Sirius Black: The Story of a Framed Man
It was a beautiful day when Sirius Black got his letter. The sun was shining and birds were singing. The dark haired eleven year old was watching his neighbors play a game of Quidditch. The owl came and landed right in front of him. He figured that the letter must be for him.
He unbound the letter from the owl’s leg and it took off. The contents of the letter were:
Dear Mr. Black,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Sirius couldn’t believe it. He had been accepted! He ran inside to tell his mother.
“Mum! Guess what!” he yelled as he ran through the house.
“I don’t know. What? And don’t run in the house,” she said curiously.
“I’ve been accepted at Hogwarts!”
“Oh, that’s wonderful dear. Let’s send an owl to them right away.”
Two weeks after receiving his letter, his parents took him to Diagon Alley to get his school supplies. They went to Madame Malkin’s and got his robes. They got his potion ingredients. They went to Florish and Blotts and got all of his books. They also got him an owl because it was just after his birthday. Sirius named her Tiger Lily. Last, but not least, they got his wand. It was nine inches and had a unicorn hair in it.
September 1 couldn’t come fast enough. Although Sirius didn’t want to leave his little sister, Meg, he really wanted to go to Hogwarts.
“I’ll be home for Christmas. I promise,” Sirius told his sister.
“Really?” Her tear-streaked face brightened.
“Yes,” he
said before the scarlet steam engine left from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters
at
The platform was crowded with students and their parents. Sirius climbed on the train as the conductor announced that it was time to go. His sister started crying again.
He found a compartment with three other boys. They were very quiet for the first ten minutes of the ride. Sirius decided to introduce himself and break the silence.
“It’s quiet in here,” he said.
“I agree,” said a boy with very tousled black hair. “I’m James Potter.”
“Sirius Black."
“I’m Peter Pettigrew,” said a rather small, mousy looking boy.
“I’m Remus Lupin,” said the last boy.
There was a knock on the compartment door.
Sirius looked at James curiously and said, “Come in.”
A girl with red hair and bright green eyes came in. She was followed by another girl with sleek, brown hair and brown eyes.
“Excuse
me,” said the red haired girl. “I’m sorry I interrupted your conversation, but
all the other compartments are full. Can we sit here?”
“Sure,” said James. He looked
like he really liked this girl.
“My name is Lily Evans,” the red haired girl said.
“And I’m Jennifer Granger. Call me Jenny”
“Sirius Black.”
“James Potter.”
“Remus Lupin.”
“That’s Peter Pettigrew. He’s very shy,” stated James.
“It’s a pleasure,” said Lily.
The rest of the train ride was rather uneventful. They talked about what kind of families they came from. Lily and Jenny came from Muggle families.
“My parents have magic friends, though,” said Jenny.
“My sister hates me now, because she’s jealous. She’s older than I am, and now she wants to be a witch, but she didn’t get a letter,” Lily said highly.
Sirius looked at James and saw he was staring at Lily. Sirius figured that James was in love.
They got to Hogwarts pretty quickly. All six of them were excited and nervous about the Sorting Ceremony. All of them tried on the Sorting Hat, and all of them got into Gryffindor.
The first year went quickly. As he promised, Sirius went home for Christmas and Easter. Summer came, and the six friends said farewell for the summer.
Then, the summer was over and Sirius went back to Diagon Alley. He had to get his new books and refill his potion supplies.
While he was there, Sirius met Peter, James, Lily and Jenny. Nobody seemed to know where Remus was. He always seemed to disappear around the full moon. Everyone had an idea of what was going on, though.
September 1 came, and all the friends got on the Hogwarts Express for another year. The boys had decided to get Remus to admit that he was a werewolf.
While the two girls left to go ask another of their friends for a favor, the boys pounced.
“So, Remus,” Sirius started, “why don’t you tell us your little secret.”
“I-I d-don’t know what y-you’re t-talking a-about,” he said nervously.
“You know what we’re talking about, Remus. We want to know where you go on every full moon,” James continued.
“I told you, my mother keeps getting ill.”
“We have a feeling that you’re not telling the truth, Remus,” squeaked Peter.
“Are you a werewolf, Remus?” Sirius asked, getting straight to the point.
“How’d ya know?”
“You’re always gone around the full moon. We just put two and two together,” James said.
“But,” said Sirius, “we have an idea. We’re going to try and become Animagi.”
“But, you have to tell the Ministry, don’t you? Or are you going to be illegal Animagi?”
“well, we weren’t going to tell the Ministry, and I don’t think we ever will,” said James rebelliously.
After they finished confronting Remus, Sirius decided to talk to James. He could really tell that James liked Lily.
“James,” he started, “we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About Lily.”
“What about her?” he asked, looking rather embarrassed.
“I know you like her. Why don’t you just ask her out?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you don’t, then I’ll ask her out for you.”
“Alright, I’ll ask her out.”
“Good.”
Two weeks later, James had finally asked Lily out. Sirius thought that they looked cute together.
The three friends were doing a lot of research on Animagi. They would also practice a lot.
It took them until their fifth year at Hogwarts to master transforming into Animagi. By this time, the four friends were exploring the school and creating a map of all the corridors, as well as the secret passageways.
They called themselves the Marauders. Sirius was Padfoot, because he became a huge, black dog when he transformed. Remus was Moony, because he was a werewolf. James was Prongs, because he became a stag. Peter was Wormtail, because he could turn into a rat. Peter pushed the knot on the Whomping Willow so that the Marauders could get to the Shrieking Shack to keep Remus company while he was a werewolf.
The next few years went by quickly. Before Sirius knew it, he was a seventh year. James and Lily were Head Boy and Girl.
Filch, the caretaker, confiscated the Marauder’s Map in the beginning of the year, but the Marauder’s didn’t need it anymore. They had memorized all the secret passageways out of the school.
Severus Snape, a greasy-haired Slytherin, had been snooping around. Sirius though that Snape was trying to guess what they were doing.
“Hey, Snape,” Sirius said slyly.
“What?” he returned coldly.
“You wanna know where Remus goes, don’t you?”
“Yeah. So what?”
“Well, on
the next full moon, at
“Sirius,” James started, “what are you doing?”
“Telling Severus here how to find Remus.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted to know.”
“You realize that if he does what you’ve told him to do, he will come face-to-face with a full fledged werewolf.”
“Yeah. So what?”
The next full moon came and Snape tried out what Sirius had suggested. Suddenly, Sirius, who was watching Snape do this, saw James run after Snape down the tunnel.
Maybe I shouldn’t have told Snape that, Sirius though. Maybe it was a good thing that James saved his life.
Graduation came and everyone was excited. Sirius was the only one who knew that James was going to propose to Lily. He felt so happy for them. They were perfect for each other.
A few years later, Lily and James had a little boy. This little boy was named Harry James Potter.
“Sirius,” said James, “we want you to be his godfather.”
Sirius didn’t have anything to say. He was so shocked at being named godfather to this little bundle of joy, that his mind had gone completely blank.
Nine months later, James came to see Sirius. He didn’t have good news.
“Sirius,” he began, “Voldemort’s after us. I don’t know why, but he is. Dumbledore told us. He also suggested that we use the Fidelius Charm. Lily and I want you to be our Secret-Keeper.”
“Of course James. I would rather die than give away where you are.”
“Thank you my friend.”
Two months later, Sirius told James to switch Secret-Keeper to Peter. He told James not to tell anyone, not even Dumbledore.
“Alright Sirius. If you think it’s for the best.”
“I do.”
Unfortunately, Peter had been Voldemort’s servant. He told Voldemort where the Potters were hiding. Voldemort went and killed Lily and James, and then tried to kill Harry. He did not succeed.
When Sirius heard this, he broke down. He kept thinking, It was all my fault. I did this. I told James to switch to Peter.
He got on his flying motorcycle and went straight to the Potters’ house. He saw Hagrid there, taking Harry out of the rubble of the house.
Sirius walked up to Hagrid and said, “Give him to me Hagrid. I’m his godfather.”
“Can’t. Got orders from Dumbledore.”
“Then, take my bike. I won’t be needing it anymore.” Then, Sirius Disapparated.
He found Peter on a street in Muggle London. The street had at least thirty Muggles in it.
Sirius strode up to Peter and said, “Why’d you do it Peter? You betrayed one of your best friends. Why?”
“I was always the one that was looked down on. You and James were always on top. I never was. My master changed all of that.”
At that, Peter blew the street apart. Sirius stayed there laughing, but he was thinking. Voldemort had killed the Potters and Jenny Granger.
It wasn’t long before the Ministry of Magic came and arrested Sirius. They thought he had killed Peter and a dozen Muggles.
Through the years at Azkaban, the wizard prison, he watched other prisoners go insane. He changed into a dog sometimes, so the dementors wouldn’t affect him.
Twelve years later, he knew where Peter was hiding. Sirius escaped from Azkaban in dog form, so the dementors never noticed.
He spent a year at Hogwarts, watching where Peter was. But he also watched Harry occasionally.
Finally, at the end of the school year, Sirius caught Peter. He managed to make Peter confess. Unfortunately, Peter escaped. Harry rescued Sirius with a hippogriff.
Now, everything keeps going through his mind. Sirius will never forget any of this.
“If only I hadn’t made James change Secret-Keeper. Then, maybe he’d be alive today.”
~~~
A/N: Most characters in this story are those that have been
named in the Harry Potter books. The only character that is not in the books is
Jennifer Granger. Good explanation for this character is: Jenny is Hermione’s
aunt. Hermione’s dad will never mention Jenny because Voldemort murdered her.
Hermione’s dad is still devastated that his sister is dead. He doesn’t want to
think about it.
