After twenty minutes, people started returning to their seats, surprisingly eager for the story to continue. Harry managed to pry Luna off his arm and onto Hermione's before climbing back onto the dais and taking his seat.

Rita hadn't lost any enthusiasm over the terrors that had been on display so far. "So, Regent-Lord Black, where were we?"

"We had just finished my first year."

"Ah, yes. I assume you were properly rewarded for your heroic efforts?"

Harry laughed dryly. "For the troll? I got five house points, as did Ron. Hermione actually lost five. After we saved the stone I got sixty house points, Ron and Hermione got fifty each."

"That's all? Not even an award for special services to the school?"

Harry just shook his head. He caught several people giving Dumbledore dirty looks.

Rita folded up her piece of parchment and made ready the next. "How many near-death encounters in your second year?"

Harry smiled. "Thankfully only three. The first being an attack by an enchanted bludger."

Rita smirked. "Who enchanted the bludger to attack you?"

"A house-elf, who was trying to convince me to leave Hogwarts for my own safety. Thankfully it only broke the bones in my right forearm, which the fraud known as Gilderoy Lockhart vanished instead of letting Madam Pomfrey heal them."

"How did you deal with this elf?"

"My way." Harry's posture and tone told Rita to back off, and she reluctantly complied.

"What was your next deadly encounter?"

"I virtually waltzed into a colony of Acromantulas, although at the time I didn't realize until it was too late."

Rita went white as a sheet, she clearly shared some of Ron's arachnophobia. "Why?"

Harry was moving a memory to the Pensieve as he spoke. "I was trying to find out what happened when the chamber was opened in nineteen forty-five."

Harry finished speaking as the memory flared to life over their heads. As Aragog crawled into view another bout of chaos engulfed the audience, including many ear-piercing shrieks. To Harry's amusement Ron's scream was one of the loudest. Harry actually had to play the memory twice so people could hear what Aragog said, thankfully someone had cast a silencing spell on Ron after the first time through.

When the memory ended for the second time several people were glancing at Hagrid with a mixture of fear, anger and even awe. Said half-giant was flush with embarrassment, he looked tempted to leg it from the chamber.

"What lead you to seek out Aragog over the chamber of secrets?"

Harry chuckled. "That's quite a story. It began with us trying to figure out who the Heir of Slytherin was. We suspected Draco Malfoy, so we came up with an, in hindsight, very over-the-top scheme to spy on him. We used Moaning Murtle's bathroom to brew polyjuice potion and sneak into Slytherin. One afternoon I found the bathroom had been flooded, I went inside to check on things and found someone had attacked Murtle with a diary. The diary later showed me the memory of a half-blood by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle, accusing Hagrid of opening the chamber in forty-five. We went to confront Hagrid and found the Minister arresting him without cause. Hagrid gave us a clue that lead us to Aragog, and eventually the truth."

Most people's glares had shifted to Fudge, including Amelia's. Rita, however, was single-mindedly focused on the story. "Did you use the polyjuice?"

"Yes, Ron and I posed as Crab and Goyle and questioned Draco Malfoy. He turned out to not be the heir, which stumped us for a while, until I received the memory from the aforementioned diary."

A slight frown appeared on Rita's lips when he said Malfoy wasn't the heir, but disappeared when he mentioned the diary. "You said you uncovered the truth, what was it? Who was the heir?"

"This was the night Ginerva Weasley was taken into the Chamber." He slipped another memory into the Pensieve. Out the corner of his eye, he spotted Ginny trying hard to burrow into Bill as Charlie came round and hugged her other side.

Lockhart's office filtered into view above the crowd, who collectively held their breath. Several cries of shock and anger rang out when people realized he was trying to do a runner. The loudest by far coming from the Weasleys, closely followed by McGonagall's angry Gaelic exclamations. Several people cheered when they forced him to stay at wand-point.

The gathering remained silent until the rockfall, when several people seemed to forget it was a memory and attempted to cover themselves from the falling rocks while screaming. Amelia once again restored order quickly, so they were able to hear Ron shouting after the cave-in.

The peace, however, didn't last long. Because, during a long-winded monologue, Riddle revealed himself to be the seventeen-year-old version of Voldemort. Amelia was even quicker, and barley a second was lost to the chaos. Fudge, by this point, seemed to have gone numb and didn't even flinch when Amelia used a noise-maker spell meer feet from him.

People once again entered stunned silence as the basilisk slithered in. A few people managed to cheer when Faux swooped in and clawed out its eyes, and even more cheered when he pulled the sword out the hat. The applause was defining when Harry slew the basilisk, but stopped as abruptly as it began when Harry fell to his knees, clutching the puncture wound. Several people, including Hermione, Ginny and Luna, wept as Harry crawled towards the diary under Riddle's taunts. Nobody cheered as Riddle ceased to exist, and only the Weasleys perked up when Ginny awoke. The crying ceased when Fawks landed on Harry and began to cry into his wound while singing, lifting everyone's spirits. The memory finally faded as Faux flew them out of the chamber and people began cheering again.

All eyes swivelled to Harry, who seemed to be ignorant of all the attention he was getting. Fawks had flamed in un-detected during the memory and was sitting on Harry's right thigh, trilling happily as Harry caressed his feathers.

"Please tell me you got rewarded for that, at least!"

Harry turned his attention back to Rita. "I got an award for special service to the school. The same award Tom Riddle got when he framed Hagrid."

The interview lulled as Rita was once again writing for all she was worth, while the students talked amongst themselves avidly. Hermione, tears still leaking down her cheeks, was doing her best to squeeze some comfort into Luna, who seemed to be appreciating the gesture. Ginny was currently at the centre of a Weasley group hug. Dumbledore was trying his best to remain serene under all the scathing looks being sent in his direction.

Fawks jumped up to Harry's shoulder and began singing, getting everyone's attention, before looking pointedly at Rita. Harry chuckled. "I think Fawks wants us to continue!"

Fawks puffed out his chest and trilled happily, while Rita just looked confused.

"Uhh... ok? So, your third year? You said it was the most dangerous of the three?"

Harry nodded.

"Does Sirius Black really compare to You-Know-Who or the basilisk?"

"Sirius Black? Oh no, Sirius wouldn't be a danger to me if he was sitting in here with us. The danger to me that year was the Ministry." The chamber once again echoed with gasps of shock.

"The Ministry?"

"Yes, well, more precisely the Ministry's inspired decision to use Dementors to guard a school! From the moment I stepped onto the Hogwart's Express, they tried to kiss me no less than three times. One time resulted in me falling several hundred feet onto the quidditch pitch. To top it all off, the school didn't even need guarding in the first place."

"So you think you could have defeated Black yourself?"

Harry shook his head, while Fawks seemed to laugh on his shoulder. "Whether I could defeat Black or not is beside the point. The point is he was never trying to kill me, as he is completely innocent."

"How could you possibly think Sirius Black is innocent?!"

Harry's smirk returned as he dropped another memory into the Pensieve. "I met him."

Amelia sat straight up and pulled a notepad from the insides of her robes. The image flared to life with Harry, Hermione and Ron getting attacked by the Grim, causing many of the Pure-bloods and Half-bloods to wince. Meanwhile, Treawley physically jumped out of her chair, screaming. She was promptly silenced and restrained by McGonagall. Rita and Amelia seemed to compete as to who was the faster writer as they interrogated Sirius. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as they prepared to reveal Pettigrew when Snape burst in. By the time his memory counterpart was unconscious the potions professor had the slightest tinge of red on his cheeks, but in the dark of the chamber, he seemed as unaffected as usual.

When Pettigrew was finally revealed Fudge actually fainted briefly before Pomfrey revived him and handed him a calming draft and a block of chocolate. Amelia gave Harry a grateful nod when he stopped Sirius and Remus from killing Peter. The memory faded as the party exited the shrieking shack.

"Peter later escaped because Remus hadn't taken his Wolfsbane potion. We did, of course, try to tell Minister Fudge." Harry placed another memory in the Pensieve and watched as the real Fudge looked more and more sick as his memory counterpart made a fool of himself in the Hogwarts infirmary.

Hermione, who had kept their bond at a minimum so Harry wasn't distracted by her raging emotions, now opened it to give Harry some input, making him smirk. "Madam Bones, considering you have the Minister of Magic, the Chief Warlock and the Supreme Mugwump here, could you question Sirius Black here and now to determine his innocence?"

Amelia was caught flat-footed and had to take a moment to think. "Uhh... Yes, as long as Professor Snape has some Veritaserum I can use?"

Snape, rather reluctantly, nodded that he did and left to fetch it.

Harry's smile widened. "Great, I'll have Sirius here in half an hour!" He jumped off the dais and went to the corner to summon Kreacher.

o0O0o

Sirius Black raised his snout into the wind and took a great sniff, and let out a satisfied growl. His prey was close, tantalizingly close. Since he had returned to Hogsmede he had been surviving mostly on squirrels and small birds, and if he was lucky, the odd rabbit or a morsel of rubbish. Today, though, it seemed like he was more than just lucky. Today, he was hunting deer.

Normally, in his current emaciated state, he wouldn't have the speed to stamina to run down a deer, but fortune was shining down on him for the moment. From the tracks, Sirius could tell the deer was injured, not fatally, but enough to limit its ability to escape. He had spent the past few hours patiently waiting for the moment to strike, corralling the doomed creature. Now was that moment. He crawled forward slowly till he was in position.

This particular deer was a doe, although not meaty by any stretch of the imagination, to Sirius it looked a veritable feast. Its right foreleg was broken.

If Sirius had learnt one thing from the years since Halloween 1981, it was patience. If he had patience that day, he might well have been free to raise Harry, and not rotting in Azkaban. Patience, no matter how frustrating, was also required while he was hunting the rat. He tried being rash, but both times ended spectacularly badly. The Fat Lady, Sir Cadogan and Ronald Weasley could all attest to that. So Sirius had learned patience the hard way.

Putting that patience into practice, he mentally went over his plan again. 'When the doe lowers its head to feed, jump and aim for the shoulders/neck, if it dodges, herd it towards the raging river, and hope that will topple it.' After one last quick mental check, he was ready to begin his countdown.

'5... 4... 3... 2'

CRACK

The deer jumped in alarm and bounded the worst way possible for Sirius, allowing it to escape his perfectly placed trap. It revealed an elderly elf dressed in a black toga with the Black family crest on its chest. Sirius recognized the little creature that had just cost him his dinner immediately. He morphed back to human form.

"Kreacher!" He jumped at the little elf, who froze him with a lazy wave of his hand.

"I have a letter here from Master Harry."

His anger and hunger immediately forgotten, Sirius tore into the letter.

Hi Sirius,

Good news, in half an hour you're going to be questioned with veritaserum in front of Minister Fudge, Amelia Bones, Albus Dumbledore, and all of Hogwarts (plus the contingents from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang and some press). I have already had them all view the memory of the shrieking shack. Kreacher will take you to my suite in Hogwarts where you can make yourself presentable. See you soon!

Harry

Sirius was on cloud nine as he reached out his hand for the little elf. Moments later, instead of standing in the frigid snow of the Scottish Highlands, his bare feet were on the cold tile of a bathroom. He stripped quickly and cannonballed into the jacuzzi sized hot-tub, filled with rainbow bubbles and various scented oils. He almost melted as the warm water began to release years of tension in his muscles. At the moment he was sure of one thing, Harry was going to get lots of thank you licks.

o0O0o

Silence once again rained in the chamber as Sirius strolled in, dressed in azure blue robes. He had trimmed his beard into a goatee and brushed out his previously matted locks.

Harry disentangled himself from Hermione and Luna and rushed over to give Sirius a quick hug, which was happily reciprocated. Reluctantly, Harry released Sirius and returned to the two girls as Sirius climbed up onto the dais and sat on the offered stool. Immediately Amelia gave him the required three drops of veritaserum.

"What is your name?"

"Sirius Orion Black."

"Were you the Potter's secret keeper?"

"No."

"Did you betray the Potters to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"No."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"No."

"Did you use a blasting hex to kill twelve muggles?"

"No."

"Very well!" Amelia administered the antidote before apologizing to Sirius on the behalf of her department. She then left to strong-arm the Minister into clearing the charges against Black.

o0O0o

After Sirius impromptu trial, McGonagall informed the students that dinner was being served in the great hall. Harry hadn't realized that much time had passed. First the exit the chamber was the Basilisk, which was being levitated by the goblins. All the students and staff followed, leaving Harry and company to bring up the rear. Only when he emerged into the girl's bathroom did he realize how stuffy it had been in the chamber.

After bidding Luna, Neville and Draco goodnight, Harry led Sirius to their quarters. Neither Harry nor Hermione had much of an appetite, so they had Dobby bring them a salad. Sirius, however, ate as a man possessed through a full Sunday roast.

Shortly after the Potter's retired to their private chambers, pointing out the pull-out bed on their way past. Just as Harry and Hermione were about to climb into bed a rather loud pecking got their attention. Harry opened the window cautiously. He found a letter sitting on their windowsill and spotted a large bird flying away. He opened the letter immediately.

We need to talk.

Same as last time.

Black Phoenix