The amount of comments and private messages I've received in my last story about Dumbles and not telling his punishment was massive. I won't be making that mistake again.. enjoy :)
Chapter 10.
"That's the Longbottom's that is" whispered a short portly man to his seat neighbor.
"I thought they were dead!" a different witch muttered.
"Bloody hell they look pissed, remember that time they took down Fenrir Greyback? I wouldn't want to mess with them, especially now after they came back from insanity." Said another witch.
"SILENCE PLEASE!" Amelia Bone's voice could be heard through an amplification spell over the hum of noise in the crowd.
Everyone calmed down and took a seat seeing that this now, even more interesting trial was going to begin.
Seeing that everyone was now quiet and content for the moment. Amelia nodded to Dedalus Diggle to open the event. Since Albus was on trial, and the backup leaders were all taking place in the trial as well, the remaining seats voted Dedalus into the temporary spot.
Dedalus was a rather short wizard who was very vociferous, as he stood at the podium, he didn't require any spell work to get his voice heard, he did however require a footstool to be seen.
He cleared his throat and began, "Welcome to the Wizengamot, today's trial is dealing with several accusations, many from Ancient and Nobel houses, directed towards one, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
The room was deadly silent, Amelia once again had flooded the chamber with Aurors, but they were all undercover, she wasn't taking any chances. Dedalus, seeing that there were no objections continued his well-practiced opening.
"We will have the families send up one representative each to speak, explain their charges, and then have the accused be able to defend himself. At the end, once all of the representatives testify, the Wizengamot will determine the conviction and possible charge depending on predetermined requests from each family."
Albus was nervous, seeing the Longbottom's present meant that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of at least one charge, that's if they remembered. Or, her thought, he could maybe pull that card. There was much to think about as the trial continued.
"The Ancient and Nobel house of Potter has asked to be first in the lineup, Lord Potter, if you please." Dedalus said while waving James forward.
"Thank you, my Lord." James said while Lily got into place.
"Now, as you can see, my beautiful wife has joined me up here; she will be up here for the remainder of the trial to assist with each family. Hogwarts has graciously allowed us use of its pensive for assistance in this trial and she will be adding in and taking out memories from all parties, at the appropriate times of course."
"I must most strongly object! That is my pensive, and I most certainly did not allow its use in this trial!" Albus sputtered while standing up quickly.
James just shook his head, Albus really didn't tend to think well when cornered.
"If I may speak, your Lord, I believe I can clarify the situation." A Scottish brogue spoke from the back of the spectators stand. Minerva McGonagall stood up as all eyes in the courtroom turned to her.
"Of course, Madam McGonagall." Dedalus announced.
Minerva nodded and then spoke, "That pensive has always belonged to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is not the possession of the headmaster, nor is it the possession of Albus Dumbledore himself. The school was provided with one from Salazar Slytherin himself, it was used as a teaching object up until Headmaster Phineas Black, who, found it useful in his own endeavors. Since that time, it has remained in the headmaster's office, and up until the recent headmaster was used to settle disputes and such amongst staff and students."
Pausing for effect she continued. "Albus does not own the pensive, Hogwarts does. Seeing as though Professor Dumbledore is indisposed of at the present time, I as his deputy allowed the Wizengamot permission to use the pensive."
With that Minerva took her seat.
"Well then Albus, it seems you have no grounds to object, please take your seat and let us continue." Dedalus said sternly.
To say Albus was in shock was an understatement. His deputy, someone he had trusted, just turned against him. What in the name of Merlin was going on?
When Albus was once more sitting in his chair, Dedalus nodded for James to continue.
"Thank-you Professor McGonagall." James nodded to his favorite professor.
"Now, the counts that the Potter family wish to bring against the accused are quite long. They date back years, so to save us all some time and copious amounts of memories, we shall only be bringing forth the most pertinent ones."
James eyed Dumbledore, who sat ready with quill in hand to take notes.
"I would like to start with my will, although it shouldn't have been needed, we never anticipated that it would get sealed completely and allow this self-proclaimed leader of the light to take control of not only my son, placing him in harm's way for his entire childhood, but also my vault, possessions, and friends."
The room remained silent, stunned. So, James continued.
"Let's break this down shall we. Harry at birth was given a trust vault at Gringotts to which he would be free to use and have it automatically refilled each month. These are the banking slips provided to us by my head accountant."
James enlarged the slips so that everyone could read as they rotated through.
"As you can see Harry was 'removing' funds as early as the month we supposedly died. Which would be understandable had his guardians at the time received said funds."
James shrunk the slips and placed them back in his folder. Looking towards Lily she nodded and poured in a vial filled with a memory.
"Now this might be a weak memory as it was pulled from a muggle, my darling wife's sister to be exact, Harry's then unwilling guardian. The reason for the weakness is she had just gone through multiple purging potions and memory charm removals."
A gasp went up through the chamber. Purging potions were rough on witches and wizards, the fact that muggles went through purging potions and charm removals was saying quite a bit.
"But we will get to that in a few minutes, I would like to direct your attention now to the memory if you please."
Lily started the memory and placed it hovering above the pensive. It showed the night Harry was dropped off on a doorstep, a young child wrapped in a tartan blanket with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, prominent for anyone to see. Tucked in the blanket was a letter addressed to "The Dursley's".
Petunia's gasp echoed around the chamber right before she called to Vernon.
"Vernon! It's a baby! Oh my goodness Vernon come here!" the memory Petunia yelled.
"Who in their right mind would leave a baby on a doorstep in the middle of the night in autumn?" the memory Vernon hollered back.
Petunia dipped down to pick up the child, noticing the envelope. When her eyes landed on the familiar seal, she gasped once more. Handing the child over to Vernon who now appeared behind her, Petunia glanced down at the letter and tore the Hogwarts seal open.
Her hand went to her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. "She's gone." Petunia wept.
"Who's gone puppet?" Vernon asked hands still full with the child.
"Lily." Petunia whispered. "She's been murdered."
Vernon draped a heavy arm around his wife's thin shoulders trying to comfort her without dropping the bundle in his arms.
"And the child?" he asked.
"His name is Harry, and Professor Dumbledore said that if we take him in, we would gain protection from the evil men who killed Lily" Petunia said while finishing reading the letter.
"Who's Professor Dumblesnore?" Vernon asked.
"Dumbledore love, he was Lily's headmaster at that school I told you about, the one who wrote to me when I was younger explaining that muggles cannot go to Hogwarts. Remember?"
Vernon shrugged his shoulders.
"Did he come with anything?" Vernon asked looking down at Harry in the blanket.
"No. I can put him in with Dudders for the night, we'll have to grab supplies tomorrow." Petunia said as she grabbed Harry and walked upstairs.
The memory ends and Lily scoops it out and places another one in. The memory pops up several years later, a young Harry around age five is being told to scrub the floors by Petunia when he cuts his hand on bucket.
Petunia runs over to inspect his hand and mend the cut, Harry looked at her appreciatively.
The doorbell rings and Petunia goes to see who it is. She comes face to face with Albus Dumbledore as he raises his wand.
Petunia closes the door without saying a word, she returns to the kitchen and slaps Harry on the back of his head then yells at him to scrub harder.
A crying Harry fades to black as the memory ends.
There were multiple memories like that one, where Petunia or Vernon would break free from an enchantment or memory charm and Dumbledore would show up to replace the charms.
"We have now shown you four separate instances where Vernon and Petunia Dursley were charmed into doing unspeakable things to my son. Instances that made my son feel unloved, hated, and vulnerable." James spoke passionately to the chamber.
"Albus Dumbledore made sure that when Harry came to Hogwarts and was shown even the smallest piece of kindness, that he would devotedly follow them. Dumbledore then set up challenges to mold Harry into what he wanted; he provided him the tools to succeed."
Lily pours another memory into the pensive while James is talking.
The memory showed the enchantments and 'protections' that housed the philosopher's stone.
"Pretty simple tasks to guard something so precious. But who's idea was it to keep the stone in the school to begin with? Nicholas Flamel had stated he initially wanted to destroy the stone, the ultimate way to protect Voldemort from getting his hands on it."
Albus stood up at that, "Preposterous!"
"Sit down Albus, do not make a fool of yourself. Young James speaks the truth" A quiet voice from the back of the chamber amplified by a spell called out.
Albus' head turned so fast to glare at Nicholas Flamel in the flesh that James almost laughed.
"Thank-you Nicholas, for both your words of truth and for being here today. I know travel is harder for Perenelle and yourself these days." James bowed to the older gentleman who was standing next to his wife.
Albus sat back down but was visibly pale and gnawing on his thumb nail in contemplation.
"As I was saying" James continued seeing that Albus was no longer going to interrupt him.
"Albus insisted upon keeping the stone in the school, with full knowledge that Voldemort or at the very bare minimum Voldemort's henchmen were after the stone." The gasps went up around the chamber at Voldemort's name. James decided to ignore this and continued.
"Yet he decided to keep it in a school full of children, behind enchantments that a first-year student, mind you a brilliant one, could easily pass. One would say the challenges were even catered to Harry and his friends."
Heads were nodding around the chamber.
"When we asked the professors who placed some of the enchantments, they all specified they wanted to put their all into the task but found themselves compelled to alter or sometimes even change the task entirely."
Lily poured in another memory and started it playing for all to see.
This memory started out with Minerva and Albus talking over her giant chess set.
"Albus, I really think we should do something different. Perhaps we can pull a few of the enchanted knights from the boundaries to protect the door. You know I've always wanted to use that spell!" Minerva pleaded.
Albus turned around so quickly with his wand in his hand already glowing with a charm.
The scene ended by seeming to stand still for a few moments then started up again with Minerva stating how this was an excellent idea that she had before fading out.
James started to explain. "Yes, my fellow magical brethren, even the great Professor Minerva McGonagall was charmed into following Albus' wishes. After finding so many compulsions and memory charms on her we tested the others who contributed to the protection of the stone, the only person not under charms was Hagrid and of course Quirrell."
The chamber got rather loud, rather quickly. Dedalus fired off a noise making spell which caught the attention of the chamber and allowed him to settle everyone down with a fair warning of being kicked out.
"Thank you Dedalus, now we have blood oaths from the Dursley's, issued by Gringotts, stating they have never received any payment for watching over Harry, yet they also provided us with statements showing Harry's bank vault being wiped out every month."
He enlarged said documents and had them rotate through above his head.
"You can see that even after Harry received his key, the withdrawals continued, normally after Harry had pulled out what he wanted for the start of school. On top of this, my account manager also advised us of Lily's godson's account being used and abused in the same manner."
More documents were enlarged and rotated as Lily prepared the next memory.
"Neville Longbottom is my wife's godson, and in turn she had a small trust vault set up similar to Harry's only a smaller amount available. It was meant for fun items and Hogsmeade visits as he got older. We have recently found out he was not even made aware that he even had an account."
Lily played the memory of telling Augusta and Neville about the account. Both knew nothing of its even existence.
"Piecing things together was easy for the Goblins, as the transfer of funds each month was sent to the Gnomes to be placed into Albus Dumbledore's private account."
Dumbledore didn't even react to James' words; he couldn't argue anything.
"Now some might ask how much he actually took, the finalized numbers are still being tallied as he also took dozens of family heirlooms, properties, and artifacts from us. But let's focus on what he took from Harry and Neville shall we?"
Pulling out another piece of parchment, James enlarged it, which wasn't necessary as his explanation was basically reading the document. Harry's vault allowed him to take out two thousand galleons each month, it would refill every month on the first.
Neville's was smaller coming in at five hundred galleons each month allowance.
"A little over three hundred thousand galleons was removed over the course of twelve years, not a penny of that money was spent on Harry or Neville."
The crowed ooh'ed and ahh'ed at this.
The next document that James pulled out was his will. Something that was previously sealed.
"Now. Let's talk about who Harry should have gone to, and how this whole situation should have been handled."
James ran through the order of who Harry should have gone to. Petunia and Vernon not on the list at all, in actuality they were only mentioned in the will stating that Harry was by no means meant to go to them.
It also, in detail, talked about the vaults for both Harry and Neville and what their legal guardian would have access to. The kicker being Albus Dumbledore's signature at the very bottom right next to the Potter's.
"As you see, Albus knew about everything, even without having the will read. He knew how to get ahold of everything he needed, and who needed to be out of the picture for it to work, but I'll leave that for House Black to dive into." James nodded to Sirius in the stands.
"So, let's recap, thousands of galleons stolen, numerous rare and historic family heirlooms purged from our vaults, meaningless murder, ignoring my family's well thought out will, endangering ALL of magical Brittan's children, targeting my son, and a multitude of charms and spells placed upon unsuspecting witches, wizards and muggles alike."
James took a breath and expected some rumblings from the crowd, instead he got shocked silence. No doubt everyone was digesting the mass number of atrocities Albus Dumbledore committed.
Regardless, James continued. "As head of the Most Ancient and Nobel house of Potter, I request that everything that was stolen be returned, every artifact, every book, every knut. My account manager said I should ask for interest to be paid, I however don't need the interest, I would conversely request that Dumbledore be punished under Goblin Law for the crimes committed against my family."
This time James got the roar of voices he was expecting. People were shocked, some were angry, others in agreement. It didn't matter, if Dumbledore is found guilty, he will be punished by the Goblins, the Wizengamot will have no say in the matter now that he requested Goblin Law.
Dedalus rose from his seat, getting ready to let off another noise maker spell. However, the most remarkable thing that has ever happened to him, happened in that instance.
The moment that Dedalus rose from his chair the entire chamber went dead silent and was waiting for him to speak. It was rather eerie he thought.
Dedalus was a member of the Wizengamot, but he was neutral and didn't have much sway in either direction. So, for the wizard to silence a room by simply standing up made him feel more awkward rather than powerful.
He cleared his throat, "What say you Albus?"
Dumbledore was dead silent for a few moments, he himself was still reeling from James' request. He was slowly getting his thoughts together but didn't answer Dedalus in time, he never even noticed Dedalus repeating his question three times.
Dedalus looked toward Mafalda Hopkirk who was taking minutes, "Please let the record note that Albus Dumbledore made no argument to the charges brought against him by House Potter. Lady Longbottom, I do believe you are up."
James stepped down from his platform and helped Augusta Longbottom up onto it. The group had decided as a whole that Augusta would present their charges instead of Frank or Alice. This was for two reasons, the first, they didn't want to have the newly healed pair put under so much pressure. The second being that Augusta, having sat in her seat for so long, had significant sway in the Wizengamot.
She was listed as a light faction, who was always fair and never bias. In fact, if not for her involvement in today's case, she would be in Dedalus' position. But as was Albus' luck lately the Longbottom matriarch was presenting.
The old bird started off strong too, "Albus Dumbledore upon the quote 'death' of the Potters, advised my son and daughter in law that he was dropping the Fidelus Charm on the manor they were staying at. Almost as soon as the wards dropped three death eaters, Bellatrix LeStrange, Rodolphus LeStrange, and Barty Crouch Jr attacked."
The silence in the chamber was deafening. Everyone knew what happened to the Longbottom's, they just didn't know the backstory on how it came to be.
"Bellatrix had the other two hold Frank immobilized as she performed the Cruciatus curse on Alice, who was shielding a baby Neville from her." Tears sprung up in Augusta's eyes and she recounted what she saw in the memories from her son and daughter in law.
Again, as a group they decided that these scenes need not be shown in the chamber, they didn't even want Alice and Frank to re-live them, so they were pulled by the goblins while they were being healed.
"By standing in front of and protecting Neville with her life, Alice activated a protection charm that Lily had found in one of the Potter grimoires. This was the same protective charm that Harry himself had been placed under." Augusta watched as her son placed an arm around his wife and a hand on Neville as she continued.
"Frank was then tortured for several minutes with the cruciatus curse until back-up arrived. The aurors who arrived on the scene provided their memories for the trial, I would recommend any children or members with weak stomachs please raise your wand and we will place a privacy bubble over you while it plays."
The chamber remained silent while several people raised their wands and allowed several uniformed aurors to put spells in place. Frank and Alice included themselves and Neville in this protection.
Once everyone was settled Lily placed the memory into the pensive, immediately a tortured scream pierced through the silence. Alice was laying over a crying Neville, eyes zoned out, screaming like a banshee while convulsing.
Frank, stuck upon the wall overlooking his family had his head hanging while also convulsing. His legs bent at weird angles, obviously as broken as his mind. Spell fire blazed across the memory as the arriving aurors battled the trio of death eaters.
A lucky shot by the owner of the memory took down Bellatrix LeStrange just as her wand tip turned green in preparation of firing off her signature grouping of killing curses.
Tears were in everyone's eyes as the memory faded to black, the moment it sank back into the pensive the protection charms dropped from everyone who requested them. Augusta let it sink in for a few seconds while she herself worked hard to pull herself together.
It didn't matter how many times she prepped herself, hearing Alice's scream or watching Frank try his best to fight to get to his family killed her inside. Taking a deep breath, she continued.
"As you now can see, the danger was still very much real, not only was it very real it appeared very well thought out and planned. I now ask the question on why Albus Dumbledore felt the need to drop the fidelis charm so quickly?"
Augusta looked toward the bearded wizard and narrowed her eyes, "Alice actually was able to provide us with the memory of her last conversation with the accused, Lily if you please."
Lily nodded and poured in the next memory. A green face of Albus Dumbledore appeared in a fireplace announcing to the Longbottom's of Lily and James' death. Alice immediately asks about Harry and offers to take him while Sirius was found and contacted.
"I'm afraid that won't be possible Alice" Albus said softly, "We must go to trial to determine where Harry will be placed, we wouldn't want him falling into the wrong hands now would we?"
"That's absurd Albus! You were there when Lily and James signed their will! You know the line of who Harry was to go to should anything happen to the Potters as well as I do." Alice spit out ferociously.
"That I do my dear, but I'm afraid my hands are tied. I will in turn advise you when the trial will be so that you both can be present." Albus said, "Also seeing as the dark lord is gone, I will be terminating your fidelis charm immediately seeing as there is no longer a need for it, you do understand don't you dears?"
"Absolutely not Albus, we must ensure that we are saf…" Franks sentence was cut off as he felt the wards drop around his home. Albus muttered a quick goodbye, stating he had other more pressing matters then cut the floo connection.
At almost the exact time the floo connection was severed the gong of an attack against the familiar and blood wards was going off, just before the memory faded out you could see Bellatrix apparate into the drawing room in front of the family.
Gasps and yells could be heard from around the chamber when the scene abruptly cut off. Once more Dedalus stood up and the room silenced almost immediately.
"What say you Albus?" Dedalus asked, this time Albus didn't zone out, he was readying himself the entire memory, "That memory is skewed! I absolutely did not drop the fidelis charm so quickly after the Potters supposed deaths! Those memories are tampered with!"
Albus was breathing heavy with his declaration. Eyes wide, no twinkle in sight.
"Albus, if that charm wasn't dropped then please explain to me how the death eaters got into the Longbottom home the very next day after the Potters 'perished'?" Augusta asked.
Albus remained quiet.
"On top of that you have four aurors who all have the same memory from that exact day as well. However, since we are on the topic of tampered memories, or lack of truth, should we say. I would like to bring out a friend to corroborate everyone's tales." Augusta had a smug little smirk on her face that Albus didn't like one bit, but he was curious on who her friend was.
"James, if you would please bring him out." Augusta asked politely as she pulled a stand quite literally from her carpet bag at her feet and place it next to Lily up near the pensive.
It was at this time that James walked in with the Sorting hat that Albus turn pale and the crowd ooh and ahh. The hat was something that every single person in that courtroom who went to Hogwarts, at one time or another, spoke with.
"Hello Alistair" Augusta spoke sweetly.
"Good day my dear Lady" Alistair spoke back as the crowd gasped.
In all his time at Hogwarts, the Sorting hat only spoke to children inside their heads, not many knew that he could talk and had a sentient mind.
"Alistair, could you please advise the court of who you are and what you can all provide for us today?"
"Certainly Madame, I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, most of you have met me in some capacity. I was gifted the ability to read minds by the combined efforts of all four founders of Hogwarts, essentially making me a sentient being. Although I don't require any food or water, I am able to obtain and hold information so that I may accurately read students and place them into the house that best fits their true natures."
"Excellent, thank you, now do you require to be placed upon a person's head in order to read their minds?" Augusta was asking questions that the audience might want to know.
"Normally yes, however when I am around people for an extended period of time, such as the headmaster and some of his staff, then it becomes easier to pick up on their thoughts from afar."
"Interesting, and is there any way for you to share those memories with us?" Augusta asked, already knowing the answer but needed to paint the picture.
"Oh absolutely, Lily, if you would please place me upon the pensive."
Lily did as the hat requested and a memory popped up just like it would normally, the memory was of the same floo call that Alice had shared but from Albus' point of view. The same words were reiterated, exactly, word for word.
Albus' face, if possible, turned even more pale, before turning bright red with anger.
"THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS!" Albus shouted. "You cannot take the word of a hat that does not have a brain!"
"Why Albus" Alistair said in a normal tone, "If you cannot take my word, then please explain your sorting's for the last several decades? I am no different than a painting, who mind you are able to give testimony at the school, seeing as you use them to spy on staff and students alike."
At this point in time, seeing that Albus was struck dumb by the sorting hat, Dedalus stood, "Members of the Wizengamot, please raise your wand if you are in favor of allowing Alistair, the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts, to continue as a witness henceforth."
A shocking unanimous vote allowed the hat to stay where he was and for Albus to sit down, still very red in anger.
The next topic that Augusta wanted to bring up was the refusal of help from the Goblins, however, out of respect for the Goblin Nation, she kept that hushed up. The group as a whole, spoke in depth with the Elders and determined that would be a fight for another day.
The wizarding community as a whole was not stable enough to fight the prejudice against other species quite yet. They also didn't want Gringotts to get bombarded by people demanding cures. It was a sensitive matter that needs to be handled carefully, and this just wasn't the platform for it. A brief overview explained how the Potters paid handsomely for a potential cure for the Longbottom's that worked splendidly.
This gave credit to Gringotts but prevented people from bombarding them.
Augusta then stood, "House Longbottom requests that Albus Dumbledore pay in full the treatment amount provided by the Goblins, in turn we also ask that he be punished under Goblin Law for the crimes committed against my family."
This time the chaos in the chamber was less than when James announced the Goblin law portion. They were still shocked, however Augusta personally thought that had more to do with everything she threw at them.
Albus couldn't believe everything that was happening, all his carefully laid plans were unraveling and now that Alistair is involved, he couldn't really fudge much of anything. Speaking of Fudge, Albus looked around and noticed that Cornelius Fudge was sitting near Amelia Bones instead of his normal darker fraction. Very strange. He thought to himself as he missed Augusta getting off the podium and Sirius taking her place.
"The Ancient and Nobel house of Black declares a blood feud against Albus Dumbledore for a decade of injustice and misuse of the Black family fortune."
Dead silence.. exactly what the group wanted. They had hit the chamber with multiple shock factors to keep everyone on their toes, Sirius' job was to come in and finish it.
"What?!" Albus screamed while his chair skidded backwards from the force of him standing up so quickly.
"What is the cause for the blood feud?" Albus asked shocked.
"As I stated old man, you had me packed away in Azkaban for a crime you know I didn't commit, you wouldn't allow me a trial to prove said innocence, and you signed the Potters will so knew in the even that something happened to them who you would have to get out of the way.. myself and the Longbottom's to be exact."
Albus gulped and blanched but Sirius continued onwards.
"And let's not forget on top of knowing about Harry's and Neville's trust funds, you also were there when I signed my will declaring Harry as my beneficiary for my entire vault and contents."
Albus grabbed his chair and sat back down at this point.
"Let's not forget about my brother, who you personally wooed into being your spy as well, that one didn't turn out so well for you did it Albus? Couldn't blackmail Regulus as much as you could Severus could you?"
"How?" Was all that Albus could say.
"Reg left a detailed diary, verified by the Ministry and Gringotts. Our house elf had it, along with some … artifacts and some very detailed information old man. House Black brings forth the following evidence."
Sirius then proceeds to bring out memories from Peter, snippets of notes from Regulus, another Sorting Hat memory, and information from his own trial that he had when he was finally released. Overall, the evidence was overwhelming when you paired it with everything from the Longbottom's and the Potters.
"It should come as no surprise that House Black would like to request that Albus Dumbledore be punished under goblin law."
Sirius bowed and then stepped off the stage. James stood and walked back up to finish out the trial.
"As you can see by just our three families alone there is substantial evidence, but we were not the only ones wronged during this same time window. We didn't want to have this trial take days upon days for everyone to add their grievances to the pile so we have a condensed version of them, if at any point the Wizengamot would like proof or evidence please let us know and we will provide."
James then went on to list all the teachers from the school, Severus included which shocked Albus to his core. Colin Creevey, Hermione Granger, the entire Weasley family, Amelia Bones on behalf of her brother, Nicholas Flamel, and the final kicker in the pot Cornelius Fudge himself.
At the urging of Amelia, Cornelius went to St. Mungo's to be checked out for spells and charms placed upon him. The healer found evidence of several memory charms, both from Albus and Lucius, as well as tracking and listening devices on himself and in his home and office all placed there by Albus as documented by his spell signature.
Albus who was in shock still tried to put up arguments, all of which were shot down by various people with cold hard facts, and evidence. His own brother stood up in argument over a fact pertaining to his pub in Hogsmeade, the Hogs Head Tavern.
In the end Albus was frustrated, pissed off, and planning an escape plan in his head. The Wizengamot was currently in the back room deciding his fate, and to be honest it wasn't looking good for himself.
Albus stood with everyone else when the group returned to the Chamber, Dedalus took his spot on the podium to announce the verdict.
"On the counts put forth from the Ancient and Nobel house of Potter, the Wizengamot finds Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, guilty. We award the Potter's request to have Mr. Dumbledore punished under Goblin law."
Dedalus took a look around to see everyone hanging on his every word.
"On the counts put forth from the Nobel house of Longbottom, the Wizengamot finds Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, guilty. We award the Potter's request to have Mr. Dumbledore punished under Goblin law."
Neville and Harry clapped lightly for this, several other members from the viewing box joined in.
"On the counts put forth from the Ancient and Nobel house of Black, the Wizengamot agrees to the blood feud, and find it valid. Mr. Dumbledore will be punished under Goblin law."
Albus couldn't believe this.
"And finally, on the counts put forth from the smaller parties involved, the Wizengamot finds Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, guilty of all charges. At this time, we will allow Albus to speak before he is escorted out to Gringotts for punishment."
The chamber remained silent; you could hear a pin drop as everyone waited for Albus to speak.
Albus stood slowly, he was nearing one hundred and fourteen after all... he glanced around the chamber and made eye contact with each of the people responsible for today's trial and then smiled.
"Everything I have ever done; I have done for the greater good. Sacrifices have to be made for forward moving progress, each sacrifice I made was calculated down to the minute detail so as to cause as little damage as possible to all wizard kind."
Albus then turned to face the Wizengamot. "I have dutifully led not only my school, but this very chamber in a fair and honest way. I cannot in good faith, be allowed to be punished by the Goblins of all species, due to my protection of you all."
Heads were shaking, and Amelia was preparing for a fight, she could already tell her hidden aurors were ready to go at a moment's notice.
"Voldemort is not gone for good; I am the only one who can stop him. It is because of this that I must take leave, worry not though, I will protect our wizarding world just as I have done for the last one hundred years."
With that Albus spun quickly as he clapped his hands above his head around Fawkes' tailfeathers and flamed out of the chamber.
Mass panic ensued, the noise level became unbearably loud when a loud bang was heard as Amelia Bones took the podium and used magic to amplify her voice.
"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN PLEASE!"
Amelia's words didn't do much to calm the uproar, Fawkes flaming back into the chamber however grabbed everyone's attention. Well, that and the song she trilled out seemed to have calmed everyone down.
"Amelia, if I may interpret for the Phoenix." Alistair spoke up from his pedestal next to her.
"That would be amazing and helpful, please do Alistair." Amelia nodded to the hat.
"Fawkes would like to let everyone know that she did not aid in Albus' escape, she simply assisted you all in delivering him to the Goblins. Albus is currently sitting in a holding cell at Gringotts in magic inhibiting cuffs."
The round of applause drowned out Sirius confirming this via his mirror that he offered to Ragnok.
Amelia thanked everyone for attending and offered press interviews afterwards for a limited time frame. After everything was said and done, she joined the Potter, Blacks and Longbottom's in her office to go over the trial.
/*-/*-/*-/*-/*
"Where the hell am I? Fawkes?!"
"FAWKES!" Albus was now screaming, the phoenix had dropped him not at his requested destination but in what appeared to be a damp dark cave. Albus reached for his wand to light up said cave but could not find it or his backup wand on his person.
He did however find a strange black bracelet around both of his wrists, or at least he thought they were black, he could barely see. Placing his hand on the cave wall Albus started to walk down a pathway towards the only light source he could see, but before he could reach the light he ran into an invisible barrier.
Pounding his fists on the barrier Albus tried to feel for a magical signature or detect a weak link in the field, however when he attempted to stretch his magic outwards he felt absolutely nothing.
What on earth? Being closer to the light allowed a bit more visibility for Albus to inspect the finely woven metal bracelet that surrounded his wrist. It was obviously Goblin made, the craftmanship was impeccable.
Upon his inspection he noticed a minute detail that if he caught the small light just right, he could read. Prisoner number 1881. SHIT! Was all he could think.