Chapter Three: The Witnesses
Author's Note: This now completes chapter three (hooray!). Those of you reading this on fanfiction.net can go ahead and post reviews without fear of being woofed out by Fido next time. I've posted much of this before, but there are a few new things added to the earlier parts in the chapter: some more annoying testimony from Draco; Molly's and Ginny's reactions after Lucius reads Harry's, um, private correspondence; and a rather clueless appearance by Professor Trelawney. So just go ahead and read the whole chapter, OK?
I regret to report that I have become rather burned out on writing this, as some of you may have guessed from my decreasing frequency of publication. (It didn't help that the courtroom scene ended up being much longer than I had expected.) So I plan to take a break from writing for a month or two, and pick this up sometime in late June or July. Sorry about that. I'm sure you'll all find lots of other good stuff to read in the meantime.
By the way, can anyone guess the historical origins of the names of "Brundage Avery," "Judge Harold Thorne," "Dr. Clooney Hatch," and "Robert Sachmann"?
* * *
"Witches and wizards of the jury," Mr. Malfoy began in his most oily voice, "the honorable Judge Thorne, the honorable Minister Fudge, and all those present, welcome.
"It is my most unfortunate duty this morning to present to you the sad and sorrowful facts of the case against a boy who, I daresay, has been a hero to so many of us. I refer, of course, to young Harry Potter, who stands on trial today along with Mr. Ronald Weasley and the--" he wrinkled his face in disgust-- "Muggle-born Hermione Granger, for the magical assault and battery of my own son, Draco Malfoy, as well as his good friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"Nor does this represent the entirety of the case against young Mr. Potter. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement has been shocked-- shocked-- to receive, in recent weeks, indisputable and incontrovertible evidence, not only that Potter has been in communication with and support of a convicted mass murderer, Sirius Black" (there were gasps from the audience at this point; none of them except for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and a few others knew that Sirius was innocent) "but also that he himself has become a murderer like his mentor Black, that he has learned the darkest of all Dark curses, the infamous Avada Kedavra curse developed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself, and that in a fit of competitive and-- dare I say it?-- romantic jealousy, he has used this Unforgivable Curse against a fellow Hogwarts student, Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff House, resulting in the tragic and untimely death of his Triwizard Tournament rival."
Behind Harry and to the right he heard a suppressed sob from Mrs. Weasley, and a choking sound in what he thought was probably Mr. Diggory's voice. Otherwise the courtroom was deathly silent.
"A far-fetched idea?" Mr. Malfoy continued. "A strange and bizarre theory? So it may seem. Yet it fits precisely with the consistent pattern of behavior that Potter has shown ever since the beginning of his schooling at Hogwarts School, as will be shown by the testimony of the witnesses that I shall call.
"In recent months, it has become publicly known that Potter is a Parselmouth, a Dark wizard who speaks the language of serpents. Whether he obtained this ability at birth, or through his youthful contact with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or through his own secret forays into the Dark Arts, is unknown at present; and for the purposes of this court it is immaterial. It has also become known that Potter considers himself above his fellow students and the rules that apply to such common folk, as he sees it; that he has associated with such Dark creatures as werewolves and part-giants; and that a host of other irrational behaviors have characterized his scholastic years, all for the purpose of sustaining the small amount of celebrity he received as a result of his early childhood encounter with the Dark Lord.
"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement therefore wishes to present to this honorable court the following conclusions: First, that young Potter, having encountered the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, in early childhood, and having lost his parents as a result of that encounter and having been abandoned for the remainder of his childhood years to the inept and unsympathetic care of his mother's Muggle family, developed such a degree of hatred and bitterness as can scarcely fail to lead a wizard into the practice of the Dark Arts.
"Second, that upon his re-integration into wizarding society and arrival at Hogwarts School, Potter, as all Dark wizards do, accumulated a group of loyal followers around himself, led by young Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger, characterized by an unswerving devotion to Potter's personality cult and a tendency to use curses without provocation against those who refused to submit to it.
"Third, that upon the escape from Azkaban of Sirius Black, the chief servant of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named who was convicted of mass murder thirteen years ago, Black sought out contact with young Potter, in the hope of raising him up as a new Dark Lord with Black at his side as he had once been at He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's.
"And fourth and finally, that this diabolical plan, assisted also by another escaped Death Eater, young Barty Crouch" (there were gasps from the crowd; apparently not everybody had known about him) "reached its first fruition on the twenty-fourth of June this year, when Potter demonstrated his mastery of the Killing Curse on his hated and despised rival, the noble Hogwarts champion Cedric Diggory; and that Albus Dumbledore, the kindly old Headmaster of Hogwarts who, I regret to say, seems no longer to be in full possession of his intellectual faculties, has been deluded into inadvertently supporting Potter and Black's nefarious scheme by promoting and circulating Potter's outlandish claim that the previous Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has returned to his body and is re-gaining followers, a claim undoubtedly designed to distract public attention from Potter's own ruthless ambitions toward power and Darkness.
"We therefore believe that unless Harry Potter is stopped without further delay, the wizarding world risks a fearsome catastrophe, a reign of terror every bit as terrible as that of the previous Dark Lord. These charges against Potter and his cohorts in crime will be substantiated by the evidence of the witnesses whom I shall forthwith call to testify before this honorable magical court."
There was a moment of silence.
"You lie, Malfoy!" a crochety-sounding voice suddenly called. Harry turned around; the crazy old warlock on the other side of Moody from Dumbledore was standing up and shouting. Dumbledore seemed to be trying to get to him to quiet down, but Moody was blocking Dumbledore's path. "You lie like a snake with its belly on the ground. You lie like a Slytherin!"
"Mundungus!" interrupted Dumbledore sharply, as Harry realized that the man must be Mundungus Fletcher, whom he had heard Mr. Weasley and Percy referring to on a couple of occasions. Just then Judge Thorne banged his gavel. "ORDER IN THE COURT! Fletcher, you are out of order and hereby ordered to remain silent for the remainder of his trial."
As Fletcher grumpily sat down, the judge turned back to the podium. "Mr. Malfoy," he said in a calmer tone, "will you please call your first witness."
Lucius nodded. "Draco Malfoy, please take the witness stand."
With even more than his usual smirk, silvery-blond Draco Malfoy ambled up to the witness stand and faced his father.
"Draco Malfoy," Lucius began, "will you please describe for the Court the events which took place on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth of June this year."
"Well," drawled Malfoy, "we were on the train back from Hogwarts like usual. And Vince and Greg-- er, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, that is-- they and I stopped in on Potter's compartment to say hello. I've tried to be friends with Potter, you know, but he's never been interested. Guess he thinks he's too good for me or something. So I stopped by to talk about what happened, and tried to remind Potter that if he'd not been so uppity back in his first year I could have, you know, helped him stay out of trouble. And I guess he and Weasley and Granger didn't like the sound of that, 'cause they all jumped up and whipped their wands out and started cursing me and Vince and Greg for no reason."
Ron whispered a rather profane opinion of Malfoy's version of events, and even Hermione was too angry to cut him off. Harry felt sick at how cleverly Malfoy could twist the truth. Evidently it ran in the family.
"Draco," Mr. Malfoy continued, "have Mr. Potter and his friends ever behaved in this fashion on any previous occasions?"
"Oh yeah," Draco replied, "lots of times. It goes all the way back to first year, when Potter tried to fight a wizard's duel with me at midnight. He and his friends are always trying to get around the rules like that, but I wouldn't have it. In second year Weasley tried to curse me for no reason, only it backfired and he ended up burping slugs after that one. Kind of funny, you know. Then in third year Granger just comes up to me and hits me in the face. You can't even try to be polite to these people, they do stuff like that to you. And then last year Potter cursed me with his wand, and I tried to defend myself, and his curse deflected off and hit Greg in the face and made him break out in these awful boils.
"And the thing is, you see, Potter's always been Dumbledore's favorite boy, and he lets him and his friends get away with everything. I can't wait 'til the school Governors get rid of him for good, and let us have a decent Headmaster like Professor Snape who'll run the school properly." Draco shot a grin toward where Snape was sitting.
"So yeah, anyway, the point is, Potter and his weasely little friends have always been like that, and I say it's about time someone called them to account for it. This should have happened a long time ago, and maybe then Diggory wouldn't have had to get it from Potter's wand."
"Thank you, Draco," said Lucius. "You have testified about Mr. Potter's friendships with Mr. Weasley and with Miss Granger. In your observation, has Mr. Potter been involved in any other-- er-- suspicious friendships?"
"Oh, er, yeah. Well, the gamekeeper turns out to be a giant, or part-giant, or something, and he's as violent as they come, trying to breed dragons and hippogriffs and these illegal things called skrewts that always explode on you when you're not looking." (There was a murmuring from the friendlier part of the crowd at this; these were presumably the people that had supported Hagrid after Rita Skeeter had written a nasty article about him the previous winter.)
"So anyway, Potter has always been hanging around with him, always going over to his cabin ever since first year. And then he was in tight with the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in third year, and he turned out to be a werewolf. So there you've got the two most violent dangerous creatures in the whole school, and Potter's great friends with both of them. Kinda tells you something, doesn't it?"
Lucius nodded. "Thank you, Draco, you have been of excellent service to the Ministry and to this court. Will Vincent Crabbe please take the stand next, please?"
As Draco walked smirking back to his seat and Crabbe took his place on the stand, Harry could hear Ron softly whispering "bouncing ferrets, bouncing ferrets" in a desperate attempt to calm himself. Ron was right, Harry found; thinking of Malfoy's time as a ferret really did help. A little bit, anyway.
Lucius' voice then snapped Harry back to reality. "Vincent, will you please tell the court what happened that afternoon?"
"Er, uh, yeah. What Draco said."
Harry exchanged glances with Ron and Hermione. Right, Crabbe, really original, they all were obviously thinking.
"Can you please be more specific?" Lucius prodded.
"Well, er, we, uh, were on the train, and we, er, went into their compartment, and, yeah, er, Draco was talking to them, and then they, er, er, they all started cursing us, and, I guess, that's all."
"Thank you, Vincent. You may be seated."
Crabbe, looking exhausted by his ordeal, returned to his seat in the auditorium. Goyle's turn was next. Ron caught Harry's eye and sniffed the air; Harry grinned at the reference to Ron's cartoon sketch of Goyle as a troll in Harry's textbook of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
"Gregory, can you please tell us what happened on the afternoon of June the twenty-ninth?"
Goyle grunted. "Same thing."
"Same thing as what, please?"
Another grunt. "As Draco and Vince."
Harry exchanged glances with his friends again. If he hadn't been on trial for a life term in Azkaban, this would have been immensely funny.
"Can you please tell the story in your own words?"
Goyle looked as if he had no idea on earth what that meant.
"Gregory?"
"On the train." (Silence.) "They cursed us." (Silence.) "That's all."
"Thank you, Gregory," Lucius replied with an appreciative smile, "you have been of great service to this court."
Goyle returned to his seat looking happy, even if he hadn't entirely understood Lucius' compliment. Now I know what to bring up the next time Malfoy calls Neville brainless, thought Harry. Then he remembered that he might not be around to complain about it next time.
Meanwhile, Mr. Malfoy had turned to the bench. "This now completes the witnesses to the assault by Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger on the Hogwarts Express. With the court's permission, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would now like to continue to the remaining charges against Mr. Potter."
"Please continue," nodded Judge Thorne. "The defendants will have opportunity to respond to the charges when the Ministry completes the presentation of its case."
"Very well," continued Lucius. "Will Officer Brundage Avery of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement please take the stand?"
Avery came forward. Harry had a better chance to take in Avery's appearance now than he had in their previous meeting on Privet Drive. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties (Sirius had told Harry that Avery was once a classmate of Snape in Slytherin), and was of medium height with dark hair and a moustache.
"Mr. Avery," Lucius began, "will you please inform the court concerning your assignment of the morning of July the third for the Department?"
Avery nodded. "I was assigned on that day to keep watch on the house where Potter lives with his Muggle relatives in Surrey, in the town of Little Whinging." He grinned briefly at the name of the town, which apparently seemed humorous to him. "The Ministry has, you see, been a bit... concerned about Potter, given the recent reports in the Daily Prophet." Harry burned inwardly at the thought of Rita Skeeter, and could tell without looking that Ron and especially Hermione were thinking the same thing.
"And what did you observe that day?" continued Lucius.
"I saw Potter releasing his owl with a letter to someone. Of course I was immediately suspicious, you know, and since I had been issued a search warrant to be used in case of suspicious activities by Potter, it was my right and duty to intercept the owl. With the help of a Ministry-issue Firebolt and Invisibility Cloak, it wasn't hard."
Harry's inward burning reached its highest temperature yet. The only thing comforting was knowing that Ron and Hermione were just as indignant on his behalf.
"And so," Avery continued, "it turned out to be a good thing I did. My suspicions were right, you see. Potter was writing to a known criminal for advice. He was writing to his godfather... the notorious mass murderer, Sirius Black." And he produced the letter from within his cloak and handed it to Lucius Malfoy.
"Thank you, Mr. Avery," Lucius replied as he took the letter. "You may be seated." And then Lucius did the most horrifying thing yet. Unfolding the letter, he went on to explain, "Mr. Potter's letter to Mr. Black will now be read before the court, so that it may be properly entered in the court records as evidence of Mr. Potter's crime."
"Continue," nodded Judge Thorne.
With a malicious glint in his eye, Lucius begain to read. Dear Sirius... can you help me understand girls?
* * *
Oh, no! Harry sank back in his chair with his hands to his forehead, stunned. In all the horror of having had his letter intercepted, he had somehow forgotten until now exactly what it was that he had written in the letter. His most personal thoughts were about to be spilled before the entire wizarding world-- Rita's Quick-Quotes Quill was sure to splash it all across the front page of the Daily Prophet. Even Professor Snape couldn't have dreamed up such an awful scenario. Harry could hear Ron and Hermione suck their breath in, not knowing exactly what Harry was written but realizing how awful it must be for him. Meanwhile, as Lucius paused for effect, a rumble of laughter came tumbling down from the Slytherin-dominated section of the audience. This was going to be a treat for them.
… I suppose my godfather will be the next best thing, Lucius was now continuing. There's one girl that I liked, Cho Chang, but she liked another guy…
Harry didn't dare to look to where Cho was sitting with her family. This had to be as embarrassing for her as it was for him. He didn't want to know what Cedric's parents were thinking. Whom else had he mentioned? Hermione, although she agreed that they were just friends, so that shouldn't be a problem; Ginny… oh, no, that might be bad…
Just then a welcome voice came from Harry's right. "Objection, your honor!" Professor Dumbledore was standing up. "The letter is obviously of a very personal nature, and the reading of it is not serving the case against Mr. Potter so much as it is making a public mockery of him."
"Overruled," intoned Judge Thorne. "The letter has already established Mr. Potter's relationship with Mr. Black. It may contribute more relevant information as well. It is the Ministry's decision what evidence to present in its cases against accused criminals." He banged his gavel. "Continue, Mr. Malfoy."
Continuing in a mock-sentimental tone, Lucius went on: There's another girl that seems like she likes me, but that's Ron's little sister Ginny… Oh, no, this definitely wasn't good. Even if Harry didn't want her as a girlfriend, he certainly hadn't meant to do this to her either. "Little sister"-- she probably wouldn't like that too much. He grinned wryly. Oh, well, he thought, I guess I won't have problems with her liking me too much any more; she'll definitely hate me after this one. He could feel Ron glaring at him from one side. Hermione was apparently looking at him also, although he couldn't guess what her expression might have been and didn't really want to know, didn't want to think about any of this.
Lucius was continuing: …After what happened with Neville's parents, it would be really nice for him to have a good girlfriend like Ginny… Had he really written that? Yeah, he guessed he had. In its own way, this was the worst yet. He had promised Dumbledore that he would keep the secret of Neville's parents, who were in the insanity ward of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. He hadn't thought about that when telling it to Sirius; somehow that didn't seem the same as if he had told one of their classmates. And now the whole world knew that something was the matter with Neville's parents.
…Everybody things Hermione is my girlfriend… If anything, she and Ron might like each other, but don't tell them I said that… The Slytherins practically exploded with laughter at this one. In the commotion that followed-- hilarious jeering from Harry's enemies mixed with angry shouts at Lucius from the friendlier adults-- Harry thought he heard Draco Malfoy's voice yelling something involving the word "Mudblood". And Ron and Hermione were definitely both glaring at him now. Harry stared determinedly at the floor. Whom else had he mentioned? No, no, he didn't even want to think about it. He just wanted this to be over.
…Parvati Patil, from Gryffindor in my year… there's nothing going on there… Great. Now Parvati was going to be upset with him too. At this rate, the whole school was going to be mad at him. Then he remembered that he might never go to Hogwarts again. Like a unexpected dash of ice-cold water to his face, the thought drew him out of his self-pity a bit.
…I suppose this has been a totally stupid letter… The Slytherins were rolling in the aisles now. Harry had to give Lucius credit, he was making this even worse than when Snape had read the Daily Prophet article that made Hermione out to be manipulating the affections of both Harry and Viktor Krum. And that took some doing.
When the laughter had settled down, Professor Dumbledore's voice came from the back once again. "Your Honor, I must reiterate for the record my objection, even if after the fact. The letter has caused great embarrassment to a young man and several of his friends, and has served very little purpose to this case."
"Very well, Professor, your objection shall be noted in the record," the judge replied. Fat lot of good that'll do, thought Harry glumly. He didn't know why he cared what people thought of him-- he was going to Azkaban, Voldemort was going to come, Voldemort would bring the Dementors back to his side, and it would be Avada Kedavra, and that would be all. There was nothing left to care about anymore.
Even so, he couldn't help himself. He glanced into the audience, to where the Weasleys were sitting. Mrs. Weasley caught his eye, and Harry was glad to see that she at least didn't seem to be angry with him. She didn't look happy, of course, but her anger seemed directed more at Mr. Malfoy; she looked like she would have tried to comfort Harry if she could. But then again, there at Mrs. Weasley's side was Ginny, slumped against her mother's body, her head buried in her arms, her body shaking with silent sobs. Harry quickly looked away. He supposed that he had done worse and stupider things; but somehow, having hurt Ron's sister Ginny like that, felt like the worst of it all.
"The next witness for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Lucius was now continuing, "will be Professor Severus Snape."
Snape took the witness stand. Harry tried to remember what Dumbledore had said about Snape. Apparently Dumbledore had approved of Snape's testifying against Harry, in order to avoid jeopardizing Snape's position with Voldemort. But what would Snape say? If Snape was really on their side, how could he send Harry to Azkaban? And, for the thousandth time, what made Dumbledore so sure about Snape anyway?
"Professor Snape," Lucius asked in an oily tone, "Will you please describe for the court the general characteristics you have observed in young Mr. Potter's behavior during his four years as a student at Hogwarts School?"
Harry, having heard Snape's commentary on the subject on many previous occasions, could have given Snape's testimony almost as well as Snape did. "Potter has been…" Snape began, and continued with Harry whispering along with him, "crossing lines ever since he arrived at school." Ron also whispered the last few words along with Harry. They glanced at each other and almost exchanged grins-- but then Ron remembered that he was mad at Harry for spreading rumors about him and Hermione, and looked away. Ron's looking away hit Harry like a punch to the stomach, much more so than Snape's ongoing testimony.
"…by the Headmaster," Snape was continuing. "He seems to have a certain… fondness for Gryffindor students in general and for Potter in particular. Indeed, this has been a long-running disagreement between the Headmaster and myself: I believe in treating all students the same, while Professor Dumbledore apparently believes that some students are born to special privilege. I have never supported this policy.
"As for Potter himself, I can testify that no other student has caused as much deliberate havoc in my classroom, or shown me such disrespect as Potter has. In all my years of teaching, only one student has told me to my face to 'shut up', and that was Harry Potter. He is easily, easily, the most arrogant student I have ever met. And so yes, I can certainly confirm from my experience Potter's tendency toward ringleading and rebelliousness."
"Thank you, Professor," replied Lucius. "And let me also ask: Can you tell the court about the incident which occurred during the short-lived existence of a certain Dueling Club, about two and a half years ago?"
"Certainly," replied the Potions master. "Potter was sparring with Malfoy-- er, your son Draco, that is. During the course of their match, young Draco successfully used the Serpensortia charm," (here Lucius beamed with pride) "which causes a snake to emerge from the wand of the one casting the spell, to act as a defender. And when Potter was faced with the snake, he was caught by surprise and shouted at the snake in an apparent effort to turn the serpent's attention to another student, Justin Finch-Fletchley of Hufflepuff House."
"He shouted at the snake? Most interesting indeed," Lucius continued with a sly grin. "Did the serpent then appear capable of comprehending human speech?"
"That would scarcely have necessary," Snape answered with an expression suggesting that he and Lucius were enjoying a subtle but immensely funny inside joke, "given that Potter was speaking to it in Parseltongue."
"Hmmm. Parseltongue? Indeed. Thank you once again, Professor." It was interesting to listen to Lucius' and Snape's voices in succession. Both of them spoke in extremely oily tones, as if Lucius' sleek coiffure and Snape's greasy locks had been dripping into their respective throats all morning. But Lucius almost seemed to be playing a game, but Snape spoke in a completely serious, no-nonsense manner. All Harry knew for sure was that he didn't like either of them.
Snape was now answering Lucius' next question. "Yes, I can also confirm Potter's relationship to Black." A new vindictiveness seemed evident in his voice. "Potter's father and Black were best friends at school. Whether or not James Potter asked Black to serve as godfather for Harry was, I suppose, privileged information, available only to those in their precious inner circle. Certainly I was not informed and cannot speak directly to the matter; but it is consistent with my knowledge of Black and Potter's father.
"What I do know first-hand is that, a year ago June, I encountered Potter and his friends in a clandestine meeting with Black and his werewolf friend Lupin, after hours and outside school boundaries. Black had clearly gained Potter's confidence, and Weasley's and Granger's also. At the time I believed this to be due to a Confundus charm by Black, but I have since come to believe that Potter and the others were eagerly drinking in Black's every word of their own free will. And so Potter's ongoing correspondence with Black, as documented by Mr. Avery, does not surprise me in the slightest."
"Thank you again, Professor," Lucius replied. "I might also ask: Can you testify concerning Mr. Potter's relationship to the deceased young Mr. Diggory?"
"I can only tell you what I've seen, Mr. Malfoy," Snape answered. "What I have seen, time after time during the school year past, was Potter, seated at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, casting longing eyes toward the Ravenclaw table, and usually in the general vicinity of Miss Chang; and Potter, flaring up with suppressed rage every time Diggory walked by. I do not believe that it requires any great degree of genius to interpret these observations."
There was another suppressed sob from the audience, this time in what sounded like Cho's voice, and then a pair of footsteps exiting the auditorium, followed by about two other pairs of footsteps trying to catch up with the first. Snape glanced in that direction and smirked.
"And can you inform the court of what transpired between Mr. Potter and Mr. Diggory on the night of June the twenty-fourth?"
There was a brief silence. Then Snape replied: "That I cannot. I was present on the Hogwarts grounds during that entire evening, and Potter and Diggory had been transported elsewhere when the alleged murder took place."
Somehow, hearing this from Snape surprised Harry. Something didn't sound right about this, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
"Can you confirm that the two young men both left the Hogwarts grounds alive, and that they returned with Mr. Potter alive and Mr. Diggory dead?"
"I can," Snape nodded. "Draw what conclusions you wish." And with that he stopped, evidently having no more to say. Lucius nodded just a bit uncomfortably, but thanked Snape and dismissed him back to his seat.
Wait a minute, thought Harry. That's what sounded odd: Snape had the chance to call me a murderer, and he didn't. He said almost everything Mr. Malfoy wanted him to, but not quite. Or am I really right about that? And is he really on our side? Would his debt to my father make him do that even if he weren't? Harry really wished he understood. There were just too many possibilities to try to make sense of it.
* * *
The next witness was a bit of a surprise, as Lucius Malfoy called forward Professor Trelawney. Harry was momentarily stunned by this; Trelawney, the misty-voiced Divination professor, was hardly the sort of person he'd expect to show up in the line of Death Eaters and Slytherins in Lucius' parade of witnesses. She wasn't a Death Eater too, was she? Surely she couldn't…
But then it all made sense, as Lucius asked, "Professor Trelawney, please tell us what took place in your classroom on the afternoon of May 31st?
"On that particular afternoon," said Trelawney, "I was delivering a lesson to my class on the influence of the planet Mars on daily life, since Mars was placed most interestingly that afternoon, forming obtuse angles both with Saturn and with the earth. This is an unusual event, you understand and one of most extraordinary significance…"
"Thanks you, Professor," Lucius interrupted. Trelawney looked somewhat put out. "And can you tell us what happened to Mr. Potter in your class that afternoon?"
"Well," replied Trelawney (still looking rather offended), "in the middle of my lecture, the poor dear boy, born under such baleful influences, started rolling on the ground. He was clutching his scar and screaming out loud. It was most obviously a…"
"Thank you again, Professor, you are dismissed." Lucius smiled and nodded at Trelawney and motioned her back to her seat. Trelawney looked extremely disappointed at having lost her audience, but she had no choice but to relinquish the witness stand. Hermione, who disliked Professor Trelawney almost as much as she did the Malfoy family, gave an amused snort at this.
* * *
Lucius was clearing his throat again. "For our next witness, I would like to call forward Dr. Clooney Hatch of the Lunacy and Idiocy Ward of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."
A doctor from the lunacy ward?! thought Harry. Caught off guard, he wondered for a moment what Lucius could be up to now. Then it made sense: this must be the specialist Rita Skeeter had quoted in her "Harry Potter: Disturbed and Dangerous?" article in the Daily Prophet. And now this Dr. Hatch-- who turned out to be an older-looking man with an ill-fitting laboratory coat, large round-rimmed glasses, combed-over white hair, and a bushy white beard-- was going to tell the wizarding world that Harry Potter showed all the signs of being an insane murderer. Harry wondered if wizarding courts allowed the plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity" like Muggle courts did. Nah, probably not-- if they did, Lucius wouldn't be going to all this trouble to prove how nutters I am.
And then another thought hit Harry upside the head. Hey, wait a minute… St. Mungo's? Lunacy Ward? He couldn't help it-- he stole a glance in the direction of Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Yup-- they must know him. All too well, it looks like. Neville's was glaring at Dr. Hatch, his face flushed with what was for him a rare flash of anger. Indeed, Harry had never seen Neville looking like that. Neville's Gran, meanwhile, had clamped her face into a tight-lipped grimace reminiscent of Professor McGonagall's face when she was about to give someone detention. Harry wondered what could be behind that. Evidently there was a story behind Dr. Hatch related to Neville's parents, and it probably wasn't a good one.
"Dr. Hatch," Lucius was asking, "You have heard the testimony of witnesses, to the effect that young Mr. Potter has been experiencing pain in the scar which he obtained through his youthful encounter with the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. What would you expect to be the effects of such a curse scar, and what causes would result in pain in it?"
"Well," intoned Dr. Hatch in a rather funny accent, "it is my professional opinion that a curse scar such as this one, it will most likely have the effect of leaving a connection between the curser and the cursed, so that a little bit of the one is left within the soul of the other. If you read the Journal of the Wizarding Medical Association from 1937, you will find the account of one Robert Sachmann, who received a scar after suffering the Cruciatus Curse from the Dark wizard Grindelwald, and who died several months later as a result of wandering into the Rhine while mumbling incoherently about 'taking over the world.' And so it is not at all inconceivable that something like this may have taken place in the case of young Mr. Potter, that certain… aspects of the Dark Lord's personality are fighting for ascendance within him, and that the effects of this have resulted in his complaints of pain in his forehead."
"And can you comment as to what conclusions can be drawn by medical science concerning a young boy who befriends a convicted murderer, a werewolf, and a part-giant with a penchant for illegal and violent magical creatures?"
"Well," replied Dr. Hatch thoughtfully as he stroked his beard, "I'm most sorry to say it, but in such a case as that I would have to say that the darker aspects of the boy's personality were becoming dominant. There's obviously a thirst for violence there, and given the case history in question, it's all too easy to see where it came from and where it's going."
Lucius was satisfied with this, and dismissed Dr. Hatch. "Finally," he continued, "it is my privilege to call to the witness stand the honorable Minister of Magic, Mr. Cornelius Fudge."
Minister Fudge came forward, clad in his usual pinstriped cloak and lime-green bowler hat (doesn't he own any other cloaks? Harry wondered). Lucius gave him a smile that was obviously manipulative even from where Harry sat-- but, somehow, apparently not to Fudge. "Minister Fudge," he began, "can you tell us about the events that took place on the grounds of Hogwarts School on the twenty-fourth of June?"
Fudge returned the smile and answered, "Well, you see, Lucius, it was, of course, the third task of the Triwizard Tournament, and I was there to fill in for Barty Crouch as a judge. Shame about old Barty. And what happened was that Harry and Cedric Diggory grabbed the Triwizard Cup together, and got whisked off by Portkey to who-knows-where. Of course, we didn't know that, you understand. Everyone was starting to get worried about them when nothing happened for about forty-five minutes or so, and then all of a sudden, Harry and Cedric materialize at the entrance to the maze-- Harry alive and Cedric dead."
"Harry alive and Cedric dead?" said Lucius in mock amazement. "Dear me. Have you any idea how this happened?"
"Well, of course there's no doubt as to the cause of death. Avada Kedavra. Once you've seen a body that's been victimized by the killing curse, you never mistake anything else for it. Even Dumbledore and Harry didn't deny that part of it. The only question is who did it. As I'm sure you've all heard by now, young Barty Crouch turned out to be alive after all." (Apparently everyone hadn't heard, as there were several gasps of amazement from the audience at this revelation.) "His soul was removed by one of my Dementors, so there's no danger of any harm from him now. But he was a Death Eater, even Dumbledore says so, and I'm sure he got it from Potter. Apparently he had Stunned old Mad-Eye Moody and had been impersonating him with Polyjuice Potion all school year."
"You better believe that," came the familiar voice of the real Mad-Eye Moody. As Harry turned around, Moody looked like he was on the verge of saying more, but Fudge started talking again and Moody reluctantly took his seat.
"And so, you see… you see… it happened that Moody, who was really young Crouch, had had the responsibility of carrying the Triwizard Cup to the center of the Maze before the Task. He insisted on it, as I recall. Didn't trust anyone else. Thought that otherwise Dark wizards might tamper with it. Turns out he was right, of course, but little did we know. Anyway, the only explanation that makes sense is that Moody-- I mean, young Crouch-- must have been in league with Harry to begin with. I'd wondered why he'd seemed so protective of Harry all year. The plan was apparently to have young Barty set up the Portkey, have Harry make Cedric take it at the same time as him, and let them be whisked away to some place unknown where Harry could take care of Diggory-- a bit of a rival of his, as I'm told-- without any outside interference. That way, Harry gets rid of Diggory, and they've got a nice ready-made excuse to say You-Know-Who's back and start this mindless panic that we've got going on here."
"FUDGE, YOU FOOL!!!" bellowed Moody from the back this time. "You'll believe anything to avoid what's staring you in the face won't you? You know the old Merlin's Razor principle, don't you? Didn't they teach you that in school? When you've got several ways to explain an event, the simplest…"
But he was interrupted by the banging of Judge Thorne's gavel. "Moody! You are out of order, and are ordered to remain silent for the duration of the trial along with Fletcher."
Moody sat down, fists clenched, and this time even Dumbledore's eyes were flashing with suppressed rage. Fletcher nodded at Moody, who nodded back. Dumbledore gave them what appeared to be a warning glance, but Harry couldn't quite interpret it. Meanwhile, Lucius was smoothly continuing, "And Minister, what was the explanation that young Potter gave for these events? I believe you've hinted at it already."
"He said… he said that the Dark Lord is back, You-Know-Who." (Most people appeared to have heard this rumor already, but there were still a few gasps from around the audience.) "And… well, you know that can't be true, Lucius. He's been gone for thirteen years, why would he come back now? And it's taken us all these thirteen years to rebuilt the society that You-Know-Who destroyed, and now it seems Potter-- assisted, as it seems, by the only two Death Eaters to escape Azkaban, Black and young Crouch-- is trying to turn all that over again. And Dumbledore-- well, the boy can do no wrong in Dumbledore's eyes, and he's just helping him along the way."
"Interesting," said Lucius Malfoy. But surely not Harry Potter? The boy who saved us from the Dark Lord? You have never had any reason to doubt the boy's character or truthfulness before, have you?"
"Well, I have," said Fudge flatly. "Last year we had caught Black at Hogwarts, and Potter helped him escape. Don't ask me how, I've got no idea, but he was telling some story about Black being 'innocent', and Peter Pettigrew being the real villain of the piece. Well, let me tell you, I'm not going to fall for that one. I saw Sirius Black with my own eyes, laughing like a madman over the dead bodies of a dozen Muggles and the fragments of poor Pettigrew. Did I ever tell you, the largest bit of him they found was his finger? So anyway, yes, certainly, the boy's up to something. His tales keep getting taller every year, and if Dumbledore doesn't put a stop to it, then it's up to the Ministry to do it. And the Dementors, of course."
There was a moment of silence while Lucius nodded solemnly, and then--
"FUDGE! YOU FOOL!!!"
"How long will you let that snake of a Malfoy pull the wool over your eyes?!?"
Harry turned back and to his right, and saw Dumbledore trying unsuccessfully to restrain Moody and Fletcher. Both were drawing their wands.
"This is contempt of court!!!" bellowed Lucius, leaping slightly in the air as he turned to the judge in anger. It was a fatal mistake: a flash of light came from one of the drawn wands, and Lucius had become an albino gorilla, continuing to jump up and down on the prosecutor's stand, which sounded like it was showing definite signs of strain. Harry looked back again, and Moody's wand shot out a burst of white light-- the first one must have been Fletcher's-- and suddenly, on the witness stand, there sat a gigantic lime-green banana slug where Fudge had been a moment before.
For about ten seconds chaos reigned in the courtroom, as curses were shot back and forth willy-nilly, with the shouting of hundreds of angry voices adding to the general confusion. And then a magically magnified voice-- the voice of Albus Dumbledore-- made itself heard over everything, calling out, "Petrificus Omnes!!!"
As a grey sphere of light expanded to fill the whole room, Harry felt his body seize up, and he slumped helplessly toward the side of his chair by Ron. Ron fell over in the same way, and their heads clonked. As far as Harry could tell by looking-- he could roll his eyes, but his body was stuck-- everyone in the audience had suffered the same fate. Silence settled over the courtroom once again.
"Finite omni incantate," came Dumbledore's voice again, and everyone settled back into their seats. Fudge and Lucius had resumed their usual forms (much to Harry's disappointment). Judge Thorne, scrambling back into his seat, banged his gavel, and everyone settled back down.
But Hermione was standing up. "Excuse me… sir? Your honor?"
Judge Thorne nodded at her and tapped his gavel. "Very well, the court recognizes Miss Granger."
"I'd just like to say something. All these people that Mr. Malfoy has had testify-- they're almost all Slytherins. They all hate us anyway. And Minister Fudge-- well, he's obviously got something to lose by Voldemort being back, hasn't he? Of course he doesn't want to believe it. Can't everyone see that they're all biased against us?"
Judge Thorne cocked an eyebrow. "Well, Mr. Malfoy? Anything to say to that one?"
Lucius nodded with poorly concealed glee. "The last witness for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he paused and smiled, "will be Percival Weasley."