Chapter 10: The Trial

"What?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

Ramsey, Drake, and Carpathia stepped forward, wands out, pointed at Harry.

"As Head auror of the British Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I have authority to place anyone who commits crime under arrest. I have with me three witnesses to a murder that you committed. I am forced under law to detain you for trial" she said, "if you try to resist, I have authorization, by you isn't it ironic, to kill"

Harry nodded, Tonks conjured a pair of handcuffs, and Harry placed his hands behind his back.

"You don't have to do that Tonks I'm not going anywhere" Harry said as she snapped them on.

She nodded, "I know but it's protocol"

She led him down the stairs, off the roof, and to Carpathia's car.

They drove back to the hotel, where they checked out and then used the fireplace in Harry's room to floo to the London ministry office.

He was taken to the wizengamont chambers where Tonks had already organized a trial,

Harry was to be tried before the full court, again.

Cho was acting as judge for his trial.

Harry sat down in the big stone chair and waited for the beginning of his trial.

As the members filed in, some looked disappointed to have to do this, some looked happy, and most just looked shocked.

After everyone was situated, Cho spoke up.

"Harry James Potter, you have been called to this trial today on charges of the murder of Abraham Jacob Stroker, and letting a federal criminal escape justice" she called, "On the date of November the 22nd we have been called forth to take action against your crimes, we shall now hear testimony from one witness, Nymphadora Tonks"

Tonks stood up, she was taking his place in the court.

"In San Francisco earlier this evening at 9:45 P.M Harry and I were on our way back from a concert, we had no work to do yet so we went for leisure time. On our way back to the hotel, some police cars sped past us and Harry flipped on the radio, it told of another attack so we apparated to the crime scene immediately.

Lord Xanatos, that is to say Ron Weasley, had frozen the muggle timeframe somehow, and was waiting to duel Harry on the roof of the civic center.

They battled alone, Harry didn't want our help.

The fought for a long time, before Harry finally had Ron backed into a corner, lying on the ground actually.

Anyway, Harry gave him the choice to come back quietly, or die.

Ron flung a curse at Harry and one of our agents, Jacob Stone, jumped in front of the curse, losing his life.

It seemed the sacrifice was in vain though, because when it came time to kill Lord Xanatos, Harry couldn't do it.

Then Agent Abraham Stroker tried to do the deed, Harry screamed, lunged, and knocked Stroker off the building.

After that, Ron escaped, and I detained Harry for trial, he made no attempt to escape."

She finished and everyone looked shocked.

Cho stood again, "Harry?" she asked, "Do you plead guilty, or must we do a majority vote?"

Harry looked up at Cho, "Guilty" he croaked.

"Then I sentence you to a short term in Azkaban until we can find suitable punishment" she said.

Harry nodded grimly.

The huge iron doors behind him opened and two Azkaban guards walked in, the pulled him roughly out of his chair and guided him back through the iron doors.

The slammed shut behind them, and the guards thrust Harry through the portal that led into Azkaban.

Two other guards led Harry into the prison complex to a low security cell, they took his wand and left him there, shutting the door behind them.

Harry didn't have high security cell like Pettigrew, his cell was very low security.

No Iron door, just bars, no guards outside the doors.

But he wouldn't try to escape, he'd just wait his sentence.

"COMING!" Bellatrix yelled at the pounding on the door to the Potter house.

She turned the golden handle and swung the big oak door open.

She was face to face with the last person she wanted to see.

"You" Tonks said.

"Me" Bellatrix said.

"I don't care what Harry says, I don't trust you" Tonks said, "You killed Sirius"

Bellatrix nodded, "And I'm not proud of it, but Harry has his reasons for trusting me" she said.

"What are you doing here?"

Tonks looked up, "I need to see Hermione" she said.

Bellatrix nodded, "All right, I'll get her, come in" she said.

Bellatrix walked into the living room where Hermione was playing with Rebecca.

"Dear cousin Tonks is here to see you" she said.

Hermione's head shot up, "All right thank you Bella, I'll be back" she said.

Hermione stood up and swept into the entry hall where Tonks was fidgeting nervously.

"What's wrong Tonks, did something happen to Harry?" she asked.

Tonks shook her head and gulped, "He hasn't been harmed, but in a manner yes something happened to him"

Tonks told her the whole story of everything that happened from the moment the got to Frisco to the moment Harry's trial ended.

"Why didn't you come to me last night as soon as the trial was over?" Hermione asked.

"I didn't know how to tell you" Tonks said.

"And he's in Azkaban now?" she asked.

Tonks nodded, "I visited him last night" she said.

Hermione put her hands on her hips and scowled, "You visited him but you couldn't let me?" she yelled.

Tonks flinched under Hermione's wrath, "Sorry" she said,

"We're filing papers to get him out now, if you'd like to come help"

Hermione nodded, "Ok, just wait a minute" she said.

She poked her head into the living room and told Bellatrix where she was going, then she grabbed a jacket out of the hall closet and left with Tonks.

"You did well my puppet" a dark voice sounded.

"Leave me alone! I don't want this! I wanted power but I don't want this! Just leave me alone!" someone screamed into the forgotten darkness.

"Oh, I'm afraid that there is nothing you can do, you see, I am the parasite and you are the host, I control you now, I have you in the palm of my hand" said the demonic voice again.

"NO! GET OUT NOW! NOOOOOOOOO!"

Harry shot up, he had been having another vision like dream, he couldn't recognize the voices, and it was too dark to see, but somehow they both sounded familiar.

Harry's back ached, these cells had no beds, prisoners were forced to sleep on the dirt floors.

He had a pounding headache too, his scar was burning, and that wasn't a good sign.

Azkaban was a nightmare, even without the Dementors.

All you could do was sit, and sit, and sit, and then sit.

And oh yeah, sit.

Harry got one meal a day, if you could call it a meal.

After three days in Azkaban Harry was already tempted to deplete his resolve, and try to escape.

But he could never be cleared like that, Sirius had endured twelve years here, Harry could stand a couple of days.

He waited patiently for any word from anyone; he had been here for three days.

Tonks and Hermione visited him every day and assured him that they were doing all they could to get him out.

Tonks had informed him that when he did get out he would be able to keep his job, because he had won the vote on that, too many people thought he was the best thing that ever happened to the ministry to let him stay off the job.

"Harry" Harry was brought out of his thoughts by Hermione's voice.

He looked up, "Hi" he said.

Bellatrix had accompanied her this time instead of Tonks.

She looked nervous.

"What's up Bella?" he asked.

She shivered, "I hate this place, I spent too many years here" she said, folding her arms over her chest as if she were cold.

"But she decided to come so she could see you" Hermione said.

Harry nodded his thanks, "Any news on how soon I can get out of here?" he asked.

She shook her head, "We finished the paperwork and sent it into the wizengamont but you're low on their priority list, too many attacks since you've been in here" she said.

"What? They aren't going to catch anyone until they let me out of here!" Harry said, exasperated.

"We know, calm down" Hermione said, reaching through the bars to take his hands in hers, "we know"

Harry smashed his hands against the bar and swore loudly.

"Harry! Watch your mouth!" she said.

Harry groaned, "I want out of here!"

Before Hermione could say anything a guard swept in, "Visiting time's over ladies" he said, giving Harry a sympathetic look.

Hermione gave him an apologetic look and followed the guard out the door, leaving Harry alone in his dark, cold cell.

Victor Krum was having a hay-day, as head of the Russian Magical Law Enforcement Department; he had to keep up with everything.

Problem was, that was too much.

The creeping darkness that was spreading over Europe, North Africa, and Northern Asia, had not yet breached the borders of the small towns in Russia.

Only now, people in Romania and Bulgaria were disappearing for lengthy amounts of time, and then ending up dead. Victor couldn't find any leads, and it was frustrating him.

Just last week there had been a mass slaughtering right under his nose, an abandoned warehouse had been found to be holding over 2,000 bodies.

Then there was the Troll attack on southern Romania just two days before.

Transylvania was sending reports of massive Dragon, Vampire, and Werewolf attacks.

Victor had to assume Lord Xanatos had succeeded where his predecessor had failed, he had learned to control dragons, no doubt from the knowledge he had gained from growing up around Charlie Weasley.

Victor had met Charlie, who had confessed to teaching Ron about dragons when Ron was young.

Victor knew that the outbreaks in Transylvania were from Xanatos because Greyback had been spotted among some of the allotted werewolf attacks.

Victor was short staffed because Russia had always been a peaceful country (in the magical community) and they had never needed much protection, perhaps that was why Xanatos was taking advantage of their weak defenses.

No doubt, most of the vampire attacks were coming from Count Dracula and his legion of swarming bloodsuckers.

No one had ever gotten close enough to castle Dracula without dying to set fire to it, or sneak attack Dracula while he was in his sleep.

Everyone Victor had sent into Transylvania had ended up dead, so he was packing to go himself.

He threw assorted things into his travel bag.

A few stakes, two bottles of holy water, and of course he had the "Lumos Solem" spell.

A silver stake for the wolves.

As for dragons, those would be another story, he brought a few research books from the Romanian library of congress for them.

He finished piling everything necessary for living in Transylvania for a while before closing the bag, slinging it over his shoulder, and stepping into his fireplace.

"Transylvanian Ministry Of Magic Building Atrium!" he shouted, and the green flames engulfed him.

Hermione and Bellatrix retrieved their wands from the security desks and hurried out into the freezing rain to their apparation point.

They both apparated back to Hermione's where Luna was sitting with Becky.

Luna left soon afterward, and Bellatrix and Hermione went back to their studying and paper work.

They sat in Hermione's library reading for hours, the only noise was the often turn of a page, or the occasional,

"Oh this might help…".

After about four hours Bellatrix left, returning twenty minutes later with the news that Becky was asleep and she had made coffee.

Hermione sipped hers occasionally, saving it, knowing they were into another late night of reading.

For the past three days, they had been reading every law book in Hermione's over-sized library so they could plead at Harry's sentencing case.

It seemed as if they had pulled down half the library, the usually clean room was now littered with discarded books, foam Starbucks cups, and empty, crushed up cola cans.

At about 4:00 A.M, Hermione slammed shut the cover of,

Impulsive Murders for the mediocre law defenders: A guide to defending yourself in murder court.

She was frustrated; they had found about 10 pages of relevant material out of about 600 books.

So far, she had a small defense speech written and she was hoping to make it better.

However, the fact remained, Hermione had two days to finish.

Even though she had downed about a gallon of caffeine that night, her eyelids were growing droopy and her mind was clouding over, she had to get to bed, now.

Bellatrix had left some time ago for bed, Hermione stumbled out of the room, flipping off the lights.

She felt her way to the staircase in the darkness and climbed the stairs wearily.

Soon she was lying comfortably in her large cozy bed… drifting off to dreams about a certain raven haired, emerald eyed man.

"The time has come for me to put you to another use"

"I don't wanna" someone slurred weakly into the darkness.

"You will do as I say"

"No…"

"YOU WILL!"

"I will do as you say, you are the master I will do as you say"

Harry didn't shoot up in bed this time, but his eyes split open.

He had a feeling that these dreams meant something, they were real, they were really happening.

He sat up, massaging his scar; he wished Hermione were here, she always made his headaches go away.

Harry heard the guard coming with his meal, he backed up against the wall as the guard pointed his wand at Harry.

The guard opened the door and slid the tray in.

He shut the cell door and walked off to deliver other meals.

Harry ate his bowl of chicken broth hungrily, he couldn't wait to taste one of Hermione's home cooked meals again.

He hated Azkaban, it sucked, he should have never killed Stroker.

Wait, he didn't even mean to kill Stroker.

After a minute of mulling over memories, Harry finally understood.

"GUARD! GUARD! HEY! GUARD!" He screamed.

The guard who had delivered his meal ran to the gate, "What is it?" he asked.

"I need to speak to my wife" he said.

"Sir, visiting hours are ov…" he started.

"NOW!" Harry yelled.

He shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

After a few minutes Hermione was there, she was alone, "What is it Harry?" she asked.

He laughed, "I know what happened, I know why I killed Stroker!" Harry said.

Hermione shook her head, "Why? What happened?" she asked.

Victor woke up from his sleep in the Chauto Romana hotel to the realization that all was not right.

It was too quiet.

He slipped out of bed and quietly grabbed his wand from the bedside table.

He slipped out of the door to his room and down the stairs.

The clerk at the receptionist desk was leaned over, his face lying in a pool of his own blood on the desk.

Victor inspected him a minute, ah there.. the bite marks on the neck, bitten, not slashed or ripped.

Vampires tended to be neater than werewolves about killing their victims.

But it was curious that they had left the blood instead of drinking it.

Victor strained his darkness-trained eyes but could see nothing, no shadows, no cloak hems, nothing.

His hearing had also been trained, but he couldn't hear anything either.

Maybe they had gone?

Victor didn't think so… he knew they were here for him, it wasn't a random hit and run kill.

Then Victor felt something ooze down his shoulder, blood.

He looked up just in time to see a female vampire flash from the rafters before she hit him, knocking the wind out of him and sending him into a backwards flip.

Luckily he landed on his feet.

He heard the rustle of a cloak behind him and whirled around.

Then he felt something slam into his back and he flew forwards.

Jumping up using his Quidditch reflexes to improve the speed, he looked around quickly.

Victor had the ability to take in a whole room in one glance.

Nothing, again.

It was still too quiet to be natural.

Something smashed into Victor, sending him into a sprawling position on the floor.

He got up slowly and turned around, "Nice to see you too Nicolina" he said.

"Victor, Victor, Victor, why must you cause master Dracula so much trouble?" she taunted.

"I only cause trouble for him when he threatens my country's peace" Victor replied.

"We must do as we are told or we will be killed by master Xanatos" the young beautiful vampiress said.

Everything Harry was telling her made sense, Hermione now believed she had the edge to winning the trial.

"And you're sure?" she asked him one more time.

"Yes I'm sure! Get me out of here!" Harry said.

"Baby I'm doing all I can, but the trial isn't until tomorrow" Hermione said.

He groaned, "I know, thanks for all your hard work, send my thanks to Bella too" he said.

Mark ran as fast as he could towards Transfiguration, he couldn't believe he was late.

"McGonagall's gonna kill me" he muttered as he ran.

Suddenly he collided with someone, knocking him backwards.

He rubbed his head as he was getting up, "Riley?" he asked, "sorry"

She grumbled something and picked up her books, she ran off without another word.

Mark picked up his own books and hurried down the hall, he was only 15 minutes late, not so bad.

He threw open the doors and rushed in, interrupting McGonagall's display of turning her desk into a pig.

"Sorry Professor, I had detention with Slughorn" he muttered.

McGonagall sighed, "Well then ten points from Gryffindor, and find your seat Mr. Potter" she said.

He found his seat next to Holly, "You're going to get Gryffindor in big trouble" she said.

He gave her an apologetic look and pulled out his copy of A Beginners Guide To Transfiguration.

Transfiguration went by quickly, Holly helped Mark with transfiguring his pin into a match, but the finished product was still silver.

Walking out of transfiguration class, Daniel Regulus his Quidditch captain stopped him,

"We have practice Friday night at 5:00 sharp, be there" the older boy said.

Mark nodded and then set off down the hall with Holly for lunch.

Ok that's the end of that chapter, (I think I made too many transitions)

I don't think I'll be writing again for a while, I'm off to college.

Two days ago was my birthday and I turned 18, I'm attending IV Tech University in Indiana, and I'm moving into

A new flat in downtown Kokomo Indiana, Felecia will be joining me when she heals all the way from her accident.

I'm planning on popping the question when she gets better too (wish me luck)

Thank you for all your reviews and for reading my story, like I said I may not be updating for a while because I am going to be busy moving into my new flat (excuse me our new flat)

If I do update good, if I don't please don't get mad because I will as soon as I can Ok!

And Holly, I got your message, your timing couldn't be more perfect to take vacation, you won't be reviewing for a while, and I won't be writing for a while.

Another reason I won't be updating a lot, is because (hopefully) I might have a wedding to plan.

See you all later, and again, wish me luck!"

P.S: I am going to write one more chapter on this before I stop to start moving