And here's chapter two.
DISCLAIMER: I own Elizabeth "Lizzie" Black, Michael Black and Whizzy the House Elf. All other characters belong to J. K. Rowling.
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Chapter 2 - Freedom and Betrayal
Sirius woke up early the next morning. He looked at the clock on his nightstand, which read 5:24. Knowing that he had a lot to do today, he carefully climbed out of bed.
"I love you," he whispered as he softly kissed her temple, before changing into his day clothes and sneaking out of the room.
Sirius walked into his son Michael's room. It was painted light blue with white clouds drifting across the walls. He snuck to the crib in the far corner of the room to look down at his son, fast asleep with his thumb hanging out of his mouth. Grinning, his whispered, "I'll be back, kiddo," before kissing his fingertips and briefly touching the baby's cheek. He walked down to the kitchen, grabbed a green can, and then apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.
With a crack, Sirius appeared in the Leaky Cauldron bar and inn. As was to be expected at this hour, the only other people there was the old barkeep Tom wiping a table and a couple of customers clutching mugs of coffee like their lives depended on it.
"Anything I can get for you today, sir?" Tom asked cheerfully.
"No thanks, Tom. I just need to get to muggle London." Nodding in acknowledgement, Tom resumed his cleaning. Sirius pushed the door open and breathed in the crisp morning air.
Sirius walked down a couple of blocks before he hailed a taxi.
"Where can I take ya, guv'?" the driver asked as Sirius climbed in.
"Little Whinging, Surrey," Sirius said. "And could you hurry?" Nodding, the driver shifted gears and and drove to Little Whinging as fast as he legally could.
When they arrived at the front gate of the community, Sirius climbed out and flung the driver a hundred-pound note.
"Keep the change," he said as he dashed in. The taxi driver was so shocked that his customer had gave him one hundred pounds without thinking that he simply sat in front of the gate for over a minute.
Sirius ran a couple of blocks before he realized that he had no idea where Privet Drive was. Cursing under his breath, he looked around the street he was in. He noticed a man a couple of doors down from where he was coming out of his house and ran towards him.
"Excuse me," Sirius panted. "I know someone who recently moved here, but I can't seem to find the right street. Could you point me towards Privet Drive please?"
"Of course," the man said. "Just go down that way two blocks and turn right, then turn left at the next intersection." After thanking the man, Sirius ran down the street as fast as he could.
Five minutes later, Sirius found himself in front of Number 4 Privet Drive, the residence of the Dursleys, Lily Potter's magic-hating relatives. Sirius snuck around back and peered through the kitchen window. He saw a skinny, horse-faced woman trying to feed a toddler that would be considered obese beyond the shadow of a doubt cereal while said toddler was throwing a loud tantrum. He also saw Harry, wearing muggle Blue's Clues pajamas and picking at what seemed to be the crust from half a slice of bread.
Clenching his fist to prevent his temper from boiling over, Sirius snuck towards the kitchen door. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself, he pulled out the green can, which had a neon red "DB" emblazoned on it, and kicked the door open.
Mrs. Dursley screamed shrilly as she hoisted her gigantic son up and held him protectively, while Harry squealed excitedly at the sight of his godfather.
"Who are you?! What are you doing in my house?! Is that a grenade?!" she shrieked. Sirius winced slightly as the shrillness of her voice reminded him of his own mother, but picked up Harry and held him in one arm.
"I'll never know how Lily managed to love you, but here's a little gift for you. It'll be fitting for such rotten people as you." Sirius pulled the pin out of the can with his teeth and dropped it before disapparating. Mrs. Dursley's eyes widened in fear as the green can hit the floor. A couple of seconds later, a putrid green cloud of gas was expelled from the can.
Number 4 Privet Drive never smelled the same again.
Sirius apparated back into the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place to see his wife Lizzie feeding Michael. She jumped in surprise at the crack, but sighed in relief when it was just her husband. She smiled widely when she saw Harry in his arms. She waved her wand to conjure a second high chair before placing Harry in it. While Harry and Michael started making random sounds at each other, Lizzie turned to Sirius.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked, the smile no longer on her face. Sirius sighed.
"First, I'm going to go to Gringotts and execute James and Lily's will, then I'm going to go catch a rat," he muttered the last part darkly.
"Don't kill him, Sirius," Lizzie said. "I don't want Michael visiting his father in Azkaban."
"Don't worry, hon," he said, kissing her softly. "I won't kill Peter. I'll just beat the crap out of him before turning him in." Nodding, Lizzie kissed her husband again.
"Just be careful." He nodded, then disapparated again. She sighed, then turned to Harry.
"I bet you're pretty hungry, aren't you, little guy?" she said excitedly. Harry started squealing again at the mention of food.
Sirius apparated on the front steps of Gringotts bank. Climbing the marble steps, he walked inside. By now, the world had awoken, so the building was rather full.
Sirius fidgeted nervously. While he could never explain it, Goblins always freaked him out. Maybe it was that perpetual scowl they wore.
Sirius stood before one desk and waited to be noticed. After a few minutes of waiting, the Goblin looked up at him.
"Well? Hurry it up, I don't have all day!" Sirius stepped forward.
"I am Sirius Black, here to execute the final will and testament of James Potter and Lily Potter." The Goblin pulled out a folder from a cabinet and read it.
"It says here that upon their deaths, legal guardianship of their son Harry would go to you, is that correct?" the Goblin inquired. Sirius nodded. "I see. Very well then, just sign this on the dotted line," he continued, producing a parchment and a quill. Sirius quickly signed his name on the specified line.
"Very well, Mr. Black. Guardianship of Harry James Potter is now yours. He is now to be officially referred as Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, or Mr. Potter-Black. Have a good day to you, sir." Bowing his head, Sirius walked out of the bank.
As soon as Sirius was in a dark side alley, he whipped out his wand and muttered, "Point me to Peter Pettigrew." He balanced the wand on his fingertip as it spun around several times before pointing towards the direction of Knockturn Alley. Slipping his wand back into its holster, Sirius walked towards the dank offshoot of Diagon Alley.
As Sirius wandered through the dark and seedy marketplace, he recast the Point Me spell several times, eventually leading him to a pub called the Black Wyrm. He saw a short, round man with a bald spot walk out, and grinned. He followed the man to an abandoned side street.
"Hello, Peter," Sirius said darkly, startling the man. He spun around and looked at Sirius in fear. His mousy features and buck teeth only made him look more like a rat. How appropriate, Sirius thought.
"S-S-Sirius!" Pettigrew stammered. "W-w-what an unexpected surprise!" He chuckled nervously. "What brings you to these parts?"
"I should be asking you the same thing, Peter," Sirius growled. Before he knew what hit him, Pettigrew was on the ground with Sirius' fists pummeling down on him. Not thinking, Pettigrew tried to disapparate, but since he made the connection with his magic just as Sirius' fist connected with his cheek, they both disappeared, reappearing somewhere in a muggle London.
"This is for James!" Sirius shouted, driving his fist into Pettigrew's jaw. "This is for Lily!" he slammed into his nose, breaking it. Grabbing Pettigrew by his shirt, Sirius pulled him up.
"Got any last words, Peter, before I send you to the Dementors?" he snarled. Pettigrew discretely pulled out his wand and pointed at a car behind Sirius, which just so happened to have several muggles standing beside it.
"Yeah, one," Pettigrew said, in a rare moment of defiance. "Reducto!" a red beam shot out of his wand and struck the car, causing it to explode. The muggles nearby were killed instantly and Sirius was knocked back. Sirius heard Pettigrew scream in pain as something dropped to the ground, then saw a rat run into a sewer drain. As the dust cleared, Sirius saw a pinky finger lying on the ground. Scowling at what this would mean for him, he disapparated back to 12 Grimmauld Place before the Aurors could show up.
Lizzie was lying on the floor, her feet swinging like a child's while watching Harry and Michael rolling a ball to each other. A crack was heard in the kitchen, and Lizzie lifted herself up. She walked into the kitchen to see Sirius looking like a homeless man.
"Oh, my god!" she screamed. She rushed to pull Sirius into a tight hug. "What happened? Why do you look like hell and smell like smoke?" Sirius sighed, flexing his fist to calm himself down.
"Peter. He blew up a car in muggle London. He killed a bunch of muggles and then cut off his own finger to make it look like I did it. The aurors are probably looking for me now." Lizzie gasped.
"But-but...they can prove you're innocent, right? They'll use Veritaserum, or a pensieve, right?" Sirius shook his head grimly.
"With Crouch at the head, it's more likely that they'll simply ship me off to Azkaban without a trial." Lizzie clung tightly to her husband while she cried into his shoulder.
A knocking snapped them from their stupor. The knocking repeated, this time more insistent. They went to the front door, where the knocking was originating from.
"Who is it?" Sirius asked loudly.
"Sirius! Thank God, you're okay!" a muffled voice shouted from the other side. "It's Remus, let me in!" Sirius was about to do just that, when he stopped and considered what the Ministry of Magic was saying about Polyjuiced Death Eaters.
"How did we describe your condition during our Hogwarts days?"
"You called my lycanthropy my `furry little problem,' although most people believed I had an ill-tempered rabbit." Satisfied, Sirius opened the door to let his last best friend in.
"While I'm not complaining that you're here, why are you here?" Remus shrugged.
"I was out for a walk when I heard that James and Lily died," he said, and tears started welling up in his eyes, "so I went and bought some flowers to put them on their graves. Then when I got back to my apartment, I saw aurors trashing the place through the window, so I went straight here. Padfoot, what's going on?" Sirius sighed.
"I tried to catch Peter. But he killed a bunch of muggles and made it look like I did it." Remus gasped.
"The cowardly bastard..." Remus growled. He took a deep breath to calm down. "How about Harry? Is he okay?"
"Yeah," Lizzie said. "He's in the living room with Michael." Remus nodded, then turned back to Sirius.
"Hopefully, this'll blow over soon, Padfoot. They'll figure out you've been framed eventually," he said, although he did not look entirely convinced himself.
"Before or after Hell freezes over, Moony?" Sirius asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow. "You two go play with the kids. I need a shower."
"Yes you do," Remus said in a weak attempt to lighten the mood. Shooing him away, Lizzie sighed.
"Everything's going to be alright, baby," she said before she joined Remus with the children. Sirius sighed.
"I hope so," he said to nobody in particular before going upstairs to take a shower.
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And that's the end of the chapter. Keep those reviews a-comin'!
I just came back from seeing Epic Movie. Now I need to read fanfiction to cleanse myself of the shame that came with seeing the Harry Potter parody scene…. ~shakes head~
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