Chapter 8: Winter and the Rat

Jasmine let out a huff as she pulled her hand away from her private parts and took a deep breath. Her entire body felt flushed, and she pulled the quilt back, trying to cool down.

Jasmine pulled at the collar around her neck, which was feeling a little uncomfortable due to how much she had been sweating. Grabbing her wand, Jasmine checked the time and was surprised to see that it was only a quarter to six in the morning.

She almost never woke up that early in the morning. Jasmine let out another huff before she opened the curtains to her bed and looked around. She wasn't surprised that everyone else was still asleep.

Grabbing a robe, Jasmine quietly slipped out of bed and made her way to the showers. Her body was still hot and sweaty, so the showers would help with both.

Jasmine sneaked into the showers and walked all the way to the very end of the showers so as not to wake up any of the other girls in the dorm. Pulling off the robe, Jasmine turned the shower onto the cold water setting and stepped under it quickly.

She let out a gasp at how cold the water felt to her and shivered as her body cooled down immediately.

Jasmine froze as she heard someone else walk into the shower room, and it was only then that she realised that she was still wearing the collar around her neck.

With panic, Jasmine's hands shot to her neck and tried to undo the collar.

Still, she could not grasp the slippy metal buckle before the person walked around the corner.

Jasmine felt her heart stop for a moment before she realised who it was that was looking at her. Jasmine felt incredibly embarrassed that Parvati had caught her again wearing a collar.

Parvati gave Jasmine a warm smile as she hung up her robe and walked to the showers. Only when Parvati was walking towards her did Jasmine finally notice what was around her neck.

An emerald green snakeskin leather collar gleamed in the light with a metal D-ring in the centre.

Jasmine felt a flash of jealousy at how nice Parvati's collar looked compared to her own. Before she mentally shook her head at how silly that sounded.

"Morning, im surprised to see you up this early," Parvati said, stepping under the shower next to her.

"Ya couldn't sleep. What about you?" Jasmine asked.

"I always shower this early it's the only time I can do so while wearing my collar," Parvati said as her hand went to her neck.

"It looks nice," Jasmine said. Still a little uncomfortable talking about wearing collars.

"Thank you, yours looks nice on you as well," Parvati said, smiling at her.

"So..." Jasmine said, unsure how to ask.

"You want to ask if I have an owner?" Parvati said, not looking offended by what Jasmine had wanted to ask.

Jasmine blushed and nodded.

"I do, but I won't tell you who they are as I haven't got permission to do so," Parvati said, smiling happily.

"Im guessing you don't?" Parvati asked.

Jasmine blushed even more and felt her body getting hot again as she remembered the dream she had just had before shaking her head at Parvati.

"How does it work?" Jasmine asked, mustering every bit of courage that she had.

"Hmm, what being a slave?" Parvati clarified.

Jasmine nodded, feeling too embarrassed to say it aloud.

"Hmm, it's different for every person. I find it comforting that I have someone that cares for me in such a passionate way. You don't have to be a slave, of course. You could just be a submissive. It all depends on the person." Parvati said as if she was not entirely sure how to explain it.

"But how do you know?" Jasmine asked again.

Parvati seemed to fall into thought for a few moments.

"Hmm, well, this collar is something my owner put around my neck, and that's what it symbolises. Every time I put this collar on, I feel instantly reassured and comforted.

That's the best I have im afraid you just have to feel it," Parvati said, smiling.

Jasmine was brought back to her dream and how she followed behind Daphne, obeyed her every order, and was called a slave.

Jasmine remembered how happy she was at being praised for doing a good job and how her body hummed with lust when Daphne had collared her while she was on her knees.

Maybe she was suited to being a slave, Jasmine thought.

"How does it affect your house and stuff?" Jasmine asked.

"Hmm, it depends, so house seats in the Wizengamot are based on blood, so if we had any, which we don't, only our family could control them. As for money, it really depends on if your a debt slave or a voluntary slave.

Obviously, if you're a debt slave, well, you have no money for anyone to take. As a voluntary slave, you would have worked that out in the contract before becoming a slave." Parvati explained.

"I see. That makes sense. I haven't had time to look into how my heirships relate to the Wizengamot," Jasmine admitted quietly.

"You have time, and you can't sit on the Wizengamot till your of age anyway. We should hurry up and get washed quickly, or we will be seen by the other girls," Parvati warned.

That brought Jasmine quickly out of her thoughts as she grabbed some body wash and started to lather herself up as Parvati started to wash her hair.

Both the girls rushed to wash themselves and quickly got out of the showers. Jasmine wrapped her body in a towel and used the robe to cover up the collar around her neck in case some of the other girls were up.

Jasmine walked into the room feeling scared, only to be relieved that none of the other girls was out of bed. As Jasmine was going to walk to her bed, Parvati grabbed her hand.

Jasmine looked shocked at Parvati. "Come on," she whispered, pulling Jasmine over to her bed.

Jasmine followed behind her and crawled onto Parvati's bed, sitting on the end of the bed and looking at Parvati.

"Would you like to try something else?" Parvati asked as she dried herself with a towel.

"Err ya," Jasmine said, simultaneously feeling excited and apprehensive.

"Scoot a bit closer," Parvati said.

Jasmine carefully scooted closer to Parvati, who was pulling something out from under her bed.

Placing a box on the bed, Parvati opened it. Inside there were four smaller-looking collars as well as a maid costume.

"Arms, please," Parvati asked, picking up the two smaller collars.

Jasmine held out both of her arms and watched as Parvati wrapped the small collars around her wrist and fastened them.

"What are they called?" Jasmine asked as she admired the dark green leather on her wrists.

"Wrist and ankle cuffs," Parvati said as she applied cuffs to her ankles.

"How do they feel?" Parvati asked as she finished fastening them.

"Err, different," Jasmine said as she moved her hand around.

"Different bad?" Parvati asked.

"Not bad, just different," Jasmine said.

Jasmine looked at the box, curious about what else Parvati had. There were a couple lengths of chains in the box, but other than that, there was only the maid costume in there.

Jasmine jumped when she heard the other girls getting out of bed, but none of them seemed to check up on her.

"Guess we have run out of time," Jasmine whispered to Parvati, holding out her arms for her to take the cuffs off.

"You can keep them on if you want. There is a notice me not charm on them," Parvati offered.

Jasmine hesitated for a moment before she shook her head. She knew she would end up taking them off, scared other people could see them.

Parvati just smiled at her, silently unbuckled the cuffs on her wrists and ankles, and put them on herself, not seeming to be embarrassed about wearing them.

"Do you always wear them?" Jasmine asked quietly.

"Yep, the way the charm works is if you don't know about them, then the charm will keep them hidden, but if you do know about them, then you can see them. So my owner can see me wearing them and my collar, but everyone else can't see them," Parvati explained to Jasmine.

Jasmine reached up and took off the collar, knowing that she couldn't keep wearing it anymore now that everyone else was awake.

Jasmine frowned as her neck felt uncomfortably exposed with the collar off, and she wanted to put it back on but sighed.

"You want to shower with me tomorrow morning?" Parvati offered.

"Yes, if im not awake can you wake me up," Jasmine asked.

"Sure," Parvati said, smiling at Jasmine as she slipped off Parvati's bed and walked over to her own bed.

Jasmine slipped her collar back under her pillow and got dressed into her school uniform, and got back out of bed.

She and Parvati had timed it perfectly, as all the other girls were also dressed and ready for school.

Jasmine couldn't help but look over at Parvati and saw that she was indeed still wearing the collar around her neck and the ankle cuffs were easy to see.

Jasmine saw Parvati give her a wink and then walked down to the common room with Jasmine and Hermione following after them.

As they walked into the common room, Jasmine was surprised at the solemn atmosphere before she guessed that someone from Griffindor must have been attacked by Slytherin's monster.

"Im sorry to have to tell you this, but earlier this morning, Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick were both found petrified in the corridor on the 3rd floor," Professor McGonagall announced to the house.

Jasmine did her best to ignore the way that some people in the house looked at her when Justin was mentioned, but she couldn't help but feel angry and betrayed by the looks.

One minute she was the vanisher of Voldemort and the symbol of light but the moment something went wrong, she was evil. The way most of the house seemed to be two-faced backstabbers pissed Jasmine off.

Just like the first year, they lost 50 points, and the entire dorm was against her and her two friends. Yet the Weasley twins lost at least 10 or 15 house points each week, and no one turned on them.

"In light of the attack, the lessons for the morning have been cancelled and will start after lunch," Professor McGonagall said as the people in the house broke into groups and started whispering amongst themselves.

Jasmine turned around to go back upstairs before she was stopped by Professor McGonagall.

"Miss Potter, the Headmaster, would like a word," Professor McGonagall said, causing the room to fall silent and look at her.

"What!" Jasmine said angrily.

"I had nothing to do with it. I was in my bed!" Jasmine said as her anger built. She knew that the rumours would be spread across the entire school before dinner time.

"She was Professor. We were talking until late last night and woke up early this morning," Parvati said, coming to Jasmine's defence.

"I was just told that the Headmaster wanted to see you, not why. But im sure it wasn't about the attack on Justin or Nick," Professor McGonagall said.

Jasmine almost rolled her eyes at what Professor McGonagall had said. Why ask her in front of the entire house? She could have just asked to talk to her about her homework and not made it sound like she was in trouble.

"You can bring Miss Patil if she wants to come and if it makes you feel better," Professor McGonagall offered.

Jasmine glanced over at Parvati, who nodded. "Yes, please," Jasmine said, and she started to follow behind Professor McGonagall.

Jasmine felt reassured when Parvati also followed with her. The entire walk there had Jasmine panicking.

They finally got to a statue of a large Griffin, and Professor McGonagall spoke the password. It twisted and raised, revealing some stairs.

Jasmine and Parvati followed behind Professor McGonagall and walked up the stairs that led to a large oak door.

Professor McGonagall knocked on the door and opened it a moment later, and stepped inside, gesturing from Jasmine and Parvati to enter.

Jasmine looked around as she entered the room and was interested in the many things that were in the room. Most of the walls were covered in portraits.

There were a number of curious and strange silver instruments standing on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke that added an air of mystery to them.

If Jasmine was alone, then Jasmine was sure that she wouldn't be able to resist going to have a closer look at them. But with Parvati there, she managed to hold herself back.

To the side of the room, there was a massive desk with a tattered wizards hat that Jasmine recognised as the sorting hat from her first year. But what really caught her attention was the large sick looking bird.

Jasmine guessed the bird used to have a deep crimson-red body that should have been speckled with glimmering gold, was now a washed-out red, and the gold had become a dull yellow.

"Poor Phoenix," Parvati said sadly.

"It looks like it's close to death," Jasmine said with sorrow.

"It's a good job that it's a Phoenix," Parvati said.

"Ya, they are reborn from the ashes if the muggle stories are true?" Jasmine said, looking at Parvati.

"That is true, and their tears can heal wounds," Parvati said before an older and wise voice interrupted.

"They can also carry immensely heavy loads and can travel by fire and take whoever is holding with them as well. And lastly, the song of a Phoenix is magical in nature and can have a deep emotional impact, magical in nature and able to provide support and comfort," Dumbledore said, walking towards the two girls.

Just as Dumbledore got next two the girls, the Phoenix erupted in a golden and red fire that engulfed the entire bird, with the ash falling into the large dish before the stand.

Dumbledore carefully reached into the ash and brushed some of it away, revealing a small baby bird that Jasmine thought was quite ugly compared to what the Phoenix looked like less than a minute ago.

"I see you brought a friend Jasmine," Dumbledore said, standing up.

"I had nothing to do with what happened to Justin," Jasmine said defensively.

"I didn't call you to talk about that. I wanted to talk about you being able to talk to snakes," Dumbledore said, sitting down and gesturing towards two seats across from his desk.

"Is there something wrong with being able to talk to snakes?" Jasmine asked, taking a quick peek at Parvati.

Jasmine remembered that Daphne had mentioned that being a Parseltongue wasn't looked down on in India.

"No, of course not. It's a magical gift like any other. Still, it does, unfortunately, have a bad reputation in the UK and most of magical Europe.

I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. I have also taken some books from my personal collection that have a much more in-depth knowledge of Parseltongue," Dumbledore said, placing three books on the table and sliding them over to Jasmine.

Jasmine picked up the books and looked at the titles. One of them was called the history of Parseltongue, the other was written in Parseltongue and seemed to contain a list of spells in Parseltongue and the last looked to be some kind of dictionary for Parseltongue to English.

"A translation book?" Jasmine asked, surprised.

"Yes, although the ability to speak Parseltongue is a magical ability, which you need to be born with. The ability to read it is the same as any other language."

Jasmine flicked through the 3rd book a little interested, and she could see that Parvati also wanted to really take a look. Although Dumbledore made it sound like these books were no big deal, Jasmine was sure that wasn't the case.

"Thank you, headmaster," Jasmine said sincerely as she held all three books in her arms.

"No problem, my girl. Right, im sure you and Miss Patil have things to do," Dumbledore said kindly.

"Yes, thank you, headmaster," Jasmine said, standing up and leaving the office with Parvati.

They had yet to get to the end of the hallway before Parvati couldn't wait any longer.

"Could I look at the third book," Parvati asked somewhat hesitantly?

Jasmine didn't see a problem with letting her look at the translation book. After all, it was of very little value to her, given that she could read Parseltongue without a problem.

Jasmine handed over the book to Parvati, who quickly opened it and started reading. It was the first time that Jasmine had ever seen her behave like a Ravenclaw, and she could only guess how her twin would react to the book.

As for Jasmine, she opened the 2nd book and started to look at the spells inside. She was a little shocked to see that there wasn't any real pattern to the spells. It was as if someone had just put random spells together.

Some of the spells were charms, and others were curses. There were even wards in the book, a subject that Jasmine had only heard about and couldn't really understand.

At best, she guessed it had something to do with runes, given there was a rune alphabet in the book for Parseltongue.

Jasmine closed the book and slipped it inside a pocket hidden inside her robe, and added it to her reading list at night.

Daphne PoV

Daphne walked into her room, doing her best to suppress the urge to skip. After all, it wouldn't do for her image as the ice queen to be seen skipping down the halls now, would it?

Daphne took a look at her bed and smiled as she saw Tracey on her knees, waiting for her to return. At least once a week for the past month, Daphne had been meeting.

Parvati had been following her orders perfectly and had been casting the sex dream hex on Jasmine at least once a week and slowly getting her used to the idea of slavery.

Daphne knew they couldn't keep doing the same dream repeatedly. Still, she kept the rough idea of the dream always the same Jasmine was a slave to her, and she would tease and play with Jasmine, and the dream would end just before she orgasmed.

And so far, her plan had been working. Daphne had seen that Jasmine had been much more submissive around her in the last week.

Daphne knew that she needed to reward Parvati for how well she had done her job in the last month.

Daphne wrapped her arms around Tracey and kissed her cheek before pulling her onto the bed and cuddling her.

"Mistress, what is your plan for Jasmine?"

"Hmm, the next step will be to get her to be a submissive for me. I will need to play that by ear. If I could catch her wearing that collar, that would give me a good opening," Daphne said as she thought of the best approach.

"Im surprised at how quickly she got used to wearing it, Mistress."

"Hmm, so girls are just naturally submissive. I remember that you didn't mind wearing a collar," Daphne teased.

Tracey let out a giggle. "I guess so, Mistress."

Jasmine PoV:

Jasmine sighed as she walked down from the girl's dorm into the empty common room. Due to the opening of the Chamber and the attacks, nearly nobody wanted to stay in school over the Winter Holidays.

The only ones remaining were her, Hermione, the Weasleys (Mr and Mrs Weasley were apparently in Egypt), Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and finally, Daphne and Tracey.

Suffice to say Jasmine was more than happy that she finally had some peace.

Granted, after Dumbledore had given her the books about Parseltongue, she had been less treated like some criminal by the Gryffindors at least once they had read the book on the history of Parseltongue.

The books had pointed out that many famous healers and potion inventors had also been Parseltongues. It was a combination of that plus the fact that Dumbledore had given her the books in the first place that finally swayed the house to her side.

After all, if Dumbledore just handed over books about Parsel-magic without worry, then clearly, the man believed Jasmine to be innocent.

So things went ironically better for Jasmine ever since the attack on Justin.

Well, not entirely as many Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws still distrusted her, and most Slytherins never liked her either way. But at least she could sit in the common room again without some first-year breaking into tears while looking at her like she was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Still, aside from her slightly repaired reputation, there hadn't been much happening.

Lockhart had quickly abandoned the Dueling Club again, though Jasmine kept up her training with Daphne at least once a week and sometimes they managed to do it twice a week.

She also continued to have the same dream of being Daphne's slave at least twice a week. It annoyed her that the dream would end just as the pleasure got incredible, and she looked forward to every night's sleep.

She had also showered with Parvati every morning while wearing her collar, and it had become second nature for her now. She had even worn the wrist and ankle cuffs to sleep a few times as well.

Finally, the last notable thing to happen was Jasmine's quick break-in into Snape's ingredient room.

The man had been furious about being stolen from, but at least Jasmine hadn't been caught. That was something...

Though Hermione's Polyjuice Potion would only be ready towards the start of the New Year at the earliest. Which was still quite a while off.

Shaking her head, she pulled out the map which the Twins gave her and after a quickly muttered password, she opened it to look at where Daphne currently was.

Just as she was about to close the map, though, she noticed something in the corner of it where the Gryffindor boy's dorm was. A name which made Jasmine's eyes narrow in suspicion.

Peter Pettigrew...

Jasmine got to her feet and walked over to Fred and George.

"Is this map ever wrong?" Jasmine asked the twins.

"Wrong? Not that we have ever seen even ghosts show up on the map," the twins said, looking confused.

"Why?" the other twin asked.

Jasmine placed the map on the table and pointed at a name in the boy's dorm.

"So he stayed for winter?" the twins asked, confused.

"Well, one, there is no one in my year called Peter Pettigrew, and two, your dad told me Peter Pettigrew was killed by Sirius Black," Jasmine said, looking at the name on the map.

"Maybe he just has the same name?" the twins said.

"Ron, do you know anyone called Peter in your dorm?" Jasmine asked.

"No, there isn't," Ron said as he played chess by himself and Hermione was reading a large book.

"See," Jasmine said, looking at the map again.

"Well, let's go up and take a look, then," the twins said, standing up.

Jasmine followed behind the twins as they walked up into the dorm and entered the 2nd year boy's room.

"There is no one here?" one of the twins said, looking around the empty room.

"He should just be over there," Jasmine said, pointing towards where the map showed Peter Pettigrew.

The twins looked at the map before they walked over to where the name was.

"You should be right next to him on your left, Fred," Jasmine said.

Jasmine looked next to the twins, but there was no one there other than Scabbers sleeping in his cage.

"Jasmine, let's go downstairs," George said as they looked at Scabbers.

Jasmine frowned before she left the room with the twins following her, their eyes never leaving Scabbers.

Jasmine walked down the stairs and turned around to ask the twins what the problem was before she noticed only one of the twins had come down with her. The other twin was standing outside the door to the 2nd year's dorm like he was guarding it.

"What is the problem?" Jasmine asked as Ron and Hermione walked over.

"You need to go get Dumbledore this instant," Fred said to the three of them.

Jasmine just looked at him, confused, as Ron rolled his eyes.

"Very funny what's the punch line?" Ron asked.

"Not now, Ron!" Fred snapped his voice seriously, which wiped the smile from Ron's face.

"Go get Dumbledore now," Fred said loudly.

"Okay, okay," Jasmine said, having never seen either of the twins looking so severe.

Jasmine quickly left the house with Ron and Hermione following her and promptly walked to Dumbledore's office, stopping outside the large statue. She ignored all the questions from Ron and Hermione on the way there as she didn't really understand what was going on herself.

Jasmine spoke the password that McGonagall had used when she came here with Parvati and was relieved to see the statue rise out of the way as it did for McGonagall. Jasmine ran up the stairs and knocked furiously on the Headmaster's door.

The door to the Headmaster's office opened before she had finished knocking, and Jasmine rushed inside.

"Headmaster, you need to come to the Gryffindor's house immediately," Jasmine said.

As she explained what she saw on the map and handed the map over to Dumbledore as Ron and Hermione stood next to her, listening as well.

After Jasmine had finished explaining, Dumbledore was silent for a moment before he stood and handed the map back to Jasmine.

"Let us go then," Dumbledore said, not explaining anything and left the office at a speed that shocked Jasmine, given how old Dumbledore looked.

Jasmine, Ron and Hermione had to borderline run in order to keep up with the old wizard shocking them even more.

In no time, Dumbledore had entered the common room of the house and made his way up the stairs next to the twins.

"No one or anything has gone in or come out?" Dumbledore asked the twins.

"No sir, he should still be in the cage on the bedside table," Fred said to Dumbledore.

"Good, you both take a well-deserved 50 points for recognising what it was and acting properly," Dumbledore said as he opened the door to the 2nd years dorm with his wand raised.

Jasmine felt a shiver go down her spine at how serious and intimidating Dumbledore looked at that moment. He didn't look like the kind, caring Headmaster but the man that had faced two dark lords and survived.

Jasmine swallowed as she expected the sounds of a fight, and her wand was already in her hand. In the last month, her duelling ability had made enormous progress even if she had not once managed to beat Daphne.

But it was just silent before Dumbledore walked out of the room with the cage floating in front of him.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted as he tried to walk forward, only to bump into some kind of invisible wall.

"Mr Weasley, this isn't a rat but actually an Animagus," Dumbledore said.

Dumbledore PoV:

Dumbledore PoV:

Albus Dumbledore frowned as he stepped off the small ship which had brought him to Azkaban. Looking at the ramshackle harbour, he shook his head in annoyance. He really didn't like travelling by ship, but he supposed it couldn't be avoided.

The Strong Anti-Disapparation Wards prevented even someone like him, who WAS powerful enough to apparate to the island, from doing so.

Azkaban was also one of the few places in the Wizarding World with Anti Portkey Wards. Finally, the island's status of being unplottable meant that any broom-riders would be diverted away from it.

The only reliable way to reach the island was the ship travelling to this godforsaken place once a week.

The boat would transport Ministry Officials, new prisoners, the Auror Guard detachment who would stay for the following week and the food supplies for both the Guards and Prisoners.

No one else was allowed onto the island, and no one would want to come here either.

Dumbledore shook his head at the cruel feeling that the whole island seemed to radiate. Dumbledore slowly walked up towards the fortress's entrance from the harbour.

A pale-faced Auror waited for him at the entrance, and it took a moment for Albus to recognise him.

"Ah, Albert Swift. Nice to see you again, young man. So you finally made it into the Aurors?"

Albert smiled thinly at his former Headmaster. The Muggleborn Wizard looked slightly proud for a moment.

"Nice to see you again too, Headmaster. Yes, I finally finished Auror School and am currently assigned here."

Albus smiled; he always enjoyed former students of his achieving their dreams.

"Good, good. I assume you have heard why I'm here?"

Albert nodded, his face having a disbelieving expression.

"Yeah, Sirius Black. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. To think Black was innocent all along and Pettigrew was the real traitor.

I assume the man is gonna be sent here soon?"

Albus nodded gravely. "Yes, a grave injustice was done here. As for Peter Pettigrew, he will be sent here with the next ship, I assume.

His trial still needs to commence, and Sirius Black will need to speak as a witness, but his guilt is already affirmed. Amelia and I interrogated Peter, and he admitted to everything once we pressured him." Dumbledore said with disappointment.

Albert frowned in anger before moving for Dumbledore to follow him. The two moved through the fortress's lower floors, where the less dangerous prisoners were, before finally arriving at the upper floors.

Feeling the effect of the Dementors, Dumbledore quickly sent out his Phoenix Patronus. Albert followed suit with his own, which took the form of a German Shepard Dog.

Albus kept his frown on, but his lips slightly twitched upwards as the Dementors quickly rushed away.

Moving through the next floor calmly, they finally reached the so-called 'Death Eater Floor'.

Several of the prisoners immediately started calling out insults when they saw Albus with Bellatrix sneering at him particularly hard.

Albus merely smiled calmly as he knew that it would infuriate this bunch even more. Still, seeing a few empty cells, he wondered.

"Is there a reason why there are several empty cells?" Dumbledore asked.

Albert frowned as he looked around.

"Yes, the Snyde and Lee couples both died several years ago, unable to handle the strain of Azkaban, and just a month ago, Mulciber Junior died as well.

He choked on his food funnily enough, and no guards were around to help him. House Mulciber is now extinct..." Albert said.

Albus frowned as he remembered the Death Eaters mentioned. He made a mental note to taunt, uh, "console" Severus with his old friend Mulcibers death. He had to also suppress a small smile.

He generally believed in giving people second chances and heartily disapproved of how divided the four Houses of Hogwarts were.

But he would be lying if he didn't appreciate the fact that several of Tom's pawns were removed from the Chessboard. Especially a talented and dangerous inner circle member like Mulciber.

Shaking those dark thoughts away, Dumbledore and Albert finally stopped in front of Sirius's cell. Albus looked into the dark and grimy cell, where he saw the sickly and skinny frame of Sirius Black.

Internally Albus flinched as he knew that at least some of Sirius's fate was his fault due to his testimony of Sirius being the Secret-keeper of James and Lily.

Still, as Sirius looked at him with some calmness, he felt surprised. The man seemed more lucid than expected. Finally, a croaky and hoarse voice came from Sirius.

"Oh, finally, a visit from my esteemed Headmaster? I have to apologise, but I'm not in shape to entertain guests right now."

This time Albus openly flinched at the thinly disguised venom in Sirius's voice. Gathering himself for a moment, he looked at his former student.

"Given that you won't stay here much longer, I think that's okay, Sirius."

Sirius frowned and leaned forward in confusion. Deciding to explain, Albus took his wand and unlocked the cell door, which sprang open to Sirius's shock.

"You probably haven't heard. But Peter Pettigrew was caught two weeks ago, and he has confessed everything to me and Amelia Bones, the Head of the DMLE.

You still need to speak at his trial but suffice it to say, you are a free man again. The Minister has also said he would compensate you for 9 years of Azkaban stay.

The remaining three years will be deducted due to your illegal animagus status, which has a three-year sentence."

Sirius coughed in shock as he shakily stood up.

"Peter was caught? How?"

Albus smiled as he withdrew a piece of Paper from his cloak pocket.

"Amusingly enough, Arthur and Molly Weasleys twin sons had this and found Peter's name on it."

Sirius looked at the parchment, confused for a moment, before some of his memories returned.

"The Marauders Map," Sirus said.