"You killed my parents." Harry's voice shook and my soul almost imploded.
I could sense the pain and also the hatred in those words. Yet how could I deny it? "I don't deny it, but if you knew the whole story-..."
He interrupted me.
"You've got to listen to me!" I said, desperate. He had to understand. "You'll regret it if you don't...you don't understand."
He answered me...I didn't hear the words but the sound of his voice was enough. It was filled with rage and betrayal.
Suddenly I felt a thud on my chest. Crookshanks was sitting, right over my heart. "Get off, Crookshanks."
He had helped me too much...he must not die saving my life. I tried to push him off again but he dug his claws in deeper. I winced.
I steadied myself with a deep breath...waiting for the knell of death. It was only fair, I had killed his parents...
I heard footsteps...distinctive footsteps. I knew them. What seemed like aeons of mist cleared from my brain.
I jerked convulsively as bushy-hair shouted.
Those were the footsteps of...MOONY!, my brain and soul screamed. Moony, my old friend... Yet he didn't care about me now...he didn't understand what happened. My body remained silent. I wiped some blood from my face. I touched it and realised how terrible I must look.
Not like the Sirius Black that he knew, but a face-less, almost soul-less...Prisoner of Azkaban. He Disarmed Harry and bushy hair.
I wish I could say my heart felt more at ease but it did not. My old friend hated me. My Godson was trying to kill me. Dumbledore didn't believe me. Who would weep on my grave? Who would care?
Nobody
"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin said, addressing me. I didn't realise what he meant. He had called not called me Padfoot but he had adressed me. I slowly realised he knew. I slowly raised a hand and pointed it at Arthur Weasley's son.
"But then...why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless-..." My heart leapt. Lupin understood. "- unless he was the one...unless you switched...without telling me?"
I gazed at Moony intently. It was almost unreal, the moment I had been dreaming of for fourteen years...I slowly nodded.
"Professor Lupin, what's going-?" Harry said. I did not look or think about him.
Lupin lowered his wand. He walked slowly to my side and helped me to my feet. When his hand touched mine I felt memories flowing back to me...it had been long years since a human being had touched me. He embraced me and it felt like I was leading my old life.
~*~*~*~*~*
Severus Snape pulled off the invisibilty cloak, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.
No! Not now! Not now! Not after they've almost understood!" I leapt to my feet.
Snape, please, please! I begged, silently. Forgive me for a childish joke! What is wrong with you? Can't you see that I don't deserve this? Nobody deserves Azkaban. Will you toss me to the Dementors for a single mistake? Have you no forgiveness. BANG! Snakelike cords shot out of Severus wand, wrapping around Lupin. He tottered and then overbalanced, falling on the ground with a dull thud.
You will not stop me! I roared with animalistic rage and leapt toward him. Snape pointed the wand straight at my forehead.
"Give me a reason. Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will." His voice breathed hatred.
My face twisted and all the bitterness and rage from Azkaban moulded my features.
Bushy Hair stepped forward and said something to Snape. Never taking his eyes off me, he said something in the superior tone he had developed at school.
"But- if there was a mistake-"
"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" A few sparks shot out of his wand close to me.
He looked deranged, out of control. I could recognise dementia when I saw it. I had seen too much in Azkaban. The screams before their dying moments...I shuddered.
"Up to the castle? I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors when we get out of the Willow." Malice fired his words. "They'll be pleased to see you...pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay."
I felt the blood leave my face. Death was surmountable, but soullessness. The utter cruelty of it. A tight knot of fear settled at the base of my chest. Like a void...like a Dementor inside of me, tearing at me.
"You've got to hear me out- the rat-..." I mumbled and croaked.
Madness had possesed Snape and he could not shake it loose.
He unbound Lupin and muttered something to him. Harry suddenly jerked to life and blocked the door.
I gazed at him in awe. His spirit was just like James'.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Much happened after that...but it pales in comparison to what happened after.
I can still feel and savour the sweetness of going back to my old life. For that one brief moment, I felt like the old me. Then I was jerked back to being Sirius the convict. The fugitive. The criminal.
But a great weight had been lifted off of me. Harry and Moony knew that I didn't kill Lily and James.
They knew.
Losing Wormtail was not such a bitter disappointment after all. Nothing could be, what with the sweetness of Harry's eager voice when I asked him to come stay. He wanted to stay with me.
....
I yelped with pain as the Werewolf tore into my flesh once more. Every fibre of me screamed to protect myself, to gnash my teeth against his skin, but I resisted. I could not hurt Moony. Not after tonight.
Lupin thundered off and I transfigured back. My vision was blurred with blood. Great tears in my skin flashed fire in my brain. I shuddered and rolled over.
I suddenly saw the Dementor lowering it's hood. I was transported back. My mind was confused.
All I saw was the Dementor trying to kill James Potter.
"Stop! James, no!" I croaked feebly, my voice not complying with my mind. Then I saw him...
James' ghost was back. Prongs! My mind snapped back to semi-clarity.
James is helping Harry. He's going to be all right. Was the last though flashing in my brain before blackness closed in on me and I fainted clean away.
I woke up in a desolate room in the tower.
They were going to take away my soul.
A fate worse than death. My lips curved into a creaky, ironic smile. It sounds so melodramatic. So unreal. So true.
My hands shook. I felt like throwing up. I chided myself for being so selfish. All I thought about was me.
Me. I couldn't think about the people I loved. I couldn't think about Harry or James or Lily or Lupin. All that entered my mind was me.
Sirius, you are a monster. You are a goddamned monster. You deserve this. You understand that? You are a selfish, worthless piece of-...
"Hi there!" A voice called. Harry's voice. You're hallucinating, you fool.
Against my will, I looked up and saw Harry suspended in mid-air.
I rose up and tapped the glass. He motioned for me to stand back and burst the window open.
"How- how-?" I said, weakly. I was in utter shock.
"Get on, there's not much time!" Harry shouted.
I heaved my head and shoulders out of the narrow window and threw my leg over on the giant bird-creature- Hippogriff, I realised.
The Hippogriff gave one mighty sweep of it's wings and we soared up. My heart rose with each wingfall.
The sound of the air rushing past seemed to be saying Free. Free. FREE.
I laughed giddily.
Free.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Authors Note: Hope you liked it *Midnight Star, here, btw*
Pls r/r, it's the essence of life 4 us fic writers. Thanx 2 all those ppl who inspired me 2 make a sequel to Sirius.
No sequels to this. Sorry for using the book so much but I kind of had to...
Don't flame me, or us, because Dragonfire has a mouth as clean as a bucket of coal.
Thanx 4 readin'! Pls read my other fics...Ciao! *Midnightz gone-;)*