Who'll Fill a Coward's Grave? ↣ Harmione

Chapter Eight

Chapter 8 - Got Your Back

With his new hairstyle and trimmed beard, along with sporting a set of dress robes fit for any lord, Sirius sparkled under the harsh flashes of the amassed press photographs. The reason for that sparkle however wasn't even the Ministerial Apology - declaring Sirius Black to be a free wizard - that he held in his hand. No, it was his godson proudly standing next to him that made Sirius shine.

The Marauder also knew Harry Potter standing next to him like this would, in the eyes of the British wizarding community, legitimise his innocence far more than any piece of parchment with Fudge's signature on it. Albus standing scowling in a corner affected today's proceedings not one iota, which probably added to the degree of Dumbledore's scowl.

With the promise of a future financial settlement for wrongful imprisonment, Sirius was a seriously happy wizard.

The Minister of Magic was another seriously happy wizard. Yes Black would be standing between him and Potter in the pictures, pictures guaranteed to grace tomorrow's front pages, but at least Cornelius was in the frame.

He'd been a politician for far too long not to notice Albus seemed to be on the outs with this pair, that was all good in his book. If Potter needed a political minder to protect him from the Ministry bureaucracy and old family power games that would try and trip him up, he couldn't do much better than having the current Minister of Magic as a mentor. That such an arrangement would be a massive boost to Cornelius' public popularity was just the cherry on top.

After leading Sirius and Harry into the Ministry, Albus had played no further part in today's proceedings. He was not asked for his opinion, nor asked to vote on Sirius' innocence. Sirius' questioning under truth serum, in front of the full Wizengamot, packed public and press galleries, left the former prisoner of Azkaban with no case left to answer. With no charges ever being brought against him, the only thing he was guilty of was being an unregistered animagus, Sirius Black left the session with a Ministerial Apology - rather than the pardon Albus thought would be the result.

Albus was fingering the Wand of Destiny in his pocket. That he could no longer say this was his wand became evident to the old wizard the instant Minerva returned it to him this morning. One by one, Albus was loosing his advantages in his fight against Voldemort. His secrets were becoming known, though Albus thought it advisable not to mention last night that Harry standing and letting Voldemort hit him with a killing curse might be a method of getting that horcrux out of the boy's head. His position in the Order was currently at best described as tentative. Imparting that particular piece of knowledge to the group of Order members he'd met with last night would surely have led to his expulsion.

What really irked Albus however was not knowing for certain who the new owner of the wand was. William Weasley clearly defeated him in combat, though not magically. Albus didn't know who'd cast the powerful stunning spell on him but Harry had clearly taken the wand from his person.

If things got any worse for him personally, passing the Elder Wand on to its new owner - providing that owner was Harry - might be the last card he had left to play. His petulance at Harry's unreasonable behaviour that led to him not erecting protective wards at the Grangers immediately, or posting a more competent protector, had come back to bite Albus in ways he wouldn't have believed possible. That one poor decision was the precursor to all the bad things that had happened since. Albus couldn't help but be reminded of the old proverb 'for want of a nail'.

A shudder ran down his spine as the last line of that particular proverb saw a kingdom lost, Albus sincerely hoped that wouldn't be the outcome here.

A smiling Harry was ignoring the questions shouted in their direction by the press, even thought they had been told beforehand that neither he nor Sirius would be answering any of them. He was also ignoring Fudge's efforts to get closer to him, physically and politically. It kinda creeped him out a bit. Was the man so shallow that Fudge would think threatening him with Azkaban, only because he didn't happen to have a dementor with him, could be so easily forgotten about? That Harry knew Fudge had used that very same method to permanently shut Barty Crouch Jr. up meant there would be no forgiveness heading in the Minister's direction, far less any trust.