章 66: 15 part 2
-Chapter 15-
-Part 2-
-Old dogs, manipulative goats, dumb red heads-
In the north sea where the weather is either poor or terrible, there is a small island that not many people ever come across, this is mainly due to the feelings that they get when they even come anywhere near it. It is like a feeling in their bones that screams at them to steer clear.
On that island there was a single tall structure a triangular building made entirely of stone and stood ominously against the always dark clouds in the sky. This building was home to the darkest witches and wizards in British society, this was Azkaban.
On this evening, the weather was terrible, heavy rain, chilling cold, and winds that would cut a man through to his bones. On the third highest floor of Azkaban where the dementor presence was the most heaviest, was a small cramped sell, three foot by seven it was barely big enough for a larger man to get comfortable to lay down, not that anyone would willingly want to given how the only padding on the ice cold stone floor was a thread bare rag of a blanket that served little to no purpose.
What was most unique about this cell however was the fact that while all the other cells inmates were screaming, yelling, or howling like lunatics, the occupant of this cell was not. In fact, if one were to look inside this cell through the small window on the other wall or the slot on the heavy thick iron door. They would see that instead of a quiet inmate laying on his sheet there was a miserable looking large hairy dog that muggles would say looked like an Irish wolf hound and any witch or wizard would say looked like a Grimm.
This was in fact Sirius Black in his unregistered Animagus form dubbed by himself and his friends as Padfoot. For the past ten years he had been a resident of these halls, and each and every day he taken his Animagus form as much as he possibly could after discovering in his second year there how not only had his form helped keep him warm but also that the dementors overlooked him in that form.
The large dog was curled up as tight as it could be on the thin blanket trying to contain as much heat as it could as the rain pelted in through the narrow-barred window on the outer wall. Padfoot was trying his best to ignore the noises the other inmates were making, something he had gotten exceptionally good at over the years, wanting to catch some sleep before the next patrol of guards passed by.
However, as he was trying to do so a noise caught his attention, footsteps, a pair of them. The large dogs' ears perked up and it lifted his head. That wasn't right, the next patrol wasn't for five more hours, and they wouldn't come early because who in their right mind wanted to do something as foolish as that, unless they were the type to not know any better.
Not wanting to take any chances as the footsteps got closer padfoot rose to his feet and as he did so he changed into his human form as he backed away to the farthest corner of the cell keeping both eyes trained on the door.
The years had not been kind to him in this place that many rightfully believed was hell on earth. Much like his Animagus form he looked very thin and gaunt, his skin was pale where it wasn't covered in dirt or grime, his rag like robes were thin and filthy, his hair long and matted and his eyes sunken as he crouched down into the far corner of his cell listening.
The other inmates seemed to quieten as they noticed the sounds as well, apparently curious as well, but that soon changed as the yells picked up again full of more anger and hate this time as they usually did when guards came by, they were so numerous that Sirius could barely make any of the yelling out it was all just a wall of noise that drowned out the footsteps entirely.
So Sirius jumped slightly when he heard the lock in his door begin to turn and the heavy door was pulled open. Light filled the room and he was momentarily blinded by the bright light and had to turn away from it to shield his eyes until he could see once again but when he could he turned back to the door and felt his eyes widen at the sight of someone that he hadn't seen in years.
"Mad eye, is that you, is it just me or has your mug gotten even more gruesome since the last time I saw you" Sirius coughed out, not having used his voice in so long, there wasn't really any need to here.
Moody for his part just stood there his good eye fixed on Sirius wide with shock as he took in his form, while his magical eye was twitching and spinning like it was having a fit in its socket.
"Yer one to talk," he said back after a moment before jerking his head, "come on, I'm getting ya outa here" he grunted.
Sirius blinked at that, "what's going on Moody," he asked and before he could continue Moody spoke up.
"Yer finally getting yer trial is what" Moody commented, "unless ya wanna rot in here with this filth"
Sirius stumbled to the door not having had much reason, nor room, to do much walking but hearing that he didn't want to stay there a moment longer, who in their right mind would.
As Moody closed the door to his cell Sirius looked to him warily, "why now Moody, why after all this time is the ministry giving me a trial?"
Moody grunted, "you have that nephew of yours to thank for that, him and Andromeda found the rat and Amelia got him to confess to being the Potter's real secret keeper"
Sirius's eyes glinted the second he heard that they had found the rat and a crazed look came into his eye but it immediately vanished as he registered Moody's other words, "Nephew?"
Moody gave a bark of laughter at his response, "Aye, surprised the lot of us too, those of us who knew your brother anyway, kid was raised in the muggle world as an orphan after his ma died giving birth to him, but ever since he came back to the magical world he's been turning people on their heads" he said as he began to recount some of the things Magnus had been doing that were public knowledge.
Sirius's eyes were wide as he heard about the nephew, he never knew he had, the very same one who had apparently suspected his own innocents and had gotten him a trial. He did not know what to think about that, especially after hearing about how he was the new heir Black. Despite his disinterest in the lessons his family had giving him growing up but he still remembered some of the things from those lessons, one being that the only way for a child born out of wedlock to be made the heir of the family would be with the blessing of the previous lord Black's portrait.
He knew his parents, or at least he thought he did. Blood purists both of them, and dark and twisted as they came, his mother the worst of the pair. So, the fact that his father apparently approved of his nephew and the fact that he apparently came to his aid just didn't line up in his mind. Nor did the other deeds that he was hearing he had done. Taking on a Malfoy, Narcissa's kid at that, didn't really shock him, if the kid was as bad as his father he likely ran his mouth and his Nephew likely didn't take it laying down.
But hearing how he was supposedly aiming to restore House Blacks prestige and reputation just confused him even more. He never paid attention to such things growing up, he never wanted anything to do with the backwards ways of the other purebloods especially when those ways tried to control what direction his life would go and who he could befriend all because of house values which were just as twisted.
Sirius figured that his nephew likely had some ulterior motive for getting him out, something he wasn't seeing, and at first he decided to just play along if it meant he could get out of there, what was important was for him to get to Harry after all, to do what he should have done before and look after his god son. But hearing how his Nephew had apparently verbally tore Fudge and this Umbridge woman a new pair of arseholes, and how Moody spoke of him made Sirius decided to at least give him a chance, he was his nephew after all.
Thinking of that Sirius couldn't help but frown, he had cared for Regulus, his younger brother. It had torn him up inside when he had left him behind when he ran way to the Potters when he was sixteen, his parents influence had turned him to the death eaters to gain their approval something he never thought would have happened because Regulus always had their approval growing up while he never did.
No, he would give his Nephew a chance and he would see to getting him away from his parents influence, he had failed his little brother once, he would not do so a second time by letting his son be corrupted by them as well.
Scene break
Arriving back in Hogwarts Magnus immediately leaned against one of the walls as he rubbed his eyes tiredly as he rebuilt and reinforced his mental shields again. Their walk from the auror department to the public floos had given him a chance to calm down and regain control of himself and now he wanted to slap himself for his stupidity.
What the bloody hell was he thinking letting his emotions get the better of him like that, blowing up at Fudge and Umbridge of all people. Yes, it had been extremely satisfying to do but at the same time making an enemy of two of the people that hold two of the highest positions in the ministry was not wise, not in the slightest.
While he had intended to deal with them both in time he hadn't intended to do so for a few years yet, but now after his little blow out he knew that he'd be on their shit lists in the future. Both were political animals and would use their influence to come at him from the shadows, Umbridge especially after he had threatened them with his family's influence.
Taking a breath Magnus pushed off the wall and stood up straight again as he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now, at the moment neither of them posed a threat to him, he had all his bases with Sirius covered it would be guaranteed that he would be freed after his trial. Dealing with those two could wait, he knew just how to deal with the pair of them and made a mental note to send a few letters off to get things started on that front later. Now that he knew that it would be impossible to have either of them as pawns without the risk of them turning on him he'd see to their removal instead and he knew just the person to help him do so.
Andromeda stood behind Magnus as she watched him closely collect himself, she knew that he likely felt foolish for having let his emotions get the better of himself, she had done so herself a few times in her younger years and remembered feeling mortified after calming down and remembering what she had said or done, such was the annoyance of growing up with the Black family magics it was why they started occlumency training so young to prevent such embarrassing outbursts later but given that magnus hadn't had the years of occlumency training that other Blacks had by his age she knew it would be harder on him to control himself like other.
"Are you okay?" Andromeda asked gently placing her hand on his shoulder as he straightened himself up.
Magnus sighed, "Yeah, I just feel like an idiot for blowing up in the face of the Minister of magic and pet toad" he muttered.
Andromeda snorted slightly at his comparison of Umbridge's appearance, "well it was deserved in a way" she mused.
Magnus smiled, "Yeah, but unwise, now they'll both be gunning for me after I threatened them like I did, it will give us more problems in the future"
Andromeda nodded but patted his shoulder, "a problem for the future," she reasoned.
Magnus nodded, "agreed," he said before looking forward, "I'll see you later, can you keep an ear our when Sirius' trial is to be held, I will be wanting to attend to make sure nothing goes wrong" he asked her.
Andromeda nodded her head gently, "Of course, but what will you do now?" she asked him.
Magnus looked at her and smiled slightly, "I promised Harry and Neville that I would fill them both in on just what is going on, I think I've kept them waiting long enough don't you?"
Andromeda chuckled and nodded, "I suppose so, go on then, just make sure you're back in the Ravenclaw dorms before curfew," she said as she gestured for him to go.
Magnus smirked and headed off leaving her watching him as he went.
Time skip
It was half an hour later that Harry, Neville and Magnus all sat in the Gryffindor common room, with both Harry and Neville stunned speechless by what Magnus had just told them, neither boy truly knowing how to react to what they had just been told.
Harry sat looking down as he remembered everything that Magnus had explained to him, how he had wanted to know why his Uncle had betrayed his parents and asked to get a hold of a copy of his trial transcripts as surely he would have been asked that, but then had begun to suspect something wasn't right with his Uncles conviction when none turned up and had the matter looked into and how they had discovered that he had been sent to prison without a trial.
How they had come to the conclusion of how Sirius was innocent and that someone else had been the real secret keeper and how that had only left one person it could be and how they had come to the conclusion that Pettigrew wasn't really dead and had in fact been in hiding in his rat form posing as the Weasley's pet rat Scabbers for the past number of years.
Hearing that his parent's betrayer had been in the same room as him multiple times since coming to Hogwarts made Harry shiver as he thought about it, but he was relieved to know that now the traitor would be put on trial and that his Godfather would be freed and that he would never have to return to the Dursley's once everything was cleared up.
Harry didn't know how to feel about that last fact. While he knew that Sirius was innocent, he had never met the man, he didn't know if he felt comfortable about living with him. But at the same time anything would be better than going back to the Dursleys.
"I want to be there," Harry said after a moment and looked up to Look Magnus in the eye, "I want to be there for the trial."
Magnus nodded as he suspected such, given how Harry had reacted in the future when he found out about Sirius' supposed betrayal of his parents, "I'll ask my aunt if it will be possible, but if not I'll promise you this Harry, that I will make sure that he get's what's coming to him, he has wronged both of us, betraying your parents, setting up my uncle to take the fall. He has crossed both out houses, and I intend to make sure that he pays for it in full" he stated keeping eye contact with Harry as he said so with conviction in his voice.
Harry set his jaw at his words and nodded in return, "thank you"
Magnus nodded back but before he could respond he heard movement before a voice yelled out an incantation and Magnus was on his feet the next second his wand already in his hand as he moved raising it to catch the pale green spell of the slug vomiting curse that came at him with the tip of his wand and deflected it up and into the ceiling before turning fully to point his wand at the source of the hex, Ronald Weasley.
"Weasley, what the hell do you think you're doing!" Magnus snapped at him with a hard look, keeping his wand at the ready as both Neville and Harry rose to their feet and faced Ron as well.
Ron was standing at the bottom of the stairs to the boys dorms with his wand out and a furious look on his face, "Getting you back for earlier, you hit me with that spell and then stole Scabbers, give him back, where is he!" he said stepping forward with his wand still pointed at Magnus.
His action immediately made Harry and Neville draw their wants and point them at Ron in return making the red headed idiot stop and look at them with a look of betray, "What are you two doing!"
All three boys looked at him as if they couldn't believe that he was that stupid.
"What does it look like, defending our friend after you attacked him!" Neville responded with a surprisingly angry look on his face that made Magnus want to smirk, apparently, he had had more of an influence on Neville than he thought.
"Are you mental he attacked me earlier!" Ron tried to defend himself.
"Ron stop being an idiot!" Harry yelled at him, "he didn't attack you, he attacked your Rat"
"Which as it turns out isn't really a rat, though I suppose you could call him that in a completely different sense" Magnus mused keeping his wand trained on Ron.
"What are you on about, of course Scabbers is a rat!" Ron argued making Magnus shake his head.
"No, he was an Animagus, you know a wizard who can turn into an animal by choice" Magnus stated, "He wasn't a rat, he was actually a fat, ugly bald rat like man."
"Stop lying, just give Scabbers back already or I'll" Ron was about to say before pausing as all three of them stepped forward wands trained on him.
"You'll what Weasley, there's three of us and only one of you" Magnus stated, "each of us are heirs to Most Noble and Most Ancient houses, one of which you just attacked with his back turned. I could thrash you myself, with all three of us you don't stand a chance, lower your wand now" Magnus ordered him.
Ron gritted his teeth as he looked at Magnus wanting to curse him, but even he knew that with two other wands trained on him he wouldn't be able to without getting twice what he gave in return. As he was slowly weighing up his options however the portrait to the common room open and Percy came in with a look of anger on his face seeing what was going on.
"What the hell is going on here!" Percy demanded as he saw his brother being held at wand point with his own wand drawn.
"Percy! Tell them to give Scabbers back!" Was the first thing out of Ron's mouth upon seeing his older brother, a statement that made Percy's gut fall as he took a guess at just what was going on.
Percy's eyes flicked to Harry and Neville and hoped he was wrong, "You two, explain!" he ordered, and they did, he wasn't wrong.
After hearing how Ron had attacked Magnus from behind with the slug vomiting curse and began to demand for Scabbers return only for them to try to explain what Scabbers really was and him not believe them, Percy wanted to hex his youngest brother for getting himself into such a mess.
"Ron, lower your wand and get back up to the dorms right now before you make an even bigger idiot of yourself" Percy ordered him.
"What! But Percy! You can't tell me you believe them!" Ron began to demand.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for attacking another student and not obeying a prefects orders" Percy said sternly, "Yes I do, I spoke with Professor McGonagall earlier after everything that happened here and she confirmed everything they just said before I asked to floo call home to inform our parents about this whole mess" Percy stated, "Father agrees and so do I, that because of heir Black's actions House Weasley owes a debt to house Black for revealing the danger that none of us knew about before he could harm any of us. The wizard who was posing as Scabbers was a criminal and we are lucky that he didn't hurt any of us while he was with us as he could very easily have done so. Which means you have just attacked the one to who our house owes a debt to, now for the last time, lower your wand and get up to your dorm right now, and don't think I won't be speaking to professor McGonagall about your actions"
Ron looked at Percy as if he had betrayed him, "but Percy you're supposed to be on my side"
"I am on your side Ron, and I'm trying to keep you from doing something monumentally stupid, now go" Percy told him sternly.
Ron looked like he wanted to argue, still with his wand raised as he looked at the three wands still trained on him before gritting his teeth and lowering his wand as he turned and stormed back up the stairs to the dorms.
Harry and Neville both sighed as they lowered their wands before Magnus just rolled his eyes as with a flick of his wrist his wand shot back into its holster on his wrist.
Percy turned back to them after he watched Ron go and sighed, "I apologise for my youngest brothers' actions Heir Black, he can be difficult sometimes" he said trying to apologise for Ron's actions.
"that's putting it mildly I think," Magnus mused in return.
Percy winced at his words but nodded, "All the same, I would like to thank you on behave of house Weasley for the service you have provided in revealing the danger none of us knew about, you can expect a letter from my father over the next day or so with his thanks as well"
Magnus nodded, "you're welcome, though do not expect that this will keep me from bringing Ronald's actions up with him, this is not the first time that he and I have crossed one another, and I don't expect it will be the last"
Percy sighed and nodded, "I don't expect them to, but you have my word that I will personally try to see to it that you have as little as problems with my younger brother while I am still attending Hogwarts"
Magnus sighed, "that would be appreciated Percy" he said with a nod.
Percy smiled slightly glad that he could at least try to fix matters, though he doubted he would be able to get through Ron's stubbornness, he then looked to Harry and Neville, "as for you two, take ten points each for being brave and standing up for a friend when he needed it," Percy told them, though all of them knew that Magnus didn't really need their help, given how they had all seen him thrash Malfoy only a few days before, but he wanted to reward them as well as make up for the house points that he had taken due to Ron's foolishness. Besides, it was the principle of the thing.
Both boys nodded their thanks to him for the points as Magnus smirked before checking the time and sighing, "I had best be going, it's almost curfew" he said before saying his good byes and heading out of the Gryffindor common room to return to the Ravenclaw dorms for the night.
Scene break
Dumbledore sat behind his desk in his office with a pensive look on his face, the matters of the day weighing heavily on his mind. Never had he thought that things could start to unravel as they had with Pettigrew being found. He could only rest assured knowing that Pettigrew had not been able to name him as the one who cast the Fidelius Charm on the Potters cottage and made him the secret keeper instead of Sirius.
With Pettigrew having been in Hogwarts for years as the Weasley children's pet, it had only been too easy for him to invite Percy up to his office in the past and see to it that their memories were altered while under the guise of congratulating Percy on his school work.
He had already reached out to his various contacts within the ministry to find out what was going on, and much to his annoyance notice had already been sent out to the various members of the Wizengamot about the trial that would be held at noon the next day, there would be no way for him to stop it as it seemed that Fudge himself was pushing to clear the matter quickly.
He had been unable to reach the minister to find out just why he was doing so as the one who had apprehended Sirius all those years ago this matter would come back to bite him as well regardless of the fact that it had been others who had sent Sirius to Azkaban without a trial.
With no other options available to him as Dumbledore knew that Sirius would be found innocent now, he had begun formulating plans as to how he would be able to keep Sirius from taking custody of Harry. While he knew that it was possible that his years growing up with the Dursleys would have already affected him he wanted to keep him exactly where he could keep an eye on him. The wards around the Dursleys house not only keep others from finding Harry but allowed him to keep tabs on him and monitor him while he was there, Harry was crucial to his plan and he could not allow him to be out of his control even if in the slightest way if everything was to go to plan.
He had been so busy that evening making floo calls that he had never noticed the enraged look that he was receiving from the portrait of Phineas Black, before the previous headmaster got up from his seat and silently left his portrait with a hard look in his eyes.
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