Chapter Four: The Verdict
A/N: Disclaimer as usual-- not for profit, based on JKR's wonderful stories. Thanks to Zsenya for beta-reading; I think I made her work harder than usual on this chapter. I should also give credit to Anne of The Quidditch Pitch (also published on ff.net and sugarquill.com); her portrayal of Moody and Fletcher tampering with the DJ station in chapter 3 of "The Dancing Days" provided much of the inspiration for their conduct in the courtroom at the end of the previous chapter.
I've given up on publishing partial chapters: it was just confusing everybody too much. What you're reading here is chapter 4 in its entirety. I hope to have chapter 5 published by July 8.
Also, with regard to my question of last time about where the names came from: Congratulations to Katie Bell of ff.net, who correctly identified "Clooney Hatch" as a slight corruption of Colney Hatch, the London insane asylum referred to by Lewis in The Magician's Nephew ("three cheers for the Hempress of Colney 'Atch"). Congratulations also to kateydidnt of ff.net, who not only correctly traced the judge's name to Judge Hathorne of the Salem witch trials, but who also noticed that the "Merlin's Razor" principle is known in the Muggle world as Ockham's (or Occam's) Razor. Hey, I needed it to be somebody's razor, and Merlin seemed as likely a candidate as anybody…
As for the others: "Brundage Avery" is a transposition of the name of Avery Brundage, the real-life former International Olympic Committee chief, whose zealous enforcement of the Olympics' amateur code caused some to mispronounce his name as "Slavery Bondage." And the tale of "Robert Sachmann" was based on that of the music composer Robert Schumann (schu? sach? get it? OK, sorry, never mind…), who actually did throw himself into the Rhine in a fit of insanity (although, as far as I know, without the mumbling about taking over the world).
And now, on to the story:
A stunned silence settled over the courtroom as Percy came up and took the witness stand. Harry felt rather stunned himself. Of course he had known how dedicated to the Ministry Percy was, but-- surely he wouldn't go this far, would he?
Harry noticed that Percy hadn't been sitting with his family-- as far as Harry could tell, he seemed to be coming from a rather isolated corner of the courtroom. Harry glanced in the direction of Ron, who leaned over toward Harry and Hermione and mumbled, "He's left home. Doesn't talk to Mum and Dad anymore. Has his own apartment by the Ministry. Broke up with Penelope, too. Had some rows with just about everybody before he left." Ron said this rather shortly-- evidently he was still upset about what Harry had said in the letter to Sirius.
When Percy reached the witness stand, Mr. Malfoy began by asking him, "Percival Weasley, have you ever known Mr. Potter and his friends to be of-- shall we say-- untrustworthy character?"
Percy took a deep breath before answering. "I'm sorry to say I have." He took another deep breath.
"My brother Ron and his friends have always seemed to fancy themselves heroes, and as long as they think they're going to save the wizarding world or any such rubbish, no rule is too important for them to break. Even in Ron's first year, he and Harry went off chasing a troll into a girls' bathroom once. Then during the awful business with the Chamber of Secrets, I caught Ron and Harry coming out of a girls' bathroom again, I've got no idea what they were doing there--"
"Probably with Granger!" called a drawling voice from the audience. Muffled snickering spread through the crowd as the implications settled in on them.
"Yes. Well," said Percy, looking mildly ruffled and trying to regain his train of thought. "I know about all the supposedly heroic things they're said to have done," he continued, "but you'll always notice that they always seem to have been well out of bounds during the process. First they sneaked off to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor, then it was the Forbidden Forest-- at least twice, from what I've heard Mum and Dad saying-- and then Ron and Hermione helped Harry visit Hogsmeade without permission, and I'm sure there's a host of other such things they've done that they haven't had the courage to tell me about. Rules just aren't important to them. Being famous seems to be their only ambition in life. Certainly Ron's spent his whole life trying to get people to pay attention to him, and evidently Harry and Hermione have turned out the same way. I had thought better of Harry and Hermione, and had hoped that they might be a good influence on Ron, but if anything it seems to have gone the other way entirely.
"As far as I can see, it all comes back to my father. Mum tried to raise us all to do things the right way, but Dad was always off disregarding the Ministry, tinkering with all the Muggle rubbish in his shed, breaking his own Muggle Protection Act all over the place. And it's corrupted the whole family. Bill and Charlie did well enough in school, but now they're off joyriding around the world when the Ministry needs every able wizard it can get. Fred and George are the worst, no ambition in life, no respect for anyone, they seem to think they can do whatever they want as long as it's funny. Dad's always let them get away with it. And Ron and Ginny seem to be following their example too-- the whole Chamber of Secrets thing wouldn't have happened if Ginny had done things the way she was supposed to."
Again Harry couldn't help it-- he looked over at where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were sitting. This time he couldn't see Ginny's head at all, as she was wrapped protectively in part of her mother's cloak. Mrs. Weasley was looking down, but seemed to be dabbing at her own face with a handkerchief, so Harry supposed she was pretty upset too.
"And now-- now Harry starts up all this rubbish about You-Know-Who being back, and now my whole family's rebelled against the Ministry. Even Mum's gone over to the other side this time. None of my family cares about the Ministry in all its troubles, they're all out there trying to make things worse. Nobody cares about doing things right. Nobody cares about the way things ought to be done. I'm the only one that's stood by the Ministry. The rest of them are all against me. As far as I'm concerned, I have no family."
Percy stopped here. Apparently this was all that he had to say. Harry couldn't believe that he had actually been hearing Percy say all of this-- Percy had always been basically a friendly figure, if a bit of a stick in the mud. But Harry had also been noticing that Percy didn't look happy as he was saying this, as though some internal struggle were going on, and he didn't really want to be saying these things.
"Excuse me, Your Honor," said Dumbledore from near the back of the auditorium. "May I ask a question of Mr. Percy Weasley?"
Judge Thorne thought about it for a moment, and nodded. "The court recognizes Albus Dumbledore."
But instead of asking a question from where he sat, Dumbledore walked forward to the witness stand and stood face to face with Percy. He stared intently at Percy, raised his wand, and said, "Finite incantatem."
And Percy exploded.
"WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT, DUMBLEDORE?" he roared. "ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT ANYBODY WHO DOESN'T GO ALONG WITH YOU MUST BE UNDER THE IMPERIUS CURSE?!?"
Harry had seen Percy angry before, but nothing like this.
"Look here, Dumbledore!" Percy continued shouting. "I don't care if you're supposedly the 'greatest wizard of modern times,' or about the business with Grindelwald or any of that. You have no right-- NOBODY has the right-- to oppose the Ministry of Magic. And not only are you doing this-- not ONLY are you doing this-- but you're trying to start a mass panic about You-Know-Who coming back. Don't you know what that will do to our society? Economic depression-- renegade vigilantes running around in supposed self-defense-- total chaos, THAT'S what it will be if you have your way, Dumbledore!"
Percy paused to catch his breath and push up his horn-rimmed glasses, which had nearly fallen off his nose. Harry had never heard anyone talk to Dumbledore like this. A sudden thought struck him, and he realized that Hagrid was absent, probably on a summer errand for Dumbledore. Hagrid didn't take it well when people insulted Dumbledore. Of course, Harry didn't feel like he was taking it too well himself. He would have much preferred that Percy insult him instead of Dumbledore. But if Hagrid had been there-- well, Harry didn't know what would have happened, but it would have been chaotic. Percy might have ended up with a donkey's tail sticking out the back of his dress robes.
"I trusted you, Dumbledore." Percy was now using an almost-pleading sort of voice. "I trusted you, all those years at Hogwarts. And now-- total rebellion against the Ministry, that's what it is. You have failed, Dumbledore, you have utterly failed to show the kind of respect due to the Minister of Magic, or for that matter to the youngest Ministry department head in eighty-six years." (Harry looked at Ron, who nodded; apparently Percy had been promoted again since the end of the school year.) "What must your students be thinking, Dumbledore? Did you never think of that? If you're not going to respect the Ministry, why should your students treat you any differently?"
"You're heading for trouble, Dumbledore. I'm surprised the school governors haven't already fired you once and for all. If they haven't before, you'd better believe they will now. And that would be entirely too kind, Dumbledore, entirely too kind. You're all making the Ministry's job a nightmare. You-- you-- you and my father and Harry and Ron and-- everybody-- can all go to--" (Percy's voice was wobbling now) "can all go to Azkaban and-- and get your souls sucked for all I care."
Silence reigned. Harry half-expected to see Dumbledore's long white hair blown out back behind him by the force of Percy's righteous tirade, but the Headmaster stood there unperturbed. Then, slowly, Dumbledore nodded.
"Well. I had hoped." His face showed, not the anger Harry had seen in his disagreement with Minister Fudge after the third task of the Triwizard Tournament, but only an expression of disappointment and regret. "No further questions, your honor."
Dumbledore returned to his seat, and Judge Thorne dismissed Percy from the witness stand. Percy appeared to be shaking as he walked off. Harry looked again at where the Weasleys were seated. Arthur Weasley was caressing his wife's shoulder and apparently trying to comfort her, but looked as though he were on the verge of breaking down himself. Fred and George had also slid closer in to the rest of the family, and Fred had his left arm around Ginny and was resting his hand on his mother's right shoulder. He and George both looked stunned.
Harry sank back in his chair. The Weasleys had been like a family to him. And even though Percy had never quite fit in with the rest of them, he was still part of the family. It seemed-- it almost seemed like something was wrong with the whole world, for the Weasley family to be split apart like this.
Harry shook his head, remembering what Dumbledore had said at the end of the school year: "Lord Voldemort's gift for sowing discord and enmity are very great." But Harry had never expected it to hit this close to home. And Dumbledore was right. It all came back to Voldemort.
Special A/N to fans of Percy Weasley: I probably owe you an explanation after that, don't I? This will, I'm sorry to say, be the last time Percy appears in this particular story. But I do not intend it to be the end of the story of Percy Weasley (any more than C.S. Lewis intended "The Last Battle" to be the end of the story of Susan Pevensie). Based on JKR's development of his character through GoF, I expect that eventually the family-oriented Percy of whom we've seen a couple of brief flashes, like after the Second Task, will eventually come to the surface, and that he'll be on the right side of the conflict before it's over. But in the meantime, the ambitious career-oriented Percy must be dealt with, and I expect that he's got a long, painful walk on the Bureaucratic Side in front of him before he comes around. And it may well take something drastic-- perhaps something like what I've described here-- to cause Percy to start to reconsider whether the legalistic, ambitious Percy is really the kind of person that he wants to be. (At this point in my story, he's spend the last couple of weeks being consumed by bitterness against his family for not siding with Fudge, and it's for that reason that he's said some things he wouldn't normally say.)
And now, back to the story…
Lucius Malfoy was now back up in front, summarizing the case against Harry and his friends. All of the evidence, as Lucius described it, pointed toward a long history of untrustworthiness on Harry's and Ron's and Hermione's parts. Harry was certainly in correspondence with Sirius Black, and on very close terms with him too. And finally, all the evidence pointed toward Harry as the murderer of Cedric Diggory (especially since Harry was known to have a motive for the crime).
He then turned to where Harry and the others were seated, and for the first time addressed them directly. "Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger," he said, "you have heard the evidence against you regarding the crimes of which you are accused. Have you anything to say in your defense?"
Harry turned and looked at Hermione. She was the smart one, of course, and would naturally be the one to have something to say. But Harry was surprised to find both Hermione and Ron looking intently at him, expecting him to be the one to talk. He wasn't sure whether this was because he was accused of the worst of the crimes, or because they were still mad about what he had said in the letter to Sirius (or maybe both).
"Don't you have anything to say?" he whispered to Hermione.
"No, you," she replied a bit shakily. "Just-- just tell them what happened." Evidently it was up to him.
And so Harry rose to his feet, with his mind still a complete blank, reeling from his humiliation at the hands of Lucius and his witnesses, and especially from the shock of seeing Percy taking the stand against him. He hesitated.
"Well, Mr. Potter?" Lucius prompted.
I've got to think! Harry thought madly. What was it that I was going to say? I know I'd thought of something… What was it? … What was it?
"Mr. Potter…?"
"Just tell them what happened," Hermione insisted.
Oh yeah, Harry remembered, it was just that all I could do was tell the truth, and let whatever happens, happen… tell the truth… truth…
And, just before Lucius could annoy him with another interruption, Harry cleared his throat and said something that surprised even himself.
"Veritaserum."
Harry paused for a moment, trying to reconstruct why it had suddenly seemed to make so much sense for him to mention the strongest truth potion known to Professor Snape, or presumably to any other wizard. Lucius Malfoy looked stunned-- too stunned even to interrupt Harry while he gathered his thoughts.
"I know," Harry continued, "that a lot of you don't want to believe me. I know that Lord Voldemort being back scares some of you so much-- like Mr. Fudge-- that you'd rather believe just about anything else. You'd rather believe that I'm a murderer than that the Dark Lord is back.
"Objection!" interrupted Lucius. "The defendant is trying to incite the crowd by using the Dark Lord's proper name."
"Sustained," confirmed the judge. "The use of the Dark Lord's name in the courtroom was forbidden by the Ministry in 1975. All persons must refer to him as 'You-Know-Who,' or by some similar appellation."
Harry continued. "So I'm asking for Professor Snape to give me some Veritaserum-- that truth potion that he has-- so you can all know that I'm telling the truth."
He paused for a moment at this. Hey, wait a second-- did I just say I trusted Snape to make a potion for me here? But he had no time to ponder the irrationality of his own statement. He was committed to going ahead with it now.
"Of course I know I might accidentally tell everybody a few embarrassing secrets--" (there was some snickering in the audience at this, some harsh but some sympathetic) "but, well, let's face it, I think I've pretty much told everybody every embarrassing secret that I have anyway." (More snickering, again with varying degrees of sympathy.)
"But even so, I'd like to take some. It's the only way I can convince anybody. You can give me Veritaserum and ask me about cursing Malfoy-- er, Draco Malfoy, and his friends on the train. I'll tell you that the reason why we did it is because Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood and Ron a Muggle-lover, and said, 'They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back.' And then he said, 'Well-- second-- Diggory was the first.' "
The crowd gasped. Lucius started to say, "Objection, your ho--," but Harry continued, "Give me Veritaserum, and I'll tell you Sirius is innocent. I'll tell you how I saw Worm-- I mean, Peter Pettigrew, who the Dark Lord calls Wormtail, still alive, and how Pettigrew killed those twelve Muggles, cut off his finger, transformed into a rat, and disappeared into the sewer with all the other rats."
Lucius didn't miss his chance this time. "Objection, your honor! The defendant is making an unverifiable claim. He knows that truth potions are not permitted in wizarding courts, and that therefore his statements cannot be proven or disproven."
Harry hadn't known this at all. He looked at Hermione, who nodded sadly at him. Meanwhile, Judge Thorne banged his gavel and droned, "Sustained. Because truth potions have been ineffective on insane persons who falsely believe themselves to be telling the truth, their use was banned in courts of law by the Wizards' Council in 1639. The defendant's references to Veritaserum are to be stricken from the record."
Harry paused, not sure what to say next. Ron whispered, "Just keep going." Harry grinned briefly but thankfully at Ron, and continued.
"But if I could take Veritaserum, I'd tell you exactly the same thing I'm telling you now, about the night of June the twenty-fourth. I'd tell you how the Triwizard Cup turned out to be a Portkey which took me to this old cemetery. I'd tell you how I saw this ugly thing that turned out to be Volde-- okay, You-Know-Who's temporary body, and how Pettigrew killed Cedric"-- Harry swallowed-- "on the Dark Lord's orders. I'll tell you how Pettigrew used my blood to give V-- the Dark Lord his body back."
"Objection! The defendant is continuing to make references to Veritaserum!"
Down came the gavel. "Sustained. Mr. Potter, you are out of order."
But Harry didn't care. This was his one chance to say what he had to say, and he wasn't about to stop now. "Well then, how about you, Mr. Malfoy? Why don't you take some Veritaserum, and tell us all what happened on the night of June the twenty-fourth?"
The crowd gave its biggest collective gasp yet. Lucius seemed to be trying to object again, while Ron, who apparently had finally forgotten his anger at Harry's letter, whispered "Yeah, Harry! You've got him now!"
"Why don't you tell everybody about the Dark Mark that appeared on your left arm that evening? Tell us, Mr. Malfoy, how you Apparated to join your Master in the cemetery. Tell us how you saw Pettigrew there. Tell us what Vol-- what the Dark Lord said to you--" (Harry imitated Voldemort's high, cold voice) " 'Lucius, my slippery friend, I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face?' "
"OBJECTION!" Lucius was shouting now to make himself heard over the crowd. "I am here as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement! I am NOT on trial here!"
"SUSTAINED!"
"I DON'T CARE," shouted Harry, almost lost in the noise now. He felt a wand tapping his throat and heard Hermione's voice saying, "Sonorus," and nodded his thanks to her. "I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, AND YOU CAN SUSTAIN ALL THE OBJECTIONS YOU LIKE!" Harry rather enjoyed the feeling of being able to boom his voice over the crowd. He also was a bit surprised to realize how grown-up his voice sounded.
"Truth! Truth! Truth!" someone in the crowd began chanting, in what sounded like either Fred's voice or George's.
"HOW ABOUT AVERY!" Harry boomed in his new magically enhanced voice. "WHY DOESN'T HE TAKE SOME VERITASERUM AND TELL US HOW THE DARK LORD TORTURED HIM WITH THE CRUCIATUS CURSE FOR THIRTEEN YEARS OF UNFAITHFULNESS?"
"OBJECTION!" roared Lucius. He had evidently used the Sonorus charm on his voice box too. Judge Thorne was pounding his gavel to no effect. Meanwhile, the chant of "Truth! Truth! Truth!" continued. Harry glanced over at the crowd, and saw that Bill, Charlie, the three girls from the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and several others had joined Fred and George in cheering him on. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were both beaming, and even Ginny was looking out and seeming to enjoy the scene. A short distance away, Dumbledore nodded encouragingly at Harry, although Moody and Fletcher had apparently been removed from the courtroom after the previous disturbance. Harry grinned and gathered another breath.
"MR. MACNAIR! YOU, IN THE JURY BOX! TELL THEM WHAT VOLDEMORT SAID TO YOU! 'MACNAIR… DESTROYING DANGEROUS BEASTS FOR THE MINISTRY? YOU'LL HAVE BETTER VICTIMS SOON. LORD VOLDEMORT WILL PROVIDE!' "
"Truth! Truth! Truth!" continued Harry's friends. But there was lots of angry shouting in the crowd too, and one or two curses were starting to fly again.
"I ASK THE JURY," bellowed Lucius, "IF THEY BELIEVE, AS I DO, THAT THESE CRIMES DESERVE FIFTEEN DAYS' DETENTION AT THE MINISTRY FOR RONALD WEASLEY AND HERMIONE GRANGER, AND FOR HARRY POTTER, LIFE IN AZKABAN!!!"
Mr. Macnair raised his hand. So did the eleven others with him. Hermione and Ron looked at Harry in horror. The chanting of "Truth!" from Harry's friends turned to an angry but incoherent shouting, and a horrible chill spread through Harry's bones as the sound of his mother's dying screams began to fill his mind. He fell forward on the ground, calling out as long as he could, "I WAS TELLING THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH! The truth! the truth…
And a cold and clammy hand clamped itself on his right wrist, and the last moments of Lily Potter's life drowned out every coherent thought in her son's mind as the Dementors took hold of him and dragged him out of the courtroom to be taken to the island prison of Azkaban.
A/N: Hey, you knew this was going to happen, right? Why else did you think I gave it a title like "Harry Potter, Prisoner of Azkaban?"
…to be continued…