Sorry it's such a short chapter! Haven't had much time lately to write so apologies for the lateness. Hope you enjoy Sirius and Harry finally getting what they deserve.

"Mr Potter," Amelia greeted, "Please take a seat."

Sirius gave Harry a smile, glancing over him to see if he could see any injuries. Satisfied he could see none, he relaxed marginally back into his seat. Casually placing a hand on Harry's shoulder, rubbing it gently, he was glad to see Harry relax a little.

"Thank you. Mr Potter, we have heard some quite… enlightening things from your friends about your guardians. I was wondering if we could clarify a few things?"

Harry nodded jerkily, twisting the hem of his shirt in his hands, head tilted down.

"Good, firstly, a common thing mentioned was the derogatory names the Dursleys, especially Vernon, would refer to you as, such as freak or abomination. Is that correct?"

Harry gave a short nod, saying softly, "Yeah, I mean, it doesn't bother me anymore but like, it kinda hurts a bit you know? The kindest thing they called me was boy because they couldn't abide calling my by my name."

Amelia's lips thinned however she didn't say anything, instead continuing "Ron specifically mentioned as you got older they started to get physically violent towards you, such as whipping you." She sighed, hating having to ask this of him but it was necessary unfortunately. "Apparently you have scars from it. If you could, please," she indicated to his shirt and Sirius turned sharply to Harry, seemingly communicating silently before Harry stood up, lifting his shirt. Thin white lines traced his back, over lapping each other and some of the more recent ones were still an angry pink. Sirius gave a sharp intake of breath but remained silent, instead offering support by wrapping an arm around Harry when he sat back down. Dumbledore was noticeably silent.

"Thank you," Amelia said, swallowing visibly. "Really, that by itself is more than enough evidence but could you just cross check a few more things and then Lord Black will be free to sign the papers."

Both Harry and Sirius perked up at that, excitement and hope beginning to trickle through Harry. He had always had most things he wanted taken away from him, and having Sirius ripped away in third year was one of the hardest things he had dealt with, especially when Lupin had to leave right after. Finally, it seemed, things were looking up.

Hermione rocked back on forth on the edge of her seat, staring intently at the ministers door. Having been teased by the twins that she was attempting to burn the door down with her eyes before suggesting an extendable ear which she refused. She may be dying to know what was going on in there but she still had morals! Fred and George were now murmuring with their father in low voices while Ron was staring at the wall in front of him, expressionless. Something she had never seen before. Blank, sure. But this, emptiness? Never. She had no idea what he had said and been made t relieve while in there but it was worrying. She knew Ron had far more experience with Harry's abuse than she did and a lot more knowledge but it still hurt. Had she not been a good enough friend for him to trust her?

Logically she knew that survivors of these things often disliked talking about them, that Ron had only found out by accident but still. She sighed, attempting to relax her posture. It didn't matter how impatient she was, they were going to be in there for however long and she couldn't control that. What she could control was how painful her muscles would be in the morning due to her posture.

Going for her failsafe way of distracting herself, she tugged a book out of her bag, causing Ron to snort. His first reaction to anything since leaving the room. Hermione gave him a shy smile while he returned, albeit tiredly, but it was there at least. Speed-reading through the transfiguration syllabus for sixth year, she marked down the most useful spells for them to learn before moving on to DADA. The book chosen didn't seem half bad, so maybe things were finally looking up and they would be getting a decent DADA teacher.

A sudden voice startled her out of her revelry and she jerked up at the same time as the others to see Amelia storming out of her office, Dumbledore striding after her, saying "But you must understand the blood wards. You can't just pull him out! He will not only endanger himself but his aunt and uncle –"

"What a shame," Sirius spat from the door, where he stood, an arm wrapped around a clearly shaken Harry. "They damn well deserve what they get for what they put him through."

Dumbledore opened his mouth, his blue eyes no longer twinkling but held a sort of mad glint in them and Hermione couldn't take it any longer.

"So you got guardianship?" she asked Sirius brightly, who gave a terse nod in reply. "I'm guessing time for a visit to Gringotts then, inform them of all the developments. We need to get the Potter assets unfreezed as well."

Harry gave her a relieved smile, clearly catching on to what she was doing but bother Sirius and Amelia froze. "What?!" Sirius bellowed, "The Potter assets were frozen? No one but the current Lord or stand in can do that and I know that James didn't and as I was unavailable no one could apart from when Harry gained Lordship."

"Sirius, m'boy, what you must understand –"

"Understand?!" Amelia was seething at this point. "You were just the Chief Warlock and that was not in your rights to so. You have violated so many laws I have right to arrest you right now!"

The affronted look on Dumbledore's face at that made Hermione decide it was probably time to get out of here and leave Dumbledore's fate to the minister. She took Harry's hand and they, along with Ron and Sirius headed out, Fred and George instead taking Mr Weasley to their shop after extracting promises from the four of them to visit later.

Finally free, Sirius slung an arm of Harry and walked out of the ministry, godson safe next to him, into the world.