A Little Help from a Snake // Tomarry

Part 32*

Revised: December 12, 2021

Just cleaning up some more lines here and there because why not?

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Chapter takes place in late January/early February.

SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT

Yes, my dear readers, you have read correctly. Sirius Black, who had been charged with the murder of twelve Muggles and Peter Pettigrew, is innocent!...

The corner of Harry's lips twitched upward as he read the newspaper. Things were starting to look up. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Dumbledore's reaction. He did not look happy at all.

"I kind of feel bad for Weasley," said Blaise from two seats over. "Imagine finding out you've been living with a supposedly dead guy — and a murderer at that."

Between Sirius' trial and the papers, Aurors had come into Hogwarts to take Peter Pettigrew in. Poor Ron had been so confused, fretting over "Scabber's" deteriorating health and wondering why the Ministry would need a rat.

Now he looked sick as he stared blankly at the papers. But it was Percy that looked the most shaken. Harry remembered George telling him that it was Percy who had taken Scabbers in and later gave him to Ron. Beyond him, Fred and George were speaking with Lee Jordan. Ginny's face was slightly green.

"What are you going to do about your relatives?" Draco asked Harry.

"Already handled them," Harry replied. "They're going to be so mad when they realize what's going on."

Vernon Dursley had been enjoying a perfectly normal day without his imperfectly freakish nephew when the doorbell rang. Getting up, he lumbered over and opened the door. "Can I help you?" he said brusquely.

"Vernon Dursley, you are under arrest," Auror Kingsley Shacklebot announced.

"What?!" Vernon's face blanched. "What nonsense is this? I didn't break any law!" Then his face went purple as a new thought crossed his mind. "It's the freak, isn't it? That lying, no-good freak! We took him in and fed him and gave him a roof over his head! When I see him..."

As he continued to scream, the Aurors cuffed him and began dragging him away, all slightly disturbed by the fact that Vernon was immediately blaming someone else — and his own nephew nevertheless.

Petunia came to see what the ruckus was all about and was promptly cuffed as well. Aware of the neighbors peering out their windows and doors to see what the racket was all about, she tried in vain to hush Vernon.

"Vernon, please —"

"When I get my hands on that little freak..."

"Vernon, the neighbors."

"Sod the neighbors! We're being arrested for nothing! They can —"

Petunia's eyes, which had always been sharp in noticing the slightest fingerprint on her hideous vase, saw the shock on a neighbor's face morphing into disgust as Vernon continued his diatribe.

And Dudley, who was still in school, would later come home to find the police there, ready to take him to his Aunt Marge until everything settled.

Well, if everything settled.

It didn't take long for the Wizengamot to agree that Vernon and Petunia were not the loving guardians that Dumbledore had led them to believe. The rant Vernon spewed out alone was enough, but Harry's memories certainly helped show just how little they cared.