Years had passed and all hope of recovering Harry was lost. Over the years Dumbledore had searched every possible place he could think of, he had even gone to Sirius' old family home but had found it as derelict and abandoned as ever. He only hoped that his instinct had been right and that Harry was safe. He would find out soon enough. If Harry was alive then a Hogwarts letter would automatically be sent to him, if he was dead then no letter would be sent, but he had no way of finding out until then. Even he, as Headmaster of the school, could not cheat and take a peek at the Book of Names. Minerva entered the study and asked the silent question they had been asking for years, "A few months," he told her, "a few months and we'll know. One way or the other," she nodded, and he knew that she felt the same way he did, both dreading and impatiently waiting for the verdict. Dead or alive. It was a terrible wait, and he felt useless trapped in his office but he had no other leads on Harry Potter's whereabouts or fate. He hoped, of course, that Harry was alive and well but he could do no more than wait and hope. Minerva left the study, having long ago given up making up excuses to visit his study and ask her silent question.
It happened by pure chance in the end. Remus Lupin had been wandering aimlessly, as he often did, having found himself once again unemployed. He had happened to spot a large, distinctive, black dog. A black dog that he had seen thousands of times, a black dog that he would have been able to pick out of a line up of big black dogs. A black dog that was actually Sirius Black. Remus stiffened, for a moment unsure of what to do, but that quickly passed. Being sure to keep upwind of Sirius, for he knew that as surely as he knew Sirius in his dog shape, Sirius, in turn, would know his smell. He followed Sirius into Grimmauld Place and for a moment was a astounded by the genius of Sirius choosing his old family home as his hiding place. Remus followed him in, watched him transform and got out his wand. He had always prided himself on his control over his emotions, but he felt his control slowly slipping away as he saw his one time friend smile as if he had the right to be happy.
Remus pointed his wand, his hand shaking, straight at Sirius' face. He could hardly believe he was threatening Sirius, it felt disloyal somehow, although he knew that was ridiculous. Sirius was the traitor. Sirius was the murderer. Sirius was also the better dueler and Remus knew that pointing a wand at Sirius was practically suicide. Remus was too angry to care. "Remus please," Sirius said, raising his hands, "I'm innocent, you've got to believe me. I'd never hurt a hair on Harry's head, you can ask him. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them" Remus gave a desperate laugh.
"So James, Lily and Peter dropped dead of their own accord did they? Just got up one morning and thought, I know, I'll leave my only son orphaned and make it look like my best friend killed me?" he asked sarcastically, with barely suppressed rage. "They trusted you Sirius and you killed them. I'm sorry, I really am truly sorry, and I wish things could be different, but it's over. It's all over," he said the first curse that came to mind but then Harry came charging out of nowhere, his small face set with determination. He launched himself in front of Sirius as Remus' curse shot from his wand. He was hit in the chest and thrown back onto the floor where he lay, motionless.
"HARRY!" bellowed Sirius and he knelt beside him, deliberately shielding him with his body. He whipped out his own wand and started muttering counter curses. Slowly Harry came round, his eyes flickering and a ghost of a smile playing around his lips. "You stupid, brilliant, beautiful boy," said Sirius, his hands trembling, "what did you do that for?" Harry stopped smiling and looked contrite, an unspoken question in his eyes. "I'm not angry at you Harry," Sirius said, "I was just scared, you could have been very badly hurt. You could have … just leave the fighting to me OK?" Harry looked rebellious, but nodded. Sirius drew the small boy towards him in a tight hug and buried his head in Harry's neck, gently rocking him back and forth.
Remus stood back, stunned, his wand hanging uselessly by his side, not quite believing what he was seeing. The part of his mind that was still working told him three things. One, that Sirius had his wand on him and had chosen not to use it, but instead had tried to reason with him. This didn't fit with the view of Sirius Black as ruthless murderer, who didn't care who he killed. For whatever reason, Sirius didn't want to hurt him.
Two, Sirius was obviously very fond of Harry; he had looked devastated and enraged when the curse had hit Harry instead of him. Curiously enough, it was the first time in the whole confrontation when Remus had thought that Sirius might attack him, when somebody he claimed to care for had been hurt. He was now tenderly cradling the boy in his arms, muttering words of comfort, his body shielding him from any further harm. Sirius looked every bit the devoted godfather and Remus could see the man who had sworn to protect Harry, at whatever cost. He could see the man he knew.
Three, Harry, in turn, was obviously very fond of Sirius and had been prepared to take the curse for him, which meant that Harry and Sirius obviously had a close, loving relationship and Harry was prepared to protect Sirius at whatever cost. Harry had, far from being afraid when he had thought Sirius was angry at him, had seemed afraid of disappointing him, which was an entirely different thing. It had struck him how, in that small moment, Harry had looked so very like James, rushing to Sirius' defence. Then the moment had passed and Harry was the young fragile boy again who Sirius had promised to protect.
All this lead Remus to conclude one thing, one impossible thing, the only thing that made any sense to Remus. That Sirius had been telling the truth and he was innocent. He knelt down beside Sirius and Harry, deliberately placing his wand away from him on the ground and raising his hands. He spoke in a low, even tone, "Tell me everything."
Sirius turned to face Remus for the first time since Harry had been hurt. He wore an incredulous smile, "Really? You believe me?" Remus nodded and Sirius' face exploded into a mischievous grin that Remus knew so well. "Moony my old friend," he said grandly, "I will tell you everything, it is a thrilling tale, even if I say it myself, but first I need a drink." He heaved himself up, pulling Harry with him, and wandered over to the kitchen. Remus watched, amused, Sirius and Harry engaged in a exaggerated fight. Harry had been trying to sneak himself a Firewhiskey, which Sirius had spotted and mock sternly told him to put back. Remus was slightly worried that he would actually let Harry have the Firewhiskey, he now had no doubt that Sirius' heart was in the right place, but he had never seen Sirius as the ideal parent. More as the mischievous godfather, a role he would have played so well, had he the chance. Remus quickly realised that this was an old game between them, and Harry ended up with a small Butterbeer, and Sirius had the Firewhisky. Sirius offered Remus a Butterbeer and he gladly accepted.
They moved, in a talking, laughing jumble to another room, which had comfy chairs and a fire. Sirius idly lit the fire, which Harry immediately sat beside and watched. Remus watched Sirius look at Harry with a fierce affection, as he tried not to look proud that he had produced something that had captured Harry's imagination. Sirius dragged his eyes back to Remus, his face solemn, "We heard," he glanced at Harry, "we heard that Voldemort was after James and Lily and so they made me their Secret Keeper. You know that much, but what you don't know, is that we changed Secret-Keeper. I thought that Voldemort would be bound to suspect that I was the Secret-Keeper and come after me, so we changed to Peter," Sirius voice grew heavy, and a distant look came into his eyes, "it was me who persuaded them to change, thought it was the perfect double bluff. The night they died I checked on Peter, make sure he was all right, but he was gone. No sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right and I was scared. I set out to Godric's Hollow straight away. When I saw their house destroyed and their bodies," he shuddered, "you're lucky Remus, you never had to see their bodies, all broken," he paused again, "I realised what Peter had done, what I had done," he turned away and Remus forced Sirius to look at him.
"It wasn't your fault Sirius, it was Peter's. You were trying to save them when you suggested Peter as Secret-Keeper. You weren't to know what he was," Sirius gave a bitter laugh.
"Do you want to know why we didn't tell you about the switch Remus? We thought you were the spy. Come to think of it, the only reason we thought you were the spy was because Peter suggested it."
"There," said Remus, "that was Peter's fault. You thought I was the spy because of Peter. James and Lily are dead because of Peter. Unfortunately there is no way of proving your innocence without Peter and he's -"
"Oh he's alive," growled Sirius, "anyway, I was at the house, James and Lily dead, and then I saw this little survivor," he nodded at Harry, who smiled back, obviously having heard this story before, "I saw Harry, alive, and I thought that I might have something to live for again. Then Hagrid arrived. He said he had to take Harry, said he was on Dumbledore's orders, then I realised what Dumbledore must have thought. What everyone thought. I gave Hagrid my bike, it was too recognisable. Then I went after Peter. I just wanted to make him pay, didn't care about much else, didn't really care about happened to me. I cornered him in a street but he yelled for the whole world to hear that I had betrayed Lily and James. Then he blew up the street, cutting his own finger off in the process and scuttling down the sewer as a rat. I think I was pretty unhinged by that point. Everything I loved had been taken away in an instant. I remember laughing, and thinking it was odd, because there really was nothing to laugh about." Remus realised with a jolt that Harry had moved over to Sirius and was now holding him.
"You've got me," Harry said, in his small, determined voice, "you've still got me." Sirius nodded and took a breath to continue.
"I was taken to Azkaban, as you know. I survived because I knew I was innocent, it wasn't a happy thought so the Dementors couldn't take it from me, but it kept me sane. When it … got too much I could change into a dog. Then one day, it was strange, but I realised I couldn't remember what Harry looked like. It was like someone had lit a fire inside me. I had to know my godson. I slipped through the bars as a dog, I was so thin by that time, and swam to land. I found Harry, he was staying with Lily's sister, Petunia and family," here Harry shivered and a brief look of hatred passed his otherwise happy features, Sirius held Harry to him, "I made friends with him as a dog, I was the only friend he had. His cousin made sure he didn't have any others. He was kept as downtrodden as possible, you remember how much Petunia hated magic. Anyway, after a few months, I transformed and invited Harry to run away with me. I knew he was safer there, but I couldn't leave him there, not the way he was being treated," he glanced around the room with distaste, "we've been staying here ever since. We've managed to make it vaguely habitable."
"You must hate having to be back here," Sirius started, as if he'd forgotten Remus was there and gave a quick nod.
"Tell me what you've been up to," he said, keen to move on, "tell us about the outside world."
"Not much happening with me," Remus said lightly, "the usual, moving from job to job, doing what I can. Dumbledore helps me out when he can of course, but there's only so much he can do. As for the world in general, it goes on as it always has. The desperate search for mass murderer Sirius Black has died down since he hasn't murdered anyone lately," he gave Sirius a sly smile, it was strange, only a few minutes ago and 'the search for Sirius Black' had occupied his every thought, now it seemed slightly silly, "Dumbledore is still searching for Harry … I'll have to let him know Harry's in good hands. I think Dumbledore was resigned to finding out when Harry got his letter anyway."
Dumbledore received a slightly bedraggled tawny owl and untied the letter from it's leg. It was a small note, scribbled hastily. All it said was HP found. Must talk ASAP. Utmost secrecy required. RL. Dumbledore felt an excitement unlike anything he had felt in a long time. He gave a slight nod to the fire and Remus emerged, who gave him a wild smile, a strange glint in his eye. He motioned for Remus to begin, too eager to hear his story to bother with social niceties.
"Sirius Black is innocent." Dumbledore gave a small smile, then leaned forward.
"Tell me everything."