** Thanks to : Evil spappy pie, Meredith, kaylin, loguacious, Gil-Celeb and Moonywolf
All characters are property of J.K. Rowling (except Mr. Wattling)
Also, if anyone nicks any of my work, I have witnesses to the fact that I wrote this, and will some chasing after you with a really really big bloody axe. Well, now that that's cleared up…
The Trial of Sirius Black - Chapter 5
Harry looked around as the Ministry Wizards led them through corridors and up several flights of stairs. He didn't recognise some of the people walking alongside him. Some looked quite old.
The Ministry Wizards stopped when they reached a wall at the top of a particularly long flight of stairs. When they stood aside, Harry and the others could see two doors, exactly the same and side by side. "Witnesses through the right door, spectators on the left," snapped one of the Wizards.
Harry was starting to feel a bit sick now. Nausea was creeping up on him as he imagined the state Sirius might be in when they found him on the other side. Ron and Hermione, on either side of him, looked nervous too. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waved to them, and followed several others through the door on the left hand side. The other Weasley children, including Bill and Charlie, **whom I haven't mentioned yet** followed them.
Harry tried to see over Ron's shoulder as they followed the Ministry Wizards through the right door, but he was too short. Once the people entering the room had spread out, however, he could see.
He was just a bit surprised. It was a plain room with two desks and two more doors at the other end, nothing more. What surprised him was that when he turned around, the place where the left door should have been was covered in wall. His mind already occupied, he shrugged his shoulders and turned around. One of the Ministry Wizards was speaking again.
"All defence witnesses approach right desk. All prosecution witnesses approach the left desk."
Hermione grabbed Ron as he went to queue up in the wrong line. "Don't you know anything about court or law?" she asked him. "We're the defence, idiot!"
Ron shrugged. Harry smiled despite himself. Trust Hermione to have read every single book ever written on law before she arrived, which gave her about two hours.
They joined the right queue behind Lupin. The young Ministry Wizard at the desk was taking down their details. He raised his eyebrows at Lupin's name, but quickly recovered himself and pointed him through the right door.
Harry was next. The young Ministry Wizard coughed and didn't look up. He was shifting a lot of paper into files and mopping up some spilled ink with his sleeve. "N...name?" he asked, dropping a pile of argumentative notes onto the floor.
"Harry Potter," said Harry. The young Ministry Wizard's head shot up so sharply his glasses fell off the end of his nose.
"Er… a…are you s…sure you're in the r…right l…l…line Mr. P…P…Potter?" he stammered as he fumbled for them. "This is d…d…d…defence, you kn…know."
"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry, picking up the glasses from under a sheet of paper and handing them to the man.
"You are p…p…positive?" said the young Ministry Wizard.
"Yes," said Harry, again.
"V…v…very well," said the young Ministry Wizard, waving Harry toward the right door.
Harry opened it. It led into an enormous, beautiful room. Paintings of Dragons, little imps, and what Harry could only imagine to be hairy angels covered the ceiling and walls. The roof was a massive dome structure, and benches rather like church pews lined the walls and the upper floor balconies. Harry could see eight red headed people filling one of these. He couldn't honestly be bothered trying to work out how they had got up there. When he looked down, he saw that the door he had come through led onto a bench, where Dumbledore and Lupin were already sitting. When he sat down, he could see the witnesses for the prosecution sitting on a similar bench about fourteen metres opposite them. Harry didn't worry about how they had got there either. To his right on a raised platform stood a high desk, and a long way to his left, past all the press and spectators, were an enormous pair of ornate double doors.
Ron came through the door next, followed closely by Hermione, and that was it. They five were the only witnesses for defence.
About five seconds later, a gong sounded. Harry and Ron looked around for it. There didn't seem to be one in the huge room.
The large double doors opened with a loud creak. Through them came a tall, middle aged man wearing sparkling white robes. The room hushed as he entered. "That's the judge," whispered Hermione.
"Then where's his wig?" asked Harry.
"Oh Harry," Hermione scoffed. "That sort of thing's for Muggles."
The judge made his way past the rows of benches until he could sit at his raised desk. He gave the slightest of slight nods.
An immense cold washed over the room as two Dementors floated in. Between them, straight backed and clean shaven, was Sirius Black.
**Da da da dum! Watch out, my axe is being re-sharpened for people who didn't review! Ahem, sorry, got a bit overexcited there.**
