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Blood of an Innocent

Prelog

Betrayal. A funny subject really, that you would believe something so verdantly to throw aside all ties of friendship, love and brotherhood in order to follow what you believe in. When what you believe in is viewed as correct - either at that moment in time or when look back upon in the future - what you have done is viewed as noble, brave, and even honourable. However, when your belief turns out to be false, it is no longer brave or noble, it is simply traitorous, almost evil that you would betray such a bond and ignore everything it stood for. That is why it is acurious subject, betrayal it either falls as being incredibly noble or evil depending on a slight difference in judgement.

Betrayal was something that had caused aterrible string of events in the wizarding world. The betrayal of Tom Riddle's mother by his muggle father had led to her death. This of course led to Tom growing up alone with no friends or family to care for him. Bullied and alone in an orphanage where no one understood him, Tom had been abandoned by the world.

Though it seemed for a while as if salvation had come for Tom when one day in the summer of his eleventh year, one Albus Dumbledore paid a visit to Tom's orphanage and more specifically to Tom himself. Here for the first time Tom learnt of his heritage and who he was, but not just who he was but what he was, you see at this time Tom found out all about wizards, and immediately every strange thing that had happened around Tom made sense, every time things moved without even the slightest of touches, or when the world around him suddenly became silent.

Then so it was that for awhile everything in Tom's world seemed perfect, he excelled at his new school, he was loved by all his teachers and for once in his life he felt as though he was cared for. Admittedly there were still those who cast him aside, but the slights of petulant little children no longer mattered to Tom, his many years in the orphanage had harden him against the cruelties meat out against him.

School went well for Tom, however, the next betrayal was not far off, he had hoped his new school had meant he would never have to return to the old world in muggle London. However his hopes were shattered when Headmaster Dippett told him that there was nothing he could do, as he put it 'You will just have to accept it Tom my boy. After all it is only for a few weeks'. But a few weeks felt like years in the hell hole that was the old orphanage.

After summer Tom came back a changed boy, no longer was he interested in studying the beauty of transfiguration or the subtlety of charms. It was not that he no longer worked hard in these subjects, in fact his grades got better, it was just that he no longer showed the same enthusiasm for them as he had done before, and no matter what the teachers for either subject tried it would not return. Instead Tom seemed only interested in Defence against the Dark Arts, and spending hour upon hour pouring over books in the library.

Perhaps the one teacher who truly remained faithful to Tom was the first wizard he had ever met, Albus Dumbledore. However, this was where the next betrayal would come from, expect this time it was Tom who was the betrayer. In his fifth year at Hogwarts, Tom turned to the deepest and foulest of the Dark Arts, betraying all the faith Dumbledore had bestowed upon him. This betrayal had perhaps the most deep routed consequences of them all, as Dumbledore had begun to love Tom as a son, and his love had been betrayed, never again would he become attach in such a way to a pupil.

The next generation of witches and wizards saw betrayal after betrayal as friends and families turned upon each other and their values in order to save their skins. So great was the fear that came with Lord Voldemort's rise to power, see since leaving Hogwarts Tom had committed the greatest possible betrayal, he had betrayed himself, Tom Riddle no longer existed only his self styled darkness. Lord Voldemort.

So in the story of Voldemort's rise we have had betrayal of family, and betrayal of love. Now all that remains is the betrayal of brotherhood and friendship. This is where one Peter Pettigrew enters our story, he was not a strong wizard by any standing, but he was thought of as a brother by three of his closest friends. Something which he cast aside because he craved power and was scared. This betrayal was perhaps the most evil of all those relating to Voldemort. At least Voldemort had hatred to motivate his betrayal of Dumbledore. Peter's only pathetic motive was fear, which led him to betray his friends, his brothers.

This betrayal had the furthest reaching obvious effects; however, it whether it really was the greatest is debatable after all if Tom's father had not abandoned his mother, the being known as Voldemort may never have come to exist.

Now you see how important betrayal can be, and it is something which still occurs in the wizarding world, even to the point where our story begins.



London was often a dreary place especially at the begin of autumn, with its grey buildings draped in a blanket of rain drops, whilst more came down all around. And in one corner of London in aperfectly normally street sat perhaps the dreariest of all London's many buildings. Though to most of the world it remained hidden, except from a very select few.

12 Grimmauld Place had long been shrouded in mystery, it was an issue of great confuse among many of the street's residents as to why there was a number 10 and a number 14, yet there appeared to be no house number 12 in between. There were many stories around it over the years, but most had become forgotten in time as new residents just accepted the strange missing house and got on with their lifes.

However, despite all appearances there was a house number 12, though it remained hidden and shrouded in mystery as its owners were wizards. You see 12 Grimmauld Place was the ancestral home of an ancient Celtic wizarding family. The Blacks.

They had always been a family proud of their heritage and clung to the old ways hiding themselves away from those who they believed to be their inferiors. Essentially all of their non-magical neighbours. Hence why if you knew where to look they would see as clear as day the dark and gloomy building which was the house of the Blacks.

Within this dark and gloomy building things were only mildly more homely, yet this was not the aim of the Blacks of the past and had only come about because of work the current Black head of household had done. He like many in the wizarding world had suffered greatly from the betrayals committed by others, mainly that of Peter Pettigrew, which had led to his 12 year imprisonment in the wizarding prison, Azkaban.

However, more recently he had been effected by another betrayal, one of someone even closer to him than Peter, by one he had begun to think of as a son. This is the story that I shall be telling.

Currently 12 Grimmauld Place was occupied by the Order of The Phoenix, a noble cause with very few wizards left, who stood almost alone in defence of all that was good in the wizarding world. At the moment at which our story begins, most of the order was sat in what had once been the pride of the Blacks, their huge ballroom. However, where this room had once been stunningly beautiful, now it was just like the rest of the house dark and gloomy.

The meeting of the Order bore none of the enthusiasm the members used to have, there seemed to be no hope left for the wizarding world, as Lord Voldemort grew more and more powerful with apparently nothing able to stop him. Every day they heard of more attacks and everyday they grew more disheartened as time and again, there was nothing they could do to help.

So it was that most of the order just sat thinking of what had come to pass, and Sirius Black had more to think of than most.

His life had been a long and highly eventful one; born to a family obsessed with the dark arts, he had gone to Hogwarts like most young British wizards and witches; there he had met his best friend, the now deceased James Potter. He had quickly found out that despite their very different backgrounds, James and he had much in common, and soon they became inseparable. He had two other close friends as well as James, one Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Quickly their group became one of the most popular in Hogwarts, famous for their pranks and tricks. And although he was great friends with Remus and Peter he was closest to James, who even allowed him to move in when Sirius' parents kicked him out, and when James had had his one and only son he had proudly made Sirius the boy's Godfather.

But his friend had been murdered along with his wife only a year after their son's birth. On that night he had lost so much, he had not only lost his best friends, but also his best friend's wife, and he also realised he had lost his friend Peter who had betrayed the Potters to Voldemort that night.

So feeling all had been lost in his world he decided he would hunt down and kill Peter. A decision which had ultimately led to his false internment in Azkaban the wizarding prison, when Peter had outsmarted him and escaped.

He had stayed in the hell hole which had become his home for 12 years before he had at last been able to escape, the first person ever to do so he proudly reminisced. Though it then crossed his mind how he had needed the help of his Godson to properly escape the ministry, something which at the time he had been incredibly proud of that his Godson would take such a risk for him. He had thought at the time that all his bad luck had come to an end and that his life was coming good again.

However, this new beginning did not come to be and if anything since then his life just worse in many ways. The summer after he escaped his Godson had been falsely entered into the Tri-wizard tournament at Hogwarts. At first he had been incredibly nervous after all people had died in the tournament in the past, then he had become very proud when his Godson fought his way through the task, the first showing his Gryffindor bravery, and then the way he dealt with the second the honour more commonly shown by those of Hufflepuff house. Though after that things had all gone wrong, especially when at the end of the fourth task, his Godson had returned from within the maze holding the dead body of Cedric Diggory, sprouting some story of Voldemort's return. It had been obvious to all that even if this was true, his Godson had obviously turned to the side of evil, and had killed Cedric when in a fit of jealously, when the other boy looked like winning the tournament.

The final nail in his Godson conviction had been when a magical signature similar to his Godson's had been found to that which cast the spell which killed Cedric. So it came to be that the witness statements of several of his Godson's former friends, including Sirius, just rubbed salts in the wounds in many ways.

You might ask why a man would testify against his own Godson, especially after he had saved him from the dreaded death eaters, well Sirius had made a simple deal with the ministry, he would testify against his Godson in exchange for his freedom and a complete pardon. So it was that he had stood and testified whilst watching his Godson shuddered and sob when he had realised his own God-father had turned against him. He had then watched as his Godson wept, yet calmly accepted his fate at the end of the trial, but when his former best friends burnt the only photos the boy possessed of his parents, he had broken down completely, clutching at the burning cinders as he wept for the final loss of his parents, and what had Sirius done, he had laughed and screamed that his Godson had betrayed his parents memories, and then his Godson had been dragged off to Azkaban.

Several things had happened since that fateful trial, it had been found to be true that his Godson had been right about the Dark Lord returning, and despite all of the orders best efforts nothing they could do seemed to stop him. So it was that the Dark Lord Voldimort gained more power every day, despite his supposedly most faithful servant now being interned in Azkaban. Leading some to question the boy's guilt, yet Sirius was still positive of the boy's guilt. After all, his magical signature from his wand was found all over Diggory's body.

The day since the trial had also been tinged with sadness for other reasons. One of Sirius oldest friends now refused to speak him saying that he should have stuck by his Godson; his own cousin Nymphadora Tonks had then also sided with Remus, the whole order was falling apart. Alongside the order falling apart, so had the Weasley family. The two eldest sons Bill and Charlie had always been outspoken defenders of Sirius'Godson, and had left for Charlie's dragon sanctuary in Romania when they had been treated with distain. The Weasley twins had also left, gone to the South American jungle supposedly looking for new ingredients for jokes, but most knew this was not the real reason. The Weasley patriarch had also changed, no longer would he get excited over all the wonders of the muggle world, instead he was surprisingly subdued, and just got on with his work and not much else.

Perhaps the hardest loss for all the Weasleys had been that of their only daughter, Ginny, who had left home a year after his Godson's trial, claiming they had all betrayed the one they claimed to love, mainly this was aimed at Ron. Now, four years later she still refused to return permanently but occasional met up with her Father and oldest brothers well except Percy, this was of course as she felt this group had played less part in the boy's betrayal than her mother and Ron.

Recently even Sirius had begun to doubt his Godson's guilt after all why would the Boy-who-lived, Voldemort's greatest ever opponent turn dark, but still Sirius convince himself of the boy's guilt, if only to save his son from breaking down with guilt.

Of course it was far too late for any change in beliefs, by now his Godson would surely have gone mad. So it was that the former hero of the light was left to rot in Azkaban regardless of any doubts. Sirius left his only living link to his greatest ever friend James to rot in that hell hole, the former boy-who-lived, and now just known as the betrayer of the light.

His Godson was of course, the one and only Harry Potter.