Hello everyone! I apologize for another slow as molasses update, every time I think I'm going to have plenty of time, something else pops up and gets in my way. Thank you to everyone who is patient with me and sticks with the story even though updates can get spaced pretty far out, and I just want to reaffirm my pledge to make sure this story is finished. I won't leave it undone, I promise! Thank you also to everybody new who has given the story a chance. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

-Pneuma

Zia followed Dumbledore and Regulus through the doorway in the Ministry of Magic, with Tom holding onto her hand next to her. This was her first day with doing this, and she was apprehensive. Tom tugged on her hand a little.

"You're going to be fine," he said, giving her a bright smile. "You're the strongest. Plus I'll be here to help you out if you need it like last time." She tried to smile back, but it wasn't very convincing.

"Of course," Zia replied, and mussed up his hair with her free hand. He made a face, but couldn't keep back a giggle as he fixed it. They walked up to a woman sitting behind a desk.

"Wands?" she said, and each of them presented their wand to her. After a quick examination, she returned the wands and let them all through. A tall, thin man was waiting for them, dressed in what appeared to be acid green and white pinstriped robes.

"So she's the one?" he said in a somewhat nasally voice, peering down at Zia. His eyes traveled over the muggle clothes that poked out from around the collar of the robes she was wearing for the occasion and his lips thinned slightly.

"Indeed," Dumbledore said in a dignified way, although that was slightly counterbalanced by the flaming orange robes he was sporting that clashed magnificently with his beard and hair. "She is the one."

"Are you quite sure, Dumbledore?" the man asked, turning away from Zia to face Dumbledore.

"Of course. Care for a demonstration?" Dumbledore asked him, eyes twinkling behind his glasses. The man's eyes narrowed.

"Not on me," he replied. "We have some more worthy subjects waiting. We were planning to ship them out to Azkaban today but when you told us about her abilities, we thought maybe that could wait." The tall man was now leading them all down various hallways to an elevator. As they stepped inside of it a couple more people joined their group.

"So, Alfie, this is the one Albus was telling us about?" a short little witch asked in an excited voice. "I've never heard of someone who was a natural Legilimens. I'm rather curious myself."

"That's Perpetua Fancourt," Regulus whispered quietly to Zia. She didn't really know who that was but nodded anyways. Regulus grinned. "She's an accomplished astronomer."

"Right," Zia whispered back. The woman's name seemed vaguely familiar, but it wasn't well-known enough for her to pick out right away.

"Hello, I happened to be in town for the week, and in the ministry today, when I heard about you. Would you mind if I observed? I'm rather fond of collecting information about unusual things," a man's voice came from a place to her right, she turned and saw that the man was holding his hand out for her to shake.

"Um…I suppose that's fine," Zia said uncertainly, taking his hand.

"My name is Newton Scamander, most people just call me Newt," he said brightly. Zia stared at him until she realized it was impolite to do so. Newt Scamander, the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was standing in front of her. She had thought she was over the many surprises that came with being introduced to the Wizard World that she'd only ever dreamed of all her childhood, especially after Dumbledore, but it seemed like she would never quite get used to it.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Scamander, I'm Zia," Zia said smiling. Tom tugged on her hand and looked up at her, face very serious. "And this is my son, Tom." She left out their last names purposefully, to avoid any unwanted questions. Newt Scamander bent down and offered his hand to Tom next.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Tom," he said with a kind smile. Tom smiled back and shook his hand. They met a few other people on the way to wherever the man called Alfie was taking them, and a little group seemed to be forming composed of people who wanted to watch. Zia wasn't exactly pleased with this, but there wasn't much she could do.

Finally they were ushered into a room that was more of a small stadium than anything else. Seating around some of the walls tiered up, and people in the group were filing in, most picking places to sit towards the front. Alfie motioned for her to let Tom go, and Regulus moved forward to take him over to a seat. She watched Regulus pull Tom onto his lap, then turned back towards Alfie.

She recognized this room. It fit the description of the rooms where the hearings were held in the books, the place where the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. had been sentenced to Azkaban. The chair was there, with the shackles attached to the arms. Just what had she gotten herself into?

"So what exactly will I be-" she began, but the man cut her off, completely ignoring her.

"Bring in the first one," he called. The door on the side opened and immediately she felt cold. And sick. A pale looking man, probably around her own age, practically ran through the door and collapsed into the chair gratefully. Behind that door, she was sure, there were Dementors. She didn't need to see them to know, it was obvious from the way that cold had crept into the room when the door opened, and from the way the man in front of her looked. "Radley Wilkes, accused of torturing a muggle woman who was out for a walk with her dog in front of his family's property. Pled guilty."

Zia walked forward, wondering why she had agreed to do this. For the innocent ones, that was it. In case the ministry had got it wrong, in case this man in front of her hadn't actually committed that crime and was innocent. She was here to save people from Azkaban. She pointed her wand at the man's forehead. He looked up at her with wide eyes, looking terrified.

"It's not supposed to hurt," she told him, feeling sorry for him. He seemed to relax a little at her words. "Legilimens."

She moved through the man's life swiftly, just as she had with Riddle, the images moving so quickly that it amazed her how her mind could keep up at all. Everything went fast until she hit something strange and fuzzy at the edges, like it had been patched over somehow. There it was the images of a woman being tortured…and it was horrific to watch in this slow-motion warp. She wanted to claw her eyes out, but couldn't move.

Something wasn't right with it though. It felt somehow out of place. She couldn't move forward in time. She moved around the edges of it with her mind, slowly prying at them until the memory flapped loose, then disintegrated off like it had never been there originally. Zia viewed the memories underneath, the speed returning to the same lightning fast pace as at the beginning, and found herself looking into her own eyes yet again. Silence, then Regulus' calm voice floated out from the audience.

"Reditum." Zia was back in her own body, feeling tired. The headache was back as well. She turned, slightly unsteady on her feet, to look at Alfie.

"Innocent," she said quietly. The audience broke into titters, and she even heard a couple laughs. A few phrases stood out to her.

"And he even pled guilty, a mudblood wouldn't have been able to tell," someone said.

"Clearly lying," another one came.

"Knew it was impossible," whispered one more. She frowned. She was tired, and her head was pounding, and all for what? For people to ignore what she'd just done?

"There was a false memory," Zia added slowly. "I removed it. The man is innocent."

"Veritaserum, someone," Alfie called, and somehow there was a little bottle of clear liquid in his hand a moment later. "Let's test her out." Zia took several steps back from the man.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I'll explain in simple terms. This is a potion that forces you to tell the truth. I'm only asking that you drink a couple drops of it, so we can ask you some questions about your experience," Alfie said, stepping towards her. "Verify whether or not you actually do what you say you do."

Regulus looked as if the only thing preventing him from standing was the fact that Tom was on his lap, she could see how tense his muscles were. Tom looked as if the only thing keeping him from standing was the fact that Regulus had an arm around him. Both were frowning, although the look on Regulus' face couldn't match the cold fury spreading like ice water across Tom's. A look she had always wanted to prevent from crossing that face.

For some reason, she felt like this was set up somehow. Like even if there hadn't been a false memory and she'd proclaimed him guilty, they would still have brought out the Veritaserum. As if she was some kind of experiment. She looked over at where Dumbledore was sitting, wondering if he would have done something like this, but the frown on his face and flashing eyes behind those half-moon spectacles he always wore told her no.

"What if I don't want to?" she asked the tall man, who was now approaching her with long purposeful strides, holding the uncorked bottle out in front of him.

"You don't really have a choice," he replied. "This is really the best way."

"Or there's this," Zia said. Maybe it was how tired she felt, or the headache, maybe it was the rude blood purist comments that had rained down from the seating, but her patience was spent. Her wand was pointed between Alfie's eyes only moments before she spoke.

"Legilimens."