The Third Time is a Charm

Posted 18 March 2010

Chapter 88 The Verdict

“Order!” rap, rap, rap went the gavel on the old mahogany wood pedestal the Minister was standing next to. “Order!” Minister Bagnold demanded again. This was getting out of hand. She motioned for the auror to come next to her side so she could speak with him and be heard.

“I want you to get Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour in here now. Tell him to bring Sirius Black with him and a few more aurors. Do it quickly!”

The auror, who was not comfortable in the room with everyone screaming, hurried on his way to do the Minister’s bidding. He had never been witness to such proceedings before and had a feeling things were going to get worse before they got better. Imagine, Headmaster Dumbledore, admitting to placing a sex slave brand on the wizarding world’s savior. A baby! How did the old man hope to get away with that? He was well known and well respected, why would he need to do that? The young man was thinking about all the implications as he ran through the corridors looking for his boss.

Back in the courtroom, the Minister finally got the room quiet. She looked off to the side and thought she saw Rita Skeeter in the sidelines but then she vanished before she could get a good look at her. She couldn’t see the men sitting there under the cloaking spells that had just included the reporter under their shield. Said reporter didn’t even notice as she was scribbling furiously. She was rapidly becoming well known as a serious and evidently well connected journalist.

It was almost four post meridiem before the room had quieted. The Minister wanted to ask Petunia Dursley one more question. “Mrs. Dursley, you have told us that Sirius Black was not the Potter’s Secret Keeper. Do you have any idea who was?”

“Sure,” the young woman said as the baby started to wiggle around on her lap, “Lily said Peter Pettigrew was keeping her secret and she said he was an animaji… no… an animaned… no… he was ...”

“An animagus?” the Minister finished for her.

“Yes that’s it!” Petunia’s eyes lit up as if in relief, like it was exactly what she had been trying to say.

“Does…” The Minister started to say just as the door flew open and Sirius Black was escorted into the room. He was covered in grime and was shackled around his ankles and wrists and was being dragged more that led into the room.

“I didn’t kill the Potters, I tell you, and we were best friends! James was like a brother to me, I would never hurt him!” Evidently no one had told him why he was coming to the courtroom. The young auror that had gone to get him knew his innocence was already established.

Rap, rap, rap went the gavel again. “Mr. Black, you will be silent in my court or you will go back to the holding cell. Do I make myself clear?”

Sirius Black looked around the room for the first time. At first he thought he was on trial, which was better than not having a trial, but he wasn’t sure why all these people were here. There was a young woman in the witness box that looked familiar, but he couldn’t remember from where. The baby that was facing her looked like it might have been Harry, but he couldn’t see his face from where he was standing.

“Mister Barstrum, would you and your team be willing to represent Mister Sirius Black as a purely logistical measure in order to expedite matters?” the Minister asked of the three barristers sitting in the counsel box.

“Mister Black is a member of Narcissa Malfoy’s family. As long as Mister Malfoy has no objections we will facilitate in this matter, as we are his family attorneys.”

Lucius Malfoy stood to address the Minister, “I have no objections Madam Minister. I would, however, like to do a bit of magic to make him more presentable.” The Malfoy Lord grinned at Sirius before receiving permission then a thorough scourgify spell later, and a transfiguration of the awful clothes he had on, they were able to sit back down. It was as if Sirius had been hit with a stupefy hex. Here was Albus Dumbledore in the chair for the accused and Lucius Malfoy, alive and well, helping him in court. His world had turned upside down. He sat with a thud and a blank look on his face.

“Now,” the Minister started, “where were we?” She looked pensive for a moment before her eyes cleared. “Ah yes. Mrs. Dursley has just told us that Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper for the Potters. Does anyone know where he is?”

Rufus Scrimgeour answered from next to his prisoner, Sirius Black. “Madam Minister, Peter Pettigrew was found, the night of the Potters’ death, outside their home across the street. He had succumbed to what ever it was that killed the other Death Eaters.

Sirius looked up at that. He was dead? What was that about the other Death Eaters? If they were dead, why were Lucius Malfoy and Snivellous sitting in the courtroom instead of dead with the rest? Keeping in mind that Malfoy allowed his attorneys to represent him, he put a lid on his temper and kept his mouth shut. Could it be he actually had a little self preservation after all? Sending a few days in a holding cell and fearing a trip to Azkaban would change anyone.

“This court will now call Sirius Black to the witness stand,” the Minister said. “Do you have anything against taking veritaserum, Mr. Black?” Sirius conferred with the men and told them he had nothing to fear.

“Madam Minister, we would like to request the right of objection to any questions not directly related to the night of October 31, 1981.” One of the attorneys interjected.

“So granted,” the Minister said with a rap of the gavel.

Sirius took the stand and only answered four questions. Yes, he was Sirius Black, yes he knew the Potters. No he was not the Secret Keeper and yes Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper. He then went back to his seat and waited for the verdict.

“Given the circumstances and the ensuing testimony here today, I release Sirius Black and declare him innocent of all charges.” The Minister once again rapped once with the gavel. The magic in the room instantly removed the shackles he had been wearing. “We will declare the trial of Albus Dumbledore to start tomorrow. Anyone in this courtroom that has an objection please speak now.”

No one would speak after the horrible testimony already heard from the Headmaster and they all agreed to reconvene at nine ante meridiem.

Moony was moving towards Sirius when Becca (still as Petunia) came forward to meet them. Becca had started to say something when Moony cut her off. "Sirius?" the dark haired man turned to his old friend. "Come on Sirius, I think explanations are way over due and it will be better if we go somewhere else."

Sirius was still in a state of shock. In the last few days his best friends died, their child was taken away, he was almost sent to Azkaban prison, Peter died and Albus was arrested. There was only so much a young man could take before his brain shut down for a rest. In his distracted state, Moony took hold of his hand and led him out of the courtroom.

The attorneys were in conference with Lucius Malfoy and the others, not wanting to intrude, left to go home. They knew Lucius would have to go home and check on Narcissa and they would most likely not see him before court tomorrow.

When they returned back to Prince Manor, baby Harry was wide awake and wanting to play. Moony took Sirius back to his place so he could take a proper bath and “get the stench of that place off him” as he had asked. Moony loaned him some clothes (now there was a twist, usually it was Sirius loaning the clothes) and then they flooed to meet the others and see the baby.

Back at Prince Manor…

While Moony and Sirius were getting reacquainted, Harry was talking to Regulus on the floo. “Reg, did you go and talk to the acromantulas yesterday?”

“Sure did Harry, why?” Regulus answered with a smirk. He wondered if Harry had seen the spiders’ surprise.

“Reg, did you happen to take Evan’s spider with you to visit with his family?”

“Sure did Harry, the little tyke was homesick.” Regulus was trying to hold in his laughter as he said that.

“Do you happen to know if he came back with any friends?” Harry asked the younger Black suspiciously.

“Oh, right, he wanted to have some friends over for a few days. I didn’t think you would mind.”

“Do you happen to know why Petunia Dursley is outside screaming about freaks and a policeman was at my door asking questions?”

“Might have something to do with the party the spiders wanted to have.”

When he cut off the floo and turned to go back into the living room of number three Privet Drive, he heard the uproarious laughter of the others in the room. He couldn’t help but laugh himself and he sat next to Severus who was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down his face.

They looked out the window again to watch the scene. There before their eyes, not even a week after receiving ‘their freaky nephew’ was a spider’s web. Webs, hundreds of them that appeared overnight, literally covering the whole property of number four. Webs across the lawn, on the bushes, on the windows, on the roof, on the fence, hanging from the soffits and there were actually a few small animals dead in the webs. It was like a hundred spiders converged on the one house and decided to roost there.

Every inch of ground was covered in webbing. The really strange thing was that the webbing stopped exactly at the property line. Not one centimeter was left uncovered on the Dursleys’ property and not one centimeter was touched on anyone else’s property. They watched as Petunia was screaming at an exterminator to do something about this.

That was where Moony and Sirius found them when they finally arrived. Sirius didn’t understand what was going on, until they explained that was Petunia Dursley’s house. He got very distraught thinking that she would take this out on little Harry, until they pointed to the baby in a play area sectioned with the other three children. Evan (who looked a lot like Harry), Lillian and Teddy were all playing with Harry. Second, Third, Forth and Sixth Born were all in the play area with them.

“Why are there snakes with the children? They could be dangerous!” said Sirius as he started to pull out his wand and make his way across the room.

“I don’t think the children would appreciate you harming their familiars,” drawled Severus from the sofa where he was sitting with Harry.

Harry spoke up then before the situation got out of hand, “Moony, I believe it would be more beneficial if you took Sirius to the war room and started explaining things. That will give you about…” he looked at his watch, “fourteen days to bring him up to speed before we have to leave for court.”

Moony nodded his head and looked at Sirius, but his friend was trying to puzzle out what the young man was saying and why he looked so much like James Potter. Moony tugged at his arm and said, “Come on Sirius, this will take a great deal of explaining and we might as well get comfortable.” Sirius felt like he was in a perpetual daze. Every where he turned, he was seeing and hearing things that just couldn’t be happening. It was almost like he had shifted to another dimension.

Harry then went to the floo and called Regulus to come and visit with his brother. Tomorrow would be soon enough to see some of the others after they went to Albus’ sentencing.

After the excitement of watching Petunia go ballistic, the topic of conversation was how to get the brand off of little Harry. They could also detect blocks on his magic, just as Albus had done in Harry’s own time line. Salazar had gone to confer with the other founders’ portraits to see what they might know. He missed the wonderful event above ground but Becca was just waiting to tell him.

Becca flooed Alice and Frank Longbottom, in the meantime, to let them know what happened with Albus Dumbledore in court. She didn’t want them to be surprised when the Daily Prophet came out the next day.

Poor little Harry was very shy around the other children. He was still feeling disoriented from everything that had happened. Every now and then you could see his eyes tearing up again, but Lillian would give him a hug and then make Evan give him one, then they would both make Teddy give him a hug. Sometimes Second Born would wrap around his stomach and hiss at him and he would settle down.

The adults toyed with the idea of taking him to see his parents, but thought that would be even more traumatic than not having them around. They vowed to speak with Doc tomorrow after coming back from court to see what he thought about the situation.

Salazar came bursting into the room about an hour later, just as the children had finished eating and were being bathed and changed for bed. Becca and Harry left them with the nanny elves to go see what he was so excited about.

“I believe we have found a solution, but it will be risky.” Salazar said.

“We are not doing anything ‘risky’ with little Harry,” Severus said with his former ‘Potions Master Severus Snape’ snarl on his face. . He didn’t know what Salazar was thinking, but ‘risky’ was definitely out.

“I agree with Severus, nothing risky.” Harry backed up his husband.

“I didn’t mean risky for the child, I meant risky as in it may not work.” Salazar shook his head at the two overprotective father types.

“What is it you came up with?” Becca asked, glaring at the other two men in the room.

“A ritual that would send the brand and magic back where it came from, and cancel the magic used to place it there. It is almost like a contract and we are his family and can demand it be canceled because it was an illegal contract.”

“What is required?” Severus asked Salazar, with some interest, now that he knew the baby would remain safe.

“That’s the tricky part. We need seven souls to do the ritual. Not just any seven, they would have to be blood or bond related. They would have to be close to the baby to be able to demand that magic send it back.”

“Well, we have two blood relatives right here. Will Evan and Lillian be able to do this with just their presence? How does this ritual work?” Severus asked.

He explained for the next hour what needed to be done and they were trying to determine who would be the best to complete the ritual. They would have to discuss this with the others tomorrow after going to court. It could wait a day or two now that Albus was detained.

The next morning ‘The Daily Prophet’ landed with a thump on the dining room table.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE DETAINED IN MINISTRY HOLDING CELLS

The article went on to say that he risked the life of a child by using questionable magic to brand it with a slave brand…

Severus smiled in relief. In his timeline, this story would have Harry’s name in it and would have made a big issue of the brand being a sex slave brand and what it meant. She did not reveal any of this and stuck with the real issues at hand. She also didn’t mention when the trial was so they would not be mobbed this morning.

They went to the ministry a half hour before the trial and sentencing. Becca, this time, went as herself, telling others that she had to bring the baby as Petunia’s own son was feeling ill.

Actually, after the hysterics of yesterday, everyone was sure Petunia was feeling ill and would not have come to a ‘freak show’ as she would have put it. They had to bring Harry in case the brand had to be examined again.

No one needed to hide themselves as it was an open court. The only reason the court had been closed before, was it involved a child. Now there were plenty of spectators around the room, including Minerva McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Molly Weasley, the whole Black family as well as Moony, Severus Snape and what Harry and Severus had affectionately dubbed as the Grandfathers (Silver and Black). They also saw several of the, now defunct, Order of the Phoenix members.

Rita, of course was there (in bug form on Severus’ shoulder) even though no reporters were allowed. She didn’t mind staying in her animagus form for another exclusive. By the time this was over, she would have enough material for the next two weeks!

As the hour of nine ante meridian was upon them, the Wizengamot filed in. Each distinguished member in their plum robes walked as if in a single file march, taking their seats. After the Wizengamot was seated, Minister Bagnold came through another door and took her place at the podium.

“This court is now in session,” said one of the aides sitting next to her. She then banged her gavel once on the surface of the wood and so the trial of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore began.

Lucius and his attorneys had come in just before the Wizengamot members. They not only had the usual curiosity that everyone had, but they used the excuse that things could come up that may need to be addressed and they wanted to know first hand what was said.

Dumbledore had managed to hire a very impressive attorney (not as impressive as the Malfoy attorneys but impressive all the same) and he used every trick in the book to try to get the man off.

An expert from the Department of Mysteries examined the baby and proclaimed that, without a doubt, an unregistered form of magic was used to enslave the child. The Minister then, using a large pensieve that allowed the memory to show above so everyone in the room could see, viewed a copy of the confession of the old Headmaster from the previous day.

“I intended to have Harry raised in an environment that would allow me control of his power,” said the wispy image of the old man. “He will be great someday and I know he needs much discipline and self control.”

“How were you going to gain control of the young child?” this question asked by someone unnamed in the Wizengamot.

“I intended his relatives to put strict controls on him and I would start training him when he started Hogwarts,” answered the image.

“Why did you place a brand on such a young child?” another member asked.

“I needed to keep track of him and later I wanted to control him by controlling who he spent his life with.” Dumbledore replied.

“He is not yours to control, you were not put in charge of his well being,” another member reminded him.

“That is why I had to act quickly. I wanted his power to control,” the image slurred, the veritaserum obviously affecting him. He had been fighting the effects of the potion. He could trick other truth potions but this one compelled him much harder and he couldn’t fight it. The harder he tried to throw it off, the faster the worked to restrain him.

“How can the mark be removed?” someone asked from behind the Minister.

“It can’t. The brand is permanent. He will be tied to my family forever. If something happens to me then my brother is next in line.”

Minerva McGonagall was sitting in her seat, stunned. She could not even fathom how this person on trial was the same man she had worked with for decades. It was as if she were looking at the trial of a completely different person. Her heart sunk at the implications. Harry, little Harry Potter was branded as a sex slave.

Several of the ladies in the room were sick to their stomach and left quickly. A few of the Order members that had come were turning green in the face from the revulsion they felt at what this man had done to an unprotected orphan.

Regulus, who had not been in court the day before, lost all the color in his face as he came face to face with the reality of what he had already been told. It was one thing to hear it as if in the past, and quite another to see it in front of you. His mother, who was sitting beside him, was pale and had a stoic expression on her face, but he knew his mother was just as revolted as he was.

Remus Sr. had sent a silent stunner to Sirius as he had started to get out of his seat. Sirius was beet read in the face and he just knew the young man was ready to explode. Moony who was sitting between Severus and Sirius noticed the stiffness of his friend and turned behind him to give Remus Sr. a smile of thanks. Sirius had just gotten out of the detainment cells in the bowels of the Ministry; he didn’t need to go back for attacking people in front of the entire Wizengamot, even if everyone else wanted to do the same thing.

Becca was sitting in front of Moony with the baby. He was getting squirmy and looked over Becca’s shoulder. It was a quiet moment at the trial and everyone heard the baby softly say, “Moo” and watched as he held his arms out. Moony took the baby in his arms and felt all eyes on him as he pulled the child into his lap so he could look out into the room. Several of the women were wiping their eyes and looking at the small one with such compassion that Moony knew little Harry would always be a soft spot in their hearts.

Several of the members of the Board of Governors for the school were at the trial. They, too, didn’t look too happy with the current events. They would have to find a new Headmaster and soon. The school could not function without a figurehead.

The Wizengamot members had finished collaborating and were now ready to announce the verdict.

“Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you will stand and face me for your punishment.” She watched as the old man got to his feet and stood looking her in the eye as if he thought he was going to get off. As if he was right in what he did and should be congratulated for coming up with a way to control the child.

“You sir are found guilty of unlawfully enslaving a child. You are found guilty of using unauthorized magic and you are found guilty of child endangerment. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore you are hereby remanded to the wizarding prison Azkaban for a period of two months when you will be, at the end of that time, given the dementor’s kiss.”

“Thus concludes our trial of Albus Dumbledore on this day, November 7, 1981 at 12:17 post meridian.” The Minister announced then rapped the gavel three times. The Wizengamot then stood as one group and walked in single file through a door at the back of the room.

Everyone inside the courtroom was talking all at once. Severus, Harry, Moony and Becca spoke to the others of their group just before making a quick exit. They needed to get the baby out of there before the crowd in the room descended on them. The child was traumatized enough without everyone trying to paw all over him.

Sirius, who showed up later at Prince Manor, walked into the room with Snape and Salazar and said, “Alright, would someone tell me what is going on? I know what Moony showed me in that room of yours but you have to agree this is a little unbelievable. So who is the prankster in the group that could pull off such an elaborate scheme?”