Poppy's testimony and a bit of reaction from Harry's "family" in this chapter. Dumbledore in the next one!
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Chapter 59There was an air of silent expectation over the courtroom as Poppy Pomfrey approached the floor.
The Wizengamot was almost afraid to hear her testimony.
If what Hermione had claimed was verified then Albus Dumbledore was a greater danger than any of them had ever conceived. It was terrifying to watch a man as powerful as Dumbledore lose his mind and slip into insanity. It had to be insanity—there was simply no other excuse.
The only people who had been permitted in the audience were Remus and a few of the Weasleys and they already knew exactly what she would say but they were still anxious to see how the Wizengamot would take it.
Poppy was carrying a four inch thick file and was followed by an Auror who bore a heavy box for her.
Unlike the others, she had been granted the use of a small table on the floor to assist her in organizing her file and the box of evidence. The Auror set the box on the table and quickly left, locking Poppy into the spelled space.
She took a deep, steadying breath as she set the file down.
"Are you Madam Poppy Pomfrey, Mediwitch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry?"
"I am."
"When is the first time that you met Harry Potter?"
"I first saw Harry on the day of his first year check in, on the first day of the semester."
"What was your diagnosis at that time?" a portly wizard inquired.
Poppy immediately opened her folder and pulled out the top sheet. "Patient has no muggle medical file. Dangerously malnourished and undersized. Belt marks on back, buttocks and thighs. Bruises over 30 of the body. Second degree burns on left forearm. Two bones broken in right hand. Evidence of repeated rape.'" She paused for a moment and set the paper down. "I also have the photographs I took during that first visit as evidence."
The head of questioning nodded her approval to find the photographs and Poppy opened the box and pulled out the twenty or so pictures she had taken on that day. With a nod of approval from the Auror, she passed them up to the head of the trial.
She gasped audibly when she saw the first picture before passing it to her right with a shaky hand, continuing through the stack slowly. "Why did you not tell anyone?" she asked, her voice shaking in emotion.
"I did," Poppy said firmly, just as irritated by the question as Hermione had been. "I treated Harry and then went immediately to Albus Dumbledore. He insisted that I was exaggerating the problem. When I showed him the pictures he cast a spell over me. I did not recognize it and have been unable to find any mention of it in the books that I have. It felt dark though."
"What exactly did the spell do?" a wizard asked, his eyes still glued to the pictures.
"It prevented me from speaking of this to anyone who did not already know about it."
"You managed to tell us," a woman argued.
"You already knew," Poppy said slowly, wondering how the woman ever made it to the Wizengamot if she was that stupid. "You didn't know the details but you certainly knew enough that I could tell you more."
"Why did he not spell Harry's friends once it became evident that he had told them the truth of his home life?"
"You would have to ask Dumbledore for that answer," Poppy said irritably. "All I can speculate is that he assumed that, as Harry's friends and as children, they would automatically acquiesce to their friend's wishes for privacy rather than finding an adult and telling them the truth. I clearly never spoke of it with Dumbledore though."
The members of the Wizengamot spoke quietly amongst themselves, conferring on what spell might have been used. They finally came to some sort of an agreement and turned back to Poppy.
"We wish to test you for evidence of a compulsion or dark magic. Will you consent to the test?"
"Yes."
An elderly woman stepped down from the bench and to the edge of the floor, ready to perform the spell. She stiffened when she saw the results and then turned back to the Wizengamot in horror. "Madam Pomfrey shows evidence of a dark memory spell. It seems to have twisted some over the years so I cannot properly identify it. It shows evidence of Albus Dumbledore's magical signature."
The Wizengamot again conferred quietly for a few moments before turning again to Poppy.
"Is there anything else that we should know?"
Poppy stood in silence for a moment, her hands resting heavily on the thick file. She finally spoke. "This entire file is filled with the many, many times that I needed to treat Harry. Six of them are for school related injuries, typically gained on the Quidditch pitch. The rest are due to his…family," she ended acidly.
"May we see a sampling of them over the years? We will study them all more closely during the second interrogations. Right now, we just need to see a bit more to conclude this portion of the questioning."
Poppy sorted through the file and pulled out his first appointment report from each year as well as the accompanying photographs.
Upon second thought, she also pulled out the follow up appointments for his sixth year. They needed to know how many appointments it truly took to completely heal him after three months alone with the muggles. She passed them up in silence. The pictures and notes could speak for themselves.
A few members gasped softly as they caught sight of the terrified green eyes staring back at them in the photographs.
"Were you able to heal everything?" someone asked.
Poppy sighed. "I could at least provide moderate healing for all of his injuries. His height was permanently damaged by the under nourishment. I gave him every single growth potion that our Potions Master was capable of brewing to try to spark a growth spurt. Only one worked for him and it only put him at 5'2"…and it was quite clear that was as tall as he would ever be. I was not able to properly heal some of his broken bones because the breaks had been left on their own for too long. He also retained permanent scarring that is completely unique to him. Some things simply cannot be healed with magic that many times."
"What scarring remained?"
Poppy handed up a chart that she had created that highlighted the parts of the body that had scarring, along with descriptions alongside it.
"My gods, we're fools," someone whispered upon seeing the chart.
The head cleared her throat, trying to calm down and return to her witness. "Madam Pomfrey, I am afraid that your evidence points to no other conclusion than that Mr. Potter was indeed abused severely, under the very eye of Dumbledore himself. Are you willing to turn the evidence over to the court to protect for the duration of the trial?"
"You should be aware that I have duplicated every page of his file and every photograph in the box to ensure that no 'accidents' happen to this. There are two sets of copies, both stored in safe places and both with fail safes on them, should something happen to me."
"A wise precaution, madam," the head said. "You need not worry though. We have no desire to erase this evidence to protect Dumbledore. He is not worthy of his positions in our society and we will not assist him in retaining them by destroying evidence."
Poppy nodded and packed the file and box back up, slipping the pages back into their order before passing the file and box directly into the head of questioning's hands.
"Thank you for your testimony today, madam," she said. "Should we have further questions, please make yourself available as needed."
Remus sat back in his seat with a shaky sigh. He hesitantly met Arthur's eyes and noticed that Arthur looked just as shaken as he was.
He slowly stood and shuffled over to their seats and dropped bonelessly next to Arthur. Molly pulled the two men up and pushed them out of the courtroom to floo back to the Burrow. Bill and Charlie followed without word.
They needed to discuss the trial and the Burrow was the best place for it since the kids were at the Grangers for the day. Ginny and Ron had wanted to see a muggle Christmas tree with electric lights.
"You've never seen any of his medical file, have you?" Arthur asked quietly as they all settled down around the table. Molly started some water for tea.
Remus shook his head. "Severus wouldn't let me. I think he was scared that I wouldn't be able to control myself."
The audience had not been able to see any of the pictures that Poppy had shown to the Wizengamot but they could see their reaction to the pictures and had heard Poppy's initial testimony. Neither man was certain they could handle being present for her full testimony under a truth serum. They knew that this was just the tip of it all.
"I've never seen it either. I knew…I mean, rationally, I knew exactly what was happening there. Molly and I tried our hardest to pull him out of their clutches for as long as we could each year when it became clear that we would not be allowed to adopt him. We always had Poppy waiting at the house to assist him. It's just…" his voice faded away as words failed him.
"I am beginning to understand Ron and Hermione better," Remus finally said.
Arthur and Molly looked at him in question.
"I…I had always blamed them a bit…no, not blamed. I don't know. I just found myself irritated at how they kept saying that whenever they thought they understood and comprehended everything that happened to their friend they were always shocked by new revelations, even when they weren't particularly new. I just thought they were either stupid or else bad friends to not understand the full implications."
He paused for a long moment, clearly seeking words.
"I find myself in the same position. I knew. I knew and I'm still at a complete loss when I hear these small details. I don't know if I can handle the full truth."
Molly reached across Arthur and patted his hand lightly. "It is the same for us, dear. We've known the truth for longer than the children have and yet it still hasn't sunk in yet."
"Do you really think they'll condemn Dumbledore?" Charlie asked quietly, pouring himself a cup of tea.
"Hard to say," Bill replied. Tallis had finally decided that he didn't mind if Bill were there for the first round of questions since he already knew everything that would be said anyhow. Bill didn't make it every day but he certainly made it into the courtroom more times than Tallis was aware of. "It will take a lot of will power for them to do it…to look their old hero in the eye and sentence him to Azkaban."
"Can Azkaban hold him?" Remus asked anxiously. "If he's sentenced and then escaped he will take his revenge and I shudder to think of what he is capable of."
"There are other fates, worse than Azkaban," Arthur said quietly.
The others leaned in closely, anxious to hear what he had to say.
"Not now. Perhaps later. We really should wait until after we see how he is received before we speculate as to his fate. We don't want to get out hopes up."
"I am so scared that once they see him they will cave and let him free. Most of the witches and wizards on the Wizengamot grew up hearing tales of Dumbledore's great feats of strength and bravery. Some of them actually witnessed his fight against Grindelwald. It will be difficult for them to set the hero worship aside and sentence him as they would any other man."
"He's going to drag Tallis into this, isn't he?" Bill asked softly.
"I am certain of it," Arthur said. "You should stay home with him tomorrow in case an urgent owl comes calling him to court."
"Or worse," Remus muttered. "Armed Aurors come to arrest him."
"Surely not!" Molly exclaimed.
Remus looked over at her, his face grim. "Do not underestimate the hold that Dumbledore has over those men and women. If we are lucky then they will owl Tallis requesting that he appear in court. If things go against us, they will simply go to collect him themselves."
"I will stay there with him," Bill said. "I'll try to keep him calm."
"Does he know what all has been happening in here?" Charlie asked.
"Sort of. He has no idea who is testifying and when but he is aware that things are going alright so far. He doesn't seem to want to know, which is good. He'd be a nervous wreck if he were obsessing over what exactly Poppy or Hermione or Dumbledore was saying. How are Ron and Hermione doing, mum?"
"Surprisingly well. I think it was a relief for both of them to get this off their chests. Their silence has hurt them more than any of us realized, I think. Can you imagine bearing that burden without the force of a spell to keep you silent? The poor dears, caught in such a wretched position and at such a young age. To be forced to choose between betraying a friend's trust—a friend who had known nothing but betrayal his entire life—or keeping silent and allowing the abuse to continue…" she sighed heavily. "I think it did them both a world of good being able to testify about it."
"Perhaps it will be healing in a way for Tallis too," Arthur said softly.
Bill shrugged. "I don't think it will hurt him at all but honestly, I don't think that testifying will be the thing that suddenly heals him. The biggest step in moving on for him has been the physical things that he has done to change his situation. That was more cleansing for him than spilling the truth. The ability to take charge of the situation, defend himself, change his circumstances…that was what he needed to do to start healing. He needed to know that he could take care of himself and could defend himself."
"He needed to know that he was worthwhile defending," Charlie said softly.
Bill looked over at him for a moment before nodding. Charlie had always had a keen insight into Tallis' mentality, more so than the rest of them usually. Charlie was right—deciding that he was worth the effort to protect was the first step that he needed to take, and it had been a difficult one for someone raised by such creatures as the Dursleys.
"You're right," Bill acknowledged. "Will you come over to the Manor sometime? He misses you and could do with your influence right now."
"Is he very nervous?"
"Not terribly so, just a bit jumpy. You always seem to keep him calm."
"Will the Professor mind?"
Bill smiled. "He'll grumble but he'll secretly be pleased if you keep Tallis happy."
"Severus has changed so much," Molly said with a smile. "It's nice to see those two boys so changed. They needed each other, although neither one would ever admit it."
Bill laughed softly. "You should have seen those two in the first few weeks. Tallis kept asking for advice on how to be a son and Severus complained that he didn't know how to be a proper Father. Severus kept poking around trying to ask questions about my relationship with Tallis without coming across as if he were a concerned Father…the whole thing was hilarious."
Remus laughed as well at the idea of Severus asking for relationship advice. "Thank Merlin the old man revealed their relationship when he did. Even though the tattoos worked and Tallis had successfully defended himself he was by no means ready to be on his own. I shudder to think what would have happened if he had been left alone last summer after the muggle's last attack."
"Severus too. I know he says he was pleased to be done spying but I know it hurt him," Arthur said. "He seemed worried that he would have nothing to offer the Order now that he could no longer spy."
"At least he can be present if his son is called to testify," Remus said. "That should calm him some. It's killing him to be away."
His words brought the small bit of amusement away from the group as they thought about the next few days of the trial. What would the Wizengamot's reaction be to Dumbledore's testimony?