I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. That privilege belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Prologue

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the library flipping through books like mad. Harry was in his fourth year of Hogwarts, and had decided, the previous night, to use Cedric Diggory's hint about the dragon egg he had received at the end of the first task in the Triwizard Tournament.

Harry had discovered, to his utter mortification, that he had to think of a way to breathe underwater for an hour in order to find and retrieve some "stolen treasure" located somewhere in the Black Lake. The trio now had to, thanks to Harry's procrastination, hunt for a book that would allow him to breathe under water for an hour. Unfortunately, the search wasn't exactly going well…

'SLAP!' "OW! Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head, scowling. "What the hell was that for?" He looked over to Ron for assistance.

"Don't expect any sympathy from me, jackass. You told us you'd figured it out weeks ago. Are you stupid, Harry? 'Cause, honestly, that's the only explanation I can think of that explains why in hell you've taken this long to actually look into Cedric's clue," Ron ranted. "I swear, it's like you have a death wish sometimes, Harry."

"Ronald, that's enough. Arguing isn't going to help Harry win the task. Perhaps training him to not procrastinate would, but seeing as it's not Harry's style…" Harry cut her off.

"You know I'm right here, right?" he said, as he waved his left hand in the air

"Good!" Ron said, glaring at the smaller boy. "Maybe we can actually get the message through that thick skull of yours, Potter!"

Harry glared at Ron, but before he could say anything, there was a blinding flash of light, and the library disappeared from sight. Harry felt as if he was being squeezed through a small tube, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, but before he could panic at the feeling of suffocation, the unpleasant sensation ended when he felt his feet touch land again.

When Harry's eyes opened, he noticed he was in a large room. It was around half the size of the Great Hall, and full of numerous different couches and comfortable looking armchairs. He looked around. The walls were comprised of large grey stone bricks and were decorated with various tapestries of famous witches and wizards. Harry recognized Merlin, Grindelwald, Dumbledore, The Founders, and quite a few others. "Where the hell am I?" Harry asked himself quietly.

There was another flash of bright light and a crowd of people appeared, spread out across the room. He analyzed the faces in the crowd; Harry noticed Ron, Hermione, the rest of the Weasleys, including Charlie and Bill, Neville, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Victor Krum, Cedric, Fleur Delacour, Cornelius Fudge, Professor Lupin, Cho Chang, a pretty woman with spiky, pink hair and a face shaped like a heart, a tall bald black wizard in blue robes, a middle-aged woman with grey hair, navy blue eyes, and a monocle, who wore expensive-looking dark grey robes, Severus Snape, and to his disgust, a fat woman with short curly brown hair, whose face reminded Harry strongly of an old toad, the woman was wearing disgusting pink robes, a maroon cardigan to match, and a large, nasty smirk, and last, Harry saw Draco Malfoy wearing his usual sneer.

There was one last bright flash of light and a man with long, matted black hair, ripped dirty robes, and confused grey eyes appeared at Harry's feet. Harry froze at the sight of the man. "Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, running towards his godfather, and throwing his arms around the bewildered man.

"Harry," Sirius said warmly. "It's great to see you, pup, but where the hell-?" Sirius was cut off by Fudge.

"HARRY, GET AWAY FROM THAT MAN!" Fudge roared, like many others, pulling his wand from his pocket, but before anyone could curse Sirius, Dumbledore put a shield charm around Sirius and Harry.

"No one is to harm Sirius Black! Am I understood?" he said in a stern voice, a fierce look in his eye.

"But-but Dumbledore…" Fudge began. "This man is a…"

Remus cut him off. "Does anyone have any Verituserum?" he asked.

"What's-?" Harry began, pulling away from his godfather's embrace.

"Truth serum, one drop of it would have the Dark Lord, himself, spill his darkest secrets," Snape answered shortly.

Out of nowhere, a small vial of clear liquid appeared, floating in midair. The toad-lady grabbed it. "Here, Minister, I have some for you," she said in a high, falsely-sweet girlish voice.

Fudge, muttering to himself furiously, took the vial. "Sirius Black, please step forward," he said curtly.

Dumbledore took down the shield charm, and nodded at Sirius. Warily he walked over to Fudge, who uncorked the vial.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Fudge said. "Amelia, could you interrogate him for me?"

The grey-haired witch with the monocle took the vial, stepped forward, and kneeled in front of Sirius, before handing him the vial. "Drink this, please," she asked politely.

Sirius thanked her, before downing the contents the vial. He shuddered as he swallowed.

"Ready?" Amelia asked.

Sirius nodded.

"Okay. You are Sirius Black?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Were you, at any time, a spy for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"No," he answered. There were shocked gasps from many people in the room.

"That doesn't mean…" Fudge began, but fell silent at Amelia's glare. "I apologize Madam Bones, please proceed."

"Did you betray the Potter's location to You-Know-Who or any of his followers?"

"No, I did not."

"Were you, at any time, a Death Eater or in any way employed in You-Know-Who's regime?"

"No."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"No ma'am, but I certainly intended to."

"See? I told you this man was…" once again, Fudge was silenced by Amelia's cold stare.

"And why did you want to kill Mr. Pettigrew?"

"Because, I wanted to make the little rat pay for betraying Lily and James's location to Voldemort."

Madame Bones raised her eyebrows. "Is-is Pettigrew alive? Are you saying Peter Pettigrew's alive?"

"Yes, and he'd been living as a family's pet rat from the time I was imprisoned until around a year ago when he escaped."

"Clarify, please."

"Peter's an illegal animagus."

Everyone who didn't already know the truth gasped in unison.

"Preposterous!" Fudge exclaimed. "Pettigrew was a mediocre wizard on his best day. There is absolutely no way that he would've had the skill or…the wit…to become an animagus. It's simply impossible, unless…"

"He had help," Sirius finished. "And he did. James and I assisted him in becoming an animagus. We had been researching on how to do it since our third year until finally in our fifth year, we successfully became animagi. Peter's form is a rat, mine, a dog, and James's was a stag."

"Hold on, you are an illegal animagus?" Madame Bones asked.

"Yes," Sirius answered simply.

"So that's how you escaped…Well, that settles it, Cornelius…this man, Sirius Black, is innocent." Madame Bones said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Mr. Black," Fudge began. "As much as I hate to admit that the Ministry has made mistake, even I cannot deny…the evidence is indisputable…as soon as we get out of here, I will hold a press conference announcing your innocence any you will be given a full apology and one-hundred-thousand galleons as compensation," Fudge announced, straightening his tie.

Harry ran forward and into his godfathers welcoming embrace. "Sirius, you-you're free!" Harry exclaimed happily, joyful tears stinging the corners of his eyes. "I can't believe it! Does this mean I can come live with you now?"

"Only if you want to," Sirius smiled. "There's plenty of money in my family's vault. I can buy a nice flat…or, I suppose we could stay at my parent's house…yeah, never mind, I like the flat idea better…so, you up for it, Harry?"

"Did you even have to ask?" he said, as Sirius ruffled his hair. "This'll be great, Sirius!"

"Couldn't agree more, Harry," Sirius grinned, holding his godson tightly in his arms. "Maybe we can spend this summer making up for lost time…"

Harry didn't respond, he was too busy trying to process what had happened. He had never been so happy in his life. Sirius was officially a free man and better yet, he was going to live with him! It was as if all his childhood dreams had come true in one moment. After so many miserable years of loneliness and heartache with his relatives, he could finally be happy; he could finally have a family. Family, Harry thought as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Is this what it felt like to have one? Letting out a sigh/sob, he buried his head into his godfather's shoulder, as if Sirius would disappear if he let go for even a moment.

"I love you, Sirius," Harry whispered almost inaudibly.

"Love you too, pup," Sirius whispered back. Make up for lost time, he thought, I can do that. I owe Harry at least that much. Silently, he made a promise to himself to make Harry's time with him the best time of his life. For Lily and James…

A/N: Yeah, so I decided to rewrite this chapter after reading it again and realizing it wasn't well written. I hope you guys like the new material. Anyway, please review and thanks for reading, guys. I'm working on chapter 2 at this moment, so I'll have that up at some point in the not-too-distant future.