~28~ BETRAYAL

Today has been a beautiful day as always. I brew an antidote to uncommon poisons, which was highly sought after. It was for minor poisons such as Doxy bites. I perfected brewing first and second-year potions even though I sold some beauty potions to Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions. The store keeps the secret of my identity as a condition of the contract we signed. After that first and last meeting, I let Colley deliver potions on my behalf.

Shrinking solution was amusing *chuckles* when I accidentally drank it instead of nutritious drink, I suddenly found myself as high as my finger, of course not in shrunken position but of course not in shrunken position, but my normal height. And panicked and had to wait for its effects to be neutralized. When Wilmey found me on the table when she was wiping the table, she almost threw down me from the table and if I fell down my death would be inevitable. Luckily I stopped her through our bond and she noticed me in my tiny form. She kept apologizing and tried to punish herself when I didn't punish her, she thought I'd keep my silence rather than punishing her as she wasn't deserving it.

"Hermione, are you down there? I'm coming" I heard the voice of Harry. We met almost and practised in my basement as ministry couldn't trace us.

"Why did you not wait for me? I think I told you I'd be here at one p.m. and we would keep practising together." he was unhappy when he found out I broke our promise.

"I knew you'd be busy these days and couldn't focus on your practices" and I was right.

After Harry learned about his godfather, he filed a complaint to the ministry of magic for assembling the committee and wanted to access the memory of Sirius Black to find out the reason he betrayed his family and he used his identity as the heir of Potter family, one of the twenty-eight sacred families and one of the members of the board on ministry council even if he didn't inherit his heritage and became the head of the family.

At first, the ministry tried to refuse his request until the daily newspaper published about Harry and his 'pitiful' history. His wish to listen to the truth written by Rita Seeker, other wizards and witches supported Harry's idea and sent owls to the ministry every day. The ministry neither denied nor accepted his request for a week. Under the pressure of the public, they gave a date for the hearing.

"I don't know Hermione. How could he betray my parents when he loved them both and became my godfather beside it was posted wizard war that there are some suspicious such as the way was rejected to share his memory and how easily accepted that he killed my parents. I want to know the truth." His eyes were red, mixed between anger and sadness. But still, he didn't cry, or rage, all he did was waiting silently for coming hearing.

_ _ _

We are waiting for the hearing to begin. I think I saw Sirius Black escorted by Aurors. There are some well-known wizards in the audience as Rita Seeker was murmuring herself something while her quill was writing on paper as she talked. There were names like Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa Black, Rufus Scrimgeour, Amelia Susan Bones, etc.

As Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, professor Dumbledore opened the hearing after a short speech, and two Aurors brought the convicted, Sirius Black. He was different from his handsome appearance, fascinated young witches during his prime years. His eyes were lifeless and tied possibly because of dementors. He didn't talk, nod, or greet others except the brief moment his eyes met with Harry, but he kept his poker face and didn't let others see it.

Although the hearing wasn't enough to gather Wizengamot, Sirius was an important figure during the war, and his betrayal was shocking to all, so everybody wanted to hear about it. The council decided to hear with the audience on Wizengamot.

Sirius drank Veritaserum after the potion was checked, and he was asked questions about his betrayal. They wanted to hear everything, and Sirius spoke without stopping for a second. He told them about him being a fake secret keeper and in fact how Peter was the original as they decided to deceive Voldemort because nobody would suspect him being secret keeper only he, James and Peter knew about it, but Sirius didn't have a chance to tell Lupin about it because the same night Peter betrayed them and told Voldemort where Lily and James were.

After he learned the death of his brother and friend, he knew Peter sold them out and found him, but Peter that sly old fox escaped when he saw him and during their fight after explosions caused deaths of muggles and Peter used it to his leverage and escaped after losing his finger.

Peter was an animagus rat, and when he felt Aurors, he transformed and drilled between cars and disappeared, and the Aurors blamed him for killing his friends as well as muggles and decided the man was gone mad and even though he requested his mind to be read it wasn't accepted. He was sent Azkaban in a rush as he was in shock of losing his friends and betrayals of his other friend. He accepted that he caused the death of James and Lily because if he didn't let James choose Peter as his secret keeper after his persuasion, they wouldn't die.

Sirius narrated things happened back then an told the truth about him, James and Peter being animagus who didn't register he also confessed that he was the reason why they died indirectly, he accepted the accusations when he was asked. His only regret was letting Peter go and causing Harry to be orphan.

After the council listened to his story, there were still some who didn't believe in him and denied the truth claimed that his mind was strong, and even under the effects of Veritaserum, he lied to them. So they wanted to extract his memory using a Pensive and see themselves, and after taking the consent of Sirius, they extracted his memory. When the truth came into view, everybody became shocked because the ministry imprisoned an innocent man to Azkaban for ten years without strong proof and blamed him for crimes he didn't commit. Sirius lost his reputation and youth in Azkaban.

As everybody murmured among themselves, I saw Rita was writing hurriedly and sent a letter secretly when nobody paid attention to her. I could guess the headlines of the newspaper, "Ministry let an innocent man rot in Azkaban" "Are we safe in the hands of ministry?" "Ministry joined Voldemort after the war"... Wizarding world will shake after the news thankfully the court decided to free Sirius Black and would publish a public apology and tell the truth.

I glanced at Harry and saw him opening his mouth without a word as it came to a shock to him as well to learn a murderer godfather then him being innocent but suspected by everyone even his close friends believed that he killed his parents. I patted his shoulder, and we left the saloon when it got crowded, I hope to see Harry spending time with his godfather who loved him as much as his parents.