Trial
“So now that we have evidence I guess we get a retrial,” Remus comments
“Actually Sirius never got a trial so we’d just call for his very late trial” Regulus explains
“Wait… h-he never got a trial?”
“Nope”
Regulus never knew that werewolves could growl outside of their transformation
After Remus calms down they make an appointment with Amelia Bones and they have to pull a favor from Kingsley in order to get an appointment so soon
Their not entirely sure what Kingsley did to get them an appointment that same day but they were very grateful
“Ms. Bones, I’m Remus Lupin and I am here because it has been brought to my attention that Sirius Black never got a trial”
“You cannot be serious”
“No I'm here about Sirius”
Ms Bones is trying very hard to pull off the extremely unamused look but Regulus (in his cat form) can see her lips twitching
“Why now”
“I recently came to possess evidence of his innocence and planned to call a retrial and realized there wasn’t even an original trial”
“Well if you are correct that is extremely concerning…I suppose no one noticed because we all assumed he was guilty… What evidence do you have?”
“The Potters will”
“I why is this only coming out now?”
“The will was sealed”
“By who?!”
“Dumbledore.”
“Can he do that!”
“He’s not supposed to”
“That seems like a problem but first, your trial, I knew something always felt off, Black and Potter were always attached at the hip…”
Having the head of magical law enforcement pushing for a trial means that trial happens pretty quickly even if the Chief Warlock is trying to push back
“Trial of the 28th of June into offenses committed by Sirius Orion Black, resident of Azkaban, interrogators Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the charges against the accused are as follows: Murder in the First-Degree, usage of magic in presence of muggles, affiliation with Lord Voldemort and receiving the dark mark,” Dumbledore as the Chief Warlock is in charge of the leading Wizengamot
Sirius is just stood in his cell confused as hell looking at Dumbledore
“Witness for the defense, Goblin Larluk, having evidence to present,”
“Continue” Dumbledore grits out although clearly only complying do to Millicent Bagnold, the Minister of Magic and Amelia Bones head of magical law enforcement looking at him expectantly
“I present to you the Potters will,”
“But your not the goblin in charge of the Potter accounts,” Dumbledore interrupts
“Actually I have been temporarily appointed as the Potters accountant, now if I may continue,”
“Who has the authority to appoint you as such!” Dumbledore continues attempting to make excuses
“Lord Ragnuk appointed me now if I may continue,”
Dumbledore is clearly trying to come up with another excuse
“Please continue,” Millicent Bagnold (Minister of Magic) steps in
“Thank you, I will now play a clip of the Potters will,”
Yes Peter Pettigrew was our secret keeper so if Voldemort found us than it was him who sold us out
SIRIUS IS INNOCENT
Yes our fake secret keeper Sirius Black was to mislead people and not actually our secret keeper, now moving on to-
There is quite murmuring throughout the courtroom
“How can we be sure this is authentic” Dumbledore is floundering at this point and many wizards and witches in the room are looking at him oddly
“We can call the witnesses who signed the will,”
“Yes let’s do that,” the Minister butts in again clearly tired of Dumbledore's antics “In the meantime court adjourned,”
Larluk comes over to Remus and tells them (Regulus in cat form and Harry with his scar covered) that he’ll call Xenophilius Lovegood as well as Fradrass
Regulus decides to jump from Harry’s arms and go to Sirius who was left in the courtroom (against procedure but everyone is too distracted by the shit show that just went down)
“I’m getting a trial and now there’s a cat I must really be going insane now…” Sirius mumbles to himself
“You’re not going insane Pads,” Remus looks heartbroken
“Remus,”
Great now his brother is crying what is Regulus supposed to do now especially as a cat
He meows at his brother
Sirius looks down surprised having forgotten the cat was there and literally in the cage with him
He picks Regulus up, Regulus will adamantly deny that he starting purring to the day he dies
“Hi what’s your name” Sirius asks
Remus start snickering and Sirius looks at him quizzically
“That’s Whiskers” Harry chose the name because they told him that he couldn’t call Regulus by his name in cat form
“Hello, Whiskers” Sirius greets
Remus starts wheezing
“Moony, are you okay?” Sirius looks at him concerned
“F-f-fine”
“Are you sure?”
People start coming back in, Remus quiets immediately remembering the situation
Harry and Remus go back to their spots toward the back of the room where people viewing trial sit
Regulus stays with his brother
“Mr Black where did the cat come from?” Amelia Bones asks
“I don’t know, he just showed up!” Sirius says cheerfully “His names Whiskers” he adds on as an afterthought
Nobody knows how to respond to that so they quickly move on pretending that whatever that was didn’t just happen
Larluk walks onto the floor with a blond man and another goblin
“This is Fradrass and Xenophilius Lovegood who along with myself were both present at the Potters recording of will, I will now replay the clip”
Yes Peter Pettigrew was our secret keeper so if Voldemort found us than it was him who sold us out
SIRIUS IS INNOCENT
Yes our fake secret keeper Sirius Black was to mislead people and not actually our secret keeper, now moving on to-
“Mr. Fradrass can you attest to whether this clip is accurate,” Ms. Bones took over as judge, no one seemed to question it as the day was already weird enough that this in comparison seemed normal
“Yes, this was exactly as I recall during the recording of will,”
“And Mr. Lovegood can you attest to whether this clip is accurate,”
“This clip is accurate to the Potters will” Xenophilius states simply unusually serious for him
“Is there any other evidence anyone would like to present,”
“What about the murder of Pettigrew,” Dumbledore tries
“I admit I did confront Pettigrew after the Potters death in anger over him betraying them, he led me to a muggle street where he murdered those muggles cut off his own finger and escaped” Sirius is quick to explain
“You expect us to believe Pettigrew has stayed in hiding for this long,” Dumbledore says
“I don’t see why he couldn’t have, other wizards have stayed in hiding longer” Larluk quickly counters
Dumbledore quickly losing ground “Why is this story only coming out after nine years!”
“I am actually curious to that myself, you Dumbledore locked away the Potters will the main piece of evidence, you Dumbledore cast the fidilius charm and therefore should have known who the real secret keeper was, you Dumbledore are Chief Warlock and it is your job to conduct trials yet Sirius Black never got his trial,” Larluk questions Dumbledore
“Well you see… I…”
“Dumbledore did you cast the fidelius with Pettigrew and the Potters”
Dumbledore who contrary to popular belief is horrible at improv and relies on all his plans falling into place so he can recite well rehearsed lies says “Yes I did”
“So you confirm Peter Pettigrew was the Potters secret keeper”
“Yes…”
Dumbledore knew… why was he trying to prevent Blacks freedom.. and more could be heard throughout the room
“Does anyone wish to present more evidence”
No one comes forward and Ms. Bones allows the Wizengamot to now decide if Sirius is innocent or guilty
It is unanimously decided that one Sirius Black is innocent of all charges
“Mr. Black is found innocent of all charges, I will set up an appointment to speak about compensation for wrongful imprisonment at a later date and suggest you return home for the time being”
On their way out Xenophilius approaches
“Excuse me but may I have a moment,” he’s looking directly at Regulus as he says this
“Umm… sure,” Sirius who’s still holding him replies
“My apologies, I wish for a conversation with Mr. Whiskers”
“The cat” Sirius looks like he is once again considering his sanity
Regulus squirms out of his arms
“I received your letter and would love to have you over for tea this Friday at 3pm, also here is the location you asked for” Xenophilius hold out a note
Regulus carefully takes the note in his mouth and returns to Sirius who is looking at Xenophilius like he’s crazy
Once they get back to Grimmauld Sirius goes upstairs to shower
Harry was sent to bed after a quick dinner
Regulus has turned back into his human form
“Well that went well” Regulus comments
“Yes” Remus agrees
“BLOODY HELL… Regulus?!”
“Sirius,” Regulus turns to face his brother
“Ok my dead brothers alive, I’m not in Azkaban and Moony and Harry are here but you expect me to believe I’ve not gone insane” Sirius looks on the verge of a panic attack
“You’re not insane Siri, I know I’m supposed to be dead but I was in a coma and am alive, Remus and Harry helped me gather evidence to get you out of Azkaban and now we’re all at Grimmauld Place” Regulus tells Sirius
“Ok… I think I need to sit down”
After a few minutes Sirius speaks again
“Why?”
“Why what?” Regulus asks
“Why did you work to free me from Azkaban?”
“Because you’re innocent”
“How would you know”
“Oh please Sirius don’t be daft, I know you well enough to know that you working with the asshole who is Voldemort was impossible”
“You called the Dark Lord an asshole”
“Yes”
“But you… you’re-“
“A death eater?”
Sirius nods
“Well I was never really loyal to all that blood purist crap and I’m not a death eater anymore”
“….Then why’d you become a death eater?”
“Take ‘em down from the inside”
“You’re so…”
“Amazing, intelligent, charismatic?”
“Different”
“Well I shouldn’t be that different… for me it’s only been about … 4 months since we last talked, since we spoke that one time 3 months before my death”
“Wow ok… this is a lot to process… you’ve only been awake for a month?”
“I feel like now is a bad time to say this but I’m gonna go upstairs so the two of you can have privacy” Remus interrupts
“Goodnight”
“‘Night Moons”
“Yes I woke up from my coma about a month ago”
“The first thing you did was get me out of prison?”
“No, the first thing I did was stalk your boyfriend, recruit your boyfriend, check on your godson, kidnap your godson and then I freed you from prison!”
“You’re funnier then I remember”
“Well if I was seen joking with you my cover would of been blown”
“Oh… yeah… so what now?”
“Now we go to bed after you eat something”
“But, I have so many questions”
“That we can discuss tomorrow, Kreachers making a plain chicken soup and I want you to eat as much as you can manage,”
“Ok”
“Also would you like to sleep in your old room or should I set up a guest room for you?”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep peacefully….”
“Ok then you can sleep in my room like we did when we were younger”
“Reggie, you don’t have too”
“Nonsense, you just got out of Azkaban and if sleeping near a familiar face makes it easier then I’ll do whatever I can to ease your transition”
“Thankyou, Reg”
“Ofcourse, Siri”
Harry Potter- ensure his safety, who he is with ect.Luna Lovegood- she should be living with her her father but Reg wants to check in on her anywaysSirius- Regulus is confident that he is innocent and plans to prove it- Horcruxes
- Voldemort himself
Regulus decides to add another task to his list
6. Dumbledore