章 1565: 27
Chapter 27: Trials round 2Notes:
Good morning everyone, here's the newest chapter. Time for Dumbles and Molly to get their trials. Hope you'll like it
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Is everything we believed a lie?
Reporting from the latest Session of the Wizengamot: Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Cuffe
Things are changing rapidly in our society. Thanks to an investigation by Lady Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE and interim Minister of Magic and Lady Minerva McGonagall, interim Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the DMLE was able to make several arrests, including Lords of our society and the Minister.
Cornelius Fudge has been charged with corruption and confessed to those charges. He was sentenced to one year prison time and a fine as well as a ban on working at the Ministry. You, dear reader, might think that this is a very mild sentence, but that is only because he gave up several high-ranking members of our society in the process.
Lord Bartemius Crouch Sr. has been sued too, see page 4
Mafalda Hopkirk and other ministry employees sued, see page 9
Our beloved reporter Rita Skeeter has been arrested too, though the charges are unknown at this moment.
Thanks to Mr. Fudge's confession and evidence delivered by the Goblin nation, the DMLE has also arrested Lords of the Wizengamot, namely Lords Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle. Lord Nathaniel Parkinson has managed to escape the aurors and is a dangerous fugitive. In a surprise vote the Wizengamot decided on using veritaserum, which proved that all of them (and many more, complete list on page 7) were willing Death Eaters and the so-called "Imperius defence" had been nothing more than a lie.
Following all the arrests, Lady Amelia Bones assumed - lawfully, one might add - the title of interim Minister of Magic. Since the Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump and Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore was arrested too (charges still unknown), she called for a vote on an interim Chief Warlock. Nominated by Lady Longbottom and seconded by Lord Weasley, Lord Arthur Greengrass is named Chief Warlock for the duration of the trials session (which will continue today).
The new Lord Black, Sirius Black, completely cleared from all charges, was seen with his godson, Lord Potter after the trials. He is currently recovering from his time at Azkaban and sends his thanks to the Goblin Nation and King Ragnok, as well as Lady Bones and Lady McGonagall and their associates. In a surprise trial, Lady Bones presented Peter Pettigrew alive and well, who then confessed under veritaserum to being the true Potter secret keeper (Lord Black was just a decoy) and a Death Eater, while Lord Black was completely innocent the whole time.
The Lords Potter and Black seem to be very unhappy with Albus Dumbledore, blaming him for Black's imprisonment, the illegal sealing of the Potter wills, illegally assuming the title as Potter's guardian, placing him with the wrong people and the usage of illegal compulsion charms. Those are at least the things Potter confronted Dumbledore with during the Session, the trial is still to be held.
Or to quote Lord Black: Albus Dumbledore is an old meddling mastermind with no conscience. I dare say he caused more pain than Voldemort while trying to be an untouchable and almighty person.
Harry had to admit that once he read the article by Cuffe, he was happy with it. No stupid slander and no obvious lies, but this time pretty accurate. Additional articles in this morning's edition of the Prophet were one about Tom Riddle's ancestry and rise to power, focussing on the muggle ancestry and the usage of love potions, condemning those in the process, one about the lack of security at Hogwarts and one about the role of muggleborn and halfblood wizards in their society. Cuffe even went that far and compared NEWT scores (showing that despite the better results, they got less job offers). This was by far the best edition of the Daily Prophet Harry had ever read.
But not everyone shared that opinion.
Aside from the children of arrested Death Eaters and corrupt officials, the Dumbledore supporters weren't too happy either. Ronald, McLaggen and a few other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were getting more and more hostile towards them, and so were the blood purists.
The "easiest" house was Ravenclaw. Excluding the bullies around Chang and Edgecombe, the claws were pretty happy and supportive, both with the staff changes and with the open criticism on Dumbles and the society. Sometimes, rational thinking people were really the easiest to deal with.
This morning, Minnie and Remus were wearing formal robes too during breakfast, making it obvious that they were gonna testify against Dumbledore. Severus would have done so too, but he was still mostly unconscious. Breaking the connection with Voldy had not only been painful, but also very damaging to his magical core, needing time to heal.
Once it was time to get going, Minnie, Remus, Mione and Harry got up and left the Great Hall together. They were all pretty nervous, hoping that Dumbledore's allies wouldn't manage to declare him innocent.
The Session of the Wizengamot continued after Amy sealed the doors once again. First trial of the day: Rita Skeeter.
"Miss Skeeter, you are accused of being an illegal animagus, the form being that of a water beetle. You are accused of espionage and trespassing in at least fifteen cases. How do you plead?"
"Minister Bones, I plead guilty to being an illegal animagus and will accept the fine, but I plead innocent to the rest of the charges."
That was a surprise. Just as the fact that the reporter had no defence counsel. All the previously accused people had had one, even those dark Lords that no one wanted to defend since those had been easy cases. Goblin testimony was - despite the prejudice against them - indisputably accurate, that had been established over a century ago. Fudge's confession and the veritaserum evidence made those cases impossible to win.
Why Miss Skeeter was not dependent on counsel became pretty clear after a while. Blackmail.
Yes, some light Lords and Ladies who had been victims of the trespassing wanted to convict her, but not all of them. The woman knew way too many secrets.
She wouldn't get away completely unharmed either way though. Lord Ogden was ready to name her an enemy to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Ogden, threatening retribution for trespassing and attempted espionage. Since that was a house matter, the vote within the Wizengamot was completely irrelevant to it.
After that trial, it was time to face Peter Pettigrew.
Peter had counsel, but just a very cheap one, since he and his family had never been wealthy. His counsel tried to throw out the statements Peter made under veritaserum at Sirius' trial, but since the Wizengamot voted on the usage of the potion that was a lost cause. And so was the whole trial.
They first questioned Remus, he talked about the Marauders becoming animagi in the past. Basically a pointless questioning, they just wanted to establish the background story.
"And you, Professor Lupin, are you an illegal animagus too?"
The lawyer obviously wanted to implicate Remus in a crime, but the DADA professor just smiled at him.
"Oh no, I'm not. I couldn't, even if I wanted to. I'm a registered werewolf."
That ended this questioning rather abruptly. Afterwards Lord Weasley explained how his family got Scabbers.
"Oh, I think it was my god-damn love potioning wife…apologies for my choice of words, who allowed my son Percival to keep it after finding it in the garden. He later gave it to Ronald when he got an owl."
Lady Marchbanks, even older than Dumbledore and one of the highest-ranking members of the Wizarding Examination Authority, then had a question for Arthur.
"Esteem Lord Weasley, you are aware of the rule that Hogwarts students may only bring cats, owls or toads to school, aren't you? Then how do you explain the presence of Scabbers…Peter Pettigrew at Hogwarts?"
"Oh, I don't know. My sons were always allowed to bring him along, I think…Dumbledore allowed it."
The DMLE asked the Gamot if questioning Mr. Pettigrew again would be necessary, which led to a vote against it. They already knew the whole story and sentenced the rat to a life in Azkaban while wearing magic-suppressing cuffs and being inside of an anti-animagus ward.
Before Amelia could call for the trial of Rubeus Hagrid, Lady Marchbanks called a Point of Order.
"Lady Bones, Chief Warlock Greengrass, Members of the Wizengamot. I know that we still have some trials scheduled for today, but I ask for a vote of no confidence against the Chief Warlock. We heard enough in all the past trials to know with certainty that Albus Dumbledore is not the man we thought he was. I don't want us to embarrass the Wizengamot even further by charging an elected Chief Warlock. Oh, and when we're already at it, I call a vote of no confidence against the current government."
Everyone understood what Marchbanks wanted to do. The majority was clearly against Dumbledore and she probably wanted to elect Greengrass as Chief Warlock and Bones as new, permanent Minister of Magic. Unusual, but not unheard of.
Lords Ogden, Potter, Black and Weasley as well as Lady Longbottom were basically on their feet the moment Marchbanks stopped speaking to second the proposal. This time the only ones arguing against it were the pro-Dumbledore wizards, all of them either light Lords or Order of Merlin recipients. Still, the majority was overwhelming and in the end both the Chief Warlock (in absence) and the Fudge administration lost the vote of no confidence.
Normally, the wizards and witches on the Wizengamot had a while to think about nominations and to have some sort of a campaign, but that was legally speaking not necessary. Sure, they had some…interesting…nominations, like Bulstrode for Minister or Doge (a Dumbles supporter) for Chief Warlock. Lord McLaggen (just a Noble Lord, one might add, and just as awful and arrogant as Malfoy, only "light-sided") even tried nominating himself, since he didn't trust the governing body anymore.
"Esteem Lords and Ladies, as you can see, things are going badly. We allow criminals, you-know-who's right hand, to sit in the Wizengamot. We allow spoiled, stupid children to claim that they're Lords of families that had been lost for centuries. We allow that our biggest hero, the most powerful wizard in the world, Albus Dumbledore gets arrested and slandered. I will no longer watch Wizarding Britain destroy itself. I nominate myself for the role of Minister of Magic."
And believe it or not, that was actually not forbidden. Lord Abbott seconded that absolutely stupid self-nomination. Sirius looked like he'd want to murder McLaggen, but Harry held him back from responding to the stupid taunt. McLaggen wasn't worth it.
About an hour, filled with speeches and talks about political agendas, they could finally vote, first on the Chief Warlock, then on the Minister. Since the "alliance" around Harry, Augusta, Arthur (both of them) and Amelia was pretty strong, the results were clear. Both Amelia and Arthur were now no longer interim Minister and Chief Warlock, but now officially sworn into the office. Promptly Amy named Kingsley Shacklebolt Head of the DMLE, which was a bit of a surprise, but the reasoning that Scrimgeour should continue being Head Auror and Shacklebolt was a great leader made sense to everyone.
Then, once the whole election thing was over, they were able to resume their agenda and Hagrid's trial began. While the friendly giant confessed to raising Aragog and defending them from the Aurors, he got rather upset when Lord Yaxley brought up his criminal record. Luckily Harry, who was not really close with the giant, but felt sorry for him, argued that Hagrid was innocent when it came to the Chamber of Secrets incident. The mere fact that an acromantula couldn't kill with her sight (Myrtle), the existence of the basilisk and the knowledge that Tom Riddle (now revealed as Voldemort) was at school at the same time was enough for the light and neutral Lords to clear Hagrid's name. Because of that, his new sentence wasn't prison time but community service and a fine as well as a lifelong ban on keeping any as dangerous classified animals and creatures. Overall, not such a harsh sentence.
Then - finally - it was time for old Dumbles to be tried for his crimes.
"Esteem members of the Wizengamot, today we are here to decide, if former Chief Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, is guilty of several hundred cases of child endangerment, violating and illegally sealing the Potter wills, wrongfully assuming the title of Lord Potter's magical guardian, violation the duties of such a guardian, wrongful imprisonment and perjury in regards to Lord Black's case, illegal usage of mind manipulation charms in at least twenty-four cases, fifteen of those on minors, aiding a person to commit love potioning and line theft, aiding a person to commit mind-manipulating potioning, illegal legilimency, blackmail, kidnapping, aiding a fugitive of the law and accessory to child abuse. Mr. Dumbledore, how do you plead?"
"Oh, Amelia, I'm not guilty and you know it. Drop that farce. I'm still the Chief Warlock and demand your respect."
"No, you're not, Dumbledore. Lady Marchbanks just called a vote of no confidence against you and the Fudge government, Chief Warlock and I have been voted into office afterwards. But anyway, it shall be noted that the accused pleads guilty and has refused counsel. Do you still refuse counsel?"
"Yes, Amelia, I don't need it."
"Good, then let's start with the first charge. Several hundred cases of child endangerment. As witness, Minerva McGonagall."
"Lady McGonagall, did the accused tell all of Hogwarts at the beginning of the 1991 school year, that a certain corridor on the third floor would be off-limits?"
"Yes, he said that."
"Why was that?"
"I don't recall the precise phrasing, but it was something along the lines of "the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."
"A painful death? Did he use those words? What was up there, in a school, that could cause a very painful death?"
"Oh yes, he used those words. Upon privately asking him about it, he played it down and forbade me to take a look, because it was a private matter. Back then I didn't know what he put there, but I can tell you that he asked me to build a gigantic chess board with magical chess pieces, those that would destroy each other."
"Thank you, Professor. Now please, Hermione Granger."
Hermione then began to describe every last bit of the corridor, beginning with Fluffy and ending with Severus' potions riddle. The fact that Dumbles hid a Cerberus, a Devil's Snare, a Mountain Troll and the Philosopher's stone in a school, and told all the students where they could find it, did shock all those that currently had children at Hogwarts. Once Harry then testified that he fought Voldemort in Quirrell's body (a death which hadn't been reported by the way), the Wizengamot was furious. Harry's suggestion that the whole thing was a setup for Dumbledore to lure Riddle to Hogwarts was more than convincing when it came to the child endangerment charge. But before the vote, they allowed Dumbledore to defend himself.
The old fool didn't deny doing any of those things, but insisted that it was no endangerment of the students and for the greater good. Needless to say that Dumbledore was declared guilty by nearly everyone in the Wizengamot.
But that was only the beginning of his trial.
"Now a few of the charges at once, illegally sealing the Potter wills, violating the Potter wills, wrongfully assuming the title of Lord Potter's magical guardian, violation the duties of such a guardian and accessory to child abuse."
Those charges would see Albus Dumbledore in prison for the rest of his miserable life, that was certain. Amelia began addressing the Wizengamot.
"Those crimes are of a very heinous nature. We've heard yesterday that Albus Dumbledore sealed the wills of Lord James Potter and Lady Lily Potter without any legal reason and, knowing the contents of those since he was a witness, violated them. He named himself the guardian of Mr. Potter, despite the fact that there was a list of guardians in them, and he was not one of them. He put Lord Potter in the custody of his aunt and uncle, two horrid and magic-hating people. Not once he showed up at Lord Potter's home, not once told him that he was the heir of his house. He failed not only Harry Potter, but the whole wizarding society. I call as a witness Minerva McGonagall."
Now, even though one couldn't see it, Albus Dumbledore was getting nervous. He was aware of the fact that he had committed many crimes, all for the greater good though. Sure, the whole "luring Tom to Hogwarts" had not been entirely safe for the students, but he had thought that it would be worth it. That he would be endangering many heirs to seatholders of the Wizengamot…he should have considered that. And Amelia was doing a great job, that was for sure. But they all didn't understand it.
Not that it mattered. If Minerva and Harry continued to testify the way they did, he'd be sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in Azkaban. He'd just have to break out once Tom was making his move and then they'd pardon him either way and hail him as their saviour.
"Lady McGonagall, you were a witness to Lord Potter's placement at the Dursley family, his aunt and uncle, were you? What was your opinion?"
"Oh yes, I was there. I didn't like it, and that much I made clear. In my animagus form I watched the Dursleys during the day and I thought that they wouldn't be the right kind of people to raise Harry. Dumbledore though insisted that it were Lily's wishes and that she had erected blood wards around the place. To clarify that, yes they were there, but once I removed Harry from his family, shortly before first year I checked them myself and they were close to failing. Besides, Voldemort's servants could have simply hired a muggle thug to attack Harry. Or did the wards just work against Riddle himself?"
Now Amelia presented the complete Potter wills to the Wizengamot, and once the Lords and Ladies had read the list of potential guardians, the outcry was enormous. Lord Black was innocent and Dumbledore had known that, he had framed him to eliminate a potential guardian. The Longbottoms were at Halloween still healthy, Amelia and Minerva were respected members of society and Andi Tonks might have been shunned for having married a muggleborn in certain circles, but she was still respected. Remus Lupin was a werewolf, indebted to Dumbledore and on some mission abroad for him, so he was actually the only unavailable one. If the wills wouldn't have been sealed, Andi, Minnie or Amelia would have all taken him in, after Sirius was imprisoned and Frank and Alice attacked. That behaviour from a Chief Warlock was unbelievable.
Then Harry took the stand, and with memories as evidence, described both the horrors he had to experience at the Dursleys (and abuse of a child, especially an heir to a Noble and Most Ancient House was nothing the Lords and Ladies simply ignored) and how Dumbledore failed him as a guardian. Not once did he show up. Harry grew up without any knowledge of magic and his heritage.
After the evidence had been gathered, Amelia wanted to question Dumbledore, but Narcissa Malfoy got up and interrupted.
"Esteem Minister, Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot. I know we all have different views on society and what is right or wrong, but I doubt that anyone would disagree with me when I say that we value our children. What Albus Dumbledore has done to Lord Potter is inexcusable. Yes, I disagree with Potter and all he stands for, but placing a kid with hating relatives instead of named guardians, ignoring abuse and not teaching him anything about his title, our traditions and his role…no one should do that to a kid. I suggest that we vote on Albus Dumbledore's guilt instead of listening to his "greater good" speech once more."
Sirius, who kind of agreed with Cissy, intervened though.
"While I want to agree with my dear cousin, I can't. We all know that there is no way he could justify his actions, so let's not deprive him of his right to a fair trial. Let the old meddler speak, and let us all realise that he just wants Harry to fight Riddle and lose, so he can be the Defeater of both Grindelwald and Voldemort. Famous and infallible. Dumbledore is a cruel chess player, sacrificing all he needs, to reach his own personal goals. The Greater Good - I always wondered if he stole that phrase from Grindelwald or the other way around, seeing that they were lovers and aiming for world domination together."
That fact hadn't been public knowledge until now, but it caused an even bigger stir than all of the previously mentioned facts. Even Albus Dumbledore, the man who saw himself as perfect and infallible, knew that he'd be convicted. So…what would be the smartest thing to do? If he'd continue to fight the charges, then some of the darker Lords, those that had always despised him, might call for a dementor's kiss. Azkaban was unavoidable at that point in time. Should he just…
"Minister Bones!!
"Mr. Dumbledore?"
"I'd like to plead guilty of all charges. It is clear that under the current legislation my actions seem illegal, despite my good will. All I ever wanted was to protect young Harry from Voldemort's servants and give him the youth he deserved. That you might see that as an offence to your ancient traditions is understandable. Sirius would have just interfered with my plans, and once the wills were sealed, no one else was able to claim custody. It wasn't the best thing to do, but for my plans with Harry it did work out. And it would have worked, if Minerva wouldn't have interfered. But now...everything is different. I plead guilty and accept the ministry's punishment."
Amelia smiled. Dumbledore was making it easier than she would have expected. He might be fearing that the traditionalists, offended by his behaviour, might call for a dementor's kiss. Then she'd do him the favour.
"Good. Albus Dumbledore pleads guilty and will be sentenced to a lifelong sentence at Azkaban prison. May I see your votes, please?"
Needles to say, just minutes later, Albus Dumbledore got brought away. He lost the vote and would be portkeyed into Azkaban any minute now. Now it was time for the last trial of the day: Molly 'Howler' Weasley. That was a trial, filled with a lot of silencing charms, since the woman was pretty loud. Every attempt of bringing up the charges or the questioning of witnesses was commented with things like "I'M THE MOTHER OF SEVEN CHILDREN, SHOW ME SOME RESPECT, YOU BITCH" or "DON'T YOU DARE DENYING MY GIRL THE LOVE OF HER LIFE."
Minnie had luckily documented all the attempts of love potioning with some auror level spells that held up in court. The potions the aurors found in Ginny's trunk and at the burrow plus the potions in Arthur's system
Since Arthur, as her head of house, did deny her any legal council, Molly just continued to yell around. Sure, some of the darker Lords tried defending the usage of love potions (their ways of creating the marriages that they'd like weren't too different on numerous occasions) but Harry was a Lord after all, and so over three quarters of the Wizengamot voted for Molly to be punished in Azkaban prison for a decade. Not the high-security wing, but one with a bit less dementor presence.
"Lord Weasley?"
"Yes, Chief Warlock Greengrass?"
"First of all, I'd like to express that we are all very shocked and sorry for you. Such a horrid crime should have never happened in the first place and we hope that you'll recover from that and manage to keep your family together. On a personal note, if you ever need something, just floo."
Arthur Weasley, a sad smile on his face, thanked the Chief Warlock and looked around the Wizengamot. Many exclaimed that he could floo them too and smiled at him. He had the support of many people, and with them they'd manage just fine.
"Order! Not that I have a problem with all of you screaming out your support, but I wasn't done yet. What I wanted to say was that the Minister and I discussed that topic, and then decided to order a mandatory therapy for Ginevra Weasley, hoping that St. Mungo's mind healers can help her. The ministry would bear the costs for that. Is that acceptable for you?"
Arthur got up and smiled at the Chief Warlock.
"Thank you. I accept that ministerial order and want to add that I would have done that regardless of the ministry's financial support. I do hope that my little girl can be freed from all the manipulations and brainwashing."
After Molly's trial, the Session was finally over and Amelia unsealed the door. They had done it. Damage Control had been a full success, thanks to Fudge and the veritaserum they had made even more arrests, both people they hadn't known about and those where they hadn't found any evidence of their crimes. Sirius was free and Dumbledore wasn't. Now they could move against Riddle.
Once Minerva McGonagall arrived at Hogwarts, she made a trip to the hospital wing. Severus was still not awake, but Poppy had thought that he might wake up today.
And that then truly happened, while Minnie told Poppy all about the day's trials and their outcomes. During a quite hilarious imitation of Molly 'Howler' Weasley's shouts, the two ladies heard the potions master groan.
"Oh god, I think I am in hell and being tortured."
Minerva just shook her head in disbelief of that comment (grinning widely though) while Poppy burst out laughing and reassured the potions master that he wasn't dead.
"No worries, Severus, you're still alive. Minerva is just reenacting today's trials."
She then hurried over to him and checked on him, confirming that his magical core was healed and the connection with Riddle severed. Then Poppy scolded him for his recklessness and utter stupidity.
After the healer had calmed down and left, Minerva walked up to Severus, scolded him herself for not telling her his plan, but then filling him in on all that had happened. After about an hour of explaining, the headmistress was finished and could see that Severus was happy. Yes, he lost his arm, but it was a means to an end. Now he was free of both of his former masters. It all had worked out.
When all the Lords, Ladies and other seatholders left the Wizengamot, Harry said goodbye to Sirius and - once no one was in sight - hid underneath his invisibility cloak. He was already at the ministry, so why not use that to his advantage?
His destination was the DoM, or to be precise, the Hall of Prophecies. Thankfully the most unspeakables were working in secluded rooms, so he didn't run into anyone. Seeing the veil once again brought back horrible memories, but he tried ignoring that and just walked past it, until he finally reached the gigantic hall with the prophecies. Harry would - and could - never forget the route he had been walking in his dreams, so it wasn't hard to get to the prophecy.
For a second he wanted to smash it on the ground, but that was not his plan. Just yesterday he had called one of his house elves to teleport him into Potter Manor so he could look through the Peverell Grimoire. He recalled seeing a monitoring spell, which seemed ideal to him. It was not detectable and connected to his magical core, informing him when someone touched it.
That spell was what he was putting on the orb now. He couldn't hesitate anymore, or his absence might be noticed.
"Signum meus contactus"
He whispered those words and as soon as the blue stream of magical energy hit the orb, he was able to feel the connection to his core. Hopefully Riddle wasn't too different from the last timeline and wanted to get the prophecy. If a possessed Parkinson could touch it? Maybe that'd be the case and then they could go get both of them.
Now that everything was different, he'd have to hope for Riddle to show. Harry just hoped that things didn't escalate in a completely new way this time around.
Notes:
So, that's it for today. Some of you might think that this was pretty quick and fast forward, but well, I didn't want to spend too much time with that. We still have to face one (or even two) Dark Lord(s).
Looking forward to your feedback, see ya all next week
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