Death is but the Next Great Adventure

"The World isn't Split into Good People, and Death Eaters" -Sirius Black

In the last chapter: Harry returns to the Dursley's for a hellish couple of weeks before the Malfoys show in the middle of the night and rescue him. Harry spend the time up until the trial at Malfoy Manor and establishes a shaky alliance with Narcissa to protect Draco.

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The morning of June 25th started much like the other mornings before it. Except, there was a buzzing anticipation around the raven-haired boy who'd come down to breakfast in a fine set of dark blue and black robes. Draco had been the first to realize that something was different about him.

"Why are you dressed like that so early? Usually you wear your plain robes around here—not that I'm complaining! I-I was just curious!" Draco became uncharacteristically flustered and there was a tiny tinge of pink on his pale cheeks. Harry gave him a strange look before deciding to let it go and respond to his question.

"I will, hopefully, be gaining a new guardian today." Harry said vaguely, with a bright smile on his face as he brought a bit of sausage to his mouth and bit in. Everyone at the table seemed surprised, though a Malfoy surprised sort of looks like a Malfoy at any other point in time save for the tiniest lift in eyebrows and pause in whatever they're doing so that they could study you.

"Right! Will you finally tell us who this mystery guardian is? It's not like you can keep it a secret for long, the papers will snatch this up faster than a snitch in a barrel!" Draco exclaimed with a pretentious laugh at his own analogy.

"Draco!" Narcissa warned quietly. Her and Harry's relationship was still stifled and full of formalities, so to her, Draco was rudely prying into business he had no right to. But, Harry didn't feel the same way.

"It's fine. You're right, I won't be able to keep it a secret and I wasn't planning on it. It's just . . . I think that people would misconstrue the situation if I told them before the trial."

"Trial?" This was from Lucius, who usually remained quiet at meals and any sort of interaction with Harry. Harry could understand, the man was probably holding himself back from strangling or cursing Harry. It's not every day that the person responsible for the death of your lord spends a week under your roof.

"Yes, unfortunate circumstances have resulted in my prospective guardian being imprisoned in Azkaban without ever receiving a trial. I believe him to be completely innocent, so I made sure that he couldn't be ignored and a trial would have to take place in order to gauge whether or not he is a suitable guardian. Without a guilty verdict, he cannot be rejected as my chosen guardian. So today, in about an hour, Sirius Black will face the Wizengamot and I will testify on his behalf in order to clear his name." At the mention of Sirius' name, Draco choked on his orange juice and Lucius was looking at Harry like he'd just sprouted bunny ears and sang the ABC's backwards.

"Sirius Black? Merlin Harry! You can't be serious!" Draco was a little red-faced from choking and trying to keep orange juice from coming out of his nose for a solid thirty seconds.

"Oh I'm completely serious. Sirius Black did not betray my parents nor did he kill those muggles. He doesn't have a Dark Mark and has never been a Death Eater. He was wrongly imprisoned and never given a trial. I will be going whether you think it wise or not. You are welcome to join me, as I'm sure Lucius will be there because of his job and position, and the whole thing will be covered in the press anyways. When you actually look at the evidence, anything they might have against Sirius is all too weak and circumstantial to hold up for a sentencing and the evidence I will point out when I'm called to the stand will easily clear his name. Don't get me wrong, they'll fight hard to convict him as guilty to cover up their mistakes, but I can get past them."