The trio flinched as they heard the crash downstairs. They had no idea how someone had followed them. They had made sure that no one had been going after them when they had gone after Krinos.
"Who could that be," Krinos wondered.
"Hades if we would know," Harry said. "Melody and I made sure that we moved in a way that would not draw attention."
"Plus, who could make it past that tree without Luna or you controlling it," Melody says.
"Black did," Krinos pointed out.
The trio looked at the newly-discovered-innocent fugitive. He was still under the effects of the truth spell and would remain that way for another twenty-three hours. He could still act like himself, unlike when truth potions are used which only allow the drinker to answer questions and do nothing else, but all questions that he is asked will be answered with the truth.
"How did you and Krinos get past the Whomping Willow when Krinos was unconscious," Harry asked.
"There is a knot on the trunk," Sirius answered. "When it is touched, the whole tree freezes. I used the levitation charm on a stick to touch the knot before shifting back into my dog form. I used my tail to knock the stick away when I entered the tunnel."
"How did you even know that knot was there," Melody was curious.
"When I was a student here, one of my best friends needed to easily access the tunnel," Sirius said. "So we studied up on the tree and found out about the knot. Then it was just trial and error to find the right spot on the tree that caused it to freeze."
"Who was your..." Krinos was interrupted.
The door to the room they were in slammed open. In came Professor Lupin. His wand was at the ready as he saw the trio, Luna, and Sirius Black in the same room. It did not seem to register that the students did not have their wands out or even trying to defend themselves before Lupin aimed his wand at Sirius.
"STAY AWAY FROM THEM, TRAITOR," he yelled at Sirius.
"Professor, wait," Melody called out to Lupin.
"Stay behind me, kids," Lupin ordered them.
"You don't understand, Professor," Krinos said.
"Moony's a professor," Sirius smirked. "About time somebody looked past his furry little problem."
"DON'T YOU DARE USE THAT NICKNAME," Lupin yelled at Sirius again. "YOU LOST THAT RIGHT WHEN YOU SOLD OUT JAMES AND LILY TO YOUR PATHETIC MASTER!"
"He didn't betray my birth parents, Professor," Harry says, trying to get him to calm down.
Lupin shot around to look at the four of them.
"What," he gasped.
"He didn't betray James and Lily Potter," Krinos said. "He confessed to us what really happened that night."
"He's nothing but a liar and a traitor," Lupin growled. "Don't believe anything he ever tells you."
"We used the truth spell on him," Melody tells their teacher. "The same one used on criminals when they go to trial back home. Any question he is asked he is forced to answer with the truth. It is impossible to fight the spell and many have tried. None have succeeded."
Lupin turned back to Sirius.
"Ash him anything," Harry says. "You will get a truthful answer in return."
Their teacher looked at the four students behind him. There was one question he could ask Sirius that would get him to see if he really was under the truth spell or not. Sirius would never say the truthful answer unless he was forced to or if those around already knew about his condition.
"Why did you, James, and Peter become animagus," he asked him.
"To help you, Moony," Sirius answered. "As a werewolf, it was dangerous for you on the nights of the full moon. You barely had any control and anyone could be in danger, including yourself. So James and I became animals that were large enough to help keep you company while not looking like a threat to your wolf. And Peter's small size made it easy for him to move between the Willow's swinging branches in order to touch the knot."
"Padfoot," Lupin gasped, starting to realize that there might now be some truth to what his students were telling him.
The trio looked at each other as they learned that their Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher was revealed to be a "dark" creature. Something that he would have been responsible for teaching them defenses against. But it wasn't like the three did not suspect anything over the course of the year. I mean, their teacher mysteriously gets sick once a month and is not able to teach them. If he really was simply sick, there were potions that either would have cured him instantly or made it possible for him to teach without getting them sick as well.
But being a werewolf made just as much sense as actually being sick. If anything, it made a lot more sense. While they had never looked at the moon, not thinking that Dumbledore would have a werewolf teaching his students, Harry did sense something in his teacher. He thought that his teacher was another secret mystic soul, but it made more sense that it was his animal magic sensing the inner wolf of Professor Lupin.
The trio had never actually met a werewolf before. Or any were-creature. The closest they got were actually the members of the enchanted gem families that they have met. The thing about the enchanted gem families is that they were all under a curse. Every harvest moon, they would change into were-creature versions of the sacred animal for each of their families. The wolf for sapphire, snake for ruby, horse for pearl, hawk for amethyst, white cat for emerald, falcon for tourmaline, eagle for diamond, tiger for tiger-eye, deer for rose-quartz, and songbird for opal. But being honest, the gems didn't hate their transformations and quite enjoyed taking a walk on the wild side every once in a while.
"Tell him what happened that night," Melody told Sirius. "Make him understand."
"The rat will also need to pay the price for what happened that All Hallow's Eve," Luna says. "Justice must prevail."
The blond had been calm the entire time, which was quite impressive to the trio. Staying calm seemed to be Luna's strong point. But there was also the very good chance that she had already known about what was going to happen. Or, at least, bits and pieces of what was going to happen.
"Wormtail," Sirus growled.
But then the truth spell kicked in and he told Lupin everything that had happened that night. How he had checked in on Peter to make sure he was safe and quickly learned what Peter had done. How he had bolted over to Godric's Hollow and came across the wreckage of where James, Lily, and Harry were staying. How Hagrid had shown up and taken Harry to Dumbledore to be given a health check while he had gone to arrest Peter. And finally, how Peter had blown up the street and escaped using his rat form.
As the truth spell had already been proven, Lupin believed every word that Sirius said.
"I...I never even questioned your guilt," Lupin had tears in his eyes. "I just immediately believed that you were capable of betraying us."
"It was war," Krinos said, making Lupin and Sirius turn to the students. "Betrayal is a common thing when war happens. Even families have betrayed each other when it comes to war. Families have betrayed each other for less. Even for something as stupid as the family title."
Melody rubbed her brother's back as more memories were brought up for him concerning Red and Black.
"Nobody should have to expect people to be flawlessly loyal, anyway," Harry agreed with his brother. "People have been coerced into betrayal, threatened into betraying someone, tricked, tortured, any number of things that make betrayal not as black and white as it first appears to be."
"Definitely wise beyond your years, aren't you, Harry," Sirius chuckled.
"Why was it so important that you prove your innocence to Harry, anyway," Krinos asked the fugitive. "There were more important people that should be informed. Like the head of your law enforcement department, perhaps."
"I swore the godfather oath when I became Harry's magical godfather," Sirius explained. "I can handle a lot of things, but my godson believing that I am the reason his parents are dead is not one of them."
"You know that since he is our brother, he lives with us, correct," Melody crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at Sirius. "You will not take him away from us."
"I do not want to," Sirius said, which they probably would not have believed if he was not under the truth spell. "I have seen how you three have interacted while I have been around in my dog form. I would never even dream to separate you. I may be from a dark family, but I have always been the white sheep of the Black family."
That was definitely a relief to the trio. Most of magical Britain seemed to believe that Harry belonged to them simply because he was the "Boy-Who-Lived." It drove them crazy how this country seemed to actually believe that they had the right to control Harry's life because of something that nobody ever even tried to prove was correct or not. Harry himself has said that it is more likely that his birth parents set up some type of spell or ritual to protect him if both of them were ever killed. The Potter's are a pureblood family, so there was probably something in the Potter Family Grimoire that James might have used to keep his son safe.
"I am curious, though," Harry says. "Why were you in Azkaban if you are innocent? Wouldn't that have come out at your trial?"
"There was no trial," Sirius answered, making the trio and Lupin gasp. "I was arrest right there in the street and sent right to Azkaban."
"There wasn't even an investigation," Melody was shocked and angry. "They didn't even check your wand, interview witnesses, or interrogate you!?!"
"No," Sirius answered.
"That's low even for this country," Harry shook his head.
"To think that I did not think that this country's ministry could not get any more stupid," Krinos shook his head. "I have been proven wrong. Idiots, the whole lot of them."
"Didn't Fudge also issue that kiss on sight order for him," Harry remembered. "So they are not even giving him a chance to prove his innocence. The dementors out there will kiss him before he is even given the chance."
"And even with our truth spell, they will probably not believe him," Melody added. "Fudge will do what he does best and stick his head in the sand until all his problems go away. I mean, he sent Hagrid to Azkaban last year simply because he 'needed to be seen doing something."
"I am so very tired of egotistical idiots," Krinos facepalmed.
"Sirius, how did you know that you needed to escape," Lupin asked him.
"Fudge had come for his 'once in a blue moon' check up on Azkaban," Sirius says. "He had a newspaper with him and I managed to convince him to give it to me. I wanted to check the date since it is almost impossible to keep track of time at Azkaban. I saw a picture of a redheaded family on the cover. It said that they had won a lottery and had taken a vacation."
The trio looked at each other. They knew the family he was talking about was the Weasleys. Fred, George, and Percy had told them about it when they had come to Crystal Rose to see Charlie. They used their winnings to first visit their oldest brother Bill in Egypt, where he was working as a curse breaker for Gringotts. They had enough to also visit Charlie at Crystal Rose.
"We know most of the family," Krinos says. "What about them?"
"The youngest boy had a rat on his shoulder," Sirius said. "To make it more convincing that he was dead, Peter had cut off one of his fingers. And the rat on his shoulder was missing one of its toes. So it had to be Peter. And when I saw the date, I knew that Harry also had to be attending Hogwarts. Since the boy looked to be the same age, that meant that Peter was near Harry and he was in danger."
Even when he did not really know Sirius, Harry could not help but feel touched. He had broken out of Azkaban and risked getting his soul sucked out by the dementors just to make sure that he was safe from Pettigrew. He was so used to the adults in this country treating him either like property, a hero, or like an arch enemy. And all because of an event that he barely even remembered even with his Gardna memory.
Their other thought was that Luna was right, once again. She had also been mentioning the 'rat' a lot this year. The mutt she had been mentioning is obviously Sirius, but now it made sense that the rat was Pettigrew. They were going to make sure that they paid extra attention to things that Luna says from now on. She may not admit it when they ask, but she was a seer if they have ever seen one before. They haven't, but that is beside the point.
"There is still the matter of getting our hands on that rat," Lupin growled, realizing that he needed to step in to help his old friend.
"I am in Gryffindor like Ron, unfortunately," Harry said. "I could easily grab his rat when he is out of the room. And if he tries to change back to fight me, I can easily handle him."
"Harry, while brave, you are only thirteen," Lupin says. "I don't think you should be purposely going after someone that blew up an entire street of muggles."
"I've vanquished demons with a lot higher body counts than that," Harry crossed his arms. "A rat shapeshifter is nothing compared to them."
"Animagus," Luna corrected him.
"Whatever," Harry said.
"The ministry will probably still not listen," Lupin still sees flaws. "Even if we bring them Pettigrew, they will probably say something along the lines of 'he was hiding because he was afraid of Sirius Black' or something like that. They wouldn't even consider that he faked his death or that he would also probably have the dark mark on his arm."
"What we will need is someone that can easily outsmart them in the courtroom," Sirius says. "Or I could find a way back to the Black family London townhouse. That is where my parents kept the famous Black family black book. It had blackmail material on almost every powerful person in magical Britain. That book has been used as to keep the Blacks in power for a long time."
"I don't think that book will be necessary," Krinos said.
"We happen to know someone that has already outsmarted your ministry," Melody smirked.
"Someone mention me," Olivia giggled as she walked into the room.
Lupin and Sirius basically jumped out of their skin as the time witch suddenly walked through the door, making her giggle even more.
"Not that's what I call timing," Harry smirked.
"You're welcome," Krinos was revealed to have his mirror phone out.
"Now, time for my favorite passtime," Olivia rubbed her hands together like a cartoon villain. "Beating egotistical British people at politics."
"Should we be worried that she gets this excited over this stuff," Melody wondered out loud.
The trio looked at each other.
"Nah," they all decided at once.
After they went back through the tunnel, it was not a lot of work to get Pettigrew. Harry had just gone back to Gryffindor tower and waited a bit for his dorm to be empty. It was probably the first time that he was glad that Gryffindor students don't get their own rooms like Slytherins and Ravenclaws do. Once Dean was in the bathroom and the others were in the common room, he had just plucked "Scabbers" off of Ron's bed and smirked as he placed him in a bag that he was brought. Neville may have walked in while he was doing it, but a quick explanation had saved him a lot of trouble that would have caused. Plus, it helped that only Hermione liked Ron. So it's not like any of the other boys would have told him that his pet had gone missing anyway. They would have found his panic quite funny.
Harry brought the rat to where Olivia was hiding Sirius. He was back in his dog form and hiding near Hagrid's hut with Olivia next to him. They had decided that the Greek court system would be a better chance for Sirius to be free than the British one since all they would try to do is sweep everything under the rug and forget that Sirius ever existed. Once Olivia got back to Greece with Sirius, there would be a "public" trial that would have Sirius telling his story under the truth spell.
They also had a back-up plan if it didn't work. Since Olivia was a member of their magic council, she had the power to grant sanctuary to Sirius. That way he could be given Greek citizenship while also denouncing his British citizenship and putting him directly under their jurisdiction. That would take away any chance that the British ministry would have to barge into the courtroom and demand that they hand Sirius over to them. They might have had a chance if he wasn't given sanctuary because he did break out of a British prison and was a British criminal, but Olivia was a whole lot smarter than they were. Not that the British would ever admit that since their egos were all bigger than the moon.
Let's just say that when the next article of the Quibbler came out a few days later, it caused one hell of uproar.
Sirius Black Proven Innocent! British Ministry Failed To Give Lord Black A Trial For A Crime That He Never Even Committed! Greeks Make Sure Justice Prevails!
The trip smirked as they both got the word out and probably raised the subscriptions of the Luna's family paper.