"Of course Headmaster," I heard a squeaky voice say from somewhere below me. It's been more than a decade since Sirius had listened to Flitwick speak but it was easy to recognize his voice since it was so unique.

As Flitwick was taking the stairs, I tried to move my body to get into a more comfortable position but I realized I could neither move any part of my body nor speak anything. I didn't even notice when Flitwick petrified me, he must have done it at the same time that he took me from Snape.

'Well he is the charms professor for a reason, I guess ' I thought to myself.

It was silent for a few minutes with only the sound of his feet echoing across the hallway before I heard him stop. We must have reached his office because I heard him say something in the goblin language. That must have been the password to his office because I heard the door open the second he said that.

Flitwick floated me inside his office before he moved and opened another door. I hear him mutter a spell that seemed to be a variation of the Accio spell and heard some things rushing through the air, it was a few minutes later that I felt myself being moved into the room.

I was gently deposited on the floor and as I heard the door click shut I realized that I could move again. I opened my eyes slowly and a bare room came into my view, it was a small room that seemed to have been used as storage. I stood up using the chair which was the only piece of furniture in the room, Flitwick must have emptied the place before locking me in.

"Alright, Focus." I slapped both my hands on my face.

I don't have a very long window of time before Dumbledore gets in here to question me so if I don't want him to realize that it's me in here then I've got to get my thoughts into order.

First thing first, I have to create a situation where I don't have to look into his eyes otherwise the second he takes a look into my surface thoughts, I will be fu**ed. But I also can't look as if I am trying to avoid his eyes otherwise it will make him even more suspicious.

Moonlight was streaming into the room from the window opposite the door, and the chair was placed right in the middle of the room facing the door. I can't sit on the chair because of obvious reasons, but after looking around for a while I found the perfect place.

Just below the window, there was a spot hugging the wall that was in the darkness. If I sit on the floor while leaning on the wall facing the door, my face will be obscured enough to hide where my eyes are looking.

Before sitting I took the chair and turned it around with its back facing the door. Then I went to the wall and sat on the floor just below the window. I pulled my legs up and placed my hands around them with my head facing downwards as if I was mourning. Now just my head was in the shadows while the rest of my body is in the line of the moon's rays.

After I got comfortable in that position, I started reviewing all of Sirius's memories inside my head to make sure that I will be able to answer any question Dumbledore asks me, without bumbling around.

I must have spent around 15 minutes inside my head before I heard Dumbledore's voice speaking outside.

"Did he say something, Fillius?"

"No Albus," Flitwick replied.

"Very well. You may retire Fillius, I will take it from here," Dumbledore said.

I heard the door squeak open and the sound of his flowing robes as he came inside the room. I kept my head down and didn't move an inch. He closed the door behind him and stood there for a while before walking toward the chair and sitting.

"Sirius, How have you been," Dumbledore asked calmly without a note of hostility in his tone.

I bought my head up slowly only until the point that I could see his hands. He was sitting with his legs crossed with his hands placed above them without a wand in sight. Not that he would need a wand to subdue me.

"I have been fine, Dumbledore," I said before chuckling bitterly, "well, except for the dementors and the bad roommates,"

"I see Azkaban has not taken your humor from you," Dumbledore replied.

"I guess, even the dementors didn't find my jokes to be funny enough to suck,"

There was a moment of silence before Dumbledore leaned forward and spoke in a serious voice.

"I remember something about almost every student who's been through Hogwarts while I was the Headmaster. And the thing that I remember the most about you,

was the day you came to school for your sixth year. I had heard during the summer that you had run away from home but when you came to the school you were jumping around in happiness and smiling widely. I distinctly remember you kissing Minerva's cheek, which had earned you quite a lot of detentions. You had finally found a family to belong to when the potters took you in, that kind of happiness could not be faked, you loved James more than your blood brother... So I just want to ask you one thing Sirius," he took a deep breath "Why?"

"Did you not speak to Harry?" I asked with a puzzled tone.

"No, he was unconscious when he was bought with you"

"Oh... If you had spoken to him then you would know what I had already told him, I didn't betray Lily and James, I was not their secret keeper" I said a little agitatedly

"I myself cast the Fidelus charm on their house, Sirius, I was there when they made you their secret keeper," Dumbledore said, shortly.

"They did make me their secret keeper at first but two days before Halloween they... they changed their secret keeper to the rat."

"And why would they do so"

"Because I told them to..." I said while gritting my teeth and bringing both of my palms to my eyes.

"Why?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

I took a deep breath to gather myself before I brought my head up and stared at the wall blankly.

"Do you remember the death eater raid 5 days before Halloween?" I asked in a hollow tone.

"The one on the Mckinnon Family manor or the one on St. Mungos" Dumbledore replied in an uncertain voice not seeing where he was going with this.

"I was there at Mckinnon's house fighting alongside some other order members. And you were supposed to come as a backup but we had gotten the message about Voldemort appearing outside St. Mungos. So we knew not to expect you any time soon.

"Marlene and I were fighting side by side. I had gotten a little sidetracked subduing another death eater so I didn't notice it at first but when I turned around I found Marlene lying there on the ground with her eyes wide open and Bellatrix" I spat with venom in my voice "was laughing madly while standing over her dead body,"

"If my memory serves me correctly then you were in a relationship with her at that time," Dumbledore said morosely while looking down.

"Yeah... Yeah, we were" I said in a dead tone, "Bellatrix looked at me with a smirk, mocking me, and when I tried to fight her she ran away while cackling madly. I don't remember if I was arrogant in my abilities or just angry at that time but I went after her immediately. She went into a side alley and I foolishly followed her without an ounce of caution.

"As you can probably guess, it was a trap," I said with a hollow laugh " She subdued me easily in a matter of seconds..."

xxX Flashback Xxx

It was a dark alleyway and the moonlight was barely lighting the surroundings. I was there lying on the ground bleeding from a wound on my stomach, with my wand fallen out of my reach and Bellatrix was standing in front of me with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Well, get on with it. I don't have all day" I groaned out while looking at her with pure hate in my eyes.

But instead of moving to kill me, she sauntered toward me with a smirk and waved her wand. Instantly ropes were conjured around me and I was bound like a trussed-up turkey.

"Are you going soft on me, big sister Bella?" I said in a mocking voice, "Because I can assure you I will definitely kill you if I have the chance,"

She slowly knelt up right beside my face before she brought her hand up and then slapped me across the face, hard.

"Believe me, I want to cut open your blood traitor body into a thousand pieces," she said viciously" but unfortunately the Dark Lord needs you alive"

"What does that murdering psychopath want with me"

She slapped me again with the back of her hand, I could feel the blood in my mouth this time.

"Don't disrespect the Dark Lord with your filthy mouth," she snarled before she continued in a normal voice, "He needs the location where the potter's are hiding and as their pet, you definitely have that information,"

"Like hell! As if I would ever give that information to him," I shouted back to her defiantly.

"HA HA HA..." she cackled maniacally for a while before speaking in a baby voice, "Oh The Dark Lord will make baby Sirius speak before midnight,"

"I will never give in to his torture," I growled while gritting my teeth.

"Oh I am not speaking of torture," she said while shaking her head with a smile," I know that you would go insane before you give them up, but you see, the dark lord has ways to make you see things that you could never even imagine, he could make you live a whole life inside your mind without you ever noticing. By the time he is done playing with your mind, you will give that piece of information willingly, feeling as if you're helping the potter by doing so." she finished with a smirk.

For a moment there was genuine fear in my eyes, I was not afraid of death but if James, lily, or little harry died because of me then I could never forgive myself. I closed my eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"There is one thing you didn't take into account," I said in a low voice.

"Oh... and what is that," she said in an indulgent tone.

"Voldemort doesn't know that..." I kept lowering my voice until she had to bend down to listen to me and then I bellowed, "I AM GRIM,"

I transformed into my animagus form instantly and jumped on her. I took a huge bite before I was blasted away with a bang. I turned around in the air so that I would land on my legs and took off running without wasting a single moment. Spells and curses came flying off from behind me, and two came awfully close to clipping me before I ran out of the alley. I didn't stop running until I was out of the Anti-Apparition line. I turned back into my human form and then while looking toward the furiously chasing Bellatrix, I apparated out.

xxX Flashback Xxx

"... I had nightmares for two days after that, of little harry, James, and Lily getting tortured by Voldemort, because of me. I realized it was not safe for me to be their secret keeper any longer. So the next day I went to Godric's Hollow to convince them to change their secret keeper from me to Peter as nobody would suspect him. He was not even in the order so he would be the perfect hidden piece while I would be the decoy," I took a deep breath before continuing in a dead tone while still staring at the wall blankly, "I may not have betrayed them but I may as well have served them on a silver platter to Voldemort by making them trust peter,"

It was quiet for a few moments with only the sound of wind beating against the window echoing inside the room. Dumbledore sighed after a while and asked in a tired voice.

"Why did you never try to break out?"

"The guilt of being the reason behind James and lily's death was eating away at me, I thought Azkaban was the only place where I could atone for that. And a few years down the line, if I even had the thought of breaking out, the dementors would come along and show me the memory of my friend's dead bodies and that would suck the motivation right out of me," I said in a tired voice.

"Why break out now?"

"I saw the traitor in a newspaper that fudge gave me," I bit out with venom, "he was masquerading as weasely's pet rat. I couldn't let him stay close to harry without doing anything, I had already failed his father, I couldn't fail him too. That was an emotion that the dementors couldn't suck out. I snuck out of the prison that night to kill the rat...," I said before turning my eyes toward the ceiling and laughing at myself in ridicule, "I couldn't even do that right, that traitor got away from me again,"

Dumbledore sat there for a few moments staring at nothing while rubbing his hands along the length of his beard before he abruptly stood up and walked toward the window.

"While I believe in your words, Sirius. I don't think that my words would be enough to dissuade Fudge from his desire to settle this matter quietly and quickly," Dumbledore said while looking out the window and counting something under his breath.

"Can harry or his friends not give a testimony to fudge,"

"I don't think a child's word would matter much against the words of a professor and we don't have enough time for me to persuade Severus from his decision."

"I am getting kissed because of Snivellus. Never thought I would say those words" I said self-deprecatingly.

"It's the thirteenth..." Dumbledore mumbled under his breath and abruptly turned away from the window to walk toward the door while speaking, "Now Sirius sit tight and wait. I will see if I can do something about your situation,"

He was almost out of the door before he turned back suddenly, "And one more thing, make sure to sit on the chair so that they can notice you,"

"Who is they?" I called after him but he was already gone.

I waited until I could no longer hear his footsteps before I exhaled in relief. It had been a nerve-racking conversation for me. While it helped that I was mostly speaking the truth it still took a bit of acting on my part. My feelings of guilt and sadness were a bit muted compared to Sirius's memories which were all-consuming.

I stood up, walked toward the chair, and sat on it facing the window. Now I just needed to wait for Harry and Hermione to rescue me, which felt somewhat weird even saying it in my head.

It felt like I was a damsel in distress stuck in her ivory tower while waiting for her hero to come and save her on his flying horse. I shuddered at the image.

A few minutes must have passed before I heard a sharp tap on the window. There they were, on the back of buckbeak flying outside the window with Hermione holding on to Harry for dear life. My jaws involuntary dropped at that sight.

I shook myself out of the stupor and hurriedly walked toward the window. I tried to open it, but it was locked.

"Stand Back!" I heard Hermione shout and immediately stood back from the window. For a moment, I was afraid she would blast the walls like in the movies but fortunately for me, she only unlocked it with the Alohomora charm.

The window sprang open while I looked at them in pretend shock.

"How... "

"Get on there's not much time. They are going to be here—" he was going to say more but I was already on it. I gripped the window on both sides and heaved myself out of it. I flung a single leg on buckbeak's back and pulled myself behind Hermione.

"Ok buckbeak, Up! Up to the tower—Come on!" Harry shouted

The hippogriff gave a mighty sweep of his wing and we were soaring through the air toward the top of the tower. I was only scared for a few seconds before exhilaration took hold of me. I had enough memories of Sirius flying in the air that I was not scared of the heights.

The flying horses landed with a clatter on the battlements, and Harry and Hermione slid off at once.

"Sirius you'd better go quick." Harry panted. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment and they'll find out your gone,"

"Harry, Hermione I don't how I could ever thank you enough..." I said while looking at them.

"You can thank us by going, GO! " Harry shouted anxiously.

"Ok ok," I said and handled buckbeak according to Sirius's memories to turn it around. Sirius had taken the Care of Magical Creatures as his optional subject so I had all the necessary information.

"I will write a letter after I've found a place to settle," I said while facing the open sky "I will definitely make it up to you Harry and you too Hermione"

I squeezed buckbeak's side with my heels and buckbeak immediately flapped his mighty wings and took off with a bit of a run-up. A couple of beats later and I was up in the air going into the clouds. When I looked back toward the tower I could make out their little silhouettes going back inside.

/

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