Author's Note: It has not escaped my attention that y'all enjoy Sirius' appearances in this series. Well, enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Warnings: NA
Fair Trials
Remus sat in the stands, his fingernails digging into his thigh as he waited. Next to him, Harry's leg bounced up and down. Somehow, the fact that Harry was even more nervous than he was helped to ground Remus at that moment.
"It will be fine," Remus said softly. "This is the first step in undoing years of corruption, misconduct, and mistakes."
"That's what makes it so scary," Harry told him. A cut on his cheek that he'd racked up during the Battle of Hogwarts was still ugly and red.
"Sirius will tell the truth," Remus said. "So will you, as will I, and all the other witnesses will do their parts too. The Wizengamot will hear sense."
"They didn't last time," Harry said anxiously.
"Last time, Sirius' right to a trial was violated," Remus said. Anger still bubbled in his chest at the thought, as did guilt—for his old decision to slink into the shadows instead of fighting tooth and nail for fundamental rights. It had seemed so obvious at the time.
But it hadn't been. And they were going to fix it. Then, Sirius would be a free man again—not confined to hiding places he hated, not forced to live as a dog, under no obligation or requirement to hide from the world.
Remus took a deep breath. There was going to be a lot of rebuilding to be done, and this was effectively the first trial the Wizarding World had seen since Voldemort's fall. But it had seemed like a good place to start—an important place to start. How could they straighten out current wrongs if they themselves rested on a crooked and broken past? Besides; it was important for Sirius to get his trial date before the Death Eater trials began. Those would be long, and Remus wasn't sure how much longer Sirius could wait before bursting at the seams.
Besides. They'd made him go back to Azkaban to await his trial. Not even Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic, could contradict the Wizengamot on this. He could only rage—and rage he had. More than that, he had arranged for the Wizarding world's best lawyer, Teresa Schmitt, trained by Amelia Bones herself, to represent Sirius. They were ready to have Sirius back, and back for real this time.
"This has to go right," Harry whispered.
"It will," Remus promised him, putting a hand on his arm. "It will."
He had to believe that.
Dora had told him so that morning, holding his face between her hands as she said goodbye, heading off to work early. She'd said the same thing every time she returned from a shift at Azkaban, always sneaking Sirius a copy of the paper or a smile or whatever else she could manage.
"Order in the court," the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, a man named Lius Thornwick who had been forced to flee Britain under Voldemort's reign, clambered. Arthur liked Thornwick, which helped to assuage Remus' nerves.
He repeated this fact to Harry who nodded along as the doors opened and Sirius emerged into the courtroom, wearing plain black robes and framed by four armed Aurors—Dora included. She'd turned her hair a shade of lavender that Sirius particularly liked, which was quite kind of her. Remus couldn't help but think that the Aurors were being gentle as they magically bound Sirius to the chair in the center of the room.
Sirius himself looked pale, gaunt, tired—everything that someone who had been in Azkaban for two weeks would look. More anger boiled in Remus' stomach at the thought of his best friend going back to that place. He couldn't even begin to imagine what additional damage this may have done, how much more hurt Sirius was now…
He took a deep breath.
Harry looked at him with concern, and Remus shot back what he hoped to be an encouraging smile. They turned back and watched the court proceedings, the ceremonial opening, the introduction of the jury and the defense and the prosecution, the swearing in of the lot of them…
"Will the Defense please proceed to introduce their line of witnesses for today?" Thornwick asked.
Schmitt rose from her spot and cleared her throat before speaking in Sirius' name.
"None, your Honour," she said.
Remus and Harry turned to look at each other with panic.
"My client has opted not to put any of his acquaintances through testimony or force them under the public eye," Schmitt said.
"No," Harry whispered next to him. He looked at Remus, alarm filling his eyes. "He did that for me—this place is crawling with press and…"
"Shh," Remus said, squeezing his arm.
Shmitt went on. "Mr Black wishes to speak for himself."
"Very well," Thornwick said, after hesitating for a moment. "In which case, may the Prosecution…"
"Your Honour," Schmitt said again, recapturing the room's attention. All eyes and ears pivoted to her and she paused for a beat, ensuring she was the sole focus of the room, before elaborating. "Mr Black wishes to speak for himself under the influence of Veritaserum to cement the authenticity of his testimony."
The room whispered and hummed and awed appropriately.
"Can he do that?" Harry asked Remus.
"Unclear," Remus said, eyes fixed on Thornwick who was studying the young lawyer before him.
"The Treaty on Appropriate Potion Usage in the Justice System of 1874 prohibits the use of Veritaserum in the courtroom," Thornwick said.
"To be precise, your Honour, the treaty reads that 'Veritaserum will not be used to force a statement out of a witness or defendant to respect their bodily autonomy,'" Shmitt recited. "Mr Black, however, is willingly submitting to the potion and its intended effect."
Thornwick paused for a moment.
Remus' breath was caught in his throat.
If this went through… if this was allowed… The jury would be absolutely unable to deny or denigrate anything Sirius said, no matter how extraordinary or unbelievable it sounded, no matter what kind of corruption it showed on the Ministry's end, no matter…
"Mr Black, is your lawyer representing your thoughts on the matter accurately?" Thornwick asked.
"Yes, your Honour," Sirius said, his voice hoarse. His hair was tied up in a low bun and there were rings under his eyes.
"In which case, I will allow it," Thornwick said.
Remus couldn't help but laugh. Sirius looked up to him and smiled before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Remus turned to Harry with a wide grin.
Shmitt had, of course, anticipated that this request would work and had Veritaserum on standby, ready to be brought into the courtroom. A Ministry official confirmed the authenticity of the potion before Sirius drank it, down to the last drop, and told his tale.
They listened to Sirius' story, the one they'd heard hundreds of times before. He spoke of meeting James and Remus and Peter at Hogwarts, spoke of their long journey to become Animagi, explained why they wanted to do it… He talked about joining the Order, about Harry being born, the Prophecy, the Fidelius Charm, that night at Godric's Hollow.
"I…" Sirius' voice cracked. "I let him—I let Hagrid—take him away. I listened to Dumbledore and said goodbye to my godson that night, even if it felt like he was all I had left. And I thought about that for all the years to come because if I'd had him, if I'd had Harry, I would have stayed tethered. I would have gone home, found Remus, bought a crib, started looking at school districts, all these other things instead of going after Peter Pettigrew."
"But that's what you did then," Shmitt said gently, guiding Sirius through the story.
"Yes," Sirius said. "I wanted Lily and James to get their revenge."
They listened to him talk about finding Peter, their show-down, the finger, his immediate conviction on the scene, the way that Azkaban and his guilt had put him to sleep for twelve years. The way he talked about the conditions of Azkaban chilled Remus to the core. He'd heard and gathered things about Azkaban, of course, but Sirius had never spoken with so much eloquence and order.
He described seeing the picture of Scabbers and the Weasley family as waking up, spoke about how badly he'd needed to get to Harry. He told them how he'd turned into a dog—a thin, emaciated dog—and slipped out of his cell and swam to shore. He told them how he'd spent a full hour laying on the shore when he reached the mainland, exhausted, and how he'd immediately gone to find Harry.
Harry and Remus, of course, had been there for the rest. Sirius went on, describing that night in the Shrieking Shack and the subsequent years and years of hiding he had to go through.
"I turned myself in after the Battle of Hogwarts, when the Resisting Aurors broke free and came to arrest the Death Eaters, because I'd done nothing wrong," Sirius said. "And I wanted to tell my story, which isn't just my story, really. I wanted a fair trial. I want to be innocent."
The Chief Warlock convened a short recess.
Remus and Harry didn't move, didn't talk, barely breathed.
He returned with a statement, already written.
"I am distburbed," Thornwick said. "Disturbed by the world we have survived and disturbed even more by what we have heard today about a decision made in a time of peace and a decision made in supposed accordance with our laws. I am disturbed by the things I have heard today about our prisons. I am disturbed by the things I have heard today about our justice system. It seems to me that these two things are the ones that ought to be under scrutiny, not the person of Mr Black who had endured sufficient damages at the hands of the institution we represent; he ought, in my opinion, to be compensated for these immeasurable losses should this matter further remain in teh courts."
He paused and returned to his statement. "The use of Veritaserum in this courtroom leaves no reasonable doubt over the accuracy of Mr Sirius Orion Black's statement. As such, I recommend that the jury waste no time in finding Mr Black not guilty and restoring to him all the rights and freedoms of an innocent man."
With a gaps, Sirius slumped over in the chair, burying his face in his hands.
One by one, members of the Wizengamot murmured their versions of "not guilty" until the Chief Warlock slammed his hammer against his desk. The invisible bonds tying down Sirius must have at that moment dissolved, because Sirius fell to his knees.
Before Remus could even grab his arm, Harry bounced down the atrium and jumped over the railing into the courtroom to wrap his arms around Sirius.
And Remus couldn't help but follow.
For the first time since Voldemort fell, Remus didn't just believe that all would be well. He knew it would be.
Stacked with: MC4A
Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC (x3); Bow Before the Blacks; Order, Order; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Truth); Themes & Things B (Innocence); Themes & Things F (Honesty); True Colours; Short Jog
Word Count: 1828