It was ten minutes after they had arrived, that tables of food had appeared in front of them. However, no one felt like eating. they could only remember the vision of a fallen Harry, covered in blood, obviously dying. The hall was silent except for the sound of one person gulping down food eagerly. They, including the Minister, turned to glare at Madam Umbridge. Umbridge looked nonchalantly back, when her eyes locked on Sirius Black's she whipped out her wand. Dumbledore, still feeling the fury that had taken over him at the Dursleys, was much too quick for her, and disarmed her. Once again Kingsley took possession of her wand.

"Severus, do you have some Veritiserum about you? Let's take care of this before anything else happens. I hope Harry forgives me, we could have done this a while ago." said Dumbledore coldly.

"Why didn't you, professor?" squeaked Hermione, still red-eyed.

"I wanted to bring Peter in, before I brought Sirius. I didn't want the Minister perform the Kiss too hastily on Sirius, before his innocence was proven. Ah, thank you Severus. For Sirius's peace of mind and out of respect for Harry, is this tainted in anyway?" said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye.

"No, sir. That's the strongest vial of Veritiserum that I have on me. I wouldn't poison him, not in front of witnesses anyway." said Snape, muttering the last part.

"I heard that, but it is comforting to know that you have that much self-control. Now Sirius," he said Dumbledore as he waited for the man to approach the Head table. "Do you want the Veritiserum in a glass of red Chateauneuf or would you prefer Lalande de Pomerol?"

"Can't I take the potion straight?" asked Sirius.

"You can, but I thought you would like to celebrate your new freedom with a drink. That, and I thought you and I both would need a drink after what we both witnessed." said Dumbledore sadly. Sirius nodded furiously. He took the glass containing the Chateauneuf and held it out. Dumbledore poured a bit of the potion into his glass and they both lifted their glasses in a toast and drained them.

Sirius was going to have to hunt down a similar bottle of what he just had for himself. It was a beautiful taste that danced acrossed his tongue. Even the smell brought about memories of Christmas time at the Potters, spices, fruit and a hint of truffles. This was a bottle he had to find. Sirius eyes closed his eyes and felt himself fall backwards, but a chair had appeared from behind him.

"There Minister, he's ready to answer any question you have to ask." said Dumbledore, motioning towards the limp man in the chair.

"I've never seen Veritiserum do that." said Fudge suspiciously. Madame Bones groaned and sat forward.

"When you mix wine and Veritiserum together, it has an intense calming effect. No doubt...Sirius needed it...I do too after seeing that poor boy..." eyes brimming with tears. She walked to the front of the table and faced Sirius Black, head tilted on his shoulder and glass dangling precariously from his limp hand.

"What is your name?" said Madame Bones.

"Sirius Orionus Black." said Sirius clearly, though appearing to be in a deep sleep.

"Were you the Secret-Keeper to the Potters?" said Madam Bones, her voice hard.

"Yes"

"Did you relinquish that position to someone else?" interjected Dumbledore.

"Yes"

"Who was it that was the latest Secret-Keeper to the Potters?" said Madame Bones, taking control of the interrogation again. Though she didn't mind him helping out, as long as she got to the truth, she didn't give a damn who lended a hand.

"Peter Pettigrew"

A gasp went through the hall, Peter Pettigrew? The Ministry workers and some of the teachers looked shocked. That weak little boy? That nervous little man? HE was the Secret-Keeper? Why? Why would Peter betray the Potters?

"Why did you give him the position?"

"To lure Voldemort away from James and Lily, I thought that he would come after me and try and force me to give up their location."

"Did he come after you?"

"No, he didn't need to, he already had the information he needed."

"What do you mean?"

"Peter went straight to Voldemort and told him. He wasn't even Secret-Keeper two hours and he scampered to Voldemort."

"After you found out what happened, what did you do?

"I went to the house, saw James. I wanted to run, I wanted to hide somewhere and just die. I thought of Lily and Harry and hurried upstairs. I saw the whole nursery just completely buried in rubble. Hagrid came out of nowhere and helped me move the fallen beams. We found the both of them. Lily was laying there, as if she were asleep, Harry had a cut on his forehead and blood was trickling down his small face. He kept trying to nuzzle into Lily, wake her up. I went to pick him up and just held him and cried. Hagrid told me that Dumbledore wanted him, I fought with Hagrid. I wanted to keep him, raise him, protect him. Hagrid wouldn't budge an inch, I finally consented and conjured up some blankets and wrapped him in them. Let Hagrid borrow my bike and he zoomed off, I watched him leave."

"Then what happened?"

"I went after Peter, found him on a little side street. Don't remember where. I pulled my wand on him, I wanted to kill him, he took James away, he took Lily. I wanted to blast him into a million pieces. He yelled, as loud as he could, that I killed them, I betrayed them. He pointed his wand backwards and half the street exploded. I was knocked backwards but I wasn't hurt. I stood up and looked for Peter, I saw on the ground a finger and looked towards a sewer grate. There was a rat, running down into the sewer. A rat I knew so well, with a toe missing."

"How did you know the rat?"

"Peter, James and I were all animagi. I can transform into a dog, James a stag, and Peter a rat. I've seen him transform a hundred times. After I saw Peter disappear, I laughed."

"Why did you?"

"All those years, he was the weakest one of us all, he depended on us to protect him. A Gryffindor, the house known for its bravery and nobility. Its goodness, and he allianced himself with the biggest excuse for a dark wizard the world ever knew. I found it ironic in a way, that he could best me and James, the best in our year. My mind snapped, I lost my best friend, a woman I considered my sister and a little boy I viewed as my cub. I lost them all, and the love in my heart turned to hatred, and my new goal was to find Peter and kill him. Rip him apart with my own fangs. I laughed in anticipation of that day. But then I was surrounded by Ministry officials and was arrested."

The whole school was deadly silent. Dumbledore had a small smile upon his lips and he waved his wand in front of Sirius's eyes. Sirius's eyes opened and he lifted his head off his shoulder. He blinked sleepily and leaned back in the chair with a frown.

"So, you gonna chuck me in Azkaban for convenience again?" smirked Sirius.

"Not for convenience, no, but for escaping Azkaban yes. And being an unregistered Animagus. Aurors, seize him." said Umbridge with a regal gleam in her eyes, pointing to Sirius dramatically. Her smile disappeared when no Auror moved.

"I said 'seize him'!" screeched Umbridge. Fudge looked at her with an astounded look upon his face. Madame Bones turned on her heel and glared at the woman.

"I will not allow any charges to be placed against, and by the way the Minister looks, he won't either." said Madame Bones, looking to Fudge, who nodded towards the head of Magical Law Enforcement.

"Also, I believe the Ministry should make some serious monetary compensation for imprisoning him without proof. As well as all of his possessions returned to him. Including, Delores, his house." said Madam Bones sternly.

"That is impossible, I am residing there now." said Umbridge, with a furious glare.

"If she's there, I don't want it, I'll set it on fire first, then rebuild it." said Sirius with frown.

"If you feel that way, she may keep the house, but pay you for it. Let's see, it's a twenty bedroom, three level house, thirty bathrooms, basement, two pools, attic, fifty balconies, library. You owe Mr. Black, Delores," she summoned a parchment and it came up with the total net worth of the ,home. "Sixty-three and a half million galleons. Do you still wish to reside there?" she said in a smug tone.

"What did she pay to live there after I got arrested?" said a stunned Sirius.

"Nothing, it was owned by the Ministry, but now that you are free and proven innocent, she must pay you to live there. As well as back rent. Well, your answer Delores?"

Umbridge muttered, "Take the damn house."

"Not too sure I want it, if she was there." shuddered Sirius.

"You can have custody of Harry quicker if you have a house all ready for him." grinned Dumbledore.

"I'll take it." stated Sirius immediately. Madame Bones smiled at him.

"We will send the compensation to your account."

The students cheered and applauded, teachers were also showing their approval of the turn of events. Everyone felt a lot better and they decided to tuck in to their dinners, which was already past the uneaten appetizer stage and onto the main course.

Sirius wasn't hungry, he was too excited to eat, he wanted to find Harry and tell him all that had happened just now. He finally got his fondest and dearest wish, Harry was going to live with him! The dinner disappeared and was preparing for the dessert. Sirius was standing by the Head table, talking to Madame Bones when the door opened and Harry came in with his cane.

"Your Knic..." his smile fell quickly off his face as he saw Sirius standing beside Madame Umbridge and a Auror he didn' t know.

Harry whipped his wand out and waved it above his head, a golden lasso appeared out of the end of it, flew towards Sirius, enveloped him. Harry pulled hard on the wand and Sirius was lifted from the ground, into the air and landed lightly behind Harry. He held out an arm, protecting his godfather and pointing his wand towards the table.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? THEY'RE..." bellowed Harry, until Sirius turned him around and hugged him.

"I'm free...they found out I'm innocent." he said into the top of Harry's head. Harry pulled away, shock was frozen into his face, but the words broke through and Harry grinned ear to ear.

"Really?" he whispered, too shocked to speak any louder. Sirius nodded. "You're gonna live with me now. Dumbledore said so."

Harry started to chuckle, then giggled until finally the whole Great Hall was filled with his laughter.

"I'M GOING TO LIVE WITH YOU? HONESTLY? YOUR'RE FREE?" Sirius had to nod again, his own smile breaking through his face. Harry wanted to do a backflip, he wanted to show some real physical exertion to show how happy he was, but he knew that if he did that, he would pay dearly for it later.

Then, a hundreds of large, clear, beautiful glasses. Each glass, looked a little different than the one before, each one had thick layers of different colored and flavored syrup and cream. Topped with ice cream and whipped cream, cherry and a wafer fan behind each sundae.

"Oh yeah, I finished the Knickerbocker Glories." said Harry from the embrace that joyously held him captive. The entire school gazed admiringly at the treat in front of them.

Dumbledore looked all around the room, each sundae was different, Harry made them all by hand? That must have taken him a long time, he flicked out his watch. To his surprise, his theory was wrong. He assumed that time would stop as they left to journey through time. It didn't, it took Harry a good hour and a half to make all of these. He looked at his, instead of a cherry on top, like everyone else's his held two raspberries. His eyes opened in shock, he noticed another inconsistency. There was no wafer fan, but two raspberry, chocolate-chip cookies. Tears came to the old man's eyes.

"Harry?" his voice breaking with emotion.

"Yes sir," said Harry, who was sitting in the bowl again with Sirius and Remus, eating his own Glory.

"You...you're...you're the one who sent me those...cookies?" said Dumbledore with the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. The teachers looked to him quickly, surprise on each of their faces.

Harry smiled brightly, and nodded. "I noticed that every morning, with your toast, you put raspberry jam on them. A LOT of raspberry jam. You keep talking about hot chocolate whenever Christmas comes around. So, I put two and two together and made you some cookies. I didn't know if you really liked them till you said what you did an hour or two ago. How many boxes do you want this year?"

Dumbledore said nothing, just stood up and walked down to the boy. He took Harry's sundae out of his hands, handed it Remus, helped Harry to stand and embraced him. Harry didn't know what to make of the situation, he slowly smiled and hugged the old man back.

Dumbledore couldn't believe it, all the abuse that he and the rest of the school witnessed and Harry wasn't tainted in the slightest. He was kind, generous, thoughtful, industrious and supremely talented. Harry deserved much more than the hand he was dealt with. He was going to make sure, that having Harry live with Sirius was only the tip of the iceberg. He had a lot more making up to do.

"Your sundae is melting, Albus." said Professor Flitwick, whipped cream on the fringes of his mustache. "You aren't going to want to miss it." Dumbledore and Harry broke apart and he helped Harry back to the bowl. Giving him one more smile he strode up to the Head table.

"How is it?" he whispered to Madame Pomfrey as he passed.

"It's divine, nothing like I've ever tasted. I've had these before, but this is by far the best I've ever had."

Dumbledore eagerly went back to his sundae, as he did, he noticed the only unhappy face at the table and it wasn't Severus's. His was filled with a sort of faint happiness, as if he were recollecting a wonderful memory, but was too cautious to let it reach his heart. The unhappy face belonged to Umbridge, she was staring at her sundae with disgust. Amazingly, Harry didn't make it any less beautiful then the rest. She pushed it away from her sat back in her chair with her arms folded. Like a spoiled child. She jerked her head up, in the direction of the youth and called over to him.

"I refuse to eat anything that looks this hideous, Mr. Potter." she sneered, but it fell apart completely when she noticed that he wasn't paying her any attention. He was too busy laughing with Fred and George and eating his own. Only Dumbledore noticed her and heard her, each student, teacher and guest were too busy enjoying their sundaes and taste testing the different syrups in each one.

She was about to throw her sundae on the floor, to get his attention when Dumbledore magicked it out of her hand. This the students took notice of, they wondered what was going on, to make the Headmaster look so grim.

"If you don't want it, I know about a hundred people including myself that would give their eye teeth for seconds. Now, who would like this?" There wasn't a hand that wasn't raised, except Hagird's he was still working on his, his sundae was the size a medium sized bucket. It took a lot of ingredients just to make it. After it was decided who should get it, Lupin won, they all sat in thought.

Then Harry muttered an "ouch", when Bill absent-mindedly patted him on the back, they were all given a harsh reminder of the scroll.

"Harry, we need to talk." said Dumbledore, looking a hundred years older.

"Yes sir?" said Harry, trying to convince Sirius and Remus that he was fine. Which was not working.

"After you went down to the kitchens, a scroll appeared. It showed us a part of your past." said Dumbledore sadly. Harry looked up in shock, everyone else, besides Umbridge who were sitting with her arms folded a scowl on her face and rubbing the bruise that had now fully formed on her jaw, looked saddened.

Harry gulped, "Which part? Was it a good one?" he asked hopefully, but that hope quickly died. Dumbledore shook his head sadly.

"You were in the hospital." Dumbledore looked into Harry's eyes, even from a distance, his eyes were the easiest thing to find in this giant room. "You were perilously injured, by your villainous uncle...Oh Harry, don't tell me I have to elaborate!" moaned Dumbledore when he saw Harry's puzzled look. Harry quickly looked away and paled.

Dumbledore sighed, how had he let this happen? "It was the time that you accidentally caused Dudley to fly backwards in your Gym class." Harry thought hard, then his eyes got bigger.

"That was right before I had to get glasses." Hermione and Dumbledore paled.

"You didn't need glasses before?"

"No, my eyesight was 20/20. School nurse said I had the best eyesight in our class, that changed real quick." Madame Pomfrey's list of what to do was getting longer and longer. As did Madame Bone's list of charges.

"Did your Uncle Vernon ever hit you again?" whispered Ron, dreading the answer.

"Never again, that badly. Officer McFinn made Uncle Vernon nervous, he controlled himself after that." said Harry quietly.

"But he never stopped? Didn't you tell Officer McFinn about the continuation of abuse?" said Tonks with widened eyes. Harry looked down again.

"He died, a year later. He was shot in an armed robbery. His wife is kind to me though, but she lost her husband, her whole world, I didn't want to put more strain on her by telling her what was going on." said Harry sadly.

"You really should have told someone, dear." whimpered Mrs. Weasely.

"Nothing I can do about it now." said Harry firmly. The entire school looked somber. "It's all behind me now, I've got a much better life ahead of me." he said leaning against Sirius.

Sirius smiled warmly, "That's right cub, I'll take care of you." then an evil grin came to his face. "Cause you can't seem to do anything right on your own." he teased, tickling Harry gently. Harry tried, laughingly, to push his hands away. "I'd like to see YOU cook." teased Harry back. Sirius pouted. The grim feeling in the hall was instantly washed away.

"Can we get back to the books? I think we've taken a long enough break." said Umbridge with her sickeningly sweet voice. Dumbledore looked at his watch once again and shook his head.

"I fear that we will have to take a longer break, Delores. It's now nine thirty and our first years are just barely keeping their eyes awake. We should break and continue the readings tomorrow morning. I'll have the house elves fix up some rooms for our guests to sleep in. Harry, I would ask if you would rather you spend the night with your new guardian, alas, Madame Pomfrey have me pay most dearly for not giving you over to her care. Especially since..." Dumbledore couldn't continue.

"Fine Dumbledore, but I will read ahead if I may." Umbridge picked up the book and to her dismay, it would not open.

"Oh, I apologize, I should have warned you. The books can only be read from nine o'clockin the morning to nine o'clock in the evening. That way, rest is assured. We shall resume reading after breakfast."

The school emptied as they all dispersed to their respective dorms. Harry, Sirius, Remus, Ron and Hermione traveled to the Hospital Wing. Ron helped Harry change into a pair of red and gold pajamas and then helped him into the bed. Harry was exhausted and they all knew it. Sirius tucked him in and slowly brushed the bangs out of his eyes. He continued brushing his hair back until Harry's eyes finally closed, he fell into a deep sleep.

Madame Pomfrey, McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore and Mr. and Mrs. Wesealy all came in.

"Is he asleep?"

"Yep, and I ain't letting you wake him up." said Sirius without looking at them.

"I don't plan on it Sirius, I just need to check him for injuries. Ones that weren't caused here." she muttered. She waved her wand over the sleeping form and held her hand out for the scroll that popped out the end of her wand.

She unrolled it and gasped. It was so long, and so terrible. So many injuries, and all untreated by professionals. Harry's magic had to heal each one and even then, it wasn't healed properly. Just enough to keep him from suffering, and possibly dying. She wiped tears from her eyes, and turned towards Madame Bones who had just entered the Wing with Moody, Kingsley and Tonks.

"What more have they done to the boy?" growled Moody. He was itching and raring to go and put some real fear into the Dursleys. Madame Pomfrey handed the scroll to the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, who in turned paled when she read what was written.

"I'll have the necessary paperwork drawn up, the Dursleys will be seized by Midnight." she was about to take the scroll when Dumbledore snatched it quickly and began to read it.

"Albus, you don't..." whimpered the Healer.

Dumbledore's, normally, twinkling blue eyes clouded and tears fell from his eyes. He gave a shuddered breath, handed the parchment back to Madame Bones. He slowly walked over to Harry's side, opposite of Sirius. Sat down and placed his head on the bed. He cried, like a small child, he was inconsolable. Harry had traveled so far into the realm of sleep, that he heard nothing. He merely slept on, oblivious to the broken hearts that stood around him.