A/N - Apologies for the extra long chapter. I did not feel that it was right to stop Sirius's trial right in the middle. So I allowed it to continue to its natural conclusion. This chapter has more than my usual 5000 words. The word count is roughly 6500 words. Also I have placed Azkaban on the island of North Rona in the North Atlantic. I know it's supposed to be in the North Sea, but there are NO islands in the North Sea - not according to all the maps.

Chapter 6

Harry thoroughly enjoyed learning about the History of the Saint schools. He was fascinated with the idea that genes expressed magic. Having already learnt through his genealogy studies, that pretty much all mundane-borns were descended from squibs, and that squibs were always descended from a pureblood house, then the question arose - Why were there not more people with magic?

The answer, Harry soon figured out, was that as long as purebloods insisted on marrying other purebloods, which frequently led to inbreeding, there were always going to be fewer people with magic. The purebloods refused to believe that fresh blood from the mundane-borns or halfbloods would lead to stronger magic for them.

Also the pureblood idea that the mundanes were nothing more than dumb stupid animals was a vastly outdated idea as well.

Human beings thrived on dreams and challenges. Wizards and Witches had no need of dreams and challenges. Because Magic pretty much over rode all challenges and thus they could have anything they wanted, whenever they wanted it. They never had to deal with the consequences of their actions. Anything that was damaged or destroyed could usually be repaired within minutes. If there was anything they wanted, they could just summon the item and not have to worry about saving up to buy it, or just summon it no matter who it belonged to.

Harry thought that having both magic and challenges was a great mix. At this point he didn't have any challenges. He had a great life, and so far things had been going great, knock on wood.

This was to change in the very next History of Magic class.

"Today we are going to learn about the last wizarding war. The one that ended just 7 years ago. And I'm sure we all know how the story goes - that it was ended by a child of all things. Can you believe that?"

The teacher that day was a substitute. He was actually their regular Mundane History teacher, but on this day he was co-opted into taking the History of Magic for the day because the regular History of Magic teacher was off sick with the Wizards Flu. So this replacement teacher only had the regular teachers notes to work from.

"Do any of you know or have any of you been told what happened?" Hands shot up in the air. Harry looked around with interest.

"You!" The teacher pointed to Neville.

"Neville?" thought Harry. "What does he know and why hasn't he told me?"

"My gran told me that Voldemort was killing off all the mundane borns because he didnt want them bringing their new ideas into our world. He wanted us to keep all our traditions. The Mundanes claim we are old fashioned and out dated. Which may be so, but the older generations like their traditions and they claim they have the right to stay that way. Well, at least that's what my gran says." Neville was somewhat mumbling by the time he stopped speaking.

"And what do you think, young man"?" The teacher asked.

"I think we are out of date. Why do we even have the Saint Schools, if we really wanted to keep our traditions. No, we have these schools because of forward thinking witches and mundanes like Isla Black and Bob Hitchens. I love this school!" Neville announced loudly.

The teacher smiled. "He is right in that Voldemort did want to stop the new ideas from flooding the wizarding world. But killing all the mundane borns was not the way to do it. Does anyone know how he was stopped?"

"Harry Potter!" came the unified reply from most of the class.

"Details please. You?" The teacher pointed to another student.

"Noone really knows what happened. What is known, is that Sirius Black, Harry Potters godfather, and the secret keeper for the Potters, told Voldemort where to find the Potters so that he could get into their house and kill them. He tried to kill the baby, Harry Potter, as well, but the Killing curse rebounded off the baby and killed Voldemort instead. Voldemorts body vanished, All that was left was his cloak and wand. Harry Potter also disappeared and no-one knows where he is."

"Oh yeah, Sirius Black is supposed to my godfather. I don't remember him at all. Is all this stuff about Mr Black true? So where is he and why has he not been around? Must check up on that." Harry thought. Harry decided to do a little stirring. He raised his hand. The teacher pointed to him.

"How exactly does anyone know what happened when there was noone there to see? The only four people who saw what happened were either dead or they vanished. Mr and Mrs Potter were both killed, and Voldemort and Harry both vanished. There are no other known survivors. Except perhaps the secret keeper. Where was he? So how exactly does anyone know what happened?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore was the first one to arrive at the house. He says he used the magic left behind to determine what happened. And since he is the Chief Warlock of the Wizangamot and the Supreme Mugwump, he is usually always correct. As for Sirius Black, the secret keeper, he has been locked up in Azkaban ever since he was captured several hours after the event." Another classmate responded to Harry's question.

"Do you believe the Headmaster?" Harry asked.

The boy shrugged. "I don't have the means to determine if he is being truthful or not. I'm just a squib."

Harry snorted. "So why don't you use mundane means to find out the truth?"

"And why would I want to do that? They are nothing but dumb animals, ignorant and superstitious. They hate magic!" The squib yelled.

"And there you have it. The mundanes hate magic. That may have been true many centuries ago, But what about now? Have any of you been to the mundane world this year?" Harry asked with a scornful tone.

The teacher interrupted. "We are getting off topic. Children. So back to the Potters. Henry did ask a valid question. Considering all the books that are now being written about Harry Potter, how does anyone know what is the truth of what happened, and what is not? For homework, I would like you to choose a book about how Harry Potter ended the war, read it, and then write no more than 2 pages on why you think that book is telling you the truth. If you dont think it telling the truth, then explain why not. To be submitted in the last class before the Christmas holidays so you have one month. Class Dismissed." His timing was perfect. Right at that moment the school bell rang.

As Harry and Neville walked back to their bedroom, Harry was bursting out with questions. "Why didn't you tell me all this stuff before?" he asked. "What your gran thinks. Why my parents were killed. I keep forgetting that everyone thinks my mother was a mundane born witch. And what is a secret keeper anyway? I need to know more about Sirius Black. Why is he in Azkaban? What happened to him?"

Nevilles response was astounding.

"Oh, like the other fellow said, Sirius Black was captured several hours after those events and sent to Azkaban. I don't know what the exact charges were, but I'm sure you can find out."

"But he was also my godfather. Surely he would want to protect me, rather than kill me? So why?"

"Everyone knows he was a death eater," Neville's tone was definite about that.

"I don't know that! What proof do you have? Did he have that dark mark on his arm"

Neville shrugged. "I don't know. I never knew him."

"And I'm pretty sure noone has even bothered to check either." Once again. Harry's tone of voice was scornful.

Neville was worried. "What's the matter, Harry? Why are you so upset about this? It's over and done with. Noone can do anything about it now."

Harrys voice carried a tone of desperation. In a low whisper he replied. "I need to know the Truth. I was there. And what I remember does not match what was said in that class today." .

Harry finally had a mystery to solve.

He borrowed several books from the Library. They included Great Wizards of the 20th Century, History of Magic, Hogwarts a History, Notable Magical Names of our Times, Great Wizarding Events of the 20th century and Modern Magical History.

After reading the relevant sections, in all the books, Harry was left with more questions. Being a Godfather meant that Sirius would have had to go through a ceremony in which he swore an oath of loyalty on his magic and his life, to the child who would be his godson, namely Harry. Once he had sworn that oath, he was literally unable to kill Harry or cause the boy any harm. And allowing Voldemort into the house to kill his parents would definitely cause the boy harm. So if Sirius really did break his oath, he should have died that same night. He did not, since he was picked up by aurors several hours later. Therefore the logical answer was that Sirius did not lead Voldemort to the house. Someone else did. The new question was who?

While Harry had been reading about that Halloween night, there had been vague references to something called the Marauders. When he delved back into Hogwarts a History, he discovered that the Marauders were a group of Gryffindors at Hogwarts during the 1970s, who pranked and bullied the other students. Their names were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Lily Evans was also thought to be part of the group, purely because she later married James.

Harry decided to investigate all five members, even if two of them were his parents.

James, Lily and Sirius came up pretty clean. Harry could not find any major discrepancies about them or their lives.

The other two however had major problems with their stories.

Peter Pettigrew was said to have been killed by Sirius Black along with twelve Mundanes. The bodies of all the mundanes were accounted for, but there was no body for Pettigrew apart from one finger.

Even as a nine year old, Harry watched a fair amount of TV. His favourite shows were police and detective stories, because then he could try and work out who had done the crime before the main character did in one hour, or by the end of the movie. Harry also loved reading detective and mystery books for the same reason. His most favourite detectives were Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

So for Harry to believe that one finger of a missing body proved that the body was dead, was just not logical. There are hundreds if not thousands of people in the world who have missing fingers, missing hands, missing arms even, and who still survive and live a good life. Ergo Peter Pettigrew was not dead - well he was not killed by Sirius in 1981. The new questions were, how did Pettigrew escape and where was he now?

Leaving those questions for now, Harry turned to the last member of the Marauders group. Remus Lupin. He had been at Hogwarts with the others, had some mysterious illness that meant he missed a few classes once a month, and had not held any steady jobs in the wizarding world in the 3 years between finishing school in 1978, and that tragic Halloween in 1981. He had not been seen for the last 8 years.

All four Marauders were Purebloods. As far as anyone knew. None of them supposedly had any knowledge of or experience in the mundane world at all. Lily however was an expert in the mundane world since that was all she knew for the first 11 years of her life. She could easily have taken the young men to the Mundane world on a regular basis. Perhaps to the movies or to the shops. Harry had been raised knowing that there was a lot more variety of consumer items available in the mundane world than in the wizarding world.

Harry decided to send letters to both men. This would be done by owl since he had no idea of their current whereabouts. But he would have to wait until the upcoming holidays. In the meantime, he was wanting to ask Neville, if his friend would like to spend the holidays with him. He would use the enticement that perhaps they may go to Gringotts and get those blocks removed.

Neville agreed and wrote to his grandmother. She wrote back asking questions about Harry's family, their names and blood status. The Evans were Mundane born, and this was the response sent back. Their pureblood status would be kept a secret for now. Mrs Longbottom wrote back and agreed that Neville could stay with his friend Henry for the holidays. They very carefully made sure that Nevilles gran had no idea about their plans to go to Gringotts. The boys were both very excited.

Harry turned to his History assignment. To read a book about Harry Potter and determine if he thought the book was being truthful or not. He chose a book called The-Boy-Who-Lived, The story of Harry Potter.

This book had pretty much the standard story. Harry snorted as he read the book. It did not take him long to write his essay.

I read the book called The Boy Who Lived, The story of Harry Potter. It tells the same story as all of the other books. But there are a few things that do not make any sense. The statement that "Everyone knows that Sirius Black was the secret keeper." Why does everyone know this? Because everyone knows that Sirius was James Potters best friend. There are 2 things that contradict that statement.

Firstly, Sirius Black was Harry Potters Godfather. And as such he would have sworn an oath of loyalty on his life and his magic, to not harm the boy and to not allow any harm to come to the boy. As a godfather, if Sirius broke this oath, he would have died. Since Sirius did not die on the night in question after Harry's parents were killed, as was evident of his capture several hours later, then Sirius could not have been the person to lead Lord Voldemort to the Potters home. He did not cause any harm to come to his godson. Therefore someone else was the secret keeper. There were two other people in James Potters group of friends. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. I think one of these two was the real secret keeper.

The second thing that contradicts that the statement that everyone knows that Sirius Black was the secret keeper was that Sirius was supposed to be the top lieutenant for Lord Voldemort. Has anyone checked Sirius Blacks arm for the dark mark? The man is locked up in Azkaban. It would be a simple thing for the warden to go down to his cell and check the mans arms. If there is no dark mark, then the man is not a death eater.

And one last thing. When Sirius Black was captured several hours after the events of Halloween, He was standing amongst the victims of a gas pipe explosion. There were 12 Mundane bodies and no body of Peter Pettigrew. Sirius claimed that he was chasing after Peter Pettigrew who had been the cause of the Potters death. But everyone knows that Sirius Black was only trying to blame someone else when everyone knows that it was Sirius Black who allowed the Potters to be killed. Only Pettigrews finger was ever found.

Thousands of mundane people can and do survive perfectly well with a missing finger. So my theory is that Peter Pettigrew deliberately cut off his finger, survived that explosion somehow, and is the most likely candidate to be the secret keeper. I don't know where he is, but he probably has the dark mark on his arm. He was a reclusive man. Not much is known about him - which makes sense if you have to hide the fact that you are a Death Eater from your friends.

Was Sirius Black ever given a trial? Is there a trial transcript? Why is that not a matter of public record?

What about the Potters wills? Who did they wish to have raise Harry if they should die? Why was their will not read out in public? Why were their wishes not followed?

Headmaster Dumbledore assures the wizarding world that Harry is in a loving family home and is safe and happy. But he offers no proof. The fact is that noone knows where Harry Potter is. He could be dead for all we know.

There are still far too many questions about this story, and there is NO proof or evidence of any of the conclusions. So to me this story is totally wrong and we must look elsewhere to find the real story and the proof. Including giving Sirius Black a trial.

In the last History of Magic class, before the end of term, the Substitute teacher came into the History of Magic classroom and collected the essays. He would read these over the holidays and give the grades to the regular teacher when school was back in session.

Neville and Harry packed up a few clothes in preparation for taking a portkey to Harry's home for the Yuletide and Christmas Holidays. They would be celebrating both as the Evans had been doing even after they were entered the Mundane world.

The Yuletide celebration is always held on the winter solstice, usually around December 21st or 22nd. The Evans kept the celebration quiet but they did still celebrate it as was their custom. They always put up and decorated a Yule tide tree. Harry and Neville both helped with the decoration this year.

The day after the equinox, Harry, Neville and Mr Evans traveled to Gringotts Bank and asked the goblins to have a look at Neville and see if he had any blocks. Neville gave a few drops of blood for an inheritance test and sure enough, he was found to have several blocks. Harry offered to pay to have Neville's blocks released. Neville spent most of the day in pain as the blocks were removed and his magic was finally able to be free. It went lashing around the room. Neville had to be taught some meditation skills to bring his magic back under his control.

Eventually he was released from the Goblins care and allowed to return to the Evans home. The reminder of the holidays were pretty quiet.

In the meantime, the substitute history teacher, whose name was William Black, read all the essays from his class, and was most intrigued by the essay written by Henry Selwyn. It asked a lot of questions that noone seemed to have asked, and made some logical conclusions that really could not be refuted.

So William made an appointment to see Madam Bones, the new Director of the DMLE, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. This was the Auror or Magical Police Department.

Madam Bones had never spoken to William Black before. So she was intrigued when he entered her office. Was he related to the Black family? This was the first question she asked.

"Actually I am descended from the Squib known as Marius Black who was disowned and cast out from the family. He was my grandfather. We were raised as Mundanes. My older sister is a mundane born witch so I have known about magic since I was 9 years old. I guess you could call me a Squib as well. Anyway, I came here to speak to you about Sirius Black.

"I am a history teacher at one of the magical day schools in London. One of my recent assignments for my students was to read a book about Harry Potter and write an essay saying why they thought the story that everyone knows, is true or not. Most of my students are squibs of pureblood origins. They all accepted the story. But I had one mundane born child who stated that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Sirius Black did the crime. So I was wondering if maybe you could read this and determine that your Department actually did everything and followed correct procedure in order to find the truth?"

William handed over a copy of Henry's essay. It did not take long for Amelia to read it, but she shocked at some of the procedures that appeared to have been skipped.

"Leave this with me, and I'll take a closer look at the procedures that were used." she said. William was ushered out of the office and he returned home.

The first thing that Madam Bones did was to go down to the Archives Department looking for the Trial Transcript for Sirius Black. She did not remember reading anything about a trial but assumed like most people that the trial had been a closed one and done quickly in order to close the case. When she found the folder for Sirius Black, she had expected it to be thick and bulging with trial transcripts and evidence. Instead it was very thin. Too thin. Amelia was suspicious. When she opened the folder she found 3 pieces of parchment inside.

The first parchment was the "confession" by Sirius Black when he was captured. "It was my fault. I killed them. It was my fault. I killed them." That sounded more like as man in shock than a proper confession. What about the veritaserum transcript? Was there one of those? Amelia could not find one.

The second parchment was the interrogation transcript back at the Ministry office. "Were you the Potters Secret keeper?" Sirius kept denying this. "Why did you go to the Potters home then?" "Because my bond to Harry was telling me that he was in trouble. By the time I got to the house, James and Lily were already dead. I killed them. It is all my fault."

The third parchment was the record of transfer for Sirius Black to Azkaban on the same day he was captured. There was no trial transcript to be found.

Director Bones was furious. No trial was held? Why not? And as the essay had mentioned, why did noone think to check Blacks arms for the dark mark while he was being interrogated!

She decided that she would have to go to Azkaban and check Blacks arms for herself and question him under veritaserum, but that could wait until after Christmas.

Three days later Director Bones and two senior Aurors in whom she trusted, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Gawain Robards, portkeyed to Cape Wrath near Durness in Northern Scotland, from which they embarked on a small boat for the 6 hour journey to the island of Azkaban.

Upon their arrival, the Warden settled his visitors down in his office and bombarded them with questions. He was starved for company. Madam Bones allowed the aurors 5 minutes to catch the Warden up with events back home, and then cut short the conversation.

"OK that's enough. Sorry to cut this short Warden, but we are here for a specific reason. It has been brought to my attention that one of your prisoners may not have been given all the legal protection he was entitled to under our laws. Basically, I am here to determine if he received a trial or not."

The Aurors were shocked, as was the warden.

"A prisoner here without a trial? But that is absurd. They are all guilty or they would not be here." The warden shouted. He did not want to learn that there was a prisoner here that had not had a trial because that reflected somewhat poorly on him. "Who is the prisoner?"

"Aurors, you are under oath to NOT reveal this information to ANYONE, not your families, not your colleagues and certainly NOT the media. Is that understood?" Amelia cautioned her Aurors. They both nodded.

"Sirius Black." She intoned.

"Liar!" This was the first word out of the wardens mouth.

Amelia Bones stood and took one step closer to the warden. "Are you calling me, the director of the DMLE, a liar?" she demanded.

He could only nod his head.

Amelia sat down again. She was once again, cool calm and collected. "Warden. What proof do you have that Sirius Black was given a trial? Because I cannot find any records of a trial."

"Um. Headmaster Dumbledore said that Sirius was convicted and found guilty so he must have had a trial, mustn't he?"

"So you have no proof. Have you spoken to Sirius Black at any time in the last 7 years?"

The Warden shook his head.

"And why not?" Amelia asked.

"I don't like going down to the high security cells. They are so dark and damp, and the prisoners down there are insane."

"Well, then, let's put your theory to the test shall we?" Amelia purred. This was when she was at her most dangerous. "If you are right and Black has indeed received a trial, then you can get to come home today with us, and I will get a new warden. If however you have lied and Sirius has not had a trial, then you get to stay here as the warden for another 2 years. So I want you to call your guards and have them escort Sirius Black to the conference room, NOW."

Twenty minutes later a black blob of stinking rags, with clanking chains, and long dark hair that had never been washed, was hauled into the room and dumped on the floor.

Amelia sat patiently and waited. Eventually the head of dirty hair lifted up and a voice asked, "Where am I? "

"You are in the conference room of Azkaban Prison. I am Madam Amelia Bones, the Director of the DMLE. Some information has crossed my desk that seems to indicate that you did not have a trial and that you are not a death eater and that you were not the Potters secret keeper. I am here to determine the truth."

"About time too." The voice was getting stronger now. "I sure hope you brought some veritaserum with you, and some LOYAL witnesses. I cannot wait to get off this damn stinking island." Amelia said nothing and continued to wait patiently. Eventually Sirius Black was able to sit up and lean against the wall. Amelia asked him if he wanted to sit in a chair. "No thanks. I'm OK down here. At least this is a lot cleaner than my cell. So what information do you have? What do you need from me?"

"Your arms please. First I need to verify that you are or are not a death eater."

Sirius dragged up the sleeves of his dirty robes and bared his arms. Amelia and both aurors could see no sign of any dark mark on either arm. "So, you are not a death eater?" She asked, just to confirm.

"Heck no. I would never join that pond scum. Who said I was a Death Eater?" Sirius scowled.

"That doesn't matter anymore. You clearly are not marked. So the chances are less likely that you are the one who lead You-Know-Who to the Potters House."

"I did not, and I have been telling that to the Ministry for 7 years. Do you have veritaserum? Can you ask me now, with veritaserum?" Sirius's grey eyes stared at the Director. She stared back. Amelia knew how to read eyes, and these eyes were telling the truth.

She nodded and KIngsley placed 3 drops of veritaserum onto Sirius Blacks tongue. His eyes glazed over and the questions began. Robards was taking notes.

"What is your name?"

"Sirius Orion Black"

"Were you the secret keeper for the Potters on the night of Halloween in 1981?"

"No."

That drew a gasp from the Aurors. Amelia frowned at them to stay quiet.

"Who was the secret keeper on that night?"

"Peter Pettigrew"

"Were you ever the secret keeper for the Potters?"

"Yes. I was the secret keeper since January of that year while they were in hiding. It was changed from me to Peter on October 20th, 1981."

"Whose idea was it to change the secret keeper?"

"Mine - I think. Possibly Peter's idea. I'm not sure. Someone could have suggested it to me."

"Why would you change the secret keeper?"

"Because if I was ever captured and tortured, and everyone KNOWS I was the Potters best friend, then I could be made to give the secret up. It would be better if the secret keeper was someone who was not so well known and therefore less likely to be captured."

"Whose idea was it to use Pettigrew as the secret keeper?"

"As far as I know, that was his idea."

"What do you mean, as far as you know."

"The damn rat was not usually capable of thinking up ideas like that. I think someone suggested the idea to him. But I don't know who." There a note of anguish in Blacks voice as he answered.

"What do you mean, damn rat."

"That was Pettigrews animagus form. A grey rat."

"Was he registered?"

"No. None of us were registered."

"None of who were registered?"

"The Marauders. Me, Potter and Pettigrew. We were all Animagi but none of us were registered with the Ministry."

"What about Lupin?"

"Being a werewolf, he was unable to become an animagus."

"What were the animagus forms for you and Potter?"

"I am a grim, and James was a stag with a huge head of antlers."

"Can you show me?"

"Now?"

"Yes."

Seconds later there was a large black shaggy grim sitting on its haunches on the floor. Amelia studied the dog for a few seconds and then indicated that he could return to human form.

"Is this how you are surviving your time in here? You are remarkably sane for someone who has been here for 7 years." Amelia was curious.

"Yes. The dementors don't bother me when I am a grim. The second reason is that as a grim I am a lot warmer with all the doggy fur."

"Did you have a trial?"

"No. I went from the interrogation cells at the Ministry straight to my cell here at Azkaban. I believe I was stunned at some point"

"OK, That's enough. We can stop now." Amelia spoke. "But I do have more questions to ask later. In the meantime, I think we need to get you back to London and get you a trial. You have not had one at all and you are certainly entitled to have one."

There was a huge grin on Blacks face as Amelia spoke. He was finally getting out of this hell hole.

Back in the wardens office, the warden was being lambasted good and proper by Director Bones.

"So Warden, you have lied to me. Sirius Black says he has not had a trial, therefore he is NOT convicted and as yet, is not guilty. My punishment is for you to stay in this office for another two years! Let that be a lesson to NOT lie to me or anyone from the ministry ever again. Do you understand?"

The Warden was devastated. His 2 year contract was due to expire in just a few weeks and he had been looking forward to going home. Now he was stuck here for another 2 years. He wished like Hades that he had kept his mouth shut.

Sirius was allowed to have a shower and was dressed in some clean clothes from the box of clothes collected from incoming prisoners. He, Director Bones and the 2 Aurors settled into the boat for the long ride back to the mainland.

Once back in London Sirius was settled into a clean ministry cell, and was now able to receive 3 decent meals a day. Director Bones was determined to get him his trial ASAP. Sirius didn't mind being locked up, as long as the end result was a trial for him.

Bones had to do this quickly and quietly, and preferably without Dumbledore becoming aware. Fortunately Minister Fudge was muttering that Dumbledore would be absent the following week on ICW business. That was the perfect time to hold a trial.

One week later after making sure that Dumbledore had left the country, and gone to Europe, Director Bones called an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot in order to make right what had gone wrong.

Dempster Wiggleswade was called in to be Sirius Blacks' Defence counsel. The two were very happy to see each other again.

Augusta Longbottom was persuaded to act as Temporary Chief Witch since Dumbledore was absent.

All members of the Wizengamot were sitting in their seats. Sirius joined them as his seat arose out of the floor. He was chained to the chair but wearing clean clothes and his hair was washed and neatly tied back. His lawyer was standing behind him in support.

As soon as everyone could see who the prisoner was, the murmuring began. Eventually it became rather loud and certain comments began to be heard.

"Murdering scum."

"Deatheater scum."

"You killed the Potters."

"You killed 12 Muggles."

"You should have been kissed."

"You've already had a trial. Why are you getting another one?"

The gavel slammed down and Mrs Longbottoms loud strident voice could be heard in all corners of the large room. "QUIET!"

"First things first." She said. "Mr Black. Are you a death eater?"

"No."

"What proof do you have?"

Sirius said nothing as he rolled up both of his sleeves and bared both of his forearms to the public's view. They gasped to see NO Mark at all.

The Chief Witch voiced his actions. "Mr Black has rolled up his sleeves. He has NO Dark Mark on either of his arms. He is NOT a death eater."

"Mr Black. Were you the Secret Keeper for the Potters on the night of Halloween 1981."

"No"

The public gasped again. They had been told over and over again that he was the secret keeper so this must be a lie.

"Mr Black. Everyone knows you were the secret keeper. So how can it be that you claim to not be the secret keeper now?"

"I was the secret keeper for the Potters from January 1981 to October 20, 1981. Therefore it is true when they say that everyone knows I was the secret keeper. However I was NOT the secret keeper on the night of Halloween October 31st, 1981."

"Who was the secret keeper on that night?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

Another gasp from the public.

"Why was the secret keeper changed from you to Pettigrew?"

"Two reasons, the first was that I may have been drunk, and therefore was unable to fight harder to not make the change. The second was that Pettigrew was adamant that it be changed just in case I was captured and tortured into giving up the secret. After all, I was well known and it would be easy for anyone to capture me. If some unknown person was made the secret keeper, then there was less chance for that person to be captured. James and Lily were persuaded to make the change. They had the final decision. I told them not to do it, but they refused to listen to me. They did it anyway. They made Peter Pettigrew the secret keeper and 10 days later he lead Voldemort to the Potters house, where they were killed."

"What happened on that night, Mr Black?"

"I am Harry Potters Godfather. I have a bond with the boy. On the night in question I could feel that Harry was upset, so I apparated to the house and ran inside. I found James on the floor. He was dead. I found Lily upstairs in the nursery. She too was dead. And Harry was in his crib, crying and screaming for his mama. There was also a wand and an old cloak on the floor, but I left them there, and picked up Harry. As his godfather I needed to take him to safety.

"When I got outside of the house, Hagrid was there. He told me to give Harry to him so that he could take Harry back to Hogwarts for Poppy Pomfrey the mediwitch, to look him over. He did have a nasty looking cut on his forehead, so I stupidly agreed. But I told Hagrid that I wanted Harry back in my care within 24 hours. He agreed.

"Since I did not have to worry about Harry for the time being, I took off to go after Pettigrew. It took me several hours but I eventually tracked him down to a street in Manchester. There I confronted him. But before I could speak, he began accusing me of killing the Potters. The Aurors showed up a few minutes later. He told the Aurors that I killed the Potters because everyone knew that I was the secret keeper. Noone knew about the changeover. He had his wand behind his back and he blasted a hole in the street. This blast hit a gas line and there was a rather spectacular explosion. Several muggles died, but Pettigrew escaped. He changed into his animagus form, which is a grey rat and escaped into the sewers. I was in shock at Pettigrews actions, and I was mad at myself for not being stronger and refusing to change the secret keeper. I was arrested by the aurors just seconds later.

"I was interrogated at the Ministry and then sometime during the night I was probably stunned and sent to Azkaban where I woke up in my cell. I did not have any trial at all. I have not seen my godson Harry since that day. The fact that I am still alive means that I was not the one to cause any harm to Harry on that night."

Sirius stopped speaking and sat still. His lawyer sitting behind him, squeezed his shoulder in a show of support.

The chief witch, the Wizangemot members and the public were all stunned into silence and seemingly in shock.

The chief witch eventually recovered and asked the Wizengamot members to make a decision.

Eventually they came back with their decision.

Innocent of all charges. Compensation of G100,000 for each of the 7 years he was in Azkaban. Mr Black was now free to go and take up his life again. There would be a special edition of the Daily Prophet rushed out that very evening to make the announcement.