"What the fuck!" said Amy
"Sirius Black!" Demelza yelled, "what are you guys playing at, let's get out of here, and let's get him captured!"
"Guys, calm down, we can explain!" I said
"Yeah, I mean no harm to anyone in this cave!" Sirius said
"How the fuck do you know him?!" Amy shouted at me "and more importantly, why do you know him?!"
"Look, guys, do you trust me?"
"I- well, yes, but-" Amy replied
"Even for me this is a bit much mate, not gonna lie" Demelza said
"Can you just give us a chance? Would Harry, Ron, Hermione and I all be here if there wasn't a perfectly good reason for it?"
"That is an excellent point" Sirius said. "Can you just let me explain, please?"
Demelza sighed.
"Alright, but only because my best friends are all here, I trust them, so I'll trust you. You better convince me though, because if I get even the slightest sense of danger, I'm going outside and contacting the Ministry straight away!"
"Great! I'll make sure you know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Which I'm now realising is ironic of me to say, because I was sent to Azkaban without a trial!"
"WHAT?!" we all said
"Yeah, and for you two" he pointed at Demelza and Amy, "that's just the tip of the iceberg"
"But we didn't even know that!" Harry said, indicating to himself, Ron and Hermione.
"I'll get to it, but first, these two need to get the full story of how I know you all and everything..."
He conjured chairs for all of us, and we sat down (Amy took a little more convincing) and launched into the story, explaining everything that had happened over the past 2 years, how and why he broke into Hogwarts, how he was Harry's godfather, and and how Peter Pettigrew had faked his death, betrayed the Potters and killed the 12 muggles, framing Sirius in the process. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I interjected at certain moments with extra information. Once it was finally finished, having taken over an hour, there was silence for a while.
Eventually, Amy broke it.
"Well, bloody fucking hell" she said
"That... is one remarkable story" Demelza added "it's gonna take a while to sink in"
"You kept a mass murderer as a pet for 12 years?" Amy said to Ron
"Yep, how nightmarish is that! Wish that's all it was!" Ron replied bitterly.
"You believe me right?" Sirius asked
Demelza and Amy exchanged a glance, then nodded.
"Thank god!" Sirius said, relieved "right, how about some of that food then eh? Chicken!"
Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and bread.
"Thanks," said Sirius, opening it, grabbing a drumstick, and tearing off a large chunk with his teeth. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself." He grinned up at Harry, but Harry returned the grin only reluctantly.
"What're you doing here, Sirius?" he said.
"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray." He was still grinning, but seeing the anxiety in Harry's face, said more seriously, "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter . . . well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."
He nodded at the yellowing Daily Prophets on the cave floor, and Ron picked them up and unfolded them. Harry, however, continued to stare at Sirius.
"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"
"You six and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," said Sirius, shrugging, and continuing to devour the chicken leg.
"It's still a huge risk though!" said Demelza "what if someone was to walk in here randomly when you're in human form?"
"No one ever comes up here. Honestly, you six are the first people I've seen at the top of this hill, and I've been here for weeks!"
Ron showed the rest of us the Daily Prophets.
There were two: The first bore the headline Mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch, the second, Ministry Witch Still Missing — Minister of Magic Now Personally Involved. We scanned the story about Crouch. Phrases jumped out: hasn't been seen in public since November . . . house appears deserted . . . St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries decline comment . . . Ministry refuses to confirm rumors of critical illness. . . .
"They're making it sound like he's dying," said Harry slowly. "But he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here. . . ."
I assumed Harry had told Sirius about the Crouch 1am incident in his last letter.
"My brother's Crouch's personal assistant," Ron informed Sirius. "He says Crouch is suffering from overwork"
"Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close," said Harry slowly, still reading the story. "The night my name came out of the goblet. . . ."
"Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" said Hermione, an edge to her voice.
"Oh here we fucking go!" I said "I'm really getting sick of this now!"
Hermione was stroking Buckbeak and ignoring me. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now — bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him."
"Hermione's obsessed with house-elfs," Ron muttered to Sirius, casting Hermione a dark look. Sirius, however, looked interested.
"Crouch sacked his house-elf?"
"Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup," said Harry, and he launched into the story of the Dark Mark's appearance, and Winky being found with Harry's wand clutched in her hand, and Mr. Crouch's fury. When Harry had finished, Sirius was on his feet again and had started pacing up and down the cave.
"Let me get this straight," he said after a while, brandishing a fresh chicken leg. "You first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?"
"Right," said Harry, Ron, and Hermione together. "But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?"
"No," said Harry. "I think he said he'd been too busy."
Sirius paced all around the cave in silence. Then he said, "Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?"
"Erm . . . No," he said. "I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there were my Omnioculars."
He stared at Sirius. "Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?"
"It's possible," said Sirius.
"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted.
"Hermione mate, as unlikely as it sounds, you can't rule it out" said Demelza patiently. "Stranger things have happened, look at last year, you thought Sirius here was a murderer the whole time, only for a ridiculous sounding story about his innocence to turn out to be true. I'm still reeling from it right now"
Sirius looked at Demelza
"I'm sorry I didn't ask sooner, but what's your name?" he asked
"Demelza Robins"
"I admire your maturity, it's quite rare to see in someone of your age"
"Thank you"
"The elf wasn't the only one in that box," said Sirius, his brow furrowed as he continued to pace. "Who else was sitting behind you?"
"Loads of people," said Harry. "Some Bulgarian ministers . . . Cornelius Fudge . . . the Malfoys . . ."
"The Malfoys!" said Ron suddenly, so loudly that his voice echoed all around the cave, and Buckbeak tossed his head nervously. "I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!"
"Anyone else?" said Sirius.
"No one," said Harry.
"Yes, there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione reminded him.
"Oh yeah . . ."
"Yeah, my wonderful uncle" Amy said scathingly
"Twat" muttered Ron
"Your uncle?" said Sirius
"Yeah, I'm Amy Bagman"
"I don't know anything about him except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," said Sirius, still pacing. "Though I did see that he was arrested recently on suspicion of scamming. That's not got anything to do with you guys has it?"
"Yeah it does" said Ron angrily. "He bet the twins their life savings and never paid up! They lost it all!"
"That's horrible, I hope he gets the right punishment. I think I'm right in saying his trial is the 15th"
"That's right" Hermione nodded "hopefully our written testimony is enough to get him to plead guilty. Would save a trip to London"
"When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?"
"Went to look in the bushes," said Harry, "but there wasn't anyone else there."
"Of course," Sirius muttered, pacing up and down, "of course, he'd want to pin it on anyone but his own elf . . . and then he sacked her?"
"Yes," said Hermione in a heated voice, "he sacked her, just because she hadn't stayed in her tent and let herself get trampled —"
"Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!" said Ron.
"I second that!" I said
Sirius shook his head and said, "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you two have. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." He ran a hand over his unshaven face, evidently thinking hard. "All these absences of Barty Crouch's . . . he goes to the trouble of making sure his house-elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup, but doesn't bother to turn up and watch. He works very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, and then stops coming to that too. . . . It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak."
"D'you know Crouch, then?" said Harry. Sirius's face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when we first met him, the night when we still believed Sirius to be a murderer.
"Oh I know Crouch all right," he said quietly. "He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban — without a trial."
I sat up straight. This was a new story to all of us, and it ought to be interesting...