A disguised Sirius raced out of the doors of JFK International Airport and took a deep breath. Releasing the held breath out with a laugh, the escaped convict spun around with his arms in the air like a child frolicking through the grass, ignorant to the stares and whispers around him. This feeling was amazing. He was free and he was feeling the warmth of the sun on his face, and he was loving it. Two days had passed since Remus turned him into a squirrel and helped him escape from Azkaban. Of course, he gave his thanks in the form of a black eye which Remus was still sporting, but his friend took it all in good stride as he shoved a filthy Sirius Black into the bathroom of the muggle hotel room they were staying in and told him to bathe, something Sirius was quite eager to do. Now he was free from Britain. That's not to say that he was a free man, and he would have to stay in hiding, but he was away from the corrupted Ministry and laws of wizarding Britain and manipulative old coots who insisted they knew better than everyone else. He could begin to live a new life with his godson as he should have been doing for the last five years.

As Remus signaled for a cab and the two wizards were on their way to Manhattan, Sirius couldn't contain his excitement. He was like a kid in a candy shop as he took in all the sights. Remus stared out his own window but quietly observed his old friend in the reflection and couldn't help but smile softly. If things had played out differently five years ago, Sirius would be a healthy wizard raising a healthy Harry while he continued his role as surrogate Uncle. As fate would have it, Remus was now the adoptive father of Harry while Sirius would be relegated to the role of uncle, though Remus would definitely allow Sirius to have a major part in raising Harry. That was a silent promise to himself as Sirius needed that interaction with Harry to thrive.

Reaching the designated area in Times Square, Remus directed the driver to drop them off at the corner of forty-seventh street and eighth avenue. From there, after paying the driver, the two wizards walked down the Diamond District to what looked like an abandoned building. Remus pulled Sirius, who was still gazing around, into the warm building. To Sirius, the interior reminded him of a cleaner version of 'The Leaky Cauldron'. Even the barkeep looked well-groomed compared to Tom. The entire situation from leaving Britain to seeing some sights in New York was al la culture shock for the escaped prisoner. Remus watched his friend, highly amused about his reaction to 'The Wanted Guardian'. If he was being honest with himself, the name and location were highly misleading, so he could understand the overwhelming awe at the immaculate interior coming from Sirius. Remus walked over to the counter and greeted the woman behind it warmly.

"Claire, how are you today?"

The woman's blue eyes lit up at the sight of the wizard in front of her. "Well, well, if it isn't my favorite Brit. What brings you in here? Where's Harry? He's such a little tyke and such an amazing little boy Remus. You're doing a wonderful job raising him."

Remus blushed at the praise. "Thank you, Claire. Harry is at home with his aunt and cousin as I had some business outside of the country to deal with," he gestured to Sirius who finally realized that Remus had left him and walked over to the bar. Sirius flashed a smile at Claire and quickly took in her features, a skill he learned in his short tenure as an Auror. You had to quickly observe a person or a situation before acting…

He mentally scoffed. So much for his training as he ignored everything that was taught to him as he charged after Peter blindly. Looking at the young woman, he noticed the scar on her neck where her brown, shoulder-length hair happened to shift. The scar itself looked more like a recovered bite mark, but Sirius didn't study it for too long as it was quite rude to stare. Instead, he gently took hold of the woman's hand and kissed her knuckles. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Claire…"

"Fairchild," she answered his pause.

"Clair Fairchild. Such a lovely name for a lovely woman."

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend laying on the charm. "Too bad for you, Markyl, Clair is happily mated," he commented as he changed the other man's name as they had discussed.

"That's too bad. Well, doesn't hurt anyone to make acquaintances. Hopefully, that could evolve into friendship."

Clair smiled back at the man before her and leaned close enough that only the two wizards could hear her. "Once you are found innocent, Sirius Black, our friendship could become a cherished and public one. Until then, it will have to stay private."

Both wizards paled while Claire just laughed. She waved both men over to the floo where Remus quickly took Sirius' arm and disappeared in the burst of green flames.

"What the bloody hell was that about? How did she know about me?" Sirius demanded once they stepped out of the fireplace.

"Probably the newspaper, Sirius," Remus answered thoughtfully.

"But I'm disguised. I even have blonde hair to completely change my looks. How could she see through that?"

"I honestly don't know myself. I can only think that maybe it's a werewolf thing, but I have never been able to see through glamor charms myself. Only been able to smell through them," the werewolf replied as he looked to his friend who he could clearly see was very worried, "but I can assure you that your whereabouts are safe with her. We werewolves tend to stick together here in America, unlike back in Britain."

"I don't know Remus…"

"Trust me, Sirius. You're safe here."

Sirius did trust his friend; last time he didn't it almost cost him a lifetime in Azkaban. Neither he nor James could be sure if Remus was a spy or a not so they chose not to tell him anything, especially pertaining to secret keepers. If they had trusted Remus, however, Sirius wouldn't have spent five years rotting away. Even with that in mind, however, it didn't mean that he wouldn't be wary of people knowing who he was. Looking around the room they flooed into, Sirius took in the flowery decor and scrunched up his face. Remus stifled the laugh he desperately wanted to release as he observed his friend. He remembered his first time at Acacia's house and his opinion of her choice of decorations five years prior. Even now he still felt that the home held too many flowery prints. He quickly learned to just accept the cozy home as something similar to a grandmother's house. It helped Remus grow accustomed to that terminology as Harry insisted on calling the older woman 'grandma'.

"Ah, you've returned. Harry will be very happy to see…"

"MOONY!"

Remus turned just in time to catch the black-haired blur that raced into the room. Harry clung to Remus tightly, sniffling occasionally while the older wizard rubbed his back soothingly as he whispered comforting words. A soft, "I missed you," could be heard over the soft sniffling as the young wizard pulled away to look his godfather in his eyes.

"I missed you too, cub."

Sirius watched the moment with a touch of envy. If things were different, that would have been him holding and comforting Harry. he knew situations and events always happened for a reason and he was by no means angry about Remus raising Harry; he was just a tad…jealous. However, as Sirius watched as the two embraced, he wondered if he would have done as good of a job as Remus. He knew that he wouldn't have had to flee from Britain if he didn't chase after Peter. He would have been Lord Black and raised Harry in their home country and in a nice house that most definitely would not have been Grimmauld Place. If he could help it, he wouldn't step foot back into that horrible miserable place, and he wouldn't even dream of raising Harry there.

He was pulled from his musings by a tugging sensation on his sleeve. He looked down into the most vibrant green eyes that reminded him so much of Lily and he nearly broke down in tears as the child looked up at him so inquisitively. Harry tilted his head at the man in front of him, taking in all of his features; the shoulder length black hair, his grey eyes, his pale skin, and the fact that he was wearing one of Moony's robes. Still watching the man, the young wizard held his arms up, a clear indication that he wanted to be picked up. Remus opened his mouth to gently scold his child only stopping when Sirius held up his hand. Everyone watched in amusement and compassion as the ex-convict tried to keep his emotions together while he held his godson for the first time in five years.

Harry stared at the man holding him with wide eyes. He reached out his small hands and touched Sirius' face gently, and then ran his fingers through his hair and over his ears. He put his head on the older man's chest and listened to his heartbeat for a little while before returning to his original position and stared at the man's grey eyes. His eyes widened even more as recognition took place and soon he grinned widely and released a high pitch squeal of delight at a decibel only a small child was capable of, scaring all of the adults in the room, before wrapping his little arms around Sirius' neck.

"PADFOOT!" Harry said excitedly and quite loudly.

The dam of tears that the escaped convict was trying to hold at bay completely gave away as the first trail cascaded down his cheeks as he hugged his godson close. The only dry eye in the room belonged to the giddy child in Sirius' arms. Remus joined the two wizards in the hug, thinking to himself that the three of them would be alright. Everything would be alright now. Everything was finally perfect for the three wizards.

*~RL~SB~HP~RL~HP~*

Millicent Bagnold was sitting with her hands entangled in her hair restraining herself from pulling it out as she continued to think of a solution to this horrible situation. Sirius Black has been gone from his cell for at least three days. There was a very slim chance that Sirius Black would still be in Britain, let alone in Europe. As tempting as it seemed to follow the advice of some members of the Wizangamot, she completely ignored the orders of sending dementors to scour for the escaped convict along with the Aurors. She was slowly becoming desperate though to announce a 'kiss on sight' order, but dementors were fickle creatures and they had the tendency to feast on anyone if they became too hungry, so that idea was completely thrown out. She also couldn't send out the entire Auror force as they were still needed for simple matters in Britain. Asking other nations and countries for help would only make the ministry look like incompetent fools who allowed dark wizards and their accomplices out on the loose. Everything was too complicated and a complete mess!

Millicent groaned as she let her head drop heavily onto the desk, which aggravated her headache more. Her door banging open rudely also didn't help the oncoming migraine and she snapped at the rookie Auror who dared to enter unannounced.

"You better have a damn good reason for barging in my office like that."

"I apologize for my rudeness, Minister, but we've found something that you may be interested in knowing about," the young Auror said nervously as he made sure to avoid the fierce glare coming from the head of the wizarding community.

"It better have something to so with the Black case, Jones, otherwise you'll be doing desk work for the next fifteen years," Millicent growled as she glared at the Auror.

"I…I'm sorry…of course…um…"

"Out with it!"

"We've found a vial in the cell Sirius Black was in. It was under the bed and we suspect that it rolled there when the prison clothes were picked up."

Millicent stared at the Auror, making the man fidget. "You barge in here to tell me about some random vial you found?"

"No... Minister…well, yes, but it's a rather important vial as we believe it contains Sirius Black's memories."

'Memories? Why would he need to leave his memories behind?' the minister questioned herself. "Are you sure these are memories?"

"I am positive Minister." The young Auror stated standing proudly.

"Go fetch that vial and bring me Amelia Bones. Quickly!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The Auror dashed out of the office and was gone no longer than fifteen minutes before he returned with his boss who had the vial in her hands. The Minister had already pulled out her pensieve and wasted no time pouring the vial into the water. Before the three ministry officials put their heads in, Bagnold turned to glare at the younger Auror. "What you see here stays here, understood?"

"Y...yes ma'am." The young Auror stammered before joining the women in the pensieve.

Upon landing in the first memory, the three realized that this memory was from someone else who was apparently interviewing Black as a visitor. Bagnold gritted her teeth as she found out that Sirius was placed in Azkaban without a trial. Amelia was faring no better in containing her emotions as her best Auror was framed and was locked away for five years. They continued watching and was quite surprised when Sirius accused Peter Pettigrew of betraying the Potters. Suddenly the memory changed. It started with Sirius and James discussing changing secret keepers as having Sirius on as the keeper would compromise the Potters should he ever be caught by Death Eaters. Then came the memory of James, Sirius, and Peter in the same room, changing the vows and making Peter the new secret keeper for the Potters. The memory changed once more to Sirius arriving at the demolished Potter residence.

The three viewers could feel the man's emotions through the memory, emotions that rapidly changed from sorrow at knowing the only people he considered family were dead, to relief as he watched Hagrid exit the demolished house with his godson, to anger when the half-giant informed Sirius of Dumbledore's orders that Harry was to be taken straight to a specific location, to sadness as he said goodbye to his precious godson while cleaning up the blood on his little forehead, to fury as he ran off to chase after Peter.

The final memory ended with Sirius being thrown across a road as Peter used a blasting curse to not only get away but kill innocent muggles. They watched as the rat bastard cut off his own finger and placed it next to Sirius before transforming and scurrying down into the sewers.

Amelia was the first to pull out of the pensieve and she was muttering angrily to herself. Bagnold and the Auror were next and Millicent went back to her desk to sit down. She sat contemplating exactly how that day went terribly wrong and how one innocent man was failed by an entire government. "How could none of us question the validity of Sirius being thrown in jail? Especially as he is the last living head of an Ancient and Noble house?" she asked quietly.

"Because we all believed and had faith in Crouch to do things fairly and Fudge to actually do his job correctly," Amelia scoffed. "Apparently we were all wrong," she said as she sat in the chair across from the minister. She remembered her rookie Auror was still in the room and dismissed him after thanking him as well as assuring he kept his mouth shut. Bagnold moved to her cabinet, pulled out two tumblers and the bottle of scotch she kept in there, then handed one to her head Auror. They sat in silence, slowly drinking and thinking.

"Peter Pettigrew is alive," Bagnold started.

"And is an unregistered Animagus," Amelia continued.

"Sirius was innocent this whole time." Once more, the Minister sat in contemplative silence as she nursed her drink. Suddenly, she tossed the rest of her drink back before giving Amelia a hard look.

"I want Crouch and Fudge in a cell by the end of the night. They will answer for putting an innocent man in the very same prison they may or may not be living in soon. Also, I want a notice in the Daily Prophet. Sirius Black will be exonerated thanks to the help of his memories from that horrible Halloween. The people responsible for his wrongful incarceration as well as the Ministry will pay compensation for the hardships and trauma he was put through for these last five years," she paused and gritted her teeth, "I may have been blinded to the extra events from that night, but I'll be damned if I don't fix it."

Amelia smiled as she finished her own drink before standing. "I will get right on it, Minister," she said as she left the room.

An innocent man will soon have his freedom, and rightfully so.

*~RL~SB~HP~RL~HP~*

A/N: So tis the end of this little segment and I'm sorry that it's so short. Sirius is now a free man and Harry gets both of his godfather's to love and care for him. This is really only the beginning of their stories. Let me know what you think by leaving a review!