Harry opened the doors to the courtroom and walked out, closing the doors behind him. He turned around to see Mr Weasley looking at him anxiously.

“What happened? Dumbledore didn’t say-” he asked.

“Cleared,” said Harry, “Of all charges, of course,”

Mr Weasley beamed at that, looking like he had grown at least a year younger.

“Oh, that’s brilliant, Harry! I mean, I knew you would be, but it’s still quite a relief,” he said.

A moment later, the courtroom doors opened and the members of the Wizengamot filed out.

“Were you tried by a full court?” asked Mr. Weasley, dumbfounded.

“Yup, seems I’m just that important,” replied Harry, causing Lily to giggle.

Most people ignored the two standing by the side. A few, like Madam Bones, greeted Mr Weasley. Towards the end, Fudge and Umbridge walked out.

Fudge glared daggers at Harry, almost looking ready to whip his wand out again, and Umbridge looked pale. The moment her gaze crossed Harry’s, she shuddered and looked away.

Harry snuck a living flame onto both Fudge and Umbridge when they weren’t looking. He had to concentrate hard to make sure no one would notice the tiny wisp-like flame flying towards the two people and attaching themselves to their skin.

Mr Weasley looked quizzically at that. “Did something happen?” he asked.

“Who knows, maybe they saw a ghost,” he chuckled.

Soon after, Percy walked past them, completely ignoring them, which caused Mr Weasley to clench his fist.

“Come on Harry, let’s get you back!” he said, lightening the mood. “Everyone’s going to want to hear the results.”

All three of them made their way towards the elevator, only to stop short. Fudge was standing in front of the elevator doors, along with Lucius Malfoy.

When the two noticed them approaching, Lucius sneered.

“Really now. Patronus, Potter?” he asked.

Harry replied casually, “If it had been you in the tunnel instead of Dementors, I might have come up with something a little more colourful to use.”

Lucius immediately frowned and was about to speak, but was quickly interrupted by Fudge. “Unlawful! You clearly haven’t learned your lesson!” he yelled. “I’ll have you expelled if that’s the last thing I do!”

Harry immediately put his fingers in his ears. “Minister, we already talked about this,” he said with a grimace. “Quietly please! I have sensitive ears.”

Fudge became more and more agitated while Lucius looked furiously at Harry’s attitude. “Same as your father I see,” said Lucius.

“Yup! Oh that reminds me Malfoy, where’s our dear friend Peter holed up? I haven’t met him in ages!” asked Harry with mock concern.

Harry immediately used Legilimency as hard as he could, as subtly as possible. No sooner had he asked that question, a picture of a shack appeared in his mind. Harry fought hard to keep a smile from showing on his face.

“Are you trying to be funny, Potter?” Lucius asked with a glare.

“I’ve always been told that I have a wacky sense of humour, you know?” Harry replied seriously.

Lucius snorted and turned to Fudge. “Let’s go back to your office, Cornelius.”

“Ah yes, of course,” Fudge replied, finally getting his emotions back in order.

Watching them leave, Harry quickly attached a living flame to Lucius Malfoy. Mr Weasley on the side was sweating bullets. “What was that about Harry?”

“Oh, no, nothing,” replied Harry, snapping back to reality. “Just wanted to see his reaction.”

“Where did you disappear off to?” asked Harry as he turned to Lily.

“Had to hide from Lucius Malfoy, I’ve met him before,” she grimaced in distaste.

Harry nodded, and the three of them made their way back to the hideout.

Everyone was overjoyed at the result of the hearing. Though, despite claiming to have known that he would be cleared, they all still teared up and hugged him in relief.

After the party, Harry followed Sirius to his room while dragging Lily and Hermione along. Though he had to make sure everyone else had gone to sleep first before the three could make their way to Sirius’ room. He made sure there was no one else around and knocked on the door.

Harry heard footsteps on the other side of the door and a moment later, the door cracked open a little. Sirius’ head poked out, looking irritated.

“What?” he asked.

“I need to talk to you about something important. Privately, please,” replied Harry, not minding the irritation in his godfather’s voice.

Sirius grunted and moved to the side, letting the three into the room. Once they were inside, Sirius closed the door behind them.

“So, what was so important?” asked Sirius.

Harry took a seat near Buckbeak, using his body like a pillow as he spoke to Sirius. “I know why you’re irritated, Sirius.”

Sirius immediately snorted, “I’m not irritated.”

“Sirius, please,” said Harry, exasperated, “you wear your heart on your sleeve.”

Sirius just looked away. “Say I am irritated. What does that have to do with anything?” he asked.

“Well, I have just the solution for it!” said Harry in a chipper voice.

“What solution?” Sirius turned to Harry suspiciously.

“You know how Mr Weasley and I met Lucius Malfoy right after my trial?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“See, the thing is, when we met him, I asked him where Pettigrew was hiding,” said Harry with a smile.

“So what?” asked Sirius, even more annoyed than earlier. “It’s not like he’ll tell you where he’s actually hiding.”

“I knew he wouldn’t. I never expected him to,” replied Harry. “However, there is one thing I never mentioned to anyone.”

“What’s that?” asked Sirius.

“One skill I got from Voldemort was legilimency,” replied Harry, his smile growing even wider. “Now, I don’t know the address, but I clearly saw the shack Pettigrew is hiding in. I plan to go tonight to nab him.”

“What?” all three yelled simultaneously.

“Shh! Quiet down! Do you want Mrs Weasley coming up here and sending us off to bed or something?” asked Harry in exasperation. He had to place a silencing charm in the room again.

“Oh sorry,” said Sirius. “Do you really know where Wormtail is?”

“Of course! Would I lie to you?” Harry asked.

“Good point,” replied Sirius, with a serious expression, he fell deep in thought.

A few moments later, he said, “I’m coming with you.”

“Definitely me too,” said Lily and Hermione nodded along.

“It would be easier for me to go alone,” said Harry, “I can just get to the shack, grab Wormtail and apparate back.”

“It’s better if all four of us go there, though. We can take care of any unforeseen circumstances and all of us can take care of ourselves,” reasoned Hermione.

“All of us going is too many,” replied Harry. “the shack is tiny! He’ll hear us from a mile away, so two people only.”

The three clamoured, trying to decide who would go.

“I think it should be Sirius,” interjected Harry, “he’s the most experienced of us all, so he could definitely handle most situations thrown at him.”

Sirius grinned and clapped Harry on the shoulder.

“I’m ready to leave when you are,” he said eagerly.

“On that note, do you know of any way to restrain an Animagus?” asked Harry.

“That’s easy, just enchant any item with an Animagus revealing charm and stick it into your target or bind them with it and they’d be secure,” replied Sirius.

“Brilliant! Now we need to discuss what to do after we get to Pettigrew,” said Harry.

“Just have him handed over to the Ministry through Kingsley. That should help me get the trial I need.”

“That won’t work,” said Hermione. “Fudge would delude himself into thinking this is a conspiracy and Lucius Malfoy would go through Fudge and somehow kill Pettigrew.”

“That sounds like something they would do,” said Lily.

“The best-case scenario is to replace Fudge with someone from our side, legally that too,” said Harry, “like we had suggested earlier.”

“You make that sound so easy,” laughed Sirius. “If we could do that, we would have done it already.”

“Getting Fudge out of office isn’t really the hard part, the hard part would be to get one of ours into the office,” said Harry, “I’ve stuck living flames on Fudge, Umbridge and Lucius, that should give us plenty of information to work with.”

“Hahaha! I knew you wouldn’t just sit around doing nothing, but spying on the Ministry isn’t what I thought you might do.” Sirius seemed much happier now, with the prospect of finally going free.

“Well, the fundamental problem we’re facing right now is how rotten the Ministry is,” said Harry. “The Minister refuses to look at reality instead of cooking up conspiracy theories. There are sure to be a bunch of spies in the Ministry and then you have people like Umbridge who just seem evil from the get-go.”

“Umbridge is a real piece of work,” said Sirius with a grimace. “she’s spearheading a campaign against werewolves, and she’s the primary reason werewolves can’t find work anywhere. Which is also why they’ve turned to Voldemort.”

Harry nodded. “we’ll need to do something about her as well. She seems to be valued by Fudge so she might have more sway over his decisions than we think.”

“I’d wager, Amelia Bones or Scrimgeour would be the best bet for Minister if Fudge leaves office,” said Sirius.

“I’m not too familiar with either, but Amelia Bones at least seemed fair during my trial,” said Harry.

“We can think about that in the future,” said Sirius, clapping Harry on the shoulder. “Thanks a lot, Harry. You doing this really means a lot to me”

“Don’t worry about it. You are my godfather, after all!” said Harry with a smile. “I need your help for something.”

“What would that be?” asked Sirius.

“After this whole acquittal thing is over with, I plan on taking the fight to Voldemort,” said Harry.

“Are you insane!?” asked Sirius in exasperation. “You want to take the fight to the greatest dark wizard of our time?”

“Oh please, he’s like a kid throwing a tantrum,” sneered Harry. “Anyway, I won’t be fighting him head-on from the get-go. I need to slowly chip away at his assets. For that, I need your help.”

“How?”

“I need information. Information about death eaters,” said Harry. “Names, crimes, locations etc. Dumbledore, nor any of the order members would ever give such information to me. They seem convinced that I’m a kid who can’t handle himself.”

“Fine, I’ll see what I can get for you.”

“Great! We should get going then,” said Harry. “Once we’ve got Pettigrew, we can bring him over to Buckbeak’s room so someone will always be here to watch over the rat.”

“Let’s go then,” said Sirius.

Harry hugged Lily and Hermione and after they told Harry and Sirius to be careful and return quickly, the two headed off to their rooms.

Harry grabbed Sirius, and they apparated to the shack he had seen in Lucius Malfoy’s mind.

A moment and a loud crack later, they found themselves in a rather dingy shack. The walls had peeling and faded wallpaper and the floorboards were broken in several places.