Betrayal of the Best Kind
Hate
By Draco664
Hate
Present Day
"Sirius, I need to ask you something urgently."
Sirius looked up and saw the Dumbledore's face in the fireplace. He got up and moved over to sit in front of the fire.
"What can I do for you, Professor?"
"You are aware that Harry has escaped?"
"Of course. The entire nation knows."
Dumbledore took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Has he contacted you?"
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Yes, as a matter of fact, he has."
"Sirius, he killed that boy. He is dangerous, and appears to be able to convince himself that he is not, no matter his actions. He needs to be removed from society."
"Stop," Sirius demanded. "He is no more dangerous than I. I don't believe he killed anyone."
Dumbledore sighed. "I know. Your faith in Harry does you credit, but you must admit that the facts of the case all point to Harry's guilt." The Headmaster shook his head. "I really want to believe that Mr. Potter is innocent. He showed so much potential to be a truly great wizard. But I cannot, and will not, allow anyone else to be hurt if I can prevent it."
"Albus, you know I will always support you in any endeavor to bring dark wizards down and make the wizarding world safer. But I would walk into hell, punch the devil in the eye, and waltz out again for Harry. Do not make me choose to turn my back on you."
Dumbledore closed his eyes in resignation. "Very well. I will not ask that of you. Just tell me one thing."
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Yes?"
"I did everything I could to keep him from Azkaban, but using the Killing Curse is an automatic one-way ticket to that place. I just want to know, is he OK?"
Sirius shook his head. "He is bitter, Albus. He feels that the entire world has turned on him. I know how that feels. I can tell you one thing, he retained his sanity the same way I did. He knew he was innocent."
Dumbledore nodded. "That is a load off my mind. Cornelius told me he was hopelessly insane when he visited him. You realise that Cornelius himself will not be released even if he can prove that he didn't assist you in your escape."
"Really?"
"Of course!" Dumbledore frowned. "Just assisting Harry to escape would be enough to imprison him."
"Oh, of course." Sirius recovered.
The headmaster gave Sirius a long stare. "Harry didn't get help from Cornelius, did he?" he guessed.
Sirius put on his best blank expression. "Harry didn't tell me of any help Fudge gave him."
Dumbledore continued to stare at him. "Sirius? You know something. You know how he escaped."
Sirius sighed and nodded. "Believe me, until he told me how, I had no idea how he managed it. I still find it difficult to believe, even now. But I can say in all honesty that if any smart wizard was put in Harry's exact situation, they could escape too."
The Headmaster shook his head in disbelief. "That prison has held the most powerful criminals for centuries. A boy who hasn't finished school would have no hope of escape. You only managed it because of your rather 'unique' status. Harry certainly doesn't have that ability. I have personally removed all relevant texts from the library here, and with Harry at his relatives all summer, there was no way for him to get the information elsewhere."
"Stop fishing for answers, I won't help. If he is caught again, I want him to have every opportunity to escape again."
Dumbledore sighed. "Very well, I will not ask you to betray Harry. I admit I was keeping you busy after his arrest and imprisonment, just to keep you from going to help him."
Sirius grinned. "I know, I was frustrated to start with, but now, you will be forced to admit Harry managed to escape without my help."
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, I suppose I have to, at that."
"That boy is remarkable. Don't sell him short Albus, he has the potential to save us all." Sirius paused. "Could I ask a small favour?"
"You may ask, I may not be able to fulfill it."
"Could I get a copy of the transcripts from Harry's interviews and trial. We want to go over them to see if there is anything we can use to clear his name."
Dumbledore stiffened. "I'll see to it at once." The headmaster's head disappeared from the fire.
Sirius frowned at the headmaster's sudden disappearance. Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up. "Oh, damn! I said 'we'."
He jumped to his feet. "Harry! Get out of here! Now!" he yelled.
Less than a second later a red blur zipped through a gap in one of the boarded windows. Thank Merlin he didn't wait for an explanation, he thought. Sirius turned into his canine form and waited.
Within a minute, the hole that marked the start of the tunnel leading to Hogwarts was overflowing with aurors. Shouts from outside indicated that the Shrieking Shack was surrounded. Professor Snape's oily visage appeared at the tunnel's entrance. He took one look around and saw the enormous grim.
Several aurors had their wands pointed at Sirius fearfully. "Put your wands down. You are here for Potter, not to molest the local wildlife."
They looked at the potions professor, faces filled with uncertainty. Snape threw his hands up in disgust and walked over to Sirius. Looking as though he was putting his hand directly into a vat of bubotuber pus, he patted Sirius on the head. "This is just a friendly stray who lives in Hogsmeade. Potter is somewhere nearby. Find him."
After the aurors left, Snape muttered quietly, "You are becoming a liability, Black," before walking outside.
Sirius lowered his head. He had to stay free. He had to keep his secret. He had to, so he could keep Harry safe.
The auror's had been outside for twenty minutes before they all started apparating away. Snape walked back into the Shrieking Shack.
Looking at the black dog, he said, "They are all gone, Potter has been spotted in London. It would appear the headmaster was incorrect. Or did you claim he was here to throw us off the trail?"
Sirius popped back into his human form. Looking at his boyhood enemy turned ally, he said, "I claimed nothing of the sort. All I said was that I'd like a copy of the interview and trial transcripts so that 'we' could work to clear his name. Albus obviously took that to mean Harry was here."
"Potter doesn't deserve your faith," Snape said.
"Most people didn't believe you deserved Dumbledore's," Sirius countered.
The pair looked at each other warily. They had been working together reluctantly for nearly a year, but trust was earned slowly. Respect for the other's abilities had been the main reason they could work together without Dumbledore's supervision.
Snape finally shook his head and chuckled softly. Sirius was shocked, he could never remember ever hearing Snape laugh.
"I was so sure Potter was just a under-achieving student with a big head. In one night he manages to escape from Azkaban, and bring down the Minister of Magic."
Sirius smiled. "He doesn't tend to do things half-hearted."
Snape's smile faded slowly. "I just hope he doesn't kill anyone else before we can catch him." Snape turned to leave. "Don't get in the way, Black."
Sirius stood confused as he watched the potions master leave the shack. That last comment should have sounded like a threat, but it didn't.
It sounded like a plea.
Two birds arrived simultaneously. A tawny school owl dropped a stack of papers tied with string in front of Sirius as Harry's scarlet form floated in. The owl took off without waiting for a response.
Sirius bent and picked up the transcripts. He turned and smiled at Harry. "Sorry for that. A slip of the tongue and you have to flee."
Harry grinned. "Not to worry. I went to London. Tried to get into Gringotts, but 'accidentally' got seen at the entrance. Ran round a corner and into muggle London. Led a lot of robed people on a merry chase where they couldn't use magic to stop me. I ran round a corner, changed and watched them stumble around for a while from the roof. I've discovered another interesting property of the phoenix, muggles cannot see or hear them."
Sirius collapsed into a chair with relief. Then he frowned. "How did you manage to get from here to Diagon Alley and back in an hour?"
"Have you any idea how fast a phoenix can fly?"
Sirius covered his eyes. "Obviously not." He looked at his godson. "You realise that if you appear on different sides of the country, they are going to start trying to trace your apparition signature."
Harry laughed. "It's going to take them a while to find it. I don't know how to apparate."
Sirius chuckled too. He undid the string tie, and leafed through the stack of papers. "What do you want to check first? Interview or trial?"
"Neither."
Sirius looked up in surprise. "What?"
Harry looked at his godfather. "I want you to help me recreate the day. Go over what happened. I'm not interested in what was said just yet." He rubbed his temples as he spoke. "I want to show you what I experienced, and see if we can use our famous mischievous Marauder minds to work out what happened."
"You're on."
"Ah, Ms. Chang. Good of you to come at such short notice. Please take a seat."
Dumbledore watched as Cho strode over to a chair and sat down. Looking at the young woman, he wondered again whether or not Harry had killed two people that day.
Ever since she had been told that Harry asked her for an alibi, Cho had become cold to everyone. She apparently now held nothing but loathing for the boy she asked to the dance on the first day back at school. It was as though all her positive feelings had been removed.
Cho had become known as the 'Ice Queen'. She refused to speak to anyone about her personal life. In class, the professors of Hogwarts could not have hoped for a more diligent student. Outside the classroom, they were all very worried.
Cho sat and waited for the headmaster to speak. Dumbledore was sure she would sit there all day without moving if he didn't talk to her. Cho's dark eyes, for so long full of life and happiness, now gave out as much warmth as an icicle. She had resigned from the house Quidditch team without explanation, and now spent all her free time researching charms and spells in the library. Specifically, those used to hunt down, and destroy, dark wizards.
"Ms. Chang, I presume you are aware of the escape of Mr. Potter."
Dumbledore saw a flash of something in her eyes, anger? pain? She nodded, curtly.
"I have an 'operative' outside the school who has come in contact with him."
Nothing. Not even a flicker of emotion crossed her face.
"I am reluctant to request this of you, but Harry has proved adept at eluding capture."
Still nothing, not even curiosity. The headmaster could have been looking at a statue.
"I would like to request that you write to Mr. Potter. Ask to meet him, and if you can, tell him you want to help him. Tell him to name the meeting place. If you wish, you will be taken there, escorted by a number of aurors and a pair of teachers from school, all under invisibility cloaks. When Mr. Potter arrives we will attempt to stun and capture him."
Nothing, not even anticipation appeared on Cho's exquisite features. "I'll do it," was all she said.
Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you Ms. Chang."
Sirius and Harry stood at the scene of the murder. The full moon lit the night enough to allow the pair to examine the scene, yet not enough that either of them would be identified should someone come by.
"I ran around the corner and saw Malfoy standing over Cho there," Harry said, pointing at the ground about five metres away.
"I stunned him, started to check on Cho, when I was stunned from behind." he continued.
"OK," said Sirius "The stunning spell you cast is recorded. The spell you were hit with wasn't."
Harry looked at his godfather. "Can magic be masked? Spells I mean."
Sirius nodded, then shook his head. "Yes, but that masking is easily detected. Any time a masking trace is found, it is assumed that it is covering a spell. Flitwick could find that sort of evidence in his sleep."
"A pity they couldn't wake me up here. I woke up in the cell."
Sirius' head snapped round to look at Harry. "They didn't wake you here?"
Harry shook his head. "They tried, but the ennervation charm didn't work."
Sirius started chuckling. "Well there is one reason there is no trace of the second stunning spell. It was not cast. If you were stunned, the ennervation charm would have woken you."
"I heard it being cast, Sirius."
"No, I'd say you heard the incantation. If the culprit wasn't holding a wand, no spell would have been cast."
"Then why did I lose consciousness?"
"I'm not sure. Tell me, apart from that day, have you ever been hit with the stunning spell before?"
"Never."
"What did it feel like? On the day of the murder, I mean."
"Just something slamming into the back of my head."
"Harry, the stunning spell doesn't 'slam' into you, it passes through you, disrupting your body. You don't 'feel' it hit you at all."
Harry looked at his godfather. "Someone physically hit me from behind."
Sirius just nodded. "Then used your wand to kill Crabbe."
Harry and his godfather stared at each other, working this new information over in their minds. A voice from the street startled them. "Hello, is anyone there?"
A young witch, a little tipsy from her visit to the Three Broomsticks, wandered round the corner. "Lumos," she slurred. The light from her wand illuminated a large black dog rolling around in the grass. A large red phoenix with green eyes watched her unnoticed from the building roof. "Nox," she said, and walked unsteadily home.
"Let's go, it's closing time soon." Sirius told his godson's phoenix form.
On the pair's return to the Shrieking Shack, a letter from Dumbledore waited on the table. Sirius opened the letter and took out a closed envelope. He read the message, and then passed it and the envelope to Harry.
Harry looked at the familiar looping script of Hogwarts' headmaster.
Snuffles,
One student at Hogwarts has some very important things to say to your godson. I would ask that you please pass this message along to him the next time you see him.
Regards,
Albus Dumbledore
Harry looked at envelope, his heart racing. Fingers shaking, he broke the seal, and opened the letter.
Dearest Harry,
This is the hardest letter I've ever had to write. I know you must feel betrayed, that you have no one in the world who believes you. Please, I do.
Harry's eyes glistened.
I didn't though, for such a long time. Everyone knew you'd killed him. But, I couldn't sleep for the dreams. I had dreams, nightmares of you screaming at me, saying that you were innocent. For months, I just couldn't let myself believe that you weren't guilty.
My doubts had grown though. I remembered the looks you gave me, in the few precious days we spent together. Looks full of love. I saw you at Cedric's grave, and I read the addition you made to his tombstone. Finally, I let myself believe that you might be innocent. My nightmares stopped that night.
Harry looked up and took a deep breath. The pain in his stomach he felt when he saw the accusing looks on the faces of his friends was still there. The pain didn't go away now Cho believed in him. Maybe it never would.
I want you to know that you have my support. I know I don't deserve your love, but you will always have my heart. I want to touch you, hold you in my arms again. I miss you so much.
I have informed the school that I would like to go home for a few days. Professor Dumbledore himself approved the request. Please tell me where and when I can meet you. I want to know that you are still real, and not just a memory.
All my love,
Your girlfriend, Cho.
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