The irony that the Black family would have been proud of Peter's cunning staging of his own death while framing Sirius was not lost on Sirius either.
Padfoot investigated the Pettigrew family home near Shrewsbury. Peter's mum died two years after her son's supposed death. There was no sign the house had seen a visitor in years. The dust was undisturbed. Padfoot sniffed around but didn't catch any hint of Wormtail's scent.
The next stop was Godric's Hollow. Sirius didn't think Wormtail would have stayed there but Sirius's 'old friend' loved to hide in the least likely of places. Wormtail was the only Marauder not caught in the Great 1977 Hufflepuff Knicker Raid. The little rat slipped into Professor Sprout's robe pocket and took a nap while the professors ran about looking for him. So the idea of the rat hiding at the site of his betrayal was not out of character.
Sirius found some sign of a rat in the house. After the Ministry repaired the roof and other damage for the Dark Lord's attack, they made the house into a National Landmark. It looked exactly like it had when Sirius last saw it right down to the pictures on the wall. Only the personal items had been removed to the Potter vault for Harry to eventually claim. Padfoot caught Wormtail's scent leading to the place where James died but nothing going up the stairs to where Lily was murdered and the You-Know-Who was defeated. The scent was several days old but it proved the rat was still alive and probably still in Britain.
....
The big break came late one afternoon in late August. Padfoot was stalking… er, watching Harry and his friends at the Longbottom estate. Frank had keyed all of the Marauders into the manor's wards back when they had all been members of the Order of the Phoenix. Frank never had time to remove Sirius from the wards and his formidable mother never knew they had been added.
From underneath a bush trimmed into the shape of a dragon, the large dog watched the students at play. He counted at least twelve students along with a smattering of parents also. They were having a 'back-to-school' picnic. Young Neville was the picture of Alice with her round face and wide smile. He'd probably have Frank's build when he was older but his face was so much like his mum. He also spotted a young red-haired girl near Amelia Bones and guessed it was Edgar's daughter, Susan. Poor girl's father is murdered six weeks before she is born and then loses her mother in the last Death Eater raid before Voldemort's fall. Still, Amelia was good people even if having the Head of the DMLE here meant two Auror bodyguards lurking about complicating matters. Sirius also noted three boys that he knew could only be Weasleys when he saw Molly yelling at them.
Sirius watched the kids playing Quidditch. Harry was even more insane on a broom than his father. Lily would be going spare watching him. They should have guessed he'd be great on a broom after James bought him the little training broom that only went a foot off the ground and moved at a slow walk. It even had cushioning charms in case he fell off. However, even with the safety charms the little pup push it to the limit and drive Lily's cat insane chasing it all over the house with the one year-old laughing hysterically.
The Weasley twins were terrific Beaters even though they were playing on different sides for the pick-up game. The seemed to ignore the other players except for Harry and concentrated on knocking each other out; laughing and trading barbs the whole time. Sirius would have enjoyed having them on the Gryffindor team when he and James were Chasers.
But it was a conversation he overheard towards the end of the afternoon that caught his attention.
"… and it was really great the way Smyth was able to hold out in goal even with the broken rib! That must have really hurt but his blocked shot percentage was actually higher than any other point in the game!"
The young Weasley boy was talking animatedly to a tall, distinguished looking man with salt and pepper hair with tanned, wind-burnt skin. The man looked impressed with the Third year's knowledge.
"I was not sure anyone else noticed that," the man commented. "It's not part of the released numbers. It's not unheard of. Sometimes injured players of a certain calibre determined to tough it out actually step up their game. The league actually looked into if it was use of accidental magic but then they saw it was true in Muggle sports as well."
The Weasly boy looked surprised at the explanation. "Do you track Muggle sports?" he asked curiously.
The man laughed. "Well, Quidditch will always be my favourite but I've been known to catch the odd football match now and then. But Muggles have put a lot more resources into studying human motion, physical improvement and rehabilitating injured athletes then we wizards have. Sure we can heal them faster, but getting the body back into peck performance is something else. And even more importantly is training them to move right so they don't get hurt in the first place. Muggles have a lot to teach us."
The boy looked even more surprised. The man seemed to notice it as well.
"Surprised to hear one of us 'dark, evil, Syltherins talking about Muggles this way?" the man asked with some amusement in his eyes. The boy blushed so much Sirius thought he might pop a blood vessel.
"I… I'm sorry, Coach Steven. It's just… it's just… all I've heard growing up was bad things about the Slytherins. And some of it was true! Malfoy is a spoilt git and his little band of followers just make trouble for everyone else. And their Quiditch team just plays dirty! But- but." The boy seemed to wind down. There was a pause and then he sighed. "But Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise don't seem to be like that. I know Daphne was the one that made the potion we used to help Scabbers when he was sick last year even though no one told me."
"Scabbers?"
.....
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