I am really sorry about the time it took to publish this. Real life got in the way something awful, as happens to the best of us from time to time. Between exams, living in Germany for the summer, football, and then returning to school, I didn't have the time, or the mental readiness to finish this chapter off. But my life is now returning to its normal routine, albeit with more work than ever, so we'll see how much I'll be able to do.

Thank you all for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoy. Please read and review, especially if you have something to disagree with that you'd like to tell me. Keep it polite, but please do tell me.

Disclaimer: Do I even have to say it? I don't own any of this.

Amelia Bones, her duty to bring the prisoner to court discharged, prepared to walk around Courtroom Ten to the main entrance and take a spot in the visitor's section. She was very curious about the outcome of the trial, which seemed a foregone conclusion based on the facts, but which her instincts told her was far from that simple. She turned on her heels, leaving Black and the Dementors to enter through the prisoner's entrance.

By the time she reached a seat in the crowd and sat down, the trial had already commenced. She could see Black sitting in the central chair in the room, surrounded by chains. Amelia frowned. She didn't think that it was necessary to have the Dementors so close to the prisoner. Whether he was innocent or not didn't really figure into it, but he would barely be able to function with the Azkaban guards so close to him, especially after such a long time in prison.

As Amelia sat, Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, was in the middle of a speech. "… only witnesses are dead or Obliviated. So, I conclude, fellow witches and wizards of the Wizengamot, by asking that the prisoner be given Veritaserum, to confirm or deny his story. There is no other option, as any witnesses to the events of the day are gone, and there is no way to prove Sirius Black's claims false, or true for that matter. Thus, the only way to conclude this trial to our satisfaction must be to subject his claims to the Truth Serum, to ensure that he will tell the truth."

Old Madam Grailey, the Court Secretary, intoned, "That motion is in order. All in favor?"

Most of the hands in the courtroom rose, except for a few such as Lady Parkinson and Madam Lackley. Amelia supposed they hoped to get Black acquitted without the need for Veritaserum, and feared for his case if he was forced to take it.

The Court Secretary spoke again. "The motion passes."

Black's few supporters in the courtroom winced at that announcement, though they didn't seem awfully surprised by the outcome. To Amelia's surprise, however, Black, still chained in his chair in the center of the courthouse, smiled a very little bit upon this pronouncement. Why would he smile at that? It meant that Dumbledore had won, didn't it? There would be no debate after Black was given the Truth Serum, he would just be hauled back to Azkaban once more.

Unless…and again it just came down to that. Despite all of the evidence that was there, despite the bodies and the facts, Sirius Black just did not act like a guilty man. Amelia couldn't decide whether he was merely a very good actor, or if he actually was innocent. On the one hand, he acted like he was innocent, but on the other, there was the fact of 13 dead Muggles and the blood and gore of his former friend lying on the street before him. She didn't know what story Black had concocted, but it seems that it would be very hard to explain away all of that evidence. Well, she supposed that it would come down to the Veritaserum now.

Cornelius Fudge, the rotund Undersecretary to the Minister, stood to speak to the court. Amelia briefly rehearsed in her mind what little she knew of the man. He had been an Obliviator for many years, before being named to his post as Undersecretary by Millicent Bagnold just about a year before. He had returned to the Obliviators for a short time in the wake of the disturbances after the fall of You-Know-Who, leading an Obliviator team in the Muggle world. And Harold had mentioned something about Fudge too, something in connection with Black…

Fudge turned to the Wizengamot. "Witches and Warlocks of the Wizengamot, I thank you all for allowing me to speak. I propose that the criminal be only given the change to answer to his innocence or guilt. If he is allowed to speak, he will be able to twist the truth, even if he is given Veritaserum. I think that he only be allowed to answer the charges against him, and no more."

The court stirred at this, and Amelia saw several warlocks whisper to each other in the back of the courtroom. Amelia herself sat up straighter suddenly, remembering what Harold had said that morning. A scandal with the Obliviators…was that why Fudge was insisting on this? If Black didn't get a chance to say anything at all under Veritaserum, then he wouldn't mention anything about the Obliviators and their mistake. Amelia felt anger in her stomach about such blatant corruption. Still, the process was the process, and she couldn't really do anything to fix it.

A majority of the Wizengamot quickly agreed to Fudge's request, though fewer than agreed to Dumbledore's. The request wasn't unreasonable, after all, she supposed. And, those of the Wizengamot who were principled felt no more satisfaction in seeing Death Eaters go free than Amelia did. And those who were not as principled…maybe Fudge had mentioned something to them before the trial. With the appropriate incentives.

Albus Dumbledore himself walked down to the center of the courtroom, carrying a small vial in his hands. When he reached the bottom, he stated, "I will take the Veritaserum myself first, to ensure its purity. Then we will administer it to the defendant and question him as to the truth of his story. Madam Grailey, if you would ask me my name, and then my favorite candy? I will first answer normally, and then try to overcome the Veritaserum for the second question."

He took a slight pull of the vial, and the courthouse watched as his eyes dilated and his expression grew vacant. Madam Grailey asked, "What is your name?"

"Albus Dumbledore."

"What is your favorite candy?"

It was obvious that Dumbledore hesitated at this one, trying very hard to lie. As an extremely powerful wizard, he was able to hold out for nearly ten seconds before he was forced to say, "Lemon drops."

A few chuckles rang out through the courthouse, including one, surprisingly enough, from the prisoner. Madam Grailey thanked the Chief Warlock and said, "The Veritaserum is confirmed as untainted. Please administer it to the prisoner."

Albus Dumbledore did so, and the courthouse watched again as this time it was Black's eyes that dilated and Black's expression that grew vacant and absent. Amelia paid special attention to his words, hoping to find out what the story he had given was.

Dumbledore began questioning him. "What is your name?"

"Sirius Black."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"No." There were startled looks throughout the courtroom at these words, and Dumbledore himself looked taken aback.

"Did you kill the Muggles that were present at your capture?"

"No." Several Wizengamot members began whispering to each other frantically.

Desperately, Dumbledore asked another question. "Did you betray the Potter's Fidelius Charm to Voldemort.

Many of the Wizengamot looked startled at this question, although Amelia just nodded at the confirmation of her suspicions.

"No."

Amelia was slightly startled again at this point. What did this mean? Was Black somehow able to get around the Truth Serum? Or was he actually telling the truth? If he was telling the truth, then how had You-Know-Who managed to get past the Fidelius? It was supposed to be unbreakable. If You-Know-Who could break the Fidelius, who knew what else he could have done had he not been stopped by little Harry Potter. That thought was more frightening than anything else, and Amelia quickly squashed it.

The entire courthouse was staring at Black now, and the Chief Warlock looked completely and utterly bewildered.

"It is obvious that Black has somehow managed to find a way to combat Veritaserum. We must continue the trial. Even if the Veritaserum failed on his one word answers, it will surely force him to tell the truth if he gives the story he claims. Then we will prove his guilt."

Most of the Wizengamot members nodded their heads at his, but old Madam Edgecombe, the oldest witch present at the trial, stood up in protest. "Unacceptable," she called shrilly. "We agreed before you administered the Serum that his testimony was to be taken as truth and that we were only to ask him the truth of the basic charges. Are you going back on the decision of the Wizengamot?"

"My dear Madam," Dumbledore replied, "We cannot hold to that decision. Black has managed to defeat the Veritaserum somehow."

"Are you proposing to set the word of the Wizengamot to naught, Dumbledore?" asked an elderly wizard.

"Of course not. But this is no ordinary case," Dumbledore responded. "We have all the evidence we need to prove the defendant is guilty. He obviously managed to corrupt the Veritaserum in some manner."

More of the Wizengamot were looking outraged now. Lady Parkinson shouted from her seat in the back row, "You yourself, Chief Warlock, said that we could not find the truth without the Veritaserum. Are you suggesting that now that we have administered it we should assume that the evidence is completely true, despite now having proof that the defendant is innocent?"

Dumbledore strove to maintain control. "We cannot let a guilty man go free. The evidence is clear, and Black is guilty."

Another wizard, this one rather short and plump, piped up. "We can all agree that Black is guilty," he said. Lady Parkinson glared at him, but he ignored it. "But that's beside the point. We cannot compromise the sanctity of the Wizengamot's decrees for the sake of one prisoner."

More wizards and witches chimed in. Another shouted, "His crime is minor at best. If it were Treason or a high crime such as that, than you would have a case, but for Muggle-baiting and a single murder? The law mandates barely a few years in Azkaban for that. It is not worth it to abandon years of tradition. A decree by the Wizengamot is inviolable."

Dumbledore was looking weary at this point, as he looked around to see a large majority of the Wizengamot arrayed against him. Amelia looked at Black to see what his reaction to all of this was. To her surprise, however, Black was wearing a slight frown and looking at Dumbledore with an expression of…pain?

Amelia added yet another anomaly to her observations of this odd prisoner. Rather than celebrating that he had almost certainly gotten free, he was disappointed in something. But what?

After a few minutes, the Wizengamot gathered itself and some order was regained. Lady Parkinson quickly called for a vote, as Dumbledore, apparently dazed by the abrupt reversal of fortunes, did not speak.

Around the courtroom, hands rose for the acquittal of Black. Amelia looked around and did a quick mental head count as Madam Grailey wrote down the results. It looked like Black would in fact go free after all, by a fairly significant majority.

Amelia pondered the results of the trial as she waited for them to be announced. Having arrived late, Amelia did not know exactly what Black had claimed to have happened on that day when he had apparently killed Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles. However, it seemed likely that his story would be fairly far-fetched at best.

Yet he had taken the Veritaserum and swore that he had not in fact killed those thirteen Muggles, or Pettigrew, or even betrayed the Potters' Fidelius to You-Know-Who. Amelia had only ever heard of one case where Veritaserum had ever been overcome, and that had been Merlin himself. And he had only been able to refuse to answer, at that. Even Merlin had not been able to answer falsely when administered Veritaserum.

So, unless Black was a wizard with such power as to make Merlin look like a Squib, it seemed that he was in fact innocent. Amelia frowned. She didn't like such uncertainty, and in this case she simply did not know what to think. Well, she was well rid of it. Her responsibility to the prisoner had ended once she brought him to the courthouse, and now he was the concern of someone else. Her sense of duty niggled at her insides a bit, but she ignored it as she left the courtroom when Madam Grailey had finally announced an innocent verdict.

A few minutes later, as Amelia proceeded to the lift in the crowd of ministry workers, she heard a voice shout her name.

"Bones. Bones!"

Amelia turned to see Cornelius Fudge struggling through the crowd towards her, looking agitated. She was faintly surprised he even knew her name, and she was annoyed that he felt it necessary to talk to her.

As he reached her, he said, "Bones, someone pointed you out to me." He was panting slightly from his increased speed trying to catch up to her.

"Undersecretary Fudge," Amelia said respectfully. "What can I do for you?" She carefully concealed her contempt for the man behind a respectful and proper tone.

"Bones, you were the one to escort Black from Azkaban, right?"

Amelia blinked in surprise. "Yes." Why would Fudge care about that? The trial was over, and Black was free.

"Very good." Fudge looked happy at this. "You will be Black's case witch now. Report to Underhill for official reassignment this afternoon. You'll start your duties immediately, of course."

Amelia's jaw dropped. "What?" she asked. "Case witch? But he's innocent."

Fudge smiled at her in a slightly pitying way. "Of course he's not innocent, Bones. As Dumbledore said, he obviously overcame the Veritaserum somehow."

As diplomatically as possible, Amelia responded, "Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that he was declared innocent by the majority of the Wizengamot. The DMLE is legally forbidden from assigning anyone to Black."

Fudge smiled cunningly. "Ah, no, as it happens," he said. "I spoke with Dumbledore at length about this subject."

Amelia nearly laughed at the stupidity of the Undersecretary. That idiot really didn't ever think for himself, did he? He just listened to whoever said something that sounded good, usually Dumbledore. She restrained her laugh with some difficulty, however. Laughing in the face of a senior Ministry official would not be good for her career.

"It seems that the Aurors are forbidden from further investigation of a man declared innocent by the Wizengamot," he continued, unaware of Amelia's unflattering perception of him. She did not miss the emphasis on the word Auror. Does that mean… "However, legally the Hit Wizards can assign a wizard or witch to a newly freed prisoner if there should be a reasonable fear that he be in danger after he is freed."

Then the significance of Fudge's request hit her, and she almost swore. She was moving up in the Department, but a dead end assignment like this would just result in someone else getting the jobs she wanted. Not only that, but she would definitely end up being the scapegoat if anything at all went wrong.

But…duty was duty after all. "I see. What would my obligations consist of, exactly?" If she wasn't going to get any important and career enhancing job, she'd be damned if she didn't make the best of this that she possibly could. And the only way to do that was to fulfill her duties to the fullest extent possible, and then some.

"Well, you would protect Black from any angry citizens who want to make him pay for his crimes." Fudge hesitated a little. "And if in the course of your work you happen to find some information that proves his guilt…well, it would be your duty as a concerned citizen and Ministry employee to report it. And, of course, the Ministry would be duly grateful in such a case."

Amelia hid her frown carefully. Obviously Fudge wanted her to find something out of order in Black's case so he could put the man back in Azkaban once more. If Black was in Azkaban, then he couldn't say anything about Fudge's incompetence. Amelia was hesitant to take the case on general principle. It did smack of corruption and side room dealings, after all. But...she didn't want the job to go to someone less principled, did she?

If Black was guilty after all, well, then she would bring him in. If he was innocent, however then she would not put him in Azkaban, no matter what Fudge would want. But another witch or wizard in her position, given the chance of getting a promotion and possibly even an award? Amelia shook her head. No, she would take the job, and make sure it was done right. Even though she would not enjoy this job in the least, she would do it right.

Fudge cleared his throat loudly, looking at his watch pointedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Undersecretary," Amelia said, hurriedly. "Of course I'll take the position."

"That's good to hear, Bones. I'm sure I'll be hearing from you soon?"

"Yes, Undersecretary."

"Then, good day." And with that, the Undersecretary to the Minister hurried off, Amelia glaring at his back as he retreated from her vision.

Amelia stood stock still in the corridor, as people bustled around her, taking in all that had happened in the last few days. She shook her head again to clear it, and promptly made her way back to the courtroom to find her new charge. She didn't notice, but several people made a point of staying out of her way after they saw the look on her face.


Sirius Black sat utterly still at the chair in Courtroom Ten, stunned by the events that had just transpired. He was free! He should have felt like jumping around and baying like a mad dog. Yet he couldn't bring himself to find any joy at all.

None of his friends had been in the court with him. Sirius had looked all over the spectator stands several times to look for Moony, or Frank and Alice, or even Moody or one of the professors, smiling back at him. All the night before he had been dreaming of his reunion with them all, after nearly a month in a Hell on Earth.

But none of them had been there. Not one of his friends had been there in the courtroom at all. And Dumbledore…Dumbledore thought that he was guilty. How had it come to this? For the first time in nearly fifteen years, the first time since he had first met James Potter, he felt truly alone. Sure he had felt alone before, during vacations when he had been forced to return to the Hell which was his home, but he had always known that his friends would be there when he returned to Hogwarts. And then five years ago Sirius had run away, gone to James' house, where he had always been welcome.

But now, now Sirius felt truly alone. He shivered again as the Dementors came closer. Memories passed through his head again, these even older, ones of being picked upon by his older cousins. His mother, yelling at him, calling him blood traitor. Even his younger brother, sneering at him. Sirius curled up into a ball, or tried to, barely feeling the chains that held him to his chair.

"Expecto Patronum."

Sirius watched dully as a silver ram pushed away the Dementors, and feeling slowly returned to his limbs and sanity to his head. The silver ram looked a little familiar. Where had he seen that Patronus before? Was it in the Order? He hoped desperately it was, here to tell him they believed his story and would bring him somewhere he was safe and could sleep for a day or two. Moony, McGonagall, Moody…hell, he would kiss Dung if he came into the Courtroom just then. Well, maybe not kiss, but…

His somewhat hysterical train of thoughts trailed off suddenly as he saw not one of his friends but that square jawed Hit Witch from before…Bones or something like that. She was staring at him somewhat angrily, not at all with the welcome and sympathy he would have wished, whether on her or on anyone.

"Come on then," she said sharply. "You're my responsibility again, so let's get you out of here."

Sirius' head jerked up at that. "Your responsibility?" he asked, incredulously, "but I was acquitted." Then, some slight hope returning despite all the odds, "Did Dumbledore ask you to help…?"

"Dumbledore?" she asked, looking at him oddly. "What would Professor Dumbledore want from someone like you?"

Well, that was blunt, he thought. Obviously she doesn't believe me.

But Bones was continuing, though now it seemed to be more herself than anything. For the moment she seemed to forget he was there. "No, Fudge ordered me to, the bloody—." She stopped herself, looked askance at Sirius for a second, and said, even more sharply than before, "Get moving."

Sirius painfully got up, the chains on his chair falling away to the sides as he stood. Bones turned on her heels and stalked out of the courtroom without a backwards glance, leaving Sirius to follow along. They quickly came to the lift, and took it to the main atrium of the Ministry, which was packed full with people just about to take a break for lunch.

As Bones led Sirius out of the lift, whispering began to spread throughout the crowd.

"Black…What's he doing here?"

"Was he freed?"

"Look, who's that witch?"

Bones changed direction suddenly as soon as they passed the guard post, going left suddenly towards another lift in a far corner of the atrium. Sirius looked at it in confusion. It seemed a little older than the others, and he couldn't remember ever seeing it before, and certainly never using it.

"But the fireplaces are there," he rasped in confusion, looking back towards the familiar green fire of the Floo Network.

"And we're not going out that way," Bones replied flatly. "Too many people."

Sirius had never known there even was another exit from the Ministry besides the fireplaces. Well, it's not like I set foot here very often, is it? He thought, mentally shrugging. Even though it was here that I met James for the first time. James… and that brought him right back to the depressing thoughts that didn't need a Dementor for him to keep right at the forefront of his brain.

He barely noticed as he followed the Hit Witch into the lift and it began to rise, although he couldn't help but notice when the inside of the Ministry gave way to the confusing sight of a busy London street. He recognized cars and motorcycles, from his times exploring the local Muggle town with James when he was at the Potters', but he had never seen so many together before in his life. What…?

Bones turned to look at him. "Come on, Black," she said, glaring at him, "I have to take you to St. Mungo's to get you checked out after your stay in Azkaban. The Apparition Point is this way."

She began walking and Sirius followed, walking out into his rediscovered freedom and a new world. A new world such as he could never have imagined, even in his darkest nightmares; a world without James at his side.


Well, there you have it. A little shorter than my previous chapters, but it got the needed points across, I think. I don't know when I'll publish next, seeing as how I'd like to write another chapter of Harry and Millie as well, but we'll see. Thanks for reading, and please review.