Darkness Falling
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or places portrayed herein.
The day of the trial had arrived. Ginny was fetched from her cell by two Dementors and four Aurors and taken to the Ministry of Magic. She was frogmarched into a large room and made to sit in a chair equipped with magical restraints. Not that they really held her. She faced what she supposed to be a full session of the Wizengamot, with her 'family' also present. Snape was standing in for Dumbledore and, unknown to all except her, the shadowy form of the First Evil lurked in the back.
Afterwards, Ginny remembered little of the trial. She pleaded not guilty, and then switched off mentally. She remembered that several people were called as character witnesses, and that there were no actual witnesses. What really made the outcome inevitable was the result of the examination of her wand, and the wand found by Goyle's body. Mr. Ollivander came in to check them.
"One of these wands was used to cast Avada Kedavra at about the time of death. It was the wand found by the body of the deceased. The signature of the magic is not one I know, nor did I sell this wand. It may be a back up wand. Certainly, from my tests, Miss Weasley would not have had enough power to Avada Kedavra Mr. Goyle with this wand; she is not attuned enough to it."
The court exchanged significant looks at this. The prosecution lawyers argued that this did not mean that she had not killed him, but it was a lost cause. No one seemed to want to believe that a girl her age, or Arthur Weasley's daughter could kill someone in cold blood. Her experience in the Chamber of Secrets just made the court even more sympathetic to Ginny, their emotions played like fiddles by Lindsey McDonald. Snape watched frowning, but he was the only one. Everyone else wiped away tears as the Wolfram & Hart lawyer spoke in an anguished voice about her terrible suffering at the hands of Tom Riddle. As he summed up, he said:
"Ginevra Weasley is a remarkable young woman. She has overcome the trauma faced in her first year, and has faced this court with dignity befitting a person many years her senior. To convict her on evidence, that is at best hearsay, and despite the testimony of Mr. Ollivander would be a gross miscarriage of justice. My client and I know that you, the esteemed members of this court, will not let that happen. The fate of this young woman is in your hands. Do not fail her in her hour of need."
Ginevra Weasley was acquitted of the murder of Gregory Goyle and allowed to resume her studies at Hogwarts with no punishment whatsoever. Draco Malfoy was livid when he found out.
She returned to find that she had been allocated a room in the Slytherin dungeons in her absence and was in fact regarded as something of a heroine by the younger girls of her new house. She established a shrine to the First in her room, to mask her use of Dark magic, and studied the art of Necromancy in her free time. The Trio did not bother her so much now, as they now had almost no contact with her. Dumbledore returned soon after her trial, looking none the worse for wear, and confirmed her resorting despite everything Potter, the Mudblood and her twit brother said. He even seemed faintly amused at the notion that she was practising the Dark Arts secretly, saying that no one could do so on Hogwarts grounds without him knowing about it.
The next major event happened three days later, when the moon was dark.
All was silent in the corridors of Hogwarts. No students scurried through the halls. No Professors strode through the castle. Only the ghosts traversed them, as they would continue to do for all eternity. Up, up, up, in the Gryffindor tower, in the sixth year boys' dormitory, behind the curtains that surrounded his bed, the Boy Who Lived (unfortunately) tossed and turned as he dreamt of things that, all things considered, he would rather he wasn't.
In his mind's eye, he saw a barren moor, with a black robed figure standing on an elaborate design drawn in what appeared to be white sand. As Potter watched, red light blasted up from beneath the figure, which stretched its arms out towards the heavens. Outlined in the hellish light, the figure cried out in an ancient tongue, of which Potter caught almost nothing. It sounded like an incantation though, due to the repetition of two words. He couldn't quite remember them though, as the words sounded like nothing he had ever heard before.
The red light intensified and Potter's scar began to twinge. Clouds overhead swirled closer, cutting off all view of the stars, and then began to reach down to the symbol on the ground. Suddenly, he noticed the presence of others around the edges of the light. They circled it, pacing round the perimeter of the symbol. The winds picked up, blowing hoods down. That of the central figure fell, revealing it to be Voldemort. His eyes gleamed strongly in the evil light and he appeared to be exulting in the power he had summoned. Above him, the clouds convulsed and tore apart, revealing a rip in the sky itself.
At that, Harry Potter fell out of the dream, as something vast and evil turned its attention to the rift. The malevolent evil pulsed from the rift, something malignant looking back at him. Vaguely he heard someone screaming for help. It took him a minute to realise that it was him. Then he woke completely and totally. He was not the only one. Albus Dumbledore sat bolt upright in his bed, and Severus Snape clutched at his burning arm as he writhed on the floor. The general impressions they all gained were of triumphant laughter, high pitched and cruel. The laughter of Lord Voldemort echoing victoriously in their minds. The end was beginning.