Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, blah blah blah, and all that jazz.

A/N: This chapter took a lot of working things out on my part, because a lot of things need to happen simultaneously in order for the story work out- I hope it makes sense! We're also coming nearer to the conclusion of the story...hang in there, guys...

"A man is innocent until proven guilty." --The Common Law of England

Chapter Nineteen-Tricks and Treats

Harry lay there, petrified with fear, hardly breathing as he tried to gather his wits together. As soon as he found that he could use his tight and contracted muscles, he sat up to find Voldemort standing over him, giving him the definition of the phrase, "a death look."

Harry scrambled to his shaky legs. Looking around the room quickly, he found that most of it was in shadows and he couldn't even see the wall, let alone a door or window. Trying to hide his fear, he turned an expressionless face to the Dark Lord.

"Potter," Voldemort said in his soft, dangerous voice. "You have ruined everything. Everything that I planned to do is now in shambles, and I can blame you."

Harry didn't say anything. *Don't provoke him, just keep him talking. I can buy myself some time.* Then it hit him-time for what? He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts Harry watched as Voldemort slowly raised his right hand, looking at Harry with an expression of pure hatred on his face. Harry stared at the hand, uncomprehending. What was Voldemort going to do? Slap him?

Suddenly, Voldemort thrust his hand forward so it was out at arm's length. And then, without any warning, Harry was off the ground and felt as if some powerful invisible force was pushing him backwards very fast. Taken by surprise the sudden loss of control over his body, he was unable to brace himself for when, flying backwards, he was slammed into the wall.

Sharp pain shot through his back, and Harry slid down the wall and crumbled onto the floor, grinding his teeth together in an effort to keep from crying out in pain. Lying in the darkness, he was only able to sense when Voldemort's shadow loomed over him with his hand lifted again, and was completely unprepared for when his head was snapped backwards against the wooden wall.

The world spun around him, and his head throbbed unceasingly. Somewhere behind his haze of pain, Harry was horrified. Voldemort was performing wandless magic; he was using some sort of invisible power to control Harry's body.

Voldemort knelt beside him, making tutting sounds. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Potter. Giving up already? Let's make things even then, shall we? A wizard's duel, eh? Stand up, Potter."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. It felt like he had a concussion, he was on the verge of passing out, he couldn't stand up and fight a duel!

After a moment of silence in which Harry stared blearily around him, unable to focus, Voldemort said more sharply, "Stand up, Potter!"

Using the wall for support, Harry struggled painfully to his feet, and stumbled out of the shadows, his head searing with pain from the light. He was probably going to die; he knew that now, but not in a fearful ball in the corner. He blinked, taking in the sight of his enemy, standing with his wand out. He felt strangely helpless without the wall to lean on, and the world swam around him, making him dizzy. He felt nauseous.

*Yup, I have a concussion,* The back of Harry's mind confirmed, then he proceeded to think in chopped sentences. *Must stay awake, can't fall asleep. Fall asleep with concussion, maybe won't wake up.*

Harry stood there, unable to do anything. His nausea was coming in torrents now.

"Get out your wand, Potter. I want to end this, once and for all. And without that freak accident we had last time."

Wand? Oh, of course, wand. This is a duel, after all. Nope, can't have a duel without a wand, nope!

Harry reached into his pocket, feeling the two wands that lay there. Two wands? He couldn't remember why he had two wands. He chose one at random, pulling it out. Somewhere a conscious part of his mind commented that he was nearing delirium, and being delirious during a duel wasn't exactly the best idea in the world. He took a deep breath, trying to focus himself, and staggered forward, his back screaming protest.

"And now," Voldemort said, so softly that Harry, in his daze, could hardly hear him. "It begins. *Expelliarmus!*"

The wand shot out of Harry's hand. Fully conscious now, but physically unable to do almost anything, he sank to the ground while the world spun around him. He thought he was going throw up, but all the same fumbled for the other wand. Voldemort didn't know he had two...heck, he didn't even know why had two...

Voldemort laughed, a horribly chilling sound. "Lose your wand, Potter? Well, now I have it. And I'm going to put it to good use. I wonder how many times a wizard has been killed with his own wand?" He lifted Harry's wand and held it forward.

And then... "*Avada Kedavra!*"

Harry braced himself for the blast that never came. After a moment of silence with nothing happening, Harry wondered if he had indeed died and just didn't know it yet. But when someone was dead, were they still in pain from their mortal injuries?

Ignoring the pounding of his head, Harry looked up, and saw with disbelief that Voldemort was holding...a *teddy bear?*

For a moment, Harry was sure that he must have died and that he was having some sort of fantasy, but then...that teddy bear looked awfully familiar...

Harry stared at it as Voldemort turned it around and around in his hands, disbelief etching his inhuman features. As he turned it around, Harry saw that the bear was holding a sign...a sign that said "Gotcha!"...

Fred and George had given Harry some of their trick wands, the ones that turned into teddy bears when they were being used...and one of them had still been in his pocket...

That means that the other wand in his pocket must be...

Without stopping to think, Harry whipped out the other wand, recognizing it with triumph as his own. Summoning all the strength and power that he could manage, he pointed it at Voldemort.

"*Expelliarmus!*"

Voldemort flew backward, crashing literally through the wall and out of sight, causing the wall to collapse. Luckily, Harry was far enough away from the wall not to be harmed. But the part of the ceiling that the wall had supported had just lost its base.

That whole side of the house seemed to be about to collapse. Harry noticed what was going to happen before it actually occurred, and with a yell twisted around and covered his face.

And he had been right. That whole side of the house was falling apart. Splinters flew at him and wood was flying everywhere, but miraculously nothing hit Harry. For a moment, Harry glanced up on an impulse, and saw a familiar bald headed man lying among the rubble, but his mind was unable to process a lot of information at that moment.

After that side of the house seemed to have done its share of falling apart, Harry uncovered his face and lay down across the rubble, relief washing over him.

*Aha,* He thought with an inward smile. *I did it.*

And then he passed out.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After running out of St. Mungo's and Apparating to the Ministry, Albus Dumbledore walked quickly through the witches and wizards that crowded the lobby when he heard his name called out.

"Dumbledore! Albus-Dumbledore!" Dumbledore turned around as a breathless Arthur Weasley came hurrying around the people that were scattered across the lobby. He watched him carefully, waiting patiently until the younger man caught up with him.

"Dumbledore..." Mr. Weasley gasped. "Something awful has happened...dunno how...but Harry's gone, and a Time Turner..."

"What?" Dumbledore asked sharply but quietly, his heart suddenly beating very fast.

"I tried to get through to you at St. Mungo's, but couldn't...Harry's gone! His bed was empty this morning, and there was a Time Turner next to it...one of those special Time Turners, the ones that you can use to travel over years..."

Dumbledore stared at him, his mind quickly processing this information and trying to make sense of it. "When did you find out that he was missing?"

"About a half hour ago," Mr. Weasley said nervously. "I've been trying to contact you..."

He was interrupted, however, when a man with somewhat limp black hair and startlingly small brown eyes ran up to them. He was very pale.

"Excuse me, Arthur," The man muttered, pushing himself in front of Mr. Weasley so he could talk to Dumbledore. Sputtering in surprise, Mr. Weasley staggered to the side.

"What's this about, Sean?" Dumbledore asked, frowning slightly at him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but an intern in my department has just detected..." He glanced at Mr. Weasley nervously, as if he wasn't sure if he should continue.

"I have a feeling that whatever you have to say, Sean, Arthur should hear it, too," Dumbledore said urgently. "Now, what is it?"

"He..." Sean sighed, visibly disturbed. "Dumbledore, do you know of a place called 'the Riddle House'?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly.

"Yes, well, he...my intern--and, I checked this out, Dumbledore, it's legitimate-has detected an extraordinary amount of magical activity at this place. Extraordinary amounts of *Dark* magical activity, and then...huge amounts of light..." He took a deep breath and then asked the question that he seemingly had wanted to ask for a while. "Dumbledore, isn't the Riddle House where You-Know-Who used to live?"

None of them spoke for a moment until Sean broke the silence by answering his own question. "I believe that You-Know-Who is probably there now, and caused the large amounts of dark magic. But as for the other extreme..."

"Extraordinary amounts of light magic..." Mr. Weasley murmered. "Harry...?"

"Harry?" Sean said, confused. "Potter? Why on Earth would he be there?" He paused as he noticed that the two other men were staring at each other. "Wait a second...what's going on? Did I miss something?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said, looking at Mr. Weasley carefully. "Yes, you did. Sean, go contact the Department of Magical Catastrophes and send a rescue team to the Riddle House, now. Arthur, come with me."

"O-okay," Sean sputtered, looking very surprised. Ignoring him, Dumbledore turned and began walking quickly away, with Mr. Weasley at his heels.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was very lucky that Remus was there in the library to help Colette, for it was him who quickly found the outline of the International Confederation of Wizard's meeting. Once he did, the two of them crowded over the book that it had been copied into, Colette frowning because she couldn't find what she was looking for and Remus frowning because he didn't know *what* they were looking for.

"So...uh..." Remus said uncomfortably, raising his eyebrows slightly as Colette's long blond hair slipped off her shoulders and onto the table. "What exactly...uh...what exactly are we trying to find?"

"Something that Fudge hasn't been doing," Colette said shortly, running her fingers down the length of the yellowing pages.

Remus stared at her. "What?"

She sighed and sat up, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "We're looking for a specific action that was made illegal during this meeting."

"And that action would be...?"

Colette didn't answer, but instead leaned back over the book. Remus sighed and joined her, shaking his head slightly. Apparently she didn't know exactly what they were looking for, either.

He had barely begun scanning the pages again when he suddenly he heard her mutter, "That's it!" Remus saw the book being whipped out from under his nose and looked up to see her holding it up at eye level.

He leaned back in his seat, looking at her warily. "What's it?"

"Innocent until proven guilty!" She turned to him, her eyes shining with excitement.

Remus simply stared. After a moment of silence, he blinked and raised an eyebrow slightly at her. "Meaning...?"

"That was one of the most important laws that were established during this meeting!" Colette said excitedly, pointing at the book and gesturing obviously flustered with triumph. Remus, however, still didn't understand why she was triumphant.

"Yes," He agreed, speaking very slowly. "It was. But what, exactly, does this have to do with anything-"

"Don't you see!" Colette cried loudly, jumping to her feet. Remus gave a start in surprise, then looked around nervously. Luckily, probably because it was the morning, there weren't people there to be annoyed with her.

"Fudge isn't doing it!" She continued, pointing wildly at the book in her hand. "Fudge isn't following that old law, 'innocent until proven guilty'! He's not giving Sirius a trial, Remus, he's not following by the laws of the Confederation," Her voice lowered, and she sank back into her chair, eyes shining. "He isn't follow the one of the basic--and most important--rules of the International Confederation of Wizards...there'll be an enormous lawsuit after people have found out what he's done! He'll *never* be able to remain in office..."

Remus was staring at her, at a loss for words, his mind reeling. She was right...of course she was right...after breaking that law? He'll be impeached...

The two of them were silent for a moment, dumbstruck by their findings, hardly noticing when the door to the library was banged open and then closed, and when there was the scurry of feet across the wooden floor. In fact, they only acknowledged the noises when they looked up to see Hermione Granger and several members of the Weasley family standing and looking at them anxiously.

Both parties started to speak at once. "Ms. Villons..." Hermione had begun nervously, at the same time that Remus jumped up, yelling, "Molly!"

There was a pause. Then, "You're never going to believe what I found!" Hermione and Remus said together. They both stared at each other.

There was another surprised pause. Finally, Ron broke the silence, babbling nervously. "You found out something? So did we! I mean, it was really Hermione, but it doesn't matter, cause when we show the public what we've found, Fudge'll never be able to stay in office! And you..." He turned to Colette, eyes wide. "You're the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement! You could definitely do something! But wait a second..." He turned his eyes on Remus. "Professor...Professor Lupin? What are you *doing* here?"

"Ron, shush," Hermione said condescendingly, interrupting Ron and stepping forward. "Ms. Villons, I'm, my name is Hermione Granger. I'm...I'm a friend of Harry's..." She glanced at the Weasleys. "And, well, I-I think I know a way to get Fudge out of the Minister position."

"*You* do?" Colette said incredulously, staring at the teenage girl. "Well, Remus and I, we just found a way too-"

"You did?" Hermione interrupted without thinking, feeling slightly disappointed. She had been sure no one else would have thought of what she had. "About the chaos in 1981, and Fudge doing something illegal?"

Colette could only stare. "What?"

"Ms. Villons, everything was very chaotic in 1981," Hermione said, starting to speak very fast. "The Ministry was very disorganized, and lots of people were doing illegal things and getting away with it because a lot of the strict law enforcement was lost. And, well, Fudge didn't give a lot of the convicted Death Eaters trials. He just let them all go to Azkaban...and nobody noticed, everybody just wanted the Death Eaters to be locked up, and lots of people were never given trials, including Sirius, and that's illegal! It's enough to keep him out of office for good, isn't it?"

Silence. Colette and Remus stared at Hermione, amazed. Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny were also giving her looks of awe. It was Colette who spoke up first. "I didn't even think of that..." She breathed. "It never occurred to me that he's not just doing this to Sirius, he did it to other people too, back before You-Know-Who's downfall..."

She looked at Mrs. Weasley, then back to Hermione. "You see, what we figured out was that Fudge wasn't following by the old law, innocent until proven guilty...one of the most important laws of the magical world, established during the International Confederation of Wizards meeting of 1450...you know, just that he wasn't giving Sirius a trial. I never thought to apply it to everything else..."

"And Hermione didn't think of that?" Ron said with mock incredulity, grinning at his friend. "She's usually the one who figures out all the bookish stuff..."

Colette gave a soft laugh, then turned to Remus and Mrs. Weasley. "We have to go bring all this information to Dumbledore," She said, slightly urgently. They nodded, and she swept away, Remus and Mrs. Weasley at her heels and the five teenagers behind them.

"It's high time someone interrupted that awful performer from his soliloquy," Fred muttered to Ginny, who giggled as they hurried out of the library after the adults. Silently, she agreed. It was about time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Harry woke up, he thought he was dreaming.

He could hear people yelling and the sound of feet moving across the rubble. He didn't need to open his eyes to understand that people were clearing away parts of the fallen house.

Instead of moving or calling for help, Harry just lay there with his eyes closed, not budging a centimeter. There was an awful pounding in his head, and his back hurt horribly.

After a few moments, he opened his eyes, suddenly realizing that his glasses were no longer on his face. As a result, the world seemed blurry and indistinct to him, although he could still see the people moving closer to him, clearing away the rubble. Dimly, he saw that they were wearing Ministry uniforms.

He closed his eyes again. They would get to him eventually, and there was no rush. He couldn't move because of the pain in his back, and was too tired to open his mouth and call for help. So he just lay there, waiting for them to find him.

As he did so, memories of the previous events came rushing back at him, and he remembered that Voldemort had gone crashing through the wall, knocking practically the whole building down. He wondered if Voldemort had gotten away.

He opened his eyes again, trying to figure out whether he was inside or outside. Lifting his head slightly, he could see that he was lying underneath what remained of the ceiling, but the rest of the collapsed house was open in front of him. A breeze blew through the chilly morning air, (Morning? Harry was extremely confused-when had it got to be morning?) ruffling Harry's hair. Feeling some of his strength coming back, Harry struggled to sit up a little more, trying to see the Ministry members better. He was making progress, his back wasn't screaming in protest quite yet, but then there was a sudden sharp pain in his scar.

Gasping in surprise and pain, Harry squeezed his eyes shut and clamped his teeth together, letting his head fall back onto the ground. Feeling very dizzy all of a sudden, he decided that maybe he should just lie there after all.

He had only been lying there in silence for another minute or so, when he felt one of the ceiling boards that had been lying at his feet being moved away, and heard a male Ministry member giving a cry of surprise.

"Look! Look! It's-it's him! It's Harry Potter! Look-"

Harry could tell that people were crowding around him now, and he slowly opened his eyes, struggling to stay focused as the world swam around him. He found himself looking up into the blurry faces of several wizards, most likely members of a rescue team.

"We need a medi-wizard here, now!" One of them that were closest to Harry shouted. The loud noise increased Harry's headache, and he groaned slightly, turning away from the people.

"Here, I've got him," Said a soft, familiar voice. Harry felt himself being hoisted up into a sitting position. He wondered how he was sitting up, it didn't seem that he had enough strength to do that, but then he realized that the person had Harry leaning against him.

"Here, it's alright. Here-" The voice was saying. Suddenly, Harry felt his glasses being pushed onto his face. Blinking, he stared up into the twinkling eyes of Albus Dumbledore.

Giving a small cry of surprise, Harry struggles to sit up more, but Dumbledore pushed him back down. Finally finding his voice, he began to croak out his question in a chopped sentence.

"Voldemort...did you find, Voldemort-"

"Voldemort got away, Harry," Dumbledore said, still speaking very softly.

"No!" Harry whispered, trying to sit up again. "No-"

But Dumbledore was stronger, and pushed him back down again. "Harry, listen to me," He said. "We lost Voldemort...but we found Peter Pettigrew in the rubble. Alive," He added, answering Harry's unspoken question. "Alive, but unconscious. We captured him."

Relief washed over Harry as a seemingly ancient memory returned to him. Right before the house had collapsed, he had glimpsed a bald man lying on the ground...Pettigrew! He was alive! That meant...that meant that Sirius...

"Now relax, Harry. Don't worry, everything's under control. Your safe now."

At first Harry tried to fight his fatigue, tried to stay awake so he could talk to Dumbledore, but it was no use. He closed his eyes and fell back into Dumbledore's arms, half conscious, and yet feeling more safe and content with the world than he had for a long time.
A/N: This was going to be out a lot earlier (like, two weeks ago about) but then I got covered in homework and pretty much forgot about working on this. Well, here it is.

Just a very random note-in one chapter, the one with Hermione meeting Harry on the street, I think a lot of that chapter was cut off or something, I don't know why, because I remember writing more than what was on FanFiction.Net. So if you're just reading my story now, and that doesn't make sense, sorry, I'll try and fix it.

Hehe...since the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing was originally an English principle, I thought it would be appropriate to use here. I had a lot of fun writing the beginning of this chapter...those trick wands weren't put into the story for nothing, you know? I've had the idea that Harry might do something like that for a long time now...months, maybe even a year.

kateydidnt: Really? Favorite author's list already? Thanks a lot!

Yuffie-Girl: Haha, it's alright-but what, you think I didn't update for like three months? ( Yeah, Harry's smart and a truly phenomenal character, he did the right thing.

Colette/Sirius? Colette/Remus? Well, you'll see! (

Ginny1946: Thatta girl, you kept on reading! It gets a lot better as you go, doesn't it? I hate the first ten chapters or so. ( You don't need to review every single chapter, it's alright. I'm glad that you like the story!

?And upside down?: I'm trying to update fast, believe me. Just think of it as those annoying commercial breaks during the most exciting parts of a TV show. (

celestial princess: The bad guy losing it is always so much fun! Harry did something, you see?

(Nun, hay, gimmel, shin!)

Tinuviel: I wanted to avoid Harry talking to his parents, basically because that would make things more complicated than they already are, and make things hard for Harry as well. Yeah, we all knew that he would do it...Harry's very generous and caring, he really cares about other people. If he had been able to talk to his parents...yeah, you're right, it would be very bittersweet, both helping and hurting him.

Wow, someone made the connection between the work that Remus and Colette were doing and what was going on in Hermione's head! Once again, your very perceptive, you realized that they might have something to do with each other! Was it you who I told that Hermione wasn't physically in the chapters as much as a lot of other characters, but the part she played was one of the most important? ::nods:: Uh-huh.

Nikora: Thanks a lot! Wow, so many people like it...well, your wish is my command.

mo: I'm going, I'm going... ( Oh, and in case you didn't know, you're my one hundredth reviewer! Yay! ::throws up confetti:: (

WeasleyTwinsLover1112: Ah, you're alive! Don't worry, I don't care about the reviews, as long as you didn't abandon me. ( Save Cedric? Huh? Lol, where did that come from?