In all the stories I've written I've never done a Trial of Sirius before so I thought I'd give it a bash here. I hope you enjoy it.
Once again, a huge thank-you to FateRogue for allowing me the use of their OC, Carina Black.
As always if you have ideas, suggestions or want to see something happen then put it in a review or give me a PM. As you have seen in most of my stories I am more than happy to adapt it as we go if I find something that you've suggested helpful, useful or just plain amusing.
I still don't own Harry Potter otherwise I'd be writing all day instead of working to pay the bills.
Dylan the Rabbit. xx
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Fallen Angel.
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9. The Trial of Sirius Black.
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In the first two weeks of January Angel was more out of school than in it. She attended few classes and spent nearly half of her nights somewhere else. Of those nights that she did remain more than half of those she was at the Beaubaxtons carriage in bed with the feisty French champion who was very definitely not her girlfriend. As such, her friends, dorm-mates and House-mates saw very little of her. Not that Angel thought that Carina or Mari would have really noticed, what with them being caught up in the first real throws of their burgeoning sexual relationship.
The three female champions had got together shortly after their return however, to discuss the message in their golden eggs (which Angel had helpfully explained how to open without all of that terrible screeching) and possible tactics for the second task in a months time. They had all agreed that pursuing their own separate options was a good thing to keep the competitive spirit of the Tournament alive and well but were grateful that they now knew at least what to research. The realisation that their Yule Ball dates were likely to be taken as hostages hadn't gone down all that well but Angel had reassured them that the Headmaster wouldn't allow any harm to come to their friends and loved ones.
It was clear that Krum knew as well, since he had been seen swimming in the freezing waters of the Black Lake every morning for the last few weeks, giving another impetus for Mari and Fleur to also start preparing seriously. Angel was just planning to wing it again and so didn't bother.
Amongst all this fevered activity Angel was confident that she wasn't really missed as she went about her 'private' business that took her far from Scotland to London, Wiltshire and a muggle town in Kent. Margate was indeed the most frequent destination for the 'former' Dark Lady as it was there that her choice of advocates for Sirius lived and worked in a part muggle, part magical legal practice. Although she did try to time her visits to avoid running into (probably quite literally) these solicitors' daughter who was a junior auror under the direct supervision of absolutely the one person she did not want finding out what was going to happen later that month, Amelia Bones.
Meanwhile, life in Hogwarts continued normally for Mari with the small exception that, other than a few die hard idiots, she was being mostly left alone to get on with her heavy workload. Which was a refreshing change for the girl-who-lived. For once, she had the support of her House, Carina of course, Hermione sometimes, Neville and even Ron, who had at last come to his senses and actually (miracle of miracles) apologised. Properly at that. Other than that minor miracle occurring it was all very un-exciting really. Then, on January 19th that all changed.
The expectation of this day that they had known to be approaching had only added to the excitement that Mari and Carina had been feeling since returning to Hogwarts. Excitement, albeit a very private one, of their re-ignited relationship, of the upcoming second task, which Mari was now feverishly preparing for and also that of a finally free Sirius giving them both the promise of a stable and loving home environment for the first time in both of their lives. Not that they expected this to be immediate, but hopefully by the summer at least, so that they wouldn't have to go back to their horrendous previous situations. And of course, the cherry on top of that pleasing dessert was the fact that they would be together.
Carina would have been worried that they wouldn't be able to share a room (and a bed) except for the fact that she had a weaponised form of doe eyed innocence in the person of one Mari Potter. And as Mari had proven on many occasions over the Yule break her dad was utterly helpless against those. One sad, puppy eyed pout from her sneaky little girlfriend and the old dog disintegrated into a pile of mush and was absolute putty in her her hands. She was, by this point, totally convinced that all of the Marauders had been desperately in love with Lily Evans at one time or another which was why Mari got away with so much shit around Sirius and Remus.
Angel staying with them was another huge bonus for the girls, She was beautiful, powerful, clever and cunning and since it was her plan that was bringing these events to pass, Carina was more than happy to share, not only her living space, but also her family with her. It didn't hurt that the tall, gorgeous girl had a total lack of propriety in regard to what she wore around the house and so treated them to some fantastic views of that lean and sexy body of hers. She shook her head to dispel that image and concentrated on both not blushing in case she alerted her girlfriend to her less than pure thoughts and actually listening to what the Headmaster, who had suddenly appeared beside them, was saying.
"Miss Black, Miss Potter, I wonder if you both wouldn't mind coming with me please."
"Oh Headmaster .. what did you need?"
"I thought we'd take a small field trip, the three of us."
"Where to Sir?"
"I hear the Wizengamot chambers are an absolutely fascinating place to study the history of Magical Britain ... along with some more recent history ... that may or may not involve a certain relative of yours."
It was time. And to Carina and Mari's delight, they were going to be there to see it.
Even though they had known it was coming thanks to Sirius and his loose lips they had never expected to be actually invited along. The two fourth years looked up and across the table to where their older friend (and apparently mutual crush) was arguing with Katie Bell about something to do with Ancient Runes. Much to the apparent interest of the obviously curious Hermione who was snapping her head between them as if she were watching a tennis match at Wimbledon. Mari and Carina stared at her until she noticed them, causing Angel to smirk infinitesimally and raise a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
"Something I can help you with ladies?"
"Are you coming with us Angel?"
A sweet, soft voice in a very familiar French accent cut through the enquiry and answered for her.
"Mais non. Mademoiselle De'ath 'as other duties today."
"So you're really not coming?"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I'll be coming ... but I'm not going to London today."
It wasn't like she really needed to be there after all, her pieces were all in place, her minions were well prepared and Angel appeared to be confident that everything would proceed according to plan. Also, she clearly had other, more pressing, more blonde matters to attend to. Mari and Carina were still giggling as the equally amused Headmaster finally managed to herd them out of the Great Hall.
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Ted Tonks and Andromeda Tonks (nee Black) sat in the visitors gallery of the Wizengamot chambers and watched the special session being called to order under the guidance of the Chief Witch pro temp, Madam Griselda Marchbanks. Dumbledore's announcement of his retirement and her subsequent selection had been a great surprise but the shocks for the day were far from over. After a few procedural niceties the two solicitors observed a look that was passed between the two Malfoys in attendance, prompting Lucius to rise to ask permission to bring a matter of urgency before the Wizengamot.
Most of those present and familiar with the odious, slippery man expected some new excuse for more regulations and/or restrictions to be placed on either muggleborns, creatures or both. That was not what they got.
Lucius Malfoy was, as he always had, making the best of the situation in which he found himself and carrying out his instructions with enough aplomb to hopefully keep him from being brutally murdered in his own home. In pursuance of that noble purpose and after it became clear that his new Dark Mistress thought nothing of popping into his house for a 'chat' whenever the fancy took her, he made sure that he always had some progress to report to her. Whether this was actively moving things forward to get this farce of a trial to happen or simply visiting his old comrades in the pureblood movement and getting them to think about the reality of a new and much more dangerously powerful Dark Lady than their old master mattered not. Only that he was doing something to advance her cause every day.
Honestly, the most disturbing thing about her visits was how well she was getting along with his wife. Once Narcissa had accepted their service to Mistress De'ath, the subtle and clever woman had thrown herself into it whole-heartedly. He often returned home from the Ministry to find the two of them ensconced in his study plotting and planning over tea and cakes. A situation that scared him beyond belief. Lucius didn't doubt that he would be the face of Angel's Ministry but he was under no illusion that he would be in charge in anything but name. His cunning spouse was positioning herself to be their Lady's useful lieutenant, trusted advisor and the real power behind his future office.
Not that he had expected anything less. She was a Black after all and had learned her craft at the knee of political giants like her grandfather, Arcturus Black, to whom she had always been something of a favourite. And he couldn't really complain about it either, since it meant that the Malfoy family would be among the most important in the country when this quiet revolution of hers was completed. They would also be uniquely placed as one of the first among the Mistress' loyal people and a great deal of that was due to the relationship that Narcissa was cultivating with the dangerous Dark Lady.
None of this was going to happen though if he didn't come through today, so he set to his Angel given task with renewed vigour.
"Esteemed members, some days ago a concerned citizen approached me with some information that I found most troubling."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"They brought me convincing evidence that Sirius Black, the Azkaban escapee and alleged mass murderer is not only wholly innocent of the crimes of which he is accused but was in fact never even convicted of them."
There was a deathly silence for a few seconds before the chamber exploded into uproar.
"Naturally I did not take this citizen merely at their word alone and so I approached the Minister and Mister Croaker from the Department of Mysteries so that we could carry out some discrete enquiries and a search of the trial records for 1981."
Another long pause saw the gathered politicos leaning forward in anticipation.
"There were none."
He waited out the expected outraged shouts of those traditionalists whom he had prepared so carefully.
"A prominent citizen from one of the oldest and most respected (feared) families in our society was arrested and thrown into Azkaban without any recourse to his rights under the law that governs us all."
After this last, telling statement Lucius bowed and passed the baton to the Minister, himself.
Cornelius Fudge stood, puffed out his chest and gave one of the most horribly self-agrandising, pompous speeches in the history of the Wizengamot in which he was the hero of the hour who was righting this wrong committed by his predecessors. It was all utter rubbish but under the subtle guiding hand of his sometime benefactor and trusted advisor Lucius Malfoy, he was somehow able to pull it off. He may be a bit of a moron and extremely easily corruptible but he was a consummate politician.
This was how, less than an hour later, the infamous Sirius Black was finally having his day in court ... and being defended by his favourite cousin Andi and her hilarious husband, Ted Tonks. Okay, so it wasn't the most auspicious of starts since upon his arrival in the company of Remus and his young auror relative, who he had learned very quickly not to call by her given name, he was surrounded by at least a dozen more red cloaked aurors and placed into magic suppressing manacles. He had made sure that he didn't have any wand or weapon on him but that didn't stop his 'escorts' covering him as if they thought he was going to rip their throats out with his teeth. Which would have been fairly sensible had any of them actually known about his animagus form but since they didn't it just made them look jumpy and a bit stupid.
Once he was forced into the defendants chair and freshly chained they stepped back to take up tactical positions around the chamber and Sirius was finally able to see his favourite cousin. He gave her a wink and a grin to which she very predictably rolled her eyes while her husband chuckled under his breath. Having spent a fair few hours being questioned, coached and coddled by the pair of solicitors at Grimmauld Place over the last few days or so, he had come to learn their playful looks from their 'work' ones and congratulated himself for successfully lightening the mood in the oppressive court-room. Ted and Andi really were great fun. Luckily for him, they were also really good at their jobs. With them and whatever nefarious means his terrifying house-guest Angel had been pursuing on his behalf, Sirius had no doubt that he would leave this place a free man today.
He got himself as comfortable as it was possible to get while wrapped in chains in a hard wooden chair and smiled at old 'Grizzly' Marchbanks in the Chief Witches lofty seat as she prepared to read the charges against him. He would have given the old girl a cheeky wave too but was prevented from doing so by the aforementioned restraints. It was probably just as well as Grizzly, or Chief Witch Marchbanks as he supposed he should call her, introduced the prosecution and Sirius' face hardened slightly although he really should have been pleased. The man was literally perfect for their trial plan and the Tonks' at least felt that they couldn't have done better if they had picked their opponent themselves.
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"Sirius Orion Black the Third, on the charges of terrorism, aiding and abetting murder and murder in the first degree, how do you plead?"
"Not guilty."
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On the other side of the divide was Bartemious Crouch senior, since he was the DMLE head at the time and held the most knowledge of the original incident and arrest. And he clearly had an axe to grind with the Black family. It made for a very unsympathetic prosecutor.
He, of course, was in no mind to consider his own unsuitability. Actually he was in very little mind of anything at all. Barty Junior's repeated applications of the imperius curse had seen to that. All he knew was that Black was guilty and he was filled with an unreasonable amount of determination to prove that incontrovertible fact to all of wizarding Britain, starting with the Wizengamot and the multitude of press who were gathered here in the chamber today.
Unfortunately for Crouch, his son, and Junior's master, he didn't really have the required evidence to do that.
Admittedly he was a decent orator and his opening statement, though light on proof, certainly made up for it in the way he delivered what little he had. As this was mostly invective and assumption however, most of those called upon to judge today were less than impressed. The Tonks' certainly weren't and after the foolish man had finished presenting his rather threadbare case against their client they stepped up and hit him with their first and best witness. There was only a brief pause at the 'prep' that this witness had been subjected to.
Peter Pettigrew had been beaten, tortured, healed and obliviated so many times over the last fortnight both by the remaining vengeful marauders and the coldly efficient Angel that all that was left in his mind was hatred and impotent rage. It made him a brilliantly hostile witness and once the veritaserum was administered, he was even able to over-ride the potion's propensity to elicit mostly one word answers and went on the most wonderful furious rants against Sirius, the Potters and the entire 'light' in general.
By the time his testimony was over, nobody was in any doubt about the fact that Peter was as guilty as sin and Sirius was an outrageously innocent victim of his guile and hate. Well, one person remained unconvinced but that was more due to the many curses and compulsions swirling around in his poor, mis-used brain than any questioning of his words and actions. Barty Crouch was still just as determined to see Sirius Black kissed by a dementor before the day was out. Those who had imperiused and compulsed him had made sure of that. And it only got worse as Andromeda Tonks rose to speak.
"We have all heard the testimony under veritaserum from Peter Pettigrew about what actually occurred on October 31st 1981 and in the four days immediately thereafter. However, in order to put to rest any remaining doubts on the matter of his innocence, the defence calls ... Sirius Black."
"Mister Black, do you wish to give a magical oath as to the truth of your words here today or submit to veritaserum questioning?"
"Both."
There was a stunned silence both at the amount of trust that he was showing in his interrogators and the process of law and at the sheer size of the man's big, brass balls.
"I, Sirius Orion Black the third, do swear on my magic and my life that the testimony I shall give is true to the best of my knowledge and the reach of my memory, so mote it be."
The flash from the wand that the nearest auror had provided for this purpose (and this purpose only) signaled the higher power's acceptance of his affirmation and he handed it back, handle first, to the red cloaked man. Sirius then sat back and opened his mouth to receive the regulated three drops of the truth potion and his own defence team, as was tradition, began the proceedings gently with a few 'control' questions.
"What is your name?"
"Sirius Orion Black the Third."
"Who was the Head girl in your fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"
"Amelia Bones."
"What was your part in the infamous 'great Hufflepuff panty raid' of 1974?"
"Instigator with James Potter, planner and co-conspirator with James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew and infiltrator thanks to my relationship with my then girlfriend, Marlene McKinnon."
Up on the judges bench, Amelia Bones' eyes narrowed and her skin pinked infinitesimally while Ted's own eyes crinkled in mirth and Andromeda all out smirked at her. Madame Marchbanks, struggling to keep her own smile from her face, interrupted from her seat with a single soft tap of her gavel.
"I believe we can now move on to the questioning proper since the potion is clearly in full effect."
"Very well, Madam Chief Witch."
Andromeda, having had her fun for the moment, handed over to her husband and co-counsel.
"Sirius Orion Black the Third, do you carry the Dark mark of Lord Voldemort.?"
"No."
"Are you, or have you ever been, a member in any capacity, willing or otherwise, active or otherwise, of the organisation known as the Death Eaters?"
"No."
"Did you ever support, in any way, the Dark Lord Voldemort?"
"No."
"Were you the secret keeper for the fidelius charm that protected the location of James, Lily and Marigold Potter?"
"Initially I was, but on James Potter's suggestion we secretly changed it to Peter Pettigrew in order to throw the Death Eaters off the scent."
Each new denial brought gasps from the crowd and more furious scribbling from the assembled press corps.
"Tell us what occurred between yourself and Peter Pettigrew in Ramsbottom on the night of November 3rd 1981."
There was a total, eerie silence as the anticipation of all those present built.
"I had spent the better part of three days tracking down Pettigrew. When I finally caught up with him in that side street in Ramsbottom he at first tried to plead innocence, not realising that I was in on the discussion to use him as secret keeper. Seeing the failure of his arguments he then drew his wand and we dueled. I was winning and, seeing this, he screamed out that I had killed the Potters, severed his own finger, cast a blasting curse at a nearby gas main, transformed into his animagus form of a rat and disappeared down a convenient storm drain. At this point the aurors arrived just in time to see me in my distraught state as I proclaimed my guilt at my part in his selection as secret keeper, was arrested and, I presume, stunned."
"And when you woke up, you were in a cell in Azkaban?"
"Yes."
Ted returned to his seat and Andromeda nodded and immediately rose again to give the prosecutor a nasty smile, knowing that his case was completely shot to shit no matter what the vindictive man said.
"Your witness, Mister Crouch."
"You say that you were never a supporter of he who must not be named, yet it is a known fact that you were his right hand man and further that you exposed your own guilt at the scene."
"I'm sorry was there a question in there Barty?"
"No."
A ripple of suppressed amusement at Sirius' veritaserum enforced response to a question ran around the chamber. Madam Marchbanks allowed it to continue for a few moments before bringing to a halt with her gavel. Barty Crouch, however, was far from amused.
"It is quite clear that the accused has found some way to beat the veritaserum and is lying through his teeth."
"Barty, my client has taken a binding magical oath on his life and his magic as well as the proscribed three drops of the most powerful truth potion ever developed. He cannot be lying else he would be a squib or dead or both."
"He is lying! I demand another three drops from a fresh and untainted source."
"Mister Crouch ..."
Uh-oh. Griselda Marchbanks only ever used that tone with people when she was truly very irritated.
"... that would be extremely dangerous for the accused ..."
"If I may, Chief Witch?" Always the professional litigator and seeing the opportunity to put the final in the prosecutors coffin, Andromeda waited for the stern, elderly witch's nod before continuing. "The defence accepts since that is probably the only way that the prosecution will accept his testimony."
"If you're sure Mrs Tonks."
There was a brief delay while two aurors and Crouch's own assistant retrieved the potion from his personal potions cabinet in his office. After the new dose was administered, the questioning started up again.
"Sirius Black, were you the secret keeper for James and Lily Potter?"
"No."
Sirius Black, are you now or were you ever a Death Eater?"
"No."
"LIES!"
"Mister Crouch, besides the magical oath on his life and magic, the defendant has been given twice the proscribed dose of veritaserum, one sample of which came from your own safe in your own office, he cannot be lying."
"But ... but ... he ... he must be. Everyone knows ... "
Lucius rose first to cut off Crouch's rant and cement his position as the champion of truth and justice.
"That is not now, nor has it ever been a valid reason for sending any person, let alone the next head of one of the most prominent Houses in our society to Azkaban, Mister Crouch. You must prove 'beyond reasonable doubt' that he is guilty. Something which you have not done. Indeed, the evidence presented here today has proven, to me at least, unequivocally that he is not guilty."
Andromeda Tonks stared at her brother in law who had just set her up so perfectly to knock this trial right out of the park.
"Chief Witch, the defence moves for a verdict at this time."
"Yes Mrs Tonks I believe that it is well past time for that. The jury will retire to consider their verdict."
It was at this point that lead juror and Lucius' bought man, Thaddeus Not, glanced at his fellow jurors briefly who all nodded significantly back at him and rose to speak.
"No need, Madam Marchbanks, the man is clearly innocent of all charges."
"And that is the verdict of you all?"
"It is Chief Witch."
"Very well ... Sirius Orion Black the Third you are hereby cleared of all charges and may leave this court today a free man. Madam Bones if you would call off your search, recall the dementors and rescind the 'kiss on sight' order and Cornelius, I think a Ministerial apology might go some way to avoiding any wrongful imprisonment charges that could hypothetically be brought."
"Of course, Chief Witch, I am happy to do so."
Amelia Bones still looked like she wanted to kill him for that 'panty raid' business, mind you.
"If I may Griselda, I should like to say a few words as well."
Looking every one of his one hundred and ten years, Albus Dumbledore rose and silently begged askance to address himself to the court. At Madam Marchbanks' nod he continued.
"Firstly to Mister Black, I should like to add my own most sincere apologies for my part in what happened to you and your incarceration in 1981. As most here will remember, it was a testing time for us all after the fall of Voldemort, but it was still a mistake that should not have been made and I am truly very sorry for that Sirius."
The old man held his liver-spotted hand to his chest, head bowed in genuine regret for his previous arrogance and in-action.
"Thank-you sir, it was very generous of you to say that."
Secondly, I believe that since we are already assembled, the Wizengamot should make immediate arrangements to transfer the guardianship of both Carina Black and Marigold Potter back to Mister Black ... where they should have always been. I myself, held this position for the last twelve years or so and have, due to my heavy workload and too many responsibilities, been unable to provide adequate care for these two very special young women. Being family, I am of the opinion that all three of these people would be better served looking after each other than remaining apart for any longer."
"Thank-you Albus, I think a simple show of wands to gauge the numbers in support of this change will be sufficient."
There were a few dissenters but by a clear and over-whelming majority and thanks to Lucius Malfoy's back room deals, bribes and outright threats this was readily accepted by the assembly.
"So mote it be."
And with those words Sirius Black's day was complete.
"Miss Black, Miss Potter, I am sure that your Headmaster could be persuaded to allow you a few days off school to re-connect with your new guardian."
"I think that is a very sensible idea Chief Witch."
The two teenagers all but jumped the barrier at this to get to Sirius. No-one even thought about trying to stop them.
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Marigold Lillian Potter, contrary to popular belief, was not an un-observant young woman.
All through that slightly boring but ultimately wonderful day she had watched closely all of the players, all of their actions and reactions, from their trusted Headmaster to the hated and hateful Bartemious Crouch Senior. She had gleaned many things about the workings of the wizarding government but the most interesting thing she had realised was that everything that had occurred was being directed by an individual with serious power and a certain ... moral ambiguity. In effect she saw the firm, slightly scary hand of her new BFF Angel De'ath behind all the important events that had taken place that day. Not that she had ever personally seen the scary part of Miss tall, dark and gorgeous but she had heard about it enough from Sirius who was clearly very nervous of her. Mari could tell that Remus was just as nervous but at least he was a lot more circumspect about letting others in general and her and Carina in particular know about it.
She was also observant enough to see that a great many people treated her friend with a respect borne from obvious fear and was intelligent enough to know that it wasn't simply because of her reputation as a powerful witch or even her performance in the first task. It didn't take a great leap of the imagination to assume that Angel had threatened serious violence to anyone upsetting her or Carina, however carefully and successfully the older girl hid her actions. Nor was it a great leap to go from there to Angel making a similar impression in the wider magical world to ensure that her god-father was vindicated.
Thanks to Sirius' rather loose interpretation of the concept of secrecy the younger girls already knew that Angel had been involved in the campaign to free him and since he wasn't able to be involved himself, for obvious reasons, her regular disappearances over the last fortnight started to make a lot more sense. Interestingly, none of these realisations scared the fourteen year old, rather they made her appreciate Angel and her protective nature even more. She had become the big sister that Mari and her girlfriend had always craved. And they loved her all the more for it, no matter what methods she probably employed to meet her goals.
"'Rina, just to make you aware and to head off any jealousy ... I'm going to give Angel a big, sloppy kiss when we get back to school."
Her girlfriend looked up at her from a comfortable looking position in Sirius' lap and gave Mari a hard look. Then her eyes crinkled in amusement as she seemed to catch on to what the red-head was saying ... and not saying.
"Yeah, me too."
"We probably shouldn't do it when Fleur's around though."
"Yeah, that would be really awkward."
Sirius looked between them and shivered as the two girls grinned evilly at each other, imagining the haughty and extremely possessive French champion's all too predictable reaction to their planned PDA with her property.
They were so doing that.
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The second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament was the next big event at Hogwarts and had re-focused the attention of the press, which had briefly switched to Sirius Black and his two wards, back onto the baddest and most polarising witch in the country. Speculation was rife in the papers' editorial columns as to whether Angel De'ath and her bewitching French paramour would flout the rules and spirit of the tournament by working together. This was not helped by the emergence of a photograph coming out of Hogwarts depicting the young, surprise fourth champion being upbraided by a furious Fleur while a smirking Angel looked on smugly. What it didn't show was either the prelude to this 'shocking' event or its aftermath.
Mari and Carina, upon their return to school from their short stay at Grimmauld Place in January had immediately enacted their plan of jumping on Angel and subjecting her to some serious snogging in gratitude for all that their older friend had done to reunite their family. Fleur's entirely predictable and predicted reaction had been just as spectacular as the two mischievous teenagers had hoped and they had laughed hysterically as she chased them around the hall and up the stairs and corridors, before cornering them outside of Gryffindor Tower.
It was just luck that one of the students milling around outside of the tower that morning was Colin Creevey who, armed with his ever present camera, was engaged in his favourite hobby. Angel had sensed an opportunity when she saw the camera flash but the boy was surprisingly loyal to Mari and it took some expert manipulation on her behalf to get him to send that 'incriminating' picture into the Prophet. He had eventually caved however and now the press attention was back where she wanted it. On her. More specifically on her poor behaviour and even poorer choice in lovers. She would admit that Fleur was working out rather well as her 'unsuitable' witch in that regard.
This well managed opportunity was more than enough to keep everyone talking about her (very carefully it had to be said) right up until the day of the second task.
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Angel stood at the edge of the lake and watched with amusement as all three of her competitors leaped into the freezing water. She shook her head slightly as even Fleur, who was at a severe disadvantage due to her veela heritage, shrugged off her cloak and dived in regardless. I mean, she appreciated the wonderful view that the gorgeous veela was giving her of that perfect arse in her scandalously skintight swimsuit and all, but still the girl had fucking wings in her transformed state for Morgana's sake.
Speaking of which.
The world's most dangerous sixth year divested herself of her own outer covering, revealing the same risque semi-catsuit that she had worn in the first task, stretched her arms wide and activated her own large, black wings. They burst from her back in what she knew was a spectacular display of dark energy. She extended her ritual given appendages to their full eighteen foot span, bent slightly at the knees and then, to a chorus of oohs, aahs and rapturous applause, shot off upwards and forwards across the water grinning at the audience reaction.
It took no more than a minute for Angel to reach the spot where she knew the Mer-people village to be at which point she flipped upside down, folded her wings close in to her body and dropped like a stooping falcon, entering the water with barely a splash. Less than five minutes after that and she was touching down gently back on the dock with a wide eyed and sopping wet Carina Black held bridal style in her arms. The Hogwarts faithful went absolutely nuts at her superb and unassailable victory.
Angel was feeling rather proud of herself and had quite honestly forgotten what had happened to Fleur the last time around when she was the girl-who-lived. Until, that is, the girl in question dragged herself back to shore covered in grindylow bites and looking decidedly worse for wear. And rather panicked it had to be said. The French champion had clearly forgotten all about their planning session in January when they had all agreed that Dumbledore would never put his students, or anyone else for that matter, in imminent danger. Either that or she didn't actually believe it. Not that it mattered at this point. Angel saw that pout directed at her and knew precisely what it meant.
It meant she was going to be getting wet again. And not in a good way.
"Fuck."
The tall, imposing former Dark Lady sighed out the expletive quietly and prepared to fly off again. Carina, now wrapped in a blanket, coughed into her hand loudly and Angel could swear that she heard the word 'whipped' under that fake wheezing expectoration. A suspicion that was confirmed when she heard the still hovering medi-witch, Poppy Pomfrey giving a low chuckle.
Yeah, they were laughing at her and she could hardly blame them. Angel De'ath, former scourge of the Magical world, the Defiler herself, was about to go back into a freezing lake to rescue someone who didn't actually need rescuing because a pretty girl had batted her eyelashes at her. She felt weak and foolish for even considering it. Then she shook her head, joined in the muted laughter and did it anyway.
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Your reviews are oh so precious to me but not necessary. I'm certainly not going to hold you guys to ransom over them.
Good? Bad? Leave your thoughts although you can always PM me with ideas, suggestions, comments if you want. Dylan the Rabbit. xx