Cornelius Fudge looked down at Sirius before saying "Sirius Orion Black, you are charged with the murder of one Peter Pettigrew, the unlawful killing of a dozen muggles, conspiracy to murder James Potter, conspiracy to murder Lily Potter, conspiracy to attempted murder of Harry Potter, and offering aid and assistance to an enemy of the Wizengamot in a time of open war. Do you wish to enter a plea of guilty and save everyone here the time and bother of this trial? If you do, I'll offer leniency and let you return to your cell without feeding you to the Dementors.
Sirius just smiled up at the minister of Magic before saying "Not guilty."
"Mr. Black. Is-" A short toad-faced woman who was sitting in the row directly below the minister started to say.
"I object!" Charlus stood up from his chair next to Sirius's. A few whispers went around the room at this but nothing intrusive.
"What on earth for, Warlock Potter? I know you haven't been to a trial like this for a while, but our procedures haven't changed in over 50 years so even you should know it's customary to wait until something objectionable happens before you object," Cornelius Fudge said as he looked down on Harry's grandfather and godfather from His podium.
"Indeed it is, minister, indeed it is. That's why it's most disturbing that the prosecution, when finally giving my friend here a trial after illegally keeping him in Azkaban for over a decade, despite procedures and laws in place to prevent such things, has managed in two words to already have breached procedure. This is not Mr. Black, this is the rightful Heir Black of the House of Black, and named Regent of the House of Potter. Or, as it is customary to address him in a formal setting such as this, Heir Black. Now, Madam…" he trailed off waiting for the woman to give everyone her name.
The told faced woman shifted herself in her seat trying to make herself look taller and more important. "Umbridge. Madam Dolores Jane Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the Minister for Magic." She said in as hoity a voice as she could.
Charlus smiled. "Of course, Madam Umbridge. Now, if you could show my friend the respect he is owed." His tone made it clear that it wasn't actually a request.
Umbridge bristled at being told what to do, but after a prolonged silence Hermione leaned in and whispered, "I bet she is trying to think of a reason to ignore your grandfather."
Eventually Madam Umbridge seemed to realise the silence was stretching too much and she gave in. "Very well, Heir Black. Let's start with the easiest and most distasteful thing you did. You were the secret keeper for the Potter family, and only you telling a person the hidden secret could anyone have known it. As such,, it is only by you giving the information to the self-styled Dark Lord that he was able to kill James and Lily Potter and attempt the murder of their young son. I offer for evidence a list of testimony from prominent members of our society that they heard you practically bragging about being the Potters' secret keeper."
The Umbridge woman then went on to list a number of names and go over their testimonies. There were a lot of names that Harry recognised, in there, unfortunately including Lucius Malfoy. She went over each testimony and they had the ring of truth to them; they all seemed to be genuine accounts of people hearing Sirius say he was the one the Potters trusted. If Harry hadn't known the truth, he would be ready to convict Sirius after hearing those, and it seemed that most of the Wizengamot was falling into the "convict him" category.
Then it was time for Sirius and Charlus to put forward their defence. "Well, that is a wonderful put together compilation of half the story," Charlus stated as he opened the defence. "Heir Black, do you refute the claims that were made in those testimonials?"
"No." There was a murmur of anger that rippled around the room at Sirius' answer. "I do, however, refute the conclusions. I did say I was the secret keeper for the Potters, I said it a lot especially when I knew known Death-Eaters were eavesdropping on me. Because, while I said I was the secret keeper, I was in fact not. I was a diversion, a decoy, a fake meant to keep the real secret keeper safe from being hunted. No, the real secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew."
There was a mixture of shock and disbelief at Sirius saying that Pettigrew was the secret keeper. Harry wasn't surprised at that, the people of wizarding Britain had been told for years that the man was a tragic hero, a man who had sacrificed his life to give the Aurors a chance to capture Voldemort's top lieutenant. Just telling them that Pettigrew was in fact the villain wasn't going to be enough.
"Minister Fudge, I would like to enter into evidence this letter penned by my son James Potter and signed by both him and his late wife Lily. Scribe, would you be so kind as to read this out to the court." Charlus pulled a letter from in his robes and held it out to the young haggard man who was sitting near Madam Umbridge. The scribe pulled out his wand, and a quick spell had the letter flying across the room to the man, who opened it and started reading it out loud.
"To the D.M.L.E., the Ministry, the Wizengamot, and whomever else this may concern,
I, James Charlus Potter, and my wife leave this statement in the event that the worst happens and we are unable to make this statement in person. Duplications of this letter should be found in our will, my parents' possession, with Sirius Black, and with Peter Pettigrew
Sirius Orion Black III is not, nor ever was, the secret keeper holding the location of my family. Due to the well known close friendship, and that Sirius is my brother in all ways but blood, it was reasoned that the forces we were hiding from would target Sirius for our location, and as no man has the will to keep his mouth closed forever, it was prudent to choose a secret keeper that they would not suspect. Our secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew.
If our secret was discovered, we ask that if Peter is still alive that you do all you can to help him, for his treatment at the hands of the Death Eaters would have been terrible.
Thank you for your consideration,
James Charlus Potter
Lily Potter
Harry felt sick, his dad had so much faith in the rat that he thought the only way that Wormtail would betray the secret was under torture, yet the man was a spy, a traitor who sold out a man who loved him like a brother.
Charus then continued. "That letter was handed to me by my son the last time I saw him. It has been sitting in the Potter family vault since that day, until I retrieved it yesterday. During that time, the vault has only been accessed by myself. There is no doubt in my mind that that letter is a true accounting of my son's words. To further prove this, I call Ronald Bilius Weasley to the stand to testify to the evidence of his own eyes."
Harry, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley all gave Ron some encouragement before he stood and went to stand in a witness box where he could easily be seen by everyone. "Mr. Weasley, you met Sirius Black a few weeks ago while at Hogwarts, correct?" Charlus asked, and Ron answered that he had. "Good, can you please explain to the court what happened that day?"
"Well, it all started with the appeal to save a Hippogriff from being executed. The appeal was lost, so me and my friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger went down to see Hagrid who is the gamekeeper at Hogwarts and also our friend. We wanted to offer him our support because he loved that Hippogriff and needed us. While we were there, we found my pet rat that had gone missing…" Ron proceeded to tell the court everything that had happened that night only leaving out the time travel stuff that he had only known later anyway. Once Ron was finished, it was Hermione's turn to tell almost the exact same story, with hers only really differing during the part where Ron was dragged off by Sirius. Harry had ended up holding the hand of Mrs. Weasley during both telling of that part of the story. It was obvious that the woman was not going to let Sirius get away with what he did, even if her response wasn't going to be having him arrested.
Then it was Harry's turn, and he told his story that was almost identical to Hermione's. Once he was finished but before he returned to his seat, Madam Umbridge stood up. "It doesn't matter what these three children say, they have obviously had plenty of time to rehearse these lies."
"We are not lying, but if you really wanted our story fresh then maybe when we tried to tell the minister himself less than an hour after it had happened, he should have actually investigated rather than just decide we were all confounded without any evidence so that he could execute an innocent man who never even had a trial," Harry snapped back at the woman.
Harry's statement caused a ripple of murmurs to pass around everyone in the room. While all of them sounded angry, they seemed evenly split between being angry at Harry and Umbridge for both of them speaking out of turn, while there was also a good amount directed at the minister for the idea he deliberately tried to execute a man he had in custody after being told that the man hadn't had a trial. Many of the Wizengamot felt that executing someone without a trial, especially a pureblood heir, was a step too far. Even the darker elements of the Wizengamot were shooting the minister looks; they also relied on their right to a trial to get them out of trouble when they or their families got caught.
"Thank you Madam Umbridge, and thank you Harry. May I remind both of you that this a courtroom, not a Hogwarts debate club, you don't just shout out things here." Warlock Potter, for it was definitely Warlock Potter and not Grandfather Charlus here, admonished the two of them. Of course, an accusation that both he and Umbridge were acting like teenagers hit her harder than him, given that Harry actually was still a teenager and it was a lot easier to forgive him such a slip than Umbridge.
Then Charlus turned and stared right at Umbridge. "Also, Madam Umbridge, may you take care in who you call a liar. The Heir Potter may be underage, but we are discussing whether the person sitting here," he indicated Sirius, "is guilty of assisting in the murder of his parents - my son. If you think for one moment that either of us would lie on behalf of someone we believed to be guilty of that, then you don't have the sense that magic gifted a flobberworm." For a second, Harry thought that the Umbridge woman was about to start yelling at his grandfather, but she looked him in the eyes for a few seconds and then all her defiance seemed to melt and she stammered out an apology.
In the end the Wizengamot voted to acquit Sirius of all the charges. The press was waiting for them as they walked out of the lift into the Ministry atrium.
"Mr. Black! Mr. Black! Anything to say to the Daily Prophet?"
"Mr. Black, how does it feel to be free after so long?"
"Do you have any idea where Peter Pettigrew is?"
"Do you intend to sue the Ministry for your illegal imprisonment?"
The questions just kept coming, and flash after flash went off taking not only photos of Sirius but of all of them. Harry winced a little when he realised that one reporter was taking a picture of him with his arm around Hermione, and he guessed that one of the celebrity gossip rags would have the story of him and Hermione dating in the next few days.
Sirius decided that it would probably be easier if he stopped and gave a statement. "Right, I'm not great at public speaking so I'm just going to give my statement and that's it. I am of course happy to finally have the freedom that was denied to me for so long, but I don't yet have justice. There were three people who signed off on my incarceration without a trial: Albus Dumbledore in his role as Chief Warlock, Bartemius Crouch as the then head of the D.M.L.E., and Millicent Bagnold the Minister for Magic at the time. Each of these people need to answer as to why they denied me a right that has been guaranteed to every British citizen, muggle and magical, for hundreds of years. And it will require more than a simple apology to right the injustice. But those are battles for another day. For now I intend to go home and spend some time getting to know my godson, learning about his life, and putting myself back together. Now, if you'll all excuse me, you are keeping me from spending time with those I consider family."
Harry couldn't help it, at being called family he rushed over and wrapped his arms around Sirius and channelled his inner Hermione. Flash bulbs popped all around them and it wasn't difficult to guess what picture was going to be on the front page tomorrow.
After wading through the crowd they all, Molly and Ron included, Floo'ed to Potter Manor. Almost as soon as the soot had been cleaned from their robes by a few waves of the adults' wands, Mrs. Weasley reached out and grabbed Sirius by the ear. "Sirius Black, what the hell did you think you were doing! You broke my son's leg, snapped the bone in three places according to the report I got from Poppy."
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" was all Sirius said as Mrs. Weasley continued to yank on his ear.
"Don't give me Ow! How many times did Ron scream 'Ow!' before you finished dragging him down some dark dirt-filled tunnel! Did you stop, did you help him? No, you just kept dragging him. He got dirt in his cuts, Madam Pomfrey had to clean them out and remove the infection. If left untreated my son could have lost his leg." Mrs. Weasley continued to deliver her in-person howler.
"Uncle Charlus, aren't you going to help me?" Sirius practically begged.
"I already did. Molly has promised not to kill or maim you. But you did break her son's leg, so I suggest you just take your deserved punishment. I'm going to go put the kettle on. Do you still prefer the Earl Grey, Molly?
"Please Charlus, that sounds delightful." Molly answered in a perfectly present tone. If Harry hadn't seen her do the exact same thing when he first met her, he would have been taken aback. Hermione had never seen Mrs. Weasley like this, though, and wasn't sure how to deal with it when she turned back to a still squirming Sirius and continued to yell at him.
Grandfather Charlus started to herd the trio of teenagers out of the room and straight up to the family area of the manor. Harry hadn't shown Hermione and Ron this part of the house the last time they were there, mostly because he wasn't sure he was allowed. The way his grandfather had explained it was only family, but it seemed that close enough friends also counted.
"How do you know my mum?" A confused Ron asked grandfather Charlus.
"During the war Potter Manor played host to a number of people, injured people who were fighting and rescued muggleborn and their families. A lot of them needed medical help, but St Mungo's wasn't always safe. Your mother is pretty good at healing charms and potions, and she often came by to help people. Of course, her two brothers were frequently among the injured so it's not surprising she would want to help." By the time he finished talking, they were in the family kitchen and he was setting a large copper kettle on the stove to start boiling. "Earl Grey okay with everyone or should I make two pots?"
They all agreed that the tea was fine and Charles started putting the pot together. "Huh, I knew mum was good at healing charms and potions but I never knew she was that good," Ron said between munching on a biscuit from the plate Harry had just put on the table.
"Your mother was in an apprenticeship to become a mediwitch but she had to give it up when she got pregnant with your oldest brother…what was his name again?"
"William, but everyone calls him Bill. He's a curse breaker at Gringotts now," Ron answered.
Charlus mumbled something to himself about missing so much and set the tray of tea things down on the table, letting everyone help themselves. Just as most of them finished making their tea the way they liked it, Mrs. Weasley came in and joined them all at the kitchen table.
"So what concessions did you wring out of my nephew?" Charlus smiled as he sipped at his drink.
Mrs Weasley gave him a similar smile as she started to fill her cup with tea. "He is going to tutor Ron for the rest of the summer to help get his grades up. If memory serves, Sirius was quite good at Transfiguration and Charms, and Ron needs help in both of those areas. Potions as well, but Sirius said he wasn't great at them."
"Hey, it's not my fault for potions, Professor Snape has it out for us!" Ron protested.
Mrs Weasley sighed. "You can't just keep making excuses, Ron. Whatever the responsibility, you need to do better."
Hermione jumped in. "In this case Mrs. Weasley, I need to agree with Ron. Professor Snape barely teaches at all. His usual method is to just put the recipe on the board and tell us to brew it. He then walks around insulting any students he doesn't like. His favourite targets are Harry, Ron Neville Longbottom and myself. And if he grades Ron the same way he grades my work, then I'm positive that Ron's grade is actually higher than whatever Professor Snape gave him. My potions are often exactly what the book says they should be, I brewed a N.E.W.T. potion perfectly in my second year, and I have never gotten higher than an Exceeds Expectations."
Harry knew that Hermione was telling the truth, but she was also laying it on a bit thick. She had often told Ron that he needed to study more and read a few books on the fundamentals of potion brewing. Ron, however, would rather play chess than read.
"Well, I planned to go over Harry's education with him and I'm no slouch when it comes to potions. How about I help Ron with potions, Sirius can do Transfiguration and Charms, and we will see what we can do about the rest?" Grandfather Charlus offered and Mrs. Weasley accepted instantly.
Ron groaned but Harry, knowing his girlfriend would want to attend such lessons as well, asked. "Can Hermione join us?"
Hermione gave Harry a grateful smile before giving Grandfather Charlus a hopeful look. Harry's grandfather just smiled at her and agreed that if Hermione's parents agreed then she could come over for the lessons as well.
Hoping to change the subject before he was volunteered to do any more school work, Ron asked, "Why was Fudge the one in charge at Sirius's trial? I thought that was the job of the Chief Warlock, but I didn't see Dumbledore there at all."
"Well there are two reasons: one, Dumbledore was involved in sending Sirius to prison, he has a conflict of interest so had to recuse himself from running the case. The reason he wasn't there at all was because Fudge was convinced that Dumbledore would vote to free Sirius, and so scheduled the trial while Dumbledore was away at the International Confederation of Wizards' annual meeting. It's also why we were only told that the trial was approved three days before. Fudge didn't want us to have the opportunity to gather any support," Charlus explained.
"But that's not justice, it's politics. How can it be legal to do that with people's lives?" Hermione's outrage was clear in her voice.
"Well, to change it you'll need the Wizengamot to agree to it, and the current system gives the power to the Wizengamot. So while I wish you the best of luck, it will be a long, uphill road to change it." Mrs. Weasley explained.
-ϟϟϟ-
Remus Lupin turned up at the manor the next day, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet in his hand. Sirius hadn't told Remus anything that was happening because after the events at the end of the school year there was a possibility that an Auror was keeping tabs on Remus with the hope that he would lead them to Sirius. It was a little weird for Harry, because as much as he liked the man he still saw Remus as Professor Lupin, and having your professor suddenly hanging around socially was not something Harry really knew how to deal with.
Hermione's parents had readily agreed when Charlus had scheduled the lessons around the Grangers' work schedule. Five days a week, when they went to work in the morning, they would drop Hermione outside the Leaky Cauldron and then pick her up from the same place on the way home. This wouldn't interrupt the limited time they had to spend with their daughter.
Charlus and Sirius looked over the results of the trio's end of year tests and Charlus tested them on their potions skills. While Hermione got some praise for her potion, Charlus did say that it was obvious that Hermione had learned out of a book instead of being shown the correct technique because she had misunderstood some of the fundamentals. Grandfather Charlus was also disappointed in Harry for choosing Divination rather than a useful subject when he confessed to not having the sight. His grandfather decided that he would tutor Harry in either Runes or Arithmancy and Harry would try to test into one of those subjects in September. Harry spoke with Hermione about which of the two classes was better, and Hermione went on for half an hour about how interesting Arithmancy was, but in the end said that Harry would probably enjoy Runes more than all the maths in Arithmancy.
Sirius, it turned out, was a great teacher. He was fun and engaging despite the work they were doing; the four of them spent a lot of time laughing. Sirius had a knack for teaching the principles of Charms and Transfiguration not through turning pineapples into teapots or making a book dance, spells that taught the fundamentals but were of little practical use. No, Sirius taught using prank spells, and while those prank spells had just as little everyday utility, it was easy to see that they would see a lot more use for the three teens that seemed to get into some type of trouble every year. Sticking your opponent's feet to the floor may not sound like much; not until you have had to out run a herd of hungry giant spiders, and then it suddenly seemed a lot more practical.
Potions lessons with Harry's grandfather were totally different from the dungeon torture that was Snape's class. For one, Charlus had a potions lab on the family level that was full of sunlight, making it a lot easier to see what you were doing. There was also the lack of being looked down on like something disgusting their teacher had stepped in. Combined with the fact that he actually taught the lesson rather than just giving them a list of instructions led to all three of them wishing the man would replace Snape as Potions Professor.
For the first few Potions lessons, Grandfather Charlus had them work not in the potions lab but the kitchen. He had them chopping, dicing, mincing, crushing, and skinning all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish. The techniques could easily be practised on the much cheaper food than on the potions ingredients. Best of all, Grandfather Charlus used all those ingredients to make lunch. The fact that food was involved kept the ever hungry Ron focused on their work. It helped Harry too, who was familiar enough with cooking that he could see how the skills transferred over now, and it helped Hermione the opposite way. It did improve on a few of her misunderstandings she had made having only learnt from books, but where it really helped was her confidence in the kitchen. Hermione had never learned how to cook; with her going to boarding school for most of the year there just wasn't time to learn. Even when she was home, the family wanted to focus on spending every moment they could together making up for the time they lost during the rest of the year.
It wasn't all work though. The three teenagers only had about two and a half to three hours of lessons a day and they tended to be together for the nine to five. They didn't always spend their time at the manor, though, with Harry and Hermione often being visitors to the Burrow, mostly so that Harry and Ron could take advantage of the cover provided by the Weasleys' orchard and the presence of Ron's siblings to play a few games of Quidditch.
-ϟϟϟ-
Two days after Sirius was found not guilty, Hermione approached Mr. Potter, nervous about what she was there to talk about. Sensing Hermione's nerves, Mr. Potter, guessing what she wanted to talk about, calmly asked, "So you've made your decision on whether you want to accept my offer of shelter?" He took all the care he could not to agitate the girl further.
Hermione nodded. "Yes sir. I mean, yes I made my decision, not that my decision is yes - I mean, it is yes, I didn't want to imply that it's a no, just that I was only answ…" Hermione was rambling in her nervousness and then caught herself. "I'll just shut up now."
Mr Potter couldn't help but chuckle at Hermione's rambling. "Calm down, Miss Granger. Is there anything you want to discuss with me first?"
"There was one thing I was worried about." Hermione admitted, squirming a little in her chair.
"Oh? Please tell me and I will see what I can do to relieve you of your worries." It was easy to see how the man had gotten a lifetime appointment to the Wizengamot, he just had a way about him that made him easy to talk to.
"Well, I was a little worried that you would have the right to write up betrothal contracts for me," Hermione said.
"Ah yes I forgot about that. Would it ease your mind if I promised never to include you in one without your permission? I'm looking to repay you for helping rescue one of my boys, not because I'm looking for some bargaining chip." His answer satisfied Hermione and she readily agreed to become a ward of the Potter family. It was easy enough, all it required was Hermione's signature on a document that Charlus had already had drawn up in anticipation of Hermione agreeing. The only downside was that it needed to be signed with a blood quill.
That done, Hermione was shown a room in the manor that was hers to use whenever she needed it. There were no plans for her to use it soon; her parents specifically wanted Hermione to themselves as much as possible, having really missed their daughter during the school year. But Hermione found it comforting that she had another place she could go if she needed it. She was also added to the manor wards as family, giving her the right to come and go through the wards whenever she wished, just like having the key to her parents' home. The best part, however, was in the library. Some of the bookshelves had charms on them to prevent anyone outside the family from reading them, and while there were some books that were still restricted from her there were a lot more she was now trusted with.
Both Harry and Hermione agreed that this was looking to be their best summer ever.