EmilyBlack: Hey Emily! Thanks for commenting. hehehe, Who wouldn't enjoy reading proper grammar usage, instead of; was, when it should be, were, and the other way around, and let's not forget those impassive verbs, or whatevers. Thanks Emily for keeping things correct. It is very sad! He goes through so much. And just think that if he hadn't been so loyal to James, things could have been so very different for him. But, how would he have been able to? He loved James as a brother whom he really loved.


Miss Weasley: Hey Katie girl! Hehehe! I bet he would love it! If it was the last drink on earth.
I just can't picture him drinking it. I however, would love it. Chocolate milk is the best! Oh please if you must then, go on. Just teasing! Thank you so much, sweetie!

Thank's to everyone for reading. You're loyalty is very much appreciated. Next week, chapter 28, "Crookshanks Set Free?"

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


Twelve Years Dying, One Night to Start Living


“Lissy,” Sirius said as he looked at Jim with red eyes. He put his hands on Jim’s shoulders and grasped tightly. “She,” he tried again to speak. Unable to say anything, tears rolled down his face. He slowly started shaking his head. He swallowed hard and tried to draw breath, but his throat was so constricted his breath came in short gasps as a dying man struggling to draw one last breath. He closed his eyes tight, and his quivering chin gave way once again to his anguish. His face was wet with a steady stream of tears.

Years in Azkaban, with the Dementors constantly sucking hope from him making him live in total despair, took its toll on Sirius. All he could dare do while in there was concentrate on getting out to look for and kill Wormtail. He found early on that when he longed for the one woman who ever dwelled in his heart and not his fancy, caused so much despair it crippled his focus. So, Sirius kept any hope of getting the love of his life back, and focused on staying alive. He didn’t understand why they didn’t release him, and more hope drained from him. Sirius came to a point where existing each day was his personal goal. Now, having hope made it almost unbearable for him in his enfeebled state of mind. He just didn’t know how to handle the feeling of it again.

He opened his eyes and gave Jim a determined look. “Lissy,” he whispered, blinking the tears out of his beautiful long lashes. “Here?” he said with a somewhat strangled voice, but getting stronger.

“Yes, and I told her I was going to find you. She is, at this minute, longing for you in her chambers. Err, um, that didn’t quite come out the way I meant it to,” Jim said a little embarrassed.

Sirius smiled at Jim’s discomfiture. He quietly let loose of the grip he had on Jim’s shoulders. (Much to the relief of Jim, as it was extremely painful, but couldn’t bear saying anything to Sirius at the time.)

“Sirius, I don’t have a lot more time I can spend here tonight, so, why don’t you eat, and I’ll start filling you in with the goings on of the last twelve years. Of course it won‘t all get told tonight. First, I want to tell you that I’m in a very good position to gather information and share with you, until we can make our move. I have a new master named Hermione Granger. She and her two best friends attend Hogwarts. They are in the House of Gryffindor. One of her friends’ names is Ron Weasley. Light started dawning on Sirius’s face.

“That milk started working on those new brain cells has it?” Jim asked.

“I like the looks as to where this is going,” said Sirius. “He’s the boy who has Wormtail, and he’s best friends with Harry Potter. It was luck Fudge visited Azkaban that day. I couldn’t believe the very reason I was willing myself to live was actually sitting on that boy’s shoulder. I found out Ron was going to be going to Hogwarts. It was the fact that he was best friends with Harry that determined me to escape right then. Harry is in grave danger.” Sirius speared another piece of ham and chewed it quickly. He took a swig of milk, and then stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“Settle down, we can’t go anywhere yet. There’s a lot more you need to know,” said Jim forcefully. “It wasn’t luck you ended up getting that paper the day Fudge inspected the prison. I caused that to happen. I’ve been planning this operation for twelve years, and we need to start working together to see it through!”

Sirius didn’t want to settle down. He wanted to go kill Wormtail, and while he was there, he could see Harry.

“Look!” he said rather angrily, “I know all I need to know, so, maybe you should just run along and play.”

Jim stood up and glared at Sirius, then let out a fierce roar like a lion. He lifted his hands to show massive claws. “Shall I continue filling you in with information you need to know, or shall I finish transforming to keep you from ruining everything I’ve been working on for twelve years? I’d rather work this out as friends, how about you?”

Sirius, very white in the face, nodded quickly in agreement. He took a deep breath, sat down, and resumed cutting ham and eating it as Jim talked endlessly. He only stopped now and then to answer questions that Sirius asked occasionally.

Jim started with the night Voldemort murdered the three of them. How he did what he did to James was for his faithful servant Snape. Also, that he tried to bring Lily back to Snape, but had to kill her anyway, but without a mark on her was also for Snape. He told him what happened to Harry, how he stood up to him, causing the killing curse to backfire on Voldemort, and the misdirected curse of Voldemort’s, to hit him on the forehead instead of the heart. How Peter had come, gotten Voldemort’s wand, and whined to Harry. He told him of wanting to go with Sirius to hunt down and kill Peter and Voldemort, but Sirius had left before he could talk to him.

“I was sitting right there with you when you were preparing Lily and James for transport to Dumbledore. You did a fine job on them, and they had a real nice funeral. Albus arranged for Petunia and Harry to be able to come, but she turned down the ride. She said she didn’t want to deal with Harry seeing his parents’ dead.”

Another log magically put itself onto the fire.
“I was about to speak to you when you let out that murderous screaming threat. You Disapparated then and I didn’t get to talk to you. I wanted to go with you to find Peter and Voldemort, to kill them for what they did. I made sure Hagrid got off with Harry all right, and then went to search for you. When I did find you, you had Peter cornered and was about to kill him. Peter screamed how you had just murdered James and Lily Potter, and then he cut off his finger and blew up the street. He scurried away as the rat he was and left you looking guilty.”

Sirius finished the milk and cleaned the container with the water pump in the corner of the room. Jim could see the wheels in his brain turning. He cut one more piece of ham, and put the rest in the small icebox that sat beside the pump. As Sirius sat chewing his ham, he mentioned the Aurors getting there so fast.

“Yes, I noticed that as well. Three of them showed up immediately, told the others the story when they got there, then said they wanted to stay behind and clean up the mess. They took you straight to Azkaban. I stepped into the circle and listened. I couldn’t believe what I heard. They were collaborating on a story to tell Fudge so everything would jive. I put the thought in their heads to use the, ‘Priori Incantatem’ on the wand.” Jim paused then asked Sirius, “Do you remember the last spell you used?”

“Scourgify,” Sirius said softly, his mind looking back on the nightmare Harry lived through that night twelve years ago. A tear flowed down his square jaw. Sirius swallowed and rubbed his eyes. “Harry was calling for his cat,” he said softly. He looked at Jim with sorrowful eyes. “I found you, right there by his crib. I knew you weren’t going to live much longer, and I’m sorry, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to save you. Even Hagrid new you were a goner. Anyway, I cleaned you up with the Scourgify spell and tore some strips of a towel that was there, to tie your side back together. Then I swaddled you in the rest of the towel and handed you to Harry. He cuddled you up to him and started rocking and singing to you.”

“Thank you by the way.” Jim interjected, “You have no idea what you did for me when you placed me in Harry’s arms.” Then, Jim shook his head sorrowfully. “But, no, it’s no wonder you don’t remember your last spell. You were out of your mind with grief.”

Sirius stared at Jim, and then the look of remembrance came over his face. Sirius jumped to his feet, covered his face with his shaking hands, and paced the floor. “It was the most horrendous site I’ve ever seen in my life. There is nothing that compares to what I saw that night. It was so hard… I know I had it in my mind to… gather up James and put him and Lily together and… ‘Portus Dumbledore!’ That was the last spell I did with my wand.” He was silent while he started thinking. “Why wasn’t I exonerated? That proved my innocence!” Sirius was livid. “I lost twelve years of my life for nothing! They knew I wasn’t guilty, and they just left me to rot!”

Jim spoke quietly to get Sirius to settle down. “I know it won’t make up for your loss, but I took some vengeance for your injustices that night. There I was waiting for them to go to the Minister of Magic right away. Then, the one holding your wand started firing off illegal curses randomly with it, killing innocent people who were coming out to see what the explosion and yelling was about.”

“But, what was the purpose of that? It wiped out my proof of innocence and made it look like I killed a lot of people. I can’t think what good that would have done for me.”

“I concur, so I stole the wand and ran away just slow enough for them to be able to keep up with me. When I turned a corner, I hid. When they came around the corner, I attacked as a fully transformed werecat. They didn’t have a chance. I killed all three of them easily. Some Aurors returned and carefully ruptured a gas line to make it look like a gas line exploded. Then they performed memory charms on everyone else who was still alive. When everyone left the area, I carried the three men back to the crater and dropped them in the bottom. I caused some rubble to fall over them, then a great piece of the road over top of that. There under the fillings of the crater, and a new road fixed over the whole place, was the final resting place of the three death eaters. Then I took your wand back to James and Lily’s place and hid it. I can Apparate you there and back to get it if you like.”

Sirius’s face went from bright red to ghostly white. “Jim, I know you were angry for what they did, but to kill them!” He put his hands around Jim’s small face. “Son, I’m afraid you acted in haste.”

“I didn’t mention that when they started misusing your wand I searched their minds and found that they were Death Eaters disguised as Aurors. At the time of the massive Death Eater hunt, three known Death Eater’s seemed to disappear without a trace. It was always assumed that Voldemort was angry with them
for something and killed them.”

Sirius smiled and said, “You did well, Jim, and I’m glad we’re on the same side. Yes, I’d love to have my wand back. You know, all these years I’ve tried to figure out how to escape. I knew I could escape the Dementors, but I was afraid I wouldn’t make it across the water. I’m not afraid of dying, I was afraid of dying without avenging James and Lily, never seeing Harry, and letting him know I didn’t betray his parents.”

“Well, you might as well know that Harry didn’t know anything about you, until it was on the muggle news that you’d escaped.”

“Why was my escape on Muggle news?” Sirius asked in astonishment.

“Because of your murderous status. It was reported that when you killed Peter, you killed a number of muggles.”

“That street was deserted! I would never have endangered anyone else. It was those three Death Eaters who killed them after they took me away,” he reasoned. “I was an idiot to run after Wormtail the way I did without a plan,” Sirius said shaking his head.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. Nobody could see what you did and not react. So, anyway, Harry found out last night that you escaped to take over Voldemort’s action and kill him,” Tom was saying, when Sirius jumped up and shouted,

“What idiot told him that?” He was livid and unable to stand still.

“It was Fudge,” said Jim “You need to stop going off the deep end when you hear disturbing news. All Fudge knew was that you’d been talking in your sleep of late saying, ‘He’s at Hogwarts,’ and the article with a picture of the Weasley’s on your bed. The article said the Weasley children, five of them, were all going to be at Hogwarts where the youngest son, Ron, was best friends with Harry Potter. They figure you want to Kill Harry, so he doesn’t ruin your chance at world dominance.”

“Seeing Peter is what made me say that. I needed to escape and kill Peter, Scabbers, before he killed Harry. That’s what gave me the strength to get through the storms and the water. It nearly killed me, but, I knew I needed to get to Harry and protect him.”

“I know Sirius, and soon, if all goes well, everyone else will. Are you ready to get your wand?”

“You bet!” said Sirius with a huge smile on his face. “A wand will make life more bearable for me, and I’ll need it to kill Wo— Scabbers.”

Jim Apparated the two of them to the remains of the Potter home and Jim took Sirius to the place he hid the wand. Sirius picked it up and rolled it between his finger and thumb. Yellow sparks emitted from the tip and a rush of air blew his hair. A grin worked its way onto his face. “Oh yeah, I’m back.”

“Sirius, I thought Harry would like to have these as well. They’re photo albums of Lily when she was little, to the time of their deaths. Their wedding pictures are here in this one.”

Sirius took the albums in his hands and nodded his head quietly. “Thank you for thinking ahead, Jim and doing this. It was very thoughtful of you to do this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I‘ll enjoy looking through these; they’ll keep me from getting lonely.” He looked around the place and found everything as it was when he left it. “I was afraid the place would be…” he started but Jim interrupted.

“I put a powerful charm around the place to keep out unwanted people. Nobody but the charm bearer and owners of the house can get in here. I made a shrine of the place to keep James and Lily alive through the ages in memory and to remind everyone the destruction evil can do.”

They Apparated back to the Shrieking Shack, and Jim told Sirius he needed to get back to the castle. “I’ll send Dobby, a house elf who is very loyal to Harry, to tend to your needs. Also, we’ll work out some way for your Lissy to visit you, umm that is to say, after you regain some of your health back. Good night, Sirius.”

“Jim!” Sirius spoke quickly. “Do you think I might have something a bit less healthy for me to drink than milk the next time? Please?”

“It’ll be up to Dobby what he gets you. He’ll evaluate your condition and give to you accordingly. My advice is to drink plenty of water, so you can get re-hydrated. Then, when Dobby shows up tomorrow, you’ll have a better chance of getting what you want. Ask him how he knows Harry Potter.” Then Jim was gone.