Chapter One - Truth Will Out
Meeting thirteen year old Harry Potter had to be one of the happiest moments of Sirius' life.
Of course it had been somewhat dampened by the fact that the boy had tried to strangle him, but once they'd told him and the others the truth and captured Pettigrew, they were both able to take in the reality of the situation.
"You know what this means, turning Pettigrew in?"
"You're free?"
"Yes but I'm also… I don't know if anyone ever told you… I'm your godfather."
"Yeah, I knew that."
"Well your parents appointed me your guardian. If anything happened to them. I'll understand of course if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle but, well, think about it. Once my name's cleared. If you wanted… a different home?"
He wasn't at all sure Harry would say yes. He knew the chances were slim. He wondered what he must look like to Harry. A starved, gaunt man whose only redeeming quality was that he was his father's best friend. Harry would surely barely even remember his father. He'd been living with his aunt and uncle for thirteen years. Maybe he was happy there.
"What, live with you? Leave the Dursleys?"
"Of course I thought you wouldn't want to." He said quickly. "I understand. I just thought I'd…"
"Are you mad?" He said hoarsely, and the two of them stopped walking. "Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
And it was that moment. That moment right there when it was as if the last thirteen years had never happened.
Harry's father had been the first person Sirius had ever felt truly understood by. He'd have done anything for James, and he knew James would have done the same for him. Their friendship had been the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him, and now it seemed his son wanted to know him too.
He grinned. "You want to? You mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it."
That was the happiest moment of the last thirteen years.
But, for the second time, Wormtail very nearly ruined it.
There was confusion and panic outside the willow as Remus began to transform. Of course Sirius was more than enough of a match for him in his dog form, but they still needed to get the kids away.
"RUN!" He shouted at them as his friend's body grew rigid. It was happening. This was the first step.
Harry didn't run. "NOW!" He yelled again.
Fur was sprouting from Remus' skin. His back was arching. He fell to his hands and knees, his hands curving into clawed paws.
Peter had dived for Snape's fallen wand. Harry grabbed it. "Don't you dare!"
The sound drew Remus' attention.
"Harry! Run!"
"But Pettigrew!"
Sirius took the wand from him. "Petrificus totalus!" He cried, pointing it at Wormtail, and then he transformed.
He stood on his hind legs as Padfoot, holding Moony back as he clawed and fought to get at the humans.
Fortunately Harry and the others had listened to him. They were running up to the castle. Good. He could deal with Snivellus or Wormtail being eaten. As long as the kids were safe.
He turned back to Moony and the pair of them fought and snarled.
Moony was the least human in the first stages of the transformation. As the wolf took over, he would forget who he was. But if Sirius stayed with him, if James and Peter had stayed with him, he came back to himself.
Poor Remus. How had those transformations been for him in the months after James had died and Sirius had been taken to Azkaban? It must have been hell.
"Moony." He pleaded now as a dog. "Moony, it's me. Padfoot."
He widened his eyes, imploring the wolf to recognise him. Please, it's OK. It's safe.
But then the wolf's eyes fell on Wormtail and Snape, both lying immobile on the ground.
Sirius felt his heart quicken. He said he hadn't cared if either of them got eaten but there was a difference between imagination and reality (as he really ought to have known by now).
He pushed Moony away with his front legs. He wouldn't give Peter the satisfaction of a quick end like that. He wanted the whole world to know what a piece of treacherous scum he was. See how he liked having his face splashed across the Daily Prophet for the murder of his best friends.
Something shifted in Moony's amber eyes. He raised his head, gave one long howl and then turned and charged off towards the forbidden forest.
Sirius, heart still racing, turned back into a man.
Snape was coming round now too. Oh bloody hell. Why did he have to deal with Snivellus on top of everything else this evening?!
"Black. Pettigrew." He said, glaring between Sirius and Peter as if they were back at school and he'd been tricked again.
"Snivellus." Sirius responded.
Snape got to his feet and pointed a shaky finger at Sirius. "I don't believe a word of your cock and bull story!"
Sirius wracked his brains to remember what the git had heard. Hadn't he been lurking hidden in the shadows for half of the story and then knocked out for the rest? He'd obviously put two and two together and made fifty. Some things really didn't change...
"I know you're thick, but you're not blind too are you? Pettigrew's literally right here." He pointed at the blond, balding man by his feet.
The last thirteen years hadn't been kind to Peter. He looked more rat-like than ever and being thin certainly didn't suit him either. He was barely recognisable as the healthy, chubby boy he'd been at Hogwarts and in the Order.
Snape stared at the man. "I don't know what joke you're trying to pull now, Black…"
"Severus!"
Sirius' head spun around in the direction of the noise. It was Albus Dumbledore.
He was striding across the grounds towards them looking quite as grave as Sirius had ever seen him (including the time he'd tried to feed Snape to Moony in his fifth year).
The man waved his wand and Sirius felt the familiar sensation of having his hands bound behind his back.
"Headmaster!" He said, desperate that the man should understand. "We've got Peter. He's right here!"
"Are you alright?" Dumbledore said to Snape who nodded.
Dumbledore turned to Sirius. The cold fury in his eyes was painful to witness.
He'd known the whole wizarding world would hate him for what they thought he'd done to James and Lily but as he'd been in prison and on the run for thirteen years he'd never had to experience their rage face on.
He knew Dumbledore would have been more disappointed in him than almost anyone else. He'd given him a chance. He'd believed the best in him, when so many people never looked past his last name and when, he had to admit, there hadn't always been good reason to.
"Professor Dumbledore…" he tried again.
But Dumbledore was looking at Wormtail. "Peter Pettigrew." He said quietly. He turned to Sirius. He turned to Snape. "Would someone kindly explain to me what is going on?"
Of course Sirius and Snape had quite different versions of events.
"I saw Potter and his friends were out of bounds on that map Lupin had in his office. I came down at once and found myself being knocked out by them, which I hope they will be punished for. Black and Lupin had somehow managed to convince them Black was innocent. It was all quite ridiculous."
"Quite as ridiculous as you." Sirius had shot back. "Because the evidence is almost literally under your feet."
Dumbledore had ended up reviving 'the evidence', allowing Wormtail to give his version of events.
Sirius glared at him, fighting back a strong desire to throttle him (though of course he couldn't as his hands were still bound), as Peter told Dumbledore the same sob story he'd told the others in the shack.
Fortunately, Dumbledore had just as many questions about it as Remus had.
Eventually, he decided the best thing to do would be to alert the ministry, and they would decide on the sensible next course of action.
Though Sirius had wanted to go to the hospital wing to see Harry, Dumbledore made him wait in his office with Snape and Wormtail.
There was a bizarre sense of nostalgia being back here with these two men. How many times had they been called in here over some fight with Snape in the past?
Just as he had done as a teenager, he shot Snape murderous looks as they waited for the minister to arrive. He didn't want to look at Wormtail. The sight of him made him want to throw up.
Sirius glared at Cornelius Fudge as he entered Dumbledore's office to quite the same degree he'd just been glaring at Snivellus.
He knew Fudge hadn't been in office in 1981 when he'd been arrested, but he'd still been in government. He still supported the laws written up by Barty Crouch that would send an innocent man to Azkaban for twelve years without a trial.
He was accompanied by two aurors who immediately came and grabbed Sirius, pulling him to his feet and holding him firmly between them. "I'm not going anywhere!" He told them angrily. "It's not as if I have a wand or anything!"
"We're not risking letting you get away so easily again this time." Fudge glared at him. "Now, what's going on?" He said, turning to Dumbledore.
"I don't know why you won't let me explain" Sirius said, quite unable to help himself. "Since I'm the only one with all the facts here!"
"I don't think that is wise, minister." Snape said to Fudge. "Black here has been good at escaping justice since the age of sixteen. I see no reason for you to humour him with any more misguided attention."
"Oh shut up Snivellus." He snapped, again unable to help himself. "Minister, Peter Pettigrew's right there! He was the Potters' secret keeper. He sold them out to Voldemort!"
Fudge jumped and spluttered at the mention of Voldemort's name. Oh for heaven's sake, did anyone have a backbone in the ministry?
The aurors were looking at Peter now as though not sure whether to seize him too.
"Well, this is quite a state of confusion we all find ourselves in!" Dumbledore said brightly. "Might I make a suggestion, minister?"
Fudge turned to Dumbledore and the look of pathetic relief on his face was quite unnerving to anyone who might have held out some hope the ministry was in any sort of control of the situation.
"Professor Snape, I believe you have a phial of veritaserum in your potions cupboard."
Snape stared at Dumbledore. Of course he did the sly sod. Sirius knew the use of the potion was illegal, so why the idiot had a bottle in a castle full of children was anyone's best guess.
"It's alright. I am merely suggesting that you fetch it. I am not suggesting anything else."
Snape looked at him a little suspiciously but he left the office.
The aurors and Fudge both looked at Dumbledore.
"Black, Pettigrew, do you know what veritaserum does to a person?" Dumbledore said calmly.
"'Course we do." Sirius said. They'd been taught about it by Professor Slughorn when they were at school.
But Peter shook his head. Sirius wasn't sure if he was lying or not. Peter had been present for the potions class in question, but as he was so hopeless in all their subjects, he might genuinely not have remembered.
"It is a truth serum." Dumbledore explained. "One drop of it will force the drinker to answer any questions asked of him honestly."
"Perfect." Sirius said. "I've got nothing to hide."
But Peter shook his head again. "It's… illegal."
"Ah. So you do know of it then?"
Peter shook his head again. "I… I assumed."
"Peter, you've never been a good liar." Dumbledore told him. "Now why don't you tell me why you really don't want to tell the truth?"
Sirius watched as Peter's small blue eyes darted from Dumbledore, to Sirius, to Fudge and then to the two aurors holding Sirius.
And then, in what can only have been a moment of madness, he leapt to his feet and rushed to the door.
The aurors were on him at once.
"Bloody hell!" Came Snape's irritated voice as he came back into the room holding a bottle of potion and almost tripping over Wormtail who was now being wrestled to the floor.
It had been a good idea of Dumbledore's, Sirius thought. He certainly didn't look like the guilty party anymore.
"Peter Pettigrew. I am arresting you on suspicion of death eater activity." One of the aurors holding him said now. "I think we'd better take them both to the ministry." He told Fudge. "See if we can't get to the truth somehow."
Snape proffered the bottle of veritaserum.
"Yeah, if it comes down to it I'm sure we'll get permission to use it." The auror said. "But if they're sensible, they'll talk freely."
Sirius doubted very much that Wormtail would be sensible.
They were taken to a couple of cells in the cool basement of the ministry. It was nowhere near as uncomfortable as Azkaban had been but it was still unpleasant being locked up again.
"This isn't right." He heard Wormtail mutter. "I'm innocent!"
Sirius snorted. "Say it enough times Wormtail and it might come true."
Ironically, Sirius had felt nothing but guilt during his twelve years' imprisonment. While yes technically he hadn't betrayed the Potters he was still the reason they were dead. Was that why it had been so hard for him to speak out for himself?
Of course when he'd first been arrested he'd been hysterical with grief. He wasn't in any state to say anything rational in his own defence, and then when he'd been taken to Azkaban any thoughts of freedom were quickly extinguished by the cold hopelessness of the dementors. All that was left for him to feel was despair. Until he'd seen that photo of Wormtail in the paper…
"How could you do it?" He said bitterly now. Of course he'd had thirteen years to reflect on this question, and had yet to come to a satisfactory answer. Was his old friend's stinking skin all that really mattered to him?
Wormtail didn't answer. Sirius didn't expect him to. What reason could he possibly offer for what he'd done?
"I hope they lock you up and throw away the key."
Azkaban really was hell, but if anyone deserved it, Peter Pettigrew surely did. From the looks of it, he'd not been eating as much as he had done in their youth, which was a good thing, as he wouldn't be getting fed much in Azkaban. Sirius had experienced days of near starvation in the prison. Usually when the guards were in a particularly foul mood. The human guards hadn't been as bad as the dementors but they weren't far off…
There was the sound of footsteps and a man and a woman appeared. The man was blond and in perhaps his mid to late forties. The woman he thought he recognised as having been a few years above him at Hogwarts.
"Hello Sirius." The woman smiled. "I'm Laura McLaggen. You probably don't recognise me from school." McLaggen… Yes, she'd been on the Gryffindor quidditch team the year James had tried out.
"Course I do." Sirius smiled. "Didn't you tell James to shut up and stop being a spoilt brat once?"
He was quite sure every member of the quidditch team had said something similar to James during his time as chaser. His friend had been a very good player, but unfortunately far too eager to prove his own flying abilities above those of the rest of the team. At least at first. Fortunately his head had deflated enough by sixth year for Dumbledore to offer him the captaincy.
"And didn't you put bulbadox powder in Regulus Black's pyjamas the night before our match against Slytherin once?"
Sirius grinned. Unfortunately the boils that had broken out across his brother's skin hadn't stopped him from catching the snitch on that occasion, but it had given them all a good laugh nonetheless.
"It's quite possible." Sirius agreed.
"Are you here for a suspect interrogation or a cosy catch up?" Scrimgeour said, scowling at them. "Let me remind you Black has a ten thousand galleon price tag over his head, McLaggen. He is guilty until proven innocent."
Sirius shot Laura an apologetic look, but Laura turned to Scrimgeour. "I didn't realise there was anything in the rules about not talking to the suspects. How are you to know this isn't all part of a clever ruse to lower his guard?"
"Is it?"
"Well of course." She said, winking at Sirius.
But Sirius didn't have a guard up to start with. He told the aurors everything they wanted to know, answering their questions thoroughly and honestly, all except for the bit about how he escaped from Azkaban, the details of which he left vague. He certainly wasn't going to reveal to anyone from the ministry that he'd become an animagus illegally in his fifth year.
He did also stall a bit when Laura asked why he hadn't told anyone he was innocent at the time. He didn't quite have an answer to that himself, or he did, but it wasn't one he felt quite able to share with a stranger and a woman he hadn't seen in twenty years.
"Well, it certainly calls quite a few things into question." Scrimgeour said and Sirius was pleased to see he was looking a little uncomfortable. "We'll let you know when we've reviewed the evidence. I expect there will be a re-trial…"
"I think you mean a trial." Sirius corrected him. "I didn't get one first time round."
Scrimgeour looked more awkward still. "Right. Well, if you'd kindly wait back in your cell…"
Sirius did so, though he didn't consider there anything particularly 'kind' about the request.
A few hours later, Fudge arrived.
"A decision has been made. On a review of the evidence, you are to be released until your sentence can be officially overturned. Peter Pettigrew has been charged with the Potters' murders. He is awaiting trial now. Of course the outcome of that will significantly affect your case too."
Well that was patently obvious wasn't it? How many traitors did the ministry think one secret organisation could hold?
"Thank you, minister." He said instead. "So, can I go?"
He wanted to go back to Hogwarts. He wanted to check Harry was alright. It must have been a shock for him finding out Sirius was innocent and that it had been his friend's rat who'd betrayed his parents all this time.
He felt a hot wave of fury at the thought of little Peter living out his last decade in the Weasleys' family home. And how could he have dared look at Harry? He'd even slept in his dormitory for the last three years! The boy whose parents he'd perpetrated the murder of. That treacherous, cowardly…
"Albus Dumbledore is coming for you. He has agreed to keep an eye on you until an official decision can be made."
Sirius said nothing. He wasn't sure how he felt towards his old headmaster and boss at the moment. He supposed he ought to have been grateful the man hadn't instantly summoned the dementors on finding him in the grounds, but there was still a niggling resentment he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Dumbledore was the most trusting man he knew. He believed the best in everyone and he was a good judge of character. He'd known Sirius, hadn't he? Hadn't he seen how much Sirius had fought against the dark arts it would have been so easy for him to have fallen into coming from a family like his?
Yet he'd given evidence against him. He'd let him be sent to Azkaban without a trial. As he'd seen in his office, the minister respected Dumbledore and his opinions clearly held a lot of weight. If he'd insisted Sirius be given a trial, Sirius was sure that he would have been.
But he didn't, and he wasn't.
He knew it didn't do to dwell on the past, but the past was all he'd had for twelve years of anticipating no future.
So it was a little coolly that he greeted his old headmaster when he came for him shortly later.
He was glad when the man left his office so he and Harry could have a proper catch up in there.
He was even glad when Dumbledore suggested he go back to his parents' house in Grimmauld Place.
Though his childhood home was certainly not somewhere he particularly wanted to be again, at least he'd be alone there. He could trust himself, even if, apparently, no one else did.
…
A/N: Let me know what you think! I had debated leaving out Sirius' feelings of resentment towards Dumbledore as quite honestly I expect he was just happy to be finally getting exonerated, but I thought it could be an interesting dynamic to explore between the men later on. If anyone's curious I've also written a canon-compliant couple of chapters which explores Sirius' wrongful imprisonment from Dumbledore's POV.