Remus Lupin stared down at the special edition Daily Prophet that he'd just spit a mouthful of coffee onto. "Ministry Reveals: Uncovered Evidence in Famous Sirius Black Murder Case - Secret Trial of Peter Pettigrew - Sirius Black is Innocent!"
He felt faint, and carefully set his cup down, forgoing his breakfast entirely and speed-walking somewhere private to read the paper.
Peter had been found posing as a housepet, admitting to the murders of the muggles that Halloween night and revealing that he had been the Potter's secret keeper, not Sirius. At the end of the article, added so casually that Remus was certain they had been forced to include the information but were not thrilled about it - was a direct quote from Pettigrew that he was confident that Voldemort was not dead, and would return.
Remus was not sure what to think. For years, he'd assumed… how could he have assumed Sirius was guilty? His betraying James had sounded so unbelievable at first. But he had let it happen. Guilt ebbed at him. He'd abandoned Sirius. And Harry too, he had barely spoken to the boy outside of class. He'd wanted to use the opportunity to get to know his honorary nephew, but something about the boy felt off, and he'd found himself avoiding Harry without too much thought.
Well, all he could do was reach out now.
It was a week later that Remus found himself traversing the old passage under the Whomping Willow, the very short letter from Sirius clutched in his hands like a lifeline.
The two men didn't speak for a long time. Remus looked over every aspect of his friend. He looked neither emaciated nor haunted by his time in prison. Only a few traces of gray hair betrayed that any time had passed since they'd last seen each other.
"You look better than I had feared," Remus said. "You've found somewhere safe to stay, then?"
"Yeah, yeah. I've been holed up at Grimmauld. The wards are good."
"That's good." Merlin's tits, this was awkward. He shuffled his feet.
"So uh, DADA Professor, huh? That's neat." Sirius said after another pause.
"Yes, I like it more than I'd expected. You know, Harry's at Hogwarts. Bright lad, have you reached out to him as well?"
Sirius flinched and started fidgeting, looking at anything except Remus' face.
"Yeah, I reached out. Good kid. Have you met his new mum? Sounds feisty."
"Yes, we've met - she's also a professor -"
"It's interesting, you know, that Harry ended up being raised by a complete stranger rather than one of his parent's old friends." Sirius interrupted him.
...
"Sirius, I am a werewolf, I could not have gained custody of Harry."
"Did you try? Did you ever reach out to him? No, the answer is no. What have you been doing all these years, Moony, while you were so busy forgetting about your friends and family?"
"Excuse me!? Dumbledore told me not to reach out to Harry. I am a werewolf, no I did not fight him for custody, it would have never happened. But I never forgot about Harry!"
"Sure, sure, whatever. I mean Dumbledore lost track of him so he was a great guy to trust with Harry, but fine. You still forgot about me easily enough."
"I did not -"
"I didn't get a trial, Remus. I didn't get a single person to vouch for me. Not my only remaining friend since childhood, not any of my friends and colleagues at the Ministry, not even Albus bloody fucking Dumbledore, the literal Supreme Mugwump could not give a shit about whether or not I was given a trial."
"You admitted it! They said you admitted to it!"
"I was distraught! I felt like - feel like it's my fault for Lily and James, yes. I argued that Peter should have been the Secret Keeper and not me, but I did not kill those muggles. You seriously thought I could have committed a crime like that? You really thought I would betray James, my brother?" Sirius was shouting by the end of his rant, looking the part of serial killer madman with a harsh gleam in his eyes. The anger was curtained by faint tears.
"I didn't know what to think! Everyone was telling me otherwise, that you were guilty. And you were no saint either. Why wasn't I asked to be Secret Keeper? Why didn't you trust me either?"
"Goddamnit Remus, James didn't want to put you in that position! He was trying to protect you. Dumbledore had you off infiltrating the enemy lines. We knew Voldemort was recruiting werewolves. We knew he was winning them over. Voldemort offered werewolves freedoms and protections you would never get under Fudge's administration. James and I refused to put you in the position where you would have to pick between your friends and your basic human rights. He never would have blamed you if you had sided with Voldemort because of that, he wanted to make sure you hurt as few people as possible if you made that choice."
Oh. "Oh."
.....
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