Chapter Thirty-Three: Collapse of the Defense

Trenholm inwardly blanched at the full scope of Dumbledore's vision. This went beyond anything that he had even thought possible. So many ifs, so many things to line up in a row, so many possible places where his 'greater good' plan could have fallen apart – and did.

Still, his hunch had paid off – Dumbledore had just handed him the case. But he needed to nail things shut permanently now – before he called upon Harry. "What were your plans for Mr. Wells should he have survived the encounter with Tom?"

"I knew shortly after Harry was born that he had enormous magical power – even as a young child. I knew that to put him with his family protected by the wards powered by the love of his mother and the support and acceptance of his relatives, that Harry would grow up strong, happy and healthy.

"I knew and believed that Harry, having been raised in love, would seek to lay down his life for those he loved. As a result of that sacrifice, the magical world would throw everything at his feet. But young Harry would not need the wealth bequeathed to him by his parents. I would hope that by following my example, he would learn to do as I – bring forth an heir, perhaps two children to carry on the Potter name and then having done his part to ensure the survival of his family, he would take his place first at my side and then replace me to lead the people of magical Britain by his magic, his wisdom and his sacrifice."

Trenholm regarded the white haired man for several long seconds. He really believes this stuff, he realized to himself. "So if you win here, what would you propose for him now?"

"I propose that he sign a magical indenture, an apprenticeship agreement with me. In turn, I would share with him all my learning, and the fruits of my many years of study and research."

"And if Mr. Wells decides that he does not share your particular vision for him, what would you then do?"

Dumbledore's eyes were now focused inward as he heard only the question and not the trap that was being laid for him.

"There is no other conceivable future for Harry Potter. He is to be at my side."

"Then any methods of coercion would be fair game?"

"Once the master apprenticeship agreement is signed, any method short of death is allowed."

"Tabula Rasa?"

"If necessary. It would be for the greater good."

"And if Mr. Wells rejects you now?"

"I would make it the remainder of my life's work to be reconciled with Mr. Potter."

Trenholm again nodded. Got you, he inwardly crowed. An unhealthy obsession, an unwillingness to leave Harry Wells alone, even now that the Dark Lord was dead. "Mr. Dumbledore, I want to thank you. We will return to this.

"I wish to call Diana Bennett Wells to the stand, followed by Mr. Harry Wells."

Diana gave a short concise account of the events of Halloween October 1994 and Trenholm was inwardly thankful that Diana had given enough testimony as a police officer in court that she could keep the obvious emotions she would have felt on that day out of her account. Her words were given in a clear, concise manner, her manner of speaking that of a consummate legal professional trained to share what she had seen and witnessed for herself with no attempt to editorialize.

Dumbledore did not attempt to cross-examine her and when she had taken her seat, Harry approached the witness box. After giving his oath, he shared his own account of the events of that Halloween. He was able to recall his fears and feelings as the strange events had started and as they had proceeded until he had lost consciousness as his heart stopped.

As Diana had already summarized her CPR efforts and the use of the defibrillator in reviving Harry, Trenholm next wanted to shift the focus of his questions to the aftermath of the Sanguio Vocato spell.

"Mr. Wells, when you were first introduced to magic, what did the goblins subject you to at your request?"

"A blood test – to determine if I had any magical ancestors."

"Objection, your Honor. Such a test is illegal," Dumbledore interjected.

"Overruled, Mr. Dumbledore. British magical law does not apply here. Blood tests are allowed here in the United Sates," the judge replied.

"Your Honor, my objection is based on the fact that Mr. Potter is still a British citizen – and any British citizen who engages in blood testing is breaking the law."

The judge turned to Trenholm. "Is this true?"

The magical DA reached into a folder and withdrew a form, then walking the form up to the judge's bench. "We anticipated this line of questioning and we are pleased to supply this court with an affidavit of Mr. Wells' oath of citizenship – performed twice; the first at the age of 13 and then again, renewing the pledge at the age of 20.

"Inheritance testing is a specific right for American citizens and one that applies to Mr. Wells. British law no longer applies to him."

The judge made a note on the form and turned to Dumbledore. "This court agrees with the prosecution, Mr. Dumbledore. Mr. Wells is recognized as an American citizen and thus any attempt to apply British magical law to him is indeed moot.

"Your objection is overruled."

Trenholm gave off a very faint air of satisfaction, and then turned back to Harry. "What did the goblins find, Mr. Wells?"

"They found a very faint residue of several magical bindings. They found magical residue of a parasitic soul leech, not a horcrux, now dead. They also found out that my magic had died."

"A soul leech that is very different from a soul fragment or a horcrux? What other conclusions did the goblins certify that day?"

Harry reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a familiar inheritance certificate that carried the familiar seal of the Bank of Gringotts.

"Would you share its conclusions, Mr. Wells?"

Harry looked down and began to read. "This hereby certifies under magic and goblin oath of Gringotts that the person known as Harry Jacob Vincent Wells was once Harry James Potter, but is now deceased to that name and the Potter magic. Instead Magic now deems him the Black of Black and founder of a new house, the House of Wells."

Silence fell on the courtroom as the words of the Gringotts' certificate were read out. One did not dispute the goblins' work or certifications.

Trenholm finally broke the silence. "So you were deprived of both your inheritance and your family's magic by some event in your past. An event that the goblins certified that you 'died.' Was there a date on that event?"

Harry swallowed, and then produced another paper also covered with the gold seal of Gringotts. "October 31, 1994."

"The same day that one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts and someone concerned about finding you invoked the Sanguio Vocato spell. A spell that would result in the death of the one called if he or she was unable to respond to the blood summoning.

"A spell that caused you to experience the magical effects both you and your mother described; effects which saw you physically 'die' in that your heart stopped beating and you stopped breathing."

Trenholm then took the second paper and read it to the jury. "This addendum to the first certificate confirms that Harry James Potter physically and magically died on October 31, 1994. It also confirms that several magical bindings and spells on Mr. Potter died at that same instant.

"As well, both certificates are given under the director's own personal seal.

"I submit these certificates as Peoples' Exhibits 10."

The judge took the certificates and after examining them, handed them back to the bailiff. "I have had the privilege in younger years of working with our goblin friends, District Attorney Trenholm, and I can confirm the validity of these certificates. Please continue."

Trenholm appeared to be consulting his notes for several long seconds even as silence once again descended upon the courtroom. "I would like to call Unspeakable Silver of our own Department of Mysteries."

A gray robed man stepped forward, clad in the recognizable shifting gray robes that marked the Unspeakables. Once he had been sworn in, Trenholm began. " You have been with the Hall of Prophecy of our own country for several decades, have you not?"

"Yes, I have," Silver replied in a strong, clear voice.

"Would you consider the accounts given by Mr. Dumbledore as to his interpretation of the prophecy which has been the focus of this trial as confirmation that this was a valid prophecy?"

Silver appeared to ponder the question and then shook his head. "We need to separate Mr. Dumbledore's interpretation of the prophecy from the prophecy itself. I would probably label this prophecy as valid, given both the wording and the nature of its arrival.

"However, the nature of prophecy is such that the worst thing that anyone listening to it could do would be to try to fulfill it.

"I have analyzed this prophecy at the request of the MFBI – it is vague and unclear. We are not told who is the Dark Lord; we are not told what it means to vanquish; we are not even told the meaning of the phrase that states neither can live while the other survives.

"Prophecy is vague and for one person to take upon themselves the fulfillment of that prophecy is to potentially drive that prophecy to fulfillment outside of the original intent of the prophet.

"Once Tom Riddle and Mr. Dumbledore both accepted the veracity and the interpretation of this prophecy, this prophecy was activated to go down a specific road. A tale similar to Oedipus was the tragic result.

"With the Sanguio Vocato spell, Mr. Dumbledore put the very fulfillment of that prophecy into question and, in my opinion, negated it."

Trenholm waited for Silver's words to sink in, then continued. "What about the issue that Mr. Wells might still be possessed by a horcrux?"

Silver chuckled. "I have reviewed the same proofs that you submitted here today and if the goblins certified Mr. Wells as being a host for a time to a soul leech rather than a horcrux, I will accept their judgment.

"A horcrux is not a soul leech. A question which has troubled me was why Mr. Dumbledore, if the newspaper accounts could be believed, did not pick up on the existence of this soul leech back in 1981 when the young Potter boy was in his hands for a few days."

Dumbledore rose to ask a question of his own. He could feel his case and argument was falling about him in tatters and he knew he had to get the eyes of the jurors back on the topic that Harry was fated to meet Tom. "What is the danger of ignoring a prophecy like this?"

"There is none. Unless the prophecy is specific, naming dates, times, personalities; prophecies are vague and they possess in themselves the amazing ability to seeing themselves fulfilled. That is my experience and the experience of my colleagues in the prophecy hall.

"You tried to control your proclaimed 'chosen one' to achieve the fulfillment of the prophecy as you saw it – magic had different plans."

The judge interrupted Silver's comments. "Unspeakable Silver, you are cautioned to keep opinions of that nature to yourself."

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, your Honor, visitors to this courtroom, Mr. Dumbledore: we have listened to one incident in this long and tangled history of Mr. Dumbledore and Mr. Potter or as he is known today, Mr. Wells. We could spend hours, days or even weeks exploring the events, the motivations, the impact of the desire of this one man to control both the purported prophecy tying Mr. Wells to the late Tom Riddle and to his 'desire' or as I would call it, his obsession with Mr. Wells – to have him by his side despite Mr. Wells own wishes and to, in my own opinion, to control him and his future.

"Mr. Dumbledore has not denied any of the charges that were initially levied against him. He agreed with us that he attempted to 'kidnap' Mr. Wells last fall; that he sent a restricted magical object with potentially fatal effects on non-magicals in another bid to 'force' Mr. Wells to him and finally, after all else failed, to lure a known magical terrorist and Dark Lord from Britain to this city to force a confrontation between this same Dark Lord and Mr. Wells, an encounter that cost the lives of two American non-magical citizens.

"Mr. Dumbledore comes to this court as a man with an enormous legal reputation, as a man with the title of 'Leader of the Light' back in Britain and avoiding what is wrong.

"He is a man who has made more laws than most of us will encounter in a lifetime.

"This man denied everything and anything in regards to the child known as Harry James Potter. He ignored wills, legal precedents, even the stated wishes of family members and friends of the Potters in a blatant attempt to control young Mr. Potter. And, when his 'tool' or 'weapon' had disappeared as a result of the abuse pushed on him by those same relatives with whom Mr. Dumbledore had placed him, a desperate search began, mirroring the desperate actions taken last fall and this winter by the same Mr. Dumbledore.

"Believing that the prophecy would be fulfilled, Mr. Dumbledore risked it all on a questionable dark spell that could kill as easily as locate the Boy-Who-Lived. And it was a risk that was realized.

"I ask you, members of the jury, to consider carefully the motivations of this man Albus Dumbledore. No better unveiling of his desperate and even obsessive focus on Mr. Potter or Mr. Wells could be seen than in the events that led to the use of a dark spell and its results upon the Wells family, Mr. Wells himself and the legacy and inheritance that should have been his.

"His motives are now what lie at the heart of the case. The motive – to risk someone's life on the off chance of finding him; to use a dark curse that can kill in order to see someone alive: these do not strike me as the actions of a sane man. We see a man concerned about prophecy, an obsessed man, a man in need of professional care and a man who needs to be removed from the public sphere so that others will not be injured or killed by his obsession.

"We recognize the years of service that this man Albus Dumbledore gave magical Britain, indeed the greater magical community. Bu this man remains obsessed with the person of Harry Wells, refusing to accept that Harry Potter died by his actions and thus is now reborn into a new identity, a new life and a new world.

"But years of service do not allow that same man to obsess over someone so much that he admits, here in open court, that he would pursue Mr. Wells until he submits to him, Albus Dumbledore, as his apprentice, and allows him to 'remake' him into what Albus' own image suggests that Mr. Wells become.

"And this, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, must not be allowed and should not stand."

The judge banged the gavel signifying the close of that day's proceedings even as Trenholm's words still echoed in the hall.

So, were those chapters good? Bad? Tell us! Once again, we apologize for the long hiatus, our next chapter should be up soon, not 4 months from now. See you then!