The photo being published in the Daily Prophet this early was not something Darius had anticipated. Now, he needed to figure out his next steps quickly.

Sirius would escape from the prison and make his way to the mainland. Seeing that he had no idea of the prison's location or where Sirius might enter the mainland, there wasn't much he could do. But Sirius would likely visit Privet Drive so that he could at least have a look at Harry. After all, he was there in his animagus form when Harry took the Knight Bus in the original timeline.

So, the earliest chance Darius would get to catch hold of him would be when he shows up at Privet Drive. But even if he did manage to meet Sirius, getting the ex-convict to trust him would be a whole other ball game.

Maybe he should meet with Ted Tonks and speak to his wife Andromeda. She was Sirius' favourite cousin and might be able to calm him down and get him to trust her. She was also a qualified healer and would be able to patch up the worst of his condition. It would also give them the chance to tidy Sirius up a bit before he has to enter the courtroom. After all, it wouldn't do to enter the courtroom looking like a feral animal; first appearances do matter and were quite important to those stuffy old snoots in the Wizengamot.

The next couple of days passed quickly enough. He got letters from the twins about their holiday in Egypt and another from Mione who was currently in France. It had felt nice to receive letters and he quickly shot off letters to them in return. Darius told the twins to get him some souvenirs and Mione to check out the famous La Rue de Magie, the French equivalent of Diagon Alley, only it was supposed to be a lot better and more modern looking.

It was three days after the photo of the Weasleys on vacation was published that the breakout occurred. The paper was covered in articles, photos and stories, all about Sirius Black.

Darius had never really understood the sheer terror that the feat of breaking out of Azkaban inspired in the wizarding populace when he had initially read the books. But seeing the entire community riled up like that was a sobering experience. Having the breakout of the alleged mass murderer from a high security cell from one of the world's best prisons had stretched a lot of nerves thin and everyone was panicking.

Darius was pondering hard about how he could go about getting in touch with Black. It was not possible to keep a 24hrs lookout for him but it was also important to get a hold of him quickly before kiss-on-sight orders were sent out. In the original timeline, that didn't happen quite so early but this was a real world and anything could happen at any time.

He came up with dozens of convoluted plans before deciding to just go simple. He took a small scroll and scribbled something on it. Using the Geminio charm, he made a dozen more copies of it. After casting a weak notice-me-not charm and a repello muggletum or muggle repelling jinx on them, he kept them in his spatial bag. His plan was simple, he would give a short review of the situation on the parchment and then stick them with a weak sticking charm to various structures near Privet Drive. Whichever direction Sirius came from, he was sure to come across at least one of the messages.

After that was done, he decided to go to Diagon Alley. He needed to have a talk with Ted Tonks.

Walking up to Ted's office, he knocked and waited. A reply came just a second later.

"Come in! The doors open."

"Hi Ted! Got a few moments? I need to talk to you."

"Of course, have a seat. In fact, I was wondering when you would drop by. The prophet is certainly not being shy about their allegations and plastering Black's face all over its pages. So, do you have any ideas about how we should move forward now?"

"I already have plans to track Sirius Black down. If things go my way, I should be able to get a hold of him within a week or so. But after his escape, it is too risky to just bring him out into the open. So, I wanted to ask if you and your wife could have him at your place for a while. She was his cousin after all. And her healing skills will come in useful to patch over the worst of his condition before he gets his day at court."

"I can do that. Dromeda has mentioned Sirius to me before. She would be willing to treat Sirius, I think. I will owl you after I have spoken to her."

"Alright, thanks! Please reply soon and send me your address in the letter as well. I'll get Sirius to your place as soon as possible."

"That's fine. Is there anything else?"

"No thanks. That’s all for now. See you."

"Goodbye."

Darius left after that and returned home. He sent a quick letter to Madam Bones to hurry the trial up before a kiss-on-sight order could be issued for Sirius Black. Her work would have been easier if she could have gone about it openly but that wasn't to be. There were too many people with a vested interest in the case. They had to be secretive about the case so that no one could interfere with it.

Fudge would want to avoid an embarrassment to the ministry so that his tenure doesn't get cut short. Lucius Malfoy wouldn't want Black to take his place as the Black Head of Family. That would dash any hope that Draco could take the seat when he came of age. Dumbledore had his own schemes about Harry and wouldn't want a new player on the field who could potentially influence Harry more than he could. It was a fight against many interests and the only way they could go ahead was in total secrecy. For now.

The very next day he made the journey to Prive Drive. He couldn't ask his mother to apparate him there as she had no clue where the place was and the Knight bus couldn't take him to a non-magical neighbourhood anyway.

He travelled the muggle way and found it quite relaxing. He was in the hospital or in his own bedroom his entire previous life but was at least familiar with everything muggle and didn't make quite the fool of himself that most magicians do in the muggle world.

Darius disillusioned himself right after he got down at the bus stop at the end of the neighbourhood and went all over the place sticking the letters to all the probable routes. The muggle-repelling jinx should keep most of them away and the notice-me-not would deal with the rest. He just hoped his plan worked the way he wanted it to. He had to keep reassuring himself that it was the best he could come up with at short notice and it would work as it should. Finally done with the job, he dusted his hands off and started the long journey back to his apartment.

He had to learn to apparate as soon as possible. And he would go to the only international level testing centre in the country. According to his studies, the apparation test at the MoM was just a façade. The real tests which were of much higher levels were conducted at the Isle of Man. The solitary island in the centre of the United Kingdom was home to the best instructors in the country. They taught apparation first then apparation across large distances, maybe a country or two. They also taught silent apparation, the skill of apparating and disapparating without the customary cracking sound and alerting everyone in the vicinity.

Such centres existed all over the world but were relatively few in number. He was lucky there was one in the UK. But the minimum age requirement was sixteen to get the license and he would have to wait until then.

That done, it was time for the waiting game. Madam Bones would work within the MoM. Ted Tonks was working on getting his legal case ready. Too bad he couldn't tell the man about Peter in advance, he would be able to build up a solid case then. But that knowledge would be too suspicious. Of course, to clear Black's name beyond doubt they would need the Veritaserum induced confession of the traitor. He had to get hold of Peter as soon as the Weasleys were back in the country, which should be in about another two weeks. Andromeda Tonks was working on her treatment plan for her cousin. After twelve years in that hell hole he would be in a terrible state and require a lot of treatment to restore any modicum of health back. She was stocking up on blood replenishing potions, dreamless sleeping draughts, pain reliever draughts, Calming Draughts, Nourishment draughts and whole load of others. He had been surprised to learn about a few of them; he might be at the level of an apprentice potioneer but he was barely there. There was time to go before he could even consider taking on a formal master, even if it was his own mother. Some of the potions Andromeda was dealing with was beyond that and was at advanced Healer levels.

He did think that they may be of great help to Harry. Some of those Nourishment Draughts and those for old wounds and injuries and a few others could help the poor guy get past his malnourished stunted growth and grow into his actual size. Well, at least he knew what to get him as his Christmas gift this year.

Sirius Black was tired. Swimming across the channel, even in his animagus form was tiring. But he pushed forward, he had to or he would have lost his mind by now. There was only one thought in his mind that was keeping him sane. Protect his pup. The traitor was there, near him, ready to strike him at a moment's notice. But he would not let that happen. No, he would protect the pup, he had failed his parents but he would not let Harry suffer the same fate.

He made his way across the woodlands. He lived in the woods and on the pavements, scrounging up some berries or some half-eaten food, but he pushed on, determined to get to Harry. He only slept for a couple of hours a day before moving on.

Finally, he was here. Privet Drive. He hadn't thought Harry would be here but that showed him. He was in his dog form. He had seen the muggle news a few days back. He had been branded a murderer, again. But he couldn't afford to get caught up with the muggle law enforcement now, not when he was so close. And he didn't even have his wand to defend himself. He kept up in his animagus form, it would slip by easier. In fact, it was easier to let go in that form. Easier and less complex, where he didn't have to think too much.

Sniff! Sniff! That was the scent of magic. Right near the entrance to the Drive. But how? He slowly walked closer to it and then saw the parchment. It was stick to the signpost which said Privet Drive. And it was addressed to him!! Somebody knew he would be coming here. Somebody knew Harry's location. He sniffed harder but he could barely catch the scent of the one who had left the parchment here. That meant it was a few days old at least.

But he could look into that later. He took the letter in his paw and slunk away in the darkness. Heading to a copse of trees he had seen some way back, he transformed back into his human form and started reading.

Padfoot,

I am a staunch believer of your innocence and am currently acting towards getting you your long overdue trial. I am also a friend of Harry's and only wish the best for him.

I understand that in your current capacity as a run-away convict, you have no reason to believe me but if I may say so, you don't have much choice either. My only aim is to help you and Harry but as it so happens, there are numerous people, on both sides of the field who would seek to prevent this. Hence the lack of any names, just in case this gets into the wrong hands.

If you believe me, if you have the slightest amount of trust or desire to listen to my plan, simply write or scratch out a 'yes' at the bottom of the parchment. We can meet the next day at noon, near the library at the end of the street. Stick around there in your 'other form' and I'll come up to you. We can have a long talk after that and I promise to be much more forthcoming.

Traveller

Sirius was stunned. Who the hell was this? The person, couldn't even tell if it was a male or female, knew so much. Of course, it was rather gratifying to have at least someone who believed in your innocence. But it wasn't just that. His nickname, mentioning his other form, all of which was supposed to be a secret.

He was curious about the situation but still somewhat hesitant. He finally decided to think about that later and started searching for Harry's home.

Just a moment later, he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eyes. And turned to see a young James walking across the pavement, wheeling a trunk behind him. It had to be Harry. He looked exactly the same as James, only he had Lily's eyes. Young Harry, as he was unequivocally sure it had to be him, was wheeling the suitcase with a sort of panicked expression and finally stopped at the junction between this street and the next.

The whole situation gave him a strong feeling of Déjà vu! It was almost exactly like this when he had wheeled away his trunk from the Black House when he was sixteen and moved in with the Potters. Harry must be running away as well.

He thought about it for a split second before bounding over to help the boy.

Harry seemed to have sensed him. He turned around but the shock of seeing his massive form must have thrown him off. The poor boy fell over and threw out his right hand as he fell. The three-decker, violently purple knight bus pulled up and obscured him from view.

Well, at least Harry had a means of transportation now. He slunk back into the shadows and left the area. But he had decided. He needed to be with Harry. He decided to take the offer and take his chances. He scratched a yes at the bottom of the parchment and sped off towards the library.

Several hundreds of miles away, Darius pulled out a piece of parchment, spelled with the Protean Charm from his pocket, which had a scrawled 'yes' on it and grinned.

Sirius Black had received his message and agreed to meet him.

It was time to meet the infamous Black.