Authors Note: Hi, this is the first book I'm writing. I'm a 16 year old that's currently bored due to COVID-19, so I've decided to try my hand at writing. Please go easy on me and don't be too harsh on my writing. Thanks! I hope you enjoy the story.
This story may be hard to follow for the first chapter or two, but bear with me. It gets easier to understand as the story goes on. A helpful thing to note will be that in this story, Remus remembered to drink the Wolfsbane potion so they were able to bring Peter to Dumbledore's office.
A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight.
Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Black froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry and Hermione stop.
"I...I drank the wolfsbane potion tonight" Professor Lupin said, looking nervously at the moon.
"Someone, chain Pettigrew to you instead, I'll be turning soon. The Wolfsbane potion will prevent me from harming any of you, but I won't be able to go up to the headmaster's office."
Harry stepped forward, chained Pettigrew to himself, and the group continued on towards Hogwarts and the headmaster's office, leaving Professor Lupin behind. They marched on in silence, not daring to so much as to breathe a word. As they reached the castle, a whiff of cool, spine chilling air blew past them.
"De-dementors! Runnnn!" Sirius screamed pulling Harry with one hand and Hermione with the other, sprinting the last 10 meters to the castle.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron followed, running as fast as they could while dragging Professor Snape (snivellus!) and Pettigrew along with them. Sirius shuddered, the dementors making him remember the terrible memories from Azkaban. Just as the dementors were coming upon them, they reached the castle and bounded up the steps, the doors slamming shut behind them. The dementors howled from outside, wanting to enter but unable to with the thick doors of the castle between them.
"Hurry, let's go up to the Headmaster's office", Hermione panted, struggling to regain her breath.
The group trudged up the stairs to the Headmaster's office, getting many weird looks and scaring away many of the younger years, who scampered off at the sight of Sirius, who was still thought to be a mass murderer, Professor Snape, the feared potions professor, and Pettigrew, long thought to be dead.
Finally, they reached the headmaster's office, stopping at the gargoyle.
"Please let us see the headmaster, we have important news for him" Harry said with authority. The gargoyle swung open, allowing the group to enter. As they entered the office, Dumbledore saw them, gasping as he saw that Sirius and Pettigrew were part of their group. He took out his wand and instantly stunned both of them.
"Professor, let us explain!" Hermione panicked. She started rambling, telling the Professor all that had happened as he looked on with the customary twinkle in his eye.
As Hermione finished her story, Minister Fudge entered Dumbledore's office, looking extremely flustered.
"What was it I heard of Black being here!" he said before his head swiveled to see Sirius and Pettigrew stunned on the floor.
"Why…why are they here? Pettigrew should be dead! Sirius should be in Azkaban! What are three third year students doing here? Call Madam Bones!" Minister Fudge said in a stunned manner.
"I do believe Mr. Weasley here needs to go to the hospital wing, we will discuss the matter later on after he's brought to the hospital wing. Meanwhile, I'll floo Madam Bones and ask her to come here as soon as possible" Dumbledore said with a grandfatherly smile, ushering Harry and Hermione out the door with Ron between them.
Harry and Hermione supported Ron between them, walking towards the hospital wing, leaving Dumbledore to deal with Fudge and Snape, Sirius, and Pettigrew who were all stunned in Dumbledore's office.
"What do you think Dumbledore is going to do? I hope Sirius gets pardoned, then I can live with him, and I don't need to go back or the Dursley's."
"Harry, why don't you want to live with the Dursleys? Aren't they your relatives on your mother's side? Your only living relatives left?" Hermione asked, confused about why Harry would not want to live with his Aunt and Uncle.
"Uhh nothing!"
"You didn't know?"
Harry and Ron exclaimed simultaneously.
Harry rambled, while motioning to Ron to stop talking, "It's nothing much, I'll tell you later!"
"I don't want Hermione to find out, she won't want to be my friend anymore! But she's Hermione, she'll help me. No, no, she'll be scared off, I can't tell her, she won't want to be associated with someone like me anymore!" Harry thought, having an internal conflict about whether or not he should tell Hermione about his life at the Dursley's and what her reaction would be.
Finally, the trio arrived at the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey bustled out, casting diagnosing spells on all of them.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, thank Merlin both of you seem fine! But you, Mr. Weasley, how did you break your ankle?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, both relieved and concerned at the same time.
The trio shared a glance, silently asking what they should respond with.
"We got into a bit of an accident, but it's nothing, we're fine!" Hermione hurriedly exclaimed.
Madam Pomfrey ran a scrutinizing eye over them, before nodding her head and bustling away to get some potions for the trio after telling Ron to get into a bed and telling Harry and Hermione to sit on the chairs by the beds. She returned soon, giving Harry and Hermione a pepper-up potion and sending them off and turning to Ron, and starting to work on him, putting him into a potion-induced sleep so that she could heal his ankle properly.
"Hermione, should we go back to Dumbledore's office to check on Sirius and see what is happening?"
"Do you think Dumbledore will allow us to?"
"He does have a bit of a soft spot for me!" Harry said, smiling widely at Hermione.
"Oh you! Big headed boys!" huffed Hermione, punching Harry lightly in the arm.
Harry grabbed her hand, holding it tightly as they walked to the headmaster's office together.
Back in the headmaster's office, Dumbledore was floo calling Madam Bones to inform her of the situation while Minister Fudge ensured Sirius, Pettigrew, and Snape did not leave, or escape in some cases.
"May I use your floo to go over Dumbledore?"
"Yes, of course."
"Give me five minutes to gather some aurors to deal with this situation."
"I'll leave my floo open for you."
"Thank you."
Dumbledore withdrew his head from the fireplace and turned back to Minster Fudge motioning for him to sit. They sat in silence, not knowing what to say. Soon after, the gargoyle swung open, allowing Harry and Hermione to enter.
"What are they doing here? They're just two third year students?" Minister Fudge exclaimed as they entered the room.
"Now, now let's not be hasty Fudge. They were, after all, the one who brought Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew here. I do believe we will find out soon why Mr. Potter and Miss Granger here are involved."
Just then, Madam Bones arrived with two senior aurors in tow.
"Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew are here? How did they arrive here? Did anyone get hurt by any of them? Why are three third year students involved in this matter? What is it I hear from my aurors that there are a hundred dementors here? What are so many dementors doing here at the school? It is absolutely not safe for the students!" Madam Bones asked about the chaos that was happening.
Harry and Hermione explained what had happened for the second time that night, making sure to include every minor detail. At the end of the explanation, Minister Fudge was looking nervously on while Madam Bones consideried the situation with an impassive look on her face.
"So… so Black is actually innocent? It was Pettigrew that had faked his death and murdered the muggles back in 1981? What will we tell the public? Oh, the press will have a field day!" Minister Fudge muttered nervously, pacing around the room, evidently thinking of ways to get out of this with his public image intact.
Harry and Hermione shared a glance, moving closer to each other to comfort each other amidst the tense atmosphere of the room.
"Well, the only way we can find out the truth is if we use veritaserum on Black, Pettigrew, and Snape since they were all involved in it," Madam Bones stayed in an authoritative voice.
"But… but what about Mr. Potter and Miss Granger here? And Mr. Weasley who is in the hospital wing? And Professor Lupin who is still out there, bounding about as a werewolf? They were involved in it too! In fact, they were the ones that helped Black and Pettigrew escape from the dementors!" Minister Fudge said with a reddish purple face, pointing an accusing finger at Harry and Hermione.
They cowered, not daring to say anything, and only looking nervously from Dumbledore to Madam Bones, hoping that they would defend them.
"Minister Fudge! Surely you're not asking me to give 3 underage minors veritaserum, and without their guardians permission! And I certainly don't believe that we can give Professor Lupin right now!" Madam Bones said, glaring angrily at Minister Fudge, daring him to argue with her.
Harry and Hermione let out a deep breath, relieved that they didn't have to be questioned by Madam Bones. Madam Bones methodically took the bottle of veritaserum handed to her from one of the aurors and set it on Dumbledore's table, motioning for Dumbledore to test that the potion was truly veritaserum. Dumbledore flicked his wand and nodded, saying that it was indeed veritaserum.
Madam Bones turned towards the three stunned individuals, reviving Sirius first and ordering him to sit in an empty chair.
He sat, looking at her nervously, before clearing his throat and exclaiming "I promise! It wasn't me, I wouldn't have betrayed Lily and James! Not even if they killed me!"
"Open your mouth, I'll give you the veritaserum now and I will question you"
Madam Bones opened the bottle and dripped three drops into Sirius' mouth, before nodding her head and motioning to the senior aurors that they could start the self-writing quill that would record whatever was spoken. She then turned towards Sirius, ready to ask the customary 3 questions that were asked when a person was given veritaserum.
"What is your name?"
"Sirius Orion Black."
"What house were you in?"
"Gryffindor."
"What is your age?"
"34 years old."
"Did you betray James and Lily Potter?"
"No, I would never!"
"Were you a death eater?"
"No!"
"Were you a supporter of you-know-who?"
"I would never support him."
"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew and the muggles in 1981?"
"No, Pettigrew was the one that killed the muggles with a spell that caused the entire floor to blast away, killing the muggles with the explosion. He slipped away right after by transforming into his animagus form, a rat, and ran into the drain."
"Peter Pettigrew is an animagus?"
"Yes, James, Peter and I trained together and became animagus in our fifth year."
Madam Bones then asked a series of questions about what had happened that night, confirming what Harry and Hermione had said. She then did the same thing with Pettigrew, asking him similar questions and it matched what was said by Sirius, although in the opposite direction. Additionally, he was asked to name all the death eaters he knew about. He listed the names of many who were thought to be honourable members of the community, such as Lucius Malfoy and Nott Sr., on top of most who were already in Azkaban. By the time Pettigrew had finished listing the names, Minister Fudge was shaking with anxiety, worried as he had often been associating with a rather large number of them. Madam Bones checked the paper, making sure that all the names were properly recorded so that it could be used as evidence.
Finally, Snape was questioned about the events that had occurred that night, up until he was knocked out by Sirius, further confirming Harry and Hermione's narrative.
As more and more questions had been asked, Minister Fudge had paled more and more, and by the time Madam Bones was done questioning all three of them, he had broken out in a cold sweat, looking about nervously, as of expecting a Daily Prophet reporter to pop out from behind a chair and scare him.
Once Madam Bones had ordered the two senior aurors to bring Pettigrew back to the Ministry, and immediately throw him through the veil due to his heavy offences, and tidied up her papers, preparing to sign the documentation that would proclaim Sirius as a free man, Minister Fudge interrupted with a heavy sigh.
Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, who was now given a seat, Harry, and Hermione looked intently at him while Madam Bones continued to complete her paperwork and Professor Snape left the headmaster's office, leaving the five of them who were more seriously involved in the matter alone.
"How will we explain this? The man we thought was a hero and who was given an order of Merlin is in fact the one who should have been locked in Azkaban. The man we thought betrayed James and Lily Potter had actually done nothing wrong and was put into Azkaban for no reason!" Minister Fudge exclaimed.
"You weren't the Minister when Mr. Black here was put into jail. You can simply say that it was a mistake by the previous Minister of Magic and Head of Department, and that you had thought that Sirius was a mass murderer. I will of course support you and ensure that the blame is not totally put on you and that you are able to get out of this relatively unscathed. Of course, you will have to take the blame for the dementors at Hogwarts as there is no one else to put the blame on. Madam Bones, Sirius what do you think about it?" Dumbledore remarked, stroking his long and white beard, with a twinkling in his eye, though his face held a heavy expression.
"Of course, of course! And we will give Mr. Black ten thousand galleons (the exchange rate is twenty pounds to a galleon so this is two hundred thousand galleons) for each of the 11 years he wrongfully stayed in Azkaban" Minister Fudge said, obviously relieved that he would get out of this without being too heavily criticised, allowing him to keep his job as the Minister of Magic.
"I would like a meeting of the Wizengamot to be arranged for next Monday, for me to take my place as Lord Black and the Potter Regent for Heir Potter of course. It's been a long time since the seats of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black and the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter have been occupied, I do think it's time they are occupied again." Sirius remarked, looking from Minister Fudge to Dumbledore, as if daring them to disagree.
Dumbledore and Minister Fudge both paled slightly, worried about the effects of Sirius taking up his rightful seat and helping Harry take care of his rightful seat.
Harry and Hermione looked curiously at Sirius, wondering what he was saying about the Wizengamot.
Harry whispered, shocked about what Sirius said "Potter Regent… Heir Potter… Most Ancient… and Noble House of Potter? What's all that?"
Sirius immediately swiveled his head to look at Harry, stunned at the questions he was asking.
"You don't know?!"
Authors Note: Thanks for reading my first chapter! Hopefully, I'll be able to update it on Sunday, I've already started writing a bit of it.
How do you guys like it so far? Please give constructive comments!