I have asked Sirius to write a letter, to madam Bones. Asking for a meeting in regards to the man who showed up at his house. While he was doing that I have finally decided to go out and get a real wardrobe.
Now I know that even wizards rely on muggles to get some of their clothes as you can only get robes and similar apparel at wizard shops.
So, I make my way to some of the best stores in London. The year is 1994 so instead of cash, I just transfigured a small pebble to look like a debit card and plan on using leglimency to pay.
The shopping trip was fun, I went into stores and found clothes similar to the ones I wear, black trench coats, dress shirts, pants, shoes etc, in the end when it's time to pay I hand over the card, use bit of leglimency to make the muggle think I have paid. He returns the card and I walk out.
In comparison to wizards, using leglimency on muggles is laughably easy.
0000
I return to Grimmauld place in the evening where Sirius has graciously decided to host me. Walking into the living room I am greeted with the sight of Sirius talking with a witch, and two other wizards who look like aurors.
"Ah Peter you are back; I was just about to send Kreacher to call you"
"Yeah, I bought what I needed"
"Madam Bones this here is my old friend, Peter Pettigrew and Peter this is Amelia Bones along with aurors Kingsley Shacklebolt and John Dawlish"
Amelia Bones has a square shaped jaw with close-cropped grey hair and a monocle. This gave her the appearance of being a serious person, which matched her personality perfectly. She looks to be in her late 30's but with how magical folks age she could be older.
I nod towards the people in the room and sat beside Sirius. All 3 people in front of us have expressions of both awe and suspiciousness, two people outside of public view for over a decade, one thought to be a mass murderer and the other thought dead, sitting beside the person thought to have killed him, they don't know what to think about us.
Okay time to put my acting on again.
I repeat the same story I told Sirius, leaving out the part about Voldemort of course.
"It's good that you are back now Mr. Pettigrew but the question still remains why now, why not earlier, why didn't you fight for your friend. You let him spend 12 years in Azkaban knowing he was innocent" Madam Bones looks at me seriously.
My first instinct is to sock the woman on her squared jawline, but being a good occlumens comes in clutch here, there is no change in my facial expressions.
"Hey this is not supposed to be an investigation on Peter" Sirius comes in to defend me.
"It's okay Sirius, she is just doing her due diligence" I placate him. Looking back at her seriously. "What do you think would have happened had I come earlier madam bones"
She raises her eyebrows knowing I have more to say.
"I show up at the ministry telling my story, the wizards would look at me as a mad man gone of his rockers, most probably killed by all the death eaters you people let roam free. I could have tried a different approach, contacted you or someone else telling my story, which would have mostly been ignored as a prank or something. I could have asked to meet in secret where no doubt I would have been ambushed and then locked up, awaiting one of those death eaters to kill me before any kind of trial took place. Even if I did miraculously get a trial what do you think fudge would have done when I would accuse his biggest backer and source of all his power Lucious Malfoy to be one of the dark lord's men. I would be lucky to end up in Azkaban he would have a dementor's kiss administered before I could finish my story."
By the end of my story, I'm almost shouting. Everyone in the room is looking at me with an awkward or sad expression, not knowing what to say.
I give a look to Sirius "Every day I thought of a different plan but I was never smart or brave enough to make them work. I even thought of breaking Sirius out of Azkaban, but despite all my advancement in magic the past 13 years, I still don't think I'm strong enough to do that even now, besides I didn't put an innocent in Azkaban, your people did"
Sirius puts a hand on my shoulder comfortingly as my eyes water.
"I'm.... sorry for bringing up sad memories" Amelia utters a small apology.
"It's okay" I say.
I look around the room to gauge everyone's expressions, hah suckers fell for it.
After that our discussion moves onto other matters, I'm officially declared dead according to the papers at the ministry that will need to change. I was awarded the order of Merlin first class for an event fabricated by someone else, something will have to be done about that too.
They also had something for Sirius, he needs to take up his seat in the wizengamot, which he was unsure about at first but after learning that currently his votes were controlled by Lucious Malfoy on account of his wife, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, he quickly agreed to show up at the next wizengamot session.
Madam bones left us some time later with promises to take care of most of my bureaucratic problems, me just having to show up to sign some papers.
John Dawlish even asked me to give an interview to the daily prophet to set things straight for the wider world. I said I'll think about it.
0000
"I plan to meet Harry in a few days" Sirius informs me the next day as we are having breakfast.
"Dumbledore allowed you to meet him" I reply with raised eyebrows.
"Dumbledore doesn't get to decide if I can meet my godson or not" he says angrily. He really doesn't like the old headmaster after I tweaked his brain.
"Can I come with you" I ask.
"Sure, he would also like to meet you"
We sit in companionable silence for a few minutes, continuing with our breakfast, sunny side eggs with sausage and toast, along with orange juice.
"You know I've seen him before" I say. Sirius looks up from his breakfast.
"You've met him"
"No never got the chance, but from far away you know"
"What is he like" Sirius asks with soft eyes.
"He looks like James and has Lily's eyes" I smile.
"Dumbledore has him living with Lily's sister, Petunia" I continue.
"Petunia, the wizard hating bitch who created a big scene at James and Lily's wedding"
"Yeah, her and her husband, I'm telling you that guy would totally fit in with the death eaters if he wasn't a muggle. It's not good, they berate him, make him do all house chores, barely feed him. They do everything short of hitting him. Before coming to Hogwarts, he was a scrawny little kid with barely any meat on his bones."
Sirius is angry now. Before he can say anything, I decide to add more fuel to the fire.
"I tried to find him for a long time, finally finding him with the Dursleys after I tried to look for relatives of James and Lily, there's a squib who lives opposite them who communicates with Dumbledore so he knows about his living conditions yet refuses to do anything."
"That mother fucker, how dare he" Sirius shouts.
"I even tried to write letters to him, just so he could have a friend to talk to, none reached him. Apparently, the headmaster also screens his mail"
Sirius looks at me with surprise, a look of understanding coming to his face.
"I have also written him a lot of letters; he has replied to none" he says.
I laugh inwardly it will be an interesting meeting with the headmaster.
0000
At first Dumbledore had asked Sirius to meet at a home in London, his private residence most probably but I had suggested to meet at a neutral location.
So now we were going to meet at the ministry, where he couldn't do something shifty. Well, he could, he is Dumbledore after all but it will be harder.
On an early Monday morning, Sirius and I made our way to the ministry of magic. We use the flu at his house to directly go to the ministry.
As soon as we emerge from the fire into the main hall, all eyes are on us. Two men dressed immaculately, one thought to be a criminal now proven innocent, the other thought to be dead now walking next to his supposed killer, must have been quite the sight.
We quickly make our way to the auror department, where Amelia Bones has us sign a few documents pertaining to our legal issues from there she leads us to where our meeting with Dumbledore and Harry Potter is supposed to take place.
0000
Harry was fidgeting with his clothes. He and Dumbledore were at the ministry of magic waiting to meet his godfather. Harry had asked his friends to keep him updated on any new news regarding Sirius Black or any other major event.
A couple days ago he had gotten a letter from Hermione, telling him about another one of his parent's friends showing up.
He had long talks with Professor lupin when he was learning the patronus charm. Finding out he was a friend of his parents and after Sirius was proven innocent, he told him a lot more about his parents and Sirius Black. How professor Lupin, his father, Sirius and another person named Peter Pettigrew were the best of friends during their time at Hogwarts.
Soon two people entered the room, one of them, he recognised as the recently returned Peter Pettigrew, the other, his father's best friend his godfather, Sirius Black.
0000
As soon as we entered the room, there was a high amount of tension between Sirius and Dumbledore. Sirius looked towards Dumbledore with anger is eyes which soon turned soft when he looked at Harry.
The room had a table with 2 chairs on each side. Dumbledore and Harry were already sitting.
We stood for a few seconds before "You were right Peter he looks like James but he has Lily's eyes" Sirius smiled while looking at Harry.
Harry was shocked at first but soon turned shy, looking down, a smile on his face being compared to his parents.
Dumbledore also developed a smile on his face which in turn made Sirius frown.
"Okay everyone, we know there's tension in this room and two people need to resolve some issues before we move on to lighter matters, so I suggest we leave"
Dumbledore was going to complain at first but realizing that I'm looking at Harry and asking him to step out with me, acquiesces. Taking a deep sigh, getting mentally ready to talk with Sirius.
Harry looks confused but still gets up and walks out of the room with me. Outside the room there are 3 people who visited Grimmauld place earlier this week.
"Are you already leaving" Madam Bones asks.
"No but the two inside need to have a talk one on one, so we are giving them their privacy" I say.
I give madam Bones a look, asking her to move away so I can talk to harry in private, confused at first but she understands and moves away along with the other 2 aurors.
"What do they need to talk about" Harry asks.
"You have heard about what happened to Sirius, right" I ask him. At his nod I continue.
"Dumbledore was the one who passed the sentence, although we can argue about the time and different conditions, the fact is that Sirius was unjustly imprisoned, so naturally he is angry at the headmaster"
"But hasn't the headmaster already given his reasons, he was presented with the wrong facts and he himself cast the fidelius so..."
"Imagine yourself in Sirius's position Harry, he was a part of Dumbledore's army, he did whatever he was told by the headmaster during the last war, loyal to no end, putting his life in danger again and again and in the end without any hearing, without even letting him talk, hearing his side, he was sent to Azkaban. You know how bad dementors are, now imagine living with them for 12 years, without a wand. Wouldn't you be angry with the man who put you there."
There is a surprised expression on the boy's face, as if imagining what Sirius went through the first time.
"And he has been trying to contact you for months now, writing letters and everything, just recently finding out that Dumbledore screens your mail and none of his letters reached you, he is your godfather harry, he already feels guilty that he wasn't there for the first 12 years and now that he finally can be there for you, Dumbledore is trying to keep him away."
"He also found out that you live with your aunt, Sirius and I have met her before, she is not a pleasant person, we know how she and her husband treat you, Dumbledore does too and refuses to do anything. So, I believe that, yes his anger is justified."
Harry looks like his world view is broken; I leave him to his thoughts. My work is done, I smirk inwardly.
0000