The Mystery of Sirius Black

The Mystery of Sirius Black

Chapter One: The Return

Sirius ran. He didn't know where he was going or hat he was running away from, but he knew that he needed to run. His human feet were getting tired, but he feared that a sudden change into a dog would muddle his thinking. But his brain wasn't working right anyways. All he could remember was Bellatrix's laughter as he fell into the veil. He had no memory of what had happened after.

There was a village near by. The darkness covered his completely. He walked into town and spied a news paper blowing in the slight breeze. He picked it up. It was a copy of the Daily Prophet! He scanned the skyline hastily. Yes, there it was. Hogwarts, beautiful Hogwarts with beautiful twinkling lights in its windows! He was saved! Harry - beloved Harry - would be safe inside the school with Dumbledore. He would - of course - be grieving the fresh loss of his godfather, but he would be pleasantly surprised that Sirius had not perished a few days ago in the Ministry!

Sirius smiled and looked down at the Prophet he held in his hands. There were articles on how to protect yourself from all sorts of Dark enchantments. He cursed. This was nothing like the swirl the Ministry had been forcing the Prophet to write. He scanned the top of the page quickly. The date read September 3, 1997. It was the beginning of Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts, not the end of his fifth. Sirius had been gone for an almost two years.

Sirius waited outside the Hogwarts main gates. He had been there for an hour. Though he had found his wand in his robes, he was unable to find any enchantments that would open the gates. He just waited. Someone would eventually come outside and see him. While he waited, he tried not to think about what he had learned. He had better save all of his questions for Dumbledore. For now, he focused his thoughts on Harry. It had been nearly two years since he had seen his godson, but he could picture him as clear as day. He would be taller now. His hair would be longer and just as black and untidy as ever. His bright green eyes would shine behind his glasses and the scar on his forehead would be just the same. All in all, it would be Harry, and that made Sirius happy.

Someone screamed. Sirius whipped around. He had been staring, lost in his thoughts, for a long time. He had been seen by a girl, who had - of course - screamed. Instantly, it was as though all of Hogwarts had awoken in this early morning. Students and teachers came running - most were still in their night clothes - asking who had screamed and why. He just stood there. There was nothing for him to do but stand there. A teacher called for silence. Sirius could tell it was Minerva McGonagall.

Sure enough, a teacher in a nightdress with a bath-robe pulled over it came cautiously forward with her wand at the ready. "Who's there? Declare yourself!" Minerva shouted. Sirius could see Hagrid moving slowly behind her. He was cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"Minerva, it's me it's Sirius, please, I just want to see Harry, please let me see Harry," Sirius moaned.

Minerva gasped. She had seen his now and - after looking at him with her piercing gaze - had opened the gates and let him in the gates. Hagrid turned and grumbled something that Sirius didn't catch. There figures ran foreword - two short and one tall - followed by a much slower tall figure. The three arrived first. It was Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. They all expressed how happy they were and hugged him (or, in Ron's case, shook his hand warmly), but Sirius was holding out for the last figure. He knew it was Harry.

Harry stood next to Hagrid for a moment and gazed at Sirius. It looked like him. It sounded like him. But it had to answer a question first.

"Who is Prongs?" Harry asked.

"Your dad, James," Sirius said. He was unaware as to why Harry was asking him this; he was sure the boy had known this since his third year.

"Good," Harry said. He and Sirius stared at each other for a moment. Then Harry ran foreword and hugged his long-forgotten godfather.

Sirius was sitting in Minerva's office; the brilliant office that was once Albus Dumbledore's, who was now dead without a doubt. He had sat in this office many times before - sometimes for deeds he and the Marauders had done, sometimes for good news. Now he sat there listening to Order members - including his friends Remus Lupin and Tonks - and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny tell him what had happened over the last year while he'd been "away", as they put it. He knew he wasn't "away" - he had been dead - but he did not press the matter. He reacted appropriately to the treachery of Snape and the death of his dead friend.

When it was finished, Minerva said, "Sirius, you will take a bed in the hospital wing. Harry, take him."

Harry led Sirius out of the office. On the long walk, he told Sirius something he had not mentioned: the subject of his lessons with Dumbledore. He told him all about the horcruxes and how - on the night Dumbledore was murdered - they went to get a horcrux. Harry brought it out of his pocket and told Sirius how it was a fake and showed him the note inside.

Sirius gasped. "What?" Harry asked. They were at the door of the hospital wing. There was nothing in there that would've made him gasped like that.

"Do you know who wrote this?" Sirius asked in awe.

"No," Harry answered with a shake of his head. "Hermione has been looking, but there's been no luck."

Sirius recovered slightly. "I've seen this writing before, and you wouldn't find this name in any text books here."

"Who is it?" Harry asked. Was he about to discover the secret that had haunted him?

"I can't be sure, but I knew someone with the initials R.A.B. He was a Death Eater. He's dead now," he added.

"Are you baiting me?"

"Yes." Sirius smiled and gave his light bark of a laugh some voice.

"Come on, tell me!"

R.A.B. was my brother, Harry. R.A.B. stands for Regulus Articlus Black."