Chapter 6
A/N: Here comes the third to last chapter of my story; it is the
first part of a long trial scene. A lot of the past will be revealed.
And I took some liberties with the minor characters Rowling has created
- ever wondered about Rookwood's job in the Ministry or about Professor
Sinistra's first name?
Thanks, all you unknown readers out there. Well, at least I
hope there are still some of you.
I'm very grateful to those of you who reviewed the last chapter:
Tatiana: You are right, killing someone certainly does not
qualify as self-defense. Dumbledore at least wants to believe it was an
accident.
RavenNat: Thanks a lot
MMM: Well, sometimes I'm not sure if Snape's bitterness
is the result or the cause of his affiliation to the Death Eaters. What
is obvious from the PoA, is that he feels humiliated by James Potter and
his friends. You might even call that a mild inferiority complex. (Ahh,
psychology, I hate that stuff.)
About Snape's fans loving to see him suffer- Happiness is just not
part of his personality. Could you imagine Snape wandering through a field
of flowers in the sunshine, a happy tune on his lips? Awkward. Could you
imagine Snape trudging through the snow during a winter storm, drawing
his cloak closely around the body to keep the coldness out? Better. See
my point?
Ari Ana Dotcom: Not being able to stop reading? Wow, I'm
flattered. That's what every author wants to hear.
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Disclaimer
Everything, every location, every character belongs to JK Rowling,
Bloomsbury Pub., Warner Brothers or whoever might currently hold the rights
of Harry Potter. There are exceptions- The title is taken from a John Steinbeck
novel, the Life Shield Charm, the Transmitter Owl, and the Morituri are
mine.
I swear, I don't make money out of this.
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Thank you for beta-reading this, Darkwing!
Chapter 6
Fighting with the back to the wall
by Clio
Summer 2001
Harry didn't sleep much that night, but he was wide awake when he entered Dumbledore's office in the next morning. After a warm greeting Dumbledore conjured his Pensieve onto the table. He smiled at Harry across the silvery liquid in the stone bowl. "You remember this, don't you?"
How could Harry forget the scenes he had seen in Dumbledore`s Pensieve in his fourth year? He nodded silently.
"An useful item, this. Sometimes images can explain what words cannot
express." Dumbledore's smile ceased. "You wanted to know what happened
at Severus' trial. Well, let me go back a little further. Right after the
scenes you saw in the crystal orb, I rushed to Godric's Hollow. It was
horrible. All I could do was order Hagrid to take you to the Dursleys.
I myself took care of Severus. He was seriously injured, and under the
given circumstances we couldn't just send him to St. Mungo's, could we?
I apparated with him to..., well, an island, where the justice of neither
wizard nor muggle world could reach him."
A secretive smile crossed Dumbledore's face. "I knew he was taken excellent
care of from a friend of mine and her novices. Sooner or later, when the
situation had calmed down, he would have to face a trial, but for the time
being he was safe.
Some months later the trials against the former known Death Eaters
started. I convinced Severus to leave his sanctuary and to surrender
to the Hit Wizards. I had come to an understanding with Mr. Rookwood from
the Ministry; he would stand a non-public trial immediately."
Harry interrupted the Headmaster. "Rookwood, isn't that a Death Eater? "
"Yes, Harry, but neither I nor Severus knew it then. Rookwood was a
very skilled spy. After Severus turned himself in, he made sure that he
was thrown into Azkaban for some weeks. Rookwood surely wanted to get rid
of him before he could testify in the trial. I suppose he wasn't sure if
Severus knew about his activity as Voldemort's spy in the Ministry. Anyway,
Rookwood would have preferred to lose the key to Severus' cell. He didn't
take any chances, so he gave the order that Snape was to be introduced
to all amenities Azkaban had to offer. Since Severus' health was still
shaken, he couldn't bear the torture for long. He got ill quickly - so
ill, I feared he might die in fact.
"Fudge, who was then a young and ambitious Ministry worker, shared
those fears. He probably saw the rare opportunity to condemn another Death
Eater slip away. He overruled Rookwood, and Severus was facing trial."
Dumbledore nodded towards Harry and tapped his wand against the Pensieve.
The gray liquid inside it swirled around. Harry stared at the little vortex
in its center. Suddenly he felt like being inside the vortex himself; the
office started spinning. Harry closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he found himself sitting on a wooden bench in a coolly lit room. The windowless walls were made of smooth gray stones. With a start he recognized the courtroom he had been seeing in the Pensieve in his fourth year. Something was different, though. The then so tightly packed seats were almost empty. Only a few witches and wizards were seated in the room, which now appeared much larger than Harry could remember it from the trials against Bagman, Crouch jr. and Karkaroff he had witnessed in the Pensieve.
Like in his earlier Pensieve experiences he was seated in the second row between Dumbledore and Mad-Eye Moody. Barty Crouch Sr. and Cornelius Fudge, who was obviously there as an official observer, were the only other wizards he recognized when he looked around.
Crouch, who had been sitting on the opposite side of the room, suddenly stood up. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before we begin with the hearing, I would like to inform you, that today's trial is not public, due to the request of the main witness." He nodded towards Dumbledore. Some heads of the wizards and witches, who seemed to represent the jury, turned towards the Headmaster.
Crouch clapped his hands twice. In the front wall a door opened, and in came two Dementors. They flanked a man in dirty robes, whom they dragged to the chair in the middle of the room. He sank onto the seat like a rag-doll, and the Dementors stepped back to allow the magic chains to wind around his wrists.
Harry now had a clear view of the man. He could have sworn he had never
seen him before. Certainly it was not Snape. The man's gray, dirt-covered
robes were torn in many places. They hung loosely around the gaunt body.
His head was sloppily sheared. Bloody scratches ran across the skull. The
ghostly pale face, which was shaded with black stubble, looked calm. No
sign of cruelty or torture was seen there. The dark eyes, which were sunken
deeply into the skull, were laced with red.
Crouch now stepped in front of the man. "What's your name, defendant?"
"What? Me?" The man in the chair stared at Crouch uncomprehendingly. His speech was heavily slurred as if he were drunk.
"Your name!"
"Severus Snape", the man mumbled.
Harry inhaled sharply and took a second look at the hunched figure just a few meters away from him. It was indeed Snape. Without his ever so greasy black hair he was hard to recognize. To Harry, although he knew, that only about 10 weeks had passed, he appeared to be so much older than the young man he had seen in the transmitter orb. His face was lined deeply, but it was blank like a waxen mask. It had an unhealthy yellowish color, and a film of sweat was glistening on it.
Slowly Snape gazed around with unnaturally wide open, unfocused eyes. Where was his fierce trademark look? With a shock Harry realized that he must be under the influence of very heavy drugs.
"Date and place of birth?" Crouch asked, but received no answer. "When were you born, man?"
"November. November '58." Salvia started to trickle out of Snape's half
open mouth.
Moody looked over to Dumbledore. "Gave him just a pinch too much of
that powder, eh?" He grinned at Dumbledore, who silently shook his head.
His furrowed brows betrayed anger and worry.
Crouch in the center of the room sighed in resignation. "Ah, well. You are Severus Corrhan Armon Snape. Born on November 21st, 1958 in the village of Snape, Yorkshire. Is that correct?"
" Yes, Sir."
" Youngest child of Manilus and Giaconda Snape, nèe Mulciber?"
"Yes."
"Alright then. You, Severus Snape, are under suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization by the name of Death Eaters. As such you are accused of intimidation, robbery, kidnapping, violation of the Muggle Protection Act, the Wizarding Codex, and violation of the Ban against Dangerous and Uncontrollable Magic. You personally are charged with multiple grievous bodily harm and murder in eight cases. Do you understand the nature of those grave indictments? "
Snape looked dumbstruck.
" Do you understand what I just said? " Crouch shouted.
Snape drew away from him and pressed his spine hard against the wooden back of his chair. "Yes. Murder."
"Good. I hereby state that the defendant is willing, and both mentally
and physically able to follow the proceedings. The case of the Ministry
of Magic against Severus Snape is open for trial."
Dumbledore slowly shook his head again.
The hearing began with the testimonies of two men, obviously the Ministry's prosecutors. One of them was introduced as Augustus Rookwood, who was known to Harry as Voldemort's spy. Both of them were giving evidence about Snape being a Death Eater ever since he was 16. Rookwood testified that, according to some mysterious source of information he didn't reveal, Snape moved on to the inner circle of the Death Eaters soon after he had graduated from Hogwarts. He became Voldemort's specialist for poisonous drafts. Snape didn't deny anything.
Rookwood then accused Snape of participation in various raids and told with painstaking detail how the victims, Muggles and wizards, were tortured and killed.
Crouch objected at one point. "Haven't we've cleared him on the Bones case?"
Rookwood nodded reluctantly. "You are right here, Sir, it must have slipped my mind. He has an alibi for the night of the attack on the Bones family," he said. "The defendant claims to have been at Florence Sinistra's place all night."
"Do we have a testimony from that woman?" asked a member of the jury.
Again Rookwood nodded. "Yes, she has testified in Snape's favor, but
you should know that she's an astronomer in training, a stargazer, and
she is a former schoolmate of the defendant. A Slytherin like him," he
added with a wry smile.
"Please go on with the prosecution", Crouch said, and Rookwood continued
to talk about various raids and Death Eater attacks during the late 70's.
During all those accusations Snape remained silent.
Then it was Dumbledore's turn. " First and most important of all, I want to state that Severus was my spy among the Death Eaters. He never left our side completely and he took great risks to fight the Dark Lord." Many of the wizards and witches from the jury looked up in surprise.
"Please address the accusations in the order they were presented, Albus," Crouch interrupted him.
"It is correct, though, that he turned towards Voldemort at a very young age. Many did at that time, especially in the Hogwarts house of Slytherin, in which Severus Snape was placed. I don't deny that he was fascinated with the Dark Arts and Voldemort's ideology of a return to the traditional ways of wizarding. Note that this fact alone doesn't make him a dark mage. I also freely admit that he was a member of the so called Morituri while he was still a student at Hogwarts. "
Whispers rose among the jury and Dumbledore turned towards them. "Most of you will be aware that the Morituri were the youngest and most daring of Voldemort's followers. They were child-soldiers, recruited from the Slytherin students of Howarts, and I daresay those children were victims themselves. Their enthusiasm for the Death Eater movement was exploited by Voldemort and his minions. In every battle, in every confrontation with Aurors, they were to fight in the front row. They were used as cannon-fodder, and if it suited the Dark Lord, he assigned them even as suicide-assassins. They took the highest risks among the Death Eaters."
Dumbledore had to raise his voice to make himself heard above the now excited conversations among his audience. "Severus Snape can consider himself lucky that he soon proceeded into the higher ranks of the Death Eaters, because only few of his fellow Morituris are still alive."
"Nonetheless they committed atrocity after atrocity, despite their youth!" A short wizard from the jury shouted.
"Yes, but they were manipulated into doing so by the older Death Eaters, whom they followed blindly. They hardly realized what they did, what dark forces they were using. And if the Liverpool Massacre is what you are hinting at, Severus Snape did not participate in that raid. He was in the infirmary at Hogwarts then, due to a minor injury from a Quidditch match two days before."
Dumbledore pointed at the jury. "You may look that up in our sick reports at Hogwarts, if you want to."
"Trust me, we will. Now please continue with your defense, Albus," said Crouch impatiently.
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A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger here.
In case anyone noticed, I just couldn't resist to link Sinistra and Snape to a certain scene described in the GoF. You know what I mean, right? *Winks at the reader*
BTW, Morituri is Latin. It means 'those who will die' or 'the
doomed ones'. This is how the gladiators called themselves when hailing
the emperor before the fight. I thought the name would fit a junior
Death Eaters' cadre.
Maybe some day I will write down their story. At the moment there
are still so many of them, who don't want to see their name appearing in
a Fanfiction story. I must ask them for permission first.