Not Guilty

Summary: Sirius Black was sent to Azkaban without trial. What if five years later he finally gets his day in court? What if he finally finds Wormtail? What if he finally gets his godson back? How will life be different for little Harry Potter?

Warning: Mild abuse. Mostly verbal and sometimes physical. There will be some thoughts of suicide. (Mostly by Sirius) Dumbledore/evil/manipulative. Harry/independent. Harry will come across as dark but he will be a in the gray though he will not be practicing the dark arts. There will be no pairings. Major OOC's! Especially Harry. I will try to keep the others the same as they are in cannon but they may come off slightly OOC.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Spells

/Parseltongue /

Last Time:

Something odd was going on. Remus knew that much. Albus didn't even seem all the surprised to find out that Sirius is innocent. Then there is the fact that he wants to keep Harry at his aunts house. Though he knew he couldn't go there now he also knew that he would be visiting there with or without Dumbledore's permission.

His thoughts then turned to his best friend. In what kind of condition will Sirius be in? Is there any hope that he'll be alright? Will he still be sane? With a small smile and a soft chuckle he aloud the tears to come. Sirius sane? That's funny... and yet he hoped that Sirius would be alright. Why had Remus run away from his pain? If he had stayed he could have helped Sirius a whole lot sooner. The tears soon turned into sobs as he cried himself to sleep. Its his fault...

Chapter Two: Snape's Dilemma

Dumbledore paced his office angrily. How dare that werewolf try to mess with HIS carefully laid plans. He needs that Potter boy to depend on him and him alone. How to fix this? Dumbledore had been up all night trying to think of something. Tomorrow the werewolf will expect to go see his friend. What if Dumbledore sent someone ahead of time to see what condition Black is in? Who to send though?

Minerva would be too sympathetic to Black as will most of the other teachers. What he needs is someone who will tear Black apart and make sure that he will never be sane again... Who to send?

Dumbledore's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. He called for the person to come in and hastily sat behind his desk to appear grand fatherly once more. Severus Snape stepped into the room and eyed the headmaster carefully. Dumbledore had missed breakfast and had sent a note that he had wanted to speak to Severus.

Dumbledore's eyes lite up as he looked at Severus. This is the answer he had been searching for. Why he hadn't thought of it before was beyond him. Then he remember he had sent a note to him that morning to have the potions master come visit him after breakfast. Why had he called him again? Ah yes he wanted to talk about how the Slytherin's were doing. Oh well might as well hit two birds with one stone.

"There you are my boy. Please have a seat. Lemon drops?" Dumbledore's smile looked slightly sinister for some reason.

Snape eyed the man in front of him for a moment before declining the lemon drops but took a seat in front of the desk. He sent the headmaster his best glare and waited for Dumbledore to continue. When the man didn't answer Snape took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"You wanted to see me headmaster?" Snape questioned impatiently.

"How are your Slytherin's fairing?" Dumbledore finally asked.

"Well considering its summer vacation I'm sure there doing fairly well." Snape said in a forced calm voice.

Dumbledore blinked in surprise. When had the summer begun? Oh yeah just yesterday. Dumbledore felt older in that moment then he had in awhile. He looked genially at Snape before he decided that, that was enough about Slytherin's.

"You'll have to forgive me Severus. I'm starting to feel my age." Dumbledore said.

"Was there something else headmaster? I would like to finish packing sometime this year." Snape finally snapped.

"Ah yes... Well it came to my attention that Sirius Black might be innocent." Snape froze at those words.

"Remus Lupin would like to go visit him but I worry about Black's mental health. I would like you to go visit him in Azkaban." Dumbledore gravely said.

"Why do I have to go visit him? There are others who are still here that would be a better choice!" Snape yelled as he stood up and glared at the old man in front of him.

Something was going on and Snape didn't like it. Not one bit. Dumbledore still had a sinister look about him but Snape couldn't pinpoint where exactly. Dumbledore's mask was back on and if Snape didn't know better... He would say there was still something dark about the headmaster. It made him want to shiver and back away. Had he traded one master for one who is worse?

"You are the only one I can trust with this job Severus." Dumbledore was practically pleading with him to go and visit his enemy.

Little did Dumbledore know how wrong he was... Snape gave a curt nod and then enquired about when he had to go. He had several things he had to do before he went to visit the mutt. Dumbledore said after lunch and with another curt nod Severus swept out of the office with his robes billowing out behind him making him look like a giant bat.

Severus Snape had to somehow find Remus Lupin before lunch. Though the werewolf had been missing for five years now. Severus sighed tiredly when he opened the door to his home away from home. However a surprise was sitting in his sitting room.

"Albus told you already? Planned to send you ahead of me?" The werewolf muttered as he stood from his seat.

"What are you doing here Lupin?" Snape sneered.

Lupin wordlessly handed a piece of paper to him. He read it quickly and felt his eyes widen slightly and his jaw to drop open. He reread it two more times before he silently handed the paper back. With a wave of his wand he cast several privacy spells to make sure Dumbledore couldn't hear them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Snape snapped.

"Apparently Black is innocent." Remus dropped the friendly smile.

"I see... And Potter? What did you find out about him?" Snape dropped the hostility but he still sounded grouchy.

"This morning I went to the house to observe his so called family. Dumbledore told me not to visit and now I see why." Remus looked tired and much older then he should.

"What did you see?" Snape hid his concern by sneering.

"Severus... Those monsters have kept our world from him. He did some accidental magic and they beat him and shoved him in the cupboard while telling him he wouldn't get any food for a week because of his freakiness. I couldn't do anything to help him..." Remus actually cried in front of Snape.

"I know we're not friends anymore. Not after the stunt that Black pulled off but you have to help us. I can't take Harry and nor can you. It has to be Black. Dumbledore is sending you because he wants Black to be broken. So broken that he will never function on his own." Remus looked into Snape's eyes.

'So that is why the old fool asked me to go. Nevertheless I have a part to play in this scheme.' What really got him though was not only did Remus keep calling Sirius, Black but also the fact that he really didn't seem to really care about Black. Was this an act to get him to go along with him? Should he for the sake of there old friendship just forget the past and help? Maybe Black has changed... Yeah when pigs fly without magic.

"Why do you keep calling the mutt, Black?" Snape eyed the man before him in distrust.

"Last night I was relieved that Black would be free but this morning when I thought about it I became angry with him. He went after Peter when he should have been with Harry. He should have been the keeper. Severus I know you can't forgive us for betraying you. I know you can't forgive James for taking your Lily but think of Harry. If Black is found innocent and takes over as guardian we can raise Harry ourselves and maybe Black will let you help knowing you aren't as dark as everyone thinks." Remus got up and paced as he said this.

Snape just stood there deep in thought. The first few years of school had been fine... That is until his sixth year of school. Remus, Peter, Sirius and James had been the best of friends and somehow Severus had found his way into there pack.

He knew what Remus was and he was okay with that. He knew he was a Slytherin and that his friends were Gryffindor's and he was okay with that. He met with them secretly and pulled pranks on other students and had the others prank him to make it look like they hated him and he was okay with that.

He wanted to fit in with his house but no matter what he was always considered the black sheep of house. He didn't have the money nor the name to gain any real power. He thought that if they saw him bullied by another house then maybe they would give him a place but all it did was make them join in, in the laughter.

So he sought out help from Lily and the Marauders accepted him into there gang. Though no one knew he was the fifth member. Lily was not included because she didn't really like pranking kids.

Then in there sixth year everything started to go wrong. His house mates were starting to pay attention to him. They started to pressure him into joining the dark lord. He didn't want to but he feared for his life. Though somewhere deep inside he knew there was a darkness. A darkness his friends had chased into a corner. Now it was being tempted to leave that corner and to take a hold of his heart.

It wasn't until after Lily had rejected him is when all the real trouble started. James finally asked Lily out on a date and she said yes. Severus felt his heart break. After that he had a huge argument with James and Sirius immediately sided with James. Remus had decided to stay out of it. So then he lost his friends. Before anyone could even think of making up... Sirius Black decided to do something stupid.

He pranked Severus which almost cost him his life. Remus had transformed and Severus had known what night it was. Sirius had pleaded with Severus to help him guard Remus. He had said James was busy with Lily and Sirius hadn't wanted to be alone with Remus. Because of the years of friendship Severus agreed. Before Severus could change into his Animagus form Sirius tried to shove the boy into the room with Remus who was a wolf at that time.

James had come to his rescue but it had been the turning point. At that there animosity had become real. The pranks were more humiliating then ever before. Some were more hurtful then anything. Remus still hadn't chosen a side so eventually he just never talked about it but stayed with James and Sirius. Severus had been hurt by that. Peter had stayed out of it too. Though he told Severus privately that he should try and gain favor in his own house because it didn't look like James and Sirius were ever going to be friends with him again.

So after he graduated Hogwarts he made the biggest mistake of his life. He let the darkness win. He joined the dark lord and he was finally respected. That is until he found out that James and Lily were targets. He finally found the light again and warned Dumbledore and became a spy. He never spoke to James but every time he saw Sirius he always had a scathing remark. James he knew he could never truly hate. Not after what his family had done for him. Sirius however, he could hate until his heart is content.

He hadn't been able to save his precious Lily-flower nor his best friend. Even though James had taken Severus' Lily-flower he knew he couldn't stay mad. Severus had known that James had loved her. He had known that secretly Lily had loved him back. He had known it but he had wanted a chance with her but it didn't matter anymore. Both are dead and he was partly responsible.

Now here is the real dilemma. What should he do? He knows he can't take Harry, yet he has to do something to save the boy. He owed Lily and James that much but did he really want to free Sirius even though he is a innocent man? Did he want to renew his friendship with Remus? Did he want to give Black a second chance? To be honest no but if he didn't then how can he help Harry? Harry doesn't deserve the life he has. He deserves so much more. So with that thought in mind he looked Remus in the eye...

A/N Another chapter done! Whoohoo! Now I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this at this point in time. For now I will try to post once a week which will be on Mondays. I will try to also make the chapters longer but for now they will be sort of short. If they continue to be this short then I may put them up twice a week. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Please keep them coming though! I love reviews! Ciao for now.

Karone

PS: I will go into the argument and betrayal in more detail later in the story. This was just some background information.