A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long. A lot of things are goin' on. For instance, my mom's boyfriend made it so my computer shuts down at 8:00 PM. I got into trouble, so that's why. Also, I haven't really been in the mood to write, and I've sort of had writers block. It's ok now, though. Also, before I get on with the story, I'd like to tell you that one character, besides Snape, is a bit OOC.
Well, on with the story!
Chapter 19: My Trial and Fate
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Harry had finally managed to get to sleep without having a bad nightmare when he was being shaken awake. "Harry, time to get up.", Snape whispered. Harry groaned and sat up. "What time is it?", he asked with his eyes still closed. "It's 6:00. The trial begins in an hour and thirty minutes.", was the reply.
When Harry heard what time it was he immediately threw his head into his pillow. Why does everything have to be early in the morning? Harry thought wearily. "Come on Harry. You have to get up." Still Harry continued to sleep on.
"You leave me no choice.", Snape sighed dramatically. Suddenly Harry felt cold water being poured all over his body. He gave a short yelp and jumped up. He glared at Snape who couldn't even contain his look of amusement. "I'm up, now! Thanks to you I don't even have to take a shower anymore.", Harry said grumpily, his wet hair and clothes clinging to him. He shook his head like and dog and water splattered everywhere, including Snape. "Hey!", Snape exclaimed. Harry smirked.
Harry trudged over to his wardrobe and quickly grabbed a red sweater-like shirt and blue jeans. They were, of course, Dudley's old clothes. Harry had to wear a belt with the pants but the rest was fine.
Harry walked into the bathroom and changed. After that he quickly washed his face. Harry looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. The ministry was never going to believe him. Not Fudge, anyway. For all they knew he was a maniac; plus the fact that he didn't have anything to prove that the Dursleys abused him. He didn't have many bruises anymore and almost everything was healed. He was a little sore from his gunshot wound but that was pretty much it. He just knew that Fudge would believe his uncle rather than himself.
"Fudge is an utter moron", Harry said to himself as he walked down the stairs. "Yes he is. He always has been.", Snape said, making Harry jump. He didn't know Snape was behind him. "Professor Dumbledore is here, by the way.", Snape said before striding off down the stairs, his pace much faster than Harry's.
When Harry got to the bottom of the stairs, he was a bit out of breath. He guessed that it was from lack of sleep, but that had never happened before. Odd, Harry thought. He continued making his way into the dining room where he guessed the adults would be. He walked in, obviously disturbing the occupants discussion. "Oh, do you need me to leave?", Harry asked feeling a bit annoyed that they were keeping more secrets from him. "No, my dear boy. It's quite alright.", Dumbledore replied, giving Harry a smile. Harry half-heartedly smiled back and it was obvious that he was feeling nervous.
Harry sat down at the table where he conjured himself up a bowl of cereal. Dumbledore looked a bit shocked so Harry figured that Snape hadn't told Dumbledore of his new power yet. "Oh, I forgot to mention that Harry can do a bit of wandless magic." Snape said as if on cue. "Interesting, very interesting. Tell me Harry, what can you do with your power?", Dumbledore asked, seemingly curious. Harry shrugged. "Oh, just about anything.", Harry explained, and to add to the affect he pointed at Snape's hair and turned it a bright shade of red.
Dumbledore laughed while a look of horror crossed over Snape's face. "Change. It. Back. This. Instant. Potter.", Snape said dangerously. "Oh but Severus, that color really does look good on you.", Dumbledore said in-between laughter. Harry looked up at Snape and gave a grin. "He's right, y'know. That color is definitely you." Snape scowled.
Harry decided that Snape had had enough torture for one day, so he changed Snape's hair back to it's original color. Harry didn't know that Snape was to have far worse torture that day than any other. He didn't know what his fate would be at the trial.
Harry became silent when the memory of the trial came flooding back to him. He just knew that something bad was going to happen to him. That odd feeling in his gut never lied. He hoped there were first times for everything. Hope wasn't on his side that day, though.
Dumbledore looked at his watch. "We need to be going now. The trial starts in twenty minutes." Harry's breathing became short, quiet gasps. He knew that he was having a panic attack, but he didn't want anyone else to know. He closed his eyes in an attempt to overcome his fear. Take deep breaths then slowly let them out, Harry reminded himself. This seemed to work.
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Dumbledore, Snape, and Harry were all walking down the hall that led to the trial room. They had arrived at the ministry with 5 minutes to spare and were walking quite fast. They finally reached the door and walked in. Harry's already pounding heart almost jumped out of his chest when he saw the Dursleys. They were staring at him evilly, all except one person. His aunt Petunia was staring off in another direction as if to deliberately avoid eye contact with him.
Harry looked around and noticed that the trial room looked almost exactly like a regular muggle courtroom. Before Harry could start his train of thought, he heard Fudge's voice speak. "Ah, so the three of you finally decided to show up. How nice of you.", he said in a cold voice. Harry thought he sounded like Snape.
Ignoring the comments sent their way, the three of them sat down. Harry sat in-between Dumbledore and Snape as if for protection. His heart was pounding so much he feared that everyone could hear it. To make matters worse, a loud bell rang which caused Harry to jump. That's when the trial began.
"Harry Potter, please approach the bench.", a loud voice called. Harry nervously walked down the aisle to a raised up bench. He was so nervous he tripped. Luckily he caught himself before he fell.
He sat down at the bench and looked at the small crowd before him. Altogether, there were only 9 people there including himself. Suddenly the same loud voice that called him up there began to speak to him again. "You are Mr. Potter, correct?", he asked. "Y-yes.", Harry answered. "Good. I am Mr. Jenkins.", he paused. "You claim that the Dursleys, your only living relatives, abused you. Is that correct?", Mr. Jenkins asked. Harry looked nervously over to his uncle, who right then was giving him death glares. "Yes sir, that is correct.", Harry answered, looking away from his uncle.
Mr. Jenkins continued to interrogate Harry further, until he reached the question that Harry wasn't sure he could answer. "How is it that you have no marks on you whatsoever?", he asked sounding slightly curious. "Well, er, you see, I don't really know. I guess I'm just a fast healer.", Harry said, his voice shaking a bit. "A fast healer? What do you take me for, Potter? An idiot? I've never heard of anyone healing quite that fast. Please step down.", he said roughly. Harry rose to his feet and walked back to his position between Dumbledore and Snape.
"Vernon Dursley, your turn.", Mr. Jenkins said. The red-faced man wobbled towards the bench and sat down. He had a forced calm look about him. "Mr. Dursley, do you tend to get angry a lot?", was the first question. "No, it takes a lot to make me angry.", he said in a mock sweet tone. Harry's eyes widened. He knew that was a false statement.
"When you do get angry, do you feel as if you could hit something or someone?", Mr. Jenkins asked. "I would never do such a thing!", he answered in a believable tone. "Then you have never hit Harry Potter?", Mr. Jenkins, again, asked. Vernon Dursley's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's outrageous! I could never hit anyone, let alone a child!", he said in a shocked tone. "That is all, then. You may step down."
Harry couldn't believe it. His uncle had fooled everyone at the trial. Now he knew for sure that he was going back with them. "Due to lack of evidence, Harry Potter is sentenced to go back with the Dursleys. He will stay there until he becomes of adult age. Trial dismissed."
Harry was in complete shock, as were Dumbledore and Snape. "Harry, let's go. We need to get home.", Vernon said in an eerily calm voice. Harry slowly got up from his place. He was just about to walk over to the Dursleys when Snape grabbed his arm. "I'll come and get you Harry. I promise.", he whispered. Harry let a quiet sob escape his lips before nodding his head. He then continued his way back to the Dursleys.
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The ride back to the Dursley home was a quiet one. Harry didn't like the quiet one bit. He knew his uncle was plotting ways to hurt him; possibly ways to kill him and make it seem like an accident. Finally his uncle said something that made Harry's heart jump to his throat. A few deadly words, he spoke. "Wait 'till we get home Potter."
As soon as they were at the house, Harry was immediately thrown out of the car. He landed face first on the cement. He tasted blood already spilling from his lip. Before he could think on it he was roughly pulled from the ground and shoved in the direction of the house. "Move Potter or I will be forced to drag you.", his uncle roared. Harry walked faster.
Inside the house, or house of horrors as Harry now called it, Harry was beaten until he passed out. There was no warning at all. He was just knocked to the ground and kicked; not only by his uncle, but by Dudley also. He barely noticed that his aunt didn't participate.
Harry woke up in the cupboard. He started panicking. He didn't like small, dark places. He didn't like the cupboard. His breathing became irregular. He knew that he had to try and keep calm, so he took deep breaths. When he did that he noticed a pain in his chest. He looked down and saw a deep gash. When he saw that, he felt pain all over his body. He didn't know how he didn't notice it before.
Harry briefly wondered what time it was when the cupboard door was thrown open. It startled Harry so much that he gave a short yelp. That seemed to make the intruder angry as he started to throw punches at him. Harry tried to make a shield around him, but it wouldn't work.
He was roughly dragged out by his uncle, who then ordered Dudley to sit on him. Harry felt a heavy weight press on his chest. It was so heavy that he could barely breath. He felt a sharp pain begin to form in his arm. The pain grew more and more, and he could feel the blood rolling down his skin. The pain grew so much that he began to scream. He then felt another prick in his other arm, and screamed louder.
Dudley finally got off of him, and Harry saw the damage to his arms. It wasn't too much damage, but it still hurt like hell to Harry. Harry saw two fishing hooks imbedded deep into his skin on each arm. "One more thing.", Vernon said before pulling a sharp knife out of his pocket. Harry was about to get up and run, but Dudley sat back on him. Pain shot up Harry's forearm as Vernon carved something into it. When he was done Dudley once again hopped off if his chest. Harry looked and saw blood all over his arm. Beneath the blood there sat a 'D' carved into his skin. "A sign of a slave. You're ours now, and you're never going back to that school of yours."
Vernon was just about to shove Harry back into the cupboard when he saw the blood on the floor. "Boy, look at that mess you made! You better clean it up within the hour if you know what's good for you.", Vernon said and then walked away.
Harry was left lying on the ground. He knew he better start cleaning the mess up before his uncle came back for him. Gathering all of his strength he slowly stood up. He made his way towards the kitchen to get a rag and perhaps some cleaning supplies.
When Harry staggered into the kitchen his aunt was in there making breakfast. Harry stopped walking and looked at her. "A-aunt Petunia, ca-can I use something t-to clean up my m-mess?", Harry stuttered. He wasn't sure how his aunt would react to him. His aunt looked at him for a moment, and Harry could've sworn he saw something close to concern flicker in her eyes. Just as soon as he saw it, though, it disappeared. She pointed to a cabinet under the kitchen sink.
Harry gathered the supplies that he needed and then headed back to the living room. Luckily his uncle wasn't in there yet. Harry dropped to his knees and began to scrub the red-stained area. His arms hurt so much though that every movement made pain shoot up them.
He saw his aunt walk into the room and, again, stare at him. Harry didn't look up, though. He just continued his painful scrubbing. "Here, let me get that. You can go back to the cupboard. Once your uncle leaves you can have something to eat.", she said quietly. Harry thought that she was behaving oddly. She'd never done anything like that before. Before she could change her mind, Harry got up and whispered a 'thanks' to her. All the while he kept thinking about her odd behavior. Why was she suddenly being nice?
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A/N: Well, how'd you like it? I hope it's okay. I know I have some mistakes in there, and I'm sorry. I need a beta. Does anyone want to be a beta for me? If so just e-mail me or put it in a review. I'm not gonna reply to most of the reviews unless there are questions involved. Sorry, but I really don't have enough time right now. I'm eager to get this chapter up. I have 33 reviews! That's a lot. Lol.
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Athenakitty: Haha, yes the Dursleys will get their punishment. No, I don't think that Vernon will die, and I don't think the Deatheaters will come and get them.
Thanks to all of my reviewers:
Benjis VIP, Dragon Lady, Sweetangel99, Denise, Hp-lover-l-lol, Charlie-potter1, TenyaStar, HecateDeMort, Krylancelo, MikiBaby, Evil Unicorn, Marauders-Lover, James Potter, Ariestar, Pink-fogg, amyaggie, TexasJeanette, She-Elf4, Mistik-Elf13, A.N.L., Padawan Jan-AQ, Pip3, AJ-Wolf-AJ, Wynjara, Lady Lily3, Starangel2106, Sword Wielder – Firebreath
If I missed anyone, I'm really sorry. Thanks to all of my reviewers! You're all great!