For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1.
Meanwhile, our favourite elf-man has been busy.
1986-01-13 16:00 UTC, The Burrow
The very first thing to do when it comes to freeing Sirius, thought Hobby, is to make sure the rat is caught and held with no chance of escape. One of the worst mistakes of his past life was not preventing Wormtail's escape in third year, and he was determined not to repeat that.
He popped directly into the attic in the Burrow, being the only place he was sure there would be no one. He then cast a revealing spell looking for the rat, slightly worried it may not be at home. By a stroke of luck, it was. Percy was more than a year away from his entry into Hogwarts, but the rat was his. And Percy, even at that age, seemed to have a bureaucratic bent of mind: when Hobby popped in, he was occupied in the extremely satisfying and rewarding, not to mention important, task of sorting the last month's newspapers in chronological order.
The rat was in his pocket, peeking out looking at the headlines as Percy sorted the newspapers. Hobby wondered how someone could fail to notice the expression of concentration on the rat's face; would it not occur to them that this was a very unusual rat?
Anyway, he petrified the rat, summoned it, and left. Percy, even when he was head boy, would not have been able to react in time. Percy, at the age of ten, was not even sure what happened. All he could say when his mother found him sniffling was "someone took Scabbers". He had not seen who that someone was, of course.
Hobby fed the rat the draught of living death and placed him in a special cell in Grimmauld's dungeons that even Kreacher could not get him out of.
1986-01-13 17:00 UTC, Azkaban prison
Hobby popped straight into Sirius Black's cell. He was not surprised to see him still there, the only so-called death-eater not to be released by Fudge's order. Clearly, Malfoy had prepared the list.
Looking out of a nearby window that faced the front of the prison, he noticed the ministerial party leaving.
He waited a few minutes for them to be out of sight of the prison, and went to see the warden, leaving Sirius alone for the moment. Of course, he went transformed as Malfoy.
"Warden, I would like to see the list of prisoners we released just now; I believe we may have made a mistake."
Mobius Crawford had been warden at Azkaban for the last three years. It was pretty much a dead-end job, with very little prospects for advancement, and a constant sense of doom and gloom in the background, caused by the dementors. He was about due for a rotation, and in fact when Minister Fudge arrived earlier today, he had at first thought he was being given his rotation papers.
He did wonder why there were so many people with him of course, and quickly realised that had nothing to do with him. He also quickly realised who, precisely, was calling the shots during the whole exercise: Lucius Malfoy.
So, when, barely five minutes after he had left with the minister, Lord Malfoy came back asking for a list that did not exist, he was nonplussed.
"My Lord, there was no list. Here's the order the minister himself served on me."
Hobby took the piece of parchment. For something that would destroy a barely four year-old peace and bring back the horrors of the war that preceded said peace, it was remarkably... unremarkable. Apart from the usual guff that was standard in any ministerial order, the only line was basically "all death-eaters are hereby released and pardoned".
"Hmm, I see", Hobby tried to mask his shock. This was an unexpected bonus; it appeared there was no actual list anywhere, only in Malfoy's mind. He wondered how he had conveyed the actual choices to the warden and the guards. Perhaps he just stood there and reeled off names. Anyway, he could not ask, and it was not worth bothering.
He could work with it. He was more and more happy he'd chosen to come back as an elf, and happier still about the blind spot.
He left the room, walked out till he was out of sight of the prison, then popped back to Sirius's cell, stunned him, and took him home to Grimmauld.
1986-01-13 17:30 UTC, 12, Grimmauld Place
This was a ticklish situation for Hobby. Kreacher should only see him as "Master Harry", while Sirius should not even know he existed.
"Kreacher, could you please come here?"
"Master Harry, you is back! What can Kreacher do for you?"
"Kreacher, I have the real Lord Black here. Although I am your master, he does not know that, and I do not want him to know that. I want him to think he was rescued by the 'Phantom' and placed here. I will leave a detailed note with instructions for him; wake him up after I have left, and take care of him."
"Yes Master Harry. Master Harry, you is the 'Phantom'?"
"Kreacher, that is a secret that is never to be revealed to any one, not even Lord Black. Is that clear?"
"Yes Master Harry".
"I must also tell you, Kreacher, that the boy-who-lived will eventually move here, to live with Lord Black, who is his godfather. This Harry is, at present, a five year-old child, and does not know anything about magic. I am relying on you to teach him many things about the wizarding world. Will you do that? Remember you must not tell anyone that you know me or have seen me - they will get confused!"
"Yes, Master Harry; I will not tell".
"OK. Now, how many patients are still there?"
"Only three Master Harry. The rest have been healed to a good extent and dropped off at various muggle locations, with their memories wiped".
"OK, if Lord Black asks, explain to him who they are and how they came to be here. Make sure you do not say who did it; just say it was the 'Phantom'.
"Yes, Master Harry."
With that, Hobby wrote a note for Sirius to read, and left.
1986-01-13 20:00 UTC, Daily Prophet offices
Rita Skeeter was putting the finishing touches to her masterpiece article for a special edition of the Prophet. She had the full list of prisoners released this evening - only because they were introduced, with much cheering, at the press conference - and had come up with mini-biographies of each of them. Some were flattering, some were her usual hatchet job, depending on how she had been treated by them in years past. She was not too worried about the fact that these men were definitely death-eaters - it appears that the Phantom had put the fear of God into them; after all, no one can look threatening while they are being threatened by someone else!
And that was another thing to investigate - who was this "Phantom"?
Hobby popped in, silent and invisible as usual, and petrified her. Making sure her back was to him, he cast a confundus charm on her to make sure she included Sirius Black in her list of released prisoners, with the following mini-biography supplied by him:
Sirius Black
Sirius Black, now Lord Black, was the only Gryffindor in his family, nearly disowned for that and for his friendship with James Potter, the father of the boy-who-lived. Sirius Black was thrown into Azkaban without a trial by Crouch, despite not having the dark mark on his arm. The lack of trial was one of the findings that took all the skills and contacts that this reporter has, because no one wants to officially say that a Lord of an ancient house can be thrown in jail without a trial! Perhaps all the other lords should think about this?
While many think he was the secret-keeper for the Potters and betrayed them to you-know-who, this reporter's investigative skills have revealed that we only have the Chief Warlock's word for this. The Chief Warlock then sealed the Potter will, making it impossible for us to see what the will might have said about who the secret-keeper was, which makes the whole thing very suspicious.
In addition, there are rumours floating around in the underbelly of our world that say Peter Pettigrew is alive and well, albeit missing a finger, since that is all that was found of him.
All of this makes this reporter question exactly what happened in the aftermath of Halloween 1981.
1986-01-13 22:00 UTC, Lestrange estate, crofter's cottage
Malfoy was angry. Actually, he had gone beyond angry hours ago, and his mood was not helped by the abysmal accommodations he was forced to endure.
He would have thought that, having defended his sister-in-law, her husband and brother-in-law, and all the others released from Azkaban, and as the notional leader of their cause in the absence of their master, any of their luxurious properties would be made available to him while he was temporarily without a place to live.
Instead of jumping to that task with gratitude and alacrity, the Lestrange brothers had simply walked away. It appeared that, somehow, they blamed him for both Bella's death, as well as the current crisis of fear that had gripped the death-eaters (and their families; since they were all in attendance when that damn letter was read out!). In fact, the Lestranges insisted that it was his mis-management of post-Voldemort society that even allowed this so-called "Phantom" to exist.
As such, he was given a cottage on the edge of the Lestrange estate as if he were a gardener or farmer!
It was this reversal of loyalties, as much as the loss of his beautiful manor, that was making his blood boil. His two elves, Dobby and Nolly, were of course there, both having bowed obsequiously and wept great big tears at the loss of the master's beautiful home. Both were properly ashamed of themselves for having been caught unawares by the Phantom, and had offered to punish themselves severely.
(Dobby cleverly added "once the manor is restored", and it was taken to mean "there's work to be done now so we'll do this later", rather than "yeah right, when the sun rises in the west, asshole".)
And then, as if he did not already have enough on his plate, the special edition of the Prophet landed. On his plate, literally this time, since it arrived while he was having dinner, and the poor over-worked owl was a bit out of sorts with life in general.
Sirius Black was, apparently, free. How the hell did that happen? I made sure he was not freed when we left Azkaban, and he was certainly not with us on the return trip nor was he at the press conference!
He would have to do some serious damage control.
1986-01-14 07:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Minister's office
"Ah, good morning Lucius! How are you today? I must say yesterday went very well. I saw the Prophet special edition; very positive about what we achieved yesterday my dear fellow, very positive indeed, with only a few of our unjustly imprisoned friends being portrayed negatively".
"Yes yes Cornelius, indeed it was, thank you for making it happen. However, I believe we made a slight mistake somewhere - Sirius Black was also freed yesterday, it would appear. Unfortunately, I believe he was the only one who was never under the imperius or loyalty potions, so he should not have been freed. We need to arrest him immediately!"
"Is that so Lucius? Hmm, I wonder how we made that mistake. I don't even remember a list, we just said 'all death-eaters' or something didn't we?"
"Yes Cornelius; we were somewhat rushed for time of course so that is understandable."
"Indeed, yes. Well, I will send out an order for him to be arrested and thrown back into his old cell; thank you for bringing this to my attention Lucius!"
"Ah no Cornelius. Since he is deemed to have escaped from Azkaban, he needs to be put through the veil, not sent back to Azkaban."
And so it was that Madam Bones found herself being tasked with arresting Black and sending him through the veil. She had, of course, read the paper last night, and was determined to get to the bottom of this. She would certainly not be sending someone through the veil without a heck of a lot of digging into the facts.
1986-01-14 08:00 UTC, St Mungo's
While most of the recently released and pardoned prisoners were in for a decently long haul in the hospital, due to their prolonged exposure to the dementors, Lord Black did not seem so badly off; he wasn't even admitted to the in-patient wards. It looked as if all he needed were a few nutrient potions, skin care (Azkaban cells have fleas?, thought the healer, but he didn't say a word aloud), and a regimen of potions for the next couple of weeks.
When Sirius stepped out of the examination room, clutching his potions bag in one hand, he was met by Amelia Bones.
"Black, you're under arrest. We don't know how you got out, because the minister swears you were not on the list. Surrender your wand and come with us."
Sirius looked behind her, as if he was searching for someone. Bones turned around at the sound of a small cough. Matias Reiter was standing there, legal briefs and other weighty looking papers in hand.
"He hasn't got his wand back, Madam Bones. That is part of the case we are filing against the ministry. The main case is kidnapping - a kidnap that lasted more than four years - because there was no trial. You can only hold someone without a trial for 90 days, which means he's been illegally detained for three years and eleven months now. You really don't want to compound that by arresting him after the case has been filed!"
Sirius decided to chip in. "And let me assure you there was no list - ask the warden if you like. In fact, I am the only one among those released yesterday who does not have a dark mark, too, plus the only one who did not have a trial at all. All the others had a trial."
"And finally", Reiter continued, "the only list anyone can find is in the Daily Prophet, and he is certainly there. Rather careless of your minister not to have an actual list before he rushed off, no?"
1986-01-14 09:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Minister's Office
Eventually, Madam Bones made her way back and reported to Minister Fudge that Lord Black could not be arrested.
Malfoy was still there, of course, and had to have his say. Interrupting whatever response Fudge may have had, he said, in his snootiest voice, "Madam Bones, I find myself somewhat disappointed. How many people did you take with you?"
"Irrelevant, Lord Malfoy. Lord Black's threats were entirely of the courtroom kind, not physical or magical violence. As far as he and his lawyer are concerned, he has been held without trial for 4 years and 2 months, which is 3 years and 11 months over the maximum we are allowed to hold someone without trial."
"Is he claiming he did not have a trial? Preposterous! He may have confunded Skeeter somehow, but we cannot be swayed by lies like that!", said Fudge.
"Cornelius, I am coming from the records room. There was no trial. The arrest sheet has nothing on it except 'found laughing like a madman at the scene', and it was signed by Crouch and Dumbledore. Trust me, he has a valid case. I'm only happy I was not involved at that time, and so should you be. Take my advice, Cornelius, and leave this one alone. Malfoy here will sink with it if he persists in this, and if you want to sink with him, that's your choice!"
"How dare you, Madam Bones!", shouted Malfoy. "What do you mean 'sink with it', are you implying that I am wrong?"
"I am not implying it. I am saying that you are wrong. If you persist in this, be prepared for some really nasty surprises. Black is prepared to take veritaserum and an oath on his magic, but Reiter is going to insist that if it comes to that, he will force every one of you - those that were released yesterday as well as the ones who never went in at all - to do the same.
To be honest, I find myself hoping you will be foolish enough to push this.", she ended with a smirk.
Malfoy did not say a word. Face red and blotchy - lack of sleep, the loss of his home and all his possessions, and now this - he stormed out of the room.