Fallout, Chapter 7
As Sirius and his lawyer walked out of the Wizengamot courtroom, he was surrounded by members of the press. Questions were flying from all directions. The lawyer leaned over to speak directly into his ear. "I suggest we do an impromptu press conference, but dont give any details. Just answer the question and dont volunteer anything. Any questions you dont want to answer, say No Comment."
Sirius nodded and announced that he would not be answering any questions right now, because he had to get to the bank and get his life back into some kind of order. However, he would be happy to see everyone at 4 pm this afternoon at the Leaky Cauldron where he would be happy to answer some questions.
The press vultures departed and Sirius went back to the lawyers office. "Do you by any chance happen to know where Harry Potter is?" he asked.
"Actually I do, but as he is also one of my clients I must keep his current location confidential until I can contact him or his guardians and ask if they want to meet with you. Let me tell you this though. He won't be living with you. Harry has very nice guardians with whom he lives and he will not have any interest in leaving them. If you want to be in his life, it will be as his godfather only, or perhaps a favourite uncle. So get used to it, OK? Besides, the boy is already in a boarding school, so you won't see much of him during the year except during Christmas and Summer holidays. "
"Please tell me that he is not at Hogwarts? He is only 8 years old. Hogwarts don't take kids that young."
"No, Not Hogwarts. But I can't tell you where he is without his permission. Lawyer-client privilege, you know."
Sirius nodded. He was sad that Harry would not be living with him, but he would accept whatever relationship Harry wanted.
Sirius took his leave and headed for Gringotts bank. Once inside the bank he asked for the Black family account manager, only to be told that there was no such manager.
"The Black vaults are currently frozen and as such, they don't need a manager." the teller sneered.
Sirius knew exactly how to deal with such arrogant goblins. "Well since I believe I am now Lord Black and I am now out of prison, I expect to be able to see the Black vaults so you will find someone to be made the new Black family manger NOW or I will pull ALL the Black money out of Gringotts and find another bank."
That certainly did the trick and 5 minutes later, Sirius was meeting with his new manager, who went by the name of Bloodaxe. Since the vaults were frozen, no interest had been earned for the last 7 years. So really, all that Bloodaxe could do was to reset all the Black vaults status from frozen to active. Which he did.
That being done. Sirius also took up the Black head of house ring which he previously had not been able to hold while his grandfather was still alive. But upon being told that his grandfather Arcturus had died in 1987, Sirius was now the Head of House Black.
Now he had to decide on a place to live. He was not looking forward to seeing the Black family manor in London. But he had no access to any other Black properties so he apparated to Grimauld Place. Number 12 was in full view of anyone in the street. The fidelius charm had obviously worn off. The grass in the front yard was 2 feet tall and the house itself clearly had not been looked after. Sirius went up to the door and was surprised to be allowed in when he placed his hand on the door handle.
Closing the door behind him, Sirius shouted the name of the House elf who should have been looking after the home.
"Kreacher?"
Nothing happened. No elf popped into view.
"Any Black family elves?" he said out loud.
Still nothing. No elves showed up.
Sirius made his way upstairs to the library, and banged around looking for the ward books. He needed to reset the wards and the fidelius charm in order to hide the house again.
Locating the ward books on their small special shelf in the library, Sirius opened the notebook to the last used pages. The first thing he did was cross off the names of Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and Peter Pettigrew. As for Remus Lupin. He'd have to talk to the man before making a decision. Sirius now also added the name of Harry Potter to the wards.
Sirius was also hungry so for now he would need to actually go out and get food. After locking the door behind him, and walking a short distance to the park, Sirius apparated to Diagon Alley in the hopes of finding food. But even as he walked the length of Diagon Alley, looking for a place to eat, the news hit the fan. Someone gasped when they saw him, and yelled, "Mum, Look. The man in the newspaper."
Sirius managed to buy a Daily Prophet in order to see what it said.
SIRIUS BLACK FREE. BLACK NOT THE SECRET KEEPER AND NOT A DEATH EATER!
Today a trial was held for Sirius Black whom we have all thought of as a murderer. Well it turns out that we were wrong.
The first thing that Madam Chief Witch Longbottom demanded to know was, if Black was a death eater.
He said NO, amid gasps from the public. Prove it, replied Madam Longbottom.
Black simply rolled up his sleeves and held his bare arms out for everyone to see.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is NO Dark Mark on Sirius Blacks arms.
The next question from Madam Longbottom was, Were you the secret Keeper on the night of Halloween 1981.
And again Black said No. This was followed by more gasps from the public.
Since we all know that Sirius Black was the Secret Keeper, Madam Longbottom then asked how was it that he was not the secret keeper on that night.
Because the Potters were persuaded to change it from Sirius Black to another friend named Peter Pettigrew. Black did not agree with this change and tried to stop it, but the final choice was always the Potters decision to make. So the Secret Keeper was changed from Black to Pettigrew on October 20, 1981, and 10 days later Pettigrew lead He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to the Potters House.
We did of course all know that Sirius Black was the Godfather of young Harry Potter. What we did not know was that the oath Black took on the night he became Harry's godfather, actually prevents him from harming the boy or causing any harm to come to the boy. Leading He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to the family house to kill his parents would certainly cause harm to the boy.
Black said he apparated to the house that night because he could feel that Harry was upset through the bond they share. By the time Black arrived, it was too late. Both James and Lily Potter were dead. As the boys godfather, he has the right of custody so he was exiting the house with young Harry in his arms when he was told by Rubeus Hagrid, the keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts, that Headmaster Dumbledore insisted that Harry be taken to the school to be checked over by Madam Pomfrey, the mediwitch. Young Harry did have a rather nasty scar on his forehead. Sirius agreed provided Harry was back in his care within 24 hours. He has not seen the boy since that night.
Black went after Pettigrew and found him in Manchester. Pettigrew blew up the street, blowing up a gas line which killed 12 muggles. Pettigrew used that confusion to cut off his finger and escape into the sewers. His animagus form is that of a grey rat, which would now have one toe missing.
Black was arrested for the supposed killing of the 12 muggles as well the supposed deaths of Pettigrew and the Potters, just a short time later.
Black has now been declared innocent, and is now free to live his life in peace.
It is imperative that we now find Peter Pettigrew and see what he has to say.
Sirius was quite pleased with the article. It told the facts succinctly and accurately.
At 4 pm he was at the Leaky cauldron ready to meet the press. They gathered around him with quills at the ready.
"I would like to make a statement. I will not be taking any questions. Now that the report of my trial is part of the public record, you may refer to the article in todays Daily Prophet for your information. It is a true and accurate statement of my trial that was held this morning. I bid you all good day."
Sirius left the Leaky Cauldron leaving behind some unhappy journalists.
After having some dinner, and buying some food to restock his cupboards, Sirius apparated home.
Sirius knew that he would have to deal with Dumbledore eventually.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
Because it was still the Yule tide holidays when the trial occurred, Harry and Neville both read the article at the Evans home that evening.
"What will happen if we meet?" Harry asked. "Do I have to live with him. It says he had custody of me. I do not want to leave you at all." Harry was getting upset and tears could be seen threatening to fall.
Grandpa Selwyn agreed to contact the lawyer in the morning so that the lawyers could talk and come to some arrangement.
Just then the floo opened and Dempster Wiggleswade was right there asking to come through.
"Yes, of course you can. We were just talking about you and this Sirius Black fellow." Grandpa said.
The Lawyer entered their home, wiping the soot off his clothes. "That is exactly why I am here. I was Blacks defence lawyer at the trial and he asked me when or if he could meet Harry. I told him that Harry was already settled with a family and was not in any hurry to move to a new home. I also told Black that he may have to settle for being just a godfather or perhaps a favourite Uncle, but that was all. At least that would be better than nothing. I told Black that I would arrange a meeting. So when do you think you want to meet your godfather, Harry?"
"Could we do this at your office, perhaps in 2 days time, on New Years Eve. I would also like to have the Selwyns and Neville with me, as well as you, in case he tries any funny business."
"Certainly. I'll make the arrangements. Would 12 noon be an acceptable time?"
"Yes thank you." replied Harry.
The lawyer flooed back to his office. Harry settled down and was much calmer now that arrangements had been made and expectations identified.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
Meanwhile down in the wizarding village of Ottery St Catchpole in Devon, the Weasley family were in shock. They had a grey rat as a family pet, with a toe missing and the rat had been with them for 7 years. Was their rat this same Peter Pettigrew? The two older sons, Charlie and Bill, stunned the rat and took it to the DMLE asking to speak to Director Bones.
They showed her the rat with its missing toe and asked her to check if it was an animagus or not.
She waved her wand, and was shocked to discover, that yes indeed, the rat was an animagus. She forced the rat back into human form and then tied him up with ropes. The man had magic inhibiting and animagus inhibiting cuffs placed around his wrists. The first thing Amelia did was to check his arms. Sure enough the dark mark could be seen on the left forearm. He was levitated to a Ministry cell where he would be questioned in the morning.
Bill and Charlie went home with the news. Young Percy was not at all happy to have lost his pet rat!
The news of Pettigrew's capture would not be released until after he was interrogated the following morning.
Early the next morning, Amelia floo called Sirius asking him to come in and identify the rat. Sirius was shocked that he had been found so quickly. So early the next morning, the day after his trial and release, Sirius Black was back at the Ministry to identify a prisoner.
Sirius found himself in a room with Amelia, as well as same two aurors who had accompanied the Director to Azkaban earlier that month. The prisoner was brought into the room already under a body bind.
Sirius recognised him instantly. "Yes. That is Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail aka the secret keeper aka the betrayer. Does he have the dark mark? Where has he been?"
"He has been living as a pet rat with a wizarding family for the last 7 years. They turned him in when his missing toe was mentioned in the Daily Prophet." Amelia explained. "And yes he clearly does have the dark mark."
"Well he is here now so I clearly did not kill him 7 years ago, which totally exonerates me. Please ask him when he was marked. I would like to know the exact date, or at least the month and year. And also - please be careful when you are in his vicinity. He is capable of anything. Even killing. He was the secret keeper and he did take Voldemort to the Potter home." Sirius gave the Aurors fair warning.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
The news of Sirius Blacks trial was not released in Europe until the day after the trial. Dumbledore was almost apoplectic when he spotted the headlines.
'Who in Merlins name has gotten Sirius out of Azkaban and given him a trial?' He wondered.
Dumbledore made his apologies to the ICW and said he had to go home for a national emergency. He set his portkey for the ministry and was soon seen scowling at anyone who caught his eye as he stormed through the ministry corridors looking for answers. He did not stop to knock as he burst through the doors into Fudges office.
"Fudge!" he yelled. "Who gave permission for Sirius Black to have a trial. He was supposed to be forgotten about and left there to die."
As much as Albus Dumbledore liked to think he was perfect and that everything he did for the Greater Good was actually a good idea, he did and does make mistakes. This mistake was a rather large and embarrasing one.
Storming into an office without making sure who was or was not already present, while yelling at the top of your voice, does not make a good impression.
"So you do admit to leaving me in Azkaban KNOWING that I was innocent, Mr Dumbledore." came the cold voice of Sirius Black who was standing over by the windows glaring at the headmaster.
Dumbledore immediately backtracked, placed a huge smile on his face, turned on the twinkly eyes and held out his hand. "Sirius my dear boy, I am delighted to hear you were released."
Sirius had his wand out, pointed straight into Dumbledores face. He ignored the outstretched hand.
"No you're not. You are in fact extremely angry. Why else would you come charging into this office demanding to know who let me out. Do not come near me, you old goat. Do not touch me. I do not want you sending me back to Azkaban by portkey. If you do that then I will be honor bound to kill you. I do not want to see you, hear you, or touch you for the rest of my life. This honor duel also extends to my family which includes my godson Harry Potter. You will stay away from him. You will stay away from me. You are banned from all Black and Potter properties."
"My dear boy, how is Harry? How is he doing?" Albus was seething inside. How dare this upstart make demands of him. He was the Chief Warlock, not this murderer.
"My dear old goat, I thought you were in charge?" Sirius spoke in a soft silky voice, designed to calm people down."Have you not been checking up on him? Was that not part of your duties as a so-called magical guardian? I must let the Wizarding Orphans Office know that as a magical guardian, you have clearly been failing in your duties."
"So I take it you have seen Harry, since you were released?" The last thing Albus wanted anyone to do was to contact the WOO. They would have NO record of Harry at all. Albus was also desperate for news of Harry. The boy had gone missing some 2 years earlier and the headmaster still had not found him.
"It does not matter if I have seen him or not. He is perfectly safe where he is and I have no intention of removing him from his home. Now that I have had the misfortune of running into you today. I am going to have to go through detoxification to remove all the tracking and compulsion charms I am sure you are placing on me as we speak." Sirius screwed up his face as if he had eaten something sour.
"Please Sirius? Cant we let bygones be bygones?" Dumbledore put a sad puppy dog look on his face.
"MY NAME IS LORD BLACK!" Sirius thundered. "You will address me as such. And no I cannot forget. I will not forget what you have done. You interfered in my life, in Harrys life and in the Potters lives."
"But it was all for the greater good, Sirius." Albus wheedled.
"You have not been given permission to be so familiar with me, old man. You will address me as Lord Black. The greater good of whom Mr Dumbledore? The greater good only of you, I would think. What you have done, was not done for the greater good of myself, or of any of the Potters, or for anyone in the wizarding world. Therefore I am left to conclude that we are nothing but chess pieces for your own personal greater good. You have my resignation and Harrys resignation. We will no longer be part of your greater good chess game. And remember my warning, You are now banned and persona non grata permanently from all Black and Potter properties. Good day Mr Dumbledore."
Sirius swept past the old goat taking care not to have any part of his clothes or body touch any part of the old goat. Dumbledore watched Sirius depart from the office with sadness.
Then he turned back to Minster Fudge and asked his question again. His eyes were now as cold as ice.
"What in Merlins name were you thinking to give that man a trial. He was supposed to stay in Azkaban." Albus demanded.
Fudge was tired of always being on the receiving ends of Dumbldores anger when it was the headmasters plans that invariably went wrong.
"Dont blame me for this fiasco. Madam Bones of the DMLE received new information that said Black was innocent and she followed it up. It is not my problem that you waltzed off to Europe at just the wrong time."
Headmaster Dumbledore glared at Minister Fudge and then swept out of the room. He went back to Hogwarts, and sat in his office and moped. He still had not found Harry despite a whole year of searching.
It was not until the next day, that Minerva was informed by the elves that Dumbledore was back in his office. The new school term would start in 2 days time.
Minerva opened the door of the headmasters office later that day and came bustling in. "Albus. When did you get back?" She asked. "Why didn't you tell me? Isn't this exciting? Sirius Black has been freed at long last. I always knew there was something fishy about his arrest and imprisonment. I never did remember hearing about a trial."
"The man is a murderer, He killed the Potters. He is also a death eater, Minerva. He is guilty and I WILL spend the rest of my days proving it." Dumbledore growled.
Minerva shook her head as she left the office. She thought Dumbledore was becoming far too obsessive over the issues of Sirius Black and Harry Potter.
Back in the staff room of Hogwarts school, the teachers were asking Minerva what was going on.
"Albus is not at all happy that Sirius Black has been freed. He says that the man is a murderer and that he, Albus, will do anything he can to prove that Black is a killer. I think Albus is becoming somewhat obsessive over the missing Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter and the new freed Sirius Black." Minerva explained.
Severus Snape snorted. "I bet that Harry Potter is nothing but a pampered prince who gets anything he wants, just like his father did."
Unknown to Minerva McGonagall, she had been obliviated by the headmaster shortly after Harry was left with the Dursley family. He had had to do that because she was so concerned about the bad feelings she had about the Boy-Who-Lived being raised there.
So she could only protest against Snapes comments. "I'm sure he won't be that bad. But if he is, we will deal with it, like we have done in the past."
Once again Snape snorted."Dealt with things in the past? That did not happen. You and Albus have never dealt with anything in the past. I'm living proof of that!"
Even now, almost 20 years later and Snape was still upset and angry about almost being bitten and mauled by a werewolf on the school grounds. None of the other students involved were severely punished over the incident. What made things worse was Sirius Black was one of the other students involved.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
On this same day, Amelia Bones was busy interrogating the rat known as Wormtail. He admitted to accepting the dark mark entirely voluntarily in June 1978, pretty much the same month he graduated from Hogwarts. He admitted to being both a Death eater and a spy inside the Order of the Phoenix, the vigilante group that headmaster Dumbledore had started up supposedly to fight Voldemort. In reality, the OOTP was more of an Information gathering device for Dumbledore to collect Information and use it selectively, but not to distribute it to benefit others.
Pettigrew admitted to being given orders from Dumbledore to change the secret keeper from Black to himself, and then to lead Voldemort to the Potter house. He also admitted spiking Sirius' drink on the night of October 20, 1981 so that the Potters would be persuaded to make the final push to dump Black and accept Pettigrew as the new secret keeper. Once that was done, Voldemort had chosen Halloween or Samhain, as an appropriate day to attack.
On the day in question, at dusk, Wormtail and Voldmort appeared at the gate. Pettigrew stayed back in the street, while the dark Lord went inside. James died downstairs,. Lily died upstairs. All he heard were the screams. Then there was silence. No baby crying, so he assumed that Harry was also dead, but the Dark Lord did not come back downstairs either.
When the sounds of apparition were heard, Pettigrew transformed into his rat form and scuttled off to hide. First he watched Sirius Black go inside the house and come out with Harry in his arms. He heard the argument between Black and Hagrid about where Harry should go. Sirius gave in and handed the baby over. Sirius went off to chase after traitorous rats and Hagrid took Harry to safety. Eventually Sirius caught up with the rat and confronted him in a muggle street. But Wormtail had been planning this for a while. He spotted Aurors showing up, and began yelling that Sirius was blame.
He knew he would have to cut off his finger to prove that he was "dead" even as he blew up a gas line that he also knew ran under that particular street. In the ensuing explosion, it was no trouble for Pettigrew to change into his rat form and escape down into the sewer tunnels and scurry to freedom.
He spent several weeks looking for a wizarding family with children where he would be a pet and be fed and looked after, while living as a rat. He chose to remain as a rat because as long as Sirius was still alive, he would be in danger if Peter Pettigrew was ever seen on the streets of Magical Britain.
He still wasn't sure just how he was discovered and brought to the ministry. Could the Minister enlighten him about that?
Director Bones was only too happy to tell him how he had been captured. Upon reading the description of Peter Pettigrew's rat form in the trial of Sirius Black, the 2 older Weasley boys were concerned that there was a grey rat in their family with a toe missing and who was definitely more than 4 to 5 years old.
"So they stunned you and brought you to me to checked for animagus ability and sure enough you were found to be an animagus. You were stunned again and brought to the Ministry cells. Your trial will held next week." The Director explained.
The following day was New Years eve, and Harry met with his godfather Sirius Black at the office of the lawyer, Dempster Wiggleswade. It was awkward at first, because Sirius had a ton of memories of both Harry and his parents, James and Lily. Sirius spoke of wanting to raise Harry and turn him into a miniature version of James so they could go out and prank other people. Harry kept asking to know about Lily, but Sirius didn't know a lot about her and kept trying to swing the conversation back to pranking wars and the Marauders.
Even at age 8, Henry knew that some pranksters can easily become bullies and besides, he was not his dad. Harry was actually far more like his mother Lily in both looks, personality and magical abilities. He was supersmart, loved history, loved reading and loved genealogy. James had no interest in reading. He much preferred Quidditch and flying around on his broom as well as being a bully. While Harry could fly, and was a seeker on the school Quidditch team, he really was not interested in a pro-Quidditch career after school.
Harry also made it clear that he was not going to live with Sirius. He already had a magical guardian and was not in any hurry to change it. Sirius could visit him at the lawyers offices for the forseeable future, but had to make arrangements at least 1 week before hand. Visits during the school term could only be held on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning since Harry was away at school.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
The following week, St Georges Academy started the new term as well. In the first History of Magic class, Harry was on tenterhooks, wanting to know what his grade for his essay would be. Professor Black swept in to hand them out, giving Harry a wink as he did so, and then disappearing out the door again. The History of Magic teacher was not too impressed, but he did receive a list of grades for each student for their essays. Harry looked at his essay. At the top in big fat green letters was an O+ as well as a comment.
This essay is what got him free. Well Done!
Harrys eyes opened wide in shock. My essay got Sirius out of Azkaban? Wow!
After classes were done that day, Harry went to see Mr Black to try and get some more details.
"First up, I must apologise for taking your essay to the authorities, without asking your permission first. But you made so many good points about what was missing in that case, that I felt that someone should at least have a look at it."
Harry blushed. "That's OK, sir, You were just trying to help. And it did help."
"Yes it did. You can be very proud of yourself Henry. But you do need to keep this a secret since I never identified who my student was. I did not identify the school either, so you should be safe. Director Bones is in charge of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, or the DMLE. She later told me that you were pointing out basic procedures that apparently were not followed back in 1981. She said the first thing she did was to go down to the Archives looking for a Trial Transcript. There was none. Then she had to go all the way to Azkaban to check Sirius Blacks arms and to give him a veritaserum interrogation. He passed both with flying colours. So she brought him back to London and he finally got his trial. I'm sure you have read all about it in the papers."
Harry nodded.
"Next week will be another trial of a crucial participant in this whole fiasco. I cannot tell you anything more."
Henry wondered who this new trial would be for. "I hope it is for Dumbledore. He appears to have interfered in mine and my parents life way more than he should have."
The following week the wizarding world was shocked when Peter Pettigrew was put on trial for murder, for being a death eater and for conspiracy to commit murder. He admitted being guilty on all charges and was swiftly pushed through the Veil.
The Daily Prophet had a field day writing up Pettigrews trial. This segued into a series about just how poorly Wizarding justice was at finding justice for victims of crimes and since when had the standards fallen so low?
Headmaster Dumbledore was not at all happy, at these events or at the questions being asked by the media. The fact that these events and trials were happening without him being notified, (ie without his permission) really made him angry. He was furious that someone appeared to be leaking his information to the DMLE and to the media. Dumbledore hoarded information away like gold and told no-one anything. Someone was leaking his secrets and he would find out who it was or his name was not Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!
A/N - I really struggled with this chapter. My muse kept wanting to have Dumbles and Snape arrested but I can't do that, not yet anyway. They both must still be at Hogwarts in 2 years time.