PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Twenty-Five

It could have all been a dream, Milo knew that whatever he had witnessed could all have been something that his mind had put together, but he hoped he was right. He hoped the man standing across from him had nothing to do with the death of his parents, that it was all some big misunderstanding. Sirius looked bewildered for one of two reasons, he truly didn't know what Milo was talking about or he did but didn't understand how Milo could know any of that.

"How did you...you were just a-" Sirius shook his head, gripping at his hair in a frustrated manner. Milo continued to place some distance between him and the man, even if Sirius was innocent of the crimes, Azkaban had not done the man any good. From the pictures that Milo had seen of his father with his friends, the man before him didn't look very much like the cheeky grinning young man that he had come to witness prior to their meeting. 

"This is some sort of trick," Sirius accused as he began to pace back and forth in a feverish way, he continued to look back and forth at the ground and then up at Milo. "Mind tricks of some sort. You're not real, this...this isn't real. I know the type of games that the ministry plays, I know what they do to infect the mind-'

"Looks like your mind has already been infected," Milo countered bravely, bringing Sirius to come to a halt and peer up at him once more. "I am Milo Potter, I'm not a mind trick or some sort of an illusion. I am one of the sons of James Potter, now answer my question. You were there that night-"

"Of course I was there that night! Why wouldn't I have been there that night? As soon as I got the word and suspected that something was wrong, I made my way there as soon as I possibly could. Nearly got myself splinched...only, I was too late. Too late for James...for Lily...too late for you and Harry."

He fell to the ground, his voice cracking near the end as his body was shaking violently. Under normal circumstances, Milo wouldn't have hesitated to approach the man, but seeing as Sirius' emotions were all over the place, he didn't want to take any chances of getting hurt if the man turned once more. 

At the same time, as his heart pounded heavily in his chest, Milo was doing his best to remain calm. He was trying to channel his mother as Minerva always seemed to approach the most stressful matters with such poise. Nothing intimidated her it seemed and nothing rattled her nerves, Milo wanted to appear the same way, even though, internally, he was screaming and running around in a full panic.

"You didn't betray my parents? The Ministry-"

"The Ministry lied, they didn't know the whole story!" Sirius spat. "They didn't know it because they wouldn't let me tell it!"

"Because you didn't get a trial," Milo muttered, remembering what he and Elspeth had discussed. "You thought if you turned yourself in that you could explain what happened but they didn't let you."

"...broke my wand, told me I'd never see the light of day again...not where I was going. But that wasn't even the worst part of it all. I lost everything that night but people... people honestly believed that I would do something like that. People who knew me believed that I did that to my best friend..."

It was difficult for Milo to watch a broken man break even further. 

He had no idea what to say or what could be said to the man to offer any sort of comfort in such a situation. If what Sirius was saying was true, he had just spent twelve years in Azkaban for a crime that he didn't commit. He had lost his friends and family because no one would give him the opportunity to tell his side of the story. Why they wouldn't allow him to at least speak, it didn't make any sense, Milo thought the Ministry would be fairer than that. He guessed that he was wrong because he truly did believe that Sirius was telling the truth. 

His father had shown him memories of a time where they were happy and the time where Sirius lost it all. The man didn't laugh maniacally, he didn't lash out or try to attack, instead, he was nothing more than a bag of bones and sorrow.  Finally, Milo took a couple of steps towards him, despite Paden pulling at his hair to steer the boy away, wondering what the hell was going through his mind at the moment.

He walked over to where Sirius had collapsed to his knees and reached a hand out cautiously to rest on the man's shoulder. As soon as he made contact, Sirius flinched but he didn't push Milo away, he merely looked up at the boy.

"Sirius," Milo spoke, doing his best to keep his voice steady, "you're my brother's godfather, right?"

Sirius was quiet but eventually, he brought himself to nod his head. " I would have been yours too, but you were a fussy baby. Only one person outside of your mother was allowed to hold you until you were about a year old."

If it pained Sirius to say such things, he couldn't imagine how much pain it brought Milo to hear those words because he didn't have those early memories with his parents. He wished he did, but he couldn't remember that early into his life, although he wished he did so he had memories to look back on with them. 

"You wouldn't hurt him, would you?" Milo continued with his questions.

"No, I wouldn't dare to, I swear-"

"Solemnly?" Milo added, bringing Sirius to stop and just stare up at him. Suddenly, the man broke into a grin and started to laugh. He nodded his head and then Milo watched as he started to cry, not because he was so much sad, but because it probably brought up wonderful memories that he missed out on so much. 

Milo smiled, just standing there as Sirius just laughed. "You've been possessed by your father's spirit, that much is obvious. I'm sure you and Harry...cause nothing but trouble up in that castle."

Well, he wasn't wrong. The problem was, they hardly caused trouble together because they couldn't be around each other for long periods of time without something going wrong. 

I've seen him, I've seen both of you now, all grown up and..." His voice faded once more but Milo had a sneaking suspicion as to what Sirius was thinking about.

"And your son," Milo told him. Sirius nodded his head.

"And my son. I missed it all."

"But you won't have to miss more," Milo told him, " you won't have to miss any more time. You just...you just have to get your name cleared and tell everyone what really happened."

Of course, Milo made it sound like it was so incredibly easy.If the Ministry didn't want to hear a word Sirius had to say before, they certainly weren't going to want to hear what he said after breaking out of Azkaban. The only thing they were going to want to understand was how he had managed to break out. Judging by how skinny Sirius was in human and in dog form, Milo wouldn't have been surprised if he had just slipped through the bars without a problem. But Azkaban was in the middle of the sea, which meant that without a wand, he had to swim against magically induced strong currents.

"Milo-"

"We can do this," Milo told him, "right now, it's complicated but we can do this. I know we can if you're innocent...you don't deserve this."

Milo peered down at his watch for a brief second and knew he had to get back to the castle for dinner if he didn't show up, it was going to raise suspicions and his mother already had her suspicions that he was up to no good. He didn't want to be caught in the act and if he was caught with Sirius, it wasn't going to work out well for anyone. He had to keep Sirius safe. 

"I-I need to head back to the castle now," Milo said and instantly saw the frightened look appear on Sirius' face as if he suspected that Milo was going to run back and turn him in. "I promise, we'll work this out. I just can't stay here any longer or you will be caught because of me. But I promise we'll talk again soon. Just stay out of trouble and out of sight....and...just...."

He couldn't help it as he wrapped the man into a tight hug. Once he pulled away, he didn't say anything else as he went to leave but Sirius called after him.

"Gryffindor?" He asked him, Milo assumed he wondered where he had been sorted.

Milo shook his head. "Hufflepuff," he smiled. "Proud badger. But don't be too disappointed, Harry and Silas are Gryffindors, you'll have the lions around you soon enough."