(Word Count: 2,423)
The next morning, with the diary in hand, Harry and Tripsy popped back to Mrs. Figgs' house. Though he under any circumstances refused to live with the Dursley's anymore, he didn't want Mrs. Figgs to get in trouble for him disappearing on her watch. He would have to confront the Dursley's head on and then leave.
"Mrs. Figgs!" Harry called out.
"Oh! Harry, you sweet boy. You're back!" Mrs Figgs exclaimed as she came into the living room. "How was your stay? Did you eat enough?"
Harry beamed at her. "It was wonderful! Tripsy took good care of me." Though Mrs. Figgs had met Tripsy before he left, being a squib, she was doubtful that the little house-elf was as capable as they were made out to be.
Mrs. Figgs smiled. "Well, I'm glad you had fun."
A couple of hours later, the Dursley's showed up. Vernon pounced on the door. Harry noted that he was as red as a lobster. Likely forgot to apply sunscreen. "Well, come along, boy."
Harry turned to Mrs. Figgs. "Goodbye, Mrs. Figgs. Thank you for having me over."
They walked across the street back to the Dursleys. As soon as they entered the house, Vernon's face sneered in obvious disdain for him. "Where did you get such nice clothes? I always knew you were no good! You're nothing but a worthless thief! Right, into your cupboard. I don't want to see you until tomorrow. No dinner for you tonight! Do you hear me, boy?"
It was Harry's turn to sneer. "No. I've only returned to tell you that you'll never see me again. I'm leaving."
"Leaving? Hah! You have nowhere else to go! Who would take in a worthless freak like you?" Vernon laughed.
"Don't you worry about that. I can handle myself on my own."
Petunia came in from the kitchen. "What? You can't leave, you're only a boy!"
Harry could only look at her, dumbfounded. "A boy you have forced to grow up. You beat me and tell me you don't want me here, and now that I'm leaving you try and get me to stay? It's too late for that. Did you really think I wouldn't find out that I'm a wizard? I have a heritage there in the wizarding world, so I'll be leaving."
"So just like that? You learn of your freakishness and leave your family behind?" Petunia spat venomously.
Harry looked at her coldly. His emerald eyes seemed to glow in his anger. "I've never had a family here. You've made that very clear. I've had enough of this. Tripsy!"
Just as he called for Tripsy, there was a fundamental change in the air of the house. One that both Harry and Petunia felt. The blood wards had dropped.
Tripsy popped in. "Yes, young master Harry sir?" Both Vernon and Petunia shrieked.
"Take me to Diagon Alley."
He took Tripsy's hand and they popped into Diagon Alley.
'Frick, why do I feel so lost? They were the worst! Negligent at best! Don't think on them.' Harry cleared his throat, and blinked away the tears that were threatening to come. 'None of that now, they don't deserve it.'
"Now I need you to go fetch the rat. Make sure you stun him good and no one sees you." Tripsy popped away, leaving Harry to search for the law firm. It wasn't until he reached Carkitt Market that he found it.
Tonks and Turner's Wizarding Law Practice.
Before going inside, Harry gave himself a once over. He was wearing one of his nice suits that he had gotten himself, a black one with the insides of the suit being a silk green and a nice cloak over top. He wanted to look as respectable as he could for this meeting, though being 8 years old did kind of ruin the vibe he wanted, instead he just looked cute. Because one, he was meeting distant relatives. Two, he wanted to be taken seriously when presenting his case to Mr. Tonks.
Once satisfied with his appearance, his hair forever cursed to be messy, he went inside. It was a quaint little reception area, with a small desk in front, and two couches for people waiting. Right now, there was only one man waiting on a couch, and a young woman at the desk. He approached the woman.
"Excuse me, Miss?" He stood far enough back that the woman could see him over the desk. He was still way too short.
"Yes, are you lost, Kid?" She asked in a sweet voice. Harry's eyebrow twitched.
"No, Miss. I'm here to see Edward Tonks. He's a distant relative but I need his help. Is there any way I can see him today?" This was the first time Harry had ever been to a lawyer's office in either life, but he could imagine them to be super busy.
The lady seemed unsure at the mention of being a relative, but she asked. "Are you here by yourself? Where are your parents?"
"They're dead. Could you tell Mr. Tonks that Harry Potter is here to see him?" He said.
Her eyes flicked up to his forehead, but his hair was too long and messy to get a clear view. He brushed his hair up, showing the lightning bolt scar. She smiled, eyes suddenly filled with admiration. "Of course, Mr. Potter. I'll go fetch him right now. Please, wait here."
She left in a hurry.
The man who was waiting in the lobby spoke up. "You really Harry Potter?" He said in a gruff voice.
"Yes, Sir." Harry gave him a clearer view of the scar as well. There was no reason to hide his identity anymore. After all, he was planning on raising a big stink to rescue Sirius.
The man grunted. "You did good, kid, killing that dark lord. He was murdering a lot of good folk around here. So, thank you."
Harry just nodded, "No problem."
A man in a suit came out and looked at the man that was waiting. "Mr. Hanson, it's nice to meet you. I am Turner. Please, come this way." And they left.
Just a moment later, the receptionist and a man who Harry assumed was Tonks, appeared. Ted Tonks was a blonde big-bellied man, dressed in a nice suit.
"Harry Potter, is it?" Ted spoke in a soothing mellow voice. "Follow me to my office, we can talk there."
Harry followed Ted back to his office, which was a cozy space, except for the wall lined with bookshelves filled with law books and encyclopedias. Admittedly, Harry wondered what a wizard's encyclopedia would be like.
"So, what's this about being related?" Ted asked.
"Well, my great grandfather Charlus married Dorea Black. Admittedly, it's a distant relation. My great grandmother is your wife's great aunt."
"Ah, the Blacks." Ted said with a grimace. "Not the best folks."
Harry snorted. "That's a bit of an understatement. But they have been known to produce a good egg here and there. Like your wife, Andromeda, and my great grandma Dorea."
Ted huffed, amused. "So long as you don't get them angry."
"Speaking of the good eggs though, I do have something I want you to read." Harry took out the diary from inside his cloak and opened it to the specific entry for Ted to read. "This is one of the last entries of my mother."
As Ted read the diary, his eyes got progressively larger and larger, and his face paler and paler. Until finally, he stuttered out, "It was Pettigrew? Sirius is innocent?"
"I have the memories to show it too. I remember that night my parents were killed."
Ted looked at him, aghast. "Bloody hell, you remember that?"
"Not something I want to remember, but yeah, I do. Do you have a pensieve or something to see?"
"Unfortunately no, pensieves are extraordinarily rare. It's why one can't just submit a memory as evidence and be done with it."
"How much would a pensieve cost?" Harry couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.
Ted shook his head. "They're all in private collections. If one ever did make it into an auction, I can only guess that it would sell for hundreds of millions of galleons."
"Well, there goes my plans on submitting my memories."
Ted couldn't help but wonder how the boy even knew he could do that. Maybe there was something to those children's books after all?
"Don't worry, Harry, this alone should be enough to warrant a retrial."
"Trial, not a retrial. Sirius never got a trial in the first place."
"Merlin, are you serious?"
"As far as I know. Anyway, I'm willing to pay whatever lawyering fee for you if you can look into things and get Sirius his trial." Harry said.
Ted waved him off. "If what you're saying is true, then Sirius is innocent and has spent far too long in Azkaban already. I'm willing to work pro bono on this. The problem is, even if he didn't betray the Potters, this doesn't clear him of the murder of Peter Pettigrew and the 10 muggles."
"What if I can tell you that Pettigrew is alive and I know exactly where he is right now?"
"Then I say we get the aurors involved and apprehend him." Ted leaned back into his chair, heaving a distressed sigh. "Kid, you really keep laying it on me today. So where is he?"
"Well, the man is an animagus, taking the form of a rat. Tripsy!" Harry called.
Tripsy popped in holding a small steel cage. Inside was a large brown rat, unconscious. "Tripsy is here with the rat man. Tripsy popped in and out, as you said, young master Harry sir!"
"No one noticed you?" Harry asked.
"No one, young master Harry!"
Harry smiled at her. "Well done, Tripsy! Well done!" He took the cage from her and placed it on the desk. Tripsy tugged at her ears happily.
"Young master Harry is too kind to Tripsy."
Ted, on the other hand, jumped away from his desk, drawing his wand and aiming it at the rat. "Merlin's beard, Harry! You can't just bring in a criminal to my office!"
"It's okay, Mr. Tonks, Tripsy will keep him unconscious."
Ted stepped a little closer to get a good look at the caged rat, which was sleeping despite all the noise. "If you say so. Nevertheless, I'll be calling the aurors immediately."
"If you don't mind, could you try to contact Madam Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, or Mad Eye Moody directly? I would feel more comfortable if one of them handled this directly. Though Madam Bones would be the best." Shacklebolt and Moody will in all likelihood tell Dumbledore about this, but Harry was fairly confident that Dumbledore didn't know that Sirius was innocent, so he would be a good ally in freeing him.
~~ ITW, H ~~
Madam Bones, head of the DMLE, was having a slow day, finishing up some paperwork, and she was already about to call it an early day and head home to spend time with her niece Susan, when her private floo came alive.
"Madam Bones?" A voice called.
She walked over to the fireplace to see Ted Tonks' face. "Mr. Tonks. How can I help you?"
"I wish I could say it's a pleasure, but I have a bit of a situation here at my office. I'm going to need you and someone you can trust to come as quickly as you can, please."
Inwardly she groaned at losing her time with Susan, but this seemed serious. The man seemed extremely nervous and disturbed by something. "Alright, I'll get Kingsley and be there soon."
"Excellent. Come quickly." And he ended the floo call.
Amelia quickly went to her desk and wrote a note to both Shacklebolt and Moody. It seemed important, so she wanted both at the ready. She cast her spell, and the two slips of paper folded themselves into little paper airplanes and flew off. Only a few minutes passed, and the two Senior Aurors showed up running.
"Madam Bones, what's the emergency?" Shacklebolt asked.
"Mr. Tonks flooed a moment ago, said there was a situation at his office. Something had him spooked. Let's go."
Together, they flooed to Ted's office.
They were greeted with the sight of a small boy roughly 7 or 8 years old, dressed in a luxurious suit, and had a scruffy mess of black hair and emerald green eyes behind a pair of round glasses. On his forehead was an angry red lightning bolt scar.
On the desk was a small cage with an unconscious rat.
"Excellent, you're here!" Ted sighed in relief. "That rat right there is Peter Pettigrew! He's an animagus!"
"This rat?" Madam Bones said suspiciously.
"Don't take our word for it, feel free to cast a reversal spell on him." The boy spoke up. "Though I would keep him in the cage, just in case."
"Who are you?" Amelia asked. Judging from the unique scar, she had a feeling this boy was most likely Harry Potter, the boy who lived, but she had to confirm for the report.
"My name is Harry Potter, ma'am."
She nodded. Placing the cage onto the floor, she enlarged it to give enough room for a man. With a quick reversal spell, the rat transformed into an unconscious Pettigrew.
"Merlin's beard, he's alive!? That's good! Why's he caged up? He's a hero!" Shacklebolt said.
"Don't be daft, Kingsley! If he's alive, then something doesn't add up," Moody exclaimed, gruffly moving past him to get a look at the rat up close. His magic eye flicked up to look at the boy in the meantime.
"You've got that right, Mr. Moody. Sirius Black is innocent, it is Peter that is the real traitor." The black haired boy said.
"How do you know Sirius Black is innocent?" Shacklebolt asked.
Harry picked up a small journal from the desk. "This is my mother's diary. I was reading through it when I came across this entry." He opened it and turned to one of the last entries and handed it to Amelia who was the closest.
"Merlin's beard! Sirius was never the secret keeper!" She couldn't believe it. Sirius was innocent? She remembered Black, both when they were at Hogwarts together and their time as Aurors. He had always been rowdy and an overall man child, but he was always steadfast against the bigotry of the blood supremacists. It's why it was so shocking to many when he went to Azkaban as a traitor.
Harry grinned wickedly. "Not only that, but obviously he never murdered Pettigrew. With this new evidence, I'm sure we can get Sirius a trial."