Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 25

An hour later, Harry, Remus and Sirius were ensconced in the suite. Remus had surprised them all by magically expanding the suite so that it now had three bedrooms, explaining that teachers had the ability to change their rooms to a limited extent. He had also explained to Sirius that Harry had kind of taken over his old room. Sirius had grinned at the two of them and had stuck his head into his new room and pronounced himself satisfied with Remus' work. Then the three of them settled down in the living room and Sirius demanded the full story of what had happened in his absence.

The next couple of hours were difficult for Sirius. Harry explained how upset he'd been after Sirius apparent death and what had happened that led to his blinding. That part had been difficult for all three. Harry had then gone on to explain how Remus and Snape had helped him when he had first gotten to Hogwarts and what Master Nhean had done at first. When Harry described his little breakdown and Snape's role in helping him, Sirius could not contain himself.

"Snape?" he said incredulously. "He actually helped?"

Harry rolled his eyes and Remus chuckled.

"Yes, Padfoot," Remus said patiently, "he helped. He admitted a few nights before that that he had some experience in dealing with those sorts of breakdowns, though he didn't elaborate."

"But why didn't you help?" Sirius asked indignantly.

"Because it was the day after the full moon," Remus replied patiently. "Severus had run out of an ingredient for the Wolfsbane potion and wasn't able to get his hands on anymore in time. I had to go through...the...change without the potion and it seems that an unfortunate side effect of taking the Wolfsbane is that if you stop taking it, the change becomes...harder. I was in no condition to even be getting out of bed."

Sirius looked stricken at the thought of his friend suffering like that. "Moony, I...sorry, I didn't think," he stammered.

Remus smacked Sirius lightly on the side of the head. "Idiot," he said genially. "It wasn't anybody's fault so don't apologise. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances."

Sirius grinned sheepishly and stuck his tongue out at Remus which caused Harry to collapse laughing. Sirius eyed his laughing godson curiously.

"Okay," he said slowly, "explain to me how you can be blind and yet still obviously see what's going on?"

Harry got his laughter under control and explained the concept of Oversight to Sirius. That led to him explaining about the Guild of the Night, his induction into the Guild and everything that Master Nhean had taught him since then; Harry didn't see the need to hide things from his godfather. Sirius was left alternately shocked, astounded and confused.

"So this Oversight isn't really like real vision at all?" he said slowly after Harry had finished explaining. "If I understand right, you're seeing the magical energy fields that are in everything."

Harry nodded. "Yes, that's right. I do also see a kind of ghostly overlay of the real world but mostly I rely on the energy fields."

"And they have meanings, the energy fields you see?"

"Well, they indicate certain attributes that people have. It's not the be-all and end-all of the person but they do give a pretty good indicator of what a person is like," Harry said musingly. "And they can change if the person changes."

"So what are my energy fields like?" Sirius said hesitantly. "And what about Moony's?"

"Um, well, I see Remus' energy fields every day so I'll start with him," Harry said with a grin. "Remus is Dark Red, Scarlet and Light Brown, flecked with Light Green and with a Purple outline."

"So what does all that mean?" Sirius asked patiently.

"Well, each of the colours can stand for a number of different attributes but each person is unique," Harry explained in an academic tone. He had spent a great deal of time with Master Nhean examining energy fields and working out what they mean. "A person may only have one attribute of a colour or they may have all of them. For Remus, his Dark Red attributes are raw energy, anger and aggression, all tempered with wisdom and restraint. His Scarlet attributes are courage and loyalty. The Light Brown is a really odd colour that doesn't appear to often. It means that he has high aspirations that have been tainted by realistic doubts. The Light Green flecks indicate vitality and health and the Purple outline is one that all witches and wizards have; it means that they have innate magical ability."

Sirius was a little stunned by all of this. "Wow," he said finally. "That's a pretty good description of Moony, werewolf and all." He then stopped and grinned at Harry. "But you sound like a book, Harry."

Harry laughed. "I know. I...can't actually read anymore, even with the Oversight. I can't see the print but Hermione got a great present for my birthday. It reads the books to me. But for Oversight I pretty much had to learn everything by rote so I basically learnt the explanations for the colour attributes from Master Nhean. Whatever his wording was that's pretty much what I memorised."

Sirius laughed. "Good explanation! Now what about me?" he asked.

Harry looked carefully at his godfather. "Okay," he said slowly, "your energy colours are Scarlet, Red-Orange and Yellow." Harry frowned. "You've also got some flecks of Murky Yellow, though those seem to be fading, and flecks of Black and the purple outline, of course."

"So what does all that mean?" Sirius asked, intrigued.

"Um, your Scarlet attributes are courage and loyalty and your Red-Orange attribute is pride. Your Yellow attributes are intelligence and wit." Harry paused as he considered Sirius' energy colours carefully. "The Murky Yellow flecks indicate ill-health and confusion but as I said, they seem to be fading. Er, the Black flecks indicate hatred, fear and uncertainty."

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks. "That's...not a bad summation," Sirius said a little shakily. He swallowed and tried to divert Harry and Remus' attention. "What about your friends? Are their energy colours as accurate as mine and Moony's?"

His diversion half-worked as Harry's face immediately lit up. Remus however stared at him for a long moment, the look in his eyes indicating they would talk about this later. Sirius nodded once to indicate he understood the message and turned his attention to his godson.

"Oh yeah, their energy colours are pretty accurate," Harry was saying. "They were as surprised as you were when I told them."

"I'll bet," Sirius said dryly. "Back to what's been happening, are you still doing any normal classes or just the training with Master Nhean?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm doing Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. I'm also doing Potions." Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, they're kind of combined Potions and Occlumency lessons."

"With Snape," Sirius said flatly.

Harry sighed. "Yes, with Snape. He's been alright this year, Sirius. And anyway, I understand a few things a lot better now. He had to be mean to me. After all, it would have looked a bit strange if a supposedly loyal Death Eater didn't hate Harry Potter, wouldn't it?"

"That doesn't excuse some of the things he's said to you!" Sirius said indignantly.

"I know," Harry said with exasperation. "Sirius, it's alright. Snape and I have kind of, well, declared a truce. It was mostly him. I mean, he's still pretty sarcastic and snide but he's not nasty anymore. Well, not in our lessons anyway. He's been pretty normal in public but he had to be." Harry paused. "It was his plan that got you out, Sirius. Not mine, not Remus'."

Sirius grumbled under his breath for a few more moments then let the subject drop. Harry sighed with relief and then decided to ask the question that had been nagging at him for most of the night.

"What's Voldemort going to do now?" he asked bluntly. "I mean his original plan's gone but he's not going to leave me alone, is he?"

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks again. "No," said Remus reluctantly, "he won't and he'll be pretty angry as well. I think he'll be smart enough not to indulge in a knee-jerk reaction to this but he's going to try something. And we won't have any warning now that Severus has been uncovered as our spy." Sirius flinched and Remus sighed. "Stop that, Padfoot. It's not your fault. You did your best and you held out for far longer than any of us thought you would." Sirius scowled at that and Remus laughed. "Sorry but it's true."

Sirius continued scowling then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I know, Moony. It was bloody hard to put up with some of the stuff he was saying and trying to act like I believed it." He sighed again and shook his head. Deciding that it was time to change the subject again, he fixed Harry with an amused look. "Now, what's this you said about some girl?"

Harry blushed and Remus roared with laughter.

"She's a red-head, Sirius," Remus said with sly amusement. "I saw them lying on the couch once together. I could have sworn it was James and Lily."

"Really?" Sirius said with interest as he watched his godson turn an even brighter shade of red. "Hmm, attraction to red-heads must run in the Potter genes, eh?" He grinned. "'Bout time you realised what a great catch Ginny Weasley is!"

Harry gaped at Sirius. "How...how did you know?" he stammered.

"Er, Harry," Sirius said slowly, "who else could it be? Besides, how many red-haired girls are there that you know?"

Harry shrugged and grinned shyly. "Well, yes, it's Ginny. We're kind of taking things slowly but I really like her."

Sirius and Remus grinned at each other, remembering a similar conversation with a similar-looking boy so many years ago. Sirius then winked at his friend and dove into teasing Harry. When he stopped he eyed the odd necklace Harry was wearing.

"What's that around your neck?" he asked curiously.

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed and unwound Orinda from his neck. "Hagrid gave him to me. He's a Runespoor and his name is Orinda." He held the Runespoor, who was now considerably larger than when he first got him, and allowed Sirius to look at him. As he did so, Orinda was examining him with equal interest.

"Who is this?" the left head hissed.

"My godfather," Harry hissed in reply.

The Runespoor hissed contentedly. Sirius shook his head with amusement.

"Trust Hagrid," he said, smiling at Harry.

****************************************

Three days later, Harry, Sirius and Remus were waiting in the Headmaster's office. It was early evening and they were waiting for the arrival of a contingent of Ministry officials. Dumbledore and Kingsley Shacklebolt had been able to arrange for Sirius' trial to occur at Hogwarts. None of the three waiting knew how he'd managed that but they were grateful for it. All three were nervous; Sirius was pacing up and down, his face closed and tight; Harry was sitting on the couch, fidgeting with his cane and Remus was leaning against the mantelpiece, outwardly calm but the tension in his shoulders giving away his own nervousness. All three jumped and whirled to face the door when it opened but relaxed when they realised that it was simply the Potions Master arriving. Sirius nodded tightly to Snape and continued his pacing. Severus eyed the three of them with a raised eyebrow then took a seat across from Harry.

The room had been carefully set up early in the day by the Headmaster. Sirius would be seated in a chair in front of the Headmaster's desk, facing the others in the room. Remus and Harry would take the couch which had been placed to one side of the room. The Ministry officials and Professor Snape would take the remaining chairs. Two Aurors would flank Sirius until he was declared innocent.

A few minutes later they heard the sounds of people coming up the stairs. Remus left his position by the mantelpiece and joined Harry on the couch, placing one hand on his shoulder. Sirius looked up, an expression of worry and dread settling on his face. He turned to look at Harry and Remus and smiled weakly. He then went and sat down in his assigned seat.

The door opened and Dumbledore walked in with Kingsley Shacklebolt beside him. Behind him was Tonks, who gave quick wink to Harry, and behind her were a dozen members of the Wizengamot. Dumbledore had kept the press numbers to the minimum and the sole representative of the press was Rita Skeeter. The Headmaster gestured for his guests to take their seats and Kingsley and Tonks moved to the front of the room and took their positions on either side of Sirius. The members of the Wizengamot sat down and Rita pulled out her quill. When everyone was ready, Kingsley stepped forward.

"This is the trial of Sirius Black," he said in his deep voice. "This is an official trial to be held using veritaserum at the request of the accused. The members of the Wizengamot present here today will be required to render a verdict at the end of the hearing. This verdict will be final." He turned his head to look at Snape. "Professor Snape, I believe you are providing the veritaserum for today's trial."

Snape stood and nodded. He pulled a small vial containing a clear potion out of his robes and handed it to Kingsley. The tall Auror pulled a piece of test parchment out of his robes and tested the contents of the vial. He then showed the test parchment to the members of the Wizengamot to allow them to verify that the potion was indeed veritaserum. When that had been done, he handed the test parchment to Tonks and faced the audience again.

"Once the veritaserum has been administered, I will be the only one permitted to ask the accused questions. Anyone else attempting to ask questions will be removed from the room." His gaze rested on Rita for a moment. He turned and gestured for Sirius to open his mouth. Sirius swallowed once, shuddered and obeyed. Kingsley allowed three drops of the veritaserum to fall into Sirius' mouth then stepped back, handed the vial to Tonks and waited for a few minutes.

When he was sure that the veritaserum had taken effect, he began. "What is your name?"

"Sirius Black."

"Who was the Secret Keeper for the Fidelius spell protecting James, Lily and Harry Potter?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

There were surprised looks and murmurs from many in the audience. Kingsley shot them a quelling glance and continued.

"Who was originally meant to be the Secret Keeper?"

"I was."

"Why did you change?"

"It was my idea. I thought it would be obvious that I would be James' Secret Keeper. I suggested to James that we change it to Peter. Nobody would think that we would trust him with something like that. It would be perfect. We could hide him away safely and then I could parade around in public. If Voldemort grabbed me, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't be able to tell him anything."

"Did James go along with this?"

"Yes, he thought it was a good idea."

"Why use Peter and not Remus Lupin?"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "We knew that the traitor was someone close to James and Lily. Neither James nor I thought Peter would have the stones to do something like that. And we had heard that Voldemort was approaching some werewolves." He gave a barking, bitter laugh. "It was Peter who told us that; said he'd heard someone muttering about it in Diagon Alley. We thought that there was a possibility that Remus was the traitor." He shot a glance at Remus, who smiled in understanding.

"What happened on that Halloween night?" Kingsley asked and the members of the Wizengamot leaned forward slightly.

"I went to check on Peter that night and found the house was empty. Peter shouldn't have left and I got a very nasty suspicion. I got to Godric's Hollow where James, Lily and Harry were hiding but I was too late." Tears began to trickle down Sirius' face. "The house was in ruins. I looked around and found the bodies of James and Lily and then I found Harry. He was alive, I didn't how that was possible, but he was alive and crying. I was about to leave with him when Rubeus Hagrid showed up. He said Dumbledore had sent him to get Harry. I thought it was a perfect opportunity. I knew by then that it was Peter who was the traitor. He was the only one who could have led Voldemort to Godric's Hollow. I thought that I would let Hagrid take Harry to Dumbledore and go after Peter. I could come back later and get Harry. Peter didn't know that I had put a light tracking spell on him so that I always knew where he was. I told Hagrid to take my bike and tracked down Peter. I...don't k! now what I was going to do with him when I found him. I was pretty angry. But he got in before me. I tracked him down to a street in muggle London. Before I could say anything, he yelled out something about me betraying James and Lily. I noticed that his hand was bleeding and realised that he had cut his own finger off. I was pretty stunned by that and what he had yelled out and he took advantage of that. He yelled out some kind of curse and the street exploded, knocking me out. When I came round, the place was full of Aurors. They had already spoken to the witnesses who survived and thought I had killed James and Lily and caused that explosion." Sirius' face filled with disbelief and anger. "I didn't know what to do or say and I felt pretty hysterical. I just started laughing." His mouth twisted with bitterness. "Peter sure got me."

The audience were staring at Sirius with horror and there was also shame on some faces. Kingsley eyes were full of compassion.

"To confirm, you were not the Potter's Secret Keeper?"

"No."

"You did not betray James and Lily Potter?"

"No!" Sirius half-shouted. "I would never have betrayed them!"

"Peter Pettigrew was the Potter's Secret Keeper?"

"Yes," Sirius snarled.

"Why did you escape from Azkaban?"

"Because I realised that Peter was still alive. I never knew whether he survived that blast but the Minister was there one day and he left me his paper. On the front was a photo of a family and on the shoulder of one of the boys was a rat. I knew that rat. I'd seen him a thousand times. It was Peter. The article said the boy was at Hogwarts. I had to escape. I had to protect my godson."

"Peter Pettigrew is an animagus?"

"Yes, a rat."

"But he is not registered?"

"No."

"Are you an animagus?"

Sirius gave wry smile. "Yes."

"But you are also not registered?"

"No, I'm not registered."

"Why are neither of you registered?" Kingsley asked sternly.

"We thought we might get into trouble or that we might get Dumbledore into trouble."

"Why?"

"We, along with James, became animagi at school. We finally managed the transformation in our fifth year."

"And why did you try to become animagi?"

"Because our friend, Remus Lupin, is a werewolf. We found out about it and wanted to do something to help. James found out that a werewolf is only a threat to humans so we decided to try to become animagi so that Remus wouldn't have to be alone when he transformed. If we could become animals, he wouldn't be a threat."

"You did this even though there was considerable danger to it?"

"Yes! Remus was our friend and we weren't going to let him go through that alone."

There were approving looks from many of those in the audience. Kingsley turned back to Sirius with a tiny smile drifting across his lips.

"I trust you will register yourself at the first opportunity?" he asked dryly.

Sirius grinned. "Yes." He then shook his head and blinked a few times. Kingsley, recognising that the veritaserum was wearing off, patted him on the shoulder and turned to face the members of the Wizengamot again.

"I think that is all we really need to know," he said. "I would ask the members of the Wizengamot to render their verdict on the accused."

An elderly, wizened little man stood up. "Oh, get on with it, Shacklebolt," he wheezed. "I think you've proven your point that the man is innocent. What I want to know is why this wasn't picked up years ago? I understand that Black wasn't given a trial when he was arrested. How did that happen? And what's going to be done about this Pettigrew?"

Kingsley looked around at the other members of the Wizengamot, who all indicated their agreement with the verdict and the questions.

"Good," the tall Auror said with satisfaction. "I will see that the paperwork is completed and filed." He levelled his gaze at Rita. "I trust the press will report this trial accurately?" Rita looked up and nodded then went back to writing enthusiastically. "I think we should take those very pertinent questions back to the Ministry, sir, though I understand that Bartemius Crouch Senior was responsible for that decision. This trial is over."

The members of the Wizengamot rose to their feet and began to leave the office, the Headmaster and Professor Snape accompanying them. Kingsley watched them go and turned back to Sirius.

"It'll take about a week to clear everything through the Ministry, Sirius, but after that you will be a free man," he said calmly.

Sirius rose to his feet, tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Kingsley," he said with feeling as he shook the tall Auror's hand "You don't know what this means to me." He went over to where Harry and Remus were now standing and hugged them both.

Rita Skeeter sidled up to them. "Well, Harry, Sirius, any comments to make?"

Harry looked at the sharp-eyed reporter with some suspicion. "Just that I'm glad Sirius' name has been cleared."

"And what now for you? I understand that Sirius is your godfather but that Mr Lupin and Mr and Mrs Weasley are your guardians. Anything to say about what should happen there?" she pressed.

"No," Harry said bluntly. "What happens is our business and will be sorted out by us."

Rita eyed the three and glumly concluded that she wasn't likely to get anymore out of them. She made a beeline for the two Aurors. Harry, Sirius and Remus watched her go and then watched with amusement as Kinglsey and Tonks deftly ushered her out of the room while appearing to answer her questions.

Remus looked at his friend. "Well, Padfoot, how does it feel to be a free man?"

Sirius' face lit up and he looked about ten years younger. "It's a relief, Moony. A hell of a relief." He grinned mischievously. "Hey, I don't suppose you know what Hagrid did with my bike, do you?"

Remus looked alarmed. "Hell, Padfoot, with any luck he got rid of it!"

Sirius looked hurt. "Moony! How could you say something like that?" He mock-pouted. "That bike is a gem!"

"That bike is a menace!" Remus countered.

"Moony, my old friend," Sirius said as he slung one arm around Remus and the other around Harry and steered them towards the door, "you are going to give Harry the wrong impression. You're going to make him think that there is something wrong with my bike. You're going to make him think that it's dangerous or some other kind of rubbish. That bike is a work of art and it is a chick magnet. You just don't appreciate that."

Remus eyed Sirius with apprehension. "I appreciate that you nearly got me killed on that bike. I can't believe you talked me into riding with you. You were drunk!"

Harry laughed as Sirius sputtered. "I was not drunk, Moony. I had had a couple of celebratory ales. I was not drunk. And I believe I told you that you had to work with me when you were riding. You've just got to learn to relax!"

They walked out of the door with Harry laughing and Remus poking Sirius indignantly in the ribs.