Dedication: To everyone who reviewed!
Author's Note: Doesn't one love the legal system? Isn't it a wonderful twisty little thing? See how it can be bent and warped to aide whoever's using it?
See how he has nothing up his sleeve, nothing under his hat...
Justice for All....?
Chapter Two
Lamonte Brecc left Peter alone for all of a day. The prisoner had thought that the laweyr would most likely wander away, or lose interest, or find a better
case. But obviously he hadn't.
"Hey there Pete, got some good news for you."
"Don't call me Pete." But it was said rather half heartedly. At this point it didn't matter all that much. "What's your good news?"
"You're moving out of here."
"What?" That caught Peter's attention. How had Brecc managed that?
"These are unfit conditions. You're suffering from severe mental anguish and emotional trauma. You won't even be fit to stand trial if you aren't moved to
better conditions. What sort of animals are they, keeping you here...? And so on and so on. It's all just big words and an official tone."
"Oh." Peter shrugged, not really caring how it had been done, just that it had been done. And if Brecc had managed to get him out of Azkaban, maybe
there was a chance that he could win is trial. Maybe. A slim chance. But a chance.
"Come on then, we're getting you out of here."
Peter was in a bit of a daze as Brecc led him out, and he felt his eyes burning as he reemerged into sunlight. It hurt his eyes, and he staggered under it. He
wanted to take a moment to be sick, but the stupid lawyer just kept dragging him.
"Where are we going?" Peter finally managed to ask.
"Ministry building. It was the best I could do. They can't exactly release you. You're still in custody, but it's much better then that place."
"Mmm." The ministry building. Well, like the lawyer had said, better the Azkaban. Anything was better then Azkaban. Even without the Dementors.
Actually, in his opinion it was worse. Without them, he had access to his good memories again. But he still wanted to cry.
"Here we are."
How had they gotten there so fast? Peter blinked, taking in the white room that he new found himself in. Had he really been in that much of a daze?
Apparently so. It was a clean room, with a table and a sink and a clean cot. That was all, but it looked like a palatial suite to Peter.
"Thanks." Peter sat down heavily, feeling very small and out of place and alone.
"Okay. Now, you're trial..."
"I don't want to talk about that." He still had no desire to open up to the lawyer. He just didn't trust him. He was a lawyer.
"You don't have to. I spent all night on your defense. When I'm done, Petey my boy, they're going to pity you like you wouldn't believe."
"I doubt that." He was, he supposed, one of the most hated members of the wizarding world.
"You were abused. You were pushed into a life of ill doing. You were taken advantage of, beaten, threatened and frightened. You had no control over
your life anymore. For Merlin's sake, the lowest street dog was given more respect and care then you. Everything you had was taken from you..."
"That's not how it really happened..."
"They don't need to know that!" Brecc slammed his hand down on the table. "They'll believe whatever I tell them. That's the beauty of the judicial system,
I have no idea why we ever adopted it. Trial by your peers..."
"How are you going to make them think that?" Peter was doubtful again. And he decided that Petey was worse then Pete. It made him think of a small,
annoying dog.
"With lots of big words, official terms, and a raised voice. Hell, they won't know half of what I'm saying, but they'll buy it." He shrugged. "I do it all the
time. You have no idea how many Death Eater's I've gotten to walk."
"You won't get me to walk. They'll turn me over to the Dementors."
"Don't think that way Petey, you can't think that way!" Brecc shook him by the shoulders, obviously far more enthusiastic about everything then Peter
himself was.
"Okay, fine."
"Now, we just need to work on what you say." Brecc grinned, and Peter had a very bad feeling. He wasn't good at this sort of thing.
"What I say?"
"When you're on trial. We have to have this perfectly rehearsed." Brecc sat down, suddenly all business. "Now...this is what happened..."
Peter spent the next hour being told how his life had gone. None of it was true. Or it was highly exaggerated. But it seemed Brecc had definitely done his
homework. He was able to give Peter names that he had forgotten himself. It did sound good, though. A tale of treachery, of Peter being swept away in
things beyond his control. A web of lies and smoke and mirrors...
That was all it was. It wasn't real magic, it was muggle magic. Crass and dirty. It was just smoke and mirrors, and hidden strings. It was an illusion. But it
was a good illusion.
"And I tell them this?" Peter asked, still a bit skeptical. After all, smoke and mirrors could be spotted if one looked hard enough.
"All of it. Look very very guilty. Not sinister guilty, but ashamed guilty A little kid who was forced to go along with his friends, and was caught by his
mother. Be contrite, and repentive. You have to make it real." Brecc had lost a lot of his charm and flash. "You have to believe it, for them to believe it."
"Make myself believe it?" Peter raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it sounds right, doesn't it?" Brecc shrugged. "You didn't mean to do it...you didn't expect things to turn out that way...they did it to you, Peter..."
"Yeah..." He said, slowly. "I was confused..." It did sound about right. Over the top maybe, but right. They all lied. Each and every one of them. And
who was he, to stop and pick truth from lies? It hadn't been his fault! And he felt awful about it!
The last part was true, he felt horrible. That was why he turned himself in. And now he was being given a second chance. His reward, perhaps, for turning
himself in?
"Now, try and have that memorized." Brecc stood up, eyeing Peter critically. "We'll work more on it tomorrow."
With that he was gone, again. Peter rolled his eyes, and lay down on his cot-far more comfortable then his previous sleep arrangements. He had a lot more
to think about now, and quite possibly the mental capacity to do so.
TBC
