Summary: Harry Potter stands trial for the murder of Cedric Diggory
Characters: Harry Potter, Lucius Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore
Word Count: 1589
AN: Geez it's been at least 4 years since I've written fanfiction. Wow. I apologize for my overuse of commas. I have an affinity for them.
Also, I don't know anything about British law proceedings so this is going to follow American law. I like to think I'm pretty knowledgeable on this subject as I've been competing on my school's mock trial team for the past 3 years, but I apologize for any inaccuracies. I did cut out a lot of generic stuff because it is unnecessary to the plot, so no stipulations, ect. and Without further ado… I give you, "The People of Surrey v Harry Potter"
Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Ancient Runes: Write about a character shedding light on somebody else's secret
Extra prompts: Lucius Malfoy, Lawyers AU
"All rise for the honourable Judge Fudge"
There was a scraping of chairs as both both Plaintiff and Defense stood in respect for the stout judiciary official walking toward his position in the courtroom. Upon hearing Fudge give permission to be seated, Harry felt a twisting in his stomach. He knew he was innocent, but the evidence lined up against him said otherwise. Harry's defense attorney, Albus Dumbledore, had assured the boy that justice would see them through, yet months of having his face plastered across the papers declared as a murderer did little to sway public opinion in favour of Harry Potter.
"At this time the court calls to action the case of the People of Surrey vs. Harry Potter. Members of the jury, at this time we will be hearing the opening statements of each council. Would the Plaintiff please begin."
Harry watched Lucius Malfoy rise from his council table and turn toward the jury box, a smirk on the attorney's lips. It was no secret of the bad blood between Dumbledore and Malfoy ever since the court proceedings fourteen years prior whereupon Dumbledore managed to sway the jury verdict in almost every Death Eater Mob trails toward guilty, causing Lucius to lose his notoriety and respect as a leading defense attorney. Malfoy had then switched his practice toward Plaintiff cases and succeeded in avoiding Dumbledore at court up until the case at present. If Malfoy were to win the trial and have Harry pronounced as guilty, his prestige in the world of law would be restored.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, your Honour, council," Malfoy began, his drawling tone creating an air of self-importance, "On the morning of June 24th, 1995, Cedric Diggory began his day excited and ignorant to the horrors that he would face that evening. It was the final day of the Tri-school Tournament, a quadrennial competition between European schools promoting unity and understanding. Young Mr. Diggory had the good fortune of receiving the title of one of his school's champions and was a clear competitor for winning the entire tournament…"
The wringing in Harry's stomach grew more pronounced and aggravating. The reminders of the horrors he had witnessed the day of Cedric's death still vividly imprinted in Harry's memory almost three months after the event. Once Lucius finished his statement, Dumbledore took the floor. The aged lawyer explained to the court that while his client had been present at the murder, he played no part in it. The true criminal was none other than Thomas Riddle, ex-leader of the Death Eaters. Riddle, in fact, had not planned on killing Cedric. Harry Potter was is true intended victim.
Dumbledore ended his speech with a heartfelt reminder that Riddle had gone after the Potter family fourteen years ago and although he had vanished after the murder of Harry's parents, it had long been speculated that he had simply escaped to the continent and gone into hiding. Harry was then called up to the witness stand and the dread really set in. He caught Dumbledore's eye as he was sworn in, the twinkle of confidence easing the young man's nerves slightly.
The questions started out simple: who Harry Was, where he lived, how he knew Cedric. The pace began to change once Dumbledore began asking about Harry's involvement in the Tri-school Tournament. Both lawyer and witness were treading on slippery ground. One mention of Harry's success in the competition and Malfoy would twist Harry's image into that of an over competitive teen who would do anything to win. But if Harry skirted around the competition, Malfoy could claim that Harry was avoiding the truth.
"Moving your attention to the second task," Dumbledore started to say, "What was the challe—"
Lucius Malfoy was out of his seat before Harry could so much as process what was being asked. "Objection, your Honour! We are here to discuss the events of June 24th leading up to Mr. Diggory's murder, not listen to a retelling of a sport that occurred weeks prior."
Harry froze. Dumbledore had explained that his actions during the second event of the tournament was vital to proving Harry's character.
Without missing a beat, Dumbledore calmly replied, "Your Honour, if I may, Mr. Diggory died during the final event of this competition. Every aspect leading up to his death is of the utmost importance." Fudge overruled Malfoy's objection and Dumbledore asked his question again. "What was the nature of the challenge presented?"
There was a back and forth between Harry and Dumbledore over the second task. Harry explained that they were to swim in the school's lake and each champion had to 'rescue' a student floating on a buoy located half a mile into the lake. Dumbledore asked Harry to recall what exactly occurred during the challenge. Harry obliged and explained that one of the champions from the French school, Beauxbatons, pulled a muscle in her shoulder halfway into the task and was therefore unable to complete the task. The person she was supposed to rescue happened to be her younger sister and her buoy rested next to the person Harry needed to rescue.
Halfway into his explanation, Lucius Malfoy raised an objection to Harry's narrative responses. The break in the story forced Harry out of the swing he had got into with his answers to Dumbledore's questions, but the judge overruled the objection and Harry was free to continue. Once Harry explained that he rescued Fleur's sister—who happened to be afraid of deep waters—as well as his own person and successfully proved his good character without further interruptions from Malfoy, Dumbledore focused his attention to the night of Cedric's death.
At first it was easy for Harry to describe the event itself.
"What was the third and final task?"
"We had to go into a maze-like obstacle course thing and whoever reached the trophy at the centre first won."
"Would you please describe the maze?"
"Uh, yeah. It was a hedge maze and the walls were like 4 metres tall so you couldn't see anything outside."
"If you couldn't see outside, how was the audience able to see inside?"
"Well, there were supposed to be cameras inside the maze and a big screen was set up to watch, but something happened with the connection during the event. I'm not really sure when it happened, though, because I was inside the maze."
"Okay, and how would the judges know when the winner reached the cup?"
"It was rigged so that when someone picked up the cup, it would buzz."
But the discussion of what occurred in the maze brought a lump to Harry's throat.
"Did you cross paths with Mr. Diggory at all during the task?"
Harry took a breath, trying to force his voice to steady itself. "Yeah. Toward the end I ran into Cedric. I tripped over something while running and twisted my ankle. Cedric saw me limping and...and…" Harry's throat constricted again. The memory still fresh. Cedric asking Harry if he was all right. Cedric offering Harry his shoulder to lean on. Cedric helping Harry toward to trophy. Cedric suggesting they tie. Cedric shouldn't have had to die. Cedric was too good.
Sensing his distress, Dumbledore attempted to return Harry to the moment at hand. "What did Cedric do after he saw you?" He prompted.
Harry tried to shut down his emotions. Give Cedric the justice he deserved. After a beat, Harry recalled the rest of that horrid night. He talked about entering the centre of the maze with Cedric and seeing the cup. He talked about laughing with Cedric about how the tournament was to promote unity when they were really just pitting students against one another. He talked about their decision to show true unity and grab the trophy at the same time.
Then he talked about the sudden sensation of losing his wind and smashing to the ground. Harry described as accurately as he could the unmistakable guises of the Death Eaters, earning a scoff from Lucius Malfoy. The boy on the stand had to pause then, to stop his mind from pulling up images of Cedric's lifeless body smacking the dirt just moments after. Focus. Focus. Focus, he chanted.
"Once I recovered from the fall and seeing Riddle's mob, I looked around for Cedric. He was...he was being restrained by two Death Eaters. I couldn't see their faces because they were wearing black masks, but I knew that at least one was male."
Dumbledore looked at Harry with a soft expression and asked carefully, "How did you know that?"
"Because he spoke." He said, his voice somehow managing to remain steady. "He turned to the other person that was helping hold Cedric down and said 'Kill the spare!'". Harry changed the inflection of his voice to mimic the coldhearted hissing he had heard that night.
"Objection, your Honour! Hearsay!" Lucius Malfoy had jumped to his feet. "We have no person in this courtroom who can attest to the presence of these Death Eaters, nor do we have the supposed man who said," As he went on to further explain himself, Malfoy attempted to parrot Harry's tone at which he spoke. "'Kill the spare'"
It was as if someone had smacked Harry or hit him with a fierce uppercut. Before either Fudge of Dumbledore could respond to Malfoy's objection, Harry's voice rang out.
"It was you," He sounded hollow, as if the sounds leaving him had echoed within his bones, "You were the one who killed Cedric."
AN: I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I had a lot more with Lucuis' cross and the truth coming out then, but I felt like it would just get too repetitive with Harry having to pretty much recount everything again just with extra fear of his responses being taken the wrong way. In the end I just decided to stick with everything coming out on the direct.
I hope everything was okay. I've never written HP fanfiction and it's been ages since I've done any creative writing that wasn't an actual essay. I feel like this was pretty bland with too much lawyering, but I feel like it kind of had to be? I don't know. I'd love to know your thoughts. My writing style is kind of meh and I use wayyy to many run on sentences.
Thanks for reading, though
-Abby
