Reaper Of The Wizarding World - Volume 1 Chapter 20 The Memory

That Saturday I got called into Dumbledores office. I’m kind of scared that he found out about what I did to Malfoy and his lackeys. McGonagall came and got me from the common room, and we made our way to Dumbledore’s office. She made me wait outside the office to stare at the door. I say door but it was actually a wall that had a gargoyle in front of it that would slide to the side when you spoke the password.

McGonagall walked up to the gargoyle and it spoke “Password”

“Lemon Ice” as she spoke the wall opened and she walked in.

I stood there waiting for a few minutes until McGonagall finally came out.

“Alright, the headmaster will see you now,” she says exasperated.

I give her a smile and a nod while walking by.

As I walk in I see his office is full of magical objects in a circular room. The walls are bookshelves lined with thick books and behind his desk has portraits lining the walls. I assume they are portraits of past headmasters because the big center one was of Dumbledore himself.

Dumbledore himself is leaning against his desk at the center of the room, next to him on a perch was a phoenix. The phoenix had red feathers on its upper body and top of the head while golden feathers adorned the rest.

Upon seeing me walk in Dumbledore smiles “Hello young man.”

“Hello headmaster”

“Do you know why I called you here Mr. Black? ” Dumbledore asked.

“Uh, no sir.”

“I wanted to talk about the interesting conversation you had with Hagrid last weekend.”

I let out a sigh of relief ‘Thank god’

Dumbledore laughs “Did you think I called you to talk about your little scuffle with the Malfoy boy?”

My eyes go wide ‘He knew?’

He again laughs at my surprise “There is not much that happens in this school that gets past my eye.”

“I uh, they kind of-”

He waves his hand “It’s fine, I know you didn’t actually hurt them and I know what they do to the other students.”

I sigh in relief again “So what did you want to ask?”

“You told Hagrid that your father was not the secret keeper, and he was wrongfully locked away?” He asks while stroking his long grey beard.

“He was indeed not the secret keeper however he did indeed commit the crime, at least he thought he did. He went to chase Pettigrew that day angry that his brother had just died betrayed. When he confronted him Pettigrew hid among a crowd of muggles and when they exchanged spells a rough spell ended up killing some of the muggles.”

Dumbledore nodded but still looked doubtful.

Notice this I continued. “Actually do you have a Pensieve? I can actually show you what happened that day.”

I pulled out a crystal phial that had a wispy white substance floating around like a stringy cloud. It was the memory of that day. I had originally stored it to give to the ministry to prove his innocence, that way he could be remembered as a man wrongfully imprisoned, not a traitor.

Dumbledore nodded and with the wave of his hand a wall revealing a basin filled with a bluish liquid. It was resting on a pillar that appeared to be made of fine marble. Dumbledore waved a hand again and the basin floated off of the pillar as if never attached. It floated up in between where Dumbledore and I stood, and I walked up to it.

I took the stopper out of the crystal phial and poured the memory into the Pensieve. Coming out of the phial the memory slowly floated down and upon touching it turned black and formed shape.

I look up at Dumbledore and gesture at the Pensieve, “Go ahead.”

Dumbledore nods his head and steps forward, holding his beard in place. He slowly moves his head down until it is submerged in the basin up to his ears.

———-

*Inside the Memory*

The black memory floated down slowly forming shapes until the landscape was complete. It was a London street in the early morning a man in his early 20s could be seen walking fast through the crowds of people. He was handsome with a finely trimmed beard and shoulder-length hair around 5’11”. This was Sirius Black.

Sirius had bags under his eyes and they were a bit bloodshot, he obviously had not been sleeping well. He charged forward through the crowds of people with a fast strut. As he approached an opening in the crowd near an intersection he drew his wand and began to walk even faster.

Sirius raised his wand as he exited the crowd “Why! Why did you do it?! We trusted you!” Sirius yelled to a man who appeared to have just noticed him.

The man was fat, beady eyes, big front teeth, and a few inches shorter than Sirius. It was Peter Pettigrew, the man who had betrayed the Potters.

Pettigrew backed up towards the intersection but seeing cars coming he knew he had to confront Sirius, or at least buy time to get away. “Sirius, I-I didn’t have a choice! He would have killed me, you know you can’t lie to that man.”

Sirius’s face darkens even more “Than you should have just died.” Sirius’s words dripped with hate.

He flicked his wand and a spell flew out, but Pettigrew knew it was coming and already drew his wand and deflected it. The muggles didn’t know what was going on and simply watched the light show go on without fear.

Sirius kept flinging spells at Pettigrew forcing him to back up into the traffic of oncoming cars. Pettigrew did his best to not get hit by the oncoming cars, luck seemed to be on his side since the light changed and the traffic stopped.

Seeing this Pettigrew took his chance and turned to run but Sirius wouldn’t let him. “Incarcerous” Sirius chanted aloud, a bolo came out of his wand and wrapped itself around Pettigrew’s legs tripping him.

Turning back to Sirius Pettigrew pleaded “Sirius, please, I was wrong. I should never have sided with You-Know-Who, just let me go. It worked out for the best anyway, right? He is gone.”

Sirius now standing in the middle of the intersection chanted “Confringo!”. Pettigrew rolled out of the way, but when the spell hit the ground it created a massive explosion knocking down a few muggles and causing the others to run away. Pettigrew shifted into his rat form to get out of the bolo then immediately shifted back throwing a spell at Sirius.

Seeing that the spell missed him Sirius ignored it but since it missed him it flung into the crowd of muggles behind him. The explosion killed a few muggles instantly and caused a light pole to fall over injuring even more. At this point, even the muggles in their cars were getting out and fleeing.

Sirius got even angrier “Sectumsempra!” he swung his wand from left to right like a sword. A gash appeared on Pettigrew’s chest and even cut off a finger from his hand he tried to protect himself with.

Pettigrew screamed throwing one last spell at the car Sirius was standing next to as he transformed into his rat form and ran away crippled.

The cars exploded throwing Sirius flying in the air falling onto hard cement. As he stood up and looked around he saw that Pettigrew was gone and there were 5 or 6 people walking at him from every angle. They were Aurors, they all had their wands pointed at Sirius as they slowly approached him.

“For the crimes of exposing magic to muggles and the murder of muggles you will be taken into custody and put on trial..” One of them spoke

“No, wait-” before he could explain they began to fling spells at him. He tried his best to block but was quickly overwhelmed and knocked unconscious.

As he was knocked out the landscape faded back into black clouds as they vanished and Dumbledore exited the memory.

———-

*Soren’s POV*

As Dumbledore raised his head from the Pensieve he had a face full of anger.

‘I didn’t even know this old man had emotion’ I think even during Sirius’s day Dumbledore never really shared anything but slight happiness.

He looked at me with mixed obvious mixed feelings “I will talk to the ministry about clearing your father’s name.” He paused for a moment then lowered his head a bit. “I am truly sorry for your loss, I will make sure Pettigrew is found for this.”

He raised his head and looked me in the eyes “Now that we know Pettigrew is an unregistered Animagus it shouldn’t be impossible to find him.”

I just shake my head “No, I will make sure Pettigrew is found.”

Dumbledor looks back at me and just nods.

“There is also one thing I wanted to ask you,” I say with new confidence now that I know Dumbledore seems like a good man.

“Anything”

“Why did you put Harry with his Aunt and Uncle? They do nothing short of torture him.” you could hear the resentment in my voice.

Dumbledore sighs obviously frustrated by this as well. “When his mother gave her life for him she either by miracle or by will put an old magic sacrifice spell on him. By giving her life for him with absolutely no other reason than love, she put a protective charm on him.

The charm is old magic, meaning unbreakable, Harry can NEVER be killed while living in a house of blood. So as long as he lives with his aunt, he can never die at the hands of others. ” Dumbledore speaks slowly.

I nod, I am fairly familiar with what old magic is since Sid looked into it as his first option for immortality.

“I see thank you for answering. Is there anything else?”

Dumbledore shakes his head “No, and thank you. Minerva will take you back to your house.”

“Goodbye,” I say as I walk away. I’m glad I got to clear Sirius’s name, and I feel a bit more reassured about Harry staying in that house not that I’m happy about it.