Wizard with a Mutation : Chapter 34

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don’t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

Diagon Alley, Magical Britain [2nd November, 1980]

–Albus Dumbledore–

He shook his head as he remembered the condition he had found Sirius in. The DMLE was understaffed even in the best of times, let alone now that they were trying to do two things at once. Contain any zealous celebration that might expose them to the muggles and also capture any Dark Wizard trying to flee the country or the ones in hiding.

That combined with the fact that most of the DMLE had already accepted Sirius as the killer of the Potters, meant that it was no wonder that there were no people supervising Sirius’ cell. If he was even a few minutes late, he was not sure if Sirius could have survived his suicide attempt.

The foolish boy, drowning in despair, probably saw no reason to live, especially since he must have gotten an idea of the justice system getting ready to throw him into Azkaban and instead of suffering that fate, had probably chosen to end his life then and there.

Fortunately, he was able to stabilise Sirius’ condition before healers reached him. Even now, as Sirius stood in front of him, he knew that he was in no condition to do this press release, and yet, they had no choice.

They had to put the truth out because the previous outcry about Sirius being the killer was something that had spread far and wide, and even his word would not be able to acquit Sirius completely. No, they needed to make sure that the news of his innocence spread to every corner of the country.

As for how he was certain that Sirius did not betray the Potters? He checked, with both a Truth serum as well as his memories in a pensive. Now, that would not be enough to remove him from the custody of DMLE since he was found on a crime site with enough circumstantial evidence to warrant a trial but bail, especially with him acting as his guarantor was enough to get Sirius out of the Ministry Jail until the Wizengamot trials began.

He could not put into words how relieved he was when he finally confirmed that Sirius was speaking the truth, and at the same time, profoundly disappointed in Peter for betraying his childhood friends for something as vain as power over their fellow person.

“Okay, I think I am ready,” he looked up as Sirius stood in front of him, determined to tell his story to the world, and he could not be prouder that he had the strength to do so. Part of it came from Harry and the rest came from revenge. According to Sirius, Peter was still alive and had used his Animagus form, something all of them hid from the Ministry to maintain a trump card just in case they were ambushed, to escape into the sewers.

The Net above Magical Britain was not activated and certainly not to the Wartime levels where it would need to be if they needed the net to be sensitive enough to catch an Animagus since a wizard’s natural magical signature was suppressed dramatically once they turned into an Animagus.

Nodding softly at the boy, he turned to the Auror responsible for making sure that the preparations were done properly. The Auror force was stretched thin as it was and he did not need another security incident, especially since the public’s anger regarding Sirius would be high. They most definitely did not need yet another incident on their hands.

A riot was the last thing they wanted.

“We are ready,”

“Yes, sir. I’ll clear the stage,” 

With a twitch of his hand, Sirius’ struggling form was lifted from the chair.

“Whoa!”

“It’s nothing, just a little wandless magic. Now, while I hope we don’t need this, your wand,” He handed Sirius his wand, something that was illegal since Sirius was still not out of the bounds of the law yet but his words still held some weight in the Ministry and this was the least he could do.

____xx___

–Scott Winters–

He waited outside for a while before there was a commotion near the stage. The Aurors were clearing out the area around it, pushing people back to maintain a solid 6 ft distance between the stage and the people. This was some serious precaution that was being taken.

He wondered what Dumbledore was–

His form stilled, his eyes widening as he saw, amidst a huge roar of surprise, Sirius Black coming on the stage, followed by Albus Dumbledore. His eyes narrowed in realisation as things began making sense.

Turning around swiftly, he struggled to get away from the crowd as he knew what had happened and why so much fuss was raised. It was because DUmbledore wanted the future Lord Black to be declared innocent because Sirius was not the one who killed the Potters.

Peter Pettigrew was, and now that the truth was out, he wondered how Harry’s life was going to change from what he knew.

From what he knew from his memories, at least he would not need to send in people to check in on Harry from time to time. 

Yet another change in the timeline, yet another variable that could change things significantly. Well, now was not the time for that.

He had a light to catch in the evening and an uncle to meet. Once he was back in MACUSA, he could focus on stuff that he had no idea about, like his mother and what happened to his parents.

About existences stronger than even Jean Grey, reality warper.

Somehow, Voldemort and Dumbledore were turning out to be existences that did not grab the majority of his attention. He needed to get strong, yes, but he also needed to know what was going on in the world.

Why would MACUSA need Britain to be on the verge of collapse? 

Was the motive just talented Wizards? To get the best talent from the world while letting it burn? Or was it something else? Something that required them to stop the Archmages of Britain from spreading their attention to something that MACUSA did?

Again, so many questions and no real answers.

Well, time to get some. At least he was certain that Nathaniel WInters would be much more amenable to answering questions.

….

….

Unbeknownst to Scott, his departing figure was swiftly spotted by Dumbledore who gestured at a nearby Auror to track him down since he was a suspicious entity at the speech.