The morning of his hearing, Harry awoke earlier than normal.

Hermione was still asleep beside him, so he carefully climbed out of bed so as not to wake her, and headed into the bathroom to get ready for his important day. Walking into their bathroom, he found formal robes hanging up for both him and Hermione, obviously put there by one of his house elves during the night. He quickly showered and put on his robes, before walking back out into his and Hermione's room, where he found her awake, but still lying in bed waiting for him to finish before she took her shower and got ready. After giving her a quick kiss, Harry headed down to the kitchen to let the house elves know they'd be ready for breakfast soon, and hadn't been down their long before Hermione joined him, all dressed and showered and ready for the day.

"Morning, Harry. Ready for your trial?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, and just ready for it to be over with," replied Harry, pushing out the chair next to him with his foot for her to sit down in.

"You'll be fine," Hermione reassured him as she sat down. "Everyone's allowed to defend themselves in any place they're legally in — and we'll always have our wands with us if they try to violate that basic human right. But they would have to flagrantly violate their own laws for it to come to that."

They had nearly finished eating when Tonks stumbled in, only halfway awake at best.

"Morning, guys," she mumbled. "And good luck, Harry. Wake me when you get back to let me know how it went."

"What's up with you this morning?" asked Hermione in concern. Tonks wasn't the biggest morning person ever, but she was usually a little more awake than this.

"Guard duty for the Order last night, only just got back twenty minutes ago," yawned Tonks. "Took a shower, and then decided I should really get something to eat before I crash until you get back from your hearing."

"Ah — well, have a good nap, and Harry and I will let you know when we return fully acquitted," replied Hermione.

Once they had completely finished eating, Harry and Hermione headed to the library to practice some more of the spells from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 — that Hermione had insisted they pick up on one of their early trips to Diagon Alley since it would doubtlessly be on their booklists whenever those finally arrived — since Tonks was home to keep the Trace from working.

~HP~

At the same time as Harry and Hermione were starting to practice spells, knowing they had a good thirty plus minutes before they needed to think about apparating to the Ministry for Harry's hearing at nine, Mr Weasley was across the country arriving at his office at the Ministry.

Five minutes later, his partner, Mr Perkins, came bursting in with urgent news, which Mr Weasley immediately sent to Tonks by the normal Order lines of communication that avoided the Ministry. Upon receiving the message, Tonks immediately called a house elf to tell Harry and Hermione, as she had no clue where they had gone after leaving her at breakfast, and was too tired to run around the house looking for them when a house elf could do it far quicker anyway.

In the library, Harry and Hermione had barely even finished reading through the first spell they were going to practice, when his house elf Zizi cracked into existence, and urgently squeaked, "Lord Potter and Missy Hermione must go to the Ministry immediately! The time of Lord Potter's hearing has been changed to eight o'clock in Courtroom Ten!"

Harry and Hermione stared at the house elf in shock for several seconds, before the urgency of the situation hit Hermione, and she leapt up.

"Zizi! We need you to take us to the Ministry immediately! Harry, get up, come on! You're already late! And they are not going to be forgiving, given the fact they already tried to avoid due process at the start of all this!"

Thankful they'd both already put on their formal robes, Harry quickly stood up and crossed the few feet over to Zizi, and took her hand.

"Ready when you are," he said.

The next moment they were pulled into darkness, before reappearing in a long, large, splendid hall that was nearly as nice as the entrance hall of Potter Manor, though much, much larger — It was the Ministry of Magic. Zizi immediately disappeared again upon landing, and Harry and Hermione looked around them.

They had landed in a clearly marked square, and Harry looked over at his girlfriend and asked, "I know this whole place is obviously the Ministry, but what is this?"

"Designated apparation point for those arriving by house elf, I assume," answered Hermione, looking at the square. "Which means we should get out of the way in case anyone else comes in behind us."

Crossing the hall to the security desk, Harry and Hermione allowed their wands to be recorded, and Harry asked, "How do we get to Courtroom Ten?"

The security guard told them, and sticking their wands back in their robes, Harry and Hermione were soon riding the lift down to the lowest floor, the Department of Mysteries. A brisk stroll down a flight of stairs and along a corridor that gave Harry ptsd flashbacks to Snape's dungeons, and they finally arrived outside Courtroom Ten.

"You're late."

The Minister's cold voice rang across the courtroom as the door heavily clanged shut behind Harry and Hermione as they stepped inside the dungeon. Seeing the chair in the middle of the room that he was clearly supposed to sit in during the trial, Harry crossed over and stood next to it, as Hermione slipped up into the benches to watch.

Once next to the chair, Harry looked up at the Minister and responded politely but firmly, "I was never informed by this court of the change in time or location from the first letter I was sent on the night of August the second, which stated my disciplinary hearing would be at 9 am, at some unstated location in the Ministry of Magic. It therefore cannot be my fault that I was not here at your newly designated time. I can only follow the instructions that I am actually informed of."

"That is not the Wizengamot's fault," continued Fudge, sounding very much as if he hadn't paid a word of attention to anything Harry had just said. "An owl was sent to you this morning. Take your seat."

Harry remained standing, and replied politely, "You are either misinformed, or blatantly lying — I was at my residence all morning up until less than ten minutes ago, and received no owls this morning except the Daily Prophet delivery owl. I only knew to rush here because Mr Perkins told Arthur Weasley, who contacted Auror Tonks, who contacted me. At which point I came here as quickly as I could."

Technically Tonks had told a Potter house elf who'd told Harry, but Harry had no intention of letting the Ministry know he knew about and was partially using the Potter Estate, specifically Potter Manor, and anyway, house elves were legally considered property by the Ministry, and therefore didn't have to be mentioned.

"If an owl was sent to me this morning, it was sent so late that it did not arrive at my place of residence before eight o'clock, as Mr Weasley did not contact Auror Tonks until five minutes after eight, at which point she immediately told me. As no owl had yet to arrive by that point, you clearly either sent it too late for it to arrive at my house on time, or else it was intercepted, which is still not my fault. However, if said owl was ever sent, then I fully expect it to be waiting for me outside the Ministry of Magic when I leave here today, or else for one of those paper airplanes that I assume are letters for inside the Ministry building to either be waiting outside the door of this courtroom when we finish, or perhaps even find it's way in here during the proceedings, as owls, and presumably paper airplanes, deliver to the person, not a location, and therefore the owl must eventually find me to deliver its message, if it was in fact ever sent, and has not been intercepted."

Finishing, Harry primly took the seat, and waited expectantly. He could see in his peripheral vision that over half of the witches and wizards in the room were staring at him — a mixture of awe, shock, and disbelief at what many of them clearly considered to be contempt of the court — but he focused on the Minister and the two witches to either side of the Minister, who were clearly also in positions of high authority on the court. Percy was also there at the end of the front bench, but as he made no acknowledgement of Harry, Harry made no acknowledgement of him.

As for Fudge, he was staring at Harry in complete shock, not having been able to help but hear at least part of Harry's accusations against him and his court, but he eventually managed to collect himself enough to say haughtily, "The accused being present — finally — let us begin."

As he finished up stating the purpose of the hearing and naming the lead court members several minutes later, he was suddenly interrupted by the voice of Dumbledore himself, stating his position as Witness for the Defense.

"Ah, Dumbledore. Yes. You, uh, you got our — er — message that the time and, uh, place of the hearing had been changed, then?" stuttered Fudge, clearly not having expected the Hogwarts Headmaster to make it there, making Harry suspect that he wasn't the only one the court had failed to properly alert of the changes.

"I must have missed it — however, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done," answered Dumbledore cheerfully, making Harry absolutely positive that the Ministry had done no such message sending as they claimed, if both he and Dumbledore had failed to receive owls that never failed in their missions.

Once Dumbledore was settled in an armchair of his own conjuring, and Fudge had read out the official charges, he glared over the top of his parchment at Harry and said, "You are Harry James Potter, of number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?"

"Yes, sir," answered Harry.

"And you received an official warning from the Ministry for using illegal magic three years ago, did you not?" continued Fudge, looking back down at his parchment.

"No, sir," answered Harry, causing Fudge to suddenly cut short from where he was about to continue rambling on once Harry had admitted that he'd already flagrantly broken the law before, and briefly stopped looking at his parchment to stare down at Harry.

But Harry ignored his stare, and continued on, "Well, technically I received a warning, but I didn't commit the offense I was accused of. The house elf named Dobby, at the time owned by the Malfoy family but acting of his own free will, was the one who actually performed the magic I was accused of illegally performing. But since it was only a warning, I was never given a chance to defend myself or clear my name of the charge."

There was much hushed whispering around the courtroom at this proclamation, but Fudge once again ignored everything Harry had said and plowed on, "And yet you conjured a Patronus on the night of the second of August?"

"I was in fear for my life, and I want the two dementors who attacked me arrested," Harry replied succinctly.

Complete silence fell over the courtroom at this proclamation.

"Dementors?" repeated Madam Bones after several seconds, voice full of confusion. "What do you mean, boy?"

"I mean exactly what I said. I was in fear for my life from two dementors, and I want them arrested and punished however dementors can be punished," replied Harry, looking at her like he was having to explain something very simple to a complete idiot. "I was attacked by two dementors on my walk home, which as the charges indicate happened to be through a muggle-inhabited area since that's where I live during the summer, and the only way to protect oneself from dementors is by using magic — specifically the Patronus Charm. So I cast said charm that I'm accused of conjuring, in order to save my life, or more specifically my soul from being kissed away, by the two dementors that attacked me."

"Ah, yes" sneered Fudge superiorly. "Yes, I thought we'd be hearing some excuse like this."

"You were attacked by dementors in Little Whinging?" asked Madam Bones to Harry in shock. "But that's impossible! What would two dementors have been doing in Little Whinging? I don't understand —"

"Oh, don't you, Amelia?" said Fudge patronizingly. "Let me explain. He's been thinking it through and decided Dementors would make a very nice little cover story, very nice indeed. It's just his word with no witnesses."

"But if two dementors did in fact attack him in that alleyway, he would have been justified in using magic, both as an underaged wizard and in a muggle-inhabited area," said Madam Bones. Turning to Harry, she asked, "You wouldn't happen to have any witnesses, would you?"

"We do, in fact, have a witness to the presence of Dementors in that alleyway," answered Dumbledore, speaking up for the very first time, despite declaring himself to be the Witness for the Defense at the very beginning of the trial.

At the same time, Harry mumbled under his breath, "Not that I need one, as as the accusers you have to prove that the dementors weren't there, I as the accused don't have to prove they were — innocent until proven guilty, and all those annoying human rights."

Fudge noticeably paled at Dumbledore's statement, but he quickly regathered himself and sneered pompously, "We haven't got time to listen to more tarradiddles, I'm afraid, Dumbledore. I want this dealt with quickly —"

"Clearly," commented Dumbledore mildly, "given the fact you attempted to snap the accused's wand before the charges were successfully proven. But unless I am mistaken, I was thinking that under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused has the right to present witnesses for his or her case. Isn't that the policy of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Bones?" he finished, looking up at the witch sitting on the left of Fudge.

"Absolutely," answered Madam Bones firmly, less than pleased with the Minister's haste to end the trial with a guilty verdict before it had ever begun.

"Oh, very well, very well," snapped Fudge angrily, knowing an even semi-credible witness would easily let Harry escape his clutches. "If your witness is here, bring them in, else we're moving on."

A minute later Mrs Figg was brought in, and soon seated next to Harry and Dumbledore. Fudge proceeded to grill her, and all in all Harry thought she made for a very weak witness and that Dumbledore should have prepared her better (or at all), but there was nothing that could be done about that now.

Once Mrs Figg had been dismissed, Fudge scoffed dismissively, "Not a very convincing witness."

"Oh, I don't know," replied Madam Bones. "She certainly described the effects of a Dementor attack very accurately. And I can't imagine why she would say they were there if they weren't."

"And Clause Seven of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery states that I can use magic in exceptional circumstances, such as being attacked by two dementors, like I did," added Harry quickly, wanting to remind everyone of the laws he was supposed to be being judged on before they got too far off topic again.

"If there were Dementors, which I doubt," sneered Fudge.

"You have heard it from an eyewitness," replied Dumbledore calmly. "If you still doubt her truthfulness, call her back, question her again. I am sure she would not object."

"I — that — not —" stammered Fudge, glaring down at the headmaster. "It's — I want this over with today, Dumbledore!"

"But the court would of course not care how many times it needed to hear from a witness, if the alternative was a serious miscarriage of justice, right?" replied Dumbledore, looking at Madam Bones instead of the Minister as he spoke.

"Serious miscarriage, my hat!" exclaimed Fudge. "Have you ever bothered to tot up —!"

But Madam Bones interrupted him, her booming voice talking over his enraged blustering. "Of course, Dumbledore," she said. "But unless any of my fellow Wizengamot members desire to question her again, I for one have no objection to her credibility as a witness, and therefore have no reason to question her again."

Fudge, meanwhile, was still ranting, and when Madam Bones finished his voice carried clearly through the otherwise silent courtroom.

"— I suppose you've forgotten the Hover Charm he used three years ago, Dumbledore!"

"That was the house elf Dobby, not me," repeated Harry firmly. "I was falsely accused of that offense, and never given a chance to defend myself or clear my name since I was only given a warning."

"And the house-elf in question is currently in the employ of Hogwarts School," added Dumbledore. "I can summon him here in an instant to give testimony if you wish."

"I — not — I haven't got time to listen to house-elves! Anyway, that's not the only — he blew up his aunt, for God's sake!" raged Fudge, practically spitting in his fury.

"Madam Bones, would you care to question the house elf Dobby?" asked Dumbledore to Madam Bones, ignoring Fudge's outrage. "If cleared of that charge, it would make this alleged offense Harry's first, and therefore much less severe than if it were his second, and more likely to deserve only a warning if the court were to find him guilty."

As Fudge proceeded to sputter like a stalled engine some more next to her, Madam Bones looked down at Dumbledore carefully, before finally saying, "While the innocence or guilt of Mr Potter in that offense three years ago is not the subject of this hearing, and therefore cannot be ruled on in this hearing, Mr Potter's guilt or innocence is relevant to the severity of this offense, and therefore directly affects this hearing. So yes, Dumbledore, please call your witness."

Dumbledore nodded, before saying, "Dobby."

A second later there was a loud crack, and Dobby stood in the middle of the courtroom, looking around him in confusion.

Knowing Fudge wasn't going to do his job as Head Interrogator, Madam Bones said to the house elf, "What is your name?"

"Dobby, ma'am!" squeaked Dobby.

"And what was your position the summer of three years ago?"

Dobby thought for a second, before replying with a shudder, "I was a Malfoy house elf, ma'am!"

"And did you at any point during that summer visit Harry Potter?"

"Oh, yes ma'am!" squeaked Dobby excitedly. "That was the first time Dobby was able to meet the great Harry Potter! Dobby had to punish himself severely for visiting Harry Potter, but Dobby had to warn Harry Potter!"

"Please tell the court everything that took place that night while you were at Mr Potter's residence," ordered Madam Bones.

"Dobby apparated to Harry Potter's bedroom while Harry Potter was downstairs," began Dobby. "Then when Harry Potter arrived, Dobby tried to convince Harry Potter that he could not go back to Hogwarts that year, that it was too dangerous for Harry Potter to return! But Harry Potter would not listen, ma'am, no he wouldn't. So Dobby had to take drastic measures to keep Harry Potter safe. So Dobby ran down to the kitchen, where there was a giant pudding. And Dobby tried to make Harry Potter promise not to go back to Hogwarts, but Harry Potter refused, ma'am. So Dobby had to drop the cake so Harry Potter's relatives would lock him up so Harry Potter could not get back to Hogwarts. Then Dobby disapparated away before he could be seen by any muggles."

"Dropped the pudding how?" questioned Madam Bones, knowing that if Dobby had been the one to actually cast the Hover Charm, that was most likely when it occurred.

"Dobby had the pudding floating near the ceiling when Harry Potter caught up to Dobby in the kitchen, ma'am. And then Dobby released it," answered Dobby.

"And what spell did you have it floating with?" prodded Madam Bones.

"Dobby was using the Hover Charm," answered Dobby in confusion, unaware that there could be any other spell used for that purpose.

"Thank you, Dobby," said Madam Bones, before glancing over at Fudge as she continued, "Now unless the Minister would like to question Dobby further, I believe you may go."

After several seconds, during which Fudge refused to look up from the papers he was glaring at in his hands, held so tightly his knuckles were ghostly white, Dobby disappeared with another loud crack, and Madam Bones turned to address the court.

"I believe the court can agree that this case should now be treated as Harry's first offense of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and not his second."

"That's not his only — he blew up his aunt, for God's sake!" exploded Fudge. "This is still at least his second offense, even if you do believe a house elf that was freed by the boy himself, and is clearly biased towards the boy! The boy probably asked him to say all that, to make it sound like he didn't actually commit the offense! It's just another one of his cock-and-bull stories!"

"Harry was not charged in the incident involving his aunt-in-law, therefore it cannot be held against him now," replied Dumbledore calmly. "Or has the court changed its rules since I was asked to leave the Wizengamot, Madam Bones?"

"Of course not!" exclaimed Madam Bones almost offended, throwing a glare at Fudge. "Of course Mr Potter cannot be considered guilty of something he was never charged with."

"Then the court is in agreement that this is the first offense of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery that Harry has been charged with, and the court has been presented a witness supporting Harry's defense that his use of magic falls under Clause Seven," said Dumbledore. "Therefore, unless there is any further questioning the court would like to do, I believe all he and I can do now is await your verdict."

After several seconds of no one bringing up any further questions, the Wizengamot fell into urgent, whispered conversations.

Eventually the whispering stopped, and Madam Bones said, "Those in favor of clearing the accused of the charges?"

Over three-quarters of the court raised their hands, and Harry breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"And those in favor of conviction?" continued Madam Bones, but less than half a dozen people raised their hands this time, some court members noticeably not voting at all. Minister Fudge had obviously raised his hand for conviction, as had the witch to his right who had remained hidden in the shadows the entire time, never saying a word the entire proceeding, despite having been introduced as one of the investigators.

Looking like he was about to explode, Fudge finally controlled his rage enough to get out, "Very well, very well...cleared of all charges."

With surprising haste, Dumbledore leapt up, and after a quick, "Excellent — Well, I must be getting along. Good-day to you all," disappeared out the door before anyone had a clue what had happened.

But Harry was paying little attention to that, too much in a hurry himself to get over to Hermione to pay attention to what the headmaster was doing. Speed walking over to where Hermione had entered the benches next to the door, he found her already waiting for him at the bottom, and as soon as he was within range, she threw her arms around him tightly, planting her lips passionately on his.

When she finally broke apart from him, she said with a smirk, "Told you you were innocent."

"Yes, well, I'm still glad it's over and official," answered Harry. "Now let's get out of here and go wake up Tonks and tell her the good news."

They began returning to the Atrium the same way they had arrived, though at a much more relaxed, leisurely pace this time, but no sooner had they walked hand in hand back to the Department of Mysteries to catch the lift to the Atrium, than they ran across Lucius Malfoy talking quietly off to the side with the Minister himself, who'd been the first to exit the courtroom after Dumbledore just a few minutes earlier.

"Well, well, well...Patronus Potter," drawled Mr Malfoy coldly when he caught sight of Harry.

"Been to any more late-night graveyard meetings?" riposted Harry sassily. "Also, how exactly do you know I was on trial for using the Patronus Charm to save my life, given the fact it was never in the Daily Prophet, and from everything I could see, was a very hushed-up trial that you weren't part of?"

"The Minister here was just telling me everything about your lucky escape in your trial," drawled Mr Malfoy in reply. "Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes...snakelike, in fact."

"Yeah, well, that tends to happen when you're innocent — or simply more powerful in a duel if it's that kind of situation," replied Harry smugly. "Might also have something to do with the fact the Sorting Hat did offer to put me Slytherin if I wanted it, but I decided to turn down the offer and go with a House known more for bravery and doing the right thing than for pumping out Death Eaters. I mean, it is only Slytherins currently serving time in Azkaban for being Death Eaters and following Voldemort, isn't it? Or am I mistaken?"

As neither Malfoy nor Fudge could deny the fact every single convicted (or at least thrown in Azkaban without a trial) Death Eater currently serving time in Azkaban was in fact from Slytherin House, they both just glared down on Harry and Hermione icily.

But fortunately at that moment the lift arrived, and Harry and Hermione stepped inside, leaving Mr Malfoy and the Minister behind to continue whatever conversation they had been having before the two students walked up. Arriving back at the house elf apparation square a few minutes later, Harry called Zizi to take them back home, and in no time they were landing back in the entrance hall of Potter Manor.

Strolling through the halls to Tonks's room, Harry pushed open the door and Hermione conjured a pillow and chucked it at the sleeping girl's head, who promptly startled awake and fell out of the bed.

Looking over at who'd interrupted her sleep, she smiled brightly upon seeing her two favorite people, and said, "Congratulations, I assume, since you're here and not in Azkaban."

"All cleared," replied Harry. "Fudge sure as hell wasn't happy about it, though."

"And the sky is blue," said Tonks as she walked over to them, giving Harry a big hug, and then Hermione one as well because why not. "But seriously, I am glad to hear you're free."