This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The various OCs belong to me.
Posted 9th October 2005
CHAPTER 23: BALANCING NECESSITY AND JUSTICE
It wasn't until the order meeting directly after Tuesday's advanced defence class that Harry learned that Vernon Dursley's trial was to be held that Thursday directly before the meeting that would decide whether Dumbledore and his allies would be thrown off Wizengamot. Fudge had obviously deliberately scheduled the trial to sway opinions of any undecided Wizengamot members against Dumbledore, a fact recognised with much regret by the Order. After all, both Harry's and Vernon's testimonies' would be very harmful towards Dumbledore and would certainly give Hamworthy and Malfoy enough votes to remove Dumbledore from the body that appointed the Minister of Magic and acted as Wizarding Britain's Supreme Court. The Order discussed all sorts of legal technicalities under which the trial could conceivably be postponed without much success, until Moody chimed up with something similar to what Harry had been thinking.
"The easiest way to postpone the trial is to kidnap the defendant, Fudge won't let the trial go ahead if Dursley isn't there to testify because Potter's not guaranteed to testify. If neither Potter nor Dursley turn up he won't get a conviction," Moody growled, once the Deputy Minister had eventually summarised that the trial couldn't legally be postponed. It wasn't a particularly popular suggestion, especially among Harry's family, who were eager to see Vernon convicted. Dumbledore didn't much like it either although his objections were moral.
"I will not countenance any attempt to interfere with a trial or pervert the course of justice," He declared grandiosely displaying hints of anger, ignoring the minor technicality that he had wanted to do just that moments previously. No one else raised the subject or attempted to object and the subject of discussion turned to what Voldemort had been doing.
The moment the meeting ended though Harry approached Moody to discuss the possibility of kidnapping Vernon behind Fudge's back, not that he raised that subject until many of the Order members, including Dumbledore, had gone home.
"Are you going to go through with the attempt to kidnap Vernon," he asked the ex-auror quietly. The two were standing in the corner of the meeting room, out of earshot of most of the members and were generally being ignored.
"No, not without Albus' backing," Moody replied, giving an answer that Harry had expected.
"So you won't be willing to help me do it then? It's the only way we can both save Dumbledore's position on the Wizengamot and get rid of Fudge," he said in reply.
Moody looked surprised for a moment, "You want to frame Fudge for Dursley's kidnapping. It could work" Moody stated after a thoughtful pause, "You need to find a way to prevent him from blaming you or Albus though."
Harry smirked, he'd already considered that, "My testimony at Vernon's trial should take care of that. I plan on emphasising on how Dumbledore wanted to sacrifice my happiness for the common good, to turn me into the weapon to defeat Voldemort once and for all."
Again Moody considered Harry's words for a few moments before replying, "Very well laddie, I'll arrange for Dursley's kidnapping," he replied, failing to hide an impressed smile. His business done, Harry wandered over to speak to his grandfather, marvelling at how easily Moody had agreed to his plan.
His plan was further aided the next day when Fudge and an auror bodyguard arrived at Hogwarts during lunchtime to speak to Harry about the next day's trial. When Harry brought up the fact that Fudge had personally briefed him what to expect at the trial during his testimony the jury were bound to get suspicious of the minister. The meeting between Harry and Fudge took place in the headmaster's office although Fudge would not allow Dumbledore to be present for the meeting, that allowed Fudge, much to Fawkes' displeasure, to sit down in Dumbledore's desk chair and act as if it was his office and not the headmaster's.
"My apologies for the delayed notification of your uncle's trial. Normally three weeks notice is required for such an important trial, but there were special circumstances in this instance…" Fudge declared once everyone was settled.
He was interrupted by Harry, who felt there was no need for beating about the bush. In order to get Fudge kicked out he needed the minister to explicitly declare his intention to fix the trial, "These special circumstances?" he asked, "I take it you refer to tomorrow's wizengamot meeting."
"Indeed," Fudge replied, slightly caught off guard, "As the Supreme Mugwump will be one of the defendants the law requires the full Wizengamot to be present. It's only a criminal negligence charge, but the law is the law. Your uncle is charged with much more serious charges of course, child abuse and attempted murder." It was a charge list that surprised Harry, his uncle had not attempted to murder him, and Dumbledore had explicitly permitted the abuse. He deserved a charge far more serious than criminal negligence; therefore he couldn't help but query it.
"Criminal negligence! Dumbledore all but asked the Dursleys to abuse me and you call him negligent!" he snapped, whilst he didn't want to see the headmaster convicted because of the problems it would cause, he had no problem having the headmaster convicted on the right charges. Having Dumbledore convicted on any old charge would neither be practical nor adequate revenge. That the minister was trying to arrange a third, unwanted, outcome angered him immensely, so much so that Fudge seemed quite taken aback.
"We believe that he could escape a more serious charge. Our biggest priority is getting a conviction," Fudge stammered in reply, shifting uncomfortably.
"I don't want a conviction. I want justice for the crimes that he committed!" Harry sneered in reply, choosing his words and the way he expressed them carefully. It was true that he did want justice, or more precisely, revenge, but not until after the current war was over, "You're not offering me that and I won't co-operate with you until you do."
Fudge shifted even more comfortably, he looked distinctly flustered and taken aback, "Well, it's too late to change the charges now and surely you want to see the headmaster convicted," he said trying to avoid sounding nervous and desperate. Clearly the minister had not expected Harry's reaction to his news, just as much as Harry had not expected the news in the first place.
"I believe I have already made my position clear on this minister. Drop the false charge against Dumbledore or else I won't co-operate, even if it means that we don't get a conviction." He stated firmly, his eyes hard with firmly controlled anger. As much as he disliked the situation it did present an opportunity though to eliminate from the trial any accusations that might get Dumbledore kicked off the wizengamot. He just had to be stubborn and Fudge would crack eventually, simply to avoid jeopardising the entire trial. He did not expect Fudge to cave in immediately.
"Very well," the minister sighed, in a display of weakness that met Harry's derision. He kept such feelings to himself though, outwardly showing no emotion as Fudge tried and spectacularly failed to save face, "I'll see what I can do. I can't promise anything though, this is all out of my hands."
With that the meeting was over, Harry didn't bother to thank the minister as he left the headmaster's office knowing that it would offend and enrage the overly pompous Fudge who would feel as if he had been snubbed. Besides he needed to adjust his plan to fit the new circumstances and that involve a visit to the Ministry that evening so that he could speak to Vernon, something he had wanted to do anyway. Simply getting the muggle convicted did not classify as revenge in his book, he wanted the man that had terrorised his home life to feel a fraction of the pain he had heaped on both him and his Aunt. Thinking of his aunt, an idea struck him, perhaps she would like to come along too, if she could. Noticing that lunch was soon going to end he quickly hurried to Slinker's office to see if he could arrange a visit to the ministry for that evening.
As it turned out he needn't have bothered because someone was already there when he and Petunia arrived at Vernon's cell, someone who was already doing exactly what they had come to do. Admittedly though Harry hadn't planned on using the unforgivables on Vernon, as Lucius Malfoy appeared to be doing. The guards didn't seem to be too concerned by Malfoy's highly illegal torture session. In fact, they were far more concerned by the timing of Harry's visit – and not just because it happened to occur at the same time as Malfoy's visit. According to the plan he'd worked out with Moody, tonight was the night that Vernon was to be kidnapped from the Ministry.
"What are you doing here? We're supposed to be implementing the plan tonight and Fudge will think that you're involved," a guard had whispered nervously to Harry just outside the door to the Ministry holding cells.
Harry had simply shrugged and whispered back, "There's been a change of plan. Don't do anything unless I tell you too." The guard had simply nodded and opened the door for Harry, ignoring the cries of pain that penetrated from within the area of the cells.
In fact there was even a guard watching dispassionately as Malfoy administered his torture in what appeared to be an effort to get Vernon to co-operate with whatever scheme that the blond had cooked up. Harry watched silently for a few moments and admired Vernon's agony feeling a sort of savage satisfaction at the fact that Vernon was feeling some of the pain that he had inflicted upon him. Of course, he would have preferred to inflict the pain himself but this was good enough. He was far less satisfied with Vernon's defiant reaction to his torture, not that he expected much different. Harry's former uncle could be quite brave when there he had a good reason to be and Harry was certain that Malfoy's demands, whatever they were, gave him a very good reason to be brave. I was soon proved right, when Malfoy, who still hadn't noticed me, repeated his demands to Vernon.
"Say it!" he growled hatefully, "Promise me that you you'll say Dumbledore ordered the abuse and I'll let you live." Vernon simply glared defiantly at the demands, seemingly unconcerned that his defiance would result in another bout of the cruciatus curse. A curse that never came, for once Harry had overcome his shock at the exact nature of Malfoy's demand he stepped forward into the blond's line of sight.
"That's not the way to persuade him," Harry said smarmily. His niceness to Malfoy was more sarcastic than genuine, "You need to give him something he wants in return for his co-operation. You're not offering him anything he wants. Vernon would rather die than spend his sentence in a wizard prison. Now, if we could guarantee that he could spend his sentence in a muggle prison, I'm sure he'd be willing to do whatever we asked him to."
Malfoy sneered, seemingly unimpressed by Harry's words, "Why would I want to give a muggle something it wants," he said contemptuously, "I am well aware of what you're saying, but I'm not going to use it, not while other options are available." From the dark looks and utter hatred and contempt in Malfoy's expression, Harry could easily guess why he preferred the 'other options'. Despite being messier, more noticeable and far mess likely to succeed Malfoy chose the 'other option.' Whilst Harry had seen no evidence that Malfoy enjoyed seeing Vernon in pain, it didn't take a genius to work out why he tortured Vernon instead of offering him what he wanted. He wanted to use the dark arts, not to accomplish his goal, but simply because he enjoyed using the dark arts and experiencing the hatred that was needed to fuel them. It was the perfect example of something he had been warned about multiple times just a few days previously, namely the effect that the uncontrolled use of the dark arts could have on the dark wizard.
Knowing this, he couldn't help but glare contemptuously at Malfoy before turning to Vernon to fulfil the reason for his visit. He only had the opportunity to say his former uncle's name, however, before Malfoy interrupted him.
"Don't you dare!" the blond hissed, pointing his wand at Harry, who simply looked at it, unmoved by the threat. If he hoped to persuade Harry from doing what he wouldn't then Malfoy had no effect at all, indeed he had quite a different effect. As if out of nowhere three guards suddenly swept upon Malfoy, silently grabbing his arms and handcuffing them behind his back before anybody else could respond to the stand off that had suddenly developed, before hauling him away in perfect silence. Not even Malfoy objected to his arrest, presumably for fear of drawing attention from those who had not seen his torture session.
The moment he was gone, Harry turned to Vernon and continued with what he had been saying before he had been interrupted, "I presume you know of the attempted murder charge that you're facing?" he asked continuing without wanting for a reply of some sort for Vernon, "You were charged with it, because the muggle relations laws says that a muggle being tried only for child abuse charges should be tried before a muggle court and serve his sentence in a muggle prison. Now if you were found not guilty of attempted murder, you will serve your sentence in a muggle prison. Nothing can change that." Harry paused momentarily to let the information sink in, allowing Vernon to interject.
"What do you want from me?" he asked, he sounded shaky but hopeful, impressing Harry in how quickly he caught on to Harry's intentions.
"To say nothing that can get Dumbledore convicted of a crime tomorrow. But don't lie, I'll need you to testify against him at a later date, when we don't need Dumbledore for the war," he saw shimmers of doubt in Vernon's eyes, so he continued, "You see Dumbledore is the only person at the moment capable of keeping Voldemort from destroying the muggle world." The shimmers of doubt disappeared in the face of what was a gross exaggeration. Not that Vernon knew any better. He did wait for verbal confirmation of Vernon's co-operation, before walking off, leaving Petunia to speak to her ex-husband in private.
Yes, I took a long time to update and there are various reasons for that, but looking on the bright side, I was a lot quicker this time. It only took four months to write this chapter, rather than 15 months. You never know I might take an acceptable amount of time to write the next chapter.
On a more serious note, we should be getting to some more interesting aspects of the story soon. I have another chapter or two of political stuff to work through, covering the reprecussions of Malfoys arrest and the trial, which all eventually to Fudge getting sacked exactly a month after the events of this chapter. Then and then can I get around to saying more about Snape.
Secondly, for those like Lurk who are eagerly awaiting reading the trial. I wish to state now that I'll only be writing part of it, namely the second half of Vernon's testimony and the verdict.
Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter 20. The reviews were much appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.