Alrighty then, here's the new chapter for TEE! I know you all have been waiting eagerly for this one. Now to answer what some of you must be wondering, the previous chapter has been replaced due to me reading it to remember where I am and I found some grammar problems that i felt needed to be fixed. Now, onto the story! Allons-y!
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Ministry of Magic, Courtroom Ten
Harry had been rather surprised at how quick everything had gone into getting Umbridge's trial started. It had only been three days since the incident after all. However, know that he thought about it, it was probably becuase Fudge didn't want the news of what his attack toad had been up to reaching the public. He could also appreciate the irony of how the toad's trial was in the same courtroom as his own.
Sitting in the designated witness section of the courtroom, Harry watched as the trial began.
Clearing her throat, Madam Bones began to speak as she gathered the attention of the courtroom. "This trial shall now be called to order Aurors, please bring in the defendant."
Harry watched as the side door to the courtroom opened with a team of Aurors leading in Umbridge, who was walking with her head held high as if she had done nothing wrong. He couldn't fight the frown that appeared on his face at that. How arrogant and stupid did you have to be to think you would be found not guilty over something so serious, and with such damning evidence? Hearing a small whimper from beside him, Harry looked over at the only other student who had the blood quills used on him, a second year Hufflepuff named Connor Neighbors with sandy hair and a slightly rounded face that was well on it's way to losing that baby fat. Placing a hand on the young boy's shoulder, the raven haired youth gave him an encouraging smile. "Don't worry, lad. She can't see us over here. That's part of the magics they use for the witnesses."
Seeing Connor straighten his back slightly and get a more confident look on his face, Harry turned back to see the toad be brought up to the chained chair.
Umbridge sat in the defendant's chair, the chains immediately coming to life and wrapping themselves up her arms so that she was bound to it until she was allowed to leave. The toad woman glared at the chains before moving her gaze to Madam Bones. "What is the meaning of this Amelia? I am the Under Secretary to the Minister of Magic! I shall not be bound like some sort of criminal!"
This made the entire courtroom go silent as everyone was rendered speechless. This woman believed, actually and honestly, that they were doing this for fun? That the charges against her weren't able to touch her because of her position in the Ministry?
Harry, as well as many others, couldn't stop themselves from facepalming as they realized that, yes, this woman was that stupid.
Shaking herself from her stupor, Madam Bones returned the glare with one of her own. "Dolores Umbridge, you are being brought to trial for criminal offenses and shall be treated like one. Now, the charges are as follows: assault of a minor, illegal possession of a blood quill outside the walls of the Ministry of Magic or Gringotts Bank, as well as aggravated assault and attempted murder. How do you plead to the charges?"
Bringing herself up to her full seated height, which was honestly barely taller than Dobby was tall, Umbridge looked up at the Wizengamot. "Obviously, I plead not guilty."
Shaking her head, Madam Bones took to her parchment again. "Noted. Now, to begin with, we shall start with the physical evidence. First we have exhibit A, a bag of blood quills that was found in the drawer of your desk in your office as professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
As she spoke, an Auror brought out the bag while levitating it with his wand, a second Auror beside him using his own levitation spell to bring the blood quills out of the bag to show the courtroom. This caused the courtroom to erupt in furious whispers, wondering who had given her so many and how their loss wasn't reported.
Banging her gavel to gather the attention of the courtroom, Madam Bones moved on to the next piece of evidence listed on her parchment. "Now, exhibits B and C are related due to the fact that they are the result of many hours of the use of the blood quills in question."
The Aurors brought out two pictures from the folder regarding the cases evidence before making them float in the air and enlarging them for the courtroom to see. On the left was Harry's hand, only no one else knew it was him at the moment, with the words "I must not tell lies" permanently carved into his skin. On the right was a much smaller hand with the words "I shall respect my betters" carved into it.
This garnered more cries of outrage from the governing body, all calling for the woman to be sent to Azkaban immediately. However, Madam Bones was not going to break protocol. After all, she was the one who put an emphasis on such things. Once more banging her gavel and gathering the attention of the room, which took a few minutes, she proceeded with the trial in the way it is supposed to go. "Now, the defendant shall be removed from the room so that the defendants may come forward with their testimonies. Auror's, if you will."
The Auror's nodded and brought the woman out of the chair, the chains falling limp, and onto a small room within the courtroom so that she wouldn't know who was helping damn her with the government, even though she had done such a superb job on her own. Once the door was closed and locked with the silencing spells and runes in place, Madam Bones cleared her throat before calling out to the witness area. "Will the first witness please come forward and present your testimony."
Looking over at the young boy, Harry gave him a smile and a gentle squeeze on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you got this. Just tell the truth and all will be fine."
Nodding towards his fellow student, the young Hufflepuff began walking down from the witness area and to the much more welcomg chair that the Auror's had supplied. No need to make the witnesses sit in a chair meant for criminals after all.
Sitting down, the second year looked up towards the imposing, but now much warmer, face of Madam Bones. Looking at her parchment, Madam Bones began reading from it as to confirm the identity of the student in front of her. "You are Connor Norman Neighbors, second year Hufflepuff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, child of Tyler and Amelia Neighbors, correct?"
Clearing his throat, the young man looked up with as much courage as he could muster. "Yes, ma'am."
Sending the boy a warm smile, Madam Bones placed her hands together on the table in front of her. "Now Connor, if I may call you that, will you please tell the Wizengamot just what led to the defendant giving you detention and using the blood quil on you?"
Nodding, Connor gathered up his nerves before speaking in as clear a voice as he could. "Well, I'm a muggleborn wizard, so i'm still learning what i can about being a wizard outside of classes. I was having a discussion with another student about some sports that wizards might play other than quidditch and was wondering if any other students might want to play some of the muggle sports i played while in school before coming to Hogwarts. We were walking down one of the corridors on the way to the Great Hall when an older student from Slytherin heard our discussion. She started saying how stupid i had to be, thinking that any of the students would want to play any, as she put it, "filthy barbarian sports", when all wizards have needed for centuries is quidditch. To be honest, i got really mad about it. I really enjoyed all the sports i played back in the muggle world. So i started defending them. Around that time is when Professor Umbridge came up. She had heard the conversation, and gave me detention for starting a fight in the corridors."
Here, Connor stopped and lightly rubbed his hand before taking a deep breath and continuing with his tale. "When I arrived at her office, Professor Umbridge made me sit in a desk in front of her own that had the quil and a piece of parchment. She told me that i should have known better than to be spreading around ideas of practicing "filthy muggle sports" and that I shouldn't have argued with an older pureblood student. Thats when she told me to begin writing my lines with the words "I shall respect my betters.""
Trying to keep her anger off of her face, Amelia sent the boy a grateful smile. "Thank you Connor, you may go back to the witness area now."
Getting up from his seat, Connor gave the witch a grateful nod before heading back to the witness area. Sitting back down, Connor immediately slumped down and let out a heavy breath. "That was much more draining than i expected."
One of the Auror's standing in the witness area gave the boy a smile before handing him a bottle of pumpkin juice. "You did great out there, lad. With that alone her fate is set. But once Mr. Potter steps out and tells his testimony, I don't think she's going to have any chance of getting out of Azkaban."
Taking the bottle with a grateful smile, Connor looked towards Harry as he stood and began walking out of the witness area. "Thank you for earlier, Harry. I don't think i could have done nearly as well without your support."
Harry stopped just shy of the door way and sent the boy a small smile over his shoulder. "It was no problem, Connor. I do my best to help anyone who needs it after all."
And with that, Harry walked out of the witness area and into the courtroom proper, hearing but ignoring the gasps and shouts of outrage at their "beloved Boy-Who-Lived" being forced to use a blood quill.
Sitting down in the witness chair, Harry looked up to Madam Bones and gave her a small nod, showing he was ready.
This was a long time coming.
