AN Disclaimer Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling I own nothing. This is fanfiction, I make no money out of this whatsoever. My beta reader goes by the pen name of parselmagic. Now that that's out of the way...

Prologue

Sirius was hard pressed to prevent himself from laughing aloud as the wind rushed past his face and he felt the strong beat of the hippogriff's wings carrying him higher and towards safety. He had been schooling himself to face the dementor's kiss, consoling himself with the fact that at least his godson, his precious godson knew the truth along with Moony. Needless to say that crumb of comfort had been slight. And then said godson had appeared outside the window, with his friend, Hermione he thought her name was, and minutes before he was due to have his soul sucked out, they had rescued him and given him his freedom.

A wide smile broke out across his face, he had escaped, his godson knew his innocence and the future was certainly looking brighter, even though that damned rat had escaped. A scowl briefly contorted his features, but they soon relaxed as he thought of his saviour, Harry. His breath had almost deserted him when he had first caught sight of the boy back in Magnolia Crescent, for a moment he had thought he had seen James but when Harry turned to look at him the emerald of his eyes had almost given him a heart attack. He hadn't seen those eyes for nearly twelve years and seeing them widen in fear was almost more than he could bear. The urge to transform and go and comfort Harry had been almost overwhelming, in fact Sirius knew that if the Knight Bus hadn't arrived he would have.

Belatedly he realized he had no idea where he was. There was no point in having escaped from the Ministry yet again only to be captured as soon as he landed. He owed Harry more than that. With a growl Sirius jerked his thoughts from his godson, thinking about him would only distract him and he would make a mistake, something he could not afford to do, the last mistake he made had landed him in Azkaban for twelve years. This time he would do better. He had to.

Snapping himself back into focus Sirius racked his brains for somewhere he could travel to safely, that could hide a hippogriff, where the Ministry would be unable to find him and somewhere within seven hours flight from his current position. And that was where? Biting back a grimace Sirius scoured the sky, luckily for him the sky was clear and the hours of astronomy he had been forced to endure both at Hogwarts and his family 'home' gave him enough information for him to discover roughly where he was. He was currently somewhere over the highlands of Scotland and was heading north. That settled he needed to think of somewhere he could hide and quickly.

Mentally he flicked through the conditions, it must have room for Buckbeak and it either had to be so isolated the Ministry would never look for him there or it had to be warded so tightly that the Ministry could bang themselves against it for a thousand years and still have a better chance of getting into hell and back. Scouring his memory he was almost growling frustration when a thought struck him. His uncle Alphard had been the most paranoid old codger ever to walk the Earth. Sirius snorted, his uncle's levels of paranoia had been higher than Mad Eye Moody's and that was saying something. And furthermore Sirius had been one of his favourites and when the man had died he had left everything he had to Sirius, including a small island in the Orkney's. The island was unplottable, under the Fidelus and was surrounded by legions of wards many of which were done in blood so only the Black who owned the property and those he granted access to could enter, not to mention the island also contained a nice house which would have features such as beds and showers.

Sirius felt a grin spread across his face, he had somewhere safe to go where the Ministry would never find him. He could plan his next moves on the morrow, but tonight he would reach safety and not waste the precious gift his godson had given him. Letting his mind dwell on the myriad of pleasant memories Azkaban had deprived him of Sirius and Buckbeak headed to the north and safety.

AN For those who are long standing followers of this story, I've just got a beta who is brilliant and kind enough to go back through all my current chapters so I will be replacing all my current story chapters as the beta-ed chapters come in.