Chapter Text
Perry Albridge, the man who had the unenviable position of being head of security at Azkaban watched the small boat, one that by all Muggle logic shouldn't have survived traveling through the choppy waters surrounding Azkaban, land. Out of it first stepped a brown haired man with a weathered look, a teen wearing a comfortable black waistcoat under a flared neck cloak getting out second. The boy raised his head, "Bring us to him."
"Yes, sir."
—
Sirius looked up from where he was curled up as Padfoot. There was a clicking of shoes, and he watched the dementor that happened to be outside his room glide away as fast as possible. A tiny bit of warmth entered the room, and Sirius shifted back. Someone was coming this way.
Finally, a pair he never expected to see stepped into sight in front of his cell. Remus, looking as full as when James made sure he was taken care of, face dark and severe, and a boy with emerald eyes and black, messy hair, someone who could only be…
"Harry?" Sirius croaked in disbelief, the first time he had used his voice in many months, "Harry, is that you?"
"Yes," the boy said, "I'd say it's nice to meet you, Mr. Black, but considering where we are I think we both know that's a lie."
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked worriedly, he didn't want Harry subjected to the dementors.
"I came to see the man who supposedly betrayed my parents," Harry said.
"I never-"
"Then who, and how?" Remus said, clearly unhappy to be there, "You were their secret keeper, Black, only you could have betrayed them."
"I wasn't," Sirius said hollowly, "and that means I as good as got them killed."
"What?" Remus said startled, while Harry didn't say anything.
"We thought it was the ultimate trick," Sirius said, "everyone would come after me because who else would be their secret keeper? Meanwhile-"
"Peter?" Remus said, "is that why you killed him? Were those muggles lives worth his, Sirius?"
"I didn't kill him. Was going to, he deserved it. But then he started yelling about how I betrayed Lily and James, fired off bombardment spells behind his back, cut off his own finger then changed and slipped down the sewer."
"But-" Remus started, only for Harry to say, "Changed?"
Sirius shifted into Padfoot, only for a few seconds, before changing back, hollow eyes staring at Harry, "I don't care if I have to stay here, but I need you to believe me, Harry, I never betrayed Lily and James. I never served Voldemort. Please, you have to believe me."
"Why didn't you explain this at your trial?" Harry said.
"Didn't have one. Crouch just had me thrown in here."
Harry's face changed, the impassiveness disappearing entering for a stormy expression, "they didn't give you a chance to explain yourself? They just threw you in here to rot?
Harry's hand found the lock, and before Sirius could say anything, there was a sound of sheering metal and the door swung open, Harry walking in, "Remus, help me."
"You're sure? He could be lying," Remus said, even as he walked into the cell, looping Sirius's arm around his own and hefting him to his feet.
"I don't think he is," Harry said, "We're taking him to the house, then I'm flooing to the Ministry. I think it's time I exercised my rights as Rashaka Raja."
—
Millicent Bagnold felt a feeling of dread as she climbed aboard the lift with Cornelius and Dolores. Apparently Harry Potter was waiting for her in the atrium, and considering the Devil King hadn't so much as owled her in the past, it was clear there was something big.
Best case scenario, he wanted Sirius Black's head on a pike.
Finally the lift shuddered to a stop, and Millicent stepped out to see a cordon of Aurors standing between Harry and the lift. He apparently hadn't made any attempt to breach it, which she supposed was a good sign, and was talking to an Astral Projection of Princess Alice, which was definitely a good thing, because even with the lack of information coming out of Harwood West, it was known the Devil King had a fondness for the Princess. On the other hand, he was in full formal attire with a red hilted sword at his side.
"Lord Potter," Millicent said.
"Prime Minister," he returned. Evidently, they were still using formal terms. Another good sign, "I have a pair of questions for you. One, who is "Crouch"?"
Oh, God. He was asking for names of one of her potential successors.
"Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Corporation," Millicent supplied.
"And where," Potter was gritting his teeth now, a wildfire in his emerald eyes, "Does he get the right to throw Sirius Black into a proverbial hell without a fair trial? Or even a kangaroo court?"
Ohhhh, this had just gone from bad to disastrous.
"Barty assumed there was no need. We had a clear cut case, Black had betrayed your parents and blown up Peter Pettigrew."
"And what measures were used to make it clear cut?"
"We asked the muggles, before we mind wiped them," Cornelius supplied, since he had been one of the men to do it.
"Anything else? A truth potion? Investigation of his wand?
"Truth potions can be fought off," Millicent insisted, even as the defense rang hollow in her ears because she had no defense for the other. They hadn't used Prior Incantato on Black's wand, and Pettegrew's had been assumed destroyed in the bombardment spell alongside everything but a finger and bloody robes…
Her eyes met Cornelius's as they both made the connection. Either vicera from Pettegrew should have blanketed the area, or his robes obliterated completely if it was so thorough of an explosion that it vaporized his body.
"You're insinuating that Pettegrew survived somehow, and is the actual perpetrator of the crime?" Millicent asked.
"That's what Sirius Black says, and I believe him," Harry said.
"But it was a known fact that Black was your parent's secret keeper!" Cornelius insisted.
"He says they switched, as nobody would target Pettegrew over Black," Harry said, "and once again, I believe him. So let me make this clear, I have removed Sirius Black from Azkaban, he has been relocated to Number 12 Harwood West, he will remain there until the Ministry promises, under oath, to give him a fair trial. Any attempt to remove him from my protection will be treated as an act of aggression against me and my Peerage. Am I understood?"
"Perfectly, Devil King," Millicent said, trying to make her anger at being ordered clear without actually offending the Campione.
"Good. Alice, I'll see you for Sunday dinner, the rest of you, please don't give me a reason to come back here."
And then he turned on his heel, cloak swishing around him and marching straight towards the nearest fireplace and leaving the premises.
—
The moment Harry got home, he dropped the mantle of a ruler, both literally and figuratively, he took off the cloak and waistcoat, tossing them into the hamper. He untucked his shirt and sagged. He didn't like that, he didn't like acting like a tyrant, and it scared him that he might have damaged his relationship with Alice. But if there was even a one percent chance that Sirius Black might have been thrown into Azkaban while innocent, he couldn't let him rot there. He was a champion, a hero, he had a responsibility to do what was right, even when it wasn't easy.
Harry walked into his bedroom, curling up on his bed.
"Harry," Remus said, softly, as he walked in, "Alice just floo'd in, she wants to see you."
"Ok," Harry said wearily, not wanting to turn his best friend away.
"And Harry… I think you did the right thing today. It takes a lot to forgive someone who might have been involved in your parents' death, even by proxy. Sirius is being taken care of by Mimsy, he isn't in a healthy state."
Remus disappeared through the door, and Alice walked in a minute later, climbing up on the bed.
"Harry?"
"Mgh?"
"Don't make a habit of doing that please," Aluce said, "I understand why you did it today, but don't just order the Ministry around willy-nilly."
"I won't," Harry said quietly, as she began to run her hand through his hair, "I didn't like doing that."
"That's because it isn't who you are," Alice said, "You're not a tyrant king, you're the king who stands in front of his subjects. And I know that's what caused you to act like a tyrant today.
"If there's a chance he's innocent, he doesn't deserve Azkaban," Harry said, even as he began to drift off to sleep.
Alice kissed him gently, "I know."
—