When the party arrived in the courtroom, everybody else was already there. Kingsley sat in the center of the other Ministry officials, and watched them as they filed in. Harry led Wretermoust to the chair in the middle of the courtroom, and conjured up two more for his mother and Eppilep, and then him and Ron went to take their own seats among the other officials.

"For the record," Kingsley's loud voice boomed. "Will the defendant please state his name?"

"Rolwat Wretermoust," Wretermoust said calmly.

"And the witch and wizard speaking on his behalf?"

"Claridina Wretermoust," said his mother. "And I will not speaking. I'm here merely for moral support for my son."

"Maxwell Eppilep," Eppilep announced pompously, smoothing his robes.

"I will now read the charges listed against Mr. Wretermoust," the Minister continued. "He is charged with the illegal possession of a Basilisk's egg, the illegal hatching of it, and the intent on releasing it on students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Do you understand these charges, Mr. Wretermoust?"

"Yes," the young boy nodded. "But I'm here to say that I didn't do any of them."

Kingsley looked taken aback. "You are aware of the evidence we have against you?"

"He is," Eppilep spoke up. "I have had the chance to review it in the little time I have had to prepare."

"So how exactly," said a witch on Kingsley's left. "Can you possibly expect us to believe the boy when he says he's not guilty?"

"You will believe him," Eppilep explained simply. "Because he did not do it. Now, I believe that the Ministry found the ingredients for the potion that the egg needed to brew in before hatching in a girls lavatory up in the school, correct?"

"That's right," Kingsley nodded, frowning.

"I thought so," Eppilep nodded. "Now, when you Ministry officials arrived in the lavatory, did you see Mr. Wretermoust there?"

"Well, no," admitted one aurror who had been there. "He had already left."

"Or," Eppilep said, clearing his throat. "He was never there."

"Somebody say him there," Harry spoke up, standing.

"Ah, well that is interesting," Eppilep said softly. "Who, who Mr. Potter? Who saw him?"

"Alexandra Dursley," Harry said. "She was the one who informed me of what he was doing."

"This Ms. Dursley," Eppilep replied. "How old is she?"

"She is twelve," Harry told him. "But that's hardly a point."

"Oh, but I think it is. You're trying to sentence a young boy based solely on the word of a foolish girl."

"You could call here down here now," Harry shot back. "She'd tell you exactly what she told me."

"Actually, Mr. Potter, I couldn't. As I'm sure everybody else here knows, after the fall of the Dark Lord, a new law was placed into effect that barred the testimony of witnesses under the age of thirteen with the exception of murder cases or other greater offenses. This case is not labeled as a high enough profile case, seeing as the Basilisk was killed, to allow he testimony."

Harry narrowed his eyes at Eppilep, but reluctantly sat back down.

"Now then," Eppilep continued. "As I was saying. There are no witnesses that can legally place the boy in-"

"While Ms. Dursley cannot physically appear in court," Kingsley cut the man off. "What she saw is still a legitimate claim. She reported it to a Ministry official, Mr. Potter, moments after she saw it."

"But that does not make it true," Eppilep countered.

"I hope you are not implying that the girl was lying," Kingsley said. "That's a very weak defense."

"Not if she had motive for lying," Eppilep told him. "Shortly after the winter holiday, Mr. Wretermoust and a good friend of Ms. Dursley's, a Mr. Fred Weasley, got into an…argument. Unfortunately, Mr. Weasley came off short in the dispute, and had to spend time in the Hospital Wing. Perhaps, Ms. Dursley wanted revenge for her friend."

"That's a bit fat fetched, Mr. Eppilep," said Wendy Beastrow, who was the head of Magical Law Enforcement, and would be giving the final decision on the sentencing.

"Not particularly. Ms. Dursley and her friends, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Alanna Brooklyn reported their suspicions that Mr. Wretermoust was in possession of the Basilisk egg about a month prior to the Basilisk's discovery. Headmistress McGonagall had the boy's entire dormitory searched, but found nothing, I believe."

"He obviously hid it!" Ron exclaimed.

"An assumption," Eppilep pointed out. "That has not a shred of evidence to support it."

"He was found hiding from Ministry officials," Beastrow read from her report.

"Hiding?" Eppilep repeated. "I hardly think so. Mr. Wretermoust presented himself to the Ministry on his own accord, did he not, Mr. Potter?"

Harry clenched his fists. "Yes."

"Well, there you go. Now then, I think that covers the first two charges, yes? As for the third one, since the Basilisk was killed, nobody can be sure of what the intentions of whoever hatched it were."

"Very well, Mr. Eppilep," sighed Beastrow. "That charge will be dropped. As for the other two, it will be up to the twelve officials to decide upon." She cleared her voice. "Is there any more evidence that either side would like to present in this trial?"

Nobody spoke.

"In that case," she said, turning to the twelve witches and wizards sitting adjacent to her. "All in favor of charging Mr. Wretermoust with one or more of the claims against him, please raise your hand."

Slowly, five hands rose in the air.

"All those in favor of acquitting Mr. Wretermoust of both charges, please raise your hand."

Just as slowly, seven hands rose.

"There you have it," Beasttrow announced. "Mr. Wretermoust, you have been cleared of all charges. However, due to the uncertain nature of the case, you will not be allowed back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the remainder of the term. You will take your end of course exams here under the supervision of the Ministry. You will also surrender your wand until two weeks before start of term in September. Do you have any objections?"

"No, m'am," he said, smiling a horrible smile, glancing at Harry and Ron out of the corner of his eye. "Thank you."

…..

"Well that was a humiliating hour," Ron muttered to Harry as the courtroom began filing out. "That Eppilep bloke trampled us."

"Any other person would've charged Wretermoust in a heart beat," Harry said darkly. "But Beastrow is like a tamer version of Umbridge. Remember when she let that that wizard who stunned three muggles off last month because he claimed he thought they were someone else?"

"More like he donated a large sum to her campaign; remember, they're picking a new head of that department at the end of the year."

"Just heard about the trial," Hermione said, meeting the two boys outside the courtroom. "I absolutely cannot believe even Wendy would allow him to be acquitted."

"You've got to be kidding, Hermione, that women's a power hungry-"

"Ron, I know she's not exactly the friendliest person, but she still follows the law to the grain, which is what the position is about."

"We all know," Harry told her. "That if it had been you up there, you would've charged him, Hermione."

"But the final decision doesn't even rest with her," Hermione explained. "The council had to vote on the issue. It was close, wasn't it?"

"Five to seven, sure," Harry shrugged. "But if she felt that the verdict was unjustified, she could've overturned it."

"Well, Harry, think about it," Hermione said reasonably. "I mean, I agree with you that Wretermoust was guilty and deserved to at the very least be expelled from Hogwarts, but Beastrow was looking at the whole matter without bias."

"I'm not-"

"Yes you are, Harry," she said calmly. "You hate his mother, and you hate him, so naturally, all you wanted to do was proclaim him guilty. Beastrow knew nothing of how horrible he was up in school, and she legally was not allowed to factor in his mother's history. To her, she saw a first-year schoolboy being charged with a crime that many full-grown wizards could not commit. And as for the accusation, all she had to go on was another students' word. No one else saw him with the egg, and he was even searched before for it."

"If they only would've let him bring in Alexandra-" Ron started.

"But you know the law," Hermione sighed. "Ever since Voldemort's death, after the Ministry question hundreds of young children and saw the tremendous stress it put on them, along with inaccuracy of the testimonies, they put a stop to involving children under thirteen in low-profile cases. I personally think that it is sometimes necessary, and that with the proper structuring of the court room it can be far less a traumatic experience for them, but the point is, simply because of her age, there is reasonable doubt to her claim."

"So you think Alexandra was making the whole thing up about Wretermoust being the one to hatch the egg?" Harry exclaimed angrily. "She said she saw him-"

"Harry, I believe her," Hermione interrupted. "You're right. If I had been the one up there I would've convicted Wretermoust. I'm just saying that Beastrow has never met Alexandra, and probably figured her to be a silly school girl who made a mistake of what she saw."

"That Eppilep made it out to seem like she was getting revenge for what Wretermoust did to Fred back in the winter," Ron told her.

"There you go," Hermione sighed. "I'm sure Eppilep made the whole ordeal sound as if it was all just a misunderstanding."

"Wait a minute," Harry said. "How was this case not a higher profile? It was a Basilisk, after all. That's the deadliest snake out there!"

"I know," Hermione nodded. "If it had killed someone, or petrified someone, or even been released in a public area, then it would've been. But seeing as it was killed before anybody else in Hogwarts found out it's existence…"

"That's absolute rubbish," Harry mumbled. "I'm telling you, that kid is bad news. You didn't see his face at the end of the trial. He was probably already scheming his next plan in his head. He needs to have his wand snapped before he actually succeeds with one of them."

"Which is why you should run for head of the department, Herm," Ron said to his wife. "You'd actually make a just system around here."

"Ron, you know I'd lose," Hermione smiled, blushing. "I don't have nearly enough experience, and Wendy will already have half the department behind her-"

"But you would have Kingsley," Harry told her. "And he's got the final word."

"He wouldn't play favorites. He'd pick whoever was better qualified."

"Which is you," Ron and Harry said together.

Hermione smiled. "We'll see."

…..

"Well, it took all night," Fred said the next morning at breakfast. "But I think I'm finally ready for History of Magic today."

He slid in between Alanna and Alexandra.

"Well that's good," Alanna said, taking a bite of her eggs. "But we've only got Herbology and Transfiguration today. History of Magic isn't until Friday."

"Ah! You're kidding!" Fred exclaimed in panic. "I haven't even touched my Transfiguration notes yet!"

"Well, you'll do fine on the practical part," Alexandra tried to reassure him as her scrambled for his notes in his bag. "You're good with wand work."

"Yes, but if I fail the written part I'm still sunk!"

The usual flutter of wings sounded then, as the numerous owls flew into the Great Hall in search of their owners. As usual, an owl fluttered down next to Fred with a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Can you get that?" he asked Alexandra, still frantically searching for his notes.

Alexandra untied the paper from the owl's ankle, and gave it a nip of her bacon. As the bird hooted gratefully, Alexandra unrolled the paper and opened it up. In the middle section, one headline caught her eye.

"I don't believe this!" she said loudly.

"What?" Alanna asked, leaning over Fred to try to see the paper.

"Wretermoust got off!"

"No way!" Fred said, grabbing the paper. "Rolwat Wretermoust, a first year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was accused last week of being in possession of the Basilisk egg that had been stolen in March. He was arrested and brought into the Ministry by Aurrors Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. The trial for the boy was held later that same day. Wretermoust was represented by his Uncle Maxwell Eppilep, the former senior advisor in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement twenty years ago. Wretermoust was cleared of all charges, but will not be returning back to the school until the start of the new term in September.'The whole seem was simply a misunderstanding," said Eppilep. 'My nephew was perhaps just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I do hope that the Ministry is working to find out who really did try to hatch that Basilisk egg in Hogwarts; that, is a very serious crime.' The Minister of Magic, as well as the arresting Aurrors, refused to speak about this trial, and currently, there is no news as to how that Basilisk really did get into Hogwarts."

"So he got out because his Uncle brainwashed everyone?" Alanna asked, frowning. "But how?"

"Yeah, Alexandra said she saw him at it," Fred pointed out.

"His Uncle probably fabricated the whole story," Alexandra sighed. "But why didn't they ask me to testify or something? Then they would've had no choice but to sentence him."

"Probably because you're just a first-year student," Alanna told her. "The Ministry would've probably thought you were just making the whole thing up."

"But I wasn't!"

"McGonagall looks pretty bitter about this too," Fred pointed out, looking at the headmistress's face at the teacher's table.

"Well, at least he won't be back this year," Alanna pointed out. "At least that's some good news."

"Yeah," Alexandra nodded. "Until he comes back."

…..

AN- Hi, again So, change of plans. Instead of PMing people when the sequel comes out, I'll just update this story again when it comes out saying the title of it. That way, if you're subscribed to this one, you'll be notified. I will PM those who have already asked me to do so if I see that they have not subscribed, though.