The Three Patronuses

Chapter 6

"Padfoot? What's the matter?" Concern laced James's voice as he entered the hospital wing, followed by Lily and Remus. "How is Harry?"

Sirius shook his head, taking a shaking breath. "Not good," he started. His three friends summoned chairs and each took seats around Harry's bed, all three sharing the same look of concern. "They-" his voice cracked, tears started to fall down his face. "Here's a list of all his current and past injuries."

He handed the list to them, unable to tell them how bad Harry had been hurt. Instead, he watched Harry whose face was slowly gaining color and was relaxing.

"How could they do all of this to him?" James demanded, voice growing angry. "How dare they take in my son and treat him worse than dirt!"

Tears were streaming down Lily's face, and she began to sob. Remus took the sheet from James's hands and scanned over it quickly, an enraged look growing on his face. He looked up to Sirius "How dare they hurt my cub." He muttered. "If only..."

Sirius shook his head. "Don't go there Moony. You've done nothing wrong. It's me who should be having regrets. You couldn't have done anything. I'm the one who went and got myself locked up in Azkaban. I-"

"Wait, what?" James looked up from comforting Lily. "You got yourself locked up in Azkaban?"

Sirius grimaced. "After you two were, er, killed, I went after Pettigrew. I confronted him in a street, and he blew up the whole place killing 13 muggles and staging his death."

"What about a trial? They could have found out the truth using Veritaserum."

"They didn't give me a trial. Everyone believed I was the one who betrayed you two. They carted me off to Azkaban the next day. I was there for 12 years before I managed to escape in Padfoot form."

"How are you not crazy?"

"The dementors didn't affect me as much if I was Padfoot, so I transformed whenever I could get away with it." James ran his hand through his hair, a deep sigh escaping his mouth.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Padfoot. You didn't deserve that."

"I mean if I hadn't-"

"No, it's not your fault. Its fucking Pettigrew's fault. Don't you dare blame yourself for anything."

"But if I hadn't-"

"Don't blame yourself for anything that happened to Harry. None of this is on you, Padfoot." Sirius shook his head.

"I don't know how you can see it that way, but thank you Prongs."

"I've been trying to convince this dog since I found out the truth that it wasn't his fault. He's been blaming himself this whole time." Remus interrupted. "Typical Padfoot."

James shook his head again, a mix between a grin and a grimace twisting on his mouth. Lily grabbed Harry's other hand, holding it just like Sirius. "Thank you for staying behind with him, Padfoot."

"Yeah, no problem. How was the meeting with Dumbledore?" 

"Ugh, that man. He wouldn't believe us. He told us he had proof that Harry was being treated perfectly fine and we must be overexaggerating."

"A simple glance at Harry's medical record says differently," Sirius said, glancing at Harry again. Even after dealing with abuse at his own home for the majority of his childhood, Sirius still hadn't noticed the signs in Harry. The flinching, the aversion to loud noises, his eagerness to live with Sirius after knowing him for only a few hours. It all made sense now, and Sirius hated that he hadn't caught it sooner. Lily nodded in agreement.