Harry Potter and the Deck of 53

Chapter IV: The Law Prevails

"Thank you, Auror Tonks." Harry said as Tonks levitated his trunk into the house.

"Your welcome, Mr. Potter." she replied setting it down at the base of the stairs.

Harry frowned. "You can call me Harry." he said.

"And you can call me Tonks." she said. She turned around and promptly tripped over an umbrella stand made out of a hollowed out troll leg. A shrieking sound filled the hall at the sudden noise.

Harry jumped at first and already had his wand out, but quickly located the source of the noise. It was a painting of a very regal looking lady that was screaming obscenities. He walked over and stared at the painting.

The painting silenced for a moment before spitting, "What do you want, you filthy mudblood?"

"I'm waiting on you to finish your little tantrum." he said as if it was obvious. She gaped at him in shock. "Seeing as you have been rendered speechless I will have to bid you adieu." he said before snapping the curtains closed before she could say another word.

"HARRY!!" was the only warning he received before he was tackled to the floor by a brown blur.

"Jeez, Hermione. If you wanted to be on top, you could've just asked." Harry said in a light and airy tone.

Hermione 'eeped' and jumped off him with a blush rising on her cheeks. A loud guffaw announced the presence of his other best friend. Ron's gangly form appeared above him before helping Harry get back to his feet.

"And here I thought I was special." Tonks said. "Do you flirt with everybody that wears a skirt?"

"Only the pretty ones." Harry said, throwing a smirk in her direction. "Speaking of which." he added, turning to the group that had arrived after Mrs. Black's outburst. "Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, you two look absolutely stunning today."

Hermione let out a strangled coughing fit at his new behavior and Tonks muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "shameless". As for the two women, Ginny colored slightly and averted her gaze, but the Weasley matriarch just took it in stride, going and giving him a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you dear. You don't look bad yourself. You're certainly looking healthier this year." she said letting go of him. "Your growing so tall."

He had grown a good four inches. He now stood at a respectable 5'9". He just smiled and said, "Just catching up on some growing that I've been putting off. Been too busy."

"Well you all go upstairs. Dinner will be after the meeting is over." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Actually Molly," came a wizened old voice from the back that anyone could recognise. "I believe we should conclude the meeting. I will see you all next time."

Harry looked to Dumbledore's twinkling eyes. He was dying to use his technique on him, but couldn't let him know of his training. So instead, he just nodded his respect to the headmaster. "Always a pleasure to see you Headmaster." he said and looked back up to see that Dumbledore had averted his gaze. Harry frowned, but forgot about it.

"Likewise Mr. Potter." the Chief Warlock said before turning and walking back into the kitchen, presumably to use the floo.

"Well." Mrs. Weasley clapped to get everybody's attention. "Let's go and get you all fed."

"He's just like his father Remus." Sirius whispered to his long time friend from the back of the room.

"He's got more of Lily in him than you could imagine." the weary looking werewolf whispered back. They both stepped forward as Harry approached.

"Hello Harry." Remus greeted, nodding with a small smile on his face.

"Hey cub!" Sirius said boisterously and gave the boy a hug. "Its good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Sirius." Harry said with a big smile on his face. He didn't know his godfather that well, but he was always happy to see somebody happy to see him.

"Oi mate." came Ron's voice from the kitchen. "Get in here so we can eat! I'm starving."

Sirius raised an eyebrow in the direction of the voice and Harry just chuckled. Some things never will change.

*** *** ***

"Sorry we didn't write, mate?" Ron said, sitting on the bed after dinner.

"We would've, but Professor Dumbledore absolutely forbid us from it." Hermione followed up.

Harry just shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't sweat it. I'm not going to." he said and flopped on the bed opposite the other two.

"So you're cool with everything?" Ron asked, not quite believing that Harry wasn't blowing up at them.

Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Am I cool?! Of course not!" he exclaimed. They tensed waiting for him to blow his top. "I mean, Voldemort is still alive. I'm not going to be cool until I've remedied that."

Two sets of eyes bulged out at that proclamation, and another set just stared blankly at him. Ginny had joined them at some point. When that was, he didn't notice.

"Harry," Hermione began. "You-Know-Who is a very powerful wizard with fifty years of experience over you. Why don't you leave him to Professor Dumbledore and the Order."

Harry chuckled and said, "Hermione. Since my first year, I've had some Voldemort related encounter. What makes you think this year and subsequent years will be any different. He will keep coming for me until one of us is dead." He trailed off to leave a somber silence. "I just have to make sure its him and not me."

"So Ginny, how has your summer been?" Harry asked, light heartedly, as if they had not just been talking about mortal combat with the greatest dark lord in recent history.

"Just fine actually." she replied. "Its been rather boring. All we've done is clean this house all summer."

"Mine too." Harry said, resisting the urge to smirk. "You know its nice to finally talk to you. I don't think we've ever been able to hold a conversation before."

She blushed a tiny bit and bit out, "Yeah well. I got over that little school girl crush."

"Such a shame. I thought it was cute." Harry said and turned on the other female of the group as the redhead turned redder. "Hermione. How you be?"

Hermione sighed. "How you be? Really, Harry?" She sighed again and said, "I've been fine. Ginny just pretty much summed up how our summers been. Just cleaning."

"Oh." Harry said, then smiled really big and said, "That is really boring. I'm just glad its you and not me."

Hermione's eyes narrowed at him. "It is going to be you. Now that you're here, you're going to be helping us."

Harry quirked an eyebrow and smirked, as if to say 'We'll see.' He laid back on his bed just as two twin cracks sounded through the room.

"Harry." the twin menaces shouted as one.

"Good to..."

"see that..."

"our dearest Ronniekins..."

"and the smartest witch of the year..."

"are still alive after the sound..."

"thrashing you must have given them..."

"for not writing to you this summer." they finished together.

Harry smiled at the two. "Gred, Forge! Nice creepy twin thing. It is really refreshing." Then he laid back and stared at the ceiling as if it held the mysteries of the universe.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a brief look of worry. They had never seen their friend like this. It was down right weird.

"Don't you two be exchanging brief glances of worry when you think I'm not going to notice." Harry accused, not even looking away from the ceiling.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other in alarm. He hadn't even been looking at them. That settled it. There was definitely something going on with their best friend.

He sat up and looked at the assembled with a smirk and a very familiar twinkle in his eye.

*** *** ***

Was the minister trying to get himself on Harry's recently written "People Who Need to Die" list. Because there was still room if he wanted to reserve a spot.

Harry already didn't like the minister for his smear campaign he had been waging since the Third Task. Now he was screwing with the time for his trial. It was very low down and dirty. He could be arrested if he didn't show up to this hearing.

All these thoughts screamed through his head as he raced down a hallway, following Mr. Weasley as he led him to the courtroom.

"Here we are Harry." Mr Weasley said as they reached a door. "I'm sorry, but I can't accompany you inside. Good luck." He turned and left without another word.

Harry sighed deeply to calm his nerves. He had spent a lot of time studying laws to get himself out of this situation. He wasn't about to let all that preparation go to waste.

At 8:59, Minister Fudge stood from his seat to address the assembled wizards and witches of the Wizengamot. "Since the accused has failed to show up to court, I request that a warrant for his arrest be drawn up immediately."

At that moment, the doors to the court room opened with a bang to allow entrance to a smirking Boy-Who-Lived.

"That won't be necessary Minister. Seeing as I'm not late till 9:01, I can't be accused of missing my court date." Harry said in a pleasant tone. He walked up and took the only seat available.

"Mr. Potter." Fudge said in a falsely cheery voice. "I see you got the message of the change in your court time."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Obviously." he said, trying to hold back his obvious disdain for the man in front of him. If any Hogwart's student saw him right then they would have noted a remarkable likeness to the resident Potions Master, though none of them would be brave enough to say it to his face.

"Very well." Fudge said and cleared his throat to prepare. "The accused has been brought before the Wizengamot on the following charges: one count of underage magic, and violating the Statute of Secrecy by using magic in front of a muggle. Prosecuter is Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic..."

"Witness for the defense," a loud booming voice echoed from behind, "Albus Percival Wulfuric Bryan Dumbledore." The wizened professor walked to stand by Harry's chair in all of his majestic glory.

"Professor. I see you also got our message." the minister sputtered. He didn't seem too pleased that the old mage was in attendance.

"No. I must've missed it, but it just so happens that I arrived at the ministry three hours early." Dumbledore said off handedly. Then he pulled out his wand and conjured up a squishy arm chair.

Harry frowned at his headmaster. That old fool just had to piss him off. Why did he get a comfy arm chair when Harry was stuck with a hard stone bench. It was at this point that the minister had just asked him something, but he had no idea what it was. Maybe he should start paying more attention, lest he be sent to Azkaban for inattentiveness.

"I'm sorry minister. I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?" Harry asked sheepishly.

The minister sighed as he began to feel an abnormally large migraine in the back of his head. "Please pay attention Mr. Potter. This is very serious business we're talking about. How do you plead against the charges against you?"

"I plead not guilty to the violation of the Statute of Secrecy, and I plead self defence to the underage magic charge." Harry said in a subtly confident voice.

"How can you plead not guilty to violating the Statute. You clearly used magic in front of a muggle!" a toad looking woman with a shrill voice exclaimed.

"The muggles in question was my relatives and legal guardians who already new about magic through relation to me. You can't reveal a secret to somebody who already knows it." Harry said while inspecting his fingernails. If this kept up then he'd be out of this court room before supper time.

An outbreak of muttering went across the assembled. From what Harry gathered, they had not been told that piece of information, and Fudge had been counting on their ignorance to convict him. He smirked and looked to Dumbledore who was staring at him with that twinkle in his eye. He looked back to the Wizengamot just in time to miss the headmaster's eyes snap away from his own.

Fudge banged his gavel to bring the room to attention. Once complete silence had been restored he continued, "Be that as it may, you still performed magic, knowing that it was illegal for you to do so until you are the age of seventeen. For that you must be punished."

"I plead self def..."

"I hate to interrupt what I'm sure would be a rather well rehearsed story, but..."

"Minister Fudge." Harry intoned icily. "You have to let me present my case as I am representing myself. Even though I could declare today's case a mistrial because you've denied me my right to a proper attorney, I won't. It would drag this thing out even longer, and I would rather get this out of the way." He finished with a cold tone. Silence met his words, and he could see Fudge start sweating from his seat. Apparently he hadn't counted on Harry actually knowing anything.

"Very well Mr. Potter." the Minister said with a bit of dread in his voice. "Present your case."

*** *** ***

Harry walked out of the courtroom ten minutes later. He had completely blown the case out of the water. The head of the DMLE, Amelia Bones, had seemed particularly pleased with the severe thrashing he had handed the minister. She herself had led the charge to get him cleared of all charges.

He began to whistle a tune on his way to the floo when one of those paper airplanes ran into his head. Annoyed, Harry tore it off his head and threw it over his shoulder. Before he could keep walking, the same plane flew into the back of his head. Getting the hint, he took it and opened it.

'Three turns. JK.'

Recognising Joker's signature, Harry knew what was going on. He pulled a time turner out of his robe pocket and turned the hourglass three times. Luckily for him, there was no one in the hall at the time.

"Hello there Harry. Welcome to three hours in the past." Joker said with a smirk.

"What did you need me for?" Harry asked as Joker ducked them into a side room. He didn't mean to sound rude, but Joker could ramble if you didn't get to the point.

"First I would like to say good job on the case. I don't think anybody expected you to get yourself off. They all thought Dumbledore would have to step in."

"He would have had it not been for your training." Harry admited. "And for those books on wizarding law you provided."

"All of that is irrelevant. It was you who prepared for this. I just gave you the tools that made it possible." Joker rebuked. "Anyways, that is not all of the business we have for today." He pulled a small box from his back pocket and enlarged it. "I have some supplies that you might find useful in the coming war."

He pulled a black stretchy looking fabric out of the box first. "This is to be worn at all times. It goes underneath your clothing and will absorb most spells. It also takes the magic from those spells and creates a small shield to the rear of the person wearing it in a dome shape which will rebound low to mid-level spells. Downside is that it can't hold much magic and too much will cause it too malfunction. So don't count on it for your primary defence." He handed it over to Harry and pulled the next thing out.

It was a leather wand holster and a pair of fingerless gloves. "The wand holster is self explanatory. The gloves, however, serve a function other than making you look cool. They prevent your wand from leaving your hand through disarming, or summoning. While they would be illegal in a regulation duel, I don't think anybody is going to care when you're fighting Death Eater's"

The next thing was a vest that looked to be made of dragon hide. "Armor. It should be all the armor you need when you combine it with the under armor. Dragon hide tends to be stiff, so to retain maximum mobility you can't wear a lot of it. If you notice there is a symbol on the right breast." Harry looked to see a large white spade with an Upper case A in the middle of it. "That is so that you can be identified. It also has a very powerful tracking charm on it. If you are ever in distress, I can find you any where on the planet, and probably on the light side of the moon as well."

The next thing he pulled was of another stretchy material. "That is meant to cover the bottom half of your face. I would recommend you get a bandanna as well. You are kind of recognizable. We don't want anybody to get targeted because of us. They can't target anybody close to us if they don't know who we are."

He vanished the box and stood in front of Harry. "You need to hurry and get prepared. This war is coming quickly. I'm going to need this army up and running by the end of the year." he then bid Harry goodbye and glided out of the room with his robe swirling around him.

Harry quickly put his new things away and followed his leader. Things were heating up and he was starting to feel the ominous calm before the storm.

T.B.C.

1.) In one of my reviews for the last chapter, I got the question I was waiting for. I knew it would spring up. I didn't know it would be this soon, but I knew it was inevitable.

What pairings are there?

I don't care as long as it is male/female. Just review with your suggestion and I'll let the majority decide.

2.) I've gotten pretty positive feed back on my story. The one criticism I seem to get is my lack of explanation for Harry's confidence boost I realize this, and I may try to correct it later, but for now I can't think of anything. Just bare with it. This is my first story, so any more works I will try to heed the advice given.

Thank you and good night.