Chapter 4

The entire hall was muted. Nobody moved a muscle nor did anybody speak. They all sat rigid in their seats. They could not believe the turn in events, none more so than the Bones, and the Potters. Everyone started looking back and forth between Sirius Black, Hadrian Black and Amelia Bones. It was common knowledge that Amelia Bones had a child who died in child birth, and on the same day she broke up with the previous Lord Black when she accused him of cheating on her, which he never did.

Susan Bones sat there with her eyes wide open. She had a cousin that she never knew about, but then she looked around and realized no one did as well,well except for the man in question and Sirius Black who was grinning like a Cheshire cat. She had never actually talked to Hadrian in school but he was well known and four years her senior.

Amelia Bones for the first time in life was actually scared. She was a mother. A dream of hers that switched of like a light bulb after the death of our first baby. In her de-stressed state she spared a glance at the father of her child. He was wearing his infuriating smile whilst taken in everyone's reactions. Suddenly, anger started boiling inside of her, how dare that idiot not tell me. She could have raised him, and then maybe he would not have become a death eater, like most of his family. She then sharply looked at the Potters who looked like they had been petrified while Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew looked quite pale.

Before anyone could say anything, Fleur, who was getting extremely agitated, and suggested aloud, "I think we should get on with the trial. Family issues can get sorted out later."

"Absolutely. I concur," continued Daphne with a meaningful glance towards Amelia.

"Yes. Yes absolutely." replied Minister, regaining her decorum, whilst forcing down her anger and shock she nodded towards the prosecutor.

Fleur immediately became serious and stepped forward. She did not like to use Veritaserum unlike most prosecutors. She only used it when she could not get the answer out the accused through different means. However for this case, she could not used Veritaserum at all thanks to Pureblood laws. And since Hadrian had proved to be a pureblood, thanks to all their laws, this case was going to be a challenge to win.

"Lord Black, where you a death eater in Voldemort's service?"

"Yes," replied Lord Black in a calm voice.

"And when did you receive the dark mark?"

"One the night of Voldemort's return." he replied back in hardened tone. Everyone took a sharp intake of breath at that answer. At the age of 17 he had just sold his soul away to a mad man.

"And do you still bear the Mark"

"No. I managed to remove it just before I was captured." To prove it, he rolled up his sleeve and showed them his bare arm. It was empty. There was no mark on his skin.

"How? It is well known that you cannot remove the mark," asked a shocked Fleur. She wasn't the only one. Everyone held their breath not wanting to miss out what he was going to say.

"I'm a Parselmouth," he announced in a bored voice. Everyone was surprised including Daphne. "The Dark mark is a combination of various parseltounge spells. The Dark Lord never knew i was a parseltounge so when he placed the Dark Mark on me, i understood what he was saying. So it wasn't that hard to reverse it."

Fleur was clearly miffed. She could no longer accuse him of wearing the dark mark. She was planning to add that to his list of crimes because bearing the dark mark held a 2 year Azkaban sentence if the wearer had worn it for more than six months. Daphne clearly knew what she was trying to do as she was smirking at her which only made her more annoyed.

Fleur then tried a different angle. "Did you kill anyone else apart from Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody in Lord Voldemort's service?" All members leaned forward in their seats especially the minister and his adoptive family. Lord and Lady Potter were curious. Alexander didn't really know what to think. Rose Potter, looked on with hope, brother or not she stilled loved him. She knew that he wouldn't have become a death eater willingly. There had to be a reason. Others were highly suspicious of Hadrian. He had been on the Dark Side for over 4 years and became one of Voldemort's must trusted death eaters and right-hand man. Yet there were no other murders that linked towards him. The only two were the murders of Alastor Moody and Albus Dumbledore.

Hadrian's mood immediately dulled. He never wanted to kill his two mentors, however it was all part of the plan that they had engineered. "Expect for a couple or raids and attacks that i was on. Nobody intentionally."

"I find that highly unlikely Mr. Black, after all you were Voldermort's right hand man. Do you think of us stupid?" mocked Fleur. She was trying to rile him up, however his face remained as passive as ever, however his shoulders did stiffen slightly.

"Objection!" Daphne stated at once. "My client has already given a Lords Oath clearly stating that he will tell the truth to all answers that are questioned towards him."

"Sustained," Minister Bones agreed. "Miss Delacour please keep that in mind."

Frustrated, she asked him some other questions but no matter how much she pushed, Hadrian would not give her all the details. She knew that she could not force him thanks to his rights as a Pureblood, which not only annoyed her a lot but other half-bloods and muggleborns in attendance. She then called in her first witness. His name was Ethan Bagwell.

Sirius and Daphne sighed in relieve. Ethan Bagwell was newbie recruit. He had only been in Voldemort's service for about five months. So they knew that he would not have all that much information about Hadrian. Do to Ethan not having done anything serious in his service, he was given a light sentence, just narrowly escaping the two year azkaban sentence for wearing the dark mark. And without a doubt in hopes of clearing his reputation, he jumped on the chance to take down a high-profile criminal.

"Mr. Bagwell, to the best of your knowledge what was the defendants task as a Death Eater." questioned Fleur.

"I don't know that much," he answered. "I only saw him during our training sessions. And that is something that i would never want to go through again," he continued whilst wincing.

"Was Mr. Black a bad teacher?"

"No he wasn't bad, he was just harsh. He never stopped training us until we could no longer move. It was clear to us that he was trained well. There was a rumour where he had beaten Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband, Rodolphus Lestrange in a duel which left both of them in the medical wing for a month to recover."

That statement shocked everyone once again. Murmurs once again broke out. 'This was becoming a common thing' mused Hadrian in his head. The Lestranges were Voldemorts most crazy and strongest followers. Anyone who went against them normally ended up dead. Hadrian had not only defeated one of them in a duel but two of them. He had gained some respect in the Wizengamont for that task however that also made more people fear him. Everyone was eyeing him fearfully and wearily. However in some of the stationed aurors, you could see the awe and respect in their eyes.

"What were Mr. Blacks other responsibilities?"

Ethan licked his lips nervously and spared a glance towards his former trainer, who was looking back at him, as if challenging him to speak. "I'm not aware of his other responsibilities. Everything else i know, was that he and and Damien Lestrange were excused from participating in raids and he spent a lot of his free time either dueling or hanging around with other people his age, where some of them were death eaters and others weren't." More murmurs broke out upon hearing Damien Lestranges name. Hadrian head went up on hearing the name.

"Who was Damien Lestrange and who were the other people that Hadrian Black spent time with." demanded Fleur whilst trying to think of a way to use this new information for her benefit.

"Damien Lestrange was a the child of Rodolphus Lestrange and Bellatrix Lestrange. He went to school in Durmstrang under a different name to not attract attention. Hadrian spent most of his time around the likes of Rachel Zabini, Arianna Yaxley, Evan Rookwood and Rigel Malfoy to name a few. And to my understanding only Evan Rookwood had the Dark Mark. The rest were either healers or strategists. They all went to school together as well, with only Rigel and some others in the year ahead."

Fleur then continued to ask a few more questions but it became clear that Evan told them everything he could. So he was dismissed and the defence took over. Daphne then called Hadrian to the stand.

Her violent blue eyes not leaving Hadrian's stormy grey ones, Daphne strolled forward. "Tell me what happened on September 1st 1991"

Hadrian glanced wearily at Daphne, "It was the -" He cleared his throat.

"It was the day where everything changed."

AN - Hope you liked this chapter. Next Update will be in a few days. Please leave a review and follow if you want to see more. Thank You!