Breathe in, breathe out.
I repeated this to myself as I followed Harry towards the court room. When I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. Harry told me to concentrate on breathing, and I would feel better. It wasn't working.
I don't even remember what happened from when I walked in, through most of the trial. I can remember lots of people staring at me, but I kept my eyes trained on him. He looked tired, but that was expected.
The trial seemed to go on for hours, but was over in a second. About halfway through the trial, they said my name.
"Ms. Ana Walker, please step forward."
Harry put a hand on my arm and I wondered if it was to comfort me or to make sure I didn't fall over. I slowly stepped up. I don't remember moving from there, but I was suddenly sitting in front of him.
"Hello again. Surprised you haven't died by now." He started.
"I try." My voice broke. I cleared my throat and started again. "How did you get here? What horrible, messed up stuff happened to you to land you here? … Again." I added.
"Well you see tragic back story, blah blah blah."
"You do realize, that's what I'm asking. For the 'tragic back story, blah blah blah'."
I heard a few people snicker. The wizarding world's most wanted criminal was being ridiculed by a seventeen year old.
"My mother and father abandoned me when they found out I was a freak." He used dramatic and unrealistic expressions to portray his lack of care for the subject.
"That's wonderful. How did it lead to… 'this'" I gestured up and down at him.
"Well you see, with no life is the muggle world, and everyone judging me in the wizarding world, I would do just about anything to make someone laugh." He sounded monotone, like this didn't mean anything to him… but it had to mean something.
"You terrified people. The only person who got a laugh out of this, was you. I just want to know the benefits of this."
"I guess there were none."
I knew it.
I quickly reached into my pocket and pulled out a letter.
"Mr. Dolumuritz, do you know what this is?"
"Should I?"
His voice was careless. He stared at my with blank eyes.
A small smile crept onto my face. "Why yes, you should. I believe it was you who sent me the letter. Almost… 2 years ago?"
His eyes grew wide with fear. "I-"
"Don't remember that, do you? Why don't I freshen your memory.
"You once told me you wanted me to join your 'circus'. You mentioned two people with you."
I've got someone who can see the future, someone who can create illusions, and then there's me, but none of us are very smart.
"But I knew, that wasn't it, because you couldn't have made it this far with a circus of only three clowns.
"Then, you proved my right, by showing up with your friends."
The doors burst open and around ten people walked out. One of them was Dolumuritz.
His group was mostly men, with 2 or 3 women in the mix. They were all around the same age, 30-40, all carrying wands.
"And I have a feeling, that wasn't all of them.
"However, we're talking about the year before. I reacted to you, and you hesitated."
"You think making yourself into a story I like, will change my opinion on the people who killed my parents, my sister?"
"We thought-"
"You thought wrong. Next time, if you were going to pick someone from a story to appeal to me, pick the good guys."
"I could see it in your eyes, the doubt and then you fled."
"Ana!" It was Harry, he had found me. "Expelliarmus!"
But just like that, Dolumuritz was gone.
"What happened to you on that night?"
"I don't- It's none of your-"
"You don't remember? Oh that's terrible.
"Don't worry, I can figure it out. You collect people with special talents, isn't that right? Well, does one of them, perhaps, know about memory's?"
He didn't reply, only glared at me.
"I'll take that as a yes. Well, your leader must have noticed your hesitance. They were worried about your alliance, and decided it was best to eliminate your doubts once and for all."
I got tunnel vision. The world only consisted of me and him. And I was on a roll.
"You knew their plans, and instead of running away, you decided to set yourself up. You created a word to trigger your memories. But only in your most desperate situation."
I picked up the note. It said:
VS VG TBRF JEBAT, GRYY ZR ZL ANZR. LBH'YY SVAQ VG, V'Z FHER.
"Welcome to desperate situations, Mr. Samuel Howard Wood."
He blinked. Again. His eyes widened.
"You did it." His voice was frightened.
As he looked around, I remembered I had an audience to please.
"Mr. Wood, now that you're awake, would you mind telling these lovely onlookers who broke into an Azkaban cell all those years ago and let you go. Who made you a deal to rule the world, frightening and amusing people as you go? Who brainwashed you into forgetting everything, but your cause, causing you to become a puppet for them?"
He looked me straight in the eyes and smiled. He was getting his revenge. And not on me, on…
"Ms. Lavender Brown."
A unified gasp ran through the crowd.
"I believe she's in this audience currently. Hello!"
He waved behind me and I turned to see an older woman rushing to get out of the room.
Too bad she was seated in the middle of a crowd.
Within thirty seconds, people were restraining her. I stood from my seat and walked back to Harry.
As I passed her, I really quickly said, "You were a great leading player," and winked at her.
"That was amazing." He stood there in shock, watching them take a screaming Lavender, and satisfied Samuel away.
"Thank you."
"You shouldn't have hid the letter though."
I tilted my head slightly at the comment. Did he not just see me convince a murderer to fess up to his crimes?
"They're going to be on your back about that for weeks, they still don't trust you."
I gave him the widest grin I ever had.
"Let them. I have nothing to hide anymore.
Lavender Brown's "followers" all pretty quickly came forward. There were still a few in hiding, but most wanted to be done with it. Some even admitted they turned themselves in because they were scared of me.
Altogether though, the fight was over. The good guys won.
Thank you so much for reading. Don't worry there is an epilogue coming. To make it clearer THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER. Any who, sorry it took so long to get here, but look at us, we made it. Tell me what you thought and I'll see you next time.
