**I know I am evil, muahahahahahhahahahahahah! Sorry everyone!

Mind you, I nearly had a heart attack when I checked my stats and saw that I had 20 MORE REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Normally I would love to say thanks to every single one of you, but you do want this chapter, right?

DO NOT skip to the bottom because you will ruin everything. Let's just say that this is the chapter where things get a bit anti-technical, things happen that make you think: Hang on, what has that got to do with the price of avocados in Australia?

Evil Snapple Pie, I am so sorry! You should have told me you were leaving! Well, I'm writing it early extra special because all of you REVIEWED!! I love that word! I giggled like hell when I got over my heart attack enough to read them.

Those of you who said you felt as nervous as Harry when you read it, that's incredibly spooky because I felt exactly the same when I was writing it, even though I know what's going to happen! 

Oh yeah – And I notice when people say things about me between coughs! Only joking.  ~ 

Harry Potter is not mine, although a few characters and all the ideas are my own invention so there. Hey look, a new disclaimer! Well, with no further ado…**

 The Trial of Sirius Black Chapter 11 – The one you've all been waiting for!

It felt as though ice had slipped down his shirtfront. Harry's glasses were steamier than ever, so that he could hardly see much beyond his nose. He took them off and wiped them quickly on his sleeve.

All three men, Judge Lucas Wattling, the Head of Prosecution, or Denicofitus, and Professor Dumbledore were seated at the desk

Wattling shifted through his notes during a long silence. There was no Jury. The Judge made the decision.

**Are you shaking in your shoes?**

Harry was taking deep, calming breaths, he could see Sirius doing the same if he lowered himself slightly – Sirius had his head in his hands.

They had to let him off. There was just too much evidence to do otherwise. Professor McGonagall had said that Wattling was a fair judge. He just had to believe them.

"Sirius Black," said Wattling, making Harry's heart jump into his throat again. "I ask for one final assurance. All the defence witnesses insist that you are an animagus. If you would care indulge us?"

"What? Now?" said Sirius, a little worriedly. Oh dragon dung, thought Harry. What an incredible time to tell us he has stage fright.

But Sirius obeyed, switching into his massive, black canine form for a few seconds – several of the Dementors moved forward when the ropes came lose – and back again.

More shuffling of notes.

**He he he, you thought something was going to happen then, didn't you?**

Harry, who had given up trying to control his brain by now, found himself thinking about Buckbeak the Hippogriff's trial one and a half years before.

The judge then hadn't been fair, but that was only because the representatives of the Department for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had been blackmailed and bullied into it by Lucius Malfoy.

Harry couldn't help wondering whether someone might have blackmailed Wattling, although he didn't seem the type of person who would put up with blackmail. But what if someone had done it really well? What if the Malfoys had…

Harry's thoughts were cut short by the sound of Wattling's voice again. And it wasn't a 'final assurance' this time. This was IT. The crowd was holding it's breath.

"Mr. Sirius Black, in my name, in the name of the Ministry, and in the name of the entire Wizarding community, of the crimes for which you have been accused, I pronounce you…

Guilty."

Sirius collapsed. So did Ron and Hermione. Lupin slumped so low on the bench he nearly fell off it, Harry couldn't see Snape's reaction.

Dumbledore stood up, with a look on his face that told Harry to stay put and stay quiet.

Harry couldn't have spoken if he'd tried. He was absolutely dumbstruck. What had he said? No way. There must have been a mistake.

Harry's worst fears were confirmed when the Dementors moved slowly towards Sirius. The man was shivering, his hair hiding the haunted eyes that Azkaban had given him.

The Dementors put a rotten, scabbed hand each on Sirius' shoulders, the chains fell away, and Harry snapped.

He stood up, drew out his wand from his belt, and yelled in a voice that made the whole room jump, and Sirius look up, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!"

The enormous, silvery stag erupted from Harry's wand. Several people fainted, Harry didn't even notice. He watched in awe as the biggest Patronus he had ever created stormed towards the Dementors accosting Sirius.

The stag roared and charged the two hooded figures of despair. They both disappeared with a puff of grey smoke that made Sirius choke.

The silver animal roared yet again, but did not leave the raised platform, as Harry's other Patroni had done. It turned neatly on its back legs, and looked Sirius right in the eyes.

Sirius stared. The stag slowly bowed its head, and Harry could tell by the look on Sirius' face that he recognised it as his old school friend.

The whole room watched as Sirius put out his hand to pet the animal's head.

Harry wanted to tell him to stop, the others had definitely vanished when he'd tried to touch them, but he couldn't speak, his throat was caught, he was so excited and afraid.

But the Patronus did not disappear. Sirius' hand went through it, and he drew it back very quickly.

Without even looking at Harry, the stag leapt with an enormous spring onto the desk where the Judge and Denicofitus were sitting. Dumbledore had also sunk into his seat in shock.

Paper flew everywhere off the desk as the stag's silver hooves hit the wooden surface. Those hooves seemed solid enough, or was it just human flesh that passed through it?

The stag roared again, and as it did, it's tail and areas of it's back legs turned brown. It was turning into a real stag!

Harry thought he might have fainted if he hadn't been so drawn in to everything that was happening. That stag was part of him, and if he fainted now, it would go, he was sure, or at least until it was fully changed.

As it was, Harry could hear Ron's voice telling Hermione to 'wake up you bloody idiot, you're missing out!' and Sirius looked like he might fallen over if the chains around him hadn't still been loosely holding his torso in place.

The stag was real up to its chest now. It was like having a crazed bear on the rampage. It never left the desk, but each bellow made the glass in the small windows shudder, and a large crack was appearing under the true stag's new weight.

The patches of brown fur crept up to its neck; past its jaw, round the eyes, which were suddenly a deep shade of brown. At last, the tips of the ears were transformed into apparently living flesh, and the table bellied in the middle.

The stag sprang off it, so gracefully that it might have been made of air, to land before it, still on the raised platform. The room watched it as it shook its head, massive antlers waving at them. It pawed the wooden floor of the platform, as if unsure of where it was.

Sirius was on his feet. No one tried to stop him as he climbed out of his seat and went tentatively towards the beautiful animal that had just materialised somehow out of Harry's wand. Harry wanted to go too, but his feet seemed to be stuck to the floor.  

The stag reared. It's hooves came dangerously close to Sirius face as he shielded his eyes with his arm. Before anyone knew what had happened, Sirius was a huge black dog again.

Harry cried out suddenly – the stag would have even less trouble finishing Sirius off in this smaller form – but at the sight of the dog, the animal seemed to calm down.

A few people, Harry couldn't see whom, breathed sighs of relief as the stag's feet hit the floor. The dog stayed where it was, and then, slower than it had ever done before, blurred into Sirius.

Harry thought he might be sick. The stag was blurring too.

It stayed a stag for a few seconds only before a man stood before them.

It was the unmistakeable, fully grown form, of James Potter.

** I won't say anything (much) because I know how you'll all be feeling towards me right now. I was going to do more but I now have to spend a few hours trying to work out why cells are rectangular. Did you like it? Well, then, let me know! See the little blue button? **