craziest person on the planet. Dumbledore also looked a bit surprised at Harry's capture.

"That's a rat." Fudge said, not sure how to continue.

"I don't know the animagus reversal spell, so if someone could—" Harry looked at Dumbledore. The Headmaster flicked his wand and the rat grew into a man. The added weight made Harry drop the traitor to the ground, where he landed face up, still unconscious.

"Thanks, ok, now ladies and gentlemen this is Peter Pettigrew." Harry tried again.

Fudge's jaw dropped and Snape barely contained his shock.

"Do you happen to have any veritaserum?" Harry asked Snape.

Snape did happen to have some, for he planned on using it on Black, but he didn't get the chance. He hesitated, how would a third year know about veritaserum? Potter was awful in potions. He glanced at Dumbledore and when the headmaster nodded he pulled the vial out of his robes. Snape quickly walked over to the previous rat and carefully dropped three drops of the clear liquid into Pettigrew's mouth.

"Thank you," Harry said. Harry then conjured ropes that quickly tied themselves around Wormtail. "Ennervate."

"Wha-?" Peter Pettigrew woke up, his eyes snapping open in fear and confusion.

"Don't even try to turn into a rat. I will kill you." The malice in Harry's voice left no doubt to Peter that he meant it. Everyone else also stared at Harry, they had never seen him like this. "State your name."

"Peter Pettigrew," he whimpered, he had realized what he was given, there was no escape this time.

"What happened the night of October 31st 1991?" Harry asked, wanting to get to the point.

"I-I told the Dark Lord where the Potters were hiding," a sob followed his confession.

"Bu-but Black was the secret keeper, everyone knows that!" Fudge interrupted.

"Pettigrew explain why everyone thought that" Harry ordered.

"It was Sirius' idea, for him to pretend to be the secret keeper, no one would think they trusted me," as the truth spilled from his lips, he rocked back and forth, his beady eyes looking for an escape.

"Quite clever," Dumbledore spoke up. "Worked a little too well though, didn't it?"

"What happened on November 1st 1991?" Harry asked Pettigrew.

"Sirius came to kill me, I ran but I knew I had to do something, so I accused him of being a traitor and blew up the street. I turned into a rat and then ran into the sewers."

There was a silence after, Fudge was shocked, he could not believe that Sirius Black was actually innocent. Snape was also surprised but managed to keep it well hidden, he should have known that Black was too loyal to Potter to betray him. That meant that this disgusting creature in front of them was responsible for Lily's death. His lip curled in anger, he wanted to strangle them man, but he controlled himself.

"It appears you will be leaving with a criminal, Cornelius." Dumbledore said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, yes, well I'll go get the dementors," he turned to leave.

"No! Wait! You can't just suck out his soul, he needs a trial, the public needs to know the truth." Harry exclaimed, it seemed the ministry was doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.

"My boy, you do not understand what this will do the Ministry, we will be in chaos!" Fudge said exasperated. "I could get kicked out of office, if the public knew we locked up an innocent man."

"You weren't the one to send him to Azkaban," Harry said, he mentally sighed, he knew Fudge care deeply about staying in office. "Look, maybe you knew all along that there was something wrong with Black's case, but you didn't want to tell the public in case nothing came of it. So, you investigated, and when you came here tonight you found the rat, and somehow, maybe intuition or genius, you knew that this rat wasn't right. You managed to run him back and to your surprise it was Peter Pettigrew, whom confessed of his crimes as you took him to the aurors."

Fudge stared at him, he wasn't the only one.

He doesn't want the credit? Snape thought.

"You don't want any credit?" Fudge said echoing Snape's thoughts.

"No, as long as Sirius is given a full pardon." Harry said, he didn't want or need the attention anyways. "Will you do this?"

"Yes, I believe I can agree to this," Fudge said, his eyes lighting up with greed, no matter how much money Malfoy threw at him, it couldn't buy the respect of the people like a good saving the day story. Using his wand, he re-stunned Pettigrew then levitated him out of the Hospital Wing.