So, I am recovered from the irritation from last week, fresh for other ones but that is irrelevant toward fanfiction... For those who may be payingh attention, yes the chapter length is dipping a bit, but it will pick back up in the subsequent chapters to this one. I've noticed that the ones that hold truer to the more canon events tend to be shorter, as there is less that I felt (or feel) able to manipulate and therefore write or alter. not necessarily here or there, just an interesting thing that I noticed about myself in writing. ~F

Chapter Three

The Hearing

Hermione turned to the doorway when Harry, Ron and Will entered, joining herself, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George in the drawing room to start combating Doxys that were infesting the curtains.

"Cover your faces and take a spray," Mrs. Weasley said to the three boys the moment she saw them, pointing to three more bottles of black liquid standing on a spindle-legged table. "It's Doxycide. I've never seen an infestation this bad, whatthat house-elf's been doing for the last ten years…"

Hermione shot a small glare at Mrs. Weasley. It was obvious to her that Kreacher had lost his mind from being alone for so long, and therefore couldn't completely be held responsible for his actions.

Sirius came in at that moment, smiling as he saw Harry, carrying a bloody bag of what were, presumably, dead rats for Buckbeak. Then a loud, clanging bell sounded from downstairs, followed by the maddened screams of Mrs. Black's portrait.

"I keep telling them not to ring the doorbell!" said Sirius exasperatedly, hurrying right back out of the room. They heard him thundering down the stairs as Mrs. Black's screeches echoed up through the house once more: "Stains of dishonor, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth."

"Close the door, please, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley. Hermione watched as Harry lingered with the door slightly open to try and listen in on the conversations below. She also noticed that she wasn't the only one watching him.

Will Stanton, the very odd, quiet boy that Professor Snape had left here for the summer was also eyeing Harry with a somewhat sorrowful expression on his face. Mrs. Weasley finally looked up and Harry closed the door quickly, and came over to join them all with the Doxys.

"Right, you lot," said Mrs. Weasley as Harry joined them, "you need to be careful, as Doxys bite and their teeth are poisonous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it."

She straightened up, positioned herself squarely in front of the curtains and beckoned them all forward.

"When I say the word, start spraying immediately,' she said. They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the sprays one good squirt will paralyze them. When they're immobilized, just throw them in this bucket."

She stepped carefully out of their line of fire, and raised her own spray.

"All right, squirt!"

And so it began, Hermione, Ron and Harry clustered together to one side while battling the oncoming ranks of Doxys. "So," Harry said covertly as they sprayed and tossed the casualties into the ever filling bucket, "who's this Will person?"

"Not too sure mate…" Ron said, spraying a large Doxy right in the face, "He's really quiet, keeps to himself mostly. The most I've heard him talk was the night you got here, when he defended you and Sirius to Mum. He spends most of his free time in Sirius' library, unless Snape is here, then they're always talking quietly. The eye thing in the middle of the night still kinda strange though."

"What eye thing?" Hermione asked, and Harry and Ron recounted that Will slept literally with his eyes open. "Well," she said at last, "I do admit that a little odd, but you shouldn't make fun Ron, there could be perfectly reasonable explanation for it." She sneaked another glance at the boy, who was spraying between Mrs. Weasley and Ginny, looking really bored. "Besides, he's really nice, and he must be really smart too or Professor Snape wouldn't have taken him as an apprentice."

"Less talking more spraying," Mrs. Weasley called over.

After the curtains stopped writhing with hordes of angry Doxys, Mrs. Weasley went down to get them lunch. She apparently ran into Mundungus Fletcher along the way, as she started shouting like Mrs. Black, who joined in the din herself moments later. George went to close the door, but Kreacher sidled in, obviously looking for artifacts to save before they were thrown out.

"... smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my mistress's house, oh, my poor mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let into her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh, the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do..."

"Hello, Kreacher," said Fred very loudly, closing the door with a snap.

The house-elf froze in his tracks, stopped muttering, and gave a very pronounced and very unconvincing start of surprise.

"Kreacher did not see young master," he said, turning around and bowing to Fred. Still facing the carpet, he added, perfectly audibly, "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is."

"Sorry?" said George, "Didn't catch that last bit."

"Kreacher said nothing," said the elf, with a second bow to George, adding in a clear undertone, "and there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."

Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. The elf straightened up, eyeing them all malevolently, and apparently convinced that they could not hear him as he continued to mutter.

"...and there's the Mudblood, standing there bold as brass, oh, if my mistress knew, oh, how she'd cry, and the Old One with fire in his eyes, he knows too much… Oh! If my mistress knew that lords of the light would be in her house… oh, and there's a new boy, Kreacher doesn't know his name. What is he doing here? Kreacher doesn't know..."

"This is Harry, Kreacher," said Hermione tentatively. "Harry Potter."

Kreacher's pale eyes widened and he muttered faster and more furiously than ever.

"The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's mistress saw him in such company, oh, what would she say…"

"Don't call her a Mudblood!" said Ron and Ginny together, very angrily.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione whispered, "he's not in his right mind, he doesn't know what he's…"

"Don't kid yourself, Hermione, he knows exactly what he's saying," said Fred, eyeing Kreacher with great dislike.

Kreacher was still muttering, his eyes on Harry.

"Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's the boy who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how he did it…"

"Don't we all, Kreacher," said Fred.

"What do you want, anyway?" George asked.

Kreacher's huge eyes darted towards George.

"Kreacher is cleaning," he said evasively.

"A likely story," said Sirius as he entered.

Sirius quickly sent the elf on his way, muttering the whole way, then grinned back at them. He walked over the massive family tree of the far side of the room, and everyone followed. It read: 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Toujours pur''

Will looked fascinated by the names and dates dotting the tapestry, stretching far back into the Middle Ages, and Hermione saw him tracing the lines backward up the tree while Sirius and Harry talked about his closer relatives.

"Sirius?" Will asked finally, when there was a tiny lull in the conversation, "You said you were the last of the Blacks, correct?"

"Yes, I'm the last living male of the main Black line, fortunately." Sirius said, sounding relieved.

Will started murmuring to himself, tracing a line that led from one Narcissa Black to Lucius Malfoy, then down to Draco Malfoy. Only Hermione was paying enough attention to catch the words: "Last of a ragged House, long bereft of Lordship…"

Mrs. Weasley came back just then with a plate of sandwiches, which they all joined in eating, leaving Sirius and Harry by the tapestry, although Hermione caught Will staring wistfully at the pair of them from time to time, until Mrs. Weasley called them over also.

They all then started emptying the glass-fronted cabinets together for the afternoon. This cleaning went especially well, until Hermione saw that Will had stopped handing her things to toss into the sack.

Will?" she asked, but the boy was focused solely on the heavy-looking gold locket in his hand… a locket that looked extremely familiar to Hermione. She shrieked, slapping the locket away immediately and sending it skittering across the floor.

"Hermione, what?" Will said, glancing around at everyone staring at him, "What happened?"

"Just another dark artifact that tried to hypnotize you…" Sirius said, scooping the locket up and chucking it in the sack without a second glance. Hermione's hearth thundered, as that particular locket was the same one she had seen in her vision of Faykan two years previous.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Severus was on orders from Dumbledore to investigate the area where Harry had been attacked by dementors. He had thought it a far better task for Faykan than the 'cleaning' of the Headquarters, so he had quickly decided to bring the boy along. They apparated to the deserted alleyway and each started at opposite ends, wands out and lit, looking for any clues to force the Ministry into letting Harry off the hook.

They were about halfway through their search before Faykan found something. Hurrying over, Severus looked at the black dagger, lit in the boy's wandlight. "What is it?" Severus asked.

"It's a Morgul blade, the little known weapon that the dementors use to create more like themselves. Their deadliest weapon, more effective and therefore even worse than the kiss…"

Faykan removed a scrap of cloth from his trouser pocket and gently wrapped the cruel looking dagger in it, "Take this to Dumbledore, it will guarantee Harry's acquittal. And be careful. Do not touch it, or expose it to sunlight, else the metal will melt away into a poisonous fume."

Severus nodded, pocketing the cloth wrapped dagger while still wondering how the boy knew so much about these dark subjects, "How do you know these things?" he asked before realizing it.

"History," Faykan replied, "They're the same weapons the Nazgûl wielded. The stab wound on my chest was made by one such dagger, when I fought with the Grey King…"

The boy trailed off, Severus decided not to ask anything more, looking at the solemn expression of Faykan's face. Instead, he patted the boy's shoulder and together they apparated back to Grimmauld Place, before Severus continued on back to Hogwarts.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Harry tried to keep away from Will for the time he was at Grimmauld Place. The sight of the taller boy gave Harry the strangest feelings, and he was starting to get nervous whenever Will was near him.

Once, when they were passing on the landing in front of their room, Harry had unconsciously reached out and touched the boy's arm, only realizing it when the jolt in his stomach made him flush and drop his own. There were also several times when Harry, not paying attention to where he was going, had run straight into Will, colliding directly into the boy and almost sending them both crashing down the old staircase.

Will, thankfully, never mentioned the incidents, or the other times he caught Harry staring at him during meals or in their bedroom. Harry made certain to keep these unnerving feelings to himself, even keeping them from Ron or Hermione, as he didn't want their opinions on this particular matter.

At least there was one good thing that came out of all the obsessing about the mystery that was Will; he had completely pushed the hearing out of his mind. That is until Mrs. Weasley turned to him during dinner on Wednesday evening and said, "I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight, too. A good first impression can work wonders."

After asking how he was going to get there, Harry quickly finished his food, and headed up the stairs to get ready for bed. He was so consumed with dread about the trial that he almost didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming behind him as he walked to the bathroom across from his, Ron's and Will's room. The other person only caught up as Harry made to close the bathroom door, stopping it with a hand on the wood, "Harry?"

Harry turned, seeing Will's blue-grey eyes filled with unease staring back. "Can we talk for a minute?" he asked.

There was something about Will's eyes, something that was so familiar and comforting that Harry released the door and let Will inside before his brain processed that he wanted to avoid this person. Will closed the door, settling himself against the back of it, still watching Harry with concern etched into every line of his round face. "Are you alright, with the trial I mean?" Will asked softly.

"Yeah… I think so." Harry said, and the voice sounded rather distant, he was busy trying to place where he had seen Will before.

Thoughts swam through Harry's mind, and he had a difficult time focusing on Will as the boy continued to speak, "I don't think you are Harry, I think your scared, and if you want to… to talk about it, I'd be more the willing to listen."

Will walked the short distance to Harry and put his hands on Harry's shoulders. Harry's stomach did a tiny back flip, and his throat clenched, rendering him unable to speak even if he had wanted to. Will's face bored into Harry's mind, the cloudy blue eyes swimming in his mind and suddenly clearing and becoming deep and piercing. Harry gasped slightly. He couldn't see Will standing there, touching him anymore.

It was Faykan.

Without another thought, Harry launched himself into Faykan's arms, knocking the taller boy into the door with a loud slam. He had come back. Faykan had come back just for him!

Harry squeezed his best friend in a crushing hug, burying his head into the taller boy's chest, sobbing unintelligibly. Faykan drew him into an embrace, hands rubbing small, comforting circles along his back. After what felt like an eternity, Harry finally managed to push words through his choked up throat, "You came back…"

Faykan was silent for several more moments before responding.

"I'm sorry," was all he said.

Harry's vision immediately went blurry, and when he finally could see again, he was alone. Confused and somewhat distressed, Harry stood quickly, showered in a daze and crossed into the bedroom. Raging emotions still swirling around him, Harry pulled his pajamas on and crawled under the covers. That was when he remembered seeing the blue eyes of his dead friend reflected in the greyer eyes of Will. Looking to the farthest bed nervously, he saw that Will was fast asleep, facing the far wall as he always did. Embarrassment flooding through him, Harry fell asleep only from pure exhaustion, hoping against hope that it had been a strange, wonderful dream.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Albus calmly strode into the underground courtroom about six minutes late. The Minister had changed the time and place of the trial, presumable to trick Harry and himself from being able to show up and defend themselves.

"…Interrogators: 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…"

Albus cleared his throat as he strolled in, a look of calmness replacing his irritation at the cruelty of Cornelius as to subject Harry, or any child for that matter, to this kind of ridicule. "Witness for the Defense, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore," he said.

Harry spun in his chair so fast to look at him, that Albus heard the crick in his neck. Striding serenely across the room, Albus avoided looking at Harry and turned to Cornelius instead, looking at him with a note of condescension. His magic swept the room, felt all the way up to the entire Wizengamot, and they shifted unconsciously.

"Ah," said Cornelius, who looked thoroughly disconcerted. "Dumbledore… Yes... You… err… got our… err… message that the time and… err… place of the hearing had been changed, then?"

"I must have missed it," said Albus cheerfully even as he thought 'Liar...' "However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done."

"Yes… well… I suppose we'll need another chair… I… Weasley, could you…?"

"Not to worry, not to worry," said Albus pleasantly; he took out his wand, gave it a little flick, and a squashy chintz armchair appeared out of nowhere next to Harry. Albus sat down, put the tips of his long fingers together and surveyed Cornelius over them with an expression of polite interest. The Wizengamot was still muttering and fidgeting restlessly; only when Cornelius spoke again did they finally settle down.

"Yes," said Fudge again, shuffling his notes. "Well, then… So, the charges… Yes."

He extricated a piece of parchment from the pile before him, took a deep breath, and read out, "The charges against the accused are as follows: That he did knowingly, deliberately and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions, having received a previous written warning from the Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on the second of August at twenty-three minutes past nine, which constitutes an offence under Paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy."

"You are Harry James Potter, of number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?" Fudge said, glaring at Harry over the top of his parchment.

"Yes," Harry said.

Cornelius then proceeded to badger Harry, overriding his answers so that Harry could only affirm that he did what he did, with no time to state reasons why. When he mentioned Harry using the Patronus Charm, Amelia piped up in her booming voice,

"You produced a fully-fledged Patronus?"

"Yes," said Harry, "because…"

"A corporeal Patronus?" the very powerful witch asked.

"A… what?" Harry asked, confused.

"Your Patronus had a clearly defined form? I mean to say, it was more than vapour or smoke?" the woman clarified.

"Yes," said Harry, sounding both impatient and slightly desperate, "it's a stag, it's always a stag."

"Always?" boomed Amelia. "You have produced a Patronus before now?"

Harry nodded.

"Impressive," Amelia continued, staring down at Harry when he affirmed that he had cast the Charm before, "a true Patronus at his age... very impressive indeed."

Albus waited patiently for the right moment to start the actual defense, not that Harry wasn't doing a good job of it on his own, just that the deck was stacked against him, as the muggles would say.

"It's not a question of how impressive the magic was," said Cornelius in a testy voice, "in fact, the more impressive the worse it is, I would have thought, given that the boy did it in plain view of a Muggle!"

"I did it because of the Dementors!" Harry said loudly, overriding anyone before they could interrupt him again. Albus sat forward slightly, the battle was about to commence.

"Dementors?" said Amelia after a moment, her thick eyebrows rising until her monocle looked in danger of falling out. "What do you mean, boy?"

"I mean there were two Dementors down that alleyway and they went for me and my cousin!"

"Ah," said Cornelius again, smirking unpleasantly as he looked around at the Wizengamot, as though inviting them to share the joke. "Yes. Yes, I thought we'd be hearing something like this."

"Dementors in Little Whinging?" Amelia said again, in a tone of great surprise. "I don't understand…"

"Don't you, Amelia?" bantered Cornelius back, still smirking, "let me explain. He's been thinking it through and decided dementors would make a very nice little cover story, very nice indeed. Muggles can't see dementors, can they, boy? Highly convenient, highly convenient... so it's just your word and no witnesses..."

"I'm not lying!" said Harry loudly, over another outbreak of muttering from the court. "There were two of them, coming from opposite ends of the alley, everything went dark and cold and my cousin felt them and ran for it…"

Albus smiled to himself as what a good job Harry was doing of defending himself, but sadly Cornelius wouldn't be knocked off course so easily.

"Enough, enough!" said Cornelius, with a very supercilious look on his face. "I'm sorry to interrupt what I'm sure would have been a very well-rehearsed story…"

And now was the time for Albus to step in. he cleared his throat. The Wizengamot fell silent again.

"We do, in fact, have a witness and evidence to the presence of dementors in that alleyway," he said, "other than Dudley Dursley, I mean."

Cornelius' plump face seemed to slacken, as though somebody had let air out of it. He stared down at Dumbledore for a moment, and finally seemed to pull himself together, ready to attack again. "We haven't got time to listen to more tarradiddles, I'm afraid, Dumbledore. I want this dealt with quickly…"

'Of course you do, what's justice in the face of your power mongering,' Albus thought as he spoke again, "I may be wrong," he said, a pleasant smile on his face to infuriate Cornelius, "but I am sure that under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused had the right to present witnesses for his or her case? Isn't that the policy of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Bones?"

Naturally Amelia agreed, and Albus was allowed to call in Arabella Figg to testify at the presence of dementors in that alleyway.

Cornelius was, as usual, highly bigoted in his questioning, trying to bully Arabella into losing her train of thought, but she was a tough old woman, and held up under the scrutiny of the Wizengamot well. Cornelius was completely unrelenting in his conception that Harry had made up the dementor attack, which was when Albus figured that it was time to unveil their largest piece of evidence. "I would like to present our final and most important piece of evidence," he said, withdrawing the cloth-wrapped dagger that Severus found in the alleyway, "This," he said, holding it up, "was recovered from the scene of the attack no more than a week afterward,"

Holding the cloth gingerly as to not drop or accidentally touch the weapon, Albus uncovered part of the hilt and blade. Many people on the Wizengamot gasped as they saw it, recognizing the dark power radiating off it in small waves. "This weapon, as we all know, is a Morgul Dagger, the deadliest and worst weapon of the dementor's arsenal, even crueler to use on a human than the Kiss. The mere presence of this weapon at the scene irrefutably proves the presence of dementors in that alleyway. The more important question is why; why dementors were there, and why were they attacking Harry and his cousin."

Dolores Umbridge spoke up next, leaning forward so her face was no longer in shadow, "I'm sure I must have misunderstood you, Professor Dumbledore, so silly of me. But it sounded for a teensy moment as though you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack on this boy!"

"Logically," Albus replied, not sparing a smile for the cruel toad-faced woman, "If you are insistent that the dementors are under the Ministry's control, and that this dagger was found where Harry was attacked, then that is what it concludes, Madam Undersecretary. Undoubtedly the Ministry will be making a full inquiry into why two dementors were so far from Azkaban and why they attacked without authorization."

Cornelius blustered some more, but Albus was barely listening any longer. "We are here to examine Harry Potter's offences under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery!"

"Of course we are," Albus admonished, "but the presence of Dementors in that alleyway is highly relevant. Clause Seven of the Decree states that magic may be used before Muggles in exceptional circumstances, and as those exceptional circumstances include situations which threaten the life of the wizard or witch him or herself, or any witches, wizards or Muggles present at the time of the…"

"We are familiar with Clause Seven, thank you very much!" snarled Cornelius, just as Albus planned. Cornelius hated being cited rules to.

"Of course you are," said Dumbledore courteously, "then we are in agreement that Harry's use of the Patronus Charm in these circumstances falls precisely into the category of exceptional circumstances the clause describes?"

"If there were Dementors, which I doubt…" Cornelius complained, but Albus overrode him.

"You have heard it from an eyewitness," Albus interrupted. "You have also seen unmistakable evidence that there were dementors there. Naturally you would not want a serious miscarriage of justice…"

That sent Cornelius over the edge, blustering wildly and madly about all the things Harry had done at Hogwarts, like those were under his authority to punish, which Albus gently reminded him. Cornelius threatened to change laws, and Albus pointed out that they had already, given that they felt the need to prosecute a fifteen year old as if he was a hardened criminal.

Finally, Albus urged the Wizengamot to make their verdict, and, naturally, it came that more members felt that Harry should be cleared.

"Excellent," said Albus as they declared Harry cleared, springing to his feet, pulling out his wand and causing the chintz armchairs to vanish. "Well, I must be getting along. Good day to you all."

And without looking once at Harry, he swept from the dungeon, glad to be out of the room in which so many horrid memories lay.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Sirius watched happily as Mr. Weasley lead Harry into the kitchen of Headquarters, and declared the good news of his acquittal. Next to him, Will smiled widely at the news, while the others let out their cheers of excitement.

"I knew it!" yelled Ron, punching the air. "You always get away with stuff!"

"They were bound to clear you," said Hermione.

Across the room, Fred, George and Ginny were doing a kind of war dance to a chant of: "He got off, he got off, he got off…"

Sirius laughed at their antics, but quieted as Arthur relayed the news of Lucius meeting with Fudge again, and he agreed that Dumbledore ought to know. When the din of the twins and Ginny chants got to the point where Sirius could barely hear himself, Molly yelled for them to quiet down and started piling out lunch, commenting that Harry hadn't eaten much that morning.

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat across from Will, and Sirius watched with amusement as Ron piled mounds of mashed potatoes on everyone's plates, chatting animatedly to the others. Even Will was adding to the conversation, which surprised Sirius, because the quiet boy never showed much interest in anything until Harry arrived. And now shortly they'd all be leaving, and with the other members busy with assignments for the Order, Sirius would probably be left alone for long periods of time with Kreacher. Sirius' amusement dwindled as the days ticked away until September the first.

Potential Spoilers Ahead: You Have Been Warned!

As I said at the top, this is probably one of the most canon chapters out of book five, because the lack of Faykan messing with events directly or indirectly, but I did try to mix things up by changing perspectives from Harry for some of the key moments, like Albus for the trial. personally I think it went well for what it was worth, showing more that both Fudge and Umbridge were keen on charging Harry regardless of whatever evidence was presented, even something physical as a Morgul Blade... Still, even more ahead, and the Veneficus trilogy is drawing to a merciful close very soon (3 chapters left to post) I am debating whether to keep the chapter positing for AoM consistent on Thursdays or accelerate it once more. What sayest thou, oh readers of the writer notes? additionally, while I am loath to try and do more fanfiction work while I am beginning my first original novel (very exciting by the way for me to have started) I am feeling the itch for another fic to fill some psychological void that I fear will enter with the postings drying up. Ought I to put up another poll of some of my other ideas, and if so what say you of what I show propose. I could try to squeeze in a new story, although I doubt that that will be very effective, or else I could nominate some of the stories I have several chapters finished, and see what people think? Looking for feedback on these questions, and sincere, constructive thoughts regarding them. Until next time! ~F