Liar, Liar

Second Year AU. The Chamber of Secrets goes differently, and Harry winds up in an Azkaban cell across from one Sirius Black. A story told in drabbles. No bashing, even if it might seem like it at first.

Prisoners

Sirius Black woke in an instant.

It was a useful skill, one he'd taken time to perfect. After all, the human guards would think it strange to find a black dog snoozing where there was supposed to be a mass-murdering man.

He still waited until the last possible second to turn back. Every second he spent in human form was another second the Dementors had to strip away his sanity, which was something he'd need in order to escape.

And Sirius Black was not going to rot away in prison, not with the rat on the loose.

The human guards rounded the corner with a new inmate floating between them. That was a lot gentler than the treatment most got, being dragged by arms along the rough stone. The figure was also surprisingly small, almost child-like. But the youngest ever prisoner had been sixteen and convicted of some very dark magic. Maybe this wizard was just a midget.

The guards stopped in front of Sirius' cell, causing him to scramble backwards and try to make himself as small as possible. They weren't known for their kindness to the prisoners; if Azkaban's guards were to be believed, it was all too common for a wand to accidentally shoot off a few hexes without the wizard's knowledge.

Instead of stopping to curse him, the guard in front opened the cell across from Sirius' and the second one swished his wand to send the new prisoner drifting through the door. A soft wave and the prisoner was set down on the cell's one, rock-hard bed.

The first guard closed the gate and both stood there, just watching. One sighed.

"Are you sure...?" Two asked.

"No, I'm not bloody sure. But Albus Dumbledore is." One replied, shaking his head.

"But it's-" Two gestured widely at the cell, unable to find words that aptly described what it was.

"I know. Hard to believe." One said.

They hung around for only a few seconds after that, and left.

Sirius heard their entire conversation. As soon as they were out of sight, he changed form and crept up to the bars. The figure was lying down on the bed still; he couldn't see its face. Sirius settled in to wait, ignoring the hunger pangs in his stomach. He had time.

Two days later, the new prisoner finally rolled out of bed. Neither inmate had moved much in that time; Sirius only to drink the water brought to his cell and ignore the food, and the prisoner hadn't moved at all.

Sirius watched as he looked around, his back to Sirius' cell, and then the prisoner turned.

All the breath left Sirius' body. He was shocked out of his Animagus form.

Harry Potter was in Azkaban.

Traitors

What could he say?

'Hi, Harry, I'm Sirius Black. Yeah, the mass murdering one. You probably think I killed your parents and in a way I really did by suggesting that traitor rat be Secret Keeper instead of me. But I'm sure you can forgive me that and we can be like two peas in a pod, yeah?'

Yeah, right. Even Sirius didn't forgive himself for that monumental screw up, Harry would hate him even if he knew the truth.

'Hi, Harry, I'm the reason you grew up with a mum and dad. Wanna escape together?'

'Hi, Harry, I love you like my own son, whatcha doing in Azkaban?'

Actually, that last one posed a good question. Unless Sirius had lost even more time in here than he thought and Harry had turned out to be a a midgit of Flitwick's brand, the kid was way too young to be in Azkaban.

While his brain was trying to think up some orders to give, Sirius' mouth took over.

"You have your mother's eyes." He said.

Oh, yeah, that's not creepy at all.

Sirius had perfected the insane inmate look. Wide eyes, sunken cheeks, a perpetual half-manic-grin half-tortured-scream. He only wished he had had time to wipe that crazy look off his face before Harry registered who his neighbor was. It didn't help at all that his grin had an accidental hint of 'I'm a psychotic nut job' to it.

Harry regarded Sirius coolly, one eyebrow raised. Sirius distantly felt a Dementor coming closer on its rounds, the familiar despair rising up. He pushed back, though, and stared at Harry. Harry, who didn't seem to even notice the evil creature's approach.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

Sirius tried to clear the grin from his face but it refused. "Sirius Black." He said. And waited.

What would Harry do?

In response, the boy's eyes narrowed in thought. "You're the one they think is Voldemort's right-hand man."

Sirius rushed to his own defense. "They're wrong-I'm not-!"

Harry snorted and looked away. "Of course you're not. Wormtail was the Secret Keeper."

"How-How did you know? Do they know?"

"Ron's rat is missing a finger on its one paw. The same finger that is said to be the only thing left of Peter Pettigrew. And no, they don't know you're innocent, because I wasn't entirely sure until just now. And they won't believe either of us now."

"But proof! If you know where the rat is, they can at least try-I never got a trial. They'd owe me that." Sirius said, desperate. Years and years and years he'd wasted away in this prison and now...

And now he couldn't leave, not without Harry.

"Who's Ron?" Sirius asked.

"My..." Harry looked down and wiped at his face with one sleeve of the gray prisoner's suit. "My former best friend."

"What happened? Why are you in here?"

"The Chamber of Secrets. You know the legend?" Sirius nodded. "It was opened. All year people were being petrified left and right. Everyone was so scared. They-they thought it was me. That I was the heir of Slytherin, because I can speak in Parseltongue. But there was no proof and the Headmaster believed me when I said I wasn't.

"And then, near the end of the year, Ron's little sister Ginny went missing. There was a message in blood on the wall that she was in the Chamber, and she would die down there. Hermione, I thought she was my friend too, she figured out where the entrance was and how to get in and what Slytherin's monster was. A Basilisk. She was petrified and Ron and I went down to the Chamber. Ron got stuck behind a rock collapse and there was Lockheart there, and I went on to the Chamber alone."

Harry had to stop for a moment, to regain his voice and wipe away the tears.

"I tried to save her, I did. She was being possessed by a spirit, one that made her open the Chamber for the Basilisk to kill muggleborns around the school. But no one died, only got frozen. Her magic was sucked away and then Ron finally got through the rocks and he saw me there with Ginny, and the spirit was gone and the Basilisk was dead, and Ginny was dead, and he thought-" Harry's throat closed again.

"He thought I killed her.

"They all testified against me, Ron and Hermione and even Dumbledore. Lockheart. 'Character witnesses' who were really classmates from my school. They all said I'd been terrorizing the school for months and I was sentenced to life in Azkaban."

Throughout the tale, Sirius watched his godson struggle to maintain composure and fail, and wanted nothing more than to console the boy. And maybe rip out these people's jugulars with his Animagus' teeth. "How old are you?" He asked, instead.

"Twelve."

"Harry." Sirius tried to get the boy's attention. "Harry, I'm going to get us out of here. We're going to escape."

Harry looked up, hope shining in his eyes. "You... think we can?" He asked in a half-whisper, as if afraid to speak it too loudly.

"I'll get you out of here." Sirius promised.

If it's the last thing I do.

Beasts

"Can you feel it?" Sirius asked. "It's supposed to be like, a buzzing all around you. That's what it was for your father and me, anyway. Don't force it. The change will be hard the first time but if you force it you can get stuck halfway through."

Becoming an Animagus was a long, difficult and danger-ridden process. There was a potion to figure out your animal-they didn't have that, and so Harry had no picture to focus on, which made it that much harder. There was a spell to make the body accept the change easier, and a spell to make the mind accept it, and a spell for just about everything. They didn't have those, either.

That's why Sirius was thoroughly convinced his godson was on a power level with Merlin himself, and a genius, and just all around amazing. Harry had managed to make it to the final stage in just a year, where it had taken the Marauders three. Now all the boy had to do was actually change.

Sirius couldn't wait to find out what Harry's form was. Hopefully, small enough to fit through the bars. Sirius himself was skinny enough as a dog to squeeze through already.

"I think I've got it." Harry said. His eyes were scrunched up in concentration.

A year in Azkaban had not done him well. The prisoners were well-fed, but no sunlight reached them. Harry's skin was pale and unhealthy-looking, his green eyes too bright and too big, even behind the dirty glasses. Sirius was just glad the boy seemed immune to the Dementors' effect; they had concluded that it might have something to do with Harry surviving the killing curse, or something to do with the Potter ability to do impossible things.

Clomping footsteps suddenly rounded the corner into their cell block, and Sirius looked at Harry.

"Harry," He whispered. "Harry, someone's coming. Stop!"

Harry gave no sign that he heard. He was getting fuzzier around the edges, going through the transformation in slow motion. Too fast, too slow. Harry would be caught-Sirius couldn't lose another one of his family!

The footsteps stopped three cells away. The guard was distributing meals. Harry's pale skin was sprouting dark fur.

Two cells. Harry's ears became triangular and moved to the top of his head. His legs cracked quietly as the bone and muscle structure was forced into a different position.

One cell. The guard would be able to see partially into their cells now. Harry's black fur melted him into the stone background of his cell. Sirius heard more bones popping, skin shifting.

The guard stopped in front of Harry's cell and looked up at the platters floating above his head. One descended slightly, and the guard swished his wand at the door.

He looked into the cell.

It took two seconds for the human guard to register an empty cell. It took Harry two and a half to slip out the open cell door and attack him.

Sirius changed form and barked, shoving his way through the bars on his own cell. Harry hit the man hard enough to send his head cracking against the ground; he did not move again. The platters of food clattered to the stone floor around them.

Sirius stopped in his tracks as he tried to figure out what Harry was. Canine, definitely. But whereas Sirius' dog's head was blocky, with floppy ears, a thick body and whip-like tail, Harry's ears were pointed, his face was made of sharp angles, his body was lean and his tail bushy. Instead of Sirius' sleek and shiny coat, Harry had thick, coarse fur, notably denser around his neck and shoulders.

He's a wolf. Sirius realized.

Harry-the-wolf stepped off the guard's body and looked back at Sirius.

What now? He was asking.

Sirius' tail wagged uncontrollably. Now we leave. He sniffed the air, caught the guard's scent. This way.

Breakout

Azkaban was an island sitting high in the sea. Waves lapped against cliffs in all directions, and hid dangerous rocks beneath their cold, steel-gray surfaces.

Most of the Dementors guarding the island weren't inside the prison walls. They instead were stationed in three rings around the edges, in such numbers that an escapee would be incapable of passing through even if the Dementors for some reason didn't try to suck out their soul.

Harry and Sirius ran straight through the lines, and jumped off the edge with no time to hesitate. They sailed over the rock at the bottom of the cliff and landed some four feet below the waves. They swam.

Sirius didn't know how long it took. Looking back on it later, the journey was a black and white blur. Spikes of color, where he thought he'd lost Harry in the waves, and mind-numbing cold. Going on and on. Not caring if he died here, because at least he died doing something. At least he died free.

And then sand under his paws.

It was a sandbar, just barely in sight of shore. Harry stumbled up onto it behind him and they looked at each other. Sirius was so tired, but he could make it to shore for Harry. Harry would need someone to take care of him. James would be so proud of Harry. And he'd thank Sirius for taking care of his son. And Lily would scold him for ever giving Harry to Hagrid...

Sirius shook the memories out of his head, and started for shore.

Rat

Sirius had stolen four different wands from four different wizards, but none worked for Harry. He kept the one that reacted best to him and gave the boy a knife instead. Two of the wands were snapped viciously and the last was a reserve.

Harry's body was perfectly suited for traveling long distances; he fell into an easy lope without ever trying and Sirius' dog form had trouble keeping up with the wolf's power. Harry's thick, coarse fur kept him warmer in the rain and only Sirius' sense of smell was sharper. He didn't have Harry's instinctive knowledge of direction.

Sirius needed to stop more often that Harry did, needed to eat more, felt hunger gnawing in his stomach and an ache in his paws from all the unaccustomed running. Harry tried to assure Sirius that it was just because the man had wasted away for thirteen years and Harry only for one; Sirius knew better.

Harry was just stronger.

They reached the Weasley house just in time to watch through the window as the family Flooed away.

Sirius regained human form for the first time in a week, Harry a second behind him. The wards hadn't protected against Animagi-a lazy oversight-and so the two had free reign over the house.

Harry found a Hogwarts letter in Ron's bedroom and Sirius found the date on the magical calendar. The Weasleys were just going to Diagon to pick up school supplies. A forget-me-not note was pinned next to the calendar, reminding Molly Weasley to bring Scabbers to the Magical Menagerie to get the rat tonic.

"They'll be back, with the rat." Harry assured Sirius.

The man stared into the distance, and said nothing. He got like this sometimes; usually Harry would just ignore it.

It was nearing dinner when the Weasleys finally returned, happily exhausted and bearing second-or-third-hand supplies. Two shadows settled in a young boy's room and waited with all the patience of a predator that knows the prey will soon be right before it.

Sirius had hid their scent and they crouched silently in secret corners of the room; the rat had no warning. It curled up to sleep at the foot of the boy's bed and slept alongside its owner. Sirius pounced then, the twin blows from his paws stunning it long enough for his now-human hand to close on the tail. He then swung it wildly and there was a dull thump as it collided bodily with the bed post.

The furry body slumped, knocked out.

Sirius became aware of his surroundings then; Harry in wolf form crouched on Ron, one paw cutting off the boy's air and ability to scream. Weasley's hands struggled at the wolf's sides, trying to shove it off.

"I'll understand if you want to kill him, Harry." Sirius rasped. Harry's friend had betrayed him just like the rat had betrayed Sirius.

The wolf looked at him, unconcerned with the body struggling beneath him. It whined, then looked back down at Ron. The boy's movements had slowed and he was visibly gasping for air. Soon, he too was unconscious.

"Let's take care of the rat, first." Harry said, quickly switching to human form.

Harry's human form was stick-thin and pale, with hollow eyes and dull black hair that hadn't seen grooming in months. The unnaturalness of his bright green eyes staring out from under wild locks creeped Sirius out and Harry preferred to be a wolf anyway, so lately he'd been spending less and less time human.

It showed in the jerky, almost unfamiliar movements. Harry's fingers tended to curl into claws and he had to concentrate to make them work the right way. His upper body stayed hunched, close to the ground and ready to drop onto all fours at any moment.

It worried Sirius.

Innocence

"Are you sure you can do this?" Harry asked Sirius.

The knife trembled in the man's hand. He stared at the still body on the ground. "I-James-he killed. He's the reason they're dead. And I can't. I can't. Kill. Him." Sirius stuttered.

"Yes you can." Harry's voice said. He was standing behind Sirius, not in sight. "Just think about it. That night. Finding the house burnt to the ground, Lily and James Potter dead in what was the living room. His head completely taken off, her body tossed there carelessly. Blood, and ash, and fire. A little baby wailing from somewhere in the rubble. Choking on the smell of smoke and burning flesh. Her eyes still open and pleading, but dead. All of them dead because of-!"

Sirius tore himself away from the memory forcefully, and fell upon the body of the man he'd once called his friend. The knife clattered out of his hand because it wasn't a hand anymore, but a paw. It wasn't so much rage clouding his thoughts as memories of that night, bringing up all the old fury and hatred like it was fresh. a minute ago this comfortable haze had seemed a million miles away but now he remembered.

And he wanted revenge.

"Peter Pettigrew." Harry finished, his tongue curling around the name with something like relish.

Wolf

Sirius stared at the mutilated body with empty eyes. The hate wasn't gone, he was just too tired to sustain it anymore. It lurked below the surface, but he could feel it now. A sea of blood, just waiting to be spilled.

"I never told you the house burned down." He said. The words didn't break the numbness like he'd half-hoped, half-feared they would.

"Must've been someone else. Hagrid." Harry replied to the not-question offhandedly.

"I never told you how I found your parents." And Hagrid would never have given those details to a child. Sirius was very glad for the calm now. If it hadn't been there, he was sure that would've come out as a scream, or a whimper.

"Must've been someone else." Harry said again.

Time

Sirius had his revenge, and Harry's waited for him at Hogwarts.

Harry spoke their names with none of the betrayal Sirius felt at the rat. In fact, he said 'Hermione' almost fondly, but with an undertone of 'such a waste'. 'Ron' was derisive, an afterthought with the potential to be a bigger player-potential Sirius was sure Harry thought would be wasted. And 'Dumbledore' with hate and respect. And fear.

"Dumbledore could've asked for a fair trial, you know." Harry stated. "And if he asked, they would've given one no matter the evidence. If he tried, he could have kept you out of Azkaban."

"I know." Sirius said.

"Which means he's partially responsible. Mostly, even. If he'd just accepted when the Potters asked him to be their Secret Keeper, none of this would've happened. They'd still be alive."

Sirius ignored that he'd never told Harry about his parents asking Dumbledore to be their Keeper, and focused. "Harry, I don't think revenge..." He trailed off at Harry's blank, attentive stare. The boy was starting to spend more time in his human form again, which meant that he was emotionally stable enough that he didn't need the wolf's smaller, less complicated brain to think things through. Sirius didn't want to drive him back to that. "Is it really going to change anything?" He ended feebly.

"Oh, it's going to change everything, Sirius." Harry smiled. "And besides, didn't it feel good? Avenging James, like he would've wanted you to?"

It hadn't, but Sirius wasn't going to say that to James' son. Harry would know best what his father wanted-they had the same determination and the same face. And those were Lily's eyes, even if she'd never looked at him like that. (Except when she was dead, Sirius' mind supplied. Glassed over and with an utter void behind them.)

Smoke

Hermione Granger wasn't a beautiful girl. Her hair was too frizzy and her front teeth too big-but she had a nice bone structure and magic could take care of the two biggest glaring faults. If everything had gone right, if the world was fair and people were good, Sirius could see this thirteen-year-old girl in seven years, settling down with Harry to a nice dinner with her family and his, holding hands and playing footsie under the table.

But the world wasn't fair, things had gone very wrong, and Sirius was more sure every day that people were inherently bad.

So he was guarding a stupefied little girl while his godson went out and fetched Ronald Weasley. Harry was charmed to look like Hermione, a very nice piece of work in Sirius' opinion, and he was armed with a very believable story about Harry/Hermione having seen Ginny Weasley out by the Whomping Willow-Ron had to come quick, before Ginny got herself hurt, oh the poor girl didn't know the tree was homicidal!

And when they were close enough, Harry's wolf form was strong enough to drag Ron down the tunnel to the Shack.

"Ugh." Hermione groaned, sitting up. Sirius twirled his stolen wand in one hand and wished for his old one back. With the amount of power he'd put into that Stupefy, if he had a wand matched to him the girl would've been out for weeks without an ennervate.

Sirius raised his wand to stun her again. Her hand shot up, and she shouted, "Wait!"

The girl winced right after, as if expecting a blow anyway. But Sirius paused. He didn't know why, but he paused.

"You're Sirius Black." She said, staring.

"I don't need you to tell me who I am." Sirius replied. He wasn't that far gone yet, that he forgot his own name.

"And Harry's with you. Where is he?" She searched the room with her eyes.

"Not here." Sirius' wits returned to him, and he went to stun her again.

"Wait, please! I don't know what he said-please!" She was frantic, dissolving into a mess of tears and desperation. "We know you're innocent!"

The world froze and Sirius with it. He couldn't move, or breathe.

"Ron said Sirius Black and a wolf broke into his room, took his rat!" Hermione sobbed quickly. "P-professor Lupin heard-he asked-a picture! Animagus, he saw what you did, a toe missing, Peter Pettigrew. We know-you were never the Secret Keeper! We know!"

They knew! He was innocent and they knew it, he and Harry could stop hiding-

"You betrayed Harry." Sirius said. He didn't care about his own innocence, because Harry was still convicted on false charges and Harry mattered more than anything.

"No!" She cried. "I don't know what he told you, but it's a lie!"

Sirius should've stunned her then, but his arm wouldn't move through the right motions.

"The Chamber of Secrets was opened." Hermione said. "Ginny Weasley was possessed by a spirit." Harry said all this already. "The spirit of Lord Voldemort at the age of sixteen." ...He didn't say that. "Ginny was taken hostage into the Chamber, I was petrified, and Harry and Ron went to save her. They made Lockheart come along, and they walked into a trap. Ron was stuck behind a rock slide, only Harry was on the right side, the wrong side, oh my god." Hermione had to take breath deeply to force the hysteria away. "Ron made it through in time to see-to see. Harry. Stab a book that was the spirit's anchor with a basilisk fang. But the spirit was too strong already, too strong to fade away and too weak to become its own person. It-Ron saw it go into Harry. He saw Harry fall and Ginny wake up."

"And then Harry Potter woke up in the Hospital Wing." A new voice joined in. It was Harry(?) standing in the doorway, his gaze cold and smug and knowing. "In the six minutes he managed to stay in control, he told Albus Dumbledore that Voldemort was too strong, and he begged to be killed. With his dying breaths he made sure he wouldn't be the reason Lord Voldemort came back to life. But the old man is soft-hearted, and he only pushed for lifelong imprisonment, not the Kiss or the Arch. And Lucious Malfoy used a bag of galleons to ensure that master and servant were reunited in Azkaban. He did not, of course, know that you were innocent." Harry-Voldemort smirked.

He found himself pinned against the wall, the front of his robes clenched in Sirius' fists and being stared down. "What have you done to my godson?" Sirius snarled.

"Not nearly as much as I could have." Voldemort replied calmly. "He's still here, even. Makes a fuss sometimes, but he's pretty tame now. You won't kill me, not as long as he's alive." And that infuriating superior smirk wouldn't go away, even when Sirius was ready to rip his head off.

"I want to talk to him! I want proof!"

The smirk cleared off his face first, then all other expression. His head drooped like his neck couldn't hold it up anymore.

"S-Sirius?" Harry asked. His voice was different from Voldemort's in subtle ways-it held none of the confident undertone, and it was tired. Very tired. "I-I've been fighting him for so long, but..."

"Harry." Sirius said, and changed his hold to give his real godson a bear hug.

Harry began to laugh.

"Harry?" Sirius went to pull away, look at his godson's face.

"You're a fool." Voldemort said as the knife he'd been holding slid between Sirius' ribs.

Sirius tried to breathe and found he couldn't; he stumbled away, staring at Voldemort.

"It's one of the first laws of possession." Voldemort stated. "Nothing of the host remains."

Sirius choked and fell to his knees, one hand coming up to the knife in his chest and the other reaching for Harry's body. "H-Harry." He stuttered, almost pleading.

Voldemort went to laugh again, but he stopped. He stopped and he fell, first to his knees and then sideways. He curled up, fetal, cradling his head in both arms. He screamed.

"LEAVE! THEM! ALONE!"