12. The Black Sky

"That's terrible Harry!" Susan cried.

Harry shrugged and looked at Tonks, who had an uncharacteristic angry look on her face. He really hoped she would let it go, but she didn't.

"It was my past, Sue. No point thinking about those things anymore. And be careful Dora, don't want that pretty face to be like that forever, do we?" Tonks almost smiled at his efforts and replied with an exaggerated sigh, "At least someone around here admits my breathtakingly good looks."

They all chuckled. The mood of the room had been unusually sombre since Susan asked Harry about his change in living plans and eventually the Dursleys. He had noticed Tonks trying to discourage Susan with meaningful looks, but Susan didn't have eyes for anyone else. He decided to tell them, because everyone in the room was his friend, and he felt that they all deserved to know about him if they wanted to. Neville, Hermione and Hannah had been listening with sad and horrified expressions, Susan occasionally asked about small details (though, to her credit, she never asked him to elaborate about the abusing themselves. Harry suspected that she wanted to, but knew it would be too painful for him) and Tonks kept that angry expression throughout. Nowadays, she wore that expression whenever the Dursleys were mentioned.

"So did you visit the Weasleys, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded and began to tell them about the Burrow, the Weasleys, and most importantly, the quidditch match. When she first told Tonks about it, she was totally shocked. "Blimey Harry, you defeated Charlie Weasley? He was supposed to be one of the best seekers Hogwarts saw in a couple of centuries! Listen, when you start dating, save a spot for me. I want to brag that I dated an international quidditch star before he started to rewrite history." Harry had replied cheekily, "You're my favourite girl, Dora. Of course you'll have your chance." She laughed and kissed his cheek, which turned him red. He had learnt to take her flirtations easily and he even flirted back with her sometimes (though he didn't understand most of the innuendos), but whenever she kissed his cheek, he would flush red and for some strange reason, Tonks seemed to enjoy when he blushed. He often tried to make her blush, but it was near to impossible. And to make things worse, whenever Tonks hugged him nowadays (which was most of the time) he was now starting to notice that Tonks was now a young woman who possessed… erm… great stuff. Damn the new hormones! She is four years older than you!

Tonks was studying Harry carefully. When she first became friends with him, she suspected that his relatives didn't treat him well. Her belief was reinforced when he said they called him freak, but when he told the whole story himself in their kitchen, she wanted to murder each of them. Multiple times. She decided that once she finished Hogwarts, she would go looking for them and then she would remind them that it was not wise to mishandle her Harry.

Her Harry? Where did that come from? She wondered amusedly. She would never admit to anyone, but she was quite possessive of Harry. Not the 'he is my boyfriend' type of possessive, of course. It was more like 'hurt him and your balls will be served in an Italian restaurant' kind of possessive, or maybe it was called being protective. She didn't want him to get hurt. Sure, he had been very fond of him when she was five and he was one, and in his first year, she stayed at Hogwarts for the first time, just to keep him company, but it really didn't mean anything. He was now thirteen and she would turn seventeen in three days. It was not like they would ever go out on a date. What guy would want to date a girl four years older than him? Though, once he hit puberty, which should've started by now, who knows if-

STOP THINKING THESE! He is thirteen and you are seventeen for Merlin's sake!

Andromeda was shocked beyond anything. She tried to read the letter again but found that her eyes were too wet. Wiping the tears in her sleeve, she focused again. It was written on a muggle page with pencil. On the corner of the page, there were little dents that oddly looked like teeth marks.

Dear Meda,

Please just read the letter before you inform the authorities or throw it away.

I know you won't believe me when I say I was and still am innocent. I don't know how much you know, but the last I heard the charges against me I was supposed to be the Potters' secret keeper who sold them out to Voldemort. Then I was supposed to have killed a street full of muggles and the good guy Pettigrew, who came after me to confront me about everything.

Truth is I wasn't the Potters' secret keeper in the first place. When James and Lily offered me to be their secret keeper, I was really honoured, but I had a better plan for them. I told them it would be too obvious. I knew I would rather die than to betray them, but this was Voldemort we were talking about. He could force the secret out from me using legilimency or veritaserum, or something similar. I told them that they should make Peter the secret keeper, but tell everyone that I was the secret keeper, so if Voldemort decided to hunt down the secret keeper, their location would be safe with Pettigrew. Both of them agreed to this and within two days, Peter became the secret keeper.

You might have guessed by now that Peter was the real traitor and that he framed me. It was actually me who went after him and that fucking bastard shouted to the whole world how I betrayed James and Lily and then blew up the whole street. Now you have every right to think that I made up the whole story just to get back in your good books, but I'll tell you something no one else knows. Peter Pettigrew is alive and hiding. I am not asking you to believe me right away. I broke out of Azkaban because I know where I can find him. And when I kill him, I'll throw the remains of his body for you to see and then turn myself in again. If I have to be in prison, I want to have a good reason to be there. I won't give you any more details in case this letter reaches the ministry.

There is another thing I wanted to mention. Thank you for keeping Harry with you. I was supposed to be taking care of him in case anything happened to James and Lily. I came by your place and saw Harry. He looks like a thirteen year old James. Though I remember his eyed were like Lily's. I was very much relieved to know that he had a great childhood with someone who loved him. Thank you, Meda. I know you are not very fond of me right now, but you are still my favourite. When I saw you after all these years I almost came in to have a long chat and catch up and maybe have a great meal. I haven't had a proper meal since I escaped. Who would have guessed that the Heir of the Black family would live like a street dog?

You know what's the worst part of all these? Everyone I love hates me. You, Harry, old friends like Remus Lupin, probably even Jennifer. You remember Jennifer Dawes? The last woman I was dating before Azkaban? Yeah, I loved her and I never told her. Guess some things were never meant to be.

I know that you are free to do whatever you wish, but I want request you to keep this letter away from the ministry. Needless to say, I don't trust them. They didn't even hold a trial for me. If you don't trust me, I don't really blame you. I practically killed James and Lily myself, turning them over to the traitor Pettigrew. But know that I have no intentions of harming you, Harry, Ted or Nymphadora. I delivered this letter personally (mainly because I couldn't find an owl yet) so that should tell you something about my intentions.

Take care, Meda. I miss you.

Love from

Sirius

Her heart badly wanted to believe that her cousin was innocent and was falsely accused of betraying his best friends. But her logical mind said her he was just lying. Pettigrew was dead and the largest part of him that could be found was a finger.

Hang on. That's fishy.

She couldn't believe she didn't give it much thought in the twelve tears that have passed by, but now she thought about it, it sounded somewhat wrong. Powerful blasting curses would blow up a body to small pieces, and it wasn't impossible to blow someone up to the extent where nothing larger than a finger would remain in one piece, but they never talked about any other parts that were found. The eyes would stay whole if not directly blasted, as would some outer bones. In fact, now she remembered that when the news came public, they said that the only part of Pettigrew they found was his finger. Where did the head go? And where were the other organs like the heart and the lungs? Unless an organ liquefying curse was cast, some parts of them should have been found. She never thought about it because she never thought Pettigrew could be alive or Sirius could be innocent, but now Sirius claimed to be framed, she had to admit it was highly possible for Sirius to be innocent.

And it feels right too. Sirius would never betray James and Lily. He has proved that over and over.

Feeling a sudden feeling of lightness, she started to pick up minor details from the letter. She didn't believe him totally, but she would give him the benefit of doubt.

He wrote it with muggle stuff. Probably he stole the paper and pencil. She thought about the plan. It played out perfectly. Everyone thought him to be the traitor, no one knew about the switch of secret keepers. And now he intended to find and kill Pettigrew. It just showed why he was a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin. Didn't it cross his mind that bringing Pettigrew alive might help to clear his name?

Her eyes moistened again when she read about the part where he said she was his favourite. How she missed their playful banters and how they always had each other's back. They were practically siblings and when she heard about him getting a life sentence in Azkaban, despite her disgust towards him, her heart broke. And she never admitted this to anyone, but she missed him as well.

She was shocked and furious when she saw he never had a trial. Crouch claimed every captured convict had a fair trial. She would ask Amelia about it. Now she had to find a way to communicate with him. It was a potentially dangerous thing to do, but he was her family and family always have each other's back. And he didn't have a proper meal since he escaped!

"I just hope I don't kill him when I see him." She thought with a hint of a smile.

A long sigh escaped from the woman sitting in the couch. She put aside the day's Daily Prophet and picked up the mug of coffee. The prophet, it seemed, was very interested in the first runaway convict from Azkaban: Sirius Black.

The name came to her mind with a feeling of loathing, betrayal, and a huge sense of sadness. She used to believe in Sirius Black. She used to believe he was perfect. He was always so full of life, joking and fooling around without a care in the world. She used to believe when he said that he wanted to die protecting someone he loved. She used to believe she was one of those people. She thought James and Lily Potter and Peter Pettigrew were topping the list. When she heard he sold the Potters to Voldemort and killed Pettigrew, she was sure there was a mistake somewhere. Maybe the Pettigrew guy was the real culprit and he framed Sirius or something like that (he always seemed dodgy to her but she never mentioned it to Sirius thinking it would offend him deeply). Even when he was taken in, she was certain that Sirius would come out as innocent in the trial. When the prophet printed about his life sentence in Azkaban, a part of her knew they would realize it was a mistake and he would come to her, and she would comfort him after he had to go through all these just after he lost James and Lily. She believed Sirius was innocent. Because all the charges that were against him, they didn't sound like anything Sirius would do.

They never announced his innocence and after a whole year, listening to the long comforting speeches by her friends and family, Jennifer understood. This was an act all along. Sirius Black was a brilliant actor and like every brilliant actor, he enchanted the audience into his act, making them fall in love with him. The audience didn't realize they were falling in love with the character he was playing; a fictional character.

Trouble was she couldn't get into a happy relationship anymore. Not because she didn't try. She dated several men after it took three years for her to recover. They started well, but after a while she started comparing them to Sirius Black. Sirius wouldn't chat with anyone else when they were on a date. Sirius wouldn't try to mollycoddle her like this; he would just joke about it until she felt better. Sirius would never show her off to his friends like an expensive watch.

She realized in the end that she had set her orbit around Sirius Black, and now he was gone, she had to go in the same circle over and over again for the rest of her life. For three years now, she gave up trying to date and worked on a publishers company. Sometimes she wished she could start over and then she realized she wouldn't trade the time she spent with Sirius with anything else.

Sirius, true to his name, was the brightest star in her sky, and now he was gone, that sky had turned… Black.

A/N: Thanks to my regular reviewer Toaneo07 Ver2.0 for the 200th review. This story now has 50,000 hits under its belt. My heartfelt thanks to each and every reader out there. Free butterbeer all around!