Title: Judging innocence (3/8)
Author: Fabs G.
Summary: After an unpredictable twist of fate, Sirius finally gets a trial… and everyone is called to testify….
Rating: PG-13 (for some swearing)
Disclaimer: Everything is JK Rowling's! All I own here is the plot and Daily prophet reporter Methilda Shotclear, Matilde Pettigrew, Normal Lathren and Questioner Andrae
A/N: I swear I tried not to make it a Remus and Sirius slash. I did. I think I succeeded. It took a lot of swearing from my part, but I think I did. Enjoy. Review!
Extra point for you if you find a hidden X-Files reference. ;)
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Chapter 3: The start of it all
They got Dumbledore's owl that very same day, and the Daily Prophet published the place and time of the trial the very next day. The ministry was walking on eggshells now that they had realized they might have imprisoned an innocent man for 12 years, and they accepted Dumbledore's conditions –or rather, Sirius' conditions- without so much as a word about it. The trial would begin on Monday 17th. Today was Friday 14th.
They spent three strange days. Each of them needed a lot of time to be alone. They arranged with Dumbledore not to tell about Buckbeak, because it will get the hippogriff killed and Harry in a lot of trouble, but to say that Sirius had escaped in his animagus form. Remus rested as much as he could due to Tuesday's full moon, but most of the time Sirius and Remus told Harry stories. About his parents and about the Marauders, about their short time with him as a baby and about his parent's relationship, because none of them wanted to think a lot about what would begin on Monday.
The night before the trial, nothing seemed out of place. Remus and Sirius transfigured Remus' king size bed into twin beds, sharing his room, and they let Harry sleep comfortably in the guestroom, where Sirius had slept till the day Harry arrived. In spite of the awkwardness of living together, at least for a while, they spent the night normally, and when it was time to go to bed, they said goodnight normally, expecting a night of the much needed sleep.
Still, the only one who could sleep, at least at intervals, was Remus, and he did it only because of the closeness of the full moon. Early in the morning, and checking Remus was asleep, Sirius got dressed and crept out of the bedroom. He was tired of tossing and turning on the bed, and not wanting to wake up his friend, he decided to have a very early breakfast.
He was surprised to find Harry in the kitchen, who either did not know anything of wizard cooking or wasn't hungry at all. Sirius would have bet anything it was both.
"Want some help?"
Harry turned around from the coffee he was trying to prepare and stared at his godfather, and then back at his pitiful attempt. "It'd be nice"
Sirius took Harry's wand from his hands and prepared breakfast for the three of them like an expert. In 5 minutes, lots of coffee had been done, the bread had been toasted to perfection, some marmalade had been conjured up out of thin air and, the simplest of all, he took some milk from the fridge.
"You'd make a good housewife" Harry teased him while he was bringing everything to the table. Sirius took a paper napkin, wrinkled it into a ball, and tossed it to his godson with perfect aim.
Although they were not hungry, they knew better than going to a trial that would probably last for hours with their stomachs empty.
Two hours later, when Remus was already up and they were about to leave, someone knocked at the door. They looked at each other and Remus got up and went into the living room to open the door, hoping with all of his might it wouldn't be the Daily Prophet. Luckily it wasn't, and as soon as Remus opened the door, a bushy-haired, 14-year-old figure let out a sigh of relief when she saw Remus.
"Professor! Finally!"
From the kitchen, Harry and Sirius recognized Hermione's voice and went to the living room. As soon as Hermione saw Harry she barely had time to greet Sirius when she ran to Harry and flung her arms around him "Harry! You're here! You know!"
Harry did his best to escape from Hermione's sincere but uncomfortable hug (it was already making Sirius and Remus grin mischievously) and looked at her puzzled. He was about to ask what was going on when she started a flood of explanations.
"You know I receive the Daily Prophet, don't you? Well, on Friday I received it and nearly fell backwards! I know you don't receive it with at your uncle's house so I tried calling you to see if you knew, but your uncle hang up on me saying you weren't there. I wrote to Ron, he said he didn't know anything about you, so I wrote to Dumbledore and he said that Ron would go with his family and he would apparate me here on Monday morning, and he assured me you knew but I was so nervous you'd miss it, and I was nervous about Sirius and about Professor Lupin because the full moon is in tomorrow and-"
"HERMIONE!" Harry had been trying to get her attention for the past moments. She looked at Harry stunned by his screaming "I get the picture. We're all fine. We all know"
"Oh. Good"
Remus looked at Sirius, apparently very amused "She talks even faster than you do, Padfoot"
Sirius scowled at his friend.
-*-*-
Harry, Remus, Sirius and Hermione arrived at the Ministry at 9 am sharp. They apparated (Sirius apparated Harry and Remus apparated Hermione) just outside the Ministry, where a special tent for apparitions had been set up. Harry and Remus had their wands out and were flanking Sirius' sides, while Hermione walked behind them, ready to take out her wand at any moment. As soon as they got out of the tent, they were taken aback by the number of people that were present. There were more reporters and curious wizards and witches than they had thought there would be. The Ministry was a big building, with its door directly on the street. Harry stretched his neck to see were the crowd ended, but both sides of the street were covered with people. As soon as they saw Sirius, the photographers started taking photographs like crazy, the reporters asked every kind of question, which Sirius wisely chose not to answer, and the rest of the people stretched their necks even more than Harry. Some eyed Sirius with fear, some with curiosity, and some concentrated only in Harry.
They pushed their way to the Ministry, where Dumbledore and a yellow-robed wizard were waiting, avoiding the cameras as much as they could. One question, however, caught Harry's attention and he couldn't resist answering it.
"Why are you here Harry?"
Harry spun around and faced the reporter like if he had just been asked the most stupid question ever "It's my godfather's trial, where else would you want me to be?"
-*-*-
Once inside, Dumbledore led Hermione through a door to their right and the yellow-robed wizard led Harry, Sirius and Remus to a door to their left. They entered a semi-empty huge room, which reminded Harry strongly of the muggles' courtrooms. The only difference was that instead of two desks for the attorneys, there was one, which had been prepared for three people. Here was where Harry, Sirius and Remus were supposed to seat. Facing this desk, and on a small platform, was a large desk, with enough seats to sit 9 people: The place for Fudge and the rest of the Jury
The yellow-robed wizard, who Sirius whispered he was an official Ministry guard, showed them these three seats and locked around Sirius' wrists what looked like two silver bracelets and a golden bracelet.
"I will take the AntiAps out every day the court goes into recess until the next day. The Tracker will remain until the verdict is given."
And he left to stand in the left corner of the room. He kept his eyes on Sirius at all times.
"AntiAps? Tracker?" Harry was confused.
" Two Anti-Apparition bracelets and a person tracker. With this they can locate me anywhere in the world. Why do you think they are letting me go home to Remus' place after every day? Without these they'd placed me in an Azkaban cell" Sirius' face was abnormally calm, but every now and then he shivered slightly.
"Who do you think will call first?"
"They'll probably get rid of the ones who weren't very close to Sirius first" answered Remus "McGonagall and Flitwick will only be able to speak about him when he was back in school"
"Let's hope they won't remember the time I let out the Doxies in the staff room" Remus let out a laugh that threatened to be so loud he had to cover his mouth with his hand.
Little by little the room began to fill, and although they never turned around, they realized when the press was let in because the flashes of the cameras suddenly increased their volume. A moment later, someone tapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Ron!" he smiled to his best friend, and was about to ask what was he doing there when he remembered he had to testify.
"Hey" Ron smiled to both Remus and Sirius, but he gave Sirius an especially big Weasley smile. "Everything's going to be ok, I know it"
All three smiled broadly back at him, Harry thanking he was in a good mood. Ron's mood cheered him up a bit. "Are you here alone?"
"Only my dad was let in here because I'm still underage." He saw Mr. Weasley sitting in the front row of the press chairs, chatting amiably with the witch next to him. He waved at him, and Harry waved back. "The rest of the Weasleys are up there with Hermione" Harry looked where Ron was pointing and he saw a balcony he hadn't noticed before. Mrs. Weasley smiled to him, and next to her, waving and smiling too, were Ginny, Fred and George, Percy, and even Bill and Charlie. "I told everyone, specially mum, how Sirius is completely innocent, and they didn't want to miss it. Mum is thrilled to have someone in your family actually care about you"
Sirius' face lightened up considerably at this.
"Ron, get here" called Mr. Weasley. Harry turned around and saw that the Jury was apparating in the High Table. The room grew to a dead silence as Fudge apparated in the middle seat of the table. The only sound heard that of some photographers clicking their cameras.
Fudge stood up and addressed the public and witnesses. "I hearby begin Wizard Trial No. 101,301,121 to judge the innocence or guilt of Sirius Ralph Black. We will call the witnesses and experts in the order that figure in our list the times necessary. The main accused, Sirius Ralph Black and key witness Peter Pablo Pettigrew will testify at the very end. Because he is under heavy custody Mr. Pettigrew will only attend trial the day he is required to testify." Fudge sat down and nodded to the wizard on his right.
The wizard traced his finger along a paper in front of him and spoke loud and clear "We call in to testify… Minerva Grace McGonagall"
From behind them, Professor McGonagall walked to the High Table.
"Minerva Grace McGonagall, rise your wand in your right hand" Harry watched as McGonagall did this, thought not very sure why. The wizard took his own wand and stretched to tap the top of Professor McGonagall's head with his own "Non Mienta. Minerva Grace McGonagall, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"
"I do" her face was as stern and her voice as determined as when she was in class.
The wizard watched McGonagall's wand with interest, and of course nothing happened with it. Oddly, he seemed pleased with this. "You are not thinking about lying, you may sit down"
Sirius whispered to him it was a very powerful spell that detected if you were planning on lying only to damage someone.
The witch that was nearest to McGonagall in the High Table, a stout witch in her mid-50's looked at McGonagall. She was a questioner.
"Ms. McGonagall, What do you remember from Sirius Black during his time at Hogwarts?"
To Harry's surprise, she smiled faintly "He and his friends practiced all kinds of jokes."
"Would you please mention the complete name of his friends?"
"James Thomas Potter, Remus John Lupin and Peter Pablo Pettigrew. Nearly everyone in the school liked him, even in the staff. He probably got more detentions in one year than the average student did in 7, but that added to the… charm he seemed to have. He was very brilliant, an excellent student with top marks, and as far as I could see, a good friend"
"What do you think happened on 1981? Do you think he could have become a death eater?"
"To be completely honest, I really don't know what happened on that fateful night, or the previous ones, for that matter. But he was the last person I would have thought to go on Vold- You-Know-Who's side"
"How do you stand concerning Sirius Black? Of course, we know he didn't kill Peter Pettigrew for the simple fact that he is alive, but do you think he could have betrayed James Potter?"
"In 13 years, I never could really accepted it, even when everyone said it was the truth. I am almost sure he would have died before betraying Potter."
"So, if it was up to you, you'd say he is innocent?"
McGonagall looked at Sirius for a long while, maybe weighting facts.
"Yes"
"Thank you Ms. McGonagall, please know that you could be called again"
After McGonagall, they jury called Professor Flitwick ("Filius Flitwick") who said nearly the same as McGonagall. Flitwick, thought, was sure Sirius wouldn't have betrayed James.
Hagrid was called next and, due to his size, the jury had to magically stretch the chair so that Hagrid could fit in. The questioner asked him what had happened on the night of October 31st to November 1st, 1981. Hagrid told how, following Dumbledore's orders, he had gone to the Potter's house to check if Harry indeed had survived, and got severely teary eyed when he described how he found him crying all alone in the ruins of his house. By the end of his declaration, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
"I walked directly to where Harry's cry was coming from an' when he saw me, he said me name, or tried to the li'l thing, and stretched his arms towards me. See, sir, I had been at the Potter's house a few times an' his parents invited me to his first birthday, an' I visited them when he was born, so Harry knew who I was. James was trying to teach him how to say 'Hagrid' by the time he died." He blew his nose with a giant handkerchief and wiped his tears "I took him and turned aroun' and that's where I saw Lily lying on the ground, her mouth had formed a slight 'o' like in surprise but her eyes were very calm. She looked fine, she didn't have a scratch or anythin', except maybe for ashes from the house. She looked like she could have woken up at any minute."
Harry had his face downwards, looking at the desk as if it was the most interesting thing around. He leaned closer to Sirius to shield his face from the press' lenses. Remus had put an arm around Sirius' shoulders. The cameras went wild again.
"I walked back, getting' outta the ruins, and I saw James lying near what had been the door. I walked to him, wanting to check on him, you know, to see if he really was dead. He looked the same as Lily, like he could've jumped at any time an' yell 'gotcha' like he had done so many times before. The only thing different was his glasses. He always took very good care of'em, and now they were dirty and broken, and about to fall from his face. I tried to place'em in the right position but they wouldn't stay and ended up falling down"
Hagrid let out a loud sob and many of the people in the room took the chance to do so hoping they wouldn't be noticed. By this time Harry had tears in his face and no matter how many times he wiped them, the tears kept falling. He looked at Sirius, who looked extremely sad, but had his face very dry. He was looking at the desk, like Harry was. Still, Sirius got one of Harry's hands and squeezed it hard. Remus looked calm, and was also looking at the very interesting desk, but his eyes seemed to have drifted off somewhere else. They seemed lost.
"When did Mr. Black appear?"
"Sirius Black arrived some minutes after this. He saw his friend's bodies and cried at the sight. He looked so heartbroken… I comforted him and he stayed silent for several minutes. He went to Lily and tried to clean her a little bit, tried to take the ashes of her beautiful red hair and he took his wand and repaired James' glasses, and also took the ashes from his hair. It only made them look more alive. It hurt him more" Hagrid blew his nose again and two big tears made their way to his beard "Then he stood up and told me to give Harry to him, that he was going to take care of him. I told him I had orders from Dumbledore, we argued a bit and he finally accepted. He leant me his bike for me to take it to Dumbledore, so I took it and left him there" He made a pause and looked at Sirius and Harry, who did not notice he was looking at them. "I wish I had given Harry to him. It would've changed a lot of things."
"What do you think of Sirius Black now? Do you think he is innocent, he is guilty…?"
"I was in Azkaban for just 2 months meself sir, wrongly accused, about three years ago. I do not wish no one that fate, and certainly not to someone good who has been misjudged for so many people for so many years"
The jury dismissed Hagrid and wrote on the papers and notebooks in front of them once more. Harry did not move but he could hear behind him loud sniffs and sobs and many people blowing their noses. After a good while that was very useful for everyone to dry their tears, the wizard to the right of Fudge called the next witness to testify…. Severus Snape
~~~~~~~~~~ || TO BE CONTINUED || ~~~~~~~~~~
