CHAPTER 9: Justice Is Served
A/N: Yeah, i don't own HP by the way. My Beta's computer's down, so get well soon Alethea27's computer! I'm lost without you! Please Review Guys xx Yes, had to copy the dungeon scene speech from the book. Sorry guys!
Bellatrix Lestrange, for the first time in her entire life, looked overwhelmed and shook her head disbelieving. Lily simply grimaced.
'Why did they deserve this? Why? Answer me!' Lily snarled, gesturing towards the two people at the back of the room. Bellatrix smirked nastily and laughed once again. Suddenly her eyes bulged hysterically and she pointed her wand at them and screamed 'CRUCIO!' They screamed, eyes rolling out of their sockets. She hissed nastily through the room.
'Where is he? Where is the Dark Lord? You know, I know you do!' she screamed. Frank and Alice continued to scream. An Auror stirred beside Bellatrix, but she did not realize or care. Blood poured steadily out of his head but he still managed to raise his wand.
'Stupefy!' he cried weakly and Bellatrix crumpled to the ground, motionless.
-
Lily Potter stood beside Barty Crouch's wife, who was deathly pale and whimpering slightly. Lily narrowed her eyes and glared at her. Her baby boy was the one that participated in the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom, and she was frightened for him? Him? Lily snarled again quietly. She turned to look at Mr. Crouch with intense dislike etched onto her pretty features and was pleased to see a nerve twitching in his temple.
'Bring them in.' his voice echoed coldly.
In came four people, flanked by six hooded Dementors. Lily shivered but did not feel any one bit of sympathy towards them. The Dementors placed each of the four people in the four chairs with chained arms that now stood on the dungeon floor. There was a thickset man who stared blankly up at Crouch. A thinner and more nervous-looking man whose eyes were darting around the crowd, Bellatrix Lestrange sat in the chained chair as though it were a throne and a boy in his late teens who looked nothing short of petrified. Lily, as did many around her, drew in a collective breath at his identity - Barty Crouch Jr.
Crouch stood up. He looked down upon the four in front of him and there was pure hatred in his face.
'You have been brought here before the Council of Magical Law," he said clearly, "so that we may pass judgment on you, for a crime so heinous -'
'Father," said the boy in his late teens. 'Father . . . please.'
'- that we have rarely heard the like of it within this court,' said Crouch, speaking more loudly, drowning out his son's voice.
'We have heard the evidence against you. The four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror - Frank Longbottom - and subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse, believing him to have knowledge of the present whereabouts of your exiled master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named -'
'Father, I didn't!' shrieked the boy in chains below. 'I didn't, I swear it. Father, don't send me back to the Dementors -' Lily shook her head disbelievingly. Bellatrix was smiling at her.
'You are further accused,' bellowed Mr. Crouch, 'of using the Cruciatus Curse on Frank Longbottom's wife, when he would not give you information. You planned to restore He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to power, and to resume the lives of violence you presumably led while he was strong. I now ask the jury -'
'Mother!' screamed the boy below, and the little witch beside Lily began to sob, rocking backward and forward. 'Mother, stop him. Mother, I didn't do it, it wasn't me!' Lily looked at her. Maybe she was too harsh on her earlier. What would she have done, if it was Harry sitting in the chained chair? Lily shuddered, pushing the thought away.
'I now ask the jury,' shouted Mr. Crouch, 'to raise their hands if they believe, as I do, that these crimes deserve a life sentence in Azkaban!'
In unison, the witches and wizards along the right-hand side of the dungeon raised their hands. The crowd around the walls began to clap, their faces full of savage triumph. The boy began to scream.
'No! Mother, no! I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't know! Don't send me there, don't let him!'
The witch cried openly and stole a glance at her husband. He was livid. Bellatrix finally looked away from Lily and called to Crouch, 'The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch! Throw us into Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us; he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We alone tried to find him!'
And failed, Lily thought triumphantly.
The boy was desperately trying to fight off the Dementors but they closed in on him. She closed her eyes and whispered to herself.
'Take me to Azkaban.'
Her conscience complied.