Chapter 5: The 8th of August

Time flew by at the headquarter. Every day was filled with tons of Mrs. Weasley's homemade meals, helping together to clean some of the more rarely used rooms in this old house (no one seemed to have bothered cleaning it in the last ten years by the looks of it) and most importantly spending time with her friends, just enjoying her time with them, laughing about all the pranks Fred and George played at their family and Order members, surprisingly often assisted by their sister Ginny.

And then suddenly, August the 8th had come. No one was up for jokes that morning, a great nervousness spread through the whole house. As usual Hermione tried to hide her being anxious by talking at a high speed, speaking every word and thought that came to her mind. Ron didn't say much, but he was quite pale around his nose, not eating much, something completely against his nature. Not even the Weasley twins tried to get their spirits up, for once not being up for jokes themselves, it seemed. Especially George seemed thoughtful, Holly caught him glancing concerned her way several times at breakfast. Although he was likely glancing at Sirius, who always sat beside her.

Finished with the meal, Ron, Hermione and Holly stood up and accompanied Sirius over to the big fireplace in the living room. Mrs. Weasley held out a box of floo powder and starting with Remus, who had just come done, joining them without having breakfast, one after the other took a handful of it, stepping into the fireplace, calling out their destination "Ministry of Magic" and disappeared in green flames. Holly held Sirius' hand reassuringly while waiting for her turn.

After being swirled around in the green fire, she was eventually spat out, landing hard on the black tiled floor. Ron helped her up and brushed some of the ashes off her shoulders and hair.

"At least this time you managed to land in the right place", he smirked. Despite the tension in her belly, she couldn't hold back her smile, remembering that time she'd unintentionally travelled to Knockturn Alley.
At that moment, Sirius stumbled out of the fire behind her, coughing out a small cloud of smoke. Since everyone had arrived, Remus signed to them to follow him. The group silently walked through the big hall they had landed in, taking everything going on around them. From the many fireplaces, one witch or wizard appeared after the other, everyone quickly joining the steady stream to the elevators. Holly stopped in front of the five golden statues for a moment, smiling at the witch, wizard, centaur, goblin and house-elf. Even if the last three looked in a weird submissive way up to the witch and wizard, she liked the fountain nevertheless. At last several magical races were portrayed, standing together in unison. It gave her a feeling of hope.

Actually, several things made her feel that way lately, the biggest one of them being Sirius' trial. She'd never expected the ministry of magic to really give him a chance after everything that happened. Of course, the hope she felt was probably fuelled by her time spent at the headquarters, getting to see all the people who believed her, who prepared themselves to fight Voldemort. Also, she'd had the best week of her holidays so far, spending all that time with the Weasleys, Hermione and Sirius. She couldn't help having fun around them, enjoying herself for the first time since He had come back.

While she stood in front of the fountain, Sirius lay his arm around her shoulder.

"Everything will be fine, Holly, you'll see. In merely a few hours we'll be celebrating!"

Holly nodded, he was right of course: "I know, and I can't wait to tell everyone the truth about you." Sirius grinned at her, his grey eyes twinkling at her.
She took his hand and they joined their group, stepping into one of the elevators, being lifted up, down and side-ways until a soft female voice said:

"Second floor: Department of Magical Law Enforcement", and Remus told them to get out.

They went past several desks, witches and wizards just beginning their day of work, sleepiness quite apparent on their faces. Remus headed up in front, Ron and Hermione just behind him, Holly and Sirius making up the rear of their group.
Holly watched her two friends in front of her, while they were talking quietly with one another and wondered, when they would notice their feelings for each other. She was quite sure that none of them actually knew about it, but for Holly it was so obvious…
The way they looked at each other, laughed together, sometimes exchanged innocent touches. Holly had always felt, that their relationship had been different than hers with Ron, even from the very start. And then last year at the yule ball. Ron had been furious, when he found out Hermione was attending with Krum.
Of course, he'd never admitted to himself the true reasons for his reaction, but maybe one day he might.

After multiple corridors, the group came to a halt in front of a big, wooden door with a gold metal doorplate that said, "Courtroom 3".

"Here we are", Remus stated and opened the door.

The door led to a big square room, along all walls were several rows filled with witches and wizards wearing the same plum-coloured robes with an elaborate silver "W" across their breast: the Wizengamot. In the middle were two chairs waiting and behind those a long bench.
Facing the chairs on an elevated podium, sat the Minister Cornelius Fudge accompanied by a witch on his right, wearing a stern expression and a monocle, on his left sat a tall man, who emanated a great deal of authority, towering over Fudge, grim face and his mane like hair reminding Holly of a lion. An old lion, perhaps, but a tough one, one to be reckoned with.

One of the plum-robed Wizards showed them their seats: Sirius was seated in one of the big chairs, all the others sat down on the bench behind him. Before Holly took her place, she reached over to Sirius, kissing him on the cheek reassuringly.
Since they were a few minutes early, they had to wait. Holly didn't understand what for, in her opinion, everybody who was required for the hearing was present already. Then, suddenly, the door opened again, and Dumbledore entered the courtroom, followed by none other than Snape. Holly felt her heart dropping to the floor.

Snape would never be here to testify for Sirius, right? Holly exchanged brief glances with Ron and Hermione, none of them looking very happy either, Ron even clenched his hands to fists, Hermione's brow furrowed in distress. Snape and Dumbledore sat down next to Remus on the Bench, then, the trial started.

First, Fudge talked a long time, about what, Holly couldn't say afterwards. Sirius was being questioned several things and Holly was proud to see that her godfather sat upright in his seat, self-confidently answering everything.
Afterwards, it was their turn to talk. One after the other was called to take seat in the second chair, next to Sirius. An old witch with billowing auburn robes came up to them, once they were seated, and offered them a small vial of liquid. Holly knew, that it was the Veritaserum. She listened, as her friends recounted the events from the year before, when they had found out the truth about Sirius.
Every once in a while, Holly saw individual witches or wizards of the Wizengamot nod in agreement, raising their eyebrows in surprise or shaking their head, shocked about what was apparently the truth about this man in front of them.
After Dumbledore, Remus, Ron and Hermione, it was her turn.

"Holly Elisabeth Potter", the witch with the monocle pronounced and Holly slowly stood up, straightening her black skirt while walking over to take her seat. She could do this – for Sirius.
The witch in auburn robes came forward again, handing her the vial of Veritaserum.
Holly quickly gulped down the translucent liquid and immediately felt a weird sensation tickling down her spine, spreading through her blood system, down her limbs into every finger and toe, until her whole body was filled up with it. She couldn't really feel any part of her body after some moments, only her brain seemed to be working, as well as her ears, eyes and mouth.

"Let's start", said the lion like man next to Fudge. He was the one doing the interrogations.

"Your name and age, Miss?"

"Holly Elisabeth Potter, 15", Holly heard herself say monotonously, but she couldn't remember forming the words herself.

"Living address?"

Holly's mouth opened, but nothing came out. At that point, she heard someone stand up behind her. Dumbledore walked past her and up to the podium, whispering shortly into the lion-man's ear. He quickly went back to his seat afterwards. That was odd.

"Very well, no address apparently. Miss Potter, would you identify the man next to you?"

"That is Sirius Black, my godfather." She thought she sounded like a robot.

"Would you tell us everything you remember of the evening of June the 22nd 1994?"

Holly listened to herself speaking, retelling all the events of that day, beginning at having tea with Hagrid and ending at helping Sirius to escape.
After she'd finished, she was allowed to sit down at the bench again. Only Snape was left.
Surprisingly, Snape took the Veritaserum without resistance and told his side to the story, verifying everything the other witnesses had stated.
Snape helping Sirius felt weird, really, Holly couldn't get herself to believe what she saw happening before her eyes. Weren't they like enemies or something?

Lastly, Fudge stood up:

"My dear Wizengamot, you've heard all the witnesses and the accused himself. Some revelations might be surprising or even shocking to you, but as you saw, their statements were given under the influence of Veritaserum. Please come to a conclusion now."

He waited a few seconds, then continued:

"Those in favour of convicting Sirius Black for the crimes he is indicted?"

Holly closed her eyes, too nervous to look at the plum-robed witches and wizards, but she heard Hermione next to her exhale.

"And those in favour of clearing Mr. Black of all charges?"

Holly peaked through her long black lashes. There were hands in the air, many, she couldn't possibly count them.
More and more went up, in the end nearly every member of the Wizengamot had their hand up in the air, in favour for Sirius.
Holly smiled, relieved, the tingling sensation of some salty teardrops running down her cheeks.

Hurray, Sirius is free!
I always thought book-Sirius never got what he deserved for what had been done to him.
I wanted him to get a chance of happiness for once, a chance to lead a happy life, even if it might not last forever (who knows?).

Also, the noble house of black is a little different in this version. It was left empty for long years, but all houseelves died during that time (therefore, no Kreacher in this story) and even though there is a painting of Mrs. Black somewhere in the house, she won't make many appearances. Mostly, she will stay silent, ashamed about what happened to her house, disappointed in her son left in her sorrow quite passive aggressive rather than insulting and screaming like she did in the books.

Let me know in the comments about your opinion so far. Any guess yet, who will be Holly's s.o.?
Soon we will find out more, stay tuned!
- entscha