"Yeah. She would."

He nods a little and chuckles self-deprecatingly. "She promised to kill me if she didn't like my explanation. Made it - clear I wasn't going back to Azkaban."

"That's still on the table," she says, flatly. "I won't let the Ministry use the Dementor's Kiss against you, if nothing else."

"You're nicer than you pretended to be in the war," he says to her, cheerfully.

"You'll note I also didn't leave Death Eaters to be damned to that place," she says, examining both him and the girls. To Ellie and Anathema: "I can share the proof that convinced me. But - I suspect your objections are mostly elsewhere?"

Sirius's expression goes a bit grave. To Anathema: "I know I wronged you, too. Put you - near those things. Listened to your secrets. I haven't shared anything, and I'd take an Unbreakable Vow to not."

She's - taken aback.

"I... Don't know. If I want that," she says.

Sirius nods, frowning a bit.

"I don't know you. You might have known me when I was a baby, but I'm not a baby anymore."

"I want to see the proof, and I want you to help Professor Reynolds get rid of the Dementors. And then maybe after that you can introduce yourself again."

He nods. "I - hope that if I turn over the actual culprit, maybe the Ministry will. Believe that. Admit they fucked up. Take Pettigrew, leave Hogwarts alone - leave me alone." He frowns, staring at his shoes. "I used to - believe we were fighting for a good society. A - good world. That the assholes could just be - beaten up and removed from."

"...I don't think the Ministry doing the right thing's very likely," he concludes, glumly. "My other idea was showing up somewhere else in the Isles, so they think I'm not at Hogwarts - or better, in Europe..."

Professor Reynolds leans forward. "That's unideal, though, because they'll keep looking." She pauses, focusing briefly, and: "The best way - in the short term, not anticipating any regime changes to our benefit - will be to fake his death. On Hogwarts' grounds, at my hand - let Fudge get the little victory of being right about where he was, let Dumbledore get the larger victory of 'the Dementors did nothing, and in fact hindered our Professors in searching the grounds.' Turning over a body's tricky with modern forensics - a fake can trick casual inspection, but not an autopsy. Easiest would be to fake destruction of the body with enough genetic material left on the scene for identification. The Ministry will likely question me about if he actually died, but I can fake a pensieve memory well enough that even the best international experts would have trouble identifying it."

"You say that like it's so easy..." Sirius mumbles, slumping.

She sighs. "I've done it before, including with investigation by a specialist team. The Ministry's Aurors aren't nearly that good at detecting fake memories, and Fudge is less willing to call in foreign experts than Minchum ever was."

Sirius shifts and nods. "I'm willing to help with that. Or - whatever way works. Any way."

Professor Reynolds nods, standing. "The main thing's a pensieve memory," she says. "There's also Pettigrew - he's been captured, confirmed to be a rat Animagus masquerading as a student's pet as Black claimed, and his Legilimentic shields were weak enough I was able to corroborate Black's story. You'll have to take my word for it that neither man's memories have been cleverly tampered with, though, and the Legilimency to check Pettigrew's mind yourself can't be mastered in an afternoon - but I can put my memories of Pettigrew's mind in a pensieve as well, and you can see him in person. Pettigrew additionally has a Dark Mark, though that only confirms he was a Death Eater, and Black's lack of one is not conclusive that he was never in Voldemort's employ."

Slow nod.

"I'd like to see the memories... But I trust you."

Anathema nods. "Yeah. You're - you." She shrugs, awkwardly.

Small smile. "And we can add Legilimency and discerning true memories from false to your summer projects, if you'd like - it'll help your own Occlumency, if nothing else."

She tells Sirius to stay in the living room with Scarlet, then leads Anathema and Ellie into her smaller, private office. There's several bottles with odd, swirling lights in them, and a strong-smelling potion in a glassy stone bowl. Professor Reynolds idly describes what's what - the bottles contain several of Sirius's memories, checked for authenticity and kept separate. The stone bowl is a pensieve. The potion is specifically for clearing psychic residues from a pensieve between uses. She walks both girls through responsible pensieve use, and how to pull yourself back out, and explains that the contents of the memories may be distressing.

She pulls memories out of her own head with a twist of her wand, after they get through Sirius's, though she puts them back into her head, while Sirius's return to their bottles.

The parade of memories paints - a disturbing picture. Many of Sirius's memories seem damaged, almost, the color faded, parts worn thin - usually a pensieve memory allows you to observe things the originator didn't notice, but most of those parts look like they were rubbed out of Sirius's head. Exactly typical of long-term exposure to Dementors, Professor Reynolds explains, which is hard enough to mimic it makes the memories seem more likely to be true. False memories are also almost immediately destroyed by Dementors, making it very unlikely any alterations date to before Azkaban.

Sirius was James and Lily's best friend - he seems familiar in their house, with them, in the discussions shown. All three look stressed in the memories - Lily pregnant, speaking about a prophecy - Lily with an infant Ellie in her arms, standing and pacing and bouncing her, worrying if the Fidelius will be enough, with how often Sirius is putting himself at risk of capture - with how vital he is to the war effort.

That discussion goes on for a bit. James suggests changing the Secret Keeper. Sirius balks. Lily wonders 'to who.' They shoot down Dumbledore immediately. They shoot down Remus, James noting he's been reclusive, lately, objecting to the treatment of werewolves as the war's been spiraling - James seems suspicious, Sirius sides with Remus, says of course the laws are ridiculous, not all werewolves are Greyback - Lily ends the argument, pointing out that Remus is risky for similar reasons to Sirius, anyways. Too exposed. Too vulnerable. They shoot down a few other names - Fay, Kingsley, Minerva - for the same reason they're hesitant for Sirius. Peter Pettigrew is Lily's idea - 'I hardly think anyone remembers you were friends in school, but you all always seemed so inseparable...' James is enthused. Sirius is still insisting he can keep himself out of Death Eater hands - 'I'll damn well suicide before I let them take me, and you two can hide in a forgotten house until the war's over.' James objects; the argument fades, skims forwards, to a snatch of conversation with a short, twitchy man - Peter - as he promises to be the a trustworthy Secret Keeper, he never goes near the fights anyways, he's in logistics so he's not at risk -

Flash skim over Sirius learning of the Potters' deaths. Flash skim, confronting Pettigrew. Pettigrew turning to him, immediately accusing him of betraying their friends - Sirius doesn't even have his wand up as Pettigrew blows up the crowded street -

Flash skim. An earlier point, Sirius much younger, standing with James and Peter and Remus, showing clearly Peter shifting to rat form, Sirius shifting to dog form, James to a large stag -

Pettigrew's memories. He'd been Voldemort's man since before accepting the Secret Keeper position. A mole, slipping reports on funding and provisions and the like to Voldemort - nothing vital, of course, he told himself, he always told himself, it wasn't like he was relaying troop movements or bases - his intelligence of course unattached to the Death Eater's repeated successes in hunting down the Order of the Phoenix, in finding their identities and murdering their families -

He hesitated, after being made Secret Keeper. He learned - Voldemort had received a prophecy, about a newborn destined to eventually defeat him, and wished to nip the problem in the bud - prophecies name but one world, he'd said, and that one will be destroyed in its cradle. Voldemort promised a handsome reward to anyone who revealed one of several families to him, all with recently born children who might fit the prophecy. He followed through - he killed each family and child personally, and the riches rolled in to his informants -

Pettigrew flipped on the Potters, the most well hidden of Voldemort's enemies. Voldemort had been closing on the Longbottoms. He decided to go after the Potters instead, with such a ripe opportunity.

Pettigrew knew he screwed up, when he heard Voldemort had died. He knew he'd really screwed up, when Sirius caught up to him. So he did what he's always done - he lied and hid, away from any threat of retaliation, making his way eventually into a wizarding family's keeping as their pet rat. A flash - he'd been considering trying to probably resurrect Voldemort after he heard rumors about Professor Quirrel. He'd been very sure being a rat was miserable, and he wanted something more - the reward for not only the best information, but the most faithful servant -

He'd been seriously calculating whether he should make a run out of Hogwarts before winter break, or if he should abandon the wizarding family when the kids went home and flee from there.

Ellie is not sure if she wants to rage or cry when she gets out of the memories.

Anathema seems to have settled on 'quietly upset.'

Fay settles her hand on Ellie's shoulder, quietly offering a hug.

Hug.

Anathema leans in, too.

"...I don't know what to think," she says.

"It's complicated. But - you can have time to process."

"Mm."

Hug. "I can tell Black to hang out somewhere out of sight, if you want."

Nod.

She ducks out to do that, leaving the living room free for them. 

"I just-"

"I don't understand why it has to matter! It all happened before I can even remember except when the stupid Dementors show up but it won't go away."

Hug. "It's unfair. You didn't cause any of the problems. It's - everyone who was supposed to make things right didn't. Who was supposed to make a kinder world for you."

"And it's wrong that you have to deal with our mistakes."

"I know. But that still doesn't help."

Snuggle.

"I'll be here to help, as much I can."

"I know."

"Thanks."

She strokes Ellie's hair a bit, humming softly.