Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything from the series. If I did, Harry wouldn't have forgiven Dumbledore for leaving him with the Dursleys.

The Not Parting of Ways

Chapter 1: The Difference a Pensieve Can Make

"In that case, Mr. Potter, I'm sure you won't mind providing me a Pensieve memory of You-Know-Who's return. Will you?" Fudge asked, hoping Harry wouldn't be able to and then the whole Voldemort matter would be forgotten. Cornelius Fudge certainly didn't expect Harry's reply.

"Not at all, Minister!" An eager Harry Potter replied and then turned his attention to Albus Dumbledore. "Headmaster, may Minister Fudge and I use your Pensieve?"

"Naturally, Harry." Dumbledore replied with his usual grandfather smile and produced his Pensieve. Harry then put his memory from the moment both he and Cedric Diggory touched the Triwizard Cup and the moment Harry brought Cedric's body from Little Hangleton Graveyard. "Do you believe it now, Minister?"

"Y-yes." Said a nervous Cornelius Fudge, unable to deny such a strong evidence.

"Good." Harry said and then decided to make another request. "Minister, I request that my Godfather, Sirius Black, is given a trial and that the Pensieve memory I've just shown you is included as evidence that he didn't kill Peter Pettigrew."

"What are you talking about, Harry?" Fudge asked. "Of course he killed Peter Pettigrew."

"Then how do you explain Pettigrew's presence at Voldemort's return?" Harry asked.

"Some Death Eater, probably Sirius Black, using Polyjuice to impersonate the deceased Petter Pettigrew to keep up the lies he confused you and your friends with last year." Fudge replied, unknowingly causing Severus Snape to smile and a black dog to growl at him.

Considering it was just revealed how Barty Crouch Junior managed to trick everybody at Hogwarts into believing he was Alastor Moody, Harry admitted to himself how plausible it was. However, Harry then showed Fudge his memory of facing Peter Pettigrew at the Shrieking Shack.

"Harry, I admit the Ministry made a mistake with your godfather but the Ministry can't be seen on a bad light." Fudge replied.

"Then arrest Snape for obstructing justice." Harry suggested. "He was a Death Eater and might have already known about Pettigrew being the real traitor and kept it a secret out of personal hatred against Sirius Black. Was he questioned under Veritaserum?"

"It wouldn't have worked." Fudge replied. "Occlumency Masters like Severus Snape can resist Veritaserum."

"But he said even Voldemort would spill his secret with three drops of it." Harry replied, ignoring the fact he didn't know what Occlumency is.

"And what led him to mention it?" Fudge asked and then Harry mentioned Snape veiled threat.

"Did you threat to use Veritaserum on a student?" Fudge asked.

"It was a bluff, Minister." Snape answered.

"Bluff or not, I'll report this to the Board of Governors." Fudge announced and then turned himself to the black dog. "Sirius Black, I know you're innocent but the memory evidence of this must be shown before you appear in public again so I still have to arrest you." With this, everyone there who still didn't know Sirius Black is an unregistered animagus became confused until Fudge changed Sirius back into human form.

"Aaaaahhhhhhh! That's Sirius Black!" Exclaimed Molly Weasley.

"Sirius Black, you'll be escorted to a Ministry holding cell where you'll be waiting for a trial." Fudge said. "The order to have you kissed will be called off and the charge of murdering Peter Pettigrew will be dropped in face of the evidence he's still alive. I'll issue orders to have Pettigrew and all wizards who responded to You-Know-Who's call tonight arrested as Death Eaters."

Fudge then turned his attention to Albus Dumbledore. "Albus, some of the children attending Hogwarts are children of the denounced Death Eaters. For safety matters, don't let any of them leave the castle until their respective Death Eater parents are arrested, cleared or killed resisting capture." Dumbledore nodded. "As for the giants, you're the one promoting their acceptance so you will be sending envoys to them. And I still won't have the Dementors removed from Azkaban."

"Harry Potter, since You-Know-Who is now able to pass the protection your mother left behind, you'll be a ward of the Ministry until a new guardian is able to raise you since the reason to override the clause of your parents' wills stating you should never be raised by your Muggle relatives." Fudge announced, shocking Harry. "They left wills?"

"Of course they did." Fudge said like it was obvious. "Your father was quite wealthy. And, talking about money…" Fudge then picked a bag with one thousand Galleons and conjured an empty one. He picked five hundred Galleons from the first bag and put it in the other one. "Harry, since you and Cedric Diggory were the first ones to get the Triwizard Cup and touched it at the same time, you get half the money prize." He says, handing Harry one of the bags, and then gives Dumbledore the other bag. "See to it that Cedric's parents get the other half, please. Usually there would be a ceremony, but after all of this…"

Please review. Is this a good beginning? Does anyone know what good Lily's protective wards could bring to make them still needed even after Voldemort managed to bypass them?