Burnt

Chapter 3

Sirius was enjoying his time away, no longer being in Azkaban seemed to make everything brighter. He went to somewhere warm. He was sick of the cold from the 12 years he spent being surrounded by Dementors. Not having Remus there was still hard, but it was harder for Remus to up and leave everything behind.

He made sure to write to Harry regularly, and got responses almost as often. He had a feeling there was something Harry wasn't telling him, one of his letters had a smudge of blood on it, but Harry insisted that Hedwig had nibbled his finger too hard. He really wished he was able to be there for Harry, then he wouldn't have had to backtrack on his promise.

It had been longer than usual since Harry had last written to him, and Sirius was pacing, worried sick. Finally he saw Hedwig in the distance, although her feathers were ruffled and she looked unhappy, she was carrying a letter.

Sirius,
I know what I'm about to ask you to do is really dangerous, but something happened that's not safe to talk about in this letter. I need to talk to you, please.
Harry

The writing looked a little messier than normal, but if Harry was really struggling then his handwriting would naturally be messier. It was possible this was a trap, but Sirius couldn't understand why Harry would be willing to give Hedwig to people who wanted to hurt Sirius.

"Hope I don't regret this. I'm coming Harry." Sirius muttered, packing up his things and letting Hedwig do her own thing.

-----

Sirius arrived at the park near the Dursleys' house. He had heard horror stories from Lily about her sister's new family, he could only hope Lily had been exaggerating.

"Harry? Are you there?" Sirius called out, his wand ready to fight anyone who tried to attack him or Harry.

"Sirius Black, surrender your wand, we're taking you in." Chris said, walking to face the man, their own wand raised.

"Where the hell is my godson? What have you done to him?" Sirius growled, it was a good thing he hadn't dropped by Remus first, that man was going through enough being outed as a werewolf without needing to be framed as helping a mass murderer.

"We have done nothing to Potter, at least, nothing to harm him, although he was injured badly." Chris explained. If they were right about Sirius then his concern for Harry was real, and they didn't want to have to harm the man. "If you don't come in now, you probably won't get a trial, no matter what we do."

"How, exactly, do you expect me to believe you're going to give me a trial? I didn't get one even when I asked for one and take veritaserum." Sirius spat, if he was being honest the thing he was most afraid of was what was happening to Harry to let this happen.

"We saw Harry's memories of the letters you exchanged, we- I - want you to be treated fairly so you can properly help him if you were being honest about your concern. There are no Dementors here, and I brought no backup. I hope you will make the right choice, I don't trust Fudge to make the right choice for Harry." Chris said, lowering their wand enough to show they weren't trying to be offensive.

"I want to see Harry before the trial." Sirius said after a pause. "I need to make sure he's okay, but after that I'll come in peacefully. I still want a trial, and I am still willing to take veritaserum."

"I appreciate your cooperation. I'll see what I can do about you seeing Potter, but he won't be awake to talk to you." Chris said, lowering their wand with their warning.

Sirius gave Chris a cold look, but handed over his wand, things wouldn't go well if an auror thought he was armed, especially if it was true that Harry was incapacitated, but he still had a small pocket knife he would use if someone tried to harm Harry.