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 17th October 2005
ON TWO LORDS AND A PRINCE
CHAPTER 24: PERSONAL EFFECTS OF JUSTICE
"Do you believe Dumbledore was aware of how you treated Harry?"
It was Thursday evening and Harry was in courtroom 10 of the Ministry of Magic, sitting in the big underground courtroom that had hosted the death eater trials that he had seen in Dumbledore's pensieve. Fudge, who despite his promise had unsurprisingly not dropped the charge facing Dumbledore, was presiding over proceedings, as eager as ever to convict Dumbledore. The headmaster sat quietly at the front of the courtroom next to Harry waiting for Vernon's interrogation to finish and his own to begin. Petunia was there too, sitting the other side of Harry, also waiting to be called to the witness stand. The trial had only just begun though and Fudge was still questioning Vernon. He'd asked various vague questions about the way Vernon had treated Harry, all of which the blond man had answered honestly. This was the first of what Harry expected to be many questions about Dumbledore though, and like the rest of the packed courtroom he desperately wanted to hear what Vernon had to say about the headmaster's actions. Hence the deathly silence as he gave his reply.
"I don't know," he replied, "All we ever received from him was a couple of letters just before the boy ran away, one of which gave us permission to use force to discipline the boy."
"Harry claims that he wrote a letter to Dumbledore saying that you were beating him, is that true?"
"I know the boy wrote to his headmaster as one of the letters we received said that he'd complained that I was hitting him. That's when he told us that we could discipline the boy."
"So Dumbledore did know that you were beating Harry!" Fudge exclaimed triumphantly. Harry had mentioned the exact same thing in his letter to the Daily Prophet, but Vernon's word still caused a murmur of surprise to sweep the crowd.
Vernon merely shrugged and sought to clarify matters. If it hadn't been for the previous night's events he wouldn't have said anything, but as it was he knew he had to, "You'd have to ask him that but from his letters I don't think he realised what I was doing to the boy."
Harry couldn't help but notice Fudge's disappointment at that particular reply, "But you said that Harry told wrote to Dumbledore telling him of his treatment, did you not?
"Yes, I said that he wrote to him, but I don't know what the letter said."
"But you said that Dumbledore mentioned that you'd been beating Harry when he wrote to you, did you not?"
"I can't remember what the letter said exactly, but it sounded like he didn't understand what I was doing to the boy," Vernon replied sounding somewhat frustrated, "I think he thought I was hitting the boy to punish him."
The testimony continued like this for quite a while, with Fudge asking various questions all on the subject of the two letters that Vernon had already mentioned. All this resulted in was in getting Vernon progressively angrier until he yelled at Fudge for asking virtually the same question yet again.
Fudge took the clue to end Vernon's interrogation and call Dumbledore up to the stand. Unsurprisingly, the headmaster was equally able to dodge Fudge's repeat questioning about the same letters he had asked Vernon about, confirming Vernon's stated suspicion that he'd misinterpreted Harry's own letter. Privately, Harry wondered how this was possible, but when asked about it after being called up to testify he blamed the old man's habit of trusting people he shouldn't. In this mentioning Arabella Figg and Petunia as well as Harry. It looked extremely bad for Fudge that Arabella wasn't even called to testify and that Petunia was only asked briefly about Dumbledore after Fudge had spent at least twenty minutes trying to persuade Harry's aunt that Vernon had tried to kill Harry, all without success. This was an accusation that Harry and Vernon had also both denied.
Thus it was very irritated and desperate Fudge that turned to the woman sitting next to him, who happened to be Madam Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and indicated that he'd finished. Madam Bones then stood up and loudly asked "Those in favour of clearing the accused, Vernon Dursley, of Attempted Murder." Lots of hands went up, all but a dozen of the fifty or so members in fact. Something that had not gone unnoticed by Fudge, who looked distinctly uncomfortable by the result. He seemed to shift nervously in his seat and peered nervously at a rather nasty looking blond wizard in the back row.
"And those in favour of conviction," she said. Fudge and the nasty looking man, were among the dozen that put there hand up.
"Those in favour of clearing the accused, Vernon Dursley, of Child Abuse." No hands went up, much to Harry's delight. He didn't feel relieved though for there was an air of palpable and very nervous tension in the air that I had slowly been mounting.
"And those in favour of conviction." It seemed to take far longer than before, for the entire wizengamot to raise their hands and for the vote to be counted. Harry didn't feel nervous, but he was tense and desperately willing for the next vote to take place.
"Those in favour of clearing the accused, Albus Dumbledore, of Criminal Negligence" she said after what seemed to be an age. A number of hands went in the air, about half. Twenty-seven, exactly half, Petunia whispered, whilst Harry was in the middle of counting.
Thus none of the tension dissipated during the age it took for Madam Bones took to ask "And those in favour of conviction." Again half put their hand up and everyone in the courtroom counted them. It was the lump that suddenly reappeared in Fudge's throats and the nervous glance back to the nasty looking wizard in the back row that first gave away the result. Twenty-six hands had gone up and a tall wizard with long black hair sitting in the second row had abstained. Harry let out a breath that he hadn't realised that he'd been holding.
It was a few more moments, Fudge gulped and then said with suppressed rage and nervousness, "eh, very well, Vernon Dursley is guilty of Child Abuse and is sentenced to life in a muggle prison. Professor Dumbledore is cleared of all charges." Harry couldn't help but smile at the sight of Vernon being led in chains, knowing that it was probably the last he would see of his former uncle.
"Who was it that Fudge kept looking back to?"
It was Saturday evening and after a tiring day long channelling lesson Harry was now attending an order meeting to discuss the events of that week. So far all the debate had revolved around the possible effects of Dumbledore's removal as Supreme Mugwump, the head of the Wizengamot. However, unlike Lucius Malfoy, Dumbledore had managed to keep his position on the Ministry's supreme lawmaking body. Yet, despite all the debate nothing that could even remotely help get rid of Fudge had been discussed. That was why Harry intervened to change the topic.
"Julius Lacetter," Dumbledore replied, "I assume he must have taken over Lucius Malfoy's role as Fudge's primary advisor."
"That's right," John Corey, Fudge's deputy, continued, "As much as I disliked Lucius, having Julius in that position is worse. With Lucius backing him, Julius stood no chance of winning a majority of the wizengamot. Without Lucius's numerous enemies and dubious record, he should be able to win enough backers given time."
"Do you think he'll win round the Nott faction?" Dumbledore asked. Harry had rarely heard Dumbledore so concerned. Although, Harry wondered why, it had been Nott, a prominent critic of Dumbledore, who had abstained during the wizengamot vote that had narrowly cleared the headmaster.
"No, Jacob is well aware of You-Know-Who's return and would never allow a death eater to be elected," Corey responded politely, "I think he wants Hamworthy to be Fudge's eventual successor, but would be willing to back a Stop Julius candidate."
"Hamworthy would make a decent enough minister," Dumbledore continued to general agreement. Only Harry's grandfather seemed to disagree with Dumbledore's assessment of the Daily Prophet owner, "Can't you persuade him to break his agreement with the death eater faction and stand himself?"
"I spoke to him about that yesterday actually and he told me that he wouldn't even consider it whilst Cornelius still supports Julius and Lucius."
"Can't we use Lucius's arrest against Fudge?" Harry's grandfather interjected, causing Harry's to perk up and think that it was about time someone came up with a workable plan to get rid of the minister. "If we can dig up a few examples of either him or Fudge abusing his power then we should be able to win enough ministry loyalists enough to get rid of Fudge. It's how we got rid of Harrison after all. I've even got a letter we could use to get Lacetter's father arrested on death eater charges."
"That should be possible, we wouldn't be able to publish what we find though, Hamworthy wouldn't allow it." Corey replied, before Dumbledore too backed the idea. The vote held on the idea turned out to be unanimous and the rest of the meeting was spent trying to work out the details.
Consequently, by the time Lucius Malfoy's case had gone to trial three weeks later, various abuses of power perpetrated by the blond death eater had come to light and been published in the Daily Prophet. The Prophet, however, had refused to publish bribery allegations surrounding Fudge nor had they suggested that the allegations were linked in anyway to the minister. The order knew the details, for they had uncovered them and had passed them onto Madam Bones, who incorruptibly fair head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, thereby guaranteeing that the allegations would be raised at Malfoy's trial, just in time for the next week's wizengamot meeting.
When it came to "the Malfoy case," as the Daily Prophet called it, Harry's primary concerns were not political but personal. He had been the one effectively responsible for Lucius's arrest a fact that had gone unnoticed by the press and the ministry, who had asked for him to testify at Lucius' trial. It hadn't gone unnoticed by Draco either, leading the blond to avoid Harry as much as possible until Sam mysteriously called Harry to his office just before potions a week and a half after Lucius's arrest without given any particular reason. Consequently, it wasn't until he actually arrived at his uncle's office and saw that Draco was there too, that he realised the reason for the summons. Draco didn't look at all pleased to see him, glaring at Harry as he entered, before shooting a look of betrayal at his uncle.
"If you want me to apologise for getting your father arrested, you're out of luck," Harry said, ignoring Sam and his attempts to calm Draco, "He interfered in my affairs and he paid the price. It's his own damn fault for trying to cover up the mistakes of that incompetent moron of a minister."
"Good and I don't want your pity either," Draco replied harshly. "All I want is revenge and now is as good a time as any time to get it." Harry had barely enough time to react, before Draco whipped out his wand and sent a vicious pain curse Harry's way. It only lasted for a few seconds, before Draco lifted it and responded with another dark spell that Harry was able to block. The duel that Draco had begun continued in this vein for a few minutes, with Draco sending quick bursts of nasty curses and Harry blocking them and only occasionally able to counterattack with spells of his own, generally responding with the same spells he was blocking.
It didn't go unnoticed by Harry that, Draco wasn't using spells that couldn't be blocked and that he wasn't using any spells whose effects couldn't be reversed there and then. It seemed that Draco wasn't making much of an effort to defeat Harry, that didn't stop him trying though. He waited patiently for an opening, before taking the initiative for himself, sending off several powerful spells in quick succession, whilst dodging the cutting hex that Draco fired off in return. That they were all a stronger variation of a pain curse he had learnt from Slinker in the previous dark arts class was deliberate. The plan worked though, the last of the curses broke through Draco's shield, catching him off guard and prevented from renewing shield as he tried to combat the intense pain he was under, given Harry just enough time to fire a stunner off and end the fight.
He didn't wait around though, staying only to say, "You can't beat me Draco. I'm far stronger than I was a few weeks ago, soon I'll be out of your league." His piece said he walked across the hallway to potions, during which the conversation continued.
It was Draco who spoke first, midway through the lesson. "I'm not an idiot, Potter. I know how the world works. I know why you had my father arrested and I would have done the same thing if I were in your position, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or you for doing it."
"Then why were you ignoring me?" Harry retorted, with what was a fairly stupid question. He still wanted Draco to give an answer, because it would give a good indication of the state of their friendship.
Draco detected the hidden reason behind the question of course and answered that rather than had what been asked, "I wasn't thinking straight, because I was angry with you. It's stupid really as I knew this would happen eventually, given who you are. It would be nice if things were different."
Harry smirked, "They could be. All you need to do is join the winning side, with your father in prison there's no-one stopping you." He'd chosen his words carefully, throwing in a phrase that Draco often used to describe the death eaters, to describe himself and the Order.
"You really think you can beat the dark lord then?" Draco asked, sounding somewhat surprised.
"Not yet, but I should be able to his equal by the end of the year, what with all the training I'm doing." Harry replied, "It's a miracle that I have any free time." In truth he'd been rushing homework and skipping sleep to create the said free time, because in between quidditch practice and his classes with Slinker, the only time he truly had to himself was on Monday evenings. After that the conversation turned to other things, with nothing more being said on the subject.
However once the lesson was over Hermione confronted Harry about what he had said, taking him completely by surprise.
"Do you mean what you said about defeating you-know-who?" she asked, dragging Harry into a deserted classroom where they wouldn't be overheard
"Yes," Harry replied guardedly, "Not that you would approve of what I'm learning."
"Does Dumbledore know that you're learning the dark arts?" Hermione replied suspiciously. Harry was not surprised by the jump in logic or the directness of the question.
"Yes." There was a short pause as Hermione waited for a further answer, which didn't come.
"Why are you friends with Malfoy?"
Harry grinned wryly, he'd been expecting Hermione to ask him this for a while, "Same reason why I'm friends with Ron," he replied, "We have a lot in common, despite his prejudices and misguided allegiances." She asked another question after that, something about prejudices. Not that Harry was listening, as he was already halfway through the door, when she asked it. If he'd stayed he was sure they could have come to some sort of understanding that would have partially resurrected their friendship. He didn't bother staying though as he wasn't interested in being friends with someone that didn't trust him.
Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter 24. 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.