Chapter Eighteen

The door to the courtroom was opened and the two prisoners led in. Two empty chairs stood in the very centre of the room, high backed and with chains attached to the arms.

Remus and Sirius were each shoved into a chair and - as soon as they were seated - the chains came to life, snaking up their arms of their own accord and holding them tight in place.

Remus glanced fearfully around the room - seeing all the hundreds of witches and wizards seated on the benches, staring down at him. He could sense the anger, the hatred, the fear and disgust … as well as the curiosity, the gleeful anticipation of what was to come. He swallowed hard and tried to stare back out at them, tried to pretend he was not afraid, was not ashamed … He wondered if his father was somewhere out in that crowd - and again his eyes darted all around as he tried to locate him, to see if there was at least one friendly face among the masses.

He knew - no matter what the paper said - that Lyall would not have turned against him, that he would have refused to believe everything that was written. If Sirius' mother was out there, then she was there to prove just how much she hated her son - but if Mr. Lupin had come, he had come to support Remus.

...

The toad-like witch from earlier stared down at him from the high, judge's bench - a look of disappointment in her eyes. 'The beast has been given clothes,' he heard her complain. 'When did this happen?'

There was further murmuring - and a lot of shrugging - as nobody claimed to know. And Remus felt another sudden rush of gratitude towards Kingsley. Those lingering eyes staring down at him would be so much more cruel if he had been forced to appear before them all barely clothed.

...

And then he became aware of being stared at from close by; of eyes boring into him from the side. He turned his head and saw Sirius staring at him, he had not bothered to even so much as glance around the courtroom - he only had eyes for Remus. When he saw Remus looking back at him, he opened his mouth to speak. 'Moony, I'm -'

'I know, Padfoot, old friend,' he cut him off. 'This isn't your fault.' He gave Sirius a small smile.

And despite the dire seriousness of their situations, Sirius' whole face lit up - and he smiled back, wide and bright. 'Do you forgive me?'

'There's nothing to forgive.' And he found he meant it. Though he had been so angry - so hurt - just this morning. But that was a lifetime ago - belonging to a different world; a world where they were free men and had the rest of their lives to fall out, be angry with each other and then make up again.

That world was gone now - and all they had left was this. These may be the very last few moments that they ever saw each other, that they would ever spend together. Remus was not going to spend them being angry. If this was the very last he would ever see of Sirius, then he was going to savour it; keep it inside of himself as something secret and special for the rest of his days … no matter how few they were.

He stared into Sirius' eyes, felt his own face crease into a happier smile … felt his skin flush. It reminded him of last night; of gentle kisses and more hungry ones, of fingertips stroking bare skin and pleasure he had never believed possible.

'I love you,' Sirius said to him.

'I love you'... And it felt like a patronus had been cast between him and Sirius and the rest of the court - so all the hatred and anger died away, blocked from them by an invisible barrier and they were sheltered by the glowing warmth of comfort and love.

He had spent all day fearing this moment - and yet Sirius had managed to make it the happiest part of his day so far. 'Whatever happens, nothing will change that,' he said softly.

...

Outside of the cocoon of their love, he heard the gavel bang down - distant and echoey. 'The court will come to order,' the squat, toad like witch said.

Remus and Sirius did not stop looking at each other.

The gavel banged again. 'Sirius Black, Remus Lupin - you are both charged with being Death Eaters, committing crimes against the wizarding community and kidnapping Harry Potter. Further to that, Sirius Black is charged with conspiring to kill James and Lily Potter - Black, how do you plead?'

Finally Sirius turned his head, looking out into the courtroom. His head was raised proudly and his voice didn't waver as he answered. 'Not guilty,' he said.

There was instant uproar in the courtroom, chaos and pandemonium as the spectators howled in outrage, banging their fists on the benches and stamping their feet.

But Sirius had already turned away and was looking at Remus again. 'We will get out of this,' he said under the din.

'No we won't … but it doesn't really matter any more.'


As Umbridge banged her gavel on her bench, whacking it against the wood in order to try and restore order, Dumbledore gazed sadly down at the two men chained to their chairs - gazing at nothing but each other. So … they must have confessed their feelings for each other at some point after all. They had - right now - what he had so desperately wanted with Gellert … and even now, as their world crumbled around their ears, it was all that mattered to them.

Yes - love was the greatest form of magic. And the most powerful. He could see that plainly on their faces. But it was also the most terrible … that something that could make these two men look at each other with such softness, look at one another as if nothing else in the world mattered, could also lead them to do such evil.

Well - he should know, after all. Surely no one understood what was possible better than he. But still - seeing it there, plain as day … it made the pain he had felt all those years ago in Godric's Hollow feel as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.

Some things never changed. And love was always so consistently wonderful and terrible.


Once quiet reigned again, Umbridge spoke once more - this time to Remus. 'Werewolf,' she said, 'I - am - told - you - speak - English - quite - well.' She enunciated her words very clearly and slowly, as if speaking to someone foreign, or deaf … or stupid.

The crowd in the court all tittered.

Remus felt himself flush. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sirius struggle to lean forward in his chains. 'Piss off, Toad Face, ' Sirius yelled.

There was uproar again. The gavel banged even louder - and Umbridge herself was now bright pink, flaming with anger and humiliation. 'Gag him!' She yelled at the aurors standing guard.

...

Kingsley stepped forward and conjured a gag, tying it on to Sirius. 'You're not helping him, ' he hissed again.

...

Once Sirius was gagged and the court was quiet - Umbridge spoke again. She still kept her voice deliberately slow. 'Werewolf - how - do - you - plead?'

But before Remus could answer, Dumbledore had got to his feet. 'Dolores, members of the wizengamot,' he looked around at his fellow council members. 'I can vouch for the fact that Remus Lupin is a bright and able wizard, he is fully qualified and was - in his time - a prefect at Hogwarts. His powers of understanding are not in any way impaired by his condition and the continued pretence that they are demeans the dignity of this court.'

Umbridge glowered down at him. 'Hem hem,' she coughed. 'It's so silly of me, Albus, but it sounded then like you were questioning my authority to run this court as I see fit.'

'Not at all, Dolores,' Dumbledore said, bowing his head most courteously. 'But we are anxious to proceed, these are grave matters - troubled times - and nothing is to be gained from stringing this whole thing out. Remus Lupin understands you just as well as I do, you can speak as fluently to him as you would to me - to do otherwise just wastes your time and the time of the court.'

'One can never be too sure with halfbreeds,' she bristled.

'Forgive me, Dolores, but I was his teacher - I am sure. He is already facing charges quite serious enough on their own, he does not have to stand trial for simply being a werewolf. Happily we have not yet made suffering from that sorry condition a crime, quite yet.'

'Your input will be duly noted, Albus - thank you,' … though she did not sound grateful in the least. She turned back to the prisoners. 'So - werewolf - how do you plead?' Although she was no longer enunciating as she had done before, she still did not speak to him in the same way as she had to Sirius. She still did not speak to him like she was talking to a fellow human being.

...

Remus felt himself flush again. 'Not guilty,' he said - trying to sound as defiant as Sirius had, trying to hold his head just as proudly high.

There was less kerfuffle this time - it was expected - and they had been through so much excitement in such a short space of time that the onlookers were quite ready for whatever would come next.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other again - and once more felt the hatred of the courtroom grow distant, the comfort of each other surging over them - rushing in like the tide - like nothing but them and their love for each other mattered. Remus smiled. Struggling against his chains, Sirius gave him a thumbs up.

...

'Well,' Umbridge said, she was smiling again - her horrid, froggy, gloating smile - 'your inability to admit what you have done will be duly noted in the court records.'

Down on the press bench, Rita Skeeter was scribbling away - getting everything down as fast as she could.

...

'Now - the court will call Albus Dumbledore as its first witness, Albus - if you please…'

Once again, Dumbledore got to his feet. 'I Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore do solemnly swear …'

That I'm up to no good Remus thought. He caught Sirius' eye and knew he had thought the same thing.

'...to speak the truth as I see it to be.'

Umbridge nodded her head. 'I believe you have evidence pertaining to the murder of the Potters?'

'Yes - it is my sad duty to tell the court that, in the late summer, James and Lily Potter performed the Fidelius Charm in order to go into hiding from the Dark Lord. They knew themselves to be in danger and I informed them this was their best method of protection.'

He cleared his throat, 'as many of you will be aware, The Fidelius Charm is a complex bit of magic in which a secret is stored inside a living being. Anyone not privy to the secret cannot know it unless it is divulged to them by the secret keeper - and no one else. In this matter, the secret was the whereabouts of James' and Lily's home. After the spell was performed, the only way the Dark Lord could find the Potters is if the secret keeper himself chose to tell him. I offered to be secret keeper myself but James Potter informed me that he intended to use none other than Sirius Black.'

An excited murmur ran around the crowd.

'So you testify that Black was the Potters' secret keeper - and that therefore only he could have passed the information on the Potters' location to You Know Who?'

'That is correct.'

...

Sirius began to yell - but he was muffled by his gag, his words incomprehensible - and so Remus began to speak for him. 'Dumbledore, you're wrong!' he called out. 'They switched at the last minute. Sirius is innocent - the real secret keeper was -'

' Silencio' Umbridge screamed at him, flicking her stubby little wand in his direction. He opened his mouth to yell Peter's name … but no sound came out - and the whole crowd roared with laughter at the sight of the beast struck dumb.

He flushed again, felt tears stinging in his eyes and - unable to face the court any longer - turned back to Sirius, feeling once again that sensation of the whole world falling away and himself shielded from it when he looked only at Sirius.

...

Umbridge waited until the laughter had stopped. 'And what of the beast?' She asked Dumbledore. 'What did he know of all this - is there proof he too was in the employ of You Know Who?'

Dumbledore's lips went thin and white … as if he didn't approve of what Umbridge had just said to him. But he still answered her question. 'The only evidence I know of that Remus Lupin was involved, is that he ran when Sirius did. And that they were, this day, found together.'

Once again, he looked sadly at the two men chained to their chairs. 'I fear that the circumstances speak for themselves. We know the spy had been passing information along to the Dark Lord for over a year before the Potters were killed. I find it very difficult to believe that in that time Black did not reveal himself to Lupin - or that Lupin would have agreed to flee with Black if they had not been in on it together.'

'Thank you - I call our second witness. Severus Snape.'

...

Over on the witness bench, Severus got to his feet and bowed his head to the court. He shot a look at Sirius, chained and gagged, and Sirius saw a gleam of total victory in the other man's eyes. Whatever had already happened, Snape was about to make things ten times worse.

'Professor Snape - you are the potions master at Hogwarts, is that correct?'

'I work under Professor Slughorn, yes.'

'And yet …' Umbridge gave her high pitched girlish laugh. Sirius kicked his own chair with disgust, striking it with his heels to convey his anger at … just how irritating she was. 'And yet,' her voice rose to cover the sound of his kicking, 'you seem to have dropped your classes in order to hunt down these two traitors. Can you explain why?'

'I was at school with Black and Lupin - I knew them as few others did … for in my fifth year they were responsible for an attempt on my life. An attempt which - regrettably - the school saw fit to cover up…'

...

An excited buzzing broke out among the crowd. They had, of course, all heard brave Peter Pettigrew tell this story on the WWN not that long ago. But the identity of the victim had been kept a secret - and now here he was, testifying in public against the traitors who had been murderers since they were only boys.

...

When it was quiet once more, Severus took up his tale again. 'After the death of … the Potters, and the flight of the traitors, Dumbledore charged me with tracking them down - as the one who had seen what they were long before anyone else had. He believed I knew how their minds worked, you see.'

He looked across at the two prisoners again - and they glared back at him, scowling in the face of his gloating.

'And clearly that was the case,' Umbridge said, 'as you succeeded before our Ministry aurors even had the slightest inkling where to look. How did you come to find them?'

'I knew the wolf had always taken the paper, every day when we were at school. I enquired at the Daily Prophet which bird sent to him … though as it turned out they had no record of delivering to him recently.'

'Why is that?'

'He changed the name they delivered to. As far back as 1976 - he started having the paper delivered to a pseudonym: "Moony". I believe a reference to his … condition.' He managed to make the way he said "condition" sound like Remus was contaminated with a terrible disease … was dirty.

Sirius began to yell behind his gag again.

'Perhaps I'm being foolish?' Umbridge asked in her girlish, breathy voice. 'But why would he do that?'

'I do not claim to be an expert in fathoming the way the mind of a werewolf works,' Severus told her, 'but I believe this is simply further evidence that their treachery dates back to their time at school. He knew - as far back as five years ago - that one day he may well have to hide, and so sought to make himself more difficult to trace. It would have worked too, had Black not been a sentimental fool. He kept a photo of the pair of them by his bedside - had written on the back of it, calling the wolf "Moony" - that was how I knew what name to trace.'

'And tell us about how you found them.'

...

Rita Skeeter leaned forward, her quill poised.

...

Severus hesitated. 'It was early in the morning. They had just woken up … were not yet dressed. I caught them … unawares.' He looked back across at the two men - both had flushed bright red, and then looked at each other… Even from a distance it was clear to see the embarrassment melting into a look of longing as they remembered the night before.

'Was there any evidence they were in hiding? Trying to flee from their crimes?'

'Beyond that they had left the country and were living under assumed names? There were … enchantments. Protection spells around the house. I triggered them when I landed. But - as I said - it was early, and they were not yet even clothed. I was able to get the jump on them.'

'Thank you - no further questions. My third witness - Alastor Moody.'

...

Moody got to his feet.

'It was you who retrieved the Potter boy?'

'That is correct.'

'And he was at the house with the two prisoners?'

'Yes - asleep upstairs in one of the bedrooms.'

'Thank you.'

Moody nodded his head and sat back down. Umbridge took out a piece of parchment. 'And I have written testimony here from one Rubeus Hagrid, though …' she gave a tinkly laugh, 'I can barely read the scrawl. But I am informed by those who speak giant…'

Dumbledore's lips had gone very thin again.

'...That this says Mr. Hagrid arrived at Godric's Hollow on the night of the Potters' death to find Lily and James Potter dead, Harry gone and Sirius Black's flying motorbike lying abandoned on the ground outside the house.' She looked up, 'is a flying motorbike not against the law?… We'll have to check with Arthur Weasley about that… So...'

She put the parchment down and turned to the wizards on the benches behind her. 'Wizards and witches of the wizengamot - you have now heard all the evidence against Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. How say you? Those who find the defendants guilty - raise your hands.'

...

There was a rustling of robes - and all hands on the council benches were raised in the air. After a moment, Dumbledore raised his own, sadly … He was the only one who looked the two chained men in the eyes as he passed judgement on them.

Umbridge's eyes gleamed - and she made a little sniffy 'hmp hmm' noise in triumph. 'Very well,' she said, 'we'll not bother to ask if any find them not guilty.'

There was laughter from the crowd.

'So - For the crimes he is found guilty of - who votes for life in Azkaban for Sirius Black?'

...

Again all the hands were raised. Again Dumbledore was the last to do so - and again the only one to look at Sirius as he did.

Sirius was now pale beneath his gag - looking like he didn't quite believe this was happening, like he had truly thought something would happen to save them. There would be some last minute reprieve - that the truth would out.

Despite knowing worse was in store for himself, Remus felt a sharp stab of pity for Sirius - he was so painfully naive.

He looked at Dumbledore - and saw the sadness in the old man's eyes. Everyone else may be gloating at their downfall … but Dumbledore still remembered enough of who they had once been to feel pity and sorrow at where they had ended up. It was just a shame he didn't remember enough of who they had once been to realise that none of this could possibly be true...

...

Up on the judge's bench, Umbridge was now eyeing up Remus. She was all puffed up - swelled to almost double her normal size and practically glowing with delight. 'And now for the beast,' she said. 'For the crimes he is found guilty of - who votes in favour of the execution of Remus Lupin, the half breed, at the next full moon?'

But before hands could be raised, Dumbledore was back on his feet. 'Dolores - I must protest. The two men were charged with equal crimes and found equally guilty. Sirius Black has even been found guilty on an additional charge. It is only fair that they receive equal sentences.'

Umbridge's eyes flashed dangerously. 'They may have been found equally guilty, Albus,' she said - and though her voice was still high it did not sound at all fluting or girlish now - it was as hard as flints. 'But they are - in fact - not equals. Sirius Black may be a traitor and a Death Eater and a murderer, but he is also a human. A pure blood, no less, the heir of an ancient and noble wizarding household. The half breed - on the other hand is not only the son of a muggle - but is not even human. It is a wolf - an animal - and it needs to be put down as one.'

Dumbledore shook his head. 'Look at him,' he turned to the whole court and spoke to them entreatingly. 'All of you - look at him. Does he look like an animal? Does he look like a beast? I do not claim that he does not deserve severe punishment - but life in Azkaban, with the dementors, surely that is punishment enough for any crime?'

'Very well,' Umbridge said, 'we shall vote. Members of the wizengamot in favour of the creature receiving life in Azkaban - raise your hands.'

...

Dumbledore immediately raised his hand. He stared around at his fellow members … and reluctantly Barty Crouch and Madam Bones raised theirs as well. Cornelius Fudge fidgeted and refused to meet his eye. Everyone else stayed perfectly still.

Umbridge made another pleased little 'hmp hmm,' noise - and, looking like she was about to explode with satisfaction, said: 'those in favour of executing the werewolf raise their hands.'

Her own hand shot in the air and - with a rustle of robes - everyone else followed suit.

...

Sirius began to scream behind his gag - writhing in his chair to try and free himself and yelling at the court … though they could not understand him with his mouth bound up.

Umbridge spoke over him. 'Sirius Black you are hereby sentenced to life in Azkaban - you will be taken from this place and will remain in prison until the day you die... Remus. Lupin. Hmp hmm ... You are hereby sentenced …. To death. You will be taken from this place to Azkaban where you will remain until the next full moon and on that night you will be disposed of as the Dangerous Beast you are.'

Her gavel came down as uproar broke out in the court. 'Take them away.'

...

Sirius was still struggling. As the aurors converged on him and the chains of the chair fell away, he yanked the gag from his mouth and started yelling in earnest. 'You hideous old hag! You wicked toad! You can't do this - you can't do this, you hear me?' He tussled with his captors and managed to break free just far enough to get a clear shot at Umbridge.

He hocked back and spat in her face - with as much gusto as he could muster.

She shrieked - and yelled 'take him away!' as she wiped dripping phlegm from her eyes.

...

But he was still yelling, now turning to Dumbledore. Dumbledore was on his feet - watching them both be taken - his face both thunderous and heartbroken at the same time.

'Dumbledore! Dumbledore! You can't let them do this!' Sirius yelled. 'Not to Remus - please! Don't let them. Remus didn't know anything - please! He only followed me because I asked him to!'

Dumbledore's eyes were hard - but pained at the same time, and when he spoke his voice was the same. 'Then how I wish you had not asked him to…'

...

And with Sirius still kicking and yelling and fighting the whole way, the two prisoners were dragged from the courtroom and the door slammed closed behind them.