They all took showers and Sirius put on his best robes before Tonks escorted them back to the Ministry. This time they entered through the Auror entrance where they found Amelia Bones waiting. She was alone, obviously having cleared the room on purpose.
"Sirius Black, you're a difficult man to find," Amelia said as she studied the black haired man carefully. "To let you know your status, you have no formal charges against you from the Ministry, though you should consider yourself in custody pending the questioning you will undergo. If you have a wand, I will need it now," She held out her hand and when he hesitated. "Mr. Black, if you are truly innocent, no harm will come to you."
Sirius nodded and reached into his robes and removed a wand he had procured in a small magical village that had large brightly colored birds and little contact with the outside world. It had worked for him, but not as well as his old one had. With Ollivander now gone, he knew he would have a long wait before he could have another wand that suited him as well.
She nodded as she took it from him and then led the procession into a room where the Minister was already seated at a table. It was obviously an interrogation room for a single chair sat in front of the table. Amelia nodded toward the chair and Sirius sat down and waited.
First Amelia handed Sirius a small bottle of blue liquid. "Since you were an Auror, you will obviously recognize this as a counter-veritaserum detection agent."
He nodded and took the bottle and drunk it completely. They waited the required two minutes and it when Sirius' tongue did not turn purple it was known he had not taken any counter-veritaserum. She then took out a bottle of the clear truth potion and put the required three drops on his tongue. It wasn't long before his eyes became unfocused.
"What is your name?" Amelia asked.
"Sirius Orion Black."
"What house were you in at Hogwarts?"
"Gryffindor."
"Who was your best friend while at Hogwarts?"
"James Potter."
"Did you betray the James and Lily Potter?"
"No. It was Peter Pettigrew."
"Did you kill Pettigrew?"
"I wanted to, but no. He blew up the street and escaped."
The questioning continued for another ten minutes. A couple of the queries made Harry and Hermione nervous since they came close to what Sirius knew about the previous night, but in the end both Amelia Bones and Cornelius Fudge were satisfied.
When the antidote had been applied, Amelia extended her hand and handed him a wand. Sirius looked at it and realized she had given him his original wand. The one that had been taken from him the night he had been arrested. He felt the warmth of the wand that had been missing from the one he had been using. He looked into the eyes of Amelia Bones.
"It was in the evidence room all of these years," She said. "I would like to be the first to apologize for those years."
"You had nothing to do with my arrest and no real reason to check into my past."
"Maybe, but I can't help but wonder if others shared your fate."
"I hope you try to find out," Sirius replied and then turned to the Minister and held out his hand. "Minister, thank you."
"Yes well," Fudge replied nervously. "Mr. Potter implied you'd be willing to..."
"Yes I will Minister," Sirius replied cutting him off. "Now is not the time to be splitting the Ministry over what has happened in the past."
"Sir, Ma'am," Hermione spoke up. "We took the opportunity to retrieve this," She opened the bag she had on her shoulder and pulled out the Pensieve.
An hour later Fudge was sitting at a table that had been arranged on a small stage in the Atrium. With him were Amelia Bones, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Luna. There was one more chair next to the Minister currently empty. Arrayed in front of the stage were a multitude of chairs, all filled with reporters from the various newspapers and magazines. Xenophilius Lovegood was sitting in the front row waving at his daughter.
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