Chapter XXI

Crouch opened the hearing and hammered down on the podium with his gavel. "Disciplinary hearing of the 20th of June. Offences committed by Mishka Winifred Gryffindor, resident of Wool's Orphanage. Interrogators Bartemious Reginald Crouch Minister of Magic. Witness for the defense Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Charges against the accused are as followed, the defendant willfully committed one of the three unforgivable curses… The Cruciatus curse against the Headmaster of Hogwarts Armando Juan Dippet."

Mishka was seated dark circular room, it could have almost passed for a medieval dungeon. There was only one chair on the floor and she was sitting in it. Dumbledore was standing behind her pacing back and forth waiting for the trial to be officially opened. He looked down at the young girl, she had a thick cast on her arm. They had to break her arm while she was in holding; it was the only way to keep her from using magic. It was torture, but there was no other way since the wand was inside her body.

Dumbledore shook his head from the distraction and focused on the task at hand. In front of the two was a high podium where the minister of magic seated himself, and surrounding the minister was his full assemble of Wizengamot Wizards.

The room was deathly quiet as Crouch turned to Mishka, "What is your plea?"

Mishka was empty, she hadn't the emotion or energy to defend herself. She left her defense to Dumbledore who was kind enough to offer his services before the trial. Mishka didn't speak up right away so Dumbledore took the initiative. "We plea innocent."

Crouch nodded., "right, I hereby open the criminal case 3330333."-Crouch cleared his throat and shuffled through a few papers on his desk. "Did you or did you not produce the Cruciatus curse on Headmaster Armando Dippet on June fifteenth?"

Mishka looked up absently and shrugged. Dumbledore squeezed her shoulder lightly to remind her to behave during the trial. He knew there was no use in badgering Mishka at this time, so he let it go.

Mishka went through what Dumbledore had told her before the trial and said word for word what he had told her as if it were her script. "I did."

"Were you aware that this curse was illegal and so punished to life in Azkaban?" Crouch furthered his statement.

"I was not."

Crouch looked slightly taken back by her denial, "Where did you learn this curse, Ms. Gryffindor."

"I don't know."

"How do you not know, try and remember. Was it a teacher, a student, a book?"

Dumbledore gave Mishka a very firm look to remind her to watch what she said. She knew that she couldn't talk about the voice but denying it any further would be suspicious.

"The curse just became available in my arsenal when the events unfolded. I must have heard it and subconsciously stored it in my memory, but I do not recall when I learned it or how." She explained to the court.

Everyone looked down at Mishka, and Crouch shook his head in disbelief. The hearing wasn't turning out as Dumbledore was hoping it would.

Dumbledore spoke up to defend her testimony. "Mishka is a first year, and so has never been given a lesson on Unforgivable curses. There is no way she could have known what this curse would do, or what the repercussions would mean."

"But, how did she learn the spell than Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore had attended many hearings during his life and had learned the tricks of the trade in defense and prosecution. Telling a court that it wasn't your fault, the voice told you to would be pleading insanity and would send you straight to an insane asylum. He needed to find away around this.

"Mishka spends most of her time in the Hogwarts library with the Mr. Tom Riddle, who is also a student at Hogwarts." -Mishka's eyes nearly bobbled out of her head. How did he know about her library?-"I believe while reading she may have come across the term in a book, and as Mishka had said earlier, stored the curse in the back of her mind."

Whispering hissed across the room, Crouch hadn't an idea what to do. This was clearly a reasonable explanation and Mishka was just a little girl, but he had to be fair and prosecute with as much vigilance and accusation as he would in any other trial.

"Ms. Gryffindor still used the curse against a teacher, even if the word just whispered in her head, why would she use it? She had no idea what it would do?"

Dumbledore looked back at Mishka who was sitting quietly in her seat. Her face was blank as if she had already accepted her life sentence to Azkaban. The way this court hearing was going that very well could be the case. Barty was prosecuting her to the utmost degree even though she was only a child.

Dumbledore had no choice, he had to tell the court the truth of that night. Armando was Dubledore's friend, a very old and dear friend, but he had no right to put Mishka in this position. All year he had been targeting her and convincing himself that she was a threat to him, even to the world! Dippet was never so impulsive, his mind was clearly decaying with age and he needed to retire soon.

"The events that preceded this investigating today brought the rare event that caused Mishka to need magic against her teacher, Headmaster Dippet. On the evening of June 15th , Dippet had called Mishka into his office where he warned Mishka of the disciplinary consequences of her future intention to violate school rules. The headmaster while scolding Mishka went over the line and crossed Mishka's personal space. She was frightened and impulsively used the first curse she thought of. She had no idea what the curse was, what it would do, or that it was illegal." The room skeptically down at Mishka while they measured the reasonability. Dumbledore didn't want to take any chances and furthered the defense. "Let's not forget, the mind is a very mysterious thing. It'll hear something and store it in the memory for the future for when you may need to use it. It does not judge whether it is right or wrong to use it, it merely keeps memories as insurance. Ms. Gryffindor had no idea the severity of the curse, she only knew that she was frightened and that this curse may help her. We humans think of self preservation first, do we not?"

The members of the Wizengamot looked down at Crouch who was nodding in understanding, he had been convinced and this brought the other Wizards in the court reassurance.

"I see," Crouch stated. "Though the defendant used magic against a teacher AND violated a very strict law, I suppose-"

Crouch was cut off as a young man dressed in black robes walked into the court hearing. He almost walked like a solider would march, his knees lifted high and stepped down hard against the marble floor and his back stood straight up.

He cleared his voice dismissively, "I apologize for my tardiness, there was an urgent matter that was in need of taking care of."

Crouch looked up and gave the man a very pleased look, "Ah, Quinn Selwyn! No need to seat yourself I was just about to dismiss the case. Ms. Gryffindor you are hereby noticed by the court to be inno-"

Another inappropriate noise came from Selewyn to stop Crouch from finishing. "Minister, is this not the criminal case against Mishka Gryffindor for the illegal use of the Cruciatus curse?"

Crouch gave the boy a unnerved look, "It is?"

"Isn't the Cruciatus curse one of the unforgivable curses, and so punished with life in Azkaban?"

"In most cases-"

"It is an automatic sentence to Azkaban, so why is Ms. Gryffindor being let off?"

"Ms. Gryffindor is only a child!"

"So we let children torture their teachers?"

"Well no-"

"Than why is she being let off, Minister?"

Crouch paused, he hadn't thought that anyone would question his sentencing. "She didn't know she was going to hurt him, and was also unaware of the consequences."

Selwyn strutted in front Mishka and faced the entire court as if to distract them from their earlier judgment. "This child has been in the newspapers for the last two years, if we give her pardon the people will assume this is because she is a celebrity."

"-But, that is not the case!" Crouch defended.

"Isn't it? Think about that for a moment minister. Are you letting her off out of sympathy, or some personal feelings that you've withheld from court? I do believe that this is a mistrial!"

Dumbledore quickly jumped in front of Selwyn. "This is unjust! She's only a child!"

Selwyn tapped Dumbledore on the back grabbing his attention. Dumbledore turned around and faced his worst nightmare. "What is unjust is letting a celebrity walk free after she clearly invaded one of our most sensitive laws. The Minister cannot correctly make the right decree while he knows Mishka personally, as a lawyer wouldn't you agree Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore had no choice but to agree to this. He had been in many court hearings and often found himself nearly pulling out his hair when the verdict came back unjust. Mishka didn't deserve to go to Azkaban, but because Barty knew the child the decision would be questioned and will cause many within the magical community to question the ministry.

The trial would have to be moved to a different judge, one that had no affiliation with Mishka and hasn't been reading the newspapers. This would be very hard to find since Mishka was well known by everyone within the ministry and had been in the newspapers for the last two years.

Crouch looked back at the members of Wizengamot and saw they're darting eyes watching him as he made his decision. He didn't want to see any harm to this child, and because of the feeling of concern he had to declare this trial as a mistrial and send it to a different judge.

Before Crouch announced his decision he thought of all of the judges within Britain; he knew for a fact that they all knew Mishka through her father.

"This trial will be put on hold for the time being. Let the record show that this is a mistrial. Mishka for the time being will be held within solitary confinement until this trial resumes."

Crouch thought deeply on the location of the next location and found no way around it. The trial would have to be sent to a different country. Unfortunately the reassigning of the judge would be out of Crouch's hands, she could get anyone now.

A/N: New Chapter Release on Aug 17th.