Harry was a bit shaken up and skittish the following days. He only calmed down when Hermione was close by because he knew he could count on her to have her wand at his side, protecting his back. While he was sure he would have been able to get to the portkey himself, he was more than relieved when he felt his sister's magic pull him to her. She had her wrist patched up overnight, after finally letting Madam Pomfrey see it (which she didn't do until after he went to sleep).

He wanted to ask her questions about why she let it happen, but when Hagrid said that it was only a matter of time, his heart dropped into his stomach. Dumbledore knew that Voldemort was going to come back and didn't do anything to stop it. The older wizard could have helped prepare him to fight, learn spells, something!

Yet Hermione would lean into him or subtly play with his hair when his anger at Dumbledore got too close to exploding. He had to return to the Dursleys and he was waiting for Aunt Petunia to flip like a light switch and return to her old ways. At Hogwarts when she was nearby though, she watched him like a hawk. First Harry thought it was because she was waiting for him to do something to disgrace her, but then he realized (after Hermione pointed it out) that she was scrutinizing people who walked up to him rather than him.

When they were parting Aunt Petunia squeezed his shoulder lightly whereas she hugged Hermione lightly. She did the same with Uncle Vernon and just smiled at Dudley. If he didn't know better he would have said that they were family that only saw each other on holidays (at least that's what he noticed families did by watching when Aunt Marge visited).

McGonagall was in charge of transporting them back to Surrey and he was surprised when Vernon nodded his head in deference to the strict witch. Petunia or Vernon kept a hand on Dudley most of the time, but it was Petunia who held his cousin's shoulders as they followed the strict Deputy Headmistress to the Hogwarts' gates.

The following leaving feast was just a blur to the young wizard.

News had spread in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement office about the capture of Peter Pettigrew. The rat animagus was placed in a highly guarded holding cell that had special runes against animagi. He wasn't on the Animagi register, so it was another charge against him.

Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE was barking orders left and right. She was looking for the trial for Black so they could hash out the details again in another trial, as he was sentenced in part for murdering his friend, who they found alive. However, as much as they looked, they never found such scribes.

She couldn't even find members of the Wizengamot who sat on that specific trial, and a majority of the members had not changed in the thirteen years that had passed.

It was just getting worse, even though she couldn't be held accountable as she was not the Head of the department at the time, involved in his case, or capture. They were the DMLE they were supposed to have records of every trial, private or public, scribed and dated on parchment. They had records from over a century ago! But they couldn't find a sentencing from 13 years ago!? Wizards and witched convicted and sent to Azkaban's files were placed in a special cabinet as it was a different facility compared to Fort Black Lake. Azkaban was the highest security penal institute that they had in Magical Britain. As Black was sentenced to Azkaban, his file should have been in that cabinet. As it stood, it was not. They found his other file, the one that dated his overnight stays in the holding cells at the Ministry for misdemeanors. But when a wizard became high profile, their file was condensed and placed in the special file in the special cabinet. Where Sirius Black's was not.

The fact that they only had his regular file, and there was no Azkaban file for Black, meant that he was sent to Azkaban illegally! However as he was considered an escaped convict, it was hard to tell him that he was released and due at a retrial. A retrial that wasn't a retrial because according to their records the original trial never happened!

Amelia groaned under her breath at the headache this was causing her.

"Amelia! AMELIA! I need a word with you!" Fudge yelled as he stalked his way to her office.

"Shit," she whispered under her breath.

"What do you need me for, Minister?" she asked deadpanned.

Fudge tried to stand imposingly, but only succeeded in making himself look like an arse. His posturing was something that Amelia Bones knew that she could do well without.

"Is the man in the holding cell really Pettigrew?" he asked, she noticed a slight nervous twitch when he swallowed.

"Yes, Cornelius. Pettigrew will have his trial tomorrow at 10am."

"Private?" he asked, his forehead was starting to shine.

"Public," she said flatly, "Pettigrew will be tried under vertiserum with the antimorphic restraints on him. As soon as he woke he tried to attack one of my aurors and take their wand. An innocent man wouldn't attack an auror. This will be public so that the citizens will know that Black is innocent in the case of what was his death."

She folded her hands under her chin as she looked up at the Minister as his mustache bristled.

"Black is an escaped convict who is still to be kissed on site!" he yelled.

"I think you should retract that order, Cornelius. My department has been tearing itself apart since Pettigrew has been secured in his holding cell looking for Black's file. Do you know what we found, Cornelius?" she raised an eyebrow at him before continuing, "Nothing. We found a regular file on him. The one that has the misdemeanor cases where he was seen causing a racket at the Three Broomsticks. Every single one of them were cases of stupid drunken acts in public. Every single one of them harmless. Every single one of them, he was placed in a holding cell and charged a small fine. He was never tried and sentenced to Azkaban. We have no records and we've been following up with the Wizenmagot and no luck there either."

Fudge paled at the news.

"B-b-but those muggles!" he tried.

"Sir, with the revelation of Pettigrew being alive and faking his death, it is obvious that those murders could have easily been something else that we are unaware of. Yes they were murdered, but we don't know if Black murdered them or if he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was never tried! He spent twelve years in Azkaban without a trial!"

Amelia slammed her hands on her desk, looking like a raged bull.

"You need to retract the order and have him sit a trial! If he knows that he's not going to be kissed on site, and actually given a trial, he might show up. He was an auror before he was- was just thrown into the highest secure prison we have to offer! I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up either!"

Fudge puffed up his chest before he wilted. Amelia wiped her face with her hand understanding part of the Minister's stress. Unlike her, he was an elected official and could be kicked out of office for the simplest of things. Granted, he could fire her on a whim, but the chances of that were slim since he had to speak to the Wizenmagot about such decisions first.

"It wasn't our fault. I wasn't head of the DMLE, it was Crouch's call at the time. We can't be held accountable, but we can try to turn it around."

Fudge nodded at her sound words, clinging to them like a life raft. He wanted to speak with Dumbledore about such things, but admitting that they were at war and that Voldemort had really returned was something he wasn't ready for. Amelia wasn't speaking about war though, but another problem he had.

That student witch was right. He wanted to blame her, not knowing why she was there or anything like that. How was she at the right place at the right time? How did she know to bring them back with her with the portkey? In the end though, it didn't matter. She brought a Death Eater with her, not just any Death Eater, someone they didn't know was a Death Eater, and thought dead. Someone who wasn't tried after the First War. Living proof.

He wanted to sweep this whole fiasco under the rug, but there were hundreds of witnesses.

"So what would you suggest that we do?" he asked instead.

BLACK INNOCENT?

The notorious incident that we thought we all knew about could be wrong! The Ministry of Magic has retracted its order that stated that Sirius Black was to be kissed on site! Our Aurors have recently taken Peter Pettigrew into custody. Peter Pettigrew is not dead like we were all led to believe. Apparently the wizard faked his own death, and severed his finger to escape Auror Black thirteen years ago. However Ex-Auror Black was too close to the situation and had been put on temporary leave due to stress. Thus he was acting of his own accord and was found passed out and surrounded by twelve dead muggles and Peter Pettigrew's finger. According to Head of the DMLE, Amelia Bones, Black was never given a trial and was never formally sentenced!

After Peter Pettigrew's trial, which is to be tomorrow; July 1st at 10am, Black has been invited to have his own trial. We here at Daily Prophet have been informed that The Wizenmagot will take Black's illegal incarceration of thirteen years into account! If anyone who knows where Sirius Black is, please be sure to let him know that he is free to walk into court unimpeded for his trial, which will take place immediately after Peter Pettigrew's trial.

For more information please turn to page A6

Sirius stared at the newspaper with unbelieving eyes. He was invited to his trial, and he would be able to witness Peter's trial. He would be able to have his name cleared! He would be able to be a free wizard again! He wouldn't have to scrounge around and beg like a dog! He wouldn't have to rely on Dumbledore for anything. Especially hiding him.

Tears started to prick in the corner of his eyes. It had been years since he thought that he would be given this opportunity, and he knew he would be tried under vertiserum. They even mentioned how he was an ex-auror, painting him in a better light than the monster they had been portraying him as. He noted under the article that it wasn't sensation hogwash since it wasn't written by that witch Rita Skeeter. It was real.

He had been given orders to send news to certain to old Order members and tell them to lay low at Remus's cabin. Remus of course was worried about being a good host, more so since his cabin, while tidy, wasn't the coziest of homes. A werewolf that hadn't held a steady job for quite some time meant that his home wasn't exactly up to standards.

In any case it most certainly wasn't as bad as his old family home, which apparently Molly had been given the task of cleaning. He sent his blessings to the witch with the best of luck attached.

Sirius had plans to stay as low as possible with this recent bit of information. No one was going to stand in his way of possible freedom. He was innocent and by Merlin he was going to be cleared. He didn't care if it interfered with any of Albus's orders, he would be of better use free than not!

There was a knock in the other room, someone had dropped something. Quickly the wizard transformed into a grim and sank into the shadows. Freedom was less than 24 hours away, and he would be damned if anyone tried to take it from him.

Severus glared at the newspaper knowing that Black would be sure to be there. While he couldn't blame Black, considering the hellish nightmare that Azkaban was, didn't mean that he was ready to be in the same room as him just yet. Before he left on Order business Albus had tried to get them to settle their differences in his office, of which Black barely managed to behave civilly. Ex-auror he may be, but he was still nothing but a bully in the end.

The dark wizard glared at the newspaper knowing that with his freedom chances were that Black was just going to be more annoying than he already was. More so than Mad-Eye since their history was personal. Although the intense fixation the older auror was placing on him was slightly creepy.

Ever since he was up and about the retired auror kept his magical eye on him and he wasn't sure what to do. It wasn't as though the older wizard didn't know he was a spy. They attended the same meetings, so he wasn't sure why the sudden intensity was being placed on him. Thankfully his occlumency was in place so he never appeared anything more than annoyed, but behind his shields the wizard had to admit to himself that it was creepy.

Speaking of occlumency there was also the matter of teaching Miss Granger occlumency as well as advance potion lessons. Albus had seen fit to handpick an assistant for him, and even made plans for her to take her potion OWLs early.

As if she wasn't insufferable enough.

As if he didn't have issues with thinking about her enough.

Now he had to be inside of her head and see things he most likely never wanted to see. Minerva chuckled saying that it was probably the best way to get to know the witch.

Their physical lessons were bad enough, now he had to see inside her mind. Her memories, thoughts, emotions, if she didn't pick up the skill quickly, he would see them all. He was surprised when Minerva pointed out that Albus had looked into her eyes and didn't know about their private lessons to begin with, so he was hoping that he already had some foundational ground to work on. The old man barely had any sense of propriety of staying out of people's minds.

Hermione arrived at the station, watching carefully as Uncle Vernon escorted Harry to their car. Her mother and father had greeted her with love as usual, and said they had a surprise. The surprised started when they started to follow the Dursleys' car.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked.

"We're going to Surrey, dear. I'm sure you've met your Aunt, Uncle, and cousin?" Abagail responded.

"Of course. I thought it was a nice cover for Harry and me. We had a familial blood bond not too long before we met. So I wasn't sure if she knew she was my aunt, because Harry's my brother." She said.

Abagail looked surprised as she looked at Hermione through the rearview mirror. Leeroy lifted an eyebrow at the new information. They had barely sent letters when the task got closer, he knew it was because most of it was sensitive information, so they were a bit out of the loop.

'Like mother, like daughter.' He thought fondly.

"Petunia and I also did a family bond, she's my sister."

It was Hermione's turn to look surprised.

"You did a familial bond with Petunia? When?"

"Not too long after you left."

"Who was your bonder?"

"A lawyer I've been in contact with. She's a half-blood. While you've been busy with your things, we've been busy with other legalities. One of them being the custody of, well I guess he's your brother now," Abagail finished.

Hermione's mind stuttered for a moment, taking this in.

"He's going to be one of us?"

"Legally, he's going to be one of us."

"He's going to live with us and be safe in France as well," her father interjected.

Hermione felt her heart swell with the news.

"We're also fighting for custody of him in the wizarding world. Apparently he had two different guardians and neither were doing their jobs. He's been such an important person in your life, more important now it would seem, that after thinking long and hard we made this decision without you," Abagail said, "We've been building his case for months! We have enough information and evidence that our lawyers are sure it's a guarantee case."

The curly haired witch's heart stuttered.

"What?"

"Yes, Harry's magical guardian is actually Albus Dumbledore. If it hadn't been for him, Harry would have never been in his situation to begin with."

"We're following them because we're going to tell Harry ourselves," Leeroy said, amused at his daughter's state of shock.

Hermione was glad that she was sitting down or she was sure that she would have dropped. They were going to take custody of Harry Potter from Albus Dumbledore.

'My muggle parents are going to fight one of the greatest wizards of all time for custody of Harry Potter; and the lawyers are sure they're going to win. Harry 's gonna live with me. He's going to have a home! A REAL home! He'll be able to see our properties. I'll be able to introduce him as my brother without hiding our bond… HARRY I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! I CAN'T WAIT TO TELL YOU! UGH AND YOU'RE ONLY A CAR AWAY!'

Hermione wanted to scream and laugh at the same time. This was bloody brilliant!

In the car ahead Harry could feel his sister's excitement and could only wonder what made his sister so happy with something so sinister having just happened. He didn't know how he was going to make it this summer without her.