"Guilty."
Those words shocked Harry and Ginny. Everybody was shocked. Despite the attempts of the non-corrupt Wizengamot and Dumbledore, Harry and Ginny were still going to Azkaban. They were supposedly helping Hagrid to open the Chamber of Secrets. Harry wanted to punch somebody. Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Snape, McGonagall, the Weasley family, and Neville all knew the truth however: that Harry and Ginny were not guilty. Despite this, they were sentenced to Azkaban and immediately they felt cold. It gets bad when even Snape spoke up for him, saying that Harry would never help Voldemort harm anybody.
Harry had never felt before that his fame could have been used to an advantage, but alas Fudge listened to Lucius Malfoy tell lies about him and Ginny.
"'Arry, Ginny?" came a familiar voice. "What are yeh doin' here?"
"Well, of course you don't get the Daily Prophet in here. Me and Harry have been sentenced to Azkaban." Ginny said.
"Oh. What for?" Hagrid asked kindly.
"For… opening up the Chamber of Secrets. This is all my fault." Ginny said.
"Yer fault? Why is it yer fault?" Hagrid asked, emphasizing the "yer" in the question.
"I opened it. This diary I had all year, I wrote in it and it was written back to me. Over time, there were periods of time where I would black out and not remember a thing. I… killed your roosters, Hagrid. I'm sorry. I… petrified Mrs. Norris, and Colin… and Nick… and Justin… and Hermione… and Penelope." Ginny explained, coming to tears as she said that last line. Percy obviously would blame her for his girlfriend's petrification.
"Yeh didn' do it. Yeh were possessed. Yeh're kind and a good person. I don' think yeh did it. I don' wanna believe yeh did it." Hagrid said.
"Hagrid? Did you just say Harry? As in Harry Potter?" a prisoner asked. His face was gaunt-like, he had black hair and looked like he hadn't shaven or showered in years.
"Go away, Black. You traitor. Stop talking to me." Hagrid said.
"Traitor?" Harry asked.
"He betrayed your parents!" Hagrid exclaimed.
"No, I didn't!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Who did then?" Hagrid asked.
"Peter Pettigrew." Sirius said.
"But, you killed him?" Hagrid asked, confused.
"No, he cut his finger off, blew a crater in the middle of the damn street and turned into a rat." Sirius said.
"He was an Animagus?" Hagrid asked.
"Yes. A grey rat. He had some markings on his head." Sirius said.
"You know, my best mate Ron has a grey rat and you said that this Pettigrew fellow cut off his finger and ran. Well, coincidentally, his has a missing toe. And Ron says he's been in the family for twelve years." Harry said with a pained expression. It was difficult to think of Ron. Did he believe him and Ginny? Did he think they were guilty? Did Hermione?
"That's true. He's been in the family since as long as I could remember." Ginny said.
"Potter, Weasley, visiting time." Fudge arrived.
That was when they saw a peculiar sight: Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Neville, Molly, Arthur, and two men Ginny knew but Harry didn't. The one with burns all over and was tall and lanky as Ron was Charlie and the one who had a ponytail and whose clothes looked like he wouldn't have been out of place at a rock concert was the eldest: Bill. Percy wasn't there, obviously he believed that Harry and Ginny had opened the Chamber and endangered many people.
"HARRY!" Ron and Hermione immediately ran at Harry and hugged him.
"You… believe me?" Harry asked.
"Of course. You're the Boy Who Lived. You beat You-Know-Who. Why would you kill students? It makes no sense. Sure, you speak Parseltongue, but you aren't evil. Trust me, if you were evil, you would have killed me a long time ago. And you weren't sorted in Slytherin. Don't worry, we will get revenge on Malfoy. Next year, I'm gonna jinx him so hard he falls backwards." Ron said. "Anyways, I'm here to say happy birthday. Oh, depressing birthday, actually. This place is so gloomy. Must be the Dementors." Ron said.
"Dementors?" Harry asked.
"They are creatures that suck off of happiness and joy and sometimes, they suck your soul out." Ron said.
"They kill us?" Harry asked.
"Much worse than that. You can live without your soul, as long as your heart and brain are still functioning. But you will just exist as nothingness. Nothing will get repaired." Ron said and Ginny and Harry immediately shuddered.
"Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Hi, Harry." Hermione said.
"I knew you didn't attack me. You are my best friend, after all. Why would you? And me and the other Weasleys (except Percy) don't think that you or Ginny opened the Chamber." Hermione said.
"Harry, my boy." Dumbledore said calmly. "This is not fair. It is unjust. I promise I will help you in any way I can. I'll make Fudge see sense."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault." Harry said gently.
"Mate, I got something for you. Happy birthday." Ron said, shoving the Invisibility Cloak and his wand in Harry's wand.
"Potter, Weasley, back to your cell." Fudge exclaimed.
When they got back to their cell, Harry had a look of triumph on his face.
"What is it, Harry?" Ginny asked.
Harry showed his wand and Invisibility Cloak.
"Nope, I don' wanna hear it!" Hagrid exclaimed.
"Just, please, Hagrid!" Sirius exclaimed.
"There is no way Scabbers is Pettigrew, Sirius!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Jus' admit that yeh were the Secret-Keeper!"
"No, I wasn't! Hagrid, why don't you believe me?" Sirius asked.
"Because yeh don' have proof!" Hagrid boomed.
"Yes, I do." Sirius said and he pulled out a piece of rat hair from his robes that Pettigrew shed.
"How long have you kept this?" Hagrid asked.
"For twelve years." Sirius said.
"Alright, I'll listen. But don' tell Harry anythin' Dumbledore don' wan' told!" Hagrid said.
"Alright, before you were born, Harry, your mum and dad had to go in hiding. Voldemort was looking for them." Sirius began to say and Harry gasped.
"What is it, Harry?" Sirius asked.
"It's just… me, Ginny, and Dumbledore are the only ones that have said Voldemort's name." Harry said.
"That is true. Maybe we can trust him." Ginny said.
"Anyways, as I was saying, they went into hiding because Voldemort was looking for them. And, then, one day, Dumbledore suggested the Fidelius Charm to them. Do you know what that does?" Sirius asked.
Harry shaked his head and Ginny hesitantly raised her hand.
"My dad said that the Fidelius Charm allows a person to name somebody as Secret-Keeper. That person can tell anybody where that person is, but nobody else can. For example, say this was our house. Harry and me could name Hagrid the Secret-Keeper and Hagrid could tell Sirius, but he wouldn't be able to tell it to anyone." Ginny explained.
"Yes, that is correct. Anyways, the Potters were going to name me Secret-Keeper." Sirius explained.
"But they didn't." Harry correctly deduced.
"Yes. I told James, who was my best friend, that it would throw Voldemort off if he named Peter Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper and he reluctantly agreed. At the time, I believed that our other friend, Remus Lupin, was the spy for Voldemort. About a week later, Voldemort attacked you and your parents and killed them but disappeared. It was quite a mystery. Over the morning, everyone had heard about it and wishing it wasn't true, I went to the cottage and found the destroyed ruins. I saw Hagrid there as well and you, with a lightning-shaped scar on your forehead, the only remaining evidence of Voldemort's attack, other than the bodies. I tried to convince Hagrid to take you, but he didn't. He said he was under orders from Dumbledore to bring you to the Dursleys. I reluctantly agreed and gave Hagrid my motorbike so you could get there. I went to look for Peter and found him gone from his hiding place. I wandered the streets of London and found him among some Muggles." Sirius said.
"Wait. I thought Peter found you." Hagrid said, confused.
"No, it was the other way around. I was about to duel him but then he told the entire street I betrayed Lily and James and blew up the crater. 20 members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad carried me out and I was laughing madly. My original feeling was to cry, but instead, I found it better to laugh. Many Muggles believed that I blew up the crater and told the officers that. I was sentenced by a man called Barty Crouch Sr. to Azkaban without a trial. I know I am innocent and most of the prisoners here are Voldemort's followers and are actually guilty, so they have become even more insane. But, me, the Dementors don't affect me. The only thing I'm guilty of is failing you, Remus, James, and Lily." Sirius said and immediately Hagrid, Harry, and Ginny felt sympathy for him.
"I'm sorry, Sirius. I shoul' have given yeh Harry, in retrospect." Hagrid said with a tear in his eyes. "I always knew Pettigrew was a coward."
"You believe me?" Sirius asked.
"Well, yes. Because I always assumed that Crouch had got it wrong and because, after all, I didn' do anythin' wrong, but here I am." Hagrid said.
"What happened to Pettigrew?" Harry asked.
"Either the crater destroyed him or he escaped. Well, the first one I know isn't true, because I saw him take out a knife and cut his fingers and turn into his Animagus form." Sirius said.
"Pettigrew is an Animagus?" Hagrid asked.
Sirius looked guilty. It was time to admit the truth. Of course, he wasn't going to admit the whole truth. That Remus was a werewolf. Hagrid probably already knew that because Dumbledore trusted Hagrid immensely and would have told him that crucial information and he didn't want to freak out Harry and Ginny, the latter of whom would have most likely experienced the prejudice against werewolves.
"In our second year, we (that is me, James, and the rat) found out about Remus' furry little problem. We figured out anyway to help Remus and his furry little problem and we became Animagi in our fifth year. I became a black dog (he then transformed for the hell of it) and barked, causing Harry and Ginny to laugh, Peter became a grey rat, and James became a stag. We kept Remus at company and helped keep him calm." Sirius explained.
Hagrid nodded.
"We named ourselves names based on our names. I am Padfoot because of my dog feet, James is Prongs because stags have prolonged spikes from their branches, and the rat was Wormtail. Remus was also Moony. We also created a map of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. There are of course many places missing from the map, like some rooms." Sirius said.
"The map was last confiscated in our final year by Filch." Sirius said.
"You said Peter was a gray rat, right, Sirius?" Harry asked, sharing a look with Ginny, his best friend's younger sister, a girl who shared an odd relationship with, was it because he saved her or was it because he had feelings for her?
"Yes." Harry said.
"Ron has a gray rat. Scabbers. He has weird markings. Like, his face has whiskers and ugly like." Harry said.
"So… Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew!" Harry and Ginny said in unison.
Lightning blasted in the background and Harry and Ginny held each other and yelped back in terror.