Chapter 72
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Uncle Vernon sat in his armchair, cautiously flicking his gaze from his newspaper to Sirius Black by the fireplace. Aunt Petunia paced behind him, worry on her face as she watched Sirius begin to mutter incantations and leave strange looking symbols on the walls.
"Petunia, sit down. He's almost finished," Uncle Vernon said and took in all the walls around him also covered in the symbols. "I hope."
Sirius just ignored them both as Rebekah walked in from the kitchen.
"Dear girl, what are you wearing?" Aunt Petunia said, strutting over to cup Rebekah's jaw. "Do you think it's appropriate for a trial?"
The outfit in question was a strapless dress that barely brushed her knees. The dress was a lovely dark purple with a slight pink hue, and the ribbon that would lace up the back like a corset was a darker purple in colour. She decided on black heeled ankle boots.
"I'm bringing a cloak," Rebekah smiled softly at Aunt Petunia's concerned face before turning to Sirius. "Speaking of trials, we'll be late if we don't leave."
"Almost done…" Sirius said, placing his wand between his teeth as he lifted his hands up and made the runes on the walls glow and fade. "Done. Let's go."
"Have a good summer!" Dudley yelled from the kitchen. "Send some chocolate frogs please!"
"Before school starts, Rebekah," Uncle Vernon asked. "I can't imagine how they would react to jumping chocolate frogs. Have a good summer and write if you need anything. Preferably by Hedwig. And take the flying rodent with you. She stole my plum this morning."
Enyo hung from the metal of the ceiling lights, easily dropping to Rebekah's shoulder before going until she sat on her right bicep, wrapping herself around there to look like an armlet.
"You cheeky little thing," Rebekah cooed.
Sirius took his wand out properly, holding a hand for Rebekah to take. "Ready?"
Rebekah nodded and took his hand tightly. "Ready."
As Sirius began the proper protocol for Apparition, Rebekah thought to herself. Could she learn Apparition early or would she be forced to wait… and that she disliked Magical transportation in general as she felt like she was being pushed through a tight rubber tube.
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There was just enough room for both Sirius and Rebekah in the phonebox. As Sirius shoved the numbers into the slightly rusty pad of numbers, Rebekah realised something.
"The code is MAGIC?"
"Six, Two, Four, Four, Two. Huh," Sirius nodded. "I guess it is."
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business…"
"Sirius Black, escorting Rebekah Potter for a trial hearing." Sirius said to the air.
"Thank you," The woman's voice said as they heard a rattle and clink. "Please take the badges and attach it to the front of your robes."
They both took the silver badges, square in shape with their name and Trial Hearing on the front. They pinned them to the front of their tops, Sirius' on his suit's lapel and Rebekah on the left side of her dress.
The female voice spoke again. "Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."
The telephone box began to sink slowly into the ground. It turned dark as they descended but lit up with golden light again after a minute. Rebekah checked the time by pulling the pocket watch out of Sirius' suit, he hummed in amusement as she tucked it back in.
"Nervous?"
"Just a tad."
"You'll do fine," Sirius placed his hand on her head, messing up her hair. "When did you get your hair cut?"
"Yesterday," Rebekah said. "Aunt Petunia was getting her hair done and I thought I might as well get it cut down again. I only grew it out for the Yule Ball."
"And the colour?"
"Felt like a change."
Instead of the long dark hair she sported for most of her life, it was cut back done so it barely went past her chin. She had the roots kept as they were but as the colour reached the tips, it ombred into a brighter red, resulting in a black to deep red ombre. Rebekah was loving this new colour, the change brought out the green in her eyes even more.
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day."
"Let's hurry up," Sirius said as they got to Eric, the man who checked wands and had been threatened by Lucius Malfoy to be polite towards Rebekah. "We've got to go down to the Department of Mystery. Wizengamot will be in session for the trial."
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Rebekah realised that this was the same room the Lestranges were convicted and sentenced. Fifty Wizards and Witches sat up in the benches, Fudge, Madam Bones, and Umbridge sat nearest the middle of the benches and surrounded Dumbledore.
"State your name," Dumbledore asked, nodding to Percy near the side.
"Sirius Orion Black,"
"Rebekah Lilianeth Potter,"
"Please take a seat," He gestured to the side benches which were much lower than the ones at the front. Dumbledore waved a hand. "Bring in Mr Crouch Junior."
There were a few people already there, along with Moody, and a few others Rebekah didn't know. After a moment of looking around, she saw that Fleur Delacour was sitting with her father, Viktor Krum with both parents, and Cedric Diggory with his parents. To one dark corner, Snape sat alone.
Now that wasn't surprising.
The two took a seat on the middle row. Rebekah stiffied as the doors opened and two Dementors suddenly appeared, clasping their hands around the man's arms and dragged him in. Barty Crouch Junior struggled. The Dementors brought him to the chair and made him sit, the chains quickly securing him without any trouble.
"Retrial of a known Death Eater and escapee from Azkaban, Bartemius Crouch Junior," Dumbledore stated solemnly. "Interrogators: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Chief Warlock; Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley is to write down everything that is said verbally. Are we ready?"
At the confirmation of the group of purple clad Wixen, Dumbledore started. "Good. The charges against the accused is as followed: That he escaped from Azkaban fully knowing that he had a life sentence, that he deliberately kidnapped Alastor Moody after the latter accepted a teaching position at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, impersonating Mr Moody to gain access to the named school and to the tournament that was going to be held that year. That he placed an unwilling and under age student in a Magically binding tournament knowing that said student would have to participate. That he killed his father later that year. That he used an Unforgivable on Viktor Krum during said tournament to take him out as a candidate after making Mr Krum use another Unforgivable against Cedric Diggory in the same tournament. And that he made the TriWizard Cup a Portkey that would take the winner, Miss Rebekah Potter, out of the school's district so a resurrection ritual could be done.
"Are you Bartemius Crouch Junior?"
Trials were very boring and long.
Rebekah knew it would have been rude and very looked down upon if she took out a book and began to read it, so she straightened her back and tried to remember everything she had read. What did she want for her birthday? Sirius had asked and Rebekah didn't know yet. It was in a few weeks now, being the seventh of July now. She needed to replenish her notebooks and pens, maybe a few hard to get books? She had no idea what she wanted really. She could buy it if she truly needed it.
"Miss Potter, come to the stand," Dumbledore said clearly, ready to proceed with her part of the trial. "Please state your full name."
"Rebekah Lilianeth Potter," She stated, sitting down in a chair a few metres away from the captive Crouch Junior and both Dementors that loomed behind him.
"And address?"
"Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey."
"Good." Dumbledore nodded. "We have Mr Snape's statement here, and it states that you told him about Mr Crouch, posing as Alastor Moody, putting your name in the Goblet. How did you acquire that information?"
Rebekah straightened her back, hands placed comfortably on the arms of the chair. "At school, I am allowed to use a Ministry-issued Time Turner to attend all twelve of my chosen subjects. As soon as I found out that I was to participate in the Tournament, I went back as far as the Time Turner allowed and stayed in the hall where the Goblet was placed. I spent the hours in my Animagus form, using it to hide in the shadows before, after some time, I saw Mr Crouch posing as Moody put a slip of paper in after using a spell on the cup itself."
"Why did you not go to the headmaster straight away?" Fudge asked.
"As I know it, Mr Moody is a good friend of Headmaster Dumbledore. I didn't think my opinion as a student would be greatly appreciated if I were to accuse a teacher of putting my name in without evidence."
"And why did you go to Mr Snape and tell him?"
"Professor Snape is my Head of House and mentor in Potions which I take advanced classes for. Out of all teachers, he is the one I trust the most with such information." Rebekah saw some dissatisfied faces in the crowd but gave them no mind. Their opinion of Snape didn't matter.
"With regards to the Time Turner, after the trial, you will have to submit to an age check. Is that acceptable?" Madam Bones quickly said, quieting down when Rebekah nodded. "Do you think you will be continuing to use the Time Turner through your NEWT years?"
"I believe so," Rebekah nodded again. "I wish to do all of my subjects at NEWT levels if that is acceptable to my school. I think we're getting off topic though."
"Yes, yes, I believe we are." Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As previously stated by the other Champions of the TriWizard Tournament, Mr Couch, posing as Mr Moody, sabotaged the last task which was to get through a maze. Miss Delacour had stated that she was stunned, taking her out of the competition. Mr Krum, by his memory we have received, was Imperiused by Mr Crouch and was forced to use the Cruciatus Curse on Mr Cedric Diggory. Were there any instances where you knew that Mr Crouch used the Unforgivables whilst acting as Professor Moody?"
"Besides the lesson we spent on curses and seeing their effects, no."
"Can you elaborate on that?"
"We had a lesson with Professor Moody on curses. All of us were Fourth year Slytherins and Gryffindors," Rebekah shifted back in her seat until she could stretch up to sit better in it. "He had taken a spider and used the Imperius curse on it, making it do things. Then he used the Cruciatus Curse on it, making some of us quite distressed so we asked him to stop. He killed the spider in front of us before going on to saying that I was the only person to ever survive it, he said it with a strong sense of disgust. The lesson went on before we were to participate in having the Imperius Curse placed on us."
There was an outraged mumble across the benches, several people turning around with disgust at what she said.
"He said that we should know how it felt and how to shake it off," Rebekah said calmly. "He was annoyed that almost no one could shake the spell off."
"Almost no one?"
Rebekah sucked her teeth sheepishly. "My Animagus journey has caused me to have great self control, and so I didn't follow the orders at all."
Most of the jury looked surprised by this, others looked like they didn't expect any less from her. Some were sour with disgust from earlier.
"The statement and evidence via memory is noted and will be reviewed," Dumbledore said. "There will be recess for twenty minutes as we review all information gathered. Witnesses may go out for refreshments for those twenty minutes but please do not leave the building."
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Rebekah cracked her neck. She was stiff from sitting in that room for so long, and very much bored. They had been herded into a smaller room with a table of refreshments.
"'Ello, little girl," Fleur greeted her, going in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek as was the French way.
"Hello, blondie," Rebekah returned the hug as a Viktor and Cedric appeared behind her. "Hi, fellas. Did the Ministry also ask you to be witnesses?"
"Yeah," Cedric said. "They want to make sure that Crouch gets the Kiss this time."
"Ze Kiss?" Fleur asked. "What is zhat?"
"Dementor's Kiss. Sucks the soul out of the person and leaves a shell of the person left."
"Of course, you'd know," Cedric nudged Rebekah as they laughed when the two foreign students were confused. "The year before last, we had Dementors stationed at Hogwarts."
"Vhy vould they place Dementors at school?"
"Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban the summer before." Rebekah said. "They were concerned with my safety because they thought he was going to finish me off. We found out that it wasn't Sirius who betrayed my parents, it was Peter Pettigrew." She paused, turning to Fleur. "How's Gabrielle?"
"Doing well," Fleur smiled fondly. "She has begun to work hard. She really wants to become like you. I have started a part time job at Gringotts, to improve my English."
"I can tell. If I remember correctly, Bill Weasley works there now." Rebekah watched Fleur's face light up and pinken slightly. Rebekah was about to ask another question but the doors opened again and they were herded back into the main room.
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"Mr Bartemius Crouch Junior, the Wizengamot hereby convict you of all charges stated at the beginning of this trial, and the deliberate kidnapping of a teen to partake in a savage ritual." Madam Bones said, standing with her head held high. "We have also decided that, to reduce the chance of you escaping Azkaban again, Mr Bartemius Crouch Junior is sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. If witnesses want to leave, they may. Any last words, Mr Crouch?"
"Just a few!" He snapped, turning his gaze to where Rebekah and Sirius stayed seated. "You should have been killed at birth, Potter! You are a disgrace to the Potter name!"
"And you are a disgrace to the Wizard name," Rebekah almost snarled, feeling Sirius' hand on her shoulder. "You are not worthy of Magic! You will rot in the shell of your own body!"
Crouch began to struggle in the chair, having been silenced as the Dementors came closer to him.
Cedric, Fleur and Viktor had left the room, having been dismissed. Their parents followed quickly behind them, leaving before they witnessed what was about to happen. Snape, Moody, Rebekah and Sirius stayed seated.
The air chilled, making Crouch's breath misty as the Dementor neared. He struggled even more, screaming but no sound came out.
The last time Rebekah was near a Dementor was the end of her third year, but then she was surrounded by a hundred of them. She just watched the Crouch's features begin to sink, losing their livilness as the Dementor brought its unhooded face closer and closer to his. A glowing silver sphere began to appear from his mouth, wisps of silver becoming stronger and stronger around his face until the sphere was consumed.
Bartemius Crouch Junior slumped in the chair as the chains disappeared, letting the Dementors take him by the arms and drag him out.
Everyone released a hidden breath as the Dementors left.
"Onto the next bit of business." Dumbledore stated loudly before beginning to stare at her with something that looked like pity. "We have evidence that would suggest that Voldemort is back. Miss Potter, the stand is yours."
Rebekah took a calming breath in before beginning.
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It took two hours of speaking, several interruptions from Snape to confirm some of the things she said, and several shouts from some members of the jury that didn't believe her.
That was until she provided a memory that showed the resurrection of Voldemort and the ritual that resulted in him being back. Rebekah even went as far as lifting the hem of her dress to show the three scars on her thigh, thick and still sore. Snape had to come forward with his left sleeve undone, showing off the clear Dark Mark on his forearm.
Then they believed.
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