Chapter 1

"Oh no you don't! Stupefy!" Harry saw Pettigrew trying to escape his chains and reacted accordingly. He couldn't let his only chance at a family, a real family, get away.

"Great shot! The rat deserved more than a simple stunning spell but that will do for now…actually, why didn't the greasy snake himself stun him to begin with?" Sirius couldn't help but insult Snape while also praising his godson's spell work.

"Shut it, Black! We're going to see Dumbledore and he will get to the bottom of this." Snape's reply was full of glee, he hoped to get a nice reward for delivering Black back to custody.

As the group walked out of the secret passageway beneath the Whomping Willow, Professor Lupin cursed and started running to the castle as fast as his legs could carry him. Ron and Harry watched with bewilderment as Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Oh honestly, Harry! Ron! How are you two so daft? Professor Lupin is a werewolf! It's a full moon! He's going back to his classroom to transform. I'm sure Dumbledore has been providing him with Wolfsbane this entire year. He's harmless…if not scary to look at while fully transformed."

Hermione laughed at their faces, sometimes she forgot that Ron was oblivious to most things and that Harry followed Ron's lead when it came to critical thinking.

As the group walked into Dumbledore's office, they were met with a trio of faces, all with different expressions. Dumbledore looked pleased, with the twinkle in his eyes just a bit brighter than usual. Minister Fudge looked very nervous and confused when he saw both Sirius Black and a stunned Peter Pettigrew. As for Madam Bones, the head of the DMLE, she had an emotion on her face that Harry just couldn't quite recognize.

"What…what's going on here?" Fudge couldn't help but stutter his words. This was not how his night was supposed to go! He was to catch Black, announce it to the press, and have all this Azkaban breakout nonsense put to rest.

"Well Minister, it appears as if a dead man's alive, a prisoner is free, Snape is upset, though that is his default emotion; and the 'Golden Trio' is, as always, at the center of this mess. Go on then, Harry, what happened tonight?" Dumbledore looked very amused at this whole situation. Snape was seething at Dumbledore's comment about his "default emotion".

"Sir, we were walking the grounds and all of a sudden a black dog grabbed Ron by the leg and…"

Sirius interrupted, "Ah, a small miscalculation on my part, no harm meant…"

Harry continued "so we followed the black dog, I mean Sirius, to the Whomping Willow and when we got there, Pettigrew was there too and then Snape came in and please don't send Sirius back to Azkaban. He's innocent!"

"Innocent? innocent!? This man killed twelve muggles in one go! How could he be innocent?" Fudge was now on the warpath. Harry couldn't help but wonder if Fudge just wanted this to be over with as it was election season in the Wizarding World.

"Minister, if I may?" Madam Bones took over the conversation before Fudge had a stroke. "By my authority as the head of the DMLE I am authorizing emergency veritaserum use on Sirius Black, Severus Snape, and Peter Pettigrew." Harry watched as the head of the DMLE pulled out a vial with a dropper on top. It was full of a clear liquid that could only be the aforementioned veritaserum.

"I will NOT be taking that, I don't care if you're the Queen herself, you can't force…" Snape was caught off guard as he suddenly couldn't speak and he pushed his tongue out against his will.

"There's always one who tries to argue." muttered Madam Bones as she shook her head. "You shall be first then."

Harry watched as Madam Bones put her wand away, she must have cast some sort of spell on Snape. She pulled out the vial and placed three drops on the tip of Snape's tongue. He looked furious as he swallowed the clear liquid but then his eyes glazed over.

"Who are you?" Madam Bones began the questioning.

"Severus Tobias Snape" The professor answered in a monotone voice.

"When were you born?"

"9th of January 1960"

"It's working, great. Now tell me what happened tonight once you got into the secret passageway of the Whomping Willow."

As Professor Snape began to retell the story of how he chased after Sirius and found Peter Pettigrew, Hermione leaned over to Harry and whispered in his ear. "Harry, it's very rare that the head of the DMLE enacts her authority to use veritaserum, I think this is the best chance Sirius has at being freed, and that means no more Dursley's for you! Oh, Harry, that would be wonderful!"

Harry just nodded, too focused on the situation at hand. Of course he hoped he would never have to go back, but for the past two summers he's had to endure the harsh treatment of the Dursley's, so he didn't want to get his hopes up at this point. He watched as Snape was given the antidote and then it was Sirius' turn for the veritaserum.

"Name?"

"Sirius Orion Black" Even though Sirius was obviously under the effects of the veritaserum, Harry couldn't help but notice a look of happiness on his sunken face.

"Date of birth?"

"3rd of November 1959"

"How is Pettigrew still alive? Didn't you kill him twelve years ago?"

"No, Pettigrew blew up the street on his own, transformed into a rat and got away."

"What do you mean transformed into a rat? Is he an animagus?"

"Yes, we all were, James, Peter, and me."

Sirius was given the antidote and everybody turned to Peter.

"Incarcerous! Rennervate!" Madam Bones spelled rope on to Peter and woke him up to be questioned. Not skipping a beat she administered the serum and began questioning him with the usual questions until…

"Tell me everything that has happened in the past 12 years."

A/N: This is my first attempt at fanfiction in a long while. Please let me know what you think!